17 Jul
PeopleTek Coaching Blog

Leadership is a Journey With Many Styles

Leadership gets better over time. Leadership takes us and others to places we’ve not yet been, and may have been reluctant to venture into alone.

Successful leaders know how to effectively communicate with others in ways they understand, in their “language” if you will. Many of us are familiar with situational leadership. There is not just one way to lead, just as one style is not “better” than another. Competence and commitment factor into how all leadership styles and behaviors can be most effective, along with understanding personality profiles such as Myers-Briggs, DiSC, Communication, and Conflict types.

There is a need to understand and work towards achieving common goals, but how you get there may differ. We’ve worked with teams that want to have a step by step plan, with sub tasks, for achieving each goal. They want to be told who will do “what” by “when.” We’ve also worked with teams that prefer to create their own plan. They want to have a clear understanding of the desired result, but want little or no input on how to get there.

Both methods can work. Strong leaders understand when they need to be involved and give direction; they also know when to let go and let others run with it. They know and understand their team member styles, and factor in experience levels, the willingness and desire to learn, and confidence and collaboration levels when assigning projects.

Since teams, leaders, partners, clients, and direct reports are all subject to change, we need to constantly tune our skills and behaviors. What worked well for us in the past, may not always work successfully over time.

Leadership truly is a journey. We encourage you to continually hone your skills and utilize the leadership tools that assist with knowing and responding to the styles and preferences of others, and the willingness to adjust your style to obtain optimal results.

Enjoy your journey!

09 Jul
PeopleTek Coaching Team

Organizational Assessment and Development

Does your team recognize one another for their contributions and accomplishments?

Can they disagree and give and receive feedback in a healthy, honoring way?

These leadership skills are key for an organization to be strong, respected, and influential.

We are most effective as a team when we compliment each other without embarrassment and disagree without fear.
—unknown

Sometimes even cohesive and well-rounded teams don’t perform at their peak. Identifying real (and perceived) team strengths and gaps, and learning how to leverage and develop them is critical for becoming the “dream team.”

We conduct confidential interviews and assessments that provide valuable input for knowing “where you are” compared to “where you want to be.”

Using this input we implement custom solutions that utilize the preferences and strengths of team members while forging bonds that build trust, and ultimately improve results.

We can help – guaranteed!

06 Jul
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Independence and Leadership

Yesterday the United States celebrated Independence Day. It’s a time for celebration and reflection, and it’s also a good time to be inspired by leadership and courage.

We’ve talked before about how being a leader is not easy. It requires courage and commitment, a desire for change, and the need to motivate and inspire others.

“Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better”. 
-Harry Truman

In 1776 there were 56 individuals that were true leaders; they were courageous, they were risk takers, and they certainly weren’t fearful of change!

As a leader, how much time do you spend looking for ways to make things better?

Here’s some 4th of July Trivia you may, or may not know.

Questions:

  1. What was the main reason the U.S.declared independence?
  2. Who proposed “Lee’s Resolution” on June 1, 1776, declaring that the United States be independent of Great Britain?
  3. Who approved the Declaration of Independence?
  4. How many people signed the Declaration of Independence?
  5. In what city was the Declaration of Independence signed?
  6. Where does the word “patriotism” come from?

Answers:

  1. A1  -Independencewas declared due to being taxed without representation.
  2. A2 –  Richard Henry Lee ofVirginiaproposed Lee’s resolution
  3. A3 –  The Second Continental Congress
  4. A4 – 56
  5. A5 – Philadelphia,Pennsylvania
  6. A6 – “Patriotism” comes from the Latin “patria” meaning “fatherland” or “homeland

For more fun facts click here.

Be a leader…look for and inspire changes for the better!

02 Jul
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Our Leadership Philosophy

At PeopleTek We Believe in People

  • We’re passionate about helping people succeed by unlocking their potential.
  • We believe great leaders and teams are the creative engine that drives business results.
  • We help organizations build trust, capitalize on strengths, and communicate honestly.

PeopleTek has been instrumental in helping us build our management and leadership skills. They have been able to get our company leaders to take the time to build skills and achieve goals and helped create a road map that can both guide us and keep us on the path we have chosen…
–Steve  Pruett, CEO Communications Corporation Of America

If you’re looking to:

  • Outsmart the competition
  • Delight customers
  • Innovate
  • Cut costs
  • Identify and implement improvement opportunities
  • Maximize results

Contact us today for a custom solution – satisfaction guaranteed!

28 Jun
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Leadership and Innovation

“If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.”
–Woody Allen

Can you readily step out of your comfort zone? Are you willing to try new things despite the possibility of failing?  Most of us struggle with both of these, which unfortunately impact our ability to be innovative.

Thomas Alva Edison is considered one of the most famous innovators of all time. It is alleged that Edison’s friend and former employee Henry Ford, requested that Edison’s final breath be captured in a sealed test tube. Wouldn’t it be great if we could capture, and then share, the breath of the greatest problem solvers, those that were creative, those with practical and life changing solutions? Read more about Edison.

Change for many is unsettling; it may make us feel threatened, fearful, and uncomfortable, but what if we viewed change as an opportunity? As leaders we need to search for opportunities, we need to experiment, and we need to take risks. Leadership and innovation go hand in hand. To be a great leader means having the courage to look beyond the status quo, facilitate growth and improvement, and yes, sometimes experience dismal results.

To be innovative, we must learn, observe, and keep our skills current. We need to have a strong sense of self, while understanding our organization, and our customer base. We will be most successful if we have the knowledge to anticipate the needs of others, which will hopefully promote innovative ideas.

We can’t work in a vacuum. We need to have a vision and be passionate about what we do, and we need to enlist others to share that vision and achieve success. Our staff, peers, customers, and partners can all be engaged for fresh and creative ideas and solutions. Without innovation and growth, the value we provide will be diminished, and we’ll become stagnant, obsolete, and be replaced.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
-Steve Jobs

So ask yourself and answer honestly: Are you an innovator or a follower?

21 Jun
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Leadership, Stress, and Tips For De-stressing

Chronic workplace stress and burnout are being referred to as an epidemic.

We’re a fast-paced society, job security is pretty much non-existent, we’re told to do more with less, we work harder, and resist taking time off since there’s so much to do. Chances are, you or a member of your team are experiencing stress related issues or job burn-out.

The Link Between Lower Stress & Leadership

Did you know that our work and leadership styles have a correlation with stress levels? Type A personalities (those that are ambitious, organized, take on more and more work, want to be understood, are proactive and competitive, and live to meet deadlines) are at a higher risk for feeling stressed? We work hard and we have high expectations, but frequently feel there is an out of balance condition between the effort we put forth, and the recognition we are given.

From another perspective, individuals that score high in leadership dimensions have lower stress levels. Why? Leadership was linked with high work effort and high work rewards. (Remember how we always say to track progress against your goals, celebrate your successes, and recognize accomplishments?  There’s a reason for that!)

Another link is that high leadership scores were associated with high job control. When you’re in control or feel that you’re in control, you experience less stress. Make sense? Since leadership increases job control, giving employees a stronger say in work decisions helps reduce their job stress. Why not give it try?

5 R’s of Destressing

Richard Blonna, Ed.D, author of Stress Less, Live More, provides the following tips for de-stressing:

  1. Reorganize
    “Reorganize your health” and “develop hearty habits” – a healthy lifestyle provides energy and builds coping resilience.
  2. Rethink
    Be aware of your mental and emotional baggage; you can prevent a potential stressor from becoming an actual stressor. Manage self-doubt and negative thoughts; take control!
  3. Reduce
    Are you involved in too many things? Use a journal to track your activities and your feelings about them, and verify they mesh with your goals and values.
  4. Relax
    Strive for a calm mind. Deep breathing or systematic muscle relaxation, for about 20 minutes a day helps tremendously. Other ideas include listening to music, reading, exercising, spending time with family/friends, and napping.
  5. Release
    Reduce muscle tension and use pent up energy. You need to decide the level of physical activity you need (mild, moderate and vigorous), and select activities you enjoy.

There is no band-aid or one single approach for managing all stressors; what we can do, however, is to understand when stress is setting in. We need to proactively identify which techniques work best for us in specific situations, and remember that true leaders link high work effort with high work rewards!

11 Jun
PeopleTek Coaching Success

Don’t Just Survive, Thrive!

Are you in a new role? Have you gone from being an individual contributor to having staff responsibilities? Does your job include influencing others without having direct reporting responsibilities?

If any of these apply to you, the Leadership Journey is the perfect fit. The Journey will provide you with the skills and “know how” to develop and hone strong leadership skills.

The Journey will teach you key behaviors for developing practical strategies to:

  • Improve communication and relationships
  • Make better decisions
  • Advance your planning and task management skills
  • Enhance listening skills
  • Better manage conflicts and address difficult situations
  • Increase employee engagement
  • Build self confidence

Our next 12 session programs are kicking off soon!

June 19 – Leadership Journey I
Virtually facilitated (attend from any location)
Session 1 of 12

June 20 – Leadership Journey I
Phoenix based
Session 1 of 12

To learn more or to enroll, click here.

Learn to thrive, not just survive!

31 May
PeopleTek Coaching Success

Job Satisfaction Levels

“Personal satisfaction is the most important ingredient of success”.
-Denis Waitley

Do your energy levels seem to be fading? Are you not as motivated and engaged as you usually are? Does productivity seem to be slipping?

If you answered “yes” to any of these, you may be experiencing a drop in your work satisfaction levels.

Per Wikipedia, job satisfaction is:

How content an individual is with his or her job. The happier people are within their job, the more satisfied they are said to be.  Job satisfaction is not the same as motivation, although it is clearly linked.  Job design aims to enhance job satisfaction and performance.  Methods include job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment.  Other influences on satisfaction include the management style and culture, employee involvement, empowerment and autonomous work groups.

Right Management conducted a work satisfaction survey mid April through mid May.  The results: only 19% of the respondents were satisfied with their jobs; roughly 66% reported they were unhappy at work.

Despite these dismal results, most were reluctant to leave their job.  High unemployment rates and minimal growth opportunities are contributing factors, but what does this mean to the work environment and to leadership?

A study conducted by A.I. LeDue, jr showed that workers and their bosses had very different ideas as to what was included in job satisfaction.

PRIORITY RANKING OF FACTORS IMPORTANT FOR JOB SATISFACTION

ITEM                                                                       Employee ranking         Boss ranking

Full appreciation of work done 1 8
Feeling of being in on things 2 10
Sympathetic help on personnel problems 3 9
Job security 4 2
Good wages 5 1
Interesting work 6 5
Promotions 7 3
Personal loyalty to coworkers 8 6
Good working conditions 9 4
Tactful disciplining 10 7

As a leader you may want to poll your team and determine what’s important to them. Don’t make the mistake of believing that what’s important to you is equally important to them.

Strong leaders find ways to keep interest levels high, reward and recognize accomplishments, and show that the work that is performed is appreciated, and the individual valued.

Are you up to the challenge?

24 May
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Be an Owner…Drive Profit

Without profit, jobs will be eliminated and companies will fail.

As we wrap-up our series on “what do leaders really want from their staff”, we’ll tackle the topic of profit.

As a reminder, we’re linking the 5 P’s of Leadership with the 5 P’s of Ownership:

  1. Passion
  2. People
  3. Plans
  4. Persistence
  5. Profit

As leaders, we make decisions every day that are critical to the success of our organization.

Decisions can be costly and impact the bottom line; decisions can also be brilliant and realize not only savings, but improve customer and employee satisfaction levels. That’s profit on multiple levels!

As everyone begins to understand their organization’s strategy, and has the ability to link behaviors, processes and tools with that strategy, profit will be impacted.

Providing new ideas and fresh thinking, and helping others understand new directions and opportunities also impact profit. We need to know:

  • What business are we in?
  • Who are our customers?
  • What services do we or could we provide?
  • What do we want our department/organization to be known for?
  • What strategic alliances do we want? How do you find them?
  • Where do you want to take your organization in the next 3-5 years?

Sustaining and increasing profit margins requires change. We must accept it, own it, and be an advocate for change. As leaders we need to be aware of the impact the change will have, from both a personal and organizational perspective, and clearly communicate what that impact will be.

Growth and leadership also increases profit. It is important to know that what you’re doing increases the profit for yourself and the company that employs you. We own our careers and must take personal responsibility for the value we provide. There must be financial gains and there must be emotional gains or jobs will be eliminated and companies dissolved.

Emotional profit is another piece; you must take risk, be innovative, and be purposeful. It’s important to invest/experiment/research new approaches for growth in order to add value for your customers, employees, and organization. This requires creativity and the ability to step beyond the barriers and artificial lines that we often create.

We know one courageous leader that has an entire unit looking for innovative ways to increase local revenue; one idea was to add programs that appeal to various segments of their market.

Realizing profit takes patience, persistence, planning, people and passion (and that takes us to 6 P’s for Leadership and Ownership, not 5, since we added patience!)

What are you doing to increase profits?

21 May
PeopleTek Coaching Success

Conquer Barriers With Journey II

To be successful in life, and in your career, you need to:

  • Identify all the barriers that may derail you from achieving your goals
  • Understand HOW and WHAT it will take to live and achieve your vision
  • Address the obstacles that are preventing you from being the leader you want to be

Leadership includes the urgency to identify and remove barriers impacting growth and results.

PeopleTek’s Journey II program will help you conquer barriers and manage  obstacles.

Journey II will enable you to:

  • Set clear expectations for yourself and others
  • Effectively manage your time, priorities, and set boundaries
  • Understand and reduce stress levels
  • Positively influence others
  • Move yourself and others through change
  • Build trust in yourself, in individuals, and in teams
  • Align your self-talk with your desired outcomes

Recent graduates told us: 

Journey II helped me learn more about myself….my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for development.  It also forced me to take the time to think about these things and actually put an action plan in place.

I am doing better at the delegation and as I develop more trust, will be able to delegate more. Also, I’m focusing on communicating more directly and proactively in meetings and with others.

Journey II helped me to identify specific opportunities to improve my leadership abilities as well as identify what I need to do to move through the phases of change. These have been incorporated into my development plan.

Be competitive – become the leader you want to be!

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