Archives For Trust

What Does Your Great Boss Do?

April 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

iStock_000012107904XSmallReactions to the firing of Rutgers University’s head men’s basketball coach has certainly made headlines recently. Video of the coach shoving & berating players, yelling obscenities, and throwing basketballs at players during practices surfaced in November. It took university administrators five months to decide that the coach’s actions merited his firing; that occurred only after the video was leaked to ESPN and shown on national television.

The athletic director resigned as part of the fallout over the coach’s aggressive treatment of players.

University president Robert Barchi characterized Rice’s behavior as “deeply offensive” and violated the university’s values. There may well be formal statements of university values somewhere but they are not found on the university’s web site. That’s a missed opportunity. When values are formalized and defined in behavioral terms, it is easy for organization members to praise aligned behavior and raise questions about mis-aligned behavior.

The Rutgers’ mens basketball coach was clearly not a great boss to these players. Great bosses create and maintain a safe, inspiring work environment where talented, engaged employees THRIVE.

My experience and research indicates that GREAT Bosses manage these five things consistently well:

GROWTH
Great bosses create avenues for team members to learn new approaches, develop new skills, and gain confidence to put those skills into action in the workplace.
RELATIONSHIPS
Great bosses know that positive relationships based on shared values create mutual trust and respect in the workplace. They create and maintain positive relationships with team members and expect the same among team members.
EXCELLENCE
Great bosses set clear performance expectations and coach team members to exceed them, every time. High standards met consistently help differentiate the team’s contribution to the company and to their customers.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Great bosses know that consequence management is the avenue to high performing, values-aligned teams. They praise and encourage progress & accomplishment of both goals and valued behaviors. They redirect and, if needed, reprimand, values mis-aligned behaviors and missed performance standards.
TEAMWORK
Great bosses know that cooperative interaction among team members maintains trust and respect more than competitive interaction does. They create norms that enable sharing of information, skills, and support across their team.

What “great boss” behaviors am I missing? What does (or did) your Great Boss do to create and maintain a safe, inspiring work environment for you and your peers?

I’m building a GREAT Boss assessment based upon this conceptual model. I’d love your feedback on these five elements. Please join in the conversation about this post/podcast in the comments section below.

What is it like to live in your organization’s culture? Share your experiences in my fast & free Performance-Values Assessment. Results and analysis are described on my blog site’s research page.

This research can help you refine your organization’s corporate culture. Contact me to discuss conducting the Performance-Values Assessment in your company.

Photo © istockphoto.com/yuri_arcurs. All rights reserved.

Subscribe!Podcast – Listen to this post now with the player below. Subscribe via RSS or iTunes.

The music heard on these podcasts is from one of Chris’ songs, “Heartfelt,” copyright © Chris Edmonds Music (ASCAP). Chris plays all instruments on these recordings.

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Make It Easy to Do the Right Thing

February 25, 2013

car theftIt was after midnight. A friend had left his cell phone in his car, so he went out to his hotel’s parking lot to retrieve it. He noticed a man standing next to the car parked a couple of spaces away from his.

The man was standing near the passenger window. He had a large wrench in his hand, upraised. The man looked up at my friend and lowered his arm.

My friend confronted the man, asking “Is that your car? What are you doing?” The man replied, “Nothing,” and sprinted to a waiting car, which sped out of the parking lot.

What would you do in that situation? Would you say something – or would you walk by, minding your own business?

Street crime is rampant in many cities around the globe. It is somewhat rare for one to witness a crime in progress.

However, it is all too common for someone to witness disruptive behavior in their organizations. Patterns of rudeness, bullying, and psychological aggression happen every day.

In a 2006 study of US workers, researchers found that 41% of respondents (representing 47 million workers) reported experiencing psychological aggression at work. 15% or 13 million workers reported experiencing psychological aggression on a weekly basis.

When bullying or disruptive behavior occurs in your workplace, how do the receivers of those behaviors – or observers of those interactions – respond?

If companies have formalized their purpose, values, strategies, and goals in an organizational constitution, those agreements can make it easier for receivers or observers to engage those disruptive players in a positive way.

If values are defined in behavioral terms, the workplace “rules of engagement” – how people are to treat each other – are crystal clear. If your company’s valued behaviors state that staff will treat each other with respect, every moment of every day, disruptive behavior can be addressed more effectively.

In the absence of clear workplace expectations for performance and values, aggressive behaviors can overwhelm cooperative intentions.

To finish the story with my friend, he immediately noted down the license number of the car the man got in to and went to the hotel’s front desk to report what he had seen. The police were called and my friend submitted a police report, describing what happened.

He said, “I didn’t know if the guy was going to hit me or what, but I couldn’t let him break into that car.” I said, “I’m proud of you for doing the right thing in the face of many unknowns, and I’m glad you’re safe.”

I hope I would do what my friend did and be a good citizen.

Join in the conversation about this post/podcast in the comments section below. How well is disruptive behavior addressed in your organization?

What is it like to live in your organization’s culture? Share your experiences in my fast & free Performance-Values Assessment. Results and analysis are described on my blog site’s research page.

This research can help you refine your organization’s corporate culture. Contact me to discuss conducting the Performance-Values Assessment in your company.

Photo © istockphoto.com/empire331. All rights reserved.

Subscribe!Podcast – Listen to this post now with the player below. Subscribe via RSS or iTunes.

The music heard on these podcasts is from one of Chris’ songs, “Heartfelt,” copyright © Chris Edmonds Music (ASCAP). Chris plays all instruments on these recordings.

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Change Your Perspective And Connect

November 12, 2012

2012-11-09 10.41.47I’d heard about our “pond beaver” for a year. My lovely bride (of 33 years) Diane has seen it. The neighbors have seen it. I’d never seen it, until this past Friday.

Since I’d never seen it, I didn’t quite believe we had a pond beaver. Our mountain community is remote but we live on a school bus route. Our road has regular traffic. The pond is 40′ from the road. I couldn’t imagine a beaver taking up residence in our little pond in an inhabited neighborhood.

I thought, “My wife and our neighbors have been seeing things.”

On Friday, I had a number of client calls. My cordless phone and headset allows me to be on calls and walk, stretch, and talk. I was upstairs on our deck. The phone was muted because of breezy conditions. And – there he was. Our pond beaver was real.

He (or she – we’re not certain at this point) is huge. His body is easily 3′ in length and his flat tail adds another 12″. He’s healthy – I believe he weighs 40 pounds.

He was waddling across the meadow, stocking up on fresh branches for his winter meals. He’d chew down a small, narrow tree then drag it into the pond and disappear into the lodge he’d built over the past year. A few minutes later he’d pop to the water’s surface again, swim around a bit to check out his surroundings, and head across the meadow for more provisions.

2012-11-09 10.43.34I grabbed my DSLR and took these pictures to document his activities.

Take Off Your Blinders

It is a thrill to see wildlife thriving in our mountain neighborhood. We see deer, foxes, ducks, and elk regularly, and bears periodically. And, this was a treat. It is my own fault for not noticing our new neighbor before now. I didn’t pay attention to the reality in front of me.

Leaders experience this all too often and may not be aware of it. Organizations and teams are constantly in flux. New processes, new services, new opportunities, etc. are exciting and threatening at the same time!

Leaders fall into routines that serve the daily activities and habits that “work” for them. They trust and act on what information is “in front of them.” However, we all have made lousy decisions when we are disconnected from the reality that others (employees and customers, for example) experience.

We need to “shake up” our routine, change our perspective, and learn as much as we can about what others are experiencing. Leaders must push themselves away from their desks, their keyboards, even their smartphones, and connect face-to-face with employees. Those connections shed light on refinements that can boost employee morale, WOW customers, and generate better profits for your business.

How can you change your perspective and connect more deeply with your people? Consider:

  • Take 30 minutes a day to “wander around” strategically. Connect with staff one on one. Ask, “How’s it going?” and “How can we make your job easier?” (Then make changes, where possible, that address employee issues.)
  • Do weekly breakfast or lunch with a random selection of 5-6 employees. Have no agenda other than to ask the two questions above.

Join in the conversation about this post/podcast in the comments section below. What are ways that you “shake up your routine” and learn other’s perceptions?

FREE SURVEY: What is it like to work in your company culture? Contribute your experiences in my FREE Performance-Values Assessment. Results and analysis will be shared in an upcoming post and podcast.

Photos © S. Chris Edmonds.

Subscribe!Podcast – Listen to this post now with the player below. Subscribe via RSS or iTunes!

The music heard on these podcasts is from one of Chris’ songs, “Heartfelt,” copyright © Chris Edmonds Music (ASCAP). Chris plays all instruments on these recordings.

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Great Bosses Manage People Effectively

June 11, 2012

Blanchard had a major presence at the 2012 ASTD international conference and expo in Denver, CO, USA last month. In-booth presentations, by yours truly and other fine Blanchard colleagues, were very well received. During one of his presentations, Scott Blanchard made a comment that really stuck a chord with me.

Scott quoted his better half, coaching.com co-founder Madeleine Homan Blanchard, as pointing out that “every workplace problem has hair on it’s head.” Yes, you may have players on your team who don’t have MUCH hair on their heads, but let’s not be distracted from the power of Mad’s statement.

Leaders often spend time (and angst) attempting to manage processes or results or what not. Mad’s point is that people are at the core of workplace problems. If leaders’ efforts distract them from addressing interpersonal issues and addressing “people not playing well in the workplace sandbox,” those issues erode the creation of a high performance, values-aligned culture.

Let’s examine what separates lousy and even good bosses from great bosses: effective management of people.

The Three Keys to Effective People Management

  • Trust & Respect – great bosses know that strong, healthy relationships are built on a foundation of mutual trust and respect. When leaders consistently honor team members’ skills, experience, contribution, and tenure, trust & respect grows. When leaders redirect behavior without malice, without tearing down the player in the role, trust & respect grows. Followership and application of discretionary energy only happens when trust & respect exists.
  • Clarity of Expectations – great bosses know that all good performance starts with clear goals. When leaders define what a good job looks like – in the form of specific, measurable performance standards – contributions improve. When leaders also define what great corporate citizenship looks like – in the form of behaviorally-defined values – team member’s are drawn to behave in those ways. Great bosses define both performance and values expectations.
  • Alignment & Accountability – great bosses know that they must act on their responsibility to ensure their team delivers on the promises made to company peers, customers, and stakeholders. With trust & respect as a foundation and with expectations clear, leaders focus on aligning plans, decisions, and actions to those expectations. Great bosses invest time and energy in checking in with staff, observing how internal and external customers are treated, and monitoring both performance and values in day-to-day operations.

It doesn’t matter how savvy a leader is technically if they are unable to effectively manage the organization’s human resources. When leaders inspire teamwork, dedication, performance, AND passion, they’re “great bosses.”

How do you or your leaders manage people well? Tell us in the comments section below.

Get your FREE EXCERPT from my new book, #POSITIVITY AT WORK tweet, written with the delightful Lisa Zigarmi. View our video on why we wrote the book, understand the research on positivity in the workplace, and more!

Photo © iStockphoto.com/yuri_arcurs

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