Take My Advice and Be Nice

December 3, 2020 ~ Orlando Ceaser

I have a twist on a common adage. Nice guys finish, instead of nice guys finish last. Many times, we attach a negative to the concept of being nice. We view niceness as a form of weakness. If someone is nice, we see them as vulnerable, and subject to being exploited. But the definition of nice does not concede toughness and effectiveness.

Dictionary.com defines nice as, characterized by, showing, or requiring great accuracy, precision, skill, tact, care, or delicacy. Miriam-Webster dictionary lists synonyms for nice to include kind, polite, pleasing, agreeable, appropriate, fitting, socially acceptable, virtuous, and respectable. We could also include trustworthiness.

The definitions and synonyms paint a picture of attributes that we should admire in each other and our associates. But something is lost when we decide to filter nice through the lens of our prospective, and degrade, mislabel, and misinterpret information. These misconceptions may cause us to be condescending and devalue the people who work for us and underestimate their performance.

A company surveyed their customers in a customer satisfaction exercise. They wanted to see, through surveys and interviews, how their sales representatives were perceived by their customers. The word nice came up consistently relative to their competitors. Each group of interviewers reached the same conclusion. The clients enjoyed being with the sales of representatives and thought they were, nice.

The company decided that the word nice was a deficiency and needed to be changed in the minds of the prospects. They viewed nice as weak and therefore, ineffective in a maliciously competitive environment. Nice was a part of the corporate brand in the minds of their customers, which needed to be changed. Nice was not good, and everyone knew that nice guys finished last.

An anti-nice message was delivered to the sales team. They were made to feel inadequate versus competitor companies. Tension was created between the Home Office and the sales force, as they launched allegations against each other. This was a perfect opportunity to capitalize on the relationships built by the sales team with their customers.

Since they owned the nice space in the minds of customers; rather than viewing nice as a negative, building on this favorable perception was an option. Rather than work on a make-over to change their sales representatives into the image of the dominant competitor, exploit the niche of being nice. They should use the perception of nice to gain permission to ask the right questions. They should use the attribute of nice to increase customer interactions and create a space to ask for more business.

Relationships are a key part of the sales process. Individuals with high emotional intelligence can translate this skill into greater customer service, greater customer confidence, customer loyalty and greater sales performance. People like to buy from people whom they know, like, trust and respect. Nice individuals may have skills that are admirable attributes to their clients. You generally like to hire nice people, because it is difficult to create nice people, if you do not have them. You may teach people nice habits and practices, but if they are not nice by nature, in the middle of a crisis or difficult situation, they may relapse to their original tendencies. How often have you heard someone compliment someone who was not a nice person?

The Marriott Corporation’s excellent customer service reputation was addressed in an interview with a business publication. They were asked how they were able to train people to be personable and nice, which attributed to their superb customer service. The head of their training department indicated that they did not have a training program to teach this skill, they addressed this skill in the hiring process. In other words, they hired nice people and trained them on the other things, they needed to know.

There is value in hiring and developing nice people, for they are usually seen as trustworthy. Their personality, service acumen and ability to get along with others, makes them potentially strong members of your team, company/organization, or partners in your relationships. There are individuals who are “too nice” and cannot ask tough questions, take risks or be persistent. These individuals may not be the ones appropriate for your business. But likability alone should not be a detriment to a person’s success.

Nice people finish with relationships that can be created and strengthened. They can be there in the end because people want them around. Nice people have a commitment to service and to people, which makes them desirable members to help you in your quest toward greatness and serving clients. They can often go places and gain business where others have not earned permission. If someone comes across as too good to be true, too nice to be right, vet them as you would any other individual. Do not discount them immediately because they are nice. Because the right nice guys/gals have a reputation or the potential to finish strong.

Protectionism in a competitive marketplace

August 28, 2014 ~ Orlando Ceaser

Protectionism is designed to discourage others from competing for your talent or resources. Barriers are put in place to keep markets, company, or department restricted from outside forces. People try to artificially maintain or mandate the status quo, because it is a beneficial, but questionable policy.

Insecure organizations who are afraid to lose top talent will institute external mean to keep their people, which may deny their people freedom, benefits and promotional opportunities.

Protectionism is a preemptive strike aimed at discouraging others from hiring or tampering with your personnel. Countries try to control their markets by setting up impediments to prevent others from fairly competing with their industries and companies.

Protectionism is at work inside organizations. A regional manager was constantly near the top of the organization in sales. He experienced very little turnover in his sales organization, through promotions or resignations. Many in the organization were puzzled to learn that stellar results were not accompanied by promotions. Conversations with the regional manager revealed that the top performers, in his estimation, were somehow flawed and not ready to receive more responsibility. This manager’s protectionism policies were personally beneficial, yet detrimental to the career growth of many hard-working employees. He did not want to go through interviewing to replace them and training a new crew. Careers were inhibited because he had labeled them as insufficient to assume greater responsibility.

A successful sales representative accepted a promotion to the human resources department. She wanted to return to the field as a manager. After several years, she had lunch with a sales manager. He lamented the fact that she wanted to stay in HR. She was shocked at his opinion and asked why he felt she did not want to return to the sales force. He said he had been told by an HR director that she was happy with her new career path and it did not want to leave. Needless to say, she was stunned by the misinformation and the inaccurate portrayal of her career objectives. The protectionist policies of her department backfired and she subsequently resumed her sales career.

Protectionism leads to the creation of policies to restrict the penetration of their borders by competing companies. One company raided another company and hired some of their best sales people, when they started a new division. The losing CEO was angry by their practice. He instructed his lawyers to write a letter to the company stating his displeasure and threatened legal action. The response he received was carefully worded. The acquiring CEO defended his hiring practices. He asked the other CEO to see his actions as the risk of doing business. He suggested the people were leaving on their own volition. If the people were happy they would not have been so anxious to leave. Needless to say, the other company continued to hire his representatives, but at a slower pace.

People will gravitate to top talent. In the era of social media, networking events, savvy recruiters and employee referral fees, the best performers will be identified. There is an incentive to keep people happy and there is an incentive to recruit them to other organizations.

The hiring CEO delivered a very powerful message. What can be done to minimize employee’s propensity to jump ship? What can be done to the culture to make them want to stay with your organization longer term?

Organizations can change managerial mindsets to mandate mutual benefits for all parties involved. This philosophical shift is initiated and enforced by senior leadership. Intuitively, it is difficult to pour a lot of effort and time into someone, only to see them walk away to a perceived better opportunity. As stated earlier, there are risks involved in developing people. At some point, you will have more people than you have promotable positions. This may cause some people to be patient and wait for better jobs internally; however others may be impatient and look for greener pastures outside of the organization. You have to chalk this up to the price of doing business and wish them well.

There are tremendous advantages short and long term for a full scale long term development program. This may ultimately lead to future business alliances and collaborations with companies who have hired your people. It may also be a recruiting tool for prospective employees. A reputation for hiring and developing talent can lead to an influx of extraordinarily qualified candidates. Higher employee engagement levels and productivity is currently seen as a positive benefit of a stronger culture.

If you constantly assess and provide opportunities for personal and career growth, you minimize employee flight. Today, Millennials are subject to career impatience, if you do not sufficiently reward and challenge them, your organization will constantly be under pressure due to rapid turnover.

Sensors can be put in place in the form of stronger leaders and mentors to assess and regulate career development. Employees will gain an up-to-date, real world view of their skills and abilities and prospects for career development. Organizations have established career academies, equipped with resources, such as class room work and online training programs to help employees can grow their technical and life skills.

Protectionism in theory is about holding on to your talent against unfair pilferage, but it will work against you in the long run. You must update your training and development practices to create stronger leaders. Additionally, you must:

Pay attention to the company culture to treat people with respect and harness their skills and abilities.
Provide an honest assessment of performance through clear cut performance objectives and regular evaluations
Career discussions should be held to understand and to share employer and employee expectations
Develop confidence in your training and development program to rapidly replace people who leave the organization or leave the team
Strong managers and leaders are necessary to ward off protectionist tendencies, as they strive to develop the best teams imaginable

Organizations have been known to offer retention bonuses during a time of uncertainty, such as during mergers and acquisition, to keep their top talent. A variation of this practice is to ensure that the best performers receive the best rewards, whether financial, special projects or greater career opportunities.

