Sometimes you’re thrown into a situation that makes a mess of your well-laid plans.

And sometimes you’re thrown into a situation that’s ten times more complicated than that.

Perhaps budgets are being slashed at the company where you work…and fast.

Or the stock market…well…we don’t need to go into that. We’ve all seen the wild ride the stock market offers at times.

Or a key member of your company or team decides to move to another company.

Even worse, they’ve been lured away by your key competitor. And you don’t have anyone to backfill their knowledge and customer connections.

Or an always-healthy loved one is suddenly rushed to the hospital.

In chaotic times what do you do to simplify the chaos?

And not just simplify, but as is often required in such unwieldy and unpredictable times, to simplify in the extreme?

Try one or more of these four steps:

1. Focus on one priority. 

Yes, just ONE priority.

When you’re trying to right a world that has turned upside down, you don’t need the drag and confusion of trying to juggle multiple goals.

Like a laser beam, narrow your focus to a single point, your sole priority for now.

2. Let go. Say no.

The only way you’re going to let go is to say no.

And if that’s not easy for you, well, frankly, that’s tough.

You need the skill of clearing out the underbrush and letting go of extraneous things for now.

You find in extreme simplification times that what was once important – and may be again later – is far from a priority now.

Practice the word, “No,” until you can say it with the calm confidence to back it up.

3. Pay attention.

You need easy-to-gather information that will tell you if you’re getting back on track.

Figure out a few key indicators you can count on. These measures are like the dials and knobs on the control panel.

Then pay attention.

Use them.

Simply, consistently.

4. Follow up.

Take the time to see how things are working…or to face the facts that they aren’t yet.

If the action you’re taking isn’t taking you where you need to go, adjust, again.

And again, if you must.

Your world will right itself, but it needs your help.

Simplify, in the extreme.

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Are you leading your company or team through a risky or challenging time?

There are ways to handle the risk well, such as by:

- Preventing or eliminating it, perhaps by taking a different path toward your goal than you originally envisioned.

- Reducing, retiming, or in other ways resizing risk.

- Changing your perspective and comfort with uncertainty by focusing on the value of the change instead of its cost

Yet, try as you might, you have to acknowledge, and work with the fact that taking a risk means there is a chance that things could go wrong.

And that means, of course, that you could fail.

It’s hard to hear, but true.

Prepare for the best, but be able to recover well and move on when things don’t go as you hoped.

It is an essential skill.

Sometimes recovering well means giving up (this is hard to hear, too, but you may be chasing the wrong goal for current circumstances).

It may mean trying to recoup your losses as well as you can before deciding what to do next.

Or it may involve trying the same approach, but in a better way, using what you’ve learned from the current experience.

Recovering well can also mean that you try to meet the same goal, but in a different way.

When trying to recover or regroup from something that didn’t work as you’d hoped, try these actions:

1.  Increase your focus on your customers.

A company or team that has been thrown off-course can start to feed on itself.

And people who are burned out, or stressed, can start to see customers as “the enemy”* instead of the reason their jobs exist.

The situation can quickly degenerate in a downward spiral.

Focus on your customers and what they need from you.

2. Be clear and consistent in your instructions, feedback and guidance to your team.

Grow your trust in this uncertain time, if you can.

It will reduce your stress and that of your team if you trust people to do their jobs (unless you have proof through poor performance that trust is misplaced…and then you have a different problem to solve).

If your stress response is to micromanage, you make things for worse for your team AND yourself.

Ask for coaching to get over the need to manage by microscope, perhaps by developing a delegation process, and practicing to build comfort with the skills.

3. Reinforce what’s most important.

Keep your eyes on the prize as you regroup, and prepare to take a new path forward.

Make sure everyone on your team has current information about current circumstances and, when you’re ready to share them, the plan for moving forward. (The real issue here is that you’d hate to make a high-risk situation worse with poor communication).

4. Simplify.

Get rid of extraneous tasks and other drags on your energy and attention right now.

You don’t need distractions when you’re trying to regain your focus and forward motion.

5. Strengthen.

Mistake-proof the way work gets done, to the degree that is possible and helpful now.

