Five Reasons You Should Invest in Leadership Development NOW!

Now is not the time to pull back! It's time to surge forward! To navigate your team through the dysfunction and disruption, you and your leaders need to be fully equipped with the right skills. Leadership Skills!  Paul Simkins, The Values Coach, shares five reasons why NOW IS THE BEST TIME to invest in developing your leadership.

Plus, Paul shares another installment of You Can Grill That?. This is the Veggie Edition. You can find the recipe, and many more, on the Smoke and Ash Facebook group or by emailing TLToolbox@BoldlyLead.com.

You can get a copy of Paul's eBook 15 Innovative Ways to Show Employees You Care and Not Break the Bank by emailing him at paul@BoldlyLead.com.

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Transcript

Producer: 0:00

The tech leaders toolbox podcast is brought to you by Paul Simkins and the bully LEAD program, focusing on helping tech leaders like you, and the frustration of low performing teams, and losing excellent employees. So they can increase productivity by 50%. Go home on time, and sleep better at nights.

Paul Simkins: 0:23

Hello, and welcome to the tech leaders toolbox. I'm Paul Simkins. And we're here because how you lead today determines how your team succeeds tomorrow, and you are definitely a leader. That's why you're here. And leadership is all about influence. And as a leader, you know that you have to increase your influence each and every day with your team, and you increase your value set and live by your values. And that's how you become a powerful leader. This is Episode 37 of the podcast. So let's talk about why you should be investing in leadership development right now. Not tomorrow, right now. Are you ready? Let's go. We're in an election year, and all the pandemonium that comes with that we're having a pandemic, of course, the resulting economic hit from all of that, everything else going on, it's a very scary time to be in business right now. It's a very scary time to be a leader. And it is stressful. Oh, so stressful. But great leaders know that even in times like this, and especially in times like this, they need to become more so that they can add more value to their team and generate more value out of their team. And they know that all of their other leaders need to become more as well. during times like this, it is quite natural to want to pull back, be a little conservative, maybe cancel some programs and some initiatives you were working on. And maybe even focus on nothing but generating income. I know the last time we had a big economic downfall, I worked with a lot of organizations were leaders who had been embracing more of an empowerment model with their team. Business owners were suddenly pulling that back and becoming a lot more autocratic. And that's a very dangerous thing to do. It can have a huge setback. great leaders know that when others contract, that's actually the time to expand. And if we wait, however, the decision to develop the leader in us and the leader around us comes too late. And all the damage is done. And we have an uphill climb to try and undo it. So it's the time to be investing in developing yourself and in developing the leaders around you. And what I wanted to share with you today is five signs that you urgently need to invest in leadership development today. So here they are. First is number one, if your HR office is a revolving door. This is often a discussion I have with leaders and one of the first questions I'll ask in coaching sessions is what is your turnover rate. Because retention can be a problem. When you can't keep good people, not just great people, you want good people too. And if you can't keep the good people, you're not going to keep the great people, you got a problem. turnover is a problem in a lot of organizations, especially within technical industries, it tends to be a huge problem. The generally accepted benchmark for an effective turnover rate is about 10%. Even if you give a variable of about 5% based on an industry, it's pretty safe to say that if you have a turnover rate of 25% you've got a problem 20% a problem. Anything above that you've got a revolving door, and it's costing you tons of money, indirect cost and productivity. For example, on average, it's going to cost you two to three times the salary of an individual to replace them. Think about that expense, especially in the tight budget times of today. And to say that high turnover is just a consequence of your industry, or it's just a part of the cost of doing business is not only wrong, it's bad business. You've probably heard the cliche that people don't quit jobs, they quit bosses. Well, you know why something becomes a cliche, because it has a strong, factual basis. And it's probably more accurate to say that effective leadership has a very high influence on employee retention. It's not the only factor by far. So really making the statement that people quit bosses is a gross generalization. But it has a tinge of truth to it. But it's not a generalization to say that leadership not only directly influences retention, but also indirectly influences it. There's lots of factors that impact employee intention, retention, that include alignment, learning and development, feedback and recognition, enablement, empowerment, teamwork, all of those factors in there, and every single one of those factors are about leadership influence. So if we draw the lines, where there is high turnover, and it is always due to one of these factors, all of them are primarily influenced by leadership. So if you have a revolving door in HR, you have a leadership problem. And here's the second reason, if customer satisfaction is suffering. Let me throw some numbers at you. If you're a numbers kind of person, let me throw some numbers at you. First, consider 70% 70% is the percentage of customers lost due to a perception of poor service, not price, not location, quality of service, who provides that service to your customers? Most likely, it's your employees, their attitude in their behavior directly impact the customer is kind of like the old country saying if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. See, employee engagement directly drives customer satisfaction. Because again, if the employee is not happy, that's going to show and how they interact with a customer. In fact, actually, Gallup did a survey that showed that companies with high employee engagement, experienced 10% higher customer satisfaction. So customer satisfaction directly drives financial performance. So if the research reveals that 80% of US consumers will actually pay more for a superior customer experience. So we see a link again, between employee engagement, customer satisfaction, financial performance, is what impacts employee engagement, your leadership. And here's Reason number three employees just don't seem to get it. Have you ever had that thought? So as a leader, you got a vision of how you want to see your organization move forward, how things work, maybe even things working without you having to be there every minute, right? Wouldn't that be great? that things are clicking along without you're having to stick your fingers in every pie every single day. And maybe you go off and enjoy yourself. See your family once in a while. Go do all those fun things you'd like to do take these things they call vacations. You hired what you thought were good people, but they're just not getting the work done. And when they are, it's usually not the way you would have liked it to be done. What's wrong with them? Do they not get it? Are they lazy? Do they just not care? The latter seems to be the opinion of many managers who have experienced this. They blame it on culture. They blame it on generation. Oh, it's these millennials, millennials. They're so self focused. But the research says something different census results and research from the Pew Research Center says that's just not so. There are a myriad of reasons why employees may not be getting the job done. Virtually all of them start with the leader. Reason number four, if departments or team members aren't communicating Have you heard anyone in your organization complain that the right hand doesn't seem to know what the left hand is doing? Right, you hear that old phrase. That's a breakdown in communication, folks. If it's by design, it's even bigger problem. But it should never be happening the right hand should always know what the left hand is doing within your organization. breakdowns and communication happened most frequently, in the midst of conflict. Fear triggers the guarding of information, unmet expectations, never expressed poor listening skills, confusion, and insecurity, either for the future of the organization, or for their own job. Changing that culture, changing that breakdown in communication, improving it. It's up to the leader to spur those kinds of changes. Communication begins from the top if you're the business owner, if you're the CEO or another executive office, communication, better communication starts with you. And before you say, but I'm a great communicator, you need to know that first of all, there's been lots of studies to prove that most of us aren't great communicators. And secondly, no matter how good a communicator you are, there is always something more to learn about it. Let me share a secret with you. Now, probably not a big secret. This is my business. This is my calling. This is what I do. And I still have a lot to learn. And I'm learning it each and every day, how to be a better communicator. poor communication is a sign you need leadership development. And finally, number five, if there is a general air of discontent, you can probably feel it if it's there. Is it very palpable climate in the office kind of heaviness in the air almost. People are silent, something's wrong. productivity is, is down. But sarcasm, cynicism and maintenance and complaining are way up. Perhaps even open hostility is there. These are strong signs of low morale. It requires quick decisive action from a knowledgeable and experienced leader. The wrong choices here may simply accelerate the downward spiral into total office dysfunction. Without knowing how to identify the issues and address them, it may continue until it is no longer fixable. If you ever remember the old leadership model of the phases that teams go through there's forming, storming, performing and norming. Well, there's another phase in there that was added at a later time, which is disbanding. Sometimes at some time at different points in those four phases of a team, the team just dissolves either because of dysfunction, or because it's no longer necessary. But most of the time, it's dysfunction. everyone loses, the organization loses the employee loses you the leader loses. I know that when crisis hits, leadership development should become a priority. So let me leave you with this. Here's the tip of the day to get you started on that. One of the things you can do right now to get yourself set up for effective leadership development, is to start with getting personality profiles done on all your leaders, including yourself. If you have the resources, ideally do it for the entire team. I'm personally I'm a big fan of disk, I'm certified on the disk model, model or what they call the model of human behavior. And I love using the disk. But you know what I never do with any organization that I go in and do that for. I don't pass out the surveys and then place the graft results in front of everybody. And you know why? Because it becomes a parlor game. Right? Everybody goes Yo I'm an AI and you're a D or you're an S and your a C and no and and making big jokes about it and focus on practical application. So whether you come to me about it or whether you go to anybody about having a personality profile done, make sure that you are very specific about having practice practical applications of what you learn. Because without those practical applications, this is just another parlor game of putting people putting initials on the side of their cubicle wall. So again, start by getting personality profiles done on all the leaders, including yourself. Again, if you have the resources, ideally, the whole team, the more you understand about personality types, the more communication, the more rewards, the more everything you do within your team can be targeted to meet the specific needs of individuals. And that's how you strengthen a team. And that's how you know where to focus your leadership development. We'll be back in a moment.

Producer: 15:52

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Paul Simkins: 16:21

All right, we reached one of my favorite parts of the show again, those of you who have listened to episodes before know that I am a huge fan of outdoor cooking is all kinds of outdoor cooking I have, I have a smoker I keep on my back porch, I have a grill. I have several Dutch ovens and I love to do cooking over open fire I camp a lot. So I like to do cooking out there. And so I'm always looking for great recipes. And I love doing all of this so much. I actually created a Facebook group called smoke and ash. And on the smoking dash Facebook group me and all my friends. We gathered together we go out there regularly we we share recipes, we share ideas, we share the latest tools and equipment that we've bought and how to do it and techniques. And we'll argue about the best sauces and things like that. And all of the all the recipes out there great and and you're welcome to come and join us again, it's called smoke and ash Facebook group. And you come out and join us and you'll find new recipes out there all the time. And in fact, what I'm going to share with you today I always share a recipe on the show. And all of the recipes I share on the show are out there on that Facebook group as well. What I want to share with you today is kind of a follow up edition previously in a previous episode, I created an episode that I called you can grill that where I talked about things that you might not otherwise think about putting on the grill that actually do quite well and it focused on using on different kinds of fruits that you can grill. Today I'm going to focus on veggies and I'm going to variate off on some veggies that you may not think about putting on the grill but actually are quite good. So the first one is an avocado. Now I love avocado, the creaminess the richness of an avocado when it's nice and right is just perfect. That can be enhanced. If you put it on the grill. What I normally do is I'll cut the avocado in half and of course take the seed out. And then I'll rub a little bit of olive oil or grapeseed oil on the on the meat and then season it with either some kind of a slightly spicy seasoning like tahini or Greek seasoning, or just salt and pepper. And then slap that face down on the grill. You don't even have to worry about peeling it yet. You worry about it after you've grilled it but just slap that down and facedown on the grill for about 510 minutes and then take that off and then you can then you can go ahead and peel it and all just the seasoning and the flavors that get into there that mix with that creaminess of the texture of the avocado and is just terrific. Here's another one a lot of people don't think about is eggplant, putting your eggplant on the grill. Now what I'll usually do if I'm using one of the large eggplants, then I'll peel the eggplant first. And I'll either cut it into wedges, small wedges, or I'll just cut it the whole thing into long strips. And then you want to put it in a colander and sprinkle it with salt for a little bit and let it sit there for about 15 minutes that draws a lot of the water out of it. That gets in there. A lot of people say oh it draws the toxins out and everything but there's not really a lot of toxins in eggplant. So after you've let it sit for about 15 minutes, right them off. And then in a bowl, you're going to mix together about three tablespoons of either olive oil or grapeseed oil, about two to three minced cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of partially and a teaspoon of oregano. And then about a quarter teaspoon of salt and about one eighth of a teaspoon of pepper. Mix all that together. And then take a grill brush or not a grill brush, but take a brush and brush one side of each of those eggplant strips liberally with that mixture. Then place that brushed side down on the grill. And then brush the other side. Grill each side for about three to five minutes. And again, you're going to love the flavor of that and even if you're not a big eggplant fan, you're going to like this. Here Another one is bell peppers. I'll sometimes use the mini bell peppers for this but even full size bell peppers, grill them whole. Don't open them up, don't see them or slice off the tops or anything else. Just rub a little bit oil on the outside, put them on the grill, turn them often until the skin starts to pop or peel and then let them cool you can finish the peeling. And oh it's you're basically having roasted peppers and it's delicious. Another one is sweet potatoes. Peel your sweet potatoes, cut them across into disk about a quarter inch thick. brush them with butter or oil season with pepper or rosemary. slap them on the grill again, delicious. My daughter who's not a really a big sweet potato fan loves this. And garlic. What I do with this is I use what they call the elephant garlic which are the huge bulbs of garlic. Again, don't peel it or anything just any of the loose outer layers, take them off, rub the whole thing with a little bit of oil, place it on the grill just off of the direct heat. And this usually works better in a charcoal or wood grill but you can get away with it in a gas grill. But put it just off of the direct heat. And let it cook there for about 30 to 60 minutes until soft. When it's done. All you have to do is just take one of the clothes off of there and squeeze it and all of the inside is soft and it comes out and you can put that on a crostini or a gourmet cracker and it is delicious a roasted garlic. So again, that's a that's some of the things you can do with veggies out on the grill that you may not have thought about before. And if you have an outdoor recipe you would love to share with me, I would love to hear it. If you send it to me and I share it on the air on the show. I will give you credit and I'll let you know when the episode drops so that you can save it. All you have to do is send your recipe to T l toolbox at boldly lead.com that's t l toolbox at boldly lead calm. Alright, so this week, we talked about five reasons why you should be investing in leadership development right now. And if you saw any of those problems within your organization, then you want to get to work right away. Because remember, great leaders know that when everyone else can tracks that's the time to expand and come on out and join our Facebook group. We have a Facebook group for the podcast called the tech leaders toolbox where we expand the discussions that we have here. And if you are listening to this on a podcast app, be sure to subscribe, be sure to give us a five star rating and review the podcast that's going to help other people find it and they can benefit from this as well if you're getting value out of this. Well, that's all for this week, folks, until next week, go out and be the leader. You were meant to be