Pegine’s Motivational Times Newsletter:

Title: Integrity and Value
Copyright Pegine Echevarria, MSW 2005
Date: Volume 6 Issue 4 April

This newsletter is a bit different. You will read my take on Integrity, monthly quotes and a try it then you will read an article by Brandon Toropov that discusses value and sharing your value with your superiors.


This weekend I had an experience that taught me a lesson that humans often forget. The importance of integrity, ‘Doing what you say you will do’. We learn this lesson, hopefully, as teens.

A parent gets agreement from the teen about what time they must come home. The teen is absolutely in agreement that they will be home at that time.

The time comes and they don’t come home as agreed.

- Parent’s call teen’s cell phone and the friend’s home.
- Parents get angrier and frustrated as time goes by.
- Teen comes home.
- Teen pays consequences. Grounded and car taken away.
- Computer privileges revoked.

Teen asks “Why is it so important that I’m home on time. I was only one hour late?”

Keeping your word is important, because your ability to create opportunities and to reap rewards in life depends on your integrity. In career and business you are evaluated on what you do...not what you THINK about or THINK you will do. Since people can not read your mind they can only evaluate you on what you say you are going to do and what you actually do.

As team members and leaders, one way people value you is by how you follow through on your word. I work on several committees. I know the people I can count on to do what they say they will do. I will always promote them and look for ways to help their career.

I also know the people who say “Yes, I will do it”, and never do what they say they will do, I do not trust them to complete a job and I would NEVER put them in a position of leadership.

Which one are you?

I am far from perfect. There are times I just do not want to do something…even though I committed to doing it. When I was younger I would just let things slide, I thought ‘it doesn’t matter.’ I have a dear, close supporter who holds me accountable who will not let me ‘slide’. He will push and prod until I get the job done.

What I got was this, your integrity is like a gold business card. When you follow through and do as you say, people will promote you and give you opportunities. When you have integrity people are willing to stick up for you, fight for you and take a risk with you. When you are stuck and cannot complete a task, it is important to be honest and upfront, so that those depending on you can take other actions. You are not disappointing them, you are serving them by allowing them to move on.

When my teen asked “Why is it so important that I’m home on time?” I knew that the answer was because “you said you would and your integrity is your key to your future.”

I look forward to hearing from you.

By the way we NEVER, EVER give or sell your name and email address to anyone, EVER.

With you in mind,
Pegine

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In this months e-zine you’ll find
• Pegine’s Thought of the Month
• Quote of the Month
• Try-its – Simple Steps for Magnificent Rewards
• Article by Brandon Toropov

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Pegine’s Thought of the Month:
“Integrity is your key to your future
~Pegine Echevarria, MSW

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Quotes of the Month:

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
~ John F. Kennedy

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.
~Confucius

"If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters."
~ Alan Simpson

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Try-its:

Think about how you evaluate people. Think about the people you work with, those you trust to get the job done and those you don’t trust.
-How do you speak about those you trust?
-How do you speak about those you don’t trust?

Evaluate yourself:
Are you trustworthy? Do your team members count on you to get the job done? How can you improve?

Take steps to improve.


The following article was written about a program I recently created.

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CHALLENGING THE TECH SECTOR’S CULTURE OF SILENCE By Brandon Toropov ©2005 (printed with permission of the author)

CASE STUDY: Teaching Employees at a Fortune 1000 Tech Giant to Blow Their Own Horns

Performance review time. Joe, a five-year employee at components giant GlobalTech, is trying once again to read his supervisor’s mind:
"What, exactly, does he want from me?" He’s been worrying about this meeting for weeks.

He’s not the only one. Ed, Joe’s manager, doesn’t really know what he wants from Joe. He’s uncomfortable discussing things he can’t quantify with numbers, he's worried about his own upcoming performance review, he's afraid of saying something that will get him in trouble, and he's certain where Joe’s potential for growth really lies. Instead of asking questions that will help develop a personal goal that will build on what Joe has accomplished over the last three months, Ed takes what seems to be the easy way out: he starts a discussion about workplace processes, skipping over the human equation. After all, evaluating processes is what he’s good at.

Process analyses, however, happen to be what drive employees like Joe nuts during performance reviews.

The result? Joe nods his head obediently, takes notes, and then retreats to his cubicle, where he mutters unflattering things about his boss.

One personal evaluation at a time, GlobalTech’s historic commitment to innovation and improvement is collapsing.

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In thousands of America’s companies and institutions, collaboration and teamwork are the exception and covering yourself to avoid punishment from above is the rule.

Technology-driven organizations, in particular, are prone to this problem. Why? Many (though not all) of their numbers-driven managers have lost sight of the entrepreneurial vision that launched the company in the first place. What’s more, a fair number of these managers aren’t particularly good at, and don’t really enjoy, communicating with the people who report to them.

The result is a three-part crisis undermining the company’s return on its human resource investment.

* Loss of organizational opportunity. Good ideas and process improvements that are developed by individual employees are never shared throughout the organization, because managers don’t hear about them in the first place.
* Loss of personal productivity. When managers don’t even know which workers are posting personal increases in productivity, they can’t encourage these behaviors over time.
* Loss of team efficiency. Many team members follow Joe’s example, investing lots of energy in a performance review process that ultimately frustrates them. Many team members form unrealistic expectations of management, and end up demotivated and cynical as a result. They eventually conclude, correctly, that their manager has no idea what he or she wants.


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GlobalTech was still an industry leader within its primary market. The company’s historic emphasis on innovation and creativity, however, had declined. After spending time with some GlobalTech team members, performance coach Pegine Echevarria thought she knew why.

In their interactions with managers, employees were focusing on avoiding mentioning anything that might conceivably lead to a "black mark" on quarterly performance reviews. In other words, most team members were, like their managers, in "cover-your-anatomy" mode, which usually meant confirming the assumptions of managers. In many cases, this means that managers did not get a full picture of the true accomplishments, assets, or requirements of their team members.

GlobalTech’s ability to support high-functioning, innovative teams had been undercut -- and poor morale, mediocre daily plans, and stressful communication patterns were daily workplace norms.


THE SOLUTION

Working with the team at GlobalTech, Team Pegine developed tools to help team members identify and promote their own value as a regular workplace event - not just during annual reviews.

The goal was to train team members to communicate or "brag" about specific accomplishments, insights, ideas and applications. Pegine’s team also wanted to help people enjoy and relate to each other in a fun and interactive environment, one that eliminated communication barriers, infused employees with energy and laughter, reduced anxiety, stress and fear, increased productivity, and enhanced teamwork.

The program that emerged taught and coached a process that enabled GlobalTech’s people to win by:

- Focusing on who they were in relation to the organization,
- Communicating who they were in relation to the organization,
- And celebrating their own achievements and innovations, as well as those of their teammates.

To break the culture of silence, Team Pegine had to confront a particularly crippling fear that pervaded the organization - namely, that a person’s value or accomplishments would not be interesting or important enough to communicate. Pegine offered employees evidence that managers understood that their teams, and the company as a whole, would flounder without the contributions of individual team members. And she challenged managers to overcome their own fears about asking questions that connected to the personal goals of employees.

Pegine also had to help employees get over the notion that their managers "should already understand" their world. She and her team developed exercises and role plays that helped overcome employee’s negative communication patterns that had solidified over time. The job then became one of replacing these habits with new communication values. There were five of these values and Team Pegine made sure that the word "value" itself became a trigger for internal questions that could change behavior.

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TEAM PEGINE’S CRITICAL VALUE QUESTIONS (copyright Team Pegine 2005)

V: Visibility. what is clearly visible to others about your expertise, the tasks you do, and the accomplishment of those tasks? What should be more visible?

A: Attitude. What is your state of mind at work?
Are you seeking to support the team or are you only concerned with yourself and your task? Who does your work affect and how?

L: Looking. Do you look for solutions? innovations, and brainstorms? Do you share those discoveries with others?

U: Using resources. Do you actually use the expertise of others to gain insight on how to handle situations you face? How? Do you use training and other internal resources? If so, how does what you use improve your behavior, expertise, or perceptions? How does what you use affect your job?

E: Evolution. Have you grown as a result of a recent project? Have you changed inside? What did you notice that no longer worked for you?
How did that situation motivate you to change? How would that change affect your job?

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THE RESULTS

GlobalTech managers and team members agreed that, after the training, participants began promoting their own value more effectively, and sharing new ideas and processes. They did this by means of networking effectively, asking supervisors for guidance, and developing written and verbal assessments of recent projects.

Working with the team at GlobalTech, Pegine developed, found sponsors for, and implemented an ongoing program that resulted in:

- Reduced internal competition
- Lower stress and anxiety levels
- Reduction in fears, insecurities, and isolation
- An increase in employee knowledge of their value
- Unity and a sense of team membership among participants

Together, Pegine and the managers and employees of GlobalTech challenged the tech sector’s culture of silence and won.

To learn more about TEAM Pegine’s team-building, presentation, or leadership training, email her at pegine@pegine.com, call 904 280-8806, or visit www.pegine.com.

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