Hey Sports Fans … Opening Day is Less Than a Month Away

I don’t know about you, but as I get deeper into the swing of spring training, I keep asking myself, “How am I doing on my year-end resolutions?”

Let’s skip over the weight loss thing and go straight to the biggie I committed to in our December newsletter:  doing everything in my power to improve the self-confidence of my company’s employees.  As you may recall, I committed to sending my key leaders to Community in Forum and to as many EFBC events as possible.  My first non-EFBC member executive attended Forum Training last week.

No surprise, he loved it.  Also no surprise, he raves about the Business Roundtable he attended last quarter and is looking forward to attending another one later this month.  I’m working on getting my other leaders to participate in their respective Roundtables over the coming months as well.  Never has there been a better opportunity to give your key folks a taste of EQ and what it’s like to share knowledge within the safety of a forum.  There are quite a few Roundtable opportunities coming up over the next few months, so keep an eye out!

Now that three out of my five Executive Leaders understand the positive impact of forum and EQ, we’re working to build the key components of protocol into all of our company meetings. We’re convinced that if we can create “shark-free zones” in all our meetings, the quantity and quality of ideas flowing from all employees will improve dramatically.  For myself, I know that I am a much smarter person around people who support and believe in me.  When I’m nervous or I’m feeling judged (we’ve all been there), I swear my IQ and EQ both drop precipitously.

Even if I don’t think an employee is right for the job, why wouldn’t I still want to get their best efforts and their best ideas?  Based on my forum experience, the respectful practices of intense listening, clarifying questions and shared experience will do exactly that.

I’m not sure where this idea will take us, but please stop me the next time we see each other and let’s compare notes.  If you’ve already incorporated the EQ process in your business, I’d love to hear about your experiences.

Jeff Conner
Liners Direct
EFBC President 2016-2017

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