Now what do you do?

You’re moving along in your work life and suddenly you have a co-worker who doesn’t like you or tries to sabotage your work?  What do you do when you face animosity from a co-work?

These were the questions that opened an interview I had this week with a reporter writing for FastCompany.com about how employees can deal with co-workers who seem to have animosity toward them. What a great topic for Workplace Conflict Awareness Month!

Here are a few of the things we talked about:

• Is the employee exhibiting animosity feeling threatened or insecure?  Has a new member joined the team and not taken the time to learn more or exhibited superiority? Both of these attitudes could lead to feelings or perceptions of animosity.

• Get to the root of the issue. Understand what the underlying problem or issue is – and do so in a respectful way. “Can we talk and clear the air?”

• Describe the behavior and the impact it’s having on everyone. Educate the other person so can understand and realign their behavior.

• Respectfully confront the situation and the person and offer a more positive approach. This helps to derail any continued negative behavior.

• Ask for help from a neutral third-party only when all else fails. Organizations would do well to invest resources to help their employees learn good conflict resolution skills.

I’ll let you know when the article goes live. In the meantime, be aware of and address any conflict in your workplace!

5 Things Managers Can Do About Conflict

Managers often find themselves trapped in the middle of a situation involving members of their team – situations or issues that are not theirs to solve. What’s a manager to do?  A manager doesn’t necessarily own every issue – the employees do. Managers shouldn’t needlessly add to their workloads by trying to solve everything. Here are five tips to help managers understand their role in and the best approach for dealing with workplace conflict:

1. Know when and how to intervene. Different circumstances call for different responses. If one employee’s lack of performance is preventing other employees from getting their jobs done, the manager definitely has a direct role to play. He has to address performance deficiencies of that team member. If an employee is struggling because of issues outside the workplace, then expert help, such as an employee assistance program, should be suggested.
2. Give your employees the space to grow. Employees need the freedom and authority to solve problems that relate to their work. Help them to learn conflict management techniques and develop problem-solving skills. As a manager, take advantage of this training yourself and model the techniques and skills you learn. Think of the positive impact for your organization when your workforce is skilled in avoiding the negative impact of unresolved conflict. 
3. Recognize that tension, egos, and emotions often get in the way. Managers have an interest in developing good working relationships among team members. You should define the problem and the impact it’s having in the workplace. Don’t discount the impact of emotions. Sometimes they are the person’s passion around an issue. Help employees control and balance emotions so they don’t interfere with resolution.  
4. Strengthen your own facilitation skills. You are often a neutral observer to a conflict. This is a great vantage point from which you can assist by guiding employees through a mediated discussion. Meet with employees, define roles and set ground rules. The employees are the primary players, not you. They will be asking questions of each other and proposing solutions. You won’t offer advice, opinions or solutions, even if asked. You’re there to keep the discussion on track.
5. Optimize conflict – it’s often creativity and innovation trying to happen. Employees close to the work often have great ideas for better solutions. Help them brainstorm, evaluate and priorities these ideas. When people sit down and talk, calmly and rationally, great information and viewpoints are exchanged. Working relationships are strengthened. Embrace the point of view that conflict is essential in the workplace if it’s part of a creative and engaged culture that wants the organization to grow and thrive. 

April is Workplace Conflict Awareness Month. Spread the word by sharing this post. Let’s help everyone make their organizations workplaces where ideas and respect grow and prosper.

Transparency—A Business Imperative

Employees today are demanding total transparency from their organizations. It used to be that most leaders thought they had to be truthful with the world—including their employees—when they’d done something wrong and they needed to confess. Sure, that is a great time to be transparent but it’s not a “one and done” kind of action—we need to be transparent all the time.

I know this makes many people nervous—not because they have something to hide. It’s because it isn’t something they’ve had much experience doing. Many leaders have operated under the assumption that they didn’t need to tell their employees when the organization was experiencing problems—they thought they were doing their employees a favor by hiding the bad news.

That may have worked in the past century but it won’t work today. Now we want to know it all—the good and the bad so I hope this is the way you are operating and if it isn’t, here are some ways to get started.

• Live your vision and your values—take every opportunity to reinforce your organization’s values to your employees. Let your employees hear from you what you value but be sure you live out those values or your employees will lose faith in you and your organization.

• Share financial results—the dashboard concept is an easy way to quickly share financial information in an easy to understand format.  Keep it to one page and put it on your intranet or share in meetings so that everyone knows how you’re doing against your financial targets.

• Set clear expectations and hold people accountable—when people are clear on what is expected of them, don’t let them off the hook if they don’t deliver. Let them know what the consequences are to not reaching a goal, give them the help they need to succeed but if they fall short, hold them accountable.

• Train your managers—let managers know that they’re expected to be open and honest with their teams and provide help to them if they run into difficulty making this happen. Once they see how empowering having employees in the know can be, they usually see the value of transparency.

Of course there are pending actions that you wouldn’t share with everyone such as the possibility of a lay off or a termination for cause so always exercise good judgment when sharing information.  Remember that transparency is what good employees crave so do your part to be as open and honest as is possible!

Beyond #MeToo – 5 Considerations

1. Rewards and recognition. Like other workplace behavior, you should be thinking of rewards and recognition. Consider acknowledging employees who treat each other with respect. Encourage employees to speak up when they see or hear something (good or bad) and acknowledge them when they do it. Reward positive workplace behavior as well as performance.

2. Training and beyond. Training should be specific to your work environment and organization’s needs. One size doesn’t necessarily fit all. Focus on behavior – all the behaviors you want to prevent. Training shouldn’t be limited to the legal stuff. Have senior management present, visible and actively participating in the training. Beyond formal presentations to all staff, engage managers to leverage teachable moments when they occur and incorporate those moments into staff meeting discussions. 

3. Segregation. There are also reports of organizations isolating (or contemplating isolating women from men – prohibitions on women and men traveling together or sharing rental cars, or excluding women from off-site meetings or events such as lunches. LeanIn and Survey Monkey surveyed 2,950 employed adults to measure the impact of widespread media reports of sexual harassment. Nearly half of male managers said they are now uncomfortable working alone, mentoring, or socializing with a woman. These are not solutions to workplace harassment and such actions can have the consequence (unintended or otherwise) of discriminating against women.

4. Non-Fraternization policies. Are you willing to police employee’s personal relationships and enforce such a policy? Things to consider if you do want a policy that addresses employee dating:

• Do you want to restrict dating altogether, or put some common-sense guidance for employees in place?

• Do you want to restrict dating between direct reports? Employees in the same departments?

• Do you want employees to notify a management representative when they enter into a romantic relationship? When they break up?

Regardless of the approach that is best for your organization, do let employees know – through training and discussions – that when employees are involved in relationships outside the office, there are risks and the potential for problems that can occur.

5. Alternatives for reporting harassment. Technology is bringing us apps – among other medium – to enable the anonymous reporting of workplace issues, especially harassment. Proponents argue that it will raise management’s awareness by alerting them that there is a problem. An opposing view is that while it’s good to know there’s a problem, a vague report may not provide sufficient information about the nature of the problem. Thus, an appropriate investigation to get to the root of the problem may not be able to take place. 

Want to Increase Productivity? Collaborate!

What a great time to be writing about collaboration, I thought as I watched the Winter Olympics!  I saw so many examples of successful collaborations. While there are lots of individual events in the Olympics, it appears the organizers are attempting to build in more and more team events—like the team ice dancing event and team skiing events.

One of the best examples of collaboration has to be team sports like hockey.  Even though the women’s gold medal hockey match was on TV in the middle of the night, I was glued to the action and riveted to the outcome when the U.S. women won gold.  Watching their unselfish play, it was clear they knew that to win, they each had to play their role and do it flawlessly.

Collaboration is essential to business success in our highly competitive business environment, and yes, maybe even to our survival as we are in a global economy. Most of us have learned that silos are deadly, and hoarding knowledge kills collaboration and stifles innovation.

Collaboration at work means having a clear understanding of the goal to be achieved and what role each person plays to achieve the goal. The end result of collaboration and teamwork is often the same—when people collaborate, they’re working together toward a stated goal!

However, one of the things that either makes collaboration effective is when work groups respect what each person brings to the team, and people put their own ambitions and need for personal satisfaction aside order to achieve the team goal.  This isn’t easy for many people in our business world today, but it can make your organization much more productive.

Here are some actions leaders and managers can take to encourage collaboration:

• Set clear objectives for success
• Identify potential obstacles to success and remove as many as possible
• Get to know your team and have them get to know each other
• Take responsibility for mistakes
• Recognize and respect everyone’s contributions
• Encourage open discussion of goals and objectives
• Brainstorm solutions and encourage creativity
• Build consensus on group projects
• Listen to input from everyone
• Compromise when necessary to move forward
• Celebrate successes and learn from mistakes

Collaboration can have a positive impact on productivity and innovation, so encourage it whenever possible. For more information on how to maximize collaboration at work, watch for our latest book, The Manager’s Answer Book, which is available now on Amazon for pre-order and will be released in June, 2018.

