Recruiting, Acquiring and KEEPING upper echelon employees begins with…

Most companies are striving to get the best employees and keep them as they know this is integral to their success and growth. Competition is steep as the number of “A Players” seems to be dwindling by the day. The consolation? Not many have mastered this art, so making an effort goes a long way!

As usual, let’s start at the beginning…

How do you attract “A players” in the first place?

One of the most innovative and effective ways is by creating interesting and fun videos to tempt great employees and leaders to your company. I have seen this succefully done by companies like Zappos and MindVakkey, it has the top employees coming to them to apply and vy for positions!

But how do we accomplish this for our company when it isn’t young and hip or when we don’t have a fun business because  we sell widgets!

IF your perspective is open and willing, then you can accomplish the goal of painting a picture that is appealing for prospective employees. NOW, let me preface this with this admonition, IF your company only paints the picture as being a good, fair and fun company to work for but it is riddled with a different culture totally, then even if you are successful in recruiting top employees, they will shortly find out the reality and move on to a company that better suits them. SOOOO, this is only the first step to having an employee team of  upper echelon employees.

Alright, so now back tot he video idea…

ANY subject can be fun and interesting if you have the right perspective. You may not have this perspective, so you might want to hire someone to make this or even better, delegate it to some of your employees. Ah! Here’s an idea: Have a contest for different departments to make each a video for recruiting. They can talk about how it is to work there or about events that you hold, whatever. But, then you can have a viewing party and vote for the best video. Make a day out of it!

Don’t believe ANY subject can be funny? Would you think it is possible to be funny when delivering the “speech” all airlines must give before takeoff, “There are four exits…” etc.?

Thin again. Check out this video by Virgin Airlines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyygn8HFTCo&NR=1

Have a recruiting video already? Post a link here, we would love to see it and learn from your example.

To your continued success,

C

 

 

Your Laziest Employees’ Impact on the Rest of the Employee Team… is WORSE Than You Think!

In a study of 158 students, a test was designed to see how conscientious and motivated they were, and then they were sorted into 33 teams.

Each team was given a case study to work on, and was told that each team member would receive the same grade based on how well they did.

Benjamin Walker, a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales’ Australian School of Business, found that “the person who contributes the least has a huge impact. Even if the rest of the team is pulling their weight, they won’t be able to compensate for that member.”  That single lazy person ended up with the most responsibility for team failure or success.

What about irresponsible people? Do they have the same affect? No, Walker ran tests to see if recklessness affected team performance, but found that the group mentality overrode the few impulsive people–in a way that it couldn’t do with lazy folks.

So, will you allow a lazy person to erode everyone else’s potential success?

Or will you step forward to make a small change that could drastically affect the entire company’s success?

C

How to get your team (or anyone) to pay attention or care AT ALL! Seth Godin chimes in…

Want to talk to your team? Write a memo? Communicate a change? Want them to read your newsletter or blog?

Why not write NAKED. I have said this for years, communicate with clarity and with raw realness or don’t do it at all.

Seth Godin weighs in today too from his blog:

Writing Naked

Here are Orwell’s rules, edited:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. You don’t need cliches.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. Avoid long words.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Write in the now.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. When in doubt, say it clearly.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Better to be interesting than to follow these rules.

The reason business writing is horrible is that people are afraid.

Afraid to say what they mean, because they might be criticized for it.

Afraid to be misunderstood, to be accused of saying what they didn’t mean, because they might be criticized for it.

Orwell was on the right track. Just say it. Say it clearly. Say it now. Say it without fear of being criticized and say it without being boring.

If the goal is no feedback, then say nothing. Don’t write the memo.

If the goal is to communicate, then say what you mean.

My best tip is this: buy a cheap digital recorder. Say what you want to say, as if the person you seek to persuade is standing there, listening. Then type that up. Simplify. Send.

So, how will this change what you write today?

C

A different take on Seth Godin’s post today.

Here is what Seth has to say:

The power of buttons and being normal

Taxi drivers in New York were worried about adding credit cards to their cabs. The fee (5% of so) would cost them too much, they said.

It turns out that tips are up, way up. They’re actually making far more money now.

Why? Because most of the machines offer a shortcut for the tip: $2, $3 or $4.

