Karlyn Morissette: October 2008

I've been thinking a lot about human resources lately. It was one of my favorite parts of my MBA curriculum - learning how to motivate people, about all the mythes there are to being a good manager, how to affect change in the deeply embedded culture of an organization. I've worked at really good places and really bad places and places that were kind of eh. From that I've come up with my own 40,000 foot rules of managing and working with people. Some may be a bit idealistic and don't think I don't realize that. But I don't necessarily think the ideal is bad place to start :-)

Set the bar high: Setting a standard isn't a bad thing. People may resent it at first but eventually, they adapt. When they start seeing the results of their higher standard, they'll start to live up to it on their own without being forced. If you set the bar high, you have to give people a chance to live up to it. This may require letting go of control and delegating responsibility.

Along with this comes treating people like they are responsible adults. Understanding that there are differences at most places between non-exempt and exempt employees, but as much as possible avoid constricting rules that serve as nothing more than a "gotcha" as long as employees are delivering. For example, one place I worked at implemented a timeclock for all employees, hourly and salaried. It was nothing more than something to prove that they were in charge and everyone knew it. After a while, a few of us who resented it stopped turning in the timecards (I stopped punching in and out entirely) and guess what - nothing happened. Since they had no legitimate business reason for it, they ignored all the timecards they forced people to punch in on after the first week. So they pissed people off and lowered morale, which in turn caused half a dozen people to quit within a short time period...all to prove they were in charge. It costs, on average, $60,000 to train new employees. Do you think it was worth it?

Offer incentives for great performance: I did a super incentive email campaign for Dartmouth a few months back and was given a $100 reward for it. It was awesome! $100 isn't that much money but it was the fact that my hard work was acknowledged. Small things like that really make a difference with morale. Even saying "Thank You" can act as an incentive. I was talking to a friend of mine this past weekend who was telling me about busting her ass at work and she said: "You know, I just want to hear them thank me every once in a while." It's the simplest thing, but oftentimes seems one of the hardest to put into practice. Saying please when you ask for something and thank you when it's delivered can go a long way in making people feel as though you value their time and effort.

If you're going to offer incentives, make sure you follow through with them. One place I worked at use to always promise a day off and a BBQ if employees met a certain goal. When they did meet it, there was never follow through on the promise. After a while it got to be a joke and made the managers that kept promising it look inept. If they couldn't even keep their promise to give their employees a day off, why should their employees trust them to keep any other promises they make?

Don't freak out over the small things: Yes, we all want everything to be perfect all the time but life just isn't that easy. It's OK to acknowledge that there are some things that go wrong that just aren't emergencies. It doesn't mean that you think they aren't important or that you won't fix them. It just means you're not going to needlessly upset people over it. When you freak out, other people freak out and then the situation just gets blown completely out of proportion. It also leads to people not wanting to work with you in the future. Take a step back, breathe and you'll probably realize that there's a pretty simple solution to the problem.

Sometimes a freak out is unavoidable. Maybe you're having a stressful day and this thing hits and you just don't want to deal with it. But you should never put that stress on other people. Go out and scream in your car if you have to but when you meet with people, do it with a smile on your face.

Acknowledge different working styles: One of the best things I've done at Dartmouth was take the PeopleMap workshop. It's all about the different working styles people have and teaches you how to communicate with people that have different styles than you do. It's really important to acknowledge that every person you work with has a different style and it may or may not be like the one you have. That doesn't make their style less effective than yours. It doesn't make them wrong. It's just different and you need to figure out a way to accommodate them and, perhaps more importantly, put them at ease.

Never expect something of people that you wouldn't do yourself: There's grunt work in any organization - stuff that is a pain in the ass and most people would sooner stab themselves with a pencil than do. But someone has to do it. Even if it's not really your responsibility, chip in every once in a while and show people you're willing to get your hands dirty. Pawning stuff off on people is easy. Showing them you're willing to work beside them creates a true team atmosphere.

This also goes for fun stuff, like presenting at conferences. If you supervise people and they see you going and doing cool professional development all the time, but then you don't let them have the same opportunities, they are going to resent you for it.

Above all, trust people: Trust is the biggest area I've seen lacking in any working environment I've ever been in - whether that be trust between a manager and an employee or trust between colleagues. Trust that people are not trying to sabotage projects and that they do have the best interest of it at heart. People's actions are often the true indicator of whether or not they really trust someone - words mean nothing. You can say "I trust you" or "I'm empowering you" all day, but if you then go and undercut the person you're saying these things too, you aren't really empowering them at all. People aren't stupid and they pick up on these things...and it usually doesn't sit well.

Key Takeaways:

Setting a high standard isn't a bad thing. Reward people who meet or exceed it.
Flying off the handle at every little problem only freaks people out. Being a calming influence is a better way to put others at ease.
Trust the people you work with and acknowledge that they may have a different working style than you.