Empowerment and Recognition

I flew on Southwest Airlines recently and, as always, was impressed with the friendly service provided by everyone I met.  During my short flight from Washington, DC to Atlanta I skimmed the in-flight magazine and learned a lot about how Southwest values its employees.

Near the front of the magazine were pages (yes, I said pages) of letters from happy customers describing the excellent service they’d received from Southwest employees around the country. There was a letter from a customer who was traveling home from her father’s funeral. She was carrying the flag that had been presented to her to honor his service in World War II.  The pilot saw her carrying the flag and asked her the name of the person who had died and during the flight, he announced to the plane that he wanted to honor her father’s service to our country and shared his name with the passengers who applauded.  As you can imagine, the grieving daughter was touched and grateful.

There was another story of a mother who young son was traveling by himself.  After he boarded and the plane was about to taxi out to the runway, she realized her car keys were in his backpack. She begged the gate agent who quickly got on the phone and stopped the plane so that the keys could be returned.

 While some may think that sharing these letters may seem a little self serving, I think it demonstrates two very important things—

1.     Southwest employees are empowered to “go the extra mile” for customers!

2.     Southwest management knows the importance of recognizing outstanding service!

This is a very powerful combination—when we empower our employees to take care of customers and reward them for acting; it is a classic “win/win”.  Employees feel valued and customers are treated with care and respect!  Who doesn’t want that? 

The mere fact that I am writing about this tells me that there are not very many organizations that get the importance of employee empowerment and even fewer do a good job of recognizing outstanding performance.  I think many managers are afraid of giving too much power to employees—in other words, they don’t trust their employees to do the right thing.

Yes, it is a bit frightening for managers to allow employees to make decisions but if you hire the right people and train them to do their jobs and instill in them the values your organization lives by-- then they should be able to be trusted with making good decisions.

We talk a lot about getting employees to trust their leaders and their organizations but maybe there should be some discussion about how leaders can learn to trust their valued employees!

Conflict: What’s Change Got To Do With It?

Just about everything is new at work these days – shifts in the world economy, different skills, new technologies – the list is endless. These changes have the potential for creating conflict in the workplace. The interesting thing about change – we each choose how to approach it.  Different people respond to major changes in different ways.

·       The innovators/change agents, people who embrace change as an opportunity, seeking answers to questions, looking for ways to move change forward and easily adapting. Approximately 20% of employees fall into this category. They are often the first ones to get involved and may end up leading the change effort.

·       The pragmatics who take a wait-and-see approach.  They do whatever is possible to stay out of site and out of harm's way, keeping quiet and waiting to see who wins. Pragmatic so withhold their sponsorship and energy.  Approximately half of the employees are pragmatics.

·       The skeptics/traditionalists are the ones who resist change, actively or passively, and the significantly affect the organization's ability to move forward. They have a huge impact on morale. Approximately 30% of an organization's employees are skeptics.

Helping employees understand their response towards change helps frame their actions. While change is often uncomfortable, it can also bring a whole new energy level to the organization. As soon as everyone gets on board with the change, things can happen that move the group/team/department forward. The challenge – getting through the change and conflicts to get to the other side! Managers must be on the lookout for conflicts to ensure these conflicts positively drive the changes the organization is seeking.

When people are open to the possibilities that the change may bring, and they believe they share some of the responsibility for making change successful, they will select observable data, draw conclusions, and take action to support the change.

However, if people are not sure what is happening, and do not feel responsible for the outcome, they will select data that reinforces their belief leading to actions that actively or passively resist the change.

Everyone, even the innovators, needs to understand how the change will affect them. They need to know where they fit. For example,

·         What are the business drivers?

·         What are the job expectations? Have they changed?

·         How have roles and responsibilities changed?

Navigating change is similar to experienced river guides approaching whitewater. They rely on their experiences but are prepared for the unexpected, like the appearance of previously submerged rocks. Based on their experience, they know how to approach difficult sections of the river, have the tools and techniques to guide their rafts and work with the water's movement and dynamics.

What can leaders do to support employees during periods of major change?

·         Provide them with honest feedback.

·         Help them find answers to their questions.

·         Be clear in communicating expectations.

·         Encourage them to connect, inquire, and perform. In other words, take positive action.

·         Actively listen to what’s being said

·         Understand the root causes of resistance

Change will occur in your organization. It’s so important that we devoted a chapter to it – What’s New At Work? – in The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook. The steps that you take to mitigate the effects of that change will determine the number and types of conflict that occur, and whether conflict is a constructive or destructive force for your organization. 

Valuing People

Northern Virginia Family Services is a great organization that is dedicated to helping vulnerable families and children.  Each year they help more than 34,000 people find housing and learn job skills while also providing emergency services for at-risk people.  They have received national recognition for their effectiveness in creating sustained financial and social independence for their clients.

Each year they also do a wonderful service for the community through their CARE Awards. These awards are given, after a tremendous amount of research, to companies and organizations.  CARE stands for Companies as Responsive Employers.

I attended their award breakfast this year and was delighted to hear what the winning organizations had to say about how they value their employees.  We hear a lot of talk from leaders about “people are our greatest asset” but what I heard at the breakfast was far more than words—I saw these organizations commitment to their people in action.  The message was clear—you can be a successful organization AND a caring one!

In order to win a CARE award, organizations have to jump through some hoops—finalists are selected from a comprehensive application process and then are visited by a volunteer team who tour the organization and interview a cross-section of employees to verify information received on the application.  Finalists are also asked to submit a web-based survey to a random sampling of employees.  Winners are selected based on all information gathered and are honored at a breakfast at a Washington, DC area hotel.

The exciting part of the award ceremony for me was hearing from CEO’s of the winning organizations.  They get a short time period to share their commitment to their employees and it was so refreshing to hear what these organizations are doing to be responsive to their employees.  Some of the CEO’s relinquished their acceptance speech time and showed a video of their employees talking about the organization and its commitment to its people—powerful stuff!

One CEO talked about how they “infuse fun into everything we do.”  Another talked about learning how important it was to do what he considered “simple things” like sending a personal condolence note to an employee. He said he was blown away by the impact it had on the employee and now he sends handwritten notes whenever he can.  Another CEO talked about his organization’s goal to become a culture of caring!

Saying you value your people is one thing—putting it into action is another!  Most of what the award winning organizations offer to their employees are things that just make sense AND, they build loyalty to the organization!  Are you a responsive employer?  Something to consider.

Overworking in America

In some place I’ve worked, it is a badge of honor to share how many hours you worked in a week or a month.  People competed to see who could log the most hours in the office while others talked about how late they were on email the night before or how early they got to work in the morning.

This really isn’t something to be proud of.  I remember my first job out of college where I had a boss who said, “The only people who know you work late is the night janitor or the security guard you see on the way out.”  I also had a boss once who used to count the cars in the parking lot at 6 pm or 6 am and then tell me that we had a morale problem since people weren’t working late or coming in early. My response was always, “Is the work getting done?” If the answer is yes, then why do people have to spend more time in the office—especially since most people are on email long after they leave the office.  Technology frees most of us from being tied to a specific place to do our work.

Do you remember the Seinfeld episode where George Costanza left his car at the office one night when he was working for the New York Yankees?  The next day, he heard George Steinbrenner telling someone, “That George Costanza is a real go-getter. He was here when I left last night and he was already here when I came in this morning.”  No, George wasn’t there—his car was in the parking lot. So George Costanza being George, decided to start sleeping in his office so Mr. Steinbrenner would continue to think he was a great employee!

According to a recent article in the Washington Post by Christopher Ingraham  titled, When Working Longer Hours Doesn’t Add up, he says that “half of full-time workers report working 41 or more hours per week and nearly a fifth say that number ticks up to 60 or more.”  He says this isn’t healthy—not for the worker nor for his/her family relationships.  The Centers for Disease Control reports that “overtime was associated with poorer perceived general health, increased injury rates, more illnesses, or increased mortality.”

Ingraham goes on to say that most Americans say that family takes priority over work—yet  many of us are willing to make personal sacrifices for work including going to work when we’re sick; missing out on personal experiences due to long hours or no vacation; and working different shifts from a spouse because they couldn’t find child care.

So the next time you brag about how many hours you worked or hear someone else doing it, think about your health, your relationships, and your life and go home. Spend some time relaxing with family or friends and get enough sleep that you don’t make silly mistakes!  Find ways to be as productive as you can be in a reasonable day/night at work and as always, do your best and if your boss still wants you at work all the time just because, maybe it’s not the right job for you.

Getting Innovation Right

Throughout the year we’ve been talking about innovation. Innovation equals success. Innovation is about adding value to your organization and to the marketplace. As the year draws to a close, it’s a good time to reflect how you can position your organization to leverage the marketplace and add value.

In his book, Getting Innovation Right, Seth Kahan's theme is the best ideas are useless if they don't add value. Kahan highlights suggested activities for leaders in order to drive success for their innovations in the marketplace.

1.  Pursue and leverage inflection points - those dramatic and decisive shifts in your relationship with the market whether positive or negative. Anticipate them and use them to your advantage. Positive ones can grow your base, increase you offerings and customer loyalty, and improve your place in the market.

2. Build innovation capacity. Developing new products and services has a stress factor. Does your organization have what it takes to channel those pressures and turn them into productive use? Strong innovation leaders do this through strong internal leadership, exceptional talent management, and robust idea management. They manage critical forces, talk to the right people, build partnerships, and hire and develop people who understand and embrace the power of innovation.

3.  Collect intelligence. The best innovation rises from a sea of products, services, customers, competitors, and internal equities. Your intelligence gather efforts should start with the interrelated areas of customers, market conditions and organizational capabilities. Be sure you’ve defined the scope, determined your goals, conducted interviews, consulted sources, and performed your due diligence.  Gathering and applying pertinent information must be an on-going effort to enhance the quality of your strategic decisions.

4.  Shift perspective. Challenge your own assumptions. They may be constraining your ability to see new opportunities. Get out from your own box. Listen to your employees, partners, customers and competitors.  Seeing the world through new alternatives and points of view helps to identify opportunities to pivot into a positive inflection point that will drive success.

5.  Exploit disruption. Disruption is part of business life today and it can come from anywhere. Just like conflict, if it’s ignored or mismanaged, it can be disastrous. Successful leaders identify the opportunity embedded in adverse conditions and exploit it – disruptions such as customer challenges, industry change, fierce competition and new business models. Turn turmoil to your advantage.

6.  Generate value.  Value is what causes people to separate from their hard-earned cash, drive investors to invest, and shoppers to shop. It’s a perceived benefit – such as the value of brand (Coke vs. Pepsi). Skillful innovators understand what drives value, what it looks like to customers and all their stakeholders, and how to generate by delivering something more, better or new.

7.  Drive Innovation uptake – customer acceptance of a new product or service. When you align your innovations with what your customers value, they become your ambassadors. Every stage of the innovation process holds opportunity to introduce new ideas into the market and engage your customers. Working together you move from a mere transaction toward a generative relationship.

To help his readers get innovation right, Kahan provides tools and techniques, templates and guidelines, and step-by-step instructions. If you’re thinking of what you want to accomplish in 2016, this may be a great place to start!

Your Leadership Vision

Vision, mission, strategic plan – no matter the size of your organization, you have (or should have) these in place. Large organizations go through great lengths to establish them. Entrepreneurs often do, but they often fly by the seat of their pants. (In the writing world, this is called pantsing!)

This was the topic of a recent leadership breakfast – what an individual leader does to develop a leadership vision for herself and for her organization. See how you do. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

1   1.     What is my vision for my team?
2.     What is my individual leadership vision?
3.     Do I have energy around that vision?
4.     Does that energy and vision permeate the team and the workplace?
5.     Is it manifested in my actions, values and goals?
6.     Is there character and spirit around it?

Some of the leadership qualities reported by Forbes, and this list is not inclusive, are listed below. Can you think of a leader who’s exhibited some or all of them? What have you done to embrace these qualities?

• Honesty
• Ability to Delegate
• Communication Skills
• Sense of Humor
• Confidence
•  Commitment
• Positive Attitude
• Creativity
• Intuition
• Ability to Inspire

However, leader’s don’t do it all on their own. What does it take to manifest your leadership vision? Consider the following:

• An inspired team
• A shared vision
• Expert help and support
• Courage to face the unknown
• Strategic planning
• Hard work and determination
• Having an advocate or coach
• Pausing to celebrate the journey

Use the following questions as a roadmap to develop a leadership vision, whether it’s for yourself or for your organization:

•    Why? Why are you in business (or the role you’re in)? What motivates you to continue
•   What? What is the corporate/organization/team mission? List a few goals. What will it take to get there?
•   Who? Who is your business impacting? Who can help your business?
•  Where? Where are your strategies and goals taking your business? What is your growth plan?
•  When? When do you forecast reaching your business goals?
• How much? How much time, energy, and money will your company need to invest to reach these goals?
• How? How will your company get there? What methods, means and actions are required?
• What makes your vision unique? What makes your vision inspiring memorable and important?

Thanks to Mali Phonpadith CEO, SOAR Community Network, for an inspiring and thought-provoking session.

Thanksgiving – A Time to Reflect

Children in classrooms around the country have been making crafts from construction paper this month – Pilgrim hats, “Indian headdresses, leaves, pine cones – symbols of fall and Thanksgiving culture. Stories will be told in school about how the Indigenous people of North America (Native Americans) shared their harvest feast with the starving English settlers -- turkey, waterfowl, venison, fish, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin, and squash. Not exactly the turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, yams and pumpkin pie on this week’s Thanksgiving table.

For the Wampanog tribe, the purpose of the harvest feast was to give thanks for the bounty of food that the growing season had produced -- for the rain and the sunshine which caused the plants that bore the food to grow.  Giving thanks is integral to the Native American culture.  The harvest celebrations allow a time to reflect on being thankful, to be with family, and to count blessings. 

The Wampanoags were caring people who lent a hand to the settlers who were, at the time, less fortunate.  They were heroes who shared their celebration with the Pilgrims.  Yet somehow this has become lost.

Did you know that the day after Thanksgiving is designated as our country's official day to pay homage to Native American heritage and culture?  Somehow, this too has become lost.  Black Friday (and now Gray Thursday) morphed into the official kickoff of the "holiday" shopping season where we pay homage to retail.

As the year draws to a close, it’s time to reflect and pay homage to the people and things that are important.  This year we’ve got a great deal to be thankful for and would like to take a moment to reflect on the people who helped us with our success. We couldn’t have made The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook a reality without them. Shout outs to Susan Devereaux, our virtual assistant, for editing and formatting the manuscript and keeping us on track; Marilyn Allen, our literary agent, for her help and; the staff at Career Press for continuing to believe in us; Sharon Armstrong, our biggest cheerleader; and our many friends and family members who labored through the writing process and gave us encouragement.

Reflect on accomplishments and celebrate successes in your organization.   Give thanks to the people who made those successes happen.  Reflect on your own organizations culture -- it traditions and celebrations.  Review the past, look to the future and take some time to just be!