Problem at Work 3: Poor Performance or Productivity

This continues our series on problems at work that could get you fired or stall your career

Your performance and productivity affects how your supervisor perceives your value to the company. Great performance and productivity reflects well on future raises and promotions. Poor performance and productivity, however, decreases your perceived value. Continued poor performance or productivity jeopardizes your job and future career.

Why Poor Performance or Productivity Stalls Your Career

Your company hired you to produce a certain amount of product or service. They pay you a salary to perform as they expect. Failure to produce what they expect indicates that they will not see a positive return on their investment. Continued poor performance and productivity leads them to believe that you will never deliver what you promised when they hired you.

How to Resolve Poor Performance and Productivity

You might improve your performance and productivity with the following steps:

• Clarify exactly what they expect of you in terms of
  • Productivity: how much they expect you to produce or deliver
  • Effectiveness: what they want that to accomplish
  • Efficiency: how much time, money, or resources they expect you to use
  • Quality: the excellence of the work the company expects of you
• Identify a mentor and network of connections to help you improve your performance. Let them assist you to
  • Nurture your skills and abilities
  • Understand how the company works more effectively
  • Connect with the people who contribute to your production
  • Set realistic goals to improve your productivity and performance
• Increase your productivity and performance until they meet expectations
  • Work harder based on the advice of your mentor
  • Work smarter using the information and abilities your network gave you
  • Work faster, but more accurately, under the direction of your supervisor
• Measure your performance each day, week, or month
  • Compare actual performance to expectations and performance goals
  • Create a graph to easily see your progression and improvement
  • Create home run statements that illustrate your improvement
  • Show your graph, and share your home run statements,  with your supervisor

Improving your performance and productivity restores the company’s faith that you provide a good return on investment.

Join me on Monday when we discuss the problem of cantankerous, obnoxious, & rude behavior

Problem at Work 2: Persistent Tardiness & More

This continues our series on problems that can get you fired or stall your career

Businesses expect employees to arrive at work on time. They expect workers to report on the job on the days and shifts assigned. They expect employees to return from lunch and breaks on time. Businesses feel they dictate terms of employment in exchange for the salary, benefits, vacation, and leave they give. They expect employees to meet those terms and suspect employees who do not.

Why Business Owners View These as Problems

Persistent tardiness, absenteeism, and returning from breaks late raise concerns in the minds of your employers and supervisors. They consider that you may possess a:

• Lack of commitment to the company
• Lack of self-discipline that means you will also not complete the work assigned
• Poor time-management skills that could manifest themselves in your work
• Lack of respect for the company or it’s management and values
• Rebellious streak towards the rules, culture, and systems of the corporation

Companies will give you a certain amount of sick leave. They generally do not expect you to use all of it. The less you use the better.

What You Can Do to Resolve the Problems

Several actions will help resolve the concerns listed above:

• Change your behavior
• Always show up for work at least 10 minutes early
• Plan for emergencies and delays in your commute
• Call your supervisor if you will be late and explain why
• Return from lunch and other breaks a minute or two early
• Get enough sleep, eat healthy, and exercise to stay healthy
• Avoid situations that could expose you to contagious diseases
• Communicate your changes to your supervisor and management
  • Apologize for your mistakes from the past
  • Assure them that you will change
  • Explain what you will do to reduce tardiness, absenteeism, or late breaks
  • Share home run statements highlighting the success of your changes

Your employer wants to know that your commitment to the company remains strong, that they can rely on you.

Join me on Friday when we examine how poor performance or productivity is a problem

Problem at Work 1: Problems that Stall Your Career

Today we begin a series outlining problems that can get you fired or stall your career

I work with a lot of people that find their career stalled. Management passes them over for promotions. Management neglects to give them plumb assignments, nor include them in key meetings. They receive no or low raises. They receive the first pink slips when layoffs or terminations occur. Too frequently, they do not understand why these things happen to them—repeatedly. They often complain and ascribe their problems to others: co-workers, supervisors, subordinates, and clients.

