Boredom at Work

Some maintain that boredom is a vehicle to creativity. Some, would argue that in work environments where creativity isn't fostered, boredom spreads like dandelions in a Spring lawn.

Whatever your own take on the issue is, the truth is that at one point or another boredom at work affects us all. Nobody is immune.

You know what I am talking about.

The days when time just doesn't pass fast enough to get away from work, the days when our neurons need Drano to let one squalid thought get through, when our eyes are like magnets to any time telling device, and our fingers are Velcro on your car keys.

Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination. Lin Yutang.

Psychologist Stephen Vodanovich of the University of West Florida says that, "The most common way to define boredom in Western culture is having nothing to do." No definition is ever without flaw, and this in my humble-non-psychologist-view is no exception. Boredom, as I have observed and experienced it, has more to do with things like frustration and blahness, than with lack of things to do. It is more closely related to a lack of willingness to overcome what has paralyzed us to begin with.
I am partial to a piece Fritz Redl wrote based on children's boredom and behavior:
"Boredom will always remain the greatest enemy of school disciplines. If we remember that children are bored, not only when they don't happen to be interested in the subject or when the teacher doesn't make it interesting, but also when certain working conditions are out of focus with their basic needs, then we can realize what a great contributor to discipline problems boredom really is. Research has shown that boredom is closely related to frustration and that the effect of too much frustration is invariably irritability, withdrawal, rebellious opposition or aggressive rejection of the whole show. "
Now change the word children to bored adults at work...shockingly it all makes sense, right?
So what's a mere mortal to do? What is a leader, motivator, manager, team associate to do to get out of the bore-funk?
It is always a good idea to try and figure out how we got there in the first place before setting out to change a behavior. Keep that in mind (as some strategies might not apply to you or your team members) as you read on.

You'll find boredom where there is the absence of a good idea. Earl Nightingale

Boredom has very few positives, and mostly will affect your work place by increased absenteeism, lack of engagement, low productivity, Internet abuse, errors, and verbal and physical aggression. So here are a few points to help you fight the boredom-blues:
Ask questions & listen- Too often boredom is not identified quick enough. It is like a loud radio playing in the background, we know something is bugging us but we can't quite put our finger on it. Most times we fail to recognize feelings of boredom until it evolves into something else (generally something worse), and engagement surveys don't usually address this topic. Remember that while under performing employees might share their frustrations, highly driven employees can appear engaged and be bored at the same time. Neither of you may notice the boredom as the work is still getting done well...you will only learn about it when you see your valued employee walk away into more exciting territory...elsewhere. So take time during your one on one meetings and point blank ask: "Do you feel bored with your activities?" or "Is there any part of your role here you think you are bored with?"...you get the idea. Be candid. Listen. Find solutions together.
Challenge yourself and your staff- And more importantly, teach them how to self-challenge, e.g., learn a new skill, teach others something one has mastered, etc. Put your ear down the railroad tracks of past mistakes and, instead of merely punishing, take the time to teach and retrain.
Energize yourself and others- This begins with your morning greeting, and no, not being a morning person is not an excuse for grumpiness or being short with one another. Surprise someone with a morning snack and five minutes of random conversation. Smile. Seriously. Smiles can do wonders, didn't you know? Oh, and a sense of humor never hurts...
As much as possible avoid repetitive tasks- Be as creative as the job allows. Allow team members to switch tasks, take a breather, give them a learning hour or day, encourage them to shadow other roles (this is a great investment to see how other departments can work better together...think old SouthWest Airlines business model).
Avoid the status quo & make lists- That's right, whenever something frustrates you (or your associates) write it down and later (when frustration wore off) think about ways in which you can avoid this in the future. Each moment of frustration experienced enhances your chances to contribute to the company's success and your own. But only if these moments are capitalized on. So go ahead, try it, write it down and watch perspectives change.

Leading at The Speed of Trust

by Rodger Dean Duncan

At this time of economic upheaval and political transition, trust is an issue that’s front and center.

Everybody’s in favor of trust. We all know it’s important. But a lot of people seem to regard trust as soft and intangible, a social virtue that’s nice to have but impossible to quantify.

Yet trust is much more than that. Trust is a hard-edged economic driver. Yes – trust is indeed a character trait. Trust is also a competency that can be taught, and learned, and improved.

My associate Stephen M.R. Covey has written a best-selling book on the subject. It’s called The Speed of Trust.

So what’s the big idea?

The big idea is simply this: Low trust is a tax. High trust is a dividend. It’s true in a relationship. It’s true on a team. It’s true with a client or customer. It’s true with every kind of stakeholder.

When trust is low, you pay a “tax” – because everything requires more time to accomplish and everything costs you more. When trust is high, you receive a “dividend” – because you’re able to get things done faster and at a lower cost.

This dividend is real. It’s not just a feel-good factor. It’s an actual economic dividend. And the data on it are overwhelming.

For example, a Watson Wyatt study showed that high-trust organizations outperformed low-trust organizations by 286% – that’s nearly three times – in total return to shareholders.

Every year Fortune magazine – in conjunction with the Great Place to Work Institute – publishes a list of “The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America.” Trust is the primary defining characteristic required to get on that list: trust between management and employees, trust between and among work teams.Trust factors comprise more than half of the criteria.

So, how do these high-trust organizations do? They outperform the S&P 500 by 416% in terms of their economic return.

A similar phenomenon occurs in education. We all know there’s a correlation between learning and the relationship between student and teacher. And as you’d expect, trust is an important component of that relationship. A national study shows that students in high-trust schools are three-and-a-half times more likely to increase their test scores than are students in low-trust schools.

Regardless of the industry, the research data are overwhelming: The low-trust tax is real. The high-trust dividend is real.

I frequently tell my clients that the second most expensive thing that can happen with regard to their employees is when smart and capable people quit and leave. But the number one most expensive thing that can happen is when their smart and capable people quit and stay.

Disengaged employees are enormously expensive. Engagement flows out of trust, and trust flows out of engagement. They are mutually reinforcing.

Studies by the Gallup organization show that 96% of engaged employees trust their leaders, while only 46% of disengaged employees trust their leaders. Gallup puts a conservative price tag of $300 billion per year on disengagement in the U.S. alone

So which comes first – the distrust or the disengagement? Both. And that’s the point. Trust affects everything.

Consider something like innovation. The Financial Times studied the 100 top companies on their list. They compared the top 20 innovators to the bottom 20 innovators. High trust was the number one differentiating factor.

Think about it. Innovation flourishes and thrives in an environment of high trust. Try innovating in a low-trust culture. People clamor for credit. They point fingers of blame. They tell each other a lot of victim, villain, and helpless stories. Because low-trust environments are not safe, it’s hard to make strides with innovation. You want to increase innovation? Increase the trust.

Consider teamwork. Our entire global economy – from the factory floor to relationships between nations – is based on collaboration. Genuine collaboration thrives or dies based upon trust.

Without trust it’s impossible to collaborate. You might be able to coordinate or you may cooperate. But genuine collaboration requires trust.

What about partnering? Partnering is an absolutely critical element in the industries represented here today. Partnering can take many forms, from outsourcing help with outages to installation of major hardware needed to operate a nuclear plant.

What about outsourcing? A study by the Warwick Business School in the UK focused on outsourcing contracts over a ten-year period. They found that companies that managed their outsourcing relationships based on trust – as opposed to relying on the fine print of service contracts – outperformed low-trust organizations by 40%. They call it the 40% dividend.

Studies in every industry validate the notion that trust is king. Whether you’re talking about execution, loyalty, sales, accelerating growth, or any other metric – high trust is a dividend. Everything – all the execution strategy, all the innovation, all the partnering, all the collaboration, all the growth and performance improvement – all of these things are tied to trust.

Now, let’s dig deeper into this idea of trust being a competency.

When we see the importance of trust we experience a paradigm shift. When we begin to speak the language of trust, it signals to others that we are committed to earning the dividends of trust.

When we behave in ways that build trust we actually earn those dividends and minimize the trust taxes we may have been paying.
It is then that we’re best able to achieve the sustainable high results we want.

Now, all of this may seem like a blinding flash of the obvious. Unfortunately, as we all know, common sense is often not common practice. And in the case of trust, the common practice seems to be to distrust.

Distrust is reflected in the silo mentality we often see in organizations. The surface relationships may be cordial, but right underneath the top veneer there’s often doubt or outright suspicion.

Fragile trust is often reflected in relationships between management and union members, between companies and suppliers.

Even when many of the other performance metrics seem to be okay, fragile trust can be a hidden variable – lurking beneath the surface as it slows down processes and drives up costs.

Why does this occur? I suppose there are many reasons. And I believe a primary reason is that most people still regard trust as just a nice-to-have social virtue and don’t yet understand trust as an issue they can do something about explicitly, deliberately, and quantitatively.

At one time, most of us didn’t understand the effects of cholesterol. But now there’s plenty of information available and we can make informed choices about our eating and exercise behaviors. There’s also plenty of quantitative information available on the effects of trust.

So let’s consider some of the informed choices we can make to earn trust, to maintain trust, and to extend trust.

Stephen M.R. Covey has identified 13 specific behaviors exhibited by leaders who consistently enjoy the benefits of high trust. Some of these behaviors are Character-based. Some of them are
Competency-based. And some include both Character and Competency components.
One Character-based behavior of people who earn high levels of trust is Straight Talk. They not only communicate clearly enough to be understood, they communicate so clearly that it’s difficult to misunderstand them. They use simple language.

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says “the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” Trustworthy people call things what they are. They do not “spin” the truth. They’re careful not to leave false impressions.

Of course the opposite behavior would be to lie or to deceive. Honest people don’t lie or deceive. However, honest people do sometimes engage in what can be called “counterfeit” behaviors. With regard to Straight Talk, counterfeit behaviors include “beating around the bush,” withholding information, selectively divulging only the information that supports our position.

And the granddaddy of them all: “corporatespeak” – that convoluted mass of euphemisms that puts a rosy spin on even the most negative of events. Nobody appreciates “corporatespeak” and spin. They’re not only not credible, they’re insulting. Yet they are very common.

Trustworthy people talk straight.

A Competency-based behavior that builds trust is to Confront Reality.

Trustworthy people step up to the tough issues and deal with them head-on. They engage others openly so they can tap into the creativity, ingenuity, and synergy that make for better decisions and better outcomes.

This has a powerful effect on both speed and cost.

Of course the opposite is to simply ignore reality or to act as though it doesn’t exist. We have a multitude of case studies on ignoring reality in the in the political arena, in the aerospace industry, in the healthcare industry, and certainly in the financial industry.

A counterfeit behavior is to pay lip service to dealing with the tough stuff, while really just tinkering with superficial symptoms rather than focusing on root causes.

Confronting reality requires courage and can be very uncomfortable. But it’s not nearly as uncomfortable as suffering the consequences of Pollyanna nonchalance.

An important trust-building behavior that has both Character and Competency components is to

Listen First. Trustworthy people listen first to understand, not to judge.
Genuinely listening first is harder than it may sound. Trustworthy people listen not just with their ears, but also with their eyes and their hearts. They’re very cautious about making assumptions. They don’t presume to have all the answers – or even all the questions.

A counterfeit behavior is to merely pretend to listen … just waiting for your turn to speak, or looking for holes in the other person’s position so you can attack theirs and bolster yours. That’s not dialogue. That’s debate.

Trustworthy people are not afraid of having their own positions challenged. Trustworthy people are eager to learn, even when it involves changing their minds. They Listen First.

And finally, an important way to earn and maintain trust is to Extend Trust.

Trustworthy people have a propensity to trust others. We’re not talking about blind trust or gullibility. We’re talking here about “smart trust” that’s based on a reasonable assessment of risk. Trustworthy people tend to extend trust abundantly to those who have earned it. They extend trust conditionally to those who are still earning it. But their first inclination is to trust.

A counterfeit behavior is to extend “fake trust.” This often comes in the form of giving people responsibility for results but withholding the authority or resources needed to achieve the results. In other words, giving someone a job but then “snoopervising” or hovering over them.

Micromanaging is perhaps the most common form of “fake trust.”

People tend to behave the way they’re treated. If you want people to trust you, extend trust to them. Otherwise, you simply contribute to the downward spiral of distrust and suspicion that imposes low-trust taxes and pushes aside the opportunity for high-trust dividends.

One of the many myths about trust is that it’s only about integrity. Trust is actually equal parts Character and Competence. Both components are required. The big idea here is that even if the superficial relationships in an organization are cordial and friendly, fragile trust under the surface can impose a number of expensive, low-trust taxes on overall performance.

Conversely, organizations that appreciate the real, economic effects of trust – and that explicitly and deliberately teach trust behaviors and build cultures of trust – enjoy the benefits of high-trust dividends. Believe it. You, too, can enjoy the speed of trust.

Article from The Duncan Report. For more information please click on their link.

IQ or EQ?

This is another of our recurring themes at Duncan Consulting, Emotional Intelligence, a term coined by Daniel Goleman and the title to one of his best selling books.

One of our goals is to start posting more original articles and thoughts, but this time it really is not worth trying to reinvent the wheel, thus I resort again to the wisdom of Rodger Duncan. Please invest a few minutes and read through the article below this promises to shed new light into how maleable you and your staff can be in managing and improving one of your most valuable assets: EQ.


How's Your Emotional Intelligence?
by Rodger Dean Duncan

Pick up any newspaper and notice the headlines. From day to day it’s pretty much the same cast of characters. In the political and diplomatic arena you see George W. Bush, Colin Powell, Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, Tony Blair. In the technology arena it’s Hewlett-Packard’s Carly Fiorina, eBay’s Meg Whitman and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. In religion, the current spotlight is on Pope John Paul II. In the world of terrorism, Osama bin Laden is in a category all his own.

For good or ill, these people have one thing in common: they are leaders. Whether elected, appointed or self-anointed, they make headlines because they have the ability to influence others to embrace their cause – sometimes even to the point of death.

Leadership – or lack of it – is at the core of most everything good or bad in our world. Yes, of course there’s the issue of individual agency and the right to choose one’s own behavior. But an individual’s choices are closely linked to the kind of leadership to which he’s been exposed.
I’ve spent much of my life studying leadership.

As a young journalist, I covered politics and business and saw examples of both the best and worst of leadership behaviors.

As a university professor, I noticed that the art of "politics" is not confined to Washington or the state capitol. I also noticed that in addition to being fine teachers, the best educators are also great leaders.

As a consultant to people ranging from White House occupants to corporate chieftains, I’ve witnessed the full range of vision, short-sightedness, courage, cowardice, empathy, arrogance and all the other characteristics that make or break a leader.

Because of that mix of experience, I’m often asked the question "Are great leaders made or born?"

My response is, "no!" and "yes!" No, I do not accept the false dichotomy embedded in the question, and yes, I do believe great leaders are both made and born.

Organizations spend billions on leadership development. While some of the training (and follow through) are questionable, I have no quarrel with the motive. Leaders can be made.

Some people are also born with leadership qualities. Just like other human traits, the gifts associated with leadership – vision, imagination, empathy, courage, etc. – come to some people as naturally as freckles and curly hair. And even for these "natural" leaders, improvement is always possible.

Leadership is so much more than conducting meetings and making presentations. Good leadership involves affirmation and encouragement. It involves teaching and correcting and coaching. It involves planning and coordinating and executing. It involves a wide range of skills, all of which are marshaled to bring out the best in others and enable them to produce great results.

It is true, of course, that great leaders tend to make the most of their God-given gifts. It’s also true that the best leaders among us deliberately search for ways to be better and to do better.
Aside from personal integrity, what quality is most critical to effective leadership? In my view, that quality is something called emotional intelligence.

In recent years much has been said and written about emotional intelligence, notably in Daniel Goleman’s best-selling book of that title. Goleman’s latest book, Primal Leadership, addresses the power that emotional intelligence brings to a person’s leadership behaviors.

The importance of emotional intelligence applies to every leadership role. Here’s the way Goleman describes the dimensions of emotional intelligence and the associated competencies. See how relevant you think these are to the style and service of someone who’s assigned to teach, coach and judge you.

Self-Awareness

Emotional self-awareness: Attuned to one’s guiding values, able to see the big picture in a complex situation, able to be candid and authentic, able to speak with conviction about one’s guiding vision.

Accurate self-assessment: Knowing one’s strengths and limits, exhibiting a gracefulness in learning where improvement is needed.
Self-confidence: A sound sense of one’s self-worth and capabilities.

