Listen up! Your go to person is bored.

It’s Wednesday…hump day as we sometimes refer to it.  What are your best and brightest employees doing today?   Working hard for you?  Or are they restless, bored, and looking for something new?  Hopefully they’re looking for a new experience, not a new job.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from one of these ‘best and brightest employees’.  She was looking for a new experience – some training that would engage, challenge and help her learn something new.  Sadly, she was frustrated with what she had been finding.

As she went on, she explained to me that while she likes to read, she gets bored reading to learn something new.  She loves her job and those she works with and for but she is bored.  She wants to contribute but doesn’t know what to do next. So she’s looking – right now she’s looking for an experience that will lead her to ways she can improve at work, ways she help her employer, ways that help her employer see her potential.  Sadly, she wasn’t finding it.  What she was finding was training geared for general population that looked boring to her.  She was finding training that seemed outdated because it looked at past ‘best practices’; she is looking forward to creating the next practice. She shared her frustration with me…because she knew I understood and I could help.

We are putting together a coaching plan for her outlining a way for her to feed her brain.  I could ‘hear’ her smile as we said good-bye and I could tell she is looking forward to our follow-up call.

Don’t be fooled – this isn’t about me or my experience with this caller – it’s about you and your company.  Smart employers know they need to ‘feed’ their key employees, those with the fire in the gut, that we go to because we know we can count on them.

What are you doing to feed your best and brightest before they spend today looking for something new?

Do something before you lose them to the employer who will take the time to feed them. Here’s an idea on three ways to do just that…  Read more…

Meet the Newest Graduates of Leadership in Omaha

Congratulations to our Spring 2012-2013 leadership program graduates!  They are:

• Carmen Sirizzotti, Director of Strategic Staffing and Compensation at University of Nebraska Medical Center
• Cathy Spicka, Vice President of Accounting at DEI Communities
• Crystal Thompson, Production Planning Manager Epsen Hillmer Graphics
• Kari Heunink, Compliance/SBA Officer, Washington County Bank
• Mike Arkfeld, Vice President of Operations at Titan Medical Group

We are proud of your leadership, your hard work and most of all we are proud of the business results you have achieved.  Read More!

Contact us today for a no-obligation, no pressure conversation about your leadership development needs and whether our program is right for you.  402.884.7300.

Nikki Ellison is a business advisor, master-certified executive coach, and founder of Ellison Partners.  Through effective leadership coaching, proprietary skill acceleration programs and assessments, Ellison Partners helps individuals and business leaders achieve results.

2013 ©Nikki Ellison

Kearney Graduates First Leadership Cohort!

Wow!  That’s all I could think when this morning at 11:00, I had the extraordinary privilege of facilitating the final class and graduation ceremony of Kearney’s first ever Leadership Acceleration Program cohort. It has been an amazing year with these three very smart and extremely busy pioneers in the Kearney program.

The cohort included Farrell Calcaterra from Baldwin Filters, Peggy Dobish from Kearney Clinic, and Jennie Nollette from the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce. These folks made a powerful investment in their future as what we call “prodigious” leaders. I love that word, look it up! Synonyms include wonderful, marvelous, stupendous and exceptional, and each of them is all of that!

Once a month for four hours, the cohort gathered to learn skills and behaviors that exemplify the finest traits of leadership. The curriculum they chose was based on the topics they agreed would give each of them the maximum benefit in their workplace. With 70 such curriculum units to choose from, deciding on the 12 most powerful for them was one of the first of many collaborative actions in the group’s twelve month journey.

The best thing about learning in this manner is that after each session, “homework” was simply a matter of “test driving” their newly learned tool or technique in their day-to-day activities at work. No time or effort was spent on fluffy strategy and theory instead, real-life, rubber-hits-the-road methods were shared and then practiced upon return to their office. Each cohort subsequently reflected on how it was working for them and “tweaked” what they learned until the next month. By then, the new habit had been implemented and taken root in their daily routine.

Each lesson added another layer of learning to the previous one until today, as we reflected over what we had learned during the past year, we fully realized that each session was completely intertwined with the rest; inseparable and vital to the whole. Together it all created a perfect “tapestry” of leadership components, strong and beautiful.

