A post on the Harvard Business Review says that the work-life balance is a myth…! What do you think? Here’s why I think it is FAR from a myth.

John Beeson posted on HBR – about a subject I’ve written many times about on this blog – the Work-Life Balance. Beeson says that, nowadays, moments of relaxation and down-time are fleeting. Constant pressure means that it’s sink, or swim, and that every opportunity for a short, sharp bout of relaxation should be taken to power-up for the next round.

Say goodbye to the two-week vacation with the family. That’s history in most organizations. Instead, seek to find those activities that allow you to relax — even if only for 15 minutes a day.

- John Beeson

Don’t know about you, but I can’t relax in prescribed, regimented sessions. It’s counter-intuitive to the point.

The ‘Myth’ of Work-Life Balance….?

Perhaps John Beeson has a point. In many organizations, c-level execs just don’t have the luxury of 2-week vacations once a year. Most companies demand hard-graft and the ‘consequences of failure are punishing’. I have experienced this myself, and he is right – right when I look back at those organizations where non-stop, grueling demands were placed upon me and all at senior management level.

But, you know, this is only true in those kinds of organizations. Google is a great example. Google demands no less than its 100lbs of flesh. Their institutionalized employee meat-grinder is legendary.

This isn’t true for all organizations, though.

We sometimes forget, we DO have a choice where we work, even in these tough economic times. We don’t HAVE to take this ‘myth’ as a given, and take it on the chin.

Work-Life Balance Does Exist

A recent survey for Glassdoor.com reported that 54% of employees report good work-life balance, while 43% of employees wish they had better work-life balance.

Glassdoor.com also compiled a list of the 25 companies with the best balance of work and personal life. The top five for the best work-life balance are Nestle Purina Petcare, MITRE, SAS Institute, FactSet and United Space Alliance.

1. Nestlé Purina PetCare
2. MITRE
3. SAS Institute
4. FactSet
5. United Space Alliance
6. Slalom Consulting
7. Facebook
8. Morningstar
9. Susquehanna International Group
10. Colgate-Palmolive
11. Mentor Graphics
12. Autodesk
13. Sheetz
14. Agilent Technologies
15. Turner Broadcasting
16. Dupont
17. Southwest Airlines
18. General Mills
19. Biogen Idec
20. Scottrade
21. Chevron
22. Synopsys
23. MTV Networks
24. Intuit
25. National Instruments

Many of these organizations are household names. I don’t think work-life balance is a myth, but just a consequences of choosing a demanding employer.

We CAN choose not to work like this. And who says we will be less successful for it?

So ask yourself, are you truly stuck in a job that’s more like a sweat-shop, or are you really choosing to stay in this job? Are you forgetting that you have a choice where you work?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

1. They’re great for building supportive relationships
2. They’re vital for learning about our colleagues’ motivations, fears, hopes, troubles, etc. So much communication is non-verbal, and face-time is the only way you can read it
3. Team meetings provide us with the opportunity to share information we wouldn’t be so comfortable sharing by email, or in a report
4. A team meeting is a level playing field and an open forum – everybody present shares the same opportunity to communicate and listen
5. They play a vital role in leadership – the team leader can rally the troops and remind attendees of the mission
6. Nothing can replace the closeness, security and intimacy of a team meeting, especially in times of crisis
7. Team meetings allows attendees to lift their head out of day-to-day operations
8. They create a space for giving each other feedback
9. Team meetings are a learning and improvement opportunity
10. They’re a great reminder, after all, that we are in fact in a team – and not alone!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

You know the feeling when you wake up annoyed before the work day begins…

In most cases, you’re only excited about the end of the day because you hate your job. Maybe it’s time to consider a career, but you do not have the educational requirements to pursue higher paying positions. It’s a reality now, but you can make the choice to change for the future.

Many companies now require applicants to hold at least an Associates degree in any field with experience. If you have over 10 years in sales and no degree, consider pursuing a Business Administration or Information Technology degree to get started. The more technical your degree, the greater amount of critical thinking skills you’ll develop for your new career.

1. You’ve reached your breaking point of disappointment

Are you tired of applying for low paying jobs? You’re reaching a new point of disappointment because of the knowledge-based workforce. Many people are not even working in their respective fields, but they are receiving a considerable amount of income for finishing college and learning how to apply new skills in the workplace.

2. Your boss calls you out for lacking a college degree

According to the “Education pays..” survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, individuals with only a high school diploma earn approximately $626 per week compared to $767 of an Associates degree worker. If you consider these wages for a total year, the person with the Associates degree will earn about $7,300 more than the high school graduate.

The extra $7,300 can help create opportunities for your family, reduce debt and improve your lifestyle (if you’re unhappy with it). Persons with college degrees usually earn a higher pay which relieves some of the stress surrounding overworking, underpayment and extensive worry about the next paycheck.

3. You think it’s time to change

You think it’s time to make a change, and you know what changes are needed. Many people have fears of returning to college because they of financial aid, lack of study skills or time management. You can get an education and take care of home by preparing for the transition by asking friends, family, and colleagues to help you. You hate going to work because your bosses stress you out, barely pay good wages to cover bills and the job is impacting your health.

Get to the bottom of your fears

You can only make a choice if you are prepared to handle the consequences. Educational institutions welcome working adults and provide assistance to help. You may even receive additional help including child care assistance, tutoring, or flex schedule opportunities at your current job. Ask your employer about tuition reimbursement programs (if available). If you identify each problem you think you may have, find the solutions to make the right choices.

Adult learning is a promising step in your career. No matter how long you’ve worked in the workforce, a combination of education and experience will boost your position with the right employer. In most cases, you will have to plan a way to get your new life under control with family, school, and work; take your time and everything will work out.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

The ‘Meeting Culture’ is under challenge – many organizations are changing the way they run meetings and it’s going to be stand-up job.

I just read this post on the Wall Street Journal blog – No More Angling for the Best Seat; More Meetings Are Stand-Up Jobs – it discusses a software company in Grand Rapids that’s insisting on stand-up meetings. This is the sign of things to come.

You’ve probably been in meetings yourself where the chair is a comfortable zone in which you can listen, day-dream or completely switch off. But more and more organizations are stamping down on the chair, and mandating that employees stay attentive, and erect.

Why? The pace of the modern organization is demanding employees to be sharper and keener, and slouching has no place.

I agree.

I’ve been in countless meetings where it’s been obvious that some attendees are present only to be there for the roll-call, slouching throughout. Have you?

It’s frustrating when, as the meeting holder, it’s clear that some attendees are not there in spirit. Sure, if the meeting is pointless, or it has a flawed agenda, perhaps I’ve deserves it. But that is rarely the case. If we take the right steps to run a meeting properly, and still the meeting is carrying passengers, then we’ve gotta try a different tactic.

Demand the Stand

So if our meetings are failing to create the right momentum, we can try demanding that they’re conducted stood-up. We choose a room with no central table and chairs, and we get right to it.

Standing meetings have to be sharper and punchier, or attendees will start to flag – shuffling from foot to foot, so we’ve gotta be prepared to drive the meeting forward at pace.

We must cut the chit-chat. We must ask direct questions and demand direct answers. We have to maintain pace. This happens easier than you might think.

When I’ve ran standing meetings, the very nature of being upright means that oxygen courses through our veins quicker.  It just works!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Want to know the most effective way of discovering your ‘next big thing’? Try copying an idea from somewhere else…

‘New Ideas’ are rarely new. Innovation is mostly about using other people’s ideas and executing them better. The greatest inventions in history haven’t been conjured up entirely from scratch. Instead, they’re improvements on other ideas and technologies.

Take the iPod. Not a new idea. MP3 players already existed. The Mac already existed. All Apple did was to combine the musical function of an MP3 player and apply their User Interface philosophy (that’s the way people interact with something). And then mix in already established technologies (e.g. the first iPod used firewire technology for connecting the device to a PC – now replaced with USB).

It’s unrealistic (and uncommercial) to attempt forming new ideas in business from scratch. Technology (used in the loosest sense of the word) is about creating new thinking by improving old thinking.

Mashing Up

‘Mash-ups’ is a term to describe the emerging trend in combining technologies to create a new product or service. For example, many web and smartphone apps use Google Maps within their core. Twitter and Facebook too.

Mashing-up goes beyond the technical implementation – its a term that can be used to describe the thinking and idea-generation process too. Someone had the idea of combining a number of ideas to produce one unique idea, or perhaps, a similar idea to another but implemented it better.

Mashing up doesn’t just have to be about computer technology. It can be about anything. We can generate ideas for new products, services and businesses by combining stuff that already exists and improving on them. Just imagine – we could create an idea for a new fashion store by combining franchises from apparel brands, Starbucks, and a bookshop. It could be a place for people to hang out, see what other the young and trendy are wearing, and offer deals on complete outfits that gain popularity.

A post on the Jurgen Appelo’s NOOP.NL blog – The Mojito Method – describes this perfectly.

When you mix different ideas from multiple sources, a new idea can emerge that both aggregates and improves on the pre-existing ideas – Jurgen Appelo, NOOP.NL

Jurgen describes the ‘Mojito Method’: “The mojito method makes sense for anyone who wants to innovate without the trouble of inventing entirely new stuff.” It’s a shortcut!

Take my impromptu idea of the fashion store above; why bother inventing the coffee outlet and popularizing beverages, when Starbucks have done it already? Why bother developing a supply-chain for book distribution, when Barnes & Noble has done it already? Get the picture?

This principle can literally be applied to anything: a new process to speed up processing insurance claims; a new sales technique; a blog or website; a new way to discover your customers interests…

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

In days of old, managers were the king-pins of their domains and were to be obeyed without question. Not so today. Managers must understand their employees to build an efficient and effective working environment.

If you’ve read Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, then you’ll know how Ebenezer Scrooge ruled with an iron-fist and commanded his staff to comply to his every word without question. It seems a ridiculous management style, now, but (in fact) in wasn’t that far away from the norm back in the early 19th century. Managers (thankfully) can’t behave like that now, so management style has shifted over the decades to be based on relationships, persuasion and collaboration.

A strong relationship between manager and employee means that trust and respect forms and grows. Not just that. When they understand each other, they capitalize on each other’s strengths, and make allowances for each other’s weaknesses. They’re symbiotic relationships.

Managers employ a number of techniques for getting to know their employees. And from my own experience, it requires a variety of tactics:

Getting to Know Their Jobs, Career Aspirations and Work Style

Most new managers take time to get to know the division of labor within their team, and how the labor is performed, using one-on-one meetings. Armed with resumes or other documentation, a manager has a great opportunity to get the lay of the land and discover who is doing what and how.

Alison Green‘s blog post what should a new manager ask to get to know employees better? offers a great list of questions for doing this. Here’s some of them:

• What do you see as the main goals of your role?
• What are the most important things for you to achieve this year?
• Are you on track to doing that? Are there milestones to meet on the way? What things are you worried might get in the way?
• What do you like the most about your job? The least?
• What would help you do your job better?
• Is there anything I should know about how you like to work?

I find it also helpful to ask questions that discover how employees see their work in relation to their colleagues. For example:

• What’s the most important thing you need to achieve as a team this year?
• How does doing X help John do Y?
• If you didn’t do X, what would happen when Mary did Z?

Getting to Know Each Other’s Personalities

We only really get to know about how someone ticks is when we have seen them in a variety of situations. This is why team-building exercises became popular. But you don’t need to go on an organized event to do it. I’ve used quite simple techniques to great effect. I like to take my team bowling. It puts people in a competitive situation, and it’s also a good way of discovering how people react to wearing the crazy shoes and performing the strange bowling techniques. I certainly root out the competitors, the vain, the show-offs and the clowns! Here are more examples of things I’ve done before:

• Paintballing
• Mini karting
• Dining out
• Volunteer work
• Sailing

Getting to Know Each Other’s Families

The impact of work on family life is an important consideration for employees, and their employers. Families are the supportive framework underneath our employees. It’s important to create opportunities for our employees to bring their families together (whether individuals take them, or not). BBQs and family-days are a great way to create these opportunities. It’s fantastic to see all the kids play together, spouses to chat over a burger and a glass of something. It’s a wonderful way of discovering the real person away from the desk and the hubbub of work.

Do you have other ideas on how managers can get to know their employees? Please share them by leaving a comment.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If disaster or disappointment strikes, it’s normal to ask ourselves why. Why did I fail? Why didn’t I get the job? But these questions aren’t the RIGHT questions to ask. They’re not helpful!

I was just checking out Michael Hyatt‘s blog and found his post The Power of Asking the Right Question. Michael proposes that asking questions that reinforce the reasons for failure destroy hope. If you were to ask yourself Why didn’t I get that job? you might then answer yourself that you’re under-qualified, too arrogant, too old, unattractive, etc…

What help are those answers? None at all…

As Michael says, this is a good example of a bad question.

It’s pointless asking ourselves questions that further deepen our crisis and damage our self-esteem. It’s best not to ask these questions in the first place!

What Makes a RIGHT Question?

Firstly, here’s a clue. Avoid starting your question with WHY. ‘Why’ starts us down the negative route.

Much better: start your questions with HOW. ‘How’ puts us into a problem-solving mode. How is open ended, and lubricates the wheels of action.

For example:

• How can I avoid these failures again?
• How can I become a more suitable candidate?
• How do I make my resume stand out?

These questions helps us think of the problem from a fresh perspective, and gives us hope. When I do this, I instantly feel the buzz of hope in the pit of my stomach. I feel energized.

So if you find yourself asking yourself WHY something didn’t happen, then reevaluate the question and ask yourself HOW you can change future opportunities.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Do you accept requests from people and the dollar signs flash over your eyes, or do you view them as a way to add value to your colleagues/customers?

This is what fellow blogger Eric Brown is asking in his post Are you building an “order taker” or “solution maker” environment?

Eric’s post is IT-oriented, but the principle applies to any job or business: what’s your motive?

When I read Eric’s post, it got me thinking about my experiences with suppliers whose motive is to sell more stuff. They weren’t interested in making me a happy customer. They weren’t concerned with whether what I was asking for was, in fact, right for me. They didn’t care less if I was making a mistake when ordering something – even when they knew it wasn’t the best value, or even compatible with what I had bought from them in the past.

These people are coyotes, scavenging off the naive, uninformed or vulnerable.

Then I think about the people who have told me that I don’t need that… this would be a better and cheaper option… it’s best if you did this yourself with what you have already invested in.

These people are angels. They have integrity. They know what I needed, and when I needed it. And they cared about making my life and work better.

Have you had experiences of coyotes and angels?

Guess which I would rather buy from?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Is your Performance Review looming? Let me share a little secret with you about how to answer questions in your review.

You might be expecting me to say something like “Honesty is the Best Policy.”

And you know what, you would be right. But it would be trite of me to leave it there.

The best way to answer Performance Review questions is to take a ‘holistic approach’.

So What’s a Holistic Approach?

I’ve written, many times before, that your Performance Review/Appraisal is about YOU. This is a very true statement. But perhaps (in this context) a bit misleading, because YOU work in an organizational context of other people.

If all you were to do, when answering questions from your reviewer, were to talk about how your work and performance impact and benefit you only, you’re missing a trick. Because people are inherently selfish – they don’t really want to know about you – they want to know about themselves. Their ‘listening’ filters are continuously scouring your answers for information that they can understand in their own terms… or even for information that benefits themself, as opportunities or for vanity’s sake.

So we must use this to our advantage, and of course, we must do it with integrity, too.

When I use the term ‘holistic’, I refer to viewing what you do, and the value you create through your work, in a wider context – a context that includes the people around you – upwards, downwards and across-ways in your organization. They’re your colleagues, direct reports and your bosses. It also considers the business and organization contexts, such as management, financial and strategic.

So when you’re answering questions about your work performance, you must include the people around you, and the business benefit in there too. Here’s what I mean. I’ll use two examples, each with a ‘bad’ and ‘good’ answer.

Example One

Q: Julie, what has been your greatest achievement over the last 3 months?

Bad A: Bill (Julie’s boss) I thought I totally rocked the Acme Associates deal. I used an even better approach to structure the proposal and worked the finances to make it really appealing. I’ll bet the stockholders will be pleased with me!

Good A: Well Bill, we really made great progress when you and I went to see Acme Associates and landed that distribution deal. Our structured approach in our proposal really worked – without it I struggled last time. It was also great to work with Mary (Julie’s colleague) on the finances as we needed to offer a very competitive discount this time around before quarter-end. I’m sure you’re the same in thinking that our stockholders needed some good news.

See what I did in the good answer? Julie didn’t just answer the question by talking about herself, like before. Julie included her boss and a colleague in the answer. And she also included the benefits to stockholders, to boot. Her answer here also included a development point (about using the structured proposal) – something Julie has learned and applied during the review period.

You might also note that I used the word ‘I’ when referring to a past issue or failure in the good answer. This is important as Julie doesn’t want to imply a) that she is devolving a past mistake, and b) that she wants to take the credit for the learning point.

My last point is also deliberate: “I’m sure you’re the same in thinking…” as she is opening up the point for confirmation, or challenge, without directly asking a question. This allows Bill to step in with his own thoughts which can move the conversation along.

During each point made, Julie has answered honestly and considered not just the impact of my performance on herself, but instead she considered the wider impact.

Example Two

Q: So Julie, the general feedback from across the team is that you’re not communicating issues quickly enough. Sometimes with painful consequences. How will you resolve this?

Bad A: Bill – don’t just blame me on that. John and Eva (Julie’s direct reports) were telling me way too late about the issues. I will sort it out. You don’t need to worry about it – leave it with me.

Good A: I know – sorry Bill. I’m working on it. Often I hear about the issues late myself, but I think that’s because I am not making it clear enough to John and Eva at what point they should give me an early warning. I am going to review the procedures with them so that we can build in this early warning system without it causing too much disruption to us. I’ll then come back to you with what I am going to do.

Julie has a problem! In her good answer, she starts out by saying she knows about the problem, and that she takes responsibility for it. Sorry is a powerful word. The problem may be as a result of a combined failing with colleagues, but she doesn’t spread the blame or defend the indefensible. In her answer, Julie discusses a joint solution with colleagues, and acknowledges that a solution must work for everyone involved – not just her. She then reaffirms her accountability for the solution by promising to personally discuss the plan with Bill.

Both examples demonstrate the difference between an individual approach and my recommended holistic approach.

Before your next Performance Review, why not consider how you can answer questions with a holistic approach?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

There are six people you should avoid becoming ‘friends’ with on Facebook. Want to know who they are?

CBS News have just published a neat post ‘Facebook: 5 people never to friend from work‘ – a list of people who you should avoid linking to in Facebook. Perhaps, already, some of them are already there? You better check, quick!

And I just added a sixth.

The CBS post says you should avoid these people…

1) Your Boss

2) Your HR Rep

3) Your office ‘frenemy’

4) A previous Boss

5) Anyone you manage

and here’s an additional one I’ve thrown in:

6) Anyone who sells to you, or buys from you

Why? Well I don’t know about you, but I’d hate for a situation to occur where a person I was transacting with had more than the necessary leverage over me. Or, perhaps, claim some false affiliation or relatedness to break down some of my barriers. Agreeing a price through negotiation is all about leverage, and a game of wits, so it wouldn’t be helpful if I was compromised in some fashion. Or they might not choose to do business with me at all, based on some real (or misinterpreted) opinion I had written.

We really do have to be careful about our friends on Facebook. They should be real friends. People you trust and can share your world openly with, without fear of it being used against you or misinterpreted!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

We’re almost at the close of 2011, and it’s been quite a year. If you’re like me, then a good rest over the holidays is badly needed. But what next? 2012 can be a GREAT year for us, when we focus on productivity.

I’ve just read a post on the Harvard Business Review blog, Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012, and it shares some great tips on how to sharpen up our productivity.

My two favorites are stop doing work that’s not worth it and stop making things more complicated than they should be.

For most people, their annual performance appraisal is due over the coming weeks (is yours?) This is an ideal time to bring up issues connected to the above points.

Over time, some tasks we’re doing lose their effectiveness, because the world moves on, and technology speeds things up (or makes tasks redundant). Often, though, these tasks aren’t reviewed to ensure that they’re a good use of our time. These things might be stock-checks, or regular meetings… you’ll know what you do that isn’t effective.

Use your performance appraisal as a point to ask “should I REALLY be doing this any longer?”

This is a powerful question.

And ally this to the second point. Tasks we regularly perform can become unnecessarily complicated, because the process is inflexible. Such as filling out paperwork that nobody reads, or sending out letters that clog up the mail-room. When a task is ‘new’, our competence in it is low, so check-sums and balances are used to help identify problems. But when we’re adept at a task, we no longer need those checks and balances.

I’m not suggesting that we take additional unnecessary risk; some things HAVE to be done to comply with regulations or policy.

What I am suggesting is you review the effectiveness of every sub-task (like filling out a section on a form) and review whether it really adds to the quality of your product/service, increases profit, or reduced risk.

And it’s OK to challenge policy too, if that policy is ineffective.

This is a powerful challenge.

So use your coming performance appraisal as a way of introducing these questions and challenges. Done objectively, it can be a powerful means of stimulating change, and innovation.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Business Readiness is a measure of how ready an organization is to take on change.

This may be a new technology, as a result of a project.

This may be a new process, as a result of business improvement.

This may be new people, as a result of growth.

This may be fewer people, as a result of rationalization.

Whatever the change, it’s always a good idea to make sure your organization is ready for it.

Business Readiness is hard to define, as there is no discreet measure. Being 85% ready means nothing, without context. Somehow, we have to put some measures in place to know. These can be qualitative, and quantitative.

For example:

• A customer service team is 60% ready when 6 out of 10 staff have been trained in a new system.
• A manufacturing team is 80% ready when 8 out of 10 units output meets quality tests.
• A sales team is 100% ready when they have all gone through product training and passed certification.
• An engineering team is 90% ready when they’ve recruited 9 out of the 10 new hires.

Get the picture?

However, it’s rare to see just one dimension (measure) when looking at Business Readiness. There can be many measures, each with its own weighting and importance.

For example, the two measures of business readiness for a new IT system maybe ‘People Trained’ and ‘Upgraded IT Equipment Provisioned’. ‘People Trained’ may have more weighting, if the new system can run on older equipment, albeit less efficiently.

It’s important to construct a simple model (as simple as possible) to measure Business Readiness so that employees and management have a target to aim for which is properly understood.

Then, the business decision to GO or NOT GO can be made on an informed basis. An organization may choose to go-live with a change when the organization has reached 80% readiness. The gap of 20% is an expression of business risk, which should be mitigated (the mitigation, or backup plan, should be an input to the decision itself.)

The beauty of this concept is that it brings clarity to something that is otherwise very difficult to articulate. It’s good management practice.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Being influential is something we can all develop. In my years in both the corporate and SMEs, I’ve met people who are great and influencing others, and people who are lousy at it. Here are five observations I’ve notice in the latter!

1. Forcing your own agenda

Without a doubt, the biggest mistake in influencing is when someone is on broadcast-mode, talking only about what THEY want to talk about. This is annoying, and I hate this. When I am in this situation, I switch off and my eyes glaze over, and all I then do is to find the best way to get this idiot out of my face. I was at a business show not that long ago and some guy approached me to talk about his financial wizardry, telling me that his scheme was far safer than my pension, and and that I should disinvest my retirement fund and use it to make loads of money in his caper. Not once did he ask me about my situation. He didn’t even listen to the answers to the questions he did ask. He clearly wanted to say his well rehearsed pitch. I couldn’t wait for this ass to leave me alone, and made my exit as soon as I could.

This experience isn’t unique. It happens all the time. You’ve probably experienced it too.

Last time this happened to me, I simply said, “So is it my turn to talk now?”

2. Schmoozing

One other thing I dislike intensely is when someone is clearly trying to be-friend me through insipid sycophancy. Slimy creatures, they are. They smile, nod their heads, but I can see there is no interest in me or my needs whatsoever. Instead they say what they think I want to hear. They buy lunch, and throw in all the treats. They buy our favor, rather than our reasoned agreement. It might feel good to be treated like a king, for a while, but when the reality of making an important decision (from which our OWN performance will be judged by our peers), the technique falls flat on its face.

You see, these people try to buy us into a ‘psychological contract’ that has nothing to do with the product, service or solution. It’s a crude and ineffective use of personal and reward power, with an edge of coercion.

One time this happened, I looked over the oyster shell I had just emptied and asked “So when are you going to get to your point?”

3. Picking Holes

This kind of influencer constantly picks holes at our own statements or situations. They’re relentless. This CAN be a great sales technique if it’s done subtly, and in balanced way. Instead, the person who continually attacks is a dreadful bore, and brings us down. We generally know where our problems are – they don’t need to be irritated or scratched. It’s a negative technique that can only work against the weak-minded, who will say YES just to find relief (only to say NO from a safe distance).

Some chump was doing this last week, so I put on a sad face and said “You’ve made me feel very unhappy now, I don’t want to talk any more.” And left the room.

4. ‘Yes…But’ moments

Don’t you hate it when someone is just waiting for us to catch our breath to interject a ‘Yes… But…’? They’re not listening! When I find myself in one of these conversations, I’m wasting my time. Because the other person is filtering out what I say and listening only for the pauses. It’s similar to point 1, but even more annoying! Someone doing this often moves with a rocking motion – almost as if they’re throwing their body into the gap. Even worse is when they deliberately talk over me.

I sometimes fight fire with fire, and say “Yes… But you’re not listening to me” – this is a good way of disarming your foe without getting aggressive.

5. ‘Divide & Conquer’

These people pick targets off, one by one, and look for their weaknesses – often choosing one of the above tactics to influence them. This is cunning. They expect to build consensus by getting individual agreement to their caper. The thing is, people talk. The whole sham comes crashing down when the group responsible for the decision actually congregate to make the decision, only to discover this flawed tactic.

I’ve dealt with this situation by inviting the enemy into a meeting, only to be faced with the whole group involved in the tactic. Squirm? They can hardly keep their ass on their seat!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

French giant Atos has just announced a ban on internal emails. Others are bound to follow suit. So is this the end of internal emails?

According to BusinessInsider, the company intends to do away completely with internal email, instead opting for instant messaging and Facebook-like communication.

BOMBSHELL: Huge Company Bans Internal Email, Switches Totally To Facebook-Type-Stuff And Instant Messaging

I’ve also been working on a project recently with a large financial services institution in the UK – they’re looking at using these technologies for internal communications too. The prevalence of Facebook and instant messaging has changed the game for communication on the whole, and now business is waking up to the potential. Not just that, internal users are demanding it.

Workers are becoming so adept at using social-media platforms that business really has to look at the most effective and efficient means of communication. Organizations are a social enterprise, whether they see themselves that way or not, and social enterprise tools are driving the agenda.

So does this mean you will be replacing your internal email, too?

I think not, in the short-term. Atos are making a brave step, and because of their deliberate and energetic move towards social enterprise functions, they’re ready to make the move.

Most organizations are not, to be blunt.

But I predict over the next 5 years, there will be a big change.

And here is YOUR opportunity.

If you can see the benefit to your organization of using social enterprise technology, you can drive the debate. Like any business change, there needs to be a good case for it… normally stated in increased revenue, reduction in costs, increased profit, better customer service, faster delivery, etc.

It can be a struggle, I admit, to build this case. Straight away, at least. Until you’ve ‘had a go’, it’s hard to measure what the benefit will be. And, of course, there will be the cynics who are scared of change to stifle progress.

But we all have to start somewhere. One thing I’ve seen that works is to begin developing an enterprise community around tools like Facebook and (preferably) LinkedIn. Test the appetite; test the culture; test the technology. And be prepared for frustration – you won’t change things overnight!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

It’s foolish to think that the great people of our day, and yesterday, did not experience defeat. High-performers learn to cope with defeat – actually they relish defeat, as a learning opportunity to win, next time.

Any high-flyer that tells you that they’ve got where they are today without tasting failure is lying, or possibly, not what they say they are.

Defeat, of any kind, is a failure to win (I know, obvious.) But here’s the thing – winning or losing is always about playing the odds. A win where the odds are stacked heavily in our favor is not much of a win to brag about, and it’s likely to be something that many other people can win at, too. High-performers are such because they win when the odds are stacked against them. So the chances of failure are great. And fail, they do. It’s the successes they’re remembered for though.

Failure is something that all aspiring high-performers should expect, and plan for.

A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat
- Louis L’Amour

Take Charles Edison; he was fired from his first two jobs for under-performing! He’s known for inventing the light-bulb (ah but not the energy efficient ones we have to use now…!) It’s said that he tried 1,000 times, and failed, to produce the filament that eventually brought him success. That’s 1,000 failures, for 1 success. That’s a failure rate of 1000:1. Now imagine if he gave up after the 999th attempt. Or the 10th attempt. Or the first? People would have been sitting in darkened rooms, only dimly lit by lamps burning whale-blubber, for decades after. But Edison persisted, learning and refining his materials and methods, until Eureka! A light-bulb came on above his head…

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.
- George Edward Woodberry

Now take Walter Elias Disney (that’s Walt to you and I); he was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Can you believe that? He even went bankrupt several times. That’s before he built up his empire. Even Disneyland was rejected by the city of Anaheim, on the grounds that it would only attract “riffraff” to the city. Funny! Disney took defeat on the chin, and thought again. He used each failure as a learning opportunity and was stimulated further to achieve his dreams and goals. Failure was the making of Disney.

Defeat should never be a source of discouragement, but rather a fresh stimulus.
- Bishop Robert South

If you’re an art-lover, you’ll know all about Vincent Van Gogh. Even if you’re not, you’ve probably heard about him. He’s the guy who cut his own ear off and died at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot. He was a miserable man, for most of his life. Perhaps not a high-performer? He didn’t think so. It’s no surprise though, because he sold only one painting during his life. This was to the sister of one of his friends for 400 francs, which was approximately $50. But in his life, he completed over 800 paintings. Many of these are beautiful, and breath-taking. He is revered today and his works exchange hands for $millions. He didn’t cope with his personal defeats, which is why he didn’t live to see how successful he has become. Shame.

Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.
- Edwin Markham

High-performance is about learning from our defeats, coping with the fall-out, but then moving on, re-invigorated and a little more wise. More defeats – more invigoration – more wisdom. We shouldn’t be afraid of defeat. As high-performers, we embrace them and expect them, and accept them as the way we get to the top.

We have to first admit our defeats, before they’re in any way useful for our development.

Defeat never comes to any man until he admits it.
- Josephus Daniels

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you run meetings, then you need an agenda. It’s not a surprise, though, how many meetings go ahead without an agenda! (No wonder they don’t really work…!) Here are some tips that will help you put together an A* agenda for your next meeting.

A meeting agenda is YOUR powerful tool to ensure that your meeting achieves its aim. But wait a minute – do you know what the aim of your meeting is? Modern business is plagued by a fixation on meetings. And what I’ve discovered is that meetings are held, week-in, week-out, without a clear purpose. Without a clear agenda. Agendas help steer a meeting effectively towards the goal, but first we gotta know what that goal is. So onto…

Step One: Be Clear About the Purpose of the Meeting

If this isn’t clear, then cancel the meeting straight away! Our meetings must have a desired outcome. E.g. agree an action, make a decision, communicate change. The purpose should be easy to articulate and specific enough so that all attendees know what it’s about. For example:

‘Bad’ purpose: listen to what people have to say about product X.

‘Good’ purpose: gather feedback about product X, and then agree a list of prioritized actions to be performed by the team.

‘Bad’ purpose: to share information about team activity.

‘Good’ purpose: to monitor team activities and agree any management interventions required.

One way to look at it is to take your current meeting ‘purpose’ and then consider: does this meeting actually result in something that can then be carried out?

Step Two: Then Create the Agenda

Once you’re crystal clear about what your meeting is for, you can then begin to put the agenda together. Your agenda should have to following components:

• Date/time/location
• Attendees & other participants – and state who should be present at which agenda item, if not all
• Absentees/apologies – it’s always helpful to state who you know WON’T be there, as this may cause the meeting to be postponed
• Agenda items, to include:
• Agenda item (title and description)
• ‘Inputs’ – any documentation to be used in the agenda item
• Desired outcome (decision, action, or shared information)
• Agenda item duration
• Agenda item owner(s)
• Chairperson
• Minute taker (see Minute-Taking, Made Easy) – to be agreed upfront

Distributing Your Agenda

I recommend that you distribute your agenda as soon as you can. Why? Because:

• It gives people enough chance to prepare agenda items, inputs and any supporting material
• It gives people chance to challenge the agenda, its purpose and participants
• It allows people to consider the appropriateness of the meeting without absent attendees
• It allows enough time to get the meeting into attendee’s diaries

I also suggest you don’t just send the agenda to participants only, but also to anyone else who needs to be informed, such as department heads, supporting staff and people who have made their apologies upfront.

A Note On ‘Quick’/'Heads-Up’ Meetings

Not all meetings require a formal agenda, but nevertheless, a quick meeting still needs a purpose. These meetings work well when everything above holds true, even if it’s communicated quickly in a few statements. For meetings to be effective, participants need time to prepare and get into the ‘zone’ of the meeting, ie. putting aside current tasks so they can focus on your meeting.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Some tasks seem to take much longer than they should, don’t they?

But it’s no surprise, when you think about it…

1. Tasks take too long because there are too many people involved. Too much subjectivity (opinions, tastes, preferences and the like). Too many diaries to get in sync. Too many egos. Too many jobs to justify the existence of.
2. Tasks take too long because they are too big, and unwieldy. Big tasks scare people. Tasks are not manageable in bitesize chunks.
3. Tasks take too long because of process. Process (i.e. bureaucracy) can stop tasks starting, continuing, and even stopping when they should. Too much process stops people actually executing (getting on with the work). Too much process means that tasks can be too expensive, or time consuming, so they don’t get done.
4. Tasks take too long because people don’t see the benefit of doing them. When workers can’t see the benefit of completing a task, it can be stalled or dropped in an unfinished state. If you don’t know what a task results in, why do it?
5. Tasks take too long because they are the  wrong task. Some tasks shouldn’t even be done in the first place, because they’re inefficient, unethical, or plain stupid. Workers know this, so they stall or delay in completing these tasks.
6. Tasks take too long because they are being performed alongside other tasks. Other tasks compete for time. Unplanned work gets in the way. Too many concurrent tasks creates complexity and uncertainty.
7. Tasks take too long because they are difficult. Difficult tasks (not to say impossible tasks) are delayed in favor of easier tasks. Difficult tasks require energy that people just don’t want to give, or have.
8. Tasks take too long because people don’t want to do them. Some tasks are just not pleasant, or interesting. Some tasks aren’t cool. Some tasks are below our pay-grades. Some tasks make us look stupid. Some tasks are embarrassing. Sometimes, we just can’t be bothered.
9. Tasks take too long because they are too badly defined. Too little information to know how to start, process or end. Too little data as input. Too much confusion about what a good result looks like. Too much ambiguity in the task’s definition. Some school examination papers are like this.
10. Tasks take too long because the people doing them are ill-equipped. Too little time, too little knowledge, not enough tools, money or resources. Incompetence.

Now when any number of factors are combined, the likelihood of the task NOT being done on time is exponentially greater.

Just imagine: a badly defined, difficult task performed by a large number of busy people who don’t have the tools to do it…… think it will be late?

Bet you’ve had a few of these in your time.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Did you know there are four kinds of knowledge?

There are four kinds of knowledge. But not many people know that. But here’s the thing – understanding what the four kinds of knowledge are, and their implications, is a kick-ass tool for making decisions, diffusing arguments and getting through life…

1) You Know What You Know

This kind of knowledge is the most obvious. You know your name. You know that you know your name. Being consciously knowledgeable about something means that we’re confident to apply that knowledge. At work, we’re known as experts when we know we know something. Other people who don’t know it (and know they don’t know it – see below) come to us because we can apply that knowledge with authority.

2) You Know What You Don’t Know

I don’t know the square root of the radius of the earth in inches. Do you? I know I don’t know that, as (probably) do you. Now if I ever needed to know that number, I could go and find out. In less than five minutes I expect. So in our jobs, there’s stuff we know we don’t know. Work, research, listening, etc. to do. It’s important to be clear about our knowledge of what we don’t know. When we know we don’t know something, we then have the choice to learn it.

Some people try to ‘wing it’ – by pretending they know something they don’t. Bad decisions can be made this way. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing something. We can’t all know everything!

3) You Don’t Know What You Know

We’re bombarded with information in our lives. A lot of that information turns to knowledge, and most of that is knowledge we don’t know we have. We are information sponges. How often have you answered a question correctly when you didn’t think you knew the answer beforehand?

We often need our memories to be jogged, somehow, to know something that is hidden away in the depths of our memories. Until that happens, we’re left with an inkling.

There is a big difference between this kind of knowledge and the preceding one. Here, we might make a decision despite a tangible lack of knowledge (call it a hunch), but we won’t be making it based on deceit.

4) You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

This kind of knowledge is most definitely the widest spread. This is ignorance. This is naïvity. We’ve all had it, and still do – every single one of us. Think of the journey that children go through as they learn about the world around us. My 5-year old son asked me what an iceberg was last week. He knew he didn’t know this knowledge, which is why he asked. A month ago, he didn’t know he didn’t know this. In work, this happens all the time. You might step on somebody’s toes because you didn’t know what you did was their job. You might also sell a car at a discount-rate no longer offered, because you didn’t know it wasn’t being offered any more.

This is a fact of life. We shouldn’t blame, chastise, punish or penalize people if they do something out of ignorance, and nor should we expect it. But this is why we must have published policies. And disclaimers. And warning signs. And education. Because they attempt to turn our ignorance into knowledge we know we don’t know!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

It’s nice to be remembered. And I don’t just mean for vanity’s sake. When we create a lasting impression in someone, they’re much more likely to remember us when a job opportunity comes along!

How do we become ‘memorable’?

To start, we gotta be something different. Would you remember one standard carrot from the next in the grocery section? But you might remember one that looked like Barack Obama. Being memorable is about standing out.

But it’s not just about being amusing, or shocking, or somehow bizarre. Standing out is being different, and for that difference to be tangible.

Dare I say it – we need to be pigeon-hole-able. We’re told that we shouldn’t pigeon-hole people, but in truth, that’s what we do by nature. So being memorable is about being THAT person who springs to mind when a subject comes up, such as a job opportunity. I’m the innovator. I’m the cancer-survivor. I’m the guy who can talk business about tech-stuff. That’s how I am pigeon-holed to my colleagues and friends.

How Do We Communicate How We’re Different?

Errr… tell them? OK, not so simple. We can’t just blast out on broadcast mode to everyone we see. People have to be receptive, and then influenced – to connect ‘you’ in their memory-banks to something they have experienced and understand.

Here’s what I know works for me.

• Telling stories. A story is a great way of communicating ‘you’. A story is much more memorable than a series of statements. Listeners construct the story in the head, then gaps filled in by imagination. Use stories to create a strong memory of you. For example, rather than telling people what you do, tell them a story about a situation you applied yourself in.
• Humor. Most people like to be amused, and communicate amusement. Humor is spread (if it is good) and it makes people happy, and creates happy memories.
• Emotion. Do you remember someone if they cried in front of you? Yes, probably. But I am not advising using a flood of tears! Thing is, emotion is contagious. Emotion is shared. Emotion is more easily remembered. Emotion comes in many forms, but it’s usually expressed as a feeling. So talk about your feelings about something – share how something impacted you personally, good and bad. It’s a good chance that other people will share this emotion, in part, and then you have got them!
• Opinion. There is a clear difference between a fact and an opinion. Opinions come from you, and they’re an embellishment or protraction of facts. Sure, opinion can divide a room, but it sparks debate and emotion (see above). Use your judgment… expressing an opinion about something provocative can backfire on you!
• Failures. Becoming memorable is about helping people form an impression of you as a person. You’ll talk about the good things, but why not talk about the bad things too? Somehow, people tune into failure more – I guess because it alerts people to risk (opinion!). However it works, talking about failures, problems or issues – if done appropriately, and not done as a whine – provide a more balance impression of you.
• Inspiration. Inspiring someone is a gift, and it’s also a reward to you. When we inspire, we create a desire for action and it’s normally connected to emotion (again). You can inspire by telling people a story (get the picture?) of overcoming drastic odds, an insurmountable problem, or achieving something beyond hope. It’s a story, after all.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Unless you’ve been living on mars for the last 5 years, you’ll know that we’re in a global financial crisis. So asking for a raise, right now, will probably lead to disappointment or even conflict. There are, however, alternatives to a raise you can consider.

Most of us need a raise when the income we take doesn’t cover our expenses (of a modest lifestyle). And sometimes we could be asking for a raise to increase our well-being. Here are 20 things you should look at first, before going in with financial demands:

1. Ask for overtime or additional shifts.
2. If you haven’t done so, get clear on what you need to achieve to be promoted.
3. Challenge your organization’s bonus scheme to discover if you can be awarded more for higher performance.
4. Request to telecommute (that’s work from home) a couple of days a week, which will save on your travel costs, car parking, possibly childcare and even on small costs like eating out for lunch.
5. Negotiate benefits to reduce your costs, such as additional health-care,
6. Child-care,
7. Or other insurance.
8. To increase your hourly rate, you could try asking to work less hours in the week for the same salary.
9. Request to adjust your working hours so that you can avoid costs (like childcare as above.)
10. Ask for more paid vacation days.
11. Encourage your employer to negotiate corporate discounts for the local fitness club,
12. Or local car parks,
13. Or local restaurants,
14. Or other local stores that supply expensive large items like white goods (that’s washing machines and fridge-freezers),
15. Or vacation packages.
16. If your organization provides internal training, then request more training.
17. Ask your employer to provide interest-free loans.
18. Discover if your employer can offer you subsidized/discounted travel on trains or subway,
19. Or even air-fare.
20. Request college scholarships for dependents.

If you’re still hell-bent on a raise, then take a look at my post “How To Ask For a Fair Raise or Pay Increase During a Recession“.

Do YOU Know of Other Alternatives?

Then please share it! Leave a comment below.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Do you want to work for a company with great perks and growth opportunities? CNN Money has just announced the The Best Global Companies to Work For. 

Surprisingly to me, Microsoft is at number one. I’m surprised because over the last few years, this software giant has failed to have the impact it enjoyed in previous years. Reading the blurb though, I can see why. Employees are citing a wonderful Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy (which is delivered!) This is a recent phenomenon in employee satisfaction results, and testament to the fact that employees everywhere are typically conscious of the plight of the under-priveleged, and gain satisfaction from doing what they can.

Does your organization have a satisfactory CSR policy?

SAS comes in at number two – and the major reason for that is the organization’s focus on training and staff development. The company also avoids outsourcing where there isn’t a clear need to – using internal staff for maintenance and catering. Goes to create a united family!

Does your employer outsource basic services? Do YOU feel like you’re all part of the same family, batting for the same side?

In at number three is NetApp, where employees (after a period of downsizing) are saying that the organization is working towards a commonly understood goal, and that everybody feels part of it. Another example of where establishing a corporate family unit pays dividends (quite literally).

Do you feel part of your organization’s mission? Or are you in a ring-fenced stove-pipe?

At number four is Google. They had to be in at the top-ten somewhere. (Interesting that the top four are tech companies). Employees cite great leadership in mentoring with their Google-to-Googler (g2g) program, for developing talent. Google’s ’20% time’  initiative also gives employees 20% of their work time for brainstorming and creativity – a real investment.

Does your organization invest in thinking and supporting innovation?

Coming in at number five is Fed-Ex – the first non-tech company. Measuring customer satisfaction has helped the global courier to gain numerous internal and external awards for excellent service.

Does your employee regularly measure your satisfaction, and award employees for great work?

At number six is Cisco who invite employees to an informal Q&A with the CEO, John Chambers, demonstrating that the organization really cares about the views of employees and invests the time of the head-honcho in the process. Employees also enjoy job-sharing and on-site childcare.

Does the big-cheese of your company listen to YOUR views?

Sliding in at number seven is Marriott, the global hotel-chain that provides new recruits with a enviable opportunity to learn and engage in company culture by a three-day stint in one of their hotels in Mexico, with a graduation ceremony and an extra one-night stay. Employees begin every shift with a team briefing where company information is shared and employee excellence is acknowledged.

Does your organization share and communicate news about company and employee performance, and bring you into its culture?

Munching its way to number eight is McDonalds where diversity and fairness is a core value, and training is at the heart of providing great customer service.

Is your employer ‘fair’ and treats everyone with the same consideration?

Clinically entering at number nine is Kimberley-Clark whose employees can informally chat with management teams over coffee about their concerns, worries and careers. Job sharing and on-site childcare are benefits that help the challenges of modern life that bit easier.

How does your employer listen to your concerns and give you a voice to communicate them?

Sweeping up the last top-ten spot is S C Johnson whose ‘family company’ motto resonates with employees by considering the balance of work with family life. In their Canada operation, they provide opportunities to try different jobs to discover if they suit you better.

Does your organization support your needs when running a family?

Conclusion

It’s clear that the top-ten best global companies to work for really care about employee well-being, and have invested in it. So often, I see organizations who talk-the-talk, but don’t deliver. Another round of internal re-branding and a review of ‘company values’ just doesn’t cut it if nothing positive is actually delivered or changed.

Managers need to take note: if you want to be recognized as a great place to work, you have to create one!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

I like to travel with business. Staying in swanky hotels in the lap of luxury can be a real perk, but after a few days of living out of a hotel room it can get tedious. There is an alternative that is growing in popularity.

I used to travel a lot on business. I’ve stayed in hotels all over the US, in Europe and in Africa. I felt, after about 3 days, I wanted to get home. I’d had enough of the dining, sitting in the lounge bar, or congregating in rooms with people I didn’t always choose to be with. I’d have given my right arm for an alternative. There is one!

I just found this post on CNN – Business travelers opt for homier digs on the road – and it discusses a growing phenomenon with business travellers that seems like just the ticket I desired: short-term corporate rentals.

There really is nothing like a home-cooked dinner, or lounging on a comfy sofa with my feet up. Things you can’t do out of a hotel. I’m not ashamed to say I like to relax in a t-shirt and sweat-pants in front of the TV after a hard days work. (Do you?) Hotels can’t give me that.

There are a growing number of homes-away-from home that business travellers are flocking to. They’re basically apartments where all the home comforts are available – there so you can shut the world out, relax, and watch Oprah (or whatever you choose to spend time doing).

On a recent trip to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK, I stayed in a serviced apartment where I could wear comfy attire and not feel like a tramp. I cooked spaghetti and drank wine of my own choosing (at a fraction of the bar price.) Bliss.

So next time you’re planning an extended business trip, why not look for a short-term corporate rental? If your organization doesn’t currently allow you to use them, then ask them to. Speak about the well-being benefits. The cost is roughly the same and the advantages are far greater than a sterile hotel room!

Slippers Featured: Merino Wool Comfort Slippers (Gizmodiva.com)

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

It feels like our jobs have been under threat for years… doesn’t it? With the recession starting back in 1998 with no improvement since, job security is something that many of us are feeling unsure about. How do you feel?

Take a look at this table of top ten jobs of 2010 in the US (from CNN). Note the top job roles, and levels of perceived job security. Then take a look at the table from the year before. Spot the differences? You’ll see a major drop in job security figures in 2010 from 2009, and a whole different set of top ten jobs. So how will it look this year, do you think? (I’ll announce when the figures are published, so follow my RSS feed!) I doubt, very much, there will be any improvement. Looks scary, don’t it?

But wait.

Earlier in the year, I wrote What Is Job Security (and does it really exist?) Job security is very dependent on our own outlook. It’s a feeling, connected with emotions, and it’s subjective. We won’t be told not to worry.

Job security can’t be given to us. We gotta feel it.

If the economy were to suddenly bounce back, would that change our sense of job security? Probably, but not directly. First, we’d need to believe that a fixed economy actually results in more assurance that our jobs are safe. The responsibility will still be ours.

It will still matter.

Adjusting our Perception

We’re all being subjected to a heap of news full of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD). TV, blogs… it’s everywhere. I’m having the odd sleepless night about it – are you? But here’s the thing – the ‘soothsayers’ who broadcast the FUD are only giving us a macro-level view – stuff that concerns the global, national, state or city-wide problem. Your own particular situation, however, is unique to you. We gotta look at that too.

Our sense of job security is rooted in the work we do, the value we create, the skills we possess and the opportunities we can grasp. These things matter too – and much more than what we see on CNN. So look harder at them. Take an objective view:

• Understand what your work does in your organization, and its impact on it
• Identify the skills you have, and not just the ones you write on your resume
• Identify the opportunities you have – whether you’re taking them or not
• Think about the journey you have been on since you began your career, and how far you have come

Spend a little time jotting them down.

I am 100% confident that you will feel better about your situation afterwards. This ‘taking stock’ is a reminder that there is more to job security than news tells us. Job security DOES matter. And because it matters to us, it’s within our control.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Google ‘Team Management’ and ‘Organize a Team’ and we’ll find countless people telling us countless times how to do it. In my experience, it comes down to just a few simple things…

And here they are:

1. Be clear what the objective is – share with our team the purpose of being in a team in the first place. E.g. to make our customers happy; to build a widget; to help people find stuff.
2. Give tasks to people who are best at doing them – use people strengths. If Bill is good at communicating to customers, then give him that job. If Sharon is the best at writing reports, give her that job.
3. Set deadlines – every task, no matter how small, must have a start time, and an end time.
4. Set standards – every task, no matter how small, must be measurable, and the target measurement must be set, communicated and achievable.
5. Share progress – team progress must be communicated for all to see.
6. Have backup – if a team-member is off sick, or unavailable, someone else must be able to step in to plug the gap.
7. Review history – we should look back, with our team, and identify what works, what doesn’t work, and learn from it.
8. Forget job titles – job titles mean nothing if there is work to be done. Everyone in our team must feel empowered to fill gaps if they go unfilled.
9. Define roles and responsibilities – notwithstanding point 8, lay out to our teams who is responsible for what, who is accountable, who must be informed, and who must support. If it helps, plot these in a RACI matrix.
10. Share success – a team is a machine that depends on all its working parts, so reward must be shared across the team.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

That ‘New Manager’ handbook that HR passed onto you when you took the job is incomplete. There’s stuff these books just don’t tell you, and what’s more, they miss out the most important elements of leading and managing teams. Want to know more?

When I first became a junior manager, I was given a management handbook. It talked about managing performance, goal-setting, assigning tasks, delegation – all the management speak we hear about day-to-day that gives us reason to draw boxes and arrows. It gave me education, and confidence.

I thought I was ‘da man’. Puffed out chest, cufflinked shirts.

But what I discovered is that management isn’t just about numbers, or tasks, or goals, or individual performance.

I’ve written about these times before (see 5 Major Gaffes I’ve Made as an IT Manager) and they still embarrass me today, but they were a great lesson. Or so I thought. I look back on my ascendancy through managerial ranks and still see goofy things I did. Mistakes that I wasn’t warned about in the management handbooks. Things I could have done, if I had known.

Let me give you an example. I took a role where budgets were tight, timeframes were short, and delivery was king. No room for pussyfooting. So I thought that being a no-nonsense, no-excuse leader that got things done meant walking around like a bad-ass. Yeah, I got things done. Things happened, for sure. But I found that as soon as I took the pressure off, things stopped happening. Because I hadn’t brought the people with me. And worse still, a revolt began to brew within the very cohesive department underneath me.

I learned that management can be tough.

So I look back on those days and think about what I would have done differently to be a better manager, and here’s what I’ve concluded. Leadership is a critical element of management. Management, without leadership, is like being a selfish lover. The business gets done but the people under us don’t get anything from it, if you pardon the pun, and it leads to despondency and eventually revolt.

Leadership is the ‘suring up’ of our management practice, and leaves our environment in a better state for continuous success.

I’ll just use another example.

In my recent post Why Projects Fail, I commented that setting people to stack bricks is one thing, but telling them that they are building a hospital is another. We can manage brick-laying, and set standards, targets and manage performance of bricklayers – they never need to know that they are building a hospital. But I’d bet that when they knew what they were building, productivity increases would be observed, and if you took your eye off their toil, it would continue without your presence.

Management handbooks don’t really show us how to lead. That’s how to create the environment and impetus for our people to flourish, under their own steam. Instead they show us how to inspect stuff.

The Management Handbook I Would Use

42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role: The Manual They Didn’t Hand You When You Made VP, Director, or Manager describes practical and effective actions for us to make a strong start in our new manager job. It draws from extensive interviews with corporate leaders plus the author’s twenty years as a strategy consultant and executive coach. These ‘rules’ form the manual they forgot to hand us when we got that promotion or offer letter.

Subjects include:

• how to gain cooperation from our team,
• read the business culture at our new level,
• tee up smart “quick wins”,
• show others how to work with us,
• assess the business risks in our new role,
• make the most of our strengths without overdoing it,
• work around our weaknesses,
• use team screw-ups to our advantage,
• redesign our undoable job,
• and stay focused on our plan when everyone wants us to fight fires and solve the problems on their desks.

Pam gives us specific guidance for each step of those first few critical months. Her recommendations are shaped by current and classic leadership research, as well as fresh insight from her interviews with executives and surveys of leaders at all levels. With her background as executive coach to top Silicon Valley companies, corporate strategist with Bain and Accenture, and Guest Fellow at Stanford GSB’s Center for Leadership Development and Research, Pam translates the experiences of thousands of leaders into easy-to-read guidance.

Let this book remind us what we did right before, help us avoid common missteps that cause leaders to stumble, and give us new strategies for acing those critical first months. Adjust what we find here to serve team needs, market condition, cultural context, our goals and our personal leadership style.

Buy this book when making a step up, moving to a new organization, or for our friends as they move up. This book is also an ideal reference for executive coaches, HR business partners, management trainers, executive assistants, and others who help new leaders be successful.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Do some tasks take much longer than you want them to? Do you dread some tasks? Well it’s likely your are suffering from procrastination.

I have a friend who, if procrastinating was an Olympic sport, would be a triple gold-medalist. Some tasks take her an age to complete – much longer than they really should. What’s more, she hates these tasks. And it’s amazing how inventive she can be about what other jobs should be done first, like sharpening pencils or cleaning her PC monitor.

Procrastination is a psychological effect. It is when we replace high-priority and urgent activities with less important tasks, therefore putting off the important stuff to a later time (which, by the way, may never come). For example, we might have an urgent report to write, but writing the report is boring, so instead we tidy our desk.

Why do we procrastinate?

Procrastination can be a result of anxiety. Perhaps we’re worried about poor performance in the task, or, we don’t know where to start and can’t (or won’t) get help.

Researchers from the University of Michigan, St. Joseph University, and Ohio State University have also researched the links between the benefit of completing a task and our willingness to do the task. They found that people who feel more ‘entitled’ (i.e. expect to gain a lot from performing any activity) have less patience for activities that don’t provide them with an immediate benefit. In other words, people who believe themselves to be a high-achiever feel less inclined to do things where they don’t get an instant result.

What effect does procrastination have?

Procrastination often results in stress (because that task hasn’t been completed!), a guilty feeling, and a severe loss of personal productivity. The feeling of guilt can be compounded when we know that the lack of action impacts other people.

And here is worst of it. These feelings can then have the effect of further procrastination. It becomes an expanding, vicious cycle.

If we procrastinate, are we bad, or lazy?

No. It is quite normal for most people to procrastinate to a certain extent. I do it. My mom does it. And we’re not lazy. Nor is my super-procrastinator friend.

‘Chronic’ procrastination can be linked to an underlying psychological problem, and often these people don’t seek help because they don’t want to be seen as lazy or unambitious.

For most people, procrastination can be overcome by a few coping tactics. Although this isn’t an exhaustive list, below are a few things to try that I know work for me, and they’re beginning to work for my friend too:

1. Visualize the benefit of performing the task – imagine what our world will look like once it’s done. Often, this is as simple as knowing you don’t have to think about it again. Try and form a vivid image of yourself after the task has been done. This helps us perceive the immediate benefit.
2. Ask someone for help – it’s amazing what a bit of help can do. It can result in a new understanding of the task that makes it easier, or even just emotional support.
3. Avoid low points in your day – I get tired after lunch quite often. Do you? If so, then avoid performing this task then as it will be even more difficult. Either do the task before the low point, or postpone it briefly until afterwards.
4. Manage your time – if you don’t have a set deadline, then create one and hold yourself to it (I find committing this to someone else helps my commitment.)
5. Break the task up into smaller chunks – it’s far easier to focus on a small task than a big one! Identify the sub-tasks, prioritize them in a logical order of importance and start from the top.

If you’re a procrastinator, then I hope these tips help, and please share your experience by leaving a comment below.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Projects fail when the reason why the project is being done isn’t clear, or is a good one.

Projects fail because when we hope that what it will deliver will be good. Fingers-crossed, yes?

We need to know what a project will deliver before we start it. This is known as a Business Case.

When we don’t have a Business Case, or when the Business Case doesn’t prove that the project will deliver the desired outcome, we start the project with a great deal of risk.

So if you’re involved in a project – any project – then ask yourself this: why am I doing this?

If you don’t know, then ask your manager. Chances are, they don’t know too.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Employee Performance Reviews are an essential strategy for staff development. In the ‘old days’ they were done using paper, or (if you were lucky) spreadsheets, but now there are online tools to speed the whole process up and make it work for employer and employee. Here are some of them.

The problem with Performance Reviews, is that they take time. They are an investment. But the cost in time and money has deterred some businesses for fully embracing them as a component of their staff development. In this age though, there is no excuse, as there are some great tools out there to optimize the process and reduce the investment burden.

If you feel that your performance management and staff development processes are cumbersome or ineffective, then some of these really could be for you:

1. Halogen eAppraisal: used by over 1,500 organizations to drive their appraisal processes. Web-based, and it’s known for it’s ease-of-use and flexibility
2. Appraisal Smart: another web-based tool that has ann additional goal-management module to create and manage cascading goals from the very top of an organization downwards
3. SuccessFactors: boasts the ability to identify our best workers and support a ‘meritocracy’ for pay-for-performance cultures
4. Sonar6: a solution that has enjoyed industry awards, with clients across the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and worldwide
5. HRN Performance Pro: with 700 clients with 120,000 end-users. Domino’s Pizza use them, so if your next slice is a culinary delight, then this solution can claim some of the credit!

There are many solutions available – most claim to offer similar features and realize great benefits. Most offer free trials, so I recommend split-testing a handful using some willing guineau-pigs!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Sometimes, we have to make a quick decision. Going with pure gut instinct is a risky strategy, so what can we do to make a decision, rapidly, that is less risky?

I’ve been in situations (many…) where a quick decision on something is needed. This happens! Some people freak about this, and it’s understandable. The consequences of our decisions can be grave, and it’s normally down to us to clean up any mess due to a mistake. There are five strategies I use to help me make a less-risky choice:

1. Go with best practice. Sometimes, we can’t do a full-blown analysis of choices and their implications using information specific to our situation, so going with best practice can be a safer way of making a decision. Why? Well best practice means it’s the way that many other organizations have operated before, and often there is a lot of information and resources available about taking that route. Finding ‘best practice’ can be as simple as googling your business problem and tagging ‘best practice’ into the search phrase. In more complex environments, external consultants will be better informed as to what ‘best practice’ means in your situation.
2. Go for a vote. I should start by saying that collecting votes is infrequently the best way to make a sound decision. But when time is burning, a group decision can be the way to go. Voting is more suited to decisions where voters are similarly skilled/informed. (We probably wouldn’t get the janitor to vote on a new accounting package.) The good thing about voting is that we spread the responsibility for a decision and we get a wider perspective. However, we’re still accountable for the decision, so the buck still stops with us.
3. Simplify the Critical Success Factors. Occasionally, we get bogged down with too many decision criteria. These make selection tough! If you need to make a quick decision, then reduce the criteria down to only the very critical ones, and lose the rest. Keep reducing the criteria until one option jumps out.
4. Split-test. Split-testing is simply choosing all options, and measuring the effectiveness of each. If the cost (in terms of money, time and other resources) is low, then split-testing is very effective, because we get to see each option work in reality. Say we want to choose a word-processing package. Why not try all of them and see what works best? Most products come with free trials.
5. Do nothing. Doing nothing IS a decision. It is a decision to do nothing. Sometimes, this is a good decision. Maintaining the status-quo means we’re sticking to what we know and the risk is a known quantity. It’s important to be conscious about a ‘do nothing’ decision – do nothing still has consequences. We should ask: why were we required to make the decision in the first place? What was the ‘business case’ (reason) for making it? If we do nothing, then the expected benefits of the decision won’t be realised.

I found this neat book titled 151 Quick Ideas for Delegating and Decision Making which has many great tips on making decisions quickly. If you’re in a high-pressure environment (who isn’t nowadays?) then this book is for you!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

More pay, anyone? Who will say NO to that? There is a way to get more pay. Find out how, right here…
Whatever we do for work, we’re probably not being paid as much as you’d like, right? Well the thing is, there is a way to get paid more. But it isn’t a scheme, or a trick, so don’t read on thinking I’m going to tell you where there is a magic-wand up for grabs.

