We have all worked with someone — or for someone — who was inconsistent in their communication or expectations. Not only is it annoying, it can also hurt morale and undermine your team. A team requires consistent communication and clear expectations in order to achieve set goals.

While we can all think of someone who has failed in consistent communication and/or expectations, we are all guilty of it too. Whether stress, apathy, lack of vision, lack of time, or otherwise, we have all been inconsistent at some point or another in the way we communicate with others or in our expectations of others or ourselves.

This post identifies three important areas of communication in which leaders must be consistent (and how they can achieve consistency), and then discusses how to set consistent expectations for your team and for yourself.

Consistent communication

I have met many leaders who are strong communicators — and some leaders who are not. Communication is a key to your success as a leader (more on that in another post).

The problem is generally not that leaders do not communicate, it is that they communicate inconsistently.

There are a few areas where leaders communicate with inconsistency. As a side note, these communication tips are good for mass communication as well.

1. Messaging

You need to use consistent messaging when interacting with your team. What you say to one team member does not need to be verbatim what you said to another, but the message should be identical. In the same way, the message you tell a team member on Monday and what you tell the same person on Friday should be the same. If your messaging is inconsistent, you will give mixed messages to your team, which leads to confusion and distrust.

2. Transparency

Leaders should always seek to be transparent with their team, except under circumstances that require confidentiality. If you commit to being transparent with your team, that is all the more reason to act with transparency. Again, with the exception of confidential or secret information entrusted to you by others, you should not give some information while with-holding other information from your team. Be consistent in your transparency so your team can trust you.

3. Timing

If you commit to regular communication your team — whether it is a project update, a check in, or anything else — you need to be consistent. As a leader, you should be checking in with your team members regularly anyways, so the commitment should not even have to be made. Be consistent in the timing of your interactions with your team. Don’t meet with each team member individually once every two weeks for a month and then wait three months before scheduling another meeting. Your team is judging you as a leader, and it is far more professional to have a consistent meeting schedule than not. If, on the other hand, you commit to only holding meetings when they are necessary, then do just that. Don’t waste your team’s time with unorganized meetings.

 Consistent expectations

All leaders should have clearly defined expectations from their team. If you expect your team to behave in a certain way or meet a certain goal, that should be made clear to them. If you, as a team member, are given a set of expectations, you should work hard to meet those expectations.

Leaders should also have expectations for themselves. These expectations should be higher than those they have for their team. If you expect your team to achieve excellence in their work, your work should be more excellent; if you expect your team to be punctual, you should be early. The same goes for leaders who are not in a leadership position (what I call “everyday leaders”). If you are a leader among your peers or wish to become a leader, you need to have very high, yet realistic, expectations for yourself.

In order for your expectations to be effective, they must be consistent.

Whether you have expectations for your team or for yourself, you must keep them consistent. If your team (or you) meets your expectations, they deserve congratulations. Don’t ignore their achievements; doing so will undermine the importance of your expectations.

Let me put it this way. Your expectations exist only because you make them so. It is your words that have created these expectations in your mind and the minds of your team. But words have a shelf life. You need to reinforce them. You could choose to continually remind your team of your expectations, and you probably should; however, it is far more effective to congratulate excellence when you see it. At the same time, if someone continually fails to meet your expectations, you need to address that.

No matter what, your expectations should be consistent. Your team needs to know exactly what is expected of them. If your expectations are not concrete, your team will suffer for it, because they don’t know what defines success for them. It is also important for you to have consistent expectations for yourself. You cannot expect excellence for yourself and then shrug it off if you miss that goal; on the other hand, you cannot expect yourself to put in three days of overtime in a week and then get upset if you reach three but fail to meet four.

There will be times when your expectations have to change. This is okay. When the time comes, make these changes very clear to your team (and yourself). If possible, give a reason for the change in expectations.

You may realize after you set out your expectations that you expected too much (or too little). You can change the severity of your expectations as well, but again make sure that your team is fully aware of these changes. They need to know what is expected of them, and in return they will expect that you will inform them if anything changes.

