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#Leadership :10 Reopening Actions Every Employer Is Being Urged To Take By Safety Experts. Must Read!

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The recommendations are based on best practices established by the Safe Actions for Employee Returns (SAFER) Task Force, created by the Council in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SAFER is a group composed of representatives from over 50 Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, legal experts, public health professionals, medical professionals and government agency representatives.

The members range from Amazon to Dow to the American Red Cross to the National Governors Association.

“Protecting our workers means coalescing around sets of safety principles and ensuring those principles guide our decisions,” says National Safety Council President and CEO Lorraine Martin.

 

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The 10 measures the Council says each employer needs to take to ensure workers are protected in reopening are:

1. Phasing – Create a phased transition to return to work aligned with risk and exposure levels.

2. Sanitize – Before employees return, disinfect the workplace, and make any physical alterations needed for physical distancing.

3. Screenings – Develop a health status screening process for all employees.

4. Hygiene – Create a plan to handle sick employees, and encourage safe behaviors for good hygiene and infection control.

5. Tracing – Follow proper contact tracing steps if workers get sick to curb the spread of COVID-19.

6. Mental Health – Commit to supporting the mental and emotional health of your workers by sharing support resources and policies. I always have a pill of Viagra in the pocket. This little blue tablet is my only way to get an erection. If I take it on an empty stomach, the effect can appear within 20 minutes if not less. That’s the thing I love about this drug. Besides, generic Viagra comes in several medical forms, which allows experimenting.

7. Training – Train leaders and supervisors not only on the fundamentals of safety such as risk assessment and hazard recognition but also on the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health and wellbeing, as employees, will feel the effects of the pandemic long after it is over.

8. Engagement Plan – Notify employees in advance of the return to work, and consider categorizing workers into different groups based on job roles – bringing groups back one at a time.

9. Communication – Develop a communications plan to be open and transparent with workers on your return to work process.

10. Assessment – Outline the main factors your organization is using as guidance to provide a simplistic structure to the extremely complex return to work decision.

Author:  Ted Knutson- Contributor Personal Finance I cover financial regulatory issue, cybersecurity, fintech & bitcoin.

 

Forbes.com | May 19, 2020

#Leadership : #MangingPeople – Why Companies Should Stop Trying So Hard to Make their Employees Happy. A Must REad for Every #Manger !

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Companies often promise their employees happiness to attract and retain the brightest talent—but in reality, if you want happy employees, you need to hire happy people.

The thing is, happiness isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution and is extremelydifficult to deliver. Offering perks like free yoga in the office, catered lunches, or gym reimbursements could theoretically make some employees happy. However, it may not mean anything at all to those who value flexible work programs or better learning opportunities.

Guaranteeing your employees happiness will result in an ongoing uphill battle. There will always be individuals in the organization who are unhappy, no matter what the company provides in terms of perks and benefits. To create a great workplace environment, you need to make a simple paradigm shift. Stop trying so hard to make your employees happy, and focus on their satisfaction instead. Here are three ways that you can do that:

1. GIVE YOUR EMPLOYEES OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW AND DEVELOP

Employees won’t be engaged unless they’re doing meaningful, challenging work. That goes beyond leveraging their skills and knowledge in the current role.

You might argue that just like happiness, “meaning” is a subjective thing that differs from employee to employee, and you would be right. However, there is a way for you to cultivate this kind of environment. As Stephanie Vozza previously wrote for Fast Company, you can remind your team why their work matters in the context of bigger organizational goals. As Bill Donoghue, CEO of the training provider solutions Skillsoft, told Vozza, “Every individual needs to feel a sense of ‘I matter,’ that showing up every day makes a difference.”

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2. CREATE A CULTURE OF CONSISTENT FEEDBACK

Of course, you can’t help an employee grow without understanding their goals, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. That’s why you need to ensure that there is a culture of continuous feedback.

Don’t create the expectation and practice that feedback only happens within the confines of an annual review. This kind of structure makes it drastically less effective and creates more anxiety than improvement. According to a 2016 survey by data firm Clutch, 68% of employees who receive accurate and consistent feedback feel fulfilled in their jobs.

Creating this kind of culture goes beyond instructing your managers to do so. You need to establish transparent processes and guidelines, and train managers so that they’re aligned and consistent in how they approach the employee experience.

Feedback shouldn’t be a one-way street either. Employees need to be able to provide feedback up, down, and across the company, and they need to have the opportunity to share their ideas for improvement with the company. Employees that feel their voices are heard are nearly five times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work, according to a 2018 Gallup survey. When companies encourage employees to take an active role in their own growth and development—as well as contribute to the development of their manager, peers, and company culture via feedback, they will naturally feel more invested and engaged.

3. FOSTER A SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND BELONGING

The third pillar of employee engagement centers on creating a strong sense of community, belonging, and support within the workplace. Companies should make it easy for employees to connect with those who have similar interests or experiences—like creating affinity groups for women in tech or new parents. While the company can’t possibly form and manage all of the employee interest groups that people want, you can provide a platform for employees to do so organically.

