The Business Mechanic Show

I thought you might want to listen to me being interviewed by Joey and Jeremy on the Focus and Chill Podcast.

Joey and Jeremy discuss sustainable productivity and habit formation while avoiding the allure of hustle culture.

Podcast sponsored by https://focusbear.io

I share some of my daily habits and routine. Particularly on time management best practices.

How to prioritize your day.

The use of the Eisenhower Box.

The importance of time blocking.

Learn to Manage Your Time Instead of Your Time Managing You

Visit our website: for time management training courses. https://rdltraining.com/

As well as my relaxation techniques and secret obsession.

Focus and Chill is a cool new podcast. it's all about teaching you how to:

Build habit routines

Take better breaks

And ban distractions

Use your time for what matters without willpower. Focus Bear is a productivity app unlike any other, created by someone with ADHD for people struggling to stay focused at work or school. (LIke Me)

Stop procrastinating with timed habit routines.

Finish your morning routine before you start work. Countdowns give you time to finish each task before you move on.

Take productivity-boosting breaks. Complete your chosen break activity before you can keep working.

Enjoy breaks that give your brain a rest, and don't go too long.

Block distractions ‍and get work done. Choose from 3+ focus modes, including Pomodoros, to stay focused on what you're working on

Contact me at: [email protected]

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Today we're gonna be talking about how to have difficult conversations. I've done previous videos. Blogs podcasts on how to deal with difficult people.

How to Deal With Difficult People

We're going to dig down more into how to have the conversation, the tips, tricks, vital behaviors, and best practices to have difficult conversations in a way that will produce very positive outcomes. Let's talk a little bit about human nature for a. Whether we're dealing with underperformers at work, a situation that's gone wrong at work, our spouse, our boss, or a difficult client, we have in our human nature a desire to avoid those kinds of conversations.

It's in our DNA, fight or flight. And today, I'm going to help you with a proven step-by-step approach for how to become more confident, less stressed, and create improved outcomes from having difficult conversations. What is maybe after this not gonna be so difficult, but what we perceive today in our current mindset. Difficult conversations.

I have practiced this for over 20 years myself and in my leadership roles. I've trained hundreds and hundreds of managers on this process and approach, and I want to share that with you today. I think it'll be a huge value to you. So let's talk about what a difficult conversation is. A difficult conversation is anything you find hard to talk about. Due to fear of consequences, and it's those consequences, those outcomes that we have got to change our mindset on.

That's the dilemma is, do we avoid or do we confront, fight or flight? But as a leader in an organization, as a manager and a leader, if we avoid the problem, Well, we tend to begin undermining our leadership self-destructive, but we also work on our own confidence because if we avoid it, we don't confront it. We don't take care of this situation, We don't change the course of something, we don't get across what needs to get across, and we will often, in the end, feel taken advantage of. That's not a very good feeling either.

Sometimes our feelings will fester. Those will build and build, and that starts working on us, starts working on our confidence, and more importantly, it robs us and whoever else is involved in an improved or successful resolution to this situation or the challenge. We also worry that things could get worse if we confront the problem. So you don't want to have that in your mind, but you probably do today. I'm just; I'm just gonna avoid it. Maybe they'll fix themselves. And friends, it never fixes itself, ever. It only continues or gets worse. So, In order to gain confidence, you've got to change yourself. The only person who can fix this is you, and you've gotta change your mindset first.

And the tips I'm gonna share with you today, the process, and the steps I'm gonna give you are gonna be the first actions you can begin taking as a leader, as a manager, to take things into control in a way with the blueprint. To change your thinking and give you confidence in having these difficult conversations. Now, the reason why we avoid them is, again, fear of consequences, and we also have a catastrophic mindset. We very often, naturally, if we're not hugely optimist.

Well, this catastrophic mindset that most humans, if not all humans, possess, we fear something really bad or something negative. That's the consequence I talked about earlier. There's a fear, and I often have said that fear can also be an acronym for false expectations appearing real. False expectations appear real. So the key to all of this, and to avoid these false expectations appearing real, you've gotta shift your message delivery from a delivery stance to a learning stance.

That's the first key to all this is we've gotta change how we go into these conversations, where our thoughts and mind are. Going into these conversations, really, every difficult conversation is three conversations. Now, some of these conversations are going to be internal, but let me talk about these three conversations.

I'd love you to go and check out our programs. RDL training.com, Romeo delta lima training.com. Look at our catalog of services and training programs and all the great things we offer, and I look forward to seeing you all again in the very near future. Thanks for coming today.

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Essential Skills Every Manager Needs to Lead Confidently.

Vist Our Website: www.rdltraining.com

"Fake it 'til you make it." That advice may have helped previous generations leap up the corporate ladder,

but in today's data-driven, continually disrupted the world of work, pretending your way to the top doesn't work—

and it wreaks havoc on your confidence level, not to mention your stress level.

Here's a fact. The most prevalent management training approach deployed today is learning by trial and error.

Companies promote great employees into management and believe that somehow magically, they will be great managers.

That comes from the experience paradox.

Experience does not bring any guarantee someone is likely to be a good manager.

They have to be trained to be a manager and leader.

Yes some people figure it out on their own. But that is a very small and special group.

Think about this for just a second.

A company promotes a good employee to a management position.

Statistics from multiple sources report that there is an 80% failure rate for new managers....80%!.

So what happens to these managers? They stay on and continue with poor leadership and the poor results that they bring.

All the time, blaming it on how hard it is today to hire good people. Sound familiar.

Or they quit or are fired.

Then get recycled due to the experience paradox I mentioned earlier. The new company hired an "experienced" manager but got an ineffective leader.

Now the outcomes are spread to a new company and team. Rinse and repeat. This has inadvertently led to some unintended consequences that are pretty bad.

According to Gallup in 2021, 73% of the millions of employees surveyed are disengaged. 50% who quit did so due to a poor manager.

What does that mean?

Well, if you are complaining about how certain employees display lack of initiative, seem not to care, gossip, show up late or take a lot of extra time off etc.

These employees' behaviors may have been created by their manager. WHOA!!!

Think about that

How many managers realize this and actually OWN that they are likely the cause for employee underperformance, lack of showing care or just not doing a very good job. Not many.

Visit Our Website: www.rdltraining.com

The fact that you are listening or watching this shows that you are an outlier

and realize you can learn more and are seeking advice and learning to improve your management effectiveness and become a better leader.

Now… I'm going to share with you an important experience.

In my 40-year business career as a manager, executive, and leader,

100% of the time, when I had an underperforming location or team, I could always tie it back to the manager.

In fact, I would often make one difficult change that would quickly, and I mean real quick, change the performance of a team.

I'd Change the manager.

Tell me more, Vaughn!

Two ways

1. Train them up. I could work with them, coach them train them and give them important personal improvement goals

• along with the tools and knowledge they needed to grow into the leader they needed to be.
• I truly believe that leaders can be made.
• Not everyone, however.
• Only the ones that are willing to make the change to improve.
• For those who self-identified themselves as unwilling to make the change, I moved to my second highly effective approach.

1. I let them go and brought in someone who had proven themselves either effective or willing to learn how to be a great manager and leader.

I can assure you of this. No manager gets up and goes to work, intending to be a poor leader or manager.

They simply don't know what they don't know.

Why…..well that is a whole other podcast and video.But briefly Most bosses do a crappy job of performance feedback with managers.

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The recruiting process is one of the essential functions a manager can undertake. The right hiring decisions can lead to incredible results for the organization. The wrong decision can be costly and even devastating. Poor choices are much more likely to occur if the options are weak. This can be caused by inadequate recruiting. In this program, I will share some of the things Results-Driven Managers do that help them attract the best candidates for the job.

They begin by listing the sources they should be looking for new employees. In other words, they prepare!

Here are the six steps that Results-Driven Managers take

to recruit top talent.

STEP 1: ANSWER THE KEY RECRUITING QUESTIONS

The first step in preparing to recruit is to answer specific important questions. Those answers will significantly affect how you recruit or if you will even recruit at all.

STEP 2: Create or Update Written Job Descriptions

Do not start recruiting unless you have the new hire's job description ready.

Develop job descriptions with defined duties, responsibilities, authorities, and skills. This is essential for determining expectations, both on the part of the employee candidate and you, as the manager. The job description should show what you want the new employee to do. It should answer the question: What competencies and knowledge are required?

STEP 3: Identify the Desired Behaviors and Personality Styles

Also, list the non-trainable competencies they must have. Not taking this into consideration is a big miss. You can train skills, but you cannot train natural-born competencies.

You can train someone to use excel, but you cannot train someone on how to have a strong work ethic.

They must bring that with them as an absolute must-have.

Here are some more examples of untrainable competencies to consider

Courageous Leadership

Teamwork

Analysis and Decision Making

Communication

Empathy (Soft Skills)

Results Focus

Honesty

Respect

Accountability

When hiring a direct report, think about what kind of person you will enjoy working with. Different types of people may be capable of doing the job well. However, they may also annoy you with some of their behaviors. So, do not underestimate the importance of your direct report being someone you enjoy working with.

STEP 4. Create a Competitive Compensation and Benefits Program

STEP 5. Develop an Integrated Recruiting Marketing Plan

STEP 6. Create a Protocol for Handling Resume Responses

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Employee development activities help in the growth and development of employees, who are the true assets of an organization. You need to respect your employees for them to feel motivated and develop a sense of loyalty and attachment toward the organization. Don't forget your employees strive really hard for almost the entire day to accomplish the organization's goals and objectives. They need to be appreciated.

Employees want to work for an employer that will upgrade their skills to keep them competitive with peers from other companies.

If you are looking for your future career to reach a significant level of success, you're not going to get there by doing it all yourself. So, one of your most important jobs is to help develop those who report to you to become Results-Employees who provide their highest positive impact to the organization. The results from this effort will help you and your organization achieve its mission, vision, and goals.

We share vital best practices and some of our secrets in this program. These Secrets will collectively improve your leadership, accountability, and teamwork abilities, which will result in your employees providing higher for your organization.

If there is true alignment between your employees and their roles, team members will feel an ownership of the results and accountability on the areas for which they are responsible. Don't waste your time trying to develop someone into something that does not fit who they are.

Identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) of each of your employees to position them for best-fit roles.

Define and ensure that their role to ensure that the position:

• Leverages their Strengths
• Minimizes their Weaknesses
• Capitalizes on their Opportunities
• Neutralizes Threats to their success

When evaluating the best fit for their roles, match their basic behavior styles and motivators (DISC Profile).

Take a Free DISC Profile and See How This Helps

Try to connect directly between what your employees do in their workday and who they are by nature. If this is a problem with one of your team members, discuss with your employees what the two of you can do to neutralize the problem. You can adjust their role to drop responsibilities that don't match their behavior style. Or reposition them in the company to a role that does.

Help your employees recognize any gaps between who they are and what they do, then discuss how their roles can be redesigned so that they develop in roles that give them the best chance to contribute to the organization.

Most managers are good at seeing strengths and helping their employees to use them well. Some are extremely poor about recognizing that the roles need to minimize areas in which the employee may be naturally weak.

If the employee sees and agrees with the issue of weaknesses, this allows them to develop or move into roles in which they can be more effective. As you understand their weaknesses, you need to eradicate role responsibilities that require them to use skills in which they are not naturally strong, or which require behaviors that are not naturally comfortable.

When redefining roles, look for opportunities that will help your employees bring greater impact to your organization. Encourage your employees to look beyond current self-imposed boundaries of roles that limit their ability to be Results-Driven Employees.

The last factor to consider in redefining roles is identifying threats that have a real chance of occurring. Discuss if there are threats that they cannot prevent from happening, but for which they need to be prepared. You have no real control over a threat... but once something is identified as a potential threat, you can at least try to develop ways to react to it. It seems that more and more frequently, this involves understanding or using technology that is needed to do jobs more effectively.

Mentor Your Employees When Possible

Mentoring is the act of being an advisor, counselor, or guide, and delivering regular performance feedback. You are not mentoring when you are giving orders of what needs to be done. Mentors do not use language that directs, instructs, nor commands.

It is easy to fall into a pattern of stating exactly what and how you want things done. This is

called management and is not to be confused with mentoring. Results-Driven Managers are Inspirational Leaders who practice the art of mentoring their team.

As a Results-Driven Manager, you must find the time and seize the opportunity to mentor your employees. Developing your employees is much more effective if you are not always telling them what to do or making their decisions for them. Instead, use mentoring skills.

Effective mentoring approaches include being very free with your advice – not orders, as to how to do something. Mentoring is an excellent way to develop work-related thinking and decision-making, which will, in turn, improve the impact your employees have on your organization.

Develop the habit of not responding to all questions with direct answers. Instead, respond with a question along the lines of:

• What do you think you should do?
• How do you want to handle it?
• If you were me, what would you do?
• Do you have some ideas on how to handle that? Share them.
• Have you asked someone else what they think?
• Other than me, where do you think you can find the answer to that question?

Mentors ask questions; they don't give all the answers. Help your direct reports to think and develop their critical thinking skills.

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LinkedIn

Strategic leadership is a leader's ability to visualize, plan, lead, and make the best out of their resources. When they do this, they are able to execute strategies efficiently and successfully. Productivity and management mindset are significant — how leaders think goes hand in hand with how they lead. A strategic mindset reflects strategic agility, the ability to see how the big picture relates to the here and now.

Start Your Full Strategic Leadership Training Here:

A strategic leader must first be a visionary and a strategic thinker. They think with the end in mind and only focus on necessary tasks.

Communicating the vision of where the organization should be heading is vital. Strategic leaders must have the social skills necessary to share their vision with the team accurately.

Since organizations rely on systems to save time, money, and resources, they understand how to create plans for action.

Strategic leaders must create a goal-setting framework that defines and tracks their objectives and outcomes.

Turning the organization's long-term vision into daily objectives is integral to strategic leadership. Strategic leaders must have a broad perspective to apply an overall vision to the here and now.

Strategic leaders understand how their actions and moods impact their teams. They think before acting, have emotional intelligence, and control their distracting or negative attitudes.

You can count on strategic leaders. They go after their goals with passion and determination and stop at nothing until their vision becomes reality.

Strategic leaders are masters at strategy implementation. They understand how to turn goals into action plans and actions into results. They make the most out of their systems and resources.

Being grounded in integrity and compassion is essential. Before making decisions, leaders must consider their team's ideas, feelings, and perspectives.

Strategic leaders understand how to lead a team. They know how to allocate resources, delegate responsibilities, and empower their team to make decisions on their behalf.

Get the Full Strategic Leadership Training Course

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LinkedIn

Most employees want to do their jobs well. Through employee development, you can give your team the skills they need to improve their day-to-day work, reach better outcomes, and boost your career. A better-trained workforce brings increased output for your company.

Employee development activities help in the growth and development of employees, who are the true assets of an organization. You need to respect your employees for them to feel motivated and develop a sense of loyalty and attachment toward the organization. Don't forget your employees strive really hard for almost the entire day to accomplish the organization's goals and objectives. They need to be appreciated.

Take the Course and Start Developing Your Team Members Now

Employees want to work for an employer that will upgrade their skills to keep them competitive with peers from other companies.

If you are looking for your future career to reach a significant level of success, you're not going to get there by doing it all yourself. So, one of your most important jobs is to help develop those who report to you, to become Results-Employees who provide their highest positive impact to the organization. The results from this effort will help you and your organization achieve its mission, vision, and goals.

We share vital best practices and some of our secrets in this program. These Secrets will collectively improve your leadership, accountability, and teamwork abilities, which will result in your employees providing higher for your organization.

Stay Connected with Newsletters and Updates

Join our mailing list to receive our team's latest news and updates. Don't worry; your information will not be shared.

We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information for any reason.

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This podcast is excellent for overworked, stressed-out, frustrated executives and managers who have entirely given up on a healthy work-life balance.

First, let's see if you have this problem.

• Do you feel stressed out and overloaded with too much work?
• Do you feel like your phone rings all day, or you are constantly interrupted by questions from your team?
• Or that you are fighting fires every day and not getting a lot done?
• Or does it feel like your career is stalled, and you're not making the progress you know you should be making?

If so, you may need to brush up on your delegation skills!

There's a finite amount that you personally can do. NO Matter how hard you work. After all, you can only work so many hours in a day, and there are only so many people you can help.

And, because of the number of people you can help, questions you can answer, fires you can fight, and problems you can solve is limited, your success is limited.

These issues prevent you from getting to the bigger more important long term projects, strategies and goals that you know will advance your success.

You may be the product of your own strong knowledge. The better you are at knowing your job and the more you make yourself indispensable, the more people will expect from you and rely on you.

This can lead to undue pressure and work overload: you can't do everything everyone wants or needs.

And this can leave you feeling stressed, unhappy, and starting to burn out with a feeling of diminishing motivation.

Don't feel alone. This is a very common challenge and I am shocked it has taken me this long to put out a podcast on the topic.

I find this affects new managers and executives all the way up the chain to the CEO and Business Owner.

Yes, it's common, but it is also so self-limiting. It places an arbitrary cap on not only your personal growth but your company's growth as well.

The Business Principle called the Peter Principle is at play here.

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Onboarding is a prime opportunity for employers to win the hearts and minds of new employees. Don't waste it.

Onboarding is a magic moment when new employees decide to either stay engaged or become disengaged. It offers an imprinting window where you can make an impression that stays with new employees for the duration of their careers.

For an onboarding program to be effective and successful, you should proactively onboard your new hires for as long as the entire first year. At a minimum, it should be applied intently for the first 90 days. A successful onboarding strategy will reduce attrition and increase employee engagement, impacting your team's productivity and customer satisfaction.

Managers sometimes do all the right things when it comes to recruiting, selecting, and hiring new employees. But as soon as the new player shows up, they make the mistake of treating the person the same as an employee who has been working for the company for a long time.

Start Your Training for Setting New Employees Up For Success Now

All too often, there's no structure for onboarding and integrating new employees and no orientation period. This is a huge mistake because the new employee must quickly come to feel like they belong and understand how they fit in.

Without a plan for integration, your new employees will be less effective at their jobs. They won't have the institutional knowledge needed to help them contribute, and it will take longer for them to feel like they are actually part of the organization. As a result, they will be more susceptible to the factors that often result in their leaving the company before giving the job a real chance.

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LinkedIn

Culture is the behavior that results when a group operates within a set of generally unspoken and unwritten rules. Organization's Culture is the term given to your organization's shared values and practices.

Your Organization's Culture may be viewed as the environment that surrounds you at work. It comprises the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, interests, experiences, and team members' behavior in the workplace.

An Organization's Culture tells people how to do their work. It takes its signals from leaders. It underlies work motivation, morale, creativity, and success.

Some key points of an Organization's Culture should be put in writing. However, it is impossible to put in a single, written Organization's Culture Statement all the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people.

An organization's Culture shapes your work enjoyment, work relationships, and work processes. This Culture is something you actually see through its manifestations by team members in your workplace. In many ways, your Organization's Culture is the personality of your organization expressed by team members through:

• Language
• Decision making
• Openness with other team members
• Stories and legends
• Daily work practices

Benefits of a Great Organization's Culture

A good Organization's Culture encourages everything and everyone in it to fulfill their desires around the tasks they complete for their jobs. This is a workplace with high morale and motivation—and thus increased productivity. A good culture builds a more engaged and productive workplace, with a balance between what we do and how we do it. It is a positive factor in bringing about a more significant impact by team members in the organization.

A good Organization's Culture is also a magnet for attracting good people to work for the organization. Results-Driven Managers need their direct reports to embrace the Organizational Culture to grow an organization to reach its maximum potential.

Start Creating Yur High-Performance Culture Now

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