Prickly People Provoke Poor Performance….Move ‘Em Up or Move ‘Em Out!

Such an interesting question! Why do we tolerate poor behaviour in the workplace? The responses I am often afforded include:

•  I can’t do anything about it; it’s not my job to.
• My manager is useless, it’s their problem not mine.
• That’s Harry; he’s always been that way.
• It’s not worth the effort to say anything.
• HR never do their job! We just can’t do anything about it!

My thoughts when I hear these excuses….? Poor behaviour is everyone’s fault and responsibility!

Poor behaviour impacts directly on team morale and performance. If you do not align vision, behaviours and consequences you are not driving a high performance team. Why would you want to work on a team that is not focused on being the best? You need to move porcupines up, by developing their behavioural capabilities; or move ‘em out and off the team!

Nobody likes a porcupine! [As I say, there’s often a prick on every team!] so why do we let them stay? I surmise it’s because we don’t know how to correct their behaviour. So here are my tips on dealing with a team porcupine:

1.  Establish a shared team vision and purpose; ensure everyone knows how the work they do contributes and aligns to the team goals and the organisational vision.
2. Agree on how you are going to do business with one another; set ground rules, values and behaviours that you all agree to adhere to.
3. Determine clear consequences for a breach in behaviour; there has to be a known consequence.
4. Engage in crucial conversations with team members every time there is a breach in agreed team behaviour. It is not the manager’s job to do this alone; take responsibility for your own environment, happiness and team conduct; of course you can tell someone when they are not adhering to the agreed behaviours….it’s a public work space!
5. Straight talk with a colleague about agreed team behaviour doesn’t equal confrontation! Change your mindset and engage in a conversation to grow and develop team performance. It’s not personal… business is a team sport.
6. If the poor behaviour continues, meet with the person in private and describe to them clearly the behaviour that is inappropriate and needs to stop. Tell them how it makes you feel to witness this behaviour; the impact it is having on you and the team. Let them know that you do not want to see it continue and that if it does, there will be a consequence [that you would rather not initiate; that is their choice]. Probe how you can help them to adapt or change their behaviour if they are unable to identify how to rectify things themselves. Remain steadfast that continuance of the behaviour will not be tolerated.
7. If it happens again, you must start the formal performance improvement process. No consequence, means no change in behaviour. Consult with your manager and HR first; they are there to help you despite what you may think! Role play with them exactly what you are going to say. The first place a porcupine heads after a formal performance improvement meeting is to your manager and HR; so make sure they both know what is coming!
8. Follow the performance improvement process to ‘manage up’ or ‘manage out’ the porcupine. No one respects a manager or a colleague who enables poor team performance. It’s just not what winning team players do!
9. Be ok when they claim ‘bullying’…. it’s just what they do! In their perspective, you have. In your perspective, you have addressed inappropriate team behaviour and been clear on your expectations. For the record…when done correctly, this does not constitute bullying; but they may claim it.

If you want a visual reminder of how to deal with a porcupine, consider purchasing our leadership vision board cards to keep a reminder on your desk every day!

If you have tips and tricks on how to deal with a porcupine, leave them below or comment on Facebook or LinkedIn…. I always value hearing your thoughts and opinions!

Evoke Change by Giving People a Vision of the Joy of a New Life

A Scope student and Registered Nurse Carolyn Howard recently sent me an article on an interesting discussion she heard on Radio National on how to best motivate people to make positive change in their lives.

"We are more strongly wired to seek pleasure than to avoid pain. Telling somebody 'if you don't change you will die of a heart attack or you will live a miserable life or you will die early' won't sustain change. Fear can initiate change but it won't sustain change. So we have to start framing our goal in terms of what you will gain, not what you will lose. I will gain more energy and vitality, I will gain more self-confidence, a body I'm really comfortable with, a life I love”.

See the full report, including the transcript HERE

Carolyn, [an avid researcher with a DISC© high Compliance communication preference] went on to elaborate that this philosophy was actually demonstrated at the 2005 Global Medical Forum. Dr Edward Miller, a cardiologist presented the findings of 600,000 people who had had severe heart disease. They were told; change or die. If you don't change your eating, if you don't change your exercise habits, if you don't reduce your stress, you won't survive for 12 months. Everybody changed for three weeks but the data collated over 12 months attested that they did not maintain it. Researchers found that only 10% of the people told to 'change or die', changed. Their response was: It's too hard. It's not worth the effort because we'd rather feel better now than later, and we'd rather feel better than live longer. Conclusion: Dopamines are attractive and addictive!

Carolyn went on to outline the comparative research of Dean Ornish, a scientist from the University of California in San Francisco. He decided to take a different approach to initiate sustained change. His angle was that if you change, everything in your life will improve. He asked people to explore what was not going as well as they would like it to; then search for ways to improve on the challenges. He identified people’s pain and assisted them with ways to minimise it. Helping people to positively focus on creating better relationships, having more energy, getting that promotion, working more effectively, having better sex, whatever it was they wanted. What percentage of his patients changed? 77%. He called it ‘giving people a vision of the joy of a new life’.

This dialogue with Carolyn led me to reflect on the One Minute Manager principle [concept Ken Blanchard]: ‘People who feel good about themselves produce good results’. It never ceases to amaze me the number of managers who still take the ‘big stick approach’ to motivating and managing their team. The evidence is clear; leaders in the 21st century inspire and evoke organisational change through role modelling strong positive leadership behaviours, demonstrating self-awareness, encouraging transparency, practicing good corporate citizenship, not managing their people negatively on a short choker chain.

So if you need to sustain change in your team; activate the dopamines. Let people know what they are doing well and brainstorm with them on how to proactively overcome any challenges or barriers they are experiencing. What would their life or job look like if the pain they are experiencing was minimised?

Focus your team on the positives and lead strong.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on this article, so please leave me a comment on Facebook or LinkedIn.

What Do You Need To Do To Be Happy?

Research shows that if you love what you do at work you will be happy! A recent study reported that the right amount of money to earn to make you feel good about work is $70,000 to $90,000. 

But it’s not only your salary that affects your happiness; people who work more than 60 hours per week experience the least job satisfaction. I found this interesting given that many of my client’s employees work an average 60 hour week. So what advice do can I give to them to build a dynamic and happy workforce?

4 tips for building a happy workforce:

1.       Ask for and listen to their ideas

We are living in the knowledge era; ask for and listen to your team’s thoughts and ideas on how to improve and innovate the current ways of doing business. You are paying them for their brain and their contributions! They, better than anyone, know where the bottlenecks in the business are. Regularly engaging in proactive discussions with your team will see business solutions and ideas seamlessly come to fruition. If staff understand and buy-into ‘the way things are done around here’, driving results will become secondary to managing rewards and recognition. Your best ideas and new concepts may only be a conversation away.

2.       Allow them to be creative and spontaneous

Work on building high levels of trust with each team member. An engaged and motivated employee will never expend time and energy on projects and activities that don’t align with their personal and professional goals. Reward positive behaviour and you are guaranteed to get more of the same.

3.       Invest in them

Grow your people, grow your team, grow your business! Any expenditure afforded to the growth and development of your people will always see a return on investment. Happy and motivated employees produce good results. It is easy to leave a workplace that demonstrates low trust behaviour; why would you stay in an organisation that had nothing to offer you and did not show you how you could both grow together?

4.       Align consequence to good corporate behaviour

Jack Welch in his book ‘The Real-life MBA’ talks of aligning vision, behaviour and consequences. Interestingly rewards need not be based on a monetary scale. Catch people doing things right and let them know how much their efforts mean to you and the business. Let them head off early, enjoy a long lunch, attend professional development programs; actions say more than 1000 speeches. Ensure consequences [positive ones] are afforded to those who live the corporate behaviours.

What are your strategies for engaging a happy team outside of an increase in salary?

 I’d love to hear your thoughts and responses. So send me a comment via Facebook or LinkedIn. I look forward to hearing from you.

Opportunity + Preparation = Success!

Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation!

Wanting to head into 2016 on a positive note I was excited to receive my new business journal and commence planning the 2016 journey. The excitement of planning holidays, client project milestones, creative thinking opportunities and brainstorming key performance indicators ensured I focused on planning to achieve ‘what matters most’ and not to get caught up in the small stuff!

“ Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation”

— Zig Ziglar

Applying the 80/20 rule, focusing on my top 20% high yield tasks, sent the goal implementation plan pounding forward. Within the first week I have been able to action plan and implement 12 new project plans.

So here are my tips for planning to succeed in 2016!

1.  Have and use a business journal to capture your thoughts and ideas.
2.  Establish a Master Task List and record everything you need to contribute to in order to achieve your Master Plan; plan your months out in view. Visual planning boards help you to see what’s coming up.
3. Start project plans early; spend 15 minutes a day brainstorming how to action your key performance indicators. Keep building on your ideas throughout the week, in 5 days your action plan will begin to take shape. 
4.  Collaborate with others; better ideas come from proactively building on concepts with key stakeholders. Planning in isolation will narrow your focus.
5. Stay positive! Always look for solutions and benefits in ideas and concepts; look for ways to make it work rather than shelving your enthusiasm and innovative ideas.  
6. Plan in a creative space; encourage your creativity don’t stifle it! Ensure your environment encourages and stimulates you.
7.  Be open and adaptable to change; it keeps you in business!

