Employee Engagement is the New Leadership

Our 6th President John Quincy Adams once said that if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.  

Those are powerful words.  Notice that he didn’t say dream or learn or do, he used the word "and".  Another sign of a good leader is one who can create leaders.  For any business, this is the first step toward creating a more valuable and sellable business.  

Good leadership develops an engaged team.  Today employee engagement is the new leadership.  Employee Engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals. Without developing engaged employees, you’re trying to move your business forward with an anchor hanging out the back.  

How much is employee disengagement costing your organization?   Here are 5 anchors of poor employee engagement that are costing your business growth, profitability, and your free time.

1. Poor Employee Engagement Creates a “ME” Culture.  Instead of working together towards the company’s common goals each employee is looking out for their own best interest.  You hear “it’s not my job” a lot and you get a lot of finger pointing.  They lose the perspective that when we work together as a team we all can achieve more: Together Everyone Achieves More.
2. Poor Employee Engagement Creates Wasted Time  When employees are not fully engaged they are not helping the company move forward.  They are doing things the way they think is best instead of looking out for what is in the best interest of the organization and what you strategically decided is best.  Without being focused on the company’s common goals, you get a lot of chaos and frustration which causes a lot of wasted time and money.
3. Poor Employee Engagement Creates More Missed Work
   When employees are working in an environment of chaos and frustration it takes toll on one’s personal energy and health.  This additional stress causes us to not get to work on time, to take more breaks, to leave early or just take unplanned days off.  This consistent interruption of work flow causes loss of productivity and profits
4. Poor Employee Engagement Creates Poor Quality of Work  If your employees don’t have their heart into it, they lose focus, they make mistakes and quality of output suffers.  The cost of this is enormous; loss of customers, wasting time doing work over, more overtime to cover the extra work involved, and increases in COGS.  These are the small hidden holes in your business that is sinking your ship and you don’t even realize it.
5. Poor Employee Engagement Creates Higher Employee Turnover  Good employees are looking for worthwhile work.. They want to be part of something big.  It’s hard to get motivated and engaged when you just feel that you are just a clog in a wheel.  The way to keep good employees is not always about the money

You can’t train employee engagement but the first step is to determine how engaged your employees are.  

Take our free employee engagement survey.  We will send an anonymous survey to your employees and provide you with a free employee engagement report.    

To sign up for your free employee engagement survey and report. 

CLICK HERE NOW!

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

Help! I’m stuck in a rut!

A few years back I was standing at our kitchen sink, washing the breakfast dishes, looking out our kitchen window and I noticed this fly.  It was just flying in circles, climbing up and down the window screen desperately looking for a way out.   Feeling the fresh air, it could sense that its freedom was near.  This seemed to motivate the fly even more to try to get out.

I realized that if I didn't give the fly any help, it was destined to be flying in circles all day, and I knew that the buzzing would begin to get on my nerves.  Eventually my son who was 3 years old at the time came over and  pushed the screen open to give the fly an opening to finally break through to freedom.

As I continued to wash the dishes, I was amazed that the fly just kept going up and down in the same meticulous manner.  The path to freedom was just inches away but it seemed stuck looking in the same places to find a small hole to break through.  When I was done washing the dishes and contemplating what had just happened, my son came over and asked me, “Why didn't it just fly away?”  I thought about it for a moment and answered him that the fly never stopped to think that he could.

How many of us are unknowingly doing the same thing?  My son's question made me think about how many businesses can't move forward.

How many of us can’t break through to that next level of success because we are stuck in our own comfort zone?  How many business owners continue to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results?

But just like the fly on my window, we are stuck in our comfort zones, imprisoned by our routines, stuck doing the same thing over and over because it is just familiar to us.  A wise sage once said, “An imprisoned individual cannot set himself free.”

Eventually the fly did break through to freedom, but only when my son came over and repeatedly pushed it toward the opening, so it could finally break through to the freedom it so desired.

Who do you have that can give you more perspective and will continually push you toward the opening so you can break through to your next level of success?

As a business coach, I help my clients see the forest through the trees, give them the knowledge they need when they need it, and hold them accountable week in and week out to reach their goals.  

A business coach helps business owners create a long-term vision and set goals and milestones to achieve that vision.  A business coach can help business owners talk through solutions to overcome problems.  Business coaches can also assist with building your team, helping team members to contribute to your overall success.  Business coaching keeps business owners on track to continue to grow and create their own success.

At ActionCOACH, we coach business owners to success with proven, tested and systematized ways to reach your goals and grow your business no matter what industry you are in.

Remember every champion has a coach, and that coaching is not just sports any more.

