Archive for Leadership

| April 11, 2013
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Building Trust

Copyright (c) <a href='http://www.123rf.com'>123RF Stock Photos</a>I have written many times on trust. Two post give more details - Working Trusting Relationships and New Leadership Position – You’re Up! As employees we all want a trusting working environment. As managers it is one of our responsibilities to insure that we develop a trusting environment.  Then why is it that 82% of people don’t trust their boss? When I was working with an organization recently, it became very apparent that one area that needed focus was developing a better, more trusting work environment.  If you spent some reflection time on the working environment you work at – is it a trusting environment?  Are people worried about what others are saying? Decisions taking forever to get made? Back stabbing happening? There is no shortage of examples of what we don’t want…

What does it take for you to do to make your work environment be more trusting?

  • Assume best intent (until proven otherwise). You want to build that culture of trust, then no one, especially the manager, should not assume the worst in a person or situation. Remember that jumping to conclusion kills trust.
  • Remove barriers. One of my favorite items that help to bring trust back is to spend time working on removing barriers, like removing bureaucracy. Jumping through hoops to get work done, erodes trust very quickly. Make work easy, remove the red tape and watch things change quickly.
  • Act as an example of trust. If you want to improve the culture of trust, you have to trust your team to do their work and make decisions. That means even if that decision that was made did not go well. You still have to trust the decision and tell your employees so. After a decision has gone wrong, I usually sit down and we revisit the situation and possible decisions – and then let the employee learn from it… This should make the next decision point better.
  • There is no “I” in team. Other words like “we” and “they” should never describe the teams. Listen to how the team talks. If you hear those words or the “us against them,” time to step in and course correct. For the English majors, take out those pronouns and insist that names are used.

Building a trusting culture is difficult. As the manager, you are the key to much of the success of building that environment. People inherently don’t trust the boss… If you can demonstrate and live up to being a trusting manager, you can get your team to follow along. It starts with you!

Image courtesy of:Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

 

Category: Leadership, New To Management | Tags: , , , , ,
| April 10, 2013
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Incentive Programs Working or Not?

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock PhotosWith experience or being around a long time, you get to see lots of programs come and go. One of those programs that seem to change frequently are incentive programs. Wikipedia puts, “an incentive program as a formal scheme used to promote or encourage specific actions or behavior by a specific group of people during a defined period of time. Incentive programs are particularly used in business management to motivate employees, and in sales to attract and retain customers.” Can you think of some? I know quite a few (well, lots). It is one of those tools to help the organization to instill a continuous improvement in performance. Think back on those programs, did they work? How did they make you feel?

When I look over the many incentive programs that I have experience with there are some common themes of those that have been successful.

  • The incentive program was well thought out. Answering the questions of what behavior are we going to reward. That behavior has to be above the expectation of all employees. Going after the top of the class. Hopefully inspiring others to what to reach the top.
  • The program awarded past performance.  The program has a timeframe that is long enough to help develop a better picture of a sustained performance.
  • The reward is timely, specific and impactful.  What is the award that is given? Debate around money, plaques, pat on the back and public recognition need to be considered before implementation. Setting the award will be critical in how well the program is received by the employees.

Let’s face it, this is a touchy area that managers have to navigate carefully. I have seen many a program start off with the best intentions, but fail shortly after implementation. Why? The list is long. The critical ones that pop up quickly are the incentive program is not focused on top performance. Many programs are focused on getting “all” to do what their expectations are normally (attendance). Some programs are set up that the employees can work the system to be eligible for. This has a huge effect on the employee base, as they will “see” the gaming going on and the program could demotivate many folks. Lastly, the award has to be meaningful. Some expects say that money should not be a motivator, that just the recognition should be enough.

Over the last couple of years, I am seeing some new incentive programs that will be interesting to see how well they will work. Those are the incentive programs for lowering health insurance costs. Those particular incentives to be healthy. Helping add money to the flex spending accounts for employees that are not overweight. For employees that attend health seminars or complete a company sponsored information session. There are many examples. With the raising cost of health care, these incentive programs are popping up everywhere. Is it too early to tell if they are working? Are they fair? Time will tell.. I know for me, I got healthier by increasing my exercise and diet, so that I could get some additional funds to help offset my health care costs.

Do you think incentive programs work? As a manager, I know I spent more time dealing with the incentive program than maybe the organization planned. Please share the good, bad and ugly…

Image courtesy of: Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

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Category: Leadership, New To Management, Observations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
| March 9, 2013
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Get Connected!

There are many things that I have learned over the years that I have shared here and one on one. The one item that everyone always agrees on is if you measure it, it will get attention and get done. I was helping out an organization the other day and we were discussing that fact on some employee feedback that they received. The leadership team was struggling with the all of their measurable matrix were not to goal. Employee feedback were pointing that the goals are unrealistic. For me, the underlying problem that they were trying to address was the employee base felt like their was a disconnect between the workers and management. How many times have you heard that? How many times have you said that?

Throughout my career I have encountered that same feeling of disconnect. It was either with me and my upper management. Or the feedback was coming from my team to me. It happens to the best of us. There are times that everyone is too busy to be paying attention to the little things that really matter. Whatever the excuse is. All you need to do is listen and act. When I am faced with connecting (or reconnecting), I remind myself of those little items that matter.

My list of items that matter! My 3 S’s if you will.

  • Stand up and own your mistakes. There are times that you will make a mistake. I have yet to meet that perfect person that has not made a mistake. How you react to the mistake will either have you lose credibility with your team or win them over. Yes, it takes a strong person to admit to their mistakes. Being vulnerable will make you strong.
  • Share your time. I know we all think that we are busy. Your are their leader, you have to make your team a priority. Give of your time as much as possible. Time is what you make of it. I am not saying that you need to schedule “time” with your team. I am saying that you need to be approachable and available. Another term I liked to use is management by walking around. Get out of the office. Talk to you team (in the hall, their workstation, café, networking events and everywhere they are).
  • Share your thoughts. Communication is key and sharing what you know (what you can) will go a long way to connecting to your team. Start a discussion or put out a topic that the team can really relate to. Once people start talking, they start connecting. Watching your team getting together and sharing will have a huge impact on the work.

When I first was leading my team, I was pretty good at getting amazing results. I wasn’t sure why? It took me sometime to understand that I was really connecting to them on a personal and team level. That connecting came easy to me. I wanted to connect, no matter what. It was just part of my DNA, so I just did it naturally. I really started to understand the workings, when I was given the opportunity to do something that I had no knowledge of. I was overwhelmed with learning the job and was a little slow on connecting to the team. I realized quickly, that I was not following my normal operating procedures. Reflecting back, made me hone in those 3 S’s…

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Category: Leadership, New To Management | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
| March 6, 2013
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Some Examples You Can Really Learn From

How best do you learn? When I am coaching my hockey players, I like to use demonstrations of what is expected. Learning from examples are probably the easiest way to get your point across. I learn better from both good and bad examples. The bad examples are much easier to point out the mistake. When it comes to collaboration and leadership…  All we have to do is watch the news on any given night and we get to see how “NOT” to do things. Collaboration is totally necessary when you want to be a good leader. You have to be able to get your team together and work for a common goal. Something that our leadership in Washington, DC failed to learn or chooses not to do. So, we will use their example as to not follow when we are doing our own work.

When you think of working together for a common goal (minus Washington), everyone has to really want to meet the goal by accomplishing to their best of their ability by working together. You don’t have to be best buds or like each other. You just have to check your personal agenda at the door and get to getting stuff done, well. As the leader of a team, it is necessary for you to set the example of how the team will work together (or not – in the case of Washington).

I have always learned more from failure than from success. Failure means that I have to take a deep, hard and long look into the overall failure. I usually learn a lot about what to do better, next time. So, use the failures of our government on how they collaborate and learn from them.

  • Check your agenda at the door.
  • Work together for the common goal.
  • Be a part of the solution, not pointing out what is not working. Best to offer complete solutions rather than your own one-sided view.
  • Listen to each other. It is amazing how one persons half-baked idea will pair up with another persons idea. Making it a complete idea… Other folks may call this a “third alternative” solution.
  • Celebrate as a team. Not this side or that side of the team. The complete team! Getting great work done, takes everyone.

Just remember, you can control yourself and set the example of how things should and could go. Don’t wait for someone else. Or you can have the same overall effect that our government leaders are having on their collaborating together – nothing. You want to be successful? Well, you have a great example of how not to do it!

Category: Leadership, Observations | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
| February 8, 2013
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Remember Back, Way Back!

English: Morristown, New York, USA, as seen ac...

English: Morristown, New York, USA, as seen across the Saint Lawrence River from Brockville, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did you move away from your home town after high school? Chase a dream that took you to places away from home? I did… I come from a very small town in upstate New York, Morristown. Morristown is located on the St. Lawrence River. It was a town of one main drag and no stop lights!  I spent my high school years growing up there. For me, the small town atmosphere was good to grow up, but it was lacking. When I went off to college and got to see other places, I pretty much decided that the outside world needs exploring.

I feel, my life is pretty much made for a movie (with the exception of being rich and famous). I came from that very small town, Morristown, NY. Off to military school and received my commission as a 2LT. Continued my education and found my soul mate. Got married and helped raise two wonderful adults now. Worked hard to provide for my family and retired. I am in the middle of my second career of helping to make a difference with non-profits, volunteering and just helping out others. Not bad for a documentary on living the American dream. When you thing back to what helped shape your dreams, I go back to my high school days. Maybe it was my teachers, coaches or just the fact that I was old enough to really think critically about stuff.

Thanks to social media and the internet it is so much easier to get back in touch with those days. Facebook has helped me connect with those “good old days” and the people that I grew up with. We have a Morristown group on Facebook, where we really share our experiences. Some of those folks are still there and raising their families there. Thanks to them, we get to hear about what all is happening with the school. This all got me thinking, “what is happening with my old high school?” Some are asking how do we save our old high school?

I think everyone would like things to stay the same forever. Change is difficult.  I have read that the school is in trouble and the students are not getting the same experiences that we had when we were there. Since, I don’t return and visit to see with my own eyes what is happening, I get to look at it a bit differently. Maybe the high school part is in trouble. When I graduated, I think my class size was 19. Really small school and town to have a high school. Cost effectiveness and offering the best possible education and experiences may not be happening.  I read issues about the high school not being able to offer sports in a Morristown High only fashion. Losing out on prom or a senior class trip. I remember all of those activities with fond and not so fond memories. I for one, would hope that the students would be able to experience those as well. Maybe not the same way as back in the old days, but at least get an opportunity.

When I take out my emotional baggage and think about what could be done… It clear to most that the overall direction of the school and it’s future is missing. Leadership is critical to making changes that will have a huge impact on the community, the students and the staff. Right now, I bet it is lacking big time. Is it the individual school that needs to step up? How about the NYS education department? I would answer – yes in all cases. It is time for a radical change in how rural schools are handled. The days of having your own community school are pretty much hard to sustain. Time for some real forward thinking. How best to serve the communities and students without breaking the bank. The most important aspect of the future is making sure that the students are getting the necessary education and experiences for their success. Setting them up to drive toward their dreams. Giving them the experiences to help shape their path. Nothing else matters…

You can pull up statistics and see that New York as a well is rated third in the US for public education. I bet if you were to ask the rural communities if they feel they are getting the third best education in the US – they would beg to differ. Small towns all over the US are facing this problem. Time for the little guy to make a lot of noise! It all starts with students, parents, alumni,  community leaders and the schools administration. Make the noise, put some proposals together with all of the minds that are around you. Stand up! Write up! Tweet up!

The one thing I can I feel strongly about is, “those good old days are gone. Time for a new and better future.” I want to help!

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Category: Leadership, Observations | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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