15 minute read
BE A BETTER BOSS
Great leadership demands great communications
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— PETER DRUCKER
REACH YOUR FULL POTENTIAL BY FOLLOWING THESE 7 GOLDEN RULES
BY RICHARD ELLIS
As an executive coach and business strategist, leaders often ask me what will make them most successful. That’s easy – high-impact communications.
Without strong communication skills, even the most experienced, brightest leaders won’t reach their full potential. Why? Because the strongest leaders are the ones who can motivate their teams to achieve business goals. Effective communication is critical – I would argue the most vital leadership tool to achieve sustained business success.
You know the old saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks?” That may be true but the good news is you can teach business leaders how to become better communicators.
Here are what I call the seven golden rules of leadership communications.
— ALBERT EINSTEIN
1. Listen deeply: The best communicators listen for understanding and meaning. Then they adjust communications to ensure their key messages are heard. 2. KISS – Keep it short and simple: What are the two or three key messages you want to get across? Whether one-on-one, in a team meeting, or giving a presentation, decide what your most important outcome is and focus on that. 3. Tell a story: Personal storytelling makes your communications more powerful and more memorable. Share engaging, real-life experiences to illustrate your key points. 4. Use humor: Fun is contagious and adds positive energy to your communications. It keeps people listening and increases your chances of achieving successful message delivery. 5. Manage your physical presence: Did you know that up to 90 percent of communication is non-verbal? Leaders project more confidence and get to decision-making more effectively by managing their physical and vocal presence. The simple act of smiling will relax you and make you a more approachable and engaging leader. 6. Take your time: Leaders think they must have immediate answers to every question. You don’t — that’s not optimized communications. Don’t be afraid of a little silence. Take the time you need to think about what you want to say before you say it. 7. No means no: We’re taught the word “no” is impolite. It’s not! Direct language is clear language. Whether it’s verbal or written communications, don’t be afraid to say no when you need to -- just watch your tone so you don’t appear angry. Remember, being a great communicator isn’t a destination, it’s a journey. So play with your communications style, shamelessly steal best practices from others – and have some fun along the way. ■
Richard Ellis is the founder of Ellis Strategy Group, a global leadership consultancy. With more than 30 years of international business experience, he is an accomplished executive coach, high impact business strategist and noted communications expert. Find out more about Richard at ellisstrategygroup.com
The 'bear' essentials
There has never been a more challenging time to win the hiring game. Hiring and retaining talent is like outrunning a bear — by beating the other people it is chasing.
The talent war is over … talent won
FIVE TIPS FOR OUTRUNNING THE OTHER CAMPERS
BY DON HARKEY
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Let’s cut straight to the chase: It is getting hard to find employees. With 10,000 Boomers retiring every day from now until 2030, it is only going to get harder. It’s a little like you are camping and a bear comes out of the woods and starts chasing you. You won’t outrun the bear, but maybe you can outrun the other campers. Here are some tips.
1. Put a page on your website about what it’s like to work at your company.
A recent study found that 77 percent of applicants today will do some quick and easy research about your company by going to your website. What are they looking for? Many applicants are looking for clues to help them understand what type of employer you are. If they don’t find anything, many of them never apply. Add a page on your website talking about your mission, vision, and values. Try including some pictures of engaged team members socializing with each other. A little information goes a long way. No information eliminates a lot of potential candidates.
LISTEN UP!
People Centric hosts the More Than Work podcast that will help you learn how to navigate difficulties how to navigate difficulties on your teams, change your culture and help you ultimately know your why. anchor.fm/peoplecentric
3. Hire people who are traditionally ‘hard to hire.’
Employment applications are screening devices used to eliminate unsuitable candidates. Unfortunately, they may be eliminating some great candidates who have a history. Would you consider hiring a felon or a recovering drug addict? Many employers are skittish, but there are programs for felons and addicts to help them re-enter the job market successfully. Some of these programs have incredibly high success rates that are significantly better than your odds on a “regular” candidate. With a little research, your company can partner with these programs and open a pipeline of great employees, many of whom will be more loyal and grateful for the chance.
4. Ask your team for referrals.
Too many employers don’t use their greatest potential referral source; their own employees. Let your employees know what you are looking for and encourage them to bring you candidates. Cast the vision for them that you are looking for people they will want to work with. If you have great employees, they will refer other great employees.
5. Do exit interviews (and stay interviews).
When your employees leave, an exit interview is a great way for you to get some frank and honest information to help you become a better employer. However, we recommend that you don’t stop there. Stay interviews--interviews with current employees who are not planning to leave--are an even better way to get information because it shows your employees you care about what type of employer you are. Becoming a better employer will attract more employees.
The good news in all of this is that if you apply these tips, you will not only attract better employees, you will become a better company. ■
2. Be a great place to work
The same recent study found that 72 percent of applicants today will reach out to someone who already works at your company to find out what it’s like to work for you. On average in the US, only one out of three employees are engaged. The rest are disengaged or toxic. Put these stats together and you can see what happens. A potential candidate finds one of your employees and asks them what’s like to work for you and you have a two out of three chance that you will not get a good recommendation. If you want to outrun the other campers, you need to start by being a better place to work than the other places.
Don Harkey Don Harkey’s first responsibility is CEO is to his team. He also spends time speaking at conferences and associations across the country, evangelizing the idea that organizations that create empowerment and alignment end up being much more successful. Don loves it when business owners and organizational leaders learn how they can discover and unleash the talent right under their own nose. He also loves to see employees start to realize their own potential. If you’d like to learn more about what it means to become People Centric, contact Don Harkey at PeopleCentric.com.
The secret to doing hard things more often hard things more often
PUT ASIDE THE FEAR AND EAT THE FROG
BY MEL SAVAGE
MEL SAVAGE My mission is to create a world where everyone loves their job. In my opinion, this is one of the most important skills to have because your career isn’t just about money. It’s also a huge part of your life’s meaning, purpose and enjoyment. At The Career Reset, I focus on coaching corporate teams and professionals on how to show up at their best for their work and love what they do. I use my 20-plus years in corporate senior management, my life coach certification and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to empower people in creating any result they want for their career or organization. I also host the Have the Career You Want podcast which is dedicated to the same mission, and offers weekly insights and inspiration to show up for yourself and your job as the best version of you. You can learn more about me at thecareerreset.com
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You can’t achieve your goals by only doing the easy things. This is something I’m sure you intuitively understand and agree with. Yet, the number one thing that most people complain about on the way to their goals is “it’s so hard.”
I’ve done it too. Guilty!
It’s hard to exercise every day. It’s hard to go live on social media and make offers to people. It’s hard to meet new people and learn new skills. It’s hard to let go of control or be nice to my sister. It’s hard to eat salad for dinner.
People often say things are hard as a reason NOT to do them. But that is exactly the reason TO do them.
YOU BECOME YOUR BEST SELF BY CONSISTENTLY COMMITTING TO THE HARD THINGS.
So somehow, we need to make it more agreeable to do hard things. How do we do that?
Well, when you really break it down, what makes eating salad for dinner or meeting new people hard? What’s truly hard about it?
It’s not physically meeting the person, or eating the salad that’s hard.
The thing that’s truly hard is the feeling you might feel when you do that hard thing. The truly hard part is feeling scared or embarrassed or rejected or deprived or judged or nervous, etc.
The truly hard part is feeling the negative emotion.
When we’re committing to a new goal, we think we’re committing to taking the actions to get to the goal, but we’re missing the thing to which we actually need to commit.
What you’re really committing to is feeling the negative emotions that come with doing hard things. That’s the secret that no one tells you.
Just do it The frog is that one thing you have on your to-do list that you have absolutely no motivation to do and that you're most likely to procrastinate on. Eating the frog means to just do it, otherwise you'll end up procrastinating it the whole day.
THE COMMITMENT ISN’T TO DOING STUFF, IT’S TO FEELING STUFF.
Being super clear about what you’re committing to upfront is everything. It’s a total game changer.
You’re not committing to learning a new skill. You’re committing to potentially failing as you learn the new skill.
You’re not committing to making offers to people. You’re committing to potentially feeling rejected if they say no.
You’re not committing to eating salad. You’re committing to potentially feeling deprived until you get used to eating the salad.
When you think about it that way, you’re not surprised when you feel that fear or rejection or deprivation. It’s more like, “it’s normal if I feel rejected. That’s part of my commitment to this goal.”
