Onboarding New Hires

September 10, 2010 By Maureen Moriarty

IT’S IMPORTANT FOR bosses to get off on the right foot with any new hire. When an employee’s orientation and training for a new job are done well, it can lead to improved employee job satisfaction, morale, performance and retention.

Hiring someone is the first step, but it’s what a boss does from that point forward that matters.

I cringe when I hear stories of new hires who arrive on their first day only to find their new boss and workplaces totally unprepared for them. For example, a receptionist looking perplexed at the new arrival, saying, “No one told me you were coming.” As a result, the new person’s first impression can range from, “I’m not important,” to, “Uh oh, this company doesn’t have its act together.” These initial judgments can turn into self-fulfilling prophecies, which most companies can’t afford with new talent.

Here are a few tips to help you get off on the right foot with a new hire.

Communicate. Send out an advance e-mail notice informing staff of the new hire’s arrival date and the requested “to do” actions. These include typical detail items such as setting up the new hire’s workplace station (computers, phones, etc.) and laying out expectations for communication. Offer some background information about the new hire so staff will be better prepared to offer a sincere, “Welcome, we’re glad you’re here.” The hiring manager should personally escort and enthusiastically introduce the new person to staff.

Coach’s tip: An intranet photo board listing names and positions can help new employees understand how the organization is structured and learn all those new faces.

Provide all new employees with a company orientation covering your unique workplace HR policies and procedures. Consider creating an FAQ, or “frequently asked questions,” intranet Web page as a resource. Include details such as casual Fridays. (You don’t want the new person embarrassed having shown up in a suit on a casual Friday.) Orientation should address employee basics, such as insurance and holidays. There are Web-based options available to provide a “hub” for accessing, navigating and completing required paperwork. Standardizing this can facilitate a smoother entry process.

Plan. Bosses and key staff should set aside designated time to sit with the new hire during the first week to answer questions and explain processes. Bosses particularly need to be available to support the new hire — avoid scheduling vacations or outside office commitments.

Train. New employee training should be provided by someone with the necessary people, training and specific job knowledge/experience to train effectively. I hear too many tales from frustrated employees who never received adequate training (and who inevitably don’t meet their employer’s expectations). The best trainers adapt to people’s preferred learning styles. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to learning. Some people learn best by doing (driving rather than hearing someone describe the process or reading it in a manual). Simply throwing a new hire a thick employee handbook rarely works.

Coach’s tip: Don’t let your naysayers or company downers conduct new employee training. The last thing you want is your new employee getting brainwashed by a disgruntled or unhappy staff member.

Keep it simple in the beginning. Flooding new employees with minute details or noncritical paperwork is a common mistake. Focus and explain the “big picture.” Remember, for a new hire, everything is new and overwhelming. Try to keep the first day more personal than paperwork or process driven. You want it to be a positive experience. Like the first day at school, it leaves a lasting impression.

Keep checking in often. Take him or her out to lunch the first day. Use this time to get to know the new employee better and ask how things are going. Encourage the employee to bounce questions, concerns and observations off you, and listen carefully. A simple, “How are you feeling?” can shed light on how you should proceed.

Don’t kid yourself thinking the “sink or swim” approach for a new hire will work. Be realistic with your expectations around how quickly he or she should be assimilating information, processes and procedures. Learning takes time and repetition. One standard rule of thumb — don’t expect a new hire to be fully functioning in a new role until at least three to six months.

Be specific describing responsibilities. Communicating clear expectations around behavior and tasks is important for any successful boss/employee relationship.

Have a discussion about preferred communication styles; yours as the boss and theirs. For example, are you OK with yelling over the cubicle wall or do you want them to schedule an appointment? Should they address issues as they come up or in regular one-on-one meetings? Do you prefer text, e-mail or IM-ing, and what level of detail do you desire? How will you work out differences?

Bosses should do everything in their power to set an expectation for open communication. The wisest bosses assure new people that their mistakes will be viewed as “learning opportunities.”

Hire me as a coach to help you with identify, leverage and growing your most important resource -your people! Phone me: 360 682 5807 or email: mmoriarty@pathtochange.com I coach clients all over the world with Skype!

Great Leaders Coach

September 10, 2010 By Maureen Moriarty

While most managers have the skills required to “get work done,” many lack the skills required to effectively coach others. But increasingly, managers are being asked to use coaching as a preferred management style and, as a result, are being required to develop entirely new skill sets.

Learning coaching skills is a process — it requires role-modeling, training, practice and feedback. It often involves “unlearning” old methods and styles that are no longer effective in today’s workplace.

In trying to define what makes a great coach, think about the last time someone coached (or helped) you to achieve something important to you. What did he or she do that helped? Most people might list qualities such as the following:

Listening well.
Believing in me.
Providing feedback to help me improve my skills.
Being willing to show me the way.
Giving me a new task or responsibility that was a learning opportunity.

The list is always long as there are many components of effective coaching. That’s because coaching is an art — a balance between the softer relationship skills (empathy, caring, listening and interpersonal competence) and business skills (process expertise, setting clear expectations, giving direction and offering constructive feedback).

Here are a few of the traits and skills of great leaders with coaching skills:

The ability to build genuine trust, respect and rapport. This is the foundation for coaching success — it’s what fuels the coaching partnership. Employees who distrust or are uncomfortable with their coach find it easy to dismiss the coach’s message. Effective coaches convey sincere interest and concern for workers’ well-being and growth. They are credible; their audio matches their video; and they demonstrate integrity and personal respect.

They are active listeners (versus passive observers). The leader-as-coach is in tune with the person’s story, intentions and feelings (the emotions behind the words). If you have ever had someone listen to truly understand you, you have no doubt experienced the difference. This interaction can be truly profound and inspirational.

They demonstrate genuine empathy. While not everyone is naturally empathetic, empathy is a skill that can be developed. Empathy means trying to understand how an experience affects the other person — what it’s like to walk in their shoes. An important distinction: Empathy is not agreement; it’s understanding and acknowledging the feelings and experience of the other.

They have personal authority and credibility. Great coaches are adept at challenging and suggesting or demonstrating new behaviors. Their personal authority, confidence and competence allows them to challenge, reward success in a meaningful way and treat errors as learning opportunities while employees learn new skills.

The best leader/coaches establish clear direction and protection, and create a motivating environment. They are persistent regarding the need for follow-through on commitments.

They ask powerful questions. They encourage learning by asking questions to raise the employee’s awareness, level of performance and accountability. The questions are open-ended (i.e., those that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no).

This approach is very different from “telling” employees what to do or giving them the answers to their problems. Here are a few examples:

What resources are needed?
What obstacles might get in the way?
What has not been tried?
What will you commit to doing and when?

They set clear goals and expectations. Have you ever seen the words “Vince Lombardi” and “wishy-washy” in the same sentence (until now)? A key to effective coaching is the ability to clearly communicate goals, define specific action plans and foster ownership of or commitment to the attainment of these goals.

They are realists who can hold others accountable for activity, action and results. The SMART acronym is a useful guide for coaching — it defines setting goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Coaching is an activity that always involves the question, “What’s the next step?” Great leaders with coaching skills hold people accountable for taking action and achieving results.

They provide clear, effective and challenging feedback. This coaching skill is so critical that it deserves its own column (see next week).

The challenge for many organizations is how to establish an effective program for managers to learn and master these skills. Most organizations require outside expertise to accomplish this.

Invest in yourself by hiring me as your coach! I can help you learn, develop and grow your leadership and coaching abilities. I coach leaders all over the world via Skype. Call me: 360 682 5807 or email: mmoriarty@pathtochange.com

Leadership is about skill, not talent

September 10, 2010 By Maureen Moriarty

How did your boss get to be a great boss?

While some believe that leaders are “born, not made,” research shows that great leaders are, in fact, made. They gradually acquire effective leadership competencies throughout their careers through experience, training, mentoring and typically a lot of hard work.

Perhaps as important are the natural gifts, talents and traits that help a potential leader realize his or her leadership potential. Personal traits like integrity and character are more on the born, not made, side, as well as drive and cognitive/problem-solving ability. However, without experience, training and mentoring, personal traits are not enough. No one is born with a natural ability to effectively lead. Traits like business acumen, coaching/mentoring skills, persuasiveness and emotional intelligence are learned and developed, often over a lifetime.

So how did your great boss develop leadership competencies? Here are a few of the common characteristics we find in most successful leaders today.

They had great leadership role models. Most great bosses identified someone along the way whose skills and behaviors they wanted to emulate. They found or made opportunities to learn and grow from them, even changing jobs so they could work with a great boss (or leave a bad boss). These “great bosses” helped them see their potential greatness. They cared about and supported their development, providing focus, challenge and reinforcement.

They took on new and challenging job assignments. Research on thousands of top executives (by the Center for Creative Leadership) directly links leadership success to learning from critical on-the-job experiences. Most of us learn best by experience, rather than simply reading or hearing it taught in a course.

They learned from critical hardships and events. Experiences like turning around an organization in trouble or starting a new project, product or team from scratch are often instrumental in leadership development. Most successful leaders will tell you they learned the most from their greatest mistakes. Effective leaders set an expectation that mistakes will happen; what is important is how mistakes are resolved and what we can learn from them.

They are adaptable. Great bosses aren’t rigid. They got to be “great bosses” by being self-aware, reflecting on behavioral choices, learning from mistakes and modifying behaviors to positively impact relationships and organizational performance.

They encouraged feedback. The best bosses continually seek feedback and develop systems to make it safe for people to give it to them. When told what they are (or are not) doing well, they genuinely reflect and, as required, make behavioral changes.

They understand the value of continual learning. John F. Kennedy said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” To climb the corporate ladder in today’s dynamic workplace requires a commitment to continual learning. Great bosses actively encourage ongoing training and education in their organization and for themselves. They participate in and support higher education as well as recognize the value in specialized training in the “soft” leadership skills (i.e., personnel management, facilitation, conflict resolution and team leadership skills). They utilize the various tools and applicable theories and behaviors that translate to more effective leadership.

They have stayed connected — to themselves and to those they lead. Great leaders can stay connected to others even in conflict or difference (i.e., they have high emotional intelligence). They are authentic, true to themselves and models for what they believe in (and ask for from others). They are clear about their core values, avoid pretense and own their truth without blaming.

They have developed personal authority and integrity. These are the leaders that you will “go to the line” for without hesitation. For those of us lucky to have worked with one of them, we understand the value of their leadership is immeasurable.

The greatest waste of all is not to realize your full potential.

What to do?

Invest by hiring a coach (I can help!).
Expand your horizons (go back to school, go to a training or seminar).
Take on a new job assignment.
Ask your management, “What can I do?” as a step toward being the next great leader.

Leadership development is a continuous process, not a one-time event. It’s a lifelong journey.

Customer Service Starts With Leaders

September 10, 2010 By Maureen Moriarty

GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE is critical to business success — loyal customers are the ultimate competitive advantage.

Many companies espouse that they provide great customer service, but few deliver. The inconsistency often stems from a failure to model it internally. The quality of customer service that co-workers provide to each other invariably shows up with outside customers.

Sadly, not all co-workers treat each other with the same kind of respect and care that they treat their customers. Perhaps you’ve heard the relationship advice of, “Treat your spouse/partner as if they were a guest in your home.” With co-workers (not unlike spouses), there are times we forget we are all rowing for the same team!

Challenges, conflicts and turf wars between co-workers from different company groups or departments are often a result of conflicting goals, budgets, resources and priorities. There are many examples: sales vs. finance (or service), human resources vs. operations, or information technology vs. any group depending on them. The differences between most internal company groups are often astounding in objectives, activity and the skills required to be successful.

Many company units have opposing perspectives and motivations. Take the common tension between “service” and “sales.” The service people want ownership of their jobs without the oversight and “butting in” of their demanding sales counterparts (who put the pressure on service when they identify customer relationships are at risk).

One has the technical experience to fix the product properly, the other has the interpersonal skills and understanding to develop and maintain customer relationships. Each operates in different worlds — it’s no surprise that their differences and dependencies create conditions that foster friction.

Internal infighting often escalates and is emotional. But it most often ends the same, with participants retreating back to their corners, where the battle, roadblocks and unresolved core systemic issues continue. Senior executives are often buffered from the battles below them, but the dysfunction between the groups is often felt by almost everyone else in the organization (and ultimately by the customer). If not addressed, this evolves into company culture with significant consequences (talented people get frustrated and leave, or key customers just go away).

To get rid of the “not my job” company culture, senior leaders need to help workers see the big picture, provide unifying goals and reward team achievement (so a co-worker’s request from another department is viewed as an opportunity to help a team member out and meet overall company goals vs. an “irritating interruption”).

Most employees simply don’t understand the priorities, day-to-day challenges and motivations of other departments (an underlying cause of the common “turfdoms” that plague many organizations). Feuding co-workers aren’t focused on collaboratively resolving the needs of the external customer. The fault for all this infighting often lies with senior leaders. It’s their responsibility to create a culture of united vision, understanding, accountability and teamwork.

As a coach, I often hear managers complain about the “personality” problem of a team member (usually presented as “so-and-so is difficult to work with”). Sometimes this is true, but more often than not, what I find when I dig deeper is the presenting “personality” concern is often a result or symptom of a greater systemic issue. Often the person deemed “difficult” turns out to be at the mercy of another department that isn’t being responsive and is demonstrating pent-up frustration at a culture that lacks internal customer service accountability and/or the inability or willingness to change.

What to do next:

Senior leaders need to foster an internal culture of great customer service and accountability. This requires solid sponsorship from the top down, where all managers are on the same page of providing great customer service to each other (remember, what gets measured is what gets done).
Survey your internal customers and find out if you are meeting their needs. Hold “debriefs” and postmortems following project completions. Target internal customer improvement.
Provide training for workers to develop healthy conflict resolution and feedback skills.
Make sure feuds are addressed; provide help to identify differences and options to effectively resolve them.
Find ways to bridge departmental gaps. Host social and team events to boost morale and understanding between groups. Promote teamwork across departments by creating teamwide goals. Reward individuals based on team success.

Demonstrate gratitude to co-workers who go the extra mile for you — like those IT support people who resolve your computer crisis! Just like external customer relationships, internal customer relationships require “maintenance” to foster teamwork and trust.

Engaged Workers Perform

September 10, 2010 By Maureen Moriarty

WORKERS WHO ARE eager to come into work each day are “engaged”– fully involved in what they do at work and enthusiastic about their contribution and workplace environment.

Disengaged workers are the opposite — clock-watchers waiting for their workday to end (and put them out of their misery) or those who are physically and mentally exhausted by their jobs. Signs of disengagement include absenteeism, low morale, “zombies” going through their day avoiding eye contact and “checked out” workers (think surfing the Internet vs. working).

Sadly, surveys indicate fewer than one in three employees is “engaged” at work. Studies confirm that disengaged workers lead to low productivity and high employee turnover. One study, from The Hay Group, revealed that offices with engaged employees are up to 43 percent more productive.

Creating a workplace culture that supports engagement is important.

Here are several key factors:

The worker’s personality, talent and skills match the job. If employees aren’t a good fit in a position, they “check out.” Bored workers are likely overqualified and not given opportunities to work to their strengths and potential. Job-hoppers frequently report to me they are leaving because they are “underutilized” or aren’t given enough responsibility. Personality matters — an extroverted creative individual will likely disengage if the bulk of the time on the job is spent on mundane, menial tasks.

People believe their job matters. Leaders need to make it clear to their people how what they do contributes to the big picture. Most employees are inspired knowing how they are positively affecting the quality of the company’s products or services. Help them “get” how their daily output/tasks/responsibilities matter. Engaged employees feel valued.

People have clear but reasonable expectations. Engaged employees know what success looks like in their job. They are challenged but not overwhelmed by what they are being asked to do on a daily basis. Challenge should energize and inspire workers, not lead to exhaustion, stress, illness or burnout. As a coach, I see a disturbing trend of more and more people suffering from job stress. Many are exhausted (all trying to do more with less) — it’s taking a toll. These people are crying out for leadership and help. Most are angry, tired and disengaged. They need leaders who can help them sort out priorities, provide necessary support/resources and remove obstacles to success. Wise leaders help their people work smarter — not harder.

People are given feedback and growth opportunities. We all want to know how we are measuring up. Learning and improvement happen with feedback. Unfortunately most bosses aren’t giving enough of it to satisfy their employees. It’s important for workers to grow and develop and understand next steps to moving beyond their current job responsibilities (and pay scale).

What to do to increase engagement?

Monitor burnout and exhaustion. Your people working all hours of the day and night isn’t a good thing.
Create a company culture where people want to come to work. Encourage social interactions at work (dare I say even fun!), reasonable work life balance and opportunities for people to grow and advance in their careers. Engage people’s hearts and minds with inspiring visions — help them imagine and achieve the possibilities.
Help employees identify their personal strengths and weaknesses (or areas for improvement) and coach/support them in finding alignment at work.
Give responsibility. Most people like having initiatives or projects that they can run with. Most will prove they are capable (and will come into work with a new pep in their step because they finally have ownership of something).
Talk to employees about the daily nature of their work and what might be getting in their way of engagement. Fix broken systems or processes that are exhausting or frustrating your people.

Educate, train and coach company leaders about the importance of engagement and how to increase it.