Projects that Require Creative and Productive Action
For the projects with no clear answer of how to get them done, coaching get a little bit trickier. These projects really could be anything, like developing a year-long marketing plan, coming up with and testing a new product, or adjusting the client experience and journey. We often assume that, when we are leads on projects, that our employees get stuff done the way that we do. We might not literally believe that, but we tend to act as though it is true.
For example, I have an employee, Emmalee, who has been working for me for several years. The way that we start and complete projects is completely different. The differences in how we work can be extremely valuable, if we are aware of it. If we are not aware of it, we can slip into modes of work that are counterproductive for the other. For me, an extraordinary amount of my energy naturally goes into innovating. I am constantly looking at the world and coming up with new creative solutions to be able to move our company mission and BHAG forward. Then, I tend to evaluate what we have, and look for any shortcuts to solutions to avoid eating up valuable time. What I then tend to communicate to my team are bottom-line statements of the big-picture ideas and innovations that I am thinking. Quite clearly, not everybody thinks the same way that I do. Not everybody even begins their creative process with brainstorming, and not many people naturally have their energy going into creating new innovations and ideas. Further, I don’t really care to get too into the details, if I can help it. I just want the overview of what my employees are working on, and I tend to give them very few details when giving them strategic direction for projects.
Now Emmalee, on the other hand, has a more structured approach to her projects. She always begins with creating an outline and / or a plan of attack. She then reviews all of the present data that is available to her – conducting academic research as well as referencing top business books to make sure there is a solid basis for our claims and adjusting to any changes she might find from her original plan. Finally, she’ll review the project to make sure all of the materials therein hold up well.
Now, where can this get tricky? When I give her feedback on her projects, sometimes it involves brainstorming whole new ideas that don’t fit her original plan for her project. Sometimes, that’s helpful, because the new ideas could be better, provide a different prospective, and lead to a better outcome of the project. Other times, that’s unhelpful, because it causes her to go back to the beginning of her productive process, wholly recreating her plan of attack, that didn’t necessarily need to be recreated. If I am unaware of how Emmalee and I work, I have the potential to throw off her productive rhythm by inserting ideas that are challenging to adjust to. If Emmalee is unaware of how we work, because they don’t necessarily fit her plan of attack, she can find herself limiting innovations and ideas, not incorporating them even when they are helpful. If we do not take care to understand each other, there is legitimately a high potential for conflict or unnecessary stress. But, if we do take care to understand how the other gets work done, making small adjustments accordingly, what was once a conflict becomes a superpower. Because we have such different skillsets and modes of working, we can be much more productive, using each other’s strengths to get things done.
For example, while Emmalee is great at creating structure for projects, conducting research and synthesizing information from many different sources, she doesn’t particularly like starting from a blank page. For me, I get energy from starting from a blank page. When we work together, we tend to brainstorm together, and then she synthesizes what we say into an outline from which she can carry the project forward. From then on, I keep in mind the outline she created, so that she can more easily adjust to the changes and new ideas and get her projects done quickly, while still bearing in mind the feedback that I give her.
By taking the time to understand how my employee gets things done, I am able to effectively communicate and provide feedback and direction on their projects that is both helpful and conducive to how my employees do their best work.
To be effective in coaching:
Invest in assessment tools that help you and your employees assess their conative approach to getting work done. At PFD, we recommend the Kolbe A Report from Ware Withal.
Take time to review the tools with your employees. Your employees better understanding how they naturally get things done will only serve them. Ask them: How do you deal with information? How do you organize? How do you deal with uncertainty? How do you use your time and energy?
Share your conative approach with your employees. Discuss: where might conflicts be? How have differences in the conative approach manifested in the past? Can we use our new understanding of the conative approach to resolve conflicts and better support the employee on projects?
Give your employees projects that they are interested in that best suit their conative method.
When employees are assigned to projects, their distinct conative approach should be incorporated into the project plans.
As you consider coaching to your employees’ conative abilities, take five minutes to ask yourself and write down:
Do I currently try to understand my employees’ conative approach to how they get things done? Do I try to micromanage projects to get done in a certain way? How do I adapt to my employees getting their projects done?
What are some tangible things that I can do to steward development in the conative approach my organization?