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| Volume 7, Issue 5 |
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In This Issue:
 The great debates about 360 degree feedback
Performance management process checklist
 Why you can't get any work done
Running on an empty tank
Calling the policy police
Which way to the future?
Time off: The europeans do it right
 How much of leadership is about control, delegation, or theater?
 Onboarding: new considerations for senior leadership
Retaining high potentials
Hiring as a competitive advantage
How to retain your gen-X workforce
PowerPoint: boon or bane?
Marketing loyalty: how tactics kill strategy
People skills sales quiz
 Leave 'em laughing
 'Bounce Rate' as sexiest web metric ever
 Moving on without burning bridges
Medical symptoms you shouldn't ignore
 Ten healthy reasons to take a vacation
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The Great debates about 360 degree feedback
Each of us wants to know how we’re doing at work.
We especially want data from our supervisor that tells us that we are doing well. We have a great need to know how others view our work but we want the information in a kind and
gentle fashion. When learning how to provide effective feedback, managers discover how to give meaningful feedback in a way that ensures the employee shares meaning,
my favorite definition for communication...
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Performance management process checklist
Regular emails from readers ask hundreds of questions each year. Patterns emerge about the toughest situations you face in your organizations.
These are the ten toughest, but most frequent, questions you send my way.
Performance development planning in most companies should have concluded by now. The third quarter is underway and employees deserve a concise understanding of
their expectations for this quarter. They also like timely feedback about how their work was perceived during the second quarter.
That said, the best goals are measurable and employees should "know" how they performed. Still participating in an old-fashioned, traditional performance appraisal system? Your organization
needs this information...
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Why you can't get any work done
Workplace distractions cost U.S. business some $650 billion a year. Here's how managers can keep employees focused.
Sly Kodrin, vice-president for operations at a hinge manufacturing company in Alliance, Ohio, likes to maintain a shop floor that balances passion with productivity,
allowing his 75 employees to listen to music and socialize, as long as it does not interfere with their work. But when a stamping press operator brought golf clubs to work one day and began swinging at rolled-up work gloves while he was in charge of
an automatic stamp press, Kodrin's line had been crossed. "Most people, I tend to believe, thought it was funny at first," Kodrin says about the incident, which rose above the ordinary distractions of equipment noise, weather, blackouts, and news
of the day. But the humor dissipated quickly [It is estimated that American businesses lose around $650 billion a year through workplace distractions, such as]...
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Running on an empty tank
We expend huge amounts of emotional and mental energy every day at work. You need to replenish periodically to avoid crashing and burning.
One time about 10 years ago, for no apparent reason, I broke out in hives. I couldn't for the life of me imagine what I'd eaten or drunk or rolled in that would have caused these awful red spots to appear. I asked my wise voice teacher, Winifred, for
advice, and she filled me in on the Barrel Theory of allergy. Your body is like a barrel, she said. We can only take so much exposure to allergens without any trouble. When the barrel is full, that's it: One more chemical in the dry-cleaning fluid on your suit or the wrapper on your ballpark hot dog, and you've got hives. Often, it's not
any one thing that does it, but the accumulation of toxic stuff that just fills the barrel to overflowing one day. At work, we have things to do and people to see and deadlines to meet all day long. And as we work, we expend tremendous amounts of mental and emotional energy. Some days are productive and empowering; others are
frustrating, boring, or crazy-making. The good news is that the energy doesn't all go in one direction; our work can fill our fuel tanks up as easily as it can drain them. Little things like praise and companionship and encouragement give us the energy
to keep going. Ever notice how there's one recurring meeting or event (often connected with budget time!) at your job that sucks the energy out of you—while other activities give you extra juice? It's good to pay attention to these energy-giving
and energy-draining aspects of your job. The truth is, you can't run a race on an empty tank, and if your job is taking more fuel than it's giving you, you're going to hit empty. There are a few ways to keep the needle on your fuel tank out of the red zone...
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Calling the policy police
Sure, sometimes you have to write down the rules, but too many policies is a waste of time and makes employees feel you don't trust them.
You might think that as a 25-year human resources leader, I'd be a big fan of policies. Lots of HR people are simply crazy for policies. They'll enact a new policy every day if you let them. I take the opposite view: The fewer policies, the better. What I've seen in my years in HR is that policies are expensive, in several important ways.
Policies spring from situations that arise in the workplace. We used to say in my old HR department, "Once is a fluke, twice is a pattern, three times is a new policy." Maybe it's how to handle an employee's request to be paid part of his tuition reimbursement in advance. Maybe it's a policy defining the kinds of slacks that must be worn beneath
the logo'd polo shirts in the company's booth at industry trade shows. You can write a policy for just about anything. And that's a problem, because policies come with costs...
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Which way to the future?
Globalization and technology are drastically changing how we do our jobs—and that's both a promise and a problem.
The "Future of Work" is hardly a new topic. In fact, over the past quarter century, at least 20 books have used that phrase as part or all of their title. So with all the words spilled on this question already, why is BusinessWeek addressing it now? The answer is
simple: The U.S. and the global economies are coming to a crossroads that no one could have anticipated just a few years ago. Globalization and technology together are creating the potential for startling changes in how we do our jobs and the offices we do them in.
Offshoring, for one, means work can be broken into smaller tasks and redistributed around the world. And the rapid growth of broader, richer channels of communication—including virtual worlds—is transforming what it means to be "at work." Yet despite the technological
and organizational progress, it's not clear whether we should look ahead to the future of work with enthusiasm or fear...
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Time Off: The europeans do it right
I applaud a whole continent shutting down for a month. The only way we can really shut down and enjoy time off is with our colleagues' help.
Ten years ago, I was living on the road—way more than was healthy. We expect to see 25-year-old management consultants living out of suitcases, but when you're in
your 30s and have small children at home, a heavy business travel schedule is a major encumbrance. Two weeks every year, if I was lucky, I'd get to pack up the kids and the gear and take a family vacation. But there was a problem: The work didn't stop.
Even when I was hiking in the mountains or sitting on the beach, counting heads bobbing in the waves, my phone would ring...
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How Much of Leadership Is About Control, Delegation, or Theater?
The flood of writing about leadership continues. It reflects our fascination with what many believe to be the most important influence on organizational performance.
In a thought-provoking book published last year, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton suggest that the overriding impact of leadership on performance is a myth, or at
least only a half-truth. 30 years ago, in reviewing research on leadership, Pfeffer concluded at that time that actions of leaders most often explain no more than 10% of performance. Such things as a company's operating environment, the economy in
general, or its long-run success or failure account for more of its current performance.
Findings published since then have done nothing to change Pfeffer's mind. But he also concludes that it may be quite important for leaders to perpetuate the myth of having significant control over performance...
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Onboarding: new considerations for senior leadership
Why is onboarding important? If for no other reason, it's because corporations do it more frequently than ever.
The statistics speak for themselves — according to the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 25 percent of the U.S. workforce has been at the same company for less than one year. Younger workers today will change jobs an average of 10 times before they turn 40.
Recruiting consultancy Spherion reports 45 percent of all workers want to change jobs every three to five years. Mergers and acquisitions also drive the need to bring aboard many individuals within a fairly small window. Achieving a Day 1 integrated workforce requires
intensive planning and execution on multiple levels, including culture, training and human capital governance. This is especially true in that...
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Retaining high potentials
According to a recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management, 12 percent of the workforce, on average, voluntarily resigned January through August 2006.
More-current statistics do not look any more promising — a February 2007 survey by Salary.com revealed that nearly 66 percent of tenured employees (people who have been in their positions for three to 10 years) plan to look for a new job in the next three months.
The threat of increased turnover is grabbing the attention of management, as well as human resources. The productivity costs of losing 12 percent of your workforce is certainly enough for companies to take action, but when combined with the financial and market
impact, addressing retention issues quickly escalates to the top of upper management's priority list. Studies show employee turnover can cost companies up to 40 percent of their annual profit. That's for the turnover of all employees, regardless of their performance
levels. The financial impact of losing a significant number of high- potential employees (those who have been identified as your future leaders) can be exponentially higher. Who are these people who can dramatically affect a company's bottom line? The criteria for
being identified as a high potential varies among organizations, yet nearly all share these traits...
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Hiring as a competitive advantage
Unless you are casting extras for a crowd scene in Ben Hur, hire only exceptional people who love the work if you want a profitable company with a sustainable competitive advantage.
If your workforce is not well selected you will have an inconsistent sales force, a low customer service rating and reduced profit margins due to higher turnover costs. But finding these passionate individuals proves difficult when the conventional hiring process of resumes and interviews doesn't consistently and predictably produce highly productive employees.
The Conventional Hiring Process
Posting a help wanted ad on a job board, reading resumes and interviewing candidates offers no competitive advantage. And, more importantly, recent studies have called into question the effectiveness of conventional hiring tools...
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How to Retain Your Gen-X Workforce
You've hired them. Now how can you keep them around?
Things aren't always what they seem. If I could give you one bit of advice on dealing with the latest generation of employees to come under your management, it would be to remember those words…things aren't always what they seem. If you are like most
business leaders, you've no doubt noticed a trend in the way employees behave in recent years. Most likely you consider it a negative trend—too much entitlement, not enough loyalty, no work ethic, only interested in themselves, and on and on. But I challenge you to consider that perhaps these are not negative trends, just different ones.
To better understand who your employees are and what drives them to succeed, perhaps it's easiest to understand who they are not—you. That's right. They may even be your offspring but in the workplace they bear little resemblance to the "you" of
yesteryear. Gen Xers (born 1965-1979) and Millenials (born after 1980) are operating in this world with a completely different perspective. Their definitions of loyalty, time and success are often quite different from yours. Rest assured they do recognize
all of these concepts and value them in very important ways. The key to your organization's future success is understanding how the Millenials view the world and using that knowledge to motivate them in a way that works. Here's a hint:...
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PowerPoint: boon or bane?
If you want to shut up a consultant, just uninstall PowerPoint from his or her laptop!
The same is true for most professionals—including executives, speakers, presenters, and sales and marketing people—for whom PowerPoint has become darn near life's necessity. Recently, PowerPoint quietly celebrated its 20th birthday. Lee Gomes wrote about in The
Wall Street Journal: "There won't be a lot of birthday celebrations for PowerPoint; the program is one the world loves to mock almost as much as it loves to use. While PowerPoint has served as the metronome for countless crisp presentations, it has also allowed an
endless expanse of dimwit ideas to be dressed up with graphical respectability."...
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Marketing loyalty: how tactics kill strategy
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OK, but how can one develop and renew a brand? How about new ideas?" |
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Keeping customers loyal starts with their ability to consistently recognize your brand.
Imagine that you had one face yesterday, another one today and will have yet another tomorrow. Your friends and relatives would probably stop recognizing you. The same goes for your brand. Without a clearly formulated and reasonable advertising strategy, your brand
has no lasting power nor individual character. Unfortunately, this is one of the key mistakes a great majority of modern brands make. A brand image changed too often and straying from its core niche can throw consumers into the state of confusion. While brand
consistency—if it meets customer expectations and resonates with their needs—will lead to increasing customer loyalty and favorable word-of-mouth that will strengthen the brand's
position even further. ...
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People skills sales quiz
Are you aware that your body language reveals your deepest feelings and hidden thoughts to total strangers?
As a professional salesperson you must continuously monitor your customer's body language and adjust your presentation style accordingly. By understanding your prospect's
temperament style and body language gestures you'll minimize perceived sales pressure and close more sales in less time...
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Leave 'em laughing
Barbara Ashkin on why customers come back to a company that rocks.
Just because we're a serious company doesn't mean customer interaction has to be dull or depressing. We provide excellent service, but also brief, bright moments in customers' days. They love us for it. People chiefly approach Cxtec over the phone or online.
Most voice systems are awful: Press this to get this department, blah, blah. When we installed a voice over IP system we said, how can we make this fun for customers and expressive of our personality? We recorded a dryly humorous message and gave people a few
extra options. Press 4 to hear the lion roar. Press 5 to hear a funny joke. Customers call and think, okay, these guys are different...
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'Bounce Rate' as sexiest web metric ever
It might seem farfetched to characterize a metric as sexy, but by the time you are done reading this article you'll be more than attracted to the metric and will mentally associate all sorts of possibilities between you and bounce rate!
It is quite likely that the biggest challenge for you is that you are spending tons of time, energy, and budget on Web marketing efforts, yet conversion rates (or ROI) are stuck in the 2-4% range. You are trying really hard to figure out how to improve the performance,
but you are stymied by the fact that there is ton of data and you have no idea where to start.
Ms. Bounce Rate to the rescue.
Bounce rate is a beautiful way to measure the quality of traffic coming to your Web site. It is almost instantly accessible in any Web analytics tool. It is easy to understand and hard to misunderstand, and it can be applied to any of your efforts. So what is this
mysterious metric? In a nutshell, bounce rate measures the percentage of people who come to your Web site—and leave "instantly." Thought about from a customer perspective, rather than "I came, I saw, I conquered," the action is "I came, I saw, Yuck, I am out of here." Your
marketing efforts should yield more customers who are able to conquer (accomplish the task they are there to accomplish) and fewer who say yuck and leave...
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Moving on without burning bridges
Richard Edsall left his job at Chubb twice. After each resignation, the company hired him back.
Was this a case of a recruiter asleep on the job? Absolutely not. Edsall is known in human resources parlance as a "boomerang"--an employee who leaves a company to get other experience and then returns to the original employer. In many cases it creates an ideal
employee, one who knows the original company's culture and brand and gained additional skills while at another firm. Granted, to be a boomerang you have to be a high performer. Equally as important is the way you resign. Give plenty of notice, explain why you're
leaving and maintain relationships with co-workers. With aging baby boomers leaving the workforce and taking their years of experience with them, boomerangs are likely to become more valuable...
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Medical symptoms you shouldn't ignore
When people have heart attacks in the movies, they clutch their arms to their chests and double over in pain, crying out for help. In reality, the signs of a heart attack are much more subtle.
Since symptoms can include mild pressure in the chest, lightheadedness and sweating, it's often hard for the average person to identify one. That's what researchers at the Yale School of Medicine found in a study of 24 women 55 and under who'd had
heart attacks and were admitted to a hospital. It showed that 42% didn't recognize the warning signs. Despite the fact that 88% of the women had a family history of heart disease, many thought they had indigestion or heartburn, and half waited more
than an hour to go to the emergency room, says Judith Lichtman, associate professor in epidemiology at Yale and lead author of the study. Why the laid-back approach to their health?...
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Ten healthy reasons to take a vacation
The surf's calling, but if you're like many, you're feeling guilty about asking your boss for a little time off to relax--even though you desperately need it.
Not only do Americans get a meager amount of vacation time, they also tend not to use it all, according to Expedia.com's seventh annual Vacation Deprivation survey, conducted this spring. Unsurprisingly, Americans got the least amount of vacation days per year among the
countries surveyed, earning only 14 days vs. 24 days in Great Britain, 26 days in Germany, 30 days in Spain and 36 days in France. And despite reporting an average of 14 vacation days this year, compared with 12 days in 2005, 35% of the more than 4,100 U.S. adults
questioned said they will not use all of their time off, leaving an average of three days on the table...
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