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