Posted by Janet Smith on August 25, 2008
Your employees are watching you all the time. They are observing you more than you can possibly imagine. Even your employees themselves are unaware of just how much they monitor what you say and do, and for one very good reason. They seek constant assurance that you, the boss, can be trusted.
And bosses never stop assessing employees for the very same reason.
Without trust, the boss-employee relationship is really a non-relationship. In the absence of trust in either direction, there is dysfunction, negativity, and reduced productivity with poorer quality work. Loyalty goes out the window.
So what are your employees always watching for, consciously and subconsciously, as they evaluate how much you can be trusted? Here are ten of the top behaviors that will show your employees you are worthy of their trust.
- Sincere listening. When employees talk to their boss, they need to feel that what they have to say is more important to you than anything else at that moment. Never act irritated or impatient during the conversation—no matter what’s going on or how busy you are. If it’s genuinely not a good time to talk, say that, and decide on a time to talk later in the day that works for both of you.
- Eye contact. During those conversations, take your hands off the keyboard, put down the reports you’re reading, don’t answer the phone. Give the employee your undivided attention.
- Positive responses. No matter what the topic of conversation, strive to remain positive. Employees need lots of pats on the back and encouragement, so if you’re being told about a decision they’ve made that was excellent, or how they handled a difficult situation, be sure to show appreciation and dole out some praise.
- Consistency. You and your employees will discuss bad news or unpleasant information from time to time, of course. It’s vital that you remain calm, or at the very least, that you don’t raise your voice or throw things. Focus on what needs to be done to remedy the situation. Consistent behavior (professional and mature) is essential to developing and maintaining trust.
- Empathy. Show your employees that you care about them and their problems—work related or not. Demonstrate concern when you hear about their flat tire, hospitalized mother, crashed hard drive, or encounter with a difficult customer.
- Delegate. Micro-managing sends a clear message to employees that you don’t trust them to do the right thing. Delegate, let people do their jobs, and don’t breathe down their necks. Which leads us to…
- Acknowledge that we are all human. And human beings make mistakes, including your employees. If you can’t handle this fact, you shouldn’t be a boss. If your employees are fearful of your response if they screw up, they’ll do less work and be less innovative. If no mistakes are being made, not much work is getting done.
- Fairness. Treat all employees the same. Period. Sure, you’ll have favorites. But don’t let anyone know—not even those you favor. Fairness also includes making sure that credit is given where credit is due.
- Kindness. Smile at your employees. Be nice to them. Thank them frequently for their many contributions.
- Apologize. If only leaders understood the allure of humility. When you do something that results in extra work for an employee, apologize. When you over-react to a situation, apologize. Followers love a boss who is humble enough to apologize.
Posted by Janet Smith on August 18, 2008
I blog about bad bosses all the time. But that doesn’t mean I think all bosses are bad, or that all employees are great. In fact, without a doubt, there are some darn good managers out there who put up with less than desirable behavior from employees and who go above and beyond in trying to help staff members improve their skills, solve their problems, be happier…
So this brings up the question, what do leaders want from their followers? I just came across a great blog entry on this subject on the UK’s BNET site. The blog is called Sterling Performance, and this entry was written by Jo Owen.
Jo asked some bosses to describe traits of excellent employees. In priority order, they mentioned:
- Hard work
- Proactivity
- Intelligence
- Reliability
- Ambition
The first four are bottom line basics that shouldn’t surprise anyone. The fifth—ambition—may be a bit unexpected. It tells me this: Leaders (the good ones, anyway) want their followers to want to succeed—and they want to help them along the way.
The leaders Jo spoke with said they must be able to trust their employees. She was told, “I forgive most things…I forgive failures as long as people do not repeat the same failure. But when the trust goes, it’s over. I can not work with a team I do not trust.”
That trust goes both ways. Employees want their bosses to be open and honest and straightforward. Bosses want the same thing in return. More on trust in my next post.
Posted by Janet Smith on August 14, 2008
Employees need to be thanked…a lot. So says “guru of thank you” Bob Nelson, author of the bestselling 1001 Ways to Reward Employees—and he should know. Bob wrote the book in 1994, and has updated it a few times. It’s been reprinted something like 52 times—and more than 1.5 million copies have been sold. So this guy knows a thing or two about thanking employees.
In an interview that took place nearly a year ago, Bob said, “The number one reason people leave their jobs today is that they don’t feel recognized for the job they’re doing.” I know this. Maybe you know this. But a whole lot of managers, bosses and others don’t have a clue. I often am told,” All my employees care about is how much money they make.”
Not true. And in this interview, Bob Nelson gives a terrific explanation of why the paycheck doesn’t make people happy. He said, “Peter Drucker, who’s the father of modern management, once said that money is always used initially to reward performance, but in no time at all it becomes an expectation and eventually it becomes an entitlement. People expect to get a raise just for sticking around another year. And in the typical organization, only three per cent of the base pay separates average from outstanding performers; there’s no alignment of compensation around performance. But not everyone gets recognition, and that’s partly why it means so much.”
Bob’s talking about that basic management principal, “you get what you reward.” So if what you want is more outstanding work from an employee, say thank you the very next time that employee performs an iota of outstanding work. Demonstrate appreciation! Write a note, take them to lunch, acknowledge the work in a staff meeting…whatever seems right.
There are lots of ways to say thank you…and if you need more ideas, you might check out Bob’s book. Just make sure that one way or another, you frequently thank your employees.
Posted by Janet Smith on August 11, 2008
Earlier this month, Frank Roche posted an entry for the KnowHR Blog called, “Let’s Put on Bad Behavior Seminars.” He suggests sessions such as, “Passive Aggressive Behavior for the Disaffected Manager” and “How to Make Yourself Look Like You’re Doing Something So You Can Keep Your Job.”
I think Frank is making one of those facetious-but-not-really statements. I mean, try finding one person who works for someone else who doesn’t have a story about bad office behavior! Sometimes it’s the boss; sometimes it’s a co-worker. Frequently it’s the boss and co-workers.
The job market is tight right now. There are some professions, such as nursing and engineering, where demand exceeds supply. But for the majority of workers in this country, finding a new, comparable job is not easy. This means that a lot of people must somehow tolerate an intolerable work environment.
Sounds like another seminar opportunity.
Posted by Janet Smith on August 8, 2008
I promised a positive blog post today. And I have a “great boss” story for you.
I spoke at a Rotary Club yesterday on my favorite topic—increasing employee morale—and had the good fortune to be seated by a nice guy named Craig during lunch. He runs a small financial services company and has just a few employees. And what a great boss! He keeps his assistants completely informed of everything he’s doing and keeps them up-to-date on progress toward company goals. Craig shares all financial aspects of the company with his employees, so they know how business is going. Bonuses are given quarterly, when there are profits—and not surprisingly, there usually are.
Craig trusts his employees and empowers them to make decisions. He gladly lets them take time off when they need time off—no questions asked. He said to me, “I don’t even ask them to keep track of their hours. But I’m sure if I did, I would find out they are working far more hours than they are paid to work.”
That’s what highly motivated, engaged and satisfied employees do—they go the extra mile and more for their employers! Imagine what ownership Craig’s employees have in his company. They know they are valued and that success is a team effort.
I said to Craig, “I’ll bet if your assistants were offered jobs somewhere else for more money, they wouldn’t leave.”
He said with confidence, “No. They wouldn’t.”
High employee morale isn’t about the money. It’s about the way you’re treated. Craig’s doing everything right and you can bet his employees know how lucky they are to work for him. They no doubt hear plenty of “bad boss” stories from friends and family…so why would they leave? You can’t put a price on loving your job!
Posted by Janet Smith on August 4, 2008
There is a wealth of research data floating around demonstrating that organizations whose employees have high morale consistently have higher than average profits and returns on investment.
And there are even more study results that undeniably prove that employees who have lousy bosses rarely have high morale.
So then why are there so many bad bosses out there? And yes, I’ve got stats for this as well. Working America, the AFL-CIO affiliate, commissioned a bad bosses survey that was conducted by Lake Research Partners.
They found that 10 percent of the 1,000 people surveyed think they have bad bosses. When you take 10 percent of the entire population of people working in this country, I guess you come up with 15 million people. That’s awful. And as someone in the business of employee morale, I have no trouble believing that this number is more or less accurate.
I’m not a negative person. Quite the opposite. Yet I’m always posting negative blogs about the workplace. So in my next post, I will have something good to say.
Posted by Janet Smith on July 29, 2008
Yelling, screaming, ranting and raving have no place in the workplace. Employers should not allow customers to yell at their employees. Employers should not allow employees to yell at each other. And I beg of bosses everywhere…please do not yell at your employees. It is inhumane, inappropriate, and an abuse of position. It’s also one of the quickest ways to send morale plummeting, not that bosses who yell even care.
Yet I hear it all the time. A lot of people deal with yelling at work.
One company I know of actually allows a group of employees to yell at each other when they disagree. These co-workers blame each other for everything and apparently know of no other way to deal with conflict. Can you imagine going to work at a place like that every day?
Earlier this year I was talking with a man who works as a custodian. He said he made less than $10 an hour. This man was probably in his late 30s, and he had a family. But he said to me, “I’d stay here for the rest of my career if my boss would just quit yelling at me.”
Broke my heart.
Posted by Janet Smith on July 16, 2008
I have two teenagers, and they both have part-time jobs—one at a grocery store, and one at a restaurant. Both of them describe their bosses as “mean.”
My son, who has the restaurant job, just started there about six weeks ago. He said the workers who have been their much longer told him the boss is “mean to everyone and never smiles.” They told him not to expect the boss to be nice because she never is.
My daughter, who has worked at this grocery store for about 10 months, used to like the management there. But there were some personnel changes a few months ago, and she says no one likes to work there anymore. She told me that the “old” bosses really liked her and made her feel like a great employee who really works hard (which I believe to be true, setting aside my bias as a mother). They were grooming her to take on a bit more responsibility. Then the new bosses came in, and they tell her she doesn’t appear to work very hard and they don’t want to give her more responsibility.
The good news is that my kids make minimum wage and can find another job if they get fed up with the poor management. And of course they’re learning important life lessons, because they’ll no doubt encounter many more bad bosses in their lives. But it’s sad that to see how quickly their enthusiasm has died. Very sad. Because it just doesn’t have to be that way.
Posted by Janet Smith on July 8, 2008
Employee morale is heading toward the bottom of the beer barrel at Anheuser-Busch, reports say. In the news yesterday: word that the Belgian beer company InBev is attempting to replace the entire Anheuser board. InBev wants a new board that is more amenable to their $46 billion takeover bid that was nixed by the board they InBev hope to oust.
It’s good to see some news coverage discussing the impact this battle is having on employee morale. There’s talk of job cuts to fend off the takeover—who wouldn’t be nervous? And when one’s employer is embroiled in an ongoing tumultuous situation, with the relentless publicity (in this case, shall we call it brewhaha?) that comes with it, employees experience fear, anger, and ambivalence. Their sense of loyalty and level of productivity plummet as they ponder the possibilities. How will they be affected if InBev’s takeover is successful? Would InBev be a better company to work for? Or if the takeover fails, would life as an Anheuser employee be the same? Better? Worse?
Let’s hope that the folks in charge at A-B know how important it is to keep your employees extremely informed of what’s going on and to show concern for their feelings. Here are four of the most important things leaders must do to keep employees as loyal and engaged as possible during a crisis situation:
- Make sure that employees receive news first. It’s demoralizing to learn something about your employer by reading it in the newspaper or online or by hearing it on the radio or television.
- Be honest with employees about what’s going on—even if the truth involves layoffs or other unpleasant news.
- Encourage employees to submit questions, and then regularly (for awhile, perhaps even daily) publish the questions along with the answers for all employees to see.
- Acknowledge that the situation is difficult and stressful. Employees feel helpless and have no control over what’s going on—yet their lives may be impacted in a huge way. Have compassion for what the employees are experiencing.
Posted by Janet Smith on July 7, 2008
I’ve still got TLC’s new show, The Singing Office, on my mind. On the show’s Website, I found a community forum that asks this question: Is there a song that describes the people or atmosphere in your office? What would your workplace theme song be?
Most (though not all) of the responses paint pictures of unpleasant workplaces.
One person had this to say about a theme song for her job: “They call it Stormy Monday, but Tuesday is just as BAD!”
And I doubt things improve on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
Another entry: “Sadly the first to pop in my head is ‘The Adams Family’!!” (For those of you who can’t recall the theme song to that program I loved as a kid: They’re creepy and they’re kooky, Mysterious and spooky, They’re all together ooky, The Addams Family.)
In response to that, someone wrote, “Hahahaha!! Even though I have a lot of co-workers who could be categorized as distant and not-so-distant relatives of the Adams Family, our song here would probably be “Working For A Living” although each of us is secretly singing, “Take This Job and Shove It”!
Take this job and shove it. Is that what your employees would choose as a workplace theme song? And if you think it doesn’t matter…think again.
