A No “Thank You” Culture

The other day I got a call from a very frustrated client of mine. Of course, this client is often frustrated when he calls. You see my client is in a very specialized field, in a job that he loves, with a great boss but he finds himself frustrated by the culture of his small (50 person) company.

It seems the CEO is a subscriber to the “Management Philosophy of the Month Club.” You know the type. They read a book, or worse an excerpt from a book, and suddenly they have a whole new view of management and leadership. Every month or so there are a whole new series of buzzwords, new signs on the wall and new enlightenment for the entire staff. Of course this pattern repeats itself 8 to 10 times a year. The result of this type of fluid management style is a constantly confused organization that is awash in buzz words and unclear as to their real direction. Sometimes these management fads are gone as quickly as they come. Other times bits and pieces stay around the company for months or even years as disjointed credos that haunt the employees like a bad disco tune.

The source of my client’s recent frustration was a company wide staff meeting that he attended which unveiled the newest philosophy of the CEO. As the staff meeting started the CEO talked about people being phony and about the importance of honesty in the organization at all times. He then distributed a two page typewritten document that described the phoniness of the phrase “Thank you.” According to the CEO, the expression “thank you” is an empty phrase with no real meaning, used by people as a pretense of being nice to each other when they really didn’t care about each other at all. He went on to say that he had not used the term “thank you” in years (a concept that had not gone unnoticed by his staff) and now he wanted to eliminate the phrase from their vocabulary as well.

The dictum was simple.

The term “thank you,” “thanks,” or similar phrases were being banned from the business. No member of the team was allowed to use these terms with each other or with the customers. “False civility is out and honesty is in” the boss proclaimed.

As you might imagine, my client was quite upset. He could not imagine working in a place where employees were not allowed to acknowledge or thank each other. Likewise, he could not imagine NOT thanking the customer. My client is a High S personality (Learn about DISC Here) where friendliness and courtesy are commonplace and expected. He was quite distraught. He knew that this might blow over in a month or so, but he also knew that he had never heard the CEO say “thank you” in his 6 years on the job. He feared life in a thankless world of false honesty where signs of appreciation were flatly discouraged.

What does a culture of no “Thank You” say about an organization and the way they treat their employees and customers. I’m curious to hear your comments and thoughts on working in an organization like this.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:

• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time…..

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

The Value of Feedback

It’s what you learn after you know it all, that counts, - John Wooden (1910 - 2010)


Most people would agree that performance feedback is an important part of the development of any individual. And while I’m not a fan of the traditional Performance Appraisal process, I’m a huge fan of ongoing, honest, growth-oriented feedback. It’s a simple fact that people improve faster with feedback than without feedback. An honest outside perspective of your performance can go a long way in identifying areas of development and improving one’s performance.

Managers and executives should routinely provide feedback to those around them as a way to further serve both the individual and the organization. As an executive, keeping my thoughts to myself on performance helps neither the individual involved, nor the organization. In fact, I would argue that failure to provide adequate constructive feedback does a grave disservice to all involved. After all, how can an individual or an organization develop without it?

Having said that, it leads to a further question that must be answered: as an executive, where do you go to get honest feedback on your performance?

Just because someone has reached the executive ranks should not imply that they are somehow perfect, without flaw or weakness, and, therefore, no longer in need of honest feedback. In fact, the exact opposite may well be true. While we received a lot of feedback earlier in our career, the nature of our jobs as executives demands that we receive more feedback than ever, while the political nature of the beast actually leads to less feedback.

Think about it. Early in our career we had a variety of bosses, and an even larger variety of peers, who were willing and even anxious to provide us with feedback. But as we progressed up the management chain, we suddenly find ourselves with a smaller variety of bosses and certainly many less peers who are willing and able to assist us in our development.

Let’s use the analogy of a golfer.

As an amateur golfer I might take some golf lessons as a way to improve my game. The instructor provides me with feedback on my swing and approach to the game. As I play more I may watch players who are better than I am to see what I can learn from them. Some, seeing promise in my swing, may even play the role of a de-facto coach to help me continue to improve. With my eye on turning pro, I may invest in a quality personal coach to further my development. By now, my major swing flaws have been identified and fixed, but there are still many subtle aspects of the game that I need to perfect to truly master the game. Finally, I turn pro and find myself winning championships!

