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Editor: Dr. Wolf J. Rinke
Publisher: Wolf Rinke Associates, Inc.
(c) 2010 Wolf J. Rinke
Vol. 13 No. 1, February-March 2010
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Feel free to forward this eNewsletter to others.
To get your own FREE subscription click on the link above.
IN THIS ISSUE
1. NEWS YOU CAN USE
2. HOW TO FIX A DYSFUNCTIONAL TEAM
3. USE A "HOG" TO FOCUS TEAM MEMBERS DURING TOUGH TIMES-PART
I
4. HEAR WOLF HOWL--I MEAN SPEAK
5. HUMOR BREAK
6. ABOUT THE EDITOR
7. PRIVACY STATEMENT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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REALITY CHECK
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"The greater danger is not that our hopes are too high and we fail
to reach them.
It's that they are too low, and we do."
-Michelangelo
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1. NEWS YOU CAN USE
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WHAT REALLY MOTIVATES TEAM MEMBERS?
The singular best way to motivate team members is progress According
to the latest study employees' emotions are "the most positive
and their drive to succeed is at its peak [when they] have a sense they're
making headway in their jobs, or when they receive support that helps
them overcome obstacles."
ACTION STEPS
Help your team members achieve a sense of progress by providing them
with a "HOG." Read paragraph #3 and take action.
Source: T. M. Amabile and S. J. Kramer, What Really Motivates Workers,
HBR 88 (1), 2010: 44.
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2. HOW TO FIX A DYSFUNCTIONAL TEAM
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Are you frustrated by team members "spinning their wheels"
because of personality conflicts, poor interpersonal skills, distrust,
hurt egos, damaged pride, anger, or animosity?
Contact me. In over 30 years of consulting I have developed a unique
and fail-safe conflict resolution process that in one day will get your
leadership or other team back in working order. Differences will have
been worked out and the team will walk away with written commitments
that will be used by team members to hold each other accountable. As
a result of this intervention participants buy into a new reality which
enables them to take team performance to the next level.
For details go to http://wolfrinke.com/conflict.htm
or contact us at 800-828-9653 (USA) or 410-531-9280.
Two high value team members unable to work together? I can help. To
find out how, go to http://wolfrinke.com/conflict2.htm.
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3. USE A "HOG" TO FOCUS TEAM MEMBERS DURING TOUGH TIMES-PART
I
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Recent research is very clear. One of the best ways to motivate team
members is to have them experience the sweet taste of progress. (See
paragraph #1) For that to happen your team members need one HOG (Humongous
Overarching Goal) to drive their energies in laser like fashion in a
singular direction.
An example of an effective HOG is Sam Walton's "We will be a $125
billion company by the year 2000" which he made in 1990, and which
was achieved even without Sam's charisma. In fact today Wal-Mart is
the second largest company in the world with over $405 billion in revenues
in 2008.
Are you wondering, why only one HOG? Hey if one is good why not 3,
5 or 12? Remember the old days of MBO-Management by Objectives? Basically
managers learned how to look good-they identified all kinds of objectives-easy
ones so that they could prove just how much they had accomplished. In
other words, they got really good at majoring in minors. And before
you knew it the MBO became a monster that needed to be fed and taken
care of, so that a good portion of managers' time was taken up by feeding
the monster. The result? Managers had really great looking MBOs but
didn't get much done
A HOG with teeth, meaning that you have specific measurement systems
(metrics) in place that track progress, on the other hand tends to focus
various parts of an organization to create strategic alignment and achieve
BIG results.
Nine Steps to Make Your "HOG" Come Alive.
Step 1: Define your strategic direction.
If you defined your vision, i.e. what you want to be when your company
grows up, you've got this done. (If not, read or listen to my Winning
Management book available at http://wolfrinke.com/wmbook.html.) When
doing this remember to aggressively apply the KISS principle-Keep it
Simple Smarty.
Step 2: Define your HOG.
Make sure you pick only one really humongous overarching stretch goal
that defines the direction of your organization or team for the next
10 years. An effective HOG needs to have only about a 50-75 percent
probability of success, and everyone in your organization from executives
to front line employees must be able to directly or indirectly have
an impact on it. Your team members have no reason to stretch if they
can't influence the outcome. If you can't figure out what the HOG should
be, identify a humongous overarching customer satisfaction goal, because
everyone has a customer, and everyone can have an impact on customer
satisfaction measurements. An obvious, but often overlooked strategy
is to involve as many of your team members as possible in defining the
HOG. Involvement buys ownership, and ownership achieves results faster.
Step 3: Establish benchmarks and a tracking system.
Achieving a HOG can be an extremely long-term process, 10 years in
this highly competitive global economy is an eternity. So you need a
tracking system that monitors progress to let team members know how
well they are doing. If you can't come up with a monthly metric, and
I don't see why not, then you will need to identify interim benchmarks
that are widely understood by all team members, measurable, and tied
directly to the attainment of the HOG.
Step 4: Develop an incentive system that is tied to the attainment
of the HOG.
I call this a HIR, a humongous incredible reward. In an ideal world
the reward system should be a combination of external, e.g. money, and
internal rewards e.g. sense of satisfaction. If in doubt, be more generous
than you think it's wise. And be sure that awards and incentives are
important to your team members. For example don't be like one of the
nursing homes I consulted with in Chicago. They offered a free parking
space as one of their incentives. Unfortunately it did not mean much
to most employees. Why? Because most used public transportation! How
can you figure out what people really want? Are you ready for a startling
revelation? You ask them! Or better yet, involve them by inviting employees
to become members of an "awards and incentive team." Give
the team a name, for example the HIR Team, a budget and watch them create
magic! Be sure to have individuals and teams compete against themselves
or against standards. Avoid having people compete against each other
within the same organization. The reason, if there is a winner, there
will be a loser. And losing demoralizes people, and demoralized people
are less productive and are more likely to quit. And if at all possible
track and recognize the performance of individuals, teams and the entire
organization. Remember: whatever you reward is what you will get.
In the next issue of this eNL you will discover the other five steps
you need to take to focus team members so that they can achieve the
sweet taste of progress.
SOURCE: Based in part on "Don't Oil the Squeaky Wheel and 19 Other
Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness," available
at http://www.wolfrinke.com/squeakywheel.html.
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4. HEAR WOLF HOWL--I MEAN SPEAK
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These full day seminars maybe open to you if your company is a member
of the Institute of Management Studies (IMS). Contact the chairperson
for specifics.
May 13, 2010. San Francisco, CA. "Winning Management: Building
a High Performance Workplace." Contact: Ginny Von der Schmidt,
sanfran-IMS@pacbell.net.
Sep. 14, 2010. Philadelphia, PA. "Increasing Your Personal Leadership
Effectiveness." Contact: Joe Paesani, Philadelphia@ims-online.com
NOTE: I have other "in-house" presentations scheduled in
the U.S.A., Canada and Europe. Please let me know if you are interested
to preview me or bring me into your organization at reduced expenses
when I'm scheduled to be in your area. That way we can let you know
when I'm coming your way!
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5. HUMOR BREAK
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TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM:
-You have two cows.
-You sell one and buy a bull.
-Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
-You sell them and retire on the income.
AMERICAN CAPITALISM:
-You have two cows.
-You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters
of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a
debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all
four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights
of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island
company secretly owned by a majority shareholder who sells the rights
to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says
the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. The public
buys your "bull."
FRENCH CAPITALISM:
-You have two cows.
-You go on strike because you want three cows.
GERMAN CAPITALISM:
-You have two cows.
-You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat only once a month,
and milk themselves.
BRITISH CAPITALISM:
-You have two cows.
-Both are mad.
CANADIAN CAPITALISM
-You have two cows.
-Come to think of it, they look more like a pair of moose - in fact,
they are.
-One speaks French, one speaks English.
-One fights to create a new country, the other won't let it.
-And they both play ice hockey really well.
DISCLAIMER: I think these are really funny … no ethnic, nationalistic,
or other slurs are intended. It's called humor … so what are you
waiting for, laugh already!
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6. ABOUT THE EDITOR
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Dr. Wolf J. Rinke, CSP is a highly effective management consultant and
executive coach who specializes in building peak performance organizations,
teams and individuals. He is the author of 14 books including "Don't
Oil the Squeaky Wheel and 19 Other Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership
Effectiveness" and "Winning Management: 6 Fail-Safe Strategies
for Building High-Performance Organizations" available at www.WolfRinke.com.
Wolf is also an internationally recognized management/leadership keynote
speaker and seminar leader who delivers customized presentations that
combine story telling, humor and motivation with specific "how
to" action strategies that participants can apply immediately to
improve their management and leadership effectiveness. Preview a live
demo at www.WolfRinke.com. To take advantage of Dr. Rinke's services
contact us at 800-828-9653 or WolfRinke@aol.com
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7. PRIVACY STATEMENT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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