Silver Business Solutions

“Can’t You Take A Joke?”

CristineS — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:47:13 +0000

Have you ever been the recipient of sarcasm? Unwanted teasing? I’m not necessarily talking about the illegal kind, AKA sexual harassment. Rather, I’m talking about the smart remarks and teasing, poking fun and “just messin’ with ya” kind of stuff. If I don’t laugh or I -gasp- dare to say I don’t think it’s funny, the perp puts it back on me by saying, “Can’t you take a joke?” or “Geez, you don’t have much of a sense of humor.”

I almost had myself convinced that I was the one with the problem. Then I read this article

I’m not saying humor should not be part of the landscape. I’m not saying everyone should be serious all the time. But no one at work should have to put up with teasing, insults, unwanted nick-names, or passive-aggressive comments.

Emergency

CristineS — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:22:09 +0000

As I drove away from my home on Friday, the day of the West Coast tsunami warnings, I wondered if my home would still be here when I got back. I live about half a mile from the Santa Cruz small craft harbor. It sustained much damage and is now mostly closed by the Coast Guard while they fish boats out and clean up the mess. I walked down there today and the reality of it was much more compelling than the news reports. Life as we know it can change in an instant.

In Japan things are a billion times worse. What’s really getting me in my gut is this: How people treat each other in an emergency. The Japanese are reportedly treating each other like family – one newscaster described a restaurant owner who lost his home and is now serving food at no cost to the patrons. There is no looting, no gang activity, no tagging, no rioting. Here in the US, I received a call from a car dealer I had been talking with. He told me I should buy now because the Japanese would be shutting down their operations and I might have to pay more. Let the shark attacks begin. I wonder when the t-shirts will hit the streets.

So here’s the reason for this post. I got to thinking how much of an emergency mindset we have. I myself have practiced panic, worst-case-scenario, awful-izing. It happens in the workplace all the time. People are so insanely busy and the media reminds us how we need smart phones so we can send that critical powerpoint presentation from a cab at 3am. OK, maybe a little exaggeration, but maybe not. As I work with employees at all levels I hear stories – stories of bosses who freak out when they don’t get an immediate response, stories of people who are expected to take calls from work at any and all hours, stories of people yelling, criticizing, insulting each other. My take on that is, unless you’re a brain surgeon with an open skull on the table, it’s not that much of a true emergency.

If you’re a manager, you have a lot of influence over people and their lives. How do you want to use that influence? One way to get performance from people is to beat on them, control them, threaten them and make everything an emergency to get people’s attention. But there is a better way. Treat people with respect. Tell them what you expect, set them up for success, show them why the work is important, even critical. Let them know where they stand in their performance. Give them a chance to improve if they aren’t meeting your expectations. If they don’t fit, talk with them about it and part ways.

Reality TV

CristineS — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:01:00 +0000

I read an article recently that really set me off. I got hooked by one comment the author made, that it’s better to be useless than to be different, IF you want to keep your job.

This bothers me for oh so many reasons.

The idealist in me rails against that comment. I know it’s not the only thing he said and maybe I’m blowing it out of proportion. But I believe that if a business owner has the need to hire people to help run the business, a smart owner will hire people who will use their brains and special talents to make the enterprise successful. To show up and be useless is ridiculous. Why would I pay someone to do that?

The realist in me knows that in many organizations this really happens. A founder and CEO told me the other day that a day came when he realized he didn’t know everyone in his company, it had grown so much. This is a good guy, a conscious and intelligent business owner. He knows that the possibility exists that somewhere in the “chain” there could be people who are being paid to NOT have the best interests of the company in mind. He’s doing something about that which is good to see.

The other thing that irked me about the article is this: The author compared the world of work to the so-called reality TV show, “Survivor.” Huh. People being paid to behave badly. Encouraged by producers to talk trash about each other. Manipulated to create drama and cliques. And this is reality? As I write it I’m thinking this does sound an awful lot like some companies. Maybe there’s more to the comparison to “Survivor” than I gave the guy credit for.

There is one reality TV show I like to watch sometimes, “America’s Next Top Model.” ANTM, if you’re a fan. Tyra Banks auditions a bunch of wanna-be models and similar to “Survivor,” each week someone gets kicked off the show. At the end one girl is named the next top model. They seem to learn a lot as the season progresses. I had this idea that I could jump on the reality TV show bandwagon and host “America’s Next Top Manager.” I could interview a bazillion managers and choose 12 of them. Each week I put them to the test – setting goals, giving feedback, mentoring, motivating, dealing with performance problems.

