Tristan

Help! Someone is polluting my team culture

 Ask Tristan, Culture  1 Response »
Mar 072012
 

This is part of the weekly ‘Ask Tristan’ series. If you have a question, please email me: asktristan@thephysioco.com.au

Q: Dear Tristan, I’m a new manager & I’ve been working hard for the past 6 months to build a strong culture in our growing team. It’s going really well, except for one thing: I have a long-term team member who’s not participating.  This person turns up late to our huddles, is never prepared for meetings and nearly always finds a reason to complain. I’ve tried coaching and providing honest feedback, but nothing seems to work.  What should I do?   – TJ

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A week in the life of a CEO.. Culture book edition

 Culture  No Responses »
Mar 052012
 

In short, here’s what’s on for this week March 6-12. I’m..

Excited – by sharing The Physio Co Culture Book with the world.  Grab your free ebook copy here.

Asking - you to please help me share The Physio Co Culture Book. Please send or give it to at least one person you think might like it.  Print it, email it, share it on facebook, tweet it, blog about it but please share it just once.  Thanks for your help :)

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Why you should avoid being the smartest in any room

 Ask Tristan, Culture  No Responses »
Feb 292012
 

This is part of the weekly ‘Ask Tristan’ series. If you have a question, please email me: asktristan@thephysioco.com.au

Q: Dear Tristan, I’ve been following the Culture is Everything blog for a few months and I’d really love to know what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? – SC

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How more parties will grow your culture

 Culture  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 

Building a strong workplace culture should result in more fun & more engagement from everyone.  If you’ve got the right people on your team, throwing meaningful parties is one way to grow a strong culture.

At The Physio Co, our core values guide us to “take the time to celebrate milestones and successes”.  So we celebrate!  As long as it means something to someone, we will have a party.  Every year we celebrate our own birthday, Christmas, our MVP award winners, people getting married, people achieving personal goals, when we win awards and plenty of other occasions. 

Last Saturday The Physio Co had a party to celebrate it’s 8th birthday.  We decided on a magic theme (why not?!), invited everyone, hired a magician, blew up some balloons, sang happy birthday, ate some cake and had some fun to celebrate a milestone. It was short and sharp (from 1.30-4.30pm on Saturday afternoon) but well worth it.

Parties and celebrations don’t have to be expensive, but they do need to mean something.  For example, The Physio Co’s very first Christmas Party was just four people going out for a meal at a local pub.  It wasn’t fancy, but it was very important to acknowledge, thank and celebrate with our early team members (the four people at that first party are all still full time members of The Physio Co family today).

If you want a stronger culture, start finding things to celebrate.  Then throw some regular parties!

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A simple way to energise your staff

 Culture  No Responses »
Feb 232012
 

Businesses, teams and workplaces that have a strong culture are the most sustainable and the most productive.  They have an ‘energy’ about them that you can almost feel.  These type of environments don’t just happen, it takes discipline and constant action to continually raise the energy levels.  Here’s a quick story of how we added just a little bit of energy at The Physio Co this week.

At lunch time on Tuesday a couple of our support office team were having their lunch at about 1pm.  I noticed that 3 more of us were planning to have some lunch in the next half hour. Instead of just letting a typical situation occur where people separately have their lunch somewhere between 12 & 2pm, I saw an opportunity to create an unplanned team lunch.  By quickly grabbing some sandwiches from our local cafe and convincing the guys to leave their work for half an hour we all sat together and broke bread.  It was fun, we caught up on what’s been happening outside of work, did some last minute planning of The Physio Co’s 8th birthday party and then went back to work with a spring in our step.  It was the best thing that could have happened.

Spotting this opportunity and moving quickly to create a small amount of buzz in our office, added just a little bit more energy to everyone’s day.  It can be the smallest things that multiply to create the most energetic team and strongest culture.  The discipline to create these opportunities and turn them into memorable moments throughout the week is everyone’s responsibility.  But, for it to last, it has to start from the top.

How can you add just a little bit of energy to your team tomorrow?

 

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**This post is from the 2012 series ‘What I’ve learnt this week’. If you’d like to receive these and other Culture is Everything posts in your email, subscribe here.

The 2 things all new managers should do

 Culture  No Responses »
Feb 222012
 

This is part of the weekly ‘Ask Tristan’ series. If you have a question, please email me: asktristan@thephysioco.com.au

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Q: Dear Tristan, I’ve just been promoted to my very first management job.  I’m excited by the opportunity but also really worried that I won’t be inspiring enough to the guys in my team.  Where do I start? – MP

A: Dear MP,

Congrats on the promotion.  Awesome work!

Where to start as a manager?  I could spend weeks on this very topic!  But, I think the two most important things you can do are:

  1. Read The One Minute Manager
  2. Find a mentor 

The One Minute Manager is possibly the best management book ever written.  It’s short, easy to read and has some great lessons.  The most important lesson being to focus on catching people doing things RIGHT.  (No matter what you’ve seen from other managers, your new job is not just to correct people when they get something wrong). 

Secondly, find an experienced manager that you admire and ask them to be your mentor.  Explain your new role, your concerns and ask if they could meet with you once a week, fortnight or month to support your transition.  (Perhaps read The One Minute Manager before choosing a mentor, this will help you identify the best type of managers).

Lastly, relax!  You’ve got the job for a reason and now it’s time to show them what you can do.

Good luck,

Tristan 

What’s TW up to? Feb 21-27

 Culture  No Responses »
Feb 202012
 

In short, here’s my week. I’m..

Excited - about The Physio Co family’s 8th birthday party coming up on Saturday.  (It’s a ‘Magic’ Theme!)

Sharing - The Physio Co’s 2012 Culture Book with the TPC team at our birthday party. (There MIGHT be some copies available for members of the Culture is Everything community, please let me know if you’d like a sneaky peek inside The Physio Co family) 

Pleased – to officially welcome KW back to The Physio Co team (for just a few days!)

Attending – the monthly committee meeting of Prom Country Aged Care 

Finishing - a few books that have been hanging around including Fascinate & Reality Marketing Revolution.

Planning – the Culture is Everything Book Club. Interested in joining and reading/discussing a book with me regularly?

Reviewing - a few posts I missed from the archives of Verne’s Insights

Training -  3 hours in the pool, 7.5 on the bike & 5.5 hours on foot this week.  Only 11 weeks until Ironman Australia!

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