This is all about when you do your work, rather than where you do it. And it’s usually remote, but not always.

With a traditional synchronous model, you and your team will keep similar hours, meeting and working together in real time – maybe online, maybe face to face. With asynchronous work, people do their part whenever they want or need to. And rather than talking to colleagues, they find out what to do by tapping into systems and databases.

Does that sound appealing to you, or a little bit isolating? Well, according to Martin, it depends on how it’s done.

The Asynchronous Mindset

Martin recently shared his experiences and tips in a new book, co-written with his business partner Rob Rawson, called “Running Remote: Master the Lessons From the World’s Most Successful Remote-Work Pioneers.” And it's a Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly Bestseller.

When I talked to him for the latest Mind Tools Expert Interview, Martin explained the “asynch mindset,” based on “deliberate over-communication, democratized workflow, and detailed metrics."

Here's an excerpt. (You can stream the audio clip below or read a transcript here.)

My Experience of Asynchronous Working

As an independent journalist, I’ve spent many years working remotely and asynchronously, with mixed results.

When I was doing a master’s degree in the U.K., asynchronous work offered a financial lifeline. I was an associate editor for a New York-based magazine, and I edited articles while my editor slept, sending completed work in time for when he switched on in the morning. This situation suited all of us.

Earlier in my career, I was the Mexico correspondent of an American business magazine. Based in Mexico City, I worked alone, day after day, keeping in touch with my editor in Houston via email and occasionally text and phone.

I thrived on the autonomy this gave me, and loved coming up with new ideas for the magazine that I could run with, without anyone else weighing in. This kind of grassroots decision making is one of the positive features of asynchronous working, according to Martin.

But on the downside, it was sometimes difficult to motivate myself, and the days could drag. And if I needed a quick answer to something specific and unusual, which wasn’t in any policy or guidance document, well, “quick” was rarely an option. I had to wait until my editor came back online.

In-Person Communication Wins

Looking back on these experiences, I find the faces of my editors swimming into focus. Because we did meet up occasionally, and it is those face-to-face interactions that stand out most vividly when I think of those jobs.

Although a passionate advocate of asynchronous working, Martin agrees that synchronous communication remains an important piece of the remote-working puzzle. In fact, in his own hierarchy of communication, “in-person” comes top, and every year, his own company holds a face-to-face retreat for all its employees.

“We’ve recognized that synchronous time is so important to be able to, number one, build rapport between all of our different team members and trust, but also allow us to be able to really close the chapter on one year of the business and open up another chapter in the business,” he explains.

There are two reasons why they don’t do it more often: cost and efficiency. It’s expensive to get everyone in the same place, and it takes much longer to disseminate information in real time, rather than via a prepared document. Plus, with written information, you know that every recipient gets exactly the same message, and people can refer to it as often as they like.

Martin’s hierarchy of communication continues with voice and video calls, instant messaging, and finally email, as the foundation holding up the pyramid.

Be in Tune if Not in Synch

But however you communicate in asynchronous teams, perhaps what matters most is the attitude of team members.

I once worked with a graphic designer whose location changed from week to week. Over the course of one project, he moved from Spain to Mexico to Colombia.

The time zone changed, but his efficiency and excellent communication didn’t. The project ran smoothly, with great results. But I know that if he’d dropped the ball, even for one day, I would have railed against his digital nomad lifestyle!

Liam Martin’s model of remote asynchronous work relies on every member of the team being a hardworking self-starter, who will always read attachments to emails, no matter how long and dense they look, and will never feel sub-par or distracted or lonely.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that working in isolation doesn’t suit everyone. So I can understand why managers continue with the synchronous model, despite the allure of its opposite. It may be slower and more costly, but it fits how humans behave. And while it’s still humans doing much of the work, that makes a lot of sense.

Listen to the Full Story

You can listen to or read my full 30-minute interview with Liam Martin if you're a Mind Tools Club member or if your employer is a Mind Tools for Business licensee.

Martin and Rawson's book carries a prominent endorsement by Cal Newport, another expert we've already featured on Mind Tools. Search his name at the top of this page, and you'll find our in-depth review of his book "Deep Work" and our exclusive Expert Interview with him.

If you're not already a member, join the Mind Tools Club now to gain unlimited access to 2,400+ resources, including our back catalog of 200+ Expert Interviews. Or find out more about Mind Tools for whole organizations, big or small, by contacting our enterprise team.

Meanwhile, catch more excerpts and insights from my guests by searching our Expert Interview blog topic and by signing up free to the Mind Tools Expert Voices podcast.

The post "If you trust your employees..." Liam Martin on Asynchronous Work appeared first on Mind Tools.

