It's Not What You Are Taught, But Rather What You LEARN

I had an interesting conversation with a client the other day. As it turns out, he had a GREAT day. Despite all the issues that life threw at him - as it always does - he was able to handle them all and still meet his loaded agenda of daily goals.

Being the ever mindful coach, my question to him was, "Well, what did you learn?"

His answer reaffirmed a very important lesson to me (which I then dutifully brought full circle back to my client) . . .

It's Not What You Are Taught, But Instead What You LEARN

So many of us go from book to book, class to class, and degree to degree seeking out the knowledge that will give us the edge - the advantage over our competitors.

I've got some bad new for you.

Life isn't about what you are taught - no matter who the teacher is. All that matters is what you learn - and often times you can learn as much from your own experiences as you can from the greatest teachers in history.

The Premise of My Coaching Practice

I don't care where you learn what you learn - the source is irrelevant. I don't care where you go for your teachings, so long as you apply them to your daily life and make a difference with them. And in the context of coaching, what matters most to me is that you learn what works for you and your business and you apply the ideas for repeat successes time and time again.

According to The Free Dictionary, learning is "the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill."

That's right you have to gain the knowledge for it actually make a difference. So you can be shown, read or listen to anything you want, until it becomes knowledge to YOU, it is worthless.

So, when you find what does work for YOU - even if it's your own invention . . . KEEP DOING IT. It doesn't matter if it works for anyone else, so long as it works for you and helps you achieve YOUR goals and the goals of your organization, then you better LEARN what it is that you just did. Because rather than just doing it randomly or haphazardly, you need to start doing it intentionally.

Do it by choice rather than by chance.

Furthermore, when you find something that isn't working in your life or your business . . . that's when you turn to the experts. That's when you pull out Seth Godin for Marketing support, Zig Ziglar for motivational Sales support, or even turn to a coach for a little bit of everything.

That's when you turn to your teacher to help you find something you don't already know. That's when learn something new.

Sounds Simple - But Life Often Is

I know it sounds simple, but that's all there is to improving your business and your life - two steps. First, look at what's working and do it by choice. Two, figure out what isn't working and find out how to make it just a little bit better. You don't have to go crazy with change - just take small steps. If those small steps work, well, back to Step One, if not repeat as necessary.

Believe it or not, you will be amazed at how quickly you can make your dreams come true.

Control Is An Illusion

Micromanagers govern their kingdoms with rules, constant oversight, supervision and most often an iron fist. Their entire management model is build on "Control". And sadly, they typically spend so much time in the weeds, directing their subordinates, they struggle at the bigger picture of their own job - requiring their bosses to "micromanage" them as well.

The truth is, Control is an Illusion.

Whether you believe it or not, you really don't have control over anything but yourself and what YOU do. And the more Control and Authority you try to invoke over others, they less you actually have (just ask any parent with a teenager).

Your employees do what THEY want to do (nothing more and nothing less) - which is usually what they are rewarded to do. Thus, the concept of work in the first place.

You see, you and your company promise your employees a reward (pay) for coming to and engaging in the work you assign, and they gladly do just that . . . come to work and do what you "tell" them to do.

So the control you think you have, what little there actually is, comes from getting them to "want to do what you want them to do", not because you tell them to do it. Thus, the question that most managers have, but few are actually good at answering is "How do I get them to want to work?"

Hence the dilemma of the Manager, and the birth of the Micromanager.

But there are things you can do to change this. There are ideas you can implement and techniques you can follow to become a more effective manager. If you want to become a more effective manager / leader of your direct reports, you simply need to change your perspective and mindset, the behavior will follow. You need to see your employees as more than just things that do what they are told, when they are told, and how they are told to do it. You need to see them as thinking individuals, that think, act, behave, and are motivated much like you are.

You need to apply the following 5 ideas / steps to your management style:

- TEACH the methods and guidelines of the company,
- DEFINE the results,
- EMPOWER their employees,
- Establish an environment of ACCOUNTABILITY where employees are held accountable for results
- REWARD the behavior you want

Over the next five days, I will break down each of these 5 elements of Management (each day a different idea) to give you the tools you need to move from being a micromanager to an empowering leader and effective manager.

People join companies, but leave managers.

Marcus Buckingham & Curt W. Coffman