Gemini June Newsletter

I was in Singapore recently and met up with one of my good friends who heads one of the region's largest Banking Divisions. He asked me for lunch, where we discussed the issues of staff retention and succession in a booming economy (Singapore now have more jobs available than workers).

The succession planning aspect appeared to be the most challenging aspect for the Bank, not least because there was no real systematic approach to find the most suitable candidates within the organization. He gave me an example of projects where he had personally asked staff from different levels to engage in a project with him leading the team. He thought this would be a way to reach out to the general staff, as well as get a view of how they see the bank progressing.

The long and short of it was, that he was realizing that staff can (and generally do) clam up when faced with a superior several levels above where they are asking them questions. You may get one or two staff who have confidence and a willingness to be forward in their comments, but many feel very intimated. I went through the continued lengthy and liquid lunch where we more or less came up with a few ideas about how best to bring new faces into an unfamiliar situation.

Managers are intimidating: Like it or not, when you're in the dominant role, giving your opinion will alter the remainder of the discussion. No one wants to look like he disagrees with the boss. If you want others' opinions, you must allow them to go first.
Your employees need development: If you always give the answers, no matter if you're right or not, then you'll always be the only one thinking. Train your employees to think independently and provide their own unique perspectives.
You need to delegate: It's fine in the early cycle of a business's development for you to come up with almost all the answers. After all, there aren't too many others to lean on. But as you grow, it's almost impossible to continue doing so. At that point, it's your job to ask questions, not supply answers. The only way to grow yourself, as well as the business, is by not allowing your employees to burden you with the responsibility of solving every issue. Turn it around and ask how they would handle the issue.
You need to understand your people: When you speak, you hardly learn a thing; but when others speak, you get to learn how they think and express themselves, and you can gauge their potential for growing into higher levels of authority and responsibility.
You should always ask questions first: It's common for people to hear a question and think they instantly know the answer, and sometimes prematurely answer the question before knowing all the facts. So first just listen, suspend judgment, then ask questions to clarify and unearth more perspectives. Then provide an answer more likely to be relevant and effective.

As usual, if I can be of any service, by all means email me at the below address, where I am always happy to assist.

Callan Anderson

Group General Manager

Gemini Personnel

callan@gemini.com.hk

The most 'important' teammates....Lazy Coworkers

lazy

That old saying about one bad apple? When it comes to working in teams, it really is true.

According to Benjamin Walker

, a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales' Australian School of Business, the lasiest member of a team actually has the greatest impact on its success or failure.

Academics have long thought that teams performed at about the average skill level of each of its members. So, at work, having a particularly skilled person on your team would help the performance a bit, and having a particularly unskilled or even lazy person would bring the performance down a bit.

That makes sense, but Walker's study suggests it's wrong. Walker first suspected this when he encountered a situation familiar to many of us. He and the other students were supposed to work in teams, and his team included, essentially, a freeloader: someone who did almost no work, but got the same grade as everyone else on the team.

Then, when the team did relatively well, the freeloader did everything in his power to get assigned to the same team again.

So Walker designed a study. He gave 158 students a test designed to see how conscientious and motivated they were, and then sorted them into 33 teams. Each team was given a case study to work on, and was told that each team member would receive the same grade based on how well they did.

He found that "the person who contributes the least has a huge impact. Even if the rest of the team is pulling their weight, they won't be able to compensate for that member." In the end, that single lazy person ended up with the most responsibility for team failure or success.

Walker also ran tests to see if recklessness affected team performance, but found that the group mentality overrode the few impulsive people-in a way that it couldn't do with lazy folks.

What do you do when faced with someone who just won't pull their weight?

8 things you should always say to an employee...

Some things employees just won't ask. Instead of asking questions they watch you for clues to determine the unwritten rules of your business - and the unwritten rules of your leadership and management style.

Make it easy and get your unwritten rules out in the open. In contrast to my post 8 Things You Should Never Say to Employees, here are 8 things you should always say to employees:

"What you say during your performance review is more important - especially to me - than anything I have to say." A great performance evaluation is a two-way street. Sure, you need to give specific, actionable feedback, but you also want to hear the employee's view of their performance along with their personal development and career goals. Let every employee know their performance evaluation is their time to talk, not just to listen.
"Remind me later." Employees will typically understand if you don't have time to respond to a question or suggestion. What they won't understand is if you never follow up, so have the employee follow up with you. Shifting the follow up "burden" works as long as the employee feels good about it. Say, "I don't have time to discuss it now... but that sounds like a great idea. Grab me later because I definitely want to hear your thoughts. Don't let me forget!" It works.
"Raising issues is good. Solving problems is better." As a leader you want employees to bring problems and issues to you. But what you really want is for employees to take care of problems and then tell you what they did. Create decision-making and authority parameters and encourage employees to solve problems on their own. (If they make mistakes, give feedback and instruction but don't scold them for taking initiative.)
"Superstars are important, but people with great attitudes are just as important." Great individual contributors with terrible interpersonal skills can often ruin a team. Every employee may not be capable of incredible achievement, but every employee can be a good team player. Let everyone know working well together is a key expectation.
"Always give me the bad news first." We like to hear good news, but we need to hear bad news as soon as possible. If parts won't arrive on time, jeopardizing a customer ship date, don't aim any frustration at the employee. Instead say, for example, "Thanks for letting me know as soon as you did. First we'll call the customer. Then we'll..." Turn bad news into a positive, proactive call to action and you'll hear about problems much earlier.
"Hey, that's great - tell me how you did it." Employees who toot their own horns usually aren't egotistical, they're often insecure. When an employee tells you about a personal accomplishment don't just say, "Good job," and move on. Ask for details. Ask for the whole story and not just the ending. You'll boost employee self confidence and motivate them to accomplish even more.
"Please tell me when I mess up." A key indication of a great leader (and a great work environment) is when employees feel comfortable giving their bosses feedback. Establishing that level of trust takes time, though, so you may have to repeatedly ask for constructive feedback - and never give employees reason to regret having done so.
"I'm sorry." When you make a mistake, apologize. Don't blame others, don't make excuses - just say you're sorry, in as few words as possible. Then do what you can to correct the mistake. Isn't that what you want your employees to do?