26 Oct
[email protected] Leadership

Master Motivator

Leadership is lonely. No matter how big your team, sometimes it’s just you–which means you sometimes need to look inside yourself for motivation and inspiration.-Jeff Haden

Having the ability to share your passion, aspire for more, instill the desire to achieve organizational and personal goals, to act conscientiously and ethically, and enjoy what you’re doing are all components of being a “master motivator”.

Mark Hansen and Joe Batten, authors of The Master Motivator – Secrets Of Inspiring Leadership’, provide tips for self-motivation as well as tips for motivating staff and colleagues.

It starts with us as individuals and as leaders. How can we motivate others if we are not authentic and believe in what we’re trying to accomplish?

Motives That Lead and Values That Feed

  • Motivators enjoy life
  • Motivators reach out – they do not retreat inward
  • Motivators cultivate a “lust for learning”
  • Motivators expect the best – always
  • Motivators are goal oriented
  • Motivators help others feel significant
  • Motivators lead by example
  • Motivators provide purpose and direction
  • Motivators are go-givers, not go-getters
  • Motivators respect themselves and others
  • Motivators ask, listen and hear
  • Motivators pursue total fitness
  • Motivators radiate warmth and caring

Rate yourself from 1 – 5 for each component. (5 being best). What are your strengths? Which can you further develop?  You can even take it to the next level and ask your staff or colleagues to rate you.

QWIKTIP – read about ACTIONS and BELIEFS

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.  John C. Maxwell

12 Oct
[email protected] Leadership

Leading From Afar

Leadership has challenges, and it becomes even more challenging when leading from afar.

Leadership has taken on new challenges with the need to lead not only those that are in the same location, but to also be effective across time zones, understand cultural differences, and keep telecommuters engaged and productive. 

Per GlobalWorkplaceAnalystics/2017:

  • Regular telecommuting grew 115% in the past decade
  • 70% of employers offer flexible workplace options
  • 50% of the US workforce holds a job with at least partial telework

What does this mean to you as a leader?     

As a leader, regardless of where your staff is located, make certain that common goals are clearly understood, encourage your team to value one another’s strengths, and provide one another other with healthy, timely feedback.

Leading remotely also means you need to be an even more skilled communicator.

  • Don’t communicate just the bare minimum.
  • Share what is expected of each individual and each location.
  • Ensure all interactions end with closure.
  • Check in regularly with each employee.
  • Revisit the team goals and objectives; use “here’s where we are” statements, ask questions, and invite everyone to share their opinion and thoughts about the progress that is being made.
  • Ask your direct reports what they’d like to hear about and ask for their feedback as to whether you are keeping them adequately informed.
  • Support and “sell” your team! Keep your boss and other leaders informed of your teams’ accomplishments and successes!
  • Look for opportunities for the team to meet face-to-face

It takes effort for remote team members to feel as much a part of your team as those that work onsite but the tips above will help.  Do you have other tips that you can share?

QWIKTIPS –  read about GETTING EVERYONE ON BOARD 

We like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they at their desk or in their kitchen. Yours truly has never worked out of an office, and never will — Richard Branson

05 Oct
[email protected] Leadership

Moral Leadership

How We Do Anything Means Everything –Dov Seidman

As leaders, we need to understand the culture of our business, be aware of the pulse of our team, co-workers, and business partners, consistently communicate goals and strategies, and make decisions based on our knowledge of the above.

Dov Seidman, founder/CEO of LRN, an ethics and compliance management firm, believes companies will thrive when ethical business cultures exist. (He’s also an author, attorney, and columnist).

It’s been reported that over two-thirds of U.S. citizens believe that none, very few, or only some corporations operate in a fair and honest manner. Pretty disheartening isn’t it?

So what does it take to create and support moral leadership?  Seidman suggests to first start by cultivating trust, values, and passion.  (TRUST, once again surfaces as a key critical component). He also provides 4 guiding principles:

Moral Leaders Are Driven By Purpose

They focus on progress, not just on results and the bottom line. Journeys force us to learn, adapt, experiment, and embrace and learn from mistakes. 

Moral Leaders Inspire and Elevate Others

They ask people to be loyal not to them, but rather to the overall purpose and mission of the organization.

Moral Leaders Are Animated by Both Courage and Patience

It takes courage to speak out for a principle or larger truth, especially when that leader is in an uncomfortable or vulnerable territory. Think of patience as a way of extending trust to others by allowing them the time to be more thorough, rigorous and creative. 

Moral Leaders Keep Building Muscle

Authentic leaders don’t stop learning and growing just because they’ve accumulated formal authority. They continue to build moral muscle by wrestling with questions of right and wrong, fairness and justice, what serves others and what doesn’t. 

