Susan Scott's Blog, page 112

Fierce Resources: Make Employee Vacations Work for You

This week’s Fierce Resource was first published on the Bud to Boss Blog – a blog dedicated to being an online portal with all the resources you need to survive – and thrive – as a new supervisor.

Make Employee Vacations Work for You, written by Amy Beth Miller, explores how supervisors can make the most of their employees time off. Using findings from Fierce’s recent survey on paid time off, this blog provides helpful tips to make vacation a positive experience for both the individual and the organization.

“Instead of making do when an employee takes time off, seize the opportunity to make your team stronger…Allow your employees to forget about work during their vacations, so they can return energized and ready to dig in again.”

To read the full blog click here.

How to Avoid Jumping Straight to Assumption

The issue is not that we make assumptions. The issue is that a lot of times – they are wrong.

We often misinterpret one another. We add underlying meaning or subtext that was never intended. In other words, we often go 90 miles per hour to a deep, dark place of distrust and disloyalty.

Don’t feel guilty. We’ve all done it.

For example, imagine you are in your office and a client calls complaining that a person on your team never called them back. What do you do?

Do you go straight to the blame game? Confront your colleague and ask why he or she didn’t call the client? Or do you go to this individual and truly ask what happened?

The reality is that your perception of the situation, or any situation for that matter, is truly determined by your beliefs. In this case, your opinions about your colleague, that client, and all other factors in your world that day impact your view of the situation.

Your beliefs are always driving the show.

So how do you make sure they are not leading you astray?

Here are three tips to help you not jump straight to assumption:

1. Assess Your Beliefs.

It is important to step back and really dig into why you believe what you do about a person or situation. Reflect on where your assumptions are coming from. Are they coming from past experience? A personal opinion? A gut feeling?

You must know. It is the only way you can truly enter into situations authentically and grounded. The added benefit is that you are setting the example for others to do the same.

2.  Ask Questions First.

Questioning is the antithesis of assuming. It is about being open and curious, rather than passing judgment. When in doubt about where a person is coming from, ask. Come into the situation with a clean slate and genuine desire to be informed.

It is the most respectful route that can create a deeper understanding of other driving factors you may not have known before. And when the table is turned, you will appreciate the same treatment.

3.  Seek Multiple Perspectives.

As we discuss in our Team Model, no one owns the capital “T” truth about a situation.  Everyone owns a piece of it. It is important to gather multiple, sometimes competing, perceptions of reality in order to truly understand what’s going on.

Not only will this practice make you more knowledgeable about the situation, people will respect your desire to truly learn what their view is from where they sit.

Where are you going to practice not making assumptions?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Jump Start a Relationship

At Fierce, we use an equation to help understand the connection between conversations and relationships: Conversation=Relationship (C=R).

It’s a basic principle of what you put in directly affects what comes out. The more authentic conversations you have, the more authentic your relationship will be.

So what happens if the conversations stop?

Simply, the relationship will gradually or even suddenly fade.

This week’s Fierce tip focuses on revitalizing a relationship where the conversations have disappeared.

Take a survey of your relationships and see where a significant gap exists. If there is someone you can identify where the relationship has faded ask yourself: When was the last time I had a conversation with this person? Not an exchange or an email, but an honest and authentic conversation.

As Susan Scott says, “no plan survives it’s collision with reality.” Life has a funny way of getting curly and not going accordingly. And with that in mind, it’s important not to judge yourself or anyone else for the conversations stopping. Recognize it now and accept that this is as good as any time to move forward.

Keep the C=R equation in mind, and realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Your relationship might not be back to where it once was after this first step, however, take comfort and pride in knowing that your one conversation closer.

Fierce Resources: Long-Term Manipulation is Extremely Difficult

This week’s Fierce Resource was first published on Seth Godin’s blog. As a thought leader, author, and entrepreneur Seth can always be counted on for a poignant and timely perspective.

This week on the Fierce blog we focused on how to connect with your team as a leader, and in that spirit, we wanted to share Seth’s blog post: Long-Term Manipulation is Extremely Difficult.

“It’s easy to fool someone or lie to them or give them what they think they want…Not so easy: to build mutually profitable long-term relationships that lead to satisfaction, trust and work worth doing.”

To read the full blog click here.

How to Connect with Your Team as a Leader

As a leader, it is sometimes difficult to balance how to deeply connect with your team and yet be sensitive to people who might want to keep their professional and personal lives separate.

The first question you should ask yourself is: What kind of conversations am I having with my team? If all the conversations are around business goals and objectives, it’s likely you’re missing the opportunity to build a deep relationship that can enrich everyone involved.   And yet for some people, business performance is at the forefront of their minds and trying to connect with people outside of that context can be a tremendous challenge.

Hope is not lost!  Below are three suggestions you can put to use immediately.

1)      Show up as the authentic you – consistently!  Being real is the first step in connecting.  Letting people see your ups and your downs will show you are human.

2)      Genuinely check in on a daily basis with each individual to understand how they are doing personally and professionally.  This is more than just a ‘how are you today.’  It should really be sincere and unique for each person.  Get curious and ask questions to gain a deeper understanding.

3)      Go to bat for them and let them know you are making sure their voice, strengths, or ideas are heard loud and clear.  And don’t forget to report back to them.

Although these might seem basic, they will make a huge impact and be a strong foundation to building a cohesive, connected team that will want to drive results for themselves… and you.

So tell us – how do you connect as a leader?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Choose Conversation over Email

The written word is powerful. To make the most of this type of communication, time and energy needs to be spent choosing the exact words and assembling your thoughts very specifically to avoid confusion.

How many of us put forward enough time and energy when writing emails?

Oftentimes, emails are sent off quickly and not always with much thought behind them – leaving more than enough room for people to make assumptions and misinterpret what is being said.

Why?

Because an email’s best function is to relay basic factual information not communicate a large or complex idea.

This week’s Fierce tip encourages you to have a conversation when sharing an idea more complex than simple facts and figures.

Having a conversation allows you to use more than just your words. It gives you the advantage to use the tone of your voice, and if it’s an in-person conversation, your body language and facial expressions to help convey what you are trying to say.

If your mind is already jumping to how much more time having conversations will take, think about how much time is wasted with all the follow up conversations needed if an email is misinterpreted.

 

Fierce Resources: Top 25 Education Blogs for Proactive Parents

This week’s featured blog was first published on OnlineCollege.org, a website dedicated to keeping its readers informed about the latest higher education and learning issues.

Top 25 Education Blogs for Proactive Parents is an insightful and helpful list of blogs for parents. With topics ranging from K-12 Education to making informed choices when looking at colleges – it’s a comprehensive resource list.

“Perhaps one of the most important things parents can look ahead to is education. School reform, college, and getting involved as a parent are all important topics for parents to stay on top of, and these blogs all offer great ways to do so.”

To read the full blog click here.

 

Fierce Resource: Top 25 Education Blogs for Proactive Parents

This week’s featured blog was first published on OnlineCollege.org, a website dedicated to keeping its readers informed about the latest higher education and learning issues.

Top 25 Education Blogs for Proactive Parents is an insightful and helpful list of blogs for parents. With topics ranging from K-12 Education to making informed choices when looking at colleges – it’s a comprehensive resource list.

“Perhaps one of the most important things parents can look ahead to is education. School reform, college, and getting involved as a parent are all important topics for parents to stay on top of, and these blogs all offer great ways to do so.”

To read the full blog click here.

 

What is Your Joy?

Recently at Fierce our CEO & President, Halley Bock, asked each of us to think about the word joy. Where do we find joy within our job? What is the level of joy we feel on a day-to-day basis? What can we do, and what can the company do to expand on our joy?

Putting semantics aside (maybe it’s not joy for you but happiness), at the heart of the question is: What makes us show up each day and put our full selves into our jobs? And is that enough to sustain us? If not, what can we do to improve the situation?

Auditing something as important as the joy you feel every day is important. The common thread throughout most of our answers was that some days the joy level is higher than others, and this is an important piece to pay attention to.

No job, no boss, no relationship is always perfect. This ebb and flow between high points and low points is simply life. However, when you assess your joy level, and the low days outnumber the high ones, it’s time to take critical next steps to change the situation.

The key to moving to change is asking yourself: What can be done to expand my joy?

If leadership is going to pose this question to their team, it’s critical that the organization come to the table ready to hear how the company can support their employees.

On the flip side, it’s also important for the employee to be responsible for their own joy. If you’re waiting for leadership to wave a magic wand and raise your joy level for you – that’s a problem. How you show up each day is a responsibility only you can control.

If leadership asks this question of you, be honest with your response and realize that your joy is not dictated solely by the organization. The larger component is yourself.

So, what is your joy?

Fierce Tip of the Week:Spread Joy Through Conversations

Fierce kicked off 2012 with the Fierce Six Challenge, focusing each week on a way to improve your new year by communicating more effectively.

I’m bringing the first challenge, Spread Joy Through Conversation, back because it was such a pleasure to do the first time. This week’s tip is about spreading joy by doing something you do every day: Communicating with those around you.

There’s literally no wrong way to do this week’s tip. If you have a colleague you admire and don’t tell them often enough, do it this week. Tell your family how much you appreciate them. Make someone laugh. Connect with an old friend that you haven’t been able to see as much.

The possibilities are endless.

Don’t be surprised if you see those you connect with begin to spread the joy as well; it can be very infectious. How we communicate with others is one of our most powerful tools as human beings. Take the opportunity this week and use this powerful tool by highlighting the brighter things in life.

If it feels so good you can’t stop, continue onto next week. This is a tip that can keep going!