Greetings from Rising Sun Consultants
Welcome to the April issue of Rise & Shine –
Your Leadership Solutions and Resource Newsletter!
New Horizons (Meetings/Events):
Public Seminar:
May 17, 2006 – “The 3C’s: A Model of Positive Productivity™”
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Harrisburg, PA
The purpose of this hands-on, applied workshop is to provide participants with both statistical data and applied skills needed to build a strong organizational culture which focuses equally on both people and productivity. As a result, participants will be in a position to engage their employees in new and exciting ways designed to increase their involvement in the organization’s mission and vision.
Investment
- $149/person
- $129/person (early pre-paid registration by April 19, 2006)
To Register Online, click here.
To Register by Phone, Contact Lynn Lehman @ 717-512-7531
Radio Interviews:
April 29, 2006 – “Change and Transition”
WHP Radio – 580 AM Harrisburg, PA
7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.
(Contact us for full details)
Bright Lights (Tips/Solutions):
This month’s Solution focuses on Leadership/Supervision:
Traditionally, when business leaders talk about “supervision,” they are usually referring to the managerial or leadership function of overseeing the productivity and progress of employees – typically those employees who report directly to the supervisor. However, stemming from our experiences in providing both training and supervision, Rising Sun’s 10 Keys to Effective Supervision™ takes a very different perspective: defining supervision more from a coaching or mentoring perspective combined with a managerial perspective.
Here are a few practical strategies for supervisors to consider in helping to engage their employees in their organizations:
- Support Growth - Provide for the personal and professional development of your employees.
- Unite With Your Team - Be available/accessible to the people you work with.
- Praise Others - Provide praise for a job well done and encouragement for taking a risk.
- Expect Excellence - Setting high expectations for both yourself and others.
- Require Accountability - Uphold individual responsibility, as well as accountability.
- Verify Potential - Develop an atmosphere of hope and confidence.
- Instill Independence - Allow room and encouragement for autonomy.
- Share Continuously – Establish open and honest two-way communication.
- Optimize Ownership - Create opportunities for involvement in decision making.
- Reinforce Relationships - Sharing with and care about your employees as people.
Shining Stars (Best Practices):
This month’s Organization of Excellence is Schaedler Yesco Distribution in Harrisburg, PA. A result of merging an established, family-owned business with a formal leadership structure (Schaedler Brothers) and an employee-owned business run primarily by committees (Yesco, Inc.) in 1999, this company has taken the best aspects of both cultures and created a new, highly successful employee-owned organization. A few of the strategies that have helped make this company’s reinvention succeed are as follows…
- Creating an environment of communication openness, with the leadership sharing with employees what they are doing and why they are doing it in a timely, thoughtful manner.
- Sharing success with employees through financial reward.
- Providing rationales and ramifications of decisions being made.
- Allowing employees to be part of the interviewing process, particularly those with whom the incoming individual would be working.
- Creating communication processes that get information to all five locations promptly and consistently so that all employees across the widely dispersed organization are up to date and on the same page at all times.
The leadership of Schaedler Yesco believes firmly that management must continually strive to do the right thing for their employees, and receiving awards such as The Best Places to Work in PA reflects this commitment. We congratulate them on the people-focused choices they have made, and we thank Jim Schaedler (CEO) and Matt Brnik (President) for meeting with us to talk about their organization. More information about Schaedler Yesco Distribution can be found at their website, www.sydist.com.
World Views (In the News):
“Turn the effort pumps back on by changing leader habits”
Come on, admit it. Some days, you don't work as hard or as smart as you could if you really wanted to. Not that you don't get your job done, but you're holding something in reserve for use when you feel like giving it up.
You're not alone. Each of us comes equipped with a built-in turbocharger that can add 20, 30, maybe as much as 50 percent to our effort capacity. We control it, and no one can tell us what to do with it. Organizational psychologists call that turbocharger "discretionary effort."
So what turns on our personal discretionary effort? And what turns them off?
The first question is easy. "On" is the default position. Most people show up to work on day one ready to part with copious amounts of discretionary effort in pursuit of the new opportunity that awaits them. It's we, as managers, who systematically turn off the switches, like turning off the lights at home, left on by those who don't pay the power bill.
