Coaching in the Workplace - Part VI

Perhaps the most important, and often underutilized, tool in truly effective coaching is Giving Praise.

• Great companies and coaches take the time to recognize good work and good people
• They also encourage their people to ask for recognition when it is not forthcoming
• It’s good for your people to “toot their own horn”!

How do you feel when you get praise for doing something? You want to do more of it!

Processing: Getting “In” to Empty

Another requirement of effective Time Management is the realization that you cannot (and should try to) do everything at once. What you should do, however, is have control over all of your "In" boxes, (physical and virtual):

Getting “In” to empty doesn’t mean actually doing all the actions and projects you have collected

It just means:

1. Identifying each item
2. Deciding what it is
3. What it means
4. What you are going to do with it

Once you have done that, you have control, and in effective time management, control is what it is all about.

Measuring Outputs

The measurement of outputs in business is critical to any organization. What is important, of course, is making sure what is being measured is germaine to the success of the venture.

Two ways of measuring outputs are to look at the voice of the process and the voice of the customer:

The Voice of the Process

• Output measures that describe the actual outputs and capabilities of the process

The Voice of the Customer

• Output measures that describe customer’s needs, wants, and expectations

Both measurements are important to understand what is needed by the customer, and what the system is delivering to satisfy those needs.

Grand Opening of Business Education Talk

Hello All,

Business Education Talk debuted in March 2008. I hope you have a chance to drop by frequently, as we discuss topics of interest to education in the modern workplace.

Thanks,

Bob DeLaMartre

Coaching in the Workplace – Part V

The fifth essential rule of coaching in the workplace is:

Be Comfortable with Feedback

“Not so easy”, you say? Like so many things in our personal as well as professional lives, this can be a learned skill. Practice giving and receiving feedback. Consider the following:

• What if a coach is uncomfortable giving or getting feedback?


• That discomfort will probably be projected


• A negative attitude is contagious


• So is a positive one!

Feedback: Going out and coming in – Essential to success in the workplace.

Managing Commitments - Part III

The third basic requirement of effectively managing your committments is:

Use a Well-Organized and Completely Trusted Tystem

Once you have decided on the next action to take, you must put it into an organized system that you completely trust and that you review regularly. This system may be one or a combination of the following:

• Outlook calendar
  
• Outlook tasks


• Blackberry or PDA


• Day-Timer


• Tickler file

The key here is that you completely trust the system. If you do, you can free yourself to think of other things...

Interacting with Customers

As we all know, there are proactive and reactive ways of listening to our customers.

The Problems with using only reactive methods of listening to customers are important to note:

1. Customers who voice unsolicited complaints represent a small and biased sample of the customer population


2. Complaints are frequently lodged with a specific solution in mind


3. Handlers of immediate problems often cannot implement permanent and widespread changes


4. Process is generally intended to solve immediate problems due to stressful circumstances

Proactive ways of dealing or "listening" to our customers offer several benefits. This is a topic that will be discussed in a future blog.

Coaching in the Workplace - Part IV

The fourth best practice rule of coaching in the workplace is:

Be Timely

• Give feedback as close to the event as possible
• It will have more impact and keep things from bottling up

If your feedback is about a current event that is still fresh in the employee's mind, it will most certainly have more significance (to both of you).

Letting an instance of poor performance go unaddressed for a length of time can only make the situation deteriorate. Likewise, good performance should be recognized as early as possible as well.

Situations are improved if addressed in a timely manner; so Be Timely!

Managing Commitments Part II

The second basic requirement of managing your commitments is:

You must clarify what your commitment is and decide what you have to do to make progress toward fulfilling it

Ask yourself:

1. Do I have a clarity of purpose?
2. Do I know what the desired outcome is?
3. What action needs to be taken next?

Once you have clarified your commitment and decided what the next action step is, you can then make some real progress to successfully completing your project.

The Problem May be Your System

The father of quality management, W. Edwards Deming, believed in the use of statistics in the management of quality control in the corporate world. The need for a working understanding of basic statistical principles is at the heart of Deming's teaching. "Statistical theory has changed practice in almost everything [in business].”

Composing music was one of his many talents, and when thinking of the difficult-to-sing national anthem, he created a clever metaphor for the work process:

• Don’t blame the singers (workers) for not hitting the notes
• The song (system) is the problem
• Instead, rewrite the song (fix the system)

If you are having trouble meeting your company goals, don’t necessarily point a finger at the workers; the problem may well be your system.

