Archive for the ‘Personal Performance’ Category

Do the Math and You Will Quickly See Why It Is Time to Fire Customers and Make More Money

THE LOGIC

Face it.  Your time is incredibly valuable.  Let’s cut to the chase and do a couple of quick calculations:

1. Tally up  your total overhead costs (salary, utilities, rent, supplies, equipment, licences, etc…) for one week.
2. Next, add up the total revenues earned last week (include sales or commission, pro-rated fees, other revenue).
3. Subtract OVERHEAD out of REVENUE.
4. Divide that number by the total number of truly productive meetings you held last week.

What you are left with is the true average result of each meeting last week.   As a formula, the calculation looks like this:

(REVENUE – OVERHEAD)
# of SALES MEETINGS 

THE REALITY

In my experience of working with thousands of business people seeking the mythical “silver bullet” to success, I have found that most people are less than honest with themselves about how good of a job they are doing.  Many of the financial professionals I have known over the years are some of the worst offenders.  It is very easy to make oneself appear “busy“.  The truly successful, however, focus on being “productive“.

It Isn’t Always About The Money

Who deserves your time and attention?  Certainly, your family and friends are in that category.  Your best clients should be as well.  That’s why you need to fire some of them.

Several years ago, there was a gentleman who chose to invest a significant amount of his retirement money with me.  We discussed a strategy that was appropriate for someone of his risk-tolerance, considered his expected number of years until retirement, other investments he held, and he agreed to open an account where he would pay me on a fee-basis rather than paying a commission on purchases or sales in his account.  He was particularly fond of the fact that his interests (growing the value of his account) were aligned with mine (the greater the value of the account, the greater the dollars I would earn as his investment advisor).  There was only one problem.  As soon as we opened his account and transferred in the cash, he forgot what we had discussed.  He froze up.  He wouldn’t agree on any of my recommendations and wouldn’t allow me to put the money to work in the markets.  That said, he was paying me fees (see “REVENUE” above) in return for my time.  The problem was, I was spending hours trying to track him down on the phone, attempting to catch him at his office, and discussing with him what we needed to do for his account.  In the end, despite the fact he was paying me to not take my advice, I had to fire him as a client. It was the best move I could have made.

What’s In It For You?

Freeing yourself from the binds of a customer or client who only wants your advice and attention, but remains unwilling or unable to act upon it, is an amazing experience.  Sometimes you have to fire customers. Once you do, you’ll wonder why you did not fire them earlier.  Suddenly, you have more time to tend to the the accounts with whom you have great relationships–The clients who take your advice.  The ones most likely to give you leads and referrals (the ultimate endorsement from a client) to help you be more successful.  You’ll have less stress, more enjoyment for the job you do, and maybe…just maybe…make more money.

Now, it’s time to call that customer and tell them, “It’s not you…It’s me!”

Leave a “Client, You’re Fired” story or other great practice growth tip in the Comment section below!

When THEY Look Good, YOU Look Better!

This week, something simply amazing happened when I came down with bronchitis, lost my voice, and was unable to attend (under a doctor’s orders) a trade show my company had paid a LOT of money for us to attend. My team stepped up.

For years, I have been teaching fundamental leadership tools to business people around the world as a corporate trainer.  Even before that, I had already read and adopted a number of fundamentals written up in David Allen’s best-selling phenomenon Getting Things Done. (Seriously, Google “GTD” and you’ll think you have found a “secret productivity cult”.)  I guess I have always been a bit of the “everything has a place” kind of person.

Here’s the breakdown:

I have a folder for everything (Thank you, GTD!).  When I walked out of the office on noon Monday to go to a maternity appointment with my wife, I fully expected to be back Tuesday morning at 7:15AM to load up and head down to the George R Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston to set up our booth.  Just to be safe, I pulled that folder from the stack, left it conspicuously on my desk, and checked in with our Sales Manager to let him know where all of the collateral had been stockpiled for the event.

My wife and I went to her appointment, learned the baby is coming along nicely, and on the way home…completely lost my voice.  Uh, oh.  I had my wife call our Sales Manager to give him a heads up, and confirm some last minute items.  He understood.  The next morning, I was a no-go.

Just about the time the exhibition floor was slated to open…I received a text message with a picture of our booth all set up and ready to go.  By the end of the day, I’d received another message that one of our team members stepped up to help out, and the day went great.  In fact, if I was feeling good enough to come in the next day, I was told to head on to the office…as they had the event “handled”.  Where I have seen so many people panic over a message like that, I just sighed in relief.  All was right.

If you believe whole-heartedly that YOU absolutely MUST be there to make things happen positively for your team, you don’t have a team that communicates very well.  If your team functions just fine without you, your leadership is working.  By making sure everything was done ahead of time, my presence was less necessary!  Plan your work. Work your plan.  Fundamentals matter.  Now, go get to work!  The better you make THEM look, the better off YOU look.

p.s.  I wrote this during the second day of that trade show while working from home.  Yep, I had even had enough forethought to pack the power cord for my laptop.  It’s been one of my most PRODUCTIVE days in WEEKS! Tomorrow, it’s back into the plant….

Let’s take a ride in the “way-back” machine. Let’s look through the lens of perspective of your first day at any job you have ever held.

What can you remember about that day? What was the weather like? Do you remember the smell of the office? Were you seemingly over- or under- dressed? How organized were the people around you? Was it clear where you were supposed to be and what you were supposed to be doing?

Consider the excitement and enthusiasm you held for the opportunities which lay ahead on that first day.

What about today? Does your excitement still abound, or are you now “settled into the way things are around here”? Can you remember this morning’s commute to the office? Do you look forward to the day?

If your lens of perspective has shifted from one of optimism to one of pessimism (or as the pundits call it, “realism”), I think it may be time to refocus your energy.

Develop your CONNECTion Perspective. Focus on what you can do, rather than what “they” say you can, or “what always happens”. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t arrive for work fired with enthusiasm, do not be surprised when you are fired…with enthusiasm!”

Today is the day you will get your shift together! Stop waiting for your environment to change. Influence it for the better. When others around you find the proper lens of perspective, there is no stopping what you can accomplish.

Guest Post by:
Mike Henry, Chief Instigator
Lead Change Group

One thing I’ve noticed in leadership discussions lately surrounds the idea that everyone is a leader.   Some established, experienced leaders withdraw from the idea quickly.  “Too many cooks spoil the soup.” Or, “Someone has to be in charge.” How does anyone expect to get anything done when everyone thinks they’re the leader?

Room at the top

In a hierarchical organization, there is only one box at the top.  Everyone can’t be in-charge.  Someone must be ultimately responsible for what happens on a team.  But must everyone else be impotent?  Must everyone else wait until a box on the diagram above them opens?

When we were kids, we didn’t have org charts.  Whoever showed up played.  Sure there were some kids who didn’t get chosen early, but generally, at least in my circles, leadership was a function first of showing up and then either having the ball or having the best idea of which game to play.

Character-based Leadership

New, organic, character-based leaders lead from who they are.  It causes some concern in fear-based position-focused organizations, but generally organizations and leaders appreciate individuals who accept responsibility, act like owners , and avoid blaming others  or acting like victims.  We appreciate  people who demonstrate initiative.

But the old top-down org chart just doesn’t create a naturally conducive environment for that type of leadership.  We can talk about empowerment and initiative and creativity but there is always this looming idea that someone further up the ladder will stop anything they believe is unnecessary.

New Leaders Avoid Hierarchies

New leaders form something more similar to a tribe or a community.  It’s based on connections.  In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that the new org structure is more of a project matrix.  Seth Godin and others have suggested that everything is now a project.   Your vacation is a project, and so is your current job.  In a few weeks or months or years, you’ll get involved in another project (or job).  Everything is more temporary that we like to think, unless we’re miserable and then everything is less temporary than we’d like.

Connections are the new keys to getting things done.  Project management is less about the project or the activities and more about who you can enlist, for how long, and what is their level of commitment.  Your connections and your ability to mobilize those connections will determine your success.  If the world is one big matrix, how you can connect and with whom are the key questions.

Triad Relationships

In Tribal Leadership, by Dave Logan, Jack King and Halee Fischer-Wright, the authors noticed something about the stage 4 and stage 5 tribes.  The highest most productive tribes built what they called Triad Relationships.  A triad relationship is a relationship where one person introduces persons two and three.  Two and three go on to build a relationship that no longer requires person one to be involved.  That’s a triad relationship.

Can you create connections that outlive your engagement?  If we’re going to be leaders who connect and succeed in the new community-based non-hierarchical world, we need to have the confidence and the genuine concern for others that would allow us to enable these triad relationships.  A series of triad relationships that exist over time and engage for various projects begins quickly to look like one huge matrix.

So how are you at creating triad relationships?  Does your organization support triad relationships or does it still reinforce old-style co-dependent relationships>  Can you point to some connections inside or outside your organization that have gone on to produce outcomes not involving you?  I can.  It’s rich and rewarding to see results from a partnership that you helped to create, even when you’re no longer involved.

Mike Henry Sr. is the founder and Chief Instigator of the Lead Change Group.  He has a passion to mobilize character-based leaders to make a positive difference.  Connect with Mike at http://leadchangegroup.com/members/mike.

Over the past few years, I have been conducting an experiment.  In an effort to really understand why some people seem to be “natural leaders” and some “just do not have what it takes to lead”, I put myself on the road to figure out what it means to connect as a leader.

The Challenge

While most people would have been tempted to simply interview a number of trainers, speakers, and other business leadership gurus for a consensus vote, that just is not my style.  I opted, instead, to throw myself into the fire.

Since June of 2009, I have led well over 200 days of training, literally, around the globe.  This experiment has taken me from Lakeland, Florida to the Pacific Northwest; Toronto, Canada to the islands of the Caribbean Sea; and, my adopted hometown of Houston, Texas to a tour of cities across the great continent (and country) of Australia.

During that time, I have led thousands of people to a better understanding of topics sadly lumped into a category called “soft skills”.  Soft skills are what makes a leader a leader.  In essence, there is nothing truly “soft” about soft skills.  In fact, trying to lead teams without an understanding of soft skills is…well…in a word; HARD!

Today, I proudly announce, I have found the Holy Grail of Leadership, identified the Common Denominator of Successful People, and boiled it all down to a single act you must commit your entire life to mastering, if you want to achieve true success at every level.  That word is “CONNECT”.

The Breakdown:

In junior high, an announcement came over the loudspeaker in my second hour class letting the students know about a new “mentor” program being launched as a partnership between the school and local community business leaders.  Now knowing what a mentor was at the time, I went home and asked my mother, who replied, “Oh, I’m not sure that message was for you.” Baffled, I just let it go, never learning until much, much later what exactly that program might have been about.

(From dictionary.com)

Fortunately for me, as a young man, I actually DID have a number of mentors around me on a regular basis, most notably my Scoutmasters who kicked my rear into gear, guiding me to earn the rank of Eagle Scout (something I STILL list on my resume, today).  As a speaking professional,  I’m proud to admit, I have learned much from the men and women who have unselfishly (and some unknowingly) served as my mentor. Without their wisdom, guidance, and friendship, it is most certain I would not be enjoying the level of success I have today.

What about you?  Who are YOUR mentors?

A few years ago, following some significant personal and professional changes in my life, I took an assessment of where I was and compared it to where I thought I should be.  Perhaps you have taken a similar inventory of your life from time to time. Here are a few questions you might ask, as you consider the question, “How could I benefit from mentor?”

1. Who are the six people with whom I spend the most time?  You may already know, “you” will become the average of those six people.
2. Are most of the people around me the most truly living the kind of life I, too, would like to be living now? It might be time for an upgrade.
3. If Iwere stranded by the side of the road at 3A.M., how many of my “friends” would jump out of bed to assist me without hesitation? Your mentor may or may not be one of these people, but it’s still a question worth asking as a gauge of the type of people with whom you most closely associate.
4. Could I improve my chances of attaining my most important goals in life by reaching out to others who may have traveled a similar path to mine before enjoying a similar level of success to that of my own desires? Often times those who have worked hard for success applaud, and even offer encouragement to people that remind them of themselves. Who knows…it may even lead to a friendship that will last a lifetime.
5. Is someone other than my spouse, kids, or family truly interested in seeing / helping me succeed in life? Knowing someone is rooting for you (and often holding you accountable for taking positive action) may be just the element missing from your success equation!

TAKE ACTION:  Identify successful people whom you admire.  Reach out to them with a quick note, email, or call.  Let them know you admire their success and ask if they’d mind if you touched base from time-to-time, when you would like their insight on important decisions in your career or life.  If they say “yes”, you have a mentor…even if they don’t know it.

Keep CONNECTing!

CONNECTing in Sydney, Australia

This month, I had the amazing experience of working across the great continent of Australia.  During my tour, I was privileged to facilitate training classes on the fundamentals of project management in Sydney,NSW; Adelaide, SA; Darwin, NT; & Perth, WA. It was a great two weeks and a great exercise in experiencing another culture.

Since the theme of this blog is “CONNECTion”, here’s a quick guide to similarities and differences between Australia and the United States, as viewed by one recent visitor from the “other side of the world”.

