At the end of last year, I was having a meeting in a professor’s office when I noticed a bunch of pencils on her desk. Hmmm….pencils in an office; it’s quite normal and yet I was drawn to it.
It’s the 2nd day of the year and I thought that it’s a good time to share them (the insights, not the pencils) with you. Life is indeed like this bunch of pencils.
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You know how in movies, a character will just tell someone what they want? Like, “I want this thing,” and then the other person just gives them that thing?
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On 4th Sept, I was invited to serve as a committee member for the IUPT Asia-Pacific Centre, located in Kuala Lumpur. It certainly is a great honour and privilege for me to serve together with industry leaders such as KC See, Jonathan Low, Martin Mueller, Shirley Leong , Soo Hoo, Daphne Au, Ayappa Dass Kunnath, Dr Azeeza Jalaludee, and many more.
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I like challenges, but don’t like competition. Does that make sense?
I notice I would get excited when I have a challenge to overcome but once there is a competitive element in it, I lose interest in the activity or task. I believe it’s because I just like to compete with myself.
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The Covid-19 story is still not over. Yesterday, Malaysia reported 33,209 new cases, with a 7-day average of more than 27,000. The virus is very much still with us. The best way to keep the virus at bay is to not catch it in the first place. The problem is that we are not always in control of the situation we walk into, e.g.
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I have given 6 quick tips on how to create an empowering culture by
1. Letting go of fear and starting to trust
2. Flattening the hierarchy and setting clear objectives to employees
3. Delegating with the intention to develop
4. Providing the resources to support your employees (and see an increase in customer loyalty)
5. Being open to feedback
6. Encouraging creativity and see innovation thrive
This 6th tip in the empowerment series is to help employees with their creativity and think out-of-the-box, as cliché as it sounds. You must encourage your employees to explore their potential and unlock the opportunity for increasing their creative thinking abilities.
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A few years ago, I was doing a project consulting project for a software company. The management had assigned Samantha, an experienced executive to act as a resource person. As I worked with her, I noticed that Samantha would stick to a very fixed way of performing her tasks and never want to learn any new ways. She would never tell me why and each time, she goes on a very long explanation about the process she takes. When asked for ideas and opinion, she would not contribute any. At first, I thought she was inflexible and unteachable.
But then, I found that this was a common trait among the staff that worked for the same department that Samantha worked in. I noticed that their manager is a subject matter specialist and takes the effort to correct his staff when they made any mistakes. He is not nasty when he does it and I believe he truly wants them to learn. But it would be better if he had balanced his feedback to be both supportive and corrective in nature.
So as a result, like Samantha, they will not want to try anything new nor share their thoughts. They don’t really know how they are performing as they feel they are being corrected all the time.
In this How to Empower series, I have shared the following:
Empowering employees does not mean they are to be left on their own and figure out how they are doing at their work. Expect mistakes and provide feedback.
I’d like to share something that a friend taught me about giving feedback.
If you want to help someone improve, catch them when they do something right.
Often, leaders feel they need to point out mistakes that employees have done so as to avoid the mistake being repeated. There’s a limit to how effective this is. How many times have you heard leaders say this — Despite my reminders so many times, I still see the mistake being made.
By praising employees when they do something right, you are reinforcing the right behavior and you will see more of this behavior. This increases their confidence as well as trust in you as a leader.
How did this help Samantha? I started by giving her goals, instead of tasks. I did not give her any fixed processes and asked her to tell me what was the best way to achieve these goals. She was not used to it at first. I also made sure my feedback was positive and took the time to acknowledge when she did something right. She became more confident and had stopped justifying every single step of the process she took.
(Read the other parts about empowerment)
(*nrp stands for National Recovery Plan.)
(Feature Image by Robin Higgins from Pixabay.)
About the Author: Gina Phan is a consultant and trainer with Zinfinity Consulting. She currently conducts courses in workplace performance skills. Click here to contact her, follow her on Facebook or connect with her on Linkedin.
#leadership #servantleadership #empower #empowermenttips #management #feedback
#trainergina #ginaphan #gp
This is already the 4th piece about empowerment. If you are not already convinced, here’s a major benefit of empowering your employees — According to a Gallup study, organizations that empower employees experience higher customer loyalty by as much as 50%.
Your customer’s experience with your brand is largely dependent on what is happening inside your organisation — employee satisfaction. Empowered employees take personal responsibility for doing a good job. The business reaps the benefits of this mindset.
Ritz-Carlton famously empowers its employees to spend up to $2,000 to make a customer happy, and a baristas at certain international coffee shops are authorised to give you a free drink if you have an issue with the service. No wonder these brands rate high in customer experience and satisfaction.
Your employees can deliver superior products and services if they feel engaged in the organisation. They want to be able to address day-to-day challenges of customer handling more effectively. If there is an unsatisfied customer, do they have the tools and authority to make a decision to fix the problem immediately?
As a business leader, it’s good to think about how and what your employees can be empowered to do. And then, think of what resources are required for them to be able do it. What kind of changes to you need to make to your systems and processes to accomodate this?
Many years ago when I was on a business trip, I arrived at my hotel to find that my room was not ready. The staff kept me waiting at the lobby for 2 hours. Despite my complaints, they were not empowered to upgrade me to another room. And for some reason, the hotel’s General Manager was ‘uncontactable’ for that 2 hours. That was the last time I ever chose to stay in that hotel.
Compare that with another hotel that paid for refreshments for my family and upgraded us to a suite when the same thing happened on one of our holidays. No fuss; the staff at the reception are empowered to do it. Did they get my loyalty as a customer? You bet, they did!
(Read the other parts about empowerment)
(*nrp stands for National Recovery Plan.)
(Feature Image by Rodrigo Salomón Cañas from Pixabay.)
About the Author: Gina Phan is a consultant and trainer with Zinfinity Consulting. She currently conducts courses in workplace performance skills. Click here to contact her, follow her on Facebook or connect with her on Linkedin.
#leadership #servantleadership #empower #empowermenttips #management #resources
#trainergina #ginaphan #gp
Empowerment increases employee engagement. According to Joseph Folkman who analysed data on more than 7,000 employees, people who felt a low level of empowerment were rated with engagement at the 24th percentile, whereas those with a high level of empowerment were at the 79th percentile.
After Tip #1 and Tip #2, let’s see how delegation helps.
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Today, I take a small break on the topic of empowerment and talk about mindset. Leaders are responsible for their team’s performance. Sometimes, they are sent for formal training and sometimes they rely on on-the-job experience (aka shoot, then aim). Why are some more successful than others as leaders? The biggest contributor to this difference is mindset.
Today, I take a small break on the topic of empowerment and talk about mindset. Leaders are responsible for their team’s performance. Sometimes, they are sent for formal training and sometimes they rely on on-the-job experience (aka shoot, then aim). Why are some more successful than others as leaders? The biggest contributor to this difference is mindset. O
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On this first day of the second half of the year, I share the second tip on how to empower successfully. To make empowerment effective, it’s good to flatten the hierachy. Flat organisations have few or no levels of intermediate management between staff and leaders. This “flattened” hierarchy increases employee involvement through a decentralized decision-making process.
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“Hey, you wrote about how important it is to empower people. Can you tell us how to do it?” Someone texted me when he read my previous post.
I agree, it will certainly be more helpful. Since these are soundbites, let me break it down.
The first tip is to look at why there’s room for improvement in your organisation. Not why it is needed — that has already been established yesterday. But what are the stumbling blocks that we need to overcome.
Is there a lack of awareness? Is it because this has always been the way it is done? Or you don’t think your employees are capable enough? You don’t trust them? Or deep down, is there a fear of empowerment? Only you can answer this honestly.
Start by removing these barriers. If you want your employees to go the extra mile, it is not about going out to look for new ones. It’s about creating an environment in which your current employees feel safe to do it.
I have met managers who fear that when their staff do better, their position will be threaten. So they withhold information and give half-instructions just so that they can look good in comparison. I had one such manager. Each time he gives me a task, he would always make sure it is not complete. So, I will always fail in front of the bigger bosses. But he forgot one thing — I can read. After I realised what was going on, I always did my research and found the missing piece of information.
So what happened to me after awhile? I got better at my work and was given higher responsibilities eventually. What happened to him? He stayed put and continued to complain that his team members are always making mistakes, making him look bad. And he ‘always had to come in to rescue them‘. He certainly looked at them as his competitor. What he didn’t realise was that the bigger bosses looks at the performance of his team as a reflection of his leadership. So, the strategy of tripping your own team members is counter-productive. I feel sad for him. He was a smart person,a very good developer but his fear worked against him.
Then there’s the business owner who feel that once his employees are empowered, they will leave and compete with him. Yes, that happens all the time. It happens whether you do it or not. The only question I have is “Do you prefer to empower them and they leave, or do you prefer that they remain as ineffective and stay?” Some may prefer the latter. It’s totally acceptable if they are happy with their business growth rate and the amount of energy they have to put in themselves. Employees who want to thrive will still leave eventually because the environment will be too stifling for them. Either they will leave to help your competitor or they will start their own business to compete with you.
Here’s one idea for those in this position: Instead of looking at people who leave as competition, look for ways to collaborate. This is how you can turn a win-lose situation into a win-win. My friend’s boss did that — he invested in my friend’s new business.
Start by trusting. It is an investment into the future.
(Read more about empowerment)
(*nrp stands for National Recovery Plan.)
(Feature Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.)
About the Author: Gina Phan is a consultant and trainer with Zinfinity Consulting. She currently conducts courses in workplace performance skills. Click here to contact her, follow her on Facebook or connect with her on Linkedin.
#leadership #servantleadership #empower #empowermenttips
#trainergina #ginaphan #gp
Remember the days where we had to go to the bank to deposit a cheque? Back in the day, I would arrive at the banking hall, take my queue number and wait for my turn. When my number is called, I approach the counter, present the cheque and my savings account book. The bank officer the bank would take both, process it and then pass it over to someone with a higher authority to checkmark on the slip before my attempt to put money into my own account is considered successful. I have always been amazed as to how inefficient this process is. Not only does it take longer to complete a transaction, but it shows how disempowered the person working at the counter is.
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Yesterday, I posted about how a leader should be empathetic. This is not something that we can get right all the time. It can be pretty tricky.
Many years ago, one of my co-worker was going through a difficult time because her mother was at the last stages in her battle with cancer. After work, she would rush to the hospital and stay with her mom throughout the night. I did not know at first but detected some change in the quality of her work. When I talked to her, she explained her situation to me.
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By Cecilia Bleasdale – Fair use, Link
Remember this dress. When it burst onto the internet, it poled the world into two. You are either in team white/gold or team blue/black**. It disrupted the way we understood colour and tints.
The first time I touched a computer (not counting the calculator) was in 1981. At that time, I was not sure what I would choose for my major in university. After my first programming assignment on that primitive computer, I knew Computer Science would be my first checkmark in the university application form.
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Earlier this week, I ran a 2-day workshop which covered a total of 8 modules. I always start my workshop by telling participants that I don’t profess to know everything. They can disagree with me but tell me why. We are all learning from each other.
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Today, I share my happiness and joy in receiving this Thank You card from a course I delivered last month. It was totally unexpected. And after a long busy day, it was certainly cherry on the cake for me.
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Imagine you are attending a talk and the speaker says something that is factually wrong. Or you are in a conversation and the other person is clearly saying something based on a wrong assumption. Or someone tells you that something cannot be done in a certain way although you have been doing it successfully all this time.
What do you do? Sometimes, I encounter these situations and am not sure if I should speak up or not?
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