According to Welch, feedback must be delivered in a way that is clear, direct, and timely. When a situation or conflict arises, you should address it immediately since letting it fester will only complicate matters and compromise productivity and harmony in the organization.

It sounds simple, but committing to candid and 100% honest feedback in an organization takes guts, courage, and self confidence. But, if these conversations are direct, professional and intended for the long term success of the company and the individuals, then Welch says it’s completely worthwhile.

So how do you initiate these conversations without unleashing a meltdown of emotional angst? Here are some of Jack Welch’s tips for providing constructive criticism and specifically, how to start the conversation.

• Schedule an off site meeting. Take the opportunity to literally step outside of the workplace and the daily routine. Go to a coffee shop or neutral location to get a fresh perspective on the matter at hand. It will also insure privacy and confidentiality in the conversation.
• Communicate and prepare. The only way to deliver difficult information is to take time and prepare and if the message is targeted at a specific individual, be clear about the purpose of the meeting and give them time to prepare as well. This is not the time for a surprise meeting – that will only make your employee defensive and less likely to absorb your message. Candid comments tend to freak people out, according to Welch so give your employee time to submit a written self-evaluation in advance so they feel prepared for the session. Any performance review should be more than a verbal report card; it should be a discussion about how to improve individual performance as well as the company at large.
• Create a true dialogue. It’s not just about what the employee is lacking, or what they do well. Give your colleague an opportunity to share candid feedback about your management skills and style.
• Focus on the future. An effective leader must be self aware in a performance review. If your employee missed a goal, don’t spend your time dwelling on that; focus more on future strategies for improvement to be solution oriented.

Striking the right balance is the objective so you can share frequent constructive criticism beyond the standard performance reviews but be wary of crossing the line to micromanager. Learning how to build a culture of constructive criticism takes time and effort. Keep in mind, sharing positive feedback and reinforcement is just as important as identifying places for improvement. The goal is to build self confidence and empower your team with a candid environment that goes both ways. Because sometimes the manager needs a little constructive feedback as well!

I have come to believe that while some leaders are born, most are developed and our current professional marketplace does not place enough emphasis on training effective leaders. This leads to discontent amongst the troops and ultimately low morale and low productivity. There are some enlightened organizations that train from within but I wish it was part of every organization’s professional development curriculum.

Liz Wiseman, worked at Oracle for 17+ years and considers herself a genius watcher. She was the VP responsible for the company’s global talent development strategy and ran the Oracle Corporate University. Her book: Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter teaches valuable lessons for current and aspiring leaders.

During Wiseman’s 17+ year leadership watching and developing experience at Oracle, she discovered that some leaders drain intelligence and the capabilities of the people around them. Their focus on their own intelligence and their narcissistic need to be the smartest person in the room had a diminishing effect on everyone else around them. For them to look smart other people had to look dumb or incompetent and in turn, the Diminishers created a vacuum suck of all the creative energy in a room. Meeting times were doubled and other people’s ideas suffocated and died in their presence. From these so called leaders, intelligence only flowed one way – from them to others.

The Multipliers, on the other hand used their leadership intelligence in a much different way. They used their intelligence to amplify the capabilities of others on their team. People got smarter and better in their presence and ideas flowed freely and challenges were overcome. When these leaders walked into a room the energy level went up on the team and difficult problems were solved because every team member had a say and was involved.

So why do some leaders boost the mental IQ in a room and others suck the mental life out of their employees? The Multipliers bring out the intelligence in others by building collective and viral genius in an organization.

Wiseman identified 5 disciplines of Multipliers:

1. The Talent Magnet: Attract and optimize talent
2. The Liberator: Require people’s best thinking
3. The Challenger: Extend challenges
4. The Debate Maker: Debate decisions
5. The Investor: Instill accountability

By extracting people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the resources from people than do the Diminishers. Wiseman shared a success story about Bill Campbell, former CEO of Intuit who fully admits that he is a recovered Diminisher. A courageous team member called him on his micro managing, intelligence draining leadership style and pleaded for him to give the team space to create ideas and solve problems. It was a hard lesson for Campbell to learn but in the long run it gave him the insight he needed to become a more effective leader.

He now subscribes to the philosophy of creating brilliance in others on his team by empowering them to succeed. This is a difficult lesson for many of today’s unsuccessful leaders who don’t have the professional development resources to learn to become Multipliers. Others don’t have courageous team members to call them out on being ineffective leaders so they continue to diminish and dysfunctional teams plod along.

If confronting your diminishing leader is not within your comfort zone, or you fear job security, perhaps a mysterious copy of Liz Wiseman’s great book in an office mailbox will plant the seed anonymously. Are you a Multiplier or a Diminisher?

“Being a woman with many interests, and all the same concerns as my female counterparts, I relied on the media for information that could help improve and inspire my life. Through my own discontentment with all the in-your-face ads and useless information about diet fads, fashion trends, and celebrity gossip found in other magazines – Identity was born. I believe our role models should be in our everyday lives; not photo-touched fashion plates on a page. Identity is my gift to every woman, for being who she is, and the best that she can be.”

Day to Day and Breath by Breath

Susan is indeed an enlightened young woman, ahead of her time in many ways, who already understands the female mind is often full of doubts, questions, and insecurities. Her magazine is a positive resource and a safe place to turn for information, sharing, and permission to just be who we are. Identity is not a fad site with quick fix diet tips and fashion fads or beauty cream miracles. It celebrates real women with everyday issues by providing practical resources. Susan’s mission is to encourage readers to embrace their inner confidence and to achieve our potential without comparing ourselves, our ideas, and our bodies to others. Targeted at the 21 and older demographic, Identity features articles by guest writers who share their expertise on a variety of timely topics.

Working “day-by-day and breath-by-breath” (Susan’s mantra) she says her goal is to make Identity her full time occupation so she can leave her day job altogether. In this tough economy she finds is scary to leave the financial security of her graphics position but also understands the struggle and the need to move forward so Identity can have her full time and attention.

Susan recognizes the freedom of being her own boss at Identity and can play to her strengths and her passions by helping women with her online publication. She believes we have a responsibility to pay-it-forward to younger woman and help them understand their gifts and the ability to embrace their self confidence early on. Her ultimate goal is to reverse the pervasive negativity trend and help women think more positively about themselves.

With an artistic background it’s easy to see how Susan uses her graphic design skills for Identity but she admits that without a business background she looked to mentors and established resources to help her launch the magazine. Her Dad & brother own businesses and proved to be terrific resources for her new venture. An avid researcher, Susan also did her homework and asked a million questions to learn the best practices for online magazines. As a NJ resident she also tapped into a Garden State resource designed to help young entrepreneurs – New Jersey Young Entrepreneurs  www.njye.webnode.com

The challenge continues to be balancing the day job with the growing demands of the magazine. Her financial strategy is to pay for new things as she can and increase incrementally. The goal is to continue to reach all 50 states and grow her sponsors and advertisers.

Just Do it Already!

The main framework of Identity was designed by ImpressM, LLC but with Susan’s expertise and knowledge of HTML she can manage most of the site herself and provide graphics for clients who need it. She reports that although she seeks out some contributors, many actually come to her. A future goal is for Susan to work with universities to develop workshops for women featuring the expert contributors from Identity. She is planning a Friday morning radio show to go along with her Identity FACT Friday!™ on the site and eventually, a book!

Susan has a go-for-it attitude that has helped her achieve success with Identity. Starting with no expectations and an open mind she was determined not to hold back and to stay true to herself during the entire process. Always eager to learn new things and to set new goals, Susan has learned to trust her instincts and push the envelope to grow her business.

“I am strong, positive and extremely ambitious and these qualities have gotten me where   I am today. My advice is to JUST DO IT ALREADY!  Pick a starting point and go.  Then give yourself homework each day.  Ask yourself a question then find the answer and move on to the next.  There isn’t always positive feedback, support, or an answer, but you have to work around that.  Get rid of the negative in your life.  You can’t move forward if you associate yourself with negative vibes.  I know it’s easier said than done,   but you CAN do anything you put your mind to. Take it day-by-day, breath-by-breath.  Accept. Appreciate. Achieve™ “

Words of wisdom from an insightful young woman on a mission to help us celebrate our unique identities.

Susan’s  Advice

• Set goals so you have benchmarks for achievement; give yourself homework every day.
• Embrace the strengths you have and use them.
• You have to be willing to take the plunge if you are unhappy in your current career. If you never try something new, you won’t ignite your passion.
• Find your circle of trust (family, friends, mentors) and bounce ideas off of them to flesh out your mental plans.

Quote:

“Day by day, breath by breath.” – Susan’s mantra!

She has also trademarked these phrases for Identity:

• Feel Beautiful Everyday!™
• Accept. Appreciate. Achieve.™

Resources:

Identity  www.identitymagazine.net

National Association of Women Business Owners NAWBO  www.nawbo.org

Ladies Who Launch  www.ladieswholaunch.com

Savor the Success  www.savorthesuccess.com

New Jersey Young Entrepreneurs   www.njye.webnode.com