[tweetmeme]I played in a regional bridge tournament recently and stopped in my tracks when a man walked by wearing a T-shirt that said: “The flogging will continue until morale improves.”  I laughed, but it wasn’t really funny.  Flogging employees doesn’t happen anymore, but verbal abuse and unreasonable demands are all too common in many companies. (Unfortunately, punishment by flogging is still prevalent in less civilized societies).

The company shall remain nameless, but I once worked for a CEO who would simply phone senior executives with the command “get over here.”  No hi, how are you.  Oh, and he once threw an ash tray in a meeting.  Don’t think this doesn’t happen anymore.  With the bad economy, some companies are getting away with mistreating employees, who need to hold onto their jobs.  But things will get better in time, and then employees will flee.

Arrogance Doesn’t Cut it Anymore

In a recent issue of Business Week in an article entitled  Twelve Signs Arrogance is Running Your Company leadership expert Alaina Love with Purpose Linked Consulting recounted the story of Joe, who astonished the CEO of his company by resigning because his cautions about the company’s direction fell on deaf ears.  Joe was a key player and nobody wanted him to leave so they brought in Love to try to talk him out of it.  As Love writes in her bylined article, “The significance of Joe’s impending departure was enormous, I realized. He’d grown up in the company, starting first in sales and eventually working his way up to a leadership position in marketing. Losing him would mean a tough blow for the organization, one from which recovery would be difficult and lengthy, if not impossible. With him would go years of irreplaceable institutional wisdom and history.”

Joe’s Reason for Leaving

He told Love, “We’re not positioning ourselves for ongoing success, and I just don’t think this way of operating is sustainable. I’ve done everything I can to convince leadership we should adopt a different approach, but they’re not listening. They won’t even sit down long enough to learn about the suggestions I have for changing things.”

Employee engagement has become the new mantra for forward-thinking companies, but, alas, too many CEOs take the position of Joe’s.  “We don’t need somebody around here who doesn’t embrace our way of doing things,” the CEO said to Love.  In other words, it’s my way or the highway.

How shortsighted.  As I’ve written before, the economy is bad now so employees are staying put.  But in time the job market will improve and those companies that value their employees will be rewarded by their loyalty.  Companies like Joe’s will experience an exodus of employees who don’t want any more floggings.

[tweetmeme]A couple of recent studies confirm that one of our most primal needs is safety.  We want to feel safe – at home, in our city’s streets and especially at the office.  Reuters came out with a report today that ranked cities on how safe they are for children.  I’m proud to say that my hometown, New York City, ranked first along with Louisville.

Feeling safe -- he's got their backs

Another study by McKinsey this past summer discussed the importance of a boss making his employees feel psychologically safe by watching their backs.  This intrigued me because feeling safe isn’t usually found on the wish list of employees.  A good salary, a secure job (maybe that does equate with safety), meaningful work and a sense of community usually rank high.

So why is it important for a boss to “watch your back” and provide psychological safety?   According to the McKinsey study, “Why good bosses tune in to their people, “Good bosses spark imagination and encourage learning by creating a safety zone where people can talk about half-baked ideas, test them, and even make big mistakes without fear of ridicule, punishment, or ostracism.”

An Absence of Safety Can be Deadly

An absence of psychological safety, in concert with fear of the boss, can be dangerous or downright deadly….one study showed that when pilots faked mild incapacitation toward the end of a rough and rainy simulated flight, their copilots failed to take the controls 25 percent of the time—resulting in simulated crashes.

To lock in your team’s loyalty, boldly defend their backs, says the study’s author Stanford management professor Bob Sutton.

Fear Stifles Creativity and Productivity

Who wants to take a chance and suggest a new way of doing something and risk the wrath of the boss?  Says Sutton, “The best bosses invent, borrow, and implement ways to reduce the mental and emotional load heaped on their followers — followers who enjoy such protection have the freedom to take risks and try new things.”

Fear can be a motivator – of the wrong kind of behavior.  A fearful employee keeps his head down, does what he’s told and expected to do but rarely ventures out on the edge of the board.  I once worked for a CEO who screamed and tossed ashtrays.  He even resented the clack of his secretary’s fingers on the keyboard.  Do you think anyone voluntarily went to his office with a new idea?  Not on your life.

[tweetmeme]I’ve been blogging about twice a week for well over a year now.  I gave my first update last summer about why I blog.  Write Speak Sell would become the focal point of my thoughts about communicating ideas, which is at the heart of what I have done professionally for over 30 years.  It’s liberating to say what you really think and believe, while always being authentic.

