#86: Perceptual errors at work - part 6
Balance in a team makes for a pleasant team experience. However, balance can make a team less effective, because effectiveness depends on exploring differing ideas.Balance exists when people like each other and express similar views. Imbalance results when they like each other and disagree. Not being in balance is an unpleasant state and team members will want to restore balance.
How? Well, one person can convince the others to change their views. Or they could decide to dislike each other instead. Once they dislike each other, they become relatively indifferent as to whether they agree or disagree.
Why do we do this? We tend to like people who express similar attitudes and evaluations as we do because they provide ‘evidence’ that we are correct. And it feels nice to be correct. Obviously, if someone disagrees with us, it has the opposite effect.
The leadership trick is to get your people to disagree without becoming disagreeable.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.comCopyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
#85: Abuse of power leads to groupthink
Let me remind you: You must exercise your power, else no one will know that you have it. But take care how you use it or you might abuse it.
One serious outcome of the abuse of power is groupthink. Groupthink is the tendency of group members to take decisions uncritically and without due thought, particularly when the decisions are recommended by powerful members of the group.You have groupthink when your colleagues think they simply cannot fail; when they assume that they are of one mind; when they believe that the group’s decisions are morally justified; when they put pressure on dissenters; when they practice self-censorship; or when they stereotype other groups as weak, ineffective or stupid.Groupthink is often fear-based, because no one in the group is willing to speak up and against. So watch how you use your power or watch how poor decisions multiply in your group.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.comCopyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
#84: Perceptual errors at work - part 5
Last week I explained that people tend to either keep quiet about bad news or distort it to make it more palatable. We do so because we realize that bad news results in bad feelings and thus we will be liked less if we pass it on.
It seems obvious enough that people like anyone who makes them feel good and dislike anyone who makes them feel bad. Less obvious is the fact that we also tend to react to whomever we merely associate with our feelings.For instance, if you receive good news, the chances are that you will like the person who merely happened to be with you at the time, even though he or she was not responsible for the good news in the first place.Why do we do this? It seems that we associate people around us with our emotional state and evaluate and treat them accordingly. So, don’t let your bad mood determine how you treat your colleagues. If you do, you’ll become the bad news instead.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.comCopyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
#83: Personal power at work
Last Monday I discussed the role of positional power; today I want to focus on personal power.Personal power relates directly to the willingness of people to follow you. Followers give you personal power, based on the trust and confidence they have in you. They base this on your past experience, your current performance and your ability to influence them. The more your followers believe that their goals are similar to yours, the greater your personal power.You can increase your personal power by extending your expert power, which is based on your followers' perception of your knowledge, skill and expertise; by extending your information power, which is based on their perception that you have access to information that is valuable to them; and by extending your referent power, which is based on whether they find it attractive to interact with you.
Never forget that you earn personal power from your followers. Abuse it, and they will take it away.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.comCopyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
#82: Perceptual errors at work - part 4
I’ve explained before that the poor boss at the top must make decisions of great import based on a steady stream of good news. Yes, the boss decides on salary increases, bonuses, promotions, and so on. But this does not explain why we assume that bearing bad news will be bad for us personally.Actually, this is a very common problem: people just don’t like being the bearers of bad news. Social psychologists call this the MUM effect. People tend to either keep quiet about bad news or distort it to make it more palatable.
Research has uncovered why we do this: We do this not because we feel personal discomfort about sharing bad news or because we feel sorry for the recipient. We do so because we realize that bad news results in bad feelings.
And we know intuitively that these bad feelings could translate into us being liked less, ...simply for passing on the bad news.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.comCopyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
#81: Positional power at work
Last Monday I said, to be effective, you must use both your positional power and your personal power. But what exactly is positional power?
Your position in the hierarchy of your organization comes with certain powers. This power does not stem from you, the present incumbent. It is given to you by your superiors, which means that they can just as easily take it away. Your followers make this power legitimate when they believe that it is appropriate for you to make decisions because of your position.There are three types of positional power. Coercive power is based on fear; people do as they are told because they believe that you have the power to punish them if they don’t. You have reward power when people believe that you are a source of rewards. And connection power comes from people who believe that you are connected to important persons in the organization.The trick is to use all three wisely.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.comCopyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
#80: Perceptual errors at work - part 3
Here is the third in our series on perceptual errors. It is called the self-serving bias. We tend to view success or good outcomes as due to our own doing or personal characteristics, while we tend to blame failure or bad outcomes on external causes or bad luck.
Why do we do this? If we can claim responsibility for good things, then our self-esteem and our public image are enhanced. And if we can blame failure on external factors then we can protect our self-esteem and our public image.Another problem caused by the self-serving bias is that when we make a mistake, we don’t see it as serious. But if someone else makes a mistake, we tend to view it as serious. In other words, ‘I can do no wrong and you can do no right’.Research has shown that men are more likely than women to show the self-serving bias. As I said, we can do no wrong.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.comCopyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
#79: Power at work is perception
In the workplace, it does not matter whether you have power. What matters is whether others perceive you as having power. Perception is reality. If you don't demonstrate that you have power, no one will know that you do. And if they don't think you have power, then you don't have it!To use power effectively, you must earn it every day. You must earn personal power from your followers and positional power from your superiors. The two types of power directly affect each other.
If your superiors see that you have the respect and admiration of your followers, then they are likely to give you more authority and responsibility, which is positional power. And if your followers see that you have the trust and confidence of your superiors, then they will give you more personal power.
Remember. One source of power is not ‘better’ than the other; you need both. But above all, you must use it or you will lose it.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.comCopyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
#78: Perceptual errors at work - part 2
Behavior can be caused by an almost infinite number of factors. But because we are mentally lazy, we tend to focus on only two: whether the behavior stemmed from internal factors or external causes.
This mental laziness triggers the second in our series on perceptual errors, namely the fundamental attribution error: We tend to explain other people's behavior in terms of internal (or dispositional) causes rather than in terms of external (or situational) causes.For example, when you see someone trip you are more likely to perceive that person as clumsy rather than to assume that she tripped over some physical object. Yet, if you tripped in the street, you would blame it on an external cause, not on being clumsy.We do this because we take the easy way. We focus on peoples’ overt actions, while treating the context in which the action takes place as less important.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.comCopyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