Seasoned Workers

Think about your own working life. Are there any jobs you've held that haven't been affected by seasonal pressures?

I spent my teenage summers serving drinks in the stylish setting of an opera house in peak season. But later, when I was an English teacher at a private school, the quiet months between academic years were far more frugal.

And then there was the month I spent picking grapes in an Italian vineyard, which – as anyone who's done this work knows – is far less romantic than it sounds! We were up at the crack of dawn, laboring at the vines until the scorching midday sun made it impossible to continue.

For the owner of the vineyard, this was a crucial period that he could not afford to mess up. He needed flexible but reliable workers to complete the harvest safely and on time, bringing a year's hard work literally to fruition.

The Risks of Too Much Seasonal Pressure

It's not just in the foothills of the Apennines that the pressure is on. Across many industries, employee stress, job dissatisfaction, and even burnout are all real risks at peak times of the year.

Maybe you're in the retail sector and have to deal with your biggest workload during the holiday season. Or perhaps you're trying to hit your production targets at the end of a difficult quarter, or preparing a new course for the approaching college semester.

Whatever your sector, you'll likely suffer when several of your co-workers take a vacation in the same month. And, if you're one of the people who's going to be absent, you'll be working extra hard to get things done before you go.

There are other risks, too. External factors, like changes in the weather, can affect practicalities such as transportation and sourcing materials. And sufferers of the dreaded "winter blues" know all too well how the changing seasons can affect individual performance and health.

Your Tips for Coping With Seasonal Pressure at Work

Our article, Dealing With Seasonal Changes in Workload, has some great advice on how to cope during difficult times of the year. But, as a new member of the team here at Mind Tools, I wanted to hear directly from my co-workers, and from our friends and followers on social media, too.

Have the Right Resources

On Facebook, So Khalifa shared her strict rules on staff vacations: "I won't let myself be short-staffed. There is a system for any vacation, so only one member from any department will take a vacation. And when he or she comes back to work, another can take a vacation."

Mind Tools' Senior Content Editor, Keith Jackson, was somewhat puzzled by the concept of a slow season: "I'd like to know when the quiet times of the year are supposed to be! It seems that the demand for learning is year-round, so the Mind Tools learning locomotive chugs along unceasingly!"

Keith recommends planning your tactics well in advance, so you're prepared for the times when seasonal pressures take hold.

"For example, requests for vacation time will be high over Christmas and New Year, so you need to start thinking about deadlines and staffing levels several months in advance," Keith says. "That means creating work schedules for high-pressure periods, and approving holiday requests early – and fairly! – to ensure that the organization's commitments to customers are fulfilled. Sometimes, that can mean running work pipelines in parallel. That is, getting work due over holiday periods prepared early, in addition to team members carrying out 'normal' duties."

Remember Self-Care

On Twitter, @Dwyka_Consult highlighted the importance of looking after yourself. She said, "I appreciate quiet times at work because I get all kinds of things done that I don't normally have time for. My busy times aren't always predictable, and I make sure that I eat healthily, drink enough water, exercise, breathe, and think positively while I work."

On the Mind Tools Club forum, frequent contributor Zuni talked about a time of great pressure in a previous role. "I used to work in an industry where all the stops were pulled out to hit the year-end financial targets. The final quarter is always the big push. Inevitably what happens is that people get run down. When you take your foot off the gas, you get sick."

So how did Zuni cope? "What worked for me may seem a bit counterintuitive. I did work long days but I took rest breaks throughout the day. While my colleagues were working through lunch, I took a brisk walk outside. And I kept to my fitness schedule. On days I was more fatigued, I would cut back on my workout. But, I still went, and it certainly helped relieve stress."

Focus on the Positives

There can also be a positive side to seasonal fluctuations, according to Mind Tools' Charlie Swift. "I've benefited from other people's seasonal pressure several times, by getting temporary contracts, either to support overloaded teams or to be part of a short-term pop-up team created just for the season," Charlie recalled. "This made for engagingly varied work, cultures and colleagues, and lots of appreciation and thanks!"

But, when the pressure's on, "You have to put the rest of your life on hold. Make sure you get enough sleep and decent nutrition, and keep calm until reinforcements appear, or the tide of work finally ebbs."

Build in Resilience

"No one can keep going on an emergency setting long term," Charlie continued. "So, fiercely honest contingency planning and resilience building are key to both individual and organizational performance."

And, when the workload eases, you can start to prepare for the future. This final thought came from Midgie, from the Mind Tools Club forum team, who uses quiet periods to "review the past year and think about the new year, my goals and objectives, my priorities, and how the best version of me can shine."

