Have you wondered how some companies are able to remain strong and seemingly able to withstand almost any external pressure like rising costs and even the threat of a global recession? 

Do these companies have some sort of secret formula? And how do they seem to hold onto great people while many companies are struggling with turnover and trying to find great people.

If you’re experiencing some of these concerns and are hoping to find some answers, grab a notebook and get ready to take some notes as I’m joined by my friend, Ken Trupke.

Busy leaders hire Ken to help them identify the issues preventing them from growing their business, but what I like most about Ken’s approach is that he believes everyone wants to do work that excites them, to be part of something greater than themselves, and to be appreciated.

If you’re new to the podcast, my name is James Mayhew and i started this podcast with one thing in mind:  to help you ensure that every person in your company has the knowledge, skills and confidence to do their jobs exceedingly well.

I’m glad you’re here. Now let’s jump in and learn from Ken Trupke.

You’ve probably heard that people don’t leave bad jobs; they leave because of bad bosses, poor management, and a lack of appreciation of their worth.

It’s cliche, yet it happens all the time and exit interviews confirm it.

Just because you’re in a management or leadership position, the immature, inexperienced or insecure leader incorrectly assumes that the people on their team will automatically respect, listen and follow direction directions. 

It really doesn’t work that way. In fact, it takes a great deal of time, effort and skills to develop trust, let alone build true rapport with your team.

Here’s what doesn’t work.

Constant criticism, sarcasm, micro managing and just being downright cruel in your communication.

Think back to a time in your life when you’ve worked for a manager who routinely shoots down your ideas, doesn’t hear you out, and just overall, is disrespectful to you. It makes you miserable, erodes your confidence and overall, just makes your job intolerable.

This is a recipe for losing your best people. 

But what if there was a better way? A simple, but powerful framework that promises to build trust and rapport?

That framework is the topic for episode 67 where I’m joined once again by my friend and turnaround specialist, Kevin Wormwood where we discuss the power of integrity, dignity and prosperity.

I’m James Mayhew, America’s Chief Culture Officer, and this podcast focuses on helping companies attract and retain great people, improve communication at every level, and boost your bottom line.

Comments, questions or feedback? Send James an email or initiate a conversation using this link: https://calendly.com/mayhew/connect

Contact James directly by calling (319) 929-2604.

There’s a lot of talk about #empathy as one of the most important — if not *the most important — leadership attribute. 

I don’t disagree, except for when it’s not paired with #courage it doesn’t do anything for another person. 

Empathy without courage is like having good intentions without action. 

“Susan, I’m so sorry to hear about your mom last summer. The sympathy card is still on my desk all ready to go… I just keep forgetting to get a stamp and mail it.”

In that scenario, I feel better. But Susan doesn’t. 

It’s likely I’ve just galvanized my relationship with Susan and from her perspective, I don’t really care her. She's clearly not a priority for me. 

Be mindful about your thoughts as your thoughts become your words, and your words become your actions. 

True empathy that’s paired with true courage — especially in a leader — means you say what needs to be said, while being mindful of the other person’s view and emotion. 

It means you don’t delay having the crucial conversation. You make it a priority. 

It means that you're open to how you could have done better. Clearer expectations. Giving helpful feedback. Listening better. 

Courage is the ability to do the thing that frightens you. 

Without it, empathy is just a feeling.

Comments, questions or feedback? Send James an email or initiate a conversation using this link: https://calendly.com/mayhew/connect

Contact James directly by calling (319) 929-2604.

Investing in your company culture will always pay off…

But only when you understand HOW to make culture an accelerator and not a detractor of individual, team and corporate performance. 

Too many leaders of companies are trying to build culture with things like:

• Food Truck Friday’s 
• After hours
• Potlucks and celebrations
• Quarterly awards 
• “Team building” activities 

Don’t get me wrong. These aren’t bad things. Unless…

They’re seen as a deflection from addressing the real concerns that employees have such as:

• Dumb rules and policies
• Bad management 
• Poor hiring decisions
• Tolerating or even promoting bullies (I see this all too often)
• Not having any kind of performance review
• Ideas that aren’t listened to
• Frustrations with old, worn out equipment or technology liked phone systems and computers
• Tolerating gossip by coworkers or managers 

Leaders that won’t address any od these issues, but continuously paint a picture of how great everything is.

Wise leaders know that these issues are the killers of productivity, efficiency, and profit. 

Wise leaders also take ownership for knowing that they’re 100% responsible for it. 

And finally, wise leaders have the humility to know they may need some help to make it happen. 

Then and only then can they be confident that their Investment in their company culture will show up in the bottom line in a powerful way.

Have you ever considered how you come across to others? Is it possible that the way you communicate might be creating some unintended issues between you and other’s? 

On today’s episode I’m going to walk you through the 4 communication styles that exist in every team so you can have more win-win situations.

Hey, Team welcome back to Lead Thru Values.

If you’re new, I’m glad you’re here. You should know that the purpose of this podcast is to help be a better leader and give you practical tips to ensure that every person on your team has the skills, knowledge and confidence to do their job exceptionally well.

If you’re a returning listener, I want to thank you for giving me a few minutes of your day. I’m grateful for you.

Communication can be a real struggle in business as evidenced by these stats:

86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective communication and collaboration as the main cause of workplace failures.

97% of employees believe that communication impacts their performance on a daily basis.

28% of employees cite poor communication as the reason for not delivering their work on time.

A Harvard Business Review report cites that 72% of employees feel their performance would improve if their managers gave them feedback on their work.

Another report by Trade Press Services shows that as many as 85% of employees claim they are most motivated when regularly updated about company news and information. 

There’s a direct connection between communication and employee engagement. According to Gallup, team members with higher levels of engagement:

• Produce substantially better results
• Treat customers better and also attract new customers
• Are more likely to remain with their company
• Are overall healthier and less likely to experience burnout.

However, there are 4 prominent types of behavior that impact the effectiveness of communication in any company.

The first one is Passive Communication.

People who communicate in passive ways tend to give in. They want to keep the peace and they believe the best way to keep the peace is to remain quiet.

As a result, this damages their own self-esteem as the wrestle internally with speaking up or just staying quiet.

In other words, the Passive communicator views the situation as “You’re Ok, but I’m not.”

The second type of behavior style is Aggressive Communication.

People who communicate in an aggressive way look for ways to take advantage of a situation and/or another person.

They tend to talk people down in an effort to damage the other person’s self-esteem. 

They use forceful tones, strong language and body language to attempt to intimidate their counterpart. They see it as adversarial or even combative. 

In short, the outcome they want is that, “I’m OK and you’re not. And I don’t care.” 

The third type of behavior style that impacts communication in the workplace is being Passive-Aggressive.

This one is the most toxic because what’s not being said is what’s actually being said. The passive-aggressive individual pretends to go along with the group. 

• A decision.
• A course of action.
• A strategy.

But, they use tactics like gossip and back biting to tear others down.

They also use non verbal communication such as sighs and eye rolls that don’t match their words.

“I suppose that’s best…” [punctuated with a sigh as they walk away] is an example of passive aggressiveness.

It’s incredibly damaging to a team’s culture as it’s damaging both to the passive aggressive person as well as others.

The mindset of the passive-aggressive individual is, “I’m not OK, and you’re not OK.”

And that takes us to the fourth behavior style

Call James at (319) 929-2604

Connect with James on LinkedIn

Learn more about how James helps companies attract and retain great people, improve how teams work together, increasing employee engagement at JamesMayhew.com

A trillion dollars.

That’s what US businesses are losing every year due to voluntary turnover. 

But here’s a hard truth for you:  most of this is self-inflicted.

Hey, Team welcome back to Lead Thru Values. This podcast exists to help you ensure that every person on your team has the skills, knowledge and confidence to do their job exceptionally well.

And today, I want to share something I’m seeing in my work companies across a variety of industries and sizes.

Turnover is expensive. According to Gallup the cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employees annual salary (a very conservative estimate.)

So a company with 100 employees that provides an average salary of $50,000 could have turnover and replacement costs anywhere between $660,000 and $2.6 million per year.

That’s according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that measured an annual turnover rate of 26.3%… in 2017. That’s 5 years ago and pre-pandemic.

Losing your best people means you have a leadership performance gap. And there’s no denying it. But, that means it is also fixable.

It would be too easy to say that this is natural or inevitable. 

Yes, people move. Get married. Get divorced.

Some people pursue their own dream to start their own company.

Here are some additional statistics.

• 52% of voluntary exiting employees say their manager or organization could have done something different to prevent them from leaving their job.

It would be easy to assume or say, “we did everything to make it right and keep that person…”

But over half of exiting employees tell that in the 3 months prior to them leaving, neither their manager or any other leader spoke with them about their job satisfaction or future with the company.

Don’t miss that!

In 3 months, nobody asked them how they felt about their job. No one talked with them about their future.

This is the leak that I’m seeing and I want to help you know how to plug it.

You train your managers to have consistent, meaningful conversations with employees.

I train and coach my clients on how to have a real Progress Meeting where a productive, 2-way conversation occurs every 30 days.

Now before you stop listening because you either *think* you’re already doing this, or you can’t stomach the thought of another meeting, stick with me.

The meeting gets scheduled out a year every 30 days. The goal is that a minimum of 10 meetings occur per calendar year. 

Why is scheduling them ahead of time so vital? Because what’s easy to do is also easy not to do.

Getting them on the calendar creates accountability and an expectation that they’ll happen. All too often this simple step is taken for granted, resulting in gaps of 2, 3 or even 4 months.

The progress meeting must be a conversation.

Conversations create clarity, but you cannot get clarity without be an active listener. Managers, it’s not your job to do all the talking. You should be asking questions and listening to learn, not to respond.

How are things going on the XYZ project?

Have you run into any unexpected challenges or roadblocks?

Do you have everything you need to hit the target?

And the best managers learn the...

Have you ever asked yourself this?

What value am I bringing to this conversation today? 

Hey, Team welcome back to Lead Thru Values.

This podcast exists to help you ensure that every person on your team has the skills, knowledge and confidence to do their job exceptionally well.

And today’s podcast is a new, short form version that I’m calling Lessons From The Training Room, where I share a powerful real-world leadership examples with you from my work with executives, business owners and managers.

Today’s topic is reflective… it’s designed to cause you think about the impact you’re making today.

Because there are a lot of people in leadership roles out there who are just going through the motions… just checking the boxes… just trying to make it through the day and through the week.

But if you have the burden of leadership… and yes, I specifically said burden — not privilege — then this might hit home for you, or for others on your team.

So go and teach it.

Before you send that next email…

Before you have your next 1:1 with a team member…

Before you start your next team meeting…

Pause long enough and ask yourself this IMPACTFUL question:

What value am I bringing to this conversation?

Truly, this 5-second “Snicker’s moment” might be the difference between:

A misunderstanding or clearly communicated action steps;

A disengaged, unmotivated employee or an engaged, motivated employee;

A missed opportunity to listen or a new idea that will save your company thousands of dollars (or more!);

Giving the impression the person(s) on the other side of the conversation are just part of a machine, or showing them their value and your appreciation of it. 

Again, ask yourself, “What value am I bringing to this conversation?”

And before you tell yourself, “I got this!” maybe you want to slow down and consider what questions you can ask to learn… instead of what items you want to tell.

If you’re serious about building a competitive edge over your competition, you’ll need a system that ensures the right conversations are happening between managers and employees.

Because…

Conversations create clarity. 

Clarity produces action. 

Action drives results. 

If you want to learn more about how to guarantee the right conversations are happening in your company, I invite you to pick up the phone and call me directly at 319-929-2604 for a free, no obligation conversation.

I’m James Mayhew and I’ll catch you next time on LTV. 

When you want engaged employees, but you only focus on metrics, you’re missing hundreds of opportunities through the course of the year to actually cause higher engagement. 

Hey, Team welcome back to Lead Thru Values.

This podcast exists to help you ensure that every person on your team has the skills, knowledge and confidence to do their job exceptionally well.

And today’s podcast is a new, short form version that I’m calling Lessons From The Training Room, where I share a powerful real-world leadership examples with you from my work with executives, business owners and managers.

Many of you are very familiar… intimately familiar… with the term KPI.

Key. Performance. Indicators.

KPI’s have been around for years and have been used to measure progress on a variety of business stats. 

Closing ratios.

Calls made.

Efficiencies of all types.

Revenue.

Here’s what I’ve found: Most managers focus only on the metrics.

I’d like to offer you a new perspective on the acronym, KPI.

In fact, I’d like to offer you 4 new variations that are focused on engagement.

#1. Keep people informed.

People want to know how they’re doing.  

• James, you’re at 127% of your quota for outbound calls. Keep up the good work!
• James, your hourly production is steady at 96% of goal, but your QC is 13% below goal.

Be consistent and transparent with your reports and make sure the information is up to date and accurate.

#2. Keep people interested.

• James, did you know that if you just close one more deal each week, you’ll hit your target? Let me show you something… 

The best leaders work with their team members to help them see where they need to improve. They’re comfortable and skilled with setting expectations, providing helpful feedback in a timely manner, and they provide guidance with HOW to improve.

#3. Keep people involved.

If you want to deepen employee engagement, then be open to ideas and suggestions. 

• James, what are you seeing right now? What opportunities are we missing? 

Seek ideas and suggestions by asking specific questions. And listen to learn, not respond. 

#4. Keep people inspired.

Even great people can get into a slump.

• James, you’ve missed your targets 3 of the last 4 weeks. How can I help you get back on track? 

You can go 1 of 2 ways. Treat the person with dignity… or treat them like a replaceable part of your machine.

Here are the 4 most powerful words you might ever say to another person: 

I. Believe. In. You.

Even the greatest athletes hit slumps. The best hitter in baseball goes 0 for 24. Or the basketball player with the 92% free throw percentage goes 2 for 7 in a pivotal loss. 

People don’t want to fail. They aren’t trying to miss targets. They may be doing everything right, but they’re just in a slump.

And slump’s have a way of ending in amazing ways.

In each of these examples, if the conversation doesn’t go past the first stage of keeping people informed, you’re not leading. 

Leading a team requires you to make time for teaching, encouraging, motivating and being a champion for when things are going well…

and when they’re not going well.

You can focus on the metrics and keep missing opportunities, or you can go beyond the metrics and get to the real KPI’s. 

The choice is yours. 

If you’re serious about building a competitive edge over your competition, you’ll need a system that ensures the right conversations are happening between managers and employees.

Because…

Conversations create...