|
By Marilyn Tam
Bill, CEO of the industry leading company smiled, nodded and said, my people will go through walls for me. He was confident that his team would follow his direction in the upcoming challenges. We were working together to significantly improve the standards for the industry, and there are potentially significant obstacles along the way. Making dramatic changes are disruptive, and some of the team may resist and/or sabotage the process. What about you? Are you certain that your crew would stand with you when you lead them into demanding situations? This is the test of leadership. This is the heart of leadership. Today’s tight labor market and proliferation of remote work have given workers more employment options. People are seeking reasons to be committed to an organization where they are spending the bulk of their time. According to Harvard Business Review and Gallup research , people are looking for meaning and growth in their work even before a bigger paycheck. Microsoft, one of the world’s most respected and highest ranked company’s CEO, Satya Nadella states that empathy is the center of their agenda for innovation. Respect, understanding, and support is at the core of their flourishing and ability to attract, retain and develop their team. On the employer review site Glassdoor, Microsoft is rated 4.5 out of 5.0 by their employees. This rating is second only to Bain and Company, a company also known for treating their team with heart, after all as a consulting company, Bain and Company must treat their biggest asset, their consultants well. They need their workers, without them they have absolutely nothing. Building our heart — mind connection is essential for personal wellbeing as well as a leadership skill. Deborah Rozman, President & CEO of HeartMath, author and psychologist knows this very well. Her organization is founded on guiding and training leaders on how incorporate heart into leadership. Frequently, accumulated stress results in anxiety, anger, depression, sleeplessness, illness, and more. When your physical, mental and emotional systems are aligned, you are more able to access your heart’s intuitive guidance and connect with your higher creative potentials and enable you to manage and interact from compassion and understanding. Recently Deborah Rozman and I discussed why and how to lead, recruit, retain and motivate an organization’s teams. The podcast and video are now offered on HeartMath’s website and on Youtube. A leader with heart means that they listen, build confidence and respect, while establishing and executing on the mission and purpose of the organization. They sincerely appreciate, understand, and train their workforce with understanding and compassion. And the results are remarkable and well documented scientifically. Exactly what is needed for the current times, when workers are looking for meaning and connection in their work. How to build your heart-mind coherence? Below are five tools you can use from HeartMath and my experience, to support your development of this powerful connection: 1. Establish a quiet and safe environment — where you can take a few moments to reflect and center. You can be inside a building or in nature where you can spend by yourself for the duration of the exercise, which can be as short as a few minutes to 30 minutes or more. 2. Heart Focused Breathing — turn your focus to your heart/chest area and breathe from there. Take slower and more conscious breaths. Notice how that relaxes your body by gently sensing into each limb, your torso and your head and shoulders. Close your eyes and continue to breathe in this manner. 3. Enliven a positive mindset — recall and hold a pleasing and fond incident or memory and/or invoke gratitude and a feeling of love. Keep that feeling in your mind and heart. Continue your heart focused breathing. 4. Hold that positive mindset and relax in that space for 3 minutes or more. You can stay in this condition as long as you are comfortable. Notice how your body and mind continue to unwind and de-stress. 5. Slowly open your eyes — and consciously re-enter the physical space you are in. Acknowledge your strengthened coherence between your heart and mind. Gently move your body and resume your day with renewed energy and insight. What happened to Bill and his challenging project? He incorporated the 5 mind-heart coherence steps into the beginning of his strategy meetings. He shared the bold and potentially hugely rewarding venture with his team. Indeed, his team stood with him as they took on the biggest and riskiest project in their company history. They exchanged ideas, outlined opportunities and pitfalls that are inherent in the ambitious venture. They bonded and felt safe to share, innovate and co-create. Now six months later, they have secured the foundation of what will be the next step forward in their company’s future. Even a solid team needs a boost when the stakes are very high. In our assessment review, Bill gave me a high five as we celebrated the enthusiastic reception to what was a perilous journey. They are not home yet, but they know the way, and the 5 mind-heart coherence steps are now part of their meeting protocol. The heart in leadership is now part of their company culture. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
0 Comments
By Kristin Baird
In traditional training approaches, 85 percent of the organization’s effort takes place during a single, one-and-done event. Only five percent of the effort and resources are devoted to follow-up after the “event.” For training to stick, here’s our recommended approach for where to place your time and energy:
To achieve this balanced approach, you must be carefully plan training to be effective. When I look at organizations with the highest success rate for making training stick, they all have one thing in common. They plan for how they will weave the training into the fabric of the organization. It doesn’t matter whether it’s customer service training or adapting to a new computer system. The new skills need to become a way of life at the organization. Here are our four keys to making it stick. START WITH THE LEADERSHIP Connecting leadership is key to success. Help staff understand why the training is needed, how it will take place, and what will be taught. Leaders should see the entire program that the front line will be trained on. They should be prepared to reinforce the training immediately after it occurs. Leaders should also be prepared to coach and mentor staff about the program so they can help make it stick. You won’t gain the necessary traction in the culture, if leaders aren’t fully on board or aren’t prepared to effectively coach. A practice we like to incorporate with leaders is identifying tough situations or questions that staff may face. Leaders often need to discuss how they will handle resistance. We coach them to walk through these situations. Preparing for these “what if” scenarios upfront. It will help leaders gain focus. The act of “rehearsing” a response prepares them for potentially real situations that may emerge. It helps them to stay on message with confidence. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Skill building is best done with live practice in an interactive manner and in an environment where attendees can get feedback. In a digital world, we’re often quick to assume that doing everything online is best. When it comes to this type of training, though, that’s not the case. Remember, we’re in a service-oriented, people-centered, business. We interact with patients when they are at their most vulnerable. To manage the interactions effectively, we need to practice, in person, with real people. We need to become adept at reading nonverbal cues. We need to practice giving and receiving feedback. That doesn’t happen online. We all learn best by doing. MAKE IT PERSONAL Sharing personal stories and personal reflections helps to make the training stick. During our busy days, it’s easy for new skills to get swept aside for familiar routines, but connection to purpose will make your training memorable and give it a sense of importance. Stories help make that connection to purpose. In addition to helping leaders to build their storytelling skills, we give attendees a challenge. We ask them to think of one thing that they are going to do differently after the training. We also tell them that their unit leader is going to be asking them about that personal commitment. Making it personal takes the training from the head to the heart and hands. It moves them from thinking about service concepts, to thinking about how they’re going to put these behaviors into play with the customers they serve. Remember, not all employees have patients, but all of them have customers. We also encourage all unit managers to speak with staff after they attend the training to learn what change they are working on. DELIVER A BIG DOSE Timing can be a challenge when you’re training hundreds or thousands of employees. It can take significant planning and organizing to get everyone through the training. Taking a trickle approach, offering one or two classes at a time, and spreading the training out over several months, risks losing momentum. Focus on getting the training completed in a relatively short period of time. Harness the momentum and create a palpable shift in the organization. This is much more likely when there is a big dose delivered all at once. A single training session won’t get lasting results. What you must strive for is a culture shift—a culture focused on unwavering accountability for delivering exceptional patient experiences, every day, every time, with every encounter. Creating a consistently positive customer experience requires training that builds skills but engages staff in a strong connection to purpose. Everyone needs some early wins. When done right, and reinforced by observant leaders, training will support the early win. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
There’s an old saying among professional boxers: “Champions don’t become champions in the ring; they are merely recognized there.” The implication, of course, is that the hard work of winning happens during an intense training regimen. The blood, sweat, and tears on the gym floor; the relentless planning for every possible scenario; the sacrifice and careful preparation. This is the stuff that ultimately enables victory. Professional athletes achieve at the highest levels by spending 90% of their time training and 10% of their time performing. In most areas of life, however, we do the exact opposite. In fact, most business leaders, parents, and professionals spend closer to zero percent of their time in thoughtful study of their craft or training for improvement. Instead, we labor through the days in full-exertion mode and then wonder why we fail to reach our full potential. Imagine a star tennis player who never trained and only stepped foot on the court during major tournaments. Or a pro football player who never bothered with conditioning, learning the plays, or running drills with his teammates. Predictably, these athletes would unravel in a spectacular fashion. Which is exactly what we do when we fail to commit the time and energy to our own personal development. While you probably don’t have the luxury of devoting 90% of your days to training, carving out just 5-10% of your time for focused improvement will quickly improve your performance. If you are in sales, spend a few hours each week in role-playing sessions and carefully practicing your pitch. If you write code, spend time studying others’ work, attending hackathons, and forcing yourself to solve complex problems. Simply put, a training regimen will jettison your career to the next level. Just like the pro athletes who develop a written training program with specific maneuvers and goals, you should be taking the same, proactive approach for your own career. Reading books, attending lectures (or watching them online), running “drills,” solving practice problems, doing simulations with colleagues, and even trying to decode your competitors’ approach are all helpful exercises to include in your training plan. If you have the discipline to improve yourself without the prodding of others, you will quickly fly past those who lack the ambition to push themselves to becoming world-class. As the Spartan Warrior Creed professes, “Sweat more in training, bleed less in war.” Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Laurie Guest
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Fake it ‘til you make it.” It’s a reminder that even when you don’t feel like you can perform at your best, sometimes just acting like it will make it so. When it comes to busting out of our service fatigue rut and getting back to customer service excellence, I call it being Showtime ready, and trust me: it makes all the difference. What is showtime?Consider a theater in which the actors waiting behind the curtain to go on do not get along well. There may be personal conflict or performance stress, but when they step on stage, they have lines to say and a role to play in order to give the audience an enjoyable experience. You’ll never observe an actor step out of character, look out into the audience, and say, “Hey, you think he’s a nice guy? You have no idea what he’s really like.” It simply would not happen in the theater! The same is true for business. How often do we tell the customer things that happen behind the curtain that they don’t need to know? Once the lights go on and the open sign is on the door, it’s showtime. Show up in your costume (your business attire). Use the scripts you’ve been given (the right words at the right time for a desired result). Give your audience (your guest) the best possible experience no matter how many times you’ve recited those lines or completed that task. Use Showtiming to Bust OutWhen it’s showtime, it’s go time. But service fatigue can keep us from summoning the energy it takes to truly be “game ready” at the start of each new day. This is where it’s important to put mind over matter, to get into a showtiming state of mind even if it doesn’t come naturally. Give yourself a pep talk. Take a few deep breaths. Do what you need to do to shift your mindset and your attitude so that as soon as you’re open for business, you’re ready for showtime. Because the reality is, if you can shift your attitude, it’s actually very difficult not to raise your energy levels and bust through your service fatigue. If you pump yourself up for your day like a professional athlete or stadium performer before a big event, the energy and enthusiasm are sure to follow. So here’s your homework for this session: commit to showtime every day next week. Get your whole team on board if you can! Making a commitment to a showtime attitude trains your brain to recognize that when it’s “game on,” it’s time to perform at your best. And if your coworkers, staff and teammates are on board, all the better. Showtiming is contagious, and no one wants to be left out of the party! And if you think I’m crazy for suggesting you rally your team to get into a showtime mentality, take the office manager of a clinic who saw me speak once about this. Weeks after my keynote, she reached out to say the office staff had started a daily ritual: every morning before the clinic opened, the staff gathered in a huddle for a team cheer, hands in the center and “Showtime!” shouted in unison. After a few weeks of this? “Our energy was higher, and people were showing up to work on time. Even though it was a silly little thing we were doing, we were serving our patients better because we had a showtime mentality,” she said. The exhaustion you’re feeling is real, and there’s no single way to bust out of it. While you work on setting boundaries and getting enough rest, consider committing to a showtime mentality—whether you’re ready to or not!—to get back to the customer service excellence your guests, customers and clients deserve. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Ron Culberson. With a master’s degree in social work, Ron Culberson spent the first part of his career working in a large hospice organization as a clinical social worker, middle manager, and senior leader. As a speaker, humorist, and author of "Do it Well. Make it Fun.The Key to Success in Life, Death, and Almost Everything in Between", he has delivered more than 1,000 presentations to associations, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and corporations. His mission is to change the workplace culture so that organizations are more productive and staff are more content. He was also the 2012-2013 president of the National Speakers Association and is a recognized expert on the benefits of humor and laughter.
