For those who would not have given this answer to my initial question, what would you have said? How will you remember August 2010? Let us know!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

There are some situations in which people’s names are changed for them. Alternatively, they may choose to change them on their own. For example, people often take new or additional names as part of religious rites of passage. On a more worldly level, some people may be given nicknames, or they may select their own. Records indicate that decades ago, many immigrants’ names were changed when they were processed into the U.S. at Ellis Island. They accepted the forced new identities because the urge to seek a new life in America was stronger than the need to hold on to the name they were given in their home countries. Changing one’s name when one gets married may be traumatic for some yet a welcome opportunity for others. For instance, those whose names are tied closely to their sense of identity or for whom there is a strong family connection may be reluctant to leave those monikers behind. Yet others cannot wait to shed their names, which may be cumbersome, or reveal something that their “owners” wish to leave behind (e.g., notoriety or fame), or cause implicit assumptions (e.g., ethnic identify).

For these reasons and others, names often are personal. So when others misspell or mispronounce people’s names, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they take such errors personally. If these “mistakes” are intentional, they might be interpreted as a sign of disrespect. If unintentional, they may signal lack of attention to detail, or indifference toward the individual. Because writers’ and speakers’ intentions generally are not known, people often assume the worst and take the error as a sign of disrespect. As a result, the relationship goes downhill from there – or never gets off the ground.

Here are two questions for you: when others spell or say your name erroneously, do you correct the mistake or do you let it go? Whatever your choice, how does it work for you? If you let the error go, you may find that continued exposure to someone who continuously misspells or misstates your name is analogous to a pebble in your shoe: initially a minor annoyance you decide is not worth fixing, its continuous rubbing ends up causing a blister or other injury that affects the way you walk. Now your body is out of alignment. Isn’t it worth taking the time to remove the pebble in the first place?

In the workplace, what happens when you don’t know your employees’ or co-workers’ names? Or worse yet, what if you know them but don’t use them? People have reported feeling invisible or de-valued when others don’t have the courtesy or respect to call them by name and/or to use their names correctly. Think it doesn’t matter? I’ll never forget the words of an information technology director of a large healthcare organization who was seeking another job: “My office has been next to the CIO’s (Chief Information Officer’s) office for three years. He doesn’t even know my name.” Is it any wonder that his colleagues and employees were leaving in droves?

There’s a really simple preventive measure you can take to ensure your employees and colleagues feel respected and valued: learn and use their names correctly. The return on investment (ROI) on the time spent learning names is huge. Think back to the time when your career was just beginning. Was there a person in authority in the organization, perhaps an executive or the business owner, who knew you by name? Or going back even further, was there a time when a teacher or a professor called you by name without having to refer to the class roster? Do you remember your reaction? Perhaps the experience of someone else’s knowing and acknowledging you left you with an added sense of importance and/or a greater sense of visibility.

I encourage you to learn and use others’ names. Watch the change in those around you when you do. Make someone’s day. It’s an easy and effective way to acknowledge and validate people who otherwise might believe they are passing through life unnoticed. And you might just feel better yourself.

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Why is it that this very public meltdown of an airline employee resonated with so many U.S. workers? How is it that someone who engaged in highly dangerous and possibly illegal behavior has become an instant folk hero to many? It may be partly because this individual acted out a fantasy that workers share when they feel that they are not in charge of their lives. In effect, they fantasize that they are taking control of their lives.

What’s wrong with this picture? For starters, having control of one’s life should be a reality rather than a fantasy. Yet workers often believe that other people and things are calling the shots. As a result, they are much more likely to “lose it” with customers than they would if they felt they did have some control. The good news is that managers can help workers mitigate the need for such a fantasy by providing tools and techniques that enable them to keep their cool and thereby maintain control over their behaviors. Here are five suggestions:

1. Educate employees about their opportunities and choices.
When people feel overwhelmed, they often believe, and then act as if, they are helpless. At those times they feel unable to help themselves, or even to consider the possibility that there are alternatives.

2. Give people permission to take charge of their lives.
Some individuals literally need to have someone tell them it’s okay to feel, see, or experience things differently than they have in the past. They can be in charge.

3. Communicate high expectations of workers’ performance and ability.
Most people will try to live up (or down) to others’ expectations of them. Challenge employees in ways that enable them to realize their potential.

4. Give employees the tools they need to respond appropriately. For example:

A. Train them how to deal effectively with difficult customers.

B. Back them up and reinforce their choices when they are appropriate.

C. Identify the behavioral boundaries for themselves and for customers (internal and external).

D. Help them develop alternative stories about what’s going on so they can control their thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.

E. Invest them with the authority to act and to be pro-active in their work (e.g., handle customer complaints without having to go to a manager).

5. Support employees when customers are wrong.
The saying, “The customer is always right” is a workplace myth that has caused more damage than we ever will know. It’s not true, and it communicates a highly misleading message to both employees and customers.

For employees to keep their cool in the workplace, they must have a sense of control. This feeling will help them handle negative, annoying, and/or disruptive behaviors in ways that can result in a constructive ending for all concerned. The good news: most of the tools and techniques described above result in huge benefits at little or no financial cost.

What techniques have you have used successfully to help your employees take control of their lives? Let us know!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Researchers examined job candidates’ perceptions of two types of value: subjective and economic. Subjective value included candidates’ feelings about the outcome of the negotiation, themselves, the negotiation process, and the relationship among the negotiators. Economic value was defined as the total compensation package plus the value of any additional concessions made by the employer. The researchers found that the subjective value was more important in determining the three outcomes listed above than the economic outcomes gained during the negotiation. In fact, the economic value achieved was not significantly associated with these outcomes at all.

To learn more about this study and to read five suggestions about how to conduct job offer negotiations that lead to the long-lasting positive employee attitudes, I invite you to read my article Job Offer Negotiations: Setting the Stage for Long-term Job Attitudes. And let me know what you think!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

The study, published in the April 2010 issue of the Academy of Management Journal, found that employees in the study were more likely to engage in innovative behavior when they expected it would benefit their work than when they did not expect such an outcome. Similarly, they avoided engaging in innovative behavior when they feared doing so would cause others to view them negatively.

The researchers identified five factors that influenced employees’ expectations about the outcomes related to engaging in innovation behaviors. The good news is that most of those five factors are controllable by management. To learn what those factors are and to read about seven practical suggestions for encouraging your employees to engage in innovative behavior, I invite you to read my article How to Encourage Employees to Engage in Innovative Behavior. And let me know what you think!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

A comic strip called Rudy Park addressed the issue of customer-provided service this week by articulating the thought process of a business owner seeking to wring more money out of his customers. In yesterday’s strip, the owner had a brainstorm: instead of having his employees fill customers’ coffee orders, he would call his business a training ground and charge customers for the privilege of making their own coffee! In today’s episode, he decided he would charge a premium for allowing customers to wash their own coffee cups. This conclusion might have been funny were it not for the fact that we are seeing this pattern in more and more establishments.

No doubt you have experienced the “customer service as self-service” phenomenon yourself. Companies that used to have employees provide services to customers now require customers to do the work themselves AND pay for the privilege of doing so. Here are a few examples:

Gas stations: Does anyone remember the days when gas station attendants were the norm? Even when they started fading from the scene, they went gradually – i.e., you had a choice between self-service and full service. No more.

Grocery stores: For a while, so-called “big box” stores made an appearance, trading self-service for lower prices, which seemed a fair exchange. Yet today, many grocery stores have self-service lines in which customers check themselves out and pack their own groceries. Personally I haven’t noticed grocery prices going down as a result.

Air travel: Travelers today find and book their own flights, and can choose to pay the baggage fee on-line or pay a premium for paying at the self-service kiosk at the airport. In many airports, after getting the luggage tags, travelers then must haul their luggage to the TSA security checkpoint so it can go through screening. I’m waiting for the day when passengers also are told to screen their own bags….

The point is that customers now are required to perform many services that formerly were provided by companies. This raises a question: if we don’t do a good job, or we are unable to resolve the problem, are we to blame? To whom do we complain?

What are the implications of the customer-provided service trend for business? Certainly, entire classifications of jobs will disappear – e.g., customer service agent, customer service manager, technicians. Costs will be much lower because workforces will be smaller. Presumably this will help profits, as I don’t see a concomitant reduction in prices. Yet what about the cost of decreased customer satisfaction? Are companies being “penny wise and pound foolish” by forcing customers to provide the desired service AND to pay for the privilege of doing so? At what point do people begin to feel that they work for the companies they are patronizing and should be compensated for their services? What are your thoughts about this issue?

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

1. Identify and focus on what’s in it (i.e., the behavioral change) for ME. The best motivator I know is enlightened self-interest. However, the key to success is focusing on individual interests, not on those of the team or the organization or the family.

2. Create a very clear and compelling picture of the outcome, and explain how the desired behavior supports it. People who see the connection between behaviors and outcomes are much more willing to embrace the desired change and sustain it over time.

3. Leaders must identify and demonstrate clearly the desired behavior. It’s not enough to say “Don’t do X.” You must go further and demonstrate (not just verbalize) the desired behavior, Y. People need a “picture” of the behavior you are requesting, something to replace the one that represents the current behavior. Otherwise they will revert quickly to what they know.

4. Reinforce the desired behaviors. Make sure the infrastructure (e.g., performance management and reward systems) supports the desired behaviors.

5. Celebrate successes along the way, not just final outcomes. This keeps the focus on the achievement of the desired behavior in the short-term as well as in the long-term.

The good news is that these tools work outside the workplace as well! To learn about three suggestions for how to sustain personal behavioral changes, I invite you to take a look at my article Promises, Promises: Three Ways to Achieve Lasting Behavioral Change in Your Personal Life. And let me know how YOU create and sustain lasting behavioral change!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

The study, written by Dr. A. Nyberg and published in the May 2010 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, examined how employees’ decisions about whether to voluntarily leave the organization were influenced by performance, pay growth, pay for performance, promotions, labor market conditions, and job satisfaction. In particular, he compared and contrasted decisions of higher performers in the workplace and lower performers.

Among other findings, the data indicate that higher performers were found to leave their organization voluntarily even when the relevant unemployment rate was relatively high. In other words, internal factors such as pay growth over time are more salient to high performers than external labor market conditions. The good news for employers is that these internal factors are somewhat controllable.

For information about the study’s other findings and to learn what you can do to retain high performers, I invite you to read my article What You Don’t Know about Retaining High Performers Can Hurt You. And let me know what you think!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Decision-making secret #1: Tell others up front HOW the decision will be made

Time and again, I have seen managers run into trouble over decisions they make, not because of the decisions themselves, but because of misaligned expectations about HOW the decisions would be made. Here’s a common scenario: a manager asks employees for feedback about a workplace decision. Employees provide the information, only to learn later that the manager’s decision was contrary to their advice. They are unhappy, feeling the manager has wasted their time and disrespected their expertise, while the manager is bewildered by their reaction.

This is a classic case of not clarifying and aligning expectations up front. No doubt the employees assumed that the manager would take their advice, while the manager’s plan was to listen, then make the decision she believed to be best.

The secret in this case is to state clearly in advance how the decision will be made. Here are some examples of what I mean:

• Manager makes the decision on her own without soliciting employees’ input.
• Manager solicits employees’ input, considers the feedback, and makes the decision based on what she believes will result in the best outcome.
• Manager solicits employees’ input; the decision is based on consensus.
• Manager has employees make the decision.

None of these examples is right or wrong per se; in fact, one person may use all of these alternatives at different points in time. The best choice depends on factors such as the situation at hand and the impact the decision will have. For example, in times of emergency, the manager is not likely to ask for employee input. The point is that the employees’ expectations about how the decision will be made must match those of the manager.

Decision-making secret #2: Ensure the decision-making process is fair

One of the best kept secrets in the workplace is the power of procedural fairness, a topic on which I have written extensively. Briefly, research and experience tell us that even when people do not like or agree with a decision, they will accept it IF they believe the rules by which the decision was made were fair. What this means is that the decision-making process must have these characteristics:

• Be free of bias
• Be transparent
• Allow for meaningful input from stakeholders
• Identify clear decision criteria (with objective standards if possible)
• Be communicated in advance to everyone involved
• Follow the stated criteria
• Justify clearly any exceptions to the rules

The bad news is that managers often make decisions that are unpopular because of situations over which they have little or no control (e.g., no pay increases due to poor economic conditions). The good news is that leaders always have control over the processes by which they make those decisions. The best news is that when employees perceive the process as fair, they will accept the decisions.

Now that you know the “secrets” of effective decision-making, give them a try! And let us know how they work for you.

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

1. Identify the types of rewards and recognition that you value.

The first step in creating an effective reward/recognition system for yourself is being clear on what you want and need. This may require some outside-the-box thinking! Consider things that are meaningful to you and require little or no cost, such as taking a walk in nature, reading a good book, getting together with friends, or simply relaxing.

2. Experience the power of recognition.

Are you one of the many individuals who fail to give themselves credit for their achievements, or who refuse to accept recognition from others? If so, I have some advice for you: stop it! Instead, start listening carefully to what attributes or accomplishments others praise you for, and take ownership of the things they say. Allow yourself to acknowledge who you are and what you have done. Ask close friends or family members to identify some of your best characteristics or achievements, and reflect on the positive impact they have on others. Do not wait until you have finished a task or project to reward or recognize yourself; making progress is worthy of recognition as well. Incorporate meaningful forms of reward and recognition liberally into each day.

3. Connect rewards with performance that you can control or influence.

Few things are more de-motivating to people than being offered rewards for achieving outcomes over which they have little or no control. So why do they do it to themselves? Those who engage in this type of behavior are wreaking havoc on themselves and diminishing the quality of their lives. Instead, make sure that the personal goals you set for yourself are achievable. Break medium- or long-term goals into shorter pieces and celebrate your progress as you move along the path to completion.

For additional details about these ideas or to read about the remaining suggestions, I invite you to take a look at the article How to Optimize Your Personal Rewards/Recognition ROI. Then let me know your favorite way to recognize your achievements.

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.