Employees Are Not Created Equal from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.
Too much effort is spent in managing people into conformity. The truth is that too many managers want one employee to be just like another employee - one who models the traits and gets the results management likes. It's counterproductive when managers start trying to manage their employees the exact same way. It's worse when they expect each employee's results to be the same.
Melanie at Southland promised to call Panasonic directly - and she did - three times with no reply. Then she sent three separate emails begging for Panasonic to return a call which she finally received with an acknowledgment that the part would be sent by air overnight - no extra charges for overnight shipping.
Melanie then sent me this by email: "Hi Kevin, I heard back from Panasonic. The part is in stock with them, cost of the part is $161.40 + GST. If this is OK, please give me a call so I can create a work order."
I called immediately and Melanie promised to alert me when the part arrived so they could get the camera in right away. The challenge was going to be scheduling because of Remembrance Day. They would be open Thursday but closed Friday and Saturday. She told me the part was being shipped by overnight courier and scheduled to arrive by 9 am next day.
Melanie called at 9:30 saying don't leave the house because the part isn't here yet - but I was already on my way. I left the camera anyway with the intention of picking it up by end of business regardless of whether it had been repaired.
Then, at 11 am, this email arrived: "Hi Kevin, the part arrived & it has been given to Rommel to work on. I will advise once it is completed."
An hour and a half later: "Hi Kevin, your camcorder is done. We will be here till 5:30 today."
Calgary is a city of 1.1 million people. Southland Crossing TV does business like they're in a small town. I gushed to Melanie directly that the service experience was incredible and that given the opportunity, I would return to them in the blink of an eye.
On Filter-Free Fridays™ you speak your truth in a non-hurtful way. Well here's the truth, if you're in the electronics repair business, Southland Crossing TV is the service model you have to compete with. Yeah, good luck to you. It's going to be pretty hard to top that. And given the choice between you and someone like Southland, why would anyone choose you?
What if it was a choice between a two-minute YouTube inspirational video on Gratitude or a bad motivational speaker spouting platitudes like "fake it 'til you make it" or "wear a smile until you feel happy" or him spewing outdated information from twenty years ago that doesn't work anymore?
The last one is a no-brainer isn't it? You'd choose the YouTube video for sure. So how do bad speakers get hired to spew bad information to good organizations and risk making the organization worse? It happens when the people who hire consultants, speakers and trainers don't do their due diligence.
You can NOT afford to be taking these kinds of risks with your people. Do NOT let regurgitations of old, worn-out, passed-due-date ideas infiltrate your organization. You would never let ten year-old refurbished vehicles be the choice of a company car. You would never purchase ten-year old computers and software to give to your people to improve their performance. Why then would you allow old, tired "motivational" speakers get in front of your people without checking them out first? Think people. Think!
Start following blogs of experts, consultants and speakers and follow and read them religiously. If you like their ideas after a few months, hire them. If it's the same old tired crap that you know doesn't work anymore, stay away from them. Simply "unsubscribe" from their blogs and newsletters but do NOT hire them just because they are "speakers." You have no idea of the damage you could do to your people and your Culture.
Just like your industry, there are a handful of high-quality speakers and then there is a majority of terrible speakers. Make sure you know who you're hiring. Oh, and just because someone might be a member of a professional organization, shouldn't make them an easy pick. No speaker is "perfect" fit for every organization regardless of what their website might say. Don't ever hire from a web site, a brochure or even a referral. Find out for yourself. Do the work. This is important.
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™.
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:
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?
Senior Management sends a new policy initiative downstairs with the expectation of implementation (or they would have consulted with their mid-managers and front-line workers prior to the decision). Notice that the policy decisions only travel one way: down. Mid-managers are expected to push the policy down onto front-line workers and have them buy into it.
But here's where policy decisons inevitably hit their "Bounce" point. Employees will want to question the "why" of new policy decisions - change resistance makes people ask questions because they want to feel like they have some control over the "how" of their work. Employees will look at it from their own perspectives and then send the ball bouncing up through mid-management hoping that their suggestions will spark a re-think from senior management. But if the ball never gets back up to senior management, it forces mid-managers to make excuses or to put their foot down and force the initiative down their throats - thus creating a more fragmented Culture.
It's "Bounce" that creates the Corporate Culture of Apathy. Feeling like there is no one listening to them or by feeling powerless, employees will begin to disrespect their workplaces and their bosses.
