When employees make costly mistakes ….

As bosses and executives, we do our best to ensure our employees are given the tools they need to do their job well (e.g., computer, desk, policy manuals, etc.).  However, non-tangible aspects of a job can be roadblocks to their successes (e.g., limited people skills, lack of discretion or business savvy, inability to work well with boss and co-workers, inability to plan properly or make decisions within appropriate timeframe, etc.). These aspects of poor job fit can devastate profitability. Moreover, how you handle these occurrences may help your employees learn from their mistakes and ultimately make or break your own career.

First and foremost, use scientifically validated assessment tools for hiring, coaching and managing your employees for success. Good job fit most often reduces the chance of costly mistakes on the job. [Contact JLSeibly@gmail.com for further details.]

Gossip. Everyone does it, but unfortunately, there is no way to know who else is listening. The people seated at the next table in the coffee shop may learn invaluable information that they can use to get a competitive lead with a prospective client, or even proprietary information for product development.  It is imperative to periodically remind employees of their confidentiality agreements and advise them of the sensitivity of the information they may possess.

Zero tolerance. When major errors in judgment happen, it’s best for all employees to know proper protocols and be empowered to implement them immediately, such as contacting the boss, the appropriate human resources executive and/or company attorney.  Do not be fooled into assuming theft, harassment or safety violations won’t happen on your watch.  If the unthinkable does happen and someone is killed or hurt on the job, damage control will fall to you.  What if key employees leave due to a perceived hostility in their work environment, or your company files for bankruptcy? These unfortunate occurrences quickly and irrevocably change your daily reality and do not bode well for your career or the company’s reputation. 

Finesse is necessary.  Handling delicate issues can be a challenge for everyone. Every company has a client or vendor, business associate, or business partnership that didn’t work out due to ethical reasons. Unfortunately, some employees may not understand the significance of these unwritten no-no’s (e.g., don’t do business with, etc.). Empower your employees to navigate these no-win issues knowledgeably and work with them to minimize the impact and fall-out.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2010

Do your clients think you are inaccessible?

Ridiculous you say?  Hhhmmm…

  • Does it take several phone calls to get in touch with you? 
  • Does it take longer than 24 to 48 hours to respond to your voice mail messages or emails?
  • Do you normally use the excuses “I’m too busy.” OR “I don’t have the time?”
  • If so, you probably do not know this Law of poor customer service:
    The longer it takes for you to return a call or respond to an email, the more the issue will grow exponentially larger.

 Try this instead:

Treat your phone and email with reverence. Phone messages and email messages from clients and prospective clients are the life blood of your business. Prompt responses are a good opportunity to enhance the value you provide to your clients. It’s also a great way to up-sell and cross-sell any additional products and services that they may need, but do not realize you offer.

All clients are important. Rank ordering clients as to whom you will contact based upon revenues will work only until you lose the BIG client. Then, you’ll need to re-group and try to re-capture smaller clients who found excellent customer service with your competition while you focused on the BIG client.

Keep meetings. Continually canceling, not being prepared, and not taking responsibility for ensuring the client feels valued are good excuses for your clients to seek out other vendors. It’s easier and less expensive to keep good clients, then to go and find new ones.

Blitz them with customer service. We falsely assume, with devastating results, that everyone knows how to be a good representative of the company. Train all employees to be on the same page, and work together for the benefit of the client. Contact me for details … it will save you many clients! JLSeibly@gmail.com

©Jeannette Seibly, 2010

Break ‘Through’ Performance

  • Do you make changes due to boredom?
  • Out-talk others to get your own way?
  • Focus solely on the facts or your feelings to make decisions? 

Many will say, “Of course, everybody does.” These are the normal methods to handle people, systems and issues.  But the same old habits limit your job satisfaction and your ability to achieve outstanding business results.

The world of work is changing.  It requires a new level of performance to recognize new opportunities that meet the needs and business goals of your customers. 

Recognize old habits. They have become your blind spots and are getting in your way.  When you move out of your comfort zone and take the appropriate action(s), new habits will be formed.  Work with a coach to customize solutions that work for you!

Take focused action now.  Busy work is simply your excuse to avoid doing what you know you need to do to achieve the results you say you want.  Work your plan.  Include others and their ideas. Handle the details and make those hard decisions.  Want results? Take focused action.  Now.

Hire a coach.  Many business professionals want to be top performers and enjoy peak performance.  Yet, they hit a wall and slug it out alone. A coach helps you recognize blind spots and stop recycling the same old information in a mental monologue. These insights, when put into action, make you easier to work with, keep you in focused action and have you elicit the best in others.

Break through performance requires out-of-the-box thinking via the synergy of you and your coach.  Recommit to your own success.  Hire a coach and enjoy your new results.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2010

Is attracting top performers problematic?

Or, are you a top performer who is having trouble finding your next opportunity?   The first place to inspect about yourself and/or your company, is how you talk about your employees, customers, prospects, family members, neighbors and/or competition. While you may believe using colloquialisms, profanity, or slang sounds smart, entertaining, or knowledgeable, the reality is that it provides the opposite effect.

Clean up your labeling. Name-calling, regardless of your excuse, is harmful and hurtful. It sends a negative message to others, consciously or unconsciously, about your emotional intelligence. It actually will bolster business if you speak authentically about others in a positive manner, even when they’ve made a mistake.

People are a valuable resource. When you honor everyone (and your company’s Vision and Mission statements) regardless of gender, gender choices, racial, religious and/or ethical differences, you’ll be amazed by the difference it makes. Calling women and men, girls and boys, sounds demeaning after the age of 16. Pronounce people’s names correctly. Stay away using nicknames. Be sensitive to the fact that employees may be offended and uncomfortable telling you or others to stop. As a business owner or executive, you need to ensure all people are treated with respect. Harassment suits are costly.

Take charge of your own anger. Using anger as your excuse doesn’t work, since everyone deals with some level of anger due to life experiences. Get help to find a creative way to use the negative energy in a positive manner to help others. 

Take responsibility.  In your meetings, whether one-on-one or in groups, make sure that people are referred to respectfully. Ensure any name calling is stopped, immediately. Something said in jest can actually cost you a pricey lawsuit or a million dollar client!

(c)Jeannette Seibly, 2010

Rewire your reactions to your boss

Bosses are human too, or so they (like us) often forget. Many employees have good, or at least tolerable bosses that listen to employee ideas.  It’s particularly difficult to get your ideas and points across when you have a bad boss.  If you have this challenge, consider whether it could be your attitude or behavior that’s the cause:

1)     Before a conversation with your boss, practice in front of a mirror; pay particular attention to your facial expressions.  Tape record what you wish to say, and listen to the words you choose. Some words can cause an emotional reaction before your idea is fully presented.

2)     Listen to learn.  Most people are reactionary.  Someone says “x” and we’re off talking about “y” before the person has had a chance to complete their first sentence.  Listen carefully to what they have to say.  Pause and count to three before responding, after they’ve completed talking.

3)     Stick to the facts. We can become emotionally charged on certain issues.  Before your meeting or presentation to your boss, research the facts, so that you have objective points.  Be able to provide possible solutions and be open to considering new options you hadn’t considered.

(c)Jeannette Seibly 2010

Learn Lessons from the Gossip Mill

Gossip has its merits. It keeps people attuned to issues and concerns not otherwise expressed by formal methods of communication. For bosses, it’s a great way to get the pulse of a company while achieving retention and productivity goals. For employees, it’s critical in understanding the unwritten practices and policies of any organization.

However, by its inherent nature, gossip has negative impacts on individuals, groups and companies, and can strain or destroy relationships. People are naturally more likely to spread the negative aspects of what a company or individual has done than the positive ones. It’s impossible to eliminate gossip as long as people use it as a way to vent their frustrations with a person, situation or event; use it as a favorite pastime; or use it as a reason to connect with others and hurt anyone they see as “competition.”

Some people mistakenly believe that if gossip doesn’t matter to them, it shouldn’t matter to others. Handled incorrectly or not at all, gossip can ignite into something explosive that can lead companies to close their doors, good employees to depart for competitors, careers being sabotaged, and the creation of sacrificial lambs. Falsely believing that people shouldn’t be talking about “inside” issues won’t stop the gossip. In some cases, it can actually fuel it! It’s time for an intervention of good PR!

How can you use gossip to promote a positive workplace, while keeping your customers and employees happy and satisfied? How do you effectively handle the inevitable gossip that every company and organization must contend with, both internally and externally?

Talk with people, not about them.

Too often when things don’t go right we immediately seek to blame someone, whether warranted by facts or not, and let others know. Or we hear something and immediately call our closest friend or co-worker to tell them. That’s how most gossip gets started and then escalates. Avoid this problem by talking directly with those involved to get their version of events and focus on the facts. Normally you’ll find that while part of the rumor may be true, it usually is not as detrimental to the project or person(s) involved as it would initially appear. Then, you can bring everyone involved together to discuss a win-win outcome, deal with perceptions and create a positive process or system to move forward.

Be responsible for the words you chose to describe an issue or person.

Usually, they are more reflective of how we view our own weaknesses. A boss was lamenting how an employee was not being “collaborative” in his efforts to work with the group. In fact, the employee was simply being outspoken about a long-term issue and expressing his willingness to address it with others. The boss felt that everyone should be solely focused on their own work and not getting involved in everyone else’s job. Because of his incorrect use of the word “collaborative,” other employees were confused and feared losing their jobs for collaborating – or maybe for not collaborating. The company continues to struggle to retain key employees and provide quality products and services to their clients, uncertain whether to get involved to resolve issues or not.

We as human beings love to be offended!

And, we retaliate by spreading gossip about how someone offended us, when in fact they may have been simply making a statement or agreeing with us. A woman shared her experiences as a boss and the amount of turnover she had dealt with recently. The employee she was speaking to indicated that yes, in fact, she had heard about the turnover and the boss’ struggles. The boss was offended that the employee agreed with her and passed her over for a promotion, even though she was most qualified for the position. The boss told others that the employee would not make a good team player.

Find out the facts!

Too often we automatically respond to situations based on how we feel in the moment. Sometimes we feel the need to defend something we have said or done that was misunderstood by others. It may be too late, as the damage is done. Normally, anything can be resolved through effective communication and persuasive listening. It takes a willingness to really hear about others’ perceptions of the situation and clarify the facts. Only then can you move forward within the context of the company’s vision and values, and make a commitment to the welfare of the team.

A new boss once inherited an employee he did not like. The employee had many more years of experience than the boss, so the new boss felt intimidated. While working on a project, the employee complained that there were some ongoing problems that needed to be addressed. The boss then heard from others that they didn’t believe there were any ongoing problems, and that they didn’t wish to work with the negative employee! The boss then used this information to terminate the employee. The boss was uncomfortable learning how to build a team in an environment where employees didn’t automatically and simply agree with one another. Unfortunately the issue hasn’t gone away, and the rumor mill has labeled the boss’s team a “bad group to work with.” That division of the company will soon be closed down since they are not longer profitable.

If there’s an elephant in the room, address it!

It won’t go away on its own! Organizations have lost huge numbers of members, customers, employees and revenues by not addressing ongoing concerns. Companies have lost great employees and lots of money because it failed to handle issues effectively, or because of the proverbial “skeleton in the closet.” These types of things will eventually come back to haunt you if they are not addressed effectively. Even if it doesn’t seem like a problem to you, someone may see it as a problem, or make it a problem.

A female employee complained about her new female manager to the point of taking a different job with a male boss. However, that didn’t stop her from continuing to complain about this female manager, who was dealing with liability issues her predecessor hadn’t handled well. Eventually the female manager left, after filing a lawsuit for harassment. When the employee was finally asked why she kept complaining, she stated, “I just don’t like working with women bosses. And, I liked my former male boss better.” Usually when there is a spark, a fire will follow. Many other harassment suits followed and the company’s assets were sold.

Get everyone on the same page by helping them understand the bigger picture (vision) as well as the steps needed to achieve it (action plans).

Remember this is a process, not an event. Hire a facilitator to help everyone – executives, managers and employees – work through issues, particularly those that keep reoccurring. Be committed to handling other issues that will arise, as well. Train everyone to handle both the ‘people and material’ side of meetings.

Have your managers and executives work with a coach or mentor.

A third party can help support them in developing the competence and confidence to address concerns and opportunities that arise, as they arise. What they learn can be as simple as how to communicate with others, how to be heard by others, how to resolve conflict confidently, and how to be “politically correct.”

Don’t rely solely on email to convey important messages or resolve conflict.

The average person has the reading and writing ability of a sixth grader. As a result, messages can easily be misread or misunderstood due to varying education levels, reading and writing capabilities and/or the cultural definition of words. For example, you may interpret this article one way and focus on something in particular, while others may focus on something else of importance to them. Each reader will then convey to others their belief about whether this article was of value to them or not. A rumor has been started!

Be responsible for what you convey to others.

Too often we believe that it is others’ responsibility to understand what we meant, even if it’s not what we said. Unfortunately we don’t live in an ideal world. Take time to check with the listener to hear what they’ve heard you say. The difference will be amazing.

Summary

There’s no getting around the fact that there will be gossip in almost every organization. How you use that fact, how you approach communicating with your staff, and how your company handles gossip, will have a huge impact on the success of your organization. Don’t make assumptions about how people receive and perceive information about the organization, the staff, and their own personal role, duties and performance. Taking a few very effective steps can significantly cut down on a lack of information, as well as miscommunication and misunderstanding that can start the gossip mill churning, fueling wild speculation, drama, hurt feelings and resentment.

© Jeannette L. Seibly, 2006-2007

 Jeannette Seibly, Principal of SeibCo — your partner in developing work and career strategies for selection, results and growth, we improve your bottom line!   Contact SeibCo, LLC @ 303-660-6388 or JLSeibly@comcast.net.  Website: http://www.SeibCo.com