Government Executive - Authors - Sam Nayman

6 Characteristics the Best Mentors Have in Common

Sam Nayman — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:06:00 -0400

If your career is a vehicle, then great mentors are your GPS. Mentors help you locate your destination and determine the most efficient route. They help you steer clear of danger and develop the confidence to embark on the journey. They show you how to enjoy the ride and navigate uncharted territory—all the while helpfully getting you back on track when you lose your way.

But where, you’re probably asking, do I find a “great mentor?” Great mentors are everywhere and in most every organization. Below are a few ways to test if you’ve found one of the good ones. The best mentors, those most able to guide you on your journey, posses the six characteristics below:

1^st Characteristic: Admirable

Purpose: Help you locate your destination and chart a route.

Test: Do you admire this person and his/her work? Does his/her career align with your interests?

2^nd Characteristic: Reflective

Purpose: Help you determine the most efficient route and steer clear of danger.

Test: Has this person reflected on and examined how his or her career has unfolded? Can they enhance your level of self-awareness through their own?

3^rd Characteristic: Respectful

Purpose: Help you develop the confidence to embark on this journey and persevere.

Test: Do you feel comfortable sharing your thoughts, questions, and fears, or do you feel like the person will judge every word you say?

4^th Characteristic: Connected

Purpose: Help you become acquainted with E-ZPass.

Test: Has this person spent time cultivating relationships in his or her field of work?

5^th Characteristic: Relatable

Purpose: Help you enjoy the ride and refuel.

Test: Do you share an interest in the general career space you’re focused on? Do you feel reenergized after talking with them?

6^th Characteristic: Rational

Purpose: Help you navigate uncharted territory and recalibrate.

Test: Is this person a critical thinker? Do they look at things from multiple perspectives? Do they leave open the possibility of there being various paths to success? Do they ask probing questions to help you think through what you’re considering?

These are the six qualities I’ve found great mentors possess—what characteristics do you look for in a mentor?

Image via Monkik/Shutterstock.com

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5 Principles of Highly Effective Meetings

Sam Nayman — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:22:00 -0400

What are meetings good for? Countless professionals ask themselves this very question everyday. The frustration around meetings is a consequence of failing to abide by some very basic principles. What follows are the principles, purposes, and practices of excellent meetings:

Principle #1: Use the meeting for those things that would benefit from bringing people together or can't be resolved without convening.

Purpose: Progress

Practice:

When determining whether to call a meeting, ask yourself: Can the purpose of the meeting more efficiently and effectively be achieved without convening? If the answer is yes, hold off on meeting.

Principle #2: Use the meeting to provide participants with a chance to express their opinions and be heard.

Purpose: Recognition

Practices:

Start the conversation with a “clearing” (i.e., Have everyone go around and say what’s on their mind without soliciting comments.)
Reiterate what participants say and check for understanding.

Principle #3: Use the meeting to build rapport and trust among the group members.

Purpose: Trust

Practices:

Have participants make introductions and describe what they hope to achieve by being there.
Maintain eye contact and refer to participants by their names, as opposed to “he said” or “she said…”
Create meeting norms (e.g., voting procedures as well as agreement to not comment on people’s “clearings.”)
Give people space to talk (see 2^nd principle) and build on what participants say.
Express gratitude and thank the participants for their contributions.

Principle #4: Use the meeting to learn more efficiently and effectively than each participant could on his/her own.

Purpose: Learning

Practice:

Encourage advocacy and inquiry (i.e., Encourage participants to advocate their views and to invite other participants to inquire as to their line of reasoning and supporting evidence.)

Principle #5: Use the meeting to develop actionable strategies.

Purpose: Action

Practices:

Employ the OARRs method (i.e., Decide on the Outcome, Agenda, Roles, and Rules prior to or at the start of the meeting.)
Provide crystal-clear directions (e.g., Avoid double-barreled questions.)
Eliminate barriers to success (e.g., Rather than “reinventing the wheel,” build upon templates that already exist.)
Write up action items and include "Who, what, by when" (i.e., Who is responsible? What is he/she responsible for? And by what date should it be completed?)

What do you think are the essential elements of an effective meeting?

Image via iurii/shutterstock.com

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How We Set Ourselves Up to Fail

Sam Nayman — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:13:58 -0500

As the New Year approaches, many of us are preparing to make resolutions that we’ll struggle mightily to make good on—whether it’s eating healthier, reading more often, or devoting our full attention to decisions we face.

Why is that?

Our failure to follow through and change is not necessarily caused by inadequate motivation, ability, or resources. Our failure often stems from our environment: We unconsciously design our environments to yield consistently poor results, rather than consciously design our environments to yield consistently positive results.

By designing our environments in a way that incorporates an awareness of psychology and self, we could alter the course of our lives.

