In response to feedback we’ve been getting from you, my fellow GLAPIEs, I’ve finally taken the time to give the Learning FX Performance site a make-over.  With the help of Jeff and Jarrett, from The McCary Group, and Belen the "Goddess" Bilgic Schneider, I’ve tried to make the site more robust and easier to use.  I’m still working out some kinks, so bear with me, but here’s a list of what’s new on the site: Get the Latest: The first thing you’ll see on the Home page will be the latest blog post as well as the latest tweets, SlideShare presentation, and video.  Going forward, I plan to produce short videos and post them to our Prestera FX YouTube channel.  More on that soon. Easier to Comment: While I enjoy getting emails from you guys, I really want to see you post your comments right in the site, so I’ve made it so that you don’t need to provide any contact information in order to post a comment.  In other words, you can post anonymously.  I’ll still screen the comments, but as long as you have something relevant to say, I’ll post it.  So please comment away without fear that your boss will see what you write! Social Media bar: We’ve added a social media bar, so that you can like us, re-tweet us, and share us till your heart’s content. Categories: In the bottom part of the Home page, we’ve organized all of the previous posts by category. You’ll see the last two posts from that category highlighted and summarized.  This is a nice way to get a sense of the breadth of the content. That’s it for now, but please keep the suggestions coming.  You can respond to this post, if you like, with any feedback and suggestions regarding the site layout and usability. Thanks for visiting! Gus Prestera, PhD GLAPIE and proud!    

I’m back with the second half of my tips for managing your subject matter experts. Tip 6. Know what you want from your SMEs Too often, Instructional Designers approach their SMEs without a clear sense of what they need or want.  I always advise my IDs to go into their SME meetings with a clear game plan that identifies what they want to take away from the meeting.  This is not merely a general goal or list of questions, though that’s a good start.  When possible, I try to go in with a sense of what the performance objectives are and what the design of the course is going to involve.  I use this to guide my SME interviews. For example, if I’m going to design training for a new proprietary IT system, I’d develop a high-level design.  Within that design, I’d capture the types of content I will need. I’d likely need to know what the process steps and tasks are going to be; who’s performing each of them; and what the correct sequence is.  I’d also want to teach learners about common pitfalls and errors, and counter them with tips and tricks.  Armed with that information, I can craft an agenda for how that SME interview should flow, so that I get what I need.  SMEs typically appreciate that degree of organization. Tip 7. Avoid overloading your SMEs with non-value added tasks One of the worst things you can do with your SMEs is waste their time.  It undermines their trust in you and their willingness to help you. You will have a very small amount of their bandwidth to get what you need, so make sure you don’t waste their time by asking them to do things that do not add value. Don’t ask your SMEs to perform administrative tasks, such as asking them to take notes or type up something they’ve already said.  You should either be recording the interview or taking good notes, so that your SME doesn’t need to repeat him/herself.  If your SME tells you that something is available online, ask where and go get it yourself: don’t ask your SME to track things down unless there is no other way.  Don’t overload them with information that is not important to them or relevant to their work. For example, some IDs will copy their SMEs on project management-related communications, such as project updates.  While it would be nice if your SMEs were aware of what is happening with the project, it is not mission-critical information for them.  The parts of it that are relevant to their work could probably be summarized in a sentence at the beginning of a content gathering call or meeting. Much as race horses are equipped with blinders to minimize the distraction of seeing other horses to either side, it is better to minimize your SMEs’ distractions and non-value tasks and keep them focused on the content gathering tasks. Tip 8. Take some ownership and do your homework Sorry to keep harping on it but SMEs are extremely busy people, and their time is precious to the organization.  They will have little patience with being asked to perform tasks that are not value-added.  One such low value task is teaching you the basics.  It’s reasonable for a SME to expect that you’ve done your homework prior to the start of the content gathering process and that you have a baseline understanding of the subject matter.  With search engines at your fingertips and so much information posted on the organization’s web site, there’s no excuse for going into a content gathering meeting blind.  Your SMEs are experts, so bring your A game and ask questions that do not waste their time.  Show them that you know the basics and are there to get at the difficult questions, which only they can answer. Tip 9. Create structure around content gathering and analysis As I mentioned in Tip 6, it’s important to walk into the SME meeting with a clear sense of what you want to get out of the meeting.  In some cases, I will actually create a content gathering template containing a table that includes cells with different types of information that I need.  After an interview, I fill in the template and send it to the SME.  The SME can see what kinds of information I need; what I’ve been able to gather so far; and where the gaps are.  When they can see the gaps clearly, they will usually respond by helping to fill those gaps.  The template provides the structure and transparency needed. Tip 10. Synthesize their ideas; don’t just regurgitate them One of the best compliments I’ve received is when a SME said to me: "At the end of our call, I felt like I dumped a lot of rambling threads of information on you, and then afterwards you sent me something that tells a cohesive story. Wow!"   In following up after a content gathering meeting, many IDs make the mistake of thinking that their job is to summarize what their SMEs are saying.  Doing that produces very poor quality training content. Why?  Because content knowledge is organized differently in an expert’s brain than it is in a novice’s brain.  The main value that we bring to the ISD process is to transform the content we receive from our experts into something that can be easily understood, remembered, and applied by novices.  In order to do that, we need to do more than just regurgitate what we hear from our SMEs.  We must synthesize their ideas, transforming them into a cohesive story that will make sense to others. Your comments are welcome.  If you have other tips and best practices for IDs to use when working with their SMEs, please share what you know. Gus Prestera, PhD GLAPIE and proud!    

Daryl Conner coined the term "black holes" in his seminal work, Managing at the Speed of Work (1992, 2006, pp. 119-125), when referring to pockets within an organization where "management rhetoric [goes] into bureaucratic structures and then vanishes without a trace."  In other words, senior leaders set a vision, goals, and a strategy then communicate those to the organization, but in some pockets of the organization those words simply fall on deaf ears and there is no action taken, no response, not even a complaint…just a whole lot of nothing.  As a leader, I’ve experienced this myself even within a relatively small 100-person business.  In larger organizations, black holes are pervasive and significantly undermine any attempts to drive organizational change across the enterprise.  Unlocking the mystery of these black holes should be a priority for any manager interested in making change a reality. Blacks holes are caused by a variety of factors, but before we consider causes and remedies, let’s look an example, so we have a real-world frame of reference.  Though black holes can form around entire sites, functions, business units, and regions, let’s look at a small one forming at the local department level.  Santana heads up the IT department for XYZ Global’s regional headquarters in Philadelphia.  She manages a team of 10 IT Specialists, six of which are based in Philly and four of which are based in Boston, supporting a large office complex.  The senior IT leadership has decided to implement Agile as a new project management methodology for all IT projects, replacing the traditional Waterfall method that XYZ Global has traditionally used.  Santana is excited about the change and cascades the messaging and strategy to her team.  In Philly, there are many questions about the change and Santana observes a mixed reaction with the usual assortment of early adopters, late adopters, curmudgeons, etc.  In Boston, there is no discernible reaction.  There is no excitement, no frustration, no outward sign of anxiety about the change…nothing…not even a question.  This is where Santana comes face-to-face with a black hole. Why Black Holes Form Why is one group of people on Santana’s team engaged and another completely disengaged from Santana’s "management rhetoric?"  There are a myriad of possible reasons, but experience tells me that black holes typically form because of three factors: the leadership vacuum, cynicism, and isolation. The Leadership Vacuum. In Boston, there is no formal leader of the team, so team members become more reliant on their informal hierarchy.  One member of the team, Jamal, has seniority, is outspoken, and is seen as the "real" authority on the ground.  The other team members have learned that regardless of what Santana and her bosses say, it’s Jamal who is really in charge, at least in terms of the day-to-day work they do and how they do it.  Santana inadvertently reinforces this perception by the way she defers to Jamal in front of the team and positions him as her representative when she is not onsite.  She has essentially relinquished her leadership authority, creating a vacuum that Jamal is filling.  In this case, Jamal is not onboard with the transition to Agile, and rather than raise an objection, he has simply decided that the change will not apply to the Boston office. Cynicism. In Boston-as in Philly-the members of Santana’s team have grown weary of management’s organizational effectiveness efforts.  "Management can’t seem to make up their minds," is a commonly heard complaint, "today they want us to things this way, then tomorrow we need to change to something else completely, before we even see if the first change worked."  The frequency of change and the lack of follow-through that comes with it create a sense that management is never really serious about making change happen…that their rhetoric is empty and meaningless.  When an individual feels that way, they become isolated cases that can sometimes be ignored, but when a group of individuals shares that perception, a black hole will emerge.  They will listen to management and assume that no change is really required, since management isn’t really going to follow through on it anyway. Isolation. The team in Boston is geographically separated from their regional headquarter colleagues and from Santana.  If this physical distance isn’t countered, it can lead to an emotional and psychological separation as well.  The mentality quickly devolves into "us vs. them" types of thinking patterns, which can eventually lead to a complete split.  Santana’s Boston team members begin to think of themselves as a unique and separate team, disassociated with the Philly team and they see Santana as being more closely associated with the Philly office.  This schism can make it easier for the black hole to form and to grow.  Everything that comes from Santana is looked at through the lens of "Philly is trying to push us around again and tell us what to do."  Resistance to management’s rhetoric becomes institutionalized. Santana has her work cut out for her.  Because of the leadership vacuum she’s created; the cynicism she has reinforced through her lack of follow-through; and the isolation she has failed to prevent, her Boston team has become a black hole.  It is like the tribal region of Pakistan…a no man’s land of central leadership where the changing world around it is simply ignored in favor of the status quo. In the next installment, I’ll share with you some strategies and lessons learned for collapsing these black holes and re-engaging with employees.  Meanwhile, I would love to hear your black hole stories and similar challenges you’ve faced. Gus Prestera, PhD GLAPIE and proud!

With the advent of cloud-based computing and the growth of mobile computing, we are seeing a new tidal wave of software applications being brought to market.  With that comes the need to train millions of users on how to use those applications, and a common technique for doing so is the good old-fashion software demonstration.  Millions of online demos have been produced, yet many of them are not instructionally effective.  For someone who knows the application pretty well and just needs a quick pointer, most demos are maddeningly slow.  For someone who is unfamiliar with the application and really needs help, most demos fail to teach the procedure in a way that helps the user remember it.  Below I describe four ways you can make your software demonstrations more effective, working with the user’s natural information processing affordances and constraints. Organize steps and units by process steps, not features Reinforce narration with synced visual cues Provide written instructions that anchor demonstration Give users control and a sense of the big picture Let’s look at these suggestions in greater depth: 1. Organize steps and units by process steps, not features A common question that arises for designers of software training is to what extent to organize the training around the features of the system.  Think of it this way.  If you are learning how to garden, would you want your instruction to be organized by gardening tool?  For example, the first module might teach how to use gardening trowel. Another might teach you how to use a rake.  While there are times when you may want to learn about a tool that you’re not familiar with, your primary motivation is learning how to garden, so you would probably want the instruction broken down by gardening processes.  For example, one unit might teach you how to prepare your soil. Another might teach you how to select the right plants or vegetables.  Another on when and how to plant the seeds. How to ward off insects.  How to water and provide nutrients. You get the idea. When learning something new, most of us are task-oriented, so it makes sense to organize the training around the real-world tasks that your audience will perform.  This applies equally to software training.  When analyzing the instructional content, look at it from the user’s point of view and organize the various units and steps according to how they use the system.  In fact, a best practice is to start with "use cases."  Software developers create use cases to help them understand how users will interact with their system.  For training designers, that’s a great starting point.  Trace the footsteps of a real user as they work with the system to accomplish something…then organize your content around that process. 2. Reinforce narration with synced visual cues Most demonstrations involve a combination of audio in the form of voice-over narration and possibly some sound effects (e.g., the sound of mouse clicks) and visuals in the form of screen captures, cutouts, animated builds, and/or screen video.  Designers of software demos tend to focus most of their energy on saying the right things in the audio.  This is a natural bias that we as designers have.  However, we also know that significantly more people are visual learners than auditory learners-meaning that they tend to focus more of their information processing energy on what they see more so than on what they hear.  Well-designed elearning tries to help people process information through both audio and visuals at the same time.  So, it makes sense that we should focus on the design of the visual experience as much as-if not more than-on the auditory experience.  For starters, make sure that you do give them equal attention and care. So specifically what can you do to enhance the visual experience within a software demo?  Regardless of the medium, I encourage you to reinforce the visual experience by highlighting the parts of a screen that you want the learner to focus on at any particular time.  This reinforcement can be in the form of a box or circle that surrounds your focal point temporarily, as shown in the example below.  This helps to draw the learner’s eye, and with it, their attention.  Syncing those visual cues with the audio narration is unfortunately time-consuming, but it is critically important.  Otherwise, a learner’s eyes will wander, and the learner will waste time/energy trying to follow along, when you really want them to focus that brain power on processing the procedural steps themselves.  Make it easy for them to track with your words.   Here we use a dashed rectangle to draw the learner’s eye and attention to the focal point of the instructions. The visual cue appears on-screen in sync with the audio instructions related to step 3.   3. Provide written instructions that anchor demonstration As I mentioned above, designers have a natural bias for audio narration, yet learners tend to process the visual experience more effectively than the auditory experience.  To balance things out, I always try to include written instructions that support the demonstration.  Learners can listen to the narration as they see the demonstration, but then they can refer to the written steps as a way of reviewing and maintaining the sequence of steps fresh in their minds. Written instructions that complement the audio and visuals being used help the learner review the steps that have been covered so far. This reinforcement can be powerful. Ideally, the written instructions appear on screen at the same time as the steps are being demonstrated.  Even better is making a visual connection between the visual cue (discussed above in #1), the screen capture/cutout/video, and the written instructions.  Best of all is when those are synced with the audio narration.  If you look at the sample screen below, you see that the "How-to" written instructions are summarized to the right of the screen capture.  When the narration is describing step 3, the learner’s eye is drawn to the visual cue that sits over the focal point in the screen capture.  From there, the eye moves over to the written instructions, where they can review the steps covered so far. All that connectivity and synchronicity reinforces the learning and makes it easy for the learner to follow and process the procedure. I find it powerful to show the written instructions side-by-side with the visuals being used to demonstrate the steps. The connectivity and synchronicity are important.   4. Give users control and a sense of the big picture The system’s users come in many shapes and sizes, so it’s important to allow them a great deal of room to customize the learning experience to their needs.  There are two important ingredients that are needed in order for learners to be able to customize their experience effectively: control and a holistic view. Learner control can be offered in several ways and at several levels.  It starts, though, by breaking down the procedures into their smallest cohesive units.  You want a unit to contain few enough steps that the learner can feasibly remember them, yet the collection of steps also needs to describe a complete procedure…much like a sentence, it needs to communicate a complete thought.  Once you’ve broken things down into those units, design the training in a way that enables the learner to select from a menu of units; to jump around from unit to unit; and to skip over units that are not relevant. Take it the next level down and offer the same level of control within a unit.  Some learners may just want to visit the demo to refresh their memories on one particular step.  Others may need the whole sequence of steps.  Enable the learner to experience all of the steps in sequence or to jump around from step to step easily.  One way to do this is to provide a sub-menu with numbered buttons that the learner can click. Holistic View. If the learner doesn’t have a sense of the whole, it’s difficult for them to assess their own needs and make use of the control you’ve given them.  At the program level, give learners a sense of what all the procedures (units) are and how they are organized conceptually.  You might show them a map of the entire sequence of units, perhaps in the form of a concept map, an org chart, or some other visual. At the module level, give them a sense of how the unit is structured.  At least let them know how many individual steps are involved.  Knowing that I am currently on step 3 of 15 feels different than knowing I’m on step 3 of 6.  Just as importantly, let the learner know what the step is, why it is important, and what it entails.  These tidbits give the learner some basis for deciding on how to proceed. You can kill two birds with one stone by having your big picture map of the units and your unit-level map of the steps act as navigation menus.  You are giving learners a holistic view while also enabling them to control their learning experience. Wrap Up Software demonstrations too often lack consideration of what their audiences need and how their audiences process new information.  Using some research-based techniques-like the ones described above-can help you ensure that your software training engages your audience and helps them learn how to use the system quickly.  Organize your units and steps around the tasks that real-life end users will need to perform in order to accomplish something meaningful.  Don’t try to teach each feature and functionality in a vacuum.  Leverage your use cases to walk the learner through a process.  As you do, show-don’t just tell-them how to do it using relevant visuals and synced visual cues that draw the learners’ attention.  Don’t rely completely on auditory instructions…give them written instructions too, preferably synced and linked to the on-screen visuals you are using.  Give them a big picture sense of each procedure is, why it’s important, what’s involved, and how it fits in with the rest of the procedures.  Allow them enough learner control to navigate through demonstrations sequentially or non-sequentially, depending on their preferences and learning needs.  An informed learner with adequate control should be able to organize the pace, content, and sequence of their learning experience in a way that makes sense for them. If you are a software training designer, I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Any additional best practices you’d like to recommend?  Challenges you need help with?  Share with your GLAPIE friends here and let’s help each other design better software training. Gus Prestera, PhD GLAPIE and proud!    

My hands were sweaty; my mouth was dry.  For months, I dreaded this day, knowing that eventually I’d need to fire this employee because of his poor performance and even poorer attitude.  I was a new manager at the start of my career; this was my first time; and it was the scariest thing I had ever done.  Since then, it’s not gotten much easier, but it’s not as scary as it was the first time.  Why?  Because after the first time, I realized that terminating a poor performer was the best thing I could have done for my team, and my only regret was that I took so long to do it. FEAR, it’s a four-letter word for failure when it comes to managing organizations, infecting every decision and every action we take.  In this post, I’ll focus on just one consequence of fear…the all-too-common sight of organizations carrying dead weight…employees who perform poorly, have poor attitudes, and are unlikely to improve.  Managers know exactly who those chronic under-performers are and they recognize that those employees act as a drag on everybody else and on the organization as a whole.  Let’s examine why managers knowingly allow dead weight to exist in their organizations and how a senior leader might combat those factors. Fear of Failure One reason we hold onto poor performers is that we feel we can turn them around, if we just give the coaching process a little more time and effort.  To give up on those poor performers is to admit failure.  Cutting the cord would be to admit that I made a bad hire; that I didn’t onboard and train them effectively; that I didn’t coach them and motivate them; that I just wasn’t a good enough manager.  In other words, managers are afraid to admit failure, so they tolerate poor performers for much longer than they should.  They carry this sense of guilt and obligation  like an albatross around their necks. How do you reverse this tendency?  Start by re-committing yourself and the managers under you to talent management.  Invest the proper time and effort into hiring the right people; onboarding and training them effectively, so performance expectations are clear; coaching and motivating them so employees are held accountable for poor performance and recognized/rewarded for good performance.  These are the basic blocking and tackling responsibilities of any people manager.  If you can make a commitment to doing these things consistently, you’ll start to remove the albatross from around your neck and shift the accountability for performance from you, the manager, to your employees. Fear of Uncertainty What will happen if I confront poor performers about their performance?  Will the conversations get heated?  Will HR make me document everything and drag out the process?  What if I terminate a poor performing employee?  Will I be able to hire a replacement quickly?  Will that replacement be any better?  Is the employee really not salvageable?  What if I’m wrong?  What if they sue the company for wrongful termination?  Taking action on performance problems comes with some uncertainty and risk.  Failing to take action also comes with uncertainty and risk, but putting off those uncomfortable conversations and difficult decisions is a natural response. Though manager training and proper HR support are important, the only effective way to combat this fear of uncertainty is with intervention by the senior leader.  The senior leader needs to drive his/her managers, creating a burning platform and a call to action.  There needs to be a sense that confronting performance problems can no longer be put off or kicked down the road.  The second thing a senior leader can do is to provide reassurance to managers that they will be supported as they engage in performance management ("I’ll back you up!"); that they will be rewarded for driving the performance of their teams; and that they themselves will be held accountable for poor team performance.  Managers need to be challenged and pushed off the ledge, but then they also need to be supported as they work through a potentially long and risky performance management voyage. Fear of Perceptions Managers who hold their employees accountable for performance are sometimes perceived as being too demanding ("a hard ass"); insensitive ("a bitch or bastard!"); and even discriminatory ("has his favorites").  There is the perception of the employees but there’s also the perception of colleagues and bosses.  You might worry that driving performance will cause your turnover to increase, which could make you look like a bad manager.  In fact, maybe your HR business partner or boss has cautioned you about the need to keep your people happy and minimize turnover.  That’s not going to make you want to go confront poor performers. Your employees also might not be super-thrilled with suddenly being held accountable for their performance, especially your poor performers.  Sorry, being a great manager doesn’t always correlate with winning popularity contests.  However, the upside is that high performers generally prefer to work with other high performers and for high performers.  Your high performers will be more likely to stick around and thrive, if they know that their high performance will be recognized and rewarded and that performance problems will get addressed. How can we counter this fear of perceptions?  Training and HR support again can be helpful in fortifying managers against this fear.  Senior Leaders should play a role here as well. They can reassure their managers that they will be recognized and rewarded for driving performance, even if the cost of driving performance means higher turnover in the short term, along with the issues associated with turnover, including liability and replacement costs.  If you’re a senior leader, your managers need to know in their hearts that you value performance results over employee engagement scores, turnover percentages, and the threat of wrongful termination lawsuits.  If they don’t believe that, they likely won’t make performance management a priority. Fear of Team Performance Drop When I counsel managers on performance management, one of the most common objections I hear is that "a warm body is better than no body."  They know that if they start pushing their thumbs into a performance problem, they’re likely to lose the employee, and losing the employee creates a gap.  Some work may not get done.  Some work may still get done but others on the team will need to work harder to fill the gap.  Morale may, as a result, go down. Overall, the performance of the team could drop.  This is how the story is usually told. The truth is that team performance usually does not suffer as a result of losing poor performers.  Management sage Peter Drucker cautions managers not to replace employees too quickly.  In his books, he recommends allowing a few months to pass before even posting the position.  In that time, people adjust; roles change; priorities shift or get clarified.  The team closes ranks and moves on.  In fact, when a poor performer is terminated, team performance typically goes up, because other team members are no longer pulling dead weight, managers are no longer dealing with the consequences of that poor performance (e.g., customer complaints, rework), so the whole operation runs more smoothly.  Managers who unburden themselves of low performers find themselves with more time on their hands to do the things that really help their team get better.  They have time to train and coach their people; streamline processes; recognize and reward positive behaviors…they have time to be more impactful. Even though research and experience tell us that dropping poor performers improves overall performance levels, managers still hold onto this fear that their team will suffer as a result of losing their "warm body."  What can we do about it?  We need to give managers extra support as they deal with poor performance for the first time…hyper-care if you will.  More training, support, encouragement, and senior leader attention are key.  Help the manager get through the storm and eventually that manager will see the rainbow on the other side.  Once you’ve gotten a few managers to see the light, recruit them to support other managers as mentors.  Having managers support fellow managers and relate their war stories to managers struggling with performance management can be a very impactful approach. Fear of Budget Cut In the wake of the Great Recession, it would be foolish for any manager not to pay attention to the budgetary implications of performance management.  Some fear-with good reason-that if they terminate a poor performing employee, they will not be able to secure the budget to replace that employee in the future.  As a result, they hold onto poor performers to avoid losing head count. How do we combat that fear?  One way is for senior leaders to guarantee head count and replacement costs in the budget for any employees terminated for performance reasons.  In an era when mass layoffs are commonplace, this is a difficult promise for any senior leader to keep. As usual, honesty is the best policy.  Help your managers understand that you will do your best to help them replace poor performing employees, but also challenge them to consider if their team can operate without those poor performers.  Sometimes, this means that less work can get done.  Work with your managers to re-prioritize and re-calibrate their goals.  If your managers know that you will work with them on managing their teams’ workload, that will ease their fears of being asked to do more with less. Wrap-Up Fear is a corrosive agent within organizations but it is especially destructive when it infects the management ranks and causes managers to benevolently neglect their performance management responsibilities.  The phenomenon of carrying dead weight is driven by fear…fear of their own failure as managers; fear of uncertainty; fear of perceptions; fear of performance drops; and fear of budget cuts.  Training can help managers by teaching them the skills needed and the process involved, and HR can help by providing active support in identifying performance problems and driving those towards resolution.  Most importantly, senior leaders need to drive it.  They should start by being good role models, managing the performance of their own managers effectively.  They need to re-assure their managers that performance management is priority number one; that those managers will be backed up when they take on performance problems; and that they will be recognized and rewarded for doing what needs to be done. I invite you to share with us your own perspectives and lessons learned as it relates to performance management.  How have you reduce dead weight in your organization? Gus Prestera, PhD GLAPIE and proud!

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Harvard Business Review and offers tips for achieving a calm, happy, and energized state of mind while taking a vacation.Unfortunately as most of us know, taking a vacation rarely ends with a rejuvenated mind, body, and soul. Instead, most of us spend our precious time off "checking-in" to see if there are any fires that have popped up while we are away. But Get in the Right State of Mind for Vacation finds that your state of mind before and during vacation determines the quality of your time off.Before your next vacation ask yourself: Are you prepared to be truly there?"Be present: Truly appreciate each moment. Center yourself with pauses similar to the ones you should take at work but make them longer. Breathe in and out for a total of 10 seconds, check your body and ease any discomfort with stretching or movement, clear your mind, and then activate a positive feeling of appreciation and gratitude for where you are at the moment."Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: Get in the Right State of Mind for Vacation appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Where in your work life do you make the most excuses? What are the most common ones?Some typical excuses I’ve heard in offices:I don’t have anyone to delegate to.I’m better than the person that was just promoted.My workload is too big. The thing about excuses is that they are often grounded in some truth. It can be true that you do not have enough resources to complete something. Or you don’t have the right people on your team.However, excuses become a problem when you dwell on them and don’t do anything about it. So instead of dwelling, at Fierce we recommend you reflect and say: "given x, what am I going to do about it?"So…Given I don’t have anyone to delegate to, I’m going to…Given I’m better than the person that was just promoted, I’m going to…Given my workload is too big, I’m going to… The person in the driver’s seat is you. You are in control. Stop pointing your fingers outside of yourself, and instead, look within.This week’s tip is to stop your excuses this week. When you feel tempted to talk about why something can’t happen, pull yourself back. Ask: What am I going to do about this?As Susan Scott says in Fierce Leadership, "In a very real sense, the progress of my organization depends on my progress as an individual now."The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Stop Your Excuses appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

/trap/ noun: trap; plural noun: traps — an unpleasant situation from which it is hard to escape In a new Fierce Survey released today, we found four out of five employees believe leaders don’t do enough to combat toxic employees. Do your employees think that about you?It’s time to wake up and be aware that the potential for toxicity in your organization is everywhere. And it is your job, leader, to make sure you don’t fall into any of the traps that create negativity.Trap #1 Employees feel undervalued. Employees who feel disposable, commoditized, or who don’t understand their role within an organization often hold on to negative energy. This negative energy can be poisonous when spread amongst other colleagues.Tip: Ask each member of your team how and when they feel most valued. Get curious and learn what matters to the people you work with every day. Make next steps that are easy to put in action and show your commitment.Trap #2 Employees lack recognition. Asking for the best of someone and giving them nothing in return, except perhaps a paycheck, can be demeaning. If an employee feels they are not being recognized well, over time they are likely to become bitter, which can turn toxic quickly.Tip: In your next team meeting, leave 10-15 minutes to do "shout-outs". Kick off this exercise by you, the leader, sharing positive things you have noticed with the team and/or individuals in the past month. Keep the examples specific and share the impact they have had on the team and organization.Trap #3 Conflict exists between employees. Our survey found that over half of employees argue with their co-workers at least once a month. Not resolving these conflicts, which are inevitable in many ways, can leave an employee with feelings of helplessness and futility.Tip: Bring in training for your team to deal with conflict in a healthy, productive manner. Our confrontation model reframes a potentially combative interaction to a solution-oriented conversation. Give your team the skills they need to better address issues - small and large.As a leader, do you fall into any of these traps? Check out our survey infographic for more stats.The post Leaders, Stay Away from 3 Toxic Employee Traps appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Good morning Charlie, I wanted to share my excitement with you.  My husband, Joe, is a manager at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. Rocketdyne make the Space Shuttle Main Engine and other rocket engines and the company is going through tough times … Continue reading →

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Harvard Business Review and explores common management offenses that are preventing effective leadership.Our recent survey on toxic employees uncovered a clear disconnect between employee satisfaction and leadership decisions. The data points to an alarming lack of emotional intelligence that could help employees connect with their leaders. The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders finds the key to employee engagement and increased productivity is tied to communication and connection.Are you failing to make a genuine connection with your team? "Much of a team’s success lies in the pattern of connection a leader has with direct reports, and the way he or she empowers them to extend that pattern to his or her direct reports, and so on. In a business environment that is woefully lacking in employee commitment, leaders who aren’t actively connecting with people are themselves a liability."Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders appeared first on Fierce, Inc..