Selling Is Not About Relationships

by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson   Friday September 30, 2011 blogs.hbr.org

Ask any sales leader how selling has changed in the past decade, and you'll hear a lot of answers but only one recurring theme: It's a lot harder. Yet even in these difficult times, every sales organization has a few stellar performers. Who are these people? How can we bottle their magic?

To understand what sets apart this special group of sales reps, the Sales Executive Council launched a global study of sales rep productivity three years ago involving more than 6,000 reps across nearly 100 companies in multiple industries.

We now have an answer, which we've captured in the following three insights:

1. Every sales professional falls into one of five distinct profiles.
Quantitatively speaking, just about every B2B sales rep in the world is one of the following types, characterized by a specific set of skills and behaviors that defines the rep's primary mode of interacting with customers:

• Relationship Builders focus on developing strong personal and professional relationships and advocates across the customer organization. They are generous with their time, strive to meet customers' every need, and work hard to resolve tensions in the commercial relationship.
• Hard Workers show up early, stay late, and always go the extra mile. They'll make more calls in an hour and conduct more visits in a week than just about anyone else on the team.
• Lone Wolves are the deeply self-confident, the rule-breaking cowboys of the sales force who do things their way or not at all.
• Reactive Problem Solvers are, from the customers' standpoint, highly reliable and detail-oriented. They focus on post-sales follow-up, ensuring that service issues related to implementation and execution are addressed quickly and thoroughly.
• Challengers use their deep understanding of their customers' business to push their thinking and take control of the sales conversation. They're not afraid to share even potentially controversial views and are assertive — with both their customers and bosses.

2. Challengers dramatically outperform the other profiles, particularly Relationship Builders.
When we look at average reps, we find a fairly even distribution across all five of these profiles. But while there may be five ways to be average, there's only one way to be a star. We found that Challenger reps dominate the high-performer population, making up close to 40% of star reps in our study.

What makes the Challenger approach different?
The data tell us that these reps are defined by three key capabilities:
Challengers teach their customers. They focus the sales conversation not on features and benefits but on insight, bringing a unique (and typically provocative) perspective on the customer's business. They come to the table with new ideas for their customers that can make money or save money — often opportunities the customer hadn't realized even existed.
Challengers tailor their sales message to the customer. They have a finely tuned sense of individual customer objectives and value drivers and use this knowledge to effectively position their sales pitch to different types of customer stakeholders within the organization.
Challengers take control of the sale. While not aggressive, they are certainly assertive. They are comfortable with tension and are unlikely to acquiesce to every customer demand. When necessary, they can press customers a bit — not just in terms of their thinking but around things like price.
We'll discuss each of these capabilities in more depth in our upcoming posts, but just as surprising as it is that Challengers win, it's almost more eye-opening who loses. In our study, Relationship Builders come in dead last, accounting for only 7% of all high performers.
Why is this? It's certainly not because relationships no longer matter in B2B sales--that would be a naïve conclusion. Rather, what the data tell us is that it is the nature of the relationships that matter. Challengers win by pushing customers to think differently, using insight to create constructive tension in the sale. Relationship Builders, on the other hand, focus on relieving tension by giving in to the customer's every demand. Where Challengers push customers outside their comfort zone, Relationship Builders are focused on being accepted into it. They focus on building strong personal relationships across the customer organization, being likable and generous with their time. The Relationship Builder adopts a service mentality. While the Challenger is focused on customer value, the Relationship Builder is more concerned with convenience. At the end of the day, a conversation with a Relationship Builder is probably professional, even enjoyable, but it isn't as effective because it doesn't ultimately help customers make progress against their goals.
This finding — that Challengers win and Relationship Builders lose — is one that sales leaders often find deeply troubling, because their organizations have placed by far their biggest bet on recruiting, developing, and rewarding Relationship Builders, the profile least likely to win.
Here's how one of our members in the hospitality industry put it when he saw these results: "You know, this is really hard to look at. For the past 10 years, it's been our explicit strategy to hire effective Relationship Builders. After all, we're in the hospitality business. And, for a while, that approach worked well. But ever since the economy crashed, my Relationship Builders are completely lost. They can't sell a thing. And as I look at this, now I know why."
3. Challengers dominate the world of complex "solution-selling"
Given the first two findings, it might be reasonable to conclude that Challengers are the down-economy reps and that when things return to normal, Relationship Builders will once again prevail. But our data suggest that this is wishful thinking.
When we cut the data by complexity of sale — that is, separating out transactional, product-selling reps from complex, solution-selling reps — we find that Challengers absolutely dominate as selling gets more complex. Fully 54% of all star reps in a solution-selling environment are Challengers. At the same time, Relationship Builders fall off the map almost entirely, representing only 4% of high-performing reps in complex environments.
Put differently, Challengers win because they've mastered the complex sale, not because they've mastered a complex economy. Your very best sales reps — the ones who carried you through the downturn — aren't just the top performers of today but the top performers of tomorrow, as they are far better able to drive sales and deliver customer value in any kind of economic environment. For any company on a journey from selling products to selling solutions — which is a migration that more than 75% of the companies I work with say they are pursuing — the Challenger selling approach represents a dramatically improved recipe for driving top-line growth.
In the next post, we'll look at how Challengers teach their customers and how leading companies are equipping their salespeople to do the same.

Need a Brilliant Idea? Steal It

By Jay Steinfeld | September 14, 2011 bnet.com      

Ever since Steve Jobs announced his retirement as CEO of Apple a couple of weeks ago, there has been an avalanche of articles about his status as a visionary, and how he transformed music, the phone, and information accessibility. You can’t dispute his success and the company he built, but it got me thinking about whether being a visionary is a necessary condition for building a successful company. I say it isn’t. Here’s why. 
OK, I’m not saying that understanding people’s needs is not important. And I’m not saying that meeting those needs with a truly original idea isn’t valuable. Both are important. But what I am saying is that when you can borrow and build off of ideas from other entrepreneurs and companies, do it. As the leader of your company, you already know that you alone can’t possibly come up with all the ideas to improve your business; you rely on your employees. So why not also take from those outside your company who have thought things through before you?
Here are some examples of smart ideas I’ve taken from other successful companies:

• Choosing a location: Meineke Muffler Shops used to choose locations by doing virtually no research at all, other than locating right next to its competition, Midas. Using others’ research departments saves you time and money.

