3 Creative Ways to Boost Employee Morale

 Whether you're running a start-up or are a manager at one of the world's largest companies, the morale of your team can make the difference between success and failure.

People want to know why they are going to work each day and they want to feel that they are making a difference.

Helping employees connect with purpose will not only help you retain and attract the very best people, but also will enable you to discover ideas which will save you money and do more good in the world.

1. Cultivate "Stories of Self"

This classic principle of community organizing was applied brilliantly by the Obama campaign during the 2008 election. Instead of training volunteers to memorize a script as to why candidate Obama was great, the organizers trained volunteers to speak about their own experience and why they became involved in the campaign.

Today organizing principles are uniting with business head on. At the recent staff retreat Dev attended for Change.org, a fast growing B Corp, employees developed "stories of self" by reflecting on why they were involved, why the work was important and the turning points that had brought them to that very juncture. It ended up being one of the most intimate and rewarding parts of the retreat grounding everyone in their individual purpose.

2. Contextualize Your Mission

What problem does your company solve? How have people tried to address these issues in the past? Helping your employees identify themselves as part of a long historical arc working towards a common goal fosters purpose and provides meaning. It is a sense of purpose that is commonly found in those interested in family genealogy. Uncovering the past links and stories of our industries forbearers can spark that familiar genealogical sense of importance and responsibility to the work we carry forward.

3. Empower Intrapreneurs

Intrapreneurs are individuals who reshape companies for the better from within the business. Your job is to create an environment that is conducive to intrapreneurs by setting up processes to gather, vet and act on the best ideas coming from employees throughout the company. In these days, it goes beyond just setting out a 1980s-style suggestion box.

As an employer, it is your responsibility to connect like-minded employees encouraging them to move disruptive ideas along for the benefit of the company. It was a Vice Chairman at Morgan Stanley who decided to connect an optimistic micro finance-obsessed intern with the right manager that ultimately led the company to develop a micro finance offering.

Source

Billy Parish is Co-Founder and President of Solar Mosaic, a solar investment platform. He's also co-author of Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money & Community in a Changing World. @BillyParish

Dev Aujla is the Founder of DreamNow, a charitable organization that works with young people to develop, fund, and implement their social change projects. He's also co-author of Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money & Community in a Changing World. @DevAujla

13 Ways of Looking at a Leader

Our endless fascination with leadership has inspired an endless parade of leadership books, many of which strive to identify distinctive styles of top-doggery. Whether CEOs can learn to lead from the prescriptions of academics, consultants, and management thinkers is open to debate.

For those wishing to try—or at least to be inspired—here are a baker's dozen of the most prevalent types of leaders. We have also cited a book associated with each leadership style, as well as some real-world examples of each archetype.

1. Adaptive

In normal times, there may not be easy answers, but at least there are answers. In times of crisis or King Kong–scale change, leaders must devise entirely new approaches to doing business. Adaptive leaders rise above the noise to interpret dynamic situations, adjust their values to changing circumstances, and then help their people stretch to meet the unfamiliar without sacrificing their trust, says Ron Heifetz, director of Harvard's Center for Public Leadership. Sam Palmisano, late of IBM, is one such change maestro. Ford's Alan Mulally is another. For more: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World, by Ronald A. Heifetz, Marty Linsky, and Alexander Grashow

2. Emotionally Intelligent

Psychologist Daniel Goleman correlates leadership success with awareness of one's own feelings and the feelings of others. Emotionally intelligent leaders are expert managers of themselves and their relationships with others, and consequently they are masters of influence (but in a good way). Howard Schultz and Warren Buffett fill the bill. Though neural hard-wiring plays a part in emotional intelligence, Goleman believes even nonempaths can learn it.

For more: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, by Daniel Goleman

3. Charismatic

These are the folks who put the I in Iacocca. Charismatic leaders influence others through sheer leaderishness. Ninety years ago, sociologist Max Weber described charismatic authority as deriving from exceptional character, heroism, or sanctity. These days, it is more often a function of personality and, consequently, tough to teach. Though charismatic leaders are tremendous motivators and often run fantastically successful organizations, they tend to suck up oxygen, and their reigns can grow cultlike. Think Jack Welch, Theodore Roosevelt, and Voldemort.

For more: Charismatic Leadership in Organizations, by Jay A. Conger and Rabindra N. Kanungo

5 Things You Won't Learn in Business School

While many entrepreneurs boast college degrees and MBAs, most will readily admit that the hard knocks received from starting their own businesses were infinitely more valuable. Here are five lessons you won't learn in a classroom:

1. There is no such thing as failure. 

Businesses can go bankrupt and unsold products can pile up in the warehouse, but every venture is a potential learning experience. Investors get skittish and bail at the 11th hour? You'll know how to better choose strategic partners and negotiate deals going forward.

Couldn't successfully expand into Europe? Use the insights gained into international distribution to craft a more viable strategy next time. Clients indifferent to your sales pitch? Maybe you're trying to solve the wrong problem.

Such learning may seem expensive, but ignorance is costlier still. Knowledge gained through failure is directly applicable to future ventures. So try, fail, and try again until you get it right. Just remember: Only a fool makes the same mistake twice.

7 Most Powerful Sales Tools

It's not about the worksheets: These tools are what really create success sales.The world is inundated with sales tools: worksheets, playbooks, sales scripts, software, brochures, and so forth.

But all of those sales tools put together are insignificant if you don't have the intellectual and emotional tools that truly create success.

Here are seven sales "tools" you need to develop:

1. Patience
If you're patient, you let customers decide at their own speed. You realize that nobody ever got a plant to grow faster by pulling at the leaves of a seedling. If you lack patience, you'll be frustrated whenever things take longer than you'd like. Customers will sense your frustration and hesitate to buy.

2. Commitment
If you're truly committed to both your customer's success and your own success, you'll do whatever it takes (within legal and ethical bounds) to get the job done. You'll banish all thoughts of ever giving up. If you lack commitment, you'll consistently fail to follow through–and will often drop the ball at the worst possible moment.

3. Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm is contagious: If you're enthusiastic about yourself, your firm and your product, your customers will "pick up" your enthusiasm and believe in your ability to improve their lives. If you lack enthusiasm, however, you'll always find yourself surrounded by naysayers and endless "objections."

3 Tips Meningkatkan Kinerja Karyawan dengan Social Media

Bagaimana dampak social media and HR terhadap dunia kerja memang patut dicermati oleh praktisi SDM mengingat sebagian besar karyawan mereka adalah generasi muda yang hampir semuanya adalah pengguna aktif social media.

“Bagaimana pun, social media telah banyak mengubah perilaku mereka, sehingga banyak kebijakan perusahaan yang harus diselaraskan dengan perilaku tersebut,” papar Nukman Lutfie, pakar online strategist yang juga founder of PortalHR..

Nukman lantas menjelaskan, social media seperti facebook yang telah menyedot jumlah pengguna terbesar di Indonesia, twitter yang meraih sekitar 20 juta pengguna, belum situs-situs forum, blog dan situs lainnya telah mempengaruhi karyawan sedemikian rupa. 

“Salah satu efeknya adalah semakin terbukanya informasi, baik mengenai diri karyawan sendiri, termasuk informasi penting tentang perusahaan. Sisi positifnya adalah praktisi HRD menjadi lebih mudah mengenali mereka,” katanya.

Tips: Define How Your Team Will Work

Most team leaders know to help their team define goals, but the conversation shouldn’t stop there. You also need to agree on the mechanics of how the team will get the work done. Here are four things that need to be clear on every team:

• Roles and responsibilities. Every member needs to know their tasks and how their work will contribute to the overall goals. 
• Work processes. You don’t need a notebook full of procedures, but agree on how to carry out the basics — such as decision-making or communicating.
• Rules of engagement. Establish a constructive team culture. Discuss the shared values, norms, and beliefs that will shape the daily give-and-take between team members.
• Performance metrics. How will you measure progress? Define the measures for meeting the goals, and the consequences for not meeting them.

Adapted from "For Your Team's Success, Remember the How" by Linda Hill & Kent Lineback.