Workplace frustrations

A recent USA Today "snapshot" presented results of a survey to 1,200 workers listing their top five workplace frustrations. The results:

1. Poor communication by senior management about the business - 17 percent
2. Office Politics - 16 percent
3. Lack of teamwork - 15 percent
4. The use of politically correct language - 9 percent
5. Nosy co-workers - 6 percent

Let's break them down:

Poor communication about the business

One of primary benefits Barr Corporate Success brings is an immediate focus on identifying the top strategic objectives for a business, and, equally important - communicating and cascading those objectives throughout all levels of the organization. If you don't know how, we do. It's critical that front-line employees have the knowledge, mindset, culture, and tools to bring upper-level initiatives all the way down to customer relations. Front line employees want and need information, and to know what really matters and will contribute to their success by contributing to the company's success.

Office Politics

Politics are no more or no less than an expression of power struggles in poorly defined structures, confusion about objectives, and a lack of trust in co-workers. Teams must have the time, space, and structure to know each other, know what matters, and pursue it cohesively. Individual team members must be held accountable for behavior that divides and sabotages teams. Incentives must be geared toward rewarding all efforts that contribute to the success of the team in meeting defined objectives, even those efforts that are less visible, or harder to measure, and similarly, behavior that rewards the individual but damages the team should not be rewarded. It may sound complex, but Barr Corporate Success has simple, straightforward tools to align your company's systems with its goals, and eliminate the distractions of destructive competition, converting that energy into productive cooperation.

Lack of Teamwork

Teams suffer from a variety of ills, chief among them being a failure to understand that each team needs a diverse group of talents and styles to initiate projects, see to the details, and ensure results. Different work styles bring different strengths and talents. Barr Corporate Success has some amazing programs to foster mutual respect and understanding of what each team member brings to each project, and to the company's long-term goals.

Politically correct language

This listed item, in my opinion, reflects many people's frustration at having their intent misunderstood or mischaracterized. All of us have occasionally misspoken or made an offhand comment that flopped with the audience. When among friends, we speak freely, knowing that others will understand us, call us on something borderline, and give us the benefit of the doubt if we express ourselves badly. But in a business environment, we interact with a much wider group of people with whom we have less in common. That's why offering opportunities for employees to get to know one another on a slightly more personal level, through team-building exercises, can be groundbreaking. It's difficult to get much done if one is watching every word he says, or parsing everything another says, looking for something objectionable. Such an environment lacks trust and understanding, and is poisonous to cooperation. When teams know, understand, and trust each other, miscommunications and frustrations over word choices are much less of a problem -- because they're much more likely to be brought out into the open, and resolved very happily.

Barr Corporate Success has a team-building program that involves personalized assessment of work styles and personal interests, attitudes, and values. When a team sits down together, and understands one another's styles and driving interests, the team as a whole draws together and better appreciates the advantages of diverse talents and styles. Call 513.470.8980 for more information about DISC- and PIAV-based team-building programs.

Nosy Co-workers One person's nosy co-worker is another person's best friend at work. Again, It all comes down to lack of trust, violation of others' boundaries, and different styles. We can help.

It's inspiring and uplifting to know that these top work peeves can be easily solved with the right tools. Imagine how productive your company will be when those frustrations and distractions are out of the way, and every employee's attention is focused on achieving important goals with their teammates.

Work-life balance tops pay

To recruit and retain the best workforce, it's important to know what people want. A recent Hudson survey of 1,634 workers who have been in their current positions for at least 5 years ranks the primary reason they accepted their current position. (Please note that respondents were to choose the one most important reason.)

Top Responses

1. Work-life balance and flexibility - 29 percent
2. Compensation - 23 percent
3. Work culture - 13 percent
4. Training opportunities - 5 percent
5. Advancement opportunities - 5 percent

Are your recruiters and advertisements emphasizing advantages that bring the most candidates, and offer what jobseekers are looking for? It's worth a second look.

"The Millenials are Coming" -- Managing Millennials

As if you didn't have enough management challenges, check out this story, from the November 11 broadcast of CBS news' "60 Minutes". Correspondent Morley Safer talks to researchers and analysts about the psychology and outlook of the so-called millenial generation. Be warned: It's a little scary.

"There are about 80 million of them, born between 1980 and 1995, and they're rapidly taking over from the baby boomers who are now pushing 60. They were raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers, or all winners. They are laden with trophies just for participating and they think your business-as-usual ethic is for the birds. [Don't boss them around, or speak to them too harshly...] And if you persist in the belief you can, take your job and shove it."

See? Maybe "scary" is a bit much, but definitely "daunting" and "formidable" when one considers the difference this generation may require in our approaches to management.

Features of this coming generation, according to the story, include:

• Most are hardworking (great!)
• They know and can operate the tools to get things done (also great!)
• They are impressively clever and resourceful (really great!)
• Some of them are absolutely incorrigible(uh-oh)
• "It's their way or the highway. The rest of us are old, redundant, should be retired." (What?!)

Researchers who have studied the millenial generation say a new style of management is required to get results from this cohort of workers.

• "Speak to them a little bit like a therapist on television might speak to a patient."
• "You can't be harsh."
• "You cannot tell them you're disappointed in them. "
• "You can't really ask them to live and breathe the company. Because they're living and breathing themselves and that keeps them very busy."
• "The era of the buttoned down exec happy to have a job is as dead as the three-Martini lunch." "These young people will tell you what time their yoga class is and the day's work will be organized around the fact that they have this commitment. So you actually envy them. How wonderful it is to be young and have your priorities so clear."
• "The flipside of it is how awful it is to be managing the extension, sort of, of the teenage babysitting pool."

Researcher Mary Crane said: "You now have a generation coming into the workplace that has grown up with the expectation that they will automatically win, and they'll always be rewarded, even for just showing up," Crane says.

Safer responded: "To what extent are you having to tell the boomers, the bosses, the 50- to 60-year-olds, 'The people who got to change are you guys, not them?'" Yeah! Why do current managers have to change? What we're doing is working.

Unfortunately, it may not continue to work going into the future. Previous generations are accustomed to doing what it takes to produce results, and if we're dealing with an entire new generation of workers that require a different approach, we're going to have to make some adjustments, apparently.

Crane: "The boomers do need to hear the message, that they're gonna have to start focusing more on coaching rather than bossing. If this generation in particular, you just tell them, 'You got to do this. You got to do this. You got to do this.' They truly will walk. And every major law firm, every major company knows, this is the future."

You heard it... coaching rather than bossing. Participative management rather than dictating. Providing guidance and resources, focusing on results rather than methods... basically all the things that my boss, Krissi Barr, has been teaching her clients for years.

Krissi Barr is an expert in coaching. I know, because I work for her. You only have to talk to her, or to me, once to know how motivating and encouraging she is, while not coddling or wasting time with things that make no contribution to the bottom line. As her associate, I (Jodi) wholeheartedly affirm that if anyone can teach other managers how to deal with the millennial generation, it's Krissi Barr.

That's my firsthand recommendation, but you don't have my word for it.

She's trained in and certified to teach Paul Hersey's Situational Leadership program, as well as Coach 4 Success, Will to Win, and many incredibly practical and inspirational techniques. (See bio).

It's not just her curriculum vitae that impresses. Doing the various administrative and professional tasks I do as her "jill-of-all-trades", I've seen her at work, seen what she accompishes with people. After my interview with her, I researched the management and leadership training business as a whole. I came to the conclusion that many people out there are offering, in essence, modern-day "snake oil," and asked her about it. She confirmed, "There are lots of consultants out there. What matters is pull-through."

Over the next few months of assembling client data into spreadsheets, being cc'd on e-mails to her clients, seeing clients recommendation letters and their e-mails of gratitude, I realized that she is the "real deal."

Serious stuff, how she works with clients. The programs are just the start for her.

Krissi didn't just take her training and use it to sell programs -- she trains, but also does follow-up, coaching, and ongoing accountability measurement. She has enough passion for and commitment to the work that she does to follow her clients, ensuring that their new knowledge is ingrained such that it becomes behavior, and even habit, to the benefit of all who have worked with her.

The coming generation of "millennials" will be a challenge to those who are accustomed to the previous generations of direct reports. If you thought Gen X'ers were difficult... well, we're all in for a bumpy ride. If you are already experiencing rough terrain with your teams, whatever their generation, I encourage you to call Krissi (513.470.8980) or e-mail her (krissi@barrcorporatesuccess.com).

Good Reads: The Next Generation of Work

From the Indianapolis Star: "Today's age groups express their values and perceive work differently:

• Valuing family: Older men show they value their family by working long hours to make lots of money. Younger workers like to show they value their family by spending more time with them.
• Experience: The older generation tries to maintain its clout by emphasizing experience, which it equates with knowledge. The younger generation values experience not "just because," but by analyzing whether anything was learned or gained from it.
• Respect: Older workers want to be held in higher esteem than their younger peers, because they are older or earn more. Younger people also want esteem and to be listened to, but they have no expectation that they should be deferred to in decision-making.
• Work ethic: Older workers believe younger employees don't want to put in the hours necessary to get ahead. Younger workers are willing to put in the time for their jobs, but they're uninterested in having a lot of "face time" at the office."

To attract the best and brightest of coming generations of workers, companies and managers will likely have to adjust their expectations of what the work day, work week, and work life look like, using communications technology and infrastructure, allowing flexible work schedules that still get the right work done the right way.

Return to Barr Corporate Success

Retention, Retention, Retention!

We often hear the truism that the three most important factors in real estate are: location, location and location. A less well-appreciated truism is that one of the most important factors in profitability is one that bears repeating: retention, retention, retention. After all, how can you build intellectual capital, maintain an integrated, functioning workforce, and rapidly adapt to changing market forces if you're continually finding, selecting and training candidates? Capitalize on the investment you've made in the training of employees, and the value you receive from those employees' accumulated knowledge -- don't let the good ones go if you can possibly avoid it.

You will lose at least 6 months' salary -- and up to 18 months' salary, for knowledge worker positions -- to recruit, hire and train a new employee.

No company or manager can control all the forces that might cause employees to leave. Spouses relocate, taking your good people with them... a whole host of other reasons companies cannot control. And of course, if an employee simply cannot meet expectations, both you and that employee would be better served by their finding a new role, either with your company or elsewhere.

However, many, many valuable employees leave for reasons that we can, and should control if we know what's good for business.

Why Do They Leave? Managers might be surprised to find out why workers change jobs. What would your guess be? More money? Nope. Although 97 percent of workers think financial compensation is one of the most important aspects in the workplace, it is not the main reason they change jobs. A Spherion study asked 1,996 randomly selected employed workers what the most important reasons were to change jobs. They answered:

• Growth and earnings potential (30 percent)
• Time and flexibility (23 percent)
• Financial compensation (22 percent)
• Culture, work environment (22 percent)
• Benefits (12 percent)

More cited growth potential than any other single consideration. Just as many listed work culture and environment as important reasons to make a job change as listed financial compensation. Flexibility on time and location is of great importance to those aspiring to excel both professionally and in their family lives. Employers are now facing the challenge of generations interested in self-actualization in both their work and personal lives.

Some managers might be tempted to throw up their hands and roll their eyes, wondering, "Just how far am I supposed to go to keep people happy?" That frustration is understandable, given today's "do more with less" culture.

The good news is that it is well within your power to increase retention -- and the performance of employees who stay -- with some fairly simple interpersonal skills.

• Pay attention to the career arcs of your direct reports, because they do.
• Be flexible when you can be, any way you can be, so employees can have careers and lives.
• Check out salary trends for your industry, so you don't lose $20,000 trying to save $3,000.

Paying attention can really pay off.

Barr Corporate Success is a consultancy firm dedicated to producing amazing results for businesses from Mom & Pop shops to Fortune 500 corporations. If your business is experiencing retention difficulties, it's likely a sign that a change is needed. Barr Corporate Success can show you the way.

For more information, please e-mail Krissi Barr at:

krissi@barrcorporatesuccess.com

or see our website at www.barrcorporatesuccess.com