Similarities:

• English is the primary language. Though, as you will see below, common phrases are very different.
• Both countries enjoy a high, developed standard of living
• If you “round” the numbers, the continent of Australia is comparable in size to the continental United States (“lower 48″)
• Current government leadership (Prime Minister / Australia; President/ United States) are both dealing with low popularity ratings (at this writing)
• Given the size of each country, the diversity of it’s people and lifestyles vary somewhat by region
• It seems that a resident of either country should expect to fairly easily adapt to life in the other country- with a few notable adjustments

Funny to note, however, is that given the number of similarities, there are enough notable differences to remind a visitor to Australia that they are in fact, somewhere a long way from home:

• In my experience, the Australian people seemed extremely polite – perhaps influenced by the perceived formality and proper use of the English language than typified in the United States.
• While I’m sure there are some in Australia who feel “excluded” from the mainstream, a feeling of angst seemed to be missing from the majority of the population of those I came to know. (Though, in parts of the country, there was  a notable population of displaced / struggling indigenous people (aborigines). There is an amazing similarity to experiences I’ve had with a number of indigenous North American’s, though the history of the peoples are quite different.
• Food and drink are considerably more expensive in Australia, though, it also appears as a general rule that Australians have somewhat healthier diets than Americans.
• Aussies were amazed at the idea of a “motor bank”, common in the U.S.  We had some good laughs about how Americans can do all of their banking from the comfort of their driver’s seat of their cars!
• I never did try Vegemite, despite a constant subliminal undertone of some great 80′s rock by the famed Australian rock band, Men at Work. However, I did learn that kangaroo is quite tasty!
• Here’s a quick guide to a few nuances of common terms (American / Australian):
• Trash / Rubbish
• Trash Can / Bin
• Overhead Bin (on plane) / Overhead Locker
• Shopping Cart / Trolly
• You’re Welcome / No Worries (okay, this is a bit of a stretch, but I heard “No Worries” a lot…and I like it!)
• Elevator / Lift
• Restroom / Toilet
• friend / mate
• “significant other” / partner
• up-tight attitude and feeling of “hurry” / more laid-back, “enjoy life” attitude for most
• OH….and I learned the Australian people don’t generally offer gratuity to service industry folks like we do in America (something shared with me by the very last driver I had in Australia, despite tipping EACH of them!) It was worth it, though, since each was very much polite, knowledgeable, and helpful in pointing out information to make my stay in their respective cities enjoyable.  Figured it was worth the price of a cup of coffee!
• Starbucks didn’t work out so well in Australia. (Servings to large/ not strong enough/too different)  While they are very much a coffee culture (when you order coffee in a cafe or restaurant, it’s your choice to enjoy it flat white (coffee with milk), latte or cappuccino…all for the same price), they prefer the more laid-back intimacy of an alfresco cafe.

photo by Richard 'Tenspeed' Heaven

Certain people possess the ability to instantly create rapport with anyone. For purposes of this article, whether you agree with the message from people you have come in contact with who enjoy this skill is not important.  What I want you to focus on is their ability to immediately establish rapport, identify the issue or message at hand, and simply deliver their version of the truth to the audience in an almost effortless way.

For a leader, it takes a number of years to have put oneself in enough situations to effectively learn through trial and error how to handle a variety of situations to obtain the desired result.  These situations appear in daily life as one-on-one conversations, speeches, sales pitches, legal proceedings, and are often disguised as everyday tasks.

Personally, I have been in leadership positions since I was a young man.  Each role I served provided me with new opportunities to practice my speaking skills and learn how to interact effectively, even persuasively, with others.  As an adult, I have worked successfully in business development roles, served as a spokesperson for organizations, delivered hundreds of days of training, and spoken effectively at a number of trade association events.  Each time, I was challenged with connecting my audience with a specific, intended message.

While there is no substitute for practice, I’ve distilled my experience from thousands of speaking engagements, sales meetings, training sessions and daily client interactions down to this short, yet powerful list of techniques for connecting with any audience.  Keep this list close, and you will begin to receive feedback that you are becoming one of those great connectors like the ones you have admired for so many years.

