Rumors are the fastest way to destroy trust and culture, not to mention your team’s morale, productivity, longevity—the list goes on and on.
Managers who stick their head in the sand in the hopes that the rumor will die a natural death are in for a rude awakening.
The only way to deal with rumors is head on and publicly.
Call your group together, state the rumor and tell them the truth. If something in the rumor response is confidential level with them and explain why it is.
For example, if there is a layoff rumor it’s either true or false. If true, admit it and explain as much as possible. If you can identify specifics—when, which departments, who, etc.,—and be honest! Or tell them when you don’t have information or that you can’t share it.
People aren’t stupid, if you say there is no layoff coming and it happens two days later they will know you lied and lies cast a long shadow. People will understand that you can’t give details, but lies are something else.
The only way to deal with the rumor mongers is privately and only if you are positive that you have the right person.
If you are sure start by asking why they said what they said.
You may find that it was innocent and actually started in another group or department. In that case make them feel safe in coming to you first if they hear something in the future.
If they deny it and you are still absolutely sure thank them and then watch them like a hawk. If they are real rumor mongers they do it for kicks; thinking they got away with it usually makes them careless and you will catch them the next time.
You need proof to act and that may take time, but the more confident they are the easier it is to catch them; just remember to document everything.
Most people hear ‘Triple A’ and assume that it is the best something can be, but it depends on what “A” stands for.
In this case they stand for anger, aggression and apathy.
Most managers create AAA cultures by accident and there are those who’s standard management style fosters it, but unintentional or not, the result is the same.
This post isn’t about those who intentionally rely on AAA culture to run their organization, they are destroyers (you can learn more about them here and here, although this one can also be unintentional) and the best thing people who work for them can do is leave.
But for the unintentional it works like this.
Something happens that makes you angry; it may not even be work related but you are angry.
Whether simmering or roiling, it drives you to act out with some kind of aggression making you short-tempered and abrupt or it can show as impatience, sarcasm, contempt, disgust, obnoxiousness, etc.
When your management style becomes erratic the team becomes unsure on how to interact, not just with you, but with each other. Since people don’t know what will set someone off they start keeping their head down and getting the hell out there, breathing a sign of relief if they made it through the day safely.
As time goes by the trepidation settles into apathy—a Triple A culture has formed.
As to the cure, that should be apparent from the cause.
Please join me next Tuesday to see why RAT culture is so great, not to mention a lot more fun and profitable to build.
Do you use stories automatically in discussions and conversations? I do and have for years.
Brain research has proven that stories get your point across better and it is remembered longer.
Many cognitive scientists believe stories are so accessible because they’re the way we make sense of the human world. … Stories grab our attention because there is nothing of more interest to us than the actions of other people.
While people are often the bane of managers, their growth, triumphs and ah-ha! moments, small and large, provide much of the joy found in performing a management role well and stories are one way to increase the joy.
Stories increase the joy because they boost management success; simple enough.
How do you know which story to tell?
By taking the time to know your audience and choosing a story that will resonate with them—even if you have to take a little creative license.
For example, if your audience is comprised of mostly twenty-somethings and the main character in your story is sixty-something they may focus on the age and dismiss the important part. So update the story with slight changes that makes it feel more relevant.
Of course, if their eyes glaze over during the telling you can be pretty sure you chose the wrong story. Rather than continue to the bitter end, break it off and come back to the subject from a different point and at a different time.
How do you know if the story worked?
The same way you know if any of your efforts work—watch the results.
I frequently hear from managers in nonprofits that it’s frustrating that so much of the management information available can’t really be implemented in their specialized environment.
I was dumfounded the first time I heard that and asked why not; I’ve ask the same question every time since (a lot of times) and get similar answers.
These usually fall in one of two broad categories
they are focused on “doing good” unlike “business;” and/or
they are staffed by volunteers.
I have an accounting friend who hears similar reactions when he insists on good accounting practices and financial controls.
Many say that they are more comfortable with leadership advice, since communicating a vision is part of their job description, but setting standards, developing and implementing accountability and then holding people to them feels too “corporate.”
When this happens I usually refer them to take a look at the path blazed by the Robin Hood Foundation and, more recently, read the interview with Tachi Yamada, M.D., president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program
These five random comments from Yamada are no different than what you’ll hear from any manager skilled in driving innovation, productivity and finding solutions through his people.
I think the most difficult transition for anybody from being a worker bee to a manager is this issue of delegation. What do you give up? How can you have the team do what you would do yourself without you doing it?
That probably was the most important lesson I learned — that what’s out there is more important than what you already know, and that you’d better go out and learn what it is out there that you don’t know.
So what I learned from him is that when you actually are with somebody, you’ve got to make that person feel like nobody else in the world matters. (no cell no blackberry)
One of the things I’ve learned is that you can’t go into an organization, fire everybody and bring in everybody you want. You have to work with the people you have. … Everybody has their good points. Everybody has their bad points. If you can bring out the best in everybody, then you can have a great organization.
Read the interview and understand that what he talks about applies equally well to small, local non-profits as it does to the multibillion dollar organization he runs—not to mention for-profit businesses of any size.
One reason I love the NY Times is that it runs great articles on new research about what makes us humans tick.
Most of us are aware that there are different forms of communications. Verbal, i.e., words, is the most common, but nonverbal, tone of voice and facial expressions, are often more potent.
