Leaders face a near perfect storm today. Making sales and profit goals are tougher in the “new normal’, employee disengagement is near epic levels and Gallup research cites nearly one in three payroll dollars are lost because of disengagement.

The savvy leader begins to sort and understand what is going on in the larger economy and their own organization. One of the biggest challenges is an epic rush of resumes. Recent survey data from the Wall Street Journal, November 2009 cited nearly 87% of employees are distracted by thoughts, daydreams or plans to leave the organization. The 87% looks like this…60% actively seeking other employment, 21% networking, and 6% updating resumes. Bottomline, organizations may be about to experience a massive round of “free agency employees.”

The challenge for leaders is to reach out and engage employees… inspiring a new age of honesty and engagement. And reach out to actively disengaged employees. Often disengaged employees are fearful and they no longer trust…trust has evaporated. The loss of trust is serious and there is a cause and effect. The organization may not have met their needs.

Here are 3 tips to purge the wrong attitudes for excuses, whining and negativity.

1. “It’s the economy”, words of the employee blaming the economy. Every organization faces a tough economy. An employee who substitutes excuses for results is not a team player. The response: Discuss expectations of no tolerance for excuses. When mistakes happen, as they certainly will, the correct response is a simple “I’m sorry” and the employees adjustments if any to be sure mistakes are minimized.

2. “If only we had….” The whiner’s theme. It’s ok to find gaps and soft spots in the organization. But it serves no one to put energies into whining without smart solutions. The response: Ask that the whining to stop. Reach out and ask what could be better, what is missing? Ask employees for their personal commitment to help.

3. “Negative Nancy’ this is the naysayer, the one who loves to rain on everyone’s parade. The Response: When Negative Nancy says we “can’t”…respond… “I understand why we haven’t…tell us how we can”.

Try this as a leader. Write down all the things going on in your organization which bug you. Keep writing until you have at least a list of 20. Throw out the ones which are numbers…like sales numbers, profit…those results are simply symptoms of people issues. You want to focus on the human element. After the list of 20 personality irritants..the human things…group into patterns…keep working until you’ve sorted into a list of 3.

You’ve begun to sort and clarity…all will help you focus on the most important blockers to your organizations success. Your purpose is to clarify the 3 big blockers…the things that bug you…what does it call you to do? You may be ready for expert help to go to the next step. The next step is hard work…but the payoff is huge.

We’ve tackled big issues and big challenges and have been involved in just about every important phase of business. http://lighthouse-leadership.com By the way, do you want to learn more about creating a powerful workplace culture? If so, download our brand new free ebook Three Elegant Strategies for Your Organizations Survival Elegant Courage Jodi lead the cultural turnaround which was core to financial recovery. Mike is innovative and persistently explores new ideas.

Author: Mike Krutza
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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What are employees missing? What might inspire individuals to find new energy, excitement and joy to motivate them? Companies try all kinds of gimmicks to motivate people. And motivation is a personal choice. Based on well known surveys, employee motivation is at epidemic lows.

What draws people to the company goals? What attracts people to want to go the extra mile? Unlock secrets to inspiration and you have a better shot at employees choosing motivation. Let’s face it, isn’t it natural for people to seek happiness and joy…to feel like they make a difference. Do we really believe organizations are only transactional exchange between other humans to exchange $$?

Stick with the belief that employees are only a transaction and you’ll lose your best employees.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship.” Alexander Tyler, 1770 book, Cycle of Democracy.

Hers the secret…a place where values are clear and lived. There is a sense of purpose, clarity, consistency so that employees find “certainty” in a risky and uncertain world. Following are our top 10 favorite values.

1. Honesty…your word is your bond and is your code of honor. You mean what you say and say what you mean. Without honesty there is no trust.

2. Elegance…graceful, simple and understated approach. The absence of pushy, shouting

3. Courage…chooses to stand up. Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry. Courage is the antidote for fear. Without courage, you settle for slavery to others.

4. Respect…the lack of dismissive or brashness. Respectful means an honest curiosity of the other for their ideas, their contributions and their opinions.

5. Hope…the opposite of hope is despair, withering and death. Hope is a belief that a better tomorrow is possible if you commit to a greater sense of purpose.

6. Humility…the opposite is hubris and arrogance, building empires. Humility owns your mistakes and our search for truth is our inspiration.

7. Hard Work…entitlement is the virus which kills democracies. When society vote them largess from the treasury…fiscal Armageddon is the future.

8. Personal Accountability…the opposite is to blame, whine and act like a victim. If the country is losing democracy, and near bankruptcy, what role has each of us played.

9. Sincerity…is who you are, be genuine. The opposite are demagogues and hypocrites.

10. Friendship…how many real friends do we have? Friendship is the ecological missing element in organizations, business and government. It’s the missing element to evolve organizations. We’re humans…not machines.

If you’d like more information about Organizational culture download your free book Organizational Culture.

Wiff and Krutza lead the organizations evolution from despair to success. http://lighthouse-leadership.com They have been involved in just about every important phase of business.

Author: Mike Krutza
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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In one of my leadership positions we were faced with how to reach out to the high performers. You know…the individuals, who are the employees who have been “go to” people when things needed to get done. In my case, we needed to energize our sales team. We needed more “rainmakers.” Try these 6 guiding techniques.

1. Ask the “go to” rainmakers for their help. Clarify what the company is calling for. More sales are needed. You don’t know all the obstacles. You believe the wisdom and talent is in the staff. The company needs more business and only rainmakers can make that happen.

2. Describe what can happen if rainmakers emerge. Describe what more growth does for the company. Calculate how it affects profits, and how will leaders and owners feel. Its not likely this inspires sufficiently for the “go to” players to sign up, at least not yet.

3. Ask the high performers if you understand the situation correctly. What is missing? What are better options and how would they guide if they were in charge? The result is the company creates more clarity from proven boots on the ground leaders. That is powerful information.

4. Determine what is needed for them, as individuals, to help move the ball forward. Reach out to define exactly what they need to commit to help. What are the top 4 things they need to commit.?

5. Clarify the impact to them as “rainmakers” when progress inevitably occurs. What do they feel is the appropriate recognition, influence, and compensation for their sign up as rainmakers.

6. Be grateful and humble. The choice is theirs which only they can make. Acknowledge them. Be gracious and thank them. Be honest with recognition. When results emerge…they deserve the credit.

Do you want to learn more about leading? Download our brand new free ebook Three Elegant Strategies for Your Organizations Survival Elegant Courage.

We’ve tackled big issues and big challenges and have been involved in just about every important phase of business. http://lighthouse-leadership.com

Author: Mike Krutza
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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