Dave and I have enjoyed the opportunity to share our thoughts, comments, stories, and videos with you over the past year on the ECI blog. We hope that you have enjoyed reading the articles and have found great value in them.

As with all things in life, change is the only constant. And our organization is no different. So we would like to take this opportunity to announce that the ECI blog will be moving..........


You will find the ECI Blog, now titled the Fusion™ Blog, located at:


                                        http://ecilearning.blogspot.com/


Beginning next week, future posts from ECI will only be available through this new site. We have also transitioned all existing posts to the new site, so that you can continue to reference them.


Please visit the new site and subscribe to the Fusion™ Blog to continue receiving updates and new articles from ECI.


As always, we are pleased to be able to stay in touch and hope that you continue to find value in the Fusion™ Blog from ECI Learning Systems.


Until next week,

Laurie Valaer & Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com

I recently spent some time talking with the leader of a small organization who was concerned because her group seemed to be slipping deeper and deeper into a sense of apathy.   This leader is very young and desperately wanted the rest of her group to be as excited about the organization as she was.  She spent some time thinking about some of the things that had inspired her in the past and remembered how she had always been excited by new challenges.  Armed with that knowledge she had come up with several new projects that she knew would inspire her team and reverse the trend of apathy.

As I listened to this scenario unfold, I knew how the story would end.  After all, she hadn’t sought me out because of the high morale of the organization.  She had sought me out because they were still stuck and she did not know where to turn.

As we talked, I moved the discussion from an overview of the group to her own current situation.   As we talked she revealed that she was feeling overwhelmed in her position and that the job had been so much bigger than she had really expected.  She had expected her movement from team member to leader to be relatively seamless.  After all, she had been a part of the organization for several years, knew all of the roles of her team members, and had been a top performer.  But it had not been as easy as she expected and she was becoming aware of everything that she didn’t know about how to lead the organization, including how to get her team excited again. 

As we peeled the onion together, she became aware that her own feelings of overwhelm were now permeating the organization.  Her concerns, doubts, and lack of enthusiasm for her new role had seeped out and were spreading across the entire group.  It had happened slowly, as she had expressed her doubts and fears to a close friend in the department.  And then she had cancelled a staff meeting because she was “overwhelmed”, followed by missing an after hours team building event because she was “too tired” to attend.  The next thing she knew the entire group seemed to lack enthusiasm, energy, and focus. 

Her own lack of energy and enthusiasm had affected the entire organization, spreading through the ranks like a wildfire through a dry forest.  And now her job of reversing this trend had been made even more difficult as a result of her own thoughts and actions. 

 But here is the good news.  Just as feelings of overwhelm, frustration, and apathy can be contagious, so can feelings of excitement, energy, and engagement.  The organization always takes its cues from the leader and when the leader is excited, so is the whole team.  The answer to this client's problem lay within herself.   First, she had to solve her own problems and then extend that enthusiasm out to her team in the same way she had initially spread the disease.   First by infecting one person around her with her new found enthusiasm, and then by spreading it through her entire team.  As she became more enthused and engaged herself, so did her entire team.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees.  We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line.  Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.

Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com 

 

 

 

A friend of mine recently sent me a values test. He knows of the work that we do with executives and teams around the concept of values and thought I might find it interesting. Of course, I've taken and administered hundreds of values tests over the years, but this one was a little different. Instead of asking me to choose the words that resonated most with me, this one was told as a story. I was then asked to rate the characters to help identify my values.

It was a very interesting little test, but when I finished it I started to wonder. What if my wife were to take this same profile trying to answer as I would? Would her responses identify the same values in me that I see in myself?

What if I gave this profile to my best friend and asked him to answer as he thought I would?

What if I gave it to my business partner?

Or my employees?

How different would their view of my values be from my view? And which values are really mine?

Are the values that I identify as important to me who I really am, or are the values that others see the real me?