ASQ: American Society for Quality
http://www.asq.org/about-asq/who-we-are/bio_deming.html

Coaching in the Workplace - Part III

The third rule of effective coaching is:

Focus on a Few Key Things – Don’t Overload

• No one can work on 20 things at once
• Developmental feedback should be incremental
• Focus on one point at a time

If you are a golfer, you know you cannot try to actively remember All of the important parts of a swing, and hope to even make contact with the ball. Coaching is the same in many ways: Focus on just a very few things, and you will get better results.

Six Ways to Stay Motivated

Staying "motivated" is of prime importance to any businessperson. It applies to everyone in every organization, and its importance cannot be overstated.

According to the motivational speaker and author, Chris Widener, there are six excellent ways to stay motivated. In his article found on http://www.woopidoo.com/articles/chriswidener/stay-motivated.htm , he lists them as the following:


The Top Six Ways To Stay Motivated
1. Get motivated every day.
2. Have a vision for your life.
3. Fuel your passion.
4. Work hard enough to get results.
5. Put good materials into your mind.
6. Ride the momentum when it comes.

Whereas not all of these ways will hit home for you, I am sure that at least one or two will strike a resounding chord in your psyche.

Staying Motivated; Are there many things that are more important?

Six Sigma & the Human Element - Part I

I recently ran across the following quotes regarding the Six Sigma business paradigm:

• "Six Sigma has spread like wildfire across the company and its transforming everything we do."
  Jack Welch, CEO, GE Business Week special report
• "Six Sigma is arguably the most important business and industry initiative that has involved statistical thinking and methods."
  Ronald D. Snee, Impact of Six Sigma on Quality Engineering

In my experience, many businesspeople shy away from what they view as a rigid, mathematical approach to doing business. Six Sigma is certainly based in part on statistics, but there is also a very human element in it as well. Using an Ishikawa diagram (otherwise known as a fishbone diagram), participants in a Six Sigma initiative can sort out the contributing factors (e.g. systems, equipment, human resources, etc), that are leading to deviations from desired results.

The human element is a vital part of Six Sigma.

The Moment of Truth

Are you ready for the Moment of Truth?

The "Moment of Truth" occurs every time a customer makes contact with an organization. You have the opportunity at that time to make a positive, nuetrual, or negative impression in the mind of the customer.

You might ask yourself:

• "How does this affect the reputation of the company?"
• "Do I have a clear idea whether the customer's needs were met?"
• "Do I have a recordkeeping mechanism in place to track these Moments of Truth?"

The moment of truth happens all day; every day. Are you ready?

Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ)

Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) is a phrase used in Six Sigma and is defined the author, Greg Brue, as the “Total labor, materials, and overhead costs attributed to imperfections in the processes that deliver products or services that don’t meet specifications or inspections”.

Although this may seem to be focused on the manufacturing sector of business, it is equally applicable (though a bit more difficult to quantify) in the professional service arena.

As a good mental exercise, try to identify some of the costs in your department that contribute to COPQ. The dollar figures can be staggering!

Managing Your Commitments

Managing Your Commitments is a vital first step in time management:

1. First, if it’s on your mind, your mind isn’t clear
2. Anything you consider unfinished must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind:
   –Outlook email inbox
   –Physical in-basket
   –Voice recorder
3. You should have as few “collection buckets” as are adequate (and as many as are necessary)

You should not try to "keep things in your head". I am sure you can remember several instances when that did not work). Free up your mind for the task at hand; don't clutter it with "I have to be sure to remember to...".

"Coach" - Don't "Evaluate"

The best leaders are effective with their people because they know the true meaning of what it is to "coach". Coaching is looking forward, whereas evaluating is looking back.

• A Pro-Coaching Attitude can be Contagious:
  • Person-to-Person
  • Team-to-Team
• Unfortunately, What Many Managers and Supervisors do when They “Coach” is Evaluate
• The Challenge is to Spend More Time Coaching and Less Time Evaluating

Give coaching a try! Both you and your employees will like the results.

Six Sigma – The Basics

Six Sigma is the systematic practice of improving processes by eliminating defects. Its basic precepts are:

1. Reduction in variation process outputs is the key to business success
2. Business processes can be measured, analyzed, improved and controlled
3. Achieving sustained quality improvement requires commitment from the entire organization, particularly from upper-level management

This is a business paradigm that uses objective measurement and observation, and is worth the considerable effort it takes to fully investigate and deploy.

Time Management: Get Ready for Change!

An old Chinese proverb says, “The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war”.

• Most people get ready for a change a few days before a major life event (E.G. vacation)
  
• They are cleaning up, closing up, and renegotiating all the commitments and agreement with everyone (including themselves)
  
• In truly good time management, the key is to do this on a regular basis (at least weekly)

Try it. You will be ready when the change comes (it always does) and you will feel good.

Coaching in the Workplace, Part II

The second rule of effective coaching is:

Always Start with the Positives (Strengths)

1. Positives must be genuine!
2. People learn more from positive feedback than from negative
3. Refer to “areas for improvement”, not “weaknesses”
4. Don't be afraid of finding no fault - If the session is all positive, it is probably some of your best work as a coach!

Coaching is essential to success. Always start (and try to end) with positives!

Webinar Tips

Dick Cavett, author and host of an intellectual talk show of the 60’s and 70’s gives some tips for politicians on the campaign trail.

These tips are also good things to remember when conducting a webinar:

• Change all “I wills” and “I shalls” from the speech to “I’ll’; Also, “I haves” and “I ams” to “I’ve” and “I’m,” etc. You’d be surprised how much this cuts down on the oratory tone.
  
• Pretend you are speaking to one person. One single person. Because that’s what everybody is. No one in the audience is an “all of you” or an “everyone” or a “those of you” or a “Hi, everybody,” and no one is a “ladies and gentlemen.” You, out there, are a “you.” So, speaker, think of yourself as being [listened] by only two [ears]. (Presumably on the same person.) The most magical word you can use, short of a person’s name, is “you.”
  
  http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/candidate-improve-your-appearance/

Feedback in Coaching: The Good and The Bad

Feedback is the process of giving data to someone about the impact the person makes through her attitudes, actions, and words. There is good and bad feedback, however.

The Bad:
Evaluative feedback

• Preconceived as being negative (dreaded)
• Represents yesterday, not today

The Good:
Developmental feedback

• Looks forward as to what “we” can do to improve
• Once a person experiences positive, developmental feedback, they will want more!

Clarifying Your Commitments

A critical element of time management is Clarifying Your Commitments:

In order to effectively make progress with any project, you must clarify what your commitment is and decide what you have to do to make progress toward fulfilling it:

1. Do you have a Clarity of Purpose?
2. Do you know what the Desired Outcome is?
3. What Action Needs to be Taken Next?

The third point is particularly important. If you know what needs to be done next, you have control of your project and your time.

Brainstorming Tips

Most people in the workplace tend to be quite practical which, at times, can be somewhat unfortunate. Being practical is fine when you're implementing a solution, but not so cool when you are trying to come up with new and creative ideas. As found in The Six Sigma Way (Pande, Nueman, and Cavanaugh, 2000), here are some of the basics of effective idea generation and ways to help you get the most out of your next brainstorming meeting:

Keys to Brainstorming Success

1. Clarify the objective of your brainstorming
2. Listen to and build on the ideas of others
3. Don't judge, criticize, or comment on ideas
4. Avoid self-censorship
5. Abandon assumptions and be wild

Let yourself go in the next brainstorming meeting; you may be surprised at what great ideas you create!

Coaching in the Workplace

According to some studies, most second-graders get more helpful heedback (Gold Stars / Report Cards) than the average employee in a company in America. What a shocking thought!

The First Rule of Effective, Positive Coaching:

The Employee Should Talk First

• Ask the Employee to Self-Assess (before giving your own viewpoint)
• By so Doing, the Coach Gains Insight into Employee’s
1. Judgment
2. Knowledge
3. Common ground with Supervisor

It may take some patience and discipline on your part, (we all tend to want to give our own view right away), but give it a try. Make sure the employee talks first.

Our Future Workforce

I was shocked by an NPR story yesterday about the abysmal state of our national high school dropout rate. Reportedly, our rate of high school students who do not finish their studies now stands at over 40% for our nation's 50 largest cities. This is an astonishing figure!

The focus of this blog is business education. As we are faced with the challenge of remaining the world's leader in R&D, we need to put more money and effort into our public schools.

It is, after all, the age of the knowledge worker. How will we keep up with the rest of the planet?

Thoughts on Time Management

Time Management is an important topic for every business professional. "If I only had a bit more time", we all say. What we are really concerned about, however, is Productivity!

Five Things That Get in the Way of Being Productive

1.People Keep Stuff in Their Head
2.They Don’t Decide What They Need to Do About the Stuff They Know They Need to Do Something About
3.They Don’t Organize Action Reminders and Support Materials in Functional Categories
4.They Don’t Maintain and Review a Complete Inventory of Their Commitments
5.They Waste Energy and Burn Out, Allowing Their Busyness to be Driven by What is Latest and Loudest

Productivity - That's what it is all about...