LEADERSHIP Fall 2017
Encouraging Workplace Diversity pg. 4 Great Ways to Motivate Your Team pg. 10
Getting to Know Your Employees A New Manager’s Tutorial Adding Enthusiasm to Your Leadership Skills
Leadership Fall 2017
MINES & Associates 10367 West Centennial Road Littleton, Colorado 80127 800.873.7138 www.MINESandAssociates.com
A word from your Account Management Team... Welcome to the Fall 2017 issue of Leadership!
This Fall, as the leaves change so can your skills and leadership style. Get to know your employees and what drives them, reassure them with a fresh and enthusiastic approach to your own managerial style, and know that MINES is here to support you every step of the way.
To help support your evolving role, whether you’re just starting out in a new leadership position or are already a seasoned manager, we have included articles like “Encouraging Workplace Diversity” on page 4, “Adding Enthusiasm to Your Leadership Skills” on page 6, and “A New Manager’s Tutorial” on page 8. Then, to support the ever complex task of learning about your employees and what drives them to be their best, check out “Getting to Know Your Employees” on page 5, and “Great Ways to Motivate Your Team” on page 10.
Workplace issues have you or your employees down? Remember that with MINES you have access to unlimited supervisor consultations and conflict management services. We are here to help. Please call us at 1-800-873-7138 anytime. To your health!
– The MINES Team
. . . . . . . . C redits . . . . . . .
Life Advantages - Author Delvina Miremadi © 2017 Encouraging Workplace Diversity pg. 4 Getting to Know Your Employees pg. 5 A New Manager’s Tutorial pp. 8-9 The Staywell Company, LLC © 2017 Adding Enthusiasm to Your Leadership Skills pp. 6-7 Great Ways to Motivate Your Team pp. 10-11
2017 Total Wellbeing is your way to connect the dots between the 8 core dimensions of wellness: Physical, Occupational, Intellectual, Environmental, Financial, Social, Spiritual, and Emotional Wellness. Understanding these dimensions is the first step toward a sense of complete wellbeing. In 2017 we take this concept of wellbeing and tie it into the bigger picture, your community. Your community’s wellbeing and your own are tied together in a two-way street. Simply, you influence others, and in turn they influence you. All year we will be looking at ways to strengthen your connection with your community by providing information, insight, and resources to help you on a personal level along with ways to give back to the community so that we can all help each other be well and flourish!
Total Wellbeing Community
In 2017 we aim to build on the concept of communal wellbeing. We will be providing resources, stories, and tools to help you stay well and it turn help those around you with their wellbeing. Check out our articles in this magazine and head to minesandassociates.com/ newsletters to check out our monthly newsletter with even more great wellness information.
Enhancing Social Wellness Inspire Wellbeing
The 8 dimensions of wellbeing don’t just apply to one person, they apply to our entire society. Social influence is a huge factor that contributes to each of our levels of wellness, but it all starts with the individual. With this in mind, our challenge to you in 2017 is to see how you can not only enhance your own wellbeing but those around you as well. Get out there, get involved, be well, and see if you can’t inspire your friends and loved ones to do the same. Game on!
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Join our partner, Brown Richards, for any of their monthly webinars. 2017 will cover great new topics ranging from improving your credit, having a stress free summer, turning negatives to positives, and much more! Visit our website to learn more, or register for upcoming events at www.minesandassociates.com/webinar.
Is there a topic you’d like to see us explore? We’d love to hear from you. Shoot us an e-mail at communications@minesandassociates.com and let us know what you’d like to see.
www.MINESandAssociates.com | 800.873.7138
Encouraging Workplace Diversity The workplaces of the 21st Century are becoming increasingly diverse. Most organizations employ a variety of people of different cultural backgrounds, religions, sexual preferences, nationalities, and others. Regardless of your personal biases or fears, the workplace is changing. It’s important for you to understand that your professional reputation and future success will depend on your ability to accept and embrace the differences of others.
Diversity Opportunities
Having a variety of cultures, opinions, and experience can bring new perspectives, innovative ideas and out-of-the-box thinking. However, this variety can also lead to miscommunication and disagreements that might lead to conflicts in the workplace. For example, if you accidentally offend someone by not understanding the element that makes that individual a diverse member of your workforce, offer an immediate and sincere apology. Explain that you didn’t understand or recognize the root of the issue. If someone says something offensive to you, consider that they might not be aware of the diversity issues at hand. Calmly explain why their actions or language was inappropriate.
Opening the Lines of Communication
Oftentimes, differences are so apparent that they can dominate our immediate impressions and weigh heavily on our reactions, interactions, and behavior. Through the development of the working relationship, professionalism, and workplace coaching, those differences will fade, allowing positive working relationships to form. Here are some basic rules of communication to help those with differences interact with each other:
• Avoid commenting on the cultural, ethnic or racial background, or sexual orientation of a coworker. • Actively listen to what’s said, pay attention to others, and look out for the visual cues that indicate how well the exchange is going. Be responsive and engaged in the conversation. • Avoid casual, off-color comments or jokes that might be offensive or that poke fun at others.
Being a Part of the Team
No matter what the element is that makes someone diverse, every individual in the workplace wants to be judged for his or her performance, professionalism, and personal success. When labels and stereotypes are allowed to become “workplace identities,” they can impede the sense of accomplishment anyone wants to feel.
Encouraging diversity includes understanding that everyone is different and its not a matter of “fitingt in” rather than it is about accepting people for who they are. The best way to do this is to gt to know your co-workers. You can invite them to lunch, talk to them in the break room, and even ask how things are going outside of work. Inclusion is a very powerful tool when supporting and understanding the diversity of your workforce. M
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Getting to Know Your Staff Knowing your staff is an important part of a successful organization. By getting to know your employees, you have the benefit of understanding each individual’s talents, needs, and motivators. You also help establish a respectful environment that boosts morale, confidence, and establishes an overall feeling of support.
Why Is It Important?
As you get to know your employees you will:
• Become aware of each individual’s learning style. You can use this to better describe techniques, job duties, and other processes to the staff member so that he or she can be more effective. • Become more aware of each individual’s communication style. This will make you better able to understand their behavior, leadership potential, and management style. • Know what they like to do and what they don’t like to do. Use this information to delegate job duties and tasks. Or perhaps, challenge them to face the tasks that are challenging to them in order to learn new skills and grow as a professional. • See what motivates them. Some workers are motivated by bonuses, others by receiving praise. • Gain the trust of your employees. • Understand what kind of feedback they best respond to, and find out the best way to give them feedback. • Discover that your staff is more effective and productive when they work in an environment where they feel honored as individuals.
Get to Know Your Employees
A great first step is to focus on your own self-awareness. Make sure you are personable and approachable. Create opportunities to talk both inside and outside of work, if needed. Occasionally, talk about your family, hobbies, or other outside-of-work topics. Allow your employees to see you as not just a boss, but someone they can talk with and trust.
Secondly, focus on listening to your employees. Developing your skills and learning to be an effective listener will help you with your staff as well as in your personal life. Ask sincere questions about things that are important to your employees, like how their families are, how their day is going, etc. Avoid getting too personal, but genuinely get to know them. If an employee does not open up to you, don’t take it personally, they may prefer to keep their personal lives and work lives separate. Develop the relationship slowly by focusing on work and task related conversation. Be friendly and open and let the communication evolve according to their comfort level.
To further get to know who you work with, put together outside-of-work functions or team-building activities. Pick activities that build trust or build team unity. M
Fall 2017 Leadership
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Adding Enthusiasm to Your Leadership Skills You’ve just been given that promotion you’ve wanted, and now, suddenly, you’re a manager. To help ease your anxiety about the new position, remember that managing people means more than just giving out assignments. Good managers encourage people to do their best through their enthusiastic leadership and motivation. “The business world is changing at an exponential rate. Your business will likely fail to grow and compete successfully if you fail to instill a sense of enthusiasm in your staff”, says Hap Klopp, the founder of North Face and co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Management. Mr. Klopp suggests adding the following qualities to your leadership skills.
Passion The best managers are passionate about their work and have a sense of urgency about what needs to be done and when.
“Leadership in management means getting everybody working together amicably for a common goal. It’s team building, and you’re the coach”, Mr. Klopp says. “Quite simply, leadership is seeing that things happen.” But a sense of urgency is what inspires your people to go the extra mile, to work at delighting, not just satisfying, the customer, for example. “Passion for a product or service flows from the top down. If you’re excited about your job and your contribution, it’s more likely your people will be enthusiastic about their contributions, as well”, Mr. Klopp says.
“In addition to organizational skills that include linking tasks and creating a budget, for instance, managers also need to keep an eye on trends and make predictions about the future of their organizations and their positions in the marketplace.”
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An Expanded Role Good management requires having an ongoing set of responsibilities that combine tasks required of an administrator and a teacher with those of a visionary. In addition to organizational skills that include linking tasks and creating a budget, for instance, managers also need to keep an eye on trends and make predictions about the future of their organizations and their positions in the marketplace.
Consistency There are many management styles that work. Many people prefer a democratic approach, in which employees are encouraged to ask questions, make suggestions and have input.
“I like this style because it involves team members in the decision-making process and gives them a good feeling about themselves and the company”, Mr. Klopp says. “The one time this doesn’t work is in a crisis; that’s when you need to assume an authoritative role.”
Another management style is that of the take-charge autocrat who doesn’t worry about what others think. “I don’t prefer this style, but if this is you, that is who you should be”, Mr. Klopp says. The worst management style “is to waffle and waver, to be an autocrat one moment, a consensus builder the next”, says Mr. Klopp. “If you fall prey to this malady, suddenly everyone’s agenda will be more important than yours and no one will believe in your instincts once they see you don’t believe in them yourself.”
Sharing credit Managers who take all the credit for success and blame all the failures on others aren’t popular leaders or successful motivators. “Cultivating a sense of teamwork is best”, Mr. Klopp says. “Don’t think ‘you’ and ‘I’; think ‘us.’ Not only will your group be stronger for it, you’ll get better results.” M
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A New Manager’s Tutorial
Your boss has just rewarded your dedication and hard work by giving you a managerial position. But, you have never managed before, and you don’t know where to begin.
“New managers often suffer because they haven’t had good role models and have experienced training that only helped in their prior job,” says Alan Weiss, Ph.D., president of Summit Consulting Group Inc. in East Greenwich, R.I. , and author of The Unofficial Guide to Power Management. Here are some tips to transform your panic into progress as you begin your new career as a manager.
Be effective, not popular “Managing is about effectiveness, not about being liked,” emphasizes Dr. Weiss. You can drive yourself crazy if you try to please all your employees all the time. Instead, focus on communicating with clarity, firmness and fairness, realizing you may not be able to give your employees exactly what they want all the time.
Understand expectations Employees also have different work expectations. Some prefer a structured environment, while others want more freedom. Some like to work in teams, while others work best alone in a quiet office. Some need a lot of recognition for their work, while others prefer to stay out of the limelight. Regular one-on-one lunches with your employees will help you to understand their personality styles as well as their work expectations and personal goals.
Manage your time “Invest in your best people and don’t be usurped by attention to your remedial performers,” says Dr. Weiss. In business, time is money. Instead of using your time trying to transform poor performers into dynamos, give them simpler tasks they can perform well, then spend your time and effort building your best people.
Do the right thing “Ethical conduct doesn’t exist in operations manuals or the legal department. It exists in your own value system. Always ask yourself, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’” says Dr. Weiss. “This will not only be best for your company but also will help you avoid sleepless nights.”
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Leadership Fall 2017
“Don’t worry about your next job or promotion or about future raises,” says Dr. Weiss. “Worry instead about delivering value to the customer and support to your subordinates. If you do those two things well, all the rest will happen, too.”
Appreciate your employees Managers and supervisors who show their appreciation to their employees will find their employees willing to go the extra mile. Take a minute to write a note of appreciation, create a certificate of progress or give a small gift or award.
Keep a daily journal What worked? What didn’t work? What got accomplished? What were you happy about? Frustrated about? This will help you analyze your problems as well as see your progress.
Find a mentor “These times are too complex for trial and error or gut feeling. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Find someone who’s successful and respected to guide you,” says Dr. Weiss.
Maintain perspective “Don’t worry about your next job or promotion or about future raises,” says Dr. Weiss. “Worry instead about delivering value to the customer and support to your subordinates. If you do those two things well, all the rest will happen, too.” M
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Great Ways To Motivate Your Team
Being a facilitator -- making it easier for your team members to do a better job -- will make you a more competent team leader. “Rather than telling people what to do, effective leaders help bring out the best in their team members,” says Andrew J. DuBrin, Ph.D., a management professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, and author of The Breakthrough Team Player. “One way to succeed is to perfect your coaching style. As a coach, you can make on-the-spot suggestions and offer team members encouragement.”
Supporting Your Team
Following these tips will help you improve your effectiveness as a team leader:
• Provide specific feedback - pinpointing behaviors, attitudes and/or skills that need improvement will help you coach a team member to perform at a higher level. • Help your team devise a mission statement.
• Creating such a statement can help team members focus more clearly.
• Be supportive - providing emotional support and encouragement can help a leader improve the work of team members who aren’t performing at their best. Just being helpful may be enough. • Be a model of what you expect - an effective leader spurs others to act appropriately by setting an example. For instance: Cooperating with people from other organizational units will encourage team members to do the same.
• Foster teamwork - promote the attitude that working together effectively leads to success for everyone. Refer to those in the group as team members or teammates instead of subordinates or employees. Make frequent use of the words “we” and “us.” For example: “We achieved the new sales goal.”
• Encourage team members to treat one another as customers - most people treat customers with more respect and concern than they do fellow employees at or below their levels. Encouraging team members to treat each other as customers fosters cooperative behavior and politeness. • Bring team members together for meetings, meals, and occasional parties.
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“...giving rewards for group accomplishments promotes team spirit by enabling team members to take pride in the entire team’s contributions and progress. “Consider creating a display wall for postings of team activities, certificates of accomplishment and upcoming events...”
• Schedule most get-togethers during regular office hours so you don’t intrude on people’s personal time - emphasize that yours is a winning team. Frequently remind team members that their work is important. Help them identify tasks they’re particularly good at and promote them as key members of the group. Build the commitment and confidence of each team member. “For the group to develop a strong team spirit, individuals must feel a sense of mutual accountability,” DuBrin says. “Frequently reminding team members of what they’re doing right is one way to build commitment and selfconfidence.” • Emphasize group recognition - giving rewards for group accomplishments promotes team spirit by enabling team members to take pride in the entire team’s contributions and progress. “Consider creating a display wall for postings of team activities, certificates of accomplishment, and upcoming events,” says DuBrin. “If you have room in your budget, you might want to order T-shirts, athletic caps, mugs, or key rings imprinted with your team name or logo.” • Don’t keep the best assignments for yourself - doing this dampens team spirit and hampers performance. “Look for opportunities that will allow other team members to perform at a high level,” DuBrin says.
• Welcome all input - team spirit increases when everyone contributes. DuBrin says, “It’s especially important that the leader not allow one or two people on their team to do most of the work.” M
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A note to Supervisors... From time to time, situations arise when a supervisor is not sure how to respond to a particular behavior. The Employee Assistance Program is available on a 24/7 basis for consultation on issues such as: referring an employee to the EAP, how best to respond to and manage difficult behavior in the workplace, and whether training or some other form of group intervention (such as an organizational intervention or a conflict resolution) may be helpful for a particular situation. The EAP can serve as an ally to anyone who is working with a troubled employee.
• 24/7 supervisor consultation regarding problems in the workplace
• Assessment of behavioral risk on the job • Return-to-Duty conferences
• Advisory services in writing, revising, and implementing policies
• Supervisor and Manager training
• Unlimited formal Work Performance Referrals
• Coaching for management and leadership skills
• Conflict resolution for supervisor-employee problems
MINES believes that employees are an organization’s most valuable resource. Your EAP is always available to provide you and your employees with support.
The MINES Team
Questions? Reach us at 800.873.7138 | www.MINESandAssociates.com