Cheat: Get Hindsight Ahead of Time

What is it about the moment we’re promoted that implies we know it all right away? It seems to apply to parenting, volunteer roles, and management positions. But, no matter what your title, I‘m quite certain your hindsight was more clear on some things than what you thought you knew when you got the job. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could cheat and get some “hindsight” ahead of time? Well, you can.

My father once said that “Wisdom is something you gain from the experience of others.” Doesn’t that sound a lot better than having to learn it the hard way? We don’t have to know it all and in order to gain some wisdom and some clarity and some hindsight, cheat, so to speak, and follow these steps:

Ask someone who has Been there, Done that.

Hindsight and lessons learned are what prompted me to write Contagious Leadership in the first place. I made so many mistakes and the biggest one is I very rarely asked for help. Find a mentor or a person who has done the role you now have, well, and ask their advice. Most often people love to share what they have learned and you don’t always have to TAKE their advice, but it adds to your perspective.

Become an Observer.

While it’s true that we all learn differently and that only about 20% of the population is what we call kinesthetic learners, who must learn by doing, there is something to be said for watching how it’s done before you launch into your own trial and error experiment. When leading people, trial and error can have some detrimental and truly contagious ripple effects. Why not step back, take a seat, and watch someone else to see what works and what didn’t? Keep in mind, once you observe, you will need to get out of the bleachers and take action, but if you’ll become a student of others first, the actions you take will have more positive results than diving in and doing with simply no clue of your possible outcomes.

Find a coach.

If we have a medical issue, we go to a doctor. We usually don’t assume what we find on Wikipedia will substitute for a medical degree. We ask an expert. When our car breaks down, we might look online a little, but at the end of the day, if it stops the car from moving, we find an expert. In business, why is this so different? If you’ve never been a manager before or a business owner before and what you are doing is stopping the business from moving, why wouldn’t you seek out an expert who has done what you need to do and pay them for their expertise?

With each of these steps, you’ll find valuable information. With each of these steps you’ll learn from someone else’s wisdom. It’s not cheating really, it’s called growth and a gaining of hindsight ahead of time. After all, those people who taught you to walk and talk, you listened to and learned from by observing, testing, and trusting their expertise, as they were telling you with language what to do from that standing up and walking position.

Chime In!

How have you benefitted from coaching, others’ wisdom and gained hindsight ahead of time?

Dealing with Discipline… Is it a Burden or a Responsibility?

Good morning and Happy Monday. I’m Monica Wofford and this is your Monday Moment.

So someone has done something you disagree with. Maybe they broke a policy or committed an egregious error for which they need to be informed, guided, and experience a course correction. That is what we call discipline and that is all it is – guidance, information, and a course correction. However, keep in mind that course corrections completed early on in someone’s growth and development are much easier to convey and carry out, than a course correction shared after a habit has been formed.

Perhaps this visual will help. If you were the captain of a large cruise ship and you left the port on a charted course that was one degree off your anticipated direction. If you only maintained the off course direction for an hour or two, it would be easy to make a correction and get back on track without any great loss of time. If you, however, maintained the slight off-course direction for several days, you might find yourself in a completely different country or continent than you intended and one does not just hit the blinker switch and flip a “U-ie” in a cruise ship out in the middle of the ocean.

Your role as a contagious leader of you, your life and others, is to provide gentle course corrections early on enough to make a long term difference. But, keep these things in mind…

Discipline is better received in private than in public.

Discipline is a dish better served with warmth than cold hearted facts, even if the consequences are large!

Discipline, when shared from your ‘wit’s end’ or a point at which you have “lost it” will almost always be taken personally and as criticism. The point is to provide feedback and course correction, so speak up early and consider the value in sharing your guidance versus letting things go (i.e. stuffing them) until you are ready to blow up.

Honor those you are leading with the sharing of your wisdom and experience. If they knew how to do it the way you do, they likely would. If they had lived your experience and were operating from your place of wisdom, they would likely have your role. Your wisdom and experience gives you a responsibility, not a position of being better or more special. Do not take that responsibility and the privilege it is to share your information with others, lightly.

Discipline is rarely considered to be one of the joys of leadership and many will shy away from those conversations that start with phrases like “we need to talk” or “what were you thinking?” and rightly so. But for growth and development, discipline is needed. After all, when you were little, weren’t you disciplined for wanting to run out into oncoming traffic? Probably. But weren’t you glad someone told you to look both ways?

I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great Monday and of course, Stay Contagious!

Change is Contagious. How Do You Lead Them Through It?

Good morning and Happy Monday. I’m Monica Wofford and this is your Monday Moment.

Change happens all around us all the time and we are designed as human beings to be adaptable, but there are several factors that will make it easier to adapt and well… more difficult. How do you as a Contagious Leader™ err on the side of making it easier for those you have the privilege of leading? Here are a few techniques you can put into place immediately.

First, recognize that there is only a small percentage of the population who is comfortable with and capable of doing what we so often recommend, which is “check your emotions at the door”. For many, the concept of compartmentalizing strong emotions and saving them to be dealt with another time or on another day is just foreign. Most people, including many of those I suspect you lead, carry their emotions with them wherever they go and when you request that they ignore them for a while, you create a conflict of internal magnitude that can often make things worse. Instead, recognize that this is difficult or impossible for some and allow for a bit of time where one can freely share and discuss emotions. I used to call it a 30 minute vent session.

Secondly, there are phases of transition that one will experience when adapting to change and almost always the first phase involves resistance. Just know that it exists and recognize it as temporary. If you instead focus on the resistance and try everything you know how to do in an attempt to get someone to come out of resistance faster, you provide more ammunition for them to stay there. Accept that resistance is phase 1, not necessarily a permanent response over which a big deal is warranted.

And finally, in times of change, seek out resources that will help both you and those you lead overcome what is coming. A book called “Managing Transitions” by Mr. William Bridges, has been a long time companion tool of mine in times of change. Also, in many cases, the CORE® Profile we use and the training we provide, is considered a prerequisite to times of change, increasing participants awareness of who they are and how they will react to any perceived stress. Other tools and resources include anything that will improve your clarity of communication on what change is coming. Develop the skills to communicate clearly and thoroughly during times of change so that you don’t leave out critical pieces of information. Information left out is like a fill in the blank test we used to get in grade school and in the absence of knowing the correct answer, people will literally make up an answer and hope it is correct. This is where rumors come from and how they spread. I don’t know an answer, so I make one up, then I tell three colleagues, wait to hear it come back to me from someone I didn’t tell and whala, peanut butter sandwiches… I now have validation that what I made up must be true because I’ve heard it from someone else! Instead, be the leader who leaves no blank empty.
Change is part of what makes us who we are and makes us better, stronger, and more resilient. Contagious Leaders™ face and lead through times of change with that idea in mind.

I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great Monday and of course, stay contagious!