Protecting Your “Valuables”

incipioworkstg on March 30, 2021

When you look at your balance sheet, you’ll likely see payroll is your greatest expense. So it only makes sense you should treat your people as your most valuable asset. But how do you do that and “protect your valuables?”

Keep employees engaged

It’s important your employees feel they are part of a team. So how do you accomplish that? With confidence and clarity! I believe in vulnerability and transparency. That means you share exactly where your company is heading and you are clear about the organization’s goals. That helps put everyone on the same page and provides an understanding of how they impact the business. That doesn’t mean as a leader you have to let everyone know the financials. But being clear about the greatest challenges and opportunities within the organization ensures everyone is on the same page.

Develop open lines of communication

How you communicate with employees can be different for different organizations. It might be email blasts, text messages or blog posts on a company Facebook page. Or maybe townhall meetings or weekly “touchbase” sessions will work best for you. However you accomplish it, it’s crucial you keep those lines of communication open and vibrant. The most motivated employees know their voices are being heard.

Invest in your people

I’ve talked a lot in the past about the importance of ongoing learning and professional development. Investing in your people will improve your organization’s performance and it will help in retention. There is a perception people leave a job purely for a bump in their base salary. I don’t believe that! I find people are much more likely to leave an organization when they feel their current employer is unwilling or uncommitted to professional development.

I think this quote from entrepreneur Richard Branson puts it quite well: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to.”

Task Lists Are Not Enough – Identify, Prioritization, Diligence, & Accountability

incipioworkstg on February 18, 2021

I don’t know how you feel about the current state of things in our world, but for me, I’ve got a lot going on. Like, a ton of things. I’m hearing similar feedback from others in my field and from professionals in numerous other industries. 2020 was the “hold my beer” of unprecedented change, and 2021 is shaping up to be a remarkably similar operating environment.

Yes, we know stuff happens. All day, every day. At home, at work, and at work from home. “If you’re not changing/evolving/moving forward, you’re: insert downside statement here:”, yeah, we’ve heard all of the variations of that one. But let us be honest, this all feels extremely different. Proactive, planned change is not the same as the current trend of reactive, “rebuild the plane while we’re flying it” change. So, what is an organization to do?

Identify the Target(s) & Define The Actions:

The all-encompassing “let’s fix stuff!” statement, while no doubt well-intentioned, can seriously hinder your teams’ ability to execute real and lasting change and improvement. What needs to be fixed, and according to whom? Understanding where you need to focus your time and energy while looking at dozens of opportunities is critical right now. Pick your battles carefully, get buy-in an alignment from your team on the chosen tasks and initiatives, and clearly communicate what is going to happen.

Prioritization Drives Focus

Change management doesn’t operate in a vacuum. We all have our day jobs, the critical core competencies and tasks that must be completed to serve our internal partners and our clients. What does that mean? In terms of change management, it means that we’re carving time out of what we’ve already committed to do each day to in order to improve how we do things, and the quality of our outputs. Figure out what is most important, and get all eyes, hearts, and minds focused on the prize.

And I am most definitely not saying that you can only work on one thing at a time. Not at all. What I am saying though is that you can most definitely have problems getting traction or maintaining momentum when you’re trying to do too much at once, or if the focus and energy is constantly being realigned to non-prioritized tasks and initiatives. Which leads to our next item…

Be Diligent and Protect Your Priorities – Learning to Say “No”, Or At Least, “Maybe Later”

This is a tough one. Yes, life gives you lemons, but if you’re already knee-deep in a vat of grapes in your team’s efforts to craft a fine wine, is now really the time to pull everyone out of that process in order to make some lemonade? If the risk to the business is lower than then the risk of not getting your top priorities completed, put the lemons aside for a bit and finish the task at hand. And when I say “put the lemons aside”, what I’m saying is to capture the details of the issue, add it to your tracking list, and figure out where it’s going to fall when you’ve circled back to your task prioritization process. If it was urgent enough to potentially side-track a high-priority initiative, it needs to be documented and addressed when resources become available to focus on it.

