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Transform your team from “snooze-button hitters” to “rock-star performers” and create a buzz-worthy environment your clients will love.
Issue 35 Topics Include: READ NOW
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Why is The Office so painfully funny? Like most great comedy, it’s funny because it’s TRUE. Anyone who has spent even a few years in the business world will know a Michael, a Kevin, a Pam, and—heaven help us—a Dwight.
Here are a few other characters from Central Casting who might be playing roles in your workplace:
The Omarosa
Don’t let the name fool you. Omarosa can be male or female, but one thing is for sure – they’re lean, they’re mean, and they will walk over your dead body to get ahead. Are they a Type-A overachiever or a backstabber? It’s sometimes hard to know the difference.
The Peacemaker
“Can’t we all just get along?” This person avoids conflict – not always a good thing – and will often try to placate, subjugate, or mediate an issue before it reaches management’s ears or results in fisticuffs. While the peacemaker may have the best of intentions, they often hinder conflict resolution. In their effort to “smooth things over,” too much goes unresolved.
The Informer
The informer is the one who begins every sentence with the words, “You didn’t hear this from me, but…” He or she is a gossip, a whistleblower, or a just plain snitch. Remember, there is no such thing as “idle” gossip. The informer has an agenda. Information is power that they wield like a weapon of mass destruction.
The Bully
Not a fan of positive change, the bully tries to use intimidation to keep it from happening. Sometimes the bully uses brawn and bluster, but often times the bully uses psychological warfare to destroy their opponent. In this case, information is everything so you’ll often find the bully and the informer have an alliance.
The Task Master
The task master often forgets that employees are humans, not androids. They believe that their “get it done at all costs” attitude reflects a strong work ethic, but it just as often reflects a lack of conscience, lack of understanding, and perhaps a lack of a personal life.
The Donald
“You’re Fired!” is not just a catch phrase, it’s a mantra. Qualifying for the boss/manager from hell award, The Donald is often a bully who rises up the ranks and is looking not so much for employees as for human sacrifices.
The Energy Vampire
They may not want to bite your neck, but they definitely want to suck the life-blood out of you. Being surrounded by whiners, complainers, and excuse-makers just brings you (and the company) down. Vampires believe that misery loves company, so stock up on garlic mousepads!
The Eeyore
The sky is always falling, the glass is always half empty, and there is a constant forecast of rain on the parade. The Eeyore is often the old dog who can’t see the wisdom of learning new tricks—and takes it personally.
The Teflon
Among Teflon’s favorite words are don’t, didn’t, can’t, haven’t, isn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t. It’s not their department, not their job – and heaven forbid – NEVER their fault. Accountability is not a word in their vocabulary.
The Minimalist
The minimalist paints a pretty picture of appearing accountable and in control, but in reality he/she specializes in doing just enough to get by and never enough to get anything done. They primary concern is covering their butt—something they usually have juuuust enough paint for.
Recognizing that these characters actually exist in their millions and that there are strategies for living and dealing with each of them can help you survive your time in the cast of your own personal reality show.
A Business Week survey asked individuals, “Are you one of the top 10 percent of performers in your company?”
Eighty-four percent of middle managers said yes, as did 93 percent of employees age 55 or older. Eighty-nine percent of women and 91 percent of men think they’re in the top 10 percent, as do fully 97 percent of all executives.
Welcome to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average! Seems like a delusional view of our contribution is the norm.
This begs the question: How do you help people understand what quantifiable measurements they SHOULD be scoring themselves on so they can assess their contributions intelligently? (more…)
Welcome to the TGIM e-Zine!
Transform your team from “snooze-button hitters” to “rock-star performers” and create a buzz-worthy environment your clients will love.
Issue 30 Topics Include: READ NOW
Not signed up for the TGIM e-Zine?
Sign up today and receive the TGIM e-Zine and Weekly Audios every Monday morning!
Remember détente?
Anybody who lived through the Nixon years will remember the word. But if you’re like me, you didn’t quite know what it meant. As a kid, when I heard Henry Kissinger talk about “détente with the Soviets,” I always figured he meant, “We agree not to bomb each other for now.”
As it turns out, détente is a much more interesting idea. Détente is the process of relaxing tension and building mutual confidence. In the 70s, we didn’t just stop bombing each other—we also sent ballet companies and art exhibits back and forth. Our leaders got together at Camp David and toasted marshmallows or whatever they do. The bottom line: We got to see each other as people.
So what does this have to do with the workplace? (more…)
Most of us live “reasonable” lives, looking at what we CAN do and using that as a guide to what we WILL do. Shoot for mediocrity and you’re guaranteed a bull’s-eye, every time. But a life worth living is about setting unreasonable goals, doing unreasonable things to make them happen, making unreasonable requests of people every day to stretch them to their undiscovered greatness.
Hey wait a minute, you say. Times are tough. The economy’s in the tank. Everyone is running for cover. My 401(k) is in flames! I can’t even count on that pension!
Whoa there. Deep breath, partner.
If mediocrity is a shallow moat in good times, it’s even less protection when times are tough. Aiming low and being “reasonable” doesn’t bring out the best of who you are. If you want to enliven your teammates, your kids, your friends, here’s a surefire way to do it: Make unreasonable requests of them. (more…)
You can’t monitor and audit every tiny facet of your business, or you won’t have time to run the business. So where does execution matter most? It matters most in the critical moments I call Moments of Truth—the moments where execution can mean the difference between success and failure.
Moments of Truth are those critical times when a customer forms an impression of you, deciding whether your offerings and their standards see eye-to-eye. Though they vary from industry to industry and business to business, every business has them. (more…)
In the absence of a great dream, pettiness prevails.—Peter Senge
At some point in his or her career, nearly every politician gets tarred with a catch phrase—and usually not a flattering one.
George Bush, Sr. is stuck with two. There was “Read my lips, no new taxes,” of course. But only slightly less unfortunate was his dismissal of what he called, “The ‘vision thing.’”
He was trying at the time to shake the impression that he was a competent day-to-day manager but lacked any grander vision of where he wanted to lead the country. His choice of words and tone of voice didn’t exactly help.
John F. Kennedy had a vision: “A man on the moon before the end of the decade.” And it inspired the seemingly impossible. We had about 15 percent of the needed know-how when he made that declaration.
Bill Gates had a vision that there would be a computer on every desk in America. And this was back when most people didn’t even know what a computer was!
I once had a CEO look me straight in the eye and say he didn’t really “go for” visions. “I put my energy into training,” he said. “Training, training, training.”
But training for what? I wondered. You do training without a vision, you’re all gas pedal and no windshield.
A study at the Sloan School of Management showed that leaders who create, communicate, and implement successful organizational visions were shown to be more successful in EVERY measure of a business than those who did not.
Powerful, effective, propelling visions all have three things in common: (more…)
Credit: © Monkeybusinessimages| Dreamstime.com
When’s the last time you heard someone say, “The problem with working here is I’m just appreciated way too much?” Healthy cultures have appreciation and celebration as their cultural backbone. They create an environment in which everyone oohs and aahs over each other’s successes and contributions.
Notice I said EVERYONE, not just managers. You might convince yourself that the manager who high-fives the top salespeople is just doing his or her job. But once you get celebration and congratulation flowing from peer to peer, you know you’ve created a celebration culture.
So how do you get there? By creating rituals of celebration. (more…)
Credit: © Philipdyer | Dreamstime.com
Imagine yourself transported to an unknown city by helicopter. A stadium comes into view below you. The chopper descends and lowers you gently into a seat. You are handed a hot dog and a pennant and given one instruction: Cheer for the home team.
You glance at the pennant to see what team you’re rooting for, then start cheering halfheartedly: Uh…woohoo. Go, uh…team! Beat the visitors.
No matter how many foot-longs they feed you, this is gonna get old fast. You can’t plop me down in a random stadium in a random town and expect wholehearted, red-in-the-face cheering as if it was MY team! You’ll go through the motions until you’re full, then all bets are off.
Seems like a wacky scenario, doesn’t it? But take a look around corporate America and you’ll see much the same approach to employee morale and productivity. Employees are expected to be productive and loyal to the company that happens to own the chair they’re sitting in just because it keeps them in hot dogs. And it doesn’t work. (more…)