Employee Keepers

Look at the grid on the lower left of page 2 of the Leadership Survey.
Do you see the vertical line created in the center of the squares?
This line has significance when it comes to your primary style.
Leaders who have a primary style that is to the right of the line, like to provide most of the energy and direction.
Those on the left, like to get the followers more involved.
This is significant, as we all like to lead from where we are comfortable.
So, if a follower needs you to supply the direction and energy in a situation and your primary style is to let the follower provide most of the energy and direction, you may not give the follower what they need at the time they need it.
This has long term effects as well. If you do not give your follower what they need on a long term basis, you will create shallow culture in your organization, Shallow cultures are as not porductive as deep, rich ones.

More insights tomorrow.

Curt
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Fears:
Public Speaking
Change
Death
These are the top three fears ranked, in order, by a group of average folks, just like you and I. They were picked from dozens of potential responses. I use this in training quite a bit, because it illustrates how hard it is for people to change.
We are looking at it now because we just identified where we are most comfortable in our leadership style. Most leaders would rather die than change, just like everyone else. Not literally, but we sure act like it at times. A reasons we identify our Primary Leadership Style is it tells us how much we may have to change to be an effective leader. The distance you have to go depends on the situation and how entrenched you are in your primary style. If you catch yourself saying, “That will never work” when we suggest an adaptive strategy, you likely need to move a long way from your primary style.
Keep those fears in mind as we dig a little deeper.

“We must become the change we want to see” –Ghandi

Curt.

If you have taken the Leadership Survey, here are a couple of fine points. First, the leadership style that shows in your “Your Primary Style is…” area is the highest score from the four square grid on the left. If you have a tie, your tendencies are split. You also probably have a secondary style or styles. It, or they, would be any other box that has a score of two or more. In the next couple of days we will explore your primary style and then the primary-secondary combination.

This is really fun stuff. The best part is it works. When you learn the secrets of adapting your leadership style to the situation in which you find your employee, you become more effective as a leader. Most of us have more responsibilities than leading people in our day to day activities. The two others we most commonly find are:
· Keeping sharp on the technical aspects of your position.
· Visioning the direction of that which you are managing. (Department, division, business, etc.)

It has been my experience that the visioning is almost always the first victim of ineffective people leading. The excess time ineffectiveness takes is drawn from the vision bank. That is really, really bad as one of the key ingredients to success is planning.

More particulars tomorrow.

Curt

Find out for free. Take the “Personal Leadership Style Assessment” by clicking here. It is self scoring. Just answer the questions and press “next” at the bottom left. You will gain valuable insigts into how you lead. In subsequent articles, learn how to use this information to enhance your effectiveness.

Happy Holidy Weekend,

Curt

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
William James

Need we say more?

Have a great holiday weekend. Then get that unfinished “stuff” handled!!!

Curt

So, I am reading this report that has Service Advisors/Consultants making $54,000 per year (NADA average). A U.S. government site says $35,000 to /$53,000 and another site says $39,000 to $58,000. Today’s question for you is this: Are these agencies in the ball park as far as income range?
One thing I know for sure, it is a growing industry segment. Crazy, eh? All we hear is gloom and doom in the automotive industry, yet some areas are growing. That same report said that by 2013 we will be short about 5,000 people to do the job.
If we do the math, cars are lasting longer and there are fewer dealers to repair them than ever. There is no question that this job description has a solid looking future. And, just like any growing industry…the cream will raise to the top. Keep trained in all phases of your job and watch your income grow.
Let us know what you think and have a great weekend.

Here is a little something from the front page of the Automotive News today
“The UAW says it has reached a tentative new contract with General Motors and the U.S. Treasury Department aimed at helping the automaker restructure. The terms include reworking $20 billion in debt owed to a UAW-administered retiree health care trust known as a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, the union said in a statement today.”
I never thought I would see the words U.S. Treasury Department in the same paragraph as UAW and General Motors. But that brings something else to mind. What do you think about the marriage of big business and big government? Write a response, we would love see your opinion.

We just got back from two days of seminars with the good folks of upper Michigan. I can tell you that the service business is alive and well around the 45th Parallel. We held the meetings at BJ’s restaurant and catering in beautiful Gaylord Michigan Kudos to BJ’s, great food, service, meeting facilities…just everything!!!! We enjoyed great support from the General Motors region as well. We extend a special thank you to Jack, Ken and Duane. I will post some practical nuggets when the notes are all filtered. That will be as early as tomorrow afternoon.
Until then, Rock On!!!

So many people have been asking me about this lately, I thought it would be a good idea to make it easy for you to view. Here it is. Talk about changing a culture…

P.S. if you see a little red x in the upper left hand corner of a white box instead of a picture, put your mouse pointer on it and right click and select “view or download picture”

A couple of quotes to leave with you for the weekend. Funny how leadership, teaching and culture seem to pop up so often together. Happy May!!!

“Leadership is not something you do to people,
it’s something you do with people.”
Dr. Ken Blanchard
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“Leadership is the art of accomplishing more
than the science of management says is possible.”
General Colin Powell
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“For most of us, leadership happens one day when you become a boss
and the rules change. Before, your job was about yourself, now it’s about them.
Jack Welch􀁄􀁅
“Leaders who gather followers add to what they can accomplish.
Leaders who develop leaders multiply their ability.”
John Maxwell􀁄􀁅
“The words leader and educator are synonymous.”
Larry Wilson
And my favorite:
“Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say “We have done this ourselves”.”
Lau Tsu