In research with infants, it was shown that gently massaging premature infants three times per day for 15 minutes helped them gain weight, be more alert, and cry less. These infants were released from the hospital sooner than infants who were not massaged.
The latest research confirms the same positive response in adults.
Momentary touches, they say — whether an exuberant high five, a warm hand on the shoulder, or a creepy touch to the arm — can communicate an even wider range of emotion than gestures or expressions, and sometimes do so more quickly and accurately than words.
Two attitudes make this work.
Sincerity; people will know if your actions are manipulative as opposed to authentic.
Appropriateness; to avoid a negative reaction from anyone use your observational skills and common sense; high fives and similar expressions are the safest, while hugs are the most dangerous. An employee who avoids physical contact with her team is unlikely to appreciate being touched by her boss.
There are many ways to inspire and show you care just as there are many clubs in a golf bag; and just as it is a fallacy to play the whole course with just one club, using only one form of communication to motivate your people is to shortchange them—and you.
“What’s more important to you, being right or winning?”
That is what I asked a caller today.
“Frank” has been sequestered on jury duty for several weeks and when he returned to work he found that right after he left his team was assigned a new project and they were just finishing.
Frank said that the project had gone well, was on time and in budget, but he was upset that they had used a different approach from the one he preferred.
That’s when I asked, “What’s more important to you, being right or winning?”
You’d think that was an easy answer, but I was met first with silence and then with multiple reasons proving his approach was better.
He agreed that on time/in budget was a win, but still felt they should have done it his way.
So I ask you, “What’s more important, being right or winning?”
Did you watch the new reality show Undercover Boss on CBS Sunday after the Super Bowl?
The opening episode starred Larry O’Donnell, President and C.O.O. of Waste Management.
O’Donnell plays ‘Randy’, a new worker being filmed for training purposes. At one location he jams the trash line by not removing large cardboard; he is fired, for the first time in his life, for not being able to efficiently collect blowing trash at a landfill—unlike the worker he is with who has done the job for 19 years while spending three days a week in dialysis; he cleans porta-potties with a guy who’s attitude is every manager’s best dream; and he rides with a female trash hauler where he learns that to stay on schedule women drivers use cans from the trash as pee-pots.
He meets a 29 year old single mother who overcame five kinds of cancer by age 25, has taken in her brother’s family and her dad, is about to lose her home in foreclosure and is doing three jobs post layoffs for the same money she was getting before, but is still upbeat and even invites the new guy to dinner.
O’Donnell is surprised by the physical and mental exhaustion he experiences his first day, amazed by the people he meets, outraged by what he learns and shocked at the implementation of a policy he personally conceived to raise productivity by which workers were docked 2 minutes for every 1 minute they were late.
At the start of the show when O’Donnell tells his executive team that he is going undercover the reactions vary from surprise to incredulity.
When he meets with them at the end and talks about what he learned and changes he believes are needed and how he plans to use his new knowledge the look on guy’s face said it all—he might as well have rolled his eyes.
Sadly, that is often the reaction from senior leadership regarding intel that comes from front-line, bottom-of-the-heap workers.
The smartest managers listen to their all their people—not just the ones in suits.
The final scene includes and overlay update on what happened to each of the people who worked with O’Donell and changes, both made and ongoing, as a result.
I don’t watch reality shows; I’ve read that many are scripted, but I do believe that there are bosses of large companies who don’t have egos the size of Texas and are capable of learning from unfiltered feedback from the lowest rank and file.
Plus, it seems that changes were actually made.
As big a believer as I am in bosses talking to the troops, there is no way O’Donnell would get this kind of feedback from this level of employee if they knew who he was.
Go ahead and call me naïve, but in spite of everything I’d rather be a chump than a cynic.
And in case you missed Undercover Boss you can watch it here.
A client called and during the conversation he complained about his receptionist. He said he was close to firing her, but would prefer a different outcome; he thought a third party could help resolve the problems.
When I asked “Jack” what the problem was he said that “Judy” was disrupting the culture and refused to do her work as expected. For example, she insisted on having two pencil cups on her desk; he preferred organizing his desk based on Feng Shui principles and that two cups were nothing but clutter. He had explained this to Judy to no avail.
This is an extreme example of the puppetmaster mentality, but not counting the micromanager who really believes her’s is the only way, I’m willing to bet you have been on the giving or receiving end of this attitude, if not both, at some point—most of us have.
Whether you consider yourself a leader, a manager or leadager, yours is not the only way—or even the best.
There are many ways to approach a task or goal. Some may seem more efficient, but, in fact, will lower productivity if they are counter-intuitive for a particular worker.
As long as the task is done or the goal achieved ethically, on time and in budget the route to accomplishment doesn’t matter.
Forcing your approach on your team forces them to become puppets.
Then, like Christopher below, they are dependent on you for all creativity, innovation and productivity—at least until they resign.
Rumors are the fastest way to destroy trust and culture, not to mention your team’s morale, productivity, longevity—the list goes on and on.
I frequently hear from managers in nonprofits that it’s frustrating that so much of the management information available can’t really be implemented in their specialized environment.
“What’s more important to you, being right or winning?”
Did you watch the new reality show Undercover Boss on CBS Sunday after the Super Bowl?
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