Perform or perish – Part 2

December 3, 2012 ~ Orlando Ceaser

My Manager’s job

Many people feel it is best to let their work speak for itself. But is everyone ware of the scope and quality of your work. I know individuals who feel their job is to work and the manager’s job is to inform upper management about their performance. They place their hopes and trust in a manager being their advocate. It may be the manager’s job, but it is their career that is at stake. People would be astonished at the silence of their managers in meetings. Most managers have the credibility with their peers to be taken seriously. But some cower in situations when they should speak up for their people. You may not know how hard or if your manager is fighting for you. Ask for accounts of their conversations with their peers and superiors to feel more comfortable about their actions.

A manager must accurately state the case for his direct reports and must defend them against challenges from other managers who may share a different opinion. Many times the other manager may have data unknown to the current manager, especially around teaming issues. Efforts should be made to ensure the information is recent and relevant. The manager must in essence fight for their people. My point is that your manager may be your greatest advocate, but you must become personally involved in letting people know about your performance. If you won’t fight for your recognition and reputation, at least ensure that someone is out front, fighting for you.

Networking

We have established that you have a role in promoting your performance. You have heard it said that it’s not what you do, but who you know. To state it more factually, it is not only what you do, but also, who you know. Internal and external networking is vital to create a database of advocates who may be instrumental in getting the word out about you. There are five steps to networking effectively. Social media is becoming an integral part of reaching out to potential advocates. LinkedIn and other sites are essential for getting your profile distributed and noticed. To disregard any of these steps may limit awareness of the impact of your performance. They are as follows:

Who do you know?

Who knows you?

What do they think of you?

What can they do for your?

What will they do for you?

Who do you know?

Today it is critical to know a wider range of people. Within your company it is important to know more people in order to gain additional perspectives, share your ideas and results. Do not limit your contacts to people at the higher levels of the organization. Nothing is more alienating than to brush by people whom you don’t feel have enough status to help you. You never know who can be helpful.

President of a small company had a decision to make between two women executives for a Vice President position. They were even in all of the objective parameters. The President asked the custodian about his impression of the two ladies, without stating his intention. The custodian said one was very standoffish, condescending and would almost throw the garbage can at him. There was no eye contact and she made him feel like a lower class citizen. The other person, he said was friendly, maintained eye contact and seemed concerned about him as a person. She made him feel good in her presence. This was the extra information the President needed to make his decision.

Who knows you?

There are people in the company you want to know you. Your boss and his superior are good places to start. How do others know you? Have you initiated a conversation with them at Sales Meetings or other company functions? Sometimes we think a senior executive is too busy to talk to us and we ignore a chance to strike up a conversation with them. We may also worry that others will accuse us of sucking up to the big bosses. Disregard those thoughts and prepare and practice conversation starters for prominent and not so prominent people within your company. It is always good to know people from different departments and functions. Your paths may cross again some day when you can help each other. Be prepared. It is also acceptable to ask someone to introduce you to people you don’t know. Your boss would be an excellent person to make the introduction.

What do they think of you?

To know you is not necessarily to love you. I knew a young lady who knew the right people and they knew her, but they didn’t like her. She had no idea as she socialized with all the key people in the company. There is an expectation of professionalism and self awareness. If you have annoying habits such as being an incessant talker who never listens and constantly berates people, you may not have a favorable image. You want to ask around to determine if you have attributes that others would like you to change. You also have to be receptive, listen and make the changes. Thanking the person for their suggestion is also a sign of professionalism and good manners.

What can they do for you?

Some positions are obvious in what they could do for you. These individuals may be involved in calibration discussions or succession planning meaning. They may be able to add insight or their impression of you as a candidate for a promotion. As I mentioned earlier be nice for the sake of being nice, knowledgeable and professional. The rewards will come later.

What will they do for you?

This is usually resolved by their response to a request for action. The skillful use of a “close” when appropriate can work in your favor. Will they accept your phone calls or e-mail messages with questions, comments or ideas? Will they be your mentor? Will they provide you with advice or counsel on key business matters? Will they write a letter of recommendation for an internal job interview? The power of your relationship or their sincere desire to be instrumental in career will pay dividends for you. When the time is right do not be afraid to ask for the strong appropriate action from them. People like to help people viewed as a person on the way up.

In today’s flatter organizations and leaner and meaner environments, we have to ensure that we accept the ultimatum to perform or perish. Our performance (true impact) should also resonate with key decision makers in the company. We must achieve our sales goals and exceed them where possible. Our clients must view us as indispensable. We should go the extra mile to ask your clients to write the company extolling your virtues and value to their offices. The market and our customers will pick the winners and losers and those who have not performed, will perish.

Perform or perish – Part 1

November 28, 2012 ~ Orlando Ceaser

I interviewed with a manager from a medium size pharmaceutical company. The DM spoke of sales success as a ruthless priority. There was an intolerance of mediocrity. If your performance was “subpar and under the bar” you were in trouble. He looked at me intently and uttered that familiar phrase, around here, “Money talks and BS walks.” I had heard the phrase many times before and being quick on my feet, I responded, “What’s the use, if you don’t produce.” I wanted him to know I could swim in shark infested waters and that I was the person for the job.

In research circles and the halls of academia, researchers and professors are told to publish or perish. In sales and marketing organizations all over the world, a variation of this battle cry can be heard. We are in a constant struggle to prove our value by selling our products and services and competing for our jobs. We “fight extinction with distinction.” Our existence or extinction is governed by our ability to meet or exceed the demands of the marketplace. If we are to be successful, we must accept the ultimatum to perform or perish.

Many companies are in a reduction mode; reducing the size of sales forces and other resources. Some good representatives are displaced in the process, but an effort is made to keep the top performers. Territory performance is evaluated and the under performing ones are eliminated, left vacant or absorbed into adjacent geographies. It is imperative to understand how performance is measured, exceed expectations and ensure that management is aware of your full contributions to the bottom line.

How is performance measured?

Everyone should understand how performance is measured in their organization. Sales teams rely heavily on objective factors such as, market share growth, new customers, satisfied clients, new prescriptions, total prescriptions, customer satisfaction or engagement scores, pieces sold, number of calls made, customer conversions and documents or people processed. There may also be subjective factors such as, behavioral traits, competencies or success factors which represent how the employee achieved their goals.

Performance is captured and referenced in performance reviews, (formally once or twice a year) and coaching discussions on work days and other interactions with the manager. Frequent performance discussions against objectives will eliminate surprises at the end of the year and ensure that the latest document accurately reflects your results. You may want to initiate these fireside chats if your manager does not do this routinely.

Understand the evaluation system

Many companies will force rank their employees based on their overall performance. If there are 10 people in a District, they are ranked from 1 – 10, with the top representative occupying the #1 position. This process is helpful in distributing performance ratings, merit increases and incentive compensation. This process may also be used to determine the lower 10% of performers. Some companies will remove the lower performers if they are at the bottom of the list two years in a row.

Companies may categorize employees as A, B or C players. Thomas DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghaven in their Harvard Business Review article defined A, B and C players as follows:

“A’s are star performers. They are employees who put their professional lives ahead of their families and personal lives because they are striving to accomplish more or move upward in the organization. They are the risk-takers, the “high potentials,” and employers enjoy finding and hiring them. They are also the players most likely to leave the organization for opportunities elsewhere.

B’s are competent, steady performers who balance their work and personal lives while still doing the bulk of the work of the company. They tend to stay put, don’t require a lot of attention, and they get the job done. Because they stay, they tend to carry the corporate history with them.

C’s are performers who are not achieving enough to satisfy their employers and are most likely to be asked to move along.” In hard times Companies try to keep their A & B performers.

There are other variables in assessing your performance and that includes comparing it to your peers who may work for other managers. Calibration is a process used to discuss employees in an effort to measure employees against their peers. There are some managers who are hard on their people and therefore distribute lower ratings and incentive payouts, but they have stuff standards. Other managers have been known to be easy on their people and rate them higher and reward them with higher incentives whether they earned them or not. To even the playing field a process of calibration was established. This is considered a more equitable system because it allows managers to discuss their ratings with the peers. In this scenario people of comparable performance are compared to ensure equity in the system.

Managers are challenged to evaluate performance in a pay for performance environment. Force ranking and calibrating are ways to ensure that people are reviewed, rated, rewarded and retained based on their performance. Your objective is to ensure that you are viewed near the top of the pack, as an A or B player which is validated by the calibration process. No system is perfect, but assessment is here to stay and necessary to provide data for promotions and when tough personnel decisions, such as staff reductions have to be made.

Tooting your own horn

In Philosophy 101 the professor asked, “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? In business if you are making a contribution, you want the world to know about it.

There is a feeling in our culture that you should not toot your own horn, let others do it for you. We label those that do, arrogant and braggarts. Ironically, some of these individuals get promoted, because management has a better assessment of their ability. We may become disillusioned and accuse management of favoritism.

Perish or Perform – Part 2 on December 3, 2012

5 Symptoms your Employer is Cheating on you or Thinking about it

October 29, 2012 ~ Orlando Ceaser

There are symptoms that point to an employee losing favor in the eyes of an employer. If you are paying attention, the breadcrumbs will lead you back to their original intentions. Also, as in any relationship, the people around are the first to see the symptoms that something is wrong.

We are creatures of habit and have a tendency to emit clues. You should always look for feedback and indicators on how well you are performing on the job and be able to spot the precise moment when things are drifting off course. If you are quick to respond, you may be able to up your game through an intervention. For example you may get training in an area to increase a particular skill. Or if the case is hopeless, engineer a soft landing where you can land on your feet in a better situation.

There are instances where organization indicates they are looking for someone else as a temporary or permanent replacement. You must be aware of these symptoms to protect yourself. You may have to lash out in self defense if your stability is threatened. There are at least 5 symptoms to indicate there is trouble in paradise. Your employer is either cheating on your or thinking about it.

1. Interviewing your replacement

They bring someone from the outside as a consultant and ask you to train them. This is innocent enough until you find out they are gunning for your job. You train them, but realize they are looking at your strengths and weaknesses and may be taking them back to your boss. You ask the right questions, but there is not a lot of transparency around the person’s next job and why they were hired in the first place. Your co-workers give you their point of view which is to essentially watch your back.

Eventually, you decide the company is grooming your replacement behind your back, not as part of transparency associated with succession planning. You have to decide what to do which means to gain insight into how you are perceived within the organization and think of an alternative route outside of the company. You cannot afford to be career naive when it is true, other people want your job.

2. Broken Promises

Your boss promised you a position and gave you extra work to prepare you for the transition to the new role. This causes you to get your hopes up high and work harder. What is unknown to you is they have no plans to give you the assignment. They brought in someone, whom you find out through the grapevine was promised the same job. How do you respond? It is a delicate situation. Should you confront your boss about the rumors or the grapevine laden conspiracy? It is appropriate to ask for a meeting to ask about your performance and if you are on course to assume the promised assignment. There response will determine your next move. I believe in expecting the best, yet preparing for the worst. This mindset will enable you to be very professional if things don’t go your way.

3. Change their disposition toward you

You begin to detect a change in your bosses’ reaction to you. For some reason they become aloof and unavailable. You internalize the reaction and wonder what you have done wrong. You instantly think it is work related and begin to work harder and longer hours, but there is no change. You want to ask if you have done something wrong, but it may not be you. Promotional decisions are sometimes changed by Upper Management. If your boss promised you the job, but headquarters or his boss thinks it should go to someone else, they are between a rock and a hard place. A true leader will sit down and talk to you, but their hands may be tied. Some leaders will tell you that the decision is no longer in their hands and leave it at that. A transparent leader may say, this particular job is off the table, but they will work with you on the next available position.

If your supervisor told you the whole story, you may confront his manager and put your boss in jeopardy. Many managers will dodge their responsibility by finding fault in your performance.

Suddenly you can’t do anything right. The amount of critiques escalate, even when you do things the way they taught you to do them
Reduction in your rating without warning – you need to improve, but they can’t tell you how or why… They will know it when they see it is their response

4. Unprecedented candor

Some Managers have a reputation for not providing feedback until or unless something is wrong with your performance. There is a raging debate in managerial sectors about the level of transparency around career upward mobility. Some would prefer to hold back information that indicates that you have reached your peak and have gone as far as you can ascend in the organization. One reason for reluctance is the subjective nature of many of these opinions. Management could change and the new manager may see untapped potential, so they are reluctant to give the definitive word on your career possibilities. However, if your manager would like to replace you with a newer or a different model they will not hold back. They will:

Let you know that the promotion or position you aspire to will not be given to you in the future.
You are told you have gone as far as you can go and if you want to stay at your current level the job is yours
They may suggest that you are safe for now, but at some point they may decide you are blocking a position which could be a primary training ground for another upwardly mobile employee

You know when someone has made up their mind about you, but they will not tell you the truth. They hope you will quit, thereby making it easy on them. They try to make it hard on you so it is difficult for you to stay. You have to keep your performance fresh and in shape through continuous improvement and exercising your mind.

5. Rewriting your job description

A common means to displace or replace an employee that a company wants to leave or take out of contention for a key role is to rewrite their job description. This new and improved job description contains education requirements, experiences and duties that you do not currently perform. They tell you they are upgrading the job to attract better talent in the future when the job becomes vacant. Sometimes they ask you to start writing the job description if one is not currently on file. Once the job description is rewritten the company may announce a downsizing and the new job description will be the basis for the interviews. You find yourself in a position where you are interviewing for your job. They bring in candidates from the outside whose experiences and education match the new standard.

It is imperative in this competitive marketplace to always strive for excellence and elevating your performance. You may be in style today, but it is imperative for you to keep up with the knowledge and technological skills necessary to compete. It is reasonable for a company to want the best employee for their jobs. As long as you are growing, your familiarity, intellectual knowledge and intellectual property should give you the inside track. However, you must be observant in case you run into these 5 symptoms which is indicative that your employer is bored, has a wandering eye and is looking around and holding auditions for your replacement.

5 Signs an Employee is Cheating on You

October 16, 2012 ~ Orlando Ceaser

The association between employer and employee is a relationship. Just as fidelity is crucial in a romantic endeavor, it is also expected in this kind of civil union. However, there are times when employees begin to stray. Their eyes look for a more desirable partner or greener pastures. They wonder if they are missing something by being tied to their company. Under these circumstances they listen to the siren songs of potential suitors. They hope to catch the glance of another company and may linger too long fantasizing about another organization.

Although most employers are at will, which means each party can terminate the arrangement at any time, they still become upset if their employees openly look for another job. Additionally, they are jealous if someone begins courting their employees. Look at the actions of management when they lose too many employees to the same organization. In one case a CEO called the CEO of the offending company and discussed ethical violations for raiding their top talent. They did very little to please their employees, yet became threatened and irritated when they started losing people. The offending CEO basically told him to look in the mirror. “If your people were happy and felt they had ample career opportunities they would not leave.”

When an employee tenders their resignation, employees are sometimes surprised. When they looked back over the past few months they admit there were signs that they did not take seriously. In retrospect they say, “I should have known or I should have seen it coming.”

How can you tell when an employee may resign?

If there is a new stud organization in town or on the market, expect midnight raids into your camp
If employee surveys indicate dissatisfaction among your team members, which is evident in low engagement scores, etc.
The industry is exploding and the number of qualified applicants is low
You have a plethora of top talent, and not enough promotions to please everyone

Some of the standard signs that your employees are mentally cheating on you or straying away from the company are listed below.

1. A break in their usual routine

They start taking long lunches out of the building when they always brought or purchased their meals on site. They dress up for work in business attire or look better than usual. You may even notice a new hair style or haircuts more than usual.

Interviewing takes time. Many employees will take vacation days to interview with other companies. However, some people take long lunches to achieve this objective. A tell-tale sign that someone is looking or considering leaving is using most of their vacation time in the early part of the year. Some workers clean up their office and their files. Their office looks like spring cleaning has arrived with the reduced number of pictures and artifacts.

2. Increase in telephone calls

They seem to have more personal telephone calls through their direct line or their cellular phone. The volume on these conversations is lower than their normal speaking voice.

Recruiters are aware of top talent and will flood their phones with telephone calls to assess a person’s interest in an alleged phenomenal job opportunity. They also follow-up the interviews with calls and e-mail messages to monitor progress. Periodically, it makes sense as a highly enlightened manager, to talk about your observations with the employee. Tell them about the calls you receive as a manager and ask how they handle the calls they get. Assume they are getting telephone calls. If they are worth their weight in gold, someone is talking to them. Discuss your philosophy about recruiter calls. Reassure the person of your interest in their career and your commitment to develop them. Let your employee know how you value them and their contributions. Remind them that recruiters are sales people and many are more committed to their own families. A recruiter may not be objective when they sell a certain opportunity as being the best thing in the world for their potential client.

3. Increase in the number of sick days

For a person who is really ill, they suddenly have a rash of colds or personal family emergencies. These illnesses do not take much time away from the office. They fall into the category of the 24 hour variety which brings them back to work quickly, so as to avoid suspicion.

Interviewing time causes people to take sanctioned sick days to look for a job. If the manager shows genuine concern for their health may shame some people into taking vacation days over sick days to interview. Technically speaking, taking sick days to interview is a violation of company policies and could place the employee at risk if they are discovered.

4. Discontent with company policies

The employee begins to challenge company policies and procedures or questions them more than in the past. They seem anxious and combative. They also may have problems with their peers which was seldom an issue.

Individuals may have a hard time leaving a company that has been good to them. People rationalize their actions / behavior by finding fault in their current organization. Policies and procedures that were never a problem become a major concern or nuisance. This may be indicative of their internal struggle. Immediately recognize the change in conduct and ask if everything is alright. You want to get to the bottom of any grievance.

5. Change in work performance

There is a change in the employees work performance. The quality may increase significantly or experience a precipitous drop. The increase can be used to throw you off the path that they are looking for another job. They may also use their best performance to show the company they are giving their best and not cheating them with substandard effort and results. A close evaluation would cause one to question why they were not giving this top flight performance all along.

Conversely, some people whip themselves into a frenzy of negative attitude. They feel as if the company has taken advantage of them. The recruiter convinced them they are underpaid and underappreciated and now they will underperform. The constant negative messages cause them to reduce their effort to what they perceive to be acceptable levels to match their pay scale.

There will always be employee turnover. There are benefits and down sides of every resignation. However, treating your employees properly and being aware of signs of discontent or outward mobility could make a difference in retaining the employees you want to keep. This could reduce employee cheating or make you aware of it, so you are not surprised by an unwanted resignation.

Internal Corporate Warfare – Mind to mind combat

October 1, 2012 ~ Orlando Ceaser

In an era of empowerment, engagement and teamwork, there is an internal struggle among people who should be allies. Individuals who should be aligned against the external competitive forces have squared off against their co-workers. This internal corporate warfare is a game of mind to mind combat initiated by managerial favoritism, individual’s ambition, hastily conceived diversity programs and survival tendencies linked to the current economic environment. Frequently this warfare is undetected by leadership until the damage has been done through poor morale and the loss of key talent.

Managerial Favoritism

When individuals realize that some people or person has an inside track to promotions they are more than slightly irritated. Nepotism is alive and well in corporate America and so is employee backlash. People do not willingly work with someone if they feel they cannot be trusted or that they will arbitrarily move ahead of them on the promotional totem pole. One of the reasons it is uncouth to get involved in an office affair is the impact it has on the other employees. They do not feel comfortable. They are afraid the person is a spy and will tell all of their secret conversations.

