How to Be a Good Place to Work

With the current economy and job layoffs it is critical that every individual provide the most value in your organization.

Here are some Smart Moves for how to be a good place to work:

• First impressions count. When your department has a new employee starting on Monday, designate a co-worker to call the new hire over the weekend and introduce himself. Say something like this, "Hi, this is Mike and I will be working in your department. We are looking forward to you starting work here tomorrow. I'll be at the office at 8:00 to meet you and will show you around. Also, a couple of us would like to take you to lunch on Monday, so don't worry with bringing your lunch." This will help a new employee get engaged quicker and show them that they matter. Use this checklist for welcoming a new employee.
  
  
• Blab away. According to Zig Ziglar, one of the prime needs of employees is "being let in on things that are going on in the company." After all, we all want to feel part of the "in" crowd. You don't need to share company private information with employees - but make it a practice to share and involve employees in specific short and long term goals, the direction of the company, innovative ideas in the works and a few tidbits that you ask employees to them to keep to themselves. Use these words to be more productive.
  
  
  
  
• Catch people doing something well. Many times when employees are doing something well it goes unnoticed because we assume they are just doing their job. Go out of your way today to reward a co-worker or employee for doing something right (watch retention expert James Robbins' short video on this topic). Compliment them, buy them a cup of coffee, recognize them at a staff meeting or even jot them a handwritten note acknowledging what you caught them doing well.
  
  
• Be thankful for problems. In light of Thanksgiving last week, give thanks when employees bring you their problems. General Colin Powell is quoted as saying, "The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." Working collaboratively to solve a problem with a co-worker or employee improves company loyalty and work ownership.
  
  
• Reward loyalty. Donald Trump says, "When employees and employers, even coworkers, have a commitment to one another, everyone benefits. I have people who have been in business with me for decades. I reward their loyalty to the organization and to me. I know that they'll always be dedicated to what we're trying to accomplish."
  
  
• Delegate don't dump. Know the difference between empowering an employee by delegating responsibility to this person versus dumping additional, unwanted work on him. Delegating to an employee means you extend to the person the authority to make decisions about a task and this task helps the receiver grow.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Go Where You Feel Most Like Yourself

This weekend I went away for a girls weekend. Oh, don't get too excited. We don't go to Las Vegas, California, skiing, or even to a spa. We really like each other's company so where we go doesn't matter. Well, it does matter because it is where we go every year.

We go to a place that use to be a hunting lodge. It is now a scrapbook retreat called Big Rock Ranch in East Texas. So now you know I am a scrapbooker. It makes sense. I am sentimental, I like to use different parts of my brain, and it is an easy activity to be productive, enjoy bountiful conversation, and it affords itself to a few snacks, great meals, and some wine between the 6 of us. This is the weekend that I put my business off the radar (there is no signal for Internet), my kids are with my husband (for more than a few make up soccer games), and we get lost not knowing what time it is (watches are really not important). While I always have 50 reasons why I shouldn't go, I have 52 reasons why I am always glad I went.

In my second book, Working in the Smart Zone, there is a quote at the beginning of one of the chapters. It reads "Go where you feel most like yourself". This is a line from a movie that we watched last year on this "Survivor Big Rock" weekend. We rewound the movie more than a few times as the words resonated with each of us. My closest friend in world, Camile, is a landscape architect in business for herself. Our friend Cheryl is a bookkeeper in business for herself. We heard those words and we all stopped in our tracks." Go where you feel most like yourself" is such a powerful message. That is why we protect our Big Rock weekend each year. Together we laugh. We relax. We get silly and we get deep. We catch up on things from the year and we share stories about the pictures that we are putting in our scrapbooks. I know where I feel most like myself. Do you?

If you walk around most days wondering just who you really are, go where you feel most like yourself. It can be with high school friends, fishing with your kids, at a Mavericks basketball game, or simply out to dinner with your spouse. Protect the times that you feel most like yourself. Do it often. Do it right. That will keep you in the Smart Zone.