Three sure-fire ways to sabotage your new hire

EDITOR’S NOTE:
If you like what you see here, check out the longer version of this article published in Inside Indiana Business.

Are you inadvertently undermining the success of your new hire? Here are three common mistakes employers make in the early stages of onboarding.

1. Fail to prepare work essentials.
   Before your employee sets foot on your grounds, make sure you have everything ready that he needs to perform his job: ID, desk, computer, phone, security codes, email address, system logins, parking pass and so on. A tiny welcome gift is also a nice touch—anything from a note on his desk to a company T-shirt.

2. Keep the new hire’s arrival a secret.
   Make sure you inform the front desk and the new hire’s department of the employee’s start date. Designate someone to meet her in the lobby, and make sure her manager or supervisor is available to spend some time with her the first day.

3. View onboarding as a one-time event.
   According to TTI Success Insights, the onboarding process should last six months. It should be personal, purposeful and focused on setting up your employee for success.

TAKE THE NEXT STEP
To learn more about onboarding or see if you qualify for a free assessment, contact:

Tom Moellering, president
tmoellering@moellering.com
888-906-4111, x302
moellering.com

Are you rowing or steering? Part 2 of 2

In our last blog post below, we discussed whether you’re rowing or steering your business and said it depends on which way you’re facing.

Today, we want to give you simple sentence to remember the difference. Read each sentence below and note the preposition (short italicized word).

Rowing: You work IN the business instead of ON the business.

Steering: You work ON the business instead of IN the business.

If you’re rowing, you’re bogged down in the day-to-day operations of your business. In contrast, if you’re steering, you’re in the ideal position to take it to the next level. Which sentence best describes you?

TAKE THE NEXT STEP
To learn more about rowing versus steering or see if you qualify for a free assessment, contact:

Tom Moellering, president
tmoellering@moellering.com
888-906-4111, x302
moellering.com

Are you rowing or steering? Part 1 of 2

Look closely at this picture. What do you see? A speedboat and a rowboat, right?

These two boats symbolize two very different approaches to running your business—and it all comes down to the 1) direction you’re facing and 2) what you’re focusing on.

For instance, if you’re rowing, you’re positioned so that you’re always looking backward. Steering, on the other hand, puts you forward facing and in the driver’s seat, focusing on future opportunities. Think of the implications for your business.

Rowing makes you tired and grouchy. Steering invigorates. What business boat are you in today?

TAKE THE NEXT STEP
To learn more about rowing versus steering, or to see if you qualify for a free assessment, contact:

Tom Moellering, president
tmoellering@moellering.com
888-906-4111, x302
moellering.com

Are Your Emotions Boxing In Profits?

Do your emotions impact performance and profitability? The answer is yes, but whether it has a positive or negative impact depends on you.

No matter where you are in your career, no matter what industry your organization focuses on, the desired outcome is high performance that leads to sustained profitability. The centerpiece of high performance is a combination of good decision-making and your emotional intelligence. Whether the decisions to be made impact hundreds of people or they are the smaller ones made on a daily basis, these decisions and your emotional intelligence make all the difference.

As a leader, you have tremendous impact on the tone and culture of the organization. Your emotional intelligence affects the team’s emotions and actions. These interactions generate a response which travels down the chain in your organization impacting the culture, employee engagement & performance, and ultimately the bottom line through your customer’s satisfaction & buying behaviors.

Sadly, most leaders fail to recognize this connection and unintentionally “box in” the ability to generate profits. When the negative consequences of the emotional boxes of mood, emotions, frustration, anger, etc. are overlooked they impact and distort decision-making for everyone in the company. The result is a cascading effect in your organization of negativity, anger, resentment, self-protection, and employee disengagement. The focus shifts from profitability to self-preservation, and in that environment no one wins.

The key factors in emotional intelligence are:

1. Self-Awareness – The ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions, and drives, as well as their effect on others.
2. Self-Regulation – The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods and the propensity to suspend judgment and think before acting.
3. Motivation – A passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status and a propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence.
4. Empathy – The ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people.
5. Social Skills – A proficiency in managing relationships and building networks.

Think about your own organization for a moment; over the last six months how many of your decisions have been “boxed in” by poor emotional management? How many of your people are “boxed in” by their emotions? Which of the five areas of emotional intelligence are boxing in your profits?

Emotional management is crucial in leadership. You can either capitalize on it as a competitive advantage or let it continue to decrease profitability.

To truly benefit from your emotional intelligence you must accurately identify where your strengths and weaknesses are in this area. We can help you determine your emotional intelligence and how to leverage it to your advantage. Isn’t it time to take the lid off your box?

Sharpen Up — Quantum Leaps for Leaders

Sharpen your leadership edge with the skill of listening. Engage with the people you lead and help them accomplish your goals.

A Powerful Approach to Accomplishing Your Goals

Here’s a simple yet powerful approach to accomplishing your goals. Start by thinking of the word “goals.” Envision the word “goals” as an acrostic, with each letter standing for a word or phrase.

For example:

Goals
Objective results
Activity results
Length of time
Schedule

Now let’s explore what you would do in each step.

1. Goals
List a few specific goals you want to accomplish. Write them so they are clear and measurable. Now, pick one of your goals and apply the following steps.

2. Objective results
Define the results you hope to obtain as you accomplish this goal. Since many goals are large and overwhelming, break the goal down into small, measureable steps.

(A side note. . . Train yourself to think in terms of results. That is, focus first on the results required to accomplish your goal, instead of the activities needed,)

3. Activity results
Next, define the activities you must accomplish to achieve your first step. For instance, your first step may be “To develop my overall plan to accomplish this goal.” Other steps may include smaller projects, assignments to others, or “to-do” activities.

4. Length of time
It’s critical to make each goal time-sensitive. Specify both the time you will need to achieve your results and the completion date. Be realistic and allow ample time to get the job done. In addition, if your next action step requires someone else’s help, make sure you get their “buy-in” and commitment.

5. Schedule
Finally, block out the time you need on your calendar to accomplish your goals. Begin by blocking out half-hour to an hour (at the most). Remember, you still have all of your normal activities to perform, too.

Now that you have your GOALS and steps recorded, you will need to visit them periodically. I recommend reviewing them and assessing your progress on a weekly basis.

Tracking your progress is what helps you become a top performer.

Finding & Fixing Performance Potholes

We all know the damage a pothole can inflict upon a vehicle. Just imagine what performance potholes are doing to your company.

The simple truth is no pothole ever filled itself.

In today’s changing and competitive business environment you cannot afford to leave the “potholes” unfilled. Your role as a leader is to initiate and sustain the momentum around performance improvement for your people. It is essential that you equip your leaders with the right information, tools, metrics and actions to fill the performance potholes in the organization.

I suppose you could say that your people have a lot in common with roads. Over time, their deficiencies become more obvious and present greater challenges. In a road the weak points grow into potholes. In employees they develop into lower productivity, missed business goals, squandered opportunities, and ultimately lost revenue.

One of the best methods to fill “potholes” is conducting a 360 survey assessment. The 360 process provides your people with accurate, quantitative information about their capabilities, while making it easier for you to identify their key strengths and development needs. Ratings are collected from multiple perspectives – self, manager, peers, and direct reports. Then, the results are analyzed and reported back in a way which makes it easy to determine which issues are most important.

By using a 360 assessment your organization can quickly and accurately diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of an individual employee in key areas like:

Leadership
• Visioning & Strategic Focus
• Driving For Results
• Building High Performance Teams
• Acquiring & Developing Outstanding People
• Interpersonal Skills
• Leading & Managing Change
• Leading Through Personal Excellence

Management
• Make Things Happen
• Problem Analysis and Decision Making
• Communication Skills
• Interpersonal Skills
• Leadership Skills
• Technical/Functional Expertise
• Leading/Adapting to Change

The result is a real opportunity to develop and grow your people in ways which increase profitability.

Stop hitting performance potholes.

Our 360 process and tools are easy to use, accurate, cost effective and help you to maximize performance and positively add to your bottom line.

Your Achilles Heel

If your Achilles Heel left unchecked it can become fatal to you as a leader. If what you say and what you do doesn’t align you create a negative gap … or Achilles Heel.

To Plan or Not to Plan, that is the Question

By Carl Moellering

When asked about planning, the famed comedian Will Rogers said, “Planning is critical… cause you gotta remember to always drink upstream from the herd.”

I think all of us would ascribe to the Will Rogers thoughts about planning. The urge to plan comes after we’ve tasted the water ” below the herd” and decided is not what we want. Suddenly, planning takes on a new urgency.

I remember the first strategic planning exercise that I attempted when I owned a construction company. We hired a well-known Chicago firm and they came in and developed pages and pages of useless material in big binders. The fee they charged was astronomical. The binders stayed on the shelf gathering dust.

I decided there had to be a more effective way to strategic planning. For me, it started with understanding the purpose of developing the strategic plan.

Simply stated, it is simply good business practice. The purpose is to be able to develop the best overall course for the organization and proactively determine how we can best utilize and maximize our resources.

Next, it is vitally important to remember that this is a continuous process. Not only is it a continuing process, but it is a learning process for the entire organization. The business plan and the budget must be derivatives of the strategic plan.

In short, a good strategic plan answers these questions:
• What are the results needed to accomplish and follow our vision?
• What products and services do we offer to meet these results?
• What products and services should we be offering in the future?
• How can we best maximize our resources?

The outcome should be a handful of strategies that the business can undertake over the next one to three years.

The benefits are that the business will become more on to the oriented and the team of more focused. The process itself builds team spirit and morale. A good facilitated process should encourage stretch among the people and consensus among the team.

Our facilitated process is designed be very interactive, focused on results, and produces useable strategies that can position your organization for the future. It is your way to “drink upstream from the herd.”

Accountability – all leaders want it, so why do so few ever achieve it?

by Carl Moellering, Executive Coach

One of the most pressing desires of leaders is that they want their people to be accountable for their own individual and, collective, team actions.  At the same time, one of the most common laments among leaders is that they enjoy very little success in holding their people accountable on a consistent basis.

So, instead of accountability, they get unwilling employees standing around the proverbial “circle” pointing accusing fingers at one another.  “It’s not my job to take care of that…certainly not mine…I don’t even know how to…you’re supposed to do that…don’t blame me…”, are the familiar comments.  I know you have been there and experienced the accompanying frustrations.

Accountability is something most managers talk about, but few ever achieve.

So, why is this true?  If accountability is so sought after, surely there are ways to bring those reporting to me to be accountable.   Well, the issue of accountability is multi-faceted.

In this discussion, let’s consider one of the factors.  Most of what we term “holding them accountable” has an incorrect application.  All too often, accountability is used when things are not going as well as we would like.
Production slips, or people are acting inappropriately, or costs are rising, and budgets are not being met.  Something has to be done.

Suddenly, it’s time to hold someone accountable.  Accountability becomes the hammer to force improvement, to force change, to increase production, or to bring corrective actions.  If this happens, it is almost always punitive in nature.  “I will force them to do what I what”, is the common underlying thinking for the action.

We must stop accountability from being punitively oriented.

Punitive carries with it the sense of getting something by force.  It is that sense of forcing another to do what I want, and carries with it the thought that if you don’t do what I want, there will be a penalty to pay.

Let me ask you a question.  How well do you respond to someone forcing you into something?  I know the answer and so do you.   When I feel forced by another to do something, my first natural reaction is to dig in my heels and refuse.

To solve this small part of the accountability problem, start by establishing clearly defined accomplishments for each position. Almost everything can be measured by time and/or quantity.  Be specific in developing these measurements.

Then, invest in developing ongoing reviews with honest feedback.   Now, I am not talking about annual reviews, but, rather, ongoing, daily, monthly reviews of the progress measured against the defined accomplishments.  Now, you will be at the starting line for developing an accountable organization.

What about your leadership?  How much of holding your people accountable is punitively based?  Isn’t it time to change?  Let me know your thoughts, please.