Posts Tagged ‘employees’

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Get Your Employees Out Of Their Comfort Zones

Monday, February 10th, 2014

There is a part of our brain that hates change. Maybe hate is too strong of a word, but our brain wants to feel safe and in control, and when change happens, we feel out of control. So, our natural feeling is to avoid what makes us feel unsafe – we avoid change.

The problem is we then get stuck doing what we always do; we become afraid to try new things. We get stuck in our comfort zones, ready to do each day what we did the day before. For an organization this is a death wish because nothing stays the same; organizations that don’t change, disappear.

In the workplace we need our employees to be our eyes and ears – connecting us more powerfully and actually to our world. We need our employees to constantly offer ideas to push us forward – to move ahead, try new things and invent. How likely is this if our employees just want to hunker down and stay where they are? We’ll have to help them get out of their comfort zones. Here’s how:

1. Make change the daily discussion. Most times employees are afraid of change is because management is afraid of change. Instead, welcome change as a workplace value – a critical belief of workplace success. Start each day with some news or review of the outside world and its impact on the business. For example, in teaching our multiple-day workshops, we start the day with the statement and question – “When you went to bed last night, the world changed. How has any of this change affected what you do and how you do it?” Even if nothing specific needs changing, employees learn to watch for change.

2. Be a change lover. Our employees take the lead from us; how we perceive change is directly influencing how they perceive it. Be a change lover by openly accepting how things are, and always responding to them with optimism and ideas. The more upbeat and focused on success managers are, the more they influence the attitudes and perceptions of employees; we inspire our employees to share this “can-do” instead of a “will-fear” attitude.

3. Connect change with success. We have learned that change is fearful. We can also learn that change is exciting and successful. Create a change success dashboard. Track new and innovative projects and responses to help employees see the tangible impact of moving out of their comfort zones – of embracing change and using it to be more clever, creative and responsive.

4. Require daily learning. The more we expand our minds, the more aware we become of learning and appreciating new things; we become less fearful. This is due partly because we know more (and knowledge is a powerful antidote to the fear of change) and our thinking expands. We develop comfort with our greater abilities; we become more competent and therefore more courageous.

Change inspires fear. To end the fear and employees’ tenacious holding on to their comfort zones, support, empower, inspire and educate employees about change – and how to use change as springboard to greater opportunities and successes.

 to learn more about how our performance workshops, coaching and consulting are helping organizations and employees welcome and use change to drive results and stay ahead. The sooner you learn how to accept and work with change, the sooner it becomes a resource and not an obstacle.

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Strategizing Success in 2014

Monday, December 2nd, 2013

2014 is almost here. What are your financial, customer and human capital expectations for the new year? How clear are your employees about the 2014 initiatives and their role in achieving them?

This is the time of year that organizations are building their strategies for the new year. To help you in the process, I share a lesson that I was taught in my big Italian family. Every New Year’s day after a wonderful dinner, we would clear the plates and bring out the paper – time for New Year’s resolutions. My father guide us by using what he called the 3 Rs – Review, Rethink, Respond.

Review – We were to look back over the past year and identify our successes and challenges. What worked and what didn’t work? This gave us the critical information about what was true – from this point we were able to move forward on how the next year will capitalize on what was successful and what will need to be improved or different.In organizations this starts with the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). A SWOT analysis is an effective review tool as it provides the ability to develop an accurate view of what is true about the organization. However, at the Review point, I like to focus only on the S, W and T. Strengths – what your organizations excels at. Weaknesses – what your organization is failing at. Threats – what outside influences can or will affect your business that you may not have any control over but you will need to have a plan to deal with. These three give you a clear understanding of the business and the environment it is working in. We create O – Opportunities in the next step.

Rethink – As kids we were asked to use the information that our Review gave us to reinvent and rethink how the new year would be. With regard to your organization, this is the place to start to identify the O – Opportunities. Each of your Strengths becomes Opportunities – rethink how to do more of what you excel at. Each of your Weaknesses become Opportunities – rethink how to correct and improve what you are failing at. Each of your Threats become opportunities – Rethink how you can block, respond to or avoid a threat that may affect your organization. This is the place to start to develop your strategy by creating objectives for the following year that address your opportunities.

Respond – As kids, we were to then pick from the ideas and opportunities we created in the Rethink phase, and build an implementation plan – how we were going to achieve our particular goals through the next year. This was our family’s approach to New Year’s resolutions. In your organization, select the opportunities that will become your 2014 organizational objectives (my guidance is to limit them to 4 or 5). The organization owns the objectives; the departments then build their goals to achieve the objectives. Each person in the department then has his or her tactics to support the department’s goals. You then have an organizational, departmental and personal response plan.

Strategic planning starts with a Review – think the S, W and T. It then moves to Rethink with creating the Opportunities that will drive success in 2014 – created by exploiting Strengths, correcting Weaknesses or blocking Threats. It ends with Respond – where specific corporate 2014 objectives, departmental goals and employee tactics are created. This is how to start at the organizational level and push the strategy down to each employee.

Clarity about the direction, based on a thorough review of the facts, helps all departments and employees know what is important in 2014. From here, they can build, implement and be held accountable for progress on their plans. This is how the kids in a big Italian family moved forward each year. This is how great organizations use strategy to activate employee performance and achieve significant results.

For more information on strategic thinking, building a strategic plan and using the SWOT analysis to become an opportunity machine, contact one of our Fire Up! Your Employees® coaches. We are experts in guiding organizations in effective strategic planning to transform results.

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How You Treat Your People Is How They Treat Your Customers

Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

The start of the workday in Japan: you meet with each other for a short time to get reacquainted since you last saw each other. You share information. You reconnect. You relate as people. You start each day from a place of commonality of mindset and purpose.

The start of the workday in the US: you create your personal to-do list, check your e-mail, get a coffee and get to work. Not much communication. Even less interaction. There is very little reconnection with others or to the commonality of mindset and purpose. Get to work.

At the center of all work is the “person” – the feeling, emotional and (we hope) thinking person. Work happens because of the people. They generate the ideas, the approach, the response, the energy, the attitude and the connection. Your people are your profits.

Customers connect best with people, not technology. Customers are loyal or leave because of people. Improvements and efficiencies happen because of people.Your people are your intellectual capital – the thinking, inventing, and solution-providing engines – of the company. And these engines need fuel – that fuel is emotion.

In today’s interpersonal and service workplace, the personality of your employees is the personality of your business. Customers are now face-to-face and phone-to-phone with employees. These are thinking, feeling and emotional employees who bring their lives into the workplace (and bring their work into their lives). Emotions are a critical component of the personality and connection between employees, and between employees and customers. Emotions are not just for home anymore.

Studies presented in the book  by Dr. John Fleming and Jim Asplund indicate that loyalty (something greater than “satisfaction”) in customers is inspired by an emotional connection to a brand, product, organization or person. Emotions drive loyalty. Loyalty drives results. So I guess if I remember my transitive property from high school geometry accurately (If A = B, B= C, then A=C), then if emotions drive loyalty and loyalty drives results, then emotions drive results.

Here are two ways to activate your employees’ emotional connection to and emotional investment in their work:

1. Job sculpt – customize jobs around what matters to employees. Get to know your employees – particularly their talents, interests and values – and build these into their roles or responsibilities. If the employee loves to write, involve him in the social media of the company. If the employee is great at coordinating events, charge her with the next company retreat. Add meaningful responsibilities that appeal to the employee and make a difference for the company to their existing roles. This activates their emotional connection to, and emotional investment in, their work.

2. Provide constant feedback. Spend the time with employees to catch them doing something great and provide (high-five) feedback; or catch them needing to improve, and support them with a process to get better. This creates constant contact between manager and employee in a supportive and “human” way. It helps the employee feel important, respected and valued (this feeds our emotional side). It also creates a bond with management that improves our personal connection.

How do you encourage your employees’ emotional commitment to and investment in their work? Do you treat them as critical valuable assets (things of value) to the organization or are they perceived as expenses (disposable and replaceable)? Remember, how you care for your employees (as people) determines how your employees care for your customers (as people).

Please share this with someone who can benefit from it. And contact me to learn how the Fire Up! Your Employees book and process has been created into 6 interactive learning modules to help every manager learn how to attract, source, interview, hire and retain today’s best people. Learn how once – and then bring this success approach and tools to your workplace.

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3 Ways Managers Can Become Better Teachers

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

In today’s intellectual (service) economy, organizations need employees to constantly learn, share information, coach each other and think on their feet. The more employees know (and how to use what they know) the better they can respond and perform in a changing workplace. Helping them learn is a strategic management responsibility.

Here is a great line use by nearly every educator: “Telling isn’t teaching.” But telling is the way many managers approach teaching and guiding their employees. There is no sustainable learning in this approach. All effective learning is a partnership between teacher and learner – manager and employee – that specifically focuses on the needs, motivations and values of the employee.

Consider these 3 ways for managers to become better teachers:

1. Stop talking and start listening. Listening allows you to understand where an employee is in his skill development and subject knowledge. Also listen for the employee’s talents, values and interests – for what inspires and motivates the employee. Knowledge without motivation gets little done. For learning to stick, employees must emotionally connect to both the learning and the reason for learning.

2. Work with employees to develop a learning plan. This mutually-determined plan should be based on what employees need to be successful in their day-to-day work, an area that will advance the employee in the future, and an area that is of personal interest to the employee. This makes it practical and personal (and comes from listening to the employee). Include completion dates, incentives for completion (if any) and planned improvements in performance. Creating the plan together is critical for its success.

3. Get good at performance feedback. In addition to a formal learning plan, on-the-job training must be part of employee education. Spend more performance time with employees to assess their work as it happens; reinforce successful behaviors, train and coach unsuccessful behaviors. On-the-job training is accelerated training as it reviews both skills and skill applications – what to do and how to do it. It is effective because it is real-time learning.

In a world where information doubles every couple of years, creating a workplace that constantly learns (and wants to learn) is critical to its success. And behind a learning workplace are managers who are adept at listening, observing, coaching and teaching their employees. How do you inspire your employees to want to learn more and to use what they know to improve, invent, add value and make a difference?

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