Cut cost in half, increase productivity 40%

How do you resolve missed deadlines, un-kept commitments, unmet expectations, and rude or disrespectful behavior? Whether dealing internally or with outside vendors, most don’t confront these and other important “accountability” issues.

As a result of this column you and your organization will:

Know exactly what to do when someone disappoints you.
Understand what the term confrontation means and how to do it properly.
Before confronting someone, make sure that you are confronting the right problem.

A national poll of U.S. workers found that in one high-tech firm, the top code writers outperform the bottom by a factor of 10 to one. Leaders in more than a dozen industries estimated the typical difference is eight to one. Although this is common, lower performers often make about the same amount of money. What does this single issues cost in morale and lost productivity? Shouldn’t laggards be confronted?

These performance gaps can be reduced, but only when leaders and co-workers learn how to confront and hold people accountable.

What do you do when someone disappoints you? Some people respond in anger and they cut people off, overstate arguments and attack ideas. They often employ harsh debating tactics and sometimes resort to insults and threats.

Cut cost in half, increase productivity 40% from Joe Murtagh on Vimeo.

Other people react with stone-cold silence. Still others drop hints, change the subject, or say nothing rather than speak directly about the problem. The end result? A nurse who learned never to question a doctor’s judgment decides not to second-guess him when he amputates the wrong limb!

What sets the best leaders in the workplace apart from other people? They wield influence because they are the best at stepping up to colleagues, co-workers, or even their bosses, and holding them accountable.

What does the term confrontation mean? To confront means to hold someone accountable for disappointing you, face-to-face. It doesn’t have to be abrasive. When handled correctly, both parties are candid and respectful and talk openly and honestly. As a result, problems are resolved and relationships benefit.

Confrontations succeed or fail because of…

The words chosen.
The way they are delivered.

Before confronting someone, make sure that you are confronting the right problem. The question of what you should discuss is the most important issue in a confrontation.

People are often in too much of a hurry to do this. Their emotions propel them to move quickly, and speed rarely leads to careful thought. While sorting through the issues, decide what’s bothering you the most.

Remember, the only person you can really change is yourself.

Before you approach a confrontation, realize the only one you control is yourself.
You can’t expect to “change everyone else” or expect perfect results.

In Crucial Confrontations, authors Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler concluded that the ability to hold others accountable lies at the very center of a person’s ability to exert influence. Is it worth it? The authors said: “When an IT group improved confrontation skills by 22 percent, the group’s quality improved 30 percent, productivity climbed almost 40 percent and costs plummeted 50 percent.”

The first time a problem occurs, talk about the content, or what just happened.
The next time the problem occurs, talk about the pattern, what has been happening over time.
If the problem continues, talk about the relationship.

At stage three, the critical issue is that the string of disappointments has caused you to lose trust in them. Human Resources professionals would recommend that you carefully document each conversation, have the employee acknowledge it in writing, and keep that record in their files.

Remember to be concise and distill the issue to a single sentence. Lengthy descriptions only obscure the real issue. If you can control yourself, distill the problem to a simple statement and confront politely, studies show that cost savings of up to 50% and 40% productivity improvements…will be yours to enjoy.

Questions for discussion:

What is the lack of properly confronting our employees, outside venders and strategic partners…costing our organization?

Who do I need to respectfully and unemotionally confront right now and what single sentence will I prepare in order to successfully do so?

This article is provided by Joe Murtagh, “The DreamSpeaker” www.TheDreamSpeaker.com an MPI member and an expert at solving industry challenges. For keynotes, workshops, consulting and questions or a free report on The 3 Most Common Mistakes MPI Members Make email Joe Murtagh at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world.This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker^TM about Business Planning Issues.

To receive future monthly issues of Meeting Industry Journal™

One year subscription $ 24.95
First Name:(required)
Last Name:(required)
Organization name:
Address:(required)
City:(required)
State/Province/Region:(required)
ZIP/Postal Code:(required)
Country
Daytime Phone:(required)
E-mail Address:(valid email required)
Web site address:
Scholarship code: