Beth Beutler's Blog, page 29

Christmas Greetings!

A very short, but sincere wish for a Christmas filled with hope, joy and love! Take some moments away from your busy life and celebrate the season!

 

 

 

Books for Gifts!

Hi everyone!

I hope your holiday season has been a blessed one so far!

I’d like to encourage you to take a look at my books as possibilities for Christmas or New Year’s gifts. You can find them all on Amazon.com or link here.  Here’s a summary of what each book is about:

Time Management, Jesus’ Way – a 30 day devotional using Jesus as a model for great time management
52 Ways to be More Organized – 52 tips to help you overcome overwhelm by implementing simple organizational tips into your life
Organizing from the Heart: Change Your Mindset, Conquer Your Challenges – Co-authored with Stephanie Baker and Karina Whisnant (both certified Christian Life Coaches), this book is a Bible study and a practical guide for helping you get more organized for the right reasons
A Light for Your Path: Helping You Reflect on Each Chapter of the Bible – this book is really more like a guided journal and would be great for the new year. It provides one question for every chapter in the Bible, to help you go a bit deeper!
Boost Your Workplace Morale: A Practical Guide for Employees (and Their Managers!) – this is a fun book, with lots of easy and practical ideas for bringing a little joy to your workplace.
52 Scripture-Inspired Affirmations for Your Work Life – my newest book gives you a Scripture-based thought per week in relation to your working life. It is a source of encouragement all year long!

Thanks for supporting small business and authors by your purchases!

Beth

 

 

Productivity is Served

Get More Done When You Eat These Foods

I was invited to share the following infographic with my readers and am happy to do so. For the month of December, my posts will be more visual in nature, allowing all of use to have a bit less on the plate during this busy holiday season (see what I did there?) I’ll be picking back up with written posts to help overwhelmed professionals excel in January!

 

Click to Enlarge Image

How to Be An Ambassador for Your Team

And how the 7 roles apply to me

Today I finished going through the Results that Last: 7 Roles Every Manager Must Master course through Let’s Grow Leaders, and the last role is one that in essence, sums up the rest of them. In review, the first six roles are:

Translator

Builder

Connector

Galvanizer

Accelerator

Backer

The final role is one of Ambassador.

Dictionary.com defines ambassador as an “authorized messenger or representative.” As a team leader, an ambassador represents the team to other leaders and organizations. They are often the ones that present results, concerns, and accomplishments. They also field the tough questions about where their team seems to be missing the mark.

Another layer of responsibility for an ambassador is to equip their team members to be ambassadors for the team as well. In this way, everyone on the team represents the team and what it stands for.

The tenth and final part of the course provided a 360 assessment for leaders to share with their team.

As I think about this course in relation to what I do, it encourages me to strengthen each of these roles for use in a different context than that of a manager. I don’t really manage a team, but I do influence and help people. In my three main roles–that of collaborative virtual assistant, writer, and business soft skills trainer–here’s how I feel I can apply the seven roles for results that last. For purposes of this part of the discussion, I am grouping my clients, students, and readers into one definition of “colleagues” because we all work together to continually grow in our professional and personal lives.

Translator – I can help my colleagues understand the big picture elements of becoming less-overwhelmed in their day-to-day life as professionals. This includes sharing ideas, information, and resources  (see connector) but goes deeper into inspiring and helping them stay focused on their values and principles of serving others. I can specifically help them turn their big dreams and values into implementable action.

Builder – I can build up my colleagues’ confidence in their ability to reach their own audiences, develop their writing skills, and manage their time and teams more effectively.

Connector – I can bring people who should know each other together, and point colleagues toward resources that will help them.

Galvanizer – I can energize my colleagues with thought provoking, energizing questions and tips, and also in a very literal way take tasks off their plates that drain them. Sometimes it simply means being a cheerleader and acknowledging their progress!

Accelerator – I can prompt my colleagues to get–and keep–moving toward their goals. This happens in client calls, for example, when I am collaborating with them and being a source of accountability for their own goals.

Backer – I can “have the backs” of my colleagues and believe the best of them. I can support them in challenging times. I can pray for them. (As a person of faith, my business life dovetails with my beliefs and I venture to guess that there isn’t a colleague out there who wouldn’t mind being prayed for no matter their own faith persuasion.)

Ambassador – I can equip all my colleagues as they represent themselves and their organizations to the world. As I represent all of you, I hope to do so with grace and professionalism.

The day I wrote this, it was a couple days before Thanksgiving. I didn’t realize the post was going to go in this direction, and by the time it publishes, Thanksgiving will be over and we will be well into the beginning of Advent. However, this is a great opportunity to thank all of YOU — each one of you is a colleague of mine whether we know each other personally or not. I appreciate and value the opportunity to serve you on a regular basis through one or more of my roles.

If you are interested in going through Results that Last yourself, click below, and benefit HOPE at the same time!

 

 

 

 

Get them Going and Have Their Backs

The Accelerator and Backer Roles for Results that Last

Are you able to motivate the people around you? Do you have their backs?

Good leaders (even if not assigned to a team officially) are able to influence and motivate others. They act as accelerators, moving the team along.

In the business world, an accelerator looks beyond the stats to what those numbers really mean. For example, your company may handle 25 phone calls a day. But the real meaning behind the measure is how satisfied each of those callers are with their experience interacting with your front line.

A good accelerator can take those numbers and translate (remember that role, too) them into meaningful inspiration to move the team to achieve even more.

In the process of achieving more though, you have to have their backs. Are you quick to throw others under the bus to protect your own repuation? Or are you willing to take a proverbial bullet for your team?

Last night I was watching an episode of Castle, where Ryan jumped in front of his partner to save his life. Fortunately, Ryan’s life was protected by a notebook in his jacket pocket. (Not sure how realistic that is, but work with me here.) Ryan didn’t hesitate to take a bullet–to put himself in harm’s way. And his effort proved his loyalty to his partner at a time when they were having a lot of trouble with each other. It gave great new perspective.

Your team will be loyal when they know you are willing to back them. This doesn’t mean covering for bad behavior, but to be willing to take responsibility when the results aren’t good.

Motivate your team–inspire them to keep moving. But even more, have their backs in the process.

For more help with the key roles every manager must master, enroll in Karin Hurt’s course. Click below!

Connector and Galvanizer: Energize Your Team

You can do this! I have confidence in you.

You can do this! I have confidence in you!

In my continued journey through the course,  Results that Last: 7 Roles Every Manager Must Master, I’m learning about various “hats” a good manager has to wear.

This week, the hats of Connector and Galvanizer were my focus.

A connector helps their team tie together the big picture with the everyday tasks, and a galvanizer energizes the team to carry out that vision. Unfortunately, when a manager is overwhelmed with the minutia of every day tasks, these two roles can take a beating. Who has time for explaining the vision? Who wants to bother with energizing activities? That’s understandable, but you’re defeating yourself if you don’t take a few extra minutes to engage your team in conversation and cheer them on. Here are some concrete examples of how you can do so without over stressing your full calendar and task list:

1. Regularly remind your team (or yourself) of the bigger picture. Work it into staff meetings, walking down the hall conversations, and over coffee or lunch. I’m not talking about preaching to them, but ask questions like, “How does this task tie into our core value of ____________?”

2. Do energy-building activities on a regular basis. You don’t have to plan elaboarate retreats (although those are great) but you can do weekly or monthly energizers. For example, incorporate into standard staff meetings a 5-minute ice breaker. Set up a puzzle for the team to work on a few minutes at a time (see my post about this here.) Start review meetings with an energizing question. (For more ideas on having fun with your team, see my book about Boosting Workplace Morale.)  These little ideas do not take a lot of time or effort, but they pay off in a big way.

3. Don’t trickle down the stress. If you are receiving stress packages from your manager, don’t deliver it down to your team the same way. We tend to pass the stress along but it has to stop somewhere. Be the bigger person and figure out a way to give potentially stressful news to your team in an upbeat way. (In the course, there is a role play that reveals a great sample of how to do that.)

Connector and Galvanizer are perhaps the two roles that resonate well with me, because they align with one side of my personality. I have good memories leading a team and incorporating fun elements into the workplace, and I love to do hands-on energizers when I teach business soft skill classes. But whether or not these roles come naturally to you, you will be helping your own productivity and stress-management if you take some time to get better at them.

One way to get better is to enroll in Karin’s course! (And you bless HOPE Unlimited at the same time.)

 

PS: Remember the freebie Karin is offering us! Download her free e-book about Mentoring Millenials below:

Translator and Builder: Two Key Roles for Managers

Help them understand; Make them stronger

High-up boss to middle manager: “The sales numbers from last quarter are terrible. You’d better turn them around!”

Middle manager to team supervisor: “Get your team on the ball. No excuses. We need higher sales numbers.”

Team supervisor to sales execs: “You people better turn this around. The numbers better go up next quarter!”

Trickle down intimidation instead of explanation. It never works well. Why do so many managers–at all levels–use it?

One of the most important roles of a breakthrough results manager is that of translator, and it’s the first Karin Hurt discusses in her course Results that Last: 7 Roles Every Manager Must Master for Results that Last.

A translator takes a situation and helps his/her team understand why things are going the way they are. They turn the above conversation into dialog and solution-seeking, not blame. Just like you may need a translator to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak your language, you need a manager to translate rationally what he or she is hearing from the “top.”

In addition to that, a manager must be a builder–someone who strengthens each team member and gives them confidence to know they can indeed “turn this around.” This takes time, patience, and a desire to provide opportunities for training, mentorship, and insightful dialogs, not just barked commands.

Next time you are leading someone, pretend they don’t know the language and compassionately explain the situation–what you need, and more importantly, WHY you need it. Then build them up with the resources they need to be able to come back and say, “We did it!”

Then you can say, “I knew you could.”

Take yourself–and your team–through this course. Click below. for more information.  You can also take the free 5-day challenge offered at the link to become a better manager in just one work week!

 

Confident Humility: The Foundation for Results that Last

And a free ebook, Mentoring in the Age of the Millennial

 

I’m blogging my way through the course Results that Last: 7 Roles Every Manager Must Master by Karin Hurt of Let’s Grow Leaders, one of the people I have the privilege of assisting through my business. This week, we’re focusing Units 1 & 2 of this 10 unit course.

Unit 1: Introduction

The course is set up in a practical, time-respectful way. It is a nice mix of videos and exercises, that you can fill in on screen and print, or download to fill out on your own. This makes it easy for overwhelmed professionals to take one concept at a time and apply it in different ways. It appeals to various learning styles too, with its visual and auditory elements plus hands-on activities and reflection opportunities.

Key takeaways from this unit were:

Getting to know how to proceed through the course and understanding that it will not take hours of time (for example, the videos were less than five minutes each.)
A personal “leadership credo” is very valuable. It’s like a mission statement, only deeper. Busy people rarely take the time to think through “why” they are doing what they do or in the career they are in, or how they will lead others. This exercise gives you the road map to start thinking about those things.
All managers have seven roles that they must master–a cocktail to get breakthrough results.

Translator
Builder
Connector
Galvanizer
Accelerator
Backer
Ambassador


Question for my readers: Which of the above roles intrigues you the most?  (If you’d like to take a look at several suggestions of leaders who reflect the above roles, check out the collaborative post here.)

Unit 2: The Foundation: Confident Humility

#confidenthumility is one of Karin’s core values. The main takeaway from this unit is grasping the understanding that you can be confident without being arrogant, and humble without being full of self-doubt. She tells a good story in this unit about a visit to a ranch where the tour leader could’ve benefited from a better balance of confidence with humility.

Question for my readers: What leader do you think demonstrates a mix of confidence with humility? 

Next week I’ll be learning about the roles of Translator and Builder.

Please comment, contact me, or interact on social media with your thoughts! And, if you and your team are ready to enroll in the course yourselves, click on the banner above and you’ll benefit HOPE too!

PS: I mentioned I might be giving you some surprises. Here’s one. Karin has written a book about mentoring millennials and is sharing her free download directly here for my readers! Click on the image to enjoy!

7 Roles Every Manager Must Master for Results that Last

A special note to my readers

 

One of the benefits of having my own business is the privilege to interact with several high-quality clients from a variety of industries. Not only do I get to build a business by supporting them, I also strengthen my personal and professional development due to interacting with their content and experience.

One area of expertise I really enjoy supporting is that of leadership. I believe in what my client Karin Hurt of Let’s Grow Leaders, teaches and have willingly become an affiliate of her course Results that Last: 7 Roles Every Manager Must Master. I’ve worked in quite a number of places through the years, and have seen management/leadership fall anywhere on the scale of effectiveness from low to high. (And no, I won’t tell you who landed where.) I assure you…Karin’s no-nonsense approach to leadership is desperately needed in all types of organizations.

(Ironic rabbit trail…the very day I was writing this at a coffee shop, I happened to overhear a millennial say–I assume in regard to some group or workplace she was part of–”We did have poor leadership at times.” So obviously, leadership is a topic on people’s minds!)

During the month of November, I’m going to be blogging my way through this 10-module course, reviewing two modules a week for the five Mondays of the month. I’ve been given permission to share my greatest takeaways from each module, specifically applying them to the context of an overwhelmed professional since that’s my niche market. And, I may be throwing in a surprise or two.

I realize not all my readers have supervisory roles. But many of you do work for quality organizations that would benefit from leadership training like this with the bonus of it being very flexible. And at the very least, you do supervise YOURSELF.  So I hope you’ll look forward with me to taking a deeper look at the roles you must master to be effective as a leader–no matter WHO you lead–your family, yourself, a group of volunteers, or a workplace team. If you like what you are hearing and want to go through the course with me, use this link to enroll in the course, and HOPE will receive a portion of your enrollment. 

See you next Monday when we get started!

PS: Here’s a special message to my readers from Karin:

I’m excited to be partnering with Beth on my growing leaders mission and look forward to giving you practical tips proven to get results that last. I look forward to your insights and perspectives and look forward to interacting with you in the comments. I’m always looking to meet people investing in their development and striving to make their organizations more meaningful, impactful and productive.

 

 

Did You Hear about Ryan’s Performance Review?

Possible reasons for gossip in the workplace

“Did you hear about Ryan’s performance review? He’ll be lucky if he isn’t fired soon!”

Would that make you perk your ears up?

Gossip is a rampant problem in organizations of all sizes. Some organizations have a very strong policy against it, to the point of someone being possibly fired if caught participating. It can be a cancer that will ruin your team, but even the best people can get caught up in it. Why?

There are a few reasons why participating in gossip is the “easier choice” for people, even if they truly believe it is not a good practice.

Need for acceptance. It’s perhaps counterintuitive, because after all, gossip by nature alienates someone. But for those doing the gossiping, there is some satisfaction in knowing that someone else sees a situation or another person the same way or has experienced the same problems with them. In the illustration above, if several coworkers have problems getting along with Ryan, they may unite in the gossip about his review. 
“I’m glad I’m not the only one that suspects Ryan may not have his job for much longer.”

Desire for information. Gossip can arise when there are holes in communication or a feeling of “We’re not being told the whole truth.” People will start to fill in holes by brainstorming possibilities, and we all know where that can lead. False conclusions or imaginary scenarios become “fact” as more people hear about them.  “

“Ryan sure  looked troubled when he left the bosses office. I’m sure the company must be  considering layoffs, and Ryan is the first.”

 Feeling of inadequacy. Though we don’t like to admit it, deep down many of us are fully aware of what we believe are inadequacies or weaknesses. When we hear about the alleged behavior of someone, we feel a little better when we think, “I would never have done that!” If someone concurs by mentioning the same thing, we feel particularly validated in our own sense of right and wrong. 

“I hope they brought up his frequent lateness. I would never clock in 30 minutes late every day.”

The reasons given above do not justify gossip, nor am I suggesting you should simply tolerate it. However, it is wise to consider the “why” behind behavior–whether it’s yours or others. What is going on in people’s minds and hearts that leads them to speak ill of co-workers or the organization? This can be a first step in helping you develop a more effective way to deal with the issue before it poisons your team.  Determine now that you, as a value-centered professional, won’t participate in it.