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Understand that no matter how carefully you plan, periodically you will have to deal with conflict. Whether it be conflict between employees, with a vendor, or with a customer, conflict has a way of uniquely appearing, demanding that we acknowledge and deal with the challenge.

Just as you would not ignore poorly-produced products or inferior job performance, you can’t afford to ignore conflict. While it is unrealistic to think that you can create a conflict-free environment, you can learn more about how to resolve issues so that conflict doesn’t overwhelm you and impact your company’s productivity. With practice, you will become confident in your ability to resolve conflicts that typically arise in the day-to-day operations of an organization.

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This blog entry has been adapted from the July issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)

“He who knows others is learned; He who knows himself is wise.”

- Lao-tzu, Tao te Ching

If you ask an artist what the most difficult subject to paint is, while retaining true likeness, you are likely to get the answer, “Myself.” This is because the most distorted lens we use is the one we view ourselves through. When artists paint themselves, they are likely to look at their features with varying degrees of self-deception. Sometimes the view is more favorable, sometimes it is less favorable.

Artists’ misperceptions or preconceived ideas of themselves can become the ingredients of a masterpiece. Leaders’ misperceptions of themselves can become the ingredients of a nightmare. While this challenge is all too familiar to artists, it is even more imperative that leaders understand their true likeness, and more importantly, how they come across.

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6 Strategies to Develop a Loyal Workforce

When we ask managers how they know that certain employees are not loyal to them, we are sometimes intrigued–and dismayed–with their definition of loyalty.

For some managers, if an employee questions what the manager is doing or trying to accomplish, the manager sees that questioning as obvious evidence of a lack of loyalty. For other managers, if the employee speaks the truth, and the truth is not what the manager cares to promote throughout the organization, the manager perceives that honest communication as showing a lack of loyalty. In another instance, a manager is actually asking employees to lie. The employees who would not lie were described as not being team players. Other managers try to instill fear or use threats in their attempts to breed a loyal workforce. In still another instance, a manager was perplexed that the employee was not loyal because the employee had been given “gifts” along with a promotion and a “big” raise.

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What Separates the Best-of-the-Best Organizations From the Worst-of-the-Worst?

For 20 years, Peter Barron Stark Companies has been a leader in conducting annual employee opinion surveys. We have surveyed over 250 organizations, and our PBS Best-of-the-Best benchmarks (those who rank in the top 25 percent in our employee opinion surveys) are based on nearly 100,000 employees’ opinions. In a recent statistical correlation study, we made some exciting discoveries we are proud to report for the first time. We have identified the specific areas you need to focus on to achieve the same standard of excellence as the Best-of-the-Best organizations—and we have learned the one thing that all organizations in the lowest quartile, the Worst-of-the Worst, have in common—the one area in which your organization must never compromise: Supervision. The higher quality of supervisor or leader that you have, the higher your organizational results and engagement scores will be. (See the Eleven Stupid Things that Managers Do to Mess Up Workplace Excellence.) Although the Best-of-the-Best companies score better on almost every question of the survey, the following categories were unique and statistically significant.

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This blog entry has been adapted from the June issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)

As a leader, you have the ultimate responsibility for your behavior. You are the role model for your team. You are the only person who decides if you will act ethically. When it comes to honesty, respect, fairness, and especially safety, there is no off season.

Being ethical (or unethical) is reflected in everything we do. As a leader, our choices affect not only ourselves, but those working around us as well. It’s easy to make excuses for ourselves and be blinded by our own biases, but our customers, employees and peers are trusting that we are honest and fair individuals. There is no better time than now to re-examine habits and make sure that they are in alignment with this vision.

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The text below is taken from SHRM’s blog entry, Employee Engagement Marathon – Monday Recap, written by David Bowles

A San Diego local, Peter has an impressive resume and clearly lots of experience. He is also a talented and funny speaker who had a full house in the palm of his hands.

His speech was based on what appears to be his proprietary database of 250 companies employing 100,000 people, and which he leverages to make statements about the top 10 factors which bring about employee engagement. He does this by analyzing the top 25% of his database to see what secrets he can wring out of the data.

