Posted: November 18, 2020 | Categories: Leadership, Management

If you are the owner or manager of a business, the past 8 months have probably been extra stressful. One of the most abrupt changes we have all had to deal with is wearing protective masks.  Some people like them, others put up with them, and the rest despise them.  Many times, those who are resistant to the mask rule are not the most compliant.  When someone is defying the rule, we need to confront them.  If we don’t handle this confrontation well, we can create ill-will and resentment.  That is not good for productivity or turnover.  Here is an example of an instance where a boss needed to approach an employee about wearing their mask:

Susan is a lively, gregarious team member with a beautiful smile.  She hates wearing masks, so she decided to take hers off for a while.  Wouldn’t you know it?  The boss walked by.  He was upset, and approached her in a not-so-friendly manner.  Susan was hurt and resentful.

The next day the boss noticed the difference in Susan’s mood and countenance.  He called her into his office.  The first thing he did was apologize for the way he had approached her the day before.  Next, he showed empathy by saying, “These masks are awful!”  She sure agreeded with that.  The boss then went on to state the rule that he was obligated to enforce, and asked for her compliance.  She gave him her full compliance, and now wears the mask when she should.  The problem is solved.  My message to you is to remember the old saying, “approach in a friendly way” and do your best to understand the other person’s point of view.  It can increase team productivity and reduce turnover.

Posted: October 23, 2020 | Categories: Customer service, Leadership, Management, Presentation skills, Sales, Team Building

Charisma.  Every boss, professional athlete, politician, or PTA president seems to like that word.  We hear people say, “He or she has charisma.”  We have also heard someone say, “He or she has no charisma.” OK…so charisma is good…but what is it?

I toiled with this question for many years until one day 20 years ago.  I was reading a book by Barbara De Angelis, and she defined charisma as “paying attention”.  What a boring definition for such an energy noun!  In many ways, she was right:

Several years ago our family was on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  We had two main servers when we dined:  Peter and Ozzie.  We liked them both.  Ozzie was a natural showman, and knew how to perform.  Peter was also engaging, but his demeanor was slightly more tempered.  Peter ended up being our favorite.  Afterwards, we tried to figure out why.  Our thoughts kept going back to Peter’s attentiveness.  He was the most genuine, and put his focus on others, being in tune to us as individuals.  He would sense needs, and respond with help.  It seemed his thoughts were so focused on helping others, he did not have time to say, “Look at me!”  We did anyway.  Peter had true charisma:  He was enthusiastic about his work, and he put his focus on serving others.  He put these two magic ingredients together.  So everyone…pay attention!

Posted: September 2, 2020 | Categories: Leadership, Management, Team Building

You may have heard the expression, “Don’t throw away the baby with the bath water”.  This is a saying we may want to keep in mind when considering layoffs during this Covid-19 crisis.  If we are at this crossroad, here is an example we may want to keep in mind.

In their 50-year history, Southwest Airlines has never laid off a single employee.  Remarkably, they have also made a profit for 46 years in a row.  When Southwest faces an industry-wide crisis, layoffs are the last thing they do.   For many companies, it is the first action taken to cut expenses.  Who is right?  That is a judgment call.  If we want to operate a business that makes a profit for 46 straight years, maybe we should tune in to Southwest’s philosophy about layoffs.  Here they are, as outlined in a Business Week article in October of 2001:

Consequences of layoffs:

• Severance and rehiring costs
• Potential lawsuits from aggrieved workers
• Loss of institutional memory and trust in management
• Lack of staffers when the economy rebounds
• Survivors who are risk-averse, paranoid, and political

Benefits of not laying people off:

• A fiercely loyal, more productive workforce
• Higher customer satisfaction
• Readiness to snap back with the economy
• A recruiting edge
• Workers who aren’t afraid to innovate, knowing their jobs are safe.

As illustrated in these bullet points, if we are considering layoffs, this situation should be carefully weighed so that we don’t look back and say “OOPS!”

Posted: February 7, 2020 | Categories: Leadership, Management

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to address someone for making a mistake or not following through, and you realized this was not the first time?  I’ll bet you have.  Once a mistake or oversight has been repeated we to move away from the specific infraction and address the pattern.  Here is an example:

When I was in my early 20’s, I worked as manager in the lodging and hospitality business.  I loved my job and was given a pretty free rein in decision making.  My boss lived nearly 1000 miles away, and would come to visit about every 2-3 months.  I remember one particular time when one of those visits wasn’t so pleasant.  He asked me to report on a project he had directed me to do in one of his previous visits.  The specific project was an unpleasant and tedious one, and I procrastinated.  My boss (Mr. Lunt) realized that this was the third time he had asked me about the project, and each time I had come up short.  It was time to shift gears.  Mr. Lunt knew he now must address the pattern-not the incident.  He asked me one direct, appropriate, and chilling question:  “What can I do to get you going on this, Steve?”  He asked calmly and respectfully.  He said so much with just one questions.  I knew I had better turn things around and “get with the program” fast!  I did.  Mr. Lunt and I worked together for many years after that.  I have always appreciated the way he held me accountable.  The leadership lesson I learned:  If it is a mistake, address the mistake.  It it is a pattern, break it!  You will help the other person grow.

Posted: December 3, 2019 | Categories: Leadership, Management, Team Building

You may have noticed a couple of pervasive buzz words going around in the business world today:  Synergy and/or collaboration.  It means teams getting out of their silos, putting all their heads together, and solving problems.  The first and most important step is defining the problem.  By defining a problem, it means that you have simply stated the situation in a factual, non-blameful way.

As simple as this sounds, I find that people struggle with this step.  Too often in problem-solving team members start out with blame or just a symptom of the problem.

Several years ago, I was teaching a management class, Ralph was one of the class participants, and he decided to apply this fundamental with his team.  He asked for a statement of the problem, and he heard comments like, “Sam didn’t do the quality check in time”, or “the belts were not changed in time and the machine broke down”.  Ralph stopped them right there by saying, “That’s not the problem”.  He stuck with it, and they finally came up with a simple statement they could all agree on:  “The problem is we had a late delivery to a key customer”.  Now we are cooking!  Instead of getting into blame and finger-pointing, we can work through the next three steps of the problem solving process.

2.  What are the causes of the problem?

3.  What are the possible solutions?

4.  What is the best possible solution?

The team agreed on the best solution, laid out their action steps, and were well on their way to making the changes to improve delivery time.  Ralph said that had he not insisted they define the problem, they would have gone round and round.  Remember, if you have a problem to solve, begin by defining it.  Consider the old maxim, “A problem defined is a problem half solved”