You can decide to be a cheapskate and hit the $2 button. Except…

Except that if you had paid cash, you probably would have tipped 75 cents for that $4.25 ride. It takes a few more clicks to type in 75 cents, and hey, $2 is the lowest and it’s a more ‘normal’ amount.

It’s a three second decision that happens over and over. People really like cues.

And of course, I agree with this.

However, I began thinking about how this can also be applied to employees and management.

“People really like cues.” including employees…

Employees sometimes, or very often actually, fall into ruts. Ruts like office gossip at the coffee pot or ruts of complaining about overwork or the boss. Often a new client will talk about this problem and often they believe it is the people who are the problem. And sometimes they are!

But, MOST of the time, the problem is the environment. The environment allows and even encourages these ruts to form and continue.

So, thinking about your office, how does this affect the employees productivity? How does this deteriorate the customer service?

Once, I entered a  doctor’s office and rang the little bell at the window. The receptionists were in the back, having lunch and they were complaining LOUDLY about a patient. I said “hellooooo?” to politely let them know I was there, since they had not heard the bell. However, they continued to go on, so engrossed in the story and the animated retelling of the account, they did not hear me. On and on, the voice described the argument the doctor had with the patient. FINALLY, I opened the door and walked into the back a bit to let them know I was there. They went on like nothing had happened and the doctor had no idea the possible damage that was happening, o doubt often in his office.

Imagine if I had been a patient! Imagine if this was happening in your office/store/location!

Is it the people? The employees? Possibly, but more likely the problem is much bigger than that.

When there is an environment that teaches people to act this way, it allows people to act this way, then it will BE this way, always, no matter the people in it.

Instead going back to what Seth wrote above, people like cues. If you give no cue for the tip, you get 75 cents. Give a cue and quickly triple that! What kinds of cues are your employees getting from you.

Once I got told by an employer, “the “stars” among you will do SO well with this”.Well, that’s great, but the cue I got was some of you are losers! And none of us knew which ones where which, so we all felt scolded.Did it inspire us to be even better? NO. It made us feel like, “nobody is noticing our hard work, why try so hard?”.

Instead, if you give the cue that people are special, unique and you care about them, if you believe in the best in people and actually appreciate each and their contribution, you get more of that best.

If a culture is created that feeds and grows a set of values far above and beyond your average business, THEN, people in it are responsible and caring about their impact on the business and the world, the customer service is stellar and the future of that company is bright because the consumers LOVE to experience the difference.

Of course, Zappos is a fantastic example of this. If you have doubts that company culture pays off, look at their track record to over a billion in sales!

So, where should you begin?

How do you get started?

That’s what I am here for my friend. I am creating an entire course to teach this and as I do, I will post ideas and rants here for you to enjoy, learn from and transform your company culture!

But, until then, WHAT CUES ARE YOU GIVING TO YOUR EMPLOYEES?

C

These ruts of

How to have employees in social media for the company – How Whirlpool does it!

This is an article I thought I would pass along, great info on how to have employee tweet or use other social media for your company:

How Whirlpool creates a consistent brand voice in social media

By Andy Sernovitz

One of the greatest things about social media is that it makes it possible for lots of people behind the brand to have a voice. But that also makes for some of the biggest challenges — how do you keep all of these voices consistent? How do you make sure customers can depend on them?

In their BlogWell Chicago case study presentation, Brian Snyder and Scott Spiegel talked about how they do this at Whirlpool — a brand that also includes Maytag, Amana, KitchenAid and more. A few of their key takeaways:

• Remember that consumers want to talk to their brand. They don’t care if they’re talking to the corporate PR, marketing or consumer care department. They just want to talk to the people who made the appliance they have or that make the appliance that they want.
• Make your brand experts available. Whirlpool has a team of laundry scientists — people who are experts when it comes to stains, fabric and detergent. Through Twitter and Facebook, Whirlpool has made their “Whirlpool Institute of Fabric Science” available day and night to answer questions from fans.
• Different brands have different priorities. Brian says that social media should always start with brand priorities. At Whirlpool, knowing each brand’s core objectives and target customers help them determine everything from their overall level of engagement to which social-media platform to use.

Hope this helps you move forward in your “social” venture!

