Category: Leadership

I read this and thought I would pass it on
Respect is not something handed to you when you take on a new leadership role. Respect is an essential leadership quality that you must build over time. Unfortunately, there is no step-by-step method for gaining respect in a leadership role. Several major areas require your attention, but many leaders overlook small gestures that get big reactions from staff members.
Sweat the Small Stuff
You hear the phrase, “Don’t sweat the small stuff,” in stress-control seminars. But when it comes to respect, you absolutely must sweat the small stuff. Here are 10 small things you can do daily to gain the respect of your staff.
1. Maintain a Positive Attitude.
People rarely respect negative leaders. Instead, they typically ridicule them behind their backs. Negativity sends the message that you’re bitter or mean; it develops fear, not respect.
2. Be Available to Employees.
Don’t just have an open-door policy; make time to talk with employees and ask their opinions. Employees want to think they have the boss’s ear and can come to you when they have issues.
3. Offer to Help a Staff Member.
No matter how busy you are, when you walk through your work area and notice an employee who needs assistance, offer some. Step in and get your hands dirty. It won’t go unnoticed.
4. Tell Staff What to Do, Not How to Do It.
Effective delegation is an important part of becoming a good leader. Understand that employees are looking to develop their skills; so when you delegate, give them an important task to accomplish. Then stand back and let them figure out how to accomplish it. When you tell employees how to do the task, they feel mistrusted and perhaps worthless. It is difficult to trust a leader who can’t let go.
5. Value Differences.
Don’t hire people who are just like you. Bring in a qualified staff and show you value everyone’s differences by asking for input and encouraging everyone to work together as a team.
6. Listen Actively.
When employees talk with you, show interest and enthusiasm for their thoughts. Lean forward, share acknowledgment and paraphrase back to them what you heard them say. When you actively listen, you are not thinking about what you will say next. Be with them in the moment.
7. Laugh and Have Some Fun Occasionally.
Don’t take everything so seriously that you can’t laugh on occasion. When pressure is high and the work needs to get done, a little levity can make the work much more enjoyable. When you laugh, it also shows you are human, and that goes a long way with employees.
8. Share Compliments.
Compliment your staff on a job well done. Make sure the compliment is sincere and personal. It is always best to share a compliment when the act is fresh. After or even during a good presentation, giving an OK or thumbs-up sign will make your employee’s day.
9. Know What You Want.
It is difficult to respect someone who is not sure what he wants. If you manage a production line, is your goal to meet or beat the schedule, or to get the product out under cost? The goal is not nearly as important as knowing what the goal is.
10. Be Congruent at All Times.
Are what you say and what you do the same? It’s amazing in corporate America how many leaders send mixed messages. For instance, consider the manager who says he wants ideas from his staff and then proceeds to put down every idea brought to him.
Why Build Respect?
Without respect, it could be difficult for you to accomplish your job. Marilyn Johnson, owner of a small computer company in Indianapolis, shares her quest for respect: “I was so enthusiastic when I started my company that I tried to do everything for everyone. I spent all day telling my employees how to do their jobs. After two years, my employees started leaving in droves. One man told me he just didn’t respect a leader who couldn’t let go.”

By Dale Collie

Workplace stress is on the rise and it’s costing corporate America a fortune. We cannot do much about the skyrocketing costs of medical care and prescription drugs, but we can take immediate action to control the top ten causes of stress The countdown is:

10. “Workload” – Employees report that they are often stressed when they have too little or too much to do. Managers need to divide responsibilities and help employees prioritize work that must be done.
11. “Random interruptions” – Telephones, pagers, walk-in visits, and spontaneous demands from supervisors all contribute to increased stress. Time management, delegation of responsibilities, and clarification of expectations can reduce these stressors.
12. “Pervasive uncertainty” – Stress levels increase rapidly when people are confronted by new requirements and procedures. Keeping people informed controls stress and increases productivity. Put details in a memo so they can review the facts following your explanations.
13. “Mistrust and unfairness” – These situations keep everyone on edge; create bad attitudes, and lower productivity. It is important to keep an open line of communication to avoid misunderstanding and know what people are thinking about your decisions.
14. “Unclear policies and no sense of direction” – Lack of focus causes uncertainty and undermines confidence in management. You need more than a well-written policy manual. Enforcement of policies and clear communications are essential.
15. “Career and job ambiguity” – If people are uncertain about their jobs and careers, there is a feeling of helplessness and of being out of control. In addition to the trusted job descriptions and annual personnel reviews, people need to understand a broad range of issues that affect the company.
16. “No feedback – good or bad” – People want to know whether they are meeting expectations. Consistent, written and verbal, personalized feedback is required.
17. “No appreciation” – Failure to show appreciation generates stress that endangers productivity throughout the company. There are many ways to demonstrate appreciation, but the most effective is a sincere comment about how much the person means to you and the company.
18. “Lack of communications” – Poor communication leads to decreased performance and increased stress. Management memos and announcements work well for distributing information, but two-way conversation improves communication and solicits ideas and suggestions while reducing stress and complaints.
19. “Lack of control” – Workplace stress is at its greatest when employees have no say regarding things that affect them. You can decrease sensitivity to all the other stressors and give a sense of being in control by involving employees in operating and administrative decisions and acting on their input.

Effective managers understand that stress control is a leadership responsibility and give it just as much attention as any other management function. Grasping the concepts and reducing stress one step at a time can have an amazing impact on your bottom line –and on the lives of those who do the heavy work.

Doug Duncan

Your HR Solutions

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will be running a column based on an interview I had with their reporter this Sunday. I thought I would share the information with you.

 

 

1. Treat people with respect. Don’t insult them by pretending that things are OK. Don’t ignore them by keeping silent. Share what you can about what is happening in the business.
2. Give people something to do that contributes to the survival of the company. Those that are on the “front-lines” of the business have insight into what is happening. Don’t assume that all knowledge is found at the top of the organization. Ask people to participate.
3. When you are cutting costs, make the cuts across every category. Don’t select one department to take the brunt of the cost cutting.  Don’t make the same percentage cut in all categories; rather focus on what will produce the best results. “Across the board” cuts will hurt the business more and puts a disproportionate burden on the company. People recognize this and resent the simplistic approach. Ask people where they can save money. You may be surprised just how creative they can be.
4. Set new goals that reflect the new realities of the business. New sales goals that realistically reflect the downward sales projections and new cost goals. Make sure the new goals can be achieved. Now set performance targets for each individual. Provide a financial incentive for achieving the new goal.
5. Use the “10 penny” rule. Put 10 pennies in your right pocket at the beginning of the day. Every time you see someone doing something right and you recognize and acknowledge the good action, you earn the “right” to move one penny from your right pocket to your left pocket. At the end of the day, you should have 10 pennies in your left pocket. If you can not find 10 people doing something right in your organization each day, YOU are doing something wrong. Celebrate the successes – large and small.
6. Say thank you a lot. Get in the habit of thanking people for the effort they are doing. The recognition of the good things by the leader will make all the difference rather than the leader who walks around in a doom-and-gloom funk and finds fault with everyone.
7. Get the organization to do something fun together. Go bowling. See a funny movie. Go out together to a local restaurant. Have a party in your place of business on a Friday afternoon.
8. If you must lay people off, do it with kindness. Recognize that they are scared. Give them some help along the way. It may be money, but it also could be advice on how to write resumes or how to conduct themselves in an interview. There are good HR consultants who will be glad to provide some out-placement advice to those who must be laid off.
9. Treat yourself to something good as well. Recognize that you are feeling the pressure too. Treat yourself with respect.

 

 

Your HR Solutions          www.yourhr911.com                          Tele # 973-378-8456

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Maplewood, New Jersey 07040                 e-mail: dduncan@hyourhrsolutions.com

Mark Taylor

April 8, 2022

Being a CEO is exciting and captures the collective imagination, inspiring notions of freedom, adventure, and genuine passion. If this is your first time in the role, what are you expected to do? You did not receive a job description, especially if you are taking over a family business.

To be successful, CEOs need to know where they want to end up. One of the most famous thinkers on management in the past 100 years, Stephen Covey, wrote the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey explicitly states that one must begin with the end in mind in the second habit. Knowing the ultimate goal will make it possible to determine the best way of getting there.

Stop and consider

What is the end you have in mind? What’s your exit strategy? Do you want to sell your business in 10 years? Do you hope your children will take over? Is it a lifestyle business to provide you with income and autonomy? The primary role of the CEO is to make sure the organization fulfills its reason for existence.