Protectionism is usually a policy instituted when an organization fails to put a coherent people strategy in place. In their haste to prevent people from leaving, they blame outside forces for problems in their culture. Protectionism practices that strikeout at the employee or toward outside forces are rarely successful. Organizations should look internally at their leadership practices and career development strategies, to see if they can be more conducive to creating a culture where leaving the organization is to difficult for an employee to imagine or implement.

Free e-book, Leadership Greatness through High Performance Poetry at http://www.orlandoceaser.com

Working your way out of a promotion

February 26, 2013 ~ Orlando Ceaser

He was a tireless worker, delivering results above and beyond the call of duty. He was one of the top sales people; a legend in the sales organization. He boasted about the number of hours spent on the job and the number of customer calls made. He wanted to impress management with his work ethic, unyielding dedication to the job and the company. However, his managers were arriving at a startling conclusion. Whereas, they marveled at his drive, stamina and dedication, they were worried about his self-imposed workload; they could not risk promoting him to be a manager.

Jack thought he was impressing people in power, but he was sabotaging his career. Managers speak about greater production and engagement. He had both of these attributes at very high levels. Prevailing wisdom said, “There is no way we can make him a manager. He would expect others to work as hard as he does. He would kill people or chase them away.”

The management team also thought that it would be hard to replace his production. He was performing the work of two people. He was inadvertently destined to become an “individual contributor,” for as long as he was an employee. The individual contributor label made it virtually impossible for him to shed for it meant he was not seen as management material. Jack was ambitious. This moniker was devastating to him. He tried several tactics to change the reputation he had earned. His strategy was to model his behavior after other hard-working superstars. He had to answer questions, “What was hard work?” and “What was excessive?”

In today’s marketplace, he would not stand out as much, because everyone is being asked to do more with less and to allow their job to encroach upon their personal space. Nonetheless, people are still being denied promotions because of an excessive work ethic and perceived lack of flexibility. The advice received by Jack and others like him can be useful for workaholics and other ambitious employees.

Work / life balance

Convey a balanced life when discussing your home life while at work. If it is appropriate to talk about personal matters, you can disclose information about family activities. Discussion about involvement in school functions or the athletic pursuits of your family are fair game. Information about your hobbies and weekend recreation, as well as religious and community involvement shows you are a well-rounded person. If you are single, you can still demonstrate your interests in extra-work activities, to project someone who is more than an employee.

Employers want people who are dedicated and engaged on the job, but they also want people who have full lives, because in the end they make more productive employees.

Leadership

Individual contributors can demonstrate their leadership skills through their social interactions and civic duties. Discussing these matters at work gives you a chance to showcase leadership skills and instincts. Consulting with your managers about managerial scenarios in your church, associations or civic work can help people become comfortable with your work ethic and empathy for others. You can discuss leadership books and online programs and ask to attend seminars on your own time to project your interest.

Additionally, you may find it prudent to divert some of the effort and energy into projects outside of work to give you a greater sense of purpose and significance. Volunteer activities are useful on your internal and external resume. They also help you expand your social and professional network.

Candid Career Conversations

Career discussions with your manager and mentors will uncover instances of over powering your management with tales of sacrifice to complete a task. It may be wise to tone down some of the stories about late night projects and spending weekends to over produce. The time stamp on e-mail messages may also signal working at unreasonable hours. Allow your record to speak for itself. Even though you may be a workaholic, you do not want to brag about it. People have been known to think, “Why won’t he get a life?” “The job is all he has.” “She doesn’t have a family, so she can afford to give all of her time to work.”

A powerful work ethic is desired in an employee. Management strives to fill their teams with individuals matching this profile. However, you do not want to stunt your career growth because you represent an image that causes your managers to believe you would subject everyone to draconian, unrealistic and unrelenting standards in performing their jobs. They fear you will chase employees away and damage the morale and engagement levels of whatever team you are assigned to manage. If you do not address these concerns, you may not fulfill your career objectives to achieve a management position.