Integrity or Disruptive Employees?
Integrity or Disruptive Employees
Letter writing is an art, so why would anyone leave their company reputation in the hands of an unskilled letter writer? Don't allow someone who will cause you to look small and loss the respect of others within your organization, to write your professional correspondence for you. Check everything! Check it twice!
- Here is a Good Example: When you have a potential hire with years of experience, education, and a successful background in the area they are applying for - and you the employer turn around and list their skill sets and qualifications in a rejection letter, as a reason for overlooking them. It is pretty obvious you didn't read the candidates information. This sets a very unprofessional precedent for your companies, it's reputation, and your ability to lead effectively.
Breath! Usually these letters are written by someone with NO skill sets in the area they are writing about. Either that, or they are deliberately writing to demean and lower your standing in their personal point of view. Trust me, it has nothing to do with your experience nor your successes. Your skill sets are probably just fine.
Unfortunately letters like this generally come from lower level directors of operations who do not have a high enough experience level to write a letter, that is both professional, and allows the participants some level of integrity.
Trust me, it has nothing to do with your experience nor your successes.
Customer Satisfaction
Increasing customer satisfaction should always be a top priority, we all know that. Even when you are looking to hire new employees, customer satisfaction still matters. New employees can also be viewed as your customers. It begs the question however, when did appeasing management over the customer concerns become the new norm?
Some managers and/or lower level directors of operations are masochist who thrives on stress. We have all seen them, or know one personally. They never turn off - they are on 24/7. These are your disruptive employees.
These types of individuals are frantically working nights and long hours hoping to achieve that “golden child” status.
In truth that mentality is zombie in nature. What they do is bring that attitude of superiority back into the office day-after-day, and that attitude is exhausting to everyone around them. To compound the matter, when administration or other positions of power allow these masochistic employees to write letters to people on the outside, it potentially sets the company up for failure.
Tracking when your directors of operational management get in the way of progress might be something you need to consider in your business if:
- Do they demean potential new employees by crafting letters with negativity?
- Are they always going after the new guy?
- Constantly bringing up old issues? Why?
- Can you link your customer satisfaction to key management decisions that have been the target of some internal personal issue?
- If your top management team isn’t doing a whole lot of work-and your regular employees are supplying most of the data and putting in the work load – who is taking credit for that work?
- Are your directors of operation forwarding along other employees hard work as their own work; and then complaining about those employees who actually did the work?
- Does your organization have that disruptive employee environment from too many derogatory attacks on the general public, potentially new employees and current ones?
- Do your operations look like a high school gossip hit squad?
No one is able to navigate and survive, let alone negotiate the business channels under any of the above unnecessary circumstances. With that type of disruptive environment - expect the loss of potentially new and current valuable employees - and the knowledge they possess. That can, and will affect your bottom line.
Management Revolving Door
If you are trying to hold on to the staff you have - then you better be listening to them. Their feedback can make or break certain possess. But If you are constantly throwing ambiguous tasks (like scraps of meat)
to your employees– don’t wonder why people walk out the door.
That type of management style is both exasperating and non-sustainable. Like a revolving door, these types of directors of operation use up people for what they can take from them and pass that information along as their own.
Work-Life Balance
Your employees understand that there needs to be a work-life balance, and if not, they will leave - especially the good ones. Setting up an environment that is free of negativity is mandatory if you plan on surviving in the real world. Sometimes the answer is as simple as “leave your employees alone and let them do their job”. But provide them with the necessary tools to do those jobs.
Look long and hard at your employees concerns:
- Where do your employees go to get answers to questions that might be needed for projects or communication with real world clients?
- What grief will employees get for asking questions?
- Do you play favorites with your employees?
- Do you allow your current operational staff to craft letters concerning someone's qualifications on the outside of your organization? How about the inside?
- Do managers harass and threaten employees to choose sides in an organization?
- What moves your needle when deciding who you will like one day, and dislike the next?
- Is integrity written into your plans for operations or have disruptive employees kind of taken over the place?...and not in a good way.
The Big Idea
When you begin designing and implementing new processes and procedures, are you thinking in the long term or is the matter a short term “let’s try it out and see if it works” type of process?
A word of caution:
- New interviewees will quickly pick up on your lack of organization and decide your total operations is little more than a deception designed to sink people into positions that don't have much substance.
- Changing up the office landscape and dumping in changes that are made to look long-term , but really are not, make people nervous.
- If your company isn’t turning a profit, lofty long-term plans never feel comfortable to anyone.
Office Politics
Everyone wants to feel of value. But when you have a group of aggressive employees each with an edge in their own field and you put them into an environment without built in processes, you might find yourself in a predicament of being a stone’s throw away from a coup. Especially if your employees have already been approached to choose sides by operational managers or directors. This type of political maneuvering is generally introduced quickly, sometimes as early as the interview stage. Your ship might already be sunk before you get to set sail.
Have your employees been asked to choose sides by a manager or director?
When your managers are constantly throwing changes into the mix, and hinting of uncertain futures, unsurprisingly you will get people stabbing each other in back and running the bus back and forth over each other. Regaining control is hard, and winning back over the trust of those employees that relied on you is an uphill climb.
Moving The Needle
Maybe it's time to cut out that layer of masochist operational management and allow your employees who actually produce to carry your projects to completion. Provide employees with the tools they need to be successful as well. Help encourage those great employees and potentially new employees to "manage up" and take on tasks willingly instead of grudgingly. Then your time can be freed up to spend on improving products and or processes. Move the needle – get your edge back. Show integrity in all your dealings.