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Category: Management Minute

“Traits of Successful Teams in The Workplace”

Posted on by Angie Denton

Justin Waggoner, KSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, Garden City, KS

Most of us have had some experience with being part of a team or different groups of individuals. Some teams of individuals are highly successful and some are not. What makes some teams more successful than others. The tech giant “Google” has invested a great deal of time and resources into studying teams and reported (http://www.businessinsider.com/google-explains-top-traits-of-its-best-teams-2015-11) that their most successful teams have the following traits.

Successful teams

  • Establish psychological safety within the team. The team creates an environment where all members of the team feel free to bring new ideas forward to the group.
  • Are dependable. The team holds its members accountable, getting things done on time and up to the standards of the group.
  • Have structure and clarity. The members of the team know their role in the team and have a clear vision of the team’s structure and the expectations associated with their role on the team.
  • Have a purpose. The team members believe that what they are doing matters.

A wealth of information on building teams and characteristics can be found with a simple internet search.

Leadership… What’s your style?

Posted on by Angie Denton

by Justin Waggoner, KSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, Garden City, KS

The most commonly recognized leadership styles are authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire. However, there may be seven to 12 different leadership styles that include styles such as transformational, transactional, servant, charismatic, and situational. Although some of these leadership styles are unique, there is also some degree of similarities or overlap as well and in some situations, a leader may change their leadership styles to fit the situation (situational). The concept of situational leadership was first recognized by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard (author of the “One Minute Manager”).

They recognized that successful leaders often adapted their leadership style or styles to the individual or group they were leading. Collectively these different leadership styles remind us that not all leaders lead the same way and some leaders even change leadership styles. There is no one way to lead, motivate and inspire individuals or groups to succeed.

Leadership is complex and we still have a lot to learn about leadership.

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu

Customer Service Matters

Posted on by Angie Denton

by Justin Waggoner, KSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, Garden City, KS

Good customer service is essential to any business or organization. It does not matter if it is a restaurant or a tow truck service, having staff members that leave customers or anyone that encounters your business with that “wow that was great” feeling directly influences the bottom line. Customer service has become more important than ever as consumers are now gathering information and making purchasing decisions based on the experiences of others reviews. Continue reading “Customer Service Matters” →

Management Minute: Change

Posted on by Angie Denton

by Justin Waggoner, KSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, Garden City, KS

“Change is inevitable” and often creates a sense of unease for many individuals and within an organization. As a society, we have changed how we work, how we purchase goods and services and many other things over time. Some of these changes have been small and some have been large. Why do we fear change? Change is not always bad, but experts agree that most employees within an organization express some degree of fear and resistance to change. The reality is that the fear of change within an organization is created because employees simply do not understand why the change is happening. An article in the
Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2018/10/dont-just-tell-employees-organizational-changes-are-coming-explain-why offers suggestions on communicating change in the workplace.

  • Keep employees informed with regular communications. Communication is essential to successfully navigating change. Communication should be clear and consistent and focus on the purpose of the change (the why).
  • Empower leaders and managers to lead and model the change. Leaders and managers often face more pressure/resistance from employees than administration. Providing managers with additional training or resources equips them to drive and model the change.
  • Involve employees in the change. Employees must take ownership of the change for it to be successful. Creating ways for employees to provide feedback and engage them in the process makes employees more likely to support the change.

Cultivating Better Conversations

Posted on by Angie Denton

In today’s fast-paced culture everyone is busy and all those distractions can make it difficult to connect with co-workers, clients and even family members. We have all had those conversations where we weren’t really listening to the person speaking or where you got the distinct impression that you were not really being heard.
So, what can you do to become a better listener and cultivate better conversations? One of the suggestions I recently came across regarding “active listening” and building connections is the use of open-ended, emotion-
based questions. For example, when meeting new people, we often ask simple fact-based questions such as “When did you come to work for company X?” However, what if you posed the question “Why did come to work for company X?” The latter question likely leads to much deeper answer than the first and then follow-up with “What do you like most about your current position?” We have numerous opportunities to practice asking deeper questions throughout our day. It’s common to ask our children “How was school today?” which typically
results in a simple answer of “fine” or “good.” However, if the question becomes “What was the best thing about school today?” the standard one-word answer no longer applies and the conversation now has more depth.
Cultivating better conversations isn’t difficult but it does require increased awareness of the questions we ask and practice.

It’s Not Always About the Money

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

If you have an employee who seems to continually be bothering you about not being paid enough, there are usually two possibilities. 1) You’re a tightwad and you’re not paying them enough; or 2) the person is disgruntled about their role in the organization. To find out if the answer is #1, make a few phone calls to managers you trust in your general geography and find out what your neighbors are paying for similar jobs in your industry. If you’re within 50¢ or so per hour, then move on to answer #2. Some people are just better employees than others. If this person is worth more than the ‘scale’, you’d better pay more to keep them.

But “pay” can come in many forms. You can “buy” an employee’s loyalty and general job satisfaction with many perks other than another few cents or bucks per hour. Make sure your insurance, savings investment, and/or profit sharing plans are at least in line with the industry. This is especially important if this person has a family to look after. Non-monetary benefits include things like flexible time off. Those early mornings and long days are a lot easier to take if a person knows they can take Thursday afternoons off for a child’s ballgame or whatever.

What about goals? Have you asked your employee what they want out of this position? They may want to move up in the organization or have opportunities for a management role elsewhere. You can be selfish about this or you can take on the role of mentor and teacher. By taking care of your employee and training them for a leadership role they will most certainly be a better employee, and will have a harder time leaving for a different job. And even if they do leave for a different opportunity, they will give such a glowing report on your leadership and team approach, you can be certain to find a good, young person to replace them.

The question you need to ask yourself is “Do you really want this person around for the long haul?” If you DO, take some time to privately evaluate your plans, then take some more time one-on-one with this employee to find out their long-term needs and goals. If you DON’T want this person to remain in the organization, you still need to get your plans in order because after you inform this person they are not what your organization needs, you’d better have a pretty good plan set up to attract a quality person to replace them.

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu

Send Everyone Home Safe

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

Most of you reading this are likely involved in agriculture in some capacity. Would you consider agriculture to be a high risk industry?

The reality is that agriculture is a dangerous business. A recent report (12/2023) from the U. S. Department of Labor contains some staggering statistics and emphasizes the need for safety. In 2022, workers engage in farming, fishing and forestry had the highest fatal work injury rate among U.S. occupations with 23.5 fatalities per 100,000 full-time employees. A total of 5,486 fatal occupational injuries occurred in the U.S. in 2022 with 146 fatal injuries occurring among agricultural workers. Fatal work injuries due to contact with equipment and machinery (738) increased 4.7% from 2021 to 2022. These statistics are sobering. The need for safety in agriculture is real and present. When was your last discussion about safety with your family or employees? Now is the best time to have those discussions.

A quote from Dr. Keith Bolsen, K-State emeritus professor, comes to mind:

“Our number one goal is to send everyone home safe at night; if an operation isn’t safe nothing else really matters.”

The full report from the U.S. Department of Labor may be accessed at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu

How to Find More Time

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

One of the more common issues for many of us in the workplace is trying to find more time for family, friends, exercise or some new activity. However, the question becomes how we can find more time within the day or week for the aforementioned activity of choice? One of the ways that many people try to find more time (including myself) is the “do I really need that much sleep” method of finding more time. Although, this method does work; it may also result in some undesirable outcomes, especially if the activity involves interacting with others. Time management experts suggest that the best way to make more time for any new activity is to become more efficient within our day. Efficiency is essentially organizing and prioritizing the daily “to do list” but it also includes looking for places in our day where we simply waste time. The most common “time waster” for many people involves a computer or a phone in today’s world. Procrastination is also another common “time waster” that reduces our ability to get things done. Many strategies have been developed to combat procrastination. One simple strategy that I recently came across is the 2-minute rule and it essentially targets all those little things that we encounter during the day that eventually add up. This informal rule essentially says that when we encounter anything in our day that will take less than 2-minutes that we should do it, be it a quick email response or cleaning up our computer files. It is difficult to find more time in our busy work schedules, but one thing is clear seconds turn into minutes, minutes into hours, hours into days and so forth, which proves that little things do add up over time.

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu.

Safe Work Practices for Working in the Cold

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

January and February are some of the coldest months of the year and often bring extreme weather conditions that can be challenging for agricultural workers who work in the elements. Although there are no specific standards or regulations regarding what employers must provide to employees that are required to work in winter conditions. Employers do have an obligation to provide workers with employment and a work place that are free from recognized hazards (Section 5a 1 OSHA, 1970). Thus, employers have an obligation to train employees and ensure that they are aware of the risks of cold stress and safe work practices for working in the cold. The U. S. Department of labor, OSHA website offers the following suggestions for preventing cold stress https://www.osha.gov/emergency-preparedness /guides/cold-stress.

Safe work practices to prevent cold stress.

  • If possible, schedule heavy work during the warmer part of the day.
  • Assign workers to tasks in pairs (buddy system), so that they can monitor each other for signs of cold stress.
  • Reduce the physical demands of workers (for example, use relief workers or rotate extra workers in and out of work for long, demanding jobs).
  • Workers can be allowed to interrupt their work, if they are extremely uncomfortable.
  • Employers should give workers frequent breaks in warm areas.
  • Acclimatize new workers and those returning after time away from work, by gradually increasing their workload, and allowing more frequent breaks in warm areas, as they build up a tolerance for working in the cold environment.

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu.

Organizational Reflection

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

The current year will soon be ending. This is a great time for individuals and organizations to reflect back on the events of the past 12 months. The value of reflection within an organization dramatically increases if it used as a tool to evaluate not only where the organization has been but also where it is headed. A few basic questions may be used to guide the process.
What did you or the business succeed at?
What were your failures?
What was learned from those successes and failures?
What would you like to do more of or what generated positive outcomes for the organization?
What should you stop doing?

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu.