Correcting A Bad Business Cycle

As a boss, when you make a decision that affects the whole organization, are you really clear of the practical and real consequences and fallout on your front-line employees and their families? Really clear?

As a sales rep, are you prepared for the consequences that follow by stretching the truth of your claims just one time too many?

As a customer service rep, are you prepared to accept the fallout that results from you being apathetic in your effort and your job responsibilities?

As a customer, are you prepared to reward lousy quality and poor service by purchasing anyway?

As a future consumer, aren't you upset because the customer before you could have corrected bad service by simply saying something?

As a person of value, are you going to allow the "takers" of the world to butt in line, take more than one parking space, not offer a seat to an elderly lady on the bus or any other event that requires decency?

It's not employees who work for you. It's not prospects you sell to. It's not customers you serve. It's not businesses you buy from. It's not jerks you deal with. It's people. Every single interaction, every single event, every single experience has people at the center of it all.

If you're not "good people" yourself, you'll be an even lousier employee and customer.

The Attitude of Connectedness says we are all connected to other people - all of us. No exceptions.
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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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You're Not Addressing The Problem

What would you do with a staff member who almost every month had an encounter with a customer that created a complaint about the staff person's behavior? Would you address the behavior or the cause of the recurring behavior? Read that question carefully.

If you had a snoring problem, would you seek the help of a Sleep Center or would you see a doctor about a possible inflamed liver? If you answered Sleep Center, then you would be addressing the symptom before establishing the cause. Fatty livers, as it turns out, can create awful snoring problems. Bet you didn't know that, huh?

If you find yourself stressed at work and packing on the pounds, would you go on a diet? Cortisol, the stress hormone, stores more fat - regardless of what you eat. The weight gain is likely being caused by stress. Treat the stress. Oh, and depriving yourself (dieting) only cause more stress - thus releasing more cortisol which makes you even fatter.

An amazing thing happens when you get updated information - when you continue to learn and read. You actually start being able to solve problems that once had a poor success rate. Problems that keep cropping up aren't being solved.

Figure out the underlying attitude of WHY the employee treats customers poorly, not THAT he does - fix that and the behavior will fix itself. Figure out WHY you're snoring, not THAT you're snoring - fix that and the snoring will fix itself. Figure out WHY you're stressed, not THAT you're stressed - fix that and the weight will fix itself.

If you're going to solve problems for your clients, customers and co-workers, make sure you're not using old information that is outdated and doesn't work anymore. Always go for the WHY - not just the easy WHAT.
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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 To Excel When Business Is Down

Jeffery Gitomer, perhaps America's top sales trainer, said yesterday, "When business is down, it’s likely morale is down. Invest in attitude training for every member of the team FIRST. The best way to get more sales is by creating more friendly and human interaction. The best way to gain loyalty from existing customers, and get more sales (the surest path to survival and growth), is by making service IMPROVEMENTS, not service cuts."

When business is down, there is greater competition for fewer dollars in the marketplace. My audiences always seem amazed to hear that 51% of buyers buy "Attitude" factors like staff, friendliness, approachability, ease-of-business, after-sale service and follow-up. A smaller percentage buy from you because of product knowledge.  

More people buy your Attitude than your knowledge. Pay attention to that. The companies who will be successful when times are tough are the ones who have the right customer-focused Attitude. A buyer expects you to have product knowledge but the competitive edge goes to organizations that address Attitude factors.

Attitude also happens to be tied for second as most popular criteria on job performance reviews: first, quality of work followed by Attitude and productivity. Attitude finished ahead of teamwork, goals, customer service and skills development. Why then do most organizations spend the majority of their training dollars on teamwork, goals, customer service and skills development if the top three criteria for how you judge your people aren't even in that list? When times are tough, you're wasting your money if you're not addressing Attitude.

45% of workers feel "work" is the biggest source of stress in their lives. That's about half of your staff who hate coming to work because they get stressed. Great Attitude to build a successful organization on.

Your Corporate Culture is nothing more than a collection of prevailing Attitudes in your workplace. You will never, and I mean NEVER, improve your culture without addressing Attitude. Without addressing Attitude, you will be never be more than an ordinary, mediocre organization. To go to a "Greatness" culture requires you to do something that none of your competitors are doing - like, change your attitude about Attitude.
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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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70% of HR Reject Applicants Based On Facebook

70% of HR Directors surveyed say they have rejected job applicants because of questionable activity and photos on social networking sites like Facebook.

As part of Data Privacy Day, Microsoft says it conducted a survey of 2,500 people that included, consumers, HR managers and recruitment professionals in the US, the UK, Germany and France, with the goal of learning more about attitudes toward online reputation and how this information can have real life consequences. The survey found that the top online factors for rejecting a job applicant are unsuitable photos/videos, concerns about a candidate’s lifestyle and inappropriate comments written by the candidate. (Techcrunch.com)

That photo of you and your girlfriends in lewd poses with beers in hand - that video of your drunken escapades at the house party - the use of four-letter words when writing on someone's wall - all good ways to get you rejected by an HR Director.

Do you think you're invisible? People are watching you all the time. But then I said that just two weeks ago.

Clean up your drunken photos. Clean up your lascivious behavior. Clean up your language on-line. People are watching you.

Parents, open your own Facebook accounts and start watching what your kids are up to so that when they complain to you that they didn't get the job, you can show them why they didn't.
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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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Crushed on American Idol

"You can accomplish anything you want to." One of the more ridiculous of statements from the motivational speakers. NO you can't. American Idol is proof positive.

I've noticed an interesting trend on the preliminary rounds of Idol in the last few weeks. The contestants who come in to the audition with a pompous attitude and false bravado touting their (ahem) talent aren't making the cut. Kids that have been praised (perhaps even overpraised) by their families and friends for their marginal singing ability are crushed when they don't make it. Tears, swearing and tirades of parents outside the room mockingly offering, "what do you know Simon Cowell?" are commonplace on prime-time TV.

But those with a silent "knowing,"a humble demeanor and a truckload of talent are the ones who are on their way to Hollywood. They don't need to boast about their talent. They let their talent speak for them.

It really seems to be true: the loudest one in the room is usually the weakest one in the room.

Now if only there were a pre-qualifying round to weed out the talentless, the preeners and the delusionals, I might be able to sit through an entire hour without wondering why parents won't be brutally honest with their kids. It's a shame to find out you have no talent in front of millions of people when your parents could have saved you the embarrassment by simply being honest instead of trying to coddle your delicate, little self-esteem - only to have it stomped on and crushed on international television.

Thanks Mom and Dad. Great attitude (wink). And don't get me started on beauty pageants for five year-olds. There's a psych ward waiting for those parents.
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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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Bad Advice From Old People

"Get a good education. Get a good job. Make sure there is a pension. Retire early if you can."

How many of our parents said something like that to us in high school? Parents thought they had the right advice. But now it turns out that advice like this is what is disengaging employees at work.

Get a good education - more importantly get the right education. A degree in astrophysics is a good education, unless your love is in marketing. Then that astrophysics degree was a huge waste of your time even if you could make more money in astrophysics. People get degrees in great-paying professions but hate the work. That's how you become disengaged from your work. Make sure your education is in something that you will love to do for a lifetime.

Get a good job - no don't. Get a great career. You don't want a "job" - you want a career. When you stop looking at what you do as a job and instead view it as a career that you chose (even temporarily), you engage better and find more reward. A job is just a paycheck. Most could give a fiddler's damn about a job. But a career? You will protect that and keep up with changes and your education. You will be inspired to become the best in your field. But a job? Who cares.

Make sure there is a pension - especially if it just a job. Just showing up at work and doing just enough to not get fired qualifies anyone for a pension. You could be the world's worst school-teacher and you will get the same pension as the best teacher. Pensions are not incentive to perform. Perhaps the whole pension idea should be reformed to become commensurate with effort and engagement during the working years - a lifelong performance bonus, if you will. That would force people to give their best all through their work life and to choose something they would enjoy doing.

Retire early if you can - or not. I'm sure Richard Branson and Donald Trump are just waiting for retirement (Branson is 60 this year and Trump is 64). Bet they can't wait to stop slaving at their jobs each day so they can enjoy their retirement years of doing nothing and collecting their pensions. If you love something, you won't want to retire. And if your company forces you to retire, open your own consulting business to keep active. Why is it that we force those with the most wisdom to leave organizations?

Kids, ignore the "advice" of old people in jobs who do just enough to not get fired, who educated themselves in a discipline that gave them no joy (because they thought it was the right thing to do) and who are counting down the days to retirement so they can collect a pension from a job that they really didn't care much about. Look for the people who went against convention, who chose to rely on their smarts, their hearts and their spirit and who defied what old people told them and made their mark in this world. They're easy to find. They're the old people who are still working because they love what they do that much. Take their advice - not someone who can't wait to check out early.
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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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Relationships That Work

Do you have a customer that you speak ill of behind their backs? Do you have a co-worker who you make sure you say things about out of earshot because the things you say are not very complimentary? How about your spouse - do you complain a little about them when they're not around?

How long do you think a marriage would last if both partners spoke ill of the other behind their backs constantly? That kind of relationship is doomed to fail.

A customer that you can't speak well of should not be your customer. I mean, if you're prepared to accept his money while he looks you in the face but you bad-mouth him and his business when he turns his back means you're, in effect, ruining his business - the same one whose money you gladly accept.

How about that co-worker who is just a pain in your butt and, for the sake of not creating workplace conflict, you swallow your barbs to her face but when she's out of the room, you put her down to your other co-workers. How long is that relationship bound to last? Until you get caught?

Relationships that last are built on a foundation of mutual respect - not disrespect, backstabbing and conflict. If that's what your relationships look like then you're really missing the Attitude of Connectedness in your day to day life. The Attitude of Connectedness simply is the mindset that everyone is connected to everyone else - by business, family, marriage or network. You can't badmouth one person and not expect it to come around. Everyone is connected.

You can't just swallow your words and instead continue to think ill of others. What you're thinking is all over your face. People can see it. A fake smile won't make you successful. You have to feel it. You have to live it. People will think and speak well of you if you think and speak well of others - genuinely. But if you complain about your co-workers, your customers AND your spouse, then it's not everyone else. You are the common denominator in every one of those poor relationships.  

You'll never get to "greatness" by putting others down. Tearing others down does not elevate you.
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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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Just Say NO

Question: How do you say NO with out hurting your relationships? At some point, I realize we have to say no to people who are expecting you to say yes out of obligation. So how do you say no to them without it affecting your relationships?

Answer: The only person who absolutely needs to hear "yes" every single time when they expect something out of obligation is a baby who is expecting to be breastfed. Outside of that, you had better learn to say "no."

If your co-workers are expecting you to nod in agreement and say yes to every request, then you've done a great job of breastfeeding them. You have become the "whipping boy" of your organization saying yes to everyone else's requests and have put them all ahead of your own responsibilities. Are you burnt out yet? You should be.

Say yes too often and you'll eventually find yourself picking up the boss's dry-cleaning during the day and getting your work done at home at night. But say yes too many times and you eventually create a toxic culture, one that has no personal or job boundaries, no respects or any consideration for others.

Most people can't say no because they're afraid that if they do they won't be liked. Who cares if you're not liked? You want to be respected more than you want to be liked.

Develop your Attitude of Leadership and learn to say "no" before you burn out and drop dead of a heart attack. Saying "yes" to everything creates too much weight to carry and trains people to take advantage of you.

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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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Somebody's Watching Your Public Conduct

Times are different now. There used to be a time when you could visit another city other than your own and make a fool of yourself and no one would know who you are. But that's all changed now thanks to web sites like YouTube and Facebook. One person's indiscretion can be easily captured and posted for all the world to see. There's not much you, as the perpetrator of acts of future embarrassment, can do.

So you would think that a university student, who probably spends a few hours each day watching YouTube videos, would be cognizant of these facts.

So while I rode the train home last night from the Calgary Flames game, it seemed strange that six male university students from the University of Calgary would get on the train inebriated and shout the foulest of foul language and discuss things that would make a porn-star blush, knowing that anyone could be recording their antics on video-cam. Their testosterone-charged sickening discussions included, within earshot of a packed train car including ladies and children, the size of their genitals, which conquest they had (descriptive) sex with, which girls (by name) preferred oral sex, which former professional football player's daughter had been one of the conquests and how they were heading to another campus bar to find another girl willing to sleep with them tonight.

Had only it all been all caught on video and posted to YouTube so that in a few years, when these clowns finally graduate (or at least apply for a job), an HR director could embarrass them with the video in their job interview and then have security show them the door. Even mom and dad could gather around the computer screen and pay witness to and be proud of their parenting skills when their little angels are on their own.

As we pulled into University Station, a round of applause erupted from the remaining passengers as the six exited the train. I have never seen a round of applause break out for the departure of train passengers. How bad did it have to be to get strangers to applaud?

The HR directors of today are doing background checks on you on-line. They're watching the videos, checking out your Facebook page, Googling your name so that if any photo tags come up, you're busted. When you're at social functions or just spending time away from work, decorum is more important now than ever. Somebody's watching and possibly recording. If there is something you wouldn't be proud of in a year or ten from now, then don't do it today. The Attitude of Connectedness shines a light into every dark corner of your life. We are all connected. Your indiscretion today could be the YouTube embarrassment of tomorrow.

Oh, and if someone applauds when you leave the room, that might be your first clue that you need to pay more attention to your conduct in public. 
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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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Fire Your Bad Clients

Years ago, when I was selling radio advertising to small businesses, I would ask my potential clients to tell me specifically who they wanted to attract as customers. It helped me to identify whether our audience was also their audience.

"Everybody," was the usual reply.

But you can't have everybody. Not everybody is going to buy from you. For example, for the 50% of the population that doesn't play a sport, they would have no use for a sporting goods store and therefore never enter the store. So everybody is not their customer.

Identify your ideal clients and your market segment, to ensure that you aren't just spinning your wheels out in the marketplace. You can't target your potential clients effectively by targeting everybody.

Everybody doesn't see your one billboard. Everybody doesn't see your Yellow Pages ad. Everybody doesn't visit your web site because not everybody has ever heard of you. You don't have the kind of advertising budget to achieve that..

So who is your ideal client? If you don't have a clear idea of who that is, then you will end up aimlessly taking whatever you can get from whoever will give you something. Change your attitude about just taking what you can get and instead start to focus on what you want.

Do you want to do business with people who will beat you up on your prices just to knock you down to mere pennies in profit and then to have those same people complain because they don't value what you do? Be specific about who you want to business with. Don't think everybody wants to do business with you. Not everybody wants you, needs you or even likes you.

The Attitude of Service isn't just an outward attitude. The Attitude of Service isn't just about you serving others. The Attitude of Service also includes an honest study of who deserves what you offer. What is your service worth? Who would most appreciate what you do?

Don't do yourself a disservice by thinking that you must cater to price-hungry, high-maintenance customers who have no loyalty to you because it's all you can get right now. You'll never achieve greatness arguing with penny-pinchers who don't value you, your product and your service and who would never give you a recommendation. It's the wrong crowd. Maybe it's time you served yourself a little better a fired your "headache" customers. Let someone else have them. They're dragging you down anyway.
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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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Whiny Complainers and Pointless Meetings

According to survey results, the average manager spends over seven hours per week sorting out personality conflicts among staff members. In addition, that same manager can spend anywhere from 20% to 80% of his or her time in meetings too.

Let's work the worst-case numbers. 80% of an 40-hour week is 32 hours spent in meetings. Add another seven hours per week spent sorting out personality conflicts among employees who can't seem to get along and you have one hour left each week for a manager to get some work done.

Hmm, seems to me that the least productive member on-staff is the average manager.

If these numbers hit close to home for you, then I would suggest that you're doing management all wrong.

How could any manager be involved in meetings for 32 hours each week and be a productive member of the staff. Asking a manager to attend that many meetings is a waste of a good salary. Let your managers do some work.

And managers, if you're sorting out personality conflicts for the same few people bringing up the same few issues about the same few co-workers who annoy them each week, then get rid of them. People who should be putting their nose to the grindstone but instead put their noses in other people's business are a drag on productivity.

I agree that workplaces work best when everyone gets along. But some people don't want to get along. They just want to complain. If they want to complain, let them complain about being unemployed. The longer you let the whiners hang around, the worse your company culture will get.

With that one hour per week that you have left, find a way to get rid of the annoyances like whiny staff and pointless meetings. Start hijacking your own schedule. Change your Attitude and the way you do things.
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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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Where's Service In A Tight Economy?

It's no secret that this recession has hurt many businesses. There are only a handful of businesses who are having, or have had, a banner year over this past 12 months.

That means that more businesses are fighting for fewer dollars from fewer customers in the marketplace.

That last statement begs the question: so if there are more businesses fighting over fewer customers trying to win a larger share of fewer sales, then where is the increased customer service experience you would expect to see in a tight economy?

I'll tell you where it is: it was eliminated (cut) with all of the other so-called "wasteful" programs that organizations felt they could do without as mediocre organizations made cutbacks and sat on hoards of cash hoping to weather the storm. Unfortunately, most organizations think that Service is something to be addressed by only their Customer Service department - when, in fact, Service is an Attitude, not a department

Ironically though, 80% of senior executives have reported they would use this recession to improve their competitive position (Bain & Company Survey 2009). Has your organization done anything about your customer experience over the past year? Hmm, then you must be one of the 20% who aren't doing anything about it (or the other 80% who are simply blowing smoke about re-tooling in a down economy). Service is an Attitude, not a department.

80% of senior executives believe that their companies are delivering an exceptional customer experience (Bain & Company Survey 2005). Only 8% of their customers agree. Why is there so much delusion at the top? Because senior managers believe that by training their Customer Service Department using the same trainers and same training models that churns out the same mediocre service of every other competitor, that somehow it's good enough. "Good enough" is mediocre - not great.

88% of companies view Corporate Culture as important as Strategy for business success (Bain & Company Survey 2009). So why then are 60% of North American workers actively looking for a new job in 2010 (Right Management Work Force Survey 2009)? They're leaving because they feel abandoned by their bosses which creates a terrible corporate culture - the same culture that 88% of companies apparently view as important as Strategy. They work in a culture of "good enough" which obviously isn't good enough to keep their people.

The numbers don't add up. Organizations are becoming so out of touch with their customers that they think they know what is right for their customers and employees but in reality, until you create a two-way dialogue, you will never know. It's arrogant to think you know what is best for people without asking.

There are too many sides not talking to each other - and that makes for a corporate culture that sucks.

The difference between a mediocre culture and a Culture of Greatness is seven distinct Attitudes. Here's a 7-minute video overview of the Attitudes that make organizations "Great."


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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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Why Retail Is Wrecking Service

What would retailers do if there were no holidays? In Canada, the average retail store has some sort of gimmicky promotion or sale right year round. Canada Day is followed by Back to School, which is followed by Thanksgiving, then Halloween running right into Christmas. Boxing Day (which runs up to the middle of January for many stores) kicks off the desperation sales followed by Valentine's Day and Easter.

How would your loved one appreciate a new filing cabinet to show your love on Valentine's Day? Nothing says "I love you" more than a wireless Internet router don't you think?

What would happen if we were to abolish all holidays for a full year forcing retailers to no longer try to gimmick their way into our wallets? Would there be a return to an Attitude of Service to capture a customer? What if we were to abolish having a sale and forced retailers to find a fair price for their goods somewhere between the regular price many pay during Christmas season and the 80% off they pay after Christmas?

What if your mechanic were to practice "retail" pricing and charged you $1000 for the service to your car and $200 for the same service on your neighbor's car - because he brought it into the garage after Christmas? Would you return again?

Not much wonder service businesses get hit up so hard by clients and potential clients to adjust their pricing. Retailers have made it impossible to believe that the price is the price.

Set your price. Stick to it. Have some integrity about your product or service and offer us tremendous service, we are willing to pay for that. You really only get to charge next to nothing if you plan to offer next to nothing.
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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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Comparing Corporate Culture to Homelessness

How is it possible to fix a corporate culture that is good for employees, clients, customers and shareholders? Why would you fix something that doesn't need fixing - not improving - fixing. You wouldn't fix a culture that is working and giving you the results you want would you? You wouldn't feel the need to fix a culture where employees are productive, happy, service oriented and a culture that attracts the best talent and more customers. In fact, you would encourage more of the same to get more of the same. You would build on what you have to go up to the next level. You would move forward - not backward.

A culture that works is the result of a strategy that works. Culture is not the strategy. Culture is the result of strategy.

So if your culture sucks, don't blame the culture - blame the strategy that gets you the culture. Remember, culture is not the strategy. Culture is the result of the strategy.

Let me illustrate: homelessness is not the problem - it is a result of the problem. People end up homeless through a long-term series of choices and circumstances. You see, no one can have everything going for them on Monday and suddenly wake up homeless on Wednesday. In the same way, you don't have a productive and happy workplace on Monday and suddenly a culture that sucks on Wednesday. Nothing happens overnight.

Can you fix homelessness overnight? Sure. Rent each homeless person an apartment. Problem solved - for now. But over time, many of those same people will end up homeless again because homelessness isn't the problem, it is the result of choices. If you don't address the choices they are likely to repeat. Change the choices and you change the results.

Culture works the same way too. Culture doesn't magically shift overnight. You can fire your entire staff and start over and your culture would no longer suck - for a while. But unless you address the long-term processes, policies, management and attitudes, you will end up with the same sucky culture before long.

In the same way you have sales targets, every organization needs to have culture targets if they want to attract the best talent, retain their good people, lower turnover, raise morale and increase customer spending and numbers of loyal customers. None of it happens by accident. Ignore your culture and it will end up sucking over time. Pay attention to what you want to go right.

If the turnover rates of employees and customers is high, your culture sucks because the underlying attitudes in your workplace suck. Culture never improves by ignoring the contributing factors. Morale never improves because you demand it. It changes because you address the contributing factors.

A culture of greatness is the result of a strategy of greatness. If you don't develop a strategy of greatness then you will, at best, end up as just another mediocre organization whose people could care less about their work and their results. The choice is yours.

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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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Service or Margins - Which Is More Important?

A coffee shop that I used to frequent is for sale today. It's the third time in five years that the store has been for sale.

The original asking price of the folks who started the business five years ago was $130,000. Then new owners bought it. After two years, they put it up for sale at a price of $100,000. Now, the store is for sale again but this time, it is closed - out of business. The current owners are asking $75,000.

That means that over a five year period, the business has lost $55,000 in value or about 40% of its original value. Now, because it's closed for business, it's worth nothing more than the liquidation of the equipment. You probably could get it all for less than $50,000 because the current owners are still paying the lease on the building. It's costing them money to stay closed.

When people buy a business, they are usually attracted by the potential cash flow. That's what gets them excited - the possibility of a big payoff without a lot of effort. They don't buy the original dream, the original vision or the excitement of opening a new business. Because of it, most usually end up cutting corners, reducing costs and going "cheap" to find find ways to maximize profits. The original owners invested in their customers. They "built" the business. The new owners usually just want the revenue. New owners rarely have any history with the customers and the customers have no history with them. 

Rarely have I ever seen a business bought out and improved upon. Most either drop in quality or simply maintain status-quo. Yes, there are a few exceptions but over all, most people who take over an existing business do so because they are attracted to the cash-flow without a lot of work. But they soon find out that keeping a clientele is just as difficult as finding new customers. Without a willingness to do the work, the value of the business drops. In this above example, each new owner of the coffee shop lost money over time.

Customers don't frequent your business to make you wealthy. Customers come because of the service and they leave because of a lack of perceived value. You can't "cut" your way to greatness. You can't view your customers as marks to be fleeced. You must cherish and value your customers or they will find someplace else where they feel that.

Service is the key to success in any business. Margins don't matter if there are no customers. Service is what keeps them coming back - not margins. Service is what spreads the word - not margins. Service is what creates long-term loyalty - not margins.

People deal with people. People buy from people. People talk with people. Don't forget about the "people" part of your organization. Develop the Attitude of Service™ if you want to build a strong business. Service first, profits second. There are no profits without customers.

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Putting The Blame Where It Belongs

As simple as this post may seem, there's a real chance you might miss the profound message - or dismiss it as you do most things in your life with a condescending, "I already know that."

We let me help you understand it better: if others don't see you as the leader you consider yourself to be, if you are not considered the best manager in your organization, if you are not the most requested vendor of any of your competitors or if you think that your workplace could use a little improvement, then you don't know it all. Your results don't lie. They only amplify the truth. So put aside your ego and listen up.

How is it possible to be a genuinely effective leader if you have only ever been a lousy follower? How is it possible to be a good manager if you've only ever been a whiny, self-centered employee? How is it possible to improve your organization if you are no better than the collective average working there? How can you become a vendor of greatness if you have only ever been a customer who accepts sub-standard service?

It's the comparison points that separate the great from the mediocre. You need comparison to achieve anything really great.

You can not be a great leader if you have never been a great follower. You can't know what it is like to follow hence impossible to fully comprehend what it is like to lead.

You can't be a great manager if you view all of your past bosses as morons. Unless you have experience as a model employee you will never know how to be a model manager.

You can not improve your organization if you are not among the best in your organization. Average people have average ideas which bring average results. Exceptional people get exceptional results. If you are not constantly self-improving, then your work is not getting any better which means that your organization is not improving either. Organizations can't possibly improve if the people in those same organizations stay the same.

How can you know what outstanding service is if you have willingly accepted poor service and not voiced your opinions? If you won't set a standard of acceptable service for yourself, how can you serve your customers better? When a customer raises his or her expectations, the selling organization is forced to improve or lose the customer. If you have never helped another organization improve their service then you can not know what better service is exactly. You may have an idea but no proof.

So before you think yourself entitled to be promoted, to be followed, to receive an award or think your organization superior to others, ask yourself, "What have you done lately that makes you a better person, manager, leader or vendor?" If you haven't read a book or attended a seminar that improves you then you are the same delusional person you always were.

Greatness doesn't happen by accident. It requires effort. So how about you change your attitude and admit that you don't know it all and crack open a book for the proof. Blaming the economy, your bosses, your customers and your co-workers isn't going to change your results. You are. The problem isn't everyone else. Never has been.
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Are You Beaten?

Just prior to Christmas, I was engaged in a conversation with an elegant lady - the owner of a sheep farm.

"You had better be prepared to laugh at yourself," she said.

"If not," I added, "then you'll be the only one not laughing."

We both broke out in laughter. 

Change your Attitude. Quit taking yourself so seriously. The times may have been much gloomier but there's daylight on the horizon. Lighten up and get back to work.

Sure, running an organization is serious work but it doesn't mean you have to be a humorless dolt while you're doing it. Enjoy your work - but don't make it the bane of your existence.

And make sure that your people get that message too. Enjoy the work. Be thankful for your job. Have an Attitude of Gratitude for what life sends your way. And, at the end of the day, smile for goodness sake. It makes you look less beaten down by your work.
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Don't Just Lay Down And Take It

When you forget about your customers, your customers forget about you.

When a restaurant server forgets to bring you your meal, admits that she forgot about you, complains that she feels overwhelmed (even if she only has four tables to handle) but doesn't bother to check how long your salad has been waiting under the hot lamps before serving it to you anyway, you would forget about her when it came time to leave a tip right?

Do not reward bad service. Do not reward anyone who forgets that you are the revenue stream to their business. Do not reward any business that does not earn your business and works hard to keep it. Do not accept sub-standard food, sub-standard service, sub-standard quality or sub-standard standards.

You are in charge. You must set the standard of service. Do not accept less than your standard. If you don't set the standard, you will end up taking whatever they give you. You will be a "pushover" customer who does nothing more than encourage the business to continue offering poor service and products. You ruin it for all of the unsuspecting customers who will follow you because you didn't speak up.

Businesses only offer sub-standard service and poor quality because customers lay down and take it. Don't reward them by giving them money for their poor effort. Stop being a coward and talking about bad service behind their backs. Talk to them face-to-face.

Change your attitude and make the following statement a New Years resolution: I endeavor to offer honest feedback to those whose businesses I frequent. I will not use the word "fine" to describe my experience but will be forthright without being hurtful. I will turn off the filters and just say what's on my mind.

Stick to that resolution and watch your results soar this year.

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Managing By Hug or by Handshake

Do you shake hands with your mom or do you hug her? What about your siblings? How about your spouse? Your kids? How about your close friends? What about your employees?

I suppose we were on a roll with hugs until the employees question huh?

So what is the differentiating factor between offering a hug and a handshake? Perhaps it is this simple: a hug is reserved for people we care about and have feelings for. Everything else would be a handshake.

Managers, do you not care about your employees? I mean, is your corporate culture one of faceless people doing a job or is your culture one of only hiring people who matter to do work that matters? That's the difference between a handshake and a hug.

If you treat your employees as "handshake" people, you will attract people who view their work as "just a job." But if you really value your people, are grateful for their performance and diligence and care about them as people, you will attract people who value their work, are grateful that you chose them and will reward you with performance and diligence. They will take ownership of their work.

People who feel valued and cared for outperform all others by 20%.

A Culture of Greatness is created by managers who know the difference between a hug and a handshake. You don't actually have to hug them - just make them feel like you care enough about them.

If your managers can't do that, then get new managers. The world is changing and your attitude is out of touch with reality. You had better get with the program or you'll end up attracting the employees that no one else wants - you know, the "handshake" people.
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Giving and Reciprocity

There are just a few more days left until Christmas. Those people with kids especially know the joys of Christmas morning under the tree. Watching those little faces light up like the Christmas tree over their heads, they are excited, happy and thankful.

Getting gifts is great. Kids love it. But parents don't give their kids gifts with an expectation of getting something in return. Kids have no money and rarely have the presence of mind to think beyond what "Santa" is going to bring them. A parent who would give a child a gift only under the condition that the child reciprocate in return would be considered an a**hole by most people. But sadly, that is the same expectation people place on other people when they give. If you are willing to give to your children freely without expectation of return, what's with the expectation placed upon people other than your own kids?

Simply giving a gift without any expectation of return feels good. I mean, if there were an expectation of return every time you gave a gift, after you dropped a couple of dollars in the Salvation Army kettle would you expect to have it returned to you by a homeless person outside the mall doors? Let's be realistic. So why do you place expectations on other people outside of the gift-giving season?

If you serve your customers and clients, do you "expect" them to serve you back? When you go over and above what is expected for your co-workers, do you "expect" them to drop everything they are doing just to do something nice for you? Just because your customers may not fully comprehend how much you go out of your way for them, should you hold back your best effort until you get a little reciprocation coming back your way?

Giving is giving. It's why they call it "giving." There's is no taking when you're giving. There is no expectation when you are giving. If the only reason you give is so that someone else is going to owe you for it later, then you are a sad example of giving without expectation of reciprocity. Giving is supposed to be unconditional.

Sure, some people could offer more of a heartfelt "thanks" when they receive one of your gifts. Sure a client could pass on a referral about you and your service. Sure, you could be considered for that service award if someone would just recognize your hard work and nominate you. But they don't. And they don't because with every little extra effort you might think you're giving, you are also exuding some sort of "expectation" energy around you. People think there must be a catch when you do something nice - because deep down, you need to be reciprocated.

People may want to do nice things for you but not out of obligation. So, if the only reason you're doing something nice is to get something back, then you're not doing something nice - you're doing something selfish. The point of giving is to make it about other people, not yourself. Remember that fact this Christmas - and beyond.

Make a New Year's resolution to do one nice thing everyday - for your spouse, your kids, a co-worker, a customer or a stranger. Change your Attitude of Service to include "giving" as a strategy. You will find that your results in life will tend to change for the better the faster you let go of making people feel like they owe you something.
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Managers Responsible For Poor Employee Engagement

Have you made a decision to improve your corporate culture in 2010? Look, you can't keep putting it off. 2010 is going to be the year of mass exodus of employees to new jobs. You are going to lose some good people unless you stop digging in your heels and get with the program.

Right Management's survey results last month says it all: 60% of employees say they will move to a new job in 2010 and another 21% are actively networking right now to see what's out there. That's 81% of the workforce on the hunt for new work because during this recession, you let your people develop fears and feelings of uncertainty. You abandoned them when they needed you most. You took away their training, their perks and the things they looked forward to just to hang on to a few lousy dollars. They feel abandoned now and they have as much loyalty for you as they felt you had for them.

Employees don't leave an employer - they leave their managers and their culture - specifically managers who make your corporate culture hard to swallow.

Now before you hire the Employee Engagement consultants as a knee-jerk attempt to fix the problem, let me clue you in on what the real problem is and why employees don't engage. It's not because there aren't enough perks. It's not because the work isn't rewarding. It's not because the cubicle is too small. It's, most times, because the supervisor is a jerk who under-appreciates them, who treats them like a number, who plays favorites and who has little or no compassion or soft-skills as a decent human being.

Can you honestly say that each and every manager in your group could muster up the courage to have a heart-to-heart with an employee about a sick child at home or to be truly thankful and grateful for the work of their employees? Do your managers, in addition to being taught how to manage, have the ability to communicate feelings or just to bark orders?

You may have been able to get away with that when you had a full complement of Baby Boomers working for you but the numbers are turning and by late next year, Gen Y's will outnumber Boomers in the workplace. Your workers want only a few things and they will actively engage themselves:

• a decent work environment - not a funky new office but a place where they feel like they matter, are told so and are asked their opinions and ideas on company initiatives.
• a rewarding career - not just a job but something that they can become more than just proficient in and be encouraged to become considered one of the best in their field.
• a manager who is as much a coach and mentor as they are a boss - someone who can find the drive, the spark and the magic in every single employee and find ways to inspire those employees to reach for the next level daily.
• a senior management that doesn't just pay lip-service to the softer side of doing business - but a senior management team that actually encourages it and if a manager is incapable of coaching and inspiring, they fire his ass to save their good people.

If you've got a manager or two who refuse to accept that business is run by people, for people and to serve people then I encourage you to pay the legal bills to remove that manager instead of having to pay the recruiting, re-training and recurring bills of getting a constant parade of new employees up to speed.

If you want your employees to engage, you had better engage your managers. If you've got high attrition numbers in one or two departments, it's because of your managers. Stop buying the department manager's excuses and remove them. Your managers are costing your company good people and a lot of money.
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Leadership Fad Has Created A Culture Crisis

Too many people want to be perceived as being at the forefront of their niche so they will use the word leadership to describe just about anything that will help them make a few bucks. It's sad really, that the word leadership has been sold out. Authentic leadership, servant leadership, reflective leadership, thought leadership, absolute leadership and transitional leadership are nothing more than vacuous terminologies of self-importance in a desperate attempt to carve out a money-making identity that no one else has yet exploited.

Truthfully, this preoccupation with the leadership fad is so last year. It is time to get your head out of the clouds because it's about to rain - hard. Corporate North America is headed toward a corporate culture crisis in 2010 because, in spite of all of the leadership books and all of the courses available, no one has actually been leading.

The truth is, you don't become a leader in a few days or weeks in exchange for money. (If you need proof, go find out which leadership course Winston Churchill, JFK, The Dalai Llama and Ghandi enrolled in and also find out their passing grades.) So while marginal managers have been off trying to re-shape their personal brands from dolt-manager to leader-of-minions, they have been forgetting (or ignoring) their work: managing. And now because of it, workplace culture is crumbling.

Right Management's recent survey results show that 60% of North American workers will be actively seeking new jobs in 2010. Another 21% are actively networking to see what's out there before they decide to update the resume. That's a total of 81% of North American workers who are not happy with their workplaces. Why aren't they? Because while the economy was crumbling, managers weren't managing and weren't responding to the very real concerns of their people. They were too busy pretending to be visionaries who were above that icky business of managing.

That's what happens when no one pays attention to the very people who make the whole business of business work. When people feel let down, culture follows. And people will quickly exit a crumbling culture. And who was supposed to be looking after the culture? The same people who were trying to getting a passing grade in leadership courses.

North American organizations are about to suffer the largest workplace exodus in decades due largely to, you guessed it, a lack of real leadership.

Your need to be seen as a "leader" has been overshadowed by your inability to lead during tough times. You may have passed the course but you have failed the test. 
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Financial Worries Create A Hazardous Workplace

Did you realize that the average North American worker spends about twenty hours per month worrying about finances? This statistic is concerning. That's, on average, an hour a day.

What happens when you're worrying about money? You are focused on your worries and not the task at hand. That means you are not fully present in the performance of your job; whether it be office work, driving, construction, serving your customers or attending a learning session. If you are preoccupied with your worries you are not fully aware of your surroundings. And when you're preoccupied, accidents happen.

In this still uncertain time in our economy, people are worried about finances. So much so, that they may be making decisions that could adversely affect their personal safety and security.

Here's a simple example of what happens when people start making their decisions based on a perceived lack of funds. Because money might be tight, an employee working in wintry conditions might choose to forgo purchasing winter tires this year and take a chance on the all-season radials despite the facts that all-seasons have no grip, no traction and no stopping power in temperatures below zero degrees Celsius. Add a young child in the back seat and, well, you get the picture.

There are some employees who actually have "win the lottery" as a financial strategy. I am dead serious. They believe that a windfall of money will solve all of their problems. Not true. If an employee has difficulty with the small amounts of money, they will never handle the big amounts of money. It's the reason why there are so many broke lottery winners just a year after their windfall. I will bet most of your employees are just not good with money.

So, here are five ideas to help employers get their employee's financial worries in check and get them focused back on the job:

1. Offer them the use of a financial planner. In fact, go ahead and work with a financial planning company to prepare a one-two hour session for the general staff. Then give them each an hour of work time over the next few days to meet privately with the financial planner to get started on a financial plan that will help remove some of the worry over the long-term.
2. Contract with a tire shop to provide your employees with a volume discount and offer your employees an hour or so off of work to go and get winter tires installed on their vehicles. People who feel secure driving to and from work will take that feeling of safety into the workplace.
3. Create a staff emergency fund with a maximum of whatever you feel comfortable with to help your staff with unforseen emergency funding. The emergency fund is a repayable loan over a short term. Most employees would never use it but to know that there is a safety net would reduce worry.
4. Offer to subsidize monthly passes to use public transit. Even $10 per employee helps a little but means a lot coming from their employer.
5. Create an inviting common area and encourage your people to bring their brown-bag lunches. Offer some lunchtime learning seminars around finances and budgeting and help your people acquire the skills to take control of their finances.

The Attitude of Money, Security and Safety is a necessary attitude in the workplace. Think beyond just safety. Help your people with their finances which helps the employee with developing a sense of security. Once a worker feels secure, he or she is less likely to take chances that would affect their personal safety.

The more you help your people get better with money, the less they will worry about it. What that means is that you could likely get another twenty hours per month productivity from your people by helping them with problems they don't like to talk about. Trust me on this: they will repay you with their loyalty.
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Fire The CEO To Shift Culture

Fritz Henderson is gone as CEO of the "New And Improved" General Motors. He was on the job only nine months. Had he done anything wrong? Not really. His removal was due to one simple reason that far too many companies succumb to: complacent culture.

It's hard not to feel sorry for Mr. Henderson, who had little time to prove himself. But his removal was the right move. He is a GM lifer, and job one at the company is to change a management culture.

Once asked about the culture at GM, Henderson said, "It's fine. In reality, it's the only culture I know." Which was precisely the problem. If you're going to try to be different or going to try to shake things up, then you need someone at the helm who isn't a product of the culture that you're trying to change.

I believe it was Einstein who said that you'll never solve a problem with the same thinking that created the problem.

If you're going to to attempt to shift a culture dramatically, it will rarely happen with the same faces running the place. You can make culture shifts gently keeping the same senior management but to do so effectively requires a shift in the senior management's communication, involvement of lower levels of management and inclusion of front-line workers.

Sorry, but you can't sit in the ivory tower and hope things on the ground are going to shift by decree. If you want to institute a culture shift, you have to first shift the attitudes of the employee. Once you can get a buy-in from the employee, only then will you get lasting changes in your culture.

GM wasn't getting that so Fritz is gone. What about you? Are you near the top thinking everyone else's attitude needs to change except yours? The answer to that question might explain your culture.
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When Workers Hate Their Bosses

When workers hate their bosses, you can't always openly tell. Some have disliked their bosses from Day 1. Others learn to increasingly disrespect their bosses and begin to shut down over time - eventually arriving to that point where they actually, in their minds, resign from the job. They end up doing just enough to not get fired.

Now before you go thinking that as long as they continue to do their jobs all is OK, let me clue you in. The levels of employee motivation have tangible ramifications for your organization:

• Rates of theft will rise.
• Quality of work will drop creating more defective products.
• Work accident numbers rise.
• Turnover and absenteeism both increase.
• Customer service scores drop.
• Profitability of the department drops.

If you've got any of these issues, then you've got a group of workers who have become disillusioned with their immediate boss. People who shut down like this don't have it in for the company (in most instances), they have it in for their immediate manager. It's not the corporate culture that irritates people over time, it's usually an immediate supervisor. Once an employee loses respect for their boss, good luck getting them motivated and engaged again.

Stop buying the excuses of department managers who always have an excuse for why theft is up, safety incidents are up, reports are late, turnover is high or why so many people seem to be sick. They're sick alright - sick of their boss.

Act quickly when you see the signs.
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How to Break the Cycle of Complaining

Complainers are like smokers: most want to banish them to the back-forty and out of the public eye. Smokers know better than anyone what it feels like to be ostracized from polite society. They've been moved away from the public places and entryways and forced to even cross the road to fire up at the airport. And because of the inconvenience of being a smoker and the social implications that come with it, smokers' numbers have dwindled. Smokers also know the health hazards associated with it.

But this is about complainers, not smokers, serial complainers to be precise - not the people who occasionally find a problem that needs a solution.

Whiners and complainers have not been sent packing in the same way as smokers because people fail to see the connection between complaining and their own results in life. There are hazards to complaining just like there are hazards to smoking:

• Complainers are picked last for teams and activities.
• Complainers don't get invited to parties for fear of bringing the event down.
• Complainers are reported to management more than any other personality type.
• Complainers rarely have 'good" friends - mostly just sympathetic ears too afraid to say something.
• Complainers do not get promoted at work. Period.

How many of your bosses got their jobs by complaining their way to the top? Think about it.

Until complaining becomes as socially unacceptable as smoking, it will continue. People need to stand up and say, "If you're about to whine, moan or complain, I'm not interested in hearing it." But most won't do that because people want so desperately to be liked and to not offend. Yet, whining is offensive. People are so afraid to stop a complainer for seeming heartless. They don't want to offend but will endure offensive behavior. I don't get it.

Here's how you break the cycle of complaining: you say something. Until people stand up and say, "if you want to complain, take it outside," not much is going to change. I learned long ago that in order to change a human behavior requires a significant emotional event. Scolding a complainer in a public place (embarrassing them) would qualify as a significant emotional event. Being embarrassed is a huge fear for 90% of the population but no thought is given to how much they embarrass themselves when they complain incessantly. A single public humiliation would begin to change the behavior. If you want to stop a repeat of the same-old same-old, speak up and act immediately before you allow the complainer's complaining to become a habit (like smoking).

In the same way kids follow their parents' model (smoking), so too will they follow in how they look at and complain about the world. Someone has to break the cycle. Say something.
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How To Improve Company Morale

Why is it that I have never heard of a senior manager being dragged to work kicking and screaming and bemoaning their job? I'm not saying it doesn't happen but I've never actually seen it. But how many times do you witness an employee or middle manager moaning about their job? You know exactly who I'm talking about in your office don't you?

Why is the practice of whining about work only reserved for those not in senior management?

Also, while we're at it, why is it that two people working in side-by-side cubicles doing the exact same job can view their jobs so differently? One can choose to complain about the job and the other loves the job. Why the difference? It's obviously not the job or both would be either happy or whining. The key to job satisfaction and company morale is to understand and acknowledge the differing attitudes toward the work. Fix the attitude of the one who dislikes the job and you improve the workplace for two people - the complainer AND the person who has to endure the constant complaining in the next cubicle.

And that's how you change workplace morale; by affecting the prevailing attitudes regardless of position. I urge senior management to demonstrate these traits by example and most do when it comes to complaining about their job. But the truth is that those outside of senior management will always do as they please regardless of the example set, always. This leads me to believe that it's not the job that people dislike - it is the perceived lack of control over the job and their own destiny and/or contribution. And that is an attitude of feeling dominated/controlled by another which can be reversed by addressing the underlying attitudes and opinions.

My point is always, if you're not making your conscious choices about making your own life better, then you're going to get whatever is left over from everyone else. If you are not acting to create the results you want then you are, by default, allowing whatever happens to be your choice. If there are more "good-natured" people going to work, then we end up having more good places to work.

Everything starts with the individual. Take the people out of a building and you don't have a business anymore: you have a building with a lot of stuff. There is no business without people. My mission is to improve the people and let the business improve itself. And I mean everyone - regardless of position.
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81% Looking For New Jobs in 2010

When the recession hit, you abandoned your people in favor of saving a few dollars. And that was a big mistake. I warned you several times over this past year to get back to business-as-normal and keep your people trained, talk to them, assure them that their jobs will be OK and to communicate with them about those you had to let go. But you didn't do it as you should have and now, today, proof positive of exactly what I told you would happen if you didn't heed my warning.

Reuters News Service announced today that 60% of workers will be actively looking for new work in 2010 and another 21% are actively networking to see what's out there. Can you do the math? 81% of the North American workforce are looking for another job, another employer and greener pastures.

That means that your financials are going to be hit hard in the re-training and on-boarding budget areas. The money you saved last year in training is going to be spent by three or four times next year. 2010 is going to be expensive for your organization. For the past two years, you've cut your training budgets just to save a few dollars and now you going to pay handsomely to search out, recruit, on-board and train new employees - which will cost you 1.5 times the annual salary for each lost employee (average cost to replace a lost employee).

Right Management, part of Manpower Inc. conducted the survey. "Employees are clearly expressing their pent-up frustration with how they have been treated through the downturn," said Douglas Matthews, president of Right Management, in a statement. "While employers may have taken the necessary steps to streamline operations to remain viable, it appears many employees may have felt neglected in the process," he said. "The result is a disengaged and disgruntled work force."

The collective Attitudes in the workforce are shaky and disillusioned right now. That is going to hit your corporate culture hard over the next 12 months. What are your plans to keep your good people from actively searching? Right now, it's their Attitudes you need to overcome. Change their Attitudes and you can change how hard you get hit by this wave of mass exodus.

Lousy time for "I told you so" but I did: on March 11, 2009 and again on June 26, 2009.

But it's not too late if you do something right away to turn those Attitudes around. I can still help - if you need it. Or, will you ignore this warning too.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE

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When Middle Managers Blame Upper Management

Upper management isn't perfect. They are humans just like their middle-management counterparts. Just because upper management doesn't seem do the job as well as they could doesn't mean that middle managers can just give up, throw up their hands and blame upper management for their own sub-par performance. Where is accountability? In spite of what your organization does, if you have personal values and ethics, you're supposed to plow through the difficulties and model to your staff what resilience looks like.

C'mon folks, sure it's never perfect no matter where you work. And if it's so painful being in middle management, then get out of it and go do something else. This blame game does nothing but hurt corporate culture.

Contrary to public opinion, upper management does not create the culture, the workers do. Culture is nothing more than a collection of attitudes. If everyone thinks the job sucks, the culture will suck. Add to that middle-managers who encourage blaming upper management - not by their words but by their actions - only makes the culture worse.

It's so easy to complain about how bad it is in middle management. And it is tiresome that people simply accept the attitude of blaming someone or something else for their own shortcomings. To blame is to choose to be a victim of your circumstances. You know for a fact that you're better than that. So be better. Take a stand. Set a standard. Ask for a heart-to-heart with a decision-maker but stop the blame. It's counter-productive and it is actually disengaging your employees.

Middle-managers are measured by their department's engagement and productivity. Productivity and engagement go up when blame goes down. You have no control over what upper management does so get over it and get on with the work you're here to do. 
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Bad Management Creates Disengaged Employees

Employee engagement is already a big enough challenge. And as many solutions as there may be to fixing the employee (since it is widely believed that it is the employee who needs to be engaged - after all it is called "employee engagement"), I believe that an employee will focus and engage when the external forces are right. That means, if there is poor engagement in one department over another, you likely have a management problem. Your managers are disengaging the very people you want to be engaged.

Here's what I mean. A well-meaning and engaged employee shows up to work each day and is constantly pestered by:

• Unnecessary meetings,
• "can you come into my office?"
• "what are you doing for lunch?"
• too many surveys,
• talking loudly outside the office or cubicle doorway,
• random verbal announcements (can I have your attention for a minute),
• Christmas party planning,
• managers who really take the MBWA (Management By Walking Around) far too literally,
• and more.

Add to that the chatter of co-workers, gossip and useless social planning meetings and you have a recipe for, at best, a four-hour workday of productivity. Each interruption requires an employee to have to collect his or her thoughts and re-focus on the original task.

Look, I'm a man. I understand that we're not the greatest multi-taskers so why are you interrupting? (Yes, I know the ladies are snickering here.)

Interruptive and ego-driven managers cause attrition to rise. Want to find your own company's worst offenders? Check your own company's attrition numbers by department. The highest attrition usually means the worst managers.

People don't abandon a good manager; a great boss. People leave lousy, awful, terrible and inept managers.

So if you want to engage your employees, give them a manager that encourages engagement. If you've got high turnover in one department, stop listening to the excuses from that manager and do your own due diligence, before you lose more good people. Change your attitude and engage yourself in solving a recurring problem.
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Why People Leave Their Jobs

People don't leave the work. They rarely leave the work. Contrary to what you might think or might even hear from the employee who chooses to leave ("this job sucks") it isn't the work that they're leaving most times. They leave the rest of the staff, the managers, the people and the culture - which is largely created by the people. Its almost always a people issue when people leave.

Only 12% of people who leave a job for another job leave for more money. (A survey of managers thought the number was 89%. Oops.) 88% of workers end up leaving because the job was less exciting than advertised, their manager turned out to be a jerk, there were personality conflicts or the culture didn't fit. Everyone of those reasons for leaving is "people" created.

So if you're trying to figure out why your attrition numbers are high and your retention numbers are low, it's because of your people - the rest of your people. They're creating a culture that doesn't work, which gets managers promoted that shouldn't be, which creates personality conflicts and turf-wars which means you have to over-promise your job excitement/reward levels to try to get people to come and work for you. That means that your fibbing will be found out, someone will leave, someone will have to pick up the slack in the short-term, some people will get angry and frustrated because the culture is lousy and they'll end up leaving too.

Are you catching on here yet? It's an Attitude thing. You need to fix it before you lose more people.
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The Answer Is NOT More Tools

I am astounded by the number of organizations who think that by simply throwing generic training at their people will somehow magically get them to do the part of the job they're not doing.

Let me explain. For a salesperson who isn't making sales calls, the answer is not to give them more training in closing the sale. For a manager who won't provide feedback to his people, offering communication training isn't going to change that. For a front-line customer service rep who won't say "thank you" to customers, more training in customer service isn't going to help. For people who won't do the full job, offering more training is not going to fix it. That's like going out and buying a 17-piece power drill set for the husband who won't fix the loose door-handle with a simple Phillips screwdriver. He had the screwdriver all along. He just didn't want to do it.

The same can be said of how organizations try to fix Attitude problems by throwing training at it hoping it fixes itself.

A salesperson who won't make sales calls has an Attitude of being afraid of rejection. That's a confidence problem, not a knowledge problem. You can train people all you want in sales but if they have no confidence to make the calls, they won't. Most sales training doesn't solve the "I might be rejected" problem.

Managers who won't offer their people feedback likely have an Attitude of superiority and have somehow come to believe that offering compliments is for the weak. That's someone's deep-seated belief. Offering more communication strategies doesn't change the Attitude. They know how to to communicate. They just won't. More training simply gives them more useless tools that they won't use because what they believe negates what you're teaching them.

Customer Service reps who won't say "thank you" to a customer probably don't say it to anyone. No matter how well you may train them in the art of serving customers, if you don't affect their underlying Attitudes, you will never have success in training. They won't say "thanks" if they don't believe in saying "thanks."

Sure, one of the answer to all of the issues I've offered is to fire these folks because they're clearly not matched up with their strengths. But I use these illustrations to make a point: giving people more useless tools doesn't address the reason why they're not using the tools they already have. That reason is that their Attitudes are more profoundly ingrained than your band-aid solution of training them more.

Building a house at 125 Maple Street is pointless if the foundation has been poured at 216 Oak Avenue. Your training has to build on where their foundation (attitudes, opinions and beliefs) has already been constructed. Mediocre organizations offer up generic training. Great organizations appeal to their people's deep-seated beliefs first and then build on that.
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Time To Audit Management

Half of all employees don't know if they're doing a good job. A recent survey by Leadership IQ reports 51% of employees don't know if they're doing a good job because they don't receive regular feedback from their managers. 21% actually get regular feedback. 27% have sort of an idea but still aren't really sure.

That means 79% of employees are not totally clear on what they're doing and how they're doing. With all of the management books out there, all of the courses, all of the social networking tools for managers and all of the meetings with other managers, 79% of managers still don't understand that they need to regularly communicate with their people? Really?

Managers are claiming that they don't have the time to sit down with every employee and give feedback. But they do have time to train new employees because of high-turnover rates. They do have time to put out fires because their people don't know what they are doing. They do have time to speak to employees if they make a major mistake. But they have no time to say "good job?"

If you can't find the time to let people know how they're doing, then you're not managing. Your job is to manage and it's people that you manage. There is nothing else to manage. You can't manage the economy, your customer spending habits, the weather, delayed deliveries from suppliers. You manage your people. Period.

Remove all of the people in your company and you don't have a company anymore. You have a building with a lot of stuff in it. Without people, there is no company. The people ARE your job. Let's get that straight right now.

These findings raise the question: what are managers filling their days with if they're not communicating with their people? Senior management needs to audit their middle and front-line managers and find out what they are actually doing if they're not interacting with the very people they're supposed to be managing.
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Separating Greatness From Mediocrity

There is always some Tipping Point (as Malcolm Gladwell would have explained) that separates a mediocre performance from a great performance. That tipping point is usually found in the amount of effort one person makes to be head-and-shoulders better than his or her competitors.

Having an attitude of greatness means that you are willing to practice, learn and be better than anyone else in your field. If you're in sales, it's in how you shut the TV off at night and apply yourself to be better than your competitor by reading a chapter in a book or spending some time doing research on your prospects in preparation for tomorrow's meeting. In management, it's in researching new communication or management strategies that make you better than the other managers. In customer service, it's in spending a little time online learning how your competitors are serving differently than you and doing something about it.

But greatness isn't just for the corporate world. No, greatness can be found anywhere. What separates great from mediocre is going one step beyond what others are willing to do.

This video illustrates greatness in juggling. Now before you poo-poo the whole juggling thing, watch the video. After watching you'll agree, every other juggler seems mediocre next to this German construction worker.

(Note: the guy in the video should have worn a hard hat during this. Safety is an attitude too - one that greatness can also apply to.)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyYRfNoZKcA

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