This week let’s talk about employee engagement.  It’s a phrase I’m sure you’ve heard, but what does it mean?

Employee engagement means that your team members are focused, energised and they know how to contribute to the success of your organisation.

So let’s think about how you might make it work in your team.  I want to share with you a little technique around team planning.  Planning can be boring, it can be overdone and useless.  But I want to talk about a quick method of getting your team to have a written document they can refer to so they know what is expected of them.

A team planning chart is something that you can pull out at meetings, hang on a wall, or display in a work area, and it is something written to keep the team focused on the job at hand.  It’s not a work flow chart, it’s not a calendar, it contains different information.

·           The first thing it should have is what is the purpose or overall goal of your team?  Why do you do your work?  What are you there for?  This often has reference to your customers or clients or the people who are recipients of your service or product.

·           The second thing is to focus on the goals that you are looking to achieve over a reasonable time period.  It could be over the next quarter, half year or year.  Focus on some big objectives, two or three at the most.  You might add to that an objective or goal which is focused on how you want your team to improve its performance. 

·           The last thing you might have is some key milestones or measures.  The key milestones or measures might be six monthly or monthly.  They might be around output or quality targets.  You know your business, you know what they might be.  Have those displayed so that people can refer to them and talk about them. 

·           One more thing.  You might want to add something about how you do your work and your work place behaviours or values.  Your team can work to set some ground rules, and these ground rules could be on the chart as well.  It’s a good way of saying how we go about doing our work so everybody knows what is expected in their work place behaviour.

Have a go a creating a planning chart with your team this week and let me know how you get on.

If you haven’t taken the opportunity to sign up to the Every Tuesday Club with MBE (Management & Business Education), then do so today by going to www.buseducation.com.

This week I think it’s time as a leader that you taught someone a new skill.  Do you know something that somebody else doesn’t?   I’m talking about something that somebody else could use in your organisation.  It could be in your team or it could be a colleague outside of your team. 

So sit down and think about some skill that you have that’s a little bit unique, something that you can do that others struggle with or some information or knowledge you have that others don’t.  Pick something.  Write it down now.

Now what I want you to do is to think about how you can use that information to empower somebody else.  Sometimes old fashioned leaders say you shouldn’t do that,  you should hang on to your power.  But let’s think about how information is used in business these days. 

Once upon a time, information was power.  But look at all the information that’s available through the internet and other sources.  Information doesn’t hold the power base anymore.  It is how we leverage and use information that is what creates power and success. 

Generation Y, those younger workers that make up a big proportion of our workforce today, look at information as something that should be available for everybody.  So let’s take a leaf out of their book.

This week take that skill or knowledge you have and share it with somebody else who can use it to make your organisation or your team more successful.  Don’t forget to let me know how you get on.

If you haven’t taken the opportunity to sign up to the Every Tuesday Club with MBE (Management & Business Education), then do so today by going to www.buseducation.com.

This week let’s talk about how you can boost the performance of somebody in your team.  The first Every Tuesday Club we focused on how positive reinforcement of the behaviour you want to get good performance.

This week let’s tackle the tough message - when you have to tell an employee that you are not happy with their performance, about what they are doing wrong and how you would like it improved.

Work place surveys around New Zealand that I’ve seen consistently show that managers in New Zealand are not good at dealing with poor performance.  In fact, they avoid it.  I’m not sure why, it could be because of the employment law, people are scared that they’ll get a personal grievance.  It could be just because we’re reluctant to tell people that they’re not going well.  But it’s not only about losing the investment you’re making in that individual it is also a de-motivator for good workers to see someone performing poorly and getting away with it.

So let’s look at some principals that might help you to deal with poor performance.

1.     The first principal is P= SC²  or Performance = Skill x confidence ²

That is confidence has more to do with improving performance than skills.  Thus, in giving feedback about improving performance we need to make sure that we maintain or boost that individual’s confidence and do not undermine them.

2.     The second principal to remember is to maintain the confidence we need to focus on giving feedback and talking about the event or the performance and its impact on the business not their traits or the individual.

Depersonalise the language you use.  Say “When our monthly reporting figures are incorrect, we provide poor information to management and that leads to …” and so on.  Rather than “You made a mistake on the reports again.  It was so embarrassing.  You are really not paying attention to your work, are you?”

We need to be aware of blame culture.  Blame culture can stem from when leaders start giving feedback which is personalised and makes the person feel guilty about their performance or work.  This is actually going to undermine their confidence and lead to worse performance.

3.     The third principal is to make sure that we focus on the employee owning the solution not the problem.  What this means is that they’ll take responsibility for the change in behaviour that you require rather than feeling bad about what went wrong.

4.     The fourth and final principle is 2 to 24.  What I mean by that is give the feedback at least 2 hours after the poor performance and within 24 hours.  Two hours allows you to cool down and 24 hours means it’s still relevant.

Let’s not forget that the most important part of success in our role as a manager or leader is the people that we work with and how they perform.  It’s the most difficult part of our work and I hope these tips will be useful this week in boosting someone’s performance in your team.

Don’t forget to let me know how you get on.

If you haven’t taken the opportunity to sign up to the Every Tuesday Club with MBE (Management & Business Education), then do so today by going to www.buseducation.com.

This week in the Every Tuesday Club, Steven discusses leading by example, something all of us would like to do and do well.  It’s easy to set a good example when things are going well and smoothly.  But when things are a bit rocky, it’s harder.

A good way of thinking about this is to look at how you handle complaints.  It sends a message to your team, about how you would like them to act when things are tough.

Let’s think about how a complaint comes in.  It could come from you boss, it could come from a client, or it could come from a co-worker.  In the end a lot of complaints can end up on your desk.  How are you going to manage them?  Think about it before you get there and it makes it a lot easier.

First thing though is to look at a complaint as an opportunity.  I know it’s been said before and it sounds a little bit ridiculous, but it really is a chance for you to demonstrate why you are good at what you do and why you are a good leader.

So follow these steps when you handle a complaint next time.

1.     First of all, let’s think about not taking it personally.  A complaint can sound personal, because often the complainant uses words like “you”, “you should have” “why didn’t you”.  But it’s not personal, it’s an observation about your business or your organisation that you need to manage, so let’s not take it personally.

2.     Secondly, listen and don’t interrupt.  You are the expert in your business and the person complaining is not.  That means it is easy for you to jump to conclusions and step into the conversation too early to try and resolve the issue.  Don’t.  Wait and listen and make lots of listening noises like “yes”, and “I understand”.

3.     Thirdly, you need to empathise.  Empathising is not sympathising.  It is not saying “I feel sorry for you”.  Empathising is demonstrating to the customer that you understand what they are saying.  You can empathise even if you disagree with them.  You can still say that “I understand that you are frustrated” or “I can see how that would be annoying”.  That’s empathising and it’s not admitting that you are wrong.

4.     Even though you don’t admit you are wrong, you need to apologise.  But again focus on apologising for how they feel, or why they are frustrated, not for the actual event.

5.     When the situation is settled and resolved, don’t forget to thank them.  Yes, thank them.  It sounds silly but you need to thank someone for a complaint, because it is feedback about how we can improve things for our organisation and our team going forward.

Try this when a complaint comes in next time and let me know how you get on.

If you haven’t taken the opportunity to sign up to the Every Tuesday Club with MBE (Management & Business Education), then do so today by going to www.buseducation.com.