We’ve been working on training to help people implement tactical ways to demonstrate a “People First” or relationship-driven mindset. It started out as something to meet a need for a retail client and has turned into a professional development topic for an entirely different industry. In a world where every business is trying to figure out a way to distinguish themselves and create a competitive advantage, treating people like people is a good a place as any to start. To do this, the critical piece is to identify and meet needs. To create an environment where this can be done: Make eye
Our previous post, “Leaders, Focus on Moving Your Middle – Play Offense, Not Defense”, emphasized the importance of focusing on moving your middle majority to high performers. But how do you do that? How do you get your good players, or your B players, to become A players? They all can’t be converted, but those who have usually have a leader that: 1. Sets high expectations. This comes in the form of setting challenging goals and holding people accountable to them. 2. After high expectations are set, the leader then provides Assurance and Confidence. This involves saying things like, “I know we’ve
I had the chance to catch-up on some reading while on vacation recently. I received The Power of Moments from a co-worker as a birthday present (she knows my love language is books), and it had been sitting on my office desk just itching to be read. The book highlights the importance of four characteristics that create moments: Elevation- Experiences that “rise above the routine.” Insight– Experiences that “rewire our understanding of ourselves or the world”. Pride– Experiences that “capture us at our best” including times of achievement and/or courage.” Connection– Experiences that are social and that are heightened because they are
Let’s pretend you have a performance appraisal system that rates people on a scale of 1-7. One being the worst, seven being rock-star status. You have ten direct reports and you have honestly and accurately rated them all (we’re assuming a perfect world here, bear with me). Here’s the breakdown of where people fall: You have three people in the 1-3 range. You have six people in the 4-6 range. And you have one lone rock star at 7. Which group should you focus most of your energy on in the coming year? If customer satisfaction research leads us to
I remember when I got feedback one time after a leadership training session that the training needed to include more role-playing. I hate role-playing. Or at least participating in it, so I assumed everyone else hates the exercise of pretending too. But besides hating it, I thought there were other learning methods that could emulate the same type of result that role-playing could, so I avoided it. But when I think about trying to coach and teach people through critical leadership moments- those that require courage- role-playing, or at least practicing what needs to be done may be the best