Posts Tagged ‘employees’

“Be Love” to Captivate People

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

We buried my Great-Grand Aunt Mae Mae last Thursday, and at the funeral of this 91 year old woman I saw something amazing… The church was completely packed!

I don’t know if you have ever been to a funeral for someone over 90 years old, but there typically aren’t that many people there. Most of that person’s friends and extended family members have passed away, and all who are left are close family members and a few scattered community members.

This wasn’t the case for Aunt Mae Mae. Every single seat was taken, the balcony was full, and there were over 15 personal tributes spoken for my Aunt’s life. Most of those tributes mentioned something of her ability to love wholly, unconditionally, and without respect of person. She had over 60 kids, grandkids, great grand kids, and great-great grand kids, and a handful of others who considered her their “adopted” mother. Not only were those family members at the funeral, but also the friends of those family members who may have not even met my Aunt. People who didn’t even know Aunt Mae Mae were recipients of her love through those that surrounded her.

That is a powerful love; a love that is so deep and stretches so wide that it impacts an entire community for generations.

Aunt Mae Mae did not just love. Nor was she just a caring soul. Aunt Mae Mae was love. Love permeated and drove every decision and interaction she had with people.

I learned the power of being love last Thursday. Love is what draws people, influences them, and holds them close to you for a life time. Be love and emote that energy to your family, to your employees, and to every stranger you meet. You will see a magnificent difference in how your life’s dreams manifest themselves.

Be love.

Thank you for the lesson, Aunt Mae Mae. I love and miss you.

Jamar Cobb-Dennard

Tags: dreams, employees, family, interpersonal, legacy, love, people skills, relations, relationships, success
Posted in Blog, Business, Habits, Life, Uncategorized |

Asking Hard Questions Causes Business Growth

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

If you are having trouble getting your business to grow, start asking your team harder questions.

I recently spoke to a group of 3^rd graders in Indianapolis for Career Day. At the end of my immaculate presentation, I opened up the floor to the students to ask questions.

A tiny African American girl with braids quickly raised her hand and said, “Mister, how much do you make?”

Woah. I wasn’t expecting that one. I mean, couldn’t we start with, “what time do you get up in the morning”? Or, “What’s the hardest part of your job?”

Nope, she went straight for the jugular and asked a brotha’ the money question. I answered her in the most tactful way possible without giving her an exact number. She approved.

This little girl taught me a lesson; it is okay to ask hard questions. Questions challenge people to grow and force them to come up with creative solutions.

Reachmore’s founder, CJ McClanahan, always asks his small business coaching clients why they don’t hold their people accountable by asking hard questions. The answer is always the same – asking hard questions is, well, hard.

Here are a few strategies to use to make growing your people and asking hard questions easier:

It’s not about you – The purpose of asking hard questions is not about stroking your ego or to make you seem bigger. When you make the reason for asking questions about growing your business or your people, the pressure is taken off of you.
People like to be challenged – Why do you think board games, skydiving, and AP English are so popular? People like to grow. Growth is one of the main motivators of your employees. Capitalize on that fact by asking them hard questions.
Use a qualifier – If you really need to make yourself feel okay about what you are saying, use a softening statement such as, “out of curiosity” or “I may be wrong”, before you ask the question.

Asking hard questions that challenge your staff is one of the best ways to take your people and your business to the next level!

Jamar Cobb-Dennard is the Vice-President of Business Development for Reachmore, which provides leadership coaching for small business and executives. Email Jamar at jamar@goreachmore.com for the latest on Reachmore’s newest seminar, Launch.

Tags: accountability, coaching, delegation, Development, employees, growth, Indianapolis, small business, staff
Posted in Business, Habits, Life |

Leveraging Yourself to Excellence – Advanced Training!

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

How have your attempts at delegation gone since my last blog about creating leverage?
Here is a fact – to be truly successful, you cannot do everything yourself. I am currently learning this lesson at home.

I just hired someone to manage everything that has to do with my personal life. I am not an expert at home stuff, and she is. Her work allows me to be uber-successful at what I am remarkable at.
Below are some advanced tips that will take you from delegation novice to leverage expert:
Give feedback – After giving an assignment, don’t just take the completed work and then grumble about what was not done correctly. Open up a conversation that lends itself to your employee improving at their new skill. “Great work! Let’s go over a couple of things for next time that I would like for you to do the same way, and a couple of things to tweak…”

Delegate to develop – Delegating in order to dump your work on someone else is a surefire way to turn your team against you. Instead, delegate to develop them. Before assigning someone work ask yourself, is this highly-trained college-educated employee going to improve their career by doing the work that I am going to give them? If the answer is, No, find a lower paid assistant to do the work.

Gives 3 or fewer tasks at a time – Steven Covey mentions that if you give someone 4 or more tasks, a large percentage of them will either not get done, or will be done poorly. He then mentions that if you give them 3 or fewer tasks, you have a higher chance of getting the job done and done right.
ABC Prioritization – When you are overloaded with “to do’s”, prioritize them using the following system:

A – This task represents something that is working ‘on’ my business, and can only be completed by me. Put this task on your to do list.

B – This task represents something that could or could not be working ‘on’ my business, and could be done by a well trained employee if I took the time to educate them on how to complete the task correctly. Schedule time to delegate this task.

C – This task represents something that does not enhance the state of my business, and should be delegated immediately to an hourly assistant. Create a system for this task to be done regularly by your assistant, and teach him how to do it at your next staff meeting.

Recognize – When someone else does the work, recognize them in front of everyone. Give your employee credit for the work that they do, and take every opportunity you can to promote their hard work. If you do this well, you will have someone who is always happy to grow through taking on extra assignments.

Reassign – Whether or not the project was done well or poorly, give your employee another assignment (after giving them feedback). You will instantly kill morale if you never give them another project, and you will also stunt the growth of your business by trying to handle things yourself.
It takes time and patience to effectively leverage your time within your business. After a few wins and losses with this process, you will start to see that portions of your business are running without you!

Jamar Cobb-Dennard is the Vice-President of Business Development for Reachmore, which provides leadership coaching for small business owners and executives. Email Jamar at jamar@goreachmore.com for the latest on Reachmore’s newest seminar, Launch.

Tags: Business, communication, employees
Posted in Business |

Actions Speak Louder than Words

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

We are all heavily swayed by words. They influence what shows we watch, the foods we buy and the decisions we make at the ballot box.

As a conservative, the most frustrating thing about the election of Barack Obama was not that this nation chose a liberal politician who fundamentally believes that a larger government is the key to our challenges. What drove (and continues to drive) me nuts is that people voted for and support President Obama because of what he says, not what he does.

Politically, our society is intellectually lazy and as a result, all we pay attention to is words and sound bites.

However, this is very different in the workplace. Your employees hear what you say but focus on your actions.

As an executive coach and leadership trainer, I advise my clients to consistently practice what they preach.

You can’t talk about the importance of “respect” in your workplace and then show up 15 minutes late to every meeting. It’s not enough to develop a vision statement that advocates quality and then cut corners during product development.

You’re not a politician. You’re staff and coworkers will see if your actions support your words.

If they don’t, you might as well stop talking because you’ve lost all credibility.

This week pay less attention to what you say and more to what you do.

Tags: Business, employees, executive coaching, lessons
Posted in Uncategorized |

Communication

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Earlier today, I got into an argument with my wife.

Imagine that.

After I had cooled down a bit, I prepared to go back and rationalize all of the reasons why she was wrong and I was right.

We sat down and she informed me that before we discussed our disagreement she wanted to remind me why she was upset.

I had done a bad job of managing her expectations.

Now, I don’t want to give the impression that my wife is always right but… I quickly realized that I was wrong in this instance.

My wife has some simple rules when it comes to communicating with her, and despite the fact that they have been the same rules for 10+ years, I seem to forget them from time to time.

How about you?

Do your employees and/or coworkers have a style of communication they prefer?

Remember, often times it’s not what you say but how you say it.

Put yourself in their shoes before you speak (or email).

Tags: communication, employees
Posted in Uncategorized |

What’s Your Purpose?

Monday, June 8th, 2009

This past weekend I was watching a documentary on the History channel about D-Day (June 6th was the 65th anniversary – if you don’t know what D-Day was about, turn off your computer, pack up your belongings and please move to France).

Do you realize that about 250 men were given the task of storming the beach by themselves and trying to take out some of the German’s positions before the invasion began?

These guys were scaling cliffs while the German’s were shooting at them from above!

So, how can the US armed forces get troops to commit to a task that will probably lead to death and you can’t get your employees to show up to work on time or to effectively fill out an expense report?

There are many reasons, but one really hit me.

Purpose.

These guys gave their life because they were 100% committed to the purpose of the invasion – defeating Hitler and protecting freedom for all Americans.

How committed are your employees to the purpose of your company?

Better yet – what is the “purpose” of your company?

In other words, what meaningful contribution is your company making to society. It can be just about anything as long as it is meaningful to you and your staff. By the way – the owner(s) getting richer is not meaningful to your staff.

Figuring out your purpose takes time – but the rewards are enormous

Tags: company, employees, purpose
Posted in Uncategorized |

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