Soft Skills vs. Technical Training

Question asked this week: Why are so many companies fixated on technical training with little or no emphasis on soft-skills training (management development, interpersonal communications, customer relations skills, etc)?

First of all, the training listed in the question is, I believe, technical skills training. These are not soft-skills training courses. Soft skills training is the kind of training you would offer to make the individual a better person, not a better manager. Management development IS technical training – you are training a manager for the work place. That’s a technical skill. However, a personal leadership development course which grows a better individual with better self-confidence and compassion is a soft-skills training course. The better the individual, the better that individual would perform their job.

I believe that business gets better when the people in the business get better. Improve the individuals at the personal level and the workplace will naturally improve. In fact, ask yourself, “Will the workplace deteriorate when the people I work with become better, decent, courteous human beings? Of course not. The truth is that sales get better when the sales people get better. Customer service gets better when the people who serve customers become more compassionate, understanding and communicative. Management gets better when the managers get better.

Most technical training (sales, communication, time-management, teamwork, etc.,) in the workplace is a complete waste of money. Organizations and corporations throw away billions of dollars every year on useless training that is designed to make people more proficient at a job that they, as people, are not capable of doing. And it’s not because they don’t want to become better. It’s because they, as people, lack the “self” skills to do it better (self-confidence, self-esteem, self-discipline, self-motivation, etc.).

Here’s what I mean by that. Let’s just say that there are ten representatives working in your sales department. Five of the reps have outstanding sales track records: they consistently hit their targets every month, customers love doing business with them and they seem to achieve their targets effortlessly. Then there are the other five reps who struggle every month to come close to meeting their targets. They can’t seem to get motivated to either get on the phone or make the in-person sales calls. They struggle with dealing with tough customers and know, in the backs of their minds, that they need to improve their respective performances or risk being let go.

Here’s what many companies would do: bring in a sales trainer to improve “company sales.” Even though five of the ten reps are consistently meeting their targets, the company thinks sales training is the key to get the whole team performing well. So, in comes the sales trainer to solve a problem that is clearly out of his realm since the problem isn’t corporate sales, it is five specific sales people. So the company penalizes the five top-performers by making them sit through a course that they already don’t need help with, and then place the five under-performers into a situation where they are now being studied by the peers – and judged as well.

Sales training is a waste of time on someone who lacks the self-confidence to ask for the sale, pick up the phone or make a cold-call in person. Time Management training is a waste of time on people who have no self-discipline. People without self-discipline revert back to old ways because, well, they have no self-discipline to stick with a new strategy. Teamwork training is wasted on individuals who have low self-esteem since they already feel they don’t deserve to be part of the team. And on and on the list goes. You can’t build a structurally sound house on a shaky foundation. In the same way, you can’t build a high-performer out of someone with a poor sense of self-worth.

Attitude Adjustment: Leadership is an attitude – management is a title. Service is an attitude – customer service is a department. Engagement is an attitude – employment is a paycheck. One is personal and one is technical. Organizations, on their own, work fine - it’s people who screw them up. Fix the people (at soft-skills level) and you fix most every problem in the organization.

Waiting On "Hold"

So I'm on hold with the call-centre at Telus, the phone company. I have been on hold for about twenty minutes now.

I have heard this message twelve times so far, "Are you looking for a career in the telecommunications industry? Telus currently has open positions for call-centre agents. For more information, visit our web site."

Hmm, something tells me I'm going to be on hold a little bit longer.

Thanks Telus for the second-best laugh I've had today.

The Attitude of Leaders As Hosts

Leadership is an attitude. Management is a title. You don’t need to be in management to be a leader.

So what does leadership look like in your own life?

Let’s say you are having a social gathering at your house. That would make you the host and those who attended your party would be guests. When in someone else’s house, the guests all defer to the host as being the leader. In other words, you are not managing the party, you are hosting it. The guests will join the host (the leader of the party) even sometimes begrudgingly if the host wants to play a game of charades. It’s the host’s party. We, as guests, will follow along. When there are followers, there must be a leader.

I read an interesting article recently about the concept of “hostmanship” as opposed to the concept of customer service.

There are six fundamentals to hostmanship:

1. Serving others
2. Perceiving the whole
3. Taking responsibility
4. Being caring
5. Searching knowledge
6. Practicing dialogue

The hostmanship web site describes hostmanship as the following:

Hostmanship without pride is empty and cold. In contrast to service, Hostmanship is focused on practice, on people as hosts, on the cultures of businesses, and on the capacity of organizations to tie it all together. Being a host is much about having the courage to let loose your talents and express your personality – to be brave enough to serve every person as she is and to listen to the needs she expresses. Hostmanship also differs from service in that it’s not about treating others as you yourself want to be treated. Hostmanship is to treat a person as she wants to be treated.

Seth Godin, in his Blog, wrote this past week:

If I pay $1000 extra for a first-class seat, odds are the flight attendant will be nice to me. If I pay $2000 extra for the presidential suite at the hotel, odds are the front desk clerk will be nice to me. If I give the valet $50 to park my car, odds are he'll be nice to me as well.

So, here's the question: if all I want, the only extra, is for someone to be nice to me when I visit your business, how much extra does that cost?

I think there's a huge gap between what people are willing to pay for nice (a lot) and what it would cost businesses to deliver it (almost nothing). Smells like an opportunity.

Attitude Adjustment: Is it your right to host your guests or to serve your customers? Or is it a privilege? Shifting your attitude away from customers simply being dollar signs to a nicer approach, that they are your guests, will go a long way to providing you with customer loyalty, better employee engagement, a more courteous and considerate way of dealing with those who choose to support you and, finally, a solid foundation upon which you can build your business and business relationships. Change your mind. Change your attitude. And serve your “guests” as you would wish to be “hosted” at their places of business or even their homes.

Big Rig - Little Brain

OK, now I've written about this particular subject in past and yet there are still a lot of people who, as the offenders, don't seem to care - and as those who supervise the offenders, well, they don't seem to care either. Such is my plight and here is my NEW story.

It was late afternoon as I drove on the four-lane highway. I found myself in the left lane slowly passing a big-rig truck who was just under the speed limit in the right lane. As I successfully got past him, I was unable to change into the right lane as some slower traffic was just ahead so I stayed in the left lane. The big-rig that I had just passed had apparently just called upon all of the horses under the hood and was accelerating quickly in the right lane now - well over the speed limit.

In my mind I thought there is no way he can get all of that rig into the space between me in the left lane and the car just ahead in the right lane. But he tried and without any consideration for any other vehicles he attempted to change lanes just as his back wheels were even with my back wheels. Had he continued to change lanes he would have either knocked me into the median or I would have to go there voluntarily. He put his rig just across the center line and tried to force me to either jam on the brakes (which I couldn't as there was a vehicle coming up behind me) or drive into the ditch. He then, aggressively put his truck back into the left lane to let me go by.

As I passed him I could see him waving his arms, looking at me and mouthing obscenities. I read, just below his face, the sign on the door: Marshall Trucking and the toll-free number. Once past the line of slower moving cars I pulled into the right lane as he flew past me well over the speed limit. I called the toll-free number.

I explained my story to the dispatcher who made a quick radio call and left the line open. She said the following to the driver: "Some guy out on the highway is complaining and wants you to slow down."

She came back on the phone and dismissively said, "Good enough?"

"Nope," was my answer. "Let me speak with your safety supervisor."

I was connected with Dean who listened intently. It was only when I identified myself as someone who works in safety attitude did he seem to genuinely take an interest in my story about his company and his driver.

Attitude Adjustment: If your company has vehicles on the road, please remind your drivers that they are flying the flag of the company when they drive. And if you get a complaint from one person, you can multiply that one phone call by fifty. Fifty is at least the number of people your driver has likely affected but only one stood up to make a complaint. I don't care if you're short-staffed and can't find any other drivers. If one of your drivers chooses to be unsafe on the roads, you should fire him immediately. It will save your company's face and send a very strong message to your other drivers to get with the program. The fast-moving highway is no place to have a little brain behind the wheel of a big rig.

Arrogance vs. Attitude

Question posed this week: What would you do from your own professional perspective to overcome an arrogant attitude in management and encourage to them in being proactive in accepting the necessity, convenience and relevance of an organizational change?

Let's be clear. In most instances, it's not "management" that is arrogant. It is the individual people who hold the title "manager” who may be arrogant. Some managers have come to believe that their title carries with it a deluded belief that they are superior to those who work for them. Change the attitudes of the individuals and you can begin to successfully change the culture throughout the organization. But without acknowledging the existence of the arrogance attitude within oneself, there is likely to be little change in this regard.

Management is not the same as leadership. Management is a title. Leadership is an attitude. I doubt that a true leader, one who genuinely wanted his or her people to become better, smarter and more efficient and to become the best people they could become, would operate from a place of arrogance. But one who chose to try to keep his or her minions down would be operating from that arrogance place.

Here’s a self-test for managers: have you met every single person in your department and had at least one conversation with each of them? If not, what is keeping you from doing that? I can guarantee that employee engagement will increase when the employee begins to feel that their contribution matters. Leadership is encouraging performance that perhaps even surpasses the abilities of the leader. Leaders are selfless. It’s impossible to be arrogant when an individual is selfless.

In any organization, it is not only leaders holding management positions. In fact, arrogant managers actually fear employees who are perceived by their peers as leaders within the ranks. Employees with leadership abilities are influencers. Arrogant managers fear influencers who could undermine their position.

But a real influencer may also be able to influence the arrogant manager by having a private conversation, away from prying ears. It takes courage but it is possible.

Also, it takes courage from consultants and speakers to say what needs saying instead of plying platitudes to ensure the check gets signed. This is an all-too-sad truth in our industry – saying what is safe to say instead of saying what needs to be said.

Attitude Adjustment: There is good news on dealing with arrogant managers. As the market changes (customers expecting better service, expectations of quality products, purchasing patterns, economic forces, etc.,) so will the attitudes of managers ... eventually. All is not lost. This transition time, as Boomers leave the workplace and are replaced by Gen Y's or Millenials, the dynamics of the relationships between those at the top and those who actually do the work will begin to change. The one saving grace is that the customer (us) can tell the difference. We customers vote with our dollars. When the polls (dollars) start to swing away from those organizations with arrogant leadership, the shareholders of those same organizations will correct the problem in short order. The market always has a way of correcting itself.

Die, Conference Dinner

I ran across this article recently in Meeting Planners International magazine. I thought it was brilliant, so much so that I felt compelled to share it with you. If you are a Meeting Planner, pay attention. If you have attended one of these events, well, enjoy. It was written by Tony Carey, CMP.

It would be difficult to invent an occasion better designed for social discomfort than the end-of-convention dinner with its incompatible mix of stale etiquette, corporate protocol, culinary sensitivities, age, gender and cultural frictions all squeezed into a few short hours that, for many participants, seem like an eternity.

Pity the poor association meeting planner (for it is in this field that the tradition survives in its purest form), required to devise a social activity in which the preordained ingredients leave scope for nothing more creative than changing the colour of the table linen.

The evening’s schedule must include a drinks reception, a dinner of at least four courses, a speech by the chairman, another by the principal guest, a series of toasts, the presentation of awards, dancing and then—to show that the organisation isn’t as old-fashioned as the previous four hours have conclusively proved—a disco.

Given the diversity of delegates at most association conventions, few of them will enjoy all these ingredients. For the younger attendees, the reception and the disco fail to compensate for the dinner discomfort and the tedium of the speeches. For the older ones, failing digestion, hearing and prostate glands make the meal an ordeal. Women (who are promoted to “ladies” for the occasion) are invariably disappointed by the men whom they are placed next to, but at least they have the pleasure of putting on a party frock. Generally speaking, men do not share women’s enthusiasm for dressing up. This may be because dress shirts shrink two sizes between uses.

Protocol demands that men and women should be seated alternately at the dinner table. This is arguably the most ridiculous piece of social etiquette since the invention of the fish knife and, fortunately, is increasingly ignored. Any good host will tell you that compatibility and mutual interests should determine a seating plan—not gender.

Would any half-professional meeting planner dare to inflict on delegates, in an auditorium, the levels of discomfort that are deemed acceptable at a banquet? No. Ten guests to a round table ensures that some can’t see the speakers and, as if the room wasn’t hot enough, everyone stokes up on calorific food eaten off warm plates. To further challenge the air conditioning, each table has a candle.

It is a physiological fact that women feel the cold more than men, so, of course, the ladies appear in backless, strapless, insubstantial little numbers (invariably black) which attract welcome attention and an unwelcome chill—while conformity demands that the gentlemen perspire in tuxedos. But I digress.

So the meal has ground to an indigestible conclusion, toasts have been drunk and the awards presented. The chairman has finally sat down to lethargic applause, so it is time for the band to strike up with a tune that only 25 percent of those present will recognise as music and to which no one will dance.

By this time (midnight), the ambient noise has reached battlefield level ensuring that conversations with foreigners—especially Virginians—have become impossible.

Most of the men would rather talk than dance, and most of the women would rather dance than talk. But the single girls have a problem: since most of the younger generation is propping up the bar, their choice of dancing partners is limited. They can choose from another woman, a septuagenarian, a drunk, their own handbag or the Greek they were sitting next to at dinner. (It’s a particularly bad evening if all they can find is a drunk old Greek with a handbag.)

But it is at this point that the group—which has been held together all evening by the glue of conformity—really splits up. The very old and the married couples go to bed, the very young escape to joust, sweatily, in the disco, while the middle-aged singles bribe the barman to remain at his post so they can rearrange the world.

Ironically, because everyone ends the evening doing what they enjoy, the event will be regarded as a considerable success. Such is the amnesic power of alcohol.

TONY CAREY, CMP, CMM, is a speaker and consultant. He can be reached at tonycarey@psilink.co.je or via his Web site, www.tonycarey.info.

One Person Makes Every Decision

Here’s a question that was posed to me this week: what do you think is the major cause for an organization suffering unnecessary employee attrition or turnover?

I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of people would point the finger at: bad hiring, bad management, poor wages, stifling organizational culture, not keeping promises, misrepresentation of the work involved or failure to align with the corporate vision or mission statement.

There are a ton of possible reasons, most of them pointing the finger at a nebulous position or something else. Have we lost sight of the prime component here? Don't we undertsand that as long as we blame an entity or a position that we can’t quantify, that we will continue to face the same issues?

What about the employee who “needs” daily ego-stroking? Is it management’s job or the responsibility of “culture” to ensure that needy employees get their daily dose of Vitamin “Ego?” Not every single employee is cut from the same cloth. Just because they may have attended the same school doesn’t mean they have the same qualities and values as the next person.

HR needs to stop considering candidates for interview primarily from resumes. The world is changing. The new generation of worker bounces around from job-to-job looking for a fit. The new generation of workers doesn’t interview as well as older workers (unless they can interview by text message). The new generation of worker doesn’t even think like their interviewer (generational gaps). Can your HR department figure out what makes this worker tick?

Ask yourself this question: when your place of business has an opening, does it simply hire a body or does your place of work see the value and skill-set in a potential candidate and make a place for that person? There's a difference. Discover what your people are really good at and encourage them to do what they do best. Then hire someone else to do the work not being done but make sure they want to do it.

Want to change the culture? Change the people. I’m not talking about firing the lot. I’m talking about providing tools that employees could grow as people, could get better, more confident, build their individual self-esteem, improve their decision-making capacity, improve their communication skills and improve their daily dispositions and attitudes. Yeah, yeah, yeah I know. It’s soft skills training. But if you really want to grow your organization you will first have to grow your people.

Organizations work fine. It’s people who screw them up. Fix the individual and you will fix the organization and the performance of the organization. But unfortunately, we’ve become a society of finger-pointers and blamers. And in doing so, it’s easy to blame an entity or a title (department) for the results.

In fact, some will actually argue with me that it’s got to be harder than just making the people better. My response is; have you tried it yet? Have you fully experienced poor results from actually implementing some sort of personal-development culture within your organization and can, from a place of experience, say it doesn’t work because you’ve actually tried it?

Attitude Adjustment: If you don’t make a change on the focus of the problem, you will never solve it. Every decision, every success and every screw-up in every organization can be traced back to just one person. Improve the person and you improve the decision. Improve the person and you improve the work. Improve the person and you improve the performance. Improve the person and you improve the attitude towards the job. Improve the person and you improve the attrition rate. Simple huh? Now stop blaming “management” for not allowing this to happen and go talk to the one person who can make the decision. It all boils down to one person – always.

The Leadership Philosophy

“How many people have actually read the ‘Belief’ Statement?” I said as I pointed to the large Belief Statement banner which stood upon the stage next to me.

A single hand out of almost two hundred attendees was raised. That hand, funny enough, belonged to meeting planner who had hired me.

“Are you serious?” was my incredulous response.

The one item out of the seven listed on the Belief Statement banner that I was drawing attention to made reference to each staff member being responsible for their own ongoing, continuous self-improvement and learning. I personally think that the responsibility for self-improvement should be on the individual and not the employer, no matter what.

So over the course of the hour that I addressed this group, I continually referenced the importance of self-improvement and a dedication to continuous learning.

I believe that taking fifteen minutes a day, a single coffee-break, to learn something today that may improve you personally or professionally, will show results exponentially down the road. Reading a chapter in a book that can improve your job performance, your willingness to stretch yourself, to learn a new skill or to enhance your skill set will, down the road, affect your paycheck.

The more you learn, the more valuable you become, the more likely you will be rewarded for your value.

Your employer is likely to see little reason to invest more resources or more money in you if you have not demonstrated a return on investment by investing in yourself first. And the truth is that if your employer is not able to see the results of your self-improvement strategy, it is likely that another employer will see it and offer you more to come to work there instead.

You don’t have to be in a management position to continually upgrade yourself. Just because someone has the title “manager” doesn’t mean they are a leader. Sometimes, and contrary to what many employers believe, people who could lead a revolt against management have much more leadership ability than the managers they themselves work for.

Attitude Adjustment: Leadership is an attitude. Management is a title. You can possess one without the other. The two do not necessarily go hand in hand. The person who continuously self-improves puts him or herself in a much better position to influence others than does the manager who stops learning one he or she gets the title. Just because you’re not the boss doesn’t mean you’re not a leader. And just because you’re not a leader doesn’t mean you can’t be the boss. I mean, c’mon, we’ve all worked for bosses that had little leadership ability. The leader is the person who has demonstrated that he or she could always improve and makes a plan to make sure they are ahead of the pack. If you’re ahead of everyone else and they seem to be following you, then you must be the leader right? Open a book and start learning how to get in front.

$1000 Quit-Now Bonus

“You’ve been on the job for a week now, and we’d like to offer you $1000.00 if you quit today.”

How would you like to be greeted on your seventh day at work by that statement? Does that statement even seem possible? Well it’s real. And the company that is doing it is called Zappos – an on-line retailer of shoes. It’s called their “quit now” bonus.

Zappos will offer one-week old employees a “Quit-Now” bonus of $1,000. The employee will be paid for the amount of time they’ve worked, plus they are offered another $1,000 bonus if they quit immediately.

Why does Zappos do this? As it turns out, Zappos wants to ensure that the employee they have hired has the same sense of commitment that Zappos is looking for in all of their employees. The Zappos culture is clearly defined and they want to ensure that the employee engagement of the new hire is up to par with the other employees.

Zappos would rather pay now than pay later for weeding out the deadwood. They also want to ensure that the employee is committed to the company the same way Zappos would like them to be before they invest any more money in the employee. The work is not necessarily glamorous. The work is in a call centre. It’s not for everyone and the percentage of new hires taking Zappos up on their offer is about ten percent.

Zappos has figured out a way to not be saddled with a “dud” employee and are willing to pay one thousand dollars early so they don’t have to pay many more thousands later in finding a way to terminate an employee who isn’t working out, to keep the morale high and to stop the cancerous spread of negativity before it gets a chance to take root. It’s also another way to test commitment levels of the new employee to the job.

Attitude Adjustment: If more businesses would be willing to adapt the Zappos example of weeding out problem employees in their own businesses, there would be fewer problems with customer service and employee engagement down the road. It may seem like a lot of money for some smaller businesses but not really when you consider how much could be lost to customer dissatisfaction, whining and complaining on the job and by actively disengaged employees working against good productivity. This may not be the only way to weed out prospective problem employees but it’s got to be better than the way things are working now. The real learning from Zappos is that they are willing to think of creative ways to eliminate problems before they become problems that affect the bottom-line. So, what’s it worth to your organization to get rid of some of the problem employees that you may have right now? If you’re the problem employee, would you take the thousand bucks to make you go away?

New Restaurant Service Blog I Stumbled Onto

Recently, I wrote a Blog entry about restaurants needing to fix their problems right away. One of the comments to that entry came from another Blog, So You Want To Be A Banquet Manager.

Some of the greatest restaurant/banquet stories I have ever read are in this Blog. If you're looking for an opportunity to see evidence that restaurant and banquet staff are just as fed up with poor service and poor employee engagement as the rest of us, check out the Blog site.

Also, while you're there, click the YouTube video for Waiters Who Are Nauseated By Food - a Saturday Night Live sketch which features Steve Carrell. Oh, and a warning, don't be eating while you're watching it.

Cheers.

Get Out Of The Way Of The Message

Have you ever had to instruct someone in your workplace on the finer points of getting something done or have you ever been the go-to-guy for co-workers to better understand operational processes at your job? Have you ever had to head up a learning session for your co-workers or new hires? Did you, just by the way you structured the learning session, unintentionally get in the way of their learning?

It happens. Even the professionals do it and mess up their own teaching. Let me give you an example.

A former sports celebrity-turned motivational speaker did a presentation for a group of bankers. His session on-stage lasted about ninety minutes. During his session, he expounded the virtues of teamwork and offered a few strategies for better teams within an organization. All-in-all, it may have been a good presentation with some value for the group of managers that he was speaking to. However, after his session, he came down off of the stage and “worked” the room shaking hands with every single person in the room. He walked between the banquet tables and stopped at every single table to shake hands with every single person in the room. While shaking hands, he made small-talk with each person he shook hands with.

Now I am the first to admit I don’t really do small-talk extremely well. I agree that there is an art to it. I’ve just never learned the art nor do I feel it’s extremely important to learn to do small-talk as I rarely find myself on the cocktail-and-pâté circuit. So, as it turns out, small-talk is a social skill that I am inept at and really, I don’t care that I’m not very good at it. Some people need to be good at it. I don’t.

Anyway, back to the story.

After the sports celebrity finished “working” the room of glad-handing the attendees, most of them were left to struggle to recall much of what the paid professional actually had to say from the stage. Attendees could instantly recall what he was wearing that evening and also easily recalled each personal conversation while making small-talk with them individually, but the message from the stage, the one that the organization paid thousands of dollars for, was lost. All was lost because of small-talk. In fact, in this instance, the speaker got in the way of his own message.

Attitude Adjustment: Are you jeopardizing learning at your place of work? Are you, as an attendee in a learning environment, interrupting the learning of your co-workers by making side-comments while someone else is attempting to learn something? If you want to increase the chances of learning for both yourself and your co-workers, just engage yourself in what you’re doing. Keeping focused either as an attendee or as an instructor will increase employee engagement and it can be accomplished by adopting the philosophy of “less is more.” The less distraction, the less discussion off-topic, the less you make any session about you, the more people will learn. The more people learn, the better they are at the job. The better people become at their jobs, the more reason there will be to have social gatherings in which everyone can engage in small-talk. Cell phones turned off. Brains turned on. Keep focused on the task at hand. Do whatever is necessary to remove the distractions in a learning environment. And if it’s you at the front of the room, always remember that the message is far more important than the messenger if the purpose of the message is to improve the workplace and those in it.

Love Relationships At Work

I received a question this week asking, “Just wondering what your attitude would be toward a boss and subordinate starting a relationship at work and the effects on other staff?”

Personally, my “attitude” when it comes to office romances is to run for the hills if you’re even considering this. Nothing good can come of this. The numbers are against their success in any way. That’s my attitude. However, with that being said, I also have opinions on several different scenarios which may shed a little more light. In the question, there was no other description of the details of this relationship at work and so I was left to ponder these scenarios and come up with an opinion on each. So here goes.

Boss and subordinate are both single. If this were the case, I really don’t see how this would be of anyone’s business but the two parties involved. Provided they have both come clean and are open about their relationship, the only course of action would be to ensure that the subordinate does not report directly to the boss and instead, would report directly to either another manager or a supervisor of some sort. The boss would also have to practice recusal in all dealings involving the subordinate to ensure that there would be no conflict of interest or perceived favoritism when it came time for performance reviews, promotions or other special considerations of the subordinate. In fact, I know a couple who met at work (he was her boss) and upon the decision to start dating, they approached his superior and announced their plans. She now reports directly to a different boss yet they still work together in the same department. Honesty works.

Either boss or subordinate or both are already in a relationship with other people. This would be a completely inappropriate relationship and one of the two would need to be removed immediately from the workplace, preferably both. This is a character/values/integrity issue. Any organization that would knowingly allow two people to engage in an inappropriate relationship such as this, has obviously demonstrated that it lacks the moral fiber to serve its customers and the rest of the staff with integrity and good judgment. In fact, I am aware of one situation where this did occur – manager and subordinate having an inappropriate relationship. A corporate VP found out about it, brought the two into the office and told them that within twenty minutes, one of the two of them was leaving the company and for them to figure out who was going. The subordinate left and the manager not long after.

It is crucial that if you are going to engage in a relationship at work, that it be above-board and transparent. A relationship based on lies never lasts and it does tremendous damage to morale and employee engagement. If you’ll do something that is dishonest with your co-workers, you’ll do it with your customers.

Attitude Adjustment: If you see something at work that is questionable and it goes against your values and morals, you need to speak up. Tell the boss’s boss. However, if your boss is the top of the food chain, you need to dust off the resume and start looking for another job. Before you leave, confront the boss and tell him or her the truth of why you are leaving. Being found out by others is usually a great way to bring an end to an inappropriate relationship.

Bosses hate to lose face with their subordinates – hopefully, it makes them realize that they have damaged the trust and respect of their staff. People don’t perform well for bosses who are not trusted, respected or lack integrity. Besides, you really don’t want to work there if that’s the environment. Dishonesty and inappropriateness really do affect the bottom-line. But not speaking up only gives a blessing to the inappropriate behavior. Are you willing to sell out your values for a paycheck?

People As Assets

Two houses, both thirty years-old stand side by side on a neighborhood street. Both houses are for sale. Both houses have exactly the same design and were built at the same time. One house is valued thirty percent higher than the other because the real estate agent has determined that one is more valuable. The reasons? The more valuable house has undergone a series of fresh renovations including new floors, new paint, new kitchen cabinets, new appliances, new energy efficient furnace and water heater, well kept gardens and lawn and general organization and lack of clutter in the higher-valued house. The other house was allowed to deteriorate without any improvements. One homeowner chose to invest some money into refurbishing a deteriorating property while the other homeowner did little. Now, one house is worth an extra thirty percent.

That is the same philosophy we each need to bring with us to our professions. The person who continually upgrades, learns, reads, attends the seminars and does research will be inherently more valuable than the one who does nothing more than the job. If it came down to choosing one of two employees who began a job on the same date, had the same job and performed the same duties, my guess would be that the edge in a race for promotion would go to the person who has self-improved, renovated his or her brain, raised their personal stock and improved their personal value.

If you are an employer, you are likely to get a better return on investment from the employee who self-improves over the one who does nothing to improve. That self-improving employee will become a more valuable asset to the company. Any employee who is willing to continually learn will be a much better "engaged" employee and far more likely to impact the organization in a positive way.

If people are assets, then those same assets should have a return on investment. It is incumbent upon employees to self-improve so that their results improve as well. When results improve, the paycheck will improve. Raises and promotions rarely come to those who don't care about keeping ahead of the curve. You don't get the promotion just because you've outlived most of the other employees. You get a promotion (with a raise) because you have shown increased value to not only your bosses, but to your fellow employees as well.

Attitude Adjustment: Assets, over time, can devalue, depreciate, go stale and can also erode their own value. Most of us are willing to dump our assets when they become redundant or the moment those same assets stop delivering benefits. Are you one of these type of assets? If so, prepare to be dumped. If you want to have good job-security, learn what the others are not willing to learn. You will become so valuable, your employer wouldn't dare let you go. And if you are still laid-off, there will be another organization prepared to snap you up right away. Your future security is in your hands.

A Happy Workplace?

A while ago, I responded to a comment on The Employee Engagement Network that asked the question about employees finding happiness in their jobs and developing a "happy" workplace. Now, if you've ever attended one of my keynote sessions, you already know that I don't subscribe to the concept of happiness being found on the job. I was asked to clarify my belief on happiness and so I shall attempt to do so here.

Happiness is not a result of finding the perfect job, finding the perfect partner, having a lot of money or by finally reaching retirement.

If one person on the job is happy and the person in the next cubicle (doing the same job) is not, it stands to reason that happiness is not a result of the work, the pay, the benefits, the environment of the job or the boss. Happiness cannot be defined by doing a job. Happiness cannot be the end-result of working or everyone doing the same job, the same responsibilities, responding to the same stresses and carrying out the same duties or everyone would be happy across the board. We already know that this is not so. We can't address people's home-lives, their values, their character traits or their beliefs on accountability. Therefore, it is impossible for the job to make anyone and everyone happy.

Happiness is a state of being and not a result. Happiness therefore must be and has to be a choice. There are so many extenuating circumstances that can allow people to be moody, angry, frustrated, negative and condescending. These are choices that individuals make in reaction to circumstances. There is no single event that causes people to live a life of misery and therefore the same must be true on the other end: a good job will not compensate for a lifetime of hardship and struggle and therefore no job can make a person happy.

If there were ten employees in a workplace and five seemed happy and five seemed miserable regardless of the fact that the culture of the workplace was positive, supportive, engaging and rewarding, would the onus still be on management to work harder to get the miserable employees to become happy? I doubt that any of these character choices of the miserable group could be blamed on the job. Therefore, can we take full credit for a group of happy staffers? People don't "make" people happy. Happiness is something we choose to feel. No one person or thing "makes" a person miserable. People, based on their personal philosophy and values, choose to feel miserable.

Let's not delude our thinking into believing that we can make employees happy. We can make the job rewarding. We can make the job fun. We can make the job engaging but that is no guarantee that the people we work with, at the end of the day, are going to be happy. Happiness is a choice.

People who have chosen to be happy and still are not, never were happy in the first place. Personally, have I found happiness in my work? Nope. It doesn't exist here either. There are parts of my job that I love. There are parts of my job that I despise (see travel, airlines, airports, security screening, long distances in rental cars, lost hotel reservations, bad meals in restaurants, bad service, bad coffee in hotel rooms, etc., etc.,). Does that mean I am an unhappy person? Of course not. But I made a deal a long time ago that I would help people get better at their jobs, improve their circumstances in life by improving themselves and develop a resilient attitude when life hands us crap. That deal, I am still keeping. That is my mission. That is the reason I get out of bed in the morning because I made a promise to do this and I keep my word. There is great reward in my work but I don't consider that to be happiness.

Any employer who believes that because of their own leadership, their employees will be happy, is self-deluding. I can't make you happy. I can bring some joy. I can bring a little peace. I can even bring an "a-ha" moment which opens you up to your own potential but I can not make you happy.

Clive Beddoe, former CEO of WestJet Airlines was once asked why all of his employees seemed happy on the job. He replied, "I learned a long time ago that you can't teach people how to have a happy personality. So we just hire happy people and teach them how to do the job."

Attitude Adjustment: You will NOT find happiness on the job. It is not a result. It is a choice. Make the choice to be happy. Learn everything you can in finding your happiness buttons, pursue it relentlessly and you will soon find that it never was the job that needed to be changed - it was you. Life gets better when you get better. But as for a happy workplace? The workplace will only be as happy as the people working in it!

No Better Time For Better

Personally, I always thought perfectionism was another word for procrastination. Often, in the perfectionist mind, the perfectionist will say, “Since it’s unlikely this project will turn out perfectly anyway and since there is no perfect time to start, why bother?” That seems like a great strategy to procrastinate.

But then, this week, I read an article from BPS Research Digest on Athletes Benefit from Being Perfectionist. In the article, it extols the virtues of striving for perfectionism and that our performance level and personal motivation are actually increased when we strive for perfection. If you recall, a recent article I wrote extolled the virtues of dopamine, a feel-good natural chemical, being released into the brain when we relentlessly pursue a goal.

Being your best, giving your best and becoming your best can be linked to perfectionism. Why wouldn’t we study that which we choose to do (employment or career) each day to improve our performance and in doing so, improve our results? Why is it that we choose to offer our clients and co-workers only the skill set we had when we took the job and choose not to self-improve?

Michael Bloomberg, the current Mayor of New York City once said that you are not paid for what you have done in the past but you are actually paid for what you are about to do in the future. In other words, people (companies and organizations in particular) agree to pay you for what you can bring to their organizations. You are not paid for what you’ve done in the past. You are paid for what you are about to do for your company or organization.

In the same way you would choose items in your investment portfolio based on performance of the past, you will choose investments that you hope will bring a healthy return to you on your investment in the future. The same could be said of your employer. They are looking for a healthy return on investment too. And so are your customers. Why then, would you choose to be a mediocre performer when there are some investments (people and companies) who are better performers in the marketplace?

Attitude Adjustment: You don’t need to be perfect to achieve an increase in your standard of living. You just have to adopt the attitude of wanting to strive for perfection – getting better with each and every day. People are more likely to invest in you if you have shown them that you are willing to invest in yourself first. Be your best. Do the work. Learn what you need to learn. Don’t allow the mediocrity of your co-workers to ever let you off the hook. Never allow yourself to utter the words, “that’s good enough.” Don’t ever let anyone tell you this is as good as it gets. Of course it isn’t. It can always be better.

The Pleasure Of Never Reaching A Goal

I remember years ago attending a seminar on goal-setting. This was sort of a generic goal-setting workshop that had the participants write down things that they wanted to accomplish in life - a sort of "Bucket List" if you will. Then a bunch of magazines were distributed to the participants and we were handed scissors to cut out pictures of the things we wanted. Those pictures were to be glued to a board as a collage of all of the things we wanted to have or accomplish with our lives. It sort of felt like Kindergarten class again.

We were told to, each day, visualize that we had already accomplished what we each said we wanted and to focus on pretending that it was a done-deal. I had difficulty subscribing to the concept of trying to trick my brain into seeing it as already completed. I mean, there was no work involved. According to the seminar leader, believe it and stuff would just show up magically.

I was at a loss for words to explain how cheated I felt in this session. I had hoped to find a blueprint to do the work but instead I was being asked to believe that simply thinking it would make it so. And I suppose it could for anyone provided there were no reality involved like bills showing up and bank statements indicating that each participant was a little shy of their goal of millions of dollars in the bank. In other words, there was no strategy to overcome reality. Just dream it and it will be so. Sorry. Didn't buy it.

So yesterday, when I read in the Lifehack Blog, an article on The Science Of Setting Goals, I realized why I didn't subscribe to the "motivational speaker" concept of goal-setting. It turns out that it is actually the pursuit of a goal that releases dopamine into the brain - a kind of "feel-good" chemical that brings pleasure. When the goal is achieved, the dopamine release stops. Therefore, pleasure stops. So it turns out that there seems to be less satisfaction and personal pleasure in achieving a goal than there is in relentlessly pursuing the goal. Once a person achieves a goal, it's over. There is no more mission, no more purpose, no more reason to get out of bed in the morning. Perhaps it's the reason that people who have a windfall of money end up doing nothing and eventually spend their windfall. They are looking for a high of dopamine pleasure that only exists in pursuing something worthwhile - not in actually getting it. Once you have accumulated everything you say you ever wanted in life, it doesn't seem to matter anymore.

Now the smart goal-setters are the ones who keep their goals just out of reach. What I mean by that is to set goals for yourself that will require you to stretch yourself a little. The goals can't be easy. There has to be some work involved.

Attitude Adjustment: Set your goals so that you have to work for them. Once you feel and see yourself getting close to attaining the goal, simply move the line away a little more so it is just a little out of reach again. You will find, over time that you were capable of attaining things you never thought you could do. Keep moving the line further and further away - but still within reach if you work at it. You will find that there is a whole lot more pleasure in realizing how far you are capable of stretching yourself than the pleasure you would find in attaining a goal and then resting on your laurels because you think you've accomplished something. Develop the attitude of believing that you are always capable of more - and more is what you will do and more is what you will have. There's a great deal of pleasure in that.

A Complimentary Complaint

I recently had a question to ask my bank about my business. I called the toll-free number on the web site and was connected with a gentleman who gave me the answer to my question. While we were on the phone, he also had a look at my business account and offered a couple of suggestions for new services that would help me and the day-to-day running of the business. After his explanation of each of the features, I agreed that they would benefit me. So he set the paperwork in motion.

A few days later I was in the local branch to sign a few papers. It took no more than about ten minutes. Leanne was my local representative. I must say that she didn’t inspire a lot of confidence for a business banking specialist but I gave one to the bank thinking they must know something I didn’t. She got the job for a reason.

A few days after that, while on a trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin, my cell phone rang. It was Leanne apologizing but she missed one more place that she needed a single signature. Being out of the country for a few days presented a challenge as the paperwork could not move forward without that single signature. I assured her, reluctantly, that I would come back into the branch for one signature when I returned.

I drove the twenty-five minutes to the branch, made one signature and drove home again.

Three weeks later, I had expected to see some kind of correspondence from my bank but I had received nothing. I called the business banking toll-free number again and was connected with Ian. I told Ian my story just as I have told it to you.

“Who was your rep at the branch?” Ian asked.

“Leanne,” I answered, “but I have to say she didn’t inspire a lot of confidence from me.”

Ian chuckled softly. “I really shouldn’t respond to that,” Ian laughed. “Let me put you on hold and see if I can track down what happened with the paperwork.”

A few minutes later, he returned to the call.

“Well Mr. Burns, Leanne isn’t with the branch anymore,” he chuckled.

“No surprise,” I responded.

“They seem to have misplaced the paperwork too. No one can seem to find your file. But I see here on my computer what was happening. Give me a few days. Perhaps we can just fax it to you for your new signatures.”

A week later, no one had returned my call so I called the business call center again.

“Karen speaking. How can I help you?” announced the voice on the phone.

I told my story again and followed it up with, “Don’t you think that it’s funny that after I have been offered these new services from the bank and I agreed to them that I can’t seem to get them?”

“Mr. Burns,” Karen spoke seriously. “I am on it. The buck stops here. I am taking accountability for this file. It will get it done. Will you trust me with that?”

Karen then proceeded to make arrangements to have the paperwork faxed to me. The difference this time was that no signatures would be required since I did my part already and they lost the paperwork. If there were no questions from the faxed paperwork, it would proceed. We chatted on a personal level for a few moments before we hung up. She had also given me her direct number and email address and told me she would be taking vacation for two weeks.

Two weeks later I spoke with Karen again.

“I just got back this morning from vacation,” she said. “Yours is the first file I checked on. I told you I would get it done and I have. Thank you for your business. If ever you need anything else, you can call me directly. You have my number and email address.”

I wanted to give Karen a compliment on her service and “accountable” attitude. I went to the web site. Here’s where it got funny. There was no place to give a compliment to the bank. Complaints? Oh I could complain all I wanted. There were all sorts of choices to offer a complaint but I couldn’t find a single place to give a compliment. So I called the call center again.

I was given Karen’s supervisor’s name, mailing address and email address. I wrote a letter, mailed it and also sent a note to Karen too, thanking her for the way in which she handled and took charge of my situation.

Attitude Adjustment: Have you made it possible for the people you serve to give you compliments? I realize that it’s en-vogue to complain about the big banks and their profits but how about if someone wants to give a compliment? Is your service worthy of a compliment? If you get outstanding service, is it even in you to give a compliment? Offer people a reason to say something nice and they probably will. Give them only the option of complaining and they will. Take on the attitude of “service” and serve. Customer service isn’t just a department – it’s an attitude.

Wearing Commitment Under Your Sleeve

Her name is Holly and she is what appears to be, a typical seventeen year-old. I first met Holly at a music recital. Children as young as six years-old each took the stage and played at least one solo piece. The audience was a gathering of family and friends of the children who had been taking music lessons. Obviously, this was a friendly crowd for any child who performed.

When Holly took the stage, we could see a tattoo peeking out from under the sleeve of her T-shirt. She sat herself upon the piano bench and proceeded to “blow the hair back” of every audience member. What this young girl accomplished at the piano was astounding. Needless to say, she didn’t miss a single note and her fingers were flying across the ivories.

After the recital, as we gathered in the church hall for snacks, Holly and her mother sat at out table.

“That was pretty impressive,” I said to her.

“Thank you,” was her shy reply.

It was then I could see the bottom of the tattoo peeking out from under her sleeve. This time I was close enough to read what it said: “Ludwig Von Beethoven.”

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen someone sporting a Beethoven Tattoo,” I smiled at Holly.

With that said, Holly pulled up the sleeve to show the rest of the tattoo. A full picture of Beethoven’s bust with his name inscribed below. The tattoo went up to her shoulder and halfway down her bicep. All tolled, it was about six inches tall and four inches wide. And it was magnificent work – incredibly detailed.

“That’s my commitment,” Holly said with a smile.

Turns out Holly, at seventeen, has been playing for only two and a half years. However, she said she practices about three to four hours a day. Her mother, who also played piano as a child, is very proud of her daughter’s commitment to the piano. Even though, it seems Holly has a hard time finding enough time in the day to practice – as she also helps out the family financially. In addition to contributing to household finances for the family, she is still in school plus she helps her music teacher out with lessons and other ways so that she can exchange for extra lessons for herself.

Holly’s commitment to being the best she can be on the piano is evident. Her heart is in it and her commitment to her music is unwavering in spite of her financial situation. There are no excuses for not being her very best.

Attitude Adjustment: What are you prepared to do to be the best on the job you can be? Are you letting reasons, excuses and justifiers stand in the way of your personal performance? Really, it doesn’t take a lot of time to read a chapter in a book that can improve your performance. If you would one day like to move up into a promotion, are you preparing yourself now by reading everything you can on leadership, management or communications? Why is it that once we have a job, we think we can stop learning? The world is an ever-changing place. Think about the technological advancements that have been made over the past five years. Are you in front of the curve or lagging behind it? If you’re not constantly self-improving, in this day and age, you are falling behind. And trust me when I say this, the people who will be rewarded with perks, bonuses and promotions in the future, are the same people who are self-schooling and self-improving today. So what can you learn today that improves your potential rewards tomorrow? Remember, no excuses.

Older Workers Still Have Value

Perhaps it’s my age but I find the best part of American Idol are the qualifying rounds to see who gets to go to Hollywood. Out of the tens of thousands of hopefuls only a few hundred are chosen as “good enough” to advance to the next round.

It amazes me though, how many of the contestants, even with a lack of talent in the singing department, feel that they deserve a shot just because they’ve worked hard. Now as much as I may work hard at becoming the best basketball player I can be, my height is going to prevent me from getting a shot at the “big-league.” I don’t ceaselessly whine that I deserve a shot at the NBA just because I’ve worked hard. I’ve just come to accept that there are some things that a guy five and half feet tall won’t ever do.