Problems You May Create

Many times we create the problems for ourselves without recognizing it. If these problems persist, you may lose your job or find yourself dead-ended within the company:

• Persistent tardiness, absence, extended phone calls, lunch or other breaks
• Poor performance or productivity
• Cantankerous, obnoxious, or rude behavior
• Bad hygiene, dress, or appearance
• Inappropriate comments, jokes, emails, or other communications
• Obsolete or inadequate skills
• Work related drinking, drugs, or testing problems
• Mistakes or losses at work

Problems Others May Create

In addition to the problems we create for ourselves, others may also create problems for you:

• Cliquish, aloof, and exclusive co-workers
• Office gossip, back-biting, sabotage, and back-stabbing
• Unsupportive, demanding, and critical supervisors
• Impossible deadlines, unrealistic expectations, and lack of resources on the job

Whether you create the problems or someone else does, you need to resolve them or face negative consequences. Continued poor practices or problems severely affect your advancement or growth. I know. I possess personality problems that cost me a job once and continue to prevent my promotions. I’m working on resolving them, but have not made enough progress in the past 11 years. I hope to share ideas for you, if you find yourself with a problem that can get you fired or stall your career.

We will explore each of these reasons over the next four weeks.

Join me next Wednesday to learn more about tardiness, absences, and extended breaks

How to Plan a Career 15: When to Leave Your Company

This concludes our series on planning a career within your current employer

Previous posts helped you identify opportunities for growth within your current company. In addition, we discussed how to open the opportunities through business relationships, your network of contacts, and a mentor. Sharing home run statements with your supervisor and other connections allows them to see how you can help them obtain their project, operations, or team goals. Yet, for all that the time may come when you need to leave your current employer.

Reasons to Leave You Current Employer

You may find several reasons for leaving your current company:

• Changes in management or ownership make the culture unappealing to you
• Opportunities for growth or satisfaction cease to exist within the company
• Possibilities for more growth or satisfaction present themselves elsewhere
• Friends or acquaintances from your past ask you to join them somewhere else
• Directions and interests you once wanted to achieve no longer drive you
• Economic difficulties force the company to layoff employees
• Behaviors and poor performance create situations that lead to your termination

Plan Your Departure Well

The following checklist may improve your departure and future prospects:

• Delay your departure until you accept a new job—if possible
• Maintain good relationships with your supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates
• Provide non-offensive and non-inflammatory reasons for leaving
• Express appreciation for the experiences, training, and opportunities they gave you
• Assure them you will respect the confidence they placed in you and not jeopardize it
• Ask for a letter of recommendation from the person who gives the best reference
• Identify options for continuing health benefit, dental, and life benefits
• Understand severance or unemployment benefits you may receive
• Transition and protect your 401K or other pension benefits—don’t touch them
• Download emails, contacts, and calendar to a safe location and delete personal items
• Reconcile all outstanding expense reports, commissions, bonuses, or obligations
• Consult a legal expert about written or verbal contracts
• Submit change of address and mail forwarding (if applicable)
• Keep your doors open and maintain contact

Monday we will begin a new series exploring barriers that may prohibit future career growth

How to Plan a Career 14: Business & Relationships

This continues our series on how to plan a career within your current employer

The last two posts discussed the benefits of building a network within the company and of finding a mentor to guide you through the corporate maze. Both a network and mentor require you to use relationship skills. Sarah and Jared Stewart teach people how to build business relationships. The Stewarts, brother and sister, authored The City of Influence to share their theories on building relationships.They espouse the motto“People do business with people they know, like, and trust.” 

People Who Walk the Talk

Jared, Sarah, and I have known each other for eight years. Our very busy schedules prevent us from seeing each other that often. Yet, they both reach out to me frequently to see how I’m doing. They exemplify the principles they teach. They walk the talk.

Sarah and I ran into each other last week at a business expo. She saw me sitting at a table with some friends. She asked if she could join us. She spent almost an hour catching up, learning about the people sitting at the table, and brightening our lives.

Keys to Building a City of Influence

Jared and Sarah condensed the basics of business relationships into 9 keys to building a City of Influence:

1. Exit the coliseum
2. Decide to govern
3. Recognize that bricks trump
4. Avoid relationship arrogance
5. Develop relationships just because
6. Learn, Serve, Grow
7. Swim in pools
8. Measure influence
9. Establish relationship laws and systems

Watch The Following Videos to Learn More

“Business is about relationships” proclaim Jared and Sarah. Issimo Productions produced the following very short videos to help you learn more about the power of relationships. I encourage you to watch them:

• Overview of the City of Influence
• Ray Kroc illustrates how the concept of Learn, Serve, Grow blesses so many others
• Milton Hershey: highlights the benefits a governor can bring to a city of influence
• Ub Iwerks demonstrates how those around you can help you achieve your dreams

I encourage you to study the book. Learn and practice the keys outlined in The City of Influence.

Return Friday for the end of our series  on how to plan a career within your current company

How to Plan a Career 13: Find a Mentor

This continues our series on how to plan a career within your current employer

Finding a mentor remains a key to planning a career with your current employer. I have discussed the concept of mentors in previous posts. Mentors guide people who are new to the company as well as people starting a career—or starting a new career. They impart their wisdom and understanding about the company to new workers. Mentors guide you through the pitfalls, written, unwritten rules, and the corporate culture of your company.

Seeking Success outlines the following steps to succeed with a mentor:

Finding a Career Mentor

1. “Don't expect your manager to be your mentor.
2. Look for senior people within your company who have been along a career path similar to yours.
3. Find an individual who shares your values, work style, and sense of humor.
4. Choose someone you admire, and who is uplifting.”

Asking for their Support

1. “Before you ask for support, prepare a plan. What exactly do you expect of them? If you're asking this person to commit, they need to know what they are getting into. It is not reasonable to ask for more than one meeting a month. Define the type of guidance you need. For example, you may want a promotion to manager and want help creating an action plan. Be as specific as you can.
2. Invite the potential mentor to meet to discuss your career. Assure them that you are not asking for a job, you're just looking for some advice.
3. At the meeting, define the relationship and your vision. Don't assume the person you are asking will say, "yes." If you sense they are not sure, ask them to think about it overnight. Give them room to say, "no." If they feel pressured to accept, you may not get the level of participation you want.”

Find a mentor within your current company. Let him or her take you under their wing and teach you the ropes.

Join me on Wednesday to continue learning how to plan a career within the organization

How to Plan a Career 12: Building a Network

This continues our series on how to plan a career within your current employer

Our last post explored the options for growth you may find within your current employer’s organization. You may pursue multiple options for key projects, special assignments, or promotions.

You will proceed better if you build a network within the organization. The Free Dictionary defines a network as “An extended group of people with similar interests or concerns who interact and remain in informal contact for mutual assistance or support.” The definition outlines three elements of a network:

“Extended group of people with similar interests…”

1. People working at the same company share the corporate interest of showing a profit, exceeding productivity and caring for clients. They want to get things done.
2. They also share a common interest of thriving within the company to find happiness and provide for their family. Each employee desires greater satisfaction and growth in their job.

“…Who interact and remain in informal contact…”

1. Your group makes the effort to interact and remain in contact through emails, conversations, collaborating, coordinating, and other contacts affiliated with working together
2. You also maintain informal contacts. Some groups go out together, play sports together, or just have lunch together. Good networks congratulate others on personal achievements.
3. You also remain informally connected even after leaving the group or company

“For mutual assistance or support”

1. You recognize that your network helps you perform better at work.
• The administrative assistant keeps things organized and flowing smoothly.
• The facilities group maintains your workstations, lights, and machinery.
• The purchasing group ensures you have the materials you need to produce the product.
2. You accept the obligation to provide them your assistance and support. You make the effort to learn what they need. You serve them so they can do their job better or improve their personal life.
3. Your relationship grows as you serve them and they serve you with mutual assistance and support.

Your network increases your visibility. Networks keep each other informed of opportunities. Networks mentor and teach one another. Networks multiply the ability of everyone in the group to achieve their goals.

Join me on Monday when we reexamine how to find a mentor to nurture you within your career