Good People Doing Good Work

Good people want to do good work for good wages so that they can have a good life. And managers are responsible for ensuring that these good people know what is expected of them.

Expectations need to be clear. When good people attain those expectations, it's up to management to set the bar just a smidge higher. Once the new expectation has been met, set a new standard.

The problem though is that managers become too busy putting out fires, settling petty disagreements and attending too many meetings to be able to check in regularly, to recognize achievement when it happens (not just once a year) and to make sure that the work they give to good people is challenging enough to engage but not too challenging causing disengagement.

That means a manager needs to manage - every day. Managers need to set their people up to excel - not just be competent.

An Attitude of Excellence is about giving your best, doing your best and being your best. Performance expectations need to be conducted regularly - not just once a year - unless you only open your doors once a year.

The market can change plenty in a year. Are you keeping up?

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Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
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Disinfect Workplace Bullies

In walking through the hospital today, I noticed a janitor sweeping up fallen leaves from some of the large plants in the common area. He was addressing the things that visitors to the hospital could see, not the things they can't see - like those who were sick enough to be admitted to hospital who had touched door handles, arms of chairs, vending machine buttons, elevator buttons and counter-tops. How often do you see janitors wiping down the coffee vending machine with disinfectant spray? How many dirty hands touch the daily-mopped floor versus how many flu-infected hands touch the elevator buttons or touch the arms of a chair in the Emergency room?

Now before you go thinking I'm some sort of weird germophobe, let me explain why I point this out.

Every single business and organization runs like this hospital: they spend an inordinate amount of time on things that might address how they are perceived but little or no effort on things that might affect their customers and clients profoundly. A poorly disinfected waiting room could result in a patient's second trip to Emergency in a few days. But if there's litter on the floor, one might perceive the hospital to be unclean. So you clean what they can see and ignore what they can't.

Think about when an organization offers their people a chance to air their griefs as a team-building exercise - but no one does because the staffer they want to complain about is sitting beside them. What about organizations whose front lobbies are immaculate but their shipping department can't seem to get a delivery done on time to save themselves. Then there are organizations who preach a safe and happy workplace but refuse to reprimand workplace bullies for fear of the employee union.

Management's failure to address a workplace's silent issues is no different than a hospital janitor rarely wiping down bacterial surfaces. Either way, someone will end up not well enough to come into work.

And then you have absenteeism which costs you money; big money. Soon it becomes a lousy place to work because your standards are lax. Your culture suffers and your new-hire candidates become more mediocre. If only you had just wiped the doors more often, enforced the rules and dealt with the bullies, you could have kept your good people.

A germ is a germ. Disinfect it before it makes your whole organization sick. 
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How Managers Can Ruin Culture

Three middle managers who worked for the City of Calgary were discovered to have been making money on the side using City technology (email) and contacts and contractors. This information was discovered by audit of the department. A few others were found to be visiting gaming sites on company time and using the City email account to make money while off on disability.

Management is not a right but a privilege. Those who have been elevated to management need to lead by example. It's hard to do when the manager is obviously devoid of scruples, ethics and morals. How do people like this get promoted?

These managers need to be fired immediately. If you don't, you risk giving your own organization a black eye. Being afraid to do the tough thing is exactly how corporate cultures rot from the inside out. If the leaders are corrupt, they will corrupt culture. Those who are easily swayed will come to believe that this sort of  behavior is acceptable.

Fire those who can't tell right from wrong - especially if they are in management. Then, gladly pay the legal bill to get rid of the offenders. It will be much cheaper in the long run once you send a message to your people.

If you want to create a culture of Greatness, stop thinking "ordinary." Nothing gets swept under the carpet. Everything is dealt with. Everything is talked about. Everything is in the open. Set a standard for your people to rise to. They will.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Whiny Complainers and Pointless Meetings

According to survey results, the average manager spends over seven hours per week sorting out personality conflicts among staff members. In addition, that same manager can spend anywhere from 20% to 80% of his or her time in meetings too.

Let's work the worst-case numbers. 80% of an 40-hour week is 32 hours spent in meetings. Add another seven hours per week spent sorting out personality conflicts among employees who can't seem to get along and you have one hour left each week for a manager to get some work done.

Hmm, seems to me that the least productive member on-staff is the average manager.

If these numbers hit close to home for you, then I would suggest that you're doing management all wrong.

How could any manager be involved in meetings for 32 hours each week and be a productive member of the staff. Asking a manager to attend that many meetings is a waste of a good salary. Let your managers do some work.

And managers, if you're sorting out personality conflicts for the same few people bringing up the same few issues about the same few co-workers who annoy them each week, then get rid of them. People who should be putting their nose to the grindstone but instead put their noses in other people's business are a drag on productivity.

I agree that workplaces work best when everyone gets along. But some people don't want to get along. They just want to complain. If they want to complain, let them complain about being unemployed. The longer you let the whiners hang around, the worse your company culture will get.

With that one hour per week that you have left, find a way to get rid of the annoyances like whiny staff and pointless meetings. Start hijacking your own schedule. Change your Attitude and the way you do things.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Managing By Hug or by Handshake

Do you shake hands with your mom or do you hug her? What about your siblings? How about your spouse? Your kids? How about your close friends? What about your employees?

I suppose we were on a roll with hugs until the employees question huh?

So what is the differentiating factor between offering a hug and a handshake? Perhaps it is this simple: a hug is reserved for people we care about and have feelings for. Everything else would be a handshake.

Managers, do you not care about your employees? I mean, is your corporate culture one of faceless people doing a job or is your culture one of only hiring people who matter to do work that matters? That's the difference between a handshake and a hug.

If you treat your employees as "handshake" people, you will attract people who view their work as "just a job." But if you really value your people, are grateful for their performance and diligence and care about them as people, you will attract people who value their work, are grateful that you chose them and will reward you with performance and diligence. They will take ownership of their work.

People who feel valued and cared for outperform all others by 20%.

A Culture of Greatness is created by managers who know the difference between a hug and a handshake. You don't actually have to hug them - just make them feel like you care enough about them.

If your managers can't do that, then get new managers. The world is changing and your attitude is out of touch with reality. You had better get with the program or you'll end up attracting the employees that no one else wants - you know, the "handshake" people.
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Managers Responsible For Poor Employee Engagement

Have you made a decision to improve your corporate culture in 2010? Look, you can't keep putting it off. 2010 is going to be the year of mass exodus of employees to new jobs. You are going to lose some good people unless you stop digging in your heels and get with the program.

Right Management's survey results last month says it all: 60% of employees say they will move to a new job in 2010 and another 21% are actively networking right now to see what's out there. That's 81% of the workforce on the hunt for new work because during this recession, you let your people develop fears and feelings of uncertainty. You abandoned them when they needed you most. You took away their training, their perks and the things they looked forward to just to hang on to a few lousy dollars. They feel abandoned now and they have as much loyalty for you as they felt you had for them.

Employees don't leave an employer - they leave their managers and their culture - specifically managers who make your corporate culture hard to swallow.

Now before you hire the Employee Engagement consultants as a knee-jerk attempt to fix the problem, let me clue you in on what the real problem is and why employees don't engage. It's not because there aren't enough perks. It's not because the work isn't rewarding. It's not because the cubicle is too small. It's, most times, because the supervisor is a jerk who under-appreciates them, who treats them like a number, who plays favorites and who has little or no compassion or soft-skills as a decent human being.

Can you honestly say that each and every manager in your group could muster up the courage to have a heart-to-heart with an employee about a sick child at home or to be truly thankful and grateful for the work of their employees? Do your managers, in addition to being taught how to manage, have the ability to communicate feelings or just to bark orders?

You may have been able to get away with that when you had a full complement of Baby Boomers working for you but the numbers are turning and by late next year, Gen Y's will outnumber Boomers in the workplace. Your workers want only a few things and they will actively engage themselves:

• a decent work environment - not a funky new office but a place where they feel like they matter, are told so and are asked their opinions and ideas on company initiatives.
• a rewarding career - not just a job but something that they can become more than just proficient in and be encouraged to become considered one of the best in their field.
• a manager who is as much a coach and mentor as they are a boss - someone who can find the drive, the spark and the magic in every single employee and find ways to inspire those employees to reach for the next level daily.
• a senior management that doesn't just pay lip-service to the softer side of doing business - but a senior management team that actually encourages it and if a manager is incapable of coaching and inspiring, they fire his ass to save their good people.

If you've got a manager or two who refuse to accept that business is run by people, for people and to serve people then I encourage you to pay the legal bills to remove that manager instead of having to pay the recruiting, re-training and recurring bills of getting a constant parade of new employees up to speed.

If you want your employees to engage, you had better engage your managers. If you've got high attrition numbers in one or two departments, it's because of your managers. Stop buying the department manager's excuses and remove them. Your managers are costing your company good people and a lot of money.
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Leadership Fad Has Created A Culture Crisis

Too many people want to be perceived as being at the forefront of their niche so they will use the word leadership to describe just about anything that will help them make a few bucks. It's sad really, that the word leadership has been sold out. Authentic leadership, servant leadership, reflective leadership, thought leadership, absolute leadership and transitional leadership are nothing more than vacuous terminologies of self-importance in a desperate attempt to carve out a money-making identity that no one else has yet exploited.

Truthfully, this preoccupation with the leadership fad is so last year. It is time to get your head out of the clouds because it's about to rain - hard. Corporate North America is headed toward a corporate culture crisis in 2010 because, in spite of all of the leadership books and all of the courses available, no one has actually been leading.

The truth is, you don't become a leader in a few days or weeks in exchange for money. (If you need proof, go find out which leadership course Winston Churchill, JFK, The Dalai Llama and Ghandi enrolled in and also find out their passing grades.) So while marginal managers have been off trying to re-shape their personal brands from dolt-manager to leader-of-minions, they have been forgetting (or ignoring) their work: managing. And now because of it, workplace culture is crumbling.

Right Management's recent survey results show that 60% of North American workers will be actively seeking new jobs in 2010. Another 21% are actively networking to see what's out there before they decide to update the resume. That's a total of 81% of North American workers who are not happy with their workplaces. Why aren't they? Because while the economy was crumbling, managers weren't managing and weren't responding to the very real concerns of their people. They were too busy pretending to be visionaries who were above that icky business of managing.

That's what happens when no one pays attention to the very people who make the whole business of business work. When people feel let down, culture follows. And people will quickly exit a crumbling culture. And who was supposed to be looking after the culture? The same people who were trying to getting a passing grade in leadership courses.

North American organizations are about to suffer the largest workplace exodus in decades due largely to, you guessed it, a lack of real leadership.

Your need to be seen as a "leader" has been overshadowed by your inability to lead during tough times. You may have passed the course but you have failed the test. 
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How To Improve Company Morale

Why is it that I have never heard of a senior manager being dragged to work kicking and screaming and bemoaning their job? I'm not saying it doesn't happen but I've never actually seen it. But how many times do you witness an employee or middle manager moaning about their job? You know exactly who I'm talking about in your office don't you?

Why is the practice of whining about work only reserved for those not in senior management?

Also, while we're at it, why is it that two people working in side-by-side cubicles doing the exact same job can view their jobs so differently? One can choose to complain about the job and the other loves the job. Why the difference? It's obviously not the job or both would be either happy or whining. The key to job satisfaction and company morale is to understand and acknowledge the differing attitudes toward the work. Fix the attitude of the one who dislikes the job and you improve the workplace for two people - the complainer AND the person who has to endure the constant complaining in the next cubicle.

And that's how you change workplace morale; by affecting the prevailing attitudes regardless of position. I urge senior management to demonstrate these traits by example and most do when it comes to complaining about their job. But the truth is that those outside of senior management will always do as they please regardless of the example set, always. This leads me to believe that it's not the job that people dislike - it is the perceived lack of control over the job and their own destiny and/or contribution. And that is an attitude of feeling dominated/controlled by another which can be reversed by addressing the underlying attitudes and opinions.

My point is always, if you're not making your conscious choices about making your own life better, then you're going to get whatever is left over from everyone else. If you are not acting to create the results you want then you are, by default, allowing whatever happens to be your choice. If there are more "good-natured" people going to work, then we end up having more good places to work.

Everything starts with the individual. Take the people out of a building and you don't have a business anymore: you have a building with a lot of stuff. There is no business without people. My mission is to improve the people and let the business improve itself. And I mean everyone - regardless of position.
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When Middle Managers Blame Upper Management

Upper management isn't perfect. They are humans just like their middle-management counterparts. Just because upper management doesn't seem do the job as well as they could doesn't mean that middle managers can just give up, throw up their hands and blame upper management for their own sub-par performance. Where is accountability? In spite of what your organization does, if you have personal values and ethics, you're supposed to plow through the difficulties and model to your staff what resilience looks like.

C'mon folks, sure it's never perfect no matter where you work. And if it's so painful being in middle management, then get out of it and go do something else. This blame game does nothing but hurt corporate culture.

Contrary to public opinion, upper management does not create the culture, the workers do. Culture is nothing more than a collection of attitudes. If everyone thinks the job sucks, the culture will suck. Add to that middle-managers who encourage blaming upper management - not by their words but by their actions - only makes the culture worse.

It's so easy to complain about how bad it is in middle management. And it is tiresome that people simply accept the attitude of blaming someone or something else for their own shortcomings. To blame is to choose to be a victim of your circumstances. You know for a fact that you're better than that. So be better. Take a stand. Set a standard. Ask for a heart-to-heart with a decision-maker but stop the blame. It's counter-productive and it is actually disengaging your employees.

Middle-managers are measured by their department's engagement and productivity. Productivity and engagement go up when blame goes down. You have no control over what upper management does so get over it and get on with the work you're here to do. 
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Time To Audit Management

Half of all employees don't know if they're doing a good job. A recent survey by Leadership IQ reports 51% of employees don't know if they're doing a good job because they don't receive regular feedback from their managers. 21% actually get regular feedback. 27% have sort of an idea but still aren't really sure.

That means 79% of employees are not totally clear on what they're doing and how they're doing. With all of the management books out there, all of the courses, all of the social networking tools for managers and all of the meetings with other managers, 79% of managers still don't understand that they need to regularly communicate with their people? Really?

Managers are claiming that they don't have the time to sit down with every employee and give feedback. But they do have time to train new employees because of high-turnover rates. They do have time to put out fires because their people don't know what they are doing. They do have time to speak to employees if they make a major mistake. But they have no time to say "good job?"

If you can't find the time to let people know how they're doing, then you're not managing. Your job is to manage and it's people that you manage. There is nothing else to manage. You can't manage the economy, your customer spending habits, the weather, delayed deliveries from suppliers. You manage your people. Period.

Remove all of the people in your company and you don't have a company anymore. You have a building with a lot of stuff in it. Without people, there is no company. The people ARE your job. Let's get that straight right now.

These findings raise the question: what are managers filling their days with if they're not communicating with their people? Senior management needs to audit their middle and front-line managers and find out what they are actually doing if they're not interacting with the very people they're supposed to be managing.
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Attitude And Your Corporate Culture?

No one person can change corporate culture. No one person can dictate that this is the way our corporate culture is going to be. You can forget the "you need a visionary leader to change the culture" crap because that doesn't work either.

Culture change has the highest failure rate of all types of major change at over 80%. Lots of energy, money and reputation is invested in change with a 20% chance of success. Here's why it won't work: you can't build a new 2000 sq ft house on an old 1500 sq ft basement foundation. It doesn't fit. You've got the wrong foundation to build your new house on.

