The diamond in your midst

Middle managers need leadership development

There’s a hidden gem in your organization. This person is working right there among your workforce and having a huge impact on your organization’s success. No, it’s not the owner or a top exec — who’s more than likely pretty high-profile in your local market and industry. And, no, we’re not necessarily referring to that hotshot salesperson who “makes it rain.”

The diamond in your midst is none other than your middle manager. That’s right; he or she is the shining hero whom you may inadvertently be undervaluing or simply not recognizing or developing adequately. Unless you keep your middle manager polished and bright through ongoing leadership development, this precious jewel will remain hidden and dulled. He or she may even slip from your grasp.

A changing, growing profession

So what’s the big deal about middle managers? Think about the important role they play. Middle managers are, essentially, the “hub” of everything your organization seeks to accomplish. They’re the ones who must take the broad strategic initiatives handed down from the “C-Suite” and execute these plans in real life.

Meanwhile, it’s also the job of the middle manager to inform, interact with and inspire the employees in the departments under them. In other words, they’re handed the mission-critical task of keeping your workforce engaged.

Indeed, middle managers are fast becoming a key cog in our national economy. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released just a couple of years ago, there were about 10.8 million middle managers working in the United States. In a 2013 Wall Street Journal article, middle managers were described as making up “a growing share of the U.S. workforce.”

But this burgeoning population of professionals also faces great challenges. In the current era of “rock star” CEOs, middle managers are often ignored, viewed as easily replaceable or, in worst cases, left to take the blame when upper management’s strategic initiatives fail. And the increased use of specialized project teams has only exacerbated the tendency in many organizations to undervalue their middle managers.

The good news for your organization is that these issues create an opportunity. If you can change your view of middle managers, recognize the contributions of yours and then maximize the value of this underrecognized human asset, you’ll gain a competitive advantage.

How middle managers make a difference

Do middle managers really make a difference in organizational performance? Recent studies indicate that, yes, they absolutely do.

Just a few paragraphs above, we mentioned the mission-critical task of employee engagement. This is where middle managers come up huge. Those who can keep an organization’s ratio of engaged-to-disengaged employees as high as possible make a marked difference on the bottom line.

For example, according to the 2013 Gallup study State of the American Workplace: Employee Engagement Insights for U.S. Business Leaders, organizations with a 9:1 ratio of engaged employees to disengaged employees reported 147% higher earnings per share than their competition during the study period.

Middle managers have a significant effect on employee turnover as well. In a recent Accenture study, 31% of respondents cited “They don’t like their boss” as their reason for quitting. Another 31% pointed to “a lack of empowerment.” Middle managers have a direct and lasting impact on both of these attitudes.

1 question, 2 important words

Here’s another critical question: How can you maximize the effectiveness and productivity of your middle managers? We can answer that in two words: leadership development.

By investing in leadership development, you get the most from not only your upper-level managers, but also these crucial middle managers. If you’ve been considering implementing a leadership development program but just haven’t been able to pull the trigger, don’t wait too much longer. Your competitors may be already doing so!

Research released in May 2014 by Bersin by Deloitte, an HR consultancy, found that leadership development spending rose by 14% in 2013 to an estimated $15.5 billion. Small businesses were, believe it or not, the biggest spenders — investing 23% more in leadership development during 2013 than they did during 2012. And the amount invested on average for middle managers was only $3,900 per person.

Priorities for organizations devoting time and money to leadership development include improving middle managers’ communication skills, of course, as well as enhancing their ability to identify and manage talent. But some of the major focuses of today’s leadership development programs may surprise you.

For instance, a survey of 800 global executives and senior talent development professionals by Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning found that 80% of respondents were targeting “change management capabilities” while developing their middle managers. Moreover, 77% of respondents were working to instill “a leadership mindset” in their middle managers.

Final question

One last question for you: What does your organization need to do right now to develop its middle-management leadership? Today’s top performers are already doing it, so you don’t want to get left behind.

We can help. Our LEAP® program was specifically designed to bring Fortune 100 leadership development to small to midsize organizations in an affordable package. LEAP identifies key areas for personal leadership improvement in both middle and upper-level managers — using professional assessment tools, individual coaching, real-world application and small peer-based learning groups.

LEAP® is a practical, fact-based, results-driven program designed for immediate practical application in your organization. We have cohort groups starting throughout the year. Now is the time to find your gems and really polish them so your organization will shine brighter than its competitors. For help, contact us here.

