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. 

3 Simple Ways You Can Make Your Email Writing Magnificent

There are many best practices blogs and magazine articles about email etiquette; I know because I’ve written many of them.

Lately I’ve been thinking, “What are the simplest things I can recommend that will help others make their email writing as effective as possible?” After a bit of thought I came up with the following 3 simple ways to make email writing magnificent.

1. Write A Really Good Email Subject Line.

Looking into the email I’ve recently received I see far too many bad ones like:

• Tomorrow

• Conflict Management

• Training

• One Other Thing

• Requesting Information

I don’t mind sharing these bad email subject lines with you because they are so vague there is no risk of a privacy breech. And that is really the point.

A good subject line is the window into our email. It should manage your readers expectations about what your reader will encounter as well as motivate them to want to open, read and respond to it (which is usually your ultimate goal).

As a general rule, a magnificent email subject line will almost always have somewhere between 5 and 7 words,

2. Say Hello, Good Morning, Good Afternoon… or something like this.

A short, pleasant, professional greeting is one of the easiest ways to take the unintended and all too common pushy, bossy, negative tone that lives within all of our email.

It’s amazing the good things that will happen with your relationship when your reader sees a friendly:

• Hi Bruce

• Good Afternoon

• Good Morning Mr. Mayhew

When people feel you are being friendly and respectful they will be more open to helping get you what you want.

3. Get To The Point

Bottom lining your message is critical to being a good communicator and getting your email read and acted on quickly because it helps you manage their expectations.

Your reader will appreciate when your first sentence (after your greeting), informs them exactly what you what, what you need or what you have for them.

If you have background information put it after your important information and/or action item. Even better, label your background information with a heading called… Background. This creates a physical separation between critical information and background information and will show you reader your important info is only a few lines long… and it is the background info (that they can read later), that makes the message look long.

Conclusion:

There are 2 really good reasons why making your email magnificent is good for you and your organization:

1. Professionalism: Great email etiquette demonstrates you are a professional by showing you pay attention, are a great communicator and know how to manage your - and other people’s expectations. This is important for your professional brand and the brand of your team / organization.

2. Efficiency: Email that get to the point and don’t negatively trigger your reader save you (and your reader) time because they are read quickly and understood easily. The bonus is you save even more time by not having to follow-up.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article about email writing and how you can use it differently in order to get the information you want when you want it. Now, go be magnificent.

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.

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.

Motivated Reasoning: Why We Believe What We Believe.

Our wishes, hopes, fears and motivations make us
more likely to accept something as true if it supports what we want to believe.

What you and I believe has a lot to do with what you and I want to believe. And no surprise… what we want to believe has a big impact on the decisions we make at home and at work.

Research shows you and I trust facts - even wild unbelievable facts - when those facts support what we already believe or what we want to believe (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1992); the source of the facts has little influence over our trust. For example, if you enjoy coffee you will likely place low legitimacy on studies that say caffeine is harmful, meanwhile you may enthusiastically accept, reference and even share studies that suggest caffeine is beneficial. This is a perfect example how our thoughts create our reality.

The challenge is that you and I often seem to have no idea our subconscious is working overtime to support its own agenda. This cognitive prejudice is called motivated reasoning. As stated by Dr. Peter Ditto, PhD, a social psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, who studies how motivation, emotion and intuition influence judgment, "People are capable of being thoughtful and rational, but our wishes, hopes, fears and motivations often tip the scales to make us more likely to accept something as true if it supports what we want to believe."

And, if our subconscious wasn’t enough of a challenge when it comes to motivated reasoning, the algorithms connected to our social media accounts are designed to push information our way based on what we’ve previously looked at, read and liked. These algorithms narrow our focus even further and shield us from new and interesting points-of-view while creating an echo chamber of the ideas and beliefs we already have.

Here is an at-home example: Imagine it is the weekend. You and I are standing outside side by side as it begins to rain. With each of us looking at the same weather report on our smartphones:

• You believe it will rain enough so that you don’t have to water the garden and instead can go inside an relax with a favourite book - guilt free.

• I believe it will not rain enough because I want to see first-hand how well the new in-ground watering system works that I proudly installed the week earlier .

Considering Motivate Reasoning When Influencing Others

When you and I think about influencing staff, customers or even the leaders we report into, their current beliefs are important to consider because those beliefs will have a great impact on how we should approach the discussion. Because of motivated reasoning it almost always takes more information to make others believe something they don't want to believe or that goes against their current beliefs. Therefore, how much time and work it will take for you and I to succeed will depend on how hard their conscious and subconscious are working to protect their existing beliefs.

And, if motivated reasoning isn’t enough, everybody’s behaviours and decisions are also being impacted by confirmation biases – which for some may sound like a perfect storm and enough to make us want to stay locked in our offices all day.

NOTE: Confirmation bias is slightly different from motivated reasoning. Confirmation bias is when people notice information that agrees with their existing needs and beliefs and points of view while decidedly ignoring (without concern for validity), information, opinions and studies that are contradictory. And again, motivated reasoning is our tendency to easily and wantingly accept information, opinions or studies that agree with our needs, beliefs and values.

