Friday, July 23, 2010

Ask them “What is it you do best?”

If I am being really honest with myself, when it comes to my job, there are a lot of things I do well but pouring through reams and reams of spreadsheets to analyze the importance of data is not one of them. I would make a horrible accountant or statistician. I know enough about html coding to know how to do underlining, bolding and italicizing, and that’s about it. I would make a horrible HTML programmer (or any other type of programmer for that matter.)  I am pretty good with people (or so I’ve been told) so roles that involve working with a team, collaborating on problem-solving, and removing roadblocks from other people’s success are things I enjoy. But ask me to develop a five-year business plan and market forecast and I will have one of those deer in the headlights moments.

The point I am driving at is this. It’s amazing to me how often organizations put employees into new roles without doing a check-in about what they really do best – and what they enjoy doing. It can be as simple as asking them “Tell me, what is it you do best?” When was the last time you asked one of your employees that question? You may be surprised by some of the responses you might get next time.

I found out the hard way early in my career that I had routinely been giving one of my employees a daily project that involved what I thought was simple math calculations. She had to get this daily report to me (for my boss) every day by 9am and the project involved adding up several columns and rows and computing some averages. One day, I came to her desk and asked her when she might have the report ready. What happened next is something I will never forget. For no apparent reason that I could fathom, she suddenly exploded in pent up rage. She stood up, glared at me and shouted “I will NOT do this report for you anymore. I hate numbers. I don’t know how to do this project. I never have. I dread it every morning when you ask me about it. Find someone else to do it for you!!” After I picked my jaw up off the floor from the shock of her response, I realized that I had never taken the time to ask her what she was good at and what she felt were not strengths of hers. Apparently anything with numbers overwhelmed her and made her feel incompetent. I thought it was a very simple routine project. But for her, it was being asked to do something she dreaded and feared. I never bothered to ask how she felt about this task, so I had no idea of the ticking time bomb of resentment and anger that was building up week after week in this employee – all because I had asked her to do something she felt incompetent to do.

I worked for another company – a dotcom startup (remember those days?) in which it was not uncommon for there to be a major companywide re-org every 45 – 60 days. People were moved around like chess pieces into new roles in new departments with new managers. Not surprisingly, for most people, it was very unsettling and anxiety-provoking – and in too many cases, I saw people being thrust into roles for which they were not prepared and for which the role was not a fit for what they did best. I remember one senior manager telling me bluntly after a recent re-org, “If they don’t like their new job, they can quit.” How enlightened, I must say.

But in one of these re-orgs, my new manager did something totally out of character for the company. He pulled his new team together – most of whom he knew only casually. And he met with each one of us and asked us “Tell me, what is it you do best? And what is it you would like to be doing if it were up to you?” Of course corporations are not democracies. Employees can’t run the show and tell their managers what they will and won’t do. But asking our employees what they do best and what sorts of tasks give them energy (as opposed to draining their energy) is a powerful to build loyalty and play to their strengths. The result is not only a much happier employee, but higher productivity and better results. An NFL football coach would not put a 375 pound offensive left tackle in to play wide receiver. It’s not his strength. But all too often we move people into roles or give them new responsibilities without checking in to make sure this is actually something the employee will be able to embrace and succeed in.

So the next time you think of moving someone into a new role, or are simply thinking of adding a new project onto their plate, slow down and ask them what they do best and consider whether this responsibility plays to their strengths. If not, perhaps skills training is the solution. But just possibly, finding a more effective use of their talents is a better solution.

Posted by Tim Jones at 10:13 am

Labels: doing your best  

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Monday, July 12, 2010

It’s Not Always a Training Problem

“She must need training.”

 

It seems almost the natural answer to the question, “Why isn’t the employee doing the job like I expect her to?” But often training is not the answer.

 

How can you find out?

 

Ask yourself if the employee could do the job if her future depended on it. If the answer is “no,” then it is a training problem and we can develop an appropriate training plan.

 

However, if the answer is “yes,” then it’s a performance problem and, no matter how much training you give the employee, you’ll get the same results.

 

The performance problem takes further analysis.

 

1.       Does the employee have the right tools? I recall a young woman about to be fired because she continually made the same mistake in payroll computations. After a little detective work and a “one last chance” approach, the supervisor discovered the antiquated adding machine the employee was using had a broken part and would never return the right figures. With new equipment she became one of the better employees in the company.

2.       Does good performance result in punishment? More work? Singled out by others, as your mother or grandmother would say, as an “apple polisher?”

3.       Are there more rewards for other kinds of behavior? You want your employee to see himself as part of a team, but it’s the top salesman who gets the bonus, not him so your employee and his counterparts gain a better sense of teamwork by collectively undermining the salesman’s efforts.

4.       Does the employee know what you expect of her? Or do just expect her to know because “she’s been here long enough and ought to.”

 

These are only a few of the questions to ask yourself as you determine the best direction to take when faced with the employee who could be a star performer but is delivering less than star performance.

Posted by Bernice Johnston at 3:23 pm

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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Leaning On Experience Can Make You Successful

Last year I began writing a book that was published this past March.  Although writing a book was a bigger challenge than I anticipated, promoting the book has been even more of an adventure into the unknown than I anticipated.  When the publicist told me they would be promoting me and the book at the same time, I guess I didn’t hear the “me” part of that statement.  So when she called to setup my first radio interview last month I was a bit stunned.

I was given the phone number, and told to call in a few minutes before the interview time, and then I noted that the whole interview was only 10 minutes long!  What could we possibly discuss in 10 minutes?  Thankfully the DJ was a skilled interviewer and immediately put me at ease and we covered so much more territory than I thought possible.  I also noticed that after hanging up the phone I was still breathing and I had survived!

Although I get bored with routine very easily, I also approach everything new with a tremendous amount of caution.  Actually to be truthful, I ask a million questions of anyone that I can find that has experience in the area I am about to enter.  In this case, a friend of mine used to host a radio talk show and understood my anxiety and prepared and coached me through the process ahead of time.

Too often I see people struggling to get through an experience that is new to them with out any outside help.  When if they reached out to friends, peers, managers, staff or consultants they could reduce a lot of stress and perform at a higher level.  I have no fear in telling someone I could use their help, advice and experience to make me perform at a higher level.  Or in the case of the radio interview, get through it and not come across as completely incompetent.

So the next time you are faced with a new challenge, take a moment and look around your world and find someone that knows more than you do about the task at hand.  Give them a call and lean on their experience to make you successful!

Jim Hopkins – JK Hopkins Consulting

Posted by Jim Hopkins at 12:27 pm

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

The perils of waiting till the last minute

A week ago, my two daughters were studying for their highschool final exams. Well, sort of. One of them was locked in her room studyingten hours a day. She had been studying well in advance of finals for more than two weeks. The other one spent most of last weekend visiting with friends, going to the park, watching TV and procrastinating. She figured that she had plenty of time to begin studying for her finals later.

Well, later turned into Sunday morning, which turned into Sunday afternoon which turned into Sunday evening at 7pm – which is when shefinally decided to read the teacher’s instructions to help prepare for the test. In order to review the teacher’s instructions about what the exam would be on, students had to visit a web site and download a document. The teacher had given out this set of instructions five days prior. But my younger daughter waited until 7pm on the Sunday night before the examination to check out the teacher’s web site. Just one small problem. My daughter has a MAC computer and this document could only be downloaded using Internet Explorer, not the Apple browser, Safari. She was stuck. So she started to panic and abusively insisted we drop everything and help her. She did not ask – she demanded – quite rudely, I might add.

We told her that we would not help her because 1) she had failed to ask for help politely and 2) she waited until the last minute to review this critically important set of instructions to prepare her finals.  Needless to say, this infuriated her – that her own mom and dad would not help her in her time of crisis. She muddled through the final exam but did not do nearly as well as she might have, had she planned in advance. Her grade went down a half-letter grade as a result.

It is of course all too human to wait until the last minuteto start working on key projects. I have a saying about this. It goes:  “If all lights are green, I can get there on time.” Well, guess what? Life doesn’t usually work that way. Usually not all the lights are green. You get stuck at a few red ones. And there may be construction along your route. Or an accident, or a malfunctioning street light, or a car that has broken down. Or the weather may be bad, or it might be rush hour and traffic congestion is at its peak. Yet we plan our lives as if none of these intervening factors will happen – eventhough they always do.

My daughter waited until the last minute. By the time she realized there was a problem, she could not contact the teacher.  She could not get access to another computer. She was stuck.  (And lest you think we chose not to help her because we are simply lazy or uncaring parents, our reasons were to teach her a lesson about planning ahead and showing courtesy when asking for help.)

How many times at work – or in other aspects of your life – do you plan your schedule as if  “all lights will be green?" Do you allow for meetings to run longer than expected? For a key member of the team to possibly be out sick the day you need their help? For the possibility that someone on the team might run into some other momentary crisis– at work or at home – diverting them from your project? Or countless other unforeseen events which upset your time-table…

It happens all the time. We make plans without allowing for enough cushion or margin for error and as a result, instead of thoughtfully and carefully laying out a plan, we slap things together at the last minute in a panic, often times producing a result that is not what it could have been had we built in more time. Waiting until the last minute is a recipe for taking short cuts and  missing some important detail that comes back to bite us.

So the next time you have an important, time-consuming project, don’t wait to the last minute to start work. Don’t assume all lights will be green. Plan for things to take longer than you think. Plan for unforeseen factors to intervene and for you to be forced to take a detour here or there. If you do, you will be less stressed and far more likely to have a successful project and one that’s completed on time.

Posted by Tim Jones at 11:29 am

Labels: time management  

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Monday, June 14, 2010

My Favorite Management Acronyms-Part 2 .

In my May blog I wrote about two of my favorite management acronyms that helpful in reminding me about useful management practices and in guiding clients. These are the two I mentioned:

 

The first acronym and management guideline: If you want to succeed and you want your work groups to succeed, you must GROW.  

 

The second acronym and management guideline: Creating objectives that are SMART comes next if you want to move forward.

   

I promised two more this month: one that refers to a music genre and the other to a popular beverage. Think you know what they are?

 

The third acronym and management guideline:  If you RAP, you can cover the past, present, and future status of a project, conduct a performance review, or report on a variety of objectives.

 

RAP: Review, analyze, plan

1.       Review. Review the past. Take 25% of the time available to discuss the past, what’s already happened. If you’re the manager, “listen” is your active verb. Spending a  quarter of your time is adequate if you’ve had regular meetings in which the projects have been updated.

2.     Analyze. Analyze the present. Take the next 25% to discuss what’s currently happening on the project, the current status as of today.

3.     Plan. Plan the future. Take the remaining 50% of your time available to focus on what’s expected to happen next and down the road on the projects. What’s the next step? Where do you expect to be the next time we meet? If you’re conducting a performance appraisal, this is the segment where you discuss and set the goals and objectives for the next year.

 

BEER: Behavior, Effects, Expectation, Results

The fourth acronym and management guideline:  When you want to talk with another about the shortfalls in his or her work performance, a plan that includes BEER is a useful approach. This acronym with a little modification can also be used with a business initiative.

1.       Behavior. Describe the behavior, acts, or activities, using specific observable descriptors, that you find inappropriate or unacceptable.

2.       Effects. Describe the effects this behavior has on you and others in the workplace.

3.       Expectation. Describe the expectation you have for performance improvement – a plan of action.

4.       Results. Describe how you will assess the results.

 

Many more useful acronyms exist that I find helpful. These are my favorite four. Tim mentioned SNAFU in his comment last month. Do you have any others you’d like to add?

 

Posted by Bernice Johnston at 5:58 pm

Labels: communication practices  leadership  managing/supervising  success factors  work challenges  

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Thursday, June 3, 2010

Slowing Down to Learn

On a recent business trip instead of traveling by plane, I took the train round trip to my destination.  Instead of spending 10 hours each way to travel, I spent 40 hours and learned a lot in the process of taking time to smell the roses as the saying goes.

For those of us that have had to travel by plane the past few years, you know it is not a treat anymore to be jammed into a fully packed plane let alone the service experience on the ground and in the air is not what it used to be.  Factor in a recent decision to stop the Space Shuttle program at NASA, my wife and I decided that if we were ever going to take a trip on the train it better be soon before that mode of transportation is gone forever.

Going from Southern California to Chicago is a two night trip on the train so we decided to book a sleeper accommodation that even included our meals in the dinning car.  We had a large picture window to watch the world go by as we traveled 78 miles per hour most of the time.  We saw deserts, mountains, farms and crossed a few rivers.  We packed a bunch of things to do on the trip (so we wouldn’t be bored) and found ourselves taking in the view most of the time, and talking with each other for hours.

We arrived at our destination rested, and thanks to the continual movement of the train, surprisingly relaxed as every knotted muscle had been shaken lose in the past 40 hours.  The return trip went by quicker than expected and when we returned to work; it was like we had been on vacation instead of a business conference.

Although we took nearly four times as long to travel, the train left on time and arrived on time.  The level of service was delivered by long term employees, that genuinely loved their job and train travel and it translated into superior service to the passengers.  We saw more of the country than a bunch of clouds, and met new people over meals sharing in our joint experiences on the train, and learning about the differences in where we were headed.  Each stop caused us to both gain new passengers while others left the train giving our world a diversity of people not found in other forms of transportation.

As I get back to work this week I am struck with how much we focus on today and the future in trends and technologies.  We strive for the latest gadget, or solution that will bring us in line with what everyone else is doing.  From my experience last week I learned that although the future is fascinating, I kind of enjoyed a chance to experience a slower pace.  Slowing down is not bad if we learn new things, meet new people, and get to know each other better in the end.

Jim Hopkins – JK Hopkins Consulting

 

Posted by Jim Hopkins at 2:25 pm

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Four words rarely spoken that effective leaders have mastered

(This blog was originally posted in June, 2008. In looking over the past two years’ worth of blog posts I have done for NetSpeed Fast Tracks, I would still say this is one of the topics I feel most passionately about, and therefore wanted to post it one more time. It seems these four words I talk about below are spoken even less today than they were two years ago. – Tim Jones)

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How often do you hear your manager say any of the following four words? “I apologize.” Or “Thank you.” For that matter, how often do you hear ANYBODY say these words? Just as the little “thank you” wave when you let another drive in front of you in congested traffic is almost a thing of distant memory, these four words – “I apologize” and “thank you” -- are expressions we seem to hear less and less often  at work.

I have an expression posted on my wall: “Showing Praise or Gratitude, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.” I have no idea who first said this, but it sure rings true to me.  I have made plenty of mistakes as a manager – heck, most of my learning has come from my stumbles. But one thing I learned early on was the power of a sincere THANK YOU or an earnest apology.

Let’s talk about saying thank you. Why is it so hard for people to say thanks? My own theory is that most of us are moving so fast – barraged by a tidal wave of emails, pressing deadlines and the management crisis du jour that we have rationalized we’re in just too darn much of a hurry to take the time. Well, here is another quote I have on my wall: “Being busy is no excuse for being rude.” And that includes not taking time to say thank you when it’s warranted. 

Try this little experiment. Make it your goal to find at least ten opportunities today to say THANK YOU to a co-worker – your manager, a team member, the receptionist, a customer – anybody at work. And no, it does not count towards your goal of ten to say “thanks” when someone holds the door open for you (although that would be nice of you). I mean, actually look for opportunities to express your appreciation for the efforts of the people around you.  You’ll be amazed at how powerful a short, direct, eyeball-to-eyeball thank you can be.

Which reminds me – whenever possible do it face to face – or if the person is not in your location, then at least by phone. While any sincere thank you is great, even by email, it carries more power when delivered in person. Sure a quick thank you email is much faster than taking the time to do it in person. But that’s the point. The less effort it takes to say thanks, the more watered down the impact. Try writing a personal thank you note – using an actual pen and paper instead of sending an email.  When was the last decade you did that? I still have handwritten thank you cards sitting at my desk given to me (in person) more than ten years ago. Think these thank you’s had an impact on me? You bet they did.

Then there are those two terrifying words “I apologize.”  Why is this so hard for most of us – particularly leaders – to say these two words? What’s the problem? Well, I think part of it is that we all feel a strong need to be right. To admit we’re wrong about something is a sign of weakness, and somehow we internalize that this gives the other person an advantage – power – that we don’t want to give up.  If we’re a leader, we can’t show weakness, can we?

I could not disagree more with this deeply flawed premise. When you’re wrong, admitting it shows just the opposite – it demonstrates one’s strength of character. It also shows another rare attribute that great leaders often possess: humility (Sorry Donald Trump – you fail this leadership test). Even more importantly it shows you’re human. I’ve always found that the more open and “human” a manager is, the more this builds trust and loyalty among their team members. The next time you realize you blew it, don’t wait for your team members (or your boss) to point it out to you. Beat them to the punch and apologize – and just like saying thanks, its power is all that much greater when it’s done in person and done with sincerity. A knee-jerk “I’m sorry” with no sense of earnest remorse is not worth the breath expended to say it.

So the next time you make a mistake – or even just make a decision that you know will impact someone in a negative way -- do something that not enough people seem to do anymore and even fewer leaders – say  “I apologize. “ And next time someone does a great job for you, the team or one of your customers, get off email, walk down the hall or pick up the phone, and tell them how much you appreciate what they’ve done with a simple, genuine “Thank you.” 

Oh, and if I happen to let you scoot in front of me in traffic, would it kill you to give me a little wave? Thanks a lot.  I mean it.

Posted by Tim Jones at 10:07 am

Labels: apologizing  appreciation  communication practices  courtesy  gratitude  manners  praise  

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