When you want your people to do, or not do, something how do you approach the topic?

• Plead
• Make statements
• Pronounce edicts
• Create policy
• Threaten as in ‘or else’

When presenting, selling or just speaking are you serious, passionate, off-the-cuff or pragmatic?

No matter your approach, learning the principals of comedy will improve the results.

…skills that all good comedians know—such as storytelling, reading nonverbal cues, engaging an audience, dealing with hostility and silence, and more.

When I was a recruiter I always started my cold calls with the same words—“Hi, I’m Miki Saxon and I’m a headhunter;” they always laughed and when someone laughs you know they are listening.

Like this sign, humor gets more attention than threats, a more positive reaction and better compliance.

Humor can pierce attitudes and pry open minds.

Using humor isn’t about telling jokes; it’s about finding lighter ways to engage your audience even when the subject is serious.

Few people would find the death of the groom during sex on his wedding night to be funny, but if you remember Private Benjamin with Goldie Hawn it was hilarious.

Humor is in the delivery as opposed to the subject.

Best of all, using humor is not an inborn skill; anybody can learn how to do it.

Maybe not well enough to appear on Saturday Night Live, but well enough to motivate your team or close a sale.

Flickr image credits: Duck: Tambako The Jaguar; Sign: Angela Schmeidel Randall

Ahh, Saturday. A day to relax, read a few blogs, learn something and maybe take in a flick. And I have it all for you today.

First off we have the yin and yang of employee motivation and retention as brought to you by CIO and HR.BLR.COM.

Let’s start with CIO and an article that explains how corporate policies and procedures kill employee excitement, passion and innovative actions.

Then click over to read a white paper by the University of Scranton’s Sarah K. Yazinski describing how you can minimize turnover and increase positive attitude in the process.

And from a small business owner who grew his business from himself to three companies with combined employment of 104 people, a concise description of how he did it and his four keys to motivating his people. I like his attitude when he says, “There’s an old saying: “A fish rots from the head down.” Corollary: It also rocks from the top.”

Finally, the movie. The NY Times review of Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! is very intriguing, but the reader comments will give you a more diverse view with which to make your final decision.

Enjoy your weekend!

Image credit: MykReeve on flickr

Yesterday I gave you an example of policy that was costing a company thousands of dollars at a time they can least afford it. That policy was seriously flawed and poorly communicated.

I frequently talk about the role of communications and why clarity is so important in management.

Think of it this way, operational communications provide people information on how to do their jobs, while management communications tell them what their jobs are and why they do them, giving form and purpose.

Problems often arise when managers are careless, sloppy or use jargon in an effort to sound sophisticated, knowledgeable and “with it.” This leads to poor or inaccurate communications and misunderstanding, because people hear those words through the filter of their own experiences and apply their own definitions.

When communicating with your team you can eliminate this by remembering why, how and the overall goal.

The WHY: to provide your people with all the information needed to understand how to perform their work as correctly, completely, simply, and efficiently as possible.

The HOW: by providing clear, concise, and complete communications at all times.

The GOAL: to make your company more successful, your employees happier and more productive and you a more effective manager with better reviews.

Companies need to establish the same three points—why, how and the overall goal—to their policy development.

The WHY: to provide your people with all the information needed to understand the principals and mechanics required for the company to run as correctly, completely, simply, and efficiently as possible.

The HOW: by providing clear, concise, and complete communications that provide both the policy and guidelines on its implementation at all times.

The GOAL: to make your company more successful, your employees happier and more productive and your investors/stakeholders more confident in your future.

You can change confusing to clarifying with just a little effort. Is it worth it?

Image credit: Dominik Gwarek on sxc.hu

These are dangerous times for companies. Not only is the economy in the pits, but some employees are ‘getting even’ when they’re laid off or terminated.

“The fired technology director for LifeGift Organ Donation Center pleaded guilty in Houston federal court on Thursday to illegally accessing her employer’s computer and deleting files including organ donation database records.

After being terminated, Danielle Duann, 51, repeatedly gained access to the LifeGift network and intentionally caused damage that cost the nonprofit Texas organ procurement group more than $94,000, officials said. A charity spokeswoman said the files were retrieved and no lives were put in jeopardy.”

This kind of action isn’t new; software ‘bombs’ and bugs have been planted with the threat of activation and disgruntled employees have held company information hostage as bargaining chips. But obviously, as damaging as these are, there’s no comparison to the employee who returns with a gun and starts shooting.

Sometimes the action is obvious, but when it’s more subtle, as in hostage information, managers often find themselves giving ex-employees the benefit of the doubt.

During a discussion with a group of CEOs recently KG Charles-Harris said, “But while I used to give people the benefit of the doubt about their awareness of their inherent prejudices, I have learned that they are most often aware of the consequences, but don’t care.  If one is aware of negative consequences of one’s behavior, but don’t care about the effects on others, it must be akin to maliciousness…”

Although I don’t disagree with KG, there are two prime points on which I wanted the group to focus.

No matter how brilliant an interviewer you are or what additional resources you utilize there’s no guarantee that at some point you won’t find yourself in this situation. People aren’t open books and more importantly they often act out from stresses and slights—whether real or imagined—so it’s not worth beating yourself up unless you consciously ignored red flags during the interview process or reference check. If you did, then let it be a lesson learned and move on.

Preventatives, not paranoia, are a much more productive focus.

For example, there are dozens of free technology resources on the Net that people use every day with no thought for the ramifications of control.

Companies need simple policies, not bureaucratic nightmares, when setting up document and information sharing resources, such as whiteboards, Google docs, wikis, etc., with the goal being having whatever it is always in the company’s control.

This is critical because life happens in the form of jury duty, emergencies, accidents, etc., not just the rare vindictive employee, and your company needs to keep going.

I’m no expert in this area, so look for a guest post on preventatives soon.

Image credit: flattop341 on flickr