employee performance

Posts Tagged ‘employee performance’

It’s Passion That Creates Champions

Saturday, September 25th, 2010

There is some great wisdom that goes something like this: champions aren’t champions on the field – they are just recognized there. They are champions because of the hard work they do off of the field.

So what do they do off the field that helps them realize their greatness? What helps them move from good to great, from ordinary to extraordinary? And what can this tell us about encouraging championship behavior in the workplace?

Champions first know their talents; their natural aptitudes start them out as “good.” What helps them achieve champion (exceptional) status is an intrinsic passion for what they do; this provides the energy, drive and focus to commit to the extra work, effort and disciplined achievement to move from good to great.

So let’s talk workplace. Good employees are those who can do the job. Great employees are those who have the passion to excel at the job. They do things both in and out of the workplace to improve, grow, learn and achieve. They excitedly go to training programs, watch videos and buy resources, even with their own money. They set goals for themselves that are many times greater than the goals their managers set. Passion drives excellence. Passion creates champions.

Marcus Buckingham presents in his book First Break All the Rules, that 65% of employees do just enough not to get fired. They are good, not great. They are not champions. Core to this is they are either in jobs that don’t play to what they are good at (the don’t feel capable or competent), or they are good at the job but don’t love it (the find it boring).

To learn how to activate your employees’ passion, you must first be able to connect through a regular and recurring dialog – person-to-person. In this dialog you learn about the things that move and inspire your employee. You start to gather critical information to help you realign an employee to a role that he is both good at doing and passionate about doing, or make modifications to an employee’s existing role to include more of what appeals to the employee.

Consider the following questions to connect with your employees and to gather critical information:
1. What do you love most (least) about this job?
2. If you could work in any area of the company, what area would it be and what job would you want? Why?
3. What are you talents, values and interests? What do you love to do outside of work? What matters to you in and out of work? What do you think you are capable of being great at?

These several questions allow you see into your employees to better understand what matters to them and what moves them. And when you know what moves them, you can activate their passionate response – the response that leads them to “championship” performance, because champions are what your customers and business need.

Please forward this to someone who can benefit from it and contact me to show you how to activate the “champion” in your employees.

Tags: champions, employee performance, extra effort, Gallup Organization, love your job, manager, Marcus Buckingham, talents, winner, work, workplace culture
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Why Should The Best Work For You?

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Top performers are the key to building customer loyalty, and customer loyalty is the driver of company profitability. Your people drive your profits. You need the best people – those who are good at what they do, passionate about doing and believe in your compelling and clear purpose. All company success starts with exceptional people.

And people talk. So, what is the word on the street about your business? Is it a great place to work? Do only the best work there? Are employees encouraged to be their best and do great things? Or, are you known as being difficult to work for, don’t value your employees and don’t move the world for your customers?

Your brand, your image, your impression – what do you create and why should anyone work for you?
“Once an organization earns a reputation for rewarding excellence and rejecting mediocrity, it can become a magnet for top performers.” This quote from Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek shares some critical wisdom – when you commit to excellence and greatness, you attract it. Build a great employee-focused workplace and the best people will come.

Check in on the follow areas of your business and determine if greatness is what guides your approach:
1. Do you have a clear and compelling vision that employees and customers can believe in and rally around?
2. Do you hire people based on their talents, passions and commitment to greatness?
3. Do you provide opportunities for your employees to constantly learn, develop and improve?
4. Do you stay in constant contact with your employees, dialoging about challenges, sharing successes and coaching performance?
5. Do you share performance expectations, so every employee knows what is expected, and that all employees are fully accountable for their value contribution?
6. Do you build a culture that employees feel important, supported, cared for, listened to and most of all, appreciated.

So, what does the world know of your business and culture? Do the exceptional employees find you, and once hired, stay because of what you do and how you do it?

You build your company’s workplace brand everyday. Commit to becoming the employer of choice and build a culture that supports it. This attracts the best employees, who inspire customer loyalty, which drives the bottom line. It starts with employees. And it is true, build it (a great workplace culture) and the best (employees) will come.

Please pass this on to someone who can benefit from it, and contact me to help you create a powerful employee-focused workplace culture that attracts and retains the best employees.

Tags: bottom line, culture, customer loyalty, employee performance, employer of choice, workplace culture
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What You Say And How You Say It

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

In today’s economy, your employees are face-to-face with your customers. This means you have to wisely hire or promote employees who are a good fit for their jobs. And to me, good fit means:

o The employee is good at what the job requires; he has the talents and natural abilities and is capable and competent in the job.
o The employee likes doing the job; the job is well aligned to his interests and passions.

So, if you do a great job hiring the right employee who has the right combination of talents and passions, and you customize the job to create a strong emotional connection and investment in the job, you have now invested significantly in your employee. This employee is a critical component of your team, your service response and your ability to be profitable. The employee is a treasured asset of the organization.

And then the employee does something completely human like screw up an order or loose his cool with a customer. And you deliver your outrage and anger in your feedback by yelling, accusing and punishing the employee.

Stop. Isn’t this a valued member of your team? Shouldn’t you use the moment of non-performance as a time to focus on performance improvement and support?

Today’s managers must be coaches. Their jobs are to find the right talent, activate it to great performance, provide continual feedback to improve when needed, celebrate when performance and effort is outstanding, and to amplify the personal connection to performance. The better the personal contact between manager and employee, the greater the performance.

So the next time your employee needs feedback, do the following:
1. Start with a positive comment; win the employee into a discussion.
2. Describe the behaviors needing improvement or applause; allow the employee to corroborate facts and share perspectives.
3. Describe the impact and consequences of the behavior; find the “hook” that will encourage the employee to change something unproductive or continue something productive.
4. Create a plan; allow the employee to create and own a solution.
5. End with a positive comment; ensure the employee feels valued and sees the coaching (feedback) as a win-win event.

Not only are these five steps effective in changing behavior and improving the personal connection with employees, but they work great at home. Feedback done well is powerful. So watch both what you say, and how you say it.

Contact me to help you learn how to attract, hire and retain the best employees.

Tags: employee connection, employee motivation, employee performance, feedback, management, performance improvement
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Two Great Questions To Get Your Employees Thinking

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Most employees are great about showing up on time every day. Significantly fewer show up fully present – ready to make a difference with customers and the business. Many employees don’t pack their brains when they pack their lunches because many managers don’t ask their employees to think at work.

Sixty-five percent of employees do just enough not to get fired, according to statistics presented in Marcus Buckingham’s book, First Break All the Rules. His work with the Gallup Organization looked to define what degree employees are thinking and engaged in the workplace. This means more than half of employees don’t actively think their way through the day – they just follow the rules, do what they are told and little more.

Most managers do not take advantage of the thinking power of their employees. They seem content to have their employees simply do their jobs; they do not actively tap into their ideas, thinking and creativity. This wastes one of the most significant assets of the organization – the intellectual capital – the thinking power of the employee.

So how do you get an employee to think? Get in the habit of asking every employee these two questions every day:

1. “What if…?”
2. “What are two ways to …?”

Here are some examples:
• What if we allow employees to work more flexible hours, what would that do to performance?
• What if we eliminated two of our products or services; what would the impact be on customers?

• What are two ways to improve our marketing to our customers?
• What are two ways to attract great candidates to our company using social networking?

The format of the question isn’t as important as the discipline to constantly ask employees what they think. Tap into the resources you fund every week with your payroll. You paid for their thinking, now get what you paid for.

Tags: employee motivation, employee performance, innovation, inspire employees, no excuses, think at work
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