A blog is the centerpiece of a company's social media strategy

Since then I’ve also come to believe that a blog is the centerpiece a company’s social media strategy, both internally and externally.  The CEO is where it all starts. Wise leaders are using social media because that’s where their employees and customers are.

The CEO needs to be talking directly to the company’s stakeholders regularly with quick takes on new developments.  A blog is the perfect vehicle because the nature of a blog is to be informal and for it to express the personality and communicate the authentic convictions of the writer.

A blog liberates the CEO from his ivory tower and into conversations with employees and customers in the social media communities they populate. This is a big culture change for most companies.

With a keystroke, the CEO can distribute her blog to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites where people are getting their information now days.  She can be out there first with the news, before the rumors and misinformation start flying around the Internet.  There isn’t time for a press release vetted by a dozen lawyers before it’s distributed.  Everything is transparent now.

Employee Engagement

The CEO can profoundly influence the company’s future success when employees to buy into his vision. But employees can’t march in step with a CEO who doesn’t engage them in a two-way conversation about his goals for them and the company.  If he does that, they can become the company’s most important brand advocates and commit to providing superior customer service.

Once again, I cite Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh as the pioneer.  In his blog last year he wrote a piece, “Your Culture”  In it he said, “It’s a very different world today. With the Internet connecting everyone together, companies are becoming more and more transparent whether they like it or not. An unhappy customer or a disgruntled employee can blog about bad experience with a company, and the story can spread like wildfire by email or with tools like Twitter. The good news is that the reverse is true as well. A great experience with a company can be read by millions of people almost instantaneously as well.”

Good advice and a good example to follow.

[tweetmeme]The buck stops with the CEO when it comes to employee engagement.  This is especially true when it comes to trust and believability.  For internal communications to be meaningful, it is important for the CEO and his executive team to lead by example: “Don’t just do as I say, do as I behave.”  Most employees are craving leadership – they want champions they can trust to lead them in new directions.

The CEO must also be the CCC – Chief Communication Champion of the company.  As I’ve written before, she needs to ensure that other executives are truly leading the development of a Culture of Communication – meaning that all corporate communications are reliable, truthful, timely and contain the full story.  The CEO should establish a system of rewards and incentives to instill new behaviors.  A healthy two-way communication will lead to better performance.  For employees to be truly engaged with the company and each other, they need to know that:

CEO Leadership is Key to Employee Engagement

•    The CEO is the visible leader of corporate communication

•    Executive behavior in support of positive communication is rewarded

•    Employees are rewarded fairly

•    The company values employees and actively engages them as brand advocates for the company in customer interactions and on social media networks

During bad times – such as layoffs, a hostile takeover, a product recall – those CEOs who are truly CCCs will have earned the trust and commitment of employees to work through any crisis.

[tweetmeme]I was finally persuaded by a friend to watch the new hit show “Undercover Boss.”  This reality show confirmed that a CEO can learn a lot about how to make the company better by engaging with employees. For those who haven’t seen the new show on CBS, a CEO goes undercover as an employee in his own company to see for himself how things are working.  Dave Rife, owner of the White Castle hamburger chain, was this past Sunday’s undercover snoop.

Praise for a job well done

When he started his adventure, I don’t think he fully understood how stressful the job of a White Castle employee can be, with the fear of losing a job always in the background when you have a disabled child, as one employee did, or another’s fear of simply messing up.

How Do I Do This?

Mr. Big Shot discovered that he couldn’t do simple chores like sliding plastic wrap over a batch of buns in the packaging machine.  He ruined several barrels’ worth, prompting a supervisor to say the hogs (who get to enjoy the mangled buns) would be eating well that night.

What he learned best, though, was how important employees are to the success of the company.  At a White Castle drive-in a young co-worker explained to him about the importance of greeting each customer and going out of your way to help with little things, like sliding the customer’s credit card in a hard-to-reach slot.  In watching this scene, I was almost brought to tears by the young man’s sincerity and dedication.  So was Dan Rife.

Another employee showed him a shortcut, but told him not to tell management, because that’s not how they said it was supposed to be done.

After his eye-opening week on the road, working besides his employees, Rife returned to headquarters wiser and more appreciative of what it means to be on the front lines.

Magically, he brought several employees to headquarters to assist with developing training programs – hey, they should.  Aren’t they the ones who know what the problems are and how to fix them?  He gave a $5,000 scholarship to a budding chef, and another $5,000 to the employee with a disabled child.

The program ended with Rife speaking to a pep rally of employees, beaming with the joy of being acknowledged by the head of the company. Happy with the recognition that they were asked to work as a team to achieve the company’s success.

Praise promotes employee motivation

[tweetmeme]The idea for this article came from a conversation I just had with a friend who works for one of the largest companies and best-known brands in the world.  Yet the company sucks at employee motivation.  If they haven’t got it figured out, then heaven’s knows many other companies are still in the dark, too, about what kinds of things motivate employees and that lead to employee satisfaction and retention.

He gave me a couple of examples that were almost laughable.The company held an off-site to reward their biggest producers.  Yet, the budget didn’t include money for lunch, which had to come out of the pockets of the attendees. Come on. Not even a sandwich and a soda?  The advertised “atta-boy” program devolved into here are your numbers for next year, with the implied threat that you won’t be at next year’s pep rally or even the company if you don’t come up big.  Not much of a motivator.

I’m not naïve.  A salary increase or bonus are great motivators. Yet, most of the tips I’m about to suggest cost little or no money to implement.  It all comes down to employee communication: saying what you mean and meaning what you say in clear, concise language.   Here goes:

1. Clear job descriptions. This may seem like a surprising first tip.  It sure is motivating to know what your job is.  If people don’t know what they’re expected to do, how can they achieve exceptional performance?

2. Chain of command. One of the Big Four accounting firms did a survey a number of years ago and 75% of the employees didn’t know who they reported to.  Tough to give a pat on the back when you don’t whose backs you have.

3. Ask employees what they need. Duh.  Hey, do you have all the tools you need to do your job?  What do you need?  How can I help?

4. Give immediate feedback. This is one of my favorites.  People are desperate to know how they are doing.  Forget the annual performance review; it’s a dinosaur.  Discuss a specific instance where the employee did well or where he needs to improve.

5. Praise outstanding performance. This couldn’t be simpler and it costs nothing.  If an employee exceeds standards, let her know.  Send an email to everyone in her group.  Make it easy for others to find out without having to navigate the company’s over-stuffed intranet.

6. Enlist employees as brand advocates. If you haven’t already, take the muzzle off your employees and let them represent themselves and their company on social media.  (See my post 7 Steps to Making Your Employees Brand Ambassadors)

7. Make employees part of the solution. Somewhere, someone in the company knows how to fix something that’s wrong.  Remember, that decisions should be delegated to the people who have the facts – and that’s not always those at the top of the company.

8. Encourage collaboration. It’s a real bummer when divisions are pitted against each other to compete for business.  This was almost the downfall of one of the major money center banks. Assemble the best client service team, no matter where the players reside in the company.  They will be highly motivated to get the business as collaborators and not competitors.

9. Sponsor friendly competitions. No, this isn’t a contradiction.  People do love to compete.  So sponsor a competition for new ideas within a profit center and reward the winner with a prize, like dinner for two at a four-star restaurant.  Or, have each employee submit a video to compete for best-in-class product demonstration.

10. Hold town hall meetings. Gather individual communities of employees, give them an update on the company and their group, and encourage conversation about how you can all work together to achieve greatness.

11. Get the CEO talking. The CEO (see my post CEO as Chief Communications Officer) can do more for employee engagement than anyone in the company.  Communicate often with how the company is doing, your role in contributing to our success, and how you will be rewarded.  Golden.

Within companies of any size, there are communities that are defined by the organization chart but many more that form organically.  Be sure to communicate the things that will motivate that community like praise for a job well done.   It will pay big dividends in employee motivation, satisfaction and retention of your star players.

Well, PR Departments in public companies are surely beginning work on their annual reports. They can smell spring in the air – when these symbols of capitalism come rolling off the presses once more.  In a reprise of my past admonitions, with a few additions, I implore writers and designers to keep a few things in mind.

• Please make the report more exciting. Notice I did not say interesting.  Splash some color on the pages, use a large typeface so oldsters can read the copy, especially if you’re using reverse type.  Use bold, brash headlines.  Most readers will be viewing the report online so make it compelling and dispense with flash and any other doohickey that slows down loading or distracts the viewer.
• Remember the company has employees. Yes, many fewer of them, but they still are the backbone of the company.  I was shocked last year when I perused the annual reports of several of the largest Fortune 500 companies and found they had not a single photo or story about an employees.   It is disappointing to think they merited so little recognition.
• Make it sell.  The report should very strategically position the organization as the leader in its space, developing new paradigms of products and services.
• Use Testimonials. Words out of the mouths of your customers and employees can bring the vision statement to life.  Let them tell the reader what a great company this is.

So, if you’re assigned to create this year’s annual report, how do you ensure it accurately represents the organization and has a long, active life after it’s been printed and distributed?  Here are my suggestions:

• Get the CEO involved from the get-go.  Do not even think of hiring a writer or design firm until you have met with the CEO to understand how s/he wishes the organization to be positioned in the document. S/he cannot delegate this discussion to someone else.
• Write a creative platform that describes the overall theme and tone of the annual report, its content and “look.”  Get the CEO to sign off on it.
• Solicit in-put from the key people in your organization who would most likely use the annual report throughout the year such as the head of sales, director of development, director of public and community affairs, and so on.  What do they want emphasized in the report?  Find out what would make them use it during the year to help them achieve their goals.
• Make a mock-up of the report, page by page.  It doesn’t need to be fancy. Take some legal paper and fold the sheets in half.  It’s essential to know the content of every page and ideas for photos, charts, etc.
• Now you can meet with your design firm and writer, if that’s not you.  Everyone should be working from the approved creative platform and mock-up.  Believe me, they will love you for it.
• Show two to three designs to the CEO with the mock-up.  If you’ve done your job right, s/he will have a tough time picking out the winner, because s/he will love them all.
• Be true to the creative platform as you go through the process of developing the report.  Be excited as it begins to unfold as a living, breathing document that will take on a life of its own for a year.  Don’t be afraid to be a little gutsy with the copy and design.  You’re not creating the next Bible, after all.

So, with these humble bits of advice, good luck and go forth!

I just returned from a joyous concert by the U.S. Army’s “Pershing” Band, as it is known, that was in town for its annual concert at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.   As I sat there with friends tapping my feet and applauding every brassy patriotic song, I thought what a great lesson I was learning about communications.  And that’s this:  when you communicate with joy, you turn an audience into your biggest fans.

And there was no doubt the musicians were having as much fun as the audience.  At the end, the Band played the anthem for each of the service branches and one by one young and grizzled veterans stood proudly while the audience cheered wildly.

I thought:  let’s pretend the bandleader is a company CEO.  He’s leading his musicians with infectious joy.  Wow, it’s great to work for this company.  Is there any employee who won’t want to follow?  How about making it a point to write to employees whenever there is some good news to report – big or small.  Don’t let every communiqué be about the next layoff or we’ve all got to tighten our belts again.  Your employees know that things may be rough in the company, unless they’ve got their heads in the sand, which is doubtful.

This is the truth:  bad news spreads via the grapevine faster than good news.  Fire just one person and before you know it the grapevine has translated that to more layoffs.  So, if you’re the CEO, make sure you feed the grapevine and your normal communications channels with all the good news you can.  It will make you feel better and your employees will become your loyal fans.

No doubt, employee morale is low at companies that are downsizing. So I sent a note to several people whose opinions I respect with the question: “Do you feel that CEOs acknowledge the value employees bring to the success of their companies? Can you share a personal experience you’ve had working for a company and how the company recognized and rewarded employees?” Here are several thoughtful answers (edited for space).  I start with an executive recruiter who is in a position to know what a lot of CEOs are doing to reward their people.

Stacy Lauren Musi, Managing Director
Chadick Ellig Executive Search
http://www.chadickellig.com

There have always been both many types of CEOs and leaders. The highly regarded leaders, whether CEO or a business or functional head, recognize the vital importance of their employees, and recognize and reward them … the paradigm for successful leadership in Corporate America continues to move away from the old-school “command and control” approach to an inclusive, consensus-driven, team-oriented model.

Well-regarded leaders acknowledge the contribution of their employees and seek to recognize and reward their top performers accordingly. Historically, this has been done with promotions and monetary gains. But, particularly given the current economy where money is tight and stock options are under water, CEOs and others have to be more creative in the reward systems.

So, in addition to the traditional salary increases, bonuses and equity grants, today, I am seeing other types of rewards:

• Public recognition in front of peers and colleagues. Being given an official company performance award or even just being acknowledged publicly can be motivating to the honored employee as well as to others who would want to be selected for future recognition.

• Particularly to the up-and coming generation that is hard working and ambitious, career growth opportunities go a long way towards keeping them engaged. This reward can include: being selected for a special task force; having the opportunity to participate in an off-site; being given a coveted developmental assignment; or simply being chosen to be mentored and groomed by a well-regarded leader.

• Lastly, I am seeing that more and more, rewards include a wide variety of special privileges or perks. This can include time away from the office (whether it be additional vacation time or the opportunity to work from home); a trip; a complimentary dinner or gift card, etc. This can be particularly effective with middle or lower management, and these perks often include the entire staff. For instance, one leader shared that after a successful quarter, she took her team bowling, and another leader, who was on a tight budget, closed the office at 2:00 on a Friday and threw a wine and cheese party for her staff to thank them for a good job and to encourage a team spirit.

