Joyce Weiss

I work with organizations and individuals who want to kick conflict and chaos to the curb - Queen of Conflict Resolution and Communication Coach

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What do You do to Engage Employees?

What do you do to engage employees?
What do you do immediately to engage new employees?  These are two questions that I will be asking participants for my next Team Building Training.  Someone in the audience usually gives a sarcastic answer – keep negative team members away from new hires so they are not influenced by these toxic people.  There’s a lot of truth to this statement!

The ideas below were given to me by a group of HR professionals.  I look forward to hearing what you do to engage employees.

Engage Employees Strategy #1:  Make Them Feel Welcome Immediately engaged employees

  • Organize a staff lunch on the first day to greet new team members
  • Ask the team to describe how departments interact with each other
  • Meet with the new hires to assess their training goals and needs

Engage Employees Strategy #2:  Remove New Job Jitters

  • Provide a mentor for the new hire to job shadow
  • Invite new employees to attend meetings in all departments to make their roles clear
  • New employees will meet with mentors daily for at least a week to answer questions
  • Communicate clear written expectations and consequences to remove confusion

Let’s get Real on How to Engage Employees!team building lessons, engaged employees

I realize that some of you may be thinking that your company doesn’t have the time to do all of the strategies above to engage employees.  All I ask is for you to take a look at your turnover.  If it’s low you are probably using some of these ideas.  If the revolving door syndrome is apparent, it may be time to implement these techniques.  Remember – these are being used in the best and brightest place to work to engage employees.

Find more ideas on how to engage employees in our Team Building Knowledge Base.

I want to hear from you

Add comments to the blog on what is and what is not working when you create initiatives on how to engage employees.  You will receive a response from me because I enjoy connecting with my loyal readers! 🙂  You are always welcome to send me a private email with concerns that you are experiencing at work.

Please share this and any article that speaks to you or your company.  Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts. Help us help them reduce conflict and improve leadership skills and quality of life.

This is Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

Do you want to discover how Joyce can help you improve your organization’s communication?
Visit our team building services page to remove barriers, reduce stress and engage employees.

Until next time, Remember…”You Get What You Tolerate!”

 

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Hiring Strategies to Improve Communication in the Workplace

How to improve communication is always a topic that my clients want me to cover in training or coaching projects.
Here are 3 questions to get us started:

  1.  Have you ever hired a loser?
  2. What did you learn from this experience?
  3. What are your favorite interview questions?

The answers to the questions above were discussed in my last group coaching training with Department Managers and Leaders.  This article will cover all 3 questions.  I look forward to hearing about your own best practices that work for your company.

Hiring Strategies to Improve Communication #1:  Know the Cost of a Bad Hire improve communication

  • Interview time
  • Reference checking time
  • Manager training time
  • Potential customer problems

The important thing is to realize the cost of a bad hire.  This happens to all of us at times.  We were caught off guard because the person came so highly recommended or you may have needed a body immediately because of a timely project and the person in charge just quit.

Hiring Strategies to Improve Communication #2:  Learn From the Experience improve communication

Participants in the training shared the following mistakes and what they learned:

  • To evaluate the candidate even if he or she is a close friend
  • To put your ego aside and don’t hire a candidate just because he or she is like you
  • To look at both the personality and skill set of the candidate
  • To make sure that the hiring manager has enough information about the job

I can see many of you shake your heads right now, because you may have made the same mistakes.

An HR Professional told us that he hired someone because he was so impressed with the resume and missed obvious flaws in the candidate’s personality.  We can teach skills, it’s a challenge to show someone how to be a good team player.

Hiring Strategies to Improve Communication #3:  Use Creative Interview Questions

  • Describe a typical workday at your previous/current job.
    This is the time when you can hear if there’s a lot of blame or negativity.
  • Tell me about the best boss that you ever had.
    You can see if there’s leadership potential.
  • How would your coworkers describe you?
    Go deep here.  Ask the candidate for specific examples when he or she tells you about the positive qualities.
  • Did you ever have to deal with a coworker who didn’t pull his or her weight?
    This question may uncover how the candidate handles conflict.

Share these 3 hiring strategies to improve communication with your team to discuss new ways to make the hiring process as productive as possible.  Stay tuned for future articles that contain information about interviewing strategies, orientation options, and performance appraisals.

I want to hear from you!
Send me your biggest mistake in hiring or interviewing candidates.  Let us know your best hiring practices. You can respond directly to the blog or send me an email HERE.  

 

This is Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

 

Remember…You Get What You Tolerate!

P.S.  Read more articles and listen to podcasts at our Team Building Strategies Knowledge Base

 

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A Motivational Quote: Advice From the Sea

I was snorkeling with my family over the holidays and saw the motivational quote below on a tree near the beach.  Those of you who know me or my work will see that the last statement is the one that caught my attention-Make Waves!

motivational quote| Joyce Weiss|Communication Strategist | Coach

This motivational quote is very powerful.  We make waves when we feel confident and use strategies to have tough conversations will almost anyone.  It takes courage and it’s always a risk to tell others what they need to hear and not necessarily want to hear.  🙂

Start making your conversation safe by using – I don’t want/I do want.  For example:  “I don’t want to cause stress between us.  I do want to discuss the importance of boundaries in our relationship.”  This sets the stage and hopefully, the conversation will be productive.  This is a great way to start off many of our difficult conversations.

Read more motivational quotes and articles on effective communication.

I want to hear from you

Send me your questions or comments on what is and what is not working when you have tough conversations.
You will receive a response from me because I enjoy connecting with my loyal readers! 🙂

Please share this and any article that speaks to you or your company.

Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts. Help us help them reduce conflict and improve leadership skills and quality of life.

Read more articles and listen to podcasts at our Knowledge Base Page Conflict in the Workplace.

 

This is Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

Until next time, Remember…”You Get What You Tolerate!”

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Exclusive Communication Skills at Work™ #4-Use Certain Words to Help You Be Direct with Respect®

 

https://youtu.be/tHh36NP93w0

Hi there and thanks for joining me again to read my latest blog post!

As you may know, I created a premier program called Communication Skills at Work™ that is designed for anyone on the corporate ladder for career advancement or resolving conflict in their workplace.

Below you will find links to the last three blogs, I shared about powerful content clients will learn from Communication Skills at Work:

Week One:  The Importance of Be Direct with Respect® in the Work Place

Week Two: Use Constructive Feedback to Get Necessary Results

Week Three:  Protecting Yourself when Others Push Your Hot Buttons.

This week I’ll preview the fourth chapter of the program: Use Certain Words to Help You Be Direct with Respect®.

In addition to the program manual and self-study guide, I offer full phone coaching depending on your budget and time frame. Read here for all the details.

Now, let’s dive in and talk about why it’s so important to Use Certain words to Help You Be Direct with Respect®.

Learner Objectives for Week Four

  • How to ask for what you need, build self-esteem, and Analyze childhood messagesCommunication Skills at Work
  • How to change a negative self-image to use Be Direct with Respect
  • Questions to ask to Be Direct with Respect
  • Build trust to use Be Direct with Respect

My favorite quote about communication is one from Martin Luther King Jr.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

The following guidelines will help you strengthen your communication:

  • Remove but and replace it with and.
  • Use I statements as often as possible and forget about using YOU statements.  I promise not to turn you into a narcissist using this strategy!  Using the word you tends to make the other person defensive.
  • Don’t get sidetracked. Here is an example showing you why Be Direct with Respect is so powerful:

     The Aggressive Approach:
“You embarrassed me in front of our department when you told them about my speeding ticket.”

     The Be Direct with Respect Approach:
“I was embarrassed when the group heard about my speeding ticket because I told you that in confidence.”

