A Key to Leadership
Whether you are a new or seasoned manager, building trust with your employees and your supervisor is critical to your ability to get things done. Some people in every organization have clout. Clout can be defined as the ability to influence others to get things done. Others in organizations do not have this same ability. Why? The answer may boil down to the level of trust others have in you and your ability to get things done.
The following are seven suggestions that will help you build trust with your supervisor and your employees:
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Filed under: Leadership, Most Popular Posts, Peter's Blog on September 30th, 2009 No Comments »
Ten Truths to Help Build Your Confidence and Self-Esteem
When you were promoted from peer to supervisor, or hired in as a manager to your organization, have you ever had the feeling that not everyone on the team was equally excited about your promotion or hiring into the organization as you were? Since most managers and supervisors have not had much training or practice in people or “soft” skills, it is not uncommon to find supervisors with “people challenges.” When these people problems arise, and the problems are not easily solved, supervisors may question if they have what it takes and whether they are the best person on the team to do the job. When we begin to question our ability to be a good supervisor, our self esteem begins to fade.
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Filed under: Leadership, Peter's Blog on September 25th, 2009 No Comments »
Tips for Communicating More Effectively With Employees
Remember the famous line from Cool Hand Luke… “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” Although dated, the phrase continues to be applicable in organizations. Before we begin most projects with our clients, we conduct an employee satisfaction survey, also known as an employee opinion survey, to better know what areas we need to address. Among other questions, we always ask employees to rate communication within their organization, using a one-to-ten rating scale (with one being low, and ten high). Typically, employees respond somewhere in the middle of the scale, rating their organization between five and seven. This average rating is again validated when we look at the PBS Overall Benchmark for the category dealing with communication. Only 67% of the nearly 85,000 employees responding to questions dealing with communication agree that communication within their organization is effective.
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Filed under: Articles, Communication, Leadership, Peter's Blog on September 24th, 2009 No Comments »
Learning is an Ongoing Professional Commitment
Eartha Kit once said, “I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.” This quote says it all. Great leaders are great learners. The world and the economy are changing in ways that make most people say, “I have never seen times as challenging as these.” As we have said before, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The time is now for saying, “Whether it is perfect, not broke, completely broken, partially broken or completely broken, we need to change the way we do things to be even more innovative, efficient, and in tune with the needs of our customers.”
What may have been really important to people years ago, like the nightly news, yellow and white page phone directories, newspapers, and driving to the shopping center to rent a DVD, is rapidly losing importance. These changes are just the tip of the global iceberg. How does your business or industry need to change? What do you, as a leader, need to learn?
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Filed under: Leadership, Peter's Blog on September 23rd, 2009 No Comments »
Motivation is Always a Challenge!
One of the most frequently asked questions by managers and supervisors is, “How do I motivate employees when the workforce is downsizing?” If employees have a fear of losing their jobs, motivating the workforce can be a manager’s toughest challenge.
Lack of motivation costs more in productivity, both tangible (workers are able to accomplish more than they presently are) and intangible (the waste of capability), than we will ever be able to calculate. Most people would agree they are capable of accomplishing more in life. The big question is how do we, and the others who work for us, get motivated to accomplish more.
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Filed under: Leadership, Leading Change, Managing Layoffs, Peter's Blog on September 21st, 2009 No Comments »
Ten Steps to Win With Customers
Recently I found myself one of the last two people at the airport baggage turnstile. The turnstile was going around and around but unfortunately my luggage was not on it. The other gentleman whose luggage did not arrive proceeded over to the lost luggage counter. He thought the way he could get the counter person to find his lost luggage quicker was to yell at her. It was her quick-witted response to this gentleman I will never forget. After being yelled at for about one minute, she quietly replied, “Sir, it is 11:55 p.m. and there are only two people in this whole world who care about your lost luggage. I need you to know, one of them is rapidly losing interest.”
Almost every manager has had an experience in dealing with a difficult employee or customer. The following ten tips will help you win with customers in difficult situations.
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Filed under: Customer Service, Peter's Blog on September 18th, 2009 No Comments »
