Leadership Flagship

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.~ John Quincy Adams

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  • Attitude Problems – 8 Steps for Handling Challenging Situations

    Attitude Problems – 8 Steps for Handling Challenging Situations

    Handling employees with attitude problems can be challenging. With some employees, the problem isn’t a matter of ability, it’s a matter of attitude. This can manifest itself in everything from quiet disobedience to outright insubordination, ultimately resulting in a toxic environment for everyone.

    So, how should you respond?

    By addressing the situation strictly as a behavioral problem, rather than becoming embroiled in a debate about the employee’s dysfunctional attitude, it’s not only easier to resolve, but also a better way to make a case for dismissal if it comes down to it.

    How should you react when faced with poor-performing or disruptive employees?

    Nobody likes confrontation and unfortunately, too many managers tend to overlook these behaviors rather than deal with them immediatelt, hoping the situation will resolve itself. Not only does this pertpetuate the behavior, but it is not fair to the other employees. Additionally, not only will your reputation suffer, but the organization’s integrity will suffer as well.

    The result: problems worsen, morale deteriorates and productivity takes a major hit.

    While dealing with volitile employees head-on is not recommended, dealing with issues as they occur and not waiting until there have been multiple incedents sends the message that the organization does not tolerate that type of behavior.

    Here are some guidelines you may find helpful in diffusing these behaviors and protecting the organization:

    1. Start by documenting the behavior

    Write down specific verbal and physical behaviors and actions that concern you, hurt team morale, damage productivity or reflect badly on the organization. Don’t forget to record nonverbal behaviors, such as clenching fists, rolling eyes,  and staring into space.

    1. Narrow the issue to the precise problem. Identify exactly what type of behavior the attitude has caused and what triggers it, if possible.  This list may help:
    • Carelessness
    • Complaining
    • Disruptive or explosive conduct
    • Inattention to work
    • Insensitivity to others
    • Insubordination
    • Laziness
    • Negative/cynical posture
    • Surly/inconsiderate/rude talk
    • Excessive socializing
    1. Record the frequency of such misconduct and how it affects work flow and colleagues’ performance.  This may come from personal observation as well as complaints from other empolyees
    2. List good business reasons why the behavior must end. Never make it sound like a personal attack-rather take the position that each team member’s contributions are valuable
    3. When meeting with the employee to discuss attitude problems, try to determine whether they have a reason for their behavior. Is it a grudge against you or against the company in general?
    4. Follow up with a description of the preferred behavior, such as cooperation, helpfulness and courteousness. Be honest and direct. Requiring an employee to bre  courteous and cooperative at work is a given.
    5. Give the employee the opportunity to speak. The person may be unaware of what he or she is doing or not realize how it impedes other people’s work. It may also turn out that the attitude problem is a symptom of a more serious problem that needs referral to the employee assistance program.

    What’s the best approach?
    Discovering the root cause of the problem is not always easy – especially if it is of a personal nature. For example:

    • Poor performance may be a result of lack of training, inability to perform the tasks,  outside distractions, or employee disengagement – understanding the root cause will help you determine the next steps
    • Avoid “management malpractice” – make sure you have all your facts and have verified them
    • Remain  objective – it’s too easy to lose your “cool”. If you feel you are about to lose control, take a short 5 min intermission, regain your composure, get a drink of water, then return to your meeting
    • Avoid making it personal – words like a “I”, “you”, “me” should be replaced with, “we”, “we as a team”, “our goals” etc. These are “inclusive” words that will help the employee feel they are part of the team and not someone looking in
    • Engage the employee in setting their own goals and help them outline their approach
    • Remember at all times that you are not only their boss, but their coach & their mentor — if you want them to get your projects done in the manner you want them done, work on promoting a healthy  mentoring environment
    • Discussing performance only during the performance appraisal is like dieting only on your birthday and wondering why you’re not losing weight! Reward small accomplishments along the way and have a brief  1:1 to catch up and see if they have any questions and monitor their progress. Schedule follow up meetings.

    Keep in mind that engagement tactics don’t work the same way for every employee. Engagement is a long-term investment. Once you stop thinking about engagement as an expense and start thinking about it as an investment, you will realize that engagement programs help your employees become better, more committed workers and therefore more productive. It is never too late to create these types of programs.

    Engagement has been shown to improve retention –engaged employees tend to stay with a company AND  they love what they do.

    At the end of the day ask yourself some of these questions:

    • Does the employee add enough value to your organization to try and salvage them?
    • Are the underlying issues that fuels their challenging behavior something you and your company are prepared and willing to worth with in order to transform them?
    • Has the employee demonstrated a willingness to change and fall in line with the organization’s goals?

    If you can’t get to the root of the problem, you will more than likely not be able to resolve the problem. Knowing when to relieve someone of their duties is just as important as taking the right steps to getting it done.

  • SCIENCE SAYS GETTING TO WORK EARLY MAY MAKE YOUR BOSS LIKE YOU

    SCIENCE SAYS GETTING TO WORK EARLY MAY MAKE YOUR BOSS LIKE YOU

    by Robby Berman on Jan 22, 2016 5:00:00 AM

    Though companies are experimenting with flexible work schedules, it may be that all hours aren’t really created equal when it comes to getting ahead. Studies suggest bosses — and even coworkers — develop different impressions of people who work different hours.

    8 Hours Is 8 Hours, Right?

    According to a new study from the University of Washington, employees who start work early are perceived by bosses as being more conscientious, and receive better performance evaluations as a result. Even if they leave earlier in the day.

    In the study, UW researchers conducted three experiments. In one, they wanted to see if there was any kind of general, unconscious linguistic association people made between words like “sunrise” and “sunset” and words like “conscientious” and “industriousness.” Curiously, they found that most of the 120 people they interviewed did implicitly associate those last two words with morning.

    For the second experiment, researchers interviewed 149 employee/supervisor pairs and asked the employees the time at which they arrived at work. (All of them worked roughly the same number of hours overall.) The supervisors consistently rated the early-bird employees more highly. If the supervisors themselves were inclined to get to work early, they were even more prone to be impressed by these employees.

    In the third test, researchers tried to see if this same bias applied to how we all feel about people who get to work early. 150 undergraduates were asked to compare two fictional workers, one who worked from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and one who worked from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. And yep, the students rated the first worker as more conscientious and effective. And again, the more a student was personally inclined to rise early, the stronger this preference became.

    Why Are You So Flexible, Anyway?

    A different study from 2012 suggests that an employee’s perceived reasons for taking advantage of flexible work practices also affects how they’re perceived. If someone is viewed as leveraging flexible work hours to be more effective at their job, people are impressed. If an employee uses the flexibility in order to take care of personal needs, the opposite is true. Hm.

    This means that as companies continue to assess the benefits of flexible working hours, an employee should be aware of how new scheduling options can affect their own chances of success.

  • Is Docking Pay for Overuse of PTO Legal Under FLSA?

    Is Docking Pay for Overuse of PTO Legal Under FLSA?

    Source: http://www.flsa.com/coverage.html

    Every once in a while this happens: an employee who has used up all allotted paid time off (PTO) is absent and the mistake is only caught later.

    Many firms dock the employee’s pay. But is it legal under FLSA?

    Three keys

    The answer is yes – so long as you meet certain requirements.

    According to the Department of Labor, PTO banks, paid vacation and and paid sick days are fringe benefits (which aren’t covered by FLSA).

    As a result, you’re allowed to make deductions for absent employees who have already used up their PTO.

    Three conditions:

    • Your organization must have a “bona fide” PTO (or separate vacation and sick day) benefits plan
    • Deductions for a salaried employee’s unexcused absences come in full-day increments, and
    • Your state and/or local labor laws don’t prohibit deductions.

    What’s meant by bona fide?

    In order to be considered a bona fide benefits plan, your paid time off policy (including the potential for deductions resulting from accidental PTO overuse) must be communicated in writing to employees.

    This requirement is partially met if you include a PTO section in your benefits handbook. The other part: administering PTO policies exactly as they’re described.

    Important: Under FLSA, if you don’t have a bona fide PTO plan, it’s illegal to make deductions.

    Why full-day increments?

    Even if your PTO plan allows salaried employees to take partial days off, you should only make deductions on a full-day basis.

    Reason: Under FLSA’s complex formula for determining if an employee is exempt or non-exempt from overtime, partial-day deductions can compromise the OT status of an exempt employee.

    Under FLSA, the amount of salaried compensation doesn’t include fringe benefits.

    Therefore, while you can measure benefits in partial-day increments, corresponding pay for exempts must be measured in full-day increments.

    Note: Partial-day deductions won’t automatically make an OT-exempt employee non-exempt.

    To be sure, visit the FLSA-required wage tests at http://www.flsa.com/coverage.html and additional information.

  • The Best Foods to Burn Calories

    The Best Foods to Burn Calories

    Boost your weight loss results with smart diet choices

    By Malia Frey – Reviewed by a board-certified physician.
    Updated September 09, 2016

    You already know that a good workout can burn calories. And you might even boost your step count during the day to burn calories and slim down. But did you know that you can choose certain foods to burn calories?

    Everything that you do during the day burns calories, including eating. But eating some foods can burn more calories than others. And the best calorie-burning foods provide other nutritional and weight-loss benefits as well.

     How Food Burns Calories

    When you eat food, you consume calories or energy.  But you also need energy to carry out the eating process. Chewing, digesting and storing food require your body to burn calories. Scientists call it the thermic effect of food or TEF.  Your TEF is a primary component of your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE.  That’s the total number of calories that you burn throughout the day. 

    So how much more can you burn with the best calorie-burning foods? Unfortunately, not many. The calories you burn from eating and digesting food make up only 5 -10 percent of your daily calorie expenditure.  That means that if you burn 2000 calories per day, you burn about 100-200 of those calories from eating food, roughly 30-75 calories per meal, regardless of the foods you choose. You might be able to boost the number a little bit with better food choices.

    The Best Foods to Burn Calories

    While you burn calories digesting any food, there are some foods that burn more calories than others.

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    When you eat a meal that is high in protein, you burn more calories from TEF than when you eat a meal that is high in carbohydrates or high in fat.  Simply put, your body has to work harder to break down and store protein than it does to break down and store carbohydrates and fat.

    Foods with protein can also help your body burn more calories by helping you to build and maintain muscle.

    If you participate in strength training activities, you’ll build muscle more effectively if you eat the right amount of protein. If your body carries more muscle, you burn more calories all day long.

    So which protein foods are best for your diet? A single-serving (about 3 ounces) of these lean protein foods can provide a calorie-burning boost and other nutritional benefits:

    • Chicken
    • Tuna
    • Lean cuts of beef
    • Turkey
    • Salmon
    • Lean Pork

    Your body also has to work harder to chew and digest fiber. Also known as “roughage,” foods with fiber can relieve indigestion and promote good digestive health. When you choose a side dish to serve with your protein, consider adding foods that are full of fiber. Radishes, celery, hearts of palm and white beans are great examples. And spicy vegetables might help to burn more calories, too. Some evidence suggests that eating spicy food can (slightly) boost your body temperature to burn more calories.

    When you combine protein foods with fiber-rich food, you help to curb hunger cravings for hours after you eat.

    So not only do these foods burn calories but they also help you to eat less and consume fewer calories throughout the day.

    Choosing Foods to Lose Weight

    Choosing foods to burn calories can make a small difference in your weight loss plan, but it won’t make or break your diet. The thermic effect of food is an important part of your total caloric expenditure, but trying to change it is not the most effective way to lose weight.

    However, if the increased TEF of protein serves as a reminder to build healthy meals around lean protein, then your weight loss program may benefit in the long run. Choose weight loss foods and plan meals that help to keep you energized and satisfied. A nutritious, calorie-controlled diet will provide the best results.

    Sources:

    Bryant, Cedric, Ph.D., FACSM, Daniel J Green, Sabrena Merrill, M.S. “Thermic Effect of Food” American Council on Exercise Health Coach Manual, 2013 pgs. 228-229

  • Difficult Conversations with Employees – 3 Tips to Make Them Easier

    Difficult Conversations with Employees – 3 Tips to Make Them Easier

    Difficulty conversations in the work environment are unavoidable at times. These difficult conversations can range from inappropriate attire to offensive behavior, tardiness, personal hygiene and poor work habits.  We would much rather talk about positive reinforcement, praise and promotions; however, as a leader, you will run into this from time to time and have to deliver bad news. So, how do you do it and preserve a healthy culture?

    Perception is everything – your delivery style, tone, body language and word choices have a major impact on how employees perceive your message. Above all else – always be sincere.

    Here are some helpful scripts and tips that may help you choose the right words for those types of conversations:

    What you really want you say vs. What you should say

    What you really want to say: “You’re not meeting your goals.”

    What you should say: “Thinking about the last 6 months, tell me how you feel about the projects you’ve been working on.”

    Confronting an employee regarding their performance is never easy and always a sensitive conversation. Be sure you vet all your information carefully and have appropriate documentation to support your position. The employee will more than likely react emotionally, so minimizing the confrontational aspects and mitigating the emotional level can help lessen negative or defensive reactions.

    Professor and author at Harvard Business School, Linda Hill, suggests, “owning your perspective throughout the discussion”.

    She goes on to say: “For example, instead of saying “You’ve had a lot on your plate and you must be really stressed,” say “I know I feel really stressed when my to-do list gets long. How does it affect you?” By asking employees to own and express their viewpoints and by actively listening without interruption, you avoid adding any “fuel to the fire”. Always keep the conversation more professional and productive.

    What you really want to say: “I disagree with this approach—I can’t let you or the team move forward with it.”

    What you should say: “I’d like your help in understanding how we’re approaching XYZ?”

    Empower employees to make decisions and own their projects without your direct involvement.  The more engaged, the happier they will be. However, you remain ultimately accountable for their decisions and the outcomes.

    This can be a dilemma: How do you prevent them from feeling defeated or micromanaged when you don’t agree with their approach?

    By electing to approach the conversation in a manner that evokes opportunity to explain details, as they walk you through their thought processes, you can begin to ask more in-depth questions, such as “I wonder what would happen if…” This approach could potentially help them identify points of risk as well as potential blind spots they may have overlooked. Properly executed, this type of conversation may provide them the necessary feedback that leads to course correction—without feeling entirely derailed.

    We call this approach “positive confrontation”—this method not only preserves your employee’s dignity, it simultaneously protects you and your organization, while boosting your image.

    What you really want to say: “Upper Management has once again changed direction and all the work we’ve done on this project in the last several months was for nothing.”

    What you should say: “It looks like Upper Management has some changes in the pipeline and has come up with an even better way to utilize the findings from all your hard work. Let’s talk about how our team is involved moving forward.”

    This is where you become the PR guru of gurus. As frustrating as changes can be for you and your team, you will need to stand ready to perform a delicate balancing act of communicating the direction of upper management’s goals in a manner that instills respect for leadership’s decisions (even if you secretly disagree), explaining the reasons behind their decisions on keeping/nixing some aspects and how the new direction impacts the team

    The important thing is to not let employees see that you are frustrated. Instead, listen to their concerns, while encouraging them to envision how the new direction could lead to better overall results. Employees need to feel the importance of their tasks; if they feel that their roles are intertwined with the goals of the organization, they will tend to feel more strongly about their involvement and remain engaged moving forward.