Jeff, one of my regular clients, came to me to jump-start his team. “Even when I have time to talk with my team face-to-face, they only give me lip service or blank looks,” he said. “I was hoping you could help me stir the pot so we can finish the year with a bang.”

Jeff was a good manager trapped in a labyrinth of accountability. He wasn’t getting the results from his team because they’d gone down the path of least resistance. I suggested that he should:

*  Initiate meaningful dialogue with his team, setting up areas of responsibility, creating smart criteria for specific performance standards.

*  Remember that all members of his team are individuals with motivations as different as their work styles.

* Respect and respond to those differences so his team performs above and beyond expectations.

*  Understand his employees like he understands his customers.

*  Find out what each member of his team truly values.

*  Create a follow-up system to hold his people accountable.

You’ll lose your best team members if you don’t find ways for them to feel successful and accomplished in their positions. The best way to understand what people value is to engage. Talk with your employees, and really listen to what success means to them.
 

As a manager, are you at risk of losing some of your most valuable employees? With the ongoing economic recovery and more jobs being created, could your employees be asking themselves — is it time to move on?

According to a recent survey by the Conference Board, only 45 percent of American employees are engaged in their work, the lowest satifaction level recorded in more than 22 years. The poor economy can be partly blamed — making it difficult for many employees to find interesting and rewarding jobs. The Conference Board further points out that employee engagement levels have been on the decline for more than two decades.

Don’t let your dissatisfied employees leave. Schedule a time to have that “big picture” conversation on how they can become more engaged in 2010 and beyond. Start the discussion with, I value you as an employee — I’m as committed to your success as you are. Then follow up with the following questions:

It is estimated that lack of accountability costs the nation’s employers in the billions of dollars each year. As leaders and managers, it is our duty and reponsibility to guide employees to be more accountable. Try asking the following two questions the next time there’s an incident.

Say you observe an employee demonstrating an inappropriate behavior — for instance, being abrupt with a customer. Ask that employee the following accountibility question:

1. “So that I have a good handle on what just happened, can you tell me how your recent action supports our core beliefs in this organization?”  

Can you sum up your accomplishments Haiku style? Few of us could, but in his Business Week article “Leadership in Six Words,” author John Baldoni suggests that being able to do just that is important for career success.

Leadership in Six Words

Once upon a time Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a story using only six words. Impossible, some thought. Not for Papa, as Neal Conan explained on NPR’s Talk of the Nation. The next day Hemingway produced this: “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn."

Clare Booth Luce, according to columnist Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, once told President John Kennedy that “a great man is one sentence.” Noonan writes that Lincoln's life could be summed up as “He preserved the Union and freed the slaves.” Scott Eblin adapted the concept to summing up one’s leadership legacy. “It takes time and effort to boil down the essence of what you’re trying to do to a short and memorable idea.”