C-Suite Network™

Menu
Search
Close this search box.

Category: Personal Development

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Leaders Inspire Trust with The Learning Cycle

A systems thinker avoids expressing blame because it damages trust and does nothing to address the real root causes of mistakes or problems.

“Where the rubber meets the road” is a popular phrase that means “there is a point where a theory is applied.” What does a leader do when there is a mistake and/or poor results? This is where the rubber meets the road. How does that leader facilitate improvement? What does that leader do to protect trust and address the root cause?

Leaders need a problem-solving skill that addresses problems and protects trust. They need a problem-solving skill that gives them total confidence the problem will be addressed without micromanagement. They need a skill that reinforces a self-organizing, self-managing, environment. This skill must enable people to tell the truth, to manage trust, and to be optimally innovative.

Matchbooks have been around since the late 1800s. The first ones had the striking strip on the front of the book along with a warning “Close cover before striking.” Careless consumers would often set the entire book on fire because the other matches were easily exposed to a spark when one match was struck. The warning was an “easy” way to solve the problem. It put the responsibility on the consumer to follow instructions and to be careful doing it. This solution did little to solve the problem.

It wasn’t until 1962 that a true solution was found. The manufacturers moved the striking strip to the back of the matchbook, thus preventing a spark from igniting the other matches. This was a true solution to a problem. The solution required a significant change in the manufacturing process. It required innovation and an investment in time and money. It required thought and a predictable problem-solving method. It exemplifies how a change in the system will influence behaviors. This method is known as Plan-Do-Check-Act, the scientific method, and/or the learning cycle.

The learning cycle can be traced back at least as far as Galileo, who developed the idea of making observations, creating a hypothesis and then conducting an experiment. Edison used the method to test 6,000 materials before finding the one that proved to be most practical and cost effective for the filament for a light bulb.

Plan-Do-Check-Act is the recommended problem-solving method for leaders who want to protect trust. It requires the creation of an action PLAN including the steps of knowing what to improve, creating a hypothesis that offers hope for a solution, the identification of the current condition of the problem, and how to measure the success.

The DO portion is carrying out the planned experiment. The CHECK portion is about analyzing data to see if the hypothesis was correct. The ACT portion is about deciding to revise the hypothesis, revise the method, or to adopt the method just tested. The adoption of Plan-Do-Check-Act creates an environment where blame is unnecessary. Every member of a team can contribute their ideas and their effort to experimenting with new hypotheses and with new methods.

Are you using the Learning Cycle? Are you teaching and coaching it?  Are you team members using it?  These are the opportunities for leaders who want to inspire trust.

Adopting PDCA makes problem solving a fun exercise that can involve everyone. It creates engagement and improved quality for customers. Proper and frequent use of PDCA leads to great ideas like moving the striking strip. The adoption of PDCA starts with the C-Suite leader and that is why Dr. W. Edwards Deming once said, “Quality starts in the boardroom.”

The skill of using PDCA requires knowledge, the embrace of systems thinking, the appreciation of self-organizing systems, patience to avoid jumping to conclusions (the most obvious answer of the moment), the discipline to invest time and energy in experimentation, and the desire to teach others. It’s comprehensive.

Being a leader can go to one’s head, encouraging the belief one is omniscient. That belief will damage trust. Enabling everyone to use PDCA in their work boosts trust and engagement and avoids the trust-damaging belief that leaders must always be omniscient.

Wally Hauck, PhD has a cure for the “deadly disease” known as the typical performance appraisal.  Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.   Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.  Wally has a passion for helping leaders let go of the old and embrace new thinking to improve leadership skills, employee engagement, and performance.  See other resources here.

For more, read on: https://c-suitenetwork.com/advisors/advisor/wally-hauck/

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

You’re Always Negotiating

“If you seek greater progress in life, negotiate better and greater progress will seek you.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Right now, you’re creating your future. And, you’ve done so in the past. That’s what created the environment that you’re in, right now.

My motto is, you’re always negotiating. That means, what you’ve done in the past has led to where you are today, and what you do now will lead to where you’ll be tomorrow.

If you’re like most people, you don’t understand how frequently you’re engaged in negotiations throughout the day. When you’re talking to an associate, you’re negotiating. When you engage in a conversation with a client, your superior, your spouse, you’re negotiating. The fact is in those situations, you’re giving insight into your thought process, your beliefs, and how you might engage in different situations. That’s a negotiation.

Why is it important to recognize that you’re always negotiating? The answer is, the more you’re aware of what you say and do, along with how you say and do it, the better you can shape your persona. By shaping how others perceive you, you can become more aligned with the way you wished them to perceive you in the future.

Here’s the point. Always be mindful that your actions are under constant observation and evaluation. To reiterate, that means you’re always negotiating. Negotiations occur in many places, not just at the negotiation table. Every time you engage in actions that detract from your goals, you’re detracting from them through your actions.

Raise your sense of awareness no matter the environment. If you feel the need to ‘let your hair down’, control the degree. Don’t expose too much of yourself by letting your hair expose too much of you. Once you raise your awareness that you’re always negotiating and align your actions with your future goals, you’ll be in a better position to achieve those goals. In so doing, you will have raised your dreams, hopes, and lights that lead to a better future. That will make living life more memorable … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

When negotiating, even good negotiators lose their cool. They display aspects of their demeanor that belie thoughts that would be better left unexposed; we’re all prone to being off kilter at times. Not so good negotiators fall into a deeper abyss by not recognizing that their self-constraint and reasoning has deserted them. Good negotiators distinguish themselves by regaining their composure quickly. They do so because they focus on their mental agility. They’re aware that they need to spotlight the long-term goal of the negotiation.

Progress never moves in a straight line. If you remember that you’re always negotiating, you’ll be more mindful of when progress has exited that line. Your attentiveness will serve as the alert to get the negotiation back on track.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Mind #Brain #Thinking #Success #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #liars #Mask #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

Categories
Personal Development Sales

A New Entrepreneur Is an Easy Target for Unreliable Merchants

We have an old saying in California that goes, “The only people who made money during the Gold Rush were selling shovels!” Someone on the hunt for gold needs a lot more than a shovel. He needs a map—the people selling shovels can’t help out with that, because they’d be mining the gold themselves if they knew where it was. They wouldn’t be selling shovels!

There are far too many people today “selling shovels” to entrepreneurial “gold miners.” They’ll help out with your website, your online business, your social networks, and even your sales pitch—but you have to make all the sales.

These merchants want to find people who are excited about new possibilities, hyped up by the media, and perhaps over-simplifying what it takes to make a sale. If you’re a new entrepreneur, you might be like the gold miner without a map. You might buy a shovel because you think you’ll need it if you will eventually mine gold (assuming you even find any). These merchants will stock you full of goods and services you think you’ll need—everything except a map. Bonnie has an expression that really hits the nail on the head: “If we had ham, we’d have ham and eggs, if we had eggs!”

Many products merchants will sell are untimely for your business growth, based on wrong assumptions, or simply pointless. A lot of these require subscription fees and might even need “experts” just to use them. Many of these services try to be all things for all people, so it’s easy to pay for things you’ll never need or use. And they still need a ton of plug-ins to navigate around their shortcomings, but what does it matter to the sellers? They have your money and they’re on their way.

The map to find gold can only come from other successful gold miners! When it comes to entrepreneurship, this is someone who has started and successfully run a business, someone who is now looking to share the secrets that brought him or her to “gold”. These are the people you should be looking for, especially in the beginning. For one thing, they can help you save on premature overhead and costly fees since they’ve also made those same mistakes. They can help you build a strategic client base that will justify services and identify exactly which ones you need. And, more importantly, when you actually need them.

Recently funded, new startup owners, are sitting ducks for those shovel-sellers who target people looking for the next big gold rush. These days, entrepreneurship is the next big gold rush. Don’t get carried away by the hype. Just focus on getting and keeping your customers. Understand that reality first! No tool or service will guarantee those customers, but acquiring them is essential to be able to afford any additional overhead. And how exactly do you get these customers? Have a conversation with successful entrepreneurs who’ve already done it themselves! They have the gold maps!

We can’t even begin to count how many failed businesses we’ve seen load up on unnecessary overhead before they even made one sale. They just ran out of money. Today’s openness to crowd-funding for capital seems to intensify this problem. Neither the recipient of the funding or the crowd doing the funding really understand how to achieve positive cash flow. They are both fogged up by the hype surrounding the product itself. They’re convinced that taking on major overhead is required to be successful, so they typically don’t analyze overhead investments until it’s way too late!

