Peter Barron Stark Companies » Leadership

Loyalty-Based Leadership

Peter Stark — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:07:39 +0000

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.

From the other side, we encountered employees who stated that their managers told them that associating with certain individuals or departments in the organization was showing a lack of loyalty to their own manager.

In each of these instances, we know one thing for certain. Asking employees to demonstrate loyalty through actions that are wrong or clearly inappropriate will not build loyalty. Instead, it is likely to erode the relationship between the manager and the employee.

If we go back to our basic definition of leadership (“leaders are those who people willingly follow”), then using the types of strategies we mentioned results in a leadership foundation built on quicksand. As the outside pressures increase, these managers find their leadership foundation crumbling…and washing out to sea.

If these strategies are ineffective, what will work to develop employees who become increasingly loyal to their leader? We must begin by defining loyalty. According to Webster’s Dictionary, loyalty means “unswerving in allegiance; faithful to a cause, ideal, person, or custom.” The United States Marines define loyalty as “the love of the Corps at all costs.”

Ultimately, true loyalty from an employee comes when the manager is able to build a relationship with the employee based upon deep trust. This means that a manager may perceive that he or she has loyalty, but without the employee feeling a bond of trust, the two of them will never have true loyalty.

We have seen great leaders utilize these following six strategies to develop a loyal workforce.

Clarify your values. As a manager, what do you value? Do you value honesty? Or, do you prefer employees who will be deceptive or dishonest if that is what it takes to make you look good in the eyes of others? When managers endorse an employee’s loyalty over true honesty, it is obvious that the manager is operating on a self-centered value system. This value system is geared to the individual’s success rather than to the best for the employees in the organization.
Trust your people. When managers do not trust their subordinates, they send out all sorts of signals. Not passing along significant responsibilities and withholding important information from employees are two signals that convey a lack of confidence in and commitment to your employees. When this occurs, employees perceive that they are not meaningful to the success of the department. They sense that their manager is not to be trusted. Without trust, there can be no true loyalty.
Encourage people to question or challenge you. When employees care enough to ask managers tough questions, it provides managers with an opportunity to provide honest feedback. Ask employees questions. Ask them about their understanding of the topic being discussed. For example, a manager might ask an employee, “What happens if we do change? And, what will happen if we do not change?” Managers who dislike being challenged are managers who lack confidence in their ability to do the job. Managers who enjoy challenges from employees recognize that working through the difficulties and questions presents opportunities to develop employees who are even more loyal than employees who never question anything.
Care about the employee first as an individual, then as an employee. Great leaders know that when they care about employees as people first, then as employees, many positive things happen. One of them is a loyal workforce. A manager sent an employee home who was not feeling well on a day when the entire office was swamped with projects and deadlines. The employee did not want to place a heavier burden on the other remaining employees by going home. But the manager stated, “The most important thing is your health. We can figure out how to accomplish everything else.” This sent out a clear message that the individual was more important than the department’s immediate workload.
Value the employee as a “gift” rather than as a “commodity.” When an employee knows that he or she is really valued, and that you believe the employee makes a positive difference, you will find stronger bonds of loyalty. In contrast, if employees sense that you only care that a warm body fills a particular position, that it does not matter who does the work, they will feel like a commodity. Leaders who value each employee and who also recognize each one as contributing a unique “gift” evoke stronger bonds of loyalty from employees.
Be honest. Being honest builds the trust level between manager and employee, especially when it costs the manager something to be honest. For example, a manager tells the team that the company is talking about a pending layoff due to lack of business. Having the courage to deliver this unwelcome news demonstrates an attitude of genuine caring. “I care enough about you to be honest and to give you what information I currently have regarding company decisions.” Managers who are consistently honest with employees, even when it costs them something to be honest, will build a team of loyal employees.

Being a manager today is tougher than ever before. Today’s managers are faced with challenges unheard of fifty years ago. To doubt the loyalty of those you supervise doesn’t need to be added to your list of pressures.

Implement these six strategies to build a loyal team. And then, as you lead, your team will be there with you, willingly offering their support and their contributions–and their loyalty.

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How to Become an Employer of Choice

Peter Stark — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:30:41 +0000

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.

COMMUNICATION

The PBS Best-of-the-Best companies have better communication— in both quantity and quality. This increased communication creates a stronger relationship between the management team and employees, who perceive that management is honest with them. Our research shows the top companies are better at communicating in the areas of purpose, strategic direction, expectations and corporate goals. The communication in each of these organizations focuses on ensuring that employees have the information they need to do their jobs, help the company achieve its goals, and understand what the organization has accomplished in relationship to its goals.

COMMITMENT TO QUALITY AND SERVICE

The second category in which the Best-of-the-Best companies excel is their commitment to producing high-quality products and delivering exceptional customer service. Successful companies focus on continuous improvement and are skilled at identifying problems and handling them in the early stages. In these organizations, employees are encouraged to take the initiative to improve the quality of their products and services. Nearly every one of the organizations in the PBS Best-of-the- Best benchmark does some type of ongoing customer satisfaction survey to measure the company’s quality and service from the customers’ perspective. Research actually demonstrates that there is a greater opportunity to build customer loyalty when a customer has a problem that is resolved than if the customer never had a problem to begin with. Service and product problems are not the real issue. How an organization responds to problems is what makes the great service providers stand out.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Finally, the Best-of-the-Best organizations separate themselves from the rest by managing performance and holding people accountable. The top companies are better at setting clear expectations for employees.When an employee fails to meet expectations, they are better at coaching that employee; putting a performance management plan in place; providing training if needed; and conducting thorough, accurate, on-time performance reviews. If none of these techniques works, the Best-of-the-Best are quick to share the low-performing employee with a competitor—and allow that employee to actively undermine the competitor’s strategic plan!

Failing to actively manage performance and hold all employees accountable leads to low morale. In our training programs, we love to ask the question, “Can nice leaders have departments with low morale?” The answer is, Absolutely! In fact, many “nice” leaders shy away from performance problems because they do not want to be perceived as too harsh. So they do nothing and simply hope that the problem employee’s performance will improve. The reality is that an employee’s performance seldom improves without some type of intervention. When an employee is not doing what he or she is supposed to do and the manager does not quickly deal with the issue, morale plummets and everyone on the team loses respect for the manager.

UNIQUE QUALITY OF THE WORST-OF-THE-WORST: POOR SUPERVISION

The only category that is truly unique to each of the companies in the lowest quartile of the PBS benchmark is low scores for supervisors. If there was ever a reason to train supervisors and hold them accountable for building a solid relationship with employees and achieving corporate results, the desire to stay out of the Worst-of-the-Worst category should be it!

If you are a CEO or a human resources leader, you have probably experienced organizational problems caused by a poor manager. One week you are trying to get this manager to complete the department’s performance reviews or document an employee’s poor performance. Another week you find yourself refereeing a dispute between the same manager and a peer in your organization. You regularly get complaints from employees that this person does not communicate respectfully with others. And he or she always has an excuse for failing to meet company goals. The result is a department with low productivity, low morale and high turnover.

Remember, employees may join your organization simply because they want a job or you have offered them more money, but they leave your company because they are unhappy with their immediate supervisor. The learning point: It is difficult to be one of the Best-of-the-Best organizations if you don’t have strong supervisors who are accountable for their performance.

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Leadership Ethics: Do you Walk your Talk?

Peter Stark — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:38:42 +0000

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.

Let’s start with a mini-self assessment. In the past year, have I:

Failed to admit a mistake I made?
Let someone else take responsibility for my mistake?
Accomplished personal business on company time?
Used company tools or resources for my personal needs?
Engaged in talking negatively about the company or management?
Gossiped?
Violated someone’s confidentiality?
Sent emails to a coworker that would be an embarrassment if the boss found out?
Ignored a company policy?
Told a degrading joke about race, culture or gender?
Failed to share information that another team member needed?
Been less than completely truthful on an expense account, mileage report or time sheet?
Accepted a gift that violated company policy?
Knowingly delivered an inferior product to make a sale or meet a deadline?
Manipulated the truth to complete a goal?

Self-evaluation is the first step. Taking action is the second. So, what are the guidelines for always making ethical decisions and doing the right thing?

Respect Everyone

Begin with respect. Respect for everyone, whether they’re your manager, your peer, your employee, your customer or your vendor. Treating everyone with the same degree of dignity, regardless of their position, speaks volumes about your character. If ever questioned regarding an action taken or a decision made, you will benefit from the support and allegiance of those whom you have treated respectfully over the years.

Accept Full Responsibility

Take complete ownership of your actions. Hold yourself accountable for the quality within your area of influence and for using resources legally, efficiently and properly for business purposes. Ensure that you are pulling your fair share of the workload. Taking responsibility isn’t just the ethical thing to do, it’s also best for the bottom line.

Expect Ethical Outcomes

While conducting a goal setting seminar, we instructed participants that the key to goal setting success is to do whatever it takes to achieve the desired outcome. An attorney in the group corrected us by saying, “Do whatever it takes, legally, ethically and morally to achieve the result.” We agree. Obviously, you are expected to achieve results; however, in your quest you must never jeopardize your integrity or compromise your company by making an unethical decision. Rationalizing that “the end justifies the means” cannot be an excuse for being unethical.

Quit Blaming Others

There is no “perfect” organization. Things go wrong. Sometimes things go very wrong. Assigning blame to others is counterproductive; it creates a culture of defensiveness. When things go awry, muster the courage to say, “What went wrong?” “How are we going to fix it?” “What will we do differently next time?” Keep the focus on solving the immediate crisis and proceeding proactively to assure the problem is not repeated.

By eliminating blame, you do not resort to using excuses which amount to taking the easy way out. Here are some of the most common:

It’s policy, but no one follows policy
Who cares? I’ll just do it this one time
It’s a huge potential sale. What they don’t know won’t hurt them
Everyone does it here
My boss just looks the other way
It’s a huge company. They’ll never miss it
I work long hours and don’t get paid overtime. Doing personal business on company time compensates me for my time
We don’t have the time to make it right. Send it anyway

As you know, making the right decision isn’t always easy. One CEO who knows and demonstrates the importance of making ethical decisions is Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. He issued the following apology after Amazon automatically deleted copies of the novel 1984 that were illegally sold on the Kindle:

Notice that he did not give an apology along the lines of, “I’m sorry that [insert name of employee, executive or other scapegoat here] did this, I had no idea.” He took the blame even though he may or may not have been the one to initiate the automatic deletion of the novels. It doesn’t matter who made that decision. The leader handled it gracefully and the response was positive. We highly suggest taking a look at the responses to his apology: people were very understanding and also very surprised at his sincerity.

Take a minute to reflect on your role as an ethical leader. Congratulate yourself for walking the talk when you have done so. On those occasions where you have been less than a stellar example, commit to having the courage to being above reproach the next time.

Finally, if you still have questions about what is or isn’t ethical, we provide one last assessment: How would I feel if everyone at my company knew I’d done (or not done) this?

Is what I am doing legal?
Am I following company policy?
How would I feel if someone did this to me?
What would Mom think if she knew I’d done this?
What is my conscience telling me about my behavior?
Would I want to read about my actions in the newspaper?
What would Mother Theresa, Abraham Lincoln or Ghandi think about my actions?

These practical tests can help you determine the rightness or wrongness of your actions. Remember, making ethical decisions is part of everything you do, everyday, every time. As Albert Einstein said, “Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.”

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Synopsis of Peter Stark’s “Engaged!” Presentation at SHRM10

Peter Stark — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:45:11 +0000

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.

His database yielded a list of engagement factors which is very familiar to those of us who have worked in this business but worth repeating:

Creating a vision with clear goals. One that comes form the heart, is unique to the organization and is radical and competitive.
Communication (especially the hard things like goals)
Seeking the right people for the right jobs
Cross-department teamwork (not just within department, that’s too easy)
Recognizing and rewarding excellence
Making accountability and performance count (the need for honest reviews)
Making sure very employee can learn and grow
Problems are no problem! (an attitude that says “we can handle things”)
Making it “all about the customer”

It’s a good list…and he had an interesting saying from John Maxwell: “if you think your job’s purpose is to make you happy, you should be a clown”. Not sure all the “happiness at work” fans would agree!

Peter was solid in his findings, though, and well worth the time spent.

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Increase Employee Engagement: SHRM10 Interview with ‘SmartBrief on Workforce’

Peter Stark — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:19:42 +0000

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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What Matters Most to Employees?

Peter Stark — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:33:36 +0000

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:

Learn and grow in their jobs
Do work that is challenging and meaningful
Work with good people
Feel like they are a valued team member
Work with good bosses
Be recognized for their contributions
Be autonomous and feel in control of the work
Have flexibility in their hours and dress

Consistently coming in towards the bottom of employee-ranked lists is “fair pay and benefits.” What’s exciting about this list is that while we may have little control over their pay, we have a high degree of control over what employees say really matters and will keep them on the job.

Make Retention an Organizational Commitment
Employee retention is critical to your organization’s success. Know your employees and their values. Don’t just assume you know. Ask and listen carefully to the responses. If you’re not sure, conduct a survey. Once you’ve identified important retention factors, take actions as a management team that support your employees, both professionally and personally.
Create an Exciting Environment
Focus on keeping the tempo up. Get to know what work excites them. Give more opportunities to do challenging work. Delegate something meaningful. Provide training. Get people involved in determining the team’s vision and setting goals. Be both the coach and cheerleader!
Remember, People Come First
Today’s workforce values a balance between work and life. Acknowledge people as unique contributors and value their time away from work. Entertain flex schedules and allow for telecommuting. When possible, provide comp time after an extensive project. Try to promote a happy, productive, stress-free environment that acknowledges people have a life beyond work.
Spend More Time Leading and Less Time Managing
Demonstrate your trust by giving employees more opportunities to direct their own time and work. Be open to creative approaches for accomplishing work. Listen to your team and use their input. Serve as a mentor. Model what you want to see. Praise and recognize work and behavior that you want.

Most leaders know what to do, but often become too busy to focus on what employees say matters. But…if you are too busy now to focus on creating an environment that keeps employees, how will you find the time to replace people when they leave?

What matters to your employees?

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Are you a Leader, Manager or Hostage?

Peter Stark — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:42:19 +0000

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.

If you have an employee like this, but still manage to find yourself thinking, “I don’t know what I would do without them,” you may be in treacherous waters. It could be the employee that strolls in late everyday, but is the contact person for your major accounts and seems to know all the customer needs to a “T.” Or maybe it’s the intelligent, but easily angered, employee who has knowledge of complex systems within the company that no one else knows. You are right when you say that you don’t know what you would do without them, because being without them is a scary thought. But it is possible. These employees hold you hostage on purpose and threaten to make you walk the proverbial plank if you do not comply.

It is important to remember what we have said time and time again: the difference between a leader and a manager lies in one word: power. Managers get their power from a title that is based on an organizational chart. Based on a manager’s position, they have the power to tell a certain group of people what to do. A leader may or may not have a formal title and/or position of authority, but they have a relationship with people where others make the decision to follow them. A great question to ask is: if you left your current organization and became a manager in a new organization, would your direct reports follow? Would they still follow you if the salary was the same or a little less? If no one is following you, you are merely taking a walk.

When you don’t do what you should do to hold your direct reports accountable, and you avoid doing so out of fear, you are neither a leader nor a manager: you are a HOSTAGE!

