Five Team Building Secrets to Gaining Credibility with Your Team for Outstanding Results
Five Team Building Secrets to Gaining Credibility with Your Team for Outstanding Results
* Only 51 percent of all workers trust their organizations to tell the truth in employee communications
* Only 48 percent of all workers with more than five years of tenure believe their companies are honest in their employee communications
* Only 44 percent of all workers over age 50 trust their organizations to tell them the truth in employee communications
Organizations then wonder why worker productivity decreases, employee loyalty is at an all time low, and human resource situations increase. Your employees see everyday, at least in their eyes, the following:
* Record profits, yet massive layoffs
* Hearing how important they are, yet having their jobs outsourced
* Experiencing changes to their jobs, yet not being asked for their ideas
* Being told how they are doing a great job, yet being yelled at for mistakes in front of colleagues
No wonder there is tension in the workplace. When I work with organizations, the following three concerns are the ones usually express:
“My supervisor, manager, etc., doesn’t know how to communicate with me.”
“I am the last to hear about bad news.”
“He/she never asks me for my ideas.”
Because of these concerns, there is a divide, professionally, emotionally, mentally, and physically between the employees and their supervisor/manager, etc., which leads to lost productivity.
The following are five secrets that will increase your credibility with employees and produce outstanding results for your organization:
1. Be Honest
You owe it to your employees and to colleagues to be honest. Tell your employees exactly where they stand within the organization. Be positive, yet don’t sugar coat it. Once your employees know where they stand, use this as a stepping stone for improvements and solutions you can work on together.
2. Be Consistent
Be consistent with your communication among employees. You will lose credibility with employees if they see you communicate differently with different employees concerning the same situations. For example, if you berate an employee (which I’m sure you would never do) for a mistake, yet say nothing to another employee for the same mistake, you will lose credibility.
Also, be consistent with the way you communicate your moods. Remember, if you project a professional manner, no matter the situation, your employees will emulate your behavior.
3. Communicate Bad News ASAP
There is nothing worse for employees than hearing bad news from human resources, shareholders, the news, friends, family, and even their religious leader, but not from you, their manager. The biggest reasons I hear for not telling employees are the following:
“Management asked me to keep it secret.”
“I don’t have all the facts yet.”
“I don’t think the employees can handle the bad news.”
Well, guess what:
* Employees always find out about bad news (sometimes before their supervisors/managers, etc.).
* Employees always appreciate when you share whatever information you have with them as long as you are honest with them.
* Employees can take more than you think if you are sensitive to their concerns and express these concerns with them.
Will some of them be unhappy in the short run? Some employees may not be happy; however, they will respect you as a manager that respects them and keeps them informed of all news, good or bad.
4. Give and Receive Constant Feedback
Employees want feedback on, “How am I doing?” By giving constant feedback, you are developing a bond of trust that improves the performance of your employees.
Remember, your employees are always doing something well. Make sure you come from a positive position of improvement when giving feedback. Let your employees know that you appreciate their efforts and the difference they make each day.
Also make it “safe” for employees to give you feedback. Let them know that no one is perfect (I know we think we are) and that you value their feedback to make the work environment a “win-win” situation for all involved. Teach your employees how to give feedback, both positive and constructive. Remember, as a leader, you are constantly developing your employees for the next level.
5. Ask for Employee Solutions
People go to work to succeed, not fail. Employees also go to work because they want to make a difference at their job. One of the best ways for employees to feel they are making a difference is to involve them in the solution creation process.
Make asking for solutions from your employees an ongoing process. Whether during staff meetings, one-on-one sessions, etc., make it safe for employees to develop their own solutions. If given the opportunity, your employees will come up with solutions that are innovative, proactive, and in some cases better than any solution we can ever develop.
To motivate your employees to create solutions, you must do the following:
* Give them credit for the solutions
* Create reward systems for solutions
* Make it easy for them to communicate solutions
* Massage solutions for positive results
Very importantly, if employees share a solution with you, please, please, please, give them feedback ASAP. You will lose employee credibility if they think you don’t care or are taking credit for their ideas.
Apply these techniques now and you will gain credibility and increase productivity with your employees while developing a high performance environment that achieves outstanding results.
Source: Towers Perrin, Enhancing Corporate Credibility-Is It Time to Take the “Spin” Out of Employee Communication? January, 2004
Five Team Building Secrets to Gaining Credibility with Your Team for Outstanding Results - To learn more about this author, visit Ed Sykes's Website.
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Towers Perrin, the corporate benefits consulting firm, surveyed over 1000 American workers and found the following:
* Only 51 percent of all workers trust their organizations to tell the truth in employee communications
* Only 48 percent of all workers with more than five years of tenure believe their companies are honest in their employee communications
* Only 44 percent of all workers over age 50 trust their organizations to tell them the truth in employee communications
Organizations then wonder why worker productivity decreases, employee loyalty is at an all time low, and human resource situations increase. Your employees see everyday, at least in their eyes, the following:
* Record profits, yet massive layoffs
* Hearing how important they are, yet having their jobs outsourced
* Experiencing changes to their jobs, yet not being asked for their ideas
* Being told how they are doing a great job, yet being yelled at for mistakes in front of colleagues
No wonder there is tension in the workplace. When I work with organizations, the following three concerns are the ones usually express:
“My supervisor, manager, etc., doesn’t know how to communicate with me.”
“I am the last to hear about bad news.”
“He/she never asks me for my ideas.”
Because of these concerns, there is a divide, professionally, emotionally, mentally, and physically between the employees and their supervisor/manager, etc., which leads to lost productivity.
The following are five secrets that will increase your credibility with employees and produce outstanding results for your organization:
1. Be Honest
You owe it to your employees and to colleagues to be honest. Tell your employees exactly where they stand within the organization. Be positive, yet don’t sugar coat it. Once your employees know where they stand, use this as a stepping stone for improvements and solutions you can work on together.
2. Be Consistent
Be consistent with your communication among employees. You will lose credibility with employees if they see you communicate differently with different employees concerning the same situations. For example, if you berate an employee (which I’m sure you would never do) for a mistake, yet say nothing to another employee for the same mistake, you will lose credibility.
Also, be consistent with the way you communicate your moods. Remember, if you project a professional manner, no matter the situation, your employees will emulate your behavior.
3. Communicate Bad News ASAP
There is nothing worse for employees than hearing bad news from human resources, shareholders, the news, friends, family, and even their religious leader, but not from you, their manager. The biggest reasons I hear for not telling employees are the following:
“Management asked me to keep it secret.”
“I don’t have all the facts yet.”
“I don’t think the employees can handle the bad news.”
Well, guess what:
* Employees always find out about bad news (sometimes before their supervisors/managers, etc.).
* Employees always appreciate when you share whatever information you have with them as long as you are honest with them.
* Employees can take more than you think if you are sensitive to their concerns and express these concerns with them.
Will some of them be unhappy in the short run? Some employees may not be happy; however, they will respect you as a manager that respects them and keeps them informed of all news, good or bad.
4. Give and Receive Constant Feedback
Employees want feedback on, “How am I doing?” By giving constant feedback, you are developing a bond of trust that improves the performance of your employees.
Remember, your employees are always doing something well. Make sure you come from a positive position of improvement when giving feedback. Let your employees know that you appreciate their efforts and the difference they make each day.
Also make it “safe” for employees to give you feedback. Let them know that no one is perfect (I know we think we are) and that you value their feedback to make the work environment a “win-win” situation for all involved. Teach your employees how to give feedback, both positive and constructive. Remember, as a leader, you are constantly developing your employees for the next level.
5. Ask for Employee Solutions
People go to work to succeed, not fail. Employees also go to work because they want to make a difference at their job. One of the best ways for employees to feel they are making a difference is to involve them in the solution creation process.
Make asking for solutions from your employees an ongoing process. Whether during staff meetings, one-on-one sessions, etc., make it safe for employees to develop their own solutions. If given the opportunity, your employees will come up with solutions that are innovative, proactive, and in some cases better than any solution we can ever develop.
To motivate your employees to create solutions, you must do the following:
* Give them credit for the solutions
* Create reward systems for solutions
* Make it easy for them to communicate solutions
* Massage solutions for positive results
Very importantly, if employees share a solution with you, please, please, please, give them feedback ASAP. You will lose employee credibility if they think you don’t care or are taking credit for their ideas.
Apply these techniques now and you will gain credibility and increase productivity with your employees while developing a high performance environment that achieves outstanding results.
Source: Towers Perrin, Enhancing Corporate Credibility-Is It Time to Take the “Spin” Out of Employee Communication? January, 2004
Five Team Building Secrets to Gaining Credibility with Your Team for Outstanding Results - To learn more about this author, visit Ed Sykes's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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