Over the past couple of weeks, we have witnessed the fallout from the recent May Day protests that happened around the country.

Seattle, Washington is in my backyard was hit hard on May 1st. What started out as calm and civil protests, quickly erupted into high velocity fighting with severe destruction.

As I sat watching the events unfold on the evening news and online, I was struck with deep sadness. My heart ached for the innocent bystanders and the helpless businesses that took the brunt of the angry mob with sticks, pipes and paintball guns.

I couldn’t help but wonder, Why?!

I couldn’t stop watching in awe and with profound disappointment.

Whatever the reason or cause, I do not see how covering up your face and walking down streets with weapons and a single intention of destruction can ever be a good thing.

While some say the city leaders should have done more. I disagree. While others say that the protestors warned the authorities of their pending actions so they should have been prepared, I disagree.

There was no amount of preparation that could have been implemented that ever could have prepared the innocent for the hostility that scourged the city on May 1, 2012.

Why? Because common sense had been abandoned for a cause that with all good intentions was taken over by a flock of Angry Birds. A flock who simply wanted to destroy for the sheer sake of it–For the pleasure of it.

The most unsettling of all was to see the devastation to property, buildings and businesses that have fought just to keep their employees employed and the doors open during the worst economic downturn of our lifetime.

As I reflect back, I see how much these protestors acted like nothing more than Angry Birds. Lobbing their attacks on the unsuspecting who were held up inside the walls of their businesses: their livelihoods.

Protesting for the sake of a cause, in and of itself, is the American way. But destroying property for no other reason than because it sounds like a fun idea should be saved for video games, video at 5 o’clock.

So what can we learn about our teams with these current events and people acting out their video game in real life? What do Angry Birds, May Day Protestors and Our Teams have in common?

1. Each has a Mission – It’s the implementation that either works for or    against you. If your team is not working for you, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and cast the net wider to ensure that you are capturing the right people to fulfill your goals.
2. Each has a Weapon – it’s how you empower them to use it that matters most. Protestors and Birds each have their various weapons they use to destroy. Your team has weapons you have given them but, do they know how to use them in a manner that builds up and doesn’t tear down?
3. Each has a Clear Target – it’s how they go after it that varies. The Angry Birds have one way to go after their target, with the sling shot through the air. Protestors had a calculated route and plan of action, thanks to online chat forums. They en-massed upon the streets knowing exactly where to go. Your team has the target you set with and for them, but do they know as clearly how to zero in on it.

So as you can see, the three have a lot of the same factors in place. It is clearly the intention behind them all that promotes them for the good of the whole or the destruction of many.

My hope in the future is that we learn from these escapades and video games to transform the world for GOOD, not destroy for the He!! of it.

What else do you see that Teams, Angry Birds and May Day Protestors have in common? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The past two weeks have been rather unusual at TammyRedmon.com. Not a lot of inspiring action has been happening in the Team Coaching realm from our leader, me.

All the down time got me thinking. What happens in our teams when we “the Leader” is down with the flu or a family illness? Is your team equipped with enough autonomy and decision making power to keep moving the ball forward? Or, does everything stop moving while you are out of office?

As I have been overcoming a very difficult flu that has even put me on antibiotics for the first time in probably 5 or more years, I have been thinking a lot about this topic.

What happens to progress when your leader is down for the count?

In recent years, I have had the chance to work with some large international companies that had one shared problem. (Well, I call it a problem.) Every member on the executive leadership team waited for direction from the CEO/President.

Now mind you, everyone had their orders of operation and they knew their role. However, if a challenge emerged or a question came up that was out of the normal operations, the team was paralyzed. Which then moved up to senior management and all the way to the top for resolution. These companies were paralyzed for one reason.

Anything outside of ‘normal’ had to go up to the top to create an action plan for resolution. Why? Because of a lack of trust.

So then, how might it derail your organization if your leader gets sick with the flu and is knocked out for 10 days?

What if he/she is unreachable?

Now you might say that you would have a default leader to pass everything to in the event you are out. But, does that really solve the problem that all decisions outside of ‘normal’ must go through the CEO? How does that support your team to move the ball forward?

Perhaps this topic is too big to tackle today in one post. What I will offer you is this…

If you have an organizational structure that begins and ends with you, how will you ever grow your company beyond your single capacity? 

If the company is designed to rise and fall with the decisions of your leader, how will you rise above the current threshold? 

I am happy to say that progress happened even in my downtime. The team moved the ball forward and made decisions on my behalf. They understood the goal and know they are encouraged to be self-directive, and I know they have our collective best interest in mind.

Now when I 100% reengage post Flu, it’s up to me to have a conversation with the team as a top priority and discuss what was learned, exposed, worked and didn’t work in my absence. That is what fosters trust and autonomy within the team.

Do you have a plan with your team if you aren’t able to make it to the office for an extended period of time?

More importantly, do all decision start and stop with you or does your team have the green light to move in lieu of your presence in the office?

This weekend brought to a close an awesome 4-week course I delivered on Emotional Awareness. Now you may be wondering how that applies to Team Performance or Leadership Coaching. Rest assured, the two are very connected.

Emotional awareness is the ability to identify and express what you are feeling and to have empathy for what others are feeling. It’s the building block of a healthy emotional life.

Can you see how how having the ability to identify and express what you are feeling in the work place would come in handy? How about with that team that you lead? Or what about for the members of your team to be able to effectively express how they feel in a healthy manner.

Often,  Leaders employ a “Spray and Pray” approach to expressing  bad news. They spray it out to their team in the quickest way possible, and then pray that the team comes into alignment or agreement. This tactic has the ability to backfire quite substantially.

For the team, they learn to spray and pay – the difference is that they pay for the backlash from their team when the spew out uncontrolled emotion or frustration in an unhealthy manner. Their teammates will not allow that behavior coming from a peer, especially if they must endure from their leader.

Studies show that people who are comfortable with expressing the full range of feelings have an easier time connecting with others, are more at ease with themselves, and are strong communicators.

Your Emotional Awareness is critical in forming healthy relationships and attaining your goals.

As a leader, having healthy relationships on your team is key to your success. Now this doesn’t mean that you all need to sing Kumbaya at the end of each day in the break room. It does mean that you have the mutual respect for communicating in a manner that supports the team or attaining the goal.

So, what is the state of your Emotional Awareness? One way to test it is to see how your team communicates with one another. Not with you, with their peers. It may be a reflection of how you are doing, and it may surprise you.

As leaders, it is important to remember that our teams are watching us. They are looking to us as a sort of guide post. They are investigating your behavior and your language, inside and outside of the boardroom. Now, your team may not be outwardly expressing what they are watching you for, but we all know they are watching.

Perhaps you have experienced scrutiny and judgement from your team on an approach that you took. Or maybe you heard a report from someone that was less than flattering about how your lead the team. Maybe you saw an email that was poking fun at an idea or initiative you had. More likely, you probably haven’t heard much of anything.

I want to encourage you today. It really isn’t about the fact that people are judging you or your actions. It has little to do with whether you have heard it or that it’s been expressed to you. So fret not.

When our team members look at us, they are looking at us as an example of what to do or what not to do within the organization. They are looking to you for guidance. They are looking for confirmation that they are doing well and that they are okay. And this is often done in an unspoken manner and, more often than not, it is overlooked by you, the leader.

What is important here is to know how you show up, everywhere.

What is important here is to know what behaviors you are modeling to your team that let them know where they stand.

What is important here is to know that your people will follow you, even when you lead poorly.

Why? Because they are watching you. And, as human beings, we are teleological in nature. That means we move in the direction of the dominant picture. So if you, as leader, are demonstrating something that is less than what you want for members of your team to model back to you, change your behavior.

As Michael Jackson sang best, “It always feels like somebody’s watching me” as a leader you need to know your people are watching. What are you showing them in return?

Our assumptions about our team or other leaders in our organization, or even ourselves  are mental screens that expand and constrain what’s possible. They hold us back from seeing solutions or even seeing stellar performance.

These very assumptions we place on the people around us, or that are locked in our view of self, can be quite limiting. They can be the difference between success and failure, satisfaction and despair. The breaking point between profit and loss.

Overtime, we pile up assumptions like bricks and mortar–building walls around us that keep things out and barricade things in.

Assumptions are often proceeded by judgment.

Frequently when coaching teams, I run into pretty large walls of years of assumptions piled up. Historical judgments repeated for the sake of keeping things safe or “because we’ve always done it this way.” The challenge is exposing the truth in a way that gives each team member the power to begin breaking the wall down. To begin suspending judgment.

Now, one might think that tackling a wall of assumptions (or judgments) is done in a quick manner; however, we know that lasting change, takes time. We want to keep in mind that our assumptions are likely blinding us to new solutions. So it takes time to determine 1.) the wall exists and 2.) defining the ‘why’ it’s there.

The ‘why’ requires testing some assumptions and for some leaders and their teams, and that can be very unnerving.

To help you determine if the assumptions you have placed are valid, try the following:

• Make a list of “shoulds” and assumptions that are supporting your vision.
• Ask yourself what you assume to be true or untrue about your team or organization.
• Ask a few trusted advisers to share their insight about your assumptions. Do they agree or disagree with you? Why or why not?
• Ask people who you think may have a different perspective to respond to your list. *include the people you least want to connect with on the subject.
• Test your assumptions by experimenting with them. Do the opposite of what’s normal just to see what happens on the other side.

How have your assumptions protected you? How might they be holding you back?

As we have covered recently, one of today’s leading and most costly challenges for leaders and teams is the plight of the under performer. A problem employee can range anywhere from the not so serious, such as someone who is chronically late for work each day; to the more serious, such as a person engaged in harassment of a colleague.

We know that problem employees need to be managed carefully. Sometimes, the issues are small and can be resolved quickly; in other instances, more serious intervention may be necessary.

While there is no one-size fits “fix” for all teams and company’s with team performance issues, there are a few things to consider as a first response to root out poor performers on your team.

1. Set clear expectations and deliverables. Keep in mind that you are spending a lot of time daily managing this person on your team. Place the responsibility of the follow-up and performance reporting on the employee. This will show you their ability to implement change and commitment to accountability.
   Remember to set short term goals. It’s in alignment with the “Small-Wins” approach to leading a team. This gives the employee a more realistic goal with a shorter duration to complete. Ultimately, raising their self efficacy which promotes productivity.
2. Look into the development process for your team. We want to create a proactive environment to ensure that you have the right people in the right positions. Often, your under performer is just in the wrong position and nobody wants to admit the obvious.
3. Take a look in the mirror. It’s time to review YOU as the manager to see what you may be contributing to create a co-dependent work environment. Also, it’s necessary to take a hard look at your own decision making process. There are managers that keep people in place because it seems easier than having to let go of what’s not working, and then to invest in hiring the right fit and train for success from the start.
4. Overhaul your hiring process. Yes, it is about making the right choice before they are on the team. I like to think of it this way, be slow to hire and quick to fire. One of the leading causes for employee turnover is poor job match from the start. Organize your hiring system with the same levels of effort and thought you put into your best marketing plans or other business development processes.

Of course, there are many other ways to improve your team’s performance and to expose the under performer that is costing you a lot of money. And this is a good list to tackle out of the gate that will prove rewarding in a rather short amount of time. But remember, having the right people in the right positions are your most important asset, now it’s time to act like it.

Every team has them. Every leader has to deal with them. The real question is how much is an underperforming employee costing you and your organization?

It’s not a topic that is often discussed. Mostly because it is masked by other issues and challenges within the team. But the numbers don’t lie. The average leader or manager is spending over 1/4 of their work week ‘dealing with’ each underperforming employee.

Did you know that on average leaders spend 10 hours a week with just ONE problem team member? And that is on the conservative side of the equation. But when you look at the team as a whole, and the impact one employee can have on the rest of the team, you swiftly add hours to your week. Taking valuable time away from high payoff activities.

Managing a poor performing or difficult employee does not a happy manager make; in fact, it may be the least favorite duty of all. Nevertheless, it is an unavoidable function and one that needs to be taken seriously. One that requires swift attention.

Underperformance can mask itself as many different things. While the intangible effects of underperformance, such as low morale and reduced productivity, are real; until recently, the actual cost of poor performance was too ambiguous to calculate.

Let the numbers do the talking. Studies have shown that American managers spend an accumulative of 27 percent of their time managing and correcting poor performers. In addition, there is equal that amount of time spent course correcting with other members of the team as the residual fall out rolls across the office.

Researchers at Sheffield’s Institute of Work Psychology sampled manufacturing businesses and found that 18 percent of variations in productivity and 19 percent in profitability were attributed to people management practices.

Sadly, none of the studies take into consideration the business cost to the productivity of the effective team members in both morale and stamina. We overlook the cost of keeping good performance up in the absence of a leader due to one under-performer on the team who is zapping all the time and energy from the manager.

So what can you do if you have an energy-zapping, high cost, under-performer on your team?

The immediate solution is to name the pink elephant and begin addressing the problem head on. And, often that starts with a hard look at you as the leader.

It is faulty thinking to believe that you can just handle this problem and the rest of the team will take care of themselves. If you have just one member that is poorly performing on your team, it is costing you and the rest of the team a lot of time. Ultimately, leaving a lot of money on the table.

Ask yourself this question. If the poorly performing employee were to take money from one of your most highly respected clients, without permission and refuse to pay it back, what would you do?

I am guessing you might fire them. At a minimum you would handle it immediately because it makes you look bad and you would likely loose a valuable client in the process. So, how about you put yourself in the same category as the “respected client” and take action to address the problem.

If you won’t, who will?

Over the years I have worked in and among many teams in many fields: from Government to Private Sector, from Not for Profit to Education. While the work may change for each of teams, my list of five is pretty darn consistent. And, I wouldn’t change it because they are also what I love about working with teams.

The challenge for you as a leader is to know whether you are committing any of these workplace offenses and, if so, to get help to change. If you don’t believe that you are committing any of these, I invite you to ask your team what they think. The answer might just surprise you.

 1. Not living the vision or the mission – Yep, my number one is vision and mission related because it’s critical to the success of the team and the organization. The team is more often than not, Not the Problem–The Leader is. Every company or organization I go into has a vision and a mission. Many of whom have hired consultants to ‘help them create it,’ but the problem quickly comes to surface because of the lack of buy-in to the vision and lack of action plan for executing the mission.

It’s a two-fold problem:

* Mission is written for the customer (not the team)

* Vision is written for the ego (not the team)

The success of your vision and mission being realized within or outside of your company is to have a plan for executing them and to lead by example. I often ask the question, “What would it be like if we are living our Vision and Mission?” Or one of my other favorites is, “What will it look like to our team when we are modeling our Vision and Mission?”

2.  Leaders that point and shoot versus inspire action. Probably one of the most demoralizing aspects of a team is when the Leader misappropriates his authority and power by pointing fingers and shooting insults at the ‘easy target’. This behavior often comes out of fear and frustration when there is a break in communication or a lack of shared vision.

• Devaluing a team member  or their work actually places a marker on the head of every member of the organization. A marker that says, sit down, do “your job” and don’t ask questions – just wait it out. It is also fosters your team’s inability to speak the truth out of fear of retaliation from the leader.

3. Lack of commonality. This is one that leaders and even teams don’t realize is happening until it is nearly too late. Or until after several casualties have been birthed out of the dysfunction of the team. Just like your personal relationships, your teams at work must share a common interest in the work. It’s the Tide Raises All Ships in the Harbor approach to team development.

*Leaders, don’t assume that because your people are playing on your team with you means they are on board with you. To many, it just becomes a paycheck which is a slow death for you and the success of your team.

It’s your responsibility to find out where the commonality lays with each member of your team.

4. Culture of yes men and women. I am not sure if this is my most irritating element of a team engaged with dysfunction or not, but it’s close to the top. The teams that I see who are perhaps the healthiest are the ones that have members who robustly “Challenge the Process.”

• Good leaders foster the search for opportunities to change the status quo. They look for innovative ways to improve the organization. In doing so, they experiment and take risks. Because leaders know that risk taking involves mistakes and failures, they accept the inevitable disappointments as learning opportunities.

Fostering an environment of risk takers is one step in getting people out of telling you “yes” for fear of failure or breaking the rules. 

 5. Missing acknowledgment. When I am coaching leaders, I will engage with them in conversations about their family. It helps me to find some of their core values in the story telling. And, in the stories I can often unearth how well a leader does with praise and acknowledgment. I can see how high on their personal value structure it is. Which ultimately helps me to introduce the importance of acknowledgment within their team.

• You see, just as our children soak up praise and puff up with acknowledgment of a job well done, so do our teams. It doesn’t go away with age or experience. And, as with our kids, our teams need to hear the acknowledgment for the little things.
• Statistics show that giving a verbal acknowledgment can be as stimulating as a paid increase for an employee. The challenge is to know when to use the acknowledgement and how to place it with your team member so they hear it as authentic, not contrived. This post from a Northeastern University student may help you get to acknowledge others with easy to apply steps. 

At time of writing this post, these are my top 5 crazy-making behaviors of a team leader. And it’s subject to change.

So what are your top frustrating behaviors of leaders or team members that you’ve worked with?

As a team member, what is at the top of your list of things a leader could do to support you and the team?

Would you know it if you were disrespecting your team as a leader? Unfortunately, the answer to that question with the leaders I work with is often a ‘no’.  This generally does NOT mean that they don’t care. It has everything to do with their perspective and the need to get things done fast, and sometimes in a vacuum. But the effect can be devastating and demoralizing, often attacking productivity and cohesiveness of your team.

Recently, I had a conversation with someone who was seeking guidance on navigating these waters with her director and other manager within her organization. She was ‘hurt’ and ‘frustrated’; feeling stepped over and discounted for work she had been putting forth on a large project. The director put in his “pinch man” to complete a job that she had been managing and overseeing – without communicating to her about the change.

To her knowledge, the change wasn’t made because she wasn’t doing a good job; in fact, she had heard quite the opposite. It was just a change for no other reason than to change.

Unfortunately, the creative mind took over and she quickly regarded it as a male vs. female issue. Then, she jumped to the assumption that she didn’t do something right or good enough.

When we broke it down and got to the core of the issue we found that her feelings had more to do with the fact that she wasn’t communicated with about the change, and not that the change happened. (Her male vs. female reaction was camouflage to what was really going on. It was the old defenses coming to surface.)

Let’s break it down.

When people get upset because of the appearance of lack of respect or disregard for the work they’ve done, it’s less because of the work and more because of the effect on the relationship. Often when we are not acknowledged through word for what we have contributed - not because we need a party in our honor - we are left wondering; why or what happened or what did I do wrong?

If this has happened to you, you might have given your personal power away. So, step back into your own power and invite some open dialogue with your boss. Come from a place of just wanting to bring closure, or to ensure the job is complete, or to debrief or check in to see what if anything more is needed on the job. You can get over feeling disrespected by taking back your power in the situation. And remember, the fact that you were overlooked is not always because someone disrespected you or didn’t like your contribution. It can actually just be an unfortunate oversight. But you’ll never know if you don’t ask some thoughtful questions to find out.

A KEY to asking, however, is – you must suspend judgement before you begin the conversation. If not, you will likely come across as angry or defensive, and that can have the opposite effect that you want.

Uncover the wound first and understand it’s source along with what you would like to see “the next time.” Suspend judgement and inquire about what’s next. When you can communicate from that place, you will succeed.

For years, we have seen the success of ‘behavior change’ programs such as AA or Weight Watchers for individual transformation. These programs are designed to celebrate the small wins of the individual on the journey toward change. Neither program insists that the participant become perfect overnight or make sweeping changes in a day. They invite small, steady progress toward change.

So how might we take these same principles and apply them to your team? Perhaps you are asking why do I, as the leader of the team, need to celebrate small wins with my team at all? My answer is why wouldn’t you? When our people don’t get overwhelmed by the enormity of the assignment we just laid on them, their energy is better infused toward getting the job done instead of wondering how they will ever solve the problem.

Do you know the answer to the question “How do you eat an elephant?”

Successful leaders actively use the small-wins process to make people feel like winners on the team.

Effective leaders use the essentials: building small wins to make it easy for people to change within an organization.

It’s a matter of fact that people who feel like winners have a heightened sense of commitment to the journey overall. At the end of the day, leaders with teams of committed people sustain growth, by and large, over time across the organization.

Perhaps it was best noted in the book Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner that “Small wins form the basis for a consistent pattern of winning that attracts people who want to be allied with a successful venture. Small wins deter opposition for a simple reason: it’s hard to argue against success and thus small wins decrease resistance.”

If that wasn’t convincing enough for you to employ a small-wins strategy for your team and lead them step by step to the finish line, perhaps these 3 reasons will be.

3 Reasons Small-Wins Count:

1. Small wins build people’s confidence and reinforce their natural desire to feel successful. They are a natural building block on your stable foundation.
2. Leaders who are deliberate about creating a culture of small wins make it easier for their people to want to go along with their initiatives, requests and changes. Bottom-line: you get buy-in quicker.
3. They build personal and group commitment.

Studies have shown that a simple strategy of winning, hop-by-hop, (step-by-step), succeeds while many massive overhauls and gigantic projects fail.

What are your thoughts for driving change ‘hop-by-hop’ with small wins over time? What have you seen work successfully with your team?