4 daunting threats to work/life balance

Just about every employee these days wants work/life balance — if not right away, at least once he or she has reached a certain experience or comfort level on the job. And employers, for the most part, have acquiesced. The concept of work/life balance isn’t scoffed at or viewed nearly as suspiciously as it was, say, 20 or 30 years ago.

As you seek to grant your employees as much work/life balance as is feasible, watch out. There are many daunting threats out there that can upset that balance one way or the other — to the detriment of both your organization and the worker. Here’s a look at four of them.

1. Poor communication

Naturally, many factors can cause an employee to work either too much or too little — the two ends of the spectrum that is work/life balance. But one of the biggest threats to this crucial equilibrium is poor communication.

Assumptions can be a dangerous thing. If an employee assumes you want a certain level of production from him or her, that worker may strive to overachieve and, in the process, suffer from burnout.

Of course, that doesn’t mean staff members shouldn’t work to exceed your expectations. But if they’re trying to do too much because their job description is unclear or their supervisors aren’t providing clear direction, problems can arise both at home and in the workplace.

A lack of communication can also lead employees to underperform. If a supervisor is aloof or simply not motivating his or her team adequately, work/life balance can fall into jeopardy. Employees may learn to do the bare minimum at work and spend the rest of their days on personal activities. Your organization’s productivity and, therefore, bottom line may drag as a result.

If you offer a telecommuting program to facilitate work/life balance, be particularly careful. In data drawn from more than 2,300 telephone interviews with chief information officers of midsize U.S. companies in 23 major metro areas, a 2014 Robert Half Technology survey found that 30% of respondents cited “communication (lack of face time)” as the biggest challenge to managing off-site staff.

2. Excessive flexibility

Flexibility lies at the core of work/life balance. In an attempt to help workers manage their “work” and “life” responsibilities as healthfully as possible, employers have tried to become as flexible as possible. Generally, this has been a good thing.

But being flexible with employees may also lead you to being inconsistent. And this is where organizations can get into all sorts of trouble — from having poor morale and work environments because some staffers are treated more flexibly than others, all the way to suffering costly lawsuits born out of a disgruntled employee’s belief that he or she has suffered discrimination.

The solution here is, in a word, consistency. Develop, write down and distribute clear, formal policies for your organization’s flexible work policies. Be sure to address, both in writing and in discussions with staff, any apparent inconsistencies. (But ask your attorney to review your documented policies before distributing them to staff.)

Among the trickier aspects of flextime work schedules is that some positions are well suited to variable hours while others simply aren’t. A marketing strategist, for example, might be able to work a less traditionally conventional schedule fairly easily, whereas an IT staffer might have to be on-site during regular hours to respond to questions and put out fires.

Another example: retail stores and manufacturers. Employees of these types of organizations obviously must be on-site during specific hours. But their employers can still encourage work/life balance by offering a helpful variety of shifts or providing ample banks of paid time off.

Whatever approaches your organization takes, state your flexible employment policies in plain, reasonable language. And, again, stick closely and consistently to these stated rules.

3. Technology troubles

One of the most powerful drivers of work/life balance over the last decade has been technology. Long gone are the days when employers were the only ones with powerful computers, dynamic communication systems and gigabytes upon gigabytes of data storage capacity. Nowadays, most employees are carrying around more powerful computing devices in their pockets than the ones that used to sit on their desks.

But technology can have a dark side, too. Once an employee has 24/7 access to his or her e-mail and your organization’s network, being able to work anytime can turn into working all the time. This may, in time, put that worker at risk for burning out or developing unrealistic expectations of co-workers’ response times.

Problems like this are where, again, supervisors need to step in and communicate effectively. During midyear check-ins and year end performance evaluations, don’t hesitate to discuss an employee’s technology-related work habits if you feel they’re becoming an issue.

For example, perhaps someone is beating deadlines by a wide margin but not really submitting the highest quality work. Is that employee working from home late into the night? Could he or she benefit from some refocusing to slow down and tighten up quality while still maintaining acceptable timeliness?

4. Lack of identity

At the end of the day, work/life balance is really a question of identity. Every employee doesn’t view his or her work exactly the same. Typically, you can separate workers’ approaches into three general categories:

Separation. Employees who take this approach are looking to draw a strict, definitive line between work and life. They may prefer a flex schedule to telecommuting because it will keep their job duties in the workplace and their family or personal obligations at home.

Fusion. Here a worker will try to closely integrate work responsibilities with life responsibilities. Telecommuting is often a natural fit here, because the employee will (theoretically, at least) be able to seamlessly weave job deadlines with personal obligations.

