June 21st, 2010 — Analytics, Blogging
June 20th, 2010 — Communication
If you lead a person or team, have peers you work with or even are managed by someone else (with no team that you’re managing), the Sandwich Method of Feedback is an effective communication tool.
I was reminded about the Sandwich Method in my Toastmasters public speaking class the other day.
Every speech in Toastmasters is evaluated and the delivery of criticism needs to be done delicately — I and others use the Sandwich Technique on a regular basis.
The Sandwich Method (or Sandwich Technique or Hamburger Method) is so named because the pieces of bread represent positive feedback/compliments while the meat of the sandwich (or innards if you’re vegetarian) represents constructive criticism.
I find this method of sandwiching the constructive criticism between two compliments to be an effective/disarming way to help improve/correct behavior.
The Sandwich Method
1) Slice of Bread 1: Start off with positive feedback (authentic praise of something they did recently)
Examples:
“By the way, John, I have to hand it to you on that deal you closed yesterday…that goes a long way towards helping us reach our goal.”
“Anne, I really appreciate you chipping in for Nicole this week while she was out of the office — that type of teamwork exemplifies the values I’m trying to instill at our company.”
2) The “Meat of the Matter”: Provide your constructive criticism
Be brief (yet clear and thorough) in your delivery of the meat of the matter — the criticism you want to share.
Ideally you are giving them constructive criticism on just one thing (at most two things)…I find criticism of 3 or more items is too much for a person to handle at one time.
Additionally, try to give them the criticism in the context of how it can help THEM reach their goals.
Examples:
“Jon, you’re so good at what you do that it’s hard to ever find suggestions on how you can improve. That said, I know you really want that promotion to Director of Sales. One skill you’re going to need in that position is analytics, and your weekly reports are currently pretty light on analytics. For you to earn that Director of Marketing spot, I recommend that you gain some mastery over analytics.”
“Anne, I know this is tough for you to hear, but you are perceived by some on the team as cocky. And I know that you mentioned that you wanted a transfer to Customer Service — well, we certainly don’t want them hearing that you have a reputation for cockiness. I recommend that you and I work together on making sure you’re not perceived as cocky.”
Caution About “Feelers”
Be especially careful about giving criticism to sensitive people or”feelers” as many of us call them in Carl Jung personality type speak (e.g. they would have the following personality types: INFP, ENFP, ISFP, ESFP, INFJ, ENFJ, ESFJ, ESFJ in the 16 Carl Jung Personality Types.
If you’re dealing with a sensitive/feeling type, I recommend you put in extra time on the Sandwich Method.
3) The 2nd Slice of Bread: End on a positive note
Ideas on how to end with positivity include
- You can simply reiterate the initial positive feedback/compliment you had given them.
- You can speak in general terms about how much progress they are making (read this article on How To Motivate Your Team Through Progresss).
- You can compliment them on their receptiveness to receiving constructive criticism.
Examples:
“Jon, that deal you closed was really important and I’m thrilled with the fact that you and I can have an open conversation about working harder on analytics.”
“Jon, I really admire your enthusiasm about developing yourself. You were already making headway and this analytics thing can be icing on the cake. I think it’s a huge benefit in you progressing towards the Director of Sales position you covet.”
“Anne, you’re really on the right track here. This cockiness thing is just a bump in the road and I’m looking forward to working on it with you.”
It should go without saying that all of your criticism (positive or negative) should be authentic and well thought out.
That’s the sandwich method…good luck with it!
June 17th, 2010 — Health
I was discussing ‘recharging’ with some friends over pizza in the Italian North Beach neighborhood of San Franciso the other night.
The concept of recharging caught my eye when I read the amazing book: The Power Of Full Engagement by Tony Schwartz & Jim Loehr.
I was captivated by the stories that Tony & Jim told of how they studied professional tennis players.
I must have lent my copy of the book out so I’m going by memory here…as I recall, Tony & Jim studied two groups of tennis pros:
- Group A: The Top 10 Tennis Pros (e.g. 1 to 10) (who make millions per year) and
- Group B: The Lower-Ranked Tennis Pros (e.g. ranked 100 to 500) (who just scratch their way by career-wise)
When they studied videos of the two groups of tennis pros, they noticed something odd: there was no real difference in the talent of the two groups (a guy ranked 200 had essentially the same quality serve, forehand, backhand, etc. of a guy ranked #1).
Amazing, right?
So, what WAS the difference between the two groups
Answer: careful analysis showed that the main difference was the way the two different groups “recharged.”
Examples of recharging were:
What the players did between points
Group A had a a nice steady breath and a casual glance at their racket (perhaps adjusting a string or two) or looking up at place in the crowd or sky
Group B, on the other hand, spent time in between points getting angry with themselves or an umpire (e.g. about the last point they may have lost), distracted by someone in the crowd, or were otherwise fidgety.
A look at what the players did in between games and sets was similar: Group A player was relaxed and regrouping while Group B player was talking to himself or a fan or the umpire.
I recall that the authors may have also mentioned that they observed differences between how the two groups acted (or recharged) between matches too.
So, how does this relate to you?
Well, Tony & Jim pointed out that business-folks need recharging even more than athletes (because we typically don’t have coaches to help us out, structured training or dedicated time off (such as Spring/Summer for most professional basketball players or Winter for baseball players).
Reading Power Of Full Engagement inspired me to be more conscious of how I recharge my batteries.
So, I set up a new recharging strategy…it’s been a couple of years now and I thought I’d lay out my schedule of recharging.
Here’s a typical day for Rob Kelly:
- 6:00am to 7:15am: I wake up and focus on creative works (I read about concepts or play guitar or map out ideas on giant post-it notes)
- 7:30am to 8:30am: I work out (yoga or basketball) (RECHARGING)
- 9:15am to 11:30am: I work my job (and I get up at least once during this time to stretch my legs, drink water, etc.)
- 11:30am to 12noon: I drink a caffeinated beverage and read the San Francisco Chronicle (RECHARGING)
- 12noon to 2:30pm: I work more on my job
- 230pm to 3pm: I take a 30 minute break for food and read the Wall Street Journal (RECHARGING)
- 3pm to 5:15pm: I work my job
- 515pm to 6pm: I pick up groceries for dinner (RECHARGING)
- 6pm to 7:45pm: I work more on my job and do some light other work (perhaps write a blog posting)
- 7:45pm to 8:15pm: I cook dinner
- 8:15pm to 9:15pm: I watch quality TV (RECHARGING)
- 9:30pm to 10pm: I read low-intensity books (usually fiction…so as to ease my way into sleep)
- By 10:15pm, it’s usually light’s out (7 to 8 hours of sleep — RECHARGING)
I’m also trying to apply consistent recharging to longer time periods such as:
- Weekends — I recharge through at least one visit to nature
- Every Quarter — I try to take a long weekend at least once a quarter
- Summers — I try to spend two weeks each summer with my family
- Annual — I try to do one off-site family vacation per year
- Bi-Annual — I try to leave the United States once every two years (that’s something I learned from How To Innovate: 5 Tips From Leading Innovators.
I’m really happy with the results so far. A consistent recharging has made me feel healthier and more balanced.
June 15th, 2010 — Networking
You may periodically see or hear about a job you’d love to have — so what do you do next?
I believe that the best way to approach a job you want is to get the senior most person at the target-employer to refer you so that you get on the fast track for the interview process (with the hiring manager).
If you’re interested in that, here’s some advice I gave a colleague recently on how to do that through LinkedIn:
Identify The Employer’s Senior Most Person (Who Is Also On LinkedIn)
First, go to LinkedIn and search for the senior most person at the target-employer (I recommend you go for the CEO).
Note: If you’re not familiar with LinkedIn, read this LinkedIn For Beginners Article.
When I search on LinkedIn I use the “advanced search” and enter in the name of the target-employer in the “Company” field (I start with “Current” in the drop-down) and then “CEO” in the title field.
Click Search.
Hopefully, up pops the CEO of the target-employer. If the CEO doesn’t pop up, then re-do the search by trying out other senior titles such as “founder” or “president” or “vice president.”
Click Search.
Now you should have at least one senior person at the target-employer.
Click on that search result within LinkedIn (so that you now have a profile of the target-employer executive (let’s call them the “CEO”).
See What Level Of Connection You Have With The Target-Employer Executive
If you are a 2nd degree connection (meaning that the number “2″ is in a circle to the right of the person’s name), then look over to the lower right-hand part of the profile to see “How you’re connected to [the CEO]”
Each one of those shared connections has a direct connection with the target-employer’s CEO (and has a direct relationship with you!).
If that’s the case, you should contact those “shared connections” (by telephone is ideal) and ask for their advice on approaching that CEO (ideally you get an email from the shared connection to the CEO recommending you for the job).
Two Alternatives For Finding A Target Employer CEO 2nd Degree Connection
If you don’t have a 2nd degree connection with the CEO (i.e. there is a “3″ or “4″ to the right of the CEO’s name, then you can try the following:
1) Scroll down the CEO’s profile page and click on the clickable company name (second line underneath “Experience”) to see if the target-employer has a Company profile on LinkedIn.
If they do have a Company profile, then you can now look at names of other executives at the company — see if there is a second degree connection that you have to one of them.
2) If the target employer does NOT have a Company profile, then go back to the Advanced search and enter in the target employer’s name in the Company field and select “Relationship” in the Sort By drop-down field (in the lower left of the screen).
And click Search.
You will now see the people at this target-employer who you are closest to (ideally, you see a 2nd connection here.
If you do, then you know that person directly and should talk to them and ask them to recommend you for the job.
If You Don’t See Any 2nd Degree Connection At Your Target-Employer
If all of that fails, then you should contact the most connected LinkedIn person you know and ask them to do the same searches (they will likely have a 2nd degree connection to a senior person at that company — if they do, then brainstorm how to approach that person).
If that fails, you are probably in need of some serious networking help.
That’s ok…you can comment below on your challenge and I’ll do my best to help you.
You may also want to read my business networking tips articles.
June 8th, 2010 — Communication
Some of you want to know what a typical Toastmasters meeting looks like.
Here’s a sample Toastmasters agenda (it assumes a 12:05pm start with a roughly 1pm close (total of 55 minutes for the meeting)).
- 12:05pm: Opening Remarks by Toastmaster (including mention of who Timer & Gramarrian are)
- 12:10pm: Speaker 1: [fill in their name, topic and number of minutes planned for speech]
- 12:17pm: Speaker #2 [fill in their name, topic and number of minutes planned for speech]
- 12:24pm: Table-Topics Leader introduces themselves & calls upon a handful of people to give 1 to 2 minute table-topic speeches
- 12:43pm: Master Evaluator introduces themselves & the speech evaluators:
- 12:45pm: #1 Evaluator introduces themselves and evaluates Speaker #1
- 12:48pm: #2 Evaluator introduces themselves and evaluates Speaker #2
- 12:51pm: Timer does their report (recording the time of each speaker)
- 12:52pm: Grammarian does their report (reporting on the Uhs, Ahs, Likes, Ya-Knows, etc. that each spekaer made)
- 12:54pm: Master Evaluator/ Closing/ Announcements
For more on Toastmasters basics, check out My First Experience With Toastmasters.