9 Best Practices For Constructive Feedback

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Whether we are giving feedback to an employee for their evaluation or talking with other business associates and customers, below are 9 ways for giving constructive criticism.

  • Private criticize but publicly praise
  • Focus on the behavior not the individual
  • Keep it short and direct
  • Use an “I” message vs. “you” message
  • Be positive in your delivery tone
  • Describe succinctly and clearly what you want the person to change
  • Be empathic
  • Don’t be spontaneous in your criticism, be thoughtful
  • Recognize when the person makes changes

Tough conversations with constructive criticism is never easy, but following the concepts above can make the outcome a positive one. Here’s to having conversations that can propel you to the next level!

Mike

Hiring Your Next Employee?… Consider These Questions

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Must ask questions for interviewing new hires.  As you begin to look at opportunities to hire your next employee consider the following questions to ask.

  • In what ways will this role help you stretch your professional capabilities?  This question drives at what the candidate will reveal as areas where they want to improve their skills.
  • What have been your greatest areas of improvement during your career?  This points to areas the candidate felt were weaknesses and how they have addressed them.  Of course, if the indicate that they don’t have any areas of improvement, then they may not be the right candidate.
  • What is the toughest feedback that you have received and how you learned from it?  This shows that a candidate can admit to mistakes and how they handled it along with what they did to use it in their learning process.
  • What would someone most likely misunderstand about you?  This can show a candidates ability to understand others and how they themselves may be misunderstood in certain situations.
  • If you were to give a user manual to you staff in order for them to get to know you, what would it include?  This shows the candidates work habits and general style.

For our company we hire for “attitude” and train for “skills.” We can always teach someone a new skill, but it is very difficult to change someone’s attitude that has been baked into them since childhood.

Here’s to asking the right questions to get you the right new employee!

Mike

Are Your Goals SMART?

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I have had the privilege to be a part of a strong peer business group, Vistage, where part of the accountability is our goal setting.  What I have learned over the years is the more specific and measurable the goal the better.  My team forces me to put a timetable on each goal, otherwise, they tell me I have an aspiration, not a goal.  I encourage you to set your own SMART goals.

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Actionable
  • Realistic
  • Timely

When you implement these concepts with each of your goals, watch your accomplishments go to the next level!

Mike

Time Management: Are You Focused?

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I have often heard how well someone can multi-task to get things done.  However, in my experience the person is not so much multi-tasking but rather is switch-tasking and they are not as productive first observed.

Studies have indicated that it can take between 10 minutes to 30 minutes to get back on track with a task that was interrupted by a phone call or email.  In a 2009 study by Stanford researcher, Clifford Nass, he experimented with college students on switching among tasks.  What he found was chronic multi-taskers for terrible at filtering irrelevant information and working memory.

For me the art of getting things done is to stay focused. I start each day with my top 3 priorities that will move the needle for me and my business. I stick with the first priority and finish it before moving on to the next one. It is similar to the acronym FOCUS… Finish, One, Course of action, Until, Complete.

Here’s to you staying focused on the one thing that will move you forward!

Mike

A “How To” For Constructive Criticism

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Feedback from customers and employees is important to our growth.  How we give feedback will make a big difference on the recipient’s desire to act.  At times, the feedback will require some criticism.  Vistage speaker Bill Scherer gives some tips on giving constructive criticism.

  1. Praise in public, criticize in private
  2. Focus on behavior, not the person
  3. Clearly describe the behavior you want an employee to change and why
  4. Ensure the person has an ability to change the behavior
  5. Keep comments short and on point
  6. Maintain a positive tone
  7. Use “I” statements
  8. Show empathy
  9. Avoid spontaneous criticism
  10. Recognize positive behavior change

Follow these guidelines to help deliver the message in the right context, where action can and will want to be taken.

Here’s to positive dialogue that propels your business health!

Mike

10 Signs of Owner Burnout

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As busy leaders and owners of a business time is a precious commodity that is not renewable.  I sometimes hear owners and leaders say phrases like “I have to stay on top of everyone to make sure it gets done”, “it’s crazy busy around here and I can’t seem to come up for air.”

These are phrases that tend to point toward a business owner and leader headed for burn out.  Are you headed that way?  Here are some signs.

  • Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.  Each time you look at a “to do” list a mountain of dread flows over you.
  • You don’t think clearly.  You find yourself not able to focus on one thing for long before the next “fire” erupts from someone else.
  • You are frustrated and don’t feel things will get better any time soon.
  • Your performance is waning so you make it up by working longer hours after everyone has gone home and it often spills over to the weekend too.
  • You are always “at work” even when you are away from it.  You can’t seem to disconnect from it and your mind is always racing through issues that you want to solve at work.
  • Are people avoiding you?
  • Nothings seems to be going right.  You head towards the negative instead of the positive, and can’t seem to find the good in most situations.
  • You don’t socialize outside of work in part because you don’t disconnect from it.
  • You are experiencing health issues and fail to exercise or eat right, and you know it.
  • You are finding sleep harder to come by.  Studies have shown a lack of sleep over a period reduces your cognitive ability.

If you see any or a number of these symptoms, you could be headed for burnout.  Make sure to avoid it by:

  • Eating healthy
  • Get adequate sleep…7 to 8 hours each night
  • Delegate
  • Implement operating systems that are simple and proven that help with accountability and drive results

Here is to make sure we understand what burnout looks like and making the changes necessary to avoid it.

Mike

Employee Engagement

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Do you remember your first day at a new job?  It’s often filled with excitement and new opportunities on helping the company you just joined succeed in its mission.  However, have you also felt this excitement wear off after a while?  Did you feel yourself get more disconnected?

This dissatisfaction with some or maybe all aspects of your job is also something you have seen among other employees.  Keeping engaged and excited employees is a difficult process for any company, and especially for ones with fast growth and lots of employees.  Recent research has found that when we can make a connection of one’s work to the beneficiary of that work, like our customer, employees get more job satisfaction.  For instance, Adam Grant of the Wharton School found that fundraisers who were attempting to secure scholarship donations felt more motivated when they had contact with the scholarship recipients.

Giving feedback to employees on how their work is impacting the company’s customers is a strong motivation tool that lifts productivity.  Its making these types of connections for all employees in all areas of the company can give them a picture of how they contribute to customer satisfaction.  What opportunities do you have in your organization to provide these types of connections?

Make the connections to level up your employee engagement!

Mike

Time: The Ultimate Finite Resource

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I remember reading a book titled “Death by Meeting” by Patrick Lencioni.  The focus was on silos, politics, and turf wars in a business.  I recently ran across an article suggesting that meetings should not last any longer than 30 minutes.  I am sure some who are reading this can relate to being in a meeting that went on and on and on with no clear action and nothing done after the meeting.

Maybe implement compressed time for business meetings will remove this poor habit.  As Parkinson’s law indicates work expands to fill the time available, so if you don’t set a limit to the meeting, it can drone on way too long.

Why 30 minutes?  There is no scientific study, however, for me personally I see a higher level of intensity by participants because they know 30 minutes is the limit.  Its seems people listen more intently when things move faster keeping us engaged.  People tend to come prepared and ready to go.  And if not, they will the next time.

Give it a try.  Implement these three tactics to make the 30-minute meeting more powerful.

  1. Tell everyone to read any materials before the meeting.  Ask an important question: “what outcome do we want?”
  2. Decide on the one thing to focus on in the meeting that will make a difference and stay on it for the 30 minutes.
  3. It’s what happens after the meeting that will tell you if the meeting was good or not.  Act with a summary and clarity on the action steps and accountability.

How are your meetings?

Here’s to having better meetings!

Mike

Make Your Compliments Count

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One of the best ways to brighten up someone’s day is to give them a compliment.  

However, not all compliments are equal.  In her article “The Secret to Giving a Compliment that Makes People Glow” by Mary Halton, she describes the 3 ingredients for a great compliment:

1.)  Use their name

  • Using someone’s name says you value them as a person

2.)  Compliment something specific

  • Instead of using a generic statement like “Good job,” be specific and say something like “Your singing took me back to my childhood when my family would sing around the campfire.”

3.)  Don’t praise and run out

  • After your compliment, ask a follow up question such as why they chose to sing that particular song

    Compliments can go a long way in building your relationships, so make them count.

Here’s to making it count!

Mike

Step Up Your Interview Questions

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As companies are struggling to hire qualified people these days, recruiting has taken on new challenges. That being said, are you still asking the same old recruiting questions? Do you feel that the questions you ask still don’t elicit the information that you need from a candidate? Does the interview process seem like a “show up and throw up?” If any of these or other similar questions pop into your head about your current interview process, then consider the following questions that award-winning marketing consultant Jano le Roux (https://janoleroux.com/about) asks his candidates. Some of these questions seem off the beaten path and at first you may wonder how they may be applicable to your business but think through the “why” of the question and how you can adjust it for your situation.

  1. Do you have a screen protector on your phone?. . .Why? Asking this question seems strange and may have nothing to do with the position for which you are hiring. However, for Le Roux, the answer to the question would provide insight into how careful and intentional a person is with a simple device like your phone. Protecting it shows that you are careful. If you don’t have one…. why not? This may show a lack of intentionally caring about a device that while replaceable, isn’t necessarily inexpensive to replace.
  2. How do you criticize people? As Le Roux says, it’s not easy to criticize people, even if it’s constructive criticism. How they do it shows well that they can deliver a tough message. He even asks the candidate to criticize him during the interview to see their skills at work. Can they be honest without being a jerk?
  3. Teach me something fascinating that I don’t know? This is a prompt for him to see if the candidate has done any research on Le Roux or if they are simply flying by the “seat of their pants” to see if what they say he just happens to not know. One candidate Le Roux interviewed in answering this question asked Le Roux….” What are you into right now?” Le Roux responded, “Right now, it’s productivity.” With that answer, the candidate showed Le Roux an app on their phone for enhancing productivity. He hired the person on the spot.
  4. What would you do to implement trust among coworkers in a remote setting? Given our flexible work environment today with many knowledge workers having the option to work remotely, building trust on teams can be a challenge. This question drives to the candidate’s creativity to think on the spot how to address this issue.
  5. What do you want written on your gravestone and how does this position help you get there? Everyone’s time here is short, and we spend a large part of our lives at work. Working somewhere with meaning is part of the ingredient for self-motivation. Typically, a business owner does not want an employee coming to work who feels miserable at their job and is not reaching their full potential. These are just a few interview questions that I found interesting for me to consider in my business. Recruiting good talent on our teams is more of an art than science. We can teach “skills,” but it’s difficult to teach “attitude.”

Cheers to your talent search!
Mike

The Positive Power of a Flexible Workplace

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Employers, employees and studies say remote working in many instances can result in more productivity. The past two years guarantee that an increase in remote working will be a permanent result of COVID-19.

When people work from home, they have more control over their time and working environment. Employees work when they are most productive, which is not always regular business hours. People who work from home tend to dress comfortably and can fit more exercise and sleep into their schedules.

Traditionally, extra sleep and comfy attire for staff are not high on the list of employer goals. In fact, it may seem like these factors are counterproductive. But many employers say remote work has had a direct and positive result on business. Employees are happier, healthier (more sleep and exercise), take fewer sick days and accomplish more than those who spend the entirety of their work hours in an office.  Communication by text, email, Zoom and phone is proving to be more efficient as people focus more intently on their time management with these channels.

Call center employees, for example, take more calls when they work remotely, in part due to less noise and generally fewer distractions at home (apart from slightly distracting unsupervised toddlers), as opposed to a busy office.

Job satisfaction tends to increase without a daily commute. There is the appeal of a commute-free lifestyle. Statistics show that traditional commuters suffer from high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol, more often than those who commute from the kitchen to the office down the hall. Increased anxiety is also associated with a commuter lifestyle.

People value a remote workplace option and may opt to take a pay cut for a job that offers it.  Having the flexibility to work even with a hybrid model of home office and work office environments can add a dimension to a job that makes it attractive.  The greater acceptance of a work-from-home option has opened the opportunity to reduce geographic limitations when recruiting.  Hiring employees is not cheap and a high rate of employee retention helps both overall morale and the bottom line.

Pandemic-life has proven that working remotely, at least part of the time, is feasible and profitable. Businesses can use remote working to their advantage to pivot their company and meet the demands of a new reality.

The Art of Attracting Outstanding Employees

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We’ve all had those absolutely outstanding employees:  well-qualified, quick to learn company operations and culture, exhibit great attitudes. They do what they say they will do, on time and with high quality.

Sometimes it can feel like we just fall into this type of employee. But there are ways to make the “fall” more likely. And since a company is only as good as its employees, attracting outstanding prospective employees is worth the effort.

There are many ways to attract and find great employees. The following are some I have found effective.  Try them out to create an ideal applicant pool.

  1. Go where the best go. Use events – even online – to observe and identify qualified people. Join relevant associations, talk with your customers, look on LinkedIn or other social media sites. Approach potential candidates with appreciation and ideas.
  2. Align your hiring process with your company’s culture and vision. This may seem obvious, however, the saying goes “hire for attitude, train for skills” is important. If the person does not have the traits that align with your culture and the norms you expect of all employees, then no amount of skill can make up the difference.
  3. Hire a good recruiter or staffing agency. Recruiters often follow people through their careers and will know when people are thinking about changing companies – giving you early access to the best candidates.
  4. Participate in the community. Sponsor a nonprofit or charity event. Offer scholarships or internships to local students.
  5. Write a realistic and detailed job description. Include job title, salary range based on seniority, and responsibilities. Try to tell a story about the company so people will get an idea of the work environment and company goals.
  6. Establish relationships with trade schools, colleges, and universities. It’s a win/win for companies who want access to the best candidates entering the workforce and schools who want outstanding career services programs.
  7. Foster a positive, modern, environmentally-responsible, and attractive workspace – wherever it might be. During these days when many desk employees are working from home, that might mean investing in fresh collaboration software, encouraging a daily stretch break, or offering perks like a small home office stipend or shipping an oxygen-releasing houseplant to each employee. For employees going into the office, give some thought to amenities like access to healthy, free snacks and coffee, relaxation areas, and ergonomically correct furniture.
  8. Offer the best benefits you can afford. Many companies use their benefit offering to attract and retain their employees. This could include paid vacation and sick time, mental health days, flexible work times, job-sharing, work-from-home, 401k, profit sharing, casual days, health, life, disability, dental and vision insurance, and tax-free health spending accounts to name a few. Paid gym memberships, parental leave, and student loan and tuition assistance are also gaining popularity.
  9. Ask your highest-performing employees for referrals – because like attracts like. They have first-hand knowledge of your business, plus networks of similarly-talented friends and business contacts. Hiring employee referrals can help build morale and be an opportunity to offer a referral bonus.

This list may seem overwhelming, but there’s no need to tackle them all at once. Test one or two at a time to see which resonate with your business, industry, and the roles you hire. I expect you’ll discover happier, more effective employees – and outstanding candidates.