Finding Your Voice at Work

Steve Jobs once said “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your inner voice.” The public and private sectors are filled with people who seek opportunities to innovate programs, reinvigorate team goals and design award winning systems to bring their organization closer to the leading edge of their market share, but rarely get the chance to share their concepts.

Often, when the cool projects or big ideas are set in motion only the chosen few staffers are selected to participate in groundbreaking achievements. This may leave out people who may have great ideas. After a while, this becomes an office culture mentality. Yet that may be changed when we start to “right-size” our thinking. This also includes opening up the door to the quiet few in your team so they can actively engage and participate in work discussions. We need to remember that the loudest voice in a meeting is not the only contributor to the group’s advancement.

So what happens when employees are not afforded the forum to share their wisdom? They tend to feel disconnected from the team, exhibit symptoms of low morale and disenchantment with their workplace.

Don’t get me wrong, there will always be the “Team A” players who leadership regularly picks to head up the highly visible projects. There will also be members of the team who will try crack that glass ceiling so their ideas can be heard by leadership and other employees. So how does one balance the scale? Consider using some of the tips below to encourage your staff to find and use their voice.    

7 Ways to Encourage Employee Autonomy:

1.     Bring enthusiasm back into the work place. Challenge your employees to come up with great ideas and strategies to advance the organization’s mission.

2.     Host a creativity session to identify new opportunities for the staff to lead instead of regular staff meetings to discuss predictable business topics.

3.     Move your innovation meetings outside of the office and in to an area that is conducive to creativity.

4.     Encourage employees who rarely have an opportunity to speak up during meetings to contribute to the agenda items and lead discussions regarding their passion projects.

5.     Remind the “stage hog” employees who drone on in meetings about their personal success to be brief so that other team members may have the chance to voice their opinions.

6.     Remind your team there are no bad ideas. Consequently, when you make the office a safe space to be different so employees will generate new then more employees will speak up.

7.      Reward your staff for making an effort. This does not always mean they want money or time off, however nice it may be to receive such recognition. Heartfelt, genuine gratitude in the office goes a long way for making dedicated employees feel appreciated.

To Boldly Go Where No Business Communicator Has Gone Before

Business communicators are often called upon to generate multiple and diverse communications products under recurring deadline pressures.  Everything from leadership speeches, organizational announcements to media messaging are created and vetted leveraging a target-audience focus. Sometimes there is a need to break from routine and innovate how we create effective communications products for the various publics we serve.

For example, everyone wants to create awesome PowerPoint Presentations that have the usual three-pronged approach: text, image and slide transition., then repeat. This has been a traditional way of communication copious amounts of information across vast audiences. It can also become a bit of a message overload when too much text is added to the slides and then gets in the way of actually conveying an effective message.   Try some of the tips below to boldly take your business communications where no communicator has gone before.

Business Communicator Toolkit:

•  Let go of the words and use precise text in your presentations

o  This includes limiting the text so people understand the message

•           Use the right visuals

o   Check your images to ensure they directly correlate with the text and do not contradict the topic you are discussing

•         Infographics are your data’s best friend

o   Some free, secure, online infographic tools may help communicate data rich, complex messages into readily digestible information that is user-friendly

•         Change your tech

o   Try free, online presentation tools that are web-based, secure, mobile and provide fluid transitions from one topic to the next. An example of this is a tool like Prezi.

•         Reduce your presentation slides by half

o   Do you really need 50 slides to promote a new program, opportunity or etc. to your audience? Chances are they can gain the information they need in maybe 10 slides or less. Your goal is to give them a presentation they need and not use your presentation as a backup speech transcript.

The Force Awakens Business Tips

It is time to say hello to your 2016 work goals. It’s time to say good bye to holiday decorations, lulls in work and office holiday parties. You can ring in the new business year with more joie de vivre than in the past by mastering business lessons inspired by the recent Star Wars movie.  The tips below will also help you obtain clarity, focus your efforts and it does not require using Jedi mind tricks.

4 Business Lessons inspired by the Stars Wars Force Awakens Movie

Lesson 1: Build strong workplace coalitions.
Seek out like minded business individuals who are trustworthy, show initiative and can readily see the big picture. One of the reasons Rey, Finn and the Resistance were strong opponents against the First Order is because they were able to find and build a strong alliance of supporters to help advance their goals. You can do the same.

Lesson 2: Protect your team.
Do you have your team’s back? Are you willing to put aside your pride or “glory-seeking” to help your peers in their time of need? Take time in the New Year to check on your coworkers and offer them help on their projects without expecting anything in return. General Leia was willing to provide battle support to her team in another star system without notice.  Be willing to jump into light speed to protect your colleagues.

Lesson 3: Lead your own rebellion.
It is easy as feds to follow daily orders and get into a routine where you may stop questioning why things happen at work. Be more like the Force Awakens’ character Finn and challenge the status quo. For example, don’t be afraid to question leadership tactfully when you are not comfortable with following certain orders or completing different tasks. Also be willing to disagree with the team and provide tangible solutions that are outside the norm. If your gut tells you something is wrong with a process, or specific assignment, it is okay to ask questions to determine the best course of action.

Lesson 4: Light Side versus Dark Side.
We’ve all been there before where we may feel like we are sliding to the Dark Side at the office because we’ve lost faith in our progress at the office. Our work may begin to slip or we may stop caring about being present at meetings. A true Jedi will recognize the signs of their waning expectations at work before their efforts fail and make a decision to keep moving forward. When you feel like there is no hope in getting promoted, getting recognition or getting what you want at work, create an exit strategy so you can move to the Light Side your career path. 

Volunteering: A Fed's Guide to giving back during the Season of Giving

Gillian Anderson once said "Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need." Federal employees have great resilience in overcoming a variety of challenges in the federal work space to meet agency goals. Their tenacity is also used in service to others. On occasion, some feds will take time out to volunteer in their local communities throughout the year as a means of giving back.

So how does one find the time to volunteer during this holiday season when schedules are packed with so many other requirements? Check out this Fed's Guide to Volunteering during the Season of Giving.

1. Volunteer for projects that peak your interest and leverage your skills by checking out Serve.gov for opportunities near you
2. Support annual charity programs such as the Combined Federal Campaign, Special Olympics, Feds Feed Families, Toys for Tots and many others to make an impact year round
3. Consider your next team building event as a volunteer group effort
4. Encourage employees to seek out volunteer opportunities that will engage, empower and explore the world around them
5. Share employee success stories regarding volunteering in office newspapers and other employee communications
6. Nominate  extraordinary coworkers for the President's Volunteer Service Awards Program to recognize their amazing volunteer efforts
7. Donate additional leave to co-workers in need

This is Not Your Mother's Career Path: 7 Tips to develop a Credible IDP

It is the first of November, and some of us are diving into the yearly individual development plan (IDP) phase- phase two. Phase one included management's review of your of your initial drafts and now you are finalizing details on what you really want out of your career.

Everyone will try to share insight including your Mom on how to plan your professional development. This is a good opportunity to listen with "a grain of salt" and then make decisions based on your actual career goals. Not the goals that someone has suggested you follow. For example, in the no so distant past some people stayed with the same federal agency for 30 to 40 years only to retire and ride off into the sunset.

Those days for the most part are over due to a fluctuating economy, continuing resolutions, reorganized structures as well as "right-sizing" agency offices under the guise that efficiency will occur in the end. Feds, especially women can take a more proactive approach to their jobs by letting go of the perception that every job will last for lifetime as in bygone eras.
Top 7 Tips to Develop a Credible IDP:

1. Take time to identify the type of work that you are passionate about
2. Document your career progression using an IDP to map your progress for 2 to 5 years
3. Leverage new workplace skills by using business acumen books as part of your professional development
4. Seek leadership training opportunities such as the OPM Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) program
5. Draft as well as revise your IDP to ensure you achieve the desired career results
6. Share your ideas with a mentor and seek guidance on diverse training programs
7. Consider the possibly of changing careers if the one you have does not readily meet your professional and personal needs

Press Release Checklist

Business communicators and public relations professionals at one time or another develop materials for the press to communicate, inform, educate and manage crisis events. There is a canonical way to develop a "good" press release such as working with an entire team of seasoned public relations (PR) professionals and leadership to generate an accurate and consistent message. Or simply just gathering facts and dispelling rumors.

How does one create a succinct press release? Leverage tips from the checklist below.

Press Release Checklist

• Take the time to verify all facts for accuracy
  
• Work with management and identify organizational messaging goals
• Determine target audience messaging
• Depending on the situation, create readily accessible online resources for people to view and take action
• Make your message clear and concise
• Brevity is key. Too much information will lead to message overload
• Coordinate the distribution of your message to key target audiences so the data is shared in a consistent manner
• Share your communications team's contact information
• Be receptive  and responsive to media inquiries

Business Lessons I Learned from the Movie “The Intern”

During my career I’ve worked on a variety of jobs and realized that business lessons can materialize from a variety of places. For example, your mentor, manager or friends can inspire you to do great things. You can also learn from your business experience, books such as the collection of Harvard Business Review and maybe a movie or two.

I recently took a break from catching up on work over the weekend to take in a movie titled “The Intern” with some friends. While watching the movie, we saw some resounding business lessons and ended up discussing them at the end of the film. The movie stars Anne Hathaway as the founder of an e-commerce business that recently began hiring senior citizens as office interns. Robert DeNiro plays Hathaways’ office intern.

The light hearted film included everything from the complex office dynamics, teamwork, to inter-generational communications and collaboration that offered a few stark similarities to the federal workforce today.


Read more.