Truly I have mastered the game.

Except that I haven’t, have I. Ask anyone who watches professional golf and they will tell you that great players, professional players, occasionally fall into bad habits, make mistakes, or forget key aspects of their game. Even the best professional golfers find that they need someone to give them an outside perspective of their game, view their stroke with a set of unbiased eyes, and make them aware of their blind spots. Without an unbiased, honest feedback mechanism even the best golfers will lose their way.

The same is true for executives. While we may have “taken the lessons” of leadership, we sometimes fall into bad habits and forget the very things that made us great. And the higher we get in our organization, the more difficult it becomes to get the feedback that we all so desperately need.

Where do you go for feedback? Who is it that helps you maintain your swing and helps you be the best executive that you can be?

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:

• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

3 Keys to Building Trust

Great teams are built on the foundation of great leadership. Great leadership is built on the foundation of great trust.  (David R. Meyer, Principal – ECI Learning Systems LLC)

Have you ever worked hard for a leader that you did not trust? I’m not talking here about completing a project on time or early because the boss was yelling at you. I’m talking about when you have made a commitment to give your very best efforts day in and day out. Have you ever done that for a boss that you do not trust?

Neither have I.

I have a strong work ethic and always have. I pride myself on my ability to work hard and produce superior results regardless of who the boss is. Yet, when I look back on my career I have to admit that while I always worked hard, there were certain bosses that always got my very best, every single time. And there were other bosses who got good work from me, but honestly, not my very best. For some bosses, I just didn’t go that extra mile, or look in one more place for the perfect graphic for that presentation, or I decided that a 96% accuracy rate was good enough.

And I’m not alone. Although many people will tell you that they always give their very best, you can be sure that some small things, and even some big things, slip through the cracks when we don’t trust our boss.

What can you do to build trust in your organization? Here are 3 things that every leader should do to build trust.

1. Communicate - Too many leaders underestimate the value of communication. Or they believe that if they have said something once, that it must be enough. Just like marketers repeat the same refrain again and again to ensure that their message is heard, so must you, as a leader, communicate your vision, your goals, and your beliefs. And communicate in a variety of ways. Don’t rely on just a memo, or just a company news flash, or just a video message from the President. Instead use a variety of vehicles to communicate and reinforce your message across the organization.

2. Be Transparent - Don’t try and sugar coat the truth. Tell your employees what is really happening within the organization, good or bad. When you fail to be transparent you leave a void in the organization. And that void will likely be filled with gossip and innuendo that will be much worse than anything you might actually tell them. The old adage that “Bad news is better than no news at all” rings true in every organization. When bad things happen, be honest about it. But be equally as honest when good things happen.

3. Accept and understand differing viewpoints - Everyone does not think like you. Accept and embrace that fact. Diversity in the workplace is about more than race, gender, or political viewpoints. Every person has their own set of filters that they apply to everything around them. Instead of trying to create a wholly homogeneous environment where everyone agrees about everything, encourage an open debate of different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of issues. When people feel free to speak their minds about the issues of the company, then you will know that they have trust in you and the organization.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer

ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

People are Irrational

In a shocking revelation, the Harvard Business Review recently announced that studies are showing that people do not behave in a rational manner. In fact, human beings have a tendency to act irrationally. It seems that people do not always do what is best for them, do not always weigh the pros and cons before making decisions, and do not always recognize the possible downsides of their decisions.

At some level, we all know that this is true and we have known it since we were small children. We saw this irrational behavior play out in high school and later in college, where some of us even took pride in our ability to act irrationally. And then we entered the business world and, for some reason, we expected people, both our employees and our customers, to behave rationally. We expected them to make logical, rational choices to purchase the better quality product, to make the right decision when choosing which job to take, and to follow the incentives that maximized their income as part of the employee compensation plan. And then, when that didn’t work out the way we expected, we took a closer look at the details, because clearly we had some mistakes in the way we developed that plan.

People are irrational.

Your employees are people.

Therefore, your employees are irrational and don’t always behave in the manner you would expect.

