Author: Seth

Executive A PLUS… Leadership Coaching

Executive A Plus™ Leadership Coaching

Our professionals, custom-design a specific coaching plan for each of our clients throughout the world.
The plan is built around your:
  • Vision
  • Goals
  • Strengths and
  • Areas targeted for improvement.
As coaches:
  • we ask questions
  • we listen more than we speak, and after all the information has been gathered…
  • we help you set a course that works for you.

Our coaching helps improve:

  1. Work Performance
  2. Relationships,
  3. Leadership
  4. Life Balance and
  5. Overall Perspective about your place in this world.

 

Talent… What is your approach?

What is your approach to Talent Acquisition, Management & Development:

Ready Aim Shoot…or Ready Shoot Aim?

In today’s competitive talent pool if a company is looking to acquire and retain the best talent it must realize that it’s not the same as it was when our parents and even grandparents were in the work-a-day world.   Once upon a time, business organizations were much like sports franchises, made up of “franchise players” that made outstanding contributions, would never think about leaving and retired from the organization they were with for many years.  In the sports world, their uniform jerseys and numbers would be enshrined and in the business world the employee would be celebrated with a dinner and a gold watch.  It certainly isn’t the same today!

Today’s business world is much like the sports world… “Free Agency”.  Statistically, employees today are far less likely to retire from the same organization they began their adult careers with.  Employees are looking for better career growth opportunities, vibrant organizational cultures and not necessarily more money.  Organizations are looking for the best talent and “talent-value”.

So, the question is… “How do we acquire & retain the best talent”?

There is an interdependence between your culture and how you approach recruiting, development and retention.  Today, more and more people are making their job decisions based upon an organization’s culture.

Have you defined your organization’s culture?

Recruiting Talent:

Your hiring decisions will impact your culture. You will either have a… “culture by design or a culture by default” based upon your talent management decisions.  Does the candidate possess the hard skills and the soft skills that “fit your culture” and will they be a long-term solution to your current and future needs, and your organization’s strategy?

Note:  The person that you hire will do one of the following to your organization:

1.          Strengthen your organization

2.         Maintain the status quo

3.          Weaken your organization.

Establish a written benchmark or profile for the position that needs to be filled including: education, experience, hard skills and soft skills necessary to effectively perform the job.

Resumes and references can provide perspective of a person’s education and experience. Assessments can also be useful tools to get a glimpse of a potential recruit’s behavioral style, values, thinking style and behavioral attitudes to name a few.  These assessments may also provide a view of what may be “hidden under the surface” that are not easily observable from a resume or work history.  Profile Assessments can also be time and cost-effective, especially when a benchmark of the behaviors, values, attitudes etc. are used to filter candidates.

Design a very intentional interview process that will not only test a candidates IQ and technical knowledge but also their EQ.

In today’s world, a person with just the technical know-how is not enough.  A person must be able to communicate, cooperate and collaborate. Emotional Intelligence is being recognized more and more as an essential trait necessary for consideration.

Retaining Talent…

Engagement should be a primary emphasis in retaining good talent.  Engagement reflects the level or intensity of an employees enthusiasm and commitment alignment with the vision, mission

The first question that needs to be asked is…”How important are my employees to me and the organization”?  The second question is…”

There are some job sectors today such as the education and medical fields that have more positions than there are people to fit those positions.  In a recent conversation with a county school superintendent, he told me that he practically must hire everyone that applies just to fill teaching positions.  He’s challenged by the fact that he superintendent of a rural and lower income school district.  Plus, there aren’t all the social, cultural, entertainment and community opportunities that many young people out of college are beating down the doors to move to for the rest of their careers.  Thus, they take the job for a year or so, get some experience and then move on to a “better position”.

In the auto industry, the NADA came out with a report a couple of year ago, that

Leadership

You can tell if you need a Leadership Training & Development Process if….

Jeff Foxworthy, the famous comedian is well known for his one-liners, “You can tell you’re a Redneck if…”, followed by a hilarious tongue-in-cheek one-liner that is supposedly a reflection of the “redneck culture”.   Some people will make broad statements like… “all southerners are rednecks” or “all rednecks are southerners”.  Neither statement is true.  We do tend to pigeonhole people groups geographically or socially, based upon their values, behavior, preferences, food, faith, attitudes and more.  It’s the way they conduct “everyday life”.  That is called “culture”. 

The same thing applies to an organization’s culture.  These are the attitudes, core values, preferences, policies and so on.  It’s the way your organization conducts everyday business and your customers will pigeonhole your organization based upon your culture. 

Leadership’s Role:  Your leadership team, executives, managers supervisors, team leaders, are the ones that you trust to serve as positive examples of your culture to the rest of the organization and of course impacting your customers.  Whether your leaders insist that your core values and guiding principles are in fact practiced, will determine if your culture is a “culture by design” or a “culture by default”.

Questions to ask yourself:  Are our leaders, “leading by example” when it comes to maintaning and perpetuating your culture?  Do our leaders and mangers insist that current employees possess and practice the values, behavioral attitudes and personality that will accurately represent the culture we desire?  Are we screening new hires to be sure that they have the personality, values and attitudes to fit our culture?  Is our culture a living and active part of our daily activities?  Or… is it just a bunch of slogans and empty principles and ideals listed on a poster somewhere? 

In our business, and daily lives we face some not-so-funny issues , challenges and problems.  Often it is just a lack of good leadership to help solve those issues.  Many times our leaders and managers don’t have the hard and soft skills to recognize and solve problems.    

So… How do we know if we need a leadership training development process? 

The answer is…You need a leadership development, training and coaching process if…

  1. Your “outside” and “inside” customers are saying that you need leadership training.

Outside Customers:  In many organizations, the effectiveness of their business is reflected in customer surveys sales surveys, product surveys conducted internally or provided by companies such as J.D. Powers, Gallup and others.  Your level of customer loyalty is a very accurate gauge of their satisfaction with the product or service itself, your policies and procedures and how your organization’s personnel treat them. 

Different industries may have different acronyms but the bottom line is the same.  If your organization is not meeting the needs and expectations of your customers, they will likely take their business somewhere else.  In addition, you will not get the referral business that is vital to every organization.   Leadership in this case is not paying attention to the signs and making the appropriate changes or adjustments.  This is perhaps the most costly sign of a lack of leadership.

  • Ask yourself… “Are we paying attention to these surveys?  And…How are we making appropriate targeted responses”?

Inside Customers:  Are your employees engaged and passionate about their work?  Your employees can be a direct reflection or your leaderships’ engagement and passion for their work.  

Questions to ask yourself:  Are you having a retention problem?  Is there an inordinate amount of absenteeism?  Are your employees wanting to make long-term commitments to your organization?  How many employees have been with your organization for ten years, twenty years?  Is there employee commitment to quality in products or services?   Overall, how is your employees’ satisfaction with your organization’s products, services, policies, procedures and management practices?  Do your employees trust your organization and managers?  Do they feel that your organization practices fairness and justice?

Yes, your current employees, the very people who work for you, the ones who experience the effectiveness of your “leaders” every day, can provide you with very accurate and honest input when surveyed properly.

Employee Exit Interview is one often neglected and excellent source of information.  Employees become disgruntled and leave their organizations for a plethora of reasons, some valid and some not so valid.  It could be because of a lack of passion and engagement by management.  Perhaps the employee does not trust management or feel that there is a lack of fairness and justice in the workplace.  Organizations that take the opportunity to perform a proper exit interview will in many cases uncover issues, patterns or trends, that over time and proper response could save them in some cases millions of dollars and the loss of some very valuable talent. 

Ask yourself… Can I afford not to perform regular and carefully designed employee surveys and… exit interviews with every employee who leaves our organization?

2. Your management staff is saying they need and / or want it.Is there a “leadership vacuum” when leaders are absent or on vacation?  Do you, and or your managers, supervisors or leaders receive phone calls during their days off or on weekends, because other supervisors are not trained to solve problems or handle conflicts? 

  • If you have senior executives, managers or supervisors who are planning to retire and there has been no discussion or planning pertaining to the replacement and or succession of those individuals, then you probably need it.
  • Managers complain about one another that they don’t trust one another, can’t work together or someone is always trying to micro-manage them.

