Inside Out
Business Edition
You can't change the direction of the wind.....
but you can adjust your sails!
--Jimmy Dean

Kim Olver, MS, NCC, LPC

www.Coachingforexcellence.biz
Kim@Coachingforexcellence.biz

*If you are interested in receiving "Inside Out--- Personal Edition", please subscribe at www.TheRelationshipCenter.biz *

In This Issue

Feature Article

Ten Reasons to Implement Choice Theory in Your Organization
By Kim Olver

What is Choice Theory (CT)? CT is a theory of the explanation of human behavior. CT has applicability to both a person’s personal and professional life. It teaches us about our five basic needs, how to meet those needs in a responsible way, and how to take personal responsibility for getting those needs met.

I have assisted many companies with implementing the concepts and principles of Choice Theory (CT) in the workplace over the years. Their reasons ranged from mere curiosity to desiring a total immersion of their company into the concepts and principles of CT. Those companies that were committed to learning the CT model and implementing it correctly received better than expected results.

One of the elements of implementing CT in the workplace is to put the three conditions of quality in place. Those three conditions are:

1. Create a need-satisfying environment for your employees.

a. Employees need to feel connected to each other, management and the mission and vision of your company.

b. Employees need to feel empowered by having their opinions sought out and listened to and having their work respected.

c. Workers need to feel safe on the job. This pertains to their emotional, as well as physical safety.

d. Workers need to have the ability to make choices and exercise some independence within the definition of their jobs.

e. Workers need to experience some fun and learning on the job.

2. Workers must only be asked to do useful and meaningful work. If this is not clear, management must take the time to explain it if quality is what you are seeking.

3. Finally, workers need to be asked to self-evaluate their work. This self-evaluation component is far beyond the scope of this article but suffice it to say that two main components are required for employees to be able to accurately and honestly self-evaluate.

a. There must not be fear in the workplace. If employees believe that management will hurt them with the information shared during self-evaluation, then management can hardly expect honesty.

b. Also, there must be a very clear and definite matrix of what quality looks like. The employee must have an ideal with which to compare their work.

When these components and others are added to the workplace, you can expect:

1. Increased employee satisfaction. Employees will be taught that they have the potential, capability and responsibility to personally get their five basic needs met. This awareness will result in a decrease of a sense of victimization and complaining, because employees will be focused on solutions they can implement instead of the problems that exist.

2. A unified approach to conceptualization of issues. Once all your employees understand CT, they will be conceptualizing problems in the same way. This unified approach will decrease a lot of competition among your employees and will result in the creation of a unified, cohesive and committed group of workers who believe in the direction your company is headed.

3. Room for individuals’ strengths and unique approaches. CT is a framework within which to operate that encourages people’s personal expression. Employees will be able to include their unique and creative talents, as long as they don’t conflict with CT principles.

4. More effective communication. When everyone in your company understands the basic framework for conceptualizing human behavior, then communication is enhanced. There will be fewer misunderstandings because all are speaking the same language.

5. Less employee stress. Many employees experience stress on the job. This usually comes from a lack of understanding about responsibilities. CT assists employees to understand that the only person they can control is themselves. Once people stop expending energy trying to change people or circumstances beyond their control and instead begin to focus on what adaptive response they can take, stress levels dramatically decrease.

6. Decreased employee turnover. When management learns the steps to create a need- satisfying environment for employees, while holding them accountable for their work, employees become dedicated and committed to the work they do. When people are in environments that meet their five basic needs, there is motivation to stay in that environment.

7. Increased creativity. When employees work in an environment created by their employer that allows for self-expression and encourages personal power, limitless creativity is unleashed, which often results in business improvement and expansion.

8. Enhanced relationships. CT teaches people to get their needs met without interfering with others meeting their needs. When this happens, the status of their current personal and professional relationships improves both at work and at home. The possibilities are endless!

9. Improved services to customers. Using CT/RT, employees assist customers to clarify what it is they want and to evaluate the best ways for getting there. Customers appreciate this approach, which will improve customer satisfaction, resulting in repeat business and an increase in referrals.

10. Decreased Resistance/Increased Cooperation. When CT is implemented in the workplace, employees become less resistant and more cooperative because they are being heard. When we stop pushing people in the direction we think is best and focus instead on building better relationships, resistance is decreased and cooperation is increased.

If you are interested in learning about implementing CT in your company, click on the link below for the teleclass “Creating an Environment for Peak Performance”.

Copyright © April, 2005 Kim Olver. All rights reserved.

*Click here or to read some of Kim's other articles*

Upcoming Events

April 19, 2005 10:00 a.m. - Creating an Environment for Peak Performance
Are you a CEO, executive director, business owner or manager who is experiencing any of the following: a lack of trust, gossiping, low performance, high turnover, resistance, poor communication or a lack of cooperation among your employees? Do you find that prior methods of leadership aren’t having the same effect as in the past? Learn ways to inspire your team to reach their highest potential. During this 60-minute teleclass we will discuss how to address this goal by creating an environment for peak performance.

April 21, 2005 10:00 a.m. -How to Master the Challenges of "No Child Left Behind"
School Administrators who are having difficulty implementing the “No Child Left Behind” legislation. Are students getting more difficult to manage behaviorally? Do you have students who just don’t grasp or apply themselves in academic work? Are you trying to do more with an ever shrinking budget? What if there actually was a program that worked with your most difficult students and also helped the teachers to structure their classrooms to create an environment where everyone can learn? There is.
Just imagine:

1) Teachers learn strategies for reducing and managing discipline problems in their classrooms with less stress.

2) Students' scores on standardized testing significantly increase.

3) Your students, including the most difficult ones, begin to demonstrate a greater level of respect and better decision making skills.

If these things were happening in your schools, think of how much easier your job would be.

Book Review

The 8th Habit - By Stephen R. Covey

If you are in business for yourself or a supervisor at your job and haven’t read The 8th Habit yet, don’t delay. Pick up a copy of this wonderful book today! Stephen Covey is also author of the world renowned, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which has been read by individuals and companies everywhere. The 8th Habit provides a beautifully written model for leading today’s information age workers to greatness.

Covey presents a whole person approach to leadership. He tells us that we have to attend to four complete areas of a person’s being---heart, mind, body and spirit. He asserts that in today’s Information age, our knowledge workers are the single most important asset to a company. We must stop attempting to manage our workers as if they were a thing, a commodity. When we attend to our workers’ heart, mind, body and spirit on the job, worker satisfaction will rise and retention will increase.

The critical challenge in today’s world is to find our own voice and then influence others to find theirs. In The 8th Habit, Covey tells us how. So many workers feel frustrated, disheartened, unappreciated, distrusted and alienated---with no sense of contributing to the whole. By looking at timeless principles, Covey shows people how to lead in a way that inspires, not requires.

Covey’s whole person---heart, mind, body and spirit---paradigm is carried out further in the model of finding your voice and then inspiring others to find their voice. It is passion, vision, discipline and conscience which help an individual to find his or her own voice; while empowering, path finding, aligning and modeling are the skill sets that inspire others to find their voice. Covey does a masterful job of weaving these components together for an innovative, strongly developed paradigm for leading others in the new Information Age with wisdom and the abundance mentality.

The other unique attribute of this book is that it comes complete with a DVD of several short film clips to further illustrate the lessons of each chapter. These wonderful visual tools provide the reader with something extra to bring the contents of the chapter to life.

If you are in any way a person who finds yourself leading others then you must add this book to your collection.

To order this book click here

Quote of the Week

"People are definitely a company’s greatest asset.
It doesn't make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics.
A company is only as good as the people it keeps."

--Mary Kay Ash

Question: I am a middle management supervisor and am attempting to implement the lead management principles I learned in your training. I am having difficulty though because the management of my company is definitely boss management. How do I stay true to lead management when I am being managed by boss managers?---Name withheld by request

Answer: Excellent question! This is truly a challenge but definitely NOT impossible. In any given situation, there are at least three choices summed up simply as you could: 1) leave it, 2) change it, or 3) accept it. Now, lets look at what each of those options might look like in your situation.

1. If you leave it, this may mean that you find another job or you relinquish the idea of implementing lead management principles in your organization. Develop the “If you can’t beat them, join them” mentality.
2. If you change it, this would look like you are attempting to get management to understand the value of lead management. You might attempt to get them to attend a seminar, read a book or hear your own presentation about why lead management is so effective.
3. Finally, the last choice is accept it. Accepting it is where you get to when you decide you do not want to leave it and you have been unsuccessful at changing it. When you accept it, you would realize that management is invested in doing things the way they always have been doing it. They are probably not going to see things your way and make massive policy changes. Now, you are left with the question, “Whose behavior can you control?” The obvious answer: only your own. This being the case, the most important question to ask yourself is what kind of manager do you want to be? If you are truly committed to being a lead manager then, you would continue to behave in the way of a leader rather than an autocratic boss regardless of the way you are being treated.

The name of this eZine is “Inside Out” for a reason. The motivation for your behavior should be coming from the inside out. What is in you that is dictating the way you want to behave and treat people? Once you have identified that, you know your target. Next, you establish the course needed to get to your target and you don’t allow anything to deviate you from that course.

I know this is not an easy path to walk, however, it is often those situations that challenge us the most that help us to grow into that person we truly want to be. If it were easy, what would be the point anyway?