Maximizing the Human Potential

Connecting with Employees

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andrew shaffer consulting connecting with employees

Last week I had the privilege of giving a presentation to the Small Business Council at the Central Maryland Chamber of Commerce. I discussed how an employee development system impacts the bottom line. We discussed how an employee development system impacts productivity and retention, as well as a few other benefits. During the talk, I also shared a winning strategy for employee development, which lead to a hearty dialogue. This week I am going to share some of the takeaways from that discussion about connecting with employees.

If you our your business would like to understand how employee development can impact YOUR bottom line, please contact me, and I’ll be happy to meet with your business.

Connecting with Employees

First and foremost, there is no one size fits all employee development plan. Everyone is unique with their interests, ambitions and motivations. Therefore, an employee development system should be able to produce a development plan unique to the individual.

How do you know what your employees need in a development system? Well, you have to be able to connect with them on an individual level. You must create a bond beyond the manager/employee relationship. In other words, you really need to know who your employees are as humans.

Many companies, including ASC, can help you with assessments to understand personality types, behavior profiles, and motivations. However, when you compliment these assessments with genuine human interaction you will amplify your results! Here are three techniques I have successfully used to supercharge my employee development systems over my careers.

Monthly 1:1 Meetings

I advise all leaders to have 1:1 meeting , typically for 30 minutes, with their direct reports every month. This time should be set aside each month and shouldn’t be moved. The meeting should have some structure to it, and still allow for a conversation. I recommend covering these topics:

  • Any progress on development plans. If no progress why and how do you catch up?
  • Challenges faced since last meeting. How did you overcome them? How can you prevent them next time?
  • Anticipated challenges in the next month? Plan to deal with them?
  • Any help needed? (be sure to follow through)
  • Ask the employee what’s on their mind, anything they need to discuss?

Many times, people get “busy” and when they are trying to squeeze an extra 30 minutes in to their week, and these meetings are the first to get moved or cancelled. Resist the that temptation. Remember that developing the talent on your team is a primary function of a good leader.

Development Plans

Create a development plan for each individual employee. Determine a specific goal with action steps to get there. To be “better” at my job isn’t a development goal. To create an effective employee development plan you should set goals, one or two at the most, geared at mastering current Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or developing skills towards the next job promotion. What is most important, is your development plan should have measurable goals and actions steps.

Depending on the size of your organization, employees might have an option of several career paths in front of them, or you might be a small business with just a handful of employees. Either way developing the talent on you staff with employee development plans will help your team contribute to the success of the company (your success) with each team members unique skills. You may find some hidden talent or skill on your team that could give your business the edge over your competition!

MBWA

MBWA is simply Management By Walking Around. In my discussion last week, this received the most attention. MBWA is simple. When I was doing it, I’d literally get up from my desk, walk to where my people were working (cubes, offices, labs, shop floor, wherever) and see what they were doing. I would ask about what they did, how they were doing it. I didn’t start doing this to get status on a project, or to tell them how to do their job. Then, I went to learn about them, and how they approached their jobs.

Then, I used other forums such as the 1:1 discussion or the development plans to offer advice on job improvements. Over a relatively short period of time, my team began to trust me. When I showed up, they didn’t think I was there to look over their shoulder to critique them, and they would begin to tell me about issues and problems they were having then. They’d ask for help then. Often times they actually would be glad to see me.

MBWA Reactions

When I talk to leaders about MBWA, I typically get three common reactions. Let me briefly share them with you now:

  • What do I talk about? Ask what they are doing, and how it’s going. Ask about their day, or their favorite sports team. The idea is to build trust. Once you have that trust, your team will open up and share more.
  • How do I do this without looking like I am micromanaging? Simple, DON’T MICROMANAGE. Don’t jump in unless they are doing something unsafe, unethical, or otherwise damaging to the company. If they ask for help, help. Once the rapport and trust is there, then you can use this time to coach. If you’re new to MBWA and you start out with coaching, your employee will see you and think your there just to tell them what they are doing wrong. That is counterproductive.
  • My employees don’t work directly with me, I can’t physically go see them. Personal communication is what MBWA is trying to accomplish. Call them, or better yet, video call them. Ask how they are doing, and build the rapport that way.

Building a connection through MBWA opened me an my teams up to a whole new level of communication. I was able to learn about issues when they were happening, and get help before they became problems.

This Week’s Challenge

Incorporate a system for connecting with your employees. If you already have one in place, great! Ask yourself, what improvements can be made to that system. Your efforts will be well worth the time you invest.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

The Importance of Maintaining Curiousity

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maintaining curiousity andrew shaffer consultingThe other day my son asked me a question. “Dad, if you could have one superpower what would it be?” Great question, I mean I could choose anything! What would I choose? What would you choose? My kids will often ask me questions like this. “Dad, what would happen if I …” or the never ending “Why?” They ask these questions because they are curious. They want to learn something they don’t already know. It’s part of their development. For some reason, most adults stop being curious. Is it because we have to admit we don’t have all the answers? I’m not going to get into the psychological aspects here, but I am going to discuss the importance of maintaining curiosity throughout your life.

Importance of Maintaining Curiosity

As the story goes, Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree and was hit on the head with a falling apple. This piqued his curiosity and lead to the discovery of the law of gravity. Apples had been falling off trees since the beginning of time (so I assume I am not that old!), why hadn’t anyone else discovered the law of gravity. No one else was curious. No one else asked, why apples always fell to the ground. Sir Isaac Newton’s curiosity, and pursuit of truth lead him to this discovery.

Curiosity doesn’t have to be limited to the field of physics; it can take your business to the next level. Curiosity breeds innovation, growth and discovery of new and more efficient processes and products. Curiosity helps establish your competitive edge and dominate the market share. Without curiosity you are doomed to complacency until you are obsolete and out of business.

Innovation

Do you want to eliminate complacency in your business? Create an atmosphere of curiosity. I don’t have to tell you that complacency kills your businesses, if not immediately it will over time. You have to be at least as innovative and creative as your competition or risk losing customers. Curiosity drives innovation. Innovation brings new products, better service, and higher profits.

Your employees should always be asking themselves:

  • What happens if I…?
  • Why do we do it this way?
  • Is there a better way?

Answering these questions will spark curiosity and help you become an industry leader.

Leadership

Just the other day I was reading something on the differences between millennials and baby boomers in the work place. I read it because I was curious about the comparisons, and I had a few minutes to kill. You don’t need a PhD in sociology to know that there is a huge difference between the way these generations approach work.

Leaders need to maintain their curiosity. There has been a ton of research done, books and articles written about how to become a more effective leader. In most work places, leadership has evolved from the old command and control model to a more empowering and engaging model. (If you are still in the command and control model, please contact me!). Leaders need to be curious about new ways to improve productivity, engagement, profits, and employee effectiveness.

As the work place changes with new technology, and a new generation of workers, leaders need to evolve as well. Being curious about how to improve your skills will help you become better equipped to stay on the leading edge and maintain your competitive advantage.

Lack of Curiosity

A lack of curiosity will doom you to mediocrity or run you out of business completely. I used to frequently comment that Monday is my favorite day of the week, and Friday was always the worse. Why? Well, because on Monday I was excited about all the things I could do in the coming week, and on Friday I was upset because I didn’t get anything new accomplished. This is classic complacency.

Clearly when I’d get in this rut, it was because I lacked curiosity and imagination to be innovative. When I’d recognize this rut, I knew it was time for a change. Sometimes it was that I needed to find a new job so I could grow, or I had to find a new way to do my job and improve effectiveness. Either way I had seen so many talented people get stuck in the rut, and lacked the curiosity to even wonder if there was a better way. A lack of curiosity will kill businesses, leaders, and careers.

This Week’s Challenge

How curious is your organization? Are you challenging yourself to grow, innovate and dominate your competition? Innovation will help you maximize productivity, reduce turnover, and increase market share. Maintaining curiosity in your business is key to helping your business grow, compete and be the best.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Continuous Improvement

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continuous improvement andrew shaffer consultingBecause it is Spring, and most of my “free time” is spent with my boys and their various sports, I find myself finding many lessons in watching them play. Just last week, I was coaching my eldest’s baseball team and we just decisively won the previous two games. I was watching the boys play, and I had been coaching a some of them for a few seasons, and have observed others as they played on other teams. I commented to my wife, how fun it was to be able to watch these kids grow over the last four or five years.

As coaches we are continuously trying to improve the performance of our players, through coaching, instructing, and sometimes even motivating. All this with the purpose of changing behavior. The irony here is in the business world, we don’t often use the same approach. Today, I will talk about continuous improvement in the work place, and ways to be more successful as you make necessary changes to be a winner today and in the future.

Continuous Improvement

At every company I have ever worked for, there was always a push for continuous improvement. Companies spent time and money looking for process improvements or new software that could streamline a process. How do we do it faster, cheaper, better? Great question! Who doesn’t want to do more with less?

The trouble with new processes or software is they don’t always improve efficiency. They don’t take into account the people actually needed to make the change. People are creatures of habit. To understand this, we need to understand what a habit is. A habit is an automatic response to a trigger, which is anything that causes us to take action. Let’s explore how improvements are often implemented in companies.