Tone deafness cannot be replaced with hard work. I don’t care how much a person works. Reality says that there are some things some people are not meant to do. I’ve given up hope of sharing a bench with Steve Nash or Kevin Garnett. It just isn’t going to happen. But perhaps we as Baby Boomers have overindulged our little ones into making them believe that they are entitled to anything just because they’ve worked a little for it.

With that being said, there are some older workers in the workforce today who just don’t understand that just because they’ve been with a company for a long time, doesn’t guarantee them a shot at a management position. In fact, in some cases, the amount of time you have been with a company may actually preclude you from getting a shot at running a department. Old ideas aren’t likely to move an organization forward in an economy and marketplace that are making light-speed changes daily. However, there are times when a senior person in the organization should take the reigns and drive the buggy. There are sometimes when a new and younger perspective is exactly what is needed as well.

I recently addressed a group of workers who are in an ever-changing and largely inter-generational environment. There are some people in their mid-twenties who have been with the organization just a few years and now find themselves steering the ship of a department having become managers and supervisors. That has created difficult situations with many Baby Boomers who are just a few years away from retirement. Resentment is an underlying theme for some of the older workers - having to take direction from a kid less than half their age.

For many older workers in today’s economy, many have become complacent just trying to make it to retirement with all of the perks and benefits that come from working a seeming lifetime with the same organization. It’s a shame when many younger workers view this type of employee as “the working dead.”

I admit that as a kid, a strong work-ethic was drilled into me. This didn’t come from my parents, although it could have. This came from my employers – my managers and supervisors. There was a high expectation of quality from my bosses regardless of the fact that I was a teenager. And there wasn’t a lot of hands-on supervision in many of my summer jobs. It was either I come forward and ask for help or figure it out on my own. I spent a lot of time figuring.

In many of my jobs, the work was solitary. I worked alone and for the most part unsupervised. We had no Internet to surf if we had a question. We had no MSN to ask all of our friends at once. There was no union nor was there any positive feedback on a job well done. A job well done was the expectation of employment. Almost everything I ever learned on my summer jobs was learned on the job and mostly by trial and error. Every trial stretched us a little out of our comfort zones. Every error made us wiser. What I learned is that you will never be given more than you can handle and you can handle all that you’re given.

As many managers get set to retire, new people are needed to replace them. The ideal choice would normally be the worker who him or herself has experienced the ups and downs of the organization over a lifetime but still has an open mind and a willingness to stretch themselves to a new position. There are a lot of organizations who don’t necessarily want diplomas to lead their organizational units but instead want life-wisdom. Knowledge you get in school – wisdom you get on the job.

Mentoring through management is a wonderful experience for older workers. Although the official term would be management, the chance to communicate a lifetime of knowledge through mentoring the members of a department should be grasped with both hands by any older worker. The experience would allow older workers to stretch themselves a little and to impart values and work-ethic onto the new generation of workers. And while the older workers are mentoring younger workers, the younger workers will likely be schooling their new managers in the use of technology. It’s a great experiential trade-off.

But not every older worker is cut out for opportunities like this. It requires an admission from older workers that they haven’t learned it all yet but are still willing to read the books, attend the training sessions (which most companies would gladly provide) and do the work necessary to guide others to being the best they can be. It’s hard work. But it’s rewarding work too.

Attitude Adjustment: The young workers of today are willing to stretch themselves. They want instant gratification right now. That’s not such a bad thing. They’re willing to do whatever is necessary to advance themselves as fast as they can. Older workers should taste the determination of these younger workers and stretch themselves too. If, as an older worker, you don’t want to risk stretching yourself right before retirement, perhaps you should ask yourself if you’re doing something meaningful or just taking up space? There’s a big difference between being selfish and selfless. Every older worker has got something of value that others could learn from. The question is: Are you, as an older worker willing to share it or are you just hoping to get out alive?

Fix The Problem Today

As a professional traveler, I visit a lot of airports, ride a lot of airplanes and stay in a lot of hotels. That requires me to spend a fair bit of time being served in restaurants. I have become fairly proficient at eating out. But the problem is that I experience more head-shaking, eyes-rolling-back, you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me moments while being served in some of these same restaurants.

I want to share with you an example of how glaringly obvious the “service attitude” is not being instilled in the so-called service industry.

A new national chain restaurant had recently opened in the town where I live. I had eaten at many other locations across the country prior to their opening of a location in my town. I was satisfied with their fare in past, although if it were an important meal, this would not be the place. (If you’re wondering about which restaurant, think Bruins and Celtics.)

Forty-five minutes had elapsed from the time we placed our order to the time the food arrived. That was unusual for this chain. They've usually been pretty quick in other locations. When my pasta meal arrived, the pasta had been overcooked and was one big, mushy ball of pasta on top of which was placed the sauce. To the touch, the bottom of the plate was lukewarm at best. The first forkful and, yep, you guessed it, it was cold.

“How is everything?” asked the server.

“Um, cold actually,” was my simple reply.

“I can have the kitchen prepare another plate for you if you would like,” she seemed far too rehearsed. It was like it was not the first time she had said it that day.

I thought about waiting another forty-five minutes for another plate for a twelve-dollar meal and decided to just deal with what was in front of me. I took a few more bites and decided I wasn’t hungry anymore.

The manager came to the table with a slip of paper in her hand. She placed it on the table and simply said, “Sorry that your meal wasn’t to your liking. Here’s a ten-dollar coupon you can use on your next visit.” She then walked away.

On my next visit? Seriously?

When I got to the front counter to pay for my meal, I used the coupon immediately. There hasn’t been a next visit.

Attitude Adjustment: At your place of work, do you fix today’s customer problem today or do you fix it the next time they place an order? C’mon, is it really that hard to fix stuff when it happens? It is not your right to have a customer do business with you. It is your privilege. The ‘service attitude’ says you are in service in some way, shape or form to others no matter what job you hold. You provide a service or product and people choose to pay for that product or service. It’s simple really. And it doesn’t matter if your customers are internal or external. A customer is a customer and they deserve your best even when they’re not being their best. Your job, regardless of the title on the door (or cubicle if that’s the case) is service. If you’re the CEO you serve the shareholders and your employees. If you’re the sales or customer rep you serve the external customer. If you’re the janitor you serve the employees who deserve a clean place to work. If you’re the delivery driver you serve the client and the other drivers on the road. If you’re Human Resources, you serve every department within the organization. Everyone is a customer. Serve them well. It will serve you well. Oh, and fix the problem right now. That’s service.