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Comments Off on HELP TEAM MEMBERS DEVELOP THEIR TALENTS

HELP TEAM MEMBERS DEVELOP THEIR TALENTS

Regardless of your product or service, you are in the people development business. Acquiring and keeping good people is one of your most important jobs. The more your team members grow and develop their talents and abilities, the more they will be able to accomplish. See your team members as they can become and encourage them to become what you see. People tend to become what the most important people in their lives think they will become; and, you are one of the most important people in the lives of your team members.

A great manager has the knack for making team members think they can become more than they are now. A great manager is one who brings out the best in his or her team members. Listed below are some ways you can help team members grow and bring out the best in them.

Encourage Personal Growth – Give them opportunities to try new things and acquire new skills. Growth is motivating. Stagnation is boring and will sap a person’s energy. Provide opportunities for learning. Give team members personal development books, tapes, and CDs. Conduct book studies. Send team members to seminars and other training opportunities

Be a Good Role Model – When you are a student of continuous learning and personal growth, it will be easier to encourage your team members to embrace personal development and growth.

Encourage Personal Goal Setting – When team members accomplish personal goals, they have more confidence in themselves, their self-esteem expands, and they become more valuable employees. The personal goal doesn’t need to have anything to do with work. When someone quits smoking, loses weight, starts a workout program, improves their golf game, spends more quality time with loved ones, or any other goal that is important to them, they will feel better about themselves and that will show up in their work.

Help Team Members Identify Their Strengths – their talents and abilities – and help them spend more time using these strengths, talents, and abilities. Developing strengths is more motivational, takes less effort, and gives a greater return on investment than trying to fix weaknesses. If team members have been toiling in areas where they are weak, and you reassign them to work in areas where they can use their strengths, you’ll see a dramatic increase in natural motivation.

Look For Opportunities to Build Up Team Members – Give them credit for their suggestions; seek their opinions; recognize or point out their progress or improvement.

Set Goals for Growth – Make a list of your team members and identify what each of them can do to grow to the next level. Discuss what you have written with each team member, get their buy-in that they would like to accomplish the goal, and help them develop a written plan of action to achieve the goal. If, when you make your list, you discover some personal development goals common among team members, consider some group training that will address the goal area.

Set Up a Personal Development Library – This can be a room, an area of a room, a book shelf, cabinet, or any other designated area that team members have access to. You can have a formal check-out system or use an honor system. The important thing is to make it as easy as possible for team members to have access to material that will help them grow, develop, and use more of their potential.

Resist Any Temptation to Use Abusive Tactics such as sarcasm, ridicule, name-calling, or public embarrassment.

People will remember how you made them feel – good and bad – long after they forget the words. Seeing team members as they can become will help you view them in a positive light, choose the right words and actions, and encourage personal and professional growth.

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Comments Off on PRINCIPLES FOR HELPING PEOPLE PRODUCE DESIRED RESULTS

PRINCIPLES FOR HELPING PEOPLE PRODUCE DESIRED RESULTS

  1. Show appreciation for team members’ work and their contributions to the accomplishment of your team’s goals.
  2. Provide opportunities for training and learning.
  3. Match talents to roles as best you can.
  4. Treat each team member as an individual; get to know what is important to each team member; keep in mind that it is hard to motivate a stranger.
  5. Create a balance between striving for productivity improvements and developing team members.
  6. Expect, recognize, and reward excellence and outstanding performance.
  7. Confront inappropriate behavior without being confrontational.
  8. Insist that decisions be made at the lowest possible level.
  9. Formulate development plans for each team member; get their concurrence.
  10. Treat team members with dignity and respect; encourage them; give them hope.
  11. Take pride in your team members’ productivity, and let them know it.
  12. Create a climate of mutual trust among team members; avoid manipulation.
  13. Ask good questions and be a good listener; listen for meaning as well as words; also, listen for what isn’t said.
  14. Use the magic question, “What do you think?” to build the confidence of team members and empower them to solve problems and make good decisions.
What Do You Think?

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Comments Off on COMMON TIMEWASTERS

COMMON TIMEWASTERS

Listed below are some common timewasters. As we think about the new year and what we want to accomplish, how we invest our time will determine, to a large degree, the outcome of our efforts. Check the timewasters that you’d like to work on and set a goal to improve one of them a month. At the end of 2006, you will have made significant progress on eliminating 12 timewasters. Good luck.

  • □ Attempting too much
  • □ Procrastination; delaying distasteful tasks
  • □ Indecision
  • □ Unclear communication
  • □ Perfectionism; too much attention to detail
  • □ Preoccupation with problems
  • □ Not actively listening
  • □ Excessive socializing
  • □ Lack of, or ineffective, delegation
  • □ Constant checking on employees
  • □ Inability to say “no”
  • □ Unnecessary or unproductive meetings
  • □ Allowing constant interruptions by others
  • □ Insisting on knowing all and seeing all
  • □ Assistant not aware of changes in schedule
  • □ Allowing upward delegation
  • □ Doing other people’s work
  • □ Not effectively training staff
  • □ Firefighting (80% of “Crisis Management” events are preventable)
  • □ Insufficient planning, scheduling, or organizing
  • □ Relying on mental notes
  • □ Not effectively utilizing waiting time and travel time
  • □ Inefficient office layout
  • □ Facts, phone numbers, and other vital information not at hand
  • □ No daily plan
  • □ No self-imposed deadlines
  • □ No follow-up system
  • □ Lack of procedures
  • □ Not using prime time for priority items
  • □ Spending time on low-priority items
  • □ Lack of written goals or poorly defined goals
  • □ Not enough “Quiet Time”
  • □ __________________________

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Comments Off on “No News” Kills Behavior

“No News” Kills Behavior

“No news is good news” is a destructive philosophy when it comes to bringing out the
best in people. Average managers will spend equal time with everyone or, worse yet,
spend most of their time with problem people they call “high maintenance.” Great
managers spend more time with their top producers.

Talent is a multiplier. The more attention and energy you invest in it, the greater the
yield. The time you spend with your best performers is your most productive time.
At its simplest, a manager’s job is to encourage people to do more of certain productive
behaviors and less of other, unproductive behaviors. Manager’s reactions can
significantly affect which behaviors are multiplied and which gradually die out. As a
manager, you are on the stage every day; you are sending signals that every employee
hears.

The less you pay attention to the productive behaviors of your superstars, the less of
those behaviors you will get. Since human beings are wired to get attention of some
kind, if they are not getting attention, they will tend, either subconsciously or consciously, to alter their behavior until they do.

Therefore, if you pay attention to your strugglers and ignore your stars, you can
inadvertently alter the behaviors of your stars. Guided by your apparent indifference,
your stars may start to do less of what made them stars in the first place and more of
kinds of behaviors that might net them some kind of reaction from you, good or bad.
When you see your stars acting up, it is a sure sign that you have been paying attention
to the wrong people and the wrong behaviors.

Keep this in mind. You are always on stage. Your misplaced time and attention is not a
neutral act. No news is never good news. No news kills the very behaviors you want to
multiply.

In a Gallup survey, great managers explained the benefits of spending time with their

best performers as follows: first, it was the fairest thing to do; second, it was the best
way to learn; and, third, it was the only way to stay focused on excellence.
Look at where you are spending your time. If you are spending too much time with
strugglers, make a conscious effort to spend more time with your best performers and
see how they respond. Remember, “no news” is destructive and doesn’t bring out the
best in people. Positive reinforcement is constructive and gets you more of the behaviors
you want.

Excerpted from FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

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Comments Off on Reduce Interference to Improve Performance

Reduce Interference to Improve Performance

There is always a gap between performance and potential. Sometimes it’s a
huge gap. Even in the most ordinary activity, no matter how good people are,
they can always do better…thus a performance gap.

