Stop!  You can change your ways AND still get team engagement and better yet…get BETTER RESULTS.

CASE STUDY 1:  Presentations

One of my clients recently came to the table with the concern that her presentations for her team were becoming boring.  The challenge she faced was the fact that she would have to present at meetings with people on teleconference and video is multiple offices.  There was a huge annual team meeting that was coming up where she needed to work with and lead other team members for this presentation.  In the past, meetings were all done with the same old dreary Powerpoint presentations.

Knowing this client, I knew she has a strong value and need for autonomy and creativity.  During our sessions, I asked, “What is holding you back from doing something different?  With your need for autonomy to lead and your desire to create something different, what could you do differently that would engage you, thus, engaging your team?”

I knew this client loved being creative, so, with challenge in hand, I sent her off to come up with creative ideas that she could lead to help develop this major presentation.  To bring her global team together, during her meeting, my client split the groups into several different teams with each team having a call in number so that global members could work together.  This exercise proved to be beneficial as typically these meetings were not interactive let alone, were team members in other countries allowed to work together in this type of environment.

Through her work and the motivation to not be set in her old ways, she was able to lead a very productive and memorable annual interactive presentation which garnered her praise from her team and her boss.  The President of the company has requested she lead this and other major meetings in the future.

CASE STUDY 2:  Annual Reviews

In our business world today, there are so many different ways annual reviews are done for and by employees.  One of the most common is the 360 Review.  For most HR people and Managers, this is a long and tedious process to objectively look at an employee and review strengths and weaknesses.  However, in most cases, a manager, needs to provide the review to an employee and go over each line item, ad infinitum.

When asked how he presented reviews, my client stated, they would sit down in his office and go over line item by item.  Of course, my client hated and despised the review process and he is a VP with a huge team of directors and managers.  My client was working on improving his visibility and perception within his company to be more engaging and effective.  While a conservative man in nature, he has a strong value on being authentic and wanted to work on his “people” skills to further develop his already outstanding leadership skills.

“What,” I asked, “would make this process different for you?”  I knew if he hated the process, what was it like for his team?

Through our work, we discussed the idea that people do not need to be “read” to.  However, what would be more engaging to learn more about the team member AND still provide a review?  Here is what we came up with….

• First, he was going to get out of the office.  He was going to do the meeting…dare I say…over a beer (which is OK for this type of company and is…dare I say…encouraged!)
• Next, he was going to give his direct reports the review to read on their own and to be discussed during their time together.  No more “let’s-read-it-together”.
• Finally…instead of going over the review, he was going to get curious with questions like, “What did you think of the areas you need to develop?”  “What are some of the areas you want to develop this year based on the review?”  “Did you agree with what was written about your strengths?”  “What do you believe are even more strengths you have that you would like to further develop?”

Working in a process of engagement and questions will help this leader learn more about his team, hear more about their needs, help develop his team with what is needed of them and will help him grow authentically as an effective leader.