Month: May 2018

Newsletter – Want to Have a 100% Glassdoor Rating? Here’s How

May 28, 2018

Want to Have a 100% Glassdoor Rating? Here’s How

Most organizations track their reputation on Glassdoor https://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm that ubiquitous website that allows employees to rate their own organization. While not a perfect science in tracking employee engagement and culture, the site is undoubtedly popular with job hunters and current employees alike.

Disgruntled employees can post false or misleading reports but in the current market
with more open job slots than available employees, you need to be sure that you do everything feasible to protect your rating. We’ve done internal focus groups and surveys for companies to find out if their Glassdoor ratings are an accurate gauge of employee concerns and if they’ve found the process of using an outsider to be a useful tool, since employees tend to trust the process more readily.
Do you have a 100% approval rating? Here’s how one CEO managed to ace the test.

What Should You Do? 

  • Follow these rules.  Manny Medina, a CEO who founded a fast growing tech company after stints at Microsoft and Amazon, achieved a 100% rating by following three, easily duplicated rules.
  • Say hello. Medina says hello to everyone, every morning with a “fist bump” and a smile. Smiling boosts your brain chemistry and the recipient’s and, of course, costs nothing. While Medina has 300 employees and you may have many more, you can spread the cheer and encouragement with your own team and everyone else you meet.
  • Learn names. Medina knows the names of all 300 of his employees and greets them by name. You may not be able to do that with all your employees, yet you can greet as many as possible. Bonus: you’ll certainly improve your memory by doing so! I’ve written before about the co-founder of Southwest Airlines, Herbert David “Herb” Kelleher, http://www.workplacesthatwork.com/newsletter-attracting-and-keeping-the-best-employees-what-really-works/ and my experience trying to sit down and have lunch with him while he greeted the entire room by name and with various anecdotes about their life. He was famously adored.
  • Send an engaging memo. Medina sends a weekly memo every Monday to all employees, outlining what he did the previous week and what he learned. His writing is personal and inspirational and the company’s internal surveys show that 97% of employees read his address.
  • Pay attention. Have someone track your rating on Glassdoor, and use that information as a part of your assessment about employee satisfaction and engagement. Have someone track comments; if malcontents are spreading false or misleading information, respond with the facts. If your ratings are truly terrible, have someone from the outside interview and survey current employees to determine what’s wrong with your culture.

Did You Know

Our management and leadership development classes and coaching sessions help people learn how to engage and inspire.

Call or write me to discuss your options at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

Learn more about our training offerings and check out our team members at:
Be sure to read Lynne’s books 
“We Need to Talk” Tough Conversations with Your Boss  
and “We Need to Talk” Tough Conversations with Your Employee 
and learn how to tackle any topic with sensitivity and smarts.

 
Workplaces That Work | (303) 216-1020 | lynne@workplacesthatwork.com
3985 Wonderland Hill | Suite 106 | Boulder, CO 80304

Newsletter – What to do When You’re Feeling Excluded at Work

May 21, 2018

What to do When You’re Feeling Excluded at Work

It’s easy to be paranoid these days, especially when most organizations are going through constant change. Leaders leave, departments are reorganized, downsizing persists and business relationships fluctuate. When you’re trying to manage all that commotion, your natural thought may be: what’s going to happen to me, my compensation and my career as a result of this tornado?

When change happens, people frequently band together with their comrades to try to sort out what’s happening. If it’s someone who has power over your life and work relationship dynamics are shifting, it’s easy to begin to question how that will directly affect you.

“Instead of complaining about a relationship someone else 
might have, seek the one you want.”

Despite the reality that it’s unwise for leaders to have favorites or romantic liaisons with people that they lead, these relationships still abound, leading to claims that the leader is showing favoritism toward their protégée or love interest. You may feel left out if you see them laughing together, going out after work for drinks or lunching in the cafeteria without including you.

I recently counseled a young woman whose boss was having a very public affair with the HR Director. She wanted to report him for “unethical” behavior but the real problem was that he took so much time off during the day for these liaisons that she couldn’t get him to approve her work and meet deadlines. I suggested that she focus on that problem, as opposed to reporting him for what she assumed were violations of their other policies since he wasn’t responsible for the performance of the HR Director, and was not technically creating a conflict of interest. In most situations, organizations can’t dictate who you can date unless it’s someone you are supervising as that would create a conflict of interest. Don’t substitute your own moral standards for those of the organization when it’s not really a violation of law or policy.


What Should You Do?

If you are in a situation where you are feeling left out of a workplace conversation, follow these steps:

  • Make sure that the relationship could really affect your career. Is there a real potential for favoritism or are you just feeling left out and lonely?
  • Gather some intelligence. Without gossiping or complaining, talk with a trusted source in the office. Say: “X and Y seem to be spending a lot of time together. Are they close friends or are they working on a new project?”
  • Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. Instead of complaining about a relationship someone else might have, seek the one you want.
  • Schedule time with leaders. Do whatever you can to request time on your boss’s calendar or time with other leaders who you believe are critical to your career. There’s no workplace rule that prevents you from asking your boss or another leader to lunch or coffee. Work to develop rapport but also, make sure that they know what your aspirations are for assignments and the future of your career. Ask for their advice.
  • Get the facts. Tread lightly before you report or complain to someone higher up the food chain. Is this relationship truly a violation of your organization’s policies or is it merely a lack of judgment on the part of the leader? Make sure that you have the facts, not just workplace gossip.
  • Yes, you are right. In an ideal world, leaders should not show favorites and should seek friends outside the office. Yet most leaders are fallible human beings and may be far from your dream boss. Save your scruples for when you become the leader and make sure that you don’t create these kinds of problems!

Did You Know

In our leadership and management classes, we focus on appropriate relationships and conflicts of interest.

Call or write me to discuss your options at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

Learn more about our training offerings and check out our team members at:

 Be sure to read Lynne’s book “The Power of a Good Fight” and learn how to embrace conflict to drive productivity, creativity and innovation.
Workplaces That Work | (303) 216-1020 | lynne@workplacesthatwork.com
3985 Wonderland Hill | Suite 106 | Boulder, CO 80304

Newsletter – How to Manage a Micromanager: What NOT to Do

May 14, 2018

How to Manage a Micromanager: What NOT to Do

I spoke at the SHRM mega-chapter conference (the 2018 Gulf Coast Symposium) in Houston last week on “ToughConversations: Tackle Any Topic With Sensitivity and Smarts” and was swarmed after the presentation. Most of the swarmers had one question: How do I talk to someone who wants to micromanage my work? They’re driving me crazy! I can relate.
My first boss out of law school was a micromanager. Brilliant but nerdy, he made our office of twenty-plus attorneys sign in and out for lunch and bathroom breaks. Complaints that we were not wage-and hour-slaves and should not be treated as such were dismissed with shrugs. He tore around the office with a pencil behind his ear so he could attack any meandering dangling participles or misplaced modifiers he happened to find sneaking about in our correspondence or briefs.
“…your best tactic is surrender: 
micromanagers are not likely to change 
without a huge incentive to change.”
He was one of the best writers I ever worked with but never understood the power of prioritizing. He perused cover letters for insignificant errors with the same care he addressed a 10th Circuit brief. The big issues were never addressed, such as which projects we focused on and why. I lasted about a year and then I bailed.
Micromanagers frequently dog you because they need control to feel secure: they are medicating their own anxiety.

What Should You Do?

Sadly, your best tactic is surrender: micromanagers are not likely to change without a huge incentive to change. You can learn a lot from them because they frequently have skills in particular areas. Learn until you can stand it no longer and then leave. In the meantime, you can try these techniques:
  • Talk skillfully and specifically with them. It won’t work to talk about the problems in general or to label their management style as “micromanagement.” People don’t like to be labeled and that tactic will just drive them to their corner where they will come out fighting.
  • Try to gain agreement about which projects will be solely in your territory with no supervision and which will not. Once you have that agreement, confirm it with an email. Expect backsliding. You will have to remind him or her frequently about the agreement.
  • Convey priorities.  A micromanager needs the illusion of control to feel calm. Make sure that he or she knows what you are working on and why, as well as what you are prioritizing.
  • Use approximations. Don’t try to change a big behavior but focus on small steps. Make sure that you are focusing on behavior, things you can see or hear, not the micromanager’s personality traits. As we say in mediation: eat the elephant bite by bite.
  • Don’t take it personally. Remember, this kind of boss is behaving that way in order to try to stay calm. It is – most likely – not about you.
  • Be upfront.  If all else fails, lay your cards on the table. Let them know that your styles are incompatible and you will have to leave if they don’t change. If you are valuable enough (and given the current low employment rate) you may have a shot. Again, make sure you have a list of specific things that you would need to see change in order to stay.

Did You Know

Our management and leadership classes address the issue of micromanagement, prioritizing, and what works for leaders.

Call or write me to discuss your options at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

Learn more about our training offerings and check out our team members at:

Be sure to read Lynne’s book “Stop Pissing Me Off!” and learn what to do when the people you work with drive you crazy. 
Workplaces That Work | (303) 216-1020 | lynne@workplacesthatwork.com
3985 Wonderland Hill | Suite 106 | Boulder, CO 80304

Newsletter – How to Make Values Real: Not Just a Plaque on the Wall

May 7, 2018

How to Make Values Real: Not Just a Plaque on the Wall

Many organizations like to point to their values as an important, integral part of their culture, but in reality they are just dusty plaques on the wall or worse.
In fact, people often make Dilbert-style jokes about core values. Dilbert creator, Scott Adams, actually has a myriad of comic strips devoted to core values, all reflecting both employees’ and leaders’ disregard or ignorance of their company core values.
In all of our work — whether on leadership, management skills, or diversity and inclusion — we always talk about values, yet it can be difficult to do so if people believe they are empty statements. Ideally, an organization’s core values explicitly define how people will behave with each other and with customers. When values succeed, people’s daily behaviors will embody the organization’s core values. When they fall flat, to quote Patrick M. Lencioni writing in the Harvard Business Review: “Empty values statements create cynical and dispirited employees, alienate customers, and undermine managerial credibility.” https://hbr.org/2002/07/make-your-values-mean-something

“Ideally, an organization’s core values explicitly define 
how people will behave with each other and with customers.”

Inculcating core values increases engagement: 88% of employees who know their core values say that they are engaged, compared to 54% of respondents who say they did not know any of their company’s core values. In addition, 79% of employees say recognition tied to core values gave them a stronger sense of company goals and objectives.

 

What Should You Do?
In order to make values real, follow these tips: 
  • Make sure that leaders “walk the talk”. If executives habitually engage in behavior that violates your core values, nothing else you do as an organization will make a difference.
  • Recall the three most challenging situations your organization (or group) has faced in the last five years and what you did in response. Did your values help make sense of what was done and why? If not, you may need to reexamine what is really valued in your organization. Using values as a framework to guide decisions can help your people understand why decisions are being made.
  • The key to bringing values front and center is to convert them into specific, behavioral examples. Robin Kane, Vice President of Human Resources for the Family Dining Division of American Blue Ribbon Holdings, for example, encourages leaders to have employees recount specific examples in staff meetings of someone who modeled the organization’s values. These stories of real behavior from the front lines make values tangible.
  • Stories also help recognize employees who exemplify those company values. You can recognize them in other ways also by, for example, using these stories in your newsletters or with recognition bonuses.
  • Some companies have “Core Value Employee of the Month” where every member of the organization or team votes for the person they view as endorsing the core values of the company.
  • Last, but not least, it may seem counterintuitive, but if the company values seem too far from team values, it might be time to redefine company values. Aetna, for example, successfully allowed employees to provide feedback that analyzes current company values, and then used the feedback to update their values statement.