How do you deal with seasonal pressure in the workplace? If you have any thoughts or suggestions to share, leave a comment, below.

The post Seasonal Pressure at Work – Your Top Tips for Survival appeared first on Mind Tools.

McKee mentions those early career experiences in her new book, "How to Be Happy at Work." When I talked to her for our Expert Interview podcast, I asked her how she found happiness when she was doing that low-paid menial work.

Three factors pulled her through, and gave her a measure of happiness despite the insecurity that often accompanies that type of job. These were: purpose, or meaning; hope; and friendship. In McKee’s case, these three factors were intertwined.

Not Feeling Good About Yourself

"I remember one job I had, I was working for a woman named Mary. I was essentially cleaning her house and doing other tasks around her home," she recalls. "And, as anyone who's done that for pay knows, that can be hard.

"You maybe don't feel so good about yourself, especially if you think you could do more. But I needed that job, so I really didn't know what to do," added McKee.

McKee began to observe Mary, who was a successful accountant.

Watching and Learning

"I started watching how she was living her life, and I thought, 'Wow, I really admire what she's doing as a professional woman. Let me just open my eyes and see what in fact she's done,’" says McKee.

Over the next few months, the cleaner and her employer struck up a friendship.

"I think she saw something different in me, based on the questions I was asking her. Over time we developed a relationship that was really mentor-mentee. She really did help me see that I could do something better," she says.

"I was still cleaning her house, but I found a lot more meaning in that work. I had expanded the definition of my job to include these conversations with Mary. My relationship with Mary became part of my job, and the rest didn't feel as awful because of that," she adds.

The Value of Purpose, Hope and Friendship

Purpose, hope and friendship made all the difference. Now, McKee believes that those three elements can lead to happiness in any job, and her academic research backs up what she discovered all those years ago, when she was cleaning for Mary.

In "How to Be Happy at Work," McKee offers advice on finding – or creating – these three factors, if we feel they are lacking in our workplace.

When it comes to purpose or meaning, "we need to look for opportunities to make a difference," she says. For example, whatever our organization, "we can find ways to fix systems and processes that don't work very well. All of us can find ways to create, make and innovate in the workplace. We just need to lift our head up away from that computer and look around and see what we can do."

Where Do We Want to Go?

The second factor is hope. "In the workplace, we need to feel that where we're going is where we want to go, and it's got to be bigger than our job or our career," she says. "Then, of course, we need plans. We've got to actually try to get there, which means setting out some goals, setting out some milestones and some action steps, and then just marching forward."

And finally, there's friendship – a component of happiness that is mentioned less often than the other two, but is no less important.

"We need to feel that we belong," McKee says. "We need to feel that we're with people who are part of a tribe that we're proud to be a part of, too. [So we should] try to understand other people.

"Trust before you are trusted, give before you get – those are the kinds of actions that are going to create strong, positive relationships that will not only infuse us with a sense of meaning and happiness at work, but will help us carry on and get through the challenging times that we all experience in our jobs," added McKee.

Being Happy With a "Resonant Culture"

While she believes that the responsibility for a person's happiness rests firmly with that individual, organizations do have a role to play. If managers can create what she calls a "resonant culture," it will be much easier for team members to feel that all-important sense of purpose, hope and friendship.

In this audio clip, from our Expert Interview podcast, McKee shares her thoughts on creating a resonant culture at work:

Listen to the full 30-minute interview in the Mind Tools Club.

What are your top tips for finding happiness at work? Join the discussion below!

The post How to Be Happy at Work appeared first on Mind Tools.

"’Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…"
– from The Night Before Christmas, or A Visit From St. Nicholas

So goes the much-loved poem that will be read to countless excited children all round the world this Christmas Eve. If only reality matched the serene scene so perfectly portrayed by the poet!

Christmas Chaos?

No, my Christmas Eve involves the now traditional mad rush home from the office. This is followed by a dash to the stores for last-minute essentials, and then a wrapping frenzy as I try to get all the presents looking lovely before they are put in stockings and under trees – all while I try to fit in my favorite Christmas movie ("Scrooged") and eat a mince pie or two.

As much as I try to be, I'm not always prepared for Christmas. In fact, I'll go so far as to say I'm never prepared for it. Much of December is spent fighting off that creeping, uncomfortable feeling that I'm forgetting something, or some things… But, just this once, I've decided to give myself a break. And you should, too.

Just look at the stats! Long-distance trips rise by 54 percent over Thanksgiving and by 23 percent during Christmas and New Year. The U.S. Postal Service will deliver nearly 850 million packages and more than 15 billion (yes, billion!) total pieces of mail this year alone during the holidays. While, for most retailers, the holiday season represents 20 to 40 percent of their total annual sales!

