Attend the Microsoft Business Edge series!

Yesterday I did the first of 12 Web seminars (proprietary content) we’ve created for Microsoft as a Business Edge series to teach business etiquette and process to recently hired college graduates, and other employees who need a refresher course.

The registrations for the web seminar yesterday were strong and I believe attendees enjoyed the content. I encourage all Microsoft partners to have your young employees attend the Microsoft Business Edge series Web seminars live or at least view the recorded sessions. I am doing 3 of these a week for the next 4 weeks (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 11:00 a.m. PST each week).

Microsoft Partners can learn more about the seminars at https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/search_adv.aspx?ssid=7A5A37E3CBE64942ADD116A693BB2506

Today’s session is on how to Identify and Pursue Your Strengths. I hope you join us to learn more about how you can improve personally and professionally.

What’s Missing?

Ask "What’s missing" instead of saying "That’s WRONG". I got this idea from Tony Smith, CEO and Founding Partner of VSA Consulting Group, when I heard him speak at the ConnectWise Partner Summit in September. When there is a problem, do not tell someone they are wrong but instead say, “I think something is missing…” You have some choices on how to do this:

1. Speak generically and just state that you feel like something is missing. Ask if the other person or people can figure out what is missing.
2. Give them a hint as to what you think is missing. Such as, “It seems like something is missing. Have we taken into account how this is going to affect our legacy customers?”
3. Specifically refer to the missing process, person, detail or item, but not in a threatening way. Such as, “This sounds interesting, but it seems like something is missing in regards to whether we have the manpower to complete this project in the time frame you’re promising.”

If you’re practicing active listening, you can precede each of these comments with the statement, “If I understand you correctly” and then summarize what you think you heard. Then bring up your concern that something is missing.

We are all about developing strong relationships with other people in your workplace so your business can grow profitably every year. Give this suggestion a try this week. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.

Community

TIME Magazine has an article titled, A Sense of Community, in their September 22 issue. The article is primarily 21 ways to serve America written by their editors and submitted by others.

As leaders we need to consider some of these suggestions very seriously:

Re-think Christmas: This is an interesting concept to consider promoting to your employees starting in October. Is there a way you could support and/or contribute to their gifts of time and resources with those less fortunate rather than themselves during the Christmas season?

Get Out!: This suggestion aligns with your company values if your organization likes outdoor activities. It recommends getting involved in preserving our natural resources.

Turn Off the Tube: Virtually everyone who works for your organization does not have enough time to do all that they would like to do each day. One simple way for them to increase the amount of time available to help others as a volunteer is to simply turn off the television and leave it off. I have a growing number of friends who have stopped having cable television both to give themselves more free time and to avoid the trashy programming.

Cut Your Hair!: Why not encourage your employees to grow their hair as a group and then get it cut to donate their ponytails to nonprofits like Locks of Love and Weeks for Kids? These groups make wigs and hair pieces for children who lost their hair because of cancer treatments or medical conditions. The ponytail has to be a least 10 inches long so this might be a long-term project.

Take Off from Work: Instead of increasing the number of vacation days, why not give people additional days off but only if they use the days to do volunteer work for a recognized nonprofit organization?

At the end of the day we are a community. As leaders, we can more fully engage our employees and make the work more meaningful by encouraging them to serve our communities for the common good.

How to Respond to The Unexpected

Many leaders are told to expect the unexpected, but if it is unexpected how can you expect it? Certainly there is value in trying to expect and prepare for worse case scenarios, however great leaders know how to retain their focus on achieving superior results when surprising challenges are setbacks occur.

My mother sent me this story today. I do not know whether it’s true. The reason I am posting it is not for any spiritual message, but rather to encourage leaders to consider that often times challenges occur to make us stronger, encourage us to consider an alternative approach, or to serve a purpose unknown to us. Therefore as leaders our primary role is not always to solve the problem, but rather to retain our focus on key priorities as we work our way through the challenge.

Lost Glasses

My mother’s father worked as a carpenter, on this particular day, he was building some crates for the clothes his church was sending to orphanages in China.

On his way home, he reached into his shirt pocket to find his glasses, but they were gone. When he mentally replayed his earlier actions, he realized what had happened; the glasses had slipped out of his pocket unnoticed and fallen into one of the crates, which he had nailed shut.

His brand new glasses were heading for China! The Great Depression was at its height and Grandpa had six children. He had spent $20 for those glasses that very morning. He was upset by the thought of having to buy another pair. “It’s not fair,” he told God as he drove home in frustration. “I’ve been very faithful in giving of my time and money to your work, and now this.”

