Posts tagged northstar360
New Year, New Goals, New You … Starts with One
Dec 26th
The countdown to 2013 brings a time for reflection and looking ahead to new beginnings. This time for reflection should not only include personal goals … dropping those holiday pounds, planning more time to spend with friends and family or finally ditching any bad habits. Let’s make a resolution for ourselves and our organizations. Is there a science or an art to achieving our goals? Is there something beyond wishful thinking and optimism that will increase our chances that our wondrous best self will flourish in 2013?
Yes. No. Sort of. Not exactly. Apparently. Possibly.
Stephen Covey, one of the godfathers of goal setting would suggest starting small; with only one goal in fact. Starting small and committing (really committing) to one thing to accomplish throughout the year will build confidence and strength to do more. It’s what he calls “baby steps.” Start small, keep at it, and stay consistent until you’re ready pick up the pace.
Keeping on this goal requires time and effort on a weekly basis. Every week establish where you are currently and where you’d like to be at the end of the week. Starting small and constantly working on your goal throughout the year will develop strength, confidence and capabilities to discipline yourself to achieve other goals.
Covey also suggests that you enlist the help of someone close to you. It’s important to have some support, encouragement and a system of accountability. You might even invite this person to set a small goal that you can encourage them on. Work together and create synergy to help each other.
Best wishes on your own personal journey in 2013. You have the potential for greatness in you! Go for it! Start small. Make a promise and keep it.
ROI Linked to Ability to Manage Change
Nov 4th
Change is in the air. It’s all around us … in the physical sense the leaves are changing, the crisp cooler weather tells us that winter is on our heels. And change is inevitable in our current economic climate. Our ability and effectiveness to manage that change can mean the difference between running a successful business and running out of business. Poorly managed change in the workplace leads to stress which, in turn, creates poor job performance, more absenteeism and increased employee turnover.
A recent survey by the American Psychological Association revealed that 74 percent of Americans identified work as the main cause of their stress; this is a 15 percent increase over the year before. Over half of the participants acknowledged that stress negatively affects their job performances. They also admitted that the mental and physical manifestations of stress caused them to leave or consider leaving positions. Forty-eight percent of employers surveyed recognized the problem, but only 5 percent were addressing the issue. Companies large and small must recognize the need for change management because the costs are high.
Keeping up with the global market, economic trends, information and technology requires companies to implement frequent changes. These changes, while often necessary, can cost millions. An individual company’s return on investment (ROI) for change is determined by how effectively that company implements the necessary changes. A study reported by the Graziadio Business Report of Pepperdine University revealed that companies with a strong change management program had an average ROI of 143percent while those without had an average ROI of 35percent. So, how does this affect the bottom line? A ROI of 143percent translates to a 43 cent gain for every dollar spent while a ROI of 35percent is a 65 cent loss for every dollar spent.
Half of all businesses recognize they are not managing change effectively, yet only 5 percent do anything about it! Yikes! Make a choice to better manage change in your organization. It is clear this is one factor that has a direct link to an organization’s success. Do you want to know how you score? Learn how effective you are at managing change by taking a free assessment. This assessment measures 17 personality traits and provides respondents with a snapshot and score in a variety of areas like time management, creativity and sensitivity. The personality assessment is available at www.northstar360.com/assessments. This is a complimentary assessment provided by NorthStar360.
Change: How to Effectively Manage It?
Nov 4th
Change can be scary. There’s no doubt about it. And, as leaders, it’s our duty to help our organizations navigate change seamlessly. Sometimes this voyage may seem like a trip down The Nile. Change can evoke anxiety, stress and fear for our employees. Fortunately, it is possible to reduce employee stress (and the turnover that comes along with it) with effective change management. Being an effective leader means managing change by understanding what factors influence behavior, how to address employee concerns and manage resistance. Addressing employee concerns can help reduce turnover and encourage engagement. The Society for Resource Management currently estimates that replacing an IT employee costs $80,000. They also previously estimated that it costs $3,500 to replace each employee earning $8.00 an hour; another incentive to better manage change at our organizations. So, what can we do? Where do we start?
As leaders the area that can seem most intimidating is receiving resistance to change from staff. The best leaders learn resilience by focusing on areas they are able to control. Even in the midst of change, people are able to control emotional responses, influence the change and take care of themselves. People practice resilience when they:
• Assess the situation at hand
• Consider solutions and actions
• Select the best choice
• Take action
• Learn what does and does not work
• Modify actions or behaviors to achieve results
Any leaders who feel that they react out of resistance, rather than acting with resilience, can benefit from creating a personal action plan. By enhancing their change management skills, leaders will be equipped to address problems and manage resistant employees.
Observe reactions to change. Leaders need to link organizational goals to their employees’ drives, needs and wants. This starts with observation. Observing and assessing personal and employee responses to change, provides leaders with the opportunities to address problems and find appropriate solutions, once assessments are made, problems must be addressed at the process and behavioral levels.
Clear and constant communication is essential to managing resistance at the process level. Various studies confirm that most failed changes are directly related to poor management and communication. Successful leaders understand that effective communication reduces resistance and motivates change. Articulate a clear vision of the future: Engage employees by explaining how change is necessary for long-term company success.
Identify goals for change and explain why the change must happen: Outline how change will help achieve specific goals. Communicate clearly about issues and respect dissenting opinions: Allow employees to voice their opinions, even if they are negative. They will be more open to change if they feel their opinions are heard.
Companies that invest in change management programs, (such as the Change Management workshop offered by NorthStar360) are statistically more successful than companies that do not. When all is said and done, effective change requires effective change management. Smoothly implemented organizational change reduces employee stress which saves money by reducing turnover and increasing productivity. Managing change effectively takes work, but the long-term fiscal and emotional payoff is worth it.
Customer is King: Customer Service Checklist
Nov 4th
Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s breathed and lived customer service. His legacy and his enduring passion for customer service still rings true throughout McDonald’s corporate hallways. The following check list is used as a training tool for front counter people. We can use this checklist to all the “customers” in our organizations.
1. The customer is the most important person in our business.
2. The customer is not dependent on us…we are dependent on the customer.
3. The customer is not an interruption of our work; but the purpose of it.
4. The customer does us an honor when calling on us. We are not doing the customer a favor by serving him/her.
5. The customer is part of our business, not an outsider. The customer is our guest.
6. The customer is not a cold statistic, but flesh and blood, a human with feelings and emotions like our own.
7. The customer is not someone to argue with our match wits with.
8. The customer is one who brings us his/her wants. Our job is to fill them.
9. The customer is deserving of the most courteous and attentive treatment we can provide.
10. The customer has the right to expect an employee to present a neat, clean appearance.
Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke say it best…”Whether service is your primary product or only a part of it, delivery must be effective, efficient, and dependable if it is to have value to the customer. The service must be predictable, and uniform; the customer has to be able to depend on what it will look like on delivery, how long it will take to deliver, and what it will cost. A Big Mac is a Big Mac is a Big Mac”.
Emotional Intelligence? The Buzz Word That’s Elevating Employee Productivity
Sep 28th
Why should your business be interested in an esoteric subject such as Emotional Intelligence? Why should your firm invest training dollars in a program designed to increase emotional competencies for your staff? Does it make a difference when employees are aware of their feelings, values and goals?
For any business that would like to see increases in productivity and efficiency, more effective sales people, more creative teams and more nimble management—the answer is an unequivocal yes.
Psychologists knew the traditional IQ test did not measure all of the factors that comprise an effective, successful, happily productive person. Competence at “book learning” is not the only, and perhaps not the most important, measure of intelligence. Many of the other factors that psychologists found to be important in making people successful in business and in life are included in the terms Emotional Intelligence or emotional competence. The more we are aware of our own emotions, the more control we have over them; and the more we empathize with the emotions of others, the more emotionally intelligent we become. Emotionally competent people have self-confidence, which makes them good leaders and active team players. They maintain an optimistic outlook on life, which helps them overcome obstacles. Their ability to delay gratification and to manage stress, anger, envy and other negative emotions helps them build productive relationships and complete difficult tasks.
Emotional Intelligence is not some New Age, touchy-feely concept. In fact, the United States Air Force saved three million dollars by using Emotional Intelligence screening to select recruiters. Those who had the most Emotional Intelligence were three times as effective as the general candidates. The more emotionally competent recruiters also stayed on the job longer, cutting training costs. The General Accounting Office reported an annual savings of $3,000,000 per year on a $10,000 investment in screening. It certainly seems that Emotional Intelligence is important for most roles in a business. But business people have one overriding question: how does it affect the bottom line? Can putting employees in touch with their emotions actually make them more productive?
Increasing Emotional Intelligence Just Makes ‘Cents’
Sep 28th
Daniel Goleman first brought Emotional Intelligence from the academic ivory tower into the world of business with his 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. In a more recent book, he draws on over two hundred studies, done in various countries, and finds that emotional competence accounts for two-thirds to four-fifths of the difference between top performers and average employees. Screening prospective employees for certain positions makes good common sense. Sales people need to be optimistic. They must be able to delay gratification, control their emotions and have empathy with others. For example, when L’Oreal used emotional intelligence as a selection criterion for hiring sales representatives, they found that emotionally intelligent people outsold their colleagues by $91,370 a year, on the average. Emotional Intelligence is important in building teams and networks within a firm. It is vital for leaders at all levels, including executives. Retail store managers who were best able to manage stress had higher net profits and more sales per square foot, per employee and per inventory dollar.
