Quick Leadership Lessons with Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD

Creating Powerful Relationships Through the Communication Process

2012-03-10T11:51:00.002-08:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD

Having effective communication skills is probably the top skill every leader must possess. Likewise, developing excellent communication skills is essential in leading a fulfilled life both personally and professionally. Every individual creates his/her own successes in life. I believe that the meaning of life truly is about having and managing successful relationships. Every relationship is built around interactions founded upon some sort of communication. The good news is that despite, education, gender, experience and background, it is possible for every person to start TODAY and learn effective communication interaction skills.

Some folks believe that communication is both an art and a science. However, most take communication for granted. This may be because they have had the gift of being able to do some things well and have gotten due to their individual talents. In spite of everything that one can do well, having effective communication skills can and does tend to enhance personal successes. It takes everyone involved to be on the same page to communicate with others and successfully broadcasting what we each have to offer. The more we can offer, the more valuable and therefore successful we can be.

In the workplace, an average fifty percent or more of the time is spent by employees communicating with each other. It is important to note that nearly one-fourth of all problems at the workplace are also caused due to lack of effective communication or some sort of miscommunication. We must realize that we are communicating all the time.

Some social scientists will tell you that a surprising aspect related to communication is that nearly seventy-five percent of all communication is nonverbal. This percentage varies depending upon who you ask. However, what is important to know is that body movement, eye contact, facial expression and posture are all non verbal modes of communication. When others are within viewing distance of others, they are picking up on nonverbal communication--what our face and body is communicating about our feelings and attitudes.

Stress is very often caused due to communication errors or a lack of communication. When messages communicated are not clear and concise, it can lead to huge misunderstandings between managers and subordinates. Miscommunication ultimately leads to job stress and low productivity.

Miscommunication often occurs between peers at the same level of an organization or at any level which often causes stress. Expectations must be clear and those who are expected to carry it out must have a clear understanding of what is expected. Communicators (message senders) must make sure that they have not just been talking, but effectively communicating. One must not assume that just because someone affirms with "Yes, I understand." Because that could simply mean, I don't' want you to assume I am weak or stupid. It may mean, "Would you please repeat what you said? I was busy doing something else and you did not have my full-attention, but I did not want you to know that I needed a second to focus on your communication."

The good news is that effective communication can be learned. Training may be the best investment an organization may make in their employees. It may pay insurmountable dividends in the long-run. Interactive workshops truly are an amazing way to develop effective communication skills. tons of research has proved that teaching supportive and empathetic skills will help in improving interaction and make it more effective. Apart from improving the basic skills needed for interaction, a side benefit of communication training programs imparts a lot of importance in giving respect to the person who is speaking. Every person in every organization deserves and must feel genuinely respected in order to maximize interpersonal successes.

At every level of an organization due to the very nature of organizations, it is absolutely important to appreciate and understand the other person’s thoughts and opinions no matter their age, gender, education, experience and cultural differences. Essentially, if you break it down, the important components of any form of effective communication involves the sender and receiver. Both parties must feel respected and be shown respect in order to get the messages across effectively.

From the onset, messages that are crafted and developed by the sender must absolutely be clear and concise. Sometimes the whole message does not come out the way that it is intended. Taking a little extra time to communicate what is intend is a smart investment of time. By doing so, it will be much easier for the appropriate message to be understood by the receiver. Likewise, the receiver also has the responsibility to take some time to stop what he or she is doing and listen attentively to the message that is being conveyed. If the receiver is unable to comprehend the message, it is his duty to ask questions and provide necessary feedback to the sender.

Effective leaders understand that the process of communication will break if there are even the smallest barriers to it. Employees might experience frustration if they feel they are not listened to and shown genuine respect. Any barrier can also lead to long-term discontent and ill feelings between employees and leaders. As a result, expectations may not be met by both parties and will ultimately lead to poor working relationships, resentment and work-related stress.

Be aware of communications barriers which may include:

· Physical distance between the sender and the receiver. Too much distance may result in certain words or phrases not been heard or misheard.

· Cultural barriers, which can be differences in belief systems.

· Body language and nonverbal barriers which include any gestures, facial expressions, or body positions that are not properly understood by the receiver.

· Tone of voice or the way we say things also matters.

Each and everyone of these barriers must be considered for effective interaction among individuals. Communication is essentially the tool used for exchanging information, express emotional attitude of an individual, increase awareness and also used for cooperation among people.

Essentially, these are the various types of communication we all should be aware of:

· Intrapersonal communication which relates to an individual’s innermost beliefs, feelings and influences. Interpersonal communication is used to interact at the workplace. It is the medium of interaction between managers and subordinates, employees and clients and any other professional exchange of messages between individuals.

· Small group communication takes place within teams that work in an organization. This sort of interaction can be used to plan, develop and implement projects within the team.

· Organizational communication refers to oral and written interaction among employees and management.

· Public communication can be both formal and informal.

It is vitally important to remember that communication is and MUST be a genuine two-way process. If either one of the people involved (sender and receiver) do not fulfill their individual duties and responsibilities, EFFECTIVE communication is doomed to fail. Communication is an ongoing and continual process where the interaction is taking place at regular intervals. Communication is much more than just talking. The best leaders and employees are trained to understand the true value and importance of communication. They fully understand all that is involved in making every communication effective and meaningful on a daily basis, while giving those involved in every communication the proper respect they deserve.

A Quick Lesson on Aggression and Workplace Violence

2012-02-26T11:16:00.005-08:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD
www.paulgerhardt.com

As leaders, we need to face the facts and recognize that there are times when aggression can occur at work. Aggression is not something that most people enjoy being around or being the recipient of. Aggression can be defined many ways. Knowing how to identify the signs of potential workplace aggression from the first indications can alleviate the situation and create a harmonious and productive environment. Aggression can come in many forms, it can include physical violence or threats of it, teaming up against a colleague, yelling at colleagues, and many other such acts. Understanding the sources of aggression may be useful. It can involve religious, racial, or gender differences and be a result of various types of discrimination. As leaders, we must realize that we may be the cause and not know it. Believe it or not, much of the time aggression can be found to come from supervisors, bosses, colleagues, suppliers, or customers.

Identifying workplace aggression in the workplace can be easy if you are looking for it. It can be noticed in the form of bullying and may be practiced by more than one worker teaming up against another. Bullying can be rather subtle and very often difficult for the victims to handle. Acts may include continuously complaining about the employee (victim) for one thing or another, defacing or destruction of the possessions of an employee or work materials, attempting to hinder the progress of the worker, and isolating the victim or rejecting an employee. It may be passive-aggressive where little choppy negative statements are spewed out as small jabs at individuals.

For some employees, they will try to ignore such aggressive behaviors by simply avoiding it. However, everyone must realize that working in a workplace where aggression is persistent can prove to be an unhealthy and classified as a hostile working environment. When the bullying is documented, employers need to correct the problem once a complaint has been received. Aggression must be handled in a respectful, but assertive way. Instances of workplace aggression should be addressed as soon as possible. Employers must look at all angles of each situation with an open-mind and listen carefully to all parties involved. There is probably much more to it than what you could find on the surface. One must not jump to conclusions, and be aware of any mental filters that can be formed through biases. Awareness is always the key to creating win-win workplaces. The smartest organizations create positive workplaces by educating and training all employees within their organization in order to avoid aggressive behavior getting out of control. It is not a "flavor of the day" program, or "just another mandatory training," but an opportunity for growth for all involved.

Training and education is the best way to change attitudes and behaviors and ensuring that the workplace is safe for all workers. This means that workplace aggression and harassment is clearly defined and spelled-out to all employees, supervisors, and managers. There should be detailed explanations on what harassment is, why it is not acceptable within the organization, what the workers can do about the problem, what are the responsibilities of the employees when it comes to addressing workplace aggression.

One of the most-difficult but necessary things for employers to do is set clear guidelines for which behaviors are acceptable and which are not. There must be a clear plan in place for solving problems of aggression when they do happen. All employees need to know what the consequences of such bullying behavior are, and what is expected from every employee. Awareness helps create a positive and productive organizational culture.

Organizational policies should include written methods that clearly define and recognize aggressive situations and behaviors, the resolution procedures--whether the complaint is formal or informal. It should specifically state what the steps to be taken are to file a complaint and how those complainants will be protected from the aggressors. It should also state what the rights of those accused are.

Leaders and managers must be wise, responsible and have an open-mind in all workplace situations. The ultimate goal is to retain valuable employees and to create an environment where everyone is working together to create a genuine feeling and workplace of progressive-positive success. Leaders or the people who receive, investigate and mediate any complaints must be knowledgeable about the processes. They must also be aware of what decisions they can make and what are the types of support are available to the victims. These types of information needs to be found in the organization’s records and policies in the form of a harassment prevention program. Each and every employee should have a copy, and be aware of the policy’s details. The organization's leaders and all supervisors must also be participants in all policy dissemination, training and education.

Every leader must look at his/her own actions and consider if he/she could ultimately be the cause of any possible aggression from employees. It may start with something as innocent as not listening to an employee or not recognizing the value that an employee brings to the organization. Leaders sometimes fall into the trap of believing that because they are a leader, that they see and know everything. The wise leader deeply listens and show respect to each and every employee. They must consistently and acknowledge and show appreciation to every employee at every opportunities. They must also realize that employees may know things that they do not know and encourage employees to share their valuable ideas.

Employers must take responsibility to ensure that each and every one of their workers feels supported. They can create positive work environments by leading by example. They must follow and to understand the company’s rule and regulations or code of conduct, just as each employee is expected to do so. Having clear and well defined policies, supported by proper training prevents workplace harassment and/or aggression. Well-written policies leaves very little wiggle room for any type of harassment or bullying. The enforces of the policies also have a responsibility to look at all angles of the aggression and realize they may be part of the problem. Workplaces that are perceived as fair, supportive and positive are ones that promote growth and harmony.

Leaders Born or Made? The Complexity of Effective of Leadership

2012-02-20T12:17:00.000-08:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD
www.paulgerhardt.com

There is an age-older debate whether leaders are born or created. Ever wonder why some people seem to be natural leaders while others seem to never get a clue? Twenty-first Century organizations must realize that leaders can be developed well to meet the needs of this new competitive environment। Studies point out that leaders can be developed and that leadership is usually an evolving process. The act of being a leader takes place through the various interactions of people. It is not only through bureaucratic influence from the top to bottom.

Leadership takes place at all levels of every organization and is all about inspiring people to give their very best in each and every action. There are numerous theories and studies that have taken place since the 1800's, however many of the ones that leaders use today came about from studies in hard sciences which include labor, business, chemistry, biology, the military, and physics.

Complexity leadership theory is the study of intermingling agents, which act with limited data and results in interactions which can generate varying outcomes for each leader, rather than the expected of the sum of what some may expect will result if you simply added up the each of the pieces of work from each employee. It is the goal of each leader to have employees work together to meet the goals of the department and ultimately the organization. In theory, effective leaders are directing the actions of each individual, so that they understand how their specific work is necessary and does impact the success of the organization. In essence, each leader has a responsibility of leading his/her employees to a genuine feeling that they do indeed make a positive difference.

Studying great leaders and understanding how to successfully apply leadership theory is what the best leaders do. The basic leadership principles can be learned and must be at the core of every leader's decision. Failing to treat followers in a way that facilitates individual greatness, means that a leader is simply failing at being great . Administrators must do much more than focus on control and efficiency. They must genuinely inspire a sense of value and willingness to contribute greatness of each employee while the adapting to each and every hurdle that emerges. Leaders must realize that there will always be emergent leaders in every department that must be recognized and groomed to continue to grow. Likewise, each member must recognize their own value and a feeling of accomplishment in every action as it contributes to the success of the totality of its organizational parts.

A classic example, from the leadership literature is what takes place in a flock of geese. When geese fly together, each bird has a set of simple “rules” for the speed, distance, etc. in relation to other birds it flies with. The individual behaviors on part of all the birds in the flock lead to the “V” formation of the flock overall – this is something “qualitatively different” than the totality of each individual parts.

Similarly, with effective leadership in action, the combination of every person’s action is suggested to lead to outcomes that are outside of the scope of any one person. Leaders must be adaptive and recognize that leadership can occur in any role at any level in the organization and is not tied to a specific level or position. It consists of creative interaction, inspiration, kindness, and shared leadership which leads ultimately to innovation.

Great leaders should realize the complexity of their jobs. Effective leaders enable adaptive change to occur by empowering each individual to give his/her best freely. They must enable each employee to not only want to give their hand and feet freely, but inspire their minds and hearts to share abundantly for the betterment of the organization. For this to happen, there are several conditions needed in order for this to occur regularly. First, there needs to be a genuine feeling of collaboration among the all individuals working in the team and players of each external systems related to functions of each related individual. Leaders must know that excellence comes from vigorous, dynamic networks of people linked through their individual jobs that frequently go beyond the limits of a workgroup or a sub-unit within the organization. Each interaction of every employee must be facilitated by a leader to allow for the free exchange of multiple points of view and new information which may have been stifled in a traditional model of leadership.

The second condition is that there must be a genuine feeling of freedom among each of the representatives of every department of the organization. Individuals must fully-recognize the inter-dependency of their workplace, which is a natural multifaceted adaptive system. Effective leaders must realize that Interaction by itself is not enough. Leaders must be an active-driving force which nurtures information exchange and enables the development of newly formed and inspired to be great--realities.

Smart leaders know that the third condition is that healthy tension is needed in order to provide inspiration that successfully motivates individuals to enact and create adaptive-positive change. Internal tension can be created in situations of diversity, wherein systems, communication, personality dynamics varying constraints and interdependency tend to nurture creativity. External tension may be created through actions of differing levels of leadership.

The bottom line about effective leadership is that it is an active process and there must be intentional and thoughtful actions from each leader. Leaders must inspire greatness and model it with integrity of every action. Every employee must be empowered to be his/her very best, while given the tools and autonomy to deliver success. Leadership greatness can be developed through training and on-going studies. It should be nurtured everyday intentionally and positively.

What is Supervision and Why it is So Important

2012-02-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt

It is vitally important to know that supervisory skills must and can be built through effective and proper training. What skills do the best supervisors have? This is an excellent question! Supervision may be the primary reason that turnover is so high in most organizations. The fact of the matter is, that most people quit their jobs because they have been mismanaged by their supervisor. So essentially, supervisors may be costing every organization MUCH MORE money in the long-run than one may realize.

Most supervisor's intentions are very good. The fact of the matter is, although intentions may be good, actions do speak louder than words. Too often excellent employees get promoted to the position of supervisor because they were very good at their jobs. However, when they are promoted to supervising of the employees doing the job they once did, they find themselves struggling in conflict with their employees or dealing with apathy and/or unmotivated workers.

The reason that turnover is so high in many organizations is very often due to the skills and quality of supervision. Supervision is an indispensable part of management. However, in most organizations, leaders do not realize that just because employees may be very good at doing their jobs, it takes a different type of skill to supervise employees. Seriously, it takes special training to gain the skills necessary to lead employees properly. Supervision truly is an essential part of what it takes to keep an organization strong and healthy. Having good people with poor supervisory skills can be the weak link and can cause the slow painful demise of an organization.

Supervisory development is usually done internally by someone within the organization in charge of training. Type of the organization, level of employees, objectives, etc. obviously vary from one organization to another. However, the basic functionality of a supervisor is essentially to the same.

Supervisors must be leaders! Managers, supervisors and leaders all have interrelated jobs within every organization. The development of supervisory skills takes time and must not be rushed through. The long-term consequences of employing supervisors with poor supervisory training can be extremely expensive! This is because supervisors are the people in the organization that have the largest influence over the job satisfaction levels of employees.

When employees are not happy, they lose motivation, loyalty and often can sabotage the success of their departments. The costs associated with employee theft, apathy and turnover are insurmountable. Studies show it is MUCH MORE cost-effective for supervisors to facilitate a work environment that promotes job satisfaction and motivation than to constantly pay for expenses like law suits, efficiency loss, recruiting, hiring, and training.

Some studies on supervision suggest that having well-trained supervisors is considered the most important aspect for achieving desired results within each department of every organization. Numerous studies pronounce that if supervisors’ skills and knowledge are limited to the technical aspects, the lack of other competencies will result in ineffective output by employees. In other words, a supervisor may have good knowledge on the technical aspects of the work, and the organization to guide the employees; however the lack of proper communication and other important supervisory skills can affect important organizational outcomes and success.

It is vitally important to know that a supervisor with poor interpersonal skills is more likely to ruin the performance of the subordinates, which obviously will have a dramatically adverse effect on the organization. Eventually, development of supervisory skills must become an important responsibility of every manager to acquire in order to continually be successful in lowering operating expenses and other vital accomplishments of company objectives and goals if organizations want to remain healthy and competitive.

Supervisory development is critical! By definition, supervision involves fulfillment of various needs of management and employees. The supervisor should be competent enough to perform the duties with great efficiency and effectiveness as well. Below are some of the essential basic aspects considered vital for supervisors:

· Ability to deal with all level of employees

· Ability to make decisions

· Ability to solve problems efficiently and effectively

· Adaptability and flexibility

· Are available and seen regularly

· Have excellent communication, both oral and written

· Possess and have great interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence

· Know all major responsibilities and duties of every employee

Supervision is a challenging job which supervisors should be well-versed in and able to handle each versatile function effectively and efficiently. The best supervisors EARN the trust of those they supervisor and must fully understand how important their jobs are and be seen always giving their best, being fair and being available.

Duties of supervisors: Major functions of supervisors include recruitment, delegating and directing tasks, evaluation of tasks performed, streamlining the work, etc. Additional or secondary functions involves the supervisor’s duty to allocate work, promote employees, recall the work completed unsatisfactorily, take disciplinary actions on irresponsible employees, suspend or terminate the employees with poor performance, deal effectively with grievance reviews, ensure performance appraisals and rewards for each employee is appropriate and timely, as well as other duties assigned by management from time to time.

Although supervision involves multifaceted responsibilities, the power of the supervisor can be limited by the power of a manager. However, it is the ultimate responsibility of the supervisor to motivate each employee towards accomplishing the objectives of the organization in a timely effective and efficient fashion.

Bottom-line on supervision: In organizations where supervisors are trained properly, there should be essentially no drop in the performance and efficiency of employees, even when the supervisor is away. Supervisor development should be focused on filling the gaps between the management functions as well the technical aspects. Training may seem like a waste of company funds to some. However, in the long-run it provides un-calculable returns and greater profits for the organization.

For more information please contact Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt at www.paulgerhardt.com

Career Management and Job Satisfaction

2012-02-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD
www.paulgerhardt.com

Finding a job you love that pays well is the dream of nearly every American. Have you ever wondered why some people manage to find the best jobs—while you are working extremely hard and you never seem to catch a break?

You are not alone! Tons of research has been conducted that exposes the secrets of career management and best-practices that if followed lead to the paths of the quickest advancement. Studies illuminate that there may be specific attitudes which are the key to obtaining that ideal dream job and or promotion. The saying "Attitude is everything!" may be more true than you have considered. A positive career-related attitude that includes job satisfaction is clearly linked to promotions and getting your foot in the door.

Another thing that job seekers should know is that research suggests that practice makes perfect. One must continually demonstrate frequency of using career management best-practices, keep a positive attitude which shows organizational commitment and always looking for reasons to have satisfaction with your job. In other words, keep your horse before your cart!

Job satisfaction and career satisfaction are very much related to intentionally deciding to choose and hold a feeling of happiness with your life at work. This positive attitude must be accompanied with creating an environment of workplace contentment in many ways regularly. Career satisfaction is measured through levels of happiness that is experienced through a person’s place and choice of employment.

Essentially, job satisfaction comes from a person’s current work situation. It is built upon factors like location of the job, working conditions, supervision quality, relationships with coworkers, and other influences. Psychologists will point out that the opposite of job satisfaction is actually not job dissatisfaction, but "no job satisfaction." Take a moment to think about that!

For a leader, it should be one of the highest priorities to help create an environment that lends itself to employees loving their jobs. One of the highest costs in running an organization is associated with employee turnover. It should be remembered that one the most important factors in any successful organization is a culture that facilitates job satisfaction in every department with every employee. Experts will tell organizational leaders that job satisfaction is directly related to a person’s sense of meaning. It is important for each employee to feel effective and valued in the workplace. This suggests that leaders must do all they can to remove barriers that may diminish job satisfaction both internally and externally, as much as possible.

Here are the keys to organizational success then: Make sure that you do your part to build a culture where recognition, achievement, responsibility and the work itself are built into the job and facilitated. These are job satisfaction’s most influential factors. These factors are more influential than status, working condition or interpersonal relations. Studies have regularly concluded that the feelings workers have about what they have achieved and have been recognized for are the most common feelings associated with increased job satisfaction. Every leader has the opportunity to make this happen. It must be intentional, regular, and above all else sincere.

So what causes job dissatisfaction? Some studies have discovered that the factors associated with job dissatisfaction have a different set of relationships. Leaders should take note that the strongest factor associated with dissatisfaction on the job is the perception of unfairness. Employees need to feel they are being treated fairly in every instance. Leaders may have favorites, but need to make their intentions always be seen as fair for all. Other factors of job dissatisfaction are having a feeling that there is a lack of opportunities to professionally develop or grow. On the list too of things that contribute to a feeling of job dissatisfaction is discontentment with salary and wages.

Factors that dissatisfy could then lead to the development of behaviors and attitudes that would clearly indicate that there are challenges in the workplace that are not being addressed. However, it has been studied that things that may lead to job dissatisfaction are not the mirror images of job satisfiers.

