Here is an example.

Tom is the general manager of an 18 person shop and spends a significant amount of time in an external sales role.  Each of his employees has specific areas of expertise and is quite skilled.  However, in this rapidly changing business environment skill isn’t enough; customers are always expecting a little something more.  The Shop’s responsiveness in terms of speed, quality and price must improve.  The group needs to work together more effectively to improve communication, solve problems and work through disagreements.  Waiting for Tom to show up and “mediate” is no longer an option, it wastes too much time and money.

We started by having everyone in the shop, including the 3 Project Managers, complete the “new” Everything DiSC^® profile.  We did a little intensive training with the Project Managers (PMs) before working with the entire staff. The PMs are responsible for getting projects done, on time, on spec and on budget.  All 3 were amazed at the opportunities that suddenly presented themselves now that they better understood how to interact with the different styles in the shop.  As one PM put it, “it’s like having and an operating manual for how to work with these guys”.

Since then overall project time has decreased by 25%, gross margin is up 1.6% and customer satisfaction is trending upward.

Tom learned that you don’t have to be a psychologist to understand how to work effectively with people… all you need is a good tool and some understanding of how to use it.

If you are interested in learning more about using DiSC^® to improve your results contact me for a free situational analysis.  Alan Adyniec  616-86-5471 alan@coach2engage.com

Most of the leaders I know would tell you that the largest single expenditure in their business is compensation.  What is your annual payroll?  Imaging having that money in cash.  Would you put it in a CD (passively manage) or would you develop an investment strategy to both protect the principle and maximize the ROI (actively manage).

So, what is your strategy for managing your investment in payroll?  Clearly the potential of human capital is basically limitless. Just look at how our world has changed over the last 10 years.  Give human beings an opportunity and the right environment and they will produce stunning results.

So I ask again, how much of that investment in payroll are you leveraging?   Research tells us that if you are the average employer it is about 30%. A lot of money is being left on the table.  If you could double the return on that investment to 60% what impact would it have on business productivity, growth, customer service, innovation, profits?

At this point if you are thinking that this isn’t attainable because people don’t want to do any more than they have to… you can stop reading now… we are not on the same page.

My experience as a leader and now as a coach is that people are willing to do more than is expected if the environment enables them to do so.

As leaders it is our job to become aware of strategies and approaches that effectively leverage the investment in payroll.  Free to contact me alan@coach2engage.com or visit my website http://www.coach2engage.com.   Don’t leave money on the table.  al

So how can I choose to change my behavior if I am not aware of my current behavior?   In other words how can I choose between blue and yellow if I can’t see yellow; I only have one choice… blue.  All of us have some blind spots in terms of understanding how we behave in different situations.  We are simply unaware or possibly unable to see ourselves from an objective point of view.

There are tools to help with this type of “self awareness” as an inexpensive first step.  I suggest anyone who is serious about improving communication and/or teamwork look into some type of behavioral or personality profiles.  I like DiSC by Inscape.  Inscape continues to improve its products by making them highly user friendly.  The newest version Everything DiSC Workplace is basically a D-I-Y application.  If you would like to learn more just email me at alan@coach2engage.com and I will send you a free “sample report” and you will see what I am talking about… no strings.  al

Take another look at those opening words, these are all aspects of our emotions. Daniel Goleman in his book “Primal Leadership” advances the notion that leadership actually works through the emotions. Assume that an organization has a dynamite strategy to really get fantastic results.  No matter how brilliant the plan, if employees do not have an emotional connection it isn’t going to reach its potential.

Here is how I think it works. When our logical left brain is stimulated by the plan and then our more emotional right brain kicks in something almost magical occurs.  People begin to make connections, see opportunities, develop ideas and most importantly act intentionally.  They care about what happens, feel responsible and act accountably.

Effective leaders create environments that draw people into the process in a way that creates that emotional connection. One primary element of that environment is TRUST.  People do not follow leaders they do not trust.  Why? Simple, a lack of trust stimulates emotions such as suspicion, fear, apathy, distain etc.  Do you know of any toxic environments such as this that produce great results?  I don’t.

The Integro Leadership Institute (disclosure -I am an associate partner) has a primary focus of helping leaders learn to build trust.  Contact me to talk about a proven trust building process.

al

When a person’s behaviors match their purported values they are said to have character.

A person described as having “strong or good character” is usually someone whose behaviors reflect the values of the prevailing culture.

A person of “low character” is usually someone who either has behaviors inconsistent with the values they espouse or have behaviors consistent with values not considered acceptable by the prevailing culture.

The character of the leadership of an organization is usually reflected by the culture of that organization. Recently we have come to know all too well the character of some of our largest financial and investment firms.  Make no mistake, it starts at the top.

Many organizations attempt to express their values through slogans and well crafted statements usually prominently displayed in one way or another.  The values of an organization are not defined by what is stated as expected but by the behaviors that are accepted and reflected by the leaders.

Sounds like a stupid question right?  When I ask people this question I usually get responses that are geared toward the things they do.  That’s close… but no cigar.  People are not hired to do things. First and foremost they are hired to add value.  The way they usually add value is by doing the things that they are hired to do also known as work.  There is a big difference between doing things and achieving purpose.  Without the context of purpose “work” is just a series of meaningless activities.

People who are consciously aware of what to do, how to do it and why they are doing it are in a position to make choices that deliver higher value.

Ever have something go wrong and have an employee say “it’s not my fault I did what I was supposed to do”.  This infers that they were “supposed” to do something incorrectly by design.  On the other hand, we also know that employees who are trying to achieve an outcome (purpose) often see things going in the wrong direction and  choose a different “thing to do” with the intention of producing a better outcome.  Is your staff performing tasks or adding value?  al

In general I think it is safe to say that the pace of work has increased dramatically.  It is as though the answer to everything is speed.  Wyatt Earp is credited with saying something like “Fast is fine… but accuracy is everything”.  Do you ever get the feeling like we are moving faster in the wrong direction?

Sometimes we seem to think that doing more of the things that aren’t working will somehow help.  Now more than ever seems to be the time to step back and take a look at where we are, where we want to go and what things will actually take us there.

The primary problem here is stepping back.  Who has time, we are all too busy climbing a ladder leaning against the wrong wall.

If we are going to work smarter not harder it seems like we should stop to decide which approaches actually are smarter.  If we are going to do more with less shouldn’t we focus on the few things that would produce better results.

In my opinion, some leaders simply fail to let go of the past.  There is a fear of not doing what we have always done while we continue to add more that we need to do.  After awhile it is all just “noise”.  If everything is important then nothing is important.  Stop!  al

• Align around essentials - Everyone in the organization must be totally clear on why we are in business; what value do we generate beyond a profit. This leads to who your customers are, and why they would want to do business with your organization.
• Build trust - Trust has become the buzz word of this new century. Books are written about its importance, research bears out its impact on achieving results; it is fundamental to success.
• Engage staff in creating and achieving goals - Once everyone is aligned and it feels safe to really apply themselves, you would be surprised at what they are willing to commit to accomplishing.
• Stay out of the way - This is one of the most difficult steps for managers. Many can get this far and then they try to manage or handle what happens from here on out. It is like spending lots of time with family choosing a car and then saying only I can drive. BIG mistake.
• Coach staff to success - Coaches don’t score points, players do. Coaches are on the sidelines supporting players with conditioning, strategy and feedback.

This is a lot of “what to do” but “how” do you do these things.  First, understand this is a process that takes a few months to generate results and possibly years to truly create a performance oriented environment.

Keith Ayers, president of the Integro Leadership Institute has developed some great material to guide this transition.  To check out Integro click here or visit my site at www.Coach2Engage.com.  Al

Why? Simple, because it works better.  Everyone appreciates having a clear direction however do you like to be managed.  I believe the root of “manage” comes from the Latin word manu or hand.  So I guess to be managed is to be “handled”.  Not very enticing is it.

However this handling or control over people was and continues to be the modus operandi of most organizations.  That is changing.  Hierarchical approaches in the current rapidly changing and sometimes chaotic business environment make it difficult to be agile, adaptable and innovative.

If you get this… congrats! Now what do you do about it.  It is easy to say we want to create an environment where staff are motivated, self-directed, passionate and focused on results.  It is much more challenging to construct such a workplace.  The primary barrier is the inertia of the past.  It is difficult to break old habits. Even as we begin to develop new habits if a little stress is introduced we tend to go back to what is more comfortable for us even if it is not more effective.

See my next post on what to do about this conundrum.  Al

Several 21^st Century staff surveys focus on aspects other than satisfaction such as employee engagement, the level of trust, employee passion, organizational alignment etc.

The value of these surveys is that they deal more directly with organizational performance.  Mountains of research (links below) clearly indicates that employee engagement, trust, and alignment have a direct impact on performance.  Obtaining an employee perspective on the organization’s effectiveness in areas like communication, leadership and process function can lead to breakthroughs in performance, highlight areas for training and development and often separate a little of the “ivory” from the “tower” that many executive teams live in.

Most surveys provide a good overall look at the environment or culture which is a strong indicator of the health of the organization.  Drill down capabilities are also usually available to “slice and dice” the data by group or function.   Some of my clients have fielded surveys as an element of strategic planning.  In the same way that organizations gather data on the external environment more organizations are also assessing the internal environment. After all having a brilliant strategic plan that can’t be implemented because of internal problems is of little value.

The Gallup Q12 which measures employee engagement has been around for a while.  More recently Curt Coffman (formerly of Gallup) has developed a similar product the Employee Engagement 2.0 which is gaining some traction.

Personally I like the survey tools developed by the Integro Leadership Institute.  Keith Ayers has some great surveys that give a better picture (by my reconning) of what is going on within the organization.  Integro’s surveys measure things like specific behaviors that build trust, employee passion, alignment with the organizations purpose, values, vision etc. There is even feedback available regarding how well values are demonstrated in the workplace.

If you go to the Integro Website and click on Assessments you will get a better idea of what I am talking about.  Click on the Passion Index to complete a free survey to find out how passionate you are about your work.   al

Gallup research on employee engagement on business results

Cornell research on The Impact of Trust on profits