Tell me about your pain points
I want to know about what causes you pain at work.
Why do I want to know about your pain points? Because if we know about your pain points, then we know what we need to fix first, and what you will need to make that happen … if you let me help you!
Need some ideas? Let me share a few.
For example, you might be contributing to someone else’s pain (or your own pain) by not showing up authentically, or even worse, being out of line with your own integrity. I personally contributed to my colleague’s pain by assuming the role of my position gave me the power to override her request instead of taking her concerns to heart. In doing so, I was not aligned with my integrity and definitely wasn’t showing up authentically … until I apologized and worked to make things right.
Or you might be unintentionally blocking energy inside your organization. For example, I have witnessed leaders withhold information about a new policy or procedure under development, out of fear of not having the finished polished product and damaging their reputation. However, the announcement of the new policy or procedure was always criticized by stakeholders for not seeking input early on and a failure to address the real problem. Even when concerns were raised, the leaders held firm and refused to change course. Any hopes for a smooth implementation became run aground.
For some leaders, this pain was the beginning of their journey to building their leadership lifeboat (the focus of my book manuscript). Like Jos de Blok, who founded Buurtzorg, a pioneering healthcare organization in the Netherlands, who reflected on his own start:
“In 1994, I was asked to become a manager, and I saw how little interest there was in how the system was helping patients and I learned how management was frustrating the daily practice of good professional workers.”
Or like Jean-François Zobrist, CEO of FAVI, a family owned business, specializing in developing and producing pressure die-cast, machined or assembled technical parts in aluminium and brass, who reflected on his earlier experience:
“And there, I begin to notice aberrant things: such as a worker waits ten minutes at the door of the store to change gloves at five francs while he is on a machine costing twenty francs a minute; another wastes his time looking for change for a coffee at thirty centimes…”
What are you waiting for? Please tell me about those pain points!
Click on the following link to access this anonymous survey for leaders and their teams who want to talk about these pain points: The Pain Point Survey
PS. I love the survey questions which I have adapted from Noah Kagan's blog.
PPS: I learned about de Blok and Zobrist from reading Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organizations. I highly recommend reading and absorbing this book!
Photo by Tammy Brimner/TLBVelo Photography
