News: Saying No. Motivating Teams. And For Pete's Sake.

September /October 2013 issue Enhancing your Workplace.    Dear friends, We're pleased to offer you information relevant to your organization's human resources, employee development, leadership growth, and performance improvement.   How to Say No   " No!  Can't Do It!  I'm not doing that!" These are words you might want to say but would never utter in your workplace.  After all, we are expected to be team players.   That means chipping in and going beyond the call of duty AND beyond the job description.  However when you have 80 hours of work on your plate and 40 hours to get it done, it's time to devise a different strategy which could make you more productive, less stressed, and more in control. Let's not call it saying no.   Let's call it offering an alternate version of yes.  Here's how it's done.     First, express your understanding of and empathy for the other person's situation.  You are tell them that you know their issue is important and you want to help.   Next, state your situation.  Explain what you have on your plate, what your working on, and/or your deadlines.  This helps you justify why you can't drop everything to address their issue.  You have priorities and a schedule to keep! Learn more about prioritizing your daily tasks.    Then, suggest a different way to handle it; or a different time when you're available to assist.  You could even refer the person to another individual who is better equipped to help.     Ask us:  How to say no to your boss!...   Handle it like a Pro - Get a Script customized for this conversation.  Motivating Teams Motivating Teams is not always easy, but it is possible to create synergy among staffers.  It starts with indivual motivating.  Team member need to have basic needs covered in order to feel energized and motivated to do their best work.  1.  Clear Expectations Expectations need to be communicated and reinforced.  Your team needs to know goals and objectives you have in mind for them and how they are expected to achieve them.  Expectations should include boundaries, milestones, and resources.  Spell out avaiable budget, anticipated results, and deadlines.  If you're dealing with more seasoned pros, you can jointly determine these factors or you can have the staff member develop goals on his/own and report them to you.  Either way, they need to be clear and communicated; not assumed.  By setting clear expectations you are setting your team up for success.   2.  Harmonious Work Envrionment  This may sound warm and fuzzy but it's actually an important factor in making sure your team is functioning well together.  Make sure the team has all the resources they need to do the job.  Those resources could include people, tools, supplies, authority, and information.  Also, set standards for team work.  Reward team collaborate and create opportunities for it as well.  Also, setting a team charter which specifies how  the team is expected to work together and treat each other.  Contact us to find out ways to foster collaboration.   3.  Value  Your team are the eyes, ears, hands, and hearts of the organization.  They do the work, that make your business profitable.  They need to feel appreciated and be tangibly/visibly recognized for their efforts.  Ask us about 101 ways to recognize employees. Additionally, team members have unique attributes and talents.  You need not only to recognize those but tap into them.  Your organization will benefit from leveraging  the strengths of its contributors.  Featured Article  FOR PETE'S SAKE Co-workers were shipwrecked on an island.   Worried Wilma said: "We'll never survive here. We're all going to die." Unfocused Ursula chimed: "Look at those beautiful flowers, I'm going to take a closer look." Lazy Larry remarked: "You guys gather wood; I'm going to rest." Grudge-holding Glen growled: "I won't help because I'm still angry with Ursula about something she said last week." And then there wasPete. After hearing this ongoing conversation,Pete became frustrated and disheartened. He said "I would rather take my chances with the sharks than stay here with you people! I'm going back in the water!"    The moral of the story:  If you're not helping the situation, you are probably hurting it. So, keep your negativity to yourself, FOR PETE'S SAKE. Visit Our Website

Leadership Essential: goals and expectations

I CAN'T SAY THAT!! - Tackling Sensitive Subjects

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Set Up To Succeed: Setting Clear Expectation and Goals

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Workplace Trust Explored with the Army Guys

The many challenges associated with the changing nature of work and the workplace environment are very real for every organization.
Rapid change requires a skilled, knowledgeable workforce with employees who are adaptive, flexible and focused on the future. But high-performing organizations share several characteristics when it comes to how they think about and approach employee
training and development. Specifically, here are six key areas of
commonality:

1. Shared Service Model
A shared services model draws upon training resources from the central human resources or training department, as well as individual business units.  Competency models play a key role in defining desired skills and abilities for which individual business units may require employee
training and development. These models allow the business unit to determine which critical skills are needed to meet business goals, and then the central learning and development or HR department can provide potential solutions or vendors with whom the business
unit may engage.

2. Leverage Online Systems
Leveraging online systems can enable the deployment of common training needs to a wider audience. This is particularly true for Best Practices in Employee Development.
High-performing organizations share several characteristics when it comes to how they think about and approach employee training and development.
Having the flexibility to engage in training via an intranet or Internet connection helps reduce overall costs, improves access to learning resources, and improve consistency of
messaging. Online training can also improve the results and efficiency of face-to-face training because participants are better prepared with a baseline of knowledge.

3. Formalized Leadership Development Program
High-performing organizations typically have a formal leadership
development program in place to prepare the next generation of leaders. The identification and development of competent supervisors and managers is crucial to the achievement
of many business goals. Having a common executive-level management training program helps to ensure that all business units are following common strategic objectives and leads to the sharing of best practices. Identification of high-potential employees is typically accomplished through a nomination process, a 360-degree process or other purposeful method to ensure that the best and brightest are identified and given an opportunity to participate.

4. Augment & Adjust
No business is static. It must respond to market forces, adjust and change—or be left dead in the water. Training and development programs must be augmented, adjusted and changed. If your company has a successful track record with leadership and
management training, great. But keep your eyes toward the horizon
and be mindful that the agile business will grow and face new
challenges better than the monolith. Maintain ties with your training providers and ask questions: What are other high-performing companies doing? What’s new in
leadership and management training? Perhaps there is something new or different out there that is right for your latest challenges.

5. Comprehensive Career Development
High-performing organizations typically provide comprehensive career development services to employees, integrating the process into the overall performance management system. Work with employees to develop individual career development plans that provide opportunities for professional advancement. A clear plan for employees’ long-term development helps to ensure that personnel remain at your company rather than look for other job opportunities.
Some organizations offer a career center for employees, using a Web-based portal or intranet to post internal positions, maintain a library of resources and job descriptions for current roles within the organization. Some go as far as defining career paths within the
organization. If an individual is seeking to transition to a new role within the company, she can clearly see which competencies are needed and strive toward attaining the skills for that desired position/path.

6. Manage Knowledge…and Keep It!
High-performing organizations create a culture that facilitates the retention and sharing of organizational knowledge. It can start with something as simple as a company wiki where people go to find and share knowledge, or as comprehensive as team members addressing
specific company issues throughout their training experience and then presenting their solutions to top management. An added bonus: ROI can be assessed by the success of these projects. Harnessing and sharing the knowledge of workers is also critical to
the long-term success of operations. Knowledge management encompasses two areas: i) the sharing of knowledge within the organization to identify best practices and find synergies among operating departments and business units, and ii) the retention of
organizational knowledge, which is increasingly important in the face of impending retirements.
Here again we find the Internet playing a large role in providing a place for “Communities of Practice” to emerge and grow. These communities are not bound by location and time differences, as people can post whenever they want and get answers later.
Knowledge sharing can also be done using more formal tools and social networks. Different groups or departments can share what they learned in training that may have applications elsewhere in the company, thereby encouraging cross-departmental dialogue and
solution creation.

Achieving & Maintaining High Performance
High-performing organizations share several characteristics when it
comes to how they think about and approach employee training
and development. Becoming (or continuing to function as) a highperforming
organization requires that the leaders of several
groups—including HR, training and business units—work together
with a common understanding about business goals, how to
achieve them, and the importance of everyone involved in
employee development.

Building and Nurturing Your Professional Relationships

Build and Nurture Relationships.

It happens to everyone. You try to give constructive feedback, but your comments are misconstrued and now someone is unhappy. Delivering a difficult message in a nonthreatening way, that leaves the other person feeling energized, doesn't always come naturally. But when a trusting relationship is in place and people feel safe, they are more open to feedback, take personal responsibility, and are better at reflecting on the message and self-correcting. While we all seem to be doing still more with less, it can be easy to forget that building relationships is key to accomplishing anything. Sometimes the Basics Are the  Hardest Part to Master. Building and nurturing relationships takes time. It takes awareness of behaviors that influence trust and interactions based on mutuality and personal power. Giving feedback, listening, navigating challenging conversations, and building trust are skills that can be learned and are key to developing people and relationships.  Let us enhance your team's performance  www.yourenhance.com