You know the old adage…’there are two kinds of people in the world’.  There are many ways to look at this dichotomy – men and women, old and young, tall and short, and so on.  I’d add another. There are process people and those who can’t stand process.  I’m the process type.  This article focuses on the valuable role a skilled facilitator can play in helping you and your group move toward achieving better results faster.  

What is a facilitator?

A facilitator is a process person.  Their job is to manage the process of information exchange, decision-making, discussion-guidance, and effective group dynamics in order to achieve the results you are targeting for your work session.  In short, the facilitator’s responsibility is to address the journey rather than the destination.   You concentrate on the content and destination and the facilitator concentrates on the process and journey.

Why would you want to use a facilitator?

That’s easy!  You want to use a facilitator in order to free yourself and other group members to be able to concentrate on the quality of the content and decisions, to optimize your time, and to maximize group effectiveness.  Gee!  With all those benefits, why wouldn’t you want to use a facilitator?

When would you want to use a facilitator?   Anytime you are concerned with…

* both the decisions and how they are made

* optimizing the time invested by the group

* ensuring an inclusive process and quality results

* reducing resistance and increasing employee buy-in

* accommodating and managing a variety of styles, interests, and agendas

In short, anytime you and your staff as content experts want to be free from managing the process, and need to optimize time, effort and results.

How do you specify your needs?

A good facilitator will know how to help you design the work session in order to optimize results, but it is helpful if you can…

* articulate the outcomes you want to achieve

* characterize the perspectives of the participants

* share the norms the group currently uses

* lead by example so others are willing to give up their sense of control of the process in order to concentrate  on the quality of the content and the decisions being made.

http://www.peakperformancecorp.com

http://www.joycefriel.blogspot.com

In my career as a leadership strategist and organizational consultant, I have often been asked to conduct organizational assessments.  I get this request for a variety of reasons, but often it is to discover what the obstacles are within an organization that may be preventing it from achieving its goals or breaking through to the next level.  What I find is always instructive for the organizational leadership and generally serves as the foundation for future change initiatives. 

The toughest situations are those times when the primary obstacle is the leader himself/herself.  When this is the case, there is very little win/win in the organization currently.  Organizational performance is sub-optimized, employees are usually frustrated, the leader is not as effective as they could be and the messenger runs the risk of being shot.  In these cases, everyone says they want improvement, but very frequently the leader is not made aware of the dynamics and impact of his/her actions.  So what do you do to make this a win/win situation? Here are some positive steps to consider:

As an employee you can…

• Be the example you want others to be
• Provide honest input when asked through an employee survey or a 360 assessment process
• Realize you can only control you own behaviors – you do not own the actions of others

As a management peer/friend you can…

• Help the leader see how much the organization cares about and depends on their continued ability to be a strong leader
• Encourage the use of a 360 assessment process if it is not currently used so the leader gets honest, anonymous input from multiple perspectives
• Ask the leader to mentor you so that as a protégé you have the opportunity to show them a mirror image of what you wish they were and are in a position to discuss a wide variety of situations with them privately

As a consultant you can …

• Help the leadership team see the value of using 360 assessment processes including providing coaching for the participants
• Have the courage to be honest with the leader in a tactful, kind, caring manner
• Use a variety of instruments and/or processes to help not only the leader, but also the leadership team deal with the challenges of effective leadership
• Develop a coaching rather than a consulting relationship with the leader and/or the whole leadership team

As the leader being confronted you can…

• Recognize you have both a personal and an enterprise responsibility to be a strong leader; and now that you are aware of the responsibility you are accountable to lead change
• Realize your management peer/friends, many of your employees and your consultant are allies in your effort
• Initiate a leadership development and growth process for the entire leadership team
• Demonstrate the courage it takes to confront change both personally and as the primary change leader for the enterprise

http://www.peakperformancecorp.com

http://www.joycefriel.blogspot.com

You know ‘stuckness’. It’s when you’re at that point where you feel immobilized, confused, uncertain, stymied, numb, powerless, not in control, tired. It happens when you lose your job, lose a big contract, didn’t get the promotion you expected, find out you have to move, get a divorce, are very ill, or some one you care about is very ill. You know, you’ve been there.Know what? It also happens when you get married (Oh, this is what its like!), have a child (My gosh, will this kid ever sleep through the night?), get a promotion or a big new responsibility (Oh dear, can I do this?), or your child graduates (Yippee, but will they move back in?). Getting ‘stuck’ happens both when sad and happy occasions occur.

Stuckness can be good if you hit on a process or method that really works for you and you work it for maximum return. But it isn’t cool when you get to end of that good run and haven’t thought through your options. It can mean you don’t know how to change, stop learning, are helpless to help yourself because you keep doing things the same way you’ve always done them. But luckily we all have the choice to change from stuck to luck (catch the rhyme) with minimal risk of things getting worse and maximum potential for them to get better.

Good News and Bad News
You don’t think you’ve ever been there? Just wait!
Haven’t been there in a while? Good!
You’re there now? Welcome to the club – it happens to all of us!
Guess what? It will happen to you again (and again, and again).
Yep, that’s right. It happens to all of us…multiple times. Some of you move through the physical, emotional, and psychological roller coaster of change quickly and for others it takes time. The key is to not get STUCK in the quagmire.

Warning Signs!
Fortunately, there are warning signs and if you heed them you’ll become more resilient and get out of ‘stuckness’ more quickly. Some of these signs are:

• A body part – you know which part it is. It will get sore, start to ache, act up.
• Breathing – holding your breathe or breathing too quickly – slow down, take deep breaths
• Pace – faster than usual. You’re rushing to get to some place, but you don’t even know where.
• Sleeping pattern – either insomnia or wanting to sleep all the time, yet you are still tired.

When you see any of these warning signs, they are clear signals that you need to take stock, reflect, review your plan for getting life back in order, and if necessary, get help.

So what can I do to move on…get myself out of ‘stuckness’ when it happens to me?

Here are a few TIPS…

• NORMAL and NECESSARY – stages of change happen to everyone – accept it as a fact
• STEAM VALVES – find an outlet for frustration, anger, confusion
• SUPPORT SYSTEM – accept the help and understanding of your friends and family
• YOU – take care of yourself – maintain exercise, eat right, get rest
• PLAN – reexamine, reflect and plan for how you can take steps to move forward

http://www.peakperformancecorp.com
http://joycefriel.blogspot.com

All too often in the news we hear only the events which cause our opinion of top business leaders to be diminished.  Granted, leading any size corporation isn’t easy and the lives of those at the top of the largest organizations are extremely public.  In many ways this only serves to heighten the responsibility these leaders have to not only themselves and their corporations, but to the public at-large.

 I recently read a book full of wisdom which I highly recommend.  It is about life and leadership lessons and my copy is now messy with underlines, notes in the margins and dog-eared pages.  Tough Choices by Carly Fiorina is a memoir of her life including her very public departure from HP.  Whether you personally approve of her actions or not, there is much to be learned from her experiences.  While I strongly advise you read the entire book, below I am sharing with you some of what I believe are the highlights.  Enjoy!

LEADERSHIP

• Character is made up of candor (speaking the truth and speaking up and out), integrity (preserving your principles and acting on them), and authenticity (knowing what you believe, being who you are and standing up for both).
• Life is about the journey, not the destination. The steps along the way are what make us who we are.
• People like to be asked about themselves. This is a great management tool. You get smart fast by listening.
• A boss’s confidence in an employee is a powerful motivator. When they see potential in you, you begin to look for it in yourself. Believing in someone else, so they can believe in themselves, is a small but hugely significant act of leadership.
• Each time I overcame my own fear, I was stronger. A leader’s job is to help people overcome their fear.
• Live your life in a way that makes you happy and proud. If you sell your soul, no one can pay you back.
• Strategy should be ennobling. An organization’s effort must be sustained through worthy purpose.
• Change can only begin if its force is greater than the weight of history and the power of the status quo.

ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CHOICES

• If we cannot choose our circumstances, we can always choose our response to them. If we cannot choose who we are, we can always choose to become something more. We cannot always choose the hurdles we must overcome, but we can choose how we overcome them. To stop choosing is to start dying.
• We can only be diminished if we choose to allow it.
• Value isn’t measured by title or position, but by what someone is made of and how they choose to use it.

OFFICE POLITICS

• Office politics is based on power – who has it, who lost it, who wants it. You have to learn to play the game and see it as a game to be successful.
• Like it or not, seniority and familiarity could and do sometimes trump results. Looking and acting the part sometimes wins.
• Gender alone sometimes denies the presumption of competence. I had to work harder and be better prepared than anyone else to gain credibility. To do so I had to convince people I knew what I was talking about in the first few minutes. Only then would they listen to what I had to say.

PLAYING TO WIN

• If you can’t play to win, you may as well not play.
• We did change goals because they turned out to be tougher than we anticipated. We did not think about how we might lose. We thought about how we could win. We won because we chose to.
• All triumphs are made of the same stuff: the right support, the right team, the determination to achieve the goal, lots of really hard work. Triumphs are much more about choices than about chance.
• People will always behave relationally based upon their own self-interest. They behave irrationally simply because they believe someone else is going to.
• If only one part or parameter of a complex problem is understood or acted upon, the problem cannot be solved. Only by comprehending the whole system – its interactions, dependencies, constraints and pressures – can a real, sustainable improvement be made.

 http://www.peakperformancecorp.com

http://joycefriel.blogspot.com