As I continued to deal with people, though, I realized that not only are there employees out there with unappreciated intelligences, some of these people are downright geniuses in a strange kind of way. Their ability to function at high levels in their areas of expertise and complete inability to work and play well with others is worthy of examination by someone much smarter than me.
However, Wayne is willing to examine and he identifies four types of underappreciated workplace geniuses:
Good coaching is training your employees to do the job right every time. Here’s how to maximize your coaching skills:
Coach all the time. Coaching is an ongoing process. You should be coaching employees all the time—even when their performance is good.
Don’t micro-manage. You don’t have to jump in at the first sign of every or any problem. Give employees time to try and find a solution, but be ready to jump in when they get stuck.
Get employee input on the methods you recommend. Always give them specific and immediate feedback on performance.
Get a more experienced employees to teach or mentor your less experienced employees.
When problems occur, ask employees to analyze their own performance and results before you offer suggestions. Ask them what they like best and least.
Don’t ignore problems. They won’t go away or improve by themselves. Often, they will get worse.
In every coaching session, find something positive to say.
Coach all the people in your work group: top performers, those in the middle, and those at the bottom. Everybody can develop and grow.
Don’t assume employees understand your goals and expectations. Make sure you’re clear in your communication. Have employees repeat back to your their understanding of your expectation. Ensure your employees commit to your expectations.
Be realistic. Set objectives employees can meet by stretching their abilities. When you meet one objective, go on to another. Achieving each objective creates momentum.
Challenge your employees with an increasing number of tasks and decisions and give them time and space to grow. The more they do, the sooner they’ll be able to absorb some of your less challenging tasks, giving you more time to tackle those that best use your skills and your time.
Let people practice in a safe and non-threatening environment, and providing helpful feedback.
Mistakes happen. No one can improve without making mistakes. Mistakes are not failures. See them stepping stones toward success. Get your people involved in finding out what went wrong and to avoid the mistake in the future.
Don’t let unacceptable performance go unchecked. By not addressing it, you reward unacceptable performance.
Recognize good performance immediately to establish a clear link between performance and reward.
Encourage employees to measure their own productivity so that they take responsibility for their own performance.
Credibility is your most important asset as a supervisor and as a coach.
Good coaches do what they expect from others. They always model acceptable standards.
Never be afraid to make mistakes—all good leaders do. As you overcome your mistakes you’ll become a better supervisor, and a better coach too.
Accept the fact that you don’t know everything. Be open to learning from others, including those your are coaching.
What other tips would you offer to someone looking to improve their coaching skills?
1. Thou shalt honour thyself Your brain can process 100 trillion instructions per second while using the equivalent of just 12 watts of power. Your heart beats 100,000 times per day, carrying your blood some 12,000 miles (19,000 km). You’re built to imagine, create, communicate, and love. If you do nothing else today, sit back in awe of yourself.
2. Thou shalt be true to thyself Only one person has your portfolio of experience, know-how, skills, and style attributes. You’re in charge of putting it to work without compromise. If you need inspiration, consider Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thomas Edison. These greats — and many more — enriched the world by making the most of their differences.
3. Thou shalt speak up When you have a good idea, share it. When you have a question, ask it. When your help is needed, offer it. When you see a scene of disrespect, step forward and set things right. When you envision a better future, put it in spoken word. Your voice needs to be heard.
4. Thou shalt strive to simplify Whenever people congregate, they tend to over-complicate. That explains those countless workplace rules, objectives, projects, deadlines, and meetings. It’s up to you to challenge the mind-numbing routine. Take a fresh look at your schedule, and eliminate every activity that seems important but isn’t. An action is either mission-driven or mere motion. Keep the former, ditch the latter.
5. Thou shalt assume the best Few people wake up and declare: “I’m going to make this a horrible day. I’m going to foul things up and make life miserable for my co-workers.” No, most people want good days in which they use their know-how, exercise their creativity, and make a positive contribution. Assume and expect the best…and that’s what you’ll get.
6. Thou shalt fix processes, not people It’s tempting to blame that missed deadline or fouled-up project on Debbie, Dan, or some other nearby human punching bag. But the fact is, problems almost always occur because of process issues, not people. So cut Debbie and Dan some slack — and enlist their help in analyzing and improving the flow of activities that make up the process.
