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I got MUGGED!

May 18, 2016 by Heidi Frye

StrengthsFinder mug

One of my favorite clients walked into a recent coaching session with a gift bag in hand and a huge smile on her face. She ceremoniously presented me with this very fun gift (ha ha, now you know why she’s one of my favorites – thank-you Julie!)! As a strong-ever-developing-constantly-growing CEO she has taken to heart many of the models and assessments we’ve used, continuing to evolve and challenge herself in the area of leadership on a daily basis through her heightened sense of awareness, mindfulness, intentionality, strategic thinking, etc., etc.  – Bravo! This cool gift takes that mindfulness and sense-of-self to a new level. Yep…she brought me a mug featuring my Top 5 StrengthsFinder attributes – available through www.StrengthsMugs.com.  I can tell you, having your Top 5 stare you in the face everyday REALLY gives you an opportunity to embrace and leverage! And in some crazy way, excite!! Gallup’s research states that if you are not working in your strength zone, you are SIX times less likely to be engaged (!!)…and a strengths-based approach impacts things like direction, confidence, and hope. I’m fortunate, my business totally “embraces and leverages” my strengths and allows me to work “in the zone” on a daily basis, which is a blast!!!

What would you be doing if you were working in the zone every day?! Maybe it’s time for you to get mugged!

 

Filed Under: Leadership, Life, Motivation, Personality, Uncategorized Tagged With: engagement, Gallup, in the zone, intention, leadership, mindfulness, strengths-based approach, StrengthsFinder, StrengthsFinder 2.0, StrengthsMug.com, Top 5

A Teenager’s Call For Leadership and the Connection to Employee Engagement

January 22, 2016 by Heidi Frye

Optimized-AdobeStock_fast food leader

The other day, my teenager came into my room to say good night, and mentioned he was probably going to start looking for another job…

The backstory: My son turned 16 at the end of August and by the end of September had a job! Woohoo! Working locally for a major fast-food chain type of establishment, he has enjoyed “bringing home a paycheck”, getting to know co-workers, and feeling productive. I can tell he is proud of himself – he has a new sense of self.

…my first reaction (albeit internal) was “Hmmm…what the heck? job-hopping already?”. Instead I asked “Why, what’s up?”, he responded that he didn’t get a job to work 3-4 hours a week (initially they had him working 12-15, and now that they’ve hired more kids (a few of his friends!) and his hours have been reduced). I suggested he talk to his manager.

THEN CAME THE REAL STORY.

He said, “Mom, it’s not just that…it is a sad place to work, really sad.  It’s pretty bad.”

Wait, what was that? Sad??! “What do you mean by ‘sad’?”, I asked. “Well, the managers are older (anyone is “older” to a 16 year old, right?), and they’re really pissed off that they work there.  They’re mad all the time and take it out on us. I try to do extra stuff on my shift, but they make assumptions that aren’t accurate, and instead of talking to us, we all get blamed as a group. The environment is pretty bad”. There ya have it folks.

This was a lightbulb moment for me. Although I see versions of this situation in client companies all the time,  to have my son articulate it at such way, really took it down to some core leadership basics. After all, his job is pretty non-strategic/tactical. He doesn’t have complex job requirements or work-on-intense-team-projects. It’s pretty basic, which makes the leadership part, or lack thereof really stand out. Bottom-line, the culture, can make or break motivation. For him anyway. He’s a smart kid (I’m not biased on this one, I swear!). He knows this is not his life-long job, but wants to to do then best job he can in the moment. As he said “they would get so much more out of the workers (a.k.a. employee engagement) if they treated them better (a.k.a. culture)  –  the culture…greatly shaped and impacted by management/leadership. Out of the mouths of babes.

This, coupled with a Gallup article I just read, stating roughly 51% of employees are disengaged, and another 17% are “actively disengaged”, indicates there is a huge need for leaders to step up and LEAD. Employee engagement has been hovering around 33% since 2000, and this epidemic is WORLDWIDE, not just U.S. based. The impact and repercussions to the global economy are substantial.

Many companies measure employee engagement with annual surveys, group discussions, and exit interviews, but what are they doing about it? Core management activities like work expectation clarification, clearing hurdles that prevent employees from doing their work, developing employees, and promoting strong relationships are critical to-do’s in raising employee engagement statistics.  Consider this is a Call-To-All-Leaders: these aren’t just to-do’s, these are essential part-of-the-culture-gotta-haves. Step up and lead.

The end of the story: My son and friends have begun the job search. But some of this is on him! I am encouraging him to go talk to management first. However, when trust and relationship is lacking, it is highly unlikely employees are going to go out of their way to have a difficult conversation with their boss…it’s just not part of the culture.

Filed Under: Communication, Job Search, Leadership Tagged With: basics, core, culture, employee engagement, engagement statistics, fast food, Gallup, global economy, leadership, management, relationship, teenager, trust, turnover

Leadership: Strengths-Based, Not Perfection-Based

April 17, 2015 by Heidi Frye

strengths based leadership

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. In “Strengths Based Leadership”, Tom Rath and Barry Conchie (the same guys who wrote StrengthsFinder 2.0), 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 our idealistic thinking that we could do it all – well, we could, 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 versus 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 – their first book focused on strengths and all but ignored weaknesses.  Understanding your weaknesses and how your team compensates is as critical as knowing and leveraging strengths.  Awareness and competency, not necessarily proficiency, are must-have goals.]

“‘Leaders do not need to be well-rounded, but teams do’ is a concept supported by research indicating strong leaders who know who they are, and how to use their strengths, did a better job engaging their people.”

That’s big! Leaders who leveraged their strengths were better able to drive organizational growth – albeit different strengths and different styles of getting it done, but getting it done none-the-less. If you’ve taken the Strengths Finder, you know your “Top 5″. They are categorized  into: Executing; Influencing; Relationship Building; and Strategic Thinking. The most successful leaders build high performance teams by drawing on these four categories, and complementing their own strengths. Not a unique concept but a good one. Healthy teams are diverse, they appreciate “candid conversations” and “different perspectives” – resulting in robust dialogue. Healthy teams are “high performance” because they understand how to productively leverage their individual contributions.

After many years and lessons learned, I now understand where our Xerox leader was coming from. (isn’t “wisdom” a beautiful thing??)  I work with leaders who frustratingly try to be everything to everyone….or leaders who feel like failures for not being perfect. Sometimes the leader who figures out what their good at and how to use it, brings out the best in their people.   Getting clarity and perspective about yourself and the impact you have on others is one of the best things you can do for your career…and for those who chose to follow you. She was right, I haven’t gotten straight A’s – but I have gotten A’s in my categories-of-choice…by leveraging my strengths, “knowing who I am”, and having the courage to not be perfect!

What are your strengths? How do you leverage them in your career?  Let me know!

Filed Under: Leadership, Motivation Tagged With: career, courage, Gallup, leadership, leading, leverage your strengths, motivation, perfection, perspective, strengths based leadership, strengths finder, team, well-rounded, xerox

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“Pat Riley said ‘Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.’ Heidi Frye’s executive coaching enlightened me to the truth behind these words…I would not be where I am today without Heidi and highly recommend her leadership coaching to anyone focused on… Read more “Melvin Gottschalk, Jr.”

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“Working with Heidi was one of the most rewarding experiences in my career.  I am a better leader, co-worker and person…She has been one of the most influential people in my life.  I would recommend her expertise to anyone inspired to invest in advancing their career… Read more “Juli B.”

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“…Nucraft has worked with Heidi to create internal peer groups to improve our internal communications and teamwork skills…Heidi facilitates these groups and the feedback has been uniformly positive from the participants…Heidi and UPwords Inc. have become a trusted Nucraft advisor.”

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“I wanted to share this and tell you how much you have helped me in my career in so many ways.  Your knowledge of the industry and mentoring is among the best and I hope that we remain professional contacts!!!!!! … Read more “David Purpura”

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“I started working with Heidi about 18 months into my tenure as CEO, and …I soon realized it was essential to my growth as a leader. In the early days, she put a variety of concepts and tools in my… Read more “Julie L. Novak”

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Chief Executive Officer, Michigan State Medical Society
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