• Marketing: When I first launched an e-commerce blinds website, NoBrainerBlinds.com, in 1996 (yep, I’m old), I wanted to convey speed and credibility. So I chose a logo with the colors purple and orange (a la FedEx). I don’t have any concrete evidence that it was the logo that made everything happen, but our good-looking website gained traction — enough for us to launch Blinds.com — and the rest is history.
• Website: Our marketing team at Blinds.com spends time every week scouring others’ websites to learn better ways to show products, navigate, and highlight advantages. We found a consumer electronics website that made a point of introducing customers to its call center experts on its home page. We liked the idea so much that we copied it by featuring photos and bios of our expert decorators on Blinds.com. It’s really helped personalize the business of buying blinds online.
• Communication: After visiting the Googleplex and learning that its founders hold all-hands meetings every Friday, it occurred to me that if Google can shut down for 30 minutes, we could for 15. Now every Friday from 2-2:15 p.m. we shut down the phones and the entire company talks about whatever is important at the time. (We also now call our office The Blinds.comPLEX.)
• Hiring people: No doubt as you’ve bought goods and services for your business, you’ve found people who provide you with good service. If those people were trained well, it might be worth your while to ask them to work for you and reap the benefits of the other company’s training.
• Culture: Your company culture cannot be copied or borrowed from another company, but when you find ways others have illustrated a core value of your own, it’s fair game to copy it. When I visited the Zappos.com headquarters, there was a small white board where visitors could write anything they liked. We now have a white board encouraging our employees to post ways they’re improving (one of our core values is to continuously improve).

We all wish we had the aptitude and success of Steve Jobs and other star entrepreneurs. Until that happens, do yourself a favor and keep your observation skills sharp. There’s nothing wrong with harnessing his and others’ success, if you can.

10 Ways to Ruin an Employee Evaluation

By Jeff Haden | September 12, 2011      bnet.com

To the employee who receives an annual performance evaluation, the meeting is a big, literally once-a-year event. To the boss or manager who is responsible for a number of employees, delivering annual evaluations can feel like anything but.
Complacency can easily lead to making simple mistakes — mistakes that can dramatically impact the employee’s motivation and performance.

Here are 10 ways to ruin an employee evaluation — and how to make sure you don’t:

1. Ask the employee to evaluate themselves. Requesting self-evals is a lose-lose proposition. A great employee who evaluates herself, formally or informally, and feels she does a great job is left wondering why you even asked (and whether you’re too lazy to do the appraisal yourself.) A poor employee is unlikely to rate themselves as poor, turning what could have been a constructive discussion into an argument. Self evaluations may sound “inclusive” but are a waste of time. Never ask for a formal self-eval, and don’t even ask for informal self-evals during the meeting.
2. Raise issues you can’t back up with examples. Make a general statement about poor performance and almost every employee will, quite rightly, ask for specific examples. Without concrete instances your point is lost. Never refer in general terms to any problem or area for improvement without examples that back up your conclusion. Facts and figures are a necessity.
3. Discuss personality traits — especially negative ones. You can get away with saying, “You have a great attitude.” (No one argues with positive comments.) But saying, “You have a poor attitude,” focuses on personality and not performance. Maybe the employee does have a poor attitude; if so, instead list examples of actual behaviors that lead to that conclusion. Always focus on behaviors, not personality.
4. Focus primarily on the near-term. The longer the evaluation period the more likely this is to occur. Almost all the evaluations I received focused on my performance over the previous couple of months, even if I had accomplished great things over the course of the entire year. Focus on the near-term and employees naturally catch the “oh yeah, my eval is coming up soon so it’s time to buckle down” disease. Keep records, take notes, and make sure the evaluation reflects performance over the entire period.
5. Over-rate to “motivate.” Some people feel employees will live up to an evaluation. (”If I tell her she’s doing a great job, maybe that will give her the boost she need to actually start doing a great job.”) Evaluations should accurately reflect performance. Find other ways to motivate besides puffing up an eval.
6. Compare to other employees. Even if it’s true, never say something like, “Your sales numbers are the worst in the group.” And definitely don’t compare one employee to another. Comparisons are unfair at best and often create hard feelings and unhealthy competition. Only compare employee performance to standards; if the employee does have the lowest sales numbers but is still meeting expectations, focus on ways to exceed expectations.
7. Ask throw-away questions. Evaluations should be two-way conversations, right? So you need to ask the employee questions to spark dialogue, right? Absolutely — but not stupid questions. Don’t ask general questions about the economy, the industry, the market, or the business. And don’t ask for ideas on how the business can improve; save that for another time. Employee evaluations are an employee’s “me time.” Evaluations should focus solely on the employee, so ask if they’re having any problems, they need assistance, have the right tools to do the job, etc. In short, ask for ways you can help them succeed. (That is, after all, your primary function.)
8. Answer questions you can’t — or shouldn’t. It’s easy to feel all-knowing when you deliver an evaluation. You’re not. If you don’t have the information you need, say so and follow up later. If you shouldn’t talk about something, don’t. It’s tempting to go with the flow of an open conversation and disclose sensitive or confidential information. Be honest and forthcoming about the employee’s performance and stop there, no matter how tempted you are to confide or share.
9. Make promises you can’t keep. Good performance appraisals evaluate the past and look to the future. By all means share developmental or improvement plans, but keep in mind that when you say “possibly” the employee often hears “definitely.” Always manage expectations: If you aren’t sure you can come through, either don’t speak at all or emphasize that a potential opportunity is only a possibility — and if a potential opportunity doesn’t work out, let the employee know and explain why.
10. Ignore the previous review. Do you remember everything you said the last time you evaluated a particular employee? Of course you don’t — but the employee does. Use the same examples and the employee feels you’re just going through the motions. Discuss the same opportunities and the employee feels you pay lip service to career development. Take notes after the meeting and review those notes and the previous eval before you sit down next time. Remember, performance evaluations are part of an overall process of improvement and development, not a one-off event to quickly forget — because even if you forget what you say, the employee never will.

How Much is Superior Service Worth to Customers?

By Kimberly Weisul | May 4, 2011 bnet.com

How much is great customer service worth?

About 13 percent, according to a recent survey from American Express. That survey found that about 70 percent of Americans said they would pay 13 percent more for a product or service if it came with superior customer service.
That 13 percent premium is the second-highest of the ten countries covered by the survey. In India, people said they were willing to pay a the biggest premium-22 percent-for better service. Shoppers in other countries-Australia, Canada, Mexico, U.K. France, Italy, Germany and Netherlands-were willing to pay between 7 and 12 percent more.
Other findings:

• Americans seems more eager for decent service this year than they were a year ago. Last year, only 58 percent of people said they’d pay more for excellent service, and they were only willing to pay nine percent more to get it.
• Bad service is definitely a business killer. More than three-quarters of those surveyed say they’d given up on a transaction or not made a purchase they’d planned to make because the company’s service was so bad.

Are They Even Trying?
Despite their willingness to pay more for good service, many shoppers don’t think companies take customer service problems seriously. They report:

• Most companies seem to have inertia. Some 60 percent of survey respondents say companies haven’t been doing anything to improve customer service
• In some cases, service is getting worse. Some 26 percent of respondents say companies are actually paying less attention to service now than they were a year ago.
• Shoppers feel unappreciated. More than one in five shoppers, or 22 percent, say companies take their business for granted.
• Small businesses are the exception: 81 percent say small companies have better customer service than big ones.

Spreading the word
Survey respondents are surprisingly eager to spread the word when a company’s service is bad.

• Bad news travels fast. Respondents said they would tell sixteen people if a company’s customer service was bad enough.
• Good news travels too. On average, survey respondents said they would tell nine people about a positive customer service experience.

What can companies do to improve their customer service? Would you pay more for better service?

3 Things Sales-Driven CEOs Can’t Afford to Delegate

By Tom Searcy | May 3, 2011  bnet.com    

One of the great cries you’ll hear coaches direct to CEOs of growing businesses is to “Work on your business, not in your business.”

 I agree, it is absolutely critical to the growth of a company that CEOs delegate responsibilities and develop people to handle them… but let’s not get carried away.

There are some things CEOs absolutely can’t afford to delegate. I’ll give you three:
Quality Control: I’m not just talking about the quality of your product or service; I’m talking about the quality of your brand and how you position it in the marketplace. Decisions about which clients to work with and how long they stay with your company are yours to make as CEO of the company. At a certain level, your clients are your brand. What you do for them, the stories that come from your performance, your successes and missteps make up your shared history — this is your brand. On the other hand, everything your clients do independently also splashes onto you. Everyone loved having BP as a client until the mishap in the Gulf. Darlings of the market like Enron, WorldCom, Lehman Brothers, and others… they’re great on your “wall of fame” until they become a name of shame.
It is your job to create the organizational parameters and make the tough choices on clients and prospects. It is your team’s job to create the opportunity for those choices.
Cultural Absolutes: I was having this exact conversation with a CEO friend the other day: Should he say something about how one of his people dressed when presenting to clients?
In this world of individualism, tolerance, and hyper-sensitivity training, it is easy to lose one’s bearings on your rights and responsibilities as CEO of your own firm. My attitude is that cultural absolutes are not decided by committee; they are up to you.
Some of these are easy: Do we pay for strip-club expenses? (For those of you struggling with that answer, let me help: NO.) Other questions take more thought:

• How do we dress for client calls? Answer the phone? Address each other in front of prospects and clients?
• What is our definition of the “customer experience ideal?” How do we manage it?
• Which sales behaviors we will reward and which ones will we discourage?

Make your own list… but make one. CEOs who allow the culture norms of the firm to be dictated by others allow the degradation of one of their firm’s key competitive advantages.
Influence: Delegate tasks, don’t delegate your influence. Whether you’re navigating difficult negotiations, resolving a service failure or smoothing over a faux-pas, your influence makes the difference, especially with your bigger clients. Too often I find CEOs try to move away from client-facing work in favor of either prospect-courting efforts or operational performance. CEOs cannot make this move unnoticed. Large clients don’t resent it — they’ll just do the same in kind. They move the business relationship off of their list to someone further down the organizational chart. This is all perfectly normal as it relates to day-to-day work, operational execution and so on. However, CEOs must maintain contact to maintain influence — you cannot move this to someone else.
For sales-driven CEOs, holding on to these three things will keep the ship righted and the culture strong.

Q & A on EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Part 2 PART 2

An Interview with Julie Gebauer on Towers Perrin’s Just Released Global Workforce Study, Part 2

towerswatson.com

Q: Employee engagement appears to be the underlying influence on almost every key aspect of the employer-employee relationship. How do you define engagement?

A: Engagement measures the level of connection employees feel with their employer, as demonstrated by their willingness and ability to help their company succeed, largely by providing discretionary effort on a sustained basis. In past studies, we calibrated employees’ engagement levels by measuring their rational and emotional responses to employer-related questions. To add a bit more precision to our findings, this year we added a third metric — motivation.

Q. Is that what you mean when you use the phrase “head, hands, and heart”?

A. That’s exactly what we’re referring to. The “head” refers to the rational part of the engagement equation, how employees connect with their company’s goals and values. The “hands” refer to the employee’s willingness to put in a great deal of extra effort to help the company succeed. And the “heart” is the emotional connection between employee and employer, such as the employee’s pride in the organization. The sum total of these three elements is what we used to measure overall employee engagement levels.

Q. So just how engaged are employees today?

A. Our study shows that barely one in five employees (21%) is fully engaged on the job. And 8% are fully disengaged. This means that an overwhelming 71% of employees fall into what we’ve termed the “massive middle.”
One enhancement in this year’s study, however, is a clearer picture of the massive middle. Instead of our original three response groupings from our 2005 study — highly engaged, moderately engaged and disengaged employees — we’ve been able to split the moderately engaged cohort into two groups: the so-called “enrolled,” who are partially engaged, and the “disenchanted,” who are partially disengaged.
This approach gives us much greater insight into the composition of the “massive middle” or moderately engaged group. In most of our findings, this group represents the majority. It also represents perhaps the biggest opportunity — and the biggest threat — to employers.

Q: Why is that?

A: These are the employees who could go either way on the engagement continuum — either becoming more engaged and contributing more to the company, or growing more disengaged and contributing nothing or, worse, actively disrupting the efforts of others in their work environment. Being able to place employees on the engagement continuum with more precision helps ensure a company can identify the most effective strategies to increase engagement, or find other ways to deal with those who can’t or won’t engage.

Q: Can you actually create an engaged employee? Or is it really just a matter of finding the right kind of motivated people when you recruit?

A: The good news is that engagement is not just part of someone’s DNA from birth. It is definitely possible to increase employee engagement levels among existing workers. A key aspect of our study was identifying exactly how to do this, using analytic techniques to pinpoint more precisely the aspects of the work environment that make a difference in engaging people, as well as those that help attract and retain people. The chart below highlights what we call the key drivers in all three areas. Two points are worth noting here:

• First, the things that draw people to a company are very different from the things that keep them there or engage them. This means employers have to emphasize different elements of the employment relationship at different stages of the employment lifecycle. Pay is critical in recruiting, of course. But leadership rises in importance when the focus is engagement.
• Second, engagement has little to do with employee programs per se. It’s all about what we might call the interpersonal or relationship side of the work experience. Employees care about what kind of leaders they have and leadership’s focus and commitment. They care about what their company stands for, and their ability to build skills and advance in their careers. These are the things that matter to employees in forming emotional attachments to an organization, and they’re remarkably consistent around the world.

An employer that concentrates on these aspects of the work environment and experience can definitely improve employees’ level of engagement. But by the same token, an organization that’s deficient in these key areas can also drive engagement down. Just because someone is motivated when recruited does not mean that he or she stays that way forever. Companies have to continually test and assess levels of engagement and make sure the most important elements remain in place for employees and ensure employees see a meaningful personal return on their investment of time and energy in the company.
At the end of the day, engagement is a two-way street, and companies are essentially the “crossing guards” guiding which direction people move.

Q: Does engagement affect employee retention?

A: Yes, there’s a clear and direct connection between engagement and retention. In virtually all of the countries represented in our 2007-2008 study, the more engaged the workforce, the greater the percent of employees intending to remain with their current employer. More than half (51%) of engaged employees across our global sample have no plans to leave their employer and only 4% are actively looking for another job. At the other extreme, 28% of disengaged employees are actively looking for another job and only 15% indicate that they have no plans to leave. So, yes, engagement translates into workforce stability — a key corporate objective in today’s increasingly competitive market for talented performers.

The Twelve Attributes of a Truly Great Place to Work

Tony Schwartz September 19, 2011 HBR Bolg Network

More than 100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report they're fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and outperform those who are less engaged.

But only 20 per cent of employees around the world report that they're fully engaged at work.
It's a disconnect that serves no one well. So what's the solution? Where is the win-win for employers and employees?
The answer is that great employers must shift the focus from trying to get more out of people, to investing more in them by addressing their four core needs — physical, emotional, mental and spiritual — so they're freed, fueled and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.

It's common sense. Fuel people on a diet that lacks essential nutrients and it's no surprise that they'll end up undernourished, disengaged and unable to perform at their best.
Our first need is enough money to live decently, but even at that, we cannot live by bread alone.
Think for a moment about what would make you feel most excited to get to work in the morning, and most loyal to your employer. The sort of company I have in mind would:

1. Commit to paying every employee a living wage. To see examples of how much that is, depending on where you live, go to this site. Many companies do not meet that standard for many of their jobs. It's nothing short of obscene to pay a CEO millions of dollars a year while paying any employee a sum for full time work that falls below the poverty line.
2. Give all employees a stake in the company's success, in the form of profit sharing, or stock options, or bonuses tied to performance. If the company does well, all employees should share in the success, in meaningful ways.
3. Design working environments that are safe, comfortable and appealing to work in. In offices, include a range of physical spaces that allow for privacy, collaboration, and simply hanging out.
4. Provide healthy, high quality food, at the lowest possible prices, including in vending machines.
5. Create places for employees to rest and renew during the course of the working day and encourage them to take intermittent breaks. Ideally, leaders would permit afternoon naps, which fuel higher productivity in the several hours that follow.
6. Offer a well equipped gym and other facilities that encourage employees to move physically and stay fit. Provide incentives for employees to use the facilities, including during the work day as a source of renewal.
7. Define clear and specific expectations for what success looks like in any given job. Then, treat employees as adults by giving them as much autonomy as possible to choose when they work, where they do their work, and how best to get it accomplished.
8. Institute two-way performance reviews, so that employees not only receive regular feedback about how they're doing, in ways that support their growth, but are also given the opportunity to provide feedback to their supervisors, anonymously if they so choose, to avoid recrimination.
9. Hold leaders and managers accountable for treating all employees with respect and care, all of the time, and encourage them to regularly recognize those they supervise for the positive contributions they make.
10. Create policies that encourage employees to set aside time to focus without interruption on their most important priorities, including long-term projects and more strategic and creative thinking. Ideally, give them a designated amount of time to pursue projects they're especially passionate about and which have the potential to add value to the company.
11. Provide employees with ongoing opportunities and incentives to learn, develop and grow, both in establishing new job-specific hard skills, as well as softer skills that serve them well as individuals, and as managers and leaders.
12. Stand for something beyond simply increasing profits. Create products or provide services or serve causes that clearly add value in the world, making it possible for employees to derive a sense of meaning from their work, and to feel good about the companies for which they work.

In more than a decade of working with Fortune 500 companies, I've yet to come across a company that meets the full range of their people's needs in all the ways I've described above. The one that comes closest is Google. I'm convinced it's a key to their success.
How does your company measure up? What's the impact on your performance? Which needs would your company have to meet for you to be more fully engaged?

Q & A on EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PART 1

An Interview with Julie Gebauer on Towers Perrin’s Just
Released Global Workforce Study, Part 1

towerswatson.com

Julie Gebauer, Towers Perrin Managing Director, leads the firm's Workforce Effectiveness practice. Here, she previews a landmark study on the global workforce based on a survey of nearly 90,000 employees worldwide and a database with input from over 2 million people around the world. This is the third such study the firm has conducted since 2003, with significant enhancements each time to reflect shifts in business issues, employee attitudes, demographics and culture.

This is the first of a three-part interview about the study focused on general implications for employers. Part 2 will look at how we define engagement. Part 3 will examine leadership issues. Be sure to check back for updates and additional information on our new Global Workforce Study.

Q: What is the Global Workforce Study and what sets it apart?

A: The study, the largest of its kind, provides a comprehensive view of the workplace from employees themselves, and examines the elements of the work experience and environment that attract people to a company and a job, keep them there and most critically, engage them in their work.
Our new study draws on two rich sources of data to tell a compelling story about the impact organizations can have on their employees and how effectively they perform. The first source is a polling survey of 88,600 employees chosen at random who work full-time for mid-sized to large organizations in 18 countries across all regions. The second source is Towers Perrin-ISR's normative data — the most extensive database of employee attitudes and opinions in the world, based on two million-plus annual responses from people in over 40 countries.
Together, these sources give us a more complete picture of the workforce and what it takes to drive high performance than we've had in the past — a picture that takes into account the unique nature of the work environment across countries, cultures and industries.

Q: How do the two data sources work together?

A: The polling survey, conducted by a third-party vendor that is not connected to participants' employers, gives us an unbiased view of the world of work through the eyes of employees. The normative data base, which draws on company-specific employee data, adds another critical dimension, because it permits direct correlations between employee engagement and company performance.
These data provide yet more compelling evidence of the direct link between engagement and financial results. And that link is something more and more companies and their top teams are focusing on to drive their growth agendas and seek new sources of competitive advantage in a global economy.

Q. So what does the study show about the state of the workforce today?

A. Broadly, organizations face something we’ve labeled an "engagement gap." They are not getting the discretionary effort they need from their people to drive their performance and growth agendas, and it’s hurting both their top and bottom lines. Globally, only 21% of our sample are engaged, meaning they are freely giving their time, energy, creativity and knowledge to their work. That’s a disturbingly small number when you think about the impact people have on a business and its customers, for instance.
Worse yet, fully 38% are either wholly or partly disengaged, meaning they might not know the right things to do to add value to the company or they might be doing just the minimum to get by. Play those percentages out across a large workforce, and it’s easy to see the implications for performance, especially if large numbers of those disengaged people are in customer-facing or strategically important roles.

Q. What can companies do about this?

A. The most exciting aspect of the study results is that there is a clear path forward. First, companies have an enormous impact on engagement — far more than they think they do. The influence of the organization, especially its senior leadership, far outweighs employees’ personal traits (like ambition or learning orientation) or, say, the role of a person's manager.
What we’ve learned is that driving engagement depends on creating a corporate culture that aligns with the company’s unique strategy, and that emphasizes leadership, learning, empowerment and corporate social responsibility.
Second, employees are actually eager to invest more of themselves to help the company succeed. And they will do so — if they see the personal return on investment (ROI). While the nature of that ROI differs across countries, cultures and demographic segments, there are common elements in terms of people's desire to be challenged at work, to grow and learn, to feel pride in working for a socially responsible organization and to make a real contribution.
Bottom line: companies have a willing source of untapped power in their workforce and the ability to unleash that power for improved performance. But they’re not succeeding right now, because they’re not taking the right steps to do so, which brings us back to the engagement gap. Our study points the way toward closing that gap across countries and industries.

Q: Can companies rely on these data to make decisions and investments in people programs?

A: We believe our data are among the most current and thorough available on the subject of workforce motivation and performance. Still, there is no one “right model” for a high performance culture. There are many — each one dictated by a company's strategic priorities and business objectives. As such, our findings are a tool in the battle for employee engagement, not the final answer. The right "engagement recipe" depends on each organization’s unique challenges. Our research also shows that the drivers of engagement can differ quite a bit by country, industry and employee segment. 

Top 10 Things You Never Want to Hear at Work

by Steve Tobak Sep 19, 2011 BNET.COM

Whoever came up with the expression, "It's better to give than to receive," must have been talking about bad news.
Of course it's awful to deliver bad news, no doubt about it. But having been on both sides of the equation more times than I care to think about, I'd have to say that, given the choice, I'd rather not be on the receiving end.
Unfortunately, there is an awful lot of bad news being delivered these days. And I hate to say this, but so sooner or later, you're probably going to end up on the wrong end of it. When that happens, you're going to wish you had some warning because, well, you know what they say, forewarned is forearmed.
To that end, here are 10 phrases that, when you hear them, you can be pretty sure that what follows isn't going to be good. And while knowing what's coming won't buy you much time, you'd be surprised how many cycles the brain can process when it's racing in panic mode.
After all -- and this is important, so pay attention -- how you respond can make a big difference in whether people think of you as a consummate professional or a child throwing a tempter tantrum.

Top 10 Things You Never Want to Hear at Work

1. We've got a crisis on our hands. Don't be fooled by the implication of shared responsibility. That's just a euphemism. Make no mistake; you're on the receiving end of the message because you're the one they're counting on to handle the crisis or die trying.
2. There's no easy way to say this. Guess what? There's no easy way to hear it, either. This can precede any number of events, from you're about to get fired or your top employee is quitting on you to your biggest customer is bolting for your top competitor. It's all bad.
3. Why don't you take some time off? This particular question can either precede or follow some really unpleasant news, like one of your employees has filed a sexual harassment claim against you or "I'm afraid you're burning out and I don't want to have to fire your butt."
4. All your meetings have been cancelled. This is where you say, "What do you mean all my meetings have been cancelled?" to which your admin replies, "What can I say, nobody wants to meet with you." They could be customers, the media, employees, whatever, you're now officially insignificant. Never a good thing.
5. Did you really just say that? Lots of people, especially public figures, have heard that one right after they think something that wasn't supposed to actually come out of their mouths, usually while the mic is on, the tape is rolling, or the boss is on the receiving end.
6. I accidentally deleted it. It's gone. You may not have pulled the trigger but the fact that you're on the receiving end means that, whatever it was -- probably a pitch or report you worked on for weeks -- you're the one who's going to suffer because of someone else's screw-up.
7. Do you really think your presentation went well? That's when you ask, "Was it really that bad?" and the other person replies, "Um … sorry to tell you this, but you'll be lucky if they don't cancel your whole project."
8. Can I have a word with you in private? Not that good news is always delivered in public, but even when someone wants to chat with you about something innocuous, he won't say it like that. He'll opt for something like, "Where can we talk?" or "You're not gonna believe what I heard."
9. Um … how long did it take you to do that? That's usually followed by something like a recommendation that you do it over and way, way better if you want to keep your job.
10. You've been served. Not much you can do about this one, considering you've already blown it by answering yes to the magic question, Are you [your name]? Whether you're served at work or not, it really doesn't matter. You're going to wish it never happened.
Did I forget to say that I've either said or heard every single one of these lines? In some cases, both. It's true. And you know I've never been a process server.

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D  HBRBLOG.org

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.
1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.
To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.
3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.
Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.
7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.
To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.
8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.
It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.

8 Things You Should Never Say to Customers

By Jeff Haden | September 13, 2011  bnet.com

Great customer relationships: Hard to establish, easy to ruin — especially when you say the wrong things. Here are eight things you should never say to customers (even if you would secretly love to):

1. “No.” A boss once told me, “Never tell a customer no. Always say, ‘Yes, we can. Here’s what that will cost.’” If you absolutely can’t provide a certain product or service, you can’t, but often you can’t simply because you don’t want to. (In the example above I didn’t want to. What the customer had asked for was certainly possible but would have been a real pain to pull off.) Price unusual requests accordingly: If you can make a decent profit, why not? Making a profit is why you’re in business.
2. “Are you sure?” Customers are often wrong. Too bad. Never directly doubt their statements or their feelings; all you’ll do is make an already bad situation a lot worse. Instead ask questions or seek to better understand. Saying something like, “Can you walk me through that one more time so I can make sure I can take care of what went wrong?” validates the customer’s position while helping you keep the conversation objective and solution-focused.
3. “What you should do is…” Don’t tell me what to do. Help me. That’s why I came to you.
4. “That’s against our policy.” Maybe it is against your policy… but if the customer wasn’t aware of the policy ahead of time, who cares? Any terms or conditions not spelled out in advance are irrelevant to the customer. Imagine you’re a customer who finds out after the fact that special order items can’t be returned — how would you feel? Refer to policies or conditions when the customer was fully aware of and agreed to those conditions; otherwise, find a way to fix the problem. Unstated policies are your problem, not the customer’s.
5. “No problem.” Maybe this is just a pet peeve, but I’m always irritated when, say, I ask a waiter for dressing on the side and he says, “No problem.” I know he means “yes,” but “no problem” still implies I really am causing a problem. When I’m the customer, I’m favoring your business with my patronage; your business isn’t doing me any favors, so never imply you are. Replace “no problem” with “yes.”
6. “Let me try to do that…” Customers care about results, not effort. Tell me what you will do. “Trying” creates greater uncertainty, and uncertainty is the kiss of death to a customer relationship. If a client requests an accelerated delivery, say, “I’ll call our distributor and get the best schedule possible.” All you can do is all you can do. Don’t imply you’re working extra hard on my behalf by “trying.”
7. “Let me know if you have any other problems.” If a customer comes to you with a problem and you think you’ve resolved that problem, great. But don’t expect the customer to contact you if other issues pop up; follow up a couple days later to make sure all is still well. Solving a customer’s problem meets expectations; following up to see if they need further assistance shows you care.
8. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” Maybe you will… but in the meantime the customer is left wondering what “soon” means. Always specify a time. If, when that time comes, you still don’t have all the information you need, contact the customer and say so — and say when you’ll follow up again. Customer relationships are based on managing expectations; “as soon as I can” sounds good but fails to set an expectation the customer can count on.

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Never Ask 'Does That Make Sense?'

September 14, 2011  by Jerry Weissman    Blogs.HBR.org|

Just as a chef is attuned to the subtleties of flavor and trends in the culinary arts, a presentation coach is attuned to the subtleties of language and trends in the communication art. One trend I've noted recently is the expression, "Does that make sense?" often used by a speaker during a conversation — or a presenter during a presentation — to check whether the listener or audience has understood or appreciated what the speaker has just said. Unfortunately, the expression has two negative implications:
• Uncertainty on the part of the speaker about the accuracy or credibility of the content
• Doubt about the ability of the audience to comprehend or appreciate the content.
"Does that make sense?" has become so pervasive, it joins the ranks of fillers, empty words that surround and diminish meaningful words, just as weeds diminish the beauty of roses in a garden. Most speakers are unaware that they are using fillers, and most audiences don't bother to think of their implications. The phrase has attained the frequency — and meaninglessness of:
• "You know..." as if to be sure the listener is paying attention
• "Like I said..." as if to say that the listener didn't understand
• "Again..." as if to say that the listener didn't get it the first time
• "I mean..." as if to say that the speaker is unsure of his/her own clarity
• "To be honest..." as if to say the speaker was not truthful earlier
• "I'm like..." the universal filler which says absolutely nothing
Responsible speakers or presenters, in their well-intentioned effort to satisfy their audience, have every right to check whether their material is getting through. However, instead of casting negativity on the content or the audience, all a speaker has to say is:
"Do you have any questions?"
While all of the preceding cast doubt on the competence of the presenter or the audience, another group of phrases and words casts doubt on the content itself:
• "Sort of"
• "Pretty much"
• "Kind of"
• "Basically"
• "Really"
• "Actually"
• "Anyway"
These, too, have taken on the frequency of fillers. Sometimes these words can have a purpose. Writer Maud Newton recently analyzed the late David Foster Wallace's predilection for "qualifiers like 'sort of' and 'pretty much.'" She deemed it a "subtle rhetorical strategy" to make a critical point and defuse it with irony. As a prime example, she cited the title of one of Wallace's collected essays: "Certainly the End of Something or Other, One Would Sort of Have to Think."
Presenters do not have the luxury of indulging in irony or — with all due respect — the literary talent to engage in such artful wordplay. Qualifying words lessen the importance and the value of the nouns and verbs they accompany. Those nouns and verbs represent the products, services, and actions of the business — the family jewels — that the presenter is pitching, and a presenter should not diminish their worth. Parents do not describe their children as "sort of cute."
Instead, follow the advice of the Strunk and White classic, The Elements of Style: "Use definite, specific, concrete language." To accomplish this you must diligently delete meaningless words and phrases from your speech, a task easier said than done due to their pervasiveness. One way to kick the habit is to capture the narrative of your next presentation with the voice record function on your smart phone, then play it back post mortem and listen to your own speaking pattern. (You're in for a surprise in more ways than one.) You will have to repeat this process several times before you start correcting yourself, but do it you must.

8 Reasons Your Employees Don’t Care

By Jeff Haden | September 6, 2011 bnet.com

Pay only goes so far. Higher salaries are like the bigger house syndrome: Move into a bigger house and initially it feels roomier, but after awhile larger becomes the new normal.

Employees don’t automatically perform at higher levels if wages are higher because commitment, dedication, and motivation are not based on pay. No matter how high the salary, if you treat employees poorly they won’t care — about their jobs or your business.
Here are eight reasons employees don’t care:

1. No freedom. Best practices are definitely important, but not every task deserves a best practice or micro-managed approach. Autonomy breeds engagement and satisfaction. Autonomy also breeds innovation. Even manufacturing and heavily process-oriented positions have room for different approaches or paths. Decide which process battles are worth fighting; otherwise, let employees have some amount of freedom to work they way they work best.
2. No targets. Goals are fun. (I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t at least a little bit competitive.) Targets create a sense of purpose and add meaning to even the most repetitive tasks. Without a goal to shoot for, work is just work.
3. No sense of mission. We all like to feel a part of something bigger. Striving to be worthy of words like “best” or “largest” or “fastest” or “highest quality” provides a sense of purpose. Let employees know what you want the business to achieve; how can they care about your dreams if they don’t know your dreams?
4. No clear expectations. While every job should include decision-making latitude, every job also has basic expectations regarding the way certain situations should be handled. Criticize an employee for providing a refund today even though last week refunds were standard procedure and you’ve lost the employee. (How can I do a good job when I don’t know what doing a good job means?) When standards change, always communicate those changes first — then stick with them. And when you don’t, explain why this particular situation is different.
5. No input. Everyone wants to be smart. How do I show I’m smart? By offering suggestions and ideas. (Otherwise no matter how hard I work I just feel like a robot.) Deny me the opportunity to make suggestions, or shoot my suggestions down without consideration, and I’m just a robot — and robots don’t care. Make it easy for employees to present ideas and when an idea doesn’t have merit take the time to explain why. You can’t implement every idea, but you can make employees feel good every time they make a suggestion.
6. No connection. The company provides the paycheck, but employees work for people. A kind word, a short discussion about family, a brief check-in to see if they need anything… person-to-person moments are much more important than meetings or formal evaluations. Employees want to be seen as people, not numbers. Numbers don’t care. People care — especially when you care about them first.
7. No consistency. Most employees can deal with a boss who is demanding and quick to criticize… as long as she treats every employee the same way. (Think of it as the Vince Lombardi effect.) While it’s okay — in fact necessary — to treat employees differently, all employees must be treated fairly. Similar achievements should result in similar praise and rewards. Similar offenses should result in similar disciplinary actions. The key to maintaining consistency is to communicate; the more employees understand why a decision was made, the less likely they are to assume favoritism or unfair treatment.
8. No future. Every job should have the potential to lead to something better, either within or outside the company. I worked my way through college at a manufacturing plant. I had no future with the company because everyone understood I would only stay until I graduated. One day my boss said, “Hey, let me show you how we set up the job scheduling board.” I looked at him oddly; why show me instead of someone else? In response he said, “Some day, somewhere, you’ll be in charge of production. Might as well start learning now.” Take the time to develop employees for jobs they hope to fill — even if those positions are outside your company. They will care about your business because they know you care about them.

Nine Do's and Don'ts for Dealing with the Disgruntled

By Rosabeth Moss Kanter

In a volatile world, anxiety and uncertainty make people a little testy. Cranky people can drag everyone else down by spreading negativity and sowing seeds of doubt just when leaders need commitment. And when everyday crankiness is exacerbated by performance problems, then the merely grumpy can become disgruntled former employees out to do damage to the team.
Early in my career, when sharing a vacation house with a group of friends, I learned an important lesson from a classic book by anthropologist Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: It takes a lot of people cooperating to keep things neat, but it takes only one disgruntled dirt-monger to mess things up. The task for everyone else is not to let them.
This has become a favorite management insight as I advise bosses and boards. In one recent case, the chief financial officer of a small company was fired for possible expense account violations, and he was also seen as a poor strategist and weak team player. The former CFO did not go quietly. He consulted a lawyer, then went to a second and a third when the first one said he didn't have a case. He rallied friends who sent emails to prominent customers about his grievance. Meanwhile, the CEO and new CFO had to raise capital and revenues to make up for the shortfall, which the disgruntled former CFO blamed on everyone else. His loud voice and tale of mistreatment threatened to topple the entire enterprise.
When faced with cranky, grumpy, or disgruntled people, these Do's and Don'ts can be helpful.

1. Don't give them power. Don't let their claims occupy disproportionate time and management attention. Have one person manage so that everyone else can continue the real work.
2. Do keep telling your positive story about the organization's purpose, mission, goals, and accomplishments. Remind everyone about the big picture.
3. Don't adopt an angry tone. Stay calm and professional. Don't stoop to their level by telling juicy stories. Recent studies show that badmouthing makes the tale-teller look bad, in a boomerang effect.
4. Don't tell their story for them. Don't start meetings or conversations by rehashing the situation. Stick to a simple statement or two that acknowledges your sorrow that there are complaints. Don't sound defensive. Don't lend credibility by providing your answers to things that audiences might not know or care about.
5. Don't assume that being right is enough. Having the facts on your side might be enough in a court of law, but it is not necessarily enough in the court of public opinion. Other people are convinced by your actions. They need to see that you operate by principles. They will judge your authenticity and consistency.
6. Do make a small gesture, even if you don't have to. Anyway, maybe you're not 100% right. A slight concession can make you look gracious and understanding. The disgruntled person can claim to have won something, which makes it easier to get him or her to go away. Make your limits clear.
7. Do respond to rumors immediately. Don't let slurs stand without a response that is accurate, persuasive, and catchy. And put out the counter-story without repeating the insult.
8. Do inform your allies early and often. Arm them with facts and details. Seek their support.
9. Do keep moving ahead. Don't stop the action. Develop and announce exciting plans. Help everyone envision the future.

Above all, do what's right for the mission and stakeholders. Even in a volatile world that requires tough decisions, the best way to counter crankiness is through an inspiring, energizing purpose.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a professor at Harvard Business School and the
author of Confidence and SuperCorp. Connect with her
on Facebook or at Twitter.com/RosabethKanter.

How to Manage a Disgruntled Employee

By Kimberly Weisul | September 13, 2011 Bnet.com

      

In a recent post, I cited a survey from the Corporate Executive Board that showed that 75% of people who leave their jobs are disgruntled when they do so. Given that recent Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that, in fact, record numbers of people are leaving their jobs, that’s a lot of unhappy, grumpy people.
Not that I necessarily blame them. But what happens when one of your people-maybe even an employee that you’ve tried hard to keep happy- leaves on a sour note? Writing for the Harvard Business Review, Rosabeth Moss Kanter gives a list of nine “Do’s” and “Don’t’s” for dealing with disgruntled former employees, sales pros, or even partnerships gone bad. Her focus is on protecting the corporate reputation, but some of her advice may be helpful in more personal disputes, too. Specifically:

1. Keep telling the positive story of your group’s accomplishments. Don’t give the disgruntled person free air time by repeating their complaints. If you think he or she have a valid point, then of course there may be value in flagging that concerns to higher-ups within your company. But there’s no point in spreading complaints to the world at large.
2. Don’t retaliate. Stick to the higher ground, even if the other person is spreading nasty gossip. It’s way too easy for you to come off sounding defensive, and Kanter says that recent research shows that spreading negative gossip makes the teller-not the target of the gossip-look bad.
3. You’re right? That isn’t enough. This goes to the second point, above. Simply being right is not going to convince anyone. It’s your actions that matter, so especially under stress, you’ve got to act in accordance with the highest principles. (Like you always do, right?)
4. Maybe you’re wrong. Few situations are black-and-white. If you’ve done something wrong, admit it. Make a concession. Make it clear that you’re not going to be walked over, but don’t be the person who refuses to even have a phone call with their adversary.
5. Respond to rumors right away. And make sure your allies have all the information they need to be persuasive on your behalf.
6. Keep moving forward. Don’t get bogged down in petty politics. Give people something else to talk about–like how well you and your team are doing despite the fact that you’ve got an opening to fill.

Disgruntled–but maybe they have a point
There’s another side to all of this, of course, and I’d be interested to hear about any recent research on the topic. Quite often, disgruntled people are unhappy for a darn good reason. Often, it’s because managers are blind to what’s going on within their own teams.
If that’s the case, this advice might make for good damage control, while missing a larger point. Maybe this grumpy person has something valuable to teach everyone. Maybe he or she knows something the rest of the team doesn’t. Given that so few people tell the whole truth in exit interviews, what’s the best way to learn from a cranky co-worker-even after they’re out the door?