Exceptional leaders tend to share a common desire: knowing which problems exist in their organization, so their people, processes and systems can either be improved or removed. After winning the 24 hours of Le Mans, Mario Andretti was asked by a reporter what it felt like to drive a “perfect race.” Andretti responded, “I didn’t drive a perfect race. In fact I made tons of mistakes; I just caught them quicker than the other drivers.” All of us make mistakes; chalk it up to being human. The people who consistently improve and evolve in this life are those who are willing to be honest with themselves and others and listen to constructive insight and then do something about it.

Working with National and International corporations, I have discovered the higher a leader’s position in an organization the less honest people tend to be with that leader. The paradox is that the higher the position, the more his or her decisions impact hundreds or thousands of people.  Therefore, would it not seem logical, that these leaders receive performance evaluations from the staff and the customer? It is, and it needs to be done for many reasons. Those few who implement these types of honest two-way interactions tend to have better bottom line profits to show for it. Leaders must set the example by creating these highly interactive types of cultures within their organizations. After all, accountability and performance improvement should go in both directions, shouldn’t it?

Benefits of Leadership Evaluations

Leaders must not simply talk about “honest communication, trust, and tell people their door is open” they must prove it with their behaviors and set the example. What follows are the benefits of leadership evaluations, for the leader, the employees, the organization and most importantly THE CUSTOMER.

1. Leaders should meet face to face with customers and employees, asking them to be honest about their product and service from A to Z. One of my tenants of business is that “if it does not positively impact the customer, it has no value.” Who better to ask how to improve then your customers or employees? This will be the best Return On Investment you will ever get.
2. Happy, involved, and trusted employees equate directly to happy, involved and trustworthy customers. In fact, it’s impossible to have unhappy employees and happy customers. More than anything else, people want to feel valued and respected by their leader. Asking for their opinion and really listening will help achieve that.
3. Four steps to professional development are: Train, Coach, Counsel, and (as a last resort) Terminate. Where do you stand in this mix? Are you trainable, need coaching, require counseling, or are you not worth the investment and need to be terminated?
4. By opening yourself up to performance evaluations by others, you will quickly find out if you really are trusted, have good communication, and are a good leader. You will find out if your management methods are effective or ineffective and why certain people require less input or more input from you. You will learn to understand them and who best to learn from than those you are leading. Ask your people how best to lead and manage them. They will tell you either by what they say, or more importantly, what they don’t say. You will quickly know, see and feel if they are lying to protect their jobs and helping you save face.
5. You will show your customers and people that they matter and are important. And along the way you will learn some very valuable lessons about yourself.

First, think of something you can do so well that you can teach another other person how to do it. Second, now think about the stages you went through on that mental and physical journey and the time it took to achieve your current proficiency. Third, now apply that understanding to this article and your professional career.

Anyone who has attained a certain level of proficiency in any endeavor, whether that be in a professional business setting, in academia, or in various sports and hobbies have all gone through and experienced a similar ebb and flow of struggle and growth. I have outlined these stages so that one may know how to more reliably attain the goals you have in your mind.

1. AWARENESS

Awareness of existing behavior, including thoughts, feelings, images, sensations and actions that are experienced as problematic: For example:

A. Catastrophic thoughts: e.g., “If I express my true ideas and opinions my colleagues or superiors will think I’m stupid.” …..Or my VP’s, supervisors and staff won’t think I know everything and will not have faith in me….. or will try and take my position.” B. Distressing feelings: e.g., anxiety, depression, guilt, etc. C. Disturbing images: e.g., an image of yourself as ineffective in your position, unsuccessful leader or a poor decision maker. (this is also known in the early stages in one’s career or promotion as the “imposter” syndrome). D. Discomforting sensations: e.g., generalized anxiety, headaches, shoulder, stomach or back pain etc. E. Ineffective actions: e.g., procrastination, inhibition, ineffective communication (listening and/or speaking), poor decision making skills, poor managing or leadership qualities.

(I have worked with experienced Presidents, CEO’s and other leaders who were technically capable yet inadvertently unaware and on their way to, or currently in the midst of, sabotaging their organization and subsequent careers because of their “blind spots” and fear of working with someone through them.

