Ethics In The Workplace

Negotiations

Thinking Strategically

Body Language

Understanding body language and the signals you send off can help you quite a bit. If you learn from your natural tendencies you can avert any possible wrong impressions you send off subconsciously or unintentionally. Unintentional signals that give someone the wrong impression are the worst as they can derail you without you even knowing why or that it even happened.
The best source for this is an illustrative book (in my reading list), but I can give a few general tips that should help you right off the bat.
Now, once you understand body language and the physical cues that it gives, learn to use it to read people. Some are more readable than others but what you can observe may help you to see what is thought or felt but not spoken. Want to know what the other person is thinking about your ideas or simply what they think of you, just watch them. Develop this skill and you will be amazed at how well you can read someone in almost any situation.

1. The Hand Shake - Arm extended, palm up and a firm but not an Olympian grip. Look the person in the eye and smile. Shake, don't just hold. That's just creepy. A handshake conveys confidence in dealing with people. It can also convey the amount of importance that the other person ranks you as, it makes the statement: If you are not important enough to impress why should you be important enough to listen to.
2. Smile. Smiling is always good. When you greet someone or pass them in the hall if you are always preoccupied with your next move and not focused on the person passing you the absence of an enlightening smile may send the message that you are unhappy or frustrated. Smiling is your most powerful body language signal and it comes for free. Though it is not recommended to smile constantly (people will be under the impression you are searching for approval or just plain weird), you should still make an effort to appear happy and optimistic.
3. Be very conscious of your facial expressions. When a bit of bad news comes, try not to react through facial expression, rocking your head side to side, outwardly sighing or the "rubbing your face stance". In fact, leave your face alone, don't touch it. People see these and learn to read you or take the que that something is very wrong. You also come off as frustrated. Unless this is the message you want to send, avoid it.
4. Mouth movements can give away all sorts of clues. We purse our lips and sometimes twist them to the side when we're thinking. Another occasion we might use this movement to hold back an angry comment we don't wish to reveal. Nevertheless, it will probably be spotted by other people and although they may not know the comment, they will get a feeling you are not to pleased. Again, a good move if you want to convey it, a bad move if you are playing poker.
5. When making statements or giving commands don't look (dart your eyes) to your superior or others in the room for support. This makes you seem unsure and that you are looking for approval.
6. Don't cross your arms when talking. This is an aggressive stance and sends the message that you are uncomfortable. The same applies to your legs.
7. When you want to convey the impression that you are interested in a conversation or discussion, lean into or toward the person you are conversing with. Angle of the body in relation to others gives an indication of our attitudes and feelings towards them and also indicates that you feel safe and not threatened. We angle toward people we find attractive, friendly and interesting and angle ourselves away from those we don't, it's that simple!
8. Don't fidget.
9. No clock watching unless you wish to convey that your time is more valuable than your audience or you wish to send the message "Hurry up".
10. Don't stare. At anyone (creepy) or anything (is he lost?).
11. When someone comes into your office to talk to you, stop typing at your computer and look at the person. There is nothing more irritating than having a conversation with a person who's typing on their computer at the same time. This body language tells your visitor they really aren't important enough to focus on.

Leading Change Within Your Organization

Leading Change. Every organization will institute a change, some companies change all of the time in order to attempt to improve. Not all of these changes work. Some fail because they are not well thought out, others fail because they are not well executed.
The need for change can come about for a number of reasons. Two basic originations are: the business recognizes the need for change in order to improve or be competitive, an employee recognizes that a change is needed in order to make his/her department better or more productive. In either case, if you are ever tasked to make change happen in your organization you should be aware of the many intricacies involved and learn to address them in order for the change to happen and for your own success.

Leading Change:

1. Recognize and understand the need for change.
2. Understand the ramifications of the change throughout the business.
3. Understand the people affected by the change (some people will have more work, some people may lose internal power, some people will perceive the move as detrimental to their personal interests, etc...).
4. Obtain buy-in from the business with defined milestones and dates.
5. Gather a straw man for the change to understand how it will affect the business, how it will be implimented and who the players will be in the execution of the change.
6. Prepare an "elevator speech" in order to quickly convey what the change is, why the change is, who will be affected and how you will measure it.
7. Communicate the change across the company.
8. Allow an avenue for employees to provide feedback about the change and give them an opportunity to improve the process or complain about it.
9. Set up metrics to measure the effectiveness of BOTH the change and it's implementation.
10. Follow through on the change providing progress on the change throughout the business.

Your Accessibility

Being available for your team is of paramount importance and in this age of technology there is no reason for you to be too far from a team member needing your input or you needing theirs. If you are never in your office you make it quite difficult for people to approach you other than e-mail. This means you will miss opportunities to solve one of their issues or at the very least lose an opportunity to solve one of yours. You also distance yourself from your team.

Try to lay out ground rules for your availability like being there from 7:00 to 8:00AM on Tuesdays just for walk-ins. Another good thing to do is to provide a communications preference list.

Here are my preferences (in order):

1. E-mail (routine communication)
2. Office Visit (always welcome, will announce my best times)
3. Sametime
4. Office Phone
5. Cell Phone
6. Home Phone

Managing Up

Three basic rules for managing up.
The ‘three things’ in the business of managing your boss are:

1. Understanding Yourself
2. Understanding The Boss
3. Understanding The Relationship.

Understand Yourself:

1. Delegate: Know what you are good at and what you are bad at. If you can, identify someone who compliments your talents and use them to do the work you are not good at to accomplish your goal.
2. Follow Up: Always check on your delegatees being careful not to micro-manage but make sure your know and they know what and when the information will come.
3. Follow Through: Always understand what your boss wants and give it to him in the form he prefers. When given an urgent directive, follow up with an e-mail re-stating what you understand they want and the time frame that you will provide it.
4. Control your emotions: This goes for understanding your temper, your despair, your anxiety, your shortcomings and your pride.
5. Don't Over commit: Your boss counts on you because you can get things done. Don't break that trust by agreeing to building Rome by lunch. Be honest in your and his/her expectations.
6. No Brown Nosing: A good boss will smell that from a mile away, your peers will see you and your sucess as the result of sucking up. Grow a backbone not a soiled schnoz.

Understand the Boss:

1. Act Like Your Boss: Well, not really, but understand what he/she wants. If he is a numbers person, give him numbers. A details person, give her details. If you communicate with her on the level that she communicates then your job will be much easier.
2. Decisions: If you do not want a 'no' or procrastination, give him/her a hand and recommend what course of action to take. If that direction is wrong then your boss should give you immediate feedback on what to do. Two things served here: you get the correct action and you start to understand how your boss thinks.
3. Manage her time: You may represent only 1% of her problems, don't make it as if it is 100%. Present the issues, problems and solutions clearly and concisely while conveying the time frame and priority of the task.
4. An opinion: If you ask for her opinion, he/she will always have one. Another method for learning and understanding your boss.
5. Information: It is not data. Provide the information as an abstract in little bullet form, no decimal places and provide a summary sheet at the beginning.
6. Problems: Don't just come with problems, come also with solutions.
7. Assumptions: Do not assume she knows as much as you do, but assume she can understand; so educate her.
8. Delegations: Delegate what you can, offer alternative personnel to accomplish tasks when appropriate.
9. Promises: Do not promise what you cannot deliver, and avoid surprises, trust is at stake. Never sign-up to an unrealistic schedule. It is bad for everyone.
10. Differences: Manage differences in culture and position. A VP of Manufacturing gets measured differently than a VP of Engineering. Constantly recognize the point of view of the target.
11. Trust: Don't Lie, don't blame and if you are running the ship take responsibility for your failures.
12. Think Two Levels Up: Understand your boss's boss and what kind of things his boss will want and need.
13. Learn How To Sell Your Ideas: Change is constant and you should be able to adapt your model to your needs. This sometimes requires your boss's support and buy-in.
14. Under-promise, Over Deliver. Be careful not to take the under promise thing too far. Don't double or triple your estimate.
15. Don't Expect Your Boss To Change
16. Include Your Managers Goals and Mandates When Presenting Your Ideas
17. Be Aware of Your Managers Hot Spots - What they are passionate about and what they dispise.
18. Increase Your Visibility Within The Organization
19. Leverage The Plusses

The Subordinate Relationship

As you move up within an organization you will inevitably be responsible for giving direction to others. Be it a team of one or a cast of 20 or more you will be the face they see as the "Boss" and you will need to steer your own ship with them as your crew (Think America's Cup here). Treat them well and they will surprise you and make you look good. Treat them poorly and you will be spending a good part of your day bailing water out of the ship.

Here are a few of my rules when dealing with your workforce.

1. Immediately set your expectations up front. Detail responsibility, preferred communication methods, reward system and hierarchy. Use technology to do this for you, author a blog on the topic....
2. Understand what they are good at and bad at. Use the good and try to develop the bad.
3. Always take time to walk the floor and talk to your people.
4. Know what motivates them. Awards, recognition, money, free time, etc...
5. Don't wait until appraisal time to give negative feedback.
6. Always immediately reply to their e-mails, even if it is just a "Thanks, I will look this over later"
7. Set yourself as the example, they will automatically gravitate to your actions.
8. Never, ever lie to your employees. One lie can destroy years of trust.
9. Never command respect. If you deserve it, it will come. With that being said always give respect first, monitor the actions of the person to determine if they deserve your gift.
10. Take top performers out to lunch, talk about what they want, what they don't want and things that they see could be improved.
11. Never be afraid of saying "I don't know", "I was wrong", "No!", etc...
12. Always give credit for work well done. Always. Either in a public way (at meetings) or, if the person does not wish to be singled out, in a private way (gift certificate for dinner for two, a monetary gift or just a day off).
13. If you ask for a team to work over the weekend to pull in a deadline, make sure you at least show up at work to express your appreciation. They are giving up their time for you.
14. Don't just lead - Coach. Your employees have careers too, some may wish to climb and could benefit greatly from your mentoring and you could benefit from another ally.
15. Be inclusive - Share the goals for which your team will be measured, the reasoning behind those goals and what it means to the business. If one can understand the game then they can better make their own correct decisions in the long run.
16. Empower your employees- Give your employees the power to make decisions and support those actions. Don't crush them if they made the wrong decision, even if it hurts. Remove obstacles and let the ones that can, shine.
17. Be positive. Never complain downstream, only upstream.
18. Face your shortcomings.
19. Run your meetings with an agenda and stick to it and keep the end time.
20. Know yourself, understand how you react to issues/problems and use that to stay on track.

Communications

Good Communications is one of the most important traits you can have. Be it from:

1. conversations
2. e-mail
3. telephone
4. letters,
5. power-point presentations
6. meetings
7. Status Reports

Communication is how you verbalize what you want, when you want it and how you want it done. It also serves to give visual cues about your mood, your passion, your responses. These body language cues are not only seen but also felt and heard.

On a recent trip to France during my International Residency I learned a valuable lesson, leave it to the French people to help! In typical American style I was rushing to get from the airport to the train station so that I could arrive in Rouen on time. I rushed up to the train attendant and immediately asked him "Which train goes to Rouen?". He scowled at me and shrugged his shoulders mumbling what was later determined to be the reply "I don't speak English".

Later that week I was attending classes in Rouen about the French culture and learned that the correct way to approach the French for help is to approach them like this (in French helps). "Excuse me, I have a petite problem that you may be able to help me with, could you tell me where the train to Rouen is?". You see, this statement places you in a position where you need them, not a position where you are barking at them. It is also a pleasant way to start the conversation. I tried it that very day at the train station and it worked beautifully. The attended even hailed his subordinate to take me to the train.

THE LESSON : You cannot always get what you want because of who you are. It is better to undertsand your audience, think about the situation and use the appropriate communications style to achieve your desired result. Be it a Frenchman, a worker on the factory floor or your boss.

E-Mail Rules
Be wary of overusing the blink copy feature (BCC) and always be wary of "Reply All" for same reason.

I am a big fan of writing scathing, bashing, hurtful e-mails. I am not a big fan of sending them. Never send off an e-mail when you are angry or one that has angry words. If you need to vent then write it, save it and later the next day read it again. Then trash it and send a more graceful e-mail to address the issue.

Always treat an e-mail like it will be read on the front page of the New York Times. Never put anything in one that can hurt you, your company or others, no telling where it may end up.

Always confirm receipt of an e-mail, even if you have no time to read it now. A quick "Thanks Bud, I got it" goes along way with the person who sent the e-mail. They took the time to give you the information they felt you needed, you should at least reward them with a Thank You.

E-mails have their place and should not be the only form of communication. Be very careful with wording as e-mail is famous for losing the meaning in translation and can often convey the wrong or unintended message.

If a walk to the office next door will work then skip the e-mail and go into verbal mode. If the e-mail is going to serve as a filed item (a record of something) then follow up with an e-mail outlining the agreed decision.

If you have multiple teams, make a group in outlook and use that group as the distribution list. Encourage others to add that group to their address book. It is a great way to quickly coordinate and disseminate information.

Phone Rules

Meeting Rules

Customer Service

Think customer service is all about what your bank teller gives you or how well your cell phone representative resolved your issue? Well, it is. It is also how well you deliver to your peers, your boss, your employees, your customers and even to your family. Poor customer service is recognized by Wal-Mart as lost revenue (they esitamte 1 lost customer is worth $250K in revenue lost).
Poor customer service affects you, your relationships (professional and personal) your reputation and your company.

Customer Service includes how your department delivers to another (Engineering delivering a quality, buildable product to manufacturing), how you interface with your customer, your boss, your boss's boss and even your peers. Great customer service means all of these people will come back to you time and time again becuase they get what they need, when they need it and in a way they feel comfortable with.

What Makes a Good Manager

While some still debate over the difference between a Leader and Manager I will add that in my view a Manager is a Leader if he or she directs people in the execution of functions related to the business and whom is directly involved in the policy and decision making of that business. I recommend a DisC assessment to better understand your personality and how to leverage your natural traits in your business relationships. It also helps you to understand your people and their traits.

1. Have a Vision for your group and communicate it well.
2. Have a Strategy for everything you do, communicate that well.
3. Have at least monthly meetings to discuss where the group was, is and where you want it to be.
4. YOU take the blame for mishaps of your subordinates with respect to bad decisions, lack of follow through or misunderstood direction (barring drinking on the job, sexual harassment or other personality/personal decisions out of your control). You can reprimand and correct later but ultimately you are the captain of the ship. Other Admirals were most likely captain once and can appreciate that stance more than accept you blaming a subordinate outright. Cowardly move to do otherwise.
5. Learn from all of your mistakes, personal and professional.
6. Understand your audience’s capabilities and motivations.
7. Understand your employees strengths and weaknesses.
8. Understand the business and the rules that drive the business you are in.
9. Be approachable and encourage personal interaction.
10. Have a vision for your department and can convey that vision both up and down the chain.
11. Become very involved in the issues but give the necessary room for others to make decisions (empowerment) while enforcing accountability, not ruling by intimidation.
12. Don’t fear not being the smartest guy in the room but at the same time know when to and when not to be.
13. Be competent in what you do.
14. Be ethical, honest, empathetic and have clarity in all communication.
15. Develop an authentic uniqueness of character and an infectious inspiring air.
16. Do not be a risk averse person, take calculated risks in order to be innovative.
17. Help your employees find plausable solutions. Lead them to find the solution, don't tell them how to do it.
18. Listen First, Speak Last.