Transition. Some staff members may vacillate back and forth between separation and fusion. This may not be a bad thing if the employee is separating to really focus on a big project or fusing while he or she deals with, say, a family medical situation. Or it could mean a worker is simply evolving from a separator to a fuser (or vice versa) to perform more effectively.

None of these three categories are, in and of themselves, bad. But an employee who has not yet established an identity under any of them is at risk for struggling with work/life balance. A fuser may feel confined and frustrated having to work a conventional, set schedule. Conversely, a separator may simply be unable to effectively integrate work and life responsibilities and need a set-in-stone schedule.

Help is here

Make no mistake: Employees bear a large amount of responsibility in finding their own work/life balances. But good leadership and sound supervision can really help your workers find their way, with greater productivity and brighter morale following fast behind.

Performance Dimensions Group specializes in workforce optimization services such as individual and job match assessments, and leadership and organizational effectiveness. And we’ve been doing it for 15 years! Click here to contact us to assist your organization in enabling its valued employees to find the right work/life balance.

August/September Newsletter 2014

Y, oh, Y? Understanding Millennials and their productivity potential

If they’re not already taking over your office, they soon will be. Generation Y, also known as Millennials, will soon make up a huge portion of the global workforce as Baby Boomers retire in scores and Generation Xers (those born between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s) settle into established roles.

Members of Generation Y were born between 1980 and 1995. They don’t just like technology, as Gen Xers do, they live it. And unlike Baby Boomers, who grew up in the “let your freak flag fly“ individualism of the 1960s, Millennials generally want and need to be part of a group. The good news for employers is, once you understand Gen Y, you can more than likely find some great ways to maximize their considerable productivity potential.

Find your balance

Let’s face it; everyone wants work-life balance these days. Many a Baby Boomer probably wants a flex schedule to spend more time with the grandkids. And a Gen Xer is likely the parent of one of those kids, who needs flexibility to manage busy school pick-ups and drop-offs.

But Millennials might be the first generation to truly expect work-life balance. Just last year, multinational professional services provider PricewaterhouseCoopers released the results of a two-year global generational study conducted jointly with the University of Southern California and London Business School. “Work-life balance,“ the published report states, “is one of the most significant drivers of employee retention and a primary reason [Gen Y] may choose a nontraditional professional career track.“

Statistically speaking, the study found that 71% percent of Millennials believe work interferes with their personal lives. Meanwhile, 64% want to occasionally work from home, while 66% want flexible work hours that don’t necessarily conform to the traditional nine-to-five format.

What does it all mean? Well, it doesn’t mean you have to let Gen Yers work when- and wherever they want while doing as little or as much as they feel like. But it does likely mean that, when you find good workers of this age group, you’re probably best off working with them to ensure they have a good work-life balance. Doing so may mean offering flexible hours for in-office employees and a telecommuting option for positions suited to working remotely.

Help them collaborate

For the most part, Millennials grew up in an educational era of collaboration. As typically remains the case even today, elementary school desks are grouped together rather than set up in rows. Many high school and college projects are group activities, not solitary term papers or the like.

Of course, one need look no further than social media to observe the significance of collaboration and “group inclusion“ with Gen Y. Facebook and Twitter have risen to prominence during their upbringing — having friends and followers, being part of a network, has never been more important. Current favorites such as Snapchat and Kik enable instant, simple communication.

From this standpoint, employers need to bear in mind that in-office Millennials are likely to do well in a more collaborative environment — perhaps even an open office plan, if feasible. Look toward encouraging an “all-in“ approach to strategic decisions rather than a “top-down“ approach of the boss giving the marching orders.

Above all, give them their data! Millennials are accustomed to having the full wealth of the world’s knowledge at their fingertips. Today’s successful organizations must have comprehensive information networks that enable quicker insights and faster decision making. Gen Y doesn’t want to work for “dinosaurs“ that rarely change and take forever to take action on an opportunity. They want to give their all to nimble, progressive organizations.

Try to keep up

Millennials aren’t just mobile in their everyday work habits; they’re mobile in their employment habits as well. This is not a generation that, like the Baby Boomers or their predecessors, will likely spend decades with one organization.

As evidence, the London Business School regularly surveys participants of its Emerging Leaders Programme, a training ground for future global managers. The most recent results showed a stunning 90% of respondents expected to stay with their current employer for no more than five years, and more than a third didn’t foresee staying for more than two years. The average age of respondents was 29 — in other words, they were almost exclusively Gen Y.

