Video: Are You Putting Your People At Risk?

Are You Actively Putting Your People At Risk? from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.

Workplace Expert, Kevin Burns argues that companies who do not care about their people enough to ensure that they follow safe procedures it could be argued do not care about their customers either. How you do one thing is how you do everything. How can you say you care about your customers but not the people who serve your customers?

Video: Why Mid-Managers Are The Lifeblood

Why Mid-Managers Are Lifeblood from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.

Kevin Burns, Workplace Expert, says most middle managers get very little training and are thrust into a role that most are ill-prepared for. It is the most thankless job and the one with the highest "hassle" factor. Add to that, when the economy tanks, middle managers are usually the first to go. The truth is, I am on the side of middle managers. I want them to get better.

Video: You Call Yourself A Professional?

You Call Yourself A Professional? from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.

Kevin Burns, Workplace Expert, tackles the subject of being a "professional." How can you call your people "professionals" when you only give them formal feedback once a year? Do you think Tiger gets one golf lesson each year? How about Kobe or Sidney Crosby? You say you run a "professional" organization but do you really?

Video: How To Avoid Embarrassing Onboarding Mistakes

How To Avoid Embarrassing Onboarding Mistakes from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.

Kevin Burns, Workplace Expert offers up advice to counter managers who systematically remove the incentive to perform well by giving away the farm to new hires by not tying it to performance. All your new hire has to do is the bare minimum - just enough to not get fired - and they will enjoy raises. Hiring a new employee is not simple. There is pressure involved to get it right and to start a new relationship on the right foot. So how do you do that?

Video: How To Get Rid Of Toxic Employees

Part of building a better workplace is knowing when to remove the weeds from the garden. You don't just move weeds to another part of the garden. You pull them, trash them and protect the garden from future weeds. That's how your garden grows. That's how your workplace prospers.

Video: How To Reduce Pay Raises

Of the people who came to their boss, in an Accenture survey, and asked for a raise, eighty-five percent got a raise of some sort with sixty-three percent getting as much or more than they were expecting. So what does that say? That people are deserving of getting a raise just by asking for it? No. Of course not. It means that there are managers who have no confidence about their ability as a manager and they don't want to look like the bad guy.

Video: Managers Need Better Time Management

So managers, let me ask you this question, if only twenty percent of your time is spent actually managing, who is it that really needs a Time Management course? The truth is that Time Management is never about time. It's about having clearly defined priorities. And it is the manager's job to ensure that the clear priorities have been communicated to the staff. So how can the manager make that happen?

Video: Why Companies Say No To Social Media

Does it seem just a little strange that the people who are supposed to be visionary leaders of our organizations are looking like relics simply because they outlaw social media purely based on not understanding or using it?

Video: Who Is To Blame For Employee Engagement?

Kevin Burns, Workplace Expert rants on the fact that it just doesn't seem right that all of the blame for what is wrong with the workplace gets placed squarely on the shoulders of the disengaged employee.

Mission Statement or Vision Statement?

In my mind, both are important but NOT interchangeable at all. If asked which were more important, I would say, “it depends on who you’re asking for.” Here’s why: the Vision Statement is the long-term forecast and goal-setting of where you would like to be in 1 year, 2 year and 5 year increments. Mission is how you get there - daily.

For the organization as a whole, Vision is the more important of the two as it sets up where you want to end up.

However, for the employees, Mission statement is far more important as it determines what needs to be done today.

The problem is when organizations have such a bland and generic Mission Statement, no one knows what they are supposed to be doing. It’s called a Mission statement because it’s the mission: what you’re supposed to be doing. When a good Mission statement spells it out, it makes it easier for employees to make the right decisions.

Would your Mission Statement allow your people to make the right decisions or is it so muddled and mundane that your people don’t take it seriously?

Every department of an organization should have their own Mission Statement that specifically outlines the duties and Culture of the department within the larger framework. A departmental Mission works because, when in doubt, your people can look to the Mission Statement for the right thing to do. If it isn’t spelled out, your people will do whatever they think is best - based on their perception of the right thing to do.

Managers, if you want to be spending less time putting out fires and more time being able to coach your people better, develop a Mission Statement for your department that keeps your people focused, on-task and engaged.

“Service Postponement” Is Rampant

So let’s say you had a bad meal in a restaurant. You call over your waitress and you tell her that the meal is not satisfactory. She apologizes and offers to make it right.

When your waitress appears at the table again she presents you with your bill. You notice that you are being charged full price for a meal you had already told them was not satisfactory but you find attached to your bill is a $10 off coupon good for your next visit.

Offer to fix my problem at some point in the future and you won’t have a problem to fix in the future because I won’t be back. But I will make sure that none of my friends come to visit you either.

Trust me, this happens more often than it should. Why is it that restaurants want to wait until sometime in the future before they fix the problems you had today? But it’s not just restaurants who do this. This same service abdication happens across all industries. This is what I call, “Service Postponement.”

How ridiculous is it that you think that you will be able to solve a problem at some point in the future if you are not prepared to solve that problem today?

A customer who is having a problem today needs to have that problem fixed today. And if you are that customer who is having that problem today, then you need to address it today. Do not let businesses wait until sometime in the future before they fix the problem today.

Remember, on Filter-Free Fridays™ you take off the filters that prevent you from telling the truth and you say something in an effort to help them serve you better.

Leave me your comments about your “Service Postponement” experience below.

13 Service and Business Oxymorons

These really don't need much of an introduction. They are pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy on this Filter-Free Fridays™.

1. Your call is very important to us. Your approximate wait time is 12 minutes. Please continue to hold.
2. (Voice mail) I am out of the office until Wednesday next week. If this call is important ...
3. You have exceeded the maximum allowable bandwidth on our "Unlimited" Data Package.
4. We absolutely guarantee your satisfaction. Would you be interested in purchasing an extended warranty?
5. To report a non-working phone line, please call our emergency repair department ....
6. Your $29 item qualifies for free shipping in the USA. Standard International Shipping to Canada fee of $35 will apply.
7. Thank you for reporting your emergency issue by email. Our support staff will respond to your inquiry within 48 business hours.
8. If you are unable to reach us by telelphone, please use the automated customer service form on our web page.
9. (Automated phone message) We attempted to deliver your overnight courier package but you weren`t home. It will be available at our retail location (8 miles away) after 10 A.M. tomorrow.
10. Our Company is Proudly 100% Canadian Owned. (on the back) Made in China.
11. While customers want more from the companies and employees they do business with, they have actually come to expect less than they did before.
12. Have a suggestion for us? We are open to your suggestions Monday to Friday between 10 am to 4 pm. Closed nights, weekends and holidays.
13. (As found in the operator`s manual) This page has been intentionally left blank.

Go ahead and tell them when they're doing stuff like this - especially on Filter-Free Fridays™. They obviously could use a little help. They probably don't even know they're doing it. Maybe they'll see the humor in it.

The Weak Link Of The Strategic Plan

A strategic planning session takes place. All of the players gather around the table. Every item in the plan gets voted on - only those with a unanimous vote get included in the plan. The plan is developed and the chairman asks for commitment to the strategy. One by one, around the room they go, each answering in the affirmative.

But back at the office, the truth sets in. The planning session was a waste of time because you had no intention of doing anything in the plan. You already knew in the back of your mind that to accomplish some of these items in your department you would need a herculean effort. You had no intention of doing your part. You simply figured out that it would be easier to just go along with everyone else at the meeting than to explain why it wouldn't work for your department.

In other words, you lied. And because there was no "accountability" mechanism built into the strategic plan, no one will really know until next year, when give your commitment to another plan you have no desire in implementing.

After all, you only have six more years until you can retire. Why embrace all this change and work so hard when you're this close to retirement. All you have to do is hang on through five more annual planning sessions and you're home free. Let the person repalcing you worry about it then.

Don't worry about suffocating your departmental Culture by not embracing new strategic directions. The job is all about you - not those who still have their whole work lives ahead of them. Nope, you just have to figure out a way to get out of embracing new technologies and practices. You're too close to pension to retire. No, you just keep developing your personal strategic plan of finding excuses for not embracing the corporate strategic plan.

By the time everyone catches on, you'll be out of there anyway - with your legacy of "do nothing" and non-accountability to remind your people of your ineffectiveness as a leader. Nope, your replacement will be as welcomed as a cool summer breeze. But you'll have your pension - and the embarrassment of your leadership abilities to keep you warm at night.

21 Management and Culture Contradictions

What organizations say they want and what they do is in complete opposition:

1. you say you want your people to become leaders and independent thinkers but you send them to cookie-cutter leadership schools making them followers of someone else's doctrine.
2. you say you want to attract people with strong skill-sets but advertise titles and job descriptions and base who gets an interview on looking simply at a resume.
3. you say you want to attract, hire and retain the best but you take out mediocre ads just like everyone else and post the same "Now Hiring" signs as everyone else - attracting the available, not the best.
4. you say you want to have a strong Culture of Excellence in your organizations but at the first sign of financial crisis, you cut, slash and burn budgets that would help build morale.
5. you say you want to have strong managers capable of handling issues but you force them into pointless meetings and force them to fill out reports no one looks at.
6. you say you want to have your front-line staff be more engaged in their work but you don't empower them to make decisions.
7. you say you offer an innovative place to work but institute blanket policies and refuse to be flexible with work hours, job duties and telecommuting.
8. you say every person is important but don't encourage senior executives to get out of their ivory towers and press-the-flesh with front-liners.
9. you say you have open-door policies but won't say the hard things that need because your fear of offending or hurting is greater than your need to be honest.
10. you say everyone in the company is equal yet senior management act like they're members of an exclusive club of perks and benefits.
11. you say you encourage ideas and free flow of thoughts but rarely implement employee's ideas or even respond to many of them.
12. you say every employee is important but you only give awards to and reward your salespeople.
13. you say you offer superior customer service but when polled, only 8% of customers agree.
14. you say you want more sales built on your value proposition but at the first sign of competition, you crumble on your value cut the price.
15. you say you want fewer meetings but you keep on meeting to find ways to reduce the number of meetings.
16. you say you have the best staff but you put hiring in the hands of old-school HR departments who, by their very results to date, have proven incapable of finding that staff.
17. you say you want high-performers but don`t arm middle-managers with the skills to coach high-performers.
18. you say you want to grow but aren't prepared to make a major investment in that growth without absolute certainty.
19. you say that you want to be the best but compare yourselves to mediocre and low-performing competitors.
20. you say that you really care about being better than you are but no one is prepared to take the risks and make the moves that elevate the organization for fear of personally looking foolish.
21. you say that you want loyalty from your employees but slash their jobs when shareholder profits are in jeopardy.

You say a lot of things. But the measure of organizational success isn't in what you say - it's in what you do. So what will you do today?

How To Profit From Corporate Mediocrity

“Sometimes there’s company policy and then sometimes there’s just common sense. I’d much rather have you leave my store happy rather than pissed off so I’ll exercise a little common sense and excuse the policy.”

That was a quote from a retail store manager yesterday after I attempted to understand the fine print when it came to the “Buy One Get One Half Off” promotion they were running.

I wasn’t upset. I wasn’t angry. I just wanted to understand why a simple promotion had been muddled with extra rules and regulations. Some items don’t qualify for half-off but do qualify for first full-priced item. It wasn’t clear, at least not to me so I asked to speak to a manager who I hoped would be able to explain it.

I had four items. The first item, if I would have overpaid by $10 would have qualified me to save $35 on the second item. The third item, if I would have been prepared to overpay by ten dollars again, would have saved me another $30 on the fourth item. So by overpaying by $20, I would have saved $65 – netting a $45 discount.

The manager saw the ridiculousness of how the promotion was structured and ended up discounting my second and fourth items anyway.

Speak up. It’s Filter-Free Fridays™. If it doesn’t make sense, say something. Not every promotion has been well thought out. Don’t assume they have. There are mediocre people working in every organization doing mediocre work and offering mediocre ideas. When you speak up and question them, it forces them to think things through and to get better at what they do. And you might end up saving or even making a little money in the process.

Fighting The 5¢ Fee For Plastic Bags

Request from a reader: Would you please address the issue of paying 5 cents for a bag to put your purchases in before leaving the store? I'm sure there is enough markup to cover the cost and carrying out the items un-bagged leaves me, the consumer, open to charges of shoplifting and is also opening the door to easier shoplifting for those that take part in this kind of thing.

Response: I agree with you that the 5¢ charge is ridiculous. In fact, I think the charge should be 25¢ and it should be imposed at every store - not just a few. I understand your point of shoplifting so put magnetic anti-theft strips on every item (a cost covered by extra bag fees). Bags were free when we didn't think about the cost of cleaning up all of the free plastic bags in landfills.

But the market is changing and so must we.

I think the discussion really has nothing to do with whether or not a store can cover the cost of a plastic bag. The question is whether a store can cover the cost of what the plastic bag does to the environment in the long run? The bag fee is to make consumers decide whether they REALLY need a bag in the first place. And, if the bags continue to be free, you'll probably see a 3% jump in your property taxes to cover off the the cost of cleaning up all those free plastic bags in the landfill. You're going to pay one way or another.

But the discussion shouldn't be just about shopping bags. There should be another 25¢ charge levied on each plastic disposable diaper (not 25¢ per box but each diaper individually) sold. In addition to the 82,000 tons of plastic a year and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp -- 250,000 trees used to make a year's worth of disposable diapers, these materials are trucked away, primarily to landfills. It is illegal in most U.S. states to dump human waste in landfills. That law is simply unenforced when it comes to diapers.

I am all for charging 5¢ for each compostable vegetable-gluten bag in the stores - a fee I would gladly pay. These bags break down in landfills in less than a year.

Customer Service isn't just about fawning over customers and trying to kiss their butts. It's about being a "service" to the lifestyle of the customers and customers' families now and in the future.

Every organization needs to have a conscience in today's marketplace. And every organization needs to have that conscience drive both their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy as well as their Corporate Culture initiatives. Personally, I think it is incumbent on business to re-shape how the consumer thinks - not just bow to what consumers are used to. Consumers only demand what they know - not what they don't know. So change their minds and make a difference. Your employees will carry the torch of their work meaning something.

How To Handle Arrogant Businesses

I can admit when I am wrong. It just doesn't happen very often - the "being wrong" part, not the admitting it part.

Last week, for Filter-Free Fridays™, I blogged about how you can't just lie to businesses by saying everything was fine when it wasn't and then go home and trash them on the Internet. In fact, I said, "Businesses want to be better. They want to serve you better. They want to offer you better products and service. They want to offer you innovative new ways of improving what they do to make your experience that much better."

And I was wrong.

Not every business wants to be better. In fact, some businesses are so full of themselves that no matter what you say, they will treat you like an idiot and make you feel as though they're doing you a favor by allowing you to do business with them. Those are the businesses that need a swift kick in the revenues.

I encountered one of those businesses this week. After dealing with a constant turnover of sales reps over a seven-month period, my frustration got the better of me. The new sales rep was more concerned about looking good than serving us well. So, I was honest and forthcoming. I told them face-to-face what I thought they might improve but they refused to listen. I told them directly how disappointed I was with their service but they refused to listen. I told them what we initially agreed on but they attempted to arbitrarily change the contract by adding items and clauses not previously spelled out. I did this in-person, in writing and in telephone conversations. And still, they feel that I need to pay more money than what we agreed so that I can be served less.

So now, I will warn others to keep clear of dealing with banquet staff at a particular hotel in the Ottawa area (and if you are an Ottawa area meeting planner or are considering hosting a Ottawa area conference or event, I would be pleased to offer you the name of the hotel and all of the awful salespeople on the inside. Just shoot me an email). I just know that this expereince will become a story in one of my presentations that I will end up sharing with thousands of people. Whoops.

When businesses refuse to pay attention to professional customers, then maybe they'll pay attention when they are forced to see the (dis)satisfaction of their customers telling their stories on the Internet or in other public forums. But then again, maybe not. There comes a time when you are forced to use the court of public opinion if you want to warn others. And that should be the spirit of your efforts: to warn others - not to be vindictive.

Arrogant businesses need to be knocked a peg or two and you are just the person to do it - especially on Filter-Free Fridays™.

Why Divorcees Make Lousy Managers

"How you do one thing is how you do everything."

That's the same principle you hire people by: their past performance being the prime indicator of their future performance. You ask people the stupidest questions during interviews that have nothing to do with their ability to do the job and base their candidacy on the answers to meaningless questions like:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Tell me about a situation when your work was criticized.
• What makes you angry?
• Tell me about the most boring job you’ve ever had.
• What changes would you make if you come on board?
• How could you have improved your career progress?
• Where could you see some improvement in you?
• What do you worry about?

By the way, these questions were taken from an HR LinkedIn group discussing the "best" questions to ask in interviews. Judge for yourself but if these are the "best" questions to ask in interviews, I think HR is in trouble.

Applying the same logic as used in job interviews, if a potential manager were divorced, it could be argued they can't communicate well or work towards solutions or negotiate settlements. That logic would say that divorcees make lousy managers. But stupid HR questions are overlooked when it comes time to being considered for manager aren't they? Of course, because the best indicator of an employees capabilities are hands-on experience - not their past personal lives.

So, in order to overcome the ridiculousness of inane questions that are meant to take up time in an interview, why not change your Culture to consider "test-driving" employees for a few days - even up to a week. Pay them for their time to job-shadow, integrate with other employees, study their on-the-job abilities and base their suitability on what they do present-day instead of asking them what they worry about.

Who cares if they're good at rehearsing smart answers for dumb questions and instead consider the "training camp" philosophy of sports teams. They show up to camp and their on-the-job abilities are judged for suitability. I'll bet you find a better crop of good future-managers this way. And it won't matter what their past looks like will it?

You Big, Fat, Two-Faced Liar

You've seen it. I know you have. There are a lot of businesses, especially restaurants, who specifically ask, no make that "plead" with you, to tell them how they are doing. (See photo)

Businesses want to be better. They want to serve you better. They want to offer you better products and service. They want to offer you innovative new ways of improving what they do to make your experience that much better.

So they ask important questions like, how was your experience today? And do you know what you do as they attempt to access your expertise as a customer to improve themselves? You lie right to their faces and say everything was "fine."

Even when they print it on their menus how much your feedback means to them, you still lie to them and tell them everything was fine. Then you go home, tell your friends to never go there. You tell your followers on Facebook and Twitter not to go there. You trash them. Even when they come right to you and try to get an honest conversation going, you lie to their faces. And then, when you are a safe distance away and know that they have turned their backs, you ruin their business.

On Filter-Free Fridays™ you tell them exactly how it was. Don't be a jerk about it. Just be honest. Offer something constructive so they can be better at what they do. On Filter-Free Fridays™ you grow a pair and HELP them - don't hurt them.

Or just stay out of their place of business and stop ruining a business. You are not entitled to ruin them just because they had a little too much salt in their soup and you didn't have the courage to say something.

Harsh? It's Filter-Free Fridays™ - get over it.

Cowards Write Online Reviews

... when they don't bring their concerns either by telephone or face-to-face first to those they are trashing.

Look, anyone can write a bad review and many do - especially the cowards who refuse to voice their opinions to the businesses they trash online. It's so easy to hide behind anonymity. Businesses serve you face-to-face. Businesses ask you how they did face-to-face. What bothers me is when people repond "fine" when asked how everything was and then go home and trash them on the Internet, trash them on Facebook and Twitter and tell their friends to stay away - all unbeknownst to the people who could have corrected the situation, had only something been said.

Filter-Free Fridays™ are the days you step up, grow a spine and honestly (not hurtfully) tell a business how they are doing. If the restaurant meal isn't right, send it back, don't lie and pretend everything is OK.

How can a business improve if you won't tell them what is wrong? Not saying anything and pretending everything is OK is selfish. Yes, I said it is selfish. Because the people who are about to follow you: to order that same meal, to hire that same contractor, to buy from that same car dealer or whatever will now experience the same poor service or product because you were too afraid to tell them it was wrong.

Is it the fault of the business when they get trashed in their reviews? Sure, sometimes it is. But I'm willing to bet money that the vast majority of problems could have been solved if only someone hadn't grown feathers (turned chicken) and instead offered up an honest critique - face-to-face.

Do it differently starting on Filter-Free Fridays™.