True Stories?

We have become masters at coming up with stories that make the reasons we haven't met our goals/targets other people's (or another thing's) fault. I recently ran across these type of stories, from real accident insurance claim forms:

• "The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran him over."
• "The telephone pole was approaching fast. I was attempting to swerve out of its path when it struck my front."
• "An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and vanished."
• "The indirect cause of this accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth."
  

In all of these examples, it was always someone or something else to blame. Decide, today, that if you are going to be successful, it's up to you to look at the truth (real facts) and take response-ability for what has and hasn't happened. (That means that you're committing to respond to the truth/real facts and do something about it.) And that is how you will be successful, in spite of the people, processes, products, economy, competition...

SHINE ON!

The Happiness and Gratitude Connection

Want to be happy? Be grateful.

Although this is the time of the year where we are reminded to be grateful, this shouldn't be the only time of the year we focus on the things we're thankful for. Why? Because you can increase your happiness level by 25% just by practicing gratitude on a daily basis.

Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., a psychology profession at the University of California-Davis, carried out research with three experimental groups over 10 weeks.

• The "gratitude condition" group was asked to write down five things they were grateful for each week.
  
• The "hassles condition" group was asked to write down five daily hassles from the previous week.
• The "control condition" group was asked to list five events that had occurred in the last week - without telling them to focus on positive things or negative things.
  

Before the experiment began, participants kept daily journals to chronicle their moods, physical health, and attitude. After the experiment, people who were in the "gratitude condition" group felt 25% happier. Overall, they were more optimistic about the future, felt better about their lives, and they exercised almost one and a half hours more per week than those in the other groups.

We all have hassles. We all have bad things happen. Dwelling on all the hassles and bad things only make them worse. Change your thinking and you'll find that your stress level will go down and your happiness level will go up. What you grateful for today?

SHINE ON!

Congratulations to Ag Partners!

Hats off to one of our awesome clients/partners, Ag Partners LLC! We nominated them for the Citation of Merit award from the Iowa Association for Lifelong Learning for their innovative training programs and their commitment to developing employees, managers, leaders, and people within the communities they serve. They are incredibility deserving and it is has truly a pleasure to work with them. (To see the full newspaper story, click here.) What a shining example Ag Partners is!

SHINE ON!

Performance Hides a Variety of Sins

Last week, I had the privilege of spending three days training an awesome group of managers. I posed something like this to the group:

Let's say you have a top performer - someone who consistently exceeds sales goals. This person, however, is a nightmare of a team member. He/she often displays his/her "bad attitude", is terrible with change, and is flat out just unbearable to work with. But remember, this is your best sales person. What do you do?

Hopefully you can't relate to this example, but based on the smiles and nods of the managers in the room, unfortunately many of them could. A VERY interesting discussion ensued. Performance tends to hide a variety of other sins, doesn't it?

For you leaders out there, a few things to keep in mind:

(1) What you permit, you promote. If you don't address the behaviors of your top performers, it will make it difficult for you to address those behaviors with anyone. True leaders hold people accountable for morale and don't allow people an excuse for their bad behavior. Can you imagine the work environment you'll create if you never address inappropriate behaviors?

(2) When you say nothing, you are doing something. Your employees are waiting and watching - they want, need, and expect you to step up. Will your team ever truly achieve greatness if they aren't able to work together? Doubt it. Will other top performers and key team members leave because they don't want to work with the "bad apple"? You bet. Will your team trust and respect you as their leader? Absolutely not.

(3) You aren't doing this "top performer" any favors by not pointing out to them how they are stalling their own career by their inattention to how they do their job (not just what they are accomplishing). You owe it to them to help them see the impact of their behavior, not just on others, but on themselves as well.

(4) Build accountability by giving feedback frequently to ALL your employees. Don't just make a list of things each employee is doing and address it in a staff meeting by saying you need to remind everyone about a few things. (Yep, I've seen that happen a lot.) The person at the meeting you are hoping gets the message never thinks its them you're talking to. Besides, who does that hold accountable? NO ONE. Accountability can only happen if people know and understand your expectations. Have the employee determine a plan of action to meet those expectations. Then (and only then) you can hold them accountable for making the necessary changes.

SHINE ON!

Personality Profile

People are fascinated with how accurately short assessments can predict and describe behavior, communication styles, and in general, personality. I use the I-Speak, Colors, DiSC, Myers-Briggs, etc. depending on what my clients are familiar with. The commonality between all these assessments is that they are all based on the research of Carl Jung. I found this one, the Jung Typology Test, to be FREE and interesting (especially if you're familiar with the Myers-Briggs). This 72 question assessment is quick and has links to various articles to help you understand more about your type. My husband is an ENTP (I especially agree with the part about how this personality likes their "toys")! I am a ENTJ. What are you? Do opposites attract or likes repel? What is the best make-up of a team?

SHINE ON!

Change Behavior

Over the years, I've worked with hundreds of organizations and there are a few disturbing practices they seem to have in common...

If someone isn't meeting their goals or if they exhibit unacceptable behavior, managers either ignore them (hoping they'll go away - and we all know that doesn't happen), transfer the problem employee to another department or location within the organization (so it's someone else's problem), or lower the goals/expectations for that employee (so now the top performers have more to do - and probably no reward other than more work). One organization I worked with, when I suggested addressing a problem person, said it was no use since employees wouldn't change behavior. When I asked why, they said their company never, ever helped employees find success somewhere else (aka no one ever got disciplined or fired - for any reason). YIKES.

Recently, I was reading about someone who had turned their life around. Something they said struck me. When they were unsuccessful, they changed their goals to fit with their behavior. Now, they change their behavior to fit their goals.

If you want to become a high performing organization, you can't ignore poor performance or behaviors, transfer problem people around, or change goals - you must address the issue. Know what that means? You have to change behaviors. Low performing employees, managers, and organizations will come up with tons of reasons and excuses as to why they are different. Successful people and organizations won't lower the goal, they will increase performance by changing behavior.

What type of organization do you work for? What do you do - change the goal/behavior or change your behavior?

SHINE ON!

The Millenials are Coming!

I've had many, many, many calls lately about how to manage "Generation Y" or the "Millenials". I came across this 13-minute video segment from 60 Minutes I thought I'd share with you. I'd love your feedback. Shoot me an e-mail and let me know what you think...

The Millenials are Coming!

SHINE ON!