Thanks to the onslaught of technology and our need to constantly rush through everything, our grammar has gotten worse. Emails, text messages and other corporate communications are being sent without a thorough and professional proofreading, and using poor grammar in the workplace can have some negative impacts on your business.
It causes confusion.
If you use poor grammar in the workplace, you could end up confusing those people who need to read what you write or listen to what you say. Causing confusion will negatively impact your company’s productivity and require additional communications to clear up the confusion.
It makes you look unprofessional.
Poor grammar makes you look unprofessional. Nobody wants to do business with the company that has spelling and grammatical errors in their marketing materials, and no client wants to do business with the representative who doesn’t know the difference between their, there and they’re.
It hinders productivity.
Read full article on Every Marketing Thing
On April 1, a remarkable story in automotive history will come to an end. Well, not the story itself – it’s too good – but the 26-year-old “experiment” that created it will be a thing of the past.
It all began in 1984, when General Motors and Toyota decided to scratch one another’s proverbial backs with a joint venture called New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI). The primary motivation for Toyota was to get a foothold for manufacturing automobiles in the U.S. – mainly to stem the public outcry over U.S. auto jobs going to Japan. As for GM, they wanted to learn how to make high-quality small cars that were profitable – which the Japanese proved they could do. As a bonus, GM would also learn how to apply Toyota techniques in other plants throughout their operations.
From Worst to First
Most companies taking on that kind of venture would try it in a plant where they had a strong foundation to build on. Instead, they picked the worst plant in the GM system – in Fremont, California. It was so bad that GM had to shut it down completely two years earlier. Relations between labor and management were incessantly contentious and hostile. Some say they spent more time filing and fighting grievances than making automobiles. What’s more, the product quality was laughable. Cars wound up with the wrong bumpers, steering wheels missing, scratches and dents everywhere. Then they had another crew at the end of the line to repair all the defects.
So when NUMMI was announced, few people thought it would succeed. Not only did they reopen the problem plant – they hired back the same people, believing as Deming always said, problems aren’t about the people, but the system. Before they started operating, though, a sizeable contingent of workers went to Japan to learn the legendary “Toyota way,” working side-by-side with their Japanese “brothers.” It was a landmark event that transformed people’s lives.
You can learn about the details from many sources, including a recent story that ran on National Public Radio. But at the end of their time together in Japan, a lot of grizzled, hard-bitten workers were literally in tears during the celebration they held before heading back to launch the Fremont operation. They had been given something few of them had known before – a sense of pride and purpose – and the impact on employee engagement proved to be profound.
Marketing is More about What You Do than What You Say
When production started, results were meteoric. Almost immediately, quality and productivity reached levels that paralleled other Toyota plants. Everyone noticed … many cheered … but for reasons that are hard to believe yet easy to understand, little changed for many years elsewhere at the U.S. automaker – despite considerable effort from numerous people within GM. By the time quality became the rule rather than the exception throughout the company a few years ago, it was too late. Even aggressive marketing efforts that touted improved quality initially failed to convince potential customers – too many years of exaggerated claims and poor performance. Then just when GM started to recover, the economy collapsed, and they had to ask for bailout money to stay afloat.
Fremont is shutting down this week for two main reasons: GM pulled out of the venture in 2009, and Toyota decided it can handle U.S. production in other plants across the country. Although many are sad to see the plant close, its legacy continues. Perhaps the simplest and biggest lesson from NUMMI is that employee engagement and cooperative systems aren’t just nice things to have. They’re the cornerstone of business success – and the most compelling force for effective marketing a company can pursue.
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement
An employee describes what led to leaving a job they loved, in an organization they respected, and people whom they enjoyed working with.
“Why did I leave? Good question. I was tired. Not like you might think, although I was physically tired sometimes. It might sound funny, but was tired in spirit and tired of feeling that way.
“I had been at the company for about eight years when I left. I really wanted that job and was excited when I got it. It was someplace I really wanted to be. For the first five years I was as engaged as they come. I felt like it was my company.
“When I started management said they wanted employees to make the company better, to make a difference. Sign me up! Even with the long hours and bad take out food those were great times. I was always looking for things that might improve or scuttle a project or decision and talking to others about what was going on. I made a difference, learned all the time and helped the organization achieve its goals. It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?
“Back then I knew I was appreciated too. Management would comment on my work and seek me out to participate in all kinds of projects. And although my co-workers and I didn’t always agree, we always listened to each other. That was the really great part. The respect everyone had for each other. Those project meetings and even the casual hallway conversations built trust across the organization and gave us a deep understanding of the business. We knew we could count on each other and we were doing important work.
