The Leadership Skill of DEVELOPMENT

Let’s continue this week with our examination of leadership skills. The last 2 weeks, I’ve shared articles to reinforce the three concepts that we discussed during our “Introduction to Leadership” on the December 8^th airing of The Leader’s Edge.

We’ve covered the topics of Listening and Action. So, that leaves us with Development. The development of your employees and leaders is paramount to the success of your organization! Not only to make them as effective in their roles as possible (whether it’s technical or “people skills” training), but also to show them that you care about them and their contributions to your organization. The more opportunities you offer your employees to develop themselves and to then utilize those skills, the more likely they are to trust you and be loyal to you, in good times and bad.

Indeed, that reflects the title of a blog post which Dave published a couple of years ago, “Great Leaders Develop Good People - Even in Bad Times”. The topic of that article is certainly relevant to our current discussion:

Whenever the economy turns bad, and that seems to happen on a regular basis, many companies start looking for ways to cut their costs. One of the very first things that some companies cut are any costs associated with human development. Coaching, training classes, and even brown-bag lunches are viewed as a “soft cost” that have no direct impact on the bottom line.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

On the surface, wringing out any excess costs seems to make a lot of sense. But great leaders know that wringing out all the costs might also mean wringing out all of the energy, excitement and creativity from a company as well. And, when things are tough, you need your team to crank up the energy and creativity, not bury it under a blanket.

Imagine a scenario where one of your top customers places a big order that is going to require the very best from your team to complete the delivery. Your team, suffering the blahs after having their overtime cut, all of the plants removed from the office, the coffee service removed from the office, and all personal development eliminated, can’t figure out how to deliver this order on time with the correct content.

Of course, Jack could have led his team to get this done, but Jack left 6 weeks ago to join a competitor. Sally was another manager who could probably have pulled it off as well, but she left about 3 months ago and changed careers entirely. Their replacements came from in house and, while they are excellent technically, they lack the skills to lead the team on a project of this size.

You meant to develop more managers with the appropriate team leadership skills, but with times being tight, you cut back on hiring, stopped training both your technicians and your managers and hunkered down to wait out the downturn.

Now that downturn may last much longer than expected. And you may lose your best client for screwing up this order. But that’s ok because you were able to wring out all of those excess costs that don’t really add to the bottom line.

Great leaders understand the difference between unnecessary costs and the costs of keeping your managers and staff excited, motivated, and most importantly, on your team. Great leaders understand that developing people is not an unnecessary cost, but an investment in the business itself. Staff development can have the very same payoff and ROI that an investment in new equipment can have. And an investment in your staff has the added incentive of making your team more valuable over time.

And that can get you through a lot of tough times.

I hope this article has inspired you to think about additional ways that you can offer development opportunities to your team. We’d love to hear some of your thoughts on development and any unique development opportunities that you may have tried or are considering.


At ECI Learning Systems LLC we are dedicated to improving productivity and profitability by creating engaged organizations. Our unique combination of training and personalized coaching, combined with our expertise in assessments allow us to create a development plan tailored for your success.


Until next time….

Laurie Valaer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ECILearning.com

What is two-way communication?

“Outstanding Leaders Appeal to the Hearts of their Followers, not their Minds.” ~ Source Unknown

Ask any organization about their internal communications and they will point to their intranet website, used to communicate key initiatives to their employees. They’ll talk about the quarterly CEO updates, where the top executives go “live” and stream their inspirational leadership across the company. And they’ll point to their ongoing newsletter from HR executives that brings all of the employees up to date on the latest and greatest “Human Resource” initiatives.

What is missing from these communication methods is obvious. These are one-way communication vehicles, not two-way. And, even if that quarterly CEO update includes a phone line for employees to call in on or a message function to pose questions electronically, you are still only engaging a small percentage of your employees. True two-way communication is not possible through push mediums alone.

More importantly, the key component of any real two-way communication is the clear indication that both parties are listening to each other. In all of the methods discussed above, the message is “communicated” out, but there is nothing to indicate that any message is welcomed back or that the “communicator” has any intention of truly listening.

The problem is obvious from both sides of the equation. From the executive side, how can you possibly listen to 500 - 50,000 employees with a variety of diverse ideas and thoughts? After all, even the best intentioned employees are likely to have some ideas that are so totally impractical it can be difficult not to laugh out loud. From the employee side, regardless of how you might be encouraged to communicate, do you really believe the CEO is going to listen to you?

The answer to this challenge is not nearly as difficult as it might at first seem because the employees don’t need to talk with the CEO one on one to be heard. Nor do the top executives need to react to every message sent their way. In fact, many companies have “solved” this problem through some type of formal survey process. They commission an Organizational Survey to get input from across the company. When the survey is complete, they review the results to understand the organizational concerns. They may even take action on some of those major concerns … maybe… But if they do, those actions are sometimes not obvious to the employees. As far as the employees are concerned they’ve been asked for their input, and they’ve been ignored.

Is it any wonder that most employees don’t take Organizational Surveys seriously?

Organizational Surveys can serve as a vehicle for two-way communication, but only if the employees KNOW that their responses are being taken seriously. In simple terms that means:

1. Publish the results of the survey. And not just the good parts; but the bad parts and the not-so-bad parts as well. In other words, management must be willing to “open their kimono” and share everything with the employees.
2. Actions resulting from the survey must be visible across the organization and tied directly back to the survey itself. In other words, don’t just announce a “reorganization”. Instead, be honest and announce that it is being done in response to the survey.
3. It can’t be a “one and done” arrangement. Provide regular progress reports on what is being done based on the survey and don’t let it slip away into history.
4. Measure again. At regular intervals, possibly every 2 years, repeat the survey to look for improvement or areas of decline. And, again, be honest as to why the survey is being done and be willing to share the results again as well.

This is just a start on what you need to do, but I think you get the idea. Actions that are visible and can be traced directly back to employee feedback is one of the key ways that employees feel heard. And feeling heard is a key requirement for employee engagement.

So, is that it? If I do the things mentioned in the last several blogs will I have an engaged organization?

Unfortunately, there’s still more to it. By doing the things listed you have opened the door for engagement, but as of yet, no one has walked through that door. A big part of employee engagement comes from lower levels of the organization and even from the employees themselves.

We’ll discuss some of those ideas next week.


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

To Get Engagement…Be Engaged

When an organization makes a conscious effort to become an “engaged organization” the question always comes down to “how” this can be done. In small organizations it is relatively easy to sit down with your employees and talk about what you want to do and why you want to do it. Then, by demonstrating the behavior you want and expect from your team, you begin to change the culture.

In larger organizations the concept is similar but the time frame is longer because you have so many more people to reach, plus you need to “sell” this concept at the various levels of the organization. And let’s be honest, there will be instances of managers in the organization who will not buy into the concept regardless of what is said or implemented. That means planned turnover; hiring and training of new personnel. None of this makes the job easy, but it is also not impossible.

For larger organizations, a strategy needs to be developed and implemented at various levels of the organization. This strategy is based around a very simple concept:

If we want our customers and employees to be engaged with us, we first need to engage them.

There are a variety of ways to engage your employees in your business. And, once you engage the employees, the customers will follow right along.

Most of the methods of engaging employees are not really new, although the mechanism itself may be new. Ideas like:

• Suggestion Box
• Open Door Meetings
• Skip Level Meetings
• Kickoff Sessions
• Company blogs or newsletters
• Staff Meetings
• Etc.

Like I said, most of these are not new and can be implemented the old fashion way, or through new social media/internet connections. What turns these from run of the mill employee communication mechanisms into employee engagement tools is simply a matter of how they are used and viewed by the employees. When these tools are viewed as an active and constructive method of interacting with the leadership then they have a purpose and further the process of engaging the employees. But when they are viewed as one-way mechanisms that don't encourage participation and discussion, they will not engage your employees.

How do you change the way these old fashioned communication tools are viewed?

By remembering that communication is actually a two-way connection. In other words, use these tools to actively interact with your employees, encourage them to respond, and act on their comments. This is the part of communication that so many executives miss and it really is the key to engaging your employees. Engage them in a two-way dialog as opposed to just top down communications.

I’ll cover this in more detail next week.


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

Open the doors for Employee Engagement

The concept behind employee engagement is a simple one. If you engage your employees in your business, the employees will be happy and engage the customers. And, when the customers are happy and engaged, your profitability increases. Customers who are truly engaged with your business understand that they are special and will be treated well. They know that, when things go wrong, your company and your employees will do everything in their power to make it right. They believe deeply that you will do what is best and not try to take advantage of them in any way.