Taking that action could be a distraction under present circumstances, or it could save you from further damage in regrouping, recouping and moving on mode.

6. There may come a point when you need to stop stressing, pressing, and just accept what’s underway.

It’s important to know when stopping to accept current circumstances…really accept them…is your best and strongest move.

You may be sad. You may be mad.

But you have to accept the present situation to be able to understand it, let go of it, make the best of it and move beyond.

Strangely enough, at times of great risk and stress, you may gain control when you just let go.

—

*David Letterman, Late Night With David Letterman, once interviewed a flight attendant as part of the show’s “Stump the Band” game.

“You probably talk to the passengers quite a bit, don’t you?” he asked her.

“OH, NO! We don’t talk to them if we can help it! They’re the enemy!” she quickly said.

Suddenly she realized that, even though she meant what she said, it would not help her well-known employer for customers to know that IS, indeed, what she and some other flight attendants felt.

What’s the best way to manage business risk?

Go toward it.

Does that sound risky, itself?

It can be. The alternative, however, can be far worse.

Real business risks, ignored…well…it’s not pretty.

Remember, first, that not all risk is the cliff diving, high-flying, life-defying kind.

Many of the circumstances that bring about these types of extreme risk are, frankly, ones you can’t control anyway.

The national and world economy, for example is something you can’t do much about.

Devastating acts of nature…same thing. You just have to be ready to adapt well, however things work out.

If these are the risks ones you worry most about, scenario analysis is a tool that could be helpful to you.

Second, the real risks in business are often things you CAN control.

And they’re often already inside your company.

They’re the risks that you either created (often unwittingly) or that you perpetuate by not taking them on, and then managing, minimizing or eliminating them.

(It sounds a bit like a virus, doesn’t it? That’s not a bad metaphor for how these things often work).

Any of the following situations are a risk to your company.

They can lead to product and service quality problems. And that can lead to the loss of customers, profits, and valued employees, too.

By the way, these are all circumstances you can improve:

- Lack of focus
- Inattention to important details…the ones your customers care most about
- Lack of clear, complete communication
- Inaction or ineffective action when a problem is discovered
- Confusing, inconsistent and ineffective ways of getting work done
- Ineffective and frustrating hiring, onboarding, training, managing and mentoring practices

The signs of potential risks and trouble can be subtle…or glaring.

And because you’re in the middle of the situation, you may not really see or grasp problems until they’ve been festering for a long time.

Start to remove risks inside your business in these ways:

1. Brainstorm

Start by considering the parts of your business that feel in control.

What gives you confidence that these things are working well?

Next, think about what feels out of control.

Which of these worry you the most, and why?

Be specific as you create both lists: “working well” and “worrisome.”

2. Pay attention

Don’t assume that all is as it seems.

What assumptions are you making that you need to check? (Often, where assumptions are concerned, you’re either very right, or very wrong).

What data and information do you wish you had to monitor and manage the things you’re most concerned about?

If those risks prove to be real (see the next step), that’s information you’ll want to begin to gather and use.

3. Go toward the risk, and test to see if it’s real

Seek to understand what’s really going on before you jump into action to prevent, mitigate or manage perceived risks.

Observe, research, inquire, test in whatever ways you can to start to see if the risks are real, or just worries that are unwarranted.

And, by the way, people may tell you, “Our work is different. It can’t be measured and managed easily.”

I’m here to tell you, though, as a former operational analyst and process auditor at Apple, there are ALWAYS things you can do to see how things are really working, compared to how you wish they were.

The information you gain in this way is always clarifying. And usually, it’s also good for profits, while it makes things work better for everyone involved.

In addition, get to know people who can advise or teach you. They may quickly see potential problems that you’re overlooking, and shouldn’t be, now.

5. Chunk the action

If changes are necessary, once you understand the risks that are present, break the change into a series of achievable actions.

You’re more likely to do the work if you “chunk” it into manageable sections.

Suddenly, big goals that were overwhelming become accessible and motivating.

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“This feels risky! This feels risky!”

