Terry's Blog

Employee Performance

Positive reinforcement is not praise nor is it a warm and fuzzy. It's a teaching tool; a psychological principle that says that a desirable behavior, when reinforced, gets repeated.

 

 

Employee Performance

Over time, employees have a tendency to drift off mission in terms of understanding how their job contributes to the goals of the organization. It's a good idea to routinely have an informal discussion when this "drifting" occurs, and remind your employees of the following: 1) explain why their job position exists, 2) the outcomes their job position is expected to produce, 3) the critical behaviors that produce those outcomes and define success, and, 4) the consequences (good & bad) for not producing those results. While you're at, a big thank you for their efforts to date will go a long way towards refocusing them back on the mission.

Employee Performance

Factors that contribute to employee’s satisfaction is their relationship with their immediate supervisor. The best predictor was frequency of interaction. Supervisors who are accessible, talk openly, and spend informal time chatting with their direct reports are far more likely to be influential
than those supervisors who maintain their distance.

Clear Expectations

Make sure each employee clearly understands why their job position exists; the outcomes the position is expected to produce; the critical behaviors that produce the outcomes and define success, along with the consequences associated with not producing those outcomes. There's simply no way for an employee to evaluate their performance and improve if they don't know what's expected of them.

Employee Performance

A recent poll of U.S. workers found that 44% reported putting in as little effort as they could get away with without getting fired. Where do you think your workforce comes in at?

Marketing

The best definition of marketing that I've ever heard is, "Marketing is getting more people to buy more stuff more often." Marketing efforts designed to create "awareness," does not guarantee people will buy from you. In the mid 1980's IBM was financially hemorrhaging, yet just about everyone in the civilized world knew who IBM was. They just weren't buying from IBM.

 

Employee Performance

Every company has at least one "super star" employee in every position. Spend a day hanging out with those employees learning what they do and don't do (i.e. observable behaviors), and record your findings. Develop your findings into tools and training so that you can teach and develop the rest of your employees. When it comes to great employee job performance you don't necessarily have to look to see what other companies are doing - you have your own super stars right under your nose. Learn all you can from your best employees, then work to instill their behaviors and work habits into all your employees.

 

Personal Development

Here's the best advice I ever received. Beliefs are programed expectations that cause you to see what you expect to see and achieve what you expect to achieve. Our belief system is like software to a computer. You have to download the right belief system into your mind in order to live the life you desire. The important question to ask yourself is this: is your belief system programed to deliver the life you desire? If not, reprogram your belief system!

Employee Performance

Very few organizations take responsibility for defining in clear and specific terms what success looks like for any given job. The result is that employees are often uncertain what exactly is expected of them. Help your employees perform their jobs at a higher level be creating a visual image for them to connect to of what success looks like.

Quote

Optimists are right, so are pessimists. It's up to you to choose which you will be. -Harvey Mackay