Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Reader Question: Dealing with a Micromanaging Peer

This question was submitted by a reader at the Fast Track blog:

I’d like to get your input about how to deal with a coworker who micromanages laterally. I am a manager, and one of my peers, another manager, often takes it upon herself to tell the other managers how they should run their departments (even though we haven’t asked and it’s not within her realm of responsibility). It doesn’t happen all the time, but every few months or so she’ll go on a tirade and drive all of the managers crazy. For example, she’ll get on a dress-code policy kick and scrutinize every article of clothing staff wear, and then send repeated emails to department managers saying that it needs to be dealt with. The most recent time this happened, when I went to check on the “offensive” clothing, they fell completely within the code — perhaps she just didn’t like what the person was wearing?

She tells us which staff members need disciplining (when they don’t), tells us how to deal with clients, recites well-known procedures to us over and over, and will even go so far as to reorganize our service desks because she doesn’t like how they look! And I don’t mean just a little — I’m talking moving computers to a completely different location, and leaving post-it notes everywhere about why something isn’t right or shouldn’t be the way it is.

Usually I try to see where she’s coming from and consider whether she has a valid point, but often it’s just trivial things that don’t matter or don’t make sense. I’ve tried ignoring her, giving in to her, and being firm and telling her why my department chooses to do things a certain way and that we won’t be changing it. Nothing seems to help. I think she acts this way because she cares about our organization and likes to see things run smoothly, but it’s too much at times, and ultimately not her responsibility. Our organization functions well and overall our staff have good morale. I am perfectly capable of handling my team and, if I do say so myself, do a darn good job of it. How can I get her to back off when she gets like this?

Here was my advice:

I think it’s time you had a formal sit down with the micromanaging peer.  Ignoring her might be the path of least resistance, but at this point it sounds like her behavior is negatively impacting the productivity of your team – and this is a problem that’s yours to remedy.

Ask her to lunch.  If it isn’t completely out of the ordinary, go offsite so you won’t risk being interrupted or joined by another teammate.  Tell her there’s something important you need to talk to her about, and preface the discussion with a comment along the lines of what you said in your e-mail to us:  “I admire how much you care about our organization and I know that you want to see it run smoothly.”  This will help to mitigate her natural response (i.e. defensiveness) to what you’re about to say.

Next, tell her that while you appreciate her input on your team’s discipline, dress, etc. you are capable of managing these issues yourself and that you’d prefer it if she would confine her improvements to her own group.  Use a “this is what’s best for the organization” type of argument, such as “Right now my staff feels that it’s getting confusing cross-direction, and their work is suffering.”  Try to be assertive rather than wishy-washy.  You are a manager for a reason and your judgment should be trusted.

If this doesn’t work and she continues to interfere and wreck havoc around the office, you should talk to your boss on the down low.   Just remember to be solution-oriented and bottom-line focused in your comments, as the last thing you want to do is come across like you are whining or complaining.  You are not a tattletale and this is not a mere personality conflict.  Be clear that you are genuinely concerned that because of this woman’s actions, the organization is not operating as optimally as it could be.

For guidance from Fast Track's other amazing experts, check out the full post.

Building Culture in a Digital World

Quick quiz: true or false?

1. You don’t know anyone who works at your company.
2. You try not to involve yourself with your company’s digital networks.
3. When it comes to certain office protocols, you have no idea what is and isn’t acceptable.

If you answered ‘True’ to these statements, you’re part of the 20 percent of global employees who work on virtual teams, and your organization’s culture is a total mystery to you.

This is a problem, because even as we strive to enhance our cultures so our employees will stick around, our strategies mostly shut out employees who don’t come into our offices. If we want to encourage collaboration and track productivity, we have dozens of effective digital tools from which to choose. But when it comes to tools meant to inform and reinforce culture, there’s not much.

In a recent article for Fast Company, Austin Carr reported on a few new technologies that are a step in the right direction. Yammer, which is an enterprise social network that Microsoft acquired for $1.2 billion, acts like a Facebook for internal business use. It enables employees to exchange messages, media and status updates—integrating the option to “Like” a coworker’s post or give him or her “Praise” badges.

Taking it a step further is emotional intelligence company Kanjoya, which has a product called Crane that taps into an organization’s Yammer network and analyzes data to measure how employees are feeling at any given moment or on any given topic. Crane can tell, for instance if your employees are irritated by a new policy or don’t like the way management is handling a current issue. Although it’s not always clear what leaders should do with Crane’s data from a big picture perspective, the program at least allows them to address small details that might otherwise go unnoticed and fester.

