Blog - Page 38 of 121 - Optimus Performance

Everyone in the Organization Benefits when Leaders Share Their Thoughts and Feeling with Employees

Nov 10, 2020 No comments Comments

When leaders share their thoughts and feelings with employees everyone benefits including the leader himself. Often leaders may be reluctant to share what is on their minds with staff for a variety of reasons. There might be a fear of letting people know too much or troubling them with uncertainties amongst other concerns.

However, holding back thoughts, ideas and feelings can be more detrimental as a lack of communication can cause people to speculate and misinform themselves based on perceptions rather than facts.

Leaders are constantly thinking of far reaching problems and opportunities that appear on their radar based on discussions with people in their industry or through reading about trends and other news. This information causes leaders to think of how that new or trend will affect the company in the short and long term and will spark some ideas for action. It may also cause some strong emotions that need to be processed.

If a leader shares what may be troubling them with their directors or key employees, it can act to clarify their thinking and to get input from their most trusted staff. It will also cause the employee to feel included in the strategic thinking of their leader and will help them to understand the current situation and how they can better contribute to making improvements.

Of course, leaders should have an internal communication platform to keep employees informed of plans, changes, and successes. But not every organization is structured well in this regard and often communication is reactive rather than pro-active. Regular one on one or small group communication sessions where leaders can express what is on their mind and discuss this with employees is thus extremely important.

This type of leadership style is easier for some leaders and harder for others. Every leader is different, but this way of communication requires a participative leadership style. Every leader can adapt a participative leadership style, but it takes understanding and self-knowledge. It means a shift in behaviour and can be attained with some effort.

Start by sitting down once a week with a manager or key employee and share your thoughts and feelings. See the reaction you get and sense if you find it beneficial. Ask the employee if they found the discussion helpful and why. Do this every week with a different person and then go back to the first person after a few weeks. You can also do this in small groups as you progress. In summary, sharing your thoughts and feelings with staff members rather than holding them in will bring new ideas to you, build trust with people and have them feel included in the plans for moving the business forward.

Teamwork Exercise

Nov 03, 2020 No comments Comments

Start by reflecting on these questions to set the stage to launch this project and the exercise on teamwork.

How important is teamwork to you and why?

How important is teamwork to your company?

How do you or your company drive teamwork in normal times?

How have you generated teamwork while working remotely?

This exercise can be done in an onsite workshop or remotely using online meeting tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Team, Google Meet etc. You can even combine the two if you have some people at work while others are working remotely.

This teamwork activity can be used to solve problems that are currently affecting the company, while engaging people to collaborate in a fun and positive manner.

Step 1

Form an ad-hoc team of 4-7 people to discuss and agree on a priority list of problems or concerns that affects everyone. Choose your top 1-3 issues. Start with one

From the ad-hoc team name a project champion. This could be anyone, it does not need to be a manager, but this person should be well respected by their peers and needs to be given a clear mandate and authority to act.

Step 2

Form 5 cross functional teams of 5-7 people to work on the problem. Have them meet in the workplace or virtually and have them brainstorm causes of the problem. Then have them work on solutions and choose the best solutions that can be combined in an action plan. The action plan should be a one-page recommendation on how to implement the solutions. So, you would have the causes, solutions, and action plan from each team.

Step 3

Have the proposed solutions of the other teams distributed to each team. So, team one would have the proposed solutions for teams two to five etc. Then have each team review the work of the other teams and score them on a scale of 1-4 giving 4 points to the first choice, 3 points to the second choice and so on. You can choose the point system you want and have more than five teams. The champion or facilitator would collect the scores from all the teams and tally them up to determine the winning solution and action plan.

At the end you will have a winning solution and action plan that all team members would have participated in.

Step 4

The solution and action plan are then presented to management for approval and implementation. A new action team could be formed with a champion to implement the solution.

It is crucial to keep all the participants informed of the results and decisions to be implemented based on the teamwork activity. It is also important to publicize the activity and results to all employees.

The benefits to the organization from this type of activity are numerous and include engagement of employees, solutions to existing problems, improved teamwork and collaboration, continuous improvement and better working relationships.

Solve a Management or Employee Problem with a Consultation Session

Oct 27, 2020 No comments Comments

Managing employee performance is not without problems and challenges. Solving people issues is trickier than dealing with systems problems. People are more complex and harder to understand and we do not want to become psychologists to lead and manage teams of people and deal with performance issues.

Fortunately, we can effectively manage employees using both good management practices and common sense. But sometimes it is not clear how to deal or confront some situations and that is where a coach or consultant can help.

For that reason, I offer a free consultation session to help leaders and managers find solutions to situations that need addressing. It will give you insight into options to deal with your situation and how a coach or consultant can be effective.

To schedule your free session, click here.

Employee Performance is Greatly Influenced by Leaders Walking the Talk

Oct 20, 2020 No comments Comments

There is an old expression, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying”.

Employees will respect, trust, and even emulate leaders who walk the talk, and this will create a culture that reinforces the behavior and values of the leaders.

Walking the talk is important in the key areas of functioning that I have referred to in previous articles and videos. I used the three intelligences in my article and video on goal setting and it applies here as well.

The intellectual center of intelligence is the center that we use for planning, strategizing, and researching. Think of it as your logical brain or center of intelligence. Leaders who use this center effectively take the time to plan and strategize based on good research of information. They make smart decisions using their thinking capacities well. They also can communicate their plans and thinking coherently to their team.

The emotional center of intelligence or heart is the brain that we use to interact effectively with people. It allows us to use empathy in our conversations and this shows people we care and can listen well.

The physical/movement center of intelligence is the brain of action and is used to get things done. When used appropriately it makes us effective in carrying out our tasks.

The goal of a leader should be to develop their abilities in all three centers of intelligences so that they show good personal leadership in their thinking, feeling, and doing. The idea is to be well-balanced as a human being in all three of the centers of intelligences. This means continuously working on oneself to achieve this balance because we tend to be stronger naturally in one of the three intelligences.

For example, a great strategic thinker might take too much time researching and strategizing and be slow at making decisions on what to act on.

A strong emotional intelligent person may be great at listening and showing empathy but could avoid conflicts and confronting people, which is related to the physical/movement center.

The physical/movement center dominant person may act to quickly without thinking through possible outcomes or may be to harsh with people who do not perform as expected.

The idea is to look at yourself from the perspective of the three intelligences and assess what you need to work on and then set a goal to improve. You can consult my article on goal setting and download my goal planning form for this purpose.

Showing your team that you do not only say what to do but you work on doing it yourself will speak volumes. It will inspire and motivate people to emulate what they see is leadership in action.