Don't Drown in 2019
One of the famous sayings of American author Edwin Louis Cole is, “You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.”
Where are you underwater?
Here are four common areas where leaders are “underwater:”
#1 - Can’t hire people, or make mistakes when hiring.
#2 - Your managers need better leadership skills.
#3 - Your culture is inconsistent / hurting profits.
#4 - Employees are not fully engaged.
For you, drowning is a choice not a destiny.
Don't stay there.
Do something different. Focus on one of the pain points above and engage an expert to help you remove the flood of emotions, stress, and challenges.
An experienced consultant can lead you to where the water is only an inch deep, or to dry land!
Here are relatively low-cost, highly effective, time efficient solutions to each of these four issues:
#1 - Can’t hire people, or make mistakes when hiring
You must hire people to grow your organizations. You can’t fulfill services and/or deliver products without hiring more people. However, there is a pressure to fill openings quickly and the time to hire new employees takes time away from your primary responsibilities.
Therefore, too many leaders rush the process, don’t have a complete hiring system, and make emotional decisions that result in too many failed, costly hires.
There are three primary values to a great hiring system:
1. Discovery: It’s easier to find great people to hire, and they find you!
2. Avoid mistakes: Almost everyone you hire proves to be a solid team member, if not a superstar.
3. Save Time: It’s faster to hire great people systematically, rather than emotionally hope people might work out.
Do something! Get out of the water…
Implement a thorough hiring system.
If you’re interested in our Hire the Best system, then click here to learn more, or email us to discuss your needs and how we can help you customize Hire the Best and help you roll it out.
#2 - Your managers need better leadership skills
Gallup says,
“Managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement scores across business units.”
“Though many people have some of the necessary traits, few have the unique combination of talent needed to help a team achieve the kind of excellence that significantly improves a company's performance.”
Often leaders are inconsistent, fail to communicate, don’t manage time well, and lack a framework for how to be an effective leader.
Inefficiencies and workplace drama due to untrained leaders is such a waste!
Do something! Get out of the water…
Train your leaders. There’s no other way to improve their skills.
One option is our Certified Leader program. The next 6-month session starts the week of July 1. Read testimonials here. Learn about the program here.
#3 - Your culture is inconsistent / hurting profits
You have a company culture whether you work on it or not. However, when it’s not intentional then you have multiple cultures being lived out simultaneously based on individual employee personalities.
That’s not efficient or effective.
Inconsistent culture disengages employees, clients, and vendors.
Do something! Get out of the water…
Invest time to develop a strong company culture and maintain it so your organization can thrive.
If you need help, please consider our Leadership Essentials services, which are designed to supercharge your culture as a catalyst for positive transformational change. Learn more here. Here what others say about the program here.
# 4 - Employees are not fully engaged
Employee engagement, productivity, and commitment to excellence are primarily management’s fault, not an employee issue.
These issues occur for three primary reasons:
#1 - Lack of a solid leadership system, such as our 3strands Leadership discipline;
#2 - Leaders are not trained how to fully engage their people; and
#3 - There are assumptions about each employee’s motivations, natural behavioral strengths, and core competencies.
Think about it… Often the disconnect is #3 - you could know your people better.
If an employee is not doing well, there is an issue with their behaviors.
When there is an issue with their behaviors, you need to know how to motivate them to develop new habits to overcome the bad habits/behaviors.
Their soft skills / core competencies are developed from work/life experience, behaviors / habits, and their motivation to achieve.
Leaders need to understand these three attributes of themselves and each of their direct reports, peers, and supervisors. That’s why companies use our assessments with all employees, and as part of their hiring process.
Stop guessing and assuming.
Do something! Get out of the water…
Test your people with a quality assessment and train them how to apply what they learn.
One option for you is our assessments, which have been taken by over 15 million people.
Our Triple Perspective service explains how people behave, what drives them, and which soft skills they bring to the workplace. We give you:
#1 - Recommendation of whether to hire them or how to work with them
#2 - Full report (+/- 50 pages) accurately reporting a person’s behaviors, motivators and competencies
#3 - Summary (2-4 pages) of the report
#4 - Cubicle sign of most intense behaviors and driving forces to remind people how to engage with them
#5 - All of this in a validated, bias-free and fully integrated assessment report that meets EEOC and OFCCP requirements
#6 - Conversation to explain the results.
#7 - If you assess a group, a remote / online group training
Here’s an example of the cubicle sign we provide as part of our Talent Assessment services to remind people how to best engage someone:
One of the famous sayings of American author Edwin Louis Cole is, “You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.”
Where are you underwater?
It’s June. In about 3 weeks half of 2019 is over.
The cost of inefficiencies and mistakes are HUGE.
You don’t have to drown your profits and growth capital in mistakes and inefficiencies.
Choose one of the four major drains on your profits above, and fix it.
It’s time to conquer the water!
Half the year is almost gone. Act now to address an area where your organization is “drowning.”
If you’re interested in our thoughts on your challenges, please email us to schedule time to talk.
Sincerely,
David Graham Russell
Leadership Activist, Author & Consultant