***

Amy Dean
http://www.deanpublicrelations.com

I once had the managing director at a PR agency lavish me with a big bonus when I saved a key client. I really felt that he valued and empowered me. But the trust was eroded when he lied about me to the same client months later. He didn’t want to work with the client anymore, so he blamed it on me, saying that I wasn’t happy working on the account, and his duty was to keep me happy.  It wasn’t true. When he found out I refuted his statement to the client, he gave me a tongue-lashing.  He wasn’t consistent in his support of me, so I never trusted him again.

***

Bea Fields
http://beafields.com

I think that most CEOs do a pretty good job on the front of acknowledging their employees. One company I have worked with offers what is known as a “Visa Bucks” program. With the program, when an employee accomplishes something that has a positive impact on the company, they are given $50 or $100.00 Visa bucks to spend at partnering local retailers. The announcement of the “Visa Bucks” winner also receives quite a bit of public/verbal acknowledgement which, at the end of the day, is what most employees want to know…that their boss recognized their great work.

Another idea which I have recently learned from a senior pastor is an acknowledgement program known as the “Barnabas Pack.” This is actually a peer-to-peer acknowledgement program where the entire leadership team votes on the one employee who really gave 110% during the month. The award is given at the first of the month at a staff meeting and once again, is great, because it is coming from the entire team, which makes the award meaningful.

***

Nina East
Founder, www.PersonalGrowthProfessionals.com

Some CEOs do acknowledge the value their employees bring to the success of their companies. I have a feeling this happens more often, or more visibly, in smaller companies. CEOs who recognize the value contributions, and communicate this, not only have greater business/financial success (from Megatrends 2010), but they also create a much more loyal employee team –critical in the current economic climate.

The challenge seems to be when money gets tight, revenues are down, or the CEO’s own behavior or contributions are being called into question. In those situations, which I’ve seen far too often, the leader will sacrifice another employee in order to save face or solidify their own position.

***

Miriam Battson, Marketing & Sales Director
The Pettibon System, The Pettibon Institute
www.pettibonsystem.com

Enlightened CEO’s DO acknowledge the value the employees bring to the success of their companies.  You can also feel it when you walk through the front door.  Employees have a sense of ownership and taking pride in your work.  There is a company in Seattle that has a gym, numerous classroom/conference room for their own “university” classes, full blown cafeteria, wine bar, fitness classes, etc. , all at no charge to the employees.

In Gig Harbor, the owners of The Pettibon System have been encouraging the employees to read “the Great Game of Business” by Jack Stack.  What it’s doing is showing the way to a mindset shift of employees taking ownership in the outcome of the organization and specifically in their work.  As we begin to implement the game within the company it’s been fun to watch the communication lines open even more.  The net result is engaged and happy employees who are being proactive with customer service related issues. They are feeling empowered to do the right thing and help create the future.  As an employee, I feel very blessed.

The 2008 corporate annual reports have rolled off the presses and are on view on company websites.   I flipped through some of them online and, as usual, they are the same old dullards.  A letter from the president, a few words about the past year and what the future holds, followed by the financial results.

But you know what?  Several of the very largest Fortune 500 companies had not a single photo or story about an employee.  None. Aren’t employees the ones who make the company successful?  Where did they go?  It is a little shocking to think that they merit so little recognition.  Granted many companies have had layoffs.  Maybe they think that if they don’t highlight the employees who are left people will forget about the ones who are gone.  Or maybe it’s something else.

In a recent column, David Brooks, an op-ed writer for The New York Times cited a study “Which C.E.O. Characteristics and Abilities Matter,” by Steven Kaplan, Mark Klebanov and Morten Sorensen.  What they learned, says Brooks, is that “strong people skills…and being a great communicator…correlate loosely or not at all with being a good C.E.O….what mattered were execution and organizational skills.”  Their findings apparently were consistent with other research on the subject of successful C.E.O.’s.

Maybe that’s why employees are so little recognized in the most successful companies.  The C.E.O.’s need to be a good communicator isn’t as important as sweating the small stuff, like being attentive to detail.  OK, not all C.E.O.s think team building and communications with employees are unimportant.

But it does make one pause and wonder if companies just don’t value their employees as much as in the old cradle-to-grave days when an employee lived out his entire work life with one company.  Maybe employees are fungible.  That’s it.  Employees come.  Employees go.  Welcome to the new world.