In decades of experience with hundreds of businesses of every size, time and time again, a common issue is that people fall into businesses without a vision or the mindset of a CEO. They are almost immediately in over their heads and stuck in the weeds.

True autonomy comes from knowing what the business needs when it needs it and bringing in the best people. The key to growth for all enterprises is delegation and creating an executive team where only the best and brightest professionals execute their respective tasks.

This responsibility becomes a burden when poorly managed, but it can be freeing when managed well. The only alternative is to develop the mindset and vision of a CEO.

As a first-time CEO, there is a lot to learn. An approachable and effective way of getting started is to review the seven principal roles of a CEO and self-evaluate. The idea is to not simply identify areas for improvement but to engage with transforming those areas and connecting with the people who can support lasting change.

The seven roles are as follows:

1. Architect

As an architect, the CEO knows the WHAT of the business. This includes understanding the business model, organizational design and strategy. The CEO is responsible for ensuring that the organization is healthy, both financially and culturally.

They determine the direction, vision, and purpose. They create the best organizational structure and strategy to achieve it. They may get input, but the responsibility is theirs. The CEO is the orchestra’s conductor, determining the audience, music and direction.

2. Preacher

CEOs who excel as preachers can inspire and motivate with a clear mission, purpose and vision. They are the greatest voice of the WHY behind the business.

3. Engineer

It’s impossible to know how you are doing without knowing what you measure. The systems and processes, rules, and culture of a business all have to be designed, and it’s with the skills of an engineer that a CEO determines the HOW of a business.

4. Coach

This is the skill set best suited to determining WHO will be on your team and how to keep them there. The more people a business has, the more potential for problems, so there is nothing more important than your human resources. The CEO carries the chief responsibility of making sure the right people are on the bus, in the right seat and heading in the right direction.

5. Investor

All CEOs need to know WHERE their capital will come from and understand concepts like valuation and return on investments.

6. Ambassador

A CEO interacts with all pertinent stakeholders—investors, suppliers, clients and employees. Being responsible for the vision and mission of the company still requires interacting on a one-to-one basis and participating in essential activities.

This requires the CEO to be the most articulate spokesperson of the business, communicating the mission, vision, and values inside and outside of the organization. One of the essential practices of the leader is to manage the interpretation of events, or in other words, manage what things mean.

As human beings, we always seek to understand—it is part of our nature. We see change as a threat most of the time. When we are threatened, we don’t feel safe and don’t operate at our highest level.

7. Student

A CEO can fail in many roles but not as a student. As long as the unknown is approached with the openness and curiosity of a beginner’s mind, all is possible. CEO must be the role model for learning, growth, and change. Everyone is watching what you do. Learning=growth and growth=life. The organization will grow at the pace of the leader.

How would you rate yourself in each role, with one being clueless and 10 being the gold prize winner? Whatever your strengths or failures, it is possible to compensate for weaknesses, learn, and grow into a genuinely outstanding CEO.

The seven roles of a CEO give a template for self-evaluation and a practical road map to grow from entrepreneur to CEO.

Managers, supervisors and team leaders have a responsibility to address others’ concerns and behavior in a way that’s both effective and considerate. How you say something is what people will remember about the conversation, so exercise caution when speaking about almost any topic.

Ask a Manager’s Alison Green offers six things anyone in a leadership role should avoid saying at all costs:

1. “You’re lucky to even have a job.”This implies that because someone’s been given a position, they should accept whatever the job entails without question. Telling people their concerns, questions or complaints have no place in the office will ultimately hurt your relationship with your whole team. Your conversation won’t stay private long after this comment.
2. “Just figure it out.”You don’t have to spoon-feed anyone answers, but you do have an obligation to help people when they are honestly confused or unsure. If there is a problem, you are the person whose job it is to facilitate a solution. Don’t hoist your laziness onto the shoulders of people whose job it is to look to you for assistance when they are stumped.
3. “I heard from an anonymous report.”Relying on co-worker complaints during a conversation about problematic behavior is going to make the individual feel isolated and alone. If there’s a problem, focus on acknowledging its existence and the need for change, not the multitude of people who felt the need to bring it to your attention.
4. “That’s a dumb idea.”People who don’t listen to the people who are actually implementing the protocols and procedures are people who shouldn’t be leaders. The people doing the work are the ones who encounter the glitches in the process and seek to fix them, if only for their own sake, which is something you can’t count on.
5. “What’s wrong with you?”The boundary between professional interest and personal interest is a sacred line not to be crossed. Constructive criticism should address the work being done, not the person doing it, and it especially shouldn’t question their intelligence.
6. “You’re so much better at this than Bob.”An employee hears this and automatically wonders about when you may have said it in reference to them. The quickest way to lose the trust and respect of other people is when you make clear how little you respect them.

