Employees sluggish? Unmotivated? Need some ideas….

Has the momentum of the holidays, the new year, the candies and hearts worn off?  Struggling to find the next idea?  the next inspiration?  the next focus that will save your company money?  Economic times have you down?

Now is the time to gather employee input.  Get an idea of where everything stands.  No, it’s not a gripe session, but it is a chance to find out how your people are feeling and discover any new ideas they might have.  (If it turns into a gripe session, don’t simply dismiss it.  The gripe might be legitimate.  If so, put your people to work on a solution that pleases everyone.)

During these times it is incredibly important your team realize they aren’t alone.  They need to feel you hear them, and they need to see you taking action. 

You are not in this alone and neither are they.  Realize and embrace you’re a team.  Generating their ideas, generates their buy-in, generates its own inspiration!

Filed under: Business, Employee Inspiration, Feedback, Follow-Up, Management Lesson, Management Training, Motivation, News, employee motivation, teamwork

Situational Leadership Model

Those of you who haven’t taken the course and aren’t familiar, please let me know and I’d be glad to give additional comments, or answer questions.

Basically…. (most of this explanation is taken from Wikipedia)

Leadership styles are characterized into four behavior types S1 to S4:

• S1: Directing/Telling Leaders define the roles and tasks of the ‘follower’, and supervise them closely. Decisions are made by the leader and announced, so communication is largely one-way.

• S2: Coaching/Selling Leaders still define roles and tasks, but seek ideas and suggestions from the follower. Decisions remain the leader’s prerogative, but communication is much more two-way.

• S3: Supporting/Participating Leaders pass day-to-day decisions, such as task allocation and processes, to the follower. The leader facilitates and takes part in decisions, but control is with the follower.

• S4: Delegating Leaders are still involved in decisions and problem-solving, but control is with the follower. The follower decides when and how the leader will be involved.

Of these, no one style is considered optimal or desired for all leaders to possess. Effective leaders need to be flexible, and must adapt themselves according to the situation. However, each leader tends to have a natural style, and in applying Situational Leadership he must know his intrinsic style.

Development levels

The right leadership style will depend on the person being led – the follower. Blanchard and Hersey extended their model to include the Development Level of the follower. They stated that the leader’s chosen style should be based on the competence and commitment of her followers. They categorized the possible development of followers into four levels, which they named D1 to D4:

• D1: Low Competence, High Commitment – They generally lack the specific skills required for the job in hand. However, they are eager to learn and willing to take direction.

• D2: Some Competence, Low Commitment – They may have some relevant skills, but won’t be able to do the job without help. The task or the situation may be new to them.

• D3: High Competence, Variable Commitment – They are experienced and capable, but may lack the confidence to go it alone, or the motivation to do it well or quickly.

• D4: High Competence, High Commitment – They are experienced at the job, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. They may even be more skilled than the leader.

Development Levels are also situational. I might be generally skilled, confident and motivated in my job, but would still drop into Level D1 when faced, say, with a task requiring skills I don’t possess. For example, many managers are D4 when dealing with the day-to-day running of their department, but move to D1 or D2 when dealing with a sensitive employee “issue”

The development level is now called the performance readiness level (Hersey, Blanchard, & Johnson, 2008). It is based on the Development levels and adapted from Hersey’s Situational Selling and Ron Campbell of the Center for Leadership Studies has expanded the continuum of follower performance to include behavioral indicators of each readiness level.

• R1: Unable and Insecure or Unwilling – Follower is unable and insecure and lacks confidence or the follower lacks commitment and motivation to complete tasks.

• R2: Unable but Confident or Willing – Follower is unable to complete tasks but has the confidence as long as the leader provides guidance or the follower lacks the ability but is motivated and making an effort.

• R3: Able but Insecure or Unwilling – Follower has the ability to complete tasks but is apprehensive about doing it alone or the follower is not willing to use that ability.

• R4: Able and Confident and Willing – Follower has the ability to perform and is confident about doing so and is committed.

Filed under: Business, Feedback, Life, Management Lesson, Management Training, Motivation, training , Management Lessons, Managing People, Situational Leadership, Situational Leadership Model

Situational Leadership’s Big Mistake (Don’t make it)

Those of you who follow situational leadership will no doubt know one of the biggest and most often made mistakes is to consider someones commitment and directional level in one situation to be the same across all situations.  I made this mistake recently.  And I made it with myself.  My commitment to managing my time and my skill set managing my time are both exceptional.  I require little direction and I have a great enthusiasm. 

However, I don’t have the same level of skill or commitment to managing others’ time.

I discovered I wasn’t committed, I wasn’t enthusiastic, and I didn’t have the skill set I thought I did.  I had made the mistake of assuming I was great at managing others’ time since I was an excellent manager of my time.  I was wrong.  I immediately began seeking insight into my opportunity.  And a side product of being a learner (has anyone discovered that strength?), my side product was my increased excitement as I learned more. 

The lesson is to remember it’s “situational” leadership and “in every instance” leadership. (ha ha)

Filed under: Blogroll, Employee Accountability, Feedback, Management Lesson, Management Training, News, Situational Leadership, training

Know your Employees

It is critical for your staff to feel you connect with them on  more than a professional level, and before I get you concerned about what’s appropriate, let me explain.  Every good manager knows employees want to feel valued.  Many management courses teach the importance of ‘knowing you staff’.  What’s important to your people?  What motivates them outside the workplace?  Is it a desire to their children get into a good college?  To finish a marathon? To win the apple pie contest the county fair?  What excites and motivates your people?

This is the perfect time of year to find this out.  To ask your staff about their goals for 2008 in their own lives.  What do they hope to achieve? To accomplish?  Take this knowledge and let it help you to be a better manager.  Let your staff you know you care about them not only as employees but as people.  Find a way to help them achieve these goals.  A book on training?  Your mom’s secret ingredient? A reference letter to your Alma matter?  What can you do to show your staff you care about the things that matter to them?

Filed under: Business, Feedback, Inspiration, Know Your People, Management Lesson, Management Training, Motivation, Resolutions, Setting Goals

Holding Employees Accountable

One of the biggest mistakes managers can make is to continuously frustrate their employees by not holding them accountable.  Believe it or not, it can frustrate your employees as much as it does you.  Accountability is the key to achieving results and helping identify the opportunities in your organization.  Holding employees accountable helps them to know the satisfaction of achieving a goal and performing to standard (or above!)

If you find yourself addressing the same issues in the same manner time and time again, you might have an issue with accountability.  The same is true if you don’t see your employees and your organization moving forward.  The first step is to identify in which areas you find yourself and your team stagnant.  Everyone will easily choose at least one area in which they would like to see improvement.  To master accountability, choose this one area and focus on it first.  Once you see the results, you’ll be inspired to approach all performance issues with a keen focus on accountability.

The Hallmarks of Accountability

• Understood Goals – the employee must understand what the team is trying to achieve
• Buy in – employees must believe in the goal and be a part of the success
• Benchmarks and a Quantifiable Result – employees need milestones and a result that can be measured
• Dual Feedback – feedback from the supervisor to the employee and from the employee to the supervisor
• Evaluation – once a goal is accomplished, celebrate the success

To be successful, the manager must also hold themselves accountable to following through with accountability.  One of the biggest failures is to start the process and not follow through with it.  This causes the employee to lose respect for the process and to question a supervisor’s commitment, which can undermine the entire organization.  Once accountability becomes a part of your management style and organization, you will see improved results and more satisfied employees.

Filed under: Business, Employee Accountability, Feedback, Follow-Up, Management Lesson, Management Training, News, Setting Goals

Practice What You Preach

Some of the best advice we can receive is the advice we hand out.  Recently, I had to learn this hard lesson.  It is much easier to consult, and critique another’s staff, another’s issues, another’s opportunites.  The hard part and the often times overlooked necessity is to turn our powers of observation and inspiration on ourselves.  In the words of Clarice Starling, “I think you’re scared.”

Filed under: Feedback, Inspiration, Life, Motivation

Understanding what’s important to your people.

Most managers miss a very important opportunity to build their team.  If you ask the average employee what is important to him, he will probably start with his family, his interests, things outside of work.  His job will definitely be one of the things he mentions but pay attention to what else is said.  If you know your employee’s daughter, husband, or wife is the most important thing in his or her life, do you know that person’s name?  Do you know some interesting fact about that person?  How can you convince your people to care about your ideas, your work, your initiatives, if you cannot take the time to care about what is most important to them?  If Sally’s daughter had an incredibly important state tryout for gymnastics, did you take the time to ask how it went?

Take the time to care about your people and they’ll pay you back ten fold.

Filed under: Business, Feedback, Life, Motivation

Documentation not a bad word

Documentation can be one the most effective tools you have.  It’s also most likely the one you never make time for.  You’re not being fair to yourself or your team.   There are so many reasons managers choose not to document; the most popular are negativity and laziness. 

Many people see documentation as a negative.  They have a belief if something warrants documentation it must be a bad thing.  Strike this notion now!  Documentation is a tool, a teaching tool if used properly.  Many times we find ourselves following up with our people on multiple occasions regarding the same behavior, or lack thereof.  Our feedback is much more effective if we can show them the various times you’ve spoken to them concerning the issue.  It makes it a more serious conversation when someone realizes they’ve had the same conversation any number of times.  Not necessarily more serious in a negative way.  To be fair, hasn’t someone spoken to you regarding a matter and you didn’t see the severity of the situation?  You didn’t recall they’d spoken to you at least 4 times about the same thing?  You didn’t share their frustration because it just didn’t seem like a big deal to you?  By documenting we’re being fair to our people.  They can begin to understand the frustration associated with repetitive conversations.  I’ve found many people see this documentation as a necessary reminder in the course to change behaviors. 

Then there are those of us who are just too lazy to document.  All I can say is shame on us.  I was one of these people for a long time.  I would run myself in circles following up with my reports, revisiting matters, retraining and never seeming to get anywhere.  It was not fun for me.  I was never able to get past the initial conversations because I was having them everyday.  Then one day I committed to making the time.  The initial documentation was the worst, but once you get it down, the rest are so much easier.  I would simply talk to a report and make notes on a piece of paper.  I would let the report read those notes and agree on accuracy and a course of action.  Later I would type it up and have them sign it, agreeing on the wording, etc.  Then subsequent conversations involved simply adding a date and time at the bottom, along with their signature.  Once I’d shown the same sheet of paper to one of my mangers 4 times, she took notice.  She didn’t even realize what a problem her action was.  She quickly moved toward correcting the behavior.  To get to this point, I had to make the commitment to document. 

Now this goes beyond being a manager of people.  You can use this tool being a manager of life, finance, etc.  I had a habit I wanted to break (late night chocolate milk binges).  I would document each time I went to the fridge.  Initially, it didn’t change.  But once I saw the pattern of my behavior, I was able to limit my trips (limit not eliminate).  I also am taking this course of action with my debit card spending.  I am the worst at not recording my spending. 

Documentation helps me see the pattern.

Filed under: Business, Feedback, Follow-Up, Management Lesson, Management Training

Feedback and Follow-Up Sessions

Feedback and follow-up need to go hand in hand, you should not ever give feedback to an employee without providing a subsequent follow-up session.  The opportunity area for many managers is remembering to have the follow-up and taking the steps necessary to ensure it is an effective conversation.  There are many ways to hold yourself to these follow-up sessions. First you need to identify why you are not having follow-up sessions.  Understanding why you are not successfully following-up with your employees will prove quite valuable.  Once you understand the “why” you can begin to formulate an action plan to ensure every time you give feedback, you’re also giving follow-up.  When properly utilized the feedback/follow-up model is one of the most important, if not THE most important tool we have as managers when dealing with our reports; it holds us and them accountable.  I’ve also found that by having a properly planned follow-up session I’ve minimized the time it takes to identify concerns, develop action plans, and strengthen opportunity areas. Some possible solutions for the “why” you aren’t having follow-up sessions:

• “I forgot.”  This is the easiest thing to do.  You give feedback to someone and you simply forget to follow-up with them.  This is not only unfair to your people, it’s unfair to you.  You’re basically telling yourself and your employee that this situation is concerning enough to me right now that I need to give you some feedback, but it’s not enough of a concern for me to follow-up with you.  It trains our people to react to particular situation and not necessarily correct a behavior since the manager will most likely forget to follow-up.  Learn to write your feedback down.  Many times feedback comes during an evaluation or walkthrough.  If so, write the feedback down and give the employee an expected date you will be following-up.  (Hold yourself accountable to this; put the date in your planner.)  If you don’t have the chance to write down the feedback and the follow-up date, do it as soon as possible.  I have one manager who calls and leaves herself a voicemail with vital information, then retrieves and records this information later the same day. 

 

• “I don’t have time.”  Solution:  Make the time; you will see a return on this investment even the most successful broker would envy.  Don’t assume follow-up sessions need to be lengthy or detailed.  Simply restate the feedback session and ask the manager for an update.  If nothing more, take the time to do this.  This less than two minutes exchange will train your employee to learn that you will follow-up on feedback.  If you have more time or if the situation warrants, dig into the details and determine if redirection or further feedback is needed. 

 Do you have a reason why feedback/follow-up isn’t happening?  Let me know and we’ll find an action plan that can help you.

Filed under: Business, Feedback, Follow-Up, Management Lesson, News, training