How To Make Easy Course Corrections

Back in the days before 9-11, I found myself on an overnight flight across the Atlantic Ocean to England. Seated all around me were drunken, Estonian sailors who had proceeded in 1.5 hours to drink the airplane dry of any and all alcohol. At only three hours into the eight-hour flight, I was becoming increasingly agitated by the drunken sailor next to me who insisted on practicing his 3-word English vocabulary replete with spittle, belches and the occasional waft of stomach gases.

The flight attendant, sensing my agitation, took pity on me and asked me to accompany her to the back of the plane. In the back galley, there were several seats occupied by other flight attendants and I was invited to take a seat amongst them and take a break from the beer-burpy-spittle sailor.

After about an hour of quiet, being served coffee and tea and a few munchy snacks, the Chief Flight Attendant asked if I would be interested in meeting the Captain and seeing the cockpit (remember, this was pre 9-11).

Upon opening the cockpit doors, I found the pilot and co-pilot facing one another and playing a game of cards to which the captain chuckled, "I'll bet you're wondering who's flying this thing huh?"

The captain then proceeded to show me how it all worked. To my amazement, I learned that once in the air, the computer flew the plane. The Captain pulled up our flight path on the computer screen which indicated anything but a straight line.

"At 40,000 feet, it's windy and our plane gets knocked off course all of the time," the Captain said. "The computer's job is to make a small series of corrections along the way to keep us on our course so we don't end up in Spain when we were heading for England."

This story illustrates the useful strategy of small course corrections versus the major reactive strategy of trying to recover from a serious, uncorrected error along the way. This same strategy can be applied to daily interaction and communication with employees to make small course corrections so that you don't end up in Spain when you were heading for England.

The Annual Performance Review, as many managers have explained it to me, is like ending up nowhere near where you were headed. The Annual Performance Review only allows for major corrections - the big things that went unsaid for months and were never dealt with when they should have been.

However, Tweaking™ your employees daily in simple ten-second interactions daily will give your people better feedback, better direction and build better trust culminating in better loyalty and reduced turnover.

Remember, if you prefer chaotic crisis intervention, putting out major fires and stressing yourself out in dealing with setback, by all means, stick with the Annual Performance Review of having only one discussion around each employee's performance per year. But if you want to watch your employees get better every day, watch them improve their performance, increase their engagement levels and come together as a cohesive team, then I suggest the Tweak™ Strategy for management.

Small course corrections are much easier to do but require you to pay more attention to your people.



For more information on how Kevin can help your managers get better at communicating with employees and building engagement, value and culture, check here: http://kevburns.com/speaking/tweak-a-new-management-strategy

25 Percent To Jump Ship In New Year

As you gather for your Christmas parties, (sorry, Holiday Parties - my PC vocab is underutilized), be aware that this is likely the last party for many of your staff. If the numbers are right, and they usually are pretty close, almost every survey indicates that up to 25% of employees are willing to jump ship in the New Year as soon as a better offer comes along.

Y'see, as a manager, you've been doing a terrible job of building employee loyalty. In fact, while you are in your all-too-often management meetings or locked away in your office with the door closed, your staff are whining about their jobs and how they're ready to jump ship at the first opportunity. It's probably because you don't say enough to them about how much you value their contribution.

Oh sure, you talk to them about how you fought for a raise and how your hands are tied by senior managment, but other than that, you really don't say much do you?

The truth is, although more money is always nice, it isn't the reason your people are secretly planning to leave. No, they're planning their exit strategy because they don't feel fulfilled in their work because no one tells them that their contribution is important, that the work matters or that their talent is recognized.

But you're not comfortable with that are you? That's too touchy-feely (Eew). Better to just keep it simple and throw out a few basic but non-commital platitudes in the "annual" performance review. That way, your ass is covered if they ever raise a stink about something you said that may have been heartfelt.

At this time of the year, people have gift-giving on their minds. Eyes and faceslight up when they get a gift. Think of how much your people would light up and light a fire under themselves if they got a regular gift: someone who articulates that they are appreciated.

But there will be no gift come the New Year. No, your lump of coal will be to train their replacement in the New Year. And when that person leaves, then you will do it again, and again and blame it all on a lack of employee engagement. It's always easier to blame turnover on "problem" or "issue" employees.

But Employee Engagement isn't the problem. Management enagagement is the problem. Employees will engage in direct proportion to their direct manager's engagement of them. Without engagement, their is no employee loyalty.

Stop looking for tips and tricks to fix your people. They don't work long-term. What works is honesty. Talk to them. Appreciate them. Be grateful for their work. That's how you keep them. All it takes is a little humility. But that seems to be the problem doesn't it? You think being humble equates to weakness. Not much wonder they're leaving you.

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For more information on how Kevin can help your managers get better at communicating with employees and building engagement, value and culture, check here: http://kevburns.com/speaking/tweak-a-new-management-strategy