“Management succession and future leadership are paramount concerns at most companies today. Yet efforts of organizations to hold on to their best people often fail.  Some organizations make only intermittent attempts to identify their up-and-comers, and it seems that those that do so meet with mixed success.”

One of the most common reasons younger workers leave their jobs is lack of full engagement with the company’s objectives.  While the young generation has an insatiable appetite for growth and job success, they also:

• Strongly believe in their ability to make major contributions to the company’s success and growth.
• Dislike change as much as older workers, and want to help their organizations grow and prosper.
• Will leave one position for another to make a real difference, to fulfill their career potential, and grow personally and professionally.

A Wall Street Journal study found that 97 percent of the 40 companies surveyed said they needed stronger plans to retain top talent across generations. In other words, most managers feel unprepared to deal with the high-turnover trend.

According to Sandi Edwards at AMA Enterprise, organizations need to focus their high-potentials program on leadership development.  “Talented, motivated individuals need to be developed in a number of ways, including mentoring or coaching, training, stretch assignments, action projects, cross-functional teaming and job rotation.”  These programs need to also be align with the business needs of the organization and the overall strategic direction of the organization.

To learn about tailored programs to retain your high-potential employees, contact Loyalty Factor at 603-334-3401.

 Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:

• Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
• Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
• Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
• Simplifying mergers and acquisitions

 Our information exchange this week highlights the book, “Power Listening: Mastering the Most Critical Business Skill of All ” by Bernard Ferrari.

Listening requires more than opening your ears. In his new book for business managers, Power Listening: Mastering the Most Critical Business Skill of All, Bernard Ferrari proffers advice on smart conversation habits.

Here are five to try:

1. Show Respect: “The easiest way to do this is to clue into the person you’re talking to about the purpose of the conversation,” says Ferrari. “Say something like ‘I really need your opinion on this’ or ‘You know, talking to you always helps my thinking.’ Doing so not only informs the person of your agenda, it shows that you respect her, trust her opinion, and are eager to hear what she has to say.”
    
2. Listen To Everyone: “Talk to not only the people who are closest to you, but also to customers, suppliers, and competitors. A conversation doesn’t have to be immediately productive to be useful or important. Good managers gather information from every interaction and are able to store what may be pertinent later.”
    
3. Be Quiet: “Businesspeople are trained in one-way communication. They become pros at speaking, presenting, and pitching. But it’s hard to listen when you’re talking. Aim to let your conversation partner speak 80 percent of the time. Really focus on what he’s saying and process the information. Maximize your 20 percent with thoughtful interaction.”
    
4. Understand Emotions: “It’s difficult to have a conversation when you’re angry, upset, or frightened. Avoid having important discussions when you’re experiencing these emotions. Understanding yourself and knowing when you should be out of the game is essential.”
    
5. Ask Questions: “As a good listener, you can actually help people bring forward new facts, think in new ways, reach conclusions, and come up with better ideas. This happens by asking questions. Always phrase an interruption as a query rather than a comment, even if you disagree with the speaker. Question marks show openness, flexibility, and interest.”

Power listening is critical to your success as a leader. Dianne Durkin’s program, Building Rapport, Respect and Credibility, delves deeper into these concepts of communication.

Call Loyalty Factor today to improve your communication and gain credibility with your employees that will translate into increased revenue.

The truth is, great bosses are great leaders, and every day great leaders demonstrate key traits that keep them great.

Develop and Execute the 7 Key Behaviors of Transparent Leadership

• Use the truth to empower others
• Build a better reputation by consistently asking for feedback
• Uphold your commitments
• Take ownership of mistakes to gain trust and respect
• Increase authenticity by letting employees see the real you
• Master ways to deliver bad news kindly
• Use emotional intelligence to make level-headed decisions

Keys to Achieving Respect and Credibility in the Workplace

• Collaborate in ways that supports the business
• Create win-win situations that promote personal improvement
• Develop actionable ways to improve your employees’ success
• Inspire loyalty so people don’t jump ship

For personal coaching to transform from an ordinary manager to a GREAT leader, contact Dianne Durkin at Loyalty Factor – 603.334.3401.

Value statements for The Broad Group include:

• “Responsibility is more important than growth.”
• “Protecting the environment is more important than profit.”
• “Love is more important than anything else.”
• “If you offer something of social value, you will survive, and you will prosper.”

One may not expect these values from a company based in a hypercompetitive and high-pollution China, or a company with industrial customers in 70 countries and 500 million dollars in sales and led by a man worth an estimated 850 million dollars.

According to Zhang Yue, Chairman, “Being good itself is competitive.”  His view is “A bad company may be competitive in the market for a while, but it won’t last long. If you offer something of social value, you will survive, and you will prosper.”

“If everybody and every business becomes socially responsible,” he says, “then the earth will become a beautiful hometown for us all.”  Let’s all work to make the earth a better place for all of us.

The question I ask our readers “What are you and your company doing to make the earth a better place for all of us?” 

To build more responsibility, value and caring in your organization, contact Loyalty Factor at 603-334-3401.

 Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:

• Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
• Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
• Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
• Simplifying mergers and acquisitions

Our information exchange this week highlights the book, “Turn the Ship Around “ by L. David Marquet. 

 How to Create Leadership at Every Level 

How would you like to work in a place where everyone around you is totally engaged and contributing their full intellectual capacity; a place where people are healthier and happier because they have more control over their work; a place where everyone is a leader?

A nuclear-powered submarine would seem an unlikely place for a new model of leadership to be forged, especially aboard the USS Santa Fe – dogged by poor morale, poor performance and the worst retention in the fleet. That is, until David Marquet took command.

Turn the Ship Around! Is the story of how Marquet took the ship from worst to first by challenging the U.S. Navy’s traditional leader-follower approach and implementing his own framework of leader-leader.

The results: each member of Marquet’s crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. It became an empowered organization.

How did Marquet do this?

1. Rather than telling everyone what they needed to do, he would ask open-ended questions about how they thought the problem should be approached. This strategy of giving decision-making control to the people works very well provided the people have the technical competence. Marquet learned early on he had to ensure the technical competence existed and if it did not, training was a necessity. As authority is delegated, technical knowledge takes on greater importance.
    
2. Applying a questioning strategy is very impactful provided the leader does so in a curious fashion, asking questions to learn, as opposed to asking questions where people feel they are being interrogated for their knowledge. Marquet used the curious approach.
    
3. He provided the organization with goals and objectives and allowed them to figure out the prescribed approach. This allowed for many ingenious ideas to solve issues and meet the goals.  With clear and complete understanding of what the organization is about, then individuals were able to make decisions against a set of criteria that included what the organization was trying to accomplish.
    
4. When people executed successfully, Marquet used immediate recognition to reinforce the desired behavior.

With this leader-leader structure, everyone wins – top performance, ensuring excellence and the development of future leaders.

If it can work on board a nuclear submarine, it can work for you.

For guidance on how to adopt the leader-leader approach in your organization, contact Dianne Durkin of Loyalty Factor at 603.334.3401 and visit www.loyaltyfactor.com.

Below are 10 LOW cost / NO cost ideas of how to recognize your employees:

1.  Post a Thank You note on the employee’s door.

2.  Give special assignments to people who show initiative.

3.  Arrange for a team to present the results of an effort to upper management.

4.  Include an employee in a special meeting.

5.  Post a large celebration calendar in your work area and tack on notes of recognition for specific individuals on specific dates.

6.  Encourage employees to participate in community volunteer efforts.

7.  Use a 3×5 card to write You are Special Because ________

8.  Widely publicize suggestions, who they came from and the positive impact on the organization / department.

9.  Acknowledge and celebrate birthdays. 

10.  SMILE – Its contagious!

As you can see from the examples, small gestures can go a long way.  Are you ready to ask your employees for some ideas?

 Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:

• Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
• Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
• Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
• Simplifying mergers and acquisitions

Our information exchange this week highlights the recent article in Harvard Business Review, “The Price of Incivility” by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson.   

 The Price of Incivility

Rudeness at work is rampant and it is on the rise. The authors believe this chips away at the bottom line because nearly everybody who experiences workplace incivility responds in a negative way.

Employees are less creative when they are disrespected and in many cases may get fed up and leave.

According to the article about half decrease their effort or lower the quality of their work. Incivility also damages customer relationships. The research by the two authors shows that people are less likely to buy from a company with an employee they perceive as rude, whether the rudeness is directed at the customer or another employee.

