Are you an unapproachable boss?

One of the big perks of being the boss is having your own personal office. Your office gives you the power of privacy and you can shut the door at anytime to avoid interruptions.

Makes life nice, right? Well, maybe not. Just because you have a door to your office doesn’t mean you need to adopt a closed-door policy - both literally and figuratively.

Think about your relationship with your staffers. Have you ever notice them to get quiet or have looks of intimidation (or even fear) when you walk by?

You might be giving off a ‘do not disturb’ vibe without even realizing it. After all, this behavior is easy to see from the outside, but many people struggle to recognize this element in themselves. Most people realize they have flaws, but all of us like to believe we are approachable people, but that is just not always the case.

In fact, only about 12 percent of employees believe their employers genuinely listen to and care about them, according to the marketing research firm, Martiz Research.

When employees feel their manager is unapproachable it can soon result in other issues such as employee resentment and an unhealthy office culture. In addition, you might be seen as difficult to read and hard to trust.

Part of your duty as a manager is to identify areas where you need to improve. Even if you believe you are a friendly person to most, think about what it is that others could find unapproachable about you. Maybe you only spend time with those in your small circle at work, and others could find that group closed in a way they find unfriendly or excluding.

Or perhaps you are so focused on your own tasks that you don’t even notice other people around you. As long as they are getting their job done, you may feel you don’t have to interact with them much. But this thought process could result in negative employee relations.

You should strive to become a more approachable leader. Approachability is about being accessible and helpful, along with showing a genuine interest for your work colleagues.

Here are some tips to remember:

Make a point to talk with your peers one-on-one in an informal way. Get to know them as individuals, and you will likely find something besides work that you have in common. This will likely smooth out your working relationships.

Extend common courtesies to others; for example, greet people in the morning, say,’ hello’ in the halls, and say, ‘thank you’ when someone does something on your behalf.

Look for opportunities to ask the question, ‘How can I help you?’

Schedule or participate in more frequent one-on-one meetings. Use these opportunities to build relationships and let others get to know you and the skills you have to offer.

Make sure you are not manipulating people or creating a climate of mistrust around you. In particular, don’t use information unfairly to gain advantage.

Show interest in other people by asking questions about him or her, rather than talking exclusively about yourself or solely about work issues.

I know you like having that office to yourself, but try to have more of an open-door policy. You might be surprised on how that simple act can make a huge difference with your employees.

Why a simple ‘thank you’ goes a long way in employee engagement

There are countless articles dedicated to employee engagement and for good reason. Most of the time, disengaged employees are either looking for another job opportunity and/or have mentally quit their current job.



And while some of the employee engagement jargon may not immediately draw your attention, the idea that some of your employees may be looking to jump ship should be a concern.



About half of U.S. employees are actively eyeing the exits, or have a less than favorable opinion of their employers, according to Mercer, an outplacement and consulting firm.



While there is no quick fix to getting those disconnected employees completely engaged with the company, there is a simple way to start the path toward it. As the manager, you need to recognize the good performance of your direct reports.



I know, it seems like such an easy concept - employees will be more engaged with their company if they receive some recognition.



Let’s compare this to whenever your wife or husband spends a significant amount of time preparing dinner for you and the family. You are tired from a long day of work and are really just happy to eat anything, so it doesn’t even cross your mind to say thank you or help with the dishes. Well, I’m sure you know that behavior never goes over well and it could result in an argument. However, if you showed gratitude toward your spouse for making the meal, they will feel appreciated and you will have a much happier household.



It really isn’t that much different when it comes to recognizing the hard work of your employees.



Everyone wants to feel respected. No one wants to work day-in and day-out and never hear appreciation for their work. After a while they may even wonder if anyone would notice if they left the company.



Providing recognition and rewards to individuals who contribute to the successful efforts of the work group is an important managerial skill that re-energizes the group and increases motivation. Effective managers are generous with praise and celebrate individual and group successes.



If it’s been a while since you’ve given praise to your employees, you may be perceived as being stingy with praise or unable to celebrate individual or group successes. This will usually have a negative impact on the levels of general morale and commitment in the work group.



Here are some development tips to keep in mind:

• Regularly thank your team members for their input and contributions to the work.


• When recognizing team members, make the recognition appropriate to the person. Not all team members appreciate public recognition.


• Expand your field of recognition to include quiet, low-visibility, or geographically distant contributors.


• Thank people privately, as well as publicly, for jobs well done. A special handwritten note will be greatly appreciated.


• Frequently offer genuine compliments to others regarding their effective job performance.


• Compliment coworkers on their success. Don’t forget about rewarding small achievements. Set a daily goal to say positive things.

Saying ‘thank you’ to your employees may not change their lives, but it could make them feel better about their role at the company, and that is the first step toward employee engagement.

Retain your quality talent

“I quit!”

A year ago that phrase was heard seldom in the workplace, but times are changing. Industry experts say the economy is improving, and as a result more job opportunities are opening up for candidates.

According to Monster.com, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in October the number of employees voluntarily quitting their jobs had eclipsed the number terminated through layoffs and other types of discharges.

This is great news for job seekers, but should also serve as a wake-up call to employers.


The economic recession took a heavy toll, not just on those laid off, but also on the survivors who shouldered the burden of ‘doing more with less’. Many employees became disenchanted and may look to cut themselves loose from their jobs – especially in a better economy.

Replacing employees costs a lot of time, energy, and lost productivity so employers need to place a greater focus on retaining their quality employees.

Here are a few tips on how to do it.

Give Feedback
Meet with your team members regularly throughout the year, not just at appraisal time. Give them feedback - both positive and negative so they know how to move forward in their jobs. Review progress on their development plans and on their career planning. If there are stumbling blocks, try to help your employees any way you can.

Ask for Feedback
Just as you need to give feedback, you must ask for feedback from your direct reports on your managerial skills. You need to find out what your strengths and weaknesses are so you can improve as a manager. It’s no secret people quit jobs due to their boss. But if you don’t know what you are doing wrong, you can’t fix it. Gathering feedback can help you change course for the better.

Offer Perks
Your company may not be able to offer bigger salaries but there are small initiatives it can do to reward employees. Order in lunch once a month, offer a floating holiday, subsidized gym membership, etc. Sometimes it really is the little things that count.

Be Flexible
Let employees work from home once in a while. If a staffer works overtime, let them come in late the following day. These gestures can let workers know they are appreciated.

What are other key ways to retain valuable employees?

Sources: Forbes, Monster.com

Sneaky ways to boost office morale and develop internal leadership

By Caroline Fox

Believe it or not, sometimes an organization’s members are hesitant or averse to leadership evaluation and training. Or sometimes, a company can’t afford to conduct internal assessment or training at that time—especially in this economy. We’ve come up with some “sneaky” ways to evaluate employees leadership skills, create a community culture in your organization, and increase your team’s overall skills at working together. Check out our list for these undercover leadership tips:



Put the coffee in the middle of the room
Putting the coffee in a central location will allow employees to interact more, and will build camaraderie and trust. When you have a team that trusts each other, innovation and creativity are more likely to develop because of open communication and lack of fear of “what others might think.” Who knew an action as simple as moving the morning Joe could foster innovation?

Outdoor ropes course (not totally sneaky)
Ok, ok, so this one isn’t totally underhanded. It might remind you of college orientation, but ropes courses are a fantastic way to get a group of people to cooperate, innovate, and work together for a common cause. Leaders will emerge in teambuilding situations like these, and potential for development can be identified outside of the office. And who doesn’t like to get thrown through a tire 6 feet off of the ground?

