Monday Mornings with Madison

Category Archives:
People skills

February 8, 2016

Money and Motivation

Issue #412

Every business owner grapples with the question of how best to motivate employees. And for good reason. Motivated employees are more productive. Motivated employees also have a better attitude about their work and a better attitude toward others. And motivated employees are more reliable, punctual, and loyal. Motivated employees are also less likely to leave their job and go elsewhere. In short, motivated employees are satisfied employees. And lots of research has shown the relationship between employee satisfaction and a company’s success.

So what motivates employees most? The average person would say “money.” People work to earn a living. So, more money should result in a more satisfied and motivated employee. Right? It depends. Money can be a huge motivator in certain situations. And it can also have little or no effect at all in other situations. A lot of research has been done by industrial psychologists and scientists about motivation, money and employee satisfaction. What is the relationship between compensation, employee satisfaction and company success? Continue reading →

Leave a comment
February 1, 2016

Understanding Multiple Intelligences, Part 2

Issue #412

Multiple Intelligence Theory, first proposed by Professor Howard Gardner in his book Frames of Mind (1983), stated that people learn, remember, perform, and understand things in different ways. That didn’t sound like a revolutionary concept until he referred to these differences as “intelligences.” But Gardner wasn’t talking about a person’s level of intelligence, like IQ. Rather, he was talking about types of intelligence. Gardner put forth that there are eight types of intelligence, namely: language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, an understanding of ourselves, and an understanding of the natural world. Each person has different intelligences, and the ways in which those intelligences are used and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains also differs from person to person.

If Gardner’s theory is correct, then it stands to reason that aligning each employee’s individual intelligences with a job that most uses those competencies could help an organization increase productivity, service, profitability and staff satisfaction. For example, logical-mathematical analysis intelligence would be vital to a job as an Accountant or Statistician. While almost every career uses a blend of several intelligences, clearly some intelligences are more critical to performing certain jobs than others. The key would be to hire people whose key intelligences best fit the job. It would ensure that each employee was ‘made’ to do the job they had. Gardner called this “the clearest path to efficiency and engagement in the workplace.” In practical terms, how does a company do that? Continue reading →

Leave a comment
January 25, 2016

Understanding Multiple Intelligences, Part 1

Issue #411

Most any employer can give countless examples of employees who are highly productive in the workplace but who would likely perform poorly on an IQ test. The average entrepreneur himself might be an example of how IQ scores are ineffective indicators of workplace performance and success. It is no wonder, then, that most workplaces pay little attention to “intelligence” as a factor in staff hiring. Virtually no employer asks for a person’s IQ score to determine if the person is qualified for a job. Perhaps that would be different, though, if what was considered intelligence in oneself and others was redefined to recognize that there are many different kinds of intelligence.

In 1983, Multiple Intelligence Theory was first proposed by Professor Howard Gardner in his ground breaking book, Frames of Mind. His work broadened the understanding of human intelligence. According to Gardner, the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, people possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways. He referred to these as the “intelligences” we possess in order to know the world. According to Gardner’s original list, there were seven intelligences including: language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. Since then, an additional intelligence – naturalist – was added to the list. Gardner indicated that the strength of each intelligence and the ways in which intelligences are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains differs from person to person.

Given this, it stands to reason that cultivating a more intelligent workforce could increase an organization’s productivity, service, profitability and staff satisfaction. After all, if a person’s intelligences have such a profound impact in how the person remembers, performs and understands tasks, it stands to reason that people with certain intelligences would be more suited for occupations that require those intelligences. While almost every career uses a blend of several intelligences, some intelligences are more important than others depending on the job. The idea then would be to hire people whose key intelligences best fit the job. So what are the eight intelligences and what occupations best align with each? Continue reading →

Leave a comment
December 28, 2015

Boosting Creativity in 2016

Issue #407

Many people focus on make resolutions of things we want to do more, do less, do better or stop doing altogether. Obviously, the goal of resolutions is to use the commitment as an impetus to become a better person or live a better life. But, in truth, most people can just recycle resolutions year after year with little or no changes at all. Typically, those resolutions are broken or forgotten within the first hours, days or weeks of inception. Ideas for how to keep those resolutions fail. Perhaps what is actually needed are new ways to tackle old problems? What is really needed is creativity.

