This Week at Integrity Integrated...
Engaging Your Team was the topic of Wednesday’s Conversations & Connection: Managing for Results luncheon session. Employee Engagement is a key tool to keeping your employees motivated and engaged at work. It is the psychological and emotional attachment that people feel for their workplace.
The first step in engaging your team is to make a connection with your employees; think of them as people first and employees second.
Here are three ways to make a connection:
- Offer yourself as a person
- Offer your time
- Offer your appreciation
Fact: Nearly 75% of employees voluntarily leaving an organization move on because of the relationship with their direct manager.
7 Hidden Reasons Why Employees Leave an Organization
- Job or workplace was not as expected.
- Mismatch between job and person.
- Too little coaching and feedback.
- Too few growth and advancement opportunities.
- Feeling devalued and unrecognized.
- Stress from over work and work-life imbalance.
- Loss of trust and confidence in senior leaders.
These are considered “hidden reasons” because they aren’t often answers you will receive in an exit interview. By focusing on employee engagement, you can often get to the root of these issues before an employee decides to leave an organization. If that’s not reason enough to focus on engagement… consider this, employee engagement also leads to increased profitability, productivity, employee retention, and employee satisfaction.
Myth Buster: Many leaders view a professional network as the by-product of their success, or the automatic result of the recognition that is their due. This is NOT the case! You must take responsibility for building your own professional support network.
Building a Strong Network of Alliances was the topic for last week’s Quad City Leadership Academy session and a presentation Ginny gave to the Gateway Human Resource Association.
In this job market, having a strong network is critical to your professional survival. The time to start building your network is not when you need it, but NOW. Things to consider when evaluating your current network of alliances:
- Is your network balanced and complete? Think of it as a personal board of directors. Do you have several functions (i.e. finance, marketing, and HR) and life spheres (i.e. work, home, community, spiritual) represented?
- How many people in your network are inside and/or outside of your organization? At least 50% of your network should be outside of your current organization.
- How often should you touch base with each person in your network? The answer should be different depending on the individual. It could be daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. The type of interaction and timing is up to you but it takes commitment and discipline to remain engaged with your network.
Thank you to Genesis Systems Group for hosting our Quad City Leadership Academy session. We appreciate the hospitality and factory tour! Also, a big thank you to President & CEO, Joel Lorentzen, for meeting with the group to share his leadership journey and advice with us!
85-90% of the difference between outstanding and average leaders is linked to Emotional Intelligence.
At our Conversations & Connections: Emotional Intelligence luncheon last week, participants learned that emotional intelligence is the ability to comprehend your emotions and to manage them effectively. People who have this ability are less depressed, healthier, more employable, stronger leaders, better decision makers and have better relationships.
Food for thought: Emotions are contagious. They can spread whenever people are near each other, even when the contact is nonverbal.
To learn more about Emotional Intelligence, Ginny suggests checking out Emotional Intelligence 2.0 ) by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves.
“We are being judge by a new yardstick; not just how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also how well we handle ourselves and each other.”- Daniel Goleman, Ph.D.
At our last Quad City Leadership Academy meeting, the group discussed leading change. The conversation was a perfect segway for participants to break into small groups to work on their chosen community issue projects. This year, the participants selected the following projects:
- Achieve Quad Cites (United Way) – The focus of this program is to increase the graduation rate by 5% within the next ten years by engaging volunteers to give back to the youth in our community and building a culture where adults are playing an active role in the lives of our youth.
- Economic Development – How can we encourage economic development in our local community? This group will research and create a plan for creating new economic development opportunities.
- Human Trafficking Project (Braking Traffik) – Trafficking is modern-day slavery that involves victims who are forced, defrauded or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. This project includes surveying potential partner organizations in the Quad Cities to measure their awareness of human trafficking in our community.
- Imagination Library (United Way) – The Imagination Library gives books to children age birth to five years old. There is a current gap in the number of children eligible for books and the number of children currently being served. The focus of this project is to find sustainable ways to register children in poverty stricken areas for this program.
- Impact Circles (Big Brothers, Big Sisters) – Big Brothers, Big Sisters provide a one-on-one mentoring for youth to help them realize their potential and build their futures. The focus of this project is to create a plan to engage “impact circles” by developing a fundraising tool kit, marketing plan, and strategies to accomplish specific goals.
To learn more about these issues, please mark your calendars for our Graduation Ceremony on May 23rd from 3:30 – 6 PM at the St. Ambrose University Rogalski Center. The participants will be sharing information about their projects with the community as part of the celebration!
Thank you to Family Resources (www.famres.org) for hosting our meeting and to Cheryl Goodwin, President/CEO of Family Resources, for giving the group a tour of the Annie Wittenmyer campus and sharing her personal leadership journey with us! We were also very grateful to be joined by Lily French from the Iowa Policy Project (http://www.iowapolicyproject.org/) who gave a great presentation on local poverty issues… including the actual cost of living in our community, average wage rates, and how these factors impact families in the Quad Cities.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that has.” – Margaret Mead
During Monday’s Negotiation Skills session, we discussed the topic of trust. Building trust is an essential step in the negotiation processes that enables cooperative behavior and can reduce harmful conflict. Following are some suggestions for building mutual trust:
- Display your trust in other person.
- Demonstrate your trustworthiness by following through on a promise.
- Recognize mutual interests.
- Guard your reputation for trust and trustworthiness.
When establishing trust, it is helpful to assess the situation and ask yourself these 5 questions:
- Are there incentives for parties to deceive one another?
- Are there time constraints?
- How well do you know the other party?
- How does the other party see you?
- Are there common interests to build trust upon?
One downfall to having a high degree of trust in each other is that the parties may spend too much of their time creating new ideas that might try to meet everyone’s needs.
“If you treat people right, they will treat you right—at least 90 percent of the time.”- Franklin D. Rooselvelt
80% of significant changes fail because of the lack of time and resources devoted to helping people through the transition process.
At our Conversations & Connections: The Power of Emotional Intelligence luncheon on Thursday, the topic was Managing Relationships through Change. During the session, we discussed a case study based on the work of William Bridges that highlighted what to do (and what not to do) during major changes.
Three things NOT to do and expect the actions to be effective are:
1) Scrap the plan and find one that is less disruptive.
2) Tell others to stop dragging their feet or they’ll face disciplinary action.
3) Give everyone a copy of the new organizational chart and explain the changes again in a carefully written memo.
Suggestions to help people move through change included: talk to individuals to find out what the problems are, “sell” the problem that is the reason for change, talk about transitions and the effects on people with the team, and hold regular team meetings. To read more on this topic, check out William Bridges’ book Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.
“It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or in love with the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear… It’s like being in between trapezes. It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold onto.” – Marilyn Ferguson
The impact of change was the focus of this week’s Quad City Leadership Academy session. We were honored to have guest speaker, Dave Green, President and CEO of the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, share his personal leadership experiences with the group. Dave also gave some great leadership advice on his “lessons learned” and discussed how to make an impact on the community by getting involved.
“I believe defining moments are typically failures.” – Dave Green
We were also joined by 2011 QCLA graduate, Margaret Roberts, COO of the United Way of the Quad Cities Area, to share some community leadership project ideas with the group.
We would like to thank the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center for hosting Friday’s Leadership session and also providing the group with a great tour of their facility!
Business was busy as usual with customized training programs for clients and several coaching appointments throughout the week. Ginny also facilitated three different women’s group, Women in Leadership in Cedar Rapids, Grow to be CEO in the Quad Cities, and the Women’s Leadership Development program in Des Moines.
Integrity Integrated is the proud sponsor of the Quad Cities Circle of Red group. The Circle of Red is the Go Red for Women leadership group that raises funds for the American Heart Association and are local advocates for heart health. On Thursday, the Circle of Red held their event, Coffee with a Cardiologist with Dr. Rafat Padaria. Dr. Padaria talked about common heart health myths, how to read lipid panels, and answered other questions from the group.
Looking ahead to next week, the second offering of the Negotiation Skills Session #2 will take place on Monday. During the session participants will discuss power, rights, and interest-based approaches to negotiations. They will also cover leverage and reinforce concepts with role-play situations.
Today’s Quad City Leadership Academy session was hosted at DHCU Community Credit Union. We were very honored to have former Iowa State Senator, Maggie Tinsman, speak to the group about the “Global and Local Problems of Human Trafficking.” Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, involving victims who are forced, defrauded, or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. Learn more about this issue and its impact on the Quad Cities at Braking Traffik (formerly the Quad Cities Human Traffiking Project) on Facebook.
We would like to extend a special thank you to DHCU Community Credit Union for hosting our meeting and providing breakfast and refreshments. Thank you to Melissa Brown and Kelly Hendershot, two Quad City Leadership Academy Alumnus, for arranging all of the meeting details, etc. We appreciate your help very much!
L to R: Stephanie Kraft - Executive Director of Braking Traffik, Maggie Tinsman - Former Iowa State Senator, and Ginny Wilson-Peters
Integrity Integrated is proud to be a major sponsor of the 2012 ATHENA Awards! Presented by the Women’s Connection and Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce, this year’s awards luncheon will take place on April 12, 2012 at Jumer’s Casino & Hotel in Rock Island, IL.
We are very excited to be a part of an event that honors women in our community who are helping to bring along the next generation of women leaders. We are very proud of the fact that many of the previous ATHENA honorees have also been involved in our leadership groups. Including our very own Ginny Wilson-Peters, who was nominated for the honor in 2011.
The mission of ATHENA International is “to support development and honor women leaders; to inspire women to achieve their full potential; and to create balance in leadership worldwide.” If you are interested in attending the ATHENA Awards luncheon, please visit the Women’s Connection Website for more details. The cost to attend the awards luncheon is $30 for individual tickets or $300 for a table of 10. We hope to see many familiar faces supporting and honoring the women who are making a difference in our community!
View a video of Ginny’s 2011 ATHENA Speech:
