6Putting It All Together

WHEN IT COMES to achieving the model workplace it’s the path to your destination that counts most: it’s all about managing the trip along the way. This chapter offers practical advice and guidance—not theory or wishful thinking about how things could be in an ideal world. Effective leadership, which entails getting people to fall in love with your company and become loyal to it, is within your grasp. But it’s details and nuance that matter, such as how you treat the most vulnerable, isolated, or marginalized employees, and how you create a workplace based on respect and trust. Create that healthy environment that invites everyone to perform at their best and reach their highest self in terms of creativity, innovation, and teamwork.

Let’s look at some of the ways you can make small differences that can have a profound effect—not just on those immediately impacted but for the team members who are witnessing your leadership style. You can be the nicest and most caring boss in the world, but it will only work if you set high expectations and hold people accountable for their actions.

Achieving the Model Workplace: Productivity, Loyalty, and High Performance

Throughout this book, we’ve discussed the following principles:

1. Motivation and engagement stem from knowing your employees on a more personal level and demonstrating that you’re listening and that you care.

2. Creating an environment where people can motivate themselves is the greatest responsibility and opportunity for all leaders.

3. Practicing selfless leadership and expecting others to respond in kind creates an ideal work environment where self-expression becomes the norm, employees feel safe to customize solutions to the challenges they face, and personal and career development complement the contributions that people make to the company.

4. Setting and communicating high expectations allows you to challenge your superstars and get everyone in sync in terms of your department’s priorities and goals.

5. Removing problematic employees who are either unwilling or incapable of assuming good intentions or otherwise supporting their leader, department, or company is as important as creating a healthy, motivating, and engaging working environment for the rest of the team.

All these factors combine in an ever-changing, dynamic matrix that requires constant oversight, focus, and fine-tuning.

We’ve demonstrated throughout the book what tools, tactics, and strategies you have at your disposal to lead effectively though change: quarterly achievement calendars, self-reviews, intermittent rotational assignments, proactive “stay interviews” to gauge the level of employee engagement and satisfaction, constructive approaches to communicating bad news, alternatives to corrective action, and the like. But how do you know you’re approaching a working environment where people are genuinely happy and firing on all cylinders? How can you tell whether you’ve reached a state of “happy cows producing more milk”? In short, how do you assess the performance, productivity, and sense of self-fulfillment of your staff?

First, look at your turnover and retention statistics. The strongest and most successful companies benefit from long employee tenure. Where does your departmental or divisional turnover stand relative to the rest of your company and your broader industry? The general rules for most organizations in corporate America are as follows:

10 percent turnover is ideal.

20 percent turnover is average.

35 percent turnover or higher is excessive.

These numbers may vary with the industry and the types of positions, with sales typically seeing the highest turnover, and HR, accounting, and IT seeing the least. Next, compare your current turnover against last year’s turnover and that of the year before. What trends and patterns do you see? How would you project this year’s and next year’s turnover in light of your company and department’s current state of affairs? Are you happy with the trend or concerned?

Distinguish between voluntary and involuntary turnover. Voluntary turnover occurs when someone leaves the organization to join a competitor, return to school, or retire. Focus on the loss of employees to competitor companies. Conduct exit interviews to find out what their reasons are for leaving. If the main reasons are (1) lack of recognition, appreciation, or communication from management, (2) lack of career advancement opportunities, and (3) insufficient compensation, then you must prepare to address these areas to increase your retention rate.

Involuntary turnover stems from position eliminations (layoffs) and terminations for cause. Because layoffs and reductions in force are typically not within your control as a company leader, these numbers shouldn’t play as significant a role in your turnover analysis. However, terminations for cause should be studied carefully. If you find that you’re terminating more people than you’d otherwise expect, look closely at your interviewing, onboarding, and initial training programs to identify weaknesses or missed opportunities to select or train more effectively.

Remember as well that turnover is relative. High turnover could indicate that your employees have not been trained adequately, held to high expectations, or otherwise developed a healthy sense of engagement in their work or loyalty to the company. But low turnover could also be a problem as well if productivity of long-tenured workers fails to meet minimum expectations. Sometimes complacent teams need to have a fire lit underneath them to reinvigorate them and drive higher productivity. So while long-term tenure doesn’t always spell success, the golden formula you’ll be looking for is low turnover combined with high productivity and performance.

Finally, identify the human capital metrics that define your organizational priorities. For example, you might want to set up a simple scorecard or dashboard that looks something like this:

Average tenure (nonexempt):

Average tenure (leadership):

Number of corrective actions over the past quarter (distinguish among performance, attendance, and conduct):

Number of high potential (“HiPo”) employees:

Number of individuals identified for succession planning who are ready to step up one or even two levels (your “bench strength”):

Number of cross-trained individuals who can cross seamlessly into other functional areas or roles:

Percentage of voluntary resignations versus terminations for cause (typically 70 to 80 percent voluntary and 20 to 30 percent involuntary):

Length of time to fill an open position (i.e., the amount of time an average position remains open):

Number of promotions/percentage of internal fills (especially from your HiPo population):

Average salary/wage per employee classification:

Average education level:

Average performance review score per team, department, or division:

Primary versus secondary reasons for leaving the company (according to exit interview data):

Reasons for progressive discipline and terminations for cause:

What gets measured gets managed, and determining your people statistics is a very important step in creating the checks and balances needed to ensure that you’re on the right track. Once you create a profile of your “average” employee, you can then start to get more detailed in your approach. Books have been written on human capital metrics and analytics that link people performance to financial measures within the organization. The goal of such books is to replace the “widget” accounting standards of a hundred years ago that inform our generally accepted accounting principles and modernize them to reflect human capital input instead. While transitioning fully to a human capital–based measurement system may still be years away, the number of books on the topic shows the growing momentum in this new field of study.

Lessons from the HR Trenches: Wisdom and Experience to Benefit Frontline Leaders

After spending about two decades in the HR trenches, I’ve written this book from the vantage point of senior HR leadership, where I’ve watched well-intentioned managers step on land mines because of a simple lack of awareness. HR, when done right, demonstrates and models effective leadership, superior communication, and well-executed teamwork. Moreover, it’s looked to as the department that fosters healthy morale, ethics, and career development. Many would argue that HR, more so than any other department, reflects the organization’s heart and soul.

Most HR executives and practitioners want to help front-line leaders avoid the land mines that come with supervising workers on a daily basis. Many of the errors that managers make are avoidable, especially the ones that create a troublesome legal record for both the company and the manager. Hence the purpose of this book is to assist frontline leaders in strengthening their communication skills, awareness, and general approach to managing successfully.

Many leaders often fall prey to the common thinking that they have to be mean, tough, fierce, or otherwise feared to compete in the business world. Their reasoning? If people don’t fear them to some degree, they won’t be respected or otherwise effective in their role. The employees will take advantage of them if they’re too nice.

Nonsense! Some of the most effective leaders in corporate America at all levels are loved and adored. They’re seen as nurturers, good listeners, and empathetic and selfless human beings. The secret to their success doesn’t lie in their ability to instill fear in others; it lies in their ability to make others better human beings. And people feel that sense of specialness when dealing with leaders like these. They sense their genuineness, their true love of people and their work, and their willingness to help others better themselves.

The purpose of this book is to inspire readers to become that very kind of leader—someone who engages and inspires others to become the best they can be. However, while you don’t always see this type of leadership all around you throughout your career, you certainly know and appreciate it when you see it in others. The question you have to ask yourself is, What kind of leader do you choose to be? You can become an inspirational leader by simply changing your sponsoring thought about being so.

For those who doubt this approach because it sounds too Polly-anna-ish, simply think about the worst consequences that can come of this leadership style: people won’t respect you and will take advantage of you. That may be true to a degree, at least initially. But selfless leaders put others’ needs ahead of their own and expect others to respond in kind. And people typically do! They’ll sense your genuineness and selflessness and put your needs (and the company’s needs) ahead of their own. And they won’t do it out of fear or a need to comply; they’ll do it because they want to. They’ll sense that you treat them with respect, hold them accountable like adults, and teach them so they can grow and develop in their own careers. And in feeling good about themselves because of your enlightened leadership style, they’ll give more discretionary effort out of loyalty and pride. Greatness can be found at the margin of output in the form of additional energy, effort, and goodwill. That may sound like a small thing when you’re looking at one worker, but think about the difference it could make when a department or an entire company has that orientation!

What about the occasional staffer who tries to take advantage of your good nature? It may go on for a little while, but before too long, peer pressure will fix the problem as peers “realign” that coworker’s errant approach to your leadership style. “Hey, knock it off. Paul deserves better than that, and he’d never treat you or any of us that way. I see what you’re doing and don’t like it. So does everyone else, including Paul. This isn’t going to work for you if you keep it up.” And the beauty of this healthy and “self-repairing” ecosystem is that you’ll have created an environment where even problematic employees can straighten themselves out because you’ll have lifted up those around them. This isn’t a fantasy. It’s very real and practical, and it’s working for thousands of leaders out there just like you.

Our goal, then, is to make this selfless leadership style more prevalent. To compete effectively in corporate America in the 21st century, companies and their leaders will have to make the employment experience more personal and intimate. It’s the next step in our nation’s commercial and psychosocial development and workplace history, and it’s a long awaited and practical change that will help organizations compete by retaining the best and brightest talent.

Putting Your Ethics “SOX” On: Your Reputation Is the Coin of the Realm

When Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the new law unleashed an array of corporate obligations and responsibilities, not the least of which impacted the day-to-day conduct of employees of publicly traded companies. When most U.S. workers hear the name Sarbanes-Oxley, or SOX as it’s often abbreviated, the first thing that comes to mind is financial and operational controls and disclosure requirements. And while financial measures and reforms in corporate governance standards make up a majority of SOX initiatives, documented codes of ethics are also a mainstay of the law. To comply, publicly traded companies must publish a code of conduct and ethics, often referred to as a business conduct statement, that must be proactively communicated to all employees.

