What Your Boss Needs to Know About Engagement

On October 28, Gallup posted an article with the sobering headline "Majority of American Workers Not Engaged in Their Jobs." This should disturb every American worker and business leader. In an earlier report, Gallup estimated that worker disengagement accounts for more than $300 billion annually in lost productivity in the U.S. alone. In fact, according to Gallup, only one-third of workers are enthusiastic about the work they do and feel they are contributing to their organizations in positive way. Even worse, middle-aged and highly educated workers are least likely to be engaged. These are precisely the people who should be operating at peak creativity and productivity.
So, what is going on? A survey by the American Psychological Association (APA) provides some insights. For one thing, 36% of workers feel stress, and nearly half of those say it's because of low wages. This is not surprising, given that real wages have remained stagnant while worker productivity has steadily climbed over the past two decades (pdf). But pay isn't the major source of dissatisfaction. Workers reported that they were discontented at work because of limited opportunities for growth or advancement (43%), heavy workload (43%), unrealistic expectations (40% ), and long hours (39%).
Perhaps the most sobering finding of the APA survey is that 48% of employees do not feel valued at work. So, although companies often tout the importance of their people, the everyday experience of many doing the work is something quite different. Inevitably, people feel underappreciated, disrespected and disengaged. The economic cost to organizations is unacceptable, and the emotional cost to individuals is unforgivable.
What can be done? In his book, The Coming Jobs War, Jim Clifton, the chairman of Gallup, suggests some macro-level solutions. He says that countries and cities must produce good jobs. To do this, society must invest in the education of those future job creators, and in the education of those who will fill those good jobs. And companies must stop trying get by with too-lean workforces. As the APA survey shows, much of the engagement-killing stress that workers feel comes from being asked to do too much with too little.
Our own research points to some micro-level solutions. In The Progress Principle, we report that, of all the workday events that engage people deeply, the single most important is simply making progress on meaningful work. And we found two classes of actions that managers can perform each day to drive progress and engagement: catalysts and nourishers. Catalysts, such as providing clear goals and necessary resources, directly support progress in the work. Catalysts impact engagement indirectly by facilitating progress.
Nourishers act directly on engagement by boosting inner work life — the continuous flow of emotions, perceptions, and motivations that people experience throughout their work days. Nourishers include actions like showing respect, offering recognition for good work, and providing emotional support when people confront particularly difficult situations. If employees receive nourishers regularly, their inner work lives soar. They are happy, they perceive their organizations positively, and they stay motivated - in other words, they are engaged in their work.
So, if people are to be fully engaged at work, they must first have meaningful work to do. This does not necessarily mean that leaders must articulate a lofty mission, like curing diabetes. It does mean that all employees should see how their daily actions contribute to something of value, like a useful product or service. Second, there should be a regular supply of catalysts to progress, so that people can succeed at that meaningful work.
And finally, for employees to stay fully engaged, their inner work lives must be consistently nourished with respect, recognition, and encouragement. Simple, no-cost managerial actions could do much to improve the engagement of that 48% of workers who today feel undervalued. As evidenced in the words of this software developer from our research, even a brief interaction can make a big difference:
I got a nice 'attaboy' from the Project Manager about the work I put in on the database [...] I've been working so hard on. She seemed to be really pleased, and she thanked me for sticking with the assignment. Her nice words made my day go much better!

Do you feel undervalued and overburdened at work? Whether you are a leader or individual contributor, what are your solutions to this crisis?

Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer  Nov16, 2011 blogs.hbr.org

Teresa Amabile is Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She researches what makes people creative, productive, happy, and motivated at work. Steven Kramer is a psychologist and independent researcher. They are coauthors of The Progress Principle (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011); visit its website.

How to tell a newly hired employee may not cut it

(MoneyWatch) Jeff Hayden Nov 14, 2011 cbcnews.com

Every small business owner who makes hiring decisions makes mistakes. No matter how rigorous your screening and interviewing process, what you thought you saw is not always what you eventually get.

During the "new hire honeymoon period" it's easy to miss the signs a new employee won't work out as well as you hoped, especially since newly hired employees typically start a new job at the top of their games. In terms of attitude, effort, and enthusiasm, you usually get the very best a new hire has to offer.

That's why any problems that do surface during the first days are usually the tip of the poor-performing-employee iceberg.

Here are ways to tell almost immediately that you may have made a poor hiring decision:

Take me down to social media city*: Most employees assume Facebook, Twitter, and Internet access for personal reasons are a given, and almost every employee takes a little time out of their day for non-work inter-webbing. Still, when you catch a new employee during non-break periods, say, updating their Facebook status (especially if the new status is, "Why am I working here?") you can feel sure personal social media time will only increase in the future. A solid work ethic is established over time; a poor work ethic can be spotted almost immediately.

The lights are on but no one's home: An employee who is late or absent within the first few weeks will often be a chronic attendance offender. I once analyzed attendance records for over 1,000 employees over a five-year period and found employees who were late or absent in the first week of employment had a 35% likelihood of violating attendance standards and a 45% likelihood of lingering, for years, within one or two absences of violating standards. While there are certainly exceptions, the employee who misses one day early on typically misses a lot of days later.

"I would, but...": Most people a new job assuming the resources provided are the resources necessary (or simply available), and will only ask for additional tools when justified. (How do you really know what you need until you fully understand your job?) The employee who instantly needs a better computer, different desk, specialized software, etc. will tend to find external reasons why their performance is poor instead of looking inside themselves.

Assertiveness-squared. While new employees should definitely voice their opinions, raise concerns, and stand behind their reasoning and decisions, they should also take it slow and feel their way through interpersonal and organizational dynamics so they can build positive relationships. A new employee who takes too strong a stand, argues too loudly and long, or even borders on confrontational is likely to be a handful once the new hire honeymoon period is over. Quietly assertive is good; loudly assertive, especially in the first few weeks, means you may have hired someone who will always be a real handful.

"Here's what we used to do...": New employees should bring skills and experience from previous positions. But no one wants to hear how a previous employer did things, especially when a previous employer allegedly did those things better. An employee who frequently says, "When I was at my old job we used to..." has not made the mental transition to your business. Watch carefully for signs they continue to struggle with that transition; you don't want your business to be their rebound business.

4 things a manager should never say

Amy Levin-Epstein  (MoneyWatch) Nov. 14, 2011 cbsnews.com

People listen to leaders. It's one of the qualities that helps define them as leaders -- and their followers as followers.

But because of this, leaders need to mind what they are saying, and avoid knee-jerk responses. "A leader's brain must always work things out ahead of his mouth speaking them," says Patrick Alain, author of The Leader Phrase Book: 3000+ Phrases That Put You In Command.
To help wannabe leaders cement their status, Alain has compiled a shortlist of four phrases that a good leader will never, ever say. Avoid these lines and people will be more likely to follow your lead.

'That's impossible'

This flip statement will hurt your credibility in two ways, says Alain. "It is inherently negative and makes the individual who uttered the statement or remark feel like they need to justify it immediately. [Also] using this phrase in excess can expose the user as someone who wantonly trivializes others and their work, even if they don't really mean to."
A better choice, according to Alain? "I find that hard to believe." Truthful, yet not dismissive.

'[John Doe] is a jerk'

Randomly gossiping about or putting down others will kill confidence in you as a respectable leader. "Even just venting frustration near the coffee machine or in a chat window can prove disastrous. Anyone with an axe to grind can forward your vent simply by clicking [send]," says Alain.
If you need to discuss a problem employee with another colleague, discuss it with the appropriate person -- privately and in a constructive way. For instance, "I have a tough time seeing eye to eye with [John Doe]," says Alain. John Doe may eventually hear your concerns, but through the right channels -- not the grapevine.

'My way or the highway'

Real leaders don't give ultimatums. "Ultimatums like this one don't usually solve anything. In fact, open threats often lead to grievances and even litigation," says Alain.
If you really have a problem with an insubordinate direct report, use the proper steps (and guidance from HR) to work through the issues. You may still need to let someone go -- but you'll likely sleep better at night knowing you gave him official notice of his shortcomings and tried to help him improve. And others will likely notice how you handled this situation.

