Posts Tagged ‘teleconference’

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The Leader’s Quagmire – How Fear Impacts a Conference Call (Part 1)

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

Fear, in it’s many shapes and forms, is always present no matter how skilled you become at leading meetings by conference call. The real issue is not about getting rid of fear –- it is about working with and through your fear to accomplish your goals.

Frank Herbert, author of Dune, provides great insight to the journey of working with and through fear. “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

What could you accomplish in your meetings if you were relatively fearless? How would people treat you and each other during your meetings? How would being fearless alter the influence of politics and manipulation in your meetings?

Many of the counter-productive behaviors and political maneuvering on conference calls can be directly related back to fear. The faster you can identify and deal with fear, the more effective your meetings will be.

Question:
How does fear show up in your life?

Identify and make a list of every fear in your business life first and then your personal life. It is normal to have a high number of items on your list! Fears come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Does the number of fears on your list surprise you? Consider the participants attending your meeting. It is a solid bet that each person would have a list of fears to rival your own! Get the picture here? Welcome to the leader’s quagmire!

Fear gains power through illusion and secrecy. If you want to de-claw fear in your meetings, the solution is to openly explore one fear at a time through discussion and keen observation. Think of fear as a line of dominoes standing on their edge –- if you knock one down completely, many more will quickly follow.

When you hear fear arise during a meeting or know it is present (i.e. something major for your organization or industry is taking place), be the first person to open it up for discussion. Engage meeting participants to discuss the fear and break the comments down into two separate lists. The first list is observable facts with the second list being supposition, gossip, and rumor. Use the group discussion to verify which list something belongs to. During the discussion, monitor the energy of the group. Listen for the group becoming more calm or agitated. One sure sign of success is when you hear group members explain to each other when something does not belong in the observable fact list.

Your intention is to remove the illusion and secrecy surrounding one fear at a time. While this may not seem productive in terms of accomplishing agenda items, you and the participants will gain far more benefits than you can imagine. Fear is an obstacle to forward progress. The less fear your group has, the faster and more effective it will be at completing projects. Be willing to table agenda items to a future meeting if needed.

The leader who can safely navigate a group to replace the veil of fear with clarity and purpose is appreciated and respected. It is this type of leader that inspires people to give their best.

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Twitter: @headset
Author – 16 Secrets to a Great Conference Call
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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The Leader’s Quagmire – The Need to be Right (Part 1)

Monday, May 18th, 2009

People thrive when they accomplish things. Accomplishment is a root source for feeling self-confident and self-assured. Unfortunately, some leaders employ a destructive shortcut in attempting to accomplish a team task. The leader mistakenly confuses his or her need to be right with making smart business decisions.

The need to be right is an essential human need that one must fill on a consistent basis. It is unproductive expression of that need in business that must be controlled. Imagine the chaos that a team of seven people would experience if all of them had the same goal of getting their personal need to be right met during one of your meetings!

Question:
How often do you express your need to be right?

Make a list of the places you most strongly need to be right first in your business life and then your personal life. Often our business life is used to compensate for failings in our personal life. The key to being a productive leader is to get most of your needs met in your personal life.

Breakdowns in life (business and personal) can be traced to two main sources – failure in communication and/or relationships. Think of any successful person and most likely, you’ll see high skill levels in both communication and relationships.

As a coach, I saw a common trend with my clients. The more my clients successfully handled their personal life, the better their business life. What actions do you need to take around being right in your personal life? Spend the next couple of months working on that and you’ll be surprised at how much easier it is to lead your work teams. As always, the solution is to take baby steps to improve your personal and business relationships. It is this slow pace that often drives leaders crazy. Welcome to the leader’s quagmire!

Shortcuts produce short-term gain at the expense of long-term success. (Note: optimizing a process is not the same as a shortcut.) IF you still want a shortcut strategy, try this one: look for and formally acknowledge every person on your team each time they are right. Do this for both big and small things yet be subtle – a casual remark about how Mary or Tom were right about something. At some point, the need each person has to be right will be temporarily satisfied. This is known as the leader’s hamster wheel. Until you and your team find a way to fully get the need met (hint – hire a good coach), you will continue to be the person responsible for filling their need to be right. Short-term productivity will improve yet long-term you’ll burnout. This is not sustainable.

Next post I’ll give you three strategies to get your need to be right met.

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Twitter: @headset
Author – 6 Principles of Powerful Conference Calls
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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Dealing with Economic Fear in Your Conference Calls (part 2)

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Three Options were provided for dealing with the fear, pain, loss, and confusion present during meetings. The main point for leaders dealing with these issues is to move your team, group, division, clients, etc., forward in the shortest possible timeframe. The strategy for implementing Option Three (Directly confront the issue) was to establish a few rules for conducting the conversation and asking questions. Let’s expand on this strategy.

First, establish a few short rules for conducting the conversation.
For example, one rule could be to limit the discussion of feeling to just work related issues (no discussion of losses in 401k or other personal investments; no discussion of politics, no discussion of rumors). Two SMART rules are 1) have people say their name first so others can clearly identify who is having a similar challenge, and 2) speak only from your own viewpoint. Be sure to set a timeframe for the discussion to take place as well.

If you do not clearly establish the rules for this discussion, your participants will make up their own rules. This is how most direct discussions go afoul – the leader never established ONE set of rules for everyone to follow.

Second, ask what and how questions and avoid why questions.
As Master Certified Coach, questions are my most powerful tool. Period! Advice, wisdom, experience, etc., pale in comparison to the power of asking the right question at the right time in the right way (hey, I didn’t say it was easy to ask great questions!). This is the skill set you want to develop if you desire being respected as a leader.

What and how questions channel people into giving answers based on observable (i.e. something outside of themselves) facts. Why questions require people to go inside and give rationalizations, interpretations, and justifications (all generally defensive in nature). Why questions also surface irrational and intangible fears.  You CAN’T deal with irrational or intangible fears in your business meetings! There is a time and a place for why type questions yet this is not one of them.

Third, fiercely protect the right of each person to speak his or her truth (i.e. as long as it follows your rules and avoids the why question).
This is the concept of safe space. People will not speak honestly about their fear, pain, and loss, if there is any likelihood of being ridiculed. It is perhaps your most important role as the leader to insure the space during your meeting is safe.

Fourth, establish closure and move forward with your projects.
The way to establish closure is to declare the issue complete. Formally do this when you sense it is time to move forward or you are at the end of your allotted timeframe. Simply say, “I declare this issue complete.” If you have time remaining in your call, focus on small steps to get the group moving forward. If someone wants to revisit this discussion on a future call, remind them the issue is complete for the purposes of this meeting and that you’d be happy to talk with them offline about it later. Once you declare it complete, focus fully on the task and projects at hand.

Good luck! Please contact me if you are unsure about how to handle your specific situation.

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Twitter: @headset
Author – 16 Secrets to a Great Conference Call
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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Dealing with Economic Fear in Your Conference Calls (part 1)

Monday, May 11th, 2009

For the past three months, I’ve quietly observed the change in our local and global economy and how it is affecting conference call and webinar leaders. There is a tremendous amount of fear, pain, loss, and confusion present during meetings. You have three main options to effectively deal with the tension in your meetings.

The main point is to move your team, group, division, clients, etc., forward in the shortest possible timeframe. HOW you do that is through using one or more of the following options.

Option One: Ignore it and just push on.
This is a common strategy for leaders who appreciate confronting problems by focusing on the future. For them, the past is truly the past and the theme is “just get over it – we have work to do”. Caution: if you are too harsh (the only measure is to listen to/read the people you are leading), no only will the group fight you but also they may direct their anger and frustration at you.

Option Two: Dance around the issue while nudging the group forward.
A viable strategy for “nice” teams where confronting is usually done in an indirect manner. This strategy takes longer, requires much more patience, and gives the team a chance to “sit in it for awhile” as they readjust to the changes. As the group adjusts, you can easily switch to Option One or Three.

Option Three: Directly confront the issue.
This option requires the highest skill level, patience, and communication skills. In the long run, it is the most effective at producing both short and long term productivity. In Option One, the leader ignores the feelings of the participants and shifts all focus to the job/task at hand. In Option Two, the leader never really deals with the feelings yet gives the team enough time to “sit in it” while nudging them forward. In Option Three, you go straight at the feelings (anger and loss over termination of peers, frustration at cutbacks in spending for travel, confusion about the future, etc.) and deal with them directly.

How do you deal with their feelings directly? Establish a few short rules for conducting the conversation and ask questions. I’ll expand on this in the next post.

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Twitter: @headset
Author – Executive Conference Call Leadership
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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The Leader’s Quagmire – Unfinished Projects

Monday, January 12th, 2009

People love the feeling that comes from achieving something. It doesn’t matter whether it is hard or easy to complete the task; it is the act of completing something allows access to this feeling. Unfortunately, in the absence of achievement, we substitute other activities in an attempt to tap into the feeling. This is when leaders will notice a variety of games and counter-productive activities that make achievement even more difficult. The good news is that the solution is both simple and elegant.

What if all the games and counter-productive behaviors in your conference call meetings were viewed simply as an unresolved desire to accomplish something meaningful? Sam Adams, creator of Dilbert, has made us laugh and cry about the antics of the workplace. Yet, what if it is that simple? What if the only thing your team needs is consistent access to the feeling that comes from achievement?

Question:
How many unfinished projects (and tasks) do you currently have on your plate?

Make a list of the ones in your business life first and then your personal life. If you have a high number of items on your list, welcome to the human race! Most people are surprised by how many items are on their list. Now imagine how long the list is for each member of your team. Get the picture here? Welcome to the leader’s quagmire!

Despite what everyone says about starting January 1st with a clean slate, you do not. You and your team have this backlog of things to do and projects that are incomplete. Imagine how much could get done if no backlog of tasks existed!

The solution is to take baby steps to get things done each and every meeting you have. You can’t make your team clean up their list yet you can offer them an oasis in the desert of overwhelm created from too many incomplete projects and tasks. Make part of each meeting you lead dedicated to celebrating completed projects and tasks, as well as setting clear expectations for things to be completed in the future. It is the feeling of achievement you are looking for here – not the size of the accomplishment.

Look back at the meetings you found productive and you’ll find at least one clear feeling present – the feeling of accomplishment and movement toward a specific target or goal. Bring this same feeling into your meetings and people will flock to be a part of what you are doing.

In my previous post, I talked about New Year’s Evolutions rather than setting resolutions. This is one example of an “evolution” that will make your life great!

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Twitter: @headset
Author – 19 Best Practices of Teleclass Leadership
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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