Surely there are industries in Arizona that are having a tough time. Real estate and construction are two of the most visible.  But, we also have plenty of companies where things are going well. Really well.  In fact, according to The Arizona Republic, the 32 PUBLICLY TRADED companies in Arizona with more than $100 million dollars per year in revenue have cash on hand of over $16.1 billion dollars; an average of over $500 million in cash being held by each company.  And those are just the public companies with over $100 million in annual revenues.

The Phoenix Business Journal reports that small businesses are also reporting significant improvement.  Thirty-five percent say that they plan to ADD employees, 44 percent believe business conditions are IMPROVING (only 9 percent think conditions are worse), nearly 50 percent report that their financial position has IMPROVED and 27 percent plan to INCREASE spending.

These are all solid signals that in spite of all the news stories to the contrary, things really are getting better.  But, we need to keep in mind the well known saying that good news does not sell papers. So because there is no incentive for the media to report positive news, we end up hearing only the negative, “the sky is falling” stories.  Maybe we need to look at the real world—our own individual environments.  We should pay attention to our own companies.  How are WE doing?  My guess is that more of us than not will discover that things are pretty good when viewed objectively.

Certainly there is no shortage of people among our co-workers having a tough go of it in their personal lives, and it is only natural for that to manifest in their attitudes in the workplace.  But it is incumbent upon all of us to make sure that negative attitude does not become the culture of our working environment. We should become emissaries of good news to help our co-workers keep perspective. If we continue to focus on the negatives, if we continue to let our own and our employee’s personal challenges color our outlook, it will create the proverbial self-fulfilling prophecy and nothing will improve.  Perhaps its time to live by the lyrics of Johnny Mercer’s 1940s hit, Accentuate the Positive . . .

“You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium’s
Liable to walk upon the scene”

I vote for focusing on the positive.  Who is with me?

Even now, a week later, as I’m writing a letter to the manager of the hotel to let her know about the poor customer service we experienced, I’m still amazed that a lack of basic customer service skills can exist in the hotel industry.  Is it really possible that front desk staff can be hired (and presumably be trained) and still not understand the basic Do’s and Don’ts of customer service?

My family is generally easy going and by no means “high maintenance.”  But, even we can get upset with poor customer service.  So, by now you might be wondering – what happened to damage our vacation?  Parking!  (Or more specifically, lack of parking.)

Our hotel makes a REALLY BIG DEAL out of the fact that each unit can only have ONE car in the parking garage – in fact, you sign several documents upon arrival acknowledging this, and listen to a lecture from the front desk reinforcing the message and reminding you that you MUST put your Parking Pass on the dashboard or risk being towed.  These efforts are all in place, they tell us, to ensure that we have a parking space for our unit.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work out that way for us.  When we leave and return to the hotel after 11 p.m., there are NO parking spaces available.  Worse yet, here are the responses we got when we went to the front desk to address the situation:

• “I’m new here and don’t really know.  I guess you’ll have to park on the street and feed the meter.”  (The meter is 25 cents for 15 minutes, with a maximum of 4 hours.)
• “I called my manager and she says to tell you to park at the train station.  No, I’ve never parked there but I think it is two streets over.”  (By now it’s after midnight and they want to send me several blocks away in an area I don’t know.  I don’t think so.)
• “There are 42 units and only 33 parking spaces, you’ll have to look for something on the street.”  (Some basic research shows that there are 42 units, with 37 parking spaces in the garage and 6 parking passes for the street.)
• “Sometimes non-guests park in the garage.  No, I have no idea how many non-guests are parked in the garage.  (I knew because I counted them – there were 7.)  We ticket them.  (Only 1 car had a ticket.)  I can’t really do anything about it.  You’ll have to park on the street and feed the meter.  If you want to leave me with quarters, I can do that for you.”
• “You can always park at the train station.  No, I don’t know where that is but I think it is close by.”  (As a footnote, earlier in the day I had checked the parking garage at the train station – you are not allowed to leave a vehicle there from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. – the sign says they will tow your car.  That didn’t sound like a good choice for us.)
• When we shared the fact that last year they gave us a space out front with a parking pass for the hotel.  Could we do that?  The answer was, “No, the only space open is right in front and someone is parked there.”  “Whose car is that?”  “Mine (the front desk person!)”