So, what can we do to make sure that we stay on top of it all, and give ourselves time to really enjoy the festivities?

Get Organized

For many of us, the festive period means being super-busy at work, too. Whichever sector you're in, you'll need to make sure that workloads are covered, and that projects are delivered on time and to the same quality as usual. This might mean being unpopular when you say "no" to vacation requests. You can avoid some of the last-minute pain by asking people to submit their holiday requests well in advance, and by being seen to be as fair as possible when sharing out cover.

Planning is also essential if you are going to stay productive. Let's face it, distractions are everywhere at this time of year, and they're often more fun than the things we should be concentrating on. So, if you find yourself thinking about mince pies and mistletoe, when you should be analyzing spreadsheets and schedules, help yourself to stay focused by setting up To-Do Lists and prioritizing your tasks well ahead of the holidays.

Beware the Zombie Office

For some people, work can become a bit of a "dead zone," particularly in that eerily quiet period between Christmas and New Year.

You might find that you're surrounded by empty desks, that half the lights are off, the coffee shop's closed, and even the cleaner is on leave. It's as though you're the last human on Earth; if a zombie apocalypse happened, would you even know about it?

If this sounds like what you're looking forward to, don't waste your time. Use it wisely!

Yes, you could spend this rare undisturbed time in a YouTube wormhole, catching up on all those epic fail and cat videos that your friend sent you. Or, you could say "no" to procrastination and finally get round to ticking off some of those non-urgent tasks.

Make Things Easy For Yourself

It can feel as though the closer you get to Christmas, the faster time flows.

You've got the presents to buy and wrap, the tree to decorate, the lights to put up, food to order, travel plans to arrange, and a whole host of events to attend with family, friends and co-workers. Your to-do list has become longer than Santa's Naughty or Nice list and just looking at it makes you tired.

With all of these competing demands it can be easy to become overwhelmed and exhausted. So, make life easy for yourself, by seizing a few "quick wins."

Take advantage of online wishlists and gift-wrapping services, and avoid any unnecessary travel. This will save you from battling through crowds, facing the worst of the weather (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least), and spending on peak-time transportation.

It could save your organization money, too. After all, what's the point in opening the office if it's just you and a few others that will be in? But beware the attractions of home – make sure that you have a "door you can shut" when you need to work.

Keep Calm and Enjoy the Festivities!

While you're juggling the party arrangements and getting those reports in on time, remember to pause occasionally. After all, "Christmas comes but once a year," so spread some festive cheer in your office. Decorate with a tree or a team Advent calendar, put on some Christmas tunes, offer round some seasonal snacks, and be generous!

Finally, know when to switch off from work. And I mean off! Log out of your email, and deactivate your notifications. After all, Christmas is more than just a long list of tasks and rushing from here to there. Christmas should be about enjoying those around you and the moment at hand.

So, when you do get a break, why not treat yourself to your favorite Christmas coffee, put your feet up and relax, and call the people you miss, or settle down with a good book? As the Grinch who stole Christmas once said: "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

Are you working this Christmas? What tips do you have for staying focused? How will you balance festive fun with work? Share your thoughts in the Comments section, below.

The post Will Your Holidays be Christmas Chaos or Christmas Calm? appeared first on Mind Tools.

So, if you're a poor communicator, you’ll always be a poor leader, regardless of the merit of your ideas. Put like that, this soft skill packs a punch, and it’s worth spending time developing it.

Communicate Like a Leader

Booher's new book, "Communicate Like a Leader," is a handy manual full of practical tips for "connecting strategically to inspire, coach, and get things done," in the words of the book’s subtitle.

In bite-size chunks we get guidance on people management, including hiring and firing; conversations, including networking; negotiating; writing, including email and social media; and executive presence, Booher's area of special expertise.

Executive Presence

We delve into this last topic in detail in our Expert Interview podcast. "Executive presence can boil down to four key areas," Booher tells me. "It's how you look, how you talk, how you think, and how you act."

The last of these, how you act, is determined by "character and integrity, your track record, reputation and competence," and because of that, it's more difficult to learn. But the good news is, it's not so hard for leaders to improve in the first three areas – how you look, talk and think – and this can pay big dividends.

"These have a great deal to do with how credible you are," Booher says. "You have an enormous advantage when you stand up to make a presentation, when you look the part, when your voice sounds the part."

This makes perfect sense, but sometimes nerves get in the way. For her previous book, "Creating Personal Presence," Booher surveyed professionals at all levels to find out what skill they felt was their weakest. Thinking under pressure came out top.

Good First Impressions

Booher's survey respondents realized the importance of making a good impression, particularly in front of an audience, and also how challenging it can be.

In this new book, Booher provides some practical advice that can help in most situations where you need to think under pressure, whether you’re making off-the-cuff remarks to a group of colleagues or answering questions from an audience.

Use the LEAD Format

For those moments when you have to improvise a speech, Booher suggests following her LEAD format. That's an acronym for Lead, as in the lead of a newspaper article, a summary of the event or situation; Elaborate; Anecdote; and Digest, as in a concise conclusion.

Then there are the times when you’re called upon to answer questions – for example, if you're appearing in a panel at a conference. You may not be able to prepare for specific questions, Booher says, but you can prepare in other ways.

• First, anticipate potential questions that you may be asked, especially around sensitive issues.
• Second, buy a few seconds of thinking time. You could look reflective, take a sip of water, or ask the person to elaborate on the question.
• Third, begin with a broad generalization that everyone can agree with. For example, you could say, "I know we all want to see these charities thrive and be able to help people in need. Determining the proper contribution can be difficult for several reasons..."

This process will help you arrive at a more considered answer, while maintaining a credible presence.

The final section of Booher’s book concerns meetings, where strategic communication can make all the difference. In this audio clip, from our Expert Interview, she shares some of her tips for success in meetings, including phrasing the agenda items as questions and assigning time limits to each of them.

Listen to the full 30-minute interview in the Mind Tools Club. ¦ Install Flash Player.

What are your strengths and weaknesses in business communication? Join the discussion below!

The post How to Communicate With Presence appeared first on Mind Tools.

I currently work as a temporary assistant, meaning that I'm essentially left to my own devices for much of the time. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy that way of doing things, although my workload does tend to fluctuate quite a lot.

For instance, I might be given a fun and interesting task, and complete it quickly. But it needs to be signed off, and I have to wait for the colleague overseeing that work to be free to assess my performance and explain things to me.

Or, I can find myself struggling to find things to do in between large projects, especially if my everyday tasks have become straightforward and quick to complete.

Manage Your Own Time

But let's be clear, working by yourself as a "temp" does have a number of sizable advantages. I can think of six off the top my head.

First, and most notably, you get to manage your own time.

Second, you also have more freedom to choose what tasks you want to do first. And, third, you're normally given quite a varied workload, so that you are doing tasks for lots of different people and teams.

Fourth, you have nobody to delegate to when you're a team of one, and often that's no bad thing. It saves you quite a chunk of time not having to talk someone else through the details of a project, or having to monitor their progress.

Fifth, stress levels are also easier to manage in this type of role, as you're not making the final decision. Finally, at number six, you get to leave your work at work, and leave the building on time. Well, most days!

Isolation and a Team of One

Sometimes, though, it can be really hard to avoid isolating yourself. For example, where do you sit for lunch? That's been a big struggle for me previously. On many occasions, I've found myself sitting in my car, just to avoid awkward conversations with complete strangers about what my five-year plan is, or what I think of the current manager.

And when I have stayed in the office for lunch, I've often ended up sitting on my own, worrying about what people might think of the lone girl in the corner. In some companies, I've been invited to lunch but ended up sitting in silence, afraid to make conversation with the office "cliques."

During the first week of a job at a wedding venue, I was really excited and kept thinking I'd be super busy – wow, how wrong I was! Halfway through the day, my manager (the only other person in the office) popped out for the best part of three hours, leaving me to "get to know" the website by myself.

I found myself alone, trying to work out what my role actually was and how to do it. Looking back, I think that the owners didn't really know what my role was. After a week, I realized that the situation wasn't going to change and I left.

Sampling a Career

Working on a temporary basis has given me the opportunity to explore different roles and companies. It has helped me to take the time to discover the career that I'd really like to pursue.

I've also been able to work with many different people in many different teams, which has helped me to broaden my skill set.

Almost without realizing it, I chose to work in a team of one, and it has certainly given me more confidence and made me more organized. It's also improved my decision making, as there's normally nobody to turn to for an answer.

So, what's your experience of working as a team of one? Leave a comment below. For more tips on how to make it a success, take a look at our article.

The post Six Ways I Beat the Blues of Being a Team of One! appeared first on Mind Tools.

The challenge came as part of a presentation skills course. It helped me to realize that slides are often used as a crutch for the presenter. Most people, we learned, use far too many words in their slides. Attendees are unable to concentrate on what you're saying when they're trying to read them. You'll more likely frustrate the members of your audience than engage them.

