Coach Dan's Blog

“Misinformation is powerful, not because it changes minds, but because it allows people to maintain their beliefs in light of growing evidence to the contrary.” -Charlie Warzel and Mike Caulfield The Internet Is Worse Than a Brainwashing Machine  

  💡 Quick challenge for today - Assess how you listen. We all know that it's better to "listen to understand" rather than "listen to respond." I would suspect that most of us also think that we do a good job of listening to understand. But do we? Assess yourself today - Set your alarm and schedule yourself 5 minutes today, and actively reflect... ❔ Did I listen to understand today? ❔ Was I quick to respond, or did I pause to reflect before I answered questions? ❔ Did I repeat back what I heard to validate I understood what the sender intended? ❔ In reviewing every meeting on my calendar, what new thing did I learn with each interaction? Changing our habits can be hard. What are you doing today to become a better listener?

  Struggling with Low Performing Teams? Unit costs going up? Experiencing low employee engagement scores? Seeing an increase in turnover or burnout? It's easy to chase a single metric, especially when we live in a world where the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Ironically our instinct to "laser focus on solving the problem" which is often what causes additional problems, and wastes the investment made on improvement. Savy leaders measure, balance and invest in all three E's of their teams' performance. 💡 Effectiveness - A team's ability to regularly achieve their assigned outcomes (be it business or customer outcomes); often measured by ROI, NPS, Revenue/Profit growth, etc. 💡 Efficiency - A team’s use of their available resources, and their ability to continuously improve their ability create value; often measured by throughput, cycle time, defect rate, or a cost-per metric of some kind. 💡 Engagement - A team's psychological safety, alignment and sense of ...

  Who doesn't start out the new year with a Confucius quote? Seriously though - this particular quote hits pretty close to home as I reflect on my career, and consider my next steps forward. I've been blessed to have worked with so many amazing people, from whom I have learned so much. Wonderful mentors, talented coworkers, incredible partners, people who have challenged me, taught me, solved problems with me, taught me new approaches, supported me, laughed with me, learned with me. The experiences of my past have taught me countless lessons about how to be a good partner, team member, leader and coach. That said, those lessons mean so much more when I'm able to apply them to the task at hand. Every training session, workshop, seminar or new certification imparts valuable knowledge - but until I apply those lessons to solving a problem, or working together to create value - they are just theory. Learning new knowledge is great. Applying that knowledge in real time is the...

Jane Goodall's quote resonates with me deeply, and is especially relevant when applied to the practice of change management. So often, changes start with the best of intentions, then devolves into a litany of communication plans, stakeholder management lists, status updates, milestones and deadlines. Every change, regardless of size and complexity, ultimately intersects with the values, thoughts and beliefs of the people impacted by that change. "Listening and then starting a dialogue..." before, during and after the change is fundamental to creating an environment that embraces change. Listen and then start a dialogue, and you are well on your way to creating an environment that embraces continuous change and improvement.