On yesterday’s Leadership Wizard segment we discussed how to motivate next generation employees. Often mislabled as lazy, next generation employees demand much better leadership. If they don’t get it, they will find an organization that gives it to them. Managers will need to provide more positive feedback and encouragement and give out criticism in a constructive fashion.

Listen to the segment:

Think about taking all the quirks of most families and combine that with the challenges of running a business.

Successful family companies know how to separate their discussions about family issues, business issues and ownership issues.

Listen to the radio segment discussing this:

Also, the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise is having National Family Business Day on October 4th in London. For more info:
http://www.cafeswo.org

One of the tips I shared on the air today was how important it is to learn how to take a compliment and how it can help reduce perfectionism.

When someone compliments you do you say “Ah it was nothing.” Or do you make a self-defeating joke? That really takes away from your self-esteem.

Instead, practice receiving a compliment. Say “Thank you I appreciate that.”

That way you honor the person giving you the compliment and take a moment to appreciate the success you have achieved.

A perfectionist is someone who is never satisfied with themselves or others. The bar is set so high, they drive themselves and others crazy because they are never satisfied.

A moderate amount of perfectionistic tendency is okay. When we do assessments on managers, we compare them to thousands of other managers in the database. If they are around the middle of the pack, it indicates that they believe in excellence and competence.

It is when they are extreme that it becomes a problem for themselves and their employees.

Perfectionism tends to lower the self esteem of employees because no matter how hard they try, they cannot please the extreme perfectionist. Ultimately it can cause people to quit.

The first shift when we coach managers is to have them focus on achievement of excellence instead of perfection. The manager needs to pause and acknowledge and celebrate their own accomplishments. They need to set achievable goals for themselves and others. Then they need to grow their employees by becoming more of a coach – encouraging the person to achieve their full potential. See the good things people are doing and tell them.

Click here to listen to the audio segment on this topic:

This week’s Leadership Wizard segment focused on how managers may inadvertantly punish their good performers and reward their bad performers. It can happen when the manager asks more from their good performer – like helping weaker employees, or when they reward the poor performer by offering them overtime or help to finish their job.

To correct this, be sure to praise and develop the top performers and tell the poor performers that they are not meeting expectations and how to improve.

You can listen to the segment right now: