Impact Today™

The impact of rudeness

2009-07-08T08:24:00.001-04:00

Perhaps you have noticed your managers are rude to their employees or to each other but you have not yet intervened. According to Penguin Group the price you pay for avoiding the situation is severe. Here is what they have found:

38 percent of employees admit the rudeness effects work quality.
47 percent of employees say it has an impact on the amount of time they spend at work.
66 percent of employees admit their performance suffers.
78 percent of employees say it lowers their commitment to the organization.

The last one is most troubling. Not because it is the highest - because it ties to both the top- and bottom-lines of your Profit and Loss Statement.

The first three areas impact the bottom-line because they drive up expenses and/or reduce output. The last, commitment to the organization, creates a tremendous backlash in several ways. These are disengaged employees.

To continue reading, click here.

Fun at work

2009-07-07T09:42:00.001-04:00

Do you realize how important it can be for your team members to have fun at work? Check out this video. The fun these two are having has no negative impact on productivity or image. In fact, by releasing the video it actually created some positive advertising.

Impress the boss

2009-07-06T14:06:00.005-04:00

What are your employees willing to do to impress their boss? A survey from Randstad shows us exactly what employees are willing to do to score points.

63 percent of female employees are willing to take on additional responsibility
52 and percent of male employees are willing to take on additional responsibility
47 percent are willing to work overtime to impress their boss in order to create more job security for themselves.
37 percent reported a willingness to come in early or stay late to impress their bosses
4 percent are willing to take a pay cut

“When it comes to impressing the boss to create more job security during times of economic uncertainty, the survey indicates women are willing to work harder. Perhaps this is because they feel they have worked hard at securing equal terms, and they tie their level of responsibility to their professional standing and the way their boss perceives performance,” said Eric Buntin, managing director, marketing and operations for Randstad USA.

Engaging employees

2009-07-03T09:39:00.001-04:00

The Gallup Great Workplace Award recently studied the workplaces that have created the best cultures for engaging employees in the company vision and mission.

The top 20 companies are:

ABC Supply, Beloit, Wisc.
Abdul Latif Jameel Co. Ltd., Saudi Arabia
ASB Bank, New Zealand
B&Q, England
Bharti Airtel Limited, India
Blue Care Network of Michigan, Southfield, Mich.
Borgess Health, Kalamazoo, Mich.
Campbell Soup Co., Camden, N.J.
CarMax, Inc., Glen Allen, Va.
Country Inns & Suites by Carlson, Omaha, Neb.
General Growth Properties, Chicago
Hendrick Health System, Abilene, Texas
Marriott Vacation Club International, Orlando, Fla.
Qwest Communicatins Mass Markets, Denver, Colo.
Self Regional Healthcare, Greenwood, S.C.
Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand
Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong Limited, China
St. Joseph’s Health System, Orange, California
Stryker, Kalamazoo, Mich.
Winegardner & Hammons Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio.

He didn't get the job

2009-07-01T10:25:00.004-04:00

The young man was proud of his abilities as a newly certified mechanic when he confidently walked into the repair shop to apply for an opening.

The shop’s manager asked just a few questions.

“Can you tip your head, roll your hat down your arm and flip it back to the top of your head in one motion?”

“Well, yes, I can do that,” said the applicant someone puzzled by the question.

“Can you juggle a wrench, screwdriver, and oil filter at the same time?”

“Never tried it, but I am sure I can learn how to,” answered the obviously proud new mechanic.

“Final question: When you use your wrench in a swordfight are you able to disarm your opponent in under 30 seconds?” asked the manager.

“Yes, we did that during breaks at school. I was the champ!” the applicant said boastfully.

"Then never mind, we cannot use you,” said the boss.

Why? Click here.

Where are the motivational leaders?

2009-07-01T02:33:00.002-04:00

Very discouraging numbers have been issued by pollster Randstad about the motivational talent of today’s leaders. They found a measly 22 percent of employees feel motivated by their current supervisor.

Leaders are also failing to act as mentors. Only 19 percent of participating employees said their boss is a role model or mentor.

Too many leaders are disconnected with their people. They have forgotten, or never knew, that the primary purpose of a leader is NOT to lead.

The primary purpose of a leader is to create more leaders. To do that they need to inspire, motivate, and mentor tomorrow’s leaders.

Business term: “Steamwork”

2009-06-30T07:54:00.000-04:00

Steamwork is the result of a dysfunctional team. When teamwork is present there is normally strong, positive progress toward organizational goals.

Yet many teams are teams in name only. They are set up as “teams” even though there is no unity or shared vision.

The result of these dysfunctional teams is called “Steamwork”. The work gets done, but with backstabbing, animosity, and other divisive actions.

Going from top salesperson to sales vice-president destroys life, part 2

2009-06-27T05:33:00.003-04:00

Continued from June 14

Larry’s wife saw the frustration in her husband’s demeanor. Gone were his deep-belly laughter, smiling, and ability to get a good night’s rest.

After nearly a decade as his company’s leading salesman Larry was now a joyless Sales Vice-President. Neither Larry nor his wife was happy with the way things had worked out.

His wife pointed out an ad for an Advanced Leadership Certificate program at the local Community College. After a little encouraging they decided that he should take a few classes to see if they could help him.

As instructor of the class I saw Larry sitting in his seat the first night. The burden of his worries was evident in every aspect of his body language. At the end of the first class Larry lagged behind and shared his story with me. Not only was he struggling with the weight of discouragement from being in a position for which he had not been trained he was having difficulty dealing with being the only vice-president not related to the owner.

Larry and I agreed he would benefit from some one-on-one coaching with me. I asked him to take a quick online assessment so I would know his personal weaknesses, strengths, motivational factors, and career interests. When I read the results of his questions there was only one logical conclusion -- Larry was in the job of his dreams!

Why dream jobs can be torturous

Now many will wonder how someone can have the perfect job and not find happiness. Life has taught me this is often true. Dream jobs are usually aligned with someone's interests are not always aligned with motivational factors and exposed talents.

Take for example the person who loves to make sandwiches. They decide to open a sandwich shop. Things generally run well at first but soon they will struggle with the other aspects of running a sandwich shop. Taxes, payroll, procurement, maintenance, and other business requirements for which they were not trained nor had the motivational interest will overcome the joy of making sandwiches. The focus will turn from creating beautiful sandwich masterpieces to total frustration at making challenges for 48 hours a week.

Larry’s mistake

Larry's main problem was that he loved sales too much. During those times when he should have been coaching the salespeople he was taking over the sales call completely. The salespeople were becoming frustrated because they wanted to sell themselves and saw his intervention as a lack of confidence in their abilities. They dreaded hearing that he would be joining them on one of their sales calls. Instead of learning from the best salesperson the company had ever had they were so filled with negativity they learned nothing but resentment.

Larry’s change

Larry began to concentrate his listening skills on the salesperson's approach to a prospect. He fought the urge to jump down during a sales call preferring to work with the salesperson after the call helping the salesperson to realize what the customer wanted and what the company had available to meet those needs.

Over the course of our coaching experience Larry saw how to make the Transformation from the talents of the salesperson to the talents needed by the sales vice president.

Six months later he completed the coaching program saying the fire is back in his belly and he "looks forward to work every day". His peers commented that there was a “new” Larry -- one that was fun to work with side-by-side.

The following season Larry’s company experienced a double digit sales increase, almost reaching their capacity to deliver product. This was in spite of the beginning stages of an economic downturn.

2009-06-23T11:45:00.003-04:00

One important subculture is height. Seldom do we discuss the stature cultures but anybody that has had to ask for help getting something off the top shelf at a grocery store or did not have enough leg room on an airplane understands that people of different statures handle things differently.

Surprisingly we have learned height has an apparent impact on pay.

Employees standing six feet tall earn $5,525 more than employees measuring 5’ 5” according to a poll by Greg Mankiw.

It is unclear why the difference occurs but could be the same reason men, who are generally taller than women, also earn more than their gender culture counterpart.

Business term: “Cuss-tomer”

2009-06-20T08:41:00.000-04:00

A cuss-tomer is someone that cusses us out after they have either spent money with us or tried to spend money with us. They are the person to whom we have fallen short of meeting expectations. They are so mad at us they want to cuss us out. Many actually do.

Only 9% of those we service poorly will tell us. The other 91 percent will probably never give us another chance to earn their business.

Word of mouth advertising is also prevalent among cuss-tomers. They will tell nine or ten of their friends, relatives, or co-workers. One in eleven will tell twenty others!

If you do not think you have cuss-tomers you are being naive. Even the best run customer-oriented organizations will fail from time to time. Improve your customer service techniques and you will reduce the number of cuss-tomers.

Remember: even if you have just one cuss-tomer a month they will tell ten people you aren’t worth doing business with. That’s 120 people a year more likely to go to your competitor!

Resumes - fishing stories or truth?

2009-06-18T09:53:00.000-04:00

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is known for its beautiful and plentiful fishing holes. One delightful summer day a group of doctors from Detroit were fishing at one of these tranquil vistas. The peacefulness was suddenly broken by a young couple at a campsite nearby. The doctors rushed to the aid of the woman who was near the end of her labor. Soon the screams of childbirth were replaced by the newborn's cry.

One of the doctors checked his watch to record the time of birth while another fetched the scale they used to weigh the fish they caught. To their amazement the baby weighed 27 lbs. 7 oz.

Just as people embellished fishing stories applicants embellish their work history. Various surveys have gauged this embellishment to be present on 52 percent to 89 percent of all applications.

Regardless of the actual percentage, one thing is certain: reference checks will not reveal where the exaggeration has taken place. This is primarily due to a fear held by employers and human resource professionals concerning bad recommendations.
Two reasons a former employer won't “rat”

To continue reading, click here.

Oh my aching foot

2009-06-17T06:45:00.003-04:00

Janet hobbled into the emergency room complaining about the tremendous pain in her foot. She was shown to a treating area where she sat on the edge of the bed. In a few moments the attending physician entered the room and taking one look at the swelling told Janet to wait a moment.

A few seconds later the doctor returned to Janet with a large pill. As he handed it to Janet the nurse yelled for the doctor to help with a patient that had fallen a short distance down the hall.

Janet, unable to take the pain any longer, hobbled over to the sink outside of the room to get a cup of water. She immediately took the pill and returned to the bed to sit down.

A few moments later a nurse entered Janet's room with a bucket of water.

To find out what shocking thing she said to Janet, and the life lesson to be learned from it, click here.

Where gossip occurs most frequently

2009-06-15T07:33:00.000-04:00

Is gossip a part of your corporate culture? Many workplaces find that gossip travels faster than important company information. Steelcase polled employees at many of their customers seeking to discover the most frequent places gossip occurs.

Here is what they found:

36 percent occurs in the break room.
33 percent occurs when employees visit another employee’s desk.
10 percent is carried out on intra-company email.

Going from top salesperson to sales vice-president destroys life, pt 1

2009-06-14T17:40:00.003-04:00

It is not uncommon for a company’s leader to think the best candidate for the next sales manager is the company’s leading salesperson. There is a lot of logic behind this argument. After all if someone is able to close sales at a higher than average rate they should be able to do even better with an entire team of salespeople reporting to them.

As logical as this seems it is failed logic.

Larry was the leading sales person at his company for nine years in a row. He loved his product and got a rush every time someone signed a deal.

Not only was Larry closing deals at a higher rate than all of his peers, his deals had a consistently higher profit margin -- and a higher average total retail. Larry credited this to his skills at knowing where to network for prospects, great listening skills during the sales process, and exceptional follow-up during the product-delivery process.

He worked for a family-owned business where the sales manager was the business owner. When it was time for the owner to enjoy the rewards of his efforts in the form of retirement, Larry was selected to take over the sales manager responsibilities.

Elation at the recognition of his sales efforts and being given a part ownership of the company fueled Larry initially. However before long Larry was dejected and ready to chuck it all.

Larry had fallen victim to the myth that one whom does a job well is best suited to manage his or her department. It led him to a position where sleep was in short supply and enjoyment was only a faded memory.

The reason this seemingly logical argument is that the talent required to be a great salesperson are different from the talent required to be a sales manager.

Salespeople must be skillful at:

Listening actively for the buyer’s needs

Finding solutions to problems

Negotiating a solution beneficial for all parties

Delivering quality external customer service

Establishing trust that they are looking out for their customer’s needs

On the other hand, a sales manager must be able to:

Listening actively for the salesperson’s challenges and desires

Encouraging and mentoring salespeople so they find solutions to their problems

Coaching salespeople in the negotiation process

Delivering quality internal customer service

Establishing trust that they are fighting for their salespeople’s needs AND wants

Help salespeople draw on their untapped talents

Larry processed the first set of qualities and, like most salespeople turned sales vice-presidents, had a hard time shifting to the second set of qualities. It was not that he did not want to -- he did not have the proper training to make the transition.

It had reached the point that Larry was ready to give up the Vice-President’s title and part ownership to go back to his old job.

To be continued on June 27.

Business term: “Blame storming”

2009-06-10T07:29:00.002-04:00

If you need to do problem solving you will find brainstorming an effective tool. A good facilitator will help get ideas flowing to the white board for eventual discussion by the group.

Care must be exercised in brainstorming to prevent the harmful practice of “blame storming”.

Blame storming is a shift from positive problem solving into the dark arena of laying blame for past problems or failures.

Keep your brain storming focused on the horizon. It is helpful to understand past problems to the point of not repeating mistakes yet it is only helpful when it is done with the attitude of “what went wrong” instead of “who did what went wrong”.

Dead assets

2009-06-08T16:07:00.001-04:00

Corporate assets vary from industry to industry. However a recent bankruptcy filling in Mansfield, Massachusetts, shows one of the most unusual assets ever to be among the items for the auction block.

According to the Associated Press, Spinal Technologies has nine human bodies among their assets. Eight of these bodies “were previously used” according to court documents.

Although these assets are literally frozen in the Chapter 7 dissolution, many companies are faced with unproductive bodies in their own organizations.

“Dead bodies” on payrolls are normally job fit or unengaged employees. Employee assessments are the most valuable way to fix job match issues. Leadership development or communication improvement programs are two excellent ways to reengage “dead” employees.

A working vacation

2009-06-07T07:20:00.001-04:00

Here are some interesting statistics to contemplate as we enter the vacation season:

30 percent of managers say they return from a vacation more stressed than when they began it.
34 percent of managers say their boss expects them to be accessible daily via email during vacation.
23 percent of employees work harder when their boss is away while only 2 percent work less.

Senior management compensation problems

2009-06-05T07:17:00.001-04:00

We have all read about the problems with senior management compensation, as evidenced through the recent turmoil over retention bonuses at AIG. However retention is a large problem even in companies with solid bottom-lines.

When a new member of senior management is hired there is a 40 percent chance they will fail within the first 18 months on the job, according to a survey from Fisher.

Typical reasons include:

Competitive success. Assuming success demonstrated by the applicant at a competitor will translate to success at your company. Success is more driven by company culture than it is by industry sector. Few successful people in the relaxed Microsoft culture were successful in the very rigid IBM culture.
Sector success. Assuming success in one industry will translate to success at your company. It is true that leadership success is more about the leader than the industry. Business sector only is important to the degree with which it drives an employee’s interest in a particular supply channel. This is normally not as important to the leader as successful leadership itself.

You can head off failure through effective use of pre-employment assessments designed for senior management. Like ehamony.com, assessments can help determine if the personality and traits of your perspective executive align with your corporate culture. One such tool, The Profiles XT is able to match an applicant to the most successful people in an organization. This increases job fit thereby reducing the 18 month failure trend.

One last word to those that believe a new executive can change your current culture into the same type of culture present in their past successes. This is very naïve thinking as cultures take time to change -- particularly because they require simultaneous top-down and bottom-up champions.

Communication secrets for change managers

2009-06-04T09:54:00.004-04:00

Guest article by Marcia Xenitelis

If your employee communication strategy to communicate change focuses on stakeholder communication plans, an intranet site, CEO forums and Staff Information Bulletins via email stop right there. Your efforts are focused on information, not communication and the likelihood of engaging employees in change is remote.

My interest in employee communication is to distinguish between the tools communicators use that inform and those strategies that engage employees and therefore impact business outcomes. The concern is that there seems to be confusion in the market place where roles are advertised for "Change Managers" when the organization is really looking for an internal communication professional not a change practitioner.

So what's the difference?

Well clearly both information and engagement tools are important. An internal communication professional focuses on tools to impart information and in some cases create dialogue including:

the corporate intranet
staff information bulletins
emails
providing information for managers to brief their teams face to face
organising staff forums for the CEO
briefing kits for supervisors and team leaders

Whilst all of this activity is important and provides the support that employees need to find out what is happening. But, and it is an important distinction, so what if you tell people what is happening, will it change their attitude and therefore change their behaviour? In my experience which is across many sectors, industries, professional roles and all types of change programs I have to say no. And this is the problem, when a CEO and senior executive team think "change" will happen because they have hired someone to communicate the changes taking place and then when there is no impact on the business or the outcomes they were looking for they are disappointed.

To continue reading, click here.

Accepting Advice

2009-06-02T08:01:00.001-04:00

For the first time his 44 year life Sam found himself visiting a local doctor.

“Sam, we went to school together, and this is the first time seeing you?” inquired the doctor.

“I've been blessed with good health,” Sam bragged. “But now I'm feeling pretty poor, and I can't figure out what's wrong.”

“Who have you consulted with,” asked the doctor.

“Just the pharmacist at the drugstore,” replied Sam.

Times were tough for the doctor and he was tired of people going to the drugstore to get free medical advice.

“That pharmacist is not qualified to practice medicine,” retorted the doctor in anger. “What kind of stupid diagnosis did he give you?”

To see what the pharmacist said, and the life lesson to be learned from it, click here.

Coming or going - vacations cause stress

2009-06-01T14:34:00.003-04:00

Many people think of vacation time as a time to relax and refresh. Sitting on the beach, enjoying an amusement park, taking a cruise, and seeing the world are not providing the rejuvenation without cost.

According to a new Randstad Work Watch survey of full-time employed adults vacations are a high cost of stress in the workplace.
It’s not going on vacation -- it’s coming back from vacation.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents stated the first day back in the office after vacation was difficult for them. See the Tapestry® Blog for a breakdown of the percentages by gender and generation.

One of the most difficult activities involved in preparing for vacation is getting a boss and/or coworker ready to cover during the vacation. However the oldest two generations overwhelmingly stated that preparing for coverage during their vacation was not stressful.

These figures make a good argument for taking vacations in one large block instead of individual weeks. Also, when vacations are taken as individual days the stress level is minimalized.

Financial Planner begins hitting goals

2009-05-30T10:54:00.000-04:00

Competition among financial planners is very intense. Each is given lofty goals for attracting new accounts and increasing current accounts.

Financial planners must be excellent salespeople, great relationship builders, proficient mathematicians, and have the ability to foresee the future.

Not surprisingly it is difficult to find an individual with all these qualities.

Dan enjoyed all aspects of being a financial planner yet realized he was lacking the skills he needed to be a great salesperson. He sought help from a professional coaching program.

As a professional coach I have learned that people can be redirected quicker then they will change. I quickly recognized Dan had a tremendous heart for helping other people. If he were to be successful he would have to focus on a servant's heart as the driver for his salesmanship.

As the financial planner for a major bank with locations in grocery stores, Dan was stationed one day a week in each of five different locations. He was required by the bank to approach people in the store to let them know financial services were available at the bank. His personality did not allow him to handle this task comfortably.

To continue reading, click here.

Business term: “Out-Pout”

2009-05-29T06:47:00.000-04:00

We all know what output is. Sometimes output comes with an attitude. When this happens the output becomes out-pout. When employees have placed a yeoman’s effort in completing a project or report accomplished against time or resource barriers they, as humans, can pout about the process.

Out-pout can quickly become happier output by rewarding the staff that worked on it. Here are several low- or no-cost ways you can turn out-pout to output:

A personal letter to all that worked on the project

Acknowledgement on the employee bulletin board or in the lunch room

An article in the company newsletter

Special parking places for a period of time

Email abuse on the job

2009-05-27T10:40:00.002-04:00

Email and text messaging have become a huge distraction in many workplaces. Yet most employers have trouble determining how to control this interruption from productivity.

Forty-one percent of companies involved in a recent Proof Point Poll pay someone to monitor employee email. Forester Research found 40 percent of companies monitoring email by employing a full-time employee. Even with this high percentage of monitoring, only 14 percent of the employers had the nerve to actually discipline a message abuser.

The privacy right issue is one of the considerations an employer faces. Although it is clear than mail delivered by the postal service belongs to the employer, even if addressed as personal or confidential, there is less clarity when it comes to email or texting.

The City of Detroit faced this problem when embarrassing text messages were made public during an investigation of wrong-doing by the Mayor. The mayor’s legal team was making a seemingly convincing argument before the court until it was revealed the mayor had issued a damaging memo. It stated that all text messages sent or received on city-owned phones or while employees were on the time clock belonged to the city as a matter of public record. The mayor’s messages were made public and solidified his conviction for not revealing an affair could have impacted a multi-million payment made to fired police officers.

Two ways to proactively and positively work with the problem

The key to eliminating email is not disciplinary. Companies have found two methods that are very effective in controlling email abuse.

Ensure employees are connected. Well-engaged employees are more likely to tell their messaging friends to wait until they are off work. They want to get the job done because they have a clear vision of their future at a successful company.

They use pre-employment assessments. The effective use of modern, online pre-employment assessments can identify probable email abusers. Integrity and work ethic will provide clear indicators of an applicant’s propensity to abuse company policy.

Making an Impact on Kindle

2009-05-26T17:38:00.001-04:00

Being a great leader means following the latest trends. In the printed literature the trend is to the electronic world. Books and newsletters are moving to the electronic world for two main reasons:

Environment. Moving to the electronic world allows publishers to become more environmentally friendly. No trees are injured or killed in the delivery of electronic books, newspapers, and newsletters.
Cost. E-books are cheaper to deliver electronically than on printed paper. Distribution costs are also much lower allowing publishers to reduce prices while still protecting royalty fees.

Amazon’s Kindle is a leader in download print materials. A Kindle reader is easy to take with you wherever you go. A single reader can hold 1,500 to 3,500 books.

Over 285,000 books plus national and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs, including Impact Today®, are available for downloading onto a Kindle. For a $.99 subscription fee every posting to Impact Today® is automatically sent to your reading device. To learn more, click here.