July 2009 Newsletter

Participation and Why It Doesn't Always Work

If you have been following along with the articles I have written for the newsletter, you may pick up a trend. I appear to be habitually positive. I don't have to hear other people challenge my positive approach very often before I start to wonder, "Are they right and am I missing the world spinning around me or am I getting it right and need to just lean a little harder into a good idea?" If I truly look at the question, "Is having people participate in the decisions at work a good thing?" I believe that I have to reexamine my own ideas from time to time and this feels like that time. So, I set out to find out why employee participation as a concept doesn't always work. I began by searching the internet and found a definition for participation

Business Definition for Employee Participation

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Tips to Motivate and Engage your Employee Base

As the economic climate continues to persist it has been a challenge for all leaders to maintain morale and continuously improve customer service standards. In all work environments leaders have been asked to do more with fewer supplies, people, and finances. Although this challenge has been around longer than the latest economic down turn, it has been heightened by it. Very often our conversations with leaders and managers turn to motivation and asking more from people within their organization. With businesses making tough decisions, the customers, internal and external, continue to demand the best possible service.

While we continue to work with organizations, I continuously look to understand the scope of this concern. Michael G. Faith, CEO of Headsets.com said,"Some have argued that the quality and level of customer service has decreased in recent years, and that this can be attributed to a lack of support or understanding at the executive and middle management levels of a corporation and/or a customer service policy." If you are a leader in a manufacturing organization or a financial institution, the chances are you are facing the same challenge. Engaging people and keeping them involved, will lead to the success of all organizations. From: The Strategy-Focused Organization by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton states, "By the end of the twentieth century, the book value of tangible assets accounted for only 10 percent to 15 percent of companies' market value. Clearly, opportunities for creating value are shifting, managing tangible assets to managing knowledge-based strategies that deploy an organization's intangible assets: Customer relationships, innovative products and services, high quality and responsive operating processes, information technology and data bases, and employee capabilities, skills and motivation."

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How To Bookmark A Website/Add To Favorites

While surfing the web, you may notice that you go to a few websites over and over again. Or, you may find a great website with useful information but are unsure how you happened to come across it. In either scenario it would be a good idea to bookmark the website or add it to your favorites. This way you will have a link to the website saved to your browser. Below I have written instructions on how to do this in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Fox Fire and Safari.

• Open a new window in Internet Explorer.
• Go to the website you wish to add to your favorites. (I'm going to Priority Learning's website: http://aprioritylearning.com or http://www.prioritylearningresearch.com)
• Click on Tools > Toolbars > Favorites
• Once you have selected Favorites the favorites window will appear to your left.
• Click on the star icon with the plus symbol on it.
• Click add.
• To access your favorite later, click on Tools > Toolbars > Favorites. The Favorites window will appear again and you should see the website you added.

Click here for bookmarking instructions in Mozilla Fox Fire and Safari

July Poll Question: Many people believe that there are signs that the recession could be improving. If the economy were to rebound tomorrow how prepared would your organization be to meet the demands?

What Got You Here Won't Get You There... by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter

This book has been recommended for quite a while on our website. The reason it is still there is because I haven't found another book that's better than this one to help leaders to improve some traits that are very hard to change. There are traits such as: Winning too much, adding too much value, starting conversations with "No, but" and "However", playing favorites, goal obsession, and an excessive need to be "me" that can keep leaders from being considered for higher positions. For the leader or manager who aspires to promote to higher positions and who wants help on improving their "people" and Emotional Intelligent (EQ) skills, this is the book to read and practice on. As the primary coach at Priority Learning, I have learned the power of this book. This book has helped me to be a better coach and mentor to my family, friends, clients and staff...I hope you enjoy the reading!!