Recycling
Recycling is great for the environment, and getting everyone in the office involved will create a sense of common-good. You don’t have to start with an entire recycling setup; just have a box for paper, a trashcan for cans, and one for bottles. Encourage the office to help save the environment, and aim to recycle a certain number of pounds per month. You’ll be building a connected office culture while saving the environment—a win on both sides.

Have a trivia team for a local bar trivia night
Do you have an employee who is a pop-culture whiz? What about a U.S. history buff? Encourage your employees with special knowledge to combine forces to represent your company on trivia night at a local pub. Your organization will get exposure, a reputation for being “fun” and not stuffily corporate, and team members will bond over food, drinks, and fun. As for the rest of the company that isn’t involved? They can feel like part of the club by attending to cheer on their peers, or by checking out a weekly scoreboard to show how well (hopefully) your team is doing!

Build an office playlist (playlist.com)
"Music should always be a means of bridging gaps and uniting people. The beauty of music is that it can -- and should -- gather a wide variety of concepts in a way that's universal."—Gloria Estefan

"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music." - Billy Joel

Music is a universal language. It has a way of uniting the most opposite types of people under one belief, cause, or feeling. Sharing a company playlist is a great way to introduce your employees to new music, explore their music tastes, and collaborate to make a common shared creation. Will a playlist change anyone’s life? Most likely not. But having each employee contribute a song or two creates a shared internal product special to your employees. Start out by using a free service like http://www.playlist.com, and then; depending on the success of the program, a CD might be in order!

Sponsor a Child
Sponsoring a child is a great way to have a community come together to support a social cause. A company can easily afford the monthly sponsorship amount that provides food, clothing, education, and life-saving medical supplies to children all over the world. A good place to begin your search is WorldVision http://www.worldvision.org/ Sponsors receive updates and notes from the children they support, which can then be shared with the company through email or on the organization’s bulletin board. This simple process not only basically saves the life of a child, but can have a lasting effect on company members and their sense of connection to others in the workplace. Just as an example, I remember our sponsor child from when I was in the 6th grade… and I am still proud of the work my class did to support him.

Can we guarantee that any of these actions will create the impact of a management coaching initiative? No. But we can say that these ideas are a great way to start building teamwork in your organization, and can lead to a smoother, more collaborative, and more satisfying workday for your employees.

Employee Engagement Lessons from The Office

Employee engagement is a hot topic; with estimates that disengaged workers cost U.S. companies an estimated $350 billion every year. Yikes!

While researching and reading countless articles about employee disengagement, I couldn’t help but think of the NBC show The Office. You’ve got to love when a pop culture phenomenon can also be used as a reference for workforce issues.

If you haven’t seen the hilarious show (you deprived individual), here is a brief synopsis: The Office depicts the everyday lives of the office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

Michael Scott is the incompetent regional manager of the company. Take a look at his management skills here:



Michael lacks the necessary leadership characteristics to successfully manage the office. As a result, the work environment is chaotic and many of the Dunder Mifflin workers are not engaged.

The Gallup Organization, a research firm, states there are three employment types: engaged, not engaged, and actively disengaged. Since The Office has great workplace material, let’s examine the engagement types of some of the key characters. Plus, it gives you an excuse to watch The Office clips at work. If anyone asks, simply respond that the clips are part of a learning tool.

Engaged – Dwight Schrute

Dwight Schrute is a strange man. He speaks in a halting, intense manner, is obsessed with sci-fi and zombies, and has a wide array of weapons ranging from crossbows to nunchucks.



Despite his lack of social skills and odd mannerisms, Dwight is actually good for Dunder Mifflin. He’s one of the top salesmen at the company and has won numerous sales awards. Also, Dwight is extremely loyal to his boss and will seemingly do anything for the company.

In his own way Dwight displays some of the characteristics of an engaged employee. He is dedicated, productive, and takes pride in his work.

Not Engaged – Stanley Hudson

Stanley Hudson is also a sales representative for Dunder Mifflin. While he is hardworking, he is thoroughly grumpy, believes he is underpaid, and dislikes his boss, Michael Scott. He's also usually doing a crossword puzzle instead of working or listening in meetings (although, I don't blame him for zoning out in the conference room meetings at Dunder Mifflin!).



Stanley is a perfect example of a non-engaged employee who is ‘checked out’ and ‘sleepwalking’ through the day. He does his job without any interest, passion, or personal involvement.

Actively Disengaged – Angela Martin

There are several characters in the show we could have used to represent disengaged workers. However, Angela Martin takes the cake.

She is head of the accounting department at Dunder Mifflin and is cold, judgmental, and uptight. Angela is outspoken about her disapproval of nearly everyone in the office. When she makes a mistake, her first response is to shift the blame to someone else.

Angela is also the head of the Party Planning Committee at Dunder Mifflin. Typically, when a committee member suggests an idea, Angela will shoot it down with a mean comment. Due to her behavior, she is a constant source of complaints to human resources.



Disengaged workers are unhappy in their work and they don’t care who knows it. They may be highly vocal in their criticisms toward the company and will act out their frustration.

The Reality

Okay, so these characters are fiction. Still, if you don’t want your office to be like Dunder Mifflin, you should take note if you have any workers that display disengaged traits. Now we are not saying you should try to have all your employees become exactly like Dwight (there would be way too many nunchucks around). However, as manager it is your job to create a culture for employment engagement.

It doesn’t take much to keep someone motivated – just pay attention, communicate and interact with him or her.

No matter what though – please don’t take leadership or fashion advice from Michael Scott.

Sorry, Michael. A do-rag does not equal quality leadership.

Sources: The Gallup Organization, Wikipedia, NBC, YouTube, IMDb

A Unique Leader: Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines

Gary Kelly wants to impress you. Sure, he wants you to pick Southwest Airlines over the competition. But there is another aspect in his life that he desperately seeks approval - his Halloween costume.

Kelly is not only the Southwest Airlines CEO, President, and Chairman but he is also a once-a-year Halloween superstar.

Can you image walking into the office and running into this lovely face? Spooky!

Over the years, Kelly has dressed up as Gene Simmons from KISS, Captain Jack Sparrow, Edna Turnblad, and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, according to Southwest.com. Halloween is a big deal at Southwest Airlines - a majority of employees participate in costume contests and will decorate their stations at airports.

We can only imagine what Kelly will be for Halloween this year. Iron Man? A vampire? Lady GaGa? We’ll just have to wait and see. He has stated he will sacrifice for art – within reason.

Kelly’s attitude toward Halloween is a perfect example of his desire to create a different kind of corporate culture. While some CEOs stay in their massive office and hardly ever crack a smile, Kelly appears to be anywhere and everywhere at any given time interacting with all ranks of employees.

As Chief Executive of Southwest Airlines, Gary Kelly maintains his focus on three important areas for the company: low cost, customer service, and its people.

Bags fly free. Those three little words helped Southwest Airlines fly above the competition. Though analysts dubbed the Southwest campaign as irresponsible and naïve, it proved to be a success.

According to reports, Southwest Airlines has grabbed nearly $1 billion in annual market share, which is in part due to its no-fee baggage policy.

Bags fly free is now a big part of the Southwest marketing campaign. Instead of using paid actors, Southwest utilizes its own employees for nationwide television and print commercials. Now that is one way to raise employee morale!



At Southwest Airlines, employees have the freedom to be creative, dress casually (and with style on Halloween), and have fun on the job, according to Southwest.com.

It should come to no surprise that about 80 percent of the Southwest staff said they work at Southwest because of the culture.

Southwest also does good business. The company has been profitable ever since its first full year – a rarity in the airline industry.

What leaders can take from Kelly is to showcase a bit of your own personality. Just because you are the CEO or upper management, doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun. Obviously, a leader can’t go too overboard. However, if you feel the urge to dress up as a member of KISS for Halloween, what’s holding you back?