Yes, we know, you are brilliant. You have lots of experience and great ideas. Likely your employees know this, too. We as managers are generally good at problem solving, and hopefully this is a prerequisite to any management position. But being the problem-solver is not always possible, or even the best strategy. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘ working together ’
Your Momma Was Right – You Need to Listen
Posted by: Elizabeth on December 20, 2011
Charalambos A.Vlachoutsicos is an adjunct professor in the International MBA Program at Athens University of Economics and Business who has outlined 6 steps to cultivate engaged employees. In our last blog we looked at modesty and how to step aside to empower our employees to solve problems and check our ego. I hope that in the past few days as you started to tell a story of your clever abilities and past success that you remembered our entreaty to be modest, clammed up, and saw a subordinate take responsibility in the space you allowed.
The next step to cultivate truly engaged employees is to listen seriously and show it.
Today we will look at listening – literally. While we as managers have learned the benefits of truly hearing our employees, we don’t always show it and they certainly don’t always see it. (more…)
Modesty is the Best Policy
Posted by: Elizabeth on December 16, 2011
Charalambos A.Vlachoutsicos is an adjunct professor in the International MBA Program at Athens University of Economics and Business. He frequently shares his 30 years of business expertise in Harvard Business Review, and most recently shared how to cultivate engaged employees.
There are several things we know about management – most of us have been around the block a few times. We know that teams with synergy and a real sense of empowerment enhance an organization’s effectiveness and that a top-down, rigid hierarchy seldom works. However, (more…)
Organizational MBTI
Posted by: Chelsea on November 3, 2011
Let’s apply functional pairs to the organization as a whole. To make a decision, you need to communicate and collect information, and then decide. As we stated at the beginning of this entry, communication and decision-making are the two behaviors that are most related to functional pairs. Myers believed that the optimal decision making process uses the four type functions in the following order: Sensing, Intuition, Thinking, and Feeling with specific steps or points to consider with each. See the diagram at http://myevt.com/teamdev/4-mbti-function-pairs
Say your organization is dominantly NT. Your team will likely focus less on Sensing and Feeling. Questions like, “What are other alternatives to consider?”(N) and, “What is the underlying problem?”(T) will come easily and will be comfortably discussed at length. However, questions like, “What will other people think of our decision?”(F) and, “What have we done in the past that works?”(S) will be raised less often. When all four functions are not equally used in the decision making process, the resulting decision may not be optimal. In order to avoid this mistake, teams should be aware of their dominant functional pair preference and actively pay attention to all four functions.
Do you know your “heart of type”? Are you asking the right questions? Making the best decision possible? Is your team as productive as they can be? Understanding functional pairs can help coworkers understand one another, improve decision-making, and consequently, increase productivity. Unnecessary conflict can be avoided when team members understand and respect their coworkers’ communication preferences that are inherent to their “heart of type”.
Managers can improve productivity by hiring a well-rounded team composed of employees with all four functional pairs, and by doing so, will ensure that the decision making process runs smoothly and effectively. An existing team in which some functional pairs are not well represented can compensate for this by understanding what questions they need to ask that might not come naturally to the types represented, but that other functional pairs might contribute to the conversation.
If you know your functional pairs, you’ll know a more satisfied, effective, and productive team.
An NT and an SF walk into an office…
Posted by: Chelsea on November 1, 2011
What does one say to the other? And how do they make sure that they are being heard and understood? Effective communication between different functional pairs is rooted in an understanding of the fundamental preferences of each. For example, if an SF (Sensing/Feeling) is trying to communicate with an NT (Intuition/Feeling) about a problem in the workplace, their ideas and opinions (more…)
Oh the farmer and the rancher should be friends – Oklahoma!
Posted by: Chelsea on October 27, 2011
Today we will continue our look at the MBTI breakdown of personality types and how they perform in organizational settings. Have you found your type yet? How about your client’s type – or even your organizational culture as a whole?
A Sensing/Thinking (ST) individual’s organizational culture values efficiency and unbiased, impersonal, relevant, cold hard facts. To them, the organization is a machine that efficient, hierarchical, and unchanging. If this machine breaks, it should be fixed not with touchy feely discussions and pointless brainstorming, but with proven tools that have worked in the past. (more…)
Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin. – Hermann Hesse
Posted by: Chelsea on October 25, 2011
We are taking a closer look at the functioning pairs identified by the MBTI. Ideally you will be able to leverage the test results to enhance teams and create a healthy work environment. Through this blog series you will be able to learn more about these personality types, identify those you work with these types and gain further understanding of their values, purposes, and thought processes. You may even identify your own personality type and who you best pair with. (more…)
The Carrot and Stick? Veterans to Gen Y
Posted by: Cathleen on March 31, 2011
These days it is normal to have a multigenerational workforce with diverse work teams. We must have motivated team members for success, but do you know how to most effectively incentivize them? (more…)
“None of us is as smart as all of us” – Ken Blanchard, leadership expert
Posted by: Elizabeth on March 3, 2011
Managing a team is probably the most challenging aspect of your job, and is imperative #3 for becoming a great leader. How many of you run to the break room to avoid creating a team or team building seminars? Take heart, you are not alone! (more…)
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors – Plato
Posted by: Elizabeth on March 1, 2011
Managing your network is the second of 3 imperatives for becoming a great leader. To do so, you need to realize the political factors at work that must be carefully negotiated to have a successful division or organization: (more…)
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