Helping Your Employees Change + The Winter Olympics and You!

Helping Your Employees Change

by Randy Slechta
CEO of Leadership Management International

In today’s dynamic world of constant change, it’s imperative as a manager and a leader that you have the tools and skills necessary to help your employees change behavior as needed. In fact, change management is a critical skill for all managers and leaders in the 21st Century. The question then becomes, “How does a manager/leader change or influence an employee’s behavior?”

The best tool for accomplishing this is feedback. It has been said that feedback is the “breakfast of champions.” This is absolutely true. With feedback, you can have a significant impact on your employee’s behavior and results.

Feedback is an act of recognition of a person, an event, a result, etc. There are two main sources of feedback: a person can provide feedback to themselves, or they can receive it from others. There are three very different feedback scenarios:

1. Positive Feedback – Positive feedback reinforces positive behavior. 

2. Negative Feedback – Negative feedback stops negative behavior. 

3. No Feedback – People who are unsuccessful in getting any feedback through normal behavior will resort to making mistakes and/or causing trouble to get negative feedback. This is because getting negative feedback is better than having no feedback at all.

Nature abhors a vacuum. The absence of feedback creates a psychological vacuum in a person’s mind. Under this condition, people will act in any way they can to gain feedback, either negative or positive.

Since it is often easier to get attention by doing something bad than it is by doing something good, in the absence of feedback, people will move from doing what they are doing now to doing something differently where feedback is achieved. We can easily see this in children. They will do whatever they need to do to get the attention of a parent, sibling, etc.

Download the rest of the article - Feedback

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The Winter Olympics and You!

by Michael Diercks

Leadership Management Institute, Columbus Office

The Winter Olympics are giving us quite a show this year. The thrills, the chills, the agony of defeat, the celebration of victory.

For the next couple of weeks we will be glued to the TV watching skating, bob sledding, skiing and curling -- the pinnacle of winter sports!

As you watch these athletes and teams compete, watch for all the "Slight Edge" performances. What is a "Slight Edge" performance? It is where an athlete finds that one little thing that makes the difference.

Each athlete is looking for that "Slight Edge" in their performance. Speed skaters seek just the right time to pass, bob sledders are trying to navigate the corners to get optimal speed, skiers are riding the edges of their skis to cut their turns just right.

The "Slight Edge" moves them from contender to the podium and from the podium to the gold.

So... what does the Olympics and the "Slight Edge" have to do with business performance? Simple -- learning to apply the "Slight Edge" in your performance can move you into the winner's circle – from very good to outstanding.

What is the "Slight Edge" in performance? It is simple but not easy. Simple in that you need to identify the one or two actions that, when implemented, over time will elevate your performance by a step. That step is one thing that will move you closer to the victor's circle. It doesn't need to be a huge, monumental leap, just a one simple activity.

Let me suggest one thing you can do today to enhance your performance. Write down one thing that prevents you from finishing your to-do list. Here are ones that I hear frequently.

• Unproductive meetings
• Constant interruptions
• Giving directions to someone over and over again
• Allowing commitments to slip
• Taking on too many assignments
• Fighting "fires"

Once written down, make a decision not to allow these performance inhibitors to happen. (This is where the simple isn't easy!) Create a daily habit of replacing these inhibitors with performance enhancers (legal ones) that will move you to the next level. Decide to...

• Improve meetings
• Manage interruptions
• Ensure others understand
• Keep commitments
• Learn to say "no"
• Find the causes of fires and prevent them

Remember performance improvement only happens when personal improvement happens!

If you would like to explore how these performance inhibitors are really impacting your results, please contact us. The LMI transforming process delivers "Slight Edge" advantages to you by creating the personal habits that improve productivity and enhancing performance!

Paul J. Meyer dies at 81 years old

An excellent article on the founder of LMI, SMI and many other businesses.

Waco entrepreneur, philanthropist Paul J. Meyer dies at 81 years old

Enjoy!

Lessons in Mentoring - PJM

Tell Me, Show Me, Let Me, Correct Me - Lessons in Mentoring by Paul J. Meyer

My father told me again and again to never take a job unless I was willing to be mentored. He knew that knowledge was not enough. He knew the value of repetition and mentoring in the learning process, and he modeled that for me from my earliest years. His learning system was simple. He would:
·tell me
·show me
·let me
·correct me
My first bike, for instance, was a junkyard rescue. My dad and I picked it up, brought it home, and took it apart. He patiently showed me how to put it back together - how to fix the brakes, build a gear, and put new spokes on the wheel. That hands-on learning taught me a great deal, but just when I felt I had conquered the bike, he made me take it all apart again. My dad understood that repetition was a powerful ingredient in the learning process. I took that bike apart and put it together so many times that I could have done it with my eyes closed! Sure, I was sometimes frustrated, but I learned.
My dad did the right thing: he provided structure and follow-up, making sure I understood the correct way of doing it from the very start, and then allowed me to repeat the process with his "mentoring." He supervised my practicing until he felt I could do it on my own.
Dad did this with everything in life. I remember when I got my first car - I had to have it towed home! I knew nothing about cars, but dad taught me everything. He taught me the difference between the transmission and the master cylinder, the headers and the exhaust pipes. He taught me what made the car work and how it all fit together. Together we took each piece apart and he'd tell me what it was, show me how it worked and was put together, let me try to do it on my own, and then correct me so that we could begin the process again. Finally, when we had finished and I knew how to put every piece back together, he took it completely apart again, smiled, and said, "Put it together, and it's yours!"
It was a challenge, but I did it and learned a lifelong lesson about learning, "Successful people yearn to learn and have a plan for learning." Unless people have a plan for learning and are motivated to do it right, it isn't very likely that they'll hang in there and do it. My dad created a need and a plan for me with that car, and to this day, one of my saddest memories is the day I joined the military and had to sell that car.
In my own companies, I maintain my dad's learning system with one small change. As I got older, I realized the power of positive reinforcement and praise in the coaching/mentor relationship. My dad was a great teacher, but his correction didn't always involve encouragement. So we've modified it a bit:
·tell me
·show me
·let me
·observe me
·praise my progress and/or redirect me
Having a coach or mentor accentuate the positive as you journey through the learning process is vital to success!
I am who I am today largely because of the lessons I learned from my own father. I understand how to learn and activate that knowledge because my dad modeled that for me. As you seek to grow and learn, remember the power of repetition, the importance of follow-up, and the value of coaching and mentoring.
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About Paul J. Meyer

Paul J. Meyer is a New York Times best-selling author and founder of Leadership Management Institute, Inc. and Success Motivation Institute, Inc. He has mastered the power of spaced repetition, using it to grow his businesses and change the lives of countless people. For more resources, and to order Know Can Do, visit the LMI bookstore.

Keys to personal leadership success

Personal Leadership is needed - and demanded - now more than ever.

These are random thoughts on the keys to personal leadership success.

1) Recognize EVERYONE is a leader. Whether you wear the title of CEO or bottle washer, you are a leader.
2) True personal leadership has nothing to do with managing others. It has everything to do with influencing others.
3) True personal leadership starts with self and works outward.
4) True personal leadership has a vision for themselves and encourages, supports and engages the vision of everyone else.
5) True personal leadership doesn't wait to be managed.
6) True personal leadership has a humble sense of being. They are comfortable in their own skin and don't depend on others for their identify.
7) True personal leadership is self-accountable. Their standard is beyond doing 'enough', meeting the 'base' requirements or satisfying the 'expected' results. They continually raise the bar of performance on themselves and, by influnce, those around them.

You become a true personal leader by your behaviors and not by your titles.

So - let's all take a little more ownership and become the leader you want to follow!

I need your help - those are my random thoughts on the subject - what can you add to the list? This isn't the complete list.

5 Pillars of High Performance

1) Crystallized thinking - You must have clarity of direction and goals in business and life to perform at your peak.

2) A dynamic plan of action - getting to your desired future faster requires focused action around defined plans and an accountability system to support it.

3) Possibility attitude - You must always find ways to make it work. Everything is good that happens.

4) Personal, internal motivation - You must become self-driven not reward driven or externally motivated.

5) Dogged determination - Passion and power to overcome any obstacle, barrier or road block, even yourself.

Less than 3% of the population really have built these pillars. They don't happen overnight. You must develop them and constantly improving them or they crumble and fall.

Give me a call and we can discuss how these can become part of your personal leadership fabric.

