What Does Employee Disengagement Cost You?

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Steve Borek

In Jim Haudan’s book “The Art of Engagement,” a neighbor describes his understanding of engagement based on a brief experience with their two guests at a Major League Baseball game. These guests simply wanted “hot dogs” just as the biggest game in the Cleveland Indians history was about to begin at the 1995 World Series. Jim’s neighbor realized the difference between the Indian’s fans versus the hungry, yet disinterested visitors:

“…they know about the skills that have been developed by both teams, they are fully aware that the winner is the team that takes the best of seven games… They know how to keep score and what is necessary to score… they understand that the game strategy starts in the clubhouse before the game, when the manager fills out the lineup card… But all 41,998 [fans] understand the lineup card is just the starting point-that after the first pitch, everything is in motion. And that drives a constant attempt to revise the strategy, switch players, develop and reexamine the plays that each team attempts to execute… there are two guys here that don’t have a clue… There’s a difference between just attending a game and being really involved in it… for them it’s just an interesting event that’s festive, but pretty much meaningless…”

Now imagine the Cleveland fans with the energy level of the average disengaged employee. It is hard to envision thousands of fans showing up to a game in which they have no investment. The franchise would struggle to survive; in this case the cliché “if it weren’t for the fans…” rings true.

What would it have cost the Cleveland Indians franchise if the fans weren’t engaged? Sales for tickets, jerseys, over-priced food & beverages and foam fingers would all plummet. What is the value in engaging your “fans”, your employees? What does it cost every day, week, year when employees only show up?

For starters, consider the Cost of Disengaged Workers. With some basic number crunching, an average of 2.5 disengaged hours per day for a company of 40 employees results in $528K a year in disengagement! That is the COST of doing nothing.

To reach the engagement level of fans of a long-absent World Series contender is a lofty goal, but to address employee disengagement is a catalyst in creating an environment where employees are there to root for the company to “win,” rather than just show up and eat the occasional “hotdog.”

This is a guest post by colleague, Juan Kingsbury from TTI.

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Does Your Team Love Their Game?

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Steve Borek

I wrote about Mr. Trevino last year, and thought I’d revisit this post to talk about your team.

Do the people on your team enjoy what they’re doing? Can you see the passion in their eyes?

Last year, I watched an interview of one of the most famous golfers in the history of the game, Lee Trevino. He was a guest on the David Feherty show which airs on the Golf Channel. As I watched the interview, I could tell he loved everything about his life and career.

Lee grew up in Dallas, TX of Mexican ancestry. He never knew his Dad who left him when he was a little boy. At the age of five, he worked in the cotton fields. His focus was working from sun up to sun down, making what he could to help his family survive.

“The Merry Mex”  or “Supermex,” nicknames given him early in his career, began playing as a young man when a family member gave him a few golf balls and a club. He snuck on to local courses and began to practice day in and day out. He later earned his living as a young man, as did I, caddying at the country clubs.

Lee’s swing is iconic and a bit unorthodox. It’s an outside in swing which puts the ball on a left to right trajectory called a fade. He deliberately created it to get rid of a chronic right to left ball flight which in golf they call a hook. He knew his weakness, made adjustments, and the block swing, as he described, served him well.

Since Lee didn’t have a television growing up, he never knew the marquee names in golf i.e. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. Well, that quickly changed. In fact, in his second year on tour, Trevino won the 1968 U.S. Open beating Jack in an 18 hole playoff. Lee won six majors in his career and Jack finished second to Lee four times. All told, Lee won 89 times on the PGA and Senior PGA tours and $3.4M in prize money.

Lee knows he didn’t have the greatest swing. In fact Bob Goalby, fellow competitor, told him he wouldn’t last very long on tour. So, what was Trevino’s magic sauce? He had passion for the game. He loved everything about it from practicing, to playing, camaraderie with players and fans, etc. Every moment was focused on his love, the game of golf.

So how about YOU? Do you love the game you’re playing? Is there a passion for what you do? Are you a business executive that’s stressed to the max? What would make your game fun again? Is your team performing at their highest level? The Team Advantage program might be just the magic sauce you’re looking for. Team Advantage is a game where I get your team to achieve an extraordinary goal in 16 weeks.

