Solving Sticky People Problems

Using Your Supervisory Inner Sense with Employees

Tim McHeffey

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781614480181
• eBook ISBN: 9781614480198
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Solving Sticky People Problems uses PHP, the most powerful ingredient in human communication! It is the real way to handle those sometimes excruciatingly painful employee issues. SSPP shows hard-working supervisors and managers how to draw on their inner sense to address these prickly challenges (which no college textbook can). Foreword writer and former editor of "Working Woman" and "Working Mother" magazines, Barbara Litrell shares: "After years of management, I arrived at the same place that Tim McHeffey does in this book. PHP is a shortcut to management sanity---as a new manager you will read this book and think, 'Is he for real? Will this work? It can't be this simple.' Years from now, you will reread the book and think, 'of course, that's exactly what it's all about.'" What do you do when: your employees just don't do what you ask them to, you hear through the grapevine that morale stinks, an outspoken employee thinks she's productive, but is really not, you observe that an employee, returning from lunch, appears to be staggering and slurring his words, you have bullying-harassment going on, you have an employee who is a bigot, there are no raises this year, employees don't work well together, and/or Jenny smells. HELP!! SSPP will guide you through all of these and more. Your prickly employee challenges will seem to melt away with the PHP formula.

Managing Sticky Situations
—Day-to-Day—

Chapter 5

Real Motivating

How to help employees get unstuck— and watch them
motorize and energize (and you too!)

NOTES FROM THE PHP MANAGER'S JOURNAL.

“Motivate them? I can't even motivate me!”

—OB, Chicago

“The people who are miserable will always be miserable.”

—DE, Long Island

“Our motto here is, 'It's always opening day for our customers. If it's not opening day for you, maybe someone else could work for you today. Tomorrow's a new day.'”

—DENNIS DONOVAN, Owner, Atlantic Seafood, Long Island

Anonymous Tip: Employees Feel
Unappreciated!

Sources Say So Many Tasks Go Unrewarded—

NOT EVEN MENTIONED!

Pretend your employees have an underground grapevine newspaper. And pretend the above is today's headline. Do you:

A. Write an e-mail to all the employees stating how you do appreciate them?

B. Ignore it? (They're being paid).

C. Call a special meeting to clear the air?

D. Have an “Ice Cream Sundae Afternoon” to show them how much they're regarded?

E. Wait for performance review time and see if you can be a bit more generous with raises?

F. Form an “Employee Morale Committee?”

G. Ask a couple key, trusted employees if there's truth to the anonymous note?

H. Ask your boss what to do?

I. Write specific, hand-written thank-you notes to those employees you suspect may need some extra props?

Let's think out loud about potential next steps…

A. Some believe sending out a thank you e-mail is a cop-out to face-to-face vocalizing. Done sparingly however, and in combination with an ongoing MBWA (managing by wandering around) program, it's delicious, creamy icing on the cake.

B. Never ignore any discontent brought to your attention. Delay reaction perhaps…to think it all through—consider options. But never ignore. Managers are paid for the quality of their thinking, from which stems high caliber decisions.

C. Meetings-schmeetings. There's better stuff to do first. See Chapter Eight…NOn-Sticky) Teamwork and Organizing Great Meetings, How to inspire groups to just plain, work better, together!

D. Best time to buy donuts, pizza, whatever is 1) When you don't feel the need to buy accolades from your employees; 2) When they don't expect it. Expected perks become “hygiene factors.” More on this later.

E. Generally, nothing should wait 'til evaluation time. No surprises. And money can't buy you love or (sustained) employee loyalty. Sure, they'll fake it for awhile but feigned love and loyalty of any kind is as empty as a beer bottle tossed into a field in the hazy drought of summer.

F. “Employee Morale Committee?” See “C.” See “D.” IOW, it's not the first “what to do now.”

G. You may acquire the info you need, but putting “pet” employees on the spot makes them feel like snitches. PHP Managers don't need informants. They're out there recognizing the problems before they exist.

H. One question: does your boss use PHP? If so, ask away. If not, don't.

I. “Thank you” notes? See “D.”

So what's the answer? Let's first discuss what often does not work. We in traditional supervision confuse activity with effectiveness. IOW, we think we need to act—to do something! We conventionally-trained managers like to have answers for everything!

ACTION BRIEF! It's okay to answer employees' questions with “That's a good question…I'm not sure?”

Here's an idea for a possible solution. Take a walk. Stroll around. If you're employees are not used to it, they may freak a bit, but just do it. Greet them. Sincerely ask them how things are going. Just chat. No agendas. No known purpose. You're serving them. An old In Search of Excellence adage was that if you're not serving the customer (internal or external), then you should be serving someone who is. We managers are not on the revenue side of the income statement. We're expenses. If/when they ask you what's up or if you need anything, simply say “No, just checking in,” or whatever's natural for you to say (PURITY, HUMILITY). Don't expect to discover any ah-hahs (PATIENCE). And when you go back to your office, and think to yourself what a friggin' waste of time that was, know this: you have no idea the potential, positive impact you made. And you may never know—for this is part of the perpetual building of a motivational workplace environment. This is MBWA (managing by wandering around). You never motivate employees; your best hope is to create an atmosphere where maybe employees can motivate themselves.

This philosophy can and should become your MO. The more routine it becomes the more familiar and comfortable will be your presence. Your approachability increases exponentially. As this transpires, you become safer as a person with whom to informally chat. Now you can request ideas and methods to improve their jobs. Productivity and ultimately company profit will follow. Something like this: “Hey guys! Here's where we are numbers-wise, here's where we want to be (PURITY).

We in management feel we have a pretty good direction, but we're not certain about the best way to execute the strategy (HUMILITY)… specifically with the day-to-day stuff you all do. Will you all please think about some ways to basically improve the workflow here? Policies, procedures, your particular tasks…everything. Nothing's too small or too big to consider.” Now depending on the level of comfort and trust the employees have in your sincerity, will be the amount of output delivered. But give it time (PATIENCE). Trust is a big, powerful steam roller. When it finally starts, it builds momentum—slowly, then faster. Never speedy, but always strong.

Crucial PHP Reaction Tip: If you're fortunate enough to glean feedback from your employees, it may not always be music to your ears. Being human, you may hastily become defensive—briskly rationalizing why it wouldn't work. Instead, shut up (PATIENCE); if you ever want them to share their thoughts again. There's always time after it seeps in and percolates a bit (HUMILITY) to get back to them with feedback on their suggestions (PATIENCE).

THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG?

Which comes first: morale or productivity? Do you try to make employees happy and they work hard? Or do you help them be productive (busy, prolific, profitable) and hope they inherit happiness in the process? The jury's been out on this one forever. There's a little known tale of the New York Yankees of yesteryear (the era of pennant after pennant). Allegedly, some of the guys didn't like some of the other guys very much. You could say they had some employee morale issues. But when they were pouring champagne all over each other in the locker rooms…the “personality problems” seemed to warrant no discussion.

So just for kicks, let's say the egg comes first. This would be productivity if you're staying up with the story. Simply put, employees should be held accountable for the quality and quantity of “eggs” they make, ship, sell, etc. Chickens are. As was discussed in Chapter Three, hard, accurate, productivity number results tell a mammoth part of the story. Oh sure, there's certain conditions you as the chicken manager can create—proper temperature in the coop, clean nest boxes, enriched food. Yes, employees are animals, but possess refinements our poultry brethren do not.

“Hygiene Factors” as described by Frederick Herzberg have nothing to do with being clean. They are instead the things we expect at work—break time to eat during a work shift, access to a rest room when needed, getting paid. A “Motivating Factor” in Herzberg's “Two-Factor Theory” would be an unexpected raise, or being given an opportunity to advance at work. When motivators become hygiene, they lose their humph. Remember Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation? He bought a swimming pool with a Christmas bonus he expected to get; but his boss had other plans—namely the “jelly of the month club.” Or as his cousin, Eddie said, “The gift that keeps on giving!” Chevy's character treated the bonus as a hygiene factor. No happy surprise, and with little appreciation—it lost its motivating ability. You'll learn in Chapter Seven, there should be no surprises with employees, especially at review time. Let's add a corollary: under-promise but over-deliver. IOW, good surprises are good!

Instead of buying pastries every Thursday morning, switch it up. Skip a week. Then the next, serve bagels with veggie cream cheese. PHP Managers find their employees are motivated by not knowing what their raises will be each year. If/when the productivity is properly measured, and compensation awarded accordingly, employees really are in charge of their destinies—short term leading to long. They will perpetually be self-measuring: what's in it for me?! And the loop is splendidly closed when they are able to answer the question for themselves as well. Keep them on their toes (like a small guy at a urinal). BTW, this good surprise stuff is applicable in marriage, raising kids, teaching students, and serving customers. Think about it. We all like presents!

THIMK! If employees are “on,” they rarely have to be managed. And the days of them jumping into action just when they see you will be long gone. It should get to a point where you can almost feel like you're not even earning your money.

MEASURE WHAT'S IMPORTANT

What you reward tends to get repeated explains Michael LeBoeuf in describing what he states is the greatest management principle in the world. (From the book with the same title from 1985). He calls it GMP. Back to the chicken coop for a moment, if the hens don't care whether you put the food in one big bowl, or numerous small bowls, and egg quality and quantity are unaffected…then the chicken manager shouldn't care either. Point is, many of us over-concentrate on minor crap—which is all it is. PHP Managers prioritize those chores and duties which influence results. Interestingly, this powerful stuff works when managing and directing volunteer groups as well. Pattye Pece, President of Sobornost for The World Foundation, believes that “Management works best when you delegate what needs to be delegated and then step back and allow them to do their jobs.” Pece continues, “Ask your employees or volunteers to give you ideas that will help your business or foundation grow and then include them in the plans.”

ACTION BRIEF! Get out of their way. Front-line employees almost always know better than the supervisor.

TWO BUMS WALK INTO
A TRAIN STATION…

No joke. They really did! And there was one other guy in there (suit-type with fancy briefcase, nice coat, etc.). It was a snowy-icy-cold morning, no heat or even lights nor any ticket-selling attendant. It was the “suit” and the two bums. All of a sudden, a chill pervaded the spine of the “suit,” as the bums were just standing behind him. He smelled a working cigarette and detected the stomach-turning aroma of stale wine from the night before. The “suit” considered that these guys could pretty much kill him and nobody would know for hours. He thought about striking up a conversation with them, “Hey, homeless guys, how's it going?” But he would never use that description—besides, could they even talk? The 6:07AM train for which the “suit” was waiting was awfully late, so he checked the schedule. It was actually the 7:06. Oh no! His anxiousness heightened to fright. And then, astonishingly, they spoke! Here's part of their conversation:

Pete: “You goin' to the turkey dinner tonight at 4:00?”

JC: “For the homeless?”

Pete: “Yeah. You goin'?”

JC: “Yes, uh, huh. Went last year. Was pretty good.”

Pete: (After a couple minutes) “Slept at Dunkin' donuts last night.”

JC: “Least it's warm.”

Pete: “That's the main thing.”

The whole thrust of Maslow's Hierarchy is about appreciating what we have—in levels…in degrees. Placed in another perspective, do you or I really think about where our next meal is coming from? Or heaven help us, where we'll sleep tonight?! The homeless guys may or may not have known those answers. And you would think they'd be on the first level of Maslow's Hierarchy (physiological needs: food, clothing, shelter). But maybe, just maybe they were closer to the top (highest level is “self-actualization,” like they've reached it…had it all). They didn't seem concerned…about anything.

What are you concerned about? Would people be surprised if they knew? One more time, would people be surprised if they knew what concerned you?! The answer is yes. The moral in this (true) fable: we have very little idea what those guys in the train station were thinking and feeling. And just as true is that we cannot “size up” our employees' thoughts, feelings, desires, and aspirations. No one ever motivates another. It's always an inside job.

“MOTIVATE THIS!”

So how do you motivate…you? DON'T depend on your boss for this—ever. All the things you do for your employees—planning, measuring, feedback…you must do for yourself as well. Pay attention to what you want to repeat in your life. Your...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Forward
• Introduction
• Table of Contents
• Section A - Planning for Sticky Situations—Getting Ready
• Section B - Managing Sticky Situations—Day-to-Day
• Section C - The Sticky Challenge of Balancing—Work, Home and Health…in a world of change
• About the Author
• Index