I recently spent some time talking with the leader of a small organization who was concerned because her group seemed to be slipping deeper and deeper into a sense of apathy. This leader is very young and desperately wanted the rest of her group to be as excited about the organization as she was. She spent some time thinking about some of the things that had inspired her in the past and remembered how she had always been excited by new challenges. Armed with that knowledge she had come up with several new projects that she knew would inspire her team and reverse the trend of apathy.
As I listened to this scenario unfold, I knew how the story would end. After all, she hadn’t sought me out because of the high morale of the organization. She had sought me out because they were still stuck and she did not know where to turn.
As we talked, I moved the discussion from an overview of the group to her own current situation. As we talked she revealed that she was feeling overwhelmed in her position and that the job had been so much bigger than she had really expected. She had expected her movement from team member to leader to be relatively seamless. After all, she had been a part of the organization for several years, knew all of the roles of her team members, and had been a top performer. But it had not been as easy as she expected and she was becoming aware of everything that she didn’t know about how to lead the organization, including how to get her team excited again.
As we peeled the onion together, she became aware that her own feelings of overwhelm were now permeating the organization. Her concerns, doubts, and lack of enthusiasm for her new role had seeped out and were spreading across the entire group. It had happened slowly, as she had expressed her doubts and fears to a close friend in the department. And then she had cancelled a staff meeting because she was “overwhelmed”, followed by missing an after hours team building event because she was “too tired” to attend. The next thing she knew the entire group seemed to lack enthusiasm, energy, and focus.
Her own lack of energy and enthusiasm had affected the entire organization, spreading through the ranks like a wildfire through a dry forest. And now her job of reversing this trend had been made even more difficult as a result of her own thoughts and actions.
But here is the good news. Just as feelings of overwhelm, frustration, and apathy can be contagious, so can feelings of excitement, energy, and engagement. The organization always takes its cues from the leader and when the leader is excited, so is the whole team. The answer to this client's problem lay within herself. First, she had to solve her own problems and then extend that enthusiasm out to her team in the same way she had initially spread the disease. First by infecting one person around her with her new found enthusiasm, and then by spreading it through her entire team. As she became more enthused and engaged herself, so did her entire team.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Who Are You?
A friend of mine recently sent me a values test. He knows of the work that we do with executives and teams around the concept of values and thought I might find it interesting. Of course, I've taken and administered hundreds of values tests over the years, but this one was a little different. Instead of asking me to choose the words that resonated most with me, this one was told as a story. I was then asked to rate the characters to help identify my values.
It was a very interesting little test, but when I finished it I started to wonder. What if my wife were to take this same profile trying to answer as I would? Would her responses identify the same values in me that I see in myself?
What if I gave this profile to my best friend and asked him to answer as he thought I would?
What if I gave it to my business partner?
Or my employees?
How different would their view of my values be from my view? And which values are really mine?
Are the values that I identify as important to me who I really am, or are the values that others see the real me?
This question may not be as obvious as it sounds. Regardless of how I view myself and say what is important to me, the way others view me speaks volumes about the values that I am actually living. And clearly the values that I am living are the values that are truly the most important. In fact, this view that others have of me is how they perceive me and therefore how they react to me. Obviously this can be very beneficial in uncovering my blind spots: those things that others see in me that I don't see in myself.
This most certainly holds true for my values, but what about my communications? While I may view my communications as clear and crisp, others may view my communication as overbearing and impersonal.
What about my style of leadership? While I may view my style as direct and goal oriented, others may view it as rigid and even wrong focused.
Looking in a mirror allows us to see ourselves through our own eyes. But as leaders, it is important to look at ourselves through the eyes of others. And as a leader, getting honest feedback from our peers and subordinates can be challenging.
This is where ECI Learning can assist you. With our variety of confidential, web-based 360 tools we can help identify the blind spots in your organization and assist you in creating training and personal development tools to strengthen your organization, improve productivity and increase profitability.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
It was a very interesting little test, but when I finished it I started to wonder. What if my wife were to take this same profile trying to answer as I would? Would her responses identify the same values in me that I see in myself?
What if I gave this profile to my best friend and asked him to answer as he thought I would?
What if I gave it to my business partner?
Or my employees?
How different would their view of my values be from my view? And which values are really mine?
Are the values that I identify as important to me who I really am, or are the values that others see the real me?
This question may not be as obvious as it sounds. Regardless of how I view myself and say what is important to me, the way others view me speaks volumes about the values that I am actually living. And clearly the values that I am living are the values that are truly the most important. In fact, this view that others have of me is how they perceive me and therefore how they react to me. Obviously this can be very beneficial in uncovering my blind spots: those things that others see in me that I don't see in myself.
