Entries by Simon Vetter

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6 Essential Tips To Lead Remote Teams

I recently had a coaching conversation with a client who is leading a global team. Her team is spread across continents and cultures. She loves the diversity and dynamics of this team but finds it challenging to increase trust with the team. This is a very typical challenge many leaders in global organizations face these days. According to Gallup, the remote workforce is growing with more than 43% of U.S. employees working remotely at least some of the time. Gallup researchers also found that this trend is not only progressing across virtually all industries but also employees who spend three to four days a week working offsite tend to report higher “engagement” in their jobs. However, leading a remote team tends […]

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4 Ways To Lead Employees Through Organizational Changes

My phone rings and I pick it up “Hi Simon, I need to talk to you”. The voice was stern and I sensed a level of stress. “Simon, we’re in the midst of an organizational change and I don’t think it’s going as well as we wanted it to. We need your help.” This was a call from a former client. I knew about the upcoming organizational change but we hadn’t talked in a couple of months and I knew timely intervention was critical here. According to research conducted by change expert and professor at Harvard Business School, John Kotter, 70% of all major changes in organizations end up in failure. Let’s talk about why that is and how you […]

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Making the Most Out of Your Coaching Experience

A new year has started and with every new year come new resolutions. Somehow many of us like to think that we can start again with a clean slate. A blank page. A new chapter. But the truth is there is no clean slate and nothing new to be expected if we aren’t willing to open our eyes and seize the chance to do new things, different things to get the new and different outcomes we’re hoping for. One way (and in my view, the most effective way) to open our eyes is through coaching. Coaching is available in almost every field and can help you in improving your personal and professional lives. Coaching can be a rewarding experience in many […]

6 Ways to Boost Team Morale

This month I delivered a team and leadership workshop for eight sales and marketing executives. One of the biggest challenges the team was dealing with was internal conflict and tension. Also, the managers felt that their teams were not engaged enough. This led to an insightful discussion about how to boost team morale. Today, I decided to share with you the seven ways we identified to unify the team, strengthen engagement, and create a positive team spirit. Model Good Behaviour as a Leader A supportive leader who works closely with their employees will provide a powerful incentive when it comes to developing talent and encouraging creativity. Leaders should work as role models holding themselves to high standards of accountability and […]

What Makes Your Executive Team Excel?

I’ve worked with many teams over the years and when asked how they think they are doing, they reply “Good, okay, satisfactory, etc”. These are all words that we might hear that make us nod our heads and go about our day. But when it comes to business, good just isn’t good enough. It’s words like great, amazing and spectacular that are going to really make us stop in our tracks and it’s those same words that are going to add up to increased income and getting a leg up on the competition. For many businesses, the road to greatness starts with a strong leadership team. A  powerful executive presence will be effective in motivating workers to get the best […]

How Do You Motivate Employees?

I have heard this many times from managers: “How do I motivate people to get them to do the things I want them to do?” The answer is: “You don’t!” It is hard to motivate people because they already are motivated. What we can do is determine what motivates them and use this knowledge to channel their energy toward your organization’s goals. Some people are like water in a faucet. They have the motivation; all you have to provide is the opportunity. The water is already motivated to flow, but it doesn’t have the opportunity until you open the tap. Others are like mountain streams, which flow swiftly but follow their own channels. People, too, may move energetically, but toward […]

Four Organizational Change Mistakes To Avoid

Company’s go through organizational changes: implementing a new CRM system, restructuring project for cost cutting, introducing a new product line, expanding into another country, establishing e-commerce business, buying or merging with another company, relocation project – the list goes on and on. Depending on the scale and complexity of the projects, those changes make people feel uneasy, uncertain, worried, or even fearful. The human and emotional aspects of change initiatives are often neglected. Based on 30 years of research by change expert Dr. John Kotter, professor at Harvard Business School, 70% of all major change efforts in organizations fail. There are 4 main reasons for failures: Key leaders do not create enough sense of urgency Without motivation transformation efforts will […]

How to Inspire Your Employees with a Vision?

When it comes down to promoting the vision throughout the organization, one of the most challenging part is engaging the workforce around it. This means creating an emotional connection with the vision for employees—more specifically, creating that emotional connection for each employee as an individual, so he or she understands how to be a part of making the vision come to pass. OluKai is a company that does exactly that. As a leading high-quality, high-premium footwear company based out of Irvine, California they are building emotional connection between the vision and their employees. Jim Harris, CEO of OluKai since 2008, believes that deep inside each person is a happy place, a place of love. Jim refers to it as Aloha. […]

Performance Coaching: Top 3 Questions Good Coaches Ask

How do we turn a person’s talent into performance? This question has been of great debate. Many organizations believe that each person’s greatest room for growth is in his or her areas of weakness. Yet, others support the idea that it is in the areas of his or her greatest strength. The successful leaders find a person’s unique talent – their strengths – first. Then they capitalize on that strength. The Gallup Poll confirms the concept that applying a person’s strength is positive correlated to his or her actual performance. In a survey with nearly 200,000 people, the following question was asked: “At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?” When employees answered […]

What’s Your Vision Statement? A Hard Question for Leaders

The ability to remain competitive and relevant in the financial services industry or any other industry lies heavily in crafting a strategic direction for the future of the company that represents the company’s values and goals, which should be encompassed in a company’s vision statement. When you ask most company leaders what the vision for their organization is, they often defer to the company’s current goals and plans rather than offer a forward-looking perspective of where they intend to be in the future. Based on the 2016 Trends in Executive Development Benchmark Report, “the ability to create a vision, convey it to others, and inspire and engage people” is considered “the single most important capability needed for the emerging generation of leaders“; Yet, it is still […]

Five Tips to Be More Energetic

Being energetic, productive and working smart in the midst of turbulent times and business pressure is a challenge. We consistently deal with interruptions, distractions, competing priorities, ambitious targets, and unforeseen crises no matter where we are. However, there is a way to manage our time well and wisely in order to: 1. Manage our stress level in a positive way 2. Get more done every day 3. Stay energetic and productive in the long run The following five insights are based on the best-selling book The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. I met Jim and Tony personally, attended their presentations and workshops, read their book and applied their ideas to my life over the last few […]

How to Create a Position-Result Guide and Establish Accountability in Your Organization

We don’t get paid for efforts; we get paid for results. In many organizations, job descriptions are purely task-oriented. People are told what to do instead of what results are expected. This limits their scope and inhibits initiative and creativity. A Position-Result Guide is a tool that defines and organizes your work in a result-oriented approach. Creating a Position-Result Guide in 3 steps 1. Describe Your Major Goal of the Position Identify the role and major purpose of your work and position. What overall results are expected from you in your position? Why does this position exist and how does it relate to the organizational objectives and strategic priorities? 2. Determine Your Responsibilities with Key Result Areas (KRA) A Key Result […]