If you are a leader, chances are good that you have had at least one employee in your career who has caused you to lose sleep. Maybe the employee is frequently late, is participating in gossip or is making reoccurring mistakes. Our advice for difficult behaviors in employees is to train them, coach them and if that still doesn’t work, share them with a competitor.
When you address the issue appropriately, it may even shed light on a behavior that employee wasn’t aware that was an issue. Open up the lines of communication through the following actions:
Remain calm. If you have ever driven home from work saying, “Now, why did I say that?” chances are you may have regretted giving feedback to an employee when you were mad. If you are angry or emotional, postpone the discussion until you are feeling more in control. Remember, communication is permanent. Do not lose control of the discussion or say something that may later come back to haunt you.
There is no such thing as organizational change. Organizations don’t change. The only thing that does change in an organization are the people within it: when enough people have bought into the change, we then see the changes happening.
Any change that impacts our life is uncomfortable. If you don’t believe that, just move your watch for one day to the opposite arm. Most of us like the comfort of predictability. When organizational change impacts us personally, it rocks our status quo. If given a choice, we’d typically rather keep on doing it the way we’ve always done it.
How do organizations successfully lead organizational change? They don’t, until their leaders champion the change. Organizational leaders have the power to lead the change, or sabotage it. Employees grow immune to the flavor of the month when it comes to accepting change and will look closely at their leaders to see if they are walking the talk when it comes to buying into the change being mandated.
The following tips will help ensure that your organization’s leaders are role models for leading the change being proposed.
From the Quest for Leadership Excellence Newsletter (sign up)
Today’s successful organizations are led by talented leaders who have high expectations for their organization, their employees and most importantly, for themselves. In many cases, long before they received their title, these leaders were demonstrating their leadership capacity by leading themselves. What do we mean when we talk about leading yourself? When you are a successful self-leader, you typically achieve the following:
A Compelling, Positive Vision:
There are three types of vision:
A positive vision: Today is good and tomorrow will be even better.
A status quo vision: I hope tomorrow is as good as today.
A negative vision: If you think today is bad, just wait until tomorrow when…
Before you lead others, you need to have a compelling, positive mental vision of where you are going. What are your goals with your organization, your team and yourself? The only leadership vision that energizes a team is a positive vision that paints a picture of the intended destination and focuses individual effort on team outcomes.
Depending on which business analysts you listen to and believe, the recession is over (or not) and business projections for the coming year are improving, (or not). Although the experts cannot agree on the future of our global economy, there is no disagreement that most businesses and industries have experienced significant blows to what was business as usual.
While most of our clients are cautiously optimistic about the future, many are still dealing with lingering pain points, including keeping morale up during difficult times. In a recent survey conducted by Express Employment Professionals, 19,000 companies were questioned about their hiring plans for the second quarter of 2011. In addition to identifying what sectors anticipated hiring, the survey also found that 62% of the respondents were concerned, or highly concerned, about morale in the workplace. Respondents identified reasons for low morale, including:
Great leaders have the confidence to hire smart talent and then get out of the way, letting people do what they do best. They surround themselves with people who not only have the necessary technical expertise, but are as passionate and excited about the success of the business as they are.
These leaders hire people with a can do, take charge attitude; people who know how to get things done, even when the boss is not around. These talented contributors not only get things done, they challenge the status quo, sharing recommendations that no one had ever thought of before. They are thinkers, not just doers. In some cases, they are smarter than the boss . . . at least in their area of expertise.
However, some leaders, fearful for their job security, strive to be the brightest star and hire accordingly. If you find yourself working long hours, putting out daily spot fires and herding cats to ensure that that things consistently turn out right, we challenge you to think about hiring someone smarter than you are . . . at least in a particular area of expertise.
12 Leadership Traits That Are Guaranteed to Sabotage Your Team and Lower Morale | Quest for Leadership Excellence Newsletter (sign up)
We have spent the last 20 years identifying the traits that make leaders successful. This has led us to strongly believe that there is a significant difference between leaders and managers. Managers always have a title and a formal position on the organizational chart. Leaders may or may not have a title but they always have a relationship with people who make a conscious decision to follow them.
Over the past several weeks, we have conducted executive coaching for leaders who were in jeopardy of losing their jobs. Our prediction is that they will lose their jobs… it is just a matter of time. Based on our work with leaders, here are 12 leadership actions we have found that undermine a leader’s ability to build relationships where people are highly motivated to help the leader accomplish goals:
What is a distinguishing characteristic of a great leader?
Great leaders make sure that team members have the tools and skills necessary to get their jobs done. Being a phenomenal leader is a lot easier when you’ve got great team members. An exemplary employee is one who communicates their goals and what they need from the leader to maximize their success.
These employees are:
Thinkers: They are constantly thinking about ways they can improve their work, the business, help their leader become even stronger or improve the service they provide to customers.
Confident: They go into the job motivated because they deeply believe they can make a positive difference.
Empowered: Many people believe that empowerment starts with the boss. Great employees tend to make good decisions, take action and keep their boss in the loop each step of the way so there are no surprises.
This blog entry has been adapted from the May 2011 issue of The Quest for Leadership Excellence newsletter (sign up here)
“I don’t like change.” How many times have each of us heard that statement? In reality, this statement is only partly true. It’s not so much the change that unnerves people, as it is the fear of the unknown. What will happen? What could go wrong? Some of us might remember as a kid hiding under the covers, thinking that there was a monster lurking under our bed. We remained terrified until a parent turned on the lights, checked things out, and reassured us that everything was going to be okay. The same sort of irrational fear often impacts the workplace. As the leader, you are the one who needs to show your employees that the change is nothing to fear. In fact, it could even be the best thing that ever happened to your team or for your organization. It’s also important to realize that as an individual, you may not always agree with every change your team is asked to carry out. However, as a leader you must get on board in order for your team to get buy in and accept the change.
Tasked with implementing a change that you might not be in agreement with is one of the most difficult challenges that leaders face. Perhaps a merger or acquisition occurred. Maybe you have begun working with a new boss. Almost always in these situations, leaders are required to implement significant changes to better align their team’s contribution to the organization.
How to Empower Employees While Ensuring that Everyone is on the Same Page
We recently worked with the VP of a financial institution who was challenged by the fact that one of his managers was constantly trying to change the ways of the bank. Although many banks have had to change radically over the last 4 years, historically, banks have not been well-known for rapid change and innovation.
When we talked with the manager, we found out that he had come from a consulting firm that specialized in working with banks and he felt that all of the ideas he shared and wanted to implement were proven strategies that would improve the organization. The VP felt that the current processes and products were working well, customers were happy and, if ain’t broke, don’t break it.
On this project, we made several recommendations to both the VP and the manager. First, our recommendations for the VP:
This blog entry has been adapted from the February 2011 issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)
Bad bosses. Chances are good that at least once in each of our careers we are challenged with working for a bad boss. These bosses are bad for our careers, our health and our work-life balance. Unfortunately, bad bosses are just part of the real world and we have to find a way to make it work.
The question is: how?
Several times each year, we are hired to be an Executive Coach to leaders who identify their boss as the main cause of their problems at work. More specifically, if their boss was a better leader who did what they felt needed to be done, they themselves would be a better manager or leader.
Specific examples we have heard are that their boss:
Is a micro-manager
Is not trustworthy or doesn’t keep promises
Gave a poor rating on the employee’s performance review
Gave no raise, or not enough of a raise
Does not stand behind decisions made by employees
Is moody
Is a “know it all” and does not listen
Has questionable ethics
Is disrespectful
What if you work with a boss that does one of these bad behaviors? Worse, what if you work with a boss who does all these behaviors…a real jerk?
Make Sure that Your Vision is More than Just a Piece of Paper on the Wall
Employees may like reading a mystery, but they don’t like working in one. Heidi Grant Halvorson, writing for Fast Company, says it right when she says, “Make a point of saying exactly what you mean, and asking for exactly what you want, and you will be pleasantly surprised by how often you get it.” It is difficult, if not impossible, for employees to arrive at their destination if you, their boss, are not crystal clear in providing them the directions and road map detailing their journey.
In our twenty years of conducting employee opinion surveys, we have collected data from 100,000 employees and have noted significant variances between the Overall PBS Benchmark and the Best-of-the-Best PBS Benchmark-the top 25% percent of organizations surveyed. (Click here for more information on PBS Benchmarks)
One thing that has caught our attention over the years is that the Best-of-the-Best PBS Benchmark is significantly higher than the Overall PBS Benchmark in the communication category. Here’s what the Best-of-the-Best organizations do better:
Innovation is quickly becoming the word du jour despite being around as a concept since the beginning of man. For the longest time, it has simply been called creativity. The other day I noticed that on almost every TV commercial, the word innovation was mentioned at least once. And it’s not just commercials, it manages to creep its way into articles, books and now even job titles, like Chief Innovation Officer. This has got me thinking…
Who’s in charge of creativity (spotting problems and identifying new and different solutions) at your organization?
Ideally, your answer should be “everyone.”
Up until recently, creativity and innovation were typically viewed as the responsibility of a small number of people, usually those residing in the R & D department. Today, it is widely felt that those organizations that will be the most successful are those which expect, value and reward creativity throughout the organization. These organizations will work hard to create an environment where creativity thrives, leading to even greater employee engagement, motivation, productivity and ultimately, a stronger bottom line.
What Happens When Managers Treat Everything as an Emergency
Have you ever complained, “All I do around here is put out fires?” Even worse, do you have a boss who is the pyromaniac, setting the daily fires that you have to run around putting out? One urgent call, email, text or request can rec havoc on you and your team for the rest of the day. These alarms, most of them false, rob people of the time they need to do the truly important work… obtain the results they are paid to produce.
We recently worked with an organization who had a C level manager who mastered in pyromania. At any time, he would walk out of a meeting or send an email saying that the CEO wants this or that, and it is the highest priority. Five minutes after making the request, I am convinced that both he and the CEO had forgotten about the request and had moved on to another ‘high priority.’ It’s a sad fact, but some of these managers actually like to start fires so they can claim the credit for putting them out.
This blog entry has been adapted from the January issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)
How do you define an “oh no” nanosecond? This is the regret-filled split second after you hit the send button on an email or text that would have been better off remaining in your drafts folder.
Each year, we have the privilege of coaching managers who have sent an email that, to put it bluntly, should have never been sent. These emails have caused friction, escalated conflicts, and undermined teamwork in the organization. Even worse, the sender has hurt his or her ability to lead successfully and others in the organization may no longer be motivated to follow this individual. The following tips will help you to avoid sender’s remorse by becoming an even more effective communicator and leader. Continue reading “The “Oh No” Nanosecond” »
Resilient People Don’t Bounce Back: They Spring Forward
It’s a hard fact to face, but it’s the truth: because of the economy, many people have not only fallen short of their goals, but have moved further away from their dreams and vision. Maybe you know someone who has lost their job. You may have not received that raise or promotion you were hoping to achieve. Perhaps you feel your organization has taken a step back on the road to achieving its vision. You’ve spent all this time mapping out your future/time/life to achieve your vision and now you may feel road blocked.
Keep in mind, this is only a detour.
With resilience, adversity does not define you, it refines you. Many people have talked about resilience being the ability to bounce back. Winston Churchill once said, “Success is going from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm.”
It is our belief that resilience is even bigger than just bouncing back to where you were before. People who are the most resilient are actually able to spring forward and, because of the adversity, emerge stronger.
If you’re like most of the world, you’re just now getting back into a regular routine after the holidays. Since its highly likely that your email inbox is swamped, we wanted to help you out and give you a one-stop-shop of the last several Quote of the Week emails you may have missed from Peter Barron Stark Companies. (Not signed up? You can sign up here to receive future Quote of the Week emails)
On a scale from 1-10, how would you rate your productivity as a leader? Many of us, if not all, wouldn’t rate ourselves as high on the productivity scale as we would like to be. Sometimes leaders feel like they are constantly busy but are somehow still unable to accomplish their goals. Have you ever started your workday with a list of things to do and at the end of the workday STILL had the same number of things to do?
If you are nodding your head in agreement as you read this, take a look at our recent blog post which will walk you through conducting a time audit. Once you have completed at least one time audit, you will be able to take a more objective look at how you spend your time. Chances are good that you will have several tasks on your list that can be delegated to your employees, freeing up more of your time to work on higher level assignments that will help you and your team achieve the organization’s goals.
Despite founding the company, the reality is I work for each of the members of our team, not the other way around.
This idea, which is called servant leadership, became popular in an essay written by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 titled The Servant Leader. Although Greenleaf brought life to the concept for today’s leaders, the general concept dates back to 4th century BC when Chanakya authored a book titled Arthashastra and stated:
“The king [leader] shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects [followers].” “The king [leader] is a paid servant and enjoys the resources of the state together with the people.”
An innovative video discussing the new Leveraged Learning service from the Institute for Management Studies. The service builds on the IMS seminar experience, allowing online access to help transfer the knowledge gained during the day back into the organization and will be available in 2011.
Video produced by IMS sister company, AthenaOnline.
This blog entry has been adapted from the September issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)
Last month, Steven Slater, a disgruntled JetBlue flight attendant, became a cult hero to thousands of workers who could relate to feeling overworked and underappreciated. There have been t-shirts made honoring him, facebook pages have popped up, songs have been written and performed, and people have even raised money for his bail. His story sounds like something straight out of the 1999 movie, Office Space. You can even imagine the rap song, “It Feels Good to be a Gangster,” playing over Steven Slater’s August 9th outburst. And it probably did feel good; until he realized that he had no job lined up.
Other than bringing frustrated employee’s fantasies straight out of the movies and into real life, Slater’s situation brings up a secondary, but serious, issue that is bubbling below the surface: employee retention. We can guarantee that Steven Slater will not have many serious job offers in the airline industry after his 15 minutes of fame are over – if he isn’t sent to jail – and his time is just about up.
Thinking ahead to when the job market returns, as leaders should be doing, what will happen to the employers of these fed up huddled masses who fantasize about the day when they can responsibly quit their jobs and work where they feel they would be more appreciated?
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If you are a leader, chances are good that you have had at least one employee in your career who has caused you to lose sleep. Maybe the employee is frequently late, is participating in gossip or is making reoccurring mistakes. Our advice for difficult behaviors in employees is to train them, coach them and if that still doesn’t work, share them with a competitor.
There is no such thing as organizational change. Organizations don’t change. The only thing that does change in an organization are the people within it: when enough people have bought into the change, we then see the changes happening. 
Today’s successful organizations are led by talented leaders who have high expectations for their organization, their employees and most importantly, for themselves. In many cases, long before they received their title, these leaders were demonstrating their leadership capacity by leading themselves. What do we mean when we talk about leading yourself? When you are a successful self-leader, you typically achieve the following:
Depending on which business analysts you listen to and believe, the recession is over (or not) and business projections for the coming year are improving, (or not). Although the experts cannot agree on the future of our global economy, there is no disagreement that most businesses and industries have experienced significant blows to what was business as usual. 
Great leaders have the confidence to hire smart talent and then get out of the way, letting people do what they do best. They surround themselves with people who not only have the necessary technical expertise, but are as passionate and excited about the success of the business as they are.
We have spent the last 20 years identifying the traits that make leaders successful. This has led us to strongly believe that there is a significant difference between leaders and managers. Managers always have a title and a formal position on the organizational chart. Leaders may or may not have a title but they always have a relationship with people who make a conscious decision to follow them.
What is a distinguishing characteristic of a great leader?
“I don’t like change.”
We recently worked with the VP of a financial institution who was challenged by the fact that one of his managers was constantly trying to change the ways of the bank. Although many banks have had to change radically over the last 4 years, historically, banks have not been well-known for rapid change and innovation.
Bad bosses. Chances are good that at least once in each of our careers we are challenged with working for a bad boss. These bosses are bad for our careers, our health and our work-life balance. Unfortunately, bad bosses are just part of the real world and we have to find a way to make it work.
Employees may like reading a mystery, but they don’t like working in one. Heidi Grant Halvorson, 
Innovation is quickly becoming the word du jour despite being around as a concept since the beginning of man. For the longest time, it has simply been called creativity. The other day I noticed that on almost every TV commercial, the word innovation was mentioned at least once. And it’s not just commercials, it manages to creep its way into articles, books and now even job titles, like Chief Innovation Officer. This has got me thinking…
Have you ever complained, “All I do around here is put out fires?” Even worse, do you have a boss who is the pyromaniac, setting the daily fires that you have to run around putting out? One urgent call, email, text or request can rec havoc on you and your team for the rest of the day. These alarms, most of them false, rob people of the time they need to do the truly important work… obtain the results they are paid to produce.
How do you define an “oh no” nanosecond? This is the regret-filled split second after you hit the send button on an email or text that would have been better off remaining in your drafts folder.
It’s a hard fact to face, but it’s the truth: because of the economy, many people have not only fallen short of their goals, but have moved further away from their dreams and vision. Maybe you know someone who has lost their job. You may have not received that raise or promotion you were hoping to achieve. Perhaps you feel your organization has taken a step back on the road to 
If you’re like most of the world, you’re just now getting back into a regular routine after the holidays. Since its highly likely that your email inbox is swamped, we wanted to help you out and give you a one-stop-shop of the last several Quote of the Week emails you may have missed from Peter Barron Stark Companies. (Not signed up? You can 
On a scale from 1-10, how would you rate your productivity as a leader? Many of us, if not all, wouldn’t rate ourselves as high on the productivity scale as we would like to be. Sometimes leaders feel like they are constantly busy but are somehow still unable to accomplish their goals. Have you ever started your workday with a list of things to do and at the end of the workday STILL had the same number of things to do? 
Despite founding the company, the reality is I work for each of the members of our team, not the other way around. 