So what do we have to do to get a fatter wallet?

Especially in this economic climate, we all have to prove our worth. Employers expect a pound of flesh for every dollar paid, and there’s no getting away from it. So the essential thing is to work hard, and work smart. I’d be surprised if I was the first to tell you that. I won’t be the last. But I may have an important reminder for you…

Every minute of every day has to create value for your employer.

We are all in a value-chain (see my e-book The 10 Habits of Highly Effective Professionals) and creating value results in profit, happy customers, and ecstatic stakeholders.

When we’re not creating value, we’re creating nothing but CO2. Working hard is about doing the highest-value activities for your employer. Not chit-chatting. Not checking the results of last-nights America’s Got Talent.

And guess what? When we create value for our employer, we create value for yourselves (pay and promotion, that is).

OK (I hear ya) – it’s easy for me to say it. If it was that easy, we’d all be doing it, right? Well, it might not be that easy, but I know it’s that simple.

We all have a choice when we’re sat in our cube whether to do activity A, or activity B. Sometimes, we choose to do activity B (that’s the value-less activity) if it’s easier, takes less time, or it’s less painful. This is called procrastination. We even justify it to ourselves that ‘oh yeah I really must do activity B so I can give my full attention to activity A’… but we find so many ‘activity Bs’ to do, and then it’s time to go home. Without any activity A done.

My point is, working hard and working smart is about putting in the graft on the things that matter. Real hard graft gets noticed. Real value speaks for itself. Employers, in turn, sit up and notice. This is when we hit pay-dirt.

What about the Work-Life Balance I go on about?

Sure – I talk about not working yourself to the bone. And I am not suggesting that we do. But putting the hours in on high-value work is a choice, and it’s yours to make. A few extra hours can make all the difference.

“The top 10 percent of money-earners in America work 50 hours or more per week. The highest-paid 1 percent of Americans work an average of 56 hours per week. And more importantly, they work all the time they work. They do not waste time. They arrive at work early and they immediately start on their most important tasks. They work steadily throughout the day. They are friendly, but they do not spend the day making small talk or engaging in idle chitchat with their co-workers.” – Brian Tracy.

Do This Today

Look at what’s on your to-do list, rank in importance (value) and get the big-ticket items done. No chat. No coffee. Just do it (JFDI). And before you go home, write tomorrow’s list in the same fashion.

And there are more tips like this in this book: Get Paid More and Promoted Faster: 21 Great Ways to Get Ahead in Your Career, by Brian Tracy (quoted above). He knows his stuff. He is is one of America’s leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Have you just taken on your first managerial role? (Congratulations!) You won’t want to miss these 10 valuable tips!

I remember my first position as a manager. It was a nerve-racking time as I don’t think anybody (no matter what they say!) is really ready for it. We can go on managerial training courses, and read books, but nothing really prepares you for it except plain old experience. So let me share my experiences with you so you can avoid the common pitfalls of becoming a manager for the first time.

1. First of all, keep a level head and don’t think that you’re the CEO. Managers who face employees with a head full of themselves quickly lose the respect and compliance of their team. Don’t let the new badge shine in your peoples face too brightly!
2. Just as important, though, is to be a manager. In your new role, you and your team have responsibilities, and you must deliver on them. So your new authority must come to bear when it is needed. Many new managers take a while to become comfortable with their new power, especially if promoted from with their ranks. It’s important to be supportive, directive and manage for performance. Use your power, appropriately (see my article The Five Sources of a Leader’s Power, and how (and how not) to use them)
3. Network with other managers to learn how things are done. Don’t be afraid of asking your managerial colleagues for their view on how management works best in your organization. There are often unwritten rules or best practice that you need to find out. You’ll also need a support network for the times when your new job takes its toll on your stress levels, or if you need advice (or a shoulder to cry on…) Don’t be an island! Schedule some coffee-meets as soon as you can.
4. And to further the above point, learn about your organizational culture. You might be new to your organization, and often culture can appear differently from the other side of the desk. Understand what values drive decisions within your organization. If you didn’t know this before, then you need to know now, because going against the culture and values of your organization can be disasterous for your career there!
5. Remember, everybody is a resource. This is one the habits in my eBook ‘The 10 Habits of Highly Effective Professionals‘ (free when you sign up to my newsletter). Every single person in your team is good at something, and it’s your job to put them to work doing it. So the sooner you do the point below, the better.
6. Get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team members. Managing for performance is your way to success! You don’t need to patch up everyone’s weaknesses (in fact, don’t focus on weakness.) Focus, and apply, your people’s strengths.
7. Performance Management is a continual process – not done only at appraisal time. Performance reviews must be done throughout the year and use appraisals only to formalise things. I always hold weekly one-on-one meetings with my team members where we discuss performance and how we can address issues. It’s so much easier, for both manager and employee, if performance issues are dealt with in small chunks.
8. Discuss your new role with your team early and invite questions. Discuss any changes you would like to make and explain how you are applying your own style. Upfront discussion about how things are going to work, from now, displays confidence. But let your resolve be fuzzy around the edges to allow influence from your team if your confronted with reasonable logic!
9. Strike your ‘contract’ with your boss. What I mean is, ask you new boss how they want to receive information, and give direction. Open a door upwards, as well as downwards. The ‘key performance indicators’ of your team (i.e. what measurable things are most important) should have been made clear when you took on the job, but they’re not always. It’s best to seek clarity on these things now, before you find out at your first moment of failure!
10. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from your team. You’re not perfect (who is?) and the best people to give you feedback are the people you work with the most. Foster open communications, and always make sure that it’s done respectfully.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Are you a new Project Manager? Then you won’t want to miss these tips to get begin a string of successful projects!

Here are 25 essential tips for you new Project Managers!

1. Where your budget allows, recruit the best, most experienced people onto your projects
2. Play the role as ‘Project Leader’ too – inspire, encourage and create the best environment for success
3. Take the heat for your project team, if you must
4. If required, role up your sleeves and do the work that frees up your people to focus on what they’re good at – even if it’s getting the coffee
5. Be a good listener to your team, and ask questions about their well-being, stress-levels and satisfaction
6. Inject humour as well as discipline. Allow time for a little fun
7. Sell the benefits of your project to all stakeholders constantly – you need to keep them focused on the result!
8. Your project sponsors must always be involved in making big decisions
9. Ask sponsors to assign or approve all experts onto the team, especially external people
10. Ensure that your sponsors approve of (and physically sign-off) deliverables at each stage of the project
11. Always ensure you have enough time to do the job, even if it requires a tactful challenge of stakeholders
12. And allow time for rest. Don’t pile on the work!
13. Don’t move onto ‘building’ the end result until you have a satisfactory set of requirements (what is being built) and a working design
14. If you have to break rules, then break them. But get approval from sponsors first
15. Communicate bad news as well as good
16. Be brave. Be courageous.
17. Stand up and do the right thing. Always
18. Learn, consume and sleep your project life-cycle. Know each stage and phase off by heart!
19. Plan, re-check, plan again. But don’t go overboard. A slightly flawed plan is better than no plan
20. Hold regular reviews with sponsors, especially at the end of stages
21. Hold short and regular team meetings
22. When you’re in the run up to final delivery, hold (extremely) short ‘sun-up’ and ‘sun-down’ meetings (meetings at either end of the working day)
23. Always, always, use your experience as a source of learning
24. Don’t ever turn away an offer of help
25. When you wake up each morning, read the business case/objective of your project. Never let this escape the front of your mind!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Many workers aspire to be entrepreneurs. Do you have what it takes?

Here are 11 Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs to use to measure if you’re ready to hit the cut and thrust world of the entrepreneur…

1. You enjoy the thrill of risk. A key defining trait of an entrepreneur is the propensity to take risk. It’s what makes an entrepreneur face the uncertainty of business. As an entrepreneur, you lap up the challenge of turning an idea into a working, profitable, sustainable business. It’s scary, but that’s what makes it fun. When you have food to put on the family table, the risk is even higher, but you know that it will be worth it. As an entrepreneur, you get yourself onto the stage without knowing all your lines. You’re taking a calculated risk that your skills and experience will get you through, and the buzz you get from the adrenalin-bomb each time you put yourself on the line is what you live for.

2. You are supremely confident. You’re so confident that unless you’re involved, it won’t happen. It’s that simple! Setbacks are just setbacks – not a reason to doubt yourself.

3. You are a goal-setter. You’ve got to have a clear direction – this is very important to you and your focus. You set yourself goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound (that’s S.M.A.R.T.) You set yourself a lot of goals and often across a number of projects. You can see how goals are linked, and where they have dependencies. You set priorities and you work a plan so that you deliver your goals optimally to provide you with the most residual value.

4. You have inexhaustible determination. If you say you’re going to make it happen, you will make it happen. You’ll try every trick in the book to deliver on your promises (most of which are promises to yourself) and you’ll work tirelessly.

5. You have unquenchable desire. Your determination is fed by the desire to realize the goals you have set. You can see yourself enjoying the fruits of success, and you salivate at fulfilling the opportunity.

6. You maintain a strong vision. All this effort is for a reason, and you know exactly what it is. You see the overall picture of success (and, indeed, this rolls along). You can see that every goal, every activity, every call you make is to take you towards this vision – it’s your visionary path.

7. You are carefully selective. You choose to perform the activities that will take you furthest along your visionary path. Some opportunities, projects or connections – you just know – won’t take you far along, so you choose not to take them on. Even if it means losing out on earning a buck or two. The ‘pain’ of turning away projects can seem acute at first, but over time you’ll see the benefit of using your time and resources effectively.

8. You are organized. In order to control all the moving parts of your entrepreneurial world, you have to be organized. Down to the basics of keeping your book of contacts properly uptodate, as well as keeping your diary in perfect working order. You plan your day to make sure that the priorities are taken care of. Even if organization isn’t something you enjoy, you recognize the value of it.

9. You are disciplined. Procrastination isn’t in your vocabulary – you know what needs to be done and you hold yourself to account. Discipline means you focus on the most important activities and don’t let your mind wander towards trivial matters.

10. You don’t work office hours. Entrepreneurs don’t turn off the entrepreneurial process. You’re constantly creating and assessing new opportunities, new contacts and new information. Every social engagement is another opportunity to develop or elaborate.

11. You keep their ego in check. You’re successful. And hopefully rich. Your name carries weight, and people flock around you. Plenty of sycophants around to fluff up your cushions. But you don’t let this get to your head. You don’t swan around like you own the place, even if you do.

Are You Thinking About Leaving Employment (and Going it Alone?)

So How Do You Compare?

Share how you compare against these 11 traits – leave your opinion below.

An Entrepreneur’s Toolkit

If you’re serious about losing the shackles of employment and enjoying the serious wealth and adventure of entrepreneurialism, then this is something for you:  Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Tools and Techniques to Launch and Grow Your New Business (Harvard Business Essentials). It’s all you need to get moving as an entrepreneur. The authors demonstrate their experience and expertise of  the process of building a business. Most importantly, they know how to get investors interested in a new venture.

Buy it now: Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Tools and Techniques to Launch and Grow Your New Business (Harvard Business Essentials)

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you’re a manager responsible for the management, development and appraisal of a team, then you will know what a serious responsibility it is, and, how much time the process takes up. As a manager, my own organizational skills were put to the test and keeping track of notes, appraisals and events wasn’t easy… but I’ve found something that should help us to make the process far more efficient.

I recently landed a freelance job to help a small but growing events management organization to restructure operations and to put in a performance management process. The budget was tight! I knew that managers were very hands-on, and managed their teams from within the trench; managers didn’t want to spend too much time on performance management! So it was clear that some form of automation and guided system was needed in order to build and maintain efficiencies, whilst keeping quality high. The other important factor is that my client is skeptical of marauding consultants on their site (I barely got in myself!)

I broke out my rolodex and called in my contacts who were in the performance management biz, but each solution was either too expensive or too time consuming for my client. So I drummed my fingers…

Then a buddy of mind pointed me to an inexpensive software solution – Performance Now Enterprise. I want to tell you about it because my client was sold on it straight away.

Performance Now Enterprise is a software tool for logging events, tracking goals, providing effective feedback, and writing employee reviews. It automates a bunch of tasks, information gathering, and reporting, and best of all, it produces the final performance appraisal report for you (saving you bags of time!)

It’s features are based around four key efficiency zones:

1. The Performance Appraiser is an intuitive and easy-to-use tool that allows you to master each step of the evaluation process, access job descriptions, and transform observations into valuable feedback
2. Use the Form Designer and enjoy the power to create a performance review system that is relevant to your unique organization
3. A Performance Manager lets you and your managers track and build performance on a daily basis
4. Finally, the Application Administrator gives you centralized security, control, and maintenance of access levels for your managers and employees

My client found that the software makes writing and keeping up with reviews for a large team much easier to manage than one based on paper/documents. It has an easy-to-use user interface. Custom review forms are easy to create, if you already have a company standard (so you don’t annoy the HR department, if you have one).

Performance Now Enterprise is for managers of practically any size of organization, although it probably sells best into small to medium organizations. You don’t need to be a technical genius, either. But like any new piece of software, the first few performance appraisals might take longer whilst you learn the ropes. However, efficiency savings should be apparent within a few goes, and overall I expect it to make serious time and effort savings, allowing you to get on with the important stuff – managing your team.

The great thing about Performance Now Enterprise, is that you can pick it up for less than 200 bucks! Even the smallest of organizations can afford this, and the payback will be soon to realize too.

Buy Performance Now Enterprise.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

So we have a lot to do. And so we do it in our OWN TIME, for the sake of a critical project, a happy boss, or to avoid being top of the list when the next round of cuts emerges. But ask yourself this; is it sustainable? Is it fair? Is it RIGHT? Maybe it’s time to restore our work-life balance?

We all have the choice to work more hours than we’re paid. We can exercise that right, and expect a return on our time ‘invested’. Sometimes, though, we become a slave to work  – with no measurable benefit. This is time WE lose, and our EMPLOYERS gain. And it’s time that we don’t get back. It’s hardly a fair transaction!

And you know what? Most ‘free’ time given to our employers is willfully done. Yes – WE make the decision to give it, rather than our employers decide to take it. We feel the pressure, we take the action to work late. There is rarely, if ever, the direct request from our employer to carry on grafting. So what do we do, if WE’RE the ones who decide to tip the work-life balance against us?

We have to DECIDE to restore it. Everything depends on us actually making the decision to make the change…

I found a great quote from Ricardo Semler, who puts the problem many of us face into perspective.

“Every one of us can send emails on Sunday night, but how many of us know how to go to the movies on Monday afternoon? If you don’t know how to go to the movies from 2 to 4, you’re in trouble because you’ve just taken on something that unbalances life, but you haven’t rebalanced it with something else.” – Ricardo Semler.

Great point, huh?

So to rein our lost time back in and restore our work-life balance, we gotta take action. It starts with the most important of all…

1. ACTUALLY decide to restore your work-life balance. No maybes. No ‘trys’. Decide to make it happen. Hold yourself accountable, from this point, that your life will be more in your own favor by a certain date. Don’t underestimate the power of your DECISION. Your decision isn’t an idea, or a whim, it is something you will DO. Once that is tangible, then it becomes real for you.
2. Be clear on your boundaries.  Form a clear picture of what you will accept, and won’t accept when it comes to working above and beyond your paid duty. Make this as measurable and simple as possible. You’re not saying that extra work is impossible in the future, but that it will be considered when it meets certain conditions. E.g. Tuesday only.
3. Stick to your boundaries, but change if need be. It’s no good having boundaries if you drop them in an instant. Stick to them. Test them out. Learn from situations where you have turned away extra work, or not. Give yourself an opportunity to understand how you have coped with your decision. BUT don’t be closed-minded. You may choose to make exceptions, but it’s YOUR CHOICE.
   
4. Communicate your boundaries. Especially to your boss and colleagues. When they know where you (and they) stand the whole business will be easier. Be as clear as you can in your conversation – don’t water it down with ifs, buts and maybes. There are two reasons why this is particularly effective:
   1) other people will be much clearer about their own expectations of your working extra. Requests become objective, and straightforward, rather than by insinuation and hints;
   2) your own ‘guilt complex’ about not working is reduced (if not eradicated) – and it is this that will give you the freedom and fortitude to turn away extra work without emotional pressure.
   
5. When you’re not working, then don’t work. This includes switching off your cellphone or Blackberry. If something about work is on your mind, then write it down, and forget it. It’s real important to not leave work issues swimming about your head, as work is then still stealing your own time. This discipline may take time to embed, but persevere and you’ll overcome it. This was a very tough thing for me to do, but I eventually learned how to cope with being detached from my blackberry and emails.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Do you want to be a great leader of team meetings? There is nothing like that warm, fuzzy feeling when a team meeting goes well and your colleagues walk out with a spring in their steps. Here are 10 tips to do just that!

1. To make meetings successful in everyone’s eyes, then everyone must engage in it. It’s all about give and take! My tip is to ensure that every attendee has something to contribute (give) and something useful to take away (take). So make sure that you have an agenda that covers everyone’s interests.
2. Ask for their opinion!For it to be a real, all-inclusive team meeting, then you must open up the discussion to everyone, and the best way to do this is to ask for opinion on matters arising. And here’s an important tip; never close anyone down in forming an opinion that you (or others in the group) disagree with. Everybody has a right to an opinion. Remember, you have two ears, and only one mouth!
3. Never leave an issue without an action!A team meeting mustn’t be a talking-shop. If there is an issue that concerns the team, then always ensure that the meeting closes only after the issues have been allocated an owner (someone who will take it away to progress) and a date by which the owner must report back to the team (and also how they will report back.)
4. Actively listen. Show that you’re listening to your team by eye contact, the occasional nod, and a confirmation that you have listened by repeating what you have understood. Use this an an opportunity to ensure there is clarity about what’s said.
5. Keep it light. A serious meeting can be dull for those involved. Nobody likes a meeting that isn’t fun. Interject a little humor appropriately to lighten the mood if required (sensitively, of course)
6. Be open to challenge. If you’re just in ‘broadcast-mode’ then you’ll see expressions of glazed-over eyes. People stop listening if they can’t engage. If you want to effectively share information or influence, then you must allow your message to be discussed, challenged and disagreed with inside the room. If you don’t, I can promise you it will be challenged, passively, outside of the room, and outside of your control!
7. Don’t use positional power. If you have to say something like ‘well I am the boss, so that’s what we’re going to do…’ then you’re on a slippery slope. Use of positional power, like this, is a raising of the shutters. Your people will disengage and you’re then on your own. It’s much better to persuade to get buy-in. And if you can’t persuade, then is there something you’re not listening to?
8. Allow your weaknesses to be exposed. It’s so tempting to think that, just because you’re the guy running the meeting, that you’re always right (or have the power to close down opportunities that expose you being wrong!) Don’t let ego rule. I remember when I first started out as a team leader, I made this mistake. I didn’t want my team to see my weaknesses. I look back now and see how foolish that was, as I was trying to become a role model for perfection, rather than a leader who engages in reality. It’s real important that a meeting is an open forum for discussion, and if it means you’re shown as wrong, then let it happen.
9. Publish an agenda.Even if it is just a list of discussion points to cover. It helps with your discipline and time management to have an agenda so you can stick to time, and don’t allow one point to hijack the meeting.
10. Publish minutes.Minutes are a record of the meeting. It gives everyone a basis to remember what was discussed, what actions were agreed (and who will do them and by when) and a record to go over in your next meeting. You don’t need to go overboard (truth is, not everyone will read them) – keep the minutes concise and accurate.

If you have any more tips you want to share, then why not leave an opinion below? Thanks!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

We all want job security, right? Even if we don’t want believe that we will necessarily stay in the job ourselves. Ask yourself, what does job security look like/feel like? Does it really exist? Here are my thoughts…

Here’s a definition of Job Security that I think sums it up:

Job security is an employee’s assurance or confidence that they will keep their current job. Employees with a high level of job security has a low probability of losing their job in the near future. Certain professions or employment opportunities inherently have better job security than others; job security is also affected by a worker’s performance, success of the business and the current economic environment.

So job security is about an individuals perception of themself, the situation and the potential. It isn’t always tangible, unless the terms of employment that provide the security are all-encompassing (never happens!).  This makes it hard to define in exact words… but we know Job Security when we see it (or feel it.)

For most of us, Job Security is something amorphous – it is constantly changing, and it is also like Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle (for you scientists) that when you measure it (analyse your own Job Security) you also change it. Can we really understand it, then?

There are some external factors that have an influence on our Job Security. A good indicator of Job Security held by the majority of the national workforce is how the business environment fairs – it is often reflected by the country’s unemployment rate and whether the country is in an economic expansion or recession. Our individual Job Security is influenced more by personal factors, e.g. our education, our experiences, the skills we have developed, our performance and our capabilities.

When we perceive that our organization is in need of our specific skills and experience, the greater we tend to feel Job Security. Conversely, the less specialized these skills become (and the greater the number of available workers that can provide them), the lesser the Job Security is felt.

Why Does Job Security Matter?

When we have a high level of Job Security, we will often perform and concentrate our effort into work more effectively than an employee who is in constant fear of losing their job (although fear can actually increase motivation in certain situations, but only for a short period.)

Job Security has a significant effect on the overall performance of teams, too. Because, in most organizations, the breakdown of tasks into jobs means that teamwork is essential to deliver a service or a product, the result is as strong as only the ‘weakest link’, which could be a worker who is feeling very nervous about their future. Not just that, an organization with workers with low Job Security cause others to doubt their own future. Water-cooler chats are a hotbed of gossip and rumor-mongering.

I think high Job Security is vital for the whole workforce, as well as ourselves.

But does it really exist?

In a turbulent global economy, in a world where natural resources are under strain and economies are up and down like a yo-yo, I don’t believe we can say that it does exist for a whole national workforce. For example, in the UK economy, austerity cuts are threatening public sector jobs for the first time in decades, yet private sector jobs will benefit (eventually) as the delivery of public services becomes increasingly outsourced. And look what is happening in North Africa too – regional political forces are destabilizing their economies which have relied on tourism (I wouldn’t pack my suitcase to go visit the Great Pyramids, right now, would you?) Just imagine how assured a waiter in a Cairo street cafe feels about his Job Security now!

The future has become more unpredictable for us all. But there is one thing we can do to improve our own perception of Job Security, and that is to focus on our individual performance (check out my post 99 Ways To Become a High Performer.) Our individual performance is something that we own, and we control. We can increase our Job Security by concentrating on our personal development, relationships and productivity. When we know we are performing to our potential, we also know that we can control our destiny, and be assured of our success.  I have never met a person who does not enjoy high Job Security who is also a High Performer. OK, even the best get laid off, but the best also know that they can walk into another job the next day.

So, I say, Job Security does exist if you are prepared to give it your all and create it for yourself. Because, nowadays, you can’t rely on anyone else to hand it to you! And help your colleagues too, to increase their perception of Job Security, as it’s important for whole teams and whole organizations to share in it.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

How often do you feel like you’re stuck in your job and can’t find a way to fix it or move on? If you’re like me, then you will have thought this often throughout your career. However, I think that this has all been in my mind. Here’s why.

This post is a follow-on from my article We Are Not Constrained, where I discussed the reasons why I think that most of the constraints we believe we suffer from aren’t real constraints – just problems to overcome. In this post, I take this a bit further to suggest that we are not stuck in a rut; instead we just haven’t found this solution to our career crisis, yet. I’ll start with a story.

A friend, Mike, graduated from college four years ago and began work in what he thought was his dream job – a graphics designer. Mike was hot property as his portfolio included some innovative work. So lucky Mike was recruited straight from college without suffering the long periods of anxiety and doubt that many graduates face today. And ‘ker-ching’ – he received his first pay check and began living the dream. He bought his own modest apartment, put a deposit down on a brand new Ford, and made a reservation in a hotel in the Caribbean. Into the trash went the hoodies, and on came the Hugo Boss. Things could not get better. Right?

Guess what…? A year into his dream job, his employer was absorbed into the parent organization and many of Mike’s close colleagues and his boss were transferred around the organization. Mike had a great relationship with his boss, who gave him a lot of support and she took a real interest in his career and development. Mike’s workplace moved to a larger, out-of-town unit surrounded by concrete manufacturers and unsanitary burger-joints. Things just weren’t the same, and Mike resented this. He stayed in this job, but new boss treated him like crap and he hated the environment. The love of the work and the workplace dropped through the floor.

Mike begun to look for alternative employment, but what he found was that other companies couldn’t pay the same, or were not comfortably commutable (Mike loves his apartment), or that they didn’t offer the same interesting work, or that they didn’t appreciate his potential, or the receptionist didn’t have nice teeth…. yada yada. Mike couldn’t find a job that was significantly, or even insignificantly better than his current job, so he concluded he was stuck in a rut. Truth is, he was still too comfortable to move on, but wasn’t 100% happy where he was. We might say that this is ‘being stuck between a rock and a hard place’.

Many people get ‘stuck’ in jobs, because they don’t like them (or even hate them), but there isn’t an alternative that ticks all the boxes to provide enough motivation to move on. As in Mike’s case, quitting a job isn’t always the best option. Whatever our reasons for staying in a job we dislike, there are ways to make the best of a less than ideal situation. Here’s how.

Identify the Problems

Until we can clearly identify what the problems are, we can’t really solve them. Now Mike resented the changes, and couldn’t see any good in the new situation. He was emotional – hurt and angry that his dream job had been snatched from him. He couldn’t work out exactly what the problems were, but did miss what he had lost. When Mike first told me about his situation (about 18 months ago), the first thing I suggested was that he lists the problems out on paper. To his surprise, he found this to be much more difficult than he expected, and often resorted to what was taken away rather than what the problems were with what remained. We persisted, and eventually Mike drew out a list of 8 things that really bugged him. And you know what? They weren’t really grave problems (or viewed as constraints) – they were significant problems that he didn’t know how to solve. They were:

1. His boss didn’t provide him with support (mentorship)
2. He didn’t feel a member of a team; instead he felt he worked alone
3. He didn’t like the aesthetics of the workplace and local area
4. His boss didn’t show appreciation for what he considered excellent work
5. He didn’t like the high partitions between surrounding pods
6. His workplace was noisy (due to the concrete factory next door)
7. He didn’t enjoy opportunities to move around the organization
8. Long work hours meant he couldn’t be at home in his apartment or out partying with his buddies as often as he wished

When you look at this list, can you see possible solutions? This is what Mike and I looked at next. 


Identify Possible Solutions

Mike was jaded by his experience. Solution finding was not something he felt motivated to do, because he had been so damaged by the changes (his dreams has dissolved, after all). After much soul-searching, Mike admitted he was using this as an excuse. Way-to-go Mike! He had overcome a major hurdle.

So I suggested to Mike that he lists a possible solution against each problem, and this is what he came up with:

1. His boss didn’t provide him with support (mentorship) – Solution: talk to his boss in a one-to-one situation and ask for more support, and say how he would like it to happen?
2. He didn’t feel a member of a team; instead he felt he worked alone – Solution: get involved more with colleagues and ask for help, and also offer help too?
3. He didn’t like the aesthetics of the workplace and local area – Solution: only one way, get over it?
4. His boss didn’t show appreciation for what he considered excellent work – Solution: ask for more feedback from his boss. Maybe his boss doesn’t think the work is excellent, so finding out will be constructive?
5. He didn’t like the high partitions between surrounding pods – Solution: ask colleagues if they feel the same way, and propose to boss that they are lowered, or removed entirely?
6. His workplace was noisy (due to the concrete factory next door) – Solution: ask boss if Mike can use his iPod when it gets real noisy, or ask for a subsidy on noise-reduction earphones?
7. He didn’t enjoy opportunities to move around the organization – Solution: talk to boss about future prospects and state that this is important?
8. Long work hours meant he couldn’t be at home in his apartment or out partying with his buddies as often as he wished – Solution: ask boss if some work can be completed at home, or better still ask boss for occasional early leave from the office?

See how Mike began to think of positive outcomes for his problems? He discovered (all by himself) that there are a number of things he can ask for, or put into place himself, to make the situation better. At this stage, Mike felt a huge burden lift off his shoulders, even without solving the problems.

So What Happens Next?

Well what Mike observed next was the snowball effect. He went to his boss and had a good long chat about his problems. To his surprise, the result of this was an immediate set of actions that begun a real roll of improvement for Mike. He started by asking for more support, and it started a wave of change because a dialog had begun and rapport had taken hold. His boss wasn’t an ogre, but rather, was struggling with the change himself and at first impressions, saw Mike as hostile (which to be fair, he was.)  So the partitions were lowered. Mike began to help his colleagues, and he felt more within a team, and he discovered that his work was well respected throughout the organization. His boss agreed to weekly one-to-one meetings. And here’s the interesting thing – once Mike had seen signs of resolution on a number of fronts, some of the other problems seemed to be far less important. The noise next door stopped bugging him (without any sonic intervention!) and he began to see more interesting and beautiful things closeby to his work environment, such as a public park where he now eats his lunch with a couple of buddies.

What Mike had learned is that taking responsibility for resolving his own problems had a great result. And, ultimately, he discovered he wasn’t stuck in a rut!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

With the economy struggling, many job-hunters are looking for a new career that can last. They need to find out what are the best jobs for the future. Here are the careers that are forecast for strong growth over the next decade, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics projections through 2016.

Robin Ryan, career coach and author of 60 Seconds and You’re Hired says, “I look at where you can make good money, where employers are looking for people and saying they can’t find them.”

She notes that the federal growth forecasts are a couple of years old, and some fields are undergoing rapid change. Be on the lookout for emerging opportunities, especially those that involve Internet skills. With the cost of education soaring, we asked our experts to focus primarily on careers you can get started in without a four-year degree. Based upon salary and career growth, here’s our list of best jobs for the future.

1. Physician assistant – The economy may be down, but people still get sick and need to go to the doctor. As the population continues to age, healthcare fields will continue to see strong growth, says Ryan. Health care is one of the top growing job fields. The majority of physician assistants complete a two-year master’s degree course and need to pass a certification exam. Then, they assist doctors in hospitals and clinics or in rural areas they may provide care if a doctor isn’t always available. 27% projected growth. Median annual salary: $88,575

2. Database administrator – One thing’s for sure in this uncertain economy – companies continue to pile up data and need experts to make sure it’s properly organized and securely stored. Computer security is another one of the top growing job fields. Some database administrators get started with just a two-year degree – and if you enjoy computer programming, this is one of the best-paid areas in computer tech. 28.6% projected growth. Median annual salary: $73,388

3. Video game designer – The gaming field is exploding, notes Ryan. There are hugely successful, massive, multiplayer online role-playing games, casual games to play on computers, PDAs and cell phones, as well as games for Xbox, Nintendo and other proprietary game systems. If you’re a game nut, consider learning how to create games to cash in on this trend as the gaming industry tend to offer jobs that are fun and pay good money.

“These skills are often self-taught,” she notes. “And programming jobs pay extremely well, for anything where you know how to write code.” 35% projected growth. Median annual salary: $66,664

4. Medical equipment repair – As medical equipment uses more complex technology, there are more parts that can malfunction – and more need for repair technicians. You may need a two-year degree, but the BLS reports most training is on the job. 9.4% projected growth. Median annual salary: $62,115

5. Media planner/buyer – Though the official BLS data doesn’t show explosive growth here, the Internet is causing rapid change in this industry that probably isn’t figured into federal forecasts yet, says job-trends expert Debra Yergen, author of Creating Job Security: The 2009 All-In-One Workbook. While the traditional advertising industry may be shrinking right now, online skills are in demand, she says. Many online-media pros are learning on the job.

“This is an emerging area where talent is going to be rewarded,” Yergen says. 11.7% projected growth. Median annual salary: $47,149

6. X-ray/Imaging technician – The medical field is increasingly relying on X-rays, MRIs and other imaging technology to diagnose and treat patients, notes Yergen. As new types of scans are invented, and become covered by insurance, the demand for trained imaging technicians will continue to grow. The BLS says technicians can get started with a one-year certificate or two-year associate degree. 15% projected growth. Median annual salary: $42,749

7. Plumber – Robin Ryan calls plumbing, “A classic job most people don’t want to do.” Which is why it pays well. And bad economy or good, pipes burst and need replacing. If you enjoy working with your hands, look for an apprenticeship program where you can get paid while you learn on the job.  10.6% projected growth. Median annual salary: $42,001

8. Graphic/Web designer – Like Internet advertising, anyone who can make companies’ Web sites look better will be in demand, Yergen says.  “This field will blossom as people find creative ways to help clients.” About one-quarter of graphic designers are self-employed, the BLS reports, and may get started with a two-year degree or be self-taught. And at 44.6% projected growth, design careers offer some of the best jobs for the future. Median annual salary: $41,215

Source: All salary data is from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you’re like me, then you’ll be looking forward to a relaxing holiday season. Not longer after we return to work, we’ll be facing our annual performance appraisal! So not to be caught in the headlights, now is a great time to easily prepare for our appraisal.

The annual appraisal process is, in fact, something that benefits ourselves. It sets an agenda for the coming year for our personal development and our growth. BUT it’s bad timing though (ain’t it?) – right after a time when we think nothing more than enjoying parties and having a good time with our folks.

Well, not to put a too finer point on it, if we begin to prepare now then the appraisal process will feel so much easier (and welcome!) when we get back into the office after the holidays.

And here are some great books that will help you along, and they won’t break the bank too!

1. If you are the reviewer or reviewee during a performance appraisal, then here is a very good book that shares phrases to use. It isn’t just a ‘say this, and then this…’ kind of book, it shows you what phrase-constructs to use in the right context to help make a performance appraisal as effective as it could be: 2600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews: Ready-to-Use Words and Phrases That Really Get Results.
2. Performance Appraisal: Pocket Mentor (Harvard Pocket Mentor) is a great little book from Harvard Business School Press, giving you ‘immediate solutions’ to the process. It’s short, sharp and to the point in only 73 pages. What I like about this is the focus on us as the appraisee and it explains how to use the appraisal process to our advantage. Best of all, it helps the reader understand how to avoid the pitfalls in the process in order to eliminate complaints and a perceived lack of fairness.
3. RECOMMENDED: If you’re a fan of the For Dummies series then you’ll love this one. Performance Appraisals and Phrases For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback)) typifies the series in a jargon-free, easy to understand run through performance appraisals and how they help us achieve personal goals. It helps our appraisals go faster, more effectively, and (if you engage in the process) you’ll get better results. It includes tips for gathering information and data to support your appraisal and also includes 3,200 phrases to help you articulate yourself well in your performance appraisal itself.

All three books are suited to people of all industries, roles and seniority. Some preparation now will lead to a less worrying time after the holidays!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Stress: who needs it, huh? It isn’t something we ask for, but it is something we all get, time to time. Here are some tried and tested tips for stress relief.

If you’re stressed right now then try some of these tips. They’re easy to do and all free, so what have you got to lose?

Tip #1: Go and get a drink

Wait! Don’t hit the scotch or dose up on caffeine just yet! These things will make you even more jumpy. I mean re-hydrate yourself, and leave your desk for a break. A cup of decaf or a glass of water will work wonders.

Our bodies need water, and when we don’t get it, we put it under stress. So have a drink! Most workplaces are as humid as a crypt (i.e. not very humid!) so your body is already under attack from a dry atmosphere. Reduced water levels encourages headaches to form too, so you may find that a drink and a break lowers your stress almost instantly. Go do it!

Tip #2: Go for a walk

A bit of exercise can work wonders too. Get that blood pumping! You don’t need to go far, a quick walk outside in some fresh air will oxygenate your blood and your stress will just disappear. Your walk will add new distractions and give you something else to think about. Hey, it might even inspire you to solve the problems that are causing your stress. Above all, it will give you a sense of perspective. Just what you need!

Tip #3: Have a laugh!

Laughter produces strange reactions in our brain that causes us to feel better, and lighten up. It lowers levels of the stress hormones (called cortisol), adrenaline and noradrenalin (whatever that is), and it lowers blood pressure. It also causes our muscles to relax, improves respiration, and soothes our internal organs like the heart and lungs. When I get stressed, I feel all uptight and my shoulders begin to ache after a while. Laughter seems to do the same thing as a massage for me.

Tip #4: Have a nap!

This one is more appropriate for homeworkers (right?). If you can, take a nap. How many times have you slept on a problem to wake up wondering what all the fuss was about? When we sleep, we wire up our brains and it solves problems for us. Give is a try!

Tip #5: Go on, have a good cry about it…

If you can’t laugh, then cry. A good sob has a powerful impact on stress too. A study by the University of Minnesota discovered that the chemicals that build up in your body during emotional stress can, in fact, be removed in our tears! Wow! They also learned that unreleased stress can increase your risk for heart attack and cause brain-damage. So it would seem crying isn’t just a therapy, it’s a survival tactic. (Do they teach crying to Special Forces?)

Tip #6: Deep breathing

Deep breathing releases tension from the body and clears the mind, improving both physical and mental wellness. It can be self-taught too!

We tend to breathe shallowly or even hold our breath under stress, sometimes we are not even aware that we are doing it. It limits the amount of oxygen we take in which then stresses our body even further. I do this a lot, so I have had to learn deep breathing. I know when I am shallow breathing as I develop a pain in my chest.

BONUS: How you can do Deep Breathing Exercises.

You can do this at home, at work or even in the car.

Firstly, you need a good posture. Sit up straight – do not arch your back. Now, breathe out completely through your mouth. Then, put your hands on your stomach above your waist. Great start so far!

Breathe in slowly through your nose, and push your hands out with your stomach (this serves the purpose of ensuring that you are breathing deeply.) You’re half-way there!

Hold your breath by counting up to five, or whatever you can cope with (less is OK!) You will find it easier when you hold your breath by also holding out your stomach. Home-stretch now.

Slowly, steadily, breathe out through your mouth, on the count of six or seven. Your hands should move back in as you do. Hey presto! You’re deep breathing!

Repeat this over until you feel your stress levels come right down.

And don’t worry if you sound like Darth Vader!

A Bit of Extra Help

If these tips don’t work for you then you should try Stress Management for Dummies.

How About This Amazing Gadget?

emWave Personal Stress Reliever (Silver): Use the emWave Personal Stress Reliever to increase coherence and recover from stressful episodes or events, accumulate energy and stay in the flow, increase your access to creativity, balance your emotions when your nerves feel frayed, create energy when you have deadlines and feel like you can’t make it, prepare for daily events meetings, communications, tasks, appointments and commutes.

Looks like an 80s dictaphone too!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

I just discovered the ‘essence’ of leadership, viewed from a different angle. I share what I learned right here.

The term leadership is often narrowed into discussion and tales about ‘methodology’, ‘leadership approach’, ‘leader/follower/situation’ – all of which are valid and have appropriate places in management theory and practise. In fact I talk about them often on my blog and when working.

I’ve been a leader in business for a number of years now, but something happened to me last week that made me think again about what leadership is all about. It had a curious and powerful effect on me.

I read something that resulted in a mind-shift away from seeing leadership from an ‘outside-in’ view, and towards an ‘inside-out’ view. It really challenged how I view other people as real people, or just objects.  At the time, I was reading Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box from the Arbinger Institute.

It is an unusual book on leadership.

What struck me at first was that the book is written as a quasi-novel. It’s written in the first person; our ‘hero’ is a man who has just joined a successful organization as an executive, and he is preparing meeting the head-honcho. I don’t read many ‘management’ books like that (do you?)

The story unfolds to bring in the most important aspects of leadership – the interactions of people, not just on the surface, but deeper into how our ‘leadership interactions’ affect our self-esteem and self-importance. Especially when we’re feeling leadership is something being ‘done’ to us, or we’re ‘doing it’ to someone else.

Spoken in the first person, leadership principles are revealed in context and as we think, devoid of the usual text-book BS. Each page I turned, I wanted to know more. (It was like reading a Dan Brown novel!)

As a narrative, the effect of leadership interactions seem more acute, and it led me to see myself in the shoes of the people within the story, rather than viewing it from the outside. It frequently provoked me to think about my own past encounters, from the other person’s perspective. Like ‘did I really make XXXX feel that way? What a jerk I must have been!’ And when reading one part of the book, I could recall a similar moment where I had behaved inexcusably, although I didn’t see it that way at the time.

It’s fair to say that it encouraged me to reconsider some of the things I’ve ‘done’ to people before now, and I’ll be honest with you – I was embarrassed by some of it too. Wow!

The main thrust of the book is to ask one question; are we ‘in the box’ or not.  In the box refers to whether we view other people as ‘objects’. From our personal viewpoint, we look at other through biased lens. This means that we often (and mostly inadvertently) try to lift up our own self-esteem by reducing someone else’s. We treat people as things that we do things to. It’s powerful reading, let me tell you.

This book isn’t written to make us beat ourselves up. What you will get from this, I am sure of, is when you read this book you will experience powerful eureka! moments, perhaps even through a veil of tears (or curled toes). It hits hard, but its so enjoyable.

And once you have read it, like me I am sure you will be so glad you did. It did make me think twice about past times and behaviors, and in some instances it resulted in a memory becoming more painful than it was before, but sure enough this book shines the torch on leadership in a totally unique way. It offers us a different view of cause and effect. It results in deep-inward reflection on what it is like to be a leader, and what it is like to be led as a follower. If you can marry the two up without perceiving a gap (measured in units of self-esteem) then you are already a truly great leader, but if you’re like me and you can see still a way to go, then you will have learned something amazing, and cathartic.

If you’re a budding leader, or even an experienced one, you should read this book. It will make you think, and it will reward you too. Although it isn’t for the faint hearted!

Buy It Now: Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Do you have a great boss? I don’t mean one who just buys you a latte in the morning. I mean a boss who truly delivers the environment, guidance and support YOU need to excel in your job. Here’s how to find out.

As Jim Collins said in his seminal book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, ‘Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline‘, and this is never more true when applied to being a manager.

Sadly, I’ve met a number of managers in my career that think their greatness is a matter of having ‘Manager’ or ‘Head of’ in their job title. These chumps have throw their weight around without, seemingly, making good decisions or creating a work environment that lets their employees flourish. Know of any managers like this yourself?

Thankfully, I have met a few really great managers who I am proud to have called my boss. I interviewed a number of experienced professionals, and we came up with the following traits that epitomized a great boss.

1. Great bosses pay people what they’re worth – not what they think they can pay as a minimum. Keeping the wage bill down is a constant pressure for managers, but it has to be balanced by getting the job done effectively and efficiently. This means paying a fair wage for great people. Great bosses know that penny-pinching regularly results in under-performance.
2. Great bosses tell it how it is – good news or bad, a great boss is straight with employees. A good working relationship between boss and employee requires trust and communication, and this is a two-way street. Bosses expect bad news to be shared by their employees, so it should work the other way around too. It takes discipline and courage for a manager to share bad news with employees, just as it does the other way around.
3. Great bosses give credit where credit is due – sharing praise is something great bosses do, and they never take credit for the productivity of others. However, great bosses take the heat for their employees failings, often facing criticism themselves. I once had a manager who did quite the opposite of this, and it was the worst job I have ever suffered.
4. Great bosses nurture employees strengths – they don’t pick away at their weaknesses! Everybody has strengths and weaknesses (read more about this in the free eBook ‘The 10 Habits of Highly Effective Professionals‘ – get yours by subscribing to my newsletter!) Great managers know that by nurturing employees strengths is the most positive approach to performance management and professional development. And when the strengths of a whole team are invested in, the resulting productivity is always far superior than if they were to try to paper of the cracks of weakness.
5. Great bosses inspire and share their experiences – a great boss is a mentor that actively shares personal insight and experiences so that employees can learn from real cases. A carefully selected anecdote can be very inspiring. A great boss is disciplined enough to allocate time in their diaries to share their knowledge.
6. Great bosses delegate, not abdicate – some managers pass on work they don’t want to do themselves without retaining their accountability. This is abdication! Great bosses delegate responsibility for an outcome and share the accountability with the employee, taking joint-ownership of ensuring the outcome is delivered. Delegation requires consideration; it’s not simply a matter of saying what work needs to be done – delegation involves agreeing a number of measures with the employee – stating success criteria, establishing the modus operandi (how the outcome should be achieved), ensuring that the necessary resources are available to the delegate, and clarifying the procedure if exceptions occur.

How does your boss compare? And if you’re a boss, how do YOU compare?

Update:

I should also add a seventh: Great bosses say thanks. Thank You is one of the most powerful phrases a boss can say. And not enough bosses do it regularly enough. Which is odd as it costs nothing to say yet it has such a profound effect. In Dan Pink’s post, A boss who says thanks, there is a nice example where a President says Thank You to his organization.

Maybe you have a better definition of a ‘great manager’? If so, please do share it by expressing an opinion below.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

That’s a deep-thinker, ain’t it?

This is what my old friend Mark McClure is asking on his latest post Perfection In Such An Average Day, and it got me thinking too; what would I do?

It brought me back to a time, not too long ago, when I was asking myself this very question. It was when I discovered I had cancer. It hit me like a pool-ball in a sock.

Cathartic moments, like this, bring perspective to what we do everyday.

At the time, when I asked myself this, I thought of…

• My family
• My friends
• My work
• My self-worth
• My achievements
• My legacy

After a while thinking, I realised something – it was all about ME. Am I selfish? Do I lead my everyday life thinking only about my own interests?

To be honest, I had to answer YES. But then I realised something else:

The last thing I thought of was about my possessions; my house and car; my vendettas (people who had wronged me); my petty worries.

The prospect of imminent death brought what was really important into focus.

Yowza! I thought.

We all face death everyday – but we don’t think about it. At any point in time, some accident or illness could take us away, so why don’t we lead our lives with this perspective?

Live And Work Each Day Like It’s Our Last?

Will I? Will you? It’s worth thinking about. We can all decide to focus on what’s really important and live our lives in achieving our most important goals.

When we turn up to work each day, we can look at our work, our managers, colleagues and friends and make a conscious decision to dispense with the petty arguments, and petty tasks, and to do what is most important to us.

If your job doesn’t allow you to do that, then get another job. If you’re in a role that is causing you stress, anxiety and to doubt your self-worth, then ask for a different role.

Even though these are extreme actions, and there are potentially extreme consequences, does it mean that we shouldn’t do them anyway? Tomorrow may be your last day, after all.

Well I can only speak for myself – and it’s what I am going to do!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

When it comes to persuasion, I think we can all use a little trick that’s easy to use.

You know, I think we all have the power to be persuasive. And it doesn’t require us to have oodles of charm or use hypnosis! Often, people are responsive to our instruction and listen to applied logic. Providing, that is, we don’t hit certain buttons in their heads that give them reason to switch off.

It’s because we all apply something that I will call ‘listening filters’ – these are the little voices in our heads that sit like good cop and bad cop on our shoulders – telling us to listen, ignore, criticize, be open-minded, etc. They tell us if something is ‘bad’ before we have a rational reason to suspect it as such. So when we are attempting to persuade someone, we have to do what we can to avoid switching on their negative listening filters!

The thing is, as we all know our colleagues, boss, friends etc don’t walk around with their listening filters advertised on their forehead! So we have to use a tactic called positive language, to play it safe. It’s the negative language we have to steer well clear from.

I don’t mean abuse, or slanderous accusations… no! It’s not aggressive threats or anything like that. I mean language that is far more subtle, and frequently more destructive of our best opportunities.

Here is an example of what I mean.

I could sign off an email with

“Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.”

What have I written that is wrong? I am being nice, right? The logical part of our brain would say yes, but our subconscious part of our brain would say no. If we look at the composition of this statement – the component words – you can pick out don’t and hesitate. Two negative words which cause a reaction in our brains when we read it; both words add a negative context to what we read, even if logically they mean a positive when written together! They have negative mental associations. Without knowing it, I am turning readers away from me.

Let me give you some more common examples where I highlight the negative words in red:

• “No problem!”
• “No worries!”
• “We can’t do that.”
• “You won’t regret it!”
• “We won’t start until we get your approval.”
• “I couldn’t agree more.”
• “No doubt.“
• “We cannot see how you…”
• “We fail to understand…”
• “We are at a loss to know…”
• “Don’t wait to buy…”

When I use words like these, I switch on the wrong listening filters in my audience, so persuasion is going to be real tough from this point on.

So what I have learned (through painful trial and error) is this:

Don’t Be Negative When We Really Want to be Positive

It’s so easily done (see? the first word in the line above is Don’t…) I think I still use negative language in everyday conversation; with my wife, my son and my friends. Because negative language isn’t about using offensive, foul or provocative language. It’s using words and phrases that have negative mental associations. A simple word such as don’t turns a switch in our brains that makes us think about stopping, halting, warning, watch out. They’re just words, but they carry meaning.

And how we perceive meaning influences our emotional reaction. Choose the wrong words and you can stop action in its tracks.

In days gone by, negative language was commonplace. A bright spark one day thought it was very good manners to use “I can’t agree more.” in business. People at all levels used phrases like that one all the time, thinking it was the best way to communicate. This is how it was for quite some time, until it was realised that it didn’t work.

What studies and scholars found, are the devastating effects on successful communication when negative language is inadvertently used. The thing is, half of the words used in our everday conversation can be perceived as negative. So we have to be careful.

Become Positive!

Is it possible to turn negative language around to become more positive? Sure it is. What I found is that it takes concentration, and it’s possible! I discovered, with a little patience, that I could learn how to structure my sentences to avoid the use of the negative. I haven’t mastered it, but it’s much better.

I tend to replace negative language with words that provoke good feelings and action; I go for positive associations.

Like “can”, “feel free”, “will”, “do”, “go ahead”, and “for sure.”

See the difference? When positive language is used, our communication feels richer, more enjoyable and we’re drawn in more.

Some Great Examples

I’ve listed some more examples that contrast negative language from positive. I found these on THE DICTIONARY OF NON-COMMUNICATION: A Guide for the Impotent, Defensive, Whiny, Unsuccessful Communicator (or, a personal style analysis for those who truly want to communicate strategically) By James E. Lukaszewski, APR, Fellow PRSA

Negative: “Do not hesitate to call.”
Positive: “Please call.”

Negative: “Don’t be afraid to fail.”
Positive: “Learn from your failures.”

Negative: “Don’t let me mislead you.”
Positive: “Here’s what I mean.”

Negative: “I can’t express it in words.”
Positive: “I’ll try my best to explain it.”

Negative: “I don’t doubt it.”
Positive: “I believe it.”

Negative: “I don’t like this.”
Positive: “I’d prefer something else.”

Negative: “I meant no disrespect.”
Positive: “I am respectful.”

Negative: “I see no reason to disagree.”
Positive: “It’s okay with me.”

Negative: “It couldn’t get any worse.”
Positive: “This is about as bad as it gets.”

Now here is something you should try: go over some of your old emails, letters or other form of written communication, and discover what negative language you used, and find out how you might have written it now!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

A down economy brings one thing to most everyone’s career path: change. Whether it’s learning new skills for the same job or searching for a different one, these added work pressures can be especially hard on people who have been in their job for 20+ years. Rather than wind down or hit their stride, they have to start over or take it up a notch.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

The interview is the last step between you and your dream job. Countless applicants have applied for the job, but there is only one position available. You need interviewing skills which make you shine above the competition. Here are 10 subtle ways to make yourself stand out above the other applicants.

1. Be well rounded – Interviewers want the best fit for their organization. They do not necessarily want someone who is book smart and street stupid. When asked, talk about the organizations with which you’ve been involved or your passion for music. Let the interviewer know that you are not merely a technically proficient one trick pony.

2. Be contemplative – Your mistakes are learning experiences. Bring those experiences to the interviewing table by showing that you have a grasp of the larger picture. You might be asked about your experience with problem solving. Take that opportunity to show your interviewer that you can think AND take action.

3. Be aware – Learn about the company’s strengths and weaknesses and focus on how you will make a great fit. Find out what you can about the person interviewing you. If you know that they have a LinkedIn page that lists their interests, look for the common interests that you share. You might find a friend as well as a job.

4. Be passionate – The passion that you show in the interview is infectious. Be excited about the company for which you will be working. Since you have done your research, display the delight in their newest program or initiative. That delight with your future job should permeate your entire being.

5. Relax – Interviewing for a new position can be one of the most stressful events of your life. Relax and take a deep breath. When you are at ease with the interviewer, that calmness will spread throughout the room. When you possess a quiet confidence, you are instilling confidence in your interviewer.

6. Find out when they will know – Show your eagerness by asking when you will be approved for the position. Asking questions is important, and you want to have that passion for receiving the privilege of working for your company. The other thing that asking for a time frame does is allow you to get insight on the others within the process.

7. Use the interviewer’s name – While you are in conversation, take the initiative by using your interviewer’s name. It signifies that you took the time to remember it, as well as subtly inflates the person’s ego. The same rules apply for group interviews. They last longer so you will have more opportunities to use individual’s names.

8. Be thankful – Say ‘thank you’ to your interviewer in the beginning, middle and end of the interview. This will establish you from the angle of gratitude for the position. You are meeting the strangers who will possibly become your peers and your management staff, be thankful for the opportunity.

9. Exemplify and use words from the job listing – A company will quite often ‘show their hand’ with the job listing. The interviewer may touch on the qualities for which they are looking, but you need to completely demonstrate these traits. Usually the interviewer will allow you to highlight your best traits during the interview.

10. Wear something unique – Dress professionally, but give your interviewer a talking point. You might have a pin that you can wear. You might have some flair that you can add to your glasses. Do not be gaudy, but let the interviewer notice the item that you are wearing and ask questions. This opens the door to let you gain more insight into the company.

There may be people more qualified, but the interviewer will choose the person who is the best fit for their company. They will pick the person with whom they feel the most comfortable. Your job during an interview is to convey the message that the company is portraying and to make the interviewer feel at ease.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you have a presentation or a proposal to share, then you will want to make sure it’s polished and practiced to perfection. You may have only One Chance to make a great impression! So here are four things I do every time a presentation is approaching.

The Four Ps of Presentations:

1. Prepare: I don’t need a word-by-word script; I do need to have a well-prepared presentation. My presentation is a story – it must have a start, beginning and an end, as well as having a purpose. I plan out the structure first, and ensure I work back from the ultimate goal, so that everything in the presentation leads up to that.
2. Practice: I need to practice. And practice. And practice. And practice. (Practice until it hurts!) You know, the most ardent and experience presenters still practice. It’s why they’re so good at it! I don’t practice until I know every word I want to say (in fact this is something I avoid so the presentation doesn’t sound too staged) But I make sure that I read my presentations out loud a number of times to develop effective inflections in my voice and a good rhythm.
3. Pronounce: To get my points across effectively, I need to speak very clearly. This can make or break my presentations. If I mumble or stutter (normally brought on because I am not well prepared or practiced) then I’ll lose the interest of my audience. I project my voice, speak slower (than in normal conversation) and fully pronounce every letter of every word.
4. Participate: The more I engage my audience, the more my presentation is memorable, and more to the point, the less I feel nervous. Participation has a remarkable impact; it helps my audience become part of the presentation and it also removes the invisible barrier between myself and the audience, so it feels less like a performance and more like a discussion.

I could add a fifth one – Planning, which is also crucial for me. When I have a presentation coming up, it’s essential that I plan my time to ensure I prepare and practice.

Good Luck in your own presentations!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you have ever wondered why some teams consistently demonstrate high performance and achievement of its objectives (and why some don’t) you have probably experienced great leadership by a leader who understands his or her team.

A leader’s role is to create the right environment for work to succeed (measured according to the objectives specified.)  Ever wondered how a leader does that?

David Rock shares his experiences of effective leaders in his book Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work. It starts by establishing a fact that most of us will already know: that  improving human performance involves one of the greatest challenges of humankind: changing the way people think. As a coach, speaker, and consultant to organizations around the world, David Rock has observed that the key to leading people (as well as living and working with them) is found in the way followers process information.

The way followers interpret the words and actions of a leader and then commit to a course of action is a process, and adapting our leadership style and behaviors according to this process it is the most important facet of practicing leadership, says Rock. I’d sure like to master this, how about you?

By learning how leadership affects people internally, you can master it.

Supported by the latest groundbreaking research, Quiet Leadership approaches the challenge of leadership by showing how the minds of followers respond the leaders, and the situation, which will help busy leaders, executives, and managers improve their own and their colleagues’ performance. It’s no science journal, but it does back up the theories with scientific fact.

Who is the book for?

• Quiet Leadership is for the business leader (right up to CEO) who wants to be more effective at inspiring a leadership team
• It’s for the CFO/CIO who is busy and needs to make the most out of every brief exchange
• It’s also for the executive who would like to influence a manager to plan more effectively (but can’t seem to work out how)
• And it’s for the manager who wants to inspire the sales team, but is drawing a blank as to how
• It’s for the human resources professional who is ready to take on changing the culture of a whole organization
• It’s for the parent or caregiver who wants to reach new levels of communication and understanding with their family members

Quiet leaders are masters at bringing out the best performance in other people. They improve the thinking of the people around them—quite literally improving the way their minds process information—without giving blunt instruction. Given how many people in today’s organizations are being paid to think and analyze, isn’t improving our thinking is one of the fastest ways to improve performance?

Quiet Leadership offers a practical, six-step guide to making permanent workplace performance change by unleashing higher productivity, new levels of morale, and greater job satisfaction. Above all, Quiet Leadership will give you the clarity and strength that comes from mastering and using powerful insights that teach you to perform and succeed, at the highest level.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Coercion: a practice of forcing another person to behave in an involuntary manner. It’s the basic weapon of bullies and dictators… but is it always a ‘bad’ thing?

If I am asking the question, then I must have an unexpected answer, right? Well not really, but I will pose an argument that I hope gets you thinking.

Coercion plays on fear, but it is not always the same as a threat, which is a direct and deliberate escalation of coercion. Coercion is often more subtle and less tangible, as it’s in the intepretation. For example, one person may feel coerced, whilst the next one may not; the threat is perceived at different levels by different people, often as a product of how fearful they are about losing something, such as status, reputation or even pay.

A manager asks an engineer to work longer hours without a raise, in the same breath about something regarding possible future job cuts. Is the engineer being coerced? You decide.

In my article ‘The Five Sources of a Leader’s Power, and how (and how not) to use them’, I present a case for using coercive power and suggest it isn’t implicitly bad. I do state, though, that there are good times to use coercion, and there are bad times, too.

Let me just remind you of them:

Use coercive power when…

• you need to ensure standards and policies are adhered to
• there is significant risk in a situation
• you have no other option

Don’t use coercive power when…

• you have the ability to apply other power. Rather, use positional power if you must
• you won’t be around to put things right, afterwards
• you’re feeling frustrated and emotional

‘Policy’ is Often Coercive

Rules, regulation, conditions and terms – they’re almost always a manifestation of coercion. They present a clear statement of desired behavior/outcome, and what could happen if they are breached. For example:

• In some countries, governments fine parents who refuse to send their children to schools
• Some organizations mandate an office dress-code, and state what will happen if it’s breached
• Most people must submit their tax information, or receive a fine
• Pay at the counter, or be arrested for theft

Taking Responsibility for Using Coercion

Because coercion is perceptional, one could try to argue that it’s the fault of the person who feels it, not the manager that applies it. If one engineer runs home crying, then that’s not our fault, is it? Err.. yes I think it is.

Those guys that go off for weeks on stress-related illness? It’s possibly coercion at play, and it’s management that should take responsibility.

Like all forms of power, the impact of coercion is situational, and we won’t always know how it hits workers when it is used. Coercion is a high-risk tactic, and if managers take the risk, then managers must take responsibility for the outcome – whatever the result. Like with the manager and engineer in the example above, if the engineer starts to panic and becomes sick due to exhaustion and stress, who is to blame?

When in those rare, rare times that we have to personally use coercion (e.g. to avoid a catastrophic loss), we must then be prepared to deal with fall-out. It’s our responsibility to put in place measures to monitor the situation, establish alerting mechanisms and prepare remedial actions.

Clumsy Conversations Interpreted as Coercion

Coercion can sometimes be clumsy, or not deliberate. To use the manager/engineer example, what if the manager had intended to genuinely warn the engineer about possible job cuts which was a totally separate matter than working extra hours? The threat as perceived was not intended as a threat, but the situation (nevertheless) resulted in the use of coercive power. Heck, we can all make mistakes when we find ourselves in tough management situations in which we have little experience, so we have to tread carefully when it comes to coercion. Unintended coercion is perhaps the most damaging of all, because we won’t always know it’s transpired and therefore be alert to watch for a worsening situation or be prepared to mop up the mess.

So, is Coercion a ‘Bad’ Thing?

I believe that coercion at a personal level is almost always avoidable, yet I don’t believe it is necessarily bad. Policies and regulations are coercive, often to protect ourselves as well as the interests of other people. Coercion is something that we must take responsibility for, and prepare for the time when the risk doesn’t pay off. Whether it results in a whinge, stress, rebellion or revolt, we must apply coercion with responsibility, or not bother with it.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.