30 Sep
[email protected] Leadership

It All Starts With Culture

It all starts with culture! You can have the greatest mission statement in the world but it’s pointless unless you have people who are on a mission.
—Jon Gordon

It’s no surprise that our work culture is important. It impacts levels of engagement, accountability, productivity, and team synergy. It also impacts attrition as well as the desire to grow and flourish in careers.

Author and speaker Jon Gordon has a blog: 14 Thoughts About Building A Great Culture.  Excerpts are below.

1. Great leaders build and drive great cultures.

2. Culture is the reason why great organizations have sustained success.

3. Culture beats strategy.

4. If you focus on the fruit of the tree (outcomes and numbers) and ignore the root (culture) your tree will die.

5. When building a team and organization you must shape your culture before it shapes you.

6. A culture of greatness doesn’t happen by accident.

7. Culture is dynamic, not static.

8. Your culture is not just your tradition.

9. When leading a new team or organization, it will take longer to build a new culture if you allow negative people from the previous culture to contaminate the process.

10. When you build a strong, positive culture most of the energy vampires will leave by themselves because they don’t fit in.

11. Creating a culture where people are afraid to fail leads to failure.

12. Change is a part of every culture and organization.

13. Progress is important but when innovating and driving change make sure you honor your tradition, purpose and culture.

14. Culture is like a tree.  Click here to read the entire blog

As leaders, it’s up to us to make a difference in our work culture. We need to share and support our organizational and team goals and values, we need to inspire our teams by listening to their views, we need to provide opportunities that support desired career paths,
and most importantly we need to build trusting relationships.

How’s your work culture?

I used to believe that culture was ‘soft,’ and had little bearing on our bottom line. What I believe today is that our culture has everything to do with our bottom line, now and into the future.
– Vern Dosch, Author, Wired Differently

23 Sep
[email protected] Team

Do You Know Your Team?

Don’t neglect getting to know your team on a personal level.

How well do you know your team? If you’ve invested in your staff professionally, perhaps sponsoring the Leadership Journey™, you may be familiar with things like Myers-Briggs Type, Listening Style, and preferred Conflict Mode. You also know how well they support goals, levels of accountability, and hopefully desired career paths.  This is all good, but how well do you know them personally?

Investing time to know about life outside of work builds trust and strengthens relationships. We suggest building in perhaps 5 – 10 minutes in team meetings (team size is obviously a factor), but start the meeting with something fun, interesting, and informative.

Here are some ideas for questions:

  • How many siblings do you have?
  • What’s your favorite family tradition?
  • What’s your favorite holiday?
  • Do you have a favorite vacation destination?
  • How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
  • Do you have a bucket list? What’s your priority?
  • What was the first concert you attended?
  • How do you feel about country music?
  • Are you married?  If yes, how did you meet your spouse?
  • Do you have children or maybe even grandchildren?
  • How many states (or countries) have you lived in?
  • How many countries have you visited?
  • Do you have any pets?
  • What movie have you seen 5+ times?

We all need to be viewed as people, not just as an employee or consultant. There’s a constant need to keep people engaged and for team members to have a sense of belonging. Gallup reports that 33 percent of American workers are engaged at work, 52 percent claim they just show up, and 17 percent say they are actively disengaged.

As a leader we can influence these numbers. What are you doing to learn more about your team members and help the team learn more about one another? Don’t neglect getting to know your team  on a personal basis, it makes a difference!

A leader is someone who creates infectious enthusiasm.
— Ted Turner

16 Sep
[email protected] Change

Roles, Expectations and Challenges

Clarity is the pathway to solid results.
–Victor Lipman

We frequently talk about the need for clarity. We need to excel at clearly communicating our message, ensure others have a strong handle on desired results, know what’s expected of them, and share accomplishments as well as challenges. Would you say you do this well?

If you were hesitant in answering that, you’re not alone. More and more is expected of leaders of all levels despite not always being clear on what’s expected of us. We’re still in recovery mode from Covid-19, and most of us experienced change and challenges with daily operations, maintaining relationships, and keeping our staff and colleagues engaged.

  • How has your role changed in the past 2 years?
  • What about the roles of your team/colleagues?
  • Have talent needs changed?
  • Can you adequately assess individual and team strengths and gaps?
  • Are there obstacles impacting effectively supporting goals?
  • What about with changes for daily operations?
  • How have your team or organizational vision, mission and goals changed?
  • Assuming they have, have the changes been well received or even accepted?
  • Is there a need to rethink how you connect with clients?
  • What about how your team is evaluated?
  • Former “best practices” may no longer apply; what needs changing?
  • How are you doing as a leader? Has your relationship with your boss changed in any way?

This list of common challenges is not inclusive by any means. The point is that whatever challenges we, and our team are facing, need to be addressed before pain points escalate.

We think the times of change (and stress) will continue, which makes it even more critical to have clearly established roles, clearly defined expectations, and the commitment to face and lead through the challenges with transparency.

Wishing you success!

Clarity of expectations is perhaps the most basic of employee needs
and is vital to performance.
–Galllop’s State of the American Manager Report

09 Sep
[email protected] Success

Build Leaders, Build Success

Your competition can copy every advantage you’ve got – except one. That’s why the world’s best companies are realizing that no matter what business they’re in,
their real business is building leaders.–-Geoff Colvin I

Building leaders builds success. Simply stated, without strong leadership you won’t have a strong company, you won’t consistently achieve your goals, you won’t have a content workforce, and you won’t grow your bottom line. Yet, how many of us make it a priority to invest in ourselves and members of our leadership team? How many of us even know what to invest in?

We’ve talked a lot about the need for trust in leaders and it’s no coincidence there’s a link between trust and ideal companies to work for. Trust is the #1 factor.

Secondary factors include:

  • Job satisfaction
  • Camaraderie
  • Pay/benefits
  • Hiring practices
  • Communication
  • Training
  • Recognition
  • The work culture

Additional wants include:

  • A sense of inclusiveness
  • High morale
  • Community spirit – local volunteering and helping other employees during a crisis
  • Smile and have fun
  • Diversity and reputation
  • Hardworking, honest, ethical
  • Flexible work schedules

How do you think you, your company and your leadership team would get rated in these components? Some of the items on the list  may be out of your direct control, but minimally you can impact credibility, the work culture, morale, communication, training, consistent recognition, and levels of honesty and ethics.

Remember, building leaders builds success! How are you contributing to building success?

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it. – Andrew Carnegie

02 Sep
[email protected] Decision Making

Decision Making Factors

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
You’ll never have all the information you need to make a decision.
–Theodore Roosevelt

Did you know our style, preferences, and personality impact how we make decisions? One example is how our Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) impacts our decision-making process.

Those that are Type E (Extraversion) are more likely to: 

  • Want to talk it through first
  • Respond in an energetic way
  • Start with external data
  • Crave breadth
  • Consider impact on environment first
  • Share thoughts and feelings freely

Those that are Type I (Introversion) are more likely to:

  • Want to think it through first
  • Respond in a measured way
  • Start with internal data
  • Crave depth
  • Consider impact on self-first
  • Share thoughts and feelings carefully

Those that are Type J (Judging) are more likely to: 

  • Want a decision now
  • Expect to make progress
  • Invite closure
  • Demonstrate commitment to the agreed upon solution
  • Feel discomfort until a decision is made
  • Desire certainty

Those that are Type P (Perceiving) are more likely to:

  • Want to postpone making a decision
  • Expect time to process
  • Invite new information
  • Stay open to changing the solution
  • Feel discomfort rejecting decision options
  • Desire flexibility

What’s your comfort level with decision making? Do you think your “type” is a factor? Let us know!

The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.
— Maimonides