How to Think Outside the Box

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July 12, 2022 | Megan Fine & Mark Altman 

A few weeks ago, Mark asked me to tabulate and pull together the results for a client assessment with the goal of identifying training and coaching areas of need. Members of a sales team indicated on a scale of 1-5 how frequently they practiced a particular sales habit. In tasking me with the assignment, Mark suggested some criteria based on that scale to determine a list of urgent and top priority development needs, areas of strength, as well as patterns/trends across the entire sales team. 

What I quickly realized was that the criteria Mark had given me, while useful for similar clients, did not fit this set of respondents. Nearly every topic qualified as either urgent or top priority, which of course was not useful feedback for the client. I hopped on the phone with Mark, and we quickly figured out a more insightful way to process the data. 

So often, when following an existing process or executing a delegated task, people tend to be robotic and follow the rules to a T. Without being thoughtful about the project or task, time could be wasted, and work quality and efficiency could suffer.  

When delegating a task, here are three important things to communicate: 

  • Do you want the person to do exactly as you tell them or think critically as they complete the project to identify gaps and potentially find a better way? 
  • If the person is struggling with the project, how long do you want them to spend problem-solving on their own before they ask for help?
  • What and who would be valuable resources to utilize if and when they run into problems?

For example, you might say: “Alex, I’d like for you to own sending our newsletter each week. Here is the current process for how we pull together content, format, send, report, etc. – and if you notice that there’s something we could be doing more efficiently or ways we can make the newsletter more engaging, I want to know. If you are struggling at any point, please don’t spend more than ten or fifteen minutes troubleshooting the problem. Feel free to come to me so we can collaborate and determine the best course of action.” 

By setting expectations, you empower your team to think critically and creatively about the work at hand, and in many cases, improve upon existing processes and workflows. 

Enjoy this post? Contact us at MindsetGo to empower your leaders and teams to build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets and habits for lasting change.

Stop Having Repeat Conversations with Your Team (Here’s How)

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May 17, 2022 | Mark Altman 

Picture this: it’s Monday morning and you’re holding your weekly team meeting. You’re brainstorming how to improve lead capture on your website, and as Natalie is sharing an idea, Tom jumps in with his thoughts, steamrolling right over her.  

You can see Natalie bristle with frustration and then go quiet the rest of the meeting. Tom’s idea was a good one, but now you’re missing out on Natalie and likely other team members’ contributions. A little self-awareness on Tom’s part would go a long way here – and the worst part is, you’ve addressed this issue with him before. What are you missing? 

Here are our keys to more effective conversations – so you can have them once, not several times. 

First, make the conversation safe and minimize anxiety by setting it up as follows. 

You: Hey Tom, do you have a few minutes to talk? Can we do a quick 15-minute zoom?  

Tom: Sure, what’s it about?     

You: I’ve just been reflecting on something, and I want to pick your brain.

Then, start the conversation by gauging the person’s self-awareness around their behavior. 

You: So, I wanted to pick your brain about how our team meetings are going. What are your thoughts?  

Tom: They’re fine, I guess. Why do you ask ?

At this point, do two things:

  1. Get alignment on the problem.
  2. Share your perceptions and observations using I statements. 

You: The reason why I asked is because my perception is in meetings sometimes you tend to interrupt. (Pause) And I was just wondering, does that surprise you that I’m saying that? 

If your employee becomes defensive or starts listing excuses, provide a tangible example of their behavior. 

Tom: Kind of. No one has ever given me that feedback before.  

You: No problem. I understand. So, I’m going to give you an example if that’s okay, just so you can understand my perspective.  

Tom: Okay, sure.

You: Yesterday, when Natalie was sharing during our brainstorm on lead capture, you jumped in before she had a chance to finish speaking. I noticed she seemed frustrated and didn’t share much after that. 

Tom: Yeah, I guess I could see that.

Now, here is where many leaders get it wrong because they make an ask, and given the hierarchy of leader and team member, of course the person will agree.  

Common Leadership Response: So, I am asking you to be mindful of not interrupting when someone else is sharing their thoughts. 

In addition, leaders who go this route:

  • Haven’t taken time to understand the root cause of the problem
  • Don’t know if their team member is motivated to change their behavior
  • Don’t know if their team member has the skills to change their behavior
  • Are seeking compliance instead of collaboration 

Why is Tom jumping into conversations at inappropriate times? How long has he had this habit? Does he see a compelling reason to change his behavior? Does he know how to go about changing his behavior? 

Without the emotional and conversational intelligence to address these questions and challenges, most leaders end up having the same conversations and making the same requests repeatedly without results. 

At MindsetGo, we build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets to create lasting habit and behavior change. If you’re ready to develop the emotional and conversational intelligence you need to stop having repeat conversations, contact us today. It never hurts to talk!

Enjoy this post? Contact us at MindsetGo to empower your leaders and teams to build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets and habits for lasting change.

What to Do When an Employee Circumvents the Chain of Command

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May 4, 2022 | Mark Altman 

Category:

Managing up, down, and across 

The Problem:

Your direct report or colleague consistently circumvents the chain of command by going to your boss with questions and concerns instead of you. 

The Root Cause: 

Your report or colleague may: 

  • Feel frustrated at a lack of progress on something they want accomplished. 
  • Have an unmet expectation – something they wanted you to do that you didn’t – even though they may not have articulated that expectation to you. 
  • Not feel you are empowered to do anything about their problem. 
Your Choices:

You have the option to: 

  • Internalize the situation (and make it mean something about you, your report/colleague, your leadership skills, etc.), or 
  • Address it. 

If you choose to address it, you will need to have two conversations: one managing up and one managing across or down. 

Managing Up Conversation 

Have a conversation with your supervisor about the report/colleague’s behavior. 

You: Hey Susan, Jane is going to you to solve X problem instead of me. Have you noticed that?  

Allow your supervisor to respond. They may justify the behavior or make an excuse and regardless of their response, ask: “Will you support me in not enabling that behavior as it will impact my credibility otherwise?” 

Managing Down/Across Conversation 

Have a non-confrontational conversation with Jane. Use a curious, empathetic, nonjudgmental tone.  

You: Hey Jane, I noticed you went to my boss for X problem. I’m wondering why you didn’t just come to me directly? 

Jane may either become defensive or make an excuse and either way, empathize and validate her perspective, and then inquire further as needed: “I’m wondering why you made that choice?”  

Takeaways: 
  • You have choices: you can ignore the problem and hope it doesn’t repeat, internalize your frustration, or have a courageous conversation. 
  • If you choose to be assertive, you must have two conversations: one to ensure that your boss isn’t enabling the behavior and one to understand why the person is making that choice. 

Content derived from MindsetGo Training Programs: Managing Yourself; Courageous Conversations; Assertiveness 

Enjoy this post? Contact us at MindsetGo to empower your leaders and teams to build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets and habits for lasting change.

There’s No Downside to Intentionality…Right?

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March 14, 2022 | Mark Altman & Megan Fine


Intentional (adjective): done on purpose; deliberate


As a leader, you’re likely onboard with the idea of thinking and acting intentionally. You set goals, OKRs, and KPIs thoughtfully, considering the needs and objectives of your organization, and making data-driven decisions for optimal outcomes and success. 

As coaches, we also counsel our clients to behave intentionally – to think through their goals, motivating factors, and consequences of inaction – and execute their action plans with mindfulness and focus. 

So, when then does intentionality become a problem? When can intentionality be taken too far? 

When we are outcome and data-driven, we often achieve our objectives – but the question is, at what cost? What do we miss when we are laser-focused on hitting our targets and optimizing time and productivity? 

We miss people. When we are so focused on end results, we can forget that people – human beings – are driving and producing those results. We miss the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the individuals who help us achieve our success. 

MIT Sloan recently released a study on the drivers of the Great Resignation, and fascinatingly, high levels of innovation at an organization was a strong predictor of attrition: “The more positively employees talked about innovation at their company, the more likely they were to quit.” Innovation is fantastic – until it comes at a cost to your people. 

The same goes for productivity. Take meetings as a prime example. We’ve all been in meetings that aren’t intentional – disorganized, lacking clear next steps, or the “this could have been an email” type. On the other hand, meetings led with the intention of making every second count can sometimes leave us feeling out of breath, like we didn’t have time or space to voice concerns, share ideas, or thoughtfully consider the work at hand.

Leading in a way that takes people’s experiences into consideration starts with self-awareness. Do you authentically check-in with your team at the beginning of your meetings before diving into the work? Do you allow time for people to share ideas, discuss, and collaborate? Do you ask for feedback rather than assuming you know how people are experiencing your meetings? 

If you don’t, that’s okay – you now have the self-awareness to start building these habits. Keep noticing where you might be prioritizing outcomes and efficiency at the expense of your people, and make sure intentionality isn’t working against you by ensuring their thoughts, feelings, and experiences are part of the equation. 

For support with meeting facilitation and employee engagement, CONTACT US at MindsetGo. We empower your leaders and teams to build the confidence, develop the skills, and embrace the mindset to create lasting habit and behavior change. 

Proactive Change: “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It” is Bad Advice. Here’s Why

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January 24, 2022 | Mark Altman & Megan Fine 

Pause for a moment and tell me: how do you start your workday?

Do you sit down and open your inbox to 37 new emails…amidst the other 2,347 sitting there unfiled? Do you dig through the piles of paper on your desk to find that to-do list you started a couple days ago? Do you dive into one project, only to jump to another, and then forget where you were when you hear the chime of your Slack notifications?

It’s not so bad though, right? Your disorganization is costing you, what, maybe 10 minutes a day sorting through things to find what you really need or get focused. 

But if you think about it…if you’re working 250 days of the year, you’re actually losing 2,500 minutes. 42 hours. An entire work week of productivity. Ouch.

Most people don’t bother changing until their situation gets bad – until they get the poor performance review, or their spouse says, “We need to talk,” or their doctor sits them down for the test results no one wants to get back. 

This way of being is reactive, but there is a better way. It’s being proactive and acting before the situation escalates out of control and hands you consequences that you’d rather not experience. 

But being proactive is challenging, which is why so many of us don’t bother to do it. Everything’s fine, good enough, right? To work towards being more proactive, you must first be reflective and consider what changes might be worth making. To do that, consider these questions: 

If I don’t bother changing: 

  • What opportunities might I miss out on? 
  • What kind of problems might arise? 
  • What is the ultimate cost of doing nothing? 
  • Where will I be in 6 months, 1 year, 10 years? 

If I do bother changing: 

  • What good things might become possible? 
  • What might I be able to do that I can’t do now? 
  • What would be the best part of that? 
  • Where could I be in 6 months, 1 year, 10 years? 

As a leader, helping your team move from acting reactively, to being reflective, to acting proactively is an excellent ROI on your time. By walking people through the consequences of inaction and the benefits of making positive changes, you can motivate them to take action they otherwise wouldn’t have to optimize their personal and professional lives. 

10 minutes a day is 42 hours a year. What better things could you do with all that time? If you have a team of 10, what could you do with 10 extra work weeks each year? 

It’s time to retire, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and lean into, “If it ain’t broke yet, it’s a great time to optimize!” 

Enjoy this post? Contact us to empower your leaders and teams to build the confidence, develop the skills, and embrace the mindset to create lasting habit and behavior change. 

Why Your Team Isn’t Following Through – And What to Do About It

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January 10, 2022 | Mark Altman

Picture this: it’s January, and you’re working on building a more effective social media marketing strategy this year. So you call up your marketing guy – let’s call him Steve – and you say, “Steve, we need a content calendar. Can you pull that together for next week?”

“Sure thing, no problem,” he tells you.

It’s a week later, and you follow up: “Hey Steve, how’s the content calendar coming?”

Silence, and then, “Uhh, the content calendar. Right. I didn’t have time to get to it this week…”

Cue the frustration. Why bother having a team if you can’t rely on them to follow through?

Yikes. Time for a reframe.

When a team member tells you they forgot or didn’t have time to do something, do you believe they’re actively trying to disappoint or frustrate you?

Life would be a lot easier if we could simply control other people. Unfortunately, that’s not the case; however, as leaders, we can influence their behavior and better set them up for success.

How do we do that? We ensure that we are getting commitment, not simply agreement, from our team.

  • Agreement = yes, in principal, I agree with what you’re saying
  • Commitment = I agree and I am set up to follow through

When motivating your team to act – to get commitment – you must help them articulate tangible and specific benefits of following through. Knowing what they need to do is not enough; they must understand why they need to do it.

Often, leaders have a top-down approach when articulating their why’s, i.e., they share their own reasoning with their team, but the most powerful motivation comes from team members articulating the why’s themselves.

I was recently coaching a client to take a 20-minute walk in the middle of his day, and he asked me, “Okay Mark, but what’s the return on investment?” For me, the answer was easy. I get six major benefits from taking a walk during my workday:

  • I get a break from screen time to clear my head.
  • I get fresh ideas about things I’m problem-solving.
  • Being outside in the fresh air is invigorating.
  • My stress levels drop by virtue of stepping away from work.
  • Things I may have forgotten pop into my head.
  • I plan for how I’m going to spend more time with my loved ones.

All great reasons for me to take a walk, but even more powerful is drawing out the client’s own specific and tangible benefits of building this new habit.

So let’s rethink that conversation with Steve. Next time, you might try: “Hey Steve, I feel like we need a content calendar. What do you think?”

“Okay, yeah, a content calendar. That could be useful.”

“How do you think having a content calendar might be helpful?”

“Hmm, well sometimes we miscommunicate about when we agreed to post things. And I know we talked about creating more coherent themes for our newsletters and social media pages. So that might help us plan a little better. And if we had a content calendar, we might be able to better align our posts with events we have going on.”

“Awesome, you think you can have that pulled together for our touch base next week?”

“You got it!”

Next time you meet with your team, focus on helping them articulate the benefits of the work they do, or the habits they’re trying to change, and let us know how it goes.

And stay tuned for our next post, where we’ll discuss the most effective tool for translating motivation into action.

Enjoy this post? Contact us to empower your leaders and teams to build the confidence, develop the skills, and embrace the mindset to create lasting habit and behavior change.

MindsetGo Acquires Whole Health Co, LLC to Address the Great Resignation and Build Engaged and Effective Workforces

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Boston, MA – January 6, 2022 | MindsetGo announced today the acquisition of Whole Health Co, LLC, a corporate wellness company offering custom services for businesses and schools. Whole Health Co-founder Patty Burke, CHC, CLC, joins MindsetGo as Director of Wellness, bringing her expertise in lifestyle habit change and an experienced team of health coaches and wellness experts to MindsetGo.

The acquisition expands MindsetGo’s existing organizational development services to also include mental, physical, and emotional support. These expanded offerings will in turn foster happy, productive, and resilient employees both in and out of the workplace.

U.S. employees are resigning in record-breaking numbers (one in four workers quit their jobs in 2021). This phenomenon, dubbed by economists as the Great Resignation, immediately presents employers with challenges including a depleted workforce, employee engagement, and retention. Organizations are seeing their leadership burn out while experiencing higher levels of anxiety and stress due to increased workloads and the additional challenges of remote work.

“When organizations evaluate their biggest challenges, mental and emotional wellness are typically not on the top of the list,” said Mark Altman, Founder of MindsetGo. “In fact, emotional intelligence and resiliency directly support people’s ability to manage themselves, cope with difficult people, navigate conflict, and adapt to change.” Whereas companies once invested in employee wellness simply to help lower health insurance costs, they are now prioritizing it to retain and support their talent. With the high cost of turnover (in some cases, one to two times an employee’s salary), they can’t afford not to invest in their employees’ well-being and success.

“More than ever, companies need support for attracting and retaining top talent as well as overcoming the challenges of an unstable labor market,” said Burke. “Providing support, resources, training, and personalized coaching for valued leaders and staff is critical for boosting employee productivity and ultimately, enhancing bottom lines.”

Survey data from Ginger’s “Third Annual Workforce Attitudes Toward Mental Health Report” revealed that a stunning 96% of CEOs consider their employee mental health efforts adequate, while only 69% of employees agree, revealing a gap between policy and initiative. What differentiates MindsetGo from other training and coaching organizations is a philosophy that focuses on habit change. Both Altman and Burke believe in going beyond simply educating clients, to helping people translate knowledge into action. They provide proven strategies, guidance, and encouragement that motivate people to take the steps they need to thrive, and not just survive, in both their personal and professional lives.

For more information, please contact MindsetGo.

 

About MindsetGo

MindsetGo empowers leaders, teams, and individuals to build the confidence, develop the skills, and embrace the mindset to create lasting habit and behavior change. Our methodology to support people in becoming more confident and effective communicators is based on helping them develop and use three communication components: emotional, multi-generational, and conversational intelligence. Being a confident communicator is not just the way you act, talk, and look; it’s a habitual way of thinking and reacting to various life situations.

Contact Mark Altman at 978-793-1159 or maltman@mindsetgo.com

 

Thinking vs Feeling

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Have you ever thought about the difference between the words think vs feel?

When you think something, it could imply you don’t actually know it. For example, if you were to walk into a store and ask one of their employees where you could find a certain item you were looking for, and they said “I think” it’s in aisle 8, then they aren’t really sure. As a leader, when you say I think you are also in problem-solving mode as opposed to asking questions and listening mode which often conveys an intellectual or analytical response.

As an alternative, get in the habit of saying “I feel” so you are speaking from the heart. How do another person’s actions make you feel? How will it help a person change their behavior or habits if that person knew how they made you feel? As we discussed in the last training, most often people don’t do things maliciously and sometimes they need a reminder on why and how to do things differently.

People Can Change… Can’t They?

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Food for Thought

In 1975, a Kodak engineer went to the company’s leadership and described what he had created—the first digital photograph! They expressed their astonishment at his brilliance and marveled at his ability to predict the future of their industry. Oh wait…. That’s not what happened… The company’s leadership told him that there was no value to his work and that no one would ever want to see an electronic version of a picture. They (or so they thought) had seen the future, and Kodak wasn’t in it.

Did You Know?

It’s been widely estimated that at least 50% of organization’s change initiatives are either over budget, over schedule, or have outright failed to meet planned objectives.   Research shows that 95% of who we are by the time we are 35 years old is a memorized set of behaviors, emotional reactions, unconscious habits, and hardwired attitudes with beliefs as well as perceptions that function like a computer program.

Now What?

Can people change? The answer is, YES, they can. The questions that must serve as guidance are: How does this change happen? What needs to happen to bring about this change?

Organizational Awareness

Believe it or not, nature provides an outline for dealing with change in an organization. The first question to evaluate is, “What needs to die?”  Organizations must stop and think about the following: What actions do we need to suspend that are no longer serving us or translating to success?  Additionally, if changes have recently been made, organizations must assess: What has been learned from those changes and how can those lessons be utilized for new growth? Finally, how can we invest in successful new growth?

That’s certainly a lot of questions, however I believe that each is vital to understanding the nature of change in an organization. There is clearly not a quick solution, but instead a comprehensive understanding of a variety of factors and meaningful strategies.

For more information on how MindsetGo can help your company implement change initiatives, improve internal communication among your leaders and teams, and facilitate difficult conversations, please check out MindsetGo.com or call us at 978-206-1535.

Always, Never or Perhaps Something Different

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As a leader who is managing multiple generations, personalities and workplace challenges, it can be easy to lose faith in your team. When people fail to meet our expectations regarding delegation, problem-solving, decision-making, or follow through you can start to develop a discouraged and impatient mindset. This often results in among other things, starting to do everything yourself. Here are three elements of self-awareness when you start feeling like you are experiencing disappointment or resistance.

Three Step Process When Feeling Frustrated With People

Inner Voice: Everything I do is met with resistance – creating fear and anxiety

Self-Awareness: Is it truly everything or just with certain people and situations?

Inner Voice: Why are some things I do met with fear and resistance?

Self-Awareness: People don’t want to be held accountable or perhaps they are dealing with their own challenges they don’t know how to effectively articulate.

Inner Voice: On top of everything else, nobody is responding to the emails I send

Self-Awareness: A lot of factors contribute to why people don’t respond to messages so I won’t assume this reflects on me or this person’s perception of me or the message.

 

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