6-30-10 Am I Fired?

I managed to totally space-out about making a blog entry on Monday. If I were a “paid employee”, I’d probably be fired by now. Or would I?

It seems that most companies rarely fire people -- except in extreme circumstances. If a person doesn’t perform, they typically just get shoved off into a corner.

I know that I’ve said in the past that sometimes you have to clean out the dead wood (4-19-10 Cleaning Out the Dead Wood). But my musings about whether or not I should be fired from the blogging world got me to thinking about the responsibilities of the executive relative to people who don’t perform.

As an executive, your job is to create an environment where your people can accomplish the work assigned to them. There will be times when one or more of your employees don’t meet your performance expectations. And for at least a couple of your employees, it is likely that it will happen time and again.

So what do you do? Well, if I were a good HR person, I would tell you to document the heck out of each situation. And you know, that isn’t bad advice, because if at some point you do have to fire the employee, you will need that documentation.

But beyond the proscribed HR answer, what else can you do?

As I said above, you have to create a successful environment. That means figuring out the unique environment that will allow your non-performing employee to perform successfully. And that does not include pawning this employee off on some other executive or organization.

As the executive (and the boss), your job is to figure it out. Here are some things to ponder as you are working on this. Is the employee struggling with specific tasks? Is it a communication issue? Is it an education or training issue? Is it attitude? There are, frankly, an endless number of possibilities here.

Once you narrow down the possibilities/issues, then it is time to talk to your employee. You need to make your expectations very clear, being very specific about performance issues. And then you need to talk about options for the employee (and I‘m NOT talking about the threat of job loss). Show the person that you have given this a great deal of thought and analysis ---- and have some ideas. Then listen. And listen some more. Let your employee talk through the anger and frustration that he/she likely has. At some point, it will likely come to be a collaborative session between the two of you.

One other thing. You will probably have to do it more than once. Huh? Yeah, I really mean that. Think about it. When you were deciding on a career, did you end up doing today what you started out doing? Likely not. So be prepared that the first attempt by you and your employee to get this right will not always work. Patience…….

Cheers!

4-25-10 Get the Buzz

Sometimes real life gets in the way of a regular post. I know, I know… I should plan ahead for these things. But hey, I’m retired, I don’t HAVE to plan ahead anymore!

I had the opportunity to attend our state’s credit union association annual conference the last couple of days. I met a lot of great people, heard some really great speakers, and managed to pick up a couple of ideas for this blog.

As an aside (and a non-paid advertisement), if you don’t have a relationship with a credit union, I highly recommend it. And it isn’t just me. Many of today’s financial experts are saying that you should move your money to a credit union. Wny? They are member-owned and therefore VERY member-centric. And if you are in the borrowing phase of your life, they are actually lending money at very competitive rates (unlike many banks). And they aren’t just for individuals -- many credit unions help business members as well.

One of the speakers for this conference talked a little bit about creating value and how to get the word out about the value you (or your company) creates. He had an interesting statistic -- 1 out of a group of 10 people influences the other 9 people in that group. That creates buzz. And the buzz generates loyalty.

Of course, for a credit union, that means that we want our members to generate buzz (and loyalty) for the products and services that are offered.

But what does it mean for the executive? Well frankly, there are a couple of ways that you can go with this?

Of course, the obvious route concerns creating buzz for your product or service. You can see this in everything from a high tech company like Apple to a coffee house like Starbucks. But you can also see it (if you really look) in unlikely places, like a school. Yea, I really mean a school. Now I’m not a parent, but even I’m not oblivious to those local high schools that have a buzz going -- either because of their academic program or their sports program.

Think that just because you aren’t the “marketing guy” that you don’t have any responsibility for creating buzz? Wrong. No matter where you are in a company or organization, you have responsibility for contributing to the buzz. Think about Toyota. Over the past, oh, 50 years or so they have created quite a bit of buzz, which has resulted in astounding customer loyalty -- despite their current difficulties. And it wasn’t just one person creating that buzz. They had an entire company working on it.

A second route that you might consider that concerns generating buzz is within your employment practices. Is your company or organization the “in” place to work? If it is, then congratulations, you’ve created employment buzz. High tech companies are particularly good at this. Think of places like Google or Intel or Apple or even Microsoft. Their employees are absolutely rabid about where they work and what they do. And I believe that this is translatable to any other company or organization. And the fact is that you really do need this employment buzz so that you can entice the cream of the crop to come to work for your organization. AND so that you can retain the valuable employees that you already have.

So how do you create employment buzz? Well, being the highest paying organization around doesn’t hurt. But not every company can do that. There are other ways. You can offer perks that your employees value -- like a gym, or a concierge service, or gourmet food in your cafes, or on-site daycare. Heck the list goes on and on. The key is to figure out what your employees (or prospective employees) value and then tailor your programs. Yea, it costs a little more to do this. But think about what you will save in recruiting and other costs.

So create some buzz --- and benefit from the loyalty (either customer or employee) that it creates.

Cheers!

What is your people policy?

Working on one of my posts from last week (1-6-10 People…. Yep, ya gotta have some skills) took me on a meander down memory lane. Since I can’t seem to get that darned trip out of my brain, I decided that it was something I could share here……

A few years back, I was asked to speak to our Diversity Council at work. The Diversity Council was a group of employees from all across the organization who’s charter was to foster diversity tolerance within the organization, through a variety of programs, tools, etc. When I asked what they would like the topic of my conversation to be, I was told “people policy”. Of course, my first reaction was, “Huh? Shouldn’t you be getting one of the HR guys for that??” They are, after all, the experts. But my contact quickly clarified, “no, no, we want you to discuss YOUR people policy”. So my second reaction was, “uh, yea well I don’t have one”. Fortunately, rather than blurting that out, I spent some time pondering the concept. And I came to realize that, yes, I do have a personal people policy. It isn’t something a I consciously think about…. It is a gut response. Or maybe a better way to put it….. It is what I do.

What follows here is what I discovered to be my personal people policy.

My first step was to examine the concept in terms of my work. What I discovered is that my people policy has 5 parts.

1. Fair or equal?

There is a ton of discussion in the business environment about equal treatment of employees. Here’s a different view. Bah, to equal. That’s almost sacrilege, right? Maybe so, but my policy has always been to treat people fairly. Why? Because if I do the exact same thing for you and the next employee, it might not be the right thing for the next employee. I don’t have to treat you both equally, I DO have to treat you both fairly….. Doing what is right for each of you and the situation.

2. Trust

Of course, this is a balancing act. You have to balance your trust of each employee between a “hands off” attitude vs. a “follow up” attitude. And no, there isn’t a magical formula for figuring it out. It depends….. On the person, the task, the situation, etc.

3. Respect ability(s)

You have to respect the ability(s) of the people you work with. Each person has their niche. It is your task to find the right job for each person. But even after that, there is always gonna be someone who isn’t happy with their lot in work life. You know, that’s when it is your job to help them understand it is time to move on. I respected the fact that they weren’t cut out for the corporate life we offered and urged them to find what would make them happy, even if that meant it needed to be at another company.

4. Development

I was fortunate in that I worked for a huge company -- there were lots of different things I could do and try, I wasn't stuck in one discipline or department.. Once I went into management, it also gave me the ability to give my people lots of variety and opportunities --- so that we could figure out each person’s niche. I had to consciously allow each of my people the room to grow and change. So once we figured out where someone’s niche was, my next steps were to allow them to grow to the next niche.

5. Listen

You absolutely have to make yourself available. I always felt it was my job to make each person feel important. I actually learned this one from watching my sister with her kids.

You know how it is…… you are sitting there in conversation with another adult and your kid comes up….. “Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom”, trying to get attention. I was deeply impacted by how she handled it. She would pause, turn to her child and say, “give me just a minute to finish this conversation, please”. We would get to a stopping point and then she would turn to her child, and intently listen to whatever he/she had to say. She made her child feel important by giving her undivided attention.

As I prepared for my conversation with the Council, I also realized that my people policy was applied in a far wider scope than just work. For me, it is at home, with friends, with outside interests….. It applies everywhere for me.

For example, at home, don’t we apply differing levels of trust for each of the kiddos? As they grow and learn, doesn’t our trust grow? Or at home, how do we handle respect? In many other societies, respect of their elders is ingrained in their way of life. But in the US, perhaps not so much.

Or with our friends, don’t things evolve? Do you have the same friends today as you did in grade school? Probably not. But if you do, how has your friendship changed and developed? Didn’t you participate in that development? Yep, I think so.

And of course, our outside interests…… Let’s say you serve on a not-for-profit or charitable board or committee. The people you participate with sure aren’t doing it for the pay! So, don’t you listen to them to understand what makes them tick? Why they serve? And then doesn’t that help you in your interactions with them?

So now I ask you, what is your people policy? You have one now. Do you know what it is? I can assure you that the people around you know what it is. Every day, you telegraph your people policy with your words and your actions.