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.

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.

When Managers Suffer Upward Bullying

A bully is a bully and it doesn't matter who the victim of their efforts is: co-worker, subordinate or manager. According to a Chartered Management Institute (CMI-UK) Bullying At Work report:

• 39% of all managers have been bullied in the past three years
• 49% of middle managers said they had been bullied, making them the most bullied among the UK management population
• 70% of respondents said misuse of power or position was the number one form of bullying
• 17% of bullying was through physical intimidation or violence, making it the least used form of harassment
• 54% of women said they had been victims of bullying compared to 35% of men
• Only 5% said they would talk to HR first if they were bullied

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:

1. to initiate bullying awareness campaigns throughout their workplaces (remember bullying can run both upwards and downwards so managers also need to take the training), and
2. to institute tough guidelines that bullying, either up or down, are immediate grounds for dismissal - and to stick to it no matter what

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

How Managers Can Avoid Staff Revolt

On the web, when someone posts a video up on YouTube, do you ever ask if they graduated from Film School? When you read a Blog post that resonates with you, do you ask whether the author has a degree from Journalism school? When you hear of or read a practical piece of business advice, do you question whether the source of the good advice is an MBA? You don't ... unless you have one of these degrees yourself - only then does it become important - but by ego more than substance.

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.

 

How To Call Out The Workplace Liar

Do you step up and admit when you're wrong? What about your boss? What about your co-workers? What about that clerk who promised to do something but never did it?

Why are you so reluctant to man-up when you are wrong? Why do you hide behind a veil of lies and half-truths when you should be forthright?

Filter-Free Fridays™ are days when you turn off your filters that prevent you from telling the truth - and that especially includes hiding behind lies and blaming others for your screw-up. On Filter-Free Fridays™ you tell the truth. You turn off the filters that prevent you from hiding behind lies or hiding behind not wanting to tell the truth just in case someone's feelings get hurt.

When you hide the truth, you are lying.
When you say your experience was "fine" when it wasn't, you're lying.
When you say "good job" and it wasn't a good job, you're lying.
When you withhold your real feelings because you think someone might be hurt, you're lying.

You need a workplace of truth-tellers who can build a Culture of Accountability and be honest with each other and honest with customers.

How do you live with yourself knowing that you're living a lie? How can your co-workers ever trust you if you lie to them?

C'mon, it isn't that hard. Speak the truth. It's Filter-Free Friday™. And if you can't tell the truth, make up another lie for having to quit your job. Your customers and co-workers deserve better.

3 Business Questions To Ask Right Now

It's summer and for most businesses, it's a little slow - except for companies like road construction, golf courses, air conditioner repair and sales. You get the idea. If your workplace is a little less hectic at this time of the year, why not start some conversations to generate some new ideas and give your organization an honest rating of how you are doing?

Here three questions every organization should be asking itself. All of your people should be involved in the conversations - they are part of the problem and solution:

1. Are we serving our customers the very best that we can or are we taking the "easy" way (identify what the easy way is)?
2. Are we talking to each other enough and creating that Culture of teamwork (identify what you should be talking to each other about)?
3. Are we actively finding the very best talent to join us or being lazy and just accepting those who apply (are you getting the best or the leftovers - this should identify where you stand in your industry)?

The difference between mediocrity and greatness is in the answers to those three questions. Why not start some of the conversations today.

Study: 75% of Tomorrow's Workforce Cheat

I found a copy of an article I had written on a web site in the Netherlands, with the web site owner's name replacing mine as author. I called him on it. He explained that he didn't put the article together but had used a student in the Philippines to research and write articles. That's plagiarism.

I found another one today, with my name removed and "Admin" listed as the author. I am tracking it down now. The picture of "Admin" shows a young girl, perhaps late teens or early twenties. That too, is plagiarism.

I read in the newspaper recently, a report from the Canadian Council on Learning that shows three quarters (75%) of first-year university and college students cheated at least once in high-school.

Students, apparently don't see plagiarism the same as their professors. High-school teachers are turning a blind eye to it - or not bothering to check it at all. That, unfortunately, gives students the impression that plagiarism is acceptable. I mean, really, what's the difference between downloading someone else's work and calling it your own and downloading music from peer-to-peer sites and not paying for it. Theft is theft - but the message is that it's acceptable in high-school if teachers won't address the behavior. This is creating a Culture of cheating in high-schools.

According to the newspaper article, "David Johnston, the associate vice provost of enrollment and the registrar at the University of Calgary, said students who are accused of plagiarism in their first year often do so out of ignorance. 'What we find is that students coming out of high school don't have a clear idea of what plagiarism is,' he said. 'The Internet has made it easy for students to do what they think is research. They cut and paste without citing the source.'"

Here's the management challenge of tomorrow: managing workers who feel stealing someone else's work is OK. If that is the rule, is stealing credit for an idea OK? Is stealing clients from co-workers OK? How about stealing someone's lunch from the lunchroom or coins on a desk or tech gadgets?

If 75% of your new workers have plagiarized or cheated in recent years, how are you going to manage a group of workers who believe that plagiarism and cheating are acceptable?

Be firm and clear that there is a zero tolerance on cheating if you don't want this group of new workers to infiltrate and poison the Culture of Accountability in your workplace.

Filter-Free Fridays™ Implementation Idea

Filter-Free Fridays™ can be a powerful tool in the workplace. Encouraging your people to have open, honest dialogue in a non-hurtful way can realize improved results in the workplace. It is safe to say that when employees are forced to bite their tongues and swallow their feelings, they harbor resentment, for their co-workers, managers and the job. This will create actively disengaged employees. But open, honest and direct dialogue can go a long way to improving the workplace morale and subsequently, engagement levels.

So, if you are considering implementing the Filter-Free Fridays™ concept in your workplace, let me offer you a simple exercise that a departmental staff (of 50 or less) could start with.

On Friday (it is called Filter-Free Fridays™ after all) at noon, the department buys lunch and has it brought in to the office (pizza, sandwiches, wraps, sub-sandwiches, etc): something people can eat without the need for dishes - there's less clean-up. Once everyone has had their lunch and before the smokers head out for a butt-break, start the 5-minute exercise.

The Approachability Scale

Time needed: 5 minutes
Materials for each participant: one piece of notepaper and a pen or pencil
Difficulty: easy and meant to be light-hearted

Ask each person in attendance (managers included) to rate themselves on a scale of 1-4 (there is no middle number on this scale) on their level of approachability. It is important that each attendee assess themselves truthfully in how easy they believe it is for others to approach them (engage in conversation, ask a question, etc). The rating scale is as follows: 1 is being difficult to approach and 4 being easy to approach. Please make sure this is explained. Ask each person to write their number on the piece of paper but tell no one else their number.

The second part of the exercise is to now turn to the others and ask at least five others (can be more than 5 but not less) to offer a rating. So, Participant A would ask 5 others to rate them on a scale of 1-4 on how easy or difficult they would find it to approach them. Then Participant A would write down every rating offered. Then, Participant A would offer a rating to each of the others they spoke with in return.

This part of the exercise should take no more than 3 minutes to complete. There shall be no explanations as to why one participant assesses a number to another participant. Just get the number, give a number back, both write down their scores and then move on to the next person.

Once the 3 minutes is up, call everyone back and have them average their 5 answers. Then ask them to compare it to the number they gave themselves and offer the following:

• You have just experienced what it is like to be told the perceptual truth on this Filter-Free Friday™. It is the truth as others see it - which can be a far cry from the truth you see.
• In the last few minutes, people have rated you based on how THEY feel about approaching you. Remember, these numbers are people's perceptions of you.
• If the average you received from others is lower than the rating you gave yourself, you can ask yourself what you might need to change to become more approachable.
• If the ratings from others was higher than you gave yourself, then you may have to study why others rate you more approachable than you rate yourself.
• If your self-rating and the ratings of others was about the same, then congratulations, your perceptions are in line with others. You're telling yourself the truth.
• And that is the purpose of Filter-Free Fridays™ - to tell the truth in a non-hurtful way. Each of you has offered your co-workers a glimpse of the truth in a non-hurtful and fun way.
• So for the rest of the day, remember what day it is: Filter-Free Friday™. I encourage each of you to stretch yourself a little bit today and to offer your truth in a non-hurtful way.

Then dismiss them for the rest of the lunch hour.

This exercise is not meant to be feedback on work performance. This is a simple social exercise meant to foster a little trust, camaraderie and most of all, honesty in communication. Good luck with it.

Approaching Tomorrow With Yesterday’s Training

I’m guessing you’ve noticed that the new staff at your workplace are getting younger – or are you just getting older? Either way, the truth is that the workplace is getting younger, staff are getting younger, customers are getting younger, clients are getting younger, suppliers are getting younger and managers are getting younger. But for the most part, training is getting old. You can’t run the same training program you’ve been using for years – certainly not if you want to be ahead of the uptake of the new youth in the market. If you’re still using your old training programs and vendors, you’re building a poor corporate culture right from the start. And that’s going to be a problem.
Training programs today need to:

• reflect the changing market for customers who are already researching you on-line before you speak with them the first time
• reflect that your business hours may need to undergo examination to better reflect when your younger customers are working (it isn’t 9-5 anymore)
• reflect that most people don’t even answer their phones, let alone return voice mails – are you reaching your customers the way they want to be reached?
• reflect that niche marketing is a reality and where you once bought all of your office supplies from one vendor, three or four are now better suited to serve niche needs
• reflect a new set of values through Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives – if you don’t have one, the younger workers won’t apply to work there
• reflect the fact that the Old Boys Club is dying and that the new workers don’t do business like the old boys – you need to get respect not woo them with golf
• reflect that management training had better be more focused on mentoring and coaching than policing new workers – they don’t respond well to “command and control” management

In 2015, 75% of the workforce will either be over 50 years of age or under 30 years of age. And the under 30’s are going to control the market shortly thereafter. So what are you doing to better reflect a new attitude in the marketplace?

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Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

Ethnic Cultures And Corporate Culture

The workplace of the future is going to be colorful. Here's why: record levels of births among minorities in the past ten years are moving the USA a step closer to a milestone in which NO ethnic background commands a majority.

According to USA Today:

• minorities accounted for almost 49% of U.S. births in the year ending July 1, 2009, a record high
• 48.3% of kids under age 5 are minorities today
• only 19.9% of people 65 and older today are a minority

That means that in 15 to 20 years from now, those kids under 5 today will be entering the workforce. Almost half of the workforce will be minorities - meaning there will be no real majority. There will be a lot of diversity in the workplace.

Senior managers, your workplace of the future had better have a culture of "culture inclusion" if you want to be able to attract the best and brightest.

We all come from somewhere. We all have our backgrounds and diversities. Expecting your people to not celebrate where they came from is not good business.

You can't hire a high-performer and expect him or her to perform to a high level by stripping away everything that made them who they are. They are not workers - they are people who come to work. Don't forget the people part if you want to build a strong corporate culture.
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Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

Why Requested Referrals Are Bad For Business

It's golf season and you know what that means? It means that mediocre salespeople who are mediocre golfers will be inviting their mediocre clients out for an mediocre day of golf in the hopes of pressuring the mediocre customer into giving an extraordinary referral to another mediocre potential customer. And all because it was simply not another ordinary day at the office.

If your people are pressuring your customers into referring you to others, you need to ask yourself: are you worthy of the referral?

If your customers are not referring you without pressure then they are not ravings fans. They're just customers who think you're ordinary like everyone else. Why would a customer refer a mediocre sales rep to others? Because the customer feels indebted by an afternoon of free golf - which has nothing to do with your salespeople or your product.

Instead of attempting to extort a referral from a client, how about taking that five hours of golf and strategizing ways to improve your culture of customer-focus make the customer experience better so that you develop raving fans who are prepared to shout from the rooftops for you? It sure beats some lame, half-hearted, feigned-indifference referral.

Managers, be very aware of what your sale people are doing on the golf courses with customers. They may be actually harming your company while bolstering themselves. Pressuring customers into giving referrals drives a wedge between your company and your customers - especially if you're really only average.

Then there is the follow-up question: are you prepared to enter into a new client relationship with complete honesty built on the back of a pressured referral solicited by a customer's feeling of indebtedness?

Want a referral? Earn it. Don't beg for it.
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Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

How To Trash Your Corporate Culture for $10

Last week, Subway Restaurants fired an employee for giving two 6-inch sub sandwiches to victims of an apartment block fire. Heidi Heise, in Dartmouth, NS, was summarily fired for giving the two sandwiches to neighbors left homeless by a fire - and failing to write it down.

Sometimes the "right thing to do" is more important than the rules. Heidi guessed right but she got fired. The victims of the fire were homeless and now Heidi is jobless. Heidi was right. Subway was wrong.

This was a bad call from Subway for a lot of reasons. Here's why: the employees still working for Subway probably now think that Subway is an awful place to work (employees always side with an employee who gets fired for doing something good). Subway, when they could have championed such a beautiful gesture, stomped it and now will have a hard time finding employees who will trust their managers. You can bet that customers are also giving them an earful because it's Dartmouth and people in Dartmouth help people when they're down.

Despite all of their advertising promoting themselves as a healthy place to eat, Subway's brand has been tarnished by some bean-counting, short-sighted manager who thinks the rules are more important than doing the right thing.

Rival Quiznos has offered Heidi a job and are raising money for the fire victims. Any thing Subway does now will be too little too late.

Total cost of the two sandwiches: about ten bucks. Cost of the hit to their Corporate Culture and customer loyalty: priceless.
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Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

How To Protect Your Market Share

So what happens when your competitor, who once had a terrible reputation for apathy and poor service, re-brands, re-tools and re-launches itself with a bold new strategy to take back the market share you stole away when they were performing badly?

In fact, their former customers (some of your current customers) have noticed and are showing your competitor some respect and giving them another chance to regain lost trust. What is your next step as a manager?

If your current customers (even if they were once someone else's customers) are showing respect to a competitor, it's because they are not fully satisfied with your service and/or product. People don't jump ship to another supplier when they are completely satisfied. They jump because there is something missing.

A recent survey of senior executives showed 80% believed that their organizations offered a superior customer experience. When surveyed, only 8% of their customers actiually agreed. That's a 72% disparity between what managers believe and what the actual truth is.

Managers, when this happens (and hopefully you do it before this happens) you go back to basics. Figure out what you did to capture those customers and build a new culture around some old values - values that were attractive to customers. Don't sit around and wait for senior management to be shown the difference between 80% and 8%. By the time they figure it out, you'll be experiencing layoffs.

Coach your people back to basics. Make it simple. Make it meaningful. Make your customer the most important person in your life at that moment and make them feel it. No company can compete with that. No way.
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Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com/

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks- Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

Talent Theft: The New Edge In Business

It's not hard to make the case that the very best people in the industry, if they're not working for you right now, are working for someone else.

It's the same reason that "Now Hiring" or "Help Wanted" signs or ads should NEVER be a part of your recruiting strategy. The people who respond to these ads and signs respond because they are available. There's a reason they are available.

What you want is to steal away your competitors' best people - and there are two very good reasons for that:

1. When you want to hire high performers, you will need to let go of your low-performers to make room. That means that if the low-performers want to continue working in the industry, they will likely end up working for your competitors.
2. When news gets out that the highest-performers in the industry work for you, customers will gravitate to you. Also, once it becomes known that all of your former low-performers are working for your competitors, who would want to do business with them? Bottom-line: if you want to steal your competitors' customers, steal your competitors' best people.

Recruiting is finding the best talent in the industry and then going out, making them an offer and enticing them to come work for you. But here's the caveat: if your organization is known for being underhanded, dishonest and lacking values or ethics, no great performer will ever come to you. You will attract only the talent that couldn't find work elsewhere and those whose morals might be in line with yours.

Instead of viewing recruiting as stealing, start thinking of it in the same way you would run a successful sports team. You hire the best players you can. But that means you have first got to figure out where they are. So that means no more Help Wanted signs. They look amateurish and what high-performer, with incredible success, would be tempted to respond to a window sign or newspaper want ad?

If you want to attract the winners, you have to start managing like a winner. Create that Culture of Excellence first and great talent will be easy to attract. But, if you want to hold onto your mediocre talent because you don't want to hurt good people, then you had better create a strategy that takes them from mediocre performer to high-performer. Invest in them and they will invest in you. Manage.
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Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

7 Ways To Detect Fake Job References

News that job-seekers are now buying fake references in an effort to jump ahead of deserving candidates struck me as being the lowest of the low. Even the slimy name of the company helping these liars makes my skin crawl - CareerExcuse.com. These guys, for money, will build a great reference for you, create a fake past employment history, create a fake company with accompanying phone number, fake web site, fake logo and even a fake LinkedIn profile.

This is a site for people who don't work well with others, are jerks on the job, get fired often, show up drunk or high and put their co-workers at risk or who have done criminal acts while on the job. In other words, this is a blantant attempt to avoid accountability and personal responsibility.

How popular is this site? Well, they aren't taking any more subscribers at this time because they are full. That means thousands of job-seekers are lying their way into companies and organizations as we speak. Thousands of organizations are falling victim to unscrupulous job-seekers and their accomplices. Possibly, organizations will be stolen from in short order: recruitment and training time, training budgets, deserving candidates and expertise.

But, HR Directors can unite and fight back. Follow these 7 strategies to ensure that liars and cheats are NOT infiltrating your organization and rotting your culture from the inside-out:

1. Build a network of real people on the ground who can check addresses and business licenses to ensure that the companies are real before you accept the reference at face-value. Fake companies don't have real business licenses and real addresses. Google search the address. Google search other businesses in the area and call a business across the street or in the same building to see if they can see the sign on the building from across the street and if it really does exist.
2. Spread the word. When you discover a fake business and/or a fake reference, let your network know about it immediately. Hold nothing back. You would like to know if the business is a fake before you hired wouldn't you? Well, so would your fellow HR Directors.
3. Don't stop checking after the candidate has been hired. There may have been enough window-dressing to keep you distracted while a fake reference made its way through. Follow up monthly while the candidate is still on probationary period and tell the candidate up front about your plan.
4. Stop placing so much emphasis on the reference. If an HR Director is following potential candidates on social networks long before they ever get close to hiring, they will discover the truth and not rely solely on a piece of paper.
5. Track the candidates on social networks like their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts and look for things out of the ordinary. Watch how the candidate interacts with others and messages he or she may leave on the walls of others.
6. Watch for job titles that don't make sense in the context of the organization. Question someone who was "director of personnel" for a five-employee company or "vice president of production" for a service organization that doesn't manufacture anything.
7. Trust your gut. If something seems hinky, it probably is. Ask the candidate to provide any personal particulars of their former workplaces (or fake workplaces) like how many worked in the department, the receptionist's name, the name of their favorite co-workers, the name of their co-worker's dog, spouse's name, co-worker's golf handicap, etc. Liars are never prepared for questions like that and get very nervous when asked.

I look at it this way: there are some things that past employers won't tell you (because they are afraid of lawsuits).  So take the offensive. If you have just discovered an employee who falsified his resume, fire him and sue him for the expenses incurred by recruitment and training. And don't forget to sue the accomplices like CareerExcuse.com. Make them feel the pain of consequence too. A good dozen or so lawsuits ought to shut down their motivation to continue to lie. It also sends a very strong message to your employees that you will not stand for lying. A great way to foster a culture of honesty is to toss the liars.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How Managers Can Ruin Culture

Three middle managers who worked for the City of Calgary were discovered to have been making money on the side using City technology (email) and contacts and contractors. This information was discovered by audit of the department. A few others were found to be visiting gaming sites on company time and using the City email account to make money while off on disability.