2. DISSATISFACTION

Dissatisfaction with present behavior: This can either produce motivation for change or the extinction of awareness through various psychological and/or outside influence’s or “distractions.” e.g., denial, obsessive compulsive behaviors, excessive alcohol & drug use etc.

3. AFFIRMATION

Affirmation of your present behavior’s original survival value: People will often justify the present behavior as needed or valued. I had a client who was a very smart woman and valued her ability to “multitask.” Yet her directors and staff saw this behavior as not valuing them, being distant, and not involving them in decisions. Inadvertently, projects fell through the cracks because she would often “forget,” communication between her departments became more strained because they all needed to stay on her “good side.” She did not fully comprehend the gravity of the situation until the President asked me to work with her and her division.

When this affirmation step is omitted, people frequently undermine (Sabotage) their motivation for change with self-blame or “finger-pointing” e.g., blaming others.

For example, let’s look at the two possible scenarios. Inhibition, placating, letting others always have their way (non-assertiveness) might have been an affective technique for a ten year old child when dealing with a harsh and critical parent. Conversely, the other extreme can be just as damaging as when that child took the abuse at home and then redirected that anger toward others.

As an adult these symptoms can play out as: a person needs to be the center of attention and rarely allows others a voice, unreasonable expectation of others, requires excessive attention/admiration, lacks empathy, envious, or has a sense of entitlement. As you can imagine and have no doubt experienced, a professional manager, Vice President or CEO with these tendencies can sabotage an otherwise successful team, department and/or career. Working through this step is integral in establishing a strong sense of self and an intrapersonal attitude that is conducive to professional growth, self improvement and change.

4. RESPONSIBILITY

For instance, some people in the workplace may have a “chip” on their shoulders. As a result, and as the previous example disclosed, their personal thoughts can be punitive and harsh as can their behavior toward others. Their actions can also be either too kind or too harsh given the reality of the situation. As a result, they are ineffective and cause themselves and others grief and the organization time and money with the bottom line being they come across as victims displaying some of these behaviors (e.g., attention seeking, need for admiration and lack of empathy, feelings of inadequacy, submissive and clinging behavior or preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism and control). On the surface the symptoms may appear to be diametrically opposed, however, the underlying issue is the same and resolution to this challenge is to take personal responsibility for one’s life (not blaming oneself or others). This must be a major first step toward becoming a more satisfied individual, an appreciated co-worker and a successful leader.

The examples below highlight the difference between a person which allows the “victim” mentality to have control and a person who is being responsible, taking an active role in their thoughts and applying personal growth strategies:

A. Responsible position: “I feel depressed because I’ve “bought into” the belief that I don’t deserve to feel good about myself.” Victim position: “I feel depressed because nobody seems to care.” B. Responsible Position: “I have a point that will add clarity to why our marketing penetration is off by 7%, but I will wait until Gloria is finished speaking before I present my findings.” Victim position: Gloria is constantly talking and not saying anything useful, I’m going to interrupt her and present my data now. It’s more important anyway.” C. Responsible position: “I haven’t been willing to assert myself because I tend to doubt myself when others disagree with me.” Victim position: “I haven’t been able to assert myself because I keep getting shot down”

5. PERSONALIZED GOAL

Set an achievable goal, that is, a change that is under one’s own control rather than dependent on someone else’s approval. Trying to gain another’s approval may be regarded as a desire (or want), but not a personalized goal which is under one’s own control. Focusing attention and energy on personalized goals increases one’s sense of personal power. Conversely, focusing primarily on desires or approval by others tends to increase one’s sense of powerlessness and vulnerability. Some examples are given below:

A. Personalized Goal: ”I’d like to reprogram the belief and overcome my anxiety of speaking up in meetings. Desire: “I want others to care about me so that I won’t so scared to speak up in meetings. B. Personalized Goal: “Effective leaders set the example and are respectful of others, when Gloria is finished I will tie her ideas into my new data so she saves face and the group gets the updated information required to hit our marketing target of 12% penetration. Desire: I am the Executive VP and I should be able to interrupt at anytime to present my information and move these meetings along. C. Personalized Goal: ”I’d like to support myself in the face of other’s disagreement so that I am willing to express my ideas and opinions more assertively during our meeting.” Desire: “I’d like to have my colleagues accept me so that I can express myself more assertively.”