Changing the Response… The Hard Way

Companies spend a lot of money working on infrastructure updates, new tools, systems and processes, in order to achieve more efficiency. Then when a new system is in place, they spend even MORE money training employees to learn the new system. Then, after all this money is spent, they don’t see the efficiencies they had hoped to see! WHY!?!

In the work place we are still humans, and still creatures of habit. We receive an email (trigger), we respond (response). And on it goes. When there is a change to a process, or a new piece of software is added to the mix, people are being asked to respond differently to the same trigger. This creates confusion and disrupts their habits. It makes people uncomfortable. It is essentially the same as setting your alarm clock when it is time to go to sleep! You wouldn’t expect someone to have a completely different reaction to the sound of an alarm clock! Why expect them to change responses to the same trigger in the work place?

People will naturally resist this kind of change, complain about the new software or process.  It may take longer to accept the change, or people may go back to doing it the old way.   That is more comfortable, and after all, it’s worked for so long already!

But Process Improvements are Necessary

I know what you are thinking, process improvements are necessary. The new software is needed because the old stuff isn’t sustainable anymore. How do I get people to adopt to new processes?

Changing the Trigger… The Better Way

Just like any change in habit, change the trigger. At one point in a former career, I was being reassigned.  It was requested that I train my replacement during a transition period. The reasoning behind this was that I could smoothly transition my tasks to my replacement. This caused some issues with the team, and the confusion slowed the transition.

As long as I was there, the team would look to me for answers and direction. This was what they had done since the project started. The team looked to me to run the staff meetings and a whole host of things I normally did. In this case, my presence was the trigger. They came to me with status and problems as the response. It wasn’t until I removed the trigger (stopped attending meetings) that the team started relying on my replacement and made the transition.

Accept that Failure is Possible

Process improvements can’t be about changing responses. That is ineffective and it just doesn’t work. If you really want to maximize the benefits of improved systems and processes the key is to identify and change the triggers. Replace an existing trigger with a new trigger, and then you’ll get people to have a different response without the struggle of changing habits.

This Week’s Challenge

Find one area where you know you can be more efficient. Identify the trigger to change the response, and see your efficiency improve! This type of continuous improvement is essential to your business success.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Continuous Improvement

 

Employee Development and the Bottom Line

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andrew shaffer consulting employee development

I appreciate all the positive feedback from last week’s blog post.  It was supposed to help you think about the message you send, by the words you choose. Last week, I attended an event featuring Gerry Sandusky (voice of the Ravens), and in his talk he also highlighted the fact that people like to win. When trying to attract and retain talent, always keep in mind that people want to be part of a winning team. Develop a winning team, and watch your success skyrocket! Today, I’m talking about how employee development can help your business grow.

Employee Development and the Bottom Line

I grew up in Illinois, and I was a HUGE Chicago Bulls fan. HUGE! When I say a Bulls fan, it was probably more of a Michael Jordan fan. I wanted to be like Mike. Why? Well, because Jordan was the best of his time (and maybe all time). Having Jordan on the court was a game changer, he gave the Bulls a competitive advantage. Need proof? Michael Jordan led the Bulls to a championship in ’91,’92 and ’93, after a brief retirement and an unsuccessful pursuit at a baseball career. He came back to basketball and lead the Bulls to another threepeat in ’96, ’97 and ’98. Fun fact: I was in the United Center in Chicago when the Bulls won in 1998.

Almost everyone I knew wanted to be like Jordan. Jordan was more than a winner; he was a game changer. Every athlete I know dreamed of being the player that was given the shot with the game on the line as the clock is ticking down and comes through with the clutch shot, or play or whatever is necessary to win. Nobody dreams about being the guy that passed Jordan the ball.

Athletes at that level have a tremendous work ethic. However, we all know people with extraordinary work ethics that get ordinary results. Perhaps you have people in our company like this. Perhaps your company is like this. To achieve greatness, you need to combine that work ethic with a useful employee development tool. You may not have a championship trophy to show for it, but you will see the impact on your bottom line as you leave your competition behind.

Retention

I have talked with team leaders, and executives that have lost a top performer from their team. The story is almost always the same. I didn’t see it coming, and I wish I’d have known so I could have done something. These leaders struggle, often in vein, to find a direct replacement. In fact, most of the time they end up needing two people to get the same productivity.

Even if you didn’t have to hire multiple people, the replacement costs can exceed 1.5 times the salary of the person that left. Not to mention the impact to morale and team cohesion. And now your best employee, the one that gave you a competitive advantage, might be giving your competition that advantage you just lost. Wow!

Retention has an indirect, but real impact on your bottom line. Let’s keep this in perspective. As your company grows you run the risk of higher attrition numbers. Now not all attrition can be avoided, but if you could reduce turnover by 3-5%, how much money could you put back into your business. Where would you rather invest your hard-earned capital?

Productivity

Having an employee development system will improve the productivity of your team. We’ve all heard the 80/20 rule, where 80% of the work is done by 20% of the employees. There is a natural tendency in business where teams typically have about 20% that are exceptional. Roughly another 60% that are solid performers, and the remaining employees just don’t fit. What if you could tap into the underutilized productivity in the 60% of your solid performers and improve productivity by just a few percent. What you’ll see is dramatic increases in productivity.

For illustration purposes. Suppose you had about 50 employees in your organization. Increasing productivity by just 3% will yield an additional 3000 hours of work over the course of a year. That is like having another 1.5 people on your staff without all the overhead of having employees. And an additional 3% isn’t really all that much. It comes out to ~15 minutes a day/employee. Think of it this way: 5 minutes first thing in the morning, 5 minutes after lunch, and 5 minutes at the end of the day. How does this happen? Just being more deliberate, and focused.

Employee Development System

An employee development system is not an annual performance assessment. It is not long drawn out conversations about why someone needs to improve. I have 2 boys that play sports. I do my best to coach them both. When a player strikes out, as he’s walking back to the dug-out I often give him a quick piece of advice. Adjust your hands so you can get the bat around, or shift your balance so you can get a more level swing. Something quick and immediate. I didn’t wait until the end of the season (like an annual review). We try to make corrections now so we can see improvements at his next at bat.

To continue with the coaching analogy, there is one coach, one piece of advice, and one conversation. I don’t overload the ball player with three for four pieces of advice. It’ll clutter his head, and he’ll certainly fail again next time. We don’t have every coach giving advice at the same time (I do see this at times). Again, keep it simple, direct and understandable. Normally the change doesn’t come immediate in a game, and that is OK. But at our next practice I remind the player what we needed to work on, then we practice it until we get it right.

As a coach I develop my players on a game by game, day by day system. I work to elevate performance, so at the end of the season we are better ball players. Hopefully at the end of each practice we are a little better. When creating an employee development system, these same fundamentals apply. A quick, simple, timely  process for feedback, with the intent of elevating talent, will improve productivity, lower retention, and drive profits that you will see in your financial statements.

This Week’s Challenge

Do you have an employee development system in place that is designed for continuous improvement? Do you have a system in place that elevates the talent on your team on a continuous basis? Are you creating a system that gives you a competitive edge?

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

The Problem with Competitive Benefits

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.andrew shaffer consulting competitive benefitsI am writing this week to challenge companies to stop offering competitive benefits. Almost every job post I’ve read, and company I’ve worked for has told me they offer competitive benefits. HR departments love to tell employees that their pay and benefits are competitive, to attract and retain employees. Today, I will explain why this strategy might actually work against your efforts to attract and retain talent.

The Problem with Competitive Benefits

Whenever I had an HR professional, or an employment recruiter use the words “competitive benefit package”, or “competitive pay”, I typically discount the offering. To me, this means that the company wasn’t using their pay or benefits to attract and retain talent but pay and benefits are were not going to be a sole reason for leaving.

Before I offend anyone that offers benefits, and uses that as part of a talent attraction and retention tool, offering benefits is absolutely important. Most small business owners I know struggle to find ways to offer benefits, such as health, dental, and retirement plans to their employees. I am also aware that some of these offerings can be expensive, and businesses cannot always offer “the best.” My issue is with the language.

Differentiator

My issue with using the term “competitive” is that there is no differentiator. I think advertising competitive pay and benefits implies you are looking to do the bare minimum. Meaning, if the competition lowered their standard of benefits, so would you. I’ve seen companies lower their standard of benefits and justify it because they were being competitive in the market. Using pay and benefits as a tool for attracting and retaining employees should mean there is some differentiator between you and your competitors.

What do you do if you are offering the best benefits you can afford, and they happen to be on par with the market? Or what happens if you cannot even afford to provide benefits that are on par, but you are doing the best you can? Change the language. Don’t promote it as competitive, or even as a differentiator. State it as it is, that you offer benefits, or even a comprehensive benefits package. Find your real differentiator (career path, employee satisfaction, flexibility etc.) and highlight those.

Being Competitive

I have been a part of many competitive teams in my life. The problem with being competitive is I’ve found myself on the losing side of a competition. I coached a little league baseball team that was extremely competitive. Unfortunately, we lost more games than we won, and usually by one or two runs. You don’t walk away from losing a competitive game, with the same feeling you get when you win.

