You Set the Course

Have you ever been at an impasse that you couldn’t resolve? We all reach points where we don’t know what to do or can’t quite figure out. This is perfectly normal and is actually an opportunity to set a new course.

Your actions set the course for your business or organization. You decide where you go and what happens so why not take charge and move in the direction you want to go? The following steps will help you take action

1. Assess what is going on. What is working, what is not.

2. Identify what area you would like to start working on.

3. Decide what your ideal outcome is.

4. List specific task you can do to reach your outcome.

5. List strategies to reach your outcomes. Decide who will do what and by when.

As you ask yourself these questions you will begin to clarify what you want to do. Challenges only get out of hand when we let them, these steps help you take something that seems too big and break it down into manageable bits.

Always remember that things don’t happen to you if you plan beforehand.

Take care,

Guy

I help people set their course.

The Importance of Praise

Many people forget how important it is to praise employees and co-workers.   People feel great when you point out that they are doing something well.  Praise goes beyond the feeling good part to improving morale, motivation and productivity.  Think about it for a moment; would you rather work for someone who praised you or one that never notices you.

Leaders and supervisors benefit greatly from praising their employees.  People are willing to do more for you if they think you care.  Here are some tips to incorporate praise into your workplace:

1. Praise each person once a day if possible.
2. Praise about performance not physical attributes.
3. Catch people doing something well and praise then.
4. Don’t expect praise back, give and let go.
5. Don’t worry about looking weak or insincere.
6. Keep praising until you’re an expert at it.
7. Once you’re an expert, teach others how to do it.
8. Make praise an ongoing activity.
9. Praise people you don’t like or know as well too.
10. Praise yourself.

I frequently get questions along the lines of, “Well, what if the praise comes across as fake?”  I’ll let you decide how to deliver the praise.  It’ll sound genuine if you really mean it.

Companies and organizations that encourage their employees to praise each other experience great benefits.  Start praising today and see what it can do for you.

Take care,

Guy

I help people build morale and motivation.

Hiring Talent Not Filling Seats

When I talk to recruiters or hiring managers a question frequently comes up on how to balance the need for filling positions versus hiring someone who is ideally suited to the position. I frequently hear about how there are no qualified candidates out there or good people are so hard to find kinds of comments.

There are some basic things that hiring professionals and companies can do to ensure that they are getting the best people possible rather than just filling seats.

What is The Focus of Your Hiring?

Determine what you need at your company. Do you just want to fill seats or do you want highly motivated and driven people who love doing what you do. Try focusing on hiring people who really like to do the work you are hiring the to do.

Focus the Job Description

Instead of working in generalities get down to the exact qualities you need someone to possess. Get into great detail so that you can weed out those who don’t fit the bill. Make sure your candidate loves doing the things that are in the job description.

Hire Based on People’s Passions

Just because someone can do something doesn’t mean they love what they do. It’s far more effective to hire someone because they genuinely enjoy the job that you’re hiring them for. Make sure you understand the candidate’s interest and passions before you consider her for a position.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

These are deep, probing questions that get to the bottom of who people are. Ask questions that require critical thinking and that will help the candidate demonstrate her expertise. Ask questions that require more than a yes or no.

Limit Fantasizing

Sure it’s nice to think that this person is the one for this job. We love for people to succeed and for this nagging opening to go away but try not to place people in positions just because you hope it will work out. Make sure the position is one they will love doing.

Be Up Front

Tell people what the position is. Don’t embellish; include the things that aren’t so great about the position and ask for the candidate’s impressions based on those elements. This will help you determine whether someone really enjoys the position you are trying to fill.

Try these basic skills to move your company in a direction where it is hiring people who truly love the position they’ve filled. When your new hires find themselves in a job that reflects who they are and what they enjoy doing, they will be far more likely to do a great job and stay at the company.

Regards,

Guy

Management Training

Characteristics of a Great Leader

Clients frequently ask me to describe the traits of a great leader. The basic answer that seems to resonate in many people is that great leaders inspire people to grow and succeed. While people understand this concept and may have even worked for someone like this, it’s not always the way they behave as leaders.

Great leadership is not simply a matter of knowing you’re  supposed to help people grow and succeed it’s the many things effective leaders do every day to encourage growth, increase staff morale, improve productivity, reduce conflict and create a meaningful work environment for employees.  Any person or company can develop inspirational leaders if they are willing to invest the time and effort.

While many leaders can get results from employees fewer actually inspire people to reach higher.  The following are ten key qualities of inspirational leaders.  See how many you posses.

1. Allows staff to be responsible for their own work.

2. Does not micromanage or hover.

3. Supervises and educates when employees ask for help.

4. Builds strong, inclusive and collaborative teams.

5. Not driven by power, control or ego.

6. Open to ideas proposed by employees.

7. Willing to try new things and go in a different direction.

8. Your employees are motivated and inspired.

9. Employees respect you even when you’re not around.

10. People smile authentically in your workplace.

There are many organizations that are committed to promoting this type of leaderships.  The rewards are many: Increased morale, productivity, more innovation, greater collaboration, less absenteeism, lower turnover for example.

When company leaders use these skills it doesn’t matter what challenge or issue arises, they have built a foundation that will handle any situation. Practice these fundamental skills and rate yourself every month or so or, better yet, ask your employees to rate how you’re doing.  As you keep working on these skills you will enjoy the benefits that come from being a great leader.

Regards,

Guy Farmer
I help develop great leaders.

What's Your Leadership Style?

We all know that we’re supposed to be great leaders who motivate everyone and get impressive results. Yet when we hit the real world all kinds of obstacles get in our way. There are three basic styles of leadership: Passive, authoritative and balanced and each one leads to different results.

The passive leader listens well and doesn’t act impulsively. On the less productive side she may be detached and uninvolved. The passive leader doesn’t always speak up and may avoid conflict.

The authoritative leader can lead groups and is generally clear on what they expect. The less effective part is that she may micromanage and not delegate effectively. The authoritative leader likes to talk and always gives you their opinion.

The balanced leader is a combination of the positive traits of the passive and authoritative styles. This person talks when necessary and listens well. They take action when necessary and hold back when necessary. They get better results from employees because they tend to be more in the middle of issues and take a more balanced approach to supervision and direction. If you’ve ever worked for a balanced leader, you know that it can be quite a positive experience.

Ask yourself the following questions in thinking about your leadership style.

1. What side of the spectrum do I lead from?

2. What results do I get?

3. What is one thing I could do to modify my style to get better results?

4. What is one thing I could do to support my employees more?

Think about these questions and your own leadership style. Sometimes making a small shift in your approach can lead to excellent results.

Regards,

Guy

I help build inspirational leaders.

You're Green, I'm Blue. And?

There is a lot of training centered around naming other people’s personalities and then using those categories to communicate better, read people, work together or build relationships. Sometimes these approaches take the form of being a color or giving your personality a name. They all fall under the broad category of personality typology. Personality typology aims at helping us understand our differences and how we can use that knowledge to relate more effectively.

While I think it is valuable for people to understand that others have different communication styles, perspectives or approaches I think this methodology only addresses a part of what true communication or relationship building is all about. Personality typology can be a great conversation starter but it benefits from adding a couple of components.

It helps to start by not forgetting the things we have in common. Personality typology tends to focus on differences. You’re this and I’m that. This is great for pointing out differences but less effective for bringing people together. An approach that works to bring people together is to focus on the things they share and build on those.

Another key element to pay less attention to is labeling. Labeling tends to put people in neat categories that don’t really reflect who they are at a deeper level. So we’ve gone through our training and now we can all walk around and point at each other as being this or that. That’s great but it doesn’t get to the crux of understanding another human being. Labeling can be effective to point out obvious differences but a deeper understanding of what really makes people tick can give you far greater insight.

So what can companies and individuals do to really bring their people together and help them get along famously? It takes a change of focus. Think about the following ideas and how they might help your employees (or you) create stronger connections.

1. Focus on the things people have in common.
2. Practice active listening to learn about others.
3. Spend time learning about others by listening.
4. Forget labels and find out what people really love doing.
5. Build empathy by creating conversation groups.
6. Ask open-ended questions to learn about others.
7. See the world through someone else’s eyes.
8. Don’t react to differences, take it as an opportunity to learn.
9. Practice collaborative problem solving skills.
10. Celebrate people regularly.

Ask yourself how effectively you practice these ten key skills. Successful people and companies understand the value of stepping outside themselves and learning about their people. Getting along with others is not so much about the things the keep us apart, it’s about the things that can bring us together.

Regards,

Guy
I help people come together.

Do You Use Your Creativity?

People sometimes think that creativity is something that is too soft or abstract to apply in the workplace.  We tend to want results and hard evidence.  Yet creativity can open the door to many possibilities that will positively affect our businesses or lives.  Think about the following questions for a moment.

1.  What would my life look like if I created something new?
2.  What would my life look like  if I found a new way of doing something?
3.  What have I created lately?
4.  Is there anything that keeps me from creating?
5.  In what ways do I think of new things each day?

As you answer these questions think about the possibilities that the answers suggest.  Unlocking your creativity is about thinking of new ways to look at the world.  Once you allow yourself to think in different directions you create new opportunities.

Regards,

Guy
I help people use their creativity.

Diversity Is Not about the Differences

Think about this proposition: Diversity is about celebrating differences but not exclusively so. I write this because what often gets left behind is a focus on the things we have in common. When we work from the things we share we open the door to many opportunities to connect including some of the following.

1. Learning more about others.
2. Building empathy.
3. Removing barriers.
4. Moving away from us vs. them.
5. Creating a common bond.

When we work on creating a new collaboration with people we move away from focusing on differences. Working together and arriving a common solutions brings us together in ways that pointing out differences never can. Everyone knows we are different in many ways, fewer realize we have many things in common.

Regards,

Guy
Inspirational diversity training.

Why Provide Training at All?

I work with many companies and talk to many business owners and leaders who tell me that they would love to provide training for their employees but don’t have the resources. They usually provide training to help their employees learn their jobs but beyond that it’s an abstract concept.

This is very normal. We’ve been conditioned in business to expect immediate returns and have measurable results yesterday. What a certain percentage of organizations have already realized is that a strong investment up front yields impressive results down the line.

It’s a challenge to shift one’s thinking from immediate results to but there are measurable benefits from providing training for one’s employees in less tangible areas. For example: Picture your workplace filled with employees who communicate excellently and can resolve any problem that comes their way with a minimum of effort. What would that do for your company? The benefits of having excellent communication and problem solving skills include:

• Improved ability to resolve any problem
• Increased cohesiveness.
• Improved morale.
• Higher retention.
• Improved motivation.
• Positive communication.
• Clarity in communication.

There are many other benefits than those I’ve listed, but you get the picture. Now ask yourself, how would my company benefit if I benefited from just one of these improvements? How about two or more?

There is no mystery to providing training for your employees. Each company decides what it wants to invest in its people and will get predictable based on which path they choose. When you invest in teaching your employees vital skills you are building the foundation for success.

Regards,

Guy

I help companies succeed.

Thinking Outside the Box

I frequently coach individuals or facilitate workshops where the topic of thinking outside the box comes up. I’ve noticed that almost everyone believes they are an outside of the box thinker. There is, however, a disconnect in the real world, where people adhere to the policies and procedures manuals far more often than finding alternative ways to resolve challenges.

Take employee misconduct for example. I often hear that the first thing leaders and companies do when an employee misbehaves in any way is to begin the disciplinary process. There are any number of verbal and written follow-ups culminating in the serious talk in the office prior to termination. The challenge for leaders, managers and leaders is to move beyond this inside the box thinking to truly adapting situationally. It’s possible to do, you just have to think outside the box.

As yourself the following questions to get a sense for whether you think outside the box. The answers to these questions will help you begin looking at things in different ways.

1. An employee behaves badly. What is an alternative way to deal with the infraction without starting the verbal and written reprimands.
2. What is a non-punitive way I can deal with employee misconduct?
3. In what ways do I review my policies on an ongoing basis?
4. What are the results of my policies?
5. What do I do to veer away from standard policies?
6. What is one “outside the box” thing I did today?
7. What is the box?
8. How do I get out of the box?
9. What will be the benefits of getting out of the box?
10. In what ways will I improve as a leader/manager/employee?

There is no mystery to thinking outside the box. It just requires shifting one’s outlook from what’s always done to what could be done. Thinking freely allows us to move beyond the fence to green pastures we can explore and enjoy.

Regards,

Guy

I help people think outside the box.