Management is not a right but a privilege. Those who have been elevated to management need to lead by example. It's hard to do when the manager is obviously devoid of scruples, ethics and morals. How do people like this get promoted?

These managers need to be fired immediately. If you don't, you risk giving your own organization a black eye. Being afraid to do the tough thing is exactly how corporate cultures rot from the inside out. If the leaders are corrupt, they will corrupt culture. Those who are easily swayed will come to believe that this sort of  behavior is acceptable.

Fire those who can't tell right from wrong - especially if they are in management. Then, gladly pay the legal bill to get rid of the offenders. It will be much cheaper in the long run once you send a message to your people.

If you want to create a culture of Greatness, stop thinking "ordinary." Nothing gets swept under the carpet. Everything is dealt with. Everything is talked about. Everything is in the open. Set a standard for your people to rise to. They will.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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A Kinder, Gentler Business Of The Future

This month marked a very important milestone, one that quietly slipped under the radar. The consequences of this milestone are far reaching and it is only going to get bigger and play a far more important role in business in North America.

January officially recognizes that women now comprise OVER 50% of the workforce. Where once women were largely confined to menial jobs, their brain power now outnumbers men in the workforce.

Add to that women dominating in terms of educational performance, volume of university degrees and especially advanced professional degrees and you can see how this can become a tsunami of change down the road.

It's been said that women are better leaders overall than men - largely due to their ability to lead with compassion instead of cutthroat business tactics - and we face a workforce that is about to change. As more women move up the ladder, the old-boys clubs are doomed to go the way of the dodo.

Personally, I welcome a change in the demographics. More women in senior management would mean more women dominating boards of directors as well as shareholders. That means how business gets done is going to change with a heavier emphasis on long-term growth and prosperity for the sake of the employees and loyalty while lessening concentration on jumping into takeover situations, raping and cutting up companies for the sake of profit and not caring about the families that cutthroat business affects.

Maybe by finding a way to be kinder, gentler organizations, we can help employees find loyalty, purpose and pride in their work and the companies they work for.

It couldn't hurt. I can't possibly imagine how much worse employee engagement, diligence and work ethic could get. Maybe we'll see the end of the practice of "company profits first, employee welfare second." Maybe it'll turn into employee welfare AND company success together. After all, you can't have one without the other.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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The Attitude of Reality TV

Let's not be confused here, organizations don't have values. Corporations don't have values. Businesses don't have values. They may have a culture but a culture is not values.

It's the individual who has the values not the collective. Therefore, it's the people who come to work each day that have the values, not the organization they work for. Individual values create an organizational culture. Erode personal values and you erode the corporate culture.

Over the last ten years, we have witnessed a substantial erosion in personal values which has led to questionable organizational culture. People are caring less about others and more about themselves now than they did 10 years ago. A recent Adecco survey pointed out that a shocking 41% of Gen Y's are willing to sabotage others and lie and cheat to keep their own jobs. These are the future business leaders of tomorrow? Think twenty years down the road when these same 41% hold management positions and positions of influence.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Turn on Big Brother, Survivor, The Apprentice, any reality TV show and watch manipulation, backstabbing, blackmail, lies, cheating and ganging-up in action. Decent people don't win these shows. They get crushed. The nasty win the prize money. This is what parents allow their kids to believe is real life in the work world because there's no discussion about values after the show is over.

It's time for us to make up for the lack of personal values that parents aren't giving their children. How about designing personal development courses right in the workplace that deal with values, ethics and morals? If something isn't done soon, almost half of new-hires are going to change the decency of your work place and your corporate culture. Otherwise, we're all in deep sewage. You don't want to work for the 41% who think it's OK to lie, cheat, steal and blackmail.