7 Keys to Inspired Leadership

You’ll Find Our Company Is Different

Garth Roberts — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:02:09 +0000

Photo by Garth Roberts

It’s a phrase I hear in almost every company I work, “you’ll find our company is different”. I hate to burst your balloon, your company isn’t different. Your work may be different but the operation of all companies relies on one common denominator, people. The success or failure of your operation is directly related to the effectiveness of your people and how you, as a leader, treat them.

Common denominators for all companies are:

if you’ve hired correctly, your people are motivated
employees want to do a good job
everyone wants to know what’s happening in the company
people need to know what impact their jobs have on the company’s success
employees want to be recognized for jobs well done, and held accountable for ineffective performance

In turn, employees get turned off when:

lack of shared plans leave them wondering what’s going on
there is limited or no communication from the top down or from the bottom up
there was no follow-up on projects
no one is held accountable

These realities about employees are universal. It doesn’t matter if you are making widgets, building bridges, mining for gold, selling goods, or working in the service industry. Pay attention to the needs of your people and your business truly will be different; it will be profitable, leading-edge, and a great place to work.

Garth Roberts

www.GarthRoberts.com

Do Your Teeth Really Need to be Whiter?

Garth Roberts — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:44:05 +0000

While I recognize we all want a winning smile, I suggest the teeth whitening craze has gotten to be a bit much. I’ve always watched people’s mouths, maybe I’m practicing my lip reading skills for when my hearing fades totally, so I’m aware of the value of great teeth. However, I’m now getting mesmerized by blinding white teeth, so mesmerized that I get distracted from the conversation.

As I was just spammed with a $129 special, it occurred to me that many people I know, who had great smiles, are being conned into paying for a procedure they truly don’t need. Why do we fall for such vanity hooks?

In supervisory and management roles I’ve noted we also fall for vanity hooks. You’re doing a great job, can you take on this additional task? You’ve always been there to support your people, how about adding this item to your portfolio? Pat me on the back and add another log on my fire of responsibilities.

As a leader you recognize when you must say, “No”. Leaders certainly fill their plate but they don’t take extra serving just to demonstrate how brilliant or talented they are. They know when to say, enough. Now connecting whitening your teeth to leadership may seem like a stretch, but is it? It all comes back to recognizing we truly need to be who we are, honestly.

Are you getting sucked in as a supervisor or manager and taking responsibility for more than you should, or are you a leader?

Garth Roberts

www.garthroberts.com

Are You Writing For Yourself?

Garth Roberts — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:47:35 +0000

My colleague, friend, mentor and coach, Betty Cooper, always tells her clients, “Write to express, not to impress.” How about you? Are you writing to impress or express? Too much of what I read seems to be to impress. Let me show you how competent I am! Let me tell you how much research I’ve done! Let me demonstrate my brilliance!

Frankly, I don’t care how brilliant you are. I care about how your writing can help me. In this case, it is all about me … your audience.

To write for your audience requires focus on action. In business we communicate to get action from someone else. So, your first step in writing is to determine what action you want your reader to take. If you don’t know what the action is, don’t write. Save yourself and your reader some time. As a first step, put a plan in place so the outcome is of value to you and your reader.

The next step is to communicate in the way your reader wants you to communicate. If your reader, your audience, wants an e-mail, send an e-mail. If your reader wants a person-to-person connection, connect via phone or in person. Don’t default to the easiest method … for you! An e-mail or text may be quick but if it’s not getting results, it’s a waste of time.

The third step is to follow-up. “Well, I sent you an e-mail and you didn’t do what I asked!” Are you sure I got the e-mail? Did your subject line get my attention over the other 200 e-mails I got yesterday?

It’s not my responsibility to follow-up to ensure you communicated well. It’s your responsibility, if I haven’t responded to your request, to follow-up to make sure the communication loop is complete.

Back to my original question, are you writing for yourself or your audience, the person or people you want to move to action?

Garth Roberts www.garthroberts.com

The Magic of “Thank You”!

Garth Roberts — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:40:32 +0000

With a little thought and planning I can start or finish almost every e-mail I write with thank you. These are two of the best words in the english language. In writing they help you focus on your readers. The readers, after all, are what your writing is all about. You want action from each reader and the best way to get action is to make your writing, and speaking, all about your audience. Let’s face it, we’re more likely to do something for someone if that person has made it obvious there’s something in the action for us, as well as for the person requesting the action.

In business writing seminars I find most of the participants don’t use or under use, thank you and its close cousins, please, and you’re welcome. Politeness isn’t just for the fancy restaurants and your great aunt Martha. Politeness works with clients and colleagues. In addition, thank you puts the focus on the client or colleague.

Next time you write an e-mail reflect on how you can thank someone. Try one of these or adapt them to fit your situation.

Thank you for your request for information on …
Thank you for providing me with the material on …
Thank you for pointing out our error. I have taken the following steps to correct …
Thank you for considering …

Incidentally, the proper and most effective response to thank you is, “You’re welcome,” not, “No problem”. If I thought it was a problem, I wouldn’t have asked you to do something!

For information on Writing For Business seminars in September and October, please e-mail me at garth@garthroberts.com.

Check out A Leadership Minute at http://www.youtube.com/user/inspiredleader03

Do You Every Wish You’d Said That?

Garth Roberts — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:07:47 +0000

I just finished watching Sir Ken Robinson’s talk at the 2010 TED presentation. You can check it out at http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1975. Sir Ken said so eloquently what I’ve been ranting about for years. As a former post-secondary educator I watched hundreds of students come to our media program after they’d gone the route their parents or teachers wanted them to go. They followed, what Sir Ken calls, the linear route. Then they followed their hearts.

Traditional education is killing creativity in the bulk of the population. I had dozens of students tell me, at the post-secondary level, it was the first time they got to explore their creativity and their passion. How sad is that? To quote Sir Ken Robinson, “it’s time for revolution, not evolution.”

Leaders are needed to start the revolution and you can start it in your own business. Take the time to find out what your employees love to do. Help them explore their passions, at work or outside of work. Granted, you may lose some employees along the way when they recognize they’re in the wrong job, but you’ll be part of developing a happier person. You’ll also find a new person to fill the void who really wants to work for you. Your company’s productivity and profit will go up.

In my business writing seminars I always ask how many people love to write. If I’m lucky I get 10 – 15 % of the people saying they like writing. For the rest of the people I explain why they don’t like to write. My simple explanation, they went to school. Who taught you how to write? For the most part it was literature majors. They wanted you to write like their favourite authors. Not many of us can write like Hemmingway, Dickens or Yeats. So, for many years we were told, “that’s not correct”, “change this”, “why can’t you do better”, and many more negative tirades.

I thank Sir Ken Robinson for his presentation at TED. Let’s trust many of the leaders who were in his audience take the first steps to start the revolution in education. How about you? What can you do? Well, for starters, forward the link to Sir Ken Robinson’s presentation to your list, particularly to those people involved in education.

Garth Roberts www.garthroberts.com

Maintaining Morale in a Downsizing Economy

Garth Roberts — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:02:38 +0000

The title of this blog is the title I was given when asked to present at a regional oil patch association convention. Not a problem, as far as I’m concerned. I have some very specific tools and suggestions for improving morale. However, I was surprised at the scope of the morale problems in the industry requesting the presentation.

Everyone is talking about how business is on the up-swing. How come this major industry isn’t going with the flow? It seems it’s the large multi-national companies who are still feeling the pinch and they’re in the consolidating mode. At each of the four sessions, I asked participants if the morale boost was for them or the people they supervise. Both, was the answer.

After the meeting I chatted with another presenter. She works with a major player and is pitching my talk to the Lunch & Learn Coordinator.

“What’s happening in the industry”, I asked.

“We’re a major company that’s probably on the auction block. Lay-offs haven’t stopped and the morale is terrible. I think we could all use a talk like yours.”

So, if you’re thinking the worst is over, think again. It took several years of bad decisions, internationally, to put the world in recession. It’s not going to be full steam ahead in every corner for quite some time.

Garth Roberts www.garthroberts.com

It’s All In Your Language

Garth Roberts — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:14:32 +0000

As a leader or colleague, you get things done through other people. How you get things done is directly related to how you talk with other people. As a coach of mine, Betty Cooper, http://www.bettycooper.com/ says, “It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it.”

I choose my words carefully when I’m in conversations … most of the time. Amazingly it’s the times I choose my words well that I get the best results. The following advice on choosing your words comes from my colleague Jeff Mowatt – www.jeffmowatt.com. Jeff also deals with one of my pet peeves, rude people who don’t recognize there is a time and a place to take cell phone calls.

At one of my seminars a participant who works at a deli counter asked, “How do you politely deal with a customer who is talking on a cell phone while you’re trying to take their order?” My response: “Say to him or her, ‘I’ll take care of you when you’re finished with your call.’ Then move on to the next person in line.” The results: 1) You feel better about yourself and your job. 2) Other customers appreciate your tactful handling of the matter since they don’t want to listen to the annoying customer either. 3) The customer suddenly realizes that employees here need to be treated with respect. The key is the positive phrasing. Notice we did not say, “I won’t serve you while you’re on the phone.” Instead, it’s “I will take care of you when…”

Jeff Mowatt

Check out Jeff’s Influence with Ease tips. Jeff’s comments always give me insight into effective customer service.

Garth Roberts www.garthroberts.com

Are You Leading With Your Stomach?

Garth Roberts — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:56:11 +0000

It shouldn’t be a surprise to discover overweight employees who smoke and have high blood pressure spend more on health-care premiums than their slim, tobacco-free coworkers. Harvard Business Review in their Daily Stat – http://hbr.org/?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_STAT-_-APR_2010 reports a study by Bain & Company – http://www.bain.com/bainweb/home.asp – says the cost is $800 more a year. However, Safeway is a leader of a new wave of self-insured companies controlling health-care costs by giving employees financial incentives to get healthy, according to Bain & Company. Safeway’s recent year-over-year health-care costs showed a nearly zero percent increase.

If you’re a leader, are you leading by example when it comes to your health? Do you lead with your stomach sticking way out or do you demonstrate fitness is part of leadership? Business lunches may be a perk as you climb the ladder but they take a toll on your quality of life later on. Take charge of your health as part of your life balance.

Garth Roberts www.garthroberts.com

Are Rules Only Made for Some of Us?

Garth Roberts — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:06:05 +0000

I came across an interesting blog post from Chem-Free Cleaning Ltd this weekend. By following up on a meeting with Mari Lou Apolinario at a trade show in Okotoks, Alberta, http://www.okotoks.ca/home.aspx, I learned more about chemicals than I really wanted to know. The interesting, read as disturbing, revelation is many companies and government agencies don’t have to follow the rules. Maybe you’re not surprised but in reading Mari Lou’s blog from April, http://onethreetreecleaningproductsinc.blogspot.com/, I was shocked to hear who doesn’t have to follow the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA). According to the blog, “Foods served to hospital cafeterias, airplanes, foods served in bulk, medical foods, foods for patients with certain diseases are not required to follow the NLEA laws in providing a nutritional label.”

Why?

If your business decided to quit following the rules of legislation, you’d soon find out you’re not special. Probably the full weight of government would come down on you, yet exceptions are made without apparent rhyme or reason. Hospitals! No wonder common lore says avoid hospitals if you want to stay healthy.

I’m of the belief rules and policies should be put in place with purpose, and then followed. If they don’t have a purpose, get rid of them. Have you checked your company rules and policies lately? Which ones should you get rid of, rather than just being like the government and ignoring them?

Check out Chem-Free Cleaning Ltd via the blog. It’s an interesting example of an entrepreneur being in one business (cleaning homes and offices) and developing a new business based on quality (chemical free products). Mari Lou’s customer recognized her superior product and asked to buy it in bulk. I’ve tried a sample and am sold on its quality.

Garth Roberts www.garthroberts.com

Do You Lead Like You Parent?

Garth Roberts — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:53:28 +0000

The rice crispy square was almost as big as he was – almost. His Mom gave it to him while she waited for the specialty drink she ordered. A rice crispy square with a hot chocolate and a mound of whipped cream. Now there’s a true breakfast of champions for a two-year-old.

“Well, young man, let’s have a look at that mouth.”

Can’t you just picture the look of horror on a dentist’s face as a three or four-year-old’s cavity ridden molars come into view?

However, let’s be fair, the sugar bar and hot chocolate had a purpose. Silence while Mom sat and texted, pecking away with one finger. She’s obviously new at texting, untrained in both social media and parenting through healthy eating.

Over the years I’ve met a few supervisors and managers who lead like this Mom parents. “

“Give ‘em what they want and they won’t bother me!”

Leading, like parenting, involves making hard choices, providing positive role modeling, and taking the “high-road” for the greater good of your people and your company.