If you read Employees Value More Than Raises, then you know you can do more for your employees to improve retention. John Baldoni explains how leaders can compel employees to reciprocate to the company. Sometimes they need a little reminder or encouragement from leaders.
How do you challenge employees to take charge of their careers?
Back in the early days of my career, I remember an employee who had incredible talent. He was very, very good at his job. His attitude… was something else. The situation got bad enough that the company had to fire him. Could the relationship have been saved? Maybe. Maybe not. A boss can stop this from happening, especially since sometimes the boss is the problem.
What red flags do you watch for in an employee’s behavior that tell you it’s time to do something about it?
Wait! This doesn’t mean you need to go out and buy a cape and tights. (Although, that could be quite a memorable moment for your team and have them smiling for hours!) “To live heroically is to consistently commit to (and act from) the best, highest version of yourself�every day,” Ginsberg writes. He offers ideas on how to be a hero without the uniform.
What’s one thing you can do to make a difference?
SARA sounds like a corny name, but explains the four stages people go through when receiving feedback: surprise, anger, rationalization and acceptance. Make it easier on yourself and be open minded about receiving feedback. How can you improve if you don’t know what needs working on? Instead, be thankful for the feedback and do what you can to learn from it.
How can you make the most out of feedback?
The good news is that you can lower your employee turnover numbers. The bad news is that it’s not a quick fix. Lisa Murrell shares five myths and the solutions to figure out the causes of turnover. If nothing else, “If you want to have ‘good’ people working for you, become a ‘good’ organization to work for.”
With trust at a low point, financing harder to come by and customers holding tight onto their money, yet businesses must continue and management must adapt to this new world order. Of course, you won’t get black or white answers, but this guide summarizes management lessons that will help you through changed times.
Which is your favorite lesson from the article and why?
You may have gone through change initiatives. Some may have gone OK. Some failed. How can you ensure success for change programs especially when you’re dealing with: “Odds are, your employees don’t care about what you care about.” Change the clarity focus and you may just see improvement.
How can you recast your company’s story to see improvements?
Kevin Eikenberry explains the difference between responding and reacting and how it applies to leadership. “The difference is in preparation and thought,” he says. Understanding the difference and pursuing a responsive approach will help you and your time improve decision-making skills and make better choices.
How can you respond rather than react to employees?
My experience with collaboration has shown that it can turn a good work product into a great one. Bringing together multiple experiences and skills helps the team uncover something what one person alone could not. But personalities clash. Two people can be great workers yet can’t get along. This feature has great tips for managers on how and when to intervene, principles to remember and case studies.
How did you handle a conflict? What was the result?
If managers could pay their superstar employees more money, they would. Alas, company rules and budgets prevent that. Even sports teams face salary caps. “If there’s a common strategy among successful managers with LeBron problems, it’s to stop negotiating and start seducing.” It could be worst… you may not have a LeBron (star basketball player — just in case you’re not into the sport) on your team.
How do you keep your best employees happy to avoid turnover?
Few employees will tell their managers what they can do to be a better boss. Harvey Mackay provides the common answers so you don’t have to put employees on the spot. He also tells the story of killer whales and how its trainers work with it by using positive reinforcement. Then when it does something wrong, the “trainers quietly redirect the whales until they do something right.”
What are some ways to redirect employees?
One company made a major change that led to profits. What did it do? Reevaluated its leadership style. A leader changed the leadership style from traditional to transformational. Transformation leadership recognizes four needs to help employees succeed: love/be loved, grow, contribute and meaning.
Why do you think transformational leadership has such a profound effect on a company’s bottom line?
After dealing with tough economic times for so long, many leaders have become accustomed to reacting and solving short-term problems. It’s time to stop tackling short-term problems and start building long-term opportunities.
While reality TV doesn’t always reflect true reality, you can glean several lessons from The Apprentice and Undercover Boss. The lesson is to help employees understand the “why” so they can better deal with the “what.”
Learning theorist B. F. Skinner and many researchers have proven that rewarding good behavior is more effective than punishment when you want to encourage more of the good behavior.
Leaders — including CEOs — choose not to praise because they see it as a sign of weakness. They fear that not acting tough will lead to people taking advantage of them.
Try to be more complimentary and see what happens. What’s your experience in using positive reinforcement over punishment?
I’m sure we all agree that a motivated team can accomplish much more than one that isn’t. Think about the times you procrastinate and the times when you handle everything that comes your way. Although this article is short and to the point, try one or two tips at a time. You may already be doing some of these things. If so, implementing the other tips might just have your team moving mountains!
What are you best tips for motivating a team?
In a dream world, if everyone did his or her part in preparing for a meeting and doing all the right things at the meeting, we wouldn’t struggle so much with getting things done. But that’s not the way it is. And sometimes we have the added challenge of a difficult person or two. Difficult people have character traits in common. The article gives you tips on how to deal with each.
When things get rough in a meeting, what do you do?
You can have a team of people who do great work, yet they’re operating as silos instead of as a team. A silo is about self-preservation. Silos mess with change, limit innovation and create an us vs them environment. A strong leader can steer a team away from silos.
What can leaders do to lead teams instead of lead them into silos?
Leaders need reminding of things they can do to improve their leadership in working with employees. Good leaders clarify roles, deal with out of line employees, invoke excitement, praise, avoid focusing on worries, impress, provide autonomy and set up employees to win.
What do you think of these eight things employees want from leaders?
Team development refers to a process and activities for improving team performance. Team development activities can range from simple bonding exercises to intensive, multi-day team development retreats.
Doing a performance review that will benefit both the employee and the company requires a deep level of enquiry rather than mere feedback.
Ever have those moments at work when you feel like you just aren’t getting through to your employees? The morale may seem a bit lower, people may be responding sluggishly or the quality of work may be faltering.
The way these two groups of players melded together to reach their goals is inspiring, especially for people who value teamwork as much as I do. Individually, none of them—even the immensely talented Michael Jordan—could have accomplished what they did together. They needed each other to succeed.
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Services and the Big Picture: You Will Lose Product Sales if you Don't Get Serious About Selling Services Join us for an energetic hour with services industry pundit James "Alex" Alexander as he shares his experiences, insights, and recommendations on this critical aspect of selling services. |
