Finger pointing and excuses seem to make up part of most corporate culture. You often hear, it’s not me it was another person that failed to deliver. I waited for the other department to reply but they never did. In my consulting years here in the Philippines, I witness this behaviour from entry level employees to a number of high ranking executives.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover a simple approach to making people aware of their finger pointing behaviour. The approach was shared by the Managing Director of an ad agency. It is called ORA / BED.

The ORA / BED phrase has two parts. On the left side or on the top of the line we have ORA. ORA stands for Ownership, Responsible, Accountable. All positive traits of a successful leader, manager or employee.

At the bottom you have BED. This stands for Blaming, Excuses and Denial. They are all negative behaviours.

The way it is used is three parts. First, explain the meaning of ORA / BED. Second, have it posted on collaterals to serve as a reminder. Third, whenever discussions turn negative (BED), you just have to remind everyone to keep the discussion in ORA. Personally, I say ‘Hey guys let’s keep the discussion above the line. Let’s keep it in ORA.’ It helps people become conscious of their behaviour.

Since I started using this in the groups I manage and clients I mentor, the discussions I get are more positive and productive.

Try it. ORA / BED. It’s deceptively simple. It’s so simple that it works.

In recent years there has been a scarcity of high potential high performing employees. Why is that? Where have they gone?

Back in 1992, the largest commercial bank in Saudi Arabia did not have difficulty hiring hundreds of Filipinos to work for them. I was part of a batch of 200 Filipinos hired within a three month period.

Back in 2018, my clients had difficulty landing a range of employees from Executive Assistant to HR Directors. Three of my clients were all searching for a good HR Director at the same time.

Where are the good ones?

We have this premise that the good ones are currently employed. Hopefully, not happily employed so we can offer a better career.

We tried testing that premise. A clients LinkedIn posting attracted hundreds of applicants for a particular job opening. Over ninety percent had no qualifying experience on the job we posted. Despite the glaring shortcomings, they boldly applied.

Do they think that the recruitment staff are naive enough to paper qualify them with zero experience on a director role? Possibly? Possibly they are desperate for any job. Just any job would do.

What they fail to realize is that successful companies do not like hiring someone who just wants any job. Companies will pay a premium hiring a subject matter expert or a great manager. Better yet, hiring a subject matter expert who can successfully manage people.

There are two important things to consider when it comes to acquiring talent. First, in recruitment one size does not fit all. You need a sourcing strategy. Where does the particular talent you are hunting for congregate? Second, if you cannot find qualified talent, have you considered building it? Sometimes it’s a question of deciding whether to build or to buy talent.

Good talent is hard to come by. I strongly suggest that the managers of these people take very good care of them. The companies must develop and challenge them to consistently excel. If you don’t another company will come along and grab them.

After all, people join companies and leave managers.

The basic principle of conversations requires a messenger, a message, and a recipient. Communication cannot happen when a piece is missing. When part of the message is lacking or changed, then the true message is lost. Inconsistency with the primary truth is the primary cause of gossip.

Our capacity to think before speaking is often forgotten when interesting stories reach us. The fire of gossip is often fuelled by individuals who are insecure, under-appreciated, or simply a malicious person that enjoys causing problems within the community of workers. Here are the steps on pursuing the hot flames of gossipmongers;

1. Knowing the Culprit

It is not an impossible feat to know who creates gossip in the workplace. Managers must be proactive in dealing with issues like this by constant reminder on zero-tolerance towards sharing unverified information. Such actions must be dealt with as soon as the perpetrator is singled out.

2. Fostering Positive Reinforcements

Beginning the day with uplifting remarks and positive insights from last week’s work will surely promote productivity. It is proven and tested over time that people are sometimes deprived of affirming statements coming from higher-ups. When these employees are triggered externally with problems like gossip, they do not have enough willpower to restrain themselves from judging others.

3. Practicing Accountability

For some, a culture of transparency is a total shock because of the confrontation that follows. When tracing back the source of gossip, it is best that the root cause is addressed and prevented.

It is also good practice to call into account the people that are gossiping behind each others’ back and have them deal with each other face to face. I used to call these people in my room and share with them what I heard from the grapevine. They will be forced to discuss their issues under the light of truth. It is often easier for people with issues to fight their war behind the scenes of gossip. Exposing them and the bad stories they spread will often prevent recurrence.

There is no benefit in entertaining gossip. It is malicious, negative and destructive. It also wastes our time. Often, it will come at the cost of the reputation of others. The best way to stop gossip is to kill it on its tracks. Do not bother listening to it. After all, you have better things to do.

Entering the workplace can be intimidating for a first timer. Often, a new millennial employee would not know where to begin his or her journey. This is particularly worse if the company does not have a structured on-boarding program.

The first thing you ask for on your first day at work is for the on-boarding program. For the first time employees, the on-boarding program is a set of activities designed to get a newly hired person to quickly be productive in the workplace. This can include a brief background of the company, the key leaders, critical HR policies and procedures, walk-through on where to get information when needed, tour of the office and so on.

After the on-boarding has been accomplished, the very first question you ask your manager for is your latest job profile or job description. You need to read this very carefully as it narrates your job and the activities it entails. You need to clearly know what is expected from you. A former Citibank executive used to tell us “In order to do a good job, you first need to understand what is expected from you. Do not guess.” Ask your manager what he or she expects from you.

Start observing which of your colleagues actually deliver on their commitment and which ones are simply full of lip service. You need to stay away from the nay sayers or negative ones. These people will drain your energy with their negative vibes. Make sure you keep close to the high potential ones and get their help when needed.

Do not forget to dive into and understand your KPI’s and goals. You need to know how your performance will be measured at the end of the year. You need to understand what your goals are and plan how to reach them. Your ability to work as a team and deliver your goals has a big influence on your career in the company. It will also influence your pay scale and bonus.

Make sure you try and get along with everyone. At this point you will be feeling your way around the workplace and the last thing you need is someone who dislikes you. Let me make it very clear right now – no matter how bright you may think you are, you cannot win in the workplace if you are alone.

There you have it. Please feel free to pass this on to your friends and colleagues.

All the best in your new venture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7I6ZbeRiQs

Change is inevitable. The formula that drove a company to success in the past is not necessarily the same formula that will drive its growth in the future. Holding on to the secret sauce that got you here is a sure recipe for disaster.

Film based cameras drove Kodak to the peak of its success. Holding on to that same formula was what drove them to near extinction. Founded in 1888 by George Eastman and Henry Strong, it amassed a huge market following. When digital cameras started entering its market, Kodak dismissed it as a mere fad. They felt they were too big to fail. From 2003 to 2011, Kodak had to shed 47,000 jobs. They closed 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs. It had not made profit since 2004 and were eating through its cash reserves.

In January 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection. It was never the same again. Holding on to the formula that drove their success caused their downfall.

The same thing almost happened to the giant IBM. Leasing Mainframe computers drove its massive success worldwide. Big Blue was thought of too big to fail as well. Computers started to shrink in size and grow in processing power. The economies of scale started dropping the price of mini-computers and servers that became accessible to companies. There was a massive exodus of customers that almost bankrupted the computer giant. As IBM’s CEO & Chairman from 1993 to 2002, Lou Gerstners management and leadership style helped save the company. It was under his leadership that IBM moved away from its original cash cow of leasing computer boxes and into Technology Services. The leader that saved the company was the first IBM CEO hired outside the company. That was a big leap from its old culture of raising future leaders from the ranks.

Some companies back here in the Philippines are pretty much in a similar boat. Companies that grew to significant success are often the hardest ones to change. They often have difficulty letting go of the formula that got them to where they are right now. Even the way a start-up is grown into a significant player in the market can have challenges. In the early days start-up’s can make rapid decisions because it is usually centered on one or two people – the founders. Decisions are quick, customer service is intimate with a few clients in the beginning. Activities are personally overseen and micro-managed by the founders.

Years pass by and the company grows into a significant size. The group of 4-5 employees grew into an army of 5,000 to 8,000. Decisions slow down. Micromanaging starts to affect customer service. Delivery dates start to slip. Uncollected accounts receivables starts to balloon. Cash flow starts getting affected.

The same formula that helped grow a start-up is the same formula that’s causing their downfall. Management model must change. Professional managers need to be brought in. Processes needs documentations, job descriptions need to be designed, goals must be cascaded, performance dashboards need to be created and reviewed.

Companies needs to transform every so often to survive and even thrive in the marketplace.

In changing times like these, companies often need to bring outsiders to help assess and map out a plan. Companies such ours come in and help transform organizations. From succession development to organizational development, companies can often benefit from outsiders that can tell you exactly as it is. No agenda, no frills, just plain truth. An honest view with recommendations on how to transform can make a big difference.

What got your company to where you are in your industry? Will it bring you the same level of success in the next 5, 10, 15 years?

Customer service, customer obsession, customer experience are buzz words that are prevalent now-a-days. It is very important, even critical, for companies to be customer centric. No customers means no revenues. Simply, the goal is to attract customers, keep them coming back and get them to refer us to their friends.

However, we sometimes fail in our delivery of service. What do we do then? How do we recover irate customers? Customers that we failed to service correctly. We have two options; we recover them or we don’t.

We were at Pizza Hut Robinsons Galleria three days ago. Our experience with that branch was terrible. A spoon drops in front of a server as she finishes taking our order. She simply ignores it, does not bother picking the spoon from the floor and walks away. We needed to remind them about the mushroom soups we ordered. The soup (appetizer) was not served at the start of the meal but in the middle. The chicken we ordered was served after we finished our large size pizzas – two of them in fact. As expected, we could not eat the chicken we ordered anymore.

As we were leaving we passed by the restaurant manager who’s back was turned to us. He did not bother thanking us for coming. The restaurant manager was busy scrolling through his Facebook account.

Yesterday, we went to a newly opened restaurant – DC Superheroes Café. It was the first day of their soft opening. As expected, we faced a lot of issues. However, the difference in service recovery between the Café and Pizza Hut was glaring. Pizza Hut did not bother recovering their unhappy customers.

DC Superheroes Café clearly showed great effort apologizing for their short-comings and making up for it. The owners themselves walked over to apologize and asked for our suggestions. The servers kept their smiles as they tried their best to cope up with the process inefficiencies. By the end of our meal, the owner of the Café had become chummy with our ten-year-old son. As we left we are more forgiving of the issues we faced with DC Superheroes Café. We will be dropping by again the next time we are in SM MegaMall.

Customer Service Recovery at its best and worst. Service Recovery makes for a huge difference in customer experience.

Do you have a Service Recovery policy or process in place?

If there is one thing that a first-time manager or leader needs to comprehend deep in their heart is that we are only as good as our people. Jack Welch, one of the best management gurus, rightfully said that 80% of a great manager’s job is people.

A great manager spends most of his/her time interviewing and screening candidates, mentoring high potential employees, providing performance feedback, developing people, motivating the team, understanding their needs, providing them the necessary information to perform their jobs.

It is quite unfortunate that today’s managers and leaders do not spend enough time on people. Their lack of attention and focus on developing their people creates a vicious circle. Since they do not spend time developing their people, they end up doing their direct reports job. When they do their direct reports job, their direct reports do not develop. When their direct reports stagnate, they cannot perform as expected. Since they cannot perform as expected, their boss (you) end up doing their jobs and back to square one again.

We often think that doing the job of our employee is faster than taking the time developing our direct reports to do the tasks. We think that if we delegate the work, they will probably do a bad job and we will end-up re-doing the work. Our false logic dictates that if this is the case then we might as well save time and do the job myself.

Great managers think long term. Great leaders think about sustainable solutions and not just band aids. When we spend time and a lot of effort developing our direct reports, we are investing in a better future for us and the company. Eventually, our direct reports will do such a great job that we can set them on auto-pilot. This will allow us the time to do what we should be doing, leading and developing our people.

You and your company cannot go wrong when you focus on your people agenda 0 selecting, developing and promoting the right people.

Another way of looking at the old saying ‘Practice what you preach’ is ‘Practice what you learn.’ Far too often, we sit down in a classroom type training learning something new. However, we seldom put the new-found knowledge into practice. This is such a waste of time, money, resource and opportunity to improve.

After returning to the Philippines five years ago, one glaring practice I noticed about training companies is that they have this ‘training hit & run’ approach. These training companies provide classroom trainings but fail to consider the sustainability of the lesson in real life. Such training companies do this either in a public workshop or in a more contained corporate training setting. Knowledge retention with such approach is very low. People usually go back to business as usual and gradually forget what they learned.

AGMC, the company we set-up, has a different approach. After we conduct our ‘classroom training’ the learning process does not end there. Participants have an assignment to use what they learn in their day-to-day work. Three or four weeks after the classroom training, we reconvene and the participants share their experience using their new competencies.

Participants report on the work situation where the skill was used. They are also required to analyze the situation and report on their insights. It is only now, after the discussions, that they receive their certifications.

This is not a new approach to sustainable learning. It has been used abroad for some time now. Locally, when you take up a Lean Six Sigma program, the participant is required to have an actual work project proving the use of the lessons learned. They identify a challenging problem at work and use the tools and lessons they learned to fix the problem. The participant then proceeds and analyzes the financial benefits of the project and present/defend it to a panel. Only when they prove that they effectively used their newly acquired competency will they get their Lean Six Sigma Certification.

To all training companies back here. Let us design our programs as sustainable competency development programs and not as a one-shot deal. When a customer calls us again for a development program, it should be for a new competency. Getting a call to come back and re-train people for a competency that did not stick simply means we failed.