For tips on how to effectively build culture in a digital world, check out my full post on the AMEX Open Forum.

Is Your Workplace Safe?

Safety isn’t just a manufacturer-only concern. Protecting workers from falls and other physical injuries is part of it, but organizational safety also encompasses your employees’ ability to express themselves freely, and to come to work knowing that their confidential information will not be compromised. Whether you’re a small retail operation or a big consulting firm with employees worldwide, safety should be a critical issue. Not only will making safety a priority protect you from being sued, but it will also contribute to the overall strength of your culture.

Digicast is an Australia-based workforce consultancy that recently produced a white paper, Three Factors That Influence Workplace Culture, which connected safety to strong organizational culture. One interesting section dealt with the factors that influence safety. I’ve highlighted these in the “Five Commandments of Safety.”

1. Thou Who Has an Office Shall Clean It.

Digicast cites a study by Dave DeJoy and Todd Smith from the University of Georgia’s College of Public Health, which found that a well-kept site usually means safety is a priority. “If you talk to people who do safety inspections,” DeJoy says, ”they will tell you that the first impression they get when they walk into a factory or construction site—how neat it is and whether employees seem to be actively engaged—often indicates whether a workplace is safe.”

2. Thou Shall Not Overwork Your Employees.

The same study by DeJoy and Smith also found that when work interfered with family demands, job performance was affected and the risk for injury increased by 37 percent. In 2011, when excessive working hours resulted in pilot error on several airlines, the FAA stepped in with regulations. Even if you’re not dealing with human lives, ensuring your employees have solid work-life balance and are satisfied in their roles will enhance safety and culture.

3. Thou Shall Not Make Safety an Afterthought.

Digicast says that progressive companies with best-in-class safety records include safety in all major decisions. Safety is a topic at every board meeting and all departments consider safety when developing products and services. Leaders don’t bury their heads in the sand, and HR is totally on board. “A lot of organizations are set up so there is a wall between HR and occupational health and safety, but the two can no longer afford to work in silos,” DeJoy says.

Jonathan Thomas of the National Safety Council adds, “The things that HR leaders are most concerned about are also the building blocks for building a safe workplace.”

Have a look at the AMEX Open Forum for more commandments of a safe work culture.

 

Have You Planned Your Succession?

An important part of long-term success is developing your top talent so they can eventually replace you and other key players. Succession planning doesn’t have to be painful. After all, your organization is evolving, and you don’t want all the great progress you’ve made to be undermined due to an unplanned departure.

Along with Tim Kuppler, founder of consultancy The Culture Advantage and author of the ebook Building a Performance Culture, I offer this basic blueprint for succession planning that can be implemented by organizations of any size.

Track Potential Successors

Identify potential leaders on your team by reviewing 360-degree survey feedback, performance reviews and personality and strengths assessments. Ensure that your selections reflect your organization’s ideal culture and that they will keep things moving in the right direction. Keep tabs on where potential successors are headed by noting key development actions, resources and timeframes. Organize everything with a grid that makes it easy to compare one candidate to another.

Leverage Your Team

Gather your current leaders together to provide input on the most critical competencies, skills and attributes of successors. Set aside time for meetings where succession planning is the only focus. Devise a rating scale so potential candidates and supporting documentation can be reviewed objectively. Note that open discussion may bring out political sensitivities, especially if family members are involved.

Facilitate Growth

Great leaders are created, not born. Make sure potential successors, especially those who are new supervisors, have access to general management training so they “get it right the first time.” Mentoring programs are also beneficial for providing extra coaching to accelerate learning. Give employees options for potential mentors instead of making assignments where fit or trust issues could exist. Make sure mentorship is a two-way street. Your current leaders can learn a lot from the questions and approaches raised by potential successors.

For more succession planning tips, check out the AMEX Open Forum.

Map Your Office Design to Your Culture

The 712,000-square-foot Deloitte University (DU) facility in Westlake, Texas, was once a controversial project. 

Some didn’t believe that the forward-thinking accounting company should invest significant resources in a non-virtual campus. But Deloitte executives were committed to growing the world’s best leaders through collaboration, and having a place where people could meet in person still seemed like the best path.

The cornerstone of the DU facility is a multi-touch, multi-user 20-foot media wall, which allows visitors to track others who are onsite in real-time. Attendees are encouraged to meet up in themed hang-out rooms on each floor, socialize in the facility’s many restaurants and lounges, and attend sessions in classrooms equipped with videoconferencing and wifi.

Working Together, Not Apart

Deloitte is a culture where people talk to and brainstorm with each other–a lot–so the new facility was designed to make that as easy as possible. New employees often start their Deloitte careers with training that takes place at DU, and by the time they leave they are accustomed to working in a highly interactive fashion and are likely to continue this approach in their home offices.

Deloitte’s perspective is illustrated in a recent article for Forbes, in which Steelcase CEO Jim Hackett explained that today’s organizations are shifting from the “I” space to the “we” space.  As the command-and-control leadership style fades, c-suite executives no longer wish to be isolated from their employees. This means that in the realm of physical space, the literal c-suite is becoming a thing of the past. 

Steelcase, which is a workspace design company, does not have traditional offices. Its “we” spaces are conference rooms focused around particular issues or initiatives, and there reside the relevant executives and employees. Like Deloitte, Steelcase’s goal is to promote non-stop collaboration. This environment, as Mr. Hackett told Forbes, aims to encourage eye contact, provide everyone with equal access to information and allow people to move around and participate freely.

Learn more about how to map office design to culture at the AMEX Open Forum.

Drinking Too Much Kool-Aid Can Be Dangerous

Anyone who has worked in an organization for longer than a few months has heard the expression “drinking the company Kool-Aid.”

Even though Kool-Aid isn’t as popular as it used to be and may well end up with the same fate as Twinkie, the comparison still resonates. To drink the Kool-Aid means you believe in the organizational culture so much that you are willing and able to spout its principles without thinking, and that you ignore any evidence supporting the notion your company’s way of doing things isn’t working as well as it could. 

This is dangerous.

I once worked with a small company that was convinced its new accounting practices were revolutionary in the industry. Management spent a lot of money to get an automated system up and running, and drilled employees mercilessly on how to use it properly. The company got a great deal of incredible PR around the initiative. The system was easy to use! It saved tons of time! And new accounting was just the first step in a phased cultural initiative that would leverage state-of-the-art technology to free employees up to do what they did best!

There was only one problem. It didn’t work—at least not precisely enough. It turned out that some of the complex accounting issues the company faced required a human brain to sort. But the company was so busy touting its brilliance that it took numerous customer complaints to realize what was happening.

When you have a terrific culture or are in the midst of changing your culture to become terrific, it’s easy to overlook data that doesn’t support what you’re trying to do—and that’s where things get risky. A healthy organizational culture must be in touch with its thinking and have the ability to make rational decisions.

For suggestions on questions to ask to remain in touch with reality, have a look at the AMEX Open Forum.

 

Unconscious Bias is a Reality

Imagine that your employee has been talking about continuing his or her education, and is considering going back to grad school. You have a managerial position open for which this person would be perfect, but in the back of your mind, you worry that he or she will either leave or be overly distracted with school. So you create other reasons why another employee is better for the role, and leave this person as is.

This is just one example of the new workplace bias.

Bias Goes from Conscious to Unconscious

Bill Shackelford is the president of diversity consulting firm IEC Enterprises and the author of Minority Recruiting: Building the Strategies and Relationships for Effective Diversity Recruiting. In his article for Workforce Diversity Network, Shackelford says an understanding of how bias creeps into today’s enlightened workplace starts with an expanded definition, which is: 

Bias: “Intentional and unintentional, conscious and subconscious, attitudes, behaviors and actions that have a negative and differential impact on segments of the society, or favor one segment of the society.”       

As Shackelford points out, most employers have adopted fair employment practices designed to manage the classic forms of bias (i.e., intentional and conscious). Examples of intentional and conscious bias would be actions designed to intentionally discriminate against individuals because of their race, gender or ethnicity. Refusing to hire people because of their race or promote people because of their gender are classic examples from the past.  

But today’s most common forms of bias are more subtle, as in the case listed above. Decisions to hire and promote are often not based solely on the qualifications of the candidates, but are influenced by subjective criteria. When these subjective criteria relate to fixed diversity dimensions (race, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc.), the resulting decision is inherently biased.

Learn to combat unconscious bias over at the AMEX Open Forum.

Are Your Leaders Deluded?

As reported in the Economist last fall, corporate culture expert Dov Seidman’s firm LRN and Boston Research Group conducted a study that demonstrated that leaders’ rosy view of their organizational cultures is not in line with employee beliefs.

The research, National Governance, Culture, and Leadership Assessment, included data from 36,000 employees in 18 countries and was detailed in The How Report: New Metrics for a New Reality: Rethinking the Source of Resiliency, Innovation, and Growth.  The report identified three archetypes describing how businesses generally operate:  Blind Obedience (43 percent), Informed Acquiescence (54 percent) and Self-Governance (3 percent). 

Gulfs in Opinion a Mile Wide

The companies in the tiny self-governing category have astronomical advantages over competitors, including more innovation, stronger employee loyalty, higher customer satisfaction, stronger financial performance, higher resiliency in the face of a crisis and lower levels of misconduct.

Unfortunately, when it comes to whether or not a company is truly self-governing, there is a major gap between the views of C-suite executives and those of their employees: in the U.S., leaders identify their organizations as self-governing eight times as often as the overall workforce (24 versus 3 percent).

There are other gaps too.  For instance, 27 percent of executives believe their employees are inspired by their company, but only 4 percent of the employees agree.  And 41 percent of managers say their firm rewards performance on values rather than financial results, but only 14 percent of employees think this is true.

In other words, C-suiters think they’ve positively revolutionized corporate culture, and their employees, well…don’t.

To find out how you can course correct, check out my Culture Beat column on the AMEX Open Forum.

Help - My Co-Worker Can't Say No!

Over at Intuit's Fast Track blog, a reader wrote us with the following question:

Here’s the question, with our experts’ responses below:

My manager quit earlier this year, leaving me to run the marketing department with a woman we’d just hired.

I wasn’t in favor of the hire because I was concerned that she lacks professional maturity, but now she’s my co-director and we’re making do.  They’re not replacing my manager, and there’s been no conversation about how our roles have changed or what our strategic direction forward looks like—we’re just barging ahead.  My problem is this:  She’s hardworking, cheerful, and bright—and absolutely incapable of saying “no” to any request.  Whether it’s another director, a member of the senior team, or even (not making this up) a janitor with another “great idea” for improving the web site, she’s on board and happy to make it happen.  Web cams on the roof?  Sure!  Amateur photo contest?  Why not!  Some of the projects have been great, but most just clutter up the site and create huge amounts of work for me, because she doesn’t think about how her “happy to do it” attitude drags me into hours of editing work for unproven ideas that sound like fun and then backfire in big ways.  Our more boring, but important, work falls by the wayside, and our numbers are suffering because she won’t focus on fundamentals.

We now report to someone off-site, and he’s as hands-off as can be.  How can I work with her to make her understand that we need to make decisions as a team, and that her decisions set precedents for expectations we can’t undo?

Here's my response:

I can rather picture this person.  She is very idealistic and enthusiastic, but lacks the experience and critical eye to fully understand what’s doable and what isn’t.  Working with her would probably drive me to distraction too.

But that’s not helpful, because your success in your role depends on your ability to get this co-manager to cooperate with you.  So I’d appeal to what seems to matter most to her – that people like her.  I’d take her to lunch and preface the discussion with how happy you are to be working alongside one of the group’s rising stars.  Ask her if she’s amenable to developing a system for vetting projects so that the two of you are perceived as a can-do team, the one with which everyone wants to work.

Then, lay out your suggestion.  I recommend that this include meeting semi-weekly to discuss your duo’s priorities and decide what you’re going to move forward on, and in what order.  Neither of you should give other team members definitive answers on their recommendations until the two of you have met.  This will hopefully give you a regular chance to talk her out of ideas that are not feasible, or re-direct her energies into the fundamentals you mention.  Always remain positive when discussing an idea, no matter how wacky.  Say something like:  “That sounds really fun, but given that we’ve already committed to X, I think we should revisit it.”  The less forcefully you shut her down, the more likely she is to comply.

It sounds like you may be a little older than her.   If this is the case, perhaps you can offer yourself as a mentor and she’ll begin to lean on you for more strategic direction.  At that point, you can probably be even more direct with her about the problems that can arise when expectations aren’t managed properly, and your advice will be better received.

For great answers from the other experts, have a look at the full post at Fast Track.

In the Workplace, Appearance Still Counts for A Lot

In June of 2012, the University of Virginia announced the resignation of its president, Teresa Sullivan.  Faculty members received an e-mail indicating that the dismissal was due to a “philosophical difference of opinion” with the institution’s governing board.  Sullivan had been with the university just two years, and in the opinion of some, had been let go for little or no reason.

College presidents are chief executives too

In the New York Times Magazine, Sullivan’s allies suggested that she didn’t fit the governing board’s image of a chief executive.  Sullivan’s fashion sense, which was typically academic, had apparently offended the higher-ups.  During Sullivan’s performance review, she received comments that her dress was too informal. “I don’t know what the unprofessional dress was,” Sullivan told the Times. “I do live here at the university, so when I’m working out or doing something else here, people will see me.”

Would the same criticism be given to a man? Here what I think over at Intuit's Fast Track blog.