leadership Archives - Page 5 of 11

5 Benefits of Solitude

March 3, 2016February 29, 2016 Shannon Cassidy Leave a comment

As active participants of life, as doers and shakers, as people who want to make a difference, we are busy. But like anything in our world that gets out of balance, working without rest can lead to consequences that negate the positive results of our work.

Bob Kull, author of SOLITUDE: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes, wrote,

We tend to value activity above everything else, but all beings need to rest and recuperate. The widespread occurrence of depression in our culture may be linked to our refusal to allow ourselves quiet time. Feeling the need to be constantly busy can prevent us from turning inward. When we are out of balance, our activity doesn’t arise from a place of stillness and wisdom.

Solitude, especially in our society today, is not a luxury or an activity we pencil in on calendars. It is a need.

Solitude is not a luxury or an activity we pencil in on calendars. It is a need.

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The benefits of solitude should propel it to a list topper of our priorities.

5 Benefits to Solitude

Rebooting the brain. Being “on” or even working diligently doesn’t allow your mind a chance to turn off and rest. Even when you are watching a movie, your brain is working to listen actively and follow the story. But when you are alone and without any distractions, your brain can recharge.
Working through problems. When you sit with a friend and talk, your mind is engaging in your friend’s world as well as yours. It may be an effective way to process your problems and emotions, but to find a solution and come to peace with it requires solitude.
Finding your voice. When you are with people, it is easy to blend your voice with theirs and come to group thoughts and decisions. The influence of others is inevitable. But when you are in solitude, the noises are gone and you are able to hear what you truly want to say and believe.
Improving your relationships. In spending time alone and seeking to understand yourself better, you become a better wife, friend, boss. You will also find yourself appreciating your loved ones more after some quiet time in reflection.
Satisfying your own needs. It is extremely easy to become dependent on others for every emotional or physical need we may have. Our society encourages “togetherness” much more than solitude. But it is in the stillness of being alone that we learn that each of us is indeed, enough. We discover ways to become more confident in who we are. Gratitude and happiness can then take root.

Ester Buchholz, Ph.D. in The Call of Solitude wrote,

Being alone gives us the power to regulate and adjust our lives. It can teach us fortitude and the ability to satisfy our own needs. A restorer of energy, the stillness of alone experiences provides us with much-needed rest. It brings forth our longing to explore, our curiosity about the unknown, our will to be an individual, our hopes for freedom. Alone time is fuel for life.

Solitude is important. And it’s important to note that solitude is not isolation. Isolation is running from something. Solitude is resting in the beauty of being alone.

Sources:

http://www.newworldlibrary.com/ArticleDetails/tabid/230/ArticleID/152/Default.aspx#.VrJEBLIrLIU

https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199802/the-call-solitude

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/high-octane-women/201201/6-reasons-you-should-spend-more-time-alone

Tips for Making Sure Your Performance Reviews Are Productive

February 18, 2016February 12, 2016 Shannon Cassidy Leave a comment

Performance reviews are a staple of many company’s management strategies, but they aren’t always helpful. If not properly done, they can become homogenous and their insights insignificant. If you’re in human resources or management, here are five tips that will help make sure your performance reviews are useful for both your company and its employees.

Make Time for Performance Reviews

Performance reviews are often neglected because there’s not time to complete them. They’re another task that managers must complete, but time is rarely devoted specifically to them. Managers are forced to fit performance reviews into already hectic schedules. What should be meaningful conversations become five-minute meetings that take place between (or even during) other tasks.

A year, or even six months, of work can’t adequately be assessed in five minutes. If performance reviews are to provide individualized insights into employees’ performance, there must be time specifically set aside for them. Consider giving managers a half hour to an hour that’s solely to meet with an employee and discuss how they’re doing. If managers will still be tempted to shortchange the time, give them funds to go out for lunch with each employee. Conducting a review during a meal will ensure that there’s adequate time.

Speak About Specific Situations

Just as you want to hear about specific instances from interviewees, managers should speak of specific situations when conducting performance reviews. Every item on a review should be supported by a specific example. What employees do well should be precisely detailed, along with the exact things they can do to improve.

Keep Ongoing Notes to Reference

Performance reviews are meant to cover a specified amount of time, often either six months or a year. Many times, however, only the weeks immediately preceding a review are assessed. It’s too difficult to remember everything an employee did over several months or a year, especially when managing multiple employees.

In order to accurately assess an employee over the entire duration of a review, managers should keep ongoing notes on all of the employees they oversee. While employees in your company may already be written up for serious errors, managers should also keep notes on the good things that employees do. These notes will help form the foundation of a comprehensive review, and they can provide specific examples for the review.

Suggest Ways to Improve

Performance reviews shouldn’t just be about what the employee has done in the past. They should also give the employee ways to improve in the future. When critiquing, don’t just be critical. Be constructive. Help employees identify ways they can improve, and offer to help them as they strive for those goals. Although there may be some negative items on a review, offering constructive ways to improve will give employees hope that they can get a better review in the future.

Have Two-Way Conversations

Performance reviews are much more productive when employees are actively engaged. To encourage employees to take part, turn reviews into two-way conversations rather than one-way monologues. Even if you don’t want to debate an employee’s review with them, they should at least have an opportunity to ask questions and explain their personal goals.

Don’t let your company’s performance reviews become a mere formality that managers squeeze in. Instead, make sure they’re a valuable part of your company’s management strategy by making time for them, speaking about specifics, referencing notes, being constructive and having a conversation. These five actions are simple, but they’ll have a profound effect on how beneficial your company’s performance reviews are.

5 Tips for Transitioning to a Mobile Workforce

February 4, 2016January 30, 2016 Shannon Cassidy Leave a comment

Virtually commuting to the office is becoming more and more popular. Working remotely has advantages for both employees and employers, but it poses unique challenges for managers. Effectively managing a virtual team requires both traditional management skills as well as an appreciation for long-distance professional relationships. If you’re a manager in a company that’s transitioning from a physical office to a remote setup, here are five tips for managing a mobile workforce.

Set SMART Goals

SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-oriented, are used in many managing situations (including traditional offices). They’re especially useful in virtual settings, when you aren’t able to physically monitor employees’ work. As your immediate oversight diminishes, the role goals have increases.

As your team transitions to a remote setup, adjust by relying on quantifiable goals more. Focus more on project completion and meeting deadlines, and less on how a project was done.

Insist on a Schedule

One of the primary reasons employees want to work remotely is so they can integrate their professional and personal lives. Having flexibility to arrange professional work around personal interests is a significant benefit, but it also is a potential danger. Some employees struggle to stop working and enjoy their free time, which can lead to burnout. Other employees have the opposite struggle: They procrastinate and have a hard time working, which leads to rushed work and missed deadlines.

As a manager, you have a duty to make sure your employees don’t burn out and meet their deadlines. Insisting on a schedule can help guard against the two risks. Give your employees the freedom to create their own schedule, but insist that they stick to the schedule they create.

Check In Often

Virtual environments aren’t conducive to two-minute conversations that often happen at the water cooler or on the way to the restroom in a traditional office. While most of these conversations revolve around insignificant small talk, they also provide you, as a manager, with an opportunity to address minor issues. Without these short conversations, small issues can balloon over time into major problems.

In order to address small things before they grow to be serious problems, schedule regular check-ins with your employees. You might try:

having a weekly team meeting
seeing how each employee is doing weekly
switching from annual reviews to shorter monthly reviews

Pick Up the Phone

Working remotely is primarily done online, using computers and tablets. Phones can also play an important role in your management strategy, though. Phones let you communicate more efficiently, and they make it easier to express yourself. Whenever a deadline is pressing or a message could be misconstrued, call your employees instead of emailing or texting them.

Remain Professional

When you don’t see your employees every day, it can be easy to forget that they’re your colleagues. While the stereotypical virtual employee might be a young 20-year-old sipping lattes in a local cafe or a stay-at-home parent still in their pajamas, your employees don’t fit this stereotype. They’re the same professionals that worked in your office, and they deserve to be treated professionally. All communication should be sent in a professional tone.

As your company transitions to a virtual office, you’ll face unique management challenges. Use the techniques you’re familiar with, like SMART goals, but adapt your knowledge for the virtual world. In time, you’ll come up with creative solutions, like these tips, that address the challenges you face and help you effectively manage your team remotely.

Source

http://www.hr.virginia.edu/uploads/documents/media/Writing_SMART_Goals.pdf

Lead By Leaving: Why Taking a Vacation Could Help Your Office

December 24, 2015December 15, 2015 Shannon Cassidy 1 Comment

When was the last time you took a vacation? If you’re like many American business leaders, it’s been awhile since you stepped away from the office. In fact, across all levels, most American employees don’t take many vacations compared to the rest of the world. This isn’t necessarily a good trend, though. If you’re a business leader in the U.S., it’s time to reconsider the role of vacation and begin realizing the importance of relaxation. Here’s why, along with how you can help.

The “No-Vacation Nation”

The Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) published a study in May 2013 with a provoking title: “No-Vacation Nation Revisited.” The study looked at legally mandated vacation and holidays in 21 developed countries. If you can’t guess what country had the lowest levels government-required paid time off, pull out your own benefits package.

The United States stood alone among the 21 countries surveyed, as the only one that had no legally mandated paid leave or paid holidays. The next-closest country to the U.S. was Japan, which requires employers to provide 10 days of paid leave each year.

On the other end of the spectrum, Austria provided employees with the most paid time off. Austrians receive 25 days of paid leave and 13 paid holidays annually; overnight workers and employees with more than 25 years of experience are awarded additional time off. While Austria was the most generous, its benefits are not extreme outliers:

France requires 30 days of paid vacation and one paid holiday
The United Kingdom offers 28 days of paid vacation (but no paid holidays)
Portugal provides 22 days of paid vacation and 13 paid holidays

Admittedly, these numbers only include paid time off that employers are legally required to provide. Many companies in the U.S. provide paid vacation, sick days, personal days and holidays. The CEPR’s study found that the average American worker receives 16 paid days off each year. This still ranks the U.S. among the lowest of the developed countries surveyed in paid time off, though.

The Country of Workaholics

The lack of vacation time in the U.S. reflects a culture that praises productivity, and this can be seen in how employees use (or don’t use) their vacation time. Citing an Oxford Economics study, CNBC reports that Americans only use 77 percent of the paid time off that they’re eligible for. CNBC doesn’t detail why employees don’t use all of their vacation time, but it’s not hard to imagine the reasons. Employees are often:

concerned that work will pile up while they’re gone
already overwhelmed with their workload
determined to show dedication to their employer
worried about their performance reviews
inundated with work-related texts and emails, even when not at the office

In short, employees in the U.S. are workaholics. They value productivity (or at least the illusion of it, even if they aren’t actually getting much done). As Joe Robinson of Work to Live argues, “the only thing that matters is performance and output.” If you doubt this, review when you last took that vacation, and then look at when your employees last used their paid time off.

The Law of Diminishing Returns

The law of diminishing returns, however, dictates that as people work more, the return on their efforts decreases. In other words, forgoing vacations is actually detrimental to productivity. As USA Today explains, vacations have several benefits for employees and employers. They:

restore health, which reduces the likelihood that employees will need to call in sick
refresh creativity and innovation, giving employees the freedom to approach problems in new ways
improve productivity, providing an economic net gain for employers

It may be counterintuitive, but taking vacations is actually good for you, your employees, your company and the U.S.’s economy.

Taking vacations is actually good for you, your employees, and your company.

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Your Role in The Solution

As a business leader, you have an important role in promoting paid time off among U.S. employers.

