Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

If you lead an organization that uses employee ID badges, considering using a different color or a special designation on the badges for newly hired employees for at least their first 30 days and ideally up to 60 days. Imagine how welcoming it will be for your new hires when employees recognize your newly hired employees' status via their special badges and then when your longer term employees introduce themselves to the new employees in halls, on elevators, in your break room, in the parking lot and at large group meetings. Some people call this a "hello" culture.  It's a culture that helps to quickly develop relationships.  And, it's a culture that ensures your new hires feel welcome during their critical onboarding time period.

Take the opportunity today to teach an employee something new. Nearly everyone likes to learn and is capable of tackling a new challenge. Teach your employee something that expands his (or her) current job description. Teach something that will help him to get promoted within your organization at a later date. Teach him a skill that uses new technology. Or, teach him something that will allow him to be a more skilled leader and manager in the future. You can even teach something that you no longer need to be doing in your position, but that will be a rewarding challenge/task for your employee. The benefit to your employee is obvious. The benefit to you is you'll have a more skilled team member who is capable of handling more work that can help you to grow your business and/or make it run more efficiently. Be a leader who teaches.

Take the opportunity today to teach an employee something new. Nearly everyone likes to learn and is capable of tackling a new challenge. Teach your employee something that expands his (or her) current job description. Teach something that will help him to get promoted within your organization at a later date. Teach him a skill that uses new technology. Or, teach him something that will allow him to be a more skilled leader and manager in the future. You can even teach something that you no longer need to be doing in your position, but that will be a rewarding challenge/task for your employee. The benefit to your employee is obvious. The benefit to you is you'll have a more skilled team member who is capable of handling more work that can help you to grow your business and/or make it run more efficiently. Be a leader who teaches.

The CEO Endurance World Championship is a made-for-TV event covering six grueling stages of competition from September 13 - 16, 2012 , and featuring 25 top CEOs that combine success in business with a healthy and fit lifestyle. Each of the six stages is designed to test the CEOs - mixing strategy with endurance - and at the same time be very entertaining to watch. The goal of the competition is to identify the World’s Fittest CEO . The CEOs that have been chosen to take part in the event were hand-picked for their athletic ability and, more importantly, for the charity for which they will be racing. The overall winner will earn the coveted title of Fittest CEO® plus the opportunity to donate $50,000 to the charity of their choice. The entire competition will be filmed and packaged into a TV show (“The Fittest CEO®”) that will: illustrate the breath-taking beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains profile a number of charities that the CEOs will be racing for applaud CEOs who c...

Here are 10 tips for how to maximize employee involvement : Have active ways to listen to your employees. Check often with employees to see if the information you are sharing with them is what they need and what they want. Share information about customer satisfaction with employees. Discuss financial performance with your employees and be sure everyone understands the importance of profitability and how they can contribute to profitability. Allow ad hoc teams among employees to form to address organizational problems and work with those teams to tackle the identified issues. Encourage employees to make suggestions for improvement whether those ideas are large or small. Take an idea from one employee and share it with other employees and teams and let everyone make a contribution to build upon that idea. Train! For long-term employees, find ways to keep their jobs interesting through new assignments and challenges. Conduct meetings around specific issues and brainstor...

Having your employees learn more about what their fellow employees do is invaluable. When everyone knows how each job/position on your team fits together, your team can accomplish so much more. Plus, the new-found knowledge drives a better appreciation for what everyone does, and proves to the team that success comes only when all the pieces fit together like a well-oiled machine. So, plan a half day where you pair up employees. Once paired, one employee explains to his (or her) partner what he does in a "typical" day. Allow enough time for sharing samples of his work and for Q&A. Then, it's the second person's turn to share about their "typical" day. If your half day is a morning, suggest the pairs of employees have lunch together, where they can finish by incorporating more discussion about away-from-work hobbies and interests. Schedule your job learning days for once a month and have your employees meet with different partners each time. It's ...

Author Harvey MacKay wrote the following spot-on advice in his recent column in the Kansas City Business Journal .  He wisely points out that all employees at every level should never use these four words in front of a client/customer for both obvious and perhaps not so obvious reasons: Can't -- As in, "We can't do that."  "We can't meet that deadline."  Unless you honestly cannot produce and then be honest and help them find another vendor. Busy -- As in, "I'll call you when I'm not so busy."  "I'm really busy right now." The word "busy" gives your customer the impression they are a low priority. Safe -- As in, "Let's play it safe."  Customers typically want to engage in calculated risks versus playing it safe. Fear -- As in, "I fear that we may be moving too fast."  That tells your customer you haven't done your homework. MacKay writes, "Common sense, thorough research ...

As a leader, you likely have asked yourself, "How do I want to be remembered as a leader?" But, perhaps the more important question is, "How will I be remembered as a leader?"  The answer to that question is likely going to be based on the valuable lessons you shared with those you led. The Kansas City Star newspaper recently featured a story about Marion Laboratories and its 60th anniversary.  In its heyday, Marion had 3,400 employees with sales of nearly $1 billion and in 1989 merged with Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals.  Mr. Ewing Kauffman, fondly known as Mr. K, led Marion during its peak, and is remembered as one of the most effective, influential leaders ever in the Kansas City area. Former employees quoted in the newspaper article remember Mr. Kauffman as a leader who shared these lessons with them: "You can do anything you want if you set your mind to it and if you study your competition." "You can't be afraid of trying something...

Fortune magazine published its annual list of " 100 Best Companies " list earlier this month.  Here are some of the things the companies on that list are doing to attract and retain employees.  Many of these programs and activities take little to no investment.  But, they all can only happen when there's strong leadership at the company's helm. Try some of these in your workplace this year: Mentoring programs, especially for new employees Volunteer opportunities/days Lunches with the CEO or president On-site wellness fairs Pep rallies Telecommuting programs Summer picnics for employees and their families Retention bonuses Lending libraries Unlimited sick days Employee team sports after hours, such as bowling and baseball On-site child care services Awarding vacation time in exchange for community volunteering time Employee pot-luck breakfasts Monthly birthday parties On-site fitness equipment Frequent town hall meetings with upper ma...

There's a new book that asks its readers five powerful questions, putting aspiring leaders to the ultimate test of what it takes to be a true leader.  The best thing about this book is that if you pass the test you can skip reading many of the mountains of other leadership books on the market today. Timothy R. Clark's new book, called " The Leadership Test " forces you to do some valuable soul searching. And don't be fooled by the book's conversational writing style and story-telling approach, or by its compact 100-page size that you'll read through in less than an hour. Because, the message is powerful and the test is revealing.  That test, which comes at the end of the book, consists of five questions, each important -- and successfully passing each becomes a collective must to ensure leadership success.  Once taken, the test is your personalized assessment that you can use to chart your course for becoming a better leader.  In an i...

If you've flown Southwest Airlines you know they're tops in airline customer service, driven by a leadership style that creates a company-wide culture where all employees own that culture. According to SWA Chairman, President and CEO Gary Kelly, as reported in the company's in-flight magazine, "every company has a culture, whether that culture is supportive or stifling, active or passive, fun or discouraging." "One way we do culture differently is by making Southwest's culture everyone's responsibility. In fact, we ask everyone to 'own it,'" says Kelly. Here are some of the ways that SWA keeps its winning culture in the forefront that you can also do to keep employees motivated and to drive great customer service: 1. Form a corporate culture committee and a local culture committee that organizes low-cost employee events throughout the year. 2. Include a section related to culture on each employee's annual performance ap...

Walk into any Chick-fil-A chicken fast food restaurant around the U.S. and when you say "thank you" the person working there will say "my pleasure" instead of "no problem." You'll likely hear the same "my pleasure" from the waiter at California Pizza Kitchen after he/she delivers your meal and you say "thank you." At first, the "my pleasure" sounds strange, because we are so used to being told it's "no problem." But, you'll get used to "my pleasure" quickly, especially because it's the much better response to your buying a product or placing your order, and when you thank a business for their service. As a leader, abolish "no problem" from your employees' vocabulary. Remind them that serving a customer isn't a problem at all. It's your business' pleasure to provide the service! Teach your team what Chick-fil-A has been doing for years and what you're beginning t...

