July 2014

Monthly Archives: July 2014

Improving employee’s self-esteem and self-confidence

Jul 27, 2014 Comments

Employees with higher self-esteem and self-confidence tend to take more risks, find solutions to problems and are less resistant to change. I’ll talk about how to increase an employee’s self-esteem and self-confidence in this video and article. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for new videos as they come out.

In one of my previous articles and videos I spoke about how to have employees become more creative and practice, continuous improvement. One of the key factors I mentioned was employee self-esteem and self-confidence and how this impacts creativity and attitude towards change.

Some people are the type that embrace change and risk-taking and others are much more conservative in the face of change and risk. You cannot change someone’s basic nature, but you can improve their self-esteem and self-confidence.

Leaders can improve someone’s self perception by the type of feedback they give them. Employees require both negative and positive feedback. There needs to be a balance between the two. Often there is a greater emphasis on negative feedback as we often tend to see what’s not going well versus what is going right.

Too much negative feedback can lower someone’s self-esteem and self-confidence. By recognizing good performance and behaviors that lead to that performance will make it easier for the person to receive negative feedback. When done well negative feedback can act as constructive criticism towards continuous improvement.

When people receive positive feedback for the work they’re doing it reinforces that they are on the right track and this fuels their self-esteem and self-confidence. Positive feedback should be explicit in that it points out the qualities the person is using to produce positive results. Rather than saying you did a good job on that report, one could say the report you produced was well thought out and presented in a very clear and understandable fashion. You really have a strength to go into depth on things.

When done this way you are linking a personal strength to how the task or job was performed well. This can really boost someone’s self-confidence and motivate them to use their strengths even more.

Set a goal for yourself to look for things that people are doing well every day. Take notes and formulate how you can give positive feedback using the guidelines described here. Give the feedback.

If you make a conscious effort to do this every day. It will soon become a habit and you won’t have to think about it anymore. It takes a conscious to look for the positive.

At first it might feel unnatural and uncomfortable to give the positive feedback but this is only temporary and worth the effort. Do it with sincerity and soon it will become natural and easy. This will make you a better leader and manager.

I hope these tips were helpful and let us know your experience with giving feedback.

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Understand Types of People for Improved Knowledge of Self and Employees

Jul 09, 2014 Comments

In this video and article I will talk about the various types of people and how this impacts leadership and employee behavior.

In my last video and article I spoke about how to have employees become more creative so they can contribute better ideas for continuous improvement. I mentioned that the first component to that is to understand the different types of people and how each type views change. Change is an important element of creativity and continuous improvement.

Everyone is unique, no two people are the same. This is true for our DNA, our personalities and our type. We have often heard the expression, he or she is not my type said to us by a friend. But what exactly does that mean?

There are six classic types of people and many combinations of types. So no two types can be the same. What is similar is the core tendencies of each classic type.

The basis for the classic types is rooted in our dominant intelligence. There are three intelligences that each human being processes, the physical or instinctive intelligence,
the emotional intelligence and the intellectual intelligence. Some practitioners of neuroscience calls them the three brains.

The basic difference between people starts with their dominant intelligence. A person who is dominated more by the physical or instinctive in physical intelligence2 telligence is more focused on physical beauty and pleasures and on performing tasks with force and determination.

The emotional types are heart centered people and see life through their emotions. They tend to want to help others and promote happiness. They make good listeners and are highly empathetic.

The intellectual types use their intellect first to interpret situations and people and define their preferences. They tend to like to express their ideas and opinions of which they have many and are prone to do a lot of research and analysis.

Just from these brief descriptions you might already have a new perspective on yourself and your team of employees. The better you understand someone’s dominant intelligence and type the easier it is to work with them.

Each type has their strengths and weaknesses depending on the situation, relationship and task at hand. To improve one’s effectiveness in working with others and performing tasks well, each person needs to become better balanced in all three intelligence’s. This means
using a good balance of your intuition or physical smarts, your intellectual thinking and your emotions. When all three are in good balance one can be highly effective in their relationships and task execution.

I learned about this types of people approach from my former colleague Fritz Glaus. Fritz wrote a book about this and also developed a leadership and team development training program that incorporates the six basic types methodology. In the book CrazYZoo, KnowThyself Made Easy, the reader gets involved by making a choice about himself before the start of the story and another one as he progresses through it. He discovers himself by taking on the role of one of the animals in the story. It is a simple yet highly effective method of learning about oneself and about others. You can download the book from this link for $5.

I will talk more about the types of people approach to self-knowledge in future videos. For now I encourage you to observe yourself and others to determine which of the three intelligence’s is most dominant and how it affects your behavior and relationships.

Stay in touch by subscribing to this channel and share your thoughts as well. Here is the link to the last video about employee creativity I mentioned earlier.