Managing employee performance is not without problems and challenges. Solving people issues is trickier than dealing with systems problems. People are more complex and harder to understand and we do not want to become psychologists to lead and manage teams of people and deal with performance issues.
Fortunately, we can effectively manage employees using both good management practices and common sense. But sometimes it is not clear how to deal or confront some situations and that is where a coach or consultant can help.
For that reason, I offer a free consultation session to help leaders and managers find solutions to situations that need addressing. It will give you insight into options to deal with your situation and how a coach or consultant can be effective.
There is an old expression, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying”.
Employees will respect, trust, and even emulate leaders who walk the talk, and this will create a culture that reinforces the behavior and values of the leaders.
Walking the talk is important in the key areas of functioning that I have referred to in previous articles and videos. I used the three intelligences in my article and video on goal setting and it applies here as well.
The intellectual center of intelligence is the center that we use for planning, strategizing, and researching. Think of it as your logical brain or center of intelligence. Leaders who use this center effectively take the time to plan and strategize based on good research of information. They make smart decisions using their thinking capacities well. They also can communicate their plans and thinking coherently to their team.
The emotional center of intelligence or heart is the brain that we use to interact effectively with people. It allows us to use empathy in our conversations and this shows people we care and can listen well.
The physical/movement center of intelligence is the brain of action and is used to get things done. When used appropriately it makes us effective in carrying out our tasks.
The goal of a leader should be to develop their abilities in all three centers of intelligences so that they show good personal leadership in their thinking, feeling, and doing. The idea is to be well-balanced as a human being in all three of the centers of intelligences. This means continuously working on oneself to achieve this balance because we tend to be stronger naturally in one of the three intelligences.
For example, a great strategic thinker might take too much time researching and strategizing and be slow at making decisions on what to act on.
A strong emotional intelligent person may be great at listening and showing empathy but could avoid conflicts and confronting people, which is related to the physical/movement center.
The physical/movement center dominant person may act to quickly without thinking through possible outcomes or may be to harsh with people who do not perform as expected.
The idea is to look at yourself from the perspective of the three intelligences and assess what you need to work on and then set a goal to improve. You can consult my article on goal setting and download my goal planning form for this purpose.
Showing your team that you do not only say what to do but you work on doing it yourself will speak volumes. It will inspire and motivate people to emulate what they see is leadership in action.
Every situation we encounter has a result and sometimes the outcome is better or worse than we want. This can lead to experiencing emotional highs and lows that make life feel like a roller coaster.
The exercise “The Two Ends of the Stick” is a great way to maintain an equilibrium in our attitude and thus avoid the highs and lows that often result due to our reactions to what occurred.
Here is a real-life example with someone I did this exercise with. Alexia had heard that her boss had sold the business and she was worried that she would lose her status as assistant director or worse, lose her job.
I asked her to imagine the best possible outcome and the worst. Her best possible outcome was that she would get a promotion with greater authority and pay. The worst case was she would lose her job and have financial difficulty. She was feeling a lot of stress.
It turned out that the business was purchased by a company that was international and she would be getting a promotion with better pay.
Try out this exercise for yourself and see what it does for you. I have for a marketing program I launched, and it worked. The program flopped but I had imagined much worse than the actual outcome. So instead of quitting I modified the program and will see how it works out soon. I did feel that doing this exercise before launching my project did help with my expectations. Here is the link to the audio podcast on Spotify that walks you through the exercise. You can also listen directly below.
Writing a goal down on paper has always been recommended by experts as the best way to use all your resources for achieving the goal.
Writing the goal incorporates all your three brains or centers of intelligence. This is especially true when using my goal planning form that is free to download.
As you think through the goal planning process you use your intellectual brain to think through each component of the goal.
As you write and think of the benefits you engage your heart brain or emotional center of intelligence. The visualization and affirmations section further stimulate the emotions.
The act of writing the goal incorporates the physical or instinctive brain and the section on acting is where this movement center will know what to do through your instinctive nature.
Writing the goal down using the goal planning worksheet does take more time than just thinking of a goal and visualizing it. But you can see that using all your brain resources is such a powerful way to work on something so important as a goal. It gives you a fully balanced approach to the process.
