What Will You Do In The Next 5 Minutes?
I was in a day-long VIP meeting with one of my top clients recently when she asked, "How do I deal with conflict and confrontation within my leadership team?".
She is a great leader with the skills necessary to guide her colleagues and the company to great success. But this was something that had been troubling her and it was taking up too much of her mind-space.
Does this sound familiar?
We avoid the uncomfortable. It's human nature.
But what if you could change the uncomfortable to something else? What if it were more of a conversation than a confrontation?
I've written and said before that all businesses are built on relationships. The quality of relationships inside and outside of your company or firm = the quality of your business.
And in the end, the relationship is the conversation, the conversation the relationship.
Misunderstood?
The Fifth Habit: "Seek first to understand, Then to be understood." - Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Furthermore, all communication is subject to interpretation and thus subject to misinterpretation and misunderstanding. We all bring our own lens to every conversation based on our individual lived experiences.
While we want to believe that there is only one way to see things, life teaches us differently. There are multiple realities to nearly every situation because we all have our own interpretations.
A New Perspective
Susan Scott in her national bestselling book, Fierce Conversations, Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time, provides some useful insights on improving communication at all levels within your company and business.
Among others, Scott recommends that you:
Engage in real conversations;
Be authentic and fully present;
Take 100% responsibility;
Muster the courage to challenge your own view of reality;
Trust your instincts to ask the next question; and
Let silence do the heavy lifting. This one I refer to often.
Seems pretty straight forward, but I ask you, think about the last conversation you had. Were you fully present? Where you listening between the words or were you thinking about the next thing you were about to say?
How about some extreme humanism?
In his latest book ("his last hurrah"), "Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism" , Tom Peters implores leaders to put people first, what he calls "extreme employee engagement".
If you're not thinking that employee engagement is a priority, then I would say you're missing the boat.
The evidence is all around us. You've read about disengaged employees, higher turnover, quiet quitting, etc.
It's not rocket science. It's really rather simple. Treat people with respect, compassion and understanding. Treat them how you want to be treated.
Peopling Now!
One of my clients told me recently, "Peopling is hard."
Yes it is.
But that's not a reason to ignore the obvious.
According to Peters (and I believe he is right on about this):
What used to be considered Hard (the numbers, org charts and plans) are now soft. They're subject to manipulation.
What we used to think of as Soft (people skills, relationships, culture) are now hard (the bedrock to a thriving and successful organization).
In Just 5 Minutes
The premise of my best selling book, "5 Minute Mastery™" is that in the span of five minutes, everything can change.
Your attitude;
Your thoughts;
Your behavior;
Your awareness and empathy;
Your trajectory;
Your life.
Excellence is what you do in the next 5 minutes. (Peters)
Will you reach out to a customer, apologize to a prospective client, acknowledge a worker, be present for the meeting, listen aggressively, fully engage with your team?
Think differently about your next conversation and make it a productive experience, not a confrontation.
The choice is yours.
Based on my years of mentoring Managing Partners, CEOs and business leaders, I created The Employee Engagement Acclerator™. It's an easy to use tool to help you have better and more engaging conversations with your team members. Just CLICK HERE or instant access.
Until Next Time!
