Jul/090
6 Tips for Pulling Your Team Out of Recession
The recession is everywhere these days. It’s like a virus. Few companies have escaped it’s evil clutches. This downturn has made it difficult to manage morale and take care of employee needs. Workplace motivation is at an all-time low, and things are only forecasted to get worse. It is important to keep your team engaged and happy during this recession. Here are six great tips for motivating your team in the face of adversity.
Tell the Truth
Honesty is the best policy when it comes to motivating your team. Employees will be worried about losing their jobs and their lives will be impacted by the recession. Don’t sugarcoat the information that you provide. Be transparent and honest about what is going on in your company. Your team will love and respect you for it.
Talk to the Elephant in the Room
Gossip is the number one killer of workplace motivation. We all know how some members of our team are experts at spreading negativity. Rumors about layoffs, cutbacks, or pay freezes can set your employees’ mouths in motion. When you hear rumors floating around the workplace, address them as quickly as possible. If something becomes parasitic and problematic, you might have to hold a special meeting to get your team back on track.
Get Out of the Store
Motivating your team will be much easier if you all get out of the store and relax. Organize an off-site lunch or special outing as a means of renewal and stirring up creativity. This type of team activity may be costly, but the positive return and ideas will be worth the investment.
Hear Them Out
Workplace motivation during a recession will also be impacted by things that are happening to your employees outside of work. Listen to the challenges they face and be sensitive to their needs and concerns. Everyone likes to be listened to, but few claim to have worked for anyone that cared.
Avoid the Fear Virus
Whenever there is a crisis of any kind, fear is often times a killer. With the threats that recession poses, your employees will be extremely susceptible to fear. Don’t let fear have a negative impact on your company and team. Tell them to focus on the things which can actually be controlled, and forget about those which cannot.
Say “Thanks” and Reward Accomplishments
Motivating your team with recognition and rewards for accomplishments is the most effective means of keeping things moving during a recession. Recognition can be tangible rewards, a certificate of recognition, thank you note, or pat on the back. They all go a long way in employee motivation.
Implementing a combination of these strategies can enhance team motivation in your workplace. The most important thing to remember during this recession is that people and relationships need to be managed with care while it is upon us. Keep the lines of communication between you and your employees open so that you can be successful in stopping the spread of fear and encouraging teamwork. While you cannot control the economy, you can exercise some influence over workplace motivation. After all, our team is everything to us.
Josh Long
Jun/090
The Presentation: Your 2 minutes to spread Success
How can you spread success in two minutes or less?
Not by following some expert’s rules or following the herd, but by doing it in a way that works…for you.
Don’t worry about someone else’s invented standards for managing employees.
Invent your own.
Avoid obvious mistakes, but don’t always follow obvious successes.
Find your own voice.
Set yourself apart from other managers and make a real impact.
Understand that your entire success relies on your ability to hire and motivate the right team.
- Steve Jobs (Apple) is no one without his designers.
- Bill Gates (Microsoft) is no one without his developers.
- Donald Trump (Half of New York City) is no one without his architects.
- You (Awesome Manager) are no one without your “peeps”!
If your success rides on your team, how much time are you devoting to “raising them right”.
How about two minutes?
In two minutes you can have a serious impact on a team member.
How?
I thought you would never ask.The moment that you recognize a team member for an accomplishment is everything.That one moment can have everlasting or never-lasting value depending on how you do it. If you make a big deal out of the moment of the recognition, it will have one hundred times the impact of the recognition itself.
For example, John (the team member) has been working extra hard to get noticed by management. He has stayed longer, been on time everyday, and he has been doing all he can to add to the revenue of the store.
Mary (the manager) has noticed John’s effort and has decided to recognize him for his contribution.
Two things can happen here:
Scenario 1: Mary decides John is this month’s recipient of the Team Member of the Month award. She pulls John to the side and hands him the plaque. She says “thank you”, and they go back to work.
Scenario 2: Mary decides John is her man this month and decides to honor him in the next team meeting. In front of all his peers, John is boasted as the example of what they need to make their store excellent.
Mary points out specific things that John has done, and John checks them off in his own head. He is amazed that Mary has noticed his specific efforts and he has an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and contribution.
He has been craving something to put all his passion and energy into, and Mary noticed. John is fulfilled and elated.
Now the other members know exactly what is expected for achievement and they’re ready to work for someone that notices their extra efforts.
2 minutes.
That’s all it takes to help and guide someone to be excellent.
Josh Long
May/090
Your Secret Power… May Even Be Secret To You
Is it possible…
…that no matter how hard you work…
…no matter how many years go by…
… that your parents still never tell you that they’re proud of you?
How are you feeling now? Happy? Sad? Tired? Unappreciated? Unfulfilled?
The truth is, we all like to feel recognized and fulfilled for what we do.
Don’t you?
Your employees, your work-related children, need the same “good job” and “thank you” from you…
…even if they won’t admit it.
From a young age, we have a need in our hearts to feel appreciated, to contribute, and to feel a sense of accomplishment.
You possess the power to fulfill this need in your team members. You possess a power, that if used and practiced properly, can lead you to becoming the best leader they have ever known.
To illustrate this power to you, I’ve created a concept.
This concept is called “The Moment of Impact”.
Let me explain…
Imagine you’re in line at the gas station… the person in front of you turns to speak to you…
They either compliment you… or they tell you you’re being obnoxious and to get the heck out of their personal space…
…in one single moment… that person has the power to change your whole day… for better… or for worse.
That one single moment… that one second of instance… is the moment of impact.
Have you ever been cut off in traffic? What did that do to your mood the rest of the day?
It’s like a small pebble that can ripple out into an eternal lifetime… for better… or for worse.
Imagine you were cut off in traffic. You get home, obviously ticked off, your little girl then comes up to you, with a drink in her hand, begging to sit on your lap.
As she’s trying to get up, the glass tips, sending Kool Aid all over you. You’re are already mad from the moron that cut you off, so you blow up at your daughter. Your wife (or husband) then comes in and decides that they have had enough of your attitude and the way you yell at your daughter. Next thing you know, you are in a two week argument.
The driver that cut you off threw a pebble in your pond that rippled through the rest of your life.
Extreme I know…but…
Know that one small moment of impact, over the lifetime of a person… could be the difference between a happy and successful life… or a dark, dismal existence.
Now think back on your own life… were there not moments you remember in your childhood, high school, or career?
Did you not have your own “Moments of Impact”?
Think about the effects. Think about the power those moments have over your life.
Imagine that power…
Now realize, understand, that you create those moments of impact in the lives of your employees.
You harness the power to impact thousands of moments in the life of your team members… after all… who sees them more than you? Not their family, not their children, not their spouse… you!
You harness power that will ripple through lifetimes… for better… or for worse.
Imagine you recognize someone…
They are positively effected… they’re happy… they positively effect everyone they come in contact with… they’re happier at home… their children grow up to be great… their children’s children grow up to be great.
Now imagine you don’t recognize them…
They leave work unappreciated, unfulfilled, dismal… they pull out a negative pebble that tears and ripples through everyone they come in contact with…
Your team members need you to positively impact them in their moments of impact… they need someone that will recognize them… recognize them for who they are and who they hope to become… openly… honestly… proudly.
Make a positive difference,
Josh Long
Apr/090
What Are You Fighting For?
In a world where competition is high and the economic future looks low, more than ever we need people like you to lead us. More than ever we need “fighters”.
I think we have, built inside of us, a great spirit that was born to fight. We are fascinated with stories like “Rocky” and “Rudy”, and we have to fight off the tears while we watch our athletes win at the Olympics.
But the real question remains. If we have such a yearning for these great stories, why aren’t we fighting for something?
So I have to ask, “What are you fighting for?”
What gives you the driving passion that gets you through the day? What are you striving for and believing in during this short stint on earth?
Are you fighting for your family? Are you fighting for a cause? Are you trying to prove to yourself or your parents that you have the goods to accomplish anything?
No one else on earth has had the same exact experiences and knowledge that you have had. You are unique. We need your perspective and we need you to scream about it.
This world has had enough of boring. We’ve had enough of mediocre ideas, okay service, and great quality. We need more. We need remarkable!
We need great leaders with outstanding ideas. We need you to be the best version of yourself and not just another boss we’re gonna complain about. We need you to be great, so we can be great. If we are great then our families will be happier, our children will make other children happier, and we will come to work on fire and ready to make you look good.
We all want to do a good job. We all want to fight for something. Our lives have gotten stale and we need something exciting to strive for. Something remarkable.
We need you to lead us to become better versions of ourselves. We want you to lead by example.
So, “what are you fighting for”?
Nov/080
No Such Thing As A Perfect Leader
The word “Leader” is very much in vogue today.
First, it was administration, then management, then executive, and now it’s leader. But no matter what you call it, the paradigm is the same.
An important thing to remember when being a leader of your team is that there is no such thing as a perfect leader. It’s ok (and actually very healthy) for us to admit, and be conscious of, our weaknesses.
It is natural for all of us to be imperfect with our strengths and weaknesses, and it’s what makes us so unique as individuals.
You might be asking yourself at this point, “why is all of this so important?”
Well, in order for us to have good relationships with people around us, it is important to note what each person brings to the table.
For example, when many of us got married, we married our weaknesses. My wife (God bless her) is a solid rock in everything I lack. When I got married I joined a complimentary team and as a manager that is exactly what you have at your workplace…a complimentary team.
Differences are genius in that it takes all kinds of people to make the perfect and well-rounded team.
You see, a good team is like your hand. We have five fingers and they all need to be different to execute different functions. Imagine if we only had five pointer fingers.
It’s funny because in the Middle East if you show someone your hand, and your fingers are apart, it’s considered a curse. If they are together, it’s considered a blessing.
Only a two inch variation in your fingers is the difference between a curse and a blessing, and guess what, a small variation in the way you lead can determine a curse or a blessing for your business.
Be A Thumb
This is where you come in. You are the thumb.
The thumb is the only finger that works with every other finger. If you have an accident and lose your thumb, they actually take one of your other fingers and make a thumb out of it. Because without the thumb you have no hand, only fingers.
So now the question becomes, “how do I become a thumb?”.
Anyone can lead in bad times because things have to be done, but how are you leading in the good times and without pressure?
Good leaders are good leaders regardless of good and bad times.
How can you make all of these differences work together?
To answer that, I want you to think about something…
Why do some conflicts in life result in hate and some in deep understanding, love, and trust?
Conflict has the great capability to get us thinking as sharply as we possibly can. You really start to think hard when someone disagrees with you, not when they agree with you.
In this context, disagreement is extremely healthy.
Now, how do you keep disagreement in your team healthy?
The answer is very simple: trust and respect.
What is respect, or more importantly, what is the essence of respect?
The great philosopher Emmanuel Kant put it best when he said, “respect means to recognize the sovereignty of the other person to be different”.
This is understood as the undeniable right of the other person to think differently.
Many times in an argument we say things like, “how can you say that?!?” This is a completely disrespectful thing to say, but we are never aware of it.
Respect is giving someone the space to disagree, to be an individual, and get other people thinking.
Trust is when you believe and have faith that the other person has your best interest at heart.
An important point to remember as a leader is that people respect people that they learn from.
This is your role as a leader, and as a leader you have to create this and be honest about not being perfect.
How do you achieve this great leadership?
By creating and nurturing a culture of mutual trust and respect.
If you want to be successful, surround yourself with people that are skilled at healthy argument and not just a bunch of “yes men”.
Borrow from the genius of others and they will love you for it. They will feel like they are contributing and you will have their trust and respect.
Do this, and you will be more perfect than most.
... your program boosts morale, not only for the person getting the actual recognition, but also for the rest of the employees because they see that the company values their contribution."
- Louie Muniz
FedEx Home Delivery #3327
...this incentive program is the most efficient and user friendly I have ever used and for the first time in 30 years I have kept our employee of the month recognition up to date, every month without fail for the last year. Keep sending the fax as a reminder this has truly been helpful."
-Steve Wessman
Chevys Fresh Mex
-Scott Stegall
Chili's Grill & Bar
-Virginia Trentacosta
Century 21 Properties Plus
-Norman Spiesky
Corner Bakery Cafe
-Becky Ketelaar Olive Garden
