August 12, 8:29 am

Listening skills are also for single-minded women

Thanks goes to Paula Santonocito, business journalist, editor, career advisor, and all around good person, for quoting me last week at the single-minded women’s blog.

Paula had interviewed me for an article she wrote for Thompson Reuter’s HRWire, and it must have stuck in her mind that I place high importance on the skill of listening — In her blog post she recommended that people on both sides of the employement desk work on improving that skill.

 Another convert!

Seriously, though, Paula, thanks for the mention.   And the thanks for promoting the skill of listening. 

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August 11, 11:19 pm

What are you doing to increase trust?

The following story is true. The names and places have been changed to protect the innocent—and the guilty…

About a year ago Jordan’s dream job finally fell into place. His company transferred him to one of their manufacturing plants in the south where he would serve as a process improvement specialist—a newly created position for his company.  The job required analysis, projections, and recommendations to make production processes more efficient, all of which Jordan loved doing.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Jordan discovered that dream jobs can become nightmares.

The first thing he learned was that the senior staff had micro-management down to a Nobel-prize winning science. Secondly, he got no cooperation. Whenever he asked anyone for input on any project, all I got was an uncomfortable pause, followed by the same three words: “I don’t know.”

The reason for that became clear several weeks into his new job. At a staff meeting, the senior manager asked if anyone had thoughts on a particular capital improvement project. Jordan offered a suggestion for how to shave a few days off the installation—a move that would save the company a lot of money. 

Surprisingly, the senior manager cut Jordan off and discounted the data he’d presented. When Jordan cautiously asked about his concerns with the data, the plant manager lowered the boom by raising his voice. “I’m telling you, I don’t agree with it, and that’s why we’re not doing it!”

It was then that Jordan knew why nobody ever made suggestions.

Unfortunately, arrogant bullying was not limited to the senior manager. He had a partner in crime—the safety manager. The two were a tag-team of intimidation, and they created a culture of fear that permeated every aspect of the plant.

Jordan felt their wrath whenever he submitted a proposal. It didn’t matter how accurate his numbers were or how much money the idea would save the company. These guys loved to argue and intimidate. In fact, if Jordan’s reports weren’t formatted to their exact specifications it somehow meant that all the facts and figures were instantly and automatically void of any value.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jordan’s rejected reports were handed back to him in a dramatic fashion along with a healthy measure of public criticism.

Six months later Jordan’s self-esteem was sinking like a rock.
The real warning sign came on a Monday morning when he sat down to draft a proposal. Questions began racing through his mind:

Did you do that analysis completely? 
Did you miss any details?
Did you consider every aspect of the problem?

Doubts and fears flooded over him so fast he couldn’t think straight. In a few minutes he was so overwhelmed, he just got up and went home early, claiming he was sick—something he never did. Jordan had a reputation as a doer, not a quitter. 

Later on Jordan realized he’d had an anxiety attack.

During the ensuing weeks Jordan struggled with the encroaching anxiety. He wanted to be a valued member of the team. He tried talking with other managers, but with the depth of mistrust in the plant those conversations didn’t go far.

Thankfully, one manager finally opened up. “We’re trapped,” he said. “This is a small southern town and not many jobs are available that pay what we make here. We all have kids in school or parents close by, so moving isn’t an option, either. Our families are important to us.”

Jordan stated his work began to feel like a prison. He sought out the regional vice president, but after the meeting he was even more discouraged. The V.P. said he was unaware of any problems, and that the plant’s production numbers were fine. He didn’t see a reason to fix something that wasn’t broken. He suggested maybe the problem was with Jordan.

With everything spinning out of control, Jordan finally quested a transfer. He didn’t have kids in school or any family close by, so he wasn’t trapped like his coworkers.  He simply didn’t want to spend the rest of his professional life watching his passion for excellence die a long painful death in an environment of fear.

* * * * *

Reflection:

Intimidation creates fear and lack of trust. With the absence of trust comes the death of passion and any desire for excellence.

When employees stop contributing, valuable new ideas are never brought the table, and bad ideas are never challenged. An organization suffering from these conditions eventually becomes incapable of correcting its own mistakes, and mediocrity becomes the soup du jour.

So the question is this: What are you doing to increase trust in your workplace?

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August 7, 4:33 am

Six Disciplines Execution Revolution on the NYT Best Seller list!

Back in January I wrote a glowing post about Gary Harpst’s book, Execution Revolution.  In that post I said “Never have I heard it explained so well” about how to take one’s business from “here” to “there.”

Well, Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier has been out for about a month now, and I noticed it was #4 on the Hardcover Advice list of NYT Best Sellers !!  CONGRATS, GARY!

I said it back in January, and I’ll say it again: This book will definitely be on my recommended reading list for 2008 … so there’s no reason to wait — just pick up a copy now.  Especially if you’ve ever struggled with maintaining a balance between creating strategy and executing it (and who hasn’t).

By way of full disclosure, Gary quotes me in the chapter on learning communities, noting that in many circles it’s socially unacceptable for a manager to attend a training class. But just because Gary quotes me doesn’t mean I can’t recommend the book — in fact, quite the opposite is true.

