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: Where To Find The Best Workers

Where To Find The Best Employees from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.

Kevin Burns, Workplace Expert, shows you where to find the best workers. Do you HONESTLY think high-performers who are happy with their work are going to be checking the newspaper want ads or paying any attention to your "Now Hiring" sign in the front window? The only people who are likely to respond to your ads or your Help Wanted sign are the people who are already looking for a job - the available. And there is a reason that they’re available.

Video: How Managers MUST Engage Staff

How Managers Must Engage Staff from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.

Workplace Expert, Kevin Burns, thinks that the real purpose of a good manager has been lost with too many meetings and too much paperwork and that perhaps it’s time managers changed their minds and philosophies of what they are there to do. The truth is that managers work for the staff and NOT the other way around.

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?

A Manager's Easy Performance Review

Performance reviews rank second on the list of management duties that managers dread - right behind firing someone. The problem with these reviews is that they are left up to the manager to once a year prepare something to say to the employee.

Video: How To Fix Tardiness

When you let people get away with tardiness, you tell the rest of the staff - the other eighty percent of your workforce - that it’s OK to be irresponsible and you actually encourage more of the same behaviour. You, by not enforcing consequences, are making yourself look bad and ineffective as a manager.
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One-Phrase Engagement

Employees, left to their own devices, are likely to become distracted and maybe even bored with some of the work. But employees who are engaged by their bosses, who have regular conversations and are given small attainable tasks to accomplish are more likely to keep focused and on task. So how do you go from being an absentee manager to one who engages immediately?

Video: Lessons Are Repeated

Do you find yourself having to face the same problems and put out the same fires at work? Do you find yourself secretly questioning why does this keeps happening to you? Can I let you in on a little secret? It keeps happening because you’re just not getting it.

Video: The Open-Door Policy

Do you have an "open door" policy at your workplace? Almost every organizations claims to. So why is it that if so many organizations have an "open door" policy, so much takes place behind closed doors?

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.

Video: Create A Mission For Your People

Create A Mission For Your People from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.

Missions Statements are so muddled full of ambiguous language usually created by committee that has dumbed down and watered down any idea to be so empty of any meaning, that no one could take ownership of it. Don’t ever let a committee prepare your mission statement. So how do we fix it?

How To Get Thrown Out Of An Expensive Italian Restaurant

On Filter-Free Fridays™ you get the opportunity to tell businesses, organizations and people how they are doing - in a non-hurtful way.
Last Friday, my wife and I headed out for some Italian at one of the city’s most expensive Italian restaurants. We had never been to this particular restaurant before but the reviews showed well.
We ordered a glass of red wine, the Caprese salad to start and my wife ordered the House Specialty Lasagna and I ordered the Veal-stuffed Cannelloni. They brought fresh bruschetta on crostinis as their welcome. Delicious - well as delicious as you can make tomatoes in December but well spiced and flavorful. The Caprese was alright I suppose - but again made with out-of-season tomatoes - it was good.
Then the main courses arrived straight from the oven in the same dishes. We had to wait several minutes before we could taste since it was piping hot. When we did, my wife thought the bechamel/tomato sauce (which the pastas were swimming in) tasted more like Campbell’s Cream of Tomato soup, both pasta dishes were overcooked (disintegrated when touched) and there seemed to be a lack of any sort of seasoning. Have you ever tasted veal or lasagna without seasoning? Well it’s tastes like … uh … nothing.
The “pepper girl” came by a few minutes later and asked if we wanted fresh pepper. I simply replied, “I don’t think that’s going to fix it.”
She immediately summoned our server (turns out he was the owner) and when asked, we simply said that the sauce tasted like tomato soup, the pasta was overdone, there was no seasoning and therefore no taste and perhaps it was the worst pasta I have ever had in an upscale restaurant (true).
“Well then this place is not for you,” he barked and angrily gathered up the dishes. “I will pay for what you’ve eaten. You can leave at any time,” he barked and then threw the dishes into a tub in the kitchen (really he threw them). And we left.
If it doesn’t taste good, don’t eat it anyway and then pay for it. Say something. The worst that happens is they ask you to leave. I suppose I could have said everything was “fine” but then I would have been lying and the next customer who ordered the same dish would get an expensive mouthful of nothing.
On Filter-Free Fridays™, you’re not just helping the business get better, you’re making it better for the next person. Tell the truth. They need to hear it.

How To Deal With Bad Parkers At The Mall

It’s the Holiday season. I know this because the malls are full and so are their respective parking lots. The problem is that there could be more parking available if not for the selfish displays of a few drivers who could care less how they park.

Strange isn’t it that people can go to the mall to buy a beautiful gift for a loved one while at the same time thumbing their noses at everyone else. They don’t care how they park, they don’t care that they take up two spaces and they certainly don’t care that they inconvenience you. No because they’re selfish, self-absorbed little idiots who, if they understood the spirit of the season, would park respectfully to allow others to have a happy holiday season as well.

So here’s my solution: it’s Filter-Free Fridays™ so the gloves are off. Right now, cut and paste the following and put it into a Word document four or five times on a page. Make it 16-point type and a bold font and when you print them out, cut them into strips:

• Hey selfish jerk, thanks for parking with such lack of courtesy during this Holiday season. It’s obvious that whatever gift you bought today won’t matter because the Spirit of the Season is apparently lost on you. The truth is, I left you this note because you parked liked a selfish jerk. I didn’t damage your car but you might not be so lucky the next time you don’t think about others. Wake up - oh and Happy Holidays. (www.filterfreefridays.com)

Carry a bunch of these in your car this Holiday Season. You’re going to need them. It’ll take the edge off when you place one under a windshield wiper. Then you can go shopping smiling - with the full Holiday Spirit inside of you. And if you see someone parking like a jerk, correct them before they walk away from their car. I’ll bet most sheepishly return to their cars and park properly. Embarrassment works.

When Managers Make People Wait

Don’t you just hate standing in line? Banks have that long cattle pen (moo). Airports have the same line, even though you’ve already checked in AND put your own luggage tag on your luggage you still have to line up to give someone the bag. Huh. And now even stores like Best Buy make you line up like cattle (moo) if you want to return something to their store. It seems that buying is efficient - returning will eat up a good chunk of your life.

Organizations have become quite competent at making customers wait and you’re likely quite aware of how long your customers are forced to wait. But have you considered how much your employees wait?

Employees who are forced to wait, especially waiting for fellow workers, cause your people to think. When they think, they reflect on how bored they are waiting, When they discover how bored they are, they blame the job. When they discover how boring the job is, they disengage.

But you, as a manager, can Tweak™ the disengagement out of your people and get them to actively engage. Tweak™ing can identify problems and boredom before they become problems. Tweak™ Management creates dialogue between employees and managers.

Remove wait times for your employees and they actively engage. But only managers who communicate with their people regularly will be able to eliminate boredom. Otherwise, your people sit around waiting to speak with their managers about how long they are forced to wait.