In a collaborative work environment, employees put aside their personal differences and they work together.  This type of environment is grounded in trust, integrity, human value and respect.   Unfortunately, collaboration does not always occur.  Here are five ways you can set the stage for a collaborative environment.

1. Break Down Silos: 

Silos occur when there are self-sufficient teams of employees that do not communicate or connect with each other regarding achievement of their goals.  They operate as if they are the only department within the business, ignoring the need for working together.   When silos are resident in your business, employees don’t network internally, or consistently help each other. 

In order to demolish silos and build bridges across your organization it is important to create relationships that can help you get work done.  Building bridges by helping your coworkers can lead to reciprocity and to building or reinforcing a foundation of trust.  Another way you can demolish silos is by opening the flow of communication by implementing a schedule of meetings designed to share the right information with the right people at the right time.

Developing appropriate leadership competencies is another important consideration when deciding to break down silos.  If leaders can recognize when walls are being built and maintained, they can proactively encourage or reward collaborative behaviours. 

It is important to note that in a collaborative workplace, employees will continue to express different points of view.  The differentiating factor is when there is collaboration, various perspectives are considered from an interest based view, focusing on deeper common interests and using those interests to overcome differences.  Therefore, through inclusive leadership practices and trust building, shared goals will begin to emerge and the walls of the silos will be systematically broken down.

2.  Navigate Office Politics:

Trust and respect have already been established as fundamental building blocks of collaborative     behaviour.  In the absence of trust and respect, a highly political environment can evolve and survive because it is being fed by coworkers who only care about their success.   Based on observation, overly political behaviour can be divisive, creating "us and them" circumstances.

 At its core, politics is about relationships and alliances.  Unfortunately, there are people who are overly political who exploit relationships by being more concerned with form than substance.  In response to this type of political behaviour, author Deborah Hildebrand once said, “Office politics impact employers and employees alike, so it is important to understand how to navigate the minefields in order to ensure a positive work environment.”

In order to create a collaborative, politically savvy environment, leaders can contribute by building a team through opening top down and bottom up channels of communication and building reward systems that acknowledge team achievements versus individual achievements.  Additionally, an objective based performance management process can help to break down political structures at work because results based performance measurements can obliterate tendencies toward favouritism.  

3. Power Plays:

Power and politics are inextricably linked.   There are power starved, overly political persons who want to build and protect their power bases so in their minds, this means they have to diminish what they perceive to be your power.  Obviously, destructive power players negatively impact your ability to collaborate because their myopic approach strangles coworkers into a state of inefficiency and ultimately, reciprocated negativity.

When power plays emerge, like saying no to show you who is in charge, pettiness and insecurity are at the root of the power dynamic and training in isolation is not going to change their behaviour.  This is because the power player is doing what he or she needs to do to keep insubordination or noncompliance in its place.  Therefore, training supported by the implementation of systems of accountability to the right behaviours will help to make positive changes and if this doesn’t work, corrective action can be considered as a viable option when seeking to achieve collaboration.

4. Bad Attitudes: 

Bad attitudes can be encountered with customers, executives, managers, supervisors or front-line employees.  A bad attitude can show up as passive aggression, nay-saying, being rude, knowing-it-all, being exact, withholding information or complaining.  When you display a negative attitude your coworkers prefer not to interact with you and this usually includes your reporting manager.  When your reporting manager avoids you, it appears that you are not favoured, but you are contributing to your own circumstance of isolation. 

Another bad attitude consistently identified by managers is persons who are not open to constructive criticism.  As a result, accelerated progress is difficult because managers who decide not to criticize because of the perceived consequences may do the work themselves and slow down the process or they avoid confrontation by allowing errors to recur.

If you are displaying a negative attitude, you will need to become aware of your divisive behaviours and self-correct.  It can mean managing your body language or outbursts. If you are a manager it can mean that you learn the skill of coaching so you can coach desired collaborative behaviours.

 

5. A Lack of Integrity: 

When there is a lack of integrity, division occurs because you have a group of people who will observe the integrity deficient behaviour and decide to mirror the behaviour because if one person is getting away with it, why can’t they?  Alternatively, the honest persons don’t want to be a part of dishonest systems of behaviour and have to decide how they will confront the situation so they can avoid being indirectly implicated.  They ask themselves questions like: Should I report the dishonest behaviour to management and become a whistle blower?  Should I confront the people involved and become a known potential liability and risk being sabotaged?  Or should I leave the company?

 Transforming your corporate culture from one characterized by entitlement and dishonesty to one characterized by collaboration, accountability and results is a colossal task and it requires integrity at the top levels of the organization and a will to implement integrity based policies and systems.  As we all know if policies are in place but not enforced they are only empty words.

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, a company that offers Human Resource Consulting and Leadership Development services.  If you are interested in creating authentic change at your organization, her contact details can be found at www.orgsoul.com

Respect is often confused with obedience because the end result is compliance but the process and underlying reasons that drive compliance may have nothing to do with respect. More specifically, respect is not fear based, it is inspired because it is shows you value people by treating them in a way that gives them a voice and leaves them with their dignity intact.

In an environment where there is mutual respect, information is exchanged in a way that everyone’s dignity can be sustained however, compliance may not be an outcome.  When there is obedience, there is no room for the injection of creativity by employees because leaders are autocratic or dictatorial. Building obedience achieves compliance at the cost of the infusion of a diversity of perspectives. 

Professor and author Robin Dillon adds some clarity to the discussion of respect dimension of respect which he refers to as care. Caring respect comes out of seeing the unique value in persons and treating them as though they bring value and perspective to a situation. 

Author David Balovich suggests that, “In order to earn the respect of others, one must first have respect for themselves. One must recognize they are a person worthy of respect. One earns respect by giving respect to one-self and to others.”  

Perspectives on Disrespect

Bullying:  Bullying can manifest as intimidation in the form of name calling, shouting, inappropriate joking, demeaning (condescending) behaviour, exclusion, sexual harassment, profanity or sarcasm. It can also show up as disciplined behaviour designed to methodically show employees who has the power through humiliation, micromanagement or undermining activity. 

Bullying is not limited to face-to-face communication, it can manifest in written form as well. Examples include but are not limited to exclusion from e-mails related to your work; bold, capitalized or red letters; emails sent at night with the expectation of an immediate response and bombardment of emails, not allowing you sufficient time to get the work done.

Undermining Behaviour: This type of behaviour is designed to make a person seem to be less than competent than they are. Conscious and unconscious undermining strategies can minimize, neutralize or negate a person’s contributions.  Sometimes undermining behaviour can be seemingly necessary like spoon-feeding employees, not allowing them to develop their critical thinking and leadership abilities. At other times, undermining behaviour can manifest as deliberate sabotage where someone neglects their responsibilities because of passive aggressive intentions. There also people who are prepared to lie to achieve their undermining goals.

Conscious Underutilization:  There are times when employees are very competent and outspoken so they are used for their competence but not rewarded, promoted, respected, used optimally or empowered because they are labeled as trouble makers.  Instead, they are relegated to a position where they are contacted directly or by a third party only when their input is needed. And this sometimes means after a bad decision begins to unravel.  These people are valued for their competence but there is a competing need to keep them muzzled that restricts the scope of the contribution they can make.

Hierarchical Adherence:  This occurs when the levels of hierarchy are so strictly adhered to that it disallows effective bottom-up and top-down flows of information.  This reality is worsened when there is a weak layer of middle management. Anyone who attempts to circumvent the hierarchy and goes directly to the top to state their case is open to attack and can be summarily put in their place for their perceived audacity. In a case like this, if the person needing to be heard is reprimanded, they can feel disrespected and demoralized because the person at the top places more importance on procedural adherence than on creating effective channels of communication.  Unfortunately, in cases like this, the person at the top may also feel disrespected because of a deformed, antiquated system of communication.

Immobilized Decision Makers:  These are managers who cannot make the tough calls because of profound incompetence or because of a highly political work environment. They are viewed by employees as toothless and are disrespected because an unfair distribution of work or voiceless employees can be the result of immobilization. 

Unfounded Accusations: There are managers who lack the critical thinking skills necessary for making fair decisions.  Their biases are overwhelming so they react to opinion as though there is irrefutable evidence being presented. In circumstances like this, mistakes in judgment can happen, and when there is a trend of mistakes, employees don’t trust or respect this type of manager because of their undisciplined reactions. 

Respect and Reciprocity

When you give respect you may receive it in return but if your respect is viewed as misplaced, you may not receive it back from all the stakeholders in the situation.   Creating an environment based on compliance and voicelessness can open you up to disrespect by those who don’t fear the consequences of their actions or it can cause obedience which looks suspiciously like respect on the surface.

How to Build Respect

When building respect, keep in mind that trust is usually impaired if the environment if characterized by disrespect so a respect building exercise will also have trust building dynamics. Here are a few tips to help build respect in your environment.
 
- Embrace differences as a team strength. Avoid labeling differences as an obstacle. 
- If an idea is a good one, use it.

- Think before you act. Weigh the risks of various alternatives. Knee-jerking behaviours demonstrate a lack of depth and engender
  disrespect.

- Use active listening skills to process other points of view. Remember, someone may have a perspective that can positively
   enhance your solution.

- Get over your biases and treat people equitably.  

-  Build your courage.

-  Learn to praise as much as you criticize. You will build respect, confidence and performance.

-  Encourage flows of constructive information.

-  Do some self reflection to determine if you may be inadvertently bullying members of your team.

-  When you make changes in your behaviours, be consistent with your new behaviours. Flip-flopping in and out of old patterns will
   only create the perception that you were not serious about making meaningful change.

-  Treat people with courtesy and respect leaving them with their human dignity.

-  Take an inclusive approach encouraging members of the team to share their ideas. 

In a diverse work environment, building respect can enhance team productivity and creativity by reducing levels of conflict and building healthy working relationships.  An unknown author summed it up this way, “

To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.”

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  If you are interested in exploring how you can create higher performing team leaders, you contact her at www.orgsoul.com.

We all have some type of value assigned to us based on what we contribute to the team.  Some of us overestimate our value and others underestimate the value we add.  It is unfortunate when we add value and our contributions are devalued because of a mistake or error that is part of a learning curve, but instead it is treated as a heinous crime for which we are culpable until the end time.

How you can be devalued

Background checks: When your contribution is devalued by powerful stakeholders in your organization, so is your marketability.  This becomes crystal clear if you decide to shop for another job.  Typically, what happens is that your potential employer contacts your current or last employer who is less than complimentary.  This causes you to become less competitive and perhaps lose the desired job offer.  Eventually, you end up settling for less because you now have to rebuild your value or brand.  Unfortunately, a simple background check can completely devalue an employee after they invested in career and personal development.

Performance Management: When managers rate employees for the most recent period of their performance, there are some who are not as disciplined as they should be with collecting factual information.   Sadly, because these managers are working from memory they may allow the most recent negative experience with the employee to carry disproportionate weight in the rating process.  While sometimes this may be appropriate, at other times this approach inappropriately discounts the full value of the employee’s contribution for the entire year.

Promotions: There are some situations where decisions are made about promoting or developing employees.  In the decision making meeting, someone states that an employee made an error 10 years ago that caused a loss.  This information was mentioned despite the facts that the employee is a consistently strong performer who never made the error again.  The potential cost of vetoing the opportunity for the employee is that the employee may migrate to another company because their career is being stagnated by an historic bias.

