“How many people have actually read the ‘Belief’ Statement?” I said as I pointed to the large Belief Statement banner which stood upon the stage next to me.
A single hand out of almost two hundred attendees was raised. That hand, funny enough, belonged to meeting planner who had hired me.
“Are you serious?” was my incredulous response.
The one item out of the seven listed on the Belief Statement banner that I was drawing attention to made reference to each staff member being responsible for their own ongoing, continuous self-improvement and learning. I personally think that the responsibility for self-improvement should be on the individual and not the employer, no matter what.
So over the course of the hour that I addressed this group, I continually referenced the importance of self-improvement and a dedication to continuous learning.
I believe that taking fifteen minutes a day, a single coffee-break, to learn something today that may improve you personally or professionally, will show results exponentially down the road. Reading a chapter in a book that can improve your job performance, your willingness to stretch yourself, to learn a new skill or to enhance your skill set will, down the road, affect your paycheck.
The more you learn, the more valuable you become, the more likely you will be rewarded for your value.
Your employer is likely to see little reason to invest more resources or more money in you if you have not demonstrated a return on investment by investing in yourself first. And the truth is that if your employer is not able to see the results of your self-improvement strategy, it is likely that another employer will see it and offer you more to come to work there instead.
You don’t have to be in a management position to continually upgrade yourself. Just because someone has the title “manager” doesn’t mean they are a leader. Sometimes, and contrary to what many employers believe, people who could lead a revolt against management have much more leadership ability than the managers they themselves work for.
Attitude Adjustment: Leadership is an attitude. Management is a title. You can possess one without the other. The two do not necessarily go hand in hand. The person who continuously self-improves puts him or herself in a much better position to influence others than does the manager who stops learning one he or she gets the title. Just because you’re not the boss doesn’t mean you’re not a leader. And just because you’re not a leader doesn’t mean you can’t be the boss. I mean, c’mon, we’ve all worked for bosses that had little leadership ability. The leader is the person who has demonstrated that he or she could always improve and makes a plan to make sure they are ahead of the pack. If you’re ahead of everyone else and they seem to be following you, then you must be the leader right? Open a book and start learning how to get in front.
Friday, August 29, 2008
$1000 Quit-Now Bonus
“You’ve been on the job for a week now, and we’d like to offer you $1000.00 if you quit today.”
How would you like to be greeted on your seventh day at work by that statement? Does that statement even seem possible? Well it’s real. And the company that is doing it is called Zappos – an on-line retailer of shoes. It’s called their “quit now” bonus.
Zappos will offer one-week old employees a “Quit-Now” bonus of $1,000. The employee will be paid for the amount of time they’ve worked, plus they are offered another $1,000 bonus if they quit immediately.
Why does Zappos do this? As it turns out, Zappos wants to ensure that the employee they have hired has the same sense of commitment that Zappos is looking for in all of their employees. The Zappos culture is clearly defined and they want to ensure that the employee engagement of the new hire is up to par with the other employees.
Zappos would rather pay now than pay later for weeding out the deadwood. They also want to ensure that the employee is committed to the company the same way Zappos would like them to be before they invest any more money in the employee. The work is not necessarily glamorous. The work is in a call centre. It’s not for everyone and the percentage of new hires taking Zappos up on their offer is about ten percent.
Zappos has figured out a way to not be saddled with a “dud” employee and are willing to pay one thousand dollars early so they don’t have to pay many more thousands later in finding a way to terminate an employee who isn’t working out, to keep the morale high and to stop the cancerous spread of negativity before it gets a chance to take root. It’s also another way to test commitment levels of the new employee to the job.
Attitude Adjustment: If more businesses would be willing to adapt the Zappos example of weeding out problem employees in their own businesses, there would be fewer problems with customer service and employee engagement down the road. It may seem like a lot of money for some smaller businesses but not really when you consider how much could be lost to customer dissatisfaction, whining and complaining on the job and by actively disengaged employees working against good productivity. This may not be the only way to weed out prospective problem employees but it’s got to be better than the way things are working now. The real learning from Zappos is that they are willing to think of creative ways to eliminate problems before they become problems that affect the bottom-line. So, what’s it worth to your organization to get rid of some of the problem employees that you may have right now? If you’re the problem employee, would you take the thousand bucks to make you go away?
How would you like to be greeted on your seventh day at work by that statement? Does that statement even seem possible? Well it’s real. And the company that is doing it is called Zappos – an on-line retailer of shoes. It’s called their “quit now” bonus.
