Productivity
The Department of Labor estimates that employee productivity runs at about 70% of capacity. What would happen to your business results if you could close the gap on the other 30%? The key is how you coach and lead each person for improved results. Learn how to communicate, lead and coach different styles for increased productivity by taking our free DISC behavioral assessment now.
Read MoreLeadership
You’ve heard the phrase … “Lead people and manage processes”, right? One of the keys to leadership is adjusting your style and approach to each person to increase your impact and effectiveness. Understanding style differences and relating to your team in the way that best fits them is a true leadership skill. Take a free DISC Behavioral Assessment and learn how to lead different styles on your team.
Employee Retention
Having the ‘right’ people in the right roles and keeping them engaged is the key to a high performance work team. Without it, you have lost productivity, sales and service. Your ability to engage your team can improve your retention. Click here to access a free DISC Behavioral Assessment that shows you how to relate with different members and keep them.
Read MoreMoney Mindset in Sales
Do you have sales employees report to you? If so, this article is for you. If not, you might find this interesting anyway because we’re talking about how thinking impacts our outcomes.
I worked for a service business where 95% of the employees are paid either base rate or commission, whichever is greater. My department was in charge of customer service and sales training classes for these folks.
We hired an outside industry trainer who took his system of tactics, tracking and inspiration and delivered a program for us with the intention of increased sales. He showed us the increase of sales in his business as a result of the program and we banked on getting similar results.
After over a year, the results did not come. Marginal ROI came from the investment of facilitating his program.
I’ve been thinking about it over the last couple of days. I know more about getting results now then I did then. I understand more about the power of thinking and what it takes to get different results in your life.
The chain I worked for is a value based service business. The average annual earnings were less than $25,000. The majority of employees work part-time (less than 30 hours per week). Most new employees are hired fresh from school with little business development training.
The consultant hired to deliver his program had a similar business, but there were key differences. His business is not value priced. His service prices average 25% more or greater. He also owns a technical school and trains his students in both technical skills and business building. He hires the top students from his school into his business. The majority of his employees are fulltime.
Laying these differences out, it seems obvious why his program didn’t yield the expected results. There core differences in both price and employee demographics. You can look at the practical business differences and come to conclusions.
I think it serves to go deeper though. I think the key difference between his team and ours was in the mindset of the employees.
What do I mean by mindset?
In this case, I believe the prevalent beliefs and expectations of his employees are different than those we had. His employees expected more based on their training and focus than ours did. Because they expected more, they gravitated to bringing in more sales.
I believe we get out of life what we expect. Taken one step further, I think we all have a magic number in our heads that is our ceiling for income.
T. Harv Eker wrote a best selling book called Secrets of a Millionaire Mind where he refers to this same idea as our money thermostat. He draws an analogy of a furnace thermostat. If our money thermostat is set at 72 degrees, the temperature (or money amount) we allow into our experience will gravitate to that number.
In the next post, we’ll talk about more beliefs and expectations and their effect on our life and business outcomes.
Read MoreGet to the heart of resistance
I overheard a conversation the other day where a manager was talking about how his team resists doing teambuilding exercises. He went as far to say there was a stigma about these types of exercises and asked how to get over the stigma to make the events more effective.
Maybe the question to ask is why are people resistant to teambuilding exercises in the first place? I suggest that the resistance is a symptom of a deeper issue.
Why do we resist things I our life?
Here’s a start to possible reasons. We resist things because
1. We think that if we do them, we will feel pain or discomfort (embarrassment, fear, anxiety, failure, etc.)
2. There is something about it we don’t trust
3. We don’t think it is the right thing to do
4. We don’t think we can do it
So, if your team resists teambuilding, or anything else for that matter, what is the source of the resistance and how can you address that?
The next logical step is to accurately figure out the source. Don’t assume the reason. When you assume, you are judging their behavior through your perceptions versus through theirs.
You can find out in a couple of ways.
If you have rapport and trust with your, simply ask them. You can go to the one you have the most rapport with or ask them as a group. The asking should be from a place of curiosity. It could sound like “I’ve noticed when I bring up having teambuilding events, you (fill in the blank – roll your eyes, look away, sigh, start doodling, say we don’t need it…). Can you tell me what that is about?
If you don’t have rapport or trust with all or part of your team, that is the place to start. The reason for the resistance could be because they don’t trust you or your intentions, or it could be something else. Either way, you won’t get the real answer until they feel safe and trusting toward you.
Too often, managers are pointing out to the team as the reason for issues. We forget the level of influence we have over the dynamics and actions of our team without saying a word.
Next time you meet resistance from your team, or at home, step back. You can change the situation simply by asking versus pushing the point.
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