My Articles Best Choice: October 2019

10/16/2019

Ask Your Staff For Their Ideas! 👌

CREATING GREAT PLACES TO WORK

Capture Employee Suggestions and Boost Employee Engagement

Capturing employee suggestions and ideas drives employee engagement and improves employee motivation. It creates a more productive and satisfying work environment. Yet many organizations ignore the untapped ideas and suggestions of their employees who know their jobs better than any expert.

The Bright Ideas employee suggestion campaign and our idea management system provides a proven blueprint to capture hundreds of ideas to improve productivity, cut costs and drive improvements from the bottom up in a short time period.

Get Your Sales Team Hot for the Holidays!

FREE WEBINAR

In sports, successful teams must practice and retrain before each and every game. In the same fashion, you as a sales & service organization must have all of your players fully geared up and ready for the upcoming Holiday Season.

When your sales and customer service team lose their drive, it’s detrimental to productivity, profits and personnel. Learn how to create an excellent sales & service strategy that motivates your service team to provide superior service, inspiring customers to return and spread the word. Join us for this 45-minute webinar.

Presenter: Pat Porras

Bio

Thu, Oct 31, 2019 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM EDT

What To Do When Your Meeting Reaches An Impasse

We’ve all been there – a work meeting that seems to last forever because no one can agree. Everyone wants to be heard and everyone wants their input to matter. But, alas, you are at an impasse.

So what do you do when you reach this point? You want to keep communication open and have an effective meeting, but aren’t sure how to do that. The following are just a few helpful tips to prevent an impasse at your next meeting.

Have a Plan

Not only is it good to have a plan when you start a meeting, but it’s also effective when you reach an impasse. A plan may be as simple as writing down everyone’s thoughts and ideas, possibly through “Mind Mapping,” to thoroughly and thoughtfully discuss them. With this, everyone feels heard and the conversation stays meaningful.

Control the Situation

When the impasse occurs, it’s important that one person steps up to “facilitate” the rest of the meeting. This may be as simple as asking others to speak up and share their thoughts. Or it could entail moving onto another topic to allow everyone to cool off before addressing the issue again.

Whoever does step up to facilitate the meeting, it’s important that they help everyone assume positive intent. At the end of the day, you are all on a team, working together to reach a common goal. Realizing this will help others not take things personally, and will foster an environment of open discussion and idea sharing.

Keep Talking

During an impasse, always encourage open communication. Glossing over an issue, or never settling it can cause bitterness and animosity within the group. In addition, never put issues to a vote. In a vote, the minority always loses causing unhappiness and instability. Strive for an agreement, consensus, or harmony.

Between Two

Lastly, there may be times when the impasse results when just two people in the meeting can’t seem to agree. The conversation can often get off topic or even turn personal. At this point, it is beneficial to get the whole group involved.

Start by clearly expressing each viewpoint, possibly writing it on a whiteboard for clarity and to make sure nothing is missed. Next, allow the whole group to chime in, giving their ideas and opinions on the pros and cons of these viewpoints.

As a result, the two will have had time to cool off, giving them a chance to see the full picture and, perhaps, even change their view.

Advanced DISC Training Program

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DISC Training Program – Self-Study DISC Program

This DISC self-study program allows you to move at your own pace at the comfort of your home or office. This program includes online video recordings, printed materials, password protected website and a reference manual explaining the DISC language.

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Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Training & Certification

Our emotional intelligence training program is delivered by Jennifer C. Zamecki, an Accredited Certified Professional Coach who has a wealth of knowledge and 20 + years of experience using these tools in both large global organizations & small companies.

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DISC Training Workshop & Assessment Information

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10/02/2019

How to Fix Your Leadership Weaknesses

CREATING GREAT PLACES TO WORK

Capture Employee Suggestions and Boost Employee Engagement

The Bright Ideas employee suggestion campaign provides a proven blueprint to capture hundreds of ideas to improve productivity, cut costs and drive improvements from the bottom up in a short time period.

Get your Sales & Service Team Ready for the Upcoming Holidays

In sports all committed teams’ practice and retrain before any next game. In the same fashion as a Retailer you are a Sales & Service Organization that that need to have all your long term and new and more importantly “Part Timer/Seasonal” players fully geared up and making sure thy know the play book for your business for the upcoming Holiday Season.

When your sales and customer service team loses their drive, it’s detrimental to productivity, profits and personnel. Learn how to create an excellent sales & service strategy and motivate your service team to provide superior service, inspiring customers to return and spread the word. Join us for this 45-minute webinar where you and your Team will discover:

Presenter: Pat Porras

Bio

Thu, Oct 31, 2019 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM EDT

How to Fix Your Leadership Weaknesses

We’ve all been around leaders that weren’t so great. In fact, if we are honest with ourselves, I’m sure we can see the areas in our own leadership style that is lacking. These are some of the most common weaknesses in leaders today and how you can fix them.

1. Micromanaging Employees

Micromanaging your employees is one of the worst things you can do as a leader. While some of those tendencies may be rooted in your own perfectionist nature, it more often has to do with a lack of trust for those around you.

In order for your employees to really rise to your standards and invest in the company, they must feel trusted. If they feel unappreciated for the job, their performance will go down. To make a win/win situation for both of you, ask them for checkups every month.

2. Becoming Stuck in Your Ways

One of the biggest weaknesses that leaders face is that they can get stuck in a certain way of doing things. If you have done something a certain way and it’s worked, it is really easy to think that is the best way of doing it. But, when you trust your employees’ feedback, invest in your own development, and stay flexible, you will be able to lead well.

3. Wanting to Be Popular

Unfortunately, you are not always going to be popular with your employees. As a leader, you can get accustomed to the attention and desire to please everyone. No one wants to be perceived as “the bad guy.”

As a strong leader, you have to be willing to make the tough decisions, even if it doesn’t make you popular with your team. Also, find ways to communicate with your employees, that while you heard them, you are making the choice that is best for the greater good.

4. Do What I Say and Not What I Do

You must lead by example. It’s really easy to tell your employees you have one set of expectations out of them, but then do the exact opposite yourself. When you say one thing and do another, it will cause your team to feel resentment towards you.

5. Not Being Clear With Your Expectations

In order to lead your team well, you must provide them clear expectations. Give them a goal and set up checkpoints along the way. Tell them the timeline you expect from them and at what points of the process you need them to check in. When they know what you need from them every step of the way, they’ll be able to meet those expectations..

Here's How You Can Improve Your Team's Production

It’s no secret that a team should be able to get more done than one person working alone. If you are a team leader than it is up to you to help your team be the best they can be. One of the top ways that you can help your team improve and succeed is teaching them quality time management skills.

Limiting Casual Conversations

If you are working with the same people every day, then you are going to have casual conversations during work hours. There is nothing wrong with talking with your co-workers about everyday life, however, it’s important to know the time and place. You should be able to read the room and know that if a co-worker is busy with work then that is not the time to start small talk.

Setting Your Team Up For Success

A team is only as good as its leader. You wouldn’t expect someone to get a job done with if they aren’t set up with training, instructions, and the tools necessary to do so. So much time is saved when your team isn’t having to ask a million questions that in turn slow the team leader down.

Make sure you are clearly communicating your expectations and what your goals are to your team. Let them know when due dates are and which projects are of top priority. Spreadsheets and Google Docs are great ways to share ideas with your entire team.

Meetings

While meetings are important and can be necessary, they aren’t needed every day. In order to avoid the amount of time they leach from being productive, make sure to have a set meeting time. You shouldn’t be calling impromptu meetings at random times every day.

Meetings should have a purpose and not be about something that can be sent in an email. They should be productive and solve some, if any, problems that you are having. They can also be great for creating goals and hearing any issues that your teams are running into.

Not Just For The Team

Time management should be a priority for everyone, not just teams. Make sure you are blocking off time to meet with your employees and not stopping everything multiple times a day. Make a list of questions for employees and things you need to know so all your meetings are productive.

Time management should be utilized by everyone on the team if you want your business to thrive. Some processes and systems that are in place right now might need to be changed, but that is ok. Having a happy and productive team is worth it.

Our DISC online assessment is an invaluable behavior profiling system that teaches users how to identify— and use to their advantage—

the predictable aspects of communication. Based on the research of Dr. William Moulton Marston, DISC is the most widely used behavior profiling tool of its kind,supported by decades of research and validation. Whether you’re the member of a large or small organization, our DISC reports offer the greatest accuracy for a range of dynamic business applications…