Leadership Excellence

JOb Descriptions -- Dusting them off to enhance employee performance

In the course of conducting of audits of human resource departments, job descriptions are always on my checklist.  It's the usual stuff: accuracy, ADA compliance, % of time spent on job duties ( not tasks ) etc.

Used to prepare recruiting ads-- sometimes:  Used as a reference tool for promotions? performance evaluations? discipline?  Hmm Managers rely on their knowledge of the job ( which is a great idea) and here is the question ... do the manager and employee's have a mutual understanding of the job.

Somewhere in the suite of corner offices, A VP reviews completed performance evaluation forms.  In an enlightened moment the question is asked " How does the performance evaluation results correlated with the job description? After all, the job descriptions have been signed off on by corporate.. They surely are accurate ( hmm wonder what input the employee had during the descriptions development).

Well something doesn't add up. The reports we get from the field indicate the employee is doing an A level job. with special praise from our customers.  The performance evaluation indicates " problems with customer relations".. Why the disconnect? I suggest the job description is a living document and needs to be updated to reflect the duties and responsibilities of the position.  In addition it should be a source, base line document for evaluations, compensation, and discipline. 

Dust them off: review and update: and utilize this document as a valuable management resource.

Winter's Leadership

The silence of snow piled high in the woodlands: drifting snow creating hazards for squirrels, and salmon red surise and sunsets create  a almost indescribable landscape. Benaeath my snowshoes are the frozen lakes with languid bass and blue gills,

Leadership of two different types are necessary to servive the 6 months long winters.... the strong, adaptabile type that has a recurring vison of what the fututre brings... and begins to prepare 6 months in advance for the changes to come..... The second is the quiet, observant leader who keeps to themself... remaining below the suface..while getting stronger and surving through the life threatening chaos of an unpredicatable season...

Which leader are you  ?????( let's hear from you)>

Leadership and Intuition

The late Johnny Cash sang  about knowing when to hold'em and when to fold'em. 

Successful, intuitive leaders know that almost ephemeral sense of what to say to whom: when to say it, and when not to act.  One of my favorite leaders is Joe Paterno of Penn State University. Joe is 80 years old. How many generations of college students has he interacted with in his 40 years of coaching? How many generation xer's, y'ers etc etc? And the gurus continue to thrash about talking about the keys to relating to those younger, and different than Joe.

He keeps on trucking. A brillant guy who feigns homespun intellect. A leader who knows when to look a young man in the eye: a time to walk away from potential conflict: a time to converse with the rich and famous: the poor and needy.

What makes Joe tick? Some call it Emotional Intelligence: Others Servant Leadership. I wonder what the kid from Brooklyn who is a genius in his own time calls the phenomena?

Misconfrontation

The purposeful avoidance of confrontation and conflict by those in leadership positions appears to have reached epidemic proportins. From avoiding discussions about an employee's time card entries, avoiding discussions related to insubordination, avoiding discussions related to required overtime, avoiding discussions related to inferior performance,,,,, you get the idea.   Then when the stuff hits the fan --its misconfrontation ... blow ups: personal attacks, morale defeating victimization etc.

My point is --- those who refuse to engage in problem based discussions which can be characterized as confrontations--- should not be designated as leaders.  They may fill leadership positons... but their inability to face interpersonal issues in the work place weakens the foundation on which leading is based ... the foundation of honesty combined with trust.   

Corporate Leaders can do their organizations a necessary service by challenging those who engage in  misconfrontation.

Performance Appraisals and Time Mangement

" Our comapny doesn't do performance appraisals because we are too busy". Would you believe it... the 2nd most cited reason for not doing performance appraisals was .." too busy". I almost lost my cool.  An employee spends more than 2000 hours at the workplace and supervisors can't allocate 1/2 hour a year to discussing the individuals on the job performance.

WHAT A MESSAGE - Don't tell me how terrific your company is: how you care for employees, how you need to change the firm's culture.... Your employee's are just chattel: names on a board to be moved about as you see fit.  They are not worthy of recognition.. Oh yes, the comeback is that they are only motivated by money--not self worth or recognition or praise.

Get off my back -- I concluded the seminar by asking " When was the last time you had a formal performance appraisal" -- eyes lowered in the audience -- Then I asked -- And how do you feel being ignored .... there is silence. Just what kind of a leader are you?