Leadership Lessons: Improving Work Habits

Work Habits that Sustain Competitive Advantage

The workforce is changing, and depending on what sector your business is in or what part of the country it is located in, you may be feeling the pinch of the growing labor shortage. Recent research from the Boston College Center on Aging and Work indicated what some companies were doing and that was: intensifying recruitment and reorganizing work flow so that they stayed productive with fewer people. In these tougher labor times, organizations will also need to address poor work habits of their current employees to increase retention and to improve quality of service and productivity.

Some Perspective

One of the greatest challenges for your supervisors is in knowing how to deal effectively with employees who have less than desirable work habits. There is even more pressure if the organization is going through change, and you are doing more with fewer people. Typical issues such as absenteeism, dress and grooming habits, and language issues can lead to poor morale for the entire team and become a real management issue.

Do these managers sound familiar to you? -Sheila stays away from dealing with issues such as grooming because they seem too personal in nature. -Jeff treats negative behavior with negative behavior himself. -Rob believes there are just too many larger issues to tackle.

Of course it is. More than you probably know. A chip here, a chip there, and the volume of poor work habits adds up in terms of lost time and money to the organization and the ability to retain employees; however, these issues can be dealt with through appropriate communication so that employee self-esteem can be maintained.

Robert B. Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton and now professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, points out in a talent management article that on-the-job-training and on-the-job skill development can help retain your workforce. Your supervisors, managers, and team leaders may not already have the skills they need to help their employees improve their work habits.

A Solution

One of the keys you need in sustaining a competitive advantage is certainly training. Improving Work Habits is a Vital Learning training program for your supervisors to help them clearly and specifically communicate the nature of employee work problems and develop an individual plan for addressing the issue. The program will enable managers to:

• Recognize the difference between job performance and work habits and the skills it takes to bring the situation to a successful resolution.
  
• Understand that unsatisfactory work habits must be dealt with quickly and effectively before they require disciplinary action.
  
• Explain clearly and specifically the nature of the issues with work habits by focusing on behaviors rather than attitude.
  
• Use an action plan and ongoing reviews to help team members improve work habits and demonstrate personal accountability.
  

We can help you implement a solution that is right for your organization. The online, classroom, and blended versions make it easy to deliver the program, saving you time off the job while also training and reinforcing the skills needed to tackle poor employee work habits.

The Leadership Essentials Series is designed to meet your training and budgetary needs. Want to learn more about Improving Work Habits or the complete Vital Learning leadership development curriculum? Available in Classroom, Online, or Blended delivery options, the Vital Learning curriculum includes the following essential topics.

• Coaching Job Skills - understanding why coaching is important and how it supports company goals
• Disciplining - understanding how to discipline others to eliminate problem behavior
• Complaints - being able to effectively manage complaints
  
• Project Management - being able to run projects, both on-time and on-budget Conflict - understanding how to successfully resolve conflict
  
• Hiring Winning Talent- knowing what to do to consistently hire the right talent
  
• Providing Feedback - understanding how to establish performance goals and standards and give feedback
  
• And more...
  

For details go to www.TheLearningEngine.org

Leadership Lessons: Developing and Coaching Others

You're Accountable for Your Employees' Successes

I read an article the other day that was an interview with legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden. It discussed how coaching for sports is similar to coaching people in business. Wooden said, "Every one of us is different. We are similar in so many respects, but we are not identical." The person in leadership must carefully analyze everyone under his supervision to the best of his ability.

Traditionally, many managers have not looked at each of their employees carefully on an individual basis and coached each one appropriately. This is one area that new and even seasoned managers have had very little training: How to effectively coach team members. Motivation, support, and coaching from managers can help an individual to develop, grow, and improve performance.

Some Perspective

Providing employees coaching early helps managers assess employees' bench strength and progress to find out who still needs help. Coaching helps employees develop and improve performance. Even more than that, it helps encourage employee decision-making, creativity, and skill development.

In sports, coaches put emphasis on practice and typically determine who is going to play based on how the individual practices. How you practice usually determines how you will play. Good, consistent practice skills translate into playing and actual performance. The problem is, how do you learn to become a great coach who can consistently reinforce the skills of a team member, while at the same time, help that individual to better grasp new skills?

Coach Wooden said that being accused of "not having much depth" on his team never bothered him. He was more interested in having a team of players working hard on the fundamentals. It was more important to have them well-trained and working together. Similarly, it is important to employees that their manager has a mind-set of developing and coaching. This promotes an increase of the skills and capabilities of every member on the team.

A Solution

If you are going to invest time, money, and resources into training and developing employees, it is worthwhile to focus on programs that lead to true behavior change and performance improvement. Teaching managers effective coaching skills is one of the best ways to get a great return on your training investment.

Vital Learning's "Developing and Coaching Others" teaches managers to use coaching to reinforce new skills. Then, employees become comfortable with the new skills; these new skills turn into habits.

"Developing and Coaching Others" teaches managers to effectively recognize and handle coaching moments so that they can make learning decisions themselves. This is a different approach to changing behavior and upping the score on performance by meeting two key objectives:

• First, to provide managers with skills and strategies to guide their people through a learning process, including tactics to help them before, during, and after training. That way you can ensure that behavior change is made.
• And secondly, to provide managers with a coaching moments model to help their teams gain understanding and insight about their actions. This way, self-awareness with opportunities to learn and improve is supported.
  

The Supervision Series is designed to meet your training and budgetary needs. Want to learn more about "Developing and Coaching Others" or the complete Vital Learning leadership development curriculum?
Available in Classroom, Online, or Blended delivery options, the Vital Learning curriculum includes the following essential topics

• Delegating - understanding when to use delegation and how to make it motivating
• Disciplining - understanding how to discipline others to eliminate problem behavior
• Complaints - being able to effectively manage complaints
  
• Coaching - knowing how to productively coach job skills
  
• Project Management - being able to run projects, both on-time and on-budget Conflict - understanding how to successfully resolve conflict
  
• Hiring Winning Talent- knowing what to do to consistently hire the right talent
  
• Providing Feedback - understanding how to establish performance goals and standards and give feedback
  
• And more...
  

For details go to www.TheLearningEngine.org