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.

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!

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.

New Hires and Those First 90 Days

incipioworkstg on July 7, 2020

Every employer today should be thinking about what the process looks like when a new hire comes into your business. What consistently takes place and is it effective? Start with examining your current process and then ask yourself, “What should successful on-boarding look like?”

Onboarding

Got Process?

Structure

Onboarding begins before the new hire walks in the door. Think about your first correspondence to the new hire. If you’ve ever signed up for Disney vacation, you’ll remember receiving a beautiful package in the mail with customized rubber bands and your name displayed on everything. The package sets up clear expectations and makes you feel special that you just spent a lot of money! Imagine that from a business perspective. How can you make new hires feel special about the money your organization is about to spend on them?

Your structure should include tasks for specific people in the onboarding process. For example, the hiring manager should be triggered to call the new hire with congratulations and details of what they should expect on day one. And it’s important the hiring manager be there to greet the person as they walk in the door before turning them over to human resources.

On the first day, it’s wise to introduce the new hire to a mentor. It could be someone who happens to be in the same job role, but if you have a person who started in a similar job role but has advanced, that’s a great person to select as a mentor. With proper guidance, a mentor program gives you the opportunity to begin setting up expectations and will go a long way to making the new person feel welcomed and engaged. This is a great time to bring your top talent into the mentor program. It will help them feel valued – even if they don’t have a direct “dotted-line” connection with the new hire.

Culture

You should be spending time in onboarding talking about culture. This is when you should promote behaviors that are most valued in your organization. You should be very specific about those behaviors and show how they apply to their job role. Talking about culture also gives you a great way to transition into setting expectations for 30, 60, 90 days, and longer. You can show the new hire exactly how they’ll be judged when it comes to performance reviews and possible salary increases.

Did you?

Once you’ve built the onboarding structure and you’re driving connections and stressing culture, you need to make sure all of this actually happens! There is nothing worse than having some leaders who don’t follow the onboarding program. I could argue inconsistency is almost worse than having no onboarding program at all. Make sure you have systems in place to ensure follow-up to measure the effectiveness of your effort. For example, talk with new hires at the 90-day mark and again at six months to get their feedback. If some portion of your process wasn’t followed, this is the time to regroup and revisit what may have been overlooked.

The Candidate Experience

incipioworkstg on July 2, 2020

Is your comapny’s job candidate experience keeping the best people away?

Toxic Employees On Your Team

incipioworkstg on July 1, 2020

What to Do About Your Toxic Employees.

First Impressions: How Does Your Company Look to Candidates?

incipioworkstg on June 30, 2020

As with Online Dating, Your Company’s First Impression is Everything!

f you’ve ever tried online dating, you won’t be surprised to learn it’s all about the first impression. At that initial meet-up at the coffee shop or on a Zoom chat, you have to be on-point because you likely won’t get a second chance. It’s the same for companies looking to hire top talent. Even with the Covid-19 crisis, the job market today is competitive and it’s likely the candidate is speaking with four or five other companies.

Does Your Online Presence Give the Right Impression?

So you have to make a connection quickly. How do you do that? It starts long before the interview process. Your organization must be seen as a place people want to work. Are there things in your job posting that really help people understand what you’re providing to your customers in terms of products and services? How old is that job description? Your pool of applicants might be small because a competitor has a “compelling” job posting. It’s not sexy because it’s all glitz and glamour. It’s compelling because it’s appealing to somebody who wants to do that type of work with a progressive and successful organization.

What are the behaviors you truly value? If you say you love innovative, involved employees at every level and the candidate just wants “a job” and to be left alone, making those values clear will stop you from wasting everyone’s time.

Putting a consistent, systematic hiring process in place is a must. You need to have a standardized approach for every interview and every touchpoint. Candidates will talk to each other and if their stories are different it’s potential fuel for people to say you have “issues” in your company. Do you have managers who say, “Oh I don’t need a standardized process – I just sit back, meet the person and we have a conversation.” That personal approach might be okay if you’re a small business owner hiring three people and that’s all you have. However, as you get to scale, that can be perceived as preferential treatment – and you can get burned.

Cost/Benefit and The Candidate Experience

incipioworkstg on June 26, 2020

Do you remember the last time you were a candidate for a job? How did it feel? Were you frustrated? Did the process drag on without the prospective employer giving you regular updates? If you didn’t get the job, do you still have a positive impression of the company?

The answers to all of these questions are dependent on what we call “the candidate experience.” As we talked about last month in our blogs, your recruiting process is a direct reflection of your employer brand. Prospective employees today know a great deal about your company long before they come in for a face-to-face interview. Combine that knowledge with how applicants are treated during the employment process, and it can have a lasting positive – or negative – impact on your ability to hire and retain top talent.

Before a job is even posted, it’ important to determine exactly what is needed in a new hire. Set up clear expectations and a communication process so candidates remain interested and engaged. Studies show the biggest letdown for most candidates is a lack of communication.

Once you’ve brought the candidate in the door you have to work to keep them there. Make sure you have a program of professional development in place to ensure your company’s culture helps the new hire grow and continues to feel challenged. The cost of a new hire walking out the door unhappy is enormous.

In talent acquisition, perhaps the most crucial step you can take is developing a positive candidate experience. Not only will the applicants you hire feel even more welcomed by your organization, but also the candidates you don’t hire will still respect you. As a result, they will be more likely to refer other job seekers who may be a great fit for your organizations. That in turn leads to your company seen as a great place to work and makes your hiring process efficient and successful. The best idea is to treat prospective employees as customers. Because if they aren’t customers today, they could be in the future!