Resignation of High Potential Employees: Some employees’ results are above average and they demonstrate the capacity for growth within the company.  As a result, these high performing employees and their managers enjoy comfortable co-existence.  Then a better job offer comes along and the employee decides to resign because they have not been given adequate opportunities for development by their current employer.  Remarkably the perception of the employee shifts from a celebrated performer to a betrayer because the employer invested time and money in the employee and now another company will benefit from the total investment.  As a result, the strong performer experiences rejection and devaluation before and after their departure.

Speaking Up:  Devaluation can happen when an employee expresses a point of view that contradicts the opinion of their leaders.    This is because the employee making the statements is perceived as a threat because they are not being compliant but in another environment, the same statements may be viewed as creative or insightful.

Positive Bias: There are times when a bias is positive to the point of being inflationary.  In cases like these, the employee or manager may only have high value in their current work environment because of a culture that rewards anomalous behaviours.  If the atypical behaviour is the last act for which the employee is rewarded, when the employee migrates to another company they may have difficulty maintaining their high performing status.

The Costs of the “Last Act” Phenomenon

When employees realise they are as good as their last act, they may become very conservative and focused on doing things right all the time. This slows down productivity.

Others decide it is impossible to do things right all the time so instead of spending time doing things right, they spend time managing the perception that things are being done right.  Managing perceptions is hard work so they are even prepared to sacrifice vacations to ensure nothing defamatory surfaces.  In situations like these, self-preservation is the highest priority so transparence is sacrificed and this can lead to unwanted surprises for decision makers. 

Neutralising the “Last Act” Effect

If being as good as your last act is a cultural norm, leaders and other cultural architects may want to consider the alternative view that mistakes are opportunities to learn and start to ask questions to determine if the employee developed since the mistake. 

It is also important to understand how the culture of your company may be contributing to losing good people so you can design and implement new policies and practices. For instance, instead of feeling betrayed after employees resign, develop a succession plan and talent management strategy designed to retain your best employees.  High performers generally need deeper developmental opportunities than the planned annual seminars so talent management is essential to retention. 

Another opportunity is to develop employees and managers so that they can communicate effectively with each other, embracing diverse points of view with the goal of creating a more holistic solution.

Manage Your Value

As an employee, you should manage your value or your brand and understand when you are being deliberately or unintentionally devalued so you can take proactive steps.  You may choose to remain with your employer, but before you do, take the time to weigh the risk of being further devalued versus the possibility of building your value. 

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  If you are interested in exploring how you can create higher performing team leaders, you contact her at www.orgsoul.com.

A Manager recently exclaimed in a discussion, “Leadership theory is fallacious!”  Based on her experience, it seems to be impossible to be a leader in her organization which she characterized as dishonest, abusive and highly controlling.  From her perspective, her attempts at being an effective leader are futile because demonstrating leadership competencies is not valued or even possible.  

I thought about this indictment and my response was that leadership theory can be applied when your office culture is a healthy one, characterized by integrity, effective communication and trust.  Otherwise your environment can lead you down the path to immobility.

Toxic Environments that Immobilize

After my conversation I started thinking about the different types of environments that can slow down or completely immobilize leaders, causing ineffectiveness:

Centralized Authority:  In these organizations, authority is centralized with one person or among a chosen few.  This can occur in family businesses, companies with international headquarters, or where there is an autocratic executive or business owner who controls everything that happens within the organization because they don’t trust their employees.  In cases like these, managers seldom have any decision making authority or opportunities to contribute so they are forced to wait until a decision is made and communicated.

Deliberate Withholding:  Some bureaucratic environments require layers and layers of authorization and some senior players in this process use their signing authority as a power tool that can cause Managers to miss deadlines or delay important projects.  There are other executives who intentionally withhold information in order to frustrate targeted managers, attempting to show them who is in charge.  Unfortunately, these strategies are short-sighted as they decelerate the progress of not only the targeted managers; they negatively affect the withholders and the results of the entire team. 

Bullying:  There are some environments where bullies are allowed to thrive.  Harassment by bullies includes behaviours like ignoring employees, withholding information, and profanity.  Whether bullying exists at executive or entry levels, middle managers can become immobilized by the fear of the perpetual threat of an aggressive encounter.  When there is a bully boss, managers are usually unwilling or unable to do anything without the boss’ consent because they prefer not to be exposed to the threat of attack so the probability of delays is high.

Indecision:  Indecision can occur when a manager tends to overanalyze.  They are unable to efficiently and effectively distill information and make a decision.  Sometimes this is based on fear, and at other times it is based on a predisposition to perfectionism.  Indecision can also occur when there is incompetence.  Incompetent managers are either ill equipped to manage their authority and make a decision or they are paralyzed by the fear of making another mistake.

Disorganization: Some leaders are immobilized by a lack of organization.  They don’t have an effective system of follow up, nor do they have a filing system that allows them to locate files.  They are unresponsive to e-mails and voice mails so assigned work falls through the cracks with these executives and business owners and this impacts managers who wait interminably for feedback before taking action.

Dishonesty:  If executives and business owners are dishonest, it is uncommon for them to involve front-line managers in their exploitative activities.  As a result, deceitful leaders conceal information for fear of unwanted publicity.  Consequently, their front line managers are immobilized either because there is a lack of relevant information or because the managers may be the ones forced to deal with the consequences.

Whether or not a middle manager is competent, they can be rendered entirely useless in undermining, toxic environments.  There are others who are immobilized purely because they lack the competencies to keep work flowing.  No matter the reason for immobility, immobilized managers have far reaching effects on the business like turnover, compromised results, personality conflicts and absenteeism.

The Link Between Immobility and Culture

Author Gabrielle O’Donovan asserts, “Corporate culture evolves during workers' and leaders' learning and development at company start-up stage, and over time will be shaped by influences in the internal and external environment. Thus, corporate culture is created by a company's founders and is shaped by leaders and employees. As new staff join, they imbibe the culture of the company, but at the same time bring in their own values and attitudes that also influence and change the corporate culture.” 

O’Donovan goes on to say that, “Corporate culture is leader-led and facilitated.  This means it can be controlled, changed and managed to ensure it is healthy and works for the success of a company.”   With this in mind, it is apparent that corporate culture appears to be influenced by many sources but despite this, it is shaped by leaders.  So in order to migrate from an immobilized state to a productive one, changes need to start at the top.

What to do if you are immobilized

Some immobilized managers attempt to rely heavily on strategies like avoidance, accommodation and compromise which are low on the assertiveness scale.   In toxic environments, these leadership styles become a necessity for survival and are probably undergirded by a toxic emotion: fear.  Unfortunately, if fear is your motivation, employees perceive these behaviours as powerless, undermined or weak because they are rendered voiceless because you are.

In reality managers take the less assertive route because demonstrating more assertive styles can lead to behaviours like bullying or exclusion.  So what do you do?   If you are one of the leader architects of the culture of your organization you may decide that change needs to happen.  If change is needed, you can commit to personal change and growth.   You can also set up a system of accountability for the desired behaviours.

If you are not in a position to influence the culture of your organization and you feel immobilized by the environment, you may decide to take your chances and be patient.  If you make this decision, you understand there are no guarantees because the situation is what it is and in some circumstances, the probability that positive change can be motivated is low.  By taking the path of patience, it is important to develop your survival skills.  Alternatively, if you are frustrated by the lack of productivity and your attempts to influence change are unsuccessful, you can always exercise your choice to find a new employer that mobilizes leaders and supports employee development.

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  If you are interested in exploring how you can create higher performing team leaders, you contact her at www.orgsoul.com.

This article is a summary of insights I have shared or received over the years.  Use what you can, and leave what you don’t need. 

• [A positive and collaborative attitude] + [Results] + [Political Savvy] = [Your Value to your Organization].   Many people are confused when they deliver results and have a positive attitude and they are not recognized.  In fact they may even be penalized in organizations that are highly political.    Without savvy and results in this type of environment your value isn’t going to be as high as you think it should be.  If you are not the right fit for this type of organization, find one that is less political.

Many people assume political behaviour has to amount to questionable behaviour.  This is definitely not the case because it is possible for you to formulate and implement political office strategies without impairing your integrity.  So depending on your role, performance, political environment and your personal political will, you can improve your value to your employer.   

• Keep yourself relevant.  If you can afford it, invest in your continuous development; especially if your employer is not investing in you.  It is not a secure feeling to be suddenly without a job and lacking up-to-date skills.  So if you can influence your employers directly or indirectly to support your development, go for it.  One way to do this is to volunteer for developmental opportunities.  Volunteering to work on a committee for a change project can provide you with a wider range of relevant, current, knowledge that can give you an edge.

For some, keeping yourself relevant means you need to develop skills that are transferrable, wherever you decide to work.  Keep in mind the fact that transferrable competencies vary depending on your role in the company so you need to identify what they are.   For others, keeping yourself relevant translates into developing a unique ability that is in high demand.

• Your networks are an important source.  The more relevant your network is to your employer, the more invaluable you can become if you can mobilize your network into a value proposition for your employers.  Networks are about relationships, so the better you get at building the right relationships, the more value you can add by being a resourceful and relevant member of the team.

When building your network, remember, negativity and gossip are viral and you can be infected over time.  Choose your associations wisely because they can cripple your career despite your productivity. 

• Punctuality and attendance are critical.  Avoid being late often or taking unscheduled time off unless you really are unwell.  This burdens the team and reduces your value whether or not you are a good performer.  The problem is that you may be perceived as unreliable.  To add value, your priority should be to arrive at work earlier and work smarter, keeping your productivity high. 

• High productivity is vital.  There is nothing worse than someone who works overtime who is less productive than someone who works shorter hours.  During times when resources are less available and hard decisions are being made, keep your productivity high.  While it is not a guarantee, it gives you higher value and separates you from your coworkers.  Three quick tips to help you to keep your productivity high are to keep your personal phone calls and internet surfing to a minimum; avoid wandering around the premises, talking to coworkers at length during the day; and don’t disappear from work for extended hours.  Instead, focus on your performance and results.

• Be a leader. Whether or not you are in a formal leadership position, develop skills that can help you to motivate yourself and positively influence others.  Your ability to communicate with confidence and humility with your boss, peers and direct reports, particularly in complex situations can prove to be an asset for you and your employer. 

There are some persons who link their value to their compensation or position.  While this may be a reliable assumption in some cases, there are times when people are promoted in highly political organizations for reasons other than the value they add.  Some managers and executives find this out the hard way when they are terminated after thinking they were untouchable. 

To those of you who have long tenure with your company, the extra value you add may become an entitlement to your employer.  They may discount the value of your additional skills and contributions because of long term, negative biases.   If you are faced with this situation, you need to make a career decision based on what you value.

Organizational values are constantly evolving so your value is something you should assign to yourself and monitor.  This is not easy because there are some who tend to be too hard on themselves or too afraid to acknowledge their real value and there are others who suffer from delusions of invulnerability.   Whatever the case, understand that as organizational values change, you need to be aware of what they are so you can do what it takes to remain a valuable resource.

Determine your value by seeking an integrative view of yourself.  Find out what your friends, coworkers and detractors think of you and this, combined with your personal perception can help you to develop a 360 degree view of yourself, and by extension, your value.

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  You can find more information at www.orgsoul.com.

In his book entitled the Biology of Belief, author Bruce Lipton points out that if cells exist in a safe, nurturing environment they grow and evolve.  Alternatively, when cells are in a perceivably dangerous environment, they shift into a protective mode where they either attack or withdraw.

Dr. Edgar Shein, a pioneer in the area of organizational culture, asserts organizational culture is created through observable and acceptable behaviours, group norms or standards, rules of the game (politics), habits of thinking and generally accepted symbols of status.  The architects of organizational culture are not limited to the owners and executive team but the primary responsibility for developing a culture lies with them.  In fact, Shein asserts that organizational culture doesn’t usually survive in its current state if the primary “culture carriers” separate from the organization.

There are four typical types of organizational cultures: ones that are predominantly controlling, competitive, collaborative or creative.  Controlling, political or competitive environments can become so toxic that employees who would normally share their ideas in a constructive work environment, withhold their input because they are concerned their ideas will be rejected or attacked unceremoniously.   An obvious result is these cultures typically stifle creativity, lower risk taking proclivities and perpetuate self protectionism. 

Typically, collaborative and creative environments are nurturing and safe.  Employees in these cultures are usually engaged, continuously growing and sometimes they even have fun.  This type of workplace reduces the need for self protectionism and increases risk taking tendencies and creativity.

Are you in a protectionist mode now?

There are people I encounter in my daily interactions who spend time determining which career they want but they don’t put the same effort into evaluating work cultures that are compatible with their values and needs.  These people sometimes end up doing something they love in an environment that stifles their growth. 

Tom McCarthy once said, “A person who is in growth mode is focused on their goals, not sidetracked by the news of the day. Opportunities to advance your life to a whole new level are all around you every single day, but if you are in protective mode you will miss almost all of them. I don’t care what the skeptics are saying about the economy, there are tremendous opportunities for people who stay focused and in growth mode.”

In toxic organizations where pettiness and counterproductive actions of the team leaders, perpetuate the need for self protectionism, growth is very difficult.  Therefore if you are an individual in a self protection mode and you would like to move to an open, nurtured growth mode, here are some things you can do to transition yourself:

1. Determine if you are in the right job.
2. No work environment is perfect but it may not be the best for you. If this is the case, decide if you are in the right work environment and if you are not, create an exit plan designed to transition you to another department or company.
3. As Mahatma Ghandi once said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world”.  You can only change yourself and if you are not one of the primary drivers of the culture then decide if you are in the right work environment for your stability and progress.
4. Avoid becoming something you are not.  Don’t allow an environment to influence who you are and how you interact with others.  Always see yourself as empowered to exercise choice even though the pay may be great.

Transforming Your Culture

If you are a leader or business owner and you are one of the architects of the culture of your organization, here are six tips for transitioning your culture to one that supports a platform for safety, openness, and transformation:

• Be aware of the behaviours you exhibit and reward.  You should emulate the changes you would like to witness within your staff. 
• Understand that changes will sometimes be necessary within your leadership team.  Key persons who are perpetuating the old culture may have to be replaced by persons who can hold the culture accountable to the new and desired standards.
• Leaders will not only have to demonstrate new behaviours, they will need to be consistent.  For instance, if a culture is one where team leaders humiliate employees for unwanted contributions, they will need to demonstrate consistent coaching behaviours that invite an open, safe developmental environment.  Employees will not trust the change at first so consistence is non-negotiable.
• When changes are introduced, the new values, beliefs and assumptions will have to be clearly defined and opportunities for accountability need to be sought.  One way is to introduce accountability to the objectives listed on executive performance appraisal tools.
• In addition to consistence and role modeling, leadership characteristics of confidence, action orientation and charisma can support the transformative process.  These behaviours support buy-in, engagement and trust.
• Edgar Schein suggests that during the cultural change process, leaders should be aware of what they pay attention to, how they react to critical incidents, how they achieve results, how they allocate scarce resources and the criteria they use to reward employees.  Awareness of these behaviours can help them to embed the new, desired cultural norms.

In the midst of any cultural change process, your team needs to learn how to adopt the change, avoiding a superficial approach where the new behaviours are superimposed on the old paradigm, merely covering up the perpetuation of old behaviours.  Clarity, transparence, accountability and effective communication plans are essential because as the change process takes place, chaos will happen before the dust settles and it becomes clear how power will be redistributed, what the new cultural boundaries are and which behaviours will be rewarded.

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  If you are interested in exploring how you can create higher performing team leaders, you contact her at www.orgsoul.com.                       

When we are recruited by a new employer early on in our careers we believe in the ideal workplace.  We expect everyone to work together and we anticipate environments that are safe spaces where employees can speak up and contribute.  

Here is a common trap new employees can fall into.  Your boss asks for your thoughts on a subject during a meeting.  You were lulled into thinking the question is authentic so you state your position in the meeting but your ideas are not what the boss wanted to hear so not only are you attacked with overt ferocity at the meeting, you are attacked every time you state your ideas in a meeting.  Your boss either wants to be sure will agree to everything or not say anything at all. 

Saying nothing at all is fine with this type of boss because there will be no disagreement that can potentially expose the bosses’ knowledge or competence gaps.  

Other employees fight their bosses to the point where they end up being terminated, which also suits the bosses because they are sending a clear message to the employees who remain, “Don’t you dare!   If you go against me, your job is not safe.” 

This cycle of behaviour reminds me of a t-shirt I saw the other day bearing the words, “The beatings will continue until morale improves” with a picture of a skull and cross bones underneath.  I thought this was an excellent metaphor for what sometimes happens in the work place because although we don’t use physical whips we do use words and the emotions behind them as whips.  

Verbal attacks create a false sense of harmony that can be read by unseeing managers as high morale. What is really happening is that morale appears to be ok because attacked persons are reluctant to admit there is a problem because even this admission can lead to unfortunate consequences.  They know the boss can make life exceedingly difficult at work either through constant attacks by ignoring them completely so they are careful about what they say. 

Then there are others who know something is wrong perhaps a process was incorrectly done or someone was unfairly accused, and they won’t speak up because speaking up implicates them in the mistake in some way and they do not want to be linked to the error.

Being hesitant about speaking up is not limited to employees.  There are some managers who are afraid to speak up for their staff to their bosses.  These managers don’t have a voice in the organization so they can’t effectively represent their employees if something is needed.

There are other managers who are ill equipped to handle confrontational or abusive employees so they    avoid these employees, allowing inappropriate, hostile behaviours to infiltrate the team.   Abusive employees really need direction or corrective action and by ignoring them the boss weakens the entire team.

Some managers appear to allow opinions but manipulate the discussion back to their way of thinking.  Employees see manipulation for what it is and it can have the same impact as a frontal attack because in the end, people will not make a contribution because the effort is viewed as futile.

There are managers who always speak about an “open door” policy, they even leave their doors open, but employees rarely enter their office because they usually encounter an unwelcoming atmosphere.  Either the manager is busy typing while the employee is speaking or the manager constantly takes calls or they are abrupt or short with employees. 

Some bosses avoid employees who want to have a voice because the boss has something to hide or because they can’t handle the truth.  It may be that the boss is being confronted by an unfair decision or the boss may just not like the employee and they want them to suffer.  They don’t understand or care that if you negatively affect one person on a team, the whole team is impacted.

Speaking up is about having a voice in your company.   There are some companies that are very disciplined about inviting employees to contribute and state their cases.  In fact they encourage this because they value creativity, conflict management and team building.  The management team consistently invites dialogue, they take corrective action when appropriate, they reward great ideas and they support their staff in developing their creativity.  

In other work environments, speaking up is viewed as unwanted.  The managers want everyone to sing from the same song sheet, not understanding the power of harnessing diverse views and integrating those views into a stronger solution. 
Allowing managers and employees the latitude to express themselves and teaching them how to express themselves constructively, helps everyone to feel valued by the organization and helps the organization to grow. 

Your ability to speak up is a function of the emotional competence, and openness of the leadership team.  They are the primary architects of the culture of your company so here are a few ideas for leaders who are ready to create an environment that is safe for employees to contribute their ideas and thoughts:

• Some employers recognize that not listening to employees will not only lead to low morale, it can cause the management team to make the wrong decisions or miss opportunities for innovation.  With this in mind, some companies set up meetings where groups of employees dialogue with the President or another Executive who will listen to employees’ suggestions and challenges. 

• Some companies encourage employees to make suggestions using other communication tools.  They use company blogs, employee hotlines, employee surveys or the intranet to accept and respond to feedback.   These tools are usually backed up with a process for reviewing suggestions and comments, taking action and communicating the actions or decisions to employees.  Assistant Professor Ethan Burris stated, “Formal transparent follow-up is very important.  It is counterproductive to ask an employee for feedback if you never do anything with that information.  If staff see their ideas just disappear, they’ll stop offering them altogether.”

• Some employers develop leaders who use emotional intelligence when communicating so they can navigate their emotions and biases.  They want to be sure managers are responding to ideas and not external personalities or  internal emotions.   

• To help with the transition to speaking up, some employers provide training to employees designed to help them communicate and support their ideas clearly and with respect.

Speaking up is really about opening top down, bottom up and lateral communication channels.  Sharing important information, listening to employees and implementing their ideas helps them to feel valued and connected to the organization.  This is an important part of the formula for attracting and retaining your best employees.

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  If you are interested in exploring how you can create better collaboration and stronger leadership within your organization, you can contact her at www.orgsoul.com.

They have the qualifications and the results to match.  They are young, highly driven, talented, energetic, and they move through your organization at warp speed.  They are the young executives or managers that skipped through the ranks or joined your company at a senior level.

The company has big plans for the young leaders but you are reporting to one of them and you don’t feel engaged, you feel fearful.  You don’t feel energetic, you feel drained, voiceless, over worked and perhaps angry.

Based on interactions with a wide variety of businesses here are typical descriptions of the characteristics of younger bosses by employees of any generation:

• Younger bosses are not always sensitive to members of the team.  These managers appear to be more focused on their personal performance and results and how employees can contribute to their success. 
• Some younger managers lack the maturity and wisdom to resolve complex or emotionally charged situations.
• Younger bosses sometimes contribute to making the work environment highly political.  Employees describe not being comfortable speaking up with younger bosses so they become adept at tip-toeing around issues in the office.
• Younger managers may intentionally or unintentionally create unhealthy competition that can lead to tension among team members and divisiveness instead of collaboration.
• Younger managers sometimes don’t listen to long tenured employees because they perceive them as complainers or as being resistant to change.   As a result there is no communication flow so younger managers make mistakes.
• Younger bosses are sometimes indecisive due to their lack of knowledge and experience.
• Younger managers don’t always have true authority.  They can claim the executive or managerial job title, they are making the money but they don’t have actual authority because someone else is calling the shots.  At times they can’t even approve a cheque for $50.00!
• Younger employees tend to be more comfortable communicating about difficult subjects via email.  This is suboptimal for long tenured employees because by communicating about difficult subject matter via email, it becomes infinitely more difficult to get the message across accurately and constructively. 

The intent here is not to say that all young bosses are the same because in the real world there are always variations.  For instance, while long tenured employees can display problem solving prowess with the ability to integrate distinct technical and interpersonal skills some young bosses may also possess this characteristic.

Differences between Generations in the Workplace.

In a 2007 Forbes Article, author Tara Weiss quotes Jill Arlinghaus at Burke Incorporated saying, “Younger employees grew up using computers and Web-based applications, so learning new ones comes more intuitively to them. It's not that older workers aren't willing to learn, you have to walk them through it. The younger people are more willing to figure it out for themselves."

Long tenured employees tend to value loyalty and they show up at work on time or even an hour before time and they work until the job is done.  Young bosses tend to work endless hours, sending emails to their direct reports at 2:00 am in the morning. 
Long tenured employees are often repositories of institutional knowledge.  They understand operations and they may have experienced various restructuring exercises so they may have a deep understanding of the business.  Long tenured employees can be key points of contact if younger employees need information about what happened in the past but this won’t happen if the long tenured employee is perceived as resistant to change.  Long tenured employees sometimes resist change saying things like: “We tried that before and it didn’t work” or “It is fine the way it is” and this perpetuates the stereotype.

In addition to change resistance, long tenured employees can be perceived as difficult for young bosses to manage because they perceive long tenured employees as know-it-alls.    Long tenured employees may even show disrespect to younger bosses because they feel they were not considered for a “deserved” promotion.

Coexistence – Making Differences Work

In a 2004 study conducted for the Society of Human Resources Management, one of the findings was that keeping workers of different generations apart is not a successful practice.  Their findings indicated that diversity of insight, skills, communication styles and knowledge contribute to higher performance.

So how do you achieve coexistence in multi-generational workplace?  Here are a few tips:

• Take the time to understand each others’ differences in values and skills.  See differences as assets, not obstacles.
• Everyone has strengths and weaknesses so decide to demonstrate respect instead of impatience.
• Communicate appropriately with each other.  Find the right balance between verbal communication and emails.
• Adopt situational leadership skills where you interact with employees in ways they will respond best.  Gone are the days of “one-size-fits-all” leadership styles.
• Sometimes people in the work force find it difficult to give and receive constructive advice.  This is one of the primary causes of stunted development.  Learn to invite insights from each other and be receptive.  Don’t let your biases and defenses interfere.

The only way to achieve coexistence in a multigenerational workforce is for all generations to make commitments to modify their behaviours.   Donald Trump once said “It can be tough to take orders from somebody younger than you are. And it can be hard to give direction to somebody older than you are. But good managers and good employees find a way to make it work.”

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  If you are interested in exploring how you can create higher performing team leaders, you can contact her at www.orgsoul.com.

In a perfect world you go to work and you are an engaged employee, sometimes doing the little extras that help you and your coworkers to excel.  In reality, different people exert different levels of effort at work for numerous reasons.  In a work environment, this creates a situation where not everyone is applying themselves at the same level and this usually impacts the balance of work load and it can influence results.

Years ago I came across a basic formula for success that suggests that effort, skill level and opportunity can lead to success.   Effort is supported by your drive and drive is what keeps you pushing toward your goal no matter how challenging or impossible circumstances appear to be.  Drive is about your determination.  

Your skill level also plays an integral part in your level of effort.  If a skill comes naturally to you, your level of effort will seem low or even nonexistent to some.  In the success formula, skill can be substituted with talent.   If you are working in an area that brings out your talent, if your environment is supportive, your drive may be high.  As you know, a high level of talent isn’t always linked to drive and many employers spend time encouraging talented employees to realize their potential but the employees have no drive.  In cases like this, unless the employee becomes intrinsically motivated, the potential you perceive as an employer will not be realized.

For some people, motivation is extrinsic.  You may be motivated by what people think about you or what they expect of you.  This can lead to fear as a driver because of your need to please.  For others, you are motivated intrinsically by your personal goals, values and purpose.  What others think about you doesn’t impact your effort or your commitment levels.  Your effort is primarily a product of your internal drivers.

You can encounter a variety of levels of effort in a work environment:

• Zero Effort: There some of you who are either lazy or disinterested in your jobs because you have been continuously overlooked or you are in the wrong job or because you didn’t want the job in the first place.  You may come to work, you may not.  Your results are below average and you really don’t care about your productivity or how your lack of effort impacts the rest of the team. 
• Minimal Effort:  There are others of you who decide to appear to be exerting minimal effort but you are only spinning wheels either because you are in a role that is beyond your capacity or because you are demotivated by dynamics within your work environment. 
• Average Effort:  Some of you can do the job but you exert a controlled amount of effort.  You do just enough to obtain a satisfactory performance rating. 
• Above Average and Exceptional Effort:  Above average effort demonstrates commitment, drive and focus.  Above average and exceptional effort may lead to different types of reward and recognition that may culminate in a promotion, or it may lead to intensified political tricks within the work environment.  For some people, they exert maximum effort but because they are not talented in that area, their results are not aligned with their level of effort.

It is important to note that effort isn’t always an indicator of results because there is always diversity in individual skill sets and skill levels.  If your skill level is advanced, a low level of effort can achieve strong results.   If you are one of those people who is always trying really hard but your efforts do not produce the kinds of results you expect, you may want rethink your career goals.

Obstacles to Effort

There are a number of situations that can create barriers to effort:

• Low skill levels can lead to frustration because of high levels of effort and a lack of desired results.  After experiencing repeated disappointment, effort levels may diminish.
• Highly political environments can cause you to lower your level of effort because you don’t want to become the target of jealous or insecure coworkers.
• There are some environments where the resources necessary for your performance are just not available.  Resources can range from human resources to technology to stationery.
• Some of you feel you are in a hopeless situation because you perceive that if you exert effort you won’t be recognized and if you don’t exert effort you won’t be recognized.  Externally, this could be due to a highly politicized environment, unfair practices or ineffective leadership.  Or it may be due to a skill deficiency.

When someone starts a new job it is unclear at first how much effort is just the right amount.  In your recruitment interview, your new employer may emphasize results or say they are looking for a change and when you start working, the people in your environment resist the changes you suggest.  They say no to your ideas or they make life difficult for you, giving you only a fraction of the information you need.  In a new role, it is suggested that you seek to learn the power structures of your work environment as a first step so that you can understand how to navigate the political land mines. 

There are times employees approach me and say that they work so hard so they feel entitled to recognition or a promotion.  What they fail to realize is that numerous work environments are cutting costs and this usually translates into doing more with less resources.  So it is the norm that employees are working harder and so the only way to differentiate themselves in an environment where hard work is not a differentiating factor is to work smarter.  This means finding new ways to improve your performance levels by increasing your value. 

As you can see, effort alone is not a predictor of your success.  Effort, skill and opportunity pave the way to success.  I would suggest there a fourth predictive component of success.  It is a type of skill but it needs to be highlighted.  This fourth predictive skill is Emotional Intelligence.  Emotional Intelligence is about understanding right timing, managing yourself and difficult situations, choosing optimism and understanding the consequences of your actions.  Emotional Intelligence can help you to differentiate yourself and can ultimately lead to recognition of your effort.

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  If you are interested in exploring how you can create higher performing team leaders, you contact her at www.orgsoul.com.

Different cultures refer to the “Black Crab” syndrome in different ways.  Some call it “Crabs in a Bucket” others call it “Crabs in a Barrel”.   No matter what it is called, the definition of the term is consistent.  

When you observe a large number of crabs in an upright receptacle, typically none of them can escape.  The reason is that each crab tries to escape the bucket by doing whatever it can to elevate itself out of the bucket.  This includes using other crabs that are closer to the top as leverage.  The trouble with this approach is that if all the crabs are using the same tactic, none of them can escape.

In researching this phenomenon, one writer asserted that when the Africans were taken from Africa to North America, the Caribbean and South America, various tribes were thrust together and slowly the displaced Africans stopped working as a family or part of a group.  It was asserted that their mindset was eventually influenced by their captors who forced survival of the fittest versus collective survival.

Eventually the old values of lifting each other up or “standing on the shoulders of ancestors” were replaced by divisive philosophies that lead people to depend on the “dog eat dog” way of being or activities that diminish some so that others can raise themselves up.

As a result of these philosophies in our present day, cultural context, we adopt an approach in business where we never let the “left hand know what the right hand is doing”.   This is an obvious trait that perpetuates mistrust, caution and individual survival as opposed to support, trust, openness and collaboration.

One way the “Black Crab” syndrome manifests itself in business is through the lack of mentoring and coaching.  Managers and supervisors constantly complain about employees being too dependent and not making decisions.  These managers are not realizing that they are creating the situation.  For instance, a manager has a deadline and an employee is taking longer than appropriate so instead of using this as a developmental opportunity, the manager takes the work and completes it himself. 

The manager then gets overwhelmed with the added responsibility of work that was originally delegated and appears to be unproductive, always complaining about employees and the volume of work.   In these circumstances, employees are not developed because they are not given the opportunity to try or even understand the delegated work request.  When this happens, no-one wins. 

Other “Black Crab” situations are clearly evident where employees point out the errors of other employees or they complain about each other to their bosses.  If they all do this to each other, no-one wins unless you have discerning leaders.

In both of these examples, individual survival outweighs the need for the survival of the collective.

Building a System of Support

Building a system of support can start at an individual level.  If you perceive someone to be in a better position than you and this evokes an unproductive emotion within you, it is time to make a paradigm shift so that other people’s success won’t negatively affect you.  

If you fall within this category, you perceive things from a place of limitation and lack and these thoughts lead to unproductive thoughts of impossibility, hopelessness, resentment of yourself and jealousy of others.  On the other end of the spectrum, there are some of you who witness success in others and this inspires you, teaching you that you can achieve your goals. 

Emotional Intelligence skills of emotional literacy, navigating your emotions and optimism can help you to make your internal adjustment.  Emotional literacy helps you to identify your emotions and emotional navigation helps you to move around these emotions so that you can respond in a way that helps build collaboration.  Optimism is a skill that moves you from a place of powerlessness to empowerment with the ability to perceive opportunities.

From a team building perspective, “black crab” work environments tend to be devoid of trust and mutual support and rife with office politics.   In these environments, leaders are not effective at picking up the leadership mantle so the, “Every man for himself” value system pervades the work place.   

Another one of the first steps in building collaboration is to identify if the leaders are the right people to take the team forward.  If so, they should be developed, if not, the right team leaders should be appointed.  In addition to performance, one of the leaders’ primary objectives should be to hold members of the team accountable to supportive behaviour through coaching, aligned reward and recognition and if necessary, corrective action which could lead to termination or reassignment.

One of the underlying assumptions in creating a high performing, mutually supportive team environment is that the decision makers are not afraid to make the tough calls.  Many decision makers are very aware of who is obstructing the flow of collaboration but they are unwilling to make the tough decision, rationalizing their hesitance by putting significant weight on the positive contributions of the persons creating barriers.  This decision making process focuses on individual, short term results as opposed to collective, synergistic, long term results and rewards.

The “Black Crab” phenomenon can be transformed through the right leadership competencies.  Most leaders already know the “Black Crab” way when they see it so they need to take a stand by developing a focus on collective performance enhancement, introducing the right accountabilities, facing resistance to change and making tough decisions designed to consciously transform the culture of the work place.

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  If you are interested in exploring how you can create higher performing team leaders, you contact her at www.orgsoul.com