Getting What You Need.....Indirectly

As a leader, what strategies do you use when asking doesn't work?

Getting people to do what you want is difficult, especially if you lack sufficient authority......or the environment is very political.  When direct techniques like asking fail, try more subtle approaches:

• Talk less, listen more. Colleagues are less likely to resist when you've taken the time to acknowledge their concerns. Listen to their worries and make sure your solutions recognize them.
• Help them to like you. It's hard to say no to someone you like. We tend to like people who share our background and interests, or who show interest in us personally. Recognition of good work also works. If your colleague does a good job, tell him.
• Do a favour. Doing something for someone gives you influence and helps colleagues see a different side of you. Everyone understands the need to repay what another person has given them.

Adapted from Guide to Managing Up and Across (HBR Press).

Thinking Creatively

As a leader, how do you access the most creative thinking when dealing with issues?

Creativity is not genetically encoded. Anyone can learn to think creatively. The key is to use both the left and right hemispheres of the brain: logical and intuitive, respectively. Start by immersing yourself in a problem. Use the logical left side of your brain to understand what you know about the topic. Then switch to the right side by distancing yourself from the issue and mulling over the information. Exercise is a good way to access the visual nature of the right hemisphere. It often leads to an "ah-ha moment" where you see a new solution. Then switch back to the left hemisphere to challenge your creative breakthrough with rational thinking.

All this said, you can also access creative thinking by drawing on the wisdom of your staff.  If it's an issue that requires creative thinking in the workplace then it's an issue that others will care about.  Be sure to include them in the thinking around the issue. If you don't, the only creativity you'll access is your own.  That may be enough in some situations but strong schools/organizations are built on collaborative and collective wisdom, not the thinking of an individual.

Adapted from  "How to Think Creatively" by Tony Schwartz.

Finding Solutions to the hardest Problems

As a leader, what skills do you draw on to solve problems?

Your problem-solving process is principled.

• The participants are the problem-solvers.
• The goal is a wise outcome reached efficiently and amicably.

You separate the people from the problem.

• Be soft on the people, hard on the problem.

Focus on interests, not positions.

• Explore interests.
• Avoid having a bottom line.

Invent options for mutual gain.

• Develop multiple options to choose from; decide later.

Insist on using objective criteria.

• Try to reach a result based on standards independent of will.
• Reason and be open to reason; yield to principle; not pressure.

From:  Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher, William Ury, & Bruce Patton
Published by: Penguin Books