Failure by Design: The Influence of Our Environment

Our environment influences our behavior. This statement is supported by Richard Thaler’s and Cass Sunstein’s book, “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.” Evidence they use to support this point includes organ donation rates, which spike upward when the default option at the DMV changes from “presumed non-donor” to “presumed donor.” A slight adjustment in the presentation of options--moving something from optional to expected--produces dramatically different results.

Considering the significant influence of environment on behavior we should strive to intentionally design our environments—with just a few simple tweaks we can set ourselves up to more consistently realize our goals. To ensure our designs have a high probability of success, there are two necessary ingredients, including:

A working knowledge of psychology. This knowledge provides us a map of our own tendencies and shortcomings—a way in which we can troubleshoot our shortcomings. While a map can be a helpful guide, it does not perfectly illustrate the landscape of our lives. To create a tailor-made system that consistently produces the results we desire, we need a second ingredient…
Self-awareness about our tendencies and own reality. For a concrete example, take the case of President Barack Obama:

Case: President Barack Obama

Obama has incorporated research from psychology as well as a keen awareness of the demands of the presidency to design an environment that enhances his decision-making ability.

Psychology finding:

The energy used to make decisions depletes with each decision that’s made.

Self-awareness insight:

As president I have many important decisions to make everyday that require my full attention and energy and I do not want to waste this energy on trivial decisions (e.g., deciding which suit I’ll wear).

Newly designed environment:

Pare down trivial decisions (e.g., Keep only two types of suits in my closet to limit the energy expended on deciding which suit to wear and reserve my mental energy for more important decisions).

Armed with the enthusiasm to consciously design our environment in a way that incorporates an awareness of psychology and self, we can more consistently produce the outcomes we want when we want them.

How have you tweaked your environment to maximize your effectiveness?

(Image via Alphaspirit/Shutterstock.com)

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Exercising Leadership: A Re-elected Obama’s Mental & Emotional Fitness

Sam Nayman — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 14:36:00 -0500

Although referring to the game of golf, Bobby Jones could easily have been referring to the practice of leadership when he said, “Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course—the space between your ears.” In other words, our psychology (or mindset) significantly influences our performance. This view is supported by scientific research and illustrated by Michael Lewis’ Vanity Fair profile of Barack Obama. Four tools that improve Obama’s mindset and allow him to lead at his best are described below.

Routinizing Trivial Decisions

The concept of decision fatigue received substantial attention with the release of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Dr. Roy Baumeister and John Tierney. The energy used to make decisions depletes with each decision that’s made. Recognizing this point, President Obama has created systems to routinize many mundane tasks that would otherwise sap his mental energy. He says,

You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make. You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.

Tip

Like President Obama, we can all create systems that routinize distracting tasks and reserve energy for more important decisions.

Emotional Fitness

Emotional fitness is a term used in psychology that speaks to the ability to quickly adapt to a desired emotional state. Just like an athlete mentally preparing for a race, a leader can mentally prepare to motivate employees, lighten a tense situation, or solve a complicated problem. Few people display the power of emotional fitness better than President Obama, who, over the course of just one emotion-laden day that Michael Lewis describes, needed to tap into empathetic, joyful, and creative mental states. Among other commitments, Obama consoled a child suffering from an incurable disease, celebrated the winners of an Intel high school competition, and strategized with 18 advisors on how to kill Osama Bin Laden.

Tip

Some techniques used to strengthen emotional fitness include: interrupting the pattern of the emotion by asking questions that identify what you're feeling, what you want to feel, what you'd have to believe to feel the way you did; remembering how you've successfully handled a similar emotion in the past and applying that to the situation at hand.

Inquiry

Engaging in inquiry, which is the process of seeking knowledge through questions, can lead to more informed views and creative solutions. As Michael Lewis describes, when the Pentagon presents the President with two options for how to address an international crisis, Obama masterfully crafts his questions to reveal that neither option would solve the problem. From there, the President goes on to question every person in the room, including the most junior level people, to get a more nuanced view and strategy.

Tip

Rather than blindly advocating one view or accepting another, ask questions that reveal the assumptions behind a proposal, the data supporting those assumptions, and any gaps in the reasoning. For further reading on the use of inquiry as it applies to organizations and leadership, Peter Senge’s, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization is a good place to start.

Body Movement

Research has demonstrated that our physical state can influence our mindset and performance. While there is plenty of evidence linking exercise to wellbeing and performance, less well known is the impact of body language on these outcomes. Amy Cuddy of Harvard Business School helps surface the significance of body language with studies examining its effects on job interview performance. Here’s her TED talk. Although Obama has not articulated a link between how he carries himself and his effectiveness as a leader, he has emphasized the role of exercise, from daily workouts at the gym to regular basketball games, in allowing him to do his job effectively. As he says, “You have to exercise or at some point you’ll just break down.”

Tip

Finding time to exercise or to practice Amy Cuddy’s “power poses” can change your body, mind, and performance.

Share Your Thoughts

How have you used the aforementioned tools to your advantage? What other tools do you use to lead and perform at your best?

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