Listening to these comments I was reminded of the importance of the “Moment of Truth” in customer service.  At that critical moment in working with a customer, what do you do to make the experience a positive one?  For us, unfortunately, this just didn’t happen.

No one bothered to apologize for the inconvenience this was causing us or even demonstrate any concern over the situation or our frustration.  No one took ownership of the situation and looked for a creative solution.  They didn’t even ask what unit we were staying in, let alone use our name during the discussion.  When in frustration I asked for the manager’s name, I got a post it note with a name scribbled on it, and a phone number I couldn’t read.

So what did I want?  What would have been an appropriate response?

I wanted to be acknowledged as a valued customer with a legitimate concern.  I wanted someone to acknowledge that this was a frustrating situation and that they would work with me to find a suitable solution.  I wanted to talk to someone who was knowledgeable about the parking situation (or at least who would make sure the concerns got addressed by the right person).  I wanted someone who could make a decision to “fix” things for me.  Most of all, I wanted to hear that this situation would be resolved before we come back next year!

As I write this blog, I hope that my experience reminds you, as it does me, the importance of excellent customer service.  Many times it’s the small things – like using my name, acknowledging my frustration, offering to find a creative solution – that demonstrate that you care about me and my problem.  Excellent customer service is key to the success of your business –  don’t let the lack of it damage things.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. Colin Powell

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Winston Churchill

Why are some people overwhelmed and defeated by their problems while others are challenged and motivated by the same situations?  According to Seligman, author of Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, there are several factors that influence our outlook on life.  Two of the factors that impact our view of the world are our explanatory style and our sense of learned helplessness.

Our view of the world is learned through all of our experiences, how others respond to us, through interpretation of events, and through our self-talk.  This thinking he calls explanatory style.

Explanatory style is the manner in which we habitually explain to ourselves why events happen.  It is the great modulator of what Seligman calls learned helplessness.  Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.  An optimistic explanatory style stops helplessness, a pessimistic explanatory style spreads helplessness.

There are three elements in our explanatory style, our thinking style, that differentiate pessimists from optimists.  It all has to do with interpreting an event as 1) Permanent or Temporary, 2) Pervasive or Specific and 3) whether it is Personal or Other.

Take an example, when bad things happen the pessimists automatically think the cause is:

Permanent: It is always going to be.  “I’ll never learn to hit the ball.”

Pervasive: It’s going to affect everything.  “I can’t hit, I’ll never learn to play any sport.”

Personal: It’s my fault.  “I don’t have the mental or physical skills to play baseball.”

By contrast optimists interpret their set backs very differently.

Temporary: It is just one instance.  “I struck out but I’ll get a hit the next time up.”

Specific: The problem was the bat.  “Next time I’ll choke-up on the bat, then I’ll hit it”

Other: The umpire made an error.  “The pitch was off the plate, but he called me out.”

Psychologists studying the performance of college students, found that over and above their talent-test scores, pessimists drop below their “potential” and optimists exceed it.  The notion of potential, without the notion of optimism, has very little meaning.

In the mid-1980’s, Martin Seligman studied the explanatory style of major league baseball players and managers in the National League.  Analysis of over 15,000 pages of public utterances reported in home town newspapers of individual team members and managers found that “optimistic teams” did better than their previous year win-loss records would suggest, and that “pessimistic teams” did worse.

During the same period, a study of the explanatory responses of teams in the National Basketball Association came up with the same conclusions.  There appears to be an individual, as well as a team explanatory style, that is meaningful and measurable.  Explanatory style predicts how teams will do above and beyond how “good” a team is.  Based on potential, success on the playing field is predicted by optimism.  Failure on the playing field is predicted by pessimism.

Not only do optimists do better on the job, in school, and sports activities, but it is suggested that they also enjoy better health, tend to live longer, and they have smoother, less rocky, relationships.

However, Seligman suggests that there are times when having a pessimistic view is beneficial.  The guideline is when the cost of failure in a particular situation is high, optimism is the wrong strategy.  The party-goer deciding whether to drive home after drinking or the pilot in the cockpit deciding whether to de-ice the plane one more time should not use optimism.  In both these instances the cost of failure is high.  Optimism is not the answer!

Becoming an optimist consists not of learning to be more selfish or self-assertive, but simply of learning a set of skills about how to talk to yourself when you suffer a personal defeat.  You can learn to speak to yourself about your set backs from a more encouraging viewpoint.

Habits of thinking need not be forever.  It is up to you to decide which style of thinking you want to dominate your outlook.  You decide the results you want.

The choice is yours!

The challenge for organizations today is to identify future leaders who possess a bias for coaching and developing work colleagues, then further training them to enhance the techniques of listening, providing effective feedback and coaching methodologies. In today’s free market work environment, where loyalty to one employer is not a high priority, the organizations that train, develop and encourage coaching competencies will be the employer’s of choice for more and more high potential people.

Companies will, more often than not, approach strategic planning as a singular event rather than an ongoing process.  You have probably either observed or been a part of the drill.  Simplistically, the management team goes off to some hotel or resort where they will sit in a meeting room for a couple days to devise or revise the company’s strategy in a session led by an outside facilitator the company has hired for the event.  There are some great discussions and ideas are exchanged and recorded on flip-chart pages taped to the walls.  When the event ends, everyone has a sense of excitement, of “mission accomplished,” and back to work they go where they pick up where they left off and the daily routine quickly takes over again.  The formal strategic plan notebook arrives a few days later where it gets a quick once-over on its way to a prominent and strategically visible place on the shelf.  It is as though by its very existence and visibility it will somehow miraculously create change.  Then weeks and months go by with the plan rarely if ever consulted as it sits gathering dust; little attention is paid to the document that had generated so much excitement at the time it was created.  Soon a whole year has gone by, the cycle repeats and off again we go to plan.  This cycle is ineffective and wasteful and requires significant effort and discipline to break it. 

The company must acknowledge strategic planning to be an ongoing process rather than the event it has been. Management needs to come to grips with the fact that planning is ongoing and requires their unwavering commitment, that success or failure is derived from what happens after the formal planning session, not the session itself.  Follow up and accountability are critical. A plan that never makes it outside the circle of the leadership team is unlikely to succeed. There must be a legitimate effort to translate the poetry of a written plan into action plan prose that people responsible for its implementation can understand, take ownership of and, most importantly, execute.  Then comes the heavy lifting—the less exciting and less sexy part.  Someone must have the responsibility and authority to drive the plan throughout the company on a daily basis to assure it remains alive and vibrant.  This requires identifying the specific goals that must be achieved to realize the strategic direction and defining the measures and targets, the metrics that will define when the company has “arrived.”  Each step and each objective is a key part of the puzzle that must be methodically identified and pursued.  There must be someone, an individual or team, responsible and accountable for each of those key steps and timeframes for each to occur to ensure the necessary coordination.  There must be regular, perhaps quarterly, update sessions where progress toward the accomplishment of goals is reviewed; resources reallocated to assure deviations are brought back on course and plan revisions made if actual experience dictates that a modification to the plan is warranted. While perhaps sounding a bit overwhelming, it is in fact a very realistic effort when it is founded on a clear process to which the company is committed and when it is valued on the same basis as any other internal process leadership deems essential to their success.  It is how companies respond when the “rubber meets the road,” what happens after the event, that will determine if the usual strategic planning cycle is broken in favor of success.  Consider this; a well implemented mediocre plan is far more valuable than a great plan tucked away on a shelf in someone’s office.

I talked a bit about social media in the previous blog post on the importance of an Marketing/HR partnership to create effective employment branding.  Social media is all about the conversations you have with your customers (or in your case, potential employees) and this has typically been Marketing’s sandbox.  Several surveys suggest that social media has now become the second leading source of new employees behind current employee referrals.  As a result, you need to ensure you have a seat at the table when it comes to company social media strategy.

Here are three effective Twitter recruitment tactics you’ll want to evaluate for your employment branding and recruiting strategy:

1.  Utilize Twitter Job Syndication Sites – Many of these are free with some charging a nominal fee for posting

TweetMyJobs.com – One of the largest syndicators with many well-known companies posting daily.  Post your jobs for a couple of bucks and have them pushed out to thousands of followers who choose which tweets to receive based on geography, industry and specialty.

