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How to Lead Extraordinary Meetings

How to Lead Extraordinary Meetings | Arc Integrated

Nothing speaks to creating peak performing cultures more than making sure, as a leader, you are able to generate effective, and productive meetings. 

In this article, we will be sharing five tips on how you can lead extraordinary meetings. This is important to get a good grasp of because according to MIT, the average executive spends 23 hours a week in meetings.

Tip #1: Open With Connection (Use Tools When Needed) 

There’s an old phrase that says connection before content which is a very important aspect of conducting great meetings. This phrase, in regards to meetings, is all about setting up connectivity between the participants before diving into the agenda for that particular meeting.

If creating that connection before starting your meetings is something that as a leader you struggle with, or don’t know how to do, my recommendation is to take advantage of the many tools that are available. 

A really good tool that we recommend is The CHANGES Cards. This is a card deck full of questions based on seven different themes of our lived experience. You can use these cards to ask and answer some questions regarding different team members as a way to create a greater connection within the group. This immediate and quick connection that is generated between different individuals creates a much smoother experience during meetings. This is due to the fact that it enables others to be:

  • Creative
  • Vulnerable
  • Communicative

Tip #2: Have An Agenda With Tight Boundaries

Having an agenda before going into a meeting seems like an extremely obvious thing to do for most leaders. Still, the problem with most meeting agendas that we often see is that there are no tight boundaries associated with them.

A really good way around this is to set a timer on your phone. You can do this by setting up time intervals within each topic. So if the timer is set up for 15 minutes, when the time is up, regardless of where you are in the conversation, you move on to the next topic.

One of the biggest issues in these meetings is not only that there are no boundaries in place, but they are also not being enforced. I can promise you that when they are, more positive things will come out of the meetings and that more will be getting accomplished.

Tip #3: Have Good Recipes

I was recently looking at a book that I had recommended for a client called Principles by Ray Dalio. It goes into detail about principles (or recipes) for living. I strongly believe that these principles, when taken into the sphere of meetings, are no different.

For example: Did well, learn, and do differently is a principle that you can use to debrief an incident. If there is a challenge that your team faces (with a customer, vendor, client, etc.) you as a leader should conduct a debrief with the three ingredients to the recipe mentioned above.

  • You should look at what was done well
  • Follow that with what was learned from it
  • Finally what should be committed to doing differently for the future

Using this recipe is a really important tool to have as a leader because it will increase meeting productivity, engagement, and overall team wellbeing. This connectivity is crucial to an organization’s success because research shows that employee engagement has been defined as an emotional and intellectual commitment to the organization.

Tip #4: Make The Meeting Relevant for All in Attendance

Many of us have been in meetings that didn’t actually require us to be there and it doesn’t feel good at all. Surprisingly, this is actually a very common aspect in many meetings. Taking it even a step further, time spent in meetings (especially bad meetings), can increase employee stress, fatigue, and perceived workload.

The way to solve the issue of feeling like an hour was just robbed from their day, is to ensure that whoever you are inviting has some purpose for being in the meeting. This could mean that they have:

  • Information to share
  • Data to collect
  • Relevant action items

Everyone attending the meeting should be there for a reason and not because it seems like the thing to do to fill their schedule. This ultimately will reduce resentment in company culture.

Tip #5: End The Meeting With Appreciation

Our final tip on how to lead extraordinary meetings is to end every meeting with appreciation. This is a simple, yet very underutilized tool that I think every leader should learn to incorporate. 

The simple way to think about this is to ask a question to the group to share their thoughts on what they believed was a moment, person, or idea that emerged in the meeting that they would like to appreciate. What this does is allows a little bit of psychological priming so that when they leave the meeting, it makes everyone feel like it was advantageous to them in some aspect. This is done by highlighting:

  • Opportunity
  • Strength
  • Learning

I really believe that ending on a good note and making sure others feel that the meeting was valuable is a critical aspect of a successful meeting. 

If you found this article helpful and want to learn more about the topic you can watch the video version of 5 Tips to Lead Extraordinary meetings.

As always if you have any questions or concerns you can schedule a time to connect.

Be well,

Michael

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5 Ways Leaders Can Support Employee Goals

5 Ways Leaders Can Support Employee Goals | Arc Integrated

Here at Arc Integrated, we help leaders, teams, and cultures all over the globe with assessment, executive coaching as well as training and consultation. January marks the start of a new year and with it, companies and teams are setting their goals for the upcoming year. 

Surprisingly, 92% of people never meet the goals that they set for themselves for the year. Naturally, one of the topics that has been coming up lately is how we, as leaders, can effectively support employee goals. 

In today’s article, I will be going over just that, with my top five tips on how you as a leader can support your employees’ goals.

Tip #1: Make It Personal

A common negative connotation when it comes to the workplace is “we don’t want to get into the lives of the employees too much.” The reality of the situation is some of the most highly performing teams, cultures, and organizations have very solid personal relationships. One of the ways in which you can develop a personal relationship with an employee is by understanding their:

  • Strengths
  • Visions
  • Goals

It’s important to note that these three themes are all beyond the workplace; they could surround their health, financial future, or even their education. This also helps the employee show up to work feeling like they can truly be themselves. 

Leaders who are true to themself, admit and learn from mistakes, and focus on development stimulate employees to initiate their own growth.  When your employees feel appreciated and heard, the better they will perform. In fact, 79% of employees will quit due to a lack of appreciation. Overall, the more we can engage with and understand the human element of our employees the more we can support them in their needs and goals. 

Tip #2: Provide Accountability

Providing accountability to your employees is a really clever technique in being able to support them in their goals. You can do this by helping them implement SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-oriented, and Time-bound.

Check-Ins Provide Accountability for Employees

A really good example of this is by setting up a monthly check-in on the goal that they are currently working towards and how that goal is progressing. You may also ask about the steps they have in place in completing or achieving their goals and how you as a leader can help. This way, you are not only creating accountability through the meetings on their own, but you are requiring them to take actions through the steps towards their goals.

Reward Systems Are Great for Providing Employee Accountability

A reward system is another way in which you can provide accountability. If you have a team and set up reward checkpoints, the entire team can all share rewards upon completion of each goal being met. 

Consider Accountability Partnerships for Your Employees

Finally, I encourage you to create some type of accountability partnership. It could be as simple as just two members of a team working together and supporting each other. Through this partnership and support, your employees can share their goals as well as their consistent progress with each other.

Tip #3: Allocate Time

Allocating time is a really important tip that leaders can take to better support their employees. You as a leader should support the fact that employees can spend time (sometimes maybe even at work) working towards their workplace goals.

An example of this could be at the start of 2022 if you were to share with your team that you will allocate 90 minutes a week in order for everyone to work and progress on their individual, personal goals. Depending on your team’s schedule, you can set up specific time frames in order to work on their goals.

A question you may be asking yourself while reading this tip is:

“Can I really afford to allocate 90 minutes per week, towards work that is unrelated to the company?”

My answer to that thought is that the more that we can support the accomplishments and goals of our employees, the greater engagement that can create as well as improvement of the company culture. This ultimately leads to the benefits largely outweighing the risks. So much so in fact that employees who are disengaged miss an average of 3.5 more days per year, are less productive, and cost the US economy $292 to $355 billion per year. 

Tip #4: Include a Social Component

The reality is that in today’s day and age, we are radically motivated by social pressures. This might be more evident now than at any other time in our history due to the emergence of online social channels. Although this sounds entirely like a bad thing, this is not the case. It can also be used for good!

If you incorporate a social component into a goal accomplishment, it can be used as an effective tool. This could mean that the team meets weekly or monthly, to focus on helping and supporting each other with their personal goals. This is a way to use social pressures in a positive way.

Another way is to have some kind of social check-in process. It does not matter if you use something simple like an excel spreadsheet or your team uses online software, as long as you are creating transparency around each person’s goals. With this technique, everyone is able to see each other’s personal goals along with how they are currently progressing towards them.  

Tip #5: Help Your Employees Find The Obstacles

At first glance, the idea of finding obstacles might seem a bit paradoxical. There is a term in psychology called mental contrasting. It refers to the idea that we: 

→ Set our intentions towards a goal

→ Reflect on why we want to do it and why it’s important to us

→ Identify what are the obstacles that might stop us from reaching our goal

The final reflecting process on the obstacles that potentially can stop our goal progression is at the core of mental contrasting. When done effectively, this increases the likelihood that we will reach the goals we’ve previously set.

As leaders, if we can be helpful through dialog, meetings, and encouragement in helping our employees find these obstacles, it will in turn increase the likelihood that they accomplish their goals.

If you are curious about how you or your organization is doing with leadership, I highly recommend taking our free leadership quiz as it relates to retention engagement and performance. It takes around three minutes to complete and is really helpful!

Also, If you found this article interesting and want to learn more, feel free to watch the video version of 5 Ways Leaders Can Support Employee Goals.

Be well,

Michael

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5 Important Communication Strategies for Leaders (The 5S)

5 Important Communication Strategies for Leaders (The 5S)

They often say that “communication is key”, but what we don’t realize is how key communication truly is for a leader. 

In fact, according to this article, effective team communication, and the steps that lead to it, help businesses retain their top talent. This employee retention increases 4.5 times, compared to businesses that lack effective communication in the workplace.

Whether you want to get better at communicating within your organization and to your employees, or maybe even with vendors or partners, there are many things that you as a leader can do to improve your communication. As always, it’s very important that you use strategies that have proven to be successful on a global scale, no matter how big or small the company or the group of people that you are leading.

In this blog post, I am going to go over 5 important communication strategies for leaders (also known as the 5S of communication) that you as a leader can implement into your own leadership practice. If this is something that is of interest to you, then keep on reading! 

The 5S of Communication for Leadership

Style: Understand The Different Communication Styles That Exist (Yours + Your Employee’s)

The first “S” of this particular communication strategy that you can implement in your life as a leader is Style. Understanding which style of communication that we fall under can help us more effectively communicate to not only employees but our peers as well. Whether you are introverted or extroverted, detail-oriented or results-oriented, there are different styles in which your personality interprets communication.  Not one style over another is better or worse, but understanding where your strengths and weaknesses lay can drastically improve the effectiveness of your communication as a leader. If you want to learn more about the style of your personality traits, click here to take a free assessment. To take it a step further, it is also recommended that you learn the communication styles of your employees and others that you lead. If you’d like to take a deep dive into your communication style and that of your employees, reach out, we are glad to help. 

State: Understand What State You’re In + The State of Others

The second “S” of this communication strategy that you need to understand is State. This refers not only to understanding what state we are in as leaders but understanding the state others are in as well. Our communication can be negatively impacted based on how well our current state is and often is described as physical, emotional, and mental. Some examples of states that can alter our communication include:

  • If we are currently extremely stressed
  • If we are not eating nutritiously or are not on a healthy diet 
  • If we are not getting enough sleep
  • If we are carrying a heavy emotional burden 

All of the scenarios above can result in negatively impacting our mental, emotional and physical state, which ultimately hurts our communication. This is why I recommended using meditation or mindfulness techniques to help better understand and manage our internal state.

Situation: Understand The Situation You’re In + The Situation of Others

Understanding the Situation is my third communication strategy for leaders. In essence, this idea revolves around preparing beforehand on who is the person (or people) in front of us and what are some questions we would like to ask about the situation.  You can learn more about how to prepare before conversations from a book I recommend called Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. Doing your research before a conversation can go a really long way in making sure that the conversations you have are effective, thorough and well thought out. This is especially important for us as leaders since oftentimes we use communication to help establish business relationships that are beneficial to the quadruple bottom-line of our business.

Scope: Understand The Scope of What Is + What Isn’t In Your Leadership Control

The fourth strategy that we are going to go over in order to help us better understand communication within leadership, is Scope.  By scope, we are referring to what is and what isn’t in our control. In other words, in some situations, we know what we can do and in other situations, we understand that some things may be outside of our scope. When we not only understand but accept what we can do or what we can control, it helps our stress, anxiety, and mental health.  This also directly ties into the second S, State. This is due to the fact we now understand that one cannot control or do everything. Therefore, stress and anxiety around this thought may no longer be as frequent or severe.

Stance: Understand Your Stance as a Leader on Certain Topics

Last but certainly not least, we have Stance. Everybody, not only leaders, has opinions on topics. The critical part of stance as a leader is going into a conversation with clarity around what your opinion or objective of the conversation is going to be. Having a stance can help a conversation in two areas. Firstly, your stance helps direct a conversation or meeting in a direction that works best for everybody. Secondly, your stance can help improve the brevity of the conversation. This can be helpful to find the objective in a busy environment. Setting up a concise plan or agenda can help you as the leader and your peers or employees get on the same page.

If you would like a more in-depth guide about these 5 communication strategies for leaders, you can watch my video on the topic here. 

You can also learn about strategies you can implement to create long-term professional and personal change from my book CHANGES. Grab the FREE Changes Playbook here.

As usual, schedule a time to connect if you have any questions.

Be well,

Michael

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How Leadership Skills Can Influence The Values of an Organization

As you may know, leaders have an outstanding impact on organizational culture. Many leaders don’t even realize how much of an influence they have. They are responsible for efficiently guiding organizational goals and achievement, while also ensuring that their team is utilizing their skills to produce the desired productivity level. Leadership should be happening at all levels, and it’s necessary to establish that management is well equipped with leadership skills. 

Effective leadership can influence your organization’s values by demonstrating an ideal attitude in the workplace, modeling behaviors, establishing vision among the employees, reinforcing accountability, the list goes on and on.  

Here’s how leadership skills can influence the value of your organization: 

Model Behaviors

Leaders have to be able to walk the talk and lead by example. Remember, your team is looking up to you to take the lead and display and communicate your expectations, and they especially look to you when there’s change.  The values that truly exist in an organization’s culture, are the ones that are being modeled by those within the organization.  

Establishing Purpose, Vision, and Goals Among The Employees

People like to know exactly what is expected from them. They like clarity, especially when it comes to their roles and expectations. So, it’s super important to communicate with your employees on what your organization’s purpose is, its brand and image guidelines, the direction of the company and even what specific level of productivity is required of them at your organization. Your leadership style and the way you communicate this to your employees can have a huge impact on the perspective of your organization’s values among your employees. 

Setting Expectations and Helping Your Employees Grow

Most people have goals to improve their professional skills and make a difference. In order to do this, leaders must provide them with the tools, resources, and opportunities that allow them to grow and build confidence in their ability to meet the expectation that is set out at your organization. A great way to establish this level of communication between you and your employees is to encourage and support them to set personal development goals each year within your organization. This will allow your employees to challenge themselves and become a better version of themselves with your help and it will positively impact your organization as well.

Reinforce a Culture of Accountability 

Accountability is one of the most important ways for leaders to influence culture. When leaders hold people accountable, it helps people understand and learn that they are accountable for the things they do. Without accountability measures in place, a leader will not be able to influence the team. Accountability also creates more choices for all those involved.  It provides clear direction which then allows for more autonomy, typically resulting in higher performance and greater engagement. 

Making accountability a part of your culture begins with having detailed job descriptions with clearly established measures, so people are clear on what success looks like. This will help them get a clear understanding of their expectations and their deliverables and they will know that their reviews are going to be based on those agreed criteria. It is very important to be transparent when building a culture of accountability.

Make It Personal For Your Team

So after modeling desired behaviors, establishing a clear purpose, and holding people accountable, you still have to make more emphasis on culture and performance if you want to make it personal. Establishing the desired culture, as well as navigating any kind of change will become more challenging unless you connect with them emotionally and rationally.

This simply means understanding what personally motivates them, making sure to give them the opportunity to develop new skills, and working to create a work environment that not only works for the organization but also works for them. 

Remember whenever you are making a change, even if it’s a small one, you are influencing and changing organizational culture. Always remember the influence you have as a leader and that culture is always fluid. 

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What is the difference between leadership and management?

What is the difference between leadership and management? | Arc Integrated

If you’re a good manager, does that mean that you’re automatically a good leader? What is the difference between leadership and management? You may think they’re both the same, and more or less, you’re right! But let’s unpack this difference a bit and talk about where the confusion comes from. They both show their differences in certain situations. There are some managers who do not practice leadership, and there are some people who lead without a managerial role. 

Today, we’re going to break down the main difference between leadership and management. If you’re interested in learning more about it, then keep on reading!

What is a manager? 

A manager is someone who is selected or appointed within an organization. It is a role where candidates are selected depending on certain technical skills, expertise, and knowledge.  In many industries and in many companies from all parts of the world – people are promoted to management due to a skill set in their position, tenure, relationship influence, or company politics – not leadership skills.  These reasons for promotion to leadership often result in negative consequences.  Having a role of a manager does not mean you have the skill sets as a leader. 

“Managers light a fire under people. Leaders light a fire in people.” – Kathy Austin

It’s very important that all those in management positions have skills (or get training in) appropriate leadership principles.  Organizations need good leaders to drive the organization to achieve the mission and vision the organization has set out for itself.

Leaders vs Managers

As we’ve already pointed out, when it comes to setting and executing an organization’s mission and vision, the managers need to be leaders.

Leaders are the ones who promote the vision of where they want their organization to be in the future and for ensuring that the behaviors in the organization reflect the mission, vision, and values.  In this respect, we are all leaders because we are always modeling some kind of behavior – for better or for worse.  

So why all the confusion between leaders and managers?   Well, at some point in the general conversation about roles within an organization, there was a break between leadership and management.  This separation is further perpetuated by the common practice I mentioned earlier – people get promoted to leadership positions because they are good at their job, not because they are skilled leaders.  This dynamic drives the idea that there can be a good manager but that person isn’t a leader.  It’s a silly separation if you think about it.  Putting someone in a managerial role automatically holds some perception of authority (for the person in the position as well as other employees).  The question of course then becomes – Why wouldn’t the person in the managerial position be a leader? There isn’t a good answer here. Anyone having authority should have leadership skills.  In addition, whether you are leading people or not, you can still practice leadership.  More on key traits that make good leaders in a bit.  

To put it succinctly, the quote from Fred Kofman, author of Conscious Business, says it best: 

“Asking if someone is a leader or a manager is like asking if someone is a soccer player or a ball kicker. Leadership is a necessary skill for anyone who manages.” – Fred Kofman  

To separate the titles of “manager” and “leader” really just causes more confusion than anything else.  

The question from here may be – If anyone can lead and all managers should have leadership skills, then what types of skill sets, traits and characteristics are we talking about? 

Leaders are constantly looking for new ways to drive change within an organization. Leaders work to inspire positive change by empowering employees to work together towards a common goal.  One of the most powerful tools a leader can have is effective communication. Check out this post for a deeper dive into communication and what is truly at risk if communication goes awry. 

Leaders are often thought of as the ones with the power to inspire people, but being inspirational is just a characteristic, which anyone can take advantage of.  Again, more evidence that regardless of how many people we may manage, we can all take on roles of leadership. 

In addition to great communication skills and being inspirational, It’s important for leaders to develop personal leadership styles through self-reflection and feedback. These two practices alone offer game-changing results if implemented.  If you are interested in implementing either of these, here a couple of examples: 

  • Self-Reflection – Take 5 minutes at the beginning or end of your day to journal on lessons learned, gratitudes, commitments for the following day as well as setting intentions for your longer-term leadership goals. If you enjoy prompts for writing, I recommend The Five Minute Journal.
  • Feedback – Capture a series of questions you’d like to get some feedback on related to your leadership.  Send these questions out to 6-12 people in your circle and see what themes come up.  If you’re looking for a fun tool to capture answers as well as platform user friendly, I recommend Type Form.  After you create your questions, you have essentially created a DIY 360 Feedback tool.  For a more robust 360 tool (specific to Emotional Intelligence and leadership) contact us for a free consultation and we can give you the details. 

In addition to the two characteristics mentioned above, here are a few other key traits: 

Key traits that make a strong leader:

  • Honesty and integrity
  • Vision
  • Inspiration
  • Ability to challenge
  • Communication skills 
  • Empathy
  • Strong boundaries
  • Coachability 
  • Ability to coach 
  • Adaptability
  • Confidence 
  • Curiosity 
  • Delegation 
  • Negotiation 

Every action, interaction, choice, and communication shapes company culture, in this sense, we are all leaders. 

A culture within a company can be defined as a set of shared values, goals, attitudes, and practices that characterize an organization. Culture is always fluid, meaning it is always being influenced and shaped by the people within it.  This is good news because this means that anyone can be a leader within a company by supporting and driving the values, mission, and vision of the company through their daily behaviors. 

A great leader embraces the responsibility to advocate the company’s core values and beliefs through their actions, communication, and decisions. 

This is where your skills and leadership styles greatly impact how employees take and lift that culture.  In order for employees to live by the company’s cultures and core values, it is crucial for both leaders and managers to collaborate.

As we’ve mentioned throughout this blog post, it’s so important for anyone in a managerial position to have leadership skills.   In addition, anyone in a company can wear the hat of a leader.   If you feel that you are missing certain traits to be a strong leader or you are looking to improve your skills, we have the resources to help you create effective change within yourself and your organization.

As always, schedule a time to connect if you have any questions.

Be well,

Michael

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2019 Highlights – 2020 Preview – Arc Integrated

Arc Integrated - 2019 Highlights - 2020 Preview

Arc Integrated – 2019 Highlights – 2020 Preview

Greetings and Happy New Year!

I hope that the first few weeks of 2020 have been a success.  It was an exciting year in 2019 and there are some wonderful upcoming releases and events from Arc Integrated in 2020.

As I look back on the last year, here are some the highlights of 2019:

  • Traveled the country serving a wide variety of leaders, teams, organizations and events.
  • We continue to learn the client that we serve best. We have been doing our very best work while serving organizations and leaders that are driven to create and maintain cultures with purpose, accountability, sustainability, empathy and collaboration.
  • In May I launched my book – CHANGES: The Busy Professional’s Guide to Reducing Stress, Accomplishing Goals and Mastering Adaptability.
    • It hit best seller status in three categories!
  • I also launched the audio book a few months later.  If you’re not yet an Audible user, you can get a FREE audio version of the book here.
  • Earlier in 2019 I graduated from a 9 year martial arts program which continues to influence ways in which we train, facilitate and coach teams, leaders and organizations on how to be their very best. Stay tuned for some more posts about how martial arts influences the work we do and how some of the philosophies get incorporated.
  • There have been a number of podcast interviews done in 2019 which set the stage to do many more in 2020! These interviews have acted as massive resources for our clients. If you’d like to browse our list of interviews- https://www.arcintegrated.com/about-us/
  • Later in the year I went through a certification program called XCHANGE.  This has been the most powerful professional certification I have received in my career thus far. I’ll be doing an upcoming blog post about this approach and how we are incorporating it into our work with clients.
    • This training led to a number of work engagements, including an all employee company retreat, an executive leadership summit and a industry wide collaborative.
  • We continue to have an impact on the lives of the leaders and organizations we are honored to serve. Here’s what one of our client’s said in 2019 –

“Our Executive Leadership Team has worked closely with Michael for the past year and the results of this engagement have had a profound impact on our company. We utilize the many of the strategies that we have learned from him on a daily basis as what he has to offer is practical and implementable Individual and group coaching has helped us to improve our communication skills and function on a higher level as a leadership team.”

– Stand for Animals Executive Team

As well look ahead to 2020, here are some of the exciting things we have in store:

  • Continue to travel, internationally, serving a wide variety of organizations, leaders, teams and conferences!
  • The launch of the CHANGES CARDS. Available for order now (discounts for bulk!). Available on Amazon by end of Q1
  • Releasing my book in hard cover
  • Developing the Changes Journal.  There has been much feedback about the valuable exercises within the book.  Because of this, we’ll be releasing a book with just the exercises and places for reflection, so people can optimize their work.
  • Speaking a lot more! There are a number of events already lined up. We have been getting great feedback about the high levels of engagement and experiential nature of Michael’s events. To inquire about Michael’s availability in 2020, schedule a time to chat today!
    • See some previous speaking reels as well as testimonials here – https://www.arcintegrated.com/consultation/speaking-engagements/

What I’m most excited about are the surprises.  I am consistently in awe of how much can change, every year.  Certainly not all surprises are welcome, but I continue to learn the value of perception and how all experiences can be teachers.

Looking forward to a year full of growth, success, excitement and education.

Wishing you all the same.

With Gratitude,

Michael

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Being an Emotionally Intelligent Leader

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The Best Listener at Work

How to Become a Better Listener at Work | Arc Integrated

You may wonder why being a good listener at work is really valuable.  However, if you experiment with improving your workplace listening skills, you will see changes.   In the fast past, high demand jobs so many of us have, really good listening may be something of a novelty.  This may because of the ever-impending deadlines, the many distractions we have or the workplace stress.  If you commit to being the best listener at work, you may notice that some of these challenges shift.

So how might listening skills impact your work place experience?  Well, consider your experience now.  How well do you feel heard at work?  What do you notice about people how are really present with you when communicating vs. those that are anxious to move to the next “to do”?  I would imagine that when someone is really present with you that it is easier to talk to them, you may feel more connected or more at ease. What if you were that person for everyone else?  How might this impact your workplace experience if people knew that when they spoke to you, that they could count on you to really pay attention?

Particularly if you are a leader, really good listening skills go a long way.   Being able to connect, understand and communicate effectively with your employees is a crucial component of an effective leader.   According to a study in The Journal of Occupational Health, it was found that… “psychological stress reactions were lower in subordinates who worked under supervisors with high listening skill, while no statistically difference was observed among older subordinates.” 

So if we know that our listening skills have an impact on our overall work stress, it seems like a great advantage for us to actively improve these skills.  Below you’ll find three tips to improve your listening skills

1.) Offer more clarity

Repeating something back to someone in the way that you heard it will help to reduce miscommunication.  Repeating a statement also offers the opportunity for this person to add additional clarification if necessary.  This way of “active listening” ensures that this person is being understood correctly and shows them that you are paying attention.

2.) Focus

Sometimes we can get caught up in how we are going to respond to something.  Thinking of what to say next reduces our ability to listen to what someone is saying.  Attending to what someone is saying without focusing on how to respond will create stronger communication.  Remain focused on the present moment and really digesting what it is that someone is communicating. 

3.) Breath

Often times at the workplace we are moving a million miles a minute, which reduces our ability to take in information in any given moment.  Taking a few moments to breath as you speak with someone will help you to be more present and process what they are saying more effectively.  Before you speak or when you are feeling overwhelmed, stop and take a deep breath.  This may sound trivial but can do wonders for not only stress but your ability to communicate and listen effectively. 

After you’ve had the opportunity to put these behaviors to the test, I would invite you to make a comment below.   I would suggest that in order to notice results you may have to practice one or all three for at least four times a week for three weeks.   After you’ve practiced, consider answering the following questions –

How did they work if they did at all? 

What did you learn?  

How long did you practice each new behavior?  

Best,

Michael

P.S. If you want to learn more about how to improve your listening skills at work, in order increase influence, engagement and build effective relationships, we can help.  Schedule a free consult today to see if are a fit to work together

 

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Inspiration and Engagement in the Workplace

Inspiration and Engagement in the Workplace

Inspiration and Engagement in the Workplace

I recently wrote an article for a website called inspiremetoday.com.  This article answered the question –

“If you only had 500 words to share, what wisdom would you want to pass on to humanity”

Of course this is a complicated question, but fun to answer.  My answer consisted of ways to build inspiration, courage, congruence etc.  I wondered though, how does one hold on to inspiration?  I want to take this opportunity to discuss not only how to hold inspiration but particularly how to hold inspiration and engagement in the workplace, where most of us spend the majority of our time.

Inspiration is hard to hold on to sometimes.  However, this should be of primary concern to companies.  Here are three tips identifying why it may be beneficial to inspire employees and encourage employee engagement –

  • Employee turnover is expensive, unproductive and challenging.  Keeping employees engaged and enthusiastic about their work will reduce employee turnover and ultimately reduce costs and lost productivity for the company.
  • Most employees report that one of the most desired components of a positive work experience is being appreciated. One way to show appreciation for employees is making sure they are engaged in what they are doing, thus improving employee experience and reducing likelihood of turnover
  • Understanding the match between the company’s values and employee’s values is important.  If this is unclear, consider bringing in consultants or coaches that can evaluate and mediate this discussion.

So this may pose the question – how does a company get leadership to buy into this importance of employee engagement?

Companies can encourage leadership to understand the importance of employee engagement through modeling it. This means that HR and executive leaders should feel engaged in their work so that they can experience the value of what they will be teaching to other leaders in the company.

If leaders are experiencing a congruence between the values of the company and their own values, this will certainly inspire employees in the workplace.   This does seem relatively intuitive in nature, that if values match then positive outcomes will result. However, now there is a building mountain of evidence to support the importance of engagement, value alignment and inspired employees, as it relates to the successful business.

For example, according to Towers Watson, companies with a  highly engaged workforce improved operating income by 19.2% over a 12 month period while companies with lower engagement saw a 32.7% decrease in operating income.

However, according to a study by Accenture, less than 50% of chief financial officers appear to understand the return on investment in human capital.   Even though this may be changing, continued awareness is important.  For additional evidence regarding the value of addressing engagement and other human dynamic issues, here is an extensive list of studies pointing to the value of improving employee engagement, culture and satisfaction.

How is your current level of engagement in your work?

What would it take to inspire you?

Best,

Michael

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