Right Attitudes » Ideas for Impact
» by Nagesh Belludi

As the current crises at Toyota and BP highlight, how you respond to a problem or crisis is the ultimate test of your leadership character. Knowing how to step up your communications efforts to the right levels during disorder can be a powerful tool in managing a crisis. Here are seven key lessons for communicating during crises.

• Be visible. Communicate and lead from the front. In a crisis, your key constituencies (your board, management, team, government, or the public) insist on hearing from the leader. Stay engaged and maintain consistency of purpose and action. Keep all the lines of communication open.
• Communicate in real-time and explain your position. If you do not communicate frequently with your key constituents, somebody else will. In the absence of information, people will develop their own perceptions of the problem and its implications. Keeping your constituencies well informed diffuses many suspicions and uncertainties.
• Be transparent and forthright right from the beginning. Face the realities of the problem and its potential consequences. Acknowledge what you know about the problem or crisis and go into detail about what steps you are taking in response. Proactive communication is reassuring and prevents perceptions of negligence and evasion from becoming realities.
• Research thoroughly the challenges you face and your options for remedial actions. Be prepared to describe everything that matters at each moment. Carefully administer your communication plan with due consideration to possible litigations and penalties.
• Be objective and calm. Avoid engaging in finger pointing and playing pass-the-parcel. Avoid criticizing and discrediting the victims or critics. Continuously verbalize empathy and responsibility, and announce plans for early resolutions and restitution.
• Remember that your attitude sets the tone for the rest of your organization. If you take a defensive position, play victim or engage in finger pointing, the rest of your organization will react the same way. Through your communications, set a positive tone to build confidence within your organization and promote constructive responses.
• As soon as the crisis dissolves, research and communicate opportunities to make fundamental changes to improve your organization. Reiterate your core values and missions. Revamp internal practices as necessary and follow through on all initiatives to rebuild your credibility. Consider organizational changes and new processes for managing future crises.

Recommended Reading

• Develop a mature sense of respect for your competition
• Blaming the competition without cause constitutes poor taste

***See other articles related to Crisis management, leadership communications, problem solving, corporate communication, public relations

Preamble: We are often unaware of the many biases and prejudices that influence our social judgments. Psychologists call these the “bias blind spots.” I believe that we can overcome many of these subliminal biases by educating ourselves to be perceptive of them. This is the second in a series of articles on the common rating errors. See my earlier article on the recency bias.

Unconscious Judgments of an Investment Broker

A study conducted in year 2007, highlights two of the most common unconscious biases in social judgment. Prof. Emily Pronin of Princeton University showed study participants one of two pictures of the same man whom she introduced as an investment broker. One picture showed a suited man with a highly regarded Cornell degree and the other showed the man in casual clothing with a degree from a nondescript college. The professor asked her participants how much of a theoretical $1,000 they would invest with each. The participants rated the suited man as more competent. He got $535 on average without having his background checked. In contrast, the causal dresser got just $352. The participants did not consider the second broker as trustworthy and were more likely to have his credentials verified.

The Halo Effect

The “halo effect” is the concept by which a person who is judged positively on one aspect is automatically judged positively on several other aspects without much evidence. For instance, as a result of the halo effect,

• attractive people are often judged as competent and sociable. Film stars and other celebrities are assumed pleasant and sharp-witted,
• inexperienced interviewers tend to pay less attention to a candidate’s negative traits after discerning one or two positive traits in the first few minutes of a job interview,
• charismatic professionals tend to get noticed and move up the corporate ladder faster, irrespective of their technical and leadership skills,
• articulate speakers are likely to be more influential on their audiences even if their messages are poor in form and content.

Politicians, film and TV stars, sportspersons, celebrities and brand managers have learned to construct a halo effect and later capitalize on their perceptible reputations. Apple’s iPod generated positive impressions of other Apple products — the company capitalized on this halo effect and delivered excellent products in the iPhone and iPad. Renowned fashion designers can command higher price points even for ordinary clothes.

The Horns Effect

The “horns effect” or the “devil effect” is the concept by which a person who is judged negatively on one aspect is automatically judged negatively on several other aspects without much evidence. Clearly, this is the corollary to the halo effect.

• For years, American car manufacturers have battled the mistaken public perception that cars made by Japanese companies are of significantly better quality even if American car manufacturers use identical components from the same suppliers and assemble their cars using identical manufacturing processes. Even today, Japanese brand cars resell for much higher prices than American brand cars.

Call for Action

• Reflect on your decision-making process to steer clear of biases. As human beings, we are incessantly forming an opinion of people, objects, and events, both consciously and subconsciously. However, our judgment is rarely free of biases and our measures are not always comprehensive enough. Before reaching any important decision, be sure to collect all the relevant facts and reflect if your thought processes are free of the common biases.
• Understand that perception is reality and be conscious of the image you are projecting. People judge the proverbial book by its cover. Your friends and family, workplace and the society has a certain perception of who you are and what you can do, irrespective of the reality. As much as you would prefer to be evaluated based on who you actually are and what you can actually do, understand that your identity and prospects are based on the perception that other people have about you. Do everything you can to connect people’s perception to the reality. Look and play your role. Begin by reading the seminal article on the topic of personal branding, “The Brand Called You,” written by renowned management author, Tom Peters.

Recommended Reading

• Want to boost your self-confidence? Dress sharply and look neat
• Judging People: Talent is more than skin-deep
• Learn from the top performers in every field
• How to think and perform like a CEO
• Measuring leadership performance in context

***See other articles related to social judgment, rating errors, biases and prejudices, decision process, problem solving, Brand You

During Q & A at a career-planning workshop that I led recently, a member of the audience asked me, “Where could I get the best education in life?” This article elaborates my response.

You learn best from imitating the techniques of the successful

“What the outstanding person does, others will try to do. The standards such people create will be followed by the whole world.”
* The Bhagavad Gita

The best way to educate yourself is by observing the top performers in every field and by identifying and applying their effectiveness techniques to your circumstances. Your inspiration may be somebody you interact with, somebody you can hear about in the media or a fictional character from a novel or movie.

Try to imitate the best performers in a discipline to be successful in that discipline. Study their educational and professional backgrounds, their work style, successes, and failures. Identify how they go about conducting their everyday affairs. Try to copy the stock picking and capital allocation skills of Warren Buffett to become a successful investor. Piggyback on the thinking of the best mutual fund managers; replicate their portfolios to benefit from their stock selection process.

Read about the techniques of Sherlock Holmes to improve your reasoning and problem-solving skills. Impersonate your favorite stand-up comedian ahead of a presentation or public speech to improve your delivery. Study the footprints of the leaders in your organization if you want to follow their lead.

Imitate different attributes of people you encounter every day: the cheerfulness of an administrative assistant, the persuasion skills of a seasoned negotiator, the resourcefulness of a car mechanic, and the dexterity of a customer service agent.

Role models are inspirational

Looking up to others is rather instinctive. As kids, you looked up to your siblings, parents, or family members. At work, you learn from observing your colleagues and bosses.

When we learn of role models, read their stories or watch of them on TV or in the movies, we identify in them a part of ourselves; we associate with their struggles and victories, their hopes and despairs.

When we identify with a role model who has accomplished what we seek yourselves, we not only learn from them but also become more confident in our abilities.

This technique has its limitations

Naturally, the influence of role models is neither always practical nor necessarily productive. Your perception of popular role models (sportsmen, artists, businesspeople and other celebrities) is often incomplete and based on cursory assessments of them. Media accounts of their trappings of wealth, fame, and success or their unseemly lifestyles can just as easily turn them into negative role models. Excesses and faults are as common in everyday life as they are in the news. Exercise judgment in what you identify and implement. Hence the corollary: Learn from the shortcomings of the unsuccessful.

Call for action

• When people make a positive impression on you, reflect on what they did and how they did to impress you. Explore what you can learn from them.
• Identify the top performers in your field. Seek to understand and adopt their techniques. Improve or tailor them to your personal circumstances and improve yourselves.
• Study the biographies and memoirs of your favorite historical leaders. Read news stories and case studies of people you admire. Learn their techniques.
• Think of personal and professional skills that you would like to improve upon. Identify one or two people in your organization who are especially skilled in these areas. Observe them or ask them for advice.

Learn everything you can from others, implement what appeals to you, and discard the rest.

Recommended Reading

• Warren Buffett’s rule of thumb on personal integrity
• John F Kennedy’s secret for keeping good eye contact
• Stephen King’s tips for writing better
• Jack Welch on the importance of acting quickly

***See other articles related to role models, skills for success, education, learning from mentors

In this Fast Company article, Gary Flake, Director of Live Labs at Microsoft identifies Systems Thinking as an important trait for career success.

There are three traits that will serve anyone wanting any role at any company, not just ours: systems thinking, passion, and clear communication. Systems thinking is a way of looking at the world that allows you to see how many small pieces come together to make a more complex whole. System thinkers see the hidden interconnections that bind together the parts and know how to make the best use of ambiguity and uncertainty as a result.

Gary’s reflection reiterates the importance of understanding context and perspective in our jobs. A previous blog article and a podcast discussed this indispensable trait for success.

Systems Thinking for a Big Picture Approach

From an early age, we’re taught to break apart problems in order to make complex tasks and subjects easier to deal with. But this creates a bigger problem . . . we lose the ability to see the consequences of our actions, and we lose a sense of connection to a larger whole.
* Peter Senge

Traditional methods of problem analysis concentrate on dividing problems into smaller, more comprehensible components. The drawback of understanding isolated or unrelated elements, functions, and events is that the effects of changes to one element on other elements of the whole are rarely considered.

In contrast, the discipline of Systems Thinking emphasizes analyzing the whole in terms of interrelationships of its elements. Examining structures, relationships, and outcomes facilitates taking into account any secondary consequences of decisions and actions pertaining individual elements.

We work in increasingly connected organizations where an event that affects one part of an organization is likely to have a meaningful effect–in the short-term or the long-term–on another part of the organization. The discipline of Systems Thinking enables us to develop a broader, holistic perspective of problems and opportunities in businesses and make effective decisions.

Resources, References

Over the last couple of decades, System Thinking has evolved into a formal discipline and has incorporated several rigorous analysis techniques. Here are two excellent resources to help you gain more knowledge of these methods.

• The ‘Thinking’ in Systems Thinking: Seven Essential Skills, Barry Richmond
• The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Peter Senge

Recommended Reading, Listening

• Ideas for Impact Podcast ‘The Importance of Understanding Perspective’
• How to broaden your thinking and grow on your job

***See other articles related to career success, skills for success, systems thinking, analytical reasoning, decision making, problem solving, big picture, thought process

Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart;
and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.
* Winston Churchill

The distance is nothing;
it is only the first step that is difficult.
* Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond

The difference between getting somewhere
and nowhere is the courage to make an early start.
The fellow who sits still and does just what
he is told will never be told to do big things.
* Charles Schwab

I don’t like to lose, and that isn’t so much because
it is just a football game, but because defeat means
the failure to reach your objective. I don’t want a football player
who doesn’t take defeat to heart, who laughs it off with the thought,
“Oh, well, there’s another Saturday.” The trouble in American life today,
in business as well as in sports, is that too many people are afraid of competition.
The result is that in some circles people have come to sneer at success
if it costs hard work and training and sacrifice.
* Knute Rockne

The outer world or circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought,
and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make
for the ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest,
man learns both by suffering and bliss.
* James Allen

On a long journey of human life, faith is the best of
companions; it is the best refreshment on the journey;
and it is the greatest property.
* Gouthama Buddha

It would be a blessing if each person could be blind
and deaf for a few days during his adult life.
It makes him appreciate sight and the the joy of sound.
* Helen Keller

Teach children to use SPICE – and use it yourself.
S-Skill building.
P-Problem solving.
I-Imagination.
C-Communication.
E-Ego building.
* Unknown

Hold yourself for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you.
* Henry Ward Beecher

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

I believe that, in general, the spoken word has greater persuasive power than the written word. I will supplement my writing here at RightAttitudes.com with frequent podcasts on personal effectiveness.

Fundamentally, a podcast is an audio file that you can download to your computers and listen to using any audio player software. A number of our subscribers do not use high-speed internet; hence, we will use MP3 files of medium quality (bit rate of 64kbps) for smaller file sizes.

Tomorrow, on the occasion of the Indian festivals of Vijayadashami and Durga Pooja, I will release the first ‘Ideas for Impact’ podcast. In this podcast, we will discuss the importance of perspective and understanding of the big-picture in our jobs. Topics that I have in mind for future podcasts include,

• The 80-20 philosophy of prioritisation
• Humility in the context of leadership
• Problem solving by asking the right questions
• Cultivating the habit of quiet thinking

Each podcast will include a list of specific action items to help you reflect and develop the attitudes and skills described in the podcast.

I love to hear from you, get your feedback and discuss ideas for future podcasts. Thank you for your support.

***See other articles related to podcasts, ideas for impact

Introduction

Behavioral interviewing is a popular approach to assess the past experiences of a candidate to judge his/her response to identical situations on a future job. Essentially, behavioral interviewing is based on the premise that “past performance in comparable circumstances is the best predictor of future performance.”

In place of asking hypothetical questions (E.g., “How will you handle …,”) interviewers ask specific questions (E.g., “Describe a time when you had to …”) to elicit concrete examples of desired behaviors from the past. For further details and sample questions, see my earlier article on behavioral interviewing.

6 Steps to Answer Behavioral Interview Questions

1. Listen to the question carefully. Commonly, behavioral interview questions tend be longwinded and may sometimes sound vague (blame an overuse of adjectives, adverbs and trendy language.) Here is an example: “Good problem-solving often includes a careful review of the substantial facts and weighing of options before making a decision. Give me an instance of how you reached a practical business decision by an organized assessment of the facts and weighing of options.”
2. Ensure you understand the question before you begin to answer. You may paraphrase the question and ask the interviewer if you understand it correctly. If necessary, ask the interviewer to repeat the question. Do not, however, ask the interviewer to repeat every question — the interviewer may question your ability to listen and comprehend.
3. Organize your answer. Allow yourself five to eight seconds to collect your thoughts and structure your answer. Interviewers appreciate this break — they could use this time to drink some water, review their notes or rest their hands from note-taking.
4. State your answer. Attempt to conclude your answer in about three minutes. Three minutes is long enough to relate a story comprehensively and short enough to hold the interviewer’s attention.
5. Do not digress from your plan. Resist the temptation to think of new details as you state the answer. By sticking to the details and structure you had planned for, you can provide a consistent and well-reasoned answer. Be concise. Do not ramble on.
6. Answer follow-up questions. In response to your three-minute answer, the interviewer may pose follow-up questions. These questions can be confirming questions that require simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers or clarifying questions that require brief answers.

Answering a Question: Use the STAR Technique to Narrate an Experience

In behavioral interviewing, every answer should specifically address the skill being addressed. Your answer should relate an experience from a previous job assignment, project, academic studies or community work.

Present a diverse set of experiences. Suppose that you are asked six behavioral questions during a thirty-minute interview. Using a distinct context and/or experience for each question will help you portray a diversity of skills, interests and experiences.

Begin by examining the question: what is the purpose of the question, what specific skill is the question trying to address? Then, pick an experience that you could describe to address the question at hand. In your mind, recollect specifics of your experience. Structure your answer and narrate your experience using the four steps in the ‘STAR’ technique.

