When Incivility Darkens the Workplace

When incivility occurs in the workplace a steep price can be paid if it’s not dealt with. Incivility takes many forms in the modern workplace: rudeness, obnoxious behavior directed at another, undermining, being disrespectful, ignoring people’s opinion, etc. If not addressed this type of behavior can take a personal toll.

Recently I interviewed a senior director who was the brunt of another’s rude, inappropriate behavior. His failure to address the problem eventually led down a long tunnel of disengagement and his eventual removal from the position. Although happy to move on the “victim” spoke of how ruminating on the incident, prevented him from putting it behind and lead to a greater feeling of insecurity, lower self-esteem, and a heightened sense of helplessness. Job performance suffered. So, when told by the CEO that he was being let go he was only too happy to be out the door.

I’ve found, and others agree that the best results are when you tackle bad behavior head on and not necessarily bringing it to the attention of the HR department, where the usual response often falls short…that’s not to say you wouldn’t report a bullying workmate but the best results dealing with a rude or obnoxious co-worker often come from being responsible, proactive and taking the lead.

Before confronting a rude co-worker, ask yourself these three qualifying questions:

1. Do you feel safe confronting this person?
2. Was the behavior intentional?
3. Was this the only instance of such behavior from him or her?

If you’re able to answer ‘yes’ to all three, then you should address the issue directly. Use this checklist to ensure that you

1. Prepare for the discussion.  Think about a good time and a safe environment in which you’ll both be comfortable. Consider whether you need others present or even a moderator. 
2. Rehearse your ideas with someone whose feedback is trusted. Ask that person to role play the perpetrator, complete with temperament. 
3. Be aware of nonverbal communication.  This includes posture, facial expressions, gestures, tempo, and especially tone of voice. People practiced what they will stay far more than how they will say it. However, word typically convey far less than does the way they are delivered.
4. Proceed with the goal of mutual gain.  During the talk focus on the behavior not the individual and how the specific behavior harms performance and working relationship.
5. Prepare for an emotional response.  If the perpetrator starts to vent, it’s best to listen, try to tolerate it. It may lead to a more productive place. Use words like, “ I understand” and “I get that.” Admitting blame where appropriate may also be helpful. 
6. Be an active listener.  Paraphrase what you hear and repeat it back. Ask for clarification; be humble to gain likeability and credibility. 
7. Focus on establishing courteous norms for the future.  Agree on how you’ll interact going forward so that there is no degraded performance. Follow up with a summary of agreement via email.

Incivility exacts a steep price. As in my example, although somewhat extreme it lead to job change. Using the above 7-point list will help you deal with incivility issues head on.

Five R’s to Retain Employees Forever

Clearly, for employees to safely make a long-term commitment to an organization, the employer will need to give them good reason to stay. Employers need to advocate proactive efforts by to establish a culture that builds strong relationships with their employees — the kind that speak to a lengthy commitment, and perhaps even a commitment for life. 

What can an employer do? Here are the "5 R's" of employee relationships:

1. Responsibility. Show your employees you trust them by giving them responsibilities that allow them to grow. Encourage them to gain new skills. Provide ample continuing education opportunities. Hire from within wherever possible, and give generous promotions at appropriate times.

2. Respect. Employees want to know they are respected and appreciated. As the saying goes, people may readily forget the things that you said, but they will always remember the way you made them feel. Many workplace legends are built around the horrific things weary and stressed-out managers said or did. But if managers make it a priority to show outward respect for employees on a regular basis, it will lead to a strong and enduring workplace culture as well as positive experiences and memories that they will never forget.

3. Revenue-sharing. Tie a part of your employees' wages to the company's performance. This will align their interests with the company's revenue and profit goals and will serve as an inherent incentive to stay with the company as it grows. By making the fixed cost of payroll inherently more variable under differing business conditions, you can make your company more resilient and agile, while also treating your employees exceptionally well.

4. Reward. The rewards you give your employees should speak to their emotional needs and should go beyond their monetary compensation. Recognition in front of the company, company and department parties, service projects, lunches with the boss, logo clothing, handwritten notes, etc., can all contribute to the positive culture of the company and can be good morale builders as well. 

5. Relaxation Time. Be generous with time off. Despite the hard economy, provide sufficient time for sick days, family vacations, new babies, etc. Pacing workflow can be highly beneficial to enduring employee relationships. You should expect and even demand high-quality performance, but it is unreasonable to expect a continual level of pressure at 100 percent. Allow employees the chance to catch their breath from one assignment to the next with the help of team-building activities or mini break periods over the course of the day. 

It is important to remember that a long-term commitment requires effort in both directions. While it's fully understandable that most organizations look askance at perpetual "hoppers," remember that if you expect and hope that employees will make and keep long-term commitment to your company, it will be equally vital that you give them good reasons to stay.

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Unleashing Excellence: How to Be an Outstanding Call Center Leader

Are effective leaders born or are they developed? That question has been debated in thousands of books, articles, speeches and forums. While there are some characteristics effective leaders may have acquired early in life (I don’t believe they were born with them); I also believe that leadership skills can be developed later in life. And these skills aren’t based on personality or charisma, nor are they dictated by a person’s Myers-Briggs profile. No matter their style, effective leaders do three things very well.

1. Effective leaders Operationalize the Call Center's Mission. 

The organization’s mission is at the core of the effective leader’s actions. Whether the mission is to Create Happiness (Walt Disney World); to be Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen (Ritz Carlton); or to Refresh the World  (Coca Cola), effective leaders keep the mission in front of their employees throughout the hiring process and new hire and ongoing training, and they see every communication opportunity as one more tool to keep the mission on the radar.

2. Effective call center leaders involve the call center employees in the forward movement of the organization.

There may have been a time when the leader had the answers to every business issue that would arise. The leader had formal authority and was usually an expert in all phases of the operation. Due to changing customer expectations and competition, those days are over. Today's call center leaders must rely on the skills of a facilitator and call center idea champion. The effective call center leader sees call center representatives as partners in coming up with new ways to delight customers.

3. Effective call center leaders make excellence non-negotiable. 

Lack of accountability in the call center is the number one reason many (or most) organizational improvement initiatives fail to achieve their desired results. When call center leaders look the other way when a call center representative performs in an unacceptable manner, even the best improvement plans begin to collapse. One of my favorite leadership quotes is:

Intolerable performance exists when intolerable performance is tolerated.

An important behavior of effective call center leaders is that they never let the coaching moment go. If there’s a call center performance issue, they handle it without delay. A related behavior of effective call center leaders is that they never let the recognition moment go. They let strong performers know that their call center performance is truly appreciated.

While there are certainly other qualities effective call center leaders demonstrate, I believe these three provide the foundation for excellent leadership performance. Call center leaders who excel in these areas lead high performing teams that deliver superior results.

Make an honest appraisal of your own call center leadership performance. Ask yourself:

·         Do my call center representatives see me living our organization’s mission and values every day?

·         Do I refuse to compromise on our call center’s commitment to excellence? Is call center excellence “non-negotiable?”

Most of us must admit that we have room for improvement in each of these areas of call center leadership performance. Admitting it is the first step. The next step is to make a commitment to raise the bar of your own leadership performance in the call center and take action. Leaders who truly unleash the excellence of their organizations are those who see every day as an opportunity to become a better call center leader.

Performance Tune Up for Your Service Team Engaged, high-performing service agents are the dream of every manager. Yet there's always a wide range of performance from high, to average, to low. If agents perform essentially the same job, why does their performance vary so much? When agents are measured against the same metrics, why do some agents excel while others lag behind? Obviously, the answer is that each agent is a different person—and each person brings his or her unique experiences and expectations to the job. If we recognize and accept these differences, and focus agent onboarding and development around these differences, then we will achieve performance gains faster and more successfully. A personalized performance “tune up” for each agent can raise the bar and optimize results. Without a doubt, what can drive top performance is a tune up based on what is relevant to the specific needs of each individual. A NASCAR race team would never consider performing the exact tune up for every car. Instead, the right adjustments and corrections are unique to each vehicle. Some cars need more, some less—and some don't need a tune up at all. And it's the same for agents. To be effective, service agent tune ups must be relevant to each person's specific performance levels and needs.    To help your team reach peak performance, tune up your agents with these 5 easy steps. 1)  Dust off the job description. We all have job descriptions, right? Unfortunately, job descriptions usually sit on a shelf or in a file never to surface again from a new employee packet. The job description sets the foundation for performance. It establishes common expectations for every agent. While the job description cannot guarantee performance outcomes, it is the best starting point for tuning up your team. So, don't let the job description sit on the shelf. Dust it off, and start putting it to good use! 2)  Calibrate expectations. For an effective tune up, make sure agents are all “on the same page” when it comes to performance expectations. The job description is a great place to start. Still, the job description may mean different things to different people. If this happens, each team member's response will be different—and so will their performance. A key element of an effective team is how they communicate and how they understand what is communicated. Agents need a common and consistent way to discuss and evaluate performance.  When discussing performance with your team, does each agent understand what is expected? Ask questions and check to ensure that every agent understands performance and job expectations in the same way. 3)  Diagnose current performance. While there is no substitute for day-to-day coaching and performance management, there is also a need for diagnostic tools to benchmark current performance and competency levels. In other words, before starting the actual “tune up” you need to know what to tune up. So, what is the best way to diagnose and benchmark your agents? There are a lot of available options including peer surveys, self-report, customer ratings, performance metrics, skill assessments, etc. Use tools that are calibrated to the specific competencies identified in the job description. Even more critical is to choose tools that provide an objective and independent measures of performance. Why is this important? Because subjective measures (such as surveys) are dependent on the perspective of the rater, so that personal biases and personalities influence the ratings.  Objective performance measures (i.e., performance metrics and skill assessments) are more consistent, accurate and reliable. The more precise you are in diagnosing agents' performance, the more effective their tune up will be. 4)  Create a plan of action. With an accurate diagnosis of each agent's strengths and improvement opportunities, you are now ready to create a tune up plan for your team. The goal is to create a plan of action for each agent—not generalized across the team—but specific and relevant for each person.  The key is to make it practical. You can include on-the-job activities, online learning, company training, etc. Whatever you choose, be sure the activities, priorities, timing and expectations all tie directly to the objective diagnostic evaluation. 5)  Implement the plan. Equipped with a personalized plan for every agent, the tune up can begin.  Each agent has a personal plan. Not only do they have a clear understanding of expectations, but more important, they now buy into the plan because it is designed specifically for them.  The plan becomes a great discussion document between agents and supervisors.  This goes a long way toward removing wasted training and development time and expense.  Agents are getting exactly what they need, and as a result, they are more receptive to learning.  What better way to achieve employee engagement and peak performance than to give each agent a personalized plan for success? By now you may be thinking, “This sounds great, but who has the time to put it into practice?” Or, “Seriously, is it even practical to customize tune ups for each agent?”  Absolutely.  The good news is that the costs associated with personalized tune ups are very low, while the return value—in employee engagement and improved performance—is very high. Here’s to getting your team firing on all cylinders! Contact me directly for a copy of my Performance Appraisal tool.

So You Want to Be An IT Star

Success is not easy or simple. Even in the best of times, workplaces are fraught with changing conditions, political jockeying and limited room for advancement. And these are not the best times. Yet some IT staff manage to get noticed—and in all the right ways. What are the secrets of their success? How do some IT leaders manage to shine? Beyond the basics—energy, enthusiasm, passion for the work—four important behaviors can help catapult you to success.

Be good to your end users. First things first: If you want to get ahead, don't make people feel stupid. This advice can be especially important for IT folks, whose technical expertise can create a danger of doing just that.

People outside of IT won't necessarily understand tech speak, so you need to present information in a manner so they understand technology and what it provides to the company. You need to be able to translate technical information to them in the manner they can understand and assimilate and in a way that shows the benefits to the big picture.

Understanding how technology fits into users' lives is key to creating innovative IT solutions. Thinking hard about how to help someone else understand what you're saying may seem obvious for important presentations; doing it day in and day out may prove more challenging. But don't dismiss those small, cumulative interactions. In those daily interactions lie many opportunities for you to distinguish yourself by your energy, enthusiasm, and likability. This way, when a more senior job opens up, the support to put you in the position is there—not just from your boss, but also from other senior leaders. To make sure your likability quotient is high, focus on being open-minded. Make it a point to really listen to what someone is saying and process what you're hearing. Doing so conveys respect, and you also are likely to develop solutions you wouldn't have otherwise. End-user problems—large and small—are opportunities to build relationships that can advance your career. It's all in how you handle those situations that makes the difference. Don't make an end user feel dumb for not understanding; make them feel good about coming to you and asking what the problem is.

Go beyond the walls of IT and learn the business. IT leaders who want to move up must become business-savvy. Not just so you can talk the talk. Without understanding business users' work lives, it's impossible to deliver optimum technology solutions. I credit much of my own success with understanding how IT fits into my end users' work processes. It is a basic business truth that IT staff who want to climb the ladder must also become intricately involved in other areas of the business. It’s critical to educate your end-users on technology. My philosophy on the subject to my staff is clear: get involved with business users; go door to door and meet with them and their teams. I want my team to "give the customer some tool they may not even have thought of, that they can look at it and say, Wow, I'm glad we came to you." That's only possible if you understand how other groups are run and the challenges they face. Developing such a rapport also helps discourage the tendency of business users to create a shadow IT department. Key point: if you don't solve their problems with good solutions, they will go around you!

Understand the organization's structure and goals. If you want to move up the ladder of success, you need to create strategic IT. To do that, you need to know what top management values. Every company has a culture and those cultures reward different things. Key to moving ahead is knowing what to prioritize. This means, for example, knowing which projects to volunteer for and how to promote them to those above you. Knowing what the business defines as valuable is increasingly important the higher up you go so you've got to understand goals, and how IT can be used to achieve those goals I recommend not just looking for ways IT can create value but also being responsive when opportunities present themselves. One place where this comes into play is the IT budget. Managing IT like a P&L is key to moving up in the organization. IT should be adding value and helping differentiate the business. However, that's not possible if an IT leader's goal is simply saving money. Build into that budget what you need to do to create value.

Build Trust with your boss Trust is the glue that binds relationships together inside and outside of work. Without it, moving up is virtually impossible. And honest communication is a huge part of building trust with your manager. Share the good news—and the bad. Avoid the temptation to sweep bad news about a project or assignment under the rug. You may think you're sparing your boss but my experience has been that it's better to overshare than to undershare. The trick lies in knowing when and where to share information. Sit down and talk to your manager about how to communicate when problems come up. Most leaders don't like when information feels filtered, like something is being hidden but want to know what's going on. The last thing anybody wants is to be broadsided. Information sharing, when it comes right down to it, translates to respect. I think that it's very important to use chain of command in place and not circumvent your manager. It's his or her job to make you look better to the organization. And if you don't have that kind of trust you should look for someone you could have that with.

Creating Help Desk Superstars by Tailoring Learning Systems

Although there are many learning styles, my experience with developing people over the last 25 years reveals that three styles predominate. These three are not mutually exclusive; certain employees may rely on a combination of two or perhaps all three. Nonetheless, staying attuned to each employee’s style or styles will help focus your coaching.

First, there’s analyzing. Paul S. is an analyzer. He understands a task by taking it apart, examining its elements, and reconstructing it piece by piece. Because every single component of a task is important in his eyes, he craves information. He needs to absorb all there is to know about a subject before he can begin to feel comfortable with it. If he doesn’t feel he has enough information, he will dig and push until he gets it. He will read the assigned reading. He will attend the required classes. He will take good notes. He will study. And he will still want more.

The best way to teach an analyzer is to give him ample time in the classroom. Role-play with him. Do postmortem exercises with him. Break his performance down into its component parts so he can carefully build it back up. Always allow him time to prepare. The analyzer hates mistakes. A commonly held view is that mistakes fuel learning, but for the analyzer, this just isn’t true. In fact, the reason he prepares so diligently is to minimize the possibility of mistakes. So don’t expect to teach him much by throwing him into a new situation and telling him to wing it. As expected, I’ve found that this style conflicts in a help desk environment where ‘in-call’ training is prevalent or the norm.

The opposite is true for the second dominant learning style, doing. While the most powerful learning moments for the analyzer occur prior to the performance, the doer’s most powerful moments occur during the performance. Trial and error are integral to this learning process.

Jeffrey L. is a doer. He learns the most while he’s in the act of figuring things out for himself. For him, preparation is a dry, uninspiring activity. So rather than role-play with someone like Jeffrey, pick a specific task within his role that is simple but real, give him a brief overview of the outcomes you want, and get out of his way. Then gradually increase the degree of each task’s complexity until he has mastered every aspect of his role. He may make a few mistakes along the way, but for the doer, mistakes are the raw material for learning. Where ‘in-call’ training is the status quo for new hires, the doer is willing and able to pick up calls on his first day. Having a support system that fosters success for the doer ensures a win-win for both him and the clients he helps.

Finally, there’s watching. Watchers won’t learn much through role-playing. They won’t learn by doing, either. Since most formal training programs incorporate both of these elements, watchers are often viewed as rather poor students. That may be true, but they aren’t necessarily poor learners.

Watchers can learn a great deal when they are given the chance to see the total performance. Studying the individual parts of a task is about as meaningful for them as studying the individual pixels of a digital photograph. What’s important for this type of learner is the content of each pixel, its position relative to all the others. Watchers are only able to see this when they view the complete picture.

If you’re trying to teach a watcher, by far the most effective technique is to get him out of the classroom. Take him away from the manuals, and make him ride shotgun with one of your most experienced performers. Your phone system in the help center may have an option that allows one agent to listen to another and if you are using a remote desktop tool that software may allow sharing of support sessions between clients.

To ensure that everyone on your team contributes at their highest possible level, you as the leader must recognize and adjust for unique learning needs. Meeting the needs of your new hires may require tweaking the environment but your success as a manager will depend entirely on your ability to do this.

Lessons from the Road: 10 Must Have Business iPhone Apps

Ok, I took my own challenge to travel ultra-lite on my last 4-day business trip…sans a laptop. Could I pull off two presentations, travel to three cities and still stay well connected with tasks and responsibilities back at the office? Here’s the 10 apps that stood out and allowed me to: edit two proposals, update my presentation on my office PC and then download it locally, print out the slides, organize and manage the travel, update my business contacts list, and much more. I might not leave my laptop home on my next trip but now I know if it’s left behind work doesn’t need to stop or slow. As a side note: being a road warrior for +20 years taught me that bringing the little things with just makes for a better experience, that’s why I loaded SlingMedia for the iPhone before I left so I could watch my favorite TV shows without having to learn how to use a new remote!

Quickoffice Mobile Suite

The next time someone e-mails you a Word, Excel or Powerpoint document, Quickoffice will open it and allow you to make quick edits from your iPhone. (Otherwise, you can open, but not edit, Microsoft Office files.) You can also create documents with the app, but it is far less useful for that purpose. Rather, Quickoffice offers a way to complete small work tasks easily while you are on the move.
Print n Share

Print & Share allows you to print documents, emails, contacts, web pages and photos wirelessly, right from your device. It really does add a much needed feature to the iPhone and the experience is seamless. The app's main screen displays six main choices for selection. You may choose to print a file, email, web page, contact or image. You may also use the iPhone's camera to take a photo and print it immediately. From this main screen you may also access the help menu and change the settings. Print & Share is truly an amazing application. It's convenience alone makes it worth the price. With this app, you're basically cutting out the computer as the middle man. Now, you can print a variety of files right from you device. It works on 3G or wifi and the whole experience is smooth and fast. The user interface is beautifully done, with seamless animations between pages and the incorporation of landscape mode. This is an app that will stay on my iPhone indefinitely. I strongly recommend checking this app out.
Dropbox

Got a Dropbox account? Then you absolutely positively need Dropbox for iPhone. It brings the cloud down to device level, providing fast and easy access to everything you've ever shared: documents, photos, videos, presentations, and so on. (In fact, it's a great way to stream videos you don't have room to store on your device.) It works both ways, too: You can upload snapshots and videos from your iPhone to your Dropbox account. The app is free, and works with both free and pro-level accounts.

TeamViewer

TeamViewer is a terrific free service that provides remote access to other PCs. TeamViewer for iPhone is the companion app that extends that accessibility to the device riding around in your pocket. This isn’t just screen sharing: TeamViewer gives you total control over the remote PC. Think of it: You can grab a PowerPoint presentation from a thousand miles away; shut down the PC you left running at the office; or just perform a computing task that can’t normally be done on a phone.
Evernote

The company advertises this as a personal digital assistant, and it’s an apt description. Evernote is a traveling notepad that synchronizes with desktop and browser software (also free). Use your iPhone to copy an image, take a photo, record a voice memo or jot down a note, and it appears on your computer (and vice versa). It also recognizes your written text, within limits. The free version stores a fair amount of information, but for $45 a year, you needn’t sweat the data limits.
Tripit

TripIt is a killer travel-management service that organizes your itineraries, reservations, and the like. It began life on the Web, but now -- well, you know the Apple catchphrase -- there's an app for that. With TripIt for iPhone, you can manage and share all your travel plans. The app itself is free, as is the TripIt service. All you do is forward all travel-related confirmation e-mails (from airlines, hotels, car-rental outfits, etc.) to plans@tripit.com. The service culls all the pertinent details from those e-mails and builds detailed itineraries.
MapQuest 4 Mobile

The stock Google Maps app is pretty good at giving you directions from point A to point B, but MapQuest 4 Mobile goes one step further with voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions -- much like you'd get from a bona fide GPS. It also offers automatic re-rerouting (in case you take a wrong turn), local-business search, and even live traffic updates. Before you spend $50 or more on a GPS app, take this freebie for a test-drive.
Genius Scan+

Want to save a whiteboard diagram for future reference? Keep your receipts for the accounting department? Photocopy a document when there's no copier around? You can do all that and more with Genius Scan+, which can save and send documents in PDF and JPEG formats, upload "scans" to sites like Google Docs and Evernote, and deliver everything to your PC via Wi-Fi, no syncing required. This ridiculously handy app sells for $2.99.
Linkedin

Contact management, networking. For many people, LinkedIn is a useful (but sometimes annoying) Web service. The LinkedIn iPhone app really lets the power of LinkedIn shine. For starters, the app lets you get rid of business cards and vanquish printed resumes. Who hasn't arrived back at the office with a pile of disorganized and creased business cards? Having access to the ultimate social network for professionals straight from your iPhone means you no longer have to swap business cards with people--you can just add each other on LinkedIn, on the spot. You’ll never lose another business card--and therefore lose a valuable contact--again. LinkedIn for iPhone also lets you view your entire network, and you can send and receive LinkedIn updates so that others know what you are working on and where you are.
MyPoint PowerPoint Remote

This cool app allows you to control your Powerpoint presentation from your iPhone. It does require some finagling to get it set up right but then it works pretty well. You will have to download a small app to your PC or Mac to make it work. Works with Powerpoint for Windows 2003, 2007, and 2010; as well as Powerpoint for Mac 2004, 2008 and 2011. Just adds a touch of “tech-iness” to what hopefully wouldn’t be just another boring PP slideshow.

Acculturation and Creating a Great Place to Work

How many people working for you would describe your workplace as ‘great?” If you hesitate when answering that question, it may be time to give it some thought. Having a high turnover rate means that there are problems with the company culture. The last thing you want to do is spend your time recruiting, hiring, and training, only to see those people walk right out the door.

Why They Leave

So why is it, exactly, that an employee leaves a company? Some of the top reasons that employees report for leaving a company are:

1. They don’t have any friends at their office. This is a big one, because nobody wants to spend 40-plus hours per week at a place where they are surrounded by people that don’t think like them or that they don’t like. Talk about having anxiety on the way to work!

2. They don’t like the boss for whom they work. Sorry, I know that may bruise some egos, but it is the truth.

3. And if you want to know what the distant third reason is, it is because the pay just isn’t good enough. This is an issue that may or may not be something you can address, but it can impact the company culture if people feel woefully underpaid or find out the pay of those around them (and feel it is unfair).

Creating Comfort

It goes without saying that if you want to have a great place to work, you need to build a common culture in your company. What this means is that people need to share similar values, energy, and attitude. By doing so, this will automatically engender friendships. Plus, you need to be a great boss – someone who is loyal, trusting and fair to all employees.

But there is more that you can do to create a comfortable company culture that makes people want to stay, rather than clock out for good. Find what works best for your company, but consider the following things you can do to help:


* Help people feel proud and valued, and that their opinions and suggestions matter.


* Provide proper training, as needed.


* Welcome those things that are different about people, and embrace diversity.


* Reward the team when things go right, rather than just one person.


* Respect everyone, regardless of their title.


* Skip the corny team-building sessions and ask employees what they would like to do together, on occasion.


* Try to promote from within, whenever possible. This will give employees hope that someday it could be them that moves up.


* Give your employees credit for the company success. After all, you really can’t be successful without them.


* Pitch in and help whenever possible, showing that nothing is beneath you.


Positive Place

Creating a positive work environment is an effective way to retain your employees. But if you are thinking that an old foosball table will change the work environment, it won’t. In fact, if it is not genuine, it will be seen as a gimmick. The key is to allow the culture to develop naturally, with some guidance along the way. And if it is a foosball table that comes about, well, then it will be an even bigger hit.

Goals and Employees Success

It's common knowledge that helping employees set and reach goals is a critical part of every manager's job. Employees want to see how their work contributes to larger business objectives, and setting the right targets makes this connection explicit for them, and for you, as their manager. Goal-setting is particularly important as a mechanism for providing ongoing and year-end feedback. By establishing and monitoring targets, you can give your employees real-time input on their performance while motivating them to achieve more.

So, how involved should you be in helping employees establish and achieve their goals? The key is to be hands-on while giving your people the room they need to succeed on their own. Here are some principles to follow as you navigate how to best support your people in reaching their objectives.

Connect employee goals to larger company goals
For goals to be meaningful and effective in motivating employees, they must be tied to larger organizational ambitions. Employees who don't understand the roles they play in company success are more likely to become disengaged. Critical: no matter what level the employee is at, he should be able to articulate exactly how his efforts feed into the broader company strategy.

Make sure goals are attainable but challenging
Since employees are ultimately responsible for reaching their goals, they need to have a strong voice in setting them. Ask your employee to draft goals that directly contribute to the organization's mission. Once she's suggested initial goals, discuss whether her targets are both realistic and challenging enough. Be careful though: your team members are likely to resent you if you insist on goals that are too challenging to accomplish. At the same time, you don't want to aim too low, either. If you are overly cautious, you will miss opportunities and settle for mediocrity. Even worse, poorly set goals can be destructive to employees' morale and productivity, and to the organization's performance overall.

Create a plan for success
Once a goal is set, ask your employee to explain how he plans to meet it. Have him break goals down into tasks and set interim objectives, especially if it's a large or long-term project. Ask your employee: what are the appropriate milestones? What are possible risks and how do you plan to manage them? Because targets are rarely pursued in a vacuum it’s important that help your people understand who they are dependent on to achieve those goals. Then problem solve with them on how to best influence those people to get the job done.

Monitor progress
Staying on top of employee progress will help head off any troubles early on. Review both long-term and short-term goals on a weekly basis. Even your high-performing employees need ongoing feedback and coaching. Ask your employee what type of monitoring and feedback would be most helpful to her, especially if the task is particularly challenging or something she is doing for the first time.

When things go wrong
Very few of us reach our goals without some road bumps along the way. Build relationships with employees so that they feel comfortable coming to you if and when problems arise. If your employee encounters an unforeseen obstacle, the goal may need reworking. First, however, ask him to bring a potential solution to you so you can give him coaching and advice. If his efforts to solve the problem fail, you will need to get further involved.

What about personal goals?
Some managers neglect to think about what an employee is personally trying to accomplish in the context of work. For example, if your employee has expressed an interest in teaching but that is not part of his job responsibilities, you may be able to find ways to sculpt his job to include opportunities to train peers or less experienced colleagues.

The first step is for you to understand what these goals are. Ask employees if they have any personal goals they want to share with you. Don't pressure them; they should only share these aspirations if they feel comfortable. Just as with work goals, you need to be sure personal goals contribute to your team, unit, or to the company. It's got to be a shared commitment to experiment and mutual responsibility to check in on how it's going. It's got to be a win for both.

When goals aren't met
There will be times, even with the best support, when employees fail to meet their targets. Hold people accountable. Discuss with your employee what happened and what each of you think went wrong. If the problem was within his control, ask him to apply the possible solutions you've discussed, take another stab at reaching the goal, and check in with you more frequently. If it was something that was outside of his power or the goal was too ambitious, acknowledge the disappointment but don't dwell on it. Do the diagnosis, get the learning, and move forward.

It's possible that you may have contributed to the problem. Be willing to reflect on your role in the failure. Were you too hands off and failed to check in frequently enough? Did you not review his work in a timely way? Have an open discussion about what you can do next time. "If you don't hold yourself accountable, they're going to have trouble with you," says Hill.

Principles to Remember
Do:
Connect individuals' goals to broader organization objectives
Show employees that you are a partner in achieving their goals
Learn about and incorporate employees' personal interests into their professional goals

Don't:
Allow employees to set goals alone
Take a hands-off approach to high performers — they need input and feedback to meet their goals as well
Ignore failures — be sure people have the opportunity to learn when they don't achieve goals

How to Get Immediate Value from Your New Hire

There are many theories on how to correctly "onboard" someone to an organization or a team. Most focus on how to provide the new hire with the information and skills she needs to succeed. But that can only take the hire so far. They will need connections and an understanding of the inner workings and culture of your company to be truly successful. Whether they are transitioning from another part of the organization or are brand new, you can get then up to speed more quickly by going beyond the basics and explaining how things actually get done.

The road to success for the new hire is pot-holed with obstacles that must be maneuvered around in the four domains that new hires need to master: business orientation, expectations alignment, political connection, and cultural adaptation. The last two are often the hardest for managers to convey, and yet the most critical for the new person to understand. For managers the difficulty arises since they are embedded in the culture and not necessarily reflective about it. However, helping new hires understand the informal side of the organization will accelerate their acclimation. Follow these three steps to get your new employee productive faster.

1. Start early
Onboarding really begins with hiring. Start as early as possible in the process to expose your new hire to the organization's or unit's culture and to explain how work gets done. While selling your organization in the interview process is key to recruiting the right person, don't risk his eventual success by not being upfront about how things truly work. Be honest and don't allow your vision of how you wish your company operated to confuse your communication of the reality of the situation.

Always recruit for cultural fit as well as skills and experience and identify transition risks, such as capability gaps or tenuous relationships, before the new hire starts. If he is transitioning from another part of the organization, don't assume that he knows the culture. Companies, even small ones, often have different ways of doing things across units or functions.

The best onboarding process cannot overcome the sins of the hiring process.

2. Get them the right network
As the manager one of the first things you can do for the new hire is to ensure they understand how important the informal or 'shadow' organization is in getting things done. It is your responsibility to explain this, but they will only truly experience it by meeting their colleagues. As soon as they start — or even before — introduce them to the right people. If the informal organization is really important, then the manager can accelerate the new hire's political learning process by identifying key stakeholders and helping to establish connections. As the responsible manager you can also greatly increase the effectiveness of these meetings by creating an inventory checklist that provides cues and guidelines for these meetings, ensuring that the important and relevant data is covered. I try to ensure that the new hire knows ‘why’ they need to know each person on his onboarding lists so as to facilitate a meaningful conversation.

You also need to be sure early in the new job they meet with "nodes" or "culture carriers" — people who others go to for different kinds of information and insight. These won't necessarily be the people who have the highest rank or best title; instead they may be particularly connected middle managers or administrative assistants.

3. Get them working
This may seem like a no-brainer for bringing new people on board. Yet many companies start off new hires with a stack of reading and a series of trainings. Giving them real work immerses them in the way things function at the organization. This doesn't mean you should let them "sink or swim"; definitely provide the support they need. Doing this instead of busy work exposes them to the company culture, introduces them to the ways things get done, and helps them to begin making the critical connections they need to productively contribute.

Principles to Remember

Do:

· Hire for cultural fit as much as for capabilities and skill
· Introduce your new hire to "culture carriers" and "nodes"
· Explain how work actually gets done at your organization

Don't:

· Let a new hire stay in "learning" mode for too long
· Assume your new hire can't be productive from the start
· Rely on the org chart to help explain lines of communication

What Your Employees Want from You as the Leader?

I often have to remind myself that leading takes time and energy. Directing the feelings, attitudes, actions, and behaviors of a team is a big task. Often, I ask my employees, about what truly aggravates them and what they love about their work and me. To keep me on track, I've created this list of what employees want their leaders to do.

1. Tell me my role, tell me what to do, and give me the rules. Micromanaging? No, it's called clear direction. Give parameters so they can work within broad outlines and boundaries; let them find their niche.

2. Discipline any coworker who is out of line. The entire team must be accountable in a way that is fair but makes everyone cognizant of what is and isn't acceptable.

3. Get me excited. About the company, about the product, about the job, about a project. Just get them excited. Take time to talk about the business; not just work. Let them know how they fit into the big picture and how important their work is to the success of the company.

4. Don't forget to praise me. Motivate employees by leveraging their strengths, not harping on their weaknesses. If someone on your team is a great technician but is socially challenged, don’t force him into a customer-facing role but leverage him into your star level 3 tech.

5. Don't scare me. They really don't need to know about everything that worries you. They respect that you trust them, but you are the boss. And don't lose your temper at meetings because they didn't meet your expectations. It's often not productive. Fairness and consistency are important mainstays.

6. Impress me. Strong leaders impress their staffs in a variety of ways. Yes, some are great examples of management, but others are bold and courageous, and still others are creative and smart. Strong leaders bring strength to an organization by providing a characteristic that others don't have and the company sorely needs.

7. Give me some autonomy. Give them something interesting to work on. Trust them with opportunity.

8. Set me up to win. Nobody wants to fail. Indecisive leaders who keep people in the wrong roles, set unrealistic goals, keep unproductive team members, or change direction unfairly just frustrate everybody and make people feel defeated.

Your job is to make it practical for people to succeed. When you do this, everybody wins!

So You Want to Be an IT Star

Success is not easy or simple. Even in the best of times, workplaces are fraught with changing conditions, political jockeying and limited room for advancement. And these are not the best times. Yet some IT staff manage to get noticed—and in all the right ways. What are the secrets of their success? How do some IT leaders manage to shine? Beyond the basics—energy, enthusiasm, passion for the work—four important behaviors can help catapult you to success.

Be good to your end users. First things first: If you want to get ahead, don't make people feel stupid. This advice can be especially important for IT folks, whose technical expertise can create a danger of doing just that.

People outside of IT won't necessarily understand tech speak, so you need to present information in a manner so they understand technology and what it provides to the company. You need to be able to translate technical information to them in the manner they can understand and assimilate and in a way that shows the benefits to the big picture.

Understanding how technology fits into users' lives is key to creating innovative IT solutions. Thinking hard about how to help someone else understand what you're saying may seem obvious for important presentations; doing it day in and day out may prove more challenging. But don't dismiss those small, cumulative interactions. In those daily interactions lie many opportunities for you to distinguish yourself by your energy, enthusiasm, and likability. This way, when a more senior job opens up, the support to put you in the position is there—not just from your boss, but also from other senior leaders. To make sure your likability quotient is high, focus on being open-minded. Make it a point to really listen to what someone is saying and process what you're hearing. Doing so conveys respect, and you also are likely to develop solutions you wouldn't have otherwise. End-user problems—large and small—are opportunities to build relationships that can advance your career. It's all in how you handle those situations that makes the difference. Don't make an end user feel dumb for not understanding; make them feel good about coming to you and asking what the problem is.

Go beyond the walls of IT and learn the business. IT leaders who want to move up must become business-savvy. Not just so you can talk the talk. Without understanding business users' work lives, it's impossible to deliver optimum technology solutions. I credit much of my own success with understanding how IT fits into my end users' work processes. It is a basic business truth that IT staff who want to climb the ladder must also become intricately involved in other areas of the business. It’s critical to educate your end-users on technology. My philosophy on the subject to my staff is clear: get involved with business users; go door to door and meet with them and their teams. I want my team to "give the customer some tool they may not even have thought of, that they can look at it and say, Wow, I'm glad we came to you." That's only possible if you understand how other groups are run and the challenges they face. Developing such a rapport also helps discourage the tendency of business users to create a shadow IT department. Key point: if you don't solve their problems with good solutions, they will go around you!

Understand the organization's structure and goals. If you want to move up the ladder of success, you need to create strategic IT. To do that, you need to know what top management values. Every company has a culture and those cultures reward different things. Key to moving ahead is knowing what to prioritize. This means, for example, knowing which projects to volunteer for and how to promote them to those above you. Knowing what the business defines as valuable is increasingly important the higher up you go so you've got to understand goals, and how IT can be used to achieve those goals I recommend not just looking for ways IT can create value but also being responsive when opportunities present themselves. One place where this comes into play is the IT budget. Managing IT like a P&L is key to moving up in the organization. IT should be adding value and helping differentiate the business. However, that's not possible if an IT leader's goal is simply saving money. Build into that budget what you need to do to create value.

Build Trust with your boss Trust is the glue that binds relationships together inside and outside of work. Without it, moving up is virtually impossible. And honest communication is a huge part of building trust with your manager. Share the good news—and the bad. Avoid the temptation to sweep bad news about a project or assignment under the rug. You may think you're sparing your boss but my experience has been that it's better to overshare than to undershare. The trick lies in knowing when and where to share information. Sit down and talk to your manager about how to communicate when problems come up. Most leaders don't like when information feels filtered, like something is being hidden but want to know what's going on. The last thing anybody wants is to be broadsided. Information sharing, when it comes right down to it, translates to respect. I think that it's very important to use chain of command in place and not circumvent your manager. It's his or her job to make you look better to the organization. And if you don't have that kind of trust you should look for someone you could have that with.

Six Ways to Sabotage Your Career

Getting ahead in your career certainly has much to do with your skills and contributions, but a lot also depends on how you are perceived by your colleagues and managers on the job. The impressions you make with your coworkers and management can greatly affect your potential to advance. Are you taking the right steps or are you sabotaging yourself?

Here are six actions to avoid:

1. Saying no to your boss. Your supervisor comes to you, mentioning you'd be the ideal person to mentor a new hire in your group and asks if you'd have the time. You do, but you're not interested in the responsibility, so you decline the opportunity. Bad move. It's not wise to build a reputation as someone your boss can't count on. A pattern of "no's" can convince your manager to stop offering you any future opportunities, including ones you might be interested in, thus hindering your career growth.

2. Taking casual too far. The IT profession tends to be pretty informal, but that doesn't mean you can be unprofessional. Showing up to work in torn jeans and T-shirts and using overly casual language around the office doesn't send the message that you're intent on moving up in the organization.

3. Never volunteering to help. A task doesn't fall inside your job description, so you see little reason to take it on. If you're this type ? one who looks away when colleagues and managers seek assistance with projects ? you're showing that you're not a team player. If you must decline a plea for help due to your workload, the smartest move is to explain the situation and note when you will be in a better position to volunteer.

4. Failing to follow through with requests from managers. A department head has asked you to determine why her e-mail isn't filtering spam as well as it used to. You're busy with other mission-critical projects and put this request on the back burner, since it doesn't seem urgent. While responding to the request might not be an operational necessity, if you're routinely discounting the importance of requests from those higher up in the organization, you're leaving a bad impression. When in doubt, always put tasks assigned to you by managers at the top of your to-do list.

5. Being part of the rumor mill. When there's bad news to share or complaints to be made about situations at work, it's best not to be leading the talk at the water cooler. There's nothing wrong with having camaraderie with coworkers, but being associated with negative discussions makes you seem negative ? which won't please managers and can harm relationships at work.

6. Not heeding advice given by others. A receptionist in your department pulls you aside and mentions that you might want to get your activity reports into your boss more promptly because it's becoming an issue. Instead of taking the tip, you figure she doesn't understand the demands of being a programmer and you make no changes. A week later your manager is criticizing your tardy activity reports. Remember, if people feel compelled enough to offer professional advice, chances are it's serious and worth giving careful consideration.

As you start off the new year, it's the ideal time to evaluate your career and whether you're doing all you can to be successful. Make sure your own actions aren't derailing new opportunities from coming your way