When teaching leadership skills and the importance of taking time to connect with team members I often hear these words: "I just don't have the time for all that touchy-feely stuff." Once leaders get serious about this leadership fundamental, they learn that connecting does not have to be touchy-feely and that doing so results in increased productivity and quality. For inspiration, you can start by focusing on that desired end result and work backwards. It might look like this: In order to achieve high productivity and quality, you need competent, motivated people. Most workers who fit that need are skilled, confident and happy with what they are doing. That means they feel valued at work and are comfortable making suggestions for improvement, they are given opportunities to ask questions to increase their competency, they feel appreciated for the effort they put forth, and they feel that the company (represented by you, their leader) cares about them enough to help them create a healthy work/life balance, while giving them personal growth opportunities.

When looking at the situation through this lens, how can you not make time to connect with team members? If you want to achieve your process goals, try setting some people goals so that you have a strong team member foundation from which to build.

• MBWA (Managing By Wandering Around) was made famous by Ken Blanchard with his book THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER. The concept, however, has been around for many years. Walt Disney was famous for this management style. He said his role was to go from one department to the next gathering and spreading valuable information while inspiring creativity. This can be achieved by taking 10-20 minutes each day to walk around and connect with people before hitting the office, your email or other paperwork.
• Be personable. During the course of your day, greet people you encounter (in the hallways, etc.). Be sure to look up, make eye contact and smile.
• Be approachable. Everyone is busy. We are all being asked to do more with less. Don't let your workload keep you so busy that you are not approachable. By being available for team members to ask questions and provide important information, they feel valued and information is disseminated in a timely manner.
• Find people doing something right and be specific about the good performance.

We are currently planning a two-day (September 17 & 18) train the trainer certification program in Orlando for the DiSC behavioral profile and class. It will include the Everything DiSC kit with 13 scripted seminar components, Power Point slides, video components and handouts for each component. Call for details and registration.