Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Giving Ownership - Literally - To Employees

Over at the Intuit Small Business blog, Gil Zeimer has some terrific how-to advice for motivating employees through ownership in the business.  According to Gil, such ownership helps to attract and retain valued employees, helps keep salaries in check, provides workers with a stronger feeling of camaraderie, generally boosts employee performance as workers focus on long-term goals, and may even qualify the company for tax benefits.  Gil’s three suggestions include:

Create an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP): The types of businesses that take this approach are usually public companies that offer liquidity to their optionees, or companies backed by venture capital firms that are planning an initial public offering or other sale to create liquidity.

Create Value Sharing Agreements:  This approach is less complicated than a stock options plan, but more complex than deferred compensation. Typically used for non-publicly traded companies, value sharing agreements can be difficult to structure because there must be a well-defined measurement of the value of a company and how to determine the participants’ share of this value as it changes over time.

Create a Deferred Compensation Plan:  Also known as a Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP), and sometimes called “golden handcuffs,” this strategy for non-publicly traded companies rewards employees who stay with the company longer and provides them with a bonus paid out over future years.

You may not have the authority to implement one of these options (although it’s certainly a good idea to make suggestions to the powers-that-be).  Remember that even as an individual manager, you can encourage figurative ownership by assigning employees to develop new processes, products, and services, and by having them participate in cross-functional initiatives that focus on growing the company as a whole. 

Starting a formal mentorship program is also a smart strategy, for employees who are prompted to teach others naturally boost their own sense of ownership over their roles and responsibilities and their commitment and dedication to the organization. 

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

Raising the Bar for Existing Staff

Alison Green, the writer at one of my favorite blogs, Ask a Manager, recently received this question from a reader:

I inherited a department of people who I don’t feel were adequately managed for several years.  Basically, as long as they showed up and were physically present, then nothing more was expected of them.  I’ve worked on trying to teach and show what I’m looking for, but in most cases the results are not there.  

I’ve actually personally faced this situation twice in my career, and I found it very frustrating.  Here’s what Alison advised:

I suggest that you sit down with your staff and talk to them straightforwardly. Tell them that you understand that expectations and standards have been different in the past, but that the department is currently falling short in some major ways.  Explain that things are going to be changing, and you hope they’ll be a part of that change.  Paint a picture of the type of department that you want to have a few months from now.  Ask people what kind of help they need to get there, and offer help where it’s reasonable, but hold the bar high. 

Then, start managing them to that higher bar: Check in often, review samples of their work, give feedback regularly, and point out when and where the bar isn’t being met.  If you’re not seeing significant improvement within a few weeks, you need to start setting and enforcing consequences, which in this case will mean warning people that they risk termination if you don’t see fairly quick changes.

I think Alison’s approach is 100 percent dead on, but I cringe a little when I think of the push back I received from my teams when I tried something similar.  The truth is, you have to be prepared for your employees to be irritated by the fact that they are going to be compensated the same for meeting a higher bar, and you need to continue to be assertive about your plans even if it feels uncomfortable and results in conflict.  

If you are in doubt as to whether your expectations are at all unreasonable, talk with your boss or someone else at your level to get a reality check.  And even if you don’t feel you need your boss’ advice, keep her informed from the get-go so that she is on your side should your employees complain to her, and so you can more easily justify greater-than-usual turnover.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

The Return of the Swear

I love Guy Kawasaki.  He’s such a low key guy, but then as you’re standing around having a beer, he’ll say something unconventionally brilliant.  Guy’s latest book, Enchantment, is straight from his heart and instructs us on how to influence people the magical way he does.

Guy says that it’s important to be likeable, a point that I don’t think anyone will dispute.  But he also goes on to suggest that swearing is a good strategy.  Why?  Swearing apparently arouses attention, builds solidarity, releases tension, and conveys informality, so it increases our acceptance by all but the most prudish individuals. 

Sure, Guy has rules.  You must not curse frequently, because when used too often, profanity loses its effectiveness.  Swear when you already know that your audience supports you, and soften the blow by using words like “crap” and “suck,” which are strong enough to get the job done but are less likely to offend.  Cursing should never be used to intimidate or embarrass another person.

I’ll buy that some harmless swearing at work can help achieve likeability, but my opinion is that it’s best reserved for the company of close colleagues on lunch break or at happy hour.  Even if your boss is acting like a hypocritical jerk or a senior executive says something that’s blatantly wrong, calling him or her out with a swear word or two probably won’t enhance your career potential.  And double standards abound, so what’s okay for the mid-level male managers who read Guy’s books might not be appreciated from women and those at the bottom of the ladder who are working to build professional reputations.

 

Career Secrets from the Insiders

I have been reading Martin Yate since I was a job seeker about to be fresh out of college, and he has been one of my major sources of inspiration over the last few years.  Fortunately for us, Martin's got a new Knock Em Dead book (this one is called Secrets and Strategies from the Insiders), and when I asked him if he could share some of the book's most important wisdom with you guys, here's what he had to say:

Take control of your life and change its trajectory: Every day, steal 30 minutes from your TV sitcom schedule and become involved in life as an active participant.  With a plan of attack even this minimal amount of time will pay off, in earnings, security, and in work/life satisfaction.

Change is constant: We change jobs about every four years and do so over what is typically a half-century work life. The skills that will most insure your security and success are the skills of job search and career management.  No one ever taught you these skills, but you have to take personal responsibility for their acquisition.

Enlightened self-interest is the key to long-term security and success: With enlightened self-interest, you give all the effort and goodwill a company expects. This POV enables you to simultaneously invest almost everything you do for the company into bringing your own goals and dreams to life.

Think of yourself as Me, Inc: Stop thinking of yourself as a dweeb who needs a job, and start thinking of yourself as a financial entity that must survive over a half century. By viewing yourself as a small company, you practice goal-setting, accountability, strategic planning, financial management, and marketing, and give yourself a framework for success.

For more where this came from, check out Knock Em Dead: S&S.

Social Media Tools: You Can Lead or Follow

Some professionals don’t bother with social media.  Maybe they think it’s just for the entertainment industry…or those marketing guys down the hall.  Maybe they think LinkedIn is for current job seekers, Facebook is for their high school-aged kids, and Twitter is just for sharing pointless information like what you had for breakfast.

A trusted colleague, Miriam Salpeter, convinces us why social media can be effective for all types in her book Social Networking for Career Success.  Miriam shares an interview with Brett Vanderwater, a strategic financial leader in an industry where not many others have jumped on the social media bandwagon.  The lack of social media role models in his field gave Brett two choices: to lead or to follow.

Brett decided to lead. He regularly tweets and blogs, and when he attends industry events or meetings, people seem to know who he is because of his online activity. He noted:

While I am still adding to my social network, the career value is the circle/network that it has created. The world I once played in was limited to the city where I lived. Now, the landscape is broad, and I have met professionals from all over the world. I have had the opportunity to speak at several professional forums as an expert. These events were directly related to the usage of LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogging.

What I learned was to utilize a skill I have been using in my business career – to lead. When a profession is not at the same place that you want to be or see yourself you have two choices: 1) Conform to the profession’s expectations or 2) Redefine it. I am choosing option two.

Social media tools help provide access and opportunity for anyone motivated and talented enough to seize the opportunity.  Making a name for yourself online is not difficult, but does require effort, and an open mind.  Take some time to investigate the various networks available to you, and be patient and innovative in uncovering ways in which they might add value.

The largest networks to establish a presence are obviously LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, but there are other outlets to demonstrate leadership as well.  Contributing to a respected collection of blogs like Harvard Business Review is one option, as is creating expert videos on YouTube and online radio shows and podcasts on BlogTalkRadio.  You may even find a creative use for Flickr, the popular photo sharing network.

Bottom line: even if you don’t consider yourself the “social media type,” these tools can add a new dimension to your leadership and provide an unparalleled opportunity to stand out in your industry and among your team members.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

Is Publishing Right for You?

My colleagues at the Intuit blog have been filling my RSS reader with terrific content, and when I saw Pat O’Bryan’s post about the advantages of book publishing, I had to chime in.