The bottom line is when it comes to executing your strategy, you won’t find it spelled out any better than how Gary explains it in this book. 

Kudos to Gary and the Six Disciplines team.  And hats off for making the NYT Best Seller list.  

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July 21, 1:01 pm

Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter, and a Lack of Respect

I have to hand it to Matt Bacak, a.k.a. “The Powerful Promoter.” He IS persistent. And boy, does he promote!  And promote!  And promote!  Even when you ask him to stop.

Mr. Bacak promotes himself as someone who can show you how to promote your business. And since I’m launching several niche business efforts, I signed on for his free newsletter. But when I noticed Mr. Bacak advocating methods that go against my professional ethics, I unsubscribed from his e-newsletter. 

At least I tried to.

I got an e-mail that told me I’d been unsubscribed, yet I continued hearing from Mr. Bacak.  So, I wrote him directly and asked to be unsubscribed.  He apologized for the inconvenience, and said he’d take care of it.

Good enough. And, for a short while, I stopped getting email from Mr. Bacak.  But lately he’s cranked up the steam and “Matt Bacak: The Powerful Promoter” is once again promoting himself to me via e-mail!

Did I mention that some of the methods he advocated went against my professional ethics?

So two weeks ago I wrote Mr. Bacak AGAIN, asking to be removed AGAIN.

No response.

And this morning, I received yet another e-mail from the Powerful Promoter is in my in-box. 

As far as I’m concerned, I’ve been patient. Perhaps if I start telling people about Mr. Bacak’s non-stop, unwanted, and perhaps even unethical promotional efforts, it might catch his attention . . . and maybe I’ll finally be taken off Mr. Bacak’s e-mail (or is it SPAM) list?

I don’t know about you, but if someone says “stop sending me your stuff,” I respect their wish.  Apparently Mr. Bacak does not respect the people who he’s trying to get as clients.  And his continued disrespect has earned my disrespect.

 But thanks, Matt. Your actions have taught some respectable business people out there what NOT to do!

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Comments (1) Filed in Business, Opinion, Sales, Selling, Workplace

July 16, 2:24 pm

CWE featured on “Speaking on Business”

This week the Center for Workplace Excellence was featured on the Zion’s Bank radio spot, Speaking on Business.  You can hear it using the mp3 player at the bottom of this post.

For those outside of the Intermountain West who may be unfamiliar with the spot, Fred Ball, retired executive, former president of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce (for 25 years!), and Small Business Journalist of the Year regularly highlights businesses on the morning and afternoon drivetime radio promotions for Zion’s Bank. 

This week the Center for Workplace Excellence was highlighted!  If you have a minute (okay–one minute and fifty seconds), you can listen to Fred talking about us by clicking on the ‘play’ button:

 

 Fred Ball's Speaking on Business: The Center for Workplace Excellence : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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July 8, 5:32 am

How to become successful – or MORE successful

This week’s ASTD’s Buzz newsletter tells us that the average worker received 35.06 hours of training in 2006.  (see ASTD State of the Industry Report)

Okay, 35 hours is the average.

What’s interesting is that companies demonstrating enterprise-wide success as a result of well planned training and development are delivering an average of 44.34 hours of training to each employee.

That’s 26 percent more training. 

Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it?

But in actual time, it’s only 9 ¼ hours.

Now consider how much time is wasted talking about how people are under-performing.

Think for a moment . . . giving each employee nine more hours of training each year will put you on par with companies receiving awards for demonstrating proven success.

Sooooo -  Did you want to spend that time talking about it, or are you scheduling training?

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July 7, 10:54 am

When bad manners are good for you

by Dan Bobinski

At a recent business breakfast I learned something about a potential vendor that made me decide not to do business with that person—The person’s bad manners.

Here’s what happened:

The menu was large and had a good variety to choose from, but nothing seemed to “fit” for this person. In a disgusted voice, the person ordered off menu.

When the dish arrived, the person took on a Prima Donna attitude and the dish was pushed back toward the server. Then came the comment, “can you take that back and have them fix that? That’s not what I ordered.”

The behavior was condescending and snobbish. I cringed in embarrassment. Other statements and actions from this person had me wondering, but now the cat was out of the bag. I realized that if I were enter into a business relationship with this person, I would eventually get the same treatment.

An old maxim was playing in my head:

A person who is nice to you
but not nice to the server
is not a nice person.

From a big picture point of view, seeing that person’s bad manners was a good thing. So, when that person came to my office later that day I broke the bad news that I’d decided to go with another vendor. 

Whether that person’s rudeness was intentional or unintentional (due to being tired or having a bad day) didn’t matter.  I just knew I didn’t want to put myself in a position where I’d be on the receiving end of it.

The bottom line is this: If you observe someone’s bad manners emerge in any situation, chances are good those bad manners will eventually get turned on you.  If you don’t want that, one of the choices you have is avoid doing business with that person.

PS.  If you’d like to see a good list of appropriate manners for today’s western world, this site is a good start.
 

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