WORKING WITHIN: Networking and Productivity United for Results

Working Within with Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Since networking is all about relationships, then networking is great strategy to increase productivity in all aspects of any organization. I realized this a long time ago when working with clients. Let me explain.

A team was not performing to its level given the depth of the experiences within the team. During the numerous workshops and one on one coaching sessions, I realized that the team members truly did not know each other.

Sure, the might have knowledge specific to if they were married or single, birthday dates and the place of last employment. However, they did not truly know their fellow co-workers. This lack of knowledge was keeping people at arm’s length and creating some very negative attitudes.

Then during the next six monthly follow-up workshops I began each session requesting that each team member share something that others in the room did not know. Watching the non-verbal behaviors of the listening team members as a fellow co-worker shared his or her little piece of personal trivia was quite enlightening. As time progress, the honesty of sharing increased and as did the emotions within the room.

While all this was going on, something else was happening in between workshops. The team began to function better. Members began to ask each other when they had some free time, How can I help? Projects that used to take several weeks were now being finished in less than one week.

President Roosevelt was quoted as saying: No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. This is just as true internally when networking as externally.

Productivity is the direct result of how we feel about doing something. When we are engaged for whatever the reason, our productivity will increase. Having a team support is critical to sustaining productivity especially during stressful times.

Now more than ever it is important to invest the time to learn about your fellow co-worker and be authentic with your intentions. You may find a kindred spirit and someone who will help you out when your desk is overflowing with ASAP to gotta, gotta, gotta have this right now!

For more information, please visit Leanne's TNNW Bio.

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WORKING WITHIN: Networking and Productivity United for Results

WORKING WITHIN: The Unknown Talents Within

Working Within with Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Do you know your talents specific to working with others? What I have found to be true is these 3 facts:

• Many individuals do not know their talents
• Many individuals do not leverage their talents (think strengths) within the workplace
• Many individuals turn their non-talents into weaknesses and then focus on these weaknesses even if they are not related to their current role

Part of the reason is due to conditioning from the K-16 experience. People are almost trained to focus on what they do not do well. Remember all the emphasis in school about improving your weaknesses? How much time did your teachers invest to reinforce your strengths? Probably not as much when compared to the amount of time devoted to the development of your weaknesses.

This emphasis on weaknesses is truly backward. Let me ask one question: Why do winning sports’ teams win?

Do they win because of the collective weaknesses of their team members? Of course, not! They win because of the collective strengths of each team member.

Another reason for the lack of emphasis on talents is because many companies do not have:

• Current written job descriptions with written job performance benchmarks
• Process from which to close the gap between benchmarks and performance
• Proven assessment that looks to the talents instead of the personality
• Plan supported by written goals to align employee’s performance to the overall strategic action plan
• Understanding how employees make decisions and how those talents are involved in that decision making process

Imagine the possibilities if your employees and you as the CEO or business owner could isolate specific core talents or attributes ranging from Accountability for Others to Using Common Sense? Then be able to build effective team where decision making styles are balanced.

For example, how many times have you heard one employee complaining about being the only one doing anything on a seven (7) member team? The attitude of this employee could be potentially affecting the overall team’s performance. Then you learn through an assessment that this employee is truly the only one focused on getting things done while the other 6 members are busy thinking and feeling. Their decision making style is necessary for the team to work effectively yet the team is unbalanced results potentially in negative productivity. You bring the team together to discuss this information. Then you ask the team what do they need to do to improve the teams’ performance?

Human capital when not leveraged to its full potential is a significant waste and drains the bottom line. When companies begin to help their employees build stronger networks based upon each employee’s individual talents while understanding their decision making styles, the results can be truly amazing.


For more information, please visit Leanne's TNNW Bio.

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WORKING WITHIN: The Unknown Talents Within

WORKING WITHIN: Empathy A Key Skill

Working Within
with Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Empathy, the ability to acknowledge the feelings of another individual without agreeing with them, is a key skill in networking. Daniel Goelman in his book Working with Emotional Intelligence suggests that individuals with high empathy also have higher EQ (emotional intelligence). High EQ is a desired trait in leadership and in working with others.

This necessary skill of empathy is not isolated, but one that is combined with many other soft skills (people skills) or what I call self -leadership skills. Through this combination both skills are enhanced and truly improve the results.

So what does it take to be empathetic? Here are five behaviors that are necessary, in my opinion, to be able to demonstrate empathy.

Behavior #1 - First, I believe the willingness to have an open mind. This is probably the greatest challenge because of our inherent belief systems. These beliefs cloud our ability to be empathetic because they are in many cases subconscious and are happening without our conscious knowledge. Having an open mind is a behavior because it is demonstrated through our body language.

Behavior #2 - Second, a commitment to leave our own egos at the door. The desire to show that we are “right” as individuals whether it is been there done that or we know better. When we are truly empathetic, the focus is on the other person and not ourselves.

