Tag: leadership
- Make your new employee’s first day awesome! Here’s how..
Ever turned up to a new employer on your first day and it’s complete and utter chaos? Many moons ago I recall being enormously excited about landing my dream job, only to turn up and the guy who was supposed to greet me had decided to take the day off. No-one even knew I was starting that day! Let’s just say, that was a short lived career move. So make sure you make your new employee’s first day much better than my own experience.
So if you are keen to impress the socks off your new employee and give a lasting first impression, below are some practical tips to make your new employee’s first day enjoyable.
Make sure everything is ready for them – set up computers, system passwords, stationary, seating arrangements etc. BEFORE they arrive. Spending an hour on the phone to your IT provider to sort out logon problems is not a good look.
If you are the agreed contact person be available. Block out your calendar and let people know you won’t be available for meetings or phone calls during the agreed time frame. Make your new employee feel important.
Also make your new employee feel welcome – take the time to introduce them to each direct team member individually and also assign someone as their go to person for their first few days. Your new employee will inevitably have questions that need quick answers while they are settling in.
Make an induction plan – schedule in specific times for meet and greets, compliance training, site tours etc. This way your new employee can see what they have on for the day and won’t feel lost and confused.
Before your new employee leaves for the day, ask how their day was and if they need anything else. It’s always best to leave a positive last impression before they give their ‘first day scoop’ to their loved ones. Hence why it is important to make your new employees first day enjoyable.
If you would like to some help to design an induction and on boarding process for your organisation, call us on 07 5655 4047 or contact us via email here.
- Leadership tips: team meeting mistakes
Whether your business loves or loathes team meetings, one thing is for sure – good leadership is very difficult to achieve without the leader engaging with the team. Take in the below leadership tips, and avoid these meeting mistakes.
Team meetings are an excellent forum for leaders to communicate important messages, to provide organisational updates and to clarify the strategy. But how many leaders are unwittingly disengaging their teams during these meetings because of some simple bad habits? If your leaders are doing these, they need to consider these leadership tips.
Managers who continue to commit the same errors time and time again will inevitably lose the attention and respect of their teams. Below are my top five meeting mistakes for leaders to avoid when holding team meetings.
1. Failing to set an agenda for the meeting
Where leaders turn up to every team meeting with no planned agenda, it is inevitable that employees will start to wonder if their time could be better spent elsewhere. Often these leaders hold meetings that have little structure or purpose and critical information is often omitted. Implementing an agenda for each team meeting highlights to employees that thought has been put into each meeting and it also gives employees the impression that the team meeting is important.
Tip: Develop an agenda template that can be easily referenced and adapted for each meeting. Include some standing agenda items such as office movements and a company update, and then some space for other agenda items which change each meeting according to what’s on.
2. Displaying discourteous behaviour such as arriving late and taking phone calls/checking mobile phones during team meetings
Yes, it may well be the boss running the meeting but little respect is gained where employees are treated as if their work time is not important. Where a leader is continually late it shows a lack of respect to those attending the meeting. Remember that to have a successful employee/boss relationship mutual respect is a critical element.
Tip: Make a blanket rule that mobile phones must go on to silent during team meetings, and they also must be placed facing downwards on the meeting table (or on the floor). If you are worried about missing urgent phone calls, a five minute break could occur midway to check messages. To ensure meetings commence on time, make them the first appointment of the day.
3. Failing to create an inclusive and safe team environment
Many leaders are fearful about creating an inclusive environment where staff ideas and suggestions form a part of the culture.Considering others viewpoints takes courage, particularly where a leader is set on a particular path or is concerned about losing some control. However, leaders can implement inclusive practises without losing control of decision making.
Tip: Some easy to implement ideas include asking staff for input on agenda items prior to each team meeting, including regular brainstorming sessions in your meetings which address specific work problems that require thought, or asking a different team member to present a topic/segment at each meeting that you would ordinarily present. An inclusive approach to meetings will create a collaborative and engaging environment where employees feel like they are heard, involved and valued.
4. Cancelling team meetings on a regular basis
Every leader will need to cancel a team meeting from time to time. However, when team meetings are cancelled regularly it sends a very clear message to employees that the leader does not consider team meetings to be important.
Tip: Make team meetings a priority by placing them at a time where they are not likely to be cancelled due to day to day operational issues. It also might be a good idea to think about the real reasons why the meetings are not a priority. Perhaps the content of your team meetings needs a refocus so that more valuable information is shared, which will result in a better ROI for time spent away from other work.
5. Running the meeting as a WIP with no guidelines on content
The WIP meeting can be either a waste of time, or a gift. While having everyone give an update on their work progress to each other is a nice touch, the WIP can become lengthy and monotonous if team members provide too much detail. To move your WIP from unproductive to worthwhile, set some guidelines on what information individual updates should include and how long updates should go for.
Leadership Tips: One approach is to set a guideline that each team member is to provide a brief but specific update on their two most important activities for the week. Also set a strict time frame for the update to be delivered in such as ‘3 minutes’. Rather than sharing too much information, this strategy will help employees choose only the most important and relevant information to share. Those are our five meeting mistakes for leaders to avoid.
Industryus HR are specialists in people related business improvement strategies, including individual leadership performance and leadership tips. We offer a free initial consultation, so why not give us a call on 07 5655 4047 or click here if you would like to discuss any current issues your business is facing.
- Don’t ignore poor performance
Q: One of my employees is just coasting along with poor performance. For some time now she hasn’t been achieving as much as my other staff and doesn’t seem motivated. How do I get more out of her?
A: Poor performance can be really frustrating for employers, but it can be improved with the right approach.
To change someone’s performance they need to first understand the issues and your expectations. Therefore arranging a simple discussion where the issues will be covered is necessary.
Prior to arranging the discussion however, think about what specifically your employee isn’t achieving so that you are prepared to make clear and concise points. You might even want to make a list with examples of each point to refer to if you have a few. Simply stating to your employee that they don’t seem to be motivated without any examples to back it up, probably won’t get you the result you are looking for. Remember, your employee cannot improve unless they understand what exactly needs to improve.
Have the discussion in a quiet, private space and don’t be tempted to dance around the topic. Be brave and tell your employee why you are meeting and explain the specific issues as per the notes you prepared earlier. Ensure the tone of the meeting is supportive, and the agenda is about setting your expectations and implementing a solution for the issues at hand. Also, make sure you listen to the employee’s viewpoints too as there could be something going on that you aren’t aware of that could be contributing to their poor performance.
The meeting should result in you and your employee agreeing to an action plan which sets out the performance standard moving forward. The action plan should be monitored over a period of time, it should be fair and achievable, and ideally it should be agreed to in writing.
If you see an improvement in performance which meets your expectations, the action plan and monitoring can be removed. If the poor performance continues, our recommendation is to seek further advice from Industryus HR about commencing a more formal performance management process.
Did you know Industryus HR offers a membership for employers which enables members access to regular over the telephone HR advice? If you would like more information or to discuss a specific issue, call us on 07 5655 4047 or send us an email via our contact form.
Employers don’t need to put up with poor performance. Talk to a professional today.
- Employee poor performance: how to improve it
Q: One of my employees is just coasting along. For some time now she hasn’t been achieving as much as my other staff, is quite negative and doesn’t seem motivated. How do I improve employee poor performance in this case?
A: Employee poor performance can be really frustrating, but it can be improved with the right approach.
To change someone’s poor performance they need to first understand the issues and your expectations. Therefore arranging a discussion where the issues will be covered is necessary.
Prior to arranging the discussion, however, think about what specifically your employee isn’t achieving so that you are prepared to make clear and concise points. You might even want to make a list with examples of each point to refer to if you have a few. Simply stating to your employee that they don’t seem to be motivated is merely an observation and really doesn’t explain the core issue very well. In contrast, providing last month’s poor sales figures, or a number of customer complaints, or evidence of lateness to work, helps the employee better understand what you are not satisfied with.
Hold the meeting in a quiet, private space and don’t be tempted to dance around the topic. Simply tell your employee why you are meeting and explain the specific issues as per the notes you prepared earlier. Ensure the tone of the meeting is supportive, and the agenda is about setting your expectations and implementing a solution for the issues at hand. Also, make sure you listen to the employee’s viewpoints too as there could be something going on that you aren’t aware of.
The meeting should result in you putting in place an action plan which sets out the performance standard. The action plan should be monitored over a period of time, it should be fair and achievable, and it should be agreed to in writing.
If you see an improvement in employee poor performance which meets your expectations, the action plan and monitoring can be removed. If the underperformance continues, our recommendation is to seek further advice from an HR professional about your options.
Did you know Industryus HR offers over the phone advice for employers? Members can call us whenever they need to about issues just like this. If you would like more information or to discuss a specific issue, call us on 07 5655 4047 or email us here.