Using Different Styles of Interaction

Effective leaders learn to use different styles of interaction depending on the situation they face and the individual employees they must deal with. In today's post, Bill Gilmore, Senior Planner at Whitcraft LLC in Eastford CT, provides a very good example of using different styles of interaction. His company was in the processing of creating manufacturing cells and he knew that three people would not like that change. Here's Bill's example reprinted with permission:

"We were creating manufacturing cells at work that affected about 15 people. Having a good working relationship with all of them, I knew the three people who would be upset by the change and it gave me a chance to include them in different ways.

"One of the guys was going to complain no matter what, so I started probing him two weeks before we moved everything and made sure every negative thing he said was at least considered or worked around when possible. He happily moved and got his way on a couple of things that were good ideas but never would have come out if I didn't talk to him.

"Person number two was only concerned with where his tools would be located. Knowing his concern I was able to fit a shared tool chest in the cell and he was happy.

"The last person is the type of person that just doesn't understand why we need to improve everything and go faster so that gives him a bad attitude, but of course he won't ask any questions or give his input either. Knowing this, I went out of the way to explain why we were doing what we were doing and the money it would save without working any harder. Actually it will be easier because all his tools will be right there to use. He moved with no problems and very little negative comments."

In conclusion, Bill went on to say that his company is working on a number of change initiatives. He has seen several cases where the change process did not go well, where there were many problems and much arguing because the person leading the change did not understand how his people think or what makes them tick.

Thanks very much for the real-world example Bill. The key to managing people is to understand what drives each individual employee, and then to adjust our style of interaction with each individual in such a way that we get the very best performance from each unique person who works with us.

Bill Gilmore lives in Pomfret, CT and completed our Managing People program at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson, CT yesterday.

About me: Dan Pelley teaches Managing People, a 16-hour program concerned with the topics of motivating people, developing positive attitudes, being more effective in getting the best out of each unique employee, and handling people problems. The program is offered to companies as an on-site program, and it is also offered on an open enrollment basis in Danielson, CT and Lincoln, RI.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Fun!

Here's some thoughts on making the workplace fun contributed by Dawn M. Coyer who works at Citizen's National Bank; reprinted with permission.

"Being a teller can be very a serious and stressful position. I have found by using humor (the joke of the day) and creativity with props (when a teller is balanced they ring a bell and all the other tellers clap for them) in the everyday job gives all individuals a positive attitude and helps to increase overall team performance and cohesiveness.

"I hold a monthly group discussion to decide what special days we will celebrate for the up coming month from a list of national days. Examples are Western Day when we dressed up like cowboys and served popcorn to our customers, and National Give a Hug Day when we gave out Hershey Hugs to all our customers.

"Since implementing these ideas I have helped create a workplace that we all look forward to going to including our customers and upper management. All of these things benefit my performance as a leader by helping to keep my team members in good spirits. When they feel good about their job they are much more efficient and accurate."

Dan says: Thanks for your contribution Dawn!

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, both new managers seeking to learn new skills and more experienced managers seeking to update their skills. We also encourage everyone to participate in the blog by commenting on any post, or by submitting your own article for posting. If you would like to know more about submitting articles or topics for consideration, click here to send me an e-mail.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Get to Know the Human Being

In a recent homework assignment. a new supervisor examined the issue of motivating employees to improve accuracy, take on more responsibility and work with less supervision. The supervisor's approach was to "evaluate staff regarding job knowledge," and "research motivators for each staff member." Good things to do of course, but much too formal from my perspective.

I advised the new supervisor to also get to know each individual employee as a human being. Practice MBWA (management by walking around), socializing with them and getting to know them well as a boss and as a friend. When we take the time to know someone as an individual human being; when we get to know their personality traits, attitudes, values, standards, approach to work and so forth; when we get to know someone as a colleague and a friend; the formalities of evaluating their motivation (interests and needs) becomes far easier to do and we tend to be able to perform those evaluations with far more accuracy.

About me: Dan Pelley teaches Managing People, a 16-hour program concerned with the topics of motivating people, developing positive attitudes, being more effective in getting the best out of each unique employee, and handling people problems. The program is offered to companies as an on-site program, and it is also offered on an open enrollment basis in Danielson, CT and Lincoln, RI.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

The Abrasive Achiever

A manager had a very good employee with a very bad trait. An employee who does a significant quantity of work with good results. An employee who asks the manager to set priorities when the workload is getting heavy, and also alerts the manager when a job will not meet the deadline.

Unfortunately the employee is also quite abrasive to co-workers who disrupt his work with questions, or requests for information or assistance. With little or no tact he lets them know just how much of a workload he has, how busy he is, and how their disruption is an imposition.

Sounds to me like the manager is dealing with an abrasive achiever; a person with a high focus on achievement of task, and a low focus on working with other people. This sort of person loves to blast through a heavy backlog of work while meeting all goals including quality and timeliness so they can gain recognition for outstanding performance and results. They tend to get frustrated and angry when anything disrupts their forward momentum, and their forceful, driven nature causes them to have little patience or tact when dealing with the disruption.

The end result is not good for department teamwork or harmony. Relationships with co-workers become strained, morale suffers. On the other hand, we don't like to be critical and possibly demoralize one of our "best" workers when it comes to getting things done. What to do?

Guard against overloading the achiever with so much work they have little time to assist others. Achievers will generally take on as much work as you can give them and then try to get it all done. When there is an overload of work, the achiever puts their head down and works even harder, under increasing pressure and with a rising stress level which intensifies focus on getting it done and an increases awareness that a deadline may be missed. Along comes a co-worker with an innocent question and the achiever snaps.

Also realize that when you give an achiever a slightly lighter workload, they are usually quite willing to help co-workers as part of the achiever's need to fill the day with things to do.

Just how much work should be given to your achiever will always be a balancing act and a judgment call. Hopefully the guidance above will help. But you also must make sure your achiever clearly understands that, no matter how great their individual workload, abrasiveness, rudeness, lack of cooperation and respect for others are not acceptable behaviors and cannot and will not be tolerated.

About me: Dan Pelley teaches Managing People, a 16-hour program concerned with the topics of motivating people, developing positive attitudes, being more effective in getting the best out of each unique employee, and handling people problems. The program is offered to companies as an on-site program, and it is also offered on an open enrollment basis in Danielson, CT and Lincoln, RI.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Be Proactive With Yourself

My supervision series has several homework assignments, two of which involve self-assessments. Personal traits and characteristics are looked at in "Managing People" and leadership traits and characteristics are looked at in "Leadership Skills." After assessing all characteristics, the homework assignments ask participants to select a trait that represents their best strength and describe the benefits resulting from that strength. Next participants select a trait that represents their worst deficiency and describe the negative results caused by that trait. Finally participants present action steps to reduce, downplay, minimize or eliminate the problem.

All too often, the answers to the final question are far too passive in approach. Participants talk about what they would do, could do or should do. At the extreme some participants say they "will think about it", "try to fix it" or "make an effort to do better." These approaches are passive; they do not reflect clear action steps or a sense of timing. I get the impression that writing the answers to the homework question represents the sum total of the participant's efforts to solve their problem.

For example, recently a person wanted to be more creative. His action plan consisted solely and exclusively of talking to his peers who most likely would have creative ideas as well as encouraging his direct reports to come up with new ideas. That's a passive approach.

If a person truly wants to be more creative, innovative, a leader of change and an implementer of new ideas, one has to actively develop and pursue a number of resources beyond our own circle of acquaintances. Attending professional development seminars. Going to trade shows. Taking continuing education classes especially in areas we are not familiar with. Subscribing to relevant trade journals and magazines. Joining on-line groups and forums. Volunteering to investigate and report on an emerging trend. With that expanded approach a person would have several things to do. The potential to be more proactive would be at hand. But until the person writes out an action plan with target dates, it's still too passive.

"I will attend the Northeast Region Convention of (association) on (dates). I will attend the National (industry) Trade Show in (location) on (date). I will catch up on the (on-line) forum at least once a week, no later than Thursday. I will go to the library tonight and take out the best book they can recommend on innovation; and I will read it completely before the return date. I will submit six new continuous improvement ideas to my boss in writing, one every other month for the next twelve months." And so forth. Now that's a specific proactive action plan. When you put that kind of thought into it, you are more likely to commit to it. If you commit to it, you are likely to do it. If you do it, you should improve in the area of creativity, or whatever other area of self improvement you choose.

