Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: problems

  • Listen In -> Employees… What Are They Good For? #4: The Problem of Poor Employee Performance

    I’d venture that for 90% of employee performance problems, supervisors focus their solution efforts on the problem employee.

    Helping the employee change. Demanding that the employee change. Talking to the employee. Writing up the employee. Training the employee. Disciplining the employee.

    What if, though, the employee was not the problem?

    What if problems elsewhere in the company were creating a situation in which no employee would look good?

    What if their negative attitude was a self-protective response to your harsh, arbitrary and/or imperious leadership style?

    What if their uncooperativeness was a response to the competitive bonus program in your compensation structure?

    In this week’s podcast discussion, Claudia and I take a closer look at the problem of poor employee performance.

    When acceptable performance becomes a problem, are we jumping too quickly to blame and punishment?

    Could there be aspects of your corporate structure, culture, or your own leadership methods that might be setting the stage for poor performance?

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Loving Monday: Addressing One Problem… Today

    loving_monday

    The great thing about Monday morning is that we get to begin our week any way we choose.

    We can choose our attitudes, we can choose our priorities, we can choose what will get our attention and what we will avoid.

    Problems, more often than not, fall into the category of what we choose to avoid.

    I‘d like to suggest that for this Monday morning, we each select a problem we will address.

    Very few of us love problems or look forward to confronting them. Problems, though, exist no matter what we might feel about them.

    The opportunity we have here on Monday morning is to begin the week differently.

    What is one difficult issue, recurring problem, or awkward relationship that you have been avoiding?

    Have been avoiding up until now, that is.

    While addressing a problem may be an unpleasant, awkward, and difficult experience, at least you got it over with. You are now on the road to building a different way forward.

    As long as the problem is avoided, though, it is still hanging over your head, lurking in the shadows, laying like an unexploded land mine upon which you or someone else will eventually step.

    It’s your choice, of course. Would you rather do the difficult work of diffusing the bomb or the difficult work of recovering from its explosion?

    This Monday, let’s try diffusing one difficult issue so we can spend the rest of the week building a constructive way forward.

    What issue will you choose?

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

    Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.

  • Intractable Problem? Where To Look First

    Problems by definition are messy, complex affairs not lending themselves to simple solutions.

    Time has gone by. Unhealthy patterns have developed. Perceptions have hardened. Inefficient practices have become policy. Power struggles have morphed into a hierarchical bureaucracy.

    The process of problem solving… that is, the unraveling, the sorting out, the rethinking, the insightful critiques, the fresh alternatives, and the bold decisions needed can neither be delayed nor rushed.

    One thing, though, is simple. Where to start. While there is no telling where the process will end up, we know right away where to begin. (more…)

  • A Solution in Search of a Problem

    It is no secret that we get things backwards once in a while.

    Most common is when we discover a solution in search of a problem.

    Once in a while, an unanticipated solution reveals a “problem” that we didn’t know we had. The iPod and iTunes are good examples. It wasn’t until we had the option of listening to songs in any order we wanted and buying them in any combination we wanted that it occurred to us that the “album” package was severely limiting.

    More commonly we have a brilliant inspiration for a new policy or procedure, gadget or widget, service or organization, but then discover that we are filling a gap no one else perceives or solving a problem no one else is experiencing.

    Government agencies are famously addicted to designing rules, processes, paperwork, and systems that either serve no purpose at all (save justify someone’s departmental budget), or address an instance so peculiar and particular that the cost and burden to the 99.9% for whom that instance does not apply scandalously outweighs the benefit to the isolated few.

    In between the visionary iPod and the short-sighted NLRB dictating in which states a business can and cannot do business while jobs increasingly move to other countries altogether, is where most of us operate… trying to do a good job, make a difference, and add value.

    So three cheers for the creativity, initiative, and energy involved in proposing new ideas!

    Where we want to catch ourselves… What we want to make sure we have considered… What we want to stay laser-focused on… is what problem, real or perceived, our idea is solving.

    A solution without a problem risks being ignored as irrelevant, dismissed as extravagant, or opposed as burdensome.

    How do you communicate your great ideas?

    How well do you identify and explain the problem being addressed and the costs of not addressing it?

    It may be discouraging to discover that you have come upon a solution in search of a problem. But it will be disastrous if you continue to sell, implement, and/or impose your solution without one.

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

  • Listen In -> Paying Attention to Attentiveness #3: Attentive to Problems

    Problems crop up when we least expect them. Problems break through where we least expect them. Problems don’t time themselves well, don’t identify themselves forthrightly, and don’t come with solutions printed in the back of the book.

    Not only are problems difficult to anticipate, if they are not spotted early on, they can spread like a cancer.

    In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss attentiveness to problems.

    Paying attention becomes a crucial skill when it comes to spotting problems early on. Earlier than later. Early, while there is still time to take decisive and corrective action before extensive damage is done.

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Question of the Week

    What leadership skills do you model when problems arise?

    The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.

  • Question of the Week

    What are three recurring problems for which your current “solutions”—for all that they are doing—are not resulting in change?

    The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.