He started out by looking at the leader vs. manager question, something which our Wednesday speaker, Marcus Buckingham, has also done. Peter doesn’t take the Buckingham approach of splitting these jobs into quite different categories, he sees leaders as a higher level of manager whose qualities lead people to follow them, that being the crucial difference.

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At the SHRM 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Peter and Mary Ellen Slaytor of SmartBrief on Workforce, discuss ways to increase employee engagement which will improve morale, productivity, motivation and retention.

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Hint: It’s Not Money

Slowly but surely, the job market is beginning to improve and unhappy employees will be able to execute their exit strategies soon, if they have not done so already. If your focus over the past few stressful years has shifted from employee engagement to the bottom line, realize that you are not alone and that you can still get back on track.

To get back in the game, you need to take the time to find out what your employees want from their jobs and from you – and it’s usually NOT more money.

In our experience, employees have told us what matters most to them, is the ability to:

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Common Manifestations of Employees’ Anticipation of the Unknown

The past few years have brought many changes to companies, good and bad. Although the economy seems to be turning around, many organizations will still be facing major changes to come, mostly for the best. As a leader, realize that employees react to organizational changes in a variety of ways—some positive and some negative. It is important for managers and supervisors to understand that these reactions are simply a normal part of the process employees go through during periods of change. The following are some typical responses to be aware of:

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Handling talented, but toxic, employees

May 2010 Quest for Workplace Excellence

When you think of the driving force behind the choices of leaders when coaching employees, what emotion comes to mind? Is it appreciation? How about passion? Optimism? For many managers it is those. For some managers, unfortunately, the driving force is fear. Fear of what an employee will say or do if things do not go their way.

These employees who are causing fear in leaders are typically the employees who are the top performers, obtaining great results, but are still managing to leave a path of destruction behind them. They are not pleasant to work with. They throw fits. They threaten to quit. Never are they accountable for their actions, and if they are held accountable, giving the manager the cold shoulder is a common response. However, because of extensive knowledge, experience, etc., they are, or at least they convince others that they are, indispensable. This gives them leverage, and they use their talents to drive fear into their managers by holding them hostage.

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What to expect when you begin to hold employees accountable

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There’s always a fairly good reason to procrastinate when giving feedback to a challenging employee. What if the employee pulls an attitude and holds you hostage? What if the employee gets hurt feelings and quits? What if the employee stops talking to you? Or, perhaps, there’s just no time. Be honest, there’s no time because you’re typically spending way too much time cleaning up the messes left by your challenging employee!

During our twenty years in the business, we’ve heard hundreds of great excuses for not dealing with performance issues. When managers get down to the real reason for procrastinating when giving feedback, they often admit to either not knowing how to give feedback, or lack confidence in their ability to provide feedback that will motivate the employee to improve. While there are many coaching models, perhaps the simplest approach is to focus on helping the employee develop their skills to achieve optimum performance.

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10 Steps to Negotiating a Pay Raise

Several times a year, participants will ask us, “Do you have any tips for asking for a raise?” Any negotiation regarding a sensitive issue like a raise can be difficult to negotiate. It is difficult because if your boss agrees to the raise, it almost always has multiple implications like an impact to her budget or creating a situation where other employees feel they are also entitled to a raise. For you, not getting the raise could ultimately impact your ability to live in the style you envision or have become accustomed to living. Asking for a raise can also be a risk. Not asking for a raise can carry a personal price. So, if you are going to tackle this topic, you need a plan. The following 10 tips will help you in maximizing your chances of obtaining a raise.

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We often train clients’ employees in the art of customer service, but, up until recently, we have not touched on the power of Social Networking as it relates to creating highly satisfied, loyal customers. Our goal is to share with you information that will raise your awareness about the power of Social Networking when it comes to customer service.

It has been predicted that Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are the main sources where people will soon be getting all their news from. Recently, we realized that this is where the NEWS gets their news from. Shortly after we felt the 7.2 Easter earthquake here in San Diego, we turned the television to CNN to see if they had any reports on the magnitude, central location, etc. After only three minutes had passed, CNN reported on the earthquake, saying that they heard about it through users’ updates on Twitter.com. Then they presented a live screen cast of Twitter user’s comments on the event which were coming in by the hundreds every few seconds. Twitter informed thousands of people, including major national news stations, before the USGS was able to.

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This blog is based off of April 2010′s Quest Article which outlines new trends in customer service.

Something is changing our society and our businesses, no matter how we feel about it. Whether we embrace it with open arms, or deny it, Social Networking sites like Yelp.com, Twitter.com and Facebook.com, (just to name a few) are changing the way we live our lives and, unavoidably, are changing some of the ways we run our businesses.

Before the Internet explosion, customer service rants and raves (but, let’s face it, mostly rants) were passed on through word of mouth, to a handful of the customer’s friends via phone conversations or in-person gatherings. Sometimes the company heard about the rants and raves through a letter or a phone call through which the customer had to press several different buttons to speak to the right person. Many disgruntled customers simply gave up and the company remained clueless.

Today, because of the Internet and the popularity of Social Networking sites, customer reviews can be sent to hundreds of people almost instantly. This should give organizations something to think about, because, most likely, customers’ experiences with your organization can be read about by hundreds of people including current and potential customers. Suddenly, the power has shifted from the hands of a few high level executives to the fingertips of blog owners, and Social Networking site users. This is why great customer service is paramount, especially today. With sites such as Yelp, Twitter and Facebook and even Google Maps, customers can immediately share their experiences, good and bad, with hundreds of people.

Online customer reviews can be wonderful, but they can also be startling. If you approach the situation correctly, you can get Social Networking on your side.

As a way to communicate with their customers, many companies have even created their own profile on popular Social Networking sites. If your company plans on doing so as well, here are a few things to keep in mind about Social Networking in relation to customer service:

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As leaders, we are responsible for making decisions daily. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), we don’t make our decisions alone. Over time, most of us have learned that the best decisions involve input from others. We’ve also learned that getting others involved takes more time than making the decision on our own. And, time is something none of us has in excess. So, gaining confidence and skills in the art of leading a group to consensus will ultimately save time, plus enhance your reputation as an effective decision maker.

Our experience has proven that the best way to reach a collective decision is by leading the group to consensus. When consensus isn’t used and management dictates the decision without employee input, people feel “talked at” rather than “talked to” and may even feel manipulated. If we involve people to a point, but ultimately vote to determine our course of action, we’ll end up with winners and losers. The losers will find it difficult to get excited about an action they did not vote for. Consensus, however, allows us to ultimately end up with a decision that can be supported by the entire group. While participants may conclude that the final decision is not their personal favorite, they agree that they can support the decision for the good of the organization.

Following these seven tips can help you effectively lead a diverse group of participants to consensus:

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Strategies for Uniting Cross-Departmental Teams

The stress of the economy has had a negative impact on organizations and has hampered the ability of employees to work cross-departmentally or divisionally as one team. In many cases, employees are working harder, faster and having just enough time to focus on their own survival. They don’t have the time to make communication with other team members a priority.

Recently, we have worked with several clients that are struggling with cross-departmental teamwork. We like to describe this phenomenon as misidentifying the enemy. The cross-departmental teams get into turf wars and start battling each other instead of working together to achieve shared objectives liked increased revenue, or improved customer service.

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10 Tips for a More Empowered Workforce

Empowerment is one of the most valuable tools a manager has in achieving positive results and maintaining a motivated workforce. Experiment with these ten tips to discover their effectiveness with your employees.

1. Trust people. The tap root of empowerment is trust. If you do not trust employees, it is impossible to empower them. Demonstrate confidence in people’s abilities and watch them rise to meet your expectations.

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Employees who feel a sense of ownership over their work and its results can help bring your organization through tough times.

As we venture into the new decade, the challenges of successfully competing in today’s and tomorrow’s economy continue to mount. Companies have responded by restructuring, downsizing, and experimenting. Regardless of their approach, more and more companies realize the importance of a workforce ready to commit to giving its very best.

In the good old days, accountability was not an issue. People came to work to do their job under the direction of the boss.” Jobs well done were rewarded with a paycheck. People not committed to doing the job up to standard were simply let go. Although the old command-and-control style of leadership had its advantages, the changing values of today’s workforce and the increasing complexity of work demands that leaders create an environment that values and requires innovation and self-responsibility on the part of the employee.

So, how do you create an accountable culture? The following six concepts will help you achieve this goal.

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