real world leader report

8/3/2019 Real World Leader Report

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/real-world-leader-report 1/35

By:

Debora McLaughlin

Donna Price

Executive and Business Coaches

Co-Founders: Real World Leadership Institute



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Provided by: The Real World Leadership Institute a joint venture program created by Debora

McLaughlin of Open Door Coaching, LLC and Donna Price of Compass Rose Consulting.

A publication of Debora McLaughlin and Donna Price

Real World Leadership Institute

Copyright 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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the author learns, the author reserves the right to update, revise, change and modify the report as the author feels is

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to be aware of the laws and regulations of your state and country regarding your business practices.




REAL WORLD LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

CONTENTS

The Five Functions of a Highly Effective Team..........................................................................................6

#1: Safety and Trust ....................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ................... 6

#2: Conflict ........................ ......................... ........................... ......................... ......................... ........... 7

Desired Outcomes to Normalize Conflict:.........................................................................................7

#3: Commitment....................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... .. 9

Objectives to Ensure Team Commitment: ......................... ........................... ......................... ......... 10

#4: Accountability..................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 11

Objectives for Increasing Accountability: ....................... ......................... ......................... .............. 11

#5: Results.... ........................... ......................... ......................... ......................... ............................ ... 11

Objectives to Keep Attentive to Results: ........................ ......................... ......................... .............. 12

Employee Engagement: the Key to Unlocking your Competitive Advantage and Sustaining your Business

........................... ......................... ......................... ......................... ......................... ............................ ... 12

Inoculate your organization ......................... ........................... ......................... ......................... ......... 13

Mix together the key ingredients to create an accountable culture ......................... ....................... 13

Creating collaborative teams ............................ ......................... ......................... ......................... ...... 15

Developing engaged individuals........................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 16

Step 1: Get to know them. ............................................................................................................ 16

Step 2: Open the doors to team and organizational communication. ............................ ................. 16

Step 3: Build trust. ....................... .......................... ........................ ......................... ....................... 17

Step 4: Offer career advancement and improvement opportunities........ ......................... .............. 17

Step 5: Make them aware of how they contribute to success....................... ......................... ......... 17

Gaining Healthy Results: ..................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ................. 18

Measuring Success: .................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 18

Making the Connection—From Engaged Employees to Happy Shareholders:... ......................... ......... 18

Coaching Staff for Success ...................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ................. 20

Be Real, Be Authentic ......................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ................. 20

Listen to your staff................... ......................... ......................... ......................... ............................ ... 20

Remove barriers to communication.......... ......................... ......................... ......................... .............. 21




Share your vision ........................ ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 21

The vision can be exciting, inspiring and ultimately motivating to staff. ......................................... 22

Find Out About the Staff’s Vision ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 23

Use the Performance Appraisal to Enhance Performance and a Framework for Coaching Staff to

Success............................ ......................... ......................... ......................... ........................... ............ 23

Our current appraisal framework: ....................... ............................ ......................... ......................... ... 24

Create a plan for excellent performance:..... ......................... ........................... ......................... ......... 24

SMART Goals ......................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... ...... 25

Break Goals into Achievable Steps ....................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 26

Set up a system of accountability......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 26

Be Generous...... ......................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 27

Learn More About The Real World Leadership Institute! ....................... .......................... ...................... 28

Replace Old Habits with New Breakthrough Strategies ...................................................................... 29

Here’s how it works.................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 29

The Real World Leadership Institute is the result of over 20 years of research.......................... ......... 30

You’ll get: ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... ......................... ...... 30

What you Get…......... ............................ ......................... ......................... ......................... .............. 30

Month 1: Get Real with Leadership Retreat ............................................ ......................... .............. 30

Month 2: Strategy & Influence in Leadership.................................... ............................ ................. 31

Month 3: 10 Keys to Unlocking Employee Engagement..... ........................... ......................... ......... 31

Month 4: Skills Implementation Lab ........................ ......................... ............................ ................. 32

Month 5: Coaching Skills for Managers and Leaders Retreat ........................ ......................... ......... 33

Month 6: Diversity: Mosaic ...................... ......................... ........................... ......................... ......... 33

Month 7: Skills Implementation Lab .............................................................................................34

Month 8: Team Advantage Train the Leader ..................... ........................... ......................... ......... 34

Month 8: Real World Leader Wrap-Up and Celebration, State of the Art Training, Exceptional

Executive Coaching ......................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ................. 35

In Summary ...................... ............................ ......................... ......................... ......................... ...... 35

To Learn More… ..................... ......................... ............................ ......................... ......................... 35

Go To: http://www.RealWorldLeadershipInstitute.com....................... ............................ ................. 35




THE FIVE FUNCTIONS OF A HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEAM

While many books address what’s not working in

organizations, as coaches and consultants, we like to look for

possibilities and strengths within an organization and how to

leverage them to optimize people, profits and performance.

Using the book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick

Lencioni, we summarized from strengths based perspective

five highly effective functions of a team and how to obtain

them in your organization.

#1: S AFETY AND T RUST

Absence of trust is perpetuated when team members are reluctant to be vulnerable with one

another, and are unwilling to admit their mistakes, acknowledge their weaknesses or ask for help.

Without a certain comfort level among team members, a foundation of safety and trust is unlikely.

Trust builds cohesiveness and assists team members to focus on results rather than trying to protect

themselves, their turf and their job.

DESIRED OUTCOMES FOR BUILDING SAFETY, TRUST AND TEAM COHESIVENESS:

Team members are unguarded and genuine with one another and can discuss their

personal lives freely.

Team members admit their mistakes and willingly apologize to one another.

