Managers - Evaluate Honestly and Consistently or Fail

Have you caught yourself or other managers whining about staff, “They should have gotten that done but they just goofed off.”  Or “I expected them do that without direction but when I checked, they got it all wrong.  And look at what we pay them.”  Or “I have to do everything myself; no one trained them and I can’t trust them.” Stop whining and start managing; the buck stops at your desk.

To read the rest of this article from the Denver Business Journal, see: Managers – Evaluate Honestly and Consistently or Fail

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2001/02/12/smallb4.html

Whether you have inexperienced or experienced people, train and manage them so you’re thrilled with their work.  There are no excuses – it’s your job.  Learn to do it well or do something else.

The key to management is honest, consistent evaluation – and all the steps that go into effective and appropriate course correction.  If you don’t track consistently, you’ll spend much more time picking up the pieces.  Sporadic or dishonest tracking reinforces poor performance, fear, hostility, anger and lawsuits.

Some of the keys to successful managing are (see the original article for details):

1. Know each person.  Estimate how long you think each task will take.  Integrate, prioritize and agree on professional and personal goals, and standards of behavior and communication.
2. Clarify what the final product or service will look like.  Determine milestones and timelines, final goals and deadlines.  Don’t wait until the last minute.
3. Specify responsibility, authority, support (resources, personnel) and constraints.  Clarify what they can do their way and what must be done your way or the company way.  Clarify accountability.  Clarify rewards and consequences.
4. Determine what to do if there’s a question, problem or new information to be taken into account.
5. Now manage – oversee the project. Give accurate, honest feedback.  Keep records.
6. Remove poor performers, trouble-makers, bullies and people with low attitudes.

You can’t manage if you’re afraid, lazy, a control freak or too busy.  What you don’t evaluate, won’t matter – you’re telling them that it’s OK if they blow it off or do it poorly.

Stand up for the standards – set the tone and do the work.  Of course it’s hard - if it was easy, anyone could do it.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Tips on how to stop bullying

The Full-Time Nanny site has a list of 30 blogs that feature the best advice on how to stop bullying. I’m grateful that BulliesBeGone.com is mentioned in the section on how to stop bullying in the workplace.

Other categories of bullying are:

• How to stop bullying in schools.
• Anti-bullying, school initiatives.
• Anti-bullying support groups and charities.
• Personal experience blogs.
• How to stop online bullying and harassment.

The article points out that, “as many as 70% of children become the victim of bullying at one point in their lives.  Despite increased efforts by support groups, charities and schools, the problem persists.  However, bullying is not confined to the classroom and playground – bullying exists in the greater community, online and in the workplace.”

Also, “Bullying leaves the victim feeling isolated, worthless and often depressed or suicidal.  The culture of bullying is present in every country across the globe, with no sign of being eradicated.

Of course, I think our practical and real-world work coaching and consulting is outstanding in all of these areas.

Since all tactics depend on the situation, expert coaching by phone or Skype helps.  Call me to design a plan that fits you and your situation.  And build your will and skill to carry it out effectively.

Promote Yourself by Promoting Your Leader

What do successful leaders look for when they hire or promote people to front line supervisor, manager or even other leadership positions?  The same guidelines you must follow if you’re the appointee and want to serve and manage your leader successfully. To read the rest of this article from the Denver Business Journal, see: Promote Yourself by Promoting Your Leader

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2001/03/26/smallb4.html

Technical skills are just the beginning; what usually makes or breaks performance are the attitudes and actions that reinforce a good working relationship in the workplace.

If you’re the leader wanting to help yourself and your manager succeed, be clear about what you can give and what you want.  Review the list below together.

If you’re the new appointee, follow these guidelines to promote both yourself and the leader.  There’s a different set to follow if you’re out to stab the leader in the back. See the original article for details.

• Make the leader as efficient and effective as possible.  Adjust your style to what the leader needs to be comfortable.  Don’t try manipulation, harassment or bullying to make the leader conform to yours.
• No good decision can be made in a vacuum.  Find out the leader’s priorities for you - especially if they’re not articulated or clear.  Argue if necessary to iron them out, but then make them yours.
• Learn how the leader thinks.  Have ready what you’ll be asked for.  Learn the leader’s guiding principles, values, bottom lines and red flags - make them yours.
• Clarify appropriate measures for your team’s performance, track them and review the results with the leader.
• No Surprises.  Make sure the leader hears bad news from you in plenty of time to develop a backup plan.
• Trust is priceless - cultivate the deserved reputation for being above board.
• Cover the leader’s back.  No negativity, bad-mouthing or back-stabbing.
• Don’t make the boss do your dirty work; don’t even allow it.  Don’t nag and don’t say that you told them so.
• Think of the best interests of the whole company, not just your own turf.

Your job is not limited to your job description; it’s to succeed and make the leader look good.  When you hire your staff, make them buy in to the same list in support of you.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Deal with difficult, but necessary, people at work

Although all businesses need consistent policies and procedures in order to succeed, most organizations violate their own rules when faced with very difficult people who happen to be necessary for success. I call these people and situations “special cases.”

To read the rest of this article from the Denver Business Journal, see: Deal with difficult, but necessary, people at work http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2001/04/16/smallb5.html

Special cases are often:

• Creative geniuses - like scientists, artists or software developers - whose bullying, abusive behavior must be tolerated because only they can create the product that everyone else depends on.
• Relatives who company founders insist on keeping.
• A leader’s favorites or special “pets.”
• Individuals who dedicated their lives during the initial development of a company, but now their behavioral quirks, obsessive interference in all operations or lack of a specialized skill diminishes further contributions.

