Since we have just elected our first black president in the US this may be a good time to recommend a site call Project Implicit, a website with live demonstration tests to measure a persons biases, preferences and possibly their prejudices in areas such as race, gender religion skin tone, weight, disability, sexuality and age and more.  

Believe me it is fascinating!  I was in for some surprises! You take the tests at a fairly rapid speed so that your first impressions are used.  Each test takes about 10 minutes. When you finish they give you information about your responses, possible interpretations and how you measure up against others who have taken the test!  Plus you have become part of their study though your identity is protected.  

The scientists involved in the test funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, Indiana University and Rudd Institute are aware that human beings dont always say what they mean or what is true. From their website: The unwilling/unable distinction is like the difference between purposely hiding something from others and unconsciously hiding  something from yourself. The Implicit Association Test  (IAT) makes it possible to penetrate both of these types of hiding. The IAT measures implicit attitudes and beliefs that people are either unwilling or unable to reeport.

Some diversity trainers suggest the site to their participants as pre or post work. I personally would be cautious about using it as a mandatory requirement unless you were positive it could not be misused. See the site for the possible misuses the scientists suggested.  However the group does work with organizations using the tests.  

PLEASE return to this blog and let me know what your impressions were. Did you find the test valuable, surprising, useless? What did you learn about yourself that you didnt know or didnt suspect. Would you use it in your work?  Here is the site.  http://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo. 

If you would like to receive notice when I post a new blog just fill in Get New Posts area to the right of this blog. You can do it by email  or click the RSS (orange) button.  You will get each new bloghot off the press! 

Tags Communication, Management Skills, diversity // Add Comment

Did you know that 85% of employees feel some economic anxiety in the workplace.  29% experience severe or high anxiety.  This according to an ongoing survey conducted by Elliott Masies Learning Trends.  

The question asked of 1441 learning professionals in corporations was, What is the level of economic anxiety in your workplace?.  Only 15% responded low or no anxiety.  

The next questions was, What, if any, actions has your organizations leadership taken to respond to the economic anxiety in the workplace?. The results: 

• 21% held briefings about the organizations\s economic health 

• 13% held briefings about the economic crisis 
• 13% said the manager had conversations with employees about economic anxiety 
• 7% had workshops dealing with 401K management 
• 46% had had no actions as of that day 

So here are my questions: 

• What is the level of your employees anxiety? 
• What is the level of your own anxiety? 
• What has your organization done? 
• What could you do with your own employees? 
• What do you notice in terms of loss of productivityyours and your staffs. 
• Leave your comments below.  
• If you would like to receive 21 Great Ideas For Rewarding Your Employees That are Free or Low Cost just fill in your first name and email in the box on the right of this blog page.  I will email them to you at absolutely no charge to you. Watch your inbox for an email.   To subscribe to this blog go to the right hand side of this blog under Get New Post Updates and enter your email address. Or go to www.KeyManagmentSkills.com  

Tags Management Skills // Add Comment

I am often asked if training really works.  The answer is yes and no! Heres why. 

1.  Too often unless a training is made mandatory, those who need it the most will choose not to attend!

2. .  75% of the learning goes on after the employee comes back to the job. Said another wayemployees will forget most of what they learned unless it is reinforced on the job after they come back from training.  

3.  Too often people are sent off to training in the hopes that they will get fixed when in fact if the training doesnt incorporate good adult learning principles and isnt seen as relevant from the trainees point of view it will fail.  

4.  Employees are sometimes sent to training for specific skills when the real problem is attitudeahemI mean lack of professional behavior problems.  

So what can you as a manager do to help ensure that the training you spend your money on will be effective? 

[Read more →]

Tags Communication, Management Skills, Performance Expectations, Training, Coaching // Add Comment

Those of you who have requested my 21 Great Ideas For Rewarding Your Employees That Are Low or No Cost know that the first one on the list is say thank you.  It is the greatest motivator of all!  Today, however,  when my  weekly email from TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) arrived I heard of a new twist on the idea.  

Each week TED sends thoughtful and thought provoking videos from their annual conference. In this weeks issue came a 3 minute video by Laura Trice with a simple ideaask for what you need to be praised for!  

As she appropriately points out there are risks to doing this, but the rewards can be bountiful. After all, you will make yourself vulnerable, people will know where you are insecure. They could use it against you, but they could give you what we need!  And lets be clear, the greatest need we have as human beings is to be heard, understood and accepted for who we are. Yet havent we all grown up with the idea that it is better to praise than be praised. Wrong!  It is better to be both praisor and praisee!  

As I thought about how this would work for managers and supervisors in the workplace several things came to mind: 

 1.  Think about the people you directly supervise. What is an area you are pretty sure each of them feels insecure about.  Praise them for what they do right in that area. 

2.  Listen to the way your employees dismiss or trash themselves. Praise them in those areas whenever possible. 

3.  Watch for moments when you thank someone and the person says something self-diminishing like, Oh it wasnt a big deal, or It took me long enough!, or Just doing my job. Make them stop for a moment while you say thanks again and add something specific about how much it means to you or to the team or how lucky we are to have someone does the job so well. This will help them to take the praise in, rather than dismissing it.  

Here is a link to the 3-minute video.  If you can think of other ideas on how to use this idea please come back and post a comment on this blog.   

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/laura_trice_suggests_we_all_say_thank_you.html.  If the link doesnt work, go to TED.com and search for Laura Trice. 

 If you havent asked for a free copy of 21 Great Ideas For Rewarding Employees That Are No or Low cost you can do so to the right on this page or go to www.keymanagementskills.com.) 

Tags Communication, Management Skills, Rewards, Recognition, Training, Coaching // Add Comment

There are two communication tools that, for me, stand out above all others.  One is to shut up!  No seriously, less talk and more listening is so often the key to understanding.  But today I want to talk about the number two skillasking questions.  As a manager we are paid to answer questions and tell people what to do and how to do itright?  Well, lets just say yes and theres more to the story.  

Our tendency as managers is to focus on efficiency and results, so we often tell people what to do, and how to do it and leave it at that. However there is an opportunity to have a deeper conversation with our employeesone that evokes their wisdom. In doing this we discover that we dont have to be the source of all the improvements, knowledge and answers. When we have an employee with a complaint, a negative attitude or even a hesitancy about an issue, an open ended question can reap great rewards.    

Open Questions Open Doors!

Here are some questions that will help you open the doors to communicating in a more significant and productive manner.  

1. What is your take on this issue?  

2.  How would you like it to be or happen? 

3.  What have you already tried? 

4.  If you were me what would you do 

5.  Can you recall another situation that brings some light to this issue? 

6.  What is the result we are going for here, and what is the simplest way to get there?  

Questions, and thoughtful discussion about workplace issues energizes you and your employees,leads to fresh ideas and gets teamwork going in a way that includes the whole team. 

If you would like to receive 21 Great Ideas For Rewarding Your Employees That are Free or Low Cost just fill in your first name and email in the box on the right of this blog page.  I will email them to you at absolutely no charge to you. Watch your inbox for an email.  To subscribe to this blog go to the right hand side of this blog under Get New Post Updates and enter your email address. 

Tags Communication, Management Skills // Add Comment

The folks at the Pew Research Center do some very interesting research. The latest I have seen is a study on peoples perception of women and men as leaders. More than 2,200 men and women were asked to rate men and women on these leadership traits in the order of importance:  honest, intelligent, hard working, decisive, ambitious, compassionate, outgoing and creative.  

Both men and women agree that women are more honest, intelligent, compassionate, outgoing and creative than men. The respondents agreed that men and women were equal on being hardworking and ambitious. The one area where men were seen to have higher abilities is decisiveness.  Thats 5 to 1 with two ties and it is equally seen to be true by both men and women! 

Sixty nine percent thought that men and women made equally strong leaders. However of the remaining people only 6% thought women were stronger leaders and 21 percent thought men to be the stronger.

The paradox for me and for the researchers is that these perceptions have not translated into higher numbers of women in the top political, and corporate arenas.  What do you think?   Why havent perceptions translated to actions in your opinion. Please leave your comments below. 

If you would like to receive 21 Great Free or Low Cost  Ideas For Rewarding Your Employees just fill in your first name and email in the box on the right of this blog page.  I will email them to you at absolutely no charge to you.  Watch your inbox for an email. To subscribe to this blog go to the right hand side of the blog under Get New Post Updates and enter your email address. 

Tags Communication, Decision-Making, Management Skills, New News, diversity // Add Comment

Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager and now The One MInute Entrepreneur says the most important way that the workplace has changed over the years is this,Your people want you to be their partner. They dont want necessarily to be boss. They want you to think they bring something to the party, that you are on their side and you want them to succeed. 

 Blanchard was interviewed by WayneTurmel at the Cranky Middle Manager site. You can hear it here http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/. This is a great site and Wayne is a funny man.  

Blanchard pointed out that the old terminology for managers and employees is offensive to many employees. Titles like the head of the department and hired hands, superior and subordinate are demeaning. In fact my trusty dictionary defines subordinate as of lower class or rank, inferior, submissive to authority. A superior, on the other hand is defined as one higher in quality or merit.  Ouch!

So how can we give our employees those three things Blanchard mentioned? 

That you think they bring something to the party

In other words that you think they are valuable.  Dont we all want to be valued? One way to reinforce their value is to thank them often; to tell them how much they contribute to the success of the team. Of course saying thank you is not only the number one motivator of employees, but the most often requested reward.  Check out the 21 No or Low Cost Rewards for Employees on the right side of the blog.  Its fre*e.  

They want to know you are on their side

How often have you inquired into your employees satisfaction with the work, or asked about their family, or asked what one thing they need to be more effective or less overwhelmed? 

That you want them to succeed

We can demonstrate this by offering additional training and development, providing them the opportunity to do more interesting or more diverse work.  We might even suggest they apply for a promotion!  

Please give us your suggestions for ways to fulfill these three things.  Or tell us if you think its all bunk!  Is it different for different generations on your staff?  

If you would like to receive 21 Great Free or Low Cost  Ideas For Rewarding Your Employees just fill in your first name and email in the box on the right of this blog page.  I will email them to you at absolutely no charge to you.  Watch your inbox for an email.  To subscribe to this blog go to the right hand side of the blog under Get New Post Updates and enter your email address. 

Tags Management Skills // Add Comment

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.  Its perfectly reasonable 

[Read more →]

Tags Communication, Management Skills, Performance Expectations // Add Comment

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, inflectionsin 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 // 1 Comment

According to a recent Gallop Poll only 6% of men wear a tie to work every day.  Sales of mens 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. Wouldnt you? 

On the other hand those comedians who have risen to the nightly spots on the major networks may want to distinguish themselves from the  grungy comics that appear only sporadically on Comedy Central.  

And the Geek Squad employees of Best Buy are required to wear a thin tie, to convey a seriousness of purpose and sense of professionalism according to a statement released by the company this week in response to queries from the newspaper.  

So what does a suit and tie say in this day and age?  

Do you want to buy stocks and bonds from a man in cut offs? How about a golf shirt?   Is there still a place in organizations and industries for formal, business attire? Does a tie correlate to professionalism?  Leave a comment on this blog about your organizations thinking on this.  And your thinking as well?  Do men really get headaches from their tie?  (For heavens sake, loosen it up!) 

When I was a career coach I always counseled people to dress like the people who hold the jobs they aspire to. I think that is still the best advise.  If you dont want to wear a suit and tie select a professional where it isnt required.   

For now here is my bottom line.  

Studies still show that when developing trust and believability people make snap decision based more on visual than any other aspect  of communication. Visual has a 55% impact. Content only has a 7% impact and voice has 38%. Given that, it is worthwhile for organizations to survey their customers, find out what their expectations and preferences are in terms of dress and then try to fulfill those expectations!  Thats what will build trust and believability.   

And now lets talk about pantyhose! 

Do bare legs diminish the professionalism of women?  Is it unprofessional to go barelegged in the summer?  Do you spray on self tanner so it looks like you have on  hose?  

Tags Communication, New News, Performance Expectations // Add Comment