The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

Dear feed subscribers to The Contented Cow Blog,

As you may know (we hope you know!), we have, over the last few weeks, been migrating The Contented Cow Blog to our full-service website, ContentedCows.com.

For a variety of reasons, all of which would bore you to tears, we have been unable to automatically move your blog feed subscription to the new blog site. That’s why you haven’t received our feed for the last several weeks. Although we’ve been blogging regularly (and with some really good stuff, in our humble opinions!)

If you’d like to continue receiving the feed from our blog, and we really hope you will, we’re asking you to go to the new blog (ContentedCows.com), and simply enter your email address in the handy form below the words GET BLOG FEED BY E-MAIL.

And you know us…we blog only a couple of times a week – not every day – so your inbox won’t get overloaded with cow stuff. But you’ll have our commitment that what you do get will be worth reading. Timely, thought-provoking, practical information, insights, and observations, about leadership, the workplace, and the bottom-line benefit of having a focused, fired-up, and capably-led workforce.

We’re really glad you’ve been a subscriber, and hope you’ll take this quick and easy step to remain one.

So, here we are signing off the old Contented Cow Blog, once and for all. See you at the new blog/website – ContentedCows.com.

Bill and Richard

Something interesting happened in Massachusetts recently, something that points to a larger tectonic shift in our society. In a state where the majority of voters affiliate with neither major political party, a Republican who was noticeably reticent to be labeled as such, won an election that no one expected him to win.

Don’t worry. This is not (repeat, NOT) a post about politics. Nor is it a post about religion. But, have you noticed the degree to which people are disassociating from the major organizations in their lives – political parties, and yes, traditional churches? At the same time that fewer and fewer of us choose to associate with either donkeys or elephants, the same is happening with traditional, dogma-dominated churches, much to the delight of the Rick Warrens and Joel Osteens of the world.

But it doesn’t stop there. The third leg of the institutional stool in our lives, our employers, is likewise being swept into the corner of disregard. Not long ago, when you asked someone what they did for a living, they proudly replied that they were a nurse at Baptist Hospital, a welder at GM, or a pilot at American Airlines. Today, not so much. With almost no tip of the cap to the organization, we hear that they are a systems engineer, physical therapist, bartender, or SEO consultant, whatever that is. In a growing number of cases, the disengagement is more active and out in the open. Think late night comedy.

More so than any other factor, this institutional disengagement owes to a crisis of trust. Simply put, whether a government, political party, church, or corporation, we no longer trust the entity to behave in a manner consistent with its espoused purpose and principles.

I can’t speak for the politicians or preachers, but for those of us in the business world, the path is pretty clear. In the post-AIG world, it is pointless for us to ask or expect people to regain trust any time soon in our institutions. If and when it comes, it will be on the back of individual leaders who, one at a time, are doing the things necessary to regain the benefit of the doubt of their followers. More than just waiting and wishing them (us) luck, there are things we can do to support this effort:

1. For going on three years, our training budgets have been slashed to the bone as we’ve operated on the premise that we can work our way out of a bad economy by dumbing down the organization. It’s high time we resume funding development activity, most particularly for our young leaders who need it the most. If you can’t yet fund system wide training, invest in some coaching for your more promising folks.
2. On the premise that people would rather watch than hear a sermon, each of us must redouble our commitment to keeping our promises. If we would spend half as much time making our word our bond as we do wordsmithing and putting the right spin on our words, we would be miles ahead.
3. We need to do a much better job of recognizing and rewarding those leaders who consistently earn the benefit of the doubt, and, dealing with those who don’t.

The path is long and mostly uphill, but it’s not going to get any easier over time. Let’s get going.

Godspeed!

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Tuesday evening, I hosted an executive coaching client for dinner and a Memphis Grizzlies game at FedEx Forum. Our dinner server was a fellow by the name of Ben, who has waited on me at most, twice before. As we were being seated, Ben approached and said to my guest, “My guess is that Mr. Catlette is going to have a glass of Merlot, what can I get you to drink?” I whirled and looked at him in amazement, wondering what other information might be stamped on my forehead. Ben smiled and volunteered that he tries to pay attention to his guests, and make them feel special. Mission accomplished.

Not unlike my son, Will, who tends bar at the Savannah airport and has a following of regular customers (at an airport bar!), Ben has learned that it’s the little things, like remembering a guest’s name and their preferences that lead to  good outcomes. The very same thing holds true for those of us whose job is to lead others. Before we can expect people to follow us with any degree of fervor, we must first take an interest in them… their likes, dislikes, ambitions, apprehensions, etc.

