LEADERSHIP ACADEMY 2015

“SANTA CLAUS LEADERSHIP”

SANTA CLAUS LEADERSHIP

1. Build a Wonderful Workshop

2. Choose Your Reindeer Wisely

3. Make A List And Check It Twice

4. Listen To The Elves

5. Get Beyond The Re Wagons

6. Share The Milk And Cookies

7. Find Out Who’s Naughty And Nice

8. Be Good For Goodness Sake

1. BUILDING A WONDERFUL WORKSHOP

Make The Mission The Main Thing

• All the reindeer & elves know what the mission is – “making spirits bright & delivering high quality toys to good girls and boys”

• Spend time with all individuals discussing how their respective jobs link with and accomplish the mission

• Keep the mission in front of folks by posting it before their eyes, discussing it at meetings & training sessions, including it internal correspondences and all other activities to ensure it is the focal point

•Keep the mission as the core component of ever decision-making & work-planning processes

1. BUILDING A WONDERFUL WORKSHOP

Focus On Your People As Well As Your Purpose

• Be accessible to your people both physically & mentally

• Be considerate of their time and needs

• Provide your people with the training, tools, resources & feedback required for success\

• Keep everyone in the “what’s happening” loop

• Help your people maintain an a appropriate balance between professional and personal lives

• Demonstrate and respect everyone’s time and talents

• Solicit & listen to ideas and concerns – help everyone develop and grow

• Fairly distribute the work & workload

1. BUILDING A WONDERFUL WORKSHOP

Let Values Be Your Guide

• Make sure everyone knows what values are important – get everyone “on board”

• Help everyone turn those good beliefs into everyday behaviors

• Every once in a while, the student teaches the teacher (Al Cox, Oswego Valley Chapter)

2. CHOOSE YOUR REINDEER WISELY

Hire Tough So You Can Manage Easy

• “Garbage in, garbage out”

• “Hire” the wrong people and you’ll end up re-training and re-re-training, handling complaints, etc.

• Productivity will continue to go down, morale will soon follow

1.Because it’s our people who ultimately make our mission happen, staffing is most important

2. The time you spend “hiring” the right people is nothing compared to the time you’ll spend dealing with the problems you’ll encounter

2. CHOOSE YOUR REINDEER WISELY

Promote The Right Ones…For The Right Reasons

• Story of Rudolph – he wasn’t the biggest, the fastest, or the best puller BUT……..

• he was the best LEADER, and that nose!

Go For The Diversity Advantage• It’s no longer a “business as usual” world

• bring people with diverse skills, perspectives, and ideas to the workshop

• simply complying with a requirement does not cut it today

3. MAKE A LIST AND CHECK IT TWICE

Plan Your Work (6 questions)

1. What needs to be accomplished?

2. Why does it need to be done? (How does it contribute to our overall mission?)

3. When does it need to be accomplished?

4. Where am I/are we now in relation to this goal?

5. Who will be involved in accomplishing this?

6. How will it be accomplished? (What specific steps and activities are involved, and what resources are required?

3. MAKE A LIST AND CHECK IT TWICE

Work Your Plan

1. Is each goal still valid and doable?

2. Are we where we should be in terms of attaining each goal?

3. Have any conditions or circumstances changed since we originally set each goal?

4. Do we need to make any changes to our goals, our action plans, or our performance levels?

“If we want to hear jingle bells on the 24th, we need to set and live by goals…ALL YEAR LONG!!!”

3. MAKE A LIST AND CHECK IT TWICE

Make The Most Of What You Have

• Time – prioritize, start & end promptly, teach skills & techniques, use time-saving technology

• Money – buy in bulk, shop for best quality, reduce expenses, think pennies as well as dollars

• Materials and Equipment – measure twice, cut once, reuse/recycle, PM, extended warrantees

• Talent & Expertise – use others in knowledge & decisions, match jobs with worker skills & interests, enhance expertise through training & assignments, encourage sharing knowledge with others

4. LISTEN TO THE ELVES

Open Your Ears To Participation• Let them run things and even make decision – don’t micro manage!

Pay Attention To How You’re Perceived• Constructive accept feedback using surveys

• ACT on the information you receive

Walk A Mile In Their Shoes• “Your feet may not fit into them, but your heart most definitely does!” *read story on pg.

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5. GET BEYOND THE RED WAGONS

Help Everyone Accept The Reality Of Change

• The only constant in business is CHANGE!

• Compliment on red-wagon excellence & express pride in past accomplishments

• Introduce the change we’re facing and why it’s necessary – lay out the facts, data, evidence

• Discuss the benefits to be gained individually & collectively for making required change

• (usually staying in business & staying employed!)

• Provide means of getting there (training & support – demonstrate patience & understanding)

• Explain that change was inevitable – usually have no choice no days

• Real secret is how we respond to it

5. GET BEYOND THE RED WAGONS

Remember: The Customer Is Really In Charge

• No customers, no business

• As their wants & needs change, we have to change along with them

• Take virtual field trips – letters, e-mails, phone calls, internet research (find out what’s going on with our customers and competitors and their customers)

• Follow up on all data you receive – identify track trends

• Change can be good – changing is always better than being victims

5. GET BEYOND THE RED WAGONS

Teach “The Business” of Business

• The more people understand about how the business works, the more likely they are to accept & support change

• “Open the books” and show the brutal facts – cash flow, production costs, overhead expenses, etc.

• Try cross-training, rotating assignments so people can appreciate fuctions/challenges of fellow workers

• Departmental “swap” program showing how other parts of business/people work, everyone interdependent in achieving the overall mission

• Makes everyone feel like true “partners” in total outcome because THEY ARE!

6. SHARE THE MILK AND COOKIES

Help Them See The Difference They Make

• People at “the top” usually get the credit but it’s the ones in the trench that often do the work!

• Post a sign with cards, letters, data saying: “See what YOU made happen”

• Take them with you on a delivery run – include them, share experiences with everyone

• Nothing motivates people more than knowing they’re making a difference

6. SHARE THE MILK AND COOKIES

Do Right By Those Who Do Right

• Good performance should be reinforced with positive consequences? Should people be rewarded just for doing their job?

• Develop an “Attitude of Gratitude” – appreciate people who meet or exceed expectations

• Give plenty of verbal and written atta-boys – opportunities to say “thank you” for doing things right

• “A pat on the back is only a few short inches from a kick in the butt!”

• You’ll feel good when you do it, they’ll feel good when they receive it

• Everyone wins, what a deal. Happy holidays for all.

6. SHARE THE MILK AND COOKIES

Expand the Reinforcement Possibilities – Two misconceptions:

1. There’s very little we can do. Money and options are limited

2. Recognition & reinforcement are strictly management activities and we have only so many managers

• Develop/use low-cost/high-impact ways to recognize (simple things they want & can use)

• The “milk and cookies”

• Recognition is everyone’s job – how many people regularly praise their fellow workers?

• “That’s your job, not ours.” Really, who says? Who made this rule? Why shouldn’t we all be grateful?

• “Attitude of gratitude” is your most important workplace values

7. FIND OUT WHO’S NAUGHTY AND NICE

Confront Performance Problems.…Early

• Igor, the Elf – nice guy but always late, takes extended breaks & lunches, etc.

• Ignore it and it will go “magically away – BIG MISTAKE!

• Send a memo out to everyone hoping Igor would get the message & will know it’s him – mistake # 2

• Look for every excuse to avoid any confrontation – mistake # 3

• Get frustrated then unload on them – mistake # 4 “If this is such an issue, why did you wait so long?”

ANSWER: Deal with problems early and calmly…BEFORE they get big!

7. FIND OUT WHO’S NAUGHTY AND NICE

Coach “The Majority In The Middle”

• Making sure that they know & understand the performance expectations that come with being on the team

• Providing the training and resources they need to fulfill these expectations

• Giving specific and frequent feedback on how they’re doing

• Identifying any obstacles they may be facing, and then doing your best to eliminate those barriers

• Teaching them how to set, manage, and achieve goals

• Helping them learn from mistakes…and successes

• Hooking them up with mentors from super-star ranks

• Staying aware of what they’re doing and “nipping in the bud” any problems start to finish

Help them avoid “being naughty and to stay nice”

7. FIND OUT WHO’S NAUGHTY AND NICE

Don’t Forget “The Super Stars” – the nicest of the nice!

• Get them involved in decision-making, strategy setting, procedure development, and problem-solving

• Delegate extensively and avoid “micromanaging” them

• Celebrate their accomplishments and successes

• Provide them with highly specialized training and other career-growing opportunities

• Show interest in their work…and their lives away from work

• Hold their co-workers accountable for doing their jobs so that the super stars don’t have to pick up the slack

• Avoid punishing them for good performance – “You did such a great job handling that mess, the next time we get one, we’ll give it to you again!”

8. BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE

Set The Example

• Follow ALL of the rules and procedures

• Treating EVERYONE with dignity and respect

• ALWAYS tell the truth

• NEVER break a promise or commitment

• Building superior quality into EVERTHING you do

• CONTINUALLY give your very best effort

• CONSISTENTLY take a stand for what’s right

8. BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE

Establish Guidelines and Accountability

• Keep your eyes & ears open to what’s happening

• Providing ongoing feedback

• Displaying “zero-tolerance”

You might think workers would resent this. Actually they do not, in fact they support it. Some even demand it. In time, they expect you to take a strong stand in preserving the principles that they take so much pride in having.

8. BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE

Remember That Everything Counts

• The way we treat and talk about each other

• The type of jokes we share

• The little white lies we don’t (or do) tell

• The commitments we make and keep (or don’t keep)

• The workshop supplies we don’t (or do) take home

• The “unimportant” rules we follow (or break)

• The level of quality we put into our work

• The fact that we don’t (or do) use the “sleigh” for personal reasons

• The way we respond (or don’t respond) to the letters we receive

• The credit we appropriately share (or don’t share) with fellow workers

EVERYTHING COUNTS!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

“To survive and prosper, you and your organization must be able to achieve “big things” throughout the year and you cannot get those big things without effective leadership.”