Blog - Page 45 of 121 - Optimus Performance

What Can We Learn About Employee Training from A Dog?

Apr 14, 2020 No comments Comments

My dog Chief is two and a half years old and he has been in training ever since he was a puppy of two months. This has allowed me to walk with him off leash so he can run and get his exercise and also so we can bring him into all types of environments and feel confident he will behave well with people and other dogs.

When I researched breeds of dogs that would suit my lifestyle and commitment I would be ready to make, training was a question I confronted. I knew at that point that I was ready to commit to ongoing training and it has paid off.

Here are a few points to keep in mind when training employees that also pertain to dogs and that I have seen work.

Know yourself and your natural style of leadership and training.
Understand your employees and what type of training will work best. Do they need gradual learning of new information or can they consume it quickly? Do they need a lot of repetition or do they grasp how to do things quickly?
Reinforce what they are doing well with positive reinforcement but don’t over do it.
Re-direct them to what they need to be doing right rather than focusing too much on the negative.
Follow my Seven Steps to Highly Effective Employee Training to maximize the training delivery and results.
Follow-up depending on how complex the learning is and how new the employee. Newer employees will need closer follow-up.

The next training for Chief will be therapy dog training so we can volunteer him to organizations that have people that need the comfort and love that is special to dogs.

How Being an Optimist or a Pessimist Affects Employee Performance

Apr 08, 2020 No comments Comments

Is the glass half empty or half full? That is a quick way to determine if someone is an Optimist or a Pessimist. It may not be very scientific but it does have some merit.

Optimistic type people tend to see the bright side of things and are more open to others and opportunities that present themselves. They tend to trust others more quickly and believe things will turn out positively.

Pessimistic types are more suspicious of other people’s intentions and tend to see the potential pitfalls in new opportunities. They have a more critical outlook and are more cautious.

Some jobs require a more optimistic outlook while other jobs a pessimistic type thinking. A financial comptroller should in most cases be a critical thinker and so he can spot the potential pitfall of an investment more quickly than a strong optimistic type.

An entrepreneur who wants to build a world class business will be faced with many hurtles and must remain positive in the face of these challenges to keep moving forward.

Ideally we want to have a good balance of optimists and pessimists in a team so that there is the drive to move forward with a good sense of caution and questioning of new opportunities. This will enable better planning and probably avoid costly errors.

The key is to have good collaboration and communication so that dialogue can happen effectively especially on large projects that pose a lot of risk.

So take the test, is the glass half empty or half full?

Best Methods to Manage Employees Working Remotely

Mar 31, 2020 No comments Comments

Best Methods to Manage Employees Working Remotely

The best methods to manage employees working remotely is like the best practises for working onsite. The principles are the same.

The coronavirus crisis is forcing people to work from home if they can. This might be new for many companies and employees even though working remotely has been a growing trend.

Know Yourself and Your Employees

To be an effective manager and leader you need to know yourself and understand each employee. What is your inborn style of leadership? Do you tend to be too laissez faire or are you more of a micro-manager?

How self-sufficient and independent are your employees? How much supervision do they require? How does stress affect them?

Thinking through these questions and others will help you in your plan to manage people who you cannot walk over to and see what they’re doing and start a conversation.

Set Commitments and Expectations on Performance

To avoid micro-managing and having surprises when performance is below expectations, it’s best to discuss what the employee will work on and accomplish from home.

Put these commitments in writing and discuss how you will track productivity together so there are no surprises when things are due.

Clarify and Provide Support

Writing down employee commitments is good, but you also need to make your own support commitments to each employee and put those in writing as well.

What tools will the employee need to meet their goals? Technology is obvious but perhaps explore obstacles such as new distractions they might have at home that they did not have in the office.

Manage and Coach

Managing performance is about holding people accountable to their commitments and measuring their progress.

Coaching them is providing the support and problem-solving questions to help them take responsibility to meet their commitments.

Set Follow-up Sessions

Once you have commitments in writing it’s crucial to set times to meet online or by phone and discuss progress. Set a time to review when you write down the commitments and set the next discussion time at the end of each meeting.

Feedback

Everyone needs feedback, both positive and constructive. The positive feedback should be focused on what they are doing to overcome any personal challenges like stress or managing interruptions.

If things are not on track do more problem solving and re-direct the focus to get renewed commitments to meet the expectations.

Knowing the person and the situation they must deal with will allow you to be more sensitive to their needs and encourage them rather than criticize. Working remotely in the time of a crisis causes more stress and anxiety than working remotely when things are normal. Be patient and supportive and realize that things will revert to usual and people will appreciate the way you helped them manage the situation.

Responding from Strength Rather Than Fear in a Crisis Situation

Mar 24, 2020 No comments Comments

We are currently experiencing the coronavirus around the planet and it is having a huge impact on our way of life. Many people reacted from fear while others took responsible action. Of course, it is normal to be highly concerned and act with caution.

How people have been responding reminded me of the levels of growth of a human being that I talked about in recent articles and videos.

Many people started stock piling food and essentials like toilet paper and for days there were line ups in stores resulting in empty shelves.

This type of reaction is responding from the self-protection or conformist levels. Fear and blindly following others predominates at these levels. Yet I saw interviews with people in the food supply industry who said there is no need for such concern as the supply chain is strong and food will not be an issue.

At the same time, I noticed the new series on Netflix called Pandemic and was gripped by the information and how well it was presented about past pandemics and the next threat, which is COVID-19 and happening now.

I learned that the Spanish flu of 1918-1920 took 50 million lives after 500 million people contracted it. More people died from this flu than from World Wars I and II combined.

Rather than responding with fear this is an opportunity to function at a higher level, the responsible level. At this higher level we act using all our capacities in the dimensions of life. This means we think clearly about what to do based on the right information. We act with compassion and caring for others. We stay healthy by taking the recommended precautions and boosting our immune system, so should we get ill we are able to shake it quickly.

I am reading more now about the responsible actions governments and health professionals are taking to limit the spread of the virus and find a cure or drug to impede the symptoms that cause death in those most affected.

Even though the measures taken by governments are drastic such as closing all all shopping centers and restaurants for perhaps months, I see few people criticizing these actions. Usually there is an abundance of criticism for any decisions made by politicians, so this may be a sign that people are pulling together and responding positively and responsibly to the crisis.

Moving forward we need to learn from this crisis and look at our own reactions and think about how we can function at the higher responsible level and encourage others to do so. This will lead to greater collaboration throughout the world to prevent these types of situations from occurring in the first place or at least being better prepared to contain these types of outbreaks.

Watching the great documentary series Pandemic illustrates those who are taking such actions and the compassion and dedication they are putting first and foremost.