Zappos will offer one-week old employees a “Quit-Now” bonus of $1,000. The employee will be paid for the amount of time they’ve worked, plus they are offered another $1,000 bonus if they quit immediately.
Why does Zappos do this? As it turns out, Zappos wants to ensure that the employee they have hired has the same sense of commitment that Zappos is looking for in all of their employees. The Zappos culture is clearly defined and they want to ensure that the employee engagement of the new hire is up to par with the other employees.
Zappos would rather pay now than pay later for weeding out the deadwood. They also want to ensure that the employee is committed to the company the same way Zappos would like them to be before they invest any more money in the employee. The work is not necessarily glamorous. The work is in a call centre. It’s not for everyone and the percentage of new hires taking Zappos up on their offer is about ten percent.
Zappos has figured out a way to not be saddled with a “dud” employee and are willing to pay one thousand dollars early so they don’t have to pay many more thousands later in finding a way to terminate an employee who isn’t working out, to keep the morale high and to stop the cancerous spread of negativity before it gets a chance to take root. It’s also another way to test commitment levels of the new employee to the job.
Attitude Adjustment: If more businesses would be willing to adapt the Zappos example of weeding out problem employees in their own businesses, there would be fewer problems with customer service and employee engagement down the road. It may seem like a lot of money for some smaller businesses but not really when you consider how much could be lost to customer dissatisfaction, whining and complaining on the job and by actively disengaged employees working against good productivity. This may not be the only way to weed out prospective problem employees but it’s got to be better than the way things are working now. The real learning from Zappos is that they are willing to think of creative ways to eliminate problems before they become problems that affect the bottom-line. So, what’s it worth to your organization to get rid of some of the problem employees that you may have right now? If you’re the problem employee, would you take the thousand bucks to make you go away?
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
New Restaurant Service Blog I Stumbled Onto
Recently, I wrote a Blog entry about restaurants needing to fix their problems right away. One of the comments to that entry came from another Blog, So You Want To Be A Banquet Manager.
Some of the greatest restaurant/banquet stories I have ever read are in this Blog. If you're looking for an opportunity to see evidence that restaurant and banquet staff are just as fed up with poor service and poor employee engagement as the rest of us, check out the Blog site.
Also, while you're there, click the YouTube video for Waiters Who Are Nauseated By Food - a Saturday Night Live sketch which features Steve Carrell. Oh, and a warning, don't be eating while you're watching it.
Cheers.
Some of the greatest restaurant/banquet stories I have ever read are in this Blog. If you're looking for an opportunity to see evidence that restaurant and banquet staff are just as fed up with poor service and poor employee engagement as the rest of us, check out the Blog site.
Also, while you're there, click the YouTube video for Waiters Who Are Nauseated By Food - a Saturday Night Live sketch which features Steve Carrell. Oh, and a warning, don't be eating while you're watching it.
Cheers.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Get Out Of The Way Of The Message
Have you ever had to instruct someone in your workplace on the finer points of getting something done or have you ever been the go-to-guy for co-workers to better understand operational processes at your job? Have you ever had to head up a learning session for your co-workers or new hires? Did you, just by the way you structured the learning session, unintentionally get in the way of their learning?
It happens. Even the professionals do it and mess up their own teaching. Let me give you an example.
A former sports celebrity-turned motivational speaker did a presentation for a group of bankers. His session on-stage lasted about ninety minutes. During his session, he expounded the virtues of teamwork and offered a few strategies for better teams within an organization. All-in-all, it may have been a good presentation with some value for the group of managers that he was speaking to. However, after his session, he came down off of the stage and “worked” the room shaking hands with every single person in the room. He walked between the banquet tables and stopped at every single table to shake hands with every single person in the room. While shaking hands, he made small-talk with each person he shook hands with.
Now I am the first to admit I don’t really do small-talk extremely well. I agree that there is an art to it. I’ve just never learned the art nor do I feel it’s extremely important to learn to do small-talk as I rarely find myself on the cocktail-and-pâté circuit. So, as it turns out, small-talk is a social skill that I am inept at and really, I don’t care that I’m not very good at it. Some people need to be good at it. I don’t.
Anyway, back to the story.
After the sports celebrity finished “working” the room of glad-handing the attendees, most of them were left to struggle to recall much of what the paid professional actually had to say from the stage. Attendees could instantly recall what he was wearing that evening and also easily recalled each personal conversation while making small-talk with them individually, but the message from the stage, the one that the organization paid thousands of dollars for, was lost. All was lost because of small-talk. In fact, in this instance, the speaker got in the way of his own message.
Attitude Adjustment: Are you jeopardizing learning at your place of work? Are you, as an attendee in a learning environment, interrupting the learning of your co-workers by making side-comments while someone else is attempting to learn something? If you want to increase the chances of learning for both yourself and your co-workers, just engage yourself in what you’re doing. Keeping focused either as an attendee or as an instructor will increase employee engagement and it can be accomplished by adopting the philosophy of “less is more.” The less distraction, the less discussion off-topic, the less you make any session about you, the more people will learn. The more people learn, the better they are at the job. The better people become at their jobs, the more reason there will be to have social gatherings in which everyone can engage in small-talk. Cell phones turned off. Brains turned on. Keep focused on the task at hand. Do whatever is necessary to remove the distractions in a learning environment. And if it’s you at the front of the room, always remember that the message is far more important than the messenger if the purpose of the message is to improve the workplace and those in it.
It happens. Even the professionals do it and mess up their own teaching. Let me give you an example.
A former sports celebrity-turned motivational speaker did a presentation for a group of bankers. His session on-stage lasted about ninety minutes. During his session, he expounded the virtues of teamwork and offered a few strategies for better teams within an organization. All-in-all, it may have been a good presentation with some value for the group of managers that he was speaking to. However, after his session, he came down off of the stage and “worked” the room shaking hands with every single person in the room. He walked between the banquet tables and stopped at every single table to shake hands with every single person in the room. While shaking hands, he made small-talk with each person he shook hands with.
Now I am the first to admit I don’t really do small-talk extremely well. I agree that there is an art to it. I’ve just never learned the art nor do I feel it’s extremely important to learn to do small-talk as I rarely find myself on the cocktail-and-pâté circuit. So, as it turns out, small-talk is a social skill that I am inept at and really, I don’t care that I’m not very good at it. Some people need to be good at it. I don’t.
Anyway, back to the story.
After the sports celebrity finished “working” the room of glad-handing the attendees, most of them were left to struggle to recall much of what the paid professional actually had to say from the stage. Attendees could instantly recall what he was wearing that evening and also easily recalled each personal conversation while making small-talk with them individually, but the message from the stage, the one that the organization paid thousands of dollars for, was lost. All was lost because of small-talk. In fact, in this instance, the speaker got in the way of his own message.
Attitude Adjustment: Are you jeopardizing learning at your place of work? Are you, as an attendee in a learning environment, interrupting the learning of your co-workers by making side-comments while someone else is attempting to learn something? If you want to increase the chances of learning for both yourself and your co-workers, just engage yourself in what you’re doing. Keeping focused either as an attendee or as an instructor will increase employee engagement and it can be accomplished by adopting the philosophy of “less is more.” The less distraction, the less discussion off-topic, the less you make any session about you, the more people will learn. The more people learn, the better they are at the job. The better people become at their jobs, the more reason there will be to have social gatherings in which everyone can engage in small-talk. Cell phones turned off. Brains turned on. Keep focused on the task at hand. Do whatever is necessary to remove the distractions in a learning environment. And if it’s you at the front of the room, always remember that the message is far more important than the messenger if the purpose of the message is to improve the workplace and those in it.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Love Relationships At Work
I received a question this week asking, “Just wondering what your attitude would be toward a boss and subordinate starting a relationship at work and the effects on other staff?”
Personally, my “attitude” when it comes to office romances is to run for the hills if you’re even considering this. Nothing good can come of this. The numbers are against their success in any way. That’s my attitude. However, with that being said, I also have opinions on several different scenarios which may shed a little more light. In the question, there was no other description of the details of this relationship at work and so I was left to ponder these scenarios and come up with an opinion on each. So here goes.
Boss and subordinate are both single. If this were the case, I really don’t see how this would be of anyone’s business but the two parties involved. Provided they have both come clean and are open about their relationship, the only course of action would be to ensure that the subordinate does not report directly to the boss and instead, would report directly to either another manager or a supervisor of some sort. The boss would also have to practice recusal in all dealings involving the subordinate to ensure that there would be no conflict of interest or perceived favoritism when it came time for performance reviews, promotions or other special considerations of the subordinate. In fact, I know a couple who met at work (he was her boss) and upon the decision to start dating, they approached his superior and announced their plans. She now reports directly to a different boss yet they still work together in the same department. Honesty works.
