All Aboard!

How do you get high performance results from your team? Love the passengers riding the bus. I mean REALLY love them. Jon Gordon has developed five ways to love your people.

1-Make time for them. How many of us have had a boss that has never asked about your family? Hands in the air. When you show true invested interest in your staff the support-o-meter goes up. When employees feel valued they connect. Turn over goes down and job satisfaction goes to the sky.

2-Listen to them. Time is sometimes an enemy to the leader. Often the squeaky wheel gets the oil, right? I read once a leader should be teaching, coaching and training 50% of their time. This means listening to your people. Some of the best advice and ideas for me have came from the people who work day in and day out in the department. Take the time. Open your door and listen.

3-Recognize them. I don’t mean trophies or an award banquet, sometimes “thank you” speaks volumes. As a leader I do my best to point out over the top behavior. I write hand written notes. I bring in chair massages and in a few weeks we are going tailgating at WIU. Public praise is remarkable. Feed the positive passenger and they will want to do more things right.

4-Serve Them. Believe me, I’m on call 24/7 and I feel like a servant. The first way I serve my passengers is consistency. Your passengers need, and want for that matter, to know what is expected. Second, I’m not afraid to get dirty. Serving your people understands their role. Often that means cleaning a bathroom, dealing with an angry person, or making rounds in their shoes. Don’t concentrate on the past, focus your energy on the positive change when you serve.

5-Bring out the best in them. The best way a leader can bring out the best is by helping their passenger discovery their strengths. Creating a system to help them shine can not only improve their performance, but the entire team’s performance. Nothing makes me prouder than when an employee gets promoted or moves on to chase their full potential. When a C.N.A. leaves us upon graduation from nursing school or a manager leaves for a new marketing position. Smiles all around. Bringing out the best in your people, can also bring out the best in the driver.

These five ideas of loving your passengers can be applied to work and home. Personally, I am committed to finding a balance. These 70 hour work weeks are for the birds. Coach and I are taking a much needed getaway in a few weeks. Rest and reading bring out the best in both of us. We do recognize good grades, good decisions, and good behavior at home. My favorite time to really listen to my kids is at night. Coach and I both read to our kids, every night. We rotate each evening to get some quality time with one kid. Cameron loves to share the Pledge of Allegiance after our prayer. He is so proud of his new learned patriotism. He also tells me stories about the class pet Lucy. Cameron thinks Lucy reads books and fly’s around the room at night. Cameron loves school. This makes my heart happy. Serving Justice is easy, give him a ball and a scorebook the kid is set. His stories are now becoming more mature. He tells me at night what he wants to wear the next day. He gives me lists for the store like smelly boy soap and deodorant…and maybe some of those Clearasil wipes for my face. He’s so funny. As parents we are trying to bring the best out in our kids, I actually think they bring out the best in us.