1. Look at your audience.  Whether you have an audience of one or one thousand, if you cannot look your audience in the eye, they will never believe you.  (Hint:  For larger audiences, pick out a handful of friendly-looking people in various parts of the room and talk to them.)
2. Have a message. You should be able to sum up the point of your message in less than 15 seconds.  If that is proving difficult, your topic may not be clear.  Choose an example of an ideal audience member, and write your speech in a way that would connect with that one person. Be clear about how you want your audience to think or act differently about when you are done speaking.
3. Move with a purpose.  Nervous energy often manifests itself during your speech or conversation as unnecessary motion.  Gestures can be helpful in demonstrating a point, but moving unnecessarily can prove very distracting for your audience, thus causing your message to be lost in the action.
4. Appearance matters.  The general rule of thumb is to dress one step above that of your audience. Even if your “audience” is a group of your co-workers or your boss.  No matter how much you know (or think you know), if you look the part, you will receive greater respect.
5. Use vocal variety. Simply stated, this means you should not let your message be dry and dull, from a vocal standpoint. One technique I often find helpful is to build up my volume as I’m building toward a point, pause for a beat, then deliver the final point with intensity but in a much lower volume. It often comes across with much more power than you might imagine.
6. Don’t rush.  The pace of your message should fit the time allotted and the rhythm of the meeting.  Giving your audience information as if they are drinking from a fire hose only proves to them how big you perceive your own ego to be…or more often, how unorganized your remarks are proving to be.
7. Don’t patronize your audience.  Be confident.  Be honest. Utilize the steps above.  If your audience disagrees or doesn’t get your point, it is your fault…not theirs.  Be gracious and smile.  You’ll live to speak another day.  There is never a time it is okay to be rude or hateful as a presenter (unless you have been invited to deliver a few words at a celebrity roast).

How to be a Connector

Simply stated, I get a kick out of helping people connect their potential with deliberate action that allows them to enjoy success at a level they previously thought impossible. The good news is that it is relatively easy…if you develop the habit of making connections about other people, instead of you.

Without a doubt, social media has changed the way people connect. Or has it? Certainly, technologies like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have shifted the definitions of a “friend”, “follower”, or “connection” to meanings significantly different than we once thought of them. And while this technology’s popularity makes it easier than ever to “stay in touch” even with the fringes of our networks, it is no substitute for a true, off-line connection.

Networking is a word which often brings back memories of hundreds of shallow, self-promoting people swarming around at some random event sponsored by your local chamber of commerce.  You probably have someone specific in your mind right now who claims to be a great networker….a claim backed up by the huge stack of recently collected business cards on their desk. Only, if you look a little deeper, it doesn’t take long to realize those “connections” aren’t really connections at all. In fact, that self-proclaimed networker is nothing but a business card collector – evidenced by the number of cards with their name on them, which they have given you over the years -each with a different company logo on it. (Get my drift?)

In recent weeks, I have given closer inspection to just which of the habits I have observed of people I admire as great connectors (as described in Malcom Gladwell’s instant classic, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference). The rules listed below will provide a roadmap for you in becoming a sought after person in the network of others.  Each demonstrates just how simply you can integrate subtle changes into your own routine to achieve the status of Connector:

1. It can never be about you. – I once went to an interview for a job I knew I did not really want, just to get an offer I could turn down.  Shortly after passing the “screener’s interview” at the door, I was asked to stay and visit with the insurance agency’s owner.  Sure enough, he offered me the job.  I immediately turned him down – then sat in his office for nearly an hour listening to him telling me how wonderful and successful he was.  Presuming for a minute he was half as successful as his puffed up autobiographical interview suggested, I knew my instincts were correct.  Working for him would never be about the development of my own career. It would only be about him.  Successful, perhaps.  Did I ever follow up?  Let’s just say the materials he gave me on the way out the door never made it out of his office building.
2. Connections should be authentic. I enjoy a great spy/action novel. In between the great number of business and success oriented books I read each year, I find it relaxing to just get lost in a great story once in a while.  When I learned a friend of mine had written a novel set in my former hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, I downloaded the free sample from his website and sent him a note.  Prior to the release of his book, he kindly forwarded me the final version of the first two chapters.  On the day it was available for purchase from Amazon, I immediately downloaded the book to my Kindle….and posted everywhere I could online how great it was a friend of mine had just released his first in a series of novels.  And let me tell you, the book is a thriller! [Here is a link to the book: The Perfect Candidate. If you download it, please come back to this blog post and let me know what you thought of it!] A few days later, I asked him to preview a new video project of mine ahead of it’s release, and he gladly responded.  Offering his feedback, he then (without my asking) mentioned he would forward the link to a few of his own contacts whose organizations often hired speakers.  That’s a referral I didn’t even have to ask for!
3. Focus on giving. – A close personal friend of mine once said, “Don’t just be a face on a roster.” What great advice.  I have learned time and again that connecting people with their best interests at heart will gain you more than trying to shoehorn yourself into being the right solution when you (or the products or services you offer) are simply not a good fit. People remember and the return is much greater in the long-run when you keep this principle in mind.
4. If at first you don’t connect, try again. – In a soon to be released audio program, I share more of the details about this idea.  Keep an eye out, because in this program you will hear real cases to teach you how to can turn a missed sales opportunity into your largest client.  Some of my best connections have developed from people I just didn’t “click” with at first.  If your approach didn’t connect with them, it is up to you to show the value of what you can bring to their network. (See Rule #1)
5. Always maintain your integrity. It is flattering to be asked to help someone out.  I’m sure that your reputation (out of a cast of thousands) has brought forth many efforts to help an obscure Nigerian prince ex-patriate some funds from his country, if only you would email this thoughtful and promising stranger all of your financial details so they can deposit the promised millions into your account for “your trouble”, right?  Listen.  I once had a client walk out of my office, with a smile on his face, having lost nearly 95% of the value of his account, carrying only a new coffee mug.  My largest single commission as a financial adviser was a one-time investment with a gross commission of $17,000!  What do both of those stories have to do with integrity?  In both cases, the clients had acted foolishly and completely against my advice.  That’s right.  I advised them against their respective investments, yet by standing firm on my position (instead of slobbering over the commissions thus making a complete fool of myself), I earned their trust and respect.  And I won their business (and their commission income) while still finding myself able to sleep at night because I had simply told them the truth.

These five rules are the absolute keys to building solid connections with those to whom you do business.  Avoid them at your own peril! The most successful people I have ever studied all possessed the ability think past the short-term, and enjoyed success for the long-term.  Which path will you take?

Recently, I had the opportunity to lead a staff development training day at a major university’s school of dentistry.  There were approximately 60 people in attendance, most of whom worked in some type of support role either at the school, within a private dental practice, or both.

Realizing this training was being held on both the Friday before the U.S. Memorial Day Holiday and on a particularly amazing day (weather wise), I knew I needed to reel them in quick.  I decided to open with an exercise to get them talking to one another and moving around the room (always a great idea first thing in the morning).  I posted with a few questions for them to consider before moving about the room, asking each participant to write down the first answers to each that came to their mind.  The reply immediately voiced from nearly half the people in the room, however, spoke volumes to me when I heard a collective, “But, nobody told us to bring a pen!”

How Does YOUR Service Rank?

Pause for a few seconds and think– In that moment, had you been leading the seminar, what would you have done?

What happened next, however, was both a bit of a relief, and an troubling explanation.  Relief in that the local leader had indeed brought along enough ball point pens to pass around for the unprepared.  Explanation in how that single action of providing the pens made me question what other bad habits among this team were being enabled to continue every single day- dismissed as “oh, they’re just like that” and “it’s easier to just hold their hands”.

Here’s the real kicker.  This was about the 5th or 6th day of training this group had received during the entire academic year. “What?”, I thought.  ”You didn’t bring a pen to a training class?”

More times than you might believe over the past couple of years, I have witnessed seminar participants sign in at registration,  collect their workbook (with certificate of completion already stashed on the last page), and ask for directions to the restroom….never to be seen again.  And, to be candid, I’m not sure it is entirely their fault.  They simply do not feel empowered to make a difference or influence change back at work and must be thinking, “Why bother?” Often, these are the same employees who have the best opportunities to make it right with your most important customers, clients, and vendors….and simply don’t even try.

Here are a few quick ideas for you, the mighty leader of your team (no, it isn’t a job title, it’s an attitude), to make sure the people around you are engaged, plugged in, and turned on at work:

1. Hold those around you accountable for their actions. Don’t just enable them by running to get ball point pens they clearly should have brought to the training session. If there are no consequences for unacceptable or unprofessional behavior, why should you expect them to change for the better?
2. Assign a book report. When you send someone from your team to a training seminar or conference, challenge them to come up with a brief presentation on 3-5 key points they learned and feel others would benefit from hearing about.  If you were the one sent to the class, offer to share some ideas to your group in a staff meeting. Taking initiative says, “I’m working for the job I want….not the one I have.”
3. Listen. If your team is disengaged and discouraged, you should know it.  If not by what they say, listen to how they say it. More importantly, listen to what they don’t say.  If everyone around you has stopped trying to solve problems and only complain about them, it is up to you to draw them into helping solve the issues.  If you ignore the obvious problems, you are in fact condoning them to continue.

Accountability is the name of the game. Build a solid team, and you’ll see the results with success at every level!