Your Life Bank Account

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each  morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved  perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. 

His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After  many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled  sweetly when told his room was ready. 

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description  of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.  "I love it", he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just  been presented with a new puppy. 

Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait. 

“That doesn't have anything to do with it,” he replied. 

“Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. 

Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is  arranged ... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.  'It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up.. I have a choice;  I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the  parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful  for the ones that do. 

“Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day  and all the happy memories I've stored away.. Just for this time in my life. 

“Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in. 

"So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank  account of memories!”

We’re all still depositing. 

Remember the five simple rules to be happy: 

1. Free your heart from hatred. 

2. Free your mind from worries. 

3. Live simply. 

4. Give more. 

5. Expect less. 

Getting Ready for the Dance!

Workplace learning is becoming increasingly informal and more social, with the integration of Social Media tools. All this is changing the traditional classroom, event-based training approach to one of more user control.

To keep pace (or set the pace!) training professionals must become facilitators of a new learning process by integrating social media into their training activities. For example, Learning 2.0 means more collaboration, learner-to-learner connections, and the ability to contribute to a vast body of organizational knowledge so that workers can easily access 'learning in real time' and become more effective.

"Getting Ready for the Dance" means preparing now for new models of workplace learning. In their book, The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop and Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today, Jeanne C. Mesiter and Karie Willyerd wrote:

"Thriving in the 2020 workplace will require organizations to understand the various needs, expectations and values of all the generations. Companies will need to start making some fundamental changes in how they design jobs, careers, learning programs and even benefits."

Join Vital Learning for our next webinar, "Learning Becomes Social: Getting Ready for the Dance with Vital Online 2.0" on Thursday, September 15 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time (1:00 p.m. Central, 12:00 p.m. Mountain, and 11:00 a.m. Pacific)

Registration Link

Read the entire article

How Could This Be Handled? #3 Resolving Team Conflicts

This edition's Leadership Problem: Resolving Conflicts within the Team

How many types of conflict can a team leader have to deal with among team members?! At least as many as there are people on the team...and more!

Conflict can become a daily happening without warning, disputes flaring up unexpectedly and over things that will surprise you. Very often the conflicts seem trivial, based on nothing! But of course, they surface from somewhere don't they?

Maybe it's been a long-simmering-below-the-radar dispute between two team members, perhaps someone came into work that day with lingering issues on the home front, someone new has joined the group or assignments have altered - pick any topic, any situation and it has the potential to cause disruption among team members!

Read the entire article

How Could This Be Handled? Issue #2: Motivating Team Members

Sometimes it seems impossible to reach certain team members – you may even wonder why they get up to come to this job each day because they seem so uninterested and removed.

But…they work here and you have to unlock the door that gets them turned on about working here!

Volumes have been written on this topic, yet the bottom line always comes back to “you can’t motivate others, they’re motivated by their own desires”.
 

If that’s the case, what are you, the team leader, supposed to do to light the fire in some team members?

Well, you CAN - and as an effective leader, you MUST - address the situation!

Read more here…

How Could This Be Handled? Issue #1: Burned-out Team Members

How Could This Be Handled? #1

This is the first issue in a series of Leadership Dilemmas.

Today’s quandary is about dissatisfied and burned-out team members:

“Your team members are working hard, but you're seeing signs of frustration and discontent. As you've talked to team members one-on-one the theme is best summed up as "I'm tired, I'm burned out and I just feel stuck.’”

Read the entire article here

The Age-Old Question: What is Great Leadership?

I’m reading an engrossing book on leadership: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders by Rajeev Peshawaria – in the intro he poses the question: “Of all the bosses you’ve had in your career, how many would you call truly great leaders? For the purpose of this question, a great leader is someone who inspired you to show up every morning and do your best possible work, someone who made you believe in yourself, someone who genuinely cared about your success, and someone whom you wanted to follow willingly.”

 

Peshawaria’s comments following  this question are sadly revealing about the lack of great leadership, but his book goes on to outline some outstanding leadership practices.

 

I also like his statement: “Effective leaders take it upon themselves to dig deep and find solutions to the most pressing problems of their times. They feel deeply about the inadequacies of current reality and decide to do something about it. They do not wait to be appointed to important positions before doing so. It is their deep desire to change the status quo than makes them leaders.”

 

Well said! Anyone with some work history knows that leadership isn’t about titles and positions, but about influencing others.  His core principles of leadership are explored at length in the book and I suppose I like it because it meshes with my beliefs about leadership. He begins with how important it is to clearly define your purpose and values.

 
Coincidently, I’ve been following an interesting discussion on LinkedIn where someone posed this question: “If there were one 'master problem' that, if solved, would enable leaders to really breakthrough to new levels of sustainable business and prosperity - what do you think it is?” It's interesting how many responses are tied to crating a culture where values are continue to grapple with a very old question: “What is great leadership?”

Give the book a try.

Circle versus Graphs?

If you use DiSC Profiles, which is easier to remember, the graph or the circle version? People are finding the circle has more personal meaning and application – learn more…


Read the next installment in the Everything DiSC Blog: http://blog.everythingdisc.com/527/disc-circle-disc-classic-graph-memorable/#more-527

Leaders as Teachers

So often leaders forget – or overlook – their role as teachers, but teaching is a BIG part of successful leadership. Ken Blanchard’s current newsletter has  great article on the topic  - it begins with:

"A lot of leaders are disappointed these days. They work hard to create clear messages to their people but often, when they follow up at the end of the month, they find that little has changed. It’s a pattern that Vicki Halsey, Vice President of Applied Learning at The Ken Blanchard Companies, has seen many times.

"It’s because leaders confuse telling with teaching," she explains. "If leaders want people to develop new behaviors, they have to become better teachers of what to do and how to do it."

Most leaders are trained in how to succeed in business. They know how to create strategic initiatives, allocate resources, and implement plans. But few leaders have been trained to teach..." Read the entire article here

...A Fire To Be Kindled"

We completed watching the mini series From the Earth to the Moon last night and one of the flight directors offered this quote from Plutarch: “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” He was explaining why the later Apollo missions had to be so much more than just getting to the moon, they had to have scientific purpose, a search for the origins of our own planet and I was very taken with the quote – had never heard it before. But you can Google it easily enough!

In this particular episode, it was delightful to watch the astronauts learning geology, asking new questions, developing an awareness of the landscape around them; it was equal delightful to watch the geology professor break through their minds, to light the fire – and it paid off in what the astronauts brought back from the moon.

 “…a fire to be kindled” -  I suppose that’s why our ALD mantra is You Never Stop Learning – we hopeto  kindle fires, not just fill vessels.

Don't Be Fearful of Trying a New Behavior

Most of us know how uncomfortable it can be to try a new behavior – think of any sport where you’ve developed habits, but it turns out they’re the wrong habits to really good at the swing or the return.

It’s the same for any new behavior we attempt to put in place – change is tough! Whether it’s:
• quit smoking
• rising earlier each day
• going to gym steadily
• giving feedback to your team members more regularly
• listening with intent to hear
• being more patient with others

– wow! The list can go on and on, can’t it?

To help make the transition, listen to my colleague, Meredith Bell’s video:

How to Go from Awkward to Automatic When Learning a New Behavior

You’ll appreciate the tips. I can also suggest that you sign up for the Golden Eggs Ezine where this kind of useful counsel is always provided – Golden Eggs arrives weekly, is free, yet worth so much more. Please register here and begin enjoying the golden nuggets.

Are Fortune Cookies for Real?!

I want to encourage you to learn more about ProStar Coach, the creative virtual gym for your personal and professional growth. This is leadership development at its very best!

Let me give you one example now of what's inside ProStar.

If you have explored ProStar Coach, you've discovered Fortunes Cookies, one of the creative learning-exercises within the system.

The touching story of how Fortune Cookies was created is one you’ll want to read - you will be moved!

When you read Denny Coates' blog, you'll find yourself reading for a long time! He's provacative and inspiring.

New Book! Why Leadership Isn't One Face to All

The 8 Dimensions of Leadership

by Jeffrey Sugerman, Mark Scullard and Emma Wilhelm

To be an effective leader you need to know your strengths—but that’s only part of the story. You also need a broad perspective on all the behaviors needed to be an effective leader. This book provides both.

Using the third-generation DiSC® online personality assessment — one of the most scientifically validated tools available — The 8 Dimensions of Leadership helps you identify your primary leadership dimension.

Whether you are a Pioneering, Energizing, Affirming, Inclusive, Humble, Deliberate, Resolute, or Commanding leader, the authors help you understand the psychological drivers, motivations, and “blind spots” characteristic of your style.

But no single style will take you all the way.

A Humble leader may have a hard time making tough decisions. A Commanding leader may run roughshod over potential allies. The authors detail the lessons all leaders can learn from each style, enabling you to craft a multidimensional approach to becoming the leader you aspire to be.

