Working from the Heart

There is a dichotomy within the fact that while companies tend to spend extra cash on employees around the holidays for perks such as parties and bonuses, this is also the time of year when we’re likely to be the most stressed out. How can employers best show appreciation for their employees’ hard work and dedication? How can we reward ourselves and others in a way that reinforces the values of the organization?

Bonuses
Many companies pay bonuses of some kind around the holidays. There are multiple ways to structure bonuses – they can be based on many different types of profit metric, determined by individual, group, or company performance, or a flat across the board reward. It’s tempting to think that all types of reward are good, but how you reward employees directly influences their perception of their own and others’ value to the organization. It is crucial to take a hard look at your organization’s core values and vision before deciding on a reward system. If your organization values individual performance and internal competition, than individually or team rewards may be appropriate. But if the organization openly states that teamwork and solidarity are a core value, individual or team rewards could send a contradictory message to employees. It may strengthen the loyalty of a few, but weaken overall commitment and belief in the organization’s mission.

In medium and larger companies there is often a department that is the equivalent of a star sports team at a college. This department will hold the most prestige, get a larger share of resources, and face less cutbacks when times are lean. If your company is new technology focused, the star department may be Research and Development, while at a hard goods company it may be the sales department. While some favoritism may be appropriate given the nature of the business, the holidays are a good opportunity to smooth over resentment that may have accumulated during the year in departments that have had to run lean.

Parties and Celebrations
Many organizations have holiday parties or celebrations during the holiday season. Again, the type, cost, and size vary widely. Celebrations can be great culture-builders. They are an opportunity for leaders to connect with employees on a more casual level, building trust and camaraderie. But badly executed, they can be painful exercises in forced fun that further drain stressed employees of energy, commitment, and morale. Here are a few dos and don’ts to consider when planning your company (or departmental) celebrations:

DO involve multiple employees representing organizational areas in the planning committee and allow each to have an equal voice. If your party is for a group of people that include marketing professionals, sales people, and programmers, you may have three or more distinct cultures. Giving any one too much weight in the decision making process will create deeper divisions.

DON’T assume you or any one person knows what everyone will like. Ask questions, send a survey, or have a meeting and get input from representatives of all stakeholders.

DON’T use the party as a pulpit. Remember the celebration is a way for leadership to show appreciation for employees, not another hoop for them to jump through to prove their loyalty. Having a captive audience does not mean you should always use it. If you have issues to address, save them for a meeting.

DO be authentic. If you plan to give a short presentation or speech, don’t gloss over difficulties that emerged during the year. Employees want to be praised for weathering bad times, not forced to pretend like everything went smoothly. Again, be mindful of the message you may be sending through omission.

DO be mindful of company culture when planning a celebration. If your organization is casual and relaxed, an informal happy hour may be more appropriate than a formal sit down dinner.

DO remember the platinum rule: Do unto others as they would have done unto them (In other words, treat others as they would like to be treated, not as you do). Don’t assume that what makes you feel valued will make your employees feel the same. When in doubt, ask.

The Bottom Line
All forms of compensation send employees a clear message about their value to the organization – whether or not you’ve considered what that message is. Make sure the amount and type of compensation you provide aligns with your stated organizational values and doesn’t create unnecessary divisiveness or drain morale.

Work can be rewarding and fulfilling, but it is always stressful at times. Often we cope with stress at work very differently than at home.  Work can be a pressure cooker – rather than attending to our emotions when we are experiencing them, we often delay or deny our feelings. For example, snacking can temporarily soothe unpleasant feelings, and caffeine can delay feelings of fatigue or desensitize us to our own and others’ emotions. Mindless internet browsing can distract us from unpleasant feelings and curb boredom. None of these coping mechanisms are very detrimental in small doses, but when they become habits they leave little room for healthier practices and conscious awareness of stress and how it affects our minds and bodies.

Wake Up
We can’t treat stress if we don’t notice it, so the first step towards a less stressful working life is consciousness. Find several times during your work day to stop and check in with yourself. Are you feeling stressed? Tired? Angry? Overwhelmed? Becoming aware of your emotions isn’t always pleasant, but it’s necessary to keep them from negatively impacting your behavior or body. Keep an item on your desk or computer desktop that reminds you to take a minute to check in with yourself. It could be a serene nature photo or a funny quote – anything that takes you out of your habitual thought patterns and grounds you in the present.

Take a Break
If you notice that you’re stressed the most important thing to do is temporarily disconnect from whatever is stimulating your emotions. Don’t try to find a solution, don’t jump to action, and don’t engage in your typical avoidance behaviors. Do something that allows you to take a quick vacation from the situation. Taking a quick walk around the building (outside if weather permits) can help release tight muscles, re-oxygenate your body, and give you a fresh perspective. Or, if you find you’re thirsty or hungry, skip your normal coffee or snacks and try an aromatic herbal or green tea. Stimulating your sense of smell can help relax your body and mind.

Meditation for Work
A really quick and powerful way to reset your mind and body is meditation. Many people think that meditation can only take place in a shrine with chanting and incense. In reality, meditation can be simply the practice of gently focusing your mind on a single thing (called Single Point Meditation). It can be your breath, a word or phrase (often called a mantra), or even an object or physical sensation. You can meditate pretty much anywhere for as little or as much time as you wish. The goal of single point meditation is to detach from your thoughts and feelings and observe them objectively and without judgment. This is a powerful practice for reinvigorating your mind and body and helps you be less reactive to your environment and make better decisions.

Here is one of the simplest meditation techniques:

• Sit comfortably in your chair with both feet on the ground.
• Take a couple of deep breaths, and release them completely.
• Focus your eyes on a point a couple feet in front of you, and down from eye level about a foot.
• Allow your breathing to return to normal and observe the sensations of air entering and leaving your body.
• If you mind begins to wander, gently return it to your breath.
• Don’t judge your thoughts, and don’t criticize yourself if you have difficulty focusing your mind on your breath. Just gently return your focus every time you find you’ve mentally wandered off.

Start by doing this exercise for 2-5 minutes, twice a day. You may be surprised by how much this practice helps you relax, focus, and recognize stressful feelings before they affect your mind and body detrimentally. Learning to be aware of how stress is affecting your body and mind can help you make better decisions, cultivate stronger relationships, and be more efficient and engaged at work.

Everything in Moderation, Including Moderation
Caffeine make make you more alert, but it can also make you reactionary, irritable, and eventually more tired than before. Sugary snacks may be comforting, but they can make you sleepy and lower your energy level. Internet browsing can be fun and diverting, but it can also make you distracted, unfocused, and inefficient. A little mindless distraction is not a bad thing, but learning some additional stress management techniques can have a big impact on your experience of work.

If you’d like more information on meditation, check out The Three Minute Mediator – a great resource for quick, easy meditation techniques.

Have you ever found yourself in a job that just didn’t fit? You had a great interview, were excited to be offered the position, and realized after only a few weeks or months that it was the wrong job for you. Maybe you didn’t get along with your supervisor, or the company culture wasn’t right for you. Maybe your first impressions of the company and the reality didn’t line up. Whatever the reason, it is always disappointing when we’re not as successful as we hoped in a new job. In addition, poor job choices can have a negative impact on our careers and our reputations.

It is important to approach the interview process with the idea that you are trying to gather as much information as your potential employer. You are in a sense interviewing the company to predict if you will feel comfortable, valued, and challenged while working there. The stress and pressure of job-hunting often keeps us from thinking in these terms, but poor job placement can eventually harm your quality of life, your professional reputation, and your employment record.

Conventional wisdom tells us to approach interviews with the intention of selling ourselves to our potential employers. We’re given formulaic ways to answer standard interview questions. We’re told how to dress and act. But what this well-meaning advice often ignores is how creating an overly manufactured impression hurts the interviewer’s ability to recognize and value your authentic self. A job where you can bring the full power of your skills, talents, and personality to bear is a wonderful opportunity for growth. A position where you have to hide or minimize important aspects of yourself is not good for you or your employer.

The good news is there are several things you can do to prepare for interviews that will help reduce some of the risk involved in choosing a new position.

Do your research

Any recruiter will urge you to find out as much about your potential employer as possible, and this is good advice. From the company’s website you can learn about product offerings, company history, and sometimes performance and stock valuation. Always be sure to look in the “about us” or “company” sections. You will usually find information on the organization’s values, vision, or mission. The employment section is usually housed there as well and you can read about benefits and company culture. This information provides an important framework for understanding what your interviewers will be looking for, and clues as to what type of person they are seeking.

Now look a little deeper. If the company lists a set or core values or a mission, see if you can recognize how those elements are represented through the company’s actions. If the company lists “respect for people” as a core value or tenant, see if you can find evidence of this. Do they offer superior benefits or perks compared to their competitors? Have they received any awards, or been listed be a third party source such as the Fortune 100 as a good place to work? Do you know anyone who works there? If so, ask them to give you examples of how the organization supports their stated values, especially towards employees. If you find that there are contradictions between how the company represents itself and its actual actions, this is important information. Asking further questions about how the company supports its values during the interview is highly recommended.

Don’t be afraid to go beyond the company website. Google the organization and look for press releases and industry articles. Look up the executives and learn about their backgrounds and previous roles. If you have the names of your potential managers, look them up on LinkedIn. You may be able to learn more about their tenure at the organization and what they did before. High turnover of executives can be a warning sign of instability. All of these sources will give you more knowledge about who and what the company values, and whether or not it will be a good fit for you.

Digging into Language

Another important element to look for when doing your research is language or jargon that is specific to the organization. On the surface, a candidate who can successfully adopt the language of the organization may seem more like a “culture fit” to an interviewer who is steeped in the company culture. However, it is important to note that specialized language often hides contradictory information. Different employees may interpret these terms in different ways, and sometimes jargon serves to reduce or eliminate discussion or clarification of important issues.

For example, “excellence” is a blanket term that organizations use frequently. Microsoft lists “personal excellence” as one of their values. What does excellence mean to you? Does it mean being really good at everything you do, no matter what? Or does it mean providing a good product? Does it mean fully utilizing your unique talents and strengths, but not necessarily spending the same kind of energy on tasks that are less essential? It’s hard to imagine anyone being excellent at everything.

Whenever you notice an indistinct term, unusual clusters of words, or acronyms being used frequently, ask for clarification. Don’t assume that you and the interviewer (or the interviewer and the company) are interpreting these terms in the same way. Asking questions doesn’t betray ignorance; it shows willingness to learn.

The Interview: Being Authentic
I’m not going to contradict the basic conventional wisdom regarding interviews. Do dress well, be well groomed, and behave in a friendly and open manner. Show up on time, bring your resume, portfolio, cards, or any other collateral that will help you explain who you are and what you offer. However, don’t represent yourself as someone other than you are. If you’re wearing a suit, wear one that expresses your personal style, even if you rarely wear formal clothing. If you’re a cautious, introverted person, don’t try to appear extremely outgoing and gregarious. Putting your best foot forward doesn’t mean someone else’s foot; it just means a polished version of your own. Remember, you want a position where you can be yourself as much as possible. Even if you feel a great deal of urgency about finding a job, the wrong job can be worse than no job.

Remember, you are gathering as much information during the interview as your interviewer. Your interviewer will try to get a feel for your personality, evaluate your presentation against whatever information he or she already has about you (your resume and maybe a personal recommendation), and probably try to get some idea of how you will fare under the day-to-day pressures of the job. If this person is someone you’ll be working with frequently, you need to know the same things about him or her.

Pay attention to how you feel during the interview. It’s natural to be nervous, but you should be able to discern if you feel comfortable and safe with the interviewer, or intimidated and challenged. If you like working in an environment where you are challenged to defend and promote your work, or you dislike conflict and prefer to work collaboratively in a relaxed setting, then this is important information. Paying attention to your emotional and physical state during the interview will also help you stay calm, collected, and objective. Taking notes on all your observations will help you keep track of any information that could impact your decision to take the job if it is offered.

How well structured is the interview? Does the interviewer ask you specific questions about your skills and previous experience, or is it a looser, more conversation-like interview? This may indicate the skill of the interviewer and how well-cast they are in their own position. If you’re applying for an engineering position and your potential manager wants to talk mainly about product sales and marketing, he or she may not be qualified to evaluate the work of technically skilled employees. In subsequent interviews you will want to look closely at whether the other employees’ skills and roles match up.

The Job Killer: Dissonance

A final caveat: one of the hardest things to spot and the most detrimental to your future success in a position is dissonance between what the organization says and what it actually does. This is why it is important to look carefully at how the organization portrays its relationship with customers, community, and employees, to see if it matches up with reality. Nothing is more frustrating and disengaging for employees than repeated dissonance. Most companies set high ideals and fall somewhat short of the mark due to financial and market restraints, and this is to be expected. But organizations that behave in ways that blatantly contradict their stated values can be toxic places to work. Enron’s core values were communication, respect, integrity, and excellence. While they were certainly excellent at making money for a few lucky people, the behavior of leadership and company policies were the opposite of the values they espoused. The emotional and even physical stress that this kind of environment can create should be avoided when possible.

No company is perfect, but be aware of the level of dissonance you can tolerate before it affects your ability to be fully engaged in your work. A start-up that’s had to trim back employee benefits to survive may be understandable and tolerable for you, but a company that espouses openness and honesty but has poor communication and transparency may not.

Know Thyself: Your Values

It will be difficult to know if your potential employer is a fit if you don’t know your own core values. A career coach or counselor can help you identify your values, or you can find an exercise online. A quick and easy way to identify your values is to spend about ten minutes brainstorming and writing down all the things that matter to you. They might include family, honesty, affluence, freedom, or any number of other terms. Make your list, then narrow it down in two phases: first cut the list in half, and then try to narrow it down to no more than five terms. This will give you a good idea of what is most important to you.

If maintaining your family life is one of your personal core values, a company that expects 72 hour weeks is probably not for you, no matter how much it pays. If honesty is important to you, but the company fails to mention it or an analogous term, you’ll want to inquire further during the interview process. Personal values and an organization’s values will probably never be an exact fit, but knowing your values helps you recognize your deal-breakers, i.e., things you specifically want to avoid in a future employer.

Summary

The hiring process can provide you with as much insight and information as it provides your potential employer. Don’t waste any opportunity to glean information that will help you make good decisions about your future work. Internet research, word of mouth, and interviews all have the potential to reduce the risk involved in taking a new job. Represent yourself as authentically as possible, and be on the lookout for the warning signs of institutionalized dissonance. Finally, know your values so you don’t end up in a job where they’re violated or marginalized more than is tolerable or sustainable. Find a position where you can build your personal and professional skills and express your talents, and be appreciated for your hard work and dedication.

Does your company struggle with customer satisfaction? Do your employees fully engage with the mission and values of your company on your customers’ behalf? Sometimes it seems as if all the policies, procedures, and propaganda have little effect on company culture, employee engagement, and customer service.  It is crucial to understand all the ways we communicate expectations to employees.

Often, we are not aware of how our behavior may contradict stated employee policies and organizational values. Fully engaged employees are essential for customer satisfaction. Are you aware of all the intended and unintended ways you communicate with your employees?

Symbolic Action and Dissonance
Most companies claim to value employees. Visit any well-known organization’s employment page, and you will likely find phrases like “competitive benefits and salary,” “superior employee development” and “work hard, play hard.” But what happens when a manager’s behavior, or an employee policy directly conflicts with these assertions?

Managers and organizations frequently misunderstand the relationship between their behavior and employee performance. Two key concepts are symbolic action and dissonance:

Symbolic Action – behaviors and actions that inform employee perceptions.

Dissonance – emotional discomfort resulting from observing hypocritical speech or action.

Here are a two examples of symbolic actions that can create dissonance, and possible employee reactions:

New employee training emphasizes leadership’s “open-door policy”. But a high level manager keeps his office door closed most of the time, and only talks to his direct reports a couple of times a week.

Possible Interpretation: The company is only paying lip service to bottom-up communication.
Impact: frustration resulting from hypocrisy and lowered productivity, poor internal communication

Stated organizational values include respect for employees, but firings are frequent and one or more executives have been overheard referring to employees as “expendable”.

Possible Interpretation: Respect for Employees is an empty claim, probably designed to influence employees to work harder.
Impact: Low morale, increased attrition.

Symbolic actions, intended or not, tell your employees how much you value them, whether or not you trust them, how intelligent and capable you think they are, and your perception of your own value compared to theirs. How does this concept play out organizations? Here a couple of real-world examples from my own observations.

Customer Service
I frequent a couple of national coffee chains for my daily latte. One chain has a good product, and excellent staff. No matter how long the line, I can get in and out in under ten minutes, and my embarrassingly complex order is always delivered correctly. The employees are competent, relaxed, and friendly. They’re diverse in age, race, appearance, and personality.

Occasionally, I frequent another national chain. I actually like their coffee better. The employees, generally all young, are disengaged. Sometimes they’re friendly, sometimes not. My order is frequently messed up — even when I’m the only customer. The employees generally seem more interested in talking to each other than to me.

Employee Policies
Curious about this disparity, I visited the websites for the two companies. I noticed an immediate difference on the employment page. While the second chain has the standard boilerplate about “putting people first” and competitive pay and benefits, the first has personal testimonials, documentation of fairly advanced training for the food service industry, and itemized available benefits including retirement and insurance for employees who work twenty hours a week or more. Symbolically, this would seem to communicate that the first chain is much more committed to employee development than the second.

The first chain’s website leaves me with the impression that leadership wants employees to feel valued and engaged. But does this mean that they actually are? Many companies wish to be perceived this way but sometimes PR (websites, press releases, articles and books) and reality diverge. The intention to hire and retain good employees does not always translate into the actions – hiring practices, training, and culture – that are necessary to sustain it.

For example, I have a relative who works for a national retail chain that has its home office in the Southwest. The temperature in her store (on the west coast) is regulated from the home office, so it’s often out of sync with the weather outside. If it’s 95 degrees at headquarters and the AC is cranked way up, customers and employees may be freezing in the store on the west coast where it’s only 75 degrees outside. Corporate does not allow store managers to adjust the temperature in their own stores. So while the company’s website details extensive career development and benefits available to employees, the appearance of employee value does not align with how they are treated.

If you were an employee of this company, what would this policy tell you about your value as an employee? Would you feel empowered and understood? Or would you feel frustrated and powerless? Good leaders recognize that any disparity between what they say and what they do can have a negative impact on their employees’ effectiveness, and by extension their own. Whether they like it or not, their actions are symbolic of their intentions – towards the company, the employees, and each other.

Employee Engagement
The first coffee chain talks a good game, and the values they espouse seem to be in use in the organization. Here are some key indicators:

• The company provides useful training and benefits for employees that are far beyond the industry norm.
• Employees seem engaged and relaxed.
• Employees are highly competent and efficient.

On a recent visit to the second coffee chain the employee who took my order was discussing some new employee rules with his co-worker. Management had decided that employees were only allowed to come in through the front door (the side door is far more convenient for cafe employees). It was clear that the employees found this policy frustrating.

This revelation made perfect sense. Regardless of what the employer said about their value for employees, their actions indicate (at least to this particular employee) that they don’t trust them. If I were to translate this action into a statement, it would say, “I (the company) do not trust you (the employee) to make basic decisions about how to behave around customers, so I will dictate how you should behave.” As an employee, I would feel that my individual value to the organization was negligible.

Is it a surprise that employees of the second company don’t seem to take pride in their work? Company policies towards employees communicate far more about their value than employee value statements, or titles like “partner” or “team member”.

It’s entirely possible that the management had a good and valid reason for making this rule – however, what is important in this case is the unintended ways that this data was interpreted by the employees. Every rule, regulation, or manager action can be interpreted in a variety of ways they never intended. Worse still, if the action or policy directly contradicts the organization’s stated values regarding employees, the obvious hypocrisy will hurt morale and potentially lower efficiency and raise attrition. If you don’t want to run the risk of creating unnecessary ill will that negatively impacts customer service, you need to consider these possibilities when crafting employee policies.

I suspect the first company’s employees seem happy and engaged because there is little conflict between what the company says about how they treat employees and how they actually treat them. This translates directly into satisfied repeat customers and revenue.

Putting it to Work
Do your company’s values align with the policies in practice regarding employees? If you cite respect and honesty as core values, but monitor employees’ every move, you’re creating  dissonance (discomfort with the contradiction between statements and actions) that affects the quality of work. Dissonance is often unconscious, at least temporarily, but it still effects employee commitment, morale, and efficiency. If your stated values were instead consistency and quality, then close monitoring may be more appropriate. It is the dissonance between words and actions that can cause problems like employee disengagement, low productivity, and high turnover.

If your organization, like a coffee shop, relies on consistent, attentive customer service for its revenue stream, then this internal dissonance may also create discomfort for the customer. Imagine taking you kids to Disneyland and being ignored by grumpy, disinterested employees. The slogan “The Happiest Place on Earth” would become a parody, rather than a promise. Your employees represent the values you communicate to them directly to your customers.

Here are some suggestions to help you craft appropriate employee policies:

Be Consistent
If you have a company vision and values statement, check it against your employee policies and see if they contradict each other. If so, consider changing policies to reflect company values, or even changing your values statement if it is outdated or underdeveloped.

Be Authentic
If you haven’t developed a values statement, spend some time considering what your company pays the most attention to, and how that informs employee decisions. Develop a document that accurately reflects your priorities so it can guide your future decisions. This will help you recognize if policy and values begin to diverge. Make sure that your product or brand values are also aligned with your core values.

Look at the Big Picture
Consider the long term impact of short term decisions. When times are tight and cutbacks are necessary, don’t be caught unaware when layoffs lower employee morale, productivity, and commitment. Remember the power of symbolic actions, and find ways to mitigate the negative impact of difficult decisions, or risk losing the benefit of short term gains to long-term problems.

Interviewing is an elusive process for many. We may be well prepared for interviews–with detailed lists of questions, desirable traits, and skills we expect from potential hires–but not understand what causes us to like or dislike a candidate? How do we process all the non-verbal information? While objectivity is highly prized, it is rarely achieved. To make the best possible decisions, we must be conscious of all the available data, not limited to literal information and “gut reactions”.

When evaluating candidates, many of us fall into an emotional-mental trap. We may try to be objective when meeting a potential hire (or friend, or date), but for some unidentified reason we dislike or distrust the person. Rather than identify the source of our own reaction, we rationalize our response, which distorts our mental evaluation process. We must discard vast amounts of data to maintain this limited perception. The same follows when we instantly like someone–that emotion is important data, but it should not trump a thorough evaluation of the candidate’s qualifications, history, and ability to interact effectively with other managers and team members.

It’s important to remember that although we are evaluating another person, all of the information comes from or through ourselves. We absorb data and process it through our own assumptions and perceptions. This is why it’s vitally important to recognize all the data we are receiving if we want to make informed decisions.

Behavioral neuroscience research addresses and helps us understand our physical-emotional reactions to human interaction. In his most recent work on Social Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, one of the best-known experts on emotional and social intelligence., cites the recent discovery of mirror neurons, which cause us to mimic the actions and feelings of others:

When we consciously or unconsciously detect someone else’s emotions through their actions, our mirror neurons reproduce those emotions. Collectively, these neurons create an instant sense of shared experience. (Goleman and Boyatzis, 2008).

Goleman goes on to cite research that indicates that emotional and physical signals influence perception significantly more than verbal input. When we ignore or minimize the information we receive from our emotions and bodies we not only ignore a rich source of data, we repress the input that has the most influence over our opinions and perceptions of others. It’s like judging food based on how it looks, and ignoring the smell and taste.

I propose that we break perception into three main data-gathering mechanisms:

Physical: Our body’s involuntary, instantaneous reaction to stimulus.

Emotional: Our sense of identification with others, attraction or aversion, like or dislike, and emotional interpretation of our physical reaction.

Mental: Our ability to detect inconsistency or contradiction, evaluate information against our own knowledge and experience, make objective observations, and put our physical and emotional reactions into context.

How does this work? Let’s say I’m interviewing a candidate for a position on my team. Her resume and qualifications are reasonably good, and she comes highly recommended by a colleague. When I enter the interview room, introduce myself and sit down, what information am I gathering?