Self-Management

Emotional self-control: Able to stay calm and clear-headed under stress, able to stay unflappable even when confronted by a trying situation.

Transparency: Authentic, open, honest, trustworthy. Willing to admit own mistakes and faults. Willing to confront unethical behavior in others rather than turn a blind eye.
Adaptability: Able to juggle multiple demands without losing focus or energy. Comfortable with ambiguities. Nimble in adjusting to fluid change.

Achievement: The drive to improve performance to meet high standards. Continually learning – and teaching – ways to do better.

Initiative: Ready to act and seize opportunities.

Optimism: Seeing the upside in events and the best in other people.

Social Awareness

Empathy: Able to sense the felt, but sometimes unspoken, emotions in others. Able to understand other people’s perspective.

Organizational awareness: Reading the currents, decision networks and other dynamics at the organizational level.

Service: Recognizing and meeting the needs of others.

Relationship Management

Inspirational leadership: Able to articulate a shared mission in a way that inspires others to follow.

Influence: Persuasive and engaging when addressing others.

Developing others: Adept at cultivating the abilities of their followers in the context of their followers’ goals, strengths, and vulnerabilities.

Change catalyst: Recognize the need for change, challenge the status quo.

Conflict management: Able to draw out all parties, understand the differing perspectives, find a common ideal that everyone can support.

Teamwork and collaboration: Generate an atmosphere of friendly collegiality. Able to draw others into active, enthusiastic commitment to the collective effort while building spirit and identity.

Wow! If a leader can do all that, plus bake bread and make his own clothes, he’s only a step away from perfection. Of course even the most effective leaders acknowledge they have plenty to learn. (In fact, that very acknowledgement is one reason they’re already so effective.)

Continuous learning is a hallmark of great leadership.

The best leaders I’ve observed are very good about providing unvarnished feedback on the performance of others. Their feedback is specific and relevant.

At the same time – and this is a key differentiator – the best leaders I know frequently solicit feedback on their own performance. They are open to critiques of both their ideas and of their leadership. On occasion, they actively seek "negative" feedback, valuing the voice of counter thinking. (By contrast, less effective leaders – if they solicit feedback at all – most often solicit confirming feedback.)

The most effective leaders I know are careful to break through the information quarantine that sometimes surrounds them. They actively seek negative feedback as well as positive. They understand that in order to perform better they need a full range of information – even when the information doesn’t feel good to hear.

Last summer my wife Rean and I were on a drive. It was a hot day and I stopped at a convenience store. I returned to the car with two bottles of cold water and two Snickers candy bars. My wife thanked me for the water and said it was thoughtful of me to be concerned for her thirst.

"And did you notice that I bought your favorite candy bar?" I asked. To which Rean replied: "Honey, Snickers is your favorite candy bar. I never did like Snickers. My favorite candy bar is Milky Way."

So here I was – married to a wonderful woman for 35 years – and I somehow never noticed that her favorite candy bar was not the same as my favorite.

Think how easy it must be to miss the cues and clues from the people we serve. Are we providing what they really need? Are we really reaching them? Are we really lifting them?
If we’re not accustomed to asking, they’re probably not very accustomed to telling. So we need to ask, then ask some more. And listen.

The bad news is that not everyone is born with emotional intelligence competencies. The good news is that the competencies can be learned and practiced.

Sometimes our best coaches are the very people we’ve been asked to serve.
It’s not called "servant leadership" for nothing.

Article from The Duncan Report. For more information please click on their link.

Take a breather

With all the commotion around us, remember to make it a point to take a moment, take a step back, observe, practice some deep breathing or simply enjoy being as empty of thought as you want to be. It won't be long until you'll have to give it your all again.

Whether you are in a resting or attention position remember that the most important thing is to be in the moment. 110% in the moment, that is. That is when you get both the best rest and the best results.

Can you hear me now?

Funny, right? Unless it's you who is not being listened to.

Most of us listen to about 25% of what is being communicated to us. I know, I know, listening and communication are common threads in this blog, but there never was a more pressing time to start working on our listening skills (afterall, we do want to keep our jobs and progress in our careers, right?). So do what you can, and if you feel you are not meeting your own expectations try again, try harder and try smarter.

I have a good friend whom I always thought had the touch for changing people's mood around. The type who, after a sales person has been openly rude to him, replies "How is your day going?" Not in a sarcastic way but in the most caring and compassionate tone possible. It always amazes me to watch the results: even the rudest most abrasive people make eye contact (sometimes for the first time) and then the magic happens: that moment when an frustrated associate actually sees the person in front of him as a human being.

Besides the obvious results my friend always gets (things done right the first time, a more pleasant person to do business with, quicker service, a discount, etc.) the most everlasting result is that he's likely to have made a positive impact on that person's day and attitude.

So go ahead laugh at the cartoon. Remember all the jerks who mistreated you and vent about it.

But also remember that a graceful human being helps situations by showing, not by telling.

If your listening and empathy skills leave something to be desired, read a book on the subject, ask friends and coworkers to be honest with you and provide you feedback, practice deliberately not interrupting or thinking about what you are going to say next while your spouse, friend or coworker is talking to you, take a class (Rollins College has a fantastic class on the subject)...and most of all, when you think you are done learning...well, then it's time to start all over again.

And remember, the fact that most of us run at 25% capacity that doesn't mean that's the way it has to be. Not if you want to achieve exceptional results anyway.

During a recent conversation with a former colleague about the staggering decline in customer service, as well as employee & customer satisfaction many businesses are experiencing, we found ourselves using feel words. Yes, two mature, objective, career- oriented, type-A business folks using feel words.

We were most amazed by the palpable loss of pride and passion for one’s work. Particularly in these tough times and in spite of this clearly being in an employers market. We exchanged ideas about my prior post (“You can’t fire me!”) and agreed that ignorance is not really bliss.

Ignorance is what propels, otherwise cognitively-aware adults, to overspending money, resources and time. Ignorance has entire populations ‘nurturing’ their bodies with what, in places like Europe, would be banned foods and a host of Genetically Modified Organisms whose consequences nobody seems to know and we remain oblivious to. Ignorance, more times than not, is at the root of wars. And ignorance is the currency poorly performing employees are banking on to keep sucking the life and profitability out of your business.

I cannot tell you what to eat, what to think, how to spend your money, resources, and time. But I can remind you the importance of two key areas for the health of your business:

1. Knowledge of at least the basics of HR Law in your state
2. Knowledge of how your good employees feel about changes and your company’s mission, vision, and long-term direction

In fact, you will notice as you browse through the blog that these are recurring themes for us. And for good reason. We’ve seen businesses hurt their bottom line due to lack of basic prevention, knowledge and simple good use of empathy. We’ll dissect these issues and share some ideas on how to shed some light on them in upcoming posts.

Meanwhile, read, learn, and if you have no time to do either, be sure to contact an HR specialist to hold your hand through the ins and outs of the HR world.

You Can't Fire Me!

One of the great things about working with a new client is learning the background of their employees and discovering some of the reasons behind the culture.

Recently, I was conducting a job analysis for a client in order to put together a strategic plan for utilizing her team members more productively when during an interview one employee told me that he could never be fired. He said that he knew the laws of the state (this was Florida) and that it would take something more than poor performance for him to be fired. Well, I assured him that I was not there to fire him or cause him to be fired. He insisted on trying to convince me that although he was not a top performer, there was no way he was losing his job.

I try to keep the employee interviews that I do confidential so I asked the client who her top performers were and who were some of the team members she thought needed improvement. As I suspected, the employee who assured me he could not be fired turned out to be not only one of the poor performers, but was at the bottom of the list and was a problem employee.

The client showed me a file with a history of documented performance issues for the man who could not be fired. The client was hesitant to fire this employee because of the threats he had made stating that he has attorney friends and that the law is on his side. I volunteered to review the employee's file and made the recommendation that he be terminated immediately.

What from the outside appears to be an open and shut case to most of us is a fearful and confusing one for the employer. It is sad that a small business owner cannot concentrate on planning and producing to create a profitable business to provide for their families, provide income and security for employees, and contribute to the local economy because some knuckle-headed employee is determined to take a free ride at the company's expense. Most employment laws are needed to protect both the employee and employer, but there are some, (most often mis-understood), laws that scare the daylight out of employers and are commonly used by employees, armed with only a touch of the correct interpretation of the law, to threaten the very person who gave them a job with "I will do as I please and you can't fire me!"