When I was a kid, I didn’t think my life would be complete until I was famous. I’m not exactly sure why I thought fame was a worthy goal. Perhaps curing cancer, inventing the internet, or even creating a way to have healthy teeth without flossing would have been worthwhile endeavors. Seeking fame for fame’s sake seems a tad bit shallow. Nonetheless, as a teenager with no fear of failure and a total lack of worldly knowledge, I devised a plan to become famous. I did an inventory of my skills and determined several key attributes. I was funny. I was good at performing in front of other people. And I had memorized all of Steve Martin’s albums. So, I decided to be Steve Martin. I don’t mean that I had planned to become Steve Martin. I just figured that I could perform his act for any group that couldn’t afford him. The act was very good and I was very cheap. It was a perfect formula for success. I couldn’t imagine what would stand in my way. At this point, many of you are wondering how I even got into college. It’s a valid conundrum. Amazingly, I attended the University of Virginia, one of the top public schools in the country. But since I grew up in a very rural and impoverished part of the state, I believe my acceptance to The University had something to do with a quota system for students from the very rural impoverished part of the state where I grew up. However, that’s a discussion for another blog. Suffice it to say that my plan to be Steve Martin, while in many ways simplistically brilliant, did not materialize. And in hindsight, I suspect we can all breathe a sigh of relief. In fact, I’d probably still be in litigation. So, without the need to purchase a second white suit and more rabbit ears, I took the non-famous path of attending college and working in a variety of interesting jobs. In the late 80’s, I started speaking at conferences because I had developed a presentation on “Humor in the Workplace.” I was still funny in a not-at-all-like-Steve-Martin way, and my message of work-life balance was something people would actually pay for. Ironically, after getting some traction with this topic, I thought I might actually achieve some level of fame after all. This idea was reinforced during one of my early engagements when I spoke at a conference in rural Maine. The event was held at a local bowling alley and conference center. The marquee out front read, “Welcome Ron Culberson” and “Try Our New 7-10 Split Nachos.” As I drove into the parking lot, I was convinced that this was a sign (literally) that I had finally arrived and perhaps one day, my name would be in lights at a bowling alley and conference center in Las Vegas. Again, I refer you to the fact that I probably had help getting into college. Well, my name didn’t appear on any more marquees. And while I’ve enjoyed a long fulfilling career, my path to success did not lead to fame. That being said, I do occasionally run into people who say, “Oh, I’ve heard of you.” But, let’s be clear. I do not have paparazzi in front of my house and I’ve never been recognized in the produce section of the grocery store. I have, on occasion, run into someone who knows me in the beer section, however. Maybe that counts for something. Anyway, while I no longer have the desire to pursue fame, I do still question my ultimate life goal. One day, while I was pondering this very idea in of all places, the produce section of the grocery store, I remembered the many funerals I had attended when I worked in hospice care. Some were packed to the brim with people wanting to pay their respect to the deceased. It occurred to me that having hundreds of people attend my funeral would be a great goal to pursue. It would not suggest that I was famous but it sure would show that I was popular, right? When you think about it, a funeral is a great reflection of someone’s life. Unless, of course, it’s done poorly. I once attended a funeral where the officiant kept referring to the deceased by the wrong name. Who does that? If there is one simple bit of information that anyone can capture during the post-death, pre-funeral planning phase, it’s the dead person’s name. I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s usually printed right there on the program. Geez. As I contemplated this new goal of a packed funeral, I realized that there could be a problem with my plan. You see, I come from a family with good genes. My parents lived into their 90’s. So conceivably, I might outlive many of the people who would have attended my funeral. To me, the risk of a poorly attended funeral would be a huge letdown after a lifetime of pursuing a standing-room-only sendoff. And that brings me to a weirdly coincidental experience I had a few weeks ago. One of my volunteer roles is to operate the camcorder for my church. I record the weekly church services and occasionally record a special event or funeral. Recently, I operated the camcorder at the funeral of a woman who had attended our church. She did not have any family but a handful of friends attended the funeral. Eight years before her death, this woman had started showing signs of dementia. With no family available, her friends became her support system. They assisted her around the house and kept an eye on her diminishing mental condition. Eventually, she needed more support and these same friends helped her transition to the memory care unit of a local nursing home. However, they never abandoned her. Even after she moved, they remained committed to her care and helped with her legal and financial responsibilities. As I listened to several of these friends speak during the service that day, it occurred to me that this might be a better goal for my life—to have friends who would take care of me when I am no longer able to care for myself. I got excited by the idea and immediately made a mental list of the people who would be the best choices for my support system. I figured I needed to start grooming them for this very important role. Then, it hit me. I had it all wrong. My goal in life should not be focused on luring a group of people to be my caregivers. Instead, maybe I should be the type of person who cares for others. If I am able to support a family member, a friend, or a neighbor, then fame and the number of people who attend my funeral would be moot—because, at that point, I would have already achieved my goal. In the end, perhaps that’s what it’s all about for each one of us—for life to not be all about us! That’s such a profound concept, it might actually make me famous. Wink. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By LeAnn Thieman. This was originally published on LeAnn's blog.
A man was admitted into the hospital where he worked. He was receiving IV therapy for a staph infection and was surprised when one of his pals from pharmacy hand-delivered the next liter….with three goldfish circling inside! He, his buddy, and his nurse laughed themselves silly. Then he schemed, “Don’t tell the nurses on the next shift about the fish.” At the change of shift, he hung the bag on the IV pole and taped tubing from it to his IV line so it appeared to be connected. Then he pressed his call button and said, “My IV has a problem.” A newly hired nurse, recently out of school, entered the room and started checking the IV site at his wrist, as trained to do. Seeing no problem, she traced the line upwards, checking each connection. As she got half way up multiple tubes, the movement of one of the fish caught her eye. She shrieked so loudly that the patient jumped higher than she did! Even the fish jumped! Then they all laughed…and laughed…and laughed. The day after, a patient from the adjacent room stopped at his doorway. “You know, I’ve been in the hospital a lot recently, but this was absolutely my best hospitalization.” “Why is that?” he asked. “Because laughter is good medicine. Nurses and patients need a dose more often.” Now, I’m not advocating “fish therapy” or practical jokes at work. But I am advocating laughter to help us all heal. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By John O'Leary. This was originally posted on JohnOLearyInspires.com. When John O'Leary was 9 years old, he suffered burns over 100% of his body and was expected to die. He is now an inspirational speaker and bestselling author, teaching more than 50,000 people around the world each year how to live inspired. John's first book, ON FIRE: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life was published March 15, 2016. John is a contributing writer for Huff Post and Parade.com. John is a proud husband and father of four and resides in St. Louis, MO. Order John’s book today anywhere books are sold.
Several years ago, I was getting ready for work when my son, Jack, walked into the bathroom as I was shaving. As a five-year-old boy, he stood next to me for a while pretending he, too, was getting rid of the “stubble” on his cheeks. But then he stopped pretending and began gently touching the scars that cover my torso. These are the deep red scars, with ridges and lumps that traverse my stomach. These are the scars that even today I often avoid looking at because they’re just too painful. These are the scars that remind me of all I went through and would rather forget. But on this day Jack traced with his little finger the scars that are evidence of all I’ve gone through in my life. And he said: “Daddy?” “Yeah, bud?” There was a long pause as he continued tracing his finger along the scars and slowly said, “Your tummy is red… it’s bumpy… and it’s ridgy…” Little Jack stopped his sentence, but kept tracing the scars. During that pause, I prepared to let him know that Dad might be different, but that it was okay. That I was burned as a kid, but it was fine. I readied to explain away what I imagined to be his fear and anxiety. Before I assuaged his alarm, Jack added: “And Daddy, I love it! I just love your red, bumpy, ridgy tummy!” Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that. Jack somehow saw beauty, hope, and even joy in those scars. He saw what made me different, as something that didn’t negatively define me. He saw something that could easily be perceived as ugly, as something that set me apart and somehow made me even more lovable. So, my friends, when you look at your life, what do see? When you read the headlines, what leaps off at you? While you visit with family, or work with colleagues or commute through life, what do you see? It turns out what we choose to see matters. If we look for negativity, divisiveness, ugliness and evidence of mean-spiritedness, we’ll find it everywhere. Conversely, when we seek opportunity, unity, beauty and evidence of people doing good, we find it everywhere. What we seek, we find. Choose today to be honest enough to identify brokenness within your life, but courageous enough to make it better. Choose to see intensifying wrinkles and a growing waistline not merely as evidence of advancing age, but as indication of greater wisdom and further validation of the miracle of your life. Choose to embrace the disappointments and setbacks as opportunities to learn important lessons, a chance to turn a page and the impetus to begin writing a new, even more beautiful chapter in your life. Choosing to see life like this doesn’t make challenges fade. It just ensures the next time you glance into a mirror, struggle in a relationship or feel discouraged by life you can honestly proclaim, “It may be red, it may be bumpy, it may be ridgy, it may be far from perfect…but I love it.” And that kind of perspective not only changes what you see, but also what happens next in life. This is your day. Live Inspired. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
Never being late … that’s not realistic. It’s going to happen. It’s not a question of if. It’s when. But you might say, “It’s not my fault!” And maybe it’s not. For example, you may be driving to a lunch meeting, and a car accident shuts down the highway making you. And it’s not just about arriving late to a commitment. It could be a delay in shipping a product. Maybe a customer orders something three days before Christmas. You ship it out that day, but the backup at the post office causes a delay. Or perhaps there is a supply issue, and you can’t get the parts to manufacture your products. None of these scenarios are your fault, but the customer doesn’t always see it that way. All the customer knows is that you were late. I would agree that there is nothing you can do about being late in some cases, but there are steps you can take to keep your customer happy – at least somewhat happy. It’s pretty simple. Be proactive and reach out to the customer before they notice the problem. And when you do inform, consider this as you compose your message:
So, call the customer when you hit the traffic versus two minutes before you are supposed to be at lunch. Track the shipments on behalf of your customers and let them know when their package is supposed to arrive. And if there are supply issues, you typically learn in advance, so let your customers know, too. Never being late is not realistic. “Stuff” happens. It’s how you handle it that’s important. It’s simple. Just tell them. Never being late is the goal, and always keeping the customer informed is required. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! |
Archives
June 2024
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed