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

Stress Management: 5 Practical Tactics

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We all live busy professional lives.  Stress can seem to come from any where these days.  It’s a 24/7 culture with nonstop ways to communicate…email, text, Instagram, snap chat, and more.  Here are some things to consider making life more enjoyable and maybe slow it down some too.

Exercise more.   A 7-minute workout might be just enough.  Recent articles have been written about how a 7-minute workout can be just as beneficial as an hour.  Whether you believe in the short burst workouts or not, a great stress reliever is exercise and the time you spend for yourself.

Sleep more.  This is underrated in our “go get’em” American bravado to getting it done.   Sleep helps the body recover and repair itself.  Sleep deprived people more often fail to recall pleasant memories and instead recall more gloomy ones.  Think happier thoughts…get more sleep.

Spend time with family and friends.  A study done recently indicated one of the top 5 regrets of those dying was not spending enough time with family and friends.  We are here for such a moment; enjoy with those you love.

Help others.  This can enrich our lives and our well being.  Studies seem to point that 100 hours a year helping others can give us the “feel good” deposit that can add happiness and fulfillment.

Practice gratitude.  Even for the small things crossing our paths like a good hot cup of tea and the sunset.  Gratitude can be practiced in many different ways such as journaling what you are grateful for or simply writing a note of thanks to a friend or colleague.  An “attitude of gratitude” can go a long way to increasing life satisfaction.

Here’s to implementing your tactics for better stress management!

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

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

What does your second half look like?

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I read a book a while back titled Halftime by Bob Buford. It spoke to me because at the time I was turning 50, and the book outlined the difference between the first half of our life versus the second half.

Now that I am further along in my second half, I find myself reading articles about how to stay vibrant physically and mentally. It’s been said that “health equals wealth” and my intention is to be on the journey with continued health as a focus.

Below are six habits that resonated with me from a recent article on this topic:

  1. Mindset of Abundance
    Worrying about money at any age is not fun. I sure don’t want to worry about it in my older years. The abundant mindset was a game changer for me, and it not only included financial, but also spiritual, work, and relationships. The way I practice this comes with making sure any business opportunity is sourced with the right resource. If a referral comes to me, but it’s not quite the right fit or maybe my bandwidth is such that I couldn’t meet the client needs properly, then I actively help them find a better resource. Even if that means referring them to a competitor. It’s the “Pay it forward” mentality and the idea that there is an abundance of work out there for everyone, and what comes around goes around.
  2. Take Care of Your Spirit
    Do you ever feel not present, or your mind is racing all over the place? Or someone asks you a question, but you really didn’t hear it, and you must ask them to repeat it again? I have been working on a practice where I focus on my “active listening” skills and intentional mindfulness exercises to be present. It is not easy, but in today’s fast paced world, it is necessary. As I age, I am realizing that spiritual fitness is just as important as physical fitness.
  3. Goals
    I have generally had goals most of my life. Not always written down, but goals that helped me go to where I wanted to take my career. Eventually as I got older, I began to write down my goals and reviewing intermittently during the year. I have kept copies for the past 15 years and it’s amazing what I accomplished towards the life that I wanted to lead. The goals kept me focused, engaged, and motivated. Where I needed to pivot, I did. Some goals changed or were dropped, but I had a goal because I wanted to be “intentional” with my life and business.
  4. Take Care Physically
    When I was young, I took a lot for granted and didn’t feel that I would ever wear out. I pushed myself physically as an athlete. Well, I did better than some…my weight is still good, nutrition is on solid ground (except for the chocolate that I enjoy), and my strength is rebounding. Get a good night sleep. It is the most underrated aspect of recovery that is necessary for us to continue running the marathon of life.
  5. Do Work You Enjoy
    Enjoying what you do as a profession nourishes the body and your spirit. Long-term health and happiness are a function of a healthy and satisfied mind, and work that fulfills these attributes will give you inner satisfaction.
  6. Choose Your Relationships Wisely
    The emotions of others are contagious. Be mindful of who you hang out with because as Jim Rohn once said, “You are the five people you hang around the most with.” If you are not hanging around with people who you want to emulate, then time for a reset.

Cheers to your 2nd half!

Updating Your Organization’s Employee Experience

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The nature of work has evolved dramatically over the years, from what we deliver to how we create it. It wasn’t long ago when scores of people sat in rows of desks performing the same repetitive activity. Today, we don’t even need to be in an office, and can still accomplish so much more.

Each generation has fresh expectations for how their work environment operates and feels – and for most companies, the COVID-19 pandemic monkey wrench forced abrupt new changes. While our work environments, wherever they are, may not be “Dunder Mifflin” fun, it’s important to continue evolving your work environment.

Here are 6 recommendations for encouraging your workforce:

  1. Create opportunities for employees to grow their relationships. It’s difficult to make a positive connection with someone you know only by name and title. Consider planning a casual activity at lunchtime, creating interest-based groups, or finding opportunities for people to work outside of their normal teams.
  2. Provide ongoing feedback.  The years of annual reviews have passed. Much of today’s workforce prefer frequent feedback. Discuss goals and expectations more frequently to allow employees to attack incremental goals and have a say in creating expectations that seem fair and challenging.
  3. Offer flexible work locations. No more cubicles, but also no more wide-open workspaces. Promote creativity and collaboration with quiet rooms and lounges filled with comfy seating. Consider flexible furniture, like desks that enable a person to work while sitting or standing. We all know it’s unhealthy for people to sit in a chair like a slug all day. And don’t forget small and large enclosed places for phone calls and meetings.  Even after the pandemic passes, options like remote working, working irregular hours, and job-sharing will be huge bonuses to employees trying to balance their work and personal lives.
  4. Offer benefit packages that include mental health coverage and financial and mental wellness checkups. Some employers encourage taking “mental health” days to recharge. Some are insisting that employees working from home take time for a walk or non-screen-time during their workday. At the office, some employers are even providing meditation rooms.  How can you support your employees’ mental health?
  5. Focus on purpose. Identifying one’s purpose is important to today’s work force.  Help employees understand how their work contributes to the success of the company as a whole. Inquire as to how and why they do their work, what they feel their strengths are, what energizes them and what impact they feel they are making.  This may encourage some employees to create their own purpose statement.
  6. Finally, ask for feedback. A suggestion box is still a good way to do this. Make it easy for employees to give praise and criticism. Ask for ideas. Some of the most positively impactful changes come from employees on the front line.

Questions You Should Ask Every Potential Hire

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by Michael Iverson

Interviewing job candidates can be a task dreaded by entrepreneurs.  Why?  Some have nagging doubts because of one disappointing hire.  Others don’t have patience for what they perceive to be a long, drawn-out process that may end in a compromise rather than a perfect fit.

Here are six interview questions that can help you improve your interview process.  These are the recommendations of a variety of Human Resource professionals from industry and recruitment agencies. The questions are intended to help you learn about the attitudes and thought processes of candidates, as well as the likelihood of a cultural fit with your business.  (Of course, they would have to be supplemented with questions specific to the functions of the position you seek to fill.)

  1. Why did you get into this industry/profession? This question is a good starting point in terms of understanding the candidate’s values and level of commitment to (and affinity for) your line of work.  Some very talented candidates want to plug in their skill sets to the best-paying opportunity available.  Typically, their responses to this question lack the conviction of someone who has always wanted to be in your line of work.  There should be genuine excitement about the prospect of working for you.  If it’s not evident, take a pass.
  2. Tell me about your experience dealing with unhappy customers. Whether the customer is external or internal, every member of an organization is responsible for meeting customer needs.   This question gives the prospective employee an opportunity to tell you how he or she turned lemons into lemonade.  Problem-solving skills and lessons learned should be your key takeaways from the interviewee’s response.
  3. Why are you leaving your current position? The answer to this question helps you understand the candidate’s mindset regarding career change.  You might get the sense a candidate is always looking for greener pastures.  That could be an employee unlikely to find contentment.  On the other hand, you may find an employee whose skills are under-utilized at present, or one who has been unable to progress at the current workplace through no fault of their own.
  4. Tell me about the ideal position for you. This request is open-ended for the purpose of giving the candidate a chance to express, in as much detail as he or she is willing to provide, what would make the candidate happy.  The response is likely to include a job title, expectations about daily or weekly duties, the extent of supervision deemed necessary or desirable, a salary and a description of company culture.  All this information can help you assess whether there is a likely fit.
  5. How much do you know about our company? Has the candidate given serious consideration about the prospect of working for your company?  This is a chance for the prospective employee to show you how well he or she prepared for the interview.  A lack of preparation would suggest either a low-level of interest or a lack of initiative.  In either case, there is probably a better candidate for the position.  In contrast, a candidate who knows a good deal about your company may be a keeper.
  6. Describe your best boss and explain why the relationship worked. Describe your worst boss and explain why the relationship didn’t work. The answer is likely to provide useful insights about the candidate’s personality, as well as the candidate’s maturity level and temperament.  You should get a strong sense about whether this is a person you like and how well they are likely to fit in with co-workers.