Let's Build Engagement Together

Effective management is the cornerstone of effective employees.  Most people can think back to when they worked for a manager that was ineffective.  When asking people to describe a bad, or ineffective manager, words like mean, self-centered, arrogant, and overbearing are often used.  However, the other end of the spectrum is just as true for ineffectiveness.  Managers who are withdrawn, disengaged, and apathetic will also not get the results that the organization needs.  Many times, managers become managers because they were either good at something unrelated to managing people (i.e. building widgets) or they were just such a good person that they deserved a shot.  Effectiveness and being a good person, or even a great widget maker, are completely different from one another.  Effective management can be defined simply as the ability to accomplish the right work in a timely manner through others.  It is the "through others" part that makes it tough for a lot of people.  Individual performers have a tendency, when promoted, to continue to perform individually.  They do not have a tendency to make a magical change into a great manager because of the title.  Particularly when you account for the attitudes of the multiple generations, you will see that effectiveness will behave differently for each unique group of people being managed, and in some cases will have to be adapted to each individual.

Young people (Millenials and Gen-Xers) are not inclined to automatically respect a person because of their age or their title.  The Boomers and Traditionalists had a tendency to show respect based on rank.  This stems from the reality that more than 60% of males in the traditionalist generation were active-duty military and learned the rank system as the chain of authority.  This could be referred to as "job definition" authority.  After job definition, people tend to rely on expertise.  This has been frustrating for the multiple generations because older generations describe the expertise as experience, while younger generations define it by education.  The third type of authority in management is "contractual" authority.  This would be used in a case where someone is contracted to assist with an area.  The expectation is that they are given authority because the company trusts them.  In each of these three types, there is a fundamental flaw in today's workforce.  That flaw is that employees are expected to blindly give commitment before there is any proof that it is a good idea.  This leads us to the fourth type of authority - "relationship" authority.  This authority is based on the idea that managers have demonstrated that they care about the employee and are earnestly seeking to provide the best environment for them to achieve success in.  Relationship authority is the only type that appeals across the board to followers, regardless of their generation.  It is not the easiest to implement, but it is the only one that leads to employee engagement.  If our goal is to accomplish the right work through others, then we have to understand how to engage them, and we have to develop the right skills in ourselves and our management team.  Development should always be from the very top-down.  This may not be possible for the CEO to participate in all development sessions, but it makes a profound impact on how seriously the rest of the team takes the development.  There are 12 basic skill-sets and 6 advanced skill-sets that need to be developed in any leader/manager to assist them in becoming effective.  

The first 12 skill-sets are taught through the Leadership Academy Program...

1. Generational Differences: The new face of diversity in the workplace is not just one of color and ethnicity, but one of age. The greatest diversity challenge we will face for the next decade is the integration of four generations into a cohesive and effective work team.
2. Communications: Effective leaders understand the nature and characteristics of effective communication. Participants will learn the cues of non-verbal communication and how to project appropriate messages with non-verbal cues as well as why people interpret the same messages differently...
3. Employee Motivation: Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces. Motivated employees help organizations survive and thrive. To create this more productive environment, managers and leaders must understand the principles and psychology of motivation.
4. Coaching: Most managers intellectually accept the value of coaching. How to coach is another matter. Participants will learn the most effective skills of coaching employees. Coaching enables a manager/leader to propel their employees in the right direction, reinforce good behaviors, and pro-actively eliminate bad behaviors.
5. Conflict Resolution: Conflict is a common event in business settings. There is good conflict and bad conflict. Which way it is seen is determined by the way it is faced? Good Conflict Resolution builds stronger and more cohesive organizations and more rewarding relationships. Effective Conflict Resolution is teachable.
6. Corrective Counseling: Participants will learn how to facilitate their employees' improvement, instead of merely disciplining them. The course covers when and how to apply corrective action, and provides strategies for motivating employees to improve. Learning the proper techniques moves a leader from facing rebellion to employees who desire to follow.
7. Problem Solving: Participants will learn the basics of identifying and solving problems. By using these techniques, participants can start to tackle problems that might otherwise seem huge, overwhelming, and excessively complex.
8. Setting Goals: Through interactive learning, participants are exposed to Work-life Balance skills to better manage both projects and relationships. The outcomes for the individual are more control, value, and balance in the professional and personal lives.
9. Group Decision Making: Many groups meet to solve problems or make decisions. An awareness of how decisions are made and what prompts groups (teams) to move in particular directions is critical to effective leadership.
10. Building Effective Teams: People in every workplace talk about building a team, working as a team, and belonging to a team, but few understand how to create the experience of teamwork or how to develop an effective team. Participants will learn the why and the how of team building as well as the systematic process of a team.
11. Priority Management: Effective Priority Management skills are essential for success. These skills are the practical techniques that have helped leaders in all industries and sectors to reach the pinnacle of their success. Without effective prioritization and task management, time manages us.
12. Ethics and Values: The best leaders exhibit both values and ethics in their leadership style and actions. A leader’s values become evident by the behaviors (habits) they exhibit. Understanding what a leader is portraying will enable them to develop and expand credibility with their teams.

The 6 advanced skill sets are taught through the Lead-2-Inspire Series...

1. Leadership Defined – It used to be a common belief that all great leaders look alike.  They had the same skill set, thought patterns, and behavioral tendencies.  Very few people believe that today.   In order to become effective as leaders, we must understand what it is that we are trying to become.  The practical skills and behaviors of a leader are what make up the perception that others have of them as a leader.  The first course in this series defines leadership, its behaviors, attitudes, and practical functions. 
2. Leadership Styles – Each of us brings our own “style” of leadership to the table.  Understanding our style, what it means, and how it affects others will give us the foundation necessary to learn to read people, adapt to their needs, and manage our style.  There are very distinct style categories that we fit into.  These style categories have consistent behavior sets with them.  Therefore, once we understand what category style we belong to, we can better manage the results we get from others.
3. Strategic Thinking -  A person’s thoughts lead to their decisions, which lead to their behaviors, which lead to their results.  That means that if we can purposefully control how we think, then we will ultimately control how we succeed.  In business and in life, strategic thought processes change our outcomes.  As we develop our skills in broadening our thinking, we will begin to view the world differently.  We will develop the ability to dig deeper and better evaluate all of the possible angles for both problems and opportunities.  No challenge is overcome without strategic thought and action.
4. Leading with Clarity Rather than Certainty – There are hosts of leaders in this world that are absolutely certain about being right, about the direction they are going, about who they are to the world.  There are very few, however, that is truly clear in the right direction.  Developing clarity in business enables a leader to make the right decisions for the right reasons.  Only having certainty will cloud the judgment of a leader, often keeping them on the wrong path.  As our businesses are developed, it is critical to be clear on what is best for all stakeholders.
5. Employee Engagement – Approximately half of our workforce is actively disengaged.  This means that they are not satisfied, motivated, or committed, and they are certainly not an advocate for our organization.  This course establishes the stages that employees must go through and how to transition them through those stages into an engaged and accountable workforce.  You will learn what engagement is, what managers and leaders do to create it, and what they often do to destroy it.  You will also learn how to maintain an engaged workforce once you get them there.
6. Transformational Leadership – Creating lasting change within organizations is about the transformation of people, attitudes, and culture.  From understanding who you are as a leader, to recognize your style, to thinking the right way, to engage your teams, you have to be able to change the hearts and minds of the people you lead.   This course walks you through the transformation process and how to build a better organization, that will produce significantly better results than you could have ever thought possible.

Understanding and developing these skills is a process.  It does not happen overnight and the change that happens is incremental.  Each course is designed to build off of the previous one, resulting in a completely new behavior set from the manager/leader.  Be patient, but persistent in the development of your managers and leaders.  It will pay huge dividends in the long run.