Month: March 2011

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Credibility With Your Team: It’s Hard to Get and Easy to Lose

A-team-leader-addressing-her-colleagues

Effective supervisors have more than a title on their doors. They also have the trust and confidence of those on their team.

Personal credibility is the working asset in every relationship, both personal and business. People have credibility with each other or they don’t. When they do, work gets done, goals are met, and extraordinary things happen. When they don’t you know what occurs…work does not get done or gets done poorly; goals are not met or get changed constantly; and sadly, people just get by putting out minimum effort.

However, credibility does not happen over night. Rather, it’s the day-by-day actions that influence whether your team will not only follow you but also go that extra mile. These day-by-day actions create a Credibility Account that, like a bank account, generates both deposits and withdrawals.

Each supervisor begins with a certain amount of credits in his or her account. That amount varies based on the leader’s qualifications, reputation and personal style. Every day, deposits (positive experiences) and withdrawals (disappointments) are made into this account.

Five strategies to manage your credibility account with your team.

1. Understand others.
What might be a deposit to you may not be perceived by someone else as a deposit at all. It might be perceived as a withdrawal, if it does not touch the person’s deep interests or needs.

2. Attend to the little things.
The little kindnesses and courtesies are important and make deposits. Small discourtesies can make large withdrawals. In relationships, the little things are the big things.

3. Clarify expectations.
Whether we are dealing with the question of who does what at work or who feeds the fish and takes out the garbage, unclear or ambiguous expectations leads to misunderstanding and withdrawal of trust.

4. Don’t play favorites.
People make judgments about what they see in the workplace. Are promotions fair? Is low performance dealt with quickly? Is their equal treatment for everyone? If the answer is no in your team’s eyes (regardless of the truth of the matter – it’s their perspective) then this perceived unfairness will stand in the way of their giving of themselves fully to the job or project.

5. Do what you say you’re going to do.
Credible supervisors remember the promises they make, take the appropriate course of action, and let their tem know what’s been done. If you tell Mary that you are going to check on something for her, do it. And if you don’t intend to do something, never say you will.

Management Success Tip

Do a credibility check. To stay on track, ask yourself questions, like, “What could potentially jeopardize my credibility?” “What steps can I take to improve my credibility?” “What can I do each day to ensure that my credibility is maintained?” The more aware you are, the better equipped you are to increase the balance in your credibility account.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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Verbal Skills: How to Speak with Impact and Authority

Man presenting in a meeting

You have entered the communication process by thinking about your approach or attitude for effective communication. You have prepared for communication by thinking through your intended message and targeted it toward your listener. Now let’s take a look at your skills and habits, to be sure your communication is coming across loud and clear:

Verbal Skills:

  • Select the appropriate tone. Be aware of any tendencies toward tentativeness, sarcasm, inappropriate humor due to stress, exaggeration, etc. Try to keep the tone appropriate to the discussion, avoiding anything that might be confusing or off-putting, especially when the conversation is serious.
  • Enunciate. Speak each word clearly. A great trick is to open your mouth a bit wider than you might be accustomed to in order to heighten articulation.
  • Slow down. This is important particularly when you feel stressed or emotional, of if you tend to talk quickly anyway. Pace yourself, remember to breathe and pause periodically. On the other hand, don’t slow it down to a snail’s pace; that could be offensive.
  • Watch your volume. If you speak too loudly, you may sound angry and intimidating. If you speak too softly you may not be taken seriously. So speak at normal volume.
  • Got accent? Speak slowly and clearly, enunciate carefully. Allow a few pauses for the listener to catch up. Watch your listener’s face for signs of understanding or confusion.
  • Choose your words. Be specific and accurate. You won’t be word-perfect, but if you are clear in your intentions and have managed your own emotions, you should be able to get your message across accurately. Avoid broad language such as “always,” “never,” and “as soon as possible,” substituting specifics where you can.
  • Avoid qualifiers. Using words like “kind of, sort of, just, maybe”, and other tentative wording weakens your message. You may not even be aware of how often you use these terms. Listen to see if this is a habit of yours, or ask someone you trust to listen and give you feedback on how often you use these weakening words.
  • Avoid jargon, slang, idioms, and profanity. If your terminology is confusing, your message will be as well. If you turn people off or intimidate them, your message will be lost in the anxiety. So clean up your language, and use terms the listener will understand.
  • Avoid rambling or repeating. If you are clear on your message, get it across and then stop. Get comfortable with a pause or two; if the situation is sensitive, both sides need space to think before moving on.
  • Check for understanding. Ask your listener to repeat, rephrase, or react to what you have just said. Clarify areas where you aren’t in perfect accord. See where you can find agreement. Summarize what you both agree to, and what will happen next.

Strong verbal skills will serve you well throughout your career as well as your personal life. If you are not as articulate and calm as you would like, take heart. You can practice each of these skills every day, in meetings, one on one, even in social conversation. It is not about being perfect, just about becoming a stronger, clearer verbal communicator.

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Online Crisis Management Tools

Crisis on a black background

Know them, use them

It’s important to remember that your social media accounts are now considered major crisis communications resources, and will be treated as such by the public when trouble comes around. In the midst of a crisis, the last thing you want stakeholders seeking information to see is a Facebook page covered in advertisements for the latest and greatest. While it is possible to handle the transition from typical marketing/communication mode to full on crisis management tool manually, there are several types of programs that can make the switch both faster and easier. This quote, from a PRSA article by Dave Armon, describes a few of the possibilities:

While I don’t know of a magical solution that lets a company’s entire marketing program instantly switch off, there are powerful tools to prevent gaffes within the most widely used social networks. Among the features that apply to crisis situations:

* Moderation consoles that capture posts and comments, matching them against “black lists” of words and phrases that an organization may not want on its Facebook wall. These tools also display comments made to pages that are only weeks or months old, eliminating the possibility of disparaging content being buried deep within a fan page. An “escalation” feature allows questions posed by fans to be e-mailed to experts for faster responses.
* Page management tools to schedule the publication of content in advance. Some crisis scenarios can be anticipated, so approved responses can be loaded into the tool for faster responses. These tools also let administrators suspend campaigns without the intervention of third-party vendors.
* Self-service application dashboards allow organizations to publish customized content quickly for their Facebook page. Using these tools, a company, agency or nonprofit could quickly move from a sales-oriented page to one that distributes information about an incident or engages fans to support benevolent nonprofits.
* Many of today’s consumers gather information in real time. This can lead to big rewards for organizations that learn to behave like media companies, attracting an audience and then earning trust by communicating continuously through the good times as well as the bad.

Tools like these make it possible to keep up the 24/7 crisis management pace that the public demands while still sneaking in the little things like say…food and sleep. There are versions of all of these tools made by various companies and all differ in price and capabilities, so take the time to familiarize yourself with a few and see which works best for your organization. It may seem like extra work now, but it will be much, much more if you end up facing a serious crisis unprepared.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

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Meetings: Don’t Just Show Up! Stand Out, Shine, Advance Your Career!

Elderly Women in a Business Meeting

use meetings to shine and advance careersMeetings, most of us roll our eyes and can’t wait to get back to our office where the real work gets done.

However, meetings, whether they’re regularly scheduled routines in your company or now-and-then get-togethers, can be a place for you to gain positive visibility and to showcase your capabilities. Here are three strategies that will help you stand out, shine and advance your career.

1. Do your homework before the meeting.
In order to make intelligent comments, offer helpful suggestions or ask pertinent questions, you need to know a meeting’s purpose and topic areas in advance. If you have received a vague notice or agenda, inquire about what’s going to be discussed and what are the goals. You can basically say that you want to come ready to contribute.

If it’s your supervisor or team leader who is calling the staff or group together and has left the focus a bit loose, you might offer to prepare an agenda by saying: “This could save time and help the staff / team come prepared to provide useful input.” Be seen as someone who knows how to make meetings effective. This ability is a real career asset, especially in team-based organizations.

2. Polish your act during the meeting.
Even if the meeting is informal, mentally run through what issues might come up and what you might say. Jot down any remarks you want to make about certain agenda items. In other words, don’t just wing it. Rather, come prepared with well-thought-through suggestions and supporting information.

Here’s where your observations at prior meetings are critical. Do people speak up freely or wait to be called on by the meeting leader? Are presentations made formally, perhaps by standing at a podium or do people stay seated, interjecting comments when there’s an opening? Determine how the most effective members make their points, and how the leader reacts to various presentation styles. Use this information as a model for your presentations.

3. Follow up and follow through after the meeting.
What happens after a meeting can be just as important as what takes place during it. Ideas presented must be implemented and decisions carried out. Even as a participant, you can help to ensure that the decisions made become realities. Here’s how.

Even if someone else is taking minutes, make brief notes about each agenda item. This is a good way to keep your team and boss informed as well as to be available to prepare a meeting summary and send it out to everyone. Also, if you get a great idea after the meeting, don’t sit on it. The opportunity may be lost. Develop a post meeting proposal or outline and present it to your boss or whoever is in charge. Meeting follow ups can give you great visibility to be seen as a problem solver and leader.

