Have You Got Yourself a People Pickle?
In any organisation, it is the team around you and your leadership and management of them, that is often the most crucial factor in determining your success. So you will probably recognise that sometimes, maybe far too many times, you find yourself in a bit of a “people pickle”.
What does that look like? Well, let’s begin here. Diverse skill sets, communication snags, conflict flare-ups, leadership hiccups, goal misalignment, time crunches, resource pinches, and those unpredictable external curve balls are all part of the People Pickle Problem.
More specifically maybe, you simply have some people in your team you don’t want. Right now you may think you need them but they don’t contribute, they drain energy, they push back, they argue, they don’t adequately represent your organisation or your values, they aren’t motivated beyond self-interest etc. They can be the minority in your business disrupting the majority.
Wrangling through this pickle requires some savvy maneuvering, from effective communication to conflict resolution prowess and resource juggling. When helping clients and other organisations we use various tools from communication profiling, to alignment tools, discussing appraisals that work, and the systems that will both align people to your purpose whilst holding them to account. It isn’t rocket science yet sometimes we need the space, time, energy and outside perspective to make this happen.
We have found it fascinating working with business leaders and owners, yet having also spent time in educational leadership and schools to see how similar the challenges are in all organisations and how simple the fixes can be. Simple though not necessarily easy. They require work and focus.
