17 May
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Be an Owner – Be Persistent

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
–Calvin Coolidge

PERSISTENCE is the 4th component in our series “what do leaders really want from their staff”. We’re stating the case that leaders want a sense of ownership for all members of their organization.

For those that have not read our prior 3 newsletters, we’re linking the 5 P’s of Leadership with the 5 P’s of Ownership:

  • Passion
  • People
  • Plans
  • Persistence
  • Profit

Wikipedia defines persistence as a personality trait measured by levels of eagerness and effort, hard work, ambition, and perfectionism.

We’ll define it as your disposition to continue your task or initiative despite problems, difficulties, or barriers encountered along the way.

Have you ever worked on a project, task force, or goal where all objectives were achieved with absolutely no difficulties or problems? We used to cringe when we were requested to support projects or changes that were accompanied with the words “seamless” and “transparent”. Even the simplest objective may encounter problems and barriers.

As we mentioned last week, expect and plan for obstacles, and don’t give up at the first sign of difficulty. It’s important to maintain your focus and be purposeful in your efforts.

If truly committed, you’ll accept failure, learn from it, reassess what you’re doing, and seek alternative solutions to better position you to achieve your desired end result.

Ownership and accountability are pieces of persistence. To be successful you must not only work hard, but you need to keep your skills current, continually develop areas that are not serving you well, and don’t neglect your strengths. (They need to be honed too!). And leaders and owners also make it a priority to motivate and inspire their teams, help them grow their interpersonal skills, and enhance relationships and interactions.

Persistence is a behavior exhibited by owners and effective and successful leaders. Are you persistent?

10 May
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership, Planning

Always Be An Owner – Plan

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.
–Paul J. Meyer

Achieving your goals and obtaining desired results requires planning; without a plan, it’s unlikely you’ll reach the levels of success you’re capable of. Having and living your plan is the 3rd component in our series “what do leaders really want from their staff”. Click here to read the first two articles in the series.

Have you ever worked for someone that had a great vision, was innovative, and had great ideas for growth opportunities yet couldn’t seem to make things happen? This is more common than you think.

We all have differing strengths, styles, and preferences, and for some of us planning requires a lot of effort, where as for others it seems to occur so naturally. Planning requires persistence, details, a timeline, and a commitment.

Planning also requires documenting goals and strategies, and ensuring skill-sets are in place to execute the plan. You will encounter obstacles – expect them! Plan for them! Do not give up at the first sign of difficulty. Many of us are tempted to give up when we hit the first hurdle, are met with opposition, or experience frustrations. Our journey includes living and experiencing both ups and downs; it’s how we deal with them that is crucial.

Fear can also be a factor that derails our plan. Understand what’s causing the discomfort, feel it, process it, and move on. Don’t beat yourself up if you need to deviate from your plan, instead determine other courses of action that may work better for you.

If planning is an issue we recommend using the One Page Strategic Plan. It’s a great planning and problem solving tool that is extremely useful in taking anything from where it is today, to where you want it to be in the future. If you’d like to receive the template click here and request the One Page Strategic Plan. (Note: This is useful to solve problems and drive improvements, but is not intended for full project planning).

We also recommend that everyone have a personal development plan. If you don’t have one start by answering (and documenting):

  • What are my strengths and what do I need to do to keep them strong?
  • What actions or behaviors would I benefit from by changing or eliminating?
  • What are my growth opportunities?

Be an owner, be a leader, and be successful; plan!

07 May
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership, Team

PeopleTek and Talent Management

PeopleTek Coaching specializes in providing individuals, teams, and organizations with specific and practical solutions for maximizing leadership talent.

Leaders understand core strengths and address gaps within their talent pool.

Talent Management

Our leadership curriculum evaluates leadership competencies and then provides a personalized leadership framework and map for each attendee and/or team.

This framework and map may then be used for years to come for developing more effective leadership skills and behaviors.

