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Archives for June 2017

Your Fair Share

June 27, 2017 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

scale_tipped_pc_400_wht_2404If you have four people on a project team, and ask each of them what percentage of the project work they’re doing, it should total 100%.  Equal division of the work would be 25% each, reaching the total of 100%. In almost all cases adding the individual perceived totals for the four team members would equal 150% or more.

We are very biased toward seeing our own contribution as being larger, and minimizing what other team members do for the project, even when the work is evenly divided. It’s human nature to be more aware of our own work effort, and less aware of the work of co-workers.

Opportunity

Being aware of our human nature, in this regard, can help us resist the temptation to feel unappreciated for all the work we do, or resentful that others are not pulling their share.  This can be true at both work and home.

It is also an opportunity to openly discuss workload balance; both in terms of  the expectations, and the reality of how it feels. Teams that add up their separate totals are almost always surprised.  It’s probably not worth an argument, because our human nature will think our measure is better than the other person’s.  However, it is worthy of discussion.

relaxation_in_a_chair_400_wht_19729In looking at team workloads, it’s much more productive to define clear roles and deliverable expectations, rather than the perceived effort. Check-off milestones are a more objective measure.

The other lookout for my fellow husbands is that when you think you are doing 50% of the work at home …  because of our bias … we probably are not pulling our share.

 

Mirror

June 16, 2017 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

The mirror“What stops us from looking at ourselves and truly seeing ourselves is that we’re not who we think we are. We’re not as wonderful as we think we are.”
– Bill Murray

Wasted Regret

June 15, 2017 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

RegretI wish I had never _________ (fill in the blank).
I wish I had  _________ (fill in the blank).

I suspect I am not the only one who has wasted precious time and energy on past actions, or failure to act.  Learning from our mistakes is valuable. Dwelling on our mistakes is making yet another mistake.

A missed opportunity is even easier to regret. It may have been the opportunity to stand up for our principles at a critical moment, and we were silent. It may have been turning down an opportunity that would have been a wonderful experience.  If we spend any time at all in self reflection … we will recognize both of those moments in our lives.

I remember being 22 years-old, just arrived in London, and trying to find where I would be living for the summer. As I walked with my suitcase down a busy street along Victoria Rail Station, there was a crowd of a dozen people around a doorway. A pregnant women was crying as a man was using a broom handle to punch her in the stomach. I was horrified.

Every impulse in my body wanted to step between the man and the woman. But, I was afraid and alone in a strange country. Others stood around and did nothing. Who was I to step in? I walked on to my flat.

To this day, my choice to not act is painful to me. I am older and wiser. I now know that if one person in a crowd situation takes action, others would likely join in to protect the woman. I regret not acting more than I would have regretted being hospitalized after losing a street fight.

Many choices that we make are less dramatic calls to action. It may be listening to that voice inside that is calling us to an adventure, or feeling the need to defend someone in a meeting who is being unfairly criticized.  Taking action, even if you fail, is likely to give you much less regret than never taking action.

Leadership Proof Hires

June 12, 2017 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

One of my favorite leadership experts is Doug Lennick. We started working together in 1988 in multiple ways while he was an executive at American Express, and with his own company, Think2Perform. In addition to being a great customer, we have given joint workshops and created a wonderful audio series together.

Doug_Lennick TwitterDoug is an expert on emotional intelligence and has written books on Moral Intelligence and Financial Intelligence. Doug is a wonderful presenter and does so around the world.

I was having lunch with Doug a couple of weeks ago and he delivered one of his thought provoking lines that says so much.  A group had hired him to speak to a group of salespeople. In hearing about what they wanted him to present, he told them he would probably disappoint them. He said the organizers wanted “leadership proof hires“. In other words, they wanted the salespeople to perform even if they did not have good leadership.

Doug explained how that, without good leadership, you can’t expect to have a high performance sales team. In the push for numbers and productivity, it’s easy to forget that good leadership is the primary lever for accomplishing great results.

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