In the age of the disposable worker, this type of care and attention seems counter-intuitive. Speaking of his new sales reps, one office products sales manager admitted to me that, “we don’t really even get to know their names, as most of them won’t be here very long.” I’m willing to bet that a lot of the good performers leave for precisely that reason. Not bothering to know someone’s name, or things that are important to them doesn’t make them feel very special.

Thankfully, this is something that is not constrained by economic forces. We don’t need a positive GDP growth rate to make people feel special. Nor does it require any particular talent. Every one of us can do it. We’ve just got to care enough to take an interest, listen, observe, and then act on what we’ve learned.

I think you’ll find that if you take that extra step, you’ll soon notice that you’ve got more people around you who are willing to go the extra mile.

Godspeed!

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Job satisfaction is on a steady decline in the U.S., according to a report released last week by the Conference Board, a non-profit global business research organization.

If these numbers don’t grab business leaders by the throat and compel them to take action, we don’t know what will. On top of a still-anemic economy and a near universal crisis of trust,  the very last thing employers need today is a bunch of disgruntled workers operating at well less than full power. But that’s exactly what most organizations are faced with.

Only 45% of workers in the CB survey say they’re satisfied in their jobs, down from 61% in 1987, the first year the study was conducted. Unlike the economy, this downward trend has been constant, not cyclical. Just like gravity, job satisfaction has gone one way in both good times and bad… down.

So, what’s worker satisfaction at your outfit? And what difference does it make?

Second question first. If you’ve been following us for any part of the last 12 years, you know our research shows that it makes a HUGE difference – to the bottom line. Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Period.

First question: What’s worker satisfaction like  where you work? How do you know? Have you done a survey lately to find out where your company stands with respect to employee satisfaction? If not, why not? If so, what did you do with what you learned from the survey? If you want some help with this, click here.

So, if workers are less satisfied at work now than they once were, what are the reasons? What’s the remedy?

In keeping with the last-in-first-out nature of this article, we’ll start with a remedy:

Manage Yourself First: People aren’t going to follow, let alone be energized and engaged by a leader who is confused, conflicted, or depressed. If you can manage yourself on your own, go to it. If not, find a coach or counselor to help.

Now to the reasons. We’ll offer two in this article, and what to do about them; then a few more next month.

Reason #1:

Author Daniel Pink probably hit on the kernel of rising dissatisfaction when he tweeted last week, “Meager money + Zero meaning = Record low job satisfaction.”  Increase the value of either of the two variables on the left side of Pink’s equation, and satisfaction is likely to rebound.

What to do about it

If you put any more money into the equation, do it in a way that serves to better differentiate (and reward) better performers. If more money’s not in the cards, or even if it is, leaders could substantially improve employee satisfaction and engagement, and thereby organizational results, by investing more meaning in people’s work. That takes two forms:

Make less meaningful work more meaningful.

• Take all the senseless BS out of people’s jobs – unnecessary tasks, paperwork, and CYA-related nonsense.
• When you ask someone to do something, use what they’ve done, or quit asking them to do it.
• Ask people to develop their own best ways to accomplish results, hold them accountable, and reward them for hitting targets.
• On the premise that we all need to see the needle move once in a while, give them some opportunities for quick wins.

Shine a light on the meaning that’s already there. This is the more likely problem, and it’s easier to fix.

• Create a clear line of sight between their work and real paying customers. Bank tellers need to know how processing transactions makes money for the bank. Most don’t have a clue. Dishwashers and prep cooks – how does their work make diners want to come back and spend more money? And every assistant administrator in a state community college needs a firm grasp of how the decisions they make impact the quality of education in their state.
• Here’s an assignment for today. Yes, today. Ask each team member to describe how their work is felt, ultimately, by the people who pay for what you do – customers, clients, patients, taxpayers, students, whatever you call them – the people without whom the organization would not exist. If they can’t do it, see the above bullet point.

Reason #2:

While some leaders run around telling people they’re “empowered” (gag), sadly, most of us are actually micromanaging people into less and less satisfaction.

One way to start doing something about that:

Build in flexibility. If at all possible, let go of your concern with when people show up to do their work, and what they’re doing every minute they’re on the premises. Trust us. No one ever said “I hate my job. It gives me too much control over my life.” This one will get you MAJOR satisfaction points, if you manage it well.

If work times must, by the nature of your business, coincide with customers’ and/or co-workers’ patterns, then ask your workforce to figure out a way to meet the needs of the business while providing people with maximum flexibility.