First, depending on your role, you may be in a position to provide employees with more paid time off. If so, then argue for additional vacation days, personal days, holidays and sick days.

Second, you owe it to yourself and your company to take time off. If you’re a high-level executive and need to be available, take your phone with you on a trip. If you’re concerned about how taking your allotted time off will impact your review, discuss it with your supervisor and detail how your productivity increased afterwards. (You might save a large project for when you get back.) Whatever it takes, make vacation a priority and find a way to use your time off.

Third, encourage those under you to do the same. Whenever possible, honor requests for time off. It will improve morale and satisfaction, not to mention productivity.

If you haven’t taken a vacation in a long time, schedule one now. It will help you, and it’s an important step towards turning the “no-vacation nation” into a nation of healthy, creative and productive employees.

5 Ways for a Leader to Practice Thanksgiving

November 25, 2015November 25, 2015 Shannon Cassidy Leave a comment

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton

It’s almost Turkey Day. Folks are gearing up to eat deviled eggs, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie before they watch the game and take a nap. But Thanksgiving is not all about the three f’s – family, food and football.

It is about giving thanks.

As leaders of your team, this is a wonderful time of year to begin the habit of practicing thanksgiving so you can do it all year, not just in November. Saying those two powerful words can mean the world to someone who has worked hard. Not saying the same two words, especially when it requires little effort, can diminish one of your team member’s worth and that will lead to them not giving as much effort on the next project.

Saying “thank you” is a win-win. Your appreciation will boost the effort of your team and their response to being appreciated will boost their productivity. It’s a win-win.

So follow these five suggestions to make the phrase “THANK YOU” a part of the culture of your team.

Be prompt. Don’t wait too long after you’ve noticed a job well done to say “thank you.” Put a note on your desk or calendar reminding yourself to look for moments to say “thank you”. If you wait too long, gratitude loses its power.
Be specific. Say exactly what you are thankful for. Although “thank you” is polite and powerful, its potency is increased ten-fold if you follow it with a specific reason.“Thank you for working extra hours yesterday.” Practice adding specifics to your gratitude and your team members will notice. “Thank you for making sure our coffee orders were correct.” “Thank you for going the extra mile with this report.”
Be discerning. Learn what your team members appreciate as rewards and add it to your “thank you”. Handwritten notes or gift cards are loved by some people. Take your team or team member to lunch and then give them the rest of the day off. Get to know what your team members would consider a great reward. Not everyone would consider a handwritten note a bonus, while others would consider it a lovely touch. If you email a team member thank you, copy the message to your boss (and theirs, if you aren’t their boss). Free days off coupons, telecommuting days, or flexible scheduling are great rewards for the person that appreciates those types of rewards. Match the reward to the person.
Be sincere. Don’t rush it. Intentionality comes across as genuine and heartfelt. So make your “thank you” deliberate. Don’t walk by someone and say “By the way, thanks!” Stop at their desk or cubicle, look them in the eyes and say it with honest appreciation. Those two words will go a long way with sincerity behind them.
Be consistent. If you praise often during one month but then skip the next month, your team might wonder what’s going on. Practice thanksgiving by making it a habit. Give yourself a goal and put the goal on your desk or calendar or phone and stick with it. By doing this you will be creating a culture of thanksgiving that includes recognition and reward.

Instead of stuffing yourself with turkey, how about stuffing yourself with gratitude?

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Instead of stuffing yourself with turkey, potatoes and gravy, how about stuffing yourself with gratitude? Don’t be a leader who hoards appreciation. Spread it around your team and make it a habit that they will see and begin imitating. Let the Thanksgiving of 2015 be the beginning of practicing thanksgiving all year around.

Sources:

www.teamworkandleadership.com/2014/11/two-of-the-most-powerful-words-leaders-can-say-and-why-you-should.html#sthash.ozVAEqrX.94ZD4Hsd.dpuf

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_54.htm