December 15, 2009

Employee Development Systems, Inc.
The Personal Accountability Company

7308 South Alton Way, Suite 2J
Dry Creek Business Park
Centennial, Colorado 80112 

Phone: 1-800.282.3374  

employeedevelopmentsystems.com 

info@edsiusa.com 


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In each of author Malcolm Gladwell’s three best-selling works The Tipping Point(2002), Blink (2007), and The Outliers(2008) the research effort comprising the books was spent on a single concept, hammered home by approaching it from every conceivable angle.

 

In What the Dog Saw (Little, Brown 2009), Gladwell switches gears and instead gives us 19 independent essays broken into three distinct categories all penned in his typically well-researched and entertaining writing style.  

 

The essays are borrowed from his outstanding work for The New Yorker and span topics of the seemingly mundane turned interesting such as the public acceptance of varieties of mustards versus ketchup, how to fix the issue of homelessness, and the more business-oriented  topic of how to effectively interview for appropriate talent when so much of it is available – and the questionable role that individual intelligence plays into organizational success.

 

During the holidays, employees are often distracted by their own plans and all of the year-end job wrap-up activities.  As a leader, you likely have your eye on the bottom line, and what it will look like at the close of the year.  It is in everyone's best interest to keep productivity and employee spirits positive during the holidays.  

 

Even though we all want to close out the year on a strong note, excessive overtime hours and working on paid holidays lowers employee morale, and may backfire in the long run.  

 

Short deadlines for important projects and pressure to reach end-of-year-goals can add to the obligations. Even simple, fun events, such as purchasing a Secret Santa present or baking for a cookie exchange, can add to holiday stress; they create just one more thing to do. Instead, think of low-cost ways that you can provide stress relief for employees during this time; it will pay off for you in a smoother end-of-year, and hopefully, a more robust bottom line.

 

For example, at Techsmith Corporation, schedule conflicts kept large numbers of employees from attending the annual holiday party. So, the planners changed the concept. The annual company holiday event is now the company birthday party in February.

 

Moreover, according to a recent survey of human resources professionals, 51 percent of companies schedule holiday events during normal business hours, taking time pressure off of their employees.  This results in short-term productivity loss (a couple hours), but a net gain in overall morale.

 

Here are some more ideas for spreading holiday cheer at the office:

 

Offer flexible schedules so people can take time when they need it for their holiday preparations and celebrations.  Many companies have found that employee time spent gift shopping on the Internet increases as the holidays approach.  Do your employees and your company a favor by giving them the time they need to take care of their preparations, so they can concentrate on work commitments while they are at the office.

 

Provide gifts and bonuses in “spendable” formats, such as grocery store gift cards or gift certificates.  This is something that directly supports their holiday celebrations and family time. 

 

Have you considered making the holidays floating?  Give people the flexibility to honor their religious and cultural traditions with paid time off.  (Think of Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and more).  The offer itself will go a long way in spreading good feelings among people of differing faiths and cultural backgrounds.

 

 

What gives successful leaders the edge over everyone else?  Top performing entrepreneurs all share some of the same core qualities. And what are they?

 

Perhaps they were raised in an environment that valued education.  Or maybe they were naturally smarter than their classmates. Actually, the hidden skill that determined their success was their ability to adapt. 

 

The skill set associated with successful adaptability includes spontaneous control, scale recognition, and long-term perspective. 

 

Let’s take a look at each of these qualities, and how they are used by highly adaptable people. 

 

  

Spontaneous Control is the ability to grab, consider, manage and even optimize your response at the very moment adversity strikes. When faced with an unexpected situation or crisis, many of us reel in our spontaneous control, after an initial blowup. Top performers are able to seamlessly shift from being presented with a situation to giving a smooth reaction without an external show of crisis.  This is referred to as “the gateway to serenity”—it is a feature of your internal operating system that you can work on, improve, and enjoy the payoff of increased trust, respect and successful leadership.

 

Scale Recognitionis another feature of robust adaptability. People often catastrophize, allowing adversity to take over their time and energy before getting it under control.  They may even be completely knocked off of their game when a relatively small adversity arises.  Those leaders who can remain amused and determined as adversities occur are the ones who will be in a better position to achieve their goals. Remember, true leaders don’t hope for fewer problems, rather the capacity to handle more, regardless of what issues come their way. 

Endurance is the perception of how long the adversity will last. Many leaders are likely to perceive adversity as enduring. Successful leaders are those who remain optimistic and determined, confident that the situation will reverse itself quickly. 

 

Once you understand your current ability to adapt and how to improve it, you can use your own skills to coach others.  You can also use these tools in hiring; identify those candidates who possess strong adaptability skills, eventually strengthening adaptability on an organizational level.  Illicit examples of strong adaptability and successfully navigating adversity from candidates during interviews.

 

These skills will give you an edge in 2010.  But why wait?  Start sharpening these skills today by following the Action Steps below. 

 

There have been a couple of connections.  In my last position, I was starting new banks and brokerages for a holding company, and was being recruited for a bank CEO position.  During that time, I read the book, Power of Purpose (by Richard Leider, Berrett-Kohler Publishers, 2005).

 

That book helped me decide to turn down the job offer, leave my current position, and start to talk about companies that want to have profound breakthroughs and be top performers.   At the time, there were no banks that were getting the message—being passionate about what they do. 

 

In my first engagement, I essentially worked with all employees and managers to talk about how they treat customers and each other.  It is amazing.  When you define behaviors such as no gossip, no whining, call each other on low performance, changes happen quickly.  We have the participants actually create and sign an agreement that outlines how they want to perform, and what they expect of each other. 

 

 

Employee disengagement is skyrocketing.  That really does have bottom line impact. Disengagement and a sense of futility contribute to lower sales, and create the next level of layoffs.  No one seems to know how to break the cycle.

 

I still believe that the people who have the “Thank God It’s Monday!” mindset are infinitely more employable than those who are not.  You can think so many negative thoughts, such as complaining to coworkers or threatening to take legal action.  These are all going to have a negative impact.

 

Let me give you an example of putting these ideas to work, even in a lay-off situation:  A man who attended one of my workshops really inspired me.  In his previous job, he knew that he and his team would be laid off.  He decided that he was going to make his team the best team in the company, and go “full on” to the end. 

 

He got the team together, talked about what we ARE in control of, such as our positive attitude and personal performance, and they all agreed to excel, check their attitudes rigorously, and go out at the top of their game.  I can assure you that people with a “can-do” attitude like that are far more employable than others.

 

Do you believe people can make serious change, or are their attitudes basically static, either by experience or personality?   

 

Can people shift?  Yes.  I want to get everybody back to their first day of work feeling.  We are up against this:  Every day of our life, we are being socialized to be takers.  Every commercial we see, all of the advertisements all tell us to treat ourselves. 

 

It is incumbent upon business managers and owners to help employees see that power and fulfillment that comes from being of service.  If people are coming from the right place, where they really want to help, they can make mistakes, but you would still try to work with them, because they are committed to service.

 

 

It seems that no workplace is completely immune to the ill effects of gossip.  Our situation this time is no different.  Christine has not ever gotten along with her boss, and feels confident that she is smarter and more competent than him.  When given the chance to work off-site at an industry conference, she was excited to get the ear of her boss's immediate superior. 

 

Taking charge of this opportunity, she gave him a complete description of all that had gone wrong due to her boss's actions, starting with the facts, and injecting her outrage as she continued.  You are the superior in whom she confided.

 

 

The Complete Mentoring Program is an all inclusive, turnkey package of tested materials for use by program coordinators, managers and trainers. This program offers a mentoring self-assessment inventory and provides the mentor and the mentee each with a separate handbook to guide them as informed participants.

 

Key Features:

The Complete Mentoring Program includes: