Creating a Multi-Generational Workplace Culture

Everyone wants to know they are a valued part of the team regardless of what generation they belong to. And because generational differences of Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z employees matter when creating a healthy multi-generational workplace, I thought I would take a moment to discuss how generational differences often influence the way your employees may or may not respond four important motivators.

I also want to point out that besides generational differences, there are many other variables including gender differences, ethnic and cultural differences, feelings of trust and respect that are also incredibly important when creating a healthy multi-generational workplace culture. But for now, lets explore how each generation may interpret and be inspired by the following four important opportunities:

1. Recognition

2. Autonomy

3. Coaching/Continuous Learning

4. Opportunity for Advancement

Additional Note: While the list above is not exhaustive, I have purposely not included salary in the above list. I do this because salary is considered a base trait – that as long as an individual is being paid fairly, monetary reward becomes a far less reliable and effective motivator. So, lets take money off the table and look at other ways to create a multi-generational workplace culture.

Recognition

Everyone enjoys recognition. And while Gen Zers and Millennials are used to frequent recognition and Gen Xers and Boomers are used to less frequent recognition, whether an individual prefers to be recognized in publicly versus more privately is often more dependent on if they are an introvert versus extrovert than what generation they belong to.

The great question is, “How frequently and how sincerely do you recognize your team and team members?” Recognition doesn’t have to be a party - and please don’t start an ‘Employee of the Month’ program because recognizing one person once a month is about as demotivating as you can get. Instead, look for opportunities where you can say to someone, “Your input into this report is amazing” or “You’ve worked really hard on that sales pitch and it shows”. Recognizing someones contribution and/or effort in-the-moment is right up there with some of the best recognition you can offer… ever.

Autonomy

Historically, autonomy in the workplace was largely defined as the opportunity to work from home and seen as a perk – something employees had to deserve. Most leaders now recognize that supporting autonomy can encompasses many things like flexible hours, what to work on, where to sit (if in-office) and even professional development opportunities… as well as the choice to work from home (or perhaps more accurately, working remotely).

Thankfully even the idea that autonomy as a ‘perk’ is being replaced by the reality that most people who work remotely actually are more productive (not less), are more creative, have greater job satisfaction and employee loyalty to mention just a few benefits.

So, as you strive to create a healthy multi-generational workplace culture, look to what flexibility you can offer your employees that will help them. Do they need time to take their kids into daycare before coming to work? Do they love being in the office because it gives them a break from their family and they are naturally extroverted? Is there a project that has nothing to do with their current job that you can assign them to because you know it is related to a career path they aspire to? Those are all healthy examples of how you can incorporate autonomy into your workplace culture.

Coaching / Continuous Learning

Coaching is something every leader should be prepared to do – to both their team and to the individuals they support. Coaching ties in well to a workplace culture that promotes continuous learning, helping the team and the company stay fresh while also helping to create an inclusive, multi-generational workplace culture and to promote both collaborative and inclusive behaviour. In addition, coaching, continuous learning and being inclusive are especially important to Gen Z and Millennials.

I invite you to recognize these two generations enjoy being coached AS WELL AS coaching others, sharing their experience and helping others grow. Reverse coaching and/or reverse mentoring are important opportunities for individual and team motivation. And don’t worry if your employees are working remotely. Help employees meet other employees outside of their immediate circle and build new, meaningful relationships from afar by implementing a virtual mentorship program. These relationships will not only create meaning and benefit for them in part by satisfying our natural need to connect with one another, they will also create new synergies within the company and improve employee productivity and loyalty. 

Wondering how to start and who to include? During your one-on-one meetings with each of your team, be sure to ask them how they want to be coached and if they see opportunities where they can give back and coach others.

Opportunity for Advancement

Higher salary and opportunities for advancement have always been high on the list for Boomers and certainly of interest for Generation Xers. Unfortunately for Gen Xers, the economic downturns of the late 1980’s, early 2000’s and then again around 2008/2009 meant that fewer Boomers left the employment market for their expected “Freedom 55”. This meant the career advancement opportunities and higher salaries didn’t materialize as quickly as young Gen Xers expected. Thankfully, Gen Xers are finally getting their chance, even though they are now also competing for leadership positions against bright, well-educated and technologically save Millennials.

It is still worth taking a moment of pause here however because the traditional definition of ‘Opportunity for Advancement’ is shifting. Millennials and Gen Zers don’t only see advancement as a promotion. They also see advancement as opportunities to gain experience and opportunities to broaden their network. So, while an employee may stay in their current position, take time to learn about what they want to learn and where they would like to gain experience because it’s possible you can inspire a very motivated employee by giving them opportunities that are easily within reach and where they actually may be able to add a new point of view.

Conclusion

If you are a leader I urge you to learn as much about everyone you work with and especially people who report to you. What are their wants, needs and preferences as they relate to what they work on, how they like to work, how they like to be rewarded and connected to their preferences specific to working remotely (or not). What are their career aspirations? How can you support workplace training for each of the generations who count on you?

In addition, take a moment to consider your own leadership style and how you support, mentor and coach your team. For example, is your leadership preference lean toward creating a workplace culture where you:

• Give team members a lot of autonomy and little supervision - let them come to you when they have questions or need something

• Intentionally work at creating a culture of equality, diversity, openness and belonging

• Feel you have to have total control and make all (or most) of decisions - especially the critical high-profile decisions

• Value collaboration and input from all stakeholders, listen openly, and watch out of biases in order to explore all options before making a decision

• Focus on strategy, vision and values while making sure everyone has the resources they need to deliver

There is great value for todays leaders to focus on their soft skills and to know what inspires and motivates themselves and the people around them as they lead and create a multigenerational workplace culture.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have enjoyed.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Bruce is Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach.

As a Corporate Trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Time Management Training, Email Etiquette Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Generational Differences and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada. Bruce is also an Executive Coach to a few select clients.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

What is Respect At Work?

Respect and Trust go hand-in-hand. They are two of the most important components of a thriving, productive and diverse work environment… and must be shared among your team, suppliers and customers. Without respect and trust being intentional parts of your team development, employees will almost always feel disconnected, be low-producers and have limited employee loyalty. In addition, suppliers will be weary of working with your company and clients just won’t buy and/or refer business.

I’ve written about trust and team development before, so let’s focus on ‘what is respect in the workplace and how we can improve it?’

Let’s begin by noticing that respect is a feeling, but showing respect to someone is an action. Showing respect at work lets people know at an emotional level that they are valued. Nobody wants to feel they don’t matter or that the work they do isn’t important / respected.

We don’t have to agree with someone to treat them with respect and appreciate their knowledge and/or experience. Even if we don’t like someone, we should always be dignified because any negative behaviour on our part will diminished our point of view if others feel our opinion is based on us not liking the other person versus our experience.

How We Can Show Others Respect In The Workplace:

• Acknowledge them or as they say in the movie ‘Avatar’, “I see you.”

• Encourage people to bring their whole selves to work, embrace diversity

• Be transparent with your goals, values and resources

• Be aware of any conscious or unconscious biases you may be experience – and help others do the same 

• Listen to others with an open mind – turn off autopilot

• Be curious, ask questions (evaluation is healthy), but still remain open-minded and polite

• Recognize generational differences and how people from different generations add to the conversation

• Recognize cultural differences and how people from different places and backgrounds add to the conversation

• Delegate work and opportunities across the whole team, based on criteria like skill and interest

• Offer support, even when you have nothing to gain

• Inspire and reinforce others using intrinsic and extrinsic, verbal and non-verbal motivators

• Recognize different people are rewarded by different things (Competency, Autonomy, Purpose, Impact)

• Tap into your empathy and be aware of what others are feeling and needing… but not sharing verbally

Having disagreements is almost always a sign of a healthy relationship. It shows people feel comfortable to share their thoughts and unique experiences. And for this to be healthy everyone has to realize that disagreement doesn’t have to be steeped in conflict or disrespect. What is important is everyones ability to show respect and be able to listen to each others input in line with the agreed upon goals and shared values versus personal beliefs.

The thing is, when we show others respect and when we openly listen to them, most people – even people who are confrontational will most likely pull back and begin showing you and others respect (noting I said most people and most likely). When this does happen, it’s possible that over time a respectful relationship can be built or rebuilt.

Real Example: I coached a leader who took over a department and was having a challenging time with a leader from another department. Historically, my clients’ predecessor and the other leader didn’t work well together. My client started slowly; taking time to listen to the other leader, be transparent with their goals and share relevant information. It took some time and there were a few bumps along the way, but mutual respect and trust was built, which made everyone’s work easier, helped both teams be more productive and overall work for everyone was less stressful and more enjoyable.

For the record, the leader from the other department likely initially felt two types of disrespect:

• Owed Respect: Respect (or disrespect) of the work and/or contribution of their group or team

• Earned Respect: Respect (or disrespect) of their own work and/or contribution (including leadership)   

Part of having a respectful space is to know that from time to time there may be disagreement. To overcome disagreements in a respectful way it’s important for everyone to know the plan is to always share when you are not feeling respected and valued. Knowing in advance that from time-to-time there may be situations that require a difficult conversation, can be healthy because it demonstrates a learning-based corporate culture dedicated to growth versus negative confrontations where people feel attacked and blindsided and often lead to broken relationships.

Conclusion:

People often say, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” I say no. Instead, treat other people the way they want to be treated. Part of showing respect at work means rewarding people the way they want to be rewarded.  As I mentioned earlier, there are four main ways people feel reward (Competency, Autonomy, Purpose, Impact). Using myself as an example, the only way to know how which of these four is my preferred motivator is to talk with me – get to know me. If Autonomy is my key motivator and I have a leader who rewards me with Purpose or Impact there will be a gap – and that gap is likely to grow over time as I don’t feel understood and respected.

Companies that have a respectful workplace almost always are more successful, more creative and more resilient / responsive to their market in large part because employees are satisfied with their work and are proud of the company.

Life is messy. Let’s stay open and embrace it all.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have enjoyed.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Bruce is Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach.

As a Corporate Trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Time Management Training, Email Etiquette Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Generational Differences and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada. Bruce is also an Executive Coach to a few select clients.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

How I Help Leaders Explore How Leadership Has Changed

The following are an edit of my notes from a Podcast interview I gave about leadership and how to develop an energized corporate culture with motivated, inspired employees.

Because of the length of my notes, this is Part 1 of what will be a two-part series. 

Please enjoy… and watch out for Part 2. Also, please consider liking and leaving comments below.

How I Help Leaders

I help new and experienced leaders understand how leadership has changed over the years and how they may be able to do better. There have been important changes in how to approach leadership especially in the three important areas of; coaching your team, motivation versus inspiration, and how to create a diverse and thriving corporate culture. I help clients and conference attendees explore their experiences and ask important questions of themselves and the world around them by creating a safe space where learning is important.

I see leaders fitting within a couple of buckets. There are:

1. Leaders who have been around for 30 or more years and who came into leadership when everyone around them was just like themselves. Their co-workers and customers wanted the same things so it was easy to understand what someone else expected. They lived in a world where the leader was the boss, laptop computers were a novelty and the size of small suitcases, email was a new communication tool that few people had access to, and unless you were a sales person the only way you could be productive was to be ‘at work’ where you had a desk, a phone and likely a secretary and/or access to a typing pool. Even voicemail was a new thing.

2. Young leaders who have grown up in a very different world than their parents and likely their initial role-models. They see a world where everyone has a voice (or should), is constantly connected by the internet, their mobile phones have more memory and processing power than the Apollo 11 guidance computer – a spacecraft that landed on the moon in 1972 (source: RealClear Science), empowering information is only a Google search and YouTube video away, and where choice and individuality are not only robust, they are expected and most people correctly recognize diversity as an empowering asset. 

I believe exploring and acknowledging these differences and the generational differences in the workplace is important, not to marginalize anyone but because it is important for each of us to understand the world we live in and then recognize the world we came from. Before we can begin to understand others we have to understand ourselves and our experiences. And for leaders, understanding our own perspective and our experiences really matters in how we lead, mentor, coach and inspire the people that depend on us. 

The interesting component here is that when Boomers and Generation X raised their Millennial and Generation Z children, they told their kids they could do anything and have anything and not to compromise. Then when these generations entered the workplace their, Boomer and Generation X leaders often interpret their curiosity and independence as entitlement and wonder, “Why they can’t just sit at their desk and do the work I’m telling them to do?” even though Millennials and Generation Z are behaving exactly how their parents raised them.

So, as a Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach I help leaders of all ages see how the world has changed and explore research I share with them as well as their own experiences to help understand what motivates individuals from all generations in the workplace. Motivators like having a purpose, personal growth, making a difference, feeling like they are contributing and wanting to have fun at work are all the elements of a thriving corporate culture that inspires employees. It’s important to note that while approaches to leadership are changing, Boomers are not used to thinking this way (I say this as a Boomer). No fault of our own. When they were young most Boomers didn’t work to have a purpose and be inspired, they went to work to get a paycheck so they could get a house and provide for their family. Work for a Boomer was often separate from their life but for Millennials and Gen Z… and even some Gen Xers, all of it is integrated.

The beauty is that most people no matter what generation they are from can tap into this concept pretty easily because it makes sense and is empowering. They can reflect on what they feel and want themselves as well as what they see their employees asking for. The people I work with or the audiences I present to also recognize that seeing something and being able to implement it are two different things – but change is possible. For all of us to change means we have to break our old habits (or expectations) about being a boss… and with desire, attention and often a bit of guidance change happens and is wonderful for everyone.

This is the base line of where I start. I help clients and/or conference attendees take the next step to realize difference is ok; that great leaders use that difference and use each other’s strengths. That the world is far too complex and great leaders embrace the diversity of:

·      Four different generations being in the workforce (age diversity).

·      People being equal regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.

·      Cultural and religious differences.

·      Disability / Ability.

Being a great leader requires taking time to reflect on ourselves and the environment we want to create. It’s being a coach who believes that one of their primary goals is to empower and inspire their employees to be their best and to do their own work.

Conclusion - and prelude to Part 2.

To be a great leader we have to be able to create an empowered corporate culture that gives people space to contribute their ideas while they also learn, grow and be proud of what they are contributing… and the difference they and the company are making together. Great leaders build a corporate culture that is truly based on the values of the organization then that creates a space where trust and motivation and respect become a common environment. Part of that is hiring the right people… and that is one of the key focuses I’ll discuss in part 2.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have enjoyed. Please leave a comment if have a moment.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Bruce is Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach.

As a Corporate Trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Time Management Training, Email Etiquette Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Generational Differences and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada. Bruce is also an Executive Coach to a few select clients.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success. 

How To Host Your Perfect Meeting

I love meetings. But not so much that I call them or want to go to them when they are not needed.

I also love when everyone walks out of meetings thinking, “Wow – that was productive. I wish every meeting could be like that.” When that happens not only am I (and all of us), rewarded with the information we need in a timely manner, when it is a meeting I’ve called my professional reputation is also rewarded for hosting a meeting that was productive, managed peoples expectations and didn’t waste peoples time (a nod to good time management).

So, lets explore how to host your perfect meeting.

My recommendation on how to host your perfect meeting is to break the process down into three sections namely, Before, During and After the meeting.

How To Host Your Perfect Meeting: Before the Meeting

To host your perfect meeting I hope the word ‘Agenda’ is one of the first things that comes to mind. I don’t want you to despair thinking you have to create a formal - stuffy agenda. For most meetings, throw that idea to the curb.

First, imagine a simple email that includes a few sentences that will tell attendees ‘why’ they will want to go. Share with them the goals, the projected outcomes and a short overview of how these outcomes will benefit them. Then include a bullet list of key topics / headlines that will be explored. Also, if you send information you want them to review, state it as an action item. Just attaching the document does not mean they will read it. So ask them to.

Next, book an appropriate room. Find a room that is large enough (not too large) for the meeting and that has the equipment you need.

Lastly, include Logistical Information that a person will need to arrive on time. Especially if you have external employees, new employees or suppliers from outside the company, be sure to detail logistics like building address, directions, parking options for people not familiar with your office. Please, don’t glance over this – as someone who frequently attends meetings at buildings I’ve never been at, 1-minute of your time can save me loads of time searching for where to park. Also include room name / number and Start Time / End Time clearly on the agenda (and I recommend including in email subject Line if sending the notice out by email).

Agenda and Notice EXAMPLE:

Subject Line: Sales & Product Development: Meeting Design & Best Practices

I am scheduling a meeting so the Sales and Product Development team can explore best practices associated to running a meeting. Our goal is to design and agree upon / approve a format that everyone can use in the department moving forward.

As department heads, please come with a short list of your suggestions. You may wish to have a quick discussion with your team to get their ideas so you can bring them forward. I have also attached a one-page pdf file for us all to review in advance for context. At the meeting we will explore:

• Before A Meeting (Planning)

• During A Meeting

• Following A Meeting

Logistics:

• Sales & Product Development: Meeting Design & Best Practices [Yes, this is a repeat of the Subject Line]

• Tuesday: April 10: 1:30PM

• Rogers Building: 333 Bloor St E, Toronto

• 8th floor – Maple Leaf Room

• Paid underground parking off of Jarvis, south of Bloor

Note: If your meeting is going to be long – like a training event, snacks and possibly meals need to be considered.

At the Meeting

Hopefully you can get into the room a few minutes in advance to set up. I know this sounds pretty obvious but you might be surprised how often it doesn’t happen. Make sure the chairs are aligned as necessary and that any technology you need has been turned on and presentations are loaded and standing by. Having everyone sit and watch you set up for 10 minutes is not good and you just may lose people. If you don’t lose them at this meeting – you might not get them to come on time to your next meeting… because your reputation as an organized meeting host will have been compromised.

Note: If you can’t get into the room before, plan ahead, book the meeting room for 30 minutes before you need it so you will have loads of time to get the previous meeting out… and get you set up.

Start the meeting on time.

Begin by confirming attendees and introducing special guests. Then, formally go over your objective / goal and then the main points on the agenda.

Stick to your agenda. If someone brings up things that are not on your agenda, I recommend one of two things.

1. Park the item and book another meeting to address it.

2. Park the meeting to the end of your meeting, and if your meeting ends early you can review as long as all of the important people are in attendance. If they are not, discussing it will be a waste of time and you will need to book another meeting anyway.

Control people who are speaking a bit too much… and encourage people who are staying silent (they may need our help).

Before anyone departs, recap and confirm agreement on:

• Decisions made

• Action times (what, who and when)

End on time… or early.

After the Meeting

Send out Meeting Minutes as soon as possible. I mean in hours not days.

Like the Agenda, the minutes don’t have to be fancy or complicated. I like the idea of a quick email which outlines the agenda, discussion key points, decisions made and the action items including the what, who and when these action items be fulfilled.

Sending out Meeting Minutes – even really simple minutes are important. If you don’t, everyone will begin to slowly move the decisions made to align with their needs and goals versus the planned goals. So, if person A starts migrating their idea of the decisions to their needs and person B starts migrating their idea to their needs, within a very short week there can be a very large gap between what A and B believe they need to work on and what they actually agreed to. A simple 2 or 3 sentence summaries can solve that challenge… and eliminate the need for many difficult conversations.

Conclusion

In-person or video meetings are one of the best ways to share complicated or sensitive information, discuss / brainstorm options or to provide your team professional development training. Meetings are also amazing at building a cohesive, trusting team environment. But, they have to be done well… and the agreed upon structure has to be followed by everyone. This is where your leadership is imperative in supporting the meeting management standard you come up with. Employees have to see you walking the walk.

Thanks for reading up on How To Host Your Perfect Meeting.

If i can help you in any way, please let me know. Here is my website Meeting Management Training page.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Bruce is Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach.

As a Corporate Trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Time Management Training, Email Etiquette Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Generational Differences and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada. Bruce is also an Executive Coach to a few select clients.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

Effective Meeting Management: How to Run Effective Meetings

You have a great team. For their professional development, as well as the benefit of the company, you want to help them run effective meetings. You’ve seen how they suffer through long, unproductive, time-wasting meetings that go off-track and leave them wondering why they were invited.

I applaud you for wanting to make a difference. By wanting to help your team run effective meetings you’ll also be able to save time, save money, reduce waste, increase productivity, improve your employees workplace satisfaction… and i could go on. Yep, meeting management training is a Win-Win.

Before we go deeper into this, I want to invite you to cut everyone some slack (including yourself), who has hosted an insufferable meeting. Why? Because no school I know of teaches an Effective Meeting Management 101 course. This means most people host meetings based on what they learned by watching others. Thankfully, that was yesterday and you’re making sure tomorrow will be a brand new day!

The first challenge you will face as you help your team run effective meetings is the need to change corporate culture. As the book title by Erin L. Bouma says, ‘Big Ships Turn Slowly.’’ Even if your company is small or if you are focused on improving one team, changing a persons behaviour isn’t the easiest thing to do – even if they are willing participants. But you are dedicated (yea), so to change the way your team runs meetings you will need two things:

• Unwavering leadership commitment (this means you if you are only focusing on your team)

• Individual employee commitment… from everyone

Unwavering Leadership Commitment

I’m going to assume you have the unwavering leadership support… or you are the unwavering leadership support. Still, it’s worth doing a quick review of two important things. First, leaders have to support the new corporate meeting management standard you are going to build. Second, employees have to be confident that their leaders will consistently and unwaveringly stand by them. This means (for example):

• If there is no agenda people have the right to ask for one before they commit their time.

• Individuals are able to decline an invitation when the invitation doesn’t help them know why they were invited.

• Meetings start on time and end on time – and if people come in late that the meeting doesn’t start over.

• Minutes are always taken which mention items discussed, decisions made and / or action items (this can be a simple email after the meeting).

This is how we make sure that if we are going to attend a meeting that they will be meetings that we were proud to attend, proud of what we contributed and proud of what everyone accomplished… together. This is how we build a sense of team where everyone is efficient and has pride in the work they do. And, this is how we make sure the meetings we go to are those meetings not the long drawn out horrible type.

Individual Employee Commitment

Next we have to look at individual commitment. It’s worth noting that as the leader you’ll have a good idea of how you think meetings need to change and, you’ll have defined what you believe should be the meeting management objectives. But as we all know, the best way to get commitment is to make people part of the solution. So, have an exploratory session with your team. As you go through this exploration I bet you’ll find your team will have a few important ideas – so, stay open minded. To begin your exploration with your team I recommend spending time with two important questions.

1. “What do great meetings look like?”

2. “What are the effective meeting guidelines we will adopt?”

I would like to bring specific attention to the positive nature of these two questions. They are looking at what greatness does look like and what best practices your team does want to adopt. The positive nature of this approach is uplifting / empowering; I bet you will feel great energy. This approach is called Appreciative Inquiry which I’ve explored in other blog posts. I encourage you to not spend much time exploring negativity… like what makes bad meetings. If you feel you do need to discuss what doesn’t work, put a timeframe on it – perhaps 5-minutes and then get back to encouraging positive energy and what people can do.

Effective Meeting Guidelines

I bet you might hear someone say, “The best meeting is a meeting I don’t have to go.” And you know – they may be right considering their world today, but our goals is to turn their next meeting into their best meeting… again and again. So, let’s stay positive and think about what we want to happen in the meetings we go to; behaviours like:

• Agendas are created and shared using the agreed upon template structure

• Only relevant people are invited

• Everyone attends who is supposed to attend – and they come prepared

• Meetings start on time and end on time (or end early)

• Discussions get to the point and stay on topic

• Discussions stay positive (Appreciative Inquiry)

• Information is shared in a clear and respectful manner

• Decisions are made and action items are summarized before anyone leaves

• Meeting minutes are shared soon after the meeting using the agreed upon templated structure

As you begin to implement these new meeting guidelines you’ll see first hand that everyone will begin to be happy when they attend meetings and begin to think, ‘WOW I just accomplished something, and I feel great.’

Conclusion

Remember, changing meeting management means changing corporate culture and changing individuals habits… changing how they have always worked in the past. This change you stay committed, and that you correct and support people with ‘what they can do’ versus ‘what they did wrong’. By doing this… and by staying positive (not punitive), you will find your corporate culture and the way people run meetings will change quickly. There will be a few growing pains, but remember, ‘Big Ships Turn Slowly,’ but wow – how great it is when the turn has happened.

Thanks for reading up on Meeting Management and How to Run Effective Meetings.

If i can help you in any way, please let me know. Here is my website Meeting Management Training page.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Bruce is Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach.

As a Corporate Trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Time Management Training, Email Etiquette Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Generational Differences and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada. Bruce is also an Executive Coach to a few select clients.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

10 Tips to Lead Your Team Through Change

Leading teams is a wonderful, rewarding challenge. And while most of us would not want to spend our whole career in the middle of change, leading teams through change is often even more of a rewarding challenge.

So, what does leading your team through change mean? Whether it is change for only one product line or change for the whole company, there are many special places leaders need to pay attention to support change. Where should a leader / leadership team begin you ask? Here are 10 steps.

1. Create a plan starting with research. Speak with your stakeholders and listen to their objectives and concerns. From there define your goal. What internal talent and external talent will be involved? How do you keep people engaged who are not directly involved in the change initiative, but who you need to be supportive? Where will the biggest challenges be and how can you prepare to face them head on and minimize their impact.

2. Understand the end goal. It's critical to understand the end goal and objectives before starting out. This includes what is the evidence to support the goal?

3. Anticipate a need for flexibility. No plan is perfect, and no market is stable. Things like opportunity, technology and manpower change every day. What is your plan to keep yourself and your team in an adaptable and flexible mindset?

4. Share the plan with everyone and communicate it clearly. Leaders need to support their plan in context to every conversation they have, every meeting and every business decision. In addition, be prepared to discuss the intrinsic value of change for everyone involved – from the company all the way through to employees, suppliers and customers. Don’t make it only about costs and revenue (extrinsic value). People have to feel proud of what and why their world is changing.

5. Remember your people are people – this goes for employees, customers and suppliers. Be prepared for them to ask questions and encourage them to share their concerns. Demonstrate your commitment to them and the process. Also, recognize great work from both the people who are directly involved in the change initiative as well as those who are holding down the fort (as my dad would say), and making sure everything else is working as it should.

6. Identify champions and support those people who are respected / looked up to and great networkers. These people are likely naturally positive (glass-half-full) and patient. Your champions should be able to clearly articulate the values of the company and the value of the change initiative.

7. Delegate tasks. Everyone has to feel they are an important part of the team - it should not be something that only a ‘special few’ ever participate in or take credit for. Even the people whose work may not be changing have to see that their stability provides a foundation for the change initiative to happen.

8. Set stable, realistic objectives. This and the next step go hand-in-hand and are important for leaders to do whether they are working on a change initiative or not. To be a great leader one has to set stable, realistic objectives that everyone understands. Big-picture objectives become department objectives and then translate into individual objectives. Stable, realistic objectives allow everyone to ‘see’ how, when and why they are contributing.

9. Manage expectations. Stay connected with customers, suppliers and employees. Keep everyone informed. It’s good project management where everyone knows what is going on, and the same is true for change management. In addition, within a change environment leaders should expect conflicts will arise due to fear of status, a team members’ lack of clarification or perhaps fatigue from short-term longer than usual working hours. Whatever the reason leaders must expect this will happen and be prepared to have difficult conversations that will resolve conflict in a constructive and positive way.

10. Hold people accountable. If change is going to be successful leaders have to depend on their resources. In the case where an objective is slipping, don’t let it linger hoping it will self-correct. Get on it quickly. As with #3, anticipate flexibility. Perhaps someone’s assigned task can’t be completed as expected. That’s OK – they can still be held accountable for raising concern as soon as possible and working with the team to make necessary adjustments. 

I believe communication is a leaders most important ability when it comes to change and change management. Being a motivating, inspiring leader who demonstrates you are proud of your team and committed to open and respectful communication will be your greatest ability… equalled only with planning thoroughly and staying flexible.

There is always going to be more that could be said about change management and leading change, but I believe these 10 tips to lead your team through change gives you a good grasp of the basics. Just be careful, don’t underestimate the value of planning ahead and preparing for change. That said, don’t paralyze your initiative by getting into the loop of over-planning. One thing you may want to explore is the benefits of both Agile Project Management as Traditional Project Management. Both may have some place within your change management plans.

One final note about why we need to embrace change. If we don’t accept that change is a constant we risk falling behind our competition and failing to meet our clients’ needs. We also risk losing important talent if they:

a) Don’t feel supported and kept in-the-loop or
b) Feel their abilities and experience are falling behind their peers because change is being ignored. 

Best to embrace the challenge, the hard work and the benefits change brings us. Thanks for reading.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Bruce is Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach.

As a Corporate Trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Time Management Training, Email Etiquette Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Generational Differences and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada. Bruce is also an Executive Coach to a few select clients.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

4 Ways To Rediscover Your Passion

You deserve the best, and in the interest of doing what’s best for you and the people closest to you it’s a great idea to pause once in a while to rediscover your passion.

You and I love routine because it helps us be productive and efficient. And while change and learning slows you and I down, routine turns us into experts. It’s a great feeling knowing we are ‘The best’ or ‘One of the best’. Unfortunately routine has a way of derailing our bigger plans at work and at home. So, I recommend getting into the habit of pressing ‘Pause’ on your routine in order to rediscover your passion.

Here are 4 ways to rediscover your passion that I’ve found helpful.

Slow Down:

Arrange time for you to listen to yourself. Spend a weekend alone, no radio or TV. You are not a bad employee or bad parent if you arrange for the kids to spend the weekend with their grandparents or if you turn off work for a few days. Perhaps even add to this a week vacation from work.

When you arrange for time alone, don’t spend your time keeping busy by rearranging closets, painting the kitchen or reading. The idea is to find your passion and purpose by doing things like sitting quietly and going for long walks; basically, letting yourself be bored. Being bored is a good thing. When you are bored your mind begins to explore… and your subconscious will keep going to what interests it.

Thing is, you will begin to rediscover your passion and begin to find the answers you’ve been searching for when you listen to yourself.

Talk To A Professional Therapist:

Arrange for 2-hour appointments because in 1-hour you might just start getting comfortable. Both therapists and trained executive coaches can help you explore your goals and make changes. However, if you are feeling emotionally charged it might be best to begin by seeing a therapist who has the licensure and training to address specific issues like anxiety.

Therapy often helps people increase their self-awareness by exploring the past and identifying the roots of important issues. After seeing a therapist, if there are no bigger issues an executive coach might be exactly what you need.

Celebrate Your Wins:

Reflect on your big wins of the past and celebrate them. Then begin working on getting into the habit of celebrating your small wins every day.

Too often we overlook what meaningful contribution we make every day and how satisfying our accomplishments make us feel. Instead of helping our passion flourish we fluff our accomplishments off as being “What my job expects,” or “What any good parent would do.” But guess what, you did do it and nobody ever did it the way you did because you are unique. And, while you are at it, give yourself time to notice when you’ve been connected to your passions.

Write:

To rediscover your passion I recommend putting pen to paper versus using a computer – your thoughts will generate differently when you write by hand. During your weekend alone, find time twice a day to set a timer for 10-minutes and write. Write anything and don’t stop to think. If you don’t know what to write next, write bla bla bla until a new idea emerges. Answer any question that comes to mind, but start considering questions like:

• Of all the things I do, I am most happy when…

• I am most proud of…

• I’ve always wanted to…

• I would like to work with…

• When I was younger, I thought I would…

Conclusion:

Most of all, remember you are amazing. You are unique. Nobody else has your unique combination of experiences, natural strengths, education, learned skills and creativity. You have something great to offer yourself, your friends, your family and your employer.

And one last thing; when you try something new expect to not be perfect… but spend time reflecting on what you did well and where you could improve. When you were younger it took time for you to learn to drive a car and now you do it without thinking. Why should any other skill be different just because you are older? Before you know it, you will be great at it. We all need to push past our fear of failure, of not being the expert… and most of all… our fear of not looking perfect at every moment.

I hope you take some time to rediscover your passion… and to then help your passion flourish

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Bruce is Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach.

As a Corporate Trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Time Management Training, Email Etiquette Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Generational Differences and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada. Bruce is also an Executive Coach to a few select clients.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

An Introduction to Agile Project Management Methodology

What is Agile Project Management?

Although it began to evolve in the 1970s and 1980s, Agile Project Management is still a somewhat new approach to project management. It differs from Traditional Project Management because it breaks large projects into smaller projects and expects changing priorities throughout very short development cycles called ‘Sprints’. A Sprint is often only 2 to 12-weeks long (although the trend is narrowing development times to 2 to 8-weeks).

Agile Project Management is a great solution when the business needs, customer needs and/or the competitive pressures require frequent change or when the business wants to experience the benefits of development investment more frequently. This is one reason why Agile is so common in software development environments. And while projects using an Agile Project Management methodology usually move faster and are more responsive to customer needs, each project should still be part of a larger development plan / vision and be respectful of the available people, time and other resources… not to mention other ongoing projects.

A Quick Look At Traditional Project Management

Traditional Project Management is often defined as having detailed start-to-finish planning with locked-down features and long development cycles… often between 6-months to multiple years. With Traditional the business usually doesn’t see tangible value until the end of the project.

If your goals are 100% defined and not likely to change then Traditional is a viable solution. Also, Traditional is still beneficial in environments that may be heavily regulated, heavily procedure-based, hierarchical workspaces and / or when a project plan can be used by other teams or locations over and over again. For example, construction is a common space using Traditional Project Management.

In many cases it doesn’t have to be all Agile or all Traditional. Many industries a combination of Agile Project Management and Traditional Project depending on the project.

A Few Of The Many Benefits of Agile:

Just about any project can use Agile. One key benefit of Agile Project Management is the fast delivery of development solutions. In addition, four core feature of Agile are:

1. Up-front input by customers on the scope of the development goals. This usually means solutions have the greatest chance to address the target customers’ needs.

2. Frequent and direct review by customers of the project teams success throughout project development.

3. A willingness of the project team to quickly adjust goals and tactics and refocus resources mid-project – usually in response to the mid-project feedback received from customers. Agile is always more focused on delivering customer value versus following a predefined project plan – so if change during a project is required, the team follows that path.

4. Because of shorter development cycles (or Sprints) the company, employees and the customers can all benefit from incremental upgrades and more frequent product releases rather than a less frequent but large-scale upgrade. This has multiple benefits for both the customer and organization. For example:

   • The company can be more responsive to change in technology and/or customer needs.

   • The company can benefit from quicker releases that make their customers happy and hopefully more loyal.

   • The company can benefit from earning ROI on development investment sooner.

   • Employees can quickly benefit from the experience and professional development they gain as they stay current with hardware and software trends.

   • Employees can benefit from networking with both customers, technology specialists and team members they many not otherwise meet.

   • Customers get quick access to competitive, timely solutions.

   • Customers and employees benefit from less steep learning curves that are often reflective of large-scale development releases / upgrades and therefore allow them to keep focusing on their day-to-day responsibilities.

More About Agile

With Agile Project Management, teams are self-empowered which changes a leader’s traditional roles and puts them more in-line with new leadership development trends where a leader’s responsibilities are 65%-80% soft skills. Agile leaders are (as all leaders should be), vocal ambassadors of the corporate direction, vision and values while they coach and mentor talent and make sure their teams have the resources they need. Agile Project Management leaders make sure the project and team expect changing requirements and adapt appropriately. And, Agile leaders must always support the overall Agile Project Management methodology within their hierarchy no matter how flat the organization may be. In short, the Agile leader sets the project goals and then empowers their diverse team / teams to find and build value-add, timely solutions that are in line with the company vision and values.

Within Agile Project Managment it is important everyone keep focused on ‘Keeping It Simple’. If things start getting complicated it is a sign to stop and re-evaluate. Not only is this one of the 12 principles of Agile (see below), it is the only way to create a sustainable path where teams go from idea to research to launch quickly. This includes documentation; Agile methodology takes less of a concern about detailed documentation than Traditional Project Management does and instead puts more emphasis on development and delivery of the agreed-upon goals.

Another important component of Agile is to be sure you hire and work with motivated individuals. And, because it is a highly motivating environment with short project timelines it’s also more important than ever that leaders be sure not to burn-out their high-performers. Project management is always about sustainability – even Agile Project Management is a long-race not a sprint. Also, Agile is not permission to multitask; in fact the methodology suggests try to not work on multiple things at a time.

While there are many pioneers who were instrumental in the early days of Agile Project Management, Jeff Sutherland & Ken Schwaber are two you may want to research to learn more. In addition, there are many methodologies within the Agile umbrella (Scrum and Kanban are most common), but in all cases the focus is to add incremental value throughout the project. For a good overview of Scrum versus Kanban visit this link.

Four Core Values Of Agile Project Management

There are four core values and 12 guiding principles connected with the Agile Project Management methodology. The four core values are:

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

   People first; maintaining a focus on the value added that people provide rather than relying on technology, tools and applications. This also should focus on supporting the team and assisting in collaborative cross-functional work-teams that have little to no hierarchical structure rather than silos.

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

   I admit I struggle with this one. Agile project management values result over documentation. The idea is to not weigh down the team or team members in paperwork – which is great, however tracking decisions and why decisions were made is important to provide historical relevance.

3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

   As with any good design, keeping your customer – your end user in mind is critical. Agile Project Management maintains a commitment to involving internal or external customers throughout the development process to ensure their needs are addressed and effectively responding by making changes that address the client’s needs.

4. Responding to change over following a plan

   Relevance and efficiency are critical to the Agile Project Management methodology; they are core purpose. This means change has to be accepted over adhering to a predetermined plan. Change is expected and embraced. For example, if your collaboration with your customer identifies a competitive need, it is expected that the plan be adapted to be able to quickly respond and reprioritize resources. This may be one of the largest differences to traditional project management. The beauty of Agile is that because iterations and/or projects are – by their nature small, frequent and with short timelines, adapting to change should much simpler than within a traditional project management cycle otherwise called waterfall project management.

Agile allows for continuous change throughout the life of any given project.

Key Agile Project Management Definitions:

1. Story: What the project leader / team wants to happen.

2. Backlog: Tasks or requirements that customers have identified and which will become solutions.

3. Scrum: The employees who will prioritize the backlog and be the Sprint Team. These cross-functional teams primary goal is to deliver a fully tested solution that is responsive to customer priorities in a short period of time.

4. Sprint Planning. Working with customers / end users where they prioritize the requirements out of the backlog that they believe they can deliver within the project plan timeline (usually 2 – 4 weeks).

5. Sprint / Sprint Development: The actual effort. During this time the Agile Board is used to track progress.

6. Agile Board: Where tasks and progress are tracked. Includes To Do, Development, Test and Release categories.

7. Daily Scrum Meeting: Short meetings (roughly 15-minutes), where everyone shares what everyone is doing, what they are going to do next and identify how they may be able to help out.

8. Demo: At the end of every sprint development is a demo to customers / end users who will give feedback – the feedback cycle makes development fast and effective.

9. Package & Release: Once it has been tested and goes to market.

10. Done Pile: which identified what requirements from the Backlog that have been completed

11. Retrospective: When the team looks at what has been done well and not well for future improvement. To also review the backlog that the customers prioritized and now begin planning on those Sprints.

Conclusion:

Agile Project Management is a value-driven project management strategy that consistently delivers high-priority and high-quality results in short periods of time. A key benefit of Agile is more satisfied customer because there is regular collaboration with target customers throughout the development process.

There is more, but I believe this introduction to Agile Project Management methodology gives you a good grasp of the basics… you have at least enough to get started if you wish. And remember, both Agile and Traditional Project Management have strengths and challenges.

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Bruce is Corporate Trainer and Executive Coach.

As a Corporate Trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Time Management Training, Email Etiquette Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Generational Differences and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada. Bruce is also an Executive Coach to a few select clients.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

Great Time Management Goes Further Than Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; It Includes Great Email Etiquette

I’m a big fan of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. As a leader of a team I especially relate to #3 ‘Put First Things First,’ and as a corporate trainer and habitual lifelong learner, I strongly relate to #7: ‘Sharpen the Saw’.

As much as I am a fan of Stephen’s work, I also know that Stephens 7 habits are only part of the answer when an individual or team tries to establish great time management habits. What I mean is that great time management has a lot to do with how an individual does their work as much as when they do their work. And for those familiar with Stephen Covey’s #5 habit of ‘Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood’, what i’m talking about goes even further. Let me explain.

More Than When… Focus On How

After I built and began facilitating my Effective Email Etiquette Training Workshop, I spent a year researching and building my Time Management Training Workshop. During the second development period (and reinforced every day since), it became clear to me that great email etiquette is also great time management – and not only for the writer; great email etiquette is also great time management for everyone who receives email.

For example, if I consistently do three simple things when I write an email message, I can almost guarantee my reader will:

1. Want to read my email – and therefore prioritize my work

2. Quickly and clearly understand what i’m saying or asking for

3. Answer all of my questions and/or do what I ask

Think how much time you would save if every one of your email were prioritized by the recipient, read, understood fully and then acted on quickly? And, how much time would you… and your readers save if you didn’t have to follow up two, three or four times to get the answer to the questions you asked in your email?

This Ability Is In Your Control

I often hear people who take time management training say, “I’d like to spend an hour in the morning concentrating on my strategic, important work but the office culture doesn’t support this.” I understand when they say that. For some aspects of time management to be effective, the team or corporate culture has to change. The beauty of writing better email is that you don’t need your corporate culture or your department culture to change - you are in control. The three email tips I share below allow you to immediately improve your writing which allows you to immediately save time, be more productive and experience less stress. Yes, using good email etiquette is in your control.

Three Email Etiquette Best Practices I Recommend

To have a great personal impact, I recommend improving your time management by practicing the following three email etiquette best practices:

1. Bottom line your messages. Say hello and then get to the point. If you want to be pleasant and say what a nice day it is… do it at the end of your email.

2. Use indented bullet points to bring attention to critical data. If you have two questions, say, Hi Bruce, I have two questions:

   • Question 1

   • Question 2

3. Write helpful Subject Lines. One or two-word subject lines like ‘Meeting’ or ‘Meeting Update’ are not great. Use 5 to 7 words. Instead, ‘July 2020 Sales Meeting Agenda Update’ lets the reader know exactly what the message is about and makes the email easily searchable 1 week or 1 year later.

None of these three Email Etiquette best practices will take you extra time to write email, but they will save you amazing amounts of time by helping you get what you need when you need it with little-to-no follow-up.

Give these three email etiquette techniques a try. They are just a few of the over dozen email writing techniques you and your team can learn that will make you more efficient, more productive and less stressed.

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Time Management Training, Email Etiquette Training, Leadership Skills, Communication and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada. Bruce is also an Executive Coach to a few select clients.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success. 

How To Tell Clients You’re Raising Your Prices

It can be scary to tell clients you’re raising your prices. Every fear you can imagine flashes before your eyes - over and over. Are you going to lose your best clients? Are clients going to leave en masse forcing you to lay off employees… or worse (is there worse)? As with most difficult conversations, what actually happens is not even close to as bad as our imaginations, especially if we approach the conversation with thoughtfulness and planning.

For the record there are many ways for you to introduce new pricing. While you can do an across-the-board price increase, you may also:

• Stagger your roll-out by province, country or by industry sector

• Introduce new pricing when a contract anniversary date or annual review happens

• Do a partial roll-out now and a full roll-out next year

However you choose to do it, your best approach is to do it thoughtfully and to prepare. This means getting your Marketing and PR channels working long in advance on messaging and working with your Sales Professionals and Customer Service Representatives to train them on best-practices and key messages (but i’m already getting into point 2 and 3 below). So let’s not waste any more time.

Here are 8 ways you can help you tell your clients you’re raising your pricing:

1. Deliver Quality

   Be sure you deliver competitive, value-add to your clients.

2. Manage Expectations

   Don’t surprise them. They have to plan / budget for price increases just like you do. One way to not surprise them is to make price reviews and adjustments part of their anticipated schedule right from the start of our B2B relationship. Help them expect the possibility 3-6 months in advance if you can.

   Another way to manage expectations is to involve your Marketing & PR departments to release / re-distribute industry related articles to the ‘public’ and or to your clients through association newsletters. Other options you could use to regularly put out information to the public… and therefore your clients include:

   1. Twitter

   2. LinekedIn

   3. Your Website / Blog

   4. Your Monthly Client Newsletter

   5. Industry Magazine Articles

3.  Prepare Your Team / Involve Your Team

   Involve your team in planning and the messaging; after all it will likely be them that will be using it. Getting input from everyone on the team can make sure you don't overlook a key message and can help fine-tune the message they will have to use… in their own voice… based on their position (Sales versus Customer Service for example). Getting your team involved also helps secure buy-in on the approach and helps get everyone aligned and invested in striving for a positive outcome.

4. Be Honest. Be Confident 

   Both you and your clients have to believe your product / service is worth every penny (or nickel I suppose in Canada). When it’s time to share new pricing, have a face-to-face conversation if possible. Don't try to hide the price increase or wait until last minute to let them know. When you connect with them your message should confidently include three points:

   1. We value your business.

   2. You’ll get something out of it (greater value, greater service and/or lower risk). 

   3. As always we give you choice (see point 7).

5. Share What They Will Gain

   Price increases have to be all about them and what they will gain… not about you and what you deliver. Focus on what benefits your clients will receive from your services - such as additional service or support, extra resources, increased availability, shorter turnaround. Along with new features, share services you’ve always delivered but they’ve never needed or use… because now might be the time for them. If you are introducing new services or features, explain how they will benefit them. Remember, faster service, reduced risk and greater security are important clients benefits.
   
   Make sure they understand why your pricing is going up and why your product / service is worth more.

6. Remind Them How You Do & Have Added Value

   Remind them about how you / your organization have helped them in the past. This doesn’t have to be extensive – just a high-level overview of big things like how you’ve saved them money, reduced their risk, helped find new clients or enter new markets.

7. Offer Choice

   People love choice – it empowers us and helps us feel in control.

   Raising your prices may help your clients justify moving to a bigger even more expensive package, or it may give them the opportunity to stop paying for a service they no longer use – like out of date reports.

   When going in with a price increase consider presenting new solutions and/or new tiers (higher and lower), they could choose. This reinforces the approach where you and they focus on value rather than price.

8. Don’t apologize

   From time to time clients should expect a price increase. Every successful business gets better year-over-year, so your offer should be getting better, constantly adapting and delivering more of what your clients need. As long as you are proving value you should feel confident. In the same vein, never blame inflation; that is your business cost, not theirs. Sure it will be part of the increase, but if you are only raising price because of inflation you are missing opportunities… and perhaps not improving your business.

One last thing; you may not want to raise your prices to everyone at once. For example, you may want to raise your prices with new client and give your existing clients time to transition to the new rates. This could have some helpful ‘image’ and ‘message delivery’ benefits as you explain to existing clients that they have had a grace period… because you value their relationship so much. And, there is a side benefit to you as this approach allows you to ‘test’ your new pricing before a full roll-out.

Conclusion

If you have been a great supplier and delivered top quality products / services… and have built a relationship where you’ve listened to their needs, you are an asset to you clients and they’ll want to keep you. Also, clients are risk averse and moving is not so easy, especially for large clients / large businesses.

Make sure you are offering great value long before your price increase and then make a plan. If you are positioned well in the market you may lose one or two clients, but if they are that price sensitive, it might be best that they are gone and free up your time for even better, more profitable clients.

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Leadership, Communication and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success. 

How Is Your Tribe Influencing Your Behaviour?

You and I have the natural tendency to adopt the 'culture' of the 'space'... the 'tribe' around us and our workspaces are an important tribe whose culture we often bring home and into our social relationships.

For example:

• If we are in an aggressive, team-competitive, cynical, win-lose workspace, we will have a tendency to be / become abrupt, aggressive and competitive at home and with our social network.

• If our workspace promotes listening, respect, creativity, win-win and exceptional quality... and we work in an environment where our team supports each member while being ambassadors to the company vision and values... we will have a tendency to bring that home and within our social network.

I encourage you to not let these quiet, empathetic behaviours be over-run by more aggressive (and easy to dominate) behaviours that in the long-run hurt our personal and professional success. Leaders win… you and I win when we do two things:

1. Demonstrate the behaviours we want as well as draw attention

2. Reward the behaviours we want; behaviours like kindness, working together and shared respect.

Empathy is a soft-skill we all have and empathy is a healthy part of a healthy tribe. But like anything, empathy becomes healthy and strong when we feed it / nurture it and weaker when we ignore it. And the beauty is empathy at work is a low-to-no cost motivator that improves productivity, creativity and team morale while also fuels collaboration and improves customer satisfaction. What’s not to love?

The more you and I are aware of the 'culture' of our tribe... all of the tribes we belong to... the more we can play a deliberate part of shaping and nurturing our own behaviour at work, at home and within our social network as well as shaping the culture of all of the tribes be belong to.

Choose kindness, respect and empathy as well as quality, value and competitiveness.

#Leadership #leadershipcoach #Empathy #Success

Thank you for taking the time to read this article about empathy and how it impacts the tribes we are part of.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Leadership, Communication and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

When In Conflict, Be A Good Listener: A Step-by-Step Approach

Are you a good listener in a conflict situation or do you become a boxer? Sorry - I couldn’t resist the fun play of words and the image.

Being a good listener when in conflict is one of the key elements of having win-win conversations. Thankfully, there are things you can do to be a good listener and develop a winning communication style.

Listener or Boxer? Which are you?

One of the most productive things you can do is help the other person trust your intentions - that you are there to understand their thoughts, feelings and needs. Another thing a good listener does is stay away from judging anyone, laying blame or letting your triggers (strong emotions), get the best of you.

Once you have their trust, gathering facts about what happened and why will be much more fruitful. But, this is still not as easy as it sounds. To help you to focus on what your speaker is saying and have productive conversations, I recommend the following step-by-step process:

1. Have a plan. Have an idea what success may look like for you and the other person (realizing you both see the world in very different ways.

2. Pause. Take a moment to reflect and confirm this is the right thing to do.

3. Turn off your smartphone / computer.

4. Breathe calmly. It’s easy for us to stop breathing during a difficult conversation.

5. Notice what is going on for you - and for them. Also notice your surroundings and distractions that may negatively impact the conversation.

6. Show interest. “I have something important I’d like to share and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.”

7. Don’t interrupt them when they are speaking:

   • If you have ideas and/or questions… make a note of them.

8. Stay focused on what they are saying:

   • Don’t judge or assume

   • Manage your Triggers

   • Don’t think about what you will say

9. Respond to what they are doing, saying, feeling, needing and believing… but never React.

10. Validate what you think they said / feel / need / believe: “What I’m hearing you say is you feel members of the team interpret our corporate values inconsistently.”

11. Give them space / encouragement to correct what you said in step #10 by pausing and letting them respond.

12. Check in to see if there is more: “This is helpful. Are there other challenges that are impacting communication, our corporate values or quality?”

13. If they have more information or challenges to share, go back to step #7 to encourage them.

14. Thank the other person or people for their contribution

This step-by-step process has many benefits to help you be a great listener. The most obvious is that encourages the other person do most of the talking which helps you build trust and understanding; people will trust you less if you do most of the talking. Having the other person do most of the talking is also beneficial because it may be the first time they’ve spoken aloud about the situation. Speaking aloud may help them gain more understanding and take some responsibility. They may even begin resolving the conflict themselves.

Conclusion:

Becoming a good listener isn’t easy. It doesn’t mean sitting quietly until the other person stops talking, and being a good listener also doesn’t mean agreeing with what they are saying. In fact I would warn you against agreeing to much because later in the day they may subconsciously apply your agreement to the whole conversation. Recap: Understanding is good, agreeing is not.

One last thing; be careful if you find yourself giving advice, sharing your opinion or making suggestions. If you do (or even want to), it is a sign you are not listening.

BONUS: What Are Triggers?

A trigger is any positive or negative event that evokes a deep emotional response. One of the greatest challenges when participating in a difficult conversation is to manage your triggers and try to predict (and avoid), the triggers of the other peoples involved. When negatively triggered we may feel:

• Overwhelmed

• Angry

• Frustrated

• Disappointed

• Embarrassed

BONUS: Effective Open Ended Questions

• “Can you tell me more about that?”

• “What happened next?”

• “How did you feel?”

• “That’s interesting, can you help me better understand by explaining that further?”

• “What is it like to do that?”

• “Please… tell me more” (not a question… but effective.

• “How can we measure that?”

• “What does that mean?”

• “What are your expectations?”

• “How does that process work when… [there are two versus three people]?”

• “What procedures did you use to determine the customers needs?

Thank you for reading my article about why listening is important and how to listen well.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) delivers customized Difficult Conversation training in Toronto and across Canada. We specialize in Leadership, Communication and other soft skills training solutions.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

Why Listening Is Important… And How To Listen Well:

It takes effort and energy to listen well and pay attention to other people. Our minds naturally begin to interpret what other people are saying and apply it to our own experiences and knowledge. That ‘association’ is one of the ways you and I form memories and gain understanding. But we have to remember that a little goes a long way and that letting our mind play this association game is not always appropriate… especially if our existing memories hijack our attention.

When we try to listen to someone you and I often fall into one of two traps:

• As above, I begin associate your experience to a similar experience I’ve had, and so my mind interrupts your story and hijacks my attention.

• I’ve heard your experience before and believe I know what you are going to say or what you need. Because of this I interrupt you and stop you from telling your story. This is especially true if we are in any type of customer service type industry where we try to skip directly to the solution.

Of course both of these examples are bad. When we interrupt someone we almost always do more harm than good. If we don’t listen and our goal becomes to share our story or to prove how much experience we have, the other person may no longer trust us. This lack of trust could have a very serious negative impact. Instead, we have to do our best to set aside our own needs and our own experiences… and show that we are both listening and respecting them.

Here are some guidelines to follow when trying to learn to listen better:

1. Everyone you meet will know something you don’t know, consider this an exciting opportunity. Be patient and be curious.

2. Listen to understand… not to respond. Set your own ideas and experiences aside. If you are listening, remember you are trying to learn and understand. If you want to keep track of ideas you have or questions you want to ask, keep a pad of paper with you (not an iPad that may ding or light up from an incoming message), and write down 2 words that will remind you what you wanted to say after they are finished talking.

3. Truly care for the other person and what they are thinking, what they did and/or how they felt. Use into your empathy; imagine what it was like to be them… and be curious about that experience, but don’t get lost in your own mind.

4. To be a respectful listener and dig deeper by asking open ended questions. This means start your questions with words like ‘How’, ‘What’, ‘Where’, ‘Why’ or ‘How’. For example, “How did you feel?” and “What did you do next?” Do not use questions like “Were you happy?” and “Did you go?”

5. Listen with your eyes, ears, needs and feelings. Listen for what they are saying… and what they are not saying.

6. Similar to #2, if you have experienced something similar as what they are describing, put your experience aside. For now, you are trying to help them feel confident that you understand their experience.  Far too many times we try to compare our experiences with theirs.

If you listen to them they will be more likely to listen to you. And, as I suggested above, beyond learning, listening is one of the greatest ways that other people will trust that you:

• Care about them and their experiences

• Understand them and their experiences

When people trust you they will be more likely to:

• Be patient with you

• Compromise – now or sometime later

• Help you – now or sometime later

Conclusion:

When you are with other people talk as little as possible. Remember, if we are speaking we are not listening or learning.

These lessons are doubly important if you are in the position of having difficult conversations. During those times, letting the other person feel that they have been heard and understand will go a long way to helping you resolve the situation in a respectful, thoughtful, collaborative way.

Thank you for reading my article about why listening is important and how to listen well.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) delivers customized Email Etiquette training in Toronto and across Canada. We specialize in Leadership, Communication and other soft skills training solutions.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

Email Etiquette Rules For Leaders And Their Team

Most Canadian and USA employees write and read hundreds of business email every day. It’s estimated that business professionals spend about a quarter of our time at work using email. 

One of the most important strategic goals leaders have is how to manage expectations and help their team be in sync. An often-overlooked area is introducing a consistent set of email etiquette rules for business professionals.

I’ve pulled out 8 the most important points I consider essentials within a business email etiquette style guide. As a leader you or your team may initially think my 8 email writing recommendations will take more time. To be honest, they may (not always), take a few more seconds, but ask you to consider two things:

1. The advantage you and your team will experience when your professional brand increases and you gain the reputation as being clear communicators who are also polite and not bossy or aggressive.

2. The hours of time you and your team will save by getting what you ask for the first time you asked for it and therefore, writing fewer follow-up email. When you multiply this time, cost and frustration saving across your whole team, I assure you, leading your team down the path of good email etiquette is a wise choice.

Most companies do have a global style guide that outlines the look and feel of all communication from presentation design, to advertising placement, email etiquette and business writing standards. These 8 email etiquette rules for leaders and their team will help you and your team save time, elevate your teams email communication and strengthen your professional reputation / brand.

1. As the leader, set (or reinforce), a simple style guide for the team to help reinforce that they are part of a team with a unified brand promise. The style guide should identify things like:

   • Same font, as well as size and colour

   • Same signature block structure and graphic

   • Same size and colour for bullets

   • Similar approach to how to write Subject Lines

2. If confidential email distribution need to happen to large audiences – especially to external audiences, a standard To: Cc: or even Bcc: should not be used. Instead, use an email distribution system like Constant Contact (non-sponsored reference), to guarantee audience privacy for these bulk email.

3. Double check you get everyone’s name right. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received email addressed to Mr. Mayhem.

4. Everyone should write their email thinking, ‘What do my readers need or need to know?’ Managing expectations is done far less than you may think. For the most part, we write email as if we are writing to people with our needs, timelines and experience. But most often our readers have very different needs, timelines and experience. This creates a gap that causes challenges. Also, watch out for general words like, ‘it’ ‘that’ ‘they’. Words like these force your reader to make assumptions about who or what you mean, instead, be clear about what you mean.

5. Be careful with Reply All. Use it sparingly.

6. Everyone should write following this 9-step-by-step (and simple), process:

   1. Write a clear, relevant Subject Line 

   2. Use a professional greeting 

   3. Address your need or ask first

   4. Then add background information after you’ve stated your need or ask

   5. Re-read for clarity. Will it be clear to your reader and does it include information they need?

   6. Check for spelling and sentence structure

   7. Sign-off, respectfully

   8. Make sure your signature block is used

   9. Only when you are done writing and editing, insert email addresses or your distribution list

7. If you think someone will "react" badly to your email content, I recommend you call them. This is the right thing to do for many reasons I’d be happy to discuss.

8. Avoid humour except in very special cases and with people you know well. Humour doesn’t translate well in a one-dimensional email environment [note, in order to be clear I edited this last sentence, replacing the word ‘it’ with the word ‘humour’ as suggested in step #4].

As a professional, you are expected to follow proper email etiquette and your personal and professional brand are always a reflection of your writing. Effective written communication is essential in any position and often a major factor towards achieving professional success.

If you would like information about email etiquette training, please click here.

Bonus Reference: Poor email etiquette costs time, money and frustration if:

• Email you’ve spent writing don’t get read because they are too long and/or confusing.

• People only answer one question when you’ve asked 3 or 4. It then costs even more in time and frustration as you have to follow up.

• Important dates are missed because of email that are high priority to you are interpreted as low priority to your reader.

• People misunderstand your email and do things you didn’t ask for, and then this costs more in time and frustration as you have to follow up and they have to re-do the work.

 I hope you’ve enjoyed my list of 8 email etiquette rules for leaders and their team.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) delivers customized Email Etiquette training in Toronto and across Canada. We specialize in Leadership, Communication and other soft skills training solutions.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

10 Ways To Get Noticed At The Office In A Good Way

To become a leader you have to take opportunities to lead and learn every chance you get. Part of this is getting noticed in a good way. You never want the reputation of a self-absorbed, self-centred person. Consider how well you are doing with the following list of 10 ways to get noticed at the office.

1. Think Strategically: Strategic thinking is a way of being, it’s a mindset that for many great leaders is always turned on. Strategic thinkers are always looking for possibilities while being mindful and respectful of the mission, vision and values of the organization. Strategic thinkers also never lose sight of the employees and its customers.

2. Find Ways to Lead People & Projects: Look for opportunities to take on leadership roles. Ask for them; don’t wait for them to be offered. Take responsibility for your future by taking responsibility of a team or project.

3. Be Known As The Reader / Learner: Reading is a great way to learn new things, it allows you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes - see things from a different perspective. Reading also has the added benefit of teaching us the ability to concentrate for extended periods of time; a great trait for a leader. And don’t overlook online or evening courses at your local university or college, they are both great ways to quickly demonstrate your initiative while expanding your knowledge and experience.

4. Be Open to Change: Change is inevitable and a very good learning opportunity. Stay ahead of the curve… or at least with the curve.

5. Respect Others: What goes around comes around. Treat others like you want to be treated… everyone. If you ignore lower-level employees when they walk by you or worse yet, in meetings is disrespectful and everyone… especially the most important people will notice. 

6. Be A Coach / Mentor: All great leaders are mentors and/or coaches. You learn a lot about yourself when you find ways to help others… and it’s another great way to get noticed and learn important leadership skills. 

7. Respond – Don’t React To Situations: Learn to think about your options and the impact of what you do or say… before you do or say anything.

8. Get Your Work Done Ahead Of Time: Have good Time Management habits. Push yourself to do better by planning ahead, doing your important work first, working when you are at your best and most of all, managing your expectations as well as the expectations of others.

9. Be a Problem Solver: Think glass half full. When you introduce a road block or puzzle, think of them as a challenge, an opportunity for excitement – and opportunity to think of a new solution and be creative. This will help get you noticed.

10. Network: Get to know people inside and outside of your company / department. Be resourceful. Build alliances inside and outside the organization. Be known as that person who says, “I think I know someone who can help us.” And don’t just be a taker, look for opportunities to help others or meet new people.

I put think strategically and find ways to lead as #1 and #2 for a reason. They are really important. I can’t stress how much.

BONUS: Lead By Example: Great leaders lead by example, they do not compromise their values. So, get noticed by being honest and transparent about opportunities and challenges. When things go wrong, great leaders take responsibility, roll up their sleeves and encourage the team to look for solutions on how things can be made better. Get noticed by building a reputation as an inspiring leader who is proud of the teams’ accomplishments.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my list of 10 ways to get noticed in a good way.

Bruce

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Toronto corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew Consulting (BMC) creates customized professional development courses at our Canadian management central office in Toronto. We specialize in Leadership, Communication and other soft skills training solutions.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

Learn more about how you and your organization can benefit from our communication skills courses email us by clicking here or one call does it all at 416.617.0462.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting's most popular programs are Email Writing Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Difficult Conversations, Generational Differences / Millennials At Work, Time Management Training and more.

Time Management Training Benefits For Individuals And Organizations

Time management is all about how an individual, a team and/or an organizations (through the corporate culture) spends their time on their priorities. But, effective time management is difficult. The world around us - be it at home or at work is always trying to distract us from our most important priorities.

Distractions are in part what Stephen R Covey, the Godfather of Time Managment called “Busy Work”.

As an individual, you have some control over how you manage your time. Even if your corporate culture doesn’t support efficient use of time, look for ways for you to be in control and to do your best work. For example, protect one solid, uninterrupted hour every morning to work quietly on your most strategic, most creative priority. Make this happen before your day becomes chaotic. In many cases if you get into a habit of one-quiet hour, your team will learn to (mostly) leave you alone. Even better, they will begin helping you protect that hour… and… you wil be setting an example for them to follow.

As a leader in an organization, you have a tremendous opportunity to influence many people and to do great things for the people you support and your company, not to mention your own professional reputation and your career. Imagine the success that will surround you when your team are all working in sync and with shared respect for each other and their work. As I suggested in an earlier post, one of the greatest things you can do to demonstrate your leadership ability is to help your team understand their individual and shared priorities.

So, for you the individual and/or you the leader, I offer you the following list as a sample of the many benefits you and your organization can experience when you learn and embrace effective time management techniques.

Time Management Training Benefits to the Individual

1. Improved reputation and relationships both on and off the job

2. Reduced stress and more enjoyment of everyday life

3. More autonomy over an when and where you do your work

4. Enjoy more work-life balance

5. Improves morale and confidence

6. Fewer missed opportunities

7. Improved decision-making abilities

8. Increased recognition and reward from higher personal productivity levels

9. More success in your career and advancement opportunities 

Time Management Training Benefits to the Organization

1. Better planning and forecasting

2. Benefits from increased individual creativity, productivity, accountability and loyalty

3. Much more effective teamwork

4. More streamlined project completion

5. More effective communication throughout the organization

6. Reduced stress for individuals, teams and throughout the organization

7. Reduced need to redo work previously or partially completed

8. Less interpersonal and inter-team friction

Time Management Training Benefits to the Individual And the Organization

1. Both can accomplish more with less effort

2. Fewer missed opportunities

3. Improved decision-making abilities

4. Learning opportunities… everywhere

5. Be less overwhelmed

6. Be less rushed

7. Fewer mistakes and negative impact from your competition 

8. Individuals, teams and the organization can stand out

9. And finally… one thing that everyone would be very happy to have… more effective meetings

Conclusion:

Time management is the key to success. It allows you to take control of your life rather than follow the flow of others as you accomplish more each day, make better decisions, have a greater impact and feel more in control. But it is more than that – it allows both individuals and organizations explore how they can do their best work and expand their abilities so that they are competitive in the future.

Good time management habits help you get noticed and this will help put you in line for advancement opportunities. Too often ‘busy people’ are just busy treading water trying to stay afloat and not actually making any significant progress. Then, the next thing they know technology and competitive advances leave them behind. Don’t let that happen to you! Instead, choose to achieve more and experience greater satisfaction in all areas of your life.

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Toronto corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew Consulting (BMC) creates customized professional development courses at our Canadian management central office in Toronto. We specialize in Leadership, Communication and other soft skills training solutions.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

Learn more about how you and your organization can benefit from our communication skills courses email us by clicking here or one call does it all at 416.617.0462.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting's most popular programs are Email Writing Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Difficult Conversations, Generational Differences / Millennials At Work, Time Management Training and more.

Support Employee Engagement. It Doesn't Make Cents... It Makes Dollars.

Sorry for the word play in the title. I couldn’t help it. But hopefully in increased your engagement.

For years Gallup research has shown us approximately 65% of employees are only moderately engaged and 15% of employees are fully disengaged. And unfortunately these engagement numbers are getting worse in many cases.

We know engaged employees are happier and enjoy their work. Engaged employees also have greater productivity, make fewer mistakes, have higher customer satisfaction rates and lower turnover… and those are only some of the most obvious benefits. Clearly, improving engagement of the 65% of your employees can have tremendous impact to your business. According to Neil Pasricha, entrepreneur and author of the best-selling ‘The Book of Awesome’ series and ‘The Happiness Equation’, happy and engaged people are:

• Are 31% more productive

• Reach 37% higher sales

• Are 300% more creative than their peers

As Anne M. Mulcahy’s said years ago, “Employees are a company's greatest asset - they're your competitive advantage.”True then and still is.

To tap into this 65% of employees, organizations are embracing soft skills. Why? Because research is also showing us that 5 out of the top 7 Leadership Skills are soft skills. Simply put, traditional leadership approaches fail because employees want a different relationship than they had 40, 50, 60 years ago. Today, the organizations and leaders who are winning have learned to adapt. 

As a leader you play an incredibly important role in shaping the culture of your team. You are going to make it, break it or leave it broken (if you inherited a team). Your teams’ results, attitude and loyalty will tell you exactly how well you are doing... you don't need an expensive Employee Survey to know how well you are doing.

Here are 3 ways leaders like you can begin to develop a strong corporate culture and your team.

1.     Be Transparent

A transparent workplace breaks down silos and promotes open communication.

When workplaces are transparent, employees don’t have to wonder what’s important, everyone see the big picture and can see how their work is important to the greater good. Transparency also encourages employees to share their achievements and to seek out support when they don’t know something or need a creative boost… not to mention creating a safer more positive environment. 

2.     Set / Manage Expectations 

When leaders treat employees like children, they often get demotivated employees. The reverse is also true.

If you want your employees to be empowered you have to let them know what you expect of them. And, they’ll want to know what they can expect from you because employee engagement is a two-way street. When you are clear about expectations you lay the foundation to build trust and a community. For example, imagine how excited your team will feel when you tell them your goal is to:

• Help them contribute and reach their short and long-term goals

• Give them the autonomy and to contribute in a meaningful way (how, when and what they work on)

• Help them do work they can be proud of

• Help them find work that is in-line with their professional goals (only 20% is necessary… but that’s for another another blog)

And equally important, you need to share you expect them to:

• Be professional, proactive, creative, strategic and demonstrate organizational values

• Reach their goals – as they’ve agreed to with you, on time and on budget

• Provide you with accurate and timely updates

• Come to you early with challenges and not to surprise you – be a coach / mentor to them

Great leaders realize change is everywhere and every project will have unique challenges. Great leaders coach their team to expect change, not fear it and to expect to work differently tomorrow than they did today.

3.     Focus on Strengths

Fact! Everyone loves to feel pride when they know they are working at an expert level… even if they are introverts and don’t want public attention. Simply knowing you have an expertise evokes feelings that are inspiring and motivating. So, become the leader who helps everyone near you become an expert in an area that is in-line with their professional goals. You will begin seeing benefits like:

• Increased performance

• Increased creativity

• Increased teamwork / collaboration… helping out

• Decrease in errors

So, here is the thing. You can’t make someone an expert in something they don’t like doing. The simple answer is people become excellent when they are motivated by three things:

• Tasks we enjoy spending time doing

• Tasks we are good at

• Tasks that give us strength – that empower our spirit

When you have identified the things that each employee enjoys doing, focus your and their effort on what they do exceptionally well. Why? Because while it’s important to always understand what doesn’t work so you don’t repeat it, spending time studying only failure sucks the joy out of the task and will never help us get so familiar with what does work.

 Conclusion

Why does this positive approach work?

This works because employees who are engaged (involved in the goals, timing and decisions surrounding their work) are far more motivated to push toward their success and the success of the organization. Successful organizations give their employees the opportunity to feel what it’s like to have their voices heard and to know they contribute to the corporate strategy and success.

And don’t worry, it doesn’t take more time… you do have time for this. In fact, you will be spending more time on positive work yourself rather than trying to force, coerce or bribe people to do great work… or worse yet… having to do the work yourself. Also, you will spend less time holding interviews to fill vacant spots because your best talent just quit.

About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.

Toronto corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew Consulting (BMC) creates customized professional development courses at our Canadian management central office in Toronto. We specialize in Leadership, Communication and other soft skills training solutions.

BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.

Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.

If you would like to learn more about how you and your organization can benefit from our communication skills courses email us by clicking here or one call does it all at 416.617.0462.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting's most popular programs are Email Writing Training, Leadership & New Leadership Development, Difficult Conversations, Generational Differences / Millennials At Work, Time Management Training and more.