For Managers
Fired up! – passionate, excited, engaged and enthusiastic – is the only way to approach the workplace. Employees who are excited, passionate and fired up!:
• Consistently outperform, out-service and out-invent all other employees.
• Come to work ready to make a conspicuous difference.
• Are more accountable and responsible for their performance and results.
And this starts with you – the manager; great employee performance starts with great management. Fired Up! employees require managers who know how to create employee-focused workplaces, hire the right employees, activate their passion for performance and stay in constant contact with each employee. Today’s you are a coach, counselor, mentor and educator; this is what it takes to engage and inspire employees to perform.
Welcome to your manager section for tools to help you engage and inspire today’s employees. Use the articles, links, blog and other resources to expand your understanding of how to help your employees be their best, drive great results, work strong and live stronger.
Management Tools
Management Articles (to help you maximize your impact and your employees’ performance).
See my Power Performance blog at www.Bizmore.com. Click on the link below.
January 2, 2012 -- 12:19 pm
With the start of a new year, I thought I would draft a letter to use with your employees – a way to challenge them to be better in all that they do in 2012. If you like it, please use it (or edit it as you wish). I find this is also a good message to share with family. Have a happy and successful New Year.
Dear Employees,
2011 was a challenging year; thank you for your effort, energy, resilience and commitment.
As we start 2012 with greater clarity, a greater determination to succeed and a renewed commitment to provide exceptional customer service, we ask just one thing from each of you – be better.
• Be better in your work – think creatively, efficiently and get the details right.
• Be better with our customers – in how you prepare, how you communicate and how you add value.
• Be better with your teammates – in how you support each other, how you communicate and how you care about them as people.
• Be better in your community – in how you give of your time and effort to make your town, city or neighborhood a great place to live.
• Be better with our planet – in how you recycle, minimize your footprint, and how you appreciate the natural beauty around us.
• Be better in your relationships out of the office – in how you communicate, encourage and support.
• Be better to yourself – in your self-talk, in your personal expectations and in your commitment to being all that you can be.
You control how you approach your days in and out of the office. Commit to being better every day. Learn more. Be more responsive. Be more connected. Be more aware. Be tougher. Be more resilient. Be more creative. Be more present. Just be better.
Thank you for your loyalty and effort; we look forward to a great 2012.
Warm regards,
Your manager
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October 29, 2011 -- 11:09 pm
Marie was hired into a customer service role for a large international distributor. Her responsibility, in addition to doing the daily service tasks, was to provide “consistently exceptional service.” Based on her robust resume of previous work experience, the company expected great results. Marie failed.
Marie consistently lost her temper with customers who did not know how to order, had questions or required a second explanation of a product solution. She did not accommodate any changes to how she provided service – no personal touch – all customers were dealt with in the same efficient, but impersonal, manner. As Marie openly said, “I don’t really like people – but I’ll deal with them to get the job done.” Quite a first impression for a customer.
Marie may have been a great person (I’m sure her parents love her), but she is a misfit for this role; the role needed certain consistent behaviors that were not part of her core abilities. Fit didn’t happen.
Time after time I see organizations relying on candidates’ past skills or experience as the exclusive method for hiring. And though there may be mandatory role skill requirements, it is critical to also assess a candidate’s “fit” for the role – what the talents, strengths and passions are to be successful in the role.
Regardless of what our parents may have told us, we are not great at everything. But we are great at some things. When we discover these personal areas of greatness, we then can assess our world – what roles need what we do best – and can find our fit. Fit happens.
I find there are two primary problems in recruiting today’s A-level talent:
1. The organization does not clearly define the core abilities needed to be successful in the role,
2. Job seekers do not know themselves well enough to know their unique talents, strengths and passions.
Hiring managers must better define the required attributes in each role, and state them in their sourcing process. They must also require job seekers to spend time discovering and articulating their unique abilities. Only then can the two sides meet in the middle for a meaningful process committed to finding the right person for the right job. Then, fit happens.
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October 4, 2011 -- 5:16 am
So many employees are behind in the first moment of their workday. They are caught in workplaces that have cultures that do the same things over and over, regardless of how their environments change; they don’t commit to regularly challenging employees to constantly learn, rethink their jobs and value, and try new things. They are stuck living yesterday’s workday over and over.
In a period of exponential change, the most successful organizations are flexible and opportunity-focused; they empower their employees to constantly learn, involve them in new tasks/responsibilities and require them to try new things.
These organizations constantly gather new ideas, perspectives and opportunities – the key to developing a responsive and successful performance strategy. The more today’s managers help employees learn, grow and try new things, the more they encourage more robust employee thinking which is critical to sustainable company results.
I come from a large Italian family. Being both a large family, and Italian, we rarely went out for dinner (there were too many of us and besides, our food at home was terrific). However, I do remember one time when we went out to a smorgasbord – a buffet. My siblings and I descended on the amazing food tables and started to fill our plates. Dad called us back to our table, took our large plates away and gave us small plates instead. We were then instructed to follow him two times around the food tables – not taking anything – we were just to see what was available. The third time around we could help ourselves to small portions of things we had never tried before. He promised that if we did this, we would discover at least one new favorite food – we would change the way we think. He was right. I discovered artichoke hearts – and still love them today.
The point? Great managers constantly guide their employees to “walk around the company table” and let their employees explore and try things – through both formal learning and on-the-job learning. This expands not only what employees know, but it encourages broader and more strategic employee thinking – employees find areas of greater abilities, develop greater skills and bring stronger performance to the organization.
Additionally, an organization focused on constantly growing and educating its employees significantly influences employee loyalty. And the key to a powerful, high-performing organization is a stable, consistent and free-thinking workforce.
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