Ezine Arcive
The Award-Winning Monthly Resource for Professionals ########################################################### OUTCOME FOCUS REPORT Circulation 30,700 Vol 60 – November 2005 Publisher: Anne Warfield mailto:ezine@imp.us.com 888-imp-9421 or 952-921-9421 http://www.impressionmanagement.com © 2005 Impression Management Professionals ########################################################### By subscription only! Go ahead and pass this to friends. If you receive this from a friend and you want to receive your own copy, just email mailto:ezine@imp.us.com and put "Add me" in the subject line. To remove yourself from this list see bottom of this email. =================================================================== IN THIS ISSUE =================================================================== 1) What's In The News? 2) Outcome Focus Situation/Solution 3) Anne's Aha 4) Resources To Learn More =================================================================== 1. What's In The News? =================================================================== Learn more about IMP's Monthly Presentation Skills Seminar at the IMP Institute in Minneapolis, MN! Upcoming Presentation Skills Seminar Dates in Minneapolis, MN: November 14-15, 2005 February 6-7, 2006 March 20-21, 2006 April 24-25, 2006 Upcoming Negotiation Skills Seminar Dates in Minneapolis, MN: March 23-24, 2006 Follow this link for more information, http://www.impressionmanagement.com/coaching.shtml or, email me at mailto:ezine@imp.us.com ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Create your own imp@atomic.sparklist.com; using List Builder: http://www.listmedia.com/listbuilder/00623 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ =================================================================== 2. Here's This Months Outcome Focus Situation/Solution =================================================================== Use as a training tool: Present the situation below to the group and have them brainstorm how they would best handle the situation. Then share the Outcome Focus answer and see how it relates or differs from solutions the group found. How to Shift the Consensus of the Room When You Are Up Against a Driving Personality Dear Anne, How can I shift the consensus in a room to a different perspective when the thought being held is supported by a driver/controller? We have one person on our team that has a very strong personality. She tends to speak out and I find that the entire group gets swayed to her opinion right away. Some of her ideas are good, but some don’t make any sense. When I try to voice an opinion that differs from hers, she tends to speak over me or I find that no one else picks up the ball and we end up doing what the driver wanted. How can I get my voice heard? OUTCOME DESIRED: You want to be able to get the group to look at situations logically rather than always being swayed by the strongest personality in the room so that the best choice is always made. OTHERS PERSPECTIVES: The Team: They want to do what is right and to make the best choice. They believe in the strength of the driver (whom I will call Nancy to simplify things going forward). They feel comfortable with her decisions and her execution of her decisions. They may not see the strength in your decisions or execution of your decisions so therefore, they are not as swayed when you speak. Or it can simply be that they are not comfortable going against her decisions. The Driver (Nancy): She is most likely a Producer style of communication. This style likes to get things done as quickly as possible with calculated risks. Therefore she is willing to move when things are only 70% there and execute along the way to make it get to 100%. To sit around and listen to people debate an issue would be tiresome for her and she would rather quickly go through the decision making process and move on to the "doing" part. She will most likely listen to other opinions ONLY if they are given in a confident style with and backed up by execution. She won’t want to come in and clean up someone else’s mess. USING OUTCOME THINKING: The first thing you need to do is to look at how you are speaking up. Are you using a strong voice? Do you make eye contact with the entire group? Are you bringing up positive solutions or probing questions? Are your thoughts and ideas seen as challenging to Nancy or leading to the group? In order to have a group listen to you when there is a strong style in the group you must have great body language, concise messaging, and clear vision. If you hem, haw, break eye contact, mumble, raise your voice like a question at the end, or fade out as you talk, people will not see you as a strong leader and you will see them look directly from you to Nancy to see how she reacts to what you said. You must also make sure your ideas are coming from a positive angle and not just ideas that run counter to Nancy’s. Why? Because if your ideas are always showing why what was chosen won’t work people will see you as negative and not helping the cause. This will lead them to ignore ALL your ideas, even the great ones. Listen to how many of your ideas are solutions and how many times your ideas are saying why something won’t work and that will give you a clue as to whether you can be seen on the positive or negative side. So, let’s assume that you do present your questions in a good, clear, concise, positive manner but that Nancy talks over them. In that situation, you need to make sure you don’t threaten Nancy and that you make it easy for the group to expand to look at new ideas. You could do this by saying something like the following while making eye contact with each person in the room and using a clear voice that stays level at the end: "There is an alternate idea I believe we need to explore. That is….(state your idea here and keep it simple and easy to follow). So looking at this new idea, how do you all see it fits with what we are talking about?" or "I have some serious doubts about going about this the way we are discussing. If I understand this correctly we are trying to achieve____ (state the goal here). If that is true, than doing ________(list what they want to do here) would mean jeopardizing _____(list what would be affected here). In order to avoid that I recommend we explore the following_________." Now let’s assume no one picks up on your idea because Nancy says, "That won’t work. We should just stick to ___(here she lists her choice)." You would say, "Nancy, it is interesting you would say that. Can you share with me why you don’t believe it will work and how you plan to overcome ___(here you would list the things you think her idea would be jeopardizing)? I know we all want to come to the best solution possible so I am sure we would rather take time to explore the pros and cons of each idea now rather than try to fix it on the back side." You could also point out a time in the past that the group didn’t step back to look at all solutions and they got burned. Be sure to refer to the idea that didn’t work from the TEAM aspect. For