The Deep Value of Daily Conversations - Leaders Letters October 2009

Leaders Letters A Leadership Resource

Edition 9. October 2009

The Deep Value of Daily Conversations

By Robin Sharma

A Message From the Deputy

he degree of success that you achieve in business will ultimately come down to the degree of depth of your conversations. Business is, essentially, nothing more than a conversation.

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ur Vision in our Strategic Plan speaks to the importance of having a safe, healthy, engaged workforce and our Values speak to having open, honest respectful communication and valuing our employees and working together.

The primary block to us having necessary conversations at work is technology. While technology is a wonderful servant, in many instances it has become our master.

Rather than walking down the hall to have a conversation with a member of our team, we fire off an email. Reliance on technology severs our human connections and human connections are the primary driver of business growth.

People love doing business with people who care about them. People love doing business with people they trust.

People love doing business with people who they feel an emotional bond with. Without regular and sustained conversations, no such bond can exist.

As a department, we are committed to ensuring we implement a department wide performance development action plan.

Here are five practices that will help you keep engaging in conversations and, as a result, continue to experience higher levels of success: M ake time for “human moments” at work.

Research has shown that one of the main reasons that people are no longer as motivated and loyal at work is because they do not feel that they are part of a community. “Human moments” are infrequent. To increase the “human moments” within your workplace, carve out the time on a daily basis to personally meet with people and connect with them at a level beyond the superficial. Speak to people’s interests. Ask them about their family. Show them that you are truly there for them and they will respond with greater energy, empathy and commitment to you.

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Deputy Minister Sharon Cameron with Director of

I have Corporate and Finance Services Lorne Clow. started the performance development process with my Senior Management Team and have enjoyed very much the open conversation this has provided. Performance Development provides the opportunity to discuss achievements and opportunities and to map out a work plan for the upcoming year. I have found the conversations most rewarding.

I would strongly encourage you to embrace the process and make the time to have this important dialogue with your supervisor or staff.

Sharon Cameron

October is PDP Awareness Month This month, make it a priority to meet with employees for their annual Performance Development Plan.

Planning PDP’s Like Planning for Annual Vacation Submitted by Luanne Gallant t's hard to believe it's Performance Development Plan (PDP) awareness month again. To kick off the month, an audit of completed PDPs over the past year is planned to determine the progress we have made to date, and the work that remains ahead of us.

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The Corporate staff survey results indicate employees want regular feedback. W e have committed to engaging each employee in at least one annual discussion with their supervisor about their performance. The PDP offers many opportunities for staff and managers to achieve this goal through two-way communication, learning opportunities, career growth, etc.

commit to reviewing their performance, developing their goals and exploring learning opportunities.

Our department has been very successful in fulfilling our commitment to have all managers and supervisors attend training through Ceridian on Employee Engagement, Constructive Feedback and Coaching with an overall attendance average of 84% , much higher than most other departments. W e want to continue with this record and I challenge you to take time to meet with your staff to discuss their performance development.

Leaders Letters are produced by the Hum an Resource Team of the Corporate and Finance Division. They are distributed to members of the Senior Leaders Group and posted to the DSSS public shared drive. For information and feedback contact 569-7568.

I challenge you to schedule a meeting with each of your employees over the next year (just like planning a vacation) and

The Deep Value of Daily Conversations continued from page 1...

You can also keep increasing your conversations by making sure that you “circulate”.

Circulating simply means that you make it a priority, as much as possible, visit your employees’ place of work to get a feel for their environment and the energy of their workplace. Make the time to “show up fully” and to be there for people at a very human level.

You can also keep extending conversations with your employees and your teammates by creating a rich community.

Keep thinking about building your community and taking care of it. This might involve sending an article that has been of value to you to every member of this community every 90 days.

Having a peaceful and fulfilling home life serves as a platform to fuel your work success. If you lose the conversation with your partner, you will lose the relationship. If you lose the conversation with your children, you will lose the connection with your children. Make the time to talk in a very open and engaging way to the members of your family on a daily basis. It does not have to take a long time but it should be strong quality time.

So as you become the main person and the leader you are meant to be, keep increasing your conversations. Keep talking to the people you work with.

Remember that “conversations at home” are even more important than your business conversations.

When e-mail comes back to haunt you....

Taken from an article by Anne Price, Fortune (May

2009)

Prohibit discriminatory or harassing e-mails. Just as your company has rules against offensive humor or harassing behavior around the office water cooler, spell out that the policy covers emails and texts as well.

Advise against putting qualitative judgments in e-mails.

Encourage everyone to stick to the facts when e-mailing, you minimize your risk. W hen people start adding opinions like 'W hat an idiot' or 'W e really screwed up this time,' you can get in real trouble. Never point fingers in an e-mail.

Remind employees to count to 100 before hitting "send." It's all right to formulate an angry message when you're in the moment, but recommend that people sit on that for a few hours, cool off, and review it calmly before sending it.

Discourage copying and forwarding with abandon. Suggest that people send e-mails only to people with a genuine need to see them (which has the happy side effect of cutting down on inbox clutter, too).

It's impossible to monitor every e-mail, managers have to be vigilant. W hen you see an inappropriate e-mail, speak with the person who sent it and remind him or her that this is the kind of thing that could cause trouble.