The Vargas Group

None of us can do our jobs alone. Let me rephrase that – there may be some jobs that only require the work and input of a sole individual but I wouldn’t want to work that way. And in corporate America today, most of us find ourselves dependent on others to successfully accomplish our tasks. So what if they weren’t there? Or what if they decided to be extremely difficult or obstinate and simply refuse to do what you need them to? Worse yet, what if they sabotaged you and went out of their way to be sure you failed?

So if you aren’t working with creepy people like the above-mentioned, what are you doing to show your partners how grateful you are for their help and cooperation? In today’s lean workplace, everyone has more than enough to do and if, you want to be sure your needs remain a high priority with your co-workers or cross-functional team members, it helps if you show a little old-fashioned gratitude. Yes, turns out your mother was right – saying “Thanks” on a regular basis improves the relationship!

If you lead teams or staff, set the example. Thank them first. This doesn’t have to be a costly endeavor – in fact, most of my suggestions fall in the free or almost free category. Leave little notes of gratitude on the desks of your team members. Recognize some specific thing they did: “Thanks for getting that email out to the client before you left last night!” or “I appreciate how you always lend a hand to the newer employees.” Nothing fuels commitment and loyalty like an unexpected pat on the back. Leave other surprises such as a candy or a cupcake on each person’s desk or bring in cookies for the team. You’ll know you’ve set a good example when your team members begin to do this for one another. One of my former employees became known for his surprise thank-you ice-cream sandwiches!

Next, thank those who help your team succeed – the Quality Assurance staff, the IT people, the managers of people serving on your cross-functional team, etc. Your gratitude should be tangible but, again, not costly. When I managed technology teams, we would assemble baskets made of baked goodies and candies, all of us would sign a personal thank you note and then I’d deliver them to the Operations Center, Help Desk, Network Support and even our internal customers. That small expression of our gratitude for their hard work and support reaped many, many rewards in their willingness to go the extra mile for us.

So often I hear managers say, “They’re only doing their job. Why do we need to thank them?” Well, here’s why: It’s the right thing to do. Most of us work hard and would do so with or without a thank-you but we all like the occasional recognition of a job well done. So during this Thanksgiving season, make a new tradition in your workplace. Say “Thanks!”

It’s a challenging economic environment – ok – I get it.

What I don’t understand is how so many companies adopt a “one-size-fits-all” approach to cost management and expense reduction. The common actions seem to include across-the-board-cuts whether it makes sense for their type of business or not. When companies fail to plan carefully and deal ethically, they can seriously damage their reputations in the business and employee community. “This too shall pass” – how we manage today has everything to do with how well we recover when the time comes. If I could be so bold as to make some suggestions:

1. Look at cost management first. Where could you streamline, consolidate and eliminate in terms of operating costs? One company I worked with was able to eliminate more than $100k in software maintenance and licensing costs since they weren’t even using the software any longer! Another realized they had two applications that basically did the same thing and settled on one of them, again eliminating those costly annual support fees.

2. Could you change your method of operations? By considering alternative work practices, one company closed one of their locations, implemented a telecommuting strategy for those job functions where it made sense and redeployed the employees from the closed office to the home office.

3. Take a close look at some of your projects. Do you have projects that go on and on and on with no end in sight? This is common with internal projects – often they have outlived the business necessity and continue because no one remembers why they were doing it. Re-evaluate and redeploy your valuable resources.

4. Finally, once your expenditures are as lean as they can get, consider workforce reduction. Since this is often the FIRST place companies cut, I purposely leave it for last. Downsizing requires careful planning and an eye to the future – you do not want to cut the wrong people, in the wrong areas, at the wrong time. This is where alignment is more important than ever. Consider this:

*Which job functions have a direct impact on your ability to serve your customers and deliver product? If you are a manufacturer, for example, you probably don’t want to eliminate production staff.

*Who are your poorest performers? If you do performance reviews you should have the data that will tell you who should be the first to go. (If you aren’t doing performance reviews, we’ll talk about THAT at another time!)

*Do you have well documented process flows that indicate the inter-dependencies among departments? Example – one company I know of eliminated a Database Engineer in their IT department and a finance associate in the accounting department in early April. Come July, the sales division started screaming for their pipeline reports. Turns out the Database guy extracted the data and staged it on a server somewhere and the finance associate would retrieve the data and turn it into reports for the Sales team. Who would have known – until they were both gone!

When downsizing is inevitable, apply ethical, fair and consistent methods. One well-known company targeted those closest to being fully vested in their retirement plan – certainly not ethical or fair, and likely illegal. Contrast it with another company that based the decisions on job functions and performance and provided a small severance and outplacement services. Which one will fare better in terms of reputational risk?

In times of uncertainty and volatility, the impulse to react is hard to resist. Organizations that apply a strategic and cautious approach with an eye towards future operations will emerge stronger, leaner and more effective than ever!

Personally, I get tired of superstars. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been one and I’m a little jealous. Or maybe because their phenomenal success seems so unattainable. I choose to believe it’s because of what I’ve learned as an experienced manager and an organizational coach – they tend to be a little high maintenance. They start believing their own press and pretty soon they want more money, a better office, special perks – and after all that, shazam! They get a better offer and they’re outta there!

I really like team players. I admire the talented individual who recognizes the power of the collective we – the top performer who applies their expertise and skill to helping the company, the group, the project succeed. I especially admire those who have achieved a senior level in the organization and recognize they couldn’t have done it alone and maintain their sense of balance and humility.

When my sons played youth basketball, they had a coach that stressed assists over points. Following every game, he would acknowledge the points that were scored, but he would spend more time praising those who assisted in making the points. The message was clear – you may have put the ball through the hoop, but two or three other guys were responsible for getting the ball to you. Every step was as important as the previous one. Even Michael Jordan had to learn this lesson when University of North Carolina men’s basketball coach Dean Smith told him, “Michael, if you can’t pass, you can’t play!” Imagine how MJ’s career would have been hampered had he not learned the valuable lesson that, talented as he was, he was a member of a TEAM!

EXTREME managers learn how to extract the very best from each and every person on their team – from every person they lead. In doing so, they encourage top performance and stand a better chance of achieving success. Look at the people you have working for you – have you been focusing on your superstars to the exclusion of others? Are you inadvertently creating little prima donnas that suck the inititaive out of the rest of your folks? If so, go back to basics – encourage the assists!

The other day I decided to take a 24 hour sabbatical from the news: I had reached my tolerance limit for irresponsibility. Bad news doesn’t bother me – sad news doesn’t even bother me – but a constant barrage of bad business decisions, followed by even worse “solutions” left me feeling powerless and in need of a mental health day! Fortunately I was able to attend a couple of chat sessions later that day with like-minded business professionals who value innovation and forward movement – and helped restore my faith in the future.

But I began to wonder, what are others feeling? Like I said, I have a pretty high threshold for pain but I also have a strong support system around me. Considering the economic climate and the workforce uncertainty around us, leaders should be asking themselves how their employees are doing. Tough times can lead to errant behavior – even the best worker can fold under the strain of challenges both at home and at work. Take a look around: are you seeing an increase in absenteeism? Are you having to mediate more interpersonal disagreements than usual? Has productivity slipped? How many of your employees have spouses who are unemployed?

In light of the 24/7 information overload we all live in, it’s easy to feel a loss of control – decisions are being made all around us that we have little or no say in. Pay attention to the impact this may be having – no, probably IS having, on your workforce and be sure step up your communication. Be as open and honest as possible about the current financial state of your company. Ensure everyone is aware of your Employee Assistance Programs or other benefits available to them such as Health Fairs or Fitness Center memberships. Take note of your employees who are maxing out their vacation time due to decreased staff and encourage them to take a day off – they likely need it and you can’t afford to burn them out.

Empathetic, intuitive leadership will make a significant difference in the way we progress through the coming months. How are you doing – and even more – how are those around you doing?

I recently read a great article on bnet.com called “The Five Ways Managers Breed Incompetence” <a href=”http://blogs.bnet.com/bnet1/?p=1604&tag=nl.e713

I have long contended that many employee problems are really management problems. Now, before all you managers and executives get your knickers in a bunch, I am one of you – and I still believe this. And I said many, not all.

One of the ways cited in the article was “Rewarding Mediocrity.” Hear, hear. An organization I once worked for had this process down pat. As I was leaving a meeting where one of the senior product managers had tap-danced his way through a late schedule, incomplete deliverables and cost over-runs, I cynically thought to myself, “He’s in line for a VP position.” Even though I was half joking (gallows humor, you know) my premonition came true within the week.

And just as cited in the article, the impact his promotion had on me and other employees was surely not the behavior senior management hoped to foster. I read the announcement in my morning email, among all the customer issues, employee questions, SPAM, industry requirements, and last, but not least, new requirements from HR for performance measurements. I carefully read the new Employee Review form but couldn’t seem to find the one I had just witnessed: How to reward my charming bottom feeders.

Do you want to encourage Excellence? Set expectations and then manage to them. REWARD BASED ON PERFORMANCE, period. Whatever your organization’s Performance Measurement process may be, don’t allow your managers to skate through it, or worse, ignore it. Set the expectation for them, too. What gets measured, gets attention.

Welcome to my blog. I know, I know, why in the world would anyone want to read yet another blog …. well, here’s why. I’m a gud riter. No seriously, I’ll not inundate you with a daily update of my comings and goings. At best, I’ll write once a month – maybe every few weeks. And my topics are usually centered around the workplace – what’s working, what isn’t, and what we can reasonably do about it.

Here’s what’s on my mind today. I heard an essay on NPR last week during the “This I Believe” segment. It was titled “Work is a Blessing” and the writer was talking about the lessons he learned from his father and grandfather about the virtues of hard work and self-support. I found it very inspiring and so in line with my own thinking.

As I continue to pour though the stimulus package (http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary01-15-09.pdf) I find myself becoming more concerned. You see, I truly believe that people are better than we give them credit for. I don’t think most Americans need a bailout plan. I don’t believe the government needs to take care of me. I believe that, left to our own devices, we are brilliant – talented, hard-working, able to address serious issues and hardships. Somewhere along the way, the government has become too interested in MY business.

What does this have to do with business? If you can’t run your business like you would if the money was coming directly out of your pocket – then step aside and let those more responsible than you have a hand at it. You simply cannot spend more than you make. (Hmmm… that goes for the government, too.) Didn’t we learn this as kids? Or, at least, that first hard lesson as young adults when you realized credit had to be paid back????

We are better than this. But with a “stimulus” bailout like this, we’ll not find out anytime soon.

Today’s rant has come to an end. The next one will be more focused, I promise.

I recently wrote a blog for BizSanDiego (my favorite local mag, by the way) where I proposed that downsizing could be the BIGGEST mistake  a company could make. How so? If there isn’t some careful planning and forethought given to it.

Every time the economy goes into an adjustment period, individuals and organizations have to adjust, too. We all have to tighten our belts, cut costs and rethink the way we do things. Too often in companies, though, in trying to reach a desirable bottom line number, we cut costs in the wrong areas and end up crippling the business. Here’s a true story:

A local company made sweeping personnel cuts across the organization. They treated the furloughed employees with dignity and care and the exit was as graceful as possible, however they made one significant error. They had not fully reviewed the assigned tasks of these employees to ensure there was backup support once they were gone.  About 60 days later, it came to light that critical quarterly sales reports were not being generated and the remote salesforce was without meaningful, relevant data. You guessed it – the database engineer in charge of that data process had been let go along with the sales assistant that compiled and produced the reports. Two seemingly unrelated individuals whose absence sent the company into a mad scramble to figure out how to fill the gap. They ended up offering both former employees a contract to come back and train others on how to do their job – and only one of them was willing to do so.

I recommend a process called OPSthat utilizes Optimization, Performance and Strategy to help organizations achieve their desired result -  to streamline costs without impeding business continuity. In these difficult times, considering the big picture will be your best bet.

Here’s what’s on my mind today. I heard an essay on NPR last week during the “This I Believe” segment. It was titled “Work is a Blessing” and the writer was talking about the lessons he learned from his father and grandfather about the virtues of hard work and self-support. I found it very inspiring and so in line with my own thinking.

As I continue to pour though the stimulus package (http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary01-15-09.pdf) I find myself becoming more concerned. You see, I truly believe that people are better than we give them credit for. I don’t think most Americans need a bailout plan. I don’t believe the government needs to take care of me. I believe that, left to our own devices, we are brilliant – talented, hard-working, able to address serious issues and hardships. Somewhere along the way, the government has become too interested in MY business.

What does this have to do with business? If you can’t run your business like you would if the money was coming directly out of your pocket – then step aside and let those more responsible than you have a hand at it. You simply cannot spend more than you make. (Hmmm… that goes for the government, too.) Didn’t we learn this as kids? Or, at least, that first hard lesson as young adults when you realized credit had to be paid back????

We are better than this. But with a “stimulus” bailout like this, we’ll not find out anytime soon.

Today’s rant has come to an end. The next one will be more focused, I promise.