24 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Emotional Intelligence In The Workplace

Research shows convincingly that EQ is more important than IQ in almost every role and many times more important in leadership roles.
–Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Dear Leaders,

Some people say leaders are born, others say leaders are made. Regardless of your position on this, leaders possessing certain behaviors and skill-sets obtain greater results and are more likely to have satisfied, higher producing, and more collaborative team members.

As leaders we need to be aware of our behaviors and actions, understand how they impact others, and manage the expectations in order to obtain the results we desire. We don’t just need to be intelligent and knowledgeable in our life, we also need to be emotionally smart.

Psychologist Steven Stein and psychiatrist Howard Book state that strong leaders have both a high IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and a developed EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient). Intelligence will only go so far; leaders must also be aware of how they present themselves and respond to others.

Our IQ is considered to be non-dynamic and is an indicator of how we perform intellectual tasks. Our Emotional Intelligence in the workplace, on the other hand, can increase through self-development and consists of 4 areas: Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

Self Awareness is critical when engaging in communication

Self Management is key for managing emotions in difficult situations

Social Awareness leverages awareness of others to perform at your peak

Relationship Management manages relationships to increase job performance and integrates EQ professionally and personally

Emotional Intelligence in the workplace is the genuine ability to feel emotions, understand what you’re feeling and why, understand how others are feeling, and respond appropriately. Having a high EQ builds relationships and fosters communication even in the most difficult of times.

Some consider EQ to be the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence. By developing our EQ, we position ourselves to more successfully cope with organizational demands and pressures.

Do you know your EQ?

17 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Successful Hiring

Those of you that have worked with PeopleTek in the past have heard us say on numerous occasion: “Hire Hard or “Manage Hard – Which would you rather do”?

Hiring can be a challenge. Don’t limit your hiring approach to satisfying your technical needs only. We need to ensure the applicant has the skills we require, but equally important we must verify they will be a good fit for our organization.

Did you know attrition costs for “misfit” hires equates to 55% – 200% of an employee’s annual salary with additional impacts to the team and organization?

Sometimes we as leaders “settle” for a new hire thinking that we’re better off filling the open position immediately instead of investing the time and effort to find the applicant that is the best fit. The results can be painful!

Now is the time to fine-tune your hiring strategy. Many companies are ramping up as the economy improves and due to sales growth surpassing expectations. (Google is preparing for its biggest year in employee growth in the history of the company).

There are many tools available that identify individual preferred styles.
Remember, these are not “tests” and don’t determine good/bad traits but rather are instruments that help identify strengths and preferences.

The most common include Myers-Briggs and DiSC, but another great instrument is “Team Dimensions” which assesses approaches to innovation and teamwork. This Inscape tool believes ideal teams are comprised of individuals performing the following five roles:

CREATOR Generates concepts and ideas

ADVANCER Develops ways to promote new ideas and direction in the early
stages

REFINER Analyses and challenges concepts and identifies potential
problems

EXECUTOR Follows up and ensures processes are in place

FACILITATOR Moves process along by overseeing the hand off of tasks

By understanding these different roles and by leveraging invaluable individual contributions, the result is a high-performance team. Is your team comprised of individuals possessing these roles? Are you part of an organization that is committed to hiring talent that enhances your organization?

Remember, if you don’t “hire hard” you’ll be utilizing time and talent to “manage hard.” Let us know if we can help.

10 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Strategic Thinking

Thinking Strategically Is A Process Not An Event!

Many of us have been told that we need to start thinking more strategically; that we need to stop being so tactical (even though we may excel at it) and become better visionaries. Sounds good, but this isn’t easy for some of us.

To get started we need to understand what “strategic thinking” means. Some common definitions include:

“The ability to make decisions and or solve problems from a broad perspective”

“Taking in information from a variety of sources and integrating the information by analyzing various options and approaches”

“Understanding how options and choices may impact others”

“In general taking a holistic approach to day to day issues and challenges without over reacting to pressures to change course”

How to Start Thinking Strategically

  • Define the business we are in
  • Know who our customers are
  • Identify what services we do (or could) provide
  • Determine what we want our department to be known for
  • Analyze what strategic alliances we want and create a plan to find them
  • Document where we want to take our organization in the next 3-5 years

As leaders, we make decisions daily that are critical to the success of our organization. We need to supplement these decisions with a course of action that aligns with our corporate strategy.

We need to make smart decisions that link and support initiatives across the organization. We also need to spread levels of awareness for understanding how behaviors and processes link with our strategy, our vision, and our goals.

The intent is to align staff to collaborate and support the attainment of desired short and long term results and provide new ideas and fresh thinking for growth and opportunity.

Remember, being a leader means having the ability to influence a group to achieve specific goals. It’s taking and empowering people to go where they’ve never gone before and wouldn’t go by themselves!

03 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Building Leaders

“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

Dear Leaders,

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.

Fortune magazine partnered with the Great Place To Work Institute and identified the top 100 companies to work for.  Did you know two thirds of the score was related to a trust index? Included were detailed questions about management’s credibility, job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The other third of the scoring was related to pay, benefits, hiring practices, communication, training, recognition, and diversity efforts. (Results for the top 100 companies may be found in the February 7th, 2001 issue of Fortune magazine).

Here’s a brief synopsis of what employees from the top 100 companies stated were critical for success:

  • Treating employees right
  • Employees love having their job and being part of “x”
  • Compensation and benefits
  • Focus on morale
  • Community spirit –  local volunteering and helping other employees during a crisis
  • Employee focused culture = high returns for investors
  • Growth and development
  • Smile and have fun
  • Diversity and reputation
  • Hardworking, honest, ethical
  • Flexible work schedules

As development plans are being completed now would be a good time to solicit feedback from your employees to see how you and your leadership team rate.  Some of the items on the list above may be out of your control, but minimally you could request input related to credibility, treatment of employees, job satisfaction, morale, diversity, communication, training, recognition, reputation, and levels of honesty and ethics.

Once this important information is obtained you can identify your focus areas, update development plans accordingly, and begin to build a stronger leadership team.

Remember, building leaders builds success!

20 Jan
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Trust and Transparency

We won’t be able to rebuild trust in institutions until leaders learn how to communicate honestly — and create organizations where that’s the norm.
–James O’Toole and Warren Bennis

Did you know that trust in US corporations is at an all-time low of 38 percent, a drop from 58% in 2008?

We’ve talked before about how leaders who are viewed as trustworthy are more successful. They hold themselves and others to high standards, are consistent with the behaviors they display, and follow through with their commitments. They’re also willing to be vulnerable, admit their mistakes, and they encourage team members to do the same. It’s no wonder that desired results are more readily obtained.

Organizations must be more open and transparent before the trust factor will improve.

10 Tips For Increasing Organizational Transparency

  1. Open lines of communication
  2. Timely exchange of valid information
  3. No hoarding of information
  4. Active listening
  5. Healthy debates and disagreements
  6. Remove the fear factor from speaking up
  7. Tell the truth
  8. Admit mistakes
  9. Counter inaccurate information with facts
  10. Practice having difficult conversations

Relationship building, improved performance, increased accountability, and improved job satisfaction levels are all side benefits for organizations that score high in trust and transparency.

How would you rate your team? What tip if addressed could increase your score?

13 Jan
PeopleTek Coaching Success

Attacking Your Goals

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success”.
–Stephen A. Brennan

Most of you have begun to identify your annual goals; some of you may even have finalized the goals that your organization/company will work on throughout the year.  Now what?

  • The goals need to be cascaded to everyone that can support attaining them.
  • Each person that has a role in the successful achievement of a goal needs to understand how they personally can help with achieving the goal.

One way to start to action each goal is to utilize the brown paper process.  The steps in this process include:

Step 1
Identify the objective for successfully completing each goal

Step 2
Agree on the focus areas (streams) that are required for achieving the goal

Step 3
Identify what the desired end result is and the timeframe for completion (called “TO BE” in the process)

Step 4
Identify the dependencies (called Critical Success Factors (CSF’s) that are required for success.  Ex. funding, skills, completion of other goals

Step 5
Document the ‘AS IS’ for each of the goals. (Let’s say you have a goal of 99% accuracy, what’s the current accuracy rate?

Step 6
Brainstorm what must be done to achieve the goal (called “HOW TO’s”)

Step 7
Ensure accountability by assigning an owner for each goal and for each “how to”

Please let us know if you’d like an excel template for the brown paper process.  It’s ideal for taking action, obtaining results, and tracking where you are today to where you desire to be. The sooner you get started the more successful you’ll be!

06 Jan
PeopleTek Coaching Success

Kicking Off The New Year

“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.
–Denis Watley

Welcome to 2011!  As we kick off the New Year and prepare for the challenges and opportunities awaiting us, the key to success is the development, clarity, and communication of your goals.  You need:

  • Goals that support the vision and mission of your organization
  • Goals that support the vision and mission of your business partners and customers (whether internal or external)
  • Goals, that even when cascaded several layers, are clearly understood and actionable
  • Goals with targeted start and completion dates
  • Goals that can be tracked and measured

Ownership of each task that supports a goal (the owner is not the only one to action the goals but rather their role is to regularly monitor the progress and communicate successes and obstacles)

Goals at both an organizational and individual level that will dictate performance levels and rewards

Goals that build on existing strengths and successes

Goals that grow the bottom line and the organization’s value

Goals that support development planning for individual and organizational growth and enrichment

Goals that support employee retention and build depth to the employee talent pool

If members of your organization were asked if they had written goals with plans to support them and target dates to complete them could they respond “yes”?

08 Nov
PeopleTek Coaching Planning

Checklist For Individuals, Teams, and Organizations

Action items as 2010 winds down:

  • Complete or revise target dates for pending 2010 goals
  • Identify 2011 goals and goal owners
  • Validate strengths and growth needs
  • Create or update development plans
  • Recognize Accomplishments
  • Celebrate Successes!

We’re here to help! PeopleTek specializes in building the skills, abilities, and talents of leaders, teams, and organizations of all sizes and levels.

Remember, development and growing the bottom line is a process, not an event!

12 Feb
PeopleTek Coaching News

PeopleTek and Metaspire Consulting Form Partnership

Contact: Justin Beller
Metaspire Consulting
10211 Pines Blvd., Suite 117
Pembroke Pines, FL 33026
Phone: (208) 484-6919

PeopleTek and Metaspire Consulting Form Partnership to Provide Leadership Development and Executive Coaching

Pembroke Pines, FL, February 12, 2010. Metaspire Consulting has formed a partnership with PeopleTek, a business development coaching company, to provide executive coaching and leadership development education courses to its clients.

Metaspire’s clients will now have access to a team of highly trained and respected professional business development coaches. PeopleTek Executive Coaches are committed to assisting individuals and organizations in enhancing their business mindset, perspectives, patterns and behaviors to define goals and objectives, overcome obstacles and confidently utilize their strengths and skills in the workplace. PeopleTek’s Executive Coaches work with individuals and teams.

Another important aspect of the partnership between Metaspire and PeopleTek will be access to a range of unique individual and team programs including the Leadership Journey, which inspires leaders at all levels of business to be confident and attain greater results. PeopleTek has been serving a diverse group of mid-sized to Fortune 100 companies with professional business development coaches since 1996.

Metaspire is a management consulting firm where quality, efficiency, and effectiveness are at its core. With a balance of Organizational Development (qualitative) and Six Sigma/Lean (quantitative) disciplines, Metaspire customizes tools and techniques to support specific client agendas. Their mission is to create the approach and designs necessary to sustain people, process, and tool changes. This partnership will expand the breadth of integration and sustainability for both company’s clients. For more information call (954) 437-7244 or visit www.metaspireconsulting.com.

02 Apr
PeopleTek Coaching Leadership

Admired Leadership Traits

PeopleTek April 2009 OFFERINGS:

LEADERSHIP JOURNEY™ (12 session program beginning APRIL 22nd; conducted virtually via conference line). 6 month payment plan available.

“The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.”
– Walter Lippman

Dear Leaders,

What skills and behaviors do you think the ideal leader exhibits? Knowledge? Strategic thinking? Strong communication skills? Technically savvy? Sense of self awareness?

All of these traits certainly lend themselves to being a successful leader but this is a very small subset of possibilities. Gregory Deming, author, trainer, and sales specialist, conducted a poll asking individuals to supply information about the best leader they ever worked for.

He found that “visionary” was the word most commonly mentioned when discussing the best leader, with the ideal traits being technical competency, leadership competency, character, composure, and care for people. The following key words supplemented these ideal traits: inspirational, empowering and mentoring, honest, humble, trustworthy, caring, supporting,compassionate, passionate, listens and follows up.

That’s a lot to process much less possess!

One surprise was composure – it seems that being calm under pressure is an appreciated leadership trait especially during times of change.

Jonathan Farrington, business coach and author, conducted a survey from a differing perspective. He chose to obtain information on areas of weakness and found the five weakest areas of the less successful leaders were that:

  1. they failed to be sensitive to people’s feelings
  2. failed to recognize other people’s stress
  3. failed to develop and guide their staff
  4. failed to encourage feedback on their own performance
  5. and failed to consult those affected before making decisions

So as leaders what can we learn from this? The first step is to do a personal assessment of the positive and negative traits – which do we have in common? Which would we like to have in common? And lastly, which do we have in common that are not serving us well?

Start with no more than 5 traits that you wish to address, add them to your development plan and share them with your team. This takes courage, but by engaging your team you are showing your willingness to grow (and change), and respect them enough to request they provide you with feedback on your progress.

Take the step and be a courageous leader!

Sincerely,
Michael W. Kublin and Jan Mayer-Rodriguez

RECAP OF DESIRABLE TRAITS:

  • Visionary
  • Technical competency
  • Leadership competency
  • Character
  • Composure
  • Caring
  • Inspirational
  • Empowering
  • Mentoring
  • Honest
  • Humble
  • Trustworthy
  • Supporting
  • Compassionate
  • Passionate
  • Listens
  • Follows up

How many of these traits do you display?

Which would you like to incorporate to enhance your leadership presence?

 

“In order for people to follow someone willingly, the majority of constituents believe the leader must be:
Honest, forward-looking, competent, and inspiring”.
-James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

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