Be Prepared for Giving an Employee Feedback

As a leader or a manager, you have the responsibility to give feedback to your team. If you do not prepare for these moments, then they will not be fully effective. You want your team to respond positively, and energized to take action. It requires preparation.

Here are three suggestions you should think about as you prepare to give feedback:

1. Know Their Perspective. If you were in their place, how would you like to receive the feedback? What would motivate them further? If you are giving feedback about a specific incident, think through the issue from their perspective. What values, motives, and circumstances have driven their behavior? Adjust your feedback appropriately.

2. Define Opportunities, Not Problems. Review your perspective. It is easier to identify problems than it is opportunities. But every problem is an opportunity in disguise. Uncover the opportunity that exists, then provide feedback that will allow them to see it also.

3. Standards, Expectations, Examples. Review the current matter based on the conditions of the work standards that exist, the clear expectations you set, and the examples you used for training. Make sure your review is based on facts, not on your intent. Based on this review, why did you not get the results you required? Often you will believe that a team member needs to improve, but in reality, it is your leadership that needs to improve. What could you have improved in the standards, expectations, and examples that would lead to better results?

If you want to be great at giving effective feedback, take a moment and prepare using these three ideas. Your employees will thank you!

5 Requirements to Be a Better Boss

better-boss-500No matter how good your team, they will never perform at a higher level than your own performance as a leader. None of us aspire to be a bad boss.

Do you remember what it feels like to work for a bad boss? It is a feeling I have experienced a few times.

When I was working for one of those bad bosses, I was never particularly motivated to do my best. I did enough work to get by, waiting for the boss to be replaced, or for a new job.

A bad boss never knows they are bad. Most of the time, they never recognize the negative environment that surrounds them.

If you don’t want to be that guy, that bad boss, here are 5 actions you should take with your team. Apply these consistently and your leadership will shine.

1. Review expectations regularly. Make sure people clearly understand their responsibilities. They should know how important their work is for the organization. Hold these discussions individually with your employees all the time.

2. Take time to listen. Make sure your team knows their opinions count. Build a relationship with each individual. Listen intently.

3. Provide the proper tools, materials, and equipment. Eliminate the potential for any excuse that could result in less than excellent performance. Let excellence be the standard.

4. Invest in their development. Create an environment where people can grow. Not only do people benefit as professionals, the team will thrive. A growth environment creates new ideas, positive energy, and productivity. It creates a will to win.

5. Invest in yourself. You cannot expect your team to improve if you are not improving yourself. You must set the example. Challenge yourself, and you will be able to challenge the team.

If you want to be a better boss, you need to be intentional about these 5 actions. If you dedicate the time to implement these actions, you will be surprised with the unlocked potential of your team.

3 Steps for Asking Great Questions

Asking great questions can unlock opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to us. Asking great questions help us connect with others, build better ideas, and provide new perspectives to grow our awareness.

But how do we become better at asking better questions? Here are three steps to consider in using questions to expand your capabilities:

1. Preparation. The best questions require preparation. You must invest some time to think and possibly research the person or subject under discussion. You can consider history, current events, challenges, resources, etc. Then put your thoughts into the form of probing questions.

2. Listening. After you have completed your preparation, and have reached the point where you can ask questions, ignore the temptation to read your questions. In fact, ignore your prepared questions and just listen. Allow the conversation to dictate the appropriate questions. Be present and fully in the moment for the discussion.

3. Get Out of Your Head. Don’t analyze the discussion from your perspective. Don’t put the conversation in terms of you. Stay focused on the other person, and ask questions that reflect your true and genuine interest in the subject.

It is counter intuitive to prepare and then ignore the preparation. But if you don’t, then you risk being perceived as scripted. And if you fail to do the preparation, you will not be able to ask the best questions when the opportunity arises.

We often don’t think of asking questions as a skill. But it is a very important skill that can be developed, and utilized, to open the doors of opportunity.

6 Daily Choices Which Greatly Determine Your Success

gratitudeI was on the way to the office this morning and I saw the police arresting a man. It was obvious that it was not a regular traffic stop because there were four police cars, and they had the man in handcuffs. When we are not having a good day, it can be easy to forget that there are many people experiencing worse.

During the holidays or at the end of the year, most people spend time being thankful and reflecting on the previous year. But living life with gratitude should not be limited to an annual event, it should be a daily choice. Living life with a perspective of gratitude, will keep us from being discouraged by our circumstances.

This week when I was reflecting on my own gratitude, I wrote a list of six daily choices we can make which create our attitude. These choices happen by default if we are not consciously aware of our intent. These choices also affect our lives, our success, and people around us. Here is the list:

1: Gratitude: Having a sense of gratitude every day keeps us grounded. It helps us keep perspective on all our challenges. It is also a great tool for stress relief.

2. Passion and Energy: Think of a person that you admire because they always bring energy and passion to any challenge they face. Their approach to life is a choice. Prepare for your day with a choice to bring energy to everything you do.

3. Serving and Compassion: Your can choose to live your life for yourself, or you can choose to have a high level of compassion for others. Servant leaders develop and serve their team rather than expecting to be served. Genuine concern and compassion for others is also a choice.

4: Forgiveness: A grudge has only a negative value in your life. Failure to forgive can create a roadblock in your own success which has nothing to do with the other person. Choosing to forgive is a powerful daily practice.

5: Abundance: Many people chase opportunities from a scarcity mindset. But keeping an abundance mindset will open many more opportunities. If you get stuck thinking there is only one option, or one path to success, you will live life limited. Thinking abundantly is a choice.

6: Growth: Choosing to approach each day as an opportunity to grow as a person allows you to embrace failure. Growth doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through evaluated experience, reading, classes, and discussion. You have to choose to take advantage of the opportunities.

This may seem like a lot of daily choices to make. But I have learned the more intentional you are about your daily decisions, the easier it becomes!

If you do not have a routine to prepare for your day that includes setting your attitude, there is no better day to start than today.