Managing Remotely

Managing Remotely

It happens all the time.  Your staff is working remotely and suddenly you realize you didn’t get the information you requested last week.  What do you do?

Do you immediately chastise them for not sending you the information?  NO!

Now you have to check your voice mail messages, your text messages, your personal e-mail and your office email addresses, and maybe even facebook or linkedin. 

The problem is two-fold.  One:  there are too many ways in which we communicate with each other these days.

Two:  We need to create processes (systems) with our staff so they know how to communicate with us – and what to use when.

In addition, we need to honor the system once we create it. 

There is no perfect system – but here’s my suggestion. 

First and foremost – have a code for sending/receiving e-mails. 

Red – for urgent – need your response asap

Yellow – important – today or tomorrow please

Green – this week

Blue – whenever….

I also suggest having them use cc when they don’t need a response, but just want to make sure you are being kept in the loop/

What about other tools:   IM, Video, Phone?  

IM – if your red code on the e—mail didn’t get a timely answer 

Video conferences are vitally important to help people on your teams get to know each other – and of course to help you get to know them.  They are also useful when you have brainstorming, or conflict to resolve – or anything really that requires give-and-take in a more personal and informal manner. 

Sometimes you just need to talk it out with an individual on the phone.,  This is especially true if there has been mis-communication in the e-mail exchanges.  If you need it – schedule it.  Also let your staff know that they too can use this medium if they feel that something requires a more detailed or complicated explanation or discussion.  Be sure that you allow time for these – and that your staff has permission to schedule them as they feel the need. 

I also recommend that both sides of a phone conversation take notes – and send each other their e-mail understanding of the salient points and decisions made during the phone conversation.  This takes a few minutes – but the time and aggravation it saves make it well worth it. 

Person-to-person – have we forgotten all about it?  It is by far the best way to communicate.  Not only are there words but there are facial expressions and body-language all giving us context and clues. 

It is so important to have your team members meet each other, get to know each other, and feel connected to each other.  This is the “honey” that helps build goodwill and putting in the extra effort.’

If staff is local – you can bring them together every other week.  If just a car or train ride away – maybe once a month.  If they are every where in the country, perhaps you need to be more frugal and only bring them together quarterly.  Even if they are in other countries and you can only afford to do it twice – or even once – a year, DO IT.  The rewards will be great. 

As a manager, if you can I’d strongly suggest you go to your people monthly or quarterly if you can’t do it monthly.  Again, there is nothing more valuable than face-to-face communication. 

Yes, it costs money.  Yes, it is inconvenient.  Yes, it takes time away from actually doing the work.  But if you could measure the value received against the perceived costs, you’d fine that the scales are slanted heavily in the direction of more value – much more value – than costs.

Empowering or Abrogating Responsibility

Are you empowering – or abrogating responsibility?

There’s an old piece of advice to management from the military.  It goes something like this:  “Give a man a shovel and tell him to dig a ditch x feet wide and y feet deep.”  The message is that he’ll figure out how to do it. 

That works well for ditches and other fairly routine tasks.  BUT – as I’ve learned through the years, it doesn’t work well under many other circumstances.  For example: 

• ·       If the task is complicated and the person to whom it has been assigned hasn’t any experience with it.
• ·       If it’s too easy for someone not experienced to make it too complicated.
• ·       If the person to whom the task has been assigned doesn’t know the value of what’s being asked of her/him and sells it much too cheaply.
• ·       If you want it a certain way – and haven’t given them a model to work from.

I could go on with examples, but you get what I mean.  In my years of consulting I’ve seen so many examples of people doing work that is unnecessary or too complicated because no one taught them how to do it the simple way. 

Recently, I was at fault and lost some money because of it.  This situation (which I will describe in a minute) is what stimulated me to write this blog.  It’s not about the workplace – but I think it makes the point. 

I hired two people to do a garage sale for me.  I had a number of things that were no longer needed and were just cluttering up space in my townhouse.  Among the items I gave them were two small antique (eighteenth century) tables and 40 years accumulation of Halloween and Christmas decorations.  I didn’t put any value on these – and apparently they didn’t hear me say don’t sell them too cheaply.  Because they practically gave them – and a bunch of other stuff as well – away. 

I was given $125.00 for items that collectively were in the thousands.  They actually sold one of the tables for $1.00.  (Yes, one dollar!)

Clearly more my fault than theirs.  I should have put a minimum price on the items and told them clearly that if they didn’t get at least that much money they should return the items to me.  I trusted their intelligence and competence – my mistake.

OK – yes not a workplace example…..

