Strategies to Succeed as a New Manager – a Checklist

 

Congratulations, new manager. Welcome to a job you’ll find most challenging – if you do it right.

You’ll be carefully watched by your staff. You’ll be judged on values demonstrated by your actions.

What values will you show your employees? Will you be a positive role model constantly striving for improvement or will you head in the opposite direction with slipshod actions?

You will set the tone for performance. Basically, that means listening, providing a vision, implementing flawless processes, outlining responsibilities, delegating, treating everyone the same, being approachable, rewarding strong performers, not accepting sub-par work and being proactive on potential problems.

So think about your vision, role and expectations. Better yet, if you want to be imminently successful, know the 10 Key Differences between Leaders and Managers.

Here’s a checklist:

1. Understand that it’s your responsibility to know how you’ll be evaluated by your boss in goals and targets.
2. Maintain the status quo, and don’t make major changes right away unless your department or company is in a crisis.
3. Inspire trust and cooperation in communication. Use positive body language and tone, and actively listen. Earn commitment from employees on common company goals.
4. Be visible and walk the floor twice a day to get well acquainted with your team. Budget an aggregate five minutes a week with each person. Ask open-ended questions, and for input for the benefit of the company. Learn their individual aspirations, and give them support. Be courteous. Note: The words, “please” and “thank you” should be used in a majority of your communications – verbally or written.
5. Treat employees as valued human capital. Demonstrate your empathy about their career and life balance. In essence, use the Golden Rule. Treat your employees as you would like to be treated. Power Your Brand with Employee Empowerment, and consider the 15 HR Strategies to Improve Your Business Performance. Explain to employees you don’t want to be the last to learn of negative news.
6. Don’t give personal advice.
7. Articulate the company’s strategic mission, and explain expectations to your employees about how their performances fit in the big picture.
8. Explain your preferences for communication – regularly timed reports or frequent updates – in group meetings and one-to-one conversations.
9. Make development and training a priority with a view to the future. Continual growth for each staff member is paramount in this new economy. Mobility counts; successful businesses are agile and adapt to the dynamics of the ever-changing marketplace. Focus on solutions to problems.
10. Share your logic in decision-making processes. Explain concepts and principles to your workers, so they can feel involved and valued, and can be pro-active and take ownership of their work.
11. Get to know your management peers for a diversity of thought. Capitalize on their experiences, strengths and hopes for success. Keep an open mind. Consider different approaches in analyzing problems.
12. Find a mentor – someone who is successful in areas that you need improvement.
13. Delegate. Avoid burnout. Use effective time management. Remember that whenever you fail to delegate on mundane tasks, this means you have a very expensive employee. Try to save your time and energy for critical thinking and strategic planning.
14. Manage by exception. Learn how much autonomy you can accord your employees. Don’t micromanage, but get involved on problems.
15. Be generous with your praise on performance and innovation. After all, employees are making you look good.
16. Reward results, not busywork. Rewards should be reserved for impactful results. Know the 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations.
17. Promote humor and fun. Don’t be a stress carrier. Your employees will feel it.
18. Know when to cut your losses. If a project looks as though it won’t be successful, know when and how to pull the plug.
19. Get to know your other stakeholders. Explain your expectations to vendors, and ask for input from your customers.
20. Stay current on all employment laws and regulations, especially about discrimination and harassment. Prevention is important. Should they rear their ugly heads, follow the right protocols. That goes for all interviews and pre-employment tests. It’s true that Many Big Companies Are Ripe for EEOC Complaints.
21. Document everything that might prove to be sensitive. Establish a paper trail.
22. Keep an open mind if there’s conflict among your workers. Don’t react, respond.
23. Stay on top of all technology that affects your business.
24. Dress for success – professionally – as though you’re being considered for your next management gig.
25. Always look ahead. When you’re ready, here are 7 Tips for a Young Professional to Become a CEO.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are more management resource links: 

20 Tell-Tale Signs – If You’re Under-Performing as a Manager

21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management

Profit By Not Letting Your Stars Become Free Agents

HR Management: Which Employees Are Most-Likely to Quit?

Strategies: If a Valued Employee Wants a Raise, and Money’s Tight 

“Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.”

-Paul Hawken

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

Why Companies are Falling into the Management Lawsuit Trap

 

News headlines continue to show there are a myriad of ways managers set themselves for lawsuits. Small and Many Big Companies Are Ripe for EEOC Complaints.

In 2011, AT&T was forced to settle an age-bias lawsuit. Capri Home Care was sued for alleged pregnancy discrimination. American Laser Centers settled an EEOC lawsuit over sexual harassment. Bass Pro Shows Companies was accused of worker reprisals.

The majority of lawsuits targeting management usually stem from a half dozen poor practices.

They include:

1. Adherence to policies and procedures. Time and again, businesses are sued because managers fail to comply with company policy manuals. Principals should always review policy manuals with managers, and get a signed receipt indicating that they understand policies. (Yes, any manager who strays from policy should be disciplined.) Only then, the managers should review the handbook with non-exempt staff.
2. Following discrimination and harassment policies. Periodically remind managers to be diligent to prevent discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Their employment status will be affected if they fail to adhere to policies, or if they to act professionally should policy violations occur.
3. Poor management of employee problems. Make certain managers know how to respond – not react in a knee-jerk fashion to employee problems. That means thinking about how to respond in all situations. Typical worker problems include attendance, alcoholism drug use, and insubordination.
4. Retaliation or the appearance of being retaliatory. For example, courts frown on transfers if they look like a demotion. It looks suspicious if an employee suddenly receives an unsatisfactory performance appraisal or is not treated equally like other workers.
5. Terminations. Courts look to make certain terminations are handled well legally, and with civility and fairness. Here are 3 Key Human Resources Questions in Terminating Workers.
6. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Typical problems result from FMLA misunderstandings over attendance policy, eligibility, notice requirements and worker reinstatement.

For more strategies, here are 21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management, and How to avoid EEOC Discrimination Suits.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are the 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations.

“Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”
-John D. Rockefeller

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

Is your Company Ready to Capitalize on What Women Offer?

 

It’s obvious the current economic environment is here to stay, so it’s necessary to keep an open mind and rethink our processes. That includes taking full advantage of all opportunities.

“What else is new?” you ask. Good question. It’s important to leverage the potential in human capital.

Two McKinsey consultants addressed one important aspect in a 2011 study:  “Unlocking the full potential of women in the US economy.” Joanna Barsh is a director in McKinsey’s New York office and Lareina Yee is a principal in the San Francisco office.

It struck a chord with me, as I’ve written columns on related topics, including why Banks Have a Credibility Issue with Affluent Women; and I asked Are You Successful In Keeping Female Talent?

So I agree American business has not fully leveraged its assets.

The problem is many businesspeople don’t inherently take notice and capitalize on under-utilized assets unless they’re personally affected. I’ve said it many times – working moms have the toughest job of anybody, but they provide a bevy of important attributes. Personally, my antenna goes up whenever I see the potentiality of talent being ignored.

That goes for women in the macro economy.

“Indeed, the additional productive power of women entering the workforce from 1970 until today accounts for about a quarter of current GDP,” wrote Ms. Barsh. As the U.S. struggles to sustain historic GDP growth rates, it is critically important to bring more women into the workforce and fully deploy high-skill women to drive productivity improvement.”

Agreed.

Ms. Barsh listed the study’s objectives.

“McKinsey & Company undertook this research over the past three months to understand how women contribute to the U.S. economy; how their work benefits individual corporations; what prevents women from making greater contributions to their companies; and what approaches can help companies unlock the full potential of women,” she said.

“Despite the sincere efforts of major corporations, the proportion of women falls quickly as you look higher in the corporate hierarchy,” she asserted. Overall, this picture has not improved for years.”

That means, of course, there are missed opportunities despite all the progress in breaking down the glass-ceiling barriers.

So, according to the study, there’s a schism – women are increasingly ambitious as they leap from entry level jobs to mid-management. But again, the talent is being ignored.

Attitudes of entry-level women workers:

• 79 percent want a promotion to the next level
• 32 percent want a leadership role
• 16 percent has longtime career goals to become a leader

Aspirations of women in mid-management jobs:

• 83 percent want to be promoted
• 51 percent want a leadership role
• 31 percent has always dreamed of being a senior manager

The study indicates that women have multiple barriers:

• Lack of role models
• Exclusion from the informal networks
• Not having a sponsor in senior management

“Managers – male and female – continue to take viable female candidates out of the running, often on the assumption that the woman can’t handle certain jobs and also discharge family obligations,” wrote Ms. Barsh. “In our Centered Leadership research, we found that many women, too, hold limiting beliefs that stand in their own way – such as waiting to fill in more skills or just waiting to be asked.”

That’s why I lamented the demise of two women executives, Carol Bartz and Carly Fiorina in Business Management Lessons from Yahoo’s Demise and Are HP’s Board and New CEO Headed in Right Direction? These situations didn’t help the case for other women to assume leadership roles.

Ms. Barsh makes another good point: Culture change is needed.

“Our evidence points to the need for systemic, organizational change,” explained Ms. Barsh. ”Companies that aspire to achieve sustained diversity balance must choose to transform their cultures. Management needs a powerful reason to believe such as the potential competitive and economic advantage from retaining the best talent.”

Therefore, in view of the stagnant economic climate, let’s hope the right people read this column, and the McKinsey report: “How women can contribute more to the US economy.”

Further, a lot of companies would benefit from the 6 Steps to Implement a Cultural Change for Profits.

From the Coach’s Corner, as for advice to young women, here are 7 Tips for a Young Professional to Become a CEO. Be sure to take note of the column’s postscript about getting a mentor.

“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”

-Margaret Thatcher

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

Strategies: If a Valued Employee Wants a Raise, and Money’s Tight

 

In this economy, whether you operate a large or small company, trepidation of higher payroll expenses can turn your hands cold with perspiration. That’s especially true when talented employees suddenly ask for a raise. Talented workers are an asset – your human capital.

Many companies don’t have a compensation policy. And your company might be like the majority of small businesses or nonprofits in this uncertain economy – having difficulty funding even merit raises.

So what’s the right thing to do with a valued employee who asks for a raise, whether or not you’re the final decision-maker?

The first point to remember: Don’t pass the buck. You’ll either appear to be evasive or you’ll give away your power. You don’t want the reputation of being an irrelevant manager. Further, there are 20 Tell-Tale Signs – If You’re Under-Performing as a Manager.

Hopefully, you can establish a compensation policy, but don’t rush into it.

Meantime, in requesting a raise, employees usually mention one of a myriad of reasons:

• Their personal expenses have increased.
• They’re proud of their accomplishments, and they deserve more money.
• They think they’re underpaid compared to their peers either in your company or at other employers.
• Their newly added responsibilities warrant an increase.

Strategies to implement

You’re probably aware that an employee who asks for a raise has already launched a job search or is at least doing a cursory look for other opportunities. Don’t panic, but be aware that compensation issues are taken very personally by workers.

Thank the employee for approaching you, and offer the person a time for when you’ll have another chat. Then, roll up your sleeves and make this a priority.

Mention the issue to your boss and/or other managers in your company. Get some feedback, and monetarily analyze the circumstances.

Philosophically, know this: Each position in your company has a certain value, as determined by the marketplace. An employee’s personal finances aren’t germane in this situation. Nor is the employee’s performance, if the ceiling-value of the person’s job responsibilities has been maxed out.

If the budget is too constrained, be candid. But offer hope and Power Your Brand with Employee Empowerment.

Either way, if you determine the person is underpaid and/or you don’t want to risk losing the employee, indicate a raise is possible with some provisos.

Remember, if other employees perceive from water cooler gossip that you automatically grant raises whenever asked, you’d be in danger of setting a dangerous example. Any morale issues will be exacerbated. Other employees – valued or not – will soon be in your office lobbying for raises.

Set an appointment for another chat and plan so that it results in the employee taking more ownership. But don’t give a false promise. It the budget won’t allow for an increase and continue to discuss how to make it happen.

Clarify how raises are determined – the worth of a job’s role to the organization’s bottom-line, and the employee’s performance. Ask the employee to evaluate how the position can be increased in value to the firm, and how her/his responsibilities can be expanded to generate more value.

Once these matters reach a successful conclusion, award the pay raise.

Poor performance – if a raise is out of the question

Here’s a three-step process:

1. Empathize – acknowledge the person’s feelings.

2. Ask the employee to restate the concern in her/his own words. Why? The employee feels empathy from you and feels you’re listening; and you fully understand the concerns of the person before proceeding in the discussion.

3. Overcome the employee’s concerns with facts and relevant information. Then, ask for the employee to commit to working for improvement in the value of the job’s role to the organization, and for improved personal performance. If the employee is obstinate, you’re suddenly been warned about more problems.

Good luck.

From the Coach’s Corner, here other HR resource links:

Many Big Companies Ripe for EEOC Complaints

21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management

Human Resources – Slow Motion Gets You There Faster

Human Resources: 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations

If I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

7 Tips for a Young Professional to Become a CEO

 

For a professional to jump to the senior-management level in the 21st century, it’s imperative to demonstrate seven core competencies. Consider them part of your personal branding for success.

It starts with speaking the language of a chief executive officer, and understanding the big-picture needs of an organization to get to the top. No, it isn’t necessary to perform at a Ph.D. level in all the competencies, but it’s important to excel in them.

The necessary core competencies for high performance are inter-related – they include:

Influential designing – At all times, it’s important to keep your ego in check so you don’t develop the reputation of a Carly Fiorina or Carol Bartz. Not only will you want to get to the top, you’ll want to stay there.

If a company culture needs changing to compete in the new global economy, a professional must understand the chain of command, and intuitively know how to communicate with a CEO like any senior manager, and ultimately the board of directors.

If change is warranted, successful professionals know how to astutely ask the right questions to get to the needed answers without alienating others. You can do this without being passive. An influential designer understands how to frame the questions and the solutions while appearing to be assertive, not aggressive. Learn the difference.

You’re there to implement strategies on directions of the CEO and the board. Executives lose their jobs when they’re incompetent in key areas and/or when they’re too ostentatious. To become a CEO and to be able to keep the job, it’s important to know how to make friends.

Resist claiming credit for any strategy successes in a gauche-like fashion.

Authoritative culture-change – You must understand your company’s situation and what needs to be changed culturally to solve marketplace problems for improved company performance.

To comprehend such challenges, you must understand a myriad of factors and issues.

For example, understand how your employees interface with your customers, and grasp Pareto’s Principle, the 80/20 rule, for revenue. In this case, you would have to know the top 20 percent of customers that provide 80 percent of the revenue. Determine what needs to change in your culture to keep these customers or attract better ones.

If you determine anything needs optimized, this is an opportunity for growth. Look for challenges to solve, and know the facts. So, you must understand what works and doesn’t work culturally, and what needs to be fine-tuned.

Additionally, consider the future and what needs to transpire in order to maximize profits for growth. You accomplish this by studying emerging trends – economically and politically – and having an acute awareness of how your culture is a fit for the marketplace.

Talent management – Naturally, your human capital is critical. This means knowing your organization design, your staff and what motivates them, and evaluating their capabilities and developing them. If employees are underperforming, then change is indicated.

Further, recruitment and retention of valued talent is, of course, crucial.

Marketplace strategies – Understanding the sales process and marketing are important in two ways: Improving revenue, and for human resources.

Yes, you must understand how to sell products and services. You must also know marketing and branding. This affects revenue, and it’s why talented performers are attracted to companies that outrival the competition.

Here are simple tests:

• Can you make a good sales call on a customer?
• Do you know your branding and value propositions?
• Do you understand how to adapt to changing demographics
• Do you know what’s needed in information technology?

Finance – Leadership requires an awareness of principles in accounting and finance. You must be able to read a balance sheet and know what creates profits.

You must be able to use technology for inventory management.

You must understand economic conditions and the impacts of financial decisions – what the market will bear.

You never want to suffer the fate of a Netflix. For astute outside observers, this was a no-brainer. The company hiked its prices in 2001, which led to an immediate decline in business. The CEO had to publicly apologize to customers.

Nor do you want your company to expand too fast. Problems can arise such as being spread too thin and not being able to supply your products. Or, you might encounter the same profitability issues like Starbucks. It cannibalized sales because its stores were too close to one another. This led to costly closures and layoffs.

Operations – You must learn your processes and how they work. And you must have a grasp of your technology and the role it plays. And you must understand the available tools in technology to reduce repetitive jobs.

If they are inadequate processes or there are problems, you must have a working knowledge of business-improvement processes – you must assess the reasons for problems, then develop and implement solutions.

By reducing operational costs, you will improve performance.

Trustworthiness – This means becoming the go-to person where you work, being able to form strategic partnerships, using ethical practices, and knowing how to develop business for revenue at the lowest cost – for profitability.

To summarize: You must understand your human capital, your firm’s financial situation, your company’s environment, emerging trends, sales and marketing, and what’s needed to tailor your practices in your value chain for a positive effect on customers.

To win, in other words, you must become intimately aware of how business makes profits and you must communicate well.

Good luck.

P.S. And by the way, look for a mentor, and remember your personal appearance counts. Dress the part. Starting now.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are more resource links:

Career Strategies: How to Get a C-Level Job

HR, Marketing Pros: 4 Keys to Marketing Your Ideas to CEOs

25 Best Practices for Better Business Writing

Job Hunting? Tips to Land Your Dream Job with Style, Substance

Helpful Career, Biz Tips from UCLA’s Longtime Broadcaster

“In a fast-paced world, today’s popular brand could be tomorrow’s trivia question.”

-Wayne Calloway

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

Study: Unemployment Stems Partly from Deficient Worker Skills, Education

 

One in six Americans live in poverty, according to the Census Bureau in 2011. The economy is difficult for them and others. However, in this knowledge-technology era, millions of American workers would be employed, if they kept in mind two adages.

They’re apropos for veteran and entry-level workers.

More on the adages later. First, let’s consider the startling results of a Brookings Institution study: Education, Demand and Unemployment in Metropolitan America. Job hunters, in many cases, are simply under-educated.

“This report provides evidence that there is an education gap in most metropolitan areas, and that this gap is responsible for higher unemployment,” wrote study co-author Jonathan Rothwell.

There are more jobs than educated workers, according to the study’s results covering 2005 to 2009. It appears to be a worsening trend.

Even with a nationwide unemployment rate of 9.1, a check of help wanted ads shows countless available jobs. Why?

The study includes a chart with a caption:

“In 2009, the average U.S. job required 13.54 years of education, but the average U.S. adult over the age of 25 had attained just 13.48 years of schooling. This gap between the supply and demand for educated workers has significant consequences – metro areas with large education gaps had consistently higher unemployment rates than other metro areas from 2005 to 2011.”

If you are educated but are unemployed or under-employed, please know that I am empathetic. Yes, I know, the economy is a bummer. And yes, a lot of jobs have been outsourced overseas. But in my experience, the study is accurate for good reason.

It’s important to accept challenges, and to consider solutions.

So, here are profound mottos for success from two unlikely sources:

1. The 1946 graduating class of Watts High School in Watts, Oklahoma.
2. Michelangelo.

Watts High School motto

Families in 1940’s Watts were very poor. Starting in the 1930s, the only available jobs were the result of President Franklin Roosevelt’s WPA – Works Progress Administration. Watts had been a vibrant railroad town with a roundhouse to repair locomotives. As I understand it, The Kansas City Southern Railway Company laid off all the workers as management changed strategies.

One such family produced six siblings, which included my dear mother.

As a youngster, my mother felt fortunate to get a job working 8 hours waiting tables for $1 at her uncle’s cafe. Later, she was senior-class salutatorian and named to the state’s high school honor society – one B and the rest were A’s.

She’s now in her eighties, and has no trouble recalling her class motto: “Find a way or make one.”

Many of today’s American workers — at all skill levels — could profit by such a philosophy.

Like many others from the Great Depression, she knew to avoid debt. She worked hard, took the bus to work and saved money. Upon being divorced when I was three years old, she raised my brother and me without any assistance – welfare, food stamps or alimony. In Tulsa, when I was in elementary school, she bought a house.

When I was nine, she faced a layoff as a result of the sale of her oil-company employer. Fortunately, with her work ethic, she was offered a job in Palm Springs and soon bought a two-year-old Pontiac and a new house a half block from Bob Hope and James Stewart.

After I turned 13, she married a wise man, who told me: “It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you bring home.”

Both are now handicapped and walk rather gingerly. But my mom has the same approach to life as she did in 1946 – “Find a way or make one.”

Michelangelo’s motto

As for Michelangelo, his favorite tenet: “I am still learning.” It’s certainly apropos in this digital-age economy.

What were once considered basic job skills are no longer basic. About 30 years ago, literate workers could find employment if they were mindful of a company’s mission, and if they knew simple math.

A review of unfilled jobs – even entry level jobs – reveals that companies now require more: How to type on a computer keyboard, know how to use software, conduct research on the Internet, and have soft skills – empathy, teamwork and collaboration. To get a foothold in a company, workers often must be flexible in work hours and adapt to changing marketplace needs.

Another tip I used to my advantage when I was in the workforce long before becoming a business-performance consultant, which I still use today: Find needs of companies and provide them with solutions.

So, organizational and entrepreneurial skills are important. In addition, development of a professional presence in social media and foreign language skills in a 24/7 global economy are advantageous.

The moral: Get tougher mentally, have fun, continue to learn, be resourceful, and grow with an entrepreneurial spirit. You’ll make it, and you’ll have fun stories to tell.

Here’s a related resource link: Is Higher Education Doing the Job to Prepare Grads for the Workforce?

Here are  job-hunting strategies:

Discouraged in Job Hunting? Powerful Tips for the Best Job

15 Tips to Improve Your Odds for a Job

Job Hunting? Tips to Land Your Dream Job with Style, Substance

Study: Best Way to Get a Job Isn’t by Networking

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s a personal case study in overcoming unemployment:

Long before becoming a business-performance consultant, I knew the pain of unemployment after being corporately downsized. That was the case even though I already done some post-grad study at UCLA with experience in radio-TV news management, and had interviewed major newsmakers including two U.S. presidents and the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. As a freelance contributor to networks, my news reports had aired nationwide.

If I needed a job, sometimes I had to get sales jobs in other industries and worked my way back into management.

In 1984, a radio station laid me off one bitter-cold winter in Salt Lake City. I had to swallow my pride and take a temp job at $4.25 an hour as a manual laborer. During lunchtime breaks, the construction workers guffawed at my unprofessional construction work-clothes. I explained I was just trying to make my car payment as an out-of-work broadcast broadcaster. Their reaction – they thought I had delusions of grandeur.

Actually, I enjoyed construction work. However, soon I accidentally dropped some heavy lumber on my foot while standing in frigid water wearing tennis shoes.

In 24 hours with the aid of crutches, I began cold-calling broadcast companies in-person. That included a nationwide-media company, where I inadvertently annoyed the human-resources manager. She barked at me: “How dare you come here without an appointment?!” To no avail, I explained that my visit was to make an appointment for an interview.

As she threw me out, I thought: “I’ll show her.” I hobbled to the second floor to cold-call the company’s local radio-station news director. Soon, he created a job for me, saying: “You’ve got a job for two weeks, and if Walter Cronkite doesn’t apply and you prove yourself, the job is yours.”

The reporter/weekend anchor shift at the 50,000-watt station was an unpalatable Wednesday to Sunday night from 2 to 11 p.m. But I worked hard while trying to be nonchalant as I watched applicants, one-by-one, walk by my work station to the boss’s office for interviews.

Suddenly, the boss left for California, and I worried because he wasn’t around to evaluate my work. Candidly, my bio rhythms were askew. I had been accustomed to a normal schedule – and running the show. When he returned, the news director summoned me to his office. I was shaking as began to tell me he had heard all about me while he was gone.

Then, he stunned me: “Your attitude is contagious,” he said. The job was mine.

When my boss escorted me down to the HR office to fill out paper work, the HR manager scowled at me. When I explained to the news director why she was unfriendly, he chortled, “Yeah, she’s a pain.” He then said he was thrilled by my gumption to bypass her.

In the ensuing three years, I won three awards and was promoted to afternoon/evening news editor and anchor where my shift earned market-leading double-digit ARB ratings. As a powerful radio station, its signal could be heard in nine western states. My parents often listened to my newscasts sitting by their wood stove.

One of those skeptical construction workers spotted me on a downtown street corner. He stared in astonishment, saying: “I heard you on the news.”

Little did he know, I enjoyed driving friends to the scene of my proud accomplishment – the medical-office building I helped to build. Even though they regularly heard me on the radio, they thought it was hysterically funny that I was proud of my manual-labor job.

Good luck! Enjoy your footwork.

“Do whatever it takes, whenever it needs to be done, regardless of whether you feel like doing it or not.”

-Greg Hickman

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

Many Big Companies Ripe for EEOC Complaints

 

Sept. 2, 2011

Despite all the court cases, warnings and complaints filed at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a new study shows big companies are guilty of favoritism in their promotion practices.

It’s true that certain people are identified and groomed for promotion. But a 2011 study by Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business would indicate large companies need to be more sophisticated in their human resources programs.

My sense is that they’re leaving themselves wide open for legal action.

Ninety-two percent of the surveyed senior executives say they’ve witnessed favoritism. Eighty-four percent say they’ve seen it at their companies. But only 23 percent confess using the practice.

Research firm Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) conducted study headed by PSB’s Jonathan Gardner, who is also a grad student at the university.

“This study confirms what many have suspected – that favoritism plays a much greater role in employee advancement than companies normally portray,” Gardner said. “I hope this study will help us acknowledge the prevalence of favoritism in employee promotions so that we can find ways to better understand the role it plays.”

According to the school, 29 percent admitted they only considered one candidate in their last promotion of a person.

“When more than one candidate was considered, 56 percent said they already knew who they wanted to promote before deliberations,” said the school. “Not surprisingly, of that group, nearly all – 96 percent – report promoting the pre-selected individual.”

What were the reasons given for promoting an employee?

The top five answers:

• Has excelled in current position
• Leadership potential
• Job-related skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• History of strong performance reviews

Gardner shows some understanding of the typical executive’s dilemmas.

“Employees should keep in mind,” said Gardner, “that despite widespread favoritism, objective measures such as past performance, leadership potential, and job-related skills are viewed as key criteria by those in charge of promotion decisions, and it is important for young workers to focus their efforts on these factors that are well within their control.”

In our litigious society, however, the risks are great. Not to mention employee morale if word gets out in the rumor mill.

Here’s a basic checklist – what to do if an EEOC complaint is filed:

1. Be comprehensive with detailed, strategic responses.
2. Have a paper trail for your HR decisions. Documentation is critical.
3. Make certain your responses are accurate.
4. Show your track record’s consistency in fair treatment of employees.
5. Respectfully education the EEOC about your business – don’t assume EEOC employees understand your actions.
6. Act with confidentiality. Demonstrate your respect for individuals’ privacy.
7. Respond promptly. Don’t delay and ask for extensions of your appeal.
8. Have good lawyer, and seek advice.
9. Assuming you have insurance including employment-practices liability coverage, keep your carrier in the loop.
10. Keep all relevant documentation.

So beware.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s How to avoid EEOC Discrimination Suits.

“Discrimination is a disease.”
-Roger Staubach

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Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

15 HR Strategies to Improve Your Business Performance

 

Studies show many employees are dissatisfied in their workplaces. Employee dissatisfaction, of course, will adversely affect a company’s performance.

In fact, a 2010 Hewitt Associates study indicated employee engagement is at an historical low – well, at least since the firm began researching the issue in the mid-1990s.

A lack of employee engagement means:

• Higher costly turnover
• Less focus on customer service
• Less productivity
• Weak profits.

In the UK, employees of family-operated companies have better employee relationships than other businesses. A University of Birmingham study concludes family business workers – 21 percent of the workforce – are more loyal. They are more engaged with their employers, show more commitment and have higher morale.

Another consulting firm, Mercer, concluded in its 2011 global study that 33 percent of U.S. workers are thinking about quitting their employers. Forty percent of millennials are also considering a job change.

There are countless other human resources studies with similar findings.

Higher pay and benefits are important to workers. But they’re not the greatest motivators, and employees often have more salient concerns.

So, the key is to take steps that lead to higher employee morale and performance. The bottom-line question for you: Do your employees mirror what you expect?

Assuming you’ve hired the best talent in terms of attitude, to improve your business performance, here are 15 HR strategies:

1. Be authentic, not a patronizing employer.
2. Walk the floor twice a day to engage your staff. Show empathy. Ask questions, such as “How are you?”
3. Demonstrate your listening skills with open-ended questions. (“What is the dumbest thing you are on which you’re working?” or “Where is the company wasting resources – in time or money?”)
4. Communicate what the company is doing and how it’s performing.
5. Help employees to understand how they contribute to your bottom line. Show them your company-wide objectives and how their work contributes to your company’s performance.
6. Give workers a purpose with challenges.
7. Without being verbose, teach them how you think and why.
8. Create collegial teams of workers without micromanaging them.
9. Make employees a CEO of their work. Empower them to contribute ideas and allow them as much autonomy as feasible to make decisions.
10. Encourage each employee to be customer-focused.
11. Immediately, show appreciation for good work and counsel employees following sub-par work.
12. Budget for development and training.
13. Show flexibility to enhance employee balance for career and personal life.
14. Establish an employee assistance program. Do what you can to help eliminate the employees’ stress factors so they can have maximum focus on their responsibilities. That includes financial tips. As my dad once told me: “It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you bring home.”
15. Employees know who their toxic co-workers are. Don’t let the toxic workers hurt your workplace environment.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are more management suggestions:

20 Tell-Tale Signs – If You’re Under-Performing as a Manager

21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management

Human Resources – Profit By Not Letting Your Stars Become Free Agents

Boss Checklist: 16 Strategies for a Competitive Edge

Human Resources: 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations

 

“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.”

-Peter Drucker 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

Do You Have A Toxic Relationship With Your Boss?

 

This may be the 21st century with a cornucopia of management textbooks for bosses, but a significant number of employees still complain about their supervisors lacking in professionalism. That’s according to a study by Wayne Hochwarter, a professor in management at Florida State University.

Dr. Hochwarter has long studied employee-employer relationships, as well as the dynamics that trigger poor performances, hostile workplace environments and tension. His 2011 study included responses from more than 400 employees in a myriad of industries.

The results:

• 42 percent of employees reported that their boss was concerned more with saving his or her own job than with developing and assisting employees to be productive.
• 42 percent said they failed to receive things that were promised more than once over the past year.
• More than 40 percent of workers said they would not acknowledge their boss if they ran into him or her on the street.
• 40 percent agreed with the statement that “the only fun thing about work is leaving.”
• 34 percent reported that their boss is “two-faced,” in that he or she is nice in person but speaks negatively behind the employee’s back.
• 32 percent indicated that they work for a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
• 29 percent felt that their boss would “throw them under the bus” if it meant saving the boss’s own job.
• 24 percent caught their supervisor in a direct lie but never received an apology or explanation.
• 20 percent have heard a supervisor tell a co-worker that he or she could “get them fired if they wanted to.”

The professor reports many such workers feel vulnerable without any hope of improving their workplace environments.

“For workers in declining industries such as construction and manufacturing, catching on with a company able to offer comparable wages has been virtually impossible,” Dr. Hochwarter was quoted in a press release. “Plan B just doesn’t exist for many employees at the level it did five or 10 years ago.”

Not surprisingly, many of the workers fail to apply themselves for the welfare their companies, suffer from a resulting lack of sleep, and lack in self esteem.

In my experience as a business-performance consultant and human resources trainer, the study prompts me to make two responses:

1. The Peter Principle seems applicable — “”In a hierarchy,  every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” Many bosses are unqualified for management.
2. There are sometimes two sides to such stories. Employees often needlessly point fingers and are culpable, too.

But Dr. Hochwarter’s study is eye-opening, and is a surprise considering the abundance of 21st century tools for bosses to become professional supervisors.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s How To Deal With An Oppressive Employer.

Resource links for bosses:

Leadership Strategies to Profit from Employee Respect

Human Resources – Power Your Brand with Employee Empowerment

Management Best-Practices Include Solid Operations Checklists

21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management

Some people climb the ladder of success. My boss walked under it.

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

20 Tell-Tale Signs – If You’re Under-Performing as a Manager

 

Whether new or experienced, managers can often struggle. Poor management, of course, leads to poor performance.

As red flags, under-performing managers share one of two common traits with ineffective employees. Such managers aren’t fully aware of their shortcomings. Even if they are aware of deficiencies, they’re afraid to admit it.

Either way, nothing is done about the shortcomings. Accountability suffers. There are 20 typical warning signs.

Here’s a list of questions – 20 tell-tale signs – if you’re under-performing as a manager:

1. Is your department underperforming? It can be attributed to ineffective management.
2. Are you getting positive performance reviews from your boss? If not, that’s an indicator.
3. Do you have a strong image ? If you don’t enjoy employee loyalty or if peers are snubbing you, those are omens.
4. Are you a stress carrier? Whether its personal stress caused by conditions at home or career challenges, it can adversely affect your work relationships.
5. Do you engage in self-doubt? Weak decisions prompt actions leading to poor results.
6. Do your employees communicate well with you? Sometimes employees are distant because they’re unhappy with your style.
7. Are you careful to surround yourself with great employees? You don’t want a lot of yes-people. You want thinkers who will take ownership of their work.
8. Are you clear with your expectations of employee performance? If you’re nebulous in day-to-day interactions, instructions or in formal reviews, employees won’t deliver.
9. Do you make good investment for short-term and long-term success? Whether it’s technology or human resources training, good managers take productive steps and make insightful investments.
10. Are you a go-to person? Does your boss look to you for solutions and projects, or are you overlooked? This means you’re not viewed as being a valuable resource.
11. Are you open-minded? Do you step outside your comfort zone? This means being able to be innovative and assertive, and you don’t settle for mediocrity.
12. Are you a big-picture manager with strong potential for the C-suite? A manager who is good CEO-material has knowledge and ability in all areas of the business, not necessarily a doctorate-level expertise in any particular segment of the business.
13. Are you constantly looking for ways to improve? The best managers are voracious readers, and look for sources of good ideas and processes.
14. Do you instill a customer-focused organization? Task-oriented managers who are not focused on customer needs will not maximize profits.
15. Do you meet goals? If goals aren’t being met – whether it’s your department or your individual employees – performance will not been enhanced.
16. Do you have weak links on your team? It’s possible to have high-performing workers, but prima donnas are a liability if they don’t work well with others.
17. Are you ensuring company policies and values are upheld? If not the culture will be endangered and profits will suffer.
18. Are you on top of budgetary matters? In this business climate, it’s imperative to have a clear view of your department or company finances.
19. Do you regularly assess your business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? This is crucial for goal-setting and strategic planning.
20. Do you recognize employee and company success? Celebrations are good for everyone’s morale.

From the Coach’s Corner, for effective management, here are more resource links:

Leadership Strategies to Profit from Employee Respect

Human Resources – Power Your Brand with Employee Empowerment

Management Best-Practices Include Solid Operations Checklists

21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

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Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complementary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

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