Worst of all, you may be tempted to use your slides as a script. If you read from them with your back turned to the room, you're not fully engaging with your audience. My neck prickled with embarrassment when I realized that I had been guilty of exactly this mistake in the past.

You're better off, I heard, printing the slides and giving them to the audience as a handout. They'll be able to digest the information at their leisure. Even better, they won't have someone talking at them while they're trying to read!

So, the course trainer tasked me with making a conscious effort to present ideas, data and findings in pictures. I didn't have to say that sales were great if I showed a photo of store shelves picked clean. The audience chuckled before I could finish the sentence, anyway!

I then discovered that well-chosen pictures had the power to reveal nuances that the listener wouldn't have considered otherwise. The trainer told me, "If your slide is peanut butter, what you're saying should be jelly." One, she explained, should complement the other.

Once I had grasped the importance of capturing an idea in pictures, I realized how immediate it could be. I started to challenge myself to reduce the time between a slide appearing and the audience responding. The quicker the laugh or murmur of understanding, the more immediately I'd been able to reinforce the idea.

So why limit my newfound love of clear visuals to presentations? I started using pictures in other areas of my work. On one occasion, while working as a community manager, my boss asked me to write some copy that described my employer's product. It was a toy that helped young children to learn basic computer coding. I considered various paragraphs describing the "programming board" and "instruction bricks," but nothing I wrote seemed to make things clearer.

Eventually, I recommended that we go with an illustration of the item and its various components instead. And when he asked me to write a blog post describing how the product worked, I suggested that we create an interactive, software version of the toy and embed it in our web page. Parents would be able to see the product for themselves without leaving their browsers.

The larger lesson that I learned from that course was this: everyone in your team is pulling in the same direction, in pursuit of the same goal. There's no need to build a wall separating your copywriters, social media managers, and other "wordsmiths" from your video editors, illustrators and designers. Pictures strengthen copy and vice versa. When you encourage your teams to work together, each enhances the other's work, and your entire organization moves closer to its goal.

If you're interested in reading more on the topic of thinking and learning visually, take a look at this week's article on Flow Charts, and find out how they can help you to communicate and streamline your business practices.

The post The Day I Learned to Think in Pictures appeared first on Mind Tools.

The last two images are more related than you might think. Scrum is a project management approach designed to increase speed and flexibility through teamwork and incremental working. Its early proponents called it the "rugby approach," because of its emphasis on teams achieving results together, step by step. The fact that the process often includes short huddled meetings helped the name to stick.

Scrum is part of the Agile software development movement, characterized by a lighter-weight, team-centered approach to creating software. The methodology is now widely used outside the world of software development too.

So sports metaphors aside, what exactly is Scrum?

"The main characteristic [of Scrum] is to do things incrementally, build a little bit, see how people like what you've built, and then use the feedback from that to figure out the next thing that you're going to do," explains Scrum and Agile expert Mike Cohn, founder of Mountain Goat Software.

To illustrate how this works in practice, he talks about his dentist. During a recent visit, she asked him what he did for a living.

"I said, 'If you wanted to start a new software product for your dental practice, the traditional way would be to have somebody write a 100- or 200-page document describing everything you need. And then people would go away and build that software, come back in a year, and probably give you something that didn't really match your needs'," he says.

"In an Agile or Scrum approach, what we do is go to that dentist and say, not 'What do you need?' but 'What do you need most? What do you need next?'"

With the general goal far in the distance, the team then builds just one thing to show to the dentist.

"Then she can say, 'No, that’s not what I want,' or, 'Yes, it is.' And then, based on that, we build the second thing and then the third thing," Cohn continues. "So it's about having teams working together with their customer collaboratively and building just a little bit, rather than trying to get the whole thing specified out up-front."

In our Expert Interview, Cohn describes how this way of developing projects is working well in some unexpected environments. There's a website that helps people to plan their weddings using Scrum, for example, and it's also being used effectively in schools. He knows some children who are learning about the pyramids using the Scrum approach.

"The way these nine-year-old kids are doing this is they'll work as a team. One of them will perhaps draw pictures of the pyramids, the other one will prepare a little oral report that they'll give, and things like that," he says, adding, "One of the teachers refers to her students as her 'little Scrum monsters' because they are so interested in working that way."

Scrum may often be fun, fast and motivating, but what effect does it have on the quality of the finished product? Cohn says this approach can lead to very high-quality results, but standards need to be monitored every step of the way. It makes no sense to try to retrofit quality later, as an afterthought.

And as you continually check the quality of your product, you should also check that you're actually building the right thing, Cohn says.

"[We could] go away for a year and build a super-high-quality thing, no bugs, and then hand it over to our customer and the customer says, 'That's not what I want'."

What a lot of wasted time and effort that would be. That's why regular meetings between the development team and the customer, internal or external, are a central part of the Scrum process.

So how much planning is involved in Scrum, bearing in mind the need to stay nimble and be able to switch direction after every meeting? In this clip, from our Expert Interview, Cohn reflects on the nuances of planning a Scrum project.

Listen to the full Expert Interview in the Mind Tools Club ¦ Install Flash Player.

Have you been part of a Scrum or Agile team? How did this approach help the outcome of your project? Join in the discussion below!

The post Join the Scrum appeared first on Mind Tools.

– Bill Gates, American business magnate.

Feedback... There is something inherently awkward about the process of giving and receiving feedback. If done – and taken – in a negative vein, it can feel a lot like judging or being judged, and that never leaves us feeling positive.

However, if done well, feedback is essential to good performance in the workplace, whether you're a one-man outfit, selling goods from the back of a lunchtime sandwich truck, or a multinational corporation. You may survive without it, but you're better off with it.

There is a wealth of resources available to help you ensure that the process is planned and implemented properly, so that you can get the best results from it. However, not everyone follows this advice, or is even aware of it. As a result, you've likely experienced both good and bad examples of feedback, and these experiences can be invaluable to improving your own feedback practice.

We wanted to find out your top tips for giving and receiving feedback at work, so we asked our friends and followers on social media to tell us what works for them. We had some great responses that demonstrate just how carefully people are approaching the process of giving and receiving feedback in their organizations.

Our Facebook page came alive with contributions! Here is a selection of your views:

London manager Mick Avern, in particular, has given me a case of "manager envy" with his totally positive take on a great feedback process. He says "I love positive feedback. I believe that, rather than "right and wrong," you are right or you learn. Make a mistake? That's fine, learn from it... it's a lesson. With the company I work for, the behaviors we believe in are: Genuine, Professional, Inclusive, and Proactive. I'm a manager, I love being told I am valued and so I tell staff (not employees) when they have displayed those behaviors. They really enjoy the feedback." I commend you, Mick! If only every manager was as positive as you are... we'd all be skipping into our workplaces!

Emmanuel Hamatwi, from Choma, in Southern Zambia, promotes some important parameters to ensure the process of giving feedback remains fair and positive when he says, "While giving feedback, it's important to stick to factual issues and how the organization is affected. Focus on how change and adjustment can help everyone and the organization. Confidential feedback should be carefully planned, especially when dealing with sensitive matters. Record and log feedback sessions and points covered. Don't reprimand people in the presence of others. Check the mood around. Be humane."

On the matter of receiving feedback, Aqeel Asghar bravely puts himself on the line in the name of improving his best practice. "For receiving feedback, I analyze the results, output and satisfaction, then simply ask others for the best alternate to the job which I did," he says.

Our followers on Twitter® also had some useful offerings. Paulette Rao (@PauletteRao) pointed out that feedback should be "timely, constructive and objective to have positive impact."

Jane (@jbasslearning) offered some advice to those receiving feedback: "Listen openly – don't try to explain why you did what you did, it only comes across as defensive." She has highlighted how easy it is to react defensively when we feel that we are being criticized. However, putting aside our feelings and considering the feedback objectively can help you to see where you can improve your skills. You'll then be in a good position to ask for any support you may need.

Our LinkedIn® followers had some further tips for managers or colleagues who want to ensure a positive feedback experience. Shirley Joseph urges feedback givers to first question their motives: "Know yourself... What are your motives? Keep the goal of your communication in mind. What do you want to convey? Lastly, remember: timing, tone, and delivery – It's all about what, when and how you say it."

Another supporter of a measured and reasoned feedback process is Terri Giosia. He advises, "If you're getting feedback, be open and not defensive. Giving feedback #1 rule: before you give it, think about how you like to get feedback. Ask the person 'What are you doing well?' Reinforce what they are saying. Ask them 'What are the areas you believe you can improve upon?' and let them give the answers. If they haven't said what you want to hear, it's time for you to "coach" them on the areas you want to review. Don't raise your voice... give them tools, a timeline... let them know you'll check in, be there for them if they need anything. At the end, let them paraphrase what you've just said, to ensure comprehension." I like how Terri's questions are worded – Asking your team member to work out for themselves what they do well and what they need to improve will help the feedback session to seem less "judgy" and will keep feelings of defensiveness at bay.

By first questioning what it is you want to say and why, you can prevent the feedback session descending into negativity and defensiveness. The sentiment of carefully choosing how you provide feedback was also picked up by Fatima Piñeiro-Somoza. Fatima champions "positive non-verbal language" when providing feedback – another example of how carefully considering your own behavior can alter the outcome of a feedback session.