We have the infrastructure and bandwidth to customize our delivery to satisfy specific needs, identify strengths and preferences, and provide recommendations to address growth opportunities.

Could you or your team benefit by learning to make better decisions, manage conflict, improve communication, enhance teamwork and relationships, and improve accountability?

Contact PeopleTek Coaching today!

03 May
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Always Be an Owner – People

People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.
–Mary Kay Ash

Our series on “what do leaders really want from their staff” continues, with this week’s topic being PEOPLE.
This is the 2nd “P” in linking the 5 P’s of Leadership with the 5 P’s of Ownership. The 5 P’s are:

  • Passion
  • People
  • Plans
  • Persistence
  • Profit

We’ve all heard that “people are our greatest asset”. It’s true. Owners know what they want, and know that they most likely need others to help them achieve it. They have a clear vision, and have a strategy that supports that vision. And, they know how to hire the right person for the right job!

I was listening to a local radio sports program where Jimmy Johnson was interviewed. (He was coach of the University of Miami and won a national championship, coach for the Dallas Cowboys where he won 2 Superbowls, and coach for the Miami Dolphins, where he made it to the playoffs).

There’s no doubt he was successful in his career. He knew how to find the “right” talent. During the interview, broadcaster Dan Sileo asked the questions: “what criteria do you use when hiring?” and “what do you look for in talent before you hire them or bring them into your organization”?

The answer is critical to our topic of ownership; it’s what makes a coach and leader successful. Think in terms that all good leaders are coaches. Assuming you agree, can you state what your hiring criteria is, and what you’re looking for before allowing someone to become a member of your team or organization?

Coach Johnson, without hesitation had the following response:
“Dan, we use 5 criteria when hiring and selecting someone to be on the team.”

  1. Intelligence – He defined this as being smart, acting smart and understanding the technical requirements of the game. Not making dumb decisions, and exhibiting appropriate behaviors.
  2. Play Makers – He said this meant the player needed to be a competitor and be found everywhere the ball was. When the going got tough, they became even tougher.
  3. Passion – They needed to eat, drink and sleep football.
  4. Gym Rat – When they were not playing football, they played other competitive sports and could be found doing something daily to remain in excellent shape.
  5. Character – You must consider how they will fit on the team. Are they truly team players and do they create a positive atmosphere for others?

The reason I was so impressed is that it flowed so easily. It was not something that Coach Johnson made up, but rather criteria he lived by and admittedly had refined over the years.

I think (and would stand by the fact) that this is what separates his winning record from other coaches. He knows what he wants, is clear about it, and doesn’t budge. He matches his wants and desires with a sound plan to win.

As leaders have we clearly defined what we want in our people? On our team? In our organization? Does everyone know that criteria? Do we deviate from it?

I would be willing to speak to other coaches and leaders that want to discuss more about this subject, would be interested in your thoughts, and welcome opposing views!

26 Apr
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Always Be An Owner . . . Even When You’re an Employee

Owners display passion and make positive differences

Last week we started talking about “what do leaders really want from their staff”, and came to the conclusion that they want their staff members to act like owners.

Now we want to take it to the next level and link the 5 P’s of Leadership with the 5 P’s of Ownership.

As a reminder, they are:

  • Passion
  • People
  • Plans
  • Persistence
  • Profit

Today the topic is PASSION.  This is the P that provides a sense of purpose and drives all direction.

Do you think loving what you do impacts your ability to act more like an owner?  Too often people are in jobs, and equate that with a paycheck, versus nurturing a career, where growth, opportunity and a sense of accomplishment is felt.

Have you ever been in a meeting where the leader lacks passion and you’re uncertain as to what their purpose is? We have! The dispassionate leader comes across as performing a routine task, perhaps seems a bit disinterested, and appears like they don’t really want to be there.

This impacts all participants.  When attendees are not engaged they “zone out” and look for other tasks to complete.  We’ve observed emails been done during meetings, and even when noticed by the leader, nothing was said.

Is this because they lacked passion? What if multiple leaders in an organization lacked passion? Is time being wasted? Are results weaker than expected?

Let’s face it; we’ve all lacked passion at one time or another. They key is to recognize when and why this is occurring.  Are we tired, frustrated, overwhelmed, more focused on personal issues, or perhaps unhappy in our current role?

If you’re experiencing low levels of passion, ask yourself “why”.  Next, assess how you plan to address it, and if you’re open to change.

If you want help resolving these questions, contact us.

On the larger scale, if our culture permits passion to be low, what are the ramifications?  We’ve seen it where an entire organization became transactional and uninspired, compared to being creative and transformational.

Are we as the leader of such teams willing to be open? Receive feedback? Change and lead others through change?

If you wish to discuss how to achieve greater results for yourself, your team, and your organization, click here.

We welcome your questions, comments, and suggestions!

23 Apr
PeopleTek Coaching Blog

PeopleTek Partners with E-Coach Associates

PeopleTek is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with E-Coach Associates, a leader in online coaching solutions for individuals and organizations.

We will soon offer a new set of on-line coaching tools specifically designed to give you additional ways to pursue and achieve workplace performance excellence.

These new on-line products — tailored for our PeopleTek customers — provide a confidential and highly effective way to get immediate answers to frequently asked questions about workplace issues and challenges.

Because these tools are technology based and always available, using them is easy and convenient, with their usage fitting anyone’s schedule.

As you become more familiar with these new online offerings, we are confident that you will share our enthusiasm for this partnership, and recognize the value provided.

Please watch for more details in upcoming communications.

19 Apr
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Lead As If You Own It!

Consider yourself an owner; utilize your experience and commitment to make positive differences.

I was jogging the other day and asked myself “what do leaders really want from their staff?”

My answer was: leaders want their staff to handle issues, make informed decisions, be customer sensitive, be great managers, plan, deal with delays, resolve problems, sell more and more, reduce expenses, be a team player, create growth for the company, plus hundreds of other things, all while staying out of their hair. (And, more importantly, keeping others out of their hair!)

Lead Like an Owner

It boils down to one concept; they want us to perform and act like OWNERS! This hit me hard because after working with leaders, teams and organizations for over 15 years, it makes total sense that leaders don’t want to be hand holders or be involved in everything their team does. This means that leaders must lead, coach, and train their staff to be effective and clearly understand their roles, responsibilities, and expectations, and be empowered.

To lead like an owner means taking full responsibility and being accountable for all that happens. Leaders that are owners know their brand, know how to use and promote the brand, understand how to relate to others, and how to be a team player. They understand sales and how to grow their business; they understand customers and how to interact with them. They look at the company as if it was their own, and remove the “monkeys” from the true owners’ back. They eliminate waste because it impacts money in their pockets (at least they feel it does). They manage expenses like it is their own money. They deal with customer complaints and treat them as royalty because they know how important customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention are.

For this reason, we are starting the next series of leadership tips to focus on what it takes to:

  • Be an owner
  • Deliver as an owner
  • Be rewarded like an owner

We will need real life examples so I would be very pleased to reach out and speak to anyone directly who has examples of where they’ve witnessed this “ownership” type of behavior, and why and how it helped with performance and results.

What type of workplace ownership behaviors have you observed?

12 Apr
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Top Causes for Attrition

“At least 75% of the reasons for voluntary turnover can be influenced by managers”.
—Gallup’s James K. Harter

The lack of strong leadership skills contributes significantly to attrition. Employee satisfaction levels become low, performance suffers, absenteeism is high, and the inspiration and motivation to be an achiever and obtain results becomes close to non-existent.

A Gallup poll discovered that poorly managed groups were 50 percent less productive than those with strong and respected leaders, and that profits were reduced by 44 percent.

Poor Leadership Is #1 . . .  

Many people think money is the key driver for job retention. Certainly money is a factor, but management skills, growth opportunity, and recognition for a job well done have been found to be more important.  Have you ever heard “people quit their leaders, not their jobs”?

Attrition research by authors Bud Haney and Jim Sirbasku (40 Strategies for Winning in Business) found the following:

  • 30% were unhappy with management and the way they managed
  • 25% felt they got no recognition for good work
  • 20% complained of limited opportunities for advancement
  • 15% cited inadequate salary and benefits
  • 5% were bored with the job.
  • 5% cited other reasons (retirement, career change, sabbatical, and travel)

We’ve been told that employees want bosses that:

  • Appreciate them as an individual and as a professional
  • Want to help them grow and succeed
  • Provide consistent and meaningful feedback
  • Reward and recognize results
  • Can be trusted
  • Are authentic
  • Listen
  • Invest in employee development

Does your leadership team satisfy the “wants” of your staff? What areas could be improved upon?

Investing in your leadership team is an attrition counter-measure and a sound investment!

05 Apr
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Adapting To Challenges

The number one action leaders should take to restore confidence in 2012 is to be open and honest about the nature and scale of the challenges ahead.
–Ketchum Leadership Communication

Journalist Fareed Zakaria wrote the book The Post-American World.  One area of concern that was addressed was the belief that organizations are not adapting well to emerging challenges. (This is only one of many themes but one we feel readily applies to leadership skills and styles).

Zakaria supplied the following guidelines for success:

Choose
Choose priorities rather than trying to have it all

Our comment:
Have clear goals, ensure all behaviors and tasks support those goals, and understand you can’t be everything to everyone.

Build broad rules, not narrow interests
Recommit to international institutions and mechanisms

Our comment:
Set goals and standards, and then let your people excel – they don’t need (or want) to be told HOW to do something, but they do need clear expectations and the desired outcome. Also, whenever possible, practice the old maxim of “Think globally; act locally”

Be Bismarck, not Britain
Maintain excellent relations with everyone, rather than offset and balance emerging powers

Our comment:
Build relationships, address differences in a healthy way, listen, and take more time to think of what “could” be done differently. Make an effort to relate and communicate to others in their terms and style. Not all relationships have a positive impact on your goals, but all relationships bring a learning opportunity.

Order à la carte
Address problems through a variety of different structures (e.g. sometimes UN, sometimes NATO, sometimes OAS)

Our comment:
Understand the needs and goals of others. What are their strengths? How do they best add value? What end result are you looking for?  Do you have the right resources in place?

Think asymmetrically
Respond to problems (e.g. drug cartels, terrorists, etc.) proportionately and do not respond to bait (i.e. small attacks meant to draw attention)

Our comment:
Expect and plan for conflict, be emotionally intelligent, know your hot buttons, remain controlled.  Think about what could de-rail you, and have a plan in place to address those challenges. Build strategies for win/win, as opposed to win/lose situations.

Legitimacy is power
Legitimacy creates the means to set agendas, define crises, and mobilize support

Our comment:
Leaders are authentic; they build trust, truly listen, communicate openly and consistently, and don’t have hidden agendas.  A complaint that we frequently hear is that leadership lacks integrity. Ensure your integrity and ethics show clearly and unambiguously in ALL circumstances. You can afford to lose a battle/case; you can’t afford to lose the trust of your team.

All professions, all industries, and all positions are faced with challenges. It’s up to us as leaders to help anticipate and respond to them before, or as they occur. We must maintain confidence levels, and communicate honestly about expectations and possible impacts. Things don’t always go as planned, but we can make a positive difference!

29 Mar
PeopleTek Coaching Team

Humor + Laughter = Results

“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done”.
–Dwight D. Eisenhower

Would you have thought that the most effective and successful leaders use laughter to increase productivity, build relationships, and improve results?

Humor, properly used, will positively influence those around you, promote a sense of comfort and confidence, and reduce tension in individuals and teams.

Numerous studies have been conducted and have found:

  • Humor is a powerful form of persuasion
  • Humor promotes teamwork and camaraderie
  • Humor stimulates creativity
  • Humor improves lines of communication

Humor has also been linked with our emotional intelligence competencies. According to Daniel Goleman,(EQ author/expert) “Research on humor at work reveals that a well-timed joke or playful laughter can stimulate creativity, open lines of communication, enhance a sense of connection and trust, and, of course make work more fun”.

Bryan Lattimore states that humor can be used:

  • As a way to break the ice in stiff or uncomfortable business situations
  • As an effective bonding technique – a wonderful way to build common ground with other employees
  • As a way to break down resistance
  • As a much needed way to improve the content, enjoyment, and ultimately the productivity of meetings
  • As a way to assign work when people can’t take any more
  • As a wonderful way to ease and control tension 

Like any leadership behavior, the use of humor requires skill. For some using humor is a natural talent, for others it’s awkward. Tip: Avoid humor that is sexist, ethnic, political or religious since this is usually at someone’s expense, and is likely to be disruptive and ill received.

Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and give humor a try! Given that humor impacts the power of persuasion and communication, promotes teamwork, stimulates creativity and effectiveness, and builds trust, are you effectively leveraging humor and laughter?

22 Mar
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership, Planning

Leadership and Planning

“Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.”
–William A. Ward

In order to effectively lead your team to success, you as a leader must help them understand how they support the “big picture”.  Individual and team goals and roles must be clearly aligned with those of the organization, and used as the basis of rewards and development planning.

PeopleTek’s Strategic Plan Process

Successful leaders build a plan and use it. At PeopleTek we use and recommend the “strategic plan process.” This plan uses seven steps that help you easily identify where you currently are, and the steps required to get you where you want to be.

The steps in the plan are:

Step 1 – Agree on the mission or objective
Step 2 ­- Agree on the focus areas; we suggest 3 -5 (also called streams)
Step 3 – Agree on the desired result for each focus area or stream
Step 4 – List the CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS (pre-requisites or dependencies)
Step 5 – Identify the ‘AS IS’ for each focus area (be honest)
Step 6 – Brainstorm and prioritize the “HOW TO’s” for each focus area
Step 7 – Ensure accountability by assigning owners to each focus area

Ensuring accountability is critical. An owner must be assigned for each focus area and for each “HOW TO” step, with each step having a target date for completion.

This planning process can also be used for individual development planning. Assess where each individual is, and state where you want them “to be”. Your plan could include specific courses (up-skilling specific functions essential for a job, perhaps technical needs, as well as leadership and soft-skill development.  It could also include cross training within areas of your current company or organization, a mentorship (either to be a mentor or be mentored), and even perhaps plans for a total career change.  Technical and professional networks could also be identified.

Track the progress of your plans, update them as needed, and celebrate your successes!

12 Mar
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Invest in Leadership

Could you or your organization benefit by building critical leadership competencies?

PeopleTek has worked with thousands of individuals since 1996 to teach the critical skills needed to be a successful leader.

This training guided me through a series of self discoveries that held the secret of improving my effective leadership behavior, techniques and processes.
—L.  Mahate

For Leaders Of All Levels . . .

Great leaders motivate individuals to envision the future and blaze a path to achieve success.

Our Leadership Journey® program provides both tenured and newly promoted leaders with the tools for becoming a more successful leader.

Learn to understand and appreciate the strengths of individuals and teams, and to identify competencies that have not yet been fully developed.

PeopleTek’s virtually facilitated Leadership Journey program allows individuals and teams to attend from any location, without incurring travel expenses.

Our next virtually facilitated program kicks off March 29th.

Invest in yourself and your organization and take leadership to a higher level; enroll today!

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