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Connect Through Team Activities

Volunteers at Soup Kitchen

#54 Take Time for Team Activities

Consider activities that you can do together as a team. Pixar Animation has Pixar University to help create connection among employees.  Each employee has the option to attend up to four hours of classes each week. The university offers more than 90 classes from filmmaking to drawing. The motto on Pixar University’s crest is a Latin phrase meaning “alone no longer.”

Zappos gives its managers a budget for team-building activities. Team activities done away from work help people to truly focus on one another rather than be distracted by being in the workplace. Doing something fun together helps people to like one another and leads to more cooperation.

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Is It Ever Wise to Swear at Work?

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By Michael Lee Stallard and Katie Russell

You discover a careless error your administrative assistant made in printing a proposal you need to present to a potential new client in a few hours. Should you swear to express your frustration?

How about when you are speaking to the people you lead who are clearly not giving their best efforts?

How about if you are a woman in a male-dominated culture and you want to fit in?  Would cursing be wise in that situation?

A recent Quartz.com article argues that in circumstances like these, swearing is ok. We disagree. Let’s look at the rationale presented. 

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Help Colleagues in Need

Smiley face balloons looking up representing positivity

#53 Help Colleagues in Need

It connects with people when you reach out to show you care or help them during a time of need. The Beryl Companies has “Beryl Cares” to monitor the needs of employees and coordinate a response.

If you learn about a colleague who is sick, or has a serious illness or death in the family, respond in an appropriate way. Perhaps you could send a card to let him/her know you are thinking of him/her and offer to help if needed.

This is the fifty-third post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

Photo from Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

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Vince Lombardi’s Success Formula: “Task + Relationship Excellence = Results”

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I once attended a meeting where it seemed that everyone was focused on the people or relationships in a business and believed that doing so would bring success.

Don’t believe it.

Great leaders focus on achieving BOTH task excellence and relationship excellence. This dual focus produces sustainable superior performance.

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How Leaders Can Guard Against Unethical Behavior

When leaders behave in ways that violate ethical norms and harm customers, it has a devastating effect on connection and employee engagement. A quick glance at business news headlines shows the extent to which unethical behavior has become a problem today. Many of these unethical practices seem to defy common sense, such as the restaurant owner in China who made headlines for lacing food with opium in an effort to get customers to return.

The best leaders, whom we at E Pluribus describe as servant leaders, maintain a mindset that they serve employees who in turn serve customers.  This mindset inspires them to excellent performance and helps protect them from drifting towards unethical behavior.

If leaders don’t maintain this mindset, they are likely to start serving themselves, which makes them vulnerable to drifting into unethical territory to beat competitors and maximize personal wealth, power and status. Ironically, this mindset only diminishes personal wealth, power and status because unethical behavior sabotages sustainable superior performance once a business’ reputation is tarnished.

How do you protect yourself from the temptation of unethical behavior? Leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.

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Establish a Team Vision Through Continuous Improvement Meetings

Two employees brainstorming ideas

#52 Hold “Continuous Improvement” Meetings

Periodically pull your team together for a session to identify innovative ways to improve.  The meeting could be focused on ways to increase revenue, reduce costs, improve quality and/or improve efficiency.  List the ideas, prioritize them, select a manageable set to focus on, assign responsibilities and track their completion.  Make this information available to the entire group.  Holding these meetings 3-4 times a year gets people thinking proactively about how to improve and gives them an opportunity to make a difference.

This is the fifty-second post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

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Connect Others Through “Flash Mentoring”

Employee connection with leader

 

#51 Employ “Flash Mentoring”

One way to match mentors and mentees is to ask them to commit to meet just once to see if both parties “click” (or “connect,” if you will) and if the mentor believes he/she has the knowledge/expertise and sufficient time available to meet the mentee’s needs and expectations. If both parties agree to continue, they should agree to a set number of additional meetings rather than leave the term open-ended. Unless both mentor and mentee agree to a set number of additional meetings, there is no commitment to meet again. “Flash mentoring” was a term coined by K. Scott Derrick in his work with 13L, a group of federal employees who share a passion for leadership excellence.

This is the fifty-first post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

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How to Save “The Shack”

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RadioShack is on the ropes. What can be done to save it?

Over my career I’ve seen this scenario several times.  Xerox comes to mind.  In 2000, when Anne Mulcahy became Xerox’s CEO, the company was nearly bankrupt.  Her leadership helped save it.  In 2012, I spoke with Ms. Mulcahy in a series of interviews about how she led Xerox’s turnaround.  She described three behaviors that were similar to how A.G. Lafley led the turnaround of Procter and Gamble, how Howard Schultz and Howard Behar led the turnaround of Starbucks and, more recently, how Alan Mulally led the turnaround of Ford.

Our firm’s research over the past decade found these three behaviors in leaders who achieved long-term superior performance. The behaviors brought about an extraordinary degree of connection, community and unity so that people pull together rather than retreat to protect self-interest. Stated another way, these leadership behaviors create a team that pulls together and protects the culture from spiraling down into a dog-eat-dog environment.

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Celebrate Your Organization’s Culture Through a Blog

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#50 Create a Blog to Celebrate Your Culture

Create a blog or intranet site where colleagues can post positive examples of people who live out the core values of your organization.  This provides employee recognition, encourages everyone to bring the values to life, and spreads positive examples and practices.  For example, see the “Nuts About Southwest” blog at www.blogsouthwest.com.

This is the fiftieth post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

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Remembering 9/11: Dave Barry’s “On Hallowed Ground”

Where were you when you first heard the news of an airliner striking World Trade Tower One on the morning of September 11, 2001? I was in my office near Times Square in Manhattan. At first I assumed it was an accident. Then came the unbelievable news that a second plane had hit Tower Two.

That night I hardly slept, concerned about the fate of people I knew who worked at the World Trade Center. In the days that followed I learned of those who did not survive the attacks and others who lost spouses, siblings, or parents.

Much has been written about September 11 since that day. One piece in particular moved me, although it came from an unlikely source. The humorist Dave Barry wrote a column about the heroism of the passengers on United Airlines flight 93 who organized the first resistance to the terrorists and the grief of those who lost loved ones who were passengers or crew on that flight.

In memory of all the innocent victims and first responders who lost their lives, and to their families and friends, here is “On Hallowed Ground.”