It's Time to Re-Define Team Training - Traditional Training is Dead

Why mainstream Leadership Training Has Expired!

It’s a given that people rarely follow advice, even when it’s good for them! We see examples everywhere – we are told by doctors to stop smoking, limit drinking, lose weight or make lifestyle changes. 

However even when faced with an immediate threat, we rarely change our behaviors.

This is because we are creatures of habit who crave constant familiarity in life. These habits are coded to keep us safe, meaning we rarely get uncomfortable enough to grow. 

This is the reason there are so few leaders in life because to be a great leader you must continually get yourself into uncomfortable situations where you are forced to grow mentally. We also possess strands of DNA passed on from our ancestors that do and do not serve us well. This DNA has its tentacles firmly rooted into our system and forms part of who we are today.

For example, I was recently forced to terminate one of my clients, as they were simply not prepared to do the work necessary to improve their situation. 

They had a degree of pain; they knew the course that needed to be taken; they clearly understood the why and the how, but they simply couldn’t take that necessary leap.

They wanted me the coach to do the hard yards, not themselves. After six meetings I had to remove myself. My client wanted to be number one in their industry, and they were on the way up. 

However, as the pressure mounted, the climb became far too great and it was a one step forward three steps back situation. I can’t do the hard yards for others. How can you solve someone’s problems when they are the problem and they don’t want to change?

The client must design his or her own path. As a coach, I simply shine a brighter light on the path to which they must walk.

The three key fundamentals to making leaders are:

I) Adversity in life

II) Continual daily / weekly laser leadership training

III) Experience on the job, with supported accountability

When I ask my clients what they think leadership is, the same answers always come back. Most will provide accurate examples of attributes a leader should and shouldn’t possess. They know what it takes to be a leader, and they readily want to change their behaviors to advance themselves. They just haven’t.

In my experience there are four key reasons why the majority of leadership programs are ineffective:

1. The training focuses on the individual, not the organization and the individual.

2. They are only made available for c-suite or middle management.

3. New individual and group leadership habits are not measured and made accountable on a daily basis.

4. Most leadership training is just theory based ‘knowledge dumping’ and not lived through and experienced, especially in a world where our minds are already overwhelmed.

Leadership theory based ‘knowledge dumping’ such as personality profiling, 360-degree assessments, 1, 2, or 3-day or monthly workshops and meditation are just a few common methods used to promote leadership and improve engagement in the workplace.

They all have their place in the training game, but to gain maximum traction, there is a new, faster and more effective method. It’s called ‘leadership living’ and all levels of the organization participate together in the workplace. It is an all-action methodology, which means team members will live, breathe and grow together as a united force. It breeds true engagement, uncovers more leaders and flows on via a waterfall effect to build a powerful and united culture.

Mainstream leadership and management training courses can be great in their delivery, and they do serve a purpose. Usually, the chosen leaders who are seen to have potential are given the opportunity to attend an external course. 

While these courses can be extremely inspiring when you’re there, it’s like taking a dirty fish from a dirty pond, cleaning it with new teachings and returning it to the dirty pond. The goal of course, is for the newly cleaned fish to come back and clean the dirty pond.

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However, a few days after a clean fish returns to a dirty pond it inevitably loses momentum and becomes dirty once again – the pond is far too big and too dirty for one fish to clean on its own, or with the small group that also participated in the cleansing.

So what’s the number one key to the success of your people? Engagement!

Most forward-thinking organizations now appreciate the importance of investing in engagement strategies, implementing standard reward & recognition programs to motivate and reward good behaviors and attitudes.

Why Engagement is the New Leadership The Strategic Way to Win in Business

Small and medium-sized businesses are the life-blood of our economy, but they face specific, ever-increasing challenges. The world is in the midst of an employee engagement crisis, with serious and potentially lasting repercussions for the global economy.

Without a doubt, one of the greatest challenges SME’s currently face is the attraction and retention of talent. Intelligent, honest, hardworking staff are critical to an organization’s ongoing success, but now more than ever, good people are hard to find – and they are even harder to hold on to! To ensure employee job fulfillment, loyalty and maximum ROI, the key ingredient that is so often missing is Engagement.

In a recent Gallup poll, it was revealed that only 13% of the world’s employees are engaged at work, and most disengaged employees would change employers right now for as little as a 5% pay increase.

The Engaged Employee - Does more than is expected.  Works with a passion and feels a profound connection to the organization they work for. They drive innovation and move the organization forwards, providing maximum return on salary investment

·        The Disengaged Employee - Does just what's expected.  Is essentially there in body only. They’re sleepwalking through their day. Marking time, but not energy or passion, into their work. They provide minimum return on salary investment

·        The Actively Disengaged Employee - Does less than expected.  They aren't happy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day these workers undermine the efforts of their engaged co-workers, often providing a negative return on salary investment.

Many organizations believe that strong leadership and an exclusive focus on the development of their leaders is the key to a winning culture. They are mistaken. Leadership is not the heart of your organization. The heart of your organization is its people and their contribution. Without actively engaged employees, the leadership message cannot be heard.

Trained leaders today have been overloaded with leadership knowledge and theory, but too often they are not sufficiently activated. We need to turn our attention equally to our staff, getting them actively engaged regularly through new, innovative and inclusive methods, thus creating a shared vision and buy-in.

It’s called ‘leadership living’ and all levels of the organization participate together in the workplace. It is an all-action methodology, which means all team members will live, breathe and grow together as a united force. It breeds true engagement, uncovers more leaders and builds a powerful and united culture. To ensure maximum impact and lasting change, everyone needs to be involved and everyone needs to be accountable.

Without HIGHLY engaged people, the leadership message cannot be heard

While these types of solutions certainly have their place, they can only be effective when operating as part of a broader strategy. The first step in the right direction is the creation of a winning culture. Strong culture and engagement are integral to each other’s survival. A quality culture can be defined as one united group with the same positive mindset owning and working towards the same winning vision.

Many organizations believe that strong leadership and an exclusive focus on the development of their leaders is the key to a winning culture. They are mistaken.

It is the people and their contribution that will make or break your business.

Organizations live and die by the people they employ – no matter what industry. Without actively engaged people, the leadership message cannot be heard. At the center of the most successful teams is the strategic empowerment and development of all team members, ensuring a clear pipeline to leadership and engagement.

In sports, the best teams know that success relies heavily on the contribution of everyone in the playing group. The trust and camaraderie within the team keeps them aligned and on track, and all players have the necessary skills and knowhow to be accountable, support their team, and embrace any level of pressure.

While business would benefit from adopting this sporting methodology, many attempt to do so with limited or short-lived success. Many of us understand the power of this line of attack; in theory, it’s great! It’s the adaptation and implementation that businesses struggle with. So how do we get there – and quickly? We start by putting the right system and strategies in place to ensure massive, rapid and sustainable change.

Are Your Employees WE or ME?

There are two types of people in every organization. The WE people and the ME people. If you have a critical mass of ME people you will always come second or lower. These organizations simply cannot handle pressure when it matters. WE will always WIN. The first thing you must do is ensure that your Leaders are 100% WE.

Collective Accountability

Critical for fast and sustainable success. It’s about ensuring everyone is regularly, and publicly held accountable in the right environment. All involved should commit to and regularly report on these key accountabilities which they set for themselves. This will ensure new habits are nurtured and old habits are purged.

Equality Creates Unity

Necessary to ensure team unity. The traditional hierarchical structure is not the most efficient option for businesses these days. Instead, successful companies are moving to an organizational structure that empowers, allowing employees to make more of their own decisions and avoid the rigidity of traditional models. This cultivates long-term buy-in and ownership.

Habitual Leadership Acts

Mainstream leadership training is generally knowledge-based, not action based. Habitual Leadership is ongoing and is all about actions. Leaders are not usually held accountable for the short or long term, which is why current leadership training strategies generally fail. We too often fall back into bad habits when returned to an unchanged environment. Sustained success requires consistent reflection and improvement.

The 2 Fundamentals

There are two fundamental requirements when building a thriving organization:

1) Quality systems, processors and game plans, which I call ‘the brain’ of the organization.

2) Quality leadership, engagement, and culture, which I call ‘the heart’ of the organization.

The two most important organs of the body are the brain and the heart, and we cannot survive without them functioning. They will work on small portions of blood flow, but they will be working harder than they should be, and it’s not sustainable long term. I liken this to analogy to most organizations that are just surviving. If you have an unlimited amount of blood flow, full of fresh oxygen, the brain and heart will work in unison at full capacity, and it will be better equipped if there are problems. This creates a thriving body (or organization).

Dynamic Flow

Good communication is the bloodline of any successful business, and if communication is slow, then the organization cannot flow. In larger businesses, departments often struggle to cross-pollinate relationships because individuals don’t know who their colleagues are, only what they do. No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

'Group Activation Systems'

We now understand that it can’t be left to a few leaders within a business to create team engagement. Without actively engaged employees, the leadership message will be heavily diluted, and motivation will quickly fade. The heart of your organization is its people and their contribution. We need to turn our attention to our staff, getting them actively engaged regularly through new, innovative and inclusive methods. 

 Company training is the least desirable way to learn.

Instead, you need an all-inclusive Group Activation System that is neurologically designed and proven to reactivate employees. 

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90% of today’s business leaders think an engagement strategy has a positive effect on commercial success, yet only 25% of them have a game plan!

In today’s competitive world, your people are your edge. Old school business strategies and ‘knowledge dumping’ training programs are no longer sufficient when it comes to employee activation.  The game has changed. Have you changed your game to keep up?

To learn more about how implementing a Group Activation System into your organization
can increase team engagement, productivity, and profitability and how you can receive a

FREE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY

Download our Free White Paper  

Contact Us For More Information Contact
Steve Goranson, MBA at 904-739-0200

ActionCOACH & Team Engagement Specialist

www.createengagedteams.com 

Management vs Leadership Part II – Clarity to Perform

Part II
Click for Part I

In the previous installment, we discussed how leadership is one of the biggest problems in business.  Not because leadership is bad but because there is a lack of management leading to the leadership.  In reality, most people are just lazy managers.  They just give someone a task but they don’t give them a time frame or a schedule or plan to get it done by.  Then we complain that they don’t get it done on time and correctly.

So let’s take a look at how we can become good managers as well as how we can operate as good leaders.

There are 4 keys to a good manager are…

• Creating clarity on how to perform  their job
• Creating clarity on what needs to be achieved
• Asking Questions
• Provide ongoing Training

In this article, we are going to focus on the first key.  Does your team know how to perform their job well?  Do they actually know what their job is?  If you were to ask your top 10 employees to write a list of what they think their job is and at the same time you are writing you list of what you think their job is, do you think the list would be the same?

Most employees don’t actually know what is specifically required of them.  Their job description is too vague and there is no reality about what they are actually doing and why they are doing it.  Or if they know what to do, do they know what the actual outcome is that you are expecting? 

Management starts with a really good job description or positional agreement. 

A good manager will be sure his staff knows…

·        What they are responsible for

·        Who they are accountable to

·        How to do it

·        Why they are supposed to do it.

·        What is the expected outcome when they do their job well.

Give your people checklists and systems
This will allow them to be competent in what they are job doing so they deliver the actual results that you expect. 

Good management starts when people know what their job is, what they’re expected to do, and at what level they’re expected to do it (performance standard), the time frame it should be done in.  They should also be told why they are doing it.

When you give someone a job and you don’t agree on a time frame of when they need to finish that job that’s just lazy management.  Some people call it micromanaging.  Yes!  Some employees need micro managing until you built their competence and their ability to do it.  You don’t have to do it forever but this is part of the coaching, training, the managing, and mentoring of these people so they can actually become good and productive at their job.

Next, I will continue to be covering the 4 keys of a good manager.  The 2^nd key we will be discussing how to create clarity on what needs to be achieved.

Management vs. Leadership Part I - Are you a lazy manager?

Leadership is one of the biggest problems in business. Not because leadership is bad but because there is a lack of management leading to the leadership. I would like to share with you what I’ve learned from my business mentor and ActionCOACH founder Brad Sugars about the differences between management and leadership. Many of us are trying to find the golden goose of leadership. We’ve read the books; we’ve been to the seminars, we’ve watched the latest TEDtalk on leadership. If you go to the bookstore or go on Amazon, there are a massive amount of books on leadership but there are very few books on management. If we think about it, the last bestselling book on management was the One Minute Manager from the late 70s or early 80s. Let’s take a look and define what the differences are between leadership and management. Management is about creating competent and productive people. They have a level of competence, they know what they are doing and they know how they’re doing their jobs. If a company has a group of people that don’t know what they are doing, there’s a lack of competency or productivity going on in the organization, that’s a management problem or issue. Let’s flip to the other side of the coin and take look at leadership. Leadership is about creating passionate and focused people. If the people in the organization lack passion and motivation to do their job and they’re not focused on what they need to be doing, that’s a leadership issue. The challenge that I see most businesses have today is that the business might have been built very well from a leadership perspective, but because of the lack of management, we got people that are not good at their jobs, they’re not that productive. They’re passionate and excited but we’re not getting the results that we want. So how do we get the results that we want to get in our business? This is not brain surgery. It’s not actually that complex. What I have seen throughout my career if someone gets promoted to be a manager in a company they don’t get much management training. In most cases, they got promoted because it was assumed that they had those skills. One of the biggest challenges they face is the transition from being “one of the guys” to being the boss. In this day and age, the lack of management training is extortionately high. Now, why is that? Simply, it’s because businesses don’t give management training to their staff. Maybe management got a bad rap somewhere in the 90s or early 2000s. The mantra was that you don’t need to manage your people you need to lead them. It was like leadership was saying that management was a bad thing. To get the job done, we need competent and productive people if we want to get the job done in any business. We do need to learn management skills; we do need to understand what those management skills are and how they work. Let’s now focus on both leadership and management. Management is where we start because if we see negative behaviors in an organization normally it’s a lack of management. When there is a lack of management I see that they’re in denial of how competent they are. They think that they are better than they are. There’s a lack of responsibility, people are blaming others and there is no team cohesiveness. A lot of these issues are around lack of management. In reality, most people are just lazy managers. There I said it. They give someone a task but they don’t give them a timeframe or a schedule or plan to get it done by. Do you have a system to manage your people and tasks or do you just wing it? As a friend once told me winging it is not a strategy. Over the next few installments, I will be covering the 4 key of a good manager that you need to be focused on.

Steve Goranson has owned and operated the North Florida office of ActionCOACH since 2004. He is also a certified team engagement specialist and a social media educator with Luv4 Marketing.  Contact Steve to discuss how he can help your business in the areas of Team Engagement, sales & marketing, and operational efficiency.

Confessions of a Business Owner: The business was driving me instead of me driving the business

Are you driving your business or is your business driving you?  You can continue to be stuck in the owner’s trap and stay on the treadmill or choose to get your business back on track.

That was the 2^nd confession from Jeff Clarkson, a former client of mine of where he was at before we met.  He wanted more than a job; he wanted a business that would work without him but wasn’t sure how to get there.

It was while having a cold beer during a gripe session with a friend of his (a current ActionCOACH client) that his friend recommended that he speak to me about how the ActionCOACH system could help him through his struggles.  .

Jeff had been the owner and President of Florida Bonded Pools here in Jacksonville for over 10 years.  It was the oldest pool company in Jacksonville started by his father over 50 years ago.  He had success in turning their struggling family owned business with 1 million in sales to a profitable company with sales ranging from 4.5 million to 6.5 million in annual sales.  Even with this success he was frustrated &wanted more.

