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Unleash Your Peak Potential

10 Keys to Success in Your New Role

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Congratulations! You decided to make a move in your career. You networked, navigated the lengthy interview process, and were offered the job. The time for celebration is at hand! You might be thinking, “the hard work is over, right”? Well, the first stage of the hard work is over. Now you are faced with the first ninety days in your new role which are critical to your long-term success.

How do you hit the ground running? Not in the way you might imagine. Often, we have the urge to dive in and quickly make a big impact. Yet, slowing your pace a bit and getting the lay of the land before jumping into action yields the best results. A misstep at this point, can earn you a reputation that can take quite some time to turn around.

Keys to Success

Here are 10 key tips to set yourself up for success in a new role.

  1. Be clear on expectations. There are both spoken and unspoken requirements of a role. Gain a clear understanding from your manager of not only the measurable performance expectations but also the intangible ones. What informal rules exist on how to accomplish your job?
  2. Support your manager. What are your manager’s aspirations? How can you support them in a way that helps them achieve their goals? Get a sense of how they prefer to receive communication, i.e., face-to-face, via email, via text, etc. Understand how frequently they want updates from you. What are the things you need to avoid doing when interacting with this person? How can you make life easier for your manager?
  3. Take time to observe and learn. New managers and executives sometimes make the mistake of equating success with making rapid changes. Determine how long you have to observe, learn, and then make well-informed decisions about planned changes. The length of time you have available for this will vary with the situation. The point is that you’ll likely have at least a couple of months to map out a plan forward. Resist the urge to jump in too quickly. Hasty decisions often do not end well.
  4. Create your vision and strategy. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know if you’ve arrived. Identify the key people who should have a voice in establishing a vision for your area of responsibility. Develop a shared vision, determine the strategy to realize it, get buy-in, and communicate the vision and path to get there. Then, ensure you have clear measures of success and hold key players accountable for their contribution to the execution of the vision and strategy.
  5. Evaluate your team. Take the time to get to know the people on your team. What are each person’s strengths, areas for development, aspirations, motivations, and results? Begin to set expectations with each person. Understand what support each individual needs from you and how you can add value to the team. Determine if you have the right mix of people. What adjustments might need to be made to ensure you have the right team to implement the vision and strategy?
  6. Align with the culture. What is the culture like in this new organization? Which behaviors are expected, and which behaviors are not tolerated? What are the values of the organization and how are these lived, or not, in day-to-day operations? How does your style fit with the culture and values of the organization? Where do you already fit in well? Where might you need to modify your style (without compromising your own values)?
  7. Build strategic relationships. There are formal and informal leaders in every organization. Who are the key players in yours? These leaders may be found amongst executives, high potentials, project leaders on key initiatives, and top performers. Which are the most impactful relationships for you to begin building? Building relationships in a strategic way will help to lay the foundation for success.
  8. Understand the political landscape. Stepping into a new role may bring with it potential land mines. Asking questions that will reveal where to tread lightly will go a long way toward your success.
  9. Create a personal development plan. Development never ends. With each new step comes a need to deepen one’s knowledge of the industry, the business, or to expand one’s leadership skills. Learning should be a life-long pursuit. Be sure to create a development plan for yourself within the first 90 days in your new role.
  10. Small wins build momentum. Where are the places where you can begin to make progress without large scale changes? Find some small, impactful, early wins that get the ball rolling while you set the stage to excel in your new role.

Which of these key tips have you successfully used? What others would you like to share?

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Losing Employees? – Try This Simple Leadership Approach to Engage and Retain Your Team

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“The Great Resignation” is something that we are hearing and reading about on a regular basis. Now, more than ever, employees are leaving their roles at an amazing rate – in May of 2021 alone, 3.6 million Americans quit their jobs. According to Gallup, “48% of America’s working population is actively job searching or watching for opportunities”.

While the term ‘employee engagement’ can sound like just another buzzword, it’s anything but. For U.S. employers, the lack of employee engagement is estimated to result in $450 – 500 billion in lost productivity on an annual basis. For over 20 years, Gallup has been researching employee engagement and the percentage of engaged employees has barely budged in the United States during this timeframe. Based on 2021 research, Gallup has reported that 36% of U.S. workers are engaged, 49% are not engaged, and 15% are actively disengaged.

What is Employee Engagement?

What exactly is employee engagement?  According to Gallup, an engaged employee is one who is “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace”. Someone who is experiencing this type of engagement is most likely to be aligned with their team and organization’s goals and making key contributions to producing desired results. Organizations that do the best job of creating employee engagement achieve earnings-per-share growth greater than 4 times that of their competitors. Additionally, other business boosting results are enjoyed by those companies who exemplify employee engagement. These include higher customer engagement, increased productivity, lower attrition, and higher profitability.

A Simple Approach

There are a multitude of methods available for increasing employee engagement with varying ranges of complexity, time commitment and cost. Yet, the solution may be simpler than you think. When we talk about employee engagement, we often speak in generalities. It can sound as if there is a group called “employees” that we must direct something towards collectively. A one size fits all approach has less of an opportunity to positively drive your engagement levels than one simple opportunity that many leaders have, at every level, including the C-suite. This opportunity, the key to engaging employees, is to get specific about each person.

One Employee at a Time

Engaging employees happens one person at a time. The place to start is to get to know each person on your team uniquely. How much do you already know about each employee and what makes that person tick?

How many of these questions can you answer right now about each employee on your team?

  • What are their career aspirations?
  • What personal aspirations do they have?
  • What motivates them?
  • What are their most important values?
  • What key strengths do they bring to the team?
  • What type of behavioral style do they favor?
  • What professional development needs do they have?

Call to Action

As you begin the new year, if you can’t answer all of these questions for each employee, I invite you to make it a priority to schedule 1:1 meetings to discover those answers. Then, look for the opportunities to:

  • let them use their strengths each day,
  • take on assignments that build the skills for their future career path,
  • communicate with them in a way that matches their style.

Your employees want to work in jobs that allow them to do what they do best, to grow and develop professionally, and feel a sense of purpose in what they focus on each day. What drives engagement and motivation is unique to each individual. So, get started by getting to know your team. Look for ways to align what is important to each person with the work they are doing, and watch your results begin to shift.

If you would like support in increasing employee engagement in your organization, please contact me to have a conversation. We offer a simple yet powerful and practical methodology to support you in improving employee engagement.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

6 Keys to Managing Your Most Important Work Relationship

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While all work relationships are important, there is arguably one that is most important. That is the relationship with your manager and it’s often overlooked. Sometimes this is referred to as “managing up” which is primarily concerned with how effectively you work with and can influence your manager.

What makes this relationship especially important? Your manager ultimately determines the types of projects and assignments that are on your plate. Additionally, your manager has influence on your career path and can help connect you to resources within the organization to help you reach your team’s goals.

Here are six keys to help you strengthen this relationship:

  1. Ensure you are clear regarding your manager’s expectations. The job description for your position may provide you with the formal performance requirements for your role, but your manager will likely have additional expectations. Have a discussion with your manager to ensure that you are aligned on the key measures of success, the priority initiatives to execute, and the principles and values that should be reflected in how you carry out your role.
  2. Get to know your manager. What communication style does your manager prefer? What is important to them, both personally and professionally? In what way do they want to receive information and updates from their team members? What types of things are a natural source of frustration for your manager? If you are aware of the answers, you will be better positioned to help your manager be successful.
  3. Look for the good. As humans, we have a natural tendency to be on the lookout for danger, which can cause us to focus on traits and attributes in managers that we don’t like. Even if your manager can be difficult to work with, focus on the things that your manager does well. Look for the opportunities to learn from your manager and acknowledge their contributions and support.
  4. Consider how you can adapt to your manager’s behavioral style. For example, let’s say that your manager is someone who drives for results and you are more of a process-oriented person. It would be important for you to learn how to present your ideas and other communication in a quick, high-level summary format.
  5. Make your manager look good. Doing something that reflects poorly on your manager is a quick route to damaging your relationship. What might you do to increase the level of trust, respect, and confidence that your manager has in you?
  6. Discover ways to free up time and reduce the hassles your manager deals with. Doing so allows your manager to focus on what’s most important and supports their success. So, take the initiative, be solution oriented, provide possible ideas for resolving issues that you must escalate. Be a leader!

The only behavior you can control is your own. Don’t leave the full responsibility for the relationship in your manager’s hands. Some managers are amazing at creating relationships with their team members. Others, not so much. Regardless of the type of manager you report to, being proactive in building a strong relationship with your manager will not only help their success, but also yours.

For more ideas about how to improve relationships and alignment up, down, and across your organization, contact us at Sherry@DutraAssociates.com.

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

An Often-Forgotten Key to Team Success: Managing Transitions On and Off the Team

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An abundance of research, models, and resources exists to support teams in maximizing their effectiveness in delivering high performance and value to the team’s key stakeholders. Yet, one area that doesn’t tend to get enough attention is the criticality of managing the process of team members transitioning on and off the team.

We often tend to think this is a fairly simple process. Yet, how does the new team member fill the role of the person who has just moved on?  If the team is expanding and someone is coming into a new role, how do they fit in? How do we capture the knowledge that is leaving with the team member who is transitioning out? The dynamics of the team are impacted every time there’s a change. So, beyond welcoming the new team member and saying a fond farewell to the one who is moving on, what can leaders do to pave the way for creating a smooth transition?

Here are a few key considerations when bringing on a new team member:

  • What excites them about coming on board?
  • What resources or support do they need from you or other members of the team to help them get up to speed?
  • What plans are in place to train them?
  • What level of oversight do you need to provide to ensure they have a smooth transition (without micromanaging)?
  • How will you welcome them to the team and ensure they meet everyone?
  • What will you put in place to help the other team members accept and welcome the new member?
  • How can you create an environment where the differing perspectives and experiences of the new team member are listened to and considered?

Here are a few key considerations when a team member is transitioning off the team:

  • How will this person’s work be transitioned to their replacement in a seamless way?
  • What is your process for capturing the team member’s knowledge before they move to a new group or leave the company?
  • How much time have you built into the process for them to train others?
  • How do you thank them for their contribution before they move on?
  • How do you ensure that confidential or proprietary information doesn’t walk out the door with the departing team member?

Transitions on and off a team are an important factor in team performance and results and, too often, proper preparation for such transitions doesn’t occur. Whether you are leading a long-standing team or shorter-term project teams, take the time to consider exploring these questions with your team the next time a transition on or off occurs. The time you invest now will pay off through shorter ramp-up time, more effective collaboration, and higher productivity.

What has worked for you in managing transitions successfully? Please feel free to share your ideas.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

 

Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results

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Are you consistently getting the personal and professional results that you desire? Given the level of unknowns that we are currently facing, it is more challenging than ever to stay on course. What if you had a model that easily conveyed how you create the results that you experience each day? What if you could gain insight into the patterns of your thinking and behavior that serve you as well as the patterns that do not?  What possibilities might be open to you if you could learn to run your system rather than having it run you? The Results System™ allows you to gain these benefits by providing the framework, tools and solutions that raise the bar and drive results.

The Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results provide a simple introduction to the key concepts behind The Results System™.

  1. Results First and Foremost:

What is the outcome that you desire to achieve? Start first with defining your end result and work backwards from there. You create what you focus on.

  1. Goals are Not Results:

It’s important to make a distinction between a goal and a result. When you do not, you run the risk of limiting your choices and options.  A “result” is the outcome you want to create.  A “goal” is a target or milestone designed to achieve the result. For example, when you say, “I want to reach my sales target for the quarter,” you might think you are describing a result.  In fact, this is actually a goal. The result is what you will have when you achieve your sales target, such as financial stability.

  1. Choices Not Actions:

Choose your actions wisely.  Often, you might feel you are making progress when you can check items off of a list.  Yet, you may end up wasting time by leaping too quickly to action and completing tasks that are not fully aligned with creating the results you desire.