A colleague and I were joking nervously on the first day of an intense, weeklong training class.

We were about to begin a rigorous simulation as we learned to coach teams through high-risk, conflict-ripe situations.

In the release of tension through humor, we were being honest about our feelings and our sense of the learning risk we faced.

We met that risk. It was not easy.

But it was a definitely a risk worth taking.

Most of the business risks I’ve taken during my career have fallen into the “risk worth taking” category. They’ve been risks of all kinds, including:

– Starting a career in a difficult national and local economy
– Changing careers
– Changing companies
– Starting a business
– Moving halfway across the country
– Stopping work for a couple of years to get a master’s degree
– Changing careers
– Changing jobs several times in the same company
– Starting another business
– Adding new products and services as the market changes, some opportunities emerging, while others go away

For some, it’s because they see risk as an experience to be endured, not a process to be managed.

Or they don’t understand risk and its benefits, when successfully faced.

Risks in business can occur in many ways.

They can be the result of uncertainties with new projects, products or services.

Risks can arise when a company grows very quickly, or when it expands into unfamiliar markets and works to meet the needs of new customers.

Individual employees, too, face the risks of change. Sometimes that change is welcome or invited. But many times, that is not the case.

You get the picture: business risk can arise in many expected and unexpected ways.

No matter how you well you manage risk now, you can always learn to handle it better.

Start by understanding your risk personality.

Are you most likely to:

– Seek risk, seeing it as a challenge and an adventure in some way?
– Love the adrenalin rush of risk so much that you create it in situations where it doesn’t have to be?
– Try to understand and manage risk?
– Steer clear of risk in all forms?
– Believe that risk does not exist in your business or industry?

Remember, however you feel about risk, your competitors are trying to manage it better than you do.

And the company that handles risk most effectively has a clear advantage over more fearful and/or less adaptable competitors.

That’s because change is always underway, whatever your business or industry.

Consider these many moving parts that most companies face:

– Customers change in terms of what they want and need
– Markets move and adapt as new competitors emerge and others leave
– Technology continues to advance, and to become smaller, faster, and sometimes, less expensive
– Employees move to different jobs and companies
– Suppliers create new products and services, and enter new markets with the products and services they already sell

The net of it is that if you hate risk, and hate to change, you may become obsolete as you try to stay right where you are, attempting to preserve the status quo.

To understand how well you handle risk now, start by considering how you handled risks in the past:

1. Think of two to three major risks you faced in the past few years.

2. Did you anticipate these risks? If not, could you have anticipated them with more or different information?

3. How well did you handle each risk?

4. How could you have handled them better?

5. Are there risks you avoided? Were you able to keep them at bay, or did they show up again in a different, more vigorous or otherwise more challenging way?

Begin, also, to look ahead:

6. How would you like to improve your risk assessment and management abilities in 2013 and beyond?

7. What information might help you anticipate, understand, and manage risks better? How can you gather this information most easily?

Improvement begins with understanding and acceptance.

Knowing where you stand, currently, goes a long way toward helping you improve your risk management and other abilities.

We’ll return to the subject of risk in the next blog post. I’ll share ideas for how you can begin to handle risk better.

In the meantime, if you’d like more ideas on how to make the next year a better year, here’s a previous blog post I wrote, Seven tips to make your business change-ready for an improved year.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

“A good half of the art of living is resilience.”
Alain de Botton

A good half of the art of business is resilience, as well.

Here’s how the need for it shows up, typically:

- All signs are that things are going pretty well.

- Oh, maybe the data show that one small thing is not quite right, but it shouldn’t turn out to be a big deal, after a few process tweaks and tucks. It’s really nothing to worry about.

- Suddenly, out of the clear blue, you’re facing potential disaster.

That little problem you weren’t worried about?

It blew up.

And now you’re sunk.

Or are you?

This is when resilience is a potentially business-saving asset, if you have it.

But for those who struggle with resilience, what causes it?

It’s fear.

And it’s human nature, in many ways.

No one wants to think about what might go wrong.

But putting your head in the sand is not a winning strategy in any business or profession. 

And it only increases stress, instead of burying it.

Manage your stress by reducing your stress, rather than by trying to ignore it.

If you’d like to grow or improve your resilience, start with the following five ideas.

They can soften the blow or save your business during unexpected and challenging times:

1. Stretch your thinking.

You’ll be more prepared to respond to any unexpected situation if you consider what might go wrong well before something happens.

Just by considering a wide range of possibilities, and mentally rehearsing what you and the people you work with would do to address them improves your ability to respond effectively in any circumstance that occurs.

One way to do this is scenario analysis. In a simple, structured format, you consider the best case, worst case, and most likely circumstances.

Then you stretch even further in each direction, and consider EVEN worse, and EVEN better things that could be ahead. Having done that, your “most likely” scenario is likely to be different and more accurate, than it previously was.

And however it works out, you are likely to have previewed and rehearsed, even in cursory fashion, what you might do and how you would approach previously unexpected situations.

Here’s a link to a post I wrote about it, Strategic planning: Mine your imagination with scenario planning.

2. Pay attention to critical details.

Track key indicators of possible change to improve your ability to predict what might happen, before it does.

Look at it this way: you’re improving the crystal ball you use to predict what will happen in the future.

To use examples in nature, animals, who are tuned in to very subtle signs in their environment, are far better than humans are at predicting and being ready for some natural disasters when they occur.

Dogs and cats, for example, can often tell when an earthquake is going to happen.

A recent New York Times article addressed birds’ ability to anticipate and prepare for dangerous storms. That article is here, Birds Have Natural Ability to Survive Storms.

Similarly, you can discover and track early warning signs of possible change in business.

To do so, start by identifying the highest risk aspects of your business.

Then brainstorm details or related trends that you could track to give you early warning about the very changes you worry about now…but could take action to prevent or minimize if you knew they were beginning to occur.

3. Figure out what processes and systems must work if only part of the company can work.

Change those core and key processes and systems now if they’re the ones your business must stand on to ride out an emergency for a while.

And if that emergency never occurs…and hopefully it won’t…you will benefit from faster, easier, more cost-effective processes and ways of getting work done.

That’s almost guaranteed to lower your costs and improve your profits.

4. Create an emergency plan and resources for your business.

This one is easy to wave off, but it could save your business, and it could save lives, too.

Encourage your employees and friends of the business, such as your customers, suppliers, and colleagues to do so, too.

Here are links to pages on the FEMA website that tell you how to create business preparedness plans and create emergency kits:

Business Preparedness

Build an Emergency Kit

5. Practice.

Find small ways to try resiliency out.

Be creative. Be positive, even if it’s not pleasant to think about.

Treat resiliency-building like a game, if you can. It’s a game with high stakes, if you have to exercise it.

But your business…and your life…could depend upon it.

And the odds are it will have beneficial effects far beyond what you might expect, even if that rainy day never comes.

Trust is too important to take for granted.

Yet many people do.

So when they lose the trust of customers, colleagues, employees and other stakeholders, well, they’ve give up much more than they may realize have.

If you lose trust in a business situation, can you get it back?

And if you can’t, what is the impact?

Consider these scenarios:

- A manager struggles with a small budget for employee raises as she completes annual performance reviews.

She avoids discussing the low number of salary increases, and the way she will make these important decisions.

When employees discover what she hoped to avoid addressing, the silence and mystery surrounding the process makes it seem to them as if she’s making decisions through favoritism.

- A cross-functional team is charged with creating a new product on a tight timeline.

Most members of the team meet the rigorous deadlines, high quality standards and their commitments to each other.

One group avoids telling the rest of the team about problems they’re having, and the fact that they’re going to miss their deadlines.

Without enough time to adapt to the late and incomplete information, the full team misses its launch and revenue targets.

In both of these situations, trust was eroded.

We can surely each cite our own examples of times when trust was eroded in in business situations, as well.

Here are just a few of the ways that low-trust environments decrease effectiveness and profits while increasing costs:

- Miscommunication
- Missed deadlines
- Reduced commitment to the business relationship and goals
- Effort that is withheld, consciously or unconsciously
- Customers who take their business elsewhere when product and service quality drops
- Employees who decide that their short- and long-run satisfaction will be higher at another company

Trust that is lost is hard to get back.

(And you may not be able to…let’s be honest about that).

But when you do recover trust, you can become a much stronger leader as a result of the experience.

You’re likely to be more attentive to what matters. And that includes what matters to your many stakeholders: customers, employees, peers, suppliers and more.

That makes for a very solid beginning that leads to a better situation for everyone.

Here are other ways you can try to rebuild trust if you’re the leader of your company or team:

- Review and recommit to your team and company vision and values.

- Reaffirm your commitment to your mission as a leader.

- Lead by learning, and by sharing the lessons of this experience with others, demonstrating continuous improvement in your own leadership practices.

- Reinforce and follow up on any new rules or guidelines you establish as a result of this experience.

- Pause before you make commitments and agreements to ensure that you will be able to keep them, or refine them so that you can.

- Clarify what information employees, colleagues and other stakeholders need from you, and when. Be clear about the information you need, as well.

Trust is everywhere.

Well, it is as a declared priority for most leaders, companies and teams.

“Trust us.”

“You can trust me.”

“Believe us when we say…”

When faced by these and similar assertions of trustworthiness, we’re understandably n…o…t  s…o  s…u…r…e that claims of honesty and integrity are valid in every case.

You know the feeling, too.

If you’re a leader, you know that you have to deal with periodic skepticism from those whom you hope to lead.

Yet trust IS something you can instill and grow in your company, team and organizational culture.

It all starts by being trustworthy yourself.

And that means being good for your word, in all your dealings with the people in and around your company or organization.

To create trust, do it right from the start.

You can’t add it late in the game, or brush it on like whitewash at the last minute, trying to cover up deception and other misdeeds.

Trust…if it is real…bears scrutiny.

And trustworthy people, organizations and teams are not threatened or defensive when they realize they need to demonstrate, not just assert, that they are honest and work with integrity.

If you and your organization are trustworthy:

- You mean what you say
- You do what you say
- It’s clearly true what you say
- You expect and deserve honesty and integrity from others because you’ve demonstrated, and earned it

Below, here are some steps you can take to create and grow trust in your company or team:

1. You start.

As the leader, you have to go first.

You model the behavior you expect to see in others.

2. Understand the people you’re trying to lead.

You have to read the people you’re trying to lead in order to reach them, and connect with them if you want to move them to act.

That means you have to care enough about them, and their needs to know what is important to them, and why.

3. Be open.

If a person trusts a leader, or an organization, they feel safe with them.

When you are open as a leader, your actions are transparent and focused on building a successful organization for everyone involved.

Your openness and vulnerability, when needed, are essential for creating an environment of trust and safety.

4. Be honest.

Say what you mean.

Mean what you say.

Do what you say.

And if you can’t, see Item #3 again.

Sometimes it’s necessary to reset expectations when circumstances change. That requires openness and transparency yet again.

5. Be clear.

Speak and write simply.

Use language that your followers understand.

Communicate in ways that get ideas through to them, and lead to effective actions for the path ahead.

And listen…always listen. The criticality of this cannot be overstated.

Listening well will be more valuable to you as a leader than you might ever guess.

It helps here to strengthen clarity and trustworthiness.

6. Be fair.

This gets back to the issue of safety and honesty, in many ways.

For people to trust you, and to fully commit their talent, time and effort to the group, they must feel that they are, and will continue to be dealt with fairly.

Listening well – see Item #5 again – is greatly involved in creating a team or company culture known for fairness, too.

Sometimes the thing employees want more than you would ever know is to be seen, heard, understood and appreciated by their leaders, customers and peers.

They also want to be given a fair chance to learn, grow and stretch so they’re ready for greater opportunities in the future.

7. Give them a picture, a sense of the future you hope to create together.

This goes along with openness, honesty and fairness.

Leading others means inspiring them to commit their efforts, combine their efforts, and to create a better circumstance together.

Think about times when you felt great trust.

