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The Best Teams Communicate in 3 Critical Ways

May 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Team-High-Fives-(se)

Research reported by Alex Pentland in the April issue of Harvard Business Review has revealed some interesting new information on effective teams. He and his group deployed "sociometric badges" in teams in 21 organizations. These devices are able to monitor on individual team members' tone of voice, body language, frequency of initiating and responding, plus the content of the communications. They uncovered three aspects of communication that correlate with successful team performance: Energy – the frequency  of face-to-face comments + acknowledgement in return (e.g. saying "yes" or head nodding in response) Engagement – the degree to which all members of the team are engaging … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communicating, Team Building, Team Performance Tagged With: , ,

Give Me Something (or Someone) to Connect to

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Hands_cradling_globe

There is enough research on Employee Engagement to show that engaged employees give more "discretionary effort" (going above and beyond job expectations…without being told/asked) to their employer. Yet levels of engagement have not changed over the last ten years or so, through a period first of  boom, then of bust. Consider this data from the Gallup organization. They surveyed around percent of employees who are (1) engaged, (2) not engaged, and (3) actively disengaged. Check the trend since the year 2000: 2000 – 26%/56%/18% 2008 – 29%/51%/20% 2010 – 28%/53%/19% 2011 – 29%/52%/19% You got it. There is no trend, unless you consider flatlining to be a trend. The … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement Tagged With: , ,

Every Job Matters (to Someone)

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
woman_at_desk

Recently I heard a presentation by Jim Gibbons, President & CEO of Goodwill Industries. In it he said that "every job matters." Every job has someone relying on the incumbent of the position to do their job well so that the other person can either: benefit or do their own job well. Your client/customer is either internal or external.You serve (or produce for) the external client or someone who delivers to the external client. This is true whether you operate in the private, public or non profit sector. This is a powerful concept to help your employees find meaning in their job. Ask them who their customers are. Ask them to whom doing their job well matters. Ask them … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Employee Retention Tagged With: , , ,

Your Final Performance Review

March 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Patriarchy

I get some great ideas from my clients. In a recent coaching conversation my client and I were strategizing about how to fire up an employee in his 60's with about two years left before retirement who was slacking off.. I suggested he challenge the individual to make the choice to make his last two years his best two years. My client liked the idea. After pondering it for a moment he said, "What if I were to invite him now to draft what he would like his final review to say, the one that will cover his last year of service?" What an intriguing idea! I mean, we've all probably been asked, in some career or life planning exercise, to write out our desired obituary. This is what jumped into … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Building Accountability, Employee Engagement Tagged With: , ,

What’s the Real Reason You Work Those Extra Hours?

February 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
ZL04

Ever notice? When you ask someone how they're doing, they rarely say "fine." No, just about everybody says "busy." Yeah, we're so busy that we have to work all those extra hours–come in early, or work through lunch, or stay late, or pull a Saturday and/or a Sunday…or all of the above. Now, I'm not averse to high performing people working long hours. Often the reality is that there is no way you can get everything you need to do done. Too many mandatory meetings. Too frequent interruptions and fires to put out. Just too many tasks to accomplish, even without the interruptions. I wonder, however, how many managers and employees work long hours because, truth be told, they … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Organizational Life Tagged With: , ,

At the Heart of Development, Awareness

February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Woman Holding Blank Frame

A manager I was coaching recently explained (away) the behavior of one of his supervisors: "He isn't an angry person. He means well. It's just that he's often sharp with people. And sometimes they take it the wrong way. He's really a good worker. I've told him that people can be intimidated by him, so he knows he sometimes comes across this way." But does he really know this? He may acknowledge it in his head but does he recognize it when he is being curt, or better yet, just before he is about to be curt? All of us, in one way or another, go around on auto-pilot. Certain behaviors we have been doing so long and the neural pathways for them in our brains are carved so deep that we don't … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change Tagged With: , ,

Reactive vs. Creative Mind-sets…and Results

February 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

At the core of The Leadership Circle (360 degree assessment) model are the Reactive tendencies and Creative competencies. If you look at the circle itself, you will see Reactive structure of mind represented by the lower half of the circle and Creative structure by the upper half. When leaders operate from the Reactive mind-set they are, of course, able to achieve at least some level of results through their people. The problem is that, as research shows, at some point they hit a ceiling. The behavior that comes with Reactive habits of thought is unable to generate higher performance. When a manager develops a more Creative set of beliefs and assumptions (mental "operating … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership, Performance Tagged With: , , , ,

Change Your Words, Change Their Minds

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I continue to be amazed by that fundamental truth about living: how we choose to see a situation dictates the choices we–and others–make about it. Take a look at this 2-minute clip that demonstrates it better than any more words I can write. You will be glad you did. How you choose to deliver feedback on an employee's performance will have a huge impact on how he/she responds to your message…acceptance, in the spirit of learning, denial, as a victim, or angry counter attack. How you present to employees a change mandated by you or by upper management will guide whether they come around willingly, begrudgingly, or not at all. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change, Communicating Tagged With: , , , ,

Are You the Expert, the Doctor, or the Process Guy?

January 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Helping-Book Cover

In his short, wonderful book, Helping, Edgar Schein presents us, whether we are a professional  coach or a manager playing a coaching role, with three ways to respond to a request for coaching/mentoring help (or, for that matter, advice with a problem on the job). We can be: an expert resource who provides information or steps in and solves the problem, more like a doctor who prescribes a solution for the client to follow, or a process consultant who works to get the client to come up with a solution. The first two approaches are similar and I find they all too frequently represent the default response of managers when asked for help from their employees. Often it is for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coaching, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Develop Your Leadership Competence Asynchronously

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Silhouttes-&-World-Map-(sx)

It being New Year's time again, Bill George recently blogged about "Five Resolutions for Aspiring Leaders." He talked about things you can do to develop yourself, beyond what you do in your direct job: such as finding a mentor, setting up a mastermind type group with other emerging and aspiring leaders,volunteering in the community in a leadership role, and traveling beyond your nation's borders. If you are serious about growing your leadership potential, these are all excellent ideas. A mentor is like a scalpel, someone with whom you can address specific questions and problems you face. What George calls a "leadership development group" provides you with an ongoing team of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership Development Tagged With: , ,
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Fulcrum Associates is a leadership development firm that helps organizations improve performance by expanding the impact of their managers and their teams on the results that employees deliver.

Through highly interactive workshops, one-on-one coaching, keynote presentations and facilitation services, we help managers become better leaders, foster commitment and accountability in their staff, and generate consistently high performance.

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