Physical:

How does my body feel during the interview? Is my heart rate faster? Am I breathing evenly? Do I feel the need to create more physical distance between the candidate and myself or less? Is my stomach upset? Am I sleepy?

This information may be related to how I was feeling before I started the interview, but it also may be a subtle reaction to physical signals I’m gathering from the candidate.

Emotional

Do I feel an affinity or aversion for the candidate? Does she bring out a sense of nurture in me, or annoyance? Do I feel excited, frustrated, or bored when talking to her? Do I enjoy the interview, or do I want it to end as quickly as possible?

Again, some of this data may be related to my own assumptions and judgments. I may like or dislike her clothing. She may remind me of someone I don’t get along with. Her voice may sound like someone I have affectionate feelings for. Still, all this information is data that when made conscious can be evaluated against the other data I gather. If I am not aware of these feelings, they may bias me for or against the candidate and minimize the importance of more substantial data.

Mental

What do I think of the candidate’s qualifications and skills? What kind of consistency or inconsistencies between her resume and interview do I notice? Can she answer difficult questions easily, or does she seem to be struggling to create the answers I want to hear? Does she seem at ease? What is her level of energy? What is her temperament? What do her posture, facial expressions, and tone of voice tell me?

You’ll notice that rather than moving from mental process down to physical, we start with the physical reaction and move progressively up to mental reactions. This is because physical reaction is our first-line source of data. It informs our emotions, which in turn influence our mental processes. It’s tempting to “stick with the facts” when evaluating a candidate, but the only real facts we have are what the candidate tells us about herself, and what our perceptions tell us.

Interpretation

I may have first noticed that I was breathing a little faster or fidgeting during the interview. I then may have recognized that I felt excited and a little uncomfortable.  I also observed that the candidate smiled frequently, spoke very quickly, seemed somewhat hesitant, and had difficulty talking about how she handled conflict in her past position. I may conclude that she is somewhat nervous and under-confident. If this is an entry-level role, those are traits that I can probably work with if her intelligence, temperament, and qualifications are good. But I am interviewing her for a supervisory role, or one in which conflict may be a frequent occurrence, I now can assume that she could potentially struggle with one of the main requirements of the position.

In reality, we usually start with our mental evaluation and may or may not access our physical and emotional data later. If you tend to make decisions using your “gut feelings” you’re paying some attention to this alternate data, but lumping it together rather than using your mental facility to evaluate and test all the information against your initial evaluation.

The more adept you become at recognizing and utilizing your physical, emotional, and mental perceptions, the more effective your interview process will be. Further, the ability to recognize these subtle signals will help you anticipate and deal with challenging interpersonal dynamics in your workplace more easily and effectively.

Here are a few tips for effective interviewing:

Before:

• Have a well thought out, structured interview prepared. Make sure you ask probing, specific questions that will encourage the candidate to give clear, behavior-based answers.

• Avoid using business jargon and clichés. Some interviewees will pick up on jargon and use it to increase your comfort with them without giving you substantial information. Others will just be confused. Make sure you clearly define any blanket terms you use, such as win-win, excellence, team-player, etc.

• Tune in. Take stock of your physical and emotional state before you enter the interview. Take a few deep breaths.

During:

• Take notes. Remember to note your own physical state, especially if it changes. Note what emotions you feel and when in the interview they occur.

• Take mental breaks. Don’t rush through the process. Make sure you pause in between subjects to check in with yourself and note your thoughts, feelings, and reactions.

After:

• Synthesize your findings. Compare and contrast your physical, emotional, and mental findings and look for consistencies and inconsistencies. Remember, some of the data is unimportant or unrelated to the candidate, but you won’t know that unless you consciously evaluate it.

• Contrast with others. Ask other interviewers about their experience of the candidate. How did their physical, emotional, and mental experience differ or agree with yours?

• Repeat. If you feel the candidate is a good fit, set up a second and optimally third round of interviews. First impressions are just that–our minds naturally fill in the blanks when we are missing large amounts of information. This will lower the risk associated with hiring and help insure a good fit for the role you hope to fill.

For more information on utilizing emotional and social intelligence at work, check out Daniel Goleman’s Working with Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships.

Everyone has to navigate interpersonal conflict in the workplace from time to time. While avoidance often seems the path of least resistance, it can lead to trouble in the future. Here are some useful tips for evaluating and dealing with problems between co-workers.

Identify
When dealing with uncomfortable situations in the workplace, we often disassociate from our emotions and try to focus on concrete facts. This is a mistake;  strong emotions can distort our perceptions. Perception is subjective; two people may have significantly different memories of the same event. Identifying how you feel towards your co-worker can help you retain your objectivity during subsequent interactions.

How did you feel during your most recent conflict? What emotions do you generally feel around him or her? These emotions could include anger, impatience, frustration, or superiority. Frame these feelings in an “I” focused sentence. It’s useful to write them down.

Example: “When Tori talked over me in last week’s meeting, I felt angry and humiliated.” ” When I am around Tori, I feel defensive.”

Communicate
Now that you recognize how you feel when in conflict, consider ways to communicate your feelings. Again, always use “I” statements, especially when bringing up negative emotions.

“I felt frustrated when you talked over me in the meeting this morning” is far less volatile than “You were rude to talk over me in the meeting this morning.” The first statement states your emotion – which is not subject to debate. The second statement makes the assumption that the other person was aware of their behavior and places the responsibility on them. This is unwise for two reasons: 1) regardless of how you feel, you don’t actually know why the other person behaved the way they did, and 2) placing the responsibility for anticipating your emotions on another person is unlikely to create positive results for either of you. You must draw clear boundaries if you want to be treated in a positive manner.

Take Responsibility
It is difficult to know how to react when you perceive that someone is behaving negatively towards you. However, the most effective way to confront negative behaviors is in the moment, not later. It’s too easy for confrontation after the fact to devolve into finger pointing or disagreements over perception. Practice addressing conflict in the moment by re-writing past events that you found difficult.

Situation:
Tori talked over me in a staff meeting.
Emotion:
I felt frustrated and angry.
Reaction:
I didn’t say anything.
Alternate Reaction:
I could have waited until she finished speaking and said, “Tori, I would like to finish what I was saying now.” If she persisted in interrupting me, I could say, “I feel frustrated when you don’t let me finish. I have a valuable contribution to make to this conversation, and I would like you to let me finish.”

Interpersonal conflict that is not dealt with openly can lead to decreased morale and productivity, gossip and cliques, and attrition. By dealing with conflict directly, openly, and immediately, you improve the over all functionality of your team.

If you’re interested in reading more about emotions in the workplace, I highly recommend Daniel Goleman’s Working with Emotional Intelligence.

I’ve given a lot of thought recently to the leadership role of teachers. I’ve been both teacher and student many times. I’ve taught voice, dance, business workshops, and most recently I’ve been assistant teaching a college course. I’ve been a student of music, dance and graduate school (twice). I have some strong beliefs about teaching and leadership that I would like to share with you.

I believe in the Socratic Method for maximizing learning.
This is probably not a popular viewpoint in some areas of teaching. It certainly was not encouraged when I was a music student, with a few notable exceptions. The Socratic method involves debate, critical thinking,  and encouraging opposing viewpoints.

I’ve had conflict with teachers in the arts who expect mute absorption and automatic respect. Even when learning a physical skill, I think it’s crucial to put what you’re learning in the context of what you’ve learned before, what you hope to learn, and ultimately what kind of artist you’d like to be. There’s nothing wrong with questioning something that doesn’t appear serve you, or asking for clarification when instruction doesn’t make sense. As a teacher I’m there to serve the student. As a student, I’m paying for a service.

In the academic world, I’ve had teachers that excelled and encouraging active debate, and also some who seemed to view it as a personal threat. I was actually told once that I shouldn’t use the word “claims” to cite a source in an academic paper, because it was too presumptuous from a mere student. The teacher told me to use the word “shares” instead. Seriously? In graduate school? Luckily this was the exception, not the rule. But it’s telling that there are teachers at the graduate level who don’t understand the need for students to learn good critical thinking and writing skills.

I believe that real teaching is transformational for both the student and the teacher.
Learning doesn’t stop when we move from the role of student to teacher. Teaching and learning should be a shared experience – not one way. Good teachers ask for, consider, and act on feedback, whether through informal conversation or surveys. Some of my favorite teachers made a habit of soliciting feedback during class on a regular basis. This created an environment where students felt comfortable giving the teacher constructive criticism, a skill most people need at work and at home.

I believe that there is a transactional element that neither party should ignore: the teacher is the student’s employee.

I would have to say this is my number one criticism of ineffective teachers. As a teacher, I am hired by the student to provide a service for them. I may have more knowledge, experience, and capability in the area they choose to learn about – that’s why they pay me. The relationship is essentially transactional; it’s an exchange of money for services. The transformational element only exists as trust is built on both sides, and if the teacher has added something of value to the student’s life.

For example, some voice teachers are very exclusive – they charge high prices and students have to audition to be accepted into their studios. The automatic assumption is that the student is incredibly lucky to be studying with a renowned teacher. And while this is true, so is the converse. The teacher is also very lucky to have that talented student to represent and add perceived value to his studio.

I believe the teacher must earn trust and respect over time. It should never be expected or automatically bestowed.

Many ineffective teachers seem to assume that not only respect, but also reverence is required of the student. They should show gratitude and obedience automatically. This is not so. As with leadership, trust and respect are earned, not bestowed. I believe humility, compassion, and empathy are required skills for teachers and leaders, not optional qualities.  I encourage teachers to remember that it’s up to them to provide adequate value for students, and students to demand it or go elsewhere.

I believe that the student always has the right to question the teacher.