Twitter Feeds based on Career Specialty – for example; candidates looking for a media job would subscribe to: http://twitter.com/#!/MediaJobsDaily

Twitter Feeds based on your Vertical – Candidates looking for a construction job would subscribe to: http://twitter.com/#!/GetConstrucJobs

Twitter Feeds based on your Geography – Candidates in Chicago would subscribe to: http://twitter.com/#!/jobschicago

2.  Create a separate Twitter Jobs account, different from your corporate feed:

Marketing, Sales and Communications departments will always have a bevy of information to post on your company Twitter feed.  Create a separate Twitter address for jobs at your company.  Check out the Starbucks Jobs Twitter feed with over 14k followers: http://twitter.com/#!/StarbucksJobs

3.  Post with applicable #hashtags and a shortened url to be found by candidates searching Twitter:

Posting a Marketing job in Phoenix? A good rule of thumb is to limit yourself to no more than three hashtags per tweet.  In this case you could use #jobs #marketing #phoenix.  Using the right hashtags will get you found through the Twitter search or by dedicated Twitter job search engines like: http://www.twitjobsearch.com/.  Don’t forget to include a shortened url link to the actual job posting itself.  You can use one of the free shortened url generators like http://tiny.cc/ or http://bit.ly/ so you use the minimum amount of characters on your link.

So go on, flap those wings and tweet out your sweet recruiting song that generates more top quality applicants using these three easy employment branding tactics.

byChad Gretzema, Spyre Employment Branding

He who knows others is learned; he who knows himself is wise.  Anon

In much the same manner that climbers of Mount Everest take inventory at each base-camp level to determine what supplies and equipment will be required for the next segment of the climb.  So it is that you need to take inventory of your unique skills, experience, and talents to insure a successful movement as you begin your career transition.

In a nutshell, the career transition process is one in which the employer has a problem and is looking for a person to solve the problem.   If you are to be effective as a problem solver you must know yourself and be able to relate how your skills, experience, and abilities match the employer’s need.

As one executive pointed out, taking inventory means teaching you about yourself. As you develop your resume, introduce yourself to networking contacts, and engage in interviews you must be able to clearly describe your unique talents and competencies.

Harvey MacKay, author of at least a dozen books on the business of succeeding in business, suggests that the completion of psychometric tools with the assistance of a psychologist is a critical first step in the job search process.

A systematic assessment process, using standardized measures is far more objective than any other individual evaluation process.

The results of these psychometric instruments remind you of your work-style pattern, your communication style and how others are likely to see you.  In addition, the assessment process teaches you about yourself by reminding you of your:

management style                                      approach to conflict resolution

preferences and values                             problem solving approach

important growth areas                            team orientation

work activity dimensions                         stress factors and coping abilities

The results of the inventory-taking process enable you to more clearly specify the work environment and conditions in which you will be most productive and effective.  Having a greater sense of your abilities and strengths makes it easier to prepare your resume, develop your “elevator” statement, and talk about accomplishments.  In addition, knowing yourself well is essential in networking, selling yourself in the interview setting and salary negotiation.

Malcolm Forbes suggests that, “Too many people…undervalue what they are.”  Following the suggestions noted above will reinforce what makes you valuable, validate your competencies, and bolster your confidence.  Take inventory!!

You hired him 6 months ago.  He posted for the job – so he must have been interested, right?  He interviewed well – good answers to questions, great assessment results.  The references all checked out – to a person, they all wanted to hire someone like him.  He handled the salary negotiation like a pro – very professional, clear on his needs, willing to look at options.  You hired a winner!

The transition to the new assignment was a breeze.  You are pleased with the progress over the last six months.  The employees (who had been without a supervisor for 4 months and had a “problem” supervisor before that) seem happy.  After working closely with Human Resources, he’s dealt with the two performance issues in the department and handled them like a pro.  The Quality group, who is responsible for monitoring his group’s work, has seen great progress.  Your boss has taken notice and in general things are on the up-swing.

So, what’s going on now?