1. ‘S’ for Situation : Commence your answer with the background to your experience. Detail the circumstances of your involvement. Provide sufficient detail to develop a context to the rest of your narration.
2. ‘T’ for Task: Describe the challenge at hand: what needed to be done, what should have been done. Detail the outcome that was expected, constraints or conditions that needed to be satisfied.
3. ‘A’ for Action: Elaborate your specific action in response to the challenge. Specify analytical work, team effort or project coordination. Use ‘I’ and ‘we’ statements as appropriate [more details here.]
4. ‘R’ for Results: Explain the results of your efforts: what did you accomplish, what did you learn, how did your managers and team respond, how did your organization recognize you. Wherever possible, quantify your achievements and improvements — e. g., “20% improvement in …” or “reduced manufacturing costs by 1.5 million dollars per year … .”

An Example: Using the STAR Technique to Narrate an Experience

Consider a question suggested by authors Jack and Suzy Welch in a recent Business Week article on recruiting for leadership positions.

• Question: “Have you ever had to define yourself in the midst of criticism, and did you succeed?”

Below is a concise four-step ‘STAR’ answer to this interview question. This question illustrates the ability of the interviewee to listen to feedback, adapt as a manager and lead teams well.

1. ‘S’ for Situation: “My first job after business school was to lead a product development team at ABC Corporation. One of my responsibilities involved participating in weekly product planning meetings that decided on product features. After the meeting, I would meet with my staff and delegate the programming tasks. Since I am an experienced programmer, I would explain details of how each feature needed to be programmed. I expected my staff to write the programs in C++, test and debug. We seemed to work very well as a team.”
2. ‘T’ for Task: “Three months later, my manager had collected feedback from my staff. In my performance review, my manager observed that I could improve my delegation skills. I was surprised to receive this feedback. I had believed that I was good at delegating given that I would detail my expectations of each staff-member and list every step he/she needed to work on. It believed my staff was productive and continually gained knowledge from my coaching. I thanked my manager for the feedback and promised to reflect on my delegating style and consider a change.”
3. ‘A’ for Action: “I reflected on my delegation approach and realized two problems. Firstly, I assigned work to my staff only in terms of steps to take. I had habitually failed to describe the background of product features we wanted to develop and explain how their work would improve the overall product. My staff would do just what I had asked them to do. Secondly, in telling my staff how to complete each assignment, I was micromanaging. This may have tended to limit my staff’s initiative and reduced opportunities to advance their programming skills. During the next staff meeting, I thanked my staff for the feedback and acknowledged I would change. Then, each week, I explained the context to every product feature we wanted to develop, described the task in terms of outcomes and asked my staff how we could approach each task.”
4. ‘R’ for Results: “My staff was very excited about the opportunity to propose ideas, brainstorm and choose a preferred way of going about their work. It was no longer my idea they would work on; it was their own idea and their own approach. They were more enthusiastic about their work and realized they were an integral part of something bigger than themselves. During the next quarterly meeting, my manager praised me for empowering my team.”

Concluding Thoughts

In answering interview questions, the best way to impress an interviewer is to discuss your credentials and accomplishments in terms of personal success stories. The ‘STAR’ technique is probably the best method to structure answers to interview questions. By following this simple technique, you can narrate direct, meaningful, personalized experiences that best identify your qualifications.

Recommended Reading

• Introduction to behavioral interviewing and sample questions
• Avoiding second-person answers in interviews
• Avoid too many ‘I-I-I’ or ‘We-We-We’ answers in interviews
• Delegating outcomes, not just tasks

***See other articles related to job search, job-hunting tips, interviewing, hiring, recruiting, job interviews, interview questions, behavioral interviewing

In “The McKinsey Way,” author Ethan M. Rasiel presents numerous insights to problem solving, analytical reasoning and effective communication practiced at McKinsey and Company, one of the world’s foremost management-consulting firms.

Pre-Wiring a Presentation

Pre-wiring a presentation involves discussing your findings and recommendations with key decision-makers independently ahead of a group presentation. By getting various participants’ buy-in to the contents of your presentation, you ensure their support to your conclusions and avoid surprise reactions and disagreements.

There should be no surprises on the day of the presentation. All the major players should be taken through the solution in private. This way, necessary negotiation, compromise, and new facts that are integral to the acceptance of the proposal will be integrated by the time of the presentation. Pre-wiring removes much of the good to what risk from the presentation and allows the team to shine.

Following the practice of pre-wiring at McKinsey, organizations such as Wipro Technologies have started promoting pre-wiring. See article from Fast Company magazine.

Possible Reactions to a Pre-wired Presentation

• If your research is thorough and conclusions are logical, each decision-maker you meet ahead of a presentation may accept the contents of your presentation and agree to support your presentation.
• During the course of your conversations, you may uncover new details that may compel you to adjust your conclusions. Quite possibly, you may have to negotiate and make compromises in your conclusions.
• If a key decision-maker raises objections to your conclusions, you may rethink through your entire analysis and develop an alternate solution to the problem at hand.

Benefits of Pre-wiring a Presentation

• Prevents Blindsiding: Clearly, the biggest advantage of discussing a presentation with key decision-makers ahead of a group presentation is that it keeps you “from getting blindsided by major objections to your solution.” By avoiding surprises, you ensure each participant’s backing to your conclusions.
• Helps Get Buy-In: Presentations are usually time-constrained. There may not be sufficient time to describe finer aspects of your research, your deductions and recommended actions. Meeting with individual participants can help you supply all the relevant details to each participant, help him/her appreciate how your recommendations may affect him/her and get a buy-in.
• Develops Perspective: Presenting your findings to individuals allows you to gather additional inputs that help you develop a broader perspective. You may uncover new details that may compel you to adjust your conclusions.
• Helps prepare for the final presentation and tailor your message to suit the audience.

Concluding Thoughts

Pre-wiring a presentation improves the likelihood that your audience will identify with your approach and consent to your recommendations.

Related Articles

• Establishing Credibility for Persuasion: How to research and deduce concrete inferences in support of your positions

***See other articles related to persuasive communication, persuasion, selling ideas, effective presentations, McKinsey

‘Facts bridge the credibility gap.’

In “The McKinsey Way,” author Ethan M. Rasiel presents numerous insights to problem solving, analytical reasoning and effective communication practiced by consultants from McKinsey & Company, one of the foremost management-consulting firms.

When a typical associate joins McKinsey & Company, she “will have graduated near the top of her college class, spent two or three years working for a large company, then received her MBA from a top business school. She will be in her mid- to late-twenties. On her first engagement, she may have to present her analysis to the CEO of a Fortune 50 company, who will not give much credence to what some newly minted, 27-year-old MBA has to say — unless she has an overwhelming weight of facts to back her up. This is just as true for a junior executive presenting a proposal to his boss.

Call for Action

One of the primary facets of our work is to sell ideas — to lead and persuade an audience to appreciate our arguments or our perceptions on a certain topic or problem.

Credibility is the cornerstone of persuasive communication. Many of us mistakenly presume that credibility is an entitlement—a function of our positions or affiliations. We fail to realise that credibility is a virtue we earn and preserve over time.

The single most effective approach to establishing credibility is to demonstrate concrete foundations to our proposed thoughts — to draw on meaningful information and deduce concrete inferences in support of our positions.

• Collect facts and data from reliable sources. Interpret data and demonstrate its relevance. Deduce and structure your arguments in a logical manner to lead people to draw conclusions you would like them to.
• Include particulars (data, analyses, information) of your background work in an appendix to your presentation or report.
• Consider your position from every angle and prepare to answer questions. Address counter-arguments in your communication: “Some of you may argue that… Let me assess the risk and suggest a contingency plan.”

Bear in mind that people trust a person’s thoughts so long as they trust the underlying research.

***See other articles related to persuasive communication, persuasion, selling ideas, research, presentations