That “proactive communication” typically comes in the form of live or online training, and here’s why it’s so critical. When SOX was passed, it had teeth. After the great stock market crash of 2000 to 2003 when millions of investors lost trillions of dollars in the equities market, having depended in good faith on falsified corporate financial statements, Congress made sure that any public companies that failed to comply with SOX reporting requirements would face stiff consequences. Specifically, CEOs and CFOs could face penalties of up to $1 million and/or imprisonment for up to ten years for something known as “defective certification.” Defective certification means that the CEO either knew or should have known about the inaccuracy in the company’s filed financial statement but failed to correct it. In addition, CEOs and CFOs could face penalties of up to $5 million and/or imprisonment for up to twenty years for “willful noncompliance,” or fraud. Because the law made CEOs and CFOs criminally liable, American corporations took notice and rolled out ethics and compliance programs in all worldwide locations at an unprecedented pace.

Your Obligations: Disclose Potential Conflicts of Interest

Let’s first look at your obligations to your company. SOX contains management certification requirements that confirm that no potential conflicts of interest exist that could threaten the validity of a corporate filing. To avoid defective certification, a CEO must certify that the information contained in a financial report like a 10Q or 10K is accurate and complete. And the only way your CEO can do that is to poll the workforce and ask employees to certify that they in turn have no conflicts of interest that could interfere with the larger corporate filing.

A conflict of interest exists when your outside business or personal interests adversely affect or have the appearance of adversely affecting your judgment at work. It’s critical that you disclose in writing anything that could place your company at risk, and having an undisclosed family relationship with coworkers, customers, suppliers, or competitors of the company is typically the number one issue. Here are other examples of potential conflicts:

•Accepting a personal benefit that obligates you in any way to a customer, vendor, or competitor

•Accepting or offering cash under any circumstances

•Taking a business opportunity away from your company by doing personal business with a customer, supplier, or competitor of the company, except as a regular consumer

•Having a financial interest in a customer, supplier, or competitor, other than less than 1 percent ownership of a publicly traded company

How do you handle such situations? Simply report these potential conflicts on any employee certification form that your company asks you to complete. To be on the safe side, even if you’re not given a formal disclosure form, when there is an issue, email it to your supervisor so that you have an electronic record of the disclosure to protect yourself.

Protect Company Time, Property, and Supplies

A critical obligation that you have to your company lies in your use of company property. Remember that your email and voicemail are company property. You have no reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to email, voicemail, desks, or lockers, and you could expect your company to reiterate this point during SOX training. Company systems are for company use.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t surf the net for a few minutes to buy a book or schedule a flight. Most companies won’t punish employees for limited and reasonable use of the Internet. However, you’ve got to be careful. If you visit a retail website and then minimize that site on your desktop (i.e., keep it running but out of site) rather than close it, it will still show up electronically as a continuous connection should you be audited by your company’s IT department.

Here’s how a “perception problem” could play out in the workplace: If your boss complains to HR that your performance is substandard because you’re spending too much time on non-company activities, HR may ask IT to run a check on your Internet usage. The electronic record you will have made could come back to haunt you. If the retail site you were visiting was minimized for four hours even though you only accessed it for four minutes, it could end up being your word versus your boss’s regarding the amount of actual work time that you spent making that retail purchase.

Bear in mind as well that if you purchase a screen saver for your home PC at a local retailer and later install it on your work computer, that could be a big problem. IT is obligated to conduct desktop audits on occasion, and if you’ve installed software that the company doesn’t own a license for, you could be disciplined for violation of software licensing rules.

If you watch pornography on the Internet, even with your office door closed, you could be terminated even for a first offense. Many employees forget that their Internet activity is traceable. What do you do, however, if you accidentally connect to a website that contains inappropriate information like pornography? Disconnect the second you realize that you shouldn’t be there. In fact, you may want to call HR or IT, explain the situation, and forward them the email link that you accidentally opened in order to make a record of the unintended site visit.

Your Rights Under SOX: Protection from Whistle Blower Retaliation

Section 806 of SOX prohibits retaliation against employees of a publicly traded company who make good-faith complaints and then are subject to retaliation for disclosing illegal activities by their employers that could ultimately constitute material fraud against shareholders. Here again SOX has teeth: employers will be subject to fines and up to ten years in prison for retaliating against informants.

For that reason, you can expect your company’s code of conduct trainers to emphasize the importance of a flexible reporting chain when lodging a complaint. The whole thrust of SOX centers on disclosure and review. A company can only fix problems that it is made aware of, and if employees fear going to their immediate supervisors, they must be given the chance to speak with others in the company. That’s why many publicly traded companies provide their worldwide employees with phone numbers and email addresses of senior corporate leaders and even audit committee board members. Employees may contact the board directly, either anonymously or by disclosing their names. Either way, employees have direct and immediate access right to the top of the corporation.

Antidiscrimination Provisions

Your company will no doubt take the opportunity to document and train all employees about its expectations regarding workplace behavior in terms of harassment and discrimination. SOX is, after all, a statement and confirmation about workplace ethics and behavior. Reminding everyone of their right to enjoy—and ensure—a workplace that is free from inappropriate workplace behavior consequently lies at the heart of SOX’s ethics message.

First, understand that if you are a supervisor and develop a personal relationship with a subordinate, then that personal relationship must be disclosed. That’s fairly logical; if you have the ability to impact a subordinate’s performance review or merit increase, and you suddenly fall out of love, any negative work-related criticism could be viewed as retaliation. What would be a typical company response to disclosing a personal relationship with a subordinate? Transferring the subordinate to another unit or supervisor so that there is no immediate reporting relationship or threat of retaliation may provide a simple and fair solution. The key lies in disclosing the new relationship right away, before a perception of retaliation ever arises.

Second, remember that harassment can take place on duty or off, in the office or on the road. Therefore, you should expect coworkers to treat you with the same respect off-site as in the office. Likewise, you’re under no obligation to put up with inappropriate comments or off-color jokes, physical contact (such as back rubs), or nonverbal conduct (such as leering or staring). Any such incidents should be reported immediately to a more senior member of management, including your supervisor, department head, HR, the labor relations department, or other company compliance officers (typically corporate counsel).

Be aware, however, that absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed if you make a claim that requires an investigation (and almost all claims do). Of course, all reports should be treated as confidential to the extent appropriate. However, HR or the individual conducting the investigation will very likely be obliged to expand that investigation on a “need to know” basis and ultimately bring your complaint to the individual charged. Such confrontation is never easy, but again, your company’s antidiscrimination policies and practices should provide appropriate protections from retaliation.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act certainly caught corporate America’s attention. Any time a new law threatens criminal sanctions against a company’s CEO and CFO, you can expect that law to garner lots of attention in the press as well as in the practice of company operations. SOX is a broad law that covers ethical business issues ranging from antitrust and insider information matters to political and charitable contributions and international antiboycott laws. Its most notable contribution lies in its emphasis on financial compliance and internal controls. But it also focuses on human behavior and ethics, and companies that undergo “best practices SOX training” will reemphasize the importance of maintaining a work environment that upholds the highest standards of business ethics and workplace behavior. Your rights and responsibilities are now more clearly outlined and defined than ever before, and for that you can be grateful, both as an employee and an investor.

Educating Entry-Level Workers About Ethical Issues That May Derail an Otherwise Successful (Early) Career

As with all things having to do with successful leadership, communication, and team building, it’s the little things you do that count. If you’re hiring recent high school or college graduates, take the time to teach them what they don’t learn in school: the ethical rules of business. Far too many young adults have entered the workforce without the proper introduction and education, only to find themselves under investigation and terminated for cause—without realizing why until it was too late. Raise their accountability by heightening their awareness early on and engaging them in all matters relating to career growth and development. Teach them life lessons when they join your organization—arguably their first encounter with a full-time job and the sometimes harsh expectations of the workplace. More importantly, steer them clear of the mistaken assumptions that may have landed their predecessors in hot water for failing to understand that school and workplace expectations can differ significantly.

The following subsections give examples of the incorrect assumptions that young workers might make, and examples of how you might train them regarding these issues. Thus, in much of the following discussion, the “you” is not the reader of this book but rather the young worker.

Mistaken Assumption 1: “If I mess up, the company has to give me written notice before they can fire me.”

Wrong! In most states, new hires are technically hired “at will,” meaning that a company can terminate them with or without cause or notice. Further, most organizations have “introductory” or “probationary” periods, during which they can terminate a new hire at whim if that person isn’t meeting performance or conduct standards. In fact, even if you’re hired into a union job, most collective bargaining agreements give employers full latitude to terminate at whim within the probationary period (typically sixty to ninety days). So it’s definitely not the case that you’re entitled to some form of documented corrective action before a company will feel comfortable pulling the plug on your employment.

Mistaken Assumption 2: Companies treat performance problems similarly to how they treat conduct problems

Wrong again! Performance and conduct challenges are typically handled differently in most organizations. When you think of “progressive discipline” or “corrective action” in the form of a verbal, written, and ultimately final written warnings, you’re usually referring to performance or attendance problems. However, conduct or behavior-based infractions often warrant what’s known as “summary dismissal” (i.e., immediate termination), even for a first offense.

It’s easy enough to understand why a company would terminate someone outright for theft, embezzlement, fraud, and the like, but employees don’t realize that there are other types of infractions that typically result in immediate dismissal as well. Here are just a few:

Timecard Fraud. In the workplace, time is a proxy for money. If you steal time, it’s the same as stealing money, because the end result is the same: The company is out the money that you took illegally. For example, if you put in for overtime that you didn’t work, that’s considered “timecard fraud.” You may not have stolen $10 from the cash register, but the ultimate effect is the same: you’re $10 richer at the company’s expense. Likewise, if you arrive at work two hours late but falsify your timecard to show that you arrived on time, you’ll be awarding yourself two hours of additional straight-time pay. Again, companies will likely view this as theft.

