Time To Flourish

Performance Improvement

Time To Flourish Becomes Newest Certified Partner of The Predictive Index

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Time To Flourish Uses The Predictive Index to Help Clients Maximize Workforce Productivity

Time To Flourish is now a Certified Partner of The Predictive Index (PI). Time To Flourish will provide talent optimization services with PI’s science-based methodologies to empower clients to align their people strategy with their business strategy to achieve optimal business results.

Offering over 35 years of collective management experience, Sandi Rapp and Maria Veglia help businesses accurately define the true competencies needed for specific positions. With data from PI, the Time To Flourish team can help businesses greatly improve their success in hiring top talent, designing winning teams, managing change, influencing productivity, and ultimately driving growth to achieve their business objectives.

Time To Flourish is a women-owned business offering consulting and performance improvement services. We partner with our clients to develop significant and lasting solutions to impact financial performance, employee retention and engagement. These custom solutions are developed in partnership with our clients and are based on an extensive, multi-faceted assessment. Schedule an appointment to learn more here.

About The Predictive Index

The Predictive Index (PI) is an award-winning talent optimization platform that aligns business strategy with people strategy for optimal business results. Sixty years of proven science, software, and a robust curriculum of insightful management workshops make PI the solution for any company looking to design great teams and culture, make objective hiring decisions, and inspire greatness in their people anywhere in the world. More than 8,000 clients and 150+ partners use PI—including Nissan, Citizens Bank, DocuSign, Subway, 47 Brand, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Omni Hotels—across 140+ countries. Learn more at https://www.predictiveindex.com/.

Time To Flourish will work with clients to uncover the root cause of business challenges and to implement the data-driven tools provided by The Predictive Index to boost employee engagement, workplace culture and financial performance.

To learn more about our services, email us at Contact@TimeToFlourish.net .

How strong is your EXTERNAL Team?!

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One of my family members was recently diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and we were discussing how important it is for her to lean on her tribe.  Tragedy can show you there are people in your corner that you never might have previously realized…unfortunately the opposite is also true.  You can find out that someone you thought was a part of your inner support circle, wasn’t really up for that role.  

Conversations like this have a tendency of causing you to reflect on many things in your own life. After many other personal and professional reflections, this conversation eventually had me thinking about the many external team members that have supported organizations that I have been a part of in my past. It also made me think about just how valuable it is to build a strong external team.  Successful leaders spend a substantial amount of their time building and maintain high performing teams, internal teams. People are the most important asset any organization can have so it only makes sense that a significant amount of time is invested in them.   But what about the amount of time invested in building your external team?  Do leaders spend the appropriate amount of time vetting and maintaining a high performing external team?  By external team, I mean the professionals that support your organization through services, software and products but are not employed by the organization.

Your corporate attorney, auditor and/or CPA, your employment attorney, marketing agency, recruiting agency, insurance broker, payroll company, IT solutions, business consultants, outside trainers, the list could go on depending on the size, scope and industry of your organization.  The key is remembering that all of the people that service or support your organization are also a part of your team and require management and leadership.

When I was brought into one organization as the CEO, they were in the middle of a legal battle that was portrayed to be insignificant in both financial consequence and the amount of time to be invested to the matter.  I quickly found out both of these things were not exactly accurate.  More importantly I also learned that the organization was using an attorney because that attorney was “who they always used”.  The unfortunate truth is that the size and scope of the matter had outgrown the expertise of this attorney.  That error cost the organization considerably.  I am not implying that a member of your external team who has always been good to you can’t continue to be a solid member of your team.  I am saying that you need to continually invest the time to reassess your external team to ensure that the level of service/products you needed yesterday versus what you need today and will need in the future will continue to be met by your external team members. 

A great external team can be a true difference maker for your organization.  The right IT solutions can ease frustrations, increase efficiencies and even contribute to greater work-life balance for your employees.   A professional recruiting agency can reduce your stress by having candidates discreetly lined up and ready to meet with you when you need to make that important staffing decision.  Your corporate attorney, regulatory attorney and cloud-based IT solutions could be the concoction that finally helps you sleep better at night knowing you have all the proper regulatory and safety precautions to protect your organization.  And if you live in any of the states (like NJ) with ever-changing employment laws, your labor attorney might quickly be a person you keep on speed-dial!

Your external team is an extension of your organization.  Make sure that team is properly staffed with all the right players!

Accountability – The Key To A Positive Work Culture

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Accountability in the workplace is recognized by all as a critical component for success.  I once had a supervisor who was razor-focused on accountability.  It was part of every conversation, call, meeting and email.  The problem was that we never did anything to achieve accountability other than talk about it. All talk and no action is a sure way to fail.  So, as a manager, how do you successfully promote a culture of accountability?

Workplace accountability is defined as the responsibility of employees to complete the tasks assigned and duties as required in order to fulfill or further the goals of the organization.  As a manager, displaying personal accountability promotes a culture of accountability.  Your team is likely to emulate your actions and follow your example of accountable behavior.  As an employee not in a management role, demonstrating personal accountability is important to demonstrating their value to the organization.  The key to a culture of accountability is based on the following:

  • a true understanding of accountability
  • a consistent and equitable expectation of accountability
  • a process for assessment and communication

Where to begin?  Ensure that each member of your team has a solid understanding of his/her role, responsibilities and performance expectations.  Be specific with the processes and methodologies used to achieve these expectations.  Set SMART goals for each employee.  Draw the correlation between the employee’s specific responsibilities and the goals and objectives of the organization.  Each employee must understand how they contribute to the overall mission of their department and company.  Each team member must be able to explain how their tasks and responsibilities impact the overall performance of the team.

Next, ensure that performance expectations are equitable and consistent among the entire team.  A sure way to damage employee morale is to hold inconsistent expectations throughout your team.  To demonstrate higher expectations for certain individuals will corrupt the overall sense of teamwork and will impact productivity.  In time, this lack of consistent accountability will tend to have the greatest impact on your strongest employees.  Recognize and reward good performance.  Implement incentives for going above and beyond and the achievement of team goals.

Finally, provide frequent and consistent feedback to your employees, highlighting achievements as well as areas in need of improvement.  Work with the individual to formulate a plan that will lead to the desired improvements.  Utilize the available data to present a clear picture and build achievable goals These meetings are also valuable in establishing rapport with each team member and a way to convey your commitment to their success.  Establish a consistent team meeting to communicate overall performance.  During the team meetings, take the time to identify shared challenges and achievements.  This dual approach will reinforce the need for personal accountability toward the achievement of team goals and performance.

Creating a culture of accountability will not only result in improved outcomes, it will deliver the satisfaction of true teamwork.  It certainly takes effort – but, is totally worth it.

“Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to results.” – Bob Proctor

Let’s Talk About Those Millennials!

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Every generation has its own unique perspective and approach to family, work, finances, and the social and political systems, etc. And every generation complains about the generation after them!  The Traditionalists complained about the Baby Boomers; the Baby Boomers complained about Generation X; and now everyone seems to be complaining about the Millennials.

I think it is time to have a different conversation.   Let’s talk about the positive attributes of the millennial generation.  I have had the pleasure of interacting with more and more millennial professionals.   They are a very fun and socially conscientious generation.   The millennials are confident, and they are not letting their age/gender/sexual orientation/disability/ethnicity/race/religion stand in their way!  They are a smart generation, both highly educated and extremely tech savvy.  They are open to change and want to learn new skills and improved ways to do things. They are highly collaborative and tend to do very well in teams.  They want to be challenged, trained and mentored.  They are creative, innovative and believe technology can drive change and new ideas.  They are highly sociable and loyal to their peers. They embrace multiculturism and globalism.  They are politically savvy. They have a strong sense of civic duty and community responsibility.

It is important to understand the strengths of a generation as much as you know their weaknesses.  And while not all characteristics of a generation will be true for each individual, understanding the generalities will help leaders become better at motivating and retaining this generation in the workplace.  After you recognize the strengths within the millennial workforce, leaders will be able to modify functions and processes and adopt programs in a manner which capitalize on the numerous strengths within this generation.

For example, let’s say that you have a sales team that is predominantly Millennials.  Conduct a SWOT analysis with them.  You might be surprised at what they view as the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities.   Collaborate with them on each step of the process. Then take those insights and develop a strategy that maximizes their strengths and mitigates their weaknesses.

Since we know that flex-time, time-off and life-work balance are more important to the Millennials than titles and money; does your current benefits and compensation plans reflect this?  Does your employee recognition program have components of it that account for the variety of ways that each generation prefers to be appreciated?

Do you have an organized and methodical approach to staff training and development? Do you offer a mentoring program?  An organized onboarding program, staff development workshops, a leadership development series, management training, and cross-training programs are just a few examples of programs which help in the recruitment, engagement and retention of the millennial generation in the workplace.  Not to mention, quality training and professional development programs deliver a win-win for your organization by increasing your overall employee productivity and improving the consistency and therefore quality of the products and/or services.

Just think, it won’t be too long until the Millennials are complaining about the Generation Z workforce!

Mission Driven – To Be or Not To Be

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Is your organization mission-driven?   As a board member, owner, investor or senior executive did you make an active decision to be or not to be mission-driven?  Or is this a topic that requires further thought and attention?

 

Historically, many of us associated being mission-driven with non-profit organizations.  Today, more and more for-profit organizations are becoming increasingly mission-driven. I would personally argue that most organizations should be mission-driven.

 

For purposes of this discussion let’s make a few assumptions:

Assumption #1:  your organization offers a quality product or service

Assumption #2:  your product/service is either in-demand or has an appropriately sized target audience.

Assumption #3:  employees need to earn a fair paycheck.

 

With a quality product or service and a defined target audience, success for a great organization is largely dependent on the recruitment and retainment of great employees.  With the low unemployment rates and high competition for top talent, recruiting has become a greater and greater challenge at most organizations.  The cost of recruiting coupled with the expense of employee turnover is great motivation to assess and evaluate your culture.

 

Organizations who promote their mission and keep employees invested in the mission have higher levels of employee engagement. Employee engagement is a requirement for a positive and healthy work culture, and imperative for high employee productivity.  According to the most recent BLS survey, the average American employee will stay with their employer for 4.3 years.  Many surveys have pointed out that employees are happier and more satisfied in their jobs when they feel they have and serve a purpose.

 

Ask yourself, is my organization mission driven?  If the answer is no, why not?  To continue this conversation, please contact us at contact@timetoflourish.flywheelsites.com .

The Power of Good Communication

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There are several factors that contribute to creating a productive and satisfying workplace environment, however, none more important than good communication.  Effective communication is critical for success regardless of the size and structure of your organization.  Poor communication will result in lower productivity and employee morale and engagement which ultimately impacts financial performance.  Everyone will agree that good communication is key, however, the quality of communication is not always measured or considered.

Good communication typically mitigates conflict.  Poor communication fosters an environment of confusion and resentment.  When evaluating and establishing your communication strategy, include measures to avoid misunderstanding, consider communication patterns and preferences and address the emotional needs of your team.

It’s important to assess whether your message is being understood as intended.  Communication isn’t simply sharing information but measuring how the information is received.  If the message is received differently than it’s intended, confusion on the part of the receiver may lead to resentment.  I have witnessed the devastating effects of poor communication, particularly when the communication avenue is only one-way.  Therefore, an effective delivery must include a feedback loop; a means to determine if the communication was received, understood and supported.  Two-way communication is always the goal when establishing an effective system of sharing information.

The vehicle of communication is also crucial.  A multi-generational workforce makes this more complex and requires that you consider various options of how to share information. Communication methods must be effective with your entire workforce which is most likely comprised of Baby Boomers, Generation-Xers and Millennials. Is your organization relying on email to distribute information?   Are you utilizing social media and technology as part of your strategy?  Are you ensuring that your communication strategy includes face-to-face interaction?  A multi-faceted approach will ensure that you are meeting your team at the point where your message will be best received and may include regular “Team Huddles”, an intranet providing policies and procedures plus company news and events, and regular but concise emails.

Ongoing assessment and feedback methods are a key strategy for organizations determined to establish a workplace environment rich with productive communication.  Employee surveys are a great way to assess your team’s perspective.  Surveys should be conducted at regular intervals and responded to in a timely manner.  Analyzing utilization of the company intranet will provide valuable feedback on its effectiveness.  Another great way to assess the quality of communication is to create ways for the team to echo the message back to management.  For example, when introducing a new policy, ask your team to respond with how this new policy will impact their roles and their productivity.

The power of good communication in your organization is significant and will result in improved employee engagement, higher productivity and an increased sense of their value within the company.  Establishing an effective communication strategy is complex but will greatly improve performance and outcomes.

 

Are You Stuck Fighting Fires?

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Have you ever been involved in an organization and it felt like all you did all day was fight fires?  A constant state of chaos with reaction after reaction.  If you asked someone why a project wasn’t progressing in a timely fashion, they answered that there was never enough time because they were too busy handling x, y and z.   How come everyone can make time to fight a fire but no one can make time to do the things that actually prevent the fire from happening in the first place?  How does an organization become so riddled with problem after problem? Fire after fire.  Bad luck after bad luck.  Can a problem so complex have a simple answer?  Yes!  Yes, there is an answer as to why your organization is always in fire-fighter mode.  Culture!   Culture is the simple answer.  Although it might be one simple word, having a healthy, positive and productive culture is complex and hard work.  Without a wholistic and mindful approach to creating, recreating and maintaining workplace culture, firefighting itself can become the culture of an organization.  When the leadership team applies the same time and effort to strategic planning as they would have to fire-fighting, the fires can finally start to suffocate.

Several years ago I took over as CEO for a company.  The majority owner was an equity firm and they were very candid that the company was in dire straits and potentially not able to be turned around.  They were not exaggerating!  The organization had significant compliance and regulatory problems, legal problems, outcomes problems, product development issues, branding and reputation issues, and sales issues.  The root cause of why they had all these issues was embedded in their culture.  The organization was a product of several mergers and acquisitions.  As the organization was in growth mode, no attention or strategy was put into how to mindfully merge the varying work cultures.  The organization lacked a shared mission and vision.  Nepotism became status quo in the organization.  Few policies and procedures existed and the ones that did were created in vacuums without input or buy-in from the actual experts (the employees).  There was no avenue for sharing best practices or resources.   The workplace culture was one that rewarded the “heroes” for all their hard work putting out the fire, but no consequences or regards for how the fire started in the first place.  Thoughtfulness, strategy, research, benchmarking, KPIs, data analysis were not activities that were positively re-enforced or recognized.  Pats on the back were only given out for putting out a fire.  Culture reinforces behavior.  Step back, put on a pair of someone else’s glass and look carefully.  What behaviors is your culture reinforcing?

A healthy and positive work culture is the difference maker between companies who flourish and companies who eventually fail.  Growth is an exciting stage for a company.  Many companies achieve short term success in spite of themselves.  Fast growth coupled with strong financial success can mask the smoke that is just under the surface.  But eventually that smoke will spark and become a fire.  Sustainable growth requires a wholistic and mindful strategic plan.  You can’t have a wholistic and mindful strategic plan if it doesn’t include your greatest asset (your employees!).

When you are ready to stop fighting fires and lead your organization to greater successes, contact Time To Flourish.  To continue this conversation, please visit us at www.timetoflourish.net

The Keys to Effective Strategic Planning

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Having a clear strategic plan is a critical part of keeping your organization on the path to success.  However, the most important part of any plan is the execution.  As a manager, it’s understandable that the chaotic events of the day get in the way and push you off the path carved out by your strategic plan. It’s not the intention, but often it’s the reality.   Frequently, the strategic plan is created in a silo without consideration of daily challenges and dependencies between departments.  How do we prevent this and ensure that the strategic plan is woven into the fabric of the business?  Here are a few recommendations.

The key factors to creating an effective plan that will drive the direction of performance throughout the organization include the following steps:

  1. It’s a team effort!  If you can devise a method to solicit input from all levels of employees, the plan will be owned by everyone and there will be a greater and shared determination to see it succeed.  Including input from your employees provides a more realistic view of the probability of execution.
  2. Begin with a SWOT! The first step to creating a plan that will guide the direction of your business is to first identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of your business.
  3. Start with the what’s happening now! Assess the current year’s progress as compared with the current plan and identify factors that are affecting hitting or missing strategic goals.  Use this information to ensure that your new year’s strategic initiatives are realistic and achievable.
  4. Look at it regularly! Schedule monthly meetings to review and analyze organizational achievement as compared with the strategic plan.  Make adjustments throughout the year to overcome areas that are failing to meet expectations.
  5. Make it a regular part of the conversation! Communicate progress with all members of your team and keep everyone engaged in the execution of their specific goals as well as the overall plan.
  6. Get help! Particularly if this is a new initiative for your team, a consultant or coach can help to guide the process and provide an objective prospective.  Utilize external guidance to ensure that the process adds value and is conducted efficiently.
  7. EXECUTE!! “Execution is the game.” –  Gary Vaynerchuck

A strategic plan based on past performance and an in-depth analysis of internal and external factors is the first, crucial step to setting your business on a successful path.  If your organization is trending in a positive direction, a strategic plan and maintain that trajectory.  If your organization is failing to perform at the expected level, a strategic plan can organize and focus efforts in the direction needed to achieve the necessary performance improvements.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” – Ben Franklin