Why pay attention to your employees?

  

I’m continuously mulling over the give and take between manager and employee. For example, should a manager coach her employee or does that responsibility fall to the employee? What happens if management doesn’t act as referee for employees? Is it wrong for management to stifle creativity or is that the manager’s right within the organization? Is the manager a mentor, or should they be if they’re not?

Let’s continue to unpack another idea: is it necessary for managers to pay attention to their employees?

Daily demands of work can certainly keep a manager busy. There are always meetings. And phone calls. And “fires to put out”. And then there are those pesky requests from senior management to “measure this” or “change that”. It’s a part of the daily grind, that’s for sure. These distractions are daily and explicit reminders of the job that needs to be done; the requirements for fulfilling the position.

Have you ever thought, though, about one of the implicit requirements for fulfilling the position of manager? There is one requirement of particular interest today, and it is the connection between employee and manager that is bridged by a manager’s attention. Too many times in management there is no feedback loop from manager to employee confirming or acknowledging the job being done. There are assumptions, of course. Managers think, “They’re still getting paid; they know they’re doing the right job”. But over time, for the employee, this assumption from management can lead to doubts.

Envision for a moment, a 5 year old boy on the playground. He’s struggling for the attention of mom and dad. He’s just scaled the monkey bars yelling, “Ma, look at me! Look what I did! Isn’t that cool?” and he’s looking for two things: attention and confirmation. “Great job, Hunter! You did that so fast! Try the big slide next”, says mom. Hunter skips away, swelling with pride and energetic to tackle his next challenge.

But what happens to the kid that doesn’t get the parent’s attention? He keeps trying and trying, time and again, but each time the little seed of doubt in his mind, planted by non-attention and watered by non-confirmation, grows larger. “Maybe what I did wasn’t that neat.”; “Why aren’t they looking?”; “What am I doing wrong?”; “I wish they’d look over here!” Over time, the desire for attention still strong, other emotions slip in: defeat, confusion, dejection and deflation. Eventually, he stops asking for attention.

Instead, he gives up and sadly walks away.

Now take this story and project it to the manager/employee relationship. Do you see the similarities?

So many times, employees come into the department with new ideas, fresh thoughts and the courage to scale new heights. They want two things from a manager: attention and confirmation. There is some degree of 5-year old Hunter in every employee. Managers who recognize achievements hold the power to propel and those who don’t recognize achievements hold the power to defeat. Instead of coming up with new ideas, the unrecognized employee resigns himself to fulfilling the “contract”; he does nothing more and sometimes even does less. Complacency sets in. Lack of motivation plagues projects and the uninspired employee dutifully comes to work every day, being extremely careful to do little more.

As a manager, consider the implications. On the one hand, you save a lot by not paying attention. After all, it takes time away from your meetings and your strategic planning to stop and look at what your employees are doing around you. It takes effort to understand their cries for attention. And it takes courage to help them improve and be more. But on the other hand, should that be your problem? Is it worth the future of your department, the quality of your product or the satisfaction of your customers to ensure that your employees know that you are paying attention? That you’re confirming, acknowledging or recognizing the work they are doing? It’s your decision.

Filed under: Coaching, Management, Relationships

Remarkable Marketing … from Seth Godin

I am in Belgium this week to hear Seth Godin speak to a number of marketing, advertising and business enthusiasts. It’s a great opportunity, of which I’m very excited to be a part! In honor of the guest speaker tonight, below are ten of my favorite “Godin”isms:

1. Write what you believe, not what sells :: 12 proven ways to get your post to the top of digg
2. The way to win is to make things that tiny (or large!) groups want to talk about, or care about, or engage in. That’s the story that spreads :: Anatomy of a campaign
3. In a presentation to non-scientists (or to bored scientists), the purpose of a chart or graph is to make one point, vividly. Tell a story and move on. If you can’t be both vivid and truthful, it doesn’t belong in your presentation :: Bar graphs vs. pie charts
4. Are you better at what you do than you were a month or two ago? :: Better?
5. You can contact just about anyone you want. The only rule is you need to contact them personally, with respect, and do it months before you need their help! Contact them about them, not about you. :: Catchers and Throwers
6. The mistake so many marketers make is that they conjoin the urgency of making another sale with the timing to earn the right to make that sale. In other words, you must build trust before you need it. Building trust right when you want to make a sale is just too late. :: Drip drip goes the Twit
7. Creativity loves a problem, but it hates a lousy audience. :: Grave new world
8. We tend to use new tools to do less. We try to save time and money at the same time, and end up depersonalizing and commodifying what we do. […] It’s so so easy to hide behind technology, to use it as a shield, instead of as a clever tool to actually get you closer to the customers you depend on. :: Old marketing with new tools
9. When in doubt, challenge the strategy, not the tactics. […] None of us are doing enough to challenge the assignment. Every day, I spend at least an hour of my time looking at my work and what I’ve chosen to do next and wonder, “is this big enough?” :: Thinking bigger
10. Products that are remarkable get talked about. :: What do you know?

And three extras (from What do you know):

• A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
• Knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it
• You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.

Seth is all about telling a story that spreads. Making it believable and being passionate about what it is that you do. That is marketing that is remarkable.

Check out this fun video from the Antwerp Central station, which, ironically, is right across the street from where Seth will be speaking tonight. It’s a fun, quick video and it will make you smile.

Sound of Music – Central Station Antwerp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k

Notice at the beginning of the video how most people were curious, but not involved. They were standing on the sidelines, willing to give up a minute to see the outcome. By the end, most of the sideliners were either clapping their hands, dancing in their spot, or putting down their briefcases to join in … and pulling their friends in, too!

Can you see the similarities to your business? How are you capturing the attention of your audience, changing their attitude from passive passerby to engaged brand champion? How are you pleasantly surprising and spreading your story today?

Filed under: Brand, Marketing, Passion, Relationships

“Dam”med if you do: Tidal Waves and Chain Link Fences

Here is your challenge for the day: you know that a tidal wave is coming. You don’t want the water to disrupt your world. So you have an idea.

You’re going to put a fence that looks like this:

in front of the wave that looks like this:

Really?

Really.

Not very effective, right? The reality is that you can’t stop the wave from hitting. There is nothing you can do that will make that wave change its mind.

And yet, we see chain link fences hastily erected in front of tidal waves every day. In fact, this very act was embodied just last week. Not in the physical sense of steel vs. water, of course. In the allegorical push vs. pull, big-rusty-business-machine vs. organic-ecosystem-employee or customer, shouting vs. listening, controlling vs. multiplying sense. This is the battle between social media and the tight-fisted behemoths that want to regain their semblance of control in a changing world.

EMI Music learned this the hard way last week when they seized control of embedding indie-pop rock band OK Go’s music videos. In 2006, OK Go’s music video “Here It Goes Again” posted on YouTube received tens of millions of views, brought concert crowds to five continents for 700 shows and even propelled the band to win a Grammy. For the band, it was viral promotion at its finest. For the EMI Music, it was free advertising. And then big business got greedy. Record labels started making money on YouTube video views. But not on embedded views where videos were posted on blogs, in emails, on websites. So several weeks ago, EMI Music denied users to the right to embed Ok Go’s videos. The result? Views on Ok Go’s new video dropped 90% in one day, from 100,000 one day to 10,000 the next. The bigger impact? OK Go “peaced-out”, ditching EMI Music as their record label and starting one of their own.

Short-term, small picture, myopic mindsets can lead to a hasty attempt to seize control. Schools fear losing the attention of students so they ban social media in the classroom and across campus. Businesses fear losing productivity, so they censor social media in cubicles and meeting rooms.

The bottom line: you can’t control a force that is bigger than you. The driver of social media is the same driver of business: relationships. It’s a cumulative force that is bigger than any one person, and it is bigger than a business or any one person can control. You have to find a way to work with it, change with it, use it to your advantage.

So let’s try the question again. You know the tidal wave is coming. You don’t want the water to disrupt your world. So you have an idea. How about putting a fence like this:

 

in front of a wave that looks like this:

 

Okay, so it’s not a fence…it’s a dam. It’s also a better alternative. It’s a source to harness the power and create energy from the tidal wave of the changing environment. Rather than stopping it, embrace it. Work with it. Change with it.

Like Ben & Jerry’s. Their most recent Facebook post on the fan page earned 199 “likes” and 36 comments. The one before that received 746 “likes” and 145 comments from their 1.2 million fans. And Red Bull. Response to their most recent wall post garnered 605 “likes” and 62 comments from their more than 2.3 million fans. These businesses use social media not as another megaphone to shout boiler-plate, stiff and familiar messages to customers, but instead as an engaging environment, a figurative comfy leather couch on which to sit with customers or employees to listen, engage, break bread and interact.

Your audience no longer wants to be told. Period. They want you to listen. And if you don’t, there are millions out there who will.

When you face the onslaught of change, the tidal wave of social media, you’re going to have to change your defense, because the chain link fence is not going to work any longer.

Filed under: Management, Relationships, Uncategorized

How reliable is your brand?

Every action that you take at work, whether small or large, builds your brand within the organization. Your brand can be defined by creativity, quality of work, ideas or a number of things. One defining aspect of your brand is your responsiveness. How useful are you to co-workers, customers or the company as a whole if you do not interact with individuals on a timely basis, giving them what they need, or at least giving a response?

How responsive you are to people influences their perception of your dependability. Can co-workers count on you when they need an answer in a pinch? Can they rely on you to be proactive when working on a project, minimizing the risks up front instead of at the decision table when they’re brought to your attention? Can your customers rely on you to answer a question, solve their problem or help them find what they’re looking for when they need it? What about when there is no emergency, no deadline, no urgency for a project – can your co-workers, subordinates, managers or customers count on you to treat their project with as much care as the urgent issues?

Several retailers exceed expectations when it comes to responsiveness and dependability. I used to frequent a small Starbucks in my old neighborhood. After several mornings of ordering my Venti-shaken-unsweetened-iced-green-tea, I parked my car one Friday, walked in and the drink was waiting for me on the counter, just as it was every visit after that when I chose to stop at the café. How’s that for responsiveness and anticipating the customer needs?

I called DHL the other day to solve a dilemma with a lost package. After speaking the tracking number to the automated teleprompter, I was quickly connected with a live person. Within four minutes, the respondent was able to give me all of the package information, send my feedback to a manager and get my problem solved while I was on the phone. I didn’t get the package right away, but I knew the problem was in capable hands after the way that I was treated.

When working with co-workers, subordinates or customers, your brand is being established by your responsiveness. At whichever end of the spectrum you fall, you are sending a message.

One end of the spectrum: timely responses, proactive work, anticipation of the customer (internal or external) needs, says

I’m here for you, I’m a team player and I’m willing to help you out because you are important to me

The other end of the spectrum: days without receiving feedback, no expectations on service quality, missed deadlines, questions that go unanswered for days, says

I don’t care about what you need. Your business is not important to me. My schedule is more important than yours. Don’t bother me with your requests.

Either way, you’re sending a message. As companies and as individuals, it’s the small actions taken on a daily basis that build credibility for the future. What does your brand say about you?

Filed under: Brand, Business, Expectations, Marketing, Relationships