A large beverage company screened executives for Emotional Intelligence. Before it began screening, half its executives left within two years, usually because they did not perform well. Executives selected for Emotional Intelligence stayed longer, earned higher performance bonuses and outperformed targets set for them by 15% to 20%.
Clearly, a business can improve its bottom line by screening appropriately for Emotional Intelligence. But that is only a fraction of what businesses need. When Emotional Intelligence makes such a difference, can an organization afford to stop with screening alone? Can businesses increase profits by offering training to increase the emotional competence of existing staff? Emotional competencies can be learned. With a good training program in Emotional Intelligence, an organization can maximize the potential of the employees it already has, from the top to the bottom of the organizational chart.
Like any type of intelligence, Emotional Intelligence includes both an inherent and a learned component. Pupils learn at school the skills they need to score well on traditional IQ tests. Training programs, such as our session Emotional Intelligence: The Pathway of Personal Success, teach adults the skills needed to become more emotionally competent. With the right training in emotional intelligence, businesses gain more emotionally competent staff members who function more efficiently, cooperate more productively and remain with the company longer.
A good training program in Emotional Intelligence includes work on integrity, awareness, responsibility, self-mastery, clarity, definition, action and self-valuing. Integrity is the ability to act on principle rather than on emotion. It includes the ability to delay gratification and to harness emotion in service of the principles that infuse our lives. Our principles determine how we perceive events and people; how we judge success or failure; whether we are optimistic and cheerful or pessimistic and joyless. At work and in life, we face key moments that are challenging, distressing, even painful. Good training in Emotional Intelligence helps your staff understand that the reality of the key moment cannot change, but that the interior response to it is a personal choice. They can focus on the task at hand, and make the choices that are most productive without wasting time blaming, resenting or complaining. Training can help your staff members take responsibility for their choices. They will know their life goals and have a clear vision of the path they will follow, making them more productive and capable of advancing. As your employees become aware of their own emotions and learn to control them in service of their life goals, your workplace will become not only more pleasant, but more productive. You will be able to promote from within more often, cutting training costs.
“Your teams will function more efficiently and productively when leaders choose to listen with empathy and team players take responsibility for their choices,” explains Susan Riddering, vice president of NorthStar360. “Training in Emotional Intelligence increases managerial skills, team building and employee competence at all levels – and that inevitably improves the bottom line.”
Emotional Intelligence: How Do You Score?
Sep 28th
For decades, a lot of emphasis has been put on certain aspects of intelligence such as logical reasoning, math skills, spatial skills, understanding analogies and verbal skills. Researchers were puzzled by the fact that while IQ could predict to a significant degree academic performance and, to some degree, professional and personal success, there was something missing in the equation. Some of those with remarkable IQ scores were doing poorly in life. The missing part of this success equation: emotional intelligence. Thanks to the groundbreaking book by Daniel Goleman, which is based on years of research by numerous scientists such as Peter Salovey, John Meyer, Howard Gardner, Robert Sternberg and Jack Block, just to name a few. For various reasons and thanks to a wide range of abilities, people with high emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in life than those with lower EIQ even if their classical IQ is average.
NorthStar360 provides a complimentary Emotional Intelligence and Personality Profile. Go ahead; see how you measure up! This emotional intelligence/ personality profile test will evaluate several aspects of your emotional intelligence and will suggest ways to improve it. Please be honest and answer according to what you really do, feel or think, rather than what you think is considered right in this test.
After finishing this three-minute questionnaire, you will receive a Report via your company email account. This assessment measures 17 personality traits and provides respondents with a snapshot and score in a variety of areas like time management, creativity and sensitivity. The personality assessment is available at www.northstar360.com/assessments.
This is a complimentary assessment provided by NorthStar360. No trick, no gimmicks, just great data for you to consider. So, how do you measure up?
Time Management Best Practice: Time Blocking
Sep 28th
Finding ways to squeeze a few extra minutes out of every hour is every busy person’s favorite magic trick. We don’t have the ability to waive our magic wand with an “Abracadabra”, but we can take advantage of time management strategies to help us maximize our time. The first magic trick up our sleeve is time blocking: a popular approach to time management addressed by many of the gurus in the time management field.
Time blocking does just that, block out specific time periods for project work, meetings and specific tasks. The reason for this is that interruptions are major time wasters. On average, every interruption is costing anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes of lost time as you must regroup and refocus back to the task at hand.
For this reason, time blocking advocates recommend that you set aside specific blocks of time for specific tasks. During the time block, ONLY work on that task, not allowing the distraction of email pop-ups, telephone calls or drop-in meetings. It’s also important to stick to the time allotted; start and stop on the clock. Admittedly, this is no small task and is very difficult to do, especially for those operating in a primarily responsive mode or worse, crisis mode. Of course, this requires balance as client needs and requests should be addressed quickly. This doesn’t preclude the use of time blocking, however. To start, try time blocking just a portion of the day to start. Below are a few tips to utilize time blocking as part of your time management strategy.
- Create a list of the important activities in your work week. Most importantly, include those you’re not getting to but know you should. Next, block out specific times over the next two days to work on one or two of these projects and commit to working on just a specific task without interruptions. Reduce your own hesitation by scheduling these blocks at a time that isn’t a known “busy” period for your business. Refer to this list each time you schedule yourself so you put these important items in the calendar.
- Turn off the alerts on your email service. Allow yourself two, three if you must, time periods per day for emails and phone follow up. During that time, read and process emails and phone calls and nothing else. Read emails and respond, archive or delete. Don’t waste time reading and leaving them for later to respond. If you don’t have time to respond, don’t look at your emails!
- Commit to following your time plan; make it your personal policy that if it’s on the calendar, that’s what will happen with the exception of true emergencies.
The time blocking approach to time management can be a very difficult transition, particularly if you are dealing with customers face to face for much of your day. If your job description includes ONLY customer service activities, it may be that your entire day is blocked for customer service, but are there particular times of day when certain clients are easier to reach? Might there be value in blocking time for certain customer categories, geographies, order types or shipping time frames? Recognize, however, that time blocked for customer oriented activities such as follow up, answering questions, creating proposals and making proactive telephone calls are all “blockable” activities, which might just reduce crisis related activities!
Preparing New Supervisors
Sep 3rd
Quite often organizations promote employees into positions of supervision because of their strong technical expertise. Suddenly these people find themselves with a whole new range of responsibilities. Not only are they new, many of them have little to do with the technical expertise that was their prior strength. With this being such a common occurrence, the question naturally arises as to what is the best way to prepare these people for these new challenges. Without the proper training during that transition process you could end up losing productivity and ultimately affecting the success of your company. These are mistakes that your business just simply cannot ignore. Take a look at these top mistakes made as well as possible responses from employees they supervise.
Top 10 Mistakes of New Supervisors
- Seizing power and attempting to hold onto it.
- Failing to solicit feedback.
- Delegating without authorizing.
- Reprimanding employees in the presence of others.
- Supervising everyone the same way.
- Keeping the interesting work for themselves.
- Siding with team members.
- Distancing themselves from those they supervise.
- Promoting an us versus them attitude.
- Engaging in illegal behaviors.
Potential Responses:
- Low employee morale
- Loss of respect from superiors
- Low productivity
- Legal ramifications
- Poor individual performance
- Negative career impact
- Lack of organizational trust
In addition to the technical issues that they have already mastered, they now need some formal training to help prepare them, often times in the following areas.
- Principles of motivation
- Change management strategies
- Ethics and politics in the workplace
- Principles of planning
- Managing their time
- Workplace organization issues
- Principles of delegation
- Principles of work groups and teams
- Staffing basics
- Training principles
- Equal employment opportunity (EEO) requirements
- Counseling and supporting employees
- Leadership principles
- Conflict resolution and management
- Principles behind appraisal and rewards
- Basic labor law
- Productivity issues
- Managing a safe workplace
Most leaders are not born with these skills, they can be taught. Identify their strengths and weaknesses and develop plans to improve their individual competencies.
Team Coaching Scores Big Results
Jul 30th
A great team is made up of people with complementary skills and strengths. A great team has synergy, collaboration, and energy. A great team doesn’t happen by accident, it takes practice, instruction, change .. it takes coaching!
Coaching can help teams communicate, problem solve and create a shared purpose. “Team coaching provides a dedicated time and coach to help teams work through specific business challenges. All members on the team can contribute and share their experience and together develop a plan to overcome that challenge,” explains Susan Riddering, vice president of NorthStar360.
Often times teams may reveal other business challenges that can be impeding an organization’s growth and success. It may be lack of communication from management or lack workflow with other departments. The solutions can be simple and many times zero-cost to implement.
Team coaching is effective for a variety of industries and roles within an organization including managers, sales reps., customer service, systems, marketing, finances, work spaces, equipment, safety, compliance, training, personal development, opportunities, planning and communication. All these roles are interdependent in providing a product or service to customers. Team coaching not only improves the team environment; it also advances how a particular team or department works with other departments.
“It’s amazing to see the team transform even after one coaching session. Everyone is invested in their team and works together to enact positive changes,” states Riddering. “And the improvement is contagious. It brings a whole new energy and sense of excitement to an organization.”