So, before you buy a shovel, invest in a map!

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

 

Categories
Marketing Personal Development Sales Technology

Boosting the Shopping Experience

Estimates hold that more data will be produced in 2018 than in all years previously. Much of that is consumer-focused—what we buy, how we buy it and why we buy it, among other information.

Thanks to the leverage and insight afforded by big data analytics, retailers of all sorts have the ability to enjoy an enormous opportunity to better focus and improve their customers’ overall shopping experience.

Big data analytics can now be used at every stage of the retail process, including identifying consumer trends, forecasting demand, pricing and pinpointing the most efficient means of delivery. That’s a proactive form of decision making, one of the benchmarks of my Anticipatory Organization Model.

That’s also good news for both shoppers and the organizations that serve them. Here are just a few areas in which data analytics is crafting a more rewarding shopping environment for everyone.

Product Recommendations

Most every Internet shopper has experienced “If you like this, consider this” and other similar pitches based on buying history and preferences. But, advances in data analysis and other related forms of technology hold the promise of more interactive, personalized forms of shopping guidance and suggestions. For instance, clothing retailer The North Face now offers an online tool called Fluid Expert Personal Shopper. The system, which uses IBM’s Watson cognitive computer technology, employs a “personal shopper” that can ask consumers questions about gender, location and even the sort of weather conditions where the clothing will be worn. From there, the system can provide specific recommendations.

Although still in an initial, limited stage, programs such as Fluid Expert Personal Shopper hold the potential for an even more comprehensive and useful customer experience. For instance, Watson is now using additional data to develop a “sentiment analysis” feature, which will allow systems to gauge changes in customer moods to better manage interactions with consumers. In effect, shopping systems will be able to interpret in an intuitive manner whether customers are pleased with a purchase, dissatisfied or interested in some other item.

More Useful, More Focused Apps

An increasing number of retailers are using mobile apps as a means to improve in-store shopping experiences and better interaction with store employees. That can begin well before a customer arrives at the store itself. For instance, retailer Nordstrom’s mobile app allows customers to check details such as product availability, size and color before they visit a Nordstrom store. The system also offers personalized recommendations based on gathered customer data. Customers who opt in can also have their profiles—including purchase histories—forwarded to in-store salespeople when they enter a store so they can receive immediate, personalized service.

In another example, Target’s mobile app leverages product location data, a store’s physical layout and customer profiles to offer personalized promotions to customers as they shop in-store. To that end, the company has begun installing beaconing technology at dozens of locations to gather movement and shopping pattern data from customers who agree to be monitored. This, in turn, promises to help customers not only make better buying decisions but to do so more efficiently instead of wandering up and down aisles in search of a particular item.

Greater Delivery Choices

The convenience of mobile Internet-based shopping has afforded consumers a greater range of control over not only when they shop but also where and when they receive items they buy. Locational data provided by the proliferation of smartphones takes that level of convenience and specificity to a completely new level. In one respect, that opens up the possibility that items can be delivered to customers wherever they happen to be—at home, on the job, at a restaurant having lunch and at any number of other locations.

Alternatively, by leveraging geolocation data, companies can also immediately notify shoppers when purchased goods have been dropped off at their homes or other spots. Not only does that lessen the chance of a delivery being missed, but time-sensitive deliveries—such as a gift that the buyer wants to keep secret from a family member—become that much easier to manage.

Consumer data isn’t limited to information about a particular shopper. Big data analytics allows organizations of all sorts to apply that information to make shopping more enjoyable, efficient and customer-focused for a broad range of consumers.

Ready to see the future and plan with greater confidence? Subscribe to my publication, The Technotrends Newsletter, now in its 35th year, and join thousands of leaders who have accelerated innovation and results by applying the principles I teach in my award-winning Anticipatory Organization Learning System.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Spread this Virus Across the C-Suite to Increase Team Productivity

In the “C-suite” there is no way that you are immune to flu outbreaks and viruses. The kids are back to school and often bringing home some germs to share with your family. In a leadership development program I was teaching for the C-Suite of a large healthcare organization, I was talking with the Chief Nursing Officer and asked her how they prepare or deal with illnesses in the workplace. She answered that they tell people not to come to the emergency room, so as not to spread the germs.

