Stop, Drop, and Roll

No, it’s not a fire drill.

It’s a quick reminder to show empathy to your employees, so they can give empathy to your customers!

People perform better when they are appreciated and listened to at work. In our workshops, participants experience the extremely powerful feeling of being truly listened to during one of our activities. They claim to love it, they claim it’s easy, but they admit it’s hard to do on-the-job.

Make time today to try this with at least one person:

Stop:  assuming you know what the other person is about to say. 

Drop:  your devices and your agenda. Give your full attention to the other person.

Roll:  with the conversation. Listen well, so you can clarify by asking a follow-up question, or confirm what they are telling you. 

Brought to you by: One a Day, strengthening one relationship at a time.

How do you define work?

For some, work is a place you go.  For others, work is a thing you do.

Why does this difference matter?

It turns out that, after health insurance, employees place the highest value on benefits such as flexible hours, more paid vacation time, and work-from-home options.

That’s good news!

These benefits don’t cost as much as others, but can make employees happy. Can you flex a little, to get a little more?

Want to know more?  Read the full Harvard Business Review article here.

Nature Abhors a Vacuum

Prov. "If there is a gap, something will fill it."

What has this got to do with managing?

When your team doesn’t get enough communication, they will make stuff up to fill the gaps.  To test your vacuum, ask this question at your next meeting: 

“What have you heard through the grapevine?” 

Make time to hear your audience out and really listen as they share any assumptions, rumors, or gossip. Then debunk where necessary.

Long-term solution:  Email, talk, ping, text, and communicate more than you think you need to. Human nature also abhors a vacuum.

Stress Hack

Are you stressed?  Probably. 

Bad weather, politics, traffic, a new boss, life changes or just running out of coffee beans - whatever the reason, chances are you are dealing with pressure. And pressure turns into stress.

Is it inevitable?  No.

Pressure is pressure, which is out of your control. What is in your control is how you deal with it. Here’s the good news: you’ve done it before.

Step 1: Make a list of 3-5 stressful events that have happened in your life. 

Step 2: Take note of what you did (that was in your control) to solve the problem.

Step 3: Store that success strategy in your brain. (Did you write about it, laugh about it, analyze it, create an excel spreadsheet plan for it, or call a friend? How did you move on?)

Step 4: When stress happens and you feel your pulse begin to race and your breathing quicken, remind yourself how you moved forward last time. Do that.  

Make that strategy your new habit. With practice, you can change your response to stress and pressure.

Respond, don’t react.

Pick your Poison*

All employees need feedback.  However, not all feedback needs to be delivered the same way.

The goal of feedback is to help a person change a behavior, but receiving that information can be tough. To make it easier to hear, deliver the feedback in a way that matches how and when they want to hear it.

• Do they want feedback right away, or would they prefer to have that conversation at the end of the day?
• Would they rather have it in written form, e.g. an email, or in person?  
• Should the conversation take place at their desk, at yours, or in a neutral spot?

Take notes and revisit those notes before you deliver feedback. 

*BTW: If you were born in this century and the expression ‘pick your poison’ confused you, here’s the origin:

To ’pick your poison' means to choose between two worst cases. In the mid-19th century, 'poison' was slang for alcoholic drinks. A pub in Australia was named 'poison-shop'. It referred to the ill-effects of excessive drinking and the barkeep would ask you to ‘choose your poison’.

No news is good news

Literally!

Studies show that reading, listening, or watching negative news has a huge negative impact on our mood and emotions at work. 

But wait! You want your team to be up-to-date, but you also need them upbeat and productive. That means you need to lead the way. A couple of suggestions:

• Ditch the negative news by turning off any alerts or replacing mainstream news sources with one that offers a humorous approach.  That means “bye-bye” Yahoo! news, “hello" the Skimm!
• Consider replacing the radio with a Spotify or Pandora selection of upbeat songs or a positive podcast

Psst: if you have a favorite method of staying away from negative news, share it here.

We All Learn Differently...

When was the last time you learned how to do something new?  Was it:

• how to play an instrument?
• to drive to a new location?
• or perhaps how to use a new piece of software?

How did you learn to do that?  By watching someone else, listening to live directions, reading the manual or jumping in and trying it?

Everyone learns differently – assuming each of your team members learns the same way as you is not the best plan of action (you know what they say about ass-u-me-ing!).

This week, ask your coachee how they like to learn and see if you can adapt your coaching style to theirs.