Of course, this is a European-based study, not an American one. But, in an increasingly global business world, there is probably little difference in the proclivities of young employees.

The message to employers is clear: Winning the employee retention game is going to be mission-critical in coming years. Millennials tend to want constant challenges and professional development opportunities. So, to retain the best, you’ll need to be thinking about how to integrate coaching, mentoring and continuing education/training programs into their workloads.

Look for upside and leverage their talents

Each succeeding generation presents challenges as it enters the workforce. Sometimes conflicts can develop between established employees and these newer staff members. Or an organization may suffer cultural growing pains across the board, as fresh attitudes and ways of working present themselves.

The key, always, is to look for upside. Determine how Generation Y’s energy, mobility and sociability can make your organization better. Put them to work using technology and social media tools that are optimized for accomplishing your strategic objectives.

For help training and developing staff — be they Millennials, Gen Xers or Baby Boomers — we’re here to serve you (in old ways and new). Performance Dimensions Group has been serving clients for 15 years, and we’re looking forward to many more. Please contact us to discuss your needs anytime.

Do You Care for Your Tone?

Do You Care for Your Tone?

Reviewing Your Organizational Culture

“I don’t care for your tone!” Most of us probably heard this scolding utterance at least once from an adult when we were kids. Now that you’re a grown-up in a leadership role, one hopes you don’t hear it too often. But what about your organization’s tone? Do you care for it?

More specifically, we’re referring to organizational culture. In a nutshell, this is the tone (and style) of your work environment as created by the values of your organization and the behaviors of its employees. Every workplace has one and, every so often, it’s good to reflect on both the good and the bad.

It matters, increasingly

Organizational culture can be a contentious topic. Some may question the importance of focusing on a “meta” topic like this when there are so many other competitive challenges to an organization. Yet there are signs that, increasingly, culture matters to both management and staff.

For instance, in the 2012 report Culture in the Workplace from consultancy Deloitte, 94% of executives and 88% of employees stated a belief that a distinct workplace culture is important to business success. The report also found a correlation between workers who believe their organizations have a “clearly articulated and lived culture” and those who report being “happy at work.”

Another reason organizational culture is important nowadays is the constant need for innovation. Few, if any, organizations can survive in the 21st Century without innovating in some way — even if it’s just gradually tweaking their products or services to keep up with customers’ wants and needs.

Another recent consultancy study, the 2012 Insigniam Corporate Culture Report, found that a substantial number of executives, 47%, pointed to their organization’s culture as the biggest roadblock to innovation. Is your tone holding you back from that next “aha!” moment?

4 sides: A framework

As you might expect, getting your arms around something as intangible as organizational culture isn’t easy. One way to make it a little more manageable is to approach it under the following four-sided framework:

1. Management to management. Every organization’s values and much of its behavior begin with management. When managers work well together and appear at ease in one another’s company, employees pick up on this and will likely be more relaxed and confident themselves.

In contrast, constant bickering in the corner offices, highly noticeable power struggles and heavy turnover will cause staff to feel uneasy and may give them the tacit go-ahead to behave similarly. This can have a crushing effect on productivity and morale.

2. Management to staff. Look at how each manager deals with his or her respective departments. (You may already be doing this during your annual review process.) Managers who are on good terms with their employees and can speak to them in a relaxed, friendly and frank manner are probably contributing to a positive culture.

Meanwhile, regular conflicts or even just an excessive degree of coldness can have a chilling effect on culture. Also dangerous are managers who isolate themselves from their staffs. In these situations, a culture can deteriorate into a free-for-all, “anything goes” environment where everyone is on a different page and too little is getting done.

3. Staff to staff. How do your employees get along with each other? Are things fairly peaceful at the moment or are you seeing an alarming rise in conflicts or turnover? Are social events well attended or are staff members starting to withdraw?

These are all important questions to ask. When it comes to employees, organizational culture can be a bit like the thermostat in your home. Sometimes you have to turn it up to warm things up and get people talking and interacting. Other times, you have to cool the environment down a little to keep people focused and productive.

4. Staff to customers. Don’t forget about the ultimate end-result of your culture! That is, how does it affect your clients or customers? A fun, free-wheeling, informal culture can draw a certain clientele but confuse or frustrate another. Then again, a tense work environment can rub off on customers, who may find themselves dealing with brusque or defensive employees.

Finding the right balance means going back up to the executive level and reviewing the values of the organization and its approach to doing business. You may need to tighten up your culture if “the party has gotten out of hand.” But you could also need to reassure staff that you trust their judgment and give them the freedom to interact with customers according to their own styles.