One way we do that is by persuading people, through our actions, inactions and other signals, that their work isn't really very important. The moment any of us begins to entertain the question, "What's the point of what I'm doing?" our pumps begin to shut down.
Here's how we sometimes make people think their work is irrelevant. We:
- Disengage from the troops. There's been a lot of talk lately about employee engagement. What about leader engagement? People begin to doubt the importance of their work when their manager is more absent than present, or if they rarely -- if ever -- have any meaningful encounter with the boss.
- Relax quality standards. No one cares if the work is done particularly well, only that it gets done. If my manager doesn't care whether or not I knock myself out, I certainly don't.
- Direct people to work on a project or task, then fail to use the product. This includes busywork. With alarming regularity, managers ask workers to direct their effort toward a project, creating the impression that the resultant work will be applied to solve a problem, realize some revenue or serve a customer. After the job is completed, the worker, who may have exerted significant oomph, presents the finished product to the manager. When the product is then relegated to the shelf and never sees the light of day, the worker learns it's not in his best interest to put too much effort into the next request.
- Change priorities too rapidly, without evidence of good reason. I once had a boss who habitually sounded the trumpet to rally the forces to take a particular hill. We all dutifully marched toward the hill, poised to conquer the enemy. Then while we were mounting the hill, he would sound the trumpet again, and direct us not to take that hill, but the hill over there. We flailed from hill to hill, project to project, priority to priority, expending tons of effort to produce little of significance. His antics were so predictable that, before long, we learned not to invest much effort into any of his pet projects.
- Give them unworthy colleagues. People want to work in the company of equally competent, committed, hardworking and honest individuals. Workers will pull someone else's weight for a period of time, especially if there's a good reason. But they won't bear others' yokes for the duration of the journey.
- Take away people's work. If we've done most everything else right, we should have in place people who are eager and proud to do good work. But then we dilute and cheapen their work by giving them too much supervision and too little authority. We bail them out when we see them struggling, rather than struggling with them to help them learn. We give them too many rules to obey, and not enough goals to accomplish.
If you're honest with yourself, you'll see some of these habits staring you in the face when you look in the mirror. Try the reverse of these actions for a few months. You'll see the oomph pumps resume their natural state, with more discretionary effort than you've seen in a long time.
(Adapted from Richard Hadden, The Business Journal of Jacksonville - March 17, 2006)
Rays of Hope (Stories/Parables):
The Training Course
One uneducated and simple minded person joined a military recruiting centre. He was undergoing a few months' training course which would make him eligible to join the army. Unfortunately, just after completing a week of this training, news reached that there would be a visit of an army officer who would interview the candidates and inspect the type of training being given by the centre.
The person in charge of training these candidates was very much worried about the newly recruited simple minded man. However, since he happened to be an experienced army officer, he knew well the type of questions that would be put to the new recruits. So, he coached this man thoroughly to answer correctly most plausible questions. He asked him to first of all remember the sequence of the questions. The first question would be 'What is your age?' You are to say "22 years". The second question would be 'How long have you been in this centre?' You are to answer "two years". And the third may be, 'Are you happy in this centre or do you feel homesick?' You have to say "I am at home both here and in my place."
The Cadet learnt these answers by rote. On the day of inspection, he was asked to come to the interview room. The inspecting officer asked him, "How long have you been here"? The cadet just remembering the sequence of the questions said, "22 years". The officer was rather surprised. Then he asked, "What is your age"? The cadet said, "Two years". "What nonsense is this? Are you mad or am I mad", roared the officer. The cadet calmly answered, "Both" as he could only remember just that word because he had by then got scared.
It is dangerous to remember things by rote.
Chinna Katha II, 49 |
Thank You:
On behalf of ourselves and our associates, we want to thank you for reviewing the April edition of Rise & Shine Newsletter. We invite you to visit our website (www.risingsunconsultants.com), and to enjoy our latest book review and white paper.
Until next month: Always Keep Your Eyes on the New Horizon! |
