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Are You Asking the Right Questions?

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (0)

29 Apr

Question Are You Asking the Right Questions? “We find … it’s much more important and difficult to ask the right question. Once you do that, the right answer becomes obvious.”
~Amory Lovins

If you want to know more about why people do or don’t change, then ask more questions.

When working with organizations and teams, it is important to first listen and understand before building plans and developing programs for them. For organizations that do not have coaching as a mainstay offering for their leaders, they may be surprised to hear it is those coaching methodologies that open the door to understanding. For a large company, it is definitely worthwhile for key individuals and leaders within the organization to be coached, and for those in charge of organizational development (OD) to have some coaching training behind them.

There is a generalized stigma around coaching that can be hard to shake and it’s often referred to as that ‘airy-fairy’ soft-skills stuff. There is nothing soft about coaching!

If you remember being figuratively pinned to the wall as a teen in high school as some wise adult helped you learn to stand up and take responsibility for your own actions, you can easily recognize the value for coaching in any environment. Through great questions, a coach can dig deep enough to get to the root of why you choose your current thought patterns and reactions, helping you better understand where you fit among the dynamics of a multifaceted team of individuals. There is nothing soft about it. The secret to a coach’s success is the training they receive within two areas:

learning how to ask questions and

the right questions to ask.

This is why people in Change Management (CM) are also effective coaches. One who seeks to understand the stakeholders and the stakes involved in any change initiative is best served by first knowing the right questions to ask. Great questions return great results, further creating introspective reasoning for the individual who is providing the answers. The people being asked begin to think a little more about what they do and why they do it, eventually getting to the heart of why, within a change initiative, the stakes are so high for them.

This doesn’t mean the stakeholders are all in an ‘organized coaching program’, but rather, through a varied series of meetings, one-on-one discussions, facilitated group sessions and other forms of analysis and risk analysis, the CM professional is able to dig deep to the heart of any challenges that may inhibit change.

Change is inevitable, but change as a push mechanism is rarely successful. Change initiatives that take into consideration all stakeholders and build a plan for change that motivates and inspires people to move forward from resistance to desire find greater success. It is my experience that there is usually a lot more to resistance than what is initially shared, and a little coaching methodology can certainly loan itself to finding the greatest resistance and helping the people within an organization work through it.

___________________________________________

Patti Blackstaffe works with people and organizations to develop
Happy Workplaces world-wide guiding them toward mastery and leadership
through consulting, advising, coaching, speaking, and delivering training.

You can reach Patti at 1-855-968-5323

Idea Sessions | Change Management | Executive Coaching | Team Building

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Categories : Communication, Conflict, Culture, Human Resources, Leadership, Management

Tags : Asking the right Questions, Change Management, Leadership, Organizational Development

Liars Get Caught, Period.

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (2)

31 Oct

liar Liars Get Caught, Period. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but liars do get caught.

The thing about lies is that they are unsustainable. Eventually, someone begins to catch on, investigate, corroborate and vet the lies.

When a person tells enough of them, it is too hard for the liar to keep track of who/what was told.

The truth is always a ‘same story’ scenario – it is clean and you only have to remember the truth.

Lies get bent, twisted and confused until one can no longer remember what they have told, and eventually lies begin to unravel.

When a long series of lies begins to unravel, desperation sets in – and the lies get bigger to cover the other unraveling lies. It is a deep vortex from which one rarely recovers, especially if they have a high profile or are in a position of authority. (edit 2013: think Lance Armstrong)

Indication one is caught in a lie – they attempt to eliminate the person who knows the truth!

Very risky.

Cheating works the same way as lying…..

Solution? Don’t do it.

Transparency and honesty are key pieces of the leadership puzzle. If you want your team to perform, remember that lies and bullying will shut the performing parts of their brains down – not as many synapses in the brain will fire.

Honesty, engagement and giving credit to those who have worked for you, this opens up the performing parts of the brain – more synapses in the brain will fire. This equals great performance by your team. It is science. Pay attention.

___________________________________________

Patti Blackstaffe works with people and organizations to develop
Happy Workplaces world-wide guiding them toward mastery and leadership
through consulting, advising, coaching, speaking, and delivering training.

You can reach Patti at 1-855-968-5323

Contact us here to book for Idea Sessions, Change Management, Executive Coaching or Team Development.

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Categories : Conflict, Leadership, Training

Tags : cheating, honesty, integrity, liar, lies, Lying, truth

The Real Reason Your Team Doesn’t Trust You

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (2)

26 Oct

Today’s guest post is by Mike Figliuolo, the author of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership. Here’s Mike:

Your team doesn’t trust you. Honestly. They don’t.

Trust is key to effective working relationships; yet, as you climb the corporate ladder, trust seems harder to earn and easier to lose.

What causes a team to not trust their leader? You. Yes, you. You’re unpredictable and your team doesn’t know what to expect from you. But, these are fixable problems.

Trust is about an ability to rely upon or expect a predictable outcome. When you act in ways your team doesn’t expect, it erodes trust and makes them wonder what you’re going to do next. If you want to get a sense for how much your people trust you, you can take this Trusted Leader Assessment online – it only takes 3-5 minutes and you’ll get a comprehensive analysis of your results after taking it.

If you can clearly lay out how your people can expect you to behave in a variety of situations, they’ll have a basic expectation upon which to build a foundation of trust. These expectations have to be personal and meaningful enough to you that they guide your behavior. I refer to these guiding principles as “leadership maxims” which are rules of behavior or conduct. The collection of all your leadership maxims becomes your personal leadership philosophy.

Defining Your Leadership Philosophy

I encourage you as a leader to define your own set of leadership maxims. They can be as simple as one of mine which is “What would Nana say?” For reference, Nana was my grandmother. I can use that maxim to guide my behavior. When faced with difficult choices, I simply ask “what would Nana say?” and my choice becomes clear. When I explain this maxim to my team, they’ll better understand how I make choices and they’ll see my behavior as consistent with this maxim. It is this consistency that forms the basis of trust.

If you want to define a powerful leadership philosophy, here are a few steps to start with:

Be yourself. When you write your leadership philosophy, spare your team the corporate-speak and tell your personal story instead. They can spot a phony a mile away.
Give in to emotion. Articulate your leadership philosophy as a set of reminders of stories that have deep emotional meaning for you. The reminders are touchstones to guide your behavior. The stronger the emotions associated with the story, the more likely you are to change your behavior to be consistent with the lesson the story reminds you of.
Lead yourself. You have to know where you personally want to go in life and define your personal code of conduct before you can lead someone else. Write down reminders of your code as part of your philosophy.
Lead the thinking. Your job is to set direction, challenge outdated thinking, and define standards. Create reminders that force you to do these things on a regular basis – not only during the annual strategic planning process.
Lead your people. Get dirty. Know their jobs. Know them as individuals – not as a box on an org chart or a job title. When they know you care about them as a person, they’re much more willing to give you everything they’ve got.
Lead a balanced life. If you’re burned out, you’re worthless. Set your boundaries and stick to them. Let everyone else know what they are. Balance applies to your work too – have enough work you love to do to balance out all the mindless tasks you don’t enjoy. Again – create some simple yet personal guidelines that remind you make decisions that keep you in balance.
Pull it all together. Document all your reminders of how you want to behave on a single piece of paper. Tack it up on your wall or carry it on a card in your wallet. Having that simple reminder of your approach to leadership always within arm’s reach will help you live up to that standard every day.
Share. Tell people your personal story. Share your triumphs and failures. Help them understand the experiences that have made you who you are as a leader. When you share, you help them understand you better. That understanding and the vulnerability you demonstrate while sharing builds trust between you and your team members.

The Bottom Line

The sooner you commit your leadership philosophy to paper, the better off you are. Be sure it is personal, authentic, and free of jargon or buzzwords. Share it with your team. Live it every day. Help them see you’re really not that complex or unpredictable. Morale, productivity, and trust will all increase as a result. Take the Trusted Leader Assessment to see where you stack up. The results can make a big difference in helping you build trust with the members of your team.

Mike Figliuolo is the author of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership. He’s the managing director of thoughtLEADERS, LLC – a leadership development firm. An Honor Graduate from West Point, he served in the U.S. Army as a combat arms officer. Before founding his own company, he was an assistant professor at Duke University, a consultant at McKinsey & Co., and an executive at Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He regularly writes about leadership on the thoughtLEADERS Blog.

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Categories : Conflict, Leadership

Tags : authenticity, Balance, integrity, Leadership, leading, reality, trust, your story

Loss of a Distant Mentor

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (4)

05 Sep

Trey Pennington Loss of a Distant Mentor Sadness over the suicide of Trey Pennington on Sunday September 4, 2011.

I did not know Trey personally, only via our social media channels. He was one of those individuals to whom people looked up to, a mentor who knew the right way to say things, how to get his point across without arrogance and who was very real and inspirational, and a successful consultant. This was who Trey was to me, but I did not really ‘know’ him, his personal life or his family and friends; just the social media person who was down to earth, engaging, successful, well loved by many. I did not truly know him, but today I feel a loss.

It struck me how much we can hardly know someone and yet their impact, their message and their inspiration can still contribute significantly to the lives of many. My connection with Trey is via our twitter profiles, and I am left shocked and saddened by this loss of a man who was positive and committed to the success of others.

Based on what I have read and seen in my social media circles, Trey was well loved, he had many friends and I am among a large number of people who have been positively influenced by him. There were many times I would look at his profile or website and think of how much he embodied many of the business successes I would like to aspire to. Now, I am simply left saddened for him, for his family and friends, and for the many people he has inspired and mentored as they seek their own ways of saying good-bye to Trey.

I know of a few people who have committed suicide, and it is always a shock, because these folks have all been bright, talented, beautiful, well-loved people with an incredible future in front of them.

Today I ponder some of my own thoughts and emotions from this tragedy…

Show kindness. Recognize that people around us may be struggling with something we are completely unaware of. I implore you to please pay attention to the people around you, reach out, ask with great depth and sincerity how someone is, and be willing to really listen and be there for them.

Get help. If you are struggling and depressed, if you feel you cannot meet the expectations of the world around you or you feel you are letting down the people you love, please reach out. To a friend, to a doctor, to a crisis line, to someone you feel safe with – tell them you are struggling, ask for help. People want to help, especially when you feel you can no longer cope. You are loved and there is a better answer. Please give yourself the opportunity to release the pressure and confusion of depression by seeking help, not escape.

Those who appear most strong and together may need your support. Depression is treatable. Mental Health problems can happen to anyone, our children, our loved ones, our friends and even ourselves – the negative stigma of those suffering with depression must be lifted. We lose far too many amazing people when depression takes over the brain and clouds one’s ability to cope with life.

Today I am inspired to look at my life differently, to see the beauty in the little things, to appreciate my loved ones.

My prayers and thoughts go out to the family, friends, colleagues and people both inspired and mentored by Trey. He will be deeply missed.

Next Saturday, September 10, 2011 is World Suicide Prevention day. Here are some things you can do to create awareness. Share information about depression openly with your friends and loved ones, post the phone numbers where people can get help and mostly, reach out! Someone you know may be going through very tough personal issues of which they are burdened to the point of feeling they cannot cope or there is no reason to keep going. Reach out and listen, then direct them to help - here are some links you can use…

Canada

USA

More about Suicide Prevention

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Categories : Conflict, Gratitude

Tags : loss, suffering, suicide, suicide prevention, Trey Pennington

Thriving Souls and Serial Victims

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (0)

21 Jun

SerialVictims Thriving Souls and Serial Victims

image courtesy of Iwan Beijes, Netherlands

“Forgiveness has nothing to do with absolving a criminal of his crime. It has everything to do with relieving oneself of the burden of being a victim–letting go of the pain and transforming oneself from victim to survivor.”

~C.R. Strahan

Observation in life has presented two significant types of victims to me…

Thriving Souls and Serial Victims

There are victims of many horrible situations, natural disasters, accidents, abuse, crime and violence. The difference between the two types above is what happens after an event that defines a person’s character and most likely their success in life.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe there are difficult moments for everyone, no matter whom you are. Moments when it is important to release and when tears or grief are appropriate and justified. Everyone has times of pain, shock, horror, grief and sadness. It is when that shock, horror, grief or sadness turns into a life-long pattern of repetitive sympathy and blame that it becomes self destructive.

So what are the differences between a Thriving Soul and a Serial Victim?

Thriving Souls:

Rebuild, reinvent, move forward, learn and grow such as a child abused who moves on to show the world what success really looks like
Attend counseling long enough so that they find peace and resolve to let the event live in the past
Forgive and understand others with strength and courage like the mother who forgives the killer of her own son
Exhibit resilience and tenacity in creating their own life
Turn the experience into positive actions forward
Are accepting that life is a series of hits, misses and falls that accompany the beauty, growth and love life has to offer
Know there are no ‘special happy folks’ who are without problems
Know that moving forward is hard work
Understand moving forward does not mean running away
Take full responsibility for their own actions and success
See events through the eyes and vantage points of others
Accept life and choose to use their energy for productive purpose
Learn from, support others and create proactive ways of helping solve issues as in the example of the victim of a drunk driver whose mother also died as the result of a drunk driver and who now educates others on the impact
Recognize and see beauty and love in almost every event
Are creative masters of their own happiness using a positive approach to life

Serial Victims:

Find everyday life events difficult to deal with
Struggle with long-term relationships
Appear to suffer when they don’t get their own way (and make others suffer with them)
Relive the event in story form over and over with as many people as possible, bring their past into their present
Blame everyone else for all or most of their problems,( nothing is ever their fault)
Fly into tantrums or rage at neutral events which could easily be handled calmly
Invent what the intentions of others are – in order to hang onto a victim mentality
Seek sympathy or attention in an effort to get what they want
Tread water in self pity
Choose hatred or resentment in place of dealing with people or situations
Frequently run away from jobs, relationships and situations calling it “moving on” but always bringing their victim story with them
Live in a constant state of drama > blamed on others
Need to be ‘saved’ repeatedly from situations they get themselves into
See events only with their own interpretation refusing to hear or believe another viewpoint
Lack empathy for the feelings of others and can be more emotionally abusive than their alleged abusers
Believe people are out to get them, hurt them, cause them pain
Live in anger when forced to live with the consequences of their actions rather than change their own behaviour
Embellish events or mislead others with false facts or details
Will have their own idea of what forgiveness looks like and want to hold you to it (I recently read this post… Forgiveness: 7 Things It’s NOT! A great list for reference)

It is the Thriving Soul who teaches us how to live life. None of us are targets for miserable unless we choose to make it so and there is no happiness outside of the things we choose to be happy about ourselves.

Being a Thriving Soul is hard work

Being responsible for one’s own actions, (seeing events from the viewpoint of another, learning to grow and evolve and accept that life will be difficult) is not the easy path. But if life were easy, we would probably not have the amazing progress we have in medicine, human understanding and comfortable living. If not challenged, we would rarely reach or stretch or seek better, stronger or more beautiful solutions, we wouldn’t need to.

“You are responsible for your life. You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.” ~Oprah Winfrey

I have made a choice to exclude serial victims from my life and learn from those Thriving Souls who know what love and life is all about. It is my hope that I choose that positive approach, that I do the hard work of expending my energy toward taking responsibility for my actions and choices; owning and creating my life and owning it when things go wrong.

Do you know a Thriving Soul or a Serial Victim?

Patti Blackstaffe works with people and organizations to develop Happy Workplaces world-wide guiding them toward mastery and leadership through advising, coaching, speaking, and delivering training.

You can contact Patti at 403-201-8512 | email her at info@strategicsense.ca | visit her speaking page at http://pattiblackstaffe.com

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Categories : Conflict, Leadership

Tags : growing, leading self, mastery, serial victims, thriving in difficulty, Victim mentality

Bullying in the Workplace – An Epidemic Worth Having A Discussion About

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (2)

18 May

Strategic Sense, in addition to providing Leadership Training, has made a commitment to highlight some of the remarkable authors, leadership professionals and business people we’ve had the great fortune of meeting and working with over the last 3 years. On Wednesdays you will see guest-posts from some of these folks. All are leaders in their field and have solutions to some of our biggest workplace issues.

As with Professor Robin Stuart-Kotze PhD who wrote about Getting a Handle on Different Cultural Values today we have a guest post that talks about Bullying.

Today’s Guest Post is by Michelle Berg, President & CEO of Elevated HR Solutions in Calgary

Photo Courtesy of Rene Asmussen, Denmark

And now, here’s Michelle…

Tell me if you’ve witnessed this before: A manager thinks of himself as strong and effective. He continually brags about keeping his employees in line – they even have to ask to go to the bathroom. In terms of a work environment, he doesn’t allow for idle chit chat. His door of his office is open and if he hears anything that doesn’t appear to be work he stands up and makes a comment such as, “I hear McDonald’s has an opening. They like to chat.” Tasks are broken down for each individual into teeny tiny steps, so that each milestone can be checked and rechecked before continuing. When the employee gets it “wrong”, the manager criticizes harshly to ensure that the employee gets what he/she did wrong and to never repeat the mistake twice. When someone asks to take time off for vacation, his reply is always, “Must be a nice life. I guess you expect me to pick up all your slack for you.”

Do you know this guy? Chances are, you probably do. In my case, this is a true story.

It’s probably no surprise to you that turnover in this department was rampant. It’s probably no surprise to you that his employees that stood outside the Senior HR Leaders door wanting/needing/begging to talk to them. What may however, be a surprise is that no one did anything to stop this gentleman because he was the guy that “…knew how to get results.”

The broad definition of a bully is any behavior that intimidates, humiliates or demeans a person. In some cases it’s directed or it can just be part of a hostile and poisoned work environment. What organizations need to remember is that bullying is a form of harassment and to stand idly by, can only lead to more problems. As of 2011, BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec are required to have a Psychological Harassment Policy in place and bullying is prohibited under human rights laws (Alberta will follow shortly.) According to BC Business Magazine in 2010 there were 4X more bullying complaints than sexual harassment complaints, meaning your organization could be next…are you prepared?

The effects of bullying are very real: The Employer will most likely see increased turnover and absenteeism, decreased morale, losses in productivity and perhaps legal costs incurred to defend claims brought on by employees.

Your HR department however, isn’t necessarily the ones to stop bullying in the workplace. Your Harassment policy won’t stop bullying either. Instead, it needs to be the collective leadership team who buys into the fact that bullying is not synonymous with management. A plan (as a team) needs to be devised and as a team, the plan needs to be followed. This isn’t just an HR issue – it’s a management problem.

Signs of a Bully:

anyone who yells, insults or name calls their employee
anyone who is persistent and excessive with criticism directed to an employee
anyone who spreads malicious rumours about an employee
anyone who excludes or ignores their employees
anyone who undermines an employees efforts by setting impossible goals or deadlines
anyone who sabotages another employees work
anyone who impedes upon an employee getting a promotion or a transfer

If you are a bully or allowing a bully to be in your workplace, the consequences are very real. If you need help in handling a bully, there are organizations that are there to assist management teams. It’s time to take off the blinders, drop the kid gloves and finally solve the issue. If you don’t do it now, your pocketbook could be the one who feels the most pain.

For more information on Bullying or Psychological Harassment in the workplace check out: http://www.greggowe.com/category/topics/psychological-harassment

Michelle Berg, CHRP
Michelle’s twelve year experience has spanned the health services, financial services, information technology and professional service sectors. She has supported and set-up HR departments on both a national and international stage, from South Korea to South America. Her most recent post was the Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Administration for a mid-sized international, multi-million dollar firm. Dedicated to a quick turnaround and coming up with innovative ideas that promote the growth of the business, Michelle is committed to helping businesses move to the next stage. Michelle can be located via her website Elevated HR Solutions, Facebook, and Twitter.

Strategic Sense has bookings available for Executive, Director and Management Advisory sessions. Contact us for more information at 403-201-8512

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Categories : Conflict

Tags : bullies, bullying, bullying solutions, Michelle Berg, workplace bullying

Give “it” A Rest

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (0)

04 Apr

Photo Courtesy of Alex Bruda, Romania

No really, give it a rest – whatever “it” is that might have you preoccupied or obsessing, thus taking you away from positive action and relationships.

caret initio et fine
(It lacks a beginning and an end)

1. Combine physical and mental action together to remove your mind from “it”.

Such as horseback riding, running, swimming, working out, meditating – concentrate on your breathing.

2. Make a concerted effort to remove “it” from all conversations.

Such as gossiping, sharing, creating imagined scenarios, or bringing “it” up.

3. Stop reviewing, re-reading, snooping into or otherwise finding ways to look into “it”

Such as visiting locations repeatedly, reading, viewing or re-hashing the event as those actions only serve to bring “it” into the present.

Whatever your “it” is, chances are the event itself is neutral and your reaction to “it” is emotional. Help yourself keep it neutral by choosing NOT to grow “it” out of proportion.

And that, my friends, is how to NOT make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Patti Blackstaffe, President of Strategic Sense Inc, is a Speaker, Strategic Advisor and Trainer in Leadership, Customer Service and Cultural integration through Mergers and Acquisition.You can book her to speak at her personal page.

Need Strategic Sense for your business? – hire us for Leadership Development of individuals, teams, group training and company strategy. Read what folks have to say about her eBook Leadership XXL: 11 Practical Steps to Living Leadership Extra, Extra Large.

Happy Workplaces Succeed, take the path to get there, and call us. (403) 201-8512

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Categories : Conflict

Tags : Mountain out of a mole hill, obssessing, positive action, preoccumpied, refocus

We DO want great employees, right…or do we?

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (0)

28 Mar

employees sm We DO want great employees, right...or do we?

photo courtesy of Laura Leavell, Florida

I hear it time and time again;

“We want to find employees who really care about our business, who are passionate about our customers and who will fight to do what’s right.”

They are employers who lament over how hard it is to get ‘good help’ or who again and again repeat phrases like, “employees aren’t what they used to be” or “this new generation just doesn’t care.”

I call their bluff and I up the ante.

A recent article in our local paper caught my eye last week about an employee who IS passionate, who is fighting for his customers and who is trying to do what’s right. His name is Dr. Lloyd Maybaum, a psychiatrist in Calgary who truly wants to make a difference for his patients. This man is not only concerned about his own patients, according to the article, but he is concerned about all patients in his field of practice. He has tried to care about them using his voice, his friends and his heart, begging to have a mental health unit built as planned for the South Campus.

His reward according to this article is… a letter stating;

“I am forced to make a clear statement that further communications of this nature without discussion and review with members of the Executive of Mental Health and Addictions will require . . . (asking) the Executive to formally review your role as physician leader for psychiatry to the South Campus project.”

So, for asking other doctors to lobby and help his cause, he is slapped on the hand and told to keep quiet. I bring this article to attention because of the leadership priority involved in the situation.

What can we learn from such a disastrous treatment of a well-meaning employee?

The leadership in this case is obviously the priority – not health care, not the patients, not the cause, but what is important is the decision of the leadership.
The direction cannot be challenged.
The right thing to do is defined by the leadership and anyone who disagrees might just as well keep their mouths shut or be threatened.

Sadly, he is not alone in this kind of behaviour by an executive or management group – we see it all the time within organizations who are unwilling to admit their culture is more about covering their rear-ends than caring about the customer or the actual role the company plays in business.

Managers who squash information, hide facts, deflect responsibility, and punish employees for caring about the customer will at worst bury the company and at best, leave it scarred with members who are frustrated and angry. Not exactly what one looks for when seeking a positive, collaborative and innovative culture.

We need passionate employees who care about how we deliver our services, people who see it from a customer relationship side, people who understand the service or product as it is being used, how it is being serviced and what kind of experience we provide. They are the voices we NEED to hear, the voices who challenge us to, as Rebel Brown puts it, Defy Gravity and reach success. We need to celebrate folks who are brave enough to help us understand where we are falling down, not punish them because their voice might make us appear like we don’t know what we are doing.

Do you have an example of a leadership who steps in and tries to quell the voice of reason?

Patti is a speaker, strategic advisor and trainer in Leadership, Customer Service and Cultural integration through Mergers and Acquisition. You can book her to speak at her personal page. Need Strategic Sense for your business? – hire us for Leadership Development of individuals, teams, group training and company strategy. Happy Workplaces Succeed, take the path to get there. (403) 201-8512

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Tags : Customer Service, great employees, having a voice, Leadership, quieting employees, speaking out

Getting Rid of a Super-Star

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (2)

08 Feb

CitiFinancial Getting Rid of a Super Star You’re the boss, you own or are in charge of the company and it has grown a bit. You are convinced you need each and every one of the people you employ but you have a bit of a conundrum, you are getting a lot of complaints about one or two of your star employees.

These stars have been with you since the beginning, they seem to know everything about the business, they are good with the numbers and they bring money into the business. You simply can’t understand why so many people are complaining about them.

Some days you think;

“I am tired of hearing all this bickering, why can’t these people just get along and get some work done.”

Sorry to tell you this… but it is YOUR job to deal with the issue. You either need to figure out a way to work with your HR department and find some solutions for the issues, or you need to weigh the true value of your super-star against the potential loss of trust, productivity and actual employees from the teams who are complaining about your super-star.

No matter how much money someone is bringing into the company, if their leadership is causing strife in the teams, they either need to be coached in their leadership or they need to find a different path. Either way, it is your job to take care of it.

Handing this off or ignoring the issue is irresponsible to the company, your company and will eventually result in a far greater loss than is ever gained by your super-star. I have witnessed this in a company and watched as it slowly and painfully became the one place no one wanted to be due to a few ‘superstars’. The environment is toxic and the damage is irreparable, all of which could have been avoided by someone with strength enough to remove folks who are counter-productive to a healthy culture.

Know your people – all of them, not just the apparent super-stars!

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Categories : Conflict, Leadership

Tags : Bad Boss, complaining, frustrated employees, irresponsible boss, poor leadership

When cultures collide, does the CEO take charge?

by Patti Blackstaffe · Comments (1)

22 Sep

Rutting sm1 When cultures collide, does the CEO take charge?

Image provided by Sias van Schalkwyk, South Africa

If you’ve ever belonged to a company that’s been taken over through a merger or acquisition by another company, rest assured, your original Executive will change camps.

Companies typically buy other companies for how the product leverages its portfolio or market share, not because it’s filled with rocking collaborators.

I have yet to see a merger or acquisition result in anything less than a collision of cultures.

The difference in the success or failure after the purchase or merging of these cultures can be described in how the collision takes place. It can be anywhere from a bump of the shoulders and eventual turn toward the same goal to a total a write-off like a car left in a twisted wreck.

The change-management of such a significant alteration in the ‘flow’ of an organization takes time and effort, and it begins at the CEO level. Acceptance of good decisions in the purchase or merger with another company almost always is adopted by the executive first. Let’s face the fact, it behoves them to do so. The higher in the organization you are, the more you must adopt the direction set forth before you if you are to remain and still play nice in the sandbox and reach success.

If little or no change-management or clarity of direction is offered the employees, they’ll feel like they’ve been betrayed as they witness their executive ‘going over’ to the other side.

People like their current work-flow (good or bad) and significant change shakes up the apple cart – this requires guidance and leadership. Guidance begins, (and must be followed through), at the CEO level. The CEO who rolls up the sleeves, gets involved in the change-management and helps the organization evolve is better equipped to retain its best talent, industry expertise and product knowledge.

Choose to leave it to others, and those others will follow your lead, leaving it to others all the way down the chain until the mass exodus out the door begins at the front line levels and works its way back up. What are you risking by ignoring the obvious?

Patti is a strategic advisor in Leadership Development, Customer Service and Culture through Mergers and Acquisition. You can book her to speak at her Speakers Page.

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