Dynamic Lessons

Even though leaders and their teams must be flexible and adaptable, people still thrive on a certain amount of consistency. As a leader, your communication with and expectations of your team should be consistent.

When exercising consistency with your team, you use the same principles that you would use to ensure consistency in mass communication with the public. First, ensure you have consistent messaging; the message you give to your team should be consistent (unless circumstances change, then you should communicate that change to your whole team). Second, you should have consistent transparency; your whole team should know the same thing (unless confidential information pertains to only a select group). Third, be consistent in your timing; check in regularly with your team members and ensure constant flow of communication.

It is also imperative that leaders keep their expectations consistent, both for their team and for themselves. Your team needs to know exactly what is expected of them. On the other hand, you need to know exactly to what standards you are holding yourself, and ensure that you hold yourself accountable to those standards.

Have you ever worked with or for someone who was inconsistent in their communication or their expectations? How did you handle that?

Books that influenced this article:

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

The post How to Drive Consistency in Communication and Expectation appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

Sometimes the most important thing an organization can do is stop trying to grow.

Orgnanizational growth is an important part of almost any organization, but sometimes trying to grow can be more detrimental than it’s worth. Here’s why.

Growth for Growth’s Sake

When in doubt, leaders start throwing around buzzwords and hope something sticks; “growth” is one of those words. How do we overcome stagnation? We grow. How do we build our brand? We grow. How do we reach more customers? We grow.

Sure, these all seem like natural progressions. After all, how do you improve your business without growth? Well, sometimes growth for growth’s sake is not only going to cause financial strain, it could undermine your organization.

From the Ground Up

I’m not usually one for metaphors, but this one just works. Imagine a huge tree in your backyard. The tree is massive, and it took years for it to grow. What is the key to the tree’s success? The answer is not that it grew quickly, or even that it grew tall. The key to the success of that tree is the underground root system.

Much like a tree, your organization’s success in the outside world – whether that is business, government, non-profit, or otherwise – is first and foremost dependent upon the internal structure.

If a tree grows too high without the proper root structure, it will be coming over in the first big wind storm. In the same way, if your organization grows so fast that its internal structure can’t keep up, you won’t be able to support it when you run into problems – and trust me, you will run into problems.

Building Something Great

Too many leaders/organizations are scared to take their foot off the gas pedal in case they are run over by the competition. This mindset says that if we aren’t growing, we are stagnating, and our competitors will take over. But here is the problem with that:

Growth is not the only indicator of success.

At no point am I suggesting that you try to prevent growth; I’m saying that maybe you shouldn’t be focusing on growth. First make sure that you have the internal structure to support growth. Sometimes you will need to reorganize your organizational chart, or shift responsibilities to allow people to take on projects that fit their expertise.

Second, you have to make sure that you have something worth growing. If you are selling a product, you’d better make sure that your product is the best that it can be. If you provide a service, your customer satisfaction better be through the roof. If you are in government or politics, you’d better make sure that your support base is fully behind you. In short, sometimes you need to focus more on the products/clients you already have before you should even think about expanding.

Growing Up

Eventually, it will be time for you and your organization to focus on growth. You have an internal structure that will support growth, you have a product/service that you are proud of, and your team is excited to move to the next stage. If you do all of this right, the first sign that it’s time to start focusing on growth will be that your organization has started growing without you even trying.

New customers are lining up outside your doors, your employees are coming up with new and innovative ideas for your organization, your support numbers are steadily on the rise, or whatever your indicator of growth may be. When you have something worth growing, it will start growing on its own. That’s when you know it’s time to start focusing your efforts on growth.

Dynamic Lessons

Growing for growth’s sake can actually do more harm to your organization than good. In order to sustain growth, an organization must have the internal structure to support growth, as well as a product/service that deserves to grow.

When a leader pushes the pause button and focuses on SUPPORTING growth, it will put that organization in a position to SUSTAIN growth at a later date.

Have you ever had to push the pause button on growth in order to improve what already exists? Or have you had different experiences with growth, either positive or negative? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!

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While I have my own rants on the subject (you should be working smarter AND harder), there is a kernel of truth somewhere in that overused cliche. But it’s probably not what you think it is.

What working smarter actually means

If you’re ready, I’m about to turn our cliche upside down. You ready? Here it is:

Working smarter means freeing up time that you can reallocate elsewhere.

Or, to put it another way:

The purpose of working smarter is to increase efficiency and productivity.

That’s right. Working smarter is not about avoiding hard work; it’s about providing more time to be able to work. You work smarter so your work goes farther.

Working smarter does not replace the need to work hard; it allows you more time with which you can work hard. Working smart does not necessarily make you more productive; it just provides the opportunity to be more productive.

Working smarter AND harder

This is why you have to work smarter AND harder. Together, they allow you to be more productive in a shorter period of time.

Too many people think that working smarter allows them to be lazy. Winners know that working smarter actually allows them to work harder.

Dynamic lessons

“Work smarter, not harder” is misleading. The purpose of working smarter is to provide more time that can be used to work harder. Try living by a new maxim: “Work smarter AND harder.”

I wanted to make one last point on the subject of time. If you work smarter and harder, you will find yourself with more time than you had previously. That time is yours to invest. Invest that time into what matters most in your life. Whether it’s your family, your friends, your hobby, your job, whatever, invest your time in that.

Productivity allows you to take time back. Don’t squander it.

What are some awesome productivity tips and time-savers you have discovered? Share your wisdom with the rest of us in the comments section below!

The post Working Smarter Does Not Mean What You Think It Does appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

Peyton Manning is regarded as one of the best quarterbacks of his generation, possibly even in history, and for good reason. By the time that he retired, he held the following records:

1. Total career passing yards (71,940)
2. Total single season passing yards (5,477)
3. Seasons with 4,000+ yards (14)
4. Games with 400+ yards (14)
5. Total career touchdown passes (539)
6. Total touchdown passes in a single season (55)
7. Number of seasons with 25+ touchdowns (16)
8. Number of games with at least 4 touchdowns (35)
9. Number of four-touchdown games in one season (9)
10. Number of total wins (200)

These are just the records that Manning holds on his own (not to mention the more obscure records that he holds, such as the oldest quarterback to win a Superbowl (39) or the most playoff appearances by a quarterback (15), to name a few). In addition, Manning is tied for the top spot for these records:

1. Average yards per game over a career (342.3)
2. Number of 400+ yard games in a single season (4)
3. Number of touchdowns thrown in one game (7)

In case you aren’t a football fan, let me shed some light on these statistics: Peyton Manning is an impressive individual. Some of the records he holds are quite close to the competition, but many of them have a huge gap between him and second place. In other words, Manning is an elite among elite players, and a very successful man.

When Manning and the Denver Broncos took the field on February 7, 2016, this was their second Superbowl appearance in two years. On February 2, 2014, Manning led the Broncos onto the field at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, to do battle with Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks in Superbowl 48. In 2014, however, the end result was very different from 2016.

On the very first offensive drive of Superbowl 48, Peyton Manning, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, fumbled a snap that Seattle returned for a touchdown. Seattle never looked back, and for the rest of the game, the Broncos were steamrolled. The final score: Seattle: 43, Denver: 8.

This was a huge surprise to the football world. It’s not that the Seahawks were the underdogs — the Seahawks had the highest-rated defence in the league — but nobody expected such a blow-out. The Broncos had the best offence in the league by far. Peyton Manning had just had one of the best seasons of his storied career. The question on everyone’s lips was: “Can the Seahawks keep up with Peyton?” Nobody thought to ask if Peyton could keep up with the Seahawks.

The defeat was humiliating and the wounds were fresh. Peyton Manning had just played a record-setting season (he had set three single-season records for that season: most season passing yards, most touchdown passes in a season, and most four-touchdown games in one season) and had capped it off by losing the most important game of the season. How do you come back from that?