Click here to learn more

Step 6
of
Managing Performance

Provide Recognition & Reward

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
Aristotle

How well do you reinforce behaviors and actions through employee recognition and reward? Employees consistently rate this as a major “dissatisfier” about their jobs feeling over-looked and undervalued.

Do the right things with recognition and enjoy the results – you’ll be amazed at what a motivator sincere, genuine recognition can be - and I said “recognition”, not just “reward”.

To begin, take a look at your own practices based on the statements below – determine whether you’re

• Satisfied with your own performance or
• Not Satisfied with the effort you’re making here

Also decide the Importance of each practice to your success and to your team members’ success.

• I actively look for opportunities to provide recognition.
• I use a variety of "non-cash" approaches to give recognition.
• I practice the following effective recognition-giving techniques:
  - Recognize the steady day-in-day-out good performance of people, not
  only the exceptional top performers.
  - Deliver recognition and reward, when appropriate, in an open and honest
  way.
  - Develop awareness of what types of recognition are most meaningful to people.
  - Creatively individualize recognition where possible.
  - Use a personally comfortable style so acknowledgments of contributions
  feel sincere.
  - Recognize people as soon as possible after the achievement.
  - Specific as to the achievement being recognized.
  

Your team members want and need recognition. Think back to when you were personally recognized for something – how did it feel? Did it give you an extra spark of energy that said, “Someone really sees what I’m doing and they appreciate it?”

Without the genuine pat-on-the-back or its equivalent, team members may not feel valued or appreciated. Checks of Not Satisfied in the quick inventory above could lead to high turnover, team members doing only what is expected and low morale.

Recognizing and rewarding the behavior and performance that we desire in our organizations a sure way to initiate change. Team members will respond favorably, be more highly motivated, exceed job requirements and stay with the organization when they feel their efforts are recognized and rewarded.

Recognition and reward need not always be a check in a dollar amount to be effective! We do tend to associate reward with money, but that need not be the case. What does the person enjoy doing outside work? Tap into those interests and several outcomes can be realized:

• you learn more about the person
• the relationship strengthens
• trust begins to develop
• the word on you is that you care about people and results

Some simple ideas that aren't a check: get a magazine subscription, a dinner for the team member and guest, gift certificate to a favorite store, compensatory time off, sitting in with you in a higher level meeting (yes, that’s recognition for some people!), taking on a project they want to spearhead, a good word to others in the organization and to the team member, a personal note, a mention at a team meeting or just a quiet positive comment.

Team leaders who look for people who are "doing it right" and recognize that type of performance or behavior with a will create a positive work environment where people will feel valued and committed. And if you involve your team members in identifying ideas for providing recognition, you’ll be amazed at the range of suggestions!

Praising or expressing appreciation for employees on a regular basis can enhance employee engagement and be as effective as a cash award, according to a recent Forbes article.

Plus, it doesn't cost employers a thing.

The key, the author writes, is to express appreciation specifically as opposed to just saying something like, "Great job, Joe!"

You'd have to then wonder why more than three-fourths of employees in the United States received little or no recognition from their managers in 2009, as a recent study pointed out.

Is recognition part of the culture of your organization? Why or why not and what results are you seeing?

Here are some resources to help you Provide Recognition and Reward

ProStar Coach - the People Skills of Encouraging Ideas, Listening, Interacting with the Team and more will help you learn, practice and ingrain techniques for delivering recognition.

The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance by Elton & Gostick.

Another excellent resource for ideas on reward and recognition is the book 1001 Ways to Reward Employees by Bob Nelson.

That concludes the overview of the Managing Performance Process. Having assessed your own management practices, you may have found some areas where personal development would assist in creating a more productive, results-oriented environment.

In what areas do you excel and where do you need to improve organizational or individual practices to best serve your team members and to get best results?

Keep this in mind...This fundamental techniques in this process work in all organizations. People want to know what is expected, how they are performing and to be fairly evaluated and recognized.

A consistent process keeps the organization focused on (1) business results as well as the (2) growth and development of the organization's most important investment and asset, the people.

Be more aware of yourself -- look into your mirror - check your own practices and attributes. As a leader, be knowledgeable about what people expect and
how well you provide that leadership

.

Step 5
of
Managing Performance

Evaluate Performance

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
John Wooden

As you read the steps in this process, I know you recognize that it’s not a rigid, lockstep progression – you’ve always got to deal with the unexpected with your team members – they have personal and professional emergencies that must be handled – those may through you off your stride!

But what everyone is looking at is whether you are fair, unbiased, willing to balance personal and business demands. It all comes down to your process and recognition that you practice in a consistent, but fair manner.

It not’s about treating everyone the same – we’re none of us exactly the same anyway are we? It’s about being fair…and why you did such a thorough job of setting expectations – those give you the basis for making decisions and judgments about each team member as an individual.

Evaluation – once a year? Oh no. You’re making evals all year long and they may or may not come down to a performance appraisal, they may be quarterly or monthly summaries you provide; they may be on-the-fly evals, but they’re all based on those fair judgments you’ve be making as you observe preface, right?

Think about these recommendations:

Performance should be evaluated against the established expectations.

Guidelines for fairly evaluating include:

• Provide honest, objective evaluation of team member performance as measured against expectations.
• Substantiate evaluation with specific examples of behaviors and results - positive and negative.
• Separate the delivery of praise and criticism, supporting each with descriptive statements, not impressions or hearsay.
• Include no surprise information. Positive or negative news should be discussed with the team member prior to putting it in an evaluative format.
  
  Now take a look at your own practices based on the statements below – determine whether you’re
  

Satisfied with your own performance or
Not Satisfied with the effort you’re making here

Also decide the Importance of each practice to your success and to your team members’ success.

• I compare individual results against mutually agreed-upon established expectations.
• I do not compare one individual against another - I hold each accountable to his / her own established expectations.
• I do not allow one overwhelming event - positive or negative -- to influence my evaluation.
• I spring no surprises during an evaluation. The good or bad news has previously been discussed with the employee.
• I cite specific examples and observations in my evaluations.
• I am honest in my evaluations.
• I comment on the positives as well as the negatives.
• I do not allow my own moods, stylistic differences and personal feelings to impact my ability to evaluate fairly
  
  

In your own survey above, items checked as Not Satisfied in this step could lead to many problems organizationally: without the foundation of setting expectations, observation of the work and the behavior, providing timely feedback and effectively coaching people, the evaluation step is generally ineffective.

Most studies conducted on people who have quit their jobs reveal a fairly common thread. People generally do not leave their jobs because of pay; they leave their jobs because of how they are treated and whether they feel valued. They leave their boss!

Think about the environment created within your organization by the existing performance management practices. Are people treated well and do they feel valued? Is your process fair and consistent for all?

If I asked your team members, would THEY say you were fair and consistent? That’s the ultimate test.

Remember, this process doesn’t mean treating everyone the SAME, but having a simple set of behaiors that allow you to provide the guidance and support for each team member according to the expectations you two have negotiated.

That fairness also allows you to deal with totally unexpected emergencies that occur for everyone – you avoid the charges of favoritism and people know they can depend on you to balance the business demands with the personal demands each of us must face.

Speaking Up

How Do You Know if Your Open Door Policy is Actually Working?

The Speaking Up study identifies many situations in which people have information that would benefit the company if this knowledge or perspective could be incorporated into decision making.

Researched and written by colleague, Lunell Haught, this study is relevant to ALD and our clients because it discusses how effectively feedback is received - one of our favorite topics!

We usually think of feedback in terms of "giving" it, but how ready are many organizations to actually have feedback go UP the organization; information that is often necessary to the real effectiveness of managers and the organization itself.

Read the study here

Coaching Performance - How Are You Doing?

Step 4
of
Managing Performance

Coach Performance

The man who believes he can do anything is probably right,
and so is the man who believes he can't.

Coach the People You Care About - a free download (check the box for Two Free EBooks)


Many of us never expected to be teachers when we took over as a team leader, but that’s just what we became!

Our team members look to us for guidance, answers and solutions – but the smartest teachers know that the learning comes from fostering self-discovery. That means NOT TELLING everything we need people to learn, but having a conversation that includes questions and developing solutions – it’s the most effective way to coach in the work environment.

As a coach you’re really holding up a mirror to people to help them see that many answers to their issues reside within themselves. Effective coaching techniques minimize the telling of how something should be done and maximize the questioning -- helping someone see that he / she can do something.

Asking open-ended, thought provoking questions to stimulate awareness moves the "coachee" from receiving data and information from the coach to development of knowledge, which escalates to understanding and finally becomes wisdom about a situation or problem.

What one discovers through an effective questioning process leaves a greater impression and is longer-lasting than what the coach "tells" from his/her own base of knowledge.