After collecting data from more than 14,000 people in the United States and Canada, the conclusion is incivility is expensive and few organizations recognize or take actions to curtail it.

A poll of 800 managers and employees in 700 industries showed with incivility. Below are some statistics on the cost of incivility:

• 48% intentionally decreased their work effort
• 47% intentionally decreased their time spent at work
• 38% intentionally decreased the quality of their work
• 80% lost work time worrying about the incident
• 63% lost work time avoiding the offender
• 66% said their performance declined
• 78% said their commitment to the organization declined
• 12% said they left their job because of the uncivil treatment
• 25% admitted to taking their frustrations out on customers

It takes a lot of vigilance to keep the workplace civil. Managers can use several strategies to keep their own behavior in check and to foster civility among others.

Below are some of the strategies:

     1. Manage Yourself

     2. Model Good Behavior

     3. Ask for Feedback on your Behavior

     4. Hire for Civility

     5. Create Group Norms

     6. Reward Good Behavior

     7. Conduct Post Departure Interviews

The message is very clear. Just one habitual offensive employee can cost the organization in lost employees, lost customers and lost productivity.

To foster civility in your organization and reduce the impact of incivility, contact Loyalty Factor for aide in improving your organizational relationships! 

Now more than ever, organizations must be proactive and have the right strategies in place to keep employees motivated.

Valued employees who feel appreciated for their hard work and efforts are more engaged in their organization, therefore demonstrate high productivity and efficiency.

To be effective, all rewards and recognition must be:

• Timely.  Recognition should be as immediate as possible.  If you don’t thank someone until long after the effort, it diminishes the importance and sincerity.

• Continual.  It should be an ongoing part of your culture. Don’t make rewards seem like after-thoughts.

• Customized.  Rewards and recognition need to make sense in your culture and to your employees.

• Balanced.  Think about appropriate levels of gratitude for the action you are recognizing. For example, offering a gift certificate to say thank you for a job well done and something more substantial when someone has achieved a milestone for the organization.

 Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:

• Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
• Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
• Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
• Simplifying mergers and acquisitions

 Our information exchange this week highlights the recent article in Forbes, “A Golden Age for Working Women” by Jenna Goudreau. 

 A Golden Age for Working Women

As the world job market struggles to rebound from the depths of the Great Recession, one thing that’s not getting as much attention as it used to is how long-term employment trends are changing – and that not everyone may find a job even when the pace of recovery hits its stride again.

In the new knowledge economy, physical and manufacturing jobs have slowly disappeared. Computers disrupted once stable occupations like postal service and administrative work. And it may be just the beginning.

Because technology is improving at such a rapid rate, many now-familiar computer industry jobs will soon be automated as well. The jobs that survive all this change will be those a robot or a piece of software cannot do, requiring social skills, eye contact and a personal touch.

As we move toward a service economy, skills like communication and collaboration will move to the forefront. These are skills that most women possess. British futurist Ian Pearson calls this “The Care Economy.”

Women tend to excel at showing empathy, compassion and teaching others. As we move into the care economy, women will find many jobs easier to survive in.

Dianne Durkin of Loyalty Factor specializes in helping organizations excel by capitalizing on the personal touch! Contact Loyalty Factor today to schedule a consult to improve upon your organization’s soft skills.

Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen,

well-timed and sincere words of praise. 

They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.”

 ~ Sam Walton

Once you have engaged, empowered, and enriched employees lives, you have their attention. To have their heart, they need to feel appreciated, rewarded, recognized and valued.

To maintain your skilled workforce and your loyal and engaged employees, it is important to make sure your employees know their efforts matter.  Appreciation comes in all forms, shapes and sizes.  The best meet the specific needs of the individual. 

Sometimes a $5 gift certificate to Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds — or a simple chocolate bar — can put a huge smile on someone’s face and energize them with more than just a sugar high.  It is amazing to see people light up.  It is the simple things that make a difference.  The simplest and most inexpensive are often words. 

Thank you!

 Great Job!

 I really appreciate all your work!

It’s the small things that can really make your day or even your week. Usually it’s a gesture from someone acknowledging something you have done. Small things do matter. If you do not believe it, just get into the habit of thanking people and see what happens.