The answer, according to Peyton Manning himself, was self-evaluation. The first day back at the the Broncos training facility in Denver, Manning and the rest of his team watched the entire Superbowl game on tape. Multiple times. No, they weren’t reliving the defeat, they were watching themselves. Manning watched every single snap, every pivot, every throw, every play that he did. And he learned.

That’s not all that Manning reviewed. Over the course of the 2013-2014 season, Manning threw 787 passes (regular season and playoffs combined). He rewatched every single pass. He wasn’t just looking at his throwing technique either; he was watching to see where his receivers lined up, where their defenders matched them, the routes his receivers ran, where his eyes went, which receiver he threw the ball at, and how the defence responded. After each throw he would ask himself if he threw to the right receiver or if there was a better option. What did he do right? What did he do wrong?

Manning was so dedicated to watching game film that he went high-tech, even mobile. He had a top-of-the-line home theatre installed in his home for the sole purpose of watching game film at home. If that wasn’t enough, he also had a tablet that he carried everywhere with him, so that he could watch game film whenever he had a spare moment. For Peyton Manning, the time he spent actually playing the game paled in comparison with the amount of time he spent evaluating his own performance.

In the 2013-2014 season, Manning threw 55 touchdown passes (the most ever thrown in a single season). Was he happy with that? No. There were missed opportunities that he identified on film where he could have made more touchdown passes. More game film to study, to learn from.

So what is the point of all this work? Two years later returning to the Superbowl and winning that all-important final game was the point. Armed with the knowledge, Manning was prepared for the work it would take to get back to the top. Now, he did not do it alone. If there is one sport that epitomizes the concept of team, it is football. There are eleven players on the field, and each one is vital to the success of the team. As a leader, Manning had to first evaluate himself and improve himself before he could ask his team to do the same.

Demaryius Thomas is a wide receiver and was one of Manning’s teammates in both the 2014 and 2016 Superbowls. He was once interviewed by ESPN about Manning’s film review habits and he said, “[Peyton] will always say if he thought he could have done something differently. He’s not afraid to just say it. … When guys see somebody like Peyton so accountable, you have to be accountable. You can’t help it. He’s Peyton doing that — how are you going to just duck your head and not admit what you did?”

As team captain and a leader, Manning focused on improving himself before improving his team. The rest of his team saw their leader, the 2013 Most Valuable Player and arguably the best regular-season quarterback of all-time, evaluating every single second of his own performance in order to improve. Such action inspired them to evaluate their own performance, to get better, to match their leader. And they did. And two years later they won the Superbowl and became the best football team in the world.

Dynamic Lessons

Leadership is not just about inspiring others; it is equally about inspiring yourself.

1. You are first and foremost responsible for yourself. If you want to succeed, you must take ownership of your actions. There are always ways for you to improve. If the MVP of the NFL and the single-season touchdown record holder can find ways to improve his game and spot places that he could have made more touchdowns, then you can find areas of your own performance that you could tweak to become better and more efficient.
2. When a leader voluntarily evaluates his/her own performance, the rest of the team will follow. Oftentimes leading by example is far more important than leading by instruction. You want your team to be able to evaluate themselves, so show them how it’s done.
3. It’s a team game. You might not be a football player, or even a sports fan, but you are probably working in a team. Teamwork means, believe it or not, working together. When you constantly evaluate yourself and improve yourself, you make yourself and your team better.
4. Failure and success are equally instructional. This is perhaps the most important lesson. Manning learned not just from his mistakes, but also from his successes. He had the most successful individual season he ever had in 2013, even though he ended up losing the Superbowl. Both his failures and his successes were instrumental in teaching him and his team the lessons they needed to learn in order to win two years later.

Have you ever taken the time to stop and evaluate yourself and your outcomes? What did you learn about yourself?

The post Case Study: Peyton Manning and the Value of Self-Evaluation as a Leader appeared first on Great North Dynamics.