— Adapted from “10 Things Bad Bosses Say,” Alison Green, U.S. News & World Report’s “On Careers” blog.

With Chris McChesney

Leaders make the difference. We all aspire to greatness. Leaders see the world differently. Executing strategic goals is a never ending battle. Keeping people focused on the most important strategies.  70% of strategic fires are due to leadership.

People don’t define goals

1. Don’t know the goals
2. Don’t know what to do to achieve the goals. Not translated into day to day activities
3. Don’t keep score.  What is critical and what is not vital.
4. Don’t account for results. Don’t account for progress to each other

How to filter. How to prioritize.

The principle and skills    The 4 disciplines of execution.

De-mystify the concepts  – simple a model so that is practical

Leaders do 2 things to get results

1. Develop the strategy
2. Execute the strategy.

Which is more difficult?

Execution is the big thing.

We tend to study strategy and not the execution in school.

1. Before a strategy to get done, someone has to get something done differently.
2. got to change behaviors
   1. others
   2. yourself

The leader can really screw up execution. If the leader is in love with the strategy; the more I love it, the more I underestimate what it takes to execute it.

It is basic

It is important.

It is not common.

Why is something that is so basic and important it is not common? It is very rare.

• Distractions
• Multi tasking – can do more than I think I can do
• A lot of things going on – hard to focus.

In every organization there is an inherent conflict between two forces

• The whirlwind or the day-to-day things that happen on the job
• The goals for moving the organization forward.

The nature of the whirlwind is urgent.

The nature of the goals is important.

When there is a clash, which will trump the urgent? The whirlwind.

We don’t get to ignore the whirlwind. It is immediate.

It will not go away.

The whirlwind is the enemy of strategic initiatives.

The whirlwind is the “real work!”

Draw a hard line between the whirlwind and the goals.  Acknowledge the gulf. The problem. Recognize the gnats that swirl around you every day.

The trick of execution is achieving the goal in the midst of the whirlwind.

This is the problem.

4 basic principles and disciplines.  They are not hard to think about; just hard to do.

1000 good practices. The gems are the principles

You can ignore the principles but there are consequences.

They are sequential. Ignore the first and the 2^nd and on won’t work either.

The principles are common sense. But common sense are not so common.

The first principle of execution – – Focus on the wildly important.

• If I have 1-3 goals I am working on. I can be sure probably that I will achieve them all.
• If I have 4-10 goals the law of diminishing return the chances of you achieving them drop to 1:2
• 11-20 goals – how many will be done with excellence? I have paralyzed the organization.
• Got to do 50 things anyway – that’s called the whirlwind
• 1 – 3 things (goals) are in addition to the whirlwind they can’t hear you. Focus on those 1 -3 important things that will move the organization forward
• When you tell people to focus and you don’t acknowledge the whirlwind you will frustrate them.
• The goals of today can become the whirlwind of tomorrow.
• Narrow the focus outside the whirlwind. Land one plane at a time.
• The first rule of execution is to STOP IT. Narrow the focus.
• The enemy of the great is the good.
  • Say no to good things. There will always be more good things than you have bandwidth to execute.
  • Got to say no to the good. Kind of counter intuitive. Because most leaders are taught to say no to only the bad things.
  • Got to say no to the good things in order to focus on the great things.
• The WIG – Wildly Important Goal.
• No more than 1 – 3 goals per team.
• Don’t fry people’s heads with too many things to do outside of the whirlwind.

We want a finish line.  How do I know I won?

• X to Y by when.
• When defines the finish line.
• Accountability goes way up.
• Eisenhower says we want to be first in space. To lead the world in space exploration. No accountability. Didn’t really get done.
• Kennedy said we will put a man on moon and bring him back by the end of the decade. Lots of accountability. We made it in a decade
• Draw a line in the sand.
• Morale goes up when accountability goes up.
• Kennedy said we will not pursue other priorities. The enemy of the great is the good.  

The second principle – Act on the lead measures.

• Define the difference between a lag and a lead measure
• Lag measure – The lag measure is the same way you measure the goal.
  • If the goal is to increase revenue, then the lag measure is dollars.
  • “Oh crap” or “oh cool”
• Lead Measure – Two characteristics
  • It is predicative. If this measure moves then the lag will move.
  • It is influence-able – – – – – We can get our hands on this thing. I have influence on the outcome.  I have control over it.
    • These are not guarantees, but rather they are bets.
    •  They always feel like a bet
• People tend to focus on the lag measures because
  • It is important. It is what I want.
  • I am accountable for it (the lag) so I tend to fixate on it.
  • It is easy for me to get.  I can find the results and the measurement. I can always check the lag measure
• Example: Accidents rate
  • The number of accidents – the lag measure. If you think luck plays a role in your life, you are looking at a lag measure.
  • The lead measures in this example
    • Training is influence-able but not predictive
    • Minor incidents is predictive but not influence-able.
    • Do eight things (compliance to eight safety standards) – hard hats, googles, gloves, etc.  If I do these 8 things, the “bet” is that accidents will decline.
    • Getting that data takes a lot of work. You have to go and observe it. It is too much work. It is only the wildly important goal but it is too much work.
    • GO AND MEASURE IT.
    • Got to leave the whirlwind and measure if there is compliance. It will not ever feel urgent.  But it is very important.
• There is an amazing connection with morale in doing all of this work. Because I can see how I contribute to this organization. We have narrowed the focus. We are doing the important. What I do is measureable. I have personal control over it.

The third discipline of execution.   Keep a compelling scorecard Capturing the “bet” – make a game out of it.

• People feel differently when they are keeping score.
• They play A LOT DIFFERENTLY WHEN THEY ARE KEEPING SCORE.
• Example watch kids play basketball from a block away. You can tell if they are keeping score or just shooting around. The intensity is tremendously different. Energy level is different. Teamwork is better. More celebration.
• Things are different when they are keeping score.
• Numbers on a wall don’t necessarily motivate people.
• People will disengage from the game when they don’t know the score or don’t feel they can influence the score.
• The rules for the score board
  • Am I winning or losing?
    • Every day on their top priorities.
    • Needs to be simple to understand
  • It needs to be updateable. It must be easy to maintain.
    • This is not a coaches’ scorecard. It is a player’s scorecard.
    • Coaches scoreboards are generally lag measures and complex.
  • Players scoreboards are complete
    • Both lead AND lag measures.
    • We are doing this to get that.
  • We send people to work and have them bowl through a curtain.
    • Shooting blindly
    • Not getting any feedback
    • Not much fun for long.
• One company had 3 goals. It looked like a football field. Other goals were waiting on the sideline on the bench.  When one goal reached the end zone or the goal line and a “touchdown” was scored, another goal could come onto the field – off of the bench.

 

• Focus and Finish
• Lead and Lag
• Predictive and Influence-able
• Scoreboard is compelling.   If you like it but the team does not like the scoreboard it is no good.

The fourth discipline of execution – Create a cadence of accountability.

• A rhythm of team based goals of accountability
• A march around a 20 minute meeting. NO longer.
• People come prepared to answer at this meeting one question
  • What are the one, two or three things I can do this week that would have the biggest impact on the scoreboard?
  • Not the 3 most important things to do this week?  If I say the most important, my head will immediately move to the urgent and the whirlwind.
    • My mouth will say important but my brain will say urgent.
  • The whirlwind will get done anyway or it will be your head.
  • The whirlwind has its own accountability system.
  • We want to move the lead measure not the lag measure.
• Each person accounts
  • What did I do last week?
  • Review the scoreboard.
    • Is it moving?
    • Is the stuff I did have any impact on the scoreboard?
    • Where is it having an impact?
  • What will I do next week to move the scoreboard?
    • Make a commitment to the 2 or 3 things I have to do?
• Go fast.

He picked it. He is accountable for it.

It is a rare and beautiful thing when it happens. It may seem like common sense. But it doesn’t get done in very many organizations.

Just in time planning.

Things don’t work because…

• We move back to the whirlwind because there you can’t get in trouble.
• So you don’t work on the goal.

Create the lead measure so you can move the lag measure.

If the organization has tasked too many goals; either spread them out over time or delegate it to people.

Freedom is found in the disciplines.