Taking a Hit

Somedays you are blindsided by life - leaders, team members....everyone! 

What to do?

Suck in your abs and take it? You may tear up a little, get the breath knocked out of you, but if you try to be calm, try to be positive, stand up...brush yourself off and get back going wherever life was leading.

An effective leader can help the team take the hit too.  Leaders shoulder the brunt, the fall out will trickle down...usually.  Leaders need to learn to communicate the hits with facts, action steps and honesty.

How can leaders tell if a team member has taken a hit?  Do you look for body language, change in work performance, difference in social interactions in the group?  Take steps now to learn about your team so that when they take a hit, you can be there to help them regroup.

The Culture Interview

Interviewing for new positions or open positions in the company can be an arduous task. Whether it is to fill an existing role or a new position, or to meet an internal or external candidate, the same attention needs to be paid to a very specific detail - company culture.


What is culture? In any company, culture is the way the organization and the players in the organization behave. Culture is how behaviour lines up with values. Culture is propagated by storytelling, passing along information, sharing experiences. An organization and its leaders recognize the behaviour of values and share honestly with their people if they are off the tracks. Leadership is examples, living the culture and modeling the way. It is essential when bringing candidates into the organization that they can fit into the culture and enhance it with their presence.

When preparing to interview, look over the role requirements, the candidate’s history and the experience they bring with them. Questions to prepare can have a somewhat standardized format for all candidates because the questions that follow the original one will lead to more information.

Role requirements are critical to understand. Not only the physical work, also the mental work, leadership and management that will be required. When reviewing this information, having the candidate qualifications nearby can be helpful. This can be part of the question formulation process.

Questions need to include the words that are prevalent in the organization. Every company has a "lingo" of its own. Using this lingo helps the candidate understand the necessary participation and engagement that will be required to be successful in the position. With external candidates, using and defining the lingo can be helpful, providing the candidate with more company information.

Initial questions lead to more in depth behavioural questions. Looking for explanations as to why something occurred or was reacted to in a certain way or how results were obtained can help both the interviewer and the candidate Find common ground.

Many forms of interview processes can reflect the culture. A high team-involved company would benefit from using team interviewing. A highly customer focused company such as a retailer would benefit from seeing the candidate in action, selling on the sales floor or even merchandising. Just as a journalist would be required to show a portfolio, any other candidate can be put through their role in order to see how they would act/react in the organization. This provides the organization with a clearer view of what they will be getting in terms of performance in the future.

After the interview is completed, asking for any culture-based questions can help clarify a potential fit both the organization and the candidate. The candidate should leave with a clear understanding of whether they would be able to work in that company for the rest of their career. That fit would make the difference.

   

What's Next? Time to Think About It

If you have not taken a few moment this week to think about what is next, you need to stop everything you are doing and get to it!

Why?

1. You need to consistently look at the future to see where you are going. 
2. Understand if there is a gap between where you are now and how you are going to get to your vision of the future.
3. Determine if you are focusing on the appropriate tasks to get you there.
4. Look at the obstacles that could creep up, and think about some ways to overcome them
5. Pat yourself on the back - looking at the future means you have a plan

Get back to work!  You are on your way:)

Inspiration from Young Leaders

Look around and see who is in your neighborhood.  It is amazing the leadership you will find in your own backyard or on the ball diamond or nearby soccer pitch.  Leadership is in action all around us. 

As adults, we sometimes overlook that one of the main features of leadership is caring.  The ability to look out for others, eliminate perceptions and work towards a common goal.

One particular inspiration is an aspiring athlete.  Though he has been told numerous times that his height may keep him from getting very far, he is out playing his sport every day.  He has built a regime for fitness, cardiovascular improvement, sport-specific skills and found teams to play with that make a difference to his skill level.  He will not allow what others have said to negatively affect his performance.  He actually has set out to prove them wrong.

At the same time as he is out there working, he teaches others to play, takes his time with thier skill-level and approaches each day and each shot as the gift that it truly is to him.  His passion will lead him to his future.  The skills he is acquiring now will make his future a success.

Who Do You Spend Time with Everyday?

When I worked in retail, my early morning hours were spent walking the salesfloor with an Assistant Manager reviewing the previous nights work for execution, roadblocks and recognition for the team. I would spend a few minutes in each area reviewing and discussing what took place and what would be happening next including everyone who would be involved in the process. I found that this helped keep everyone on track and engaged. They would offer their opinions and experience and quickly we could make decisions that could drive our business forward. Sounds daunting right? Well, it only took about 45 minutes – and it set the tone for work for the next day or sometimes even week.
After we were operational for the day, I would spend my time with each Assistant Manager who operated an area of the salesfloor. Here we would review high performance, and low performance. We would try to learn from the high performing people and apply the information to the low performers to see if we could change the tide. In most cases this worked. But for the longest time, I neglected the mid-range, ‘always-good’ performers, the steady performers who always did a good job but stayed out of the radar.
I quickly learned that I needed to spend time here to understand what they knew, how they learned all they know and then share the information with the rest of the team. Spending this time with them built their confidence, provided much-needed recognition and even elevated some performance to a higher level. A straight-forward thank you would get rewarded by more performance. Imagine that!?

Critical lesson: everyone needs attention and recognition. The level of attention and type of recognition needs to be applied by the level of performance to continue to engage and develop that team member.