Retail Training

The Scoop Podcast: Have The Right Question, Not The Answer

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 19:00:46 GMT

Erin Mies and Kristen Ireland of People Spark Consulting offer insights on how to create process and equip people. The duo shares some takeaways for managing a multi-generational workforce. And they share how to prepare high performing individuals to take over legacy roles.

“A lot of times, leaders and managers feel like we need to have the answer. We feel we need to have this job structure because when somebody asks me, ‘What’s next?’” Ireland says. “You don’t need to have the answer; you need to have the question.”

Hear more in The Scoop Podcast:

She highlights how conversations with team members reveal their intent in a more helpful and beneficial way.

For example, asking to have an employee help the manager understand their interest areas for additional development. She says this is particularly insightful in managing a multigenerational team.

“The biggest thing that somebody can do is ask questions and listen to those responses,” she says. “In many cases, we’ll make some assumptions about what that means, or somebody’s intention, motivation or an action. Let’s not assume what’s important to somebody. Let’s ask what’s important to somebody.”

What To Expect With The Next Gen

In their consulting, Ireland and Mies say there are two big takeaways about the next generation of leaders in ag business: energy and passion.

When team members are approaching retirement and managers are able to use their experience in training newer team members, set clear expectations for how the time is spent together in their training.

“We expect a lot of times that just by osmosis of riding in a spreader truck with somebody that it’s going to just magically happen,” Mies says. “The more tactical kind of guidance that I would give is around not being afraid to expect some clear expectations around what it is. Share with them what it is that you want them to be learning and listening for and picking up and why it’s important to the business. Unless we get pretty explicit on it, we may completely miss that person nearing retirement did really did and was known for without being clear about it.”

More resources on preparing for the next generation, including two executive summaries on succession planning and retaining key employees, as well as links to People Spark succession planning blogs.

Set Up Leaders For Success

Time is not the most important measurement in getting someone ready for a new or expanded role.

Ireland shares an example in working with a co-op manager who identified an emerging leader but said they needed three more years until the role would be offered to them.

“I understood he needed about three years to be ready, but you have to identify the specific skills, experience and background training needed in that time frame. Because otherwise, three years later, they may not be there if you haven’t defined what success looks like.”

Learn more in Mies and Ireland’s recent book.

A team or role transition may also open the opportunity to examine the future needs for the business.

“I was working with a co-op who had somebody as their go to person. He could fix everything. His job was if something goes down, you fix it. And the general manager was concerned of when he retires in three or four years, he needed somebody who can do what he did,” Ireland says.

She shares the value in looking at the bigger picture, and stepping back asking ‘what does success look like for this role?’ And in this example, investing in more preventative maintenance to reduce downtime provided a better fit.

“Sometimes it’s not about how a person does the job, or the steps they took, but it’s about looking at the opportunity to redefine what success looks like for the role,” Ireland says.

Make The Meaning of Work Apparent

Mies references a nationwide study across multiple industries showing that 44% of workers don’t know how the work they do every day impacts the business.

“Managers should be able to say these are the accomplishments and the impact for our co-op/our ag retail business. And they should be able to connect those dots for somebody to show that impact. It is a great way to continue motivating someone when they want to know that the work they’re doing is meaningful.”

Hear more in The Scoop Podcast

Small Effort, Big Significance: Tips to Boost Retention and Recruitment

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:52:25 GMT

Kristen Ireland and Erin Mies started People Spark 5 years ago with a consulting focus to boost a company’s bottom line by increasing profits and margin, increasing retention and engagement, and creating a culture of success. They aim to provide business leaders with simple, practical solutions.

At the 2023 ARA Conference and Expo, they will be presenting a session: “Stop letting your recruiting challenge create retention pain.”

ARA’s Conference and Expo will be Nov. 28 to 30 in Orlando, Florida. To register and learn more, go to ARADC.org

“Especially over the last few years, we heard a lot from clients who were saying we’re having a hard time having positions open and they can’t find people,” Ireland says. “Leaders were turning their attention externally focusing on how they fill these open positions and losing attention on the people that were there in their businesses–the employees who are showing up every day.”

Ireland says there was an obvious imbalance as the external focus created disengagement and created turnover losing people. That started a cycle of recruiting more, retaining less, and needing to recruit more. The team at People Spark are encouraging leaders to break that cycle by shifting their focus.

“We still need to find people for the roles that we have, and how do we make sure that we’re continuing to focus on the people that are here for us every day, our current employees,” she says. “We want to keep them, retain them, engage them, so that we don’t continue to have that retention pain.”

For additional tips and tools to engage and retain your teams and lead through change from People Spark, click here.

Mies adds the shift in focus is helping leaders recognize what is in their control.

“Leaders know their areas that are really special and set them apart from other retailers in the area. A lot of times, it isn’t what is shown in somebody’s recruiting practices,” Mies says. “It’s helping leaders implement strategies and processes to create a thriving company culture where everyone has shared goals and is headed in the same direction.”

Highlighting aspects of your business in different ways brings in change, and the co-founders at People Spark are instructors at the collegiate level on change management.

“Were teaching future business leaders and HR professionals, all of the things that we wish we would have known 20 years ago,” Ireland says.

Mies encourages leaders to think about how they introduce change to avoid “change fatigue” or “change overload.”

“Our changes aren’t going to be successful if we don’t bring people along with us,” she says. “So we really focus on how will we bring people along because the change isn’t whether or not you know as soon as you sign the paperwork or as soon as the system is implemented. The changes are successful when people are actually demonstrating the behaviors we want them to.”

The consultants offer two additional tips in leadership to improve retention:

Have conversation starters ready and available to share for managers.
“It’s helpful to give the words to say, rather than instruct ‘go have an engagement discussion with them’ or ‘go make sure they know how much they’re valued,’” Mies says.
Positive feedback is 1200x more effective than ignoring problems.
Ireland highlights Gallop data showing how negative feedback is 40x more effective in a team leadership approach than ignoring people. And positive feedback is 30x more effective than negative.

“It’s 1200 times more effective in engagement to be positive, than walking by somebody,” she says. “And we are unintentionally walking by those moments every day. You can give somebody feedback in three sentences that will have a positive impact and create that engagement: small effort, big significance.”

The People Spark team has book coming out the week of conference: The People Spark: A Business Leader’s Essential Guide to Crafting Your Culture with Confidence.

Single Best Tool To Predict Peak Performance

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 14:26:53 GMT

It’s a commonly held goal to hire good employees and keep those great team members onboard.

Dave Mitchell thinks there is one–the job description.

“The single most important tool to predict peak performance is a very well developed job description,” he says.

Mitchell founded The Leadership Difference after two decades in corporate HR management. While working with companies of all industries across the country, he’s developed metrics to measure peak performance.

“Go blow the dust off your job description book, or maybe first make sure you have job descriptions,” he says. “The next step is to update those job descriptions with necessary legal considerations. And third, make sure those job descriptions are good for the roles.”

Mitchell says he defines “good” job descriptions as those that aren’t just what the job does, but explain to the degree the employee is expected to do it.

“If you provide that level of detail, you’ve got a recruiting tool, a training tool, a performance appraisal tool, and an alignment tool. It makes one What if there was one tool to focus on using to achieve the best recruitment and retention? document serve multiple purposes and makes sure you have everything covered,” he says.

Hear more from Mitchell in The Scoop Podcast:

Unlock The Door To Higher Corn & Soybean Yields

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:05:58 GMT

Many of today’s corn hybrids have the potential to reach 500-bushel-per-acre yields—that is, until the seed is poured out of the bag and planted. Likewise, most soybean varieties possess tens-of-bushels of untapped yield potential.

Why the big disconnect between yield potential and harvest results? Some of the reasons have to do with geography and weather—things you can’t change. Others have to do with agronomic practices and technology factors you can manage, often in transformational ways.

Farm Journal wants to help you address your agronomic management and technology use this season with its 2018 Yield Tour program. The Tour is scheduled for three locations this summer:

June 7 in Ft. Collins, Colo.
August 7 in Seymour, Ill.
August 16 in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Each of these three events is designed to help you unlock the door to higher corn and soybean yields and features Farm Journal Field Agronomists Ken Ferrie and Missy Bauer, as well as leading agronomy and technology experts at AgriGold, Trimble and Valent.

Topics covered at each event include:

Large or Small Farms, Technology Can Benefit All
How ISOBUS Can Take Your Precision Farming to The Next Level
New Strategies for Achieving High, Consistent Corn Yields
Variable Rate & Multi Hybrid Planting: How to Make Them Work for You
Leverage Your Soil: Build a Stronger Root System with a New Technology

Along with great seminars and some hands-on training, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in a live U.S. Farm Report taping with host Tyne Morgan and/or an AgriTalk segment with host Chip Flory.

Each event is $49 per person and includes lunch and materials. Go to Farm Journal events to learn more about the sessions and to register, or call (877) 482-7203.