Susan Scott's Blog, page 110

Fierce Resources: Flex Execs: How to Get Your Teammates on Board with Your Telecommuting

This week’s Fierce Resource was published on Monday in the Glass Hammer blog.

Flex Execs: How to Get Your Teammates on Board with Your Telecommuting explores how to utilize and make the most of telecommuting. Halley Bock, President & CEO of Fierce, Inc., shared tips on how to create stronger communication within a remote team environment.

While some colleagues and managers may continue to worry about creating a cohesive company culture in a remote environment despite your best efforts to prove the contrary, you can find ways to create opportunities for communication and continue to make the effort. “Determine the culture you want and its attributes, and then apply those attributes to conversations,” says Bock.

To read the full article, click here.

Tough Lesson About the Power of Appreciation

My “to-do” list was burning on my brain every morning as I drove into work at 5:30am. There were always a million things to do and not enough people to do it. It was retail, after all, and my team’s job was to make sure the merchandise got out on the floor and looked good. My method of management each morning was a little something I called “Walk and Talk”. We all walked and I talked – about placement, about priorities, etc. and they took notes…feverishly.

One morning, I said, “Walk and talk” and I started walking, but they weren’t behind me. I turned to see my entire team still standing where I left them with their arms crossed. Not my proudest moment, I said, “What?!”

One brave soul said, “Good morning to you too!”

You know how there are times throughout your life where something happens that literally feels like you got punched in the stomach? That happened to me. I had to walk back to them…it seemed to take forever. I knew I had messed up. I knew I had to apologize.

The thing is, had anyone asked me if I appreciated my team, I would have sung their praises. They were all incredible people who worked hard for me, for the team, for the company. And yet, until that moment, I hadn’t realized how little I was showing my appreciation for them. How little I was even acknowledging their presence. They weren’t just extensions of my productivity machine, but human beings with lives, with families, with stories.  I wasn’t asking them anything about their world, just about results. I was so focused on managing productivity, I forgot to acknowledge the very people who were able to make or break my success, our success. I vowed right then to never begin their day in that way.

I kept my promise and you know what happened to productivity? It shot through the roof. 5 minutes each morning, checking in, talking about their night or weekend – connecting – and we produced incredible results. Go figure.

Fierce Tip of the Week: Show Appreciation

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” – Willie Nelson

This week’s Fierce tip is to focus on showing gratitude to the people on your team.

As a leader, it’s your responsibility to achieve outstanding results. It’s easy to have tunnel vision about where you need to be going and not take the time to step back and pay close attention to the journey…or who is helping you get there.

For example, have you thanked a member of your team who pulled an all-nighter to deliver something you needed? Have you shared how impressed you were with someone’s contribution in a meeting? Have you given credit where credit is due? Do you acknowledge the everyday achievements?

This week, be specific when you share what you appreciate about someone. Give a concrete example and explain how it has impacted you.

The amazing part about expressing gratitude is that it is contagious. You may be surprised at how much you have to appreciate once you take the time to stop and pay attention.

Fierce Resources: Is Football Season a Waste of Time for Workers or a Wasted Opportunity for Management?

This week’s Fierce Resource was published yesterday in Risk Management Magazine’s blog, Rick Management Monitor.

Is Football Season a Waste of Time for Workers or a Waster Opportunity for Management, written by Halley Bock, President & CEO, Fierce, Inc., explores how football season can be leveraged to connect employees with one another and the company.

“But sometimes, viewing intra-office football activities as “losses” is a missed opportunity. Today’s workers are spending more time in the office, and when they’re not at work, they’re taking their jobs home with them. They’re even taking work on vacation, as we discovered in a recent survey on PTO. Smart employers are giving their staffs leeway to pursue some personal interests at the office. Smarter employers are proactively using events such as football season to increase engagement and enhance communications among all of their employees.“

To read the full article, click here.

Take New Fierce Survey: Election Conversations in the Workplace

At Fierce, we are interested in exploring how you feel about political conversations in the workplace.

Click here to take the survey.

Does your company encourage or discourage such conversations? Should political discussions be forbidden in the office? Do these discussions with coworkers impact working relationships?

We look forward to hearing what you think!

Fierce Tip of the Week: What Are You Pretending Not to Know?

Ask yourself a question: As a leader, what are you pretending not to know?

This week’s Fierce tip is about taking a hard look at your team, your organization, and yourself. Out the truths that are there and are being ignored.

Being in a leadership role allows you to see multiple competing realities. Successful leaders take the time to constantly survey their surroundings and make sure they are acknowledging other points of view that exist. This means going beyond your comfort zone and having conversations about views that may not match yours.

For example, as a leader you may be aware that members of your team hold a very different perspective than you about an important issue facing your organization. Perhaps the topic is heated and brings out an emotional response in everyone. To deescalate the situation, your instinct may be to ignore their point of view or talk around the issue rather than bringing up the topic outright.

Acknowledging what everyone is actively avoiding takes courage. As someone in a leadership position, you must choose to surface these topics whether they directly impact you or not.

What’s the reward of this type of leadership? You will create an engaged and more productive workforce, and in turn, an organization that is constantly growing.

Fierce Resources: Office Gossip – It’s All Fun and Games Until You’re Fired

This week’s Fierce Resource was published Wednesday of this week in The Grindstone online.

Office Gossip: It’s All Fun and Games Until You’re Fired explores gossip and its effect on workplace cultures. A study conducted this year by Careerbuilder found that 35% of workers feel bullied. This article provides tips for how to think about and handle gossip.

“Companies may have different levels of tolerance toward gossiping, but if you have created an honest, open work environment, gossiping is no longer necessary,” Halley Bock (President & CEO, Fierce, Inc.) said. “If employees feel comfortable giving feedback and competing viewpoints are appreciated, then there is no need to go behind someone’s back to criticize or disagree.”

To read the full article, click here.

Where Are You Looking for Change in Your Life?

I almost removed the slide that said No Goals = No Change. That’s all it said. It seemed so obvious to me that I felt it hardly needed to be said. I was teaching a class for new supervisors and managers, and it was part of the curriculum. I was focused on getting to the “meatier” stuff.

And then, I started thinking about times in my career that I had found myself stuck or started feeling bored with the day in and day out aspects of my work. I always got myself “unstuck” by focusing on positive goals for my future. I took on new projects to make the work I did more interesting. I tackled some old issues that had gone unresolved. I talked with my boss about future opportunities for growth.  I set goals. Because if I didn’t, I was certain to stay stuck. No Goals = No Change.

Where are you looking for change in your life? This is the question to ask. What are you not happy with? What do you wish were better? Once you identify these things, set a goal or goals to take care of it. Chances are good, one of the things you may need to do is have a conversation with someone.

Set a goal to take care of that…today. Who do you need to talk with in order to make these goals come true? Your boss?  Your kids?  Yourself?

Set a goal today, and begin. The change will do you good.

Fierce Tip of the Week: Set a Goal

Goals are invaluable to an organization. They keep us focused so when there are those inevitable setbacks, we don’t dwell on what didn’t go our way, and instead, stay concentrated on the big picture.

This week’s Fierce Tip is to set a goal and commit to it all the way. Why do New Year’s resolutions usually fall off the radar after a few months? Because creating a goal is a three-step process. First, you must think about what you want to focus your energy on, then you have to create the plan to harness that energy, and lastly, you have to commit to the plan.

Generally, the first step is the easiest. We all have things we want to work toward. The second step is where the difficultly level rises because it requires everyone to be realistic about what they can actually accomplish. The third step is by far the hardest; executing requires discipline and accountability.

However, creating goals can be a great bonding exercise and an amazing way to utilize all the talents your workforce has to offer. It allows multiple points of view to be heard and can remind people of the larger purpose.

Don’t sell your goal short. Remove judgment from the process of picking what goal you’ll focus on first. This will help you accomplish what you want. It’s never a bad idea to start off small and build confidence. This encourages you to tackle those larger goals that may have been put off.

Fierce Resources: Three Best Practices Employees Crave

This week’s Fierce Resource was first published in Talent Management and was written by Fierce CEO & President, Halley Bock.

Three Best Practices Employees Crave focuses on how talent leaders can prevent best practices from turning into worst practices by creating and sustaining a positive work environment. Bock references the results from the 2012 Fierce Inc. survey titled “Workplace Practices: What Role Do They Play in Your Organization?” and shares that there is often a disconnect between an organization’s well-meaning policies and their impact on talent.

“Talent management should stay vigilant about its organization’s needs and desires today versus what the business required decades ago. Best practices are often created with a specific need in mind or as a result of a leadership belief or philosophy. As much and as often as an organization’s workforce demographic and competitive landscape shifts, so should its best practices.“

To read the full article, click here.