Months later, the director of the orphanage was on furlough in the United States. He wanted to visit all the churches that supported him in China, so he came speak one Sunday at my grandfather’s small church in Chicago.

The missionary began by thanking the people for their faithfulness in supporting the orphanage. “But most of all,” he said, “I must thank you for the glasses you sent last year. You see, the Communists had just swept through the orphanage, destroying everything, including my glasses. I was desperate. Even if I had the money, there was simply no way of replacing those glasses. Along with not being able to see well, I experienced headaches every day, so my coworkers and I were much in prayer about this. Then your crates arrived. When my staff removed the covers, they found a pair of glasses lying on top.” The missionary paused long enough to let his words sink in. Then, still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued: “Folks, when I tried on the glasses, it was as though they had been custom made just for me! I want to thank you for being a part of that.”

The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But the missionary surely must have confused their church with another, they thought. There were no glasses on their list of items to be sent overseas.

But sitting quietly in the back, with tears streaming down his face, an ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter had used him in an extraordinary way. There are times we want to blame God instead of thanking him!

I have to remember this in these times of trials of my own. May GOD bless your week! Look for the perfect mistakes. “People are like tea bags- - you have to put them in hot water before you know how strong they are.” Peace is not the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of God.

Great leaders are not always those who sit up at the front or stand as the speaker. This carpenter and father was a leader who knew how to serve others. He was making a positive difference in the lives of his family, church, clients and community. Did you notice how he did not stand and seek to be recognized for the gift of his glasses? Instead he listened, and learned.

Possibly the next time we are faced with a challenge our question should not be, “Why did this happen?” Instead possibly we should ask, “What am I supposed to learn from this problem?”

Bad Situation, But at Least the Employer is NOT to Blame

BLR through SHRM reports a California court actually sided with an employer for once.

The case, Flores v. AutoZone West, Inc. (Cal. Court of Appeals Dist. 4, No. G038322 (2008)) arose out of an altercation at an AutoZone store in Orange County. A customer was at the store to buy motor oil when he whistled at an employee to get his attention. The employee, a sales manager, took the whistling as an insult. After a verbal exchange hit the customer with a metal pipe.

Now let me break from this story for a moment. About 25 years ago I pulled into a gas station and waited to be served, which was before self-service. The attendant continued to chat with a buddy for what seemed like eternity, but probably was about 5-10 seconds. I whistled at him to get his attention. It made him angry. I apologized, but also told him I did not like waiting while he chatted with his friend. I later reported his anger to his boss. Years later I had my car serviced at a local dealership and it came back with a totally unrelated problem. When I picked it up I noticed the gas station attendant now worked at the dealership. Now you decide, was that just a coincidence? Apparently most of us do not like to be whistled at like a dog.

Now back to AutoZone. The customer filed a lawsuit against AutoZone to hold the company liable for his injuries on the grounds that the sales manager was acting within the scope of his employment when he hit the customer. The customer also contended that AutoZone was negligent in hiring, retaining, and training the employee, in light of his allegedly violent background. In particular, the sales manager had a juvenile delinquency record for attempted murder, although AutoZone was unaware of it. AutoZone had previously given the manager a written warning for raising his voice to a customer.

The appellate court ruled the case can proceed. Under California law, an employer is vicariously liable for its employees’ wrongdoings that are committed within the scope of the employment, and an employee’s willful, malicious, and even criminal acts may fall within the employment scope. AutoZone argued that the employee’s attack on the customer, who was an “an older and smaller gentleman,” was “perverse” and far outside the bounds of his employment. But the court said that an employee’s violent response to a customer interaction could be a predictable risk of retail employment, and it was up to a jury to decide that question in this case.

AutoZone’s appeal won in the appeals court, which rejected the negligence accusations. According to the court, AutoZone had no duty to do a more-thorough background check before hiring the employee—and even had the company done more, it still might not have uncovered the juvenile record. What’s more, the prior incident in which the manager raised his voice with a customer wasn’t a red flag that he might be violent.

How to Avoid Liability

1. Do a thorough background check (learn more) that includes a criminal and civil court check in the county the individual resides in addition to the largest adjacent county. You cannot make a hiring decision based on the civil court check, but you sure want to know if the individual is suing neighbors or past employers, or they are suing him.

2. Monitor performance AND conduct of all employees. Document problems and good works. Consider problems carefully. AutoZone won the lawsuit, but it cost them tens of thousands of dollars to do so. It can be better to terminate an employee rather than risk a serious problem. Sometimes the decisions you have to make as the boss are just tough.

Make this year your best year ever.

Who’s Pulling You Down?

Sanctuary is one of the 12 Desired Results of the Success With People system because it gives you perspective.

My friend and pastor, Joe Everly, mentioned this past weekend the example of freshly caught crabs that are offered for sale in a market. As long as there are multiple crabs for sale, they can be offered in open baskets because if one tries to escape the others drag it back into the basket. Do you have people stopping you from achieving your key priorities?

Elaine Hahn has some nice paintings of crabs in baskets if you are interested in making this point to your team. Here is one of them.

All those crabs just crawling around complaining… It sounds like some offices I’ve been invited to visit.

Use Sanctuary to break away from the crabs! Turn off all forms of communication for 1-2 hours a day just to focus on achieving key priorities. At other times Sanctuary is getting away from the office for a healthy walk/exercise and snack just to clear your mind of the crabs.

Make this next week your best week! It’s a great life… as long as you can escape the crabs!!!

Apprenticeships

Costco has a nice article titled, On-the-job training / Apprenticeships enable small firms to grow their own skilled employees. Next time you are hiring, I recommend you consider apprenticeships and internships for young people.

America has an edge in global competition in the years ahead IF WE FULLY ENGAGE our young people in our businesses. If we allow too many of them to languish without a clue what they would like to do for a career - like we are today - then we will miss this opportunity to create jobs, prosperity and the American Dream for millions of people.

According to the article about 450,000 apprentices are registered with the U.S. Dept. of Labor. They estimate about 225,000 U.S. companies, mostly small businesses, offer apprenticeships.

To learn more how your company can engage young people in apprenticeships contact or visit the websites of:

• U.S. Dept. of Labor Office of Apprenticeship Training - Your state or local government agencies promoting apprenticeships
•  AART - American Apprenticeship Round Table - The AART estimates that for every dollar invested by companies in apprentices (on average) there is approximately a $3 return over the life of an apprentice. So if you are looking to hire someone at a low rate that possibly has long-term potential, consider an apprentice or an intern.

We have information for our Success With People Club members on internships. Or you can email us to learn more.

Make this week your best ever!

Overtime Blues?

Workforce magazine has a great article on the 5 top mistakes businesses make in regards to the Federal Labor Standards Act. For complete details, see the article. In brief:

1. Salaried employees are NOT exempt from overtime - you need to pay them.
2. Assistant managers qualify for overtime because they do not have the authority of a manager
3. Do NOT automatically deduct for meal breaks. Only do so if your people have written time records confirming they took the break.
4. Pay for overtime whether or not it is approved in advance. Your policies may state someone can only work overtime when approved in advance, but the FLSA makes no such distinction. You can discipline or fire them for working overtime without pre-approval, but you must pay it if you allowed them to work.
5. An employee canNOT waive their right to be paid overtime. You must pay them.

Keep it simple: Just pay for overtime consistently.

Make this week your best!

Think First or Act Quickly

Richard Reeves writes a recent column for Universal Press Syndicate titled. McCain and Obama: Different Kinds of Men.

In the article he quotes Obama commenting on the importance of taking Sanctuary, a Desired Result of the Success With People system, so he can think clearly when he becomes president. In contract Reeves also talks about how McCain does almost the opposite, responding to a situation quickly and leaving more thorough consideration of the facts for later, if ever.

What type of leader are you?

Of course the greatest leaders balance these two decision-making approaches. The reason is simple. Sometimes you have to make a quick decision or the opportunity is lost. Other times you must take the time to think because not only will you better understand your options but the problem may resolve itself if you do not respond. This was the case for President Theodore Roosevelt when his inaction helped end the possibility of an all-out China-Japan war.

I encourage you to take Sanctuary time. There are 3 types of Sanctuary in the Success With People system:

1. Uninterrupted work time to focus on achieving a key priority.
2. Break time that involves a healthy snack and light exercise - ideally without cellphones or work-related activity.
3. Vacations without interruptions from work - ideally 2 or more weeks at a time.

Make this week your best week ever!

The Dark Knight

I went to see the Batman movie, The Dark Knight, with my son, Jeff, this past Saturday night. I was hesitant to go because it was reported to be very dark and bloody. Possibly due to this expectation I did not find it to be excessive in either area. However there had to be at least 10 previews before the movie started. When will the advertising ever end?

Leaving the movie Jeff commented about how Batman demonstrated values of old when he refused to kill any bad guy, particularly the Joker. We discussed how once you make a decision to kill people, then where do you draw the line? It’s easy to conclude killing the Joker would have saved the lives of others, but Batman knows himself too well. He realizes that if he crosses the line to take another’s life, then the line will move. Once he becomes comfortable killing murderers, will he consider stopping a rapist or an armed bank robber by taking their life?

In America the Declaration of Independence endows all citizens the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At what point, if any, do you forfeit your right to life? You certainly forfeit your right to be free in America if you violate certain laws. Your right to pursue happiness is also curtailed if you violate certain laws. But what about your right to live?

Again I refer you to the blog written about whether a leader today can demonstrate character, courage and chivalry and still be elected as a free world leader. Batman, in his own feeble way, attempts to be a servant leader for the city of Gotham. He demonstrates character, courage and chivalry. But alas, he is just a comic and movie character, not real life.

I suggest you take some of your workers to the movie, The Dark Knight. Afterwards grab a pizza to discuss whether a leader today can have Success With People without lying, focusing primarily on self advancement and avoiding responsibility for their own failures. Try to listen more than lead the conversation. The insights about your team may be quite rewarding.

Radio and Mandela Leadership

If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you read the 8 Lessons of Leadership from Nelson Mandela in the July 21st issue of Time Magazine (page 43). Mandela communicates in reasonable simplicity some great lessons for leaders to remember as you attempt to fully engage and motivate your people moment by moment each day.

His first lesson is, Courage is not the absence of fear - it’s inspiring others to move beyond it.

What a great lesson for how to achieve Success With People in business… and for our American presidential candidates. I was on KMAJ-AM with Deb Goodrich in Topeka, Kansas this morning and then Stew Peter’s We The People show on KCUE-AM 1250 in Bluff County Minnesota to discuss the rising concern in America of whether Barack Obama or John McCain will be good leaders.

Let’s keep it simple. Here are two key indicators of how they will perform if elected:

1. Look at their past performance record to predict their future performance. McCain has worked for smaller government, against earmarks, balanced budgets and worked with Democrats / anyone else to resolve problems. Obama has the highest liberal voting record in the Senate - he supports bigger government, higher taxes and expanding the government to solve all our problems.
2. Watch for who they pick as their vice presidential candidates AND THEN, this is very important, decide whether the vice president will be a poser - looks good, does nothing of significance - or a real team member who will accept part of the responsibility for our nation’s success during the next 4 years.

Get involved in our political process. Study the issues and the candidates. Write letters/emails. Attend events. Be heard.

Jibjab and Political Leadership - listen today!

Leadership in this presidential election is a hot topic now. I’m getting invited to talk on radio shows about it. Last week I was on the Doug Noll show - listen to the show here.

Today I’ll be on the radio with Harry Douglas of Car Concerns, at 1:00 p.m. PST (4:00 p.m. EST). We are going to talk about presidential leadership in this election, how it relates to high gas prices and Harry’s AMERICAN MOTORIST VOTER CAMPAIGN. He does not want voters to be fooled again. Success With People applies to government leaders as well as business leaders because government is supposed to be about serving people!

Catch the show on AM WKLV 850, WLOD 1140, WATO 1290 and WGAP 1400 or on the Internet at his website just below his list of regular guests.

Also check out the latest JibJab video - Time For Some Campaigning. You can even put yourself in the video!

Moral Strength and Character

You need to read this blog post by Steve Kayser. You’ll probably want to read the book he discusses also. You cannot have lasting Success With People without moral strength and character.

http://writingriffs.blogspot.com/2008/07/great-leaders-with-character-chivalry.html

My response to this post: Thank you and Steven Pressfield for challenging common people to display moral strength and character as we fight for the very survival of our nations. We must look beyond 2008 because those in power and the candidates will not significantly change anything. The frustration of people with limited or no influence is rising to the breaking point in a growing number of nations worldwide. Therefore the time is coming when the weak overcome the powerful; the poor outlast the rich; and leaders who demonstrate moral strength and character are desperately needed.

More 4-Day Workweeks

TIME Magazine (July 14, 2008) has an article titled, 10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas. As a leader you may want to consider all of them, but #3 is a MUST READ:

Companies, colleges and governments are moving to four-day workweeks. Here are the benefits Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Florida has experienced when they tested four work days during the 2007 summer session:

• Saved $268,000 in energy costs
• Sick leave fell 50%
• Employee turnover among the 1,500-person staff dropped 44%.

“We thought the energy savings would be a plus. But the reaction was about what it meant to people’s family lives and their ability to take care of themselves,” says college president Jim Drake. Brevard is doing four-day weeks again this summer and may make the change year-round.

It’s clear a 4-day workweek results in Success With People. Employees are more engaged, healthy and loyal. Look at how it is positively affecting employees’ lives!!

I think we all better shift to a 4-day workweek ASAP. How about you?

Cool way to speed-up email (NRR)

Bnet sent out tips from Get Predictable Success on how to use email more effectively. Here’s a brief summary. For the complete info, go here.

The key is to limit your subject line to 60 characters or less and then give instruction via 3 letters. The objective is to enable people to avoid opening brief emails. For instance:

(EOM) = End of Message – i.e. New employee party in the lunch room at 3pm (EOM)

(NRR) = No Reply Required – i.e. Copy of the article you requested is attached (NRR)

(Y/N) = Yes / No – i.e. Are you joining us for lunch today? (Y/N)

(RB+) = Reply By (date) – i.e. When will you get me your sales report? (RB 2 days)

(AB+) = Action By (date) – i.e. Send employee turnover report (AB 1 day)

(PYR) = Per Your Request – i.e. Russell’s job description (PYR)

Certainly if everyone used better written subject lines it would help us all work through out Inbox faster and achieve greater Success With People. Have an awesome day!

Eliminate time wasters

Bnet has an article this week titled, The Top 5 Time-Management Mistakes. Avoiding these 5 mistakes is consistent with my Success With People system because I teach how to take Sanctuary to clear your mind and use Success Plans to achieve key objectives.

Go ahead and do a quick check of how you manage your time against Bnet’s list:

1. Starting the day without a plan.
2. Getting busy without getting anything done.
3. Not delegating.
4. Working in a mess.
5. Trying to multitask.

I’m back for dress-up

According to CCH, 41% of employers participating in a new survey state that people who dress better or more professionally tend to be promoted more often than others in their organization. Of course, 55% of financial services folks tend to be more snobby or “professional” in the area of appearance. On the other hand, most of my clients will be pleased to learn that only 37% of IT employers think the best dressed folks tend to be promoted more often than others.

My recommendation is to require people to wear clean clothes, no rips/tears, no underwear showing, they should not smell, and judge them based on performance rather than taste in clothing. That’s the road to Success With People.

Making Telecommuting Work

Currently we have people in California, Wisconsin and Arizona. The question comes up, how can we be certain everyone is fully contributing their best efforts?

BusinessWeek magazine had a brief article edited by Michelle Conlin (Out of Site, Yes. Out of Mind, No, February 18, 2008) about this issue. It was great to learn Hewlett-Packard offers a personality test for workers so they can determine whether they can work effectively remotely. We offer our Talent Assessments to identify winning behaviors and values rather than personality, but the concept is similar. Our experience is matching behaviors and values is more reliable than personality.

According to the article IBM researchers have determined if teams of people go more than 3 days without gathering then their happiness and productivity suffers. IBM now requires managers to bring teams together at least once every 3 days - physically or virtually - for discussions or activities that often have nothing to do with completing assignments.

What’s the most important ingredient in making telecommuting work? Trust.

That’s why it’s so important for you to hire the right people in the first place. Recently I was talking with a company in who is interested our services. His struggle is the people he hires do not behave as expected once they start in their job. We can fairly easily solve his problem. If you are having difficulty hiring great people, email us (info@successwithpeople.com) to learn how we can help.

Let’s make 2008 our best year ever. Have an awesome day!

Layoff Opportunity

Employment consulting and legal firm Career Protection says that according to their January survey of more than 1,300 corporate executives and senior-level officials there will be a 37 percent increase in layoffs this year compared with last year. (Workforce 1/29/07)

Yet it depends on who you survey. The majority of our clients sell productivity tools that have a reasonable return on investment so even if the economy cools off a bit their business should remain steady. Currently virtually all of our clients are growing and struggling to find people to hire!

No matter how the economy is performing the key is to manage your people systematically so employees are fully engaged, productive, and fulfilled in their work. If there are layoffs coming then be one of the fortunate companies that is hiring great talent that becomes available, rather than having to let them go.

What can you do now? Wise leaders are choosing one area of talent management - hiring, managing day-to-day, employee development or retention - and taking this opportunity to make their company better at it than they are today. Shrewd business people take advantage of business downturns. If you need help on how to best focus your efforts, let me know.

11 job interview questions you should avoid asking

This is a quick reminder on which questions are legitimate and which to avoid when interviewing job candidates. I’ve seen these questions for years. This particular list comes from an article in Tech Republic from last year.

Which of the following questions can you not ask a job candidate?

1. Where were you born?
2. What is your native language?
3. Are you married?
4. Do you have children?
5. Do you plan to get pregnant?
6. How old are you?
7. Do you observe Yom Kippur?
8. Do you have a disability or chronic illness?
9. Are you in the National Guard?
10. Do you smoke or use alcohol?
11. When did you graduate from college?

You can’t ask any of them, however, many of them will be answered on your job application so your human resources department will be informed of the person’s background for benefits purposes. Make certain your managers avoid these questions during interviews.