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

The 5 Most Common Executive Blind Spots

Every human being has blind spots, things that others see about them that they don’t see about themselves. Sometimes the blind spots are minor and, once identified, can be easily corrected. Others are more serious and may not even be recognized by the executive when they are pointed out to them. In these extreme cases, the executive may not realize the harm that their behaviors may cause, and they may even look at these behaviors as strengths.

Is your performance suffering from one of these blind spots?

1. Failing to clearly, concisely, and regularly preach the Vision and Mission of the company to ALL of the employees.

Too many top executives create a Vision and Mission, send out a company wide email proclaiming it, and then assume that all of the employees know, understand, and have bought into them. Any employee will tell you that actions speak louder than words, but actions combined with words are needed to reinforce your Vision and Mission. Communicate with the entire organization readily and don’t forget to show your employees how your latest actions are consistent with the Vision and Mission.

2. Undervaluing the concept of diversity in your inner circle.

We’re not talking here about ethnic or religious diversity (although those concepts may well play a role in the issue), but rather diversity of thought that allows new ideas to surface and be heard. Too often, executives want people who think the way they do. And, while it’s important that your inner circle share your core values, a lack of diverse ideas leads to a lack of creativity in your organization.

3. Viewing conflict as bad – believing that harmony results in greater productivity.

Conflict has a bad reputation in the workplace, but conflict plays an important role in creating explosive growth. While personal agendas and personal conflict may drag down your efforts, honest conflict involves people who are willing and able to present differing perspectives and debate those ideas knowing that there is a willingness to hear different views. A lack of conflict also represents a lack of trust in an organization, where no one is willing to express unpopular views.

4. Treating everyone the same in the name of equality.

If we accept the premise that all people are different, then we must also accept that all people want and need to be treated differently. Too often, we confuse the concept of equality with fairness. You need to recognize that people have different motivations, desires, and fears. Treat everyone fairly and with respect, but don’t make the mistake of trying to treat everyone equally.

5. Not creating the next generation of leaders in your organization.

An organization is only as strong as its people, and your leadership team is responsible for ensuring that you have strong people at every level. None the less, it’s your responsibility to create an environment that identifies the next generation of leaders and encourages their growth so that your leadership team remains strong. And remember, growing your people is as important in bad times as it is in good.


Did you recognize yourself in any of these 5 blind spots? More importantly, would your inner circle say that you possess any of these blind spots? If you don’t know what your own blind spots are, it might be time to bring in an expert to help you identify and manage them.


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

The Fallacy of Performance Appraisals: Birds Gotta Swim and Fish Gotta Sing!

During a recent radio interview I was asked about the tendency in the business world to focus on employees’ weaknesses rather than their strengths. This, of course, led to a discussion about Performance Appraisals and what their real purpose is. Most major companies today provide their employees with an annual review of their performance through a formal “Performance Review” process. This process generally involves a manager completing a highly detailed and often subjective document about each employee’s performance and display of “skills” that supposedly relate to their jobs. These forms are quite generic and the managers often receive little, if any, training as to how these reviews will actually enhance employees’ skills. The “Performance Review” is then based off of this form and, often, consists of a short discussion on what an employee has done well followed by a lengthy and well documented review of “opportunity areas” or “areas of potential development” for the employees.

The Performance Appraisal process is certainly a well intentioned one that often seems to fall short of its intended mark. Instead of helping employees grow and prosper in an organization, they often sidetrack employees from making great progress by focusing on perceived weaknesses and ignoring the employee’s strengths. This leads to an intense focus on an area where little progress can be made and ignores the employee’s greatest area of potential growth.

In this discussion I began to think of that old adage “Birds gotta sing and fish gotta swim”. I started to wonder what would happen if the animal kingdom performed Performance Appraisals the way the business world did. Picture the lion, the king of the jungle calling in the Nightingale for its annual performance appraisal.

“Overall you’ve had a pretty good year, Ms. Nightingale. Your songs are well known and appreciated by a vast audience. But, if you want to get ahead in the animal kingdom we’re going to need to spend some time on some of your other skills. For example, your hunting consists of a few small bugs and some worms. You need to think bigger. Over the next year, focus on taking down a monkey or two. That should help build your strength as a hunter and position you for future growth. Oh, and I’ve assigned the Sea Bass to help you with your aquatic skills. Learning to swim should really round you out.”