Now I also want to tell you that you don’t have to feel rejected when someone says ‘no’ to you. You also can feel proud that you made the offer, or satisfied that you offered someone support regardless of their decision. It’s not an automatic thing to feel rejected if someone says ‘no.’ It all depends on what you make that ‘no’ mean to you.
It’s the same thing with any other hard thing. You don’t automatically have to feel deprived every time you eat a salad, or scared every time you might fail.
THE TAKEAWAY.
The most important thing is that when you allow yourself the space to let it be OK to feel rejected, or deprived or scared, you’re more likely to keep taking the actions you need to take to be your best self.
And being your best self always feels great. ■
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CASE STUDY How Callawassie Island got up to speed
RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY TURNS TO HARGRAY FOR TECH OVERHAUL
BY LESLIE T. SNADOWSKY
From phone to internet to video to F managed services, Callawassie Island knew if it wanted to keep bringing superlative service to its residents it needed to upgrade its technology.
©ALL PHOTOS ARE COURTESY OF THE CALLAWASSIE ISLAND PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB
Off the grid Tech savvy Callawassie Island also capitalizes on its alluring Lowcountry views throughout the community and along its three golf courses: The Dogwood, The Palmetto and The Magnolia.
THE PROBLEM:
OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
When you cross Callawassie Island’s quarter-mile causeway, time slows down a bit inside the upscale gated community. Residents luxuriate in its Lowcountry coastal charm, tee off at its world-class golf courses and commune with nature in front of sweeping water views and under mossy oak trees. But, behind the relaxed scenes, the Island’s amenity infrastructure was searching for ways to get up to speed.
“ Our cable system that provided video to our fitness center was outdated and we had a problematic phone system,” says Callawassie Island’s Assistant General Manager David Spivey. “When the phones are down in a community like this, when people can’t get in touch with all the people who work here, that becomes an issue when you’re scheduling group fitness classes, personal training appointments, massages and physical therapy sessions. Our connectivity wasn’t great, we kept having to spend capital funds to replace phone equipment and we couldn’t file share easily.”
THE SOLUTION:
FIBER OPTIC INFRASTRUCTURE, HARGRAY SMART OFFICE, HMIT
Callawassie Island brought in Hargray to build a fiber optic infrastructure connecting all its key commercial amenity locations and to deliver a fiber bulk video full-HD lineup service to its reimagined state-of-the-art Fitness Center. They also incorporated Hargray Smart Office, a cloud-based hosted voice solution, to provide unified communications throughout the community, and HMIT (Hargray Managed IT Services) for Hargray to provide full managed services to all of Callawassie Island’s commercial operations.
“The fiber optic solution will benefit us in many, many ways,” says Spivey, “and with Hargray’s hosted voice solution we have no equipment on site anymore so there is no capital expenditure and no downtime. And if something goes wrong on Hargray’s end, they can service us quickly and remotely from more than one location. Hargray offered two big solutions to our problems and they helped us quite a bit.”
Clubhouse 2.0 Renovations to Callawassie Island’s clubhouse were completed in May 2021. It hosts community events for more than 50 clubs and special interest groups on the island including trivia nights, wine tastings and ecology presentations.
THE RESULTS:
ENHANCED MANAGED SERVICES
Callawassie Island’s Spivey says due to Hargray’s solutions, they’re now enjoying higher internet speeds and better fitness equipment video capabilities. Plus, their Welcome Center, Clubhouse, River Club, Golf Pro Shop and other amenity buildings are networked more efficiently enabling his staff of 120 to communicate more effectively.
“We have a lot less downtime because of Hargray’s bandwidth and manpower to respond to us seven days a week,” says Spivey. “They also saved us money.”
“We examined Callawassie Island’s unique challenges and created innovative solutions and a valued partnership with the community,” says Hargray’s Strategic Accounts Manager Jennifer Weidner. “We will continue to deliver the best technology and customer service experience to them.”
KEY TAKEAWAY:
CAPITALIZE ON THE FUTURE
Even though fiber optic solutions aren’t available all over the 880-acre private island and first Community Wildlife Habitat in South Carolina, Callawassie Island’s Spivey says they want Hargray to build a fiber optic infrastructure to service all 500+ private residences at the growing community.
“It’s something we’re striving for,” he said. “Hargray has the newest and latest technology solutions to help businesses in the area and they provide excellent customer service, which you don’t hear about phone and internet companies very often.” ■