Could you imagine if you had the opportunity to tell some of your co-workers, “Don’t come to work today! We don’t want your germs.”

While flu germs are nasty and easily spread, I’m talking about the “negativity germ,” which is contagious just like a flu virus.

When you lead a team of people, you wield significant influence – and not just within your department. What kind of germs are you spreading? We are all spreading viruses whether we realize it or not. Your leadership influence extends well beyond your direct reports and may reach many others within and outside of your organization. Due to your prestigious position, people figure you are in the know. If you are grouchy and distracted, they figure you must know something that they don’t know. Employees assume the worst and start worrying about what could be wrong. Your negative attitude will certainly rub off on others and spread like wildfire to other employees… and to your customers.

Hey there leader, boss, executive: You are responsible for creating an environment that is conducive to productivity and service. You set the temperature – you set the tone! It’s easy for anybody to be a thermometer – to just take the temperature of the room. But it’s a lot harder to be a thermostat – to actually adjust the temperature of the room.  You must model the right attitude and approach to the current business climate.

Take the opposite approach to combat germs. Use your powerful influence to spread a virus of positivity. Use the term coined by my friend and colleague, Rosanne in Pennsylvania, to describe a positive attitude: “Positude.” Why not have a positude? You have a responsibility to have a consistent demeanor. Your positude will also catch on like a virus.

Use this time to think about what kind of virus you’re spreading. Will your team members want to get a vaccine to ward off your germs, or will they come to you for a booster shot that will make them more productive and valuable?

How are you affecting others? What will you:

  • Start doing
  • Stop doing, or
  • Continue doing

to fix your attitude and subsequently improve the attitude of your team? Comment with your action plan here so we can all learn and grow!

For more resources on leadership and employee engagement, be sure to sign up for our monthly Ezine and you will receive our report: “7 of Your Biggest People Problems…Solved.”

Jennifer Ledet, CSP, is a leadership consultant and professional speaker (with a hint of Cajun flavor) who equips leaders from the boardroom to the mailroom to improve employee engagement, teamwork, and communication.  In her customized programs, leadership retreats, keynote presentations, and breakout sessions, she cuts through the BS and talks through the tough stuff to solve your people problems.

You might also like:

Leadership Team Accelerated Results Program

Four Signs You’re Sabotaging Your Team (and How to Stop)

Managing for Maximum Performance

Photo source

Categories
Best Practices Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Easily Slaughter a Bully When Negotiating

“When negotiating with a bully, the first skirmish starts in your mind.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Do you recall a time when you were cowered by a bully? Did it make you feel like you wanted to slaughter him? There are strategic ways to fight a bully when negotiating. They start with how you plan your strategy for the negotiation and how you engage him.

Continue reading and you’ll discover how you can easily slaughter a bully in your negotiations.

The Setup: Bully’s Allies

  • Know who the bully’s strongest and weakest allies are and know their strengths and weaknesses.
  • Understand their sway with the bully and access how you might alter their allegiance to him and make them your ally.
  • Devise a plan to have them fighting amongst themselves and think about at what point(s) in the negotiation that you might implement this scheme.

Cost: Price of Bullying

  • Make it clear that they’ll be a toll to exact if the bully attempts to bully you during the negotiation.
  • Consider how you might threaten the well-being of those the bully cares about (e.g. loss of finances, reputation, prestige, etc.) Be prepared to fire a warning shot to display your seriousness.

Strategies: Fighting Back

  • Consider the demeanors you’ll display to exhibit your mannerisms during the negotiation. You should align your desires to move the bully to a place of comfort or discomfort, depending on the situation.
  • Consider your strategies (e.g. pincer move (he’s surrounded with no way out), deceit (a bully will engage in deceit. To combat him, you must be willing to engage in it, too.)

Body Language: Interpreting Signals

  • Gestures that indicate weakening (e.g. breaking eye contact (weakening), speaking verbosely (losing steam and/or attempting to dazzle you with his BS), hands closer to his body (protecting himself), Looking around at/for others (seeking assistance/help), requesting a recess (needs time to collect himself)

 

  • Gestures that indicate strength (e.g. glaring (becoming more resolute), increasing the tone (attempting to convey commitment), asserting more space/puffing himself up (attempting to be perceived as bigger than he is), lack of veracity (he’s fearless about not being forthright – this might indicate desperation and/or an attempt to sway you by lying), insisting that you accept his position (act of intimidation)

 

  • Keep in mind that any of the gestures above may be a ploy. To assess their validity, do the opposite of what’s displayed or match it; your actions will depend on the circumstances at hand. Either way, you’ll glean insight into the validity of is action by the way he responds to yours. Be aware of how the bully shifts his perspective and positioning in the negotiation based on your reply to his actions.

The Trail: Set Markers

  • Be hypersensitive to the direction of the negotiation; know where you’re headed. If you don’t like where it’s going, change directions by invoking red herrings or any diversion you’ve created for this purpose.
  • Have markers denoting exits from the negotiation when you sense you’re in futile
  • Don’t stay engaged in a negotiation that’s not going expectedly if you see no way to make a course correction. You’ll hurt your negotiation position by doing so.

In your next negotiation, take heed of the points above. Assess how and when you’ll implement them. Adopt them as the shield and sword you use to combat a bully. In so doing, you’ll rob him of his powers … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Slaughter #Power #secrets #hiddensecrets #Mistakes #Fight #Negativity #cyber, cyberbullying #Management #SmallBusiness #Money #Negotiating #combat #negotiatingwithabully #bully #bullies #bullying #Negotiations #PersonalDevelopment #HandlingObjections #Negotiator #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology #NegotiationPsychology

Categories
Best Practices Growth Management Personal Development

Converting Information into Knowledge-Based Assets

When I developed my forecasting model in the early 1980s, I could see that a digital revolution would unfold, and as it did, an advanced form of capitalism would emerge, one where ideas and knowledge stimulated economic growth even more so than labor, land, money or other tangibles. It later became known as the Knowledge Era – or the Knowledge Age – in contrast to the Industrial Age.

A Few Strategic Questions to Consider

There is a big difference between data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Today we are all focused on big data, and we should be because it provides the foundation for the three higher levels. We all have a database, and as we all know, there is no shortage of information, but do you have a knowledgebase? Is your organization creating new revenue streams by converting information into actionable knowledge, sharing that knowledge internally to increase its value, and then selling it in non-competing industries? I helped a large global organization do this several years ago and they generated over $100 million in the first year. All too often we fail to see the hidden value of the people part of the business. Are you actively using web-based technology to leverage the talents, knowledge and wisdom of employees to create new high-margin products, as well as solve problems faster?

All too often, as we grow larger and move faster, we can easily lose track of the wide variety of intellectual property (IP) we have created. Are you actively formalizing, capturing and leveraging your intellectual property(IP) to create higher value assets? Using today’s digital tools, it has never been easier for any organization, regardless of size, to create new revenue streams by leveraging their enhanced IP.

Three Must-Have Components to Leverage Intellectual Capital

1. Everyone in the organization must see the tremendous opportunity and added value in going beyond the current activity of converting data into information, to higher levels of value by creating and delivering actionable knowledge and wisdom. In addition, auditing and evaluating intellectual assets must be seen as a strategic direction.

2. Everyone in the organization must see that its technology infrastructure and organizational culture are the keys to unlocking the vast wealth of knowledge within the organization, both for the organization and your clients. Knowledge increases in value when it is shared within the organization, and that means shifting from being an Information Age organization to entering the Communication Age. Informing is a one-way activity that does not always produce a result. Communicating is two-way and dynamic and almost always causes action. That’s why social media has grown so fast; it is a Communication Age enabling technology. An internal knowledge-sharing strategy, focused on fostering two-way communication and dialog, is crucial because as I said earlier, knowledge increases in value when it is shared.

3. Everyone in the organization must see their participation as essential to building a strong foundation for the enhancement, sharing and delivery of knowledge. When we have collective knowledge and wisdom at out fingertips, everyone can accomplish their work with less time and effort.

Keep in mind that you get the behaviors you reward; therefore, there must be a rewards system for sharing knowledge. Remember, there are many ways to reward people and not all have to involve money.