So many great resources are available on coaching – it’s one of the critical competencies any team leader can master – I’ll offer several resources below for you to access.


Now take a look at your own practices based on the statements below – determine whether you’re

• Satisfied with your own performance or
• Not Satisfied with the effort you’re making here

Also decide the Importance of each practice to your success and to your team members’ success.

• I coach others in the development of their skills.


• I take advantage of “coaching moments”.


• I require learning and development.


• I know when to supervise and coach people and when to leave them on their own.


• I stimulate others to make changes and improvements.


• I provide time for people development needs.


• I provide challenging assignments to facilitate individual development.


• I review developmental plans regularly.


• I listen effectively - I really hear what is said.
  
  

Coaching is a critical skill for managers to build effective and motivated employees. If you have questions identified as Not Satisfied, there might be one or a combination of skills that could be improved. The technique that managers use in coaching can be effective or ineffective in influencing performance improvement.

Many managers tell the employee what to do rather than to engage the employee in problem solving to gain their ownership and commitment to agree upon solutions for changed behavior or improved performance – find a better way:

Here are resources that can improve your ability to Coach Performance

Developing and Coaching Others (online or classroom course)

Coaching - An Online Course

Coaching Job Skills (online or classroom course)

Personal Listening Profile - When the coach really hears what people are saying in response to those questions, the coach can stimulate learning and reaching greater depths of understanding. Our most-used, least-taught communication skill - listening - is an attribute people genuinely appreciate. Improve your own listening skills - really hearing what people are saying - by recognizing how you hear. Assess your own approach to listening with the Personal Listening Profile.

Time Mastery Profile - Help people identify and understand their time-management strengths and growth areas.
• Understand the roots of undesirable habits
• Recognize the most important liabilities in work habits
• Understand how your time is currently spent and misspent
• Develop a new perspective for organizing thoughts about time management

Coaching may highlight interpersonal differences within the organization. Those differences and difficulties may stem from deeper issues than a mere conflict in personality style. The diverse workforce requires that every employee be a contributor to a productive work environment - learn how to achieve that effect...

We recommend the:

Everything DiSC Management Profile - to maximize your effectiveness with team members

Everything DiSC Management - focuses on five vital areas

1. Your DiSC Management Style


2. Directing and Delegating


3. Motivation


4. Developing Others


5. Working with Your Manager
   
   Participants learn how to read the styles of the people they manage. The result is managers who adapt their styles to manage with better results - they become productive coaches.

Remember...it's about the effectiveness of relationships you create.

Providing Feedback - How Are You Doing?

Step 3 of Managing Performance
Provide Feedback



Feedback is the breakfast of champions
Ken Blanchard



Do you remember receiving positive feedback from someone you respected? How did it make you feel? Proud? Happy to be recognized? Valued? Satisfied about your work?

There are so many positive reactions to receiving feedback – most team members appreciate ANY kind of feedback – positive is good, negative is usually accepted as helpful and that’s what they really want: “Tell me how I can do better”.

But you have to be in a position to provide feedback, don’t you? As a leader, you must be able to provide people with the useful, constructive information they can put to work. So you need to give them something to work with.

I like the simple formula of Situation + Behavior = Impact. It’s direct, to the point, deals with the facts – just the facts.

When you’re talking with a team member, describe the situation you observed, describe the behavior you observed and conclude with the impact created.

A simple example: “Jane, this morning in the client meeting (that’s the situation), you fumbled for the answers to two questions (that’s the behavior) that you should have known; as a result, (here’s the impact) the client may now view us as unprepared and not competent to handle this project.”

Now where does the conversation go from here? No need for Jane to be defensive – you stated the facts about being unprepared for two questions that should have anticipated. She can only agree with you.

Your tone is not punitive, you’re merely talking with Jane. But now, you’re both in a position to discuss how to rectify the situation and how to keep it from being repeated.

This is the necessary win-win: Jane won’t let happen again, she’s in agreement with your feedback and together you can create a plan of action to deal with the client in this instance AND prepare for how you’ll both want to handle client meetings in the future.

Jane walks away knowing she’s learned something and you have provided the feedback and guidance a leader should be able to give.

I like this comment and how it relates to feedback:
Progress always involves risk;
you can't steal second base and keep your foot on first.
Frederick Wilcox

Too many leaders and managers avoid the straightforward feedback any team member deserves – why? Are they afraid to confront someone, to take that risk, are they timid about speaking of what’s happened, do they think it’ll fix itself next time and nothing needs to be said? “You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.”

Any of these are poor excuses for a leader to avoid providing feedback. People want it, they need it and their performance (and yours!) can depend on it!

Give feedback – make it positive to reinforce something that went well – you’d like to see that happen again! Make it negative (constructive) when something needs to be corrected.

Here are considerations in providing feedback that you will want to keep in mind:


• Be descriptive - specific and observable -- rather than inferential which is interpreting what has happened

• Describe behavior and impact as well as the consequences of the observed behavior

• A suggestion of what might be preferred

• Timing and circumstances (make it a private conversation – NEVER PUBLIC – and determine if the person is mentally ready to receive your comments (is there horrendous personal ordeal that may make it better for you to talk at another time?)

• Provide the feedback as soon after the event as possible

Remember: Situation + Behavior + Impact

Now take a look at your own practices based on the statements below – determine whether you’re

Satisfied with your own performance or
Not Satisfied with the effort you’re making here
Also decide the Importance of each practice to your success and to your team members’ success.

• I let people know when results are not up to expectations.
• I accurately define strengths and developmental needs in others.
• I encourage personal and professional growth.
• I give timely, specific and constructive feedback.
• I stimulate others to make changes and improvements.
• I let people know when they are performing well.
• I create an atmosphere of trust with open and honest conversation.
  
  Here are some resources that can help you Provide Feedback; these suggestions include tools you may recommend to someone when you are providing feedback

Providing Performance Feedback (online or classroom course)

Delegating (online or classroom course)

Effective Discipline (online or classroom course)

Supporting Change (online or classroom course)

Solving Workplace Problems (classroom course)

Leading Successful Projects (classroom course)

Motivating Team Members (online or classroom course)

How about Receiving Feedback!?!?

Do YOU know what team members think about you and your practices? Wouldn’t it be MOST useful to you to understand their perceptions as well as that of YOUR boss as compared to your own outlook on you?

Two resources are exceptionally outstanding for this purpose:

1. A highly effective technique that provides employees with a reflection of their performance is 360-degree feedback - collect feedback from a full circle of co-workers and customers. Our preferred 360-feedback system, 20/20 Insight GOLD -- provides the basis for improving performance by being the mirror of how others see our performance.

2. Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders - three personalized strategies for improving leadership effectiveness.

So whether you're giving or receiving feedback, there are ways to do it right and ways to do it wrong. Make the most of your feedback opportunities.

Three Tips to Help Leaders Eliminate Workplace Drama

Go to Talent Magazine for some very practical advice from Marlene Chism:

Whether it's complaining, negative attitudes or stress-related illnesses, workplace drama hampers productivity and personal effectiveness.

According to research firm Gallup, negativity costs the U.S. economy more than $3 billion a year in lost productivity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 90 percent of doctors' visits are stress-related and a top stressor is employee complaints.

To facilitate positive change, leaders must recognize the power of choosing consciously instead of reacting to circumstances. Here are three conscious changes a leader can make to get back in control and eliminate drama in the workplace:

Read the complete story here

Observe Performance - Do You Do This?

Step 2 of Managing Performance:
Observe Performance

Remember, you’re a team leader and your mantra really needs to become
Good results without a consistent process may just be good luck!

You’re working to develop a consistent and fundamental process for managing performance can yield...
• Improved business results
• Higher morale and satisfied employees
• Motivated employees
• Increased productivity
• Developing, growing employees
• More effective leaders

Everyday life is not as rigid as this process, but through the course of your management of team members, you want to be sure these six steps are practiced.

So, having Established Expectations, you’re ready to see what’s going on in the workplace. You may be able to physically observe, you may have to pick up on what you hear virtually, in meetings, in client visits and with other team members. But you are mentally observing all the time whether you know it or not – now you just need to become conscious of it and put your observations to work.


Be in the now, be present.
James Autry

Be aware of what is going on - observe the actions, activities, interactions and results of your employees - come out of the office and see for yourself. The best way to provide feedback is to give information based on factual observation.

Begin to assist employees in understanding their own performance by holding up a mirror they can look into -- a mirror that leads them to self-discovery and knowledge about themselves.

Take a look at your own practices based on the statements below – determine whether you’re

• Satisfied with your own performance or
• Not Satisfied with the effort you’re making here

Also decide the Importance of each practice to your success and to your team members’ success.


