5 free ways to have happy thriving employees

People don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers.  The number one reason cited in exit interviews is "poor supervisory behavior." In other words, bad bosses.   Poor leadership can plague any industry, for-profit or not-for profit.  The for profit world is pursuing profit, and the non-profit world is pursuing social change but if you think for one second that a career "doing good" gives you a hall pass from a bad boss, think again. Here's the good news what motivates employees isn't money.   Want to learn more?  Watch this video of a Dan Pink lecture and find out. Want to know what really motivates your employees?  Be brave, ask.  Do a survey.  Ask your employees to rank in order what are the most important to them: compensation, mission, leadership, core values, autonomy, praise/recognition, and future opportunities for growth.  It's important to ask. Asking makes your employees feel valued and respected.  It's also important because what motivates each of us is different.  And that includes you!

My recipe for getting your employees excited to come to work everyday is 5 ingredients:

1) Trust them and show it.  Here's a great example of this: Evaluate your employees by their results, not how many hours they put in.  This means trusting your direct reports to get the job done with the freedom to work from home or take flex time.

2) Give them praise that is specific, prompt and meaningful.  Have a hard time remembering to do this?  Let's assume you have 5 direct reports.  Start the day with 5 coins in your right pocket.  Every time you praise one of your direct reports, move one coin to the other pocket.

3) Make it fun. Hold staff retreats on a monthly basis and trade off who plans it.  Even on a tiny budget you can have a great time.

4) Communicate!  The fastest way to change a behavior is with immediate feedback (just like your praise).  Be  fast (speak to the employee within hours of the event happening) and be specific and constructive.   Also, meet with your direct reports weekly.   It can be as quick as a 30 minute meeting but never save your frustrations for a quarterly or an annual review.  Those reviews should have NO SURPRISES in them because you should be communicating your constructive feedback weekly to your reports.

5) Take the pieces of your culture that everyone loves and document it.  Share it in your employee orientation so people know right away what kind of culture they are walking into, i.e.  what the rules are, what is rewarded and what's expected of them.

Leading others an incredible responsibility and opportunity.  It is humbling to be entrusted with someone’s career.  Make it great!

Stay classy,

Rachel

The Power of Money and Positive Thinking

I love watching the you tube video of Jessica, a happy carefree little girl sing about how much she likes her house, her family and her hair. I found out recently from my friend Vicki Flaugher, the genius behind Smartwoman Guides that this video was actually shot 9 years ago by her dad. Follow Vicki, she's doing an upcoming interview with Jessica! Like everyone, watching this video puts a big fat smile on my face. It makes me want to do a silly dance on my bathroom counter too, why not? The viral success of this video can teach us a lot about creating great content and spreading it but I like it because Jessica's message is a powerful reminder: are we feeding ourselves the good stuff? How many times in a day do you say out loud or too yourself "I can't do that" or "I'd suck at that" or "I don't have time for that" or "God, I look fat." STOP. You are hurting yourself. Take a lesson from Jessica; start feeding yourself the good stuff. When you say negative things to yourself, in your head or out loud it's like giving your self a negative affirmation all day long. Think its just about feeling fat in a dress? Wrong. It spills over into every piece of your life: self-confidence, beauty, health/wellness, relationships and work.

Speaking of work, I've had the pleasure of spending most of my professional life as an entrepreneur raising money. What does thinking positive have to do with that? Everything.

I've raised over 10 million dollars in my career. I love raising money. One of my favorite books about raising money is The Soul Of Money by Lynne Twist. Lynn spent her career in fundraising and in volunteer work for organizations like The Hunger Project. Her book is all about viewing money as a spiritual agent. According to her, there are 3 toxic myths of scarcity. 1) There’s not enough, hence we on on a shaky foundation of insecurity that drives our every decision 2) More is better, so we're voraciously seeking more but never feel satiated. 3) That’s just the way it is.  Hello apathy.

My career in fundraising has allowed me to see infinite interpretations of the power of money. For me, making an ask is being in a scared place with another human being I've successfully engaged in the mission of the work I am doing and the act of the ask is deeply personal conversation about how that individual wants to be significant. Fear about scarcity is like pouring acid on the conversation. It keeps people from being present, from being positive and from being successful.

What is your relationship with money? Are you chasing it, not feeling fulfilled? The most empowering way to change that is stop, take stock, and figure out what’s enough. Find the things that make you fulfilled and then use the overflow from that to make the world a better place.

Pretty soon you may be like Jessica singing about how much you like your cousins, your house and your hair.

Stay classy,

Rachel

Core values: if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything

One of the greatest lessons I have learned as a leader is the importance of core values.  Core values are the foundation of how you and everyone in your company conduct themselves.  They are the enduring things that would remain if you took away everything else.  Core values require no external justification.  They are not trendy; they are primary.  They are not strategies or goals; they do not change every quarter.  They are the filter through which you conduct yourself at work.  They determine how you treat others and guide you through difficult decisions. For some, core values are nothing more than a marketing gimmick. Case in point: Enron.  Enron’s values seem like a cruel joke now:  respect, integrity, communication and excellence.  How about Dell’s?  In a nutshell the ‘Soul of Dell’ is advertised as: customers, teamwork, being direct, global citizenship, and winning.  To me those values translate to hard work, long hours, high expectations, and difficult conversations.  Even though they are called the “soul” they don’t feel soulful.

I’m especially proud of the core values we created at Girlstart, http://www.girlstart.org/values.asp They were the framework through which we treated one another and we made every decision.  One of our core values is "No success at work is worth failure at home."  How many people ignore this lesson?  How many CEO's consistently expect their employees to put work over family?  Another one of our core values that I am especially proud of is “Have fun and enjoy the experience.”

When do you need to start creating core values?  As soon as you are ready to take your company to the next level.  When your company is small and starting out, members' values and behaviors are affected through proximity to the leader. The need for articulating core values becomes increasingly apparent as you grow. Defining core values helps maintain the culture the company holds dear.  Once defined, the values should be prominently displayed for employees and clients and reinforced through both the hiring process and in employee evaluations.

They should be short, enduring and memorable.  More than 5 core values are difficult to memorize.  Companies are wise to stick to 3-5 key values. Every company should reflect on them frequently to make sure they are living by them and check and see if they have changed so much as a company that a revisit is warranted.

The best leaders exhibit their values and ethics everyday in their leadership style and actions. If you don’t identify your values in the workplaces, mistrust follows.  People don't know what they can expect from their leaders.  If leaders have identified and shared their values and are living those values daily that visibility will create trust.

What does your company stand for?  Are core values given lip service as marketing jargon or does your leadership live and breathe them?

Here's to keeping it meaningful-

Rachel