The 3 Pillars of Employee Accountability

"A culture of discipline is not a principle of business; it is a principle of greatness." ~Jim Collins

"Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity." ~Colin Powell

One of the biggest struggles in leadership is the need to hold a team accountable for their actions and your expectations. Most leaders expect the best from their team and often will even project their own sense of responsibility and work ethic on their team. They want to be the positive and supportive boss of everyone’s dreams. This is always a great thing to do from a motivation and empowerment standpoint, but it can fail if you don’t back it up with accountability.

Many leaders fail at holding their team accountable because of a number of reasons:

·         They fear that they will be perceived as a micromanager

·         They aren’t comfortable with conflict

·         They hope the person will self-correct

·         They simply can’t understand why someone wouldn’t behave like they would in the same situation

·         They don’t know how to have the conversation

The thing that surprises most leaders is that employees want their leaders to hold them, and their co-workers, accountable. Your team wants a level playing field where they know that their co-workers are being held to the same standards as everyone else. Holding a team accountable also ensures that there is a level of recognition in place, which is critical to your team’s ongoing motivation.

So regardless of the reason and motivation for the lack of accountability, how do you do it in a way that doesn’t bring any of the fears into reality?

The Foundation

Set clear expectations - Where most accountability initiatives go wrong is that they don’t set a clear foundation of expectations. This allows the grey area and “wiggle room” to take over and opens the floor up to excuses. If you are able to get crystal clear on the expectations of each individual, then the rest of accountability gets much easier.

Get buy-in – Before you set the expectations in stone, it’s important that you get the feedback of all of those involved. This has the effect of giving you as much information as possible surrounding the expectation (so that you can make the best decision possible), ensures that the employee is clear on what is expected, and gives them a better sense of ownership which helps drive the desired result.

Track progress – One of the best ways to write an insurance policy that your expectations will be met is to publicly track progress. When the team can come in every morning and see the results of the day prior and where those results stand in regards to the expectation it brings even more awareness to the issue.

The Feedback

When you have the foundation in place you have a shared understanding of what needs to be done and that provides a much firmer and easier basis to have a conversation if the expectations are not being met. One of the big reasons is that if you have done all of the above, this isn’t the first conversation you’ve had regarding the topic. You had it when you solicited buy-in, and you’ve had it with the regular updates on progress. It can’t be stated enough how much easier the conversations go with this in place.

With all that being said, it can still be difficult for leaders to know exactly how to have the conversation about missed expectations. Below are some key points to keep you from making any common mistakes and to keep the discussion on track:

Focus on the issue – Everyone in the room knows who isn’t meeting expectations, so there is no need to make the person further defensive by making it personal. Deal with the issue, the shortfall, and what to do to get back to where everything needs to be. Keep it constructive.

Use specific examples – If you don’t have them ready, then I guarantee that they will be asked for by an employee looking for an “out.” And besides, if you don’t have specifics, what are you talking about?

Timely – Feedback needs to be given as soon as possible to the issue being discussed. This is a general rule for all feedback, but is even more important when dealing with expectations as every day that the employee is falling short is one more reason that they might call out that the expectation isn’t that important (otherwise you would have mentioned it right away).

Consistent – The most powerful benefit of holding everyone accountable is the trust that it fosters amongst the team and towards you. Consistently enforcing expectations let’s everyone know that there is a fair playing field.

Discreet – Praise in public and reprimand in private. The other aspect of trust is that you will address issues without embarrassing the team member.

These guidelines get ahead of some of the most common problems you will face when having the conversation with your team member. Tackle the foundation and address these and you will have taken huge strides forward in easily holding employees accountable.

The Maintenance

As with most everything in leadership there are always refinements to an existing process that should be made to make it even better.

Administer consequences – While we would all like to think that all of the above would address any shortfall in expectations, we know that won’t always be the case. After some conversations the next step is to start with consequences for falling short. It is imperative when speaking of consequences that you address two things; the employee must clearly understand each of the consequences well before the next infraction and administering of consequences, and you must apply the consequences consistently across the entire team when necessary.

Evaluate effectiveness – Even with all of the above, you may still not get the results you are after. Or perhaps you just feel like you can do better. It’s important that you routinely look at your own results in holding everyone accountable to see if you can improve any of the steps outlined above. I assur you they can be approved.

If you want to establish a culture of excellence, you need to have mechanisms to keep everyone on track. Accountability is a cornerstone of that culture. And while many leaders struggle with holding their teams accountable, with a framework in place like the one outlined above, it can be not only easier, but more effective. 

10 Daily Habits of Great Leaders

"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day." -~Jim Rohn

"Successful people make the right decisions early and manage those decisions daily." ~John Maxwell

One of the overlooked foundations of greatness is consistency. The very best people at a given task do things right every single day. This makes every day build like compound interest until they become overwhelmingly great at their chosen field.

Leaders who choose to be great don’t just show up in a crisis, they don’t just empower their team when they feel like it, and they don’t create a cohesive team only on Wednesdays. They do certain things every day that lead them inevitably to greatness.

Below is a list of the top 10 things that amazing leaders who earn respect and become great do every single day they are at work:

Develop People – Leadership is as much about creating more leaders as it is about driving performance. Respected leaders constantly empower their team to learn and develop new skills through delegation and training. They actively expose them to other leaders in the organization. And they work closely with each employee on their career goals and help chart the course to get there.