Did You Know

All of our presentation and consulting project emphasize your values.

Call or write me to discuss your options at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

Learn more about our training offerings and check out our team members at:

Be sure to read Lynne’s book “We Need to Talk” Tough Conversations with Your Employee and learn how to tackle any topic with sensitivity and smarts.
Workplaces That Work | (303) 216-1020 | lynne@workplacesthatwork.com
3985 Wonderland Hill | Suite 106 | Boulder, CO 80304

Newsletter – The Hidden Reason Why Claims Keep Piling Up: What You Should Know

April 30, 2018

The Hidden Reason Why Claims Keep Piling Up: What You Should Know

I have lost track of the number of the sexual harassment or sexual misconduct claims that keep piling up against powerful men. Luckily for me, Vox has the answer: 211 and counting. https://www.vox.com/a/sexual-harassment-assault-allegations-list

I have to confess a bias here: I hope the most recent allegation against Tom Brokaw that he made at least two unwelcome passes aimed at a much younger and more junior colleague over twenty years ago are not true. But in the meantime, I hope that NBC does what it allegedly didn’t do with Matt Lauer: 1) retain an independent investigator to conduct a timely, full and fair investigation; and 2) create a safe space for people to report concerns.

Regardless of what any Brokaw investigation shows, people concerned about being accused of sexual harassment and misconduct need to understand one thing: the power differential between you and people below you.
I have been hired to conduct one-on-one sensitivity training with so many leaders accused of harassment or bullying who honestly thought a careless remark or a mild pass was no big deal. Unfortunately, they didn’t consider the power differential in the interaction.

Before you communicate about anything with a junior employee, consider whether there are significant power differentials, clouding the issue of whether your conduct is welcome or unwelcome. Understand that people can gain power through position, status and sometimes gender, race and so on, if there is a significant difference in the dominant culture’s characteristics and the characteristic of the minority culture of the group.

What Should You Do?

In order to improve your communication with junior employees, and avoid harassment or bullying claims, consider the following:

  • Is there a power differential?
  • Have I done my best to make the other person comfortable having an honest and helpful conversation?
  • Have I considered what linguist Deborah Tannen calls report talk versus rapport talk? What person is using which style and why? Are the styles reflective of power differentials?
  • Rapport talk is talk designed to improve and build relationships. It is conciliatory, polite and friendly. When using rapport talk, we say things such as, “You might be unaware that…” before delivering a negative message. We may also say things such as, “I’m not sure if this is right, but maybe we should….” We ask permission before we do things: “Would you mind if I…” We tend to ask for the other person’s advice and approval. A younger woman asking for advice from a powerful older man is a classic set-up to situations where he feels he can say things he might not otherwise say.
  • We use report talk if we have more or equal power with the person we are talking to, creating communication that focuses on delivering information and accomplishing tasks. This talk tends to sound like orders. We tend to start our sentences with “I (or we) need to do ‘X’.” “I want or need ‘x’.”
  • While Tannen has identified these communication differences as one of gender, other linguists point to the difference in power as key, arguing that other groups who have historically had less power in the workplace – such as African Americans – also tend to use more rapport talk.
  • The people who use report talk tend to think that the rapport talkers are wasting their time, not getting to the point, trying to create a sexual relationship and so on. The rapport talkers think the report talkers are brusque, ordering them around or bullying.
  • While it is useful to consider these power differentials in all workplace communications, it is especially important when offering behavior that the other person may not feel comfortable refusing because of the power differential.
  • Know that different styles are useful in different situations. The key is to consider which style you are using and why.

 Did You Know

 

We consider communication and power in all our workshops on harassment, management and leadership.

Call or write me to discuss your options at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

Learn more about our training offerings and check out our team members at:
Be sure to read Lynne’s book “The Power of a Good Fight” and learn how to embrace conflict to drive productivity, creativity and innovation.
         
Workplaces That Work | (303) 216-1020 | lynne@workplacesthatwork.com
3985 Wonderland Hill | Suite 106 | Boulder, CO 80304