The odds are that you had a strong sense of the future you were trying to create with others, and were committed to it.

And the odds are, also, that the pursuit seemed like a good use of your talent, energy and other resources at that time.

The ideas I’ve shared with you here are a few ways you can create and grow trust in your team or company.

What do you recommend that people try when they’re working to create and grow trust?

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Trust is important in every relationship, and certainly those in business. It is especially essential for high-risk, high-reward relationships.

Consider these thoughts about trust:

“Learning to trust is one of life’s most difficult tasks.”
Isaac Watts

“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don’t trust enough.”
Frank Crane

What part has trust played in your career and achievements?

First, think about a few of your greatest accomplishments, work- or career-wise. Now, consider the degree to which trust was an essential part of each experience.

For example:

- Were there people you needed to trust and did, to meet each goal?

- How did you know you could trust these people?

- Did they need to trust you, too?

- How did they know that you were trustworthy?

So what’s the consequence if you don’t have trust in the situations in which it is vital for success?

For starters, your work is tentative, cautious, fearful. Your costs are higher as you’re mired in worry, indecision and infighting and working at cross-purposes.

And you’re having to clean up after things that have gone wrong…knowing that more are surely ahead.

And worse. It can be a horrible experience, from start to finish.

What’s the difference with situations when trust is high?

You know you can count on the people with whom you’re working. They know they can count on you. You say what you mean. You do what you say you will.

You “read” each other well.

You may even develop a short-hand communication that’s very effective as you create a shared history of step by step successes.

And your work on a high-trust team may well be better than you expected it could be.

What’s the flip side of high trust?

There’s a risk, of course, that your trust is misplaced. I’ll go into that in the next blog post.

One downside is that you may not always like where trust takes you, on your way to the goal.

For example, think of a great coach, preparing his or her team for a major championship game.

Or think of a very difficult course course of study, requiring great dedication and effort, such as medical school.

The toughness of the preparation involved doesn’t always seem worth it when you’re in the thick of the high-risk experience.

But when the spotlight and pressure are on and you must perform…whether in a business situation, or, let’s say, on a surgical team…the very rigorous preparation the coach or medical professors led you through pays off in many ways.

Why is it hard to create and maintain trust?

Trust is like many other things that we may think will “just happen” naturally, without lots of planning, thought and effort.

In that way, it’s like listening well, good communications, good follow-up, and being a good leader and manager.

Yet there are plans you can make and actions you can take to set up a high-risk, high-reward project, team or company so that you can succeed.

Finally, ask yourself this: “What experiences come to mind when I think of times when high trust was needed for things to work out well, and they did?”

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

What’s the key to turning high potential into high performance and results when the heat and pressure are highest?

First, think about the stark contrast in possible outcomes in high pressure situations you’ve experienced in your work and life.

On the one hand, you can have:

- Success

- Innovation

- Responsiveness

- Resilience

- Influencing and inspiring others in a way that brings out the best in a full team

Now contrast that with these possibilities:

- Failure

- Freezing

- Rigidity

- Fully fed, flourishing and felt fear

- Expecting the worst and bringing it out in yourself and others

Which experience do you want?

(I won’t wait for your answer. I’m pretty sure I know what it is)

What, then, is the key to top performance, assuming you’ve done the learning, preparation and practice required to make great performance and results a realistic possibility?

There are many other examples we could use. Let’s consider a memorable one from the 2012 Olympics in London.

One very clear example of the “Get out of your own way to let your best performance through” dynamic occurred in the men’s 10-meter platform diving competition.

First, U.S. diver David Boudia barely made it out of the qualifying rounds.

His early performance earned him the 18th and final spot in the medal round.

Next, the slate was wiped clean of prior scores. Competitors started fresh in the final stretch of the medal round.

Finally, when the pressure was highest, Boudia produced a series of nearly-perfect dives, besting the seemingly unflappable, unbeatable Chinese divers.

The Chinese competitors seemed unable to understand, accept and adapt to having their assumed supremacy (and their expected gold and silver medals) challenged in the final round.

So when they and other competitors could not adjust to Boudia’s barrage of near-perfection, they lost the gold medal to him…the man who had almost missed the medal round.

This getting out of your own way business sounds simple enough.

But for most people and teams, it’s not.

Why? These are the primary reasons:

1. Fear

This can be a fear of failure, or a fear of success. Or it can be a fear of both.

Either way, fear can be immobilizing.

2. Bad habits or a poor process

Whether because of bad habits or a bad design or implementation, inefficient and unfocused ways of getting things done stacks the odds of success against you.

3. Disabling and limit-setting beliefs

You or your team may WANT success.

You may diligently WORK TOWARD success.

But if you don’t BELIEVE you can produce and maintain success, or don’t feel that you “deserve” it, you’re far less likely to achieve it.

It’s like trying to run a race with a 100 lb. weight strapped to your back. It’s a burden your competitors may not have to carry.

4. Expectations that turn out to be wrong

You can plan and prepare for a circumstance that does not come to pass.

And when the situation is different from what you expect, you may not be able to adapt fast enough.

If fear, bad habits, misbeliefs and incorrect expectations are some of the causes, what are some of the cures for the problem?

- Benchmark and learn from the best.

- Observe others in competition. See how they handle the pressure when the pressure’s highest.

- Get a mentor. Learn from someone who has been where you’re going.

- Plan for and practice in all sorts of circumstances…best and worst…to build resiliency.

When the pressure is on, your ability to read a situation quickly and accurately, then to choose the right moves, take action, and succeed in unexpected situations may be one of your most important success skills of all.

Get out of your own way.

Let your best, and the best of your team, come clearly and completely through.

Don’t trap or bury your talent.

Tap it.

Turn your full potential into success you can fully enjoy.

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You want to be a good manager. You really do.

And you’re doing your best, or trying to.

Yet you wonder how well things are going when situations like these happen:

SCENARIO ONE

You hear laughter at work, and decide to walk toward it.

You’re in charge of things here, but you’re human, too. A little levity might help brighten a difficult day, you think as you walk toward the mirth.

Suddenly, as you turn a corner and see the crowd collected there, the laughter stops.

Everyone freezes.

Then they quickly scatter, amid a variety of mumbled excuses.

SCENARIO TWO

You’re leading a meeting.

The goal: engaging your team to find ways you can best meet suddenly far more challenging quarterly performance targets.

You look out over the group assembled before you.

It’s a sea of bored faces and the tops of people’s heads.

They’re doing their best to be anywhere but here as they daydream, text, tweet, and scan the internet.

SCENARIO THREE 

Performance evaluations are due. You dread this time of year (and employees do, too).

And yet, you try to provide good, meaningful feedback to each employee who reports to you.

Your fellow managers tease you, saying that your good intentions and time are not well-invested.

“You know that your employees just want to know, ‘How much? And why not more?’” your peers explain, with a cynical smile.

You get back to work, wondering if they’re right, but provide the best feedback you can, as before.

As these scenarios show, the management role and road is sometimes a lonely and frustrating one.

When you get right down to it: 

- It’s hard to get people on the same page.

- Then it’s hard to get them moving forward as a well-functioning team.

- And then there is the constant need to keep individuals and the full team positive and forging ahead through all types of challenges, chores, and circumstances.

In the midst of all that (and more), bad management practices can slip in and quickly become entrenched, like it or not.

If you want to avoid (or get out of) the trap of bad management habits, start by thinking of your work as a game. 

Your goal is to help your team see and understand the game fully, prepare them to win, and then manage the team as it plays so that they bring victory in again and again.

Begin by asking yourself these important questions:

1. What “game” is our company or team playing?

2. What’s a win for our customers? What’s a win for us?

3. Who are the main players in this game?

4. What are their roles?

5. What are the rules we play by now? What are better rules for us to use?

6. How do we keep score now? Is that the best way?

7. What’s the reward for playing well?

8. What are the penalties for playing poorly?

9. How are we doing, overall? How do we know?

10. Are we playing better all the time?

11. If so, why? If not, why not? What can we do to improve?

12. How do we keep ourselves inspired, and continually moving forward?

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