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How to set up meetings by accommodating the diversity in communication preferences

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After graduating IMD with an MBA in 2015, I had some time before starting to work in Boston, in the USA. Therefore I decided to spend some time in New York before the graduation trip to Colombia with my MBA classmates. In New York City, I had the luxury of participating in a training session on   MBTI . The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people's lives. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment. IMD MBA focuses on developing leadership skills for MBA students. As we learn, leadership can be trained and taught. MBTI, I believe, is one of the most effective tools to understand ourselves and others. The purpose of this article is not to discuss MBTI, but I will talk ab...
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Framing theory in 1 on 1 meetings

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Are you open to some feedback? A colleague who runs the Indian business in the same company is an extremely great communicator. One day I realized his comments and feedback were easier to accept than those from others. After starting paying attention to the way he communicates, the difference seems to be the steps he takes to provide feedback. He always made sure that I was ready to listen to what he needed to say by asking questions such as the one in the first line of this article. The first time I heard this, I thought, "Of course, we are colleagues. You can say whatever you want. I am more interested in what you need to say." However, as I spend time reviewing how I communicate, I realized his communication made it far easier to listen to the feedback.  The leadership coach taught me it is called "framing". Even though it has a specific name, it is a very simple thing to do. We share what we are going to communicate to them in advance in the form of questions. E...
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Pygmalion effect at work

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"I want you to be successful. How can I help? I know you will be successful."  This was what one of my previous managers asked me during a one-on-one meeting. His message has been consistent for years. Every time I finish a meeting with him, I leave feeling more motivated and energized. If we take a closer look at these phrases, they consist of two things: The first is the "Pygmalion effect" and the other is servant leadership. Servant leadership is a focus on providing service to the team members. We can talk about servant leadership in another article, so here we want to focus on the Pygmalion effect today. What is the Pygmalion effect? It is a psychological phenomenon wherein high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area. In the above case, "I know you will be successful" is the message that implies high expectations. According to Wikipedia, below is the summary of the research. (From Wikipedia ) All students in a single California elem...
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The boundary of “My team”

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When someone says, “My team”, what does it mean to you? In the first year as a GM, I had a great opportunity to broaden my perspective. Allow me to share what I learned and my experiences.   I am currently responsible for sales, operation, customer support, and technical support team with the P&L responsibility in a few countries in Southeast Asia. When I joined the current company, I previously never had management experience or P&L responsibilities. It was a drastic change because I was just a regional marketing manager in another organization. Suddenly, I have managers reporting to me and became responsible for the expanded function. Since then, I have committed to providing career development opportunities, guidance, and coaching to reporting members.   One day I realized my attitude was different towards the members who report to me and those who don’t. As a newbie GM, I thought it was natural to treat them differently because those who don’t report to me are not ...
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Being in a good mood is a part of your leadership

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One afternoon, one of my team members told me, "You seem to be in a better mood recently. A few weeks back, you looked like you had a lot on your mind." I replied, "I was thinking of a new business plan and that may have made me look like I was not in a good mood." The reality was I had multiple things going on and indeed was not in a good mood for a week or two. This conversation made me think about the negative effect that being in a bad mood had in the office. Generally, I am a happy and stable person. Therefore, this was really a good learning experience for me. There are many negative influences. If I were to name a few critical ones, here would be some of them: Team members feel reluctant to communicate, resulting in less communication among the team. Unconsciously, the leader in a bad mood could make decisions based on emotion rather than logic. The leader could worsen the communication with the team members because of not being in a good mood. Ultimately, ma...
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