Set Priorities – Ever had several projects all due the same day or week? It is common for everyone to be pulled in multiple directions at any given time. Great leaders set the vision, direction and goals of the organization. They ensure those are all met by aligning the resources of the team through clearly laid out priorities. When employees have conflicts in priorities, the leaders steps in and changes due dates or shifts projects to other workers.

Communicate continuously – How amazing leaders accomplish many of the items on this list is through effective and constant communication with their team. They share insight, they listen to ideas, they can be relied upon to be honest and transparent in even the most difficult things. John C. Maxwell says that, “Everything rises and falls on leadership”, and to that I add that, “Leadership rises and falls on communication.” Amazing leaders know this and follow through on it.

Set a high bar for excellence – Some of the best leaders you will come across in your career will know what your best effort looks like, and will not allow you to settle for giving anything less. What is more, they build trust amongst the team by expecting the same of your co-workers. In an environment where everyone is held to the same standard of excellence, productivity thrives.

Respect time – Time is something everyone is increasingly in short supply of these days. True leaders respect the time of their people both inside and outside of work. They will extend the courtesy of asking if the present moment is a good time to talk which reinforces a sense of ownership and responsibility in the employee as it relates to their work. They make adjustments so that the employee can make appointments or take some time off. And in all of this, they ensure that the work gets done either by the team member or a back-up.

Have fun – Andrew Carnegie famously said that, "There is little success where there is little laughter." Too much of our time is spent working for it to be a bummer. Leaders set the right tone for the good of everyone. They laugh, they hold social events, and they don’t take themselves too seriously. A fun environment is a key to bringing out the absolute best in the team.

Recognize great work – Ever done something great and nobody noticed? Sure you have the sense of a job well done, but if that is the norm in your office there’s a problem. Letting a team member know that they created great work is a simple and polite way of reinforcing more of it.

Make decisions – Nothing will cause a team to lose respect for a leader quicker than coming to them for help in a decision and not getting it. Some may consider this a basic function of leadership, but many people have run across bosses who are too busy to listen, always in meetings, or apt to shift the decision making back on you. Decisions are when the team needs the leader most, and amazing leaders step up to the plate.

Foster teamwork – Whether it is assigning teams to projects that could be done individually, assigning back-ups for all duties, or focusing more on team accomplishments than individual accomplishments (or likely discussing how the individual accomplishments relate to the team goals), great leaders weave these into the daily life in the organization. The reason is simple; they understand that when teamwork is done right it makes 1+1=3.

Celebrate success – Tom Peters says to, “Celebrate what you want to see more of.” Respected leaders not only celebrate success, they notice success in every nook and cranny of the operation. It can be reaching goals, learning something new, or expanding responsibilities. Everyone loves success and amazing leaders use that to shape a culture of winning and keep a positive “can do” spirit.

Doing these things is what makes a good leader. Doing these things every day makes you an amazing leader. And it isn’t just the impact on the team where the amazing leader reaps the benefits of their effort, it shows in the organization’s overall results as well.

The Top 10 Ways Terrible Bosses Destroy Morale

"Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities." ~Walter Scott

"For success, attitude is equally as important as ability." ~Harry F. Banks

We’ve all had those bosses that made the day to day grind of work nearly unbearable. They took what should have created a sense of accomplishment, at a minimum, and sucked the life right out of it. And what’s even worse, they killed the productivity in the office as well. But that doesn’t mean that as leaders we can’t learn from them, just not in the way that they would imagine.

Looking at mistakes is often just as enlightening for the future leader as looking at successes. In this case it acts as a HUGE warning sign of what not to do. So for those of us in leadership who may have not had the displeasure of working under enough so called leaders to cover all of the ways to destroy morale, we have a list of the Top 10 ways:

#1 Never listening – Do you want to know one of the best ways to make someone feel worthless? Simply ignore everything they say no matter how well informed and well intentioned it may be. This destroys an employee’s self-worth as well as any motivation they might have to share ideas or insight in the future. Horrible bosses tend to have an arrogance about them that both considers themselves “better” than those they oversee and also inflates how good their own ideas are. Neither of those things helps the rest of the team feel good about their contributions to the organization.

#2 Take credit for the positive and assign blame for the negative – Everybody wants to receive credit for a job well done and never wants to be blamed for a failure that wasn’t their fault. Yet horrible bosses routinely play the “political” game for their own self-serving reasons and kill their team’s desire to do anything. I say do ANYTHING, because if you are going to get blamed for any bad thing that occurs and don’t get any credit for the good things there is literally no benefit to working at all. Of course, the reason that your boss needs to exhibit this behavior is that their own performance and production is likely terrible, so they need to grab onto any achievement of their team and deflect their inadequacies to preserve their place in the organization.

#3 Never praising – Leaders tend to focus on the negative and the problems in the organization so that they can address them. This tendency isn’t necessarily bad as long as it is balanced with some praise. But horrible bosses use this tendency of their own and their bosses to focus strictly on the negative. While most employees understand being called out for mistakes they make or shortfalls in performance, when this is all they receive they begin questioning whether anything they do is praise-worthy which leads to a general feeling of failure. Last time I checked, making your team feel like a failure is the opposite of building morale.

#4 Micromanaging – There is very little more irritating on the job than a micromanaging boss. Part of the problem from a morale standpoint is that you aren’t given enough freedom to use all of your talents because you have the boss directing your every step. By way of example, how happy would you be being forced to do 3rd grade homework all day long (no recesses)? It might be cute for a day or two, but it would quickly get boring and you’d want more.  A micromanaging boss not only does that, but then finds problems where they often don’t exist to try to keep you in line.

#5 Dishonesty – Patrick Lencioni in his famous book The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team puts “Trust” squarely at the foundation of proper teamwork. When your boss lies to you and other teammates it destroys that trust and replaces it with helplessness. Once that trust is gone you can’t be sure of much of anything that comes out of their mouth. Helplessness and untrustworthiness make it difficult at best to build morale.

#6 Holding back promotions – Most people are interested in advancing their careers. Yet horrible bosses tend to consolidate power and will often only promote those they can control. It’s demoralizing to put in a ton of hard work, demonstrate that you are the best person for the promotion, then get passed up for someone who sucks-up. Couple this with the fact your boss is most likely not developing you at all, and instead of having a team that wants to learn and better themselves, you have a team that is defeated with no hope of improvement in their own situation.

#7 Threats of firing – Fear does not equal respect and NEVER gets the long term results leaders are looking for. Yes, the boss may get what they want in the short -term, but at what cost? Being secure and being treated fairly are foundations of good morale. A boss who is constantly threatening people’s jobs just to get the results he/she want is, a) Clearly weak, b) Unable to control their own emotions, and c) Incapable of giving proper direction. There isn’t any scenario where threats result in better morale.

#8 Invading personal time – Disrespect and disregard for personal time is something that will burn out a staff quicker than most things on this list. Calling, e-mailing and texting after hours, on weekends, and on vacation coupled with a demand of immediate reply. Springing a demand to stay late at 4pm, or demanding that you work the weekend on Friday. All of these things wear a team down. What is even worse is that half the time the cause of the emergency is the boss’s fault, OR there really isn’t much of a need to burn the midnight hour at all (other than some arbitrary deadline the boss controls).

#9 Favorites and double standards – Leaders are supposed to set the example for hard work and fairness. Unfortunately, many bosses abuse their authority and give themselves a “free-pass” on all of the difficult work and decisions of the organization. Couple this with a boss who passes along the double standard by playing favorites with those team members whom he/she gets along with (read: suck-ups) and you have a staff in a state of desperation for leadership.

#10 Keeping everyone in the dark – Weak leaders use information as a tool to maintain control. They will give you little to no details on a task they assign you, then come back to you afterwards and claim you didn’t provide what they wanted. They won’t keep you informed of what is going on in the organization so that you are always off-balance and unable to offer suggestions (making them the source of all progress in the department). And it all gives them the opportunity to shape the direction of things to serve themselves best. Of course, when you have no idea what is going on and no idea of what the expectations are you end up being confused and apprehensive. Neither of which is conducive to high morale.

While there are dozens of other examples, these are the ones that I hear about most frequently from leaders and employees. Most of these find their source in insecurity, arrogance and irresponsibility which means that if you find yourself under a leader like this, you are likely to be getting very little out of it from a career perspective. My recommendation is that life is too short to deal with a situation where you don’t grow and feel demoralized. Look for lateral opportunities within the organization, or even opportunities outside the organization. It is amazing how long some of these leaders can keep their jobs, so if you’re hoping to wait it out, you might be waiting longer than you think.

As mentioned above, the only good thing you gain from your experience under a morale killing boss is learning clearly what not to do when you take over your own organization.

5 Reasons Being Late Destroys Your Career

“Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late.” ~William Shakespeare

“Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable.” ~Anonymous

You may or may not believe in New Year’s Resolutions, but regardless of that, being punctual needs to be one of the top item on your To-Do list. I get it, you’re busy, but if you are chronically late to meetings and appointments in the workplace, you’re destroying all of your hard work and killing your chance at career advancement. You might think that’s a bit harsh, that a few minutes here or there are no big deal, or that others are late too, but below are five ways that your tardiness in perceived and the impression it leaves:

Lack of respect – Would you be late to a meeting with the CEO? Probably not because they warrant respect, the meeting material must be important, and their time is valuable. So when you are late to a meeting you are portraying the exact opposite. You’re showing your peers, subordinates and bosses that you don’t respect their time, their position, or the material you are meeting about. And everybody sees it. Impression you leave: Rude

Not reliable – If you’re late to a meeting, it begs the question to everyone else in the meeting, “What else is he/she late to?” Are you late to customer sales calls? Are you late with projects? Are you late to work every morning? Can I trust this person to do what they say they will if they can’t make a meeting on time? None of these are good questions for your career prospects. Impression you leave: Flaky

Lack of priorities – Everyone is busy, but successful people tackle being busy by prioritizing. In fact, it’s the key to being able to handle more responsibility. If you can’t make meetings on time because you’re too busy, then you aren’t ready for more responsibility. Impression you leave: Overwhelmed

Political posturing – Usually the highest ranking person in the meeting gets a free pass to be late (right or wrong). If you are showing up late it can be perceived that you think you’re the most important person in the room. NOT something that is constructive or fosters collaboration. Impression you leave: Arrogant

Wasting money - My favorite argument for not having meetings or limiting the attendance is simply adding up the hourly wage of everyone in attendance and multiplying by the length of the meeting. Meetings often cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. That doesn’t mean it isn’t money well spent, but let’s say you have five other people in a meeting and they wait 10 minutes for you to arrive, you just wasted 50 minutes of company time. If there are Executives involved, that just cost a pretty penny. Impression you leave: Irresponsible

For right or wrong, perception can be reality. A lack of punctuality leaves horrendous perceptions in its wake. Either manage your punctuality or reap the consequences of the impressions it leaves.

Top 10 Leadership Mistakes to Avoid At All Costs

"A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them." ~John C. Maxwell

"I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success." ~Jack Welch

Many leaders, for a variety of reason, are blind to some of the faults in their leadership. Maybe they weren’t trained, maybe their mentor demonstrated the same faults, and maybe the organization even rewards the behavior. The problem with not addressing these leadership mistakes is that you are handicapping the productivity of your team, your own development and ultimately your career trajectory.

Below are 10 of the most common leadership mistakes you might find yourself a bit “blind” to. Shedding some light on them will hopefully ensure that you can start addressing them.

Not understanding your role – One of the first places leaders fail is … well … not being a leader. You are most effective when you work THROUGH your people and enhance each team member’s performance, not when you roll up your sleeves and make an individual contribution. Focus on getting the most out of your team, not getting the most out of yourself.

Not listening to your employees – Your team should be your primary source of feedback on what is working and what isn’t in the operation, with the customer, and with their own performance. Many leaders focus more on getting their point across to their team instead of trying to gain a better understanding of the issue through their team. If you aren’t listening twice as much as you are talking you are missing out on essential information and ideas, and without the right information and ideas, you can’t lead.

Not setting goals – You’re the captain of your ship, but if you don’t have a destination for your vessel you can’t ensure you get to where you want to be. Goal setting on an organizational, staff and personal level creates the map for all of your achievements and helps focus your efforts on what is important. With all of distractions and competing priorities a leader is beset with, a goal helps you decide what is important and what isn’t.

Resisting change – Change is one of the most difficult things for a leader to manage because it takes time, effort, patience, perseverance, planning, and a tolerance for risk. The point is, you’re a leader, and leaders are supposed to make things better. If you were meant to just maintain the status quo, you’d be called a “steward” or a “caretaker”. It may be difficult to come up with the idea and plan, convince your boss and team, put it into place, and then have some of your changes fail to get results. But that’s what you are there for and great leaders are measured by the improvements they make, not by what they keep in place.

Lack of accountability – Building trust is essential for developing high performing teams. One of the cornerstones of trust is accountability. That goes for your team members and it goes for you. If someone in your area is assigned a task and says they are going to do something, it is imperative that every effort is put into seeing it to satisfactory completion. Ensuring that expectation is by your team is something that leaders should regularly be monitoring. With that said, too many leaders hold their team accountable, but give themselves a pass. You need to set the example and hold yourself to the highest standard possible, doing so actually makes it easier to hold everyone else accountable.

Failing to praise – Leaders are problem solvers who are always on the hunt for the next problem they can fix. This focus on the bad can leave you in a place where you don’t recognize the good as easily. Praise and recognition are almost always at the top of any survey of what employees want to see from their leaders and what motivates them to do a better job. It is as simple as saying “thank you” and “good job” when things are completed, and goes a long way towards creating a positive culture.

Micromanaging – The development of your team is one of your most important duties as a leader, and that can’t happen when you are over their shoulder telling them every little step they need to take. To unlock your team’s potential, you need to empower them to take responsibility, risks, and to make mistakes. Your role is to provide the structure and safety net to ensure learning is taking place and the tasks are being completed satisfactory.

Hiring poorly – Who you bring into your team will have a huge effect on what your team can accomplish. Most leaders understand this, but almost no leader has the extra time in their schedule to do hiring right, which leads to the whole process being rushed and you “settling” for a candidate that “will do OK.” You don’t want “OK”, your team doesn’t want to work alongside “OK”, and “OK” hires often are far more trouble than they are worth. If you want to hold your team to high standards, make sure you are adding exceptional people to your team that can meet and exceed those standards. Doing less is just making everyone work harder.

Not making work fun – Hey, the workplace doesn’t need to be a playground or a comedy club, but leaders needs to make it fun. People spend most of their waking lives at work and to get the best effort out of them it needs to be enjoyable. Study after study shows the positive effects on productivity in the workplace when employees enjoy coming to work. It unlocks creativity, provides more energy and fosters collaboration. Dress down days, holiday parties, dress-up days, pot-lucks, etc., etc. are all things that good workplaces do to bring this out. If you don’t have any ideas, you can always “google” it.

Not forgiving yourself when you make a mistake – Leaders are human, and they are rarely given a roadmap for success as a leader. For that reason, you are often required to learn from your mistakes. Your path to success will likely be littered with failures. It’s what you do with these failures, how you pick yourself back up again and learn from them, that will shape the rest of your career. Every great leader has made every one of the above mistakes, the key is that they learned their lesson.

15 Traits of Perfect Employees

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary people. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary person." ~Elbert Hubbard

"You don't get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour." ~ J.Rohn

Many times we know that we want to strive for something, but we aren’t exactly clear on how we are going to get there. “Excellence” is a classic example of a goal that is somewhat … well … vague. So when we start talking about being an excellent or ideal employee, or having ideal employees, what exactly do we mean?

It turns out we mean a lot of things, which probably shouldn’t come as a surprise. As the workplace has become more complicated, the demands on the employee have increased. This has raised the value (and rarity) of employees who can thrive in this environment. So whether you are a leader or a front line employee on the sales floor, what traits do you need to have or cultivate to take your career to the next level? Start with the below:

Action Oriented – Nothing is accomplished without action. This seems fairly obvious, but it’s easy to fool yourself into thinking you are being hyper-constructive when you are thinking, planning, preparing, waiting for more information and other “paralysis by analysis” components. Ideal employees always have a bias towards acting on information. Yes, they gather it and analyze it, but they are also quick to put it to work.

Natural Learner – Intelligence isn’t enough anymore. The world is changing quickly and ideal employees demonstrate the ability to learn a variety of subjects. This ability to learn gives them greater flexibility in gaining skillsets and changing duties to adapt to needs as they arise.

Ambitious – Having an employee who meets expectations is all well and good, but what you are really looking for is an employee with the drive to reach for lofty personal and professional goals. It is these goals that maintain their focus on work and lead to exceeding expectations, not just meeting them. Every boss cherishes that employee who surprises them with how they go above and beyond what others expected to be done.

Autonomous – It’s always best to be working with self-motivated individuals. It isn’t just that they are given a task and run with it, it’s that they take more ownership over all facets of their work. This means that they come up with innovations and ideas, they do the quality assurance work and they support themselves. This also frees their boss to focus his/her attention on other matters.

Positive – Studies have shown that people who have positive outlooks are more productive and receive more promotions than their negative counterparts. The ability to enthusiastically tackle new endeavors and to see potential instead of calamity is a hallmark of great leadership and a great employee. To be able to change, innovate and improve, you must be able to take risks. Negative people see the downside in the situation and resist action, positive people on the other hand see the potential and charge forward.

Confident – They may not know how they are going to do a task, they may not be sure it can be done, but they do know that they will find a way if it can be done. Confident individuals accept more challenges which improves their skillsets and experience. They also move quicker through the decision making process which speeds up all of their work.

Honest – When you ask somebody a question, you expect the truth. If you have to go through another round of questioning to prove they are being truthful you are wasting time. Also, from a leadership perspective, if you can’t get honest information you aren’t getting the right information, and that increases the likelihood of a poor decision.

Detail Oriented – Ideal employees don’t get lost in the details, but they understand that details make up the foundation of larger things. Getting the details right is what separates OK products and services from great products and services.

Humble – Humility opens you up to the idea that you don’t have all of the answers, you might make mistakes, and that everyone has a contribution to make in the organization. These ideas help you create more dialogue so that your information is better, learn from your mistakes to increase your growth, and foster a team environment where the organization leverages everyone’s strengths.

Hard Working – It goes without saying that an ideal employee works hard, but I figured the list wouldn’t be complete without it. Sometimes employees need to give that little “extra” to meet the needs of the organization. Ideal employees step up when needed and work as hard as possible to meet the goals set for them.

Proactive – If you can deal with things ahead of time you free up time and resources later. Great employees are always looking ahead to discover opportunities or to spot problems on the horizon. They then take action on these two things right away to maximize their positive impact and minimize their negative impact.

Team player – An ideal employee in the job market today must have the ability to magnify value on a team. The essence of teamwork is an increase in productivity for everyone involved. 2+2+2=7 for example. If you detract from the value of the group, then you are not only not an ideal employee, but likely to not be an employee much longer.

Creative – We aren’t talking about artistic ability here; we are talking about creative problem solving. A great employee will find creative solutions to customer issues, operational problems, changes, opportunities and other issues the organization faces. As the world gets more complicated, the solutions unfortunately get more complicated as well which requires a more creative approach.

Excellent Communicator– The ability to clearly communicate in not only verbal, but in the written form as well, is a trait any ideal employee should possess. It isn’t just being able to clearly explain your point or idea, it’s also about being able to open dialogue and bring parties together.

Empathy – A great employee understands other co-workers, customers and their boss on an emotional level. Through this understanding of their feelings they can tailor their communication, recognize issues that arise, and deal with the human element of the organization.

While very few of us can claim to have all of these listed traits in our repertoire, the list does clearly what we should be working towards. Ideal employees are few and far between, but their value is becoming greater and greater as the organizational environments we all work in evolve.

Why The Best Leaders Aren't Afraid to Laugh

"There is little success where there is little laughter." ~Andrew Carnegie

“A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.” ~William Arthur Ward

In your day to day work life you are constantly beset by troubles and challenges. If you are not too careful your job becomes serious at best, and tedious at worst. It is for this reason that every great leader has the ability to use humor at correct moments to get more out of their team. This can come to pass by laughing at your own mistakes, making light of the troubles you face, or simply sharing humorous stories from the weekend.

As a leader you have the ability and responsibility to shape your department and organization at any time. I can think of no better time to insert humor than when things get stressful, but it is welcome by your team at any time. And beyond blowing off steam, there are a number of very constructive reasons to let a little humor into your department:

• Approachability – By engaging with your staff in a lighthearted way, you increase your approachability which is necessary for you to be up to date on challenges and successes in the department.
• Creativity – Humor breaks up the monotony and gets our minds out of the rut we find ourselves in when doing our daily tasks. It is these breaks in thinking that often lead to new ideas and solutions.
• Reduces Stress – It’s hard to be stressed out when you’re laughing, and stress in the workplace is no good for morale, health or teamwork.
• Increases Productivity – If you’re having fun at work, your tasks tend to flow quicker and with more precision. As a leader, you’re also apt to have less turnover if your staff is enjoying themselves.

One thing that I have instituted recently in an effort to insert a little humor into the day is a daily joke (a clean joke) that I e-mail to the staff in the middle of the day. I think sending it in the middle of the day is the best way to get the most out of the points listed above. This direct approach works well for my team, for others it may be just as much about displaying a humorous demeanor at the right time.

Regardless of the approach you take, I hope you will seriously consider the importance of at least a little laughter in the workplace, I know you’ll find it beneficial.

7 Reasons Jerks Succeed and What You Can Learn From Them

“Nice guys finish last.” ~Leo Durocher

"Winners have simply formed the habit of doing things losers don't like to do." ~Albert Gray

Does winning trump everything? Including some of the basic tenets of leadership, like collaboration, respect, and thinking long-term? It’s a fair question, as history is riddled with people who accomplished amazing things and are revered and respected for those things, but were complete jerks.

But why is it that being “bad” can be such a successful technique for these people? And what can leaders learn from it to gain the benefits, without being a jerk about it? Turns out that a jerk's nature has some positive traits, even if they aren’t applied in a particularly “nice” way:

Demand excellence – Probably the best illustration of a good trait gone bad. Any great leader demands excellence from their team, but they get to excellence by nurturing it, investing their time into it, and becoming partners in it. It’s a time consuming and effort intensive process that doesn’t always get to where you want it to right away, which is why many good leaders struggle with it.

A jerk may achieve that excellence from their employees, but they focus on getting it right now! To heck with the long term consequences. They simply demand excellence and use fear as the primary weapon to obtain it. This fear can come in the form of threats, uncomfortable angry outbursts, and eventually simply the implication that either could occur if you fail. They give little mind to the consequences of getting there; what procedures need to be broken, what overtime needs to be worked, or what other projects need to get pushed aside. The result may be excellent output, but with an undermining of the foundation of the organization.

Confidence –  Confidence is a requirement of great leadership. You must be self-assured in your ideas and plans to be able to see them put into place and brought to fruition. It also takes confidence to be a part of the feedback loop by being willing to give your opinion.

Jerks are plenty confident, but it manifests itself in being a bully. They are assertive in the extreme and almost always give their opinions on things, which can seem to the uninformed as if they have a lot of ideas. And in many cases they will consider their own ideas to all be “great” and will use this assertiveness and confidence to mask otherwise poor results in a veneer of excellence. Have you ever been in a room with someone who brags about results that aren’t that “brag-worthy?" That’s what a jerk does with their results. Constantly.

Risk tolerance – Leaders quickly realize that almost anything worthwhile that they want to do will require some risk. The calculation and minimizing of that risk is a process that must be balanced against taking action. Many times leaders will be too risk averse or not take action quick enough, and sell their potential short.

Jerks have no problem taking risks. Yes, they are confident, but also because they have a ready response if the risk blows up in their face: Blame and Excuses (usually both, just for good measure). They will throw their team or another department under the bus as quickly as possible and project the knowledge gained from hindsight to back that up. This practice often makes their leadership far too risky and they jeopardize much more of the organization.

Competitive and ambitious – Competition helps to focus our efforts and win as a team. Ambition is a cousin of competition and helps us to raise our goals and to become our best selves. What people realize as they keep making steps up the career ladder is that their individual achievement relies increasingly on getting the best out of others. Many times leaders will not stoke the fires of competition and ambition out of this selflessness.

Jerks never look too much past themselves. Their work is self-serving and self-obsessed. They are unbelievably competitive and ambitious, but they don’t play fair and they don’t play nice. This might work for a while, but this is also why many stall at certain points on the career ladder as their predisposition to themselves inhibits their progress. Yes, there are plenty of jerks who through intelligence and/or scheming rise higher, but their inability to serve their team and others almost always comes out.

Stubborn and pushy – All leaders need to fight for their ideas and beliefs. Resource constraints in almost all organization require that some ideas get left behind while others are pursued. The thing is, great ideas don’t always look that great when they are first put on paper. It takes a leader with some stubbornness to fight for their idea and see that it gets played out.

Jerks tend to win this game simply through numbers. They may not have as many great ideas as their peers, but MORE of their ideas get pursued because of their dogged determination and disregard for the value of other people’s ideas. If you’re allowed to throw enough darts at the board, you’re bound to get a bullseye eventually. And these people always make sure they get as many chances as they possibly can.

Focus on strengths – Yes, you need to address your weaknesses so that they do not hinder your progress any more than necessary. But great leaders play to their strengths so that they can accomplish as much as possible. They acknowledge weakness so as to address it, but they rely on their strengths to get them through.

Jerks disregard their weaknesses and make every attempt to set the rules so that only their strengths will come into play. If it is a weakness, they simply shift the responsibility for that area to their team or to another department. And using all of their “tools” above, they often are able to. This leaves them with no weaknesses, only strengths, which helps them to exert their influence in the areas those strengths touch.

Great negotiators – Negotiating and compromising are always difficult in an organization. The complexities lie in the fact that almost no negotiation is a one time event. There will likely be more down the road, and you'll likely be working with the person continually. You must always try to strike that balance between you and your counterpart so that the long term needs are satisfied and you both walk away happy (or at least with an understanding).

Jerks look at each negotiation as its own instance with no regard for future relationships. They will serve their needs at the cost of the general good, which if their boss doesn’t have a wide enough vision of the organization will look like they obtained a victory. This is often the case, especially considering that their counterpart on the other side of the negotiation isn’t typically interested in discussing how they got the bad side of the deal.

The reason that jerks can be so successful is that they misuse these traits for self-serving and short-term gains. In most organizations their leaders are detached enough from the operation to where they will never see that downside, they only see the "success." And by the time they do see it, the jerk has positioned themselves as a person the boss can trust and they talk their way out of it.

While there isn't much you can do about any of that, what you can do is begin applying these traits in your own leadership in the way they were meant to be applied. If you're successful you'll find that your career trajectory will likely be higher than any of the jerks in your organization.

10 Signs You're About To Burn Out (and how to fix it)

"If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree." ~Jim Rohn

"If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging." ~Will Rogers

It’s going to happen to everyone multiple times in their careers, burn out. When you’re trying to get ahead and trying to accomplish as much as you possibly can, circumstance or your own ambition will occasionally tip you past the point of being able to juggle everything and keep some semblance of self. There isn’t anything wrong with getting burned out, the only thing wrong is if you don’t address it.

Since identifying a problem usually comes before actually addressing it, we will lead today with some of the indicators that you’re burned out. Because one of the symptoms is an impairment in mental faculties, it is likely that you may be unaware you’re burned out until well after the effects are felt in your productivity and by those around you.

So without further ado, the 10 most common signs of burnout are:

(what to do about these items can be found BELOW THIS LIST)

·         Exhaustion – The most common sign of burnout is simply having no energy. No energy at work, no energy at home, and a tough time waking up every morning. Regardless of the amount of coffee or Red Bull’s you drink, you just can’t find the ability to rally some energy.

·         Health issues – Beyond exhaustion, reaching the point of burnout can often result in headaches, high blood pressure, aches and pains, weight gain and an increased susceptibility to illness. Your body will let you know when something is wrong whether it is mental or physical.

·         Inability to focus – The mental aspect of burnout typically comes with an inability to focus and see things through to completion. This could come about from too many things going on at once or the physical strain. One of the clearest indicators is a desire to multi-task, but an inability to do so with tasks and duties you usually were able to.

·         Negativity – We all go through those days where we have “stinking thinking’” and find ourselves noticing everything that is going wrong. A day or two every once in a while is normal, days that stretch into weeks is indicative of a problem.

·         Lack of patience – Because you have no energy and because you have so much you need to do, you are far more likely to show impatience when you’re burnt out as opposed to under normal circumstances. This can show up with peers, subordinates, your boss or your customers. You can clue into this when you catch yourself being impatient with someone whom you rarely, if ever, are impatient with usually.

·         Cynicism – Since the burnt out person has lost some of the ability to control their own emotions and actions, it’s almost natural for that to manifest itself into feeling of helplessness, defeatism and assumed agendas. This is kicking negativity up another notch.

·         No satisfaction – Those things that used to give you a great sense of accomplishment and job satisfaction may not hold the same luster when you are worn down. The truly bad part about this symptom is that the sense of accomplishment is what often counteracts a feeling of burnout. When you lose the ability to get that satisfaction from the job it can start a downward spiral.

·         Lack of motivation – While you may have plenty on your plate, if you’re burned out you are likely not able to motivate yourself like you used to. Given all of the above factors it wouldn’t be surprising.

·         Inability to stop thinking about work – One of the more curious signals of being burned out is when you simply can’t stop thinking about work when you are away from the office. Whether it is because you have too much on your plate, aren’t able to focus and come to a decision, or you know your productivity is slipping, this symptom just exacerbates the issue.

·         Relationship strain – When you’re too busy, too negative and too obsessed you’ll likely take some of the attention away from your relationships. The big flashing warning sign is when you find yourself with a strain in your relationship with people you almost always get along with.

The fundamental issue with burnout is balance. You need a sense of balance between the personal and the professional, a balance between different projects at work, a balance between wins and losses, and a balance between the fun and mundane. When the scales tip too far to one side, that’s when the above symptoms start showing up. The below recommendations look to tackle that imbalance:

·         Disconnect – The number one way to stop burnout is to completely disconnect from the job, because one of the biggest causes of burnout is being connected to work 24/7. You need to have the ability to “recharge your batteries” and that is tough when work is constantly draining them. It could be a vacation, it could be time in the evenings and weekends you don’t check e-mail, or it could be an activity that forces you to disconnect like hiking where there is no cell reception or a massage. This method of dealing with burnout is perfect for righting the scales of the work/life balance.

·         Pay attention to your body – If you are finding yourself feeling exhausted, sick or experiencing any of the other maladies listed above there are three things you can do to help your body deal and recover from it. Sleep, exercise and focusing on your diet. Often we exacerbate burnout and exhaustion by doing the easy thing like picking up fast food, sitting on the couch and staying up to watch that next episode on Netflix. Take care of your body and it’ll help you stay sharp.

·         Schedule fun – Many times when we are feeling burnt out we take the fun things off our calendar so that we have more time to deal with the work issues. This is actually the exact opposite thing that you need to do. That hour spent laughing with friends or engaging in an exciting activity can make you twice as productive the next day and more than make up for itself. Also, when you’re in a rut you need to do something different and dramatic to get yourself out of it. Might as well make it something fun.

·         Schedule relaxation – And just as important as fun is relaxation. I used to go out to lunch every day, not because I never made myself lunch, but because it allowed me an hour away from the office to brainstorm, reset or just relax. Maybe it is a scheduled walk around the block, maybe it’s just stepping outside and getting some fresh air. Whatever it is that puts you at ease, leverage it regularly.

·         Prioritize – If you have too much on your plate, the best thing to do is to prioritize it so that if something slips, it’s not the most important thing. And the priorities don’t have to be just work related, it’s important to prioritize both work and personal things together. This is one of those things that can directly bring back balance in your life.

·         List of successes – One of the most motivating and empowering things is success. It’s a powerful force that can make everything seem better and easier. But when you are feeling the effects of burnout there are times when it will feel that nothing is going right. One of the ways to recharge your morale is to list out all of the successes you had over the last week. Now while it might be a bit difficult to start out with, it typically picks up speed as you get a few under your belt, and it is a great way to combat that “Stinking thinking.”

·         Give – One of the most satisfying things you can do is to give of your time and expertise. It can be on the job helping someone learn something new or just lending a hand. Or it can be a charitable act in your personal life. Giving to something outside of ourselves instills a sense of gratitude and is one of the more powerful ways that you can break the routine and break out of burnout.

·         Get organized – Feeling burnt out can make everything feel a little more chaotic. Sometimes the refreshment and reset that we need can come from reducing the clutter, both physically in the form of having an organized workspace and mentally in organizing what is on you plate. Even the simple act of writing down everything you need to do on a list is often extraordinarily valuable.

·         Find support and vent – When you have a problem you need to seek out help. That can be a professional career counselor, a therapist, your spouse, or just a friend. Sometimes you just need to give voice to your concerns and frustrations to release the pressure valve. Other times you will rely on an outsider’s opinion on what you need to do. Either way, the help that someone else can offer you can give you the support to lift yourself back up out of your burnout.

·         Re-evaluate goals – I intentionally put this down last to encourage you to start doing some of the other items on the list first. Burnout can be a terrible time to evaluate your goals because of the negativity most face. However, it is a powerful enough experience that it can expose some of our inner desires which does make it a good time to re-evaluate our goals. As you are coming out of your burnout, the thing that can often vault you forward is a fresh challenge. This is often the opportunity to turn the negative of burnout into a positive new direction.

You are going to get burned out at some point, it’s inevitable. Identifying it quickly and taking steps to address it can be a huge help in not only keeping your career and work on track, but helping you maintain a balance that keeps your personal life in order as well.

9 Ways Micromanagers Ruin Organizations

"Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others." -John Maxwell

"In the past a leader was a boss. Today leaders must be partners with their people. They no longer can lead based on positional power." ~Ken Blanchard

Fighting for control is one of the most common failings of leaders in today’s workplace. It isn’t that they aren’t supposed to be in control of their operation; they are. It’s that there is a difference between “control” and “controlling” and it is usually much easier (in a sense) to be controlling. Not making that distinction, and not making the right choice, can destroy their own effectiveness and the effectiveness of their team.

Below are the 9 ways in which a controlling boss undermines their organization’s effectiveness:

Not Utilizing the Talent – Every leader has an enormous amount of talent resources within their team. But if they are controlling all of the decisions, ideas, and process flows, there is no way to tap into those resources. Team members aren’t free to learn a new strength or to voice where they might be able to help. They are shut out of the process of working towards a goal/ Even if a team member is brave enough to voice their ideas and thoughts, they will likely not be given serious consideration or have their suggestion taken over by the boss which dissuades other team members from sharing in the future.

Lack of Delegation – Control is often at the heart of a lack of delegation. There is a difference between giving orders and delegating. Delegating has a certain freedom and ownership built into it for the team members. The empowering and productivity benefits of delegating to a staff are relatively non-existent in a controlling atmosphere. Yes, the leader may be giving lots of direction, but it tends to be precise, step-by-step direction that allows little freedom and requires the team member to come right back to you when complete. That doesn’t grow team members professionally at all.

Exhausting – Control isn’t as precise of a goal as many leaders think. There is always something else, another aspect, a level deeper that you can seek control. Part of the power of ceding that control to others is that you don’t get caught in that downward spiral where you spend your time increasingly influencing less and less important work. This never-ending search takes an enormous amount of mental and physical resources on a leader’s part. There’s a reason they have a staff and this is one of those reasons. If they allow themselves to continue seeking control at every turn, they’ll find themselves at a MUCH higher likelihood of making mistakes and burning out.  

Less Teamwork – Control is often the opposite of collaboration. If the leader isn’t modeling and teaching collaboration it is far less likely to be something that their team demonstrates. Team members won’t look for ways to work together to achieve the direction of the controlling boss, they will have been taught to wait to work together until the leader says they should. This lack of initiative will kill any teamwork in the organization.

More Roadblocks to Progress – A controlling boss requires EVERYTHING to run through them which slows or halts progress, or even basic operations, within the organization. A long line of people outside their door is usually a good indication that there is an issue. This is often the only issue that can “bring light” to the counterproductive behavior as more and more people in the organization run into the roadblock.

Impatience – Because they are so busy being in the middle of everything they don’t have the time to listen, to explain themselves, to think things through, or to wait for the fruits of their labor to bloom. This constant lack of time creates a tension in the office that can put everyone on edge.

Hyper-Critical – When a leader focuses on control, they tend to eliminate opinions. What this does is strip away another layer expression from the team and gives the leader an incentive to force their opinion further and further throughout the processes which leads to criticism over any deviation from the directive regardless of how non-specific that direction may have been.

Toxic Environment – With an environment that doesn’t encourage expression or empowerment and which does encourage rushed decisions and scapegoats to avoid the criticism, it is no wonder that a controlling boss fosters a toxic environment in the workplace. This environment further exacerbates all of the other ills, which leads to…

Finally: Turnover – When the leader is in control of everything, by definition the team member is not. People have an innate desire to have control over their own lives, and that extends into their work life as well. If the leader isn’t giving them some control over their work and their work environment, then they aren’t creating an atmosphere the team is comfortable in. Combine that with all of the above….and you won’t be keeping anyone on board very long at all.

For an employee stuck under a controlling boss, the options are usually limited. You can suggest regular updates instead of oversight or try to wriggle some flexibility in the process of achieving a clearly defined goal, but often the controlling boss doesn’t realize their error until it is too late and productivity has slipped. Even then they may feel that they are doing the right thing by maintaining a tightfisted grip on the operation. Because there is little professional growth potential under a controlling boss, it is often best to look for other opportunities with or without the organization to continue your career progression.