People - Part II

People - Part II

As my head spins about all the productivity and measurement programs available to all organizations, listed below, there is one element required in all of them - People.

• Lean
• Kaizen
• Six Sigma
• ISO
• Scrum
• Agile
• Waterfall
• KPI
• Plethora of smaller metric tools

I have worked with startups, small and medium size businesses (SME), and large corporate internal departments and not one of them can exist, improve, or grow without people. Yes, you can use software to measure productivity, output, KPIs, etc., but a person needs to interpret and make business decisions based on the data.

True confession; I love the show The Profit. Marcus Lemonis displays personal strengths and weakness in helping businesses survive, aka humanity. Spoiler Alert: here is the theme prevalent in most episodes - weak and/or change resistant leadership, lack of basic business financial acumen, and most importantly, people skills.

The purpose of this blog post is to repeat my personal business axiom, "If the people grow, the company will grow." Invest in your people, which can be as simple as listening to them. You may not need any of the programs listed above.

Fact of Life

While posting a comment on a website, I realized my statements were applicable beyond that articles subject matter. Later the same day, I had several conversations were this "fact of life" was revealed again. Enough waiting.

Fact of Life: No matter how old you are, what job you have, where you are in life, there will always be good and bad people. How you react defines you.

Work and Fun

A poor company culture can not be solved by the HR department planning and executing a bowling day or an Office Olympics picnic. Creating fun is relative to the associate’s perception of the company, and more importantly, to their job. I’m not stating these actives are not fun, but they can have little influence on associate motivation. The concept is great, as it shows the company, on a global scale, they appreciate and reward those who contribute to their success.

This blog post is about drilling down to the individual associate. I see too many times where upper and middle management are oblivious to their direct reports feelings. Yes, I used the word “feelings”. Associates are human beings and possess emotions. The greatest of these at work is appreciation and appreciation is displayed by recognition and recognition leads to motivation and motivation leads to productivity. You get the picture.

My question to today’s managers, many of whom are young and/or first time managers, is “Are you in touch with your reports feelings about their job?” This leads to further review:

• How do you communicate? If you believe knowledge is power, do you share information or believe you need to use it to protect your own position?
• Do you disseminate timely performance factors, positive or negative?
• How often do you meet with your reports, individually and collectively?
• Do you know their significant other’s name?
• Do you know their birthday, without HR reminding you? Studies show that a person’s birthday is one of their most valued days.
• Are you consistently learning to be a better manager?
• If you manage managers, are you equipping them to improve their people skills?

HR should augment a positive company culture. Managers must be tuned to individual associate motivation, which varies person-to-person. If your feel your job is not fun, then no corporate event will change it.

There are managers out there that should not be managers. Just because you are skilled at your given vocation, doesn’t mean you can manage people with or without these same skill sets. Do management schools still teach the Peter Principle? I have seen managers with only one report. Where this exists in my company structure influence, I eliminate this arrangement. Supervising one person is a poor situation. This creates a conundrum for the manager-associate relationship to either be friends or enemies. A worse case is when it’s a “working” manager scenario. You both have the same function, but one is privileged and only associate animosity can result. Unfortunately, this is more common than you may realize.

One last thought. Corporate sponsored events should take place during the workday. People have their work life and their personal life. Making an evening or weekend event, will impose “force company socialization.” It devalues the company’s goal to show appreciation. People may, and do have, work friends, but let them decide when to socialize outside the workplace. This is not the company’s role.

What are your motivation techniques?

How Do You Define "Above and Beyond?"

Your answer may not be as simple as you may think. I heard four out of five people answer the question with this response, "I will do whatever it takes to complete the project on time."

Sounds like a great answer, doesn't it? One we would most likely say ourselves. But is it the best response? Ponder this just for a moment. Isn't this what we get paid to do? Deliver our projects on time?

How do you perform, or your associates, depending on your position, that seems truly "above and beyond?" In our industry of marketing, branding and advertising, working overtime, "doing what it takes" are common workplace norms. There is nothing exceptional about it.

By now you're waiting for my answer, so here it is: doing something that is not in your job description or an industry expectation. I hate to give examples, because to define it any deeper only limits the answer, but here are some guidelines: doing someone else's job, that is not the same as yours; presenting an observation or recommendation that benefits the company that is outside your position's scope; exemplifying personal latent skill sets applicable to your department or company.

If you're a hiring manager, ask this question and carefully consider the correct response. If you're a job seeker, carefully consider your response. If you're actively employed, start working above and beyond.

Year End Blog

2011 has displayed a very trying year for companies and organizations. High unemployment, Wall Street's obsession with profits and an acrimonious congress has dominated the U.S. business landscape.

From following organizational anthropology and personal experiences, I beg executives, managers and associates (employees) to evaluate your attitude. Yes, I said attitude. Attitude effects all aspects of your life. I end the year, not with pontifications, but self introspective questions. These questions are valid for all organizational levels.

- Do you recognize a connection between people's performance and profits?

- Are your hiring practices inclusionary or exclusionary?

- Do you perform your responsibilities with focus and effort?

- Do you listen?

- Do you discriminate? Think hard about this question.

- Do you have the right people in the right position, doing the right thing?

- Do you accept, deny, encourage or fear change?

- Are you happy? Why or why not?

Lastly, forget 3 or 5 year strategies. What are your goals for the next 3 to 5 months? Repeat: your goals, not the where you work.

You are the difference!