example, "What we don’t want to happen is a similar situation to our EX project. Remember with that situation we jumped on one idea without exploring options and we ended up having to spend 6 months regrouping. That was time we could have spent elsewhere. I just want to have our groups’ energy used as proactively as possible and that is why I would rather explore a little more upfront." SPECIAL NOTE: Send Anne your situation to be included in an upcoming E-zine. mailto:ezine@imp.us.com =================================================================== 3. Anne's "Aha" =================================================================== The Tipping Point of a Great Leader What does the movie Coach Carter, the book The Tipping Point, and great leadership have in common? Every Executive I work with wants to be a good, positive, and strong leader. When I ask them what they would like to change in order to make their life easier they often say things like, "it would be great if my team could think more independently to make the best decisions possible WITHOUT me involved!" But how do you do that? In order to answer that all we need to do is look at the above question because the answer is right there. One of the most fundamental and pivotal points of a great leader is one most people hate to take on. It is the one ingredient that makes a huge difference between great parents and just okay parents. It is what makes a team stick or fall apart. That one ingredient is consequences. It means that as a leader you have to have standards that you will NOT compromise no matter who is asking. It means that you have to follow up to make sure the standards are held up by all people. This can be very painful to do! What I rarely see Executives do well is have direct consequences for poor behavior. In the movie Coach Carter each player had to sign a contract. The contract required them to have an average GPA of 2.3 while the state only required a 2.0, wear ties on game day, to participate in all classes and to sit in the front row. The players thought these demands were not fair and the parents even stood up and said these are ridiculous standards, yet Coach Carter stayed firm. Even his boss, the school principal, thought he was being too "harsh." They all thought his standards were too high because they weren’t the "average." Coach Carter replied that "these are student players. The first word in there is student and that's what I expect them to be." Coach Carter took a job at Richman High School where only 50% of all students graduated and only six students out of every one hundred went on to college. That was a standard when he arrived. Parents, teachers, and the school principal all told him that he was there to coach basketball and nothing more. As an Executive you will often face people feeling you are unfair because your "standards" are too high. They will push you to lower them. And often, like in the case of Coach Carter, it could be your boss that tries to get you to lower those standards. When you have pressure like that it becomes even easier to let of your consequences for not following the standards. That is the first step to mediocrity. In the book "The Tipping Point," Malcolm Gladwell proves over and over how ONE little thing can be the tipping point that sends a neighborhood to crime and violence. If one house has a window boarded up it is only a matter of time before crime creeps in to the neighborhood. Stopping the fare jumpers instead of going after the big criminals helped turn the subways around and reduced crime. So check your own scoreboard. What are your standards? What are you willing to do to support those standards? What consequences will you FAIRLY and JUSTLY enforce to make sure ALL PLAYERS know the standards and follow them? For this next month, challenge yourself to focus on ONE standard you would like to see followed in your company and set about implementing it in your company. Then just sit back and watch the positive ripple effect. ************** Want To Perfect Your Communication Skills? ************* Order Anne's Book Today, Outcome Thinking: Getting Results Without The Boxing Gloves! Follow the link below: http://www.impressionmanagement.com/products.shtml **************** Quotable Quotes: **************** "Every musical phrase has a purpose. It’s like talking. If you talk with a particular purpose, people listen to you, but if you just recite, it’s not as meaningful." Itzhak Perlman ==================================================================== 4. I Want More Resources So I Can Perfect My Skills ==================================================================== Order Your Success Tools Online: http://www.impressionmanagement.com/products.shtml ==================================================================== FREE ARTICLES AND BACK ISSUES ==================================================================== We have many articles available for your publication, company newsletter,etc. Articles can be viewed at http://www.impressionmanagement.com/articles/index.shtml All you have to do is print the article in its entirety along with the byline at the top and the credits, and complete contact information at the end of each article. I would appreciate a tear sheet or electronic copy too. Back Issues of the Outcome Focus E-zine can be viewed at http://www.impressionmanagement.com/ezine/index.shtml ==================================================================== About Anne and IMP ==================================================================== Anne Warfield, CSP* President Impression Management Professionals 15768 Venture Lane Minneapolis, MN 55344 952-921-9421 888-imp-9421 952-921-9420 Fax Email: mailto:ezine@imp.us.com Visit us at: http://www.impressionmanagement.com "A true leader is not one you look up to because they are the best. A true leader is one that draws the best out in you." Anne Warfield *CSP- Certified Speaking Professional; a designation held by only 7% of all speakers nationwide Member of the National Speakers Association <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> Copyright © 2005, IMP. Feel free to share information you learn. All we ask is that you credit us as the source as everything we are putting in here is copyright protected by our office. Copyright note: Submission of an e-mail message or artwork affirms that you are able to and have given Anne Warfield non-exclusive permission to reprint the content of your message in all forms, electronic or otherwise, in all languages throughout the world. Privacy Statement: We will not distribute your address to anyone. Period. If you received this from a friend and you want to receive your own copy, just email mailto:ezine@impressionmanagement.com and put "Add me" in the subject line. To remove yourself from this mailing list, simply follow the instructions at the end of this email. or, Forward a copy of this message to mailto:ezine@imp.us.com with the word "Remove" in the subject line. <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>>
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