Communication

Employee Engagement – using M.A.P. again!

Posted in Communication, Leadership, Uncategorized on June 9th, 2011 by HeidiFrye – Be the first to comment

OK, this will be short – but SO cool!! Back in April 2010, I had written a blog “Motivated or Disengaged? Using a MAP to Find Your Direction!” that in short, was about employee engagement based on Daniel Pink’s book, DRIVE.

Well, I just became aware of a clip explaining the concept in more detail and it is really well done!! If you are leading people, this piece from CongnitiveMedia/Daniel Pink is a “Must See”….Enjoy!!!

What’s Your Communication Style: High Involvement or High Consideration?

Posted in Communication, Leadership on September 23rd, 2010 by HeidiFrye – Be the first to comment

Have you ever been in a conversation where you felt like  you were tripping on each others words? I have. And it had everything to do with this concept of Communication Styles called High Involvement vs. High Consideration.

In a nutshell:

  • A High Involvement person  is a very energetic conversationalist. One who is excitedly jumping in to blurt out what is on his/her mind. An H.I. person thrives on the fast-paced back-and-forth nature of the dialogue….and the interchange is stimulating and heightens the conversation-satisfaction factor.

  • A High Consideration person is a very respectful conversationalist. One who politely waits for the other to finish their thought before responding and even take a few seconds as they finish their own thoughts. An H.C. person holds themselves and their communication partner in high regard….with responses that are thoughtful and deliberate – appreciative of a healthy dialogue. read more »

The InForum Networking Event: It All Begins With A HANDSHAKE….

Posted in Communication, Leadership, Uncategorized on May 22nd, 2010 by HeidiFrye – Be the first to comment
This past week, I was invited to present a networking segment at the InForum meeting (click here for the InForum website). The energy was palpable as 200+ women (and a few men!) gathered for the “Good Morning Inforum!” event. I have to say, I was quite impressed by the turnout. Everyone was there to network – to talk about networking, to learn more about networking, to practice networking, TO NETWORK!  
And….guess what, I was leading an exercise on the basics networking…shocking isn’t it? One of the challenges in going to an event (without a friend!) is approaching and meeting new people. Here is a quick acronym I created and shared with the group to lessen the anxiety of the maybe-I’ll-go-late-and-skip-the-networking-portion-of-the-meeting part of networking.  
Well,  It all begins with a HANDSHAKE….
H - Handshake: give a handshake that says “I am a strong, capable, and engaging person”
A – Approach: how you walk up to someone – your eye contact, posture, SMILE!
N – Name: introduce yourself by name is one of the networking basics.
D – Define: define why you’ve approached, “I  have been hoping to meet you because….”
S - Say their name: repeating their name gives you an opportunity to remember it later!
H - Ha-ha: be sure to insert your personality, have fun with it, and be engaging!!
A - Ask questions: don’t fill in the space with your “stuff”, ask questions about the them.
K - Konclude: Conclude with something like “it was great to meet you, let’s…”
E - Exit politely: Politely extract yourself – get a drink or introduce them to a new person!
It was a great event – fun to connect with everyone and a positive way to start the day. At your next event, be sure to put your best foot forward by extending your hand for a networking HANDSHAKE!

Do you have any Networking tricks?  Please share if you do.


Motivated or Disengaged? Using a MAP to Find Your Direction!

Posted in Communication, Leadership, Training & Workshops, Uncategorized on April 27th, 2010 by HeidiFrye – Be the first to comment

As I work with business leaders, I am always trying (I say trying because the stack of books is very tall!) to stay on top of current business theories and books. A couple of topics that are extremely motivating to me are “Motivation” and “Engagement“. So I was very excited to pick up Daniel Pink’s newest book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us!!

read more »

Personality Problems or Silos? What’s Making Your Business Unhealthy?!

Posted in Communication, Leadership, Uncategorized on March 30th, 2010 by HeidiFrye – Be the first to comment

I have the good fortune of meeting with business leaders to discuss the health, or unhealth, of their companies. Very often – very often, when asked about the source of their problems, leaders point “down”. The problems are happening down below, in the rank and file….or so they say. And, most leaders are really frustrated with the discord – can’t people just get along?! Well, here’s the thing….what might look like a can’t-play-nice-in-the-sandbox issue, might be something bigger…..

Often, the bigger issue (masked as a personality problem) is one of “silos”. As many of you know, I’m big on perspective…perspective in healthy relationships, perspective in good communication, perspective in team dynamics, and perspective in productive interactions. Silos limit perspective. Silos allow departments to live autonomously – in their own fiefdom, free of concern or interaction with other departments. This causes breakdowns and waste within organizations.

The “fix” is read more »

Right or Left? Brain Dominance, Perspective, and Communication!

Posted in Communication, Uncategorized on March 14th, 2010 by HeidiFrye – Be the first to comment
Have you ever been in a meeting, let’s say an all-day retreat or planning session, where you’ve thrown out what you thought was a really great idea, an insightful, brilliant comment, and rather than the “hurrah’s” and “high-fives” you were expecting, you were met with icy glares from your peers…as if you were speaking out of the mouth centered in middle of your alien-forehead? Then hours later, sitting in the same meeting, talking about the same subject, somebody comes up with a fantastic idea which warrants (and receives) accolades and a pat on the back. The idea? The same one you brought up earlier in the day! O.K., so that’s Example #1.
Example #2: You’re sitting in a brainstorming meeting, hoping to solve a work-related marketing issue. You are getting so frustrated because the meeting never really gets “kicked-off”. Everyone is sitting around, talking, joking, and throwing out random thoughts and ideas. Hours have gone by, the meeting ends and you are perplexed because the majority of the group is pretty excited about the progress that’s been made. Progress? Seriously?! There was no beginning or end to the meeting, and you found the “randomness” very challenging.
Alright, one more example – there’s a point here, hang in there! You are in a presentation, you are trying to pay attention as you listen to the speaker go through their sequence of material, reading bullet after bullet, waiting for them to get to the point. Somewhere in there you are able to get a couple of worthwhile points, but overall, it was a waste of an hour. Just as you are about to share this thought with your table mate, they gush about how valuable the talk was, how many notes they took, and how they can’t wait to apply the principles. Huh?! Did you miss something? read more »

Dealing With the Way Things Are – Changing Your BUT to an AND

Posted in Communication, Leadership, Training & Workshops, Uncategorized on February 18th, 2010 by HeidiFrye – 1 Comment
Have you ever been SO engrossed in your own fury, your own irritation regarding a situation, YOUR OWN REACTION, that your perception got distorted? Your perception changes the way you are able to deal with the way things really are. Maybe one of these situations has sparked a reaction in you: the doors to the plane close just as you are running toward the gate; it rains on your trip to Sedona…you know, the sure-bet vacation you planned in a place where it NEVER rains; or your leftover meal from your favorite restaurant – the one you were looking forward to all day to have for tonight’s dinner, was eaten by somebody else.
Surely you’ve heard the phrase “is your glass half empty or half full?” Well, when you lose “your power”, you lose your capability, your perspective, because you become a slave to your own reaction – the glass will definitely be half empty.

Some of the things that get in our way are: read more »

An “Opportunity” to Discuss: Resumes; Recruiting; ….and DATING?!

Posted in Communication, Recruitment, Uncategorized on January 29th, 2010 by HeidiFrye – Be the first to comment
Recently I was invited to be a guest speaker for a college undergrad senior class. The topic was recruiting. The class was engaged and asked a lot of great questions – very fun.  I had two interesting take-aways…
  1. This “opportunity” re-affirmed my direction on experiential-learning, or action-learning. I was hoping to help the class better understand the intricacies and nuances of the recruiting process. My challenge was to deliver this talk in a meaningful, non-boring, impactful way….this was a night class, so I wasn’t sure what kind of attention span to expect!  First of all, like most people, the students thought recruiting to be merely a name-gathering exercise. It is so much more! So how was I going to convey this big topic in the time allotted?! I used my favorite “recruitment process” analogy as a basis for the exercise (see: http://www.upwordsinc.com/executivesearch-process.php) …how the steps of “the dating process” closely match up with the recruitment process.  Since these young adults are in the throes of dating, it seemed like a pretty good angle. I had the students volunteer for various roles in our little analogy drama (the lone guy got to be “the guy”). We also had a Scribe, “the female”, and “the friend”. I had the students physically act out the dating process, stopping at each point to identify the interaction (i.e. finding out if the guy is right for your friend, the blind date, the engagement, etc.). Then….we correlated the recruitment process to the dating process. They had to think…and they had to participate! I am very hopeful and confident they learned something. They got it! …and so did I!! I saw their reactions to a non-lecture-information-dumping approach – it was great.  I saw the wheels turning (they had to actually respond and interact!). Once again, this approach to learning has proved to be the way to go.  They learned, I learned. read more »

Leadership: Strengths Based, Not Perfection Based

Posted in Communication, Leadership, Uncategorized on December 11th, 2009 by HeidiFrye – Be the first to comment
Way back in my Xerox days I remember one of our high-ranking leaders telling us we wouldn’t be able to score A’s in all categories of our lives. “You can get 2 A’s and a C, or all B’s, but you can’t get A’s across the board.” This was especially disheartening given we were a group of self-motivated, high achievers. Of course, we were ambitious and idealistic and thought “Well, maybe she can’t, but we can.” Little did we know….
The Gallup guys agree. I just finished, “Strengths Based Leadership” by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie (the same guys who wrote StrengthsFinder 2.0). They talk about how, based on their studies, they have not found a single leader, not one, who has “world class strength” in all categories. Matter-of-fact, “…those who strive to be competent in all areas become the least effective leaders overall.” Ouch! So much for my former idealistic thinking that I could do it all – I guess I could do it all, just not successfully!! The strongest leaders have an acute sense of who they are – strengths and limitations. It is the strong leader who has the courage to be true to themselves and strive for excellence in a select number of categories instead of all categories.

The updated message: know and leverage your strengths, build teams to be well-rounded, and know who you are – weaknesses and all.(I was relieved – the first book focused on strengths and basically ignored weaknesses.  Understanding your weaknesses and how your team compensates is as critical as knowing and leveraging your strengths.  Awareness and competency, not necessarily proficiency, are must-have goals.) read more »

Football or Business: Are you being coached to reach your fullest potential?

Posted in Communication, Leadership, Uncategorized on December 1st, 2009 by HeidiFrye – Be the first to comment
Our local High School won their 4th consecutive state football championship Thanksgiving weekend (Go EGR Pioneers!). As we were watching a recording of the game the next day, I was noticing how much bigger the opponents players were…and how fast their offensive line was, so I asked my husband, “their players are so much bigger, their Running Back is so fast, why do you think we won? What was the winning factor?” His answer was: “Oh, that’s easy, it’s definitely the coaching – definitely!” (by the way – congratulations again Coach Peter Stuursma!)

Hmmm…I’m thinking there’s an analogy here! (btw, I can’t believe I’m using a sports analogy?!)

I often see talented, intelligent, “sharp” business people who are not reaching their full potential. You know where I’m going with this right….no, I’m not going to pin it all on the leadership, but I will say, having a corporate sponsor, mentor, coach, makes a big difference in a person’s career…no matter what their position. Companies hire strong, capable people, let them loose, and expect them to perform non-stop without any “pep talks” – strength training – or new plays.  Whether you assign mentors from within the organization or hire outside coaches, your star players need to talk through the plays, gain perspective, continue skill development and strength training, as well as get the occasional pep talk! That’s  why watching the playbacks, or “the films”, is so important – perspective and feedback – no better way to adjust performance…and that’s the job of the coach/mentor/leader/sponsor.

Get your high potentials to score big – make sure they are playing the right position, leverage their strengths, and coach them to victory!

Are you in a position to reach your full potential? Why or why not?  I’d love to hear your response!