Twelve Days of Respect

Ask anyone in your workplace what treatment they most want to experience at work and they will likely top their list with the desire to be valued and treated with respect.

When employees feel valued and respected in the workplace, productivity and employee engagement soars because employees have higher self-esteem around the work that they do.

Now, the interesting thing about respect is that you can’t control when or how others demonstrate respect.  You can only control whether or not you exercise it on a regular basis.  And, when you demonstrate respect you encourage it in others.

So, instead of the Twelve Days of Christmas, we are offering you the Twelve Days of Respect to cultivate respect in your workplace.

1. When you see it, say it. When you observe or experience respectful behaviors, verbalize your appreciation. Call out the specific behaviors that make a difference for you and your team.
2. Show a “can do” attitude. No matter what the situation, take the initiative and the lead, when appropriate.  Your attitude will affect others around you.
3. Be a good listener.  Everyone loves to be around a good listener. Listen to what others have to say. It shows that you care, and that you respect them and their opinions.
4. Respect other’s time. Recognize that everyone is busy, everyone has challenges, and everyone feels pressure.  When you respect other people’s time as much as our own, you earn respect.
5. Encourage fun and laughter. Laugh at yourself or about experiences that you have shared with your team. Laughter elicits good feelings, lightens the load, and bonds the team together.
6. Pay it forward. Be the first to demonstrate respect whether someone has earned it from you or not.  Respectful behaviors given often produce respectful behaviors in return.
7. Empathize. Ask questions out of curiosity to better understand someone else’s situation. Everyone benefits from stepping back and taking the time to walk in another person’s shoes.
8. Be considerate. Good manners make others feel comfortable and are a source of personal power and strength. Be polite. Say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. When you show consideration to others, you make them feel valued.
9. Be on time for meetings. Arrive to meetings a few minutes prior to its start time to send the message that you think the gathering is important. The individual leading the meeting will appreciate your promptness.
10. Speak up when you see behaviors of disrespect. Speak up about observations and experiences of disrespect.  Share the impact that the behavior has on you and your team.  Request the behaviors that you would like to experience and/or observe.  This may take courage and practice, yet speaking up about disrespectful behaviors in a respectful way will earn you respect.
11. Walk the talk of respect. Pay particular attention to the things that you criticize and take an inward look at your own behavior. Demonstrate the behaviors that you desire and admire in others.
12. Honor diversity. Focus on the good traits in everyone. Every personality, including your own, has its positive traits and its negative traits.

Happy Holidays!  Georgine

Happiness at Work

Today my thoughts are on happiness.  Every individual wants to feel it in their life.   Every business wants their customers to experience it in some way. Every employee wants to find it in their work. 

So I decided to do a little research on happiness at work.

Numerous studies show similar findings; that 55% of American workers are unhappy in their jobs.  These same studies also show that employees who are happy have a heightened sense of engagement and are more productive.  

It seems to me that organizations would want to infuse more happiness in their workplace.  So, how do you do that? 

Interestingly, the number one thing that makes us unhappy at work is also the number one thing that makes us happy. Are you ready for it? It is the quality of our workplace relationships.

• How well we get along with our manager and co-workers
• The level to which we feel valued by them
• How well our manager and co-workers communicate with us

Here are three action items that you and/or your team can implement to build happiness at work.

1.   Choose positive thoughts.  The biggest thing that blocks us from happiness is negative emotions such as pessimism, resentment, and anger.  We can shift this by choosing positive emotions, such as empathy, honoring diversity and especially gratitude.

2.   Call out what’s right.  Recognize the strengths of your team and your accomplishments.  Recognize each other.  When a co-worker does something helpful, say it and share with them the impact it has on you.

3.   Learn together. Stay open to new ideas.  Review what you have learned from both positive and negative situations. Choose a job and/or team competency and learn about the skills associated with it.  Learning together provides the perfect forum for improved communications.

You can also call on Madd-Steiny to help you build happiness on your team through our suite of products or a customized learning session just for your team/organization. Our flagship program, respectFULL teams® has proven to be effective in building the quality of workplace relationship.

Happily, Georgine

Times of Change

The first day of autumn is right around the corner.  For me, this season change is my favorite.  I love observing how visible change is and I am always in awe of nature’s beauty.

As an Organizational Development consultant, the topic of change is typically on the agenda with leadership groups.  We all know, intellectually, that change is constant and necessary for growth and development.

Last week I spent the day with a team of executives facilitating a workshop on how to give an engaging presentation.  This leadership competency is core to effectiveness in communication at this level of leadership.

As the group worked through the planning steps of a presentation with current topics, change was on the agenda.  Like other organizations, their industry and thus their company was experiencing rapid and sometimes overwhelming change.  They knew that if they were effective in engaging employees in the change, that the transition through the change would be much smoother.

After the workshop, the feedback from participants showed definite patterns in what the group found most valuable in terms of strategies to engage employees.  Here are a few of their insights.

1.       Understand your audience.  Different levels of employees have different needs in terms of information and what they need for support to implement change.  Objections and/or resistance to change can be simply viewed as an unmet need.  Understand the needs, the questions, the fears, the excitement, and the challenges of your audience and you will find the answers to how to engage them.

2.       Communicate clearly.  During times of change it is just as important to talk about what is not changing as much as talking about what is changing.  Focusing on strengths, mission, productive processes and engrained skills will help individuals feel less overwhelmed with change.  Clearly defining the action items important to progress the change will help individuals stay focused and productive through change.

3.       Facilitate dialogue.  Adults learn best in collaborative environments.  They are naturally problem centered in their learning.  Taking time with teams to discuss different aspects of change and allowing them to collaborate on solutions will engage them.

Warm Regards,

Georgine

Remembrance

With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 nearly upon us, I want to offer up some thoughts in memory of that day.  I believe in the power of love and the incredible resilience of the human spirit.  In spite of all that was lost on that day, both tangible and intangible, there remains a sense of hope and renewal that is at the core of humanity.  I can only imagine how the loved ones left behind in a vapor of loss watched incredulously as the Earth continued to spin.  They must have been certain that all the clocks would stop and the wind would cease, just as the lives of their family and friends had.  And yet, the sun still rises and sets, the leaves still flutter in the wind, the seasons pass, and life goes on.  Therein lies hope.  No matter the pain and suffering, the sun will rise tomorrow and we have another chance to live fully.

The best thing I can do in remembrance is to do just that: live fully and with hope.  So, in that vein, here are my remembrance commitments:

• Be nice and work hard.
• Be of service to others.
• Give more than I take.
• Spend as much time as possible with the ones I love.
• Never give up on hope.
• Laugh.

I would love to hear your remembrance commitments.  Share them with us, please.

In remembrance,

Lynae

Making Amends

The nature of being human includes making mistakes, missteps, or misstatements.  I can attest to being quite human then . . . especially lately.  Anyway, it’s important for us to make amends when we do something that has made someone else:

• Work hard to fix your mistake or clean up your mess
• Feel bad because you said something offensive or hurtful (even if unintentionally so)
• Question your integrity or intentions.

It’s important to make amends because it’s in the best interest of healthy and productive relationships to do so.  Whether in your professional or personal life, making amends and owning your mistakes is an act of commitment to relationship.  It says to others that you know your humanness has “gotten in the way” and you’re sorry.  It also says that you are aware of your shortcomings and are willing to look at them and work to overcome them.  Making amends is a powerful action that also builds trust among colleagues, partners and friends.  Mistakes are easier to forgive when there is an attempt to make amends.

Speaking of forgiveness . . . well, there’s another powerful act of commitment to relationship.  When someone with whom you work or are friends with makes a mistake, and he or she attempts to make amends, choose to forgive.  It takes courage to acknowledge one’s own mistakes.  Give the gift of forgiveness in return.  It’s a gift that will release both of you from feelings of resentment or mistrust.  And, it will hasten the return to productivity, grace and ease in the relationship.  Finally, it might make things that much easier for others to forgive you when the time comes that you slip up.  Because, that time will come, you human being.

Making amends includes:

• Being aware that your action(s) have caused hurt or inconvenience for others.
• Owning up to your shortcomings.
• Apologizing to those who have been affected.
• Forgiving yourself and moving on.

Accepting amends from others includes:

• Acknowledging and receiving their apology without judgment.
• Forgiving them and moving on.
• Hoping they’ll do the same for you when you next slip up.

Warmly,

Lynae

Have Fun

The tag line for our business is “Serious Business Made Fun” and we like to make our work fun.  We like to encourage our clients to make work fun too.  Keeping employees engaged remains a tough proposition.  And, there are lots of strategies for doing so.  It’s important to remember and include “having fun” as one of the key strategies for keeping employees engaged.

When we lead one of our Values Discovery Sessions and participants select the values that are most important to them at work, it’s common for one or more people to include “fun” as a core value.  When people are having fun, they’re more productive and light-hearted.  Lots of great results come about when fun is part of the mix.

One of my favorite companies, Zappos.com has made fun an integral part of their culture.  In his book, Delivering Happiness, Zappos CEO talks about how important having fun is to creating productivity, loyalty and outstanding results.  At Zappos, they have cubicle decorating contests, theme parties, celebrations for hitting sales goals, and regularly scheduled pot-lucks and happy hours for everyone to socialize together.  They have an incredibly loyal staff, and as you may know, an unbelievably loyal customer base who makes Zappos a very profitable company.

Building fun into the workplace is simple, but it’s not always easy.  There are lots of reasons to be really serious about process, people, systems and results.  I would argue, however, that it’s important to look beyond the everyday seriousness and seek to inject everyday fun.  The key is to make sure that “fun” is defined in a way that is in alignment with the organization’s vision, mission and values.  That way, “fun” becomes a way to strengthen culture and keep employees focused on the desired outcomes.  Here are some things to consider:

1.      Invite employees to help define the “fun” activities that will fit with the culture.

2.      Build “fun” into the annual strategic planning and budgeting process so it doesn’t get overlooked.

3.      If possible, include customers in the “fun” to deepen their loyalty to the organization.

4.      Document “fun” events and share them organization-wide to reinforce that having fun is valued.

5.      Make sure senior leadership participates in all the “fun”.  It’s incredibly motivating for employees to see their leaders enjoying themselves.

Lynae

Honoring Diversity: A Lesson from the Elephant

I attended a meeting the other day where the organizational leader told the famous Indian legend of the six blind men and the elephant.  It goes like this.

Six blind men went to see an elephant to learn about what it was like.  The first man felt the broad side of the elephant and said it was like a wall.  The second man felt the tusk and said it was like a spear.  The third man felt the elephant’s tail and said it was like a rope.  The forth man felt the trunk and said an elephant is like a snake.  The fifth man felt the knee and said it was like a tree.  The sixth man felt the elephant’s ear and said it was like a fan.

The moral of story is that everyone was right – each man had an accurate perspective from his vantage point.

The leader that told the story used it to initiate a discussion about the importance of seeing the big picture in project planning, decision making and problem solving.  Every department in an organization, like each individual, has an important perspective to share that leads to goal accomplishment and organizational success.  It is only when we honor the collective and sometimes diverse perspectives that we can see clearly the best solution or plan.

Sometimes we forget to honor and celebrate our diversity.  Most of us are more comfortable working with people who are similar to us.  Our similarities make it easier for us to trust each other’s judgment because we understand it. At the same time, we could be prone to judge different ideas negatively and miss out on the benefits and contributions of honoring diverse perspectives.

In our flagship program, respectFULL teams™, we explore our individual and unique perspectives and how they came to be a part of us and how we view the world. We lead discussions around how to take full advantage of the rich backgrounds and abilities of everyone on the team and how to value differences, seek inclusiveness, and honor differing points of view.

Here are a few of the tips we offer for honoring diversity.

1.    Ask questions and develop a curiosity to seek out diverse ideas and opinions.  The more you learn about others’ perspectives, the broader your own perspective becomes.

2.   Share your perspective. The best way to find commonalities is to share your ideas with others and get their feedback. You may be surprised to find that you have more in common that you think.

3.   Honor the values and beliefs of others.  Everyone has a set of values and beliefs that guide the way they live and interact with others. Showing respect for others is the single most important thing we can do to build harmony amidst differences.

Uniquely yours, Georgine

Finding Your Leadership Voice

Lynae and I were talking with a potential client the other day about leadership development.  We discussed the journey participants would travel throughout a year-long curriculum that aligned with the organization’s core competencies.

