3 Keys to Scaling Your Company Culture

 

                    Three Keys to Scaling Your Company Culture

 

 

 

There are three keys to scaling your company culture successfully if your organization as grown in the past year. In this episode of The Solutions Oriented Leader Podcast I am going to share with you the three keys to scaling your company culture successfully.

 

Every entrepreneur wants to see their business grow—but in some ways, that growth can be a two-edged sword. For instance, you may feel like your unique company culture is a key component of your success—and a primary factor in your growth. But when you achieve that growth, you may find that your culture is difficult to hold onto.

 

This is by no means an uncommon realization that a 10-person team become more difficult to uphold when there are 25 or 50 or 200 of you.

 

The good news is that there are three key steps you can take to develop a culture that will grow with you—in short, a culture that scales.

 

Here are my Three Keys to Scaling Your Company Culture

 

How to Scale Your Company Culture

 

1. Define your ideal culture

 

It’s always best to define success, setting a clear goal for what your company values should be. This isn’t about logistics like snacks in the break room or where you have the company holiday party. It’s more a matter of defining those intangible things that you’d like your company to be defined by—like collaboration, or relationship, or improving the lives of customers, or whatever else. These intangible things can easily be adapted as your business evolves.

 

2. Build a culture team.

 

This is something more companies should do. Assemble a group of employees—ideally from different levels within the corporate hierarchy—and let them get together once a month or so to initiate cultural initiatives. Task them with creating and refining a statement of culture, and of reviewing the company’s activities to ensure ongoing cultural alignment.

 

3. Make culture a part of your onboarding process.

 

One final suggestion: If you want new employees to fit into the culture, and to contribute to it in a meaningful way, make sure you talk about culture early in the hiring process. And, ask for their take—solicit their thoughts on what kind of culture they’d like to see.

 

These are just a few of my recommendations for building a company culture that will scale with you—but it’s something I’d love to talk with you about even more. Reach out and let us know we can help you! You can reach me at www.rickgoodman.com or call 888-267-6098.

 

What is a solutions-oriented leader? Take the free Solutions-Oriented Leader Assessment now and claim your Comprehensive Guide to Achieve Success. Dr. Rick Goodman’s Solutions-Oriented Leader book is now available to order online. In this first-of-a-kind, comprehensive guide, author Dr. Rick Goodman leads you through the everyday challenges of the modern workplace while providing you with easy-to-implement solutions to achieve world-class results!

 

 

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Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you're not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don't want you to miss an episode. I'm adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you're not subscribed there's a good chance, you'll miss out on those. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

 

I'd be really grateful if you left me review over on iTunes too. Those reviews help other people find my podcasts there. It’s also fun for me to go in and read them. Just click here to review, select ratings and reviews and write a review and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is.

 

Thank you!

 

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5 Ways to Overcome Decision Fatigue

                        5 Ways to Overcome Decision Fatigue

 

In Today’s world some of us are becoming exhausted from making hundreds of decisions weekly that affect our business and our personal lives. In this episode of The Solutions Oriented Leader Podcast I am going to give you 5 ways that you can overcome decision fatigue today!

 

5 Ways to Overcome Decision Fatigue

 

Use lists to make fewer decisions. A lot of your daily decisions can actually be avoided if you make a list and stick to it. The next time you are at the grocery store rather than walking through the supermarket trying to decide what you should buy, simply adhere to a grocery list. Daily to-do lists can have the same positive impact.

 

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate Hopefully, you’re surrounded by team members you trust—and if so, that means you have people to whom you can delegate decision making, especially on comparatively minor matters. Save your own decision-making energy for the really big and impactful items not the five-dollar activities!

 

Your best decisions are made in the morning. There is a lot of research to suggest that the best time to make big decisions is in the morning, which is when most of us have the most energy and the highest degree of decision-making tolerance. If you know you’ve got to decide about something, try to do it earlier in your workday.

 

Limit your options to less rather than more. For example, trying to decide between 100 different pieces of software can be maddening—so why not research two or three options, compare price points and overall value, then decide? Don’t allow yourself to become swamped by infinite choices.

 

Develop Daily Routines. Finally, one way you can minimize the decisions you have to make is by developing rituals and habits. For example, develop a routine of going to the gym every day at 8—and then, you no longer have to decide on each day’s workout time. Decide you’re doing to eat a salad for lunch every day, and then stop fussing over what to pack for your daily meal. Nobody likes to fall into a “rut,” but having certain rituals can really be helpful.

I hope these tips will be useful to you as you seek relief from decision fatigue. To learn more about being a decisive leader, reach out to me directly. Connect with Dr. Rick at www.rickgoodman.com or call 888-267-6098.

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My Top Ten List of The Most Underrated Leadership Skills

My Top Ten List of The Most Underrated Leadership Skills

There are many leadership skills that one must possess in order to be effective in their job in this episode of the solutions oriented leader podcast I will share my Top 10 list of the most underrated leadership skills that are essential for your success!

Because these leadership skills don’t quite receive their due, I thought I’d highlight a few of them today. Don’t make the mistake of underappreciating these skills, because possessing them could give you the competitive advantage you’ve been seeking!

Here’s my top ten list of the most effective leadership skills that seem to fly under the radar.

 

1. Employee recognition. This is at the top of my list for a reason because without your team the odds of your success diminish greatly. It’s no small thing to pause long enough to tell an employee that you notice and appreciate their good work, or to commend them on a recent project where they exceeded expectations. Indeed, some leaders find it rather difficult to give a pat on the back to deserving team members, but it’s actually a critical skill that can help you motivate and engage the people who work for you.
2. Sense of humor. Some leaders need to lighten up a bit! You know what they say about all work and no play! While leaders obviously need to be focused and know when it’s time to get down to business, there is also a need to show a sense of humor from time to time. For one thing, a little levity can help to alleviate stress and defuse workplace tension. Also, it can help you come across as a little less intimidating; when team members see that you have a sense of humor, it can make them feel more comfortable approaching you with questions or concerns.
3. Gut instinct. This is one of the questions I ask my team, what does your gut say? I highly recommend that leaders seek data and analytics before they make any big decisions, ensuring they’re being prudent and informed. At the end of the day, though, you’ve got to reach a conclusion, deciding what needs to happen for your team. Sometimes, that may mean listening to your intuition. Gut instinct may not be unerring, but sometimes it saves you from being paralyzed in indecision.
4. Respect.  You must give it to get it! Do your employees feel like you respect them? And if so, can you name some specific ways in which you exhibit respect? If you don’t respect your employees, it’s unlikely that you’ll keep them motivated or engaged for very long. This is a critical workplace skill for you to hone.
5. Empathy. I mentioned the importance of active listening above. Empathy is a close cousin, and an important way for you to show employees that you care about them. Work on your ability to understand what your employees are going through, professionally and personally, and to show understanding when they’re facing tough times. You are in this thing together and having empathy can go a long way!
6. Trust. Trust is a two-way street. Naturally, you want your team members to trust you, but you also need to feel comfortable trusting them. For example, how often do you delegate? Do you give your employees space to work on projects without micromanaging them? Do you have confidence in their ability to do the things you hired them to do? If not, maybe you shouldn’t have hired them; or maybe, you need to develop your ability to trust!
7. Dedication. You can’t ask your team to do something that you would not do! Of course, you’re dedicated to your business… but are you showing it to the team? Are you willing to roll up your sleeves and help out with big projects, especially if deadlines are looming or the employees are struggling? And during a tense or busy season, are you there to offer your support, or ducking out early to play golf? Dedication is high on my list of crucial, effective leadership skills.
8. Positive thinking.  Teams go where you go! Are you good at emanating positive vibes, and helping everyone around you to look on the bright side? The thing is, negativity tends to spread pretty quick, and it can suffocate workplace morale. A good leader is able to keep the mood fairly positive, and the outlook hopeful, even during tough times.
9. Inclusivity. Inclusivity is more than a buzzword. It’s an important strategy, a way to ensure that everyone on your team is positioned to offer their ideas and to contribute to final outcomes. You need everyone to feel included in order to create team cohesion and to foster employee engagement. So, are you good at fostering an environment of inclusion? Are you skilled in helping all employees feel like they are valued members of the team?
10. Curiosity. I’m a big fan of curiosity, and an admirer of curious people. When you’re curious, it means you’re constantly looking for new ways to learn, new skills to develop, new avenues for expanding your knowledge base. And, curiosity can be a catalyst for creative problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking.

 

Let us show you how to develop your leadership skills today!

As you consider your options for developing any kind of effective leadership skills, I encourage you to reach out. I’d love to talk with you about my services as a coach, consultant, and beyond. Contact me at your next opportunity and let’s talk together about the leadership skills you’d like to hone. You can always connect with me at www.rickgoodman.com or by calling 888-267-

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6 Ways to Create More Engaging and Fun Meetings

6 Ways to Create More Engaging and Fun Meetings

 

One of the most common complaints that I receive from my audiences when I am delivering a keynote speech on employee engagement or organizational leadership is “how can I make my meetings more fun and engaging?” Most meetings are ineffective they last forever, with a lot of words being spoken but no decisions being made, and no action steps taken. Meetings like that are pretty obviously a waste of time—and that’s equally frustrating for leaders and employees, all of whom have things they’d rather be doing.

 

But there’s another problem with meetings that are unengaging and boring: If all your meetings are unengaging, you’ll basically condition your team to arrive at each new meeting already expecting it to be a dreadful bore. You’ll have lost them before the meeting even begins.

 

So, what can you do? Is it possible to make your meetings fun and engaging? Absolutely it is. You’ve just got to be intentional in making each meeting engaging.

 

How to Make Your Meetings More Engaging

 

A few basic ways to do that include:

 

1. Have a “hook” at the beginning of each meeting. Tell a funny story, show an entertaining YouTube clip, or simply take a show-of-hands poll—anything to get people engaged right from the start.

 

2. Start your meetings with a clear definition of the meeting objectives—what you hope to accomplish and what all participants can expect to learn.

 

3. Allow emotions into your meeting. Ask people how they’ve been feeling about work since your last meeting. Take a temperature check of office morale.

 

4. Have a strong visual component to your meeting. In particular, have a way to showcase the brainstorming that’s happening and the thought that’s at work. A marker board, pin-up board, or even a sticker voting system can be useful here.

 

5. Build positivity into your meeting. Share success stories that have happened since the last meeting. Consider implementing a rule that the team must say three positive things about an idea before anyone is allowed to criticize or to shoot it down. Also creating a game or competition is a great way to motivate and engage your team.

 

6. Make your meeting more active. Ditch the chairs from your meeting space, and instead encourage your meeting participants to stand together in a huddle—a great way to engage their bodies and, hopefully, their minds!

 

Engaging meetings don’t just happen: They’re planned and executed with intention. You too can make your meetings more engaging and fun by implementing these 6 tips!

 

Dr. Rick Goodman CSP is a thought leader in the world of transformational leadership and employee engagement and is known as one of the most sought-after team building experts in the United States and internationally.

 

He is famous for helping organizations, corporations, and individuals with systems and strategies that produce increased profits and productivity without having the challenges of micromanaging the process. Some of Dr. Rick’s clients include AT&T, Caterpillar, J&J Snack Foods Corp, Heineken, IBM, and Hewlett Packard.

 

For more information on Rick’s speaking programs, audio programs, and learning programs, contact (888) 267-6098 or info@rickgoodman.com, or visit www.rickgoodman.com.

 

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7 Diiferent Leadership Styles for Your Organizational Culture

7 Different Leadership Styles for Your Organizational Culture

As a transformational leadership expert I am often asked "what is the best leadership style to use with my team"? There are many different leadership styles you can use to change your organizational culture or improve employee engagement.

In this episode of The Solutions Oriented Leader Podcast we will discuss the seven different leadership styles you can use as a leader to bring about organizational change.  

What is the relationship between leadership and organizational culture? The answer is more complicated than you might think. On the one hand it’s very difficult to impose organizational culture, taking a top-down approach.

Organizational culture really needs to come from the team, and you’ll need widespread buy-in for any cultural changes to be effective. At the same time, I do think companies need leaders who set the tone, articulate a clear sense of mission, and embody organizational culture through the daily example they set.

 

The good news is there’s more than one way to apply leadership within your organizational culture… and some leadership styles are more effective than others. As you consider the best way to lead your culture-building initiative, allow me to share with you seven basic leadership styles, along with my comments on how effective each one is.

 

7 Different Leadership Styles for Your Organizational Culture

 

Democratic Leadership

 

A leader will gain feedback and insight from each team member, then make a final decision based on the group’s consensus.

 

This doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is on equal footing, as the senior leader or manager may still have basic veto powers, but it does empower everyone on the team to feel like they have a say, and some authority over what the organizational culture looks like. For this reason, I’d consider democratic leadership to be one of the more effective approaches.

 

Autocratic Leadership

 

Autocratic leadership, meanwhile, is the polar opposite of democratic leadership. In this leadership style, there’s one manager or executive who makes the decision all on their own, without soliciting input from anyone else on the team.

 

In my opinion this just isn’t a good way to run an organization. Yes, sometimes, you may have a situation where you will just have to make a tough call, and it may be a decision that team members don’t especially like. But that should be the exception, not the rule. Taking a full-on dictatorial approach will cause resentment to fester, and it can destroy your best-laid employment engagement strategies.

 

Let Them Do What They Want

 

This third category of leadership is almost like the democratic approach taken to an extreme. It basically means that the “leader” leaves all authority to the employees, allowing them to call the shots without any checks or balances.

 

Trusting your employees to simply work however they like, whenever they like, can actually be a decent approach in smaller and younger companies; indeed, you’ll generally see this leadership style used in startup environments. In more mature companies, though, it can often lead to trouble… a lack of purpose, a lack of unity, a lack of cohesion.

 

Transactional Leadership

 

Another leadership style to consider for your organizational culture is; Transactional leadership. With this approach, employees are always rewarded on the basis of the work they do; so, the team that brings in a big new account will receive an increase in their paycheck or bonus. In other words, transactional leadership is all about incentivizing.

 

I believe that there are some strengths here, but also some limitations. On the one hand, it’s helpful to clearly lay out roles, responsibilities, and expectations. At the same time, it can actually encourage employees to put in bare-minimum effort they really need to do to get the desired reward.

 

Coaching-style Leadership

 

Still another form of leadership to consider is the coaching style. And yes, this works much like a sports coach: The leader will work on identifying and then honing the strengths of the team as well as each individual employee. Most of the time, a coaching-style approach will lead to each employee having a few areas of expertise; hopefully, when you bring all the skill sets of the team together, it results in something cohesive and impactful.

 

I think this is a fairly effective way to lead a team, and in fact it has a lot in common with my favorite leadership style, which is transformational leadership.

 

 

Bureaucratic Leadership

 

Another leadership style to think about is bureaucratic. Leaders who adopt this strategy strictly adhere to company policies and procedures. They may sometimes solicit employee input, but they’ll reject it any time it contradicts existing standards, practices and routines.

 

As with autocratic leadership, the bureaucratic approach may stifle your employees, making them feel too closely controlled; again, it can really deflate your employee engagement strategies. I’d generally recommend against it.

 

Transformational Leadership

 

Lastly, there’s transformational leadership. This is the model where you are always looking for ways to improve a company’s existing systems or processes. It is goal-oriented, participative, and aspirational.

 

I think it’s the best way to lead a team and develop organizational culture because it provides employees with a lot of autonomy, but also keeps everyone focused on the same big-picture objectives.

 

I’m proud to call myself a transformational leadership expert and coach, and one of my favorite things is talking with managers and executives about how they can adopt a transformational approach. If you’re looking to revolutionize your organizational culture, the transformational leadership style may be just what you’re looking for. Reach out and let’s talk!

 

Contact me at www.rickgoodman.com or call 888-267-6098, and let’s get into the details of your cultural needs.

 

Subscribe & Review in iTunes

 

Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you're not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don't want you to miss an episode. I'm adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you're not subscribed there's a good chance, you'll miss out on those. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

 

I'd be really grateful if you left me review over on iTunes too. Those reviews help other people find my podcasts there. It’s also fun for me to go in and read them. Just click here to review, select ratings and reviews and write a review and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is.

Thank you!

 

Dr. Rick

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Why Changing Your Organizational Culture Is Not Working Episode 34

Why Changing Your Organizational Culture Is Not Working!

Have you ever wondered why it's so difficult to change the culture of an organization? Learn why it's so hard so you know what to do in this episode of the Solutions Oriented Leader Podcast. All companies have a culture, but not all leaders are aware of their culture. It's only when you really assess your situation and know the values and routines that drive your team and shape your business then you can truly make an organizational cultural change.

 

As a motivational speaker and transformational leadership expert who has worked with global organizations and Fortune 500 companies, I have discovered that there are a few reasons why organizational change fails! The number one reason I see is that leaders are not aligned with the message and vision of the organization. As I always say, “you can't sell what you don't own”! If a leader does not believe in the mission or vision, they will never be able to sell the message.

Another reason organizational change does not work is when there are no foundational elements in place. The foundational elements I'm speaking about or a statement of values and mission or vision statement that's been memorialized and shared with the whole team. Another reason I have discovered is that managers aren't empowered to do the job they are strictly in a supervisory role equipped to guide team members through the smallest of changes.

Many of the companies I work with focusing on employee engagement have told me that the employees just don't see the point in change and that's why they're not moving forward. It's critical to have open communication and share your message with your team especially when it comes to making an organizational change if it is to work.

It's important also to get your HR team involved in any type of organizational change because they will have to be dealing with key HR processes, including recruitment, onboarding and any performance management systems you have in place.  

Lastly, if organizational change is going to be successful there needs to be open communication and feedback channels so that the team feels included in decisions that will affect their lives and the focus of the company.

These are just a few of the reasons why your organizational change may not be working. If you'd like to learn more, or have any specific questions, I'd be thrilled to talk with you. Reach out anytime you want to discuss the needs of your company culture and contact me directly at info@rickgoodman.com or call directly at 888-267-6098

 

 

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