08 Mar
PeopleTek Coaching Decision Making

Unpopular Decisions

“There are many qualities that make a great leader. But having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader”.
—Rudy Giuliani  

Have you ever been faced with making, and communicating, an unpopular decision? One that doesn’t feel good, but must occur?

Most of us work in a “for profit” environment, and the decisions we make support achieving results and growing our business.

Changes, whether popular or unpopular need to be communicated. Think about what channel of communication you will use. Face to face is best, but not always possible. What would be most effective, from both the perspective of the message sender, and the receiver?

We have young adult children and they share stories about personal relationships being ended by a simple text message.  We suppose it gets the job done, but is certainly not ideal.

For those of you that are football fans, super star quarterback Peyton Manning was released from the Indianapolis Colts.  Manning took the Colts to the playoffs 11 times, captured seven AFC South titles in eight years, won two AFC championships, one Super Bowl title and a Super Bowl MVP Award.  So why was the unpopular decision made?  Manning missed the entire 2011 season due to injuries (he had 3 neck surgeries in 19 months), and although “okayed” medically to play this year, there was still a health risk. As a result, the decision was made to release him instead of paying a $28 million bonus that he was eligible for.

Leadership requires courage, and yes, making unpopular decisions is part of it.

Here are some tips for communicating any decision:

  • State why the decision needed to be made
  • Indicate who will be impacted because of the decision
  • Anticipate and prepare for questions and opposition
  • Openly discuss both positive and negative impacts
  • Listen and feel!

As a leader, you need to be open and you need to build trust in your organization, especially during times of uncertainty and when unpopular decisions must be made.

01 Mar
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Principled Business Leaders

Alpha Kappa Psi was founded on the principles of educating its members and the public to appreciate and demand higher ideals in business. . .
—akpsi.org

Principled Leaders

Participants attended up to 5 leadership sessions and had the ability for their school to compete against other schools in a case competition.

Alpha Kappa Psi logo; principled leadersLevels of energy and enthusiasm were unsurpassed; some attendees were in their final year of school, others had 1 or 2 years remaining. In the closing ceremony, (where the entire group was assembled), they were asked to “please stand if you’re leader.” We were delighted to see 100% of the attendees stand up. We have NEVER seen that happen in any venue!

Members of the fraternity know their vision and mission statements and live the following values:

  • Brotherhood– Trust, respect, cooperation, companionship, and aid to brother members is the expected norm
  • Knowledge – Education and experience is emphasized and shared
  • Integrity – All actions, whether in business or in life, are guided by honesty, ethics, and fairness
  • Service– Sharing of time, talent, and treasure with society and with our fraternity is a priority
  • Unity – A common understanding of their vision and values that transcends chapter, generation, and profession is utilized to anticipate and create the future

Does your staff, team, or organization know their vision and mission statements? Would 100% stand if they were asked if they were leaders? Having shared values, and knowing what your vision, mission, and supporting goals are things that facilitate success.

Congratulations to the Alpha Kappa Psi brotherhood for their commitment to leadership development, and ultimately, success!

27 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching Career

Life Is A Journey

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
–Confucius

Your Career, Like Life, is a Journey

A good way to get started is to answer the following questions:

  • What are my strengths?
  • What am I good at?
  • What comes easy to me?
  • What makes me happy?
  • What motivates and excites me?
  • What are my values and beliefs?

Choose your career with purpose, not by chance! Use your values and your sense of self to make decisions that serve you well.

We’re here to help!

16 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching Success

Positivity In The Workplace

Positivity is an essential constituent of inspiring, engaging leadership.
—Deiric McCann

Do you agree that success is based on positivity and happiness? Think about a leader that had the greatest impact on you. Was their demeanor one of negativity?

It’s rare that we feel inspired and motivated when working in environments that make us feel bad, or where we are not appreciated.

The Huge Impact of Positivity In The Workplace

Happiness inspires success. It is internally driven. We own it. How we allow our brain to process what’s going on around us determines our happiness level. This in turn directly equates to our level of success. (It’s been found that IQ only accounts for 25% of what we achieve).

Some think the harder they work the happier they’ll be, but this has been found to be false. When a team and organization work in positive environments, people thrive and goals are more readily achieved.

As a leader, we have the ability to influence others and help create that desired positive environment. We need to listen. We need open lines of communication. We need to build trust. We need to address conflict. We need to make sure accountability and ownership are part of the workplace. And, we need to look for the positive.

Actions to Inspire Positivity

For many, times are tough. We need to watch for and recognize behaviors that are allowing negativity to creep in. Psychologist Shawn Achor suggests the following to help inspire positivity:

  • Think about what you have to be thankful about
  • Keep a journal and write in it at least one “positive” each day
  • Exercise
  • Meditate
  • Read inspirational quotes daily
  • Conduct random acts of kindness daily ex. recognize another’s accomplishment

Engaged leaders positively impact others! The benefits: Enhanced decision-making skills, stronger teamwork, less stress, more innovative and creative ideas, increased results, and a happier more productive staff.

Watch the Ted Talk we found about The Happy Secret to Better Work.

13 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching Blog

Everyone is a Leader

“The average return is 6 to 1 on the investment made from working with an Executive Coach.”
—The Manchester Review

At PeopleTek, we believe everyone is a leader , whether they realize it or not. Some think you need the title, some think you need direct reports. Being a leader is really about the ability to influence others, and make sound decisions.

Why not find out how to make better decisions with more confidence and clarity about why you are making them?

Our coaches are committed to connecting individuals and teams with the tools necessary to make their leadership stronger, and obtain more favorable results.

Invest In Yourself . . .     

Coaching may be conducted in a group, team, or individual setting.  Your coach will help you navigate the political climate, understand your career path, and learn how to effectively “manage up”, “across organizations”, and “down”, and simply put, become a more successful leader.

Could you benefit from obtaining objective feedback about what is really working well for you and identifying the obstacles preventing success?

Visit our website and take advantage of our complimentary offers for a trial coaching session and a leadership survey.

We’ll help you take your leadership to a higher level; satisfaction guaranteed!

06 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching Team

80 Hour Team Savings

Overcoming barriers to performance is how groups become a strong team

Create a strong team; save time!    

Major inhibitors for having a strong team are:

  • Lack of trust
  • Individuals not addressing behavior
  • Delayed decisions
  • Low motivation and morale
  • Delayed project milestones
  • Upset employees and customers

Could your team benefit by saving over 80 man hours, per person, per year?  Want to find out how?

Give me a call or send me an email!

Mike Kublin
888.565.9555 ext 711
[email protected]

02 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching Success

ICAS – A Case Study

“. . .ELEVATE . . .! “

This is a unique yet powerful story.  It’s about leadership, teamwork and success. It’s about the past, present and future. It’s about ICAS. Much like other companies that achieved fabulous growth and success and is proud of their accomplishments, ICAS has succeeded in delivering products and services for over 30 years.

This is a tremendous accomplishment and has created great growth for a family owned business that has thrived during difficult and challenging times. It’s about talented and skilled staff being willing to do what it takes to excel, be supportive, and build strong relationships.  This study is about the people that comprise the ICAS family.

How does ICAS adapt and change to an ever increasing competitive market for IT services?

How do they remain leaders in the industry and continue to be first choice by business partners? How does ICAS approach the most challenging times for IT professionals and businesses in the past century? How will they continue to grow and thrive?

The answer is both complex and simple: Elevate!

A new company wide transition and project led by CIO Jim Caridi, focuses on systems, culture and processes required to elevate ICAS beyond their wildest vision. These changes will provide the platform and structure for success. Everything they do will be focused around creating an infrastructure to elevate skills, talents, and abilities in order to deliver top quality services and products to their customers.

Their processes, technology, tools and training will be elevated beyond measure. How they deal with customers, suppliers, and one another will be taken to higher levels. While change is always uncomfortable, the ICAS team will use courage and operate with vision, purpose, desire and a plan to elevate to the next level.

Everything that was done in the past will provide the foundation to make the necessary changes to face the future. It will take leadership, accountability and teamwork to stretch beyond comfort zones, and it will require risk and passion.

They know the adjustment may be uncomfortable, but they plan to make it fun and exciting.  Change and new opportunities promote outstanding growth, quality, and inspiration!

Why elevate? Because they feel they have to. They feel their customers need them to. They feel having a future demands it.  Great teams who make it to the Super Bowl know how to keep coming back.  Building a stronger business team is no different.  Elevate is their answer, and it will be up to each ICAS employee to understand what it means to them individually, and to the team as a whole.

CIO Caridi asked each team member to take the challenge. He wants each individual to think and respond to ‘What does elevate mean to me? What role do I play and how can I  elevate myself and take my career, and the company to a higher level?”

Action and development plans will be created, tracked, and updated over the next days, months and years.  We wish them success as their Journey continues!

Let us know if you have a growth and success story to share.

26 Jan
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Hiring Top Talent

…nurturing talent inside an organization makes strategic sense…
–John Ryan (managing director at RSMR/TRANSEARCH)

Change is a constant. Re-organizations, re-structuring, lay-offs, and looking at ways to cut costs are likely to continue.  Knowing this, it’s more important than ever to have the right person in the right job.

Hiring that “right person” is a challenge faced by all leaders. It’s important to be clear on job functions, responsibilities and behaviors to help grow results. It’s also equally important to spend sufficient time looking for candidates internal to your organization or business to fill an opening.

External hiring will always be in the mix, but don’t forget about your high potential employees. You will have easy access to skill-sets, talent, experience, passion, and goal achievement, along with feedback and performance results.

Hiring from within saves costs, utilizes and builds on existing company knowledge, and most important, builds employee morale and loyalty.

In a 2010 Employee Job Satisfaction survey conducted by SHRM, what matters most to employee are the following 5 elements:

No. 1: Job Security

No. 2: Benefits

No. 3: Opportunities to use skills and abilities

No. 4: The work itself, tied with, the organization’s financial stability

No. 5: Compensation and pay

Click here for complete article

As leaders, we need to understand the skills and talent our staff brings to the table. We need to ensure each member has a development plan, and we need to understand their passion and career aspirations. We must commit to building talent, and we need to provide honest, and sometime difficult feedback, about an individual’s skills and competencies.

Commit to retaining top talent, and remember, if you don’t “hire hard”, you’ll have to “manage hard”!

24 Jan
PeopleTek Coaching Success

7 Reasons To Attend The Journey

In leadership, don’t think of good or bad, right or wrong styles.  Think in terms of what could be done differently to achieve desired results!

7 Reasons To Attend The Leadership Journey: 

  1. Improve communication and relationships
  2. Make better decisions
  3. Advance planning and task management skills
  4. Enhance listening skills
  5. Better manage conflict and difficult situations
  6. Increase employee engagement
  7. Build self confidence

Satisfaction guaranteed!
Earn 18 priSM CPD credits and 3 PSM level points

 Testimonials:

“The training was fantastic! I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to become a better leader, team player or human being!” –C.B.

“The Journey provided the overall ability to step back, assess current roles, and provided amazing diagnostics via the tools/instruments regarding leadership styles for myself and others.” –T.S.

Why wait? Enroll today!

19 Jan
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Self-Assessment

Self assessment is universal truth.
–unknown

A Self-Assessment For the New Year

Where are you now? Where would you like to be?

We’ve begun the new year, and what better way to kick it off than by completing a simple, yet hopefully, thought provoking assessment.

Use a scale of 1-5, 5 being highest, answer the set of 8 questions below.

  1. I am concerned about long term planning over day to day problems and annoyances.
  2. I allow me/my team/organization to invest in new technology, processes, training, and tools without trying to delay the investment.
  3. I have clearly defined vision, mission, goals, and roles, have communicated them, and track my progress.
  4. I hold myself and others accountable to high-performance standards.
  5. I permit the team to work on projects and with customers without looking over their shoulders.
  6. I deal with difficult conversations with customers, staff, and peers rather than avoid the situation.
  7. I admit mistakes freely and allow mistakes to be learning events, for me, and others.
  8. I am passionate about what I do, and WANT to continually develop my skills, and help others succeed.

How many did you score a 4 or 5 in?  What about a 1 or 2?

Now score your boss. How’d they do? Would you be willing to share your results with your leader? What about sharing with them how you rated them? Is there anything you’d like to see change?

Think in terms of where you are now and where you’d like to be. How much change is required?

12 Jan
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Leading With Fear

Fear promotes underachievement and mediocrity.

Fear impacts us all. We’ve talked about how fear impacts our decision making skills, and yes there’s more. We fear that we may fail, that we may lose control, that we won’t meet our goals, that we may not be liked, that we’ll be rejected, and so on.

Leading in a culture of fear is stifling, behaviors and inspiration are impacted, growth and creativity suffer, underachievement and mediocrity flourish.

As leaders we need a heightened awareness of what impacts us and how. Especially during times of change, (in some cases turmoil), we need to have stronger relationships with our staff to assess how they are doing.

Fear can be inspirational, but more often than not, it creates discomfort and restlessness, and negatively impacts productivity and results.

Let’s start by looking at how we lead. Do we fear losing control? Are we micro-managing? Are we too involved?

Control points vary. Do we provide timely communication? Do we solicit feedback? Do we address and manage conflict? Do we provide sufficient latitude empowering team members to address and resolve issues on their own or do we feel compelled to intervene?

Leadership is certainly not a popularity contest, but we can be inspiring and trusted while simultaneously holding ourselves and others accountable for actions and behaviors.

We’re all going to make mistakes. Let’s not err on the side of stifling creativity and diminishing the opportunity to learn and grow. Lead with confidence, not with fear.

05 Jan
PeopleTek Coaching Decision Making

Decisions Made In Fear

Fear paralyzes groups, leaders, decisions, and success 

Fearful decisions by corporate leaders and executives have a way of replicating more poor decisions and creating fearful leaders.

Decisions Made In Fear Are Stifling . . .   

Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting notices of individuals that are being laid off from their positions after many dedicated years of service.

It seems to me that corporate leaders of the world not only have a business responsibility, but also a social responsibility. They must determine if they are operating out of fear when making these critical decisions, (or perhaps due to mandates), and understand the far reaching impacts to individuals, and to their organization.

I am not saying these layoffs are wrong; I’m suggesting a need to determine if the changes are based on fear, or for the benefit of their companies future.

If a leader operates out of fear, they will not make proper short or long term decisions. Fears and insecurities of those around them will increase, creating a paralyzed group of decision makers and leaders.  It then propagates itself, damages trust, and breaks down innovation. In other words, accomplishing the exact opposite of what’s intended (to excel and thrive). Once a leader creates that fear based environment, it is very difficult to recover; we’ve coached many.

Interesting enough these decisions are said to be made to improve business conditions. The idea is to get rid of poor performance and/or improve the bottom line in case there are poor future business conditions.

We don’t want short term fearful behavior at any level if we are ever to get the world economies back on track to prosperity.

Who is responsible for all of this and who owns this? Please read John Miller’s book The Question Behind The Question ISBN 0-9665832-9-9 and 12 Steps For Courageous Leadership ISBN 978-1-4567-1937-1 to help remain on track.

On our next segment we will talk about the “fear of losing control”. I would appreciate any and all comments.

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