Lately, I’ve been attracted to a show called Tabitha’s Salon Takeover because it is chock full of lessons in each episode.  If you haven’t heard of it, it is now casting for it’s fourth season and is being shown in re-runs on Bravo channel.  The show highlights hair salons who are in desperate need of intervention.  Tabitha Coffey, a professional stylist and educator with many years of experience, comes into a salon in order to asses why the salon is in dire straits, communicate what is and is not working, make recommendations for improvement and redesign the salon for a grand re-opening.  It’s not really about hair or salons, it’s about how to take a critical look at a business or department and see things with a critical eye in order to improve.

I watched an episode today that caught my attention.   The real issue of the salon was inconsistency.  The owner was inconsistent in her behavior, in her rules of running the salon, in her treatment of the stylists and of her overall expectations of what a successful salon should be.  Her stylists were inconsistent in their skills, their application of the skills they did have, their attitude and response to caring for their work environment and in their relationships with the owner and with each other.

It was one BIG mess!  Why?  Because an arbitrary approach to work leads to chaos and ultimately failure to reach business goals.

CREATING A PARADIGM

If you are advising a leader who behaves inconsistently or if you ARE the leader who demonstrates inconsistency in leading, how can you create a new model that will support and achieve new levels of success?

• Get honest-  Take a look with a critical eye.  If you are the leader or if you are working in a department where you’re not achieving success,  step back and try to look at how things get done, or don’t, as if you are a stranger seeing the group for the first time.  What are the behaviors you see that are supporting reaching the business goals?  Who are your informal leaders who can help turn the morale of the group around?  Are the inconsistencies coming from one or a small group of employees, or does the inconsistent behavior run rampant throughout the department?
• Share the results-  In human resources, we see leaders who not only turn a blind eye to what is really going on in the department.  We also see leaders who know what is going on but do not share their concerns with staff.  Part of being a good leader is being able to teach staff and without sharing results, you won’t be able to adequately teach so that the behaviors can improve.
• Set or “re-set” expectations-  We all have goals.  Most organizations set them each year.  Instead of just creating some formal document that is pushed to the side until the end of the year, gather your team together and talk about what specific behaviors and actions will achieve the goals. Your only chance of achieving success is by soliciting the feedback and gaining the buy-in from staff.  Skip this step and the house of cards will fall.
• Redesign-  This is another step that is so important but is often skipped.  As leaders, we tend to communicate that change is needed and even what needs to change.  Then, the staff are told to just get back to work.  This does not inspire change.  In order to get the ball rolling, think of some way to visually show that something is different.  Whether that means changing some work assignments, creating a new work group, making plans to change the physical work environment or another creative idea, the point is that staff who see that something has already changed and for the better will be more likely to embrace additional changes.  Shake it up!

The point is to be able to ban inconsistency and inconsistent behavior from our workplace.  What have you seen or done in order to support the change where you work?  What other tips do you give to support consistency?  

We’ve all left a job.

Whether voluntarily or involuntarily, leaving your organization or position is a commonality we all share at some point.  The difference is how each person handles that transition. For many employees, especially those who voluntarily resign, leaving is a process they go through.  It could involve months of thinking about it and planning out each detail. For those employees who are terminated though, they may or may not have much warning.  Either way, it’s important to realize the impact of behavior during the transition time.  After all, it’s part of the legacy you leave and what you were known for at work.

In a recent column in Harvard Business Review, On Stepping Down Gracefully, Robert Sutton describes the importance of this transition time for CEOs who step down or who take on roles with different responsibility. Like us, a CEO has to think about the message they send when they are asked to resign or if they are choosing to retire to a chairmanship.  The impact of behavior during those “peak” moments in a career are critical to how colleagues and even the successor remember the person who is leaving.  There are no real benefits to let hurt feelings taint the departure.  All that does is create enemies and burn bridges that may be needed in the future.

The same holds true for promotions.  Whether you’re leaving your current role for a promotion in your current department, leaving your department for another in the organization, or leaving your organization for an opportunity for a larger role at a different company, do so with grace.  The way you treat colleagues will have a great influence on how you are perceived in the future.

• Tie up loose ends on issues-  Make it easy for your successor to step in.
• Transition projects to capable leaders- By giving that leader all the information he or she will need to take over the project you will help ensure that the project will not be derailed as a result of your resignation or promotion.
• Show respect-  The way you treat your colleagues, boss, clients and anyone else in the organization you come into contact with will be the last memory they have of you.  Make it a good one.
• Give performance feedback to members of your team-  This is a critical action yet one that most people miss as they leave.  Without your input as a leader, often the incumbent will not have enough knowledge to complete the annual appraisal for that year and your staff will be the ones to pay the price.

What are other key things you have done as you’ve transitioned out of roles?  Be sure to share those in the comments.

How do you take compliments?  If you’re good at it or have any tips for me on how I can get better, let me know.  The worst thing we can do is get good feedback and not know exactly what to do with it.  So….share your best tips in the comments.

With so many discussions in the HR space about whether or not there is value in formal performance reviews, this is a compelling argument against them.  Or at a minimum, in how to deliver the performance conversation.

Think back to performance reviews you’ve received and those you may have given.  Do you believe that such a high percentage of feedback is actually a “waste” or that it is a form of coaching that is valuable? I’d love to hear the arguments for and against the formal review.  Personally, I prefer the more informal, day-to-day feedback.  However, I’m still in the camp that an annual review is helpful if it is leaning toward the development of the individual for the coming year.

What you do you think?  Weigh in in the comments. And, be sure to check out the podcast of Bill’s show.  It’s a great use of twenty minutes!

The basic premise Dr. Chapman asserts is that there are five “languages” of love and that each one of us has a primary language.  If your partner speaks a different “language”, there is a good chance you will not feel loved.  So, the idea is to identify your primary love language and your partner’s, then work to use the language the other person responds to best.

The five love languages

• Words of Affirmation- This person identifies most with compliments and other words that say you value them.  If you insult this person, it will affect them more deeply than other people.
• Quality Time-  This person values your undivided attention.  If you miss a meeting or appointment  with this person, they will truly be hurt.
• Receiving Gifts-  It’s not just the gift that is important to this person, but the thought behind it.  If you miss this person’s birthday or anniversary, they may be crushed.
• Acts of Service- This person feels happiest when you are showing your love by helping them.  Whether it’s pitching in on a chore at home or helping with a big project at work, this person will feel valued and cared for.
• Physical Touch- This is not a language just about sexual contact.  The person that speaks this language feels important when they are hugged, get a pat on the back, or your hand on the shoulder.  This one is harder to demonstrate at work due to sexual harassment laws, however, it can still be demonstrated in moderation.  The pat on the back, fist bump, shaking hands, or high five can fill in and still show this person they are valued by using physical contact.

If you think about the people you work with; your team members, colleagues and peers, subordinates, try to figure out which language seems to apply most to each person.

Let’s imagine you’re the type of leader who is very busy and recognizes performance only with money (pay increases, spot bonuses, etc.).   You are speaking the Receiving Gifts language.  But if I am the person who works for you and my primary language is Quality Time, I will not feel valued or cared for.  The one thing that would make my day is to have you show up for a meeting on time or meet with me one-on-one.  Or, if I feel valued when you notice that I’m carrying a heavy workload and you offer to pitch in and help me meet a big deadline, you’re speaking my language of Acts of Service.

There are many benefits of learning your own love language and how you can use the love languages model to communicate more effectively with people in your personal and professional life.  You will build stronger relationships and have more engagement with the people in your life.  To take a quiz to find out your own love language, click HERE.  Then, tell me what your love language is in the comments. For anyone who has met me or knows me from reading my blog, there will be no surprise to my results.

Mine is physical touch and words of affirmation almost equally.  Must explain why I’m a hugger who likes compliments!  :-)