It's at the point of the "Bounce" that employees test their superiors. If the "Bounce" won't allow the ball to permeate the Executive floor, no matter how much you want to influence a positive Culture change, the old, existing Culture will swallow the new initiative.
If you want to have your policies be more readily accepted, you must eliminate the "Bounce." Culture is NEVER created at the Executive level. Policies and influential direction may be created at the executive level but Culture is always created at mid-manager level and below. Culture is "how we do things" which is decided by employees - regardless of the processes.
Recognizing how the "Bounce" works will help you build a stronger Culture initiative.
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.
Huh? Is that your mission statement? Cripes, could you be just a little less specific? Not much wonder you can't get your people to engage. They don't know what you do.
Here's the deal: if your mission statement isn't absolutely specific about what you do, how will your people ever know what TO do?
"But," you complain, "I'm just a manager. I don't have any say in the mission statement."
"Horse-pucky," I say. Develop a departmental or work-unit mission statement. Get your staff involved in writing their own mission statement. Get them real clear on what they're supposed to be doing and they will do it. And they will engage because you engaged them in finding their purpose.
Managers manage. They don't throw their hands up and say they don't have any power to change it. That's not managing. That's excusing.
No more excuses. Call a staff meeting for Friday at 10 in the morning and work for two hours to craft your departmental mission statement. If you can't get it done in two hours, then that's a sign that your department has no leadership. So, you won't be using the word "leadership" in your mission statement.
Advice: craft something. You can always revisit it at any time to smooth it out. But do something. It doesn't have to be perfect - it just needs to be something specific.
But you've blurred the lines of work by giving your people Blackberrys, by sending text messages and emails at all hours of the day and night, by calling them on cell while they're on vacation and by interrupting family get-togethers on weekends. Your business doesn't stop asking your people to work at 5 o'clock. Why should they not be able to do personal stuff on company time if they're getting company stuff done on personal time?
But that's good for the people who never seem to leave the work behind. What about those who only have to perform work between 9 and 5?
There's a old notion that says a person compulsive shopping is an attempt to fill a void in their soul. If your people are shopping online during business hours, then they're probably just filling a void left by not having meaningful work, something they can be proud of. They are disengaged employees because you, as a manager, aren't engaging them.
But then there is the Gen Y worker who, we are told, are great multi-taskers. No they are not. Gen Y has simply always had many things going on at one time. They find it easier to concentrate on several tasks at once because doing just one thing is boring - so they jump from task to task to task. So they could be shopping as a release from the boredom of putting together your latest D-U-L-L PowerPoint presentation - which will just be riveting at the next (far too lengthy) staff meeting. (Oh, and stop thinking that PowerPoint is engaging. It's no more engaging than overhead projector slides.)
People shop when they are bored or when you take their personal life away. Don't blame them. It's a response to boring work from boring managers.
Now, when these same students finish school and enter the work world, they will encounter your trainers using archaic and (oh my God this is BORING) PowerPoint slides. They are asked to shut off their cell phones, are not supplied laptops but are given 3-ring binder manuals and no access to Internet video, no collaborative messaging and especially NO social media (because it is viewed as a time-waster).
Not much wonder these new workers think your workplace is a step back in time. Look, these kids are learning with technology you probably not only don't understand but arent even aware exists. Their parents (some of your workers) are helping them with their homework (with rudimentary knowledge of how it all works). Then, when the students become old enough to work for you, you take everything away from them because you don't know how it works.
Who looks like the leader now?
If you want to build a Culture that will attract these new workers, you had better be looking to the educational system to see what your workforce of tomorrow is using today. Stop being such an old fart and get with the program. Social media is here to stay. Internet video is here to stay. In five years, the high school students of today will be coming to work to use technology that hasn't even been invented yet.
If you're still having a difficult time with your email, maybe it's time you stepped out of the way and let people who can use the technology embrace it and run with it. Maybe they are much better able to relate to your up-and-coming workforce.
There are a few more inter-departmental phone calls and a better willingness to tell the truth on Fridays. The conversations usually begin with, "It's Filter-Free Fridays™ right?" Once they hear a "yep (with a knowing smile)," then they let go and tell the truth. And what a great place it is to work when co-workers don't bite their tongues for fear that someone might be offended - especially when there is little to be offended about. It's an even better place to work when, on Fridays, some of the guys go for a beer after work and talk truthfully about where they work - in full view of others - and they speak highly of their workplace. Can you say you do that?
In fact, in speaking with the HR Director today, I found out that the last five people hired have been as a result of being referred by friends already employed by the company. Imagine never having to put out another "Now Hiring" sign or an ad in a newspaper looking for people because they're lining up to come work for you. That's a solid Corporate Culture built on many ideas - including one of openness and honesty.
A funny thing happens to an organization when they embrace an idea that they like: they keep it at the conscious level in their brains - not the unconscious level. When you give people permission to speak freely, provided their utterances are not hurtful of demeaning, they will usually welcome the chance to not have to run every word through a filter before they speak it. And that is the concept behind Filter-Free Fridays™.
Fridays are the days you speak the truth, where you yourself become accountable and help others become accountable. Fridays are the day you take the protective plastic packaging off of your ideas and thoughts and you let people see the real you speaking your real truth in an effort to help, not hurt.
Eventually, every day becomes Friday. Once it does, it becomes an attractive Culture for others to want to join.
But it's not just in safety that this is happening. Organizations are building processes and policies that are meant to be dummy-proof. Their employees don't even have to think about what they are doing because all they have to do is follow the procedure - the thinking has already been done for them. What you end up with is a bunch of mindless workers who simply check their brains at the door and become living examples of the walking dead.
Yet, in the same breath, managers complain about Employee Engagement levels and how their people aren't engaging as well anymore. On the one hand managers create foolproof procedures and policies by proactively doing the thinking for their people and in the same breath, managers complain that their people don't seem to care about the work they do. Why don't workers care? Because the work's not challenging that's why. They don't have to think. You, as a manager, somehow don't believe they are capable of thinking for themselves so you don't even let them try.
Take away the need to use one's brain and you take away the challenge of the work. Take away the challenge and people actively disengage.
So what can you do? You can stop telling your people how to do it and ask them how they would do it. It forces them to think. When they think, they engage.
Stop operating like an over-protective parent who childproofs the house resulting a world free of dangers and consequences. (Yep, that'll prepare a kid for the real world - sarcasm). Stop dummy-proofing your department. You want your people to mess up. People learn from messing up. Let them be who they are and then, as manager, help them get better by inspiring them to think for themselves.
Add to that the fact that this year, women accounted for 51% of management positions in the workplace and you can see where the real threat is to see the numbers of upward bullying incidents rise.
To create positive corporate cultures, senior management needs to become aware that upward bullying is on the upswing and must take immediate action to do 2 things:
The problem is when middle managers approach senior managers to discuss issues of being upward bullied, they may be seen as unfit to manage or, at least, not capable of reigning in their staff causing many issues of upward bullying to go unreported - allowing the bullying to continue. A senior manager turning a blind eye to a mid-manager's cry for help could be interpreted as a misuse of power or position - another incident of bullying.
It's these types of sensitive issues which can decide whether you have a strong corporate culture capable of attracting high-performers and top talent or whether yours is just another mediocre (possibly awful) place to work masquerading as a professional organization that cares about its people. Great thing is that you get to decide.
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Consider Kevin to address this issue at your next meeting. Call us toll-free in North America 1-877-287-6711 or visit us at www.kevburns.com
That was the answer I received when asked if the public-access computer at the print shop could connect to the Internet so I could print 4 sheets of paper. Which store? Hmm, let's just say it's an office products/computer/print shop store with a big red sign .... one word ... a place you can buy staplers and the little things that go in them. Got it now?
Turns out that you can't access your files on the Internet (Gmail, Google Docs, Yahoo, Hotmail, nuthin') from the store - regardless of the fact that data storage is moving "to the clouds" instead of on hard-drives. The problem is that some former employees were abusing their connectivity to the 'net and now, as a policy, the company-wide policy is to punish all of their "valued" customers because of the actions of a few idiot employees - instead of simply addressing the problem offenders.
"Sorry we don't do that," is not an acceptable answer if companies are completely capable of doing it - whatever "it" is. It is simply an excuse to do nothing instead of pleasing the customer.
Have you noticed that "company policy" is always in favor of the company and NEVER in favor of the customer? I do not believe any customer (or manager) should ever accept this as a final answer. So I searched out the store manager and tried again. I explained that I simply needed to log onto the 'net and only print 4 pages - important pages - and he could watch me if he wanted to.
"We're not supposed to do this but ...." he did it anyway. Five minutes later I was leaving the store, documents in hand and a great deal of respect for the manager who chose customer satisfaction over company policy.
Leaving your employees out to hang by forcing them to offer feeble excuses and policies to customers only serves to screw up your Culture. This is exactly when managers should screw company policy. Managers must empower their people to fix problems - regardless of dumb policy. And customers should hold a company's feet to the fire and force them to fix your problems - regardless of dumb policy.
On Filter-Free Fridays, do not accept "company policy" as an excuse for you not getting what you want. Policies only exist because people rarely challenge them. If enough people challenge a policy, it will be changed.
Take the filters off that prevent you from asking for what you want and stop allowing someone else's "policy" to be your excuse for not getting what you want.
People in airports, when forced to wait 15 minutes for their luggage tend to become unahppy. But give those same passengers a 15 minute walk to get their baggage and they are fine with it and much happier.
In essence, when you have time on your hands, you have time to think. Managers need to be very aware of this: the chances that you will be viewed as a bad manager increase substantially if there is not enough work and plenty of time to think. But you also risk looking like a bad boss if you pile the work on too much. You have to strike that balance. (By the way, pointless meetings are "think time" and can be detrimental to how your people view you).
When people have time to think because of boredom, your people don't usually think positively about their workplaces and their jobs. The tendency is to nitpick about little things. Give them time to think and those little things become big things.
Don't be afraid to give your people a little extra work. You need to be more afraid of them not having enough work. You are a better manager building a better Culture if you can find the right balance between not overtaxing your people and keeping them busy.
You see, if you expect your staff, your employees and your co-workers to respect you because you have a title, then you are the worst manager ever. Thinking that people will respect you because you have a title is arrogant and divisive. It will ruin your Culture and create higher rates of turnover. The new generation doesn't respond well to following a title. But they will follow someone who has something of substance to offer. That's why professionally produced YouTube videos rarely get near the same number of views as a lone-figure video, shot in a basement with poor audio. The professionally produced video is going for the "look" while the lone guy in his basement is going for the "feel." The "feel" usually resonates more with viewers than the "look."
Remember that lesson. That's an important factor in the Culture you create. Your people want to "feel" what they do and you've got to find a way to deliver that. And as a manager, if you want to avoid a staff revolt, remember that fact.
The reality is that in the Generation Y (soon-to-be) dominated world, titles don't matter because virtually every one of them has graduated university as well. They need university just to keep up - unlike Boomers who got a degree with an expectation of an executive job (along with the power and perks that come with it).
The new measure is NOT how much time you spent in school. The new measure is NOT what title you have. The new measure is what you CONTRIBUTE. That puts a first-year Gen Y and a seasoned Boomer with 30 years experience on the same footing. Attempting to keep down a good idea from a Gen Y because they "don't have enough experience" just insults an entire generation and they will quickly be searching for other work.
On the radio, a good song is a good song, regardless of whether it's Top 40, country or folk music. In the workplace, a good idea is a good idea, regardless of how long the employee with the idea has worked there.
Let's not get caught up in tenure and seniority and pompous arrogance to the point where it affects Culture.
Wherever there is a choice, there is a menu. Understanding this brutally important fact can transform your Culture in a very short time - which will be very usefull in attracting and retaining new talent.
The Gen Y world includes menus. The same rules applied growing up:
So for the poor Baby Boomers who can't quite figure out why Gen Y seems to have no initiative, it has nothing to do with initiative at all. If your Gen Y workers don't seem to be doing much it's because they don't have a menu of choices of what to do next. You're attempting to manage your Gen Y's like you would Gen X or Boomers and that's a huge mistake. You need to make sure your new workers have choices or at least a list of tasks that they can choose in which order they will accomplish them. That is, unless your Culture sucks - at which point it won't matter what kind of choices you offer - if the work sucks then really, what's the point?
But you can build a strong Culture of Accomplishment in your workplace by recognizing how your new workers think - they think by menu choices. Don't just expect all age-groups of workers to know what to do next. Give them choices and the work will get done. The new manager also needs to be a task-master driving collaboration and innovation. Don't just expect that your people to know what to do next. Given a menu choice of looking for something to do and doing nothing, most will choose doing nothing.
You don't have to develop menus for each person. One giant shared menu for workers will foster, better communication, better collaboration in accomplishing the tasks and develop a more engaged workplace delivering higher-quality results.
Generation Y has a good work ethic when given choices for what to do next and they will get the work done and in record time. Just don't leave them without a menu of choices. That's like the computer breaking down and the X-Box and their cell phone too, leaving them just one choice: to go back to bed. And that too, is a Menu.
