How To Slay The Vampires Of No Accountability

They lurk in the dark shadows near the break room or scapegoating their direct reports for the department's performance issues. Their mere presence, and longevity remind all that what surrounds them is a less-than-optimal work culture. They are every organization's nightmare.  As “owners” of the culture, they take pride in their power of destruction.  

Complaining daily of perceived failed promises, corporate ideocracy, lack of fair compensation and appreciation, direct reports who don't do their jobs, they whittle away at the team’s morale one hour at a time.  Every new hire who comes onto the team is ceremoniously on-boarded with their version of “the truth.”  High hopes and enthusiastic energy is sucked from the new employee until their well is dry.

“Don’t work too hard or they will give you more to do.”

“They never hold anyone accountable here.”

“We have seen it all before, nothing ever changes.”

 “Management doesn’t care about us.”

“Everyone here quits after a year.”

“You can't find good help these days.”

“Employees have it too easy here.”

Except these parasites don’t. They linger and linger and continue to drain the life-blood out of the manager who has inherited them.  They are the Vampires of No Accountability (VONA) and keepers of the flame of the negative workplace culture.

How does a well-meaning organization rid themselves of these culture parasites be they employees, supervisors, directors or executives ?

First and foremost, they must be identified. Listen to the language of your employees and management team. Who among them persists with a “my work life sucks” daily attitude, performs at the bare minimum and occupies 80% of your time with their complaints? Which managers never look in the mirror (If they're VONA's they wouldn't see themselves anyway :) and blame their team's poor performance on their employees' lack of motivation or work ethic?

Have a list now?

Most leaders can easily identify the VONA managers and employees on their teams within minutes.  The sad fact is that they don’t know what to do next. The VONA are well-schooled in riding the line of acceptable behavior. In fact, they have perfected the art of making the air around them so toxic that most managers avoid them at all costs. However, no matter how uncomfortable it is to deal with them, your workplace culture will never change until they are gone.

That’s right, gone.

The truth is that VONA are incapable of rehabilitation. They have such little self-reflection or care for others that motivation and empathy are simply words on an engagement poster that the “company” puts up in the breakroom. The other challenging factor is that they don’t want to go. Why would someone so unhappy with their work environment want to stay, you may ask? It’s simple. Well situated in their VONA role they don’t have to be accountable. They can do the bare minimum and blame everyone else for failures. There are a million reasons why they can’t do their job, complete the report on time, make a difference, or engage in problem solving. They are simply…” too busy and overworked”.  Their answer is always…what you are asking of them is impossible. And stupid. And not fair.

The answer to riding your team of the VONA, barring wearing necklaces of garlic, is to ignore them. That’s right. Ignore them.

Just like the age-old advice that Mom and Dad dispelled regarding your 8th-grade bullies. By ignoring the VONA you take away their life-sucking power. If no one is willing to drop what they are doing to listen to the 5, 467th complaint they have this week, and “fix” the things not working in the department, what would they do?

Complaining is the life-blood of the VONA. It feeds their ego and their entitlement fantasy. It validates why they are not performing at a high level. The true path to ridding your team of these blood-suckers is to literally focus all of your coaching, mentoring attention to those on the team that are putting forth effort- and reward them. 

Look for those teammates and managers who have a sense of the greater good, a few ideas about improvement, and ask meaningful questions as it relates to working smarter, not harder.  Find your employees that are confident and feel good about themselves and engage them in working together for a more noble cause. Find a common concern that is bigger than any one person and invite them to problem solve together to remove barriers for all. Let the VONA know they are invited but that’s it. No begging, no pleading, no kowtowing to “needing them” on the team.

The number one mind-blowing fact to engagement is that it starts with the individual employee and is elevated or degraded by the manager.

Motivation is self-owned. Leaders can stoke, support, coach, and encourage self-development and growth but ultimately that leap from renter to owner is the employee’s decision.

Great leaders will spot the burgeoning seeds of excitement and stoke the fire daily to inspire.

Great leaders will also understand that allowing VONAs employees and managers to reside and breathe toxicity within the team is the biggest mistake they can make.

Teams would rather work short than deal with the draining energy of a toxic employee. According to the Harvard Business Review,  “people close to a toxic employee are more likely to become toxic themselves, but the good news is that the risk also subsides quickly. As soon as you put some physical distance between the offender and the rest of the team – for example, by rearranging desks, reassigning projects, scheduling fewer all-hands meetings, or encouraging more work-from-home days — you’ll see the situation start to improve.”

Grab your list of VONA. Commit to the following for 30-60 days and see what happens to your team’s culture.

• Distance yourself and the team from the daily complaints. Do not allow VONAs to take up more than 30 minutes of your time weekly. When complaints are voiced offer to meet with them to discuss but set a date at least 7 days away. Do not reward bad behavior by stopping what you are doing to entertain their latest complaint.

• Set expectations for the VONA. Empathize(initially) with their dissatisfaction. Acknowledge their feelings and suggest ways they can be part of the solution or self-sooth if it is a working constraint. Role model professional behavior always.

• Identify specific language and behaviors that are unacceptable in your working environment. Don’t’ shy away from having the “If you are really so unhappy maybe this might not be the right fit for you right now” conversation. No one can argue that they have a choice to look elsewhere to find happiness.

• Spend 80% of your coaching time on those employees and managers that are engaged and working together harmoniously. Assure them that you are working on establishing limits within the workplace culture. Invite them to peer interview all new hires with the agreed upon team values. Dilute the pool on your team to water down the effects of the VONA.

• Document everything. Unfortunately, many VONAs will not go down without a good fight. It is your job to show them the light if they are unable or unwilling to perform as expected. This includes behaviorally. Specific, clear expectations and consequences for non-compliance are necessary.

• Recognize the tipping point. When the VONA begin to leave (either from self-direction or your direction) notice the mood and engagement of the other teammates. Are they helping you to recruit? Are they more engaged? These signs point to the positive shift of the culture. Hold on and stay consistent. Do not hire “a body” just to fill a position. This is a crucial time in culture development and patience will pay off in the long term.

• Celebrate small wins. The loss of one VONA employee or manager can have HUGE impacts on the team’s morale. The weight is lifted. Enjoy the shadowless corridors.

• Don’t forget your own mental health. Fighting the VONA daily is exhausting. Be sure to find ways to decompress and fill your bucket with meaningful work. Do not let them infect you, or worse, escort you to the dark side.

You must protect your team from the Vampires of No Accountability much like you would protect them from a disease. Immunize your newly energized culture with rewards, recognition, and attention. Remind them how much they have accomplished together and how far they have come. Do not allow new VONA employees or managers to join your team, no matter how short. You have the power to upend the culture of significant drama and infighting.

Lead your team into the sunlight.

Check out these related posts: 

Six Words for Stopping Blame and Increasing Accountability

Personal Responsibility in the Pursuit of Happiness

To your growth and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how leadership coaching and training can benefit your organization? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Five Classic Management Mistakes (And how to avoid them)

There are some classic mistakes business owners and managers make on a regular basis. Mistakes that mean they are not getting the results they want and need from their people. 

Mistake 1: Only clarifying, and managing, ‘the numbers’

Leaders often tell us that they focus most of their attention on the ‘numbers’ part of their employee’s performance. They set objectives for producing the right amount of work on time, meeting a deadline, achieving the % increase in sales or the $ of savings. They monitor the numbers and, sometimes, they give feedback to their staff about their performance against those numbers. It makes good sense.

But what about the behaviors? What about; the way the employee manages their time, the way they build and maintain customer relationships, their ability to be solution focused, their ability to work in a team and so on? The difficulty is that managers often see these behaviors as subjective and unquantifiable meaning that they cannot be measured and managed.

But here’s the thing; Why manage behaviors? Behaviors are crucial to the success of your business. Can you be successful without your employees demonstrating the ability to manage their time, build and maintain effective relationships, develop practical solutions and so on?