The next time you stay at a Marriott hotel look in the nightstand drawer for Marriott's booklet that highlights its milestones and tells the Marriott story. In the booklet, you'll find the following 12 ways that Marriott practices good leadership: Continually challenge your team to do better. Take good care of your employees, and they'll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back. Celebrate your people's success, not your own. Know what you're good at and mine those competencies for all you're worth. Do it and do it now. Err on the side of taking action. Communicate. Listen to your customers, associates and competitors. See and be seen. Get out of your office, walk around, make yourself visible and accessible. Success is in the details. It's more important to hire people with the right qualities than with specific experience. Customer needs may vary, but their bias for quality never does. Eliminate the cause of a mistake. Don't ju...

Another month has gone by, which means it's time to post my favorite post -- the one about leading by setting a good example. So, as a reminder, here are 15 things you can do to be an effective and successful leader: 1. Praise when compliments are earned. 2. Be decisive. 3. Say "Thank You" and sincerely mean it. 4. Communicate clearly. 5. Listen carefully. 6. Teach something new to your team members. 7. Word hard and lend a hand when deadlines are tight. 8. Show respect for everyone on your team. 9. Follow through when you promise to do something. 10. Allow learning to happen when mistakes are made. 11. Allow prudent autonomy. 12. Respond to questions quickly and fully. 13. Return e-mail and phone calls promptly. 14. Take an interest in your employees and their important personal milestone events. 15. Give credit where credit is due. And, last but not least, be humble!

Eric Harvey and Al Lucia wrote a booklet called "144 Ways To Walk The Talk." They provide the following great advice about giving feedback: 1. Make it timely -- give your feedback as soon as possible to the performance. 2. Make it individualized -- tailor your feedback to the feedback receiver. 3. Make it productive -- focus your feedback on the performance and not the performer . 4. Make is specific -- pinpoint for the receiver observable actions and behaviors.

Too often, we think of only external customer service, and forget about the need for excellent internal customer service. No matter what type of business, organization or team you lead, teach your team members/ employees the need for and importance of internal customer service. Similar to external customer service, that means employees/team members should: 1. Return phone calls on a timely basis. 2. Answer e-mails. 3. Be polite. 4. Probe to discover how else he/she can be helpful to a co-worker. 5. Be respectful of co-workers. Lead your team in providing excellent internal customer service. If need be, make internal customer service a discussion topic at your next group meeting.

Do you create an environment at your business/organization that allows peer coaching to succeed? Hopefully you do. If you don't, encourage peer coaching among the members of your team. Peer coaching can be formal, informal or a combination of both. You'll likely find that everyone on your team has a skill, technique, behavior that they can teach a fellow team member. That coaching is rewarding for both parties, and it helps everyone to learn an important skill for being a successful leader -- coaching.

As a manager and leader, your focus may gravitate toward your lower level employees and your higher level employees on your team. But, don't forget your middle-layer employees who appreciate your attention and coaching, and your training and opportunities for new challenges. Often these employees are more eager to learn and to tackle new projects because they have the drive to move up and to learn new skills. And they recognize they have a shorter path to achieve advancement. So, develop your middle layer employees. It's a win-win situation.

Leaders make an impact every day. Really good leaders leave a lasting impact -- often, long after they have left a company or organization. Many of the things I write about in this Blog are behaviors my second supervisor in my career taught me. He's moved on to other places. But, on my 25th anniversary at the company where I worked, I emailed him to thank him for the leadership skills he taught me that I am still using today. As a leader, work hard to make a lasting impact. Help create a little of you in each of your promising employees who will lead after you have moved on. They will surely be eternally grateful.

Encourage your employees to grow professionally. If your budget allows, send them to a training program to learn a new computer skill or how to improve their customer service skills. Perhaps you don't have training dollars to spend, but you have a budget to send your employee to a trade show or industry conference. If you don't have any budget for outside training or travel, then invite your employee to sit in on a meeting or discussion where they'll be exposed to something new and enlightening.