Helping People Move Forward

If we want to change a persons strongly held belief we will likely have to overcome motivated reasoning (and confirmation bias). To do this there are two things we will have to do to shift how our thoughts create our reality:

1. Earn Their Trust… Listen To Them
   One of the best ways you can build trust is to make them feel important; one of the best ways to make people feel important is to listen to them.
   Do your best to avoid debating or arguing with them. Instead, learn what is important to them and perhaps more importantly… why it is important to them. Do this by asking open ended questions like, “Tell me more,” and “How does that make you feel?” Listen carefully. You can’t help them change if you don’t understand where they are coming from and why they are there. When they trust you and feel they are an important, respected part of a team they will begin to be ready to begin listening to your beliefs and be open to considering a different point of view.

2. Overcome Their Social Bonds… Their Tribe
   If a person has strongly held beliefs it usually means they have a social group (a tribe), of family, friends and/or coworkers who share and reinforce their beliefs; a group of people that make them feel valued and ‘at home’. If you and I are going to ask them to change, a good part of their resistance will be loyalty to their social group and their feelings of security within that group. For you and I to succeed it will be important to ensure they feel there is another social group to join… and hopefully they will see this new social group as highly desirable and important to their success.

Thank you for reading my article about motivated reasoning and how our wishes, hopes, fears and motivations impact what we do and do not want to believe.

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.

Having A Challenge With Employee Performance or Employee Behaviour?

If you’re having a challenge with employee performance or employee behaviour because it’s not at the level your business and customers need… you are not alone.

There are ways to deal with difficult employees that are productive and not steeped in conflict. In the next few minutes we are going to discuss 6 solutions that will make a difference.

Step 1. Evaluate The Challenge.

Are you having a performance challenge or a behaviour challenge… or both?

Performance: Usually easy to fix because it is related to skills and / or knowledge.

Behaviour: Usually more difficult to fix because it is related to a person’s actions supported by beliefs, personality and/or attitude.

Note: A challenge can be both.

Both: Usually more difficult to fix as well. If a person’s behaviour (absenteeism), results in them missing performance (job) deliverables.

In either case, if a leader does not address employee challenges, the challenges and the employee will negatively impact the organization. Morale will likely drop, other team performance and behaviour may drop, overall employee absenteeism and staff turnover may go up resulting in higher hiring and re-training costs and in worst-case scenarios, the corporate brand suffers.

Step 2. Inform

While it will potentially be a quicker solution if the challenge is performance based, recognize when you bring this up with your employee, they may feel vulnerable. This vulnerability can be that they are letting you down, they may fear they are going to be fired and/or they may be embarrassed. For all of these reasons and more, when you share the challenge, do it at a time and place the employee will feel protected and have time to explore and perhaps re-set their emotions.

Step 3. Manage Expectations

As their leader, go through your expectations. Hopefully this will not be the first time they have heard this content. Confirm they are on the same page – have them share those expectations back to you.

If it is a performance challenge training is often a reasonably cost effective and timely solution. Coaching and/or mentoring is also often a good support.

If it is a behaviour challenge it may be helpful to have their job description and employee contract on hand. A review of company values is also often helpful. As with a performance challenge, coaching and/or mentoring is also often a good support although a more senior / experienced coach and/or mentor is recommended.

Work with them (don’t dictate), to find solutions for them to increase their performance and/or change their behaviour. Make them part of the solution, noting the solution does have to be in line with department / project needs, team respect and company values.

Step 4. Check In

Follow-up shortly after… perhaps a day or two later. Make sure they feel good about the meeting you had and ask if they have any other questions or ideas now that they have had more time.

Step 5. Implement Solution(s)

Make a plan and take it step by step. By all means, keep everyone informed of your expectations and what changes are being made.

As you share information focus on why the changes are being made and most importantly how it impacts them. Far too often leaders focus on how the change impacts the business or customers… but forget how they impact to people who have to carry out the change. How does change make your employees lives better? Do the changes:

• Provide a learning opportunity and potential for growth?

• Make their work easier?

• Make their work less stressful?

• Make their work / more safe?

• Make the product / service / company more environmentally sustainable - therefore they can be proud?

• Increase communication with other departments?

No matter who you are or where you are, when you experience change fear and hesitation of the unknown is a natural response. As a leader it’s our responsibility to anticipate this fear and plan in advance how to minimize it.

Step 6. Keep A Respectful Eye On Performance And Behaviour

When it’s necessary, feedback should be constructive and never be seen as punitive or a surprise. Individuals and teams should expect to be held accountable but this doesn’t mean their leader should be discourteous or unsympathetic.

Great leaders share that challenges and setbacks often can teach us more than successes and… they can be important professional development opportunities. Recognize that feedback often causes stress and anxiety so be clear that your goal is to help everyone be the best they can be.

Conclusion

I hope this shows you there are ways to deal with difficult employees without turning it all onto the employee. There are often many different things that may be throwing your employee off their game resulting in you having a performance challenge or a behaviour challenge.

Every leader will experience this not once, not twice but on a (hopefully) irregular basis. Dealing with these situations quickly is critical and knowing how to recognize the challenge, evaluate the challenge and then manage the challenge will give every leader the confidence to deal with these situations.

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.