Productive solutions

As you review your organizational culture, try to pinpoint specific problems. Use careful language to describe them. Doing so will make it easier for you and your management team to devise productive solutions.

When you’re ready to apply those solutions, be sure to clearly explain your efforts to staff and get their buy-in. Culture change rarely, if ever, works when a distant, vague command comes down from the executive suite and employees are simply expected to fall in line.

Help is available!

Need some help? Performance Dimensions Group is dedicated to optimizing your organization’s productivity by helping you attract, engage, develop, align and retain top-performing employees. And a big part of doing so is fully understanding organizational culture — and targeting ways to improve it. You can contact us here.

Building a High-Performance Culture: Raise It Up or Tear It Down?

Leader’s Toolkit

Building a High-Performance Culture: Raise It Up or Tear It Down?

“A culture is made — or destroyed — by its articulate voices.” ~ Ayn Rand

As the new year turns from spring to summer, it’s time to start thinking about the house you’ve built over and around your organization. Specifically, we want to help you envision your organizational leaders as “cultural architects.” As a leader, it’s your job to create and sustain culture in an organization. Yet shaping the culture can, at times, be a heavy burden to carry.

Your organization’s culture is the foundation upon which your results sit. A weak, dysfunctional or misaligned culture will usually yield poor results. A strong, high-functioning, well-aligned culture, on the other hand, will typically bind people together to produce amazing results.

Organizational culture is generally defined as the values, beliefs, symbols and norms people follow in the execution of an organization’s day-to-day business transactions. It shows up in behaviors that are considered acceptable and unacceptable — behaviors that begin and end with the attitudes and actions of leadership.

6 phases of construction

So, as leaders, you can choose to either build a high-performance culture or allow a variety of destructive forces to tear down your culture. If we look at the raising up of an effective culture as a construction project, here are six phases of the job that you’ll need to complete:

1. Goal setting: The building plans. Every construction project begins with a plan, right? In the same vein, leaders must set specific goals to drive success and point people in the right direction. Goals can be thought of as the overall plan for what needs to be accomplished during a given period in order to achieve key organizational objectives.

To ensure buy-in and line-of-sight, be sure to allow employees plenty of input in establishing their own short- and long-term goals. In addition, ensure objectives are put in writing using the “SMART” criteria (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-bound), prioritized and regularly evaluated.

2. Expectation setting: The pre-project meeting. Before most construction projects, the contractor sits down with his project manager and workers and goes over the building plans. Why? Because putting something down on paper isn’t enough — expectations must be established. Clarify items such as:

The roles employees will play in each given project,
Specific behavioral expectations (what’s acceptable/unacceptable),
What resources are available and where to find them,
How the work/project is important to the organization, and
How to communicate about progress, changes and obstacles.

Clear expectations are as important as the goals you set. In fact, research has shown that a lack of clear expectations is often the root cause of poor performance. Expectations can be thought of as the “means” or how one achieves his or her goals. Expectations set the boundaries of behavior so people can “play big” and “play fair” as they work to achieve their goals.

3. Continuous feedback and coaching: “The barking foreman.” When many of us think of a construction project in progress, we might think of workers clambering about a half-built structure, pounding hammers and carrying different building elements. But we may also picture a foreman or project manager walking around, barking orders to the hardworking crew.

Now the barking part isn’t advisable in most work environments. But your busy workers do need effective systems in place for determining whether they’re making progress and meeting stated goals and expectations. A few ideas might be:

Simple scorecards to denote “gains,” “wins” and “losses” toward an outcome,
Budgets and profit and loss statements for financially related activities,
Customer feedback forms for customer-facing employees, and
Weekly, monthly or quarterly production data for suitable employees.

Other key factors are verbal feedback and an open, two-way dialogue.

Leaders must create a feedback-rich environment where employees know where they stand. Course-correction feedback (when an employee has drifted too far from the goal) and acknowledgment and praise (for progress and momentum in achieving the goal) are equally important. In fact, studies have shown that a 5:1 ratio of positive interactions/feedback to negative promotes the most effective self-development and performance.

In short, communication is critical to creating and maintaining a high-performance culture. Leaders are visible, caring individuals who provide “state of the organization” information regularly and don’t shield employees from bad news. They share expectations, provide feedback and acknowledge strengths. High-performing cultures manage to strike a balance of both quality and quantity of information communicated.

4. Development: Raising the roof. As a construction project nears its finish, the roof — either literally or figuratively — is raised. The property is being developed into something new, useful and exciting.

So should it be with employees. Leaders need to create and execute an ongoing process to develop staff members in their areas of strength and interest. The best managers/leaders find ways to make every day a “development day” for their people. Specific ideas include:

Stretch projects or strategic assignments,
Discussing development areas during 1:1 meetings,
Providing current and future job-related training opportunities,
Succession planning,
Internal advancement ideas, and
General career planning.

Leaders have these and many other methods at their disposal to grow, shape and engage employees while improving organizational performance.

5. Performance appraisals: The punch list. At the very end of a project, most contractors must complete a “punch list.” This is an itemized document reflecting precisely what needs to be finished to truly complete the project. Similarly, performance appraisals provide a summary at the end of a given term that lets employees know how well they’re meeting expectations and progressing toward their goals.

In terms of driving performance, however, an annual appraisal is your least effective tool. People want to know how they’re doing in the here and now, yet such appraisals focus largely on the past.

Performance comprises both results (what) and behavior (how). So, to do an appraisal right, you need to address both the “what” and the “how.” Set up appraisals on regular cycles and, of course, follow the golden rule: There should be no surprises! Always step in immediately when problems arise — don’t wait until the next appraisal.

6. Recognition and reward: Celebrating completion. The successful end of a construction project is generally referred to as “completion.” It’s something that contractors strive to reach efficiently and profitably. And, at least for large projects, they often celebrate when they get there successfully.

Encouragement and celebration in every organization are critical. Leaders must recognize progress as well as accomplishment of a goal, so employees know they’re on the right track and will keep striving for success. Recognition doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, what distinguishes recognition from rewards is the use of “I” words that create “intrinsic” rewards, which tend to last longer and be more meaningful to employees than monetary or “extrinsic” rewards. Intrinsic rewards include things such as:

Assignments of more interesting work,
Involvement in key projects or decisions,
Opportunities to work independently, and
Sharing information.

Another good approach might be to share success stories during staff meetings or events or in company e-mails or a newsletter (if you have one). Oral or written praise delivered in this manner can serve as a real morale booster to recipients.

Whereas recognition tends to be intangible, rewards are generally tangible. They include statues, company merchandise or plaques. Of course, rewards may also be financial — such as spot bonuses, merit raises or other monetary incentives. Remember, the more timely the recognition/reward is given, the stronger the connection to performance.

The demolition crew

We’ve listed above the six phases of building a positive culture. But what about the behaviors that can tear one down? These are just as important to identify when trying to make productive changes to your organization. As you endeavor to raise up your organization’s culture, watch out for the demolition crew:

Flawed character. Dishonesty, intentionally poor communication and blame can sabotage any culture.

Fear. Organizations that refuse to take any risks and that avoid problems and tough decisions typically don’t get far.

Unchecked power. If leaders have or need complete control over others, a culture won’t thrive. Employees will feel that collaboration is pointless.

Arrogance. Anyone with too much pride, who is unable to admit mistakes, ask for help or recognize the value of others, is more than likely a liability. These individuals can poison even the best-intentioned culture.

Ineffective coaches. At the end of every season, no matter what the sport, a number of coaches (or, in baseball, managers) are usually fired. Most of these individuals may not have been bad employees, per se. But, in their employers’ opinions, they failed to develop a winning environment for their players. This dilemma can apply to any type of organization — which doesn’t necessarily mean you should fire a bad coach, but he or she may need additional training or, in worst cases, reassignment.

You are the architect

Leaders play a key role in the process of creating a positive, high-performing culture. You are, in fact, the architect. Your behavior, attitude, language or jargon, style of dress, decision-making process, everyday work practices and strategic direction create the cultural blueprint for not only your employees, but also clients, suppliers and anyone else who comes in contact with your organization.

Thus, as a leader and architect, you’ve got to recognize the boundary lines of your existing culture, align your strategies accordingly and always be on the lookout for ways to improve it. For help assessing your culture, determining whether your leadership style/habits are aligned with your organization’s strategic objectives, and targeting effective improvements for the future, please contact us.

LEAD, GROW, INSPIRE: Rousing Quotes To Get Your Staff Rolling

“If you show people the problems, and you show people the solutions, they will be moved to act.” ∼ Bill Gates
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” ∼ George Patton
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” ∼ Jack Welch
“A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” ∼ John Maxwell
“A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe fruit at length falls into his lap.” ∼ Abraham Lincoln
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” ∼ Mark Twain
“Do what you can, with what you have, right where you are.” ∼ Theodore Roosevelt
“Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” ∼ Dwight D. Eisenhower
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” ∼ John Quincy Adams

And, for reasons that will soon become obvious, here’s our favorite:

“LEAD with heart and authenticity; GROW a little every day; INSPIRE the best in yourself and others.” ∼ Lynda Silsbee, Performance Dimensions Group

Leaders must inspire others and help them along their respective paths to greatness. When a leader’s message is strong and clear, employers can become partners in their organization’s progress and believers in themselves. Everyone feels energized and ready for success. Never underestimate the power of words and what they can do for your organization. And thanks for reading our words. You INSPIRE us to LEAD and GROW every day of the year!

Spark Your Team on Staff Appreciation Day This Year

Have you ever stopped to think about what “spring” means? As a verb, the word means “to move or jump suddenly upward or forward.” As a season, it means warmer weather and a great time to clean out the office. But instead of just doing some tidying up this year, Performance Dimensions Group challenges you to move your company upward and forward. How? Spring into action and spark your team! Show them how much you appreciate their efforts and time. Employee recognition is one of the most powerful tools you can use to motivate — and it can cost very little to nothing. The official Staff Appreciation Day is always the last Wednesday in April, so here are a few suggestions on how you can recognize your team right now:

No Cost

Write a personal thank-you note (or at least send an e-mail).
Give employees a longer lunch break for the day.
Create weekly or monthly awards to recognize those whose actions go unnoticed.
Acknowledge specific staff members in status reports.
Support “flex-friendly” schedules.
Give note cards to every team and have members write positive messages to each other.
Pay every employee a personal visit and practice nonverbal positive behavior cues, such as smiling.
Celebrate birthdays in new and imaginative ways.
Produce your own virtual recognition awards using e-mail blasts or e-cards.
Bake a cake, cupcakes, cookies, pie, gluten-free muffins … well, you get the idea — everyone loves food!
Please top performers with a prime parking spot.

Minimal Cost

Find out each employee’s hobby and buy an appropriate gift.
Distribute restaurant gift cards.
Give the gift of wellness: Offer up a spa day.
Provide weekly team breakfasts.
Have $5 coffee cards ready to give away.
Inscribe your favorite book with a thank-you note and give it to a team member who you know will enjoy it.
Hold a surprise pizza party.
Hand out cards with movie tickets.
Set up barbeques in the parking lot and have a cookout.
Enhance employees’ vacation time by giving them $100 before they leave.

These are just a few examples of what you can do in your workplace to reward and recognize your employees so they feel valued and avoid job burnout. Choose the ones that work for your organization’s culture or be creative and invent your own. If you take the latter route, please let us know what you come up with! We’d love to hear from you, and you could win our “Best Recognition of Your Employees” prize for 2013! We’ll post the winning entry on our website — with attribution, of course. And the winner will receive four “coffee cards” for energizing you and your staff!

When Spring Cleaning Goes Wrong

Ah, spring … when our thoughts turn to renewal, to change, to the clearing out of old, useless clutter — be it physical objects or mental habits. Clean is good; and emptier spaces, whether in the office or in our heads, give us room to stretch and grow. But while you’re busy dumping dusty file folders into recycling bins or adding a 10-minute meditation break to your morning routine, make sure you’re not inadvertently throwing out something else: good employees. Yes, even the most well-intentioned leaders could be mistakenly pushing productive workers out the door by either doing certain things wrong or neglecting to do others at all.

Warm bodies abound: Finding the right fit

Now hold on, you might say, the economy remains in slow recovery mode. If we do unintentionally lose a few, we can get them right back. There’s still a line of able-skilled applicants around the block, right? Not necessarily. A Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey of 601 small business owners conducted in January of this year found that 53% of respondents had difficulty finding the right employees — and 24% stated that this challenge had hurt their businesses. So, while you may be able to find the proverbial “warm bodies,” you could have a tough time replacing employees who:

Specialize in the skill sets you need,
Know the ins and outs of your company already, and
Mesh well with your existing culture and workforce.

Let’s be honest: The best and brightest workers are always hard to replace and could leave for greener pastures at any time — regardless of where the economy stands.

Promises made and broken: Managing change

Change is difficult for employees — whether it comes from a mere “spring cleaning” effort to boost productivity or something as monumental as a merger or acquisition. Of course, that’s not to suggest that change is bad. Every organization must evolve with the times and maintain the flexibility it needs to compete. No, where change becomes a problem is when it’s inconsistently executed and poorly communicated. Good employees may start to vanish when they believe inexplicable priority shifts are taking place that seem to come out of the blue and never produce results. For example, a huge push into social media is announced with significant demands on everyone’s time. Yet, three months later, the company’s Facebook page lies dormant and there’s been little indication of any return on investment. Six months later, the organization announces a shift back toward traditional marketing with no mention of the previous initiative. The result: Workers feel “jerked around.” The greater issue in play here isn’t only shifting priorities; it’s a failure to honor commitments. Many organizations don’t realize that, when they undertake a policy change or shift in direction, they’ve made an implicit promise to employees to follow through on the effort and keep staff in the loop. And just as employees must be held accountable for their work, leadership must stay accountable to their workers. Make sure you’re not making promises — implicit or otherwise — that you can’t keep. Otherwise, even a vague sense of betrayal may send productive workers heading for the door.

3 primary to-dos: Keeping your house in order

On the other hand, you might be doing nothing wrong at all. It’s what you’re not doing that could be sending key employees across town to your competitor or headlong into a career change. Again, if you’re making some refreshing spring changes right now to your personal work habits or the organization as a whole, make sure you’re not overlooking your staff while doing so. Generally, leaders who succeed at nurturing and retaining quality staff keep three primary things on their to-do lists: 1. Challenge. On a regular basis, you need to be giving employees chances to stretch their skills into new areas and greater accomplishments. An annual or semiannual goal-setting process is an ideal way to set this up. But keep your eyes open for “goals of opportunity” that pop up over the course of the year. At the end of the day, boredom is a valid reason to leave a job — and you could lose a good worker because of it. 2. Develop. Providing (or at least offering) ongoing training and professional education isn’t the same as challenging workers. This is simply fundamental. Skill sets need to adapt to industry changes and new technology. A worker who doesn’t feel developmentally supported by an employer may move on to another company that will do a better job in this area. 3. Recognize. It can be easy to unconsciously take a great employee for granted — especially if you’re undertaking strategic changes or tweaks to your own work habits. Don’t let it happen, as feeling ignored can only compound other silent dissatisfactions under which the staffer may be laboring. Lack of recognition, unless it’s particularly extreme, may not drive an employee out the door. But it can be the last straw.

New day rising

Is it a new day for you or your organization as a whole? If so, great! Rejuvenation is a beautiful thing. Just make sure your best workers continue to feel engaged and rewarded in every sense — including financially, intellectually and emotionally. For help targeting the right spring changes this year and keeping your best and brightest employees engaged, please contact us! We believe every organization can be GREAT and offer a wide range of services to enable you to achieve and maintain a high level of success.

April/May 2013

When Spring Cleaning Goes Wrong — Are You Inadvertently “Throwing Out” Good Employees?

Have you ever stopped to think about what “spring” means? As a verb, the word means “to move or jump suddenly upward or forward.” As a season, it means warmer weather and a great time to clean out the office. But instead of just doing some tidying up this year, Performance Dimensions Group challenges you to move your company upward and forward. How? Spring into action and spark your team! Show them how much you appreciate their efforts and time. Employee recognition is one of the most powerful tools you can use to motivate — and it can cost very little to nothing. Read More... LEAD, GROW, INSPIRE: Rousing Quotes To Get Your Staff Rolling PMam13_3

At Performance Dimensions Group, we live by our core values of LEAD, GROW, INSPIRE. And what better time than spring to receive — and give — a bit of inspiration? Among the best ways to get inspired is to read stories about success and successful people. For example, take Seattle native Bill Gates. He began to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13. Through his technological innovation and sharp business strategies, he and partner Paul Allen built the world’s largest software company: Microsoft. As leaders, we look to books, life stories and inspiring quotes of successful entrepreneurs and others to elevate our ability to guide our organizations and employees toward greater success. Your staff might find a spark for their passions and some direction for their personal goals in the words of a famous person, too. Here are a few such quotes to consider: Read More... CEO Confidence Index Highlights: 49% think economic conditions have improved from 1 year ago. 68% anticipate sales revenue will increase in the next 12 months. 52% expect their number of employees to increase during the next 12 months. 35% say political and economic uncertainty are the most significant issues they are currently facing (down from 46% in Q4 2012) Only 11% say it is easy to find people with the right skills to grow their business - 75% say it is difficult to find qualified talent. Thank you for your business and referrals - Please contact us at any time with questions or comments.

April/May 2014 Newsletter

When Spring Cleaning Goes Wrong Are You Inadvertently “Throwing Out” Good Employees?