January 12, 2022
Lead on!
So, what’s your plan for your business in 2022? By now, some of you will have developed your sales strategy, marketing plans, projections, KPI’s and other targets for the year ahead. Others take more of a ‘go hard and it should work out’ approach, and some of you will be somewhere in between.When it comes to your plan for the team in 2022, how are you planning to roll out staff engagement, training and retention — both for returning staff and building the new team? In what ways will your company culture support attracting new staff, recruiting, orienting, onboarding, training and building ‘sticky’ personal improvement paths? What are you going to do differently this year to get improved results?
Without a doubt, employee recruitment and retention is the number one challenge I hear from employers across the country. So, how will you do more to improve your team this year?
Here’s an idea from my friend Jim Paluch of JP Horizons. Jim has (once again) written a great book to help nurture impactful mindsets and approaches for leading others. Five Important Things, is an energy-packed book that explains why success can be simple. The Five Important Things are:
1) Continue to learn
2) Appreciate people
3) Set goals
4) Develop a positive attitude
5) Don’t quit
If you read Jim’s book, you’ll understand why applying these vital success principles to your own life (work life and home life) really matters. These principles are really well-aligned with solutions for the ongoing difficulty most employers experience connecting to and engaging with multiple workplace generations at the same time. Creating a culture of continuous improvement and appreciation will feed positive attitudes, support reaching goals, and encourage the tenacity you need your team players to have when the going gets tough.
Last year, I hosted an LO Peer To Peer Network Business Bite session with Jim. As usual, whenever I hear Jim speak, it’s from the heart and he always says something profoundly helpful that’s simple to do. Jim’s simple, profound words of wisdom for leaders were, “focus on what’s happening THROUGH you, rather than what’s happening TO you.”
He hit the jackpot with that one sentence.
I shared it with several teams I work with, and they’ve transformed the results they’re getting, especially when it comes to engagement and building trust. By focusing on ways in which you can make a positive impact (or quickly notice and correct a negative one), it opens up a space to be focused on others rather than self. By having this mindset, it invites a focus on how your words and actions are impacting others, and helps you to catch yourself when you’re putting yourself ahead of those around you. Focusing on what happens through you sets up others to feel hopeful, proud and supported with empathy. And that’s what your younger staff are in need of.
This connects with Simon Sinek’s Leaders Eat Last philosophy. I think Simon put it best when he said: “There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us. Whether they’re individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to.”
As you head into this new year, give yourself the permission to honestly and humbly consider ways in which your words and actions are either contributing to improved team engagement, or getting in the way of it. Yup, there it is… from my vantage point as a business coach, consultant and trainer, there are many who lead businesses and teams who are actually getting in the way of the one thing their business is starving for: improved engagement and retention.
So, lead on! Lead in a way that’s humble and engaging, that builds hope, pride and empathy for each and every one of your staff — each and every day.
My very best wishes to each of you for a healthy, prosperous new year. Together, we truly are Prosperity Partners.