Pat’s Story

Pat published his book, Money From Anywhere, as an ebook and then as a paperback. To create the eBook, Pat used OpenOffice to write and save the manuscript as a PDF. He then printed the book publish the book using CreateSpace, which is Amazon.com’s self-publishing service.

Pat says that with a little marketing, he was able to drive Money From Anywhere to #1 on the “Movers and Shakers” best-seller list, #1 on the “Home Based Business” best-seller list, and #156 out of all the books available at Amazon.com. The book achieved Pat’s goals: he established himself as an expert in his field and added thousands of qualified leads to his mailing list.

Marketing and Goal Setting Are Key

As an author who is releasing a sixth book this fall, two things stood out to me in Pat’s post.  First of all, Pat makes reference to – and even links to another complete post – about doing “a little marketing.”  In truth, anyone who publishes a book in any form, whether via a self-driven mechanism like CreateSpace or through a large, traditional, New York-based house, must do a tremendous amount of marketing to ensure that book’s success.  Activities include extensive online outreach, media relations, public speaking, and free content development.

Secondly, Pat set clear and measurable goals for what he expected his book to do for his business.  As a result, he was able to write and promote the piece strategically and ensure that in the end, he was satisfied with the result.

Hard Publishing Realities

At least once a week, I get an e-mail from someone who wants my advice on writing a book.  I suppose this shouldn’t shock me, since I’ve seen statistics that 80 percent of Americans believe they have at least one book in them.  My advice is usually the same, especially if the person is a busy leader who doesn’t really need to the book to break into an industry and is considering it more as a vanity exercise.

So what’s the advice?  Follow Pat O’Bryan’s lead.  Regardless of how you publish your book, be prepared to sell it yourself, one copy at a time.  Publishing houses and private publicists cannot do it for you, because no one has your contacts or understands your subject matter better than you do.  If you don’t have the time or the will to do this, stop and think, for who wants to spend hundreds of hours writing a book that no one reads?

Understand also the book’s purpose.  Is it expected to drive your business forward, or serve as a thought-leadership vehicle for you as an executive and your organization?  How can you plan the book’s execution and promotion so that these goals are realized, and how will you measure its success?  Make sure you have satisfactory answers before proceeding – after all, when it comes to this amount of work, vanity is not enough and there may in fact there may in fact be better ways to accomplish your objectives.

This post was originally published at Intuit's Quickbase blog.

 

Know Your Default Leadership Settings

At the Harvard Business Review Leadership Blog, Linda Hill and Kent Lineback have some excellent suggestions for understanding your “default” settings as a manager, meaning the approach you are most likely to take in certain situations based on your nature.

Eight Questions to Consider Today

Linda and Kent encourage us to think about our own preferences by answering the following eight questions, each of which has no right or wrong answer:

1. Do you prefer to include others in choices you make — by asking for their ideas and opinions or even giving them freedom to decide — or do you tend to direct others on what to do?

2. Do you prefer to focus on the work people do or on the people doing the work?  In your relationship with directreports, do you tend to deal primarily with the work, or do you prefer to interact with them as close colleagues and unique individuals?

3. Do you prefer to develop people through constructive criticism of what they need to improve on, or by praising them for what they do well?  Do you let them figure out for themselves how to improve, or work with them using close contact and instruction?

4. Do you prefer to deal with your direct reports one-on-one or as a team? When there’s a problem in your group, do you tend to call everyone together and deal with it as a team, or do you prefer to go around person to person and work on it?

5. Do you prefer to focus on today’s challenges or do you prefer to think about tomorrow and what’s coming in the future?

6. Do you prefer execution, getting work done day after day, or innovation, creating new products or services or new ways of working?

7. Do you tend to work mostly with direct reports, your own group, or do you prefer to work with others throughout your organization?

8. When you have to make a tough choice, do you tend to focus on the harm that might befall someone or some group? Or do you prefer to focus on the greater good even if a choice may cause harm to some?

These preferences impact the decisions we must make every day as leaders, and as Linda and Kent point out, if we don’t know our preferences when we encounter them, we’re far less likely to make the best choices.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

 

How to Prepare as the Interviewer

It’s that time again.  You need to interview for an open position on your team, a position that you need filled yesterday!  Giving advance consideration to the questions you will ask your candidates will go a long way in terms of making the process as smooth and streamlined as possible.

While it’s appropriate to tailor some of your inquiries to each candidate, it will be easier to compare apples to apples if you develop a core set of questions that all interviewees are required to answer.  Create at least two questions for each of the criteria identified in your job description.  Each question should also have a rating scale attached to it.  For example, you might determine that an answer will be rated from 1-5 (with 1 being poor, and 5 being superior), providing a description of what encompasses a “superior” response and a “poor” response.

What are the best types of questions to ask? Several full-length books have been devoted to this subject, but I’ll share some guidelines from Martin Yate, author of Hiring the Best:

Adaptability and Suitability Questions

These show the candidate’s skill set and test his understanding of the problems that must be solved, the problems he is there to avoid, and what he’s there to produce.  Examples:  What would you say were the most important responsibilities in your previous job?  What was the most difficult project you tackled in your previous job?  With all of your responsibilities, how have you planned and organized your workload?

Motivation Questions

These demonstrate whether the candidate will be someone who comes to work with the intention of making a contribution and wants to spend the day engaged in focused activity.  Examples: What personal qualities do you think are necessary to make a success of this job?  What have you done that you are proud of?  Think of a crisis situation in which things got out of control.  Why did it happen, and what was your role in the events, and their resolution?

Teamwork and Manageability Questions

These showcase whether the candidate will be a cohesive influence, and whether her work style will mesh with your management style.  Examples:  Describe the best manager you ever had.  In what areas could your last boss have done a better job?  Tell me about an occasion when there were objections to your ideas.  What did you do to convince others of your point of view?

Management Questions

These illustrate that the candidate will be successful at hiring and training, as well as getting work done through others. Examples:  How do you quantify your results as a manager?  Tell me about an occasion when, in difficult circumstances, you pulled the team together. What are the common reasons for resignations in your area of responsibility?

Entry-Level Questions

These test a candidate’s potential ability to do the job when she has little or no prior work experience.  Examples:  How did you spend your vacations while at school?  What have you done that shows initiative and willingness to work?  What job in the company do you want to work toward?

The Passion Variable

Richard Chang, CEO of performance improvement consulting firm Richard Chang Associates, also recommends that you ask questions that get to the heart of an individual’s passion.  Look for people who have demonstrated that they have pursued experiences they were passionate about as they have matured – particularly with their own professional development.

Involve Existing Team Members

It’s a good idea for multiple people on your team to evaluate each candidate. Organizational psychologist Ben Dattner suggests that you look for interviewers with the following attributes:

• Knowledgeable about the role, the team, and the organization
• Representative of diverse groups within the organization
• Reluctant to jump to conclusions
• Open-minded and able to revise opinions
• Self-aware and able to account for their own biases
• Accurate in their predictions of candidate success over time

Your team should be coordinated on the roles that each interviewer should play. If a candidate is interviewing with four people, each person should be designated specific questions so that all four people aren’t asking the same things.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

Paying Attention in a Hectic World

I recently read somewhere that human beings have around 25,000 thoughts a day.  Add to that the fact that we are constantly inundated with novel stimuli from a friend’s new ringtone to the commercial in the train tunnel.  Given this kind of chaos, it’s hardly surprising that our minds wander when we’re trying to focus on a given task.

Of course, paying attention is easiest when you’re engrossed in a task you find interesting.  My mind never jumps over to an e-mail I have to answer or the meal I have to fix when I’m watching Fringe.  But the reality of work is that a lot of tasks are boring, and we have to do them well and efficiently anyway.

Fortunately, the solution is pretty simple – you just have to practice catching your mind in the act of wandering.  Note how long you can generally focus on a routine work task before your brain decides to call it quits, and try to divide tasks into small chunks that can be accomplished in this time period.  When I’m working on a book, for example, I write only three pages at a time because this task takes me roughly one hour, or the length of my own natural attention span.

If you must work on an assignment or attend a meeting that lasts longer than your brain can tolerate, don’t chastise yourself when external thoughts start intruding, because that will make the situation worse.  Accept a little off-task thinking, and then commit to another period of focus. 

The greater your awareness of where your attention lies, the more effectively you will be able to control it.