The Leadership Acceleration Program is unique because it is the only non-academic curriculum of its type that qualifies for three Master’s level hours at any accredited college AND the only one designed with metrics that can demonstrate real measurable results in areas of both confidence and competence. For more information, contact Ellison Partners at 402.884.7300. Classes are forming now and size is strictly limited.

Cultivating a Culture of Team Building Part 4

Creating a Team Building Culture

Last time, we reviewed the four things  you must do to create a

Team Building Culture and they are:

1. Assess the individual employee
2. Assess the leader
3. Assess the team
4. Create a culture that values engagement

Now that you understand the individuals on the team and their leaders,  combine what you’ve learned and develop an understanding of how the team members will interact with each another.  This is when you bring them all together to assess the team dynamics.  A team workshop will help everyone see a big-picture perspective. Each employee brings unique skills, behaviors and interests to the work environment.  This process will allow everyone to understand how those qualities interact.

You will no doubt find that you’ll need to make adjustments. Clarity is easily achieved by having the results and data.  Adjustments to the current work environment become obvious and much simpler to make.  The way your team works together directly impacts on productivity and now that you have clear understanding of where strengths and weaknesses vary, managers can make intelligent adjustments to maximize efficiency.

Once a team is correctly assessed and adjusted, job satisfaction improves significantly!  This happens because with the right job fit and a well aligned team, employees feel fulfilled in their roles.  When all roles are understood and appreciated, employees feel engaged and work to their full potential.  Happy employees also encourage their peers and coworkers to achieve maximum productivity.  Better fit and better alignment creates higher engagement, better productivity and increased profits.  It is that connected!

Next time we will bring it all together when the culture of having strong teams really becomes a part of the fabric of your company’s DNA.  No longer a “flavor-of-the-month” management topic, an organization that genuinely values engagement will begin to see the fruits of their efforts through stronger branding, enhanced company identity, better retention and a leg up on the competition when recruiting.

In our final discussion, we will explore the attitudes that will keep this culture at the heart of an organization.

Cultivating a Culture of Team Building Part 3

We have been ticking down the list of the four things you must do to create a

Team Building Culture and they are:

1. Assess the individual employee
2. Assess the leader
3. Assess the team
4. Create a culture that values engagement

Today, we’ll take a look at our leaders.  Too often, folks are promoted to a position because they have proved themselves to be very good at the job they did.  There is a huge difference between being a great “Do-er” and an engaging “Lead-er”.  Since these skills often do not go hand-in-hand, appropriate assessments will tell you about the job fit of your leaders.

If employees are the foundation of a business, leaders are the essential framework as we begin building a business to a higher level.  The ability to engage others is the most essential part of every leader’s job profile and leadership skill set. The daily actions of senior leadership, managers and supervisors are the key drivers of engagement.

Appropriate assessments will tell you about the job fit of your existing leaders. This will allow you to identify top-performing and lesser-performing leaders.  The results will reveal a predictive performance pattern.  With this, you can compare the results to these benchmarks and accurately determine if your leaders are in the right jobs.  You can then decide if the gaps are because of a selection issue or if coaching and development can provide the solution.

Always begin by identifying the leadership skills that are most effective in engaging employees.When you increase the effectiveness of your leaders’ ability to engage and motivate their team, job satisfaction, productivity and better profits increase along with it. You will need feedback about each leader from his boss, peers and direct reports to accomplish this. When you have this information, you can successfully align leader’s behaviors and skills with the expectations of the organization and his boss.   Now, by the use of on-the-job coaching and performance feedback, you can begin to close the gaps in the desired skills and behaviors.

Next time, we’ll put together all the pieces of the team!

Cultivating a Team Building Culture Part 2

Creating a Team Building Culture

 

Last time, we discussed “what not to do” when your mission is creating a culture that puts a high value on strong teams.  We identified the four things you must do to create a

Team Building Culture and they are:

1. Assess the individual employee
2. Assess the leader
3. Assess the team
4. Create a culture that values engagement

We begin with employees, because they are the foundation of your strong teams.  First, make sure they are in the right jobs. The average employee wants more than just a paycheck from his employer, many want training and stimulation so they can develop and promote. You can provide this opportunity using predictive performance or job matching technology. This way, you can strategically invest in your people, fully developing them for the jobs they are in, and you can tailor specific training for career advancement.

Identify your target employees, those who fit well in their current job, are fully engaged in their current role, and whose performance exceeds expectations. This is the kind of employee who achieves goals and has the ability to elevate the performance of other employees, teams, departments, and divisions. The right assessments will tell you about employees’ cognitive skills, job-related behaviors and occupational interests. You’ll need the right data for identifying your stand-out, target employees and those employees who are doing a good job but may not yet have emerged as your rising stars.

Challenge your employees! Managers may be four times more engaged than frontline employees because they have additional responsibilities. Give your employees stretch goals and let them learn from their mistakes. This will enhance the level of employee engagement.  Get their feedback as you challenge them because what you learn from them can be extremely important in helping implement solutions. Try this approach: Encourage the employee to identify: What can be improved?  What do we need here?  What can be adjusted? What should we start or stop doing?

The actions of senior leadership, managers and supervisors are the key drivers of your employee engagement. This is critical because it needs to be a vital part of every leader’s job profile and leadership skill set.  Next time, we’ll learn the value of assessing your leaders to reveal how adept they are at engaging those on their teams.  We will show you how!

What obstacles create the fear that holds you back?

The principal opponent of the protagonist is a character known as the antagonist, who represents or creates obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.

This morning I had the opportunity to sit on a panel with some amazing women who have conquered significant obstacles in their journey through life.  More so, they have slain their antagonists; one right after another.

The panel was for the Metro Omaha Women’s Business Center (MOWBC).  It’s worthy to note the Mission of MOWBC, “To empower women to become economically self-sufficient by providing targeted education, workshops, job training, strong relationships and resources that provide business, professional and personal growth.”

The meeting theme was ‘You’ve Come a Long Way Baby’ as we were there to celebrate Women’s History Month.  While each of us spoke from our own unique ‘life lens’, I noticed a key thread that wove through our stories…we each fought the antagonists in our lives and refused to allow them to hold us back.

Who or what is your antagonist?  How long will you allow it to hold you back?  And what do you plan to do about it? Jim Butcher’s famous character, Harry Dresden, offers this sage advice: “The only way to deal with the things we fear is to face them; to drag them kicking and screaming out of the darkness and destroy them.”

I have come a long way, baby.  Way longer and farther than most, who’ve known me for years, would likely know.   I am what most would call a ‘Survivor’; yet the lens I look through labels it ‘Success-0r’.  You see, I had the great fortune some years back to have worked for a great person who became my mentor, my friend, my coach.

My coach helped open my mind and helped me comprehend myself, all of which allowed me to bring to fruition my successes.  I could tell you all of the great things my coach said, because they’d all be true.  Or I could tell you about all the accomplishments I’ve had a result of that coach, because they’d all be true.  Heck, I could even talk of the fact that I have ‘come a long way, baby’ because of this coach, and it’d be just a plain fact.  But the truth is, the most important thing my coach taught me was the value of a coach.

Even today and though I carry the dual title myself of a Certified Leadership and Executive Coach and that of a Certified Business Coach, I myself still have a coach; a couple of them as a matter of fact.   I have a formal, certified coach that I keep in touch with regularly – who helps me on the professional side – and I have many ‘informal’ coaches that I tap into – personally – when needed.  All of whom help me continue to slay the antagonists who attempt to throw obstacles in my way.

In 17 days, I’m launching my newest business venture.  I won’t play ‘victim’ and describe the litany of obstacles I’ve faced in the past three years getting to this point.  But I will say a big “THANK YOU” to my certified coach and my informal coaches, without them I may not have had to courage to well…”drag my fears, kicking and screaming out of the darkness and destroy them.”

Nikki Ellison is a business advisor, executive coach and founder of Ellison Partners. Through effective leadership coaching, proprietary skill acceleration programs and assessments, Ellison Partners helps businesses and their leaders achieve results.

© Nikki Ellison, 2013.