Archives For Teams

The R.E.E.D. Practices: How to Elevate Your Team Members’ Performance

April 25, 2011 — 2 Comments

Most leaders understand the importance of growing their team members to maximize their personal growth and organizational contribution. However, we’re often missing a piece to the puzzle…and sometimes more than one piece. The key is to understand the R.E.E.D. Practices to elevate the performance of your team members: Resource, Equip, Empower, and Develop.

Resource - Team members must be resourced with the right tools to do their job. These tools can include everything from equipment, to technology, to budgets. Imagine asking a pilot to do his job without an airplane. As ridiculous as that sounds, employees too often are asked to deliver exceptional results without the tools to make it possible. The practice of “resourcing” is the bare bones basics of preparing team members’ to win.

Equip - Every job has a specific set of technical skills necessary to see that job successfully executed. These skills might be related to operating equipment, using software, following specific processes, making sales, or any number of technical skills. These skills are essential to success and often describe what the employee was hired to do. When leaders practice “equipping,” they are training their team members with the foundational skills and knowledge to do their job.

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In Church, Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth Delegation, Leadership, leadership development, Organizations, Personal Growth, Teams
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2010′s Twelve Most Popular Articles

December 29, 2010 — Leave a comment

As we wrap up 2010, I thought I would post my top 12 most popular blog articles from this year (thanks for the idea Mark Howell):

In Church, Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth Coaching, Employee Engagement, Future, Leadership, Organizational Culture, Personal Growth, Teams
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The 5 Needs of Every Employee

September 12, 2010 — Leave a comment
Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs suggests that people are motivated by a variety of needs and that these needs exist in a hierarchical order. In his book, The Leadership Experience, Richard Daft observes an interesting connection between Maslow’s hierarchy and work environments. Consider the application Maslow’s five levels have on you, fellow employees, and the people on your team:

1.  Physiological Needs - Food, water, and oxygen are essential to survival. In a work environment these needs translate to heat, air, and a base salary.

2.  Safety Needs - People need to feel secure both physically and emotionally. Do you have a safe work environment, fringe benefits, and job security?

3.  Belongingness Needs - People desire love, friendship, and acceptance. Does your work environment foster positive relationships with co-workers, supervisors, and the opportunity to work with a team?

4.  Esteem Needs - People want to know they are appreciated and desire recognition for their efforts. Does your work meet the esteem needs of employees by recognizing performance and giving credit for contributions to the organization?

5.  Self-Actualization Needs - People need the opportunity to grow, develop their potential, and become better. Does your work provide a culture of growth and the opportunities for autonomy, creativity, growth, and advancement?

Questions: Which of your needs are being met in your organization? How are you meeting these needs with your employees, team members, or volunteers? 


In Church, Leadership, Organizations Culture, Growth, Motivation, Teams
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12: The Elements of Great Managing

March 12, 2010 — 1 Comment

Why would somebody work for you? And, if you’re the leader, what does your team want and need from you? The employees in your organization come to work each day generally committed to do what the company needs them to do. Let’s be honest, few people really want to spend eight or more hours a day working in an environment they hate. But sometimes, in the rat race of organizational life, leaders forget what the team really needs from them. And because leaders are the greatest influence in an organization’s culture, understanding the needs of the team is essential.

The Gallup organization has done some pretty impressive research drawing on ten million workplace interviews. This research has uncovered 12 elements that serve as, what Rodd Wagner and James Harter, in their book 12: The Elements of Great Managing, call, an “unwritten social contract between employee and employer.”

If your team can answer an emphatic “YES” to each of the following 12 statements, then you’re probably doing a pretty good job leading the team and keeping your employees fully engaged in their work. If they cannot answer “yes,” then an opportunity exists to work on your organizational culture. Here’s the 12 elements:

  1. I know what is expected of me at work.
  2. I have the material and equipment I need to do my work right.
  3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
  4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
  5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
  6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.
  7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
  8. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
  9. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
  10. I have a best friend at work.
  11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
  12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

If you’re leading a team, how do you think your employees or volunteers would answer the questions above? If you really want to know, why not include these statements in an annual review process with a scale of 1 to 5. If you’re the member of a team, how would you rank yourself (on a scale from 1 to 5) in each of the 12 areas above?

 

In Leadership, Organizations Employee Engagement, Organizational Culture, Teams
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Are You Making Your Team Employable?

October 8, 2009 — Leave a comment

Dr. Peter Senge, author and expert in organizational learning observed, “The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in the organization.” Growing the members of your team not only affects the bottom line, but research has proven it shapes the health of your wok environment. And as organizational leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure a growth culture is being developed.

Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, once said, “We can’t guarantee you employment, but we can work as hard as possible to make you employable.” When you invest in your team’s growth, you are giving them a gift that will last beyond their employment with your organization. Unfortunately, some leaders are too scared to train their team because they’re afraid they’ll lose their best players to another company. But remember the the old saying, “The only thing worse then training your team and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”

Question: How are you investing in your team’s personal growth and development. Do your employees feel better off (not just financially) for working for your organization?

 

In Church, Leadership, Organizations Leadership, Organizational Culture, Personal Growth, Teams
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3 Signs of a Miserable Job

September 3, 2009 — Leave a comment

This week I’ve been talking about the importance of employee and volunteer engagement. Billions of dollars are lost annually because of disengaged employees who have zero emotional buy-in or passion for their work. And yet what’s amazing is that disengagement can be found in practically every field. To combat the disengagement, business leader and author, Patrick Lencioni has identified The Three Signs of a Miserable Job that must be addressed by leaders:


1. Anonymity - Lencioni observes, “People cannot be fulfilled in their work if they are not known.” In other words, if employees are not understood, appreciated, visible, and recognized for their unique qualities, they will not engage with their work. They must receive recognition from somebody in authority. Leaders can eliminate the anonymity (the first sign of a miserable job) by showing a genuine interest in their employees, expressing appreciation, showing concern for their dreams and aspirations, nurturing relationships, and focusing on common interests. Self-Assessment Questions: Do I really know my people? Their interests? How they spend their spare time? Where they are in their lives?

2. Irrelevance - The second sign of a miserable job is irrelevance. When an employee feels that their job does not matter, they will quickly disengage. They must see how their work is relevant and meaningful to someone besides themselves. Lencioni states, “When people lose sight of their impact on other people’s lives, or worse yet, when they come to the realization that they have no impact at all, they begin to die emotionally. The fact is, God didn’t create people to serve themselves. Everyone ultimately wants and needs to help others, and when they cannot, misery ensues.” Employees must know WHO they are helping and HOW they are helping. Without this understanding, their job will feel irrelevant. Self-Assessment Questions: Do your employees or volunteers know who their work impacts and how?

3. Immeasurement - An admittedly made-up word, Lencioni points to “immeasurement” as the third sign of a miserable job. Lencioni observes, “Employees need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution for themselves….Without a tangible means for assessing success or failure, motivation eventually deteriorates as people see themselves as unable to control their own fate.” Leaders must work with their employees or volunteers to establish measurements that the worker can “directly influence.” Furthermore, the measurements must be connected to relevance–that which is meaningful about the job. Self-Assessment Questions: Do your employees or volunteers know how to assess their own progress or success?

Anonymity, Irrelevance, and Immeasurement are the three signs of a miserable job which, if ignored, will lead to certain disengagement. How are you addressing these three signs with your team. If you’re not “leading” the team, what can you do to insure these signs don’t define your personal work life or the work life of your fellow employees?
In Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth Employee Engagement, Evaluations, Teams
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I Quit But Forgot to Tell You

September 2, 2009 — Leave a comment

I quit, but forgot to tell you. That’s the title of Lee Colan’s second chapter in his book, Engaging the Hearts and Minds of all Your Employees. Colan says:

As a leader, the challenge is that an employee departure is only the most visible and final phase of disengagement. It’s a gradual process. It’s more like a dimmer switch than an on-off switch that regulates our engagement. The danger in this gradual process is the interim phases–the ones I call, “I quit but forgot to tell you.” It’s there where disengagement is a silent killer, a cancer that is growing under the skin of your team.

Whether you work with volunteers or employees, the “I quit but forgot to tell you” scenario is very real. In fact, Gallup has found that only 26% of U.S. employees are fully engaged at any time while 19% are actively disengaged–costing more than $300 billion per year.

I believe an organization’s culture has extraordinary impact on employee engagement. So how do you create a culture that significantly reduces the disease of “I quit but forgot to tell you?” In their book, Follow This Path, Curt Coffman and Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina have identified twelve courses to follow to create a great workplace environment. In great organizational cultures, employees can emphatically say:

1. I know what is expected of me.

2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.

3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.

4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.

5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.

6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.

7. At work my opinions seem to count.

8. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.

9. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.

10. I have a best friend at work.

11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.

12. This last year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow at work.

What are the employees in your church or organization saying? What about your volunteers? Colan observes that, “Disengagement is simply the result of unfulfilled needs.” And the symptoms of disengagement include:

  • Increased turnover
  • Missed deadlines
  • Low morale
  • High burnout rates
  • Complacency
  • Finger-pointing and name-calling
  • Lack of accountability and responsibility
  • Increased absenteeism
As leaders, it is our responsibility to keep our finger on the pulse of employee or volunteer engagement. Are you seeing any of the symptoms of disengagement? How would your team respond to the twelve statements above? Rather than speculating, why not set up a system that will help you capture feedback to each of these “conditions of a great workplace.”

In Church, Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth Employee Engagement, Evaluations, Teams
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Engaging the Hearts and Minds of Employees and Volunteers

September 1, 2009 — Leave a comment

Business management guru Peter Drucker has observed that leaders must treat their employees like volunteers. Leading volunteers is the true test of your leadership because you do not have a paycheck to use as a leverage point. At anytime, volunteers can walk out the door. It is your ability to engage the hearts and minds of people–whether volunteers or paid employees–that will often determine their commitment to the organization and the quality of their performance. In fact, research indicates that employee satisfaction is more important than customer satisfaction.

One study of 4,700 customers and employees of 63 businesses–conducted by professors at Manchester Business School–revealed that company growth was more likely to take place if employee satisfaction exceeded customer satisfaction. The study further noted the impact of employee attitudes on customer attitudes. As Management expert Tom Peters once said, “If your company is going to put customers first, then you must put employees more first.”

In his book, Engaging the Hearts and Minds of all Your Employees, Dr. Lee J. Colan notes that, “Engaged minds build employee performance, and engaged hearts ignite employees’ passion.” Engaged minds are the result of a blend of achievement, autonomy, and mastery. Engaged hearts stem from a mix of purpose, intimacy, and appreciation. Passionate performance is the end result of engaged minds and engaged hearts. Colan defines passionate performance as, “strong, sustained intellectual and emotional attachment to one’s work.” When you can engage your employees, or volunteers, on an intellectual and emotional level, their performance will increase.

Questions: What have you found to be the most effective ways to intellectually and emotionally engage employees or volunteers? When have you personally felt most engaged in an organization, church, or company?

 

In Church, Leadership, Organizations Employee Engagement, Leadership, Passions, Teams, Volunteers
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How to Invest in Your T.E.A.M.

August 10, 2009 — Leave a comment

Teams do not thrive unless their leaders make intentional investments in their development. Here’s a simple way to remember how to invest in your T.E.A.M:

Training: Invest Through Knowledge – Team members need the “know how” to accelerate in their given areas of responsibility. Training–conferences, seminars, workshops, university courses, etc.–can provide the knowledge necessary to improve performance. As the old saying goes, “The only thing worse than training your people and having them leave, is not training them and having them stay.”

Equipping: Invest Through Resources - One of the gifts technology has provided for us is instant access to resources. Whether podcasts, blogs, CDs, DVDs, books, or articles, provide your team with the resources that will help them grow.

Application: Invest Through Opportunities - Our goal is not simply to pump our team members with more information. True leadership is learned on the job. As leaders, we need to give our teams responsibility that requires the exercise of greater leadership skills. There’s a big difference between delegating tasks and empowering people with authority. When you invest in your team by trusting them with greater responsibility, opportunity, and decision-making power, you are moving closer to empowerment. As Captain Michael Abrashoff said, “Empowerment means defining the parameters in which people are allowed to operate, and then setting them free.”

Mentoring: Invest Through Relationships - The Gallup organization discovered that 65% of people that leave a company are actually leaving their managers. I believe if leaders would take the time to coach or mentor their teams, employee engagement would dramatically increase and performance would accelerate. The power of coaching and mentoring is severely underestimated. Relationships are a powerful investment in the development of healthy teams.

Investing in your team is one of the greatest gifts you can offer. There’s nothing like working for somebody that cares about your personal growth and development.

Question: How can you improve the investment you are making in your team?
In Leadership Equipping, Leadership, Personal Growth, Teams
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One-Sentence Job Descriptions

June 17, 2009 — Leave a comment

Today I came across a blog post from Kem Meyer–Communications Director at Granger Community Church. Her post is titled, “We Scrapped Our Job Descriptions”, and in it Kem articulates the following exercise that helped each staff member on their team summarize their job description in one sentence.


1. Answer the question: “At the end of the day, if I’ve done this, then I’ve done my job.”
2. In your answer, remember to demonstrate the benefit to others trumps the task.
3. Keep your answer simple and short enough to easily remember and recite.
4. Include your individual strength theme to help maximize impact.

As a result, Kem and the team came up with this great one-page list of everybody’s job descriptions summarized in one-sentence along with their top five Strengthsfinder talent themes. Really good stuff. Check it.
In Church, Leadership, Organizations Hiring, Leadership, Organizations, staffing, Teams
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