Behavior #3 - Third, active listening or what some now described as purposeful listening is critical. Unfortunately, even though many have engaged in some training and development around how to improve communication skills, active listening is still not at the level it needs to be. How many times do you have to repeat yourself to a fellow employee because he or she is truly not focused on hearing your request? And less us not forget, how many times have you asked someone to repeat something because you were not truly listening?

Behavior #4 - Fourth, follow-up is also part of empathetic behavior. For example, the other day a business owner called who was not a client, but who just wanted someone to listen and provide some insight. Given her state of distress, I invested 30 minutes to listen to what she believed was an overwhelming challenge. The following day I gave her a quick follow-up call to see how she was doing.

Behavior #5 - The final behavior is not confusing empathy with sympathy. When we are sympathetic, we not only understand, but agree to what is happening. This agreement may send the wrong message to the other person. We can be truly empathetic without being sympathetic. The challenge from a behavioral perspective is to make sure our actions (responses) do not create confusion. We do not want to become the "crying towel" for everyone else in the department or organization as that would affect our own productivity. Here is where strong communication skills are required not too mention some effective time management strategies.

Again, the goal of networking is to build mutually beneficial relationships. Networking within requires many skills. Empathy is one critical skill. Future columns will explore others. Leanne Hoagland-Smith author of Be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits.

For more information, please visit Leanne's TNNW Bio.


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WORKING WITHIN: Empathy A Key Skill

A NOTE FROM THE CHAIRMAN: Disney Expat Joins TNNW

We have gotten a few reports that some of our readers using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) are having difficulties reading our articles. We have done some considerable research on this matter and we have found that there are indeed certain incompatibilities between IE and Blogger (the service we use for our articles, and a product of Google). While we are hard at work to come up with a suitable work-around as the two technical titans continue to battle each other, we recognize this as a source of frustration to some of our valued readers.

We suggest the following until we finish some technical changes on our side:
1.) Mozilla Firefox is a wonderful browser, it's quicker than IE, more secure and our readers who use Firefox have had no problems viewing our content. To get Firefox (it's free), click here.
2.) Subscribe to our daily email feed. All of our articles (as well as valuable extras) come to you via email formatted specifically for your inbox. Click here for the daily email feed.
3.) Under the category of "it's cheesy, but it works", when you click on an article and it "boots you out" after loading, click the back button on your browser - the article will load again, and this time it should work. Sometimes you may need to do this 2 or 3 times. Obnoxious...yes...I recommend #1 or #2.

We apologize for any inconvenience and should have a suitable work around by August - we appreciate your patience.

Now, onto more exciting stuff...

Last week we introduced several new writers:
Leanne Hoagland-Smith - Working Within
Sandy McKee - Speak Aloha and Let Your Voice Be Heard
Wendy Kovitz - Networking Fun for the Introverted

This week, we are proud to introduce John A. Lee, CEO & President of eventScheme LLC with his new column It All Starts With Us! John brings with him a wealth of experience, including 20 years at The Walt Disney Company as Executive Producer at both the theme parks as well as Walt Disney Studios. As an inductee into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, he is a regular voter and judge for the Emmy Awards. WELCOME JOHN!!!

And if that wasn't enough, wait until we introduce the last of this month's new writers. This new writer is, by far, the most mysterious writer we have ever allowed into our prestigious TNNW family. Furthermore, their column is going to make TNNW history as the scariest column to ever be published in our pages! To give you an idea as to how scary it really is, my friend, business partner and blood-brother-in-arms, Douglas Castle, has been spotted with beads of sweat upon his head at the mere mention of it.

Stay tuned...all will be revealed...we're going out in July with a bang...and perhaps a few scratches and bruises too. Who says we're not willing to "take it on the chin" for our subscribers?

As always, I look forward to Networking with you,

Adam

For more about Adam J. Kovitz, please click here.

Hire Adam to speak at your next conference or event by emailing info@thenationalnetworker.com.

Follow Adam on Twitter!

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A NOTE FROM THE CHAIRMAN: Disney Expat Joins TNNW

WORKING WITHIN: Five Blinding Flashes of the Obvious

Working Within with Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Of the 130 plus million U.S. labor force, one third of them are baby boomers and represent the largest demographic within this labor market. As these soon to be retired workers leave employment, most businesses will be facing a critical human capital talent gap. #1 Blinding Flash of the Obvious

Looking at the K-16 educational experience, there is far more focus on acquiring knowledge and skills than developing good attitudes and habits. This focus continues in corporate America where training is still about technical skills while people or soft skills have perceived little to no value based upon the emphasis within existing training curriculum and budgets. Yet when analyzing performance failure such as in sales, customer service or management, the question to be asked is not “Do they (employees) know it, but rather do they want to do it?” #2 Blinding Flash of the Obvious

President Teddy Roosevelt was quoted as saying “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” #3 Blinding Flash of the Obvious

Business research continues to indicate that people leave managers and not companies. #4 Blinding Flash of the Obvious

Additional research by the HayGroup suggested that worldwide one-third of the workforce was thinking of jumping ship to work somewhere else given the first four Blinding Flashes of the Obvious. #5 Blinding Flash of the Obvious

All of these Blinding Flashes of the Obvious can be traced back in many cases to failed internal networking where mutually beneficial relationships have not been maintained. From the top down to the bottom up, many individuals feel devalued and disconnected from the organization. These feelings create distrust and distrust breeds fear. Fear creates uncertainty resulting in people leaving the organizations. This migration or what others call turnover costs billions of dollars annually including:

• New hiring costs estimated at 1 to 3 times the annual salary
• New training costs estimated at $750 to $1,500 per person per year
• Additional costs such as unemployment taxes, etc.
• Lost customers to lost productivity
• Lot more stress increasing health care costs, absenteeism, etc.

Within many small to large organizations, silos (think turfs) are created. Everyone is concerned about his or her immediate turf area and cannot see the entire football field so to speak. For example, the inside sales manager for a 15 person industrial wholesaler cannot get the Warehouse manager to make a delivery because it would mean overtime. Yet the client who needs the material is a significant long-term customer with a pending multi-million dollar contract. The salesman does not want to be disturbed because it is not his job and it’s the responsibility of the warehouse manager. Everyone is protecting her or his turf and bottom line the company loses so everyone loses.

One of the activities I share with CEOs to department managers to small business owners is to ask them about their employees. The purpose of this activity is to illustrate how well the employees are known by management. If you, as the owner or manager do not know simple information about your employees, how can you create mutually beneficial relationships?

Years ago, many companies provided opportunities to know fellow co-workers a little better. These events usually happened in the summer and in many cases involved picnics with associated team activities including: baseball, horseshoes and volleyball. By having these internal networking events, employees had time to play together and learn a little more about who they were working with.

Now is the time to invest in your internal customers (a.k.a. employees) before they leave you for greener pastures. Through internal networking and creating opportunities for your team (employment force) to interact will only strengthen your organization, create a culture of mutual trust and keep you from having one of these Five Blinding Flashes of the Obvious.


For more information, please visit Leanne's TNNW Bio.


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To subscribe for your free TNNW Newsletter, go to http://www.thenationalnetworker.com/ For the complete National Networker (TNNW) Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free continuous RSS feed (available either by traditional RSS or by direct email), go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/

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WORKING WITHIN: Five Blinding Flashes of the Obvious

WORKING WITHIN: Networking From A Different Perspective

Working Within with Leanne Hoagland-Smith

What is networking? Where does networking take place? Business professionals have their own definition and favorite geographic locations.

Yet, the power of networking to build loyal customers, centers of influence and strategic partnerships is being greatly diminished because the definition has been somewhat corrupted in the haste to increase sales.

Lillian Bjorseth, author of Breakthrough Networking, provides one of the best definitions that I have read. Networking is “mutually beneficial relationships.” For many business professionals to small business owners to C Level Executives, the focus of networking is very much about external beneficial relationships. Yet, if we believe Lillian’s definition is accurate, then why is business networking restricted to external relationships for so many? This focus, on external relationships, is the source of corruption.

In attempt to bring the focus on networking back to its primary origins, this column, “Working Within” will be on the internal relationships within any business and how by using the same or similar external networking behaviors can dramatically improve business results. As Marcel Proust once wrote, “the true voyage of discovery is not seeking new landscapes, but seeing the same landscape with new eyes.”

Just imagine for a moment if you could establish mutually beneficial relationships between your internal customers (your employees). How would these “working within” relationships:

Reduce costs?

Improve productivity?

Increase team building?

Create a culture of high performance?

Build a following of loyal external customers?

Unfortunately due to the human condition as well as current business practices, many organizations are a series of unconnected silos (think the word “departments”) where employees operate in isolation and start to believe that everyone else in the organization is uncooperative. There are existing individual beliefs combined with the cultural conditioning from the organization that reinforce chasms between those department procedures and protocols. These communication chasms only further contribute to the multitude of reasons not to build internal relationships. The old expression “people leave managers and not companies” is a reflection of how internal networking is not valued.

With human capital talent being the most expensive asset in all organizations and the most under valued, building mutually beneficial internal relationships makes just good business sense. Now is the time to reconsider networking from an internal perspective. You just may be surprised as to the improvement in your bottom line.

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To subscribe for your free TNNW Newsletter, go to http://www.thenationalnetworker.com/ For the complete National Networker (TNNW) Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free continuous RSS feed (available either by traditional RSS or by direct email), go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/
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WORKING WITHIN: Networking From A Different Perspective