Nah. I just figured out the reason reality TV is so popular is that it is outrageous and inappropriate. I just can’t be a jerk on purpose and I won’t pay other people to do it either.

But it was a good idea

Reflecting

CristineS — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:08:00 +0000

Today is Labor Day. I took a walk on the beach, watched little kids play, and listened to the waves crashing. Thoughts kept poking me, the kind that say, “Shouldn’t you be doing something productive?” I had to acknowledge that I felt a little guilty horsing around when there’s a lot that needs accomplishing.

Later I saw a man juggling with frisbies. This really got my attention because I can’t even THROW a frisbie, much less juggle with one (or, as in his case, three). I watched him for awhile and wondered why he does it. It was quite clear to me that he had practiced a lot so there must be something there for him. Tanned armpits, that’s a sign of commitment.

The way I was raised, if you’re going to spend that much time and energy getting good at something, it better darn well earn you a living.

I considered all the reasons why he might do such a thing and finally decided to ask him. “It’s fun and it’s good exercise” was the answer. Hmmmmm.

I had a point to make when I started this post but I’ll be darned if I can remember what it was. Maybe this is the beginning of having moments in my life that aren’t productive. Maybe some things just don’t have a point. Maybe it will stimulate you to reflect.

I have become an annual blogger

CristineS — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:05:00 +0000

I tell my clients all the time to establish a practice. “Don’t just review performance annually! Give feedback ongoing as a matter of practice.” Or, “Keep having those one-on-one meetings! Don’t be put off if people resist at first – it’s a practice.” I even have a friend who said the old saying, “Practice Makes Perfect” should be replaced with “Practice Makes Progress.”

All that said, I realize I have a blog without an established practice of adding to it.

What keeps us from letting a positive practice take root? We have plenty of practices that aren’t so healthy so we are absolutely capable of HAVING a practice. So why is it so hard to get one going that would serve us?

It might not be the same for you but I think for me it is the “Comfort Zone.” I get into a rut and stay there. Then it’s difficult to pull myself out of it. For example, a few short years ago I could ride my bike up a gnarly road called “Mountain Charley” in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Gnarly is not a common word in my dictionary but completely fitting here. Today I’m in a rut of choosing to walk to the harbor instead of getting on my bike. Mountain Charley? Ha! I don’t think I could even DRIVE it. I’ve gotten into a comfort zone of walking instead of riding. Am I capable of returning to that level of cycling fitness? You bet. But it will require establishing a practice as well as challenging my comfort zone.

Sometimes when I think of blogging I agonize about what to write. Let the inner critic begin its diatribe. “What can you say that hasn’t been said by Stephen Covey?” or “Your clients will read this! What will they think??” or “What if it isn’t interesting?” and on and on. The funny thing is, after all this time of NOT blogging I simply sat down and out it came. No agonizing.

I retract my statement about comfort zone. I think we get stuck because we think too much.

The Art of Conversing

CristineS — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:11:00 +0000

Over the recent holiday meal, a friend described his disgruntlement (is anyone ever “gruntled”?) over a good employee being laid off while a poor employee was kept on. Certainly we don’t know the decision-making that went into it but it made him wonder, “why didn’t the guy who always screws up the orders get laid off?”

My management consultant hat magically appeared.

Lay-offs are often used to clean house. It seems logical – as long as an organization is letting people go due to lack of work or other cost-cutting reasons, why not let the lowest performers go, too? The heartburn I have with this is, most of the time the lower performers have not been told they are falling short. Then a lay-off comes and they are told, “So sorry, you know, this economy, etc etc, good luck and here’s a severance package.”

So, consultant hat tipped rakishly, I jumped on my soapbox over the Thanksgiving table and made an emphatic plea for doing the right thing. “The manager of the guy who screws up the orders is not doing HIS job. If the order-taker is falling short, he needs to be told in clear and objective terms. A plan for getting it done right needs to be crafted between them. The message of what good looks like needs to be stated by the manager. And if the employee can’t or won’t do it, he needs to be let go. NOT laid off due to the economy.”

Every day we hear about good employees losing jobs. And every day I hear about poor employees keeping jobs. All it takes is a conversation. Here’s my holiday gift to you – the recipe for having the conversation:

1. Prepare yourself with a few speaking points:
What is the topic of performance? (Customer service? Attendance? Deadlines?)
What objective examples illustrate the problem? (2 hours late 3 times this month? 4 customers complaining that their orders were incorrect?)
Why is it a concern? (Overtime is up 20% to cover you? Lost x dollars due to cancelled orders?)
What does good performance look like? (Being here ready to work by 8am every day? Achieving 99% accuracy on all orders?)

2. Meet with the employee:
First you do the talking, and then you’ll make it a two-way talk.

Say the topic of what you want to discuss rather than diving right into the detail. This will help the person follow.
Avoid long lead-ins, giving a bunch of vague praise to “soften the blow”, or other delaying tactics.
Give the examples and say why this is a concern – be specific rather than vaguely remarking “it’s important to do it right” (let the eye rolling begin).
Then right away state what good looks like.

Example: “Pete, I want to talk about your order management. In the past two weeks, 4 of our contractor customers have told me you’ve made errors in their orders. In one case the contractor had to make a couple extra trips over the mountains due to missing items from the order. It’s a concern because the contractors are our lifeblood and can easily use another supplier which is not good for our business. Let’s talk about how you can process orders nearly perfectly.”

Now that the message is stated and you’ve invited Pete to participate (“Let’s discuss…”), you want to open it to a two-way dialog. Pete has a viewpoint – he’s the one doing the performance – and it has to be heard. He’ll come with reasons, excuses, complaints, or any number of possible responses. The key here is LISTENING. Not agreeing nor disagreeing, not arguing nor convincing, not telling nor giving directives. Listening just means working to understand his point of view. It can sound like this:

“Pete, it sounds like you’re frustrated because the contractors are demanding?” or “What you’re saying is the system is so complicated that you have trouble getting the orders right the first time?” or even “You didn’t know you were expected to do it right all the time?” One sentence, make it a question rather than a declaration.

You’re trying to put yourself in his shoes and understand what he means, the way he means it. When you have correctly summarized Pete, you will hear something like, “Yeah, that’s what I mean.” You can see how easy it would be to sound incredulous or frustrated or judgmental. Your goal is to be objective. Don’t judge. What you learn from the employee will help you two solve the problem.

I didn’t say it would be easy! But it works!

Once you’ve heard him out and gotten the confirmation that you accurately understood him, you move to the problem solving phase. A good question to ask is, “What steps can you take to get the orders right 99% of the time?”

So now you see how relevant the listening is: The steps to solve it will be very different if the reason is his inability to work with the contractors versus the reason is he doesn’t know how to operate the system. Avoid telling him what to do. Even if it’s the right thing, most people resist being told. You want to facilitate brainstorming here with both of you offering ideas and talking them over. If he has an idea that doesn’t meet your expectations, tell him so. Maybe you’ve never been clear but it’s not too late to start now. Together, create a plan. People support most what they help to create. It doesn’t have to be a big plan but you want him to leave the meeting with something specific that he helped build.

3. Never let it end with “Sorry, I’ll try harder.” No plan, no change. Once the plan is set, accountability begins.

Love your customer or love your system?

CristineS — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:27:00 +0000

I am a consumer. I pay my health insurance company (as one example) many dollars every month and deposit money into a bank-held health savings account. The two companies had a miscommunication about my accounts and alas, I was the one who had to facilitate the problem solving. As much as I would like to complain about the details, I will spare you that and cut to the chase.

Whom are they in business to serve? Clearly not me. It would seem they are in business to serve their systems.

An organization I know has its supervisors telling their employees, “You have to do this right because it shows up on management reports.”

I am fed up with the administrative insanity in the world.

“Ma’am, you opted out of our system.”

“I’m sorry, but our CRM system won’t let us do that.”

“We’ve gone paperless, so a supervisor has to examine your file before we can act.”

“No, I’m sorry, but there’s no supervisor available.”

“I’ll have to send you a new application so you can check the box ‘y’ so the bank can activate you even though you are already a customer.”

“I’m not allowed access to that information. I don’t know what to tell ya.”

There’s a good word for all this. However, it is extraordinarily inappropriate for a business setting. It has 11 letters and starts with a “c.”

Oh, I complained anyway, didn’t I?

Why is your company or employer in business? What is its purpose? Whom does it serve? Is the consumer of your product or service seen as an inconvenience, a hassle that sucks up your time? Or is the consumer seen as a person who keeps your business alive? Both my HSA bank and the insurance company made it pretty clear that I was at fault for not understanding their complicated systems and made me responsible for their communication error. I spent hours on the phone and so did they. There’s a big cost to that (and that, my friends, is what is wrong with health insurance today, but that’s another rant).

I could rant about GM and bailouts and the media…but I won’t. What I will say is, wherever you are in your business, show leadership in serving the people who make your business possible. Keep your eye on the right ball. Help your staff know the priorities and teach them how to deal well with the consumers that pay their salaries. Teach them how to listen well. And never, ever say, “Gee, I just don’t know what to tell ya.”

Choice

CristineS — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:23:00 +0000

I drive about 25,000 miles per year in my work as a consultant. The other day I was complaining – I believe I said, “Just shoot me” – during a particularly frustrating trip in and around San Francisco. My complaining also included, “I have no choice, so just get over it.”

It’s just not true. I DO have a choice. I even had the choice to not show up for my appointments. That wouldn’t have been good for business, but I DID have the choice. It got me thinking about how often people throw up their hands and claim “it” is out of their hands, beyond their control, not their fault.

So I asked myself, “What have you chosen? What rules have you made for yourself that now box you in, making you feel like you don’t have a choice? What kind of house have you built that you are now pissed off about living in?”

I turn the radio off when it spews the latest and greatest unemployment statistics. How does this information help me? It’s quite useful when I want to be frightened, otherwise it’s no help at all. It’s a quick trip from fright to helplessness. If I have no choice and I’m helpless, I’m sunk. So if you are suffering from the fear of unemployment, the ups and downs of self-employment, feeling stuck in your job because “there are no jobs” or know someone who is suffering from any of these conditions, here are some questions to keep your mind busy and productive:

Why do you work?

Why do you have the job you have?

What do you love about it? Hate about it?

Which happens more often?

If you hate it more than you love it, why do you stay?

What’s one thing you could do today that would help you love your job?

Is it “your” job? Does it belong to you? Or do you provide a service someone is willing to pay a person to do?

If you could say anything to your boss without negative consequence, what would it be?

Now, what’s a more constructive way to say it?

Why don’t you say it?

What might happen if you did say it, from the positive to the negative?

If you have lost your job, what’s bad about that? What’s good about that?

If that job would take you right back, would you go? Why or why not?

If it’s strictly for the money, what’s the cost to your well-being?

Is it absolutely true that there are “no jobs”?

What are you good at? Not good at?

What do you do well, that you hate? If you’re still doing it, how come?

What do you love to do, that you are also good at?

If you’re not doing this a lot, how come?

What if every employee in America stood up at the same time and said, “I’m a contributing adult and expect to be treated as such!” (All employees who do not act like adults nor make a useful contribution, please sit down.)

What if every boss in America stood up and said, “I’m paying you to do a good job and make a difference for this organization, so here’s what “good” looks like, here’s how I’ll reward and recognize you when you do it, and if you don’t want to, good luck in your next role.” (All bosses who beat people up, expecting them to be mind-reading door-mats, please sit down.)

WARNING: Exercising choice can lead to freedom, exhilaration, and withdrawal symptoms from giving up blaming others for your choices.

Entitlement

CristineS — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:03:00 +0000

Every day we hear of more jobs being cut. One reporter interviewed people who said it’s just not fair and I thought, “Wow, a lot of people seem to feel entitled to their jobs.” The thought passed.

Then a friend told me there was talk of the banks nationalizing and we were headed toward socialism. He ranted for awhile about how we would be forced to share our homes with strangers, money would be worthless, etc. (Think “Doctor Zhivago”) It took longer for these thoughts to pass.

If you’ve followed my previous posts, you’ll know I’m trying to be positive in the face of the negativity. It doesn’t help to steep myself in fear. Yet my friend’s Doctor Zhivago scenario really got me stirred up. I get that it’s not happening tomorrow morning but still…

I started thinking about what it would really mean – how it would affect ME – if life were to change so drastically. I felt frustrated and helpless at the thought that an authority could mandate that I hand over my possessions and my home, or an angry mob could take them by force. That we couldn’t buy food or gas. That our freedoms and choices would be taken away. That my life and my daughter’s could be at risk.

Then I realized how much I feel entitled to my life. Seriously, I was doing the dishes and realized I totally feel entitled to hot water. To my home (actually the bank still owns it, I just make payments and keep it clean). To my washing machine. My clothes. My ability to work, to drive, to go to the bank and get cash. To sit in my home office with dinner in the oven and write a blog. I feel entitled to have things continue – like utilities and clients and Ann Taylor Loft and Safeway and my nice little home being here when I get home.

But when you get right down to it, there are no guarantees. I tell my clients this all the time but today it really hit home.

I feel very humbled and very very grateful for today.