Self Improvement - Ventrax Management Sdn Bhd

Seven Ways to Enhance Organizational Culture

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:31:51 +0000

As a young employee I was transferred to work in an office tower in downtown San Francisco. I wasn't the only person to arrive in this new office space – the group had changed significantly due to reorganization and many of us were working together for the first time.

My boss, the Marketing Manager, asked me to help him with some unusual projects. First, I
organized an ugly tie contest. Next, we created a puzzle where everyone told me their fantasy
identity (who they would be if they could be anyone) and I created a quiz. People had several
days to try to figure out who was who. This culminated in a party and the revealing of all the
secret identities (and prizes for those who had done the best guessing).

Along with many other events, we eventually instituted the first casual Friday in this company
(hey, this was 1987).

At the time I knew what was happening and why it was important to the development of the
culture in this organization. But I didn't understand it the way I do now …
For a whole variety of reasons, organizational culture is important to the health or viability of
any organization.

It is one thing to know something is important. It is another thing entirely to know what to do
about it. This article will give you some specific things you can do to act on the importance of
your organizational culture.

Get help. Wherever you sit in the organizational structure or hierarchy you can impact
organizational culture in a positive (or negative – but why would you want to do that?) way.
Admittedly, if you are in a position of leadership, it might be easier, but we can all have an
impact. But we can't do it alone. Form a team of like-minded, interested and enthusiastic
people, and get them on board with developing and enhancing your culture.

Get a vision. Get your team to discuss the current culture. Define the parts of the culture that
are already great and need to be supported. And honestly determine where the culture could
use some polishing. Then create a vision of the culture you want to create, taking into account
the entire current picture – the warts and the beauty marks.

Get strategic. Your team will recognize that this is important – you've picked people who
already understand that and you have developed a deeper understanding as you created a
vision of a desired future culture. Help everyone understand – the team and organizational
leadership – that this isn't a band-aid, quick fix; but an ongoing, strategic intention to build a
more attractive culture that fits the needs of the organization.

Get people excited. Chances are your culture team will be excited. If not, get them excited!
Help the team recognize that not everyone else in the organization is going to think that these
efforts are worthwhile immediately. Remember that enthusiasm is contagious. Do what you
can to keep the enthusiasm of your team high. If their excitement falters, remind them of the
vision they created to re-invigorate them.

Get a champion. That person may be you, or it may be someone else on the team. In my case, I
took on an alter ego of the "phun phantom". While a moniker might not be necessary, a point
person, whether anonymous or not, is important. Culture change is like any other change – it
requires champions. The champion needs to be someone who is passionate about creating the
new culture. As in my case, this might be a perfect role for a young energetic person, but don't
assign the role. The best champions will rise up and "select" themselves.

Get started. Yes, I have listed the first five suggestions in a chronological order. But that doesn't
mean you can't so something today, as soon as you finish reading this article or right now. You
already know some things that need to change in your culture, so role model one of them
starting immediately. Maybe your first step is to invite a couple of people to lunch that you
think might want to be on your team. Whatever your first step is – do it.

Get momentum on your side. Any change will have a greater chance of success with
momentum. Don't form your team today if you don't think you'll be able to get them going
quickly. Don't think of this something that can be done in a couple of weeks. A single event that
you hope will permanently change the culture – won't. In fact, it might have the opposite effect
entirely. Get started but be committed to building momentum and staying with it. It will be one
of the most rewarding efforts you and your team will ever engage in.

I haven't given you specific cultural events to try. Why? Because I don't know what kind of
changes you want to create. In my case we were trying to create higher levels of camaraderie
and more fun in the workplace. You may have that and may want to enhance your culture in
completely different ways. You and your team will figure out what to do. This list is meant to
help you figure those things out for yourselves.

These seven things are by no means a complete list – but they are a great place to start. And
getting started is the most important next step of all.

Seven Reasons Organizational Culture Matters

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:29:35 +0000

We spend 40 … or 45 … or 50 … or more hours at work each week. Many of us spend more time with those we work with than we do our families. For us to be content and fulfilled people, that time must be valuable for more than a dollar …
We want to be engaged in our work. We yearn for work that is enjoyable, meaningful and
engaging. When we are engaged we are safer on the job, more productive and more willing and
able to delight Customers.

It is for these basic reasons that organizational culture matters. It is the right thing for an
organization to do – to think about the work environment, working relationships and "how we
do things here".

Focusing on building and sustaining an organizational culture is one way of showing that people
are the organization's most valuable asset.

There are of course many other bottom line business reasons to focus on and build
organizational culture. Here are seven of those reasons.

A strong culture is a talent-attractor. Your organizational culture is part of the package that
prospective employees look at when assessing your organization. Gone are the days of
selecting the person you want from a large eager pool. The talent market is tighter and those
looking for a new organization are more selective than ever. The best people want more than a
salary and good benefits. They want an environment they can enjoy and succeed in.

A strong culture is talent-retainer. How likely are people to stay if they have other options and
don't love where they are? Your organizational culture is a key component of a person's desire
to stay.

A strong culture engages people. People want to be engaged in their work. According to a
Gallup survey at least 22 million American workers are extremely negative or "actively
disengaged" – this loss of productivity is estimated to be worth between $250 to $300 billion
annually. Your culture can engage people. Engagement creates greater productivity, which can
impact profitability. Need I say more?

A strong culture creates energy and momentum. Build a culture that is vibrant and allows
people to be valued and express themselves and you will create a very real energy. That
positive energy will permeate the organization and create a new momentum for success.
Energy is contagious and will build on itself, reinforcing the culture and the attractiveness of the
organization.

A strong culture changes the view of "work". Most people have a negative connotation of the
word "work". Work equals drudgery, 9 to 5, "the salt mine". When you create a culture that is
attractive, people's view of "going to work" will change. Would you rather see work as drudgery
or a joy? Which do you think your employees would prefer? Which will lead to the best results?
A strong culture creates greater synergy. A strong culture brings people together. When
people have the opportunity to (and are expected to) communicate and get to know each other
better, they will find new connections. These connections will lead to new ideas and greater
productivity – in other words, you will be creating synergy. Literally, 1 + 1 + right culture = more
than 10. How is that for leverage?

A strong culture makes everyone more successful. Any one of the other six reasons should be
reason enough to focus on organizational culture. But the bottom line is that an investment of
time, talent and focus on organizational culture will give you all of the above benefits. Not only
is creating a better culture a good thing to do for the human capital in the business, it makes
good business sense too.

Hopefully this article has helped you see that time spent enhancing your organizational culture
will be time wisely invested. Regardless of your current culture, it is never too late to enhance it
and to begin creating the benefits described above.
What are you waiting for?Seven Ways to Enhance Org

What Is Organizational Culture and Why Do We Care?

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:27:41 +0000

Not long ago, I found myself in a conversation with a student about organizational culture and what exactly it is. The student wanted to do his final paper on this topic. Recognizing that this is a domain that is often more popular than it is understood, I reasoned that we should probably touch base before I signed off on his choice. This student, who was quite well read and very passionate, was able to convince me that he did know enough about the topic to do to it justice. After our call, I began to contemplate what I’ve learned about organizational culture over my years of teaching, researching and consulting.

Perhaps the most common way that behavioral scientists think of culture is to take a cue from Ed Schein who describes culture as the combined habits, norms and beliefs of the people in an organization (2004). When following the Schein model, we can tell what the culture of an organization is by looking at the behaviors, artifacts and the outcomes of that organization. What kinds of products does it produce? What kind of people work there? What kind processes do they put into place? All of these things cue us into what that organization’s culture is all about. As I thought about it a little more, however, I realized that even this definition of organizational culture may not be as practical as what we need to truly understand what culture is. It requires us to ask questions like ‘what is a norm?’, and ‘what is an artifact?’ Those kinds of debates can quickly take us down rabbit holes that are hard to get out of.

If someone in your organization asks you to describe the culture, a simpler way to think about it
is to ask what do people in that organization take for granted? Does everyone take for granted
that it is OK to be five minutes late to any meeting, or are we expected to be there on time or
early? Does everyone take for granted that all rules must be followed to the letter, or does it all
a matter of situational judgment? Does everyone take for granted that there will be bonuses
paid everyone year, or is it assumed that the company will find some reason to avoid payouts?
These kinds of things are the outcomes that define what an organization’s culture is. The
question of course is why do we care about these?

From an academic standpoint, we care about culture because this information helps us predict
how an organization and the people in it may react in various situations. From a management
standpoint, this understanding helps us know the right ways to lead our teams. From an
individual standpoint, an understanding of our organization’s culture helps us to know how to
best navigate it for our most productive work lives. So the real question now is what do people
take for granted in your organization?

Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure Part II

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:25:46 +0000

Resilience is often misunderstood. A lot of people think of football players when they think of resilience – able to take a hit, pick themselves up off the turf, and go for another play. Well-meaning students trying to celebrate resilience might support each other staying up until 3am trying to finish a paper.

A resilient person is a well-rested one. When an exhausted student goes to class, he lacks
cognitive resources to do well academically, he has lower self-control, and he’s often moody AF
(not sure we can use that abbreviation here, but we’re going to because moodiness from not
sleeping is for real).

Overwork and exhaustion are the opposite of resilience.
Resilience is the adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or stress. It
means rebounding from difficult experiences.

A resilient person tries really hard, then stops to rest, then tries again.

The more time a person spends in their performance zone, they more time they need in the
recovery zone. So the more imbalanced we become due to overworking, the more value there
is in activities that allow us to return to a state of balance. In other words, the value of a
recovery period rises in proportion to the amount of work required of us.

Most people assume that if you stop doing a task, like working on your Bio Chem homework,
that your brain will naturally recover. When you start again the next morning, you’ll have your
energy back. But we are confident that most of us reading this has had times where we lie in
bed for hours, unable to fall asleep because our brain is thinking about all the things we need to
do. If we lie in bed for eight hours, we certainly have have rested, but we can still feel
exhausted the next day. Rest and recovery are not the same thing. Stopping does not equal
recovering.

What is recovery?

Internal recovery is the short periods of relaxation that take place throughout our day – via
short scheduled or unscheduled breaks, shifting our attention, or changing to other tasks when
the mental or physical resources required for task completion are depleted.

External recovery refers to actions that take place outside of scheduled work – so evenings,
weekends, holidays, vacations. If after your day you lie around and get riled up by news you
read on your phone or stress about the paper you have due on Monday, your brain hasn’t
received a break from high mental arousal. Our brains need rest as much as our bodies.
In other words – it’s taking time to do things that are fun and enjoyable. It’s doing different
things like going outside and moving your body. It’s letting your brain take a rest by unplugging
and getting good sleep.

If you really want to build resilience, you can start by strategically stopping to rest.

Ideas to help:

Have tech free time. Apps like Offtime or Unplugged to create tech free zones by strategically scheduling automatic airplane modes.
Set a timer to take a cognitive break every 90 minutes when you’re studying to recharge your batteries.
Don’t do work over lunch. Instead spend time outside or with your friends — not talking about school.
Get good sleep!
Balance your class schedule so that no one day is overfilled.
Take day trips or mini-vacations, preferably outdoors.
Find things that make you laugh.
Give yourself permission to get distracted. Sometimes those distractions can be brain breaks.

But when all’s said and done, the best person to tell you how to recharge is YOU. You know
what makes you feel refreshed – do those things! At least one of them every day.

Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure Part I

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:19:36 +0000

As constant travelers and parents of a 2-year-old, we sometimes fantasize about how much
work we can do when one of us gets on a plane, undistracted by phones, friends, and Finding
Nemo. We race to get all our ground work done: packing, going through TSA, doing a lastminute work call, calling each other, then boarding the plane. Then, when we try to have that
amazing work session in flight, we get nothing done. Even worse, after refreshing our email or
reading the same studies over and over, we are too exhausted when we land to soldier on with
the emails that have inevitably still piled up.

Why should flying deplete us? We’re just sitting there doing nothing. Why can’t we be tougher
— more resilient and determined in our work – so we can accomplish all of the goals we set for
ourselves? Based on our current research, we have come to realize that the problem is not our
hectic schedule or the plane travel itself; the problem comes from a misunderstanding of what
it means to be resilient, and the resulting impact of overworking.

We often take a militaristic, “tough” approach to resilience and grit. We imagine a Marine
slogging through the mud, a boxer going one more round, or a football player picking himself
up off the turf for one more play. We believe that the longer we tough it out, the tougher we
are, and therefore the more successful we will be. However, this entire conception is
scientifically inaccurate.

The very lack of a recovery period is dramatically holding back our collective ability to be
resilient and successful. Research has found that there is a direct correlation between lack of
recovery and increased incidence of health and safety problems. And lack of recovery —
whether by disrupting sleep with thoughts of work or having continuous cognitive arousal by
watching our phones — is costing our companies $62 billion a year (that’s billion, not million) in
lost productivity.

And just because work stops, it doesn’t mean we are recovering. We “stop” work sometimes at
5PM, but then we spend the night wrestling with solutions to work problems, talking about our
work over dinner, and falling asleep thinking about how much work we’ll do tomorrow. In a
study released last month, researchers from Norway found that 7.8% of Norwegians have
become workaholics. The scientists cite a definition of “workaholism” as “being overly
concerned about work, driven by an uncontrollable work motivation, and investing so much
time and effort to work that it impairs other important life areas.”

We believe that the number of people who fit that definition includes the majority of American
workers, including those who read HBR, which prompted us to begin a study of workaholism in
the U.S. Our study will use a large corporate dataset from a major medical company to examine

how technology extends our working hours and thus interferes with necessary cognitive
recovery, resulting in huge health care costs and turnover costs for employers.
The misconception of resilience is often bred from an early age. Parents trying to teach their
children resilience might celebrate a high school student staying up until 3AM to finish a science
fair project. What a distortion of resilience! A resilient child is a well-rested one. When an
exhausted student goes to school, he risks hurting everyone on the road with his impaired
driving; he doesn’t have the cognitive resources to do well on his English test; he has lower selfcontrol with his friends; and at home, he is moody with his parents. Overwork and exhaustion
are the opposite of resilience. And the bad habits we learn when we’re young only magnify
when we hit the workforce.

In her excellent book, The Sleep Revolution, Arianna Huffington wrote, “We sacrifice sleep in
the name of productivity, but ironically our loss of sleep, despite the extra hours we spend at
work, adds up to 11 days of lost productivity per year per worker, or about $2,280.”
The key to resilience is trying really hard, then stopping, recovering, and then trying again. This
conclusion is based on biology. Homeostasis is a fundamental biological concept describing the
ability of the brain to continuously restore and sustain well-being. Positive neuroscientist Brent
Furl from Texas A&M University coined the term “homeostatic value” to describe the value that
certain actions have for creating equilibrium, and thus wellbeing, in the body. When the body is
out of alignment from overworking, we waste a vast amount of mental and physical resources
trying to return to balance before we can move forward.

As Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz have written, if you have too much time in the performance
zone, you need more time in the recovery zone, otherwise you risk burnout. Mustering your
resources to “try hard” requires burning energy in order to overcome your currently low
arousal level. This is called upregulation. It also exacerbates exhaustion. Thus the more
imbalanced we become due to overworking, the more value there is in activities that allow us
to return to a state of balance. The value of a recovery period rises in proportion to the amount
of work required of us.

So how do we recover and build resilience? Most people assume that if you stop doing a task
like answering emails or writing a paper, that your brain will naturally recover, such that when
you start again later in the day or the next morning, you’ll have your energy back. But surely
everyone reading this has had times where you lie in bed for hours, unable to fall asleep
because your brain is thinking about work. If you lie in bed for eight hours, you may have
rested, but you can still feel exhausted the next day. That’s because rest and recovery are not
the same thing. Stopping does not equal recovering.

If you’re trying to build resilience at work, you need adequate internal and external recovery
periods. As researchers Zijlstra, Cropley and Rydstedt write in their 2014 paper: “Internal
recovery refers to the shorter periods of relaxation that take place within the frames of the
workday or the work setting in the form of short scheduled or unscheduled breaks, by shifting
attention or changing to other work tasks when the mental or physical resources required for
the initial task are temporarily depleted or exhausted. External recovery refers to actions that
take place outside of work—e.g. in the free time between the workdays, and during weekends,
holidays or vacations.” If after work you lie around on your bed and get riled up by political
commentary on your phone or get stressed thinking about decisions about how to renovate
your home, your brain has not received a break from high mental arousal states. Our brains
need a rest as much as our bodies do.

If you really want to build resilience, you can start by strategically stopping. Give yourself the
resources to be tough by creating internal and external recovery periods. In her upcoming book
The Future of Happiness, based on her work at Yale Business School, Amy Blankson describes
how to strategically stop during the day by using technology to control overworking. She
suggests downloading the Instant or Moment apps to see how many times you turn on your
phone each day. The average person turns on their phone 150 times every day. If every
distraction took only 1 minute (which would be seriously optimistic), that would account for 2.5
hours of every day.

You can use apps like Offtime or Unplugged to create tech free zones by strategically scheduling
automatic airplane modes. In addition, you can take a cognitive break every 90 minutes to
recharge your batteries. Try to not have lunch at your desk, but instead spend time outside or
with your friends — not talking about work. Take all of your paid time off, which not only gives
you recovery periods, but raises your productivity and likelihood of promotion.

As for us, we’ve started using our plane time as a work-free zone, and thus time to dip into the
recovery phase. The results have been fantastic. We are usually tired already by the time we
get on a plane, and the cramped space and spotty internet connection make work more
challenging. Now, instead of swimming upstream, we relax, meditate, sleep, watch movies,
journal, or listen to entertaining podcasts. And when we get off the plane, instead of being
depleted, we feel rejuvenated and ready to return to the performance zone.

Building Positive Relationships at Work

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:17:06 +0000

Building positive workplace relationships is vital for career success. Relationships can positively
or negatively affect your satisfaction with the job, your ability to advance and gain recognition
for your achievements. When you build positive relationships, you feel more comfortable with
your interactions and less intimidated by others. You feel a closer bond to the people you spend
the majority of your time working with.

However, for a lot of people, relationship building isn’t natural or easy to do. Most refuse to
admit this is a concern because it is such a basic, common sense concept. They assume they
already know how to do it. Don’t fall into that trap. Everyone – even the most outgoing,
engaging personalities – can improve their skills in this critical area. The ten tips listed below
are for anyone who wants to build positive workplace relationships.

Apply these tips to interactions with your boss, team members, project managers, senior
management, vendors, clients, customers, direct reports and administrators.

Do you need help building positive relationships at work?

Share more of yourself at meetings. One of the best ways to build relationships is to let others
know who you are. This can come by sharing your expertise, knowledge and personality at
meetings. Other people will either get to know you, like you or want to hear more from you.
They will find you more approachable and thus the chance of building relationships begins to
occur. If you are fearful to share at meetings, think ahead of time what you want to say so that
you are more prepared.