Beyond #MeToo – 13 Questions

Someone asked me recently if I was considering writing a book about sexual harassment given the prevalence of the topic in the press. My response was – no. There is, however, much to say on the subject. Rather than a book, writing blog posts with numerous points to consider, seemed like a better path.  

By now, everyone is aware changes are being made in the way that organizations address sexual harassment.  How is your organization responding to workplace harassment in the post-#MeToo environment? What are some of things you should be doing, or doing differently? Here are some things to consider.

1. Is your organizational culture perceived to be a comfortable environment where people will bring issues about workplace behavior, harassment and other behaviors, to the forefront? If so, will these issues be addressed if they are brought forward?
2. How do you communicate a shift in your culture if the perception is no, it’s not comfortable? You want to make employees aware that their opinion matters and that they have a stake in shaping the culture. Do you do climate surveys or town-hall type meetings where these issues are discussed? Do managers talk about them in staff meetings?
3. Where do you set the threshold for unacceptable behavior (versus actionable harassment – behavior that meets a legal standard)? In the post-#MeToo environment, if you haven’t already done so, raise the threshold and do not tolerate unprofessional or inappropriate behavior. It’s distracting and unproductive.
4. Are there people in the organization who are perceived to be “untouchable” – exempt from policy or law? In the post-#MeToo environment ask why this perception exist or why there are, in fact “untouchables.”
5. Is there a neutral process to investigate complaints and are the investigators neutral? In the post-#MeToo environment, there is an expectation that investigations will happen immediately. Be sure you have appropriate investigators, internal or external, in place before a complaint is made so you can act quickly and appropriately without reacting or speeding through an investigation for the sake of speed.
6. Assuming there is a process, do you employees know it exists and understand how to file a complaint? Have you considered issues specific to your organization or industry – remote employees, non-English speakers, employees with frequent customer contact, to name a few? Its important employees understand your policies and complaint procedures.
7. If harassment is determined to exist does the punishment fit the crime? The post-#MeToo environment with high profile situations covered in the media has given rise to the expectation that all behavior that is determined to be harassment must result in termination. Any management action you take should be proportional to the seriousness of the behavior – and not all behavior is equal.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published a report on its study of workplace harassment in June 2016. If you’re interested in reading the report, you can find a copy at https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/task_force/harassment/report.cfm.

And if you missed it, be sure to read our post from February 13 – Compliance or Common Sense, at http://makingpeoplematter.blogspot.com/2018/02/compliance-or-common-sense.html

Present & Accountable

Several months ago I was in the midst of buying one house and selling another – preparing to relocate to a new area. As you can imagine, there were so many details that needed attention – details about both transactions, utilities on both ends, forwarding mail, notifying creditors – the list was endless. There were so many balls were in the air at one time, so many errors we caught, and so many bizarre requests and suggestions we received.  There is one favorite, and every trainer or facilitator reading this, I dedicate this blog to you. 

Working with the escrow officer handling the purchase of our new home was becoming exceptionally challenging –I’ll spare the details. She sent us documents to review and asked us for other information that we’d already sent. The odd thing was that she could not have prepared the documents she wanted us to review had she not had the information we sent. Her request was a real oxymoron. Nevertheless, I sent it again.

Next day I was speaking to her on the phone and asked if she’d received the information. She profusely apologized and explained, “I was in a training session all yesterday afternoon when I sent you the e-mail. I was trying to remember if I’d received the information or not. I guess I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry you had to send it again.” 

I had my opening. I couldn’t resist to tell her, in a lighthearted fashion, that I often conduct training and yes, she shouldn’t have sent me the e-mail while sitting in a training session. She should have been paying attention to the training, after all, “you were in the training for a reason.” 

• She likely missed some important information in the training session while she was busy sending e-mails
• She created additional work and frustration for me, a client for whom she was responsible who was in a transaction 
• Her actions (requesting information she’d obviously received) reflected poorly on her credibility and her ability to pay attention to details – an important part of her job

All of this reminded me of a presentation I once attended where the speaker spoke about three important qualities to cultivate: presence, acceptance and trust.  

• Presence – the ability to be here and now and focus one’s thinking in order to move toward a goal.    
• Acceptance – the ability to deal with reality as it is rather than as we’d like it to be.  
• Trust –  the ability to be reliable and project confidence while remaining open to unforeseen outcomes

Too often when I’m in meetings or leading one I observe is people looking down at devices and missing everything. Take the time to look up from that devise.  Look around you.  Get involved and engaged in the experience at hand.  Be present and draw from the environment.