1. I look for opportunities to observe people so I can have an informed outlook on performance.
2. I ask questions and listen actively.
3. I test assumptions I may have developed.
4. I make note of observations soon after the fact to keep the details fresh in my mind.
5. I note direct information (observations) and indirect information (reports, work completed, feedback from others, meeting behaviors).
6. I make note of observations relating to job knowledge and job skills including those that pertain to interpersonal effectiveness


Resources that can help after you Observe Performance

Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
The Everything DiSC Workplace Profile makes us aware of different styles of behavior in the workplace. From DiSC we learn how people tend to behave most naturally, what their strongest characteristics tend to be, what their "weakness" in behavior might be, how they are best motivated, what characteristics add value to the workplace, how they complement a team environment and more. Understanding basic style differences can make our observations more comprehensive, can offer us, as managers, the language for discussing our observations with employees

ProStar Coach – your virtual gym

Resolving Conflict (online or classroom course)

Communicating Up (online or classroom course)

Managing Complaints (online or classroom course)

Improving Work Habits (online or classroom course)

We all commonly make errors while we're observing team members - you'll be surprised at the ease with which our judgments can be clouded! Then we base our feedback and evaluations on these error-based judgments. Check here for the list of common assessment errors.

Now it's time to give some feedback - if you've done a good job being aware of what's happening with team members, you'll be equipped to give helpful feedback. That's the next step.

Managing Performance - a Critical Work Process for Leaders & Managers

You’re the leader of a team – some people perform up to your standards, others don’t. How do you handle the performance shortfalls? How do you manage those who ARE meeting standards? Do they even KNOW what the standards are?

You really need a consistent & repeatable process that allows you to be on firm ground in the treatment of all employees & to fairly assess performance.

That’s why the basics of the critical leadership work process, Managing Performance matter so much. Though managers and leaders do so much more than is contained in this graphic, much of it will be without impact if these fundamentals are not effectively attended to on a fair and consistent basis.

Most managers/leaders we work with are chasing the current short-term objective, reaching for some quick results, being directed from above.

Yet the most successful leaders, the most highly-spoken of managers are those who have a firm grasp of these six basics. They do more, they’re strong personally, but they also handle the fundamentals. I've seen this in action and benefited from the practice myself.

All the considerable efforts we make toward delivering results, managing change, creating involved work environments, building effective teams, delivering top-notch service, urging innovation and creativity will be for naught without managing the individual performance levels of employees.

So what do you do, where do you start? Try this....

Step 1 of Managing Performance:
Establish Expectations

High achievement always takes place
in the framework of high expectation.
Jack & Gary Kinder

A best practice and the foundation of all performance discussions: Outline the skills, behaviors and performance levels for which people will be held accountable, discuss and develop these with your team members, gain their agreement and you have a basis for evaluating performance and for providing useful feedback.

In identifying expectations, leaders / managers set the tone for their organization. This is an opportunity to:

• Shape the environment: let team members know you see them as individuals, that their work has value to the organization - this also gives them some information about you - it humanizes you, the leader

• "Create a place" where you know people can thrive successfully and where team members know THEY can be successful.

AND…it's just imminently fair to let people know what is expected of them.

Establishing Expectations aligns work efforts for the year, gets all employees pulling in the direction desired.

Take a look at your own practices based on the statements below – determine whether you’re

• Satisfied with your own performance or
• Not Satisfied

Also decide the Importance of each practice to your success and to your team members’ success.


1. I clearly convey expectations for performance.
2. I reach a mutual agreement with each team member on his / her performance expectations.
3. Team members have a clear understanding of how their performance expectations support organizational goals.
4. I put top priority on getting results.
5. I establish high standards of performance for my team members.
6. I provide clear direction and define priorities for team members.
7. I reach agreements with others regarding expectations.
8. I gain commitment from others regarding expectations.
9. I have a well thought out plan for obtaining what I want to get out of my job.
10. I have clear goals for what I want to accomplish in my life.


If you've done a thorough job with Establishing Expectations, you're ready to look at and coach performance - you and your team members have agreed on expectations, now you'll observe what goes on, provide feedback against those expectations you've agreed to and coach performance.

Resources that can help you Establish Expectations

Develop Performance Goals and Standards (online or classroom course)

Essential Skills of Leadership (online or classroom course)

Essential Skills of Communication (online or classroom course)

Work Expectations Profile

Have you experienced a 360 degree feedback assessment? Done properly, this is one of the most informative resources a manager or leader can experience.

Of course, done improperly, the whole thing can be a disaster – we’ve heard stories of 360 surveys being the basis for performance reviews, harsh meetings and retribution – on both sides of the survey!

What’s the process really for? 360 degree feedback is FOR YOUR GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT. That’s not like your mother saying, “Take this medicine; it’ll taste terrible, but it will be good for you!” This really should be good for you!

Properly set up, the 360 survey process channels information to the leader that he/she NEEDS to be aware of – feedback that can make a difference to success or continued problems with relationships and results.

The 363 for Leaders® combines the best of 360’s with the simplicity and power of DiSC – if you’ve used DiSC, you already know how applicable it is to work life and improving relationships. So combine it with a 360 feedback process and you’ve got…

Feedback PLUS three strategies for improving leadership effectiveness.

CommentSmart is a unique feature of 363 for Leaders® – raters can give focused, balanced, constructive feedback that the leader can actually use! This process avoids the pitfalls of open-ended comments that can be unfocused and unhelpful.

You’ll see clear visuals and a conversational narrative style for interpreting and explaining the data, making the report easier to understand.

And finally, an answer to “Now what?” Very often, the leader is left to wonder what to do next after reading the survey results, but 363 for Leaders® answers that question by giving leaders their next steps with three things they can focus on right now – strategies to improve their leadership effectiveness that can put into action immediately.

Learn more here, download the brochure and discover for yourself the simplicity and value of a 360 survey to your leadership success.

Goal Setting – don’t give up on this topic yet!


For many of us the start of a new year initiates the need to renew ourselves by making fresh commitments or to refocus our actions – either refine the old goals or set new ones.

Goal setting has become equated in so many places with the SMART process (you know, goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely) and that is a great start. SMART is like Goal Setting 101 and if one has never defined a goal, applied a measure or set a deadline, this is terrific progress.

We’ve even got an online course that teaches a leader to effectively set goals and standards because they really are necessary to:
• Let a team member know what’s expected
• Assess performance through the year against standards
• Identify growth areas and necessary improvements
• Appraise full year performance if you write pa’s.


And if you work with team members to establish annual goals, if they participate in the process and sign on to accomplish those goals, you’ve made an excellent start. But it’s really only the beginning.

Increasingly, many of us find something lacking in SMART – I’ve actually read several articles this early in January that theorize there’s more to goal setting than SMART.

And I do so agree. It seems like we ought to be up to Goal Setting 201 in the business world by now. SMART is the basis for a clearly identified goal, but where’s the real motivation, the passion we need to OVER-ACHIEVE the goal? Isn’t that really what you’re looking for?

I’m thinking in terms of Advanced Goal Setting now and I call it DIVE™ - see what you think:


D – Difficult – we’re talking about a goal that’s not just realistic (R), but has stretch to it – that really challenges someone. The goal is not impossible to achieve, but after discussing with a team member how he/she may extend themselves, gaining agreement to the importance of the goal, why not add a degree of difficulty? People do rise to challenges.

I - I CARE - there is certainly no point in creating any goal if the team member is checked out of the job, has no commitment to the work. “I CARE” says this goal matters, it’s important and I understand how it fits in the overall scheme of business results here. My work and the achievement of my goals complement the larger organization’s achievement – that makes me valuable to the enterprise – I’m glad to be recognized for the work I do and the contributions I make.

V – Visionary – this is a characteristic we usually ascribe to leaders, but we also underrate team members’ abilities to see down the road. Helping a team member envision where the achievement of this goal could lead is opening doors he/she never imagined they might get through. I’ve used a great technique: use stickies to have team members post different thoughts in a central locale about how things will look once this goal is accomplished, what will be different, how will things work, what will it mean for our customers? This is a powerful motivator.

E – Extra Effort – If the goal has some stretch to it, extra effort will naturally be required. But because your team member can see the gain behind this goal, because he/she says “I CARE”, they’re willing to give that bit of extra – maybe it’s reading, maybe it’s taking an online course, maybe it’s tutoring someone else – you and the team member can think of many ways to reach the goal.

So DIVE™ sums up what I consider the next level of goal setting – and it’s worth diving (sorry!) in to the depths of goal setting – this is where it all begins with your team members, where you have the opportunity to set the stage for the year, to engage their ownership and buy-in to what needs to be done, to begin developing that all-important relationship that makes such a difference in everyday work life.

No need to rehash all the studies that say “people don’t quit companies, they quit their managers”. The managers who create those relationships, who involve team members in goal setting, who work with team members to achieve goals, always have the edge - and the most loyal team members.

Just DIVE™!!!

D = Difficult
I = I CARE
V = Visionary
E = Extra Effort