7. Thou shalt serve a greater purpose Henry David Thoreau lived 150 years ago, but his words seem especially relevant in today’s Blackberried world: “It is not enough to be busy — so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” Nor is it enough to have a mission statement that lies forgotten. What’s needed is a heartfelt mission that gives meaning to all the work-related busyness. What’s yours?
8. Thou shalt be interested Want to be interesting? Then be interested — in people, processes, clients, customers, competitors, and more. Open your eyes a bit wider. Be more curious. Seek new challenges. Start more conversations. Make a point of asking questions rather than making statements. Turn your work world, and the larger world, into your own lifelong school.
9. Thou shalt honour time away from work You’re more than an employee. You’re more than the sum of your tasks. You’re a human being, not a human doing. Treat yourself accordingly by rounding out how you spend your time. Balance your time at work with time at home, outdoors, in the community, and elsewhere. You’ll recharge your battery while gaining new insights and perspectives that inform your work.
10. Thou shalt be thine own best manager Guess who’s in charge of you. Hint: It’s not your boss, your boss’s boss, or anyone else. The sooner you take responsibility for your own happiness and fulfilment, the sooner you’ll achieve it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tom Terez is a speaker, workshop leader, and author of the book 22 Keys to Creating a Meaningful Workplace. Visit him online at TomTerez.com, BetterWorkplaceNow.com, and InnerBest.com.
Last June, the Alberta government announced increases to minimum wage would be based on the average weekly wage index and take effect on April 1 of each year. Today, it was announced that Alberta’s minimum wage will increase from $8 to $8.40 per hour on April 1, ensuring it keeps pace with other salary increases in Alberta.
“Alberta’s experiencing a time of great prosperity,” said Premier Ed Stelmach. “Wages have increased about five per cent and we’re ensuring minimum wage earners are sharing in this growth.”.
“With Alberta’s vibrant economy and low unemployment, most employers are already paying more than minimum wage,” said Hector Goudreau, Minister of Employment and Immigration. About 70,000 or 3.5 per cent of working Albertans make minimum wage. The majority are 15 to 19 year olds working in the food service and hospitality industries.
With the increase, Alberta’s minimum wage remains the highest in Canada after taxes. Even before taxes, Alberta will have the third highest minimum wage among provinces, behind only Ontario ($8.75) and Manitoba ($8.50).
I assume this mother is referring to parental leave, as maternity leave is only 15 weeks; parental leave is 35 weeks.
“I would really like to see that parents of multiples get the number of years [of benefits and leave] as they have children. You know if you have twins to get two years, if you have triplets, get three years,” she told CBC News Monday.
Zoho People is a Human Resource Management Application for HR team in an organization. Zoho People has several modules for HR Team (admins) and for Employees in an Organization.
Organization Module:
This module is used to define the structure of your organization including departments, designations/titles and also the Org Chart.
Recruitment Module:
The Recruitment module eases the hiring process in an organization. It automates the steps involved between searching a candidate from resume database to hiring him an employee. This module also lets managers raise job requirements and admins post openings on the website.
Forms Module:
The Forms module has a set of pre-created forms (mini-applications) for common tasks in an organization like filing expense reports, reporting leave etc. With Zoho Creator integration, this module lets admins create new forms or customize existing forms and make them available to all employees.
Checklist Module:
This module lets admin automate business processes and define the flow based on conditions. Tasks can automatically be assigned to users or groups based on defined flow.
Self Service Module:
This module acts as a self-service module for Employees and Managers. All the employees have access to this module. Managers can define job openings and organize their team structure. Employees can submit information to the HR department using the forms defined by the HR team (like submitting an Expense Report or informing about a leave etc).
Roles and Permissions :
This module is used by admin to define fine grained access for different roles based on permissions – which drill down to field level, action level and form level.
The video below gives a quick overview of the key functionalities in the application.
1. Make a list of the strengths and weaknesses of the employees in your work-group.
What things do they do well? In what areas have they excelled in the past? What things do they like to do?
2. Match employee strengths to your responsibilities.
Exactly what part or parts of your present responsibilities might you delegate to a suitable and interested employee?
3. Define the responsibility you want to delegate.
For example, don’t delegate tasks that only you should do. By the same token, don’t delegate all the fun parts of your job.
4. Communicate clearly what action is required.
Poor communication increases the risk of mistakes. Fully describe what you are delegating along with clear instructions for how it is to be carried out. The employee must know your exact expectations, and what the completed task should look like.
5. Allow for creativity and innovation.
In terms of delegating a task, you want to control the outcome, but not necessarily the creative process for obtaining that outcome. You should allow employees some latitude and flexibility in how the job is to be performed. In some cases, employees may have some even better ideas for completing the task than you had.
6. Explain the benefits of accepting the delegated assignment.
Listen to the feedback from the employee and acknowledge any resistance or fears with understanding. Offer encouragement and show that you have confidence in the person’s ability to do a good job. Assure the employee of your support and secure a firm commitment to accept the delegation.
7. Train and coach the employees in the new assignments.
Be sure to offer the assistance and support that they will need to succeed. Be available to offer direction, encouragement and advice while employees are learning their new assignments but do not hover over them.
8. Monitor the results.
If you monitor too closely you will give the impression that you are micro-managing. If you monitor too little, the employee may feel abandoned. At the outset, you may wish to monitor progress at regular intervals until the employee is performing the delegated task properly.
The act of delegating helps develop your supervisory skills. Delegation enhances your ability to work with others and fosters a spirit of cooperation.
It is important for every supervisor to know, that in delegating responsibility to an employee, you as the supervisor are not absolved of responsibility. The supervisor is ultimately responsible for anything that is delegated to other people. In that sense, delegating involves a shared responsibility.
As you delegate more frequently, you will develop more of a “feel” for the process. Delegation will allow you as a supervisor, to achieve through your employees more than you could accomplish on your own.
An employee handbook is a collection of workplace rules, policies, procedures, and other information that an employer would like employees to know. It both records and communicates important company information, setting guidelines for the employment relationship and for resolving conflicts in the workplace.
An employee handbook provides a helpful orientation for new employees. It’s also a ongoing reference for all employees. It makes your organization’s philosophy clear; explains the work ethic you expect; emphasizes what your products and service mean to your customers. In fact, your employee handbook will ultimately save you time, money and frustration.
The following outline lists typical chapters and content included in an employee handbook. The list is by no means exhaustive. Subjects to be covered may include:
March 7, 2008 is “officially” Employee Appreciation Day. I can’t seem to find any information on what makes this day official, but there are scores of places where you can buy gifts and cards to celebrate the day. I suspect the “day” has been concocted to sell employee recognition merchandise.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with a day for appreciating employees, as long as it is part of a bigger—and ongoing—strategy to reward employees.
Eric Mosely, CEO of Globoforce—a provider of employee recognition solutions—offers advice on how to make employee appreciation a year-round effort designed to reward, motivate and engage employees. He offers these five keys to employee engagement:
Build a “Culture of Appreciation” Year Round: Use Employee Appreciation Day to kickoff a new, year-round employee recognition effort or energize your existing one. By recognizing and rewarding employees throughout the year, it creates a culture of appreciation and a highly motivated and satisfied workforce within your organization.
Create a “Recognition Moment” through Meaningful Rewards: Giving employees the generic company watch or one-size-fits-all “gift” is an uninspiring way to say thank you. Rather, award your employees by giving them a choice of meaningful, self-selected rewards such as gift cards, quality merchandise or travel vouchers. When employees redeem their award, it will create an important “recognition moment”—with impact.
Empower Everyone in the Process—From the Board Room to the Mail Room: Employee recognition should not reside solely on the shoulders of management. Every person in the organization should be empowered to acknowledge their peers and co-workers for a job well done. This enables frequent recognition and engages the entire staff—not just the top 10 percent—in the process.
Tie Rewards to the Bigger Picture for Bigger Results: Employee recognition should be directly linked to the company’s vision/mission. This aligns the entire workforce toward achieving critical company milestones.
Communicate, Again and Again: Frequent program communication raises awareness, increases participation, boosts performance, and most importantly, helps develop that important culture of appreciation.
What do you think? Is he offering useful advice, or is it just a sales pitch to sell his product? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