I may have already covered this. You pay for it; you have the right to question it. Teachers should welcome questions, as they can help them improve their ability to communicate difficult concepts effectively. When I teach workshops where I use my own research and mental models, I encourage my students to disagree with me. What is important is that they realize they have their own mental models, values, and perspective, and that they become as aware of them as possible. Whether or not they agree with mine is irrelevant.

I believe that both students and teachers should actively exercise critical thinking.

I’ve had too many teachers who espoused, “Leave your brain at the door.” Certainly there are times to open your mind and absorb, or think creatively rather than critically. But all education should involve helping students learn to be effective critical thinkers. Critical thinking, like creative thinking, is an indispensable skill in the adult world.

It was sad for me to realize that I wasn’t exposed to critical thinking theory and skills until I re-entered graduate school in my mid 30s. Until then I had been led to believe that my ability to recognize inconsistencies and willingness to ask questions was a detriment to my learning process, rather than a boon. It was amazing how much faster I was able to integrate and utilize my learning when I could use the full power of my intellect in an educational setting, rather than just memorization and repetition.

Essentially, my rather vehement beliefs boil down to this: all teachers are leaders; they have the same responsibility to use the power of leadership as ethically, compassionately, and wisely as a CEO or minister or senator. The consequences of misunderstanding or ignoring that responsibility comes with substantial risk: the dumbing-down of our greatest resource – our nation’s minds.

I’m now writing for examiner.com as the Austin Workplace Issues Examiner. I usually cross-post my articles here, but check it out for lots of additional links to interesting articles on leadership, business, and organizational development.

There are two types of power in organizations: positional and personal. Positional power is based on rank or title. A manager, executive, or teacher holds positional power. They also may have the ability to reward followers with raises, commendations, or advancement, or to punish them with termination, demotion, or restricting activity.

Personal power is emergent – it is gained over time through activities like building relationships, alliances, coalitions, and through behavior that inspires respect and trust. When used well, an individual with personal power can benefit others through increasing communication, interdependence, and effectiveness. But personal power can also be misused to create silos, divisiveness, and turf wars.

Most managers have positional power, but many have little or no personal power. Many misuse their positional and personal power. Leadership entails responsibility far beyond what is detailed in a job description. If you want to cultivate real power – power that comes from respect, loyalty and trust, consider these basic guidelines:

Leadership is:

• Earning the respect of your followers, regardless of your position.
• Being open to suggestions, complaints, and constructive criticism.
• Valuing the success of your followers above your own.
• Celebrating and utilizing followers’ strengths, talents, and skills, even when they are greater than your own.
• Using your position to create opportunities and garner recognition for your followers before yourself.
• Actively seeking feedback.
• Communicating openly and frequently.
• Clearly defining expectations, structures, processes, and requirements.

Leadership is not:

• Expecting respect before you have earned it with each individual follower.
• Ignoring or minimizing the concerns of those who are ranked lower than you.
• Taking credit for the accomplishments of your followers.
• Limiting opportunities for followers to communicate with you or each other.
• Ignoring opportunities for growth and leadership development in followers.
• Limiting opportunities for feedback.
• Maximizing opportunities for yourself before your followers.
• Allowing excessive ambiguity in expectations, structures, processes, and requirements.

Understanding the dynamics of positional power, while understanding the responsibilities that come with leadership is necessary for building effective and rewarding management practices.

There are many damaging myths in management regarding how to treat employees. Here are a few of the worst, and how to avoid them.

“Everyone is expendable.” In most of the United States, we can hire and fire at will. This has given rise to the myth that all employees are expendable. In reality, no one is replaceable. Conservative estimates put the cost of replacing an employee at 1.5 times their salary – other claim it can cost up to three times. This is not so outlandish when you take into account screening, interviews, scheduling, training, and integration time. If you clocked every hour spent on the acquisition of a new employee, the cost would be significant. Every employee who leaves, regardless of level or circumstance, costs your company real money. Put the necessary time into screening, hiring, and training to minimize turnover and attrition in your department.

“Hiring inexperienced people will allow me to mold them.” Many managers hire inexperienced, often less intelligent people claiming they can be “molded.” While a less experienced employee with high intelligence and potential can be a great choice, poor managers consistently hire lower performers to minimize potential competition. They downplay the skills of their star employees and create closer relationships with the weaker ones. Good managers hire highly skilled, intelligent people and utilize them fully – even if that means the employee can potentially outshine them. There’s a saying in HR, “B managers hire C managers.” This means that mediocre managers only promote those less qualified than themselves. Consider ways you can improve the quality of your hires. Then honestly deal with any feelings of insecurity or competitiveness that your star employees may trigger in you.

“Mentoring is a waste of resources and time.” It’s hard to believe that experienced managers can hold this belief, but many do. The majority of those promoted into management excelled in areas other than effectively leading and interacting with people. I recently spoke with a seasoned executive, who said in his entire career he never received real mentoring or leadership training. More employees leave jobs based on poor management than any other reason. Not only is it important for you to mentor your employees, you should actively seek mentorship from those leaders you admire and respect. Learning the art of leadership is a lifelong process.