Interference of some type is usually the cause of the gap between performance
and potential. To reduce this gap and increase performance, reduce the following
forms of interference:

  •  Fear (of losing, of winning, of making a fool of oneself)
  •  Lack of self-confidence
  •  Trying too hard
  •  Trying for perfection
  •  Trying to impress
  •  Anger and frustration
  •  Boredom
  •  A too busy mind

One way to reduce interference is to focus attention. When attention is focused a
person enters a mental state in which he/she can learn and improve. Anything
you, as a coach, can do to help people focus their attention will pay big dividends
in improved performance.

You can help a person perform at a higher level by working with the individual’s
capacity to learn. Your primary responsibility is to facilitate learning, not teach.

  1.  Start from the known (what the person knows and can prove about his/her current level of performance and/or ability) and move toward the unknown.
  2.  Have the person set a goal for improvement and establish a method for measuring progress and improvement.

Learning without achievement quickly exhausts one’s energy. Achievement
without learning soon becomes boring. Neither of these two outcomes will
encourage further learning and improvement.

Create an environment where the person has a good opportunity to win, gets
frequent feedback, and is aware of improvement and progress. Help the person
celebrate small successes and improvements as well as the large ones.

 

Excerpted from EFFECTIVE COACHING by Myles Downey

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Comments Off on “Encourage” Change

“Encourage” Change

Have you ever done anything stupid, knew at the time that it was stupid, and did it
anyway? Have you ever done anything you knew was stupid, said you would never do it
again, and did it again? Most, if not all of us, would have to answer “yes” to each of these
questions. What does it prove? It proves we are human and we are creatures of habit.

The good news is that most habits are good because they save us time, energy, and
effort. Once we turn something into a habit, the habit takes over and allows us to perform it automatically. The bad news is that the biggest threat to habit change is the habit itself. The old habit fights for its life and makes it more difficult for the new habit to take over. That is a primary reason that most people resist change; the old way is comfortable and known and the new way is threatening and scary.

If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten. If you
want outcomes to be better, you need to do something different — and that requires
change. Effective leaders and coaches must expect change, encourage change, and
embrace change. What worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today. To meet the
challenge of change, leaders must turn to their most important asset: people.

Leaders need to develop strategies for:

  1.  Enhancing communication. Growth is more likely to occur when clear
    communication is taking place on a regular basis.
  2.  Promoting continuous learning and development. When people learn to
    handle new responsibilities or develop new skills their self-confidence gets a boost
    and they will be capable of better performance and will accomplish more.
  3.  Improving leadership skills. Even people who do not perform a formal
    leadership role can improve their performance by developing leadership skills. It
    will also prepare them for future opportunities.

Meeting the challenge of change is easier when you use your most valuable tool:
encouragement. Everyone needs and responds to encouragement. Encouragement
brings out the best in people, helps people believe in themselves, and helps them
accomplish more. It is amazing what people can accomplish when they believe in
themselves and when the important people in their lives give them encouragement. The
effective use of encouragement will work wonders and the best part is that it doesn’t cost
anything other than a little time and effort.

Think about someone who encouraged you and influenced your leadership ability. How is your life better because of that person? Think about people you can encourage and
influence in a positive way. Then, systematically give them encouragement on a regular
basis. When you do this, you will be well on your way to meeting the challenge of change.

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Comments Off on Improving Performance and Results

Improving Performance and Results

Performance is critical in sports, the arts, investments, business, and every area of life. To win a NASCAR event the performance of the car, driver, and pit crew are all vital to success. In team sports such as baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer performance of each player and the combined team performance are crucial. In individual sports such as bowling, golf, or tennis the performance of the individual determines the results or outcome. When you spend your hard earned money to attend a concert, the performance of the artist or act is critical in determining if you had a good time and feel it was a good investment of time and money.

The way you and your teammates perform in business also determines the results you and your organization get. There are four major things that impact your ability to get results on your team:

  1. Clearly defined goals
  2. Attitudes
  3. Skills in respective areas of responsibility
  4. Your coaching ability.

Assuming you have the right people in the right jobs and they have the necessary skills, the better you clarify goals, develop appropriate attitudes, and improve your coaching skills, the better your chance of improving performance and results.

Once you determine your goals, i.e. what you want to accomplish, you need to determine what performance is needed by you and your teammates to accomplish these goals. Identify what extraordinary performance would look like in specific, observable behavior terms. No one wants to be average. Therefore, when you think of performance, think of it in terms of what extraordinary performance would look like.

New goals and better results will not be achieved without improvement in individual and team performance. Extraordinary performance, outstanding utilization of skills, is mainly determined by how people think (attitude) and how they act (behavior). There is a direct correlation between the way people think and the way they act. And, there is a direct correlation between the way people act and the results they get.

You cannot necessarily “see” an attitude, but you can observe a person’s behavior and make a pretty accurate assessment of his or her attitude. Yogi Berra, the Hall of Fame baseball player, is reported to have said, “You can see a lot by observing”. You can learn a lot about a person’s attitude by observing his or her behavior. Is the person dependable or unreliable; prompt or tardy, careful or safe; neat or sloppy; etc.

A long-term change in performance or behavior will not occur without a change in attitude. People will not change their attitude because we want them to change it or because we tell them to change it. People change three ways: slowly, rarely, and never. To accelerate the changes needed to achieve improved performance and results, you need to help people see the benefits they can gain or the losses they will avoid by changing. This takes time and it takes a concentrated effort on your part to get to know each person individually so you can personalize your coaching.

The most important coaching skill needed is the ability to help players adjust their attitude in line with the performance needed to achieve the pre-determined goals.

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Comments Off on What Makes A Leader Different?

What Makes A Leader Different?

All of us know leaders who stand out in a crowd, who have risen to the top and who accomplish significantly more than their peers. Let’s examine some of the characteristics that make these leaders different:

  •  VISION – Leaders have a clear picture of what they see their group becoming or doing in the future. There’s a difference between eyesight and vision. Vision is the ability to get MEANING from eyesight. Effective leaders have vision.
  •  GOAL-DIRECTED – Leaders know where they stand, where they’re going and how they’re going to get there. They realize that no one ever accomplishes anything of consequence without a goal. Leaders also realize that in order to fulfill their vision, they need a series of goals that will help them do so. Effective leaders are goal-directed.
  •  CLEAR PURPOSE – Leaders know why they exist, what they believe and what their values are. Having a clear purpose gives them the energy and focus they need to accomplish their goals and fulfill their vision. Effective leaders have a clear purpose.
  •  SELF-CONTROL/SELF-DISCIPLINE – Leaders are many times required to do things that ordinary people don’t like to do. The truth of the matter is, leaders probably don’t like to do them either. The difference between a leader and an ordinary person is that a leader does whatever it takes to accomplish the goal, and many times this requires self-control and self-discipline. Effective leaders have self-control and self-discipline.
  •  ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE – To achieve their goals and fulfill their vision, leaders need to persuade others to take action on their ideas. This requires that they think clearly, speak clearly and listen carefully. Effective leaders have the ability to communicate.
  •  ENERGY – Leaders need the physical vitality and mental alertness that comes from a high level of energy. Hard work, clear thinking, commitment and persistence require a high level of energy. Leaders boost their energy through proper diet, nutrition, exercise, positive thinking, rest, relaxation and an outside hobby or interest. Effective leaders have a high level of energy.
  •  PERSISTENCE – There are only two reasons why most projects fail: not starting and not finishing. Leaders finish what they start because they remember their vision, focus on their goals and visualize their goals as already accomplished. They have the staying power and persistence to follow through on their goals regardless of circumstances or what other people say, think, or do. Effective leaders have persistence.
  •  POSITIVE ATTITUDE – Leaders look at how things can be done, not why they can’t be done. They look for ways over, around, or through obstacles. They have an “I will not be denied” attitude. To paraphrase W. Clement Stone, “There is little difference between ordinary people and leaders. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether the attitude is positive or negative.” Effective leaders have a positive attitude.

To be a more effective leader, clarify your vision and purpose. Develop a written and specific goals program. Develop your self-control, self-discipline and ability to communicate. Maintain a high energy level by taking care of your mind and body. Persist in all you do, and approach every challenge and opportunity with a positive attitude. Do these things and you’ll not only be different, but you’ll also MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

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Develop an “Abundance” Mentality

In any endeavor, our success is dependent on many factors. One factor that might be overlooked is having an abundance mentality. An “abundance mentality” is more than having a positive mental attitude, although a positive mental attitude is very important. When you have a positive mental attitude, you look at how things can be done rather than why they can’t be done. You believe that “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” You look at possibilities and opportunities rather than obstacles and problems. This mindset is important for success in any endeavor.

An abundance mentality will take you beyond a positive mental attitude. It will eliminate small thinking and offset negative energy. It can mean the difference between success and failure, excellence and mediocrity, and prosperity and despair. People with an abundance mentality believe the following:

  •  “The more I sell, the more there is to sell.”
  •  “The more I give, the more there is to give.”
  •  “The more I know, the more there is to know.”
  •  “People are great. They will help me reach my goals.”
  •  “If I need money, I’ll find the money.”
  •  “If I need people, I’ll find the people.”
  •  “If I need ideas, the ideas will come.”

People with an abundance mentality believe there are enough resources available to accomplish their goals. They also believe that their success doesn’t mean failure for others. On the contrary, the more successful they are, the more others are affected in a positive way. They can be happy when friends and associates prosper. They can enter every business transaction with a “win/win” attitude. They win when their clients win.

Here are some things that you can do to boost and enhance an abundance mentality:

  • Make a commitment to continuous growth. Set up a reading, listening, watching and learning schedule. Participate in seminars and corporate development programs.
  • Help others grow. A wise philosopher once said, “When you help another person get to the top of a mountain, you will arrive there also.” Teach the people on your team what you know. If you have a talent for coaching or teaching children, volunteer. Seeing people grow as a result of your efforts will enhance your abundance mentality.
  • Have a written, specific goals program. Review your goals daily, and update your action steps and accomplishments.
  • Utilize the synergy of a support group. Join one or more organizations that have
    members who share your interest in personal and professional development and who support you in the process.

Abundance starts in your mind. The more you think abundantly, the more abundance you can enjoy. The more abundance you enjoy, the more success you will enjoy.

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Comments Off on Building a High Performance Team

Building a High Performance Team

Effective coaching requires that you:

1. Know what you want your team members to do.
2. Make sure they know what you want them to do.
3. Train them how to do it.
4. Motivate them to want to do it.

Signs of success: At the start of a career, desire can make up for a lack of skills. People with initiative will watch how you do things that work well and will pick up good ideas on their own. Stress that they can control what happens to them. Emphasize that they’re responsible for their own actions and results and that you will support them in direct proportion to
their commitment.

Work habits: The major goal of developing good work habits is to stretch – to accomplish progressively larger goals. Train people to schedule high-payoff revenue-producing activities in prime time slots. Get them to do other activities in non-prime time

How to grow people: The goal of effective coaches is to “grow” people. People tend to concentrate more on their failures than on their successes and on their weaknesses more than their strengths. This induces self-doubt. When this occurs, don’t commiserate with them; help them look for solutions. Worrying about negative issues uses energy in a non productive way. People suffering from this negative syndrome may begin to procrastinate and become defensive and afraid that whatever they do will fail. They literally don’t know what to do next and relive their past failures over and over. Help them focus on future success.

Look for positive things to praise people for, and remind them of the good days they’ve had. Point out progress no matter how slight it may be. Affirm their efforts to keep them from getting discouraged. “Inspect what you expect” to make sure the people you manage know what’s expected of them in activity, performance and attitude. Being a good role model is one of the best ways you can help someone. Remember, the speed of the leader is generally the speed of the team.

How to motivate people: If your team understands what you want them to do, they know how to do it and they have the competence to do it, there’s only one reason why they aren’t doing it: They don’t want to. This is a motivation problem.

The first step in overcoming this motivation problem is to know your people. Keep a journal on what you learn about each of them: goals, strengths, weaknesses, progress, setbacks and daily activities. Regularly meet with your people one-on-one to discuss obstacles, how their week ahead is shaping up and how their short-range goals are coming along. When you know what your people want and why they want it, you will enhance your ability to build a high performance team

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