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LEADERSHIP ARTICLES
THE SEARCH FOR SIGNIFICANCE
What really drives team member engagement?
- Bill Bispeck | updated Sept 2023
Show Me the Money!
Have you ever been asked by your CEO to prove with scientific evidence, as opposed to feel good concepts and theories, that employee attitudes, work environment, culture or climate have a direct impact on corporate profits? Well, an interesting article relating employee perceptions directly to bottom line business results came to my attention. The Gallup Corporation article written by Curt Coffman and Jim Harter, Ph.D. goes into detail regarding twelve key areas of employee attitudes and how their studies of a wide variety of corporations proves that employee perceptions correlate strongly with productivity, profits, turnover and customer satisfaction. (See reference and link at the end of this article.)
MANAGING FROM THE HEART
People bring relationship to our lives and the opportunity to express our emotions and to connect on a spiritual plane.
- Bill Bisepck | updated Sept 2023
Key Relationship Strategies: The world would be a lot simpler if human beings weren’t around, right? Well, that may be so, but then again it might be pretty boring. People bring relationships to our lives and the opportunity to express our emotions and to connect on a spiritual plane. The dessert island experience as depicted in the Tom Hanks movie, “Cast Away”, shows us how much we need social interaction and companionship for a healthy and fulfilling life. But at the same time, relating with people can present formidable challenges in our daily existence, especially in the work place.
DON'T GRIPE DOWN
... Or how not to lose power
- Bill Bisepck | updated Aug 2023
Fiction but yet Real Life
Scene: June 1944. The platoon is walking through a meadow in France, and discussing their dislike of their current mission to find Private James Ryan, the last surviving son of the Ryan family, and return him safely to his widowed mother in the States.
Private Reiben: Hey Captain, what about you? You don’t gripe at all?
Captain Miller: I don’t gripe to you Reiben. I’m a captain. There’s a chain of command. Gripes go up, not down, always up. You gripe to me. I gripe to my superior officer, so on, so on, and so on. I don’t gripe to you. I don’t gripe in front of you. You should know that, as a Ranger.
Private Reiben: Well, I’m sorry sir, but ah, let’s say you weren’t a captain, or maybe I was a major. What would you say then?
Captain John Miller: Well in that case, I’d say this is an excellent mission sir, with an extremely valuable objective sir, worthy of my best efforts sir. Moreover, I feel heartfelt sorrow for the mother of Private James Ryan, and I’m willing to lay down my life, and the lives of my men, especially you, Reiben, to ease her suffering.
Private Mellish: He’s good.
Private Caparzo: I love ‘em.
Private Reiben: Hey Captain, what about you? You don’t gripe at all?
Captain Miller: I don’t gripe to you Reiben. I’m a captain. There’s a chain of command. Gripes go up, not down, always up. You gripe to me. I gripe to my superior officer, so on, so on, and so on. I don’t gripe to you. I don’t gripe in front of you. You should know that, as a Ranger.
Private Reiben: Well, I’m sorry sir, but ah, let’s say you weren’t a captain, or maybe I was a major. What would you say then?
Captain John Miller: Well in that case, I’d say this is an excellent mission sir, with an extremely valuable objective sir, worthy of my best efforts sir. Moreover, I feel heartfelt sorrow for the mother of Private James Ryan, and I’m willing to lay down my life, and the lives of my men, especially you, Reiben, to ease her suffering.
Private Mellish: He’s good.
Private Caparzo: I love ‘em.
NEW LEADER ASSIMILATION
Condense 6 months assimilation time to 2 weeks!
- Bill Bisepck | updated Sept 2023
Background:The challenge for the new leader is to help the team rapidly return to high levels of performance and not be impeded by the uncertainties of what the new leader will bring.
The New Leader Assimilation Process described herein is designed to accelerate gaining familiarity with the new leader and quickly giving team members detailed information about the new leader’s background and vision. This process can also serve as a method for the leader to listen carefully to needs expressed by team members as well as provide a launching pad for communicating where the group is headed. Work groups operate in varying stages of development and various models have been proposed to describe these stages as well as to serve to diagnose work group situations and select the appropriate leadership strategy for stimulating high performance.
Francis and Young have described a four-stage model that progresses from (1)Testing to (2)Infighting to (3)Getting Organized and then ultimately to (4)Mature Closeness. ...
The New Leader Assimilation Process described herein is designed to accelerate gaining familiarity with the new leader and quickly giving team members detailed information about the new leader’s background and vision. This process can also serve as a method for the leader to listen carefully to needs expressed by team members as well as provide a launching pad for communicating where the group is headed. Work groups operate in varying stages of development and various models have been proposed to describe these stages as well as to serve to diagnose work group situations and select the appropriate leadership strategy for stimulating high performance.
Francis and Young have described a four-stage model that progresses from (1)Testing to (2)Infighting to (3)Getting Organized and then ultimately to (4)Mature Closeness. ...
WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING?
Effective communication is vital in high risk/low trust situations
- Bill Bisepck | updated Sept 2023
Wait ! Don't you understand me ?!
Risk Communication
A few years ago I attended a risk communication workshop conducted by Dr. Vince Covello who was at the time a professor and researcher at Columbia University. He is a widely known author and consultant in the field of communications. The focus of his training was to help plant managers be more skillful in explaining hazards to the general public, particularly the public living in close proximity to their facilities. Many communication theories and principles which Dr. Covello has proven by extensive research studies were discussed and applied in the workshop. As I thought about this recently, I came to realize that his principles of risk communication apply equally well to communication inside organizations, and can be quite helpful to leaders in boosting their communication effectiveness.
RELIEF FOR OVERLOADED LIVES
Do you have Margin in your life?
- Bill Bisepck | updated Aug 2023
Work and Life Balance
In his book, Margin, Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, Richard A. Swenson, M.D. speaks to all who are caught up in today’s fast pace culture. Many people seem to be driven to jam pack their lives with as much action and activity as they can experience. We are bombarded with slogans like “You only go around once in life”, and “Go for the gusto.” Making the most of every minute seems to be a prominent value in today’s corporate culture and in our lives outside of work. The idea of rest has become a theoretical concept. Why has this happened and what can we do to counter what Dr. Swenson believes is the greatest pathogen in today’s society and the greatest saboteur of true contentment?