In short, your engaged customers trust you. And nothing is more valuable in business than your customers.

To paraphrase Herb Kelleher, "Happy employees make for happy customers. Happy customers make for happy shareholders."

I was speaking with a friend recently who was a top salesperson for a Denver area furniture chain and he related to me a problem with one of their customers. The customer was unhappy about a mark on the furniture she had purchased and was causing quite a commotion. My friend was called in to help resolve the issue.

He listened to her complaint, agreed that she had a reason to be concerned, and worked out a solution that satisfied her. All was good again, until the owner of the chain happened to walk by. The customer recognized the owner and decided to tell him about her experience. She started to relate her experience to the owner and within 30 seconds he responded, “So what? You’re not happy? Give her the money back and get her out of my store.”

That owner not only lost a customer that day, but he also lost one of his top salespeople as my friend quit as well. Only my friend didn’t leave his job that very day, he actually worked there for nearly 3 more years. He just quit trying. That was the lesson he took away from the owner.

There are a lot of ways for you to engage your employees in your business so that they will buy into the vision and go above and beyond for both the company and the customers. And the first way to engage your employees is to model the behavior that you expect from them. When the entire executive team, not just the CEO, walks the talk about the value of the customer and demonstrates this regularly through their words and actions, the employees will do the same.

Of course as I noted above, the opposite is clearly true as well. When the executive team models poor behavior and attitudes, the employees see and imitate that behavior as well. And this is true whether or not you know all of your employees individually or if you have 50,000 employees. Employees take their lead from the clues left by the executive team. And, if you don’t think your employees notice those clues, watch your behaviors in addition to hearing your words, and see and talk about the disparities between your words and actions, then you are very much mistaken.

Model engagement and inclusion with your employees and customers and you will find that your employees engage and include your customers, and your customers engage and support your business.

We’ll talk more about other methods of encouraging engagement in our next blog.


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

How Do You Encourage Engagement?

I was talking with a friend recently and we were discussing my favorite topic – employee engagement. My friend runs a small business, the kind where he still knows all of his employee’s names, the names of their spouses, and most of their kids. But his business is growing and he knows that it won’t be long until that is no longer possible. And, he is rightfully concerned about how his business will change when he no longer has that level of intimacy with his employees. Until now he has done an excellent job of communicating his vision to his team members and then using his personal relationships with them to reinforce his thoughts and get their ideas and buy-in. Since many of his employees deal with their customers every day, he wants to make sure that they are fully engaged with the business because that means they will try and fully engage the clients as well.

His question was a simple one. How do I continue to fully engage my team when I no longer have the luxury of knowing them all so personally? Can you really have an engaged team without the personal connection?

For many, the concept of employee engagement works well with small, intimate organizations where the team members almost feel like part of the family. Camaraderie plays an integral role in keeping everyone involved and engaged in the organization. But, just like a family can sometimes lose touch when it gets too big, they believe that having more employees automatically leads to less engagement.

And, to some extent, this is probably true. After all, it’s easier to get 5 people to buy in to and dedicate themselves to a vision than it is to get 500. And what happens when that 500 turns into 5000, or 50,000? Is it even possible to have an engaged organization of 50,000 people?

Absolutely.

Employee engagement is not about knowing the names and spouses of each employee. Nor is it about company picnics, bowling teams, or night’s out at the ballgame. Employee engagement is about making every employee believe in the common vision. It’s about knowing that, in some way, they can impact the vision and that their ideas, suggestions, and concerns really matter. Employee engagement is about caring what people think and encouraging them to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Of course, you don’t want to ignore the personal side of the equation, but just because you know your employees’ names and who their spouses are does not mean that they are engaged or care about the business or its customers. Engagement only happens when they know that they can make a difference.

The question becomes, how do I encourage my 500th employee to be as engaged as my 5th employee is? How can I obtain their buy in to the vision and promote their buy in?

What has to happen for them to know that their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions do matter and that we want them to impact the business?

We will be discussing this concept more in the next few weeks.


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

Implementing an Engaged Culture

Culture changes in an organization are never easy or quick. A company culture is the personality of the company, and just like with a human personality, deciding to change it is one thing but actually changing a personality is something entirely different. For example, every year we make New Year’s resolutions about things we are going to change. But the reality is that most resolutions quickly fall away because, while the desire to change might be strong, changing ingrained habits is a long and painful process.

Experts in the process of change will tell you that the probability of successful change can be enhanced with the proper level of support. For example, if your desire to change involves losing weight, you are encouraged to sign up for a program, start an exercise program with a friend, and even tell your spouse, family, and friends about your desire to lose weight. If they know about your weight loss goals, they can help you stay away from food that is bad for you and even help you steer clear of situations where bad food may be prevalent. This is especially true if your desire to lose weight will have a direct impact on the food that they might end up eating.

Having support for change is a critical factor in moving yourself in a new direction and is often the difference between success and failure.

The same is true when deciding to change the culture of your organization. Once you have decided that you want to make a specific change, the next thing you need to do is begin to line up support for that change. And, just like you might sign up for a well-proven diet program, your culture change should also be supported by experts – experts who understand the complexities and pitfalls of a culture change and can provide you with valuable guidance. Trying to change your culture without the assistance of an expert is like trying to do brain surgery … on yourself.

And, much like you want to inform your friends and family about your change in eating habits so that you can gain their support and let them know about the possible impact on them, you will also want to inform your employees of the desire to change the culture. After all, changing the culture of the organization will have a very direct impact on them and you will need their support and involvement to ensure your success.

For many leaders, the question of communicating desired changes to the employees represents a significant challenge. Too often, leaders fail to appreciate the level of understanding that the employees have about the current culture, or they believe they can implement culture changes through simple process or reward adjustments. Unfortunately, when employees don’t understand the culture shift being pursued, they will try and meld any new process or reward changes into the existing culture. Obviously, this can have a significant negative impact on any desired culture changes when processes intended for one culture end up being implemented in another.

For culture to truly change it must be planned from above but implemented at the lowest levels of the organization. By making the employees your partner in your cultural shift you can more readily communicate not only the “how” of the shift but also the “why”. And, if the transition is to a more employee centric culture, your employees will be delighted to assist you.


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

Are There Skeptics in Your Organization?

In our last few blogs, we’ve been talking about the concept of employee engagement. And, in last week’s post we talked about the first steps in moving your team from where they are today to being a more highly engaged team. Asking the people who deal with the problem every day how to solve that problem is a great way to begin to engage your team. Full engagement does not happen overnight or through a single exercise. But, if you engaged your team to solve the problem, you likely saw an inkling of the power that an engaged workforce brings to the organization. They say that two heads are better than one. Imagine if everyone in your organization brought their best thoughts to solving your problems. Can you imagine the power of that organization?

As I noted above, full engagement does not happen overnight. But, if you engaged your team in the problem solving exercise we discussed last week, you took the first step to engage your team. I would expect that your first attempt at employee engagement met with limited success. You probably engaged a few employees and got some excellent feedback, but you also noticed that most of your employees did not engage. Instead, they watched and observed but didn’t fully participate.

This is a natural reaction to this kind of a shift in thinking from management and demonstrates a lack of trust. They heard the words, but they weren’t sure what was going to happen next. They believed that the best thing for them to do, the safest thing for them to do, and the easiest thing for them to do, was to do nothing. By doing nothing they limit their exposure and don’t set themselves up for a major psychological letdown. In fact, I would guess that, based on the size of your organization, you found some people who were not only skeptical, but actually mocked the idea and those who participated. These people have been well trained that being disengaged and not caring is the easiest way to stay employed and out of the line of fire.

Fully engaging your team means changing the mindset and culture of the organization to one that encourages creativity, rewards risk taking, and promotes open communication. For many organizations, this represents a major cultural shift in the way that people think. That goes for changing the minds of the skeptics as well as those who fully participated. And that is why it is so important that you implemented the solution your team came up with, regardless of what you really thought of it. Failing to implement the team’s solution leaves the skeptics free to say, “I knew this was not real. Management doesn’t really care what we know or think. This is just the latest management fad of the month.” Implementing the solution from your team does not eliminate the skeptics but, rather, it begins to crack the façade that they have built up. Permanently knocking down that wall will take time and effort. And, it may even cost you a few employees along the way. But it will be worth it in the long run.

The biggest “cost” of implementing a culture that encourages employee engagement is the mental and emotional stress that it might cause you personally. We are talking about moving from a culture where you were the center of attention – the person with all the answers – to an employee-centric culture where the emphasis is on the strengths of the employees.

We’ll talk more about implementing that culture in our next issue.

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

Create Engagement Through Involvement

In our last few blogs, we’ve been talking about the concept of employee engagement and how valuable it can be to your organization. If you think back to your early years on the job, you were likely highly engaged, at least when you started out. You were eager to jump into the work, anxious to impress your new boss, and wanted to fit in with the other employees. The question becomes, how long did that eagerness last? How long was it before you realized that your eagerness was not truly appreciated by your boss or by your coworkers? How long until you placed more value on blending in than on being the best?

From my personal experience I believe that for most people disengagement, the art of not caring about your job or your company, is a learned behavior. When we first start working we really want to care, but we learn from our boss and our peers that this trait, this eagerness, is not truly appreciated in the workplace. Over time, we begin to accept this as the truth and incorporate it into our daily behaviors.

The same is true for your employees. They likely learned fairly early in their careers that the best way to get along was to go along.

Here’s the good news.

Since disengagement is a learned behavior it can be unlearned as well. The trick is in how you “teach” your employees that it is ok to be engaged.

The process of integrating engagement into your organization requires a significant amount of work for you and your leadership team. And, it starts with honesty about what you are trying to accomplish and why. You will need to build trust with your team and give them a reason to believe in you and what you are saying. To engage your team, you need to be fully committed to the concept of employee engagement. You need to be willing to encourage and accept their ideas and suggestions, be open in your communication about what is and what is not working, and, most importantly, you need to convince them that this idea is not the “leadership fad of the month” but a concept that is here for the long term.

Here is my suggestion for getting the engagement ball rolling in your organization. Start by identifying the biggest challenge that you are facing. Then, call a meeting of key people who are involved in this challenge and who should most want to see it solved. Once that team is assembled, explain the problem to them and ask them how they would solve this problem.

Isn’t that easy?

Here comes the hard part.

As the group begins to provide comments or give feedback, you need to encourage them to tell you more. You want them to believe that it is ok to be open and that their thoughts are welcome. That means putting aside your natural tendency to critique their ideas and, instead, encouraging them to expound on them. Focus on what IS possible from their suggestions and not the pitfalls. Encourage them to build upon each other’s ideas so that they build a solution together.

And then you have to implement their solution.

I told you it wouldn’t be easy.

We’ll talk more about how to build your engaged organization in future issues.

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

There Is a Better Way to Manage Your Employees

In the last few blogs, I’ve been talking about employee engagement and how valuable engaged employees can be to your organization. Study after study demonstrates how engaged employees work both harder and smarter. They provide better customer service and enhance customer satisfaction. They add directly to the bottom line through increased productivity and the reduced costs of employee turnover. Yet, these same studies show that less than one-third of US employees are fully engaged and nearly 20% are actively disengaged. The remainder are marginally engaged, but could be more fully engaged…if only someone would engage them.

For decades the belief has been that the best way to get production from your team was through the “carrot and stick” approach. People were offered a carrot to produce and if that didn’t work, we hit them with a stick. Motivation was seen as offering rewards for performance or threatening people with the loss of their jobs. Often, successful executives specialized in rants and tirades; the louder and more colorful, the better. Intimidation of employees was common and thought to be a way to gain respect. And, of course, these methods of motivation will often produce short term results.

But we are in business for the long term.

Studies of motivation, employee engagement, and emotional intelligence have proven that there are better ways to lead your team. People are inherently good and creative and are willing to work hard for what they believe in. When properly encouraged, they are anxious to demonstrate what they are capable of doing and will also work well with others.

At this point you might be thinking to yourself, “What has this guy been smoking? I’ve been leading people for years and they simply aren’t motivated. In fact, they seem to do as little as possible, usually just enough to avoid getting fired. I can’t trust them and I certainly can’t expect this team to work together unless I literally force teamwork on them.”

Unfortunately, this thought process is way too common in our world today. And it’s not that you are wrong for thinking this. It’s just that your team has developed the traits of disengagement over a long period of time; possibly before they even came to work for you. Changing their attitude and getting your team engaged is no easy task. It requires a lot of dedication and hard work on your part to change not only your perceptions of what they are capable of, but also their perceptions of what you are trying to accomplish.

Is it worth the effort?

The statistics alone make it worth while to invest in yourself and your team to try and raise their level of engagement. Even more importantly is the fact that it is just easier and more fun to lead a team of engaged employees than it is to lead a team of disengaged employees. When your team is engaged they work harder without you having to push them. They are more creative without all of the ideas having to come from you. They treat your customers better, meaning that you get more repeat business. And, you have more time to spend doing the things you want to do versus the things you believe you have to do.

We’ll talk a little bit about this transition and how to create an engaged team in upcoming segments.

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

Is There a Better Way?

In last week’s blog, I spoke a little about the concept of Employee Engagement and about the benefits to an organization when the employees are engaged. Report after report demonstrates improved productivity and profitability for engaged organizations as engaged employees care more about their work, their customer, and their company than non-engaged employees do. The case for Employee Engagement is really quite logical and simple. If the employees care about what they are doing, then they will work harder than if they don’t care. Employees that care will take better care of customers than those that don’t care. And, employees that like their jobs and like their companies will stay with them longer, making them more valuable to the companies. Not to mention the significant savings that result from lower employee turnover and higher levels of institutional knowledge.

As I look back at my own career, I’ve had a number of interesting jobs in different organizations. In my first job I discovered that errors of any type were not tolerated. The smallest mistake was often highlighted and punishment, while not always swift, was certainly sure. That job taught me not to make mistakes. Of course, it also taught me not to take chances. And the best way to not take any chances was never to change anything that you did. Hence, each day became a repeat of the day before it. With my fertile mind I always had a lot of ideas on how we could do things differently and better. This job taught me to suppress those ideas lest they lead to change and the possibility of error. Boredom and disengagement go hand in hand, and I was both. I did what I had to do, but not a lick more. And it’s safe to say that all of my coworkers believed the same as I did. Collectively, we were prime examples of what it means to be disengaged.

Bored, tired, doing as little as humanly possible.

But I could not suppress my creativity and yearn for excitement for long, and soon I found myself with a new employer. The atmosphere at my second job was decidedly different. I was only on the job for a few days when I learned my new boss’s favorite mantra: “Is there a better way?”

That phrase was like music to my ears. It excited every creative bone in my body and made me want to think of new ways to accomplish the job. I was part of a group of about 30 – 40 people and each day we would look at our work and ask, “Is there a better way?” At this time I was working in retail accounting for a shoe company. We had 300 plus stores scattered across the country and every day they had to report to us their sales numbers, key inventory information, hours used, and a variety of other information from their remote locations. Tracking it all was a challenge to say the least.

“Is there a better way?”

The energy in that organization was palpable. Mind you, we didn’t change things every day, but we were alert for signs of how to do things better. We knew that we were being paid to think and not just crank out numbers.

I was in my office one day when one of my employees came in to visit me.

“I was thinking about how we capture and report the sales by department,” she said. “I visited our store in Chapel Hill last night and watched them work for about an hour. It gave me an idea, so I spoke to both the department manager and store manager about it.” With that, she handed me a 5 page report that she had typed at home outlining a new process for our stores. She was clearly enthused about her idea and had worked at home the night before to complete this proposal.

It was brilliant. It was groundbreaking. It was the kind of idea that was going to save us hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“There is” she said, “a better way.”

Yes, there is. When you have an employee who is that engaged.

What I failed to mention here about this wonderful, enthusiastic, and engaged employee was her rank in the organization. She was an Inventory Control Clerk. She made .10 per hour above minimum wage.

You see, when it comes to managing your employees, there is a better way.

But, I’ll have more about that in next week’s blog.


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/

What is Employee Engagement?

With the recent publication of our Amazon Best Seller, “The Engaged Manager: Make your team a success, and they’ll make you a success”, we’ve had a lot of questions about the importance of employee engagement and the role that an engaged manager plays in the organization.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the concept of Employee Engagement, the simple definition is, “the level of personal and professional commitment an individual has to the values and mission of the organization.” In other words, as an employee, how much do I believe in what we are doing and how far am I willing to go to ensure our success. An engaged employee believes in and is excited by the mission and values of the organization. And their commitment to the mission and values of the organization manifests itself on a daily basis through improved productivity, decreased absenteeism, and improved customer service and satisfaction.

