How to Treat Your Employees

When your child enters the room, does your face light up? You have heard this question before.  Author Toni Morrison wrote it, Oprah made it popular, and I would like to bring it to another level.

We are always examining employee engagement. We are always looking to improve upon it. To some of you reading this, my question to you may sound trivial or simply too simple. My friends: Do your eyes light up, do you smile when an employee walks into your office and sits down? What about the beginning of the day, when they walk in the door?

Remember, the biggest motivator for your employees is to ‘belong here.’  Do they feel like they belong at your business? Do they know that their opinion matters to you?

What if you had a bad day with your employee the day before? What do you do then? Pretend it didn’t happen? Well, I guess I am going to relate back to your children. You don’t dislike the person, even if you dislike the behavior they show. You are not your employees’ parent, but you do have to appreciate that they look up to you, and they are trying to be a contributing member of your business-family.

Don’t hate the idea, try it for a week, try it for a month. Let your eyes light up when you greet your staff. See what happens and then let me know if it made a difference. If it did, let me know about it.

Your Sherpa,
Brenda

People Understand That Your Words Are Truth

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So, we have talked about how to be a hero. This applies to your work, your family, and your friendships, it applies to anyone. First, it was knowing that other people don’t think the way you do. That can be a blessing or a curse. It’s up to you. Second, we talked about ‘having peoples’ back,’ protecting and defending the people who are important to you.

Now, let’s talk about truth. Being truthful is not an event. It’s not a process. It’s a way of life. When you speak truth all the time, you develop a reputation for consistency and fairness.

As an executive coach, I will tell my clients:  in the working world, consistency is next to godliness.  You must be fair and consistent with your people. You must be consistent in the words you say. You can’t let one person leave early for a dog obedience class (cause you love dogs) and hold the cat-lover back from that emergency trip to the veterinarian (‘cause it’s only a cat).

Consistency means people learn what to expect from you, and learn to trust you.

Fairness means you are being reasonable instead of emotional.

To be a hero, you must speak truth. That doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. It just means that you find truth, and then speak it. Tell me what you’re thinking. Post a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Your Sherpa,
Brenda

People Want to Know That You Have Their Back

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You saw my post the cruise ship captain, about heroes and villains. I promised to share three ways in which you can be a hero. Here’s the second one. It’s something great leaders. Good friends do it, as well.

To ‘have someone’s back’ means to protect, to support or to defend them.

• If I asked the people you work with whether you have their backs, what would they say?
• If I asked whether you would ‘take a bullet’ for them, would ‘yes ‘be their answer?
• If you had to support one of your people in front of your boss, would you?

The only way to make sure you have your people’s backs? Ask them.  You could tell me a million times how much you would take a bullet for your team. Talk is cheap, my friend.  What do they say?  If I asked them, would they say you watch their backs?  Do they think you take care of them?

Do you stand tall no matter what happens with your people?  Do you support them even if they make a mistake? When the ship is sinking, do they know you will stand by them, and keep things under control?

‘Having their backs’ means supporting them, no matter what.  People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

That doesn’t mean you support wrongdoing. It does mean to follow an exact format every time someone needs your protection.

1.  Make sure you have all the information you need to make a good decision.
2. Ask them how they see it.
3. Ask them to what degree they were involved in the situation.  Get the truth.
4. Deal with the situation, not the personalities.  Separate the person from the issue
5. Make sure people know how much you care.

Take a good look at yourself, and make sure people see you as an ally, a source of strength, a protector. That’s how you get to be a hero.

Your Sherpa,
Brenda

How to Send a Proper Email

As I told you in my last post, I keep running into executives who do a horrible job with their email.

So, in 2011, I created what I call the ETA: Electronic Thread Analysis. This special technique analyzes email and message threads, start to finish. It’s something I do for my clients. It’s something you can do for yourself.

Just look through the thread, and flag words in one of three ways:

1. Positive messages related to behavior or opinion “Good job.”
2. Negative messages related to behavior or opinion:  “How could you let this happen?”
3. Facts or neutral words that frame the communication or add information. That’s anything not included in #1 and #2 above

Here is an example. I have just marked the negative words in red for you. That’s about all there is in this message.

————————————————————————–

From: Executive1
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 4:38 PM
To: Employee1, Employee2
Subject: Supplies

We’re nearly out of paper again on the 6^th floor and there was not a single pen or pencil available on the entire first floor when a client needed to write us a check.  There were zero supplies in the front desk, supply room and cubes. It took several minutes for Employee3 and me to locate a pen on the first floor (one was found in the conference room, eventually) just so the guy could write a check to pay us. We burn through too many supplies to replenish them on a piecemeal basis. There has to be a system to take inventory periodically so we’re not facing a crunch every other week (or have supplies somewhere under lock-and-key so people can’t walk off with them). We can’t have people responsible for rendering support (interns, etc.) disappear for blocks of time and leave us with supply shortages, either.

I can meet with the interns to train them so I’m not hunting for supplies every other week, or Employee2 should do it, but there has to be some system in place before we waste any more time with frequent shortages while paying people for “support.”

Executive1

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Lots of negative verbiage. Lots of wasted time. I had my client follow the rules dictated by ETA: Positive words. No negative words. Just enough information. It took some thought and some coaching. It took several drafts. Here’s what my client finally came up with:

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From: Executive1
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 4:38 PM
To: Employee1, Employee2
Subject: Supplies

Hope you have a great New Year celebration. When we get back, I would like to review the way we manage our supplies in 2012.  Maybe we could look at a system? 

Executive1

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Now, that made me proud.

Want some help with your boss, or your own communication skills? Send me a message thread, and I’ll give you an ETA.

Looking forward to reading and sharing what you send me. (please change names in emails before you send them to me.)

Your Sherpa,
Brenda

People DON’T have to think like you do to be successful

I wrote about the cruise ship captain, in a post about heroes and villains. I promised to share three ways in which you can be a hero. Here’s the first one. It’s a way you have to look at life in order to be a great leader.  Have you ever felt like this?

‘Why can’t everyone just think the way I do?’ 

‘I have the answers to these issues. I know exactly what would be best.’

‘We could do so much more if they were more like me.’

Time after time, I run into leaders that really and truly believe that these statements make sense.

 Here is the real truth, friends.  You are the only ‘you’ on the planet.  There is no one in the world that thinks exactly the way you do.  I personally would like you to revel in that.  I want you to celebrate the fact that there is only one you. 

This means, of course, that no one can possibly think like you.  I really don’t care how much you want them to think like you do.  They don’t and they won’t. 

So knowing this truth, how can you move forward as a leader? 

Seems too simple,  but . . .   I recommend asking questions like this: 

• What other ways can we look at this?  What ideas do you have? 
• In looking at this situation, how would you tackle it?  What do you think? 
• What else could we do?  What are the pros and cons of what I just said? 

Wow, I could go on and on.  You have to embrace the truth about your people. Understand that they think differently than you. Use that to benefit yourself as a leader and your organization.  Trust me, it’s the only way.

Your Sherpa,
Brenda

Be The Hero

An Italian cruise ships runs up on a reef. Heavy damage. People missing. People dead.

There is a leadership story behind the headlines, one I’d like to share with you.

Two men in charge. The two men handle this situation in completely different ways.

Italy has a new hero and a new villain.

The hero is Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco.  De Falco is a quiet guy who doesn’t like confrontation.  He doesn’t have ‘rock star’ good looks. He does have character.  When he noticed the captain leaving on a lifeboat, he stopped him and turned him back.

The villain is good-looking, he’s confident and he’s quite likeable. He is also in jail. He will be for a long time. Captain Francesco Schettino caused the disaster when he turned off the ‘auto-pilot’ on a huge passenger ship and cruised too close to shore, showing off for a colleague. Later, he jumped ship, in violation of every captain’s code of ethics.

Handling an emergency. It’s  a true test of leadership.  What would you do?  Who would you be?  The hero, stepping up to confront a problem, or the debonair captain hiding under the blanket, escaping the scene in a lifeboat?

How often do you have an opportunity, in the working world, to be a villain or a hero? So often, I can’t even tell you.

As a leader, your people need to know you will be there when they need you.  To be there, to step up, to be the hero, you must understand three things:

• People don’t have to think      like you do to be successful.
• People have to know you      have their backs.
• People understand that      your words are truth.

I’ll cover each one of these in a message for you. Stay tuned.

Your Sherpa,
Brenda

Silence is Golden

Is silence embarrassing for you or maybe a little uncomfortable? There is a documented phobia called sedatephobia, ‘the fear of silence.’ You probably know people with this condition. They cannot tolerate silence. During a long journey by car, they will talk constantly about anything they see out the window. Try asking,  “Could we just have a few moments to look out the window and not say anything?” See what happens. They’ll get angry with you, because of their fear of silence.

Try looking at silence as a positive component in your life. When you learn how valuable it is to be silent, you will fall in love with it. You will start to see how it works and how much it allows you to explore your own thoughts.

A student once told us about an encounter with his son, as he was learning about silence. His son walks into his office:

Son: Dad, Matthew hit me on the arm.

Dad: And?  (silence)

Son: Well, I came to tell you about it.

Dad: And?

Son: And what?

Dad :  Silence (10 Seconds)

Son: Dad, you’re weird  (walks away shaking his head)

Thanks for reading! Please tell your friends about the blog or comment bellow. Is there anything we should discuss in future blogs

Your guide,
-Brenda