As John Warrillow wrote in his book Built to Sell,  Jeff was caught in the owner’s trap. He was doing a lot of the selling and business always got slow when he was away.   Customers only came directly to him when there was a problem and his employees couldn’t make a decision without asking him first. 

He definitely felt trapped.  He was afraid that he was going to fall into the same trap that his dad had fallen into when he was spending more time at the business than at home.  Jeff wanted more than a job he wanted a business that could work without him.

It all starts with ActionCOACH’s definition of a business … with the simple idea that as a business owner you started or bought yourself something that’s more than just a job …

I see a business as … A Commercial, Profitable, Enterprise, that Works, without You … Let’s look at this more closely;

Commercial means that you sell something that people value, they want to buy;

Profitable means that you understand enough about business finance that you can possibly increase your profits without even increasing your revenue or lowering your expenses.

That Works and can work without you means that you have a system and a team that you can trust.”

You can’t have a business that works without you as the owner until you first have a business that works. Prior to that, it’s got to be both commercial and profitable … 

So, let’s take a look at the 6 Steps that Jeff learned to create a business that could work without him.

Step 1 - Mastery: 
This is about going from Chaos to Control … it’s about going from breaking even or losing money, to truly making a bankable cash profit.  It’s about making sure delivery happens so you don’t get customer complaints and, it’s about taking back control of your time

Steps 2 – Niche
Now this is where you start to make the real money … working your Niche is about getting a bunch of new leads, quickly reworking your sales conversion rates, getting your repeat business numbers up and then, boosting your average dollar sale.  This is truly about building a marketing machine that drives profit straight to your company’s bottom line. 

Steps 3 – Leverage
The next step is all about Systems … it’s about working ‘ON’ your business and not just ‘IN’ it.  Here you’ll start to see your business going from being people reliant, to being systems reliant …truly starting to free up your time and give you control over the growth of your business.

Step 4 – Team
They say team stands for ‘Together Everyone Achieves More’. When you’ve already got your Mastery, Niche and Systems in play, it’s time to lead a team that will ultimately run the company without you.  At the team stage you start to get a true business by getting it to begin to work without you.

Step 5 – Synergy
Here you’ll start to step back from the day to day, start handing over control. You really begin to ‘turn up the volume’ as they say … now that everything works, it’s time to do it bigger, better and more often … all the while keeping an eye on your team, your systems and your company making sure it can handle the growth.

Step 6 – Freedom / Results
This is about you – First, it’s about you enjoying the fruits of your labor and then it’s about diversification and investment.  Now that it’s all working, you can start to invest more time with your family, at your hobbies (or, even to find a hobby), or even work on investing your income or buying other companies where you can use everything you’ve learned all over again.

Confession # 2:  The business was driving me instead of me driving the business

Solution:  Jeff stopped and asked for help.  He was able to develop a more valuable company that was system based and not dependent on him by learning ActionCOACH’s 6 Steps Business Success System.

Over the next few blogs we will look a bit closer at each of these 6 Steps to create a more valuable and sellable business.

If you would like to learn more about you too can get an "actionable" business education to improve your business's operations, sales,& bottom line contact ActionCOACH Steve Goranson at 904-739-0200. www.actioncoachjax.com

Steve Goranson has owned and operated the Northeast Florida of ActionCOACH since 2014. ActionCOACH is the World's #1 Coaching franchise with of 1000 offices in 50 different countries. They coach over 15,000 business each week.

Steve's commitment is to assist small business owners, to spend less time working "in" their business and more time working "on" their business so they can build a more valuable and sellable business. In the end, you’ll be spending less total time working, will be making more money and will have truly created the company and team you always dreamed of. In addition we will help you put the FUN back in your business and your life.

Call his office to schedule a free 1/2 hour Phone Strategy Session 904-739-0200