The value of these special cases to the leader, the company and the rest of the staff must outweigh the problems that result from the amount of energy it takes to deal with them, their high salaries, influence on leaders, insistence on doing things their way, jealousy created if they flaunt their special position or the decrease in productivity, morale and teamwork they can cause.

If they disrupt operations or refuse to be contained, then they must go.

In order for the company to run smoothly and effectively, accommodations must be made on both sides and some effective working agreements must be honored.  See the original article for details.

• There will be only a few special cases and they will be known and recognized.
• They will be a fairly constant factor.  Leaders should not vacillate between keeping them and wanting them terminated over specific situations.
• The company can afford the money, time and energy.
• Leadership will develop a plan to minimize their secondary effects.  Managers and other staff must accept the arrangements or transfer.  Employees who deal with these difficult people may need “hazard duty” pay.
• Managers must be allowed to handle special cases. Leaders must push complaints from the special case back to the manager.
• Special cases must accept limitations on their unique treatment.

Employees who are so aggressive and litigious that management is afraid to apply the standards must not be allowed to stay.

Also, leaders must search for replacements while they’re tolerating these poor attitudes and behavior.  People will put up with great difficulties and inequities as long as there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Creating special cases means that not everyone is being treated identically.  But that’s the way of the world –- certain individuals get unique treatment.  That’s how we treat our own families, friends and those we depend on.  Sometimes it’s even necessary for our companies to thrive.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Don't listen to negative, "energy vampires" in the workplace

Leadership is an open-book exam. Both you and the President can get information and advice from many sources.  The benefits of asking are obvious.  But when facing a shrinking economy, cutthroat competition or terrorists, it’s crucial to know who not to ask or even listen to.

To read the rest of this article from the Denver Business Journal, see: Don’t listen to negative, “energy vampires” in the workplace http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2001/10/15/smallb5.html

Don’t listen to people who are:

• Scared, overwhelmed, discouraged or continually negative and critical; "energy vampires."
• Angry, hostile, manipulative and blaming narcissists; looking for someone to make their lives work the way they want.
• Exhausted or complacent lovers of comfort, convenience, ease and appeasement, too soft to fight.
• Sure that fairness and justice are the best ways to win or are more important than winning.  Disillusioned because their hope for friendly, win-win solutions has been challenged by a reality of cutthroat competition and win-lose fights to the death.
• Stuck in “analysis paralysis.”

Some keys to success in changing times - see original article for details:

• Talk to people who have the determination and energy to try to mold the future to your liking.  Listen to people who know what it takes to thrive in hard times and to defeat determined enemies.  Don’t listen to “energy vampires” who sap your will.
• Become low maintenance.  Whether you’re a manager or an employee, an official or a citizen, be a person who can pitch in and help out.
• Promote people who take charge and succeed - don’t keep employees who fall apart in a crisis.  In a world wallowing in recession and terrorism, your company and your country can’t afford to carry wimps, whiners and weaklings, panicked or immobilized by fear.  If you keep them, they’ll drag you under.
• Leaders stick together.  Tell people what you expect them to accomplish and how you expect them to act.  Talk longest and deepest with leaders at all levels in your organization.  Your job is to support hope, calmness and productivity under pressure.  You have a business to run.
• Take intelligent risks; don’t be too prudent.  Remember F.D.R. saying, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  Buy and build.
• Tell hero stories.  You’ll hear friends, family, children or coworkers upset because they just figured out that we can never really be safe or secure.  We don’t know what might happen.  Tell them about people with courage and skill in the face of danger.
• Success must be fought for and won; it won’t be given.  The British didn’t leave America in 1776 because they were politely asked to.  Hitler didn’t stop because he was appeased.

Hard times and war are great opportunities to be great.  Prepare yourself to be brave and skillful.  Losing is a much worse example for our children than is war and victory.

You might even read, “Masters of Change,” by William Boast and Benjamin Martin.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

'Caretaker Mentality' Thwarts Success in Workplace

A leader’s primary job is to do whatever is worth your life’s effort in a way that succeeds and is consistent with your core values.  You must judge your priorities and strategies by that criterion; do they promote or interfere with winning. If you think that there are more important things than winning, so that, for example, you’re willing to give up 10% of your company’s market share to be nice, please tell me so I can invest somewhere else.

One of the most insidious threats to success in the workplace is the “caretaker mentality” that comes in many forms.

To read the rest of this article from the Denver Business Journal, see: ‘Caretaker Mentality’ Thwarts Success in Workplace

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2002/01/14/smallb7.html

If you confuse core values with attitudes, preferences and strategies that ignore realities or that interfere with winning, you’re setting yourself up for losing or becoming a martyr.

However much you might value openness and honesty with those you love, you can’t tell your competition your plans and proprietary secrets.  That’s a childish understanding of honesty and a strategy that guarantees failure.  Beware of people who say that’s the way the world should be.

Some examples:

• Not pursuing accounts receivable because it might be embarrassing for customers.
• Not requiring a team member to do something they don’t like.  Not giving honest feedback to people who say they can’t perform their tasks because of personal problems.  Not holding someone accountable for deadlines if they can’t handle the stress.
• People at a child care center accepting poor service from janitors or plumbers because they’re trying their best and if you work with them, over time they might improve their performance.
• Letting vagrants block your front door because they have nowhere else to go.
• Health care providers not wanting to keep accurate records or submit timely bills because caring counts more than money.
• Keeping someone incompetent at a particular job if they’re well meaning or their feelings would be hurt by being transferred or released.

Those may sound farfetched, but they’re real examples I’ve seen in abundance in companies and especially in non-profits, public service organizations and government agencies.

The “caretaker mentality” shows a deep and pervasive confusion about the organization’s mission and priorities. See the original article for details.

• It assumes that you can take care of everyone’s needs and wishes without interfering with anyone else’s.
• It assumes that it’s okay to accept mediocre performance or that the only or best way of encouraging better performance is to lower standards.
• It allows the angriest, nastiest, most vicious or most ignorant person to harass, bully and abuse other people while you try to understand and educate the bully.  It turns targets into victims.
• It assumes that making people feel good, even if you have to lie to them or give dishonest evaluations, is more important than challenging them with high standards and the need for results.
• It puts a great burden on the rest of the team to deliver on promises.
• While it pretends to care about everyone, it actually cares only about the people it designates as “victims” and allows them to victimize everyone else.

You don’t have to be nasty, ruthless or cheat, but you do have to be realistic and to choose.  Either you focus on your best shot at accomplishing the mission you hold dear enough to spend your time and energy, and to risk your fortune, or you give up that purpose to satisfy some other value.

Your primary responsibility is to make your organization a success in providing service to your customers at a profit, so you can continue to provide salaries to your employees.  There are many ways you can take care of your community without undermining that responsibility.

Of course, the caretaker mentality in relationships, at school and in your extended family can also ruin your life

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

No Whining Complainers: No More Victim Talk

Yes, life can be unfair and painful. But deciding what’s worth time doing something about and how to deal with it, is what can make your future great or miserable. If there’s a fly in your soup or the wrong entrée was brought, don’t just grin and bear it.  Get what you ordered, well prepared.  But you don’t have to whine or be an obnoxious jerk about it.

To read the rest of this article from the Cincinnati Business Courier, see: No Whining Complainers: No More Victim Talk http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2003/01/20/smallb5.html

Whining complainers come in typical forms and for obvious reasons.  See the original article for details.

• Whining complainers try to get sympathy and free goodies, to be the center of attention, to protect themselves from consequences and to control other people.
• “Professional victims” can find a cloud behind every silver lining.  Their lack of success is never their fault: it’s their genes, upbringing, bad luck, lack of support, previous poor decisions they can’t overcome, or powerful forces from outer space.  They can get power by this form of bullying.
• After “Energy vampires” leave, you feel like you’ve been drained of a quart of energy.  It’s hard to get back to work.
• “Dumpers” hurl so many problems on you that you need a shower.  And it’s then easy for you to waste even more time, sharing the garbage with someone else.
• “Blamers” specialize in righteous indignation, anger, temper tantrums and explosive silences.
• “Self-flagellators” proudly exhibit their badges of guilt and shame. When you realize the exhibition doesn’t help them do better, you wonder whose benefit the virtuoso performance was for.
• “Professional critics” are never satisfied.  But they’ve lost their sense of proportion.  They don’t distinguish between inconvenience, annoyance, irritation and serious problems.   They overreact, have no sense of which battles to fight or of political give-and-take and they never let anything rest; even problems can’t be solved.

Whining complainers live in a state of perpetual childhood, full of narcissism, greed and lust for power, isolated and avoiding responsibility for their problems and their futures.  And they take that out by harassing coworkers.

Moods are catching. If you wallow in feeling sorry for yourself or if you’re habitually overwhelmed, panicked, discouraged or angry, everybody and everything suffers.

Whining complainers decrease morale, divide loyalties, increase sick leave and turn over, and destroy productivity.  If you let them stay in your workplace they will sap its life‘s blood.  Stand up for great attitudes and replace whining complainers with people whose passion for life and work pour out of them.

A culture of whining complainers becomes a litigious culture, in which people take no responsibility for what they do.

I’ve focused on whining complainers and critics in the workplace, but, of course, the same could be said about them in personal life – whether it’s your spouse, kids, family or friends.

You can focus on what’s wonderful and what gives your life meaning, value, richness and joy, or you can whine and complain.

After a recent presentation, one person said that he had changed his life: in order to have the future he wants, he just doesn’t have time to sulk, complain or look for sympathy.  His first job is to practice keeping his spirit up while solving important problems.  He also doesn’t have a lot of time to listen to losers.  He chooses to be around winners who take things in stride.

It’s your life. You have the same choice.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Surefire ways lose your most valued customers

Master these methods and you’re guaranteed to lose your best customers.  Since hiding exceptions to guarantees is a great way to lose customers, I’d better reveal my exceptions. To read the rest of this article from the New Mexico Business Weekly, see: Surefire ways to lose your most valued customers http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2002/11/04/smallb3.html

No matter how hard they try, some organizations can’t or don’t lose their customers.

• Some federal and state agencies, and some local utilities realize that they’re only game in town.  If you get good service it’s either luck or some individuals who really care – but good service is not critical for them to keep their customers.
• Some customers won’t leave because they’re masochists, have very low expectations or feel helpless.

Seven techniques for losing your best customers. See the original article for details.

1. Burn out your best employees; promote your worst.  Pay minimum wage for receptionists and telephone operators who are curt, defensive and passive-aggressive.
2. Make buying very difficult.  Make perspective customers wade through five-to-ten steps of an answering system with no way to get to a live person.  Design a web site that takes forever to download and make purchasing require a complicated series of entries.
3. Over charge and under deliver.  Apologize profusely for a mistake, promise it will never happen again and then do nothing to correct the problem.
4. Become very important.  Start coasting.  Ignore your oldest and best customers – the easy sales.  Show up late for appointments.  Talk too much.  Don’t bother about product knowledge.
5. Be creative about not following through. Don’t return phone calls or wait a very long time before returning them and then forget the customer’s name.  Rely on company policy to avoid product returns.
6. Use offensive language when talking to customers.
7. Insult your competitor's products.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Surefire ways of inspiring the exodus of best employees

Want to downsize by driving away your best employees? If you have trouble believing that I’ve seen these techniques while consulting or coaching, you’re underestimating human creativity.

To read the rest of this article from the Washington Business Courier, see: Surefire ways of inspiring exodus of best employees http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2004/05/17/smallb6.html

Ten techniques I’ve seen used to get rid of the best employees.  See original article for details.

1. Keep goals, strategic plans, deadlines, policies and procedures unclear or secret. Don’t develop clear communication skills and processes.  Act as if employees are supposed to know what you mean, and if they don’t, it’s their problem.  Ignore employees’ grievances or penalize them severely for wasting your time.
2. Set impossible standards and deadlines; be hypercritical. Demand perfection.  Break your own rules.  Take your moods out on them; throw fits, retaliate often, make attacks personal - curse, threaten and demean them.
3. Be the hub; change your mind often; give contradictory orders. Micro-manage and then be unavailable when your opinion is needed.  Foster rumors.  Criticize them loudly for not taking responsibility and for wasting your time with dumb questions.
4. Evaluate sporadically, especially after mistakes, or not at all. Don’t give specific feedback; just yell that they did it wrong and there’s going to be hell to pay.  Chastise in public.  Avoid dealing with issues and problems. Promote inefficiency and diffuse responsibility.
5. Deny responsibility; it’s never your fault. Promise anything, deny you ever said it (as if they just didn’t listen carefully or twisted your words), don’t put anything in writing
6. Play favorites. Whisper behind closed doors, reward non-productive employees who suck up to you in public, form intimate relationships with a few and let everyone know.  Ignore their privacy.  Go through their desks, eat their snacks, make loud remarks about your findings.
7. Treat everybody the same; give everyone the same rewards. Ignore extra effort and high productivity.
8. Don’t waste time and money on training. Get new software but don’t ask users to help customize or test it before installation.  Throw new employees into the fray without training or instructions.  Enjoy righteous indignation when they don’t meet your standards.  Complain that you have to do everything yourself if you want it done right.
9. Treat downsized employees poorly; blame the company’s problems on them. Nickel-and-dime them.  No personal calls or e-mail, ever!  Give yourself huge increases and perks.
10. In a budget crunch, give falsely poor evaluations in order to justify giving small raises. Separate evaluations from rewards so you can easily give great evaluations and tiny raises.

These techniques are only the tip of the iceberg.

Of course, you’ll have to master a different set of methods to keep your best employees and replace only the worst.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Don’t Tolerate "Stars" Who Bully at Work

Nobody likes a bully.  But imagine that your best salesman is a bully.  You’re faced with a dilemma that may make you hesitate.  Heroism and skill will be required to maintain standards. To read the rest of this article from the Cincinnati Business Courier, see: Don’t Tolerate “Stars” Who Bully at Work http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2003/04/07/smallb3.html

Even if the bullying is flagrant and public, you might think twice before risking a major revenue stream confronting that person.

Even worse, if bullying is more subtle and private – like a bully “sales star “ cuts others out of their share of a sale; undermines other sales people; verbally intimidates and abuses support staff - you may be tempted to hesitate and ignore the initial rumors.

A prevalent assumption in our society is that the first time you hear about a problem, you should minimize it, give people the benefit of the doubt and hope it goes away by itself.  That assumption is wrong.

See the original article for details.

• Don’t let an untreated splinter lead to gangrene or a bullying problem fester. For every incident you hear about, there are usually five that haven’t reached you.  This is just the first time the bully was exposed.
• Respond to such incidents immediately. Look for patterns of behavior, try to find witnesses to the incident or people who have been bullied separately.
• Bullying patterns of behavior test everyone’s courage and skill, especially the leadership team. Set the standards by biting the bullet rapidly with bullying sales stars.
• Usually, the abuse builds to a crescendo, but then subsides temporarily - so you give it more time. Eventually, you’ll spend so much time focusing on repeated incidents, you’ll be exhausted. That is a tip-off:  The “cancer” has spread too far.
• After you act, you’ll be amazed at what surfaces. You’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.  Over the next two to three months, you’ll hear many more stories of bullying and hear many sighs of relief.”
• Even though the leadership team is insulated from the worst of the pain, you have to lead the way in demanding civil behavior as well as productivity. You’re just following common sense.
• Test sales managers. It’s easy to talk theories, but decisions can get more difficult for a sales manager when facing a bullying star might mean unmet quotas, lost personal bonuses and more time and money training replacements. The longer managers cover things up or let situations go unresolved, the more credibility and influence they lose.  They look like enablers or collaborators. Eventually they will have to leave - along with the bully they’ve coddled and protected.
• Test the support staff manager and the “abused” individual. Courage is required to blow the whistle, since leaders usually favor sales stars.  Don’t throw fits; gather facts and document evidence of patterns.

You can’t precisely measure the negative effects of bullying on everyone’s productivity, but every time you remove one of those thorns, the benefits will be dramatic.

Even if sales take a temporary hit, morale and productivity will increase across the board. Company revenues will shortly overcome the loss of that particular bully’s sales.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Sometimes you can't 'fix' an unhappy employee

How do you develop credibility and support when quality staff are distrustful and holding back? Conventional thinking incorrectly puts the whole burden on you. But if you do your best for the whole company, consistently treat people decently, don’t hog the credit and spread the blame, and you’re not a liar or a looter, then don’t take the blame for lack of buy-in and don’t put out all the energy forever.

To read the rest of this article from the Nashville Business Journal, see: Sometimes you can't 'fix' an unhappy employee http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2003/02/10/smallb6.html

The burden to be great managers and employees is on them.  Do they demonstrate their passion and productivity at your company?

You have three critical decisions in evaluating employees and managers who are holding back.  See original article for details

• Can the damaged bond between you (the company) and a particular manager or employee be saved?  Promote great participants – productive managers and staff who respond to you and your good efforts - and replace those who don’t participate.
• What can and cannot be fixed by great leadership style?  Great style can rally people for a while, but no amount of style can fix a structural problem or a person who will hate no matter what.
• If the bond can be saved and if the problem is not structural, what’s the best style?  Ignore conventional thinking about this month’s management fad.

Many different styles, including yours, can succeed if they fit the circumstances, tasks and needs/personalities of quality staff.

Think strategically.  Face the difficult questions.  Have your managers and staff face the same questions.  I always include staff so they’ll be crystal clear up-front about what’s expected of them, what buy-in or opt-out looks like, and how they’ll be judged.

Orient yourself appropriately, be trustworthy and see who responds. A great employee will do the work of two mediocre ones and give you fewer headaches.  Poor or distrustful employees don’t matter in the long run – you’ll replace them.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

No-conflict workplace won't resolve problems. Anger goes underground when it's avoided

Dealing with conflict in corporate America is a problem of extremes.  Ineffective leaders either use confrontation and bullying as weapons to beat employees down, or they mandate conflict-free zones.  Both extremes suppress effective disagreement, drive opposition underground and create toxic environments. To read the rest of this article from the New Mexico Business Weekly, see: No-conflict workplace won't resolve problems:  Anger goes underground when it's avoided http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2003/09/01/smallb3.html

While bullying bosses are recognized problems, the cancerous effects of no-conflict zones usually fester unnoticed until they metastasize. In the quest to be respectful of people’s feelings, ineffective leaders have covered up problems or rushed to easy, token resolutions.  They have abandoned the most effective tools for creating innovation and improvement - challenge and opposition that promotes creativity and brings out the best efforts of worthy staff.  Conflict-avoidant managers cannot be effective leaders.

The problem is not disagreement; the problem is escalation – in either direction. The challenge for leaders is to find the sweet spot between the extremes.  The key to success is the fundamental agreement to use the opposing forces for the common good while preventing escalation.

One organization I worked with had decreed there would be no emotional responses or disagreement. Everyone was required to be calm, sweet, kind and reasonable in public.  Disagreement was hidden behind closed doors and, even then, had to be circumspect and cloaked in appreciation and praise.  There were very strict communication formulas, ostensibly so no one’s feelings would ever be hurt.  Not only were sticks and stones forbidden, but also honest words.

Typical of such poisonous situations, overt channels of responsibility, authority and accountability had become shams. A small clique of the most difficult and manipulative people used their hypersensitivity to control the organization behind the scenes.  The best games-players intrigued to make decisions in their own best interests.  Quality employees started leaving.

Apposition is a better word than opposition to describe passionate disagreement that promotes the greater good. Your opposable thumb and forefinger often appose by pushing against each other hard so you can pick up your pencil and get to work.  Apposition creates opportunity and promotes success.

If disagreement has been suppressed, the initial steps in transforming a toxic culture will seethe with emotion. Pay the price and move through the flare up.

You don’t need to initiate angry confrontations in order to be clear and firm about standards of productivity, quality or behavior.  But if the other person wants to start a fight or throw a fit, effective leaders learn to deal with emotionally charged interactions rapidly and effectively.

Conflict is nothing to be afraid of - appreciate and respect worthy opponents who bring out the best in both of you.

The best leaders seek areas of disagreement and challenge. Emotion, challenge and disagreement power the engine of leadership.  To drive success, moderate and direct that fuel appropriately.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Managerial totalitarians sabotage their own success

Are you tolerating mid-level dictators in your organization – managers who are succeeding by bullying the people who work for them?  If so, you are buying short-term success at the cost of long-term failure. To read the rest of this article from the Denver Business Journal, see: Managerial totalitarians sabotage their own success http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2003/11/17/smallb5.html

When you focus on driving sales, streamlining operational costs and increasing profit, you’ll tend to ignore almost any behavior that succeeds at organizational levels below yours.

You’ll even allow mid-level tyrants to verbally flog their crews as long as they get the desired results.  Then you’ll be mystified when today’s successful practices unravel next year.

Within a year after they’ve succeeded, managerial dictators sabotage their initial success by stifling creativity and differences of opinion, and by thwarting personal desires.

Repressed egos, resentment, turf fights, backbiting and resistance come to the fore.  Verbal bullying no longer increases morale, wounds are opened in public, and once-proud allies start pointing fingers as performance and teamwork fall.

To maintain productivity and profitability gains, company officials need to recognize abusive behaviors and develop corrective actions to reform or eliminate these tyrants.

Some common traits of mid-level bullies: - See the original article for details.

• They think that anyone who doesn’t see that they know best is a jerk.
• Talking with them isn’t a discussion; it’s an argument.
• They treat subordinates and peers with distain and contempt.
• Nothing bad is ever their fault and, “If only those people wouldn’t screw up, we could succeed.”  Every success results from their ideas and work.
• They’re nitpicking masters of blame and righteous indignation.
• They often ridicule and undermine leaders’ intelligence and authority.
• They think they shouldn’t have to answer to anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
• Their units may fill their quotas but will obstruct other departments’ efforts so the overall project suffers.

Recognize the overlooked costs of their behavior: - See the original article for details.

• Initial success isn’t maintained and new initiatives are sabotaged.
• Personal squabbles spread and consume too much company time and energy.
• Supervisors don’t learn effective leadership skills; they’re promoted because they stroke the dictator’s ego and verbally beat their own crews.
• Since they play favorites, employees may sue.
• Abuse, resistance and mutiny spread to their staff and other departments – decreasing productivity throughout the company.
• The best, most creative employees in all departments leave.  Former employees badmouth the company in the small community of your industry.

Some steps to change their behavior: - See the original article for details.

Petty tyrants often rise because they succeed.  Their force of will and skill do make some other people work harder.  They’re difficult to change because they think they’re smarter than anyone else, and their fear, anger, training and stylistic habits are powerful.

If you allow managers to act like petty tyrants, the buck stops at your desk.  Either you agree with that behavior, or they hid it from you, or you were too busy focusing elsewhere or you accepted it because it produced results.

Usually they must be forced to change.  Help them see that another way can be successful, that they won’t lose respect or rank, and that they can still feel in control.  Make them see that if they don’t change, they’ll be released.

Behaviors demonstrating progress: - See the original article for details.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Why entrepreneurial founders can founder later as company leaders

Different management skills are required to succeed in different situations.  The dilemma that creates for many successful entrepreneurs and managers is that the very qualities that made them successful eventually thwart further growth. Do you recognize someone who has reached their ceiling because they continue to rely on styles that have now become ineffective?

To read the rest of this article from the Washington Business Journal, see: Why entrepreneurial founders can founder later as company leaders http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2004/02/02/smallb2.html

Here are five examples of behaviors that help entrepreneurs succeed at first but thwart next steps of growth – See the original article for details.

1. They won’t take “no” for an answer.  They insist that everything get done their way.
2. They have to be the center of all activity.
3. They insist on making all the rules ... as they go along.  Even when they’re wrong, they still won’t listen to advice.
4. They act like fighter pilots - crisis management.
5. Insisting on doing it their way drives away many competent, creative and responsible employees.

Like them or not, those methods are usually necessary for success when the entrepreneurs are founding their companies.  As long as founders have the energy to do everything and make the right decisions, their companies can stay small and afloat.  But they can’t rely on the same qualities to make the jump to the next level of organization or profit.

This illustrates a truism often ignored by management gurus.  No particular style guarantees success.  What’s effective in one situation is often problematic in another and vice versa.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Problem People: The high cost of low attitudes

In every business there are three sources of cash flow:

• External customers and sales that bring cash in.
• Internal production processes that can efficiently and effectively keep cash in.
• The people who control the flow of both - they can keep the flow positive or bleed your company dry.

Companies usually spend most of their time and money on sales training and process improvement but little on the attitudes of their people.

Why?  Because most don’t recognize the high cost of low attitudes or don’t know how to benchmark attitudes.

To read the rest of this article from the Memphis Business Journal, see: Problem People: The high cost of low attitudes http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2004/03/01/smallb4.html

I’m not talking about sweetness and light, goodie-two-shoes attitudes.  I’m talking about attitudes necessary to make sales training and process improvement effective.

Statistics vary for the toll that low attitudes take in lost productivity, absenteeism, turnover and health care costs, and workplace incidents leading to delays, defects, loss of customers and litigation.   See original article for statistics and details.

Don’t waste time questioning the accuracy of each statistic.  Instead, cost out the people problems that drive everyone to distraction in your department or company.

Do you dread coming in to work because you’re going to have to deal with “you-know-who” again?   How often do you hear, “that’s not my job description” or “that’s not my fault”?

How many hours are wasted complaining about the same problem leaders, managers and employees or reviewing the latest round in an on-going fight?  How much money flows down the drain fixing mistakes caused by people who insist on doing it their way or because leaders of two micro-empires won’t work with each other to maximize overall profits?  How many good people get frustrated and leave?

I propose the 180/20 rule instead of the 80/20 rule.  The 20 percent of people problems waste at least 30 percent of six people’s time and energy.  Do the math.  No one I’ve surveyed has yet argued to lower the percent wasted.

In my consulting and workshops, people who come for professional and personal growth easily identify the same bad actors at their companies.  And they know if their managers are trying to change these attitudes or are willing to let good employees be abused.

You can’t create good attitudes by bribing people and hoping they’ll work harder.  So, what can you do?

• Apply the same benchmarking approach you use to improve processes.  The secret to developing metrics for soft skills is to convert un-measurable attitudes into observable behaviors that either speed the flow of cash into the company or decrease its hemorrhaging out.
• To increase buy-in, facilitate the development of soft skill metrics at every level of your organization.
• The guidelines and timelines for improving individual and team behaviors must become part of evaluations.

How will you know when you’re succeeding? You’ll recover control of your time and energy and gain an extra 10 or 20 or 25 percent productivity at no extra cost.

Invest in attitudes before they become expenses.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Best chance for success rests on a deep bench

In sports, the team with the strongest bench often wins.  It’s no different in business. It’s inevitable that you’ll lose key players – temporarily (e.g., illness or vacations,) or permanently.  If you don’t have the bench strength to replace them, you’ll have a productivity problem.  A sudden loss can create a crisis.

To read the rest of this article from the Washington Business Journal, see: Best chance for success rests on a deep bench http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2004/04/26/smallb2.html

Remember the Boy Scout motto: Be prepared.  Have bench players cross-trained for the short-term and groomed as the next generation of leaders.

I’ve heard many reasons why companies don’t prepare: See original article for details.

Here are some tips for getting started.  See original article for details.

• Decide that developing bench strength is critical.
• Make a simple plan to get started and let everyone know that it will be evolving.
• Initiate training in leadership development and your company’s culture, separate from courses, certifications and degrees.
• Start where you are.  Start with goals and then develop a process.  An appropriate process is necessary but the success of the program depends on the people involved.
• Teach by examining case studies, extracting strategies and processes from the latest leadership fads, and internalizing the qualities and perspectives of great leaders whose works have stood the test of time.
• But what if someone thinks that it’s brain washing?
• What if the people selected become arrogant or leaders start paying attention only to the rising stars?

The downtime during a long hiring and ramping up process is huge.  No matter how well you do the process, it’s a crap shoot hiring someone off the street.

Strengthen your bench or prepare to lose.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

Tactics that DON'T stop bullies

Let’s talk about five tactics that don’t stop bullies – in school, in relationships and at work Five tactics that don’t stop bullies – in school, in relationships and at work

1. To deny, minimize, avoid, ignore or condone bad conduct – to suffer in silence or to take the blame or to “Rise above” bullying, harassment or abuse.  How many abused kids and suicides will it take before we realize that bullying does not stop by itself?  How many battered women does it take before we realize that abusers don’t simply wake up one day as better people?
2. To beg, bribe or appease relentless, chronic bullies to try to get them to stop – the Golden Rule won’t stop real-world bullies.  Bullies interpret your kindness and niceness as weakness and an invitation to push more boundaries or to go after you more.
3. Mediate, negotiate or compromise forever. To accept excuses, justifications or promises forever, or to try to educate or rehabilitate forever without requiring immediate change the behavior of bullies – to sacrifice good kids or adults at work (the targets) in order to try to rehabilitate the bullies.
4. Not to have a program with real and escalating consequences to bullies – to dump the bullies on other classes at school or other teams at work.

Relentless bullies are predators who go after the weak, the isolated and those who don’t resist.

You may be a target; don’t be a victim.  Take care of yourself mentally and emotionally.  Treat yourself as if you matter.

See: Leichtling YouTube: Five Common Tactics That Do Not Stop Bullies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w8Tno4RJPA

Leichtling YouTube: How Not To Be a Victim of Bullying http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNx-W9glnFg

Since all tactics depend on the situation, expert coaching by phone or Skype helps.  We can design a plan that fits you and your situation.  And build your will and skill to carry it out effectively.

Schoolyard thugs morph into wilier workplace bullies

At some point in our lives, all of us have experienced bullies on the playground.  We’ve run across them in the workplace, too.  Many of them are now smarter at hiding what they do, which makes recognizing and dealing with them harder. Consider these three workplace bullies:

To read the rest of this article from the Business Journal of Jacksonville, see: Schoolyard thugs morph into wilier workplace bullies http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2004/06/21/smallb3.html

Consider these three workplace bullies: - see original article for details

• Ed makes you walk on eggshells.  If you disagree with him, don’t give him what he wants or criticize him, he’ll retaliate with dirty looks and anger – or worse.
• Jane hides her bullying by focusing on what’s fair.  Even though her work is mediocre, she argues that she deserves the same favors the best workers get.
• Dora proudly lets everyone know she was a victim before and is hypersensitive now.  She grumbles, complains and whines about uncaring treatment, and if her feelings are hurt, she’ll cry and let everyone know how harsh and cruel you were.

Ed, Jane and Dora are bullies who fly below your radar because they’re sneaky, manipulative and coercive instead of overtly intimidating or violent.  They must have their way, on everything, no matter how minor, and they will use any tactics to get it.

Low-flying bullies are more dangerous than traditional playground bullies because their covert behavior masks the destruction they do.  Because you don’t recognize them as bullies, you don’t rally yourself to resist effectively.  You simply live with your frustration.

If you don’t stop their bullying, they’ll do serious damage to you and your organization.

Some early warning signs of low flying bullies:

• Your “no” isn’t accepted as “no.”  They ignore, overrule or get around your objections.
• Your standards, priorities and interpretations are less important than theirs.
• You can’t act until you’ve convinced them that you’re right - and you can never convince them.
• Your concerns don’t get dealt with - their concerns take precedence.
• You feel emotionally drained and blackmailed.  You walk on eggshells thinking that if only you behaved better, things would be OK.
• The more you try to act reasonably, the more you have to give in.

Use a simple behavioral test to recognize them:  What do you have to do to get someone to be a productive partner?  Bullies show you that it takes a fight.

The good news is that once you label their behavior as bullying, you’ll know what you’re up against and can mobilize yourself to think strategically.

Appeasement never works because they’re never satisfied.  Don’t spend your life trying to rehabilitate them unless you’re willing to commit, whole-heartedly and willingly to changing their behavior – no matter how long it takes.

It’s not easy to stop them but you can.  The basic strategy when dealing with bullying behavior is to start negotiating calmly, reasonably and firmly and let their behavior, not their words, tell you how clear and firm you have to be to get them to change.  Become more firm incrementally until you find something that works.  Plan your strategy and tactics as if you’re going to war.  You are.

You’ll have to show them that you are more determined, resolute and resilient – and adjust your strategy.  Most bullies look for easy victims. So, take them on or submit.

See: Recognize Covert Bullies at Work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzdJQ0H1LxE

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.

How NOT to be a victim of bullying

We’ve all been targeted by bullies – at school, in relationships, at home and at work.  You may be a target, but you don’t have to be a victim. Let’s talk about how not to be a victim of bullying.

Victims don’t fight back successfully.  Targets fight back.  Choose not to be a victim!

What are signs of victims?

1. Victims think bullying is their fault; they think they’ve done something wrong.  They think they deserve the bullying.
2. Victims take hostility, harassment, bullying and abuse personally; they feel embarrassed, ashamed, guilty and scared.
3. They try to ignore, appease, beg and bribe bullies; they can’t think of what else to do; they don’t see bullies as simply predators looking for easy prey.
4. Victims feel helpless and hopeless; they cut themselves off from their own inner strength; they don’t stand up.
5. Victims isolate themselves; they don’t get help that’s available.

What are the signs of targets who do not become victims?

1. Targets see bullies as nasty, jerks; they know that bullying is the fault of bullies; they don’t take it personally; they maintain their self-esteem..
2. Targets know they’re not really being picked on because they’re different; bullies bully because they’re bullies; they use the differences as their excuses and justifications.
3. Targets try nice, peaceful methods at first but if those don’t stop the bully, targets push back in many ways – verbal, legal, physical – increasing in firmness.
4. Targets have strong desire and will to resist; they have courage that gives them strength; they have determination, perseverance and resilience.
5. Targets get help; they learn to get people on their side; they learn to create witnesses and defenders.

Powered by their courage, inner strength and grit, targets can think and plan effectively.  Then they can carry out their effective action plan with skill.

Stop complaining, stop whining, stop pouting: no more victim talk.  Don’t be a victim.  Choose.  It’s your life: be the hero of your life.

See: How Not To Be a Victim of Bullying http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNx-W9glnFg

Since all tactics depend on the situation, expert coaching by phone or Skype helps.  We can design a plan that fits you and your situation.  And build your will and skill to carry it out effectively.

Visionary leaders can't waste time on problem managers

Visionary leaders often follow a simple formula to succeed. To avoid getting swamped by details they select independent, result-driven managers, train them, clarify goals and deliverables, and get out of the way.  Then they track progress. But how do you recognize managers who create ever-widening unhappiness, friction, turf fights, turnover and missed deadlines?

To read the rest of this article from the Denver Business Journal, see: Visionary leaders can’t waste time on problem managers http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2004/06/14/smallb4.html

Here are four common examples of such problem managers: - see the original article for details.

1. Weaklings and avoiders act as if their motto is, “If they don’t like me they’ll fight me, but if they like me they’ll work hard for me.”
2. Bullies try to succeed thinking, “The beatings will continue until productivity and morale improve.”
3. Turf protectors believe, “What’s good for me is good for everyone.”
4. Snooping Puppet Masters seem to think, “Success depends on manipulating, blackmailing or destroying the competition.”

Leaders can see these problems in missed deadlines, high absenteeism, turnover and transfer rate, in exit interviews from a particular department or in anonymous suggestions and internal dissatisfaction surveys.  They might hear about them from an executive assistant, trusted manager or brave employee.  Discerning leaders will notice turf battles at budget meetings or looks passed around the table behind one manager’s back.

What can visionary leaders do?  You have more than enough on your plate and you can’t waste time in details trying to decide which of the fighting children is right.  But if you ignore the problems, they’ll grow into disasters.

The two key steps for stimulating change are: - see the original article for details.

1. Be clear and firm: The manager must change or else.
2. Bring in a consultant/coach to evaluate and act as the turn-around agent.

These problem managers will need:

• Continued pressure to change.
• Specific, individualized plans for how to succeed with a new approach.
• Cue cards for exactly what to say and do in initial, small steps.
• Expert guidance to help them pick the best situations to begin with.
• Plans for consistency and perseverance; other people will distrust their new approach.
• Behavioral signposts to measure progress.
• Frequent review, counseling and independent checks to see that they’ve actually done what they claim.

Often, these problem managers can help themselves by telling other people that they are trying to change and will have to see success with their new approach.  Under these conditions, managers who want to continue rising in their companies can change their ways.

Often, individuals need coaching and organizations need consulting to help them design and implement a plan that fits the situation.  To get the help you need, call Ben at 1-877-828-5543.