I am very lucky to work at Dale Carnegie with the people that I work with. Each and every day we try our hardest to work the way that we coach and train others to work. The result is pretty astounding. The best example of this I think I can give is this email sent by one of my teammates, Amy:
Team,
Team member engagement has been a topic coming up over and over again in working with our clients at Dale Carnegie. One way for managers to increase team member engagement is by doing less. Allow me to explain.
The role of a true manager almost doesn’t exist in this day and age. Most every manager we come across has to be a manager as well as a doer. This has benefits in the form of the manager staying more connected with the day to day workings of what is going on in their business on the ground. It also allows them to develop stronger relationships with their employees, which can lead to increased buy-in and higher morale.
A week or so ago I was having a one-on-one coaching session with a client. We had some real breakthroughs and had covered many of the things that his boss wanted me to work with him on. We still had half of our time left and so I asked him if there was anything that he specifically wanted to work on. He asked me about getting more done in a shorter period of time. That lead to how to set goals for the short run, as well as the Big Audacious Goals in business and life. We had a very interesting conversation, so I thought I would share.
I worked with a government official. Let’s call him “Dan.” He had an issue where he never heard about the problems his people were having until it was too late. The issues had already grown to the point where his people were furious, feuding and in some cases, even quitting. I asked him to try out something: stop criticizing his people. ”Dan” implemented this one change and within two weeks his people were coming to him with their issues long before they got blown out of proportion.
Yup, this blog still exists! I have been swamped with life the past few months, but I am going to make a concerted effort to write here more often. I have to admit that I have been having quite a bit of fun writing over at 47 Reviews. But this site really helps me get out my thoughts and torments and work my way through them. So, with no further ado…
This last weekend, Amber and I took a trip down to Kansas City for our first wedding anniversary. Our first year has gone so fast, and so much has happened. So we decided to head down for a long weekend together to enjoy what KC has to offer.
We got down to a mid-70s day and were quite happy to walk all over Country Club Plaza, where we were staying. But the shops were not our destination. We headed down to the art museum and sculpture park where we came across some fantastic sculptures.
I am now about 3.5 months deep into my new job at Dale Carnegie, and man have I been kept busy. If I am not training, I am in training. If I am not prospecting, I am in a meeting. And I am very lucky to have three mentors who are as pumped for Dale Carnegie as I am. I am loving my new job, and can’t wait to get to the point where I am the seasoned pro.
But I am not there yet.
Walking through the door of our first open house today, Amber and I stop to talk to the real estate agent. We pick up a pro forma and start our way through the house. It is a quaint single family residence with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It has a two car garage and a nice big, fenced in back yard. My favorite part of the house was that on the second floor, they had what I can only describe as an upstairs deck. It was glassed in, and there were no exits, but it is an extension of an upstairs room and just feels like a deck.
This week I killed the professor.
I have been an official coach for Dale Carnegie for only two months now. I have been working towards being a coach for almost two and a half years. But I became official in January. This has lead to me being in the middle of my first session as a coach right this moment. This has also lead to me having a problem.
I have been reading and listening to Napoleon Hill as of late and thinking about one of the main concepts that he talks about: the Mastermind Principal. This principal is that if you get a group of people together who are focused on the same goal, together they will produce more, faster than if each of them had worked on it separately. I have found that it does more than that.