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?

Are You Smart Enough Not to be Stupid?

Seriously, ponder this question, just don't think it may sound silly.

I spent enough hours with a company to equal a full day's work. They touted a company culture of promoting from within and being listed as one of the Best Companies to Work for. I don't know who comes up with these awards, what criteria is used or who even cares, but here's what I learned after meeting with seven mid-level managers.

1. Two of the seven openly admitted to have been given responsibilities they have no background or skill sets to perform – at all.
2. A different pair of managers conveyed through the conversation, they hated their jobs. Even for an outsider meeting with them, they made me uncomfortable.
3. Five of the managers had the same job title and I can only presume the same responsibilities.
4. The company has a horizontal structure, when most successful companies today have gone vertical. This causes job position redundancies.
5. They shared how the company was reducing workforce and had a travel freeze to contain costs.
6. None of these managers were empowered decision makers, compounding all the previous points.
7. The managers were all women. Before you judge me as a sexist, I mention it only as a statistic. It seemed an odd ratio: 0 men to 7 women. Those who read my blog and/or know me, know I believe a successful structure/organization requires diversity of all types.

Are you smart enough not to be stupid? By these managers own revelation, the company is in trouble, despite being a "Best Company to work for". Their culture and structure doesn't work. I believe the company is clueless to the reality of their own workforce culture, an antiquated organizational structure and resting on their awards and derived maxims, i.e. we only promote from within the company. Pride in any part of human culture is fatal. Replace pride with stupidity and the result is the same.

Author's note: This is a very large national company, with offices in every major and medium-size U.S. city.

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!