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Leaders, you and your direct reports have great impact on attracting and keeping top talent. Though you might think it’s only about the money, it isn’t.

There are many behaviors that drive talent away. Talent includes full time employees, contractors, consultants, and even suppliers.

You as leaders and your directors and managers can attract and retain top talent by replacing behaviors that secretly repel them.

Image by: Dee_Gee via Creative Commons License


Behaviors repel talent for any of three reasons:

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QL: They seriously reduce quality of life or
BS: They make it unnecessarily difficult to succeed or
$$: They indirectly cost the talent money.


Replace These 5 Behaviors to Attract Top Talent

1. Highly disorganized or uncertain. Top talent blossoms when leaders set a clear vision. Wandering through a disorganized morass when deadlines loom, leaves talent wondering if success is possible. They envision more attractive opportunities and yearn for success. Replace disorganization and uncertainty with valuable vision.




2. Negativity. Top talent wants to hear what is possible. They feed off of a reality of belief, ideas, and action. Negativity drains their spirit for they see it as unnecessary difficulty. Replace this drain with energy and a call to action.




3. Perfectionism. Top talent see this as a triple whammy. It always comes across as unnecessary stress, it reduces the quality of their work life, and it costs them money. How? By reducing the time they can spend learning or accomplishing other valuable tasks or opportunities. Replace the scourge of perfectionism with the goal of excellence. What a difference!




4. Fear of failure. It produces behaviors that demoralize others. Even if you as leaders aren’t afraid, those that report to you may be. If you love to delegate, do it wisely. Replace delegation based on occupational skill with delegation based on inspirational leadership ability. Otherwise, top talent will move on to work with project managers and directors who aren’t stuck in fear.




5. Me-itis. Top talent tend to love a confident humble leader. Non-confident self-absorbed leaders drive top talent from the organization like a fire alarm. Replace the engineered comfort of me-itis with a belief in what the top talent can produce for the organization and thus for you.

Attracting top talent today is quite different than years ago. There was a time when casting doubt about a talent’s skill would make them work harder to prove you wrong and win out over other talent you are considering.

Though there is still some talent who respond that way, there is top talent who will walk away from you and toward positive inspirational leaders that embrace their talent.

Replace competition with collaboration and doubt with a coalition for success!

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What other behaviors would you add to this list? What other leadership traits attract top talent?


From professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, customer service, customer experience, and teamwork. She turns interaction obstacles into business success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

With ONE Simple Question!

Leaders, managers, investors, parents, and coaches, are often realizing and mentoring someone’s big dream.

The bigger and more outlandish the dream, the greater the disbelief and concern.  This doubt can produce unhelpful reactions like “what are you thinking” or “it sounds too risky”.

Yet there is ONE simple question that powers success with both inspiration and practicality.

The ONE Simple Question

“What do you picture?”

This questions powers positive inquiry, broader and deeper perspective, dialogue, and research. It unearths understanding of:

1. What does the dreamer think it will take to make the dream a reality?
2. How complete or accurate is that picture?
3. What strengths and how much endurance does the dreamer have?
4. What obstacles does the dreamer foresee – internal and external?
5. How will the dreamer handle missteps and mistakes – psychologically and practically?
6. What help, truly, does the dreamer expect?

What do you picture is a far better question that what is your plan? The latter requires great foresight of details at the start yet doesn’t assess the dreamer’s true readiness.

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For leaders and managers with a tough career slot to fill, knowing the applicant’s vision of that job is critical to a successful decision.

For parents with wide-eyed teenagers or high achieving college students, asking what do you picture encourages them to consider their dream more deeply without killing their spirit.

For investors in new inventions, knowing how the inventor thinks and pictures the future will affect the win or lose.

For coaches, this one simple question — what do you picture – sets up a positive non-directive dialogue with those they coach.

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There will be time for plans and details. Yet if you skip the picture and go right to the plan, the plan will be incomplete. It will lack success factors that are found within the dreamer not within the plan.

Have you tried this question — what do you picture? What was the result and response?


From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, guides people from inspiration to action. Her workshops, consultations, keynotes, and DVDs, turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success and business wins. View footage, keynote topics, workshop outlines, and customer results at this site.

Starting a company? Looking for a job? Attempting to sell your house? Trying to change careers? Get noticed by being different but …

to achieve success — be memorable.

Memorable is not just what makes you different.  Memorable connects you with others in ways that matter to them.

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Memorable affects others.

Memorable creates a story.

Memorable builds a trust.

Memorable sparks an insight.

Memorable fosters respect.

Memorable eliminates doubt.

Memorable comes back to you.

Memorable keeps you present.

Memorable changes their reality.

Memorable reflects value.

Memorable brings you into their future.

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Be Memorable!

Do you have noticeably good planning skills? Add and use foresight to be memorable. Prevent a problem on a project or discover and open an opportunity for your customer, your boss or your organization. Outstanding skills get you noticed. Using them to help others makes you memorable.


Are you a remarkably fast learner? Your boss can hand you anything new and you can do it? That’s good. Learn before the skill is needed and you increase your value. Start today to be memorable tomorrow.


Do you have a special talent for teamwork? Worthwhile in today’s collaborative workplace. Excel at it during times of stress, low morale, or critical change and you will be memorable to every leader.


Are you a people person? Sales or customer service is your sweet spot? Certainly a plus. To be memorable, deliver wonderful service recovery with urgency. Offer customers compensation even for the smallest inconvenience. It builds phenomenal trust and reaps gratitude. You will be memorable!

Kick Start Your Success
The suggestions above are just a few examples. Try these questions to discover how you can be memorable:

1. What three things do most people notice about you? Why? The answer will uncover ways for you to be memorable.
2. What is one strength that people don’t notice in you? Start using it in ways that matter to others.
3. What are two areas in your work or personal life where you see a need, a void, pain, fear, or doubt in others?. Fill the need/void or remove the pain, fear, or doubt. You will be memorable.

How have you been memorable in your work or personal life? Please share your story in the comments section below to inspire others.

To our continued mutual growth,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. Leaders have been booking Kate for 21 years to fill the gaps of diversity with business wins. See this site for customer results and book Kate now.

Leaders, did you ever want to tell employees to “grow up”?  What were they doing that brought you to that point?

Leaders continue to tell me that  employees don’t have sufficient critical thinking skills or commitment to go above and beyond.   Critical thinking, commitment, extra effort — these are all signs of maturity.  A mature employer/employee relationship, a mature team, a mature adult, etc…

Like many of the business greats of yore, if it doesn’t exist — create it! In this case leaders — cultivate maturity.

Maturity is about balance, readiness, consideration, and confidence.

Take Nine Chances to Cultivate Employee Maturity

1. When addressing employee concerns and complaints, always speak about the impact on the business. Today it’s popular to focus on changing the workplace to engage employees. If you want maturity in the workplace, balance catering to them with expectation of them.




2. Illustrate the difference between honesty with diplomacy and candor with rudeness. The former is a sign of maturity for it balances the message and the impact when selecting the words. The latter is a sign of selfish immaturity.




3. Applaud, highlight, and reinforce excellence. When you set and reward a high standard, you set the bar for that level of mature commitment. If you treat basic behaviors (like meeting objectives or showing up on time) as something special, you cultivate weeds.




4. Replace the misguided adage “treat each other like customers” with the more mature team mantra “grow and change to reach a shared success and common goal”. Team maturity has a deeper honesty and type of trust that surpasses that of a business and its customers. Cultivate it from the beginning and you cultivate maturity.




5. Frequently ask, “what are you doing to be ready for tomorrow?” When leaders pose this question, it asks employees to initiate their own growth. This is a call to maturity. Providing training is appropriate yet it develops skills not maturity.




6. Within a certain sphere, make it OK to make mistakes. Confidence builds faster when mistakes are lessons learned. Sometimes maturity comes from jumping a hurdle and knowing how to prevent a crash next time.




7. Maturity owns the impact of behavior. Show them how to do it even in difficult moments. Related post: The Perfect Apology and The ONE Word That Destroys It.




8. Give them access to situations that cultivate a mature open mind. 25 Rules for a Perfect Brainstorm.
   
   

9. Think out loud. Employees learn critical thinking by hearing it and participating in it. If you want to speed this aspect of maturity, tell them how you arrive at a decision not just the decision.

From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

What other chances would you add to this list? Or do you disagree with the premise altogether?

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. Leaders have been booking Kate for 21 years to fill the gaps of diversity with teamwork for business wins. See this site for customer results and book Kate now.

Customer service teams, technical support teams, help desks, customer care centers, and call centers have one critical customer service challenge in this decade — adapting to customers’ needs and preferences.  It takes more than just multiple customer service venues (channels) or the latest technology and knowledge management to satisfy diverse expectations of customers around the globe.

It takes empowered CSRs, technical support reps, help desk analysts, and call center agents that are allowed to innovate without fear of failure or punishment.

Companies in every sector are touting innovation as the top focus for continued success yet not implementing this empowerment at the front line.  Necessity is the mother of invention (innovation) IF fear of failure or punishment is low. Otherwise the front line sticks to a pre-determined routine and set of rules that fall short of  superior service to diverse customers.

Innovate Customer Service at the Front Line

1. Communicate the purpose, values, and mission of customer service. On that basis, trust staff to make appropriate judgments and in-the-moment decisions on adapting to customers. Nordstroms and Zappos successfully empower their front line.
2. Use staff meetings to develop a culture of continuous improvements. The front line knows what each customer is thinking. Encourage them to innovate by tapping their knowledge and ideas for improvements.
3. Foster and recognize the front line for their innovations that deliver great customer service.

BONUS: In addition to higher customer satisfaction ratings, the front line achieves greater job satisfaction. Doubtful?

Studies at MIT and University of Chicago, as summarized by Daniel Pink, DRIVE: Motivation Beyond Carrots & Sticks, show that autonomy, mastery, and purpose are the motivators of great performance and seeds of job satisfaction (except for purely mechanical tasks).

Customer service professionals are very purpose driven. The best seek jobs in enlightened companies that tap their commitment and give them autonomy to innovate and deliver the best possible service. Attract the best talent and they will deliver the best service!

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Questions:

What else will encourage the front line to innovate for better service?

What else can customer service leaders do to increase performance and retain the best staff?

One of the more recent workplace concepts is employee engagement. Wikipedia notes, Employee engagement can be seen as a heightened level of ownership where each employee wants to do whatever they can for the benefit of their internal and external customers and for the success of the organization as a whole.

Most everyone would agree that the business results of engaged employees are positive. The question is: How much time and energy should businesses spend to ignite this employee engagement and do you expect employees to keep the engagement going once you light the fire?

Great leaders inspire. They have engaged employees. Yet great leaders also expect engagement from employees. They avoid the mistake of becoming the perennial entertainer who sees lapses in employee engagement when they are not entertaining.

As a consultant, leaders bring me in to help light the fire for employee engagement. Often they ask me when engagement is low. My success in re-igniting the fire in various organizations for 20 years includes the steps noted below. As a leader, you can use this approach to do the same.

1. Highlight unique talents. Have the employees identify their unique talents. Share your view of it as well. An employee initiates and sustains engagement when s/he believes they make a unique contribution or difference.




2. Identify the impact of their efforts and their lack of effort. A common problem among employees is limited sight distance. They fall into the rut of daily routine and become more and more detached from the big picture. Use specifics from the business instead of generalities.




3. Handle the chronic complainers (aka perennial naysayers). There is nothing wrong with intelligent disagreement nor with venting some negative emotion. Employees are people not robots. Yet chronic complainers and naysayers have a strong erosive effect on employee engagement. They do not contribute ideas, innovation, nor solutions. Over time they stop others’ who would otherwise engage yet who no longer want to engage and interact with the complainers.




4. Focus on and recognize learning. When you build a learning culture, you breed long term employee engagement and long term organizational success. Learning from mistakes. Learning about customers. Learning about themselves and each other. Learning how to deal with seemingly unfair conditions and turn them into huge successes. Build pride in doing tough jobs well!




5. Have a zero tolerance for lack of engagement. An employee chooses to work for you and get paid. Engagement is expected. Great leaders quickly address lack of engagement with a clear statement of what is expected and with openness and discussion on how to make it happen. They do not debate if it should happen and don’t get sidelined with endless discussions of obstacles, barriers, and complaints.

What other steps are in your critical plan for employee engagement?


©2010 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, is widely known for her success inspiring zealous employee commitment and engagement in diverse industries. See this site for what leaders and other session participants have said and accomplished with Kate’s contributions.

Posing questions to job candidates in interviews, no matter how behaviorally based, doesn’t show you what they will contribute.  Perhaps this is one reason temp-to-perm positions became so popular even with the buy-out fee the employer pays.  The employer has seen the temporary staff in action.

Yet you can achieve a similar success by engaging job candidates in action interviews.  If you are looking for candidates with 21^st century skills like creativity, conceptualizing, synthesis, re-invention, and true empathy/customer service, action interviews will get you there.  You can do them in-person or via videoconferencing.

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To find creative problem-solvers …

Hold a mock meeting on solving a generic problem.  Have the job candidate participate.  See if s/he offers out-of-the-box or safe ideas.  Does s/he contribute any ideas or simply listen?  You can assess the people-skills as well as creative problem solving. 

To spot empathetic staff for customer service …

Have your best customer service staff role play true-to-life scenarios with the job candidate.  Use blatant and subtle examples needing empathy and see what the job candidate responds.  It is one thing to discuss how you would handle a customer interaction and quite another to do it. 

To find synthesizers who can see new ideas in disparate details …

Pick a recent example that you solved through synthesis of different ideas. Give the different ideas to the job candidate and see how and what s/he synthesizes. 

To tap the pool of reinvention talent …

Give the candidate 2-3 everyday objects and ask them to make a new useful object out of them.  The useful object can be anything; it does not have to relate to work.  You are tapping innate abilities with this activity that you can later apply to work related challenges.

To find conceptualizers …

Have the team of interviewers and the job candidate play “What If We”.  You can use a hypothetical product or service that relates to your industry or customize it to relate to your organization’s products and service.   State the product or service in question.  Then each person states aloud “What If We …” to conceptualize a new angle or improvement.  This is also a great way to find out what the candidate knows about your industry and company.

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Remember: To find the best talent in the 21st century, engage candidates in action interviews.  Replace the bad surprises you get after hiring with happy surprises about job talent you find during action interviews. Combine them with resume/references and certain skill or interests tests where appropriate to get a fuller picture of the job candidate’s potential and interpersonal style.   

I welcome your comments, new ideas, and questions below. 

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach