Het Mini Medewerker Gesprek

Vandaag kwam ik langs een medewerker die eigenlijk geen tijd had. Hij was projectleider en dit was zijn laatste dag voor zijn drieweekse vakantie. Maar ja, ik wilde hem toch echt weer even spreken. Dus toen heb ik een mini-medewerker-gesprek gehouden waarin alleen de highlights voorbij kwamen. Het ging ongeveer zo:
 - Vertel eens, hoe gaat het? -> Ja goed hoor, erg leuk maar wel druk! [kijkt op monitor]
 - En hoe gaat het in de opdracht? -> Nou prima, ik heb het erg naar mijn zin en ben nu bezig met de laatste dingen voor de vakantie. [tikt wat in]
 - Ah, dus je hebt nog veel te doen? -> Ja, heel veel dingen nog af te ronden. [kijkt op andere monitor]
 - En hoe gaat het met jou persoonlijk? -> Ook goed, lekker op vakantie, heb er zin in! [kijkt op monitoren én tikt wat in].

En toen heb ik nog 1 of 2 vragen gesteld, hem de hand geschud en een fijne vakantie gewenst. De belangrijkste vragen van het medewerkergesprek waren in ieder geval aan bod gekomen: hoe is het in je opdracht, hoe is het met jou zelf. Nou, goed dus.

Het Micro Medewerker Gesprek.

Let wel, dit duurde nog zeker 4 á 5 minuten omdat ik de verantwoorde Open Vragen (TM) stelde. Mocht je nou zelf een keer écht geen tijd hebben, dan kan het nog korter door gesloten vragen te stellen.

Vergeet niet om oprecht geïntereseerd te kijken, onderdruk gapen :
 - Hoi, heb tijdje niks van je gehoord. Gaat nog lekker in de opdracht?
Bedenk: na de eerste lettergreep van het antwoord meteen ingrijpen zodat er geen ‘maar’ of een uitleg kan komen. Dan moet er natuurlijk geïnformeerd worden naar de medewerker zelf:
 - Met jou gaat ook alles goed?
Slecht zal het niet gaan (dat had hij vast gebeld of zich ziekgemeld) dus ook hier zal een ‘ja’ als antwoord volstaan. Maak een hattrick door de derde gesloten vraag te stellen:
 - En thuis ook alles in orde?
Nu zit de medewerker lekker in de ‘ja’ modus en heeft hij/zij een goed positief gevoel! Sluit af met een samenvatting hoe het gaat in je eigen bedrijf:
 - Nou mooi zo. Met het bedrijf gaat alles ook lekker, geen bijzonderheden eigenlijk, het meeste heb je toch al gelezen op intranet, in de nieuwsbrieven en het bedrijfsblad. Tot over een maandje of 3 maar weer dan? Je weet me te vinden als er iets bijzonders is.

Dit kan in 2 minuten! Alles is behandeld, de medewerker zit lekker in de ja-modus en jij hebt tijd over voor andere zaken. Succes verzekerd, op naar de top!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Phase I
This is the ‘me’ phase. This phase can happen when there’s a lot going on in your life, when under stress, in fear, in pain, or otherwise preoccupied with yourself. Learning wallclimbing (or anything that is new or fearful) is a fine example, where you are just doing what your instructor (coach, manager, etc) tells you, not knowing why or minding your surroundings, but just obeing. And such can it be with one of your employees who is just starting and does not yet know his new world (most Young Professionals for example), has made a career switch, or is otherwise consciously or unconsciously depending on you to take decisions for him.
Phase II
Phase II is the ‘we’ phase. As you conquer your fears, start learning new skills or are climbing from the wall, you are more aware of your surroundings and your influence towards it. Though still dependant on coach for cadres, you have the ability to execute your (newfound) skill.
Phase III
Phase III is the ‘you’ phase, where you have truly mastered your art and are capable of controlling it, where others depend on you for guidance and direction. You are the coach, able to help those who need it.

I can, for example, recognise the aboves phases in my own career. When I started as a sales manager and again later as a unitmanager, I began with heavy focus towards the core business (and the new skillsets it required) and only later started seeing connections, the bigger picture. Only then did I start thinking of ways to influence my environment as a whole and not just my own customers or just my own unit.

In essence, using the theory of the three stages of competence, it is important to recognise when somebody is in Phase I. People then rely wholly on you and sometimes give over control of (parts of) their career and life to you. And especially at such time it is more important then ever to have the integrity to make the right decision for him or her.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The life-balance triangle is actually about making sure there is a balance between the major aspects of your life and about coping with it if one of the three major aspects is deficient. The three aspects are Work, Home and Hobby.

Work Work is important in that is comprises of about 40 hours a week, not counting any other obligations you might have beside that. Included in work is carreer, money, collaegues, work that makes sense, etcetera. In short, it is about being content with the work you do.
Home Home-situation means having a stable place to come from and go to in more than just a physical place. It may or may not include a partner or family, children, a place to call your own, etcetera.
Hobby This includes the things you do for relaxation. Be it either sport, going out, playing computer games, hanging out with friends, whatnot. But it is all about what *you* like.

As a rule of thumb you can say that if one of the three is imperfect, having the other two as a backup will keep you on the road just fine. So if an employee has (for example) some troubles at home, you can do what is in your power as manager to make sure his work is alright and point him/her at the need to find something to relas. Or, if your employee has an assignment he thinks is boring/dull/has no nice collaegues/etc, help him and support him to have a stable home situation and has time to relax (or, in other words, do not put too much extra pressure upon that person).

And yes, I know there are similarities towards Maslow’s pyramid, the “Leary’s Interpersonal Behavior Circle“, and other theories. In later articles I will write about the uses of those in (consultancy) management.

So, if one of your employees is disgruntled about something, asking the right questions might help you find what is going on. And who knows, if you are disgruntled, asking yourself the right questions may do the same for yourself.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I say this because one of the deficiencies of our anglo-american culture is that performing well is the norm and failure is ascribed to external factors usually. Being a well-performing person in a contingent of equally well-performing people (or at the least, not failing people) there is often too little reason to give a compliment. You are, after all, just performing your job for which you get paid, right? And giving compliments then might give people the idea they are performing above the norm and expect something for their exceptional accomplishments. So, we do not compliment and the circle is round; we keep the non-complimenting status quo as it is.

Stubborn as I am, I will of course not comply with the status quo. Taking the example I mentioned in my opening statement, if I think you look good, I will tell you so. That does not mean automatically that I have a crush on you. Really. It doesn’t. It means I see that you have made an effort of your presentation towards the outside world in general or me in specific and that I appreciate that. No more. No less. And seeing it an another (sexually intimidating) way can just as easily be ascribed to either party (both sender and receiver, see more about this subject here).

Of course, you might argue that by complimenting on your looks I am ignoring your professional skills. It does not. Really. It doesn’t. Your outward appearance is, by definition, a reflection of your inner state (and therefore a reflection of your attitude towards your personal presentation). Wearing a suit, a tie, jeans or a sweater or just blatanly not caring at all what you wear: it is all a statement. As Oscar Wilde put it: “It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances”.

What also strikes me is that when I actually do make a compliment (or just comment in a positive way) people often feel the need to actually ‘defend’ themselves, explaining to great lengths how they came to a certain point and what they did to achieve whatever it is that deserved that compliment. Believe me, you don’t need to. Really. You don’t. If I want to know why, I will ask you for it.

To prevent further misunderstandings here’s the 3 Commandments Of Complimenting:

1) do give compliments, whenever something strikes you as positive, nice, goodlooking, or otherwise worthy of a compliment.
2) keep the compliment simple and straighforward
3) when you receive a compliment, just take it. Say ‘thank you for the compliment, that is very nice to hear’ with a genuine smile.

I hereby call upon you all to help me break the status quo and just give a compliment today, to anybody that deserves it.

And to be absolutely and utterly unabiguous: complimenting you on your looks does *not* automatically mean I want you in my bed. Really. It doesn’t. If I want you in my bed, I’ll tell you.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Bad consultant, bad!

You (yes you, manager and professional alike) should always have a Elevator Pitch at the ready or at the very least some keywords to describe your company in a (uncanny) pitch. Words such as Clarity, Passion, Fun and Competence (or whatever your company has as most important keywords) should spring to mind immediately. Often, the Elevator Pitch is taught only to (sales) managers or like people, but as the example below shows: be prepared, all of you (especially when walking around on a carreer event!).

Ah well, for those who want it, here’s How Not To Elevator Pitch (.mp3 file in Dutch). And, to be complete, here’s of course also some advise on Pitches.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

There are a few great advantages to using MSN/Skype over, for example, regular e-mail. One is that it is less formal and you know that the recepient has at least received the message (not to mention the ability to send/receive messages even when offline). Also, it is less intrusive then using a phonecall. Further, if used well, people can tell you if they’re busy, out to lunch and whatnot. And, an underused functionality of MSN/Skype, you can add a line about what’s on your mind at that time which is, in the consultancy business (where you meet face-to-face once a month or less) a great way of telling how you’re feeling to the world (since you’re usually not in the same room with your long-term colleagues). Not to mention the plugins that start appearing for MSN to do online banking, passing money around, buy music, and more.

To improve the enterprise functionality, you’d additionally need a company plugin/applet where you can immediately see some details about said person (such as function, phonenumber) or even add an Automatic Friendlist where you get connected to people from your own unit/division, pushed from the companies backend systems.

The main differences between Skype and MSN is that Skype has, in my opinion, superior voice-and-video capabilities, whereas MSN has something very handy: webmessenger, so that even in situations where regular MSN/Skype/ICQ/Google Talk/Yahoo Messenger is blocked, you can still get online.

So, to set the right example, you can usually find me on Skype as: christiaan.lam

Go spread the word.

PS: and quoting one of my employees about Unified Communications “Lotus Groupware has been active in this field for years, and Microsoft has a disadvantage in this area, so to pretend UC is something all-new would be passing several companies who have been active in this area for a long time.” Seems it’s again Microsofts PR machine working

Bookmark It

Hide Sites