In all my years of coaching, I can instantly tell if a team is passionate about what they’re doing or simply going through the motions. If you don’t care about “the game,” your peers, management, and clients know it. People want to be around others that are excited about life and their profession. So this week, hit the pause button, and ask yourself, am I having fun? If not, Team Advantage is a process that will rejuvenate the leader and the team.

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Are Your People In Position to Win?

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Steve Borek

What is your organization doing to identify, develop and maximize personal skills? 

Organizations, both profit and non profit, need to determine how to deliver more with fewer people and resources to customers who demand more for less.  The answer? Personal skills.  This is what sets great teams apart: identifying, developing and maximizing every team members unique personal skills.  But how?

Let the job talk.  Start with identifying the key accountabilities of all key positions on the team, combine these with a job assessment, and you’ll have a complete job benchmark for each position.  Next, talk to team members within the positions about the key accountabilities.  If possible, assess the individuals and compare them to the benchmark.  Then review the information for gaps or misplaced employees.  Develop those with gaps and realign those who are misplaced.  This shows constituents, management wants to minimize stress levels, and maximize resources, not cut headcount.

Once your team achieves employee-job fit, you’ll see the personal skills that have been identified are being developed and maximized.  This will lead to a more efficient, productive and engaged workforce.

Get your people in the right positions, then they’re positioned to win.

Contact End Game Business and we’ll spill the beans about the benchmark process.

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Can You Walk In A Straight Line Blindfolded?

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Steve Borek

Do you wrestle with the concept of a vision? Where do you want to be in five or ten years in your personal or business life?

It’s ironic, the word “vision,” associated with sight, is something that’s hard to see. We want our vision to be clear, yet our perspective of the future is often vague, murky or cloudy.

If you’re the leader, and want others to willingly follow you and struggle for a shared aspiration, you must describe a vivid picture of the future. Before the team decides to hop on the train and go along for the ride, they need to know where you’re taking them. They’d like some idea of what it will be like when they reach their final destination.

Inspiring A Shared Vision is one of the five practices of The Leadership Challenge. Studies show most leaders don’t spend enough time thinking about their vision. Why do you think that’s the case?

I was motivated to write this post after watching a video. Did you know it’s impossible to walk a straight line without a frame of reference in the distance? Here’s a mother, conducting a science project with her son. She was certain she’d be able to walk a straight line donning a blindfold. I’ve viewed a number of clips where people have attempted this experiment and the results are always the same. Take a look.

Going through life, or running a business without an end game is the same as hoping to walk a straight line blindfolded. Your journey will look similar to the woman in the video.

How about you? Do you carve out enough time in the day to envision your future? What’s worked, what hasn’t, and what have you learned? I’d like to hear your comments below.

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Hire the Best the First Time

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Steve Borek

The idea of benchmarking jobs is an effective first step to ensure getting the right person in the right job. However, that’s just the beginning. For years organizations have paid top dollar for training, and development and coaching. But for what purpose? Why is a person being developed? What expectations are the coaching and/or training supposed to deliver?

The answer is simple. If the job hasn’t been benchmarked, you don’t know, no one does. Benchmarking should be the first step in any talent related process, period. In order to achieve results and affect change, first know what the job is calling for. If the job could talk, what would it say?

End Game Business is among the best in the world at benchmarking jobs. How can we say that? We have the patent on it. The experience itself is money in the bank. First you go through a discovery process in order to establish key accountabilities. Next, you move through a job assessment in order to get a clear and objective view of the job requirements as they relate to personal skills, behaviors and motivators of the job. Once this is in place, you can easily compare current and potential talent to the job in order to assist in hiring, development, training and performance management.

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Challenge the Process – Average is over

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Steve Borek

I read an article in the NY Times by Thomas Friedman titled “Average Is Over.” I can’t agree with him more.

We have choices in regards to products and services. Lots of them.

If you receive average tasting food at a restaurant, you search for an alternative venue that serves wonderfully delicious inviting meals.

If your company runs on an average ERP solution, you’ll move to a software system that provides a competitive advantage.

If you have an average customer experience with an online web store, they’ll be history as soon as you find one that’s better.

Where in your company can you challenge the process? It’s one of the practices in The Leadership Challenge workshop.

Look for ways to go over the top for your customers. Otherwise, eventually, they’ll find a vendor that will.

Here’s a link to Mr. Friedman’s insightful article. http://ow.ly/8JU20

 

 

 

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Job Benchmarking Increases Revenue

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Steve Borek

Have you heard the argument that assessment tools are only useful for top-level positions? Or, that it’s cost prohibitive to assess the entire organization? So are assessments important in every level of your organization? We’re often asked this question, and the answer is YES.

 

 

Any building is only as good as its foundation. Your organizations foundation is your workforce. Regardless of the position, all organizations benefit from understanding every role. A person’s assessment identifies strengths and weaknesses in the individual and the team. We often learn of organizations that identify undiscovered talent hidden within their organization as a result of utilizing assessments. This initial discovery leads to tapping the potential of future leaders and getting them started on the right development path. This leads to higher revenue.

When employees are in positions that are not a fit with their behaviors, motivators, and skills, the entire organization suffers including the bottom line. The benchmarking process uncovers the key performance indicators that drive results in the job critical to success. By understanding what the job needs and rewards, you should understand the best way to manage people, develop training and implement strategies. This means greater productivity and ROI of each player on your team.

In the typical hiring process, we review resumes, look at experience, and interview. Then we go with our gut. Our intuition. We’re biased! A job benchmark is an unbiased emotional view of what the Job Wants!

Hiring based on what the -Job Wants- leads to hiring “A” performers the first time, which leads to higher revenues. Your team members are in the right positions, and they’re productive day one. Otherwise, you’ll spend lots of money on training them to get better at positions they’re probably not jazzed about in the first place! This leads to turnover and stress.

Best of all, benchmarking is a simple, cost-effective way to set the foundation for the leaders of any organization to increase morale, improve retention and enhance overall employee satisfaction.

Contact me today and I’ll spill the beans on the entire process.

 

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So, You Think You Can’t Dance?

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Steve Borek

So, you think you know yourself? I thought I knew myself until I got a big surprise in November.

A few months ago, on an idle Tuesday afternoon, I received a call from my friend, Bob Teska, a CPA at Bowers and Company in Syracuse, NY. He was proud to say he’d been recently elected to the board for Syracuse Habitat for Humanity. The last 25 years, Habitat has built or renovated 60 non-profit houses that were sold to selected families through interest-free mortgages.

Bob was “dialing for dollars,” contacting his circle of influence, recruiting male volunteers for Habitat’s largest fundraiser of the year, “Mr. Habitat.” He asked if I would donate my executive coaching and leadership services for the auction. All I had to do was dance the runway to my music of choice. I told him I’d love to do it.

After I hung up, I decided I must be out of my mind. I never dance in public because I’m 6’5”, I stick out like a sore thumb, and I feel like my dance moves are on a par with Elaine from “Seinfeld.” I considered backing out, but this was such a great cause, I knew I would follow through.

Well, if I was going to strut my stuff in public, I needed a cool piece of music to camouflage my inadequacies. I chose the catchy, upbeat Maroon 5 hit, “Moves Like Jagger.” I began my choreography, playing the tune over and over and refining my moves. I gained confidence and soon felt the urge to spice things up. I searched You Tube and added a hip- hop move to my routine, making things up as I went along. I couldn’t see myself during practice, but what I was creating felt respectable.

I strolled into the “Mr. Habitat” event at the Sheraton Syracuse University Convention Center on this warm November evening. The whole day I channeled fellow coach Maria Nemeth’s mantra to embrace the moment: with clarity, focus, ease and grace. I mingled with the crowd of hundreds, trying to convince them to bid high and often on my services for this great cause. I made a point of letting them know I couldn’t dance.

“Go have a drink!” was a piece of advice I received more than once, but I knew alcohol wouldn’t help. I did encourage everyone else, however, to have one more libation, hoping it would enhance my overall performance, in their eyes.

Backstage, there were about seven male compatriots ahead of me. I worked off my anxiety by rehearsing in the halls, getting strange looks from the kitchen help as they prepared hors d’oeuvres.

When my turn came, local personalities Ted and Amy of 93Q announced to the crowd, “And now here’s Steve Borek, executive coach at End Game Business! Let’s hear it for him!” I hopped on the runway to the loud sounds of ♪♪ Just shoot for the stars, if it feels right and aim for my heart ♫. I was in the zone! I’d been in the zone several times playing sports and it’s a special place. Everything gets quiet, I’m at peace, and movements feel like slow mo. The dance was effortless.

After my services were auctioned off to Ann Goutremout, the owner of Studio 11 in Cicero, NY, I jumped off the runway and was congratulated by fellow volunteers waiting in the wings. What a rush! I walked out and to my amazement, several folks in the crowd complimented me on my performance. “Steve, you can really dance.” I was stupefied!

During the evening I had several “coaching moments.” I learned that being in the land of complacency is a terrible place to be. I hadn’t challenged myself in some time and I was playing it safe. On this night, I scared myself and I grew in the process. I also learned I’m not qualified to assess myself. As with clients, many times you can’t see the forest for the trees. Last, when you have a finite amount of time to achieve an extraordinary and unfamiliar goal, without any prior experience, you can succeed. Believe me, I’m dancing proof.

To learn more about Syracuse Habitat for Humanity contact Kristin Earle 315.422.2230

Photo courtsey of Caityln Bom Photography.

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How Personally Accountable are They?

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Steve Borek

In the world of statistics, 50% of the population is above average in personal accountability and 50% percent are below average in personal accountability. All businesses should hire employees who are personally accountable. Research identifies, that people who are personally accountable, will do the things necessary to achieve above average or even superior performance.

For example, people who are personally accountable and employed in a career that requires continuous learning have a natural passion toward learning and keeping current. Those that are not personally accountable can get left behind very quickly if involved in many high tech careers.

Unfortunately, for the most part, your team won’t share their thoughts with you on this subject. Can you think of a few reasons why?

Research shows that personal accountability is required in most jobs. This illustrates the importance for all hiring managers to totally evaluate each position as it relates to being personally accountable plus making sure that everyone they interview brings personal accountability skills to the job.

If you only hired people who were personally accountable and your competitors hired people who were not personally accountable, you would own the marketplace! Sales people who lack personal accountability will fail unless they have a protected area with repeat customers.

There is a solution to understand the Personal Skills of your team. The TriMetrix HD Assessment. Based on a unique 37-factor analysis, TTI TriMetrix HD reveals a person’s specific traits in three areas that describe the how, why and what of individual performance. A TriMetrix HD can be done in conjunction with a Job Benchmark before you hire. This tool is often used for current team members to see if they’re in the right role. You’ll see if they enjoy their job or if they’re stressing. In either case, you can provide a coaching development plan based on where they need to improve.

Contact me to learn more. I’ll spill the beans on the process.

 

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Expect the Unexpected in 2012

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Steve Borek

It’s that time of year again. Everyone is making their New Years resolutions hoping to make a change. The majority of the time, we lose interest or lack the discipline to stick to the plan.

The most significant changes in my life, that endured, occurred on some idle Thursday when I least expected.

About 20 years ago, I was at the YMCA at 6am on a typical weekday morning, getting ready to do laps in the pool. As I waited for the lifeguard to come on duty, a man in a Speedo walks out of the locker room to the pool area. He had a svelte athletic “swimmers” body. I noticed he looked a lot like a customer of mine. Sure enough, it was Fran Nichols, CFO/Managing Partner, at Eric Mower and Associates. He looked completely different. I’d never seen Fran without his glasses. This was a Clark Kent moment if you will.

We were both surprised to see each other! “Fran, how often do you swim?” I said. “I do one mile every morning before I go to work. Takes me about 35 minutes” Fran replied. “How about you Steve?” Fran asked. “I do a half mile in 45 minutes” I said in a less than confident tone. We shared the same lane and Fran must have lapped me twenty times or more. He moved through the water like Flipper, whereas I resembled a wounded Orca. I wasn’t very happy, considering Fran was about ten years my senior!

After my workout I went to the office and plopped down in my cubicle. I reached for a cigarette to have with my morning coffee. I’d been smoking for all of my adult life. I was so upset at my performance at the Y, I crushed the 14 or so cigs I had left in the pack of Marlboro Lights and threw them in the garbage. I quit cold turkey and never looked back. This big change happened in a split second!

That day, I didn’t have a plan to give up smoking. My incentive to quit was my competitive spirit. Out of the blue, Fran gave me a gift. I channeled all the energy from a lack of nicotine to exercise. Today, on any given day, I can swim a mile in 38 minutes.

Be ready for those unexpected opportunities to change in 2012 regardless of the time of year. Then, take action and see what happens.

p.s. Fran, thanks for the gift that keeps on giving.

 

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