Further, employers don’t have much wiggle room not to terminate in cases like these. After all, the new hire will have left them little choice: not terminating after an egregious act like theft (or timecard fraud, in this case) could create a bad precedent. And it would be difficult for a company not to terminate Employee A but then later terminate Employee B for the same offense. In short, when it comes to conduct infractions, the issue drives the outcome; no matter how much your supervisor likes your work, if you engage in egregious misconduct, the company will have no option but to terminate you for cause—even for a first occurrence. Think of it as a “third-rail” metaphor: if you step on the third rail of a train track, you’re fried. So no matter how long someone has been with a company or how stellar the individual’s record, with conduct infractions there may be no forgiveness or exceptions.

Casual Drug Use. What workers do in their private time is strictly up to them, but many companies have a “for cause” drug-testing standard that requires anyone involved in a slip-and-fall incident or auto accident to be tested for cause. Here’s how it works: Say your general duties include driving a company vehicle and you’re rear-ended at a stop sign across the street from the office. While it certainly wasn’t your fault that someone rear-ended you while you were at a full stop, the fact that you were officially involved in an auto accident may require that you be tested for drug usage. Note that many companies’ policies don’t distinguish fault in situations like these—an employee’s involvement is enough to trigger the drug test. Further, many employers count accidents as a “reasonable suspicion” that justifies for-cause drug testing.

Suppose you smoked marijuana or took some other drug about two weeks ago at your 22nd birthday party. Unfortunately, you didn’t realize that pot and other drugs may remain in your bloodstream for 30 days or more, and lo and behold, you test positive for drugs. The end result? You’re terminated for failing to abide by your company’s drug and alcohol abuse policy, even though the effects of the pot have long since disappeared. No, life isn’t always fair, but you’re a working adult now, and you have to understand and be held accountable for the ramifications of your decisions and actions.

Employment Application Falsification. If you’re four units short of your bachelor’s degree, but show on your résumé and employment application that you already have a degree, you’ll soon find yourself back on the unemployment line. Why? Because you falsified your pre-employment record to give yourself an unfair advantage that helped you land the job on false pretenses. The alternative: Create the proper record on your résumé showing that you’re four units short of your bachelor’s degree. Any falsification of your employment credentials may get you terminated even weeks or months after you start working if the company finds out. The company can’t risk creating a bad precedent by not terminating you for material falsification of your employment application.

Companies terminate swiftly and consistently when it comes to ethics breaches and dishonesty. Put another way, conduct- and behavior-related infractions provide companies the discretion to skip any steps of written, corrective action and escalate immediately and directly to the termination stage. And the downside for you is twofold: First, you will lose your job. Second, you will have a much more difficult time during a future interview when you’re asked why you left your previous company. (Saying, “I was terminated for cause due to an ethical breach and violation of the company’s code of conduct” isn’t a great response when you’re job hunting.)

So always tell the truth. Don’t take shortcuts, especially when it comes to electronic records that can be easily traced in an audit (which companies do all the time). Avoid casual drug use. And most important, create a reputation for yourself early in your career as an ethical worker who demonstrates the highest level of integrity. It will help you avoid common pitfalls like the ones above and allow you to sleep better at night as you build your career and grow and develop in your role.

Mistaken Assumption 3: No One’s Watching

As with most things in life, people watch you more than you know. That means you have a greater influence on others than you could ever dream of. How do you know that’s so? When people come up to you years later and thank you for some small nicety that you did for them that you can’t even remember, you begin to realize just how much you touch others’ lives. That’s just how the universe is designed, and that’s always where your greatest opportunities lie.

Everyone’s always watching you. That’s not some Orwellian concept to make you nervous or paranoid. It’s a grand insight and understanding about how important you are to everyone around you, both in the workplace and in your life overall. If you want to get ahead as you begin your career, follow these three very simple rules:

1. Create a welcoming environment so that others feel comfortable approaching you and feel drawn to you.

2. Go out of your way to provide outstanding customer service to everyone you come in contact with. Show that you care in everything you do. People respect competence, but they love even more dealing with someone who’s passionate and excited about their work.

3. Look for opportunities to assume greater responsibilities. Everyone needs an additional set of hands and extra help from time to time. Be there for your coworkers. Develop a reputation for taking on more, assisting wherever and whenever you can, and become the “go to” person for anyone needing additional support.

These three simple rules will catapult your career to new heights. You’ll make new friends and strong networking contacts. You’ll gain exposure to opportunities you won’t otherwise have known about. And you’ll have fun doing it. Be the role model for others to follow. Go that extra mile to help. Then let your strategy pay off in spades as good things come your way for all the good energy you place into the universe. Always remember how special you are and what a gift your work offers you to define and re-brand yourself and give back to others.

Multigenerations at Work: Understanding Each Other’s Perspectives

Millennials are becoming the majority in the workforce as we speak. More than one-in-three American workers today are Millennials (adults ages 18 to 34), and 2015 is the year they surpassed Generation X to become the largest share of the American workforce, according to new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Further, for the first time in history, we have four generations in the workplace. In fairness, the workplace has never been a single-generation monopoly. Junior workers have always come in to gain experience and work toward advancement. Senior workers have always served as supervisors and mentors. And there’s always been some tension between the two. And that’s to be expected. However, workplaces generally employed Americans from two or (at maximum) three generations, not four. As one might expect, this phenomenon impacts the workforce in both subtle and overt ways.

Just a few decades ago, most workers retired at age sixty-five. But today, many are staying in the workforce well into their seventies. Young workers, meanwhile, continue to enter the job market at an unrelenting pace. This clash of multiple generations reveals differences in value systems that can lead to workplace clashes as members of different generations disagree about how to behave and perform at work. As they disagree, they can become frustrated by the very act of communicating with one another, a dangerous factor that can damage their ability to work together productively. A brief look at the four generations is important to understand just how they make up this multigenerational workforce.

The Stabilizing Traditionalists: The Veteran Generation

Demographers generally define this generation as born up to 1945. While they’re currently in their early seventies or older, many members of the Veteran Generation remain in the workplace. Some enjoy highly paid leadership positions, while others are forced to continue working for low wages because they cannot afford to retire. Their parents lived through the Great Depression, and they consequently live modestly and view life and success as fragile. They believe in “toughing it out” through hard times and never complaining. The Veteran Generation believes in doing as you are told and respects a command and control structure that centralizes power at the leadership level. This generation views conformity as virtuous, an act of self-sacrifice and communal responsibility.

The Transformational Baby Boomers

This enormous generation—77 million in total—was born from 1946 to 1964. They were born to American soldiers who came home from World War II, purchased homes and happily created families. Their generational boom ended with the introduction of the birth control pill in the early 1960s. Baby Boomers were the first generation to watch television as they grew up. They had much greater access to higher education than their parents, and they found more financial success as a result. Baby Boomers are said to believe in the American Dream that their parents lived. They relish authority and seek out positions of power. They experienced a golden age of prosperity, although they would be challenged in their later years because of the Great Recession of 2008. Their parents had relied on pension funds, but Baby Boomers saw pensions vanish during their adulthood, and they failed to save adequately for retirement. As a result, Baby Boomers have largely stayed at work, and both Gen X and Gen Y can feel frustrated, unable to advance because Baby Boomers are not retiring on schedule.

“Entrepreneurial” Generation X

Demographers identify this generation as being born from 1965 to 1979. They’re a small generation of only 46 million—the smallest of the four generations in the workplace, sometimes leading to problems with succession planning. Gen X-ers graduated from college just in time to face the jobless recovery that followed the mid-1990s recession. Many watched their parents get laid off or struggle financially, and upon graduation, experienced challenges obtaining meaningful employment and career paths themselves. As a result, Gen X’s perspective on the business world is sometimes described as cynical and skeptical. As a generational force then, Gen X-ers prefer to work more independently, which can be interpreted as resistant to authority or even insubordinate. Like their Generation Y/Millennial brethren, Gen X-ers are described as having a slightly hedonist bent and don’t necessarily live to work; they work to live and may not feel as inclined to sacrifice their own happiness for the good of the team.

Generation Y (“Millennials” or “The Net Generation”)

Born roughly between 1980 and 2000, Gen Y is approximately 90 million strong and growing. Gen Y-ers are described as the most sophisticated consumers in history. Born with electronics all around them and the Internet an easily accessible tool, they know how to search for the products and opportunities well in advance of a sale or even a job interview. While some struggle to find employment in the shadow of the Great Recession of 2008, they nonetheless feel empowered by the information at their fingertips and the generous emotional support of their parents.

Gen Y’s sense of empowerment (sometimes interpreted by the other generations as entitlement) spurs them to seek experiences that transcend the ideals of a traditional career path. They search for employment with the goal of finding experiences that satisfy them, and they can be peaceful about letting jobs go—whether they’re laid off or leave on their own. Gen Y perceives lack of job security as normal, so they’ve chosen to be satisfied by opportunities that come their way for as long as they last. Gen Y’s tech-infused upbringing created a generation that excels at multitasking. They’re accustomed to juggling phone calls, emails, texts, and social media posts.

One in every three employees in the U.S. will be a Millennial by 2015, and by 2025 they will become 75 percent of the global workforce. They’re confident in their abilities to change the world (like so many generations before them), but they look forward to making a positive difference both at work and in their world. Millennials are diverse, connected, and are activists for personal rights such as gay marriage and universal healthcare. They believe that business should focus on a societal purpose and the environment, not just be in business to make a profit. They strive to support causes that align with their values and personal belief system. In fact, they have forced companies to rethink flexibility, meetings, and the use of cubicles.

Solutions to Multigenerational Workforce Challenges

With such an eclectic mix of generations, worldviews, and experiences, how can any employer hope to create harmony and alignment in the workplace? Success in this realm, as in so many others, stems from open and honest communication, respect, and recognition. While differences will clearly exist in terms of views on authority, leadership and communication styles, and feelings about work–life balance, the following factors may foster a positive atmosphere in your workplace:

1. Cross-generational mentoring and coaching

2. Collaborative and rotational work assignments and projects

3. Flexible work schedules

4. Opportunities to cross-train on the latest technologies

5. Training workshops on leadership and communication

6. A social atmosphere of community at work, including environmental awareness and social causes that make the world a better place

7. Team building events that heighten awareness of others’ backgrounds

8. Networks of cross-functional councils and boards that serve as a primary source of leadership and decision making

9. Social networking tools that build relationships, increase collaboration, and enhance employee engagement

Cross-generational mentoring helps acclimate older workers to new experiences and helps younger workers gain wisdom as they benefit from older workers’ experience. Rotational work assignments and projects bring people together quite naturally and align them in a common cause. Flexible work schedules offer new alternatives to getting work done thanks to technology.

If a single project team spans several generations, communication could become a major stumbling block. Encourage team members to let one another know how they prefer to communicate. By sharing how—and how often—they plan to be in touch with one another, teams can anticipate and avoid communication gaps before they occur.

Despite their vast differences, it’s important to remember that generations can work effectively together. Each brings a unique viewpoint and skill set to the table. And if they can be persuaded to communicate openly with one another and respect their differences, there is no workplace challenge that a diverse but united team can’t master. To foster a more collaborative environment, embrace employees’ differences, not from a sense of toleration but as a source of strength. Leverage the energy and creative enthusiasm that this newest generation of Millennials brings to the workplace. Support today’s leaders by helping them understand and appreciate the many generations within their workforces, and prepare those leaders of tomorrow. Think carefully about succession planning, and coach up-and-coming supervisors and executives to work effectively with all the generations they lead.

Integrating Newly Inherited Employees into Your Team

Company or departmental restructurings may be minor or major, and they can result in your inheriting a new group of employees that need to be integrated into your existing team. In and of itself, that may pose no major problems; after all, having a larger staff provides extra “hands on deck” to keep the work flowing more smoothly in your area. And the bigger your staff, the greater the value it adds to your résumé. There are career development advantages to showing how you’ve led dynamic teams through change in a post-merger integration.

But this process may also pose some significant challenges if the group you’re used to managing has a different style than the one you’re inheriting. And several questions are raised: Are you bound by the promises of raises and promotions that were made to your inherited employees by the prior management team? How do you reset your inherited employees’ expectations? How do you appraise them at their annual review when you’ve been supervising them for only a few months? Finally, what happens if you inherit an employee who’s known to be a troublemaker or who comes over to your group on final written warning status? Handling these problems needn’t be all that perilous if you keep a few critical rules in mind.

Integrating Newcomers

When you learn that a new team is being reassigned to your unit, you may not be given the option of saying no, so think strategically about the move’s benefits and plan proactively for its challenges. That all starts by doing your due diligence upfront and gathering the necessary data to determine the group’s level of productivity and its style of working. Think of this as cultural integration because it’s all about protecting and preserving the culture that you’ve created with your original group while welcoming the positive aspects of the new group’s style. The catch, of course, lies in selecting those positive aspects while minimizing or eliminating the negative ones.

Your first step is to interview the prior management team, if it’s still available. Ask about the team’s overall strengths, achievements, cohesiveness, and areas for development. Ask the former management team to rank order from highest to lowest all the individuals involved regarding their productivity and performance as well as their personal styles. Here are some questions you might find useful:

•“If you had to hire any one of these individuals back into your group, who would be the first person you’d call?”

•“Who shows the most potential from a succession planning standpoint in terms of career progression?”

•“Who has the most needs or requires the highest maintenance?”

•“Are there any individuals who you’d advise me to be careful with or pay special attention to?”

•“Are there any special circumstances with any of these individuals that I should be aware of?”

Once that initial picture is painted for you verbally, it’s time to review the paper trail for each individual involved in this crossover process. Review each individual’s résumé, which may be updated or may be many years old. Even if you can access only the original résumés that the individuals presented at their interviews, they could still provide some important information:

•Does the résumé demonstrate straightforward, factual job responsibilities (e.g., typing, phones, filing), or does it structure itself around achievements and accomplishments, especially those linked to increased revenues, reduced costs, or saved time?

•Does the individual quantify results by quoting dollar amounts and percentages, or are job responsibilities in more of a “cut and paste” narrative style?

•How are companies described on the résumé: Do they get no mention beyond their name, or are they outlined according to gross revenues, number of employees, and corporate growth and achievements?

•How much commitment does the individual show toward education, certification, and professional networking?

Next, check each individual’s personnel file, especially the performance evaluations and any written warnings. Performance evaluations are the sweet spot of the integration process, since they, more than anything else, can reveal clear documentation about an individual’s performance, career progression potential, and areas for development. If performance appraisal is done correctly in the organization, those appraisals become an invaluable tool in picking up where the former management team left off.

If the transition to your team occurs just before the annual performance appraisal is due, then you will not have had enough time to accurately evaluate the individual’s performance. But you may not be given the option of passing on this exercise by simply writing “too new to rate” on the appraisal form, so feel free to speak with prior supervisors within your company and find out how they would have rated the individual. Or try to split the review between yourself and the previous supervisors. Add narrative notes under both your names, outlining your respective roles and time frames and explain to the individual that the numerical score that you came up with reflects both supervisors’ opinions.

But suppose the employee tells you that the previous supervisor unfairly disliked him. Explain to the individual that this shared review process is common within your company and that all the individuals in the transferred group are being handled in a similar and consistent way. You’ll be able to form your own relationship with this individual over time, so both of you can have a clean start from this point forward.

The Challenge of Differing Management Styles

After you’ve interviewed the prior supervisors and reviewed the résumés and performance appraisals, you then need to integrate the transferred employees’ different work styles into your group. For example, if your group enjoys open communication, an environment where their suggestions and recommendations are heard, and an overall culture of empowerment and shared decision making, how do you adopt a group that is used to “doing what it’s told”? If you’re used to eliciting feedback and suggestions from your team and enjoying a healthy sense of camaraderie, how do you integrate workers who lack trust in management and place doubt in even your most benevolent intentions?

You can’t expect the inherited employees to take to your management style right away. They may be worried about their jobs and waiting to see what you’re like and how you like to get things done. It may have taken a long time for them to get to the point where they are now; it may take as long for them to adjust to a new way of thinking.

Let your expectations err on the side of over-communicating. New relationships like this often require more support, structure, direction, and feedback. Once things are clearly coming together and you’re comfortable with your newly merged team’s interaction and productivity, then you can step back and take a more hands-off approach to managing them.

Inheriting Disciplinary and Other Challenges

Your new employees may present many new challenges to you, such as the following:

My boss promised me a 10 percent merit raise next year. Is that still on?

I’ve been told I’ll be promoted on my anniversary, which happens to be next month. What will my new title to be?

Yes, it’s true that I’m on final written warning for what my boss called substandard job performance, but she just didn’t like me.

These challenges could be the most difficult part of the process of merging your old and new teams. Dedicate time to hearing the new individuals’ side of the story and tending to his needs, but promise nothing until you’ve had a chance to research the situation thoroughly and through as many sources as possible.

What prior management promised in terms of promotions and salary increases might still hold because they were documented and were given final approval by the HR and Finance departments. But some of these claims may be based on incorrect assumptions on the employees’ part, so be sure to temper their ambitions while you look into the matter further. Unfortunately, you may then have the unpleasant chore of telling your new employees that HR and Finance do not agree with former management, and that this was not a “done deal,” so the promotion or equity adjustment won’t be happening this go-around.

In cases like this, let the individuals know exactly whom you spoke with, what they said, and why there may have been confusion. Confirm that all parties are in agreement with the decision, and invite the employees to speak directly with those individuals if they so choose. Just emphasize that you weren’t part of that decision; you’re just conveying what was communicated to you, and you’ll be open to evaluating the situation with a fresh set of eyes as you go forward.

Sometimes, though, it will be more than hurt feelings or disappointment that you’ll be inheriting. Candidates who transfer to your group on final written warning for substandard job performance, attendance, or inappropriate workplace conduct may cause specific challenges. When that’s the case, make copies of the written and final written warnings, and discuss them openly with the employee in a private meeting. But pretending that these warnings don’t exist will be awkward and may cause drama down the road.

There may be two sides to every story, but the validity of the documents isn’t in question. As far as you’re concerned, they’re valid because they’re in the employee’s file with the employee’s signature (and possibly rebuttal). What you want to look for now is how the individual responds to those warnings. If she is very defensive and quick to blame others, she may be someone who feels victimized and who fails to take responsibility for her own actions. In comparison, if she readily admits that she’s made mistakes, assumes responsibility for them, and is committed to avoiding those mistakes in the future, then she’s demonstrating a high level of business maturity.

You may be reluctant to take on the added responsibility of integrating inherited employees into the close-knit environment that you’ve worked so hard to cultivate, but don’t underestimate the value of this opportunity. You’ll rarely be given such a chance to show your leadership development potential, and your résumé will have a new accomplishment—the ability to lead others through integration and demonstrate key leadership skills in a changing business environment. This becomes a strength that you can apply in any workplace situation that comes your way.

Held Hostage by Underperformers: Strategic Group Turnarounds When a Team Is on the Brink of Failure

Sometimes you have to pull out all the stops. The term turnaround expert typically refers to people who take a failing company and restore it to profitability. But it can also refer to a leader who develops a reputation for restoring a team of employees to success. The need for leadership turnaround experts is never higher than when a team or department appears to be on the brink of failure—in other words, when the entire functional area may be about to implode. As challenging as these situations may be, you’ll rarely get an opportunity to affect change more than in situations where struggling teams need immediate performance turnarounds. Your ability to restore your team to high performance will speak volumes about the value that you bring to your company.

When teams appear ready to implode, look first to changes in circumstance. Crises typically occur when organizations ratchet up performance expectations, adjust sales commission formulas downward, or introduce new technologies that appear to limit workers’ discretion or freedom of choice. Workers sometimes resist change vehemently and demonstrate their dissatisfaction by engaging in work slowdowns, undermining one another, or colluding to entrap their boss. Understanding what may be driving a sudden change in employee behavior will always be your first place to start.

Second, evaluate your front-line leadership team (typically supervisors and leads). Strong leaders can typically take change in stride, keeping their teams focused on achieving results—even when the immediate change at hand may be unsettling or otherwise disruptive to daily busy operations. More likely than not, however, when teams appear to be on the brink of failure, the immediate leaders may be at the core of the problem. Leaders who fail to provide an appropriate amount of structure, direction, and feedback or who otherwise avoid confrontation tend to suffer from excessive drama and meltdowns in their areas, leaving stronger subordinates to take the upper hand in terms of negatively influencing others.

Third, look to those strong voices on the team who exhibit a disproportionate influence over others at times like these. Departments in distress are often being overtaken by negative influencers who intimidate others and act as ringleaders of negativity—sometimes even intimidating their bosses, who avoid them at every turn. Let’s take a look at a fairly common scenario where you, the department head, discover a multitude of problems with one individual who continues to bully others. The way you handle such a quagmire is critical in terms of maintaining a healthy environment for the rest of the team and creating the proper written record to protect your company from future legal challenges.

Creating an Appropriate Written Record for the Group

“Professional plaintiffs” become very adept at keeping others at bay, and what works in their favor is that people tend to avoid them—and the conflict inherent in challenging them—so they often act with impunity. As a result, they keep receiving “meets expectations” performance review scores and no progressive discipline is initiated, so their personnel records indicate no particular problem or concern with their performance. In fact, these problematic performers and workplace bullies may be the first to invoke the services of a lawyer, claiming that they themselves are being bullied and are the victim of a system run amok.

Here’s what the plaintiff’s attorney’s argument typically sounds like: “Managers avoid her, and the company is clearly cutting a wide swath around her, withholding key responsibilities from her and otherwise not giving her a chance to excel in her role.” Then comes the claim that this is all occurring because her supervisor harbors some animus against her because of her protected status (i.e., age, race, gender, or the like). This is the perfect formula for a discrimination claim from someone who’s a lackluster performer with a negative attitude who’s actually the cause—not the recipient—of the problematic conduct that’s undermining the workplace.

The written record can only change, however, if you work with HR or with your department head to conduct an investigation into the team’s allegations. Assuming everyone seems to get along fine with one another except for the one individual who aggressively confronts anyone who might challenge her, then you’ve got an excellent opportunity to hold a group meeting and share perceptions of what you’ve learned and also reset management’s expectations.

Depending on what you learn during your investigational meetings, you then have the opportunity to issue letters of clarification to recap management’s expectations for all members of the team. With everyone starting with a fresh beginning and with the appropriate written record in place, you’ll be providing all individuals involved with an opportunity to reinvent themselves in light of management’s new expectations. You’ll have created a new line in the sand that outlines expectations and that allows the wound to heal. Any future transgressions should be reported directly to you, and you’ve now provided a simple solution that invites everyone on the team back to normalcy.

Resetting Management’s Expectations for the Problematic Employee

Besides reestablishing group expectations, you also have the opportunity to follow up with the employee whom you find to be at the heart of the problem. Depending on what you learn during the investigation and group mediation, this individual may receive formal corrective action (in this case, a final written warning) in addition to the group letter of clarification, emphasizing the following:

First, our findings show that you have demonstrated unprofessional conduct toward your coworkers. Specifically, several coworkers and even your immediate supervisor confirmed that you made inappropriate comments: “I’m in charge around here.” “Management doesn’t know its ass from a hole in the wall.” “This company is just so f---ed up.” Likewise, you tend to refer to members of leadership as “a---holes, idiots, and f---ups.”

Further, you were witnessed and admit to having shouted to an older coworker across the room, “Can I borrow your Depends [adult diapers]? I want to watch this Saturday’s football game and don’t want to have to get off the couch.”

You are not permitted to engage in such disparaging comments about the company, the leadership team, or your coworkers. Doing so will result in your immediate dismissal for cause. Further, you’re not in charge of the team. You may be a senior member of the group tenure-wise, but that in no way implies that any kind of leadership, supervisory, or lead status has been conferred upon you. Therefore, no further comments along these lines will be permitted under any circumstances.

Any further disparaging remarks about the company, your leadership team, or your coworkers’ abilities will result in immediate dismissal. If you use the f-word again in public, you will be dismissed. If you make any other disparaging remarks relating to someone’s age or slowness related to age, you’ll be immediately dismissed.

This is your last chance. Your job is now in immediate jeopardy of being lost. If you ever again violate these or other terms and conditions of employment or engage in similar misconduct, you will be immediately discharged for cause.

With a written record in place that addresses both group expectations and the individual’s specific workplace conduct issues, you’ll have furnished sufficient documentation to restore order to the team. The employee will have been notified in writing about the company’s concerns, thereby according her workplace due process in the form of documented corrective action.

Management can now take back control and mitigate this employee’s negative influence on the rest of the team. Thus, if she ultimately files a lawsuit, you will have a record that is written on your terms, not hers. At her next performance review, it should be noted that she does not meet minimum expectations for the entire review year due to this significant final written warning. This way, you’ll have a final written warning on record, combined with a failed annual performance review, in addition to no merit increase or bonus. That’s the kind of record you need to deal with this type of caustic behavior and remove it from your workplace.

The team can then begin to heal and regain its self-confidence. What typically becomes of these workplace bullies once they’ve been called out and their cases are appropriately documented is that they resign quietly within a few months. Why? First, they miss the self-imposed drama. Second, they realize that they’ve cut off their future prospects within the organization. And third, they perceive that they have been diminished in the eyes of their coworkers—the very people they chose to bully and intimidate. They leave without filing a lawsuit because that avenue will have been cut off for them via the paper trail that is now in place. And so the workplace is reinvigorated and set right again to return to productivity and profitability.

Dealing with Employees in Crisis: A Blueprint for Proactive Management Intervention

Preventing violence and enhancing workplace safety is important to all employers. However, instructing frontline leaders on how to deal with an employee crisis on a proactive basis sometimes gets short shrift. What do you do when you notice employees isolating themselves from the rest of the group? How do you deal with an employee who states that he’s feeling suicidal? And what if your “suicidal” employee seems to go a step further and becomes potentially “homicidal”?

These extreme situations don’t occur often in the workplace. Still, most HR practitioners have dealt with many employees in crisis, and now is the time to build a methodology for addressing such a critical problem.

Inviting the Isolated Employee Back into the Fold

Workers vulnerable to irrational acts typically appear as loners who are isolated from the rest of the group. These people often develop a “time clock” mentality where they go through the motions of doing their jobs but are otherwise disengaged. Extending a helping hand to them can sometimes be a daunting task, so managers avoid dealing with the issue.

However, left in a vacuum void of information and two-way communication, these employees create their own versions of reality. Generally speaking, such individuals may tend to demonstrate a low level of self-awareness and an entitlement mentality that makes it very difficult to approach them or gain their buy-in. As such, they may attribute negative intentions to others’ actions where none are intended in order to justify their anger. What these loners may need is an opportunity to reconnect to the group and enjoy the social elements of work—recognition and appreciation for a job well done as well as a sense that they belong and can make a positive difference in the workplace.

Making it safe for solo players like this to engage with their coworkers is no easy task. It begins by strengthening your own personal relationship with the individual as the group leader. It’s then followed by encouraging group activities where participation is required and you take the “outsider” under your wing and make it safer for everyone to interact more collaboratively. While there’s no right or wrong way to do this, understand that players on all sides will naturally feel vulnerable if they need to engage more proactively with one another. Your job is to make it safe for them to feel vulnerable. And the best way to do that is to make yourself vulnerable and show everyone else that it’s okay to feel that way. Your act of caring is enough, and it will speak volumes as to your character and compassion.

A key step is to meet with your staff members one-on-one to learn how they view the situation. Ask questions like these:

How would you grade our group in terms of camaraderie and teamwork? How do staff members get along with each other, and have you had any particular problems with other members of the group?

Are you aware of any particular historical problems among the team members, and could you tell me how they were or weren’t resolved? Did anyone “disengage” after any particular incidents or otherwise appear to be isolated or abandoned from the group?

What would you recommend we do to better the situation?

I’ve got to ask a favor of you. If I attempt to bring peace to both sides of this rift, would you support me and welcome the problem employee back into the fold?

More likely than not, you’ll hear fairly consistent stories and explanations of the ongoing strife with each employee group, and you’ll probably see both sides of the story objectively and have a better understanding of how the fallout came to be. With each individual’s commitment to do her part in bettering the situation, it will then be time to hold a group meeting.

The group meeting might open like this:

Folks, life is too short. We spend more time with our coworkers than we do with our families and friends, and there’s certainly more than enough work to go around. What can make this unbearable for us, however, is allowing a negative environment to fester. If there’s a lack of communication, harbored unresolved resentments, and a lack of respect for one other, then not only is work not going to be any fun—it’s also not going to be particularly productive.

I’ve met individually with each of you to learn about issues historically affecting the group, and I want you to know that I’m holding each of you accountable for creating a work environment where everyone is treated with respect and dignity. I’m also holding you responsible for your own “perception management,” meaning that it’s not about being right or wrong. It’s about ensuring that others understand your good intentions and are made to feel welcome in our department.

I realize that this situation may have taken years to get to this point, and it may take just as long to get to a point where there’s mutual trust and respect in your interactions. But people tend to respond in kind, and if you treat others respectfully, they’ll do the same for you. I’m here to ensure that that’s the case, and I’ll be here for each of you should you need me.

But I won’t stand for any attempts to place blame on others. I also won’t have any members of our staff feeling singled out or otherwise isolated from the rest of the team. If the problems continue, there will be disciplinary consequences. But if you support me in making this a more inclusive working environment, then we can discover new ways of adding value to our work. Can I count on your support?

Allowing people to feel safe will do more than anything to avert a potential crisis in the workplace.

Employee Assistance Programs

What happens if, despite your best intentions, the isolated individual tells you she’s feeling suicidal? If your company has an employee assistance program (EAP), you can say to the employee:

Kristine, I want you to wait here with me while I call the EAP, because I’m not your best resource if you’re feeling that way, and I know that Marilyn Jones at the EAP would certainly help. OK?

Making a “formal” referral to the EAP (as opposed to a “voluntary” referral where the employee self-refers) should almost always be done with the employee’s consent. However, in extreme cases where a formal referral may be warranted, you must ensure that the employee has a job performance problem in addition to appearing to be mentally depressed, suicidal, or potentially hostile. In the case of formal referrals, you would discuss your perceptions of the work performance problems with the intake counselor on the front end (although not necessarily in front of the employee). With a signed release from the employee, the EAP will later be able to provide you with limited feedback about the individual’s attendance, compliance, and prognosis.

In certain cases (for example, with potential workplace violence issues), you have the option of not permitting the individual back to work without a fitness-for-duty release from a licensed healthcare practitioner. Such leaves are typically paid through the initial period of evaluation. Beyond that, employees typically use accrued time off to be compensated while receiving further treatment.

Americans with Disabilities Act Limitations and Caveats

One caveat about “formal” EAP referrals: Although they may certainly be justified in cases of threats of employee suicide, recent case law shows that formal EAP referrals have created burdens on employers under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Specifically, plaintiffs’ attorneys have argued that, on the basis of a mandatory EAP referral, the employer did indeed regard the client as disabled. (The ADA and some state disability discrimination laws protect individuals who either have or are perceived as having a disability, including a mental disability.) Such an interpretation could become legally problematic should you then decide to take some adverse action (especially termination) against the employee.

In addition, you shouldn’t mandate that an employee attend treatment sessions by threatening termination for not doing so. Such a requirement could appear to make an EAP referral an extension of your disciplinary authority and give rise to claims of disability discrimination based on a perceived mental disability, invasion of privacy, or misuse of confidential medical information in certain states.

Put Safety First

An extreme worker reaction might also result in veiled threats of homicide rather than suicide. For example, what if an employee came to your office one morning, placed a live shell of ammunition on your desk, and stated that her coworkers better not bother her today “if they know what’s good for them”? Veiled threats like these are not uncommon in extreme cases.

Your first reaction would probably be to fire this person and ensure that she has no further access to company property. And that may be the best decision for your organization in the end. Still, it’s probably best to make a record that you didn’t overreact or jump to unfair conclusions. In such cases, placing the employee on a paid administrative leave might make the most sense. Explain your rationale to the employee this way:

Kristine, I know you met with our EAP provider, and they gave us a written release for you to return to work. You also told me that you were feeling much better about work and about your relationship with your coworkers at that time. However, the feelings that you’re sharing with me right now raise some concerns, as I’m sure you understand, and I think it’s best to send you home with pay while I discuss with my superiors how to best handle this. We’ll call it an administrative leave and continue to pay you as though you were working full time. I’ll call you tomorrow at home.

I’ve got to ask a favor, though. The way that our company normally handles these things is to ask the employee to go straight home. I can’t have you here at work while I do my objective fact-finding. Having you wait at home is always part of an administrative leave. Is that reasonable to you, and will you support that request?

[Yes.]

Gently escort the employee off the premises and alert Security or take other reasonable steps to ensure your other workers’ safety. Most employment lawyers will recommend that you tell the others that a threat, whether overt or veiled, was indeed made against them individually or as a group. You should likewise share the steps the company is taking to address the situation. However, in order to protect the individual’s privacy and to avoid later claims of defamation, you should limit disclosure of specifics only to those individuals with a need to know.

Bring these newfound threats to the attention of the EAP, and be sure to seek the advice of qualified legal counsel before moving to terminate. If you then choose to dismiss, do so over the phone within 24 to 48 hours. Send the employee’s personal belongings and her final check to her home via courier. Include a letter that states that she may no longer enter company property for any reason without the advance approval of the vice president of HR or similar designee. The company attorney should approve the final draft of the letter. Finally, remember that EAPs are also an excellent resource for your other employees should they need someone to talk to.

Encouraging Employees to Leave Your Company: When It’s Good for You and Good for Them

Sometimes it becomes necessary to convince employees to leave your company because they are demonstrating serious performance or conduct problems. Some of these disenfranchised employees will insist on staying “on principle,” that is, “I’ll stay until I’m good and ready to leave. No one’s forcing me out of my job until I’m ready to go—especially not that boss of mine!”

Unfortunately, the results can be very problematic, leading to stress claims for workers’ compensation, leaves of absence, union grievances, or wrongful termination lawsuits. Reciprocally, months or years of feeling unappreciated and having their egos and self-esteem bashed await the employees. So your best solution from an employee relations standpoint may be to broker a peace where the employee may leave the job with her dignity and respect intact.

Some caveats: First, meetings such as this require a third-party mediator (typically HR or a senior member of management). If the immediate supervisors who are part of the problematic interpersonal relationship with disenfranchised employees attempt to encourage the employee to quit, their efforts may be seen as insincere or self-serving at best. They simply lack the credibility to be seen as objective.

Second, whatever is discussed with the employee in meetings like this may take on a different meaning if the company is later sued in a “constructive discharge claim,” which is similar to a wrongful discharge claim except that the employee resigns instead of being terminated. Still, a plaintiff’s attorney will typically argue that the conditions were so intolerable at work that any reasonable person would have resigned under similar circumstances. Consequently, the plaintiff’s attorney will argue, “My client was forced into resigning her position, and the company had no right to create such an unfriendly environment. Her supervisor told her that she wasn’t wanted there anymore and had no future with the company! Telling her that after two years of dedicated service and one full year of isolating her from the rest of the team, denying her a raise, withholding training, and holding her to a higher standard than everyone else was just too much. She had to quit, but it was their fault.”

When it comes to job performance problems and termination, both sides are often in total disagreement about the situation; managers argue that the problematic employee is disrespectful, noncommunicative, and does not hold herself accountable for her own actions. As a result, managers complain, “I delegate as little to her as I can. Instead, I do the work myself or give it to the other members of the team. My other staff members resent that she doesn’t do her own share of the work, and they’re tired of my cutting a wide swath around this employee for fear of upsetting her or making matters worse.”

The disenfranchised employee in this same scenario will argue the opposite, almost as if holding up a mirror: “My boss shows me no respect, never makes me feel like part of the team, and constantly holds me to a higher standard than everyone else. I’m never in the communication loop, and I’m never told when I do something right—only when I do something wrong. I’m sick and tired of being treated differently!”

In these situations there’s enough blame to go around: the employees too often take the easy road out and justify their irresponsible behavior by arguing favoritism and blaming their bosses for their own unhappiness; managers have clearly failed in their responsibility to create a working environment where employees can motivate themselves and make a positive contribution to the department’s goals. In essence, if the working relationship has deteriorated to this point, both the manager and worker have failed. Sometimes, however, trying to fix these problems just becomes an ongoing battle of wills where little good results.

Third-Party Intermediaries to the Rescue

Human Resources or senior management typically functions as the third-party mediator who attempts to fix the problem with the help of both the supervisor and the employee. When progressive discipline or an employee transfer isn’t feasible, then the mediator/broker may attempt to gently inject respect, dignity, and professionalism into the working relationship by providing the employee with an exit strategy:

Mary, you’ve worked as Sue’s secretary for the past two years, and I don’t believe that you or Sue has felt that this was a good working relationship. Sometimes it’s just not the right personality mix or the right timing in people’s lives, and the working relationship suffers. Would you agree that it hasn’t been ideal for you?

[Yes.]

Sue, you’ve shared your frustrations about Mary’s substandard job performance and inappropriate workplace conduct with me privately. I’ve also recommended that you speak with Mary directly, and you’ve done that on multiple occasions. So you’re frustrated too, right?

[Yes.]

Okay, then it may be time to lay down our shields and extend the proverbial olive branch. There’s enough work around here to sink a battleship. When you add the interpersonal friction that you’ve been both experiencing for the past year or so, it becomes unbearable. I don’t want to minimize the importance of your working relationship together, but with all due respect, it’s only work. I mean, when you think about families who lose their health or parents who have to see their children through serious illnesses—that’s important in life. If we’re not suffering from that kind of illness, we’re lucky. So let’s keep that in perspective as we look at this workplace issue, okay?

Sometimes it’s fair to say that it just isn’t a good fit. What’s important to me is that both parties feel that they’re being supported and treated with dignity and respect. I don’t want people feeling that their egos and self-esteem are being trashed. Life is simply too short for that.

Mary, you’re an executive assistant, and Sue is a vice president with long-term tenure with the organization, so I need to tell you that Sue isn’t going anywhere. Senior management believes she’s doing an excellent job. That’s an important point for you to keep in mind as you consider your options. As an objective third party, it appears to me that you’re not happy here. You seem to be disappointed in the management team. You appear not to enjoy your work. And I’m sure you feel that you’re not appreciated or part of the team, at least at certain times. Am I correct?

[Yes.]

Okay, so tell me your thoughts: Would leaving now on your own accord allow you an honorable exit strategy? Would exploring other opportunities outside the company while you’re still employed make sense for you at this point in your career? We’d be willing to allow you to begin interviewing at other companies as long as you make sure that our work comes first and that we’re given at least 24 hours’ notice of an upcoming interview. I’m only mentioning this because I don’t want you to feel that you need to feign illness or conjure up doctors’ and dentists’ appointments if you’ve got an interview coming up. I’d rather we all be above board and that you let us help you. More importantly, I want you to feel that you have options and choices in situations like this. You don’t have to decide now, but please give some thought to how I may be able to help you with and through this.

One other thing, Mary. I want you to know that this is strictly up to you. If you’d like our support to either resign on your own terms now or to begin looking for other work, then we’ll help you. If not, that’s okay too. We’ll do everything we can to help you reinvent your working relationship with Sue and to feel more appreciated for your efforts. I just want you and Sue to feel better about working with each other if you choose to stay. I also want to give you these additional options, Mary, because it’s better that we discuss these things openly rather than leave them unsaid. What are your thoughts?

