Tag: employee engagement

The Sudden Death of Products and Services

Post author By Chris Westfall
Post date May 9, 2018
No Comments on The Sudden Death of Products and Services

Your customer has spoken: products and services are dead.

Consumed by new marketing strategies, all products and services have been replaced.

The next next thing in marketing and branding?

“Experiences”.

Calling something a product or service just doesn’t make any sense in the new economy. The description is out of date. Those words don’t apply to today’s consumers or companies.

Marketing professionals and sales people need to understand:
Products and services are dead.

Every leader has to understand: every company, everywhere, is selling experiences.

Think about it: The things that we buy and consume, either as individuals or as a corporate entity, are not products. These things are not services.

We buy, acquire, endure and enjoy experiences.

Related: Four Ways to Overcome Your Blind Spot on Entrepreneur.com

Today, commerce trades on the experience you have, and the experience you provide.

Consider these experiential products:

A vacation in Hawai’i
Purchasing a new Porsche Panamera
Transitioning your organization to SAP CRM
Changing vendors for your outsourced call center

Which of these are products, and which are services? Answer: None, and all. The old words don’t work anymore; we need to choose new ones if we want to tell a story that’s authentic and complete. And all customers – all consumers – crave authenticity.

You see, no product exists in a vaccuum.

Even a vaccuum cleaner.

No service stands alone without products. These things are really events, or experiences, made up of a series of products, services and interactions.

And so many things are outside the scope of either products or services. For example: what if you donate to a non-profit? What about that last iPhone app, or a new piece of software – what is it exactly, product or service?

What we want, what we pay for and what we get can all be summed up in one way: experiences.

Today’s customer (whether a corporation or a person, and by the way they are NOT the same) wants an experience. Perhaps an experience that is fantastic (like visiting the most beautiful place on the planet, Hawai’i) or excruciating (transitioning to SAP CRM, for example, because your CFO chose the low-bidder on the job).

Even a traditional product purchase, like buying a new car, requires a series of events that create an experience that circumvents the “product” (whatever the hell that is, anyway). For example, when you buy a car, unless you have $108,433.00 cash (that’s a nice car! welcome to the C-Suite), you are going to need financing.

Maybe you will lease the vehicle. Maybe you will talk to the finance manager, or the sales manager, about your options. You go through a series of events and choices; this is all part of the experience of ownership. The most traditional “product” in America (the automobile) gives you an experience. The experience of the purchase, the experience of the service, and the experience of the brand. How does your car make you feel about yourself? Are you comfortable, and do you feel powerful behind the wheel? Those feelings are as real as the tires and the spark plugs – a very real experience, indeed.

Marketing Matters

“Product” and “service” are incomplete definitions. Consider the experience you want to have, as a consumer or a corporation. And, if you want to reach new customers in new ways, think long and hard about the total customer experience. Services and products alone just aren’t cutting it anymore.

More Information and Additional Resources:

Check out Bullet Proof Branding. Find out how Cisco, Cargill, the Huffington Post and other organizations are creating impact in the digital age.

With a foreword by Ted Rubin, this book takes a look at how the conversation is changing for companies and individuals, in the age of social media.

About the Author: Chris Westfall is the publisher of seven books, including BulletProof Branding. His latest book is called Leadership Language, coming from Wiley in the fall of 2018. A business coach to entrepreneurial leaders on four continents, Chris Westfall has reshaped brands around the globe – creating multi-million dollar results in the process. His clients have appeared on Shark Tank, Dragons’ Den in Canada and Shark Tank – Australia. Find out more on his website and follow him on twitter.

Photo credits: Texas Sunset by the author. Girl with laptop and vacuum cleaner: creative commons via flickr.

Tags #sales, branding, customer service, employee engagement, human resources, marketing, sales leadership

Growth Leadership Personal Development

Hey Leaders, Are You Setting Up Your Team to Fail?

Post author By Jennifer Ledet
Post date May 8, 2018
No Comments on Hey Leaders, Are You Setting Up Your Team to Fail?

Take, for instance, when we hear about air traffic controllers reportedly nodding off on the job and pilots being forced to land unassisted. As frightening as that may be, personally, I don’t blame the controllers. They were set up for failure.

The majority of these controllers work schedules that sound something like this: work an 8-hour shift, rest for 8 hours; work an 8-hour shift and rest for 8 hours. Many work repeated back-to-back midnight shifts, during which most of them are flying solo.

As Charlie Sheen would say, “DUH!” They’re all falling asleep at the switch because they’re all sleep-deprived!

This system is clearly flawed and therefore, it has failed the controllers – and us. Where are the leaders here? I know grocery store managers who do a much better job of scheduling their clerks than this, and these clerks (typically) are not responsible for the lives of hundreds or thousands of people in one shift.

So, here is my question for you as executive leaders, as bosses, as team leaders, as business owners. Are you scrutinizing your procedures and systems to make sure that you are setting people up for success rather than failure?

I once had a client contact me requesting a team-building training program. In an effort to conduct a little quick and dirty needs analysis I asked him what was going on – what prompted his request. (Since I’ve worked with this company in the past, I have a pretty good idea of their leadership structure.) He explained that they wanted to provide the teamwork training to their salespeople. He further elaborated that these salespeople are set up into two divisions and are essentially competing against each other for customers.

Wait a minute. Back up! You want to provide teamwork training, presumably to help them to work together better as a team, while they are expected to compete against each other? Sounds almost like an oxymoron to me.

The heaviest dose of team-building, training, or rah-rah-rah inspirational/motivational pep talks can’t get these people to function as a team when they are required to compete against each other for their livelihood. That system is inherently flawed.

Policies, procedures, systems, processes all have to be established to set your team members up for success. Do you periodically re-evaluate and re-assess yours to make sure that they still make sense?

Duh!

What will you:

start doing,
stop doing, or
continue doing or do differently

to make sure that you’re leading your team and preparing them success rather than failure?

Use the comment box below to share your action plan and experiences with us!

To receive solutions to your people problems in your inbox every month, and to receive our report: “7 of Your Biggest People Problems…Solved,” click here.

The Secret to Hiring Cybersecurity Professionals

Post author By Sharon Smith
Post date May 3, 2018
No Comments on The Secret to Hiring Cybersecurity Professionals

I have had a successful career in Cybersecurity since 2005 when we called it Information Security. Ironically, my background should never have landed me the job, but it revealed an important hiring secret: Sometimes the best person for a cybersecurity position is not a cybersecurity professional.

I know that sounds paradoxical and confusing so let me explain. With the proliferation of job titles and educational programs with the word cybersecurity in them, it might make hiring managers think they need to hire someone with cybersecurity experience, and that is understandable. However, as we keep hearing that there are more jobs than qualified employees, the gap is going to continue and grow, and there is not enough diversity in the field, alternatives become necessary.

Therefore, instead of searching for the perfect cybersecurity employee with a very specific skill set, technical background, knowledge of one particular tool, set of certifications, degree, and many years of experience, look to the less obvious source to hire your next cybersecurity employee – the artist, the accountant, the liberal arts major, the writer, the veteran, or the gamer (to name a few). Here’s why.

Cybersecurity professionals are creative problem solvers, enjoy tinkering with new tools, and like connecting the dots or solving puzzles. They need to be strong leaders and proficient writers. Depending on the role, they may need to enjoy solitude or thrive in chaos. They are good communicators, team players, and dreamers.

My success in this field is because someone gave me a chance when I had no relevant experience. They needed my skill set as an auditor and gave me the opportunity to learn on the job, which I did with their help. The guys I worked with started me off slowly and then started to give me more and more responsibility. They saw that I would ask questions and that I could take what I was learning and use it. Before long I was on client sites alone, traveling internationally and given a lot of responsibility. If it were not for these guys who took a chance on me 13 years ago I don’t know what my career would look like today. I am forever grateful to them and why I have some recommendations for hiring your next cybersecurity employee.

My Top 5 Recommendations for Hiring Your Next Cybersecurity Employee

1. Know the underlying skills needed for the position. Many cybersecurity positions require lots of writing and documentation, sometimes for non-technical audiences. You may find an excellent candidate with a journalism degree or background in technical writing. You may just find that it is easier to teach a good writer about security than teach an IT or security expert how to write and it may offer more qualified candidates for the position.

2. Determine if the role require lots of solitary work like looking at monitors or analyzing log files. You want someone who enjoys the solitude of this type of work and also enjoys puzzles. People who can spend hours alone working on puzzles, crosswords, games, or other brain teasers are well suited for this type of work because they enjoy solving problems and thrive working alone. You will teach them what puzzle they are trying to solve and they will get busy solving them. This may be more challenging to identify in a traditional resume, make it part of the hiring questions or job description where applicable.

3. Know if chaos at the heart of the position. Depending on the role it may involve a lot of chaos like lots of moving parts, threats, cyber attackers, high visibility, high expectations, and competing priorities amongst the business executives and board of directors. Working well or even thriving in chaos takes a special individual; it’s not for everyone and you can’t teach it. Look at military veterans, former police officers, and people who have held positions where chaos was their daily norm, even if outside of IT and security.

4. Understand the amount of technical knowledge necessary. Many roles today are for compliance and a strong auditor could be a great fit, even if they don’t have a strong technical background. Auditors are skilled at learning new topics very quickly and analyzing information to determine deficiencies and gaps. When you give a strong auditor the information they need and the tests to perform they will pick the rest up quickly and learn on the job.

5. Consider on the job training. This will allow you to bring in more entry level employees with less cybersecurity or technical experience at a lower cost and train them with the tools and information that is important to your organization. With the right training and mentorship these entry level employees will thrive and grow into your next generation of leaders.

The traits I’ve listed above are those you need to consider whether you are bringing in someone with previous experience or whether you are looking to diversify and bring in raw talent. There are many qualified employees who will make excellent cybersecurity professionals if given the opportunity and they are hungry to learn and be part of this exciting field. All they need is the chance, a mentor, some training, and the opportunity to learn and grow in the field.

My Top 5 Don’ts for Hiring Your Next Cybersecurity Employee

1. Don’t assume someone with a long list of certifications is a good at security or good in the role you are looking to place them in. Many people can pass a certification, but that does not automatically mean they are right for the job. Does the job require skills that someone who passed the exam would have over someone without the certification? Plus you don’t know how many times they took the test before they passed. The person who finishes last in medical school is still called Doctor. Don’t assume a certification means they are a good fit for the job or that the job needs someone certified, be specific as to why the certification matters before making it a requirement.

2. Don’t dismiss candidates because they don’t have certifications. Yes, this is the opposite of number one, but just as important. I did not have any certifications when I was introduced to this industry. Some certifications require years of experience to get and you will miss out on some great employees if you set the bar for entry unnecessarily high with certification requirements.

3. Don’t assume that people with strong IT backgrounds make good security professionals. IT professionals may not know security just like security professionals may not be technically proficient. While most of what a cybersecurity employee does has to do with technology, it is not all about technology. Make sure that an IT professionals is being considered because they are a good match for the underlying needs of the position and not just because they have IT skills. If they fit into the category of being well suited for the needs of the position and can learn security on the job like the auditor, journalist, or artist we’ve mentioned before than of course they make a great candidate too.

4. Don’t write the job description so specifically or narrowly that only a few people in the world could match it. This is especially true if you are looking for more of a junior role. When you combine a desire for lots of experience with knowledge on very specific tools, and think that someone in your geographic area is going to be a fit, it could take a long time to fill the position. Go to #1 on the Do list instead.

5. Don’t dismiss the importance of soft skills. The best cybersecurity professionals have strong soft skills like communication, writing, and diplomacy. These positions are often in front of executives and other business leaders and require the ability to communicate in language that everyone will understand and in a way that will build relationships, not be adversarial.

Candidates with cybersecurity experience are great and you should definitely consider them as long as they fit the specific needs of the position, not just because of their general experience, education, or credentials. If you are hiring for a senior position or a consultant who will be out advising clients on topics of security, of course you need and want experienced employees; just make sure they are the right employee so that you and they have a long and happy working relationship together.

If you want to discuss hiring for cybersecurity, building teams, or cybersecurity strategy, email sharon@c-suiteresults.com.

Sharon is an information/cyber security veteran who has been helping clients navigate security and compliance challenges since 2005. She currently works as a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) for small to medium sized clients who don’t have their own CISO or security department. Sharon received her Masters in Forensic Science, High Technology Crimes Investigations from The George Washington University and currently is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Tags cybersecurity, employee engagement, hiring

Growth Management Personal Development

Are You a Traditional Manager or Facilitator for Self-Management?

Post author By Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP
Post date April 30, 2018
No Comments on Are You a Traditional Manager or Facilitator for Self-Management?

Are you a traditional manager or self-management facilitator? A shift is occurring. Some managers recognize the need to change now and they are aware and working hard to personally transform their thinking and their methods. Some organizations will be able to delay the transformation and others will need to change now or will suffer increased costs in turnover and low employee engagement. Those organizations who are unaware of the need and/or who ignore it may end up going the way of the Dodo bird at some point.

The current management model that requires managers to “drive” results, and evaluate performance is not fast enough to keep up with changes occurring in the global economy. There is a need for instant adaptability and traditional managers, as smart as they may be, cannot respond or plan fast enough. The need to adapt to change is one of the dynamics creating a need for organizations to prepare for self-organizing teams and employees who can self-manage.

Besides the need to adapt to the speed of change, managers must also be able to create environments that engage people naturally and not force so called engagement with bribes and threats. Many traditional managers use so called “new” motivational initiatives to create employee engagement but these programs are often just the same old traditional management with fancy digital bells and whistles.

Furthermore, it is impossible for bribes and threats of the traditional management policies, such as pay for performance and the traditional performance review, to encourage optimal innovation and creativity. Those policies are no longer able to meet the needs of the organization nor the needs of engaged employees. Like the Dodo and the Dinosaur, the environment has changed, and these policies are going extinct.

How do you know you are making the transition to a self-managing facilitator? Here are a few questions to challenge you and to consider what you are doing.

Are you a systems thinker? In the face of mistakes, do you step back and ask questions about how the system is impacting the results or do you immediately think about blaming the individual who made the mistake?

Do you understand that there is always variation in processes and therefore you avoid setting new policies and expecting perfection in policy deployment? Do you appreciate that the individual employees work in the system that you created? Do you believe if an employee makes a mistake it is rarely done on purpose but instead it’s likely because of the way YOU designed the process? Do you accept that it is your job to work on improving that system?

Have you clarified a specific context of trust and do you have a process to continuously reinforce trust by behaving with integrity? Do you continuously reinforce the company values, mission and vision? When employees do not appreciate why their jobs are so important and how their responsibilities impact the customer, do you ask “How can I improve my communication about company values, mission and vision?”

Do you ask questions about what barriers are holding employees back from doing an optimum job? Do you listen and act on their suggestions? Do you then facilitate agreements with employees to act on their own? Do you encourage them to self-manage?

Are you able to provide the tools that enable your people to create self-managing teams make more and more of their own decisions? Do you provide employees with the tools and the data they need to track their own performance in a collaborative way without you micro-managing?

Are you trusting them to continuously improve their hand offs with each other? Do you explain that higher quality hand offs delivered faster increases profit and happier external customers?

Are you personally developing, and offering opportunities for your people to develop the skills of emotional intelligence, critical thinking skills and systems thinking skills?

The traditional manager has a difficult job, but the future self-management facilitator is prepared with a completely new set of sophisticated skills. Are you making the transition? Are you getting the help you need to make the transformation? If not, watch out for the Dodo. You might see it cross the street in front of you very soon.

Check out the interview on C-Suite Best Seller TV to learn more about how to stop leadership malpractice and replace the typical performance review: https://www.c-suitetv.com/video/best-seller-tv-wally-hauck-stop-the-leadership-malpractice/

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.

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

Tags employee engagement, leadership

Growth Leadership Personal Development

Employee Engagement is the New Safety

Post author By Jennifer Ledet
Post date April 9, 2018
No Comments on Employee Engagement is the New Safety

Recently, I overheard a business leader referring to “his workers.” For a minute there, I wondered if I’d been transported back to 1920 and he was referring to a sweatshop of some kind. But alas, that is how this leader referred to team members. It seemed like a very outdated way to refer to the people who serve his customers and produce results for his company.

If you see employees as working FOR you or working FOR your company, therein may lie the problem. Employee engagement is not something you do FOR or TO employees, it’s something you do WITH employees.

We’ve ALL got skin in the game.

If you want to have engaged employees, you’ve got to treat them like they’ve got skin in the game – and they DO have skin in the game.

In my work with clients, whether it’s one-on-one coaching, team coaching, training, or any other of a variety of services, we start out the same way. I remind them that I am responsible TO them, but I am not responsible FOR them. I am responsible TO present information in an engaging and insightful way and to challenge them to think and apply their learning to their work. However, I am not responsible FOR how they participate and whether or not they put the knowledge into practice.

This concept applies to employee engagement. We’ve got to stop thinking of employee engagement as some kind of obligatory HR program, policy, or initiative. Employee engagement is something you do WITH employees. Take responsibility for your behaviors and how you influence others to either be engaged or to be disengaged at work. Urge team members to take ownership of their own engagement. Otherwise, the burden will always be on the leader. Employees will stand there with their arms crossed defiantly saying “Just try to engage me!”

Employee engagement is the new safety.

Do you remember waaay back in the day – like the 80’s, when employee safety was a soft, feel-good catch phrase? The safe “policies and practices” of many organizations went from the admonishment, “Just don’t do anything stupid!” to a carefully crafted HR policy and wordy procedures. It wasn’t until leaders and organizations started making it ABOUT employees and made it everyone’s responsibility, that it became more widely embraced and practiced. To me, that is why employee engagement is the new safety.

The moment employee engagement is no longer a buzzword, but becomes part of the fabric of our organization, a given, if you will, then we know that it’s sustainable. Programs, projects, those things usually have a finite life span. Engaging employees – a verb – should be part of the everyday behaviors of executive leaders and team members.

Focus on relationships and results.

An employee will be more or less engaged and loyal to an organization based on the relationships she has within the organization. The relationship with her manager, boss, supervisor, superior is HUUUGE. As a leader, how well you cultivate positive relationships, build trust, and serve your team members will play a critical role in the results that you achieve.

Don’t commit assumicide.

All you gots to do is ASK what elements of his job your employee likes, and which elements he dislikes. Find out what challenges he’s facing. You know what happens when we assume. So, don’t do it. Ask learning questions instead of making assumptions. Be genuinely interested and curious.

Ditch the fancy surveys.

Once upon a time there was a company that invested approximately a guh-zillion dollars on a fancy-schmancy employee engagement survey. Once the results were in, they were filed away and completely ignored. There’s no point in conducting engagement surveys if you’re not going to act on the results. If you’ve got buckets of money that you don’t mind throwing away, then rock on with your bad self and continue to do these surveys. Otherwise, simpler is better.

Engaged employees equals engaged customers.

The former CEO Doug Conant who completely turned the Campbell Soup Company around said, To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace. It’s a pretty weighty statement and a Jeopardy-esque quotable phrase, but it turns out that there’s research to back it up.

Employee engagement is directly linked to customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction is directly related to financial performance. And the knee-bone is connected to the shinbone. Therefore, employee engagement affects your bottom line.

Realize that it’s a moving target. Each time I work with, and coach teams and leaders, we want to continue to advance to get to the next level. It’s about making constant forward motion, but you never really arrive. Professional golfers don’t hire a coach, master one aspect of their game, and then just stop working at it. Team members need to feel that they are making forward momentum in meaningful work to be engaged. It’s all about progress.

Employee engagement is a daily practice, not a program. The sooner we take it from a responsibility of HR and weave into the very fabric of our organizations, the better off we’ll be. As an executive leader, what that means for you is making engaging actions every day.

CHIME IN:

How do you build relationships with team members and colleagues in your organization?
How are you creating an environment where employees feel that they are making progress in their work?

To receive solutions to your people problems in your inbox every month, and to receive our report: “7 of Your Biggest People Problems…Solved,” click here.

12-Step Program to Detox Your Team

Post author By Jennifer Ledet
Post date April 3, 2018
No Comments on 12-Step Program to Detox Your Team

Does your workplace culture or your team environment resemble a daytime soap opera? Do new workplace dramas unfold among your team members each Monday morning? Are spats and tiffs between team leaders the norm? (Do you often hear music crescendo in the background and then cut to a commercial break?)

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives…

If so, then your workplace culture is ill, and I’m afraid it’s not a make-believe disease a` la General Hospital, nor can it be cured in a 30-minute episode. You may be suffering from “Toxic Team Syndrome!”

I’ve been hired to play doctor to cure these toxic work environments. It’s tough to diagnose your particular problem. I’m no doctor, and no – I don’t even play one on TV. But I’m willing to bet that these problems are merely symptoms of leadership failings and missteps, such as:

Lack of leadership vision
Poor leadership communication
Failure to develop team members
Leaders who are unconscious and unaware of their impact on others
Team members forced to compete against each other (and actually, that statement is an oxymoron)
“Leaders” function more like managers in that they focus only on managing processes, systems, things, and pay little attention to mentoring, engaging, or inspiring people
Bored team members
Leaders who use a one-size-fits-all approach
No emphasis/effort in creating a positive work culture

Thankfully, for you as the executive leader, it’s not a fatal disease – if you catch it early. The first step is to recognize that you have a problem. Don’t be in denial. The bottom line is that you can’t cure the disease if you don’t admit that you’re sick.

So many leaders are absolutely clueless to the work environment they’ve created.

Yep, I did say that you create the work environment. So if your work environment is like a soap opera drama, you can correct it over time. Here, I have listed my

12-step program for detoxifying your team:

Explain to each team member how his/her work contributes to the bigger picture.
Get to know team members and focus on drawing out the best that they have to give. Serve as a mentor, guide, and inspiration to team members.
Leadership is an inside job. Identify your own strengths, limitations, blind spots, etc. Lead from a place of self-assurance and confidence.
Clue people into the bigger picture – share your vision for the organization.
Treat each person as an individual but don’t play favorites.
Don’t participate in, nor tolerate malicious workplace gossip. Establish a professional atmosphere where all team members are treated in a respectful manner.
Reward, recognize and encourage teamwork and avoid creating situations that require team members to compete against one another.
Provide team members with a variety of development opportunities and cross-train team members where appropriate.
Err on the side of over-communication. Effective leaders know they can’t communicate too much with team members.
Ask for, and really listen to, feedback from team members, customers, and superiors. And then make changes where needed!
Work hard to build and maintain trust and loyalty. NEVER discuss one team member’s issues, problems, or situation with another team member.
Strike a balance between setting yourself above (and superior) to your team and being one of the “guys.” Somewhere in the middle is best.

YOUR TURN! What will you:

start doing,
stop doing, or
continue doing or do differently

to “detoxify” your team and your team’s work environment? Share your action plan with us in the comment box below!

To receive solutions to your people problems in your inbox every month, and to receive our report: “7 of Your Biggest People Problems…Solved,” click here.

Leadership Tips to Motivate Your Team to do the HARD Work

Post author By Jennifer Ledet
Post date March 27, 2018
No Comments on Leadership Tips to Motivate Your Team to do the HARD Work

The reality is that nothing great has ever been achieved without hard work. The old Puritan work ethic states, “In life, you work hard and then you die. Period.*” (*I took the liberty of paraphrasing there.) It’s true for leadership, it’s true for teamwork, it’s true for achieving career success.

I also heard this quote the other day and it resonated with me: “We all pray for a harvest (success), but we forget that when harvest time comes, it’s a lot of work.” It reminds me of how my grandmother, (“Mimi”), used to tell us, “Mais cher, be careful what you pray for, because you just might get it!”

Today it seems that the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. Leaders want a quick fix – business success via microwave. Think about the popularity of books such as “The 4-Hour Workweek,” and then others that promote the idea that if we just hold a vision in our minds of success, we’ll attract it while sitting on our butts and sipping a strawberry daiquiri. Although I believe in the Law of Attraction, I also believe in the law of Hard Work and Dedication,* (*Not a real law. I just made that up.)

While watching a television interview with Mike Rowe, host of TV’s “Dirty Jobs,” he said that during “The Great Recession” in 2008-2009, when they were filming “Dirty Jobs” at businesses across the country, each one of those organizations had “help wanted” signs in the window. The economy was in the tank, people were out of work, and yet nobody wanted to work in those jobs. Yikes.

It can be challenging as a leader when you’ve got employees entering the workplace who have grown up in a world where everybody gets a trophy, where, (God forbid) we can’t keep score, and kids get recognition just for participating. Don’t forget the ones who are addicted to comfort or feel entitled. (Sorry to be such a Negative Nelly.)

So as an executive, a boss, a team leader, an executive leader, how can you get team members engaged and committed and willing to roll up their sleeves and do the HARD work?

Keep in mind, work doesn’t have to be synonymous with drudgery, nor should it be considered a four-letter word. Here are a number of

Leadership tips to set up yourself, your team, and your organization for success:

Plan, strategize, and prepare. Effective leaders never lose sight of the vision for the organization and are able to see what is coming down the pike. Prepare for the harvest time to be busy, but also plan to conduct maintenance on your equipment and invest in developing your team members during the not-so-busy times. Having the view from the top of the hill is your responsibility. That’s why they pay you the medium-sized bucks.

Identify Strengths. We’ve all got ’em. Just like we’ve all got weaknesses. Taking the time and effort to identify those areas where you have a talent or a strength is well worth the investment. First, develop your talents into strengths, then encourage and enable your team members to do the same. Next, put those strengths to work for your organization. In making such an investment, you will find that employees blossom, become more engaged in their work, and contribute their best. (Call me about the work that we do with leaders and teams using the StrengthsFinder® assessments.)

Create a culture of teamwork. As soon as your team members are working in their areas of strength, you need to ensure that you’re all rowing in the same direction. Successful teams are a product of a shared vision, a strong foundation of trust, and transparent communication. And NEWSFLASH: creating such a culture begins with you, the leader.

Take a Time Out. We all have a tendency to spend lots of time working IN our business. Carve out time where your team can come together to work ON your business. Focus on creating alignment, building collaboration, and nurturing relationships. (Call me to work with your team using The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™ instrument.)

Lead the way. Effective leaders set the example. Their dedication and hard work inspire their team members to give the best they’ve got to give. Lead the way by walking your talk, keeping your word, and never expecting someone to do something that you wouldn’t do. It’s as simple as that.

As you can see, although ‘work’ really is a four-letter word, it should not be considered profane, tedious, nor is it to be dreaded – if you, the leader, set yourself and your team up for success.

CHIME IN:

What leadership tips would you add to the list to get your team to roll up their sleeves and do the tough stuff?
What employee motivation strategies have worked for you in the past?
Please leave a comment on our blog below and share your insights with our community.

To receive solutions to your people problems in your inbox every month, and to receive our report: “7 of Your Biggest People Problems…Solved,” click here.

Quick links

Follow Us