: ARE YOU A CONTROL FREAK?

 Time to face facts; you won’t be good at everything!  In fact, at some things you will be downright terrible.  However the bottom line is……”that’s okay.”

When I got out of the military, (well over 45+ years ago) I managed a fast food restaurant in Rochester, NY and it was staffed with mostly high school boys.  When they acted in a manner that I didn’t like, I had a certain pose and standard verbiage ready and waiting.  I used to put my hand on my hip and state in a loud voice for all to hear, “SCREW IT, YOU’RE FIRED!”  (And you thought Donald Trump coined that phrase.)

The difficulty was that every time I did this, I ended up working that person’s shift.  And one day I realized I was the one working 18 hour days because that decent employee was no longer there and probably not deserving of being terminated.  In one of my many long and on my feet 18 hour days I did a self inventory trying to find answers to my control freak attitude.

Why did I do that?  One word described it nicely.  FEAR!

Fear of losing control, fear of trusting others, fear of failure, fear that I wasn’t doing well enough and fear that I wouldn’t make a difference.  Needless to say, these ill-fated inner feelings didn’t last long and I learned quickly from my mistakes.

A long time business associate and dear friend, who recently passed away, said to me a few years back, “I wished someone would have told me all this before I accepted the reins as the CEO.  In looking back, I was truly a star performer, but I burned myself out in the process.  And what’s worse is that I burned out or burned off many good people in the run for excellence.”  For my friend his time was up.  But for you, there is still time to right the wrongs, fix the broken, and grow you and the people around you.

So I suggest to you today, take an HONEST INVENTORY of YOU;

Are you a leader or a follower?
Are you conservative or downright cheap?
Are you a team player or just on the team?
Are you a sales professional or a bean counter?
Are you a marketer of ideas or developer of concepts?
Do you make a difference or happy to just get through the day?
Do you give people their just acclimates or are you a glory hound?
Do you relate to others because you care or what they can do for you?
Do you help the people around you grow or do you walk on people to help you grow?
Are you a “know it all one stop decision maker” or do you take the advice of people around you?

As you can see the list could go on and on.  Where do you fall short?  How can you fill in those gaps?  Put your thoughts in writing as they will become more meaningful to you and then act on them.  Fix you and you’ll help fix the scene around you.   Nobody and I do mean NOBODY is capable of being all perfect to all people.  With that said please remember that the “smart” ones empower, get acceptance and accountability and give all the glory to those around them.

May the sun shine brightly on you this week.  If the staff at Client Growth Consultants can be of assistance to you, please call or write and we will respond immediately!

Regards,

George F. Mancuso
George F. Mancuso, CPC 

Time Waster's

Q:  About 2 years ago you sent us a newsletter about Time Wasting.  Although I have shared that with my staff over the last “many” months, I have somehow been able to locate the piece in my computer.  Would you kind enough to run it again for the edification of all?  (Rebecca D. EVP, Business Consulting)

A:  My pleasure:

Time management is one of the greatest challenges of any business professional.  With that in mind, I offer you the following;

 

1.        Time Waster:  Personal Issues brought to work.

a.       Solution:  Leave your baggage outside the door of your office.  When you are at work, you need to focus on work.

2.       Time Waster:  Discussing every HIGH and LOW with the ENTIRE office.

a.       Solution:  Don’t cost your co-workers and the company time and money that will be taken away when they stop to listen.  Learn to keep things to yourself.

3.       Time Waster:  Arriving at work with a NEGATIVE ATTITUDE.

a.       Solution:  You have to arrive at work expecting to WIN and SUCCEED.  You don’t want to be responsible for sucking the oxygen out or your office.  Remember, if you think you can succeed or you think you can’t – You’re Right!

4.       Time Waster: Asking Endless Questions.

a.       Solution:  Write down your questions and ask your manager at 11:30 AM or 4:30 PM.  During prime time, stay focused on your work.

5.       Time Waster:  Arriving at work with no plan.

a.       Solution:  You should always arrive at work planning to accomplish all of your “A” priority goals of the day.  Without a defined plan you have chaos. 

6.       Time Waster:  Deserving more, settling for less and blaming others.

a.       Solution:  Always focus on what YOU could have done differently.  If you are affected by the actions of someone else, realize that you have 100% control over how you react and you can choose NOT to react at all!

If I can be of assistance to you or your management team with regards to hiring, growth consulting and/or training, please call or write and I will respond immediately!

Regards,
George F. Mancuso, CPC, CEO

Are There Really Too Many Jobs and Too Few People?

I am constantly asked about employee retention and recruiting the “best” people, thus, the subject for this week’s newsletter.  I certainly hope you enjoy this, find it interesting & educational and share with your management staff.  (This Newsletter Is A Repeat By Request)

THERE IS AN IMPENDING CRISIS IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE.  TOO MANY JOBS, TOO FEW PEOPLE!  The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasted a shortage of 10,300,000 workers by 2010!  And this shortage is simply raw numbers; it doesn’t fully address the growing skills gap.  The numbers also don’t take into account the changing attitudes in the workforce.  Well guess what????  The Shortage Continues in 2013.

Because so few corporate leaders are fully cognizant of their predicament, executives who DO prepare for the new operating environment will lead their organizations to a bright future; those who ignore the threat, risk dangerous vulnerability.  With these thoughts in mind, I have six suggestions for owners and managers with regards to employee retention and staffing.

Suggestion # One:  IF YOU PAY PEANUTS, YOU GET SQUIRRELS!  The old expression that “you get what you pay for” is never truer when it comes to employees.  To get above average talent, service and productivity, you must consider pay grades that are above the average for competitors in your marketplace.  It is ludicrous to think you can get a world-class staff by paying below average wages.

Suggestion # Two:  PEOPLE JOIN A COMPANY BUT THEY LEAVE A BOSS!  When I ask members of a management team why they have heavy turnover, the answers are usually the same: no recognition, no promotional opportunities, no training, work not appreciated, lousy benefits, too much stress, overwork and of course the most popular, a better opportunity for more money.  What amazes me is all of these excuses are fixable by management, but they go into a non-response mode with a complacent, “oh well.”
But in reality the number one reason IS LOUSY MANAGEMENT OR SUPERVISION!  If the basic supervisor-employee relationship is not good, employees leave with dispatch.  And what is really sad is that this problem is fixable.

Suggestion # Three:  LOUSY COMPANIES CONDONE LOUSY MANGERS AND GREAT COMPANIES FIX LOUSY MANAGERS!  Executives and owners often confide in me, “George, it isn’t easy”.  Just because so and so is a lousy manager, he/she means no harm.  OR He/she has been with me for so many years and is a good person.  OR my all time favorite, he/she is my wife’s brother/sister.

Loyalty is one thing but if you have a supervisor or manager that continually drives away good talented people, you have ONLY two choices:  Fix him/her by getting them into a training and/or self development program or GET THAT PERSON OUT OF MANAGEMENT!

Suggestion # Four:  SOME PEOPLE JUST SHOULD NOT BE WORKING FOR THIS COMPANY!  Have you ever thought of someone in your organization that you would gladly fill out an employment application for them for ANOTHER company and then offer to drive them to the interview?  Whenever I am asked, “what is the fastest way to turn around low morale” my first and immediate response is to get rid of the “turkeys” in the organization.  Your company should be staffed with EAGLES not turkeys.

Suggestion # Five:  RETENTION IS A LEADERSHIP PROBLEM, NOT A HUMAN RESOURCE PROBLEM!  Leadership, whether strong or weak, ultimately determines the overall retention rate of your company.  Retaining GREAT employees is far too important to completely delegate to mid-level managers or human resource managers.  Retention must be front and center within every strategic initiative, expansion plan or turnaround situation that you face.  Remember, leaders are not necessarily good managers and managers are not necessarily good leaders.  It doesn’t have to be that way, but most times it is.

Suggestion # Six:  HIRE A GREAT OUTSIDE GROWTH CONSULTANT TO HELP YOU!  If you do not have internal staff with a learning and training curriculum, spend the money and hire an outside, highly qualified (one who has been there and done that) consultant to help you design a plan, train all trainable employees and get over your high employee turnover.  It will be the best money you ever spent.  Third party influence many times works much better than hearing from a peer or upper management person.  Employees WANT to learn, they WANT to grow and will reward you when given the opportunity to do.  Lack of retention cost corporations millions of dollars on a DAILY BASIS!  You don’t have to fall into that category.

Remember, IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO SOAR WITH THE EAGLES WHEN YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY SO MANY TURKEYS!

I hope your week is filled with health, happiness and achievement of your personal and business goals.

Regards,

George F. Mancuso

George F. Mancuso, CPC 

Retention, Conflict and Change

Subject Matter:  In the last 30 days, I have received 41 Emails requesting additional suggestions, ideas or conceptual designs with regards to RETENTION, CONFLICT and CHANGE.  Your questions vary through this spectrum, so I’ll do my best to address the concept in general, again.

The commonality to most of your Emails, have to do with conflict.  An example; “One person or team wanting or attempting to implement change while another person or team is determined to derail any and all change that THEY don’t think of.  Results = anger, hostility, terminations and resignations.”

PLEASE REFLECT YOUR CURRENT SITUATION(S) TO THE FOLLOWING:

A.     When you have long term, entrenched employees who are petrified of having their little apple cart upset, you will have conflict.

B.     When you have management that talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk so that change can be embraced, you will have conflict.

C.     When you have employees who don’t “sign up for” OR “buy in to” the upcoming change process, you will have conflict.

D.    When change is dictated and not a team effort, you will have conflict.

E.     When management or supervisors are micro-managers, you will have conflict.

F.     When the dissenting employees get into their “derail” mode AND justify their position (usually confidentially) to weak management, thus getting management to knowingly or unknowingly assist in the derailment, YOU WILL HAVE CONFLICT!

 

Hopefully you get the picture.  If you are going to implement change, and don’t include everybody in the communication process and offer a defined but reasonable methodology to resolve issues, your change process is destined to fail with no matter WHO you put in charge to initiate change.

I hope your week will be filled with very little conflict, good decision making, prosperity and great health!

Regards,

George F. Mancuso

George F. Mancuso, CPC 

 

Seven Possible Reasons (ex) - Employees Bad Mouth You and Your Company

 

1.    No reason given for termination; You’re an at-will employer, so you can fire at will, right? Wrong. Most employees think they’re wonderful employees, and if they get fired for a mysterious reason, they’ll make up their own reason - or their lawyer will. The reason for termination needs to be clear, succinct and legally valid.

2.    Termination of an employee for bad performance, when the employee has good performance reviews; This is the big brother to “no reason given for termination.” Supervisors need to understand that they’ll need a poor-performance paper trail if they want to fire someone. Any competent judge or jury will see the through this one.

3.    Coincidental or deficient timing; (a) An employee files an internal complaint about the employer or a supervisor, and then (b) shortly after is disciplined for a supposedly unrelated event.  Employees who file complaints can be disciplined, but the supervisor better have the documentation in order before making the move.

4.    Failure to respond or investigate in a timely manner; When employees file complaints, they want them thoroughly investigated and they want it done now. If an investigation is filed, communication becomes the first defense.  Acknowledge the event, set a timely schedule for investigation, and keep the complainant fully informed. 

5.    Viewing an EEOC charge lightly; If you’re contacted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding an employee complaint, respond promptly and courteously - and treat the complaining employee courteously, too. If you’re reluctant or procrastinate in your response or treat the employee like a leper, expect to hear about it in court and from a heavy handed authority at that.

6.    Failing to follow your own policies; You can have the best policies and training in the world - and indeed some companies have used that as a defense against a complaint. But you better be able to show that your supervisors followed those policies and applied the training and documented the results with no room for error.

7.    Lack of respect of their loyalty.  You’ve got an employee that is first in, last out, always willing to be part of a team, has successfully achieved all challenges you have put forth.  But after being rode hard and put away wet, they are dismissed and replaced with another and usually for less money, less experience and many times less years of the face of the earth. 

There are all kinds of ways disgruntled employees can anonymously attack their current or former employers via the Internet.  One such site is www.glassdoor.com   and there are many others that are not so gentle.  Why put yourselves into that arena? 

As always, I thank you for your readership and please accept my wish for a tremendous week.  If I can help in anyway, please call or write and I will respond immediately!

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, CPC, CEO

Client Growth Consultants, Inc.

Grinnell, Iowa