'I'm always right'

Using this phrase is the equivalent of taping the word "narcissist" to your forehead. "Anyone tempted to use this phrase runs the danger of being perceived as distant, haughty and self-aggrandized," say Alain.
That said, there are some situations, particularly if you are in a decision-making position, where you really need to take control. If you must leave no room for discussion, Alain suggests starting with, "I'm sure you can agree with me when I say ..."

To Win Customers, Get Out of the Way

Charles Nardello Nov. 11, 2011 blogs.hbr.org

Superior operational excellence cannot be achieved or maintained with an iron fist. It needs to be organically grown and fostered throughout the company.
I oversee all aircraft, flight and customer service operations at Hawaiian Airlines. For any company, and especially any airline, operational excellence and customer service go hand in glove. I'm thankful that those I work with are predisposed to hospitality — it's a feature of Polynesian culture. But although our company has been known for its high standards of personal care for the past 82 years, we haven't always been known for our reliability. However, we are now routinely ranked first by the US Department of Transportation among all airlines for on-time performance and fewest cancellations as well as garnering top marks for best baggage handling and fewest customer complaints.

So how did we improve company operations, while maintaining the excellence in service that was already second nature? Through my experience, I believe a company must do three things especially well in order to maintain an unbeatable level of operational excellence: 1) Get very close to their customer; 2) Benchmark against itself on a consistent basis, and 3) Empower employees to address the unexpected.

On the first point, I have learned that if we cut corners on our customer experience, we'll be seen as disingenuous by our customer base, which will in turn cut into our retention figures. So for every decision we make, from the most basic (e.g. choosing the right kind of cutlery for our in-flight meals) to the complex (e.g. expanding into a new market), the customer always comes first — they are the driver of our decision-making and strategic planning. Since we fly internationally, we view ourselves as ambassadors, not only for our company, but also for Hawaii. We want our uniquely Hawaiian customer experience to begin the moment our customers approach a Hawaiian Airlines kiosk.

Now to my second imperative: benchmarking. Each month Hawaiian Airlines works with an independent agency to survey a wide swath of our customers on the entirety of their experience with us, including reservations, check-in, boarding, the flight itself, and arrivals. The results are factored into every employee's bonus pay, from our ground crew to CEO Mark Dunkerley. Every employee receives a scorecard rating them on how well they've performed in interacting directly with the customer or, in the case of senior executives, on decision-making and strategic planning.

Today, companies who want greater insight into their customers can turn to social media, which can be seen as the grandchild of measurement surveys. Rather than just monitoring social media separately, say through our marketing department, we give our employees real-time customer reaction via a news ticker on the lower-thirds of screens and televisions in employee break rooms and crew lounges. We take this unedited, unfiltered commentary seriously and use it to adjust our service and nip problems in the bud as soon as they arise.

I am grateful for complaints. Although it's never fun to see a tweet about a poor interaction you may have had with a customer, it does provide immediate feedback about how our customers perceive us so that we can address problems immediately. I have learned that the worst response is waiting for a monthly or quarterly management meeting to address customer complaints. Instead, in order to figure out what went wrong, we initiate a conversation with everyone involved, including the employee who received the complaint, as soon as possible. While it may seem like a minute issue to us, it is not small to the customer; our speed in addressing the problem could make the difference between retaining that customer for future flights or losing him or her forever. After identifying the problem, we make a proactive move to fix it, so that we can avoid repeating the mistake, putting greater retention in jeopardy. For example, we have a daily operations meeting to discuss any departure delays that might have occurred — anything longer than a minute — and figure out what could have been done to avoid them.

Finally, although it is always important to plan and troubleshoot, it is vital to recognize that there isn't a blueprint for every conceivable customer scenario. Since good service is an especially American demand (and embodied culturally by Hawaiians who take it a step or two further) we believe employees perform best when empowered to improvise and bring unmatched service to their customers in a sincere, personal way.

At Hawaiian Airlines, we are proud of the superior service we provide our customers, and I believe by following the steps detailed above, any company can create their own culture that thrives on superior service.
Charles Nardello is the Senior Vice President of Operations at Hawaiian Airlines. He joined Hawaiian in February 2004 serving as Vice President of Maintenance and Engineering. Mr. Nardello has more than 30 years of diversified aviation management experience, including 23 years at US Airways.

Why Everyone Hates the Boss

David Rock Friday November 11, 2011 blogs.hbr.org

One of the most common complaints about leaders is that they are promoted for their technical skills, and often have poor social skills. A big insight that emerged on day two of the 2011 NeuroLeadership Summit is that this may simply be a function of the leader's role.
UCLA professor Matthew Lieberman, one of the founders of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience field, presented research on our ability to mentalize, or predict other people's emotional or intentional states. It turns out this requires significant effort, attention and resources. People experiencing even a mild cognitive load or "stress" find their ability to think about what others are thinking or needing impaired. The trouble is that our ability to mentalize about other people's thoughts is extremely poor even at the best of times.
In one study, an average of 50% of participants initially predicted that people would be able to work out the tune of a very well known song by listening only to the beats being tapped out. It turns out only 2.5% of people could successfully guess the tune with tapping as the only information. Our ability to the think about the minds of others is surprisingly poor, even when not under pressure.
The other challenge is that the circuitry for thinking analytically, such as thinking about the future or about concepts, switches off the circuitry for thinking about others. People spending a lot of time being analytical, conceptual or goal focused may have diminished circuitry for thinking about the minds of others, simply through lack of use.
Leaders who spend too much time analyzing and strategizing may find it difficult to activate their rarely used social circuits. Put this together with how hard it is to think about the minds of others when under pressure (and leaders are under massive cognitive load), and you begin to see why there is such an emotional divide between cognitively exhausted senior executives and the people they lead.
The big question now is what we can do to improve a leader's capacity to mentalize about others? Lieberman is studying this very question in the lab now. We look forward to seeing the results.

David Rock is a consultant and author of Your Brain at Work.

Top 3 Ways to Get Your Phone Calls Returned

Tom Searcy November 2, 2011 9:40 AM cbsnews.com

Chasing sucks. Prospects, clients, people who owe you information, drawings, money. I hate having to chase. Most of us have to do it--A LOT. Most of the time we go into the bottomless pit of voice mail hell to be tortured by the digital demons therein. Here is how to get your phone call returned more often. There are no perfect strategies that guarantee 100% response; even the IRS auditors don't get 100% return calls. But you can do much better if you follow this approach.

Quick note: This skill focuses on getting a returned call from someone you have already met. Prospecting is a different skill.

Step 1: Tell the person what you want. Calls that say "Call me when you get a chance" are relegated to someone's "B" or "C" priority list. (When was the last time you were working your "B" priority list?). If your voice mail says "Give me a call back, I have a couple of things I want to review with you," then you are never going on that person's radar of must-do priorities.

Tell the person you are calling what you want right at the beginning of the call. Make certain your voice mail is not longer than 40 seconds- they won't listen to it. What do you tell them you want? A document, a phone call, an email, a piece of information- whatever it is that you want, ask for it and ask for it fast. I'll give examples below.

Step 2: Speak in terms of time. Tell them:

• How long the returned call will take. (3 minutes, 11 minutes, "less than a cup of coffee" are all good increments)
• Must-talk-by date and time. Your message needs to say, "This call has to happen by...." And then give the date and time. End of day tomorrow, Friday by noon, this afternoon before 3:45pm. Success goes up if the window is later than 4 hours from now and no later than 24 hours from the point of your voice mail message you are leaving. If, by some miracle, you are actually talking to an administrative support person, the time issue is the same, just ask to book the appointment.

Step 3: Declare consequences.
To create urgency you need to declare consequences. Notice I used the word "consequences" not "threats." Consequences are the natural and understandable outcomes of an action or inaction. You are telling the person you are reaching out too that if he does not call back to you this will happen. Factual and without emotion. Here are some approaches:

• Negative Option - If you do not hear back, you will assume the answer is "no" and you will act accordingly.
• Time expiration - If you do not hear back, time will expire on the offer and what has been offered will be rescinded.
• Delay of Progress - If you do not hear back, then the proposed date for start or end will not be attainable and will be delayed.
• Positive Option - If you do not hear back you will take that as tacit approval and will move forward with the previously agreed upon actions.

Examples:
* "Bill, this is Tom from XYZ. I need the final drawings we discussed by noon tomorrow in my email or I will not be able to honor the delivery date of next Friday. Please give me a 30 second call when you have sent them to confirm. Thanks."

* "Sue, this is Joe from PDQ. I need confirmation of the wire transfer by end of business today or we will not ship. Please give me a call back by 4:00pm to ensure shipment. Thanks."

* "John, this is Deirdre from Pinnacle. I only need 3 minutes to get the details from you I need to give you the proposal you requested. If we connect by noon today, you'll have my proposal before you pack up to go home. Thanks.

* "Frank, this is Alex from Acme. A call no longer than a cup of coffee will sort out the issues you raised about the proposal. We have been out of touch for over a week- that usually means bad things. If I don't hear back from you by end of day tomorrow, I'll take that as a definite "no" and assume you are not interested in the proposal. Thanks."

What you should notice is that
1) This approach takes a forceful and direct tone, rather than a subservient and weak tone.

2) The messages are short. People rarely listen to long, detailed voice mails. They scan, much like we scan our emails. They store the things they intend to listen to later and delete everything else. They rarely get to what they say and eventually it solves itself or they delete it.

3) Action requests, time frames and consequences are clear.

Tom Searcy is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and the foremost expert in large account sales.

The 3 Most Dangerous Sales Clichés

By Tom Searcy November 3, 2011 7:34 PM cbsnews.com

Clichés can wreak havoc. In sales, especially, many clichés can cause damage in the hiring processes, the buying experience and the sales conversation. Here are three common ones that are dangerously wrong and drive me crazy:
"Sales is all about relationships."
Maybe that was true when Larry Tate and Darren Stevens were drinking triples on the 1970's show "Bewitched," but not so much anymore. I watch salespeople lose deals all day long and the bad news is delivered by that sales rep's "best friend ever" at the prospect company. Selling is about a lot of things, and relationships are only one sliver of it, and that sliver is shrinking.

If you want to improve your sales performance, don't assess the strength of your contacts by your "emotional connection." Rather, you will know you have leverage based upon your ability to influence the behaviors of your key contacts. For example:

• When you ask for unique information about the prospect company, the decision-making process, the people at the table and how your company is doing, can you get it?
• When you ask for unique access- a meeting, a phone call, an introduction, a tour or to review a document, can you get it?
• When you ask for "most favored nation status" in the consideration process, (last look on pricing, final presentation position or a more executive audience for your proposal), can you get it?

If these requests are not possible, then the relationships you have are irrelevant, at least in terms of closing the deal. Relationships definitely will make the selling process more pleasant, but without leverage, they mean nothing when it comes to making the sale.

"Salespeople are born."
This is partly true--people, after all, are born, not hatched. But there are many traits that make salespeople effective, including being curious, good communicators, great listeners, leadership abilities, accessibility, integrity, and intelligence. But none of these qualities are specific just to "born salespeople." These are the qualities of effective executives of all disciplines. So you need to look for effective leaders and effective executives if you want explosive sales, not the cliché of a glad-handing, joke-telling, hyper-extrovert.

"Sales is a numbers game."
Maybe in the world of the previous century, activity was equivalent to productivity. More calls, letters, emails, appointments all translated into more sales. However, this is no longer a causal link. If you want to become intimately acquainted with this fact, answer every RFP that crosses your desk and you will see that success is not guaranteed because of activity. Sales effectiveness is about efficiency and yield, rather than the mind-numbing belief that more in the top of the funnel equals more out the bottom.

Sales truly is a numbers game when the numbers you are watching are the right ones. If you are watching the inputs only - prospecting activities for instance, you are missing it. If you are watching the closes only- signed contracts and orders, you are missing it. In the large, complex sales you need to be watching the "WIP," (work in process). The key to this idea is knowing the distinct stages of your sales process and then setting performance expectations for each of the movements from one stage to the next in the process. By having an objective evaluation of the movements in the process, you are watching the full story - inputs, sales stage movements and outcomes.

Clichés hide the important truths, regardless of the topic. Don't be sucked into the sales clichés because they will lead to the wrong conclusions.
Tom Searcy is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and the foremost expert in large account sales.

How the Rift Between Sales and Marketing Undermines Reps

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson Nov. 7, 2011 blogs.hbr.org

This post, the last in a four-part series, is also part of the HBR Insight Center Growing the Top Line.

It's no secret that sales and marketing executives don't always see eye to eye.

In a recent Corporate Executive Board survey, sales executives' top terms for their marketing colleagues included "paper pushers," "academic," and perhaps worst of all, "irrelevant." On the other hand, marketing executives called out their sales counterparts as "simple minded," "cowboys," and flat out "incompetent." Strikingly, across several hundred sales and marketing responses, a full 87% were negative.
Management has long called for sales and marketing to bury the hatchet, but the requests often lack urgency and are generally met with indifference. That must change. In today's historically difficult selling environment, the rift between sales and marketing seriously undermines even the best-performing reps. In previous posts (here, here, and here), we've described a gifted kind of sales rep we call Challengers. Challengers excel by creating constructive tension with customers through unique and surprising competitive insights. However, all but the very best Challengers will struggle to source and package those insights unless they have organizational support — especially from marketing.
Yet much of the sales support marketing provides falls short because it's focused on teaching customers about the supplier's business, not the customer's. Worse, the function responsible more than any other for differentiating your solution in the marketplace often churns out collateral and sales tools that look and sound exactly like everyone else's. Where's the teaching in that?
Don't take our word for it. In a recent study, public relations expert Adam Sherk analyzed the most frequent terms in company communications, and the results were eye opening. Here are the top ten: Leader, leading, best, top, unique, solution, largest, innovative, and innovator.
Sound familiar? Most companies' marketing materials make generic claims like "an industry leader with decades of experience helping global customers achieve business objectives through unique solutions and uncompromised value." Blah, blah, blah. When customers hear such commoditized messages often enough, they stop hearing them altogether. So, you say to your customers, "Our solution is unique," and your customers don't believe you. Why should they? Your message sure isn't. Their reply? "That's fantastic. Can I get a discount?" After all, why should your customer pay more for your solution when it sounds exactly like everyone else's?
So what's the alternative? In our book, we share case studies of companies whose marketing organizations have gotten it right.
Here are four rules Challenger marketing organizations live by:
1. Identify your unique capabilities, not all your capabilities
In their excitement to tell the world about their broader "solution," most marketing organizations fail to identify the handful of capabilities that truly set them apart. Sure, your products are "faster," "newer," "smaller," "bigger," or "greener," but why does it matter? If customers see no difference between you and the competition, anything you teach them will simply wind up in an RFP headed for a price-driven bake-off. Bottom line, if you can't identify the unique capabilities customers should be willing to pay you for, they're sure not going to do it for you.
Answer the question, "Why should our customers buy from us over anyone else?" It's a simple question, but often proves surprisingly hard to answer. It's shocking how many companies are unable to identify what truly sets their solution apart.
2. Focus on the unique capabilities your customers currently undervalue
Most marketing organizations naturally focus on capabilities customers disproportionately value. The thinking goes: customers want it, we're best at it, so that's the core of our value proposition. The best marketing organizations, however, are far more interested in promoting capabilities customers under value. Why? Because their primary goal is to teach customers new perspectives, not reinforce existing ones. The best teaching opportunities often spring from the question, "What is it that customers fail to appreciate about their business that leads them to undervalue our capability?" The answer provides a strong foundation for insights that challenge customers' thinking.
3. Design messages that lead to those capabilities, not with them
Virtually all marketing collateral suffers from the same flaw. If the first five pages — and the first ten slides — of your collateral or sales pitch deck are about you (and they almost invariably are), you've got it wrong. Build messages that lead to your unique capabilities. In a teaching conversation, the supplier enters the conversation at the end, not the beginning.
4. Calculate the ROI of changing behavior, not of buying a solution
Finally, equip reps with an ROI calculator that shows customers the value of behavior change. Surprisingly, the best ROI calculators are supplier agnostic. They're built to convince customers to do something, not to buy something — to take action on whatever new perspective you've just taught them. Of course, when customers ask, "Wow, who can help us do this?" the rep must be able to legitimately say, "Let me show you how we're uniquely able to help make this happen."
Successfully challenging customers' thinking is a team sport. Does your company set up Challengers to succeed? Pull out the latest piece of collateral produced by your marketing organization. Does it equip your salespeople to teach customers about their company or about yours?

10 Things Managers Should Never Do

By Steve Tobak | October 25, 2011      bnet.com 

We’ve all had bosses do things we didn’t like, appreciate, or respect. And every manager has done things they later regret. The business world is, by necessity, one of real-time decisions and judgment calls that sometimes turn out to be bad choices, in retrospect.
After all, nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes. And that’s a good thing, since that’s are how we learn lessons, including how to do our jobs better. That goes for every employee, manager, executive, business owner, CEO, everyone.
But sometimes a mistake can become a slippery slope. An exception can all-too-easily become the rule. Simply put, there are lines that managers should not cross, behavior they should not exhibit, and not to be overly dramatic, pathways that lead more or less to the dark side.
In 10 Things Great Managers Do, I went back in time to the best characteristics of the best CEOs I’ve worked for and with over the past 30 years. I decided to do the same thing here for the simple reason that I learned as much from the negative experiences as I did from the positive ones.
Keep in mind, this isn’t meant to be a whine-fest to get employees riled up and pissed off at their bosses. Think of it instead as a standard that employees and managers alike can agree upon and, perhaps, a wakeup call for those who need one.
10 Things Managers Should Never Do

1. Order people around like dictators. Contrary to popular belief, managers are not dictators. Every manager has at least one boss. Even CEOs serve the board directors and shareholders. Any manager who thinks he can order people around or abuse his authority because he’s the boss is a terrible leader. Employees are not soldiers or children. You can tell them what their job is and even fire them, if you want, but if you order them around, the good ones will up and quit, as they should.
2. Forget about customers. It never ceases to amaze me how many managers forget that organizations and companies exist for just one reason - to win, maintain, and support customers. Business is about business, and when you make it about you - your issues, your fears, your empire, your thin skin, whatever - you cease to be an effective manager.
3. Behave like arrogant jerks that are better than others. Just to be clear, I’m not saying managers or bosses can’t be jerks. A lot of people are jerks, including plenty of employees, and almost everybody’s a jerk under certain circumstances. I’m specifically talking about the arrogant “I’m better than the little people” thing. It makes you look like a little brat and completely neuters your authority and credibility.
4. Let their egos write checks that reality can’t cash. Oftentimes, leaders attain their position because they believe they’re special - a fascinating misconception that’s nevertheless often self-fulfilling. The problem with that is the slippery slope of drinking your own Kool Aid. Either you grow up or, sooner or later, things end up unraveling. I’ve seen it time and again and it isn’t pretty.
5. Publicly eviscerate employees. Of all the things I’ve experienced over the decades, this is not only the most dehumanizing but also the most demoralizing to employees. I had a couple of CEOs that practiced this on a regular basis and both were universally despised, as a result. Moreover, both self-destructed in the end.
6. Wall off their feelings. This may sound touchy feely, but it’s far from it. Researchers are fond of classifying executives and leaders as psychopathic, but the mechanism by which that happens is compartmentalizing of emotions. If you’ve ever wondered how people who seem to lack any semblance of humor or humility can behave the way they do, the answer is, if you’re not connected to your emotions, you’re far less human.
7. Surround themselves with bureaucrats, BSers, and yes-men. When you encourage the status quo and discourage dissent, you doom the organization to stagnation and eventual decline.
8. Threaten. Threats don’t work. They’re just as likely to motivate the opposite behavior of what you’re trying to achieve. They diminish your authority and make you appear weak and small. You should communicate what you want and why, then act on the results. That works. Threats don’t. And for God’s sake, never threaten an employee with his job or a vendor with your business. That’s just out of control.
9. Act out like little children. Everyone goes through the same stages of human development on the road to adulthood and maturity. Unfortunately, some of us get stuck in one stage or another, stunting our growth and rendering us dysfunctional. We look just like ordinary adults, but we actually behave a lot more like children, acting out, throwing tantrums, and generally making life miserable for everyone around us.
10. Break the law. America is a nation of laws and, civil or criminal, they’re black and white for a reason. For some reason, executives will sometimes risk everything - power, wealth, careers, families, everything - for motives most of us will never understand. We’re talking accounting, securities, bank, wire, and mail fraud; insider trading; bribery; obstruction of justice; conspiracy; discrimination; harassment; it’s a long, long list.