As with any plan, you have to know where to start.  With leadership development, we always start with vision, values, and finding your leadership voice.

In their book The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner say: “To act with integrity, you must first know who you are.  You must know what you stand for, what you believe in, and what you care most about.  Clarity of values will give you the confidence to make tough decisions, act with determination and speak your truth.”

When you find your leadership voice, you become a more effective communicator.  Effective communicators speak both from their minds and hearts.  They understand the importance of speaking with the intention to build relationships and encourage what is possible.  They choose words that affirm, appreciate, support, solve, and inspire.

Finding your leadership voice requires some introspection and exploration of what matters most to you and how you can use this self-awareness to inspire others.  With a strong sense of your own internal compass, you are in a more effective position to lead others to bring their best selves forward.  Here are some questions to ask yourself to find your voice.

What do you love to do?

• Where have you been successful?
• In what areas are you most likely to offer your expertise to others?

What matters to you?

• What personal motives and values drive you?
• What gives you the greatest sense of satisfaction and reward?

How can you serve?

• How do I use my passions and strengths to serve others?
• What do others value most from me?

Georgine

Best Friend at Work

When it comes to work and life, I’ll get by with a little help from my friends.  That song, by the Beatles, is stuck in my head today – probably because my co-workers and friends have been so helpful and supportive to me over the last few weeks.

And, it got me thinking about Gallup’s Q12 employee survey question; “Do I have a best friend at work?”  Their research has indicated that having a best friend at work can greatly impact employee engagement.

Yet, I have met many managers who voice concerns about this question.  Some believe that work place friendships can sometimes get in the way of productivity.

Research has shown that although friends working together do socialize, their relationships contribute to better work-related communication.  They have greater collaboration and are able to challenge one another’s ideas in a constructive way.  Co-workers who know each other on a personal level are more willing to pitch in and help each other.  And, let’s face it; spending time with people you genuinely care about can make the days go faster.

Co-workers who do not have these types of relationships may compromise communications by being “too polite” or avoiding conflict.

There are numerous ways to build friendships at work.

Madd-Steiny has seen that when managers make time for dialogue with their teams about actions and results, team relationships are strong and healthy.  On the other hand, we have also observed when managers use a “dictatorial” style of leadership and tend not to share information or recognize actions and results; there is more jealousy, distrust and gossip.

So, how can you encourage friendships and healthy connections on your team?  Here are a couple of ideas:

• Assign projects to a team.  Assigning two or three employees to a particular project or task allows them to get to know each other better as they work toward the project goal.
• Discuss the research around friends at work with the team.  Identify ways to build strong, supportive and friendly relationships.
• Implement one or many of the various techniques that encourage co-worker to recognize each other on a day-to-day basis.
• Celebrate birthdays or other special occasions.
• Plan time with the team to just talk, laugh and connect.
• Learn together. Commit to time for the team to learn together in a workshop, webinar or read a book together over time.  Debrief personal and team learning from these events.

Your Friend, Georgine

A New Chapter for Do Respect™

We are really excited to share that our 3-minute video, Do Respect™, is about to be released by our new business partner and video distributor, Star Thrower.  Star Thrower offers the best training and development video and multimedia tools available.

This collaboration and release has been in the works for a few months now.  Sometime over the next week or so, we’ll be announcing the release and we hope you’ll help us share this great news by forwarding our release announcement to anyone you think is interested.  Better yet, we hope you’ll consider buying it for your own use!

As many of you know, Do Respect™ is a 3-minute inspirational video to engage employees to act in ways that enhance workplace culture.  We’ve already sold several copies of the video to companies, school districts and government agencies that are using it in a variety of ways.  Just today, I received an email inquiry from the judicial officer at a community college in Iowa.  Part of what she does for the college is teach conflict resolution skills to students.  She believes, as we do, that respect is very much a part of conflict resolution both in college and in life.  Her plan is to use the video when she’s counseling students to ensure that their attitudes don’t stunt their potential.  She is convinced that respect is the first step in reaching potential.  Wow!  That inspires us.

We look forward to sharing more stories like this one about how our video makes a difference in people’s attitudes, beliefs and actions.  And, we’d appreciate you looking out for our announcement about the release and helping us get the Do Respect message out far and wide!

With respect,

Lynae