Lao-tzu, The Way Of The Tao: Manage With Care

"Rule a large country as you would cook a small fish"

- Lao-tzu, The Way of the Tao

  Although very little is known about Lao-tzu, the teachings found in The Way of the Tao have become the foundation of a way of life for twenty million people today.

 The name Lao-tzu itself is more a title that literally means "old master" so it could simply be a name, similar to Homer or Preacher in Ecclesiastes, labeling someone who has written a famous or ancient work.

  There is even doubt that Lao-tzu actually wrote The Way of the Tao, or any other one person for that matter. Despite this mystery, the work and it's famous quote stated above are attributed to Lao-tzu, and the followers of the religion that grew from it don't seem to mind.

 The title statement has been misused a thousand times by speakers who simply wanted to appear worldly and educated to his audience, or maybe even to impress a girl by looking like a deep thinker who is well-read. 

 Many of the lessons in The Way of the Tao are open to personal interpretation, and I will simply offer my own as it appears to pertain to the management of a workforce.

With it's terseness and trace of humor, this famous line looks to advise political moderation and the modesty of wisdom. The wise governor governs least and interferes least.

 As opposed to the dangerously broad strokes common to the risk-takers, a bit more tact and diplomacy is called for in today's work environment. 

  

  2015  The Leader Coach    -    JB Stran

The Intentional Stress Secret aka: The WYGDA Factor

The Secret Reason for Fabricated Stress in Your Team: The WYGDA factor

   The Problem Child.   The Instigator.  Nearly every  team has one, and far too many managers have gone head-to-head with at least one at some point in his career.
 This employee seems to create conflict wherever he or she goes. Some actually appear to enjoy the dramas that are left in their wake. Whether your problem child is overtly hostile, attention seeking, or simply basking in the spotlight of infamy, the resulting stresses are all the same for you and your team.

 As a manager in Baltimore many years ago, this type of employee was more than just a minor nuisance, and on some teams they actually outnumbered the more mature workers who showed up every day to give a fair effort without rocking the boat. This type of imbalance can have a devastating effect on overall production, even if only because the fabricated dissention is contagious.
 These boat rockers could easily tie up the majority of your day with headache-inducing conflicts and needless personal dramas, and why not? You are going to pay them either way, and by forcing the WYGDA factor they are in fact being paid to complain, to waste your time, and to hold up production.
 They go home happy every day, while you and your team fall further behind schedule.

So, What You Gonna Do About it?

  This is a game of dares, first and foremost. Falling under the heading of the Get Over Game, the long term goal is to take effective control away from management and put it in the hands of a small group of bullies who will keep you dancing on your strings like a puppet.

 This is not nearly as far-fetched, nor as tough, as you may think. You will automatically deny being that easy to manipulate, and it's just that type of arrogance that the players will expect and use to gain control.

  The short-term goals are almost meaningless when viewed individually: Create a new complaint each day; Recruit more players to each create a new daily complaint; Divide lower management; Feed the local rumor mill negative stories that undermine the managers; Stall production at every opportunity; Bully any member who refuses to play along; and last but surely not least, Push and keep the tension levels to a breaking point.

 To the uninitiated, it is rather illuminating to discover how many vulnerabilities are created by a passively trusting management team.

 That Chain of Command that you have so much respect for doesn't even exist in the Get Over game. Prepare to have your back scarred by a dozen knives. The bully will go straight to the top with petty, and sometimes even fabricated, complaints about you and your performance.

 What You Gonna Do About it? Nothing. There's nothing you can do directly, and she knows it.

 There's nothing easy about being bullied at any point in your life, but it can be particularly frustrating when the bully is your employee. You offer respect on the daily, and in many cases you even care on a personal level, but there's always that one person who looks at you like you just asked for a kidney; or the one who makes you feel like you need a bath after they talk to you.

 So, What You Gonna Do About it?

First: Clear The Air.

  

The WYGDA bully will vary his tactical approach to suit the environment, so the ammo of choice may differ, but the bully's primary weapon is always the same: Threats. Lots of empty threats.

 She will threaten to call her attorney if you don't comply. He will threaten to call the NAACP if you don't give in. She will threaten to form a union if you refuse to promote her. He will go over your head repeatedly, thus keeping you under pressure by the trickle-down effect.

 Call the Bluff. The best way to deal with this smokescreen is to lay all the cards out on the table.

Hand her the phone from your desk, and offer to dial the number. Take back control of your position and at the same time you take the wind out of her sails.

 Bullying a manager works because he/she feels that they hold an ace up the sleeve. They know a trick, or a friend is teaching them about something that worked in the past. There is a bit of truth in every rumor, and these stories are no different.

 The key is to become fiercely proactive at the first signs of a power struggle, and cover your legal bases.

Notify your legal department of the possibility that a standoff may be imminent, and begin the paper trail with your first meeting. Witness accounts are golden, and if your meeting witness is also from HR or legal, you can consider your posterior adequately covered.

 Sadly enough, WYGDA bullying does work to a degree, and I have watched a few Baltimore companies become completely devoured by hired bullies to the point of eventual collapse.

  In the one that haunts me to this day, it was myself who had hired the ringleader. By the time the mistake was realized by the owners, he had already caused enough damage to create the snowball effect that would bring the company down.
 Twice I tried to fire him, because he was costing us customers directly, but he cried (and lied) to the owner and was re-hired, effectively placing himself on the "protected list" which meant even the slightest hint of future negativity from me could legally be construed as harassment...and I had to watch with my hands tied as he destroyed everything that we had built.
 We (the owner that I met with weekly and myself) knew that he was a DuKE, but we arrogantly believed that we could manage this small quirk. He wasn't the only one, after all.
 A DuKE is someone experiencing the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and this young man was the living definition of someone living with DKE syndrome.
 In this case, he was thoroughly convinced that he was a natural genius (because mom said so..?) who should be calling all the shots, and that we should essentially hand the company over to him.
 In truth, he had the people skills of a porcupine, and the business sense of grade school bully.
 I will try to expand on the topic of DuKEs in a future post, as it is a very interesting topic.

 In any event, you can take my word for this: The guilt that comes from installing a cancer into your work family, one that forces the people you love and respect to suffer, is not something that you can shake off easily. I've had to live with this every day since.
 So take the lead right from the start, thus making positive changes in your future.
 Every manager enjoys the belief that he is no pushover, and when an employee begins to push you have the opportunity to prove your character to everyone involved.

  2015   The Leader Coach   §   JB Stran

  

Problematic Employees: Close The Complaint Department

 Reclaim Your Valuable Time By Closing the Complaint Department.

  Falling under the "Tough Love" section heading of an SBA advanced management course I attended in Baltimore (too many) years ago, this challenge has less to do with an alienation of the chronic complainer and far more to do with effectively managing your personal resources.

 "I'm Telling Mom!"

 Nearly every team has at least one, and at times it can feel like yours are multiplying.
Regardless of how many of these chronic gripers you are living with, this small group of employees will insist on monopolizing your scarce free time with an endless stream of personal grudges.
 So, how do you safely and respectfully curb this trend, and stop playing house-mother to a few employees who seem to be regressing before your eyes?

 > First, recognize that each individual tends to color the world in their own way.
   This means that we don't actually see the world around us as it is, but rather as we are.
 It will often take new managers up to two years of conscious effort to craft and maintain a perspective of objectivity, something that most professional managers tend to take for granted once they have achieved this level of personal growth.

  Specific to this subject: An habitual liar likes to think that everyone else is always lying in some way, and they both expect it and feel verified by pointing it out, whether or not it actually existed in everyone else's reality.
 Ironically, they are telling the truth when doing so, despite the fact that they are wrong.

 The slacker thinks that nearly everyone around them is also lazy, and their 'time thief' habits are justified because everyone else is trying to get over in some way as well.
 The above examples are little more than basic human psychology, an (albeit feeble) attempt at rationalizing our bad and/or socially unacceptable behaviours.
 "It's OK if I do it, because everyone else is doing it".
   This particular type of mindset taps into a primal survival-instinct:  The irrational fear of being left behind by the herd.*

 The trick for the time-conscious manager therefore is to learn to read between the lines.
 I'm not telling you to stop listening to the complaints, but instead to start hearing what the chronic complainer is actually saying about themselves.
  You will very soon see the pattern of personal issues that require attention, and this will help you to deal directly with the real reason that this person has insisted on tying up your valuable face time with little more than gossip.

 "Twenty percent of your people will occupy sixty percent of your time, and half of that is wasted on pointless whining."    ≈ Anonymous (by choice) retired team manager

 The old adage, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" isn't such a bad rule to live by, and it's far more valuable as a management policy.

 -  Avoid the temptation to view this type of input as an information resource:
  There have been countless "advisers to the throne" throughout history, each with a personal agenda, and each considered a trusted source for a time before having their true motives discovered, usually long after irreparable damage to the boss's reputation or even the kingdom had occurred.

- Understand that for the vast majority of individuals, it is nearly impossible to relate a story or situation to a manager without putting a personal slant on the facts. A minor personal irritation easily becomes fodder for a complaint when they feel that every complaint has value to their manager-friend.
 This naturally leads to the perception that the complainant's real value as an employee is tied directly to their ability to find more things and people to complain to you about.

- Clearly communicate your (new) personal policy with regard to high maintenance employees who seem to spend an inordinate amount of paid time both monitoring their co-workers, and then filing impromptu verbal reports that no one has asked them for.
 Should they really have so little to do each day that they can find plenty of (paid) time to track fellow employees, then maybe the complainers are overdue for some additional duties to keep them fruitfully occupied.
  These self-appointed managers may require a bit of special attention, but you will find this a valuable investment for the sake of the team and it's goals.
 Your proactive approach to this issue will quickly see your daily stress levels dropping along with your personal time becoming far more productive.
  So go ahead: Give yourself a big pat on the back.

  2015  Leader Coach     JB Stran

* The fear of being left behind by the herd (thus becoming food for a predator) is a primal instinct that all humans carry, although deeply embedded in their unconscious core along with their various other survival instincts, such as "Fight or Flight".
 It has been the root of such popular axioms as "There's Always Safety in Numbers" and similar survival concepts, as well as many social adages like "Keeping Up With The Joneses".
 This is a base fear that I have taught many marketing professionals to reach with their advertising in my 1995 book "Marketing To The Cro Magnon Masses", later retitled "Guerilla Marketing".

Effective Employee Communication

How to Communicate Effectively with Your Team

by J.B. Stran

 § To quote George Bernard Shaw:

  "The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has happened."

 In his book "The Three Big Questions For A Frantic Family", management guru Pat Lencioni made it clear that managers spend lots of time and energy to develop and implement very specific and strategic plans for our businesses. 

 At home however, we tend to fly by the seat of our pants with our family members.

 A similar phenomenon occurs within many businesses: We plan and strategize tirelessly to best engage external audiences such as customers, investors, media, and community, while too often forgetting to invest in our most valuable constituency, the employees who have the most control over the future of the company.

 "You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere"      ≈ Lee Iacocca

  Employees have a significant impact on the final outcome of any work project.
 They want to know where the company's heart is, it's vision and values. Your team members will engage or disengage based on the effectiveness of local management's ability to convey these core principles, along with clear, timely and effective updates.

Regular Communication Practices:

  Develop a plan to regularly communicate with employees without making it tedious, especially if you have a younger workforce who tend to find routines difficult.

 Regular meetings don't need to be weekly, but they will be necessary from time to time.

 Pepper in the occasional one-on-one meetings to touch on recent successes and shortcomings.

> Avoid feedback that criticizes the employee rather than their actions.

 Some members are more sensitive to criticism than others, just as some managers may have a personal presence that intimidates or 'rashes' certain employees.

> Ask if employees would like to receive feedback alerts to their smartphones.

 Younger and more tech-savvy team members often prefer to get simple notices from and about the team the same way that they get their news: In small casual bites, and at their own pace.

> Employ social media for company alerts and workforce updates.

  * Tip: Start a Facebook page for employee 'Weekly/Monthly News' updates to foster a feeling of engagement. The team can catch-up with their phones, tablets or computers at their pace, and show up the next day feeling briefed and up to date on the latest happenings that affect them and their goals.

( Now that most teenagers are moving away from Facebook, mainly because their parents have joined and are able to easily monitor them, team communication via this medium can have a more professional flavor.)

Bonus: This could help to eliminate the local rumor mill, and you can delegate the authority for this mission to an entry-level manager or to a particular employee-level (shift managers,foreman, department managers, etc.) whom you feel will remain professional, avoiding local gossip or any other unauthorized 'news'.
  You and your management team are the editors, and they the reporter(s).

 

Feedback in the Workplace:

   Solicit an active system of feedback from your employees.

 This facilitates two-way communication and lets employees know that their ideas are important.

 For managers, this offers the opportunity to gain new ideas, as well as offering some detailed insight into the employee's evolving jobs and skills.

 As an example; While one employee is responding to complaints regarding a company policy or process, another employee may actually have a simple solution to the problem causing said complaints.

 >  Give feedback to encourage continued effort.

  Respect the time and effort of the employee, and take note of specific areas of any shortcomings and  training gaps that will need to be addressed at a future one-on-one meeting.

    "Never miss a good chance to shut up"   ≈ Will Rogers

 >  Listening can be your most valuable communication skill.

  People begin to heal the moment they feel that someone is listening.  Your "open door" policy means very little if you're glancing at incoming emails, or answering the phone, or any of the other subtle and often unconscious ways that managers show a lack of personal interest in what's being said. 

“The most successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.”      ≈  Bernard M. Baruch

  The stronger your reputation as a good listener, the more comfortable employees will feel when they have information to share. This could easily relate to your being apprised of a potentially costly problem long before it has brewed to that stage.

 > Coaching is the best Feedback.

  Coaching is based on mutual respect, strict confidentiality, and trust. Your employees first need to know that you are credible, so only promise what you can deliver.

Managers can create credibility by admitting when they are wrong; never taking credit for another employee's ideas; never denigrating an employee for their ideas, especially in front of others; always indicating a willingness to communicate openly.

 Match actions with your words. If you say you will address a situation in a certain way, then follow through. Anything less, and you are undermining your own credibility.

 Remain objective. Never "spin" or assume how a piece of news will be interpreted.

Questioning effectively is key to the coaching approach. The coach asks questions to achieve:

 - an accurate assessment of where the employee may need additional training,

 - the proper response by management to meet mutual goals,

 - the best path to help the employee find answers for themselves.

“When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.” 
≈ Abraham Lincoln

> Negative Feedback 

 Some situations may cause undue tension on the part of the employee if they are made to feel as if under a personal attack. There are a few steps you can take to avoid this when the time has come for handling a difficult situation and you feel momentarily anxious about finding the right words.

  

 - Prepare yourself. Check facts and positions, and deal with feelings, both yours and theirs.

 - Approach the situation constructively. Humiliated employees will be reluctant to change.

 - Deal with excuses respectively. Accountability is ideal, but some may need more time to get there.

 - Ensure that people can accomplish what they said they will do. Support is always appreciated, and in most cases you will find it reciprocated.

  “We have two ears and one mouth and we should use them proportionally.” 
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

≈ 2015  Leader Hacker   /   JB Stran

Performance Improvement: Once Per Year is Not enough

Performance Improvement:

 That Single Annual Review Simply Won't Produce Measurable Change

  Most companies participate in the mandatory "Annual Performance Review", often dreaded equally by both management and employees alike.

 As someone who has endured far too many of these psychologically irritating sessions at a variety of different companies, as both the giver and the receiver, I can assure you that the majority of them are little more than an exercise in futility.

 Middle management usually ends up with the responsibility of wading through the stack, as if they don't already have enough irons in the fire, and the tedium alone is enough to make a grown man scream into his pillow.

 Pepper in a dozen Freudian sessions with "the Critics" (that small group of mildly delusional employees who seem convinced that they have been doing all of the company's work alone, flawlessly, and they can't wait to tell you which of their co-workers have been 'dropping the ball'), and you have a fine recipe for a mind-numbingly fictitious quest for performance enhancement.

 There is a better way.

The missing piece of the performance improvement puzzle is timely and meaningful feedback throughout the year.

 Research has shown that providing ongoing feedback in smaller bites, while the situation is fresh in the employee's mind, is far more effective than the annual one hour meeting, and will consistently produce gradual, lasting change.

 Savvy professionals know that frequent contact, encouragement, and recognition with direct and honest feedback has been proven to produce employees who want to perform to a higher standard.

 Communication with an emphasis on simplicity, a focus on the future and support for the employee's self-tracking is a winning combination that will yield measurable results.

 2015 ≈ The Leader Hacker ≈ JB Stran