Either boss or subordinate or both are already in a relationship with other people. This would be a completely inappropriate relationship and one of the two would need to be removed immediately from the workplace, preferably both. This is a character/values/integrity issue. Any organization that would knowingly allow two people to engage in an inappropriate relationship such as this, has obviously demonstrated that it lacks the moral fiber to serve its customers and the rest of the staff with integrity and good judgment. In fact, I am aware of one situation where this did occur – manager and subordinate having an inappropriate relationship. A corporate VP found out about it, brought the two into the office and told them that within twenty minutes, one of the two of them was leaving the company and for them to figure out who was going. The subordinate left and the manager not long after.
It is crucial that if you are going to engage in a relationship at work, that it be above-board and transparent. A relationship based on lies never lasts and it does tremendous damage to morale and employee engagement. If you’ll do something that is dishonest with your co-workers, you’ll do it with your customers.
Attitude Adjustment: If you see something at work that is questionable and it goes against your values and morals, you need to speak up. Tell the boss’s boss. However, if your boss is the top of the food chain, you need to dust off the resume and start looking for another job. Before you leave, confront the boss and tell him or her the truth of why you are leaving. Being found out by others is usually a great way to bring an end to an inappropriate relationship.
Bosses hate to lose face with their subordinates – hopefully, it makes them realize that they have damaged the trust and respect of their staff. People don’t perform well for bosses who are not trusted, respected or lack integrity. Besides, you really don’t want to work there if that’s the environment. Dishonesty and inappropriateness really do affect the bottom-line. But not speaking up only gives a blessing to the inappropriate behavior. Are you willing to sell out your values for a paycheck?
Personally, my “attitude” when it comes to office romances is to run for the hills if you’re even considering this. Nothing good can come of this. The numbers are against their success in any way. That’s my attitude. However, with that being said, I also have opinions on several different scenarios which may shed a little more light. In the question, there was no other description of the details of this relationship at work and so I was left to ponder these scenarios and come up with an opinion on each. So here goes.
Boss and subordinate are both single. If this were the case, I really don’t see how this would be of anyone’s business but the two parties involved. Provided they have both come clean and are open about their relationship, the only course of action would be to ensure that the subordinate does not report directly to the boss and instead, would report directly to either another manager or a supervisor of some sort. The boss would also have to practice recusal in all dealings involving the subordinate to ensure that there would be no conflict of interest or perceived favoritism when it came time for performance reviews, promotions or other special considerations of the subordinate. In fact, I know a couple who met at work (he was her boss) and upon the decision to start dating, they approached his superior and announced their plans. She now reports directly to a different boss yet they still work together in the same department. Honesty works.
Either boss or subordinate or both are already in a relationship with other people. This would be a completely inappropriate relationship and one of the two would need to be removed immediately from the workplace, preferably both. This is a character/values/integrity issue. Any organization that would knowingly allow two people to engage in an inappropriate relationship such as this, has obviously demonstrated that it lacks the moral fiber to serve its customers and the rest of the staff with integrity and good judgment. In fact, I am aware of one situation where this did occur – manager and subordinate having an inappropriate relationship. A corporate VP found out about it, brought the two into the office and told them that within twenty minutes, one of the two of them was leaving the company and for them to figure out who was going. The subordinate left and the manager not long after.
It is crucial that if you are going to engage in a relationship at work, that it be above-board and transparent. A relationship based on lies never lasts and it does tremendous damage to morale and employee engagement. If you’ll do something that is dishonest with your co-workers, you’ll do it with your customers.
Attitude Adjustment: If you see something at work that is questionable and it goes against your values and morals, you need to speak up. Tell the boss’s boss. However, if your boss is the top of the food chain, you need to dust off the resume and start looking for another job. Before you leave, confront the boss and tell him or her the truth of why you are leaving. Being found out by others is usually a great way to bring an end to an inappropriate relationship.
Bosses hate to lose face with their subordinates – hopefully, it makes them realize that they have damaged the trust and respect of their staff. People don’t perform well for bosses who are not trusted, respected or lack integrity. Besides, you really don’t want to work there if that’s the environment. Dishonesty and inappropriateness really do affect the bottom-line. But not speaking up only gives a blessing to the inappropriate behavior. Are you willing to sell out your values for a paycheck?
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