The Latest from Kristy-Lee

This is one of the topics I most often get asked about.

I see business owners, leaders and managers struggling with this one all the time: tackling difficult conversations with staff. Usually this comes after a period of avoiding that difficult conversation which is what we’re going to spend a bit of time today looking at in depth.

If you’re anything like me, conflict is not something you run headfirst toward with arms wide open to embrace - that’s exactly why tough conversations are hard. That dreaded feeling in the pit of your stomach, sleepless nights, anxiety, avoiding the staff member and putting off THAT conversation, if not avoiding it entirely.

You are absolutely not alone.

Even with my experience, I don’t like having these conversations either. I never have, and while I’m definitely better at tackling these tough conversations, it doesn’t mean I like it any more than I did before - I just developed the skills to get better at having them. 

These skills are essential fo...

"If it can not be measured it can not be managed" - Peter Drucker

When was the last time you contemplated creating KPIs for your team?

KPI's, Key Performance Indicators, Key Success Criteria or any other term you would like to use are essential to drive employee performance, productivity and engagement.

Too often this task lands firmly in the 'too hard basket' because let's be honest it's not the easiest task to do.

Done poorly, creating KPIs are an utter waste of time. For many of you who have been in the position where you have been allocated or managed staff with ineffective KPI's, this will have undoubtedly influenced your desire to develop better targets for your future teams.

If this sounds like you, I am going to challenge you to rethink your approach today. I am challenging you to set just 1 KPI for each role over the next week, and 3 big ones for your business or team.

Why?

Our team members fundamentally want to know 3 key things from their leaders:
1) What do we expect ...

It’s simple maths that you can’t continue to grow a business and achieve greater results year on year, quarter on quarter and week on week without a great team. But once you have that team, the challenge can be how to keep them motivated.

Motivated employees are our most engaged employees, and we know that an engaged team can be 17% more productive and lead to a whopping 21% increase in business profitability, according to a study conducted by Gallup.

So keeping motivation high, and ultimately increasing engagement is like your secret weapon that can really differentiate you from your competitors. Motivated and engaged teams attract the best and brightest, and foster environments which encourage productivity, creativity and best practice at every level.

So what can we as employers proactively do to maintain and improve our teams motivation at work?

• Operate from a Place of Purpose
  Employees thrive in businesses which are driven towards a clear purpose. Be clear on your purpose,
...

As a business owner or manager, you may think you have a million more important things to do than write a position description for every role in your company.

Particularly in small business, where there is a need for flexibility within the scope and responsibility and daily duties of each individual, to meet the fluctuating needs and demands of a fluid business structure, these ‘structured’ documents can often seem limiting and unnecessary.

However, accurate and detailed Position Descriptions, in my opinion, are the most important document to have in your business, when it comes to managing staff, and here is why:

• They create structure – as we all know, where there are no rules people instinctively will make up their own. Position descriptions which are clear, appropriately detailed and cover the nature, scope, and duties of the role, as well as the expectations around behaviour and performance standards create a working ‘rule book’ for your employees.
• They set the bound
...

1. Values Alignment
2. Flexibility
3. Reliability
4. Honesty
5. Adaptability;
6. Coachability;
7. Loyalty;
8. Motivation

What exactly is 'Employee Engagement'?

Like many others you may think it is a bit of the HR buzzword and a fluffy concept made up by someone trying to create work for themselves in a big corporation.
There is a popular misconception that it's about keeping people happy, making sure they're having fun at work, giving employees everything they want, beanbags in the staff room, chocolate biscuits in the kitchen and all of those perks. Keeping staff happy and making sure they are looked after is important, and forms part of it, but employee engagement is actually a far deeper concept, and it's important no matter how big or small your business is.

One thing is for sure and that is that businesses of any size who can get this right and really dedicate the right amount of thought, intention and commitment to nurturing this particular aspect of managing and leading staff can really see the benefits. Benefits including reduced staff turnover, a decline in absenteeism rates, higher productivit...