On the surface, we might find this surprising, or even shocking. But at a deeper level, we’ve known this all along but, for some reason, chose to suppress the notion because… well, it just isn’t logical and doesn’t fit into our view of how the adult world is supposed to work.

Now that we know this, what exactly are we supposed to do about it?

Let’s understand what it really means to us at a practical level. The fact that employees behave irrationally explains why managers who manage only by the numbers often produce short term results and disappoint in the long term. They believe that the employees will behave logically and then create incentives designed to produce the results they desire. But since they ignore the emotional connection that employees need to produce satisfying long-term results, they must constantly tweak their incentive programs to try and continue to show progress.

The reality is that, to really get the most from your employees, you need to make a personal and emotional connection with them so that they see you as a person who cares rather than the “incentive maker.” And when you have created that emotional connection you will be well on your way to being the kind of leader that produces long term results with a loyal team that takes pride in their success and yours.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

Training middle managers can provide the highest payback for your organization

Times are still tough right now in America. Banks are trying to recover, the stock market is up and down, and businesses large and small are looking for capital that is not readily available. When these things happen, 99% of all companies “batten down the hatches”, cut costs, reduce payroll through layoffs, and do everything possible to just survive the ordeal.

And frankly, it’s hard to find fault with a policy that says, “When sales are slow, it’s time to reduce expenses”. On the surface it just makes sense to try and minimize losses during this period. This certainly makes short term sense. And American businesses today are run on a short-term view of the world. We stress quarterly profits, consistently reduced expenses, and tight control over all aspects of the budget. And this certainly includes the cost of developing people.

A small minority of companies take a longer term view and use these slow periods as a time of retrenchment and training. These companies tend to understand the cyclical nature of business, the cost of rehiring and retraining employees, the potential loss of long term revenue from dissatisfied customers, and all of the other hidden costs associated with ramping up the business again.

Let me illustrate with a brief example.

A company I once worked with saw a disturbing slow down in revenue. Top management sprung into action (or reaction) and immediately laid off 15% of their back-end delivery organization. At the same time, they used the money they were “saving” and hired additional sales people. Within 6 months, the executives were pleased that their investment had paid off, sales were on the upswing, and projections for future earnings were very encouraging.

There were, of course, some hurdles. Not only was the delivery organization down 15% in terms of staffing, but other employees had seen the layoffs as a harbinger of future trouble and left the company. And, when people leave your company voluntarily, it usually translates into losing your best people. After all, those are the people that always have options and places to go. So middle managers estimated that their ability to deliver services was now about 25% below capacity prior to the layoff. When the influx of orders arrived, they were unable to handle the volume, and both timeliness and quality suffered dramatically. Customers who had been promised both cost savings and efficient delivery received neither. Some orders were cancelled due to long delivery intervals. Others were delivered but the quality was so bad that the Sales and Customer Retention teams were forced to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to keep the customers happy. Many customers lost faith in the company’s ability to deliver its product and took future orders elsewhere, creating a downward spiral which nearly bankrupt the company.

This is a company that had saved money in the short term, but that same short term view caused lasting damage that far outweighed the savings.

Companies that take a longer term view of their business invest in their management team at all levels, during good times and bad. It’s fairly easy to invest dollars during good times, as profits easily cover the expenses. But it’s more important to invest in your employees during bad times. And this is especially true at the middle management level.

Training your middle managers has the potential for the highest payback in your organization. Properly trained middle managers produce excellent results that translate directly to your bottom line. Poorly trained middle managers create a disengaged workforce, where all employees are effectively doing as little as possible, or do what their manager tells them to without regard for what is right for themselves or the company. And, this lack of employee engagement might not be readily apparent to the executives at the top of the organization. Untrained managers tend to measure and manage what they can easily measure, not what they should manage and measure. Therefore, while productivity may not be where it once was or where the executive team thinks it should be, the lack of appropriate measurements will obscure the extent of the decline.

Forward thinking companies take full advantage of a temporary slowdown to prepare themselves for the inevitable upturn. Reviewing existing processes and procedures, training employees and mid-level managers, and developing a consistent plan of action across the organization is the best way to ensure that you are properly positioned when the economy rebounds.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:

• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/