Greetings from Rising Sun Consultants
Welcome to the November issue of Rise & Shine –
Your Leadership Solutions and Resource Newsletter!
Bright Lights (Tips/Solutions) The 10 Keys of Effective Supervision™:
- Support Growth
- Unite With Your Team
- Praise Others
- Expect Excellence
- Require Accountability
- Verify Potential
- Instill Independence
- Share Continuously
- Optimize Ownership
- Reinforce Relationships
This month’s focus on the second Key – Praise Others:
According to the Rising Sun model, “Praise Others” is defined as: “Offering ongoing praise and encouragement to employees.”
Genuine praise is a critical tool in both developing and maintaining positive employee morale and engagement. However, praise alone (i.e., general statements of appreciation, “pat on the back,” etc.) often falls short of the mark. Moreover, if given continuously or without specific examples it can quite often seem shallow and/or contrived. What’s worse, it may even send the message that you really don’t know specifically what the individual does or how they are actually performing.
On the other hand, providing encouragement in addition to praise can go a long way to building self-esteem and pride in one’s work. For example, being specific about a positive interaction you see between and employee and customer or between two employees not only tells them that they are doing a good job, it also is the shortest training you can do with an employee.
“Mary, I really want to thank you for the way you handled that customer. Despite the fact that he was angry and this was not directly in your area, you stayed calm, focused on the issue and took ownership for helping him to solve the problem. Great job!”
What do think is going to happen the next time Mary is faced with a similar situation? Do you think Mary knows that you are watching? Do you think Mary feels appreciated?
Shining Stars (Best Practices)
This month's Organization of Excellence is Barton Associates, Inc. in York, Pennsylvania. This organization has provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, control systems design and commissioning services since 1968. They are fortunate to have had leadership from the beginning that recognized the connection between how employees feel about their workplace and their productivity. This has built a strong team environment in a home like atmosphere. As a result, this company has won the Best Places to Work in PA award in 2005, as well as a spot on the Top Fifty Fastest Growing Companies in PA in 2006. Here are some strategies that have helped to create their positive culture and tremendous growth:
- A focus on having a friendly atmosphere at work…for employees and customers
- A physical workplace that is spacious, open, and very pleasant.
- Free meals for employees who desire it - breakfast, lunch and dinner - which help support extremely flexible time options for their staff.
- A bonus plan that provides cash bonuses to employees every quarter based on cash profits.
- Quarterly employee reviews that alternate between goal-setting and follow-up with technical expertise and growth.
The results of these strategies have also earned them a nomination for the Central Penn Business Journal’s 2006 Business of the Year award in the 51-100 employee category. Growing rapidly and being recognized on a national level have not prevented this team from valuing the importance of the individuals who work within the company’s walls! We thank Dan Waltersdorff, President, for meeting with us to talk about their organization. More information about Barton Associates, Inc. can be found at their website, www.ba-inc.com.
World Views (In the News)
Using Email to Offer Praise and Encouragement
According to Bob Nelson, Ph.D., president of Nelson Motivation Inc. in San Diego, and author of "1001 Ways to Reward Employees" and "Managing for Dummies," 67 percent of employees surveyed say they enjoy getting positive e-mails at work. Nelson believes that virtual recognition provides managers a cost-effective and powerful tool to show appreciation for a job well done -- especially with those employees you don't get a chance to see much face-to-face. “Online recognition gives employers an excellent opportunity to engage their employees with ease. This simple gesture not only gives employees a surprise boost during the work day, but it reinforces the value of their contributions to the company's ongoing success. A simple click of a button is all it takes to recognize an employee and boost their morale in your organization!”
Nelson cites Wells Fargo as an example of a company which uses this strategy well. Wells Fargo's "E-awards" allows employees to recognize any of their colleagues for doing a stellar job.:
- E-cards are online thank you cards that anyone can send to anyone else within the company with a copy going to a recognition mailbox for tracking purposes. Those being thanked are entered into a quarterly drawing for prizes.
- E-wards are used to praise consistent performance over time based on five values of the organization (leadership, e-novation, teams, entrepreneurship and customer service). The electronic award goes to the nominee's manager for approval who then gets three things: a certificate with the details of the achievement, a scratch off ticket for a gift worth $50-250 for the recipient and a sheet that provides ideas on how to best present the award based on the recipient's preferences.
- “Ride the Wave” is a once-a-year celebration for select recipients of the E-card or E-wards recognition. A group of senior managers reviews the nominations of all winners, selects the 70 most impressive employees, and invites them to attend a three-day, off-site special event with a guest of their choice. The event combines professional development with fun and includes even more recognition!
(Adapted from Bob Nelson, BizJournals, 2006)
Rays of Hope (Stories/Parables)
The Hoyts
From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I’m nothing.
Eighty-five times Dick Hoyt has pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled Rick cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike.
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much -- except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an Institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!''
After a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him just once.''
(Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52rJd9GX10&mode=related&search for an inspirational video of Dick & Rick Hoyt in action.) |
New Horizons (Meetings/Events)
“Getting on the Same Page:
Effective Communication Skills for Supervisors”
This workshop provides participants with skills to increase individual and team effectiveness in communication, as well as the knowledge to answer the questions of: what, when, how, how much, how often, and with whom to communicate. Participants will have the opportunity to role play in order to develop a level of comfort with these new skills, and will be able to go back to their work environment and immediately apply the knowledge and experience for positive results.
November 15, 2006
8:30 am – 12:00 pm
Harrisburg, PA
Wyndham Harrisburg-Hershey
4650 Lindle Road
$75.00
To register on-line, click here
or contact Lynn Lehman @ 717-512-7531
“Leading Your Team to the ProductivityZone™”
This complimentary two-hour seminar is designed exclusively for organizational Presidents/CEOs/Top Executives and is limited to 10 participants only. The purpose of this seminar is to provide you with an opportunity to develop your staff into a highly motivated group of employees, an effective way to train your supervisory staff, and an opportunity to increase your bottom line profitability.
December 4, 2006
8:00 am – 10:00 pm
Harrisburg, PA
Homewood Suites Boardroom
Complimentary
To register, contact Lynn Lehman @ 717-512-7531
Thank You
On behalf of all of us at Rising Sun Consultants, we want to thank you for reviewing the November edition of our Rise & Shine Newsletter. As always, 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! |