So what’s your planning schedule look like for 2016? We’d love to see it!

Send us a photo or drop us a line on our Facebook page or through LinkedIn!

The One Minute Manager

the 21st CENTURY manager's bible!

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Success can be yours with The One Minute Manager 

For more than twenty years, millions of managers in Fortune 500 companies and small businesses nationwide have followed The One Minute Manager's techniques, thus increasing their productivity, job satisfaction, and personal prosperity. These very real results were achieved through learning the management techniques that spell profitability for the organization and its employees.

The One Minute Manager is a concise, easily read story that reveals three very practical secrets: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Reprimands.

The book also presents several studies in medicine and the behavioral sciences that clearly explain why these apparently simple methods work so well with so many people. By the book's end you will know how to apply them to your own situation and enjoy the benefits.

That's why The One Minute Manager has continued to appear on business bestseller lists for more than two decades, and has become an international sensation.
Deceptively simple, and measurably effective, the secrets of one-minute management will help you boost profits, productivity and purpose immediately.

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Crucial Conversations [Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High]

When conversations with people matter.....

The New York Times and Washington Post bestseller that changed the way millions communicate

“[Crucial Conversations] draws our attention to those defining moments that literally shape our lives, our relationships, and our world. . . . This book deserves to take its place as one of the key thought leadership contributions of our time.”
—from the Foreword by Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

“The quality of your life comes out of the quality of your dialogues and conversations. Here’s how to instantly uplift your crucial conversations.”
—Mark Victor Hansen, cocreator of the #1 New York Times bestselling series Chicken Soup for the Soul®

The first edition of Crucial Conversations exploded onto the scene and revolutionized the way millions of people communicate when stakes are high. This new edition gives you the tools to:

• Prepare for high-stakes situations
• Transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue
• Make it safe to talk about almost anything
• Be persuasive, not abrasive

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PAY Yourself Well!

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Have you ever worked out your hourly rate, or the value of your time in 10 minute increments? Do you know what your time is actually worth so that you can prioritise your activities by yield? Let’s take a look. Let’s say your salary was $100, 000 per year, you take 6 weeks paid leave and 1 week of public holidays are accrued annually, you work 37.5 hours a week [1725 hours of work per year]. Your value per hour is $59.26 and every minute of your time is worth $0.99. OK, so you’re not quite Bill Gates earning roughly $114.16 per second, but 10 minutes of your time is still valuable.

Effectively prioritising your tasks enables you to realise what is important and what is not. Not every task is important and not every task is urgent. Knowing the value of your tasks and their importance in helping you to reach your goals will help you to allot more time to those tasks which require your utmost attention.

Steven R. Covey in his book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ suggests using an organisational tool for your to-do lists which will help you to realise how important and urgent your tasks actually are. Observe what you do in a day and pay attention to the tasks that monopolise your time. Classify them according to their level of importance in helping you to realise your goals. You can adopt the method described by Covey by classifying your tasks into the following categories: 

• Important and urgent: Tasks that are important to you in achieving your goals. They also have an impending deadline making them urgent. These tasks must be finished and require your immediate attention and dedication. These are your number one PAY activities.
• Important but not urgent: Tasks that are important but can be done at some later time, they can be postponed to be done after the important and urgent tasks are completed. Focus needs to be given to these tasks if you want to increase your effectiveness. These tasks should be planned and scheduled accordingly within your work plan; they will definitely increase your yield.
• Urgent but not important: These are the tasks which upon completion usually offer little value to your end goal. Try and avoid these tasks as much as possible. Spend time focusing on what is important to achieving your end goal. Learn to say ‘No’ or to delegate them wherever possible. PAY someone else; they are stealing your time.
• Not urgent and not important: These are the low priority tasks that give you the illusion of being busy. Although they have little significance in your life, they take up a signification proportion of your available time on a daily basis. Keep postponing these tasks forever and you will notice a significant increase in your productivity, never PAY these.

Goals are important to achieve your dreams. But they quickly become redundant if your daily activities do not revolve around the tasks that help you achieve them. Set a long term goal and break it down in to a number of short term goals that can be completed in a week or a month. Plan your days and activities around your short term goals.

Set long term goals that span for a year or more and research everything you will need to learn or do to achieve them. Once you have set clear targets, you can focus on setting monthly, weekly and daily goals to achieve your yearly targets. This way you can break down even the toughest tasks and tackle them effortlessly through your daily schedule.  PAY yourself wisely….and reap the rewards!

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The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

A must read if you need to increase your productivity

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One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has captivated readers for 25 years. It has transformed the lives of Presidents and CEOs, educators and parents— in short, millions of people of all ages and occupations.

The number one book for anyone wanting to sharpen the saw and their personal planning and productivity skills.

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