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Today’s Work Challenges Require New Leadership Approaches

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:52:50 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

Recently I have been working with companies and executives who have been experiencing failure with strategies that brought them success in the past. However, the world has changed. This requires each of us to adapt and evolve as leaders. Unfortunately, many of us are stuck approaching new challenges the same way we did in the past, thinking the old way will still work.

Although employees haven’t changed, the work environment they find themselves in has changed. Many have taken on not only larger workloads, but also pay cuts. As a leader, what have you done to adjust your leadership approach during these changing times? If you haven’t adapted, you may be in for a rude awakening. Recent surveys have shown that as the economy stabilizes and starts to trend upwards, high performing employees will be more likely to leave their jobs. Given this predicted trend, how can you, as a leader, retain your star performers and not lose them to your competitors?

Before valuable employees start leaving, now is the time to make adjustments to your leadership approach. Below you will find four simple and low cost steps you can take:

1. COMMUNICATE THE ROAD TO SUCCESS

I recently met with a group of partners who expressed their concern about the low morale in their organization which they believed was due to pay cuts. When I asked them if employees understood what needed to happen in order to have their salaries restored to 100%, the answer was no. Therefore, if you have not clearly articulated your company’s path to recovery, don’t wait! Once you have the defined the criteria, report your company’s progress to recovery on a consistent and frequent basis. Unless employees know and understand your plan for recovery and are made aware of the progress, they will make up their own stories, which I can promise you never have happy endings!

2. SHOW THAT YOU CARE

Showing you care does not cost money. Yet during this recession so many leaders have chosen to focus on short-term results and often forget the “little things” that show they care. The following are easy and effective ways to show you care:

•   Be visible to your employees, Walk around the office, observe and listen.

•   Praise people for a job well done. Just saying “Good job!” is not enough. Be specific about   what the employee did and how it impacted you and the organization.

•   When you see someone struggling, ask the employee what assistance they need that will help make them more successful.

•   When possible, provide flexibility in your employees’ work hours. Remember each employee has a personal life that at times may get in the way of their regular work hours.

3. LEAD BY EXAMPLE

A golden rule of business is: “only ask of your employees what you would do yourself.” If the workload requires people to work weekends during peak periods, then you also need to be in the office. For example, every year during tax season a regional accounting firm has a tradition of bringing in dinner for employees who work late to meet the tax filing deadline. The managing partner is not only there each evening, but he also serves the dinner and walks the halls looking for opportunities to support his staff.

4. CELEBRATE SUCCESS

Success comes in all sizes and often leaders are so focused on the big goals that they fail to recognize the smaller successes within their organization. When a local Atlanta company experienced a significant decline in business over the past 18 months, they rightfully spent much of their waking hours trying to bring in revenue to grow the business back to where it once was in 2008. However, they were so focused on this big goal, they did not realize several small internal successes that didn’t drive revenue, but did increase company profits. One project that required a lot of hard work by many staff members was a new technology implementation that saved the company over $20K annually. But because the savings weren’t considered large, there was no celebration for this accomplishment.

Don’t miss opportunities to celebrate and recognize the people responsible for your company’s success, no matter how small the success. The unexpected compliment, recognition, or even small celebration is often the most appreciated and remembered. Be aware that when celebrations become routine and expected, they are no longer considered effective. It then becomes time to be creative and re-energize your celebrations.

A NEW LEADERSHIP APPROACH CAN HELP RETAIN KEY EMPLOYEES

As a result of today’s changing work environment, what are you currently doing to adapt your leadership approach to retain your key performers? Now is the time to focus on a new and improved personal leadership approach and not settle for what worked in the past because we are all truly in a new business reality.

Managing a Motormouth: How to Get Them to Talk Less

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:16:03 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

We all have encountered this type of person: someone who talks excessively, may repeat himself continually, and can’t get to the point.

In this age of sound bites, texting and tweets, it has become harder to tolerate the motormouth. So how can you manage these individuals in a team meeting and also coach them in a one-on-one meeting to become more succinct in their communications?

In a team meeting

Set a tight agenda and use a countdown timer that is visible to everyone. I use a free countdown timer that can be found at http://www.online-stopwatch.com. If you have regular weekly meetings, then at the beginning of each meeting institute a time limit of 3-5 minutes for each team member to give their weekly update. It is important when instituting this new process that you explain your purpose for doing so. It may be that you want to decrease the time spent in meetings or that you want everyone to learn and experience how to become more concise in their verbal communications.

Give the rest of the team the job of actively listening to each individual’s update and noting information that could have been left out as well as information that might have been repeated. Typically the motormouth on the team will continue to talk after the bell rings signaling that their time is up. There will probably be others in the group that has some difficulty with limiting their remarks.

For those who struggle with the time limit, suggest that they prepare their remarks in writing in advance of the meeting. If team members frequently use texting to communicate, have them think of their presentation as short texts or tweets. If team members don’t typically use texting, then perhaps they are more comfortable with the concept of short bullet points.

After each presenter’s 3-5 minutes are up, each team member has one minute to share their feedback with the presenter - what items were important to the team member and what could have been left out. The presenter’s job is simply to listen to each team member’s feedback and then at the end of the feedback thank the person without further comment.

Using this methodology allows the team to focus on an effective team meeting and not any one individual’s presentation. The process can benefit all team members’ listening and communication skills, and for you the manager, this process will free up some of your time as meetings become more focused and succinct.

In a one-on-one meeting

If you know of a nonstop talker who is a peer, what can you do?

Make the motormouth feel self-conscious by staying quiet while they speak. Being quiet includes not uttering any words or sounds like, um or uh-huh. The more sounds they hear the more they will talk.

When you do speak to the motormouth, speak slowly. Since most nonstop talkers speak at a rapid rate, your slower rate of speaking will create a contrast for the motormouth and will hopefully get them to become more self-aware of how much they are talking.

In addition, don’t restate what you heard as it gives a nonstop talker the opportunity to repeat themselves. Just let them know you understand and then say good-bye. Later, send them an email confirming what you heard and ask them to respond back by way of email.

If none of these techniques work during the one-on-one meeting, take the time to coach them. Share your observations with them about how much they talk, how it makes you feel, and how it impacts you. They can’t say you are wrong about your feelings. If you are their manager/leader, ask them how they think their behavior may impact others on the team who don’t have the opportunity to talk and share their ideas with others. With all their talking, ask them what they think they may be missing from others, both in the office and at home?

In summary: whether in group or individual meetings, the value of managing and coaching motormouths is huge! Your meetings will be shorter, you will be able to focus on the important aspects of your job, and the nonstop talker as well as other team members will become more effective communicators.

Decreasing the Gap Between Managers’ and Employees’ Performance Ratings

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:28:55 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

Have you recently delivered a performance review to an employee who was surprised at your feedback? And in turn were you surprised at their reaction?

You are not alone. A recent white paper, Mind the Gap, authored by Novations, a talent development company, reports that on average managers rate their employees’ performance and contribution by almost a half point less than the employees’ self-ratings.

There are five known performance rating biases that attribute to rating discrepancies between managers and employees:

Two Self-Rater biases:
- the need for self-esteem, and
- the lack of self-awareness.

Three Manager biases:
- lack of awareness of an employee’s contributions,
- justification of their role as a manager, and
- budget justifications relating to pay increases.

So if the performance rating gap is widening, what steps can be taken to decrease the effect of these biases and narrow the performance rating gap?

Increasing an employee’s self awareness and increasing a manager’s awareness of employee contributions are two biases that can be decreased.

Decreasing Bias in Performance Reviews

Let’s start with the employee. Self-awareness can be improved through an assessment tool such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) or an assessment methodology such as 360-degree feedback (also known as "multi-rater feedback", "multisource feedback," or "multisource assessment"). In addition, assessment tools should always be used in conjunction with coaching. It is vitally important that employees have their assessments explained to them in detail so they can relate the results back to their workplace and position within the organization. Learning from one’s assessments is critical to actually increasing self-awareness. Results of the assessments, as they relate to changes in performance, should be reviewed on an ongoing basis.

On the management side of the equation, increasing the awareness of employees’ contributions can be addressed by:

· Incorporating a team review into performance reviews.

· Jointly developing performance goals with the employee.

· Conducting performance reviews separate from salary reviews.

Team Reviews

When I ran a consulting company, we instituted a team review process. Because the consultants often worked on multiple engagements for multiple leaders, it was a necessary step to get a true sense of an employee’s contributions. While your company may not have this specific organizational dynamic, there may be other employees who interact with the employee being reviewed, whether they work on a cross-functional project or as a department team member. Therefore, as a manager it is imperative to get wide input on an employee’s performance.

Goal Collaboration

When putting together performance goals, the employee should be part of the process. Including the employee in the process provides both manager and employee the opportunity to clearly define what constitutes specific levels of contributions as well as strengthening the employee’s ownership and commitment to their performance goals.

Separate Performance and Pay

When performance and salary reviews are linked together something interesting happens. The employee forgets all the feedback about their performance and only remembers how much money she will be making in the future. So of course an employee is going to rate themselves higher in performance than their manager because their pay increase depends on it!

Many companies have moved to a process of holding performance reviews more than once a year, with the salary review completed outside of any performance review. Multiple reviews provide consistent feedback and the opportunity for the employee to make adjustments to their contributions.

In short, providing employees with assessment tools to elevate their self-awareness, incorporating team reviews and goal collaboration in the performance review process, and also separating performance reviews from salary reviews, will help narrow the performance gap ratings. Ultimately if these performance review gaps are closed or narrowed, your employees will be happier and more engaged in their work, and you as a manager will have more time to manage and lead.

Effectively Handling Leadership Transitions is Critical to A Leader’s Success

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:23:15 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

In the October 2009 edition of Chief Learning Officer, Michael D. Watkins’ article “The Eight Toughest Transitions for Leaders” outlined the top transitions that most business leaders have to navigate during their career. The transitions are:

Promotion
Leading former peers
Diplomacy (authority versus influence)
New organization
International move
Organizational turnaround
Corporate strategy realignment
Business portfolio change

Watkins suggests that in order for a leader to transition successfully, a leader must be not only be capable of adapting his personal style and competencies, but he must also be able to focus on the organization’s need to build a plan for organizational growth.

IDENTIFYING NEEDED LEADERSHIP CHANGES

While this past year has brought change to a great many leaders, what personal leadership changes and transitions did you make in 2009? How would you rate your ability to adapt both personally and organizationally?

Looking forward into 2010, here are some questions to ponder to help you with your leadership success:

Given your experience and leadership strengths, what do you need to do more of and less of?

What new skills do you need to learn? What is your plan to obtain these new skills?

What adjustments do you need to make in the areas of communications, delegation, decision-making, team-building, and also with your trusted network of advisors?

The quality of the answers to these self-reflective questions is contingent on your level of self-awareness. Since some of us are more self-aware of our strengths and weaknesses than others, I always recommend that in addition to answering these questions you use at least one other leadership assessment technique, such as the Hogan Leadership Survey. The Hogan Leadership Survey can not only add insight into needed changes, but can also provide an unbiased view of your behavior. Another option to increase your leadership success is observational feedback which can provide you with information on how individuals view your key leadership competencies as compared to your organization’s leadership competency model.

PLANNING TO IMPLEMENT CHANGE

Now that you’ve identified the changes you need to make, a personal development plan needs to be created. Creating a solid plan with SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound) goals and implementing your development plan are critical to effective leadership because unless you actually make the necessary changes you will not realize success.

Planning to implement change is often the time when I and other executive coaches are asked for assistance. Co-developing a personal development plan with the leader and coaching the leader effectively through the necessary behavioral changes are effective to creating sustainable change. Using an internal coach is also an effective way to create a permanent change. The advantage to using an internal coach is their organizational knowledge, while the disadvantage is the potential concern regarding confidentiality of the executive being coached. Whether you choose an internal or external coach, coaching will provide you with a systematic and proven method to create long-term change.

CONCLUSION

If you are like most leaders, you and your organization have had to adapt to the economic changes that have occurred over the last 18 months. Adapting requires both personal as well as organizational changes. Personal changes first need to be identified by you, others around you, and via an assessment tool. Then a personal development plan should be created, and a coach identified to work with you to help you create sustainable change.

Decision Outliers- Their Impact on Team and Organizational Effectiveness

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:16:34 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

In the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, many of the stories focus on those outliers¹ who were successful, often due to circumstances and luck. However, what if you have an outlying preference that holds you back? Unlike the examples of success in the book, many outlying behaviors can be a disadvantage to an individual. Do you have one of these behaviors that if modified, would move you closer to the norm and make you a more effective leader?

Let’s take a look at some Decision Outlier behaviors. We’ve all experienced someone who either makes decisions too quickly or too slowly, and for some of us we actually may have one of these tendencies ourselves.

Some of us are make decisions quickly, while others take a much longer time in the decision-making process. In either case, our personality preferences and past experiences have a strong influence on how we make decisions. If we tend to be an outlier on either side of the traditional bell curve, decision-making can be holding us back from being successful and getting to the next level of leadership. Do you know if you are a decision outlier? And if you are a decision outlier, how is your decision-making style impacting your relationships and job performance?

Slow Decision Outliers

Those who are slow decision-makers often need a lot more data and information than others, before making a decision. Making a decision without all the data creates too much risk for the slow decision outlier. The data they need can come in the form of hard and soft data. Hard data includes metrics, facts, and measurements; whereas soft data incorporates feelings and the impact a decision will have on others. Slow decision-makers, who are driven by how others will feel about the decision, desire and look for a consensus decision-making process. They want to have everyone in agreement before making a decision.

And in the extreme, slow decision outliers can become no decision outliers, stuck in the decision-making process and often unwilling to make a decision based on fear of change and letting go of what is known and fully understood.

How Does Slow Decision-Making Impact You and Your Performance?

In this rapidly changing world, slow decision-makers can be at a huge disadvantage. New information is coming at them faster than ever before, and without self-imposed time limits opportunities will pass them by, both personally and professionally. If they are working in a team environment, they are probably frustrating their team members who want to move forward with the project.

If you consistently meet the description above, then here are some tips to move out of the outlier range of decision-making.

Thoroughly explore all the benefits of making a decision which would create change.

Realize that not making a decision brings its own set of risks. Identify the risks of maintaining the status quo.

If it is change that is holding you back, what are the impacts to you if you don’t change? Learn to identify what will provide you with an increase in control during the change process or what will help you to maintain control.

Fast Decision Outliers

Fast decision outliers can find themselves making decisions with not enough data. These decision makers don’t like lots of detail and are often driven by the end result. If the decision is about something that doesn’t have a big impact on them, they feel the details just get in their way. While change is not stressful for them, they often are oblivious of the impact that change has to others around them. Fast decision outliers can sometimes be viewed as autocratic if they aren’t willing to listen to others’ ideas and information that would be helpful to the overall decision-making process.

How Does Fast Decision-Making Impact You and Your Performance?

Fast decision makers run a higher risk of making poor decisions with a high impact to both the organization and the people within the organization. Since change is their friend, they may be creating stress for team members who don’t embrace change. As they strive to complete a project, they may shut other team members out of the decision-making process, thereby limiting innovation and creativity.

Here are some tips to slow down the decision-making process:

Determine up front all the data needed for a quality decision and get agreement from all team members.

Assign the data lovers (i.e. slow decision-makers) to gather the data.

Ask more questions of all team members.

When asking slow decision makers’ questions, inquire about how they feel regarding the project’s process and progress.

Are You a Decision Outlier? If Yes, What Changes Can You Make to Become a More Effective Leader?

So for those of you who are outliers in your decision-making process, when should you consider adjusting and adapting your decision-making preferences and move into the mainstream? When the decisions being made are having a direct impact on someone’s job, including your own!

As a final test of your decision-making process, ask your friends and family how your own decision-making impacts them. If there is little or no response about being a decision outlier, then you can be confident that you possess an effective decision-making process!

¹A person or thing away from others or outside its properplace.http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/outlier

Work Less and Improve Your Results

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:02:06 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

Are you one of those people who can’t shut down over the weekend? Or worse yet, you can’t shut down during the evening? Well you are not alone. Last spring the Society of Human Resource Management completed a survey and found that 70% of employees work beyond their scheduled work hours, including weekends. Over half of these respondents did this because of their own self-limiting beliefs that they needed to be putting in the extra hours.

As Americans we pride ourselves in our work ethic. But too much of a good thing can become a bad thing.

The Cost of Working Too Much

So what’s the big deal if you are working more than the people around you at work and home? Lots! The costs of not taking time off can include:

Strained personal relationships--both family and friends are impacted by the person who has become disconnected.

Health problems—when you don’t take time to care for your body, many health problems can arise, beginning with sleep and weight problems. Added stress can also lead to cardiovascular and gastric problems.

Poor decisions—a higher incident of poor decisions have been reported as work hours increase.

Benefits from Taking Time Out and Time Off

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), Making Time Off Predictable and Required by Leslie A. Perlow and Jessica L. Porter, reports on a four-year study of 12 Boston Consulting Group consulting teams. Each person on the team was required to take a predictable amount of time off during each work week. The results of this study showed that when the consultants had to work together to make sure that each team member got some time off each week, communications were enhanced and more personal information was shared, resulting in closer relationships with each other. And because the teams had to plan engagements further out in advance, clients received better services.

Not all companies are organized like Boston Consulting Group, so how can you implement a Time Out-Time Off program in your organization or in your personal life?

Steps for the Business Leader

As a business leader, your greatest resources are the people who come to work each day. Without them, there is no business. So it makes sense to encourage taking time off based on the evidence from the HBR article previously cited. Below are some ideas you can use to make sure that your team members are taking time out and time off.

Start tracking employee overtime and skipped vacation time. Include these measurements in employee performance feedback. Skipped vacation should be unacceptable and overtime should be discouraged.

When vacations are scheduled, get team members to develop a support plan for the employee who will be out to insure that the vacationing employee can fully disconnect.

Provide work time for employees to “sharpen their saw”. Each employee will have different professional or personal development priorities for renewing themselves. Personal development may include physical, emotional, and/or spiritual activities.

Encourage volunteer work by providing some paid time off for employees to leave work to help with their favorite charity.

Build a culture of time out-time off by sharing stories with each other about the time spent not working. The sharing can be done during virtual team meetings via the company’s intranet. You could even create a contest for the most interesting story shared.

Steps for the Individual

Here are some tips for you to take more time out and time off:

When working, take 5-minute breaks every 30-40 minutes to stretch. Get up, walk around, and drink water (an important nutrient for the brain). The change in pace will re-energize you for the next block of work time. You will find that when you make taking 5-minute breaks a habit, your productivity will increase and more than make up for these 5-minute investments.

Schedule personal time for your important relationships. Studies show that at least 20 minutes are needed just to maintain a relationship, with a greater amount of time needed to improve and grow a relationship.

Have dinner with your family. Make this the time where you share your day and learn about each other’s day. One tool I use to initiate the conversation is to ask two questions:

“What was your “peach” of today?”, and

“What was your “pit” of today?

These questions are easy for children to undestand and to respond.

Don’t skip vacations. Make time to plan and prepare for vacation. And when the time comes – disconnect - no iPhones or laptops! Make sure you have someone who can back you up while you are away.

Whether you are leading an entire business, managing a team, or working on your own, the benefits of integrating a time off-time out routine are clear and the steps are not difficult. The real question to ask yourself is, why not “work less and improve your results?”

Making Goals a Reality and Not Just a Dream

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:52:41 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

As an executive coach, much of the work I do is helping executives and business owners bring clarity about the possibilities for their organization and themselves. So often when we start working together the executive’s goals are vague and ambiguous. Without clear goals, the executive may have a roadmap but no precise destination and accompanying directions to get to their goals.

Making Goals Powerful

You may have heard the story about the study concerning the goals of some Harvard Business School graduates. The story basically supports the contention that written goals are more likely to be achieved than those that aren’t written down. However, this study never took place. Instead a Dominican University study provides evidence that when accountability, public commitment, and written goals are implemented together they enhance the rate of goal achievement.

So not only is it important to have goals written down, but a person must publically announce them to people important to them. These people can then act as an accountability mechanism for tracking the person’s progress.

Goal Development

Your goals should be written down as a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound) goals.

· Be Specific - A goal that is described in specific terms has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a goal described in general terms.

· Make it Measurable – Developing specific criteria for measuring your progress toward the attainment of each goal will help you to measure your progress, and stay on track to meet your target dates.

· It should be Attainable - When you identify your goals, you will begin to figure out and visualize how to accomplish them. You will develop not only the energy level for attaining your goals, but also new and existing attitudes, abilities, and skills to reach your goals.

· Make it Realistic – In order for a goal to be realistic, you must be both willing and able to work towards the goal. Be sure that every goal represents substantial progress. Your goal is almost certainly realistic if you truly believe that your goal can be accomplished.

· Create Time Sensitivity – Goals should be grounded within a specific and clear time frame in order to create a sense of urgency in accomplishing the goal.

Most importantly, when developing goals, make sure your goals are stated in the positive and not in the negative. Writing goals in the positive creates forward energy and movement.

Goal Success

Now that you have your specific goals written down, who will you share these goals with? I recommend choosing more than one person and that the people you select be individuals who will be supportive as well as keep you accountable to your goals.

Keep your goals visible. Reviewing your goals frequently will help you release the energy, creativity and the drive to attain them. Tracking your goals provides you with a sense of accomplishment when you meet your goals.

Create a habit of asking yourself daily, “are the decisions I am making getting me closer or further from my goals?” The more your remind yourself of your ultimate goals, and make the choice to move in the direction of attaining your goals, the more likely you will be successful.

And finally, don’t forget to celebrate your accomplishments! Creating and attaining goals takes a lot of discipline and hard work. Therefore, how do you plan to celebrate your accomplishments once you have crossed the finish line?

Taking Control of Your Own Development

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:36:40 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

Whether you are a CEO, Manager or Administrative Assistant, you are responsible for your own development. During these economically challenging times, one of the first things to be cut in a company’s budget is training and development. More than likely the cuts were done at the beginning of 2009. If you are lucky, there is still a training budget but it is much smaller than in 2008. For others there may be no annual training budget.

If you are like me, I always look forward to developing new skills and techniques that I can add to my portfolio. I always come back from training re-energized and excited about the future. And as a business owner, I have always been committed to developing others around me. Yet, not all managers, executives, and business owners embrace this value of developing employees to their full potential, which leaves development in the hands of the individual employee. Even if you have a manager committed to developing her employees, this year without a company training and development budget your personal development is now left up to you.

So Where Do You Want To Be In The Future?

With development left up to the individual, those employees who take control of their own personal and professional growth are the ones who will be the most successful. Planning your own development starts with knowing your end goal. If you are going to be in control of your own development, you need to know where you want to be in the future and build a development plan to help you reach your future goal.

Your future goal should be written as a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound) goal. Further information on SMART goals can be found at: http://www.executive-velocity.com/resourcesmodule/download_resource/id/8/src/@random4ab49e863cc89/

Once you know where you are headed, then it’s time to take an inventory of where you currently are in terms of your end goal. What are the things you excel at doing and what are the things that bring joy in your life? The University of Missouri has a great tool, http://bit.ly/KV3l3, to get you started with this evaluation. Another resource is the perennially favorite book, What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles. This book will help you learn more about yourself and will guide you through a process to help you discover what you really want to do and how to get to your destination.

Development Opportunities on a Tight Budget

So far the only suggestion in this article that has a cost associated with it is the purchase of the book, What Color is Your Parachute? And since you are responsible for your own development and you can’t always count on your company to provide financial support for your development, what other free or low cost development opportunities can be identified?

1.   Projects Internal to Your Company (no cost)

Free development opportunities are often right in front of you in your work environment, yet you may not be aware of them. They can provide you with a chance to gain new experiences and stretch your current skills to a new level. Just ask your manager and other executives what the upcoming projects are and what specific skills they will need for these projects. Look for projects that will push you outside your comfort zone and provide you with a real learning opportunity. No one grows by doing the same thing all the time.

2.   Volunteer Work (no cost)

Volunteer your time with a not-for-profit where you can gain the specific experience that you want to develop. I have used this method a number of times during my career. I have looked for organizations whose mission I could connect with and then approached the executive director about serving on the board of directors or on a specific committee. Not-for-profits are always looking for help! At one point I wanted to get more strategic planning experience so I sat on two boards that were going through a strategic planning process. Not only did I gain valuable experience from the actual strategic planning process, but I also gained valuable insights from other volunteers who had extensive strategic planning experience.

3.   The Internet (no cost or low cost)

With the era of the Internet, there are many webinars, podcasts, and websites that often provide free or low cost training to individuals. A list of websites offering free training in Workplace/Leadership, Languages, Programming, Computers and Technology, and other topics can be found at http://bit.ly/ZO6an.

4.   Books (no cost or low cost)

Remember that place, the library, where you used to go to borrow books? It is still free and has a mountain of books you can borrow. Or if you are like me and like to write in your books, there is always www.Amazon.com. You may also want to check out www.fetchbook.info , a website which shows the lowest total cost for a book plus the shipping charge.

Conclusion

Look in the mirror. Do you know exactly what you want to be doing in terms of your dream profession? What are the one or maybe two things that will energize you every day? And if you aren’t doing these things, how are you going to develop yourself so you can have your dream profession? Just because your company has cut training budgets, there’s no excuse not to start developing yourself now with so many free and low cost opportunities available!

Multi-Tasking: Is It Worth It?

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:29:12 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

You see it at work. You drop by an employee’s workspace to discuss a current project and she continues to work on the computer while you are having the discussion. How do you feel as the person continues to “multi-task”?

Alternately, you are at home and your spouse is in the kitchen preparing dinner or loading the dishwasher. You start a conversation with him or her and they continue on with their task at hand while conversing with you. Did they really understand what you said? Did they really hear you?

So, you do see the behavior. Do you also find yourself part of this multi-tasking phenomenon? Multi-tasking, for many people in this ever changing and demanding world, has become a badge of pride. I can’t tell you how many executives I have worked with who actually believe that multi-tasking increases their productivity.

It Doesn’t Increase Productivity

Yet, research shows just the opposite. Back in 2001, in the article "Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching," found in the Journal of Experimental Psychology - Human Perception and Performance, Vol 27. No.4, Joshua S. Rubinstein of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and David E. Meyer and Jeffrey E. Evans of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan conducted a study which “revealed that for all types of tasks, subjects lost time when they had to switch from one task to another. Because time costs increased with the complexity of the tasks, it took significantly longer to switch between more complex tasks. Time costs were also greater when subjects switched to tasks that were relatively unfamiliar.”

In a 2007 New York Times article, Jonathan B. Spira, an analyst at the business research firm Basex, estimated that extreme multitasking costs the U.S. economy $650 billion a year in lost productivity.

And a recent (September 2009) article from the Harvard Business School (HBS), http://bit.ly/LLEtx, references another study from Stanford University that supports the 2001 study. This article also suggests that while single-tasking is probably not totally practical in the 21st century, we should instead consider focusing on the value of each task, rather than focusing on the number of tasks to be completed.

Multi-Tasking Effects on Interpersonal Relationship

And even if you don’t believe this scientific evidence which shows that multi-tasking does not save you time, think about the other effects it has. What message are you sending to the people with whom you are multi-tasking? They probably wonder what is more important than the discussion they are trying to have with you. They may even think that you are just being rude.

I agree with the HBS conclusion that it is difficult to move to single-tasking, BUT only when the multi-tasking does not involve interpersonal communications with another individual.

So how can you change your multi-tasking behavior when you are confronted with someone wanting your attention?

Set aside time during each day when you will not multi-task. At this time focus on only one task or one person. When someone approaches you for a conversation and you are in a time crunch, let the individual know either, that you only have a specific amount of time to speak due to a work-related deadline, or offer them the opportunity to come back at the specific time you have set aside each day for single-tasking. This is the time when you can give them your undivided attention. However, if you do have time to speak with them when they first approach you, then turn away from your computer and put your PDA and cell phone on silent so you aren’t tempted to multi-task.

Giving your employees, team members, family, and friends your undivided attention during an important conversation will build stronger relationships by increasing understanding, decreasing stress, and increasing respect. Managing multi-tasking will also increase your productivity and will model appropriate behavior to other employees. With these benefits in mind, what’s keeping you from starting to manage your multi-tasking behavior?

Effective Feedback: How to Give It So Others Hear, Understand and Act On It

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:19:27 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

Remember the manager you once had who said to you, “I need to talk to you” and you got a deep sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? What was it that made you react to those words?

There are any number of reasons that you reacted that way, many of which were based on the experiences you had following the statement “I need to talk to you.”

The first reason was that your manager never gave you any positive feedback.     All you heard were the things you weren’t doing right. And for those of you who did get positive feedback, the feedback which was focused on changing behavior, wasn’t given clearly and you often walked away wondering what exactly you needed to do.

So that was then and now you’re the manager. But what are you doing differently from the dreaded manager who couldn’t give you any effective feedback that you finally got so frustrated that you left the company for greener pastures?

Here are some steps for providing effective feedback that, if done correctly and consistently, will move your team members to a higher level of productivity and effectiveness. The key is that you need to be consistent or you won’t get these results. Remember: you won’t see changes over night. Change generally happens incrementally and not all at once.

There are six general rules for providing effective feedback (see below). During steps 1-3 of the conversation make your statements using the pronoun “I”, rather than “You”. And during steps 4-6, transition the emphasis to the word “You”.

1.   At the very beginning of the meeting, make sure you clearly state why you are meeting with the person who is getting feedback.

2.   State facts or observations you have noticed and your concern about this behavior.

Example: “At the meeting yesterday, I saw you cut Jim off five times
                 while he was speaking, which is a concern to me.”

3.   Explain the impact the negative behavior has on you.

Example: “The reason I am concerned is that when you cut people
                   off such as Jim, I and the other team members may be
                   missing some good ideas that he hasn’t been able to share
                   with us. And since one of our key values is innovation, this
                   behavior does not align with our company values.

4.   Ask for the employee’s view of the situation and use as many questions or question-like statements as possible to get their perspective.

      Example: “I’d like to understand what caused you to cut Jim off so many times.”
                 “Please tell me more…”
                       “How do you think it made Jim feel?”

5.   Once the employee understands the impact their behavior has on their performance and others around them, coach the person to their own solution.

Example: “So what technique could you use that will stop you from
                  interrupting?”
                 “What else could you use?”

6.   Get commitment on a SMART Goal from the employee. A SMART Goal is a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound goal.

Example: “What solutions are you committed to trying?”
   “When will you try it?”
                 “How will you know that you have been successful?

7.   Set a specific time for a follow up discussion.

Now that you know the steps for effective feedback, when are you going to start the process? The sooner you start, the sooner your employees will become more productive and effective. And as a manager or business leader, this means greater profits and a more engaged workforce.

Managing and Working with Negative People

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:08:47 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

We’ve all been there. You find yourself working on an important project and one of your team members, co-workers, or even the manager is an eternal pessimist. I like to call people like this, Eeyore. You remember Eeyore, the gloomy donkey from Winnie the Pooh. The words and phrases you often hear from pessimists are: “it won’t work”, “I can’t”, “why?” Not only can these people de-motivate others, they can also quickly derail a great project.

So what do you do to assist the Eeyores in your life? Ignoring them is not the right answer, although many of us seem to choose this as the only solution, thinking that they can’t be helped.

You first have to remember that they didn’t become a pessimist last week. Unfortunately, they probably came out of the womb looking at the world in a negative light. So any change that does occur is going to be small and slow. It is important to be alert to the smallest positive change and when you observe some positive change to praise them for it!

When I work with leaders who focus more on the negative, rather than the positive, the challenge is to get them to open their eyes to more options than what they initially see. In fact, often they see no options. I will try to challenge their beliefs that led them to a negative conclusion. For instance, if I hear “I can’t” from someone, my next questions are: “What makes you believe this? What proof do you have? How solid and reliable is your proof?” The goal is to get them to start seeing things in a more balanced, realistic way.

The other part of the process of managing the pessimist is to get them to see how they are impacting others around them. Good first questions when someone claims “I can’t” are: “If you can’t do it, how do you think this is going to impact others on your team? What resources or assistance do you need so you ‘can’?”

Change won’t happen overnight, but if you take action and don’t ignore the pessimist you will begin to see some positive results.

Leadership: How Important Is ‘Integrity’? In Today’s Business World Is Integrity an ...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:03:22 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

I don't know about you, but reading and hearing about leaders who have either lost, or never had integrity, has become all too common these days. It makes us believe that perhaps there are no leaders with integrity.

As someone who tries to view the glass as half-full, I think it is the media who has created this misperception that today’s business leaders are void of integrity, morals, and ethics, because every day I work with executives and business owners who have very strong values and integrity. Yet, the stories that our media chooses to disseminate never seem to promote the leaders who live and breathe integrity.

Integrity, as defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values (incorruptibility,) an unimpaired condition (soundness,) and the quality or state of being complete or undivided (completeness).” Types of integrity include: integrity of character and professional integrity. Synonyms for integrity are: honesty & unity. Or as Aristotle said: "Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way."

It is the word "constantly" in the Aristotelian quote above and the phrase "an unimpaired condition" from the Merriam-Webster definition that makes the concept of integrity challenging for many people. While we all have values that we believe are important in our life, outside pressures and circumstances may lead us to stray from these values because of our own self-interest. It is so much easier during difficult times to think of a decision in the terms of “what’s in it for me?” versus “what’s best for the team or the company?”

One of the keys to maintaining integrity is the ability to act not in one’s own interest but in the interest of others. A great example during these difficult times are the many leaders I work with who have taken significant pay cuts over and above the cuts made to their employees. They continue to follow their values in spite of the negative impact it has on them financially. There are other executives who have deliberately not poached their competitors’ star performers, but instead have decided to wait for those performers to reach out to them, if and when the time is right for them.

There are countless examples of leadership integrity that I could share with you and very few instances of leaders who either never had integrity or chose not to develop integrity. Integrity is not something you are born with. It is something you learn and strengthen over time. It is a conscious choice you make and you have total control over. No one can make you have or not have integrity.

Leaders without strong values and constant adherence to these values fail to recognize the message they are sending to their employees: "when things get tough, our values are up for sale." Those leaders who have the ability to stay the "values" course will reap the benefits of having employees who are motivated and loyal to their company. These employees will mimic the behaviors of integrity that they see modeled by their leader. They will clearly understand what is acceptable and what is unacceptable behavior within their team and their company. Integrity, like the Internet, can have a viral positive effect, and the lack of integrity can quickly create negative behavior in an organization, leading to decreased performance and ultimately decreased profits.

The following are some questions you may want to ponder to determine both your level of integrity and your commitment to integrity:

On scale of 1-10, how would your employees rate your level of integrity?
How do you react to lapses in integrity by another person?
What positive behavior did you model recently that was later mimicked by an employee?
What one behavior do you display on a consistent basis that is aligned with your company values?
What key behaviors, other than your answer to the previous question, are necessary for you to be aligned with your company values?
Describe a recent behavior you displayed that was not aligned with your company’s values.
What words or actions from your employees will let you know that your employees trust you and your leadership?
How are you practicing the behaviors you want your employees to mimic?
On scale of 1-10, how would your employees rate their trust in you? How confident are you in this rating?
On scale of 1-10, what one behavior can you display more of to increase your employees trust in you by 1 point on this scale?

In summary: a leader who values and successfully models integrity benefits by having motivated and loyal employees, resulting in increased performance, especially during difficult times.

Your Personal Vision Statement: The Beginning of Your Future

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:45:54 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

When coaching executives and business leaders, I often discover that although their company has a vision statement, they don’t have their own personal vision statement. So what’s the big problem of not having your own personal vision statement? What I have found time and again, especially with older leaders, was that those who did not have their own personal vision for the future, found themselves at a point in their career completely dissatisfied with their life. Those who were clear about their personal vision for their future felt a lot more complete as a person and were a lot more successful.

So if you would like to be happier and more successful, take some quiet time to create your own personal vision statement. It will help you define where you want to take your life, making it a more purposeful life. And it will help you to design your own future.

How to Create a Personal Vision Statement

You will need to find a quiet place so that you can reflect on yourself and what is important to you. Ask yourself the following questions about your future:

Where will you be living and/or working?
Who will you be with - family, friends, associates?
What will you be doing - working, playing, traveling, volunteering, etc?
What will you have accomplished both personally and professionally?
What will be important to you? Include your values, feelings etc.

Once you have answered these questions think about if your vision for the future is achieved, how would you feel? Feelings are very important in this process, because feelings, if strong enough, will drive us to take action. They will motivate and energize us to take the necessary steps needed to get to our vision.

Finally, start crafting your vision for the future and, more importantly, write it down on paper. Make it concise, write in the present tense, and record it on something you can take with you and reference on a daily basis.

And remember that your vision for your future can change. It isn’t set in concrete. It is a compass to help you have a life that is complete and joyous. When you get to the end of your life, having followed your own vision, you will have no regrets.

Being a Good Leader Today Can Save Your Career Tomorrow!

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:45:02 +0100

By Frank Fenello, President, Finance & Accounting, MDI Group

When times are good, leading is easy. The risks are not as high, the challenges are fewer. It’s easier to let a bad decision slip under the radar. That is until circumstances change. Look at the financial sector today. Consistently mediocre management and management practices were a large part of the crisis equation. Mediocre leadership can fester for years before it catches up with an organization. But when it does, the bottom falls out.

According to a November 2008 U.S. News & World Report article, “America Needs a New Style of Leadership,” failed leadership in the financial sector has led to lack of trust in leaders of America’s most important financial institutions. That doubt in the competence of U.S. financial leaders may already be spreading to other sectors. A remarkable 80 percent of Americans today believe that the United States faces a leadership crisis—up from 65 percent in 2005—according to poll results released by the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Merriman River Group.

Leadership style sets the tone and pace for how a business competes, innovates and grows. For example, research proves that leaders who engage their teams see results faster and easier than those who don’t. A 2002 Gallup research report that studied 7,939 business units across 36 companies found that the businesses that were better at engaging employees also had higher profitability, higher employee satisfaction and lower turnover. No doubt, choosing the right leadership style plays a strong role on long-term impact and the legacy of success the leader will yield.

Lead for Power or Lead for Success?

There’s success and then there’s SUCCESS. For many, success is all about the bottom line. Never mind how you make your numbers—just make them. This is the difference between leading for personal power and leading for long-term business SUCCESS and viability. The following three leadership styles will each explore different strategies for leadership.

Leadership by Intimidation

Do you ever wonder how people get away with the “it’s my way or the highway” mentality? The person who uses intimidation tactics to lead uses power based on fear. The benefit of this style of leadership is that intimidation and pressure will often get things done. But, the accomplishments are generally short term. Referred to as “command and control,” cultivating a team of followers is important to this style of leader. There’s no challenging of ideas, no feedback, no open environment—even if the suggestions might be in the company’s best interest. Generally speaking, companies who engage this style of leadership for long-term success fail.

Take a look at WorldCom. Considered the darling of the New Economy in 2002, WorldCom joined the likes of Enron and Tyco as one of several corporate scandals that year. In fact, they were self-proclaimed as the largest bankruptcy in American history. What’s interesting about WorldCom is that their founder was a very likeable person who had the commitment of his team. However, among several other issues that led to its fall, internal leadership had created a web of fraudulent actions supported by a group of executives who were okay with corrupt business practices. So while on the outside business appeared to be on the up and up, that wasn’t the case on the inside. When employees started to realize that some business transactions were not ethical, they quickly learned that if they chose to question these transactions, their jobs were on the line. Many employees were fearful and felt intimidated by leadership, so they chose to look the other way. According to a case study written about WorldCom at the Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, a WorldCom employee was fired when he questioned unethical behaviors and failed to follow leadership direction knowing it was wrong.

The WorldCom example is the epitome of leadership by intimidation and a case in point of why this style often fails.

Leadership by Committee

Also known as “Participative Leadership,” Leadership by Committee is a style that is positive in theory—a collection of people are appointed to a leadership group and are expected to make decisions as a team—gaining consensus. These committee leaders feel empowered, involved at a higher level and in control of their own destiny. While some may say this is a “soft” form of leadership, when used in the correct situation, it can perform well.

However, more often than not, this style of leadership slows progress as the committee searches for consensus and wastes precious resources doing so. Another danger with Leadership by Committee is the “mob mentality”—everyone makes decisions together. There isn’t one person held accountable for decisions and actions; if everyone agrees then a decision must not be bad. If leadership is comprised of “yes people,” then there isn’t enough dissention to evaluate decisions appropriately. It’s through this style of leadership that companies can find themselves going south in small steps. A string of bad decisions goes unnoticed—and suddenly they all add up to a potential catastrophe.

An example of Leadership by Committee where decisions were stalled and important progress postponed was cited in an article in the San Francisco Business Times where a company was delayed in developing a three-person customer service team because the committee established to develop this team could not agree. Productivity by the division fell and the team was frustrated by the lack of progress. This is a common example of how Leadership by Committee fails. It’s an organizational change that won’t break the company, but the inability to affect change impacts the organization in a myriad of different ways—in this case starting first with the all-important customer service.

Leadership by Empowerment

This is where real leadership lives. Empowering your team—giving them responsibility and inspiring them to think outside of the box, take ownership of their project, express a point of view even if it’s different from that of the leaders—that’s what we call leadership. Effective leaders act in a transparent manner and always honestly.

In addition, today’s technology and fast pace of business require that leaders have the ability to adapt to change. John Kotter, top authority on leadership and change and professor at the Harvard Business School quotes Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric as saying, “the world is moving in nanoseconds, so you better damn well be sure you’re good at change.” Leaders who understand empowering others also understand how to manage change.

Xerox Corporation’s Anne Mulcahy offers us an example of a leader who has successfully embraced Leadership by Empowerment. When Xerox was close to bankruptcy, Mulcahy refused to change her values and succumb to pressure. Instead, she empowered her management team, made tough decisions and stayed true to her values and those of the company rather than capitulating to Wall Street and bankers. By facing the financial realities of the company, Xerox has paid back its debt, rebuilt its product line and technology base, and reinvented itself with a new vision.

Best Practices of an Empowering Leader

Often times the greatest success is realized with simplification—going back to basics. The following five traits are extremely important when embracing “Leadership by Empowerment.”

Highly visible. Make sure you’re in touch with your employees. Take time to get to know them, understand their ideas and share your own. Participate in company activities and make sure your team sees you as a “real” person.
Communicative. Communicate often and be straightforward when doing so. Communicate your vision and gain buy-in up front. Make sure your communication is timely and feedback constructive. Don’t wait for formal reviews or for the perfect time to communicate. Timely communication, whether it’s providing feedback or sharing company strategy, always wins. Also be sure to communicate praise—give credit where it’s due.
Genuine listener. Try to understand your team and hear their ideas and opinions. If you’ve listened to your team before making a decision, they’ll feel they were heard and will trust your direction—even if it’s contrary to their opinion.
Delegate responsibility. Delegation is not just handing over simple tasks. When an empowering leader delegates responsibility, he or she is entrusting employees in a way that provokes determination, eagerness and a sense of pride on the employees’ parts. Coupled with a supportive boss who starts the transition with clear direction and expectations, and who lends assistance or additional guidance as needed, the employee to whom responsibility is delegated gains a sense of ownership and a desire to succeed.
Respect the team. Never belittle members of your team or cause embarrassment. Gaining respect from your team first requires you to be respectful of them.

Leadership for the Long Term

The reality is that leadership style matters. It’s not that businesses won’t succeed if their leaders do not follow a specific leadership style. But it is the case that for long term success, leaders need to lead at all times—good and bad—and in all senses of the word.

Tough Times Call for Strong Leaders

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:11:10 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

When working with business owners and leaders, I am constantly reminded of the stress they currently endure in this difficult economy. Most have had to make tough decisions for the long term health of their company and more importantly, about their employees.

More often than not these complex decisions include the release of good employees as well as cutbacks in salaries, wages and benefits for those people who remain. These employees are faced with even more work and often less compensation for their increased efforts.

Leaders are well aware of the impact this has on everyone’s morale and productivity. As a business owner their own personal finances may also be severely impacted by the financial health of their business. Most feel personally responsible for the employees who they have had to let go as well as those who remain.

Recently, I met with a business owner who shared with me a recent conversation he had with some of his employees. Although he had not had to release any employees, business had started to slow and he had made some cutbacks in overhead expenses. As a way of expressing his gratitude for his employees’ contributions, he decided to take some key employees out to lunch. During lunch the employees shared their observations of him over the last several months. He was shocked to hear that he had been demonstrating a number of behaviors that lead the employees to believe that he was stressed out.

The positive outcome was that the employees felt comfortable enough to share their concerns with him. He had obviously created a safe communications environment for his employees. I then asked him “what message did he get from this conversation?” His immediate response, “I need to be a better leader!”

We then explored what being a better leader would look like and how he could start to move towards this goal. He identified the options and resources available to him and committed to some next steps with a specific time line.

This story is just one of many about leaders who are having difficulty handling the stress created by today’s economy. Many leaders don’t realize how they present themselves to their employees and the impact that their transparent emotions and negative behaviors have on their employees.

The following are some suggestions to maintain a persona of strength with your employees and team members during these extremely challenging times:

Take care of yourself. Exercise, eat well, get 7-8 hours of sleep, and take time for yourself. These behaviors are important to keep your energy up and your emotions in check.
Focus on your business recovery plan and communicate the details of the plan in a positive and encouraging tone.
When communicating bad news, again focus on your plan to turn the situation around.
Practice important communications with a trusted advisor before communicating the information.
Encourage others around you to be part of your plan and their success. Don’t take it all on yourself!
Celebrate your company’s successes! This doesn’t have to cost money. Visibly recognize employees who contributed to the company’s success.

Remember your employees and team members take their cues from you. The behavior you model will be picked up and replicated by the people around you. Positive cues and behaviors can be contagious and are important to navigate your company through these challenging times.

Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to Identify Email and Voicemail Type

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:43:02 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

In our high tech world, often we never meet the people we work with face-to-face. The majority of our interaction is via the Internet or over the telephone. Without the ability to see a person’s body language and facial expressions we lose up to 60% of a communication’s meaning between two people.

“Non-verbal cues are as or more important than verbal cues. The subtle circumstances surrounding how we say things may matter more than what we say”. -Malcom Gladwell, The Tipping Point

Understanding personality types using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) can help to enhance communications, especially in situations where body language can’t be observed.

In the January/February 2009 issue of our e-Newsletter, Leadership Central, we provided a high level overview of the four MBTI personality preference pairs. The information below reviews these preference pairs for those who are new to the MBTI:

1. E/I Preference:

Extraversion (E) includes those people who prefer to focus on the outer world of people and activities, whereas
Introversion (I) includes those people who prefer to focus on their own inner world of ideas and experiences.

2. S/N Preference:

Sensing (S) includes those people who prefer to absorb facts and data that are real and tangible. They tend to focus on the past and present.
Intuition (N) includes those people who prefer to absorb information by seeing the big picture, and who focus on relationships and the connections between facts. These people tend to focus on the future.

3. T/F Preference:

Thinking (T) includes those people who prefer to look at the logical consequences of a choice or action. They are more objective than subjective.
Feeling (F) includes those people who like to consider what is important to them and to others involved. They are more subjective than objective.

4. J/P Preference:

Judging (J) includes those people who prefer to live in a planned, scheduled, and orderly way, and who seek to manage and organize their lives.
Perceiving (P) includes those people who prefer to live in a flexible, spontaneous way, and who seek to experience and understand life, rather than control it.

With this information how do you first identify the personality type of the person you are communicating with from their email or voicemail, and then how do you modify what you write in your e-mail and say in your voicemail to adapt to the receiver’s preferred language style, the one with which they feel most comfortable?

Tips to Identifying Type in Emails and Voicemails

In emails, notice the length, punctuation, words, ideas, and data. In voicemails, ‘listen’ for tonal inflection and excitement.

You are communicating with an ‘E’ if:

the email contains a lot of explanation points, words, run-on sentences, and ideas which are just ideas, but not final decisions.
the voicemail is spoken very quickly and is lengthy.

You are communicating with an ‘I’ if:

the email contains shorter sentences.
the voicemail has a slower speed, includes pauses, is brief, and focuses on one’s ideas or problems.

You are communicating with an ‘S’ if:

the email is precise, to the point, provides descriptions, and requests details and data. Its focus is on the past and present.
the voicemail is similar in style to an email.

You are communicating with an ‘N’ if:

the email contains ideas, yet contains no detail or data to back up the ideas, has few specifics, and contains ‘why’ questions to determine the purpose of a project, action, or task. Its focus is on what can be or the possibilities.
the voicemail is similar to an email, with the potential for even more questions

You are communicating with a ‘T’ if:

the email focuses on the business at hand, tests your knowledge, and doesn’t focus on the implications a decision/project may have on others. It does, however, provide decisions.
the voicemail is similar to an email.

You are communicating with an ‘F’ if:

the email includes values, implications about people, strives for consensus before a decision is made, and invites others to become part of the process.
the voicemail is similar to an email.

You are communicating with a ‘J’ if:

the email is often structured using paragraphs to separate specific topics and ideas. It emphasizes goals, plans, timelines, polices, procedures, and reporting structures and provides little flexibility for changes. It may provide information after a decision is made.
the voice mail has a tone of impatience as time and closure is important.

You are communicating with a ‘P’ if:

the email provides additional information before a decision is made so changes and adjustments can be made. New information will be valued.
the voicemail generally focuses on process, ideas and possibilities, including ‘what else’ type phrases.

The last steps to improving communications are to identify your own personality and communications type, and to make adjustments in your emails and voicemails to mirror the communication type of the person with whom you are communicating. Being able to mirror another person’s communication style will significantly improve your effectiveness as a leader.

Driving Employee Engagement Through Coaching

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:53:31 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

In our last newsletter we discussed how important employee engagement is for retaining good employees, increasing customer satisfaction, and ultimately increasing profits. In First Break all the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, Marcus Buckingham describes the factors which lead to an effective workplace and concludes that an employee’s manager, not the company, is the critical link to employee engagement.

Of the 12 questions used in Buckingham’s study, three questions directly correlate to the importance of coaching as an effective employee development tool:

•   Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

•   This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

•   Does my manager, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?

So how does a manager encourage development, provide opportunities to learn and grow, and show employees they care? By coaching their employees.

In The Coaching Manager: Developing Top Talent in Business by James Hunt and Joseph Weintraub, they outline a simple process that helps managers “coach in the moment” by teaching managers to react appropriately to coachable moments. Integrating this process into your work day can not only improve employee engagement, but can also increase your effectiveness as a leader. The more your employees can learn by doing, the more time you can ultimately be spending on working “on” and not “in” your business.

Creating a Safe Coaching Environment

Before you can start “coaching in the moment”, there needs to be a safe coaching environment. But what does a safe coaching environment look like?

A safe coaching environment is where employees feel safe bringing a problem or career issue to you. When an employee presents a concern to you, you act as a helper, not as an evaluator. In this environment you clearly separate coaching from performance evaluations. Coaching then becomes an ongoing process, unlike periodic evaluations.

In a safe coaching environment you (1) look for opportunities to help your employees increase their performance, and (2) you focus on asking questions, rather than providing your own solutions. By asking questions, your employees will develop their own solutions and be able to self-assess their own performances.

As a manager, you must truly believe that developing your employees is not only part of your job, but something that will help in your own development as well. You can clearly demonstrate the importance of coaching to your peers and employees by focusing on helping someone else and not let your own agenda get in the way.

If all of this seems to be a leap from your current business environment, then you will need to let your employees know you will be making some changes that will be focused not on evaluating their performance, but will be focused on helping them learn and grow. The most important task in this new environment is to follow through. Employees will quickly become disillusioned if they are told that changes that will be coming, but they don’t observe any real changes.

Creating a safe coaching environment is the first step towards becoming a successful coaching manager. In our next issue, we will discuss how you can become a coaching manager who develops your employees through a continual process of coaching moments, and thus increases your employees’ engagement.

A Reintroduction to a Great Assessment Tool

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:41:55 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

In the past, as an employee or company leader, you may have had the opportunity to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the leading personality inventory assessment tool.

For almost 40 years, business leaders have used the MBTI to assist them with managing employees, developing leadership skills, coaching leaders, building teams, training management and staff, resolving conflicts, enhancing communications, motivating employees, and enhancing diversity training.

What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator results in a personality inventory designed to make C. G. Jung’s theory of psychological types more understandable and useful in people’s lives. Jung’s theory states that random variations in behavior are actually quite orderly and consistent over a long period of time. However, it is the basic differences in the ways individuals use both their perception and judgment that cause observable behaviors.

Perception describes the ways people become aware of things, people, events, experiences, or ideas. Judgment, on the other hand, describes the many ways people arrive at conclusions about what they have perceived. Due to systematic differences in perception and judgment, people will differ in their interests, reactions, emotions, values, motivations, and skills.

The MBTI results are organized into four pairs of psychological preferences:

(E) extroversion and (I) introversion: How do you get your personal energy – from the world outside of you or from your internal world?
(S) sensing and (N) intuition: How do you collect information – from pure data and facts or do you like to interpret and add information to existing information?
(T) thinking and (F) feeling: How do you make decisions – logically using your own data or by evaluating the effect your decision will have on others?
(J) judging and (P) perceiving: How do you like to operate in the outside world – with structure and a schedule or with flexibility to make changes?

To learn more about personality types, choose the MBTI instrument for both yourself and your employees. Note: the MBTI does not compare your results to other people’s results, nor does it compare you to any normal or pathological standard. Using the MBTI will help everyone understand their own personality strengths and challenges and how each person can contribute to a situation, a task, or the solution to a problem.

In fact, since its existence, hundreds of studies have proven the MBTI tool to be both valid and reliable. These studies show that the MBTI measures what it says it does and the same results are produced when the tool is given more than once to the same person.

If you and your organization have begun a leadership development, succession planning, or team building process, contact Beth Miller at beth.miller@executive-velocity.com or 678-579-9191 to learn how the MBTI preference survey can further benefit you and your organization’s initiative.

Developing Future Leaders- It's Imperative Not to Wait!

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:38:37 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

Why is it important to develop future leaders within your company? Continuity of company culture, labor shortages, and an unexpected death of a senior manager are just a few important reasons.

In his book, Built to Last, Jim Collins describes the very successful succession planning process that GE’s CEO, Reginald Jones, took to find a new CEO. The process involved 96 candidates over seven years before Jones narrowed the candidates down to a single successor: Jack Welsh.

GE’s commitment to the succession process not only identified Jack Welsh, but all of his predecessors as well. These leaders were visionaries and change agents – an important, ongoing part of GE’s culture.

While you may not currently be in need of a successor, have you at least identified some potential candidates? Who within your organization has the potential to succeed you? And how long will it take before they are prepared to take your seat?

Challenges for Mid-Market Companies

Unlike GE, mid-market companies generally don’t have 96 candidates in the succession planning process queue, and a seven year process may be overkill. At the same time, many mid-market companies often wait until it is too late to successfully identify and develop their next CEO. Potential candidates may leave their current company to grow with another company before they are formally identified for succession opportunities. The very worst scenario involves a candidate leaving for a competitor who promises them increased responsibilities and leadership development opportunities that their current company failed to provide.

Another challenge for mid-market companies is their lack of a structured management training program for current and future leaders as found in many Fortune 500 companies.

Redefining Succession Planning for Mid-Market Companies

The succession planning process should start with you, your organization’s leader, and your talent management or human resources department. Work with this department to create a list of critical success factors and specific job requirements. Identify all must-have experience and skill sets as well as the nice-to-haves. If you don’t have people internally with these skills set, bring in a consultant to assist in the succession planning process.

Once the job profile is complete, compare it to your candidates. Identify the top candidates and determine what leadership development skills they will require. Some of your leadership development process can be addressed through internal resources, while some may require external resources.

When your leadership development plan is finished, you should not wait to execute your plan as waiting can greatly impact your company’s future! The story below tells why it is imperative that you not wait to begin developing your future leader.

Start Now

I have had the unfortunate experience of working with a company whose leader did not act with a sense of urgency when it came to leadership development and he died unexpectedly. The company was left to a family member who wasn’t prepared to take control and lead the company. As a result, this past year has been a very difficult time for the new leader as well as for the employees.

Grooming future leaders is one of the most critical tasks for an organization’s leader. Without well-prepared future leaders, there is no future for the company. A good leadership development process will take time and commitment from you, and must be a high priority. Therefore, don’t let the company that you have spent so many years building, stagnate or fall apart because you didn’t properly prepare new leadership to run it for many years into the future.

Five Tips for Accelerated Leadership Success

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:25:04 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

1. Focus on your top performers. What message do you send your ‘A’ players when you are spending more time working with your ‘C’ players?

2. Make leadership development a continuous process, and not an annual event. Coaching is one method of providing on-going interaction and follow-up with each member of your staff, leading to positive change in their behavior.

3. Before choosing a business coach, be clear about your reasons and goals for being coached. Make sure these goals are aligned with your company’s goals.

4. As a leader, focus on asking good questions which lead employees to suggest a solution to a challenging problem. Once invested in the process, they will then take ownership in executing the solution.

5. Adapt your leadership style to each person’s needs. Every employee has their own unique communication and learning style as well as their preferred way of being motivated.

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:19:03 +0100

October 1, 2008 Atlanta-Based Coaches Drive Emerging Companies to Success. Executive Velocity Accelerates Growth for a Variety of Businesses...(read more)

Employee Engagement - A Leading Indicator of Employee Retention

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:19:31 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

A June 2008 Employee Engagement Survey by HR Solutions of Chicago revealed that employees were more engaged with their work when they felt:

Supported by their manager when making suggestions to correct work place problems.
Valued and recognized as an important part of the team.
Their manager was helpful and friendly towards them.

So what can happen if your employees are disengaged?
According to the study, business leaders will experience a lower level of productivity from team members. And based on the research done by Marcus Buckingham in First Break all the Rules, employees who don't feel valued are more likely to leave in search of an employer who does value and recognize them for their accomplishments. Low employee engagement can also lead to lower profits and levels of customer satisfaction.

It is the employee's manager or even the CEO who is the key driver in employee engagement. They are the ones who directly influence employee opinions and attitudes.

What is your company's level of employee engagement and how do you measure it?
For most companies an employee satisfaction survey provides anonymity to employees, providing them with a platform to be open and honest with their feedback. However, for smaller, emerging growth companies a survey may be overkill. Personal interviews using an outside consultant can also provide honest feedback.

Once you've received feedback, then it is time to develop an action plan to increase employee engagement. Although you may find that your employees are highly engaged, even companies with high levels of engagement can improve their employee engagement level. Results of your survey or personal interviews may show a systemic problem across your organization or may show intermittent problems.

Therefore, now is the time to take action! With increased competition for knowledge workers, this is not the time to shelve the survey or personal interview results until your next budget season.

What should be the key steps in your action plan?
First, identify those areas that could have the biggest impact on improving future survey results. Concentrate on only one or two areas to improve and identify those leaders that need to be involved with implementing the improvements. For instance, your survey may show that recognition for a job well done is not done in a timely fashion. If this is the case, identify what processes can be implemented to improve the recognition process and then provide the necessary training for the managers who will be involved with implementing the changes. Next, determine ways of measuring the effectiveness of the changes because you don't want to find out in your next survey that the changes made had no effect in solving the problem of untimely recognition.

Remember that results of the survey and your committed action steps for improvement also need to be communicated to employees in a timely fashion. This is critical to the ongoing process of honest employee feedback and for increasing employee engagement levels.

By implementing an employee engagement action plan, your employees will be more engaged with their work, will truly feel valued, and will know they will be recognized for their accomplishments. Company loyalty and employee retention will rise. Furthermore, engaged employees contribute to higher levels of customer satisfaction and more importantly, increased profits.

Uncertain Times Require Leadership Clarity

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:29:38 +0100

By Beth Armknecht Miller, President and Executive Coach, Executive Velocity Inc

It seems like the news about the economy keeps getting worse. The most recent news is the instability of the financial markets which has required the government to step in and take over a number of large financial institutions like AIG, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae.

However, the ongoing bad news continues to create angst among the public, including your employees. Although you may not yet have observed it, what effects your employees personally will affect them professionally. More of your employee's time will be devoted to talking about the bad news and speculating about the future, especially their own financial future as well as your company's future. Not only will they be talking amongst themselves, they will be spending more time on the Internet trying to keep up with the volatile financial news. This will lead to less time being spent on the important aspects of their individual jobs.

There is a high probability that if employees continue this behavior, productivity will drop, leading to lower profits and a self-fulfilling prophecy of continued economic bad times.

Therefore, now is the time to be proactive in your communication to employees about what you and your leadership team are doing to shore up your company. The more they understand your plans for weathering the perfect storm and future growth, and how they can be part of the solution, the better the results will be. Clarity and consistency in employee communications is critical. Leaders need to focus on being completely transparent and positive, and should not wait to deliver bad news. Your initial communications to your employees should include the following:

The concrete steps you and the executive team are taking,
How your employees can impact and improve business outcomes,
What your expectations are from them, and
Recent sales wins and cost containment efforts.

From what the economists are predicting, it could be a long road to recovery. Thus it is important that you communicate with your employees frequently i.e. more than once a quarter.

Leadership clarity not only includes consistent timely communications, but it also requires highly visible leadership. Your company's message will be a lot more impactful if it is delivered by the CEO and/or President, either in person or by video teleconference, than if it is sent by e-mail. Demonstrating leadership clarity can turn uncertain times into positive action and direction.