Blog

By Amber Cooper, MHRM Every manager has been there.  One of their team isn’t meeting expectations, or has done something that requires them to have the “difficult” conversation with them. There are many reasons a manager/owner may hesitate giving constructive feedback – they may be “friends” with their team members, they may be fearful of the reaction, or they may not have the time (to name a few).  Whatever the reason, the implications of not providing feedback far outweigh that moment or two of discomfort delivering the feedback.  Specifically, your team member may impact your customers with their continuing performance issue, the resentment might grow in you  and lead to a less calm discussion and, perhaps most importantly, you are not providing your team member with valuable information that will support their development. When applying the principle of “help first”, think of what that means to your own team.  We all want solid performers working for us.  Often that requires you, as an owner or manager, to support your team in getting to that performance level. To help you in delivering that message, think about providing factual feedback, not judgmental feedback.  A simple model for delivering constructive feedback is as follows:         Describe the current behavior         Describe the impact of the behavior         Identify alternative behaviors         Listen (what are their concerns, ask them to summarize back next steps to ensure understanding and offer ongoing support/ confidence in them) An example, rather than: Your coaching of that class was crappy today (Judgement, not specific, what does crappy mean, what do you want them to do) Try instead: Sally, today I noticed you lacked enthusiasm and energy in your class.  When you lack enthusiasm, and don’t engage, customers can see that and they were losing interest because they see your lack of interest.  If you aren’t feeling energized at the beginning of class what are some things you can do to get focused?  What ...

By Brian Alexander owner of CrossFit Illumine and TwoBrain Mentor It is our ability to adapt that defines us, and exposes our true character. Truly successful people are confident that they could be thrown into any situation and end up right side up every time. It is that confidence that radiates through certain individuals. Those are the resilient.  They are never victims because they believe they have the power to take control and adapt. Life doesn’t simply just happen to us.  We have a complex relationship with the circumstances and outcomes of our lives and experiences. Things will never be perfect and people will always view the world through different lenses. When difficult realities arise you must adapt, you must embrace change and you must be resilient. Be very weary of giving up.  For it is the things that we do frequently that we become very good at.  It becomes a part of you, a part of your character.  Never quit when things don’t go exactly your way. You are better than that. We are better than that. Those who do not embrace change must then embrace mediocrity. Our ability to adapt and roll with the punches is what defines us. Keep moving forward.

Why do things always seem to go wrong in your business? When looking at how you make decisions do you consider what has lead to the place that you are making the decision? Do you have the option of making this decision or are you forced to make it because you see no other options? I remember a time where I was coaching a minimum of 6 hours a day. I was burnt out and was, over time, providing less and less value in every class. I wished that someone would walk through the door and put their hand up to say that they would like to coach. I had no plan to find a qualified coach nor did I have a system that would prevent me from making a mistake when hiring a new coach. My wish came true and someone came to me to say that they would like to coach! Fantastic I thought! “You are in, you can have all my morning classes”.  I walked away with a sigh of relief; this was going to solve all my problems. Remember, my problem was simply that I didn’t want to coach so much any more. So having a new “coach” was everything I needed, right? Nope. This person turned out to not have the qualifications or people skills I required, and had a different approach to how I wanted the class to be run.  The decision turned out to be a complete disaster and I had no one to blame but myself. The decision to hire came from pure desperation to solve my perceived problem.  I should have first developed systems and procedures for hiring, firing, contracts, how to run a class, coaches responsibilities, and a code of ethics.  Had I done this, I would not have lost clients and it would have prevented the negative impact on my reputation.The importance of mitigating bad decisions cannot be over ...