This question may not be as obvious as it sounds. Regardless of how I view myself and say what is important to me, the way others view me speaks volumes about the values that I am actually living. And clearly the values that I am living are the values that are truly the most important. In fact, this view that others have of me is how they perceive me and therefore how they react to me. Obviously this can be very beneficial in uncovering my blind spots: those things that others see in me that I don't see in myself.

This most certainly holds true for my values, but what about my communications? While I may view my communications as clear and crisp, others may view my communication as overbearing and impersonal.

What about my style of leadership? While I may view my style as direct and goal oriented, others may view it as rigid and even wrong focused.

Looking in a mirror allows us to see ourselves through our own eyes.  But as leaders, it is important to look at ourselves through the eyes of others.  And as a leader, getting honest feedback from our peers and subordinates can be challenging.

This is where ECI Learning can assist you. With our variety of confidential, web-based 360 tools we can help identify the blind spots in your organization and assist you in creating training and personal development tools to strengthen your organization, improve productivity and increase profitability.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees.  We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
 
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line.  Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
 
Until next time.....
 
 
Dave Meyer
http://www.ecilearning.com 

When it comes to the concept of employee motivation, there is nothing that should be simpler but, for some reason, it is more confusing than the concept of rewards and recognition for your employees.

At this very moment some of you have stopped reading, stood up at your desks and shouted at the top of your lungs, “There is nothing confusing about this!   Give me more money!”

And that’s why there is confusion.   People are motivated by different things.  It’s not always money.

Let’s get some basics out of the way early.  If you don’t earn enough money to put food on your table and pay your mortgage then you will always be looking for a way to earn more money.  When you are consumed by the fear of not being able to take care of yourself, your spouse, or your children, then money is all you will think about.

And some people are clearly in that position. 

But we are assuming here that you are not paying minimum wage or thereabouts to your employees.  We are assuming that you are talking about what are commonly called “knowledge workers” and are paying reasonable wages for reasonable work. 

For some people that is still not enough.   When you ask “How do you motivate employees?" some people will still stand up and shout, “Give me more money!”

But study after study shows that this group is a very small minority of people.  Or, said in a slightly different way, the number of people who insist that they want more money and those who actually want more money is very different.  The mantra, “Give me more money” is more talk than reality.

Pay for performance is an absolute necessity in certain production positions.  Pay for piecework is effective.  Pay for knowledge work is not.  In fact, studies show that when incentive pay is implemented for knowledge work, productivity and creativity actually go down.  Instead of being incented to create, knowledge workers who are offered pay for performance actually feel constrained by arbitrary rewards of incentive pay.  It seems that knowledge workers are incented by intrinsic motivation, by the desire to excel and grow and create, rather than by the almighty dollar. 

The most recent book on this topic is called “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink.   It’s a book that I highly recommend all managers and leaders read.  This is especially true for small business owners who often fall prey to the pay for performance mantra.  

So how do you motivate employees, especially those who are knowledge workers?   Knowledge workers are motivated by the opportunity to unleash their creative juices, solve problems, and make a difference.  They enjoy new challenges, enhancing their talents and skills, and seeing how their work impacts those around them.   The intrinsic motivation that drives knowledge workers is as strong as, or stronger than, the pay for performance motivation that drives production workers. 

Want to motivate your knowledge workers?  Turn them loose and let them find new solutions. 

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees.  We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line.  Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.

Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
http://www.ecilearning.com 

Here is a very easy scenario for you.   You go to work one morning and the boss tells you, “Here is what I want you to do.   Here is the way I want you to do it.  This is the way I want the results to look.  These are the exact steps that I want you to follow.  Do not vary from these steps even a little bit.  Get to work and have a nice day.”

As I write these words I can feel the motivation draining from my own body and mind, just as they would drain from yours. 

Alternatively the boss might tell you, “We need to get these 37 orders processed today.  At the end of the day I need to know that they’ve all been processed, plus I need a report that I can use to track the delivery dates on each one.  Thanks for making this happen. “

As I write those words I find myself asking, “Is that a lot of orders?  More than I would normally do in a day?  If so, what am I going to do to get these orders processed?   Who do I need to ask for help or assistance?  What should the report look like?”

And while I now have more questions than answers, my mind is bubbling with ideas and possibilities; limitations and workarounds; roadblocks and solutions.  In short, I’ve just engaged my brain, my thoughts, and my creativity to find a solution.   I may not know if I can do it, or how I will do it, but I’m sure going to try. 

It may be hard, but it’s going to be fun to figure it out and make it happen!

At least, that’s what your best, most engaged employees are going to tell you.  The one’s that you really need to run your business.  The one’s you can’t afford to lose because they feel bored, undervalued, or underappreciated. 

If you are a leader and you really put yourself into the role described you know exactly what I mean when I say it will be fun to solve the problem and not fun to follow someone else’s solution step by step, with no thought or creativity from me. 

Survey after survey has shown that one of the major things that any high quality employee wants is the ability to be autonomous.  To make decisions on their own, plan their own work, and find creative solutions to problems.  Yet somehow, in the name of management and control, we’ve managed to suck the creativity right out of them by insisting that things be done one way and one way only.   Sometimes we call this process “following procedures”.   Other times we refer to it as “best practices”, which really sounds impressive in terms of the results that someone else got using that procedure.  

The funny thing about “best practices” is that what worked so well for Bob, may not work so well for Sally.   Regardless of what we call it, we need to be careful to not stifle the creativity and autonomy of our best employees.  Instead we need to think about how we would feel if someone always told us exactly what to do and exactly how to do it.  Only then can we begin to unleash the power that is right below the surface for all of our best employees.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees.  We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line.  Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.

Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
http://www.ecilearning.com 

Smart companies are spending more and more time on the concept of engaging their workforce and developing highly energized work teams.  In some of my past articles I’ve written about the value of engaged employees and why many companies fail to take advantage of this simple concept  (see Why Don’t More Companies Engage Their Employees?)

But how does one go about the process of creating an engaged workforce, especially when the workforce is currently disengaged? 

There are a couple of factors involved in creating an engaged workforce including trust in the leadership of the company, an ability to utilize the special talents of the employees, and connection that exists between the employees view of life and the goals of the company.

I’ve written before that great teams are built on the foundation of great leadership and that great leadership is built on the foundation of great trust.  No employee can ever be seriously engaged in their job or their company when they lack trust in the leadership.  An employee that doesn’t trust their manager or executive team views every decision with a jaundiced eye.  They make assumptions that every decision is made for all the wrong reasons.  They make jokes about how incompetent the managers are, and look for every excuse to do as little as possible.

Many companies routinely review turnover to discover if an inordinate amount of employees are leaving from specific departments.  High turnover is usually a sure clue of leadership challenges and disengaged employees.  Of course, with so many companies going through downsizing it becomes more and more difficult to use turnover as the measure of a leader.

But downsizing or no downsizing, the employees know exactly who they trust and who they do not.

And just as every employee knows who they trust, they also know exactly what they are good at and what they are not good at.  One of the reasons that engaged employees love their jobs is that they get to feel successful because they are doing the things that they like and are good at.  Too often an employee is hired because they have a specific skill without regard to the employee's talents or preferences.  Employees hired for skill are often good employees, but not great employees.  They become great employees and engaged employees when they get the chance to do what they do best.

Finally, employees want to feel that their company and their company's mission is special in some way.  Regardless of how mundane your product or service may seem on the surface, they are looking for a personal connection and a source of pride through their company.  Whether that means they are involved in the manufacturing of life saving devices, bringing smiles to children through the toys the company sells, or creating a little creature comfort through the company's outstanding chocolate chip cookies, the employees want their job to have meaning, just like their life.  It’s not always apparent on the surface, but employees are looking for a connection between their personal values and the company's products and services.  Employees who make that connection are much more likely to love what they do, create a positive work environment, and have higher productivity.

