Question of the Month

What skill or competency is most lacking in newer employees?

Leadership Communication-Frequency Matters

As far as leadership jobs go, the strong, silent type need not apply. Leadership requires a consistent stream of quality communication to team members. Communication frequency is at the core of group performance issues like trust, understanding direction, achieving objectives and even integrity.

One common mistake made by leaders is that volume makes up for frequency. So instead of talking frequently with team members, the leader simply conducts a marathon staff meeting once a month. During that meeting, the leader pines endlessly about all the issues past and current and indulges in a pontification designed to prove their commitment to quality communication. A three hour state of the organization address does not make up for a lack of consistent and frequent communication on a more personal and individual level.

In comparing volume and frequency, consider the human disconnect point in communication. In any dialog, humans report that somewhere between ninety seconds and three minutes, when the object of the dialog is not forthcoming and the content has suspect value, people disengage and cease listening. So, as a leader drones on endlessly, the target audience is left day dreaming. Visualize a Far Side cartoon when the dogs hear “blah, blah, blah, spot.” More frequent and shorter interactions will cure this phenomenon.

The other big issue surrounding communication frequency is trust. Without frequent communication, team members will often mistrust the motive of the leader and lack the personal connection and loyalty needed to be as effective as possible. Equate this to personal relationships. When communication is infrequent, trust will often sag dramatically. When communication occurs, even in troubled relationships, trust can be established as a baseline for moving forward. Relationship therapists will always work to establish frequent communication prior resolving other issues in the relationship.

Team members also report that one of their largest frustration is not knowing where they stand with the boss. They are unsure of their future and don’t know where they fit in the organization. All of these issues are curable by increasing the frequency of leadership frequency.
The easy way to improve frequency is to remember that the leadership legacy is about other people’s achievement and not your own work flow. With increased communication, your team will gain trust and work harder for you.

Leadership-Communication and Richness

The needs for effective communication in a leadership role are indisputable. The role of poor communication patterns and skills is equally known and understood. In fact, most issues surrounding team morale, lack of involvement, poor accountability and bad performance can be traced back to the communication of a group’s leader.

Communication is a tricky combination of art and science. In it’s basic form, communication is the flow of information between humans. The last part about being a human phenomenon is important to remember. Communication is a human connectivity that is critical to the leadership role because it enjoins people in a unique and personal way to the tasks and mission of an organization. It also relates directly to the personal nature of leadership and the connection point of why people will follow a leader. To have people to want to follow, the leader must communicate with them.

If you look at leadership as the consistent and constant application of skill sets, communication is the foundation upon all others will be built. Failed communication is the cardinal sin of leadership. Effective communication will be the rock on which the other skill sets rest.

Richness

The first concept of communication effectiveness in leadership is to understand message richness. Richness describes the total content within any communication and the connect points that a communication receiver is able connect. Richness is also highly related to the emotional nature of humans. Our team members are creatures of emotion and not creatures of logic. The greater the degree of richness, the greater the emotional connection to the message.

In-person interaction has the highest degree of richness because all parts of the message sender and receiver can be evaluated and processed. Body language can be read. Tone can be interpreted with accuracy. Clarification can be requested. Understanding can be evaluated. Rapport can be built. By far and away, one-on-one personal dialog has the highest richness.

When using the telephone, richness begins to diminish. Although tone can still be evaluated and clarification can be achieved, there are no non-verbal messages to evaluate. Similarly, in public communications, meetings and presentations, richness also fades because of the lack of interactive elements related to clarification and understanding.

Richness takes a final hit when we convert communication to the written word. With the exception of Nobel Laureate winners, most people cannot achieve any type of meaningful connectivity in writing. Even with emoticons, colored backgrounds and dancing symbols, emails have a coldness and lack any ability for clarification. Written communication also has a high probability for misinterpretation and misunderstanding. Humor and personality can rarely be translated in the written word.

One challenge to consider is compare the amount of time spent recovering from a misunderstood email to the amount of time spent to walk down the hall and talk to the recipient. Consider how much time you might spend repairing a relationship from a terse one line email. When possible, engage in interpersonal, one-on-one communication.

Unbelievable Sportsmanship with Some Great Life Lessons

(CBS/AP) With two runners on base and a strike against her, Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University uncorked her best swing and did something she had never done, in high school or college. She hit her first home run, which cleared the center field fence.

But it looked like the shortest of dreams-come-true when she missed first base, started back to tag it, and collapsed with a knee injury.

She crawled back to first but could do no more. The first base coach said she would be called out if her teammates tried to help her. Or, the umpire said, a pinch-runner could be called in, and the homer would count as just a single.

Then, members of the Central Washington University softball team stunned their home crowd in Ellensburg by carrying Tucholsky around the bases Saturday so the three-run homer would count - an act that contributed to their own elimination from the playoffs.

Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman, the all-time home run leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, asked the umpire if she and her teammates could help Tucholsky. The umpire said there was no rule against it.

So Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace put their arms under Tucholsky's legs, and she put her arms over their shoulders. The three headed around the base paths, stopping to let Tucholsky touch each base with her good leg. "It was the right thing to do," Holtman told Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Thursday. "She'd hit it over the fence. She deserved the home run."

"It's kind of a big blur at the moment," Tucholsky said to Chen. "I didn't really realize what was going on -- I've had people tell me -- until I actually had time to reflect on it." "The only thing I remember is that Mallory asked me which leg was the one that hurt," Tucholsky said. "I told her it was my right leg and she said, `OK, we're going to drop you down gently and you need to touch it with your left leg,' and I said `OK, thank you very much.' "

"We started laughing when we touched second base," Holtman said. "I said, 'I wonder what this must look like to other people.' ""We didn't know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run," Wallace said Wednesday. "That makes the story more touching than it was. We just wanted to help her."

Holtman is a business major from White Salmon, Wash., who hopes to study sports management in graduate school. She said she and Wallace weren't thinking about the playoff spot and didn't consider the gesture something others wouldn't do. As for Tucholsky, the 5-foot-2 right fielder was focused on her pain. "I really didn't say too much. I was trying to breathe," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday. "I didn't realize what was going on until I had time to sit down and let the pain relax a little bit," she said. "Then I realized the extent of what I actually did." "I hope I would do the same for her in the same situation," Tucholsky said.

As the trio reached home plate, Tucholsky said, the entire Western Oregon team was in tears. Central Washington coach Gary Frederick, 70, a 14-year coaching veteran, called the act of sportsmanship "unbelievable." For Western Oregon coach Pam Knox, the gesture resolved the dilemma Tucholsky's injury presented. "She was going to kill me if we sub and take (the home run) away. But at same time I was concerned for her. I didn't know what to do," Knox recalled. "It's a great story," Knox observed to Chen, "something I'll never forget -- the game's about character and integrity and sportsmanship, and it's not always about winning and losing." Tucholsky's injury is a possible torn anterior cruciate ligament that will sideline her for the season, and she plans to graduate in the spring with a degree in business. Her home run sent Western Oregon to a 4-2 victory, ending Central Washington's chances of winning the conference and advancing to the playoffs.

"In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much," Holtman said. "It was about this girl. She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run."

Question of the Month

Who will play in the 2008 world series?

Ten Certificate Programs that Add Dollar Signs to Your Resume'

From Careerbuilder.com

By Kathleen Nicholson, Classes USA
How do you train for the next level up on the company ladder, get skills that will match a new promotion, boost your earnings or even change careers without a hefty time commitment?
A short-term certificate program that focuses on specific skills within a profession or trade might just be the answer. Often offered online or part time for working professionals, they can take less than two years to complete and often serve as a springboard into of-the-moment careers that offer top earnings and job security. Here are some of the hottest certificate programs at campuses nationwide:

5. Negotiation or Leadership and Management: "Certificates [in these areas] can make an executive more marketable, or a CEO gain the knowledge they may not have to lead the company," says Peter Schatschneider of University Alliance, a group of online universities. "Professionals can learn soft skills or hard skills like project management."
The University of Notre Dame's Mendoza School of Business in conjunction with University Alliance offers these two executive certificates each consisting of three eight-week courses. Taught by Notre Dame professors using streaming video lectures, VoIP and interactive chat rooms, e-mail and whiteboards, for many executives it's a chance to learn specific skills that will further their careers. One recent certificate graduate, Richard Multack, used his Notre Dame certificate to get a promotion to chief medical officer for an 80-physician medical group in the suburbs of Chicago.

Kim Stott Earns PhD

Congratulations to Kim Stott for earning her doctorate degree in Educational Leadership.

Way to go Dr. Stott.

The Price of Gas

Contribution from PA in Arizona, Nevada and California.

Meeting a Star

While on vacation recently, we met someone at Universal Studios who is a star. Pretty cool stuff.

Better yet, she was our waitress.

Still better yet, she was totally okay with being a waitress and being a star and being from Las Vegas. She was an outstanding waitress.

After our interaction with her, I wonder how many of us would be okay with being near the top of a mountain and then joyously working below and outside of our talent levels. Which police officer would become a janitor to pay the bills? Which executive would work at the book store? Which insurance agent would mow lawns?

Anyway, it was very cool to meet Mikalah Gordon and best of luck to her with Gone Country and the Tyra Banks show.

Question of the Month-Burnout

An interesting dialog occurred recently related to team member burnout. Someone suggested that those employees who are committed, focused and really connected to the organization's mission often suffer burnout. This is because they want to perform at high levels and exceed expectations.

The alternate perspective was about those team members who are not committed experiencing burnout. I would be very interested to hear about your perspective and who you think might be a higher risk candidate for burnout, the committed or the unattached.