There has been a significant amount of statistical analysis on employee engagement over the last 10 years. One recent study done by Hewitt Associates found that high-engagement firms had a total shareholder return that was 19% higher than average. Likewise, a company with low-engagement actually had a total shareholder return that was 44% below average.

Watson Wyatt reported that organizations with a high level of employee engagement out performed low engagement organizations by numbers ranging from 47% to 200%. These are just 2 examples gleaned from recent reports on employee engagement. New material is being released on a monthly basis by a variety of firms involved in statistical analysis that further enhance and refine these numbers. Clearly there is a statistical correlation between highly engaged employees and improved productivity.

But, there is also a correlation between employee engagement and customer satisfaction. And my guess is that you have experienced that situation first hand and don’t need any data analysis to prove it to you.

What am I talking about?

We’ve all had the experience in a store, an office, or over the phone where we have encountered an employee who was disengaged from the job and company. They were clearly bored with what they were doing, it was clear that our question or phone call had deeply disturbed their ongoing process of doing nothing, and they really didn’t know or care how they might be of service to us as a customer. Whether their management wants to acknowledge it or not, this person is highly disengaged from their job but is also our primary contact into their organization. What we think about this company is directly impacted by our contact by this employee, yet here they are bored to tears, doing anything but working, and fundamentally chasing customers away.

And the question becomes, why are they working there? Why hasn’t the management replaced them with someone more competent and enthusiastic? And what would it take for me to want to do business with this company again?

We will talk more about these topics in upcoming entries.


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/

Cost or Contributor?

I recently got a call from someone who wanted to be a client. He was having “employee issues” and he had heard that I’m really good at “fixing” those kinds of problems. His team was “unmotivated” and even “lazy.” Worse yet, he said his business was struggling and “staff costs were killing him.” As soon as our conversation started, alarms began going off in my head. The words he used bothered me, but the tone he used bothered me even more. In his business, employees were the key to his success. Yet it was clear to me that he didn’t see it that way at all.

So often in business we focus on things or tasks that need to be accomplished and, in the process of doing so, forget the people side of the business. We need a new marketing plan, we’re looking to develop new products, there are issues in the warehouse, or the production numbers are down. These are the types of items that tend to get the attention of the leadership team. They are important decisions, without doubt. But they are task based issues in a world where your biggest expense is most often your people.

Take a look at your organization’s budget. You see things like:

• Communications expense
• Advertising and Marketing
• Supplies
• Travel
• Legal expense
• Rent
• And so on…

Of course, in 90% of all organizations the biggest line item in your budget is payroll; the cost of your employees. And when you add in the cost of benefits and training, those numbers get even larger. It’s no secret to management that salary and the associated benefit costs are the biggest items in the budget. It’s the exact reason that they look at headcount first when times are lean. Logically speaking, the biggest item in your budget should get the biggest reduction when it’s time to cut costs. So they look to reduce costs by cutting people.

I mean, that just makes sense, doesn’t it?

Let me offer a different perspective on the issue of your biggest cost. Because I would tell you that, while the cost of your people is the single biggest item in your budget, it’s probably the most underutilized aspect of your budget as well.

Your purchasing department is constantly on the lookout for ways to reduce the costs of supplies and materials. They analyze where the dollars are going and check out alternative supplies, or how changing the specs might reduce your supply costs. The accountants scrutinize the travel dollars making recommendations on airlines, hotels, and rental cars. And your Real Estate department is not afraid to renegotiate a lease when there is a downturn, knowing that your landlord would rather rent to you at a lesser price than have the facility go empty.

But who is scrutinizing your people to make sure that you get the very best out of them? Who is making recommendations on how to improve their performance, increase their productivity, and maximize their value to the company?

Too often that answer is “the first line manager.” The same manager that is worried about managing the budget, researching the new product requirements, taking calls from angry customers, and attending 15 hours of meetings each week. And let’s not forget that this same manager has never been trained on how to truly develop people.

In short, the biggest and most expensive part of your company’s budget is routinely neglected or mismanaged by well intentioned, but undertrained managers. Is it any wonder that your productivity is down?

Let’s go back to this “would be” client. In our discussions it was crystal clear that he viewed his employees as a cost of doing business and not as something that contributed to the company. He wanted to “fix” his employees when they really weren’t the problem. After all, there really aren’t that many bad teams out there. But there are a lot of bad leaders.

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/