Did You Hear about Ryan's Peformance Review?

Gossip is a rampant problem in organizations. Some organizations have a very strong policy against it, to the point of someone being possibly fired if caught participating. It can be a cancer that will ruin your team, but even the best people can get caught up in it. Why?

There are a few reasons why participating in gossip is the "easier choice" for people, even if they truly believe it is not a good practice.

Need for acceptance. It's perhaps counterintuitive, because after all, gossip by nature

alienates someone. But for those doing the gossiping, there is some satisfaction in

knowing that someone else sees a situation or another person the same way or has

experienced the same problems with them. In the illustration above, if several

coworkers have problems getting along with Ryan, they may unite in the gossip about

his review.

Desire for information. Gossip can arise when there are holes in communication or a

feeling of "We're not being told the whole truth." People will start to fill in holes by

brainstorming possibilities, and we all know where that can lead. False conclusions or

imaginary scenarios become "fact" as more people hear about them.  “Ryan sure

looked troubled when he left the bosses office. I'm sure the company must be

considering layoffs, and Ryan is the first.”

Feeling of inadequacy. Though we don't like to admit it, deep down many of us are

fully aware of what we believe are inadequacies or weaknesses. When we hear about

the alleged behavior of someone, we feel a little better when we think, "I would never

have done that!" If someone concurs by mentioning the same thing, we feel

particularly validated in our own sense of right and wrong. "I hope they brought up

his frequent lateness. I would never clock in 30 minutes late every day."

The reasons given above do not justify gossip, nor am I suggesting you should simply tolerate it. However, it is wise to consider the "why" behind behavior. What is going on in people's minds and hearts that leads them to speak ill of co-workers or the organization? This can be a first step in helping you develop a more effective way to deal with the behavior. 

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Eight Team Building Lessons from Jesus

By today’s standards, Jesus may not be the first person you would pick as an example of a great team leader. He wasn’t on Facebook sharing links to leadership articles. He didn’t have an organizational chart. He often did things that didn’t make sense to His followers. But take a look at what we can learn from Him.

He consulted His own leader. Jesus spent a lot of time with His Father. In fact, it was after an extended time in the wilderness that Jesus then picked his team. I imagine that God gave Him some wisdom about who to select and why.

He kept His team small. Although Jesus interacted with a lot of people along the journey of His ministry (at times speaking to very large groups), His core group of disciples consisted of only 12 people, and His closet buddies numbered three. This demonstrates that you can only really effectively invest deeply in a limited number of people at one time. Relationships that are deep and effective take time, and you can't spread yourself wide and deep all at once. You may be an influential leader with a ton of Facebook friends or Twitter followers, and that's okay. But you have to know what you are capable of in terms of teaching and mentoring, and limit your close contacts to those with whom you can effectively interact long term. If your organization is getting big, you probably need to consider bringing on other team leaders.

He didn't choose the best and brightest. This really goes against conventional wisdom, but rather than hold an in-depth series of interviews, Jesus chose men that He knew could become devoted followers despite their personality quirks and foibles. That's not to say these men didn't have intellect and talents, but they certainly had hang ups...doubt, pride, fear. Jesus didn't let that stop Him from choosing them. He saw into their hearts. I’m not saying an interview process isn’t important, but if all we see in candidates is their skill, abilities and past successes, we can miss what they are truly like, how they will fit in the culture, and whether or not they will be loyal.

He taught along the way. We don't see Jesus doing an intensive "discipleship training" weekend retreat with the disciples before they started hanging out with Him. He didn't send them away to seminars. For His small group, He picked people with a certain kind of heart and then poured into them on a daily basis. It was more of a process of mentoring as they “did life" together. He taught the disciples as they fished, as they came across those in need, as they dealt with each other.

He helped them with their skills. Remember when Jesus recommended the fishermen to change where they were throwing the nets? He was interested in what they did for a living and helping them do it better.

He asked questions. Questions like "Who do you say that I am?" drew the disciples into discussion. Jesus knew the best approaches to learning.

He experienced a failure. In the world's eyes, anyway, the choice of including Judas on the team was a massive fail. But instead, this incident shows the love and mercy of God. Since even the Son of God had someone close to him who made the choice to reject Him, He understands that pain when it happens to you.

He had a succession plan. Jesus knew He would not physically be with these men on earth forever. He trained them and encouraged them about going out on their own and left a legacy called the Holy Spirit so He would never truly be gone from them. A good team leader knows he/she will not be here forever and that development of other leaders is a top goal.

How about you? Do any of these examples from Jesus' teambuilding resonate with you?

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Team Building Activity: Explore Your Community

Take your team on an exploration of the neighborhood, town or city in which your workplace is located. The longer we work at one place, the more likely we will fall into "auto pilot" in our commute and as we interact on our grounds.

To do this well, pick a couple of creative employees and give them permission to take an afternoon to develop a short tour of the neighborhood. Ask them to find places that may have been overlooked. (For example, when I went to work in a new place, I discovered a beautiful park just up the road. Others who had worked there for quite awhile were glad to be reminded of the  nice place for a lunch break.) Allow them to do a little research about the history of the town or to try out a new place for lunch.)

Select a half day (or full day if you are bold) and tell employees they can dress casually. Take the information the first employees put together and take your team on a walk. End with a lunch at the little known park or restaurant.

At the lunch, talk about what new things the team discovered about their work community. Then, expand the conversation to brainstorming about things they may be overlooking at work. Ask questions such as:

• What interesting services could we begin to offer our clients?
• How could we make our own workplace more appealing/welcoming?
• How can we engage within our own neighborhood more effectively?
• How would we grade our neighbor's perception of our workplace?
• What places in the community stood out to you as professional, approachable, and/or places where you would want to do business? Why?

If you note some type of improvement to take back at the workplace, be sure to implement it within a month. If you don't act on feedback quickly, your follow through credibility will be diminished. Have fun!

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Four Ways to Improve Your Communication as a Leader

Why is it that some companies have a reputation for being poor in communication? Hundreds of emails are sent, policies posted, and meetings held, yet employees find out about issues that affect them "through the grapevine," or don't have input into important decisions, or take surveys that don't seem to cause any ongoing, helpful changes.

Could that be said of your organization? Are the people on your team just floating along in their jobs, frustrated because they aren't aware of what is going on or aren't consulted on matters that affect them directly? If you are a manager, you have a responsibility to improve communication with your team. Here are four ways to do so.

Spend time with your employees, especially your direct reports. Shadow someone for a few hours or a day. Take in what their position really entails. The TV show Undercover Boss specializes in this, helping CEO's get into the trenches to realize what their employees really deal with.

In particular, watch for tasks that don't seem to make sense in the big plan. For example, is a secretary having to fill out a form each week that simply gets filed away and never looked at, but because "We've always done it this way," it gets done? Does an employee feel restrained from making decisions because they have to get every step approved or aren't given a budget to work with?"

Conduct meaningful meetings. Don't have meetings just for the sake of meetings, but handle important items on a consistent basis. If you have a weekly staff meeting, make sure to cover valuable items like upcoming events, possibly policy changes, etc. Make it a place employees know they can come to for answers to questions, updates on how the department and company is doing, and a safe place to air challenges.

Don't cancel meetings! If you have a weekly meeting (that follows the criteria above) avoid the, "oh, we don't have to meet today" temptation that comes when, for example, a couple of staff members are out on vacation. I remember one time when two bosses were out of town that the support staff decided to bring in breakfast and still "meet" during the regular staff meeting time on Friday morning. It turned out to be a very valuable time talking about personality types, and answering questions for a new employee (who happened to be me!) It increased our bond. So, even if you won't be around during a regular meeting time, suggest the staff still meet.

When in doubt, go ahead and communicate. It is better for employees to hear about issues directly from the leadership than through the grapevine. Try not to allow for "vacuums" where employees hear a little something but try to fill in the rest because they don't have adequate facts to go on. Yes, there are times you will have to keep things confidential, but if you communicate regularly, your team will grow in trust. So, when you do have to keep something quiet, they may be more likely to rest in your leadership.

Communication is an ongoing challenge for any organization. Start with these steps so your company won't be one of the ones with the reputation of "they never tell us anything."

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