|
|
Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! |  |
|
Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal - Step 7 Initial Meeting
| Guest post by: Dale Furtwengler |
Article Overview: Now that you have an overview of the Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal system the question is "How do I get started?" This article will guide you through that process.
 |
Free Download - The Discount Economy and It's Implications for the Future By Dale Furtwengler |
Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal - Step 7 Initial Meeting
Theory is worthless as long as it remains theory; theory must be put into practice to gain its benefits. Now that you understand the theory behind the Making The Exceptional Normal system, let's see what's required to launch the system.
Notice
If your style has been to direct your employees' activities, you are going to have to give some notice that you're changing your style. If you don't, they're going to spend a lot of time wondering what's up.
When you change your style without notice, employees become skeptical of everything you say. While they're wondering what the change means, they're not working to achieve their goals. Here's an approach, and some specific language, you can use to remove their concerns. Call your team together for a few minutes and say:
"I realize that in the past I have not availed myself fully of the knowledge, skills and experience that each of you possess. I am going to remedy that going forward. The way I'm going to do that is by asking for your help in setting goals and priorities each week.
We're going to start a weekly meeting format that takes less than 2 hours. In that meeting we're going to work together to establish the goals and priorities for the coming week. This system is designed to help each of us understand what's needed from our team and to find ways to provide what's needed more effectively. Using this team approach has several advantages, it will:
- allow us to make sure that we don't get distracted from our goals
- assure that each of us is working on the most important work first
- help us avoid scrambling to meet deadlines
- help us find ways to eliminate menial tasks that put additional stress into our lives
- help us help each other during difficult times
I can't do this alone. I need your help. I am looking for your honest opinions and your best ideas. We'll have our first meeting, next Friday at 3 p.m. Please bring your "to do" list for the following week. We'll review everyone's list and, together, we'll decide what our goals and priorities will be for the coming week."
This approach gives them the reasons why you're changing your style and the reasons make sense. They'll also appreciate the fact that you're concerned about their welfare, which is evident in your statements about reducing stress and helping each other in difficult times. Finally, they'll respect you for admitting that you don't have all the answers. These perceptions will ease the transition from your previous style to the one you'll be employing going forward.
Start on time
Inevitably, some people will get phone calls that run long or they'll want to finish a task that makes them late for the meeting. Your natural inclination will be to wait until everyone is present. Don't do it! Why?
When you wait, you tell the tardy employees that they are more important to the process than those who are on time. You also give them permission to be late in the future.
For the employees who show up on time, you're telling them that they aren't as important as those who are missing. In effect, you're penalizing the people who are acting in the team's best interests and rewarding those who aren't. That's not what you want to do.
What message do you send when you start on time? You tell your employees that these meetings are important. You also reward those who are on time by respecting their time. Finally, you let tardy employees know that the team is going to move forward with or without them.
There is another tip I'd like to give you. It, again, deals with tardy employees. Do not review previous discussions or decisions with those who are tardy. Rather, communicate only those decisions that affect them. When conveying these decisions provide only the goals, priorities and deadlines. Do not allow the tardy employees o open discussions on these decisions. Instead, tell them that if they want input into future decisions they need be present at the start of the meeting. They'll get the message.
Discuss success
As each employee discusses her or his "to do" list, find a way to genuinely compliment them on something the person does well. Try to do this as early in the discussion as possible. Your statements recognizing your employees' success makes it easier for them to open up about their ideas. It's human nature to be open with people who think well of us and to be cautious with those who don't. Make sure that your employees know that you think highly of them.
Reminder
Repeat the notice so that your employees are reminded of the reasons for this new approach. Hearing the message a second time reinforces its importance to their welfare.
Volunteerism
Let your employees know that each of them will experience weeks where the workload is impossible. One of the reasons for the new approach is to minimize the impact those weeks have on your employees. Here's an example you can use.
Assume one team member has a lot of urgent, important work to accomplish in next week. Another team member has an equal amount of work to do, but it's not as urgent or important. Tell them that what you'd like to see happen; that is to have the second team member volunteer to help the first during that week. Then assure the volunteer that she'll get help catching up on her work the following week, assuming it's a priority. This approach encourages and rewards volunteerism. The encouragement comes in the form of doing important work first. The reward comes by assuring the volunteer that she won't be left in the lurch later.
The Carrot
Let your employees know that this system is designed to identify redundancies in the system and remove non-essential tasks from their workload. Tell them that you have a lot of projects in the works that require their talents and that they'll have opportunities to work on these projects as they finds ways to accomplish the current work more quickly.
You're sending two messages with these statements. The first is that increased efficiency will not translate into lost jobs. That's a fear that employees have. The second aspect of the message is that they have an opportunity to tackle new challenges, learn new things and experience success in new areas. That's exciting! Just make sure that you have projects for them to tackle when they develop free time.
Questions
Ask you employees whether they have any questions about the system, then answer them honestly. Don't be afraid to ask for their ideas when they ask about things you haven't considered. They'll appreciate your honesty and candor. They'll also appreciate the opportunity to participate in the decision on how to handle those situations. It's a great way to demonstrate the genuineness of your interest in their involvement.
My experience is that most questions revolve around job security. This is a good time to share with them some of the projects you'd like to see them tackle when time is available. When they see that you do, indeed, have additional work for the future and they'll be less concerned about their future employment. While you can't protect them from decisions made above, you can assure them that you don't intend to reduce staff.
Here's a little tip for dealing with questions. Always frame your response in terms of what's important to the employee, then discuss why it's also good for the company. By placing your employees' interests first, you'll gain greater cooperation.
Review "to do" lists
Have each employee discuss his workload (based on his "to do" list) for the coming week, then ask him to prioritize the work. If you disagree with the employee's priorities, avoid the natural inclination to tell him what those priorities should be. Instead, ask questions about why each of the tasks is important, this will give you a clue as to what facts he's considering and what he might be overlooking. Then you can deal with the priority issue without criticizing his decision.
Consensus
Once your team establishes its goals and priorities for the coming week, ask for their impression of the overall plan. It helps them realize what they've accomplished and reinforces their commitment to the plan.
Follow up meetings
Establish a regular meeting schedule, preferably the same day and time each week. Let them know that in the future meetings you'll discuss their successes first, then plan for the following week. Please note the use of the term "successes" in the previous sentence. You want your employees to look forward to future meetings with excitement, not dread.
These are the steps needed to ease your team into the Making The Exceptional Normal system.
Copyright © 2000, Dale Furtwengler, all rights reserved
Related Articles
LEADERS REDEFINE SUCCESS
How To (Make Money Online)
How to Secure an Appointment that Sticks
Three Simple Steps To Personal Transformation
Your Language and Words: Powerful Tool for Change & Success
Home
> Small-Business-Consulting
> Dale Furtwengler
> Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal Step 7 Initial Meeting
Article Tags:
Exceptional Performance,
Exceptional Results,
Initial Meeting,
Leadership,
Leadership Style,
Meeting,
Meetings,
Performance,
Results
|
About the Author: Dale Furtwengler RSS for Dale's articles - Visit Dale's website Click here to visit Dale's website   Increase Profits Without Adding Resources Part 2 Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal Part 2 More Benefits Vision The Blessing of a Chosen Few Avoiding Organizational Bloat Increase Profits Without Adding Resources Part 3 |
Related Forum Posts
Re: Your choice between...
- I will take the $100,000 and double it on it becomes millions before I spend it. Though I am crazy about information, yet I would rather take the money and turn it into a million before I spend a dime out of it. I will do it in 4 steps.
Step 1 turn $100,000 to $200,000
Step 2 turn $200,000 to $400,000
Step 3 turn $400,000 to $800,000
Step 4 turn $800,000 to $1600,000.
After getting the goal of step 4, I will spend the $600,000 on myself then continue to double the millions again. I could then by the book for $1,000,000
Step by step approach
- Here's what I would do;
Step 1 - Observe Wal-Mart’s target customers, what does Wal-Mart offer them? How long do they stay? Discover what it is that they might want or need that Wal-Mart doesn't offer, and then write those ideas down. Some ideas to get you started are - A cafe or fast food venue, something for the kids to do while the parents shop, etc
Step 2 - Take that list, and weigh up the pros and cons of each idea, and then select the best one for you. Don't worry about not using all the space.
Step 3 - Start the best business for you, and then release the other ideas to the general market and sublet the rest of the space to those who could fill some of the niches you've come up with, plus any they can come up with. If money isn't a factor then developing the building to suit multiple small leases may be a better option, as it's a diversified income, which is potentially more stable than one big income stream.
Need a book recommendation for writing better
- I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing skills, so I was just wondering if anyone could recommend a good copywriting or copyediting book?
I was actually thinking of reading "The Copywriter's Handbook : A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells" by Robert W Bly [u:w3cg00nn]OR[/u:w3cg00nn] "The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications" by Amy Einsohn. Would anyone know if these books are any good?
Thanks
Making Money in 2011
- Hello forum members! As we draw closer to the new year I thought it would be appropriate to change the title of our forum category "Making Money in 2010" to "Making Money in 2011" - I'm looking forward to some interesting discussions and wish everyone a prosperous New Year!
Re: Video conference system for families living in different cou
- 1) How much will someone pay for the service?
2.1) What costs are involved on the business end?
2.2) What percent on top of that do you think you deserve as profit?
3) How many people will sign up for the service?
These three will give you a rough estimate of the value of your idea.
use the equation below with respect to the questions above to figure out the value of your idea.
((1 - (2.1 + 2.2)) X 3)
You have alread identified major problems for your idea -- you have competition that is free! Computers are easy to hook to televisions, and it is becoming easier at very fast rate.
(For free stuff other than skype, look up NetMeeting if you have Windows XP.)
The video conferencing systems do a poor job of creating the feel of a physical presence.
Even high dollar systems with dedicated internet bandwidth and extremely nice tracking video cameras do a poor job, especially for long distance runs. I have the experienced the disappointing performance of some of these systems on our campus.
Video can not recreate the connection felt when in the same room with another person.
Step 1, Quickly and roughly calculate the cost of the system you propose.
Step 2, Compare that with what you think someone will pay and the cost of your current compeition.
Step 3, Go / No-Go.
Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.
Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
Featured Article
by: Trending Articles
4 Building Blocks of an Effective Talent Management System
Simon Fuller Quotes
Lesson #3: “Tell ‘em quick and tell ‘em often”
Searching for the Stars: How Yang and Filo Took Their Business to New Heights
Salesperson Wimp-Out: I Need Help 
Newsletter
Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Popular Articles
How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)
How to develop the best lateral thinking skills
Promoting your company and self with verve
How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)
How to develop the best lateral thinking skills
Promoting your company and self with verve
Suggestions
Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.
Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.