Peak Performing Employees Have Great Managers

Who Take Responsibility For What Is, And What Is Not Working!

Once you have discerned what’s not working, what you do about it says what kind of leader/manager you are. If you have discovered your employee is not doing an adequate job of their position you could:

• First and foremost find out “WHY” they aren’t performing up to par. Unless you know the why, you can’t fit the right solution to the cause.
• Be sure they understand their job description, what is, and isn’t expected of them. Obviously this means you have a well thought out, thorough “Job Description”.
• Be sure there are standards of operation in place, which they are aware of, along with ways to monitor their progress, or lack thereof.
• Institute specific employee motivators. See the book: “Love Em or Leave Em” and “1,001 Ways to Reward Employees“.
• Be sure their “Behavioral Style” fits their role. Contact us to provide you with a current DISC profile.  You can also profile the role with a “Roles Analysis” to be sure the person fits this element of the job description.
  
• Provide or send them for more specific training to fill their current gaps in knowledge or training.
  
• Or, provide an internal or external coach to assist them in creating an appropriate development plan.  This will also give extra accountability to the employee to make the needed changes.
  
• Move them into a department that fits their skill sets, behavioral style, education and passion.
• Allow them a certain period of time to upgrade their skills, take a college courses, or become certified.
• Be sure there isn’t conflict with their manager. More people leave a company because of their direct manager than any other reason!

If  none of this works, their skills and or attitude don’t change, find someone who will. Move on, and remember this: “Some will, some won’t, so what, next!” There are certain things you can’t provide, and one of them is the motivation to change. If you’ve given them an atmosphere conducive to growth, believe that they can do better, support and encouragement to change, with motivators and de-motivators along with the proper training, you’ve done everything you can. Find someone who will appreciate the support and training you provide.

Remember, if you want peak performing employees? You can by following the system above.

MONDAY MORSALS for Leaders

Leaders are hired for their IQ and experience.  They are FIRED for their EI The new standard we must judge ourselves and others by is no longer how smart one is, or even how much training and experience one may have.  Peak performers have “Emotional Intelligence”, such as  initiative, empathy, adaptability, the ability to bounce-back, and persuasiveness, to name a few. The website, Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations says, “Recent studies indicate that emotional intelligence influences behavior in a wide range of domains including school, community, and the workplace. At the individual level, it has been said to relate to academic achievement, work performance, our ability to communicate effectively, solve everyday problems, build meaningful interpersonal relationships, and even our ability to make moral decisions.“  says Emmerling R.J., Shanwal, V. K., & Mandal, M. K. (Eds.) Daniel Goleman , the  founder and prolific writer of EI, says that it is a new way of being smart.  That you must master these capabilities for your career and personal life to truly be successful.  By in large, it is about how you handle yourself, work, leadership, and just plain how you get along with people.  Being that this is more than likely the quality that makes one excel, not to mention be employable, it is time to take stock, and make large deposits of EI into ones bankrupt emotions and behavior, no longer relying solely on ones intelligence, good grades, or experience.  This is a fabulous topic, and I by no means have done it justice here, but have provided a snap-shop of a program I’ll be offering to come.

On the personal note, here’s a little bit of my story, that goes along with this passion of EI.  When my children were small my husband had enough EI himself to ask me, “When the children are older, what do you want to do?”  I knew the answer immediately, because I had already been conducting DISC seminars and workshops.  “I want to go into companies and corporations, and help people get along using DISC.  That way they can spend the majority of their time getting their work done, rather than being bogged down with conflict, fractions, and dysfunction.  That was almost 30 years ago, and I continue to have this passion.  I am now certified in many competencies, utilizing more than DISC these days, adding Executive Coaching, strategic planning, team building, leadership development and speaking to my venue.  In very simplistic terminology, I help people have success in their relationships with people, so that life can go well with them.  For a while, I even used the tag line, “I get everyone in a company into the sandbox at the same time, and then MAKE them play together well.”  People usually laugh.  But what it really comes down to is that I myself  am still a work in progress, and that really, I need to do this training predominately for ME.

One of The Best Profiles For a Leader or Manager, “FREE”

Free, that is if you’re in Tucson in January 2010 and attend the ASTD monthly meeting.  For over 30 years I’ve been conducting leadership development, team-building, conflict-resolution, and communication-skills to leaders, entrepreneurs, as well as staffs of their companies, and I have yet to find someone who isn’t completely amazed at how accurate this report reveals who you are, and how your respond.  Some have told me it was spooky how accurate it was, and felt like they’d had their palms read.  Although it doesn’t tell the future, it will surely explain how you’ll respond to things to come.  It reveals what motivates and de-motivates you, how you react and respond under pressure, what environment you thrive best in, which behavioral style you work best with, and which ones will be a challenge.  In other words, it will assist you in leading and managing with confidence, all those challenging employees and staff that you have.  It so transformed me when I was 22, that it has become not only the cornerstone of the work I do with people and companies, but a language my whole family uses on a daily basis to understand and give grace to one another.  Ask my now grown children, and they will tell you that they are continually sharing the knowledge and understanding of DISC with those around them, because well, it just plain helps you “GET” people!!  This is why I am so excited that Inscape Publishing, who I have been with for over  l6 years, is giving me the opportunity to provide a free, yes I said FREE, Management DISC report in January to those who come to the Tucson chapter of ASTD (American Society of Training and Development) meeting in conjunction with my presentation.  Don’t want to wait until then, or don’t live near Tucson but want this profile, contact me and I can give you more information.  I’m sure I’ll talk about this more, but for now, take a look at what it offers. everything-disc-management

How to Develop Your Leadership Destiny?

“If you build it, they will come.”  We all know that famous line from the movie, Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner, but what does that have to do with developing greater levels of skill sets?  I guarantee you, I can do that now that I’m over 50 you know,whatever you learn, add, develop, and acquire as a leadership skill set, you will one day be extremely glad you did.  For example, I became proficient, and the local resident expert on DISC, a way to understand one another’s and your own behavioral style 30 years ago.  I could, and still can, spot not only one’s primary style, but their secondary and probably third.  I can then use this knowledge to communicate better, motivate, coach, lead and develop this person to become a stellar employee or team member. It started out as a fun, enjoyable “knowledge set” I learned in my early 20’s to understand myself.   I’ve used that one skill for 30 years to do recruiting, retention, performance reviews, training, team building, and conflict resolution.  It’s taken me from working with a solo entrepreneur to a billion dollar project.  My husband has done the same.  He learned Spanish fluently while in High School, as well as while living in Guatemala and Mexico.  He is now, after doing a major job transition, using it on a daily basis in a great government job.  And because of it, he’s making 10 to 15 thousand dollars more a year all because he knows Spanish.  His intent was not to learn it to for work, he learned it because he enjoys language development and usage.

I’ve found, the more I learn, the greater I am in demand.  What’s better, is that the skills and knowledge I continue to acquire I genuinely enjoy.  What better way to work than to create and chart your destiny yourself.  Doors now open up around my skills sets, and because of them.  So where should you begin?  As  a new leader, the first skill I would recommend you learn would be “Communication Skills“  and all that tangles around it.  If you learn to communicate clearer, listen better, affirm people more effectively while they speak, the outcomes will be greater CONFIDENCE in yourself, TRUST from others, and you’ll be seen as one that “CARES” a rare commodity in the world of leadership and coaching.  All this will launch you into better, more profitable, challenging projects.  So I’ll say it again, Build it, and the opportunities will come.

Seven Steps to Grow Into Leadership?

Can leadership be learned?  What do I need to do to gain influence?  These are two typical questions I receive repeatedly by those who have been promoted to positions where they need to direct, inspect, recruit, retain, and inspire people on their team to get a job done.  Yes, I believe leadership, to a large degree can be learned.  But first you have to:

1. Be teachable
2. Be willing to get out of your comfort zone and learn to take an interest in others as much as you do in accomplishing a goal or project.
3. Develop good listening skills.
4. Find a mentor, a coach to bounce situations  off of.
5. Read, read, or at least use your car as a rolling university and listen to books on CD;
6. Learn about Behavioral Styles, DISC!  A great too in your arsenal.
7.  Own your mistakes, say you were wrong, therefore, leading by example.  They will appreciate you more  if they know you’re human, and able to step up to the plate and take responsibility.

As a young leader I enjoyed multiple projects launching simultaneously.  I remember one time I was almost finished with am assignment and had already begun strategically preparing to catapult into the next program when three people approached me.  They were upset that I had volunteered to take the next role, leaving them behind.  I didn’t get it, they were all upset about me leaving.  It wasn’t until one of them took me out to coffee, and explained that they were on the project because I was leading it, that it dawned on me.  I was on the project for the satisfaction of a job well done.  Isn’t that what everyone’s motivation is?  As far as I was concerned, it had been a resounding success and I was moving forward.  They were on the project to be around me!  Wow, what a revelation.  It was then I discovered people join things for different reasons.  It was a real shock, and wake up call.  It would have never occurred to me that people were there for any other reason than to get a job done.   Learning DISC was the beginning of a lifelong journey into understanding the values, motives, and differing styles of people.  This knowledge alone has transformed my life and lead me into projects, places and opportunities I could have never envisioned.  This understanding has given me the knowledge needed to recruit, retain, motivate, correct, and direct people in small and large projects.  If this intrigues you, and you want to know more, check out the tele-class workshop coming up the end of June.  I guarantee, you’ll never be the same!  Go to the EVENTS page to learn more, then sign up on the SIGN UP pag and take the challenge.  The people challenge that is.  It will become one of your very greatest tools in your leadership career.

How my Leadership Ladder was Climbed I

Part I

Why is this blog called “Confessions of an Accidental Leader”?  It’s because I myself never set out to “BE” a leader, or to be “LEADING” leaders.  It was a natural progression of my interests, passion, and personality 30 years ago.  It began when a friend shared that if you read 7 books on any one given subject, that you would be considered an expert in that field.  While recuperating from surgery, I attempted just such a feat by consuming anything I could get my hands on regarding the behavioral styles method called DISC.  From there, for fun and personal enjoyment I began sharing the information informally with groups.  People found it instantaneously fascinating, and particularly helpful, so I was soon asked by friends and their husbands to conduct workshop for their office staff and employees.  What started as a hobby, launched me into the arena of entrepreneurship,  consulting, coaching, training on team-building, conflict resolution, communication and ultimately leading.  I’ve since become certified in a myriad of applicable competencies see: www.dpdwebsite for more information on my journey.