If you would like to learn more about how to convert information to knowledge and then productize it for revenue, I recommend reading my latest bestselling book, The Anticipatory Organization.

Categories
Culture Growth Management Personal Development

If You Want Optimum Trust and Success You Better Behave

Some organizations have achieved incredible success despite leaders who exhibit questionable behaviors. There are numerous stories about the petulance of Steve Jobs. Some days he was “good Steve” and other days “bad Steve.” Jobs was well known for exaggerated emotional outbursts laced with profanity. Yet still, Apple has been amazingly successful and, as of this writing, is the most valuable company in the Fortune 500 (capitalization) recently touching the trillion-dollar valuation mark. How does one explain the valuation of Apple when many of the behaviors of its most prominent leader were trust-breaking?

How does one explain the growth in valuation of Uber in the face of recent leadership issues and the resignation of one of the founders because of accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination? Yet, as of this writing, Uber is estimated to be worth $70 billion and is known as the company that upended how people think about and use personal transportation.

These two examples beg the question “How can a leader(s) achieve such amazing success while behaving so inappropriately?” It’s frustrating to know that inappropriate trust-breaking behavior by leaders can occur concurrent with incredible financial success. It’s a paradox. The answers lie in the interaction between strategy and culture and the priorities of the leadership at the time, namely, the desire for short-term vs. long-term success.

The famous quote “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” was originated by Peter Drucker and made famous by Mark Fields, president at Ford. This thought sets the stage for us provide some answers for managing the variation of trust. The point of Drucker’s quote is that both the culture of an organization and its strategy interact to achieve success. They are interdependent. One will influence the other. Culture will eventually either undermine the strategy or support it. In the long term, culture wins.

If it’s true that the leader(s) of an organization influences the culture, then we can explain how Steve Jobs evolved. Jobs’ behavior softened over the long term. Recent articles about Uber reveal that they changed their core values. Those most knowledgeable about Uber describe how the original core values often led to inappropriate behaviors, including competition between colleagues.

The key answer to long-term success is consciously managing culture to support an effective strategy. By providing a structure and method to manage the variation in trust we are helping the culture to evolve and to support the strategy.

The question: “How can we create a culture of trust that will support an aligned strategy?” The answer: “We must clearly define core values using specific observable behaviors. We must then provide consistent feedback about those observable behaviors.”

When the core values are operationalized, they describe specific observable behaviors. It’s not enough to say, “We behave with integrity” or “We respect each other.” The leadership needs to define exactly what that looks like. Otherwise, it is difficult, if not impossible, to provide credible feedback when needed. The feedback needs to be timely and credible.

If we want trust and predictable success, leadership must behave.

Wally Hauck, PhD has a cure for the “deadly disease” known as the typical performance appraisal.  Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.   Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.  Wally has a passion for helping leaders let go of the old and embrace new thinking to improve leadership skills, employee engagement, and performance.  See other resources here.

For more, read on: https://c-suitenetwork.com/advisors/advisor/wally-hauck/

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness Leadership

Are You Ready for Back-to-Work?

How do you prepare for peak performance?

Kids get new pencils and back-packs, maybe even a new lunch-box. How do you prepare for getting back to work after the summer down-time?

When I was a kid I loved the excitement of getting back to school. Maybe because of my new pencils and outfits, but I actually liked the action of being engaged and using my brain. During the summer-break I would miss feeling productive. I know you might wonder what kind of kid is thinking about feeling productive. I did not call it that at the time of course. I think it was more like feeling I did something that other people responded to, learning stuff and showing my teachers that I was getting better and better at what they were teaching me. Reality is that is still what drives us as adults at work but let’s discuss that in another article.

Be a kid again.

Kids don’t have the same dread of “crazy-busy-no-time-to-myself” that adults do. Later when they are teenagers and studying for an exam though, the perfection-performance-mode already sets in. It is that mode, where we think our brain is the key to performance and that we just need to keep going without feeding, fueling or nourishing it, or the body that it is attached to that keeps it working. It is like thinking the computer can work without battery and electricity.

How did we go so wrong?

When did we start thinking of our bodies like a machine that just keeps going until it burns out? We don’t even treat our cars the way we treat our bodies. Maybe it was during the industrial revolution, where humans became less important than machines and we thought to compete we had to be like them? The thing is, we knowthat pushing harder does not make us more productive, and yet that is our solution for getting the work done.

Work less, get more done.

In 1926 Henry Ford introduced the 40-hour work-week. He found that when he reduced the work-day from 10 to 8 hours and the work-week from 6 to 5 day, productivity went UP. And yet most leaders work 10 hour days (or more) and 6 day work-weeks.

Kids in Finland started performing better in school when they had more play-time. They added a 15 minute break after each lesson, and their focus and attention improved. No surprise really, because neuroscience also tells us that we only focus optimally for 45-90 minutes at a time, and then we need 15 minute brain-off time, so that we can reset our nervous-system and re-boot our mental energy, so we can focus optimally again for the next 45-90 minutes.

So getting back to work, take a look at your schedule and make some performance changes. Cut your meetings from 60 minutes to 45 and take the 15 minutes in between for performance self-care.

Work better on food.

I consistently hear that people are not hungry or thirsty all day so they don’t stop to eat or drink water. It is probably not true that you are not hungry or thirsty! You are just not pausing for long enough to pay attention to your body.

Your body needs water and food, just as much as it needs a pause throughout the day. But when you are running on survival-mode your body tries to keep up with you being chased by a tiger (this tiger could be your boss, a deadline or your board of directors). When you are working on survival-mode, your body stops sending you messages of hunger and thirst, because all systems and hormones are on go-go-go, and you don’t get the “memo” that you are hungry until you stop late at night, – and realize you are starving. But by then you are also burned out.

Burnout prevention.

We don’t have to burn out. To avoid this cycle of burn out and recovery as the way we work, we need to bring self-care with us to work. We work better this way. It is how we can achieve peak performance, work better and go home happy with energy to spare.

Learn more about how to integrate burnout prevention into your company culture or your personal work-style find me at  jeanettebronee.com for keynotes, workshops and 1-on-1 coaching.

Photo: Jeremy Lapak via Unsplash

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

It’s Time for Managers to March to Their Own Coaching Cadence

Are millennials really that different from their younger counterparts: the members of the up and coming Generation Z? Yes, says Jessica Ogilvy, assistant professor of marketing at Marquette University. She explained the difference between generations during a recent Manage Smarter podcast.

Gen Z: Great Expectations

While managers might be used to supervising baby boomers, Gen Xers and millennials, Gen Z workers have different expectations. Here’s what you need to do to hire and keep the freshest talent.

Like millennials, Gen Z workers grew up in an age of transparency. They’re always connected and always want to be kept in the loop. This desire can come as a surprise to hiring organizations. In the past, you got away with not keeping in touch with candidates. That practice was especially true during the recession, when there were hundreds of qualified candidates for every job opening.

Right now, we’re in a strong labor market. If you’ve got a winning Gen Z candidate, you need to stay in touch. They want feedback. How did the interview go? Are you going to reach out to their references? Let them know these details, before they decide you’re not interested and move on to their next option.

Managing the Gen Z Employee

Once the Gen Z joins your workforce, the need for feedback doesn’t change. When these employees turn in an assignment, they expect some kind of response. For them, the absence of a response is the same as receiving a thumbs-down. That reaction is a far cry from the expectations of older generations. Old-school workers weren’t raised in a climate of constant feedback. They’re likely to break in a sweat, worrying they’ve done something wrong, when the manager appears at their cubicle.

It’s risky to hire an unproven Gen Z candidate right out of school. And it can be expensive if they leave quickly, which many tend to do. Ogilvy says we shouldn’t overlook the Gen Z eagerness to learn and high energy levels.

Coaching Cadence

To generate loyalty, Ogilvy recommends a using a practice called coaching cadence. Start your relationship with your employee by understanding their personal and professional goals. If they hope to buy a house and need more money, work with them on developing skills that will qualify them for a promotion in your organization. Help them see how their professional lives, at your company, will lead to achieving their personal dreams.

When you reach out as a manager on this level, employees see you being self-aware and empathetic. That transparency matters to them. The bigger challenge for you, as a manager, is to balance the unique needs of your youngest employees with all of the other demands on your time.

Make sure you regularly evaluate your priorities and don’t be afraid to delegate tasks when it makes sense.