“About two years ago things started to change. First we were growing and couldn’t keep up; everyone was spread so thin we were lucky to just keep things together. Then the market shifted and management decided to cut staff. It was the first time they didn’t ask for our involvement. Those of us who were left had to absorb additional work. There had always been pressure to meet short-term goals, but this was different. Suddenly speed trumped thinking and understanding. Questions weren’t appreciated. I was seen as resistant to change, a troublemaker. It’s not true; I know speed is important, but we kept missing important information just when we needed to really be on our game.
“Eventually I stopped trying. I just did what I was told. I know I had insights that could have helped us, but it didn’t matter. No one was listening. While I still liked and respected my co-workers, even those I disagreed with, I eventually realized I didn’t know as much about the business and its problems as I had. Neither did they. We had stopped learning. Decisions weren’t as sharp. Relationships weakened. When we needed to pull together, not only was the ‘can do’ spirit missing, so was the real knowledge.
“Like I said, coming to work used to be fun. When it became just a job I finally admitted to myself it didn’t matter if I was there. I got tired of not having fun, so I left.”
Things to think about:
U.S. job satisfaction continues to fall
Employee attitudes and expectations about work have changed
Employees are more confident about finding a job
The clock is ticking. How much fun are people having in your organization?
Roger D’Prix, author of The Face-to-Face Communication Toolkit, admits face-to-face communication by first-line managers strikes many as anachronistic in our technological age.
John Gerstner, Communitelligence CEO, interviewed Roger for the Communitelligence webinar, Back to Face-to-Face: How to Re-ignite Your Manager Communication Program and would like to get a sense of how organizations are treating face-to-face these days.
Are you putting more or less emphasis on manager communication? What questions you would ask Roger, undoubtedly the most passionate and articulate advocate of face-to-face communication programs in the world?
You’re invited to join the conversation. Purchase the replay: Back to Face-to-Face: How to Re-ignite Your Manager Communication Program.
Employees are smart, aren’t we? We know a lot about our jobs, the people we work for and with, and have ideas about how things can be done differently or better.
We’re also really powerful: Our neighbors are asking us what our companies are like. We’re sharing information on our Facebook pages. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, ‘people like us’ are more respected than CEOs and VPs of communications.
In these difficult economic times, making our workplaces more efficient, cutting costs, and innovating can be keys to survival.
It all starts with LISTENING. What are employees saying? Have you asked them how they think you can save costs, or how they think things should be done differently?
- Build into every employee communication a means for employees to give input and share their views. Don’t judge — be appreciative of what they have to say. Respond appropriately. If there is difficulty with an idea, say so and ask them how it might be addressed.
- If you hear a great idea and decide to implement it, reward the person(s) who suggested it. Celebrate it!
- Get out and talk with your people more. We’re too digital these days, but we’re hard-wired as a species to look each other in the eye and communicate. Great — and better — ideas come from discussing.
A place to start listening is with an employee survey. We work with the Great Place to Work Institute, which does the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list and a small and mid-sized company list as well. The FORTUNE nominations are free (and due March 31, 2009) at greatplacetowork-100best.com. It’s a great tool to hear what your employees think of your workplace, and you get to see how you compare to the 100 Best Companies.
Best of all, you’ll have an opportunity to RESPOND. To make changes to improve your workplace and business.
As communicators, we’re responsible for writing clear, simple & memorable messages. But every now & then, we’re guilty of sharing lengthy, complex messages that’ll never be remembered? Consider this bad example of a key message by the Central Manchester & Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust (Agenda for Change communication):
‘Where the combined value of the above payments before actual assimilation remains greater than the combined value of the payments after assimilation, the former level of pay will be protected. These protection arrangements apply to the combined value of payments before and after assimilation, not to individual pay components, excepting the provision relating to retention of existing on-call arrangements.’
While this example is extreme, the point is we must constantly remind ourselves to write in easy to understand terms that our audiences can relate to, allowing them to easily remember what it is we are trying to convey. A great, quick read that helps me stay on track with key message development is “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath & Dan Heath.
The basis of “Made to Stick” is why some ideas survive and others die. Using a framework of “succes” (simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, stories), the authors use examples that make the importance of key message development “STICK.”
Before you start reading, share examples of good and bad key messaging that you have run into or have created.
A recent Wall Street Journal article validated many of the tenets upon which I founded our firm nearly nine years ago. The article was entitled, “M&A Blind Spot. When negotiating a merger, leave a seat at the table for a marketing expert.” Unfortunately, this rarely happens.
The article talked about the integral role of marketing in securing and consummating a deal through internal acceptance by the organization. It reminded me of a statistic I heard nine years ago to explain M&A failures. Dr. Michael Hammer said “that 80% of mergers and acquisitions fail and that 50% of the reasons that they fail are due to personality and culture clashes between the companies and their leadership.” This is just as true today as it was a decade ago.
In my opinion, marketing and branding are lynchpins of a successful merger and acquisition. All too often, however, marketing is just an afterthought. Bankers, lawyers, and accountants have a place at the M&A table to ensure that the deal lives up to its potential in regards to risk minimization, asset evaluation, and legal due diligence. But where are the marketing experts? They should be at the table as well to ensure that the organization embraces the merger, positioning it with positive benefits inside and outside the company. Effective communications and messaging can win over all the critical stakeholders and ensure success.
Find me a lawyer, accountant, or banker who can manage all this:
1. Vision and direction
The company must have a clear sense of direction and vision after the M&A plan is laid out. The vision should be in simple language (with examples) so employees can relate to it and understand the benefits for themselves and their company. Marketing departments and their leadership are trained and experienced at creating this kind of messaging.
Creating a new, combined vision is clearly the role of marketing. Imposing one company’s vision on two merged entities often alienates half of the people the instant the merger is launched.
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Overcoming uncertainty through employee engagement
Without doubt, uncertainty is the number one issue after announcing a merger or acquisition. Overcome it by enrolling the staff through relevant messages and experiential communications programs.
Marketing professionals understand consumer insights and motivations that translate into actionable tactics and communications. With knowledge and understanding, employees gain motivation. After internalizing the merger value proposition, they finally gain inspiration. They will be engaged and enrolled. -
Understanding where your employees stand on issues
Companies should segment their employee audience the same way they segment and analyze their external audiences to measure their acceptance of change and learn the best ways to communicate with them.
These are the types of questions that marketing will answer:
– What motivates employees?
– What inspires them?
– What are their opinions of management and the corporation?
– How do employees relate to management and management communications?
– What forms of communication do the employees prefer?
Marketing professionals are analytical. They are in constant search of insights and buyer values that can be deployed toward an internal employee audience as well as an external one.
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Experiential communications
Particularly in an M&A situation, old forms of internal communications are no longer relevant or successful alone. New and more creative methods, with involving and entertaining communications, are more appropriate for adult learning.
Media should vary by audience: video games, gadgets, viral campaigns, role playing, one-on-one meetings with senior folks, skits, outings, company-wide challenges, events, internal trade shows, a staff radio station, a webcast-whatever draws them in. The key idea is to engage the employees to participate in the exchange and learning. -
Developing the message
Like any other marketing campaign, internal branding starts by understanding the change readiness of the organization, followed by developing messages that are relevant and meaningful at all levels-corporate, team and department, and individual. The company needs a clear positioning and sense of what it aspires to be.
The messages should be presented by the leaders of the organization who know their business and the marketplace best. -
Establishing brand ambassadors
Seek out the critical internal stakeholders and opinion leaders for their support and help first, then build consensus within the organization.
Involve the full spectrum of employees. Ask for their input into the program-they know the customers and the business from all angles. -
Project management, not ad hoc effort
Treat the plan like a program-management launch. Assign a great program manager and allocate the proper monetary and HR resources for the effort to succeed.
Reinforcement is critical. Your employees need to see the message all the time, in lots of different media via different channels. You can emblazon it on a lapel pin, a parking-lot sign, a redesigned uniform, or a lunchroom banner. Or anywhere else that it makes sense to remind people. -
Measurement and Feedback
Take measurements and make adjustments. The campaign will need fine tuning as it gains momentum. Gauge how the organization’s culture is receiving the message and reacting to it. Then modify your emphasis as needed.
Budget for post-campaign analysis and an audit of effectiveness. Conduct before-and-after employee surveys to measure business literacy, brand awareness, and awareness of M&A messages and corporate initiatives.
In the end, what matters is an educated and aligned workforce motivated to get behind the sale, acquisition, or merger. You want your people to be inspired to work for your firm. They should be proud of what it stands for and what they do. If they care about being part of the process, they will spread the word to your clients and to each other. By enrolling your employees, you will accelerate the changes you have planned and get down to business faster, with fewer internal squabbles, and with a steady stream of re-energizing successes that will sustain itself over time.
Is your company facing a merger or acquisition, or just going through major changes such as ERP implementation or reengineering? Don’t forget to reserve a place at the table for professional marketing counsel. With marketing present as an equal partner with the lawyers, bankers, and accountants, you will ensure success of the merger and win over your employees, who are ultimately responsible for making it all happen.
Dick Weiss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch does some neat stuff on writing in his Weiss on Writing at STLtoday.com. His address is weisswrite@marketvolt.com. Recently he did a nice paragraph about punctuation and then took off about the exclamation point. His title was “Ban the exclamation point — period.” It’s a bit overstated, but that’s OK. I feel even stronger about banning MOST dashes. I say beware the dasher who when it doubt dashes. If you see a dash in the first paragraph, start counting them. Dashers are even worse when they have another point to make in a sentence and can think of no way to add it except after a dash. Another sentence usually works just fine. I had a teaching assistant once who said her high-school teacher told her class that they were allowed one dash per essay. I like that. Save the dash for dramatic contrast or emphasis.
Some members of our magazine faculty here at the Missouri School of Journalism got stirred up over something the person who is teaching Magazine Editing this semester wrote. He questioned the use of the semicolon, especially in direct quotations. He doesn’t mind the semicolon to break up lists that have commas inside them, but he wonders why and how we can determine whether two complete sentences or independent clauses are closely related enough to skip the coordinating conjunction and use the semicolon instead. I think that careful writers often do want to show a close relationship between two complete thoughts. For example, “He enjoyed writing; he wrote every chance he had.” Certainly we don’t want to join two complete sentences with simply a comma. A comma alone joining two independent clauses is a comma fault or a comma splice. I don’t allow them — ever. I do allow three or more short sentences to be joined with commas.
The professor questioned how we ever know a speaker means to have two thoughts closely related. Isn’t that interpreting what the speaker is trying to say? My answer is, first of all, that if the speaker does not use a conjunction, we shouldn’t insert one. Second, we always interpret what a speaker is saying or trying to say. People don’t speak using punctuation marks, except perhaps for Victor Borge. We insert punctuation marks such as commas, question marks, and even sometimes, exclamation points.
He emailed me that he thought semicolons in direct quotations looked funny. I emailed him back that he had a strange sense of humor. Of course, I don’t think we should overdo the semicolon between sentences, especially in direct quotations.
See how journalism professors spend their time?
Hurricane Katrina is a distant memory for most people. For others, the effects of that horrific event continue to be felt, and compelling stories continue to be told – some actually so wonderful that they take your breath away. Just the other day, I saw a great story about the extraordinary response by Hancock Bank after the mega-storm had passed. It came from a blog posting on the website of Realized Worth, a firm with considerable passion for corporate social responsibility.
Aside from the heroic proportions of how Hancock dived in head-first to help people cope with the crisis, the story is all the more remarkable for the impact it had on the bank’s long term business. Even though the events took place nearly seven years ago now, the story has a timeless message that is well worth retelling for people like me who somehow missed it the first time around.
Here’s a slightly edited version of what appeared on the Realized Worth website.
The Crazy Things Hancock Bank Did Following Katrina
Hancock Bank was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. Approximately 90 of the bank’s 103 branches along the Gulf Coast near New Orleans and along the Mississippi River suffered some damage. Electricity and phones were out in the area for weeks, and many of the bank’s branches lost connections to the main data center. People had no access to their money, and they were desperate for cash for simple things like ice and gasoline. What happened next was quite extraordinary.Laundering Cash for Good
The day after the storm, Hancock Bank set up stations with whatever was available. Sometimes it was just card tables and chairs. And they went about getting cash into the hands of the people. They kept the cash flow going by using money from ATM’s, vaults, and night deposits. Hancock employees were literally “laundering” the money, putting it in a washing machine to clean it from the sewage that had flooded the area. Bank employees, many of whom were also affected by Katrina, worked extended hours to accommodate everyone. Busloads of employees made 250 mile round trips daily in order to keep the Bank running.Risk and Reward
All of this was quite admirable, but not completely shocking for a bank or any business during a crisis. However, Hancock Bank went far beyond what the community might have expected. They loaned out millions of dollars during the days immediately after Katrina. Without electricity or other modern technology, they went old school, tracking loans with post it notes. And they didn’t just give the money to bank customers. They gave out cash to anyone who needed it, and trusted that it would be paid back, including $3.5 million to people who were not even customers.The gamble paid off, and all but $300,000 was paid back. In the words of George Schloegel, Bank Chairman at the time, “Basically, people are honest and want to do the right thing and they’ll stand by you if you do the right thing by them.” The best part of the story is how people stood by the bank after their initial support efforts. In the four months following Katrina, Hancock grew by $1.6 billion, more than they had grown in their previous 95 years. Thousands of new customers opened up accounts with the bank, and George Schoegel was rewarded for his trust by being elected Mayor of Gulfport, Mississippi in 2009 with nearly 90% of the vote.
The insights for business success from this story could fill a book. In a nutshell, it offers striking testimony for the cycle of success a company can generate when its top priority is the common interests of everyone touched by the organization inside and out. When that is done well and selflessly, you’re well on your way to creating a great organization where people love to work and customers love doing business.
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement
3. Editors can’t read your mind, and neither can your readers. Often writers are so immersed in their material that they forget that their readers, editors included, don’t know everything they know.
*If you are writing fiction, review your work for holes in the story. Have you skipped over scenes or backstory that serve a crucial role in the story?
*If you’re writing nonfiction, approach your work like an outsider. Does the work assume that the reader knows the people, places, and theories that are in the book? Is there any jargon that needs to be removed?
4. Guidelines matter. Publishing houses or periodicals create writer’s guidelines for a reason, and it usually has to do with two things: audience and money. The style guidelines are designed to help the writer reach the intended audience (remember #2: it’s not about you). If writers don’t stick to the style guidelines, it just adds more work for the editor—who has to edit the work to fit house style. The format guidelines, including word count, often have to do with money. The publishing company has budgeted for a certain number of pages. Your piece, once dropped into the template, must fit. When writers turn in work that is too long or too short, we have to fix it. (By the way, I rarely hire back writers who don’t follow guidelines. It’s too much work!)
5. Deadlines matter. Think of your writing deadline as just one domino in a long line of dominoes. When one deadline is missed, it affects every other deadline for the project. Yes, there is sometimes wiggle room, so if an emergency arises, please do talk to your editor about an extension. That said, I would not encourage any writer (no matter how good you are) to miss a deadline more than once.
Employees should always be your number one focus in both good times and in bad. Here is an article by Dave Hogan, a PR professional in Texas that showcases two good examples of where innovative internal programs had great results for their companies — MasterCard and Timberland.
Here is the article.
I can talk for hours on the subject, but if asked for the most effective ways to get online readers to read what you write, I would offer these strategies as the most important, which are backed up by eye-track studies as being an effective way to get your message across to online readers:
- Write compelling but clear headlines: Don’t get cute. Online and in print, the headline is almost always the first thing readers look at. Make sure it is clear and gives a good idea of what the post is about, while still leaving the reader wanting more.
- Write in the active voice: Effective online writing is all about getting to the point, and on a line-by-line basis, the most effective way to do that is to use the active voice, which naturally lends a sense of urgency to your writing. The easiest way to do that is to start each sentence with the subject, immediately follow that with a strong, active verb, and then follow that with the direct object. Avoid adverbs: they’re a telling sign that you chose the wrong verb.
- Online writing is visual: Long, dense paragraphs turn off online readers. Create white space in your copy by keeping paragraphs short and using bulleted lists when appropriate. Use bold text to accent key information and use block or pull quotes to draw readers into the copy.
- One main idea per sentence: Keep sentences on point. Avoid multiple clauses and phrases, and lots of information stops and commas. Make sure each sentence has one idea, and not much more than that.
- No sentence without a fact: Every line you write needs to move the story forward. If a sentence doesn’t have a fact, cut it.
Refined Wisdom: Just as open communication in our personal lives depends on a certain level of trust, the same is true in our work lives. There simply are no perfect safeguards. The best business leaders can do is to set clear expectations of employee behavior, put as many safeguards in place as possible and – hold onto your seats – trust employees to do the right thing. |
Two recent news items shed light on how employee communication continues to be redefined and the sticky issues surrounding it.
A recent survey by a California-based business software company found that more than 43 percent of large U.S. corporations employ people to monitor outbound e-mail. A story last Wednesday in the Richmond Times-Dispatch said the area’s largest employers routinely check e-mails sent by employees to make sure they’re not leaking sensitive information.
A story published by Reuters on Saturday tells about the latest mainstream technology to be adapted by some corporations. Web logs – shortened to “blogs” – essentially are online journals written by everyday people for public consumption. One indication that blogs are picking up steam is that some bloggers received press credentials so they could write about the Democratic National Convention in July.
Now corporations are looking at the potential for blogs to be used as tools to enhance knowledge sharing and communication among employees. Not surprisingly, Microsoft and IBM are two leaders in the effort to introduce blogs to corporate America. The idea is to allow employees to post blogs on the company intranet – or perhaps even the public Web site, depending on the target audience – so they can share information more quickly and efficiently.
I work with companies to help them figure out the best ways to facilitate communication – from business leaders to employees, from employees to management, and laterally among employees. The flow of information is essential to any organization’s success and the less painful the communication, the better. Anyone who works in an organization with more than one employee knows exactly what I’m talking about.
Electronic media can greatly enhance communication. It’s difficult to imagine what we ever did before e-mail was introduced to the workplace. (Some might wish it never was as they spend hours a day creating and responding to e-mail.) Intranets, which are Web sites for employees, also can make communication and the flow of information easier. It looks like blogs might be the next big thing to find its way into our work lives – just as some companies also use message boards, chat rooms and desktop video.
The problem is that while many companies embrace the new technology, they also worry that it might be fraught with security problems. E-mail and Web-based technology offer just another way for proprietary information to leak to competitors, customers, the news media, and perhaps even criminals. This is true, but nothing kept employees from carrying sensitive documents out of the building with them in the days before e-mail. Nothing keeps employees from having one too many at the neighborhood block party and blurting out the name of the new product.
There simply are no perfect safeguards. The best business leaders can do is to set clear expectations of employee behavior, put as many safeguards in place as possible and – hold onto your seats – trust employees to do the right thing.
Just as open communication in our personal lives depends on a certain level of trust, the same is true in our work lives. I am not suggesting that companies should open the gates and throw caution to the wind for the sake of open communication. That would be foolish. However, there comes a point at which organizations must treat employees as responsible adults.
Routinely monitoring e-mails might be necessary in this day and age, but is it really necessary to completely restrict employees’ use of communication media? Such a hard line sends a bad message to employees, who then become increasingly distrustful and suspicious of management.
I expect blogs won’t become as ubiquitous as e-mail in American companies. I don’t believe there are many companies that trust their employees enough to give them that kind of freedom of expression. On the other hand, it’s interesting to think about the possibility of free-flowing information from one responsible employee to another.
If employees are so connected, why is it so hard to communicate with them?
One of the main problems with the typical manager/employee relationship is that one person is the boss, and the other … well … isn’t. Let’s face it, not many adults like being told what to do. That’s true to some extent even when the boss is really great. It’s especially true when employees don’t have the option to say no – or even to negotiate a mutual agreement.
Information Should Trump Rank
Aside from the interpersonal tension that kind of imbalance of power can produce, it isn’t optimal from a business standpoint either, particularly if you’re interested in effective continuous improvement and change management. In the end, decision-making should be based not on who has the highest rank andmost authority, but who has the best information and greatest knowledge about the subject at hand – regardless of “status.” Good managers follow that principle as a matter of course, and it’s an integral part of how they tap into employee motivation. But not all managers are that good. So the question is how to get it ingrained in the management culture throughout the company.
One way organizations try to “equalize the balance of power” in manager/employee relationships is with the 360-degree appraisal process. Others try to generate employee input through efforts like town hall meetings, employee luncheon roundtables, senior leader blogs, open-door policies and a host of other employee engagement activities. While well-intentioned and occasionally effective, those efforts are typically pretty feeble in promoting a decision-making culture that’s systematically based on the “best information” rather than the “most authority.”
Give Employees Input into the Hiring Process
So how do you make sure decisions are based on knowledge instead of titles? Here’s one way to do it. Let employees hire their boss. “What?” you gasp. “You’ve got to be kidding, right?” Maybe a little, but not much. Here’s how it works.
When you’re ready to hire a new manager, you begin as usual with crafting the job description. Instead of just having it reviewed by the manager’s manager, though, appoint a representative group of the employees who will be reporting to the new manager to look at it, too. That way, you get their input on what it takes to manage the function effectively from a day-to-day operations perspective. Then you go through the usual drill of selecting candidates and conducting interviews with qualified prospects.
After that, here’s where you do something radically different. Instead of picking just ONE person for the job, pick TWO or THREE who meet all of the qualifications that management has set for the position. Then you let the employee representatives interview those top candidates, and THEY make the final selection of the person they feel is best suited for the position.
It’s a Win-Win All the Way Around
Crazy, right? But think about it. That way you get the best of both worlds – someone who makes the grade for management, as well as the “informed” people he or she will be managing. What’s more, think about how it sets the tone for more balanced decision-making in the manager/employee relationship from day one. It also sets the stage for more effective communication going forward.
Granted, the final decision and the ultimate responsibility for both performance and results on any team rests with the manager. But how you get there matters. If you want take full advantage of team insights in decision-making … and if you want employees who are willing to step up, take charge, and be held accountable for their performance … you have to treat them like adults who “have a say in the matter,” not children who “are to be seen and not heard.”
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement
1) Acknowledge weaknesses, but play to people’s strengths.
Todd Mansfield, the executive vice president of Disney Development Company, found that his company had been spending too much time on employee weaknesses. He said, “When we’d sit down to evaluate associates, we’d spend 20 percent of our time talking about the things they did well, and 80 percent on what needed to be improved. That is just not effective. We ought to spend and energy helping people determine what they are gifted at doing and get their responsibilities aligned with those capabilities.” 2) Don’t assume people know how good they are.
I gave a speech for the top management team of a software company in Northern California that was relocating out of state. A few days later the president of the company telephoned me to say, ” I have an administrative assistant who is probably the brightest, most creative person I’ve worked with. The problem is, she’s married and can’t move her family out of the Bay Area. I was wondering if you would see her for a private counseling session, so that when she applies for a new job, she will come across just as terrific as she really is. I’ll even pay for the session.”
Of course, I agreed, and looked forward to meeting this talented woman. When she came into my office I said, “This is a real pleasure. I’ve heard so many nice things about you. Tell me about yourself. What is it that you do exceptionally well? What would you most want a prospective employer to know about you?” The woman was silent for several seconds. Finally she sighed and said, “I really don’t know. I do a lot of things well, but when I do them, I don’t notice.”
3) When people do something very well, acknowledge it immediately.
Timing is everything when it comes to building confidence. Get in the habit of commenting on outstanding employee behavior as soon as you notice it. When managers at El Torito Restaurants in Irvine, Calif., catch a worker doing something exceptional, they immediately give the employee a “Star Buck.” Each restaurant has a monthly drawing from the pool of “stars” for prizes (cash, TV, etc.), and each region has a drawing for $1,000 cash.
4) Encourage people to recognize their own achievements and then to go public.
One manager I know came up with a creative solution to her employees’ lament that, although she did a pretty good job overall, there were many times when she seemed too preoccupied to notice accomplishments. She put a hand-painted sign in her office and jokingly encouraged employees to display it whenever they had a significant achievement. What started out as an office gag is now a favorite employee ritual. The sign reads, “I just did something wonderful. Ask me about it!”
5) Help people identify strengths and then find ways to capitalize on them.
Everyone has unique talents and abilities that are not always used in their present jobs. Paula Banks, a former Human Resources director at Sears, once had a secretary who was doing an adequate, but mediocre job. Paula talked to the woman and found out that, in her spare time, she was a top salesperson for Mary Kay Cosmetics. In Paula’s words: “I found out she had great sales skills, so I changed her duties to include more of what she was really good at – organizing, follow-through, and closing deals. She had this tremendous ability. My job was to figure out how to use it.”
6) Create small victories.
To encourage people on the way to achieving goals of exceptional performance, managers need to design “small wins.” One manager put it this way, “A stretch goal can scare people to death. I always begin with a mini-goal that I know my staff can achieve, and then I use that victory as a confidence-builder for reaching the larger objective.”
Could it be that the simple act of communicating regularly with employees and involving them in business decisions could lead to greater business success?
Many company leaders think so and point to their successes as proof. One of those is Baptist Health South Florida, based in Coral Gables, Fla., and recently ranked 59th on Fortune magazine’s 2006 list of “Best Companies to Work For.”
The Fortune list is serious business. Many companies use it as a powerful recruiting tool. Capital One, one of Richmond’s top employers, made the list several times during its growth years in the late 1990s and heavily touted it to prospective employees.
The recognition’s importance goes beyond recruiting, however. The reasons behind the ranking are what really matter – and help the 10,900-employee nonprofit company maintain a voluntary turnover rate of only 7 percent. Ask any corporate executive if low employee turnover translates into low costs. Better yet, ask Baptist Health South Florida CEO Brian Keeley if employee retention is important when dealing with a global shortage of nurses.
Equally important is the fact that satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers. “If we treat our people well, they’re going to treat our patients well,” Keeley told Sun-Sentinel columnist Marcia Heroux Pounds. Part of treating its employees well is involving them in employee advisory groups. Management seeks the groups’ input and employees express concerns or make requests through representatives on the groups.
For example, one employee asked if the hospital could help manage the rising cost of transportation to and from work due to skyrocketing gasoline prices. Beginning in March, Baptist Health South Florida will offer its South Miami workers discounted Metrorail cards through payroll deductions. Other locations will soon receive the benefit as well.
All of this translates into better patient care as evidenced by numerous awards Baptist Health South Florida has received for the quality of its patient care. For example, it was named the best place to give birth in Miami-Dade County by South Florida Parenting magazine and consumers have chosen it as the most preferred hospital in Miami for many years.
The best thing about communicating with and involving employees is that it really doesn’t cost that much. Mostly, it requires a change in attitude – one which views employees as necessary and vital partners in business rather than “resources” to be “managed.” Then, it requires commitment on the part of business leaders to make time for communication.
As Baptist Health South Florida demonstrates, it is time well spent.
The article, How To Make Facebook Your Company Intranet on bmighty.com caught our eye.
James Lukach, Manager Online Communications, Siemens is speaking on this subject at INTRANET INSIDER WORLD TOUR LIVE 2009, Conference and Intranet Manager Workshop, New York City, April 16-17. Jim’s session is titled:
According to the article, setting up a Facebook group is a snap, but using Facebook groups as your company intranet has a few more wrinkles, including how to handle private business information.
Setting up a private group on Facebook, as Serena Software has done, isn’t complicated. But turning it into a functioning intranet requires a little more planning and preparation. The most obvious concern about Facebook groups is the apparent lack of privacy — generally, you can both search for them and view them before deciding whether to join. But with an intranet, you don’t want anyone other than your employees to open a window into what’s happening inside the company. Fortunately, Facebook provides a solution to this dilemma: The administrator can set group membership to “invitation only.”
Read the full article here.
It’s that time of year again. Resolutions. Out with the old. In with the new. Stopping bad habits. Starting good ones. Bottom line: it’s time for change. But that simple little word conjures up lots of emotions and reactions among people.
Recently, I came across a little book with a clever title – “Change is Good. You Go First.” That phrase reflects the sentiment that many people have about organizational change. They realize they can’t survive without it. They know that everyone has to do their part. But they dig in their heels when it comes to taking the first step, and they have a hard time staying the course – at least that’s the conventional wisdom.
People Hate Change —
Or Do They?
Here’s an important question, though. Is resistance to change really inherent in human nature – or is something else going on? If you look around, you can see people changing all the time. Clothes. Foods. Channels. You name it. Like the old adage goes, variety is the spice of life, right? So how does that cherished maxim jive with the contention that people resist change?
Truth is, people don’t resist change as much as they resist being forced to change without their involvement. People actually relish change if they’ve got some control over it, and they think it’s going to be good for them. Human beings are imprinted at birth with an innate desire to make things better. We want today to be better than yesterday, and we want tomorrow to be better than today. Everyone knows that can’t happen without change.
People Embrace Change —
When They Have Some Control
So that’s where smart leaders will go when they want to foster employee engagement and get people on board with a change management plan:
- They start by giving employees a compelling vision, a riveting story of where they want to be “tomorrow.” And they explain why it’s important to embark on that journey in a way that speaks to the well-being of employees, not just the company.
- They continue to build on the allure of that vision in every communication they have with employees, and they provide the support employees need to reach it.
- They give continuous encouragement and express absolute confidence in the ability of employees to do the job.
- They make the change process manageable by not giving people too much to handle all at once, and by giving them clear, simple steps they can take successfully.
- They let employees see the performance numbers, and they allow people to take the initiative to make course corrections along the way.
- Finally, they let employees have a say in how to design and manage the change they’re expected to embrace
In the end, change is NOT necessarily good. But it IS absolutely necessary. Whether it’s good or not depends on what the change is – and, more importantly, how it’s handled. Change is also unavoidable. As the introduction says in the little book that inspired the title of this essay, the only choice we have is this: “… either we manage change, or it will manage us.”
People Will Change —
If They’re Led the Right Way
It’s true that change can be difficult. Even though it isn’t as onerous to employees as some people think, human beings often long for the familiar, and old habits die hard. But if you label the source of those behaviors as “resistance to change,” you’re probably going to be treating the wrong cause of the challenge – and take the wrong approach to overcoming it.
So along with your other resolutions this year, add one more. If you see your change efforts stalling out, don’t jump to the conclusion that employees are “resisting change” – and don’t assume that it’s just human nature. It could be that the so-called “resistance” is actually due to the methods you’re using – or the way you’re telling the story.
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement