We’re proud to announce our latest innovation to meet the needs of cutting-edge businesses.  Many emerging companies are completely virtual in their presence, abandoning the traditional office completely, while others utilize virtual tools on a regular basis to link teams spread across multiple locations in different cities, states, and even other countries around the world.

The Emergence of Tools Geared to Virtual Management and the TM Solutions Answer

Many of the tools developed to meet these virtual needs have centered on communications (Skype, for example) and project management (think: Basecamp).  While these tools have certainly enabled companies to perform the most basic business tasks, and even more complex ones, without a lingering thought to gathering in person, TM Solutions has chosen to be an innovator in addressing the multiple needs that these companies have for properly managing people and teams.  Furthermore these companies have an even greater challenge, in many cases, in generating a true corporate culture—something we believe is an ongoing process of developing leaders, managers, and teams, rather than just posting a set of corporate values and having a robust orientation session.

With these considerations in mind, we released our breakthrough talent management software, the Mobile Manager earlier this year.  Integrated with tools like our exclusive Talent Card and Peer Card, the Mobile Manager makes life easier for all managers and team members by connecting them to the information they need to know in order to collaborate and achieve business goals with greater effectiveness.  Through the Mobile Manager, people understand each other’s communication preferences, likes and dislikes, sensitivities and hot buttons, building credibility and trust across the organization.  People can also predict and act upon how others respond to various personal and leadership styles, both positively and negatively, as well as how they approach problem-solving tasks and react in pressured or deadline-oriented situations.

Since its release in April 2012, the Mobile Manager has made a huge impact on the team-building activities at participating companies.  We’ve received very positive feedback on the many elements that our clients find both easy to use and practical in their day-to-day leadership and collaboration roles.  They’ve also let us know that, like many other tools they find effective, they tend to see the Mobile Manager as their go-to resource for managing their teams—in effect, they spend a significant portion of each day and week “living” inside the platform, utilizing the Mobile Manager to leave them prepared for most of the challenges they face in working together with others.

Companies Oriented to Talent Management Need More

We are pleased to say that they have been asking for more. Organizations today recognize that managing profitability and maximizing productivity, as well as improving expertise and capabilities, is contingent on a sensible investment in their current talent and future leaders. In addition to organizational benefits they have seen with the Mobile Manager, managers and employees want coaching to help them deliver better results and achieve their personal goals. Employees and managers want access to relevant performance coaching as they need it and when they need it.

Thus, our clients want to broaden the scope of how they use the Mobile Manager, and we’ve responded with Virtual Performance Coaching with Mobile Manager Feedback.  This latest improvement takes the Mobile Manager to a new level of effectiveness, as it now serves as a preparation tool and communications tool for managers and teams to develop their talents and skills with interpersonal, developmental communications along the way.

Why Talent Management Processes and Tools Are Important

Most organizations adequately manage performance.  They set performance objectives, define key metrics, and conduct periodic assessments (monthly, quarterly, and/or annually).  What's missing is called the "performance gap."  

The performance gap is the time between the planning and assessment phases - the time where teams and individuals are actually doing their work, developing products, engaging customers, collaborating on teams, managing projects and programs, delivering products and services.  What type of ongoing, practical and timely performance feedback is actually taking place beyond the discussion of metrics, weekly staff meetings, and formal assessments?  Performance feedback, such as how to improve production and results, the quality of work, productivity, relationships, cross-functional collaboration, is, unfortunately, an area where most organizations place little to no focus. 

Today, it is possible to move beyond senior level coaching, as well as close the performance gap, by providing cost-effective, timely Virtual Performance Coaching with Mobile Manager Feedback (MMF) to all employees. Through this integration of technology, tools, and best practices in talent management, we can now deliver hundreds of high-quality coaching sessions to any employee—exactly when they need it.

Most companies, both big and small, simply cannot deliver on-demand performance coaching in-house to their managers and teams, due to issues around bandwidth, expertise, and cost.  Furthermore, individual managers have the same challenges around capacity and know-how, as well as the fact that many of them are elevated functional experts, rather than performance coaches. 

Real Business World Application—Not Just Another Piece of Technology

No matter the challenge, be it capacity, priority, expertise, or cost, companies can meet their objectives in talent management when they have the right tools for success.  That’s where Virtual Performance Coaching with Mobile Manager Feedback (MMF) comes into the equation, equipping executives, managers, and team members for multiple scenarios:

1.       You or your support group (manager, mentor, coach, HR rep, etc.) has identified a development need and you want to identify possible causes for the deficiency.

2.       You are coaching someone and want some ideas on how they can improve their personal effectiveness (production, quality of work, and productivity), communication, interpersonal skills, or leadership.

3.       You are conducting a performance review discussion with an employee and want some suggestions, talking points or strategies.

4.       You received some general feedback from others and want something more specific and targeted. You want to identify the “real need.”

5.       You are creating a development action plan for yourself or team member and want to do more than attend a webinar or workshop.

Virtual Performance Coaching with MMF offers high impact coaching content and strategies spanning 100 MMF options in four categories – personal effectiveness, career development (for current and future roles), leadership, and interpersonal skills (communication, relationships, influence).  MMF is ongoing, practical and timely performance feedback such as how to maximize production and results, improve the quality of work, increase productivity, or strengthen relationships and teamwork for self or team member. Each MMF provides objective and unbiased feedback that is personalized and relevant for each employee. 

Taking this holistic approach, Virtual Performance Coaching  helps companies develop the complete employee—molding better leaders, people who are better prepared to meet current and future organizational and market challenges. For more information on Virtual Performance Coaching with Mobile Manager Feedback, visit the TM Solutions site at http://www.tms-hr.com/Virtual-Performance-Coaching.aspx.  To discover a wide range of feedback options, visit http://www.tms-hr.com/Mobile-Manager-Feedback.aspx

Last week, we shared three keys to effective communication in the workplace.  The first three keys included focusing and being clear, listening to understand, not to respond, and valuing and respect different perspectives  Now, we’re back with four more ways that people can do a better job collaborating with their managers, colleagues, and reports through sharpening their communication skills.

The fourth key for effective communication is ensuring that you identify the communication preferences of your audience. Based on Human Patterns®, people attend to four general types of information:  Who, Why, How, and What. Who speaks to the expectations of work—what will they need to do to accomplish a task and how their performance will help others execute their own tasks are the main concerns of some people.

Why speaks to the need for others to know how the work and associated tasks relate to the goals and mission of the organization. Some people are most interested in the decisions or purpose behind the communication.  How addresses the relevant processes and procedures necessary to accomplish the work, as well as elements like budget.

With regard to What, the major drivers are succinct, action-oriented directives and the timelines associated with them. People who respond most to the What want to know time-frames above all else.

Failure to understand these different types of communication preferences among your peers will cause them to tune you out. Use your knowledge of each person’s preferences to tailor your message accordingly. You must see past your own personal information preferences or biases in order to correctly ascertain the communication needs of your colleagues. Quickly recognize when you fail to get someone the information out of his preferred order, re-set, and go about communicating in the right way.

Next, adapt to non-verbal and behavioral clues. If you’re not paying non-verbal communication its due, you’re missing out on 95% of all human communication! Non-verbal communication can include eye movement, tone of voice, posture, facial expressions, and gestures.

Keys to understanding non-verbal and behavior clues include asking questions if you notice incongruent behaviors. If you’re confused by non-verbal signals, ask questions. Also, feel free to repeat to the person your interpretation of their response, and then ask for clarification if you’ve made and incorrect perception.

Also, make sure to consider these gestures or clues collectively. Sometimes a single gesture or movement can actually betray what your colleague is really thinking. Thus, if you place too much credence in a particular element of their body language, you risk drawing incorrect conclusions.

Avoid rushed interpretations and certainly accusations. No one likes to be labeled a liar, and analyzing body language is an imperfect science.  Incorrect accusations based on erroneous observations can be embarrassing, damaging, and take a long time to overcome.  Verify your interpretation with gentle questioning such as “I get the feeling you’re uncomfortable with this course of action. Would you like to add something to the discussion?” 

Gentle questioning should draw out the real message the other person is trying to convey, without risking their alienation based on your own perceptions.  Remember that we all send mixed messages from time to time for a wide array of reasons.  Don’t presume you know all the answers!

The sixth key for effective communication is to understand when to address or avoid sensitivities and hot button issues in others.  Follow the old adage, think before you speak. Don’t rush into your own words with people.  Based on the context and importance of the message, you need to prepare yourself to either address the person’s sensitivity or avoid it completely. Different situations call for different measures of communication.

There are six common sensitivities or hot buttons identified by Human Patterns® that most people have –others taking advantage of them, experiencing humiliation and embarrassment, ground rules changing arbitrarily, being unskilled or uninformed, finding themselves in risky situations, and boredom or redundancy.  You have a strategy at your disposal to address each of these sensitivities.

For those who fear others taking advantage of them, be exceptionally forthright and direct. Never gloss over relevant information, or they will assume you are hiding key knowledge from them. For those who fear humiliation or embarrassment, start by accentuating their positive traits, and position any negatives—always in private settings!—as ways to provide constructive feedback or to fix performance problems so that those positive perceptions persist.

Some people perceive any change as the rules of the game changing mid-game—for them, you must keep change in small doses, and make them aware of changes ahead of time, if possible, so that they can properly integrate the impact of the change into their rules mentality.  They need predictability and consistency, so give it to them.

Others hate being perceived, by themselves or others, as not up to a task.  For those who feel that they may be in over their heads, start with them by praising what they do well, and place any constructive feedback or insufficient performance in a learning and development context.   Place their need for honing certain skills and expertise in their work as an opportunity for them to achieve more wide-ranging mastery.

Finally, for people who tend to become bored or feel their position is redundant, acknowledge ways they can bring innovation, variety and something new to the workplace.  Know this preference with them, but also guide them in the ways the company requires consistency and efficiency to effectively achieve the goals of the team.

The final key to effective communication and certainly of great importance is to always be open, honest, and accountable. Don’t be judgmental or argumentative, and keep an open mind to the feelings and ideas shared by others.

Be up-front with others, and let them know your position—never make them second-guess your own wants and needs.  Always be open and honest—never stretch the truth, even if it feels right.  Sending mixed signals only creates complicated, dysfunctional relationships later.  So even when you are having misgivings of your own, make sure that what you eventually communicate is an idea to which you are solidly committed to yourself.

In conclusion, welcome and respect the courage of others to be honest with you.  And with this welcoming mentality, also be responsible and accountable when you fail to communicate properly. Often, when you feel like others aren’t hearing you, the problem lies with your own communication.  Knowing you’re not perfect today helps you to become a better communicator tomorrow.

Effective interpersonal communication is the foundation for successful performance and growth in both your career and personal life.  Communication skills enable you to better lead, influence and build relationships with others by developing trust, reducing conflict and misunderstanding, and improving productivity. 

Through our work in leadership development, talent management, and coaching executives, managers, and employees at dozens of profitable, sustainable companies, we have determined a mix of seven keys to effective communication in the workplace:

1. Focus and be clear
2. Listen to understand, not to respond
3. Value and respect different perspectives
4. Identify communication preferences of your audience
5. Adapt to non-verbal and behavioral clues
6. Address or avoid sensitivities and hot buttons of your audience
7. Always be open, honest and accountable

In today’s post, we’ll discuss the first three keys.

First, you must focus and be clear.  This key speaks to the notion that you value your own time, and thus you should value the time of others you deal with in the workplace.  Get to the point when providing information, while avoiding lengthy, unnecessarily-detailed answers.

You should also remember to stay on message, being absolutely clear with regard to the ideas you need to express, especially within the expressed purpose of the conversation. To this end, you should answer questions directly and provide important information only. Just as the best writers distill thousands of words into the hundreds of words that pack the most punch, you should do the same with how you speak with your managers, colleagues, and reports.

Next, you must listen to understand, not to respond.  This concept is pretty difficult for even the smartest among us.  To make this happen, you need to apply common sense—listen more than talk.  Also, avoid urges to interrupt or object on the fly, without hearing out the other person’s thoughts in their entirety.

This should go without saying, but in order to properly listen, you should be engaged in the conversation.  Stop what you’re doing—put away the gadgets (smartphones, TV), minimize the potential for interruptions, and remove physical barriers such as desks, walls, and doors between you and the other person.

As you give the other person more opportunity to speak, be careful to pay attention to not just what is being said, but what is not being said. There are many of us who edit our thoughts quite a bit, never completely sharing what’s on our minds—a good listener can read between the lines and pick up these unspoken thoughts throughout a conversation.

Think through your responses to others after taking proper time to listen. Focus your attention on understanding someone’s message instead of formulating your response.  Being unafraid to give proper consideration, not only to what others have to say but also how you express your own thoughts and reactions, garners respect in professional environments.  Be patient in the process and remember that many people mistrust quick answers.

You must also value and respect different perspectives.  First, you must recognize the value of what others say and their reason and right to say it.

If you’re really seeking to value and respect another person’s perspective, you need to focus on understanding that perspective, not on agreeing or disagreeing with it.  Involve that person in even more conversation than you normally would somebody with whom you share much agreement, asking more questions versus making more declarative statements.  We’ve found that people tend to normally make statements at a rate eight times the number of questions they ask!

Ultimately, do you understand the other person’s perspective, or what they’re even trying to say?  If you’re not sure, simply ask more questions. Remember, your message is not about you or what you may want in a given situation—you want to know what the other party values and why their message is important to them.

In next week’s post, we will cover the four additional keys to effective communication.

TM Solutions created the Mobile Manager with the demands placed on today’s manager in mind.  Our new software tool combines multiple elements needed by today’s managers in order for them to execute on multiple fronts.  This multi-channel understanding of managers’ needs matches our own understanding that managers must play multiple roles in executing corporate strategy in the following areas:  leadership, coaching, collaborating, and team-building,

We’ve created the Mobile Manager as a one-stop hub for companies to leverage all of TM Solutions’ coaching, training, and development offerings in a user-friendly space optimized for desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, since we know that many managers must interact with remote employees or simply need these devices with them at all times to deal with the high speed of business opportunities these days.

Within this hub, we’ve built several core components to help managers execute in the field. First, managers have with them at all times a dashboard organizational view of all of the people within their chain of command and company work groups. Within this dashboard, managers can link to two important tools, Talent Cards and Peer Cards, for each person they interact with, take orders from, or manage on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Talent Cards and Peer Cards play a vital role in helping managers execute in the field.  Quickly-accessible Talent Cards help managers understand their employees and provide a predictive model for how they will react in certain situations, whether it’s a high pressure environment or a fun team challenge. Managers will have the psychometric foundation, via the Talent Card, to understand their employees’ motivations and get a quick refresher on each employee’s preferences, sensitivities and hot buttons, both in terms of their work-related values and interests and any relevant personal information that feeds into the greater understanding of that employee as a person.

The Mobile Manager exploits the genius behind Peer Cards in much the same way.  Many organizations call upon their management groups to collaborate on initiatives that they can then roll out within their own respective silos.  Sometimes these groups can come from the same function—as with regional managers at financial services companies—or they can be cross-functional,  as with government task forces represented by leaders from multiple agencies.  Regardless of function, in order to execute in collaborative situations, managers need to build understanding of their colleagues.  And often, due to the speed of opportunity or the urgency of the challenge they are asked to address, this understanding must be built quickly, and the Peer Card is there to do it.

With a perspective geared less for management and more for collaboration, managers can work together and execute corporate strategy through understanding their colleagues’ communication preferences, interpersonal expectations, strengths, and motivations through the Peer Card.

The Mobile Manager also incorporates other tools and services to enhance leadership and coaching as execution areas for managers.  TM Solutions has delivered live (as well as recorded) learning sessions through topical webinars aimed at areas such as engaging teams through effective leadership and communicating effectively. 

In addition to highly interactive content that sparks immediate new execution abilities based on coachable areas, TM Solutions has also brought into the Mobile Manager its extensive library of training and development content, from best practice solutions to leadership coaching and talent assessment knowledge bases.  As you can see, TM Solutions has quite literally tried to think of any challenge that managers can face in the field and optimize the answers to these challenges through vital technology made for today’s mobile, fast-paced setting.

When you want your people to execute the plan, you leave them no excuse for failure. You want them to have every platform to succeed, and the Mobile Manager can be that platform to drive organizational and individual success.