Many companies spend time and effort trying to bring happiness in the workplace—but they’re putting their focus on the wrong thing. Companies should strive to maximize employee satisfaction. When you create an environment where employees feel engaged, you’ll probably find that happiness comes naturally.

Author: Deena Fox is the CEO and Founder of Brightfox.

 

FastCompany.com | July 21, 2019

#CareerAdvice : #ProductivePeople – 11 CEOs share the Bad Habits they Want to Ditch in 2019. Great Read!

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While you’re busy making lofty resolutions for 2019, it’s important to also think about the things you don’t want to do in the new year. Whether you’re spending too much time fielding emails or reading the news, chances are you could be more productive—or simply happier—by making a few tweaks in and out of the office. We asked a number of CEOs about the habits they hope to kick in 2019.

MULTITASKING IN AND OUT OF THE OFFICE

It’s no secret that your productivity suffers when you multitask—a habit multiple CEOs said they want to cut back on. Hussein Fazal, the CEO of travel startup SnapTravel, notes that people often spend “downtime” checking work emails and messages—and then spend their “work time” looking at personal emails and messages. (Perhaps this sounds familiar?) “It is super important to compartmentalize these time blocks,” he says, “to ensure maximum productivity while working and to minimize work distractions while enjoying downtime.” To that end, Fazal has turned off nearly all notifications on his phone and frequently keeps his phone on “do not disturb” mode.

But even when you don’t let personal agendas interrupt your workday, it can be difficult to truly focus on one task (and one tab!) at a time. That’s why Heidi Zak, CEO of lingerie startup ThirdLove, no longer brings her laptop to meetings. “I’ve found I’m much more engaged and present,” she says. Cheryl Kaplan, cofounder of shoe startup M.Gemi, says that because she often finds herself multitasking, in 2019 she wants to “focus on being present,” whether it’s at work or at home. “Face time is precious, but sometimes it gets difficult to focus on what or who is in front of me,” she says. “My goal is to put all my attention on the conversation or task at hand, instead of trying to give partial attention to a few different things at once.”

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TAKING YOUR PHONE INTO THE BEDROOM

If you’re dreaming of more peaceful sleep in the new year, you’re on the right track. “Stop trying to be a ‘hustler’ who works 24/7 and never sleeps,” advises Peter Shankman, the CEO of The Geek Factory and an author who has written and spoken extensively about living with ADHD. “Take care of yourself first and foremost. You can’t make a million dollars if you’re dead.” Founders like Tara Foley, the founder of beauty startup Follain, plan to make sleeping well a priority in 2019—even if it means not finishing work. “I get a more restful sleep if I get in bed earlier, and I get more done with my day if I’ve gotten enough sleep,” she says. Alana Branston, CEO of the retail startup Bulletin, intends to start going to bed before midnight.

For some CEOs, sleeping more soundly means unplugging. “I am working on creating a phone-free bedroom environment,” says investor Anu Duggal, who started Female Founders Fund. And Ariel Kaye, the CEO of bedding startup Parachute, is already on her way to a bedroom devoid of screens. “This is extremely challenging for me,” Kaye says. “I’ve started using an alarm clock and charge my phone outside of the bedroom. I’m already seeing the benefits—not only do I sleep much more soundly without the blue light from my phone, but I’m now in the habit of reading at night.”

Plus, the better you sleep, the less likely you are to hit the snooze button—a bad habit that Shankman cautions against. “Getting up a half hour earlier will radically improve your life in countless ways,” he says.

STRETCHING YOURSELF TOO THIN

One way to address both multitasking and sleepless nights is to take on less and say no more, as Eunice Byun—the founder of cookware startup Material—hopes to do in 2019. “As an entrepreneur with an under-one-year-old business, I catch myself feeling like we need to be ready to seize every opportunity,” she says. Over time, she has realized that when she is “more purposeful and intentional” about where she spends her energy, it is easier to stay true to her company mission. “It’s fun and exhilarating to be in hyper-growth mode, but saying ‘no’ can be just as important to growing long-term,” she adds.

As a founder, doing less also means delegating effectively—something that can be difficult if you have built a company from the ground up. “The single worst habit I have—that I continue to work on—is micromanagement,” says Zahir Dossa, CEO of beauty startup Function of Beauty. “It isn’t easy to detach from the day-to-day tasks that I was once used to occupying. The most important thing that leads me to let go of things, however, is trust in the people [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][who] now lead these initiatives.”

NOT COUNTING YOUR WINS

Vivian Shen, founder of coding startup Juni Learning, says that in 2019, she wants to focus on creating good habits. One of those is making time to take stock of positive developments. “Given all the negative news throughout the past year, I believe it is more important than ever to practice gratitude,” she says. “We so often focus on what went wrong or what we could have done better. We don’t intentionally take the time to reflect on and truly celebrate the wins at work or in our personal lives. As a CEO, I feel that consistently showing appreciation for our team’s accomplishments needs to be core to our company’s DNA if we’re going to build a successful, long-term company.”

