core sector communique

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS:

CREATING AND DEVELOPING STAR PERFORMERS

Turn Every Employee Into A Top Achiever By Using The Right Words At The Right Time

Successful managers, leaders, and coaches want to develop star performers. To do so requires creating conversations that engage, motivate, and inspire employees by offering constructive feedback, using meetings to set realistic goals, and leading the right conversations about work performance.

In her new book, CONVERSATIONS FOR CREATING STAR PERFORMERS: Go Beyond The Performance Review To Inspire Excellence Every Day, executive coach Shawn Kent Hayashi, founder of The Professional Development Group, offers a roadmap on how to leverage conversations into game-changing moments for employees. With a clear, pragmatic voice, Hayashi guides readers to master the art of conversations that will advance employees’ talents. Each of these conversational strategies are fully blueprinted in the book, including:

• Building Awareness: Do employees know what their strengths and blind spots really are? This chapter shows how to talk about what team members do best and where they need support.

• Identifying Motivators: What motivates the team members? How should individual motivators be addressed in conversation?

• Identifying What Team Members Do Well: Find ways in which employees add value to their teams as well as where their developmental needs are and will likely bubble.

• Creating Development Plans: Preferred communication styles provide a key to identifying each employee’s likely developmental needs. How can a manager write great development plans that are focused on each of the team members?

• Developing New Skills: “Work on one’s strengths” does not mean ignoring blind spots. Playing to one’s strengths is smart business; however, blind spots can create a derailment if left unnoticed.

• Getting Back on Track: The value in learning how to get people unstuck and back on track is worth its weight in gold.

• Accountability: Engage others in positive ways, build caring relationships that explore what matters to other people as it relates to creating a meaningful future, and then have ongoing check-in conversations about how the group is doing – this is the spirit of accountability conversations.

• Performance Reviews: The goal is to create conversations about how performance is going regularly, and summaries monthly, so that the employee is inspired and focused.

• Recognition: Point out what people are doing well and celebrate successes and small steps in the right direction; this will create a positive emotional wake and inspire people in new ways.

• Succession Planning: Who are the future leaders and are they being developed now to be ready for those roles?

With an appendix that reveals the “24 vital skills for success” Hayashi uses in her client coaching, CONVERSATIONS FOR CREATING STAR PERFORMERS is the handbook everybody needs before and during performance review season. The performance review is only one important part of being a manager or coach. To develop team members effectively, there need to be on-going proactive conversations – not just about the weather or the game last night. Shawn Kent Hayashi shows which conversations should be taking place, and how to steer those interactions toward success.

About the Author

Shawn Kent Hayashi is founder of The Professional Development Group , and an executive coach whose clients include Fortune 500 giants, such as American Express, Aqua, Cigna, The Federal Reserve Bank, and Merck as well as small entrepreneurial companies. An Emotional Intelligence Certified Coach, Hayashi earned her M.S. in organizational dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania. She also serves on the boards of several professional organizations. She lives in Center Valley, PA.