Many managers think they cannot measure attitude problems in their employees and therefore there is nothing that can be done. Wrong!  Once you have renamed those problems as professional behaviors, you can define them, measure them ,include them in job descriptions and even fire people with them!

You know the employees I mean. They may be technically capable and performing the specific skills that are measured on the job. They do the required amount of work; they make the required number of sales; they take the required number of calls. They may even be good with customers. But around the office or workplace they have attitude plus!  

They are the office nay-sayers, cynics and negativists. Or they complain about everything. They criticize every management initiative; they go to the union with every little issue. They are right out of Dilbert and they are driving you crazy. You are getting complaints from other employees who are affected and infected by their lousy attitude. 

Here are the steps to take to get a better handle on this issue and give yourself some solid   definitions to work with. 

Step One: 

Redefine the words attitude problem to professional behavior.  It’s perfectly reasonable 

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication, Management Skills, Performance Expectations by Norma Smith Davis
No Comments »

If 55% of the impact of a communication is determined by the visual aspects, how do staff members who work with our customers on the phone build trust and confidence in our products and services?  Only 7% of the impact of their communication  is the actual words, the content or the verbal message. Yet that is what we spend so much time carefully crafting!  

For phone personnel that makes that 38% impact of voice quality very, very important. Voice quality includes tone, softness or loudness, accents, grammar, volume, tempo, rhythm, inflections–in other words how we say it.  These figures come from a study done in 1983 by Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA.  

It makes sense to spend some of our training time for 

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication, Management Skills, New Employees, Performance Expectations, Training, Coaching by Norma Smith Davis
No Comments »

According to a recent Gallop Poll only 6% of men wear a tie to work every day.  Sales of men’s ties have dropped to a record low of 677 million as opposed to 1.3 billion in 1995. This and other  facts about ties was the subject of an article in my local paper, The Press Democrat. 

To Tie or Not To Tie!

Not many years ago ties were required in most fine restaurants. Now you see men with baseball caps on backwards and even gang attire. The only men who seem to consistently wear a tie are funeral directors, talk show hosts, news anchors and lawyers when they are in court. And why do talk show hosts wear a suit and tie anyway?  I would laugh just as loud at Jay, David and Craig if they were wearing dress casual. Wouldn’t you? 

On the other hand those comedians 

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication, New News, Performance Expectations by Norma Smith Davis
No Comments »

Managers and supervisors can take note on how hospitals are reducing their malpractice lawsuits by counseling their doctors to apologize when they make a mistake. 

Yes it’s true there is a lot to be learned about excellent leadership, communication and collaboration from the newspaper.  Part one of this article spoke about a casino tribal leader who overcame his predecessor’s bad leadership and communication to win over a community that had been dead set against any expansion of the casino in the wine country.  Here’s a story, in the same newspaper (The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California) on the same day that further illustrates the points.  

The Value Of Saying You Are Sorry

When Dr. Tapas K. Das Gupta, chairman of surgical oncology at University of Illinois Medical Center discovered that he had removed tissue from the wrong rib of his patient, he did something that might have made some hospital lawyers cringe; he apologized to the patient!  He recalled saying, “After all these years, I cannot give you any excuse whatsoever.  It is just one of those things that occurred.  I have to some extent harmed you”.   

Wow, for decades malpractice lawyers have been advising doctors to 

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication, New News, Rewards, Recognition by Norma Smith Davis
No Comments »

My local paper afforded me an opportunity to share some thoughts on the power of good communication and collaboration. 

Near my home in the wine country of Northern California there has been a decade long battle between an Indian tribe that wanted to put in a casino on their land and the neighbors who enjoy one of the most scenic and wealthy vineyard and winery regions in the world.  The tribe’s rather combative and secretive tribal leader and local government, environmental groups and wine industry associations duked it out for years.

When the casino parking structure suddenly went up, as if over night, the tribal leader finally admitted they had been “less than truthful”.  Not a good way to establish good relationships.  Back and forth it went over zoning, land use, access, fire and police protection, liquor permits and more.  

Then something very different happened. 

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication, Management Skills by Norma Smith Davis
No Comments »