Strong Attitude

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I appreciate that you have been a follower and/or subscriber to this Blog. But, this Blog will, sadly, be coming to an end in a few short weeks. We encourage you to join us in our new location at BuildingABetterWorkplace.com.

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Come on over to the new location. Things are happening there.

I appreciate that you have been a follower and/or subscriber to this Blog. It has been my pleasure to work for you. But as I attempt to streamlinhe our educational compenent, this Blog will, sadly, be coming to an end.

As we move all of our posting to one central Blog location, BuildingABetterWorkplace.com, this Blog will cease to exist after the next 30 days.

I encourage you to join us in our new location at BuildingABetterWorkplace.com.

If you would like to subscribe to our RSS Feed, simply click this link: http://buildingabetterworkplace.com/?feed=rss2

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Again, thanks for the opportunity to serve you. I hope you’ll join us at our new Blog location.

With gr-Attitude,

Kevin Burns

I sat on a panel at a Chief Information Officers’ Conference this week with other thought-leaders from around North America. One of the questions posed to me concerned the push by populist politicians to gain points with the public by endorsing a “leave no child behind” policy when it comes to education and how a policy like this will affect workplaces in the future.

The truth is, although noble, it is not reality-based – at least not in the workplace. In the workplace, not everyone moves ahead. Some people get left behind. Some perform better than others. Some are management material. Some are not. Some are leaders. Some are followers. Some succeed. Some fail. Some are promoted. Some get laid-off. Many get left behind. Maybe you’ve been left behind once or twice yourself. If you did, I’ll bet it changed who you are and how you apply yourself. If it didn’t then you’ll likely be left behind again.

Success is not a right. It is a privilege. It is earned. It is not simply given away.

In the real world, we don’t turn low-achievers into managers and corporate executives. Bottom-achievers are the first to be laid-off when the economy turns. Look, we are already whining, moaning and complaining about poor service, low initiative, poor employee engagement, declining morale, rock-bottom motivation and terrible work-ethic. I’m not sure how lowering the bar so that more mediocre employees can squeak through university makes our workplaces better.

Sorry, but sometimes we need to leave people behind. Not everyone is a top-achiever. Not everyone is a star employee. Not everyone is future management material. If we lower the bar in education, the expectation next will be to lower the bar in employment. And that, in my estimation, is non-negotiable.

We need to raise the bar when it comes to personal performance, to how we deliver service, to how we engage in our work. Removing the consequences of not applying oneself seems counterproductive.

People need to experience difficulty and turmoil. It shapes character and resilience. People learn more from failure than from an easy ride. And I am all for those who do the work, make the effort and achieve what they are capable of. THAT builds better and more cohesive workplaces and I am completely and utterly in favor of that.

If you’re still having trouble with this, imagine a world that leaves no person behind when it comes to testing for a Driver’s License. Now do you see my point?

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Kevin Burns – Workplace Expert – Management Consultant – Keynote Speaker

I don’t often openly endorse a product but this one is a brilliant tool for anyone wanting to help build better performance for themselves and their company. And it’s FREE.

http://idonethis.com/ is a brilliantly simple program to get you focused on not just keeping busy … but more importantly, being productive. And I am using it and loving it.

I get an email at the end of each work day asking me to take a few moments to itemize the things that got done today – hence the name “I Done This.” Then, by simply replying to the email, my accomplishments are placed on a calendar of things I got done. Once you register, you can view your calendar of accomplishments and all of your past history at any time.

Anything that didn’t get down today gets moved to the top of the To-Do list (your own list) for tomorrow. This is so much MORE than simple time management.

This is about that voice in your own head that forces you to make decisions, take action and get things done. And did I mention it’s free?

Start focusing on what you DID get done and stop placing too much emphasis on what still needs doing. You, like me, will find yourself working smarter and getting a lot more done in the same amount of time.

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Kevin Burns – Workplace Expert and Speaker

I want to follow up yesterday’s post Fixing Tomorrow’s Problems With Yesterday’s Ideas as I have received some concerns by email.

What I was referring to yesterday is how we hire, manage, communicate and build workable cultures has changed from 30 years ago. Unfortunately companies are still hiring, managing, communicating and are not making any adjustments to culture any different than 30 years ago and yet are throwing their hands up in the air and complaining about turnover, poor retention, absenteeism, lack of loyalty, poor engagement, poor work ethic and a terrible entitlement mentality in their employees.

They are lost for answers and end up hiring outside consultants who also still employ 30 year old philosophies.

We are in the information age but no one seems to want to do the work to keep current or to read anything for fear that they might have to make changes to how they do things.

The key to building better workplaces is NOT in reacting to changes in the marketplace but in being AHEAD of those changes. That requires a commitment to learning and a commitment to keeping current.

Sadly, most will say they don’t have the time to keep current – but apparently they have all the time in the world to complain about it.

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Kevin Burns – Workplace Expert and Speaker

Thirty years ago there were no smart phones, no Twitter, no Facebook, no Blogging, no Generation Y in the workplace, no retiring Baby Boomers, no handheld GPS, no laptops, no tablet computers, no MP3 players, no workplace drug testing, no perpetual job-hopping, no workers’ smug sense of entitlement, no focus on ergonomics in the workplace, no leadership development for middle managers, no outsourcing to third-world countries, no growing use of part-time and contract employees, no instant access to training videos on YouTube, no text-messaging at work, no telecommuting, no Corporate Culture initiatives, no succession-planning strategies, no anti-bullying programs and no stringent workplace safety programs.

It is a different workplace today than it was thirty years ago.

So why then, are so many organizations and so-called experts clinging to outdated models of management and organizational development when the workplace is clearly a different place today than it was 30 years ago?

What worked thirty years ago will not work today. And it certainly wont work tomorrow. If you’re not keeping up – then you’re falling behind.

The world won’t stop changing just because you’re not up to speed. If you’re not prepared to read the Blog posts, the books, view the videos, attend the seminars and take a portion of your day, everyday, just to stay current, then you’re in the way. You’re holding up your organization or, at the very least, giving your organization some very bad advice.

If you don’t want to do the work of staying ahead of the changes instead of always having to react to them, then maybe it’s time you stepped aside and let someone else take your place – someone who is prepared to offer real-world, current solutions to today’s challenges.

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Kevin Burns – Workplace Expert and Speaker

It’s very simple to define a great workplace. A great workplace is one that has a lineup of high-performers wanting to come work there.

Plain and simple, that’s all that’s necessary. No need to talk of management, money or culture. Any workplace that has a lineup of people willing to come over and work obviously is firing on all cylinders: management, money and culture.

Let me put it this way: who would you rather do business with? A company that has attracted all of the industry’s top performers or a company that struggles to attract the leftover mediocre employees?

If you want to build a better workplace, you have to start with the end-goal in mind – creating a lineup of high-performing job-applicants – and point everything you do at that. Simple.

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Kevin Burns – Workplace Expert and Speaker

Funny how people only seem to want to hear compliments and not necessarily listen to good advice. Because of insular and delicate little egos, constructive criticism is increasingly being viewed as criticism – which in the receiver’s mind isn’t constructive – it’s destructive.

You were told by your parents, lovingly I suppose, that you are special. Well, the workplace surveys would say that most workplaces don’t hire special people. Largely, workplaces hire mediocre people with mediocre past employment and mediocre resumés touting perhaps competence but certainly not excellence. Very few people achieve excellence. For those who do achieve excellence, well, they’re not standing in the same job-line as you. It is rare that those people need to line up with resumé in hand to compete for a mediocre job.

So, how do you move from competence to excellence? You ask for constructive feedback.

But your co-workers say nothing (the reason 360 degree feedback rarely works as advertised) for fear of creating animosity. Your co-workers don’t want to get on your bad side because they’ve seen how vindictive you can be when your delicate little ego gets bruised. Your managers say little because they weren’t trained properly in how to build trust with you resulting in any input they offer as sounding like a personal attack. And, customers never tell you why they chose another vendor because you never bother to ask, so that you can avoid hearing that there was something wrong with you and not the product or the price.

So unless you’ve done something wrong, you’re likely to never hear a thing from anyone – which, if you did, you would probably interpret as criticism – a personal attack. Remember how you acted the last time someone attacked you.

Y’know, once upon a time, you asked people’s advice – people who have been where you are and who have been successful. But now you don’t because you have YouTube – the perfect way to avoid being judged. Now, unless you ask or click, you don’t want to hear what people think.

You especially don’t want to hear that its your fault – especially if it is. And when you do ask someone else to chime in, you only want to hear compliments – not necessarily what you NEED to hear.

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Kevin Burns – Workplace Expert and Speaker

You’ve heard it before. That person who feels that just because they “worked hard” they deserve to be rewarded.

So let’s say you started out driving from Detroit and drove for ten hours. You should end up in New York after 10 hours of driving. But you could just as easily end up in Des Moines, Iowa after ten hours because you made one incorrect decision leaving Detroit. You still drove for ten hours. The effort remains the same. The result? Very different.

So if you end up in Des Moines, do you deserve to be in New York just because you drove ten hours?

Working on a complex Algebra equation for hours only to end up with the incorrect answer doesn’t get you a passing grade just because you worked hard.

Working hard on the wrong thing doesn’t get you a reward, a raise or a promotion. It may get you ridicule though – especially if you whine that you should be rewarded for your effort.

You don’t get rewarded just because you’re busy. You get rewarded for your results. Keep that in mind when you get passed over for promotion or a raise. Working hard and getting results don’t always coexist. Sometimes they do but not always.

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I worked with and addressed a group of retail managers this morning. The first message that I made abundantly clear was this:

“To become an outstanding retail manager, you need to first become an outstanding retail customer. Once you’ve experienced both good and bad service alike, only then can you differentiate. Only when you have set a standard of how you wish to be served can you demand of your staff any sort of standard. If you show apathy in being a customer, you will show apathy in how you train, apathy in how you hire, apathy in how you communicate and apathy in how you manage. The people on the front-line of service are a good reflection of their immediate supervisor’s willingness to train and develop his or her people.”

You know, come to think of it, this doesn’t just apply to retail.

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Kevin Burns – Workplace Expert and Speaker