Assuming Nothing When It Comes to Accountability

What specifically must be done, by whom, and by when? How do you track progress against tasks that may take weeks, or months, to complete? Is there a specific task order or dependencies within the project that everyone needs to understand? How is the progress being communicated to the team? Does everyone have the clarity needed to do what needs to be done? Do they have the tools, knowledge, and skills to effectively execute? Do they have the time, and if not, what needs to happen to assist them with finding the necessary time?

Lots of questions, but all of them, and perhaps a dozen others, need to be clearly answered and documented to establish the foundations of accountability and ownership necessary to get things done. If you don’t have a full-time project manager in your organization, you’re still going to have to find a way to approach the task in a manner that utilizes fundamental project management best practices and principles. What is the goal, what is the path, what must happen, who is going to get it done, when will the assigned tasks be completed, and how will the changes be validated and firmly embedded in the operation going forward?

Clarity is critical, and the ability to stay focused in today’s operating environment is in my opinion the most important skill that leaders and organizations need right now. Things are happening, and will continue to happen, that have incredible potential to distract us from the most important tasks at hand, but if we can keep ourselves and our teams focused, we’ll create the “wins” we all need that come from getting the most important ones completed.

Goal Setting: Starting Your 2021 Out Right!

incipioworkstg on January 8, 2021

I’ve heard a lot of people say, “I can’t wait for 2020 to be over!” That’s certainly a common opinion. But here’s the thing – I don’t think anything is going to miraculously change just because the calendar now says 2021. This “new normal” may last for another six months or more. So instead, I prefer to look back at 2020 and think about what we learned and how we can turn that into action in the New Year.

By looking at the positive, I can appreciate some aspects of 2020. For one thing, I think we learned how to be flexible. After all, in many cases we had to do a complete 180 overnight! I had to cancel some thirty trips and I love to travel. Was it fun not being with family? No! But in the positive, I didn’t experience the “overwhelming type of busy” as in the past. From a business perspective, 2020 gave me the gift of time while it also helped me focus and ensure we stayed aligned to our goals.

In 2020, we also importantly devoted time to thinking about how we could better function as a team. Since people were no longer in their office right down the hall, we developed new ways to stay in touch and even grow. As I mentioned in a previous blog, many companies realized the six-month or yearly performance review no longer was effective. Those systems were replaced with much better ways of setting goals and tracking effectiveness on both a personal and professional level.

So instead of being excited that 2020 is finally over, I say look back and try to find something positive. Hey, we’re still here – making an impact and collecting revenue. And that is something to celebrate!

Holiday Recipes – Appraising Your Appraisal Process – Essential Ingredients

incipioworkstg on November 25, 2020

‘Tis the season for annual reviews!

Depending on your organization, you are either neck-deep in your year-end performance appraisal process, or it is just around the corner. Consider these essential components; just like cooking a turkey, the essential ingredients are widely available, but it’s the subtleties of the art of preparation and execution that differentiates a good, juicy bird from a dried-out, unappetizing one.

Choose your recipe well in advance (i.e. a year ago):

Key performance indicators for individuals, groups, and the broader organization. Individual and group strengths and opportunities, plus action plans to further leverage those strengths and improve on the opportunities. All of these should have been well documented, and widely communicated to groups and individuals, throughout the prior year. Specific themes, categories, and the rating methods should be consistent throughout the year.

Preparation:

Quality Ingredients – Content for your assessment should be readily available from performance discussions you have had throughout the year. Keep these key points in mind:

You are reviewing an entire year’s-worth of performance, not just the last quarter, and most definitely not the most recent “win/loss”. Your assessment narrative and performance metrics should span the entire assessment period.
Nothing related to an individual’s or group’s performance should be “new news”. If the person being assessed is hearing it for the first time during their performance appraisal, it is time to reassess your performance management and feedback process.

Serving Suggestions – Performance appraisal sessions are a BIG-TICKET item in terms of driving buy-in, ensuring ownership, and increasing engagement in your organization. Take the time to make sure your presentation is top-notch.

Schedule well in advance, provide adequate time for discussion, and protect that time! Remove anything from the environment that could distract you or the other participant. This is what I consider to be sacred space in the leader/team-member dynamic, so dedicate the time and effort to ensure it is perceived as such.
I highly recommend giving the person who is being assessed the opportunity to do their own self-assessment ahead of the actual session, and to compare the two during the meeting. This can help you to determine if the individual understands how their performance is being assessed, in addition to helping both parties to determine if they are aligned in their assessments.
Continuing from the bullet point above, be open to modifying your initial assessment based on the discussions that happen during the session. I have seen this go both ways, where a leader will increase or decrease the official “rating” based on the performance discussion and the input provided by the person who is being assessed.

Post-Session – What happens after the session ends is just as critical as the session itself!

Work directly with the individual to put together an action plan related to performance strengths and opportunities. It is best to allow the team member to take a little bit of time to absorb the feedback and to begin working on their own action plan. Once they have done that, bring them back in to discuss, calibrate, and to optimize the development plan. You are setting the stage for the performance management and development process for the new year.
Refer to prior year/period performance assessments during your discussions throughout the new period. Continue to focus on the major themes, but also allow for adjustments as performance improves and new opportunities arise. You are actively gathering critical components for the next appraisal, so keep it consistent, intentional, and focused.

If your performance appraisal process is well planned, consistently executed, contains substantive and actionable feedback, and perhaps most importantly, is a coordinated and high-value collaboration between you and your team, the value proposition increases tremendously. On the other hand, if it is perceived as a chore, feels disconnected or is a distraction from the day-to-day work that has to be done, or feels heavily one-sided, no amount of gravy or stuffing is going to make that bird palatable to your team members!

Annual Performance Evaluation: Affirmation And Acknowledgement For A Job Well Done The Last 12 Months

incipioworkstg on November 9, 2020

Employees are craving feedback from management. In fact, a recent Gallup survey found more than 70% of respondents want feedback on their job performance on a weekly or even a daily basis. Not only is feedback actively desired, if provided correctly it can have an incredibly constructive impact on the workplace. Studies show regular feedback – both positive and negative – leads to lower turnover and increased productivity.

CREATE A FEEDBACK LOOP

Annual reviews alone won’t meet that need for feedback. We have found annual reviews generally are just a snapshot of someone’s performance in the last four to six weeks. Successful companies have a system in place for regular feedback so the annual review becomes a collection of ongoing performance.

TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP

Technology can provide you with reminders for performance notes, goal setting and weekly or monthly reports. There are lots of tools and systems available today that create feedback vehicles from self-evaluation to 360 reviews, which include feedback from peers, management and even clients. Self-evaluation is crucial. How does the employee see how he or she is doing? Does the employee have a clear picture of the yearly goals? Then you can narrow in on what really motivates employees leading to successful employee engagement.

THE RESULT

The goal is to create an effective working relationship. Feedback will help you see what is working well and how you can work even better together. It will help you set goals on a monthly and yearly basis. And importantly, regular feedback will help you in succession planning by identifying high performers who will grow with the company as well as helping you see areas where you may need to look at hiring from the outside.

BEGIN WITH ONBOARDING

An effective feedback process starts with an efficient onboarding program. As we discussed in an earlier blog, successful companies set up clear expectations before an employee is even hired. Employees then have clarity around what they do for their day-to-day tasks and have a clear understanding on how those tasks are evaluated.

The best organizations are made up of people who are motivated by recognition. They are productive employees because they see and hear the value of what they do. As a leader, providing regular feedback is one of the most important things you can to do make sure each person on your team feels valued.

Building Trust Builds Confidence

incipioworkstg on October 12, 2020

It has to start somewhere.

Let me tell you about one of my first jobs. I was in college and working part-time at a call center. This wasn’t intended to be a career path for me, but when I graduated, they offered me a job. That’s when I discovered I had access to some great leaders and mentors. I can tell you any number of stories about how they motivated and inspired me – but here’s one of the most important lessons I learned.

After a few months in my first leadership role, I found myself in my manager’s office for one of our weekly touchpoints. He said I was playing it too safe and that wasn’t why they hired me. Besides being a brilliant leader, he was also very observant. And he was right.

I was nervous. While I had full confidence in my ability to perform the role I had been given, I was afraid of making a mistake. Of being judged. That’s when he said something that has stuck with me ever since.

It’s About Risk

“There is only one type of leader that never makes mistakes. It’s the leader who does nothing.”

Then he told me about the biggest mistake he ever made in his career, and how his manager worked with him to learn and grow from it. He encouraged me to take chances and not be afraid to make a mistake myself. He convinced me we would learn from any mistakes and become smarter and better for having made them.

For him to open up and share his worst work experience with me showed his vulnerability and transparency. And most importantly, it showed he wanted me to trust him as much as he trusted me. The point is you can develop loyalty by showing loyalty. That’s how you build trust.

Think about how much time and money you could save if you create a work environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing opinions and having honest, transparent discussions!

Are you Loyal? The Power of Vulnerability and Transparency

incipioworkstg on September 10, 2020

What It Takes to Develop a Partnership

When Incipio meets with a business or organization considering using our services, we make it clear we don’t want to be seen as just a vendor. Our goal is to develop a partnership focusing on results. We want to work together to come up with clear expectations with measurable outcomes.

How do we accomplish that? One of the specific ways is by insisting our relationship is based on transparency. We stress upfront we want honest and frank discussions that will help us focus quickly on areas where improvement is possible and where Incipio can make a difference.

ASK FOR HONEST FEEDBACK

It’s not easy for everyone. Some see being transparent as a weakness. I don’t see it that way. I’ve found the most successful business people have an understanding it’s okay not to be perfect. I like to call it being “vulnerable.”

Business leaders who take this approach are often the most innovative. That’s not to say you should make your business a democracy. Rather say to the team, “This is the way I see it, but you feel differently about it, let’s have a discussion.”

BE AUTHENTIC

Being able to express yourself in a vulnerable and transparent way is empowering and helps everyone grow stronger. We’re not looking for an argument because that doesn’t change anyone. Instead, we have found what does change behavior is authenticity.

I think being able to express yourself in this way is empowering and is guaranteed to deepen any relationship. We’re not interested in a superficial or judgmental relationship. We want to understand each other with what I call “real talk.” That creates a partnership where both parties benefit and grow stronger.

Training and Development: Why It’s Necessary!

incipioworkstg on September 1, 2020

What’s your biggest asset?

You Already Know.

Have you ever heard a company say, “Employees are our biggest asset?” When I hear that, I want to know what they are doing to back that up. Job seekers, in particular, are impressed if they learn a company is investing in their people to make them more efficient and productive. That’s exactly what great training and development programs are designed to accomplish.

Attract and Retain Employees

One of the biggest benefits of a training and development program is it’s effectiveness in attracting and retaining the best employees. Knowing an organization is willing to spend money on training and development not only attracts the interest of excellent candidates, but it will make your current employees feel valued and even increase loyalty. A combination of internal and external training (perhaps collaborating with a local college or university) will pay long-term dividends. It also will improve your reputation in the community which certainly will help your recruiting efforts.

Build Your Bench Strength

We’ve talked in other blogs about how disruptive it can be when you have to replace a valued employee. Having a program that trains and develops workers will go a long way to minimize that disruption by providing a smooth transition. A successful training and development program provides you with a pipeline of qualified employees ready to step up and be rewarded with a promotion. You’ll find it’s a lot cheaper than starting over in the hiring process.

Do Your Research

Survey Your Employees

***They know what they need!***

Have you thought about surveying your employees to see what they would like to see in terms of training or development efforts? It will give you some great feedback and allow you to tailor a program that is effective and appreciated. You’ll find it will also increase communication, collaboration and teamwork. It’s a great chance for employees to show you skills you didn’t even know they had.

Training Transformation

incipioworkstg on September 1, 2020

In challenging times like these,

Organizations are often tempted to cut employee training and development programs. Even some of the most experienced leaders I’ve met feel training is something they can do without in a tough economy, or at a minimum cut it back to the bare essentials (compliance, onboarding, job skills, etc.). When revenue is decreasing and operating costs are going up, I can see how this looks like a no-brainer.

Take a

minute to

frame what

you’re asking

your people to

do

And you’ll likely start to see why training and professional development should be the LAST line-item that takes a cut. When times are tough, money gets tight – I get that. But right now, organizations are asking leaders, teams, and individuals to innovate like never before.

To enact change rapidly, and make sure it sticks.

To collaborate much more broadly.

To assist team members and external clients in working through massive changes to how their products and services are created, delivered, and supported.

Those types of initiatives require a training approach that is structured for efficiency and designed to enable your teams to drive the business to long-term success. It has to be customized, widely bought into, rapidly deployed, and universally adopted and executed on.

Effective training will not only improve workers’ skills; it will improve morale, which helps reduce expenses by contributing to employee retention. When job roles, expectations, success factors, and a host of other critical factors about your business change as rapidly as they have, and will continue to do so, your leaders will be the ones who make or break the effort.

WHAT DOES YOUR LEADERSHIP TRAINING LOOK LIKE?

Now is a great time to examine your training. Traditional training tends to be transactional, event-based, and often is just a single session or two conducted over a short period of time with limited follow-through and validation after the fact. That’s been appropriate for some things but highly ineffective with other focus areas, like driving true transformation in your culture and how your teams operate.

CONSIDER A NEW APPROACH

I suggest you take a new approach to training that is transformational. This training is longer in duration. It’s conducted across the organization with consistent follow-through. It’s action-based and has high levels of accountability.

GET FEEDBACK

While the training and development effort is underway, make sure you make time to get feedback. This will tell you how well the program is received and it will give you valuable insight into its effectiveness.

Engage people by asking for their opinion and suggestions. You’ll likely find they have a very keen understanding of the work they do, the opportunities tied to it and the paths for improvement.

Remember, it’s one thing to train your people on a specific task, issue, or organizational initiative. It’s another thing entirely to develop, nurture, and effectively prepare your teams to proactively identify opportunities, to naturally innovate and optimize, and to consistently work towards enhancing the value of your organization. Training your leaders and teams to transform requires the transformation of your training approach and methodologies.

Happy Ever After On-boarding

incipioworkstg on July 21, 2020

When You Know you’ve started at a great job!

There is no better feeling than when you go home from your first day at a new job and you tell your family you’re confident you made the right career decision. Top organizations understand it’s in their best interest to make their on-boarding process both welcoming and effective. Here are some things to keep in mind from the new hire’s perspective:

It’s all about Communication

Make sure you reach out to your new employee between the job offer and day one. Hearing from their new employer gives positive confirmation they left their previous role for good reason.

Get Housekeeping Matters Completed Early

Many times half of the new hire’s first day is spent in paperwork.

I would suggest you be proactive and get that paperwork completed ahead of time.

Set Expectations in Advance

When you start a new job, it’s like “drinking out of a firehose.” It is process information overload. Go ahead and get some of the simple expectations out of the way in advance. Answer a new hire’s questions such as: What’s the dress code? Where should I park? Will I be working a full day on my first day? Who are the key players in the organization? Can you provide me with an organizational chart?

Make Onboarding a Team Effort

A new hire shouldn’t be meeting with just one person the entire first day. They should be talking with a collective group of key players. This will break up the monotony of the day. This exposure to the organization will go a long way to making the new person feel welcomed and engaged.

Save time for Questions

New hires will have questions so make sure your organization has time set aside for discussion. The first day isn’t the time to rush people through a cookie-cutter orientation program.

Make a Plan for 30, 60 and 90 Days

If you set expectations in stages, the new hire won’t be overwhelmed and will clearly see goals and objectives. Have questions prepared for each stage so you can gather feedback on how the new hire is doing. Moreover, this will help you improve your overall onboarding process.