Creativity is the ability to make new things or think up new ideas. Creativity is the tool that is able to pierce the prickliest problems, tackle the most daunting challenges and dismantle the most difficult dilemmas. Armed with creativity, certainly every resolution can not only be kept but conquered. But how does one go about tacking old problems in creative ways if we have no new ideas? Is there really a way to boost creativity? Yes, there is. Continue reading →

Leave a comment
December 14, 2015

The Art, Skill and Gift of Speaking

Issue #405

The ability to communicate verbally is an essential skill for most any occupation. And yet there are a lot of idioms and expressions about wasting time talking, saying the wrong things and talking too much. Chewing the fat. Talking up a storm. Talking out of both sides of one’s mouth. Shooting the breeze. Speaking the same language. Running of at the mouth. Spilling the beans. Big talk. Talking a blue streak. Talking one’s ear off. There are even knick names for people who talk too much or speak when they shouldn’t. Chatty Cathy. Chatterbox. Windbag. Blabbermouth. Perhaps it makes sense that society has so many ways to criticize talk because of the increased amount of babbling that bombards us from all directions including radio, cell phones, television, robocalls, YouTube videos, etc.? Perhaps.

Nevertheless, the ability to speak is one of the greatest skills — and one of the most complex — that a human being performs. Although many animals do make sounds that allow them to communicate with one another, only human beings can manage the complex process of complex talk. After all, fluent speech is based on the interaction of various processing components. We must retrieve appropriate words, generate syntactic structure, compute the phonological shape of syllables, words, phrases and whole utterances, and create and execute articulated thoughts. And, as in any complex skill, there is a self-monitoring mechanism that checks the output. For any professional or business person, being able to speak clearly — choosing the right words and articulating thoughts meaningfully – is a key to success. Are you a good talker? Continue reading →

Leave a comment
December 7, 2015

How Business Sense and Scents Add Up to Dollars and Cents

Issue #404

Almost no one would argue that vision and hearing play a big role in one’s career and professional success. Any person without the ability to either see or hear surely has a harder time dealing with phone calls, reading and responding to emails, interacting with clients, driving to meetings, visiting job sites, reviewing product quality, etc. Vision and hearing are fundamental sense for most jobs.

What about the sense of smell? Most people don’t put much importance on their ability to smell or think they use it much at work. While it is vitally important for a chef, fragrance chemist, sommelier, or florist to be able to smell with discernment, the sense of smell is not considered as important to the majority of business people in most industries. Yet, aromas are powerful influencers of human behavior and people can distinguish between smells with greater specificity than they realize. So just how important is the ability to smell to career success and how much does scent impact business?
Continue reading →

Leave a comment
November 30, 2015

Vision in Business

Issue #403

Every business owner, leader and manager wants to have ‘vision’ or be considered a visionary. But what does mean exactly? According to an April 2013 article by Dave Lavinsky in Forbes, “Vision in business requires that you clearly see where you choose to be in the future and formulate the necessary steps to get your organization there. Creating and sustaining a vision for an organization calls for discipline and creativity. A business leader must have the passion, strength of will, and necessary knowledge to achieve long-term goals. A focused individual who can inspire his team to reach organizational goals is a visionary business leader.” Lavinsky cites passion, discipline, creativity, strength of will, knowledge and focus as the skills needed to be a visionary in business. Others believe the qualities of visionary leaders include openness, imagination, persistence, and conviction. Harvard Business Review says a visionary leader is opportunistic, diplomatic, an expert, an achiever, individualistic, strategic, and an alchemist. Arguably, these are all necessary traits. But Lavinsky stated first that a business visionary must clearly see where he/she wants to be in the future. So the starting point of being a visionary is to see with clarity.

In this context, Lavinksy was not referring to physically “seeing” with one’s eyes. Most likely, what he meant was seeing “in one’s mind” the where, what and how of an organization’s future… having a mental picture, so to speak. But, for most people, actual vision – as in the ability to see physically with one’s eyes – probably plays a part of being successful in business and life. Probably even a large part? Sight is a blessing which many scarcely give any thought to at all. But, without it, how many would have the life or business career they are currently living? And what role does actual eyesight play in an individual’s success in business? How many business people can be visionaries without vision? Continue reading →

Leave a comment
November 16, 2015

When Companies Dare to Radically Change Employee Compensation or Benefits

Issue #401

There has been a lot of discussion lately about employee compensation and benefits in the U.S. Candidates running for President are spending a lot of time (in debates, interviews and during campaign stops) discussing topics such as income inequality, paid family leave and other bread-and-butter issues that are part and parcel of the business world. To a small extent, these issues are regulated by legislation, such as federal and state minimum wage laws which dictate the least an employee can be paid hourly. However, the vast majority of these HR issues are really under the purview of business leaders and owners. For the most part, individual companies the U.S. decide how they want to compensate their employees. Because of that, the usual array of wage and benefit packages – albeit a fairly wide range – has developed for employees at every level, from entry level to C-Suite positions.

However, from time to time, some companies step outside the usual selection of employee pay and perks. Those outlier companies dare to go beyond the typical assortment of compensation items to offer employees something that is unique or bold. For a time, the audacious actions of those companies capture the attention of the media and lawmakers. They garner a lot of attention and usually generate a lot of applause (and scrutiny). But are those actions altruistic? And do such creative perks have any impact on what the majority of companies pay and offer in the way of employee benefits? Do those high-profile HR initiatives move the needle of employee benefits nationwide?
Continue reading →

Leave a comment
August 31, 2015

Marketing and Selling to Specific Generations – Part 3

Issue #393

There are six generations alive in the U.S. today. Assuming that for the most part the GI and Silent Generations are retired, very soon we will have four very different generations (Baby Boomers (ages 51-70), Gen Xers (ages 35-50), Millennials (ages 15-35) and the newest iGeneration (now teenagers) working side-by-side for the first time in history. That’s due, in part, to the fact that people are living and working longer. These four generations will also be customers, with very different values, experiences and styles. They will likely also partake in very different kinds of activities. This is both exciting and challenging. How can a business manage such diverse audience of customers and employees? Knowledge is key.

Today, we’ll look at the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964). Of all the generations living in the U.S. today, the most well-known and well-documented is probably the Baby Boomers. Born from 1946 to 1964, Baby Boomers were the children of either the GI Generation or the Silent Generation. The parents of Baby Boomers were patriotic, respectful of authority and accepting and trusting of government. Those parents also believed in absolutes, sacrificing for the greater good and following the rules. But the age of conformity, sacrifice and towing the line ended with the arrival of the Baby Boomers. Boomers are known to be mavericks, bucking trends and taking risks. What’s more, even what was known about this generation a decade ago is still evolving. Meet the “Me” Generation.
Continue reading →

Leave a comment
August 17, 2015

Marketing and Selling to Specific Generations – Part 1

Issue #391

Each generation is different from the one before. Each develops its own unique set of qualities, characteristics, and values, as well as likes and dislikes. These are greatly influenced by or in response to the political, economic and social times in which they are coming of age. It is also may stem, in part, from some innate desire to be different than one’s parents. Generation Xers are different than the Baby Boomers before them. And Millenials are different from the Gen Xers that preceded them. Certainly, the newest generation now emerging – being referred to by various monikers including iGeneration, Generation Wii, the Plurals or Generation Z – is bound to differ from past generations as they are shaped by technology and the accelerating speed of change.

Some business owners, leaders or managers may want to ignore generational differences and just develop and market a company’s quality products or services to everyone the same way. That, however, is a potential mistake. The more a company is able to understand generational differences and reach those audiences in a way that speaks specifically to them, the more a company’s products or services will resonate… and sell. Thus, understanding the unique characteristics of each generation is essential. Continue reading →

Leave a comment