Results or Relationships: What's the Balance in Your Office?

What is the balance in your office between profit and people? Getting results and building good relationships?

We all get hired to get something done. We have projects and tasks that we are responsible for. Shouldn’t just getting them done effectively and in a timely manner be enough?

Actually, no. How we get them done should be as important as getting them done on time and well.

Unfortunately, often the how is not measured or rewarded. As a manager, you probably are responsible for quantifiable results. Your pay and bonuses are dependent on getting those results. The bottom line is in dollars, after all.

Because the how has not traditionally been measured or rewarded, we have polluted our environment with toxic by-products of manufacturing. We have alienated employees and customers by not taking into account how our actions impact them. We have damaged entire communities by not anticipating how shortcuts may affect them in the long term. Think oil spills, home foreclosures, and poisoned foods. Those are examples of global results of emphasizing the what over the how, the results over the relationships.

Now let’s take it back down to your office and the local level. What can you do to create more of a balance between results and relationships? Are you linking tangible rewards to these intangibles? Let’s look at the people first.

• Are you rewarding managers for developing their direct reports?

Managers’ performance reviews should have a section for developing others that measures promotions, employee development, team satisfaction, and team building.

• Are you rewarding your employees for developing trust and respect among their team members?

The performance review form should have a section for communications and teamwork.

Now let’s take a look at your organization’s relationship with the community and the planet.

• Are you rewarding employees for resource efficiencies?
• Do you tie bonuses or other rewards to reducing waste?

Alerting employees to keep an eye out for processes that are potentially damaging to the community and the environment should be tied directly to some type of reward. In the long term, minimizing harm results in positive customer and community relations, and increased morale as employees understand that what they are doing is tied to a greater cause. These “intangibles” are easier to quantify. The bottom line will be affected, and employees should be rewarded.

• Does your organization have an ongoing dialogue and supportive relationship with it's community?
• How does your organization improve the community?

A once a year charitable drive does little to reinforce the long term benefits to an organization if they don’t visibly commit to ongoing practices that encourage good stewardship and good relationships. A balanced commitment to results and relationships becomes a part of the corporate culture - even your brand - and makes your office a more desirable place to work.

Where does the weight lie in your office? With people and relationships? Or with tasks and processes? A good balance between the two is an excellent indication of long term success. Performance reviews are often conducted in the first two months of the year. As you prepare for those, think about what you want to reward in your organization. It’s a great time to set the stage for total success – for you, your organization, your employees, your community and even your planet – by starting with what you emphasize in your own office.

My Go-To List of Business Classics

In a previous job I was in charge of the management library for the company. As an avid reader, I was excited to be able to buy books and make them available for check-out to the employees. I focused on buying books on CD, because I thought that people would be more inclined to read business books if they were part of their commute. Every month I would send out a company-wide email listing the new purchases and reminding staff of the library.

Much to my chagrin, however, there were only about 4 or 5 core people in the company of several hundred who consistently borrowed books. This made it easy to track who had never returned a book, but I felt at the time that people were missing out. Business books can be expensive, and I thought this was a great resource and service.

Now, years later, I have come to appreciate the valuable impact that a few good books, referenced and read again and again, can have over reading a lot of books and forgetting most of what I’ve read. Although I still read lots, I have some books I refer to as my “classics” that I have incorporated into my life and my business practices.

Therefore I have composed a list of my old favorites with links directly to Amazon should you wish to purchase one. These are books I recommend to my clients and cover leadership, team-building, influence, behavior styles and communications.

I would love to hear what books have positively influenced your life– especially in the leadership and business realm. I hesitate to ask, because of the deathly silence in my comments section, but I know there are some readers out there…so please share. Happy reading!

The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

Kouzes and Posner have created a classic for those who are committed to being great people leaders. With lots of examples and practical to-do’s, it serves as an enlightened “how-to” reference. Based on over two decades of research, the work revolves around the “five practices of exemplary leaders” : “Model the Way”, “Inspire a Shared Vision”, “Challenge the Process”, “Enable Others to Act”, and “Encourage the Heart.” This work has inspired a two-day workshop, which I have participated in, and a 360 assessment, the Leadership Practices Inventory.

People Styles at Work and Beyond by Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton

Understanding behavior styles is, in my opinion, the most effective tool in anyone’s interpersonal skills toolbox. If they haven’t taken a workshop on it, I usually take one of my coaching sessions to teach my clients a quick shortcut version of how to recognize behavior patterns in order to communicate effectively and build positive relationships. This book is the next best thing to a workshop or a one-to-one coaching/training session.

First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

I recommend this book to all new managers and supervisors, and if you aren’t a new manager but have never read this book, you should own it. Based on The Gallup Organization’s research studies of millions of employees and managers, it is foolhardy to ignore their findings on what makes a great manager. Many organizations now use the employee survey that was developed from Gallup’s findings.

Resolving Conflicts At Work by Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith

Just what the title says, this tome offers eight strategies “to move from impasse to transformation”. This is a handy reference for anyone, but it is especially applicable to organizational leaders who can influence the culture of a workplace. The authors emphasize how conflict can be used creatively rather than toxically.

The ABC’s of Building a Business Team That Wins by Blair Singer

Everyone seems to like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team but I prefer this practical book on how to develop a cohesive, productive team. The emphasis is on creating a “Code of Honor” for the team which instills loyalty and team pride while reinforcing good communications and teamwork. There are lots of actionable to-do’s that any team can put into place.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Having taught the workshop many times, I have had the opportunity to instill the seven habits into my life until they are, yes, habits. Or almost. I truly believe if we work to incorporate these habits our lives will be more peaceful and more productive. It’s happened to me. A true classic, which everyone should take to heart.

The Power of TED by David Emerald

This is a transformational little book that shows us how to pull ourselves and others out of a “Victim” mode into a solution-oriented “Creator “ mode. We all have felt like victims, rescuers or persecutors sometimes, and we recognize others who fall into this too. This little volume packs an impact by showing us ourselves and how we can become a coach, creator or challenger. A great book for anyone, and having taken the TED workshop, I often teach my clients how to coach their employees from Victim to Creator, and how to stay away from the Rescuer role.

Leading Change by John Kotter

One of the two books on change I highly recommend for any leader. All the organizations I work with are implementing changes, and yours probably is too. How to implement change effectively is often overlooked by leaders. This book has a step-by-step approach that leaders should seriously take into account when attempting any type of change.

Managing Transitions by William Bridges

The other change book I highly recommend for leaders. This book takes us through the psychological journey of change and offers practical checklists to ensure you are doing what it takes to help your staff and yourself integrate change and manage the transitions as quickly and as successfully as possible.

Bruce Lee's Leadership Lessons

In honor of what would have been Bruce Lee’s 70th birthday last Saturday (11/27), I wanted to write an article about his leadership lessons. I googled "leadership lessons of Bruce Lee" and found this extremely comprehensive article about Bruce’s overall life lessons. It’s already been done, I thought, and really well too.

But the urge to honor the leadership legacy of Bruce Lee, who is best known for his martial arts skill as shown in such movies as Enter the Dragon, persisted. Bruce was incredibly strong and fast, and invented his own version of martial arts called Jeet Kune Do. Although I am extremely violence-averse, I am awed by what he was capable of and what he accomplished in his 32 years.

I have taken the liberty of condensing Bruce Lee’s leadership wisdom into just five lessons. Lee's quotations are in italics.

1. Set big goals and act on them.
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.

2. Success takes intense focus, dedication and hard work.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Endurance is lost rapidly if one ceases to work at their maximum.

3. Remain flexible and adaptable to situations.
Flow in the living moment. — We are always in a process of becoming and nothing is fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you’ll be flexible to change with the ever changing. Open yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the total openness of the living moment. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.

4. Adhere to high personal standards.
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

5. Mentor others.
I am not teaching you anything. I just help you to explore yourself.

This last quotation is an excellent credo for every manager and coach.

Bruce chooses hard work over partying at the University of Washington.