Too many companies are trying to "change" their corporate culture by thinking that it, in and of itself, is what needs changing. But corporate culture is the RESULT of the workplace. Corporate Culture is the collective ATTITUDE of the organization. If you don't change every single one of the individual attitudes within the organization, the collective attitude only changes slightly and therefore, you have wasted time, money and effort and will be right back looking at the same problem this time next year.

Let me explain. Time-management is not a problem by itself - it is a "symptom" of a self-discipline problem. You don't fix self-discipline with a simple time-management course no more than you fix a severed arm with a band-aid. The problem lies deeper than what you might see on the surface. In the same way that organizations attempt to shift the corporate culture by addressing the results of their current culture, they are simply addressing the symptoms, not the root cause. If you don't address the root cause, you won't fix the problem. You will simply mask it for only a short while.

Middle management, although they may feel powerless to change something so big, can in fact be the biggest influences and facilitators of change of culture. But it is going to take some work. Middle management needs to make it a priority to get everyone's gripes, comments, perceptions and whining out on the table and address each of them, publicly. Even Dr. Phil says, "you can't fix what you don't acknowledge."

Once each of the issues have been addressed and satisfied, you will begin to shift the attitudes of the employees. Once you begin a mass-shift by the employees you begin to shift the culture.

Culture is not top-down. Culture is not decided by management. Management may want to influence the culture but they don't necessarily create it. It is always bottom-up. The employees drive the culture. Whatever they bring to work each day (perceptions, attitudes, power-struggles, dissatisfaction, etc - and yes, management can influence how employees perceive their workplace) will become part of your culture if you don't address it. It is always the employees' collective attitudes that determine your culture. And that always starts at the bottom.

In fact, in case you missed it, I recently created a video Blog post on Corporate Culture. Here' is the link to my YouTube Corporate Culture video and my YouTube Channel.
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Choice of Managers or Leaders - Pick Managers

"Leadership" is becoming an over-used and under-defined buzzword that has created more fly-by-night companies to come crawling out of the woodwork with promises of turning idiots into leaders. Don't buy it. The whole "Leadership" trend will only last another few years and then we're going to be looking to the rock-solid managers to manage us out of the implosion of the "leadership" industry.

Get ahead of the trend - become a good, competent and solid manager.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ilk892DBB4
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The Separation Of Leadership

Can leadership survive without values? How can leadership takes so many big bonuses for themselves while throwing people out of work? Why is leadership always looking out for themselves?

These are questions that are asked a regular basis on the bulletin boards, articles and blogs. Personally, I think it's just a bunch of people with titles on their business cards that are hoping to be considered leaders purely by their position but they have to lower the bar first so that it's possible for them to slide into a leadership position. They don't want to be called managers anymore. Managers are boring. Managers have to get their hands dirty doing that icky management stuff. Eeeew (yes that's the sound of a 15-year-old girl).

And no matter how many times these questions get asked, the answer is still the same: you don't get to be considered a leader by your position. Yet, so many of the so-called leadership experts are still referring to senior executives as leaders. It's muddying the waters. It's becoming a point of confusion for the average person to try to better understand what leadership really is. Leadership is not a title on a business card.

If it were simply a title on a business card, then we could call up and make appointments for morning coffee with Jeffrey Skilling of Enron, Bernard Ebbers of Worldcom, Tyco 's Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, Computer Associates International's Sanjay Kumar, Adelphia 's John and Timothy Rigas, Daewoo founder Kim Woo-choong or Dynegy's Jamie Olis. Oh, but we can't can we? I almost forgot, these guys are in PRISON. Imagine that, leaders in prison. Based on the widely accepted model of leadership, all of the above listed former CEOs would qualify as leaders because they led their organizations.

Look, if you conive, cheat and steal while you are running the place then you're not a leader. If how you run your organization is illegal, illicit and immoral can you still be considered a leader? No you can not!

These people weren't leaders. They were just greedy CEOs. It was greed and a thirst for power that caused them to let go of what they knew to be right and instead embrace what they knew to be wrong. If you are purposely letting go of your values, morals and ethics in the daily performance of your job duties can you be considered a leader? I would say no.

In fact, the vast majority of the world would agree that the CEOs listed above were not leaders but were criminals: a truth proven once they were caught. When a person knowingly engages in illegal activity in order to advance their own career then they are no longer leading but stealing. As you can see, from this list of CEOs, leader is not a title that should be afforded these criminals.

It's time to start separating the word leadership from those in positions of power. Managers are not leaders even if they have returned from a weeklong leadership course. They are still managers. Elected officials are not afforded the title of leadership simply by the number of votes cast for them. There are as many crooked politicians as there are crooked CEOs. But if you call one politician a leader you must call them all leaders. If you call one CEO a leader you must call them all leaders. There are no sort-of leaders. Leadership is an on-off switch: you either have it or you don't. And you don't get it by achieving a certain position within an organization.

If your organization, during the recession, is choosing not to grow but instead battening down the hatches and pulling in your horns, then you are by the very definition of the word not leading. You are managing. That makes you a manager. Managers manage. (You know, it really pains me to have to explain this. I would have thought that even the worst manager could figure this one out on his own but apparently not.)

It's a real insult to real leaders to have them lumped in with the list of crooked CEOs above. Besides, leader is not something you call yourself: leader is something your followers consider you to be. Leadership is an attitude. Management is a position.

If you are attempting to fleece the company for as much as you can then you're not leading, your "greeding" (I'm not sure if that's even a word but we will go with it). There is a huge difference between a manager or senior executive and a person with leadership ability. Let's not confuse the two. They are not interchangeable. So take down the Jeffrey Skilling poster in the executive washroom and get back to managing the place. We'll see over time whether or not you will be considered a leader.
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Stop Leadership Training Now

A 2-3 day leadership workshop is dangerous to staff morale. The term "management" should not be allowed to be sullied by using the fancy new "leadership" buzzword and by re-branding management workshops to make people think that are going to be anything more than managers anyway. We need managers - good managers. We don't need any managers who "think" they are leaders.

Nothing is more dangerous than a barely-competent manager who fancies himself a leader (except maybe a 1st year Psych minor). It's distressing when staff have to endure the arrogant "past-manager" who now thinks that as a result of his participation at a 2-3 day leadership course, he doesn't have to actually get his hands dirty doing that icky, hands-on manager stuff. Ugh. Trust me, allowing your manager to think himself a leader is going to create big staff problems.

We need managers - good competent managers. And management skills are something you CAN learn at a 2-3 day management workshop. You can derive tremendous benefit from that - if the focus is on target: management. Training companies would do well to stop lying to corporate America. Leadership is not management. Making organizations believe that they should stop management training and start Leadership training is a deception. Leadership is a personal skill. Management is a corporate skill.

If you're really speaking of leadership, you have to define "leadership" to get any benefit. And since there are 350,000 books alone on Amazon, that means there are 350,000 differing opinions on what leadership is. No one person has it right. It is all open to interpretation.

You can not transform a barely-competent manager into a leader in 2 or 3 days. That's ridiculous. And any training company that says they can do it is seeking only your checkbook. Leadership workshops are mostly "management" workshops re-branded anyway - which is a disservice to real life-long leadership commitments and it is insulting to think that a lifelong commitment that someone has made can be taught in 2-3 days.

Leadership workshops would have to change a person's context (the way they see the world), their philosophy (how they think about the world), their personal mission (what they are here to do in the world) and their contribution (what they offer the world). In addition, things like vision, values, ethics, morals, attitudes, opinions and beliefs will all have to be challenged. Leadership operates at that level. Then there is the impossible question to answer: why do people follow some people and not others? You can not have a leadership workshop without addressing these issues and there is no way it can all be covered in-depth, findings concluded and sufficient time allowed for participants to reflect on their lives thus far and where they wish to see themselves in relation to a world contribution (the big picture) in 2 or 3 days.

If you want your managers to be better managers, then send them to management workshops. Don't pretend that you're doing leadership. You can't teach someone how to be Gandhi in 2-3 days. You can't teach someone how to be Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King or Winston Churchill in 2-3 days. The best you can do is teach someone how to imitate these leaders. But imitation is fake. It is not real. And if it is not real it is not leadership. Leadership is internal - deep in the psyche. The rest is management. Call it what it is.

In every organization, there is ONE leader - the rest are managers. Get used to it. That's the way it is. The barely-competent manager who returns from a 2-3 day leadership course believing that people will follow him now because of his learning after a couple of days training course is not only still barely-competent, but he is now borderline arrogant as well. Yep, let's all line up behind that guy.

What you want are better managers. Stop pretending it's leadership because that is a real insult to real leaders - people who have spent their lifetimes garnering the respect that makes people want to follow them. You can't teach that in 2-3 days.

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Three Qualities Necessary In Hiring Managers

Behavior and personality instruments need to go out the window when picking people at the top. When choosing quality managers, don't go by a metrics checklist - you can't measure instincts or unflappability from a checklist. Use your own good instincts to select your managers. Trust your hunches and your gut. Use your head - not a computer printout. Are you buying a car or hiring a manager? You wouldn't buy a car from a brochure so why would you hire a manager that way?

Since the position involves managing people, your manager had better be adept at the "people" part of the equation. So here is my list of personal qualities that I believe are critical for the successful selection of middle or upper managers:

1. Knowledge of the difference between leadership and management. Simply achieving a position does not entitle you to be called a leader. Leadership is an on/off switch - either you have it or you don't. And you can't get it in a week by going to a course. Don't kid yourself - it's a life-long commitment to self-improvement. Management skills however, can be taught in a week. Management basics are constant. Style is different. Each manager is expected to put their own personality on their management style.
2. Integrity and Values. Without them, the work environment will become toxic. Attrition will rise, morale will plummet and customers will scurry. With integrity and values, everyone is treated equally and the rules apply to everyone - that includes the manager. If you have integrity and values, you know your position does not entitle you to a free pass on the rules.
3. Courtesy and respect. As a manager, you will only get the respect you earn - you are not entitled to it by your position. You serve your people in the same way you expect them to serve both you and your customers. You will get what you give when dealing with your people.

I have yet to find any instrument capable of measuring decency, respect, compassion, charity and fortitude. So I encourage you to trust your hunches more than a readout. Let's get people-skills involved in the selection of the people who will deal with your people.

You might also consider my Lunch Menu Test for potential managers. It is fun and yet, incredibly revealing. It is outlined in a previous Blog post here.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE

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New Manager - Help!

Question: I recently became the Supervisor of the Internal Audits department of my company and I am facing challenges in supervising - specifically People Management and Time Management. What do I have to do to make my department really successful?

Answer: I'm guessing that this was a sudden and surprise promotion. So, first thing right out of the gate is to apologize to your staff for your lack of People and Time Management skills. Let them know that you realize you have shortcomings and that you're not trying to hide them in order to look like you're in control (people who do try to hide it can't and end up viewed as inept by their people). Ask for their patience and suggestions to help in the short-term while you deal with the long-term strategy. They will look up to you for having the courage to be honest.

Then, get yourself into a good management course. You're feeling like you have no Time-Management skills because you're overwhelmed by having to manage people - something you're not familiar with. (Remember this though, the higher-ups wouldn't have promoted you if they didn't think you could do it.) Once you get a good handle on the managing people part, many of the Time Management issues will start to sort themselves out.

Right now, you're too busy trying to figure out what to do next that it seems like you need to organize better because you don't want to miss anything. After all, it's in your genes - you're in Audits. Stressing the details is what you do. Get that Resilience Attitude working for you. Get up and get at it. There's a challenge here in front of you but it's not insurmountable.

The truth is, your organizational skills will improve the moment you improve your management skills and build your confidence in managing your people. Relax, you can do this.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE

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Everything Needs To Be Broken

Here is the one Attitude that I believe is necessary in any top-performing senior team: assuming that everything within the organization is broken. Nothing within any organization should be "hands-off." No aspect of any organization should be taboo. If one thing is untouchable, then everything is untouchable.

No senior management position can be untouchable. No mid-level management position can be untouchable. No entry level position can be untouchable. Every aspect, every employee, every process, every interaction and every idea must be allowed to face the chopping block. If you don't run your business in this way, you are not maximizing your organization's power.

Attitude Adjustment: Everything is broken. And if some things are not broken, they should be allowed to be broken. The more senior executives approach the board room table with the belief that every aspect of the business can be improved, only then will true creative discussion occur.

Every aspect of the business needs to be up for discussion, and that includes the senior executives who run the place.

As Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoon once said, "A brilliant idea and a dumb idea sound exactly the same to a mediocre mind." Anyone attempting to maintain the status-quo within an organization will find that their senior team is no longer top-performing, but instead, simply mediocre.

Now, how many things at work are you prepared to break today?
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Leadership and Management Are Opposites

Leadership is not exclusive to work. Why are you confusing Leadership with management? The business bulletin boards and social networking sites are filled with questions about identifying the difference between the two as though Leadership is some sort of goal you attain by checking off a shopping list of traits.

Leadership and management are not even remotely related. In fact Leadership and management are opposites. If you're managing, you're not leading. If you're leading, you're too busy to manage.

LEADERSHIP ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Do you manage your life or do you lead your life? Do you manage your kids or do you lead them, inspire them, and teach them? Did you pick your spouse or are you simply managing your love-life? On the dance floor, do you lead or do you manage to follow?

Just because you've been given a supervisory title does NOT mean you are in a leadership position. I would guess that the guy who undermines you at work and manages to convince others of your incompetence obviously is more adept at leading others than you are or they'd all be on your side.

Leadership is not reserved for those with a corner office and a shiny new business card. Leadership is an Attitude - an attitude not required to be in management. In fact, a manager who thinks himself a leader would be neither well.

Leadership is offense. Management is defense. Playing defense is trying to manage your opponent’s scoring attempts. Leadership is scoring despite what your opponent does to try to stop you.

Stop thinking Leadership and management are one in the same. You're showing that you really have no idea of the difference and you're starting to annoy the leaders who get it.

ROI In Training

If you can't determine whether you're actually getting your money's worth and a decent ROI (Return On Investment) after sending an employee to training, then you're doing the wrong training. Employee training is a waste without addressing the human component. Sorry but it's true.

For example: Time Management is a waste of time if you don't address self-discipline. Sales training is a waste of money without addressing confidence. Team building is really only tolerance-building: you really don't change people - you just get them to tolerate each other better.

If you want to get decent ROI then train your people to be better, decent human beings. They will be more willing to do what is necessary to help the organization move forward and more readily accept future training.

According to a recent survey by Adecco, one of the world's leaders in human resource solutions, an incredible 41 percent of Gen Y respondents said they would do something dishonest in order to keep their jobs. These behaviours include blaming coworkers for mistakes, setting up situations for co-workers to fail or even blackmailing colleagues. Good luck training that bunch to do honest, good work without addressing values and ethics.

Oh and stop sending jerks to management training. They're still jerks when they get back – but now they have a title.

As for leadership? Leadership is an attitude. Management is something you could do with a leadership attitude but it's not a pre-requisite for the job.

Service By Inquiry or Insanity?

Did you know that there are only TWO types of service? I was finally able to nail down these two types of service this past weekend. As with most things in life, you usually only ever have an opinion on one type of service without something to compare it to. This weekend, I found the comparison.

Service Model #1 – Service By Inquiry: As the name suggests, inquiry is the key here. How can I help you? What is it you’re looking for? What specific model/brand are you looking for? These are all questions usually asked by a clerk/service personnel as you wander around their store with a lost look on your face or when you have finally decided to approach the Customer Service counter as a last resort. Then there are the questions posed by the customer: Where do you keep your …? Where would I find …? Do you carry any …? These are simply inquiries which should normally be met with simple answers.

Service Model #2 – Service By Insanity: As this name suggests, the customer has to lose his mind, his patience, his good mood and his common courtesy before he gets the service he should be entitled to. Sending a customer across the store to the Customer Service counter to be helped when there is a perfectly good in-store phone at your fingertips drives a customer nuts. Getting a clerk to help a customer only after they have hit “desperation” is not good service.

However, the worst question in any retail setting is usually asked just before you leave the store if you’re making your way through the checkout line: Did you find everything you were looking for? That’s really a dumb question that makes unhappy customers crazy. Yet more and more retail operations are hell-bent on asking it. Most people simply answer “yes” and silently vow to never come to the store again.

But what if the answer is “no?” Are you going to hold up all of the other disgruntled customers who are also standing in a long checkout line? Answer “no” and the clerk gets a look of terror on their face. Who fixes the problem with you only ten feet from the door? I’ll tell you right now, if you answer “no,” you get the pat-answer, “Oh sorry.”

Look, if you want me to find everything I’m looking for; don’t place your cashier in an embarrassing situation. Put more people on the floor to help the customers. Jeez, it’s really a simple idea. Don’t try to fix my problem when I’ve already gone through your whole store and no one helped me there. Now you think you’re going to help me once I've already decided to leave? It doesn’t work that way. Besides, if I didn’t buy anything, no one asks the question. I’m not in the right line (checkout line) to see if I’m satisfied.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: When a manager has to help a complaining customer with two or three qualified staff standing around doing nothing means your people don’t own a Service Attitude. If you’re a manager who feels compelled to respond to customer concerns, it usually means that your staff is unmotivated. If so, your management style needs a lot of work. Obviously, if as a manager, you have to help, it’s because your people aren’t helping enough. Either get rid of these people or move them to where they don’t deal directly with customers. A manager should be doing PR on the floor. Clerks and customer service reps should be ensuring that a manager never has to actually help customers find things. By the time a manager speaks with a customer, it should be all smiles and chuckles – not complaints.

If you’re a manager who deals with complaints, then your people aren’t doing it right. If you’re a service representative and you’re not looking for ways to help a customer in every moment of your day, then you are not doing enough to ensure you become the most valuable person in your organization.

Help me, the customer, on the floor so that when I get to the checkout line and get asked, “Did you find everything OK?” I can answer “yes” and take the pressure off of the cashier. Your cashier should not have to be the last line of defense of ensuring customer satisfaction. Besides, if I’m on my way out, how are you going to fix it now anyway?

The Four-Letter F-Word

Oh you’ve used this word too so stop being so offended. In fact, you’ve witnessed other people use the word and you don’t get offended. So what’s the problem here?

You see, you’ve used the word when you get lousy service in restaurant, get a lousy night’s sleep in a hotel and even when someone asks how their salesperson handled your complaint. You use this word freely and it seems not enough people take offence when you use it – well, the right people anyway.

The word I am speaking of is the word “Fine.” And if you use that word to describe someone’s service, they should be offended. If anyone has ever used this word to describe your service, you should be doubly offended. “Fine” is the word of indifference to describe your opinion. People use this word when they don’t want to hurt your feelings or they don’t want to seem a bother. But you sure didn’t give them any sort of “wow” factor.

• How was your meal?
• How was your stay?
• How did that rental car work out?
• How was our salesperson?
• How did we do in responding to your concern?
• How was your experience with us?
• How did we do in solving your problem?

If you use the “F-Word” as an answer to any of those questions, then the owners/managers of those businesses had better be shaking in their boots. “Fine” means nothing. It doesn’t say “great” or “lousy.” It just means you didn’t provide me with an experience that is memorable and I don’t want to be bothered to answer a question whose answer you really don’t care about anyway. I don’t want a clerk or server gushing “sorry” all over me when they aren’t the responsible party. (When was the last time your hotel checkout clerk was responsible for the lousy night’s sleep you got? Why would you dump on them? Be respectful in your answer but be clear.)

I refuse to use the word “fine” to describe any service encounter. If I know that at the end of my experience I am going to get asked that question, I begin preparing my answer at the beginning. Hey, if they’re going to ask, I’m going to answer. If the only reason they’re asking is so that I can blow a little smoke up their skirts, then they’ve asked the wrong guy.

In fact, in recent weeks, I have stayed at a number of hotels who have asked me the question at checkout. In both instances, I have asked the clerk what they do with my answer to their question. I was, on both occasions, met with an uncomfortable, stammering clerk (as though they were expecting “fine” to be my answer).

“No, answer the question,” I asked. "What do you do with the information I give you?"

“Umm,” the clerk started. “We tell maintenance if something is wrong.”

“Well what if it’s not a maintenance issue?” I asked.

“Uh, we tell a manager?” She asked in question-form as though only I knew the right answer and she was answering her high-school History teacher’s question.

“Good answer.” I offered. “Now get a piece of paper to write these things I am about to say down.” And she did.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Look, if you don’t want an honest answer, don’t ask the question. Otherwise, if you’re going to ask customers to describe their experience, be prepared to take notes. Don’t make your “Satisfaction Survey” empty and vacuous. It's patronizing and you’re wasting your customers' time.

Also, if you’re going to force your front-line people to ask the question, then you had better prepare them to handle the answers. It amazes me that so many organizations will force their people to ask but then it becomes clearly evident that they have not been trained to handle an answer other than “fine.” What's the protocol when the answer is other than "fine?"

Not preparing your people to handle an answer other than “fine” means that you really don’t care how your customer experience was or you would have armed them with the tools to fix it or at least tell the customer right away that they're taking this information upstairs. A "Service Attitude" means understanding that the whole reason for being in business is to serve. If you don't care about customer answers and instead just want to be placated, then you don't get the whole "Service Attitude" thing at all.

If your people don't know how to handle your customers' truthful answers, stop asking the question. It’s embarrassing to you.

Why Should You Be Hired?

My friend and mentor, Brian Stecyk, sent me an email recently in response to a Blog entry I had written called Memo From The Customer. In it, I mused aloud as to why front-line staff feels that everything else, other than serving me, is more important at the time of my transaction. All I was asking for is a little attention and a genuine thankfulness for my business – not a tall order really.

Brian sent along the following comments that included a great observation at the end.

Great column. Every time I interview someone, I ask them the question, "Why should I hire you?" I have received the following responses:

• Because I am nice.
• Because I need a job.
• Because I am a hard worker.
• Because you need someone.

But not once in 28 years has anyone ever said, "Because I will help your business earn a profit."

When I inform them of what I am looking for, I usually get an absolutely stunned response. It is as though the thought that they must make a contribution to the bottom line is heresy. On a couple of occasions, interviewees even remarked, "It shouldn't be all about money and profit." Obviously those people did not get hired. Without profit I cannot hire anyone.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: As the market heats up with increasing competition for the same numbers of jobs, what are you bringing to the table that is better than the last guy who was interviewed? What is it that you possess that you do better than anyone else?

At no time in history (I am guessing here) has a paycheck ever been handed to an employee with a little notation in the bottom left corner of the check that reads, “For Being Nice,” or “Because You Needed A Job,” or “Because We Needed Someone.” That’s not why you get hired.

If your Attitude on the job is one of “that’s good enough,” when it comes time for performance and pay review, your employer is likely to say, “What we’re paying you right now is good enough.” If you want to be paid more, you need to be valued more. If you want to be picked over all of the other job seekers, you need to have more value than they. If you want to be promoted, your number of years on the job aren’t enough – you need to be more valuable than the others being considered.

If you think you’ve gotten as far in your current job as you can go and you’re not the person running the place, then people don't think you're worth more and you obviously haven't given them any reason to think differently.

If you won’t do the work to get better, become more knowledgeable and to become the most valuable person in your organization, then why should anyone pay you more? That’s like paying more money for the very same item, made by the very same manufacturer at the store next door. Why would you pay more for it? It hasn’t been improved and it will do the same thing it always does.

What’s your edge? What makes you more valuable? What is demonstrably different about you?

The Loudest Person In The Room

Have you ever been struck by a line in a movie? You know the kind of line I’m talking about; a line that had profound meaning for you perhaps like the ones below:

• “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” (Coach Carter)
• “Writers are meant to write for readers who are meant to read.” (Finding Forrester)
• “Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.” (Braveheart)
• “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.” (Dead Poets Society)
• “Either get busy living or get busy dying.” (The Shawshank Redemption)

Last week, I witnessed another line that spoke volumes about organizational values and could be identified as one a very profound statements for the workplace. Denzel Washington spoke this one.

“The loudest one in the room is usually the weakest one in the room.” (American Gangster)

You know that this quote is bang-on truthful. You know the people that this quote describes. They are the loudest ones in the bar trying hard to be popular. They are the loudest of critics voicing their displeasure at your choice of new car. They will insult you – but say it’s just in fun. They will attempt to bring others on-side to create an “us versus them” situation. They brag about their expensive clothes and lifestyle. They attempt to make you wrong when they themselves don’t understand.

You have worked with people like this. They are the know-it-alls in the room. They poo-poo everyone else’s ideas. They pretend that they work with idiots and attempt to control the work of the group. They think themselves superior and believe that no one else is capable of contributing anything of meaning to a project. No one wants to work with them because they shoot down the ideas of their co-workers. They hate to be challenged. They dislike opposing ideas.

But the truth is the loudest one in the room is usually the weakest one in the room. Real confidence requires no proof so those with confidence don’t feel the need to prove themselves. People who feel the need to be loud usually need the attention focused on themselves. Attention seekers have low self-image and a big ego as their defense. They compensate for low self-image by looking for attention to fill them up inside. They outwardly point out your faults so that the attention is not focused on their own. By tearing you down, they believe that they somehow elevate themselves. That is the classic definition of the workplace bully. Bullies hate to be found out.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Every organization needs confident leaders: those with a good sense of self-worth. Sending the loudest person to management training only feeds their desire for superiority. Sending the loudest person to management training only creates tyrants for managers.

Bullies need to be challenged by the rest of the staff. In group projects, outvote the tyrant in every opportunity. Calmly and confidently challenge every insult immediately. Refuse to back down from a bully’s barbs because deep down, bullies are cowards who use insults to make you feel inferior.

The loudest person in the room has a need to be the loudest person in the room. Take that power away from the bully and he or she will either leave on their own or be labeled as a non-team player and be removed by management as not being a good fit.

The Service-Leadership Attitude™ says that you, as a leader, give people a reason to follow. Fear is not a reason to follow. Bullies use fear as a tool to deflect criticism on themselves. Leaders use inspiration and ideas to give people a reason to follow. Bullying, tyranny and conflict will sink an organization quickly. Leadership has difficulty surviving in this environment. That's why bullies need to be fired - even at the cost of expensive legal bills.

Careless Is Careless

On her fifteenth birthday, my daughter asked me if I would buy her a car on her sixteenth birthday. After I picked myself up off of the floor from laughing, she looked at me and said, “But Dad, lots of my friends have parents who buy them cars.”

“I know Honey,” I replied with caring. “I’ve seen those cars in the parking lot at your school. Most of them really aren’t looked after at all. It’s what happens when people don’t earn their possessions. Look, I’ll pay for your schooling after high school, but I’m not buying you toys. If you want a car, you’ll have to go out and earn it.”

And she did – around seven thousand dollars over the next year. She paid cash for her first car – a real money pit that depleted her savings rather quickly. It was a huge life-lesson for her.

Recently, I spoke to a group of natural gas installers. The focus of my presentation was “Safety Attitude.” Although the numbers of safety incidents as it pertains to working with natural gas were within an acceptable range, the numbers of incidents while driving was up – numbers that the management team wanted brought back down.

Several of the workers in attendance were awarded with five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five year safe driving awards. But not all of the workers received awards. So it begged the question: what separates a safe driver from a careless driver? My answer is attitude.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: A person who is careless with other things in his or her life will be careless behind the wheel. Careless is careless. You won’t find a person who is careful and meticulous with his or her own personal possessions and be careless behind the wheel of a company vehicle. Carelessness is a personality trait. Safety is an attitude.

Carelessness transcends all things in your life – including driving. If you’re careless and regularly lose your safety equipment, you will be careless behind the wheel. If you’re careless in ensuring that the quality of your work is your best effort always, you’ll be careless behind the wheel. If you’re careless about where you leave your car keys, you’ll be just as careless behind the wheel.

Watch how people treat a rental car and you’ll see similarities in how they drive a company vehicle. When you see a vehicle that is filled with fast-food bags, needs a wash (for a long time) or has several dings or fender crunches, you’ll see that same person being careless while driving the company vehicle.

There’s a sense of ownership and pride that comes with achieving something. When you are personally invested and earn your new car instead of just having it handed to you, you treat that new possession with a little more respect. If you won’t secure your own personal belongings, your own vehicle or your quality of work, you won’t really care about how you drive. It’s simple really. How you do one thing is how you do everything.

If you’re a department supervisor, Health and Safety manager or the CEO and you are considering bestowing a company vehicle on an employee, here’s the simple way to find out whether or not the company vehicle you are about to give to an employee will be treated with respect. Check out that employee’s own vehicle first. If it’s a mess – your vehicle will end up the same way before long. And if your vehicle ends up being a mess, so will the safe-driving record of that employee. How you do one thing is how you do everything. Careless is careless.

So how’s your driving? I’ll bet it’s about the same as your work quality, your own car or your relationships. If it’s messy elsewhere, it’s messy on the road.

The Résumé Is Dead

What is a résumé? It’s nothing more than a collection of things you’ve done in your work life – a sort-of “eulogy” at work. Oh sure, it may also point out some skills that you were allowed to use while on the job but it really gives no indication of your aptitude, your natural talents nor your values and attitudes toward the work world.

Michael Bloomberg, NYC Mayor, once said, “You are not paid for what you have done in the past. You are paid for what you’re about to do in the future.”

Isn’t it interesting that you (boss or HR professional) decide who you want to interview is based purely on what your candidate may have done in the past – not what they are about to do in the future.

Why is the résumé dead?

• There is no indication from a résumé of what heights could have possibly been reached – only what someone has been given the opportunity to do.
• There is no indication from a résumé of what a candidate is capable of learning – only what they have learned in the past, what school they graduated from and what pieces of paper (degrees) they may hold (relevant or not).
• There is no indication from a résumé that a particular candidate could be the next great leader for your organization – especially if never given the opportunity to lead.
• There is no indication from a résumé of how brilliant a mind may be when hidden behind average grades and average positions in an organization – especially if the candidate was kept down by a tyrant boss.
• There is no indication from a résumé of values and ethics being paramount – especially if only ever given a lowly entry-level position and no opportunity to provide input.
• There is no indication from a résumé that a candidate is a decent human being – credentials on a wall don’t make you decent.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: The workforce is changing. Baby Boomers are retiring and Gen Y is here to stay. In a few years, Gen Y will be taking over management positions and leadership roles and the organizational structure that we know today will be dead – along with the résumé.

The great leaders of tomorrow and those who will change the world, including your organization, will be the people with ideas and those who will challenge the standard workforce strategy. They won’t be hired because of their résumés. And as long as you continue to believe that the résumé is the best way to find a suitable candidate to fill a position, you will be eating the dust of the organizations who have found a way to attract people with brains, ideas, values, ethics and a shared-effort philosophy. These people are found in chat rooms, blogging, e-networking, texting and hanging out with those of like-mind.

Who do you think would bring your organization a higher degree of greatness: a person looking for a job (armed with a résumé) or one who is already sharing ideas with others (armed with a Blog, followers and a huge network)? Which of the two choices do you think would give you better results in the future?

The résumé is dead.

Listen Up

“If you think the person behind the counter is dumber than you, you’ll go out of your way to prove it. But what if he’s not? Can you see a very frustrating day coming for you? But if you believe the person behind the counter may offer you an amusing story to tell, you’ll go looking for that. In over twelve years, since I started doing this, I’ve yet to find a day where I didn’t have an amusing story to tell at the end of it.”

That’s a direct quote from my Attitude Adjustment keynote presentation. I go looking for the amusing stories and I usually find them. This was not one of those days.

I was searching for a shirt. I don’t like ties. I don’t understand ties. In fact, I think a tie is just a fancy noose (perhaps I need to change my attitude on that one but perhaps not). So, instead of “expressing my individuality” through a tie, I wear an open-collared shirt – usually something that makes a statement and is normally one-of-a-kind. I have consulted with some very good clothiers and found a look that feels comfortable for me and yet is not what everyone else is wearing.

I entered the men's wear store where I encountered Earl, the sales clerk. Earl wore the requisite sport jacket, dress pants, patterned dress shirt and a tie. I told him I was looking for a shirt that was unique, one-of-a-kind, not boring, not white nor any shade of red or purple (I look very pink wearing reds and purples) … oh, and I don’t wear a tie.

He became indignant and began to challenge me on not looking like everyone else. He chastised me by explaining that a tie expresses my individuality.

“Not if everyone else is wearing one,” I added.

He argued with me, in a sort of polite way. In essence, he was telling me that he knew better than me what I should be wearing. His condescending attitude was beginning to become irritating.

He pulled down a pure white shirt, a purple shirt and a couple of shirts with red running through them and asked if this is what I was looking for. In my mind, I couldn’t help but think that he didn’t hear a word I said, so I reiterated my “non-negotiables.”

Shirt after shirt came out, each looking just like the last with small variations. They all began to look the same. The colors were boring. The styles were boring and honestly, this experience was becoming boring. So I left.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Do you attempt to push your personal tastes on your clients or do you consult with them? If you’re a manager, do you already know more than your people or is there an opportunity for them to teach you something? How often do you actually just sit and listen to your customers’ wants, your co-workers ideas or your spouse’s dreams?

The art of listening isn’t really all that complicated. It simply requires you to clear your head of all of your pre-supposed fixes, opinions and beliefs that you know better than they. Better that you come off as compassionate more than arrogant.

Every single person you come in contact with can teach you something so long as you trash the belief that you already know everything. You don’t know everything. I don’t know everything. I especially don’t know everything about selling clothes but I do know what I like to wear. Maybe cut me some slack that I have a handle on dressing myself and keep the opinions to yourself. Maybe you’ll be more successful if you listen to what I want before you tell me what I need. Listen. Did you hear me?

Leadership Versus Management

Question Posed This Week:

 

If everyone seems to know what leadership is when they see it, why do most organizations seem to bewail lack of leadership continuously, and why is there an apparent huge dearth of leadership at the top of most corporations these days?

 

Is it?
a) Accident of birth? Leaders are born not made?
b) Demographics? Maybe there is only one leader for every 1000 managers?
c) Training? Do our education systems train managers rather than leaders?
d) Selection? Maybe true leaders don't get selected in favour of managers or get screened out, or just maybe are not recognized as leaders?
e) Desire? Maybe folks just don't want to lead even if they have the skills & aptitude?

 

My answer:
Sorry, I don't buy into the belief that Leaders are born. Anyone can become a leader of any organization at any time. All that is required is a firm commitment to better oneself at every turn, acknowledging every foible and be willing to accept it and to continuously make improvements – real lasting improvements in becoming a better, more decent human being.

 

The more we read, the more we learn, the more personal discovery seminars (not that Meyers-Briggs or DISC fluff – a twenty-minute personality assessment which only explains why you are the way you are but not any real tools to change it) from real hardcore, locked-away for weeks at a time personal development journeys that we can attend, the more work we do on ourselves the more we become real.

 

Leadership must be authentic. In order to be authentic, a leader must be prepared to show all of him or herself - warts and all. Leadership comes from confidence. Real confidence requires no proof (think about that statement until you get it).

 

Management, however, can be done by anyone (I didn't say quality management). That's why it would be easier and more expedient to send someone to management school instead of self-discovery programs. It's quicker. It's cheaper. It doesn't remove the person from the workplace as long. And if he or she doesn't work out, the company can start again and send someone else.

 

You can be a jerk most of your life but it's in the "why" of being a jerk that we can discover many of our subconscious driving needs. Once we figure out what makes us tick, we can find more appropriate avenues to realize those needs.

 

Until organizations around the world figure out that you can't send a jerk to manager's school and expect him to become a leader, we'll keep ending up with the same old - same old. Leaders CAN be made. But they have to want to go out and get it. And it's hard work - I mean HARD work. Most people don't want to do the work. That's why there are so few leaders.

 

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: If you need to have power and control – then you will only ever be a manager. If you want to help people become better, more proficient and help them find meaning in their work – then you are a leader.

 

If you need to demand respect – you will only ever be a manager. If you give respect knowing deep down that you get what you give, then you are a leader.

 

If you believe that your people serve you – you will only ever be a manager. If you believe that you are, in fact, in service to your people – you serve them - and that you work WITH them – then you are a leader.

 

You see, Leadership is an Attitude. Management is a position.
Service is an Attitude. Customer Service is a department.
Safety is an Attitude. Occupational Health & Safety is a program.
Engagement is an Attitude. Work is a job.

 

The moment you give up the NEED to be in control is the moment you stop being a manager and start being a leader. Managers control. Leaders inspire.

Employee Engagement Free E-Book

David Zinger from the Employee Engagement Network released a free e-book this morning, 52 Powerful Sentences of Employee Engagement Advice. I am one of the 52 contributing members of the network.

 

David Zinger writes, "With 52 contributions, you could read a different sentence each week in 2009 and work at applying the advice to your organization each week. Imagine how much stronger employee engagement would be in your organization if you did this each week! Follow our authors’ suggestions or create a sentence of your own."

 

Click here to get the PDF e-book for yourself. http://www.davidzinger.com/wp-content/uploads/free-e-book-52-sentences-of-employee-engagement-advice.pdf

 

If you would like to join the Network or simply read the posts, go to http://www.employeeengagement.ning.com.

 

Step-Aside Attitude Adjustment

So it’s the Christmas season. “Tis the season of giving. And as we all trundle through the malls during this busy gift-buying season, what better gift to give to your fellow man than a little courtesy.

 

This column was inspired by stand-up comedian John Pinette’s “Get Out Of The Line.”

 

This is the “Step-Aside” Christmas Courtesy Attitude Adjustment.

 

When you encounter a friend you just “have” to spend a little time with chit-chatting at the mall, remember you’re not the only customers in the building. Take your shopping carts and yourselves and step aside to allow other shoppers to not be impeded. The hallways are crowded enough without having to circumvent people who don’t care that they’re in the way of others.

 

As you try to find that perfect parking spot at the mall, you know, the one you circle like sharks in the blood-infested water, remember that you’re driving slowly. Step aside and let the other cars find a spot further down the row.

 

Has all that shopping got you a little hungry? When you get to the front of the line at your favorite restaurant at the Food Court, if you’re not ready to order (I can’t imagine what you were doing in line that you didn’t think to be ready to order), step aside and let someone who is ready to order do so.

 

Got your shopping cart full at the grocery store and the person behind you has just a few items? Step aside and let the lesser items customer go ahead (This especially applies at the $300 Store – you know – Costco? Honestly, when’s the last time you spent less than three hundred bucks there?)

 

When your full order of groceries has been bagged and the total comes up, please don’t suddenly remember that you have a coupon “somewhere.” Please be ready or step aside.

 

Feeling frustrated because the staff of the store can’t seem to comprehend simple customer service? Don’t lose your mind about it. Step aside, cool off and let this season be a happy one – it’s your choice after all.

 

Feeling less than your best with customers as you work in the stores at this busy time of year? Don’t even think you’re entitled to lose your patience with customers. Step aside. Cool off. Remember that everyone’s a little nuts this time of year. Trust me; you’ll be looking for someone to talk to in January. Don’t ruin it for yourself.

 

Are you a boss and conduct yourself as though being the boss is more important than serving the customer? Step aside and let someone who understands that “revenue” and “expense” are on opposite sides of the balance sheet. Step aside until you fully comprehend which side of the sheet your position is on.

 

Do you see that Salvation Army kettle right in front of you? This is the only time you DON’T step aside. Drop a few bucks in the kettle. The Sally Ann does good work. Just because there won’t be a gift tag with your name on it doesn’t mean your gift won’t make a difference in someone else’s world.

 

And on Christmas morning, when it’s time to open gifts, remember it’s not all about you. Step aside and let everyone else have their moment of sheer joy and wonder. Holiday time is for everyone.

 

Playing For Change

My friend and mentor, Bobby Ng, of The Pursuit Of Excellence personal development courses based out of Edmonton, sent me a link to an astonishing video today. This video is just a small sampling of a much larger project called Playing For Change. The video is part of the documentary that has traveled around the world collecting video of street musicians playing songs then piecing them together to form an outstanding musical experience from around the world.

 

From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes the first of many "songs around the world" being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic Stand By Me  by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it traveled the globe. This and other songs such as "One Love" will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year.

Sign up at www.playingforchange.com for updates and exclusive content. Join the Movement to help build schools, connect students, and inspire communities in need through music.

 

Check out the video, check out their web site and then try to tell me that isn't a project that will change your attitude that we are all connected.

Bringing Outsiders In

You are, no doubt, familiar with the “swear jar:” putting money in a jar for every time you use a curse word? Rarely does anyone voluntarily contribute to the jar without being caught uttering a profanity. It requires a witness to make the other party cough up the cash. A contribution to the jar usually requires a little teasing or at least some chiding before the guilty party will ‘fess up. Once admitted, the realization is usually followed by another curse word at being caught and a double fine is issued.

When my daughter was growing up we had a jar in the house called the “I can’t” jar. Every time she uttered the words “I can’t,” she would contribute to the jar. I wanted to instill the lesson that she can - whatever she wanted to do she could do. The jar didn’t last long.

I was asked this week, while being interviewed for an article in Safe Supervisor magazine, how to bring “safety cowboys,” those who won’t get with the program by ignoring safety procedures, not wearing their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) or doing things they way they’ve always done them because they haven’t been hurt yet, into the fold and getting with the program. My answer was based on the “swear jar” concept.

Instilling a peer-patrolled, PPE-Check program that allows members of the work-site crew to monitor each other would be more beneficial than a top-down, supervisor-led program. Any member of the crew flagrantly flaunting the safety procedures could be assessed a fine of either a fixed cost (for example $20) or have the offender immediately jump into a vehicle and run to purchase a round of coffees for the rest of the crew at the offenders cost.

Currently, many job sites workers watch for the supervisor’s vehicle to approach and yell out a warning to the workers to “safety up” because the supervisor is on the way. This, unfortunately, makes the one person responsible for the safety of the crew the bad guy (Is the one person who actually cares that everyone goes home safely really the bad guy?). Whereas, the peer-patrolled program ensures that the workers are abiding by the rules at all times by being able to issue a fine to their fellow workers without the need for a supervisor to issue a warning or consequence.

The workers become judge-and-jury and majority rules in the assessment of a fine. Instantaneous gratification to those abiding by the rules at the expense of those who break the rules forces those who wish to operate outside of the rules to get in line or pay up.

The threat of teasing or chiding by one’s peers is a far more powerful compliance tool than the top-down philosophy in place in most workplaces. This same program could be applied outside of safety to issues like workplace tardiness, lack of customer service procedures (for example, customers not being acknowledged within a specific timeframe), missed deadlines that may hold up the progress of fellow workers or even an open display of disrespect for the workplace, the employer or one’s fellow workers.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Negativity, flaunting of the rules, not complying with procedures and grumbling are only allowed to foster in the workplace because there is no immediate consequence to the offender – and more importantly, there is no benefit for following procedures. So switch it up. Let managers manage and let the staff, the people who do the job everyday, police themselves. Empowering your people to improve workplace culture themselves encourages people to take ownership of what they do. People engage better when they have some control over what they do and how they do it. Call a brainstorming meeting and throw out an idea like this. Let your people take the idea, develop the mechanics and institute it themselves. You might be able to hide from the boss but it’s pretty tough to hide from your co-workers. And if you’re one of those on the outside refusing to get with the program, well, step up or pay up. If your workplace is fraught with whiners but you’re not one of them, you may never have to buy yourself another coffee ever again.

Cheap Or Safe? You Choose.

Last December, the government of the Province of Quebec passed legislation requiring all drivers in the province to have winter tires on their vehicles or face a fine equivalent to a new set of winter tires. It turns out that 38% of the accidents during winter months in Quebec are caused by the ten percent of the drivers who choose to drive all year on all-season tires. Quebec made the case, based simply on numbers, that in order to lower the number of collisions, lower insurance claims and lower numbers of injuries simply required a conscious decision to prepare oneself for less than optimum driving conditions. If the general public wouldn’t do it voluntarily, then in order to lower those numbers it would have to be mandated.

I made the switch to winter tires about four years ago and swear I will never attempt to drive in winter conditions on all-season tires again. There is a huge difference. In discussions with tire technicians over the years, I learned that all-season tires start to lose their grip at temperatures below 7 degrees Celsius (44 degrees Fahrenheit). Even with seemingly good driving conditions, a thin layer of frost on a road can cause you to lose your road grip and can cause you slide into another vehicle. If you live in any of the Canadian provinces or any of the Northern States, snow, ice and frost is a reality in the winter. Any barrier that comes between the rubber tread on the tire and dry pavement forces a driver to question him or herself while on the road. Any question, even a split-second of insecurity, makes you a worse driver than you would be in ideal driving conditions.

Drivers across Canada, however, are faced with a lack of selection of winter tires this year, some would say due to the new legislation in Quebec. Tires stores across the country are sold out of popular sizes (especially the less expensive tires) but if you look around, you can still find tires in your required size. You may just have to pay a little more.

Do you carry precious cargo in your vehicle (family, kids, etc)? Do you consider yourself to be valuable enough to your company and family to keep yourself safe? Do you possess a little courtesy when it comes to sharing the road with other drivers? How would you feel if your vehicle was damaged and you were hospitalized due to another driver’s decision to forego winter tires when those winter tires could have clearly helped avoid an accident with you? How would you feel if you took the life of someone else by simply trying to save a few bucks?

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Safety is an attitude. You either have the attitude or you don’t. There is no “sort-of” safety attitude. Far too many drivers choose to “cheap-out” when it comes to tires. The fact is that the average passenger car can be outfitted with winter tires for about $100 or less per tire. Let’s work that out. There are about one hundred and fifty days where snow, ice, slush or frost can come into play during the average Canadian winter. That works out to a daily cost of winter tires of about two and a half dollars per day for a set of four tires. Spread that figure over four winter seasons and the cost is just over sixty cents per day. What do you spend daily at Starbucks or Tim Horton’s each day? The truth is, you will have to replace your current tires at some point – especially if you drive all-season tires in the winter as the tread wears faster in colder conditions. But by driving on winter tires in the winter, you extend the life of your summer tires. If your tires are rated for 100,000 kilometers lifetime, then for every mile you drive on winter tires, you extend the life of your summer tires. Do the right thing and save your own life and perhaps the lives of others. Stop being cheap and start being safe.