6. DEMORALIZATION

Frustration and demoralization often occur at this stage when one discovers that steps 1-5 do not automatically produce change. There is often a mental struggle going on inside of you where one part is wanting to quit, but the other knows that if you work through this “stage” then success will be forthcoming.

Example, Think of any previous success you have enjoyed whether that is sports related, academic achievement or any act that made you “endure” over a period of time. If you draw on the mental processes, steps and strength it took to achieve that milestone or success then, you no doubt, know the next steps you must take at this cross road. In essence, revert to what you know and have been successful at (the processes, concepts and struggles that were needed) and apply them to this particular challenge.

7. INTENTION

A strengthened resolve to give the goal implementation process vigilant attention is required at this critical stage. This is the step at which one’s personalized goal is translated into an intention to change. An intention to change doesn’t guarantee change; however, it does have more action potential than wishing or wanting to change.

“Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elemental truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.

I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.’”

-W. H. Murry from the Scottish Himalayan expedition to Mt. Everest

8. ACTION

One’s intention is then translated into specific action steps. These steps must be intentionally repeated, over and over again, until the new behavior begins to be expressed automatically. This frequently takes more time and attention than people are willing to devote.  But success is assured to those who persevere and apply sound Problem Solving, Decision Making and Implementation skills.

9. SELF-SUPPORT

Learning to support yourself through the period of vulnerability that occurs right after one lets go of the old familiar pattern of behavior and up to the point where one begins to feel secure with the new behavior or habit. One must model consistent mental and physical behaviors until which time the “experimental behavior” is firmly established, thus requiring increasingly less attention to maintain the change. A personal or professional mentoring group can be very helpful at all stages but especially this stage. Think of them as your personal “Board of Directors.” Corporations have them, why not you?

10. SUSTAINED – CHANGE

Congratulations. You have successfully completed your personalized goal. Now apply each step of this process to the small and large challenges that life presents to you each day and a happier more successful life will be yours as the old unhealthy patterns slowly fall to the wayside and the new patterns build up momentum and show themselves to you in ever self-fulfilling and profitable ways.

“10 elements of Intentional behavior Change” was originally developed by Dr. Joe Russo and stemmed from the work of James O. Prochaska of the University of Rhode Island and colleagues who developed the Transtheoretical model beginning in 1977 . I morphed these time tested behavior modification techniques and have applied them to the corporate environment for individuals and organizations who want to achieve “sustained change,” not just read about it, go through some idealistic steps and pretend change has occurred, when in reality, it has not. If one aspires to achieve extraordinary results, then extraordinary thoughts, behaviors and actions are needed. Are you ready to start?

Grow Your People. Make professional development a priority. Model personal and professional growth. Never tire of developing your team and yourself.

Make Your Communication Count. Use your words and your energy to inspire, support, and lead through ordinary and extraordinary conditions. Regularly check for understanding. Build consensus related to the standards and expectations in your field. Make good on your promises. This modeling will naturally encourage and teach your people to do the same.

Make Work a Learning / Doing Place. With each new project, with each new employee, by staying on top of trends and advancements in your field, make every day a time to learn. Learning will keep your people interested and curious. Knowledge is power. Share it through coaching, consulting, collaborating, and mentoring. Helping others will grow your leadership at all levels. Day in and day out, encourage problem solving, creative thinking, and structured growth.

Grow a Successor. Surround yourself with talent and skills. Encourage and grow these individuals. Such support will elicit loyalty and make your business excel. Choose a small group of individuals who have demonstrated their strong values, their sincere commitment to the organization, and wisdom beyond their years. Chose wisely and nurture these future leaders. Assume it is from this group that you will someday cull your successor. Begin planning now for your successful handoff.

Model Integrity, Relationship-building, and Commitment to Your People. Have real and honest conversations with your people. Listen. Be honest. Follow through. Be trustworthy, and expect the same of your people. Communicate in ways that demonstrate your sincerity. Care about your people. Grow their opportunities. Encourage their career development. Respect their values. Commitment to your people will lead to impressive interpersonal as well as organizational results.

Know Your Employees and What They Do. Leaders are knowledgeable about their employees’ performance, which builds considerable trust and respect. Most would say that this is a “no-brainer,” yet, on average, only 30% percent of employees report that their managers communicate performance standards and provide fair and accurate feedback to help them do their jobs better.

Give Strengths-based, Specific and Timely Feedback. Make feedback timely, specific, POSITIVE, and based on mutually-accepted goals and objectives. Keep feedback respectful, related, and reasonable. Look for strengths in your people. Address performance gaps as opportunities to grow your organization (e.g., “we need your help to strengthen the team in these specific ways,” rather than “you messed up and need to improve in this area”). Recognize and celebrate strengths and successes as essential links in your organizational chain.

These seven qualities should be due diligence for all leaders. Practiced regularly, they will grow your people, your organization, and yourself. You know you have the heart and mind to establish a core culture of integrity and success, a place from where you will no longer have to lead only by command. With these seven qualities, you will enjoy your people instead of control them, nurture a highly-productive environment rather than clean up after mistakes, discover the many hidden talents and potential in your future leaders through ongoing dialogue, and realize breakthrough improvements in manager-employee relationships and on-the-job results.

Strong leaders understand the critical role they play in creating and communicating strategy. They know how to drive transformation to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

Successful leaders use a positive yet realistic approach to overcome the economic and psychological uncertainty of today’s business environment.

Above all, great leaders know how to achieve results.

I strive to awaken the hidden leadership genius within you and your people. Let me help you create a cohesive, common-goal work team that transcends your current abilities. I help you achieve cutting edge transformation, not rely on cookie cutter one-size-fits all coaching and leadership programs.

Through leadership training, you and your executives will see tremendous results and improvements in the following:

• Your team’s ability to work together more efficiently. Cultivate confidence in each other through honest conversations that develop trust and group commitment.
• Learn to work through and remove the “unspoken” but volatile topics that everyone knows about but are unable to overcome. You know what I’m talking about….the “taboo” topics, the “Emperor has no clothes” topics that keep you and your team from moving forward.
• Enhanced employee buy-in and commitment that lead to job satisfaction
• Better communication, innovation, creativity, and production
• Improved problem-solving and decision-making capabilities
• Better foresight and project planning abilities
• Significantly improved execution and implementation of strategic plans and projects

You and your organization are unique, so I design a customized leadership development training program that makes sense for you.

I learn the language and culture of your organization so the program I design is a perfect fit for the needs of your people and organization. Through my leadership development training, you and your executives will gain the specific skills needed to evolve and succeed.

My Leadership Training has four straightforward goals:

1. Help leaders, executives and managers identify their own talents and strengths so these are leveraged and developed into high-performance leadership capabilities
2. Develop intrinsic and unique attitudes and skills necessary to sustain long-term change
3. Help each individual executive grow and then weave these individual leaders into a unified team capable of extraordinary results.
4. And last, help refine micro and macro goals into prioritized objectives so results can be achieved in profitable time units.

I start from the “inside” of your executives personalities and organizational structure and work out to the pre-determined organizational objectives; the end-result which can be measured in any number of ways. I work with client organizations in “real-time” to observe and evaluate the hierarchy that is present in your corporate environment. My goals include tailoring your leadership development program to each specific executive or manager’s personality and that of the executive team and organizational culture.

For organizations striving to open up their full potential, leaders hold the key. Leaders bring the short- and long-term goals of an organization to fruition by inspiring each and every individual to work to his or her personal best. The program I design will support leaders as they strive to meet individual needs, respect personality types and learning styles, and guide the organization to achieve its goals and objectives.

Leadership development is a deliberate process that includes focused conversations and assessments. Through the process, I will guide your team to create environments that support individual growth, purposeful action, and sustained improvement. My program will produce leaders who:

• Remove barriers that hinder individuals from realizing their full potential
• Provide skills for gaining valuable insight into crucial situations
• Identify obstacles that impede an individual’s progress

Contact me today to discuss where you would like your organization to be in 12-24 months. By developing your executive and management teams we can partner on acieveing organizational objectives.

Our customized approach to assessing the developmental needs of your management team is designed to provide you the essential tools for choosing new executives and defining the strengths of your current executives.

Our approach is unique in that we assess executives not just by looking at isolated traits, skills, and interests from a battery of generic assessments, but by analyzing actual behaviors, thoughts and patterns such as the dynamic interplay between the executives he or she will be working with, the culture he or she will be required to become a part of and the organizational setting including behavioral expectations, pace and stress factors. Research has shown that this approach is much more cost effective than having to “terminate” or “live-with-it” later. This has proven to be a vital step in assisting an organization to build its successful executive community.

Benefits to Executives

Our package includes an assessment of your current executive team, your culture and spoken and unspoken values; (on rare occasions depending on the type of organization and people within it; personality tests), face-to-face interviews, observations, and group as well as one-on-one feedback sessions. The specific recommendations that emerge from my assessment reports benefit both the individual being considered, the current executive team and the organization:

1. Leadership chooses the correct personality for their specific type of executive team, culture and organizational objectives.
2. The leadership team looks at skills and work history. I observe behaviors and look past the conscious verbal answers into the deeper and more elusive yet honest subconscious. It is here where we will significantly improve our odds of understanding how they work, make decisions, lead and manage people, deal with stress and communicate.
3. Candidates as well as current executives make immediate positive adjustments to their leadership and management skills and style.
4. Team leaders use results to achieve their objectives and create a clear, long-term road map to improve overall management skills, collaborative methods, and leadership qualities.

Contact me now so we can discuss your challenges, refine your objectives, and zero-in on your options: Kelly@InternalBusinessSolutions.com

You May Want to Ask Yourself These Questions:

• How do we establish or reestablish trust? Are you ready to improve and add extra strength to the back-bone of your organization?
• How do our people communicate? How can we really improve communication, goal setting and execution so our people and departments GET RESULTS and we actually utilize all of our resources, people and departments as a UNIFIED whole toward specific objectives.
• Where are we now and where do we all want to go? How can each member of our organization help to improve our bottom line and why should they?
• Is any of this even possible?
• If someone told me it was, would I believe them?
• If I did believe them would I take the two  minutes out of my busy day and do anything about it? would I call, text or email?

Profit from the inside out. I specialize’s in designing employee development programs tailored specifically for your staff and you. I provide you with the necessary training and tools to ensure that your staff continues to teach itself, monitor itself, and show improved results long after I have left.

Are you getting the best out of your employees? If not, then take steps to improve your organization by investing in an employee development program.

Make no mistake about it: all your closest competitors have good R & D… They have access to financing and resources, and they are training their people. The only resource which separates you from your closest competitors is… YOUR PEOPLE… SO INVEST IN THEM EFFECTIVELY.

All organizational challenges will ultimately be solved by and through your people! Whether your challenges are technical, financial, or in some other domain, these challenges will always hinge on human communications and processes. Understanding and improving communication is hugely important to your organization’s survival and success, because the bottom line is: it’s YOUR people who will ultimately take YOUR organization to the next level.

Important considerations for employee development:

• Urgency and energy are produced to create a new future.
• Broad participation quickly identifies performance gaps and their solutions, improving productivity and customer satisfaction.
• First tackle the larger issues or conflicts that are tying up your organization’s time and effectiveness.
• Alleviate stress and you emphasize camaraderie.
• Employee morale will soar higher and stay more consistently positive through employee development; when employee’s morale is high, areas of need will be addressed more quickly and effectively, so problems won’t fester under the surface and get out of control.
• Encouraging employee feedback on business challenges will help people grasp issues.
• Employees will become aligned around a common purpose and will create new directions, because they understand both the difficulties and the opportunities of change and growth. In short, employee development creates “ownership.”
• Lastly, it is virtually impossible to have satisfied customers and dissatisfied employees. Everyone knows when a clown has makeup on and your customers know it when your employees are faking the smiles. So quit insulting them, because in this competitive age they WILL shop you.

In essence, when employees realize that they have some semblance of control and are being heard, the company, the leadership, and the employees all benefit. Thus, it is through this improved communication and shared purpose that the value of employee development truly begins to sink in for all stakeholders. This is when your team will take your organization to the next level. Through employee development, you are guaranteed lasting commitment and support of your strategic plan and your company vision! Kelly@InternalBusinessSolutions.com