New Hampshire

It's Really All About People...!

Team Member Engagement is about the skills and attitudes an individual contributor puts forth in an effort to do great work, work as a team and commit to the work and goals of their organization. We will be addressing a wide range of topics and situations related to Team Member and Employee Engagement.

We have a team of Coaches that can answer your questions. Our Executive Vice President of Dale Carnegie & Associates, Michael Crom is an active resource in this segment of our website. He or I, your local Coach will address challenges in the field and support you in maximizing your opportunities to generate better results. Please send your questions to the Carnegie Coach at Deb.Titus@DaleCarnegie.com

June/July 2009

Dear Carnegie Coach:

I am the President of my company and gave my sales department the option to work at home. Many of them have children or have a long commute, so I thought they would really appreciate this offer and work harder. While they are still making their sales, they are not achieving past meeting the bare minimum. How can I bring back the quality of work my at-home employees are doing and still allow them to work from home?

Cindy

Dear Cindy:

You've encountered the biggest problem with having a new flexible workplace: keeping the quality of work up. Often times, we find people who work at home more productive, but sometimes their work miss the big picture because they don't have day-to-day contact with their team. The sense of teamwork can fall apart and reaching company goals can be forgotten. Your job is to keep them strong. Try some of these tactics:

1. Call each person daily. These don't have to be lengthy sessions but they should serve to keep everyone on the same page. Talk about anything important that happened the day before, including interesting non-work subjects, such as personnel news from other departments. This will help each employee feel as though he or she is still a part of the company.

2. Hold a weekly on-site meeting. This is the time to create the team feeling and get updates from your team. Encourage your employees to call each other with questions by fielding questions at this meeting and pointing out who has expertise in the area.

3. Create friendly competition. Sales leaders use contests as well as weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly goals with individual and group awards. This type of motivation can help your team stay focused.

4. Note accomplishments. Show your appreciation with a phone call, group email, or a letter of appreciation to your employee. Remind your team of their importance to the company and to the department. Be specific about their contributions.

5. Keep your company together. Just as you try to keep the sales department active in the company, it's important to keep your other departments in mind. They may feel animosity for not getting the option to work from home, so provide them with incentives and praise as well.

May 2009

Dear Carnegie Coach:

I have recently started working at a new firm. I have been learning so much over the past few weeks and everyone is very nice, except for one coworker. This coworker has been working for the firm for many years and knows pretty much everything there is to know about my position, many times I find myself asking her simple questions and she responds with "I don't know", even though I know she knows the information. I know that we will be working together on many projects and duties. How can I get her to open up and work with me?

Jan

Dear Jan:

Being proactive toward this situation is a great start! . There could be 1000 reasons explaining why your coworker is uncooperative toward you. One common reason is you're an unknown and many people view new employees with skepticism. Since you are a new employee you may need to work on gaining her trust.

Here are a few tips that help you build trust with your coworker:

1) Involve - Involve her in decisions, display an open and accepting attitude and be receptive. Your coworker might view you as competition. Set her mind at ease by including her on your different project.

2) Be confident - Speak confidently, decisively, and with authority, and evidence. If you are confident and have evidence she will take notice and recognize that you know what you are talking about and you mean business.

3) Share the glory - If she helps you out even a little bit, include her in your email or report to your boss. She will know that you are appreciative and won't hog all the recognition. Sometimes the new person tries to be noticed more to earn credibility - when in actuality, you are already noticed, more than others. Taking this approach will help solidify the team.

4) Defer to Expertise - Be modest and be willing to defer to another's expertise. If the situation comes up where you realize that your coworker knows more about a certain subject than you do, let her answer and take recognition for her answer.

5) Be a stellar role model - Act professional and always walk the talk. Even if your coworker is unprofessional and uncooperative, if you maintain a professional demeanor it will rub off on others.

Consider downloading a copy of Dale Carnegie's Golden Book; it's full of useful tips!

March/April 2009

Dear Carnegie Coach:

We have weekly staff meetings and the company continues to say that they want our ideas. At the meeting, during the agenda they have a time just for new ideas and I repeatedly pass. What frustrates me is that as the others around the table offer their ideas, I realize that I was thinking of those as well. So now, another meeting has come and gone and my team has not heard from me. Do you have any suggestions for how I can get out of my own way?

Thanks,

Charles

Dear Charles -

You are describing a common challenge and as you suggested, you do come to the table with ideas. Ofen times, people second guess their ideas for fear of being judged. As a sound practice, it's nice when a team of people have an expectation around creative thinking. Perhaps they have a groundrule similar to 'be open-minded; suspend judgment' . If so, it may be more comfortable for idea fluency. Even then, some people still do not contribute. As you eluded to, it is important to speak up - because sometimes our silence can speak unwanted volumes for us.

Here are some ways you can approach this segment of the agenda next time:

Your thought process: to have steps to follow is like a track for a train. These three questions enable you to quickly get your thoughts together in an organized way.

• What do I think?
• Why do I think that?
• What evidence do I have to support what /why I think what I do?

Your verbal process: you will essentially take everything you thought and reverse back into stating/asserting your idea.

• Brief statement of evidence
• This evidence shows...
• Therefore I believe ______would be an important idea to explore further.

For example: Let's say we're in the insurance industry and we see that during the last snow storm, we had yet again an influx of claims that we could not keep up with easily. Your staff meeting creative thinking session was focusing on "Ways to better manage claims during storms."

Quickly assess (this follow is NOT said, it is thought through first):

What do I think? 'this is important to address and we can better prepare with an anticipation plan. A plan that calls all hands on deck before the storm; arrange for an overnight monitor to begin processing and planning the work load. This way, when we come in, we'll be focused and efficient - no surprises.

Why do I think this? We work so hard at developing the customer, we need to work harder at keeping the customer.

What evidence do I have to support my ideas? This past storm, we were backlogged on the phone by 2 hours easily by 10am. We found that before we got to theoffice, there were already 11 calls for claims left on our voice mail system. We camein behind the 8 ball.

(Now you've mentally prepared what your idea is now it's time to speak).

Evidence:"Here are some facts about last week's storm: 1. We were backlogged on the phone by 2 hours easily by 10am. There were already 11 calls for claims left on our voice mail system before we arrived at the office."

Evidence shows: "This points to a reactionary system versus a proactive approach to claims. We have a great opportunity to better serve our customers"

Therefore (state the recommendation/belief) "Therefore, in order to continue growing our business, we need to explore how to and arrive at an 'all hands on deck' method for an anticipation plan to include anovernight monitor to begin processing and planning the work load. This way, when we come in , we'll be focused and efficient - no surprises for us and we're better able to manage the challenge for the customer."

Try this and let us know how it goes!

January/February 2009

Dear Carnegie Coach:

Some days I find myself in my office all day stuck under a pile of work. Most of my employees don't see me very much and this has lead to some discontent within my office. What can I do to better stay in touch with my employees?

Daren

Dear Daren:

Open your door and listen. Employees need to feel like you value what they have to say, by listening you can raise morale and energize your workforce. Here are a few tips on how to become an active listener.

1. Look at the other person- Eye contact is very important, it let's the other person know that you are listening and have an interest in what they have to say.
2. Ask questions- By asking questions you can not only better understand what the persons saying but you are engaging them.
3. Don't change the subject- You should not be the one leading the conversation. Listen and let the other person lead, let the person stay on the topic.
4. Express emotion with control - emotion is a form of non verbal feedback. A smile or a frown lets the person know that you understand what they are saying.
5. Action - If a question or concern is left unanswered, show that you will follow up, take action and return back with a response.

(c) Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. 2009. All Rights Reserved.