Career Success Tip:

If you take an active role before, during, and after meetings, you will demonstrate your ability to get a job done and your willingness to participate in a team effort. As you discover better ways for achieving better meeting results, you’ll be displaying your leadership talent and you’ll be seen as a high performing professional.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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Lessons from the River Creatures

Hands folded in prayer to God

One of my all time favorite parables is from Richard Bach. It is the story of the river creatures in his book, Illusions.

Here’s a summary of the parable:

Part I Clinging to the Rocks

There are some river creatures who cling to the rocks in the river. They know nothing other than clinging to the rocks. One day one of the river creatures exclaims aloud, ‘I’m tired of clinging. If I keep clinging to these rocks the rest of my days, I’ll die of boredom’.

The other river creatures say to this one, ‘If you let go, the river will carry you away. You’ll be smashed into the rocks and die for sure.’ To which the river creature responds, ‘There must be something more to this life than clinging. If I have to take my chances and be smashed into the rocks, so be it.’ And with that he let go of the rock where he had been clinging his entire life…..

What do you cling to? What holds you back from going after your dreams? What are you most afraid will happen if you let go of the life that you know and try a new path?

Part II Letting Go and Floating

The river creature does let go and at first is smashed about and thrown against the rocks. But over time he learns to float. He loves floating effortlessly, letting the current take him where it will. One day he comes to another group of river creatures further down stream. They see him float by effortlessly and exclaim, ‘Look a river creature just like us. Yet he does not cling.’ and ‘He has no fear of the rocks or the current. How does he do it? ‘ The river creature replies as he floats peacefully, ‘The river delights to lift us free if only we dare let go.’

When have you completely surrendered and found that a problem resolved itself without any further struggle? How does your faith support you to follow your dream? What can you let go so you move effortlessly through the challenges of your day?

Part III – Lessons from the River Creatures

  1. There is no need to cling to what you have always done. There is no need to do what everyone else is doing. There is only a calling for you to step into the power and splendor of Who You Are. It is up to you to step into your radiance and glory.
  2. The opportunity always presents itself for you to take another approach, shift perspective, change gears.
  3. You are the only one holding you back. You are the only one who can set you free from your self-limiting beliefs, victim identity, not-enoughness thinking, they-won’t-let-me mindset.
  4. There are ample opportunities to grow, stretch, reach, claim. It is up to you to do it and
  5. You will always have the support of the Current to take you where you need to go.

The river delights to lift us free if only we dare let go.

Please share with us in the comment section below your story of how you have set yourself free.

We’d like to hear your stories of working spiritually. Please write to us to share how you integrate your spirituality with your work so we can share your story in future blogs.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” The paperback version is available on Amazon. NOW NEW!!! the pdf version of Path for Greatness is available for download from her website. AND…. Linda has recently completed her new book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand”!!! It is now available on her website as well.

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Understanding Federal Grant Announcements

A-woman-doing-basic-search-for-grant-announcement

Tracking

Once you begin tracking federal grant opportunities through the Federal Register (www.gpoaccess.gov/fr)) and Grants.Gov (www.grants.gov), you will begin finding grant announcements. To take advantage of these opportunities, you first must understand what you are reading.

Doing a Basic Search

Doing a basic search for grant announcements is straightforward. At both sites, you can use the “Basic Search” option to search by keyword, funding opportunity number, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number, agency, or grant category. Browsing by category may result in hundreds of listings, which will help you understand the kinds of programs and agencies involved in a particular category of grants, such as energy or elementary education.

Deciphering Information about Federal Grants

Familiarize yourself with the language and format of federal grant listings. Here are the key components of a typical grant listing:
•  Posted date.
•  Closing date for applications. This tells you when the application is due.
•  Expected number of awards. This tells you how many awards will be
made through this grant program.
•  Estimated total program funding. This tells you how much money
is available through this grant competition.
•  Award ceiling and floor. This tells you the lowest and highest grant
budgets you can submit.
•  Cost sharing or matching. This tells you whether or not you must
contribute a certain percentage of cash or in-kind resources to your
federally funded project.
•  Description. This is a short summary of the grant program.
•  Link to the full announcement. The URL will link you to the entire
grant application package.

Taking Your Grant Pulse

Now that you have this information, you can match up your nonprofit’s program needs to a specific federal grant competition. But before you apply, you must candidly assess your nonprofit’s readiness to apply and your chances of winning a grant.

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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, the founder and president of The Development Source, Inc. helps nonprofit organizations develop proposals to government agencies, foundations, and corporations. He can be contacted at Jayme Sokolow.

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Coaching Tips for Leadership Impact – Influence Others

A dart pin on a black and white dart board

In a recent coaching conversation, my client wanted to work on “how to have more influence in his organization.” He felt that he was being overlooked for opportunities. He wanted to influence others more effectively in order to advance in his leadership role.

Here are some ways to influence others in the workplace to enhance your leadership impact:

  • When new in a group or with individuals, introduce yourself right away.
  • Expand your sphere of influence by cultivating strategic relationships.
  • Know your audience, what is important to them and how will you provide value and benefit?
  • Increase your level of contribution by making suggestions and sharing your ideas more often.
  • Be well prepared with facts and data so you are more forceful in stating your opinions. Be sure to also give your perspective on why you believe the facts are valid.
  • Develop conviction when stating your opinions and ideas – don’t hesitate. Pay attention to your vocal quality so you come across confidently.
  • Summarize your opinions frequently to build understanding.
  • Ask others for feedback on how they perceive you and what you could do differently to have a more positive impact.
  • Show enthusiasm – the more committed you are, the more others will be willing to support you.
  • Observe leaders in your organization or community who are highly influential. What are they doing that is effective?

Influencing others is a critical skill in today’s work environment. In what ways do you influence others to enhance your leadership impact?

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark entrepreneurial business leaders to set strategy, take action, and get results. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330

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How do you Grow your Business?

Growth chart and planted coins business growth concepts

The key to successfully growing your business is effectively implementing an effective marketing strategy. Of course, there are a lot of other pieces – the financing, developing the product or service, producing the product, internal accounting controls, legal HR policies, for example.

However, a successful marketing strategy brings in customers and profitable sales. Without sales, you don’t have a business. Growing sales make a growing business.

So, what is the core of a successful marketing strategy? One that will grow your sales and your profits. Simply put, it is competitive advantage.

Competitive advantage (assuming good customer service exists) is the surest safeguard to ensuring your customer list will continue to grow, and your revenues will continue to grow. It will also give you more freedom in your price point.

To be clear, competitive advantage is offering a service or a product feature that your competitors don’t offer or don’t equal. This service or feature needs to be something that your market really cares about. It needs to be important to them.

So, how do you do this? First, you need to know what your target market is and what your product or service is. If your target market is too general, you will not be able to find a service or feature that matters to all of them.

Second, you need to really understand your target market. You need to really know what matters to them. Perhaps there are some market needs that are not being met right now. Keep your ear close to the ground to find these out. . Talk to customers often. Perform regular market research – there is a free SurveyMonkey tool that you can use for this. And, you can put a survey on your website to get critical information. The bottom line is: Know what is important to your target market when it comes to your service or product.

Once you find an unmet need, then consider how easily competitors can replicate the service or feature. The more difficult it is to create the service or product offering, the more difficult it is for a competitor to emulate it. Consider a strong branding initiative. Consider a patent, if applicable. You want to get a return on your advantage, before your competitors can copy it.

Or, it is possible to develop a strategy of being the fastest to create new service or product features. Then, you need to have a constant source of unmet needs to fill, and a streamlined process for delivering them to the market. This is an equally viable, if challenging, strategy.

This has been synopsis of the keys to developing an effective marketing strategy. Next, I’ll discuss implementing an effective marketing strategy. In the meantime, please feel free to ask questions, so I know the topics you would like me to cover on the Building a Business blog.

Photo credit: Steve Jurvetson

For more resources, see the Library topic Business Development.

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A is for Mac Anderson

A-man-using-papers-to-set-goals-on-his-project-

**As I start this A-Z case study series of people living out their spirituality at work, I want to start with a big disclaimer. Unless the person wrote the article themselves, these examples will be my interpretation of how they practice their spirituality in the workplace or at home. I will be providing insights and examples from what I’ve learned, heard about or observed. So please keep this in mind, that these aren’t the featured person’s exact words it is my opinion and observation unless otherwise stated.

How Mac is making a positive difference in the world through his businesses

I selected Mac Anderson because he is a wonderful example who has provided encouragement, inspiration and hope in workplaces all over the world through his work. Mac originally started Successories, the company that launched the motivational quotes with beautiful photography wall and office decor that you see in many workplaces. Now Mac founded another company called Simple Truths. Simple Truths is an online company that provides the “gift of inspiration” through it’s beautiful books, frames and other inspirational gifts.

In the book, The Big Idea, written by Mac and published by Simple Truths, he talks about his journey with Successories and creating a niche with motivational wall decor. “My purpose was to try to make a positive difference in what I felt was a pretty negative world. My passion and unwavering faith in what we were doing was the fuel that helped conquer the many obstacles we faced along the way.”

The gift of one-of-a-kind inspiration by reinforcing core values

He continues to make a positive difference with the products from Simple Truths. Since 2005, Simple Truths has become the leading provider of inspirational gift books designed to reinforce core values. After selling Successories in 2004, Mac published three successful gift books – The Nature of Success, The Power of Attitude and The Essence of Leadership. In each of these books Mac incorporated his great eye for design, photography, inspirational stories and motivational quotes. The end result were three highly engaging, motivational and inspirational books that became great gifts for customers, employees, friends and family members. Since that time, Simple Truths has published over 50 different titles with authors that include Ken Blanchard, Barbara Glanz, Todd Duncan, Vince Lombardi, Jr. and Michael McMillan.

Simple Truths’ gift books are hardbound, high quality and designed to be quick and inspirational reads. Typically, each gift book is less than 121 pages long, abundantly full of great photography, motivational stories and quotes. Each title is designed to reinforce a core value such as Leadership, Teamwork or Making a Difference.

Simple Truths is the first publisher to sell direct and not through traditional retail channels. As a result, when you give a Simple Truths gift book to a customer, prospect, co-worker, friend or family member you can trust that it will be a unique and greatly appreciated gift. These gift books are the perfect gift to thank a customer or to inspire a prospect.

With many of their books, they have a short inspirational DVD movie that brings the essence of the book to life. These FREE movies are beautiful and touch the souls of those who see them. Their first one based upon the inspirational gift book The Dash (www.thedashmovie.com). Since 2006 it has been viewed by 25 million people world-wide. I use many of their movies like The Dash in my trainings and presentations because they provide profound messages that gets to the heart of what we are talking about. To view all of their current movies Click Here.

Listen to a recorded interview to gain first-hand knowledge about Simple Truths and Mac Anderson

Because I believe in the power of their products, I became an affiliate of Mac’s company, Simple Truths, as well as featured some of their inspirational gifts this month through my Project GratOtude challenge. I had an opportunity to interview one of their employees, Julie Dumler, who is the Director of Strategic Partnerships.

In this recorded inspirational interview with Julie, you can learn first-hand more about Simple Truths, Mac Anderson and few of their books/movies that relate to the power of gratitude. You’ll also receive a special offer to receive one of their beautiful inspirational books so YOU too like Mac and keep making a positive difference in the world.

Click here to listen.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

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Learn, Grow, Lead: Stand Out In the Crowd

A dynamic leader making a handstack with her team

Learn, grow, leadIs Experience the Best Teacher?

Yes, says The Center for Creative Leadership. Their research found that a variety of challenging assignments contribute greatly to the building and seasoning of new and emerging leaders.

However, not all challenges are equal. The ones that will enhance leadership skills are those that:

  • Require working with new people or high variety or time pressures.
  • Call for influencing people with no or limited direct authority or control.
  • Involve building a team, starting something from scratch or solving a problem.
  • Demand a “take charge” attitude, quick learning, coping with uncertain situations.

Choose Your Challenges Wisely

It’s not necessary to change one’s job to build leadership capabilities. Rather be on the lookout for or request these kinds of assignments, projects or tasks. They are developmental. In other words, they will help you learn, grow and lead more effectively.

  1. Be part of a task force on a pressing business problem
  2. Handle a negotiation with a customer
  3. Present proposal report to top management
  4. Work short periods in other units or departments
  5. Plan an off site, meeting or conference
  6. Serve on a new project / product review committee
  7. Manage the visit of a VIP
  8. Go off-site to troubleshoot problems
  9. Take a board position at a community organization
  10. Be part of the company’s trade show booth team
  11. Redesign a work process with another function
  12. Resolve conflict among warring subordinates
  13. Take over a troubled project and get it back on track
  14. Manage projects requiring coordination across the organization
  15. Supervise assigned office space in a new building
  16. Spend a day with customers and write report
  17. Do postmortem on a failed project
  18. Evaluate the impact of training
  19. Write a proposal for a new system, product, etc.
  20. Interview outsiders on their view of the organization

Pick one or two of the above professional development assignments that would help you develop your leadership capabilities now.

Career Success Tip

You learn on the job every day. But are you learning what you really need to learn to develop your leadership and advance your career? It’s up to you to make sure you’re continually improving, growing and learning. It’s up to you to take charge of your professional development.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?