Issue 20 · 1 June 2010

A personal message from Joan

Welcome to the May edition of my newsletter. I hope you've been enjoying the fantastic weather (clearly I’m writing this before the bank holiday!). Exciting times here at 10mmt Mansions. I’ve just returned from a visit to Syria and Lebanon. Now, I know this newsletter should be all about motivating and managing people but what the heck, it's almost summer, so here's my insightful, in depth review of the trip: Syria has got some interesting stuff but it's too big so it takes too long to get to them. Damascus is lovely but if you pick a nasty bug up there get a local doctor out – sooner rather than later. Beirut is totally barmy and totally rocks. Wow, talk about adding value – management tips and travel reviews too!

Back to work and to designing our new membership site. The initial idea is to stream the 10mmt videos online so that managers, team leaders, supervisors, a man and his dog, can access the training quickly and easily from anywhere they have an internet connection. Accessible learning when people want it and where people want it. We then plan to develop the site to include teleseminars, a members' forum, an ‘ask Joan’ feature, ‘how to’ videos – and much more! As ever, you'll be the first to hear all about the developments and please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

In last month's article I shared an example of behavioural focus when giving criticism in order to improve performance. In this month's article I'm taking a look at how to persuade the staff member for the need to improve their performance using ‘results’ and ‘consequences.’ I’d love to hear your feedback and if you have any questions – just let me know.

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How to give positive criticism – using results and consequences

When we are giving positive criticism, we are seeking to motivate the staff member to make a change – a change that leads to improved performance. Here's a useful model for explaining the need and gaining agreement to making that change:

Action & Results & Consequences
= AGREEMENT

Action

Is about explaining in clear, objective, non-judgemental language what the person is doing—the actions they are taking or not taking—that’s causing a problem. The focus is on behaviours.

When you do this…

Results

Is about defining and explaining the results of those actions.

This is what happens…

Consequences

Is about defining and explaining the negative consequence of the actions.

And this is why it is a problem…

Why results and consequences persuade

Most people generally don't want to be the cause of negative consequences. They don’t want to cause problems for the business, the team, for you or (of course) for themselves.

What managers need to do therefore is help the staff member understand what happens as a result of their actions, or lack of action, and why that has a negative consequence.

An example

Let's take a simple example of a staff member who arrives late to team meetings:

Action: You arrived 20 minutes late to yesterday's team meeting.

Results: We needed to stop the meeting to update you on what we had discussed so far.

Consequence: This was a waste of time for other team members, so not an efficient way to work.

What type of consequence?

You'll notice that in the above example I have used a consequence related to the business. I could have easily described the consequence to:

• The team – for example, they were unhappy at having to spend time updating you
• You (the manager) – for example, I found it difficult to get the meeting back on track
• To the staff member themselves – for example, it makes you look unprofessional

In next month's article we'll explore these different types of consequence and how we can select the most effective type to use .

Want to see more examples of A.R.C.? There are a range of examples, and a template to use, in my e-book and video ‘Motivating your staff to improve their performance with positive criticism’.

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Joan recommends

The Virtual Leadership Telesummit

I'm delighted to have been invited to be one of the interviewees in a new Leadership Telesummit. It’s a unique opportunity to get access to hours of personal development from a range of experts, (including me!) and it's totally free.

Rather than describe it here I invite you to visit http://tiny.cc/i1db0 to get all the details. Please feel free to pass the link on to the managers, team leaders, supervisors – anyone who would like some great insights into leadership and management!

Very best wishes
Joan

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Joan is the author and presenter of the 10 minute management toolkit. Her monthly newsletter is full of tips, hints and ideas on how managers can learn how to motivate their staff to high performance.

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