  
How To Enchant Your Employees |
Posted By What Do You Want From Them, Inc.,
Friday, March 18, 2011
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| Judge Your Results and Others’ Intentions
People often judge their intentions against the results of others: "I intended to meet my sales quota, but you missed yours.” By doing this, they seldom find fault with their performance and almost always find shortcomings in the performance of others. |
If you want to enchant employees, you should reverse this outlook: Judge yourself by what you’ve accomplished and others by what they intended. This means you are harsher on yourself than others and embrace an understanding attitude like "at least his intentions were good.” Over the long run, you cannot continue to judge people by their intentions if they consistently produce lousy results, but perhaps you made a hiring or training mistake. At least you should judge your results against the results of others and not give yourself the benefit of the doubt. [...]
Address Your Shortcomings First So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. – Peter Drucker Continuing the theme of self-criticism, you should take active measures to find out what employees consider your shortcomings. Then start your performance reviews with employees by talking about how your foibles may have affected their performance. Maybe your shortcomings cause the shortcomings of those who work for you. There’s a saying that if a manager has to fire someone, maybe the company should fire him, too, because the situation should not have reached this point. People who adopt this self-criticism strategy will improve as managers because they take responsibility for lousy outcomes. As important, they will inspire employees to improve through the good example that they set. Note: The work is "inspire” not "scare.” Enchanted employees are inspired, not intimidated. Think about this: How many performance reviews have you ever had where your boss started by saying, "I think I could have provided you with better management”? You will seldom go wrong blaming yourself first and most.
About the author: Guy Kawasaki is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an "online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web, and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures. Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki is the author of ten books including Enchantment, Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. You can connect with Guy on twitter @guykawasaki.
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Setting Boundaries |
Posted By What Do You Want From Them, Inc.,
Thursday, February 24, 2011
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 | I’m going to keep a promise that I made to you in an earlier chapter when I claimed that enforcing rules helps to eliminate drama. This is the ability to have a very strong no and stick to it. One of the biggest energy-wasters in many businesses is a lack of boundaries. For all the positive hype around phrases like "no boundaries” and "no limits” – that glorify the opportunity to engage in everything under the sun as if we were skillfully skiing off cliffs – the case has already been made that too many choices can have you drowning in the sea of opportunity. Therefore, boundaries – just like discipline – can actually be more freeing than restraining. |
There are a couple of definitions for "boundary,” one of which is any line or thing marking a limit; bound; border. So, your policies and rules are types of boundaries. However, I have another definition that I believe is more inspiring: a boundary is a frame around your choices. Take, for example, the idea of a manager who has an open-door policy with his employees. This is not really a boundary; rather, it’s an example of too many choices with no limits. This policy often encourages tattletales, brown-nosing, and drama of all sorts, and takes up valuable time that the manager could spend on planning, customer relations, and managing the business. Instead, because the manager wants to be liked, his door remains open – and in walks Sally, ready to take advantage. Sally is mad at Joe, who left her a mess for the third time, and wants you to fix it. Next is Rob, who tells you that Alice doesn’t like the new schedule, but asks you to please not tell Alice that we had this conversation. Then comes Rita, who is there to tell you that she feels like Rob gets preferential treatment. My advice: Set a boundary. Here is how it works. You tell your staff that the open-door policy is changing. Now, the door is only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays between two and four o’clock (or whatever time frame works for your business). You also create boundaries about how you want to be approached. You train your employees to set an appointment, and come to you with an agenda that includes the following: the problem, how the problem impacts productivity or teamwork, ideas for solving the problem, and choices for handling it personally. Now you have eliminated all the interruptions and your employees will start thinking like problem-solvers instead of complainers. What do you do in those times when Sally rushes in on Monday morning at 11 o’clock? You say, "Sally, I want to help you. Let’s set an appointment for Tuesday at two. Don’t forget to have this paper filled out.” Then you’ll hand her a form with a simple line-by-line list covering the points: - The problem.
- How this problem impacts productivity, teamwork, or customer service.
- Ideas for solving the problem.
- Choices for handling it.
If Sally comes to you without using the proper format, you can counsel her the first time. If she says, "There are no choices,” tell her to reschedule for Thursday and come back with at least one idea. You have to quit allowing victim behavior. Proper boundaries conserve energy and enhance your personal effectiveness. To promote responsible behavior with those you lead, learn how to recognize choice in the midst of any crisis. The same principles for setting boundaries apply in your personal life. For example, this might mean not allowing telephone or electronic interruptions after 8 pm. Wouldn’t that be freeing to know that you have free time to enjoy with your family, and that even though work is waiting and the iPhone is available, you have made a conscious decision that your late evenings belong to you? This example may not be appropriate for every individual – but you get the idea.
About the author:
Marlene Chism is the founder of The Stop Your Drama Methodology, an 8-part empowerment process to increase clarity and improve productivity and personal effectiveness. Marlene combines universal principles with sound business practices to bridge personal and professional success. Marlene has a master’s degree in HR Development from Webster University and is the author of Stop Workplace Drama. Marlene is also the creator of Leaders Developing Leaders Institute, an online membership for all levels of leadership. Visit her website at www.stopworkplacedrama.com |  |
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Making Performance Reviews Work For You |
Posted By What Do You Want From Them, Inc.,
Monday, February 14, 2011
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 | By this point in the book, you probably realize that our focus is on giving you practical insights and observations rather than long, drawn-out theoretical discussions. There are entire books written on this one topic. So, as is the case in other parts of the book, we are giving you, from our perspective, the six most important things to consider as you plan for and deliver performance reviews. |
Make It Ongoing
The single biggest problem with the annual performance review is with the annual part. How can anyone improve or adjust his course successfully if he only receives feedback once per year? If your kids only got feedback on their writing skills once per year, you’d be picketing the school. If the coach only gave the basketball players feedback on last year’s performance at the start of the new season, they’d be mocked on talk radio and fired. Is once a year really often enough to give people feedback on their work performance? Yes, you have to fill out the form at the end of the year, and you can also have ongoing conversation about people’s success and challenges all year long. Whether formal or informal (and a good rule of thumb is that there should be some of each), you should think about your feedback and coaching as a process and not as an event.
Avoid Surprises
If you are doing the ongoing-process suggestion correctly, there is nothing that shows up on the ‘‘final’’ performance evaluation that should surprise the receiver. If you are having ongoing conversations, why would there be? The only possibility would be if something new happened with someone’s performance on a project or with a customer in the short time since the most recent conversation. Make
it your goal that there are no surprises.
| no surprises
Guy once had a workshop participant tell him about one of her performance review experiences. After about twelve months on the job, she walked into the first performance review meeting with her boss. She had received many verbal thanks and congratulations on her work. So she was expecting to receive a positive review. As she sat down with her boss, he immediately confronted her with a report showing that she had violated one company policy twenty times in the past year, and there was no mention of the positive things that she had done. This was the first time she was notified of the policy or that she had violated it. Her boss did not give her the opportunity to fix her mistakes. He just kept track of them and dropped them on her at the end of the year. Though she didn’t quit on the spot, she also didn’t stay with that employer very much longer. She moved on to become a good worker (eventually promoted to supervisor) with a different employer. Her boss let the same mistake happen nineteen times too many, and he allowed a good employee to leave the company. |
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Make It A Conversation
Most performance reviews end up being the leader sharing a bunch of feedback and the employee making a few comments at the end. While we have never seen a process designed with this as the intention, it typically ends up this way. We’ll share much more about this in Chapter Thirty-One (‘‘A Practical Coaching Model . . . ’’), but in short, good performance evaluations are a conversation. If it is all about the other person’s performance, why wouldn’t that person be doing at least half of the talking?
Create Ownership
In the end, don’t you want employees to own their behavior, their results, and their plans for improvement? The best way to promote ownership is to create conversation in your feedback and coaching sessions. When people are sharing their ideas and are involved in a conversation about their performance, they can’t help but own the outcome.
About the authors:Kevin Eikenberry is the chief potential officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a learning consulting company that has been helping organizations, teams, and individuals reach their potential since 1993. Emphasizing the power of learning, Kevin’s specialties include leadership, teams and teamwork, organizational culture, facilitating change, training trainers and more.Connect with Kevin via his Leadership & LearningBlog.
|  | | Guy Harris draws on more than twenty-five years of combined professional and military experience when he consults, coaches, and trains in the areas of team and interaction dynamics, communication strategies and tactics, and emotional intelligence. Guy helps people understand—and work through—the reasons that their relationships are getting in the way of getting things done. Guy owns Principle Driven Consulting, a training and development company that improves results by reducing conflict and improving communication skills. He is also a master trainer and coach with the Kevin Eikenberry Group. To learn more, visit Guy's blog The Recovering Engineer. |  |
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Reality Check, Please! |
Posted By What Do You Want From Them, Inc.,
Friday, December 17, 2010
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REALITY CHECK, PLEASE!
Okay, you’re starting to feel like you’re really rolling.
But not so fast! Right in the middle of your daily battles a "top dog” comes up
and says, "We’re not dropping enough money to the bottom line. We must do
better!” What’s the story? You cleaned up the place and things are definitely
running smoother. Sales are on the rise, but you still have someone breathing
down your neck about the bottom line numbers?
Yep! That’s the way that it is! This is a business, after all, and whoever owns it is feeling pressure
from banks, partners, stockholders, "significant others,” and/or bookies who
all view themselves differently than you do. The owners often believe they are
the pragmatic ones (and they secretly harbor the belief that if you were better
with money, you would own something, too). You, however, are working in an
upside-down world of part-timers that is filled with immature distractions and
operational interruptions; consequently, the owners may discount your opinions
on the achievable/ideal bottom line figure. (Okay, maybe only 60 percent of
your supervisors will think that ill of you.)
It doesn’t matter what it took to achieve the profit you produced, they only want to know
what you will undertake to deliver more. "Real” business people know that a
dollar lost is hard to recapture and they act accordingly. All of this may strike you as though senior management
(stockholders/owner’s wife) is expecting too much. There might be a similar version
of the following rant ricocheting around in your head: "Enough with the
unrelenting directives and threats about urgency and the simplistic focus on
penny-pinching! Aren’t they completely overlooking what we have accomplished
here? Don’t they get how far we have come?”
| This divide between you and "them” only narrows when you
have your own house at risk or are
the business’s primary investor. |
[…]
To all of the managers under the crushing thumb of "Now,
dammit, now!” – directives focused on improving the bottom line – one quick
word of caution: If you aren’t making this happen, your bosses are already looking
for somebody who will.
COLLECTIVE EFFORT
So what do you do?
- - -
 About the author:
Chase LeBlanc is the founder and CEO of the hospitality consulting firm Leadagers LLC - leaders who
manage, managers who lead. Over twenty-five years ago, Chase began his career as owner/operator of a
nightclub development and management company. After successfully
selling that business, he has since led a variety of food & beverage
operations on local and national levels, as General Manager and
multi-unit Regional Manager and has also served corporations as Vice
President and President. His latest book is High
Impact Hospitality: Upgrade Your Purpose, Performance and Profits.
Having been on both sides of the hospitality
management/leadership/ownership coin, Chase knows what it takes to
succeed — and the mistakes to avoid. You can connect with Chase here, visit his website, leadagers.com, and follow him on twitter @Leadagers.
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Roles And Responsibilities Of A Manager |
Posted By What Do You Want From Them, Inc.,
Monday, November 22, 2010
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Day 3: 5:00 pm[...] "Can I assume that you can recruit David to your team? That you can excite and inspire him to join this project?" the Mystic continued to challenge. "Yes, I think I can," Alex answered. "Same for Ed after you talk to him?" the Mystic continued. "Yes," Alex answered. "After you recruit them to your team, will you be clarifying their roles and responsibilities?" the Mystic asked, introducing a new idea. Alex was a little puzzled. "What do you mean? As I said, I will make them managers, and that will be their role. After we create the plan, then their assignments will also be very clear." "That is a common assumption. Wouldn't there be more?" the Mystic probed. "I don't understand." Alex was feeling very puzzled now. "Alex, as I said, your role has changed. First you must elevate your level of management and start taking charge. If David and Ed are to be part of your management team, they have much more responsibility than what you just mentioned, correct? Failure to be clear on their roles and responsibilities will rest on you," the Mystic explained. "Oh, what are these responsibilities?" Alex asked. "Let's start with the subject of communication. It is more involved than most people realize. Wouldn't you want to be clear on what and how David and Ed are to communicate with you? Wouldn't you want to lay down the rules of engagement right from the start?" The Mystic began to guide Alex. "That's right," Alex agreed. "Wouldn't you want to make sure that they understand how you plan to manage also?" the Mystic continued. Alex agreed again. "Wouldn't you want to let them know your expectations for the project and their performance?" the Mystic guided. "That's also important." Alex was beginning to see the complexity. "The same applies to subordinates. What about David and Ed's method of communication and management of their subordinates?" the Mystic continued to identify the many perspectives of communication. He went on. "What about communication with the clients?" "Very important." Once again, Alex nodded his head and agreed quietly. "I think you get the point that managing communication is more involved. I don't imagine that David or Ed is trained on many aspects of communication. Educating them will be your responsibility. You should start right away. This process empowers you to take charge sooner," the Mystic explained. "So that is part of the Lateral Approach to taking charge?" Alex questioned. [...] What the Mystic was saying captured Alex's attention, and now he wanted to know more.
About the authors:
Ho Wing Sit i s the author of the practical Lateral Approach Book Series. He has been pursuing, refining, and applying powerful and
effective management principles and techniques for over 30 years. Mr. Sit holds a Bachelor of
Science degree in mechanical engineering and a Master of Science degree
in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and
a Master of Business Administration degree from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. You can connect with Ho Wing Sit on twitter @Howingsit. |  |
| Ling Bundgaard is the co-author of the Lateral Approach Series. During her 31-year tenure at Intel Corporation, Ms.
Bundgaard managed many large projects. As General Manager, she started
up the first manufacturing plant in Shanghai, China, establishing the
first major corporate commitment from Intel inside China. Ms. Bundgaard excels at bringing people and information together to
solve problems. She believes in lifelong learning and
enthusiastically shares in her writing her most memorable nuggets from
peers, bosses, and mystics in business. |  |
The Lateral Approach Book Series:
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