Tag Archives: training

Posted on

How To Train Your Team To Look Forward

A  major roadblock in many organizations is motivating your team to look forward. It’s not because the team isn’t smart. They’re probably a world-class team.

Help your team to look forward

Photo by Anna Utochkina

However, there are issues in motivating them and training your team to look forward. To get them to look forward, we have to look at the root reasons they struggle with this skill.

Why Teams Fail To Look Forward

The reasons teams fail to look forward is plentiful. There are many excuses you’ll hear during your attempts at training forward-thinking in your organization.  Read more...

  • We’ve never done this before.
  • No one has any experience with launching new projects.
  • We’ve failed before and don’t want to fail again.
  • There’s no time to add something more to our plates.
  • YOU (Yes, you the leader) haven’t allowed us to dream big.
Posted on

What Your Team Needs (Motivation!)

Motivating Your Team

I asked in my annual reader survey what some of the biggest challenges leaders were facing. I’ve already covered some of those: Relationships, health, etc… This month, I’m going to cover another topic that was hot on the mind of readers: Motivating your team.

Having and creating a motivated team is something a lot of leaders think about. A motivated team is something leaders desire. They know their organization can be more effective if everyone was excited and ready to work.

Your team needs motivation. You can give it to them.

Photo By Cortney White

The truth is, most employees are disengaged. According to a 2014 Gallop study, only 31.5% of employees are actively engaged at work. This means there’s a whopping 68.5% of employees who are either not engaged or actively disengaged with their work.

Those are scary numbers for leaders. Over two-thirds of your workforce may be disengaged from the work you’ve hired them to do.  Read more...

Posted on

Stop Wringing Your Hands

Jim’s reports are late. Kathy hasn’t done the job she said she was going to do. And Billy can’t seem to operate a computer to save his life.

You’re wringing your hands. You’re worried the organization is going to fall apart.

In reality, you need to stop wringing your hands.

Worrying does nothing for you or your business

What Wringing Your Hands Says

When your team doesn’t get their work done, that’s a scary thing. Their lack of work says they haven’t been productive.

This can even reflect back on you. Some may look at you and say that you’re not doing your job. You’re not leading your team effectively.

At this point, wringing your hands seems like an appropriate response. You’re worried and scared.

That’s exactly what wringing your hands tells those who observe your behavior.

You’re showing an outward sign that things aren’t going right. And you’re nervous.  Read more...

Posted on

Training Still Matters

How Chick-Fil-A Understands This

I feel extremely fortunate to work for Chick-fil-A; it’s been an amazing ride for over 30 years. One of the things that is the most rewarding are the responses I get when people find out I work for the chicken.

Often, their first question is, “Which one?” (That’s a great reminder that our business is in the restaurants – not at the home office.) When I tell them I work at the headquarters, you can often see a moment of disappointment in their eyes, but they quickly move to share a recent experience from a visit to one of our restaurants. Thankfully, it’s almost always a positive story!

Posted on

Are You Investing In Yourself?

While I’ve always loved learning, I’ve often failed to invest in myself. This lack of investment in myself is sad, looking back on it.

There are so many missed opportunities to grow. I dismissed the mentions of conferences as silly. I threw away audio recordings that were meant for growth.

I sucked as a young leader.

To improve, one must invest

Why I Didn’t Invest In Myself

Growing up, I never felt adequate. I always felt others were better than me.

I also believed that what I thought didn’t matter.

This stunted my growth for many years. This limiting mindset held me back as I struggled to grow.

I didn’t invest in myself because I didn’t think I was worth it.

Looking back, I want to kick myself. I wasted so much time, energy, and money chasing after things that didn’t help me.  Read more...