Blog Posts — Page 14

Making Difficult Conversations Easier

How do you tell someone they smell? Or that they need to stop handing out religious pamphlets at work? Maybe an employee dresses inappropriately at work. Perhaps an employee’s spouse calls the workplace several times per day. What about your assistant’s drinking problem?

You could do what some managers do: ignore the behaviour and hope it goes away. Now, hope rarely works as a strategy to solve a problem, but let’s give it a try and see what happens:

They Smell: If you don’t act they’ll keep smelling. If you’re in a retail business, you’ll almost certainly lose customers. If the aroma is only affecting co-workers who have brought the problem to your attention, they will know for sure that you don’t care and/or that you lack the courage to deal with a relatively simple problem.

An employee is pushing an opinion or unwanted material on co-workers. This one is a bit more tricky — you need to balance an individual’s right to speak freely with his coworker’s right to not be harassed at work. This one is a level of degrees, but suffice it to say that if you’ve received complaints, the behaviour is probably already perceived as being too aggressive.

An employee is dressed inappropriately. When I was in university, I worked for a retailer who had a strict dress code. This included a ban on earrings for male employees. This was fine until one of the senior executive’s sons showed up with an earring, and the facility manager would not address it for fear of reprisal. Now, there are a whole bunch of things wrong with this scenario, but needless to say, when the manager displayed his cowardice in this regard, he had a facility full of male employees wearing earrings out of protest within a month. Rightly or wrongly, the dress code fell apart, and the manager lost all credibility.

In these, and in perhaps most cases, it can look (at least at the outset) that it is easier to NOT engage in these difficult conversations. In the short term, it probably is easier. Longer term, you create all kinds of problems for yourself as a manager if you don’t tackle difficult conversations. You erode trust, you lose credibility, and frankly you’re not doing your job as a leader. Consider this one of the “burdens of leadership”.

If you want help with this difficult part of the job, listen to our podcast, and visit our page on Difficult Conversations.

Manage Your Boss — Don’t be a Brown Noser

“If a bulletin came out from head office saying that all managers had to wear a dress, he’d be the first guy in line down at the ladies-wear store” — Rick

Rick was a facility manager I interacted with many years ago who was an excellent upward manager. He also disdained boot-licking as is evidenced in the quote above. Most managers understand the importance of leading and managing well the people that report to them. Unlike Rick however, these same managers have a huge blind spot when it comes to managing their bosses.

Rick was a good manager. He knew his business very well, and he was very even-handed in how he managed people. In some cases, he knew the business better than his bosses, and didn’t hesitate to tell them so:

“I’m not sure who came up with this idea, but they’ve never actually worked in this industry before. I guess I’ll have to read them their fortune, and let them know it will never fly”.

Rick had no problem saying “no” to his bosses. In many cases his boss would thank him for pointing out some of the ridiculous things that somehow made their way out of head office. So how did he do this, and not get himself fired?

First – he picked his battles well. The bigger the organization, the more people there are far away from the perverbial coal-face to think up stupid ideas. You can’t possibly fight all the stupidity, so you need to choose wisely.

Second – he knew what he was talking about. He didn’t offer platitudes and opinions when he opposed his boss. He brought data and evidence. It’s hard to argue with someone who has done his homework

Third – he offered good feedback to his boss as much or more as he offered constructive criticism. He nurtured a “no BS” relationship with his boss, and constantly improved his credibility. When it came time to challenge his boss, his credibility account was built up enough that even when his boss disagreed, he would still listen.

Give it a try – or you could just be an unbelievable brown noser. Apparently that can work too:

Business Training Seminars? Watch Children’s TV

Because I am a freak of nature, I can’t remember what happened yesterday afternoon, but I do remember the name of Marsha Brady’s first boyfriend (Harvey). For the uninitiated, Marsha Brady was the stuck-up, know-it-all character from the early 70s sitcom, The Brady Bunch.

This, along with Gilligan’s Island, Mr. Rogers, The Electric Company (incredibly starring Morgan Freeman, and Rita Moreno), The Partridge Family and Sesame Street, formed the basis of some fundamental lessons that guide me in business and in life to this day.

Here’s what I know:

Gilligan’s Island: In a survival situation, where life and death are at stake, people will still revert back to comfortable roles. Gilligan was always an idiot, Mary-Ann bakes Coconut Cream Pies (when she wasn’t busy getting baked herself – google Dawn Wells), and Ginger could easily manipulate anyone with a Y chromosome to get her own way.

Mr. Rogers: Most importantly, he liked me just the way I am, but also, interestingly the only civil servant (the mail man) had a two-decade old problem balancing his meds.

The Electric Company: Who knew reading could be so much fun? And… always treat those around you with respect. You never know when one of your co-workers is going to win an Oscar, Grammy, or Tony award (see the stars listed above).

The Partridge Family: Sometimes you can fake it till you make it. For evidence ask Susan Dey to sing, or watch Danny Bonaduce strum a bass guitar. For those who don’t know – The Partridge Family managed to knock the Beatles off the number 1 Billboard Chart, even though they were lip-syncing to the work of studio musicians.

Sesame Street: I’m not sure about this one – even as a five-year-old, I had a hard time accepting life-advice from a six-foot tall, ambiguously gay canary. Perhaps the lesson from Sesame Street is that it is always, all about marketing.

Enjoy

Time for an Effective Meeting Intervention

If the last meeting you went to sucked badly, you are in good company. A survey of over 1000 North American managers indicated that on average they spend about 17 hours per week in meetings. Of that considerable portion of their work-week, they deemed that one-third of that time was wasted.

The economic implications of this are staggering. If you multiply 6 hours times the hourly rate of those managers times the number of managers in the economy, you begin to see a number with a whole bunch of zeros behind it. Even in your own organization this calculation could easily total in the millions of dollars every year.

More selfishly, ask yourself what you would do if you had an extra six hours every week. Could you work more reasonable hours? Perhaps you could get to those things you know are important but are constantly displaced by the urgent.

This got us to ask the question, “if meetings are systemically bad, and they cost that much what can be done?”

First of all, do not accept that meetings have to be bad. We all seem resigned that we have to write-off a significant portion of our week to something we know is useless. Demand more of yourself, and of your organization.

Second – be part of the solution. This is your problem to solve. Even if you do not chair the meeting, you can raise questions as to how effective they are. Your complacency will get you into more pointless meetings.

Third – insist on a structure. The engineers and accountants always get a bad rap for being anal retentive. While you may want to avoid such people at cocktail parties, invite them to help fix your meetings. A bit of discipline will exponentially improve the value of your meetings.

Finally – figure out what meetings are costing you. What is the cost to the organization by the time they pay a fully burdened labour cost. What is the cost to you if meetings are causing you to work longer hours and give up your leisure time. Profit-driven organizations are usually good a containing costs when they have to. Get them to contain the cost of their meetings.

Then you’ll have more time to read our blog, and download YouTube clips. Here’s one from John Cleese – for those who love British humour.

Job Descriptions — Probably Poorly Done, Almost Certainly Useless

Do you have a job description? Have you seen it since you were hired into your current position? Does it bear any resemblance to what you actually do every day? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions (much less all 3 of them), you are in the minority. Most organizations either don’t have job descriptions, or have ones that are useless.

There is a good argument to be made that job descriptions are a relic from a time gone by, and that many jobs defy a linear description that is normally seen on a job description. I would argue that the majority of jobs can, and should have job descriptions, but not in the way they are normally done.

If your job description articulates in painstaking detail the activities that you will undertake on a “normal” day, then it officially sucks. Sorry to be the one to bring it up but:

a) Nobody cares how busy you are.

b) Nobody cares what you do.

Of course there are some highly bureaucratic organizations (often governmental organizations) where they do care about these things, but they are the minority.

Well run organizations care what you get done. What did you produce? What are your results? How much value did you create? A good job description will articulate these things – not how many paper clips you will use to file a report.

So I’m drawing a line in the sand today – Job Descriptions are dead. Throw them away. In their place, we will create POSTION OUTCOMES DESCRIPTIONS (PODs). This is not a directive to the HR people out there – they are usually the last to come on board with such changes. This is to every person who wants to make a difference. A well-written POD will facilitate you making a difference at your job.

Write yours today, and get your boss to sign-off on it. Then, when the crap-tasks start sliding across your desk, you have some mechanism by which to question it. In your old Job Description, the crap-task would have fallen under “other duties as assigned”.

Now do you see why you need to do this? There are lots of tools on the Wily Manager website to help you with this. Join the revolution – and let us know how you’re making out.

Want a High Performance Team? Ditch Your Star

Many moons ago, I was a teenage university student, paying my tuition by working the graveyard shift at a grocery store. One of the prime motivators of continuing to study hard year after year was so that I wouldn’t have to continue to work the graveyard shift at a grocery store.

Now that a few decades have elapsed, I have come to realize and appreciate the true value of this experience. When we have assisted clients to implement high performance teams, I am often asked if I have ever been on one of those very special teams. Then I tell the story about being on night-crew during university….

Interestingly, people are always trying to draw the connection between high-performing individuals and high performance teams. When I tell people the link is not as strong as they might like to think, I am often greeted with confusion.

Here’s an ugly little truth: Your star employees are often high-maintenance, and may do more long term damage than good. Everyone knows the employee who can crank out the results, but leaves a wake of broken relationships and collateral damage behind. She may produce a superior level of output for some period of time, but may adversely affect the output of others.

High Performance Teams exist where the interactions between team members are exceptionally functional. A High Performance Team quite likely doesn’t have any stars, but rather group of competent performers who have found their groove in working together. The success of your organization depends upon the number and quality of these B-players.

Back in the 1980s, in the middle of the night at a high-volume grocery retailer, our little team had no stars. It was a group of guys who liked working together, had a very clear idea of what they were supposed to be doing, and relentless peer pressure to get things done properly. Our output was almost double that of any comparable crew – and we had way more fun too.

The prescription for a High Performance Team is easy to understand. Filling that prescription is much more difficult.

How to Get Ahead — Don’t Be an Idiot

Every now and then Jed or I will be sitting across the table from someone who will confide in us that he really wants to be promoted into the next job. Sometimes, he may not know what that next job is, but he really wants it. “How do I get ahead?”, he may ask of us. This got me to thinking:

Boot-licking – Constant, shameless, thorough and quality bootlicking.

Eliminate the competition by quietly and carefully sabotaging their every move. If you think they might be higher in the standings than you for the next role — take them out.

Sewering Your Boss — Maybe if you make her look stupid enough, they’ll fire her, and put you in her role.

Constantly Champion Your Own Virtues – If people don’t know how wonderful you are, it’s about time you told them. Don’t be afraid to repeat, ad nauseam.

Sorry – I seem to have lost my inner-monologue.

It’s frightening how many people think that one or more of the above will work. We see it time and time again, even if people don’t fully admit to employing some or all of these techniques.

There is no doubt that occasionally a boot-licker will slip between the cracks and have some success for a limited period of time. Maybe even a year or two. However, there is always a reckoning. This is not to say that the most qualified person always gets the job – organizational politics are a fact of life that people need to accept. I don’t know of any organizations that are pure meritocracies.

But people who attempt to prosper by insincere means most often meet their demise with the same level of intensity as they played the game. What comes around goes around – even though it may take longer than many of us might like.

So how do you get ahead in your career? Start by not being an idiot. If you can’t manage that, you’re not going to get ahead anyway, so you might as well cut your losses now. (Oops – there’s my inner-monologue again).

If you want some other ideas, download our latest podcast on How to Get Ahead – Wily Manager Style.

In the meantime… let’s be careful out there.

Micro-Managing: A Great Way to Get Fired

OK – we’ve all done it. Decided to do something ourselves because its easier and faster than holding the appropriate person to account. Maybe you’ve even done it with your children. Micro-managing – the gift that keeps on destroying.

Every manager has been warned against this, so let’s look at why it happens, given the most common excuses most managers give for doing so:

It’s faster to do it myself. It probably is faster… the first time. But if you look at the amount of time it will take you to teach or correct someone else in the execution of a task, versus the amount of time it will take you to do it on an ongoing basis, the answer is clear.

I can do it better. You probably can… for a while. However, if you insist on doing every individual task yourself, you will become quickly overwhelmed, and will end up doing some (high) proportion of those tasks poorly.

My people aren’t capable. If this is the case for any amount of time, you are clearly not doing your job as a manager. It is your job to develop people. Occasionally you truly don’t have the right talent, in which case you have to make changes to your talent bench.

I need to keep close to the details. Actually, you probably don’t. As a manager, it is not your job to be expert at everything. It’s your job to create experts, and be able to ask some semi-intelligent questions of them.

If I don’t do all these tasks, I won’t be useful anymore. Listen to yourself. If you’re that insecure in your role as a leader, you need to examine whether you should be in a management role at all.

The bottom line is that micro-managers sap the productivity out of organizations by failing to capture the discretionary effort of their employees. They don’t develop people, which is a primary function of a leader. They also limit their own career mobility by trying to make themselves indispensible in the role they are in.

Micro-management is a self-destructive behaviour, and a great way to get fired. Then you’ll have lot’s of time.

The Results-Oriented Work Environment (ROWE)

Apparently the most recent flavour of the month is the Results-Oriented Work Environment or ROWE for those who prefer to only work with acronyms. It a great name because how could anyone not want a more results-oriented work place? Some of its detractors call it something different – anarchy. I would probably call it self-employment.

ROWE, in its most current incarnation, was pioneered at Best Buy, and is in use at other high profile companies such as IBM and Netflix. The theory is a simple one: employees set their own time, schedules, and work methods, and are instead measured on the output of what they produce. In theory, it sounds like an excellent idea, and in certain cases it could probably work very well.

I can think of a two situations where it really wouldn’t work:

It can’t work where there’s a high degree of inter-dependence with other stakeholders. As a refugee of the Retail Food Industry, I can say without reservation that it would be a disaster if employees wrote their own schedule. As great as it would be for the bulk of employees to work banker’s hours, it would get pretty frustrating for customers who predominantly shop at nights and on weekends.
It can’t work in situations where it is difficult to measure the output of employee effort. If there is any degree of variation in work processes, then the measurement thereby becomes very difficult. For example, any profession with case-work (lawyers, social workers, insurance etc.) are inherently difficult to measure. Some cases may be easily wrapped up in a few minutes, while others may require weeks of research and follow up.

I know we’re all supposed to buy-in to the myth that any and all things are measurable, but the luxury of believing that falls only to academics who have never had to actually measure anything. Ask a professor how to measure teaching effectiveness, and watch her face as she looks like your dog when you pretend to throw the ball and then hide it behind your back.

The second group of people who insist that all things are measureable are management consultants – who, (for the low cost of $5000/day plus expenses) are more than willing to help you measure everything in your business. Unlike the professors, these folks don’t believe it, but they make good money convincing organizations to try it.

Should you try to better focus your organization on results? Yes – that’s your job as a manager.

Should you impose measurement systems on everything? Maybe – it depends on your business, and how meaningful you can make your metrics. Where possible, you should measure and evaluate people mostly on their output.

Should you set people loose and tell them as long as they produce X widgets in a given week, they can do whatever they want? I think that’s a recipe for disaster for employee morale, risk management, and true accountability.

Of course, that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong (with thanks to Dennis Miller).

Politeness in the Workplace? Go #@$% Yourself!

I’m not really sure when it happened. Sometime over the last few years it has become socially acceptable to have a potty-mouth at the office. Most often I am invited into workplaces for short periods of time – usually a few months – so I normally don’t know anyone when I first show up, and have to take some time to get to know people.

I find it incredible that people who don’t know me are quite willing to use exceptionally foul language in our very first meeting. I should clarify two things:

1) I’m not there to fire them, or otherwise torture them… which may be construed as just-cause for an expletive or two.

2) I’m not offended by any of this, and use my own fair-share of foul words in more familiar company.

I just find it curious that people think words your mother always told you she didn’t want to hear are now common-place in work settings. In my experience, this transcends just about all demographic groups. It is not just younger people, nor is it just men. I have witnessed this in large cities, and small ones, in a wide variety of industries. I think it’s safe to say this has become a societal thing.

So… what is to be done? Probably nothing. But I would caution anyone who cares that first impressions are very powerful, and if you litter your first impression with language that would make a lumberjack blush, then you will inevitably come across as insensitive and less intelligent.

As a general rule of thumb, it might be good to know someone’s last name, before asking them (in so many words) if they like sex and travel. Likewise, don’t assume that you’re not offending anyone, just because everyone else seems to be swearing. It’s amazing that many offices insist on no fragrances or smelly foods for fear of upsetting someone, but have no similar guidelines for certain forms of noise pollution.

Until you know who you’re talking to, you might want to channel Bill Cosby more so than Eddie Murphy. In the mean time… check out this clip for how one office handled it.