I went “ALL IN” on ME

In the corporate world, we go “all in” on many things. Some of them are prosperous ventures, some are not. We learn to adjust. As leaders, we also know that our decisions impact others Every. Single. Time. This is our reality and none of us take it lightly.

Which is why I spent over six months preparing others for my departure from one of the largest Healthcare organizations in the world. Every decision I made included someone who could “take the reins” and confidently lead going forward.

During my “goodbye meeting,” I “flipped the script” and shared quotes and images for each one of my team members and talked about how much I learned from them and what they meant to me. I could have done that for every person I met there beyond my team – they left a mark on me for sure.

I also personally reflected on my goals:

In less than 5 years, my team introduced Organization Design & Development to over 1,000 Human Capital Professionals. We created toolkits for Change Leadership, Organization Design, Human Centered Design, New Leader Acceleration, Team Development, Strategy & Planning, and more. We built strong relationships with our “People Team” partners and were the “guides on the side” for many large initiatives. I also led initiatives where I pulled teams together across the 3 separate organizations to identify our collective goals and achieve them together.

We developed new Coaching Programs (Just in Time and Leadership Coaching) that now have hundreds of coaches working across the organization to support others. I became a coach of coaches, which is my favorite role of all time.

So why did I leave all of this?

Because I went ALL IN on ME. I wanted to step off of the hamster wheel and spend the rest of my career doing something that makes my heart swell.

I went ALL IN on my girls who are current and future leaders (age 11 and 12) and are creative and awesome and really great humans. I want to be with them before they head off to the world of adventures. I want to know them, and I want them to know me, too.

I went ALL IN on my husband who loves his job building websites for Ironistic AND coaches our daughter’s basketball team AND is President of the Maple Gove Community Organization (our small town of 72,000+ residents). He also might be a Pickleball or Volleyball mascot someday:).

I went ALL IN on my team at Vreeman Consulting. At this point in my life, I don’t care about making money (that’s the sticking point to leaving a job, right?!?). I care most about helping to build the workforce of the future that will appeal to future generations. I talked to every one of my VC team members over the past week, and I am ALL IN on supporting them, helping them to achieve their goals, and loving them as they raise families in different stages of life as parents, grandparents, etc. This team is a collection of my favorite people on earth.

I went ALL IN on US, all of us.

When opportunity meets FOCUS.

2016:  The beginning of the year of change (written in early 2016)

When I reflect, I recognize all that I have accomplished. When I look forward, I experience fear.

I am at the threshold.  I am at a place of undeniable opportunity and I am facing the unknown.  

I have been here before time and time again in many ways. I have overcome obstacles, taken great risks, and achieved things I hadn’t had time to dream up yet- success came so fast.

Yet today, I am fearful. I have options, opportunities presenting themselves in remarkable ways, and yet I fear the unknown.  

And the irony is that I have experienced failure.  I overcame heartache as my dreams and hard work came to their demise.  I experienced moving on, creating new dreams, working hard, and achieving.  I learned from my failures and I survived and in many ways, I thrived.

But here, at this threshold, I feel fear, and this is what I am doing about it:

1) Core Values:   I will work to reinforce the values that are at my core- the values that guide me, give me purpose and help me become the most successful ME on earth.

2) Use my talents to plan:  People are often challenged with the ability to foresee future events, to plan for effective business decisions, to understand their customers and to understand their competitors, to calculate risks and form plans that matter.  I help organizations plan- not through traditional methods that eventually get dusty on a shelf but by engaging people at all levels in planning for improvements and aligning goals throughout.  I will use my talents to plan and update and revise and update my plan, continuously seeking purpose that makes me whole and challenged and revived.

3) Daily affirmation that I bring valuable efforts and skills to the table.  I will take time to view the big picture and ensure I  am on track.  I will seek feedback from within about my efforts and match that internal message with feedback from others.  If there is a discrepancy, I will work to amend it. 

4) Community: I will continue to foster a network that holds me in high regard and envisions a success greater than one person, guided by togetherness.  

I will focus.

And imagine, if organizations replaced the words “me” and “I” in this article with “we” or the name of their organization, imagine how deep the understanding of their own Organizational goals may go and imagine the impact on the people throughout.  Try it.

Why Your Continuous Improvement Efforts Are Not Working

Many organizations insist continuous improvement is at the core of their values.  They build programs, hire business improvement and innovation experts and wonder why their business is still behind in their field of work. 

What’s wrong with these efforts?

A simple answer: the people.

The people don’t want to send their novel idea into the abyss where they will never associate with it again.

The people don’t want to participate in discussions that result in lists of great ideas that go nowhere.

The people don’t want to experience a leader crediting their idea fully to management without thanks to the brilliant mind who submitted the idea.

The people don’t want to send their idea off and have no further investment in making it become a reality.

The people don’t want to hear that it is not their job to improve how the organization functions.

The people don’t want to share an idea and have it blasted down or dismissed.

The people don’t want to implement someone else’s idea when theirs are ignored.

It’s the people who must live out your organization’s core values and for an organization to truly value improvement efforts, the following leadership skills must actively encourage the people living out the value:

1) Leaders understand what makes a core value a “core value.”  Core values are carried out by all employees in every day activities.  If your organization values continuous improvement, people would be engaged in improvement efforts as a regular, expected, core part of their work.

2) Leaders empower employees to ask “why.”  Context is an invaluable tool in achieving creative, innovative ideas.  When employees ask why, they are provided context that leads to sensical and sensible work solutions. Leaders also ask, “what can we do better?” and work with their team to plan large and small changes.

3) Leaders ensure all people are engaged in improvement activities. Ideas are shared and implemented at every level.  It’s an ongoing expectation for individuals to express new ideas about process improvements, training ideas, collaboration and communication, leadership expectations, and workforce culture.  New ideas are on agendas for team  meetings, strategic planning and achievement celebrations.  

4) Leaders facilitate improvement activities.  All leaders are trained to coordinate improvement efforts and flesh out new ideas with employees.  They understand what decisions they and their team can make and when they must partner across teams to effectively improve services. They share this insight openly with their teams.

5) Leaders understand the power of engaging employees in carrying out improvement efforts. They teach individuals to create propositions and manage mini-projects, making all efforts to partner with the customer and get it right the first time.

6) Leaders are courageous. They don’t believe in placing blame and instead have confidence in their ability to take calculated risks. They model courage and reinforce acceptable risk-taking of employees by removing obstacles and empowering people.

7) They believe employees who do the work every day know how to make it better. They know employees’ ideas are critical to the success of the organization.

If an organization truly values improvement, leaders are hired and trained to reinforce organizational change and innovation at all levels by supporting and empowering people at all levels.

Employees are REGULARLY expected to spend up to 40% of their time learning, training others, and testing new ideas. It’s what makes the organization thrive.

Leaders understand the process for implementing new ideas and regularly coach employees to share and implement ideas.

If you’re wondering why your organization isn’t ahead in your field, consider engaging the people in solutioning. Odds are, they have great ideas about what makes you lag behind and want to invest more in the success of your organization (because they have been waiting for you to ask the question and want to be part of the organization’s success)!!

In my work with teams, I design programs that energize and empower employees to implement new ideas and teach leaders to effectively and fearlessly manage innovation.

We eliminate the elusive “insert idea here” phenomena (fill out this form and press send…to receive a “thanks for your idea” auto response and then radio silence). Instead, we engage employees in regular discussions and teach them to propose their great ideas openly, taking responsibility to see the idea through to implementation.

For future retirees, we create legacy plans and make 30 year old dreams become reality.

The energy is electric. The people are creative and innovative and tireless. It’s an experience every organization should feel at its core.

What is the best way you have found to share and implement new ideas at work? I would love to hear successes and lessons learned from you!

For more information about Carolyn Vreeman, Leadership Coach and Change Manager, visit http://www.vreemanconsulting.com.

How to Lower the Levy and Increase Employee Engagement

“What will the public say?  Tell them we lowered the levy and steadily increased employee engagement.  That should get their attention.”

This is what happens when you update your work culture and focus on results.  This is what happened to a small county in Northern Minnesota, and they are proud to talk about it. 

In the summer of 2013, I met with the Director of Community Services in Crow Wing County.  She described the transformation she hoped to achieve,  and I designed a program to help them get there.

A few months later, I trained their leadership and 14 Champions of Change in three days…a training the Champions and leaders will never forget. It was a training that re-energized the workforce for years to come.

This program helped leaders and teams update their culture and gain autonomy at work and home.  Each employee was able to choose how, when, and where they did their work.  The leaders learned the skills necessary to manage the work and abandon outdated management practices (counting heads, time stamps) that limit employee productivity and engagement in the workplace. 

Results workshops helped teams clarify results and identify meaningful indicators for the organization, effectively condensing over 200 metrics and measures to just 20 meaningful indicators of productivity and organizational success.  The organization’s goals were aligned throughout every level from line staff to top leadership: every voice heard.

And now over two years later, they continue to report increased employee engagement and better results, lowering the levy for the 6th year in a row, an amazing accomplishment:   http://www.brainerddispatch.com/news/3894248-crow-wing-county-board-levy-lowered-6th-straight-year

Last week, I presented the Focus on Results Program to 30 MN County Commissioners.  Without prompting, Crow Wing County talked proudly of their successes from a Commissioner’s point of interest, and recognized that the benefits are far greater than decreasing the levy or employee engagement.  The real benefits are experienced by the client who is able to meet with their social worker more easily and thanks to technology has resources and online applications in hand, the social worker who is 40% more productive on focused, undisturbed activities, and the teams who have clear coverage calendars and work together as adults to improve how they do business, putting their ideas into action.   The true accomplishment when an organization focuses on results is gauged by service to customers and clients: the people we are here to serve.

And when a culture transformation in an organization like this takes place, you can see it, you hear it, and most importantly, you feel the renewed energy and passion in your workplace.  I felt that passion shared in that room with 30 MN County Commissioners.  It’s electric.

What would it take for your organization to focus on results?

Interested in transforming your culture at work and need a little help?  Contact Vreeman Consulting, LLC: vreeman.consulting.llc@gmail.com.  This work is what I was meant to do.

How to Leave An Awesome Boss.

I resigned from my job of 15 years.  Kiddingly,  my boss reminded me of my own quote based on years of research, “People leave their managers,  not the work.”

In true form, I challenge research.  I am leaving the work,  not my boss.  Every member of my team has been promoted or assigned work they love, including my boss. It’s time for that next big challenge for all of us.

And it’s not the first time a highly successful team promoted all at once.  In my line of work,  if we can’t help our own team achieve individual success,  we aren’t using the right coaching practices.  It’s par for the course.

So, what is this boss doing right?

1) He understands people.  He sincerely wants to know about what makes his staff passionate about their work.  He reads every personality report and applies the concepts to real work through questions and discussions.

2) He avoids assumptions.  He understands that sometimes what appears to be true isn’t – at all.  He also avoids prediction of underlying motives.  He interprets behavior and words and helps his staff fill in the context.  He trusts people.

3)  He applies life lessons. He shares goofy stories about his past and helps others share through personal stories; creating a safe,  open space for diversity and inclusion.

4)  He celebrates progress and success.  It’s not a huge effort,  not a major event.  It’s a sincere,  congratulatory interaction of team pride.

5) He offers transparency.  He shares high-level information to help his staff who need to see the big picture and want context.  He shares specific information to help staff who need details to envision themselves in the direction of the organization. 

6) He values ideas. He asks for input,  shares ideas, and engages the team in passionate discussion that makes energy and creativity come alive.

7)  He models courage.  He puts himself in scenarios that challenge the status quo. He supports others who do the same.   He understands that conflict and questions evoke growth.

8) He sincerely wants his team to be successful as individuals.  He not only knows what brings out passion in his staff,  he supports and encourages their development.  His greatest success is helping his team members find their perfect role in the organization.

9) People trust him. When his staff applied for other jobs,  they always told him first.  Why? Because they trust him.

10) He plans for the future. He talks about treating people as if you know that you will be reporting to them someday, even if they are barely older than his children.

11)  He believes goodbye is never forever.  He talks about the small world of workers in our field and about friendships spanning decades across multiple organizations.  He believes we will work together again someday in some capacity.   I think I will take him up on the offer to be a guest speaker on his podcast http://www.pmchats.com.

It takes dedication and a sincere interest in people to be a good boss.  From the moment my new opportunity presented itself,  my boss helped me think through the life impact of accepting the position.  After I accepted the position, we together celebrated the amazing opportunities that presented themselves.

Today,  as I ended my exit interview in HR,  I was congratulated and praised from the top of the organization.  I was told that my soon-to-be-former-colleagues support me 100% in my new role and hope to welcome me back someday.

What an amazing way to end a 15 year career, thanks to an outstanding boss who clearly learned from others about what matters to people.  Because of his leadership and the support of the organization, I leave with sincere gratitude and devotion to my Hennepin family.

Have you ever left a great boss?   What were his/her best qualities?  What did you miss the most?

Cheers to new opportunities in 2016!