This gentle approach typically lowers the tension in the relationship immediately. The logic to this intervention is simply this: It’s always better to let people know where they stand. When people are treated professionally and respectfully, they’ll typically respond in kind. Although delivering a message like this can be confrontational, it’s therapeutic. After all, most people would rather be told that their manager would prefer that they look for something else. That’s a much better alternative than having to “divine” from their managers’ actions that they’re not wanted anymore.

There may be downsides to this intervention technique. You never know exactly how people will respond because principle can easily get in the way. As such, they may be looking to find fault in order to cause greater drama, such as a lawsuit. But as long as the third-party mediator is careful to ensure that the employee understands that this is her decision (thereby avoiding a constructive discharge claim later), this intervention should work well. People need to hear how others feel about them. Workers are responsible for their own “perception management,” and perception is reality until proven otherwise. Most employees will appreciate the opportunity to hear about problems concerning them in an open and honest forum. Then the healing can begin.

Still, there’s one additional hurdle that you have to bear in mind: If you “show your hand” as an employer, and then ultimately have to terminate the worker for cause, this could end up triggering a wrongful termination lawsuit. The record could be interpreted as follows: “My immediate supervisor and HR encouraged me to resign, and when I said no, they found a way to fire me.” Okay, fair enough. But with HR and senior leadership working in tandem to offer the individual a respectful way out of the organization or at least the flexibility to interview elsewhere if she chooses, then most workers will respond in kind and not pursue a retaliation charge. But proceed with caution and consult with qualified legal counsel before initiating a meeting like this if you suspect that the individual may be inclined to litigate.

How often does this approach work? In my experience, it’s an 80–20 game: 20 percent of the time employees choose to resign on the spot or agree to begin looking immediately for other work. That may not seem like a great track record, but if you look longer-term, you’ll find that many employees will simply leave the company within a few months after a meeting like this. No matter how angry employees are at the company, they’ll come to realize that fighting an uphill battle makes no sense. When angry people are treated respectfully, their anger dissipates. And when the anger and drama are removed from the equation, they often feel less inclined to keep the job “on principle.” More importantly, they’ll leave quietly on their own terms without all the histrionics and threats of lawsuits.

You can tell anybody anything but it’s how you say it that counts. Both the involved supervisor and employee will appreciate your caring and objective approach to a difficult meeting like this. After all, involved management is all about getting to the truly human concerns at hand—issues that may have been left unaddressed for far too long. You’ll simultaneously support your management team and allow your employees to take control back of their careers. That’s what enlightened leadership is all about.

Resignations: Properly Handling Employees Who Give Notice

Employees who resign usually submit a letter and give two weeks’ notice so that you have some lead-time to find a replacement. Usually there’s little more to do than thank the person for his service and prepare your strategy for filling the position and distributing the individual’s work to the remaining team members until a replacement can be found.

But what if the resigning individual refuses to provide a final termination date? What if she offers verbal notice, not written notice, and she’s done this before, and now you’re afraid she’s going to change her mind again within the two-week notice period? And what if you prefer that a resigning employee leave immediately rather than in two weeks? As you can see, the exit process can get a bit complicated depending on the circumstances, so let’s address some common scenarios.

First, if someone refuses to commit to a final separation date, that’s not okay. They can’t just walk in and tell you they’re leaving without telling you when. Likewise, someone may walk into your office and tender notice 90 days from now (which just happens to coincide with the date she’s getting married). Are you obligated to keep her through her wedding date? Bear in mind that once an employee places you on notice of her intentions to leave the organization, you have a legitimate business need to question her intentions and confirm the time lines. You’re not obligated to employ an unexceptional worker who’s buying time by remaining employed while she’s waiting to get married, finish a bachelor’s degree, or complete some other personal commitment. With calendar in hand, call the individual into your office in private and inform her that setting a specific date will help you plan for a successful transition. Agree on an end date that suits your needs—not hers.

As for the individual who graciously offers ninety days’ notice, simply thank her for the generous offer but let her know that you plan on following the company’s policy and past practice of accepting two weeks’ notice. She’ll be free to leave at that time and will be compensated for her work through that end date.

Then again, if you’re in a situation where you’d rather send the employee home today rather than in two weeks, you have every right to do so. (This happens often with sales people, especially when they’re going directly to a competitor.) However, it will likely make more sense for you to pay out the two-week notice period. Consider it a cheap insurance contract because if you, rather than the employee, determine the date that the worker is to leave your company (i.e., today rather than two weeks from now), you may be deemed the “moving party” under the Labor Department’s definition. If that’s the case, then technically you may have inadvertently transformed the “resignation” into a “discharge,” and the individual may be entitled to unemployment insurance benefits. Further, sending resigning employees home the same day without paying them through their notice period could be viewed as a wrongful termination if your employee handbook states that you expect all terminating employees to provide your company with two weeks’ notice. In such cases, the extra two weeks of pay function as a cheap insurance policy to ward off any potential wrongful termination claims.

But if an employee refuses to resign in writing and you suspect she may change her mind or is otherwise playing games, you have every right to confirm her verbal resignation in writing. A simple email or note might read something like this:

Laura, I have accepted your verbal resignation today, January 30th, and I realize that February 15th will be your last day with our company. You will be relieved of your duties on that day, and I will appreciate your cooperation over the next two weeks in reassigning your current workload and helping with the job posting. Thank you for your contribution to our company over the past two years, and I wish you well in your future career.

Your written confirmation will serve as a proxy for hers, and it will make it more difficult for Laura to change her mind one week later and attempt to keep her job.

What about the employee who looks to rescind her resignation and demands that you allow her to keep her job? Does she have a right to insist that you retain her before her two-week notice period runs out? It depends. You have the right, as an employer, to rely on the individual’s resignation in good faith and end her employment on the agreed upon date. But how you act in reliance on the notice becomes a key issue. Specifically, if you haven’t truly taken action in reliance upon her resignation by posting her job, reassigning her work duties, and interviewing candidates, for example, then the employee may very well be free to rescind her resignation during the notice period. Or so will argue her lawyer, stating that your refusal to give her the job back—when you did nothing to act on her notice—amounts to nothing shy of wrongful termination. The lesson? When a problematic and under-performing employee tenders her notice, don’t celebrate too quickly. Instead, demonstrate that you have accepted her resignation in good faith by posting the job, redistributing her work, and beginning interviewing as quickly as possible—especially within her two-week notice period. You’ll have a much greater chance of warding off a wrongful termination claim if you can show that you responded appropriately to her notice.

Terminations for Cause Versus Resignations by Mutual Consent

Here’s another common scenario: you’re asked to allow someone to “resign by mutual consent” rather than being terminated for cause. While you’re natural instinct may be to allow the individual to resign on his own terms, think carefully about this option before granting it.

Generally speaking, any ambiguity in the termination process could be held against you. If an employee fails to abide by the terms of a final written warning or exhibits egregious misconduct, then termination is appropriate. Lessening the blow by allowing the employee to resign, offering a separation package, or placing the individual on an inactive status while keeping him on the payroll could be interpreted as signs of weakness on the part of the employer, or worse, as a tacit acknowledgment that the employer was partly at fault. This falls under the heading of “no good deed goes unpunished,” so be hesitant about granting employees the right to resign when all the termination paperwork and processing is in place.

Thus, it is important to avoid sugarcoating terminations. Assuming you’ve accorded the employee workplace due process in the form of progressive discipline, follow your company’s policies and practices, and avoid exceptions. That’s especially true in cases of “summary offenses” (i.e., immediate terminations without prior corrective action) for egregious misconduct, such as theft, forgery, fraud, record falsification, workplace violence, or severe cases of harassment or bullying. Termination for cause should be a straightforward management practice. Your good intentions may be distorted if a former employee tries to avert blame and may be capitalized on if a plaintiff’s attorney seeks to attribute ulterior motives to your benevolent actions. When in doubt, always check with qualified legal counsel before agreeing to convert terminations for cause into employee resignations.

The Proper Care and Handling of Your Company’s HR Team

As an HR leader, I’ve often heard company managers say, “I wouldn’t want your job. How do you do this kind of work all the time?” Usually, these comments come up just as we’re about to discipline, terminate, or lay off one of their employees. And I can’t say that I always feel compelled to answer their question with an uplifting, optimistic response. Sure, sometimes I do ask myself, “Is this what I went to college for?” But then I think, “There’s nothing I’d rather do and no place where I could make as great a difference for my company than in my HR role.”

As a line manager in corporate America, you should maximize your relationship with the HR department, which can be an important resource and an ally—both for strategic partnering on business issues as well as for confidential, off-the-record discussions. If you do not develop a relationship with HR, you may feel that HR represents yet another barrier to getting things done the way you want. Here are some insights into understanding how HR wants to help you do a better job.

Many MBA programs devote a course to human resources (or organizational development or organizational behavior), so you may already know that the HR discipline, broadly speaking, is about leading and motivating people and maximizing employee productivity. As such, it’s a portable skill that continually needs to be honed and strengthened throughout your career. People drawn to HR as a career often view it as a “calling” in the true sense of the word. Many HR practitioners feel a need to help others and to give back to the community. HR is the only discipline that allows for such workplace philanthropy. That giveback often comes from one-on-one employee coaching, but more frequently it comes from interventions in which HR supports management in helping employees.

These interventions start with a line manager consulting HR for guidance on structuring a particular action (e.g., hiring, promoting, training, disciplining, or discharging). HR’s key goal is to support management in making the best people decisions for the company, whether that be in staffing, retention, or performance management. But if a manager waits too long before consulting HR, then the problem requiring action may have reached a crisis level, which makes resolution that much harder. Following are some key areas where you’ll want to develop strong relationships with your internal HR partners.

Recruitment

The HR department can help you avoid prematurely “giving away the farm” in terms of salary information. Salary offers are typically saved for the final rounds of interviewing, for several reasons. First, it’s a matter of budgeting. As a hiring manager, you may not know exactly how much a particular position was budgeted for, and if you mention a dollar amount to candidates that is above the budget, then you’ll be at a disadvantage in the salary negotiation. Once a candidate hears that a position pays up to $50,000 but the company only wants to offer $45,000, the likelihood of that candidate agreeing to the offer diminishes.

Second, there’s the matter of internal equity. Regardless of what your budget will allow, you’ve got to slot the candidate into the existing employee population by reviewing similar employees’ years of service, education, technical certification, skills, knowledge, and abilities. This sometimes extends even to staff members outside your immediate team or department. In practice, pay secrecy is often a fiction; employees share information about their salaries, and if your senior team members find out that you’ve paid more to an incoming recruit than they are paid, it could lead to frustration and angst and even to unwanted turnover. So be sure to allow HR to perform an internal equity analysis before discussing salaries or otherwise extending job offers, so that you don’t end up hiring one person and losing three to premature resignations.

Also, consider allowing HR to extend all employment offers. First, you don’t want to be haggling or negotiating over salary matters with someone who will be working for you. That’s better done by a neutral third party like HR or a headhunter. Second, although most managers are very sensitive about what they say to candidates in the offer process, sometimes managers feel pressured or uncomfortable and begin offering the moon: “There’ll be plenty opportunity for promotion. My guess is you’ll be up and out of this job in six to nine months. And there’s a lot of job security at our company; you really have screw up pretty badly to be fired around here.” Such commitments can’t always be fulfilled, of course, but the candidate might construe these comments as verbal commitments, which could create problems for you down the road. So let HR be the objective dealmaker and salary negotiator.

Employee Relations

One of the greatest benefits that HR can provide you is in the area of employee relations. Supervisors hate having to discipline or terminate staff members. Thus, many managers delay dealing with under-performing employees, hoping that the problem will fix itself so that they can avoid a confrontation. But the problems usually continue to build to the point that managers want the employee fired immediately. They rush over to HR with the demand, “I want this person fired now!”

The HR department doesn’t want to be seen as an obstacle to management. Rather, HR exists to insulate the company from employee-related liability. So when HR first learns of a manager’s desire to fire someone only at the crisis point, typically there will be no information in the employee’s personnel file to warrant such a termination. Instead, HR often finds a series of acceptable annual performance reviews and no written progressive disciplines on file.

When that’s the case, the only solution that HR can offer is to initiate the progressive discipline process by composing a first, second, or final written warning (depending on the circumstances). Unfortunately, that makes HR appear to be the “red tape” machine that stops you from taking the action steps that you feel are necessary to keep your operation running effectively. How much easier it would have been had HR been involved earlier in the process; with prior warnings documented and a substandard annual performance review on file, this most recent incident that “broke the camel’s back” might have indeed justified a termination.

Also, as a manager, you should not take on too much liability yourself. The company doesn’t pay you enough to shoulder the responsibility that could jeopardize your personal savings. In many states, managers found guilty of unlawful employment decisions can be personally penalized. So just make sure you’re acting within the course of scope of your employment when making a decision to terminate or lay off an employee. The best way to do that is to have everything approved by HR first before taking any adverse action against an employee.

The HR department can help in more subtle ways, too. HR does more than extend employment offers or approve terminations for cause. HR can also help you address staff problems and get members of your team speaking to one another again. You’ve seen employees who have become mentally unemployed. They feel isolated from the group, develop a “time clock mentality,” and do only enough work to get by. Correcting this problem can be a daunting challenge even for the most successful managers and supervisors, especially since they are often too close to the situation. Managers need a fresh set of eyes to assess the situation objectively—a neutral third party that is not involved in this particular group dynamic. HR can be that third party.

The HR representative might begin by saying, “We’re here to open the lines of communication. This isn’t about wrong or right. There’s no attacking allowed, and no one has to defend himself. We’re simply talking about differences in perception here. The goal is to get everything out in the open, and you also have to remember that whatever you say has to be said in a spirit of constructive criticism. We can fix this together; we just need to make ourselves a little vulnerable and to accept responsibility for our share of the problem.”

Compensation

The last few years have been trying for everyone, what with minimal merit increases, frozen promotions and salary adjustments, mass layoffs due to corporate downsizing, and unforeseen corporate mergers and consolidations. To compensate, managers have been known to make quasi-promises to their staff members to motivate them and raise morale.

To be fair, most of these cases involve managers who truly believed at the time that they’d be able to give a higher merit increase or a promotion to a subordinate in the near future. Unfortunately, and to the manager’s chagrin, those promises couldn’t be fulfilled, for whatever reason. The result: lowered morale, heightened turnover, and more legal exposure than was necessary.

So any time you feel a need to discuss titles, merit increases, equity adjustments, or promotions with staff, first consult with the compensation experts from HR. They can provide you with some excellent tips on what to say and propose alternatives that you might not have thought of. You’ll learn where your employees fit on the compensation scale for their positions, how their historical merit increases compare to those of their coworkers, and what the likely merit pool will be this year. This is critical information for you to have in hand before you begin your meetings with staff members.

Many line managers avoid dealing with HR, preferring to “keep it in the family” and go it alone; they feel that if they can’t handle a problem themselves, they’ll be perceived as weak. This is nonsense! As a line manager, you need support in resolving people issues and maximizing staff performance. If you’re fortunate enough to have an HR resource on board, then be sure and use it to your advantage.

Indeed, in a business economy based on “intellectual capital,” using all the tools available, including HR, to maximize your employees’ productivity, add strong performers to your team, and handle employees who stubbornly fail to meet company standards is truly your key responsibility. Don’t let pride or ignorance stand in the way of your developing the strongest team in your company. Instead, shift the balance of intellectual power your way by making use of HR as a “knowledge” resource for staffing, retention, and performance management issues.

Inspirational Leadership: Some Final Thoughts

We began this book with a simple premise: inspirational leadership is within your reach. It’s not a far-off, idealistic fantasy. It’s not about being a master communicator like Presidents Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton. And it doesn’t require extreme circumstances to reveal itself, like General George Patton in World War II. Instead, inspirational leadership reveals itself in many quiet ways, not only by what you do but, more importantly, by who you are.

We’ve discussed the concept that beingness trumps doingness, meaning that people respect you and are motivated and inspired by you primarily because of who you are as a leader, as a listener, and as a caring human being, not because of what you’re doing at any given time. There’s no need to try to figure out what to do, when in reality the simplest things, done in kindness and selflessness, help us stand out among our peers. Books on management offer hundreds or thousands of ways of motivating employees, but the truth is that workers motivate themselves. Your job is simply to create a work environment where they can do so. Discussions about motivation are typically called for at times of crisis: headhunters picking off our top performers or rumors regarding union organizing activities—“Quick, get that book on motivation!” But wouldn’t it be easier to come from the wisdom that says that creating the right environment from the outset is all that’s really needed?

“What you want for yourself, give to another” is an additional workplace wisdom that is sorely missing in corporate America. Unfortunately law firms, accounting firms, and physician rotation and training programs speak proudly of their working newcomers to the bone. TV shows document and dramatize the effects of those 24-hour shifts on young physicians’ work lives and personal lives, while scientific and medical journals reflect the dangers of expecting young doctors to make life-altering decisions when sleep-deprived. “Track” career programs like these leave those who completed the program inflicting the same pain on new hires as they themselves experienced. And neither this book nor any other will likely change that survival-of-the-fittest mindset.

It doesn’t have to be that way in your company, in your office, or on your shop floor. No matter where you work or what you do, you can be the best boss that your staffers have ever had. You can be that person who influenced and supported them to become better people and stronger contributors. You can be that caring person who encourages, that experienced mentor who guides, and that engaged leader who motivates. In short, ask yourself, Would you want to work for you? If all leaders within your organization followed your lead, would your company be a better place to work as a result?

It’s very easy to simply write off the idea of successful leadership. You may have not had very good bosses yourself throughout your own career. You may reason that you work in a cutthroat industry where everyone’s out for him- or herself. And to a certain degree, this may be true. But that doesn’t mean it has to be your reality or experience. Change your perspective and you’ll change your perception. Look at the world through a different lens and, while the objective outcomes of the reality surrounding you may not change, your experience of them can actually change immensely. This doesn’t mean sticking your head in the sand and refusing to recognize reality. It does mean, however, that despite the dog-eat-dog nature of your industry, the craziness of your own leaders throughout your career, or the constant pressure you face to produce greater volume at faster speeds, you can shield your people from those complexities. You can reason that the buck stops with you. You’re the line of demarcation between the drama above you and what your team members get to experience under your leadership.

It all stems from simply changing your sponsoring thought about who you are as a leader, a motivator, and talent developer. Make it your goal to bring out the best in each of your subordinates—not to fix all their shortcomings but to harvest the best of the strengths that they have to offer. You know intuitively that successful leadership focuses on building on strengths rather than shoring up weaknesses, so find new ways of bringing out those strengths and inspiring employee engagement. Have fun. Consider lightening up just a bit. Understand that life is a gift, and for a significant portion of your lifetime, working with others will motivate you, frustrate you, engage you, and fascinate you. Work, like life itself, is meant to touch all those feelings and emotions through your various experiences. But know that at the end of it all, nothing will stick with you more than the people you’ve helped, the careers you’ve developed and built, and the people along the way who thanked you for all you did to help them excel and become their best. That’s why leadership is the greatest gift that the workplace offers—because of its innate ability to help you touch lives and make the work world a better place.

That’s the secret to all of this. That’s the secret sauce of great leaders and inspirational leadership. It’s not the end state—it’s your trip along the way. Make the most of your career and your work life through people, not despite them. Teach what you choose to learn. Encourage others to take healthy risks. Be there when they make mistakes and offer support when they feel vulnerable. Understand that no one does anything wrong given their model of the world and, when in doubt, err on the side of compassion. You’re the first domino in the row. You are the kind of leader you choose to be—the kind that can change people’s lives and careers along the way. So go ahead and reinvent yourself. Make of your life a gift. The world is waiting to see—and receive—that gift of leadership, of personal and career development, and of selflessness that you’re about to display. I hope this book helps you along the way.