Steve is a former EEOC trial attorney and management law firm partner. His Atlanta-based company, ELI, provides “a variety of programs and services that teach professional workplace conduct, helping our clients translate their values into behaviors, increase employee contribution, build respectful and inclusive cultures, and reduce legal and ethical risk.”
He also writes a blog that gets into a lot of legal issues in the workplace, and I found this blog post he wrote this week to be especially insightful given the explosion in social networking and modern communications. I’m happy to share it with you because readers tell us that they always need good workforce legal information, so take a read on this and let me know what you think:
“I’ve wondered when it would happen—for years there have been stories of athletes, proxies for other celebrities, who say and do what they want while their behavior is ignored, minimized or attributed to ‘locker room’ humor or conduct. But the doors of locker rooms, operating rooms, broadcasting booths and boardroom suites are wide open these days; conduct that used to be tolerated in the bastions of such resident ‘untouchables’ is now falling prey to general workplace standards, publicity, business harm and personal penalties.
“Also, ESPN suspended Bob Griese for making on-air disparaging comments about a Latino racecar driver. Almost before I’d finished reading that online scoop, another story broke about Larry Johnson, a Kansas City Chiefs running back who used a homophobic slur on Twitter and while addressing reporters. At the time of this writing, Johnson has been told to stay away from the team while the NFL and the Chiefs complete their investigation.
“What’s happening here is that the transparency of modern communications is preventing such behavior, no matter who the offender, from being swept under the rug, or bed, as the case may be. So the message is simple and direct, not just for those at the middle and bottom but also for organizational leaders and ‘high’ performers.
“As we have taught in Civil Treatment, ‘Guard your words and actions.’ The more public your role, the more cautious you must be. There is no invincibility when conduct is outrageous, unprofessional and uncivil. What’s increasingly obvious is that the issue involving such conduct is not simply legal risk. ESPN’s brand has been harmed by its broadcasters’ actions, and the careers of those involved have been tarnished if not ruined, in Phillips’ case.
“Whether lawsuits are filed and ultimately dismissed or settled is almost secondary. Business and irrevocable personal harm has been done, and all of it could have been avoided if standards of professionalism and behavior had been in place and understood and applied by everyone, at all levels.”
I don’t write much about self-management in this blog, and there’s a simple reason why: It’s because this Web site, and the related newsletters, blogs and magazine, are all focused on one thing — the art of managing a workforce.
Once in a while, however, I bump into something that’s a little far afield from what I normally focus on here but is still really, really interesting. So it was today when I read this commentary from Advertising Age (a sister publication of Workforce Management) titled “How to Advance Your Career Without Selling Your Soul.”
It’s written by Joe Hodas, senior vice president of brand communications at Vladimir Jones, a privately held, full-service advertising agency in Colorado, and it struck me as an uncommonly good bit of common-sense advice whether you apply it to yourself or pass it along to those you manage.
Plus, it runs counter to a lot of the snarky “I have a blog so I know better” rants by thinly credentialed “experts” who seem to be taking over so much of the Internet today. The fact that it comes from someone like Joe Hodas, a guy who has worked for years in the trenches managing people and knows firsthand what he’s talking about, well, that just makes it must-read advice in my book.
Here are Joe’s 11 rules for managing your career, or, for you to use to help your workforce manage theirs. It’s great advice for just about anyone toiling in today’s challenging and difficult workforce:
1. Nothing replaces hard work. In an industry where smoke and mirrors are used in abundance, take heed: Nothing can disguise the absence of hard work. And don’t confuse effort with results. I don’t care how early you arrive or how late you stay—it’s about ROI.
2. We all have a personal tool kit—know yours and how to use it. As my mother told me on numerous occasions, I have special talents. Specifically, I’m a good consensus builder. You may be a killer salesman. Or extremely detailed. Whatever your “special talents” are, hone them and let them help define your personal brand.
3. It’s about teamwork, but know who is and isn’t on your team. I too hate office politics. And avoid them at all costs. Ignoring their existence is not only careless, but possibly counterproductive. Even if you don’t engage in them, someone else might on your behalf. Know who has the boss’s ear, who the players are, and who could take or leave ya. Whatever the political landscape in your company, it’s your reality and one you’ll have to navigate whether you like it or not.
4. Never lose your shit—at least not in public. Let’s play a little game of association. When I say Christian Bale, you say what? Probably not “great actor from ‘American Psycho,’ ” right? Rather, I bet you said something along the lines of “overindulged jerk who pulverized some poor sound tech on a movie set for making a mistake.” I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be human, but one single outburst—even if merited—can do permanent damage to your personal brand.
5. Life is not always a box of chocolates—so decide how much you can take before you bail. The perfect job doesn’t exist. I would imagine that even the taste-tester at Krispy Kreme has complaints about his gig (though I can’t imagine what they might be). Too often we hit tough times and jump ship for a lateral move or get frustrated and stop giving 110 percent. A career is like a relationship, so make sure you’re putting as much effort into trying to fix the problems as you put into feeling bad about them.
6. Humility goes a long way. Nothing infuriates your boss (and co-workers) more than employees who feel they deserve something they haven’t earned. I’m a firm believer that raises are for the work you’ve done, and promotions are for the work you can do.
7. Individuality is to be respected—as long as you’re still part of the team. Sometimes, there is an “I” in team. It just has to be the right kind of “I”—distinctive yet collaborative, unexpected but on strategy. Don’t be afraid to stand out, but do make sure you don’t alienate your teammates in the process.
8. Always try to add something smart to the discussion. Ask a smart question or make a great point that no one else has thought of. But do your homework so you can back up your comments and aren’t asking things that you should already know the answer to.
9. Sometimes you have to shout to be heard. You’ve heard the phrase “Squeaky wheel gets the grease”? Well, take note: Occasionally, persistent voices are listened to. Don’t be afraid to speak up when you’re passionate about something.
10. Have a perspective on the past, present and future. It’s not enough to do well today. Your boss wants and needs to see that you have a broader outlook on where you/the client/the work/etc. has been, is now and will be going.
11. Always be that ray of light in your boss’s/co-worker’s day. This one’s simple. Surprise. Delight. Be the kind if individual you’d like to spend 200-plus days each year with. And to be clear—that’s much different from kissing ass.
Here’s one of them, and a question that every manager has to come to terms with: How much managing does a manager actually do?
In my view, anyone who is a manager is probably always managing at some level, but I am talking more about the outward signs of management and how aggressively you control your employees, or how much leeway your staff gets to work and make decisions on their own.
Yes, how you approach this has a lot to do with your personal outlook on life, but it also speaks to a lot of other factors—experience, confidence, the industry you work in and/or the type of work you do, and sometimes, company culture. For example, I once worked for a large media company that believed in aggressively managing everything and was top-down driven.
This worked pretty well for them most of the time, but it meant that managers were micromanaged from above so they in turn micromanaged those below them. That doesn’t make for the happiest working environment, I quickly found.
This leads to the question that I don’t think enough managers ask themselves: Should I overmanage or undermanage, and why do I do it that way?
I’ve known lots of managers and executives who, like Joe Girardi, seemed to be more focused on showing off how smart they were rather than doing the right thing by their staff, and that’s certainly an occupational hazard when it comes to managing.
But here’s the thing—managing is also about leading, about coaching, about nurturing, about helping your people to do their absolute best. Some do it with a lot of drama, but in my book, the best managers do it quietly, without a lot of fanfare, and without feeling the need to draw attention to themselves.
Each has their own unique style, but each is also focused on one critical thing: helping their people so that they have the freedom and the opportunity to do their very best. In short, it’s not about overmanaging or undermanaging, but rather, about supportive managing that lets people reach their full potential for the good of the entire organization.
If that’s what you’re doing as a manager, well, congratulations, because you’re doing it right. If that’s NOT how you’re doing it, well, you had better step back and take a good look at yourself and figure out how you can be more like Warren Buffett than Joe Girardi.
This isn’t some subjective observation on my part, but rather, what I have learned firsthand from managing people for the better part of 30 years. But one reader of this blog thinks I’m dead wrong on this subject and makes a very articulate challenge to my point of view.
“The problem with the examples here is that they typify the worst kind of sleazy behavior by married people with a substantial power differential between themselves and the people they’re having affairs with. All the office romance bans in the world aren’t going to begin to stop that behavior—the egos are too big and the sense of power too inflated.
“What such policies will do is push normal, healthy relationships underground, so that no real discussion with the employer can take place. You may call it prattle, but it’s unrealistic to believe that people won’t have workplace romances. The best policies I’ve seen accept this and deal with it an adult fashion instead of forcing the employees to try to fly below the radar.”
Now, let me be clear: I have never, ever called for a formal ban on office romances. In fact, here’s what I said about this last year at Valentine’s Day: Office romances have always been part of the equation in any workplace since the dawn of time, and there’s no evidence that the problem has gotten appreciably better or appreciably worse. Yes, sometimes office romances go bad, but the trend The New York Times was touting back in 2007 was to not get too worried or worked up about co-workers dating.
I certainly understand that very pragmatic viewpoint, but my own opinion on office romance hasn’t changed—hype, trends and surveys notwithstanding. It’s a bad idea. That’s because, in my experience, they go bad all too often. And, spoiled office romances leave the participants—and the co-workers around them, who have to live with the bitter, sometimes litigious aftermath—much worse off as a result.
Yes, I’ve written about the fallout from high-profile office affairs like the recent one with ESPN’s Steve Phillips (who just got fired for his bad judgment) and David Letterman before him. And yes, I agree with reader HR PS that these two examples DO “typify the worst kind of sleazy behavior by married people with a substantial power differential between themselves and the people they’re having affairs with.”
As bad as those are, the ones that drove me crazy were of the more mundane variety, like the three-month relationship between two co-workers who sat next to each other. When something like that goes sour, it affects everyone around them, generally for the worse. And, it’s a management headache I’ve had all too often.
But am I wrong here, as reader HR PS says? Can pragmatic office policies realistically deal with affairs of the heart, or are they just a Band-Aid approach to an emotional and hard-to-handle workforce problem?
Hey, Management Guy! My company has been doing big layoffs. This has been a huge trauma for everyone because the company is known for coddling and indulging its workforce, and layoffs were never, ever something you had to worry about. Well, now it’s time for the cuts to hit my staff, and frankly, I’m just not into having to be the bearer of bad news, especially since some of those getting let go are senior members of my staff. Can I avoid this bad scene altogether, perhaps by just conveniently going on vacation when the dirty deed is done?
If you get paid the big bucks to be a manager, you gotta be able to handle both good and bad. That means having the huevos grandes to let people on your staff go, if and when it ever comes to that.
“Vanity Fair … took some of the deepest staff cuts at Condé Nast, but Editor Graydon Carter didn’t deliver the bad news himself,” the Post reported. “Although Carter was said to have been at his restaurant, The Monkey Bar (Note from The Management Guy: How can some schlub editor afford to own a restaurant?), Wednesday night, he was a no-show in the office yesterday because he had jetted off on a vacation.”
The Post also added this little tidbit: “Vanity Fair’s layoffs were said to be in the double-digit range, and hit as high as senior editors and as low as fact checkers, and were deep, in part, because Carter largely ignored the edict to chop 5 percent late last year.”
So, Graydon Carter first ignores a corporate edict to cut costs, then runs out on vacation when his staff is getting whacked? Here’s a piece of advice for Condé Nast senior execs from The Management Guy: You would do well to let Mr. Carter permanently retire to managing his Monkey Bar when he returns from vacation, because he’s completely worthless as a manager, especially one you can count on when things get rough.
And that, Don, is what you should always remember: If you can’t handle the tough work of being a manager—like layoffs and staff cuts—you have no business being a manager at all. Yes, you may work in management or flatter yourself with a management title, but if you can’t look your co-workers in the eye and do the dirty deed when it needs to be done, you’re just a manager wanna-be. And in these tough economic times, those are the very first people who should be shown the door.
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