Building a Postive Work Culture that Encourages Innovation

So, let us discuss what can a supervisor or manager do to facilitate the establishment of a positive work culture that promotes collaboration, innovation, and risk taking by employees to maximize their productivity? Did you hear about Terry Jones, the founder of Travelocity.com, keynote address last month at an annual meeting of corporate executives? His presentation focused on how to create a work culture that generates enthusiasm for innovation. Summarized below are key points he imparted to his audience. See which ones you can institute as a line manager in your work unit: 1) Don’t be afraid to fail. “If you don’t fail, you’re not having enough at bats.” 2) “Kill the project, not the person” if an idea doesn’t work. 3) Study your failures like football teams review tapes of unsuccessful plays. 4) Don’t dismiss out of hand ideas of line staff and lower-level employees. This is where many great ideas originate. 5) Surround yourself with diverse talents that can synergize. Source: University of Texas, Press Release http://bitly.com/terry-jones-1017 plays.

Supervisory Skills If Your Company Has Been Sucker Punched by Your Managed Care Company

Important supervisory skills training include knowing how to use your company's employee assistance program to tackle job performance problems of employees you supervise. You may at one time in the past had a traditional and much more effective employee assistance program, but your company may have been suckered into giving it up in favor of an 800# associated with the managed care company. These programs are mostly...hmmm...best word is "terrible" for helping troubled employees. Managed care companies do a lousy job of educating supervisors about these employee assistance programs and how they can, should be, and always were supposed to be used as management tools to help you correct the job performance, attendance, and conduct issues troubled employees you supervise. There in a nutshell lies the risk. You can still save a life if you know about that little phone number found on the back of your insurance card that tells you to call "this number" for mental health and substance abuse treatment benefits. This is where you EAP may lie. When you have a troubled employee whose performance is not turning around, sit down, have a corrective interview and if you have reached your wits end ready to fire and terminate--hold off and do this as a last resort: "Tell the employee, what job action you are initiating and there is only one way to prevent it, and that is if the employee thinks he or she has a personal problem contributing to the job performance issues and is willing to phone the EAP (phone number on back of insurance card will lead you to it) and follow through with its recommendations and sign a release so you can verify attendance. Say you are willing to accommodate the employees in this regard, otherwise you will initiate the job action now." Nearly all employees will accept the offer of help, and if a release is signed (part of the bargain) and that communication flows to you about the participation (no personal information), then your employee stands a good chance of getting well. Supervisor training and supervisor skills like these can save lives. This is called "Performance-based Intervention". Follow up is key. We teach these skills in Supervisor Tips and Skills Newsletter. Get a free copy.

How Supervisors Can Pump Up Employees and Motivate Their Engagement

During supervisor training, I frequently discuss the following topic. Top management will create a statue in your likeness if discover how to get employees engaged, excited, and producing at maximum capacity while remaining happy, healthy, and contributing to a positive work culture. Tall order, huh? So is there a secret formula for employee engagement to this magnitude. No. However, after writing a monthly supervisor newsletter for 20 years every month, non-stop, and getting emails from possibly hundreds of HR managers and employees, I think I can get close to the answer in 150 words. Here goes possibly one the best supervisor tips for your leadership: ++++++++++++++++++++++++

Managers should start with a premise, and assume that each of his or her employees is capable of magnificent achievements. This will positively affect the attitude and interactions with them. A positive engaging style is half the battle, and the other half is good communication. Let everyone know what’s going on within the organization and the importance of their role in the big picture. Cite successes, trends, and opportunities. Be realistic, but let employees know what awaits them personally and as a team for achieving goals. Check your behavior. Mistrust, inability to adapt to change, disrespect toward employees, or perception that you are not performing at your peak can be magnified by employees and fodder for chatter. This will undermine your goal keeping employees engaged. Process your stress with other supervisors and the professionals (not a 800 hotline) of the intact and in-house employee assistance program. Develop ideas for nurturing your staff. This will reduce isolation and keep the supervisor energized and forward looking, pumped, an excited which become contagious. -- Daniel Feerst, http://workplacenewsletters.com ++++++++++++++++++++++ More Engagement Ideas

Use Performance Reviews to Grow Employee Motivation

Performance reviews and performance management systems are powerful productivity processes that can help drive an organization’s achievements through the roof. But when not used to their full potential, performance reviews can instead become a burden to both supervisor and employees. At the very least, use employee reviews as springboards for discussions with your employees about their goals and aspirations. Discover the degree of inspiration your employees possess to do their best work, and learn how to increase it. Chances are that you will discover something you did not know about your employees’ needs that, if met, would better serve the organization’s mission and goals. Also, be sure to let your employees hear from you firsthand the importance of what they are doing and how it fits with the organization’s mission. All employees look and hope for pay increases, but hearing that they personally are valued by you and the organization fulfills a level of need that the paycheck won’t reach. And the research on employee job satisfaction proves it is true. Enjoy the inaugural issue of Supervisor Tips Newsletter by clicking here.

Too Much Trepidation with Taking Disciplinary Actions?

Do you sometimes feel resistant to taking necessary disciplinary actions with employees. You're not alone. If you ignore your company's disciplinary tools (yes, "tools" because disciplinary action is not punishment) you'll tolerate many employee problems too long. Why the resistance? And how do you get past it? Disciplinary actions must be carefully considered and clearly warranted before being administered, of course. Doing whatever is reasonable to help an employee improve performance should precede such measures. But they are not punishment. By setting up mental roadblocks like this one, supervisors undermine their efforts to maximize productivity. Improper documentation, failure to follow proper procedures, or being unable to demonstrate a good-faith effort to help the employee improve are examples of such roadblocks. Getting advice from internal experts, such as human resource representatives is indispensable for supervisors attempting to confront employees with significant problems. Don't go it alone if you feel some trepidation.  Proper use of the consultative function from your HR department or even employee assistance program can frequently eliminate the need for discipline altogether because a new idea may emerge in your discussions. Your emotional involvement with the employee, particularly strong feelings of anger, betrayal, and resentment are other common problems you may possibly face in supervision. Seek to separate yourself from emotional involvement and your supervisory role; failure to do so frequently contributes to the likelihood of missteps with supervisors and the increase of risk to the employer. Have you seen the new supervisor tips newsletter?

Helping Your Employees "Team Up" with You

Help your employees be proactive in coming to you with issues that down the road will cause disintegration of the relationship you have with them. Here are some tips that might fix a bump in the road before it becomes a pothole.

Tell employees to keep track of their successes. Like most people, supervisors can’t remember everything. So ask you employees to give you a list of accomplishments about a month before it is time to evaluate them. This improves the chances the you--thesupervisor will give the employee credit for the work work and the employee will not feel resentment for successes overlooked.

Tell your employees not to be a stranger to you as the supervisor. Tell them to be proactive, to stay out in front, and make a point to involve themselves in work while discovering what you as a supervisor wants most.

3. Tell employees to ask you for positive feedback. You can't baby your employees. Sure, you should try to give them positive feedback and plenty of it, but is also ok for them to say, "Hey, what did you think of the way I handled that crisis yesterday with the Johnson account. So, teach them to come and ask for feedback.  Sure, tell your employees, "It not going to be easy for you to ask me what I think of your work. Tell your employees not to treat you like a parent, expecting them or have them understand their needs through intuition. Use negative feedback to work toward a higher standard. Ongoing difficulties may signal a need for assistance from the EAP, and should training your employees to go get it.