In fields where customer coverage and colleague coordination matters less, incent people to accomplish results, not punch a clock, real or imaginary. If you employ adults, treat them as such. Hold them accountable – really accountable – for excellent results, and let them figure out the best way to manage their schedules while meeting business needs. If you’ve hired the right people, they’ll LOVE their jobs.

Next month, we’ll look at a few more reasons people aren’t feeling the job love as much these days, and some remedies for each.

Til then, Godspeed.

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

On the first passing play of the game against the Miami Dolphins, Tennessee Titans quarterback, Vince Young’s under-thrown pass was intercepted. Frequently in such cases, the quarterback, in an effort to avoid injury, will lamely try to get in the way of the run-back by the opposing player, if not avoid contact altogether. To his credit, Young, whose game status was uncertain due to an injury, drew a bead on the interceptor and leveled him with a hard tackle. In other words, he cleaned up his mistake.

Too often, I see people being expected to clean up the messes made by others. Granted, sometimes it’s necessary, but on way too regular a basis, it happens as the rule rather than the exception. When that occurs, two things happen:

1. The behavior by the “mess-maker” is effectively rewarded by the lack of accountability.
2. The individual and collective spirit of those who clean up the mess suffers a punch in the gut.

It has happened to us all, and every time it is dispiriting, especially when the mess maker scampers away unscathed.

It is especially irksome when the mess-maker is a team leader, as Young is. Though his action may have risked his longevity as a player, it did his stature as a team leader a world of good. The next time he asks a teammate (or the entire team) to suck it up and go the extra mile, he’ll be operating with the benefit of the doubt.

What about you? Are you having the difficult conversations and requiring mess-makers to participate in the cleanup, or are you taking the chicken way out? Worse yet, are you expecting people on your team to pay for your mistakes? And, when it just can’t be helped and you must ask a person to clean up someone else’s problem, are you at least showing appreciation? I hope so.

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

In a prior life as a corporate HR executive, I was known on occasion to use the term “rent-a-dummies” in reference to temporary agency help. My use of the term had a lot more to do with the no strings, obligations, or loyalties nature of the relationship than any IQ disparagement. Still, it was cold and unkind, even though in so many cases it just seemed to fit.

I was reminded of the term, and the extent to which any semblance of loyalty between employees and the organization has faded when reading yesterday that University of Cincinnati football coach, Brian Kelly had accepted the Notre Dame job.

Ironically, it wasn’t six months ago that Kelly signed a contract extension through 2013, saying at the time that, “this agreement allows me and my family to call Cincinnati our home, not just a place where we live,” Oh, I know, this situation is different, because it’s not just any university. It’s Notre Dame for gosh sakes. Kelly probably had to undergo an extra interview with a ah-hem Higher Authority to get the job.

Despite apparent statements to his Cincinnati players that he was staying, and that they would be the first to know if he decided otherwise (they weren’t), Kelly opted not to coach those same players in what, for many, will be the biggest, if not the last football game of their lives, the 2010 Sugar Bowl. As Notre Dame had already announced that it would not accept a bowl game invitation this year, it’s not like he had a competing professional interest. No, Kelly had gotten all he was going to get out of the University of Cincinnati and he was leaving, now! Never mind the interests of the young men who have played their hearts out for him and enabled him to get this job!

A few thoughts for the senior leaders and recruiters in our readership:

1. If you truly want to get beyond the “grab mine and go” mentality in your organization, and you’ve really got to want to do it because it is an uphill slog, the effort must start with you. Are you setting the example by demonstrably placing the organization’s good at least on a par, if not a step ahead of your own? Are you earning the loyalty of the folks on your team day in and day out, or merely demanding and hoping for it?
2. We suggest you revisit your use of employment contracts and seriously consider whether they are adding beneficial clarity to the terms of the arrangement, or simply tightening the screws of self-interest and creating more rent-a-dummies.
3. In your recruiting and selection process, place as great an emphasis on how people finish their obligations and projects as how they start them. If a new recruit is willing to void an employment agreement and dump their current gig like a hot potato, why would you want them on your team?

Our interest is not in resurrecting the workplace of a bygone era. Anything but. Rather, it is in recognizing the fact that speed, the competitive advantage of choice, is compromised when people, either by choice or necessity, go through the day always keeping one eye focused on their own welfare rather than the job they are getting paid to do. We’ve made our choice. What’s yours?

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Whether in business, sports, or communities at large, people, all of us, perform better, a lot better, when we have skin in the game. Contrary to what we’ve seen of late with bogus bonus schemes that provide executives with nothing but upside potential (AIG rings a bell), I’m talking about the type of arrangement where people are truly invested in an organization and its outcomes, with both upside and downside potential – real skin in the game.

Members of the U.S. Congress are beginning to bandy about the notion of imposing a “war tax” to pay for the war in Afghanistan. Though drilling yet another hole below the water line is about the last thing our economy needs at the moment, I’m not sure it’s such a bad idea. If every (repeat, every) taxpayer was invested in this gambit, either by virtue of military service or a surtax on their paycheck, I feel certain that our opinions would quickly become more reasoned (less partisan), and the prospect of holding politicians and military officers accountable would improve immensely. Moreover, there would be at least one thing that binds us together. Or, as former New York mayor, David Dinkins remarked upon Barack Obama’s election, we would all “be drinking out of the same water fountain.”  And, our children and grandchildren might breathe a little easier knowing that there was at least one tab their parents were actually paying themselves.

Regardless of the outcome of any proposed war tax, skin in the game is something that each of us as leaders should strive for on our own teams. We can do so by:

1. Lobbying for contracts and other arrangements that truly put pay at risk
2. Using spot cash awards (and fines) as a way of recognizing performance in real time
3. Being more thoughtful and broadminded in assigning responsibilities and tasks
4. Refusing to saddle your stars with the task of cleaning up messes made by others, and
5. Being quicker to remove people from the team when they have lost too much skin.

Your thoughts, as always, are welcome.

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Since the murderous outrage at Fort Hood, TX last week, the mumbling has reached a crescendo about, “In view of this guy’s checkered work performance, if not confused loyalties, how could the Army have allowed him to A. Get promoted, B. Reassigned to another unit, C. Continue practicing as a psychiatrist with emotionally fragile troops, and D. Deployed to a combat role?” While the truth will eventually be known, in the meantime, we manager types would do well to lighten up on the finger pointing.

The reason is that we do a fair amount of the same stuff ourselves. In a 17 year career as an HR manager/executive, I seldom saw a terminated employee with sub-par performance reviews, but I’ve seen lots of problem employees transferred over and over, rather than having someone man-up and deal with the issue. Likewise, I’ve seen hundreds of people sent to training or executive coaching by a gutless manager who silently hopes that they will somehow come back fixed.

My hope is that, if anything good can come from the Ft. Hood episode, it might serve as a reminder of the bad things that can happen inside any organization when problems are allowed to fester, or are swept under the rug.

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

As a rule we don’t use this forum to promote the services of a particular individual or organization, and I wouldn’t be making the exception this time but for the very real potential benefit to our readers. Before reading further, understand that we get no compensation whatsoever from this mention.

I heard from an old friend Thursday. He was a tennis partner and co-worker from my ADP days, and one of the few people to stand up with me when I married Mrs. Starbucks, which qualifies him on both counts (being old AND a friend). After catching up, he told me about his company, CFO Resources and what they do. Their primary service is to help employers improve cash flow and shareholder returns by reducing federal/state income tax liability.

They do this via a user-friendly process to help employers capture Work Opportunity Tax Credits (”WOTC”) associated with their normal hiring activity.  Employers are entitled to federal income tax credits if they hire and retain individuals from targeted groups as defined by DOL and the IRS. In a nutshell, his firm processes the paperwork, files it on the employer’s behalf, monitors the process, and only gets paid as a function of the employer getting a credit.

I’m told that the credits can range from $300 to $9000 per individual. Unless you’ve got money to throw away, it would be a good idea to investigate Work Opportunity Tax Credits, and unless you just happen to enjoy dealing directly with government bureaucracies, you may want to contact Ken Brice at CFOResources. (KenBrice@CFOResources.com)

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

For the moment, pretend that you are Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, with leadership responsibility for all U.S. military personnel, and directing U.S. engagement in two wars, with Muslims on both sides of each war. You’ve just encountered  a highly visible incident of extreme fratricide reportedly carried out by a U.S. Army medical officer, a Muslim, no less, against large numbers of U.S. troops preparing to deploy to a war zone.

In 800 words or less:

1. What is your 1st move?
2. How do you restore  the involved unit to peak operating condition? Do you continue with their planned deployment to a war zone?
3. What systemic (service-wide) moves do you make, if any?
4. How do you deter this from happening again?

Difficult, isn’t it? Send your answers to Bill@ContentedCows.com. The author of the most thoughtful answer will win a copy of our next book, Rebooting Leadership (due out, Spring ’10).

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows