Unconventional Training

Diversity: Talk Versus Behavior

Guy Farmer — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:51:27 +0000

Many well-meaning, caring leaders say they value the varied talents, abilities and perspectives their employees possess and then do everything in their power to impose their will or enforce one-size-fits-all policies and procedures. In the process, they miss a valuable opportunity to use diversity as a tool to make their companies more productive and effective. There’s a big difference between saying you value differences actually behaving that way. Let’s look at a few examples that occur in many workplaces:

Talk: I value all ideas.

Behavior: Only my ideas count.

Talk: I treat all people equally.

Behavior: Some people are treated more equally than others.

Talk: Everyone has the same privileges.

Behavior: Some people have more privileges.

Talk: I use people’s unique talents.

Behavior: As long as they do things my way.

Talk: I appreciate diversity.

Behavior: I don’t really talk about it.

Talk: I don’t have any diversity issues in our workplace.

Behavior: Except for that one time when… and that other one… and…

To shift from saying diversity is important but really hoping it will go away to openly welcoming it requires deliberate thought and effort. It’s a move from viewing diversity with wariness, weariness, suspicion or antipathy to using it as a valuable tool to improve the functioning of your organization. Consciously valuing workplace diversity includes doing things like this examples:

View people’s differences as assets.
Welcome everyone into the fold.
Treat everyone kindly, respectfully and honorably.
Listen to people and value different perspectives and ideas.
Give everyone the same privileges and access to resources.
Make diversity a valuable word, in the same category as profit or productivity.
Talk about diversity on a regular basis.
Implement ongoing diversity training that helps people enjoy differences.
View diversity as an opportunity rather than a headache or something to avoid.
Encourage people to share their innate skills and ideas.
Get to know your employees well so you know what they enjoy doing and what their unique experience can do for you and the organization.
Welcome different ideas and perspectives.

As you practice behaviors like these, you’ll experience the sense of well-being and calm that comes from a workplace that doesn’t sweep diversity under the rug. Diversity will become a natural part of your workplace rather than that thing we don’t talk about. As you keep doing these things, you’ll create new opportunities to apply the varied talents and abilities of your employees and create a workplace where each individual is important. What will you do to promote diversity in your workplace?

Take care,

Guy

Diversity Training

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5 Ways to Build a Happier Workplace

Guy Farmer — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:15:44 +0000

Leaders often build workplaces that are highly efficient and productive but where employees are an afterthought. It’s almost as if they’re following some leadership manual that says you should squeeze all you can out of people without worrying about trivial things like whether they like their work or have opportunities for growth.

You’ll see leaders like this shake their heads in disbelief when they experience the ongoing issues related to unhappy workplaces such as: lack of motivation, high turnover, lackluster performance, stagnant productivity, low morale and assorted other goodies. What they may not yet envision is that their workplaces don’t have to be this way and there are some practical things they can do to combine high productivity with a more enjoyable work environment. Here are five ways to get started:

Praise employees. Praising makes people feel valued and increases the likelihood that they’ll want to do other tasks.
Give people meaningful work. Find out what people enjoy doing and let them do it. Encourage employees to use their brains and come up with ideas on their own.
Give people opportunities for advancement. Keeping someone stuck in one position in perpetuity neglects their other talents. Find ways to offer educational opportunities as well as using their talents to train others or take on more responsibility.
Listen to your employees. You’ll gain important insights on what needs attention in your workplace and how to fix it when you listen to people instead of telling them what to do. You’ll also have access to new ideas.
Give people benefits. From flex time to vacation and health coverage; employees work better when they feel like the company cares about their long-term well-being rather than what they can get out of them with the least investment.

These five concepts can help you create a workplace where people not only do a lot of work but also feel good about it. There’s no reason we have to create workplaces where people are treated like disposable objects but it’s up to leadership to set the example and consciously design a more honoring work environment. The payoff is that motivated, happy people do more and better work. What will you do to build a happier workplace?

Take care,

Guy

Leadership Training and HR Training

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10 Reasons Why Soft Skills Training Doesn’t Work

Guy Farmer — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:52:05 +0000

Many well-meaning leaders and organizations have high hopes for soft skills training and are perplexed when it fails. This phenomenon happens because they think three hours of soft skills training can change their entire workplace. They optimistically hire someone to facilitate a workshop or two and expect their leaders and employees will behave differently overnight. The missing ingredients are time and commitment.

People forget that it takes considerable time and effort for soft skills (such as team building, effective communication, leadership or diversity) to take root in an organization. Think of how long it took you to learn the behaviors you currently practice. It takes time to teach people new skills and many leaders and organizations overlook the following concepts for training success:

Decide that this training is as important as any other part of your operation and commit to a long-term program.
Designate a set time and place for the training.
Implement your training from the top down, involve the highest level of leadership from the very beginning.
Focus on training that helps people learn positive workplace behaviors.
Pay a professional to develop and facilitate a training program based on your specific workplace.
Attendance isn’t optional and is part of people’s work duties.
Give employees the time and support needed to learn and practice new skills in the classroom and on the job.
Make the training an integral part of your company culture.
Measure the impact of the training as you move forward and make adjustments as needed.
Train people so they can train others in the organization.

Try these ideas and you’ll find your training yields better results. The success of soft skills training depends on how committed an organization’s leadership is to making it happen. What will you do to help your soft skills training succeed?

Take care,

Guy

Soft Skills Training and HR Training

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The Overlooked Leadership Tool

Guy Farmer — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:16:02 +0000

One of the most overlooked and underutilized leadership tools is brainstorming. Leaders can spend their entire careers in their own heads, jumping from one quick fix to another without asking for outside advice or tapping into their employee’s brainpower. They insist that they’ve tried everything and can’t understand why the keep getting the same results.

Brainstorming provides opportunities to examine any issue from a variety of perspectives and develop solutions based on richer information and more varied options. Here are some practical tips to help you brainstorm effectively.

Welcome and write down all ideas.
Avoid judging or giving opinions about the ideas that come up.
Stay away from debating or arguing the merits of any idea.
Don’t worry whether the idea seems practical or not.
Encourage everyone in the room to share one idea rather than one person sharing many.
Remember that no idea is wrong, outlandish or strange.
Try not to lead the ideas in any predetermined direction, let them develop naturally.
Invite a wide range of people to brainstorm so you have access to a wider range of perspectives.
Keep the brainstorming sessions brief so that people don’t get overloaded by too many ideas.
Thank people for their ideas and participation.

Brainstorming encourages creative thinking and allows people to stretch their minds. Once the ideas are out in the open, they suggest new opportunities and possibilities that might not have otherwise existed. Savvy leaders and organizations use brainstorming sessions to create nimble, flexible and creative workplaces. What will you do to encourage brainstorming in your organization?

Take care,

Guy
Leadership Training and Team Building

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Do You Actually Think Outside the Box?

Guy Farmer — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:43:01 +0000

Many leaders say that they think outside the box while they’re standing in it. It’s not that they’re being disingenuous, it’s just that the term has been used so much that it’s lost much of its meaning. So how do you know whether you’re genuinely outside the box? Here are a some key questions you can ask yourself to explore your perspective:

What have I done today that is different from what I’ve done before?
In what ways have I encouraged and supported my employees to think and behave differently?
In what ways have I worked on my own workplace thoughts and behaviors recently?
What is my standard way of doing things and what might I do differently to move in a new direction?
What new ways of doing things have I come up with recently?
What’s unique about me and my leadership approach?
In what ways am I using my unique talents and abilities and encouraging others to do the same?
What do I think about the rule book?
What have I created recently?
In what ways do I encourage creativity in the workplace?
How have I broadened my horizons recently?
How small does my workplace feel?
How do I deal with people who don’t share my vision or approach?
What occurs when new people come into my workplace?
What do I do to deal with unforeseen events?
In what ways do I tend to others’ needs?
How much of my work life is focused on my own needs?
In what ways do I make the workplace a better place for others?
Do people notice and talk to me about my outside the box approach?
In what ways have I made myself and others uncomfortable in order to grow?
What are my thoughts on change?
What do I do with outside ideas?
What do rules mean to me?
How many solutions are there to any given problem?
What’s important in the workplace?
What do I do to encourage people to motivate themselves from within?
Who am I?
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, what does it mean to my workplace?

Thinking outside the box provides you with an amazing opportunity to welcome new ideas and build a highly functional, responsive and dynamic workplace. You’ll know you’re thinking expansively because you’ll get stuck less and you’ll have access to a larger pool of information. You’ll be more flexible and adaptable to any challenge that comes your way. What will you do to think outside the box?

Take care,

Guy

Leadership Training and Team Building

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10 Unconscious Leadership Mistakes

Guy Farmer — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:44:53 +0000

Some leaders have a special talent for creating hostile workplaces teeming with uninspired and miserable employees just waiting for the day to end. Why does this happen in so many workplaces? One major reason is that many people in leadership positions mean well but lead unconsciously. They do what they’ve always done and, for many, that means repeating behaviors they saw in their families when they were growing up or that were spread to them by other unwitting bosses. They make the same mistakes over and over, hoping that someday they’ll get different results. Here are ten leadership mistakes that are being perpetrated in workplaces worldwide as we speak:

Preventing employees from thinking for themselves and making decisions independently.
Not being able to let go of the need to control people.
Working out personal problems on one’s employees.
Functioning in a reactive, disorganized manner instead of planning proactively.
Creating chaos and confusion by always being in crisis mode.
Not setting a positive example of how to behave appropriately and effectively in the workplace.
Constantly assigning duties with no clear expectations or support.
Talking too much instead of listening actively.
Not trusting employees.
Not asking for input, feedback or help.

If you’ve ever worked for someone who does these things you cherish the memories of wanting to find another job or hoping they move on sometime soon. It can be incredibly stifling and demoralizing to work for a leader like this but it’s a common scenario.

The vital question to ask here is whether you do any of these things? If you do, it doesn’t mean you’re evil, just that you have an opportunity to lead more effectively. Any of the examples mentioned in this article can be replaced with a different behavior that leads to more positive results. You get to decide how you behave and what kind of workplace you create. What will you do to fully awaken your leadership abilities?

Take care,

Guy

Leadership Training and Team Building

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Deeper Communication Skills Part 2

Guy Farmer — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:52:38 +0000

Effective communication is about practicing behaviors that will get you positive results rather than finding yourself stuck doing things that don’t work. In the first part of Deeper Communication Skills, we looked at how to help people talk in a meaningful way. In this post, we’ll review how to help a group work together on a challenging issue or any topic of interest. To continue the process from last time, reconvene the group and work through the following steps in order.

Have the facilitator pick a topic of interest.
Divide people into groups of four or five.
Have each group repeat the process above by having each member give his or her perspective on the topic and the remainder of the group listening.
Ask the group to brainstorm possible ways to deal with the topic. Have them write down their ideas and remind them that all ideas are valid and welcome. Let everyone know that this is just brainstorming, not the time for rebuttals, reactions or debate.
Ask the group to pick one brainstorm item to start working on. Remind the participants that it doesn’t matter which item they pick, what matters is that they’ll be working together on whatever it is. Invite participants to let go of the need to advocate for their favorite item, encourage them to focus on the collaboration not the name of the item.
Have each participant tell their group briefly what he or she will do to work on the brainstorm item and by when he or she will complete the action.
Have each group share what happened in their group, what they decided to work on and how each will contribute.
Take a break.

At this point you could adjourn the meeting. If time permits, you could have people share what they thought about the process. Give everyone a chance to talk from the heart but keep it brief.

So how does this process help people communicate on a deeper level? These exercises help people practice behaviors that are conducive to resolving conflict and promoting peaceful interaction. They eliminate the distractions that occur in standard conversations and give everyone an equal voice. The trap many people fall into is thinking that these types of interactions have to be about someone winning and someone losing. Both sides try to impose their will and no common ground is identified. The difference in the process outlined here is that it gets rid of both side’s agendas, encourages them to empathize and allows them to generate solutions collaboratively.

Well-meaning people can come together and move past the standard grievances and recriminations that plague so many interactions and shift to a model where they build trust and understanding. There is a huge amount of power in listening to other people’s stories and making decisions based on commonalities and shared experiences. When you set up an environment where people are able to let go of unproductive behaviors you open the door to creating positive relationships and mutually beneficial problem solving. This approach isn’t a quick fix but it yields remarkable long-term results. What will you do to promote deeper communication?

Take care,

Guy
Effective Communication and Team Building

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Deeper Communication Skills

Guy Farmer — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:25:15 +0000

This two-part series on deeper communication skills is designed to help you build a workplace environment where people interact positively and get more done with less effort.

Many workplace conflicts arise because of disparate values, goals, objectives, strategies and points of view. Well-meaning, intelligent leaders and employees can genuinely want to get along but not know how to communicate meaningfully and productively. When I work with groups in active conflict, I often help the participants learn and practice skills to help them connect on a deeper level, interact positively and generate positive results in the workplace.

We sometimes forget to build relationships before jumping into problem-solving and we don’t consistently create environments where people are encouraged to work together to find solutions. The most common communication model is people talking at each other instead of with each other. I’ve found that individuals have an amazing capability to work collaboratively when they take the time to build a strong foundation first. Here is a practical approach to help you create a workplace environment where people reach mutually beneficial solutions. This process works best with groups of twenty people or less.

Agree on a place and time to meet. Make it comfortable, interruption-free and conducive to conversation.
Have a skilled, welcoming, neutral facilitator run the meeting.
Have the facilitator welcome everyone and present the ground rules: One person talks at a time and, when that person is talking, everyone listens. All opinions and ideas are valid.
Have the facilitator pick a single topic of interest.
Have each person in the room talk about his or her perspective on the topic for up to two minutes. Encourage people to talk from the heart and not from the head. Also mention that they don’t have to talk about anything they don’t feel comfortable sharing.
Ask the group to listen to the person speaking without interruptions, comments, editorializing, rebuttals, reactions or any other kind of distraction. Ask people to simply listen and remind them that everyone else will do the same for them when it’s their turn.
When everyone is done speaking ask the participants to share their impressions of what just happened. Go around the room and allow each person up to a minute to share.
Take a break.
Have the neutral facilitator pick another topic of interest.
Repeat the process three times.

Once you’ve repeated this process three times the group will be ready to move on to the next phase which is working together. Stay tuned for part two of this series where we’ll talk about how to help people collaborate to solve problems. Until next time, what will you do to practice deeper communication skills in your workplace?

Take care,

Guy
Effective Communication and Team Building

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Leadership Training Carnival March 2012

Guy Farmer — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:38:51 +0000

Welcome to the March 2012 edition of the Leadership Training carnival. Thank you to the wonderful experts who have taken the time to share their leadership wisdom. Here are their thoughtful articles.

Neal Burgis PhD presents Impact of Your Extraordinary Leadership posted at Practical Solutions.

Terrence Seamon presents Leaders, Honor Thy People posted at About Leaders.

Michelle L. Cramer presents How Does Your Personality Affect the Way You Do Business? Part One: The Sanguine Personality posted at Commonfig Community. Your personality affects the way you do business. The key is learning how it strengthens your business savvy, and how to cope with the weaknesses. This four part series will give you more insight into the four main personality types and what to expect for how they effect your approach to business.

Joanne Morrison presents MinacsBlogs | Getting Ahead for the First Time Leader posted at Minacs News.

Mike King presents Individual Innovation and Experimentation posted at Learn This. Becoming a leader requires training that leads us to take risks, find innovation and be creative.

Liz Shaw presents How to Prevent Emotional Hijacking posted at The Writing Reader. Help your nervous employee get past the fear of presenting with these easy tips.

Chase Dumont presents What is Leadership? The Definitive Answer posted at Chase Dumont, Rainmaker. People have been trying to define leadership for millennia. In this ambitious post, Chase calls on quotes from a number of great leaders – as well as his own experience – and takes his own stab at defining the undefinable.

Charles Chua C K presents All About Living With Life: Leadership – 7 Effective Tips posted at All About Living with Life.

Katie Sorene presents 10 Volunteer Programs to Improve Your Leadership Skills posted at Travel Blog – Tripbase. A selection of volunteer programs to improve your leadership skills including teaching orphans in Sri Lanka, elephant conservation in Thailand and coaching soccer in Cameroon.

I look forward to hearing from you for the next edition, submit your blog article using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on my blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: leadership training, blog carnival.

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Are You Ready for Change?

Guy Farmer — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:00:43 +0000

Change is a word that strikes fear into many leaders’ hearts and causes distress in many workplaces. Others welcome it and use it as an opportunity to move forward rather than declaring that the sky is falling. It’s up to you how you deal with change and you get to decide whether it’s an opportunity or a roadblock. I prefer an approach that welcomes change and uses it to improve the functioning of the organization.

Signs that you or your organization may not be quite ready for change:

Leaders and employees emphasize how things have always been done.
It takes a long time for any new idea to be considered.
Leadership doesn’t listen to suggestions or a variety of perspectives.
Decisions have always been made by the same individuals or group.
Leaders view change as admitting failure or as a threat to their authority.
Leadership is happy with the culture of the company but nobody else is.
The prevailing leadership style is reactive and focused on the past.
Change is only discussed as a negative or something to be avoided.

Signs that you’re ready for change:

Leaders and employees are open to doing things differently.
New ideas are entertained and considered promptly.
Leadership is open to suggestions and varying perspectives.
Independent decision-making is encouraged at every level.
Leaders see change as an opportunity to grow and lead more effectively.
People work together to build a culture that benefits everyone.
The preferred leadership style is proactive and forward-looking.
Change is openly talked about and used as a tool for progress.

Is your approach to change more like the first list or the second? You get to decide what kind of organization you design. When you resist change, you’ll likely find yourself dreading anything that’s different and scrambling to put out fires and stifling progress. If you invite change, you’ll enjoy dealing with the challenges that come your way and building a workplaces that’s flexible and agile. What will you do to welcome change into your organization?

Take care,

Guy

Leadership Training and Team Building

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