Be Direct with Respect helps participants feel more confident because the technique is easy to learn and the results are long-lasting.  People use this strategy to build trust and earn respect from anyone on the corporate ladder.

Week Four consists of several activities to help you discover your communication strengths and areas of improvement.

Week Four ends with a Final Project that we plan together

Communication Skills at Work

This is where we take all of the skills learned in the course and put them into practice.  We explore a tough situation that needs to be resolved and design a realistic course of action.

Participants who take the course use their own case scenarios and we practice together until they feel confident to use this valuable strategy on their own.  I am here 24/7 via email.  This coach is dedicated to each client’s success! 😊

Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog. I love receiving questions and comments, so please feel free to contact me or leave a comment!

Until next time,
Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

And again, if Communication Skills at Work sounds like something that could help you or your company, check out this link for more information or contact me here.

I look forward to assisting you in your Communication Skills at Work learning experience and watching how you grow your new skills to create the positive changes in your life you deserve!

Reducing conflict is like riding a bike:  Shift gears to successfully navigate life’s potholes, ruts, and obstacles.

 

 

 

 

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Exclusive Communication Skills at Work™ #3-Protecting Yourself When Others Push Your Hot Buttons

 

https://youtu.be/Hbh-A3tlbaQ

Hi there and thanks for joining me to read my latest blog post!

Check out the links below that I shared last week on the powerful ideas clients will learn from
Week One:  The Importance of Be Direct with Respect® in the Work Place
Week Two:  Use Constructive Feedback to Get Necessary Results.

As you may know, I have created a premier program called Communication Skills at Work™ that helps people “own their own career.”

This week I would like to give you a preview of the third chapter of this program: Protecting Yourself When Others Push Your Hot Buttons.

In addition to the program manual and self-study guide, I offer full phone coaching depending on your budget and time frame. Read more here for all the details.

Now, let’s dive in and talk about why it’s so important to Protect Yourself when Others Push Your Hot Buttons.

Learner Objectives for Week Threecommunication skills at work

  • Master Verbal Aikido and understand the concepts behind it
  • Regularly practice empathy and put yourself in the other person’s shoes
  • Be accountable when things go wrong and avoid the need to explain or defend yourself
  • Take risks and be confident when speaking up
  • Learn how to respectfully say NO

What do you do when someone says something that pushes your button or is unkind?

Do you:

  • Defend yourself?
  • Become silent?
  • Think about the perfect response on the way home?
  • Say something you wished you hadn’t said?

Week Three will help you protect yourself and prepare your for the next time someone attacks you verbally.

Verbal Aikido is the Key Communication Skills at Work

Verbal Aikido is like verbal martial arts.  The winner pulls away and is the stronger one.  Using Aikido helps you diplomatically deal with difficult people.

Here’s a classic story that illustrates this powerful strategy.
When Senator Robert Kennedy was selected to be Attorney General, he knew that the press was going to push him.

A journalist asked, “Senator Kennedy, what gives you the right to be Attorney General of the United States?”  Senator Kennedy responded by saying, “That’s a great question.  You have to go to a good school, know a lot of people and have a brother who’s President of the United States.”

The press pulled back and laughed.  Robert Kennedy was prepared.  The idea is not to push back the person by getting defensive.  Take a deep breath and think about how to respond in a positive way.  You will be in the driver’s seat!

Week Three consists of several activities to give you the ability to say NO so you can set boundaries for yourself.  I receive a lot of positive feedback on this strategy.

People who take the course use their own case scenarios, and we practice together until they feel confident to use this valuable strategy on their own.  I am here 24/7 via email.  This coach is dedicated to each client’s success! 😊

Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog. Please feel free to send your questions or comments to me.  I love hearing from you!

And again, if Communication Skills at Work™ sounds like something that could help you or your company, check out this link for more information or contact me here.

Until next time,
Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

Career Advancement is like riding a bike:  Shift gears from coasting to owning the road!

 

 

 

Contact Joyce

Email: joyce@joyceweiss.com
Phone: 248-681-5831