Leaders should note that motivation and satisfaction are very different in terms of performance and reward. Motivation is essentially influenced by perceptions about the relationship between rewards and performance that are forward-looking. However, satisfaction is related to how employees feel about the rewards that they have received. In other words, motivation is an outcome of expectations of what will happen in the future. Satisfaction is essentially about past experiences.

Career management is the process which people develop an understanding of their environment and themselves. Those who are in charge of their own career advancement regularly acquire feedback about their progress in their careers. By doing so, it helps build and create strategies about career goals. Leaders should know that the best-practices of career management for employees must aim to help workers develop new skills or to update their old skills consistently. Great managers help employees make better career and job choices and assist them in giving opportunities to prepare for higher levels of responsibility within the workplace.

When leaders are focused on creating places of growth through a focus on employee career management, it lowers turnover. Turnover reduction leads to higher levels of productivity. This builds a pool of experience that helps the organization grow and maintain a competitive stance.

The bottom line in career management is that leaders must create places where employees feel completely or mostly satisfied in their careers. Successful organizations must be consistently doing things to help their individual members grow within the workplace and see opportunities for genuine growth. Managers should do all they can to cultivate a positive environment where people see themselves as being treated fairly and always being given tools to be their very best.

For more information contact Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD. at his website: www.paulgerhardt.com

Leading Diverse Generations in the Workplace

2012-01-21T22:33:00.000-08:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD
"The Organizational Doctor"
www.paulgerhardt.com

We are living in some very interesting and for some scary times. Right now, the United States is challenged with serious unemployment issues. As leaders, we must take a deeper look into a phenomena that is taking place. Every day, approximately 10,000 Americans are turning age 65 and eligible for retirement. Numerous organizations in all parts of the world are experiencing significant shifts in their demographics of employees. These shifts are a direct result of workforces that are aging and are also simultaneously becoming age-diverse. This means that decision-makers and coworkers alike in every type of organization should be more aware of the capabilities and needs of fellow employees. Being cognizant of workers in all age groups ideally cultivates creativity and efficiency. Creativity is the foundation of what it takes to yield stronger and more competitive organizations.

Experienced workers are the life-blood of organizations. They have wisdom from their years in the workforce that help avoid making expensive mistakes. Their experience may also create a solid foundation of doing things more efficiently and effectively. Various researches have studied the aging process and how it affects employee behaviors, goals and emotions. It is important to note that people experience changes differently as they age. Scholars don't always agree about how to manage the changing workplace. However, employees must consider this important topic if they want to remain competitive.

Interesting studies on generational differences at work evaluate values and attitudes. These studies shed light on a topic that employers must be standing up and paying more attention to immediately. Developmental theorists are beginning to advocate for a more optimistic view on generational differences which suggests that leaders can take action to remain competitive. Turnover is one of the greatest costs of doing business. When employees retire, talent may be lost. Therefore employers should evaluate how to keep their Baby Boomers long enough to train the next generations to successfully-succeed in workplace activities once their elders have gone.

I believe that it all begins by realizing that success should be measured in terms of quality workplace and customer relationships. The strongest organizations have realized that relationships need to matter in the workplace. Legendary companies like Google are famous for creating an environment that fosters both creativity and camaraderie. It is difficult to beat competition where employees go out of their way to do their best for the benefit of their workplace. Loyalty is earned and can easily be lost. When employees feel forgotten or unappreciated, they may sabotage their organization and in the least lose their sense of dedication. Similarly, too many nursing homes are filled with people who are seemingly forgotten and left to die. This reoccurring phenomena of relationships with members of society are often altered in quality or are even severed when people age. This feeds the ugly vicious cycle and perception that as adults grow older, they disengage from society. Why not find ways to keep employees of all ages appreciating each other, feeling valuably-appreciated and working together to grow by inspiring each other to be the best we can be?

Creativity and growth in the workplaces requires employees to work as members of a team. On the other hand, the results of distancing of employees may result in the opposite--diminished creativity and performance--especially of aging-seasoned workers. Organizational leaders and decision makers must do all they can to help employees of all generations feel valued and included in most activities of the workplace. Leaders should be cautious not to expect the older members of their workforce to withdraw or engage in behaviors that are counter-productive due to their disengagement. This means treating older workers and younger ones with the kind of respect they expect. Challenge all generations to work closely together and be open to sharing each other's ways of doing things with a win-win mindset.

So how can organizational leaders retain Baby Boomers longer in order to train their replacements sufficiently? Studies suggest that as adults age, they continue to strive to maintain the same activities, behaviors, relationships and personalities. As they maintain these elements of their lives, aging adults continue a connection with their experiences. Employers should have the mindset and be aware that there is scientific evidence that suggests that aging adults are able to maintain continuity in their personal traits, steadiness with their close relationships, and intelligence. So, there generally should not be any reason treat aging Baby Boomers like their time is short or to expect less. In fact, it has also been found that aging adults have a tendency to maintain their levels of productivity if managed properly.

There are also studies that have revealed that aging adults perceive themselves as being the same individual all their lives and there is also a significant stability in how they perceive specific characteristics about themselves. This also has important implications in the workplace as older adults would be more concerned with the maintenance of good relationships at work and continuing good performance in the job. It has been found that older workers have a tendency to display fewer withdrawal behaviors, continue behaviors which maintain efficiency and productivity, and display more actions necessary for workplace safety.

Organizational cultures that maximize relationships also maximize productivity and creativity. Creating policies and procedures that cultivate respect for all generations is truly the key to success. Each generation is said to be distinctly different from one another. However, creating work teams of multiple generations will help cultivate positive-relationships and yield greater ideas and organizational strength. The bottom-line is that all organizations must utilize EVERY employee wisely in order to maintain competitiveness in their market. Making everyone feel genuinely valued and appreciated could mean the difference between an organization that loses its talent prematurely or continues to grow stronger with time.

Synergistic Supervision and Job Satisfaction

2011-12-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD

www.paulgerhardt.com

One of the most-important factors in creating a workplace where both customers and employees love comes right down to the quality of the supervisor. Essentially speaking, supervision means monitoring. Supervisors are very often the “glue”, which keeps people on track and the organization competitive and viable. Supervisors are the ones who set goals and help employees do the work of the organization and helping each one know when performance can be improved.

According to management studies, generally new employees have a higher probability to leave their organization than long-timers. Supervisors should be aware that this may be because employees need ample time to settle into the new organization. It is natural for employees to compare past employment and the current one. Since there will obviously be differences between past and present, this may be the root cause of dissatisfaction in a new employee. Supervisors should be aware of the enhanced chances of losing new employees. To reduce resignations of new employees, a holistic approach to supervision may be considered: “Synergistic” staff supervision.

Synergistic supervision involves discussing exemplary performance, conversations of future career plans, and mentioning performance that has area for improvement. It also involves conversations of personal attitudes and informal appraisals. The supervisor must convey and clarify what the organization thinks about each employee and help explain what is expected. Paying close attention to doing these aforementioned conversations may also result in improved communication between the professional and the supervisor. The newly joined employee will most-likely have greater job satisfaction. Even more satisfaction may result especially when she is clearly told about possible career opportunities that may come her way; if she stays and grows with the company.

The initial job orientation and workplace socialization of a new employee is vitally-essential. It creates awareness about the procedures and policies of the organization. It also gives insight into the culture and customs important within the company.

Here is an example: A young management graduate joins the organization ‘X’ as Junior Executive. The employee is brilliant, and the company has plans to train him in all the aspects of managing operational facilities at a different location. So, without communicating this to the employee, they start giving him factory related work. Since the employee doesn't know what the company has planned for him, he manages the factory data, but secretly he starts looking out for another job, because he feels he is overqualified to handle factory data. Finally, within 2 months, he resigns. Here, both the employee and the company are at loss. The company lost a brilliant employee, and the employee lost a great opportunity.

Such miscommunication can be avoided with the help of synergistic supervision. When the communication is open between the supervisor and the new professional, it builds trust and confidence and creates greater supervisor-new employee relationships. Often new employees face teething troubles, which are directly related to not being accustomed to the culture and customs of the new organization. She may look forward to the supervisor for support when communication channels are open, and will not jump off to find another job opportunity.

Smart supervisors must realize that the success of each employee, is generally established in the earliest days of employment. The supervisor’s main focus should be to mentor the new employee. The supervisor should help the new employee find social support and reassurance from the organization. The new employee must see opportunities for growth and his/her value to the organization.

Recruiting and hiring employees is one of the greatest costs to every organization. Supervisors must also realize that training for each job involves costs too. The bottom line is that it is vitally-important to retain every employee for a longer duration. It truly is in the best interest of the organization. Thus, the role of a supervisor in helping new professionals to settle down in the job is absolutely crucial.

Informally Leading Success

2011-11-27T12:00:00.001-08:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD
www.paulgerhardt.com

Business as usual probably is a key indicator that something VERY important is being neglected. That something may lead to ultimate failure. What is that very important thing? It is quite simple, but vitally essential. That something is recognizing the numerous efforts put forth by the informal leaders in your organization. Everyone knows that leaders play a crucial role in the success of each organization. Formal leaders are usually titled managers. Managers must always find ways to create value for employees, and give them no reason to be anything but loyal while focusing on to delivering the best results for valued clients and team. Creating value for employees means giving exemplary support, systems, benefits, opportunities for growth, and a positive working environment.

Effective leadership is the foundation of exceptional customer service and organizational greatness. Leadership is a phenomenon that occurs at every level. It is not only a formal, but informal too. The presence of leadership should be visible in the quality of a vibrant organization’s customer service and in team effectiveness.

Informal leaders emerge throughout every organization. They thrive when formal leaders recognize and praise successes of every size in a genuinely appreciative way. Informal leaders are the employees that are giving their best in accomplishing tasks and goals. They are the ones who are showing pride in going above and beyond, while looking for ways to make things even better in their departments and company. Although informal leaders have roles that are different from official leaders who have been appointed by the organization, their accomplishments are as important to the success of the organization as any manager’s. Smart leaders recognize these informal leaders and help them flourish and grow.

Managers can recognize informal leaders as those individuals who are consistently contributing to accomplishing goals, facilitating work and offering direction, support and other necessities to team co-workers. Informal leaders pave the way for success and allow others to follow. Smart managers must recognize the power these informal leaders have. Their influence can be either positive or the opposite if not his/her accomplishments are not genuinely shown appreciation on a regular basis.

The actions informal leaders are powerful in motiving, inspiring and influencing the actions, ideas and perceptions of other employees. Therefore, informal leader’s actions must be fostered, praised and allowed to serve as role models for exemplary work performance. Smart managers know that workers who are happy while on the job, wholeheartedly give his/her best, greets customers in a positive way, helps colleagues solve problems, and positively influence other workers. Happy informal leaders inspire their colleagues to be successful in accomplishing excellence in all they do.

Informal leaders truly are the ones who make it possible for each department and team to make change and maintain daily operations. The informal leader’s ability to influence excellence stems from giving trust and recognizing trustworthiness. Leaders must celebrate informal leaders create systems that enable them to do what they do best. By doing so, formal leaders will soon recognize a kind of charisma and magnetism which helps them to influence success in countless ways by their followers.

After all, informal leaders are often the ones who build team spirit and create an eagerness in employees to be motivated in performing excellence and creativity in their work. When it comes to the delivery of customer satisfaction, informal leaders can influence greater levels of quality service that their co-workers will emulate. Informal leaders make it possible for leaders to be appointed by their organization. It is informal leaders that truly are the backbone of success.

Smart managers recognize that an informal leader’s ability to direct and influence others rests on his or her support by their managers. Leaders support and cultivate talent. They evoke confidence, build trust and always show genuine respect to others. Informal leaders are exceptionally important to organizations. They are the ones who build the success of the formal leaders. Therefore, informal leaders must always feel supported and genuinely appreciated on a daily basis. Informal leaders who do not feel supported and valued will not support the vision and the goals of their organization’s formal leaders. When this happens, the informal leaders can become barriers to the organizations.

The bottom line is leaders identify who your informal leaders are. Give them what they need to be successful. Their success is your success!

Supervisory Skill Essentials

2011-11-13T12:39:00.000-08:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD
www.paulgerhardt.com

A vast number of people would say that supervision is about getting results. However, the question is, will supervisors who demand compliance without questions and demand immediate results be effective in their role?

Whether you are a supervisor or not, if you are in a position where you are required to direct other people’s activity, then you definitely need to review your supervisory skills. The main objective in leading people is to maximize potential for getting better results.

Essentially, effective supervision can be boiled down to building positive working relationships. Although trust between people requires some time to develop, once it does, supportive efforts and thoughts can be applied to whatever situation occurs. A result of effective leadership can be seen when conflicts become minimized, cohesion among employees is evident and time is maximized.

The best leaders know that supervisors should be able to trust each employee to get their tasks done satisfactorily and exceptionally. Likewise, each employee should be able to trust his or her supervisor to give perceived ample support and fair compensation.

Generally, employees have high expectations for leaders in their workplace. Employees want and need to be treated respectfully and with dignity. When there is trust, a strong working relationship builds the commitment that gets the work done.

Effective supervisors understand the importance of training their employees and helping develop each one properly. It truly should be seen as a sincere joy to take time to refine employee’s skills. The benefit of this is quite obvious. Employers can lower costs by retaining employees and helping each employee see themselves as challenged and valued. In doing so, workers should have the skills and support to meet the future needs of the organization. Training also benefits the employee as it gives him or her, an opportunity to grow and take on new roles and responsibilities within the workplace. Responsibility and opportunities for growth motivate.

Employees who no longer feel that they can grow within an organization will most likely seek better employment elsewhere. Consider this, if the company takes the time to train their employees to use new technology and updates the employees’ skills with handling contemporary technology, the employees would most likely find reasons to look elsewhere.

Supervisors must also be coaches. Coaching is all about developing employees to become self-directed and make effective decisions. It takes a great deal of effort and time to always have to stand over someone’s shoulder to make sure the work gets done. With all the responsibilities that supervisors have, it pays and makes excellent sense to trust employees enough to be able to delegate work and support employees through coaching.

There are often cases where supervisors are tasked with resolving conflicts. Conflict resolution is very important as any conflict within a team can affect the performance of the employees. When performance gets affected, the bottom line can get impacted. It pays to learn how to develop conflict management skills.

The workplace must feel safe for all involved. Supervisors are often tasked with maintaining safety. This to is a very important skill that must be taken seriously and involves proper training. Supervisors must make it clear that safety is crucial. This may initially and often be done by communicating to the employees that they are valued and vitally important. Having a safe place to work helps the organization to become more productive. Lower costs keep organizations strong, which ultimately should result in more job security for everyone.

Excellent supervisory skills are vitally important! Making sure that your leadership skills are kept sharp can be the best investment anyone can make. The benefits of effective leadership skills are higher profits, enhanced productivity, increased employee confidence, greater employee satisfaction, a safe work environment and a positive workplace with an improved bottom line.

The Workplace Golden Rule: Supervisor and Friend

2011-10-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD

Should a supervisor be “friends” with his employees? This is a question that has been asked for the last few decades. The fact of the matter is that the relationship between a supervisor and supervisee can be very tricky. Often, the supervisee is at the receiving end because of the hierarchy. Therefore, to protect the interests of the supervisee, there are certain ethical standards that a supervisor needs to adhere to. Exhibiting ethical behavior indicates professional approach of a supervisor. Being friendly and a supervisory, while practicing ethical workplace actions is key.

It is the duty of a supervisor to provide a positive and supportive atmosphere that boosts personal and professional growth of the supervisee. It includes doing training, helping employees learn the nuances of their job, and supporting the supervisee in whatever way possible. Ultimately it is all about seeing that the client is well served by the supervisee. This is best done by treating the employee well and in a manner that the supervisor would like to see the client to be treated. This of course sounds like the Workplace Golden Rule.

Although it is believed that most supervisors adhere to ethical practices like updating the supervisee of expectations regularly, the less obvious fact may be that “busy-ness” of running a business sometimes inhibits meeting employees regularly enough. Therefore there may be a significant gap in the necessary imparting of workplace knowledge about the expected practices, cultural nuances, legal and ethical responsibilities, and so forth. However, some scholarly research suggests that most supervisors do not adhere to a significant level of ethical guidelines. One example of this may be, maintaining transparency within the department. Research indicates that as many as 50% supervisors do not adhere to ethical behavior guidelines. This may be due to supervisors wanting to maintain a sense of being “cool” or being a friend to those he supervises.

It is observed that when supervisors don’t comply with the ethical guidelines that it reflects as a weak workplace alliance by the supervisor.

Consider these three important supervisory alliance dynamics:

a) Relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee

b) Understanding of the purview of supervision

c) An understanding of the tasks that will be supervised

When there is a strong work relationship between the supervisor and supervisee, studies show that it will usually result in improved efficiency, role clarity and transparency. Likewise, it predominantly results in greater job satisfaction for the supervisee.

Knowing this gives supervisors great responsibility and a fine line to walk. Human Resource professionals will tell you that many a times, supervisors adhere to unethical practices, such as sexual overtures, discrimination between the supervisees, lack of transparency due to relationship dynamics. Often, a supervisor who is not confident about himself may resort to dirty tactics such as non-communication of the workplace expectations or guidelines. He may fail to delegate important work, and other poor practices out of favoritism or fear of some relationship dynamic. Of course, this will have a negative impact on productivity of the supervisee and will also result in workplace dissatisfaction. In circumstances like these, the employee may suffer from anxiety. Supervisee anxiety is a condition where the supervisee is in a constant state of apprehension, stress, uneasiness and fear whenever the supervisee has to interact with the supervisor. In many cases, the supervisee will carry the grudge home, and it will affect her family life as well.

Supervisors must realize that it is very common for employees to feel slightly anxious while dealing with a supervisor, because of the nature of ‘boss-subordinate’ relationship. However, if the employee feels overly anxious, then it should be a cause for concern. Over anxiety will adversely affect employee performance. She will start showing a lack of interest, and will show negative response to the supervision. For example, if a supervisee feels that the supervisor favors another employee in the department, and divulges confidential information to that employee, then, she will ultimately and understandably lose trust in the supervisor. This will have a great impact on her work. Her self-esteem be deteriorate and consequentially, the response to supervision and workplace responsibility/effectiveness. Worst of all, the supervisee too may resort to doing unethical activities which sabotages the complete success of the department. One of the most common unethical supervisee behaviors is to bypass the authority. This may be a good thing if it gets the team working on the correct path to success. It may also result in termination to individual team members, including the supervisor.

Supervisors must be friendly to all employees ALL OF THE TIME. They must never compromise ethical practices. Supervisees may resort to unethical behavior if they feel they are being treated poorly or unethically. Therefore, the Golden Rule of the Workplace is about being kind, making time to share information regularly, not showing favoritism, and fix what needs to be fixed. Little things can lead to big things before you know it.

For more information, contact Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD at: www.paulgerhardt.com

The Secrets of Career Advancement and Job Satisfaction

2011-10-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered why some people get the best jobs—while as hard as you work, you seem to never catch a break? Tons of research has been conducted that exposed career management best-practices that lead to the swiftest advancement. Research shows that it may be specific attitudes may be the key to obtaining that dream job and promotion. These career-related attitudes like job satisfaction are clearly linked to promotions. Research results demonstrate that frequency of using career management best-practices correlate positively to organizational commitment and job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction and career satisfaction relate to happiness with a person’s life at work and also contribute to contentment in varying ways. Career satisfaction can be defined as a level of happiness that is experienced via a person’s choice of employment. Job satisfaction stems from a person’s present work situation and also depends on factors like location of the job, working conditions and other influences. The opposite of job satisfaction is actually not job dissatisfaction, it really is no job satisfaction.

It is considered, as common knowledge, that probably one of the most important factors in a successful organization is job satisfaction. It has been said that job satisfaction is related to a person’s sense of meaning and effectiveness within the workplace as against factors that are external.

It has been found that recognition, achievement, responsibility and the work itself are job satisfaction’s most influential factors. These factors are more influential than status, working condition or interpersonal relations. Research further concluded that the feelings workers have about what they have achieved and have been recognized for are the most common feelings associated with increased job satisfaction.

In numerous studies, it was discovered that the factors associated with job dissatisfaction have a different set of relationships. It has been identified that the strongest factor associated with dissatisfaction on the job is the perception of unfairness. Other factors of job dissatisfaction relate to perceptions of having a lack of opportunities to professionally develop or grow, as well as discontent with pay.

In some literature related to motivation and career success, it has often been assumed that satisfaction and motivation are similar and can even be synonymous. However, motivation and satisfaction are very different in terms of performance and reward. Motivation is basically influenced by perceptions about the relationship between rewards and performance that are forward-looking. However, satisfaction is related to how individuals feel about the rewards that they have been given. In simpler terms, motivation is an outcome of expectations of what will happen in the future while satisfaction is about past experiences.

Career management can be defined as a process through which people develop an understanding of their environment and themselves. It is about acquiring feedback regarding their progress in their careers, and helps formulate strategies and career goals. The best-practices of career management aim to help workers develop new skills or to update their old skills. Effective managers help employees make better career and job choices and assist in getting them to be prepared for higher levels of responsibility within the workplace.

Smart managers are taking note of studies that show frequency of using various career management practices is positively linked to job satisfaction and an individual’s commitment to the organization. Also, the frequency of use of different career management practices is inversely related with turnover.

In short, successful organizations are always doing things to help their individual members grow within the workplace. Managers cultivate a positive environment where people see themselves as being treated fairly and always being given tools to grow and be their very best.

For more information contact Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD. www.paulgerhardt.com

Consider Our Aging Workforce Wisely

2011-10-01T11:05:00.001-07:00

Right now, we appear to have serious unemployment issues across the United States. However, it is important to also realize that every day; approximately 10,000 Americans are turning 65. Many organizations in all parts of the globe are experiencing certain shifts in their population of employees. These shifts result in workforces that are aging and are also simultaneously becoming age-diverse. This means that decision-makers and coworkers alike in every type of organization should be more aware of the capabilities and needs of their employees. Being cognizant of workers in all age groups ideally cultivates creativity and efficiency. In turn, this yields stronger and more competitive organizations.

Many researches have tracked the age variable and how it manifests itself in terms of worker’s behaviors, goals and emotions. Although there is no disagreement regarding the fact that people experience changes differently in those aspects as they age, there is some disagreement as to what are the mechanisms involved and how prominent or widespread the changes are in the workplace.

Numerous studies regarding age differences in work values and attitudes illuminate a topic that employers must stand up and pay attention to immediately. There are differences in views of aging. Developmental theorists are beginning to advocate for a more optimistic view. Some considerations employers should think about and create policy about involve proactively focusing more on the losses and detriments associated with an aging employee-base.

Relationships need to matter in the workplace. Consider the phenomena of relationships with other members of society which are often altered in quality or are even severed when people age. This gives a perception that as adults grow older, they disengage from society. There has been research that has shown that as adults age there is a decrease in the number of their social circles and these results in a greater distance from society.

Most workplaces require employees to be a functioning important member of a team. Distancing or disengagement of employees may have implications on the performance of aging adults in the workplace. This is because organizations may begin to expect that the older members of their workforce are more likely to withdraw or engage in behaviors that are counter-productive due to their disengagement. The good news is that there is research that clearly suggests that this is not really the case.

Employers may find that the aging process is associated not with disengagement, but is associated with continuity. Studies suggest that as adults age, they continue to strive for maintaining the same activities, behaviors, relationships and personalities. As they maintain these elements of their lives, older adults continue a connection with their experiences. There is empirical evidence that suggest that many aging adults are able to maintain continuity in their personal traits, steadiness with their close relationships, and intelligence. It has also been found that aging adults have a tendency to maintain their social participation following the demise of a spouse and show stability in their participation in religious activities over their lifespan.

With that said, it will be interesting to see how workplaces change with these new age dynamics. Organizations must utilize EVERY employee wisely in order to maintain competitiveness in their market.

What Every Leader Should Know About The Bottom Line

2011-09-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

If you were to do a random survey on what the average person believed the primary goal of a supervisor is, you would most-likely find that the majority would say that supervision is about getting results. However, the deeper question about leadership is, whether supervisors who demand absolute compliance to company policies without questions and demand immediate results be absolutely or mostly-effective in their role?

Whether you are a supervisor or not, chances are that you have one if you are currently employed. If you are in a position where you are required to direct other people’s activity, then you definitely need to take a deep inward look into your supervisory skills and practices. The most-effective leaders know that this truly is the key to maximizing one’s own personal potential for getting better results from the people you direct. We must always be in the practice of knowing what we know and affirming what serves us and our organization well in how we deliver leadership.

Supervision is all about building high-quality working relationships with the people we work with. Trust between and among all team members always requires time to develop. However, once it does, synergy, production and communication can be maximized. No matter what the task, individual efforts and thoughts can soon assuredly be applied to whatever situation arises. Another by-product of well-developed trust is that conflicts become minimized and as a result, time is both saved and maximized. Trust is at the foundation of high performing teams!

Teams are complex, but it is all about trust. The best supervisors know that they should always be able to unquestionably trust an employee to get a job done satisfactorily. Likewise, the employee should be able to trust his or her supervisor to give unwavering and unquestionable support, as well as fair compensation. Generally, employees have high expectations for leadership in the workplace. Employees want to be treated with deep respect and dignity. When there is tried-and-true trust, a strong working relationship builds the maximized commitment that gets the work done well—efficiently AND effectively.

Excellent supervisors never skimp on training their employees and help develop them to be the best they can ultimately be. Successful leaders are always happy to take time to refine their employees’ skills and bring in experts to continue the growth that every person needs to stay fresh and motivated. The benefit of constantly investing in updating employee skills is quite obvious. Employers can retain the employees, which ultimately lowers costs of doing business. Likewise, training builds skills to grow as well as meet the future needs of the business.

These are the most-competitive times in all of history. Organizations must learn to retain talent and keep them loyal. Losing an employee to the competition has immeasurable costs. Of course training also benefits each employee. It gives him or her, an opportunity to grow and take on new roles and responsibilities within the workplace. There is always room in EVERY smartly-competitive organization for employee growth.

Employees who no longer feel that they can grow within an organization will most likely seek better employment elsewhere. For example, most of the work that is done these days involves an interface with some form of technology. If the company takes the time to train their employees to use the newest technology and intellectual training, it enhances the employees’ skills with handling the technology current as well as helps the employee learn more about himself/herself. As a result, the employees would be most likely stay for a long time with the organization that paid for that training.

Supervisors are also coaches. They rely on their skills in coaching to develop their employees to become self-directed. It takes a lot of effort and time to always have to stand over someone’s shoulder to make sure the work gets done. With all the responsibilities that supervisors have, it pays to be able to delegate work and support employees with coaching.

There are often cases where supervisors are tasked with resolving conflicts. Conflict resolution is very important for leaders at every level to understand. In every organization with multiple employees, conflict within a team can affect the performance of the employees and the reputation of the organization. When performance gets affected, the bottom line ultimately will be impacted. Conflict can be very expensive for organizations.

Leaders must always be cognoscente that the workplace always needs to be safe. Smart supervisors should take on the responsibility of maintaining safety. This is an exceedingly important skill. When a supervisor make it clear that safety is crucial, he or she is ultimately communicating to the employees that they are valued and important. Of course a side-benefit of having a safe place to work is that it helps the organization to become more productive and profitable. Injuries nickel and dime the profit and success off every organization.

Supervisory skills are exceptionally important. The most effective leaders are always making sure that their personal and employees’ skills are kept sharp. Truly, training can be the best investment anyone can make. The result of sharp supervisory skills will be increased employee confidence, greater employee satisfaction, a safe work environment and ultimately a positive workplace where all employees will crave to contribute to enhance performance and enhance profitability of the organization.

For More Information Visit: www.paulgerhardt.com

The 10 Secrets of Effective Leadership for Supervisors

2011-09-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

As a leader, manager, business owner or supervisor, it is so important that you understand what it takes to be an effective leader. It is all about understanding the art and science behind effectively leading, managing, motivating and supervising your employees or staff.

These in a nutshell are the essentials. Hopefully, these tips will help you improve your skills and your relationships with your staff. As a result, you should find deeper trust and support.

Be impartial: As a supervisor or leader, you need to treat each of your staff in an unbiased manner. Always consciously be fair. Always be respectful to EVERYONE you come in contact with, not matter what the position he/she may hold. We all know that there are those individuals who may be more pleasant than others. Others that may be quite the opposite. No matter what, you should avoid any hint of favoritism and treat everyone fairly.

Be a coach: The workplace is simply that – a place to work. It is not the frontline of a war. Include your staff in decision making whenever it is possible. Encourage them to improve their skills. Try your best to help them get promotions, pay hikes or get recognition when they deserve it. Be a coach of the team. Think about the consequences of treating employees with anything less than respect that good coaches do. Give your employees the tools they need to do the job right and to grow both personally and professionally. There truly is enough success in the workplace for everyone. Share it and inspire it!

Criticize diplomatically: When you need to give criticism about a person’s performance, you need to be diplomatic. You should avoid making any conclusions without considering the repercussions. Be tactful. The rule of thumb is to praise in public and criticize in private. No one wants to be criticized in front of an audience. You may remember hating it when you were a child being criticized in front of the class. Keep that in mind. Make the criticism specific and work-oriented. It is not personal. Timing is important too. Make the critique immediately when you witness it rather than waiting for several days or longer. It needs to be meaningful, memorable and diplomatic to have long-term success.

Defend your staff: Remember how your parents used to stick up for you when other people criticized you unfairly? You need to do the same thing with your staff. You need to show them that you are a supportive and reasonable supervisor. When your employees are wrong, find a creative solution to protect your staff, but make things right in the most-diplomatic way possible. Don’t sellout your team, but include them in coming to the conclusion for themselves that mistakes were made if that were the case. If your employees are in the right, help the other party come to that conclusion with logic and REAL facts and data. The whole goal of running an effective organization is creating a sense of trust and value for ALL involved.

Flexibility is important: Procedures are there to guide people on how things should be done. However, wise leaders recognize that there are times when you need to be flexible when you are dealing with the concerns of your staff. You need to use common sense. Consider who all is involved, who is helped and harmed, as well as any possible long-term consequences of the decision. Not everything is black-and-white or cut-and-dry. Being flexible helps employees to give their best. It does not stifle creativity and promotes the value of being an individual. Some rules CAN simply be broken from time-to-time.

Keep things simple: When you are giving directions to an employee about a task, make them simple and easy to understand. Try your best not to make things seem so difficult even if the task is actually very challenging. Giving simple directions will make the employee feel confident that he or she can do the job. Keep the person’s learning style in mind. Some folks do better when you give the bottom line of what the final project needs to look like. Others need specific directions. Others need it demonstrated. Be wise and know who you are talking to and change YOUR leadership style to meet the needs of each individual follower. It will pay dividends in the long-run!

Know your staff: Get to know your team members. Learn their strengths and their weaknesses. Most importantly, make sure you know their names. Nothing can be more disappointing to an employee than to be called “hey you” or even worse “Dude”. Taking time to learn the strengths of your staff will help you when assigning tasks and they will feel good about working with you. For example, if Mary is good at planning events and loves to do that, let her do so when there is an upcoming event. She will feel good about being given a task she loves, she will do it well. She will appreciate you more for assigning her the task.

Make sure your interest is continuing: Nothing can be more disappointing for an employee that not being given feedback about how well they have done. Feedback on performance needs to be regular. You need to be honest and give feedback regularly. Praise when praise is due and give suggestions for improvement when it is not. Be very specific in your praise. Do not just say, “Good job!” Say, “That looks great! I like the way you met the goal with time to spare and I am confident our customers will like what you did with this specific piece here!”

Surround yourself with the very best: Being a successful leader means realizing what your personal strengths are and then surrounding yourself with others with the talent you are missing. Know what you know and know what you do not know. There is enough success in this world for all of us. Put the right people in the right places and take good care of them!

Train everyone: Each person is unique and has his or her own weaknesses and strengths. Make sure you take the time to develop the skills and abilities of each and every member of your staff. Do not overlook anyone. When you take the time to develop everyone, employees will know that you care for them and they will respect you for that. Their performance will improve. Just because an employee says, “Yes. I understand.” That may also mean, “I don’t want you to think I am stupid, but I really did not understand.” Effective training involves the trainee showing how to effectively implement the training and put things in his own words to show complete understanding.

Ethical Supervisor Behavior

2011-09-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

The relation between a supervisor and supervisee can be very delicate. Often, the supervisee is at the receiving end because of hierarchy. Therefore, to protect the interests of the supervisee, there are certain ethical standards that a supervisor needs to adhere to. Exhibiting ethical behavior indicates professional approach of a supervisor.

It is the duty of a supervisor to provide an atmosphere conducive to boosting personal and professional growth of each and every employee. It includes delivering training, helping in the learning process by supporting the supervisee in whatever way possible, and also seeing that the client is well served by every employee.

Although research shows that a majority of supervisors adhere to ethical practices such as keeping employees up to date, meeting them regularly and sharing knowledge about the customs, practices, legal and ethical responsibilities, and so forth. However, research suggests that many of them do not adhere to several other ethical guidelines. One example of a practice that most supervisors can build a reputation of doing better is maintaining transparency within the department. Research indicates that as many as 50% of all supervisors do not adhere to ethical behavior guidelines, especially as it relates to transparency.

It is observed that when supervisors don’t comply with the ethical guidelines that it is reflected in a weak working relationship and alliance of the supervisor and employees.

Supervisory alliance encompasses three factors. These are:

· Relationship between the supervisor and the employee

· Understanding of the purview of supervision

· An understanding of the tasks that will be supervised

When there is a strong work relationship between the supervisor and employee, it will result in improved efficiency, role clarity and transparency. It also results in greater job satisfaction for the employee.

Too often, supervisors adhere to unethical practices, such as sexual overtures, discrimination between the employees, lack of transparency etc. Often, a supervisor who is not confident about himself would resort to dirty tactics such as not communicating enough of the organizational guidelines, or will not delegating important work, and so on.

Of course unethical practices or neglecting effective communication and training will have a negative impact on productivity of each team member and will also result in employee dissatisfaction. In such circumstances, the employee and team may suffer from anxiety. Employee anxiety is a condition where the supervisee is in a constant state of apprehension, stress, uneasiness and fear whenever the supervisee has to interact with the supervisor. In many cases, the supervisee will carry the grudge home, and it will affect his family life as well.

It is quite common to feel slightly anxious while dealing with the supervisor, because of the nature of ‘boss-subordinate’ relationship. However, if the employee feels overly anxious, then it is a cause of concern. This is because over anxiety will adversely affect employee performance. He will start showing lack of interest, and will show negative response to the supervision. For example, if a supervisee feels that the supervisor favors another employee in the department, and divulges confidential conversation to that employee, then, he may lose trust in the supervisor. This will have a great impact on work, self esteem and the supervision response. Worst of all, the employee too may resort to unethical practices.

Just as supervisors follow unethical practices, employees may also resort to unethical behavior. It is very important to know that one of the most common unethical employee behaviors is to bypass authority. So, with this in mind, supervisors must be aware of the long-term consequences of his/her behaviors. Little things done or not done can lead to unhappy teams and ultimately organizational demise.

The Invaluable Supervisor

2011-08-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

Supervision is an indispensable part of management. It is essentially part of the necessary internal functions of an organization. Supervisory development is usually done internally by the managing authorities. Type of organization, level of employees, objectives, etc. obviously vary from one organization to organization. However, the basic functionality of the supervisor is essentially to the same. There may be minimal change in the supervisory functions based on the employees, strategies of the company, and other variables.

Supervision is very often mistaken as “leadership”. However, management, supervision and leadership have interrelated functions in each organization. The development of supervisory duties usually—and almost always has close association with leading and managing.

The supervisory function has been for years defined with a different outlook by differing regulating laws. Some studies on supervision state that it is considered the most important aspect for achieving the desired result. Several others pronounce that supervisors’ skills and knowledge are limited to technical aspects and the lack of other competencies resulting in ineffective output by employees. For instance, a supervisor may have good knowledge on the technical aspects of the organization to guide the employees; however the lack of proper communication can affect the outcome.

Similarly, a supervisor with poor interpersonal skills is more likely to ruin the performance of the subordinates, which obviously has an adverse effect on the organization. Eventually, development of supervisory function has become an important task as well as the responsibility of every manager for accomplishment of objectives and goals.

Supervisory development is a critical task that involves fulfilment of various needs of management and employees. The supervisor should be competent enough to perform the duties with great efficiency and effectiveness as well. Below are some of the essential basic aspects considered vital for supervision, to be met in development of supervision:

· Great Responsibility

· Excellent Communication – Oral and Written

· Great interpersonal skills

· Adaptability

· Ability to make decisions and solve problems

· Ability to deal with all level of employees

Supervision is a challenging task which supervisors should be well-versed in and able to handle the versatile functions effectively. Hence, the basic aspect of supervisory development includes the requirement of knowledge and skill on the all essential supervisory functions.

In addition, other major functions of supervisory development involve recruitment, delegating and directing the task, evaluation of the task performed, streamlining the work, etc. Additional or secondary functions involves the supervisor’s duty to allocate work, promote the employees, recall the work done, take disciplinary actions on irresponsible employees, suspend or terminate the employees with poor performance, grievance review, ensure performance appraisal and rewards for the employees at appropriate time, etc and other duties as assigned by the management from time to time.

Although supervision involves multifaceted responsibilities, the power of the supervisor is limited over the power of the manager. However, it is the ultimate responsibility of the supervisor to motivate the employees towards accomplishing the objectives of the organization in a timely fashion. In organizations where supervisors are trained properly, there should be essentially no drop in the performance and efficiency of employees. Supervisor development should be focused on filling the gaps between the management functions as well the technical aspects. Training may seem like a waste of company funds to some. However, in the long-run it provides un-calculable returns and greater profits for the organization.

Supervision Success Tips and Work Ethic

2011-08-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

Research indicates that several factors affect work ethic in an individual. Certain work ethic can be traced back to childhood. Other particulars ethics are inculcated as a result of each employee’s supervision and experience.

It may sound strange, but childhood experiences play a major role in how a person behaves at work. Values such as discipline and self-control are learned in early childhood. Children who met their goals as kids, or rather performed to satisfy parents in the childhood, usually have stronger work ethics as grown ups. Such employees are highly disciplined, take initiative on their own, and adapt to work culture faster.

Parents with authoritative traits help develop work ethic in their children. These kids become self-reliant and initiative-takers in their career. Family background traits shown by the parents help to develop work ethic in children.

Here is a short list for supervisors in developing effective work ethics in employees:

Create and maintain a positive working environment that boosts employee morale and help them excel their tasks.

Set working norms for the group and encourage the team and the supervisors that excel in their tasks and meet organizational goals.

Set out detailed goals with regards to productivity, craftsmanship quality etc, so that each individual is clear about the organizational expectations. The goals are clearly laid down right at the time of hiring a new employee, and taking him through the orientation process. Also, while delegating work to the employees, the expectations are clearly given. If there is need, the supervisor may also provide training, and explain how a task is to be handled. For example, while creating a new design for a label, the supervisor will clearly mention the prefer color schemes etc,

Create an ambiance that the supervisees will enjoy working in the environment. This is not to say that the organization will relax the norms or standards, but it means that the atmosphere will be such that the supervisees will not have any fear while voicing their opinion.

There should be effective delegation and individual work accountability.

The supervisor should ensure that each individual in his team is allocated work as per his abilities, and also he should help cultivate commitment amongst the team members by being totally committed to organizational goals. He should motivate the team members and seek active participation of each individual.

The supervisor should also carry on performance appraisal periodically within the department and feedback should be given to the supervisee. The evaluation should be comprehensive and should involve all the aspects such as quality of work, on time delivery, punctuality, attendance, work attitude, behavior, strengths, weaknesses, ability to think out of the box, and so forth

The employees that excelled in performance should be suitably rewarded, in terms of recognition and appreciation and even be paid better emoluments to keep him motivated.

Motivate supervisees through words and action.

In a nut shell, work ethic would depend on several factors, some beyond the control of a supervisor. Yet, a supervisor can contribute to better work ethic amongst his subordinates by following the guidelines mentioned above.

Work Ethic in Generation X

2011-08-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

Work ethic refers to the code of conduct in the workplace. Just as values differ with age, so it would seem in the case of work ethic. Some new research suggests that middle-aged people are as generally having a stronger work ethic, while the younger generation—folks between the ages of 18 to 35 years typically are not believed to have the same work ethic as their predecessors.

Some research suggests that one of the primary reasons for this variance in work ethic may be because these many companies are in transition to stay competitive and have resorted to pink slips, lay offs, pay cuts and so on. There is no surety of financial security even if an employee showed exceptional talent and dedication in his performance. Doing what you are told no longer gives employees job security.

Some also research suggests that Generation X is a generation of lazy, non-dedicated, materialistic workers, where all they want is quick money without the hard work involved. However, I believe that many will agree that that is not the case. When Gen-Xers see that hard work doesn’t always pay off--and can still result in layoffs, they cannot be blamed for obviously seeing no value in sticking to one organization for very long.

One of the most interesting stereotypes of Generation X is that they are risk takers. Therefore, when they see an opportunity with better pay and career prospects, they often do not shy away from accepting the challenges of a new job and having to deal with new people. This is a generation that believes that change is the essence of life. One can argue that this generation doesn’t often attach emotions to their work. However, we are all living in difficult times, where if any of us don’t move along, we may be pushed out, discontinued and/or replaced. Since we are now a GLOBAL marketplace, there is lot more competition in these present days, compared to any years in the past.

For Generation X, they need to be technically savvy and able to survive in a changing workplace. Work ethics for people at the onset of a new career need to be dependable, have the ability to be a ‘go-getter’, should be able to work well in a team, able to keep abreast of technological advancements, must be highly computer literate and possess the necessary skills as the job demands. The ability to think out of the box is what distinguishes Generation X from the other generations.

Who would ever imagine that a teenager or someone in their early twenties can become a millionaire just by hosting a social media website where friends meet friends? Mark Zuckerberg who changed the Internet world and modes of communication through his revolutionary “Facebook”, is a billionaire, and he is still in his twenties!

The world of internet and Web 2.0 has changed the equations. The work ethics are now more demanding on this generation. Many people can work from home, but they are putting in lot more hours than an average office go-er.

With all said and done, the most important work ethic for Generation X remains commitment and communication skills. No matter if he or she is working in a traditional organization, or is self employed working with people of different nationalities, work ethic is important. Learning how to get the best out of every worker, no matter the generation is a constantly changing part of the modern work environment.

Self-Awareness: More Important Than You May Think

2011-08-16T04:48:00.000-07:00

What is self awareness? Self awareness is an individual trait. It means being able to observe, analyze and evaluate one’s own self objectively, without any bias. Chinese proverbs suggest that knowing yourself first is greater than understanding others. We might say, self-awareness is about truly knowing our own strengths and weaknesses.

Essentially, self-awareness can be broken down into four basic stages, namely: self-focused attention, evaluation, reaction, and motivated action. This leadership lesson takes a look at each of these.

Self-focused attention can also be called as a ‘hero’ image, because here, the individual evaluates his own worth by comparing himself with the ideal self image. It is important to know that there are almost always some essential differences in one’s own real image and their ideal image. Of course, when a person realizes the differences in these two images, he has two basic choices. He can either react to it by working towards narrowing the differences or he may stop the process of the evaluation completely.

Successful leaders have the ability to bridge the gap between the real image and the ideal self image. It all begins by taking positive steps to getting closer every day and every in action he can to become that ideal self-image. It is all about clearly knowing what that ideal image looks like and being proactive in every action to accomplish it—one action at a time.

A self-aware leader evaluates himself carefully, and incorporates the necessary changes in his behavior after doing a personal and objective analysis. This may not always be easy to do. It starts with looking at relationships and the interactions with each person, one at a time. Self-aware leaders are well aware of how others perceive them. They incorporate these perceptions in self-evaluation as accurately as possible. Getting the ego out of the evaluation process is key!

Some of the tools used by self-aware individuals for self evaluation are reports, supervisor’s perception, peer opinion, subordinate’s opinion etc. In my consulting practice, I use a 360 degree assessment where the leader, co-workers and superiors are asked to evaluate the leader. Differences in self-rating and rating by others are bound to arise.

Many a times, the results of a self-evaluation may not be so clear. For example, a sales manager can easily know his worth from the reports of how he managed an ad campaign. A personnel manager can rate himself high if there are very few resignations in the organizations believing it is about a policy he created. Other variables may have come into play that may not be related to the decisions the leader believes shaped his level of success. There may be other factors that are not seen that have nothing to do with that leader. Low turnover may come from a terrible economy where folks are too scared to leave the security of a job they loathe. Sales may be high, but an old customer may have purchased more products due to an anticipated change in the market due to unusual circumstances—like a report that that product may reduce chances of getting cancer.

Research reveals that the future behavior of an individual is likely to depend on how close the self-rating and other ratings are. If the ratings almost agree, it may suggest that the individual has proactively taken steps to alter his behavior. If others are rating a leader are positive and similar to the leader’s self-evaluation, there’s no need for any change in the leader’s behavioral patterns.

When the ratings are in agreement over low performance, the individual will likely feel the heat in the job. This shows that while he is aware of his shortcomings, he lacks the initiative or the confidence to take positive steps in that direction. Almost anything can be changed about our personality. Some things take more effort than others, but it must start with a willingness to make those changes. Attitude, as they often say truly is everything!

In leadership behavioral studies, I have observed that individuals, whose ratings agree with the ratings of others, are more likely to succeed in that organization. These individuals are capable of foreseeing how they are evaluated by others and are able to adjust their behavior accordingly to get the desired results. This is a common trait shared by some of the most successful leaders in every industry.

The bottom line here is that self-awareness is positively linked to a host of intangible, but absolutely essential outcomes such as trust in the leader, follower satisfaction, commitment, effectiveness of the leader and much more.

Self-aware leaders are ABSOLUTELY MORE EFFECTIVE than others who have under-rated or over-rated their performance. How self-aware are you?

Social Skills of an Effective Leader and Competitive Team

2011-08-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

A truly effective leader must possess adequate social skills to be effective. I am talking about leaders using a six dimensional approach while dealing with his superiors and subordinates. These are: Emotionally expressive; emotionally sensitive; controlling emotions; being socially expressive; and having social control.

Emotionally Expressive
A leader should be able to express his emotions fully to the subordinates, both verbally and non-verbally. When a leader is able to emote his expressions clearly, he is bound to inspire and motivate his team members. A simple classic example of this is when political leaders motivate people to vote for them. They inspire them to act in a way that brings the desired result for them. Emotions can make a huge positive difference in one’s career!

Emotional Sensitivity
A leader should be able to read, decode and gauge responses of each of her team members. The communication may be entirely non-verbal. However, leaders must be able to decipher the meaning accurately, if she wants to maintain career success. For example, a leader can decode the expressions of an unhappy employee or an employee who is looking out for alternative avenues of his expressions. Unhappy employees can easily sabotage the success of a team or even an organization. Ever gone to a restaurant and had terrible service from one waiter and months later that restaurant was gone? It sounds pretty simplistic, but I told 10 of my closest friends about how upset I was about the service there. I heard others with the same feelings, who undoubtedly told their friends too.

An emotionally sensitive leader should have detected the unhappiness of that employee and her customers. This may have made a huge difference in the success of that organization for sure.

Control of emotions
A highly effective leader remains completely in charge of her emotions. She doesn’t react spontaneously even in the worst situation. Rather she is able to think about the situation in an unbiased manner.

Sometimes, it means stepping away from a stressful or potentially stressful situation and thinking about what to do. It takes approximately 20 minutes to physically calm down and allow a human body to normalize and distress. Investing the time to not act in haste may save both money and valuable relationships!

Social Expressiveness
All work and no play makes Jack (or Jill) a dull boy (girl in Jill’s case). Well, this holds true even more so in organizations. It becomes a leader’s responsibility to keep the work atmosphere light by sharing a humor and occasions to laugh with the coworkers. I am not suggesting that work should be taken lightly. I know that deadlines and tight schedules can be better met, when you do it with a smile and people who enjoy being around you.

Social Sensitivity
A leader should be able to understand the verbal communication in the present context. He should be able to weave the conversation and channel it in a positive direction, with the best interest of the organization in mind. For example, if there is disagreement with members within your team on an issue, it becomes the primary responsibility of the leader to re-channel the conversation in a way that the focus doesn’t shift anyone from the organization’s ultimate goals. Focus on getting relationships repaired in an authentic and meaningful way first. Shake hands and move forward!

Social Control
A leader must interact with every member of her team on a regular basis. Some experts suggest, every seven days at least! This may be challenging because coworkers usually have differing backgrounds, intellectual capacity and values. Given the situation, effective leaders must tactfully deal with her team members modifying her behaviors to suit the team member’s values and background.

Studies indicate that a leader that possesses all the six social skills have greater effective leadership quotients. Employees almost always react to a leadership based on her behavior as a leader. Leaders who can perceive the verbal and emotional cues of subordinates can and must change to be proactive in dealing properly for each individual situation. She/he must modify her/his actions or inaction accordingly, to satisfy the demands of each and every follower. It is a natural result, that the leader will garner support from team members with this simple concept. Ultimately a leaders’ social and emotional control has a positive impact on performance, the leader’s reputation, team members, as well as the organization.

Social and Emotional Control For a Transformational Leader

2011-08-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered why some leaders are more popular than others? It is of course about getting the job done and overall effectiveness. However, it involves two other very important factors—social and emotional control.

Social control means exhibiting control on oneself when dealing with followers or while in public. It means behaving appropriately according to circumstances. This is about doing the right thing for the sake of an important aspect of the bigger picture—long term reputation.

Emotional control, as the name suggests means keeping emotions in check. It is about masking or suppressing expressed negative emotions in stressful situations. A transformational leader must exhibit these traits if she wants to be perceived as successful in the eyes of her followers, and of course for the sake of the organization as a whole.

By maintaining social and emotional control, leaders send positive signals to their team that the situation is under control. To be able to have control on public display of social and emotional behavior, the leader is also sending a message that similar behavior is expected from his followers. He thus influences and inspires his followers.

Many times, in the bigger interests of the organization, leaders must mask anger and frustration. For example, frustration can be a natural result when sales targets are not met. At such times, instead of losing social and emotional control and firing up emotions at anyone around. The leader must become aware how he is feeling and realize that outbursts of anger will ultimately portray a weak picture of the leader. In the long run, that out of control leader will not be able to motivate his followers.

For this reason, it is important to remember that battles are won if the leader exudes confidence even in the worst scenario. Situations handled with wisdom and maturity strengthen teams and promote innovation that takes productivity to the next level.

It is important to know that this does not mean that the leader should never ever express displeasure over anything. Yes, they may show their displeasure on not being able to achieve a sales target. They may have to warn employees to be on their toes and give their 100% and that meeting each sales target is a number one priority. But there should be an awareness to restrain negative emotions while dealing with the situation. Today’s leaders must be aware of their actions and that fiery outbursts rarely ignite favorable response from the subordinates over long periods of time. It is a leader’s task to motivate and create a sense of urgency in each employee and focus on accomplishing organizational goals with excellence and effectiveness.

Today’s leaders must maintain a perfect balance between suppressing his sentiments and expressing sentiments of importance to his followers. This is particularly true when dealing with the subordinates individually. Effective leaders know that each employee is different and unique. So his perception of each situation also differs. One subordinate may become depressed on hearing a negative comment from the superior, while the same comment may push another follower to do better. So, it becomes important for leaders to understand individual needs and try to alter her behavior suitably while dealing with each individual.

Finally, leaders should be able to stimulate every subordinate intellectually. This means, effective leaders should challenge team members to find solutions to existing problems. She should motivate each employee to think creatively. Leaders should be bold risk takers, and NEVER afraid to fail.

If leaders do not show support when a subordinate fails while trying a new idea, it may ultimately deter followers from experimenting and creating innovative new ideas in the future. Innovation is the key to the success of every modern organization in this ever changing competitive global market. Stagnation and apathy hinders growth in organizations both large and small. It is ultimately the fault of individual leaders. Therefore, effective leaders must learn to restrain negative social and emotional displays and thereby provide an atmosphere conducive for creativity, growth and even short-term failure due to calculated risks. Without risks, there cannot be growth.

Leading with a Global Mindset

2011-08-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

One of the most difficult challenges faced by the corporate leaders is that they are now required to lead diverse teams. They need to develop a global mindset to be effective. Unlike before, now, they need to be multifaceted and keep abreast of the global happenings, political systems, be aware of the cultural values and customer behavior in different nations, and be able to develop a business relationship with people with varied cultures, religious beliefs, values and so on.

Leading a global team has its own set advantages- you can get an insight in to the uniqueness of a particular culture, while you will also be able to save costs by expanding. If you know how to get full potential out of your global team, you can reap millions, or should we say, you could save thousands by knowing exactly what not to do. For example, if you are planning to establish a food outlet in say, in parts of Asia, you need to understand the local tastes and preferences before the launch. If you have someone in your team who can guide you on this front, you can save millions.

With that said, you now need to shift from the traditional methods of working in an organization to novel methods, so as to accommodate the global team members. Developing a global mindset cannot be accomplished in a day. It is an ongoing process, which requires redesigning the organization’s structure, to accommodate the cultural differences of these teams. It is to be remembered that culture has a huge impact on how an individual reacts to a leadership. While Asians are more used to autocratic leadership style, a person from the United States and some parts of Europe are likely to enjoy autonomy while accomplishing tasks.

To take this point further, in some African cultures, managers may find organizational members to be family oriented, as in many cultures. Remembering the rule about putting employees’ needs first is key. Showing value for family and friends above all is important. Work is work, but employees must know they are valued and their values are important to managers. So, to score an edge with African team members, you need to share traits such as being charismatic, protective of the subordinates, concerned about their well being, modest and compassionate. If you can imbibe these values, you are sure to make positive points with your team, and be an effective leader. Similarly, if your team members belong to Caribbean and Latin American cultures, they too will also welcome a charismatic, protective leader. Most Asian culture employees look upon a leader with high regard, with almost paternal respect. So, they are comfortable with autocratic leadership.

Culture plays a pivotal role in upbringing of a person, his values, belief and so on. By understanding culture of a person, you also get an insight in to the behavior pattern, values, needs and desires of each individual employee. For example, if you send greetings to your subordinate on a local festival, you will be breaking the cross cultural barrier and are likely to garner greater support and improve productivity.

Understanding these values will enable a global leader to tap full potential from his team. A side benefit is that it may also avoid any conflicts within the team and build strength, as well as a competitive advantage.

Essence of Successful Leadership

2011-08-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Effective Communication
One of the biggest challenges today for the leaders is effective communication. In a survey on communication, as many as 79% employees pointed out lack of communication within the organization. The problem manifolds in a global team, owing to communication snags as team members speak different languages. Also, the same phrases and expressions may have different meanings in different cultures. It should be noted that communication also includes non verbal communication such as gestures and facial expressions. These can be easily misinterpreted when the team members are from different cultures. These misinterpretations would break the communication chain, and would adversely affect the team’s performance, productivity and even the team spirit. Even leaders are otherwise good communicators fail when dealing with a multicultural teams.

Need for culturally explicit behavior
Global leadership often fails due to its indifferent attitude towards the culture of its team members. This indifference creates lose ends in the leadership, and adversely affects the cohesiveness of the team. On the contrary, leaders who respect and understands these cultural differences can reap full benefits from its team members and create cultural harmony within the team, thus improving productivity and innovation.

Developing Global Mindset
Having a global mindset will arm a leader to perceive the world market, and understand the competitors better. This mindset will also help them fill the cultural gap that exists within its team members.

Collaborating with Team members
It is not just enough to have a global mindset. The leader has to inculcate the team spirit with the subordinates and collaborate with them. An effective collaboration with team mates of differing culture would enable the leader to get an edge over the competition, through effective use of the team members.

Trust
Often there is lack of trust between the leader and the team members. This mistrust leads to lack of communication; the leader may not be willing to share vital information with his team mates and vice versa, causing distrust and total chaos within the team. In such a situation, the team will be at complete tangent with each other, and the common goals will never be met. So, trust is one of the vital factors for an effective leadership. Your subordinates will pick up your traits, so if you exhibit trust and confidence in your subordinates, you can expect the same from them too.

Cultural Discrimination
Call it racial discrimination, cultural discrimination or it could also be a political rift between the nations…that often lead to hatred or ‘one man up’ feeling in the teammates or the leader. For example, if a leader is always trying to display his culture, his race to be superior to the rest, he is sure to kindle hatred in the minds of the team members. In such circumstances, it would be foolish to expect whole hearted support from the fellow team members.

Charismatic leadership
Gone are the days when you can treat your team members with ‘Carrot and Stick’ principle. You have to treat them as equals if you want support from them. A successful leader is one who exudes charisma, who is appreciative of his team members, and treats them as equal.

These are some of the traits that a successful leader must have! For more information please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Paul Gerhardt: www.paulgerhardt.com

Supervision and Work Ethic

2011-08-03T05:02:00.000-07:00

Research indicates that several factors affect work ethic in an individual. Certain work ethic are embedded in to an individual right from his childhood, while certain ethics are inculcated as a result of supervision and experience.

It may sound rather strange, but childhood experiences play a major role in how a person behaves in work culture. Values such as discipline and self control are learnt in early childhood. Children who met their goals as kids, or rather performed to satisfy parents in the childhood, have stronger work ethics as grown ups. Such employees are highly disciplined, take initiative on their own, and adapt to work culture faster.

Parents with authoritative traits help develop work ethic in their children. These kids become self reliant and initiative takers in their career. Again, the family background, traits shown by the parents also helps to develop work ethic in children.

Let’s now see the role of good supervision in developing work ethic. These are:

To create and maintain a positive working environment that boosts employee morale and help them excel their tasks

Set working norms for the group and encourage the team and the supervisors that excel in their tasks and meet organizational goals

Set out detailed goals with regards to productivity, craftsmanship quality etc, so that each individual is clear about the organizational expectations. The goals are clearly laid down right at the time of hiring a new employee, and taking him through the orientation process. Also, while delegating work to the employees, the expectations are clearly given. If there is need, the supervisor may also provide training, and explain how a task is to be handled. For example, while creating a new design for a label, the supervisor will clearly mention the prefer color schemes etc,

Create an ambiance that your employees will enjoy working in the environment. This is not to say that the organization will relax the norms or standards, but it means that the atmosphere will be such that the employees will not have any fear while voicing their opinion.

There should be effective delegation and individual work accountability

The supervisor should ensure that each individual in his team is allocated work as per his abilities, and also he should help cultivate commitment amongst the team members by being totally committed to organizational goals. He should motivate the team members and seek active participation of each individual.

The supervisor should also carry on performance appraisal periodically within the department and feedback should be given to the supervisee. The evaluation should be comprehensive and should involve all the aspects such as quality of work, on time delivery, punctuality, attendance, work attitude, behavior, strengths, weaknesses, ability to think out of the box, and so forth

The employees that excelled in performance should be suitably rewarded, in terms of recognition and appreciation and even be paid better emoluments to keep him motivated.

Motivate those you supervise through words and action.

How to Improve Leadership

2011-07-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

We are living in some very interesting times. We no longer are competing in a localized area for sales, resources and talent. Globalization has called for new traits of leaders in this new environment. Leadership will make all of the difference. Let us take a look at how one can improve leadership qualities and become an effective leader in today’s competitive environment. This means learning how to motivate team members, enhance cohesiveness and improve productivity.

Training Will Make that Important Difference

There have been numerous contemporary studies on what is needed to lead in this new global environment. Organizations must realize that it will take awareness and a proactive stance to stay competitive. To be able to imbibe these qualities and implement it, leaders need a quality training program steeped in research. It has been observed that corporations that implemented leadership training programs achieved a much greater competitive stance. Training programs would arm corporate leaders to gear up and learn behavior patterns that would help them to create a conducive and cohesive atmosphere within a diverse team. Leadership training help managers focus better on team challenges such as appreciating various cultures, values, norms, and communication styles. Effective programs aim at imparting cultural knowledge and teach methods of effective communication with multi-cultural employees. As a result, there is a usual boost the team morale, and achieve greater productivity.

Training on Cultural Diversity

During training, leaders are given an insight in to different cultures, customs and values of various diversity groups. The leaders are trained to respect the customs and values. For example, if you are working with an employee based in Gulf nations, you will need to understand and appreciate that team members cannot be working full-time during their holy month. Likewise, if you are working with an Indian team, you will have to appreciate that they come from far more conservative society as compared to the Western World. You will be made to understand that religion is never to be argued upon, no matter who is on your team. This awareness and openness towards people and their cultures foster better collaboration amongst all team members.

While leaders and organizational members are learning about different cultures, and their values, they will also get an insight about their spending habits. For example, if someone wanted to launch a new consumer product in India, the best time would be in October and November. For Gulf nations, it would be in August through September. While for European nations it would be before Christmas. These are the times when people are willing to open their wallets and shop! So, learning about cultures will not just bring cohesiveness and team spirit, it will also help leaders in making the right decisions at the right time.

Mentoring expatriates

It is often argued that there are not enough mentoring programs for the expatriate leaders to gear them to meet the global challenges. Many a times, a product or service does not take off as desired due to lack of effective leadership qualities in the expatriate employee. This anomaly can be overcome by providing a mentoring program in global leadership.

Employee Network Program

Trainings are best followed up with an employee network program done in intervals of at least every three months. Various cultural topics can be discussed at meetings or forums. Here, employees will gain an understanding about different cultures and global leadership from knowledgeable individuals.

These programs will ensure that all involved emerge as successful global leaders. Leadership is both an art and a science. The first step is realizing that effective leadership involves learning new ideas. The second step is taking action to gain the required training to create and sustain a competitive stance in this new global environment.

Transformational Leadership

2011-07-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

A transformational leader is a person who is able to influence individuals and earns their trust; respect and admiration to a great extent thereby help them shift their focus from individual interest to the collective interest of the organization or the team. This in turn works to meet the organizational goals, improve productivity and efficiency. He focuses on the values and importance of a task, and influences his subordinates to let go off the personal goals to achieve a larger perspective-the corporate goals.

A transformational leader will inspire and motivate his subordinates, give due consideration to the followers, and provide intellectual simulation. Through the behavioral pattern of the leader, the subordinates are motivated to accept new challenges and develop better solutions. He motivates them to think out of the box, and develop new, viable solutions.

Research indicates that transformational leadership has yielded positive results in improving performance and in developing positive attitude amongst the subordinates.

Having said that, let us see how a leader can assume the role of a transformational leader.

First and foremost, a transformational leader is extremely social. He interacts proactively with the subordinates and tries to alter the group behavior to suit the organizational environment and strikes a chord with team members, to ignite a positive response from them.

Now, to be able connect with the team members, a leader must possess fantastic communication skills. Here, communication encompasses verbal and non verbal communication. A transformational leader understands the emotional responses and cues given by the team members.

The second trait that a transformational leader must have- is self awareness. Self awareness arises from self confidence. A leader will not over estimate or under estimate himself or his subordinates or his superiors. When a leader has assessed the true worth of him and his team mates, he is likely to achieve the goals along with his team mates. The leader focuses on his subordinates, evaluates them, and provides them coaching in areas where they need development and training.

Let us see this with an example: In a company selling FMCG goods, the transformational leader of a sales team will set realistic targets for his team, encourages them and trains them to achieve their targets, and asks them to think of novel ideas to promote the product. He is receptive of the ideas of his team mates. Here, the leader is not just passing orders to his subordinates about the goals to be met, but he is proactively taking interest and is trying to be the vehicle to meet the goals. He is keeping the communication lines open by asking them to think about novel ways, and he listens to their ideas, thereby building a mutual relationship of trust and cohesiveness in the team.

A point to be noted here is that he is setting realistic goals after assessing the skills of his team members. He fully understands the strengths and the weaknesses of his team members and is ready to help them overcome their weaknesses, and fortify their strengths. This is the reason why organizations look forward to transformational leadership.