We received some really great responses, so thank you to all those who gave such careful consideration to the topic. Here is a snapshot of some of them:

• Leading Life ‏(@life_leading), "Feedback should be timely, constructive and objective to have positive impact."
• Pamela Hondzinski, "Easy... I ask my colleagues!"
• EWASS (Education) ‏(@EWASSEducation), "Being a critical friend is important... fair and consistent. Empathy with boundaries."
• Chloe Wooles, "Be clear about why you're giving the feedback, particularly if the recipient hasn't asked you for it. And be prepared to elaborate if asked or if required."

You can still put forward more tips for giving and receiving feedback at work. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section, below.

The post Your Top Tips For Giving and Receiving Feedback at Work appeared first on Mind Tools.

Motivation is the art of finding out what "makes people tick," and applying that to get the best from them. As such, it’s something that we all need to understand.

There are many great models that help us do this. One of the fathers of motivation, Frederick Herzberg, said that the way to motivate people is to get rid of the things that are upsetting them first, and then to focus on factors like achievement, recognition, advancement and growth – all of which we find motivating ourselves.

Other researchers have talked about satisfying people’s individual needs for achievement, affiliation or power (David McClelland); helping them experience fairness, achievement and camaraderie at work (David Sirota); or motivating them by providing frequent small wins (Teresa Amabile).

However, for me and for many others, the biggest source of motivation comes from working towards an inspiring vision of the future (in Mind Tools’ case, the vision of helping thousands of people around the world learn the management, leadership and personal effectiveness skills they need to be happy and successful at work).

After all, in survey after survey, many report that the most important thing that motivates them is the sense that they’re working towards something that really "makes a difference" to others.

Good organizations know this, and it’s why they have developed meaningful mission and vision statements. Effective leaders also know this, and it’s why they interpret these statements for individual team members, helping them see how their work contributes to a meaningful "bigger picture."

Unfortunately, things can be more difficult than this.

Vision and mission come from the hard, technical work of corporate strategy, the discipline of working out how to win in business. In the "old days" of 20 years ago, this was thought of in terms of large, centrally developed, set-piece plans with three-, five- or seven-year time horizons.

I contrast this with my experience of growing MindTools.com, which has been about listening to people, brainstorming options, running experiments, listening again to what people say has worked for them, and building on this with another range of experiments. Listen, experiment. Listen, experiment. Listen, experiment...

I’ve written before about a favorite book of mine, "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries, that codifies this approach. In it, Ries describes a way of developing businesses by testing business models using minimum viable products, building on what works through repeated iterations of experiments, and "pivoting" quickly to try something else, if this doesn’t work out.

(This "agile" way of doing strategy arguably embraces Agile Project Management – a flexible project delivery approach that complements Ries’ ideas.)

However, while this approach makes complete sense from an entrepreneur’s perspective, it can sometimes be profoundly demotivating for the people he or she leads.

After all, one of the things we most want from leaders is a sense of confidence and certainty about the future. Being told that "I don’t know for sure, but we’re trying this, this and this" isn’t a message that inspires confidence.

More than this, imagine that one of your best people has just spent a month working intensely to develop a closely specified test project, which is one of three such projects that will be run competitively against one another to find a best way forward. The experiment is run, and a different project, using a differently specified solution, wins spectacularly. As the manager who organized the tests, you may be delighted with the result, but how does your team member feel?

And what if she has invested a year of her life developing a product, only for you to "pivot" and abandon much of her work? You’re just about to lose a valued team member...

So, how can you motivate people in this sort of environment? Here are some thoughts:

1. If you’re in a chaotic environment, keep your vision and mission statements high-level and broad, so that they stay constant even if your business subtly changes course. You’ll quickly lose credibility if you change your mission statement every few months!
2. Educate your people to understand how the Lean Startup/experimental approach to business works. Sure – some projects will fail, and this doesn’t matter. Provided that they’re delivered well, many will succeed spectacularly, and it’s these big wins that will build the business.
3. Keep projects small, and have frequent milestones within them, so that people are motivated by frequent small successes.
4. If you’re working on a number of competing alternatives, do this as a team, with everyone working in some way on all of the alternatives. That way, everyone has a stake in all of the options, and no one loses when one option is rejected. (What’s more, you’ll benefit from the mutual recognition, affiliation and camaraderie that comes with good teamwork.)

This is a new area, and I'm not sure I have all of the answers. What do you think? And if you’ve managed people in a lean-startup-type business, how have you motivated people successfully?

The post Motivation - the Agile Way! appeared first on Mind Tools.