3 Ways to Focus on Organizational Integrity

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Sean Murray

Photo courtesy: Phil Roeder

Photo courtesy: Phil Roeder

Integrity is not just a personal issue; it is also an organizational and cultural issue.

People across the enterprise are influenced by the rules, processes and values of an organization. Assess your current culture and consider the signals and subtle messaging it is sending to employees:

  1. Do clear rules exist for ethical behavior? Having guideposts, in the form of your mission statement, vision or employee handbook, will provide employees with a framework for determining what is and isn’t acceptable behavior. This is especially useful when facing tough decisions by communicating about these guideposts regularly.
  2. Are small misdeeds and ethical lapses tolerated? From the top executive down, it’s critical that your organization isn’t tolerating ethical lapses. Brushing one misdeed – no matter how small it may seem – under the carpet now only leads to more serious issues later.
  3. Where can employees report questionable activities? By including an anonymous method for reporting misconduct, you not only provide employees with a resource, you also demonstrate that integrity is important to the organization and that leadership will investigate issues.

As a leader, you play a critical part in establishing trust by demonstrating your accountability and integrity. This plays an important part of team dynamics and is a key to positive perceptions about you in the workplace. 

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3 Ways to Get Deep About Development

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Sean Murray

Photo courtesy: lululemon athletica

Photo courtesy: lululemon athletica

We’ve talked about the importance of coaching talent and about creating development plans.

It’s a lot easier to do both of those things if you actually know the people on your team.

Here are ways to get beyond knowing their first name and where they like to eat lunch:

  1. Understand their interests. What are your people doing in their spare time? Having an idea of who your team members are outside of the office gives you a perspective on what they will enjoy and where they can excel.
  2. Check in about background experiences. What did your employee do before coming to your organization? Have they been to another country? Where have they volunteered? All of these experiences will provide insight about their passions as well as potential skills they could contribute in the workplace.
  3. Ask about their future goals. If you ask, they will answer…it’s not up to you to identify goals for everyone on your team. Chances are, they have goals and are eager to share them with you. Once you know their goals, you’ll be better prepared to direct them in a way that will help increase the chances of meeting those goals.

Having a deeper understanding about who is on your team puts you in a better position to coach employees and steer them to the kinds of roles, opportunities and developmental activities that will best prepare them for their desired future.

What’s in it for you? That deeper understanding will also demonstrate to your every level of the organization that you’re a leader who can successfully develop a team.

Side note: This image is one posted by lululemon athletica on Flickr. What an inspiration to see individual goals posted on the wall.

 

 

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4 of Our Most Popular Leadership Posts

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Sean Murray

Photo courtesy: katerha

Photo courtesy: katerha

In case you missed them the first time around, here are four of RealTime Performance’s most popular posts on leadership:

Like what you read? Try adding some of what you learned to your leadership development plan.

Need more leadership tips? Be sure to click the Subscribe button in this post. Once you do, you’ll be signed up to receive our monthly newsletter delivered directly to your inbox each month.





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3 Phrases that Kill Trust in the Workplace

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Sean Murray

Photo Courtesy: mlinksva

Photo Courtesy: mlinksva

A key ingredient for establishing trust in the workplace is being accountable for your actions .  Accountability involves claiming your own power and marshaling your internal resources to achieve better results.

Accountability asks, “What do you need?” Or, “What can I do to make a difference?” Accountable behavior enables you to take charge of your thoughts, feelings and actions.

When communicating with others, be aware of the following phrases that we all adopt when trying to avoid accountability:

“I’ll try” – This toxic phrase creates confusion and tension in relationships. Don’t say you will ‘try’ to do something; just do it. People would much rather hear a definite ‘no’ so they have time to request help from someone else.

“It’s not my job” – Poor service results from over-use of this phrase, especially in the travel and retail industries. Companies and employees who take the opposite approach offer gold-standard service that customers and colleagues remember.

 “I don’t know” – While use of this phrase can be legitimate, meaning a lack of certain knowledge, it is often a clever substitute for: “that’s not my problem.” Repeatedly choosing not to know is non- accountable behavior that causes enormous frustration and, frequently, higher costs. To ‘not know’ is to admit you are ignorant. It’s better to say, “I will find out!”

Establishing trust by demonstrating your accountability is an important part of team dynamics and is a key to positive perceptions about you in the workplace.  If you’re looking for more tips and resources about creating trust to add to your professional development plan, check out our FREE download about Establishing Trust.

Free Download: 10 Tips & 10 Resources on Establishing Trust in the Workplace
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them regularly!

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