Monday, August 28, 2006
You don’t need to buy better employee performance - says international keynote professional speaker Carole Spiers
Salary is always assumed to be the biggest factor in job satisfaction - the official index of status on-duty, and the key to your life-choices off-duty. Superficially this stands to reason.
Interesting then, that research often comes up with quite different findings, as explained in an important new presentation by popular motivational speaker Carole Spiers.
The most obvious counter-argument is that many famous firms pay quite low salaries, yet people stay on for years, knowing they could be earning more elsewhere. Clearly these firms must be doing something right.
Principally, they have got the pay-factor into proportion. Wages need to be adequate, of course, and you must preserve the differentials. But high pay is not always put there to match high performance. Just as often, it’s a kind of compensation, even an apology, for bad working conditions or excessive pressure. Even then, it only patches-up the problem temporarily, as you can tell from the many long-running strikes that involve highly-paid workers.
In other words, a pay-rise does not usually get to the root of the grievance, which may be quite unrelated to those official terms of employment that can be re-negotiated on paper. It usually comes down to a mix of private dissatisfactions which may need to be addressed through skilful human relations.
Acknowledging individual identity
Nothing alienates an employee so much as being treated as something faceless and nameless. In fact, putting a name to a face is both a good professional habit and an act of personal respect. Criticism will be heeded more closely if it is viewed as a careful diagnosis, not just slagging-off. And praise should not only be personalised, but copied-on to relevant managers, to ensure appropriate recognition. Unless someone is actually in disgrace, you should try to greet them politely, with enquiries about family, hobbies or sporting life, to show interest in their general welfare, while avoiding the impersonal “Have a nice day” touch. For example, when you ask “How are you?”, don’t walk on before you’ve heard the answer.
Encouraging team spirit
Try to give your employees a heightened sense of involvement in the company by presenting them with a detailed picture of its activities, its policies, its successes and failures in various markets. Make them feel part of an important mission that will engage their interest and enthusiasm. Try to include them also in the decision-making process, where they may be able to provide new insights out of their day-to-day contact with particular agendas. Generally it is worth asking people for their suggestions about the running of their department, even if you are not able to take these up.
Developing talent
It is becoming rarer for someone to perform the same job-function ‘man and boy’ right through till pension time. The job, or even the skill itself, may go obsolete at short notice. All the emphasis now is on developing employees’ skills, both for the sake of their own empowerment, and to fit them for the evolving nature of the company. Helping employees to improve their own marketability within the firm is obviously good for morale. And cross-training improves efficiency by helping people to understand each other’s jobs, as well as promoting good teamwork.
…and those little gestures
It’s the end of a heavy project, which has kept everyone working late for a month, and nerves have been getting frayed. “Drop everything, team. It’s a lovely morning, and I’ve got us all tickets for a Thames riverboat jazz-lunch. No more work today!” Extravagant? Not compared with the hidden costs of absenteeism, low morale or mental stress.
Sometimes it’s the little things…
Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
Interesting then, that research often comes up with quite different findings, as explained in an important new presentation by popular motivational speaker Carole Spiers.
The most obvious counter-argument is that many famous firms pay quite low salaries, yet people stay on for years, knowing they could be earning more elsewhere. Clearly these firms must be doing something right.
Principally, they have got the pay-factor into proportion. Wages need to be adequate, of course, and you must preserve the differentials. But high pay is not always put there to match high performance. Just as often, it’s a kind of compensation, even an apology, for bad working conditions or excessive pressure. Even then, it only patches-up the problem temporarily, as you can tell from the many long-running strikes that involve highly-paid workers.
In other words, a pay-rise does not usually get to the root of the grievance, which may be quite unrelated to those official terms of employment that can be re-negotiated on paper. It usually comes down to a mix of private dissatisfactions which may need to be addressed through skilful human relations.
Acknowledging individual identity
Nothing alienates an employee so much as being treated as something faceless and nameless. In fact, putting a name to a face is both a good professional habit and an act of personal respect. Criticism will be heeded more closely if it is viewed as a careful diagnosis, not just slagging-off. And praise should not only be personalised, but copied-on to relevant managers, to ensure appropriate recognition. Unless someone is actually in disgrace, you should try to greet them politely, with enquiries about family, hobbies or sporting life, to show interest in their general welfare, while avoiding the impersonal “Have a nice day” touch. For example, when you ask “How are you?”, don’t walk on before you’ve heard the answer.
Encouraging team spirit
Try to give your employees a heightened sense of involvement in the company by presenting them with a detailed picture of its activities, its policies, its successes and failures in various markets. Make them feel part of an important mission that will engage their interest and enthusiasm. Try to include them also in the decision-making process, where they may be able to provide new insights out of their day-to-day contact with particular agendas. Generally it is worth asking people for their suggestions about the running of their department, even if you are not able to take these up.
Developing talent
It is becoming rarer for someone to perform the same job-function ‘man and boy’ right through till pension time. The job, or even the skill itself, may go obsolete at short notice. All the emphasis now is on developing employees’ skills, both for the sake of their own empowerment, and to fit them for the evolving nature of the company. Helping employees to improve their own marketability within the firm is obviously good for morale. And cross-training improves efficiency by helping people to understand each other’s jobs, as well as promoting good teamwork.
…and those little gestures
It’s the end of a heavy project, which has kept everyone working late for a month, and nerves have been getting frayed. “Drop everything, team. It’s a lovely morning, and I’ve got us all tickets for a Thames riverboat jazz-lunch. No more work today!” Extravagant? Not compared with the hidden costs of absenteeism, low morale or mental stress.
Sometimes it’s the little things…
Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
# posted by Carole Spiers @ 10:53 PM 
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Motivational Inspirational Speaker Carole Spiers says "Weekly brainstorm that saves you from tunnel vision"
Tackling your problems with a little help from friends and colleagues
- where six minds are better than one. We call it Wednesday Club.
We live in an age where problems seem to multiply and mutate faster than we can keep track - often leaving us feeling helpless and ready to give up.
At these times, it’s especially important to avoid tunnel vision, to keep things in perspective and in proportion.
If a problem shared is a problem halved, then you should try an unofficial networking arrangement, which we call Wednesday Club.
Ideally, there should be about six of you, made up of friends and colleagues, and it is important that you should be like-minded people, but with different training and professional backgrounds - most likely to be able to provide useful tips in a sympathetic and constructive spirit.
The only rigid rule is that you must meet regularly, in order to maintain the integrity of the project and keep up momentum. Once a week is ideal, but less-frequent fixtures will work, provided that they are regular and well-attended. Group size should be around six, for credibility and manageability. You should allow an hour for the official agenda, followed by about half an hour for any follow-up thoughts, before winding-up.
Cross-pollination for fresh insights
If you’ve recruited the other members with suitable care, you’re going to find that this team is truly bigger than the sum of its parts, representing a body of expertise far more impressive than you had imagined. Someone you already knew quite well may turn out to have qualifications (or qualities) you never dreamed they had. You’ll soon find you’ve got more in common with other people than you thought. And you’ll probably find that you’ve got more to contribute than you thought too.
Getting out what you put in
The balance between giving and taking is key. You may have joined ostensibly to solve some overwhelming problem - say troubleshooting an advanced software package. Then you find that the lady who runs the florists (and whom you identified solely with tulips and carnations) has been trained on that very package, and can instantly tell you 90% of what’s been baffling you. Meanwhile she’s got a son who’s looking for a left-handed guitar. Sure enough, you’re left-handed yourself, and haven’t touched that old guitar for years. All it wanted was a good home…
Even with only six of you, it will be truly astounding just how much expertise you can pool in the way of professional experience, useful contacts, technical know-how, family wisdom, emotional support and general health and happiness.
Little rituals to spice the mix
Even an hour’s session can drag, if it does not have some fixed points to give it shape and character - like each person declaring what was the most heartwarming incident of their week, or even a semi-religious invocation, perhaps giving thanks for health and freedom.
And although there should be no official leader, there does of course have to be a convenor, who may also double as time-keeper, monitoring the meeting to ensure that nobody hogs the limelight and everyone gets value.
Carole Spiers – motivational inspirational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Human Development potential. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 http://www.carolespiers.com
- where six minds are better than one. We call it Wednesday Club.
We live in an age where problems seem to multiply and mutate faster than we can keep track - often leaving us feeling helpless and ready to give up.
At these times, it’s especially important to avoid tunnel vision, to keep things in perspective and in proportion.
If a problem shared is a problem halved, then you should try an unofficial networking arrangement, which we call Wednesday Club.
Ideally, there should be about six of you, made up of friends and colleagues, and it is important that you should be like-minded people, but with different training and professional backgrounds - most likely to be able to provide useful tips in a sympathetic and constructive spirit.
The only rigid rule is that you must meet regularly, in order to maintain the integrity of the project and keep up momentum. Once a week is ideal, but less-frequent fixtures will work, provided that they are regular and well-attended. Group size should be around six, for credibility and manageability. You should allow an hour for the official agenda, followed by about half an hour for any follow-up thoughts, before winding-up.
Cross-pollination for fresh insights
If you’ve recruited the other members with suitable care, you’re going to find that this team is truly bigger than the sum of its parts, representing a body of expertise far more impressive than you had imagined. Someone you already knew quite well may turn out to have qualifications (or qualities) you never dreamed they had. You’ll soon find you’ve got more in common with other people than you thought. And you’ll probably find that you’ve got more to contribute than you thought too.
Getting out what you put in
The balance between giving and taking is key. You may have joined ostensibly to solve some overwhelming problem - say troubleshooting an advanced software package. Then you find that the lady who runs the florists (and whom you identified solely with tulips and carnations) has been trained on that very package, and can instantly tell you 90% of what’s been baffling you. Meanwhile she’s got a son who’s looking for a left-handed guitar. Sure enough, you’re left-handed yourself, and haven’t touched that old guitar for years. All it wanted was a good home…
Even with only six of you, it will be truly astounding just how much expertise you can pool in the way of professional experience, useful contacts, technical know-how, family wisdom, emotional support and general health and happiness.
Little rituals to spice the mix
Even an hour’s session can drag, if it does not have some fixed points to give it shape and character - like each person declaring what was the most heartwarming incident of their week, or even a semi-religious invocation, perhaps giving thanks for health and freedom.
And although there should be no official leader, there does of course have to be a convenor, who may also double as time-keeper, monitoring the meeting to ensure that nobody hogs the limelight and everyone gets value.
Carole Spiers – motivational inspirational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Human Development potential. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 http://www.carolespiers.com
# posted by Carole Spiers @ 7:34 AM
