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Posts Tagged ‘management’

You Say You Want A Great Company…

Sunday, December 5th, 2010

But you know how it goes. You can’t have a great company without great people.

This past week the NY Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote an OP-ED titled, Americans Want the Greatness Back. He presented some startling statistics that nearly half of the Americans who vote feel that our best days are behind us, not ahead of us. And though his OP-ED is more about what changes may need to happen in our political process, his message is clear. Greatness as a nation can only happen when we each recommit to personal greatness.

So back to my opening line, you can’t have a great company (country, town, organization, family, etc), without people who choose to be great. How do you inspire each employee to choose greatness over just showing up?
Consider these ways:

1. Clearly define what your company believes in and its commitment to greatness in all it does; this attracts like-minded people. You set a standard and belief that guides not only who you hire, but what behaviors are expected once they are hired.

2. Hire the best people for the job; hire based on talent and fit, not just on experience. This way you hire people capable of greatness because their work matches what they are intrinsically good at. Employees who feel capable and competent perform at greater levels.

3. Connect employees emotionally by customizing their jobs around what they love and are interested in. There are few jobs that employees love everything about. But if jobs are sculpted around employees’ interests, passions and values, employees become more emotionally invested in their work. This raises their effort, interest and performance – their greatness.

4. Openly value your employees by building strong personal relationships with each through constant communication and contact, performance feedback and honest interest (see this issue’s Recommended Read). Employees who are personally connected to their managers, team and organization, feel more part of the team and therefore commit greater effort.

Personal greatness must be inspired, encouraged, developed and applauded – this is part of management’s role. And the more personal greatness grows, the more organizational greatness will grow. Great organizations realize that they are great because their employees have chosen to bring their best and to make an impact – they have chosen to be great. And if we can rekindle it in the workplace, we may be able to rekindle it across the nation.

Please share this with someone who can benefit from it and contact me to help you learn how to activate the personal greatness of your employees. More information at www.FireUpYourEmployees.com.

Tags: bottom line, employee performance, greatness, hire the right employee, impact, job fit, management, managers
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »

You Are Not The Only Game In Town

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Remember the soup nazi in the Jerry Seinfeld television series? His soups were so good that he could dictate who he would serve and who he would send away. He owned that market. He didn’t have to listen to what his customers said – they bought what he sold.

Fast forward to 2008. General Motors, Ford, Chrysler were making cars that few were buying. An economic recession reminded them that the products they make must meet the needs, values and interests of those they hope to sell to. So if you don’t want to make a car that gets exceptional gas mileage, includes the extra safety features important to your customers, or carries a cost that is prohibitive, then customers will go elsewhere. And they did.

In the August 13, 2010 New York Times article, “Detroit Goes From Gloom to Economic Bright Spot,” writer Bill Vlasic stated, “Detroit has vowed to change before, slimming down when sales slumped or pouring resources into vehicle quality to catch up to foreign competitors. Many auto analysts say the current makeover has a more permanent feel, largely learned from the near-death experience of last year’s bankruptcies at G.M. and Chrysler.”

This is just one industry where customer disconnect and management hubris sent the large players falling. What matters most are the lessons learned; here are several of the most important:

1. In a connected world, you are never the only game in town.
2. Always know your customers – what they want, need and value.
3. You earn the privilege of serving your customers by knowing them well, responding in an exceptional way, and by standing behind your product or service.
4. To be retained, employees must add value and make a difference; there is no right to employment – it must be earned.
5. Strip the excesses from the business – run lean, efficient and effectively.
6. Develop a “here today, here tomorrow” mentality; be strategic.

In today’s world, a company must stay connected its employees and customers, and all products or services must be responsive and responsible. We are rarely the only game in town. That is okay – it forces us to improve our game and constantly focus on greatness.

Please forward this to someone who can benefit from it and contact me to help you activate your employees to create sustainable value for your customers and organization.

Tags: auto industry, business failure, business strategy, Chrysler, customer loyalty, employee loyalty, employee motivation, Ford, G.M., management, recession, survive the recession
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »

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
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »

Great Performance Comes From the Heart

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

It may seem odd to talk about emotions and heart in the workplace, but how employees “feel” directly impacts their performance. Let me explain.

In our industrial age, most employees performed recurring tasks in the manufacturing of products. There was not a lot of formal and creative thinking required; rather, compliance to policy and following procedures generally created a good product. How employees felt, and what they thought, were generally not welcomed into the impersonal production process. We managed people by command and control – dictating and telling. It was effective; that is why we did it.

But that is not today’s workplace. In today’s intellectual age, our employees are face-to-face with customers, not behind machines. They must connect personally and emotionally with customers – they must be thinking and feeling – in order to earn customers’ loyalty. Every customer event must be right, but few customer events are exactly the same. That means employees must be ready, thinking and connecting in order to know how to make the service event right and memorable.

Command-and-control management does not activate this type of performance. Employee performance and loyalty must be inspired, not manipulated. Employees who feel capable, competent, important and valued respond to customers in a loyalty-building way.

Author Simon Sinek presents in his book, Start With Why, that we respond better when our connection is emotional and personal. Employee loyalty is based on management’s ability to win their employees’ hearts, not just their minds. Hearts are connected to our deep emotional side – the side that drives our most significant behaviors. Loyalty is based on heart. “Heart responds to inspiration, not manipulation.” Exceptional performance comes from the heart.

Engage-and-inspire managers:
1. Know their employees and hire them into roles that play to their talents and passions.
2. Customize jobs to play to employees’ strengths and the things they love to do.
3. Provide recurring feedback to build a strong personal rapport and connection.
4. Help employees feel part of the team, important and personally valuable.

Great performance is dependent on committed employees. Employees become committed when they are emotionally invested in their work. Hire the right ones. Help them feel important, capable and valuable. Activate their heart.

Review your management style and assess its impact. Do you manipulate or inspire?

Tags: command and control, emotionally connected to work, emotions in the workplace, employee performance, engage and inspire, love your job, management, passionate performance, simon sinek
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »