Get Juiced Up! with Helen Mac

Transcription

1 Get Juiced Up! Getting Results Flowing By Helen Macdonald

2 LIABILITY DISCLAIMER The material contained in this book is general in nature and is not intended as specific advice on any particular matter. Macs Results and the author expressly disclaim any and all liability to any persons whatsoever in respect of anything done by any such person in reliance, whether in whole or in part, on this book. Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering legal or accounting services. COPYRIGHT I believe this e-book contains information that is beneficial to all businesses, so you have my permission to distribute it freely to anybody that you think would appreciate it. The only restriction is that you must not change it in any way, which means that you must distribute it in its original PDF format in its entirety.

3 Get Juiced Up! Increasing the energy and alignment in your business, and your life, will create a flood of better b results. r HIGH ALIGNMENT JUICED UP! HIGH ENERGY LOW ON JUICE ON THE JUICE OUT OF JUICE LOW ENERGY LOW ALIGNMENT

4 Many business owners and managers are feeling over-worked, underresourced and stressed, and so are their staff but it doesn t have to be that way. By creating flow in the business between and within departments, you can get better results without working harder. Tapping the potential of the entire team will positively affect every business measure. Imagine a workplace where employees and managers have great relationships with each other and get fantastic results doing jobs that satisfy them. Imagine a business with customers who enjoy their interactions with the staff, who leave happy and return regularly, bringing along friends and colleagues. Imagine not having to advertise for new staff, first because staff turnover is under control, and second because vacancies are easily filled by qualified people introduced by current employees. Fantasy? Maybe. Possible? Definitely! So, what does it take? Meet Dave. He manages a small customer service department in a large rural town. His business s success depends on its ability to deliver excellent customer service in a competitive industry. Two of his staff developed an annoying habit of turning up for work just a little late. Not very late just a few minutes, every couple of days. Sometimes it was just one of them; sometimes both. He d grumble at them, they d apologise, and life would go on. Then a day or so later, it would happen again. Obviously this could not continue. Dave s stress levels were climbing and the other team members were getting frustrated at having to carry the load at the start of the day.

5 Create clear expectations Our coaching conversation started with a simple question from me, Have you clearly told them your expectations? Dave was stunned. Surely they know they re supposed to get to work on time? Well, to a certain extent he was right. Most people would think that being on time was standard practice. However, if you have staff who are not operating as you expect, then assuming that they know how to behave probably won t get you the best results. Part of my diagnosis was that these two were out of juice. They had little energy for their work and felt almost no connection to the business that employed them. By letting them continue to behave in an unacceptable way, Dave was reinforcing the bad behaviour. So, what can a manager like Dave do? The first step is to be really clear with staff members. You need to have what I call the consequence conversation. In this case, Dave needed to make sure that the latecomers recognised that there were potential consequences for continuing their tardy arrivals. My preference is not for extreme measures, but for things that are a minor irritation. For example, assign the least favourite tasks to the person who arrives latest. As an important balance for the negative consequences, Dave also needed to create some positive outcomes for the behaviour he wanted repeated. We created a team cash incentive for one of my clients based on customer service ratings and dependent on punctual arrival for all team members, all month. As you can imagine, peer pressure helped improve the timeliness of all, and the whole group became more juiced up. Perhaps the solution is to focus on boosting the energy level of your team? Excellent idea!

6 But before you get too carried away, let me introduce you to Tom. As a young, newly promoted and highly enthusiastic manager, Tom had great plans and wanted to be a successful leader of his team. He had boundless energy for his job and a million ideas for improvements to the department and the business. He was on the juice. But his team, while keen to create good results, was becoming frustrated by the rapid changes of direction. Purpose provides power p Unfortunately, what was lacking was a sense of purpose and focus what I call alignment. During a strategic planning session with Tom and his team, we identified some group goals, key performance indicators and measurement milestones. Tom also committed to completing a leadership development program and to being more consultative with his team. Simple, user-friendly performance appraisal and management systems were introduced to support and sustain the changes and to help keep Tom juiced up! So, if too much energy is a challenge, then perhaps we should focus on just boosting the alignment of the team. Barry would have agreed that being aligned with your job is an important success factor. As the son of the founder of the family business in which he worked, he was absolutely committed to the success of the business. He had taken on responsibility for the sales department and as a result of a number of changes in the industry and the business, was feeling weighed down by the load of a job that he used to love. He was very low on juice. His biggest challenge wasn t maintaining a sense of focus and purpose, what he needed to do was rediscover his sources of inspiration and enthusiasm his energy! An analysis of the structure of his department and his schedule showed that he had fallen into the I need to do it all trap. His team had worked out that if they let a task slide, he would pick up the slack. They had mastered the art of rubber delegation every time he gave them a job, it would bounce back onto his desk. As a result, he was working harder and feeling like he was getting nowhere!

7 Communication connects My prescription for Barry included running some team-building events to get the whole group reconnected to each other and to the business s goals. We instigated communication strategies to make sure that everyone understood where responsibilities lay, as well as a new four-step delegation process to manage tasks more effectively. With the spare time created by these new processes, Barry was able to fit in some of his key personal energisers, including regular exercise, attending some of his children s school events and occasional lunches with his wife. He started spending fewer hours at the office and he and his team were getting more sales, more satisfied customers and more profits. They were all more juiced up. Creating a juiced up workplace requires a variety of solutions, because every business has different situations and circumstances. An important process is to conduct some kind of audit of your current position. To do this informally, on a scale of one to ten, rate where you and your team are on a daily basis in terms of your energy levels. If they are lower than you would like, what are you doing to lift them? Re-energising is a very individual thing different teams require different interventions. Some ideas that have worked successfully for my clients include: Team-building activities. Meditation or yoga classes. Developing creative incentives for individuals and teams. Providing a gym or exercise opportunities. Inviting family members to visit work.

8 Assigning a quiet space. You get the picture essentially, do whatever makes them feel good! Next, let s look at your business alignment. In the juiced up model, alignment covers elements like focus, purpose, direction and a sense of being in the right place, doing the right things. On a scale of one to ten, assess your contentment with the way your business or department operates, how well the relationships function and how effectively your team works together. If the ratings are lower than you would like, what are you doing to lift them? Like re-energising, strategies to increase alignment are as varied as the people who use them. Possibilities include: Exploring activities that team members used to enjoy and reintroducing them. Providing coaching and/or mentoring support. Helping them to focus on what they are enjoying in their work. Encouraging them to try some tasks/activities they ve always wanted to do. Having conversations with colleagues about what s important to them. Discussing future promotional opportunities or project options. You get the picture whatever increases your, and their, sense of satisfaction!

9 The juiced up principles provide guidelines for managers and business owners who want to create a constant flow of engaged employees and satisfied customers, delivering boosted profits on a regular basis. In summary, the five principles are: 1. Access ensure that you have tapped into the full potential of the team and sourced all of the possible alternatives for solving the problem at hand. The more options you have, the larger the list of potential outcomes. 2. Move get momentum on one of the solutions. At this stage, it matters less whether it is the right solution, than that you are doing something! Any direction is better than none! 3. Choose it will very quickly become obvious whether you are travelling in the best direction. Being in momentum makes changing direction much easier. Keep in mind that not choosing is still choosing! 4. Stretch work at being outside your comfort zone, but inside your pain zone. Comfort limits growth, development and learning. Pain restricts the ability to continue. In between, there is an area of massive potential! 5. BOP (Be on Purpose!) do what you are meant to do. Keep the company mission and vision clear, acting as a beacon, drawing all employees toward the same goal more juice whatever that means to you. To get you started, focus on managing the two elements of alignment and energy in your own life as well as in your business. This will improve your results, however you measure them. Happier customers? Yes. Happier employees? Yes. Happier workplace? Yes. Happier bottom line? Definitely!

10 Helen Mac Creating Juiced Up Businesses and People! Get Juiced Up! and you & your teams will create a workplace where customers smile, employees thrive, & productivity, effectiveness & profit reach new heights. It was attitudes that caused the financial performance and not the other way around" David Maister Harvard Business School The Juiced Up! Suite of Programs give individual managers and employees the power to set their businesses alight with enthusiasm and success. Your teams will develop the capability to deliver the highest quality of customer service, creating exceptional customer satisfaction and maximising business outcomes What would that do for your business? Helen Mac has squeezed all she has learned from over 25 years of research and experience in organisational behaviour, performance improvement and motivation, to create The Juiced Up Principles. Known for her ability to motivate and inspire even the most jaded staff member, using fun, dynamic, energetic presentations, Helen Mac delivers outstanding value. Her engaging, highly interactive style encourages audiences to get involved, take action, and create better outcomes for themselves and their businesses. Combining. infectious enthusiasm with targeted messages, Helen s keynote addresses and conference, seminar or in-house workshops leave participants excited about the possibility of making real improvements in their work and their lives. Employers who actively sustain a positive work environment could experience improvements of up to 25% in efficiency and customer satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology 2003 Contact Helen on helen@helenmac.com or