  1. Invisibles Make the Difference:

Remember that everyone has blind spots and other factors that are not yet visible. Take time to become more self-aware to reveal the aspects that are operating behind the scenes. Doing so drives better choices and actions.

  1. Silent Partners Make Predictable Patterns:

All humans have a unique and wonderful “operating system” that creates unconscious repeatable patterns of thinking and behavior.  Having such a system allows you to motor throughout your life without having to consciously think about each step you need to take to complete daily tasks like getting ready in the morning or driving your car. Over time, these patterns of thinking and behavior become invisible and operate behind the scenes.  In most cases, they serve you well. Yet, when you want to change in order to get a different result, these automatic patterns kick up a fuss. In order to dissuade you from changing, there are even three lines of defense to keep you from making a shift: remaining invisible, making change awkward, and telling us stories in our own voice that convince us that change would not be beneficial.

  1. Change is a Process:

Any change that you set out to make has an emotional component to it. To create change that lasts we must deal with the inevitable feelings that will come up. While initially you might start off positively fired up about making the change and are certain you will be successful, the actual practice of creating new habits and permanently changing your behavior may cause you to swing from confidence to doubt to hope.  When you experience this roller coaster, it may be enough to have you give up and go back to your old habits. Keep in mind that the emotions that arise are all a natural part of the change process.  In knowing that, you can design strategies to manage the emotional ups and downs and achieve the result you want.

  1. Use the System:

Take a systems based approach to creating your results. The Results System™ model helps you to reveal the visible and invisible factors that drive your ability to create results. Your Results System™ is unique to you. Even teams and organizations have a Results System™. Using the model will create greater self-awareness around the strengths and the detractors that impact your results and provide you with a means to make conscious choices and choose the actions that support the achievement of your key outcomes.

Call to Action

  • Are you willing to make changes to achieve the result you desire? If so, what action(s) are you willing to commit to in the next week to help you achieve this result by implementing the above principles into your life and work?
  • If you would like to learn more about how you can reveal your own Results System™ and develop strategies to create the results you desire, please reach out to me to discuss how this system can help you in all areas of your life. The Results Accelerator™ is an intensive professional development experience, based on the Results System™, that can be delivered virtually for individuals as well as for teams.

Adapted from “Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results” by ThoughtAction, LLC, 2015. Adapted with permission.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Skills to Create a Thriving Culture

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Think of the best manager you ever had during your career. What is it or was it about this person that made him or her so great?  When I reflect back on the person who comes to mind for me, what stands out was my manager’s ability to stay calm in difficult situations, to be supportive and encouraging – a person who saw the best in me, even when I couldn’t. This manager listened to my ideas, and those of others on the team, and always made us comfortable to speak up, even if we had differing views. Additionally, this manager never hesitated to share information so that we all had the opportunity to learn and grow.  No matter the situation, this manager had the capability to determine what was needed and address that need accordingly. Decades later, I still feel the positive impact of working for, what I learned later, was an emotionally intelligent leader.

EQ / IQ / Style

Much has been written about emotional intelligence over the years and many models of EQ exist. One of those models, brought to us by John Wiley and Sons, defines emotional intelligence as:

  • EQ: “the ability to read the emotional and interpersonal needs of a situation and respond appropriately…even if it’s difficult”.¹

Some organizations have embraced the concept of EQ and have actively helped their leaders to develop these skills. Such forward-thinking companies are finding that they are much better prepared to adapt and pivot quickly. Cultures are created where employees are engaged and motivated which significantly improves retention and positively impacts the bottom line. Unfortunately, for many organizations, developing leaders’ skills in this area has not been a high priority. Consequently, many leaders find themselves far outside their comfort zones when dealing with interpersonal issues in the workplace.

Data consistently shows the link between EQ and leadership effectiveness.² A leader’s ability to demonstrate the behaviors and mindsets of emotional intelligence is as important, if not more so, as their:

  • IQ: the skills, knowledge, and capability a leader possesses and the ability to apply that to problem-solve or meet goals, and
  • Behavioral style: how leaders approach their work and relationships.

A Solution

When it comes to leading yourself and others through the challenges being faced as we move through the pandemic, emotional intelligence skills are more critical than ever to cultivate. As leaders strive to rebuild businesses, show empathy to employees dealing with a myriad of stressors both inside and outside of work, manage their own cadre of emotions, make decisions during great ambiguity, and so on, there is a need to understand our emotional intelligence mindsets, leverage our strengths, and take action to improve the areas requiring more effort. Doing so will improve our ability to read situations and respond in a constructive way.

The good news is that there is now a program, Everything DiSC® Agile EQ™, that helps organizations and people adapt to whatever the future may hold, so that when it arrives, they are ready to meet the challenge. The power in the program lies in the combination of practical application and personalized learning. Each participant learns their likely EQ strengths based on their DiSC® behavioral style. Then, they receive specific feedback around their EQ opportunities with actionable recommendations to learn methods to stretch outside their comfort zone as circumstances may require.

Tips to Start Building EQ

Here are a few key tips³ to begin enhancing emotional intelligence. Some of these may be easier for you than others. With practice, those that are more of a stretch will take less effort.

  • Take a breath to help you stay calm in high pressure moments.
  • Separate emotions from the facts to see situations more clearly.
  • Confront issues that may impact important standards and goals.
  • Assert your conviction about your opinions and ideas.
  • Take concrete steps to transform your ideas into reality.
  • Put aside time and energy to create and maintain relationships with others.
  • Listen for what is not being said in interactions and use inquiry to draw out and understand the other person’s perspective.
  • Stay open to other’s ideas and be willing to compromise or even set aside your own preferences for the good of the team or a colleague.

Take Action

Dutra Associates, LLC is now offering Everything DiSC® Agile EQ. If you want to develop the leaders and teams who will be nimble and agile in facing challenges, both now and in the future, please contact me to discuss your organization’s needs. Both the assessment and subsequent training to deepen the learning can be conducted virtually to support remote workers. We also can support you and your team with virtual individual and group coaching to help support the development and application of emotionally intelligent mindsets.

 

¹ Agility Unlocked | Revealing the Connection Between Agility and Emotional Intelligence, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2020

² John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2020 Agile Organization Survey Results; The Impact of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership on Talent Retention, Discretionary Effort and Employment Brand, Benjamin R. Palmer and Gilles Gignac, Vol. 44 NO. 1 2012, pp 9-18 © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858 | INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING

³ Agility Unlocked | Revealing the Connection Between Agility and Emotional Intelligence, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2020

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Adaptability: A Key Management Skill for Challenging Times

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As I write this, parts of the United States are beginning to allow some businesses to slowly re-open. Over time, more and more people will be going back to work. If you are a middle manager, you might be inclined to attempt a ‘business as usual’ approach as your team returns. Yet, there is nothing usual about the path forward. Most of us are experiencing the greatest ambiguity, volatility and complexity that we have been faced with in our entire personal and professional lives. There is no roadmap to follow, no prescription to cure the impact that COVID-19 has had on every aspect of our lives. A key management skill that is especially critical to your success right now is your level of adaptability. How able are you to adapt or adjust to new conditions?

As a middle manager, you are on the front lines with your team. It is your role to execute on the strategies that senior leaders set forth. And, it is equally your role to be there for your team and create an environment where people can be open about their concerns. You will be walking a tightrope as you strive to balance between empathetically helping your team cope with the stress they are feeling and ramping up productivity. There is no way to know what is coming next. Will stay at home orders start up again in the fall?  Will there be furloughs or layoffs ahead? When will business rise to pre-COVID levels? No one has the answers.

So, rather than focus on what is out of your control, help your team to get focused on what they can control or influence. Draw on the key strengths of your team, provide them with the latitude and support to do their work, and keep yourself in a positive frame of mind as a model to your team. Developing your capacity for adaptability can support you in these challenging times to be the manager that you would like to be. Here are a few tips to consider:

  • Learn: You do not need to have all the answers. Being curious, asking questions, and involving others in finding the way forward will generate innovative solutions and commitment to your evolving business.
  • Be mindful of the conversation in your head: What are you telling yourself? Self-doubt will paralyze you and prevent you from taking what might be some necessary bold moves.
  • Step outside your comfort zone: Everyone is in new territory. Expand your horizons and try new approaches. Leaning too heavily on what is already known to you will slow your progress. Experimenting with new possibilities is what is called for now.
  • Take small steps forward: In the current environment, the best strategy is one in which you use what you know right now to determine just your very next step. When you take that step, check for the result and let that determine the next small step. Small steps in unknown territory allow for easy course correction.
  • Show yourself some compassion: Not every step will have the intended result. Let that be okay. Rather than spending any time on beating yourself up, instead look at what you might learn that will inform your next move.

No matter the situation, your ability to lead is tied directly to how you choose to behave. Your ability to choose your behavior versus react to circumstances is improved through self-care. Ensure that you ask for the support you need from your own manager and lean on your colleagues so that you are grounded, calm and empathetic. Practice the skill of adaptability and you will be primed to lead your team through this crisis.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Safeguarding Your Most Important Resource as a Leader

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So, what is your most important resource as a leader?

One of the first things that might come to mind is the amount of available cash and the state of the investment portfolio of the business. While these are certainly important, would you agree that you can always earn more money, find better investments, and eventually find your way back from a financial loss?

Another resource that might come to mind is your network of relationships. The connections you have nurtured in your professional life are important resources in your success. Yet, even if there has been a significant hiccup in a relationship, you can choose to mend it while continuing to meet other professionals and adding to your network.

Your health is another resource that hits high on the most important list. Many times, there is a tendency to not do as much as we might to protect that resource. However, in most cases, we have the control to make adjustments to our daily habits that will positively impact our health. And, when we have a healthier lifestyle, it positively impacts the energy we bring to our work.

So, if your most important resource as a leader isn’t money, relationships or health, then what is it?  What these three have in common is that, for the most part, they can all be revived or renewed. There is one resource, though, that cannot be revived or renewed.

That resource is time. With each moment that goes by, that’s it. You’ll never see that moment again.

This is not new news. Yet, even though you know this, how often do you take actions that aren’t in alignment with this knowledge? How much time do you spend in meetings that you don’t need to attend (or that even need to be held at all)? How much time do you spend on doing things that don’t contribute to your business’ top priorities? Where are there opportunities to delegate something that doesn’t require you to do it?

Failure to see time as your most important resource, often results in stress and overwhelm. We become scattered and lose our discipline. When we’re in this state, we also negatively impact those other resources. High stress levels wear away at our health. It may make us impatient and short with others which may damage our relationships. Our thought process becomes clouded and our decision-making may be impacted which can lead to financial missteps.

Time, then, is our most important resource.  So, safeguard that resource. Pay attention to how you use it. Where are your opportunities to use it more strategically? Put new habits and disciplines in place that allow you to set and maintain boundaries and act in alignment with your new choices.

Remember, time is the one resource we cannot get back.

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business growth and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

 

Is Your Organization Ready for This Seismic Shift?

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On average, 10,000 of these events will happen per day in the United States through the year 2030. What are they?

According to the Insured Retirement Institute, 10,000 baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) are expected to retire, on average, each day in the United States through 2030. This is excellent news for those getting ready to enter the next chapter of their lives and an opportunity for younger workers to step into new roles. Yet, what will be the impact of that lost knowledge and expertise on your organization?

Based on research conducted by the authors of Critical Knowledge Transfer, one company reported that in the next anticipated wave of nearly 700 retirements, they would experience a loss of 27,000 years of experience.  If that’s not enough to have you sit up and take notice, I’m not sure what will. That said, not every vacated position is created equal. Some will certainly be easier to fill than others. Perhaps the appropriate level of expertise and skill is readily available on the job market or you have done the work to ensure that someone within your organization is ready to take on the role. Unfortunately, this is the exception rather than the rule.

Taking a Proactive Stance – 4 Key Tips

  1. Knowing the average age of your employee population is not enough. That still keeps the potential problem at hand difficult to define. Take a closer look at the specific roles held by long-term employees and seasoned managers who are within a few years of retirement age. Which positions require critical skills and experience that are not easy to find on the open market?  Long term employees across and at all levels of the organization often hold critical, hands-on experience of how to get things done through their comprehensive knowledge of processes, company historical information, clients and customers.  Without a proactive approach, your organization runs the risk of realizing, too late, that you have a critical skill shortage that is adversely impacting your business performance.
  2. Consider implementing a mentoring program that effectively engages both older and younger workers in accelerating development and bridging the knowledge gap. Providing training for both mentors and mentees can help to ensure that a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship is created and both parties find the experience a valuable one.
  3. Utilize knowledge capture methods to gather critical expertise and make it available across a wide range of people. There are many ways to store and manage institutional knowledge including online forums, podcasts, webinars, and videos, to name a few.
  4. Pay attention to employee engagement. Younger members of the workforce have an average job stay of roughly four years.  Ensure the right managers are in place who truly care about their employees’ success. Robin Reilly, a Senior Consultant at Gallup has written that such managers “seek to understand each person’s strengths and provide employees with every opportunity to use their strengths in their role. Great managers empower their employees, recognize and value their contributions, and actively seek their ideas and opinions.” Increasing employee engagement will assist in keeping younger workers from jumping ship.

The time has come to proactively address the seismic shift that has already begun in terms of talent shortages in the workplace. These are just a few of the tips that can help you to mitigate your risk. Don’t wait another day to identify where your organization is most vulnerable and take the steps now to ensure a smoother transition.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

5 Key Tips for New Manager Success

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staff-meetingAre you a new manager or know someone who is? The transition to a first time management role can be exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Soon, you often realize that the strengths and skills that made you successful in your previous role are not what will spell success as a manager.  To help you navigate this transition, here are five key tips to keep in mind.

  1. Keep learning and growing: The functional and/or technical skills that allowed you to excel at an individual level are still important. Yet, they are not sufficient to lead a team successfully. Take advantage of leadership courses, tools and resources that your company or local continuing education program provides. Then, look for opportunities every day to apply those skills as you lead your team. The more you practice, the more you will seamlessly integrate the new skills.
  2. Inspire and empower: Get to know the people on your team. Learn what they are passionate about. Paint a vivid and compelling vision of the future and ask for input and feedback. Align individual skills, strengths and passion with the vision and objectives for the team as a whole. Create a clear line-of-sight between each person’s contribution and the overarching desired result.
  3. Set clear expectations: It really is true – you do get what you expect. Establish yourself as a positive role model who exemplifies the behavior you would like to see in others. Expect that others will work well both individually and within the team and deliver high performance. Don’t assume that team members will intuitively know what you want them to do. Establish clear expectations, provide support and hold people accountable for results. You’ll be amazed at how motivating it can be to your team to know that someone believes in them.
  4. Develop your people: Change can be challenging and sometimes we hold onto the work that we most enjoyed because it feels comfortable. It’s time to take the leap and delegate key responsibilities to your team members. This frees you up to focus more of your time on your new role and develops the skills of your team. Make sure that you provide a level of decision-making authority and support that is appropriate to the skill level of the team member and the complexity of the task. When in doubt, err on the side of less authority and more support. You can always give more authority over time but you never want to have to take it back.
  5. Establish credibility as a manager: If you’ve been promoted within your current organization, you may now be supervising former peers. This can lead to an uncomfortable situation for both you and your colleagues unless you address the shift directly and quickly. Give up on the idea of being liked by everyone and staying best buddies with your former peers. It’s hard to be viewed as being fair and objective if you are continuing to socialize after work and have lunch every day with your close friend who now works for you. While it’s not an easy conversation to have, it is an important one. You might start off with something like, “Our friendship is important to me. As a manager now, I must ensure that the team feels that I’m being fair and unbiased. In order to do that our work relationship needs to be different.”  You and your former peer will be glad you discussed your new dynamic.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Management and Career Coach and Facilitator who helps you create consistent, optimal performance using all your capacity and potential in both your work and life. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.