Of course, there is much more to employee engagement than just these three items, but they are a start.  I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas as to what does, or would, engage you. 

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees.  We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
 
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line.  Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
 
Until next time.....
 
 
Dave Meyer
http://www.ecilearning.com 

Let me be honest right up front.  I HATE dealing with the airlines.  Business travel always sounds glamorous, but it really is not.  It’s physically and emotionally draining.  And pleasure travel is not much better. 

But the airlines… Oh, the airlines.   They make all of the other pain seem like a trip to Disneyland.  It’s like they are trying to make your life miserable.

It used to be that boarding was done from the back of the plane.  Of course, first class and frequent flyers boarded first.  I had no problem with that.  Even before I earned the privilege I understood the concept of giving benefits to your best customers.  But they didn’t really board from the back. Instead, they would call out rows and anyone who wanted to would board.  They made no attempt to control who boarded, so what would happen would be that you would get in line and then stand there while the guy in 15B stashed all of his stuff, nowhere near the back of the plane.  Of course, he wasn’t alone.  Many others did the same thing, pretty well screwing up any chance you had of boarding efficiently.

Then they changed the boarding process to board by zones.  “This makes sense,” I thought. “They will probably hit window areas first, back of the plane, etc.”   But it didn’t take long for me to figure out that I was in the last group to be boarded, and I was by the window, so my seat mates all had to get out of their seats to let me in.  Once again, I wasn’t alone.  This happened up and down the plane creating all kinds of blockages.  Or course the flight attendants were walking through the cabin closing overhead bins that were “full”.  Except most of them weren’t full.  And people were desperately looking for a place to store their luggage and had to keep opening the same compartments again and again. 

It’s like they are trying to make things tough on their passengers.

Then, in a moment of undisputed brilliance they started charging extra to check your bag through.  And it wasn’t a minimum amount, like $5.  No, it was $20 per bag.  And $25 or $30 each if you wanted to check a second bag.

The response to this from passengers was obvious.  People stopped checking bags.  Instead, they carried more and more things onto the plane, making that boarding process even more torturous.  On one flight I checked my suitcase but carried on my laptop.   When I stored my laptop in the overhead bin I found myself challenged by a flight attendant.  It seems those overhead bins are reserved for people with two carry-ons.

“So,” I said, “I paid more to check my bag and that entitles me to LESS space on the airplane?   I don’t think so“, I said as I sat down, my bag still in the overhead bin. 

It’s like they are trying to take advantage of those people who paid extra. 

And this isn't just with me personally.  Others have worse stories to tell.  In fact one of their passengers did just that.  Follow this link for the video “United breaks guitars”.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&NR=1&feature=fvwp

It’s like they try to anger their passengers.

But in the context of this blog, what exactly is the point?

Simple.   At ECI Learning Systems we talk about how your corporate culture drives your decision making process, and how the synergy between that culture, the leadership styles, and the employee expectations creates the energy that runs your business.   So what is the culture in these airlines (and it’s not just United) that they make decisions that appear to be so “anti-customer”?   Does anyone really believe that the executives sat around and consciously tried to create a culture that was so anti-customer?

But somehow, they did.  Somehow they created an environment where decision after decision makes their customer experience worse.  I’m far from alone in hating the airlines.  In fact, I’ve yet to speak to anyone who enjoys their customer experience with any of the major airlines. 

Here is the big question.  If the airlines have created this type of toxic customer service experience, have other businesses done the same?  Has YOUR business unwittingly created an environment where decisions are being made that are hurting your business?

If you do not know exactly what your customers are thinking about you, it’s time that you found out.  If you don’t know what decisions your culture is driving, it’s time that you found out.  If you are not sure how your employees are representing your business, it’s time that you found out.

Contact ECI Learning today and discover how your company culture is driving your business. 

Until next time….

Dave Meyer
http://www.ecilearning.com  

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. In business a “dead horse” could mean a product that is no longer marketable, a process that has outlived its usefulness, or possibly even an employee who was once a valued contributor, but now, for all intents and purposes, is "dead."  

Unlike the Dakota Indians, modern businessmen have identified alternatives to simply dismounting a dead horse.  Here is a sample of modern alternatives.

1. Buying a stronger whip.
-  Perhaps the horse is not really dead.  If we merely apply more pressure we can get the results we desire.  This idea seldom works.

2. Changing riders.
-  Changing leaders is a common solution when the dead horse is a poorly performing department or company.  Of course, when the new rider declares that the horse is indeed dead, he is hailed as a visionary.

3. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
-  This solution has been popularized in recent years by HR departments whose primary mission is to ensure that the company does not get sued.  This solution leads to a large number of dead horses throughout the organization. 

4. Hire outside consultants to study the dead horse and find the best way to use it.
-  Consultants often produce reams of paper reiterating the fact that the horse is indeed dead.  But since they are paid to find ways to properly utilize the dead horse, they always include a series of recommendations that are neither creative, nor useful.

5. Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.
-  We’ve all seen companies that literally reorganize all of their dead horses into one area and then wonder why the department underperforms.

6.  Declare that a dead horse has lower overhead and therefore performs better.
-  You laugh, but I’m guessing that you recognize this solution as one that your company has used. 

7. Rewrite the expected performance requirements for horses.
-  Another solution popularized by HR. This is generally done under the guise of “being fair” to all of the other dead horses in the organization.

8 Hire a coach for the dead horse.
-  Personally I’ve seen this one a number of times.  Sometimes they even call me.  Here’s the hint that the horse is dead.  The call doesn’t come from the dead horse (after all, they can’t talk) but instead comes from the dead horses boss.  Luckily, I refuse to work with dead horses.

9.  Assign the horse to “special projects”.
-  Sometimes these special projects last a few months, but sometimes the dead horses are around for years.  But it doesn’t take long for a dead horse to start to stink.

10.  Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
 -  Dead horses still weigh a lot.  When a company makes a decision to promote the dead horse to a supervisor they build that weight right into their cost structure.

While this list is not necessarily original, it is nonetheless a too accurate description of how too many organizations handle their “dead horses”.  Look around at your organization.  Do you have one or more “dead horses” on the org chart?   If so, it may be time to heed the wisdom of the Dakota Indians and dismount. 

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees.  We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line.  Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.

Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
http://www.ecilearning.com 

 

"We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature." – Edmund Burke

 

As a leader, you are charged with getting results from your organization, meeting or exceeding your goals and objectives, all while positioning yourself and your organization for future success. 

 

Positioning for the future is about seeing what is coming next and reacting to it.  It’s about a vision for the future, not based on the past, but based on what is coming next.  It’s about preparing for change before you actually know what the change is.

 

Being a leader means guiding yourself and your team through constant change.  You see, progress is not possible without change.  Growth is not possible without change.  Improved results are not possible without change.   For centuries experts have agreed that the only certainties in life are death, taxes….. and change.  (With apologies to Ben Franklin.)

 

Since everyone agrees that change is inevitable, the only question for you is, “Will you be the one driving the change, or will the change run over you?” 

 

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

 

But it is not.  One of the fascinating things about working with DISC (see DISC http://blog.ecilearning.com/categories/DiSC.aspx ) is that it helps us to understand not only people's behaviors, but also their goals, motivations, and fears.   And within the US population a full 69% of the people have a fear of change. 

 

69% …   that’s a lot of people.   And guess who they work for?

 

This means that as you are looking to the future and thinking about next steps, the people who are working for you are thinking about the present and how to keep things going the way they are.  They like stability and knowing what is going to happen next.  It’s not that their fear of change is an overwhelming, paralyzing fear.  Instead it could be described as trepidation over what might go wrong and a desire to make sure that those bad things don’t happen. 

 

For many leaders, they don’t understand this natural fear of change, but they do pick up on the fact that their staff are happy and content with the way things are going and don’t see a need for change.  Sometimes this observation leads to a belief that things really are ok the way they are and can sidetrack the leader from doing what needs to be done. 

 

But let us spend a few moments explaining some of the other truisms about change.  Because while change is inevitable, and while growth cannot happen without change, that should not imply that ALL change is necessarily good or that change automatically means growth. 

 

It doesn’t.

 

As the leader, your job is to identify which growth is positive and which is not; which change is necessary and which is not; which change will result in growth and which will not.  You must study change, analyze it, and when necessary, embrace it.  Making the right decisions on which changes to support and which ones not to support is a delineator between a good leader and a great one. 

 

Making the decisions on change will determine whether you are driving the change and being the leader, or if you will be a bystander and be run over by it.

 

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees.  We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:

•           Your Company Culture

•           The Leadership Styles of your key managers

•           The Expectations of your Employees

 

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line.  Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.

 

Until next time.....

 

 

Dave Meyer

http://www.ecilearning.com 

As a young leader I was very focused on getting results.  (See Background and History at http://blog.ecilearning.com/categories/Background%20and%20History.aspx) Getting results is all that I was focused on because getting results meant getting ahead.   Later I realized the value in engaging the people around me because it allowed me to get even more results; all the while improving morale and creating a loyalty that helped me get through some very tough times.  In fact, it would be impossible to overestimate the value of the loyalty that was created.  My loyal employees not only stopped me from doing some dumb things, but they sacrificed their personal time and put in some Herculean efforts to make things happen to make me look good. 

As I got better as a leader and saw my people going above and beyond the call of duty to make things happen, I developed a belief that part of my job was making my employees “happy”.   Now, there’s nothing wrong with making people happy.  I mean, I would not want to take the opposite view and believe that my job was to make people unhappy, but the more I tried to make people happy the more challenging and confusing my role became.  I would gather key people together before making a big decision to get their input.  And then I would try to incorporate as many of their ideas as possible into a solution.  My belief was that as I incorporated their ideas into the final solution that they would buy into the idea and work harder to implement the changes, thereby making everybody happy while solving the problem.

But I was wrong. 

You see, as a leader you must realize that you cannot, and should not, try and make everyone happy.  “Making everyone happy” is the job description of a comedian, not a leader.  The more I tried to make everyone happy, the more confusing the solutions became.  And sometimes by melding too many ideas together we lost the impact that could come from a simpler solution.  We also lost speed of implementation, and, therefore, created more customer impact then we intended.  Instead of analyzing a problem, identifying the best solution, and implementing it, I would dilute a good solution with ideas from others just to show them that I valued their opinion.   Or worse, when it came time for something to change (and something always needs to change) I would become more focused on how to make sure that everyone was happy with the change rather than making sure that the change was properly thought out, properly planned, and properly implemented. 

All of these troubles were caused by my belief that leadership meant making people happy so that they would work harder.

But people don’t work harder when they are “happy”.  They work harder when they are engaged, when they believe in you and the mission, and they believe that you are doing what you believe is best. 

Eventually I realized that my employees were smarter than I was giving them credit for.  They didn’t need to see THEIR solution implemented.  They needed to see the BEST solution implemented.  They needed to know that I could analyze the possibilities, identify the direction, and communicate that clearly to the team.

Here is the question for you?

Are you focused on finding the right solutions, or are you focused on making people happy?  If you really want to get the most from your team, focus on getting your team engaged by creating and implementing the best solutions, not the most popular ones.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees.  We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line.  Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.

Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
http://www.ecilearning.com