Category: People & Relationships

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People & Relationships

How Facility Managers Can Influence Employees, Vendors & Contractors and Improve Performance

Facility Managers have a difficult job. They are in a profession that has a lot of responsibility and very little direct authority. While they may have some employees, their constituents represent: tenants, employees of the facility, vendors, general contractors, architects and subcontractors.

So how do you make things happen and achieve positive results?

You have to learn how to effectively influence others. Sure you can threaten vendors, contractors, subcontractors and architects with no further business if they don’t do what you ask. That can work, but you are kidding yourself if you believe that approach will result in their best effort. It won’t.

The intangibles of doing that “little extra” and that “attention to detail”  will rapidly disappear. You get exactly what you contracted for and you can never address the intangibles in the contract because they simply won’t care anymore.

Or, you can learn how to influence without authority. If you are looking for best performance and service that wow’s your tenants or the facilities employees – read on.

As you delve deeper within this article, you will soon realize that you can motivate others to higher levels of performance You can  positively impact the morale of your employees or tenants of the facility and have a positive impact on your vendors, subcontractors and others who provide services to your facility. The result – you get more work done and a higher level of cooperation.

Influencing without Positional Authority Strategy #1: Build Positive Relationships

We estimate that more than 80% of the time we spend as coaches to high-performance facility managers and leaders – is spent on helping them manage the transition and work their way through performance issues with others.
You will fast-track and gain altitude in your career as a facility manager when you learn and practice the keys to building strong, effective interpersonal relationships with others. And, it starts with recognizing that nothing happens until a relationship is developed.
Building a relationship includes:
– Having the other person’s best interest in mind – win-win verses win-lose
-Understanding and respecting the other person’s work style and key needs/expectations
-Understanding and respecting personality differences
-Finding areas of mutual interest
-Using exchange principles to enhance the relationship

Influencing without Positional Authority Strategy #2: Honor the Law of Reciprocation

The law of reciprocation involves a mutual value for value exchange. To effectively engage in the law of reciprocation, you must identify what the recipient values – whether the other person is your employee, an employee or tenant in the facility, or a contractor.

For example you can offer employees and tenants:

-Funding for projects,  additional personnel, space
-Organizational support
-Your own personal support by  being readily available when an employee or tenant  is stressed, vulnerable or perhaps just needs someone listen to them
-Reliability — Doing what you say when you say you will do it
-Your acknowledgement
-Vision — Identifying the future direction, portraying excitement and confidence in the future, and in the outcome of the project
-Rapid response — This is self-explanatory
-Recognition –It can be an award, a new project assignment or praise at a public meeting

You can offer vendors and subcontractors:

-Information – Competitive intelligence, industry trends, upcoming changes
-Gratitude by thanking them with testimonials
-Your recommendation – The best way you can motivate your vendors and subcontractors is to let them know if they meet or exceed your expectations you will be more than happy to refer them to others.
-Bonuses when they meet certain milestones or criteria

No matter what you offer, it must be meaningful to the recipient. Just because we think we are providing something of value does not mean the recipient agrees with us. To determine what is meaningful, we need to understand issues such as:

•    What do they need to succeed?
•    How are they measured on their performance?
•    How are they rewarded? And what is their greatest reward?
•    Career objectives
•    Their key concerns (or fears if they will share it with you)
•    Key expectations (of their boss, peers, subordinates, their constituents)
•    Recognition / Privacy. Preferences of the individual and considering the culture of the organization
•    Interests outside the organization

This means you must first build a relationship with your employees, employees or tenants of the facility and those who work for your facility!

Influencing without Positional Authority Strategy #3: Participate in Healthy Conflict

It’s possible that as you work to influence others without positional authority, that conflict will arise. Employees, employees and tenants of the facility and contractors will push back, argue, and disagree.

Let’s face it, some people like to argue, negotiate and play devils advocate. In other words “they love a good fight”.

So, facility managers, please take note: Conflict is NOT bad or wrong.  Engaged in the right way, conflict is good. In fact, it’s not only good, it’s essential for facility growth and development. “Healthy conflict”, that is vibrant and candid leads to:

-Expanding ideas and perspectives
-Identifying more options
-Better decisions
-Inclusion (individual value and contribution) rather than reinforcing exclusion and a natural futility when not being heard

So learn how to appreciate and participate in healthy conflict.

Remember, being a successful facility manager requires more that the hard skills we learn in school. Success also requires that we recognize and master the intangibles of successful management. And the most powerful intangible that is extremely important to master is the ability to influence others without authority. It will provide you with leverage and enable you to garner more support than you would ever achieve on your own or through positional authority alone.

About the Authors:

Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest are facility management consultants with more than 50+ years of combined experience in helping organizations improve their business performance. They say that trying to influence with positional authority is just one way to sabotage your business. Get their complete “Self-Sabotage in Business White Paper” at: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/resources.php and uncover the common, subtle ways you are harming your performance.

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People & Relationships

The 6 Perceptual Styles, What We Value and How We See the World: The Flow Person

Bill’s Perceptual Style is Flow. He perceives a world of unity and relationships in which every piece is connected to every other piece; a rich world where the parts fit together and support and nourish each other. He trusts in the flow of experience and believes what is important and necessary will emerge as a matter of course as it reflects the underlying harmony and cooperation inherent in the world. He knows the relationships he sees are not always obvious, especially to others, and that they reveal themselves only through his patient careful attention, and even then only slowly, in hints, intimations, and whispers.

Bill creates and sustains powerful but subtle relationships that form the glue of a community. He maintains the balance between the myriad elements of his world through constant attention and tending. His attention, while caring and supportive, is subtle and not readily apparent to those around him as he acts indirectly, behind the scenes, and outside the spotlight. Belonging is critical to him, but being the center of attention is not his style.

Moving smoothly and easily between daily events as his awareness emerges and recedes, Bill attends, in proper proportion, to events and people where connection and relationships require his attention. He builds connections steadily and patiently because he knows that relationships require time. He avoids pushing, demanding, or abrupt action because he trusts that what needs to be done will be done in its proper time.

Bill facilitates the development of an environment that is comfortable, one that fosters and encourages people. When his environment shifts away from cooperation, team building, and community, he quietly influences its realignment, putting his own personal needs aside if necessary. Bill has learned that taking care of himself is best done by taking care of the community within which he lives and works. While this is done with great care it is not passive, as he skillfully weaves a web of connections that binds those within his community closely to him.

Bill welcomes new events that support his traditions and values, and will adopt smoothly to change that he experiences as connected to the flow of his personal history. While he deeply distrusts arbitrary change, others often seek him out during times of upheaval because his skills are invaluable to restoring stability, coherence, and identity.

Bill uses his relational communities to gather and transmit informal information, after he has intuited what to pass on and what to withhold. He makes this determination through his understanding of what will most effectively and inconspicuously build alliances, promote participation, and instill commitment from people within his community. His information sharing is so careful and unobtrusive that others experience the connection within the community but are often unaware of his contribution to building it.

Bill often acts as a listening post to the members of his community without the need to give advice, pass judgment, or provide opinions. He will offer aid and assistance when asked but it takes the form of empathy and support rather than strategy and action plans. He encourages development and growth, and empathizes with those who are struggling. People respond to his personal engagement with them and the warmth and concern he shows them. Bill is rarely in a rush and always has time to interact with those who are troubled or just want to talk.

For Bill, the world is not a series of unrelated facts but a single whole full of patterns, impressions, and connections. He communicates his experience in stories that provide others with the necessary context but may alter or leave out factual points. His stories are a way to build personal connection and find common ground with others rather than a means to convey data and facts.

Bill is at his best smoothing the sharp edges of chaotic environments and erratic relationships. He builds a sense of cohesion within groups and creates a sense of group identity to which others willingly commit. He secures commitment to the community by thinking of others, making contact, doing favors, and staying in touch with all community members. It is important to him that outsiders accurately perceive community values, so he attends carefully to the image that his group projects and makes sure that it is consistent and appropriate.

His activities are ultimately focused on support and maintenance of his community. He is a keeper of community history and tradition and uses the history of the community to keep it grounded. He knows that understanding the past holds the key to providing continuity between the past, present, and future. He is the one who remembers everyone’s birthday, special occasions, and personal tidbits. He finds ways to stay in touch and often gives small meaningful gifts for no apparent special reason. These are his way of holding onto and building relationships and community.

About the Author:

Lynda-Ross Vega: A partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., Lynda-Ross specializes in helping entrepreneurs and coaches build dynamite teams and systems that WORK. She is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.ACIforCoaches.com.

Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 27 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development, and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology – Berkeley.  He is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. He’s a partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., a consulting firm that specializes in helping people discover their true skills and talents: www.aciforcoaches.com

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People & Relationships

Best of the Janes: Making the Most of Relationships

Business ownership comes with its own set of demands – and meeting those while also striving to build and maintain healthy relationships can prove challenging for even the most energetic female entrepreneur. While every woman business owner is unique, certain considerations apply to all business owners when it comes to playing vital roles in their relationships.

Here are some thoughts every female entrepreneur should consider when it comes to her relationships:

•    In business with clients: make sure every relationship is symbiotic – beneficial to both parties. If a client is increasingly or consistently difficult to please and continues to drain entrepreneur resources, end the relationship. If a woman business owner and a client enjoy working together, the woman business owner should keep in contact with the client, even between projects, to maintain a network of people who can help her grow her business.
•    In business with employees or team members: provide clear and constant communication. If an employee or team member isn’t playing his or her part, provide feedback. If that doesn’t remedy the situation, end the relationship. Also, female entrepreneurs should focus on providing clear communication to employees and team members, and should make opportunities available to employees or team members who want to provide feedback of their own, whether it relates to the ground-level systems they know so well, or to the business owner’s communication style. Even entrepreneurs who value freedom and flexibility must make themselves available to people they hire.
•    In business with clients: strive to maintain perspective. Some female entrepreneurs take business more personally than others do. For some, this means they take business so personally that they struggle with day-to-day decisions. For others, it means they don’t take it personally at all, and can come across as brusque or abrasive with team members or clients. Keeping things in perspective and finding a balance between taking business situations totally personally or not taking them personally at all will provide women business owners with more effective work-life balance and with better communication.
•    At home with spouse or romantic partner: manage time well to ensure adequate time and attention on personal relationships. Every successful entrepreneur is passionate about her business, and must demonstrate the same level of passion about her family relationships so the people she loves don’t feel neglected. Women business owners must remember to ask their loved ones about their passions, and to avoid monopolizing home conversations with talk about the business.
•    At home with self: nurture the most important relationship – that with self. Many women business owners work so hard to provide for their employees, their families and their companies that they forget to provide for themselves. It is crucial in finding a satisfactory work life balance to set aside “self” time – and to stick to it. Find something relaxing – whether it’s a long walk, a massage, a facial, or a coffee break – and then schedule time regularly into the calendar to spend some time doing it.
•    At home with children and family: consider the effect business plans may have on home life. While some business owners report high levels of satisfaction with the work-life balance they strike, it is important to consider how changes in the business will affect family life. Depending on circumstances, for example, it may benefit a business owner and her family if she spends as much time with the kids as possible when they’re out of school for the summer, and plans a new product launch or business growth spurt to occur during the fall, when they are back in school.

At some point in the life of every business and every personal or family relationship, the two are bound to seem incompatible. However, by following the advice outlined in this article, female entrepreneurs can make strides towards managing this inherent conflict, so that their business and their relationships can coexist peacefully.

About the Author:

Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com

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People & Relationships

Managing the Transition: How to Face Employee Resistance Head On When Introducing Workplace Changes

Article Contributed By Sara LaForest and Tony Kubica

A preponderance of managers and supervisors are overly familiar with long sighs and disheartened groans from their employees when they introduce yet another organizational change or a new initiative. And in the aftershock of a devastating recession, the sighs and groans are turning into fear.

While supervisors do not have the authority to reject or the power to deflect organizational change, they do have the opportunity (and, we believe, the specific responsibility) to clearly and truthfully communicate the reasons for change.

Similar to a stool with three legs, three easy steps can greatly assist managers in creating a sound platform for transition during periods of change:

3 Ways Leaders Can Face Employee Resistance Head On to Make the Transition Easier for Everyone Involved…

1. Managers need to be convinced that the change is indeed needed. For example, the change is either opportunistic or required to ensure ongoing business viability and success. By focusing on what is needed, the options to create it (including an examination of risks or exposure) and the intended results from it, you will determine what change needs to
happen. You will see why the changes need to happen right now. You will able to develop a strategic plan on how the changes will occur.

And, you’ll be able to determine the value and impact that each change will bring to your organization.

2. Next, managers need to understand the change experience through the lens of their employees. Employees will be more open and willing to support change when they are given information that clearly addresses their fundamental questions. Honest, open, timely and truthful communication is absolutely essential during a transition. This means your
management team must agree on an accurate, forthright and unified response to the following five questions.

* What is the change? (Get specific)
* How was the decision made? (Include who made the decision)
* Who does it impact, and what does it mean to them?
* What is the value of the change to the organization and the employees?
(Focus on benefits and effects.)
* What are the next steps? (Describe the roles and actions.)

3. Lastly, management needs to establish effective ways for sharing (communicating) this information with employees through multiple channels. For example, if there are individual employees who will be impacted more than others (particularly if there are perceived negative implications), general courtesy and good ethic implies you meet first with these
employees. Share the same information but specifically describe how it affects them and their position. This should be done immediately before the departmental meetings. Smaller, team-style meetings provide a more open and comfortable environment for questions and discussion. All-staff meetings are also an option depending on the size of the organization
(such as those with less than 50 employees) and assuming that your message is not laden with “bad-news” to specific employees or groups whom have not yet heard the message. It is also helpful to consistently communicate the message of change as critical for the company, through written format, such as a company memo or newsletter, assuming the message is clear, straight-forward, and focused on the value of the change (benefits), or the sincere effort to prevail (i.e., a legitimate downsize or layoff) in times of challenge.

Managing the transition and implementing change is critical for organizations. Poor behavior, poor communications and poor execution will have long-term negative consequences for the organization.

Remember, change provides opportunity. So, help your employees embrace a new paradigm of change as an opportunity versus the widely held and limiting perspective of change as an unsolicited and undesirable mandate.

How you manage the transition will be remembered by the employees. Good behavior will clearly have positive long-term effects. Poor behavior will lead to contention, lack of trust, lack of productivity and turnover. So unless you goal is to close the business, poor change behavior is not a long-term success strategy.

Actions Have Consequences – Make Yours Positive Especially in the Time of Change

Keeping employees well-informed and engaging them will foster a climate of resiliency and it will build momentum that will advance your organization. This level of employee engagement is reinforced by what Geoff Colvin recently presented in the Fortune Magazine article, How are Most Admired Companies Different. Colvin mentions that champion companies “ensure they understand what employee engagement means, measure it and hold managers (not just HR staffers) accountable for it, and connect it to business objectives…” We strongly believe that change, whether for growth,
improvement or survival/reinvention is key to business productivity, efficiency and intimately, profitability.

About the Authors
Sara LaForest and Tony Kubica are management consultants and business performance improvement specialists with more than 50+ years of combined experience in helping organizations just like yours manage the transition. Failure to communicate head on is just one way to sabotage your business – get our complete “Self-Sabotage in Business White Paper” at: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/resources.php and uncover the common, subtle ways we harm our performance.

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People & Relationships

Business Opportunities With “Team” Mentality Can Help Ensure Success

Article Contributed by Tami Stodghill

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, my husband and I researched countless opportunities before landing on the one we finally decided on. For years we hesitated to make a move to be our own bosses. I suppose, at the time, some of that was fear of failure. However, a large portion of why we were afraid to move forward with our dream was that the opportunities we looked into somehow didn’t feel right or didn’t seem to fit. To a big degree, it was the free continuing training and mentoring that helped us finally make a decision, but it was also the “team” mentality that our mentors brought to the table that helped “seal the deal” so-to-speak. The comradery that a team offers in and of itself is valuable. But there are far more advantages to that approach in a business than the obvious.

Our team participates in nightly calls Monday through Thursdays and during that time, we accomplish a great deal. We are able to pose questions, get opinions from other business owners and offer input of our own. My husband and I call these valuable phone calls our B.S. sessions—Brain Storming Sessions. And out of those calls, we bring away a feeling of being part of a great company with top-notch people.

Additionally, we bring away beneficial insights as to how to more efficiently run our business, ways to market for low or no cost, ideas of new ways to gain exposure and recommendations for great websites and other information such as books or videos. If a member of our team is done with a particular book or movie, they offer to make it available to other members. That way, we all can share materials with a minimum of investment. We also role play with one team member being a prospect and another being the business owner. This lets us get genuine feedback on what we might say in a particular situation with a potential client.

We discuss important aspects of the company we all are members of—things that separate it from other opportunities out there. This also gives us added value in what we can share with prospects. The members of our team, obviously, all have different backgrounds, come from different places and possess different levels of experience and skills. In a lot of cases, this is just what we need as new team members are coming aboard all the time and it gives them the opportunity to hear many owner’s thoughts and experiences and what has and hasn’t worked for them. It also gives the team members a chance to be exposed to additional uplifting attitudes and serves to reinforce what is important in any small or home-based business.

Each team member pitches in in different areas. Some will offer to speak on an area of marketing they are exceptional at, others will offer ways they have managed to be successful with advertising and still others will lead a call on how the program that we sell has helped them personally. We also discuss co-op marketing opportunities and any of us who want to be a part of it can opt in. This can extend your reach with minimal investment in many areas of marketing. All of the input is priceless to us in our day-to-day operation of our business and we are always happy when we can bring something to the table as well. I should state that these calls are not mandatory in our business. They are strictly on a participate if you want to basis. But there really isn’t a single team member who misses out on those calls barring some emergency or prior important family commitment. We all look forward to them and have come to think of the team members as friends as well.

If you are looking for an opportunity, I highly recommend you choose one that offers this same “team” mentality. If you are already a home business owner, maybe you can suggest this type of participation from others who are working in the same business. It is incalculable in it’s value and presents a fresh mindset to you daily. If you can add this to your home business experience, you will find that being able to touch base with others and share experiences, ideas and approaches, as well as the sense of comradery, is a bonus you will find immeasurable.

About the Author

Tami Stodghill was the Press-Relations manager, for a world-wide extensible-technology distributor based in London and the US for 20 years. She was also a freelance writer for several industry publications and is now a home-based business owner with WMI. She makes her home in Page-Lake Powell, Arizona, in the summers and Palm Harbor, Florida in the winters where she enjoys boating and reading, camping, hiking and meeting new people. She runs a blog site exclusively to offer tips for success for any small or home-based business.