Additionally, Seidman states that moral leaders “pause and continually ask if what they’re doing—or what their company or organization is doing—is compatible with their purpose and mission”.

How would you answer that question?

QWIKTIPS –  read more about ACTIONS AND BELIEFS

Seidman says: When you demonstrate moral authority, people follow you not because they have to, but because they want to.

21 Sep
[email protected] Team

FIVE BEHAVIORS for Team Success

True team members put aside their individual needs for the good of the team.

Many of you are familiar with Patrick Lencioni’s book The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team. In it, he defines teamwork as:

The state achieved by a group of people working together who trust one another, engage in healthy conflict, commit to decisions, hold one another accountable, and focus on collective results.   

What you may not be familiar with is that there is now an assessment that provides teams with critical information about how they can become stronger in the following areas:

  1. Trusting Team Members
  2. Engaging In Healthy Conflict
  3. Committing To Decisions
  4. Being Accountable and Holding Others Accountable
  5. Focusing On Collective Results

TRUST – A team needs to be comfortable with being vulnerable with each other about their weaknesses, mistakes, fears and behaviors.

CONFLICT – A team needs to share their passions and disagree, challenge and question one another in a healthy manner.

COMMITMENT –   A team buys into important decisions (even if they initially disagree) once all ideas and opinions have been considered.

ACCOUNTABILITY –  A team does not rely on their leader to be the primary source of accountability but rather deals with their peers direct.

RESULTS –   Teams that trust one another, engage in conflict, commit to decisions and hold one another accountable are more likely to put aside their individual needs and focus on what is best for the team as a whole.

How cohesive and collaborative is your team?  Are they willing to place the good of the team before their own individual needs?

We’ll help you learn how!

QWIKTIPS –  read more about SUCCESSFUL TEAM BEHAVIORS

The most important challenge of building a team where people hold one another accountable is overcoming the understandable hesitance of human beings to give one another critical feedback.—Patrick Lencioni

15 Sep
[email protected] Decision Making

Hire Hard

HIRE HARD OR MANAGE HARD

Hire Hard.  What does this mean? Simply put, you need to invest the time, energy, and perhaps money to ensure you hire the right person for the right job.

If you don’t, the result is that you will be “managing hard” (investing even more time and energy on a daily basis). Bottom line, “hire hard so you can manage easy”.

Hiring hard provides:

  • Increased employee performance and productivity;
  • Increased employee engagement, and
  • Increased employee retention.
    — Keith Tatley

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 qualified candidates that would be a good fit for your organization.

Global Resource Partners states you first must have a clear understanding of:

  • The skills and experience required for the position
  • The culture
  • Objectives
  • Conditions

You must then assess the applicant’s:

  • Talent
  • Behaviors
  • Motivation
  • CircumstancesAre there linkages? Are the applicant’s behaviors aligned with your work culture and do they support your objectives?

Your hiring options may include both external and internal candidates; both have benefits, both have disadvantages. High potential employees will already be familiar with the culture, and it saves hiring costs, but you may need someone “fresh”.

As leaders, we need to understand the skills, talent, and passion the applicant will bring to our organization. It’s also important to know it’s easier it develop skills than it is to change behaviors.  Are you hiring hard?

QWIKTIPS: click for tips on INTERVIEW PREPARATION

Great vision without great people is irrelevant.—Jim Collins

07 Sep
[email protected] Uncategorized

Are You Aligned?

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.—Brian Tracy.

As leaders, we sometimes think we have a strong awareness of how our team thinks, that we have shared priorities, that we build the necessary relationships needed to succeed, and that we have the work culture we desire.

In working with a number of organizations, we found that teams weren’t as aligned with their leader as the leader had hoped, and some team members shared that they were never asked about their perceptions, opinions, and feelings.

Are you aligned with your team?  Have you validated that?

Below are 4 questions we recommend you ask your team:

  • WHAT IS THE NUMBER 1 PRIORITY OF OUR TEAM?
  • WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE CHANGE?
  • PICK ONE WORD THAT DESCRIBES OUR TEAM CULTURE.
  • PICK ONE WORD THAT DESCRIBES THE CULTURE OF OUR ENTIRE COMPANY.

    Note: We can also administer a more formal assessment that provides comprehensive results and action items.

You may want it to keep it confidential or you may want it to be a team event and have fun with it.  Either way, we suggest you capture and share the answers (without pointing out who said what). Look for commonalities, but don’t disregard “one off” comments.

Now it’s debrief time:

  • Were there any surprises?
  • How varied were the responses?
  • Was there a great disparity between the words that described the culture of your team versus the culture of the company?
  • And most importantly, what were the results for your teams #1 priority?
  • Let your team know that what they think and feel are important to you, and that leveraging individual and collective strengths is essential for achieving desired outcomes.

And you’ve heard this before, but Patrick Lencioni shares that teams are most successful when they focus on collective results, hold one another accountable, commit and persist, engage in healthy conflict, and trust one another.

Are you and your team in alignment?

QWIKTIPS  read more about TEAM MUST HAVES

One thing we’ve talked a lot about, even in the first leadership meeting, was, what’s the purpose of our leadership team?  The framework we came up with is the notion that our purpose is to bring clarity, alignment and intensity.– Satya Nadella

31 Aug
[email protected] Leadership, Planning

Succession Planning

Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill key leadership positions within the organization.

You lead a very successful team, your abilities have been recognized, and as a result have been offered a promotion.

Is your team ready for you to move on?  Will there be an impact to the organization because of your move? Could your promotion be delayed because of not have a successor?

The big question is: What have YOU done to develop, mentor, and groom possible replacements?

Some companies have formal processes in place to fill leadership roles, others have informal processes, and some have nothing in place at all. As leaders, we want to ensure that our key roles, if vacated, will not present issues.

SUCCESSION PLANNING SUGGESTIONS:

  • Create mentorships
  • Utilize cross training
  • Delegate leadership tasks
  • Commit to leadership development
  • Create and re-visit development plans
  • Implement job shadowing
  • Conduct talent reviews
  • Identify high performers in your department
  • Request a list of high performers across the organization
  • Assess readiness levels and timeframes ex. now, in 1 year, in 2 years, etc
  • Ensure the high performers WANT a leadership position! We once knew a person that was targeted for several positions but had no desire to change roles!

Employees WANT to be developed, and organizations have the need to build bench-strength; having a plan in place sounds like a win-win situation!

QWIKTIPS – Read more Succession Planning Tips

All organizations, no matter their size, need succession planning

24 Aug
[email protected] Decision Making, Leadership

Mergers

The fundamental premise of any merger is that the merging entities will be more valuable together than they are separately.–George Bradt

Mergers seem to be happening with great frequency. It could be between teams, organizations, and even companies. As leaders, we’re required to consistently look at “doing more with less”, improving processes, and ensuring we have the right people in the right job.  Bottom line – there’s always a need to reduce costs and improve value.

Brad Gevurtz, D.A. Davidson & Co. reported that mergers and acquisitions were down in 2016 from 2015 ($3.84 trillion globally vs. $4.66 trillion in 2015), yet 2016 was considered a strong year, and the forecast is that mergers will increase this year.

What does that mean to us as leaders? Mergers are a form of change and we don’t always spend sufficient time assessing the “people/human” impact and the impact to our existing culture.

How and who will be impacted? What’s the likelihood performance and productivity will suffer during the merger? How will the merged teams/organizations function? What will it take to keep our culture strong? What are the new expectations from the CEO and senior leadership team?

We need to start by communicating the specific value of the merger, we need to identify all changing roles, and whether or not our vision and mission have changed. We need to share the behaviors and build relationships that will make the merger successful, and ideally we will obtain buy-in.

It’s also a good time to ASK your staff about their perceptions and feelings. A simple survey can provide a wealth of information, and there are many tools and assessments available that provide invaluable information about teams and individuals.

Team Dimensions is one such tool. It identifies what role each person plays on the team (creator, advancer, flexer, refiner, or executor), helps understand group priorities, makes the team aware of the contributions and value each person brings to the process, and how to most effectively work together.

Another helpful tool is DiSC Workplace. Individuals and teams learn how to build better relationships, regardless of title or role, and improves the quality of the culture. Participants understand and appreciate differing styles, and create strategies for overcoming challenges.

All in all, mergers will continue, and as always, success is more likely achieved when there is a clear vision, shared goals, with team members aligned and truly believe that value will increase when the team works together.

What are you doing to ensure your team supports your strategies that reduce costs and improve value?

QWIKTIPS  read more on LEADERSHIP TOOLS

Corporate culture is the only truly sustainable competitive advantage and the root cause of any merger’s failure or success. —George Bradt

25 Jun
[email protected] Leadership

Mentally Strong

Curiosity, rationalization, and laziness are no match against courage, self-control, and mental toughness. –John Bytheway

Do you consider yourself mentally strong? We’ve talked about how “gremlins” can impact our confidence levels and derail us from the path we’ve planned.

We’ve also previously shared our 5 P’s required for succcesful leadership and to grow the bottom line:

  • Passion
  • Planning
  • Persistence
  • Profit
  • People

To us, mental strength includes having the courage to believe in, and be guided by the 5 P’s.

If you love what you do, you’ll likely have the PASSION to market your strengths and minimize and develop your weaknesses.

You need to PLAN, which equates to be driven to achieve, and taking actions against your vision, mission, goals, and measures. All your behaviors should support their achievement.

PERSISTENCE is continuing steadily despite problems or difficulties. We all encounter challenges and not everything goes as planned, but that can’t stop us. We need to think about what could be done differently to attain the results we desire.

To grow and thrive, PROFIT must be experienced. And that does not mean only financially, but also from an emotional / value added perspective for the customer, shareholder, and employee.

And of all these, PEOPLE is most important “P”.  With caring, skilled, and committed people, you’re more likely to build and maintain the trust required for creating strong relationships along with the collaboration needed to foster success.

What behaviors and actions can you change to become more mentally strong? Are there others you can help?

QWIKTIPS – 

Read more on being ADAPTIVE AND AGILE

LIFE IS HARD, BUT MENTAL STRENGTH CAN MAKE YOU UNSTOPPABLE.–Amy Morin

01 Jun
[email protected] Leadership

Mentor Power

A mentor empowers a person to see a possible future, and believe it can be obtained. — Shawn Hitchcock

How do you define the role of mentor? We define it as “someone who imparts wisdom and shares knowledge with a less experienced person”.

Mentors share their experiences (both negative and positive/what went well and what did not, and WHY), and they help pave the way for their mentee to attain desired goals and career aspirations.

Part of the mentor’s role is to provide:

Meaningful, consistent, and timely feedback

Explore strengths and developmental needs (technical and interpersonal)

Networks that help grow business relationships (and opportunities)

Trust and integrity must exist for all interactions

Ongoing communication

Realistic expectations

Mentoring may be formal or informal, but the expectations and roles should be defined and agreed to at the inception of the relationship.

What’s the purpose of the mentorship?
What type of expertise/guidance is the mentee seeking?
In general, mentors/mentees do not have a reporting relationship allowing for candid discussions.

As a leader, are you open to assisting others with achieving their career aspirations? Are you willing to share your wisdom and experiences with others to help them grow?  If yes, you have MENTOR POWER!

QWIKTIPS –

Click to read how to: DEVELOP OTHERS

25 May
[email protected] Leadership

Do You Delegate?

The first rule of management is delegation. Don’t try and do everything yourself because you can’t.–Anthea Turner

Is delegating work part of your role as a leader?  We hope so. Effective leaders are effective delegators. Why?

**Delegation frees time and provides an opportunity to  develop others**

As leaders, we frequently spend too much time doing tasks; we are working in the business instead of on the business.   As leaders we need to step back from the tactical work and spend more time on strategic thinking and innovation, and more time coaching and developing others.

There are numerous reasons for not effectively delegating.

The most common are not trusting that the job will get done to our satisfaction, discomfort with assigning a boring task, or feeling guilty that the workload will be too great.

Here are some tips to help:

Plan your delegations – Assess the strengths of your delegate, match the assignment accordingly.

Provide clear, documented instructions and due dates.This prevents misunderstandings and if the task is new to your delegate, they can refer back to your instructions.

The best delegators provide the “what and when”, and leave the “how” to the individual which is more empowering and motivating.

Assess how long the task would take you and build in extra time for your delegate; obtain buy-in that the deliverable date is realistic.

Ensure your delegate has the appropriate resources they need to be successful. Inform staff, co-workers, business partners, etc of your delegated role.

Follow-up and monitor the progress; you may be needed to add clarity to the task or be nothing more than a sounding board.

Acknowledge the contributions of your delegate and provide constructive feedback for areas of growth.

Effective delegation increases morale, builds your talent pool, and strengthens trust within your organization.

Are you an effective delegator?

QWIKTIPS –

Click to read about CONFIDENCE AND COMPETENCE

If you delegate authority, you will build leaders.–Craig Groeschel

18 May
[email protected] Success

Average Is Over

What sets successful people apart from everyone else?

PeopleTek’s strategic partner, E-Coach Associates, has produced a series of videos that provide strategies for making us perform at our best.

The first video begins with “Average Is Over”.  Indeed it is. Competition in the workplace is stronger than ever so it’s up to us to understand how we can contribute more and become more successful.

It’s no surprise that it starts with us. We need to be continual learners and we need to consistently build our awareness levels (of ourselves and of others).

Other key points include:

  • Be easy to work with (being competent is a given)
  • Understand the other persons point of view
  • Learn the biases of others (ex. Frustrations, disappointments, etc)
  • Ask others to share THEIR experiences
  • Watch and listen for behavioral preferences (adapt accordingly)
  • Have clear expectations (what do you expect of others/what do they expect of you?)

Don’t be afraid to ask what the #1 expectation is from others (especially your boss!). Don’t assume as you may be surprised!

Have you and your boss ever been “out of alignment” regarding expectations? Let us know how you got back on track.

QWIKTIPS – 

Click to read about LEADERSHIP TOOLS

DISCOVER SUCCESS

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