Maximizing the Human Potential

Back to Basics

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andrew shaffer consulting back to basicsIt seems that we are finally getting through this pandemic and shutdown period. Things seem to be slowly re-opening. I see more people outside. There is talk about sports coming back and I FINALLY got a haircut! This has been an adjustment period for most of us and although things are not quite back to normal, there is a sense that things are trending that way. I am certainly looking forward to that! Now, it’s time to get back to basics.

Just a reminder, if you are looking for helpful tips, strategies, or help thriving as we get through the recovery, I encourage you to check out the Thrive Performance Group Virtual Lunch and Learn Series.  There are a wide variety of topics and experts that are there to help.

Back to Basics

There is no doubt these last few weeks have been tough on your business. Even if you were an essential business, chances are you saw a decrease in revenue and profits. Productivity probably dropped as employees were juggling working from home, helping kids with schoolwork, and caring for friends and loved ones. As you try to rebuild, or at least accelerate through the second half of the year, it is a good time to review some of your fundamentals. Just like an athlete returning from the off-season who goes to training camp to get in “game shape”, your company and employees might need to get back in prime condition.  Here are some things to think about when communicating with employees who are coming back to work.

Why

Why does your company exist? A company with a good “why” brings people together. When you understand your companies why, you can really focus on who your clients are. I know that sounds simple, but we are talking about getting back to basics. Often, in the heat of battle (or survival) people can often forget why they do what they do. The focus becomes surviving, which is inward, versus on helping clients and customers, which is outward. Your clients and customers want to know you are focused on them. Keeping your “why” front and center in your employee’s minds, will help them focus on growing your business and accelerate your recovery.

What

What do your clients need? This is different than what do you want to sell your clients and customers. You can have the best product or service in the world, but if there is not a need, you aren’t going to be very successful. Here it is important to understand what your clients need TODAY, which will keep the lights on in the short term, but also what do your clients need twelve or twenty-four months from now? How is the market going to change?  How has it changed because of quarantine?  To really understand what your clients and customers need, I recommend talking to them. Listen to them. Understand them. Then find a solution YOU can provide.

How

How will you deliver your products and services now? One thing that is certain, being stuck at home has changed the way people meet, shop, and buy goods. I personally think that virtual meetings and home delivery is where we were going in the future, but the pandemic had definitely accelerated the curve. We will NOT go back to business the way it was. Sure, we will start meeting in the office again, and will have events to go to, but things won’t fully go back to the way it was early this year. Traveling for business may be replaced with more virtual meetings and working from home will become more common. This is my prediction.  How is this going to change how you satisfy your client’s needs?

This Month’s Challenge

As the economy starts to re-open, take some time to meet with your teams to get back to basics. Communicate the Why, What and How of your business. Help remind your employees (and customers) of these fundamentals and you should see a strong second half of the year.

You are not in this alone, we’re here to help.  We can help you come up with strategies, execution, processes, tools, or whatever help you need, we’re here.

As always, if you need help, please contact us to learn how we can help!

I encourage you to check out the Thrive Performance Group and join the discussions Tuesday afternoons.

Creating Innovation

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andrew shaffer consulting creating innovationAre you continually frustrated by repeatedly dealing with the same problems? Are you tired of running into the same problems on every project? Does the inability to see new solutions to existing problems frustrated you? Are you fed up with “This is the way we’ve always done it?” If your employees are not as innovative as your competition, your destined to mediocrity or worse! You might go out of business! So, how do you go about creating innovation in your business?

Creating Innovation

Your business is will either grow or die.  I’ve said that several times in my writing, and it is true. In order to grow, your company must innovate. I have worked with companies that were stuck in the “This is the way we’ve always done it?” mentality. Because of that the competition was growing in market share, and customer satisfaction was plummeting. When this started having severe impacts on the business, we were able to turn it around by focusing on leadership and engagement. Here are some simple things you can do to help improve your company’s innovation and market domination.

Proactive Leadership

Proactive leadership means looking forward and not backwards. Leaders cannot spend their time dealing with fires all day and never take time to prevent fires. A proactive leader anticipates future struggles and is prepared when they come.

Performance Management

Performance management is one of the fundamental responsibilities of a leader. Teach leaders how to do this on a continuous basis. And, show leaders how that actually benefits the employee, the company, and customers.

Talent Development

When your team isn’t growing, your company isn’t growing. When your company isn’t growing, the gap between you and your competition closes. Investing in developing the talent already on your team will sharpen your competitive edge.

Employee Engagement

A 360° approach to employee development creates positive and meaningful interactions between leadership and employees drives employee engagement. Engaged employees are more loyal, productive, and provide a better customer experience. In short, engaged employees help you stand out from your competition.

Accountability

Accountability means having people do what they say they will do. People have to be accountable to themselves, to their leaders, to their direct reports and to their peers. Leaders cannot tolerate a culture without accountability. It is a morale killer. An employee development system has to incorporate aspects of accountability for it to work. ASC brings metrics for accountability that ensures your success.

This Week’s Challenge

How does your company foster innovation and creativity? Are your employees fully engaged? Or, are they just checking boxes? Do you have a culture to help you succeed?

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.

Dealing with Change

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andrew shaffer consulting dealing with changeBy now the kids are back in school.  This has an impact in my family.  We have new morning routines. As the kids are starting in their schools, they are meeting new classmates and teachers.  Although it is familiar, it is different. It is a change, and for anyone that has or has had kids, they know that there is an adjustment period.  Even if you don’t have kids, you will notice that there are new traffic patterns as parents with kids are adjusting their schedules and commutes around bus schedules and school drop offs. There is no avoiding it, change happens, and we have to adjust. Today’s post is all about dealing with change.

Dealing with Change

“No plan survives first contact with the enemy. What matters is how quickly the leader is able to adapt.”

– Tim Harford

Every business is constantly dealing with change. Change ranges from problems encountered in new product development, responding to the competition, or it could be a radical shift in your business model. When you think about it, your business has to be in a constant state of change (or evolution) otherwise you’ll soon find yourself obsolete. Competitive landscapes and consumer needs all change and your business needs to change to keep up with a changing landscape. Successful leaders, and businesses become quite effective in dealing with these changes and evolutions. Here are some common characteristics of change, and how to navigate them successfully.

Conflict

When there is change, there is almost always conflict. Conflict can be constructive or destructive. What is the difference?

Destructive conflict is just that, destructive. If allowed destructive conflict will kill careers and if destructive conflict has become part of the culture, it will kill your company. Destructive conflict looks a lot like finger pointing, passing blame, and avoiding blame. It is not a pretty road, and nobody wins in the end, well maybe a consultant when you finally hire one to help save your company.

Constructive conflict is very helpful. I learned early in my management career to welcome constructive conflict. I had one engineer on my team that would “argue” with me about almost everything.  It wasn’t a hostile argument, but he challenged almost every decision I would make. I would ask him to come to my office whenever I was trying to work out any challenging issue. And together, through his challenging questions, and my responses almost always came up with a stronger solution than either one of us would have on our own. Through this “conflict” we were able to improve the productivity of our team by up to 50% in some areas.

Communication

The key success when dealing with change in conflict is communication. I don’t know how many times a company was going through changes (restructure, mergers, buy out etc.) and there is absolutely no communication, or worse poor communication!  No communication and poor communication just lead to rumors and assumptions on the part of your employees.  I can tell you firsthand, that the rumors and assumptions are almost ALWAYS worse than reality. It causes fear and distrust among the employees and leads to destructive conflict, even when it isn’t necessary.

Trust and Respect

I had the unfortunate position of being in a job where we lost a significant amount of our workload. Suddenly I was faced with having not enough work for the number of people I had on my team. Uncertainty was everywhere, and there was the constant threat of layoffs.  People came to work everyday not knowing if it would be there last day. Ironically, during this same time, my team’s morale actually improved. How? I was constantly communicating, openly and honestly with my team. And, prior to that I had a developed a relationship based on mutual trust and respect.

To ensure you have effective communication there has to be a level of mutual trust and respect. When you think about this, your best relationships with a spouse, best friend, children, whomever is based on mutual trust and respect. When that trust is broken what happens to the relationship? It deteriorates and eventually disintegrates.  Why would companies treat their employees any different? Companies often demand or expect loyalty from their employees on one hand, and then hide information or poorly communicate company strategies on the other. The rationale for this is because “we don’t want people to panic.”

This Week’s Challenge

How is your company culture structured? Are there silos and finger pointing, or communication based on mutual trust and respect? Are all stakeholders brought in for decisions or are people just told to live with decisions being made?  Creating the right culture, and integrated culture, will dramatically improve your bottom line!

Give us a call for an assessment and consultation and see how you can start improving your bottom line.

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.