The Weiman Leadership Letter, September 2008

Wynnewood, PA

1. Quote of the Month
2. Signs a Valued Staff Member May Be Leaving (And Some Preventive Maintenance)
3. Time for Your Company’s Annual Check-Up?
4. News/Updates

1. Quote of the Month

“No one really knows enough to be a pessimist.” — Norman Cousins

2. Signs a Valued Staff Member May Be Leaving …

One of the more challenging tasks of leadership is making sure that your best people stick around.

Past Weiman Leadership Letters have discussed how to make sure you are building the kind of culture that keeps people psychologically well-connected to the organization. (Click here to see the entire 9-year archive of newsletters here.)

Of course, there are all kinds of reasons why valued staff members decide to move on. And those reasons may have nothing to do with their level of satisfaction with their job, or your company or team. For example:

• They may be ready to change careers.
• They may need a challenge not provided by your company.
• They may find that their values are no longer a fit for your firm.
• If your company was involved in a merger, acquisition or alliance, they may not want to work with/for the other firm.

Regardless of the reasons why someone may be thinking or planning to leave, there are some signs you should be watchful for. My goal here isn’t to make you paranoid, carefully watching every move (or non-move) that a key staff member makes, but rather to give a sense of what may be happening when someone establishes a pattern of doing several of these things:

• Significantly increased distractibility or lack of focus.
• Radical change in attitude (going from hard-charging to mellow, for example, or from mild to aggressive).
• Less involvement with informal activities, like lunches with colleagues or after-work social functions.
• Markedly less interest in “going the extra mile” or making sacrifices to accomplish goals.
• Increased time off other than holidays or traditional vacation times.
• Taking more calls with the door closed or using the cell phone out of the office/building.
• Missing meetings or generally being less dependable than usual.
• Spending excessive time with clients or colleagues out of the office.
• Removing personal items from the office.

Be careful about jumping to conclusions, or taking one or two signs out of context. All of these signs could also be associated, for example, with a personal or family illness, marital or other family problems, personal finance issues or even positive things like buying a new home, a marriage or something else.

The important thing to do when you notice any significant change with someone you supervise is to communicate about it.

An easy way to start that conversation is to schedule time to meet, indicate your interest in finding out how things are going, and putting the issue on the table.

Whenever you are in a position to raise a concern, do it as concisely as possible, focus on the data (your observations, not your assumptions about what those observations mean) and quickly turn the conversation over to your direct report.

For example: “I wanted to meet with you today because I’ve noticed you missed the last three staff meetings and you’ve been out of the office more than usual. I wanted to talk with you about that. How are things going?”

Then push your own hypotheses aside and allow the other person to discuss what’s happening. If there is an issue, always ask first what their proposed solution is, or what they might need to turn that situation around, before offering your own advice or decision.

Preventive Maintenance:

To prevent most surprises, you can follow the sports dictum “The best defense is a good offense.” That means meeting with everyone within your span of control on a regular basis.

Regular meetings ensure a timely exchange of information and make it less likely that you’ll be caught off guard if someone is planning to go.

During annual reviews, and more frequently depending on your organization’s culture, inquire about future plans, goals and dreams. Incorporate those into annual development plans, and make sure that you and your company are doing everything you can to be involved in helping build an outstanding future for every employee.

Bonus Tip: Make sure you have a succession plan in place, and review it at least annually,and ideally twice a year to plan for changes and update information about each staff member.

3. Time for Your Company’s Annual Check-Up?

In business, as in health, an annual “check-up” is an excelllent way to find out how the vital organs of your company or team are doing.

The annual check-up that I offer is an online survey of your staff that tells you how much agreement there is on key areas of organziational functioning, such as goals, roles and responsibilities, processes and values. There is a stock set of questions covering the essentials, and you can add questions on specific topics that are important to you or timely.

It helps you identify where you’re healthy, and where you might need to take some corrective actions.

It takes about half an hour for each staff member to complete the survey, and the statistical results are reported along with a summary of the findings in each area. It concludes with concrete recommendations on how to strengthen your organization. There’s a summary you can distribute to participants. In-person feedback to you, your team, or the entire organization is also available.

If you’re interested in learning more about how your team or company is doing, contact me for information about the Annual Check-Up by calling me at (610) 642-3040.

4. News/Updates …

• I recently joined the Phoenxville (PA) Chamber of Commerce, and I’ll be the guest speaker at their January 13 breakfast meeting. Thank you to Chamber President Chuck Benz, Vice President/Phoenixville Branch Manager, Phoenixville Federal Bank & Trust for the invitation and warm welcome to the Chamber!
• On January 11, I’ll present “The 3 Keys to Growing Your Hypnotherapy Practice” to the Greater Philadelphia Society of Clinical Hypnosis, of which I am a proud member.
• Rabbi Max Weiman (my brother) and I recently completed a conference call interview on the spiritual and psychological sides of values in leadership. As soon as the CD of the interview is complete, I’ll let you know. Rabbi Max runs the http://www.kabbalahmadeeasy.com website and has authored several books on achieving one’s potential, available at that site.
• I added a new video to my YouTube page of an interview about workplace I did with Fox’s Good Day Philadelphia back in 2005. Click here to see it.
• My brother Jon recently launched the new website/online portfolio of his firm, Weiman Design … check out his excellent web and print design work at http://www.weimandesignllc.com

Have a great rest of the week! To comment on anything you read in this month’s update, just click “Reply” on your e-mail browser and send me a note! Or write to me at david@davidweiman.com.

If you haven’t visited my website recently, there are updates on the services I provide, a FAQ about management consulting and more. Check it out!

David A. Weiman, Psy.D.