To be a leader, you need to be respected. When an employee holds you hostage, they are showing that they don’t respect you, even though the employee doesn’t come and tell you to your face. A bigger problem is that everyone on your team sees that you don’t hold the deviant employee liable and the rest of the team may begin to lose respect for you.

Here are 10 tips to release your hostage bonds and start down the path to re-claim your position of manager and relationship status of leader.

Lean in and get closer to the employee. Employees who hold their managers hostage effectively do so because they know their manager is hesitant or lacks the confidence to talk to them about the issue. When employees exhibit behaviors that undermine the success of the organization, team or manager, these behaviors need to be addressed in a timely manner.
Don’t manage by hope and hint. When an employee does something they are not supposed to do, tell them exactly what you need them to do differently and when you need them to do it in order to be a successful member of the team.
Utilize the strategy, “notify now, meet later.” If you have let the employee know about the importance of arriving to work on time, the next time they come to work late, say something like, “John, we need to talk about your contributions to the team. I don’t have the time right at the moment but I want to meet with you at 4:00 pm today.” This accomplishes two things. First, it immediately lets the employee know that the behavior is a problem for you. Second, it lets the employee think about the meeting during the day and that, most likely, is a good thing. Last, it allows you time as the manager to carefully think about what you want to say, or the questions you want to ask, in order to gain agreement that there is a problem.
Clear your strategy with your boss and HR. What you don’t want is for the employee to go around you, to your boss and have your boss side with the employee over fear of what the employee might do. When the employee says, “I am going to HR or your boss,” if you have reviewed your strategy and both HR and your boss are on the same page with you, you can look the employee in the eye and say, “Going to HR and/or my boss is a great idea. Would you like me to help you get the meetings set up?”
Follow up. During your meeting to discuss your employee’s accountability, set up the next meeting to review their progress. To ensure that the meeting will happen, be sure to put it into both of your calendars.
Expect the J Curve. When you begin to hold people accountable who resent the fact you are asking them to change their behaviors, many times the relationship gets worse before it improves. For example, prior to meeting with an employee, he communicated with me very little about the progress of his projects (the end of the small curve on the letter J). After I met with him about turning his projects in complete and on time, he stopped communicating with me altogether. (The relationship gets worse – moves into the lower part of the J curve). As we worked through the problems and he turned in his projects on time, he felt better about his performance and the relationship rose much higher up the stem of the letter J than before. Knowing the J curve, when the relationship declines, you can say, “I thought that might happen,” and you shouldn’t let it bother you.
Remember the truth. Employees who threaten to quit over being held accountable, very seldom actually follow through on their threat. The reason that most employees don’t quit is because when they think about having to find a new job, they quickly remember that any new employer is not going to put up with their attitude. They will have to change even more for a new employer than they would when correcting the problem you are currently discussing with them.
Cross-train others. This is suggested not only for employees that hold you hostage, but also for any employee that has specific knowledge or skills in your organization that no one else has. When this knowledge is shared with at least one other person, the threat of the employee leaving is greatly decreased, because, when and if they leave, you won’t be up the creek without a paddle.
Document. It is also important to record all processes and procedures so that this knowledge is accessible and preserved. Be sure to inform all employees of this practice and let them know that this is a priority. They key with this is to follow up to ensure that processes and procedures are recorded.
Have the guts to take big action! If the employee is not going to change, then you need to regain your leadership title the old fashion way. Coach them. Counsel them. Train them. Document your process with HR’s help. When all this does not work, SHARE THEM WITH YOUR BEST COMPETITOR. There is no greater strategic planning action than to take the employee who causes you the greatest grief, and give them to your competitor to screw up their business plan.

When interviewing to fill their position, ask candidates, “How do you feel about helping out in the ______ department?” The employees’ responses will give you insight as to whether you have another prima donna on your hands or a great new team member who will be eager to help colleagues, resulting in shared knowledge. When you begin to work on cool stuff with your new employee, your competitor will be thinking, “How did I even get into this hostage situation?”

When you can finally remove the word Hostage from your business cards, you will once again be able to say, “I love my job!”

Have you had any experience with being held “hostage” by one of your employees? How did you change things to ensure it never happened again?

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The “J” Curve of Employee Accountability

Peter Stark — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:00:25 +0000

What to expect when you begin to hold employees accountable

When you begin to hold employees accountable, it is important to remember that morale may go down before it rises to a higher level. We call this riding the “J” curve of workplace excellence. When you start on the accountability trail, some employees may become resentful. If you are a new leader to a team, you know what this feels like. The employee wants to tell you something like this: “I liked my old boss a lot better. My old boss did not bug me and I didn’t bug her. You annoy me, and I would be a whole lot happier if you would just leave me alone.”

When you start to hold employees like this accountable, they, along with every other marginal employee, become disgruntled. Morale declines and starts to move toward the bottom of the “J” curve. The morale and motivation must go down to the starting point on the “J” before it can rise up to the top.

Being a great leader in search of the path that leads to workplace excellence is not for the faint of heart. Holding all employees accountable to clearly defined outcomes is hard work. With really difficult employees, it feels like a fight. Yet holding everyone accountable and holding onto the “J” for the entire ride takes you one step closer to creating workplace excellence.

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Delivering Difficult Feedback

Peter Stark — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:00:14 +0000

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.

Describe the performance problem in objective terms. As you begin a performance dialogue with an employee, it is important to focus on specific, observable behavior. People resent personal attacks and are more open to hearing about aspects of their behavior that need to change. Phrases like, “You’ve really had a negative attitude lately,” or, “You just don’t seem organized,” will evoke defensiveness. It’s much more effective to discuss specifics regarding the behavior that needs to be addressed. For example, “I’m happy that you completed the report on time and the layout looks good. Unfortunately, there are several errors. Let’s talk about your approach to proofing your work.” Or, “I’ve noticed that you don’t look up and greet our customers when they enter. They talk to you before you talk to them. Let’s talk about our service strategy.”

Express your opinion regarding the performance. For example, “I’m concerned when you send reports out to clients that have errors. I think it makes us look unprofessional.” It is O.K. to express your concern, frustration, confusion, worry, etc. regarding poor performance.

Value the employee. When giving performance feedback, it is critical that you clearly describe the behavior that is inappropriate, or needs to change. However, we often find that even in the case of challenging employees, much of what they do is right on. It is important to value the employee’s other contributions when providing feedback that addresses a particular concern. For example, “Although I’m concerned that you have come in late three times in the last week, I want to make sure you understand I am pleased with how you handle your job once you’re here. You are pleasant to our customers and helpful to coworkers. You meet your quotas. My only concern is your tardiness.”

Encourage input. With the right approach, employees should feel encouraged to talk about their view of the problem and more importantly, ideas they have to address the problem. In some cases, the manager will need to be direct about how the employee should change his or her behavior. In most cases we find that employees can generate their own solutions to behavior that has been identified as inappropriate or counter productive. Employees are always more motivated to try their own suggestions for improved performance. If you can live with their suggestion, give it a chance. You can always regroup later, if needed. The whole goal is to have a dialogue that motivates change. If the employee’s idea might work, give it a try.

Listen. Leadership is based on a relationship. You can’t build a solid relationship based on trust and respect if you don’t listen. Listening says, “I care.” Listening helps you identify, from the employee’s perspective, why there might be a problem. Listening gives you time to begin thinking about solutions that might work to fix the problem. A great coach asks questions, listens to the response, and acts accordingly. It’s no coincidence that the best coaches are also the best listeners.

Outline future behaviors. After you have clearly identified the problem and had a dialogue with the employee about what will change, it is important to clearly outline the behavior you expect to see in the future. For example, “Great. It sounds like you’ve got a plan to have a team member proof your reports before sending them to our clients. Let’s meet in one week to review the reports you’ve sent out during the week. Our goal is to have reports that are 100% accurate.”

Project outcomes, both positive and negative, related to the performance you are discussing. In the past, if coaching has not worked to change behavior, what were the consequences? In some cases, coaching doesn’t work because there are no consequences for the poor performance. In fact, sometimes there are positive consequences for the poor performance. For example, if a salaried employee consistently comes in late, but leaves on time, the positive consequence is less work. Make sure the employee understands the outcome of continued poor performance. In the case of the late employee, you could say, “It sounds like you have some excellent ideas for getting to work on time. Now that you know how serious we are, I know that you will make every effort to be here at start time. However, since we’ve talked about this twice, I want you to know that if you decide to come in late again, I will take the first step in our disciplinary process and write you up.”

Like every other skill you’ve acquired, coaching takes practice. Work hard to help your employees develop. The payoff is improved performance, better morale, greater retention of team members and less stress for you.

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Tips for Creating your Company’s Social Networking Presence

Peter Stark — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:52:48 +0000

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:

Social Networking should not replace traditional marketing. It should be used to compliment your business and marketing strategy. When we say Social Networking is a form of marketing, don’t think in terms of sales pitches, think of it as combining “marketing, PR, community relations and customer service into an entirely new, socially-aware role.” (Customer Service is the New, New Marketing). The advantage of Social Networking is that you can create a two-way dialog with your customers. Find out what they like and what they don’t. If they voice an issue, communicate how you intend to solve the problem or offer suggestions.
Site demographics. Before creating a Social Networking profile, do a little research on the Social Networking sites to see if they are places where your current and prospective customers would belong. Assuming you already know who your customers are, take a look at the demographics of popular sites to make sure that this is where you need to be. Here is a great place to start. Then, you can determine what sites/forums the company will take part in. The list is extensive, so be sure that you are taking part in one that can offer the best return on time.
Create a game plan before beginning community involvement. Work out who will be the online face of the company. Will it be from just one employee, or a group of people? Will Social Networking be its own department or will people from multiple departments take part? How often do you want to be updating company profiles? These are all great things to think about.
Training is vital. The individuals who are online representing the companies need to know the products and services very well and they should be able to answer customers’ questions themselves.
Obey the rules. Ensure that the people representing the company on Social Networking sites understand the rules and regulations of the sites they are communicating with customers on. The last thing you want to do is spend time (aka, money) on a profile, only to have it deleted.
Proper use of feedback. Customers can provide extremely valuable feedback whether it’s on customer service, product design, and so on. Have a plan in place for passing along the feedback to the people in the company who can put it to good use. When you receive feedback that is negative, listen, don’t defend. Make sure that you thank the customer for their feedback. After all, they spent their time praising your company or telling you where you can improve your product/service. Find a creative way to reward them.
Do not take over the groups/forums. Collaborate and communicate with the customers instead. Continue to let the customers run the groups, especially if it is not a group or forum created by your organization. Realize that you may not be able to respond to each question, review or comment.
Communicate. Your participation in Social Networking does not have to be just for receiving feedback, it can also be used for answering questions that customers have, giving relevant tips (for example, sharing tips for saving for retirement if your organization is a credit union or possibly passing on healthy lifestyle tips if you are in the health industry), informing customers of new or updated products and services, or maybe providing a glimpse into your company culture: the sky is the limit. It is a give and take. Your customers provide feedback and show their loyalty, and you provide them with relevant information.
Be creative. How can you use this technology to help your customers? If you are completely stuck, you can start by researching not only what your competitors are doing but also what companies in other industries are doing. Compare this to what will be relevant to your customers and to your company culture and build your strategy.
Connect and Share. In addition to obtaining feedback and providing customer service, Social Networking is a great way to connect with the community and share information that is relevant to that audience. This information includes links to relevant articles, fun facts, tips, pictures, etc.

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