Here’s one:  I was brought into a startup company to set up their bookkeeping, insurance, and filing systems.  Rather – to undue what someone had done badly and set them up correctly. 

As a new startup they hired one of the executive’s wives to be receptionist and administrative assistant.  She was lovely – but inexperienced.  They tasked her with setting up all administrative systems – and what she created was a complicated mess with checks and cross-checks and files for every day (rather than monthly) etc.

Here’s another one:   While consulting to a large transportation agency, I was in the finance department and noticed something that I questioned.  The accounts receivable clerk was taking an adding machine tape of the checks she was about to deposit.  I asked her why and she responded that’s what she had been taught.  Well, yes, I too was taught to take tapes back before computers.  We were taught to take a tape of the checks and another of the deposit slip to make sure they balanced.  Good idea when you don’t already have a total from the computer and another total from the check endorsing machine.  In other words she was doing double work.

These are simple examples of tiny things that waste tons of time.

Here’s another good one:

In a City permit department, I discovered that it took two weeks to get a certificate for something that did NOT require an inspection.  Why two weeks, I asked.  Well, we have to change the paper in the copier and we don’t want to have to do it every day.  My solution – which they followed:  Get a dedicated small printer (about $200.00) and leave it on the counter with the certificate paper.

I am sharing small and easily noticed wastes – imagine what you can find if you are looking into more complicated processes.

Is Delegating Worth the Effort?

In almost all classes on management training as well as those about time management, we are taught the importance of delegating. Indeed, it’s something I harp on over and over again in my workshops, training, and MBA graduate classes.

Yet, some weeks are harder than others. It has made me think that sometimes doing it my self is faster and easier. Ever have that feeling?  I bet you have!

Let me share with you some of what I have recently had to deal with. They include work, home, and some volunteer work.

Work

My Administrative Assistant

My administrative assistant is a lovely young woman with a great personality. She is always pleasant and willing to do any assigned task. Yet, over and over again I find that she pretends to know things she doesn’t know. Too, she is not nearly as careful as I need her to be. The latest in a series of frustrations for me:

• Filing in the wrong files
• Filing not even in file folders, but loose in the drawer
• Making a list of what’s in the file drawer – which does not need to be done.
• Mixing up documents to be filed with my basket of work to do – and I think she filed some documents requiring work on my part that I may never find again.
• Leaving half finished work lying about – for me to put away.
• Not writing down – or remembering instructions about how to complete a very important document, which needed to be done perfectly – thereby ruining 40 pages of work which had to be redone – because she didn’t save the prior draft.

Who’s at fault here? Probably ME. I teach a funnel theory of management, and yet I made the assumption that she was smarter, neater, and more careful than I am finding her to be.

• I need to micro-manage more. 
• I need to be slower and provide her with much more detailed information. 
• I need to give her only one thing to do at a time, rather than a whole day’s worth of projects.
• I need to point out (gently of course) things she left lying about, and ask her to put them away before she leaves. 

Of course, all of these require me to pay attention rather than being focused exclusively on what I’m doing.

My Computer (IT) expert

We are in the process of migrating my programs and files from my old computer to a new one – and the new one is not compatible with much of what the old one is attached to. So almost daily I hear these woeful stories of how this won’t work and that won’t work and how hard it is to do this, that or the other thing.

I want to scream. “Go away.” “Just do it.” “Leave me to do the work I need to do.”

I’m also told that I need to buy a new this that or the other thing – at hundreds of dollars of expense. 

Now, being a woman, where would I rather spend my money? On purchasing computer equipment or clothing and jewelry? You guessed it.

So, is it his fault for telling me all this, or my fault? Probably ME

• I need to realize that his thinking style (he’s an IT guy) is vastly different from mine. I’m a soft-skill expert with a background in Psychology.
• I need to realize that he thinks it is helpful and useful to share these details with me, whereas they seem like minute and uninteresting pieces of information to me.
• He needs social time and recognition and these pronouncements are his way of trying to obtain both from me.

So, what do I need to do?  Remember that people are different and because of the differences in thinking styles, I, as a manager, need patience and tolerance.

Volunteer Work

OK, maybe I expect too much of others. I am doing volunteer work at a facility with Alzheimer’s patients. I have a lot of materials I use with them that are meant to be exclusively for my project with them – which is to help them watercolor (which by the way is a lovely things to do with them). Each time I go to the cupboard where my materials are kept, I find others have been there and messed things up.

I can tell in a variety of ways – things have been re-arranged. Paintbrushes have not been cleaned, nor placed in their proper receptacle. Papers have been shuffled about.

When I ask the staff, they tell me that no one has been in the cabinet so “I don’t know” must have made the mess. 

Since this is not my facility, I have little or no control about the matter. I cannot ask that the cabinet be locked because others use it for other reasons. I cannot demand that the materials be kept the way I want them, because not only am I a volunteer, but they pay for the materials.

So, I have to live with it. I have to change my expectations and not be so critical about neatness, carefulness, etc. Again, whose fault is the problem, you guessed it, probably ME.

Our expectations of how things should be done, or should look, or be kept are what frame our emotional responses to how we find things. Changing our expectations will change our reactions. So, what do I have to do?

• I need to understand that this is an open cabinet and like it or not others use it.
• I need to recognize that we are working with materials that are replaceable – these are not priceless works of art.
• I need to lighten up and go with the flow.

So often we react to things from an unreasonable set of expectations, and by revising those expectations, our reactions will become more benign.

Home

My Handyman

I am not handy. Nor am I a willing gardener. I found the perfect man to do all of these little tasks for me. He comes to my home twice a month or so, takes care of my patio, and anything I need fixing in the house. He’s wonderful and can do anything I ask of him.

So, you may ask, what’s the problem here? Do you just like to complain?

The problem is silly and simple. He uses my tools and sometimes doesn’t put them back in the proper place. When I need a screwdriver I have to search for it since it might be out on the patio, or might be in the garage on the table, but it belongs in a particular drawer in the toolbox.

So, whose problem is it? Yup, mine again!

• I need to ask him to be more careful and to replace things where they belong.
• I need to lighten up and not get frustrated over the little things.

Delegating, delegating, delegating. In this case, I can’t even do some of these things myself – so I need to learn to be grateful to those who can do what I can’t do easily.

How does this relate to those who work for you in your organization?

My Housekeeper

My housekeeper has cleaned for me for many years – possibly even over ten years. She is reliable, honest, decent, and totally trustworthy. She also over-reacts to small things. For example, if she accidentally chips or breaks something absolutely of little or no value, she apologizes as though it were a priceless piece of crystal.

But, when she cleans, she moves things. Not only does she move all the knickknacks to the back of the table or chest on which I’d neatly arranged them, she moves things from right to left when she cleans. When I go to find something, it is not in the place in which I left it for my convenience or aesthetic sense. It drives me nuts.

Sometimes I laughingly and lightly point this out to her – and she laughs in return, but never changes her behavior. So, whose problem is it? Probably ME.

• I need to tell her that this matters to me by being direct and congruent.
• I need to stop giving her mixed messages by joking and being light about it.
• I need to show her where I want things placed.
• I need to remind her when they are re-arranged.

Unfortunately, I’m rarely home when she cleans, and leaving a note around just does not convey the right attitude.

Other women with whom I speak don’t have housekeepers because of similar frustrations.  BUT, I believe in delegating. As frustrating as this is – and believe me it is – I’d rather spend the ten or fifteen minutes re-arranging things to my satisfaction that have to spend the three or more hours cleaning the house.

How do all of these apply to you as a manager?

It’s so easy to blame the other person for what we perceive as shortcomings. Yet, we as managers need to take more responsibility for:

• How we communicate what we want from our staff
• Who we hire to do a particular task and how we train them
• Learning how they learn and understand and coaching them accordingly
• How we hold people accountable, not just at the beginning, but during the life of their working for us.
• Our own over-reactions “don’t sweat the small stuff” as they say.

I conclude by reminding us all – you and me – that if you don’t delegate and you do it all yourself, you will never have the time to do the more exciting, interesting, and creative elements of your job. The more you can delegate, the freer your time to grow professionally yourself.

So, in answer to my own question: Yes, delegate, but do it wisely.

Is Delegating Worth the Effort?

In almost all classes on management training as well as those about time management, we are taught the importance of delegating. Indeed, it’s something I harp on over and over again in my workshops, training, and MBA graduate classes.

Yet, some weeks are harder than others. It has made me think that sometimes doing it my self is faster and easier. Ever have that feeling?  I bet you have!

Let me share with you some of what I have recently had to deal with. They include work, home, and some volunteer work.

Work

My Administrative Assistant

My administrative assistant is a lovely young woman with a great personality. She is always pleasant and willing to do any assigned task. Yet, over and over again I find that she pretends to know things she doesn’t know. Too, she is not nearly as careful as I need her to be. The latest in a series of frustrations for me:

• Filing in the wrong files
• Filing not even in file folders, but loose in the drawer
• Making a list of what’s in the file drawer – which does not need to be done.
• Mixing up documents to be filed with my basket of work to do – and I think she filed some documents requiring work on my part that I may never find again.
• Leaving half finished work lying about – for me to put away.
• Not writing down – or remembering instructions about how to complete a very important document, which needed to be done perfectly – thereby ruining 40 pages of work which had to be redone – because she didn’t save the prior draft.

Who’s at fault here? Probably ME. I teach a funnel theory of management, and yet I made the assumption that she was smarter, neater, and more careful than I am finding her to be.

• I need to micro-manage more. 
• I need to be slower and provide her with much more detailed information. 
• I need to give her only one thing to do at a time, rather than a whole day’s worth of projects.
• I need to point out (gently of course) things she left lying about, and ask her to put them away before she leaves. 

Of course, all of these require me to pay attention rather than being focused exclusively on what I’m doing.

My Computer (IT) expert

We are in the process of migrating my programs and files from my old computer to a new one – and the new one is not compatible with much of what the old one is attached to. So almost daily I hear these woeful stories of how this won’t work and that won’t work and how hard it is to do this, that or the other thing.

I want to scream. “Go away.” “Just do it.” “Leave me to do the work I need to do.”

I’m also told that I need to buy a new this that or the other thing – at hundreds of dollars of expense. 

Now, being a woman, where would I rather spend my money? On purchasing computer equipment or clothing and jewelry? You guessed it.

So, is it his fault for telling me all this, or my fault? Probably ME

• I need to realize that his thinking style (he’s an IT guy) is vastly different from mine. I’m a soft-skill expert with a background in Psychology.
• I need to realize that he thinks it is helpful and useful to share these details with me, whereas they seem like minute and uninteresting pieces of information to me.
• He needs social time and recognition and these pronouncements are his way of trying to obtain both from me.

So, what do I need to do?  Remember that people are different and because of the differences in thinking styles, I, as a manager, need patience and tolerance.

Volunteer Work

OK, maybe I expect too much of others. I am doing volunteer work at a facility with Alzheimer’s patients. I have a lot of materials I use with them that are meant to be exclusively for my project with them – which is to help them watercolor (which by the way is a lovely things to do with them). Each time I go to the cupboard where my materials are kept, I find others have been there and messed things up.

I can tell in a variety of ways – things have been re-arranged. Paintbrushes have not been cleaned, nor placed in their proper receptacle. Papers have been shuffled about.

When I ask the staff, they tell me that no one has been in the cabinet so “I don’t know” must have made the mess. 

Since this is not my facility, I have little or no control about the matter. I cannot ask that the cabinet be locked because others use it for other reasons. I cannot demand that the materials be kept the way I want them, because not only am I a volunteer, but they pay for the materials.

So, I have to live with it. I have to change my expectations and not be so critical about neatness, carefulness, etc. Again, whose fault is the problem, you guessed it, probably ME.

Our expectations of how things should be done, or should look, or be kept are what frame our emotional responses to how we find things. Changing our expectations will change our reactions. So, what do I have to do?

• I need to understand that this is an open cabinet and like it or not others use it.
• I need to recognize that we are working with materials that are replaceable – these are not priceless works of art.
• I need to lighten up and go with the flow.

So often we react to things from an unreasonable set of expectations, and by revising those expectations, our reactions will become more benign.

Home

My Handyman

I am not handy. Nor am I a willing gardener. I found the perfect man to do all of these little tasks for me. He comes to my home twice a month or so, takes care of my patio, and anything I need fixing in the house. He’s wonderful and can do anything I ask of him.

So, you may ask, what’s the problem here? Do you just like to complain?

The problem is silly and simple. He uses my tools and sometimes doesn’t put them back in the proper place. When I need a screwdriver I have to search for it since it might be out on the patio, or might be in the garage on the table, but it belongs in a particular drawer in the toolbox.

So, whose problem is it? Yup, mine again!

• I need to ask him to be more careful and to replace things where they belong.
• I need to lighten up and not get frustrated over the little things.

Delegating, delegating, delegating. In this case, I can’t even do some of these things myself – so I need to learn to be grateful to those who can do what I can’t do easily.

How does this relate to those who work for you in your organization?

My Housekeeper

My housekeeper has cleaned for me for many years – possibly even over ten years. She is reliable, honest, decent, and totally trustworthy. She also over-reacts to small things. For example, if she accidentally chips or breaks something absolutely of little or no value, she apologizes as though it were a priceless piece of crystal.

But, when she cleans, she moves things. Not only does she move all the knickknacks to the back of the table or chest on which I’d neatly arranged them, she moves things from right to left when she cleans. When I go to find something, it is not in the place in which I left it for my convenience or aesthetic sense. It drives me nuts.

Sometimes I laughingly and lightly point this out to her – and she laughs in return, but never changes her behavior. So, whose problem is it? Probably ME.

• I need to tell her that this matters to me by being direct and congruent.
• I need to stop giving her mixed messages by joking and being light about it.
• I need to show her where I want things placed.
• I need to remind her when they are re-arranged.

Unfortunately, I’m rarely home when she cleans, and leaving a note around just does not convey the right attitude.

Other women with whom I speak don’t have housekeepers because of similar frustrations.  BUT, I believe in delegating. As frustrating as this is – and believe me it is – I’d rather spend the ten or fifteen minutes re-arranging things to my satisfaction that have to spend the three or more hours cleaning the house.

How do all of these apply to you as a manager?

It’s so easy to blame the other person for what we perceive as shortcomings. Yet, we as managers need to take more responsibility for:

• How we communicate what we want from our staff
• Who we hire to do a particular task and how we train them
• Learning how they learn and understand and coaching them accordingly
• How we hold people accountable, not just at the beginning, but during the life of their working for us.
• Our own over-reactions “don’t sweat the small stuff” as they say.

I conclude by reminding us all – you and me – that if you don’t delegate and you do it all yourself, you will never have the time to do the more exciting, interesting, and creative elements of your job. The more you can delegate, the freer your time to grow professionally yourself.

So, in answer to my own question: Yes, delegate, but do it wisely.

Managing for Creativity

When I met with 50 C-level executives to learn about how they managed creativity I spent between two and five hours with each of them having them answer an extensive open-ended interview questionnaire I’d designed. They thanked me for the opportunity to discuss the issues and said that just by the process of interacting with me about the topic they’d learned much and were going to implement some changes in their organizations.

For purposes of the research I created operational definitions of innovation, creativity, and the creative environment. Briefly – creativity is the process, innovation is the product and the creative environment allows for the freedom to experiment and play. The actual definitions in the questionnaire are more detailed.

My respondents wanted creativity everywhere in their organizations – although they certainly didn’t want people to necessarily make process improvement changes without going through a clearing process. 

On the other hand, rarely was there a process in place that allowed for process improvement or other creative suggestions to come forth. The reward and recognition systems in most of these companies were based on quantity of output and didn’t allow for experimentation or new ideas.

Managers and HR personnel were blamed for stifling creativity throughout the organization. However, as has been pointed out to me during the Reason Weekend presentation of this topic (thanks to my friend Carolyn Gannon) managers are working under constraints to meet their production assignments and are thereby forced to keep their workers working as previously assigned.

Although Carolyn is correct, in addition to the constraints placed on managers and therefore on the people they manage – there is also fear of change, of allowing someone to color outside the lines, of the talented newcomer taking their job, etc. 

Two examples from my research:  

• A new President was brought out to run the west coast branch of an international insurance call center. Among his staff were about 50 telephone operators, responsible for customer service and responding to customer queries. This President decided that there needed to be changes to make working conditions better, improve morale and increase customer satisfaction. He set up a “Suggestion Box” and asked his management team to review the suggestions and bring him the good ones. Over a period of several months, no “good ones” were ever brought to his attention. When he questioned his managers he was told that none of the ones reviewed were worthwhile. He didn’t believe it was possible to not receive any good ideas and so asked to see all suggestions that had come in – and personally reviewed them and all further new suggestions. There were many wonderful ones that he implemented – and for which he rewarded the person making the suggestion.
    
• A General Manager of a division of a huge semiconductor company told me that he and his team could not trust their Human Resource Department to bring them good candidates.  After much frustration the GM demanded that all resumes be brought to him. HR sorted the resumes, giving the GM those they thought most worthy on top. Over time he discovered that the better candidates were on the bottom of the pile – and from that time forward, he and his management team always reviewed the resumes from the bottom up. HR was sorting by the strictest definition in the job descriptions.

I’ve many other examples of the stifling of creativity – rather than encouraging it. Some of this comes about, as Dilbert so clearly teaches us, by living in cubes. Other problems arise because of the misappropriation of time, funds, and rewards. 

We need to establish a climate of creativity – an environment in which there is room for experimentation and new ideas to emerge, be talked about and tested.

How Not To Hire

Today's hiring policies are designed to be "fair" and "culturally blind." Thus decisions are made that seek to treat every candidate exactly the same.  While the desire to be even-handed is a good one, the end result if too rigidly applied runs the risk of hiring incorrectly because the real information is never acquired.

Some government agencies apply this concept so strictly - by asking the exact same questions to each candidate - never probing and never varying. In this way, they never delve and only get the expected - canned - answers. So, they are defeating the process they are trying to achieve.

For example, when consulting to one of our Silicon Valley cities, I observed the interview process for potential new employees. There was a panel of interviewers. Each was given a specific question to ask every one of the candidates interviewed. There was to be no deviation allowed. Not even additional questions - including not being able to ask for clarification or more information.

The result - a false sense of fairness. Candidates were graded based on their responses and of course that were better rehearsed got higher marks. This came about because most if not all the questions were pretty standard and pretty obvious. Because of the limited nature of this process, very little beyond what was on the resumes was learned.

That's how not to hire.

A good interviewer will delve deeply into answers, seeking for example additional information, clarification, and anything else that will enable her to really get to know the professional strengths and weaknesses of a particular candidate.

When I interviewed for high level positions, I usually took as much as a whole day with the candidate. I interviewed, I observed and quite often I administered a battery of tests. That's because the decision to hire someone at the C level in an organization is critically important and a wrong decision can not only cost the company thousands of dollars, but can reverberate down the chain of command and cause inestimable harm within the company.

Now clearly you can't spend that much time with candidates for supervisory or below positions because the risk is less. On the other hand, there is risk - remember "one bad apple can spoil the bunch." But, instead of having a bunch of people each spend a few minutes, you might seriously consider having far fewer people spend more time delving more deeply.

Not only do you want to measure skills and learn about experience, you also want to learn if the personality, character and values are compatible with those of your department and company.

I've noticed that sometimes when the interview process is either a large panel of people or a chain of individual interviews, the person that gets the job is the most mediocre - he or she is the one that everyone could agree on - not the best qualified.

So, I caution you to realize that interviewing is a skill and will take among other qualities the ability to walk in the other person's shoes - to empathize - to listen - to observe and to get out of your own prejudices at the same time.

Good Luck!

Rewards and Recognitions

Typically, it is the responsibility of the professionals in Human Resources (HR) to recommend and often control compensation, bonuses and other rewards and recognitions available to management.

It is management’s responsibility to determine what they wish to reward, how often, and whether or not the decisions they’ve made regarding these extra monetary compensations and/or perquisites are achieving the goals they wish to achieve.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Recognize the extraordinary and unusual.
2. Do not offer recognitions to those not deserving just to be "fair" or to avoid hurting feelings.
3. Reward and reinforce those behaviors that actually matter to you. For example, if you reward quantity of calls handled by call center agents, you are forcing them to give up quality (defined as actually satisfying the caller-customer) so that they can make their numbers.
4. Create small measurable successes - don't wait until the whole new design is built - people need to be calibrated frequently.
5. Set the right goals and show how they fit into the overall company goals.
6. Treat people as individuals - learn what motivates them and reward accordingly.
7. Remember:  ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL.

Rewards and recognitions are the responsibility of all involved in the management and development of employees. Explore this subject further with my online course provided through Proformative or contact me for a personal consultation.

Broken Windows Theory - Applied to the Workplace

When Rudy Giuliani was Mayor of New York City he applied this criminal law theory to the neighborhoods in New York City and cleaned up graffiti, garbage thrown around, broken windows and anything that would in any way diminish the neighborhoods. He cleaned up the neighborhoods on the theory that by paying attention to the small details, there would be a change in attitude - and crime would be reduced as pride was restored.

The theory was first introduced in 1982 in an article in the Atlantic Monthly by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. The Wikipedia article quotes the Atlantic Monthly article as follows:

Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.

Or consider a pavement. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates.  Eventually, people even start leaving bags of refuse from take-out restaurants there or even break into cars.

Why, you might be asking is she talking about criminal theory in a business and professional newsletter?  How does this apply to the workplace?

So, my answer is that small things add up to big things. When I go into a company I often notice how small things are causing big - unnecessary expenses.

Let me offer you a few examples:

When asked to come in and investigate an allegation of sexual harassment in one of our biggest local High Tech companies, the contract was for $5,000.00. Yet, the contract department of this organization submitted a ten page contract for me to show to my attorney and get his authorization before I signed and returned it. Most of what was in the contract was completely unrelated to the work I was hired to complete.

Another similar example - I recently signed a contract with a government agency to do some Executive Coaching. The original contract they sent me was the same as one they would have used for contractors building a building, or a freeway overpass. It took three iterations back and forth over close to a month before we finalized a contract that made sense for the type of work I was being asked to do.

An example I've used before was when I helped a major transportation agency create a simple refund system for when people complained that the ticket machine wasn't working properly. Prior to my intervention, when someone was asking for a refund of $5.00 or less the process was to investigate to make sure the machine was really malfunctioning, plus putting an accounts payable chit into the major Oracle Relational Database system - which meant about three or four people handled it before the check was cut. It probably cost them about $1,000.00 to process a $5.00 check.  

My intervention was to give the accountant in charge a dedicated checking account, a QuickBooks system and got permission that allowed him to refund anything up to and including $10.00 without investigation. He had the full accountability - actually easier and quicker - because he could sort by name, by address (where the check was to be sent) and/or by machine. So, it now cost a few pennies to make these small refunds and created a great deal more goodwill.

There are so many examples of people of goodwill - working hard - doing far too much than they need to do to effectively and efficiently solve a problem or complete the necessary task. 

So, when I say, "if I were that piece of paper - where would I go" or "what would I need to do" I am trying to work with my client to look at things from a new angle so that they can simplify their processes - save themselves time - and save their company lots of money.

Broken Window Theory!

Here’s another way of looking at it:

"Happy Employees Make Happy Customers." We've all heard that or similar phrases many times. The opposite is also true: If you are rude, condescending, or disrespectful to your employees they will not give their jobs their all. They will do just enough to get by.

If you assume they can figure out the best way to do a job - you might be right, but you might also be abrogating responsibility and asking too much of someone who isn't trained to create the most parsimonious system - and you will get something far less effective than if you helped in the process.

If as union supervisor, you set the example of quitting work fifteen minutes before quitting time you are telling others it is OK to fudge and to give your employer less time than s/he deserves. I saw that happening repeatedly when I was conducting a weekly workshop from 3- 5 PM in a government agency. At 4:45 PM each week of the workshop, the union supervisor, would close her workbook, take out her compact and lipstick and re-apply her lipstick, put them in her purse, and sit with her purse on the table and her hands folded above it, waiting for the clock to turn to 5 PM.

Any one of these examples is just an example of something small and seemingly insignificant - but just like the broken windows - they set a pattern - they develop an attitude - and a corporate culture of doing things less than excellently.

The Tipping Point - in the right direction - is when time is given to real process improvement using a consultant (plug) who works collaboratively with workplace teams to see what could be improved. 

Symbolically, fixing the broken windows, removing the graffiti, making things work easier and better, setting good examples - all tip the scale and create employees that are highly motivated and feel good about what they do - and the company in which they work.

Parents as Manager

I recently had lunch with one of my favorite CEOs. I don't recall how it came about, but we started talking about his 14 year old daughter and her allowance of a measly $5.00 a week. I told him that was way too low and explained in part why I thought an allowance should be large enough to actually give the teen some freedom to make her own choices. (I will share my e-mail explanation to him with you in a minute.)

The reason I am writing about it is because parents are managers - and in this case - the parent was a micro-manager by not allowing his teen some freedom of how she spent her money. (My CEO friend blamed it on his wife - which is another example of him abrogating responsibility.)

So here we have a couple - co-CEOs if you will - one abrogating responsibility and the other micro-managing. Poor teen - she doesn't learn how to make her own decisions, and she has no economic freedom.

Here's what I sent him in an e-mail after our lunch:

What is the purpose of an allowance for kids?

I believe an allowance is a very important tool for teaching children a variety of things.

Making choices: Rather than believing one can get whatever he wants if he asks in the right way, having a fixed income (an allowance) that is dedicated to allowing the child to buy whatever he or she wants within clear limits teaches that if you want one thing, it means you probably can't have something else. Consequently, the amount of the allowance must be carefully calculated - based on the current cost of goods and services, the child's age, and how much freedom you wish to give your child.  

When deciding, think about the things it is OK for your child, based on his or her age, to purchase. Ice-cream from the truck? Hot dog and coke at the mall? A movie once a week? Birthday, anniversary and special day gifts for parents and siblings?

Do you also want your child to learn the importance of savings? If so, the allowance has to be large enough to accommodate the ability to spend as well as the necessity to save.

Freedom of choice:  Independence or dependency? What are you teaching? 

Which do you prefer?  

If a child has to ask the parent each and every time he or she wants something, the child is not making that decision, the parents are. 

Let me tell you a true story. When my nieces were small (they are now very successful business women) they and my sister (their mother) came out to visit. We were planning our visit to Disneyland when I asked my sister how much she was planning to give each child for spending money. She said, "nothing, all they have to do is ask me." I disagreed and explained my thinking and sweetened the pot saying I'd give them the exact same amount as she would. So, each girl received $20.00 to spend exactly as she wished. Of course, we the adults paid for entry, tickets and food.

Amelia, my eldest niece happily spent her money during the course of the day, on soda, snacks, arcade games, etc. Gabrielle, the younger, saw a stuffed animal in the store as we were just starting our adventure. It cost $20.00. I suggested she have the saleswoman put it aside and if she still had her money at the end of the day, we'd go back and she could purchase it. She held on to her money all day and at the end, happily purchased her stuffed animal (I secretly paid the tax.)

So, different choices - neither of which was better or worse than the other. The girls decided, not the adults.

The value of money: Only by having money and having to budget and make decisions do you ever learn the value of money - and from it the value of earning money. If parents make all money decisions, it is as though money grows on trees - or gets printed in much the same way many people believe the government prints money whenever it needs it.

If the money is in MY pocket, I have to decide whether an item is worth its price - to me. If I am earning money (which should be in addition to an allowance) I can equate the price with the amount of time it takes me to earn that sum of money.

I can remember the first time I bought an outfit that cost me more than a week's pay. I never regretted spending that money - it was an outfit I wore to opening night of the Opera (The Met) one year - and wore it many times after that with oodles of compliments. It was worth it - to me.

So, if I am a teenager and my allowance is large enough for me to occasionally decide to buy a cute top at the mall, I will learn the value of money.

Charismatic Leadership

When you ask people what the most important qualities are for leadership, almost all will list charisma at the top of their list. What is charisma and why is it important?

Max Weber (quoted in Wikipedia) offers that it is the "exceptional sanctity, heroism, or exemplary character of an individual person." I read this and think of Hitler, Jim Jones, and others who lead for evil. So, I don't buy the description as being the whole story.

To me, charismatic leadership is the quality to appear bigger, better wiser, and more compassionate than others - with the drive and energy that compels people to follow.

Whether in politics, war, or corporate governance, the qualities of leadership become important to motive others to get on your team and do what you need and want them to do. Without this quality, one needs to bribe, beg, bully, or pay heavily in order to get the tasks completed.

The Los Angeles Times (March 27, 2016) posted an article called "A dark side of charismatic leaders" (Joyce E.A. Russell) in it they mention that some leaders lead people down a path of self-destruction. And, of course that leads us back to memories of Hitler and Jim Jones among others. So, there is difference between ethical and unethical leaders.

I'd go so far as to suggest that the evil leaders are megalomaniacs and think so highly of themselves, they rarely if ever listen to the advice of others. The better leaders - the good guys if you will - have positive goals and a willingness to communicate with others and listen and learn from others.

Let's apply this to the workplace - and of course make some generalizations.

Evil leaders have personal goals that lead to their own aggrandizement - and often end up destroying the organizations they build. The people they lead ultimately become their victims. Positive charismatic leaders set goals that are for the betterment of the organization as a whole. They encourage ideas from others (no yes men for them) and are delighted at the growth and success of those around them.

Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Andy Grove, John Chambers, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others can be described as charismatic leaders - some more self-serving than others. It is the power of their leadership that led their respective companies to the level of greatness we admire.

But, in some of these organizations (and I'm not going to mention which ones) the preferred style of management is by status and intimidation. People are forced to work exceptionally long hours (even for Silicon Valley) and since they all work at will, if they aren't available 24/7 they run the risk of being fired. It is high salaries and status that keeps them in line.

As I am writing this, I am thinking about the Prison guards and some of the inmates in the series Orange is the New Black.  If you've been watching it - and I've become addicted - you'll remember that the Assistant Warden got so caught up in her own power that she embezzled and denied the prisoners some basic comfort and health care needs. Some of the guards became vicious, controlling bullies because they had the power - and ruled by fear. A few of the inmates fell into this category as well - ruling by intimidation and violence.

In today's workplace, we rarely see this same level of managers who rule by threats of physical violence - although in years past they still existed. Instead, the bully boss controls by performance appraisals, promises of promotions, the better (or worse) projects and of course salary increases and the ultimate threat - firing.

So unfortunately, as much as I wish I could, I can't say that only positive charismatic leaders lead to success. Some of the bad guys do too. Too bad.

Participatory Management

We think of charismatic leadership to be authoritarian in style - but that's not necessarily true. Some of our great charismatic leaders led by what is called Participatory Management. One, if not more of our American Presidents was known for this style of leadership. In Participatory Management, the leader takes ultimate responsibility for the decisions - it is not a democracy - but the leader encourages all executives, team players, stakeholders, etc., to offer their ideas - to openly disagree with each other - and this type of leader listens and learns and ultimately makes the decision him/herself. The person of self-esteem is never afraid to learn from others - indeed, delights in having others from whom to learn. This is what ultimately creates an extraordinary leader.