You got up tired this morning, feeling like you haven’t slept for a minute. While drinking your third cup of coffee you’re starting to think that caffeine is probably not the answer. A light rest isn’t helpful and the tiredness doesn’t leave you alone. The exhaustion in mental and not physical. When it’s one person, a vacation can be the answer, but when it’s a whole organization? That calls for a different remedy.
“Emotional exhaustion” is getting a lot of coverage these days, and it’s being given many names such as ‘Hippie Disease’ or ‘Work Depression’, but it is now clear that organizations can also get affected from ‘diseases’ and erosion. One organizational disease that is very common is ‘Organizational Tiredness’. Most companies define ‘organizational tiredness’ as an individual’s problem rather than organizational problem, but when production factories work just a fraction of their output and the overall productivity drops down – an individual problem becomes organizational.
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What is “Organizational Tiredness”? – Systematic erosion and languor amongst employees, which causes inner bureaucratic engagement in place of productivity, a lack of willingness to perform outside of defined responsibilities (such as inter-departmental cooperation) even with the price of damaging the final goal. Moreover, the mental energy (available free energy for acting outside of a person’s comfort zone) is chronically decreasing over time.Symptoms – Low productivity, increase in bureaucracy, augmented turnover in manpower, increase in employee absence, lack of satisfaction from reward, continuous distraction, distraction from the core goal replaced with arguments on how to achieve a task, focus on the action instead of the outcome.Consequences – losses and increase in costs, low organization commitment, poor performance, employees filled with hopelessness for any change, avoiding responsibility, resistance for any kind of change and inability to adjust to changing market demands. As the organizational tiredness goes on its symptoms worsen.
Causes and means of treatment:
- High Blood Pressure – erosion and breakdown result from the organization’s need for maximal effort and productivity constantly with no clear period of reduced pressure. Employees will find themselves subconsciously forced to prioritize their efforts as a way to regulate the system’s pressure. The management who have demanded the immense effort should also be the one to set and declare an endpoint which will be expressed as periodic relief. Extorting the system over time for maximal productivity non-stop will lead to a ‘Heart Attack’.
- Routine Checkup – internal measuring tools for the monitoring and prediction of an organizational functions efficiency and health do not exist in most organizations. Sometimes even good production is not evidence that the ‘disease’ won’t occur. Organizations need to build tools for cross-referencing the scope of employment turnover, according to management’s policy. This as well as tools for testing employees’ faith in the organization and its awareness of their efforts and it’s willingness to recognize it; and tools for measuring employees’ sense of self-fulfillment are important for an organization to establish. Moreover organizations need to understand whether the departments which deal with frequent changes in decision making in uncertain situations, are qualified for it or if they are expected to self-adjust to these situations.
- Recognizing the ‘disease’ – most managements does not believe in ‘organizational tiredness’. Once there is a decrease in productivity most organization’s first reaction will be employee dismissal, then shifts in junior management and finally the “cure” for organizational terminal diseases – replacing the senior management The recognition that the organization is an eroding system will create a positive reality, where solutions are being found instead of going the wrong familiar road.
- ‘Disease Managing’ Vs. ‘Healing Leadership’ – employees who believe that their workplace is only a source for livelihood have the tendency to get infected in organizational diseases. Every organization wants to be excited and united under clear objectives, it wants emotional engagement rather than rational one. Excitement and faith in the organization, increases most organization’s value of an employee, as a patient’s strong belief that the medical treatment will help him heal, management action that can be translated from analytical, rational management to emotional leadership will give a great added value to the actions.
About 95% of population will be affected by ‘Mono’ (Kissing Disease) at a certain point of their lives. Most people will find out about it only in a routine checkup held a long time after. Don’t let your organization find out about the disease post factum. Be aware of the symptoms, use measuring tools, recognize the disease and lead your organization to heal.
How many times did you summon one of your employees for a talk and he arrived feeling nervous, troubled and anxious?
This phenomenon is derived from a common tendency where employees are summoned to a talk with their superior only when something is wrong.
Employees quickly adapt an impression – “If my boss calls me into his office, I probably did something wrong, and this meeting is going to be very unpleasant.”
How can we avoid or neutralize this conditioning? The answer is simple!
The stipulation is that, “every time I get called in to talk with my boss he is angry with me and will go on to criticize and yell at me”. A solution exists in which you summon your employees when you have positive things to say. After receiving positive feedback, the employee will develop solid emotional infrastructure that will help him to have a positive attitude. Therefore, the next time he receives negative feedback, he will receive the feedback effectively without causing frustration and affecting his self-esteem.
Therefore, set in advance periodic appointments with weaker employees. Prior to the meeting, make a list of a few positive points regarding the employee’s work and point them out during the meeting. You can expect a confused and even suspicious reaction from your employee as you surprised them with this new approach. In those appointments, be sure to give only positive feedback.
Sometimes a 5 minutes appointment is enough – give a compliment and return back to work.
The effect of those appointments won’t only help to reduce the negative stipulation, but also to create a better organizational climate.
So, what is the best approach to give feedback? How can we give feedback without harming employee’s motivation? 3 key rules are recommended:
1. Positive before negative
2. Expectation setting
3. The Issue vs. the individual
Positive before Negative
Start by presenting the meetings topic. Remember, the meetings topic is the main agenda and not the employee’s performance. Open the conversation with positive feedback. Elaborate about the positive work as a short, concise positive statement can seem like a manipulation and preparation for the negative feedback. While giving positive and negative feedback make sure you point out the things you’re pleased with and explain why you are pleased. Only after giving the positive feedback move on to the problematic issues in which you were not satisfied with. At this point make sure you’re not making the common mistake of focusing on the problem instead of the solution. A good way to avoid this mistake is to say how you would want things to be fixed immediately after describing the problem
Expectation Setting
After giving the employee feedback, ask him what he thinks. Coordinate your expectations. Although we can expect the employee to comment on the feedback, inviting the employee to respond conveys an important message in which you want to share the feedback process with the employee. Sharing the process blurs the lines between the feedback giver and feedback receiver and promotes teamwork. When the employee responds it is important that you not take it personally – don’t interpret his words as if he’s attacking you or your authority. Try and deepen the conversation, find a common interest, ask questions and divide what was said into 3 categories:
- Things that you agree with
- Things that need further discussion (don’t know if you agree or not)
- Things that you do not agree with
When the employee is done replying, start by presenting the things you agree with – as the basis for agreement is wider. Your ability to deal with issues you don’t agree on is more complicated and thus should be dealt with after some common ground has been found.
The Issue vs. the Individual
The main idea for this principal is to separate the employee (individual) from the issue. When an individual is the center of the criticism you can expect antagonism and emotional reactions in a way that harm the feedback itself.
Dealing with the issues while presenting your expectations (as long as your expectations focus on objectives and not behavioral criticism) will allow the employee to accept the feedback and embed it into their work.
Even when the reason for the feedback is the employee behavior (team work issues, failure to complete work on times, negative influence of the organizational climate, etc.), ask yourself what damages are accruing due to the behavior and make them the issue.
For example:
“By showing up late you are showing the team and your superiors that you don’t care about them and the work. Without you on time to help complete the work you are directly hurting the organizations productivity and at the same time indirectly hurting the motivation of the members of your team. The organizations productivity is my main interest, if you showing up late didn’t hurt productivity then I probably wouldn’t mind…”
Presenting the issue before pointing out negative behavior and showing the connection between the two is expected to decline employee’s resistance and increase his motivation to change.
And lastly, ask the employee how you can help them to make the change? Make it a mutual challenge. This will neutralize the isolation feeling from the negative feedback. Make yourself part of the solution – by doing so you are sending an extra message to your employee – the critique is specific and does not rule out the employee’s whole function.
In the end, define together a means for change measurement. Keep in touch with them with regular appointments every time they demonstrate progress.
CategoriesDealing with Speech Anxiety
The New-York Times conducted a survey that asked people to scale their greatest fears. The surprising results showed that the fear of death was rated only second whereas speech anxiety was rated as the number one fear. Jerry Seinfeld probably knew what he was talking about when he joked about that “when being in a funeral you would rather be the deceased than read the eulogy.”
Every person is somewhat apprehensive when it comes to public speaking, but the sense of fear varies from person to person. Some people enjoy the excitement of public speaking and deliver well under the pressure. Yet, others are anxious just from the thought of speaking in public.
In today’s business world almost every business man or woman is required to present in front of a certain crowd and practice public speaking. For those who experience speech anxiety performing a presentation can be so troublesome that it will severely effect the message they’re trying to convey.
The good news about speech anxiety is that with the practice of some simple methods the anxiety level can be reduced substantially. Here are some methods you can try:
Start light – when starting your presentation don’t dive immediately into the heavy professional material. Try to open with a light ice breaker, an anecdote, a personal story – something that will increase the crowd’s attention level, and will make a good first impression. An attentive, interested crowd will give you the confident boost you need.
Support tools – Anxiety and stress can cause confusion and blanking out. Barbara Streisand suffered from stage fright to the point she forgot the lyrics to her songs in the middle of her show. The only thing that made her come back to the stages few years later was the teleprompter that was installed in each of her concerts so she won’t blank out ever again. If Barbara Streisand can do it, you certainly can! Don’t be afraid to use flash cards. Flash cards are legitimate accessory and very acceptable as an assistant tool during a presentation. Make sure that your flash cards will be concise and will always remind you the main message you are trying to convey, so if you starting to get confused you have something to get you back on track!
Practice, practice, practice – speech anxiety is not something we’re born with, but something we acquire. As social beings we’re concerned about people’s judgment and our own self-judgment. Therefore, good feedback on our presentations helps gain confidence. Practice! Reading the PPT slides over and over again is not enough! Practice it out loud, in front of the mirror, in front of people you trust to give you an honest feedback – your wife, your colleague, you can use professional trainers if needed, there are even professional feedback systems that can help you practice and improve your presentation and your feeling.
Additionally there are some physical adjustments you can make which can be very helpful:
Walking – during physical activity the body produces Endomorphin, which is the body’s natural tranquilizer and therefore helps for tension and stress relief. It is recommended to start walking for an hour, on a daily basis, a week before the presentation date.
Sugar – the excitement can cause Hypoglycemia, a situation where the blood-sugar level is low and the resultant effect is dizziness and nausea. Eating a sweet treat before the presentation will help raising the sugar blood level and maintain focus.
Confident outfit – wear something you feel good in. when we feel good about our looks our confidence level goes straight up. Make sure that the “confident outfit” is also comfortable. You don’t want to be unsettled in the middle of the presentation for sore feet, sweat or itchiness.
The good news about speech anxiety is that you have the power to change it: it’s in your hands! Studies found that there is NO correlation between the anxieties we feel and the crowd’s perception. In other words, the anxiety you’re experiencing doesn’t get through to the audience, most of the times. So don’t give up to the pressure and conquer that stage.
One short conversation with a potential investor, if successful in convincing him about the product and your capability, could make all your dreams come true. So, how do you approach a conversation like this?
You work on your start-up day and night. You have a winning team and do everything in your power to produce the very best product. Now, all that’s left to do is recruit investors. You know that the only thing separating you from your lifelong dream is a single conversation.
There is good news and there is bad news. We will start with the good news – there is a solution! The bad news, however, is that it will take you a lot of time and effort to succeed. If it took Churchill one hour to write every minute of his speech, then writing your speech – one that introduces your start-up, creates both an impact and a desire to hear more, will not be a simple task. However, by combining a few tools into a single response, you will see that even the most complex product can become exciting, simple, accessible and valuable. Let’s begin!
Set a goal – Before you sit down to write your pitch, set yourself a clear goal. A clear goal includes a specific time frame, clarity and quantity. What is your purpose? Funding? Landing another meeting? Collaboration? Advice? The goal has to be even more focused than that. For example, if you want to ask for funding – how much money are you asking for? When do you need the money? Do you need it in stages? Or all at once? You should know exactly what you want to ask for. If you don’t have a clear goal, the chances of attaining it become nothing more than pure luck.
Once you know the speech’s goal, then you can begin writing it:
Teaser – You have been given an amazing opportunity. You are sitting alone in a room with an investor. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that his brain or attention are focused solely on you. Your task, from the very start, is to catch his attention and make sure it is focused on you, and only you. There are a few ways to quickly stimulate attention. For example, one way is to present statistics – which do not necessarily have to be connected to your product. The data provokes your listener’s curiosity; he is interested in listening and learning about it. The teaser can also be a personal story, a news item, or anything that will quickly perk up your audience’s attention. Your teaser will work best if you create a value for it.
Creating value – While finding a way to make your product exciting, you must ensure the listener understands the product’s value to him. The moment we successfully give the teaser a value, we create a mental short cut and the attention level rises significantly. For example, when you walk down the street, see a billboard for the lottery that says “scratch and win a million shekels” – the ad both grabs our attention, and creates a value for us – we want to win the million shekels. Therefore, even if the chances of winning a million shekels go against every logical and statistical calculation, it still caught our attention. They presented the value we could gain before explaining the general, logical idea.
Make it simple – Once we have caught our audience’s attention, it is time to talk about our product. Here is the challenging part – are you able to explain, in a single sentence, what your product / company / service does? The greatest challenge of a complex product or particularly good idea is the possibility of making it simple and accessible.
Of course, you don’t use words that are too difficult or fancy – those that create ambiguity or cover up an inability to generate a definition. If you’ve successfully done this simply and succinctly, it will leave you with a lot more time to invest in other components.
Why you? – Toward the end of your speech is the time to explain what makes you special. – Why are you the person/people who can turn this vision into reality? This is a critical point because you are asking the investor to trust in you. Here you can emphasize your unique background in the industry, the combination represented by your winning team, or your achievements. It is important to remember that most decisions we make are not logical ones, and so, use of your behavior and presentation skills are just as vital in sending a strong, persuasive message as a list of your degrees and achievements. ** Tip – we have a tendency to attribute more confidence, and, as a result, faith in a person, when his shoulders are square – so sit up straight and they will be!
All of these components, which build a winning speech, will require that you sit at length to sharpen and polish your message. Sometimes using consultants will shorten the prep time. Using modern technology to measure your impact is also likely to improve your performance.
Every year around 800 start-ups are established in Israel and, with that number comes increased competition over investors. The first impression and effect you give off from the very first moment could be the thing to separate you from the crowd, getting the investor to choose you from the sea of entrepreneurs. As we said earlier, sometimes a single conversation is the only thing separating you from your dream – don’t let it fall through your fingers.
Christoph Waltz, the Oscar winning Austrian actor, who played the cruel Nazi Hans Landa in “Inglorious Bustards”, was asked in an interview how did he manage to reach the level of performance he showed in that film, where he “became” that character. His answer was that he did not have to do anything, because the SS uniform did the job for him. Waltz confessed that the infamous uniform had an emotional impact on audiences, as it “made” the character.
Our outward appearance, our clothes (uniform) and body language have an influence on System 1, our intuition, which based on non-rational processes. Members of an audience are exposed to nonverbal cues sent by a speaker or presenter, and they immediately respond to relevant mental associations aroused by these cues.
Effective performance, in entertainment or business, is based on the ability to build and maintain attention level, which is a sign of interest and some kind of a change. The change can be in the mental state of the audience, or in actions resulting from an actual call for the same.
To return to the matter of clothing, it can influence not only your audience and their perception of you, but also your own perception of yourself as speaker. Landa’s SS uniform influenced not only the film audiences, but also the actor himself. When we wear a certain outfit, it creates or support and reinforces our perceptions, or our state of mind, at that moment. Therefore, next time you face an audience ‒ whether when meeting a single manager, or addressing a large audience, put some serious thought into your outfit. It will trigger in others an intuitive response, influencing their perception of you and your perception of yourself. That may be your first stepping-stone towards the Oscar.
CategoriesNailing Your Argument
In August 2012, President Obama appeared on the news site Reddit, for a popular AMA (Ask Me Anything) feature. Reddit servers crashed under the weight of thousands of visitors, who were attracted by the high-profile guest. Reddit owners decided that they had no choice but to use cloud services from Amazon. The cloud solution has become a household name with every organization and average user. However, it also created a non-trivial dilemma.
The willingness to transfer responsibility or resources to an external entity is a sign of flexibility, but it also entails giving up one’s control of one’s data. Soon enough there were two opposing Reddit camps ‒ for and against the transition.
Analogy is an imaginary connection, where a comparison is made between two things or more. We are all familiar with the definition of analogy from our school days, but in practice, we use it extensively in our daily lives, as it is an important logical and cognitive tool. An intelligent use of analogy as part of interpersonal communication can be very productive as a way of attaining our goals.
Analogy is an effective tool for demonstrating a need, changing an opinion, or even diffusing a confrontation. It is a shortcut, part of a non-rational decision process. Those capable of touching the correct non-rational points can convince their audiences to move in the desired direction.
In the Reddit case, one of those opposing the transition argued that giving up control and moving to a cloud, is like a chef who gives up control of his ingredients. That is unheard of, as it can degrade the quality of the meal (the product), and to damage the trust of the diners (the customers). A Reddit engineer used an opposing analogy, and answered: how is this different from us giving up the control of our water and electricity supply?
Instead of immersing themselves in a technical or business argument, their public back-and-forth used analogies to explain their positions to all audiences, not only to those versed in terminology from their own professional field. You can decide with which analogy you identify the strongest, and what motivates you the most.
We use analogy extensively in our daily lives, as it is a basic logical and cognitive tool.