Here are several steps that leaders and individual employees can take to normalize accountability:

• Set the Tone at the Top: If you never accept personal responsibility for something, how can you expect your team to? Leaders serve as role models, and their behavior and actions set the standard for the entire organization.
• Create a trusting environment : Encourage open communication where all team members are encouraged to share successes and failures for the purpose of learning and continuous improvement.
• Find (and share) the lesson in failure : What could you have done better? What will you change? Acknowledge the impact that your actions (or lack of action) had. Embracing accountability means acknowledging mistakes and learning from them.
• Align Goals and Values : When leaders consistently uphold their commitments and demonstrate accountability, it reinforces the importance of the organization’s values, creating a shared sense of purpose among team members. Be sure those are clearly defined and understood.
• Avoid the blame game : Leaders who take responsibility for their actions set the expectation that the focus can be on problem-solving and improvement rather than assigning blame. Ditch the excuses. Take the blame. Apply what you learned. And do better next time.

In summary, leadership accountability serves as a cornerstone for a positive organizational culture by shaping behaviors, fostering trust, encouraging learning, and promoting values that contribute to the overall success and well-being of the organization.

Want to learn more about how you can practice and encourage accountability in the workplace? Check out my Keep It Real Leadership program!

Till the next time, keep it real.

Karen

The post Thriving Together: Cultivating a Positive Culture through Accountability appeared first on PeopleThink.

Many researchers have identified a correlation between an employee’s personal and professional development, and an organization’s growth as a whole.

Increased job satisfaction, higher employee engagement, improved retention, enhanced productivity, and a more skilled and adaptable workforce are some of the benefits of employee development.

Companies that invest in their employees’ development demonstrate a commitment to their growth, which can lead to a positive organizational culture and a competitive edge in the market.

If you want to keep your people and grow your business, you must provide opportunities for your team to learn and grow. The best way to do that is by creating and implementing effective employee development programs.

Here’s How.

Ensure roles and responsibilities are well-defined.
Roles often morph over time as responsibilities expand or business needs change. This can be frustrating to the individual in the role – and detrimental to the team/organization – if training around new skill requirements and responsibilities isn’t included with the change. It’s also difficult to hire for, train for or promote someone into that role if you haven’t updated the current skills and responsibilities for the role.

Create career path outlines.
Employees want to know what growth opportunities are available in the organization. Create career path outlines for each job family to help employees build personal development plans.

Make performance management an ongoing process.
The annual performance review – dreaded by managers and hated by employees – typically focuses on weaknesses and rarely includes a development component. How inspiring is that? Effective performance management is a continuous process (not an event) and consists of a development component that builds on strengths and develops areas that are not strengths.

Develop for future needs.
Development plans should consider organizational goals and the skills and behaviors employees will need to contribute to achieving those goals. They should also take into account the skills and behaviors employees will need in the future to succeed (yes, even if it’s not in your organization). Make a list of top skills required and design training programs to help them acquire those skills.

Consider employee goals and interests.
It’s also essential that individual employee career goals and personal interests be considered. All too often, employees have skills and talents that are under-utilized. Take the time to identify, develop, and leverage those hidden talents and unspoken interests. Employees want to use their strengths and feel that they’re contributing to the organization in a meaningful way.

Implementing and supporting leadership development and training programs for your employees will help them grow and develop their style and prepare them to lead their teams in the future.

Till the next time, keep it real.

Karen

The post Employee Development: Building a CULTURE of Learning! appeared first on PeopleThink.

The goal is to find individuals with the right mindset, work ethic, and potential to learn and grow within the organization. So, when hiring, look for the right attitude because that will help create a positive work environment and overall organizational success. Once onboarded, you can invest in your team’s training and development to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in their roles.

This approach has several advantages:

• Cultural Fit: Candidates with the right attitude and values are more likely to align with the company’s culture and contribute positively to the work environment.
• Adaptability: Individuals with a strong learning mindset are often more adaptable and can acquire new skills and knowledge quickly as the business landscape evolves.
• Long-Term Potential: Hiring based on attitude can lead to long-term employee retention, as these individuals are likely to be motivated, engaged, and committed to personal and professional growth within the organization.

Here are a few tips on how to adjust your hiring strategy:

1. Rethink how you develop job descriptions and attract the right people for the positions within our organizations. Include the soft skills that will help the candidate succeed in the role, in addition to the technical skills.
2. In the interview process, train your hiring managers to ask well-thought-out behavioral questions to determine whether the candidate has the personal qualities and interpersonal skills needed for the job and to be a contributing team member.
3. Create a culture where the “soft skills” are valued as much or more than the “hard skills.” Review your learning and development strategy to ensure employees have opportunities to build their capabilities in problem-solving, innovation, emotional intelligence, and other competencies that will help them succeed. Promote people to leadership roles that demonstrate the personal qualities that will set the bar for the organization in creating the workforce for the future.

When implementing this philosophy, it’s essential to have a robust training and development program in place to ensure that employees have access to the resources and support they need to acquire the skills and knowledge required for their roles. Remember to strike a balance between attitude and necessary skills. Some roles may require a certain level of expertise or technical proficiency that cannot be easily trained from scratch and, therefore, still need employers to check for skill levels.

Lastly, with PeopleThink’s Keep It Real Leadership program, you can access the right leadership training! Ongoing feedback and coaching will help nurture the desired attitudes and behaviors within the organization.

Till the next time, keep it real.

Karen

The post Hire for Attitude! appeared first on PeopleThink.

Company culture plays a key role in retaining employees. A great culture, one that provides challenging work, opportunities for growth, connections, respect, and recognition is more likely to retain employees than the one that takes it for granted.

Nowadays with hybrid and fully-remote workspaces, establishing a strong culture can be a little challenging. Many employees who have been hired in the past three years have never met their co-workers or even their leader in person. They might be feeling adrift or disconnected.

How can leaders help employees be connected and engaged and become part of their company’s culture?

Develop a clear and consistent definition of the culture. A great culture is more than after-work events (in person or zoom), wellness programs, and catchy slogans. It’s how employees, customers and the outside world perceive an organization based on its attitudes and behaviors. It’s where employees feel valued, connected, challenged, and recognized. And it stems from leadership behavior at all organizational levels.

Communicate the culture. Make it easy to describe. Make it real. Do a periodic check-up to ensure that all parts of your culture are healthy and if not, review, adjust and get back on track. Every new hire (including remote ones) should receive an orientation that includes a discussion about company culture, vision, mission, and values. Consider having long-term (positive) employees/leaders describe the culture and give examples of how they’ve seen it demonstrated in their experience.

Demonstrate the culture. Make it an expectation that all interactions leader-leader, leader-employee, employee-employee align with the company values and promote the culture. Give new hires a strong start by helping them understand how their role contributes to the overall success of their team and the organization.

And last, but certainly not least, remember that it’s about the PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE. Hiring the brightest and the best does you no good if you don’t take care of them. Be clear about their roles and responsibilities. Help them understand the values and the culture. Keep developing them, provide them with new challenges, and develop a work environment where every level of the organization is valued, connected, challenged, and recognized.

If you would like to learn more about how you can build a culture to attract, develop, and retain your top talent, join me for my next Leadership Power Hour webinar. You can register here for free.

Till the next time, keep it real.

Karen

The post Building A Great Culture – Winning from Within appeared first on PeopleThink.

1. Complex problem solving
2. Critical thinking
3. Creativity
4. People management
5. Coordinating with others
6. Emotional intelligence
7. Judgment and decision making
8. Service orientation
9. Negotiation
10. Cognitive flexibility

A couple of months into 2020, however, before we even had a chance to add these skills to our resumes or LinkedIn profiles, our world changed.  We moved our offices home and wrestled with our laptops and lighting and interesting backgrounds to prepare for the multitude of virtual meetings to come. We replaced our commutes with everyday-casual and struggled to find the line between work life and home life.  We dealt with frequently changing information, technology glitches, shutdowns, open-ups, isolation, and a whole lotta Zoom fatigue.  

So, it’s no wonder that when we look at the Top 10 Skills for 2021 identified in a recent Forbes article, they look a tad bit different.

1. Growth mindset
2. Continuous learning
3. Critical thinking
4. Survival skills (adaptability, grit)
5. Resilience, curiosity
6. Flexibility
7. Dedication
8. Coaching mindset
9. Comfort with ambiguity
10. Thriving in a virtual environment

What have you learned about yourself over the past year as you adapted to our new way of working and the impact of a global pandemic? Which of these skills did you use and strengthen? Which ones do you need to further develop to be prepared for our often-ambiguous world going forward?

Think about it.

Till next time, keep it real.

Karen

The post Skilling Up for Our New Way of Working appeared first on PeopleThink.

An aspect of communication that often gets overlooked, however, and that can make a difference between a good leader and a great leader, is listening. Although we often hear leaders commended for their compelling presentations, when was the last time you heard a leader praised for effective listening?

And yet, to the team or individual who feels listened to, it can make an incredible difference in how they feel about themselves, their work, the organization and…their leader. Think about it. Do you ask for and listen to ideas from your team? Do you listen to and act on feedback? When there’s a conflict, do you listen to all sides before passing judgment?

Most of us learned to listen as children from our parents through trial and error. “How many times do I have to tell you?” “Are you listening to me?” “You never listen.” “I’ve told you time and time again…” Sound familiar? It was really more about hearing and remembering and complying. There were no effective listening classes in school.

As adults, the stakes are higher. Listening, really listening, can pinpoint the client’s needs in a sales meeting; improve a leader/employee relationship; make the difference in a medical diagnosis.

Listening, really listening requires not interrupting, paraphrasing what was said, asking clarifying questions, withholding judgment, and conveying an openness that encourages the speaker to share openly. It means waiting until the speaker is finished to formulate a response. And it means listening with your eyes as well as your ears. What does the speaker’s body language tell you? What is being left unsaid?

So let me ask you, are you really listening? Spend a few minutes taking this brief Listening Skills Inventory to self-assess. It’s for your eyes only, so be brutally honest with yourself. It’s a starting point.

Rate yourself on each of the following questions. Score 4 for Almost Always. 3 for Usually. 2 for Seldom. And 1 for Never.

1.Do you let people finish what they’re trying to say before you speak?
2.If the person hesitates, do you try to encourage them rather than jumping into your reply?
3.Do you withhold judgment about the person’s ideas until they have finished?
4.Can you listen fully even though you think you know what they are about to say?
5.Can you listen non-judgmentally even if you do not like the person who is talking?
6.Do you stop what you’re doing and give full attention when listening?
7.Do you give the person appropriate eye contact, head nods and nonverbals to indicate you’re listening?
8.Do you listen fully regardless of the speaker’s manner of speaking (e.g., grammar, accent, choice of words)?
9.Do you ask the speaker to clarify their ideas more fully?
10.Do you paraphrase what was said to ensure that you understand?

Add up your score. If you scored 36-40, congratulations! You’re an outstanding listener. Keep it up! If you scored 30-35, you’re a good listener. Try to improve in those areas where you scored lower. If you scored less than 30, you definitely need some work on your listening skills. Think about what you could gain by improving.

“When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.” – Dalai Lama

Till next time, keep it real.

Karen

The post Are You Listening? Really Listening? appeared first on PeopleThink.

This, despite the stat I talked about in my last blog – 85% of job success comes from soft skills, not hard skills.

The benefit of well-developed soft skills is borne out pretty quickly in an employee’s job tenure. A study by Leadership IQ, a research and training company, found that 46% of new hires will fail within their first 18 months. Why? Not because of a lack of technical skills, which only accounted for 11% of the failures, but because of their lack of soft skills.

According to the study, “26% of new hires fail because they can’t accept feedback, 23% because they’re unable to understand and manage emotions, 17% because they lack the necessary motivation to excel, 15% because they have the wrong temperament for the job.”

I say it’s time we rethink how we develop job descriptions and go about attracting and developing the right people for the right positions within our organizations. In addition to requiring that candidates have the right job-related skills, include the soft skills that will help the candidate succeed in the role. Then, in addition to creating questions around technical skills, train your hiring managers and other interviewers to ask well thought-out behavioral questions that will determine whether the candidate has the personal qualities and interpersonal skills that are needed for the job and to be a contributing member of the team.

Create a culture where the “soft skills” are valued as much or more than the “hard skills.” Review your learning and development strategy to ensure that employees have opportunities to build their capabilities in problem solving, innovation, emotional intelligence and other competencies that will help them succeed. Promote people to leadership roles not because they are the best at the function or have been there the longest, but because they demonstrate the personal qualities that will set the bar for the organization in creating the workforce for the future.

And, for those of you who are job seekers, take an inventory of your soft skills. Which of those skills have contributed most to your past success? Have you included them on your resume? Do you have specific examples of how you’ve leveraged those skills to achieve success in previous roles? What skills or behaviors do you need to work on to be ready for your target role/organization? What’s your plan for improving those skills and behaviors?

Till next time,
Karen

The post Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill appeared first on PeopleThink.