My best,

C

7 Signs You May Be a Bad Manager

Hee hee. More about leadership, blah, blah! This is from Steve Tobak @ Bnet.

One thing most bad managers have in common is they’re not consciously aware that they’re bad managers. And if they are aware of it on some level, they’re probably not willing to admit it to anyone, least of all themselves. That’s because nobody wants to believe they’re the problem.

It’s a common enough phenomenon that isn’t limited to bosses, but applies to people at all levels: executives, managers, employees too. I’m not a shrink, so I’m not sure why that is. But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably got something to do with ego, denial, compartmentalization, self-delusion, lack of perspective, that sort of thing.

It would be all-too-easy to just label these folks dysfunctional and call it a day, but I’m not entirely sure that would be either accurate or helpful. I actually think we all suffer from this sort of myopia to some extent and from time to time.

You see, in How to Deal With a Bad Boss: Don’t! I told readers to take a long hard look in the mirror before pointing fingers at the boss. Of course that cuts both ways. But in reading all the comments and emails, I noticed a distinct lack of objectivity by those actually experiencing a boss-employee relationship issue, as opposed to those who were just talking about it.

When it’s happening to us, we put up our defenses. And not only is that bad for business, it’s bad for your management career, as well.

So, even if you’re convinced that you’re the greatest manager on planet Earth and your ability to be introspective knows no bounds, you’d still be wise to check these 7 Signs You May Be a Bad Manager. As for all you employees who’d rather be water-boarded than take a cold hard look at yourself, most of the signs apply to individuals, too.

• Your group is underperforming. Sooner or later, bad management will trickle down and affect the entire organization. Whatever the appropriate metrics are for an organization, poor performance can usually be traced back to a management problem.
• Your manager is turning up the heat. When a good senior manager thinks there may be a problem with a subordinate manager, he’ll inevitably turn up the heat and see what happens. So if you notice your boss putting the screws to you, it’s a sign that something’s up.
• Allies are distancing themselves from you. It’s one thing for your employees to talk behind your back and for your enemies to despise you, but when your work friends and allies start to back away, that’s an indication that you’re damaged goods.
• You’re behaving like more of a jerk than usual. You may be in conscious denial about being a crappy boss, but on some level, you’re probably aware of it. And that takes a toll on you, usually in terms of increased stress and anxiety that you’ll likely take out on others.
• Your decision-making is compromised. One of the most visible signs of poor management is poor decision-making. After all, decisions are actions, actions generate results, and results are highly visible. Pay attention.
• Your personal relationships suck. Dysfunctional managers are also dysfunctional people. Relationships are relationships, period. And while I’m sure that some bad bosses are just wonderful spouses and friends, I seriously doubt it’s very common.
• Your employees are miserable. Come on now. I don’t care how self-absorbed you are, you know if your employees are miserable. Do they stop talking and look guilty when you walk by? Do they invite everyone else but you for drinks after work.

So, my friend, let’s talk about this impacts you.

Not at all? Well, that would be a travesty! We can all improve on our skills! IF you want a better outcome with your team, let’s get real.

GO STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE: Conduct a survey, have everyone in the office complete it online with a free service, like surveymonkey.com

Truly evaluate the results, be open to the possibility that a good portion of what is said is true. And make a plan for how to improve those results.

Implement that plan and retest with time to improve your process and outcomes.

I KNOW, this sounds painful, who wants to hear the truth when it seems so personal could sound harsh, but to get the payoff (a more productive and brilliant team) you must take action.

My best, as always,

C

Leadership blah, blah. But, do you have the top 10 qualities of a great leader?

Here is a great list of Top 10 qualities of leaders/employers from Bizmanualz. Thanks, Bizmanualz, but really, no one has all of these qualities. So, what are we to do then?

Ah, let’s start at the beginning, here are the top 10:

1. Self-respect and respect for others. If you don’t have a healthy self-respect, you won’t respect others. If you don’t respect others, they will not respect you. You can’t lead people who don’t respect you.

2. The ability to communicate effectively. Leaders say what they mean and mean exactly what they say. Effective communicators are far more persuasive than those who don’t communicate well.

3. Integrity and character. Leaders are not swayed by unsubstantiated opinions or unfounded rumors. Fame, power, or material gain don’t motivate them. Leaders have integrity, that strength of character that resists assault.

4. Having a vision, a mission (or a purpose), a sense of direction, and a clear set of goals. Moreover, they know that their job isn’t done when one set of goals is reached. Leaders know that life is a journey.

5. Being grounded. Leaders have a vision of what the world around them ought to be, but they are also pragmatic. Things will not always go smoothly, but leaders understand that and have the presence of mind to deal with that.

6. Courage. Fear is a powerful motivator; it causes many of us to turn away from our goals when our belief in ourselves and our cause isn’t strong. Leaders aren’t fearless — leaders make a conscious choice to act in spite of their fear.

7. Persistence, commitment, and dedication. It’s like they always say: “Winners don’t quit, and quitters don’t win.”  Nothing worth having comes easily. When setbacks crop up, leaders don’t flag because they always have their eyes on the prize.

8. Humility. Leaders aren’t self-promoting or self-aggrandizing. They don’t take all the credit. They give credit to others and refuse it for themselves.

9. A sense of responsibility. Leaders are willing to bear the ultimate responsibility for their undertakings. They don’t point the finger of blame when things go awry.

10. Decisiveness. When action is called for, real leaders don’t waffle. Knowing that a window of opportunity exists (”the time to act is now”), they act quickly and effectively, based on the best available information.

Most importantly, leaders have these characteristics in balance. Some may tell you there is one characteristic more important than the rest. They’ll say something like, “Oh, you have to have that ‘vision thing’ above all else.” Not true – people won’t follow someone who has vision without courage or humility, for example.

So, what are we to do now, now that we have a list of what we need, but don’t have all of these, as we are not quite (wink) perfect!

AND, an even bigger problem, for most people, they THINK they are much better at displaying these qualities than they really are. So, how do we first get an accurate picture of reality?

Bizmanualz didn’t have the answer for us, but I will give you my “two cents” of course, in the coming days. For now, determine how well you rate in each area.

My best,

C

How Apple evolves and develops it’s Brand!

They do as Seth Godin says, they take a cliché and do the opposite. THIS is one way we can INNOVATE, like I have been encouraging you to do. As Tony Robbins has pointed out for the duration of this “recession”, you must innovate during this time or you will suffer, because some of your competitors WILL!

To quote Seth:

The effective way to use a cliché is to point to it and then do precisely the opposite. Juxtapose the cliché with the unexpected truth of what you have to offer. Apple does this all the time. They point out the cliché of a laptop or a desktop or an MP3 player and then they turn it upside down.

Richard Branson takes the expected boredom of a CEO and turns it upside down by doing things you don’t expect.

There is power in opposites like this, very often, in that, you can turn a negative into a positive. If your product competitors are very similar to yours (or at least seems that way to prospects), with time, there is a commoditization, that will squeeze any profit out of the venture.If you don’t change the game, it will change and you will pay the consequences.

Like I talked about yesterday in my post, a negative objection from a prospect can be a positive. You can use it to create more success in the future: If competitors chose someone with more “experience”, saying you are younger than your competitors, then build a plan to show that as an advantage. This won’t help for this prospect in particular, but for future prospects, you can be ready. Brand messages for your youth could be:  “Uses the latest breakthrough technology.” “In it for the long haul” (for 30 years instead of the competitor is already 60 so he will retire soon).

What negatives do you see that could be positives?

What we believe shapes our thoughts, our thoughts shape our actions, our actions shape our experience/lives.

What do you believe that could be shaping your life into what you do not want in your future?

C

www.christiescott.com

The ONE thing you can NEVER get from a book or info program, that YOU need if you want to get to the next leve

For years I have been a coach, but I have also spent many years as a “coachee”. Being coached is an interesting, moving and potentially life changing experience.

Before I began coaching, I hired a coach. And because I so believed in the process, I became a coach.

If you know me at all, you know that I am an absolute “info addict”, I have purchased more business advice programs, how-to business books than anyone I know. I have so many certifications, they don’t fit in a Bio or my LinkedIn profile. SO, I believe in education!

However, all of those books and programs CANNOT do one thing for me or you.

And this is the one thing we need more than anything else, most of the time in business.

What is it? You cannot know, what you do not know.

Hence, we MISS MAJOR revelations about ourselves, our business and our opportunities without a different perspective.

BTW: You cannot view from someone else’s perspective without them imparting it to you.

For instance, you might be facing a decision or problem and feel there are only two ways to deal with it. However, there could be MANY other opportunities in that one situation that are simply outside of what you realize.

Now, I WILL ADMIT, that books and program CAN give us a different perspective from a sterile but passionate place. HOWEVER, the HUGE limitation comes when we need this customized perspective.

Have no idea what I am talking about?

Doubting me in your head, are we?

Let me give you an example, this week when coaching a client of four years, he said a prospect had called him to say he would not hire him and that he simply wanted to let him know. THIS is very unusual! (That says my client is making a real connection with prospects) My client was unsure of how to learn from what the prospect told him. If he had continued to chalk it up as an interesting occurrence, the growth would have stopped there.

However, he happened to mention it to me during our call and I told him that I believe this is a gift.

We spent an hour deciphering what was said and how to improve my client’s outcomes using that perspective. In the end we completed a plan for how to build more trust with prospects, make his proposals more personal and give the impression of expert status in his specialty and show that a potential negative could actually be a positive to his clients.

This negative criteria was that the prospect chose a “more established and experienced” (read: older) person for the job. However, we devised ways to show that my client was going to be “there” for clients for many years to come and prove his commitment to the area with a book he published about the local area, etc.

So, the point, my friends, is without a coach, yes, you can improve your business and life. However, there is no replacement for how almost magical and brilliant it is to have an outside but committed person who has the perspectives of many clients, markets and business to boost you to higher achievements than imagined. Very often, most times in fact, our business problems simply echo personal problems. This could be many, many things. I personally have been the most touched when I helped clients learn about the truth of their actions, from lack of honesty with our own limitations, a tendency to “chase shiny objects”, playing out childhood experiences and learned behaviors, such as fighting the tendency to “be” like their father or holding on to long to employees because of loss as a child.

These experiences have forever proven to me the amazing change and clarity that is possible ONLY through the coaching experience. It is why I do what I do.

My best to you, as always,

C

Find your business is just another J-O-B? The ONE thing you need:

The number ONE difference between the successful business and one that is simply mediocre or failing, is the FOCUS of the leader(s)!

If the leader’s focus is mediocre, then the business will follow suit. What do I mean by mediocre? You are probably thinking, “I AM NOT mediocre, I am excited and active in my business, popping at the seams with ideas!” Ah, my friend, let start at the very beginning, a very good place to start, when you read you begin with A,B,C when your in business begin with too many things, projects, ideas, goals. With time, you either destroy the profitability of a business or learn to focus on what’s truly important.

The largest gap between the very successful person and the miserable one who has a J-O-B disguised as a business, is (da da da DUM): FOCUS!

And more importantly, FOCUS on the RIGHT things at the RIGHT time.

So, how do you know what to focus on? Well, a GREAT coach, mentor, or book can help you see what these RIGHT things are, but, truthfully, are you FOCUS – Able?

Are you able to take that direction and really gain control over your schedule, your employees, your business? OR do you ALLOW yourself to get wrapped up in REACTING to business? Do you ALLOW yourself to get emotionally connected to treating employees the way you always have? Do you ALLOW your rut to keep you sucked in to the old way of selling or marketing? Do you define yourself by how you have always done things or the services you offer?

Honestly? Do you?

Have others tried to help you focus, but you have stuck with “your gut” and in “your rut”?

“How’s that workin for ya?”

Do you LOVE your results?

Have you achieved your dream life?

If not, ask yourself again, REALLY, are you focus -able?If you haven’t proven yourself to be, then now is the best time to start! AND it’s okay, YOU CAN DO THIS!

Go back, read this again, tell me, in what ways could you be more FOCUS -able? What advice, leadership, guidance would have served you, had you been able or willing to sacrifice enough to apply it?

I WANT to hear from you!

Of course, my absolute best to you, as always,

C

P.S. This post was inspired by Scott Ginsberg’s newest book, soon-to-be-released: “-able” (Pronounced a bull) Read more about it or Buy it here! You can read about this fascinating guy here.