Because managers also tell us they regularly judge their employees on their ‘attributes’ without being able to clearly define those attributes as behaviors. They say “he’s just not committed enough”’ or “she’s not a team player” or “he lacks creativity”. Without being able to define what ‘being an effective team player’ looks like in practice how can you help your employee improve in this area?

Identifying the Crucial Behaviors

The key questions to ask are:

What are the behaviors that differentiate us from our competitors?
What are the behaviors that contribute most to our success?
What behaviors must a person demonstrate to be successful in this job?

What do I want from the people I manage?

Of course you then need to share your descriptions of the behaviors you want and need with your employees – without making the next mistake.

Mistake 2: not helping employees to understand the bigger picture

We know from the research that employees want to ‘connect their efforts to the mission and purpose of the business’. In short, they want an answer to the question – ‘why am I doing this?’ The mistake owners and managers making is assuming that the answer to that question is obvious. Well maybe it should be, but often it isn’t.

Let’s take a look at how you can communicate objectives in a way that helps your employees understand their importance to the business. Let’s begin with the objectives that relate to the quantifiable parts of the job – the numbers element. There’s a simple process you can use to frame the conversation.

Communicating quantifiable objectives:

·        WHAT – the objective is

·        WHY – it’s important

Communicating behavioral objectives.

When you are communicating behavioral objectives it’s always a good idea to explain the ‘Why’ and ‘How’ and to associate the ‘why and how’ with a business imperative. This is because most people can relate to doing something new or differently when they can see it’s to meet a business need. It just makes more sense to them.

So it’s about explaining WHY – why we need the new behaviors and HOW the new behaviors are going to meet the business imperatives.

Here’s an example of how these principles could apply to behavioral objective for

‘Teamwork’

Example of a performance objective for ‘Team Player’

I will consider you to be an effective team player when you;

·  Explain the team objectives and your role in meeting those objectives

·  Identify when your team members need help or assistance and offer that help

·  Fully participate in team meetings and events

·  Identify ways the team can work together more effectively

·  Gain feedback that you are an effective team worker

Example of how to communicate the ‘Team Player’ objective

WHY it's important

·  Major challenges facing the business - in the current economic climate we’ve got to retain more customers.

·  Challenge to us – to improve our efficiency in servicing our customer so they stay with us and refer their friends and family.

·  Challenge for us as individuals – to maintain or improve our job satisfaction during these challenging times.

HOW the new behaviors are going to meet the business needs.

·   If we work better as team we’ll improve our efficiency and customer experience

·   Working better as a team should improve our job satisfaction

In short, if we work better as a team we’ll keep more customers and enjoy work more!

It’s all about helping the employee see the importance of their work to the success of the business.

Mistake 3: giving meaningless praise

The research shows that ‘receiving positive feedback and recognition for work well done’ consistently ranks highly as a motivator in employee surveys. Yet research also shows that most people don’t feel they get enough praise. So what’s going on?

Putting aside the fact that it’s likely that some of our survey participants feel they should be praised for just turning up every morning, my view is that business owners and managers are sometimes reluctant to give praise because they’ve had experiences of being praised themselves in ways that, frankly, haven’t motivated them at all. And, of course, they’re not over keen on having the same effect on their employees. It’s actually quite easy to deliver praise badly - praise that is seen as patronizing or manipulative by the employee. But done well, its dynamite.

Here are five ways to do it well:

1. Prepare the praise

It’s interesting that many managers will spend some time preparing to give criticism, but only a matter of seconds (if at all) preparing to give praise. The result? A passing comment (literally) on the lines of ‘nice job Doug, keep it up’ Say what? Which job? The whole job? Keep what up? Not only is this type of praise confusing but, by and large, it’s not wildly motivating.

2. Be specific

Describe exactly what you are praising and why. Try the following method:

When you....

What happened was...

And the result is....

E.g. When I showed the client the research you had done on their business she said she was really impressed by the insights you had provided. The result is she wants us to make a proposal for a further piece of business. That’s a really good outcome for us so thank you and well done.

3. Show genuine interest

Ask questions to better understand what the employee did, for example, what preparation they did for a successful presentation, how they managed to design such effective presentation slides etc. Describe how you feel about what they’ve done e.g. pleased, impressed, excited (the hug and kiss might be slightly over doing it)

4. Let the praise stand alone

Don’t be tempted to mix the praise with criticism e.g. That was a great presentation. If only your written work was as good. Deal with the written work issue at a different time.

5. Do it quickly and time it well

Give your praise as soon after the event as possible – it has far more impact. Be careful not to give the praise at a time when it will appear conditional or a ‘softening up’ process e.g. just before you delegate a task or ask for the person to work late

Public or Private?

There’s an old saying ‘praise in public, criticize in private’. Though we wholeheartedly agree with the latter we’re not totally convinced by the former. Of course the principle is sound. We want other employees to hear the praise and understand what we are praising because we hope that they will want to copy those behaviors or achievements. But not everyone is comfortable being singled out in this way and some people find accepting praise in front of their coworker embarrassing.

Try delivering the praise in private. You can then ask the employee if they are happy for you to share the praise with their coworkers – say in the next team meeting - and take it from there.

What if there’s no praise to give?

Of course employees find praise motivational, who wouldn’t? A challenge is when there is no praise to give because the employee is not performing effectively. The answer is to give regular feedback rather than praise.

The best way to motivate employees to improve their under performance is to give them what we call ‘positive criticism’ – criticism that’s easy to understand and easy to accept because it’s clear, objective and fair.

Mistake 4: avoiding talking to your employees about their job satisfaction

We know that showing a high level of interest and concern for our employees results in higher levels of motivation and performance. One of the most powerful ways to do this is to have a conversation specifically about how to maintain or improve their current level of job satisfaction/engagement.

After all, who wouldn’t feel motivated by having a supervisor who cares about our satisfaction at work and who is happy to spend the time talking to us about this subject which is so close to our hearts? Some managers, though, are reluctant to hold these conversations in case they result in ‘opening a can of worms’ – more specifically in case the employee comes to them with a list of wants and needs they cannot meet.

Good point.

Mistake 5: Neglecting to set high standards and hold others accountable

This denies employees the chance to learn and excel. Employees do not want to be told, “Let me make your life easier by enabling you not to learn and not to achieve anything new.  A balanced combination of uncompromising standards and confidence-building reassurances sends a very clear and consistent message to your team: “I believe in you and I want you to win as much as I want to win.”

There are two strategies for dealing with poor performance: One-minute coaching-corrections and redirection. A coaching-correction works best with people who have “won’t do” or attitudinal problems. These people are winners and they know how to do it but for some reason they are not doing it. Redirection is appropriate for people with “can’t so” or experience problems.  There will be more need for redirection because things are changing so fast now in most fields that competencies to do a job is often short-lived.

Redirection

1.  Make sure they know that a problem exists. Be specific. Share what happened clearly and without blame

2.  The person being redirected needs to know the negative impact that the error caused

3.  If appropriate, the manager should accept responsibility for not making the task clear

4.  Go over the task in detail and make sure it is clearly understood

5.  Express your continuing trust and confidence in the person

Bottom line: Hold people accountable to high standards while allowing them to hold onto their dignity as human beings.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how Smart Development can help your company create a coaching culture of high performance, accountability and trust? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other organizations create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Companies & Leaders Who Practice Empathy Get Better Results

Empathy is not just about feelings, emotions and connecting more effectively with others, although that would be reason enough to take it more seriously. Empathy delivers real-world benefits to organizations and is related directly to societal and organizational success in measurable ways.

Sadly, some of the meaning and value of empathy has declined over the last several decades. According to research, people are becoming less concerned about the lives of others and are challenged to understand perspectives that are different from their own.

Alongside the decline for empathy in our culture and in our workplaces, however, is a desire for change. People are waking up to the fact that compassion is fading as a cultural value, and there is a great craving for a more empathetic approach from people in leadership positions.

People feel it in their hearts. Their intuition tells them that understanding is what is needed to make their experiences more meaningful, yet making the changes that would bring increased empathy to our culture and workplaces is not easy.

I believe one of the ways to address this issue is to describe the positive benefits that organizations can experience by instituting more empathetic cultures. Compassion brings clear, distinct improvements for individuals and organizations. When you can begin to see the connections between empathy and organizational success, you can begin to implement them effectively in your world.

What are some of these real, measurable business results? Let’s take a look!

Empathy Improves Productivity

Employees perform better when they can empathize with the people on the other end of their work. Humans beings have a tendency to work harder when they are made aware of the positive impact their labor has on others.

Studies have revealed this to be true in a number of cases. For example, when radiologists are presented with photos of their patients, they are much more likely to interpret test results with greater clarity and detail. Empathy researchers have also found that cooks are more likely to create tastier meals when they have seen the faces of their customers.

Connecting with other human beings brings out the best in everyone, so it should be no surprise that productivity improves when empathy becomes an essential part of organizational culture.

Empathy Boosts Organizational Growth

You and I know that business is all about people and relationships. Healthy organizations are those that are staffed with talented, hardworking, open-minded and positive individuals, and those people are not always easy to find.

When leaders create cultures of empathy, it makes organizations more attractive to the best prospects and the brightest minds. People want to work in places where they feel appreciated. A workplace culture built on compassion ensures that the finest employees are retained and that the best possible candidates for employment are interested in working there.

Leaders who institute this type of culture see the benefit in their engagement scores and in their bottom-line results. Great people do great work, and talented, driven people are attracted to organizations built on a foundation of empathy.

Empathy Makes Collaboration Easier

“Project Aristotle” was Google’s endeavor to learn what makes great teams within organizations. What the project found was that successful teams are not necessarily made up of the smartest, most brilliant people. Instead, Google discovered that empathy makes teams more collaborative and successful.

When employees are skilled at reading nonverbal cues and detecting emotional states of others, they are more likely to address issues that may be impacting their teammates. This type of communication is rooted in empathy, and it has been shown to strengthen teamwork, morale and engagement.

Additionally, when people practice compassion through the act of listening – rather than feeling the need to speak more – the intelligence level of the whole group rises, aiding collaboration and boosting productivity.

Empathy Brings out the Best Within Diverse Workforces

One of the great aspects of modern organizations is the way workforces have become more diverse. When different perspectives are brought together under the same organizational roof, everyone benefits. Unfortunately, unproductive conflicts sometimes surface, making it difficult for members of diverse teams to work together.

Empathy is one of the keys to unlocking the power of diversity. Using tools like the DiSC and the StrengthsFinder help employees to understand the different ways their colleagues prefer to think and behave – and appreciate it!

When an organizational culture values compassion and understanding, employees are more likely to embrace one another in more meaningful ways. They are more willing to find common points of interest that bind them together as individuals who are striving to achieve the same end goal. They are also more willing to value their differences and see them as sources of strength.

Empathy Improves Reputations

How is your organization’s reputation built? Most likely, it is constructed through human interactions. When your organization’s customer-facing personnel treat people with empathy, it has an amazingly positive effect on the public’s perception.

Take Ryanair, for example. In 2014, the airline instituted its “Always Getting Better” program, in which it strived to improve its public reputation. The company removed restrictions and made life easier for passengers. Essentially, they tuned in to the wants and needs of their customers on emotional, financial and practical levels. As a result, the company improved its reputation and also increased profits by more than 30 percent!

According to the candid words of Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, “If I’d only known being nice to customers was going to work so well, I’d have started many years ago.” The lesson? Don’t wait to make your organization more empathetic!

You Can Be the Driving Force of Empathy Within Your Organization

As you read through the above examples of how compassion benefits organizations, you probably began to wonder if you have what it takes to drive a rise in empathy within your professional world. Here’s the truth: you do have what it takes to be a more effective, empathetic leader and to build employees and teams that value understanding and compassion!

Check out these posts for tips on how to practice empathy: 

Empathy: An Essential Leadership Skill

How Mindful Listening Can Expand Your Influence as a Leader


If you’re wondering how you can begin to create a more empathetic culture within your organization, I would love to talk with you!

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how Smart Development can help your company create a coaching culture of high performance, accountability and trust? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other organizations create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.