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Solve anything with Dr. Mark: Career advice for the working class; What do you need?

By Dr. Mark Goulston, Source: Tribune Media Services

Q: I'm the driven founder of a start up business that now has 12 employees. As a lot, they're smart, not lazy, but not as productive as they should be. I've discussed it with each of them but it doesn't seem to be getting better. What's their problem or is it mine?

A: I'm impressed with your "or is it mine" ending. There are few bad employees, but there are many lousy bosses. That fact that you're wondering if it is your problem hopefully indicates that you're one of the good guys.

Before leaders confront low productivity, they need to be sure they themselves are not the problem. For instance, one of the main causes of subordinate underperformance is for a leader or manager to not specify the expectations and criteria for success for those below them. According to Billy Pittard, Senior Vice President of Content at Lynda.com when this doesn't happen, the subordinate will define their own criteria for success and very often will be wrong.

Check with your employees. Ask them this: "According to me, what do you think are the top five priorities for you to focus on and why do you think they are important?"

Many bosses don't ask such a question for fear of having to repeat themselves or worse yet, discovering that they have not clearly articulated them, and even worse still, that they don't understand their own business well enough to specify them.

Interestingly, if you show respect and caring by doing this, what you will also accomplish is inspiring the proper mindset of "can do and want to do because you're being respectfully and helpfully being asked" vs. "can't do and resent being told to do"

Stuck in the middle

Q: I am the head of human resources for a company with 150 employees. Above me, my CEO has unrealistic expectations of what I can do. Below him, many of the people come up with unbelievable excuses and explanations for why they can't do what they're supposed to. I've gone back to smoking and am starting to develop hives. How can I handle being between this rock (the CEO), a hard place (the people below him) and the bottom line?

A: I recently spoke with a legal administrator at a mid size law firm who told me that she felt like she was between a rock (the managing partner), a hard place (other partners, associates and staff) and billable hours. She told me that she felt she had a lot of responsibility with very little authority. It appeared that when the managing partner was away, the associates and staff and senior partners would stray.

Like you she was having a problem getting associates and staff and especially senior partners to listen to her and take her seriously and then the managing partner would be very disappointed in her, for not managing the situation better. We discovered that what really got to her was how frustrated and infuriated she felt and how that was getting in the way of her thinking clearly.

Amazingly after providing her with just a little understanding for her "no win" situation, we came up with a plan that worked well for her.

After the senior partners would tell her to do something, she would ask the managing partner to help her choose what priorities she should focus on and tell her why those were important. She told him she needed to understand it in order to make the most convincing case to the associates and staffs and to the senior partners that she could. She also asked him that in the event that she needed to come to call on him to use some of his authority, how she should approach him which he told her. Armed with that clarity of priorities and a way to access the managing partner, she was much more effective with the others in the firm.

But it didn't stop there. When she asked the senior partners, associates and staff to do something and explained it to them, she waited for them to give a confirmatory "Yes" when they agreed to do it by a certain time. Following that she said to each of them, "In the event for any reason you are unable to do what you just agreed to do by such and such a time, how shall I be with you to make sure you get it done in a timely matter. Shall I e-mail you, shall I tell you nicely, shall I come into your office or cubicle and bang the desk or exactly what?" After they told her the best way to hold them accountable when they were going off course, she repeated it back to them and waited for a confirmatory "Yes" to that.

Try the approach with your CEO that she took with her managing partner as well as the one she used for everybody else. It might just work for you.

XXX

Mark Goulston, M.D., is a Santa Monica-based business psychiatrist, executive coach and author of "Get Out of Your Own Way at Work." Question him at mgoulston@markgoulston.com. Visit him at: www.markgoulston.com

© 2009, Tribune Media Services