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Your actions count and your actions repeat.

Submitted by Ruth on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 08:33

I heard about an executive who, because of a decision to add new employees to the team faster, took action and made a decree: He told his new young managers to "hire only people they connected with" and within months, he had a totally tattooed workforce*.

This silly story reminded me of years ago when my older brother came home for a holiday visit after securing his first job, I asked him about work. He told me that his learning curve was still very high, but he already knew that work is two things: Your actions count and your actions repeat. He told me of a small decision with action he made that went on unimpeded and became a pervasive part of a system throughout the entire global company. It repeated across time, in the systems, and through the people in the organization.

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How to kill initiative:

Submitted by Ruth on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 07:33

I know a guy who killed all the initiative in his company. He had not created an atmosphere that allowed people to tell the truth about what was really going on. His initial angry responses to issues being brought up made everyone cringe. Killed their initiative; killed their independent thought. This became a vicious cycle where they could no longer creatively solve problems, and he felt he had to do everything himself which added to his busyness and his stress and all those associated emotions.

One way to say, “You’re doing a bad job,” but nicely.

Submitted by Ruth on Mon, 04/04/2011 - 13:46
I heard a story about a part-time employee, who, in his usual mode, was lazy in his work, and his results were substandard and untrustworthy. He was capable enough as he was a university student in a tough academic field. As I listened to this story, frustration was clear as she told me, “This [guy] works as slowly and poorly as possible; he’s driving everyone nuts. We’re a small company and can’t afford good help. Worse, he’s related to someone here in the office, so we can’t say anything…” Here’s the thing: you cannot afford not to say something. What a dumb drain on the company finances and morale!

If you haven’t told them, then how are they supposed to know?

Submitted by Ruth on Thu, 03/03/2011 - 08:41
One of my new CEO friends is on the phone and he is seeing a couple of his team members hovering around the door to his office. He knows it will be a string of interruptions for simple questions. What he doesn’t yet know is that this is a symptom of fuzzy leadership.
I am no longer surprised when I’m working inside a clients’ company and find out that some of the people there are not absolutely certain of what they should be doing, why they are doing it, or when it needs to be done.

Fix it or decide to find it charming.

Submitted by Ruth on Sun, 01/02/2011 - 19:26
I once had a manager who, when tired and stressed, behaved poorly by talking incessantly in a rudely contemptuous manner. I needed to fix this because this was something that was oft repeated and did not sit well with anyone in the organization. It could not be ignored, it had to be fixed. A discreet and civil chat resolved the issue.
In a different place, a manager told a customer that his business was no longer welcome here because he was too mean to the staff. This manager was surprised to learn that I was okay with it. But civility is a guiding principle: My trusted manager had his team’s best interest at heart.

Define the rules of non-interruption for your company.

Submitted by Ruth on Tue, 11/30/2010 - 22:05
My friend is a perfect entrepreneur, but for days he didn’t get very far on the design proposal work and time was sliding dangerously toward the deadline. Silly but demanding interruptions, crisis, and general flare-ups were sapping not just his time, but energy. He was constantly overly busy.

Crazy doesn't show up in interviews.

Submitted by Ruth on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 07:59
“Crazy” doesn’t always show up in interviews. This glib statement is a result of an incident in which I found myself hearing about an employee who, instead of spending his time doing good work for the company, spent time writing numerous preposterous emails to our various departments. With no authorization he posed as a customer in a variety of situations and our very lean staff wasted valuable time as they tried to solve the mystery. Why did he do that, you ask? Indeed. How did he even get hired?  Propensity for aberrant behavior may not always become apparent during the short time that we spend interviewing candidates.

Some of his managers were looking to band together in a formal way to make themselves heard

Submitted by Ruth on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 16:05
Early one morning, my smart friend discovered that some of his managers were looking to band together in a formal way to make themselves heard with the goal of getting some percentage raise. After realizing that his team was not exactly outside his door with pitchforks and torches, he recovered from his hurt feelings enough to see the issues – and immediately decided two things. First, he challenged himself to talk more with the managers so in the future he could discern the pulse of his organization.

Everyone is doing the best that they can with what they’ve been given.

Submitted by Ruth on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 10:40
Because I believe this, I am able to approach less than ideal situations with extreme friendliness. I have confidence in my teams. I believe that each person is using their talent, tools, and intelligence, all to the utmost.
I know a company whose business is putting on elaborate events with lots of moving parts. A key manager had totally misjudged the complexity of an event and the thing literally fell apart before their eyes. The hapless manager did not try to make a bad situation befall him. In this sad instance, someone was in over his head – he actually was doing his best. His level of responsibility was outside the scope of his capability: He was not in the right job.

You keep wishing the moments away and pretty soon you’re wondering where the days have gone.

Submitted by Ruth on Sat, 08/07/2010 - 09:31
It seems that some of us have a habit of getting ahead of ourselves. Generally, this is a good one: we envision goals and the future and have the sight of it in our mind. But this impatience can lead to a blockage for the rosy future that we’ve painted so clearly, especially when we have a far distant goal of the audacious type.
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