About Pelleyblog: Pelleyblog is designed to be a resource for supervisors and other first line managers. Currently most of our readers are from Rhode Island (RI), Central Massachusetts (MA) and Eastern Connecticut (CT). But everyone interested in management topics is welcome. We also welcome your participation. Feel free to comment on this or any other post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Stop on Time

Consult any source on how to run a good meeting, and this rule will always be included: Start on Time! But many sources overlook a less common, but far more powerful rule: End on Time!

Here's how you do it: At the beginning of the meeting, announced to everyone that the meeting will end by a certain time. Let everyone know the end time will not be flexible, so everyone needs to focus. (Say this in whatever way you believe will best convey the message in a sincere way).

During the meeting, whenever things seem to be off track, or topics drag on, and it appears you are headed once again for a meeting that will run late, remind everyone of the meeting's inflexible end time. Do that as often as you believe necessary.

As you get to within about 10 minutes of the meeting end time, remind everyone of the fixed end time. If you have to, remind again with five minutes to go. When the meeting end time comes, stand up, thank everyone and leave.

It's hard to tell you exactly what will happen next ( as I don't know how the people in your group react when they encounter something that's never happened to them before). In my experience, you might find that people will argue that the meeting isn't finished. Or people may argue that they weren't finished yet. Or the agenda wasn't completed. Or they still had things to talk about. People may complain that no one has ever done that before. Some people may be stunned. Others may label you as being arbitrary or dictatorial. Others may not know what to do with themselves.

Here's the key: even though you are putting an arbitrary stop to the meeting right now, you can always reconvene the meeting later on today or tomorrow if necessary. But by stopping now you will send a clear message about meeting stop times. And when the meeting resumes next time, continue to follow the outline described above.

It won't be very long before people know that your meetings will end on time. And you'll be amazed at how self-policing your meetings become. People will stick to the agenda. People will speak up when others waste time, or get off subject, or let things drag on. You'll find that those people who have urgent things to talk about at the meeting will be most vocal in helping you police your meeting.

About me: Dan Pelley teaches Meeting facilitation skills as part of his "Participative Management (Building High Performance Teams)" program, one of five programs leading to a Certificate in Supervisory Management. 137 companies in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York have one or more people who earned this certificate.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Take a Lesson From Purdue University

I read a great article the other day in The Providence Journal. About two guys at Purdue University who are doing something we all should try to do. Brett Westcott and Cameron Brown are called "The Compliment Guys." Every Wednesday they stand at the center of campus and offer compliments to hundreds of passersby.

Westcott, quoted in another article posted on the Purdue University website, says "the pair has given thousands of free compliments, sometimes requiring quick thinking and machine-gun delivery during busy passing periods. Typical objects of praise are people's shoes, pants, jackets, hats, sunglasses, scarves, backpacks, hairstyles and smiles." And the reaction has been wonderful. Here's two more quotes from the Purdue website:

"These guys brighten my day every Wednesday," said Rachel Taylor, a junior from Fairplay, Colo., who recently repaid a compliment on her plaid jacket with snack food she had purchased for herself. "They are so much fun!" Graduate student Richard Severe comments "Whatever they can come up with at the time they will compliment you on. It feels good. I try to throw compliments back to acknowledge them."

Those readers who have taken my "Managing People" and "Leadership Skills" programs know how important it is to build rapport with employees by practicing "management by walking around;" spending a few minutes each day in social conversation with each employee. But we all know that sometimes we get busy and don't have time for even a few minutes of social conversation. So take a lesson from "The Compliment Guys" and give a compliment as you pass by. You don't have to stop to do it, and I think you'll find your employees will love it.

Click here to see the entire article on the Purdue University website.


About me: Dan Pelley offers a series of five programs leading to a Certificate in Supervisory Management. The five programs are "Managing People,: "Leadership Skills," "Managing For Results," "Proactive Leadership," and "Participative Management." 137 companies in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York have one or more people who earned this certificate.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.