Critical Distinction
“Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” – Tom Peters
Agile Development
Great advice from Ed Scanlan , from Total Attorneys, in Chicago “If we focus on communication and transparency, we can control the chaos.” Looks like attorneys have a lot in common with dental practices. Here are his five steps for Agile Development:
1. Build cross-functional teams
2. Break large projects into small tasks
3. Set short deadlines
4. Hold daily meetings
5. Invite customers into the design process
Urgent, Urgent
Accenture poll indicates that tough times tend to provide a sense of urgency that can serve to facilitate change initiatives and motivate innovative problem solving.
I firmly believe that once you begin using forces outside of your control to explain poor or disappointing performance, you begin to rationalize that performance and you help the team become more comfortable with it. Here’s one instance where a reaction to outside forces may work to your advantage. An appropriate sense of urgency is critical to your success. According to John Kotter “At the very beginning of any effort to make changes of any magnitude, if a sense of urgency is not high enough and complacency is not low enough, everything else becomes so much more difficult.” Considering that 70% of change initiatives fail, let’s use every advantage we have to move our teams forward.
Reward What You Want Repeated
One of the most basic findings in psychology is that rewarding a behavior increases the likelihood that it will increase
-People want to be appreciated and recognized
-The praise (and you) must be genuine for it to be credible
-If you praise more frequently, people will be accepting of your corrective feedback
-Don’t sandwich corrective feedback with praise, or your praise will be met with the thought “What did I do now?â€
-If you’re not in the habit of giving frequent praise, announce your intentions to praise people more often so they don’t wonder what’s going on. Tell them you’ve always appreciated them but realize that you seldom put it into words and you want to start letting them know how you feel about their contribution.
Bob Wall’s book Coaching for Emotional Intelligence – The Secrets to Developing the Star Potential in Your Employees
-Ginny Hegarty
EEOC* statistics reported
Here’s an impact of the economic slowdown that you might not have considered:
Discrimination claims filed with the EEOC jumped 15 percent in fiscal 2008. Sexual harassment claims jumped 29 percent. The EEOC expects 2009 stats to be higher. Don’t be part of the statistics; get your policies in place now. Contact me about the Bent Ericksen HR Director. We make easy work of getting compliant and gaining peace of mind.
*Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Disturbing new trend
I’ve been providing HR support to my clients since 2002 and I’ve seen some disturbing new trends in the just past few months in the number of calls I’m getting regarding harassment claims. It’s a whole new world as these claims are being reported between team members & guests to the practice such as vendors and delivery people.
It’s important that you let your team members know that you want them to always feel safe and comfortable while working in your practice. Have a formal no-tolerance policy in writing, along with instructions for how to report any incidents. Protect your employees & your practice.