In business, I’ve been in situations where a prospect or agency was taking bids for a certain project. Every time the company would spend many man-hours putting together a competitive proposal, and the company lost more than they won. Ironically, they expected to lose more than they would win. What impact does that have on morale, when people spend countless hours coming up with a proposal only to have it rejected, and to have this more often than it is accepted?

Being competitive gives the impression that you will win and you will lose. When a company is voted a best place to work, they post that all over their website, job posting, marketing material. People want to win and be part of a winning team.

This Week’s Challenge

This week, I am going to challenge you to take the words competitive out of your attraction and retention strategy. Start providing a strategy that differentiates you from your competition. Create a strategy of winning, and your efforts will be much more successful.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Why is Leadership Important to Me?

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andrew shaffer consulting leadership is importantI was asked a question last week that I had never been asked, and I didn’t really know the answer too. I often say that I’ve always gravitated to a leadership position. But, I was asked why. I never really thought about it until he asked me and now, I can’t get it off my mind. I am going to use today’s blog to help answer this question for me, and to share with you why I think leadership is important.

Why is Leadership Important to Me?

First and foremost, management and leadership are NOT the same thing. Management is about getting tasks done, leadership is about developing people. To equate this to sports, a coach manages a game plan (management), but coaches the players perform better (leadership).

When I was asked why I gravitated to leadership, my initial response was that it was something natural in me. But when I reflected on the question, I realized it was something deeper. I concluded that leadership is important to be because of the impact that good leaders have had on my life. And, probably because of the impact that bad leaders had on my life, as well. Here are some examples of how leadership had an impact on my life, and how I’ve taken that lesson with me many years later.

Coaches

When I was in middle school, I fell in love with playing basketball. I was taller than average, so I could use my size to compensate for my lack of speed. The trouble was, I still wasn’t great. I was what they called the sixth man, which meant I didn’t start but got some playing time. I loved the game and would practice every chance I got (even in the snow). Between 8th and 9th grades I hit a growth spurt, and shot up over 6’. I was hoping for another growths spurt, but that didn’t happen.

When I got into high school though I wanted to play college basketball. The high school varsity coach, for whatever reason, decided to work with me. He’d drive me to play in summer leagues and find camps that I could go to. I was still in 9th grade, and by no means was I a superstar. He invested his time, and I became a better ball player.

However, he doesn’t make the list because he taught basketball. He also became a mentor for my life. He’d offer advice and guidance on just navigating high school. He was able to help me make better decisions and become a better ball player, student, and person.  When I coach my kids, I try to model myself after him.

Supervisors

In my book, I talk about my Lead Petty Officer (LPO) at my first duty station in the Navy. He was probably the best LPO I had while in the Navy. Not that the others weren’t good, but he brought something different to the position. As I am writing this, I think this experience taught me the difference between leadership and management.

Under his lead, I learned the mechanics of running a maintenance shop (management) as well as how to lead people. In my experience (and faded memories) he enabled me to grow and learn my job to a level higher than most of my peers. He encouraged me to take on the most challenging problems, and gave me the resources I needed to be successful. He encouraged all of us to take advantage of the various learning opportunities available so we could advance our careers. As I became more proficient in my job, he assigned junior technicians to work with me to help them become better.

My LPO made the list because of his direction, I became a better technician and better sailor. He also introduced me to what leadership really means. In my careers since then, I’ve tried to encourage people to grow, give them tools to be successful, and develop future leaders.

Father

Last and certainly not least I my father. Now his leadership cannot be completely summed up in a few short paragraphs, but the biggest lesson I learned from him was faith. My father always had faith in me, or at least let me believe he did. I’ll share a couple quick examples of how my father influenced me.

He coached little league baseball. He worked shift work at the time and it was difficult, but he made every effort he could to be at all my practices and games. This was such a positive influence on my, that I go out of my way to coach for my kids. He taught me the importance of being there as a father (even when you’re not wanted.)

In high school, I didn’t always stay on the straight and narrow. After an injury ended my basketball career, I didn’t always find constructive ways to spend my time. My father never gave up on me. He would challenge with questions like “what are you going to do now?”

He always knew that I had to make my own decisions. Eventually I answered his question and enlisted in the Navy. He was happy about that. In fact, the night before heading off to boot camp, I couldn’t sleep. He stayed up all night talking to me. Probably making sure I wasn’t going to sneak out the back door. From this I learned to have faith, and persistence. His persistence in challenging me to become better made me a better person, and perhaps better father.

This Week’s Challenge

This week I am going to challenge you with the same challenge laid before me. Why are you a leader? Or, why are you inspired to be a leader?

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Strategies for Culture Change

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andrew shaffer consulting strategies for culture changeLast week, I was talking to a fellow consultant about change management in business. He actually thought most of his business would come when companies were in a state for turmoil, as opposed to steady consistent atmosphere. This week I decided to share with you some reasons why change is so difficult in a company and introduce a better way to implement a culture change.

Strategies for Culture Change

At every company I ever worked for, there was always a push for continuous improvement. Companies spent time and money looking for process improvements or new software that could streamline a process. How do we do it faster, cheaper, better? Great question! Who doesn’t want to do more with less?

The Hard Way

The trouble with new processes or software is they don’t always improve efficiency. People are creatures of habit. To understand this, we need to understand what a habit is. A habit is an automatic response to a trigger. It’s noon (trigger) –  time for lunch (response). My alarm is buzzing (trigger) – time to get up (response).

Companies spend a lot of money working on infrastructure updates, new tools, systems and processes, in order to achieve more efficiency. Then when a new system is in place, they spend even MORE money training employees to learn the new system. After all this money is spent, they don’t see the efficiencies they had hoped to see! WHY!?!

In the work place we are still humans, and still creatures of habit. We receive an email (trigger), we respond (response). And on it goes. When there is a change to a process, or a new piece of software is added to the mix, people are being asked to respond differently to the same trigger. This creates confusion and disrupts their habits. It is essentially the same as setting your alarm clock when it is time to go to sleep! You wouldn’t expect someone to have a completely different reaction to the sound of an alarm clock! Why expect them to change responses to the same trigger in the work place?

People will resist this kind of change, complain about the new software or process.  It may take longer to accept the change, or people may go back to doing it the old way.   That is more comfortable, and after all, it’s worked for so long already!

Process Improvements are Necessary

I know what you are thinking, process improvements are necessary. The new software is needed because the old stuff isn’t sustainable anymore. How do I get people to adopt to new processes?

The Better Way

Just like any change in habit, change the trigger. At one point in a former career, I was being reassigned.  It was requested that I train my replacement during a transition period. The reasoning behind this was that I could smoothly transition my tasks to my replacement. This caused some issues with the team, and the confusion slowed the transition.

As long as I was there, the team would look to me for answers and direction. This was what they had done since the project started. The team looked to me to run the staff meetings and a whole host of things I normally did. In this case, my presence was the trigger. They came to me with status and problems as the response. It wasn’t until I removed the trigger (stopped attending meetings) that the team started relying on my replacement and made the transition.

Accept that Failure is Possible

Process improvements can’t be about changing responses. That is ineffective. It just doesn’t work. If you really want to maximize the benefits of improved systems and processes the key is to identify and change the triggers. Replace an existing trigger with a new trigger, and then you’ll get people to have a different response without the struggle of changing habits.

This Week’s Challenge

Find one area where you know you can be more efficient. Identify the trigger to change the response, and see your efficiency improve!

The challenge this week is to find one process habit to change to your team more efficient.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Three Qualities of Productive People

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andrew shaffer consulting productive peopleIn my previous career, before starting my consulting business, I would occasionally have to work a weekend to finish up tasks that did not get done during the week. It always amazed me the amount of work I could do on a Saturday. It felt like I got a week’s worth of work done in just a few hours! I thought they should double my salary for the day! Was it really a week’s worth? No, but I did feel productive. Today’s article is going to discuss how to improve productivity. You’re an adult, I am not going to insult your intelligence by telling you that you need to close your email or silence your phone when trying to focus. I am going to share with you three qualities of productive people.

Three Qualities of Productive People

Most of us wish we could have more hours in the day. Why? So, we can be more productive! There is so much to do, and so little time. With all the multitasking, meetings, people asking “for a minute” (which is never a minute), work/life balance, being productive is a challenge. And if you’ve mastered productivity, perhaps others on your team haven’t. I have worked with, observed, and studied what makes people ultra-productive and today I am going to share these qualities with you.

Focus

Highly productive people have extreme focus. They have the ability to focus on one thing to the exclusion of all others. In my book, I talk about when I used to play sports as a kid. My parents would yell from the sidelines, and I would have no idea they were even there. It was just me and the opponent. I was focused on what I was doing. Actually, the focus I had while playing, would spill over into other aspects of my life. Because I learned to focus in sports, I was able to take that to my academics. I know this because when I stopped playing sports, my focus dropped.

In my professional career, I would often bother the busy person when I needed something done quickly. Why didn’t I go to someone with less of a workload? Because they didn’t have time to procrastinate. They’d focus, get it done, so they could go back to what they were doing. Learn to focus and improve productivity.

Enthusiasm

You aren’t going to be productive if you are not enthusiastic about your work. Ever work someplace, or take on a project you absolutely hated? How productive were you? Sure, you can get through it out of brute force and will power, but how long will that work. You have to find some enthusiasm in your work. This goes back to aligning your career with what you actually like to do. It also speaks to the importance of the right culture at work.

To develop enthusiastic and motivated employees – they go hand and hand – leaders have to focus on employee engagement. Enthusiastic employees bring a high level of energy to their work. They move faster, think faster, are more creative, and are more willing to help co-workers succeed. Creating an environment where people are engaged raises the enthusiasm in your company and will improve productivity.

Discretionary Effort

Discretionary effort is all about going the extra mile. If you look around the office at 5:00, do you see people finishing a task, or are they already heading for the door? Question: If they are already at the door, when did they stop working? Discretionary effort means people are there on time, and WORKING, not getting a cup of coffee and talking to Tom about the weekends NCAA tournament. It means working.

Discretionary effort means working until 5:00, and in many cases a little later to get something else off their plate today. Think about it, let’s say you lose 3 minutes in the morning, 3 minutes before and after lunch, and 3 minutes at the end of the day. That might look insignificant. It’s only 3 minutes. But 4 times a day x 5 days a week, that is a loss of an hour a week (that you are paying for). Multiply that by how many employees you have. How insignificant is 3 minutes now? Now imagine if they gave you an extra 3 minutes x 4 times a day x 5 days x #of employees. How much more can you get done?

As business owners and entrepreneurs, we are always giving discretionary effort. Are your employees? The beauty of employees giving discretionary effort is they do it because they want to, not because you tell them to.

This Week’s Challenge

Creating an engaged workforce increases focus, enthusiasm, and discretionary effort. This is real numbers, real productivity, real profits by investing in your company culture.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Three Reasons Employees Leave Their Jobs

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three reason employees leave andrew shaffer consultingIt is the last week of March, and spring is officially here (although it’s not warm enough for me). Watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, I really appreciate the effort and challenges the coaches have every year. Because the athletes have only a limited number of eligible years to play, and that can be reduced if a player gets hurt or is eligible for the NBA, coaches are constantly dealing with player turnover. Coaches are always recruiting talent, developing talent, and building a team. While that is unavoidable in the college sports profession, it is a profit killer for businesses. Today I am going to talk about the top three reasons employees leave, and how you can defend yourself against it.

Three Reasons Employees Leave Their Jobs

Last week I came across this fascinating LinkedIn Blog about the top three industries with the highest turnover (is your industry on the list?). I was glad to see that they took the next step and identified WHY people leave. When you know why, you can put actions in place to prevent unnecessary turnover.

Turnover is costly, in fact according to Josh Bersin, Deloitte, the costs can be up to two times the annual salary! With this in mind, it makes sense to have a system in place that minimizes turnover. Competitive pay, competitive benefits, or even an amazing reward system might not be enough. Here are some things you should include in an employee retention strategy to be successful.

Career Development

Focusing on employee development is ALWAYS a good idea. After you’ve hired someone, the time and money you invest in developing them will only benefit your company. If you want to have the best employees, that give you a competitive edge, it is much better to develop talent from within.

While I am a firm believer that the responsibility for career development ultimately belongs to the employee, the leader or manager must be a guide and a mentor in the process.  Most employees are looking to grow and develop. They want to know that their work is meaningful and that there is a career path for them. And if they are happy with the status quo, you might want to consider why they are on the team to begin with.

Managers can and should have regular career development discussion with their employees. I recommend monthly. These meetings should be structured, and result in definite actions. When the manager and the employee co-create a career development plan, and meet regularly to evaluate progress of the plan, employee productivity, then morale increases.

By investing the time for career discussion with our employees, they will know that they are making progress towards the next step. And, they will be less likely to look outside the company for their next promotion.

Management

People don’t quit their job, they quit their boss. At least that is how the saying goes. An employee’s direct manager has the biggest impact on the employee’s experience at your company. The direct supervisor is who has the most contact with the employees. They are often the face of the company, in terms of communicating and implementing policy. The direct supervisor is often responsible for merit increases and promotion opportunities.

A bad manager can kill morale, motivation and productivity. Eventually the pain becomes too great and people leave.

Some of the common mistake’s managers make (especially new managers) are:

  • Micromanaging
  • Relying on authority
  • Lack of leadership

Managers and supervisors need to be trained and understand that their job is to coach and develop talent. Leaders inspire others to take action. They inspire others to give that extra discretionary effort that sharpens your competitive edge.

Culture

I have been focusing on culture all month. Culture is simply the paradigm of any particular group. It is basically a combination of morale, company habits, and is reflected in how people treat each other, productivity, and profits. It is what makes each company unique, and why some people fit in at one company better than another company. Because culture encompasses so many different aspects, and penetrates the very fabric of your company, it is often the hardest to change.

So, there are two reasons culture can drive turnover. The first is sometime people just don’t fit. In the book The Great Game of Business, the author created a certain culture within his company that focused on certain metrics and team buy in. The author admitted that some people weren’t on board, so they left. This is also evident when companies merge or one company buys another company. There is always shift in culture and some people will just leave because of it.

The second reason culture can drive turnover is when the culture is toxic. If the culture cultivates distrust, favoritism, or discriminates against others (intentional or unintentional), these issues need to be fixed immediately and change must come from the top down.

It goes without saying, but a company needs to have an inclusive culture. Where people are free to create, risk, suggest, try, fail and succeed. Your business isn’t an open lab for everyone to work when and how they want. Set guidelines and boundaries, enforce them, but encourage people to bring new ideas to the table.  Setting the right culture from the top down, will have a noticeable impact on your companies’ turnover rate.

This Week’s Challenge

Do an evaluation at your company. Do you have a system (not policy) in place to minimize the impact of employee turnover? Does it focus on career development, management and culture? If your system is lacking or needs help in any of these areas, get to work on making necessary changes to help minimize the negative impacts of turnover in your company.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Is Culture Hurting Your Profits?

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culture hurting profits andrew shaffer consultingTo continue with this month’s theme of the impact culture has on company growth, I will discuss ways culture can be hurting your profits. Every time there is a group of people a culture is formed. It could be a company, private club, church, or civic group. They all develop a unique culture. Last week we talked about how culture can help you through external challenges, this week, I am going to talk about ways to determine if your culture is hurting your profits.

Culture is Hurting Your Profits

We all know that ultimately you need employees to make and deliver your products and services. It doesn’t matter how great your strategies are, your processes and technology can be world class, but eventually you will have to rely on people to make money. When you have employees, a corporate culture will develop. Your corporate culture is simply the way it’s done at any given company. The trouble with a corporate culture is it is embedded into the fabric of your company, and impacts everything from productivity, employee loyalty, customer satisfaction and PROFITS. Here are some things to look for that can indicate you are in need of a desperate culture shift before you find yourself unable to maintain your competitive edge.

Complacency

I touched on challenging the status quo earlier this month, but it is so important that I feel it warrants a second discussion. The idea that “this is how we do it here,” can be deadly. I have seen companies try to break this attitude of complacency by hiring outside people to fill in leadership positions. The theory is they will give an outside perspective and improve profits. The struggle is, culture can be so pervasive and the new leader meets so much resistance, the company quickly goes back to business as usual.

Complacency hurts, because when individuals become complacent, they no longer create and innovate. You either grow or die! Innovation and creativity is what gave you a competitive edge and what kept you in business. I can promise you this, if you have a culture of complacency and your competition doesn’t it is just a matter of time before you are losing market share.

Us vs. Them

Us versus Them is one of the most dangerous culture issues I have seen. This can manifest in a few different ways. It could be individual contributor vs. management, management vs. executives, or department vs. department. In the end, it results in excuses and a lack of accountability. People tend to blame outside circumstances or people for any shortcomings. When this gets to the point where there is an us vs them attitude, internal to the company, it breeds distrust.

Unfortunately, when this type of culture occurs it is extremely difficult to overcome. Once a lack of trust is established, there is no quick fix to reestablish trust. This requires new leadership at several levels, perhaps a management restructure, and time. Recognizing when trust is breaking down is the time to address the situation before it goes too far. How often does your organization, evaluate employee engagement and trust? If you are doing it on an annual basis, you probably are not doing it enough.

Decision Making

Who likes to be micromanaged? Rhetorical question, but just in case, NOBODY! Micromanagement is a sign of a weak culture. The reason a manager would micromanage is a lack of trust. They don’t trust their employees to do their jobs, or don’t trust them to make decisions, or they lack confidence in their own ability to lead.

Managers should be empowering members of their team to make decisions. Lead them to make the right decisions, and trust that they will do what is expected. Now this can’t be blind trust, there has to be some level of accountability, and follow up. But if employees do not feel they are empowered to make decisions, they will become resentful. It is always a good practice to push decision making down to the lowest level possible. Don’t believe me? Well it works for the Ritz Carlton!

This Week’s Challenge

Take stock in your company and do an honest evaluation of your culture. Look for signs of complacency, unhealthy rivalries or micromanagement. Each of these can hurting your profits.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.