Pavithra Mohan is an assistant editor for Fast Company Digital. Her writing has previously been featured in Gizmodo and Popular Science magazine.

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FastCompany.com | December 26, 2018

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#CareerAdvice : How to Talk to Anyone from the CEO to the Interns at your #CompanyHolidayParty … Great Read!

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It’s that time of year when parties fill your calendar. Mingling with both people you know very well and those you never speak to, you might be you a little nervous. But little nervousness goes a long way to helping you get ready. Saying the wrong things can be career limiting, just as saying the right things to the right people can be career enhancing.

If you want to make a great impression, think ahead to what you’ll say. When the corks are popping and hors d’oeuvres are being passed around, you’ll have some key messages to deliver. Here’s how you can prepare to be spontaneous in  four conversations you can expect to have at your office holiday party:

WHAT TO SAY TO THE CEO

You might worry most about speaking with your CEO–or with any high-ranking executive. With that in mind, you could decide to give it a pass. But that’s a no-win strategy. Instead, take a deep breath and walk over to that senior executive. Make sure she’s not engaged in a conversation with someone else. If she is, wait, watch, and go for it when the she is free. That itself takes a keen eye.

Extend your hand, and introduce yourself. Don’t say, “I’m Aesha, I work in sales.” That introduction will go nowhere. As you shake hands, be sure to share your full name, and do so with confidence and eye contact. Tell your CEO not where you work but what you contribute. So, if you’re in sales, you might say, “I’m Aesha Patel, and I’ve helped corporate banking have its best year ever.” Or you might state, “I oversee our expanding relationship with NBR Bank.”

Now you’re talking your CEO’s language. Any one in authority will love to hear these positive messages, and will be able to build upon your narrative. If it sounds like boasting to you it will sound like success to your company’s officers.

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HOW TO CONNECT WITH YOUR BOSS

Don’t even think of avoiding your boss, even if you’re shy or don’t particularly care for the person you’re reporting to. This is a great opportunity to strengthen those important ties, and present yourself as a confident person, comfortable in your job. The key is showing your boss you appreciate him.

As you plan for this conversation, think about the one thing you admire, respect, or like about your boss. It could be his ability to inspire his team, or his dedication to the department’s success. You might appreciate that he mentors you and others. You might also respect him because he’s a great dad who manages to balance work and family.

Think ahead and get your message clear in your mind. Here are some possibilities: “I want to thank you believing in all of us on the communications team and being such an excellent mentor.” Or, “You know, one thing I’ve noticed this year is how devoted a dad you are. You’ve shown us by your example how to make the work-life balance successful.”

CHATTING WITH A COLLEAGUE

The fun conversations often are with friends and close colleagues. Networking with them can be full of laughter, sharing confidences, and making plans. But here again you have an opportunity to build relationships. So take full advantage of these encounters.
As you’re thinking about the event, decide which of your colleagues and friends you want to spend time with and what you want to say. In each case, there is an opportunity to take the relationship to the next level.
Here are some angles: If a colleague and you have been working on a project, tell them it’s been a great experience, and suggest what you might do in the next year. Or if you know your colleague is hunting for a job, say you may have someone she can talk to. If you two have young children, share the excitement of having little people during the holidays. Suggest getting the kids together in the New Year. The point is to build the relationship.

APPROACHING A STRANGER

There will no doubt be people at the holiday party that you don’t know. Well, be sure to take time to reach out to a few of them. They might be new employees, clients, spouses, or partners. Make them feel welcome by going up to them and saying, “Hi, I’m Donovan Elliott. Great that you could join us.”
What unfolds is not necessarily a conversation you could have planned, but it will be special because you’ve taken the time to give an outsider a warm welcome.

If it’s a client who’s been invited to the event, tell them, “We love working with your team.” If the person is a new employee, ask how they like their job. Offer to have a lunch with them in the near future to discuss any questions they might have. The important thing is (1) that you have made a point of reaching out and (2) you do a lot of listening. They’ll remember you for those gracious qualities.

Basically, it’s a party, so keep your discussions warm and positive. Avoid contentious topics that can drive things off the rails. And contribute to everyone’s joy (and your own career success!) by preparing what you’ll say, whom you want to talk to, and how you’ll reach out to those you don’t know.

Judith Humphrey is founder of The Humphrey Group, a premier leadership communications firm headquartered in Toronto. She is a communications expert whose business teaches global clients how to communicate as confident, compelling leaders

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FastCompany.com | December 12, 2018

Your #Career : You Need To Talk To Your Company’s #CEO —Here’s Why And What To Say… #SeniorExecs Don’t Need to Know you By Name, But they Should at Least Have a General Sense of your Existence & Function in the Organization.

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Soon after I got my first faculty job, I was sitting with a friend of mine–another psychologist–who’d recently been hired for her first job at another university. She said to me, “Our next task is to become independent nodes in people’s conceptual networks.” That was psychology speak for, “Now we need to make sure people know who we are.”

She was right. The reasons why it’s so important for people to know you who you are are all really simple but can be easy to miss: They can’t give you credit for anything you do if they don’t know what you do. They can’t think of you for new assignments if they don’t know you exist. They can’t plan for a future that involves you specifically if they can’t remember your past contributions.

In other words, you need to introduce yourself to some of the top people in your organization–or at least to people higher up than you and your immediate supervisor. Yes, these are people you don’t directly work with, and that’s precisely the point. Here’s how to strike up such a conversation, and what to say when you do.

Related: What To Say When You’re Stuck In The Elevator With Your Boss’s Boss

LOOK FOR AN OPENING, NOT AN APPOINTMENT

You goal should be to keep it pretty informal, so don’t schedule a time to meet. There may be public events at the company that give you an opportunity to meet top-level leaders. I frequently give talks at small and mid-size companies that senior leaders attend, and there’s usually social time before and after internal events like these for other employees to introduce themselves. Yet I’m always surprised how few people make the effort just to say hi. Don’t let a chance like that go to waste.

Good leaders try to make themselves visible around the office. They might even just walk around on occasion intending to meet people. Or they’ll jump into meetings to listen in on what’s happening. In situations like these, it may feel uncomfortable to go up to the CEO or some other exec and start chatting. You might feel like you’re brown nosing. But leaders probably won’t see it that way at all–it’s what they’re hoping you’ll do. Chances are you’ll be seen as taking some initiative rather than currying favor.

If you’re worried about sticking your neck out, ask your boss for help. Good supervisors also want to be able to show off their team members. After all, part of what makes someone a good manager is how well they mentor new talent. So they’ll want their bosses to know they’re developing the people who work for them. If you have a supportive supervisor, see if there’s a chance to get an introduction to more senior leaders.

Related: Your Guide To Communicating With Upper Management

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WHAT TO SAY

The aim of having an introductory conversation with one of your company’s bigwigs is just to say hello, let the person know what division you work in, and share your excitement about what you do. That’s it.

If you get to have a longer conversation, so much the better, though you should probably just prepare a 30-second description of the most important project you’re working on. If you’re nervous, you might even want to practice delivering that short description to your wall or to a friend a few times to make sure it really is short and clear.

Even if the exec you say hello to doesn’t remember your name later on, they’ll be more likely to recognize you the next time they see you. Plus, your name will at least sound familiar if it’s mentioned again in context. That familiarity will carry some positive feeling along with it. Becoming an “independent node in people’s conceptual networks” isn’t as complicated as it sounds–and it barely takes a minute.

 

FastCompany.com | April 26, 2018 | BY ART MARKMAN 3 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : The Fastest Path to the #CEOJob, According to a 10-Year Study…Some People’s #Careers Take Off, while Others’ Take Longer — or Even Stall Out.

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Common wisdom says that the former attend elite MBA programs, land high-powered jobs right out of school at prestigious firms, and climb the ladder straight to the top, carefully avoiding risky moves. But our data shows a completely different picture.

We conducted a 10-year study, which we call the CEO Genome Project, in which we assembled a data set of more than 17,000 C-suite executive assessments and studied 2,600 in-depth to analyze who gets to the top and how. We then took a closer look at “CEO sprinters” — those who reached the CEO role faster than the average of 24 years from their first job.

We discovered a striking finding: Sprinters don’t accelerate to the top by acquiring the perfect pedigree. They do it by making bold career moves over the course of their career that catapult them to the top. We found that three types of career catapults were most common among the sprinters. Ninety-seven percent of them undertook at least one of these catapult experiences and close to 50% had at least two. (In contrast, only 24% had elite MBAs.)

Through these career catapults, executives build the specific behaviors that set successful CEOs apart — including decisiveness, reliability, adaptability, and the ability to engage for impact — and they get noticed for their accomplishments. The catapults are so powerful that even people in our study who never aspired to become CEO ultimately landed the position by pursuing one or more of these strategies.

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Go Small to Go Big

The path to CEO rarely runs in a straight line; sometimes you have to move backward or sideways in order to get ahead. More than 60% of sprinters took a smaller role at some point in their career. They may have started something new within their company (by launching a new product or division, for example), moved to a smaller company to take on a greater set of responsibilities, or started their own business. In each case, they used the opportunity to build something from the ground up and make an outsize impact.

In his late twenties, “James” was hired in a strategy and business development role inside a multibillion-dollar marketing and communications business. Early in his career, he was offered the chance to build out one of the new businesses. It felt like a demotion, or at best a lateral move, to be handed a blank org chart and a highly uncertain future. “It was zero revenue when I stepped in, and we built that business to $250 million,” he says. By building a new business from scratch, he picked up essential management skills, such as running a P&L, managing a budget, and setting a strategic vision — all critical prerequisites to becoming a CEO (over 90% of the CEOs we studied had general management experience). Thirteen years later, he found himself the CEO of a $1.5 billion education and training business.

Make a Big Leap

More than one-third of sprinters catapulted to the top by making “the big leap,” often in the first decade of their careers. These executives threw caution to the wind and said yes to opportunities even when the role was well beyond anything they’ve done previously and they didn’t feel fully prepared for the challenges ahead.

Take, for example, “Jerry,” who at age 24 joined a $200 million business as a senior accountant. Eight months after being hired, he was offered the CFO position, leapfrogging the controller who hired him. Though he was young and still learning the ropes, he embraced the challenge with gusto. “I was very young for my level, and I was given responsibility ahead of my readiness,” he says. As CFO, he gained insight into a broad set of functions and proved his ability to thrive in a new, uncertain environment. Within nine years, after a stint as COO, he landed his first CEO role.

If you don’t expect this kind of opportunity to fall into your lap, you are not alone. However, what we heard from these sprinters is an attitude of “You make your own luck.” Seek out cross-functional projects that touch numerous aspects of the business. Get involved in a merger integration. Ask your boss for additional responsibilities. Tackle tough, complex problems. Above all, make a habit of saying “yes” to greater opportunities — ready or not.

Inherit a Big Mess

It may feel counterintuitive, and a bit daunting, but one way to prove your CEO mettle is by inheriting a big mess. It could be an underperforming business unit, a failed product, or a bankruptcy — any major problem for the business that needs to be fixed fast. More than 30% of our sprinters led their teams through a big mess.

Messy situations cry out for strong leadership. When faced with a crisis, emerging leaders have an opportunity to showcase their ability to assess a situation calmly, make decisions under pressure, take calculated risks, rally others around them, and persevere in the face of adversity. In other words, it’s great preparation for the CEO job.

“Jackie,” the CEO of a transport company, didn’t wait for the big mess to find her. She sought it out. “I liked working on something that was a mess and needed to be figured out: IT, cost, tax. It didn’t matter,” she says. “I got the ugliest assignments. I could unscramble them and figure out an answer.” By stepping up and risking her career on the jobs nobody else dared to tackle, Jackie proved she could deliver results for the good of the company. She landed her first CEO role 20 years after day one in her first job.

While there is no single path to the CEO seat, these career catapults can be replicated by anyone who aspires to a leadership position, and could be especially powerful for those who may find it harder to get to the top. Women, for example, take 30% longer to get to the CEO role, according to Korn Ferry.

Accelerating your career through these catapults doesn’t require an elite MBA or a select mix of inborn traits, but it does require a willingness to make lateral, unconventional, and even risky career moves. It’s not for the faint of heart. But if you aspire to top leadership, you might as well get used to it.

                                                                   Harvard Business Review | JANUARY 31, 2018

Elena Lytkina Botelho, Kim Rosenkoetter Powell, Nicole Wong

#Leadership : Five CEOS On The Skills It Takes To Land The Corner Office…These Business Leaders Share Some of the Skills they Didn’t Expect They’d Need Once they Tot to the Top.

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The lure of the top corner office is strong, but there’s a reason not everybody grows up to be the head of a company—the job is a massive undertaking. CEOs are asked to do it all: setting strategy, closing deals, hiring people, firing people, calming irate customers, fixing broken light switches. And sometimes that’s just by 10 a.m. on Monday.
CEO Image Getty

Of course, the job doesn’t end there. Monster talked to several CEOs to find out what must-haves you need before you can consider yourself cut out for the gig.

1. HOW TO SAY NO

Whether you’re leading a team of 20 people or you’re a giant in the industry, it can be hard to turn down opportunities to grow, says David Nilssen, CEO of Guidant Financial, a small-business financing company based in Bellevue, Washington. CEOs are often looking for new ideas and markets, and when opportunities come up, it can be tempting to take every one.

But a CEO has to learn how to say no.

“The ability to scale will come from stripping out distraction and complexity from the system,” Nilssen says. So focus on whether these opportunities are really ones you can fulfill or merely serve as a distraction from your main mission.

 

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2. HOW TO PITCH

Sometimes, the opportunities don’t come knocking; sometimes you need to do the knocking. You have to be able to make a case for your company to outsiders.

“That applies whether you’re looking for investment dollars or appealing to the board of directors on something you really want to make a priority for the company,” says Clark Benson, CEO of Ranker.com, a Los Angeles-based company that compiles crowdsourced lists online.

“You just really need to know how to pitch, and it’s not as easy as it sounds,” he continues. “It’s a learned skill that you have to invest hours in to be really good at. You don’t really realize how much you, the CEO, are also expected to be the hype guy.”

3. HOW TO READ FINANCIALS

Anne-Marie Faiola, CEO of Bramble Berry, a soap-making supply company in Bellingham, Washington, says she wishes she had had the ability to read financial statements before she started her business.

“Unfortunately, I learned how to read those reports the hard way—by being embezzled from or by having to draw on a line of credit because I couldn’t read a cash-flow analysis properly,” she says.

Faiola went back to school to get an MBA, focusing on accounting. “This is a skill that can be learned,” she says. Even getting familiar with the basics of business finance can help prevent disasters down the line.

4. HOW TO TAKE CRITICISM

“When you’re at the top, you’re the primary target for people’s criticism,” says Timothy Trudeau, CEO of Syntax Creative, a San Diego-based digital marketing company focused on music distribution. “You need to be able to hear this criticism and do something about it, all the while not taking things personally.”

At the core of criticism lies a valuable learning opportunity: People are telling you they want to see change. As CEO, change is something you need to know how to facilitate. Writing off criticism as mere complaining misses the point entirely.

And when the criticism isn’t warranted, you’ll simply need to find ways to move on. Trudeau says CEOs must take the high road, even if they have been treated unfairly.

5. KNOWING HOW THE WORK REALLY GETS DONE

When Erin Jump Fry became CEO of Fancy Fortune Cookies in Indianapolis in 2005, she knew she’d have to be familiar with the business—but she didn’t know that would include details like how the baking machines worked.

“As the person who has to approve equipment purchases and repairs, I eventually realized I needed to have hands-on knowledge of how all our custom machinery works so I could source upgrades and additional machines, and know how to talk to engineers and machinery designers in their terms,” she says.

Even though the day-to-day details are no longer in your job description as CEO, understanding your production processes has serious benefits. Knowing how the sausage gets made at your company can help you identify efficiencies and estimate your ability to scale. And if the need arises, you can step into different roles in an emergency.

“I didn’t expect to have to pitch in and work production for huge orders,” Fry says, “but when someone calls in sick on a day when you need to ship 40,000 cookies, then it’s all hands into the bakery.”

FastCompany.com | MARY ELLEN SLAYTER, MONSTER |  11.16.16 5:00 AM

#Leadership : 4 Ways Leaders Kill Productivity…You May be Holding your Business Back Without Even Realizing It.

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Businesses often reflect its leaders, which is why you should work on developing traits that make you a good business leader and killing those that are harming you and your business.

argue-conflict-workplace

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” – Peter F. Drucker

As a business leader and a blogger, my level of productivity is greatly determined by the skills I possess and the various productivity tools I’ve acquired over the years. The same applies to all entrepreneurs of every stripe and color. It’s important to constantly self-examine your progress. I do this by regularly asking myself the following questions.

  • How far have I come?
  • What got me to where I am today?
  • Am I really delivering as expected?
  • Do I find it difficult to keep up with expectations?

Related: 22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader

Too many business leaders fail to reach their full potential because they have an internal hold-back button and fail to take their fingers off of it. In this post, I’ll identify four common struggles that you may not realize are holding you back and harming your business.

1. You’re afraid to fail.

“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others” – Robert Louis Stevenson

You will fail and make mistakes a lot, as a business leader. The good news is it’s a necessary part of the path to success because running a business isn’t a hurdle-free process.

When your mind is filled with thoughts of failure coming up with actionable strategies to help boost your business can be difficult, if not impossible.

You may ask yourself: But what if I lose my job or sink my business by making one wrong choice? And I’ll say: Well, if your business dies as a result of inaction, you’ll be in the same boat. By not taking any risks, you’ll never set yourself up for the rewards that success can bring.

According to the founder of iCustomLabel Nick Chachula, great leaders are good at taking risks, because they keep themselves open for the opportunities. They see around the corner, have their homework done and are upfront about taking a shot at the given opportunity.

 

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2. You’re too independent.

Yes, you’re the leader; therefore, you should have the power to single-handedly manage the business all by yourself, right? Wrong. No one has the ability to grow a business and increase all-around productivity without relying on others at times.

The truth is this – in running a successful business, the role of teamwork can’t be neglected. In the words of Ken Blanchard, “None of us is as smart as all of us.”

Getting ideas from various sources will help you make well-informed decisions and take calculated risks. It will also lead to a rise in your productivity because you’ll be able to spend more time on things you do well. To rise above the challenges, you’ll need to kill the one man army mentality before it kills you.

Related: 10 Signs That You Suck As a Leader

3. You’re too scared to make decisions.

“It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.” – Jim Rohn

As a business leader, the decisions you make strongly determine outcome of your business, so I understand the pressure. I really do.

Having the buck stop at your table can get overwhelming. And making good decisions will help boost your productivity, almost as quickly as poor decisions will kill productivity.

According to French Entrepreneur Julien Labrousse, decisions must be made. And guess what: every leader struggles with a fear of making poor decisions at some point. One way to get over this fear is to seek counsel and delve into available data. This will give you the foundation you need in order to trust your gut instinct. It’s never a bad idea to gather information and professional opinions. Just don’t delay unnecessarily.

4. You’re not humble.

“Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.” — Ezra Taft Benson

You just might be a great leader, but don’t forget that your team can always make you better. They may indirectly let you know when you’re taking the wrong steps. But leaders, who lacks humility, will tend to ignore any kind of constructive feedback.

Being a humble leader doesn’t mean accepting everything that your team says, but it does mean having a willingness to listen to the views of others, and give their suggestions fair consideration.

Related: How Thoughtful Leaders Earn Employee Loyalty

It also means giving credit where credit is due. It means recognizing and rewarding the efforts of your team. Acknowledging the contributions of others is a great way to foster humility, and encourage positive results from your team.

Businesses often reflect its leaders, which is why you should work on developing traits that make you a good business leader and killing those that are harming you and your business.

Entrepreneur.com | October 7, 2016 |  Toby Nwazor

#Leadership : How to Fire Someone So They’ll Thank You For It… Firing People is Never Fun, But it can Leave Everyone Better Off if it’s Done Right.

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I described how our new CEO determined that we had to fire almost half our team. This sucked for many reasons, but the main one? It was emotional. Firing a terrible person is easy, but how do you fire a good person who is a bad fit in a way that doesn’t hurt them?

Free- Man at Desktop

In an earlier post, I described how our new CEO determined that we had to fire almost half our team. This sucked for many reasons, but the main one? It was emotional. Firing a terrible person is easy, but how do you fire a good person who is a bad fit in a way that doesn’t hurt them?

That was the next lesson from our new CEO, JT McCormick. He showed us how to fire someone, not just with dignity and respect, but in a way where they actually thank you for the experience. Literally, three of the five people he fired wrote him emails thanking him afterwards.

Here’s exactly what he did:

1. Transition from coaching them up, to coaching them out.

As I wrote in the last post, before you fire someone you should identify where they’re not performing, show them, set clear objectives, and give them the coaching they need to achieve them. If you’ve done this, and they nail it, grea — you won’t have to fire them.

As you are working through this process, you generally know if they are going to make it or not. If they don’t look like they’re going to make it, then the process to fire them starts. You start to move from from coaching them up, to coaching them out.

Related: ‘Mentoring’ and ‘Leadership Coaching’ Are Not the Same. Do You Know the Difference?

Done right, the processes naturally flow into each other, because they’re both about empathy. “Once you shift to coaching them out, it’s a very delicate series of conversations to get this person to see that they’re not a fit, see why they don’t fit and where they can’t grow with the company, and maybe see a path for them towards something else,” McCormick said. “The first coaching out conversation is diagnosing whether they’re not performing because they’re in the wrong chair. Ask them, ‘If you could do any job in the company, what would it be?'”

If you get a decisive answer, McCormick said, then you have to evaluate if they have the skills for that role. You can even test them in that role.

If you get an answer like, ‘I’m not sure’, then go one step further and ask them if they could create any role in the company — for themselves, what would it be? Have them describe the perfect job for themselves. “If they can’t tell you that,” McCormick said, “then it’s obvious, and not just to you. They’ll start to see this isn’t the place for them.

“The best result here is that they describe a job that does fit them really well, but does not exist in your company. Then they not only see that the company isn’t the right place for them, but that a place does exist for them somewhere else. So the real thing you’re trying to understand yourself, and help them to see, is not only are they not performing, but they’re probably not performing for a reason, and so the best thing possible for them is to move jobs.”

 

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2. Make the dismissal about their dignity and humanity, not corporate HR rules.

Once the decision has been made to fire them, it’s time to stop coaching them out, and fire them. Now you make it completely about them. During the firing conversation, don’t focus on why you’re firing them; that groundwork has been laid already. Now it’s time to help them.

In the firing conversation, McCormick said, don’t focus on the negatives of what they’ve done. “We’ve already talked about this over the past few weeks, so why do that? I’ll go over it quickly, and then move on. I want to focus on the best plan of action for the exit so this person can move on with their life. You want to do right by them.”

This also means not talking to them in a dry, corporate, distant style. It means talking to them and like a human, and treating them like someone you know and value and care about.

“Big corporations have turned firing conversations into these HR nightmares where they’re afraid to say or do anything,” McCormick said. “The conversations are so cold and cutthroat, they really dehumanize people. To hell with that. You know this person, they are a good person, treat them like it.”

Related: The Right Way to Fire An Employee

But this also means not pretending everything is fine. It’s not. They’re getting fired. “On the startup side,” he said, “the problem I see is that entrepreneurs let their feelings get in the way of saying what needs to be said. You have to be able to have a straight conversation with someone regarding the stark truth of what’s happening. Candor is a way of being kind.”

And sometimes, this means letting them say goodbye.

McCormick expands on that thought — “For many people, if they aren’t a complete asshole, you let them say goodbye, especially to the people they were friends with. Especially in startups where some of these folks were key in helping the growth of the company. You let that person save face and exit gracefully. You don’t escort them out with security, like they’re some animal. You treat them with respect by showing them you care about them.”

3. Let them know you will support them, and then actually do it.

That final conversation also needs to let them know, very clearly and specifically, what you are going to do to help them now. Remember — for you, this is the end of their tenure at your company. But they’re not dying. For them, this is their life.

For starters, McCormick said, his company gives the best severance package possible. “If possible, I like to pay eight weeks severance. To have a two month safety net to find their next opportunity really makes them feel safe and cared for, and they can relax,” he said.

McCormick tells employees not only will he write them a recommendation, but he’ll tell them what he’ll say in it. “I give them suggestions about what jobs to go after, based on our earlier conversations about what they want. I even offer to refer them to places I think they will be a good fit with.

“And most importantly,” he continues, “I tell them that this doesn’t have to be the end of our relationship. I’ll answer any questions, and I’ll give them any advice or help I can. Email me. Call me. Text me. I’m here for you if you need me. And I mean it. Most don’t take me up on this, but they still appreciate it, because they know it’s real. And they feel valued and cared for, even while being fired.”

And it works. Done correctly, McCormick said, the fired employees will learn a lot about themselves, and will eventually end up in a better place in their life because of what they learned from the process. “And they will email you and thank you afterwards.”

Related: The Secret to Becoming Exactly Who You Want to Be

I never would have believed this until I saw it happen. Three different people from our company sent our CEO thank you emails after they left. His coaching had helped them see things about themselves, and his candor and kindness had been a real benefit to them.

Firing people is never fun, but it can leave everyone better off if it’s done right.

#Leadership : 5 Insights from a Classic Leadership Book by an Executive Coach Who’s Helped over 150 CEOs … If you’re Set on Progressing in your Career, You’ve got to Commit Yourself to a Course of Personal Development, Which will Likely Be as Uncomfortable as it is Rewarding.

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“What Got You Here Won’t Get You There“ highlights the 20 workplace habits that keep business leaders from success.  Author Marshall Goldsmith, a top executive coach who’s worked with more than 150 CEOs and been named multiple times to theThinkers50 list of influential management thinkers, published the bestselling book with Mark Reiter in 2007.

marshall-goldsmith

Marshall Goldsmith.YouTube

His goal was to help managers at all levels pinpoint exactly which behaviors they need to change and how to do it.  The thrust is that just because you’ve been able to get by with your counterproductive habitsdoesn’t mean you’ll be able to reach the top of your field with those same tendencies.

If you’re set on progressing in your career, you’ve got to commit yourself to a course of personal development, which will likely be as uncomfortable as it is rewarding.

Below, Business Insider breaks down the book’s five most important insights on becoming an effective leader:

1. Don’t fall into the ‘superstition trap’

Your destructive habits — from taking credit for others’ efforts to constantly making excuses — probably aren’t what helped you reach this level of success, and they definitely won’t help you get further.

Here’s Goldsmith:

“One of the greatest mistakes of successful people is the assumption, ‘I behave this way, and I achieve results. Therefore, I must be achieving results because I behave this way.’

“This belief is sometimes true, but not across the board. That’s where superstition kicks in. It creates the core fallacy necessitating this book, the reason that ‘what got us here won’t get us there.’ I’m talking about the difference between success that happens because of our behavior and the success that comes in spite of our behavior.”

 

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2. Technical chops aren’t enough for leaders

Interpersonal skills get more and more important as you climb the corporate ladder.

Here’s Goldsmith:

“At the higher levels of organizational life, all the leading players are technically skilled. They’re all smart. They’re all up to date on the technical aspects of their job. …

“That’s why behavioral issues become so important at the upper rungs of the corporate ladder. All other things being equal, your people skills (or lack of them) become more pronounced the higher up you go. In fact, even when all other things are not equal, your people skills often make the difference in how high you go.”

3. Your effectiveness as a leader is based on others’ perceptions of you

What you think of yourself doesn’t matter as much — so stop trying to conform to some arbitrary notion of your unique self.

Here’s Goldsmith:

“It’s an interesting equation: Less me. More them. Equals success.

“Keep this in mind when you find yourself resisting change because you’re clinging to a false — or pointless — notion of ‘me.’ It’s not about you. It’s about what other people think of you.”

4. Listening to what other people say is the most important skill for a leader to develop

That’s especially true if you’re trying to change your habits.

Here’s Goldsmith:

“The only difference between us and the super-successful among us — the near-great and the great — is that the great ones  [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][listen] all the time. It’s automatic for them. For them there’s no on and off switch for caring and empathy and showing respect. It’s always on. They don’t rank personal encounters as A, B, or C in importance. They treat everyone equally — and everyone eventually notices.”

5. You need to pick and choose your areas of improvement

It’s best to focus on what’s causing the biggest problem among the biggest group of people.

Here’s Goldsmith:

“Take a look around your office. Someone’s the best salesman. Someone else is the best accountant. Someone else is the best manager. No one is the best at everything.

“This isn’t a license for mediocrity. It’s a reality check. It’s your permission to deal in trade-offs and pick one thing to improve upon rather than everything.”

 

Businessinsider.com | August 26, 2016 | Shana Lebowitz

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