I had the good fortune of hearing Alan Weiss address the Institute of Management Consultants in Portland yesterday speaking on building relationships and value based consulting.
Alan has written 16 books and 500 articles on building successful companies. He had some very interesting comments on self esteem, professional development and balance in life. Self esteem, he said is increased when we add discrete skills. Professional development is important for all of us to schedule and value given the rate of cultural and technological change. Healthy non-business activities increase our perspective to make wiser choices in business and elsewhere.
Not a bit bashful, Alan recommends coming right up to the edge between confidence and arrogance. A couple of consultants in the audience asked him if perhaps he's "over the line." He responded one must be comfortable "standing up in a breeze."
Weiss loves his Ferrari, Aston Martin and expensive lifestyle. He asked rhetorically, "Do clients want a successful consultant, or the cheapest?"
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Accepting New Clients
We are ready to meet some new business owners eager to take their venture to the next level. Our passion is collaborating with leaders who want to improve their capacity to serve and satisfy more customers using improved systems.
The inspiration to innovate, followed by the commitment to reshape one's thinking is bold and courageous. How can we reduce inputs while increasing outputs? It's a puzzle we love exploring with our clients.
Best to you all this Father's Day. Mid-june and we're here on the glorious Oregon Coast with blue skies, bright sun, mid-70s and a light breeze kicking up some white caps looking south across Coos Bay. It's a great day to celebrate life, family and looking forward.
Send us an email, give us a call. Let's see how you might benefit.
John@BeCauseBusiness.com - 800.249.1622 - Skype Be.Cause
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The inspiration to innovate, followed by the commitment to reshape one's thinking is bold and courageous. How can we reduce inputs while increasing outputs? It's a puzzle we love exploring with our clients.
Best to you all this Father's Day. Mid-june and we're here on the glorious Oregon Coast with blue skies, bright sun, mid-70s and a light breeze kicking up some white caps looking south across Coos Bay. It's a great day to celebrate life, family and looking forward.
Send us an email, give us a call. Let's see how you might benefit.
John@BeCauseBusiness.com - 800.249.1622 - Skype Be.Cause
Technorati Profile
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
A Different Perspective on Employee Evaluations
By Kathleen D. Packard
kathleen@BeCauseBusiness.com
Employee evaluations are typically anticipated with dread by employees and managers alike. Managers see them as a time when they must be tough and judgmental. They must look for what’s wrong in the employee’s work and then they must point it out. Worst of all, there must be some threat, subtle or otherwise, that will motivate the employee to change.
Employees are typically clueless as to what is going to come up in the review, but they know they can look forward to having their deficiencies exposed. There will be discomfort for both parties, they will stumble through the encounter, then both will heave a sign of relief that it’s over and they’ll try to put it behind them like a bad dream. The next time there will be no memory of what was discussed previously and they’ll go through the whole unpleasant experience again, with no progress toward what either party really wants.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Rather than positioning the manager as the executioner and the employee as victim . . . oops, sorry, that’s my own experience. Let’s say . . . rather than positioning the manager as “doer” and the employee as “done to,” you can approach the process from a more collaborative coach/player perspective. This is how you do it.
In your first meeting with the employee, both of you reach agreement on what goals or actions are appropriate to work on and what time frame is reasonable for completion. Next, decide together what behaviors or indicators you will use to know when that target or goal is reached. Third, agree together on what the consequences will be if the target is hit or the target is missed. This doesn’t need to be a raise or a demotion or anything so dramatic. It can be a small acknowledgment or a simple reward or “punishment.” But it will be something that both of you agree on. Lastly, ask the employee what kind and how often they want feedback. It might be daily, weekly or monthly. How do they want that feedback delivered? It might be a daily question, a written note, or a two-minute meeting. Business coach Richard Reardon says that 25% of success can be attributed to having goals, but 75% is the result of feedback.
It must be the manager’s absolute commitment to follow through with what has been agreed upon. Otherwise, there can be no expectation for commitment from the employee. And the performance review will be a review of the performance of both the coach and the player. In this setup, everyone knows what is expected of them and by when.
Remember that as a coach, you will be prodding your employees to stretch themselves. As they become comfortable with the process, you will find that they will push themselves. Everyone wants to feel like they are headed somewhere. And everyone wants to know where they stand. Bring the process into the open and everyone’s experience will be positive. Share with the employee the goals you have for the company and the goals you have set for yourself as the owner. And ask the employee for feedback on the process itself. Together you can move the company forward and use your roles as vehicles for your own personal growth.
kathleen@BeCauseBusiness.com
Employee evaluations are typically anticipated with dread by employees and managers alike. Managers see them as a time when they must be tough and judgmental. They must look for what’s wrong in the employee’s work and then they must point it out. Worst of all, there must be some threat, subtle or otherwise, that will motivate the employee to change.
Employees are typically clueless as to what is going to come up in the review, but they know they can look forward to having their deficiencies exposed. There will be discomfort for both parties, they will stumble through the encounter, then both will heave a sign of relief that it’s over and they’ll try to put it behind them like a bad dream. The next time there will be no memory of what was discussed previously and they’ll go through the whole unpleasant experience again, with no progress toward what either party really wants.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Rather than positioning the manager as the executioner and the employee as victim . . . oops, sorry, that’s my own experience. Let’s say . . . rather than positioning the manager as “doer” and the employee as “done to,” you can approach the process from a more collaborative coach/player perspective. This is how you do it.
In your first meeting with the employee, both of you reach agreement on what goals or actions are appropriate to work on and what time frame is reasonable for completion. Next, decide together what behaviors or indicators you will use to know when that target or goal is reached. Third, agree together on what the consequences will be if the target is hit or the target is missed. This doesn’t need to be a raise or a demotion or anything so dramatic. It can be a small acknowledgment or a simple reward or “punishment.” But it will be something that both of you agree on. Lastly, ask the employee what kind and how often they want feedback. It might be daily, weekly or monthly. How do they want that feedback delivered? It might be a daily question, a written note, or a two-minute meeting. Business coach Richard Reardon says that 25% of success can be attributed to having goals, but 75% is the result of feedback.
It must be the manager’s absolute commitment to follow through with what has been agreed upon. Otherwise, there can be no expectation for commitment from the employee. And the performance review will be a review of the performance of both the coach and the player. In this setup, everyone knows what is expected of them and by when.
Remember that as a coach, you will be prodding your employees to stretch themselves. As they become comfortable with the process, you will find that they will push themselves. Everyone wants to feel like they are headed somewhere. And everyone wants to know where they stand. Bring the process into the open and everyone’s experience will be positive. Share with the employee the goals you have for the company and the goals you have set for yourself as the owner. And ask the employee for feedback on the process itself. Together you can move the company forward and use your roles as vehicles for your own personal growth.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Google's Shared Docs and Sheets
Google's shared documents and spreadsheets are wiki files that are great for team collaboration.
I set up shared spreadsheets for my clients to begin tracking sales, costs and profit and set the stage for doing forecasting. These spreadsheets are also a great way to involve staff, giving them a turn at the controls to run the venture, set destinations and steam towards far away lands.
Google documents are great for collaborating with team members on Job duties, work processes and frequently asked questions. They clarify what's expected and how to get things done.
I encourage my clients to have their staff post their questions in a FAQ format; when the employer answers the question, the knowledge is captured. Staff gradually builds a library of FAQ. When new employees come aboard with questions, the experienced staff can respond, "Let's look in the FAQ. Here's that question and an answer." or "Great question, you can add it to the FAQ; then we'll get the answer from the boss." Gradually, there is less time spent answering the same questions. Life is good!
I set up shared spreadsheets for my clients to begin tracking sales, costs and profit and set the stage for doing forecasting. These spreadsheets are also a great way to involve staff, giving them a turn at the controls to run the venture, set destinations and steam towards far away lands.
Google documents are great for collaborating with team members on Job duties, work processes and frequently asked questions. They clarify what's expected and how to get things done.
I encourage my clients to have their staff post their questions in a FAQ format; when the employer answers the question, the knowledge is captured. Staff gradually builds a library of FAQ. When new employees come aboard with questions, the experienced staff can respond, "Let's look in the FAQ. Here's that question and an answer." or "Great question, you can add it to the FAQ; then we'll get the answer from the boss." Gradually, there is less time spent answering the same questions. Life is good!
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