This most certainly holds true for my values, but what about my communications? While I may view my communications as clear and crisp, others may view my communication as overbearing and impersonal.
What about my style of leadership? While I may view my style as direct and goal oriented, others may view it as rigid and even wrong focused.
Looking in a mirror allows us to see ourselves through our own eyes. But as leaders, it is important to look at ourselves through the eyes of others. And as a leader, getting honest feedback from our peers and subordinates can be challenging.
This is where ECI Learning can assist you. With our variety of confidential, web-based 360 tools we can help identify the blind spots in your organization and assist you in creating training and personal development tools to strengthen your organization, improve productivity and increase profitability.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Money and Motivation
When it comes to the concept of employee motivation, there is nothing that should be simpler but, for some reason, it is more confusing than the concept of rewards and recognition for your employees.
At this very moment some of you have stopped reading, stood up at your desks and shouted at the top of your lungs, “There is nothing confusing about this! Give me more money!”
And that’s why there is confusion. People are motivated by different things. It’s not always money.
Let’s get some basics out of the way early. If you don’t earn enough money to put food on your table and pay your mortgage then you will always be looking for a way to earn more money. When you are consumed by the fear of not being able to take care of yourself, your spouse, or your children, then money is all you will think about.
And some people are clearly in that position.
But we are assuming here that you are not paying minimum wage or thereabouts to your employees. We are assuming that you are talking about what are commonly called “knowledge workers” and are paying reasonable wages for reasonable work.
For some people that is still not enough. When you ask “How do you motivate employees?" some people will still stand up and shout, “Give me more money!”
But study after study shows that this group is a very small minority of people. Or, said in a slightly different way, the number of people who insist that they want more money and those who actually want more money is very different. The mantra, “Give me more money” is more talk than reality.
Pay for performance is an absolute necessity in certain production positions. Pay for piecework is effective. Pay for knowledge work is not. In fact, studies show that when incentive pay is implemented for knowledge work, productivity and creativity actually go down. Instead of being incented to create, knowledge workers who are offered pay for performance actually feel constrained by arbitrary rewards of incentive pay. It seems that knowledge workers are incented by intrinsic motivation, by the desire to excel and grow and create, rather than by the almighty dollar.
The most recent book on this topic is called “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink. It’s a book that I highly recommend all managers and leaders read. This is especially true for small business owners who often fall prey to the pay for performance mantra.
So how do you motivate employees, especially those who are knowledge workers? Knowledge workers are motivated by the opportunity to unleash their creative juices, solve problems, and make a difference. They enjoy new challenges, enhancing their talents and skills, and seeing how their work impacts those around them. The intrinsic motivation that drives knowledge workers is as strong as, or stronger than, the pay for performance motivation that drives production workers.
Want to motivate your knowledge workers? Turn them loose and let them find new solutions.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
At this very moment some of you have stopped reading, stood up at your desks and shouted at the top of your lungs, “There is nothing confusing about this! Give me more money!”
And that’s why there is confusion. People are motivated by different things. It’s not always money.
Let’s get some basics out of the way early. If you don’t earn enough money to put food on your table and pay your mortgage then you will always be looking for a way to earn more money. When you are consumed by the fear of not being able to take care of yourself, your spouse, or your children, then money is all you will think about.
And some people are clearly in that position.
But we are assuming here that you are not paying minimum wage or thereabouts to your employees. We are assuming that you are talking about what are commonly called “knowledge workers” and are paying reasonable wages for reasonable work.
For some people that is still not enough. When you ask “How do you motivate employees?" some people will still stand up and shout, “Give me more money!”
But study after study shows that this group is a very small minority of people. Or, said in a slightly different way, the number of people who insist that they want more money and those who actually want more money is very different. The mantra, “Give me more money” is more talk than reality.
Pay for performance is an absolute necessity in certain production positions. Pay for piecework is effective. Pay for knowledge work is not. In fact, studies show that when incentive pay is implemented for knowledge work, productivity and creativity actually go down. Instead of being incented to create, knowledge workers who are offered pay for performance actually feel constrained by arbitrary rewards of incentive pay. It seems that knowledge workers are incented by intrinsic motivation, by the desire to excel and grow and create, rather than by the almighty dollar.
The most recent book on this topic is called “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink. It’s a book that I highly recommend all managers and leaders read. This is especially true for small business owners who often fall prey to the pay for performance mantra.
So how do you motivate employees, especially those who are knowledge workers? Knowledge workers are motivated by the opportunity to unleash their creative juices, solve problems, and make a difference. They enjoy new challenges, enhancing their talents and skills, and seeing how their work impacts those around them. The intrinsic motivation that drives knowledge workers is as strong as, or stronger than, the pay for performance motivation that drives production workers.
Want to motivate your knowledge workers? Turn them loose and let them find new solutions.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The Engaged Employee - Autonomy
Here is a very easy scenario for you. You go to work one morning and the boss tells you, “Here is what I want you to do. Here is the way I want you to do it. This is the way I want the results to look. These are the exact steps that I want you to follow. Do not vary from these steps even a little bit. Get to work and have a nice day.”
As I write these words I can feel the motivation draining from my own body and mind, just as they would drain from yours.
Alternatively the boss might tell you, “We need to get these 37 orders processed today. At the end of the day I need to know that they’ve all been processed, plus I need a report that I can use to track the delivery dates on each one. Thanks for making this happen."
As I write those words I find myself asking, “Is that a lot of orders? More than I would normally do in a day? If so, what am I going to do to get these orders processed? Who do I need to ask for help or assistance? What should the report look like?”
And while I now have more questions than answers, my mind is bubbling with ideas and possibilities; limitations and workarounds; roadblocks and solutions. In short, I’ve just engaged my brain, my thoughts, and my creativity to find a solution. I may not know if I can do it, or how I will do it, but I’m sure going to try.
It may be hard, but it’s going to be fun to figure it out and make it happen!
At least, that’s what your best, most engaged employees are going to tell you. The one’s that you really need to run your business. The one’s you can’t afford to lose because they feel bored, undervalued, or underappreciated.
If you are a leader and you really put yourself into the role described you know exactly what I mean when I say it will be fun to solve the problem and not fun to follow someone else’s solution step by step, with no thought or creativity from me.
Survey after survey has shown that one of the major things that any high quality employee wants is the ability to be autonomous. To make decisions on their own, plan their own work, and find creative solutions to problems. Yet somehow, in the name of management and control, we’ve managed to suck the creativity right out of them by insisting that things be done one way and one way only. Sometimes we call this process “following procedures”. Other times we refer to it as “best practices”, which really sounds impressive in terms of the results that someone else got using that procedure.
The funny thing about “best practices” is that what worked so well for Bob, may not work so well for Sally. Regardless of what we call it, we need to be careful to not stifle the creativity and autonomy of our best employees. Instead we need to think about how we would feel if someone always told us exactly what to do and exactly how to do it. Only then can we begin to unleash the power that is right below the surface for all of our best employees.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
As I write these words I can feel the motivation draining from my own body and mind, just as they would drain from yours.
Alternatively the boss might tell you, “We need to get these 37 orders processed today. At the end of the day I need to know that they’ve all been processed, plus I need a report that I can use to track the delivery dates on each one. Thanks for making this happen."
As I write those words I find myself asking, “Is that a lot of orders? More than I would normally do in a day? If so, what am I going to do to get these orders processed? Who do I need to ask for help or assistance? What should the report look like?”
And while I now have more questions than answers, my mind is bubbling with ideas and possibilities; limitations and workarounds; roadblocks and solutions. In short, I’ve just engaged my brain, my thoughts, and my creativity to find a solution. I may not know if I can do it, or how I will do it, but I’m sure going to try.
It may be hard, but it’s going to be fun to figure it out and make it happen!
At least, that’s what your best, most engaged employees are going to tell you. The one’s that you really need to run your business. The one’s you can’t afford to lose because they feel bored, undervalued, or underappreciated.
If you are a leader and you really put yourself into the role described you know exactly what I mean when I say it will be fun to solve the problem and not fun to follow someone else’s solution step by step, with no thought or creativity from me.
Survey after survey has shown that one of the major things that any high quality employee wants is the ability to be autonomous. To make decisions on their own, plan their own work, and find creative solutions to problems. Yet somehow, in the name of management and control, we’ve managed to suck the creativity right out of them by insisting that things be done one way and one way only. Sometimes we call this process “following procedures”. Other times we refer to it as “best practices”, which really sounds impressive in terms of the results that someone else got using that procedure.
The funny thing about “best practices” is that what worked so well for Bob, may not work so well for Sally. Regardless of what we call it, we need to be careful to not stifle the creativity and autonomy of our best employees. Instead we need to think about how we would feel if someone always told us exactly what to do and exactly how to do it. Only then can we begin to unleash the power that is right below the surface for all of our best employees.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
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