We face many problems and challenges in our lives, and it seems to result in a messy world. People within their own communities and families often have difficulty getting along. There is still senseless violence and destruction that is threatening our very existence.
On the other hand, there is so much beauty and goodness that exists all around us and within us. Every human being shares the same qualities of being human that crosses boundaries of culture, religion, and politics. These qualities are kindness, compassion, love, appreciation and more.
Yet for those qualities to triumph over the negative qualities that also exist in us, we need to individually recognize and cultivate those attributes. It reminds me of the old indigenous story about the two wolves.
We all have two wolves living inside us, the good wolf, and the bad wolf. They battle one another constantly. Which wolf will win the war asks the young child to his grandfather? The one you feed replies the grandfather.
Leaders and business owners have opportunity to create an environment that fosters the goodness in people and promotes collaboration and respect. The more people can experience this in the workplace, the more they can discover that this is possible in all aspects of their lives and interaction with others.
Naturally this takes a concerted effort from everyone. You cannot just wave a magic wand and have your wish come true and suddenly everyone is helping and supporting each other. But if backstabbing and abuse is possible so is the opposite. If we think it, it can happen.
Like any change action is required. Employee involvement is required. But if this is something that becomes a mission or key goal of the organization and everyone strives to create that as reality, then it can happen.
No workplace is perfect and probably never will be just like this world. But if we are going to reverse the destructive nature of humanity, we need to start where we have the most power and authority. That is with us first and then with our families, workplace, and communities.
I do not have a recipe to propose but all you need to do is start.
The job market seems forever changing as technology drives new career opportunities that are in hot demand, while also threatening the existence of legacy jobs that require low skills. In fact, there has never been a better time for in-demand skilled workers to land the jobs of their dreams.
I just attended a webinar by Training Magazine on this subject that was presented by David Johnson a principal analyst at Forrester. The webinar was titled the Future of Work Requires a Connected Experience. And the connection he was talking about was not to social media but rather a human connection. You can watch a replay of the webinar and learn about other webinars and resources at Training Magazine Network. Forrester did a large study on employee retention and engagement amongst other things to find out firstly why people were leaving their current jobs. Over 89% of managers said they thought people had left because of money, but only 12% of employees said the reason was money.
Most said it was due to no feedback followed by no development opportunities, feeling unrecognized, lack of trust and finally feeling overwhelmed at work.
These issues are all fixable by the managers. How many leadership and management books have been written on these issues affecting the employee work experience? How many articles, videos, trainings have been delivered? Yet still the measurement needle has moved very little if at all.
I remember when I started in the training and development field over 27 years ago and one of the management training programs I often delivered was for first line managers and supervisors. There was a module on employee motivation along with an exercise and questionnaire. The participants were given a list of ten motivational factors and were asked to put them in the order they thought were most significant to employees. Most chose money. I then revealed a study from that time showing that employees had put money at only number four.
My point is little has changed over these years, yet employees have the power of choice right now and want an experience of employment that make them feel they are important and that what they do matters. Giving them feedback and recognition is an easy and no cost way of doing this.
The problem goes back to management and often is caused by company culture and putting managers in place who do not understand people or do not care about their needs. More management training does not solve the problem if you are training the wrong person for the job.
Unless top management of organizations make the employee experience a priority and reward management behaviors that fills the needs of employees, turnover and low engagement will continue. The solutions are simple, but it takes strong and insightful leadership to implement.
As I am writing this, we are approaching the end of another calendar year, and this is typically the time where many companies have their managers do an annual performance review with their employees.
It’s important to be well prepared so that it is a positive experience for everyone. This is a really good time to provide needed feedback and discuss what the employees doing well and where they can improve.
It’s also important to ask the employee how they think you’re doing as a manager and leader. Do they feel they are being well supported and are they being provided with all the tools and resources they need to function at a high level?
Many startups and small business owners struggle with the annual employee performance review and are not well prepared. They may scramble the last minute to put together criteria to use for the evaluation. But doing anything on the fly is not a good idea and if you don’t already have criteria that the employee is aware of it’s best just to discuss what you think they’re doing well and what they can improve upon.
I created an evaluation form that incorporates 5 competencies, which I think are crucial for good performance. These are:
Productivity – effectiveness in getting things done, in relation to time and cost requirement
Quality of work – adherence to an expected standard of result that is a part of a job or activity
Initiative – the ability to act without the help or insistence of others
Teamwork – a cooperative effort by a group or team to produce a desired result
Problem solving – process of finding a way to successfully resolve a difficult situation or problem
These are usually the five areas that are most important for people to perform well. They’re also simple enough for everyone to understand and agree with.
For giving feedback you can combine these competencies with my KSS worksheet. K stands for keep doing, S stands for stop doing and the other S stands for start doing.
If you do not have set criteria and would like to use these five competencies, I suggest introducing them for next years review. This way the employee knows on what they will be evaluated and can prepare themselves for the review session.
If you do not have any set criteria you can use the T exercise to prepare yourself and the feedback you want to give the employee.
Take a piece of paper and draw a T down the middle of the page. On the left side put the + and on the right side the – sign. On the plus side write down all the things that the employee does well, and you want them to keep doing. You could draw a line under that list and then write down the things you’d like them to start to do.
On the right side under the minus column write down the things you want them to improve upon or stop doing. For example, perhaps an employee is very social talkative, and you find them wasting too much time chatting around the coffee machine. You think that this might be affecting their productivity, so you want to discuss that with them.
One approach is to start the review session by asking them some general questions about how their feeling about their work, their coworkers, and the company. Then you can ask them what they think they’ve been performing well and add in your own feedback. You could then ask them what they think they need to improve on or stop doing and again add your feedback.
The important thing is to go through the review session as everyone wants to know how they’re viewed in comparison to how they think they’re doing. I like to use the analogy of bowling. When you roll the bowl down the alley and you see and hear the ball hitting the pins you feel excited to know your score and then you see it lit up on the screen. Imagine if just before the ball was to hit the pins the curtain came down and blocked your view and there was no feedback on the scoreboard. How would you feel? How fun would the game be at that point?
Employees often expect to have a conversation about salary increases and performance bonuses at the annual employee performance review session. You want to be prepared for that and allocate a certain amount of funds for bonuses. This would vary of course from company to company depending on your profitability and how much you want to share with employees. Come up with a formula to use to calculate each employee’s share based on their salary and performance
There are online survey tools that have baseline employee performance review criteria already set to go and you can modify the criteria to suit your company. This eliminates doing things on paper and keeps a record to go back to as long as you keep your subscription active.
I always recommend not waiting a whole year to do a review but to sit down at least every quarter to do an interim review. The year end reviews are when you probably want to take more time and set some goals for the coming year. It may also be when you discuss salary and bonuses. Bonuses don’t have to be monetary; you could take a more creative approach and design rewards based on what motivates each person. That could vary from time off to a gym membership. Bonuses and pay is a whole other subject
By conducting review sessions throughout the year, you take some of the stress off the year end review as you would probably have already discussed performance at the interim review session.
You can access all my forms worksheets and templates through this link.
Trust is the foundation for any good business relationship and especially between co-founders. How you communicate with your partner is essential to build and maintain trust and assure a great partnership.
I recently read an article about how many start-ups in Silicon Valley were failing because of poor communication leading to conflicts between co-founders. When left unchecked this inability to find common ground was causing havoc and business failures.
Business coaches were recognizing this trend in Silicon Valley and were addressing this issue with coaching services. One coach interviewed said that a technique he was using with the co-owners was to have them repeat back to the other what they understood the other was saying.
Using this type of communication technique is a good way to have each person listen actively and be less reactive. Active listening is a technique I have recommended often in my articles and videos as an effective way to improve trust and collaboration. In fact, I make available an exercise to practice active listening. This tool can be used alone or in a team discussion. You can download this exercise and others from my website for free after signup.
Active listening is more than repeating back what you understand the person is saying. It includes expressing what you hear they are feeling. When people feel understood they are more open to discuss and come to consensus. Here is a video where I demonstrate active listening with my assistant Sonia.
It’s important to keep in mind differences in communication and leadership styles. That means knowing yourself and understanding different tendencies that are driven by different types of people. Some people are more intellectually centered, others more intuitive and others emotionally centered.
When we don’t understand each other well and are not using techniques like active listening, it’s easy to get into conflict and disagree. I suggest exploring ways to know each other and to practice using active listening. When both parties agree on the preventative measures to protect the relationship and act on them, there is great opportunity to maintain a healthy and productive working relationship.
