Negativity Is Not In Your Job Description

Negativity breeds negativity. Sometimes you need to remind your team (leaders and employees) that negativity is not in the job description.

As a leader, when you walk through the door, you're on stage. Your every move is being watched and imitated by your employees. Therefore, you must be consistent and predictable in how you interact with your employees and how you deal with life’s (organization) challenges.

Your attitude is the foundation for your employees’ attitude. If you come in to work smiling, optimistic and approachable, then it's easier to expect a positive work day. If you come to work with a scowl on your face, are angry or have a "don't talk to me until I've had my coffee" attitude, you can expect to be working in a negative work environment - and have no one to blame but yourself.

In addition to watching yourself, moderate the flow of gossip. If you notice rumors being circulated among your employees, verify them from the source. Despite what people may think, work is not the place to gossip. And besides, most gossip is just plain made up. It creates animosity, tension, and ill-will. When dealing with the gossiper, call their bluff! Invite them to join you in confronting the other individuals that are being gossiped about. Chances are, that will be the end.

If employees are allowed this negativity for too long, it becomes habitual and they can't stop. It becomes who they are. You'll begin to realize that every time you come in contact with these people, you'll be hearing complaints. Negativity will spread like a disease. Negativity breeds negativity.

What you send out is what you get back. Everyone is in control of their own/your own attitude - it's sometimes one of the only things you can control at work.

To Do Lists

A few months back I saw writer Larry Winget for the first time on FoxBusiness's Happy Hour. I was immediately intrigued by his attitude towards business life. He writes/talks about business in a straight forward, to the point manner. He "tells the truth and doesn't give a damn if you like it or not". Yesterday I started reading his book "It's Called Work for a Reason". I found a fantastic idea in the first few pages.

In his book Winget suggests that you get rid of your "Things to Do" list and replace it with a "Things That Have to Get Done" list. How many times have you taken time to make a "to do" list and only partially gotten any of it actually completed? Herein lies the problem. According to Winget, your "to do" list is nothing more than a wish list. "Your "Things That Have to Get Done" list is more focused and concise, and acts as an action plan for your day." It has a more psychological effect.

Lists that you make up of things that you need to accomplish are part of your time management. By making a list you hope to be able to accomplish more. But if you're constantly only getting bits and pieces done, you're not really accomplishing anything.

It's time consuming to manage time. Winget says that "Everyone should forget about managing time and should instead focus on managing priorities. When the right things get done, time takes care of itself". Focus on what has to get done, not what should get done or would be nice to get done.

Roy Disney once said, "When priorities are clear, decision making is easy." Set the right priorities and everything else follows.

Follow-Through

I read a quote in a recent American Management Association (AMA) publication that hit my funny bone. Not only because it was comical but also so true - "After spending so much money on organizational change programs and leadership development, why do I always end up with Dilbert and re-runs of The Office?" Sound familiar?

The issue, a lot of times, is that we come up with a "theory of the month" on why things are the way they are. We quickly put our resources together to come up with a training "program" on coaching, or diversity, or motivation techniques. The problem is that in order to be a "program" there has to be follow-on training, follow-up, and follow-through. Like throwing a football or hitting a tennis ball, you can't be effective without follow-through. You can't hold one class or seminar and expect people to "get it". Sure it may be all great at first, but doesn't it usually die a slow, or often fast, death?

A good example is the Rockhurst or Padgett seminars. They're good seminars to attend and give you some great tools. But without someone back at the ranch to help you keep those ideas going, they normally die off very quickly.

Another good example (my soapbox again) is orientation classes. For the most part, they're worthless. New staff get thrown into these classes, told to read a bunch of stuff, and take a test. Then that's the last they hear about the origins of the organization, the vision, the mission, and how their job impacts the rest of the organization. What's been accomplished? Next to nothing.

Point is, you need to follow-up and follow-through if you want programs of any type to continue.

Ask What YOU Have Done

I bet I can describe one of the top leaders of the world and you won't be able to guess who it is. Okay, here goes - he runs an organization that you know of but you've never seen. He runs his own manufacturing, packaging, AND distribution companies. His many employees are among the happiest in the world. He doesn't sell any products, yet he continues to stay in business. Any guess yet? 100% of distribution is completed in one night. He's a very jolly individual - his belly even shakes like a bowl full of jelly. Yes, it's Santa Claus.

As "magical" as Santa may be, he still has to possess great leadership skills to get everything accomplished. Employees (elves) must be kept happy. In order to do this Santa must continuously monitor progress through self-evaluation. There are a few questions he asks of himself to ensure that he's keeping a focus on his most valuable asset - no, not reindeer - his employees. Santa asks himself - "In the last several months, what have I done to . . .

• Be accessible (physically and mentally) to employees who would like my attention?
• Be considerate of staff-member needs?
• Provide employees with the training, tools, resources, and feedback required for success?
• Keep employees in the "what's happening" information loop?
• Help team members maintain an appropriate balance between their professional and personal lives?
• Demonstrate respect for employees' time and talents . . . as well as respect for them as individuals?
• Solicit, and listen to, staff-member ideas and concerns?
• Help everyone develop and grow?
• Fairly distribute the work and workload?"

It doesn't take a lot of extra effort to be a caring leader. There's no extra costs to ask yourself a few questions. It doesn't take but a few minutes. But what you'll get is more time since you'll have more dedicated and motivated employees - you won't have so many problems to deal with.

For more information on Santa's leadership skills check out the book, "The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus" at www.walkthetalk.com.

Bailout DeMotivation

I imagine everyone knows about the Wallstreet, etc Bailout, by now. All of those companies getting bailout money should be somewhat motivational for employees. You work for a company that's falling in the market and jobs are looking more and more endangered. Uncle Sam comes along and gives you money to pull your bootstraps up. Should be kind of motivating right? Here's all of this money to get your company moving, lending, and prospering again. Great. You can rest a little easier.

Then you have companies like Citigroup who gets $45 billion of taxpayer money (part of which comes from the employees of the company) who turns around and lays off 75,000 workers and completes their purchase of a $50 million company luxury jet. Hello!!!! How can anyone at Citigroup interpret that as motivating? It's de-motivating, reducing dedication, productivity and customer service.

Yesterday on Fox Business Happy Hour, I heard a Senator talking about how these large companies should be able to keep their jets because otherwise the people who fly and service them, etc will be loosing jobs - including people who manufacture them. Hello again!!! This Citigroup jet was built in FRANCE. The last time I checked, France was not in The U.S. of A.

C'mon guys, lets take some responsibility and stop the expensive jets, the $1.2 million office makeovers, and the pre-bailout bonuses and start thinking about your employees.

What Is A Leader?

What is a leader? A question that can bring a miriade of answers. But in this forum, you're going to get mine. A leader is someone who influences others lives. A leader can help you grow by exploring new capabilities and strengths. A leader builds people.

One of the jobs of a leader is to be a guide - guide teams from formation through operation. For that, he/she also must be a mentor and facilitator. You must understand that learning never ends. We are always building and strengthening our knowledge. As a leader you have to be constantly alert to any opportunity you have to do so.

To be an excellent leader means you have the ability to "read" people. How do people react differently to various situations? The ability to be flexible helps you in dealing with and relating to people. We're not all the same - other people won't want the same type of response that you might.

In John Maxwell's book Developing the Leader Within You, he lists seven "deadly sins" that excellent leaders avoid:

• trying to be liked rather than respected,


• not asking team members for advice and help,


• thwarting personal talent by emphasizing rules rather than skills,


• not keeping criticism constructive,


• not developing a sense of responsibility in team members,


• treating everyone the same way, and


• failing to keep people informed.

Integrity, vision, optimism, responsibility, motivation, and communication. That's what makes a successful leader.

The Habit of Excellence

With my holiday break over now, it's time to get back into the swing of things. Sometimes that's difficult to do unless you have some good habits. Excellence, for instance.

Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do . . . excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit". You must practice at being "excellent". Practice at obtaining knowledge. Know that you need to constantly increase your understanding of what, how, and why something needs to be done. All of this will lead to new or improved skill sets which with repetition translates into habits. Those habits then translate into excellence.

As an example of how this works, think about learning a new language. Learning a language in a class is good, but it's limited. What happens when you go to visit the country or even live there. How far do you think the classroom instruction is going to get you? Sure you'll be able to ask for a taxi or where the bathroom is, but that will only get you so far. Fact is, you'll have a lot more learning and practice to do in order for it to become an involuntary "habit" - before you become an excellent linguist and able to hold a meaningful conversation.

Put these types of habit forming applications to work in your organization and see how much further you go. You'll be surprised. It will not only benefit you, but also your team and your organization. The habit of excellence brings with it a better attitude, higher levels of commitment, and a better chance for advancement and responsibility. You can't wait for excellence to come to you or be given to you - you have to go after it.

Holiday Note

As Christmas quickly approaches (tomorrow actually) don't forget to thank the people that have supported you all year. If you think about it for a minute you'll probably come up with a much bigger list than you thought you would. Thank your:

• supervisor/manager,
• team members,
• assistants,
• organization,
• mentors,
• family members,
• business associates,
• students/learners,
• office mates,
• financier,
• lawyer,
• dry cleaner,
• insurance agent,
• mail delivery/newspaper delivery, and
• God.

The list goes on.

You didn't get where you are, all by yourself. You can't do what you do, all by yourself. Skip to the end of the Scrooge movie and go right to the thanks!

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Look For Results, Not Salutes

“Look for results, not salutes.” This is a great quote that comes from a chapter in Captain D. Michael Abrashoff’s book, It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy. In it he describes how he broke down the time honored traditions of officer/enlisted separations. Not completely, of course, but enough to make a harmonious difference.

It takes just simple things sometimes to make a difference, and to show that you, as a manager/supervisor, are part of the team and not just the overseer. For instance, Captain Abrashoff talks about taking his place at the end of the food line at steel beach picnics (cookouts on the flight deck). This just normally is not done – officers go to the front. It wasn’t long, of course, before other officers took his cue and were doing the same thing. Going to the end of the line was one of many ways of showing his crew that he genuinely cared for them and he was working WITH them.

You can easily use these same types of techniques in civilian business. Just like the military, we also have ranks and privileges – executive parking spaces, cafeterias, even restroom’s. But take a look at the difference in where you spend most of your time. In your office – which is segregated far from the lower ranks?

I often talk about Tom Peters' concept of MBWA (management by wandering around). Step out of your hideout and become part of the team. Make it habit to eat in the break room once a week. Give staff the opportunity to talk with you freely, whether they’re happy about something or concerned. This is where new ideas and improvement comes from.

More Than A Manager

In order to be a successful supervisor or manager you also have to be a motivator. With that comes a number of roles - coach, facilitator, and trainer. You must constantly be working with your staff in order to help them be more successful. Motivated staff means greater work performance and more success for your business.

You have to understand that YOU directly affect your staff's motivation to perform. You also have to understand that you're either a positive or negative motivator. Be a coach, a facilitator and a trainer, and you'll be the positive motivator.

Motivation, for the most part, is intrinsic, meaning it comes from within us. We naturally want to be involved rather than just being a bump on a log. A big part of motivation comes from having the ability to do things for ourselves and being involved in projects. Knowing that we're an actual contributor to the organization. There has to be more than just incentive bonuses and awards. Those things would take on a whole new meaning when it's the result of increased responsibilities and knowledge.

Your staff need to know that you care, not just that you know your "job". Coach them and train them. Keep them interested and involved. You'll find that it goes a very long way.

By the way - yes I'm a Bears fan!

Tense Times

In tense times people tend to change in one way or another. They take shortcuts in procedures, they hurry through steps, they skip steps in reviews. Procedures are made for a reason - to document correct ways of doing things so that there is consistency throughout the organization.

Supervisors need to step up during tense times to ensure that procedures are being completed correctly. Depending on the type of company you work at, skipping steps may not be a real big deal. In others, like the medical field for instance, it could literally mean the difference between life and death.

Do things right the first time, all the time! If people are allowed to slack off at particular times there's a good chance that it's going to happen more often than what you want. They soon begin to reason for themselves in order to substantiate non-conformance. That will then trickle down to other staff and soon into the training of new employee's. Then you've got new employee's thinking that it's the common practice and you have new issues to work with - in particular, additional time for retraining.

Walk the talk. It's up to the supervisor to be a role model for employee's. If they see you slacking off and taking shortcuts it becomes an excuse for them to do the same. Put yourself in the customer's shoes. No matter what kind of business you're in, would you as a customer, tolerate anything but perfection? Of course not. Act as if you're part of the team, not always the head of it.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Employee Partnership

Fostering a sense of partnership with your employee's is an important aspect of motivation. People typically want to do good and feel like they belong. Don't just focus on the success of the company or your management team. Realize that you can't do it all yourself. The increased success of the company rely's on the future success of its employee's.

Continuous training and communication is a must if you want employee's to develop and succeed - or help the company succeed. You need to take a proactive role in looking at what's required. Take a look at any kinds of barriers there are to success. This very often has to do with a lack of communication or hoarding of power. If you hoard power and knowledge, someone's not getting information they need that may increase productivity and quality of work.

A former manager of customer satisfaction at Disney summed up success like this:
"Recruit the right people, train them, continually communicate with them, ask their opinions, involve them, recognize them and celebrate with them. If you show respect for their opinions and involvement, they will be proud of what they do and they'll deliver quality service."

Don't forget about your new employee's once the next crop comes in. Set them up with a partnership to help them grow from the start. They're going to need guidance while they're getting used to their jobs and responsibilities. And make sure you "take them" to the corporate culture - don't let the culture come to them. That will be a topic for another day.

Using Humor to Make Your Point

Over the past few months I've been given a fantastic example of just how important humor can be in getting your point across. A friend of mine sent me a training video that his organization had made that was produced by a physician. It was to be shown to all of their staff of "semi"-professional medical people. The information was way over any of their heads, and there was a lot of it. On top of that, the physician himself narrated the video. We've all known medical types that just aren't quite, shall I say, exciting. My friend told me that by the time the short video was over, most of the people were either falling asleep or talking amongst themselves. In a different setting of people this video probably would have gone over much better. It just didn't fit this group.

A couple of months later this same friend sent me their revised video - a cartoon. When I first turned it on, my first reaction was, "what the heck?". "This is just too goofy." But then as I watched it, I noticed that I was much more intrigued with the cartoon than the original video. Why? It was cute and comical. Even kind of silly. And you know what? I soaked in the actual point of the cartoon a lot easier and quicker than I had in the original. It turns out that it produced the same reaction with the employees of my friends organization.

According to the book, Motivating Employees, by Anne Bruce and James S. Pepitone, "humor helps us put things into perspective." "When you encourage people to have a sense of humor about their work, it forces them to take a step back from the situation at hand. When they do that, they can usually see more clearly and in more detail everything surrounding the situation."

I'm not saying that everyday has to be "Hee-Haw" (70s TV), but there is a direct correlation between having fun on the job and staff productivity, motivation, and retention.

Honor, Courage, and Commitment

Honor, Courage, Commitment - the core values of the United States Navy. These are attributes that can guide anybody, in any business, at any level. It should especially hold true to the supervisor or manager. These are three sound values that will make you stand out in a crowd of otherwise average people.

• Honor - "I am accountable for my personal and professional behavior." Everyone is accountable for themselves. You must take full responsibility for your actions and keep your word. Dating back to at least 1500 Scotland, the motto "my word is my bond" still holds true today.
• Courage - "Courage is the value that gives me the moral and mental strength to do what is right, with confidence and resolution, even in the face of temptation or adversity." Overcome challenges while adhering to your own personal high standards. Make your day to day decisions based on the good of the organization and your employee's.
• Commitment - "Join together as a team to improve the quality of our work, our people and ourselves." You must be able to care for your employee's AND respect them - no matter what level they're at (including up the chain) or how long they've been with the organization. High personal standards and morals are your ladder up.

Just like attitude, what you put out there is what you're going to get back. Adopt these three values and you're sure to go far.
www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/DON_Core_Values_Charter.pdf

Personality Assumptions

I recently went back in time (1960) to read an article by Douglas McGregor. In The Human Side of Enterprise Douglas describes two interesting concepts of human nature, Theory X and Theory Y. As I read his two lists of assumptions I realized that I have known and worked with supervisors and managers that actually buy in to Theory X a lot more than Theory Y.

Assumptions of employees falling into Theory X goes like this:

• Work is inherently distasteful.
• The average person is lazy and unambitious.
• People prefer close supervision.
• Typical workers avoid responsibility.
• The principal worker incentive is money.
• Workers must be coerced or bribed to achieve the organization's goals.

If you subscribe to the Theory X concept, I think you have some soul searching to do. Now don't get me wrong, there are people who fall into portions of this concept but research over the past few years has proven a number of these points wrong.

Check out Theory Y:

• People enjoy work.
• Work is as natural as play.
• Recognition and self-fulfillment are as important as money.
• Employees are committed to their work.
• Employees exercise self-direction and seek responsibility.
• Workers at all levels will exhibit creativity and ingenuity when given the chance.

As research and surveys have been showing, I think Douglas was way ahead of his time. Compare employee attitude and management styles of the '60's to today and you'll see just what I'm talking about.

These two theories determine just how you interact with your employee's. It determines what motivation (or unmotivational) tactics you use. It determines your overall relationship with your employee's.

Human nature causes us to act on our assumptions, opinions, etc. Take a step back and look at the true attitudes of your employee's and compare that to your assumptions - and act on it.

What Motivates You?

A lot of supervisors think that what motivates them motivates everyone else. That's simply not true. Everyone is different. If you're going to hold a public presentation of an award for one of your staff, you may just be DE-motivating them. If they don't like public attention, they may just fall back and punt, not wanting it to happen again.

With respect to awards and motivation, The Walt Disney Company does something that more organizations should think about doing (one of many). When a new castmember is hired they're given a survey which asks them how they like, and don't like, to be rewarded and what motivates them. By doing this, their supervisor can tailor, to the particular castmember, the way they're rewarded.

It's commonly believed that money is the biggest motivator for employee's. Nope. A number of research papers over the last few years have proven this wrong. Sure people like money, but they also like recognition, career development, and influence.

Two of the best types of recognition are peer and customer. It's very easy and cheap to start a peer recognition program where co-workers can nominate others for going above and beyond. A certificate and maybe a gift card is all you'd need. It goes a long way.

Customer recognition is another biggie. If you have ANY means of receiving customer feedback in which employee's or teams are named, SHARE IT with them. They can then see that what they do really matters to someone other than the boss.

Whatever you end up doing, make sure that your motivation techniques and rewards always revolve around organizational goals. Employee's often attribute their success to how they're able to contribute to the organization.

Leading by Example

Almost nothing can create as much credibility as leading by example. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "What you do thunders above your head so loudly I cannot hear the words you speak". In other words - actions speak louder than words.

One of the jobs of a supervisor is to be a role model. You were put in that position because you "fit the mold". You are a "model" employee. Just because you are now a supervisor/manager doesn't mean it's time to sit back and take it easy. You are expected to be setting an example in keeping with the standards of the organization. That may mean MBWA (see 08/22/08 blog) or rolling up your sleeves and giving a hand.

There are a few things that I think may guide you down this road to better leadership:

• Don't be afraid to get out there and see what's going on and be the first to give praise - sincere praise - not just a painted smile and "good job".
• Infuse inspiration into your talk, your body language, your memo's, etc. Let people know that you're excited about your job and your organization - 'this is a great place to work!'.
• Share in your rewards and at-a-boys. Chances are, you didn't do it all yourself. Let your staff know how much they're appreciated. A small gift may be in order, or a pizza lunch.
• Along with sharing in rewards comes taking responsibility. If you mess something up, take the hit. Never play the blame card. This will encourage others to do the same. And you know - you'll spend alot less time trying to figure out 'what happened?'.
• Be honest. Anything less than that and you can kiss everything else you've done good-bye. No honesty - no trust.

Doing anything less than these five things will surely produce an unmotivated team for you - if you have a "team" at all.

Don't Get Even

Getting even. One of the easiest ways for supervisors to lose their integrity. With getting even comes a focus on something that has absolutely no purpose or good. It's unproductive and just causes a wedge to be pounded in between you and your staff.

You'd be much better off trying to resolve issues with staff - or bosses. Getting even or carrying a grudge causes phyiscal, emotional, and mental draining. All of which is unhealthy. Why should you put yourself in such a position? Is it all worth it to "show you who's boss" if you're also the one that's getting hurt? I bet you had no idea that scientists from the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah suggest that this type of stress may induce cancer at an earlier stage. Wow. I don't know about you, but I see no benefit here.

It pays, not only personally but physically, to stay upbeat and positive around your staff. Anyone who's had any kind of communication training should know that whatever attitude you send out, you're going to get back. Getting even with someone just starts a vicious circle in which that time could be better used in improving your relationships and increasing productivity. The need to get even underscores every personal weakness. All you do is magnify them.

There are a handful of things that really separate winners and losers. One of those things is the ability and speed that we drive out our grudges and desires to get even. Remember, most employees don't quit their jobs, they quit their bosses.

Dream, Believe, Dare, Do

Dream, Believe, Dare, Do - the four basic standards that drive Disney. Think about it. How can this work for you?

You're probably much smaller than the U.S. Government, but they also hold these standards. Take the space program for instance. Dream-going to the moon, Believe-President Kennedy believed in this program, Dare-we sent rockets into outer space, Do-astronauts stepped foot on the moon.

You can't rest on the past - "it's always worked for us" takes you on the road to nowhere. Open up and allow staff to participate in these standards. It will make them feel more a part of the organization. Who has the most first-hand information? Frontline staff. A lot of their motivation comes from knowing that they're valued.

In the book "The Disney Way", by Bill Capodiagli and Lynn Jackson, they list the 10 concepts that are at the heart of the Disney standards:

• Give every member of your organization a chance to dream, and tap into the creativity those dreams embody.
• Stand firm on your beliefs and principles.
• Treat your customers like guests.
• Support, empower, and reward employees.
• Build long-term relationships with key suppliers and partners.
• Dare to take calculated risks in order to bring innovative ideas to fruition.
• Train extensively and constantly reinforce the company's culture.
• Align long-term vision with short-term execution.
• Use the storyboarding technique to solve planning and communication problems.
• Pay close attention to detail.

Now these are the standards that Disney follows. But you can't BE Disney. Every organization needs to have their own unique brand and identity. Gain an understanding of these standards as they apply to your business, gather your supervisors and managers, and put them to work.

Develop an organizational culture and mission that's open to change, with Dreams (ideas) coming from all levels of the organization. Talk about motivating! If you take a look at the most successful organizations today, you'll find that staff participation is a major reason for their success. Look at Disney today and remember, "it all started with a mouse".

Developmental Training

Walt Disney once said, "The growth and development of the Walt Disney Company is directly related to the growth and development of its human resources - our cast". This is true in ANY organization. Think about it. Where would you be without your employees?

Just to put someone through orientation (one of my sore spots) and train them on their job is not enough. In order for them to perform at their best, training must be functional, complete, and on-going. Developmental training needs to be given top billing. It's an essential investment in your employee's future. Without it, how do you expect them to get better? How do they become leaders, or better leaders?

You can't sit on the bubble for years saying, 'we should be doing developmental training'. By the time you finally get around to it, it's usually to late - at least for the employee's you currently have. Habits have set in. When I first joined the Navy, it was near the beginning of the "kindler, gentler Navy". The "in your face" days were on the downswing and being replaced by 'would you do this' and 'please' - and even providing explanations (gasp). ALOT of the old-timers resisted and I even know some that ended up retiring just because they couldn't stand it anymore.

To many organizations developmental training means sculpting for leadership. If you subscribe to this type of belief then you're wasting a valuable resource - your front-line. Everyone must be included. There is a plethora of training out there. Google "soft skill training" and you'll find numerous places that will give corporate discounts for groups of online courses. Everything from customer service to computer skills to communication and time-management. But remember, just providing this type of training isn't quite enough. You need to set up some type of recognition for completing courses. This provides motivation to go even farther.

With development training investment, you'll see improved retention because it shows employees that you're taking an interest in their future, cost savings (caused by retention), higher quality output and even strengthened customer service. Learning causes positive habits which benefits both the individual and the organization.

Now don't you think it's time for you to recognize this win-win program? You won't be sorry.