Could it be that you’ve thrown him in on the “deep end of the pool” and turned your back?  He’s called and left messages looking for your advice on a few situation – but you were busy and didn’t return the calls quickly.  At the last staff meeting he shared a lot of new ideas and approaches – many of these ideas could solve problems that have been bugging you for awhile.  But you weren’t ready to move on them just yet, so you didn’t agree to take any action.  He’s proposed some changes to the work schedule backed up by a really impressive assessment of the issues and options.  He asked if he could meet with you to discuss a few things – you’ve put him off for a couple of weeks.  Now you are hearing that he’s not happy…maybe even considering leaving.  How can that be?

New supervisors start with energy, drive, determination, and a strong desire to succeed.  Unfortunately, it’s easy for the realities of the job to knock them off the track.  Day-to-day issues pile up.  There isn’t enough time to do what needs to get done.  Employees are constantly “testing” them.  There are lots of “rules” that are never written down but need to be learned.  New ideas get dismissed.  Changes are promised – but don’t happen.  Frustrations rise. 

So, what do you do?  How do you help get the new supervisor back on track?

• Pay attention. 
• Listen with BOTH your eyes and ears. 
• “Read between the lines” – what is the real message the supervisor is sending?
• Be available.  Schedule regular meetings (and keep them!)  Have both formal and informal time with them.  Return calls and emails. 
• Be open to new ideas / approaches.  If you can’t address that new idea now, be clear why you are saying “no” or “not now.”  (Remember, they don’t have all the information you have and may not see things you see.)
• Take time to build a strong relationship with them.  You’ll get insights into them and their concerns AND you’ll build the foundation for them to feel comfortable coming to you for advice.
• Now is the time to be a Coach!

A colleague of mine shared this easy to remember – and highly effective – tool for managing performance and providing an outline for one-on-one meetings.  He uses the tool to meet weekly with new sales employees, but I’ve found it is flexible and works for both new and long time employees.

Do you remember learning about vowels – A, E, I, O, U and Y?  Use them as a way to frame your discussion.  Remember, this is a discussion (not an interrogation) so make use your best questioning skills and ask about projects from their perspective.

A = Accomplishments

        What have you (the employee) accomplished?  What has gone well?  What’s working for you?

E = Expectations

Clarify expectations.  What are your expectations?  What are my expectations?

I = Issues

What issues stand in the way of success?  What do you control?  What is out of your control?  What do I need to do to help?

O = Objectives

What are your objectives for the next ______ period?  What are the next steps?

U / Y = You

What is important to you?  What is your personal commitment to growth and improvement?  What can I do to support you?

Why not give it a try?  I know you’ll find it a helpful tool.

Companies that have reacted to the economic downturn by seemingly indiscriminately cutting costs to the bone in order to build up cash reserves are likely not in the best shape to capitalize on the opportunities emerging in the marketplace today or that will come in increasing numbers as the economy recovers. Budgets have been stripped of “discretionary” spending, total headcount has been reduced, survivors are doing the work of 2 or 3 people, pay and hiring have been frozen, inexperienced people have been thrust into leadership positions, morale is eroding and employee loyalty is pretty much a distant memory.  I will suggest that it is going to be hard to win the game with a beaten down and demoralized team.

The companies that are going to come out of the current economic malaise as the overwhelming winners have been using the downturn to build their teams.  Have they shed employees?  Yes. Have they trimmed budgets? Yes.  And surprisingly, they have taken most of the other steps that their competitors have taken as well, but significantly, to a lesser degree. Rather than cut to the bone, these companies have used the recession to “upgrade their gene pool,” that is they have tapped the employment market to replace less than fully effective staff with truly outstanding talent.  They have also invested in training for their front line supervisors and managers, conducted team development exercises to help people cope with and manage in the reduced workforce environment, implemented formal leadership training and development programs, created effective retention strategies and employed coaches to help senior leaders more effectively meet everyday internal and external challenges.  In short, they not only have a stronger team to help them survive in an uncertain environment, more importantly, they are head and shoulders above their competition in their ability to capitalize on and win the opportunities in an expanding market.

 Harvard business review reported that, depending on industry segment, companies that invested in talent development outperformed the S&P by seventeen to thirty-five percent.  That was in stable times.  Anyone want to venture a guess as to what that gap will be in the coming growing market?