Today I’m expanding on yesterday’s post by asking the question…
Performance or Politics – Which is More Important to You?
I’m asking this question because of two reasons…
Let’s look into these two reasons. Continue reading ‘Performance or Politics – Which is More Important to You?’ »
Yes, it is the middle of the year, the beginning of July indicts we have made the middle of the calendar year. Are you making the half-time adjustments to your goals and annual plans?
Just like the best football teams in the country, making half-time adjustments is a key skill that makes great coaches – well, great! If a coach did not adjust to what was happening on the field of play during the halftime, then two things would happen.
Okay, so we are not talking about a football game in the middle of the year, however, we should be talking about your goals or your team’s goals (assuming you use a calendar year rather than a fiscal year.). Your personal goals are definitely on a calendar year – so it is time to review your progress.
Here is the process for reviewing your goals using a half-time adjustment review: Continue reading ‘Are You Making Half-Time Adjustments?’ »
Okay it is time for me to follow up on my promise on Tuesday. What is the best method to impact your personal results?
The answer can be found in you. Yes, that’s right, You hold the power to change your thoughts and therefore change your results and performance overnight.
Just take these two pills – er no – no drugs, no magic, no magic bullet, no cult, no voodoo, no eight years of therapy, no painful implants or anything like that.
Here is the three step method to improve your results and your performance – permanently. Continue reading ‘Changing Beliefs Can Impact Your Results’ »
In this day and age of fast paced gadgets and ADD marketing buzz, could it be that good old discipline really determines your level of success? Could Discipline be the real bottom-line for Success – period?
My believe is that discipline is the key determinant to mine and your level of success. There are several reasons that discipline is the master key to your success. Continue reading ‘Discipline Determines Your Success’ »
Yes, June is the official month for Effective Communication. So why dedicate a whole month to effective communication? Based upon my experiences I can vote for a yearly promotion for effective communication.
“Effective communication is all about delivering the same message you send to the receiver. Now that seems as simple as simple can be, yet, it appears to be the hardest exercise around.”
Lack of effective communication destroys productivity and in most cases performance drops because of a lack of understanding regarding outcomes. Communication is an essential skill set for everyone, not just leaders. Therefore, everyone is impacted by poor or ineffective communication.
There are numerous things you can do to improve the effectiveness of your communication. One method is to take a proven workshop devoted to helping people improve their communication with others. This is our number one workshop because every group or team in a company can benefit from improved communication skills.
People skill is ALL ABOUT effective communication. Knowing your style, easily recognizing the style of others and flexing your messages so they understand – the first time – and effective communication is known as having great People Skills.
To learn more about improving your communication skills go to the website dedicated to Effective Communication for Results or the speaker site – ECRguy – to learn more about doing something effective during the month of June. Two workshops are available during the month of June. And, a private session can be held for your team – from executives to sales to customer service to R&D to finance to everyone. Communication is the greatest skill a person can possess.
Several years ago I learned an important point about one of the major causes of higher productivity and job performance. It is very simple, yet, seemingly difficult for many to master. Here is the key: Listen. Yes, listen to your staff and employees when they talk. Even encourage they to talk and share their opinions about important issues.
Here the explanation: Research regarding direct relationships between job performance and employee job satisfaction was performed by a group of researchers. They found that employees who felt that they could present their ideas to management without any negative consequences were more motivated to perform well for the company. Further examination of this concept found that even if no action was taken on an employee’s suggestions. comments or ideas – it did not matter – job satisfaction was higher.
So, the more employees and staff feel they can share their opinions, ideas, comments or suggestions with their managers, the higher their job satisfaction ranking. And, the research showed that the higher job satisfaction was the only direct relation to higher job performance. Higher wages or salary, working conditions, or benefits – did not have a direct relationship to job satisfaction and job performance.
Therefore, as a leader or manager of an organization, you must find the time to listen to your employees. Their ideas, comments, suggestions and opinions matter – particularly to job performance. If you are looking for higher job performance with an emotional buy-in factor – then listen more. Seek out comments and ideas. You will be surprised by the quality of the information provided as well as the higher effort from your team.
How offer are you hiring people without truly understanding the REQUIREMENTS for SUCCESS of job? The most common tool used in the hiring process is the job description followed closely by the Behavioral Interview Question sheet. Yet, do both of these tools have a direct connection to the actual job position?
My experience assisting clients in the hiring and selection process shows a lack of direct connection between the tools and the job. How can this be? Simple. The job description is based upon activities and task to be done according to some formula used by human resources and a department manager. Usually, outcomes and specific performance traits needed in the job are overlooked. Even the behavioral interview questions are based upon some universal “good” or common value system for the organization that again misses the target of the specific traits needed for a job to perform at high levels.
So how can this function be improved? Let the job talk using a “Job Performance Benchmark.” This type of benchmark will identify the traits necessary for success and pinpoints the priorities needed for high levels of performance. It even provides a list of behavioral based questions to ask candidates relative to these performance based elements of the job.
How simple can that be? Continue reading ‘Let the Job Talk in the Hiring Process’ »
Most people cannot openly tell you what their natural strengths and weaknesses are regarding their personal performance. Sure they have some thoughts about themselves based upon certain assumptions and concepts – but do they truly know for certain?
Enter assessments! Good assessments can put objectivity into knowing what makes a person tick. Assessments can uncover traits about a person like how they communicate, what personal preferences they have, what motivates them, what influences decisions and choices, how much of their potential are they using, and do they have balance for improved decision making?
Assessments can answer all these questions and give more valuable insight into your preferences for life. When a person understands the natural traits they possess – they can then make choices leading to more success in their lives. The unfortunate truth is many individuals have no clue regarding their natural strengths and weaknesses. Then they take jobs whereby they are attempting to be successful – USING THEIR WEAKNESSES! This is the major reason for poor performance, burn out and depression.
Using several key assessments can undercover the natural strengths and weaknesses of an individual. We refer to these as the “how, why, will and can” a person perform in a certain position. This insight has opened the eyes of individuals and their managers as to what was wrong and could it be repaired? Insight is the term I prefer to use in describing the benefits of personal assessments. If a person is lacking this insight into what makes them go everyday, then how will they accurately make decisions and choices to improve their results and performance. Chance or Certainty? Which would you want to use everyday?
If you would like to discuss the value and how-to’s of using assessments both for your organization or for youself, just pick up the phone and call us at 901-757-4434. We have been assisting our clients for 20 years in understanding how to use assessments and the advantages gained using assessments for insights.
In this subjective world where everyone has an opinion or position, how do you capture the consensus of the group? Most organizations use the subjective methods of “gut feel” or the SWAG method of determining what is going in within the organization. However, I believe there is another way that is more meaningful. Use assessments to bring objectivity to our world view.
Assessments can bring an objectivity factor to the discussions of what is making this group function? What are the Strengths and what are the shortcomings? Again, assessments to the rescue. This process can bring clear and accurate trends to the table for discussion and action commitments.
I have seen the results of an organizational survey open the eyes of key executives who had different and subjective opinions about the quality of their leadership – and get a good dose of reality. They were able to take this information and use it to communicate actions that were meaningful to their people – who in turn responded with positive actions that lead to positive results.
I have seen executives get feedback from their teams regarding specific performance issues using 360’s or specialty reports regarding the team dynamics. This feedback is used in an objective manner to influence the quality of future decisions and actions.
Assessments work for the good of an organization or group. Get an advantage through the use of assessments that give insight and understanding into what makes an organization work well. What strengths are we using well and what areas need to have a reality check regarding performance.
Performance Management needs objectivity to work properly. Assessments is one tool that should be used to uncover performance matrix and standards. Assessments can also tell us if our strategy is working for our team members. Again, objectivity is needed in a world full of opinions, ideas and assumptions. Clear the air and get the facts.
If you have any questions regarding the proper use of assessments in your organization, please contact us at 901-757-4434. We have over 20 years of experience in assisting organizations and individuals in the use of assessments and how to use the data to improve the quality of performance.
Well, today is the day of reckoning for everyone making a choice about the future of the United States. This is the day that we find out about the beliefs of people across the country – it’s called a Presidential Election. It is all about the beliefs and emotions of each individual and the choices they make about the future.
There may be some people who actually believe that logic is the key to the vote. Well, Not So Fast My Friend! There is a fact that you are missing – All Decisions Are 100 % Emotional and we use logic to justify our choice. Sales people know this fact and the successful ones use this to get more positive votes in the form of sales. Yet, to my surprise most people do not understand this facet of how choices are made.
Choices are made not using logical explanations. Choices are made based upon our Emotional Beliefs. Beliefs are the underpinnings of everything we do. Our choices are heavily impacted by our beliefs and our belief structure. In fact, our beliefs are the starting point for everything we do or don’t do!
Beliefs are the driving creator of our attitude about life and everything our life touches. Then our attitudes affect the quality of our behavior regarding what we are doing. This behavior drives or creates our results or performance. Then we use the results or performance to validate our beliefs. An ongoing circle is created and continues until “we” or “you” change something within.
Now for the hard part – for any change to be permanent we have to change an inner belief. This fact is exposed by a number of research projects on performance and the personal development gurus have uncovered this by calling them – self limiting beliefs. Yes, self limiting beliefs are the cause of poor or erratic performance.
There are repeated exercises to change results or performance through the use of behavioral training or attitude adjustments. While these techniques can create some change in results – it is usually just a temporary solution. Once the belief is challenged, the belief overrides the process and you are back to the previous result or performance.
So, how do you change beliefs to get better or faster results? You must first work on the subconscious belief structure that you have. There are methods and techniques that can uncover and verify their importance – but you must know how to use them properly. Robin Graham teaches one such method that ensures that each individual can take charge of their lives but eliminating unwanted or old scripts that were planted by others who influenced our developmental years.
To learn more about how to take back control of your life and your thoughts either call our offices at 901-757-4434 and ask for Robin. You can also go to a website that explains the business application of this process – Getting Results Faster. Leave us a comment about this article. Thanks.