Find out more about the ActionCOACH approach to growing a successful business.  Check out my latest workshops and seminars www.actioncoachseminars.com or call our office for a free 1/2 hour phone "breakthrough coaching session" to discover if coaching can help you.

4 Tips to Get Your Business to Serve You

Do you feel that you are working to the point of exhaustion in your business and don’t feel like you are getting any where? You are not alone. Many business owners suffer from the same business disease of working “in” and not “on” their business.

Most business owners don’t know how to break this cycle even if they recognize these symptoms. The first step to fixing a problem is to understand the problem, so let me explain. Most business owners spend a majority of their time working in their business; doing sales & marketing, invoicing & billing, paying bills, and servicing customers. Then, what ever work they can’t do, they hire employees to fill the gap.

Because there is only so much one human being can possibly do, you quickly get burnt out and become less efficient and effective in doing these tasks. This is why you feel like you are working harder and harder but getting no where.

1. Be a Leader - Your first step to working “on” the business is having the understanding that as business owner you need to be the leader, not the worker bee. You need to stop doing the work of the business and let the business begin to do the work.
2. Serve Your Team - As a business owner and leader your task is to develop and serve your team. You serve them by training them; providing them benefits, and holding them accountable to the results you expect of them. You must help them to grow so your business can grow.
3. Team Serves Your Customers - By inspiring & encouraging your team, they will in turn inspire and serve your customer. They will serve your customers by providing excellent service and being problems solvers. Your team will focus on their customers needs and become their trusted advisor. 
4. Customers Serve Your Business - Your customers will now be inspired to serve your business by buying more products and referring others. This will allow your business to now start serving you the business owner.

Start now! Begin by creating and implementing a plan to train and develop your team so they can serve your customers. This will in turn get your customers to start serving your business and finally getting your business to serve you. In this way you will because the master of your business instead of a slave to it.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below...

To learn how to intentionally attract and build your dream team down load this free white paper.  CLICK HERE

Lead and they will follow, 3 tips to get your team to follow

Why do geese fly in formation?  Scientists found that it is for 2 reasons.  The first, is to conserve their energy.  There is less wind resistance flying in groups, enabling them to fly greater distances with less effort than birds flying solo.

The second reason is that they can easily keep track of each other. By contrast, pelicans who fly alone, beat their wings more often and have higher heart rates than geese.  

 As a leader in your company do feel like the goose or the pelican? 
 Is your team following your lead?
 Does your company or department run like a well oiled machine? 

If not, here are 3 tips to help you become the leader your employees want to follow…

1. Communicate EffectivelyTo be a good leader, you must first be a good communicator. Your team must clearly understand your vision, goals, and expectations in order to help you accomplish them.  True communication is the response that we get.  Good communicators watch for verbal and non-verbal clues that their messages are being received and understood.

This is especially important when starting a new initiative or adding a new team member.  Schedule enough time to review objectives thoroughly and foster an environment that encourages staff members to ask questions.  Have them mirror back what you have said to be sure they understand. 

I found that one of my clients was moving too quickly through new material.  I coached this client on taking frequent pauses when giving instructions  to make sure his team understood what he wanted before he went onto the next subject. Implementing this simple strategy improved his team’s effectiveness and his business’s profitability tremendously.

2. Lead by example
”A leader is one who knows the way, shows the way, and goes the way.” (John C. Maxwell)  Reflect on the words you use and actions you take in front of your team.  Do you pitch in with the “grunt” work during extra busy times?  Do you have stated work hours but, consistently show up late?  Does the quality of your work inspire your team? Be the rule you want your employees to follow not the exception.

3. Be Congruent
Apply the “golden rule.” It is impossible to build a positive, motivated team while possessing a negative attitude and treating others poorly.  Ever hear your boss speaking negatively about a co-worker?  Did you wonder what he was saying about you?  The bottom line is we need to be congruent as leaders.  Being respectful and appreciative of your employees will inspire them to treat each other and you with respect. 

To “BE” a leader, you must “DO” what leaders do and then you will “HAVE” that leaders have. Leadership comes from within.  Focus on making the internal changes necessary to become the person you want to “BE”,  that will inspire others to follow. The people around you will see the changes in your behavior, in your actions and in the decisions that you make. You will soon create a desire in others to follow your lead. Success is contagious.

You will also begin to see success is neither “yours” or “theirs”, it is “ours”.  When the lead goose gets tired, he falls back and lets a new leader take over. They all share in the work and in the success of getting to their migration point. A true leader knows it is not about “me” it’s about “us”.

As Zig Ziglar said,” You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

Wishing you much success,

Coach Steve
 

This informative whitepaper will help guide you through the process of recruiting and keeping stellar employees. 
Download your free copy of “How to Intentionally Attract & Build Dream Teams” now.