4 Reasons to Be Assertive at Work

4 Reasons to Be Assertive at Work Being assertive at work means voicing your opinions and ideas with confidence. Assertiveness helps us set boundaries and ask for what we need without being rude or combative. Communicating assertively increases job satisfaction and creates win-win situations with our coworkers. It also allows us to recognize our feelings and build honest relationships with teammates. Here are 4 more reasons to use assertive communication at work. 1. Keeps the Focus on Your Idea, Not You One common problem we face at work is thinking we’ve communicated an idea more effectively than we actually have. For instance, if you share an idea in a meeting or email, and the tone is too soft, your comment may get lost in the conversation. Your teammates may not recognize that you’re asking for or proposing something. On the other hand, if you pitch an idea too forcefully, the idea gets lost as people react more to your delivery than the idea itself. Assertive communication uses clear, direct speech to explain an idea, allowing the idea to hold centerstage for discussion. 2. Gives You a Sense of Empowerment Assertive communication provides you with tools to make your needs heard. It helps you zero in on what you will and will not do so that you can state that clearly. Setting boundaries offers you a sense of control and autonomy. That sense of empowerment makes a big difference in your happiness and resilience at work. 3. Helps You Earn Respect One of the critical components governing the level of respect you have at work is how often you do what you said you’d do in the time you promised to do it. Here’s where assertiveness comes in. If you cannot ask for the resources you need to complete your work, it won’t get done. Assertive communication gives you a vehicle to ask for those resources and clearly state what you can do so the team can plan accordingly and count on your contributions. Assertive communication also helps those in leadership to set priorities and expectations so that team members know which tasks to focus on and what to do if they encounter problems. 4. Reduces Stress No one likes feeling unheard or as though their needs never make the priority list. It’s true in family relationships, and it’s true on the job, too. If you feel unheard as a leader or team member, assertive communication can help you break through that wall. Learning to speak up and state what you need firmly and clearly allows your coworkers to adjust their expectations and offer the support that helps the whole team succeed. Knowing you have a path to being heard reduces stress and ensures you have a safety net in your ability to speak up. Expert Training on Assertiveness at Work Mastering the balance of speaking assertively without being rude can be tricky, but it’s a skill worth learning. Our Assertiveness workshop teaches communication and conflict resolution styles and how to [...]

By |2023-11-24T19:16:33-04:00August 9th, 2023|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 4 Reasons to Be Assertive at Work
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4 Great Ways to Support Intergenerational Teams

4 Great Ways to Support Intergenerational Teams If your team is like most in the workforce today, it’s made up of members of multiple generations. Each generation is characterized by different values and priorities in the workplace. It can be challenging to make sure everyone’s needs are understood and met, yet doing so means greater investment in your company and greater satisfaction on the part of team members. Here are 4 great ways to support intergenerational teams in your workplace. 1. Provide Flexibility One thing the most recent three generations—Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z—have in common is a desire for flexibility. The value looks a little different in each generation, though. For example, members of Generation Y often want the flexibility to work at least part of their hours remotely. They and Generation Z value the opportunity to work outside a traditional 9 to 5 time block. Baby Boomers don’t place as high a value on flexible time schedule, though they may wish to cut back their hours as they near retirement. 2. Vary Benefits Packages Instead of a traditional “one size fits all” approach, try to offer options. As Baby Boomers age, the likelihood of their facing long-term health challenges increases, so healthcare benefits are increasingly important to them. For younger employees, such as Generation Z members, benefits packages that include mental and physical health, like gym memberships can be a higher priority. Offering a variety of benefits options gives each intergenerational team member the ability to set their own priorities. Feeling that their needs are important to the company is especially important to Generations Y and Z. 3. Feedback is Still the Breakfast of Champions All generations want feedback and especially positive feedback. People need to feel appreciated, and recognition is almost always welcome. That said, the younger generations prefer quick, “on the spot” feedback where older generations are more used to performance appraisal meetings a few times a year. 4. Emphasize Development and Mobility Especially for the younger generations, having career path options and clear understanding of upward opportunities within the company are key. While Baby Boomers tends to invest more loyalty in the company they work for, younger generations value personal development and mobility above loyalty to a job. If they find themselves in a position where they feel “stuck”, they’re more likely to search for opportunities elsewhere. Establishing mentorship, training and/or coaching programs within your organization can help create opportunity for personal growth and development while also giving employees a sense of community and connection. Learn to Make the Most of Distinctive Talents in Intergenerational Teams It can be challenging to manage or work with people who belong to different generations. You may find it difficult to understand their needs and understand how use their unique strengths to create a strong intergenerational team. Get comprehensive training on how to meet the needs of your multigenerational team. Learn what each generation needs and how to boost excitement and productivity with our Intergenerational Teams workshop. [...]

By |2023-03-24T12:01:44-04:00February 15th, 2023|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 4 Great Ways to Support Intergenerational Teams
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5 Easy Tips for Giving Employee Feedback 

5 Easy Tips for Giving Employee Feedback Giving employee feedback is one of the key ways we train, reinforce, and communicate with our team members. Effective feedback motivates employees and increases their confidence in their job performance. It’s actually something team members consistently ask for on surveys about work satisfaction. Knowing how you’re doing, what you’re doing right, and what you can improve helps us feel connected to the job we do. It helps us understand how our contributions matter. And it helps build trust with our managers. Here are 5 easy tips for giving employee feedback to boost your team’s success. 1. Feedback Matters Focused feedback helps employees. Not only does it direct them to continue doing tasks in ways that are effective and beneficial, it also bolsters their confidence about the job they’re doing. A team member who has confidence about his role in the company is a happier employee. Happy employees work harder and stay with an employer longer. I know this may sound cheesy, but I still believe that “feedback is the breakfast of champions” because you can’t improve, if you don’t know what you could improve. 2. Frequency Matters It’s tempting to focus our efforts giving feedback on annual reviews, and those may be important tools. There are hundreds of workdays between those annual reviews, though. Employees will experience more consistent growth, more energy on the job, and more motivation when they receive feedback on a much more frequent basis. The new trend is more about frequent, on-the-spot, micro feedbacks. Ideally, more positive than negative if possible. Remember the chapter in The One-Minute Manager: “Catch Them Doing Something Right”! 3. Timing Matters Giving consistent employee feedback may take some time to get used to. We tend to get focused on tasks and deadlines more easily than on the people making those deadlines successful. To build a habit of offering regular feedback, identify some key moments where feedback doesn’t interrupt workflow or embarrass a team member. For example, one great opportunity for feedback is following a team meeting. If the feedback is relevant to the whole team, add it to the meeting agenda. If it’s specific to one team member or a small contingent of the group, ask those individuals to remain behind as the meeting closes. 4. Celebrate, Don’t Manipulate In his book, Nonviolent Communication, author and psychologist Marshall B. Rosenberg discusses his approach to expressing appreciation. His concern with some forms of positive feedback is that employees can lose their motivation if they feel that a manager or leader complimented them in order to manipulate them. Instead, he recommends expressing appreciation with three specific components. First, express what specific action the team member completed that made a positive difference. Next, explain how you felt in reaction to those actions. Last, this is how those actions met a need. The order is less important than ensuring the components of the appreciation are present. Remember authentic recognition creates a powerful boost to people’s morale. 5. Critical [...]

By |2023-03-24T12:02:34-04:00November 1st, 2022|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 5 Easy Tips for Giving Employee Feedback 
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4 Keys to Boost Employee Motivation

4 Keys to Boost Employee Motivation In the engine of business, motivation is the accelerator. It determines the energy with which your team tackles assigned tasks and their enthusiasm about generating solutions to obstacles that may arise during a project. If you want your team to approach their work with a high level of energy and excitement, then crafting a team culture where positive motivation thrives will be critical to achieving that goal. Motivation is also a critical factor in employee retention. Team members who feel unappreciated, frustrated or like their work doesn’t matter often leave their job in favor of a new opportunity. In fact, a recent survey by McKinsey reported that the top two reasons employees leave a job are that they don’t feel valued by their manager or the company or don’t feel a sense of belonging at work. Finding ways to positively motivate your team can improve retention as well as energizing the group to complete work and succeed. Here are four key strategies to boost employee motivation. 1. Communicate Goals and Priorities Clearly If your team doesn’t understand and buy in to the goals or which tasks have priority, it’s much harder for them to do their jobs well and have confidence about their work. Explaining what you want them to do and why it’s important or how it serves the goals of the company or team helps them understand their role in the process. It also helps them understand the importance of the work they perform and makes them feel valued. Make sure your team is notified when priorities change. Finding out that they’ve continued working on a project that was delayed rather than switching to a higher priority task generates frustration. Keeping your team informed as priorities change lets them know you value their time and effort. 2. Offer Flexibility Where You Can Giving your employees freedom to make decisions about their work offers them autonomy and respect. For example, if an employee is frustrated about a procedure or struggling to complete a task, ask for their input. What could they do differently that would make this task easier to complete? If there are ways to accommodate their ideas, do so. If not, try to find a satisfactory compromise. As often as possible, let employees have input on how a task is accomplished. If you have team members who struggle to be alert first thing in the morning, try having at least some of your team meetings later in the morning or in the afternoons. Prioritizing your team’s needs and making room for their creative problem-solving shows you value your team members and have confidence in their ability to achieve their goals. It gives them ownership of their work and instills a sense of pride in their role in the team. 3. Recognize a Job Well Done This sounds easy, and it is! Also, it really works. Make an effort to call out the things your team members do well. Notice their effort [...]

By |2023-03-24T12:02:51-04:00August 23rd, 2022|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 4 Keys to Boost Employee Motivation
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5 Components of Successful Delegation

5 Successful Components of Delegation Delegation is one of the most critical skills you can learn as a leader. Not only does it effectively train your team and give them ownership of the work you’re doing together, but it’s like adding extra hours to your day. Delegation allows you to get multiple tasks on your to-do list completed at the same time. Considering handing over tasks to other team members can seem intimidating at first. The real process of delegating goes beyond simply asking a team member to add an item to their to-do list, though. Successful delegation involves five critical steps to ensure that the work you surrender gets done correctly, on time, and without a lot of hands-on time from you. Here are the 5 key components for successful delegation. 1. Give the job to someone who can get it done. The first step in delegating is, of course, actually asking someone else to take on the job for you. The right person must have time in their schedule. They don’t need to know how to complete the task already. What you’re looking for instead is someone who has access to the resources needed for the job. They may need training or coaching first, so factor that time into your plan. If the training takes a short time and the task is recurring, making the time to bring the employee up to speed makes a great investment. Try not to stress too much about this step in the process. Think of delegating like giving someone on your team a gift. You’re offering them a chance to increase their skills and improve their value to the team. 2. Communicate Precise Conditions of Satisfaction. One of the reasons people hesitate to delegate their work is worries about the task being completed incorrectly or remaining unfinished. The best way to combat this issue is with clear communication of expectations. Be sure to outline the deadline, budget, context, deliverables and any special circumstances. Ask your teammate to summarize to you what they heard you ask for. This helps ensure that you communicated your needs effectively and that they feel confident. Also make sure you clarify how you both want to handle any questions they may have about the task. Do you want them to bring those questions to you? In person? Email? Is there a different person on the team who has expertise who would also be a good resource if you’re unavailable to answer questions? Putting all of these expectations in writing is a good idea, too. That way you can both refer back to the document or email and see specifically what was discussed. Depending on memory alone can get dicey, especially when we’re juggling lots of other tasks or projects. 3. Work out a plan. If the project or task that you’re delegating is simple, then this step may be very easy. If it’s a multi-step process, you may need to spend a little more time breaking down the [...]

By |2022-05-09T16:38:45-04:00May 9th, 2022|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 5 Components of Successful Delegation
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5 Tips for Successful Coaching

5 Tips for Successful Coaching Coaching is one of the most effective methods for leaders to use for performance improvement and for employee engagement. Not only does it help the individual develop and grow, but it shows that we are willing to invest in them and that we believe in their potential. Effective coaching leads to employees who are more proficient, work more independently, produce higher quality work and are more motivated. Successful coaching also increases the performance and ability of the team as a whole. Here are 5 great tips on coaching for success. 1. Give Team Members a Chance to Self-Assess First. Before offering your own insights, always give team members a chance to self-assess. Encouraging self-assessment assists in several ways. First, it encourages improvement even when you are not coaching. It also allows you to determine why the employee may not be performing as desired. For example, it may reveal that they don’t know they’re doing something incorrectly. Self-assessments also help team members build self-esteem. It reinforces the idea that you, as their manager or leader are listening to them, value their views, and consider them an important part of your team. It also increases the chance that problem behaviors will change. If an employee is not identifying areas that you identified (or has identified them incorrectly), use increasingly specific questions to allow the employee to self-assess, if possible.  This allows you to determine if the employee doesn’t know what’s expected, doesn’t have the skill, or simply chooses not to demonstrate the skill. Before moving on to other parts of your coaching session, be sure to reinforce the correct self-assessment. Defer or redirect inappropriate or incorrect self-assessment. 2. Next, Use Assessment Tools. There are different types of assessment tools that you can use to get even more information on the person. Their talent zones, development opportunities, blind spots and hidden potential. You can use psychometric questionnaires, potential assessments or 360° feedback tools. When you use an assessment tool on top of the self-assessment and your own observations, it adds objectivity and more in-detail information to help identify the focus and next steps. At KCC assessments are one of our specialties, we call these “x-rays”. 3. Limit the Focus. In coaching sessions, it’s best to focus on approximately two strengths that can be leveraged and about two areas for development.  Limiting the discussion is critically important for several reasons. First, focusing on just two areas for development helps ensure that the team member reaches proficiency. Adopting new procedures or breaking incorrect patterns is a challenging process. Adding too many changes to a team member’s to-do list all at once is likely to cause more frustration and confusion than success. It’s better to start with the two most important areas for improvement and focus on them to build that success and confidence. Once those areas have improved, there’s a positive track record showing improvement which will energize your team member and encourage them to continue increasing their proficiency. Once [...]

By |2022-03-28T13:45:50-04:00March 28th, 2022|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 5 Tips for Successful Coaching
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5 Ideas to Create an Atmosphere of Employee Appreciation in Your Team

Benefits of Employee Appreciation We all crave appreciation, even when we already know we’ve done a job well. When is the last time a coworker or boss showed appreciation for what you do? Do you remember how it made you feel? In the 1940s, Lawrence Lindahl conducted a study on employee motivation. The results may surprise you. During the study, supervisors and their employees were asked, “What motivates an employee?” The number one answer was “appreciation for a job well done.” This is pretty amazing for a number of reasons. One is that appreciation is free! Motivating an employee doesn’t always need to come from bonuses or pay increases. Simply noticing a good job and offering praise can be a huge motivator. You might be thinking that our culture and workplace culture may have changed since the 1940s. It was a long time ago, that’s true. But these study results have been replicated in multiple studies since then. Time and time again, employees have made it clear that hearing a leader show appreciation makes a huge difference in morale and happiness at work. Here are the 5 Ideas to Create an Atmosphere of Employee Appreciation Be an Appreciation Role Model. Compliment a team member in front of others. This both boosts the morale of the employee you’re complimenting and communicates to others that showing appreciation is something they can do, too. Give Regular Coaching Feedback. Be a coach and let people know that you want to help them perform and succeed. Try making suggestions, instead of criticizing. We all prefer recommendations instead of people told what we should and shouldn’t do! Give Immediate Praise on a Job Well Done. The closer the reward happens to the behavior that triggered it, the more powerful the association between the good behavior and the reward will be. Make sure to show appreciation as soon as possible so that an employee connects those positive feelings with the job they did well. This will increase their motivation even more. On the spot positive feedback is the trend now! Forget about waiting for annual review. Remember to “catch them doing something right” as recommended in the classic must read: The One Minute Manager. Send a Thank You Message When You Notice Someone Doing a Good Job. Having an encouraging message, note or email gives your team member a tangible reminder of your appreciation they can revisit again later. Make appreciation part of your daily routine. Set aside a few minutes each day show appreciation…whether it’s to jot a quick note or to simply connect with an employee or team member who’s doing a great job. Appreciation Doesn’t Need Bells and Whistles The most effective kind of appreciation is sincere and unstructured. Resist the temptation to create some sort of complicated employee appreciation program or tie words of appreciation with other incentives, like bonus programs. Those other ways of saying thank you are great for other purposes, but if you want your employees to receive the best [...]

By |2020-05-03T16:54:46-04:00March 11th, 2020|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 5 Ideas to Create an Atmosphere of Employee Appreciation in Your Team
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The Link Between Curiosity and Leadership

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.” – Albert Einstein Think about children for a minute. They’re naturally curious, imaginative, and always learning, always looking for new experiences and information. They know what they want, and they chase after it wholeheartedly. Does you hear your childhood self in this description at all? There are a lot of good things about “being an adult: the knowledge and experience we gained, knowing what we want and don’t want, the discipline to stick through a task even when we don’t feel like finishing it. Those are things kids aren’t so good at doing. But what about the benefits we’ve lost? Where did that natural curiosity and that vivid eagerness go? Many motivational experts like to say that leaders are made, not born. I believe we are all natural born leaders, but some of us have been deprogrammed along the way. As children, we were natural leaders - curious and humble, always hungry and thirsty for knowledge, with an incredibly vivid imagination; and we often had the ability to motivate, inspire, and influence everyone around us to help us in accomplishing our mission. So why is this so difficult to do as adults? What happened? No, Don’t, Can’t As children, we heard the words, no, don’t, and can’t over and over again. We had to sit silently in classes at school, listening while a teacher lectured on math, history, and grammar. Boundaries are a great thing for kids, and education is important. But they don’t foster curiosity or inspire us to ask hard questions or to seek information beyond what we’re given, and those things are an essential part of a great leader. Recapture Childhood Curiosity To be a great leader, one of the things we need to do is unharness that curiosity we had as a kid. We need to give ourselves permission to ask questions, to not only think outside the box, but also to ask questions without easy answers. Give yourself permission to not know the answers. Ask for help. Consult the experts. Educate yourself. Seek new knowledge and information and give your team permission to do the same. Your openness and willingness to be wrong or to learn new things will give them confidence and inspire them to do the same. No one likes working for someone who thinks they know everything and are right all the time. So unleash your inner child. Tune out your fears and tune into your curiosity. Embrace the journey toward greater knowledge. Let it transform your leadership capabilities. Tools for Success If you’re interested in learning more about how to maximize your leadership impact, you need to try our leadership assessment and development tool, the DISC (What’s Your Color?) Leadership Assessment. Take the test today and get your personalized report detailing your leadership strengths and weaknesses as well as exercises and development plans to help you gain the greatest increase in leadership performance.   Ingrid Kelada [...]

By |2019-11-18T16:32:27-04:00November 5th, 2019|Leadership Tips, Personality Tests|Comments Off on The Link Between Curiosity and Leadership
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4 Ways to Make Your Management Skills More Effective

A good leader provides constant motivation to his/her team to help them maintain excellence and quality in results. A good leader always looks for ways to improve efficiency and quality, especially if this can be done by simplifying processes or without increasing an employee’s workload. Here are some skills you can sharpen to boost your leadership skills and help your team be more effective and increase results. 1-Wander Around Do you remember M.B.W.A. aka Management By Wandering Around? It’s still the best, even if it’s a “virtual MBWA”. Observation often gets neglected due the demands on a leader’s time and schedule. Find ways to schedule regular visits to your team’s work environment into your calendar. If your office is nearby, try blocking out a few minutes before or after lunch to walk through and check on your team. If you’re far away from your team, stay connected and use technology like video calls. Also, when possible travel to their location and spend time working with them on a regular basis. When you visit, notice workflow and ask questions. Is everything going okay? Does everyone understand what they’re working on? If not, who is the best person to assist them? Observing employees work procedures and the work flow is foundational to implementing adjustments and improving results.  To have credibility, a leader must be seen and trusted to be up to date with what is happening in the work place. 2-Feedback and Praise Fair monitoring helps keep the ship on course and gives employees confidence when expectations are clear. Give feedback regularly, especially when things are going well. It’s easy to fall into the trap of only confronting an employee when there’s a problem. Regular praise and feedback help raise employee morale. Everyone likes to feel appreciated. Do your best to provide quick individual assessments on a regular basis. Think of the time and energy you spend on feedback as a direct investment in your team. Set goals with your team and any leaders who work with you. Make sure everyone understands the role they play in reaching those goals. 3-Demonstrate Working Knowledge and Expertise Have you ever seen the show Undercover Boss? One common theme that runs through each episode is the way the leaders have become detached from the actual workings of their businesses. They may have lost touch with how difficult the job can be or may have inadvertently implemented policies or procedures which actually make the average worker’s job harder while not providing adequate compensation for the changes. Good leaders stay connected to their workers. If you do not possess the expertise and knowledge needed for tasks employees regularly complete, consult them regularly and LISTEN. This is important in order to maintain an accurate and informed overall picture of the business. 4-Ability to Anticipate To keep on the cutting edge in business, it’s vital to be open and curious about upcoming trends. While managing the present to ensure ongoing excellence, a good leader also looks towards the future. [...]

By |2021-08-21T15:46:05-04:00August 26th, 2019|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 4 Ways to Make Your Management Skills More Effective
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