614.823.8150

Managing Your Time Well

By Paul J. Meyer
Your success as an effective team leader or team member requires a wide range of skills, but one of the most important is how you manage your time. Knowledge of the work itself, skills in interpersonal relationships, and the development of creative and useful ideas are essential to your success.
It is time management that determines the efficiency and the effectiveness you achieve in each of these important areas. The effectiveness of the activities in each hour of the day - not the number of hours you work - determines the results you and your organization accomplish.
Effective time management can give structure to your day. Several time-management methods have proven effective in all types of organizations and at every level. Use these three important methods to manage your time:
Set priorities based on high-payoff activities. The most successful people are those who carefully identify their priorities and use them as a basis for making decisions, preventing problems, facing and resolving challenges, and planning the day's activities.
Work every day from a written plan based on your priorities and goals. Use a calendar system that works best for you. Make a list of all items of work you must complete during the day to meet a deadline or to prevent some serious consequence. These are your "Imperative" items. Next, write down all of the work you could do today, but could finish any time in the next two or three days without causing serious problems.
These are your "Important" items. Then, within both categories, assign each item a priority. Tackle your high-priority items on your "Imperative" list first. As each item is completed, go to the next. When all "Imperative" items are completed, move to the "Important" items.
Set challenging, but reasonable target dates for every project. Recognize and respect the value of deadlines and target dates. There is a saying that work expands to fill the time available. Without deadlines and target dates, your work may be stretched out over too much time. Deadlines push you to move forward.
Improved time management offers one of the quickest, easiest, and most effective strategies for improving productivity and increasing results.

To learn more about LMI's Proven Personal Management process, check out our Time and Results Workshop.

Delivering Tough Messages in Tough Times

By Dr. L. Todd Thomas

Communicating change during tough times can be one of the greatest challenges facing leaders today. Change is always uncomfortable—even when it is for the better. But in the current environment, economic uncertainty and the far-reaching implications of the recession give a greater sense of general stress to the organization. Leaders are faced with the need not only to communicate change but to somehow engage their followers at a time when there are few things that can be stated for certain. This is not a feel-good exercise—it is a time to focus on the future.

Communicating change in times like these may be difficult but that doesn’t mean it is impossible. It means that change communication has to become part of a strategic plan. It requires forethought and a commitment on the part of the leader to openly and honestly address concerns and set direction. The following four principles can help leaders navigate the challenges of not only sharing information but engaging employees in the direction of the future.

1. Define the changed condition. Too many times, leaders jump into a “reporting” mode and share a lot of data and information with employees without providing the necessary interpretation. Your employees have access to the same public information you do: they read the same blogs, watch the same television and read the same magazines and newspapers that you do. Simply reporting information only highlights uncertainty. Take the time to consider what the impact of the situation is going to be and provide employees with a way to understand the impact.

2. Know what you are after. It is also important to determine the purpose of your communication. What is it you would like to accomplish with this communication? If you need to address rumors that are circulating in the organization, prepare to do so with some level of proof and understanding as to how those rumors might exist. If you want feedback from employees, consider what the key issues for feedback might be and how the input is going to be used. There is no right or wrong answer here, but it is crucial that you decide on your purpose before you start your communication.

3. Give employees multiple channels for feedback and dialogue. By the nature of being a leader, you have more information and you have it sooner than those who follow you. Some may be comfortable speaking up in a town hall meeting while others need the opportunity for one-on-one discussion. Small group discussions where employees meet together and identify their top two or three concerns can also be an effective feedback mechanism. Again, there is no perfect answer. Providing multiple avenues respects the needs of employees and allows them to choose the channel with which they have the greatest comfort.

4. Establish actions your employees can take. One of the greatest challenges for employees is in knowing what to do as a result of the information they are receiving. Your followers are looking to you for direction. Telling them to “Keep doing what you’re doing” creates a conflicted message because on the one hand you are talking about change and on the other you are saying stay the same. Don’t create busy work but use the unique talents and strengths of your followers to create a change environment. Perhaps you need employees to listen more closely to customer comments, or you want them to form some focus groups to identify the challenges for the future. Employees can only be engaged in moving the organization forward if they are actively invited to do so.

About the Author:

President of IMPACT consulting and Development, LLC (www.ImpactSuccess.com) Dr. L. Todd Thomas is a speaker and coach and author of several books, including The Leadership Integrity Quotient (TM): Establishing Trust as Your Trademark Strength and Stop Wasting Your Time: A System for Creating High-Impact Meetings. Contact: todd@Impactsuccess.com.