Speak positively about the people you work with, especially to your boss. Get in the habit of speaking positively to others and providing quality feedback about the people who work with. Many times the information that gets shared (whether positive or negative) comes back to the person who is being discussed. People will enjoy hearing that you have said supportive things about them and will know that you are on their side. That will build trust. Be careful of the workplace gossip that is so prevalent and don’t contribute to it.
Improve your interpersonal skills by supporting other people’s work. Having a team attitude gives you a big competitive advantage. Ask how you can get involved with others. This will form a closer connection because you are working directly with someone else to help them meet their goals. They will appreciate your support and get to know you better which is vital to creating a more connected working relationship.
Ask others to become involved in your projects or activities. Don’t be afraid to ask others for help and bring them onto your projects. The more they can participate in the 5 activities you are working on, the better you get to know each other. You’ll enjoy working with others in getting more things done
Write thank you notes. Write notes of appreciation to the people who are doing exemplary work, making positive contributions and going above the call of duty. These notes can be hard-written, sent via email or done by voice mail. Send them to people above you, below you or at the peer level. Colleagues like to be appreciated and will feel closer to you by having been noticed and thanked for their contributions.
Initiate conversations by asking questions. When we first meet someone it can be a bit intimating. We often don’t know what to say or how to say it. Asking questions is a great way for you to listen and let the other person share. They will feel closer to you when they have shared about themselves and you demonstrate you’re interested in what they have to say. Then share something about yourself so the relationship becomes a twoway interaction that can help establish a bond.
Initiate repeated interactions and communications. An important part to building relationships is to continue interacting with the person you have gotten to know. As you get to know each other better, personally and professionally, you establish a closer connection that can greatly impact your satisfaction.
Participate in activities with others that don’t involve work. As you get to know someone, you might find similar interests that may warrant an outside the work activity. This can greatly impact relationships because you are beginning the process toward friendship. Go out to lunch together during the work day or do things in the evenings or weekends. If you are married, you can visit with other couples to establish more connection at work.
Share information. The information you share can be directly related to their work or it can be about a subject you know they will enjoy reading. You are thinking of them and helping them with the right information or content.
Introduce yourself at social work events. Social events like lunches/dinners with colleagues, retreats, conferences and holiday parties are good places to interact in an informal setting. If you can reach out and introduce yourself to some of the people who you work with or who you want to know better, you’ll find they are more inclined to let down their guard. It will be easier for you to get to know them and for you to share about who you are.

Building positive relationships often provides increased resources to help you get your job done
and to be more efficient. You’ll enjoy greater satisfaction at work… and so will those around
you.

Do You Know How Each Person on Your Team Likes to Work?

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:12:30 +0000

When we travel to a country that has a different culture than ours, many of us spend time
learning ways to communicate and connect with the people there. We might look up the
meanings of common terms and access maps of key attractions.

Similarly, when you first become a manager, it’s helpful to spend time up front connecting
and creating a common language with your team. When your team knows how you like to
work and how you plan to manage them, they’re able to produce results faster. When you
know how each of your direct reports likes to work and communicate, you’re able to save
time when setting direction and following up.

Consider this example. Sveta, a technical leader, liked to solve complex, technical problems.
When she was promoted to manager of a new team, she immediately dug into the new
product she was assigned, as well as her team members’ work.

Sveta had a keen attention to detail and placed a high value on being efficient. Therefore,
she didn’t waste much time or words when talking with her team. She was direct and blunt.
Unfortunately, her intentions didn’t match the impact she had on her employees. When
Sveta called out problems but didn’t spend time recognizing what people had done well,
they thought they were failing. In reality, Sveta was pleased with the overall quality of work
but wanted to make sure the remaining issues were corrected fast. As a result, people
spent excessive time perfecting things before bringing them to Sveta, and one person
started looking at job boards for interesting postings.

After her first month as a manager, Sveta realized she was struggling. She had too many
things on her plate because she didn’t know her team well enough to delegate work to
them. Sveta’s manager also had some tough feedback for her: three of her direct reports
had complained that Sveta was overwhelming them with detailed questions and working
directly on their code. Her team was unclear about expectations, saying they had to guess
what she wanted or how she felt about their work because most of their conversations
were about the specifics of the code rather than how they worked. They felt disconnected
and micromanaged.

Sveta needed to connect with and empower her team more. She realized that, just like
technical problems, working with people also required some decoding.
At her next team meeting, Sveta shared a table with behaviors specific to her management
style, what her actions meant, and how her team could best work with her.

MY WORK STYLE	HOW TO RESPOND TO MY STYLE
I try to understand something deeply by asking a lot of probing questions.	Engage and debate with me to formulate the best solution.
I raise tough issues up front and directly.	If you feel my response is blunt or direct, realize that it’s about the issue, not about you personally.
I joke with people I know well.	Let me know if my joking with you or someone else makes you uncomfortable or feels inappropriate in any way.
I tend to look for the problems to fix first.	This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the good work you do. Ask me how you’re doing if you’re worried about the number of “bugs” I found in your last document.
I take an optimistic view.	Don’t just tell me why something won’t work; also share ideas for how it might.
I try to communicate regularly and transparently.	Give me the pulse of the team, and be sure to share my messages to you with your teams.
I can appear grouchy because I often have a serious expression on my face or provide tense responses at times.	If I seem grumpy in a conversation or meeting with you, don’t assume the problem is you; discuss it with me.
I’m not a morning person	Avoid scheduling meetings where I have to make a big decision before 10 AM

After sharing her own table, Sveta asked her direct reports to create their own work-style
tables. Each employee then shared their tables during the next team meeting, and they
asked questions about others’ tables. This exercise created greater clarity all around, giving
Sveta a better understanding of the styles and strengths of her direct reports, and gave her
team insight into how to manage up.

The end result was promising. Sveta was able to delegate items more effectively, and other
members of the team found they got things done faster with fewer misunderstandings with
each other and with their manager.

As a new manager, you can recreate this exercise with your own team. Consider these
questions when creating your own table and encouraging your direct reports to do the
same:

What are some misperceptions people have had about you in the past? Perhaps they haven’t said it to you directly, but a friend or your partner has jokingly commented about it.
What do you care most about in terms of how work is done? For instance, think about how you like materials to be prepared for a broad audience.
What are some ways that you tend to communicate? Some people tend to be direct, like Sveta, but others take a more indirect approach. Consider where you fall on the spectrum.
What are your hot button issues? Maybe you want to know ahead of time if someone is about to miss a deadline, or you don’t like people interrupting you in a meeting.
What are some quirks about you? For example, Sveta isn’t a morning person so asked people to defer critical meetings till after 10 am.

Keep in mind that while this exercise is helpful to inform your team of your preferences —
and for you to learn theirs — you may need to make some adaptations to your work style. If
your team indicates that they find positive feedback motivating, but that’s something you
tend to give sparingly, you’ll likely want to take more time to praise and commend your
employees, even if it feels strange at first. But discussing preferences and work styles does
give you and your employees a starting point to understand one another and work more
productively together.

Being a first-time manager can feel a lot like navigating your way in a foreign land. Taking
the time up front to learn your team’s language and share your own will create a strong
working relationship, reduce misunderstandings, and increase the speed at which you get
work done.

A Story About Motivation

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:04:50 +0000

I was walking back to our apartment in Manhattan, the hood of my jacket pulled tight to
keep the rain out, when I saw an older man with a walker struggle to descend the slippery
stairs of his building. When he almost fell, I and several others went over to help.
There was an Access-A-Ride van (a Metropolitan Transit Authority vehicle for people with
disabilities) waiting for him. The driver was inside, warm and dry, as he watched us straining
to help his passenger cross the sidewalk in the pouring rain.

Then he opened the window and yelled over the sound of the rain coming down, “He might
not be able to make it today.” “Hold on,” we yelled (there were five of us now) as we helped the man move around the back of the van, “he can make it.”

Traffic on 84th street had stopped. We caught the man from falling a few times, hoisted
him back up, and finally got him to the van door, which the driver then opened from the
inside to reveal a set of stairs. The man with the walker would never make it.
“What about your side door, the one with the electric lift?” I asked.
“Oh yeah,” the driver answered, “hold on.” He put his coat over his head, came out in the
rain with the rest of us, and operated the lift.

Once the man with the walker was in safely, we all began to move away when the driver
opened the window one more time and yelled, “Thanks for your help.”
So, here’s my question: Why will five strangers volunteer to help a man they don’t know in
the pouring rain — and think about the electric lift themselves — while the paid driver sat
inside and waited?

Perhaps the driver is simply a jerk? Perhaps. But I don’t think so. Once we suggested the lift,
he didn’t resist or complain, he came outside and did it immediately. And he wasn’t
obnoxious either. When he thanked us for our help, he seemed sincere.
Maybe it’s because the driver is not permitted to leave the vehicle? I checked the MTA
website to see if there was policy against drivers assisting passengers. On the contrary, it
states “As long as the driver doesn’t lose sight of the vehicle and is not more than 100 feet

away from it, the driver can assist you to and from the vehicle, help you up or down the
curb or one step and assist you in boarding the vehicle.”
So why didn’t the driver help? Part of the answer is probably that for him, an old man
struggling with a walker isn’t a one-time thing, it’s every day every stop, and the sight
doesn’t compel him to act.

But that answer isn’t good enough. After all, it’s his job to help. That’s when it suddenly hit
me: The reason the driver didn’t help might be precisely because he was paid to.
Dan Ariely, a professor at Duke University, and James Heyman, a professor at the University
of St. Thomas, explored this idea. They set up a computer with a circle on the left side of the
screen and a square on the right side, and asked participants to use the mouse to drag the
circle into the square. Once they did, a new circle appeared on the left. The task was to drag
as many circles as they could within five minutes.

Some participants received five dollars, some fifty cents, and some were asked to do it as a
favor. How hard did each group work? The five dollar group dragged, on average, 159
circles. The fifty cents group dragged 101 circles. And the group that was paid nothing but
asked to do it as a favor? They dragged 168 circles.

Another example: The AARP asked some lawyers if they would reduce their fee to $30 an
hour to help needy retirees. The lawyers’ answer was no. Then AARP had a counterintuitive
brainstorm: they asked the lawyers if they would do it for free. The answer was
overwhelmingly yes.

Because when we consider whether to do something, we subconsciously ask ourselves a
simple question: “Am I the kind of person who . . ?” And money changes the question.
When the lawyers were offered $30 an hour their question was “Am I the kind of person
who works for $30 an hour?” The answer was clearly no. But when they were asked to do it
as a favor? Their new question was “Am I the kind of person who helps people in need?”
And then their answer was yes.

So what does this mean? Should we stop paying people? That wouldn’t work for most
people. No, we need to pay people a fair amount, so they don’t say to themselves, “I’m not
getting paid enough to . . .”
Then we need to tap into their deeper motivation. Ask them: Why are you doing this work?
What moves you about it? What gives you the satisfaction of a job well done? What makes
you feel good about yourself?

People tend to think of themselves as stories. When you interact with someone, you’re
playing a role in her story. And whatever you do, or whatever she does, or whatever you
want her to do, needs to fit into that story in some satisfying way.
When you want something from someone, ask yourself what story that person is trying to
tell about himself, and then make sure that your role and actions are enhancing that story
in the right way.

We can stoke another person’s internal motivation not with more money, but by
understanding, and supporting, his story. “Hey,” the driver’s boss could say, “I know you
don’t have to get out of the van to help people, but the fact that you do — and in the rain
— that’s a great thing. And it tells me something about you. And I appreciate it and I know
that man with the walker does too.” Which reinforces the driver’s self-concept — his story
— that he’s the kind of guy who gets out, in the rain, to help a passenger in need.
Ultimately someone else’s internal motivation is, well, her internal issue. But there are
things we can do that will either discourage or augment her internal drive. And sometimes
it’s as simple as what we notice.

It’s not lost on me that I too have a story about myself — I’m the kind of guy who stops on a
rainy day to help an old disabled man to his van — and that it makes me feel good to tell
you about it too. That will make it more likely that I’ll do it again in the future.

As we left the scene, I looked at the drivers of the cars who waited so patiently and waved,
mouthing the words “thank you” as they passed. Every single one of them smiled back.
Wow. New York City drivers smiling after being stuck in traffic for ten minutes? That’s right.
“Yeah,” they were thinking behind their smiles, “I’m the kind of driver who waits patiently
while people less fortunate than me struggle.”

Motivating People Starts with Having the Right Attitude

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 04:59:11 +0000

Most leaders know what strong motivation looks like. When I ask leadership development
clients to describe the type of motivation they’d like to see in their teams, they mention
qualities such as persistence, being a self-starter, having a sense of accountability for and
commitment to achieving results, and being willing to go the extra mile on projects or to
help other team members. But many leaders have little idea of how to boost or sustain that
level of motivation.

Many leaders don’t understand that they are an integral part of the motivational ecosystem
in their companies. The motivational qualities listed above appear most frequently when
employees feel valued, trusted, challenged, and supported in their work — all things that
leaders can influence. For better or worse, leaders’ attitudes and behaviors have a huge
effect on employees’ drive and capacity to perform.

One problem that gets in the way is a mechanistic, instrumental view of the human beings
who sit at our companies’ desks. Seeing compensation as the primary or only tool we can
use to motivate high performance is like trying to build a house with only a hammer. What
gets lost is that incentives, regardless of which ones are applied, filter through employees’
brains along with every other aspect of the employment experience. How employees
experience work from day to day has a bigger influence on their motivation than their
compensation and benefits package.

Another barrier to a leader’s capacity to motivate is the widespread, mistaken belief that
motivation is an inherent property of the employee — “they either have it or they don’t.”
In fact, motivation is a dynamic process, not a stable employee characteristic. When we
judge an employee to be irredeemably unmotivated, we give up on trying to motivate
them. A vicious cycle ensues, in which our attitude and behaviors elicit exactly those
behaviors we expect from an unmotivated employee, which in turn reinforces and justifies
our verdict and approach. Everybody loses: The organization is deprived of the employee’s
full contribution, the leader acts unskillfully, and the employee grows increasingly
disengaged.
Managers generally start out with the best of intentions. After all, whenever we hire
someone new, we expect that they will be motivated. Later, if performance or engagement
lags, we experience frustration at the “unmotivated, entitled” employee. It often goes
something like this: “As a leader, I started out caring very much about the emotional needs
of staff. Unfortunately, all this brought about was overentitlement and making it OK to use
your feelings to waste time and create a negative environment. I have evolved to care less
about feelings and more about getting the work done, period. As long as my expectations

are clear, people get paid, and they have a safe environment, there is no room for the rest
of it in the workplace.” I found this comment on a leadership article posted on the HBR
Facebook page, but it could have come from the mouths of the countless leaders I’ve met
during my career. Even if a leader feels perfectly justified in taking this approach, giving the
impression that employees’ subjective experience of work doesn’t matter will only serve to
dampen employee motivation.

It is entirely possible for leaders to learn to motivate even those employees they’ve given
up on. As an example, I recently coached a leader who’s responsible for a global
organization’s operations in an Eastern European country. A man in his fifties with a military
background, he complained of being saddled with an underperforming team member he
couldn’t fire: “He’s basically useless. All I can do is contain him so he doesn’t screw anything
up — and lean on my capable people to get our work done.” The leader gave the employee
routine, low-value work to do, didn’t share important information with him, didn’t bother
to meet with him, and never sought his input or contribution to important projects. “Why
bother with him? I can’t change him, and I don’t have time to waste on someone who’s
unmotivated,” he insisted at first. Through coaching, the leader came to appreciate that
these choices, which he initially saw as rational responses to a motivational deficiency in
the employee, actually worsened the problem. He realized that seeing his employee as
useless was only one of many possible perspectives he could take — and that it limited his
leadership effectiveness. After shifting his approach from containment to facilitation, he
saw substantial gains in the employee’s outward motivation and performance, to the point
where the employee became a valuable member of the team.

To make the shift that boosted his employee’s motivation, this leader had to be fearless in
examining his own thinking and patterns of behavior. He recognized and admitted that he
didn’t see his employee as a whole human being, but rather as an object and a problem. He
had to develop curiosity about what the situation was like from the employee’s point of
view. He had to experience that valuing his employee’s perspective opened up avenues
for motivation. As he started talking more with his employee, giving him challenging work,
seeking his input, and including him in important projects, the employee responded with
increased enthusiasm and commitment. “I can’t believe what a difference it makes,” he told
me after a few sessions.

I believe that most interpersonal problems that arise in the world, whether in relationships,
companies, or nations, come down to the fundamental difficulty humans have in seeing
things from others’ perspectives. When we make assumptions about what employees
believe and value, interpreting their behaviors according to our assumptions, we reduce
their humanity and their complexity. The very phrase “human resources” frames employees
as material to be deployed for organizational objectives. While the essential nature of
employment contracts involves trading labor for remuneration, if we fail to see and
appreciate our employees as whole people, efforts to motivate them will meet with limited

success. Instead of thinking about how we can control our employees, let’s focus on how
we can motivate them. A good place to start is by reflecting on the best boss you’ve ever
had. How did this boss make you feel? What did this boss do to earn your admiration? Try
to harvest some of that boss’s motivational strategies and make them your own.

4 Ways to Become a Better Manager through Human Capital Management

moklesur@ventrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 04:56:53 +0000

A good manager can make all the difference in the way employees operate within a
company by utilizing the “human capital management” concept. In fact, Gallup
estimates managers account for at least 70 percent of the variance in employee
engagement scores across businesses.

The term “human capital management” describes an approach to staffing where people
are perceived as assets whose value grows through investment. The employees who
work for your company hold incredible value and are capable of producing great things.
But in order for them to operate at peak performance, they need a good manager.
Here are a few tips that can help dramatically improve the way you manage your
people:

1. Know your employees’ names (and use them).

Sometimes it’s easy for employees to feel unimportant or like one of many, especially in
the vast ocean of employees in a large company. Though you may not interact with all
employees frequently, ensure you know who each employee in your organization is and
what they contribute to the team.

Create employee profiles to help you keep track of important employee facts such as
date of hire, roles, and background of skills. Store profiles digitally in a place where you
can access them easily for a quick reference. Allow employees to access and edit their
profiles so they can personalize them and keep them up-to-date.

When you pass by new employees in the hall, say “hi” and use their names. If you have
time, tell them how glad you are to have them working on the team or project they are
working on. Watch how their faces light up as they realize you actually know who they
are and what they do. Employee engagement will skyrocket.

2. Recognize employee milestones.

Another trick to boosting employee engagement is to celebrate employee milestones
and other important events. Use a calendar to keep track of these important events and
keep team members in the loop to help you execute these celebrations.

If you use a human capital management platform like Namely, the calendar integrates
with employee profiles, ensuring everyone on the team is notified of birthdays and
anniversaries. But take it a step beyond the birthdays—recognize other milestones like a
successful turnout at the first event an employee planned or a project lead’s job well
done.

3. Accelerate the approval process.

I often see blockages that impede an employee’s morale in the following areas:

Time-off requests: Requesting time off is often a long and drawn-out process involving too many forms with multiple signatures, and then days or weeks before a response. It’s all very frustrating to employees. Workers need to be able to plan their lives outside of work, and anything that makes that more difficult can make employees feel anxious or discouraged.
Project-related approvals: Managers often need to approve projects or aspects of them before employees execute them. However, managers sometimes take several days to return their comments to employees or give them the green light. During this time, employees cannot move forward, and not only do they search for other, more menial tasks to fill their time, they can begin to overanalyze or doubt their ideas as they await feedback.

Because it’s so easy for approvals to become buried in emails, use a program that
notifies you instantly when an employee requests time off or has a question about a
project.

A mobile-enabled program that integrates all aspects of project and human capital
management would be ideal here. You could have all the information you need to make
a decision right in your hands. You could access your calendar to approve time off
requests with just a tap, look at comments under the task manager, or view shared files
to ensure a project is going in the right direction.

4. Simplify HR processes.

Whether you work with or directly in HR, you’ll probably agree that stone-aged
processes like disjointed programs and paper forms just add more clutter to a workload.
Simplify the process through automating all aspects of human capital management and
integrate them into one platform. This will eliminate the need for duplicate data entry
and multiple programs that don’t communicate with one another. Performance reviews
will be easy with all employee data in one place, and HR will have more time to focus on
other tasks.

Managing a company and the people within it can be overwhelming at times. To reduce
some of the stress, try seeking out ways to make less work for yourself and those you
work with. Integrating your human capital management system will help you manage
your people more efficiently and give you the tools you need to boost employee
engagement.