If someone is placed on the proverbial fast track, this leads to friction in meetings and in interactions with their peers. Some people want to dethrone the heir apparent, while others befriend them for personal gain. However, the mind to mind combat and verbal sparring are evident in their personal interactions. As a leader, have you thought about the conflict caused by a potential show of favoritism with certain employees?

Individual Ambition

Ambition is not a dirty word or a concept that is frowned upon by people in power. Organizations want employees who work hard to improve their performance and strive to excellence. Corporations want leaders because they will assume the executive positions within the organizations. They will be responsible and accountable to achieve corporate objectives for the shareholders.

There seems to be a resurgence of cut throat career ladder climbing within a number of companies. This is very true in those organizations that pit their employees against each other in a “may the best man or woman win” scenario. Employees realize that the managerial hierarchy has flattened and therefore, there are fewer roles, so the ambitious become more aggressive. The ambitious are savvier in selecting mentors, taking additional courses and networking feverishly to line up an army of supporters and advisors. Whereas, many in the younger generation want work life balance, the unscrupulous ambitious ones are still willing to sacrifice everyone and everything to reach the top of the heap.

Hastily Conceived Diversity Programs

Leaders read the latest business publications and are confronted with leaders who tout the richness of their Diversity / Inclusion strategies. Top companies in their industry are featured on Top 50 lists for diversity and inclusion. The Corporate ego is inflamed and they decide to do something about diversity and inclusion to improve their corporate culture. They may realize that the demographics of their company do not match their customers or the external marketplace. This need to tap into a wider swath of the talent within the minds of their employees is done swiftly and without much research into how it fits into their overall strategy.

Corporate awareness is further enlightened when they consider data on engagement and how, many of their workers are not bringing their entire selves to work. With these factors in mind they decided to hire and promote people without doing their homework and disseminating their strategy to their people. They waste a golden opportunity to use diversity and inclusion as a means to make all employees feel valuable and appreciated.

When people realize that a diversity and inclusion program incorporates everyone within the company and offers equality for the most talented, much of the infighting is reduced. Diversity programs should include all of the ways in which employees are different. The business case should be discussed and the benefits to the entire company should be delineated. When this is not done properly, workers will not accept new people and will sabotage the arrival and careers of their teammates. The conflict, clashes and ostracism create unnecessary tension. The new employee is blind-sided. They have no idea what is going on. They view their co-workers as cold hearted, hostile and unfriendly.

Survival tendencies

Companies are doing more with less and becoming more creative in achieving their objectives. Talent management strategies have introduced concepts such as forced ranking which can inadvertently lead to internal corporate or departmental warfare. How does widely advertised forced ranking affect teamwork among peers? If you know your assistance could help someone leap frog you and move in front of you in the eyes of management, would that affect your desire to coach your peers?

When I was in sales it was common for sales people in the same industry not to talk to each other. They viewed each other as the competition and the enemy. This helped them make sure they would not give away any secrets on strategy or promotional programs. Is it unreasonable to think this could occur within an organization if people view their peers as the competition? Suppose they see their co-workers as threats to continued employment or promotions, would it affect their actions?

Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariot are two of the most notable traitors in history. Many careers have been sabotaged by co-workers who gave disparaging stories about their peers for personal gain. I was told a story early in my career. Apparently a group of employees were complaining about a recent company policy. The most vocal among the group reported the meeting to his manager, conveniently leaving out his role in the meeting. He sacrificed his peers to make himself look good. He was subsequently promoted to the chagrin of the rest of the group who attended that meeting.

Companies may try to improve their culture, but are unaware of the internal corporate warfare raging within their doors. Self aware leaders and employee surveys may alert them to the potential skirmishes. Enlightened and strategic leaders improve their culture for the benefit of all. The prevailing peace and cooperation among co-workers will minimize counterproductive exercises and enhance productivity, performance and profits.