Tag: communication

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Stop Punishing Your Best Performers! Build a Culture of Employee Development

I have worked for a company where I was assigned to a manager who was treated like this by his manager and by the CEO, and I could tell very early on that they wanted/expected me to be just like him in every way–including allowing them to punish me for competence.

It would be nice if supervisors, managers, directors and so on would read this article and use it to seriously make changes. But this is what goes on in workplaces, and I’m pretty sure that’s never going to change. My situation is more like the second setting described in the article, but I absolutely see the day I resign for good going exactly as described in the first situation impotenciastop.pt. It’s amazing how employers regularly punish the best employees and then act shocked when they leave.

Gems:

Because this individual is so valuable to the manager, the manager rewards the individual by giving him or her more work, which in essence precludes the employee from earning or seeking other opportunities for promotion. The manager “claims” that the individual has a bright future with the company, but that he or she just needs to be “a bit more patient.”

 

When the employee does offer his or her resignation, the manager is shocked and responds, “I had no idea you were this unhappy. Why didn’t you say something?” … The superior employee leaves because he or she no longer trusts the manager. The real victim is the company…

 

In its early stages, weak managers punish better performers, who already have a full plate of work to do, with additional work that weaker employees either cannot or will not do. The weak manager usually approaches the better employee with requests such as, “I know you’re busy, but can you take care of this. Blank just doesn’t know how to do it?” Or, “Can you handle this? We are pressed for time, and I know I can depend on you to get this done.”

 

The first step is prevention. Have a clear picture of the type of person you want to hire. This profile should include not only the skills and experience needed for the incumbent to succeed but a description of the type of person who will fit into the culture of your company.

 

Make sure that all of the members of your team know what they are supposed to do, how to do it…the “why” of what they do–i.e. how it fits in to your company’s operation–and how the performance of their duties impacts the jobs of their teammates.

 

Stop Punishing Your Best Performers! Build a Culture of Employee Development

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Bosses, Get Out of Your Employees’ Way

It has been a while, but I have still been reading and collecting articles to post! It looks like my next couple will be from The Wall Street Journal, perhaps, which tends to require a subscription to read. But there are some great quotes and takeaways in this article. Really love it–every boss, manager, supervisor, etc, should read it. Because not everyone can read the article, and because the article is long, I will include a few more quotes/gems than usual. My favorite quote/gem is in red below!

Some of the gems:

First, bosses need to understand the damage they do by interfering when they ought to stand aside. Second, bosses need to know when getting out of the way is best and how to do it. And third, employees need to know how they can reduce the damage when a stubborn or clueless boss continues to engage in misguided meddling.

 

comprar casodex…even leaders who use the much-ballyhooed practice of management by walking around—known as MBWA—who devote big chunks of time to observing front-line work and asking employees to identify problems and solutions, may do more harm than good.

 

…when leaders used MBWA for complex and vexing problems (such as excessive lead times for lab test results), employees reported that chats and meetings with bosses interfered with their productive work and rarely solved the problems. On the contrary: These futile discussions had enduring negative repercussions because they drew attention to their leaders’ failings.

 

One boss in a nonprofit organization told me that she hones such self-awareness by seeking out and developing rapport with local critics and complainers—people who are quick to criticize her and spread bad news about her missteps…[T]hese grumpy employees provide her with more useful information. That includes tips about meetings she calls that ought to be eliminated or shortened, and about times when she is seen as a micromanager rather than helpful coach. She believes that these naysayers and critics make her a better boss.

 

 …too often bosses won’t dial down their scrutiny, advice and demands, even when it undermines progress and drives people crazy. It isn’t that they are being malicious, as was evident in Prof. Pfeffer’s experiments. Rather, they think interfering is what being a good boss is all about.

 

They elected to resist, ignore and undermine their bosses’ authority because they wanted to do what was best for their organizations, colleagues, and customers.

 

Bosses, Get Out of Your Employees’ Way

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The Best Employees Are Not the Agreeable Ones, According to Adam Grant

Absolutely love this article–very short, but great point. Would love to read more about this or see a video of the speech by Grant.

Gems:

The agreeable giver may seem like the ideal employee, but Grant says their sunny disposition can make them averse to conflict and too eager to agree https://impotenzastop.it/. Disagreeable givers, on the other hand, can be a pain in the ass, but valuable to an organization, Grant says.

They’re more likely to fight for what they believe in, challenge the status quo, and push the organization to make painful but necessary changes, he says.

 

…for organizations eager to avoid complacency and determined to improve, [disagreeable givers] also can be invaluable.

 

The Best Employees Are Not the Agreeable Ones, According to Adam Grant

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Cold Hard Truths About The Workplace I Learned The Hard Way

I don’t 100% agree with this article, but I mostly do (love the third one). The last “truth” generally applies to me but it has only been recognized by an employer while I was still their employee once, and even that recognition can’t keep me in “the workplace”. But it’s the only thing that makes working for other people even semi-tolerable.

Some gems:

Just don’t look at your co-workers as friends because you expect too much from them. It’s a whole different dynamic. At work, people are there to earn a living.

 

So you decide to speak your mind. You listen to them and try to be honest with your feedback. What happens? Suddenly, you become an enemy. A defector https://ed-hrvatski.com/kamagra/. Someone who doesn’t fit in.

 

Every firm, business unit, and team has a John or Johanna. Someone who’s accountable for the majority of the results. Someone the company relies on. Naturally, Johanna is favored and gets special treatment. And what happens? Others get jealous and say it’s not fair.

Sure, most businesses are very obvious about the way they reward their Johns. They could be more subtle. But when they do that, they risk that John or Johanna leaves their company. And when that happens, the company loses. You can cry or complain about it. But you’re not helping your company or yourself.

 

Cold Hard Truths About The Workplace I Learned The Hard Way

 

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Annual Performance Reviews Vs Continuous Feedback Infographic

Common sense strikes again. I concur with all of this, except one part–the word “feedback.”

I believe employers should have monthly “check-ins” with employees, if not check-ins that occur more often. And words such as “feedback” and “reviews” make it seem one-sided when it shouldn’t be. The “feedback” should go both ways. Really, it should be a discussion or a conversation, so that you, as an employer, can gather a lot of valuable information from an employee about problems that need to be addressed, needs that need to be met, etc.

Annual Performance Reviews Vs Continuous Feedback Infographic

Gems:

>50% reacted to an annual performance review by looking for a new job.

 

64% of employees that quit their jobs say they did it because they didn’t feel recognized for their job. – U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

Companies that set quarterly performance goals to generate 31% greater returns than those that review goals annually, and those that do it monthly get even better results.

 

I do have to note one thing about “performance goals”–I have worked at a company where quarterly performance goals was a thing, and I perceived them as somewhat arbitrary and meaningless…at least at this company. If you’re going to require performance goals–which I think is kind of ridiculous–make sure they’re tied to necessities. It shouldn’t be coming up with 3 or 4 goals just to have 3 or 4 goals, especially if you’re tying these pointless goals to bonuses and/or raises. This leads to wasted time for employees on pointless goals when there are more important–even critical–places to focus attention, time and effort. If there’s one big thing that it’d be truly helpful or necessary to have completed within 3 or so months, then that one thing should be the performance goal–not 1 semi-important thing (i.e https://osterreichische-apotheke.com/k../. important but not critical in the next 3 months), 1-2 impossible as fuck things and 1-2 totally unimportant things, as was the case where I worked.

Annual Performance Reviews Vs Continuous Feedback Infographic

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Openness and Connection Part 1

Today, I’m sharing something different–a YouTube post. I actually found it after “googling” the authors (Tim and Joy Downs) of a book of which I’ve read a few sections. The book is geared more towards romantic relationships/marriages, but some of the information in this book would vastly help a ton of workplaces in terms of better understanding, accepting and communicating with others.

There are religious references, particularly in the beginning of the video, so I’m setting the video to start around the 4:30 mark–that’s where the real value of the video starts anyway comprar casodex.

Today, I’m sharing part 1.

I highly recommend Tim and Joy Downs’s book just for the section about Openness alone (but I’m also finding the section about Connection to be interesting and useful):

One Of Us Must Be Crazy…and I’m Pretty Sure It’s You: Making Sense of the Differences that Divide Us