Team members ask for help without hesitation and makes requests of each other for the

benefit of the team.

Team members acknowledge and tap into one another’s knowledge, skills and

experiences.

Team members depend on each other for input and support regarding their individual

work responsibilities.

Team members trust and are more comfortable being vulnerable, stating their personal

observations and truth

STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING SAFETY AND TRUST:




Build bonds and connection so team members get to know each other. Share

values, hopes, personal histories, personality preferences, their strengths, and

their gaps. When we see the whole person and understand who they are and their

backgrounds, it will assist the team to leverage strengths and avoid making unfair,

unproductive energy draining judgments about one another.

Find opportunities to spend more time together face to face. One of the biggest

impediments to trust building on a team is the lack of time spent working collectively.

This includes off site meetings, strategic planning retreats, and social activities. Avoidthe temptation to save time at the expense of improving productivity by building a

strong team.

Teach, model and practice coaching principles, practices and tools to provide a structure

for safe, honest, and constructive exchange of feedback so teams can swiftly and timely

surface issues that might otherwise take months to address and resolve.

#2: CONFLICT

Safety and trust are critical because without them; teams are

unlikely to engage, speak their truth and passion and feel

okay to disagree. Conflict is powerful and that power will

limit us or unite us depending on how we use it. Conflict is

about the productive exchange of diverse ideas and opinions

in a focused, efficient and unfiltered way. It’s about seeing

debate as helpful. Without conflict, decision-making suffers

and relationships among team members stagnate. If conflict

is not allowed to surface it generally degenerates to mean-spirited, back biting comments behind

closed doors and in hallways. Stifling conflict also leads to sub-optimal decision-making because the

team is not benefiting from the innovative ideas and perspectives of its members.

DESIRED OUTCOMES TO N ORMALIZE C ONFLICT :

Team members are passionate and unguarded in their dialogue

Team meetings are relevant, meaningful, useful and compelling, not boring.

Team members' most important and difficult issues are discussed




Team members voice their opinion even at the risk of causing disagreement

During dialogue, team members challenge one another about how they arrived at their

conclusions and opinions Team members solicit one another’s opinions

Team members communicate unpopular opinions

When conflict occurs, the team names it and addresses the issue before moving on to

another subject



STRATEGIES FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION:

Teach and practice the art of “Dialogue”.

Set the expectation that conflict is both good and necessary for the team. Conflict is

required to stretch, innovate and improve.

Use personality assessment to understand how different team member naturally engage

in conflict.

Understanding multiple diverse strategies for conflict resolution can be used to lead to

more strategic decisions about conflict. Establish team Contract comprising team agreements and rules of engagement for

acceptable conflict (behaviors, displays of emotions, language, process).

Improve effectiveness of meetings so conflict can occur without drama. Have a

designed agenda and planned time so members can engage in constructive conflict and

resolve critical issues.

Practice self-coaching and team coaching and encourage observations about conflict. All

are responsible for drawing out any potential unresolved issues and addressing them

before moving on to next subject.

Team members acknowledge their mistakes and see them as opportunities to learn from

and make better the next time.

Using coaching competencies and a feedback model to ask questions make observations

and make requests to resolve conflict.

Track and tout what’s working. Celebrate and recognize team’s strengths and

accomplishments.

#3: COMMITMENT

Without conflict resolution, it is extremely difficult for team members to truly commit and “buy in”

to the decisions because they don’t feel that they have a voice or are part

of the decision making process. This often creates an environment of

ambiguity, second-guessing and confusion in an organization, leading to

frustration and team disengagement.




OBJECTIVES TO E NSURE T EAM C OMMITMENT :

Team is aligned with and clear about its vision, mission, priorities, and direction.

Team members leave meetings confident that everyone is committed to the decisions

that were agreed upon.

Team members end discussions with clear and specific resolutions and calls to action.

The team sticks to decisions.

Team members support team decisions even if all of the information is not present and

they initially do not agree. Understand that members don’t need to get their way to

support a decision but only need to know that their opinions have been heard and

seriously considered. Teams with high levels of commitment can unite behind a decision

even though there is no certainty that the decision is correct. They know that a decision

is better than no decision and that it is better to make a choice, act with boldness, be

wrong and change direction than it is to waffle or wait for 100% certainty.

STRATEGIES FOR TEAM COMMITMENT:

Team practice to achieve clarity and closure. Leaders and team members demand that

the team eliminate ambiguity and leave meetings clear about agreements and nextactions.

At end of each meeting, the team explicitly reviews the key decisions made and agrees to

what needs to be communicated to employees and other stakeholders. Developing a

communication system demonstrates public commitment to agreements and aligns

employees throughout the organization around common objectives.

Set team objectives and deadlines to remove procrastination and waffling.

Define worst-case scenario to diminish fear of failure by realizing that even a poor

decision is survivable.

Establish contingency plans to change the goal and commitment due to change of

circumstances and new information that invalidates the wisdom of the initial decision.




#4: ACCOUNTABILITY

Avoidance of accountability is when the team hesitates to confront one

another about performance and behavioral concerns. For teams,

accountability means the willingness of team members to name and

coach their peers on behaviors that might hurt the team’s performance.

Team members avoid accountability because of the personal discomfort

that comes from calling a peer on his/her behaviors and a more general tendency to avoid difficult

conversations. Holding peers accountable means that team members must “enter the danger zone”

with one another. Of course, they can do this only if levels of trust, healthy conflict and

commitment are sufficiently high.

OBJECTIVES FOR I NCREASING ACCOUNTABILITY :

All members of the team are held to the same high standards.

Team members point out one another’s unproductive behaviors.

Members are quick to coach peers about problems in their respective areas of

responsibility.

Team members question one another about their current approaches and methods.

The team coaches poor performers to improve.

Team members consistently follow through on promises and commitment.

Team members offer unprovoked, constructive feedback to one another.

STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING ACCOUNTABILITY:

Provide a forum for effective exchange of feedback.

Publish and revisit team agreements, contract re: goals and standards for behavior.

Regularly review progress on goals and implementation plan.

Share what is working well? What is not quite right? How to make it more right? To

encourage a peers to provide feedback to avoid potential pitfalls.

#5: RESULTS

The only real reason to work in teams is because they can achieve




Do you suffer from lack of accountability in your organization? If you’re like most leaders, you

regularly deal with workforce issues that get in the way of your organization’s success. Here youhave all this talent at your fingertips, yet goals are not being met and your business isn’t nearly as

successful as you know it could be. It’s frustrating!

Accountability begins with engagement, a heightened

emotional connection to your company that influences your

employees to exert greater effort. According to a recent

Gallup study, only 29% of employees are engaged in their

jobs. Others are currently looking for work, willing to

switch jobs if the opportunity presented itself or are feeling depressed or overwhelmed and as a result are

underperforming. Disengagement costs between $243 to

$270 billion dollars a year from low productivity. Can anyone afford this right now?

So what is the upside? Engaged employees perform up to 28% better and are 87% less likely to

leave the organization. 84% believe they can positively impact the organization’s quality and 72%

want to optimize service delivery. One study by Serota Consulting showed that share prices of

organizations with engaged employees raised an average of 16 percent. The industry average is a

mere 6 percent! With obligations to the success of your organization, your shareholders and yourcustomers, in today’s economy, it’s in your best interest to improve engagement and with it

accountability.

INOCULATE YOUR ORGANIZATION

Be a different type of leader. Accountability doesn’t have to be a heavy load, like pushing a rock

uphill. The old management centered, top down approach breeds lack of accountability and

creativity, creates resentment and offers poor results. Don’t make the same mistake yourcompetition will: trying to make improvements by putting the spotlight on poor performance.

Instead, put the spotlight on success.

With the right ingredients you can create an organizational culture that breeds responsibility,

ownership and accountability.

MIX TOGETHER THE KEY INGREDIENTS TO CREATE AN ACCOUNTABLE CULTURE




The key to your leadership success lies in creating an accountable and engaged collaborative working

environment. This begins with the foundation of building a learning culture, a new kind of business

architecture in which employees can learn, solve problems, challenge one another’s perspectives, andgo beyond their present knowledge, skills, and attitudes. A “learning” environment promotes

honesty, direct communication, safety to speak one’s opinion without negative consequences and

the ability to recreate ideas and solutions in one’s own context. The environment allows employees

to play with new skills and to test new attitudes and ideas for improvement in a “safe” setting with

colleagues. It is not an accident the “best companies to work for” focus on culture first, strategy

second.

Ricardo Simler, CEO of SEMCO, grew the company from several hundred employees to over 5000

and increased revenues from $4 million to $20 million when he moved from traditional management

to employee focused leadership. The Zappos culture is widely studied as an example of a results

driven culture of motivated employees at all wage levels. A learning culture of collaborative teams

and engaged individuals produces results.

One key differentiator of companies with superior financial performance is employee engagement.

Employee engagement is the best competitive advantage companies will exert to defend their

business. The link between company performance and employee engagement exists for all

businesses across all industries. It is the key to creating a sustainable competitive advantage.




CREATING COLLABORATIVE TEAMS

So how do you succeed? You build collaborative teams. Team leadership is the ability to lead and

motivate individuals and teams to work together to the highest levels of performance. Using a

proven performance coaching framework you too can lead and motivate individuals and teams to

work together to the highest levels of performance.

1. Performance. Performance. Define “what good looks like.” Instead of focusing on what’s

lacking in performance, set the bar for success. Gather your teams together and collectively

identify what good looks like in any area that is lacking in accountability. What does good

look like for this team, company and for each of them as individual?

2. Efficacy. Next evaluate what is getting in the way of achieving this level of performance.

Do you have the power to produce the desired affect? What resources might be needed in

time, energy, money, training, skill, motivation? Develop a plan to fill these gaps. Develop

SMART goals: strategic, measurable, actionable, result oriented and timely.

3. O wnership: Talk about ownership, responsibility. What does it mean? Define the

difference between accountability, responsibility and responsiveness and as a team evaluate

how to measure success in each of these areas. Encourage self evaluation and team

evaluation.

4. Possibilities: Create a vision together. What could happen if “what good looks like” were

implemented? What would be the impact on each employee, the team, the organization,

your customers, your market share, and your shareholders?

5. Linkage: Discuss how each individual’s work is linked to the result you are trying to create.

If your focus is excellent customer service, how do their tasks relate to that performance

goal? Through this discussion you put accountability on the big screen, engaged employees

understand how their work is related to the big picture, expanding their vision.

6. E vidence: Discuss how each individual’s work is linked to the result you are trying to create.

If your focus is excellent customer service, how do their tasks relate to that performance

goal? Through this discussion you put accountability on the big screen, engaged employees

understand how their work is related to the big picture, expand their vision.




The first letters of each step spells P.E.O.P.L.E. You don’t

have to achieve great results by yourself. What you achievetogether can be greater than what you might have imagined

and all of you will have fun in the process. This framework

harnesses their own power to uncover—and then fix—issues

that are blocking the power to produce. The end result? Your

team feels good about owning the outcome and is committed

to producing ongoing results.

DEVELOPING ENGAGED INDIVIDUALS

How do you inspire individuals to become engaged employees?

STEP 1: GET TO KNOW THEM.

Studies show that the most engaged employees have a good relationship with their manager.

Today having more reports often means a break down in relationship for each employee. How

much time are you spending with your team members? Don’t feel you have the time? What if

spending the time developing this relationship resulted in increased productivity, accountability, ease

in workflow and greater results? What if this meant that you had more quiet time for your own

work? Now will you have the time? So what do you need to do to get started?

Provide regular and frequent meetings with your team members. Learn about their personal and

professional goals, what they see as their strengths and areas of development. Allow them to voice

ideas, complaints (with a solution) and requests. Listen without distraction and keep any promises

that you make. Get to know their values and personal and professional goals. Discuss how their

values and how their work contributes to the organization. Knowing the importance of their role

furthers their engagement.

STEP 2: OPEN THE DOORS TO TEAM AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION .




Many organizations have no trouble communicating with employees

from the top down, but struggle with developing an atmosphere in

which communication can occur from the bottom up. One way toencourage two-way conversation is to include employees in meetings

and decision, creating an open dialog. Every voice is heard and

innovative ideas shared. Employees perform better when they not

only know what is happening within their organizations but get to share in offering their thoughts

and ideas as well.

When people are linked to the goals and outcomes of an organization, they are able to reach their

highest potential. And when that happens, the company reaches its highest potential too. How

great is that?

STEP 3: BUILD TRUST .

The best way to build trust with employees is to share the organization’s values, to co-create goals

and create accountability measures to stay steadfast to those values and goals through both word and

deed. As a leader you build trust by offering a consistent and positive pattern of behavior including

the ability to express a willingness to listen and share information, demonstrate trust in others,

promote honest communication, show fair behavior and fulfill promises and therefore build your

own credibility and ultimately, trust in your, your team and your organization.

STEP 4: OFFER CAREER ADVANCEMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES.

Employees need a line-of-sight on their future to be truly engaged. Give them the tools they need

to succeed, including education and skills. Be sure that there is room for them to grow, and that

their potential upward trajectory is visible to them. New employees can benefit by a “getting to

know us while we get to know you” orientation. Others can be helped to identify their strengths

through career assessments and evaluation and receive personal performance plans to help them to

acquire the skills they need to reach their career aspirations. A CPI 260 might show a new leader

how they would be perceived by their team and what strengths to leverage as well as outline the

areas for development. A conflict resolution assessment might help staff members learn improved

methods of communication to better inspire others.

STEP 5: M AKE THEM AWARE OF H OW THEY CONTRIBUTE TO SUCCESS.

Keep your staff informed and provide feedback. Make employees aware of

how they contribute to the organization’s success. Employees should




understand how their duties and responsibilities affect the organization’s bottom line, and should be

made to feel a part of the organization’s success. Offer constructive feedback focused on

promoting positive change by using the BE FAIR method. Behavior, state the behavior you wantchanged. Effect; describe the effect it has on you, the team or organization. Feeling, tell them how

you the behavior makes you feel. Alternative, suggest an alternative. Invite; invite them to try it out.

Response, ask for a response and agreement.

GAINING HEALTHY RESULTS:

There is clear and mounting evidence that high levels of employee engagement keenly correlates to

individual, group and corporate performance in areas such as retention, turnover, productivity,

customer service and loyalty. (Conference Board Study of Employee Engagement). Why areorganizations with engaged employees more successful? Employees who are involved and

passionate about the organization and their jobs pass their passion and loyalty on to the

organization’s customers. When all is said and done you have engaged employees, fulfilled

customers, a happy organization—and satisfied shareholders. To that end, creating a culture which

fosters employee engagement not only has an impact on the people involved with that

organization—it has a profound and lasting impact on the world in which we live.

MEASURING SUCCESS:So how do you know when you are successful? To find out if employees are engaged you can take a

survey. We use the Perception Gap Assessment or a survey to determine how all staff members feel

about their work, the organization and its management. Engaged employees are on the same page

as their leaders. You can also measure retention changes, organizational performance, and increased

productivity and of course increased profitability and market share.

MAKING THE CONNECTION—FROM ENGAGED EMPLOYEES TO HAPPY SHAREHOLDERS:

Why are organizations with engaged employees more successful?

Employees who are involved and passionate about the organization and

their jobs pass their passion and loyalty on to the organization’s

customers. When all is said and done you have engaged employees,

fulfilled customers, a happy organization—and satisfied shareholders. To

that end, creating a culture which fosters employee engagement not only

has an impact on the people involved with that organization—it has a

profound and lasting impact on the world in which we live.




As a result, instead of suffering lack of accountability you should be seeing:

A performance based and highly positive collaborative culture

High profitability and productivity Excellent customer service and retention

Improved communication

Clear, creative and confident leaders

High performing teams focused on business results.

Now doesn’t that feel better? Exercise the best competitive advantage companies can exert, build a

culture of accountable, engaged people focused on results.

The truth is, these uncertain economic times, getting your company to the next level might not be

good enough. What you really need to do to ensure your company stays alive—and thrives—

Accelerate your organization’s success beyond all levels through focus on employee engagement,

leadership development and team building to build a sustainable collaborative working culture.

You owe it to yourself, your organization, your shareholders, and your employees to do what you can

to ensure your company survives and thrives for a long time to come. Creating an atmosphere that

results in a more engaged workforce results in productive workers, loyal buying and referring

customers, satisfied shareholders—and a better world.

Imagine your team working together collaboratively and enthusiastically sharing their innovative

ideas and creating new solutions to the organization’s dilemmas.

Imagine leading a team that embraces change and systematically produces successful outcomes like

clockwork.

Imagine a company culture in which positive energy, synergy, and success is contagious.

Now…Imagine this being YOUR Company, YOUR Team...



COACHING STAFF FOR SUCCESS

Creating work environments that are successful benefits both the employer and the employee.

There are tremendous advantages to creating effective workplaces. This report outlines top

strategies for realizing an effective team and how you can coach your staff to success, so that they

are producing more and better and your business has greater earnings. As the manager, business

owner or supervisor your commitment to your staff and their success is an essential key.

BE REAL, BE AUTHENTIC

In order to build a partnership you must be sincere, real and authentic. If you are not it will be

impossible for you to successfully coach staff and build the rapport and loyalty that you want and

that your business needs. Staff can read your sincerity. In coaching staff part of the goal is to build a

partnership so that staff see you as the leader/owner/supervisor as an ally, someone that is on their

side. Your goal as the leader is to have staff fulfilling the company vision. In fact, there are no

sides, only the ones that we create. This approach is about taking down the barriers and the “sides”

and working as an effective team.

LISTEN TO YOUR STAFF

Be open to hearing their ideas, their observations and let

them know what you can and can’t do. Staffs have valuable

insights and ideas. They are there doing the work of the

company or organization. They see what works, what

doesn’t work and they see why or why not. This is gold.

They have ideas about solutions. But if you are not open tohearing them and using them you won’t know about this

gold. The company will continue to function in the

ineffective or inefficient ways that it has been operating. As the leader you can create open circles of

communication where ideas are valued and welcomed. Share your ideas and ask for their thoughts

and feedback. Be willing to be wrong.




REMOVE BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

There are many barriers to communication with employees. Some are invisible. They are thebarriers that people create in their minds, with their personal history, assumptions and beliefs.

These might include ideas that the boss is unapproachable. Our beliefs about the roles each person

is in can create barriers to communication.

There are also physical barriers. These can include how the

office space is set up. The boss's office can be intimidating

in itself. The location of the office can establish “walls”.

Visiting the office can cause stress for employees especially

if “summoned” by the boss. As the supervisor you can work to remove these barriers so that they aren’t

interfering with your communications.

Some barriers can be removed. Move from behind the desk. When you meet with staff sit without

desks and tables between you and the employee you break down barriers to communication and

ease the environment for the employee. The desk or table in the middle feels safer. It protects us,

but it also changes the communication dynamic. It can set up a power relationship that gives the

message of who is the boss and who is the employee. As you work to break down the barriers to

communication, rapport and performance this can be an easy one to remove.

If you are meeting with a group of employees sit in a circle without a large table. Circles are

wonderful because everyone can be seen and is equal in the circle. The circle can help remove the

“we” vs. “them” structures that exist. You can work within these circles to establish a safe place for

employees to communicate with you.

SHARE YOUR VISION

It’s important to start with vision: the company’s and

the employee’s. What is the company vision? The

company vision should be compelling and known by

staff. When staff don’t know the owner’s vision for the

company it is hard for them to help move it forward.

Having a clear and compelling vision that employees can

buy into provides a foundation for success.




Sharing your vision with staff let’s them help you in achieving it. Be clear with staff what your

vision is for the company. When staffs are unclear of the vision of the leaders/owner they cannot be

as helpful in accomplishing the vision. They also can’t figure out where they fit into theorganization. And the direction it is going in. Stating a clear and compelling vision to staff can be

inspiring and motivating to staff.

I recommend that you first look at the core purpose of your business, what is the heart of the

business? What is the business about, what is at the center of the business? Once you have

identified your core purpose you can more clearly outline your vision. What is the direction you are

taking the business? Where do you see the business? What is the growth, the new products, new

services that you want in the business? Are there new buildings or other types of expansion? Both

the core purpose and the vision are important components for staff to know and understand. Thecore purpose can give staff deeper understanding of your business, the vision gives them a roadmap.

Why include staff in the vision? Well, if they are working for you but are under an assumption of

the purpose of the company and unclear about the direction the company is going the results can be

detrimental to the organization. You want staff working in the direction you are going and not

against that direction. Often this can happen as a result of this miscommunication or lack of

knowledge and the results have a negative impact on the company.

T HE VISION CAN BE EXCITING , INSPIRING AND ULTIMATELY MOTIVATING TO STAFF .

I met with a leadership team in which we discussed vision. During the meeting the owner of the

company talked of his vision, the core of what was important to him in the business. It was

different from what the company leaders knew. They were surprised. They gained clarity and

understanding of what was important, where their focus needed to be. Vision matters,

communicating vision matters more!

But what drives the individual isn’t the boss’s vision, the company’s vision, but their own compelling

vision.

Employees can embrace the company vision but…

True success comes from within and from personal vision

Personal vision should be compelling and tie into the company vision

Do you know your employees dreams and visions for their lives and career




FIND OUT ABOUT THE STAFF’S VISION

Talking with staff and learning about their vision, theirpurpose and what they are trying to accomplish is valuable

information for you as the leader or owner of the company.

Are there ways the organization can support the employee’s

vision? Does the position that they are in support their

vision as well as the company’s? This is the ideal, but

sometimes it’s not the way that it is.

Looking at how you as the leader can empower the employee to live their vision benefits the

company in several ways. It continues to build the relationship between you and the employee, itfurthers you as a partner in their success, and when employees see that you are interested in them

and their vision, they become more dedicated and motivated to achieve the company’s vision.

Compelling visions are personal, written in the present tense, as if…they are happening now, and

point to an exciting future. Encourage your staff to write their own compelling vision and share it

with you.

Several times I have encountered leaders that had employees that wanted their job or wanted to

open similar businesses to theirs. It scared them, but it’s a really a great opportunity. The

opportunity is that they have high motivation, high interest in your role, your jobs. You can use that

motivation and interest to train the person, develop the person and at the same time help them in

creating their vision.

USE THE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE AND A FRAMEWORK FOR COACHING STAFF

TO SUCCESS




Our current appraisal framework:

Often the manager talks about issues that the employee didn’t know were coming. The anticipation

of the appraisal is stressful and the actual appraisal can be stressful. It’s important to recognize yourfeelings about performance appraisals and to imagine the employee’s perspective.

History of being an uncomfortable experience

Reframe the experience & create a positive, goal oriented environment that thrives

on success, enhancing performance

An opportunity to tune into the person and find out what is going on with them

Create a plan for the upcoming year.

Most individuals (most employees) want to be successful

Use the employee performance appraisal as a format for creating a goal plan with the employee, oryou can create a goal plan separately, but either way create a goal plan that focuses the employee’s

energy towards success.

Today we are talking about how to reframe the experience for both

the employee and the manager. With the manager as a coach and

partner committed to the employee’s success the environment can

shift. The goal is to reframe the experience, creating a positive,

goal oriented environment that thrives on success and enhancing

performance and not on problems or “issues”.

In my experience working with many groups of people solving

problems, I found that when they focused on what was going well and built upon it they were more

successful than when they worked on what the problems were that they were having and what they

needed to improve. In focusing on solutions, they ultimately identified the things that needed

improvement as well.

Work with each staff to create a goal plan. Identify the different roles they have in their life and at

work so that you can create a comprehensive plan. Keep it simple with at most 10 goals. Including personal goals helps to remind both you and the employee that there should be life/work balance.

Start with what is going well and create goals that build on those successes. Write goals that are

SMART: specific; measurable; achievable; relevant; time bound.

CREATE A PLAN FOR EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE:

You, the supervisor become the partner or the coach – coaching for success. In creating a plan




focused on success for the employee, the manager begins to shift the paradigm to one of employee

and coach/partner. As supervisors, our role is to build successful teams and we need successful

team members in order to do that. If we focus on creating success, we are more likely to create it.Focus on the positive, the solutions. What’s going right, how do we create more of it?

When we create goals that are SMART, we can measure them, and track their progress. If goals are

soft, not measurable it becomes difficult to progress the plan or give any feedback. So, how do we

make them measurable? Measurable is countable, how many, when, who?

SMART Goals

SMART Goals have certain attributes that make them measurable. When you can measure the goal you then know if you are attaining

it. Goals should be results or outcome oriented and not focused on

the process.

Specific:

o Write the goal with a specific outcome or result.

Measurable:

o Can be counted: how many? How much? Who?

Attainable:

o Is reasonably attainable, can be achieved within reason, a stretch but not impossible.

Relevant:

o Goals are relevant to the person’s position, the organization, the vision, values of

the company.

Time-Bounded:

o Write goals for the appraisal that can be accomplished within the timeframe of ayear.

This is an opportunity to reframe the experience and create an annual plan that is positive, focused

on the future and compelling. The annual performance appraisal is an opportunity to enhance

employee performance and create greater success for the company and the individual.

Coaching skills can be used in creating a good performance appraisal experience for both the

employee and the supervisor and to keep good performance going throughout the year.




Once you have set goals your partnership has begun. Part of what makes the performance appraisal

uncomfortable is that for many it is the only time of the year that their performance is discussed soopenly. This plan becomes the center of your partnership with the employee. The plan needs to be

kept alive and in front of you both. You have focused during this meeting on what has gone well

and how you can build upon that over the next year. It is important to keep the goals alive during

the year and not wait until the next appraisal to discuss them again. This just keeps the old

framework of stress and discomfort going. The first step in keeping it alive is to...

BREAK GOALS INTO ACHIEVABLE STEPS

Often goals feel big and that “bigness” makes them overwhelming. Break goals down into the small

actions that are needed to accomplish the goal. Identify which step you will take first. Steps can be

smaller goals that the employee works on each month. Select doable steps and write them down.

SET UP A SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Meeting with employees on a regular basis provides a framework for talking about goals, scoring

goals and figuring out what happened and what the next steps are. This is your partnership meeting.

It should occur at least monthly. This gives employees feedback and a chance to talk with you aboutthe challenges they are facing and how to overcome them.

Regular check-ins help keep people focused. When people know they have set out to accomplish a

task by a certain date or the next meeting they are more likely to do it. When there is an

accountability structure employee’s know that it’s important, it matters and they’re going to be asked

about it. When you set goals and then never check back in on the progress, employees can interpret

that the goals didn’t really matter and aren’t important to you. These partnership meetings must be

prioritized by you. Don’t schedule them and then reschedule them and continue putting them off.

They are one of the keys in your plan for coaching staff to success.

Monthly review meetings should be positive. You can start with what went right or well. Remember

the goals outlined are focused on creating better results for the company. You want that.

Focus on the plan. At the monthly meeting spend time to:

Review the vision

Review the accomplishments (What’s going right?)




Review the goals

Score each goal – give it a percentage 60%; 85%

When a goal is falling short use coaching skills to help figure out what the problem is

and how to change it.

Does the leadership need to shift to provide more supervision, training, direction….?

If the goal is below 80% talk about what’s in the way? Is the individual in their own

way? If the person is in their own way, they need to make a shift in their feelings,

beliefs, paradigm, to move forward and get out of their own way. Are they choosing

not to make the necessary shift? It’s an opportunity to talk about choices that we

make. We each operate from a place of personal responsibility. We are responsible

for ourselves, our actions.

Use basic coaching questions to focus the meeting

What’s going right?

What makes it right?

What’s the ideal, the vision?

What’s not quite right yet?

What are the resources needed?

The monthly review of the PLAN gives you the opportunity to really check-in with

staff and support them in developing success.

It also prevents the annual performance review dread. They know you are invested in their

success as well as that of the company. This is powerful. It develops you as a leader and

partner of the staff member and lets you know where the focus needs to be. It also creates a

regular stream of communication-both ways that can only improve results.

BE GENEROUS

Your generosity builds loyalty; generosity of time, benefits, wages,

perks, working conditions and yourself. Greed of organizations,

leaders or owners does not help their success. Treating staff

fairly, and with generosity assists in building the rapport and

success that you as the leader want.




Through effective coaching of staff you can further build your business success. Staff is interested

in your success and theirs. By following the steps outlined and developing effective coaching skills

you can shift the work culture. As the leader, your skills are paramount in building the business’overall success. People are your business, no matter what business you are in. If you don’t treat

your people well, you won’t be able to build the success you want. Treating people well, recognizing

their strengths and tapping into their knowledge and wisdom will only assist you in achieving your

vision. As the leader you must be committed to success for the business and for the staff that work

in the company.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE REAL WORLD LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE!

There’s no denying it, today’s business climate presents unprecedented challenges.

Lack of available capital, poor sales, and reduced consumer confidence are just some of the issues

plaguing today’s businesses. Combined with reports that 54% of US employees are disengaged

negatively impacting profits, productivity and customer service, even the most experienced leaders

are looking for new solutions.

This is precisely why the Real World Leadership Institute was formed. We create a place for leaders

to target their challenges, to gain the leadership traits that offer a shortcut to performance and to

join in with other leaders to learn and grow from one another.

We work with leaders who want to enjoy:

Clear, confident, and creative leadership

A performance-based and highly positive, collaborative culture

A systems approach to business and organizational development

High profitability and productivity

Excellent customer service and retention

Open communication

High performing teams that translates into business results

You’ll receive proven strategies that:

build collaboration

promote employee engagement




create high performing results

…so you can accelerate the vision you have for yourself and your organization.

This is not your standard workshop where you will leave with glossy materials and workbook in

hand only to return to your office and be unsure how it all applies to your team, to your

organization, in your industry. It’s been proven that that type of training simply does not work.

Instead you will receive personalized attention and your goals become our objectives. We start with

a lively, engaging and educational two and half day retreat, where managers and leaders come

together to learn, grow and challenge themselves and each other.

Then, each subsequent month we will reconvene to leverage your progress and to work on the

challenges you are currently facing. It’s during this time that you’ll be given a rare opportunity for

both group and one on one coaching, so you can track your progress, identify and overcome your

challenges and achieve your results.

There will also be a leadership workshop every month, where we’ll focus directly on the most up to

date, proven strategies and exciting trends that will optimize your leadership results even further.

REPLACE OLD HABITS WITH NEW BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGIES

Lack of available capital, poor sales, and reduced consumer confidence are just some of the issues

plaguing today’s businesses. Combined with reports that 54% of US employees are disengaged

negatively impacting profits, productivity and customer service, even the most experienced leaders

are looking for new solutions.

This is precisely why the Real World Leadership Institute was formed. We create a place for leaders

to target their challenges, to gain the leadership traits that offer a shortcut to performance and to

join in with other leaders to learn and grow from one another.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS

In addition to your three retreats and six monthly webinars, as an Institute participant you will have

monthly access to an executive coach for personal executive coaching sessions. Normally this type

of session is conducted independent of a group program, so there is always a missing piece to the

puzzle. Usually a valuable piece. Executive and management coaching has proven to have a




seven times return on investment (Sherpa Executive Coaching Study 2009). But why settle for just

attending training when you can wrap a team of personalized support and resources around you,

your team and your organization?

When you combine personal, one-to-one executive coaching into the mix, the result is the most

comprehensive leadership program you will find. It’s action-based, content-rich and accountability-

driven. When you have these three factors you get a leadership program that will give you the skills,

the outcomes and the results you’ve been seeking.

And that’s how you become the Exemplary Real World Leader at your company, before the end of

2010.

THE REAL WORLD LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE IS THE RESULT OF OVER 20 YEARS OF RESEARCH

We’ve crammed 20 years of research into this program in a way that is easy to grasp and master at

the real world, in the trenches level.

Y OU ’ LL GET :

6 Full Days of In –Person Training

6 Skill Development Webinars

9 Months of Leadership Development

Individual Executive Coaching

Pre,-Post and Mid-Term Assessments

Skill Development that Works in the Real World

Find out if this program is a fit for you.

W HAT YOU GET …

Here’s a month by month glimpse at the Real World Leadership Institute:

MONTH 1: GET REAL WITH LEADERSHIP RETREAT




We begin with The Leadership Challenge Workshop, the most talked about retreat based on an

intense discovery process created by best-selling authors and leadership icons, Jim Kouzes and Barry

Posner. It will be an experience like no other.

The Workshop demystifies the concepts of leadership and leadership development and approaches

it as a measurable, learnable, and teachable set of behaviors, establishing the unique underlying

philosophy, that leadership is everyone’s business.

The Workshop is grounded in the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®.

Not everyone is born a natural leader, but leaders can be developed. People can become exemplary

leaders. Evidence of the Leadership Challenge has demonstrated that leaders who use The FivePractices of Exemplary Leadership® more frequently are seen by others as better leaders. You work

hard, why not get the recognition and the results you deserve?

MONTH 2: STRATEGY & I NFLUENCE IN LEADERSHIP

This month is all about influence–a must-have skill-set that is, ironically, rarely taught in any

structured way—until now. During this powerful webinar you will learn that influence, your ability

to influence others is a skill you WANT in your toolbox.

Exercising influence uses a practical real world model that will help participants discover how to:

Develop effective influence behaviors and a strategic and tactical approach to influence

Plan for influence

Design and apply to real-life situations

Resolve problems and conflicts

Accomplish far more in their organization with less effort

Take charge of their professional lives in a powerful, ethical, and productive way

MONTH 3: 10 K EYS TO U NLOCKING E MPLOYEE E NGAGEMENT

Have you ever felt like you were pushing ahead, only to find you are held back by the people who

need to perform in order for you to meet your goals? Leadership is not accomplished alone. You

need to engage your teams, your employees, to align with goals and to work together to achieve.

Getting people to play nicely together sometimes is not easy. Getting them to understand and align

with the organizational goals is even harder.

Traditional, “push it forward” leadership does not work anymore. Let us show you what does. Here




we will go deep into “employee engagement” and how as leaders we have a role in engaging with

our employees to improve overall performance.

There is clear and mounting evidence that employee engagement keenly correlates to individual,

group, and corporate performance in areas such as retention, productivity, customer service, and

loyalty.

This timely webinar session provides a comprehensive framework, language, and process that

genuinely connect a people strategy with good business strategy.

Leaders who implement an employee engagement strategy quickly see an impact, how could you not

with the following results:

84% of engaged employees desire to have a positive impact on the organization

72% think daily about ways to improve customer service

68% want to positively impact the bottom line

Learn the top 10 ways to drive engagement create a better workplace and exceed your goal

expectations.

MONTH 4: SKILLS I MPLEMENTATION L AB

By now you are feeling empowered. Odd things are happening. The quietest people on your team

are offering ideas

around the conference room table. You and those around you show up energized and your

workplace has turned into a potential winner of one of “best places to work.” Show up to this

webinar ready to report on your successes and be willing to take on new challenges.

This is a month of follow-up, celebration and focus on self development via a Skills

Implementation Lab – checking in on Leadership Challenge Skills, Employee Engagement, and

Influence. With each training and webinar, you are setting your personal skill acquisition or skill

development goals. Skills Labs help to reinforce what you have learned, and what has challenged

you back in the workplace. It is one thing to “learn” new skills at a workshop. But the real goal is

to implement new skills in your real world workplace. Team Building in the classroom does your

team no good. Taking your new skills around team building and living them at work, skyrockets

your team!!

We know you are busy so we designed your lab via webinar making it easy for you to join in from




5: The Diversity Adoption Curve

Learn how to really implement real world diversity.

MONTH 7: SKILLS I MPLEMENTATION L AB

Just like the first Skills Implementation Lab we focus on using the new skills in our workplaces. It is

not enough to participate in the training. It is the implementation that is essential to real world

success.

MONTH 8: T EAM ADVANTAGE T RAIN THE LEADER

This month is your final two day retreat and celebration. Throughout the journey we have focused

on leadership, employee engagement, influence, diversity, coaching skills, all leading to you being a

great leader and a great leader of teams.

During this two day development time the focus is all on teams. As a leader, being able to develop a

high performance team is a key to becoming an exemplary leader. This has been a focus of the

journey up to this two day retreat but now we intensify the focus on your team leadership.

Team Advantage is a proven team coaching program that designed to give leaders the skills that they

need to transform their teams.

We will take the coaching skills you have learned throughout the program and focus them on

transforming your team. Team Advantage is a proven team coaching program designed to transform

teams. We will be focused on you as the facilitator and we will play the game during our retreat with

our “team”.

Praise for Team Advantage:

“Team Advantage is for any leader with a team and a goal. It’s a proven process, with challenges and rewards that

will drive your team past typical corporate objectives to new levels of engagement and commitment. You can transform

your team—and you’re Team Advantage.”—Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and Leading

at a Higher Level

“The outcomes of conducting a 16-game pilot project accelerated goal attainment and produced significant results,

leaving a sustainable impact on team leaders and the team members by improving their collaboration, team focus and

performance. Team Advantage brings action learning and management by objectives into alignment so that teams are

truly transformed.”—Anne Whitaker, senior vice president, International Pharmaceutical Company




MONTH 8: REAL W ORLD LEADER W RAP -U P AND

C ELEBRATION , STATE OF THE ART T RAINING , E XCEPTIONAL

E XECUTIVE C OACHING

This combination accelerates results and ensures adoption of new

skills. By the end of the program you’ll be well equipped and

empowered to take your company to new plateaus of employee

interaction and customer engagement. In Month 8 we will set new

goals and plan to move forward, after all the role of leadership is a

continued journey.

I N SUMMARY

As you can see, the Real World Leadership Institute is like no other training or leadership program

out there, because it combines the work of some of the best minds on earth, with the individual

executive coaching of two of the most prolific leadership coaches in the industry.

And the investment is far less than what most similar programs are putting forth.

If you feel you’re ready to make a bold step forward for yourself or your organization then take

action now to secure your spot!

T O LEARN MORE …

GO T O: HTTP :// WWW .R EAL W ORLD L EADERSHIP I NSTITUTE .COM

If you have any questions…

Call:

Debora McLaughlin 603.589.4008

Donna Price 973.948.7673

real world leader report

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