Does that sound a little silly to you? It might. But in reality, it is no sillier than taking a good accountant with no desire for leadership and assigning them the lead on some inter-departmental task force with the idea of developing their untapped skills. It’s one thing if the accountant has a desire to move up the chain and wants to stretch in new directions. It’s quite another thing if they don’t.

I once worked for an executive who was absolutely brilliant. He was a visionary with a creative mind and that rare ability to take widely disparate topics and find how they might mesh together.

But he couldn’t spell.

He couldn’t spell to save his life.

Fortunately, he was older and missed most of our well-intended but highly ineffective process of focusing on people’s weaknesses. Otherwise, I fear that his brilliance might have been overlooked and his weakness in spelling might have sidetracked his entire career.

Birds don’t have to swim to be the best bird possible. Nor do fish have to learn to sing. Before you sit down for your next set of Performance Appraisals identify whatever it is that your employees do well and figure out how to build those skills and make them more beneficial to the 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

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/

 

A Culture of "Learn and Leave"

“I feel like I’m running some kind of private tutoring company here. But I really don’t have any choice,” she said. “I hire someone, train them, and then as soon as they get productive, they leave and go somewhere else. It’s really a problem, but I don’t see any way around it.”
 
Needless to say, this client was not really running a private tutoring company, but she was running a small company that worked with a lot of big utility companies. And it seems that experience in working with utility companies is a pretty hot commodity in the marketplace. So the client would hire someone to get the work done, train them on how to do the work and deal with the utilities effectively, and the next thing she knew, they would be out the door to a competitor or to another company that had similar issues and challenges.
 
Her real challenge was that she was a small company that couldn’t afford to pay very much, and she really didn’t want to grow the company into something bigger that could afford to pay more. She liked being small with a handful of employees, but the turnover was making her life miserable. At times, she felt like her biggest contribution to society was in training people to go work somewhere else.
 
“I’d love to be able to invest in my employees, to watch them grow and learn new things. Maybe we could even get more efficient and improve our processes. But every time I get a good employee who excels at this job, they get a better offer from somewhere else and I’m back out there hiring again."
 
We talked at great length about the type of people she tended to hire (entry level) and the type of training and documentation that the new employees were given. In truth, she had created a very efficient system for training new people with clear instructions, screen shots from the websites they needed to work with, and even decision trees to help them maneuver through the chaos utility companies often create. It was all very impressive.
 
“Why do you think they leave?” was my question.
 
“Oh, they don’t just leave,” was her response. “They get hired away. I’m being targeted by these other companies who steal my employees.”
 
As a small company, she was not doing formal exit reviews when people left. All she knew for sure was where they were going. And they weren’t just going to one or two companies. There were a half dozen or so big companies that her ex-employees routinely ended up working for.
 
A little research unveiled the real reason behind her constant turnover. And no, she wasn’t being targeted by these big companies. Rather, she was being targeted by her employees. As a small company, she couldn’t afford to pay her people very much, but the skills she was teaching them were very valuable on the open market. And discussions about “who went where” after working for her were quite common and open in the office. Without realizing it, she had actually created a culture of “Learn and Leave,” where new employees quickly realized that the best thing this job had to offer them was a ticket to a better paying job. As soon as new employees realized the opportunities that were in front of them, they worked hard to soak up as much information as possible and then applied at their target companies for increased pay and benefits.
 
What’s the answer for this poor business owner?
 
The reality is that even slowing down the office gossip about the great jobs available outside of her company wasn’t going to eliminate her turnover problem. Eventually, she was going to face one of two choices – either grow her company to the point that she could compete salary-wise with these other companies or face the constant turnover that her “training organization” was creating.
 
After much thought, she decided to embrace the “Learn and Leave” culture that she had inadvertently created. She felt better knowing that she wasn’t being targeted by these companies and actually used the concept of future prospects as a way to hire even more talented 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/

The Case for Ongoing Personal Development

When we are young, we are a sponge for knowledge. We want to learn anything and everything. As children, we see the “big kids” around us playing ball, and we want to learn how. A sibling is reading a story out loud and it’s a skill we want for ourselves. A little girl goes to a dance recital and immediately wants to start taking ballet lessons.

At some point in time, perhaps when our thirst for knowledge is replaced by a structured learning environment, we lose that overwhelming desire for knowledge of any kind and find it replaced by much more discerning desires. We no longer want to know everything. In fact, many of us try and wall ourselves off from knowledge that, while useful, we see no need for. At this point in time, you are probably thinking about your teenagers. For many, High School represents a time of survival rather than real learning. We believe that we know everything and just focus on getting through each day. The point of High School appears to be about learning to take tests to prepare us for that next level - college.

For most of us college is again a time for learning. The style of teaching changes, as does our style of learning. We control our schedule of classes to an extent we never considered possible before and we find ourselves drawn to certain subjects that may appear to be the path for a future career. College is also a time for great personal growth as we learn about living life on our own, managing our personal finances, etc. College may or may not be followed by an advanced degree, depending upon our needs and desires. With our college diploma or MBA firmly in our hands we step into the business world, assured of instant success.

Or are we?

For the second time in our life, we believe that we know everything. Oh sure, it may take us a few months to get used to our new environment, but that’s just temporary. Before long we have been promoted, advanced into the world of management and conquered the business world!

Unfortunately, there is so much that we have not yet learned about business, or more importantly, about people. What college can never prepare us for is the complexity of human beings, the challenges of dealing with co-workers, and how to deal with the politics of the workplace. Working through the complex business scenarios presented to us in our class work is a breeze compared to dealing with the egos, political agendas, and hidden alliances in the office.

It’s a little bit like learning the theory of how to fly an airplane and then sitting in the cockpit and actually trying to do it. We know how things are supposed to work. But how they work in real life is often very different than we learned in our text books. On the one hand, it’s the same stuff. On the other hand, being at the controls brings in whole new levels of complications that you could only imagine while studying the theories of flight.

How does this tie back into personal development?

While we are young and adapting to our jobs, we find these human issues all around us and we learn to deal with them. But as we rise through the ranks, the issues become more complex, more subtle, and more challenging. What worked well for us as an individual contributor, does not work well when we achieve the level of Manager. What worked well for us as a Manager is not nearly as effective when we achieve the level of Sr. Manager. And the techniques we mastered at these levels are woefully inadequate for the challenges of being a Director, a Vice President, or a C-level executive. We must continue to grow our skills, specifically our people skills, as we progress through the ranks. Those who do adapt and grow find that success follows them. Those who fail to change, fail to learn, and fail to grow find that they quickly top out.

What are you doing to ensure your ongoing personal development?

And equally as important, what are you doing to ensure the ongoing personal development of your key team members? Without their continued growth, your own career may well be short-circuited.

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/

Lessons Learned – Lessons Forgotten

A few years ago I worked with a client who was looking for more from his team. They weren’t bad he had said, but they weren’t performing at the level he would have liked them to. I did a quick analysis of his team and came back with 4 factors for us to work on together.

1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles

He clearly had a vision for his organization and how it fit into the overall company vision, but his employees were not aware of that vision and, therefore, could not buy into it. He thought the vision was clear, but as is often the case, it was clear only to him. Once we spent some time clarifying his vision and communicating it to his team, there was immediate improvement. Of course, having a clear vision that the team all bought into made it relatively easy to work with the team members and define their specific roles and responsibilities. While they all had their roles established before we started working together, those roles were fluid and were based on what they thought the goal was, rather than the actual goal. Once the roles were identified, we put the measurements in place to ensure that things were progressing and, last but not least, we made sure that we had a good match between the talent on the team and the jobs that needed to be done. It took us a few months to work through all of the details, but it was time well spent. Productivity increased, morale improved, and he began to feel good about his team again.

Flash forward about 3 years and I received a call from this client, again looking for my assistance. He had been promoted and was in a new role. As is often the case with any new boss, he wanted to make some changes in his organization. His vision was somewhat different from his predecessor and he was having challenges bringing it all together. He’d been with his new team for a few months and it wasn’t coming together as quickly as he would have liked.

I spent some time with his team and then sat down with him to discuss the plan for moving forward. I told him it was a 4 step plan:

1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles

It only took a few minutes of discussion for him to realize that these were the exact same 4 items we had worked on together a few years earlier. These were all things that he knew were important, but that he had not taken into account in his new organization.

These were lessons that he had once learned, but somehow forgotten.

And the truth is that this happens to all of us. We learn lessons over time, but somehow forget the things that we learned. And we make the same mistakes all over again. We hire someone really smart and learn a lesson about the value of surrounding ourselves with talent, but then, for our next hire, we look for skills and forget about talent.

We spend the time to plan our project out and it turns into a major success, but then we create the plan for our next project on the back of a napkin. Or worse, the plan is only created in our minds.

We provide someone with honest feedback, presented in a way which shows that we understand them and that we want to help them succeed, and we watch them blossom. Then we turn around and give the next person feedback that hurts their feelings and creates a low sense of self-esteem. And, we watch this person fall apart in front of us.

We all learn lessons in life and yet, somehow, we all forget the lessons we’ve learned and we make the same mistakes all over again. We do it as children, we do it as young adults, and we do it as seasoned professionals. Over time, existing ideas are replaced with newer ideas, and new thoughts replace old ones. And this happens even if the old thoughts are good thoughts, relevant thoughts, important thoughts.

How do you ensure that you’re not repeating your past mistakes?

How do keep those lessons that you’ve learned fresh in your mind?

How do you continue to grow as a person and as a leader?

Often this journey is not one that we take on our own but, rather, with a trusted advisor, mentor, or coach. Having someone to assist you is one of the surest ways to ensure your own success.

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/

The Value of Feedback

It’s what you learn after you know it all, that counts, - John Wooden (1910 - 2010)


Most people would agree that performance feedback is an important part of the development of any individual. And while I’m not a fan of the traditional Performance Appraisal process, I’m a huge fan of ongoing, honest, growth-oriented feedback. It’s a simple fact that people improve faster with feedback than without feedback. An honest outside perspective of your performance can go a long way in identifying areas of development and improving one’s performance.

Managers and executives should routinely provide feedback to those around them as a way to further serve both the individual and the organization. As an executive, keeping my thoughts to myself on performance helps neither the individual involved, nor the organization. In fact, I would argue that failure to provide adequate constructive feedback does a grave disservice to all involved. After all, how can an individual or an organization develop without it?

Having said that, it leads to a further question that must be answered: as an executive, where do you go to get honest feedback on your performance?

Just because someone has reached the executive ranks should not imply that they are somehow perfect, without flaw or weakness, and, therefore, no longer in need of honest feedback. In fact, the exact opposite may well be true. While we received a lot of feedback earlier in our career, the nature of our jobs as executives demands that we receive more feedback than ever, while the political nature of the beast actually leads to less feedback.

Think about it. Early in our career we had a variety of bosses, and an even larger variety of peers, who were willing and even anxious to provide us with feedback. But as we progressed up the management chain, we suddenly find ourselves with a smaller variety of bosses and certainly many less peers who are willing and able to assist us in our development.

Let’s use the analogy of a golfer.

As an amateur golfer I might take some golf lessons as a way to improve my game. The instructor provides me with feedback on my swing and approach to the game. As I play more I may watch players who are better than I am to see what I can learn from them. Some, seeing promise in my swing, may even play the role of a de-facto coach to help me continue to improve. With my eye on turning pro, I may invest in a quality personal coach to further my development. By now, my major swing flaws have been identified and fixed, but there are still many subtle aspects of the game that I need to perfect to truly master the game. Finally, I turn pro and find myself winning championships!

Truly I have mastered the game.

Except that I haven’t, have I. Ask anyone who watches professional golf and they will tell you that great players, professional players, occasionally fall into bad habits, make mistakes, or forget key aspects of their game. Even the best professional golfers find that they need someone to give them an outside perspective of their game, view their stroke with a set of unbiased eyes, and make them aware of their blind spots. Without an unbiased, honest feedback mechanism even the best golfers will lose their way.

The same is true for executives. While we may have “taken the lessons” of leadership, we sometimes fall into bad habits and forget the very things that made us great. And the higher we get in our organization, the more difficult it becomes to get the feedback that we all so desperately need.

Where do you go for feedback? Who is it that helps you maintain your swing and helps you be the best executive that you can be?

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/