Three Strategies For Keeping Your Team Engaged

-Originally Posted on Forbes.com

In today’s workforce, there are three types of employees: the engaged, the unengaged and the discontented.

According to Gallup’s latest numbers on employee engagement, 34% of staff are engaged. Individuals who are engaged are loyal to the company and emotionally committed to getting the job done well. They excel in their roles, and they influence with their skills and talents. These professionals take on projects and initiatives outside of their job description and invest in their development.

About 53% of employees are unengaged, meaning that they are satisfied in their positions. From my experience in corporate America and working with my clients, these employees are not invested in the company’s projects or goals. They do just enough to meet the minimum requirements of their job.

The remaining 13% of the workforce are discontented and completely disengaged.

I had a client like this, and it really impacted the entire team dynamic. It brought consistent negative energy to every meeting, which created a toxic environment. What made matters worse is that she was a subject matter expert who was well-respected amongst her peers, customers and vendors. She had a substantial impact over others because of the unique expertise she brought to the table. Unfortunately, however, her disengagement spread like a poison throughout the department, and despite many attempts by management, she couldn’t be transformed into an engaged member of the team. In the end, she left the company, taking her knowledge, experience, and skills with her. Had my client been engaged sooner, management may have been able to keep her expertise in-house.

Motivating And Engaging Your Team

Senior managers should spend time developing strategies that keep staff around. With an effective strategy, you can engage your team, boost performance and morale. I recently interviewed a group of highly successful executive leaders and found that contrary to what many managers believe, money isn’t the best way to keep your staff motivated and engaged. While a good compensation package goes a long way in engaging employees in the beginning, it doesn’t keep them satisfied.

An employee is more likely to remain engaged if they have a voice at the table and feel like their work is contributing to the department and/or company. This seems like a simple concept, but it’s commonly overlooked during the daily grind of business. Especially in the gig economy, the need for effective employee engagement strategies is crucial to retaining talent.

Effective Strategies For Employee Engagement

1. Build a firm foundation. Your staff is the cornerstone on which your organization was founded. If you don’t know what they are thinking, you are headed for a collapse of the whole structure. Make sure you fortify your foundation by finding out what the issues are and what they need to succeed in their roles. Focus groups and surveys are paramount for getting a sense of what your employees’ opinions and feelings are. Create an environment that will elicit honest feedback and where employees don’t fear retribution for being candid.

2. Show them that their voices matter. Act on issues that were clearly identified in the focus groups or surveys. These issues should be openly tackled, especially if you have discussed it with the group. Letting your people know that everyone has a voice at the table and can contribute to change is a powerful way to increase engagement. Use your internal intranet and/or communication channels to display what has been accomplished in response to your employees’ feedback.

3. Understand and leverage your employees’ learning and communication styles. Once you know how your employees learn and communicate, you will find out a lot about how well they work and how to engage everyone with projects of interest. Consider the best time for someone to learn, including the length of training. Especially with virtual courses, you will discover that some employees will happily complete the training if it’s not too long. A group activity using a communication assessment, for example, is a great way for the team to learn how individuals on your team communicate and how to best approach them in the workplace. Serve as the facilitator for these exercises to be more effective. Never use these tools to manipulate the team. It will be obvious that this is happening, and you will have a negative impact on your team.

As a leader, you must realize that team engagement is an ongoing process. Communicate with your team regularly, as a group and individually, to keep your finger on the pulse of what is going on in your organization.

Be transparent. When people sense that you are not, they will lose respect and trust in you.

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12 Clear Signs It’s Time To Pivot Your Business

Change is a natural and expected part of running a successful business. Sometimes a startup — or external factors in its market or industry — can change in ways the founder didn’t anticipate, and in such cases, it’s necessary to take a different approach to your business operations.

Whether big or small, strategic pivots need to be carefully planned and well-timed. But, how do you know when your company is ready to evolve to its next phase? Katrina Brittingham offered her thoughts on when and how to pivot your business.

(Orignally article with quotes from other Council members available here: Pivot in Business

What You’re Offering Is No Longer Relevant

I know when to pivot when my clientele begins to change. This has happened many times in my business. Sometimes, it was because new education had changed my style of coaching and counseling. Other times, it was listening to my clients and what their changing needs were. If I did not change, then my services would no longer have been relevant to them.

If you need to help finding out if it is time to pivot and the steps you need to take to make a change. Click here to Schedule an appointment with Katrina Brittingham today!

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How To Address The Root Cause Of Your Employee Engagement Issues

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Forbes Coaches Council -Full Article Avaialable at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/03/02/how-to-address-the-root-cause-of-your-employee-engagement-issues/#490a427f7e7f

Katrina Brittingham gives advice to management on how to get to the root of employee engagement issues.

Encourage open and safe conversations

Conduct forums that encourage employees to be open and feel safe talking about work situations and career development. Really hear what is being said and make changes accordingly. Your employees are your internal customers and you lose valuable talent and knowledge if you don’t listen and come up with a plan that addresses employee pain points.

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15 Tips For Helping You Keep Focus And Get More Done At Work

Originally posted on Forbes.com
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/07/11/15-tips-for-helping-you-keep-focus-and-get-more-done-at-work/#2675c0bc1454

Workplaces are busy areas, with a significant number of distractions assailing the average worker every day. Between the draws of social media, the demands of the job, open office plans and noisy co-workers, getting focused on what really needs to get done is a task in itself.

And when focus is an issue, workers tend to be less productive and may prioritize tasks poorly, ending up with critical problems being shoved all the way to the bottom of their to-do list. To help, 15 members of Forbes Coaches Council offer their best tips and tricks that can help employees find and maintain their focus, even when a storm of distractions surges around them.

1. Block Meetings With Yourself

It seems helpful to work within time units. Best one so far is a 30-minute chunk of undistracted work followed by a short break. Just set the alarm clock and focus on one task. If you want to be sure that nobody will interrupt you, block a meeting with yourself in a calendar. However, the best tool for time management is your willingness to guard your time and say “no” to distractions. – Inga Bielińska, Inga Bielinska Coaching Consulting Mentoring

2. Create A Social Engagement Schedule

Distractions during work are the No. 1 complaint of people who go to the office every day. Co-workers often drop by for a five-minute chat that may cost you 30 minutes. You may check your email or social feeds periodically taking away more of your work time. To increase your productivity, create a social engagement schedule and share it with others. Managing your time is your business. – Lillian Gregory, The Institute for Human and Leadership Excellence

3. Add Mindfulness To Your Life

Adding mindfulness to your daily life can greatly impact your ability to focus no matter what the distraction. The good news is you can do this with mini mindfulness exercises in a short amount of time. Try deep breathing to a count of four on the inhales and four on the exhales and incrementally increasing your exhales to a count of eight, releasing tension or anything not serving you with each exhale. – Debbie Ince, Executive Talent Finders, Inc

4. Silence The Outside Noise

Enter deep work mode at the office by silencing the outside noise and removing unnecessary distractions. Put your smartphone on airplane mode or “do not disturb” so that you aren’t getting distracted by personal emails and social media notifications. Consider wearing earplugs if possible, or putting on light music with headphones that will help calm you and shift your mind into focus. – Wendi Weiner, Esq., The Writing Guru®

5. Become Fully Engaged

When you establish a daily plan of action you love, you will be so focused and engaged, there will be no distractions. Get honest with yourself: Is your mind, heart, and gut fully vested in what you set out to accomplish? if so, you will naturally be so focused you won’t notice what others are doing around you. No one can prevent you from giving full attention to what you set out to do except you. – Susan K. Wehrley, BIZremedies

6. Limit Smartphone Temptations

Every single distraction at work may not be the cellphone, but maybe we can stop calling it a “smartphone” because it has made our workforce a lot dumber. It’s also the Pandora’s box of distraction at work. You can regulate it yourself and save relationships and maybe your job. Let checking it be a reward during a break. Turn it off. Leave it in your car. Discipline the temptation, the usage. – John M. O’Connor, Career Pro Inc.

7. State Your Intention

One tip that I’ve shared with clients with open work environments to help increase their productivity is to give their employees small signs that they can display in the workspace that will help signal their intention to others. One example would be “Do Not Disturb – Deep in Thought,” which gives them permission to be focused. Certain etiquette practices are needed in the workplace to set the tone. – Carolina Caro, Carolina Caro

8. Define Acceptable Behavior

Noise pollution is real. Having a corporate rule that all cellphones are on silent goes a long way to limiting distraction collectively. Our thoughts are interrupted by dings and rings. Our brain is rewarded with a dopamine rush when we get a text or a “like.” Collaborate on a democratic way to define what’s OK and what’s not for your team. – Frances McIntosh, Intentional Coaching LLC

9. Focus On Groundedness

Open offices and social chatter are everywhere, and while we would love to spend hours hiding in a conference room with a “do not disturb” sign, that isn’t always possible. Find a picture that brings a feeling of groundedness and comfort. Place that photo on your desk so when you look at it for 60 seconds you can feel grounded and comfortable and are able to re-energize and focus. – Amber Wendover, Thinking People Consulting, LLC

10. Practice Extreme Monotasking

As an adult with ADHD, I know how distractions can hurt productivity. I’ve been in your shoes where cubicle noise is boisterous and piercing, so the best advice I can give…wait, what’s that, squirrel? Just kidding. Do your Pomodoro Technique of extreme monotasking in a private area or little huddle room somewhere else with earphones and Beethoven. Return to your desk after and join the fun! – Brian M Harman, Business Management Hallmark

11. Make The Most Of Peak Performance Time

Structuring the workday around your peak performance time can be beneficial in eliminating distractions. A fresh mind can more easily concentrate without effects from the office environment. If early morning is your optimal time, focus on the work that requires the most thought and creativity. Fill the rest of your day with tasks that are not affected by interruptions and background noise. – Deborah Hightower, Deborah Hightower, Inc.

12. Enter The Matrix

Don’t allow distractions to keep you from completing your best work. Enter tasks in advance on an Eisenhower Matrix to be clear each day what your priorities are. Check it hourly. Focus on what’s urgent and important first. Schedule the important, and keep those appointments with yourself. If possible, delegate less important tasks. Avoid at all costs that which is neither urgent nor important. – Christine Rose, Christine Rose Coaching & Consulting

13. Put Like-Minded Together

It can be helpful to put people who like noisy environments together and those who prefer it quiet together. Some people prefer the noise, and it helps them feel energized, while others do not. Recognizing this can be critical. It can also help to try earbuds and promote certain hours as quiet time. – Dr. Diane Hamilton, Tonerra

14. Focus On One Stimulus

Paying attention to one sight or sound in the environment isolates it from others. This focuses the mind, enabling us to become fully present. Looking at a light for a few moments or listening to a specific sound (rain outside the window, the hum of an air conditioner, birds chirping) can help us regain focus and mindfully go back to what we were working on before being distracted. – Tracey Grove, Pure Symmetry Coaching and Consulting

15. Work From Home

If you suffer from noisy co-workers who drain your attention and energy, inquire about the ability to work remotely at least one day a week. You can take this time to focus and recharge from the distractions of the office. You just need a place set aside for work at your home. If this is not an option, a good set of headphones can block out the noise. – Katrina Brittingham, VentureReady LLC

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Two Easy Steps For Selecting The Right Executive Coach

Originally Posted on Forbes.com

Executive coaching has become an essential part of many companies’ strategies to develop their senior leadership. Companies often leverage coaching to increase productivity and team engagement and preserve the knowledge of seasoned staff by retaining leaders who need some help learning new skills or revamping their leadership style. This leads to greater overall success.

Individuals have also sought coaches to advance their careers because it provides a one-on-one individualized approach to prepare leaders for executive-level responsibility or a support system as they transition.

However, executive coaching may not produce the desired outcome you are hoping for if you don’t find the right executive coach for your company. Here’s how you can do so in two simple steps:

Step 1: Identify what your ultimate goal is.

Coaching means different things to different companies or individuals. If you Google “coach,” you will receive results for financial management coaching, life coaching, spiritual coaching, business coaching and more. Each coach within these categories has a different approach or system to helping their ideal client achieve their goals. As a result, there are infinite potential results you can achieve with the right coach.

Before hiring an executive coach, ask yourself what type of coaching you or your organization would benefit from specifically. What is your ultimate goal for hiring an executive coach? Be as concrete as possible. Develop a concise definition of what executive coaching means for you or your company.

Step 2: Assess for fit.

To identify whether a coach would really be the right fit for you or your company, interview them to learn more about their credentials and certifications as well as their business acumen. Hiring an executive coach is just like hiring any other professional. Do they fit in with your company culture? Will they be able to engage your staff? What are their qualifications working with your industry? Do they have a system that yielded the results you want to achieve in your company or individual as a senior leader?

The coaching industry is not regulated, but there are coaching organizations and associations that provide guidelines for coaching and ethics. All reputable associations use International Coach Federation (ICF) standards for coaching practices, training and ethics. The Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches and The Career Network are two organizations that also accredit coaches and ensure their courses follow the ICF guidelines on training, ethics and confidentiality. Did your coach train at one of these organizations?

Lastly, check to ensure your coach is getting continuing education or professional development to ensure they are current on trends in your industry.

Once you have found the right fit, you or your executive leadership are well on their way to achieving goals. Choose wisely and strategically, and you will build or develop quality leadership and carry your company to the next level.

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