Recruit, Inspire & Retain

It's Okay to Be the Boss:  Be A Great One!

Do you feel you don't have enough time to manage your people? Do you avoid interacting with some employees because you hate the dreaded confrontations that often follow? Do you have some great employees you really cannot afford to lose? Do you secretly wish you could be more in control but don't know where to start? Managing people is harder and more high-pressure today than ever before: There's no room for down time, waste, or inefficiency. You have to do more with less. And employees have become high maintenance. Not only are they more likely to disagree openly and push back, but they also won't work hard for vague promises of long-term rewards. They look to you — their immediate boss — to help them get what they need and want at work. How do you tackle this huge management challenge? If you are like most managers, you take a hands-off approach. You "empower" employees by leaving them alone unless they really need you. After all, you don't want to "micromanage" them and don't have the time to hold every employee's hand. Of course, problems always come up and often snowball into bigger problems. In fact, you probably spend too much of your time solving problems and falling behind on your work…which leaves even less time for managing people…which opens the door for even more problems! The biggest problem in corporate America is an undermanagement epidemic affecting managers at all levels of the organization and in all industries. How about another way: Bosses everywhere need to: spell out expectations tell employees exactly what to do and how to do it monitor and measure performance constantly correct failure quickly and reward success even more quickly. Now that's how you set employees up for success and help them earn what they need. Stop falling for the myth of empowerment. Leaving people alone to manage themselves is a set up for failure. Start practicing the art of true empowerment — guidance, direction and support. IT'S OKAY TO BE THE BOSS. Be a great one! Set people up for success every step of the way and help people earn what they need.
How?:
	Get in the habit of managing every day.
	Learn to talk like a performance coach.
	Take it one person at a time.
	Make accountability a real process.
	Tell people what to do and how to do it.
	Track performance every step of the way.
	Solve small problems before they turn into big problems.
	Do more for some people and less for others (based on what they deserve).

How To Use Improv as an Effective Group Training Tool

#1: Warm - Up Slap Pass (modified from Koppett - 2001)
Objective:
Build energy, listening, spontaneity, and be aware of verbal and non-verbal behavior

#2: Speech Tag (modified from Koppett - 2001)
Objective:
Review learning points relative to content material without fear of making mistakes, build listening, accept offers, object less to others, and build trust.

Selling Your E-Learning Inhouse

As a fan of the mystical and fantastic, I can't help but liken the experience of HR executives to Harry Potter's first visit to the train station -- how many are stuck at Platform 9 ¾ , unable to grasp that their next step, as impossible as it might seem, is truly within their power? Like Harry, sometimes HR needs to run full speed toward the wall to overcome adversity and adopt processes that might seem impossible or better suited to only the most well-oiled organizations.

Learn to Do Your Job
Many years ago, during my tenure at 3M United Kingdom, most of the groups underwent Professional Selling Skills training based on materials from Lee Dubois – an extremely valuable program. In addition, the HR team also completed a follow-up Negotiations Skills program based on materials by Dr. Chester Karrass.

This training equipped the HR team with many skills that now seem rare — skills that enable us to get things done, make tough decisions, achieve genuine win-wins, implement initiatives that the majority doesn't want in the beginning (but that later prove effective), and take a proactive and accountable approach to effect change. This moved our focus from being liked and hoping to be effective to understanding that we had to sell our solutions to the company. After embracing this philosophy, senior line executives started to buy our ideas, our credibility increased, more initiatives were adopted, and more commitment was given to making them work. We started to be invited to business meetings rather than being allowed to attend. HR became a strategic force because we sold only ideas, initiatives, and processes we knew would prove beneficial — and we took accountability for getting them right and for selling them.

Don't Wait for Buy-in — Sell!
HR now faces one of its most exciting times in decades. However, major demographic and socioeconomic changes make it increasingly difficult to recruit, train, develop, manage, motivate, reward, and retain excellent talent. We must create and implement innovative, cutting-edge solutions.

To be sure, there is a rush that comes when you identify a solution that maximizes the potential of human resources, improves organizational performance, and impacts the bottom line. Often though, if your solution is rejected, the resulting depression can be debilitating.

Before you go into a selling negotiation, consider the following: Know your audience. Identify their needs, wants, budget and resources. Also determine who has authority (usually more than one person) and their dominant buying motive, including personal needs. Prepare well and know what you're offering. Develop the best offer you can for your organization and remember that it's your responsibility to make sure it is right and that you know everything about it. Get the attention, then the interest of the decision makers before trying to sell. People don't buy for one of two reasons: Either they are unaware of their problem or they are insufficiently disturbed by it. Highlight and show that you are interested in their issues. Don't bore them with your issues. Don't even try to sell until they show attention and interest. Persuade. Tell them what is necessary to convince them, not everything you know. Set out to persuade them, not to beat them. Get a response to each selling point before making new ones. Keep checking where you are. Many good ideas fail because the decision-making process takes too long -- the proposal goes unsold. Try to get a decision earlier rather than later. Don't waste time or wait until interest dies. Handle objections and quell arguments early. Handle objections constructively before they arise. Don't waste time handling objections that are simply distractions. Aim high, but have a fallback position. Be prepared to negotiate by giving away things to get what you want. Accountability. It may be each manager's responsibility to apply HR policies and procedures, but it is HR's job to ensure that the organization has the very best for them to apply and to make sure that they work.

If you believe in the potential of an initiative, you have a responsibility to sell it to others. People are our greatest asset -- but HR's inability to sell effective ways to optimize their use may be our greatest liability.

Fads That Work (Oxymoron?)

Some fads stop being called fads and become part of everyday life in our organizations. Others we never hear of again and therefore aren’t called fads anymore either. Hmmmm, wonder why we have to label all new things fads anyway?

Balanced Scorecard: Articulate your strategy and identify key indicators

Chaos Theory: There’s a reason why you’re experiencing total confusion

Corporate Culture: Organizations have a collection of values and norms that don’t change easily

Customer Focus: Find ways to delight your customers

Delayering: Flatten the organization structure

Downsizing: Shrink the organization to survive

Excellence: Be fanatical about getting good at what you do

Lean: Eliminate all waste in the system to improve quality and reduced cost

Learning Organizations: Think about what you’re doing and learn from your mistakes

Managerial Grid: Negotiate goals with your employees

Matrix Management: Organize by function and cross-functional teams

MBWA: Get out of the office and find out what’s really happening

Quality Circles: Talk together about how to improve work processes

Quantitative Management: Study the cold, hard numbers

Reengineering: Rethink all organizational processes

Restructuring: Take apart the orgnization and put it back together a different way for greater efficiency

Rightsizing: Increase some units while reducing others

Six Sigma: Use appropriate measures to control quality

Team-Based Management: Good teams outperform a group of individuals

T-groups: Use small groups to teach interpersonal skills

Theory X and Y: Use participative management techniques

Theory Z: Use Japanese management techniques

Total Quality Management: Lower costs while increasing customer satisfaction

Zero-Based Budgeting: Justify every expense category every year

If you are using even one of these, and I bet you are using more than one, and it’s helping you retain great staff — just laugh at the next person that calls(ed) it a fad!