3. You have a lot of turnover with executives, managers or supervisors.

  • Is your organization losing talent because other organizations are pirating them, promising them a career track for promotion or offering them training to enhance their “promotability”? 
  • Managers see a lack of true commitment, passion and engagement from the top to support excellence and live the culture.
  • You are spending a great deal of resources trying to hire rather than train and retain the talent you already have.  Research over the years has shown that it is much cheaper to train and retain the right talent than to hire from the “outside”.

Strengths & Weakness or Your Leadership Pool:

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your leadership pool?  How deep is your leadership pool?  Is it a shallow “wading pool”?  Or…is it deep and wide, fully capable of providing your organization with qualified and capable leaders for the future?

So… Who needs Leadership Training & Coaching?

Brian Molitor, founder and CEO of Molitor International in Midland, Michigan says that… “Everyone can use Leadership Training and Coaching.  All Executives, Managers, Supervisors and Leaders have skill sets that need improvement.  Everyone needs leadership training and coaching.” 

Solutions:  We have the tools!

We have a variety of tools available to assess the leadership team individually and / or collectively.  Assessments can be utilized individually or in tandem to provide in-depth metrics of a leader or prospective leader’s strengths and weaknesses.  These metrics are then used as a basis to prescribe an action plan for training and coaching.

Click on each topic:

  • “Executive A-Plus” – Leadership assessment and coaching program
  • “Leadership That Lasts” – 3-Day Leadership Seminar
  • DISC  Leadership Profile…Powered by PeopleKeys
  • DISC D-4 Leadership Profile…Powered by PeopleKeys
  • TEAMS Style Profile…Powered by PeopleKeys
  • •”Barriers To Bridges” – 2-Day Team Building Seminar
  • Team Dynamic Profile…Powered by PeopleKeys
  • DISC-based Leadership Workshop…Powered by PeopleKeys
  •  

What is Organizational Culture

Organizational or Corporate Culture

What is Organizational or Corporate Culture?

“Culture” may be defined as a reflection of the heart and the state of mind of an organization which consciously and unconsciously dictates the way an organization pursues its goals and does business. Culture is a direct reflection of the organization’s attitude toward their internal and external customers.  Culture is also defined by the degree of shared passion, commitment and execution of a common vision, mission, core values and standards.  It defines an organization’s attitude, practices and approach to the initiation and execution of organizational policies, procedures and the delivery or presentation of the product or services they provide.

Whether you realize it or not your organization already has a culture.  The question is… by design or default”?  What kind of “culture do we have”?

Is our organization… “Thriving… Surviving… or Diving”?

Some questions to ask yourself:

  • Are our mission and values just a slogan or are they the way we pursue our goals and conduct our business.
  • Have we consciously defined and intentionally cultivated a positive culture?
  • Are our hiring and talent management decisions congruent with our culture?
  • Are we a… “destination employer” with little turnover, where our employees want to come and stay?  Are people lined up to join our organization?
  • Are we a… “fast-food employer” and serve as a short-term stop along the way in our employees’ careers”? 
  • Do we have a problem with absenteeism?
  • Do our employees feel like ‘human beings’ or ‘human doings’?  Are they treated like something of great value or a paper cup that can be tossed away?
  • Do our employees do “just enough” or do they cheerfully go the extra mile to produce results?
  • Do we communicate well with our employees and community we serve?
  • Do our employees and customers trust us?
  • Do we actively listen to our employees and customers?
  • Are there quality relationships in our organization?
  • Do we tolerate conflict and gossip?
  • Do we encourage creativity and risk taking?
  • Are we genuinely interested in knowing … “the good, the bad and the ugly” about our organization and want to continually improve?
  • Do we conduct customer, employee surveys and employee exit interviews?
  • Do our customers and suppliers complain about how they are treated?
  • Have we made a “Conscious and Intentional” effort to create a positive work environment?

If the questions above created any doubt, then your culture should probably be evaluated.

A strong and healthy culture does not happen by accident.  It will only come from conscious, deliberate decisions and a sincere willingness to listen and to change.  We have the tools to evaluate your organization and the skills to assist you in creating a healthy and productive culture.  Call or email me today!