28 May
[email protected] Leadership

Stay or Go? How To Retain Talent

We can’t stop employees from leaving unless we have a plan to make them stay.–  Soumyasanto Sen

How much time do you dedicate to your direct reports or team members? Do you have documented goals and have you shared them? Do you have regular monthly one on one update sessions to discuss progress and obstacles? Are you aware of desired career paths and do you leverage individual strengths? Do you provide development opportunities that support career goals? Is your reward and recognition process consistent? Is your work culture desirable?  

If you said no to any of these, you may be at risk of losing essential talent.

The Work Institute’s study provided the following reasons for employees leaving voluntarily

22 out of 100 employees left for Career Development

12 out of 100 left for Work-Life Balance

11 out of 100 left because of Manager Behavior

9 out of 100 left for Compensation and Benefits

8 out of 100 left for Well-Being

8 out of 100 left for Job Characteristics

5 out of 100 left because of the Work Environment 

Gallop surveyed 100,000 employees and found the top reasons for staying:

Employees felt their job is important to the company.
Employees felt their boss cares about them and provides regular feedback.
Employees were clear on job expectations.
Employees felt their opinions count.
Employees have opportunities to do their best work daily.
Career development is encouraged.

As leaders, we can strongly influence the reasons to stay. Business consultant Greg Smith defined a five step process to serve as a reminder: P.R.I.D.E:

P    Provide a Positive Working Environment
R   Recognize, Reward and Reinforce the Right Behavior
I    Involve and Engage
D   Develop Skills and Potential
E   Evaluate and Measure

Are any changes needed to impact the “stay” or “go” decision for essential talent?

Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.–Zig Ziglar

21 May
[email protected] Success, Team

Team Trust Is A Must

Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.–Stephen Covey

Do you agree that trust is the foundation for any team’s success? That team members must be candid and vulnerable with one another? That trust impacts results, unity, stress, and satisfaction levels?

When trust is minimal (or absent), teams are simply not teams, but rather a group of individual performers. And, when trust does not exist between colleagues, direct reports, and business partners, the desire to “strive for more” is lacking.

Building trust begins with awareness. We all have our own set of strengths and growth opportunities as well as behaviors and skill-sets. Have we validated what they are, and do we know how to leverage them to be most effective? What about knowing how we can add the most value to our team? Are we willing to be vulnerable and admit when our knowledge may be weak or when we’ve made a mistake? These are the keys to trust.

Next is increasing our awareness of colleagues (and bosses too). Do you understand their styles and preferences? Thought processes? Intent? How they wish to be communicated with? Do you feel connected with them? These are additional keys for trust.

Other common team problems that are likely impacted by trust are:

Managing and addressing differences

The willingness to share knowledge, information, and work together

Engagement levels and the desire to jointly achieve goals

Being too tactical; always in the “now” mode and not considering the future

Inability to accept and embrace change

Clarity around individual and team roles for goal attainment

We’ve shared it before, but it’s worth sharing again The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team as defined by Patrick Lencioni:

1.    Absence of TRUST

2.    Fear of CONFLICT

3.    Lack of COMMITMENT

4.    Avoidance of ACCOUNTABILITY

5.    Inattention to RESULTS

Team trust is a must. Is trust an issue within your team? If no, can you share what you’ve done to cross this hurdle? We’d love to hear from you!

Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.—Patrick Lencioni

14 May
[email protected] Change, Leadership

7 Cs For Coronavirus Survival

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
—Abraham Lincoln

John Quelch, Dean and Vice Provost at University of Miami Business School and Professor Emeritus from Harvard Business School, provides “7 Cs” he feels are essential leadership capabilities, especially during times of change, uncertainty, and stress. We think you may find them useful and wanted to share the following excerpts:

Calm. You are going to be looked to as a leader to project a sense of calm through this difficult, uncertain situation.

Confidence. Project confidence that you will help others see this through successfully.

Communication. Relentlessly communicate, communicate, communicate. Develop a strategy for communication, making it timely as well as a priority. Silence is absolutely the worst possible thing as that’s when the rumor mill can run rampant.

Collaboration. Utilize the strengths of your “people” resources; bring them together in taskforces, sub-taskforces, and create roles where everyone can contribute to overcoming the uncertainty. This will also reduce the rumor mill and increase confidence levels.

Community. We all live in communities; work, home, schools, etc  The idea is to lead by example and model behaviors across all communities that others can learn from.

Compassion. As leaders we are depended on to listen and allow others to express their concerns. This includes both work and home concerns. The virus is potentially affecting the most vulnerable, and time away from work may be needed to care for others. Compassion at a time of crisis is a very important manifestation of leadership.

Cash. The most obvious commercial C of the 7 Cs is Cash. Cash is king at a time of crisis, and everything needs to be done to look at both the short term and long term financial health of the organization. You are being depended upon to lead, not just emotionally but also prudently with respect to the long-term finances of the organization.

During this time of change (and stress), have you adapted your leadership capabilities when interacting with colleagues, direct reports, business partners, clients and community members? (Don’t forget about family members; they need your support too!).

What could you change to be more effective?

We cannot escape crisis situations. Although unable to avoid them, we can learn to lead people through them.—John Maxwell

07 May
[email protected] Decision Making

Stressful Times?

When we’re not in control and are unsure of what tomorrow brings, we can be left feeling anxious and stressed.

We sure aren’t in control of the impacts or duration of COVID-19, and we really don’t know what we’ll be facing tomorrow, but what we can do is assess and address if we are feeling anxious or stressed.

Maureen Killoran sums it up nicely: Stress is not what happens to us. It’s our response TO what happens. And RESPONSE is something we can choose.

First, start by paying attention. Last week we mentioned observing restlessness, lack of focus, missed deadlines, and crankiness in others.  We must also self-assess.

Do we feel irritable? Exhausted? Have a shorter “fuse” than normal? What about a stiff neck, headaches, or a backache?

We get so busy that we often neglect ourselves; regardless how busy we are, we need to schedule “self-time” on a daily basis, even if for only 10 minutes.

We need to think and live “healthily”.  Comfort foods may seem like a good idea, but if carbs are involved, which they often are, work on limiting the “goodie” intake; the extra carbs can add to fatigue and make you feel guilty. And just a reminder that “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts”!

If you lead or are a part of a team:

-Schedule 15 minutes out of a team meeting to have every team member write a positive one word descriptor of each teammate.  It’s a feel good exercise, reduces stress and builds harmony.  Each person can submit their words to a designated person, and that person can then share the results. Simple and uplifting.

-Have each person play/share a favorite song and explain why.

-Have a “virtual” luncheon where recipes can be shared; have a contest for the most unique dish.

-Each team member visually shares something important to them  ex. A child, a “furbaby”, a book, an heirloom, etc

It’s up to us to address and minimize stress and build camaraderie.  Let us know what works for you!

There cannot be a stressful crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
–Henry Kissinger