What We Are Will Show in What We Do. Adult Bullies: Take a Stand.

Workplace mobbing is emotional abuse. Period.  Joyce is a productive and innovative employee, who has lots of bright ideas that many in the company find threatening.  Paula decides she doesn’t like Joyce because she feels threatened by her, so enlists her co-workers by spreading rumors and falsehoods about her – thereby humiliating and discrediting her among others.  Workplace mobbing isn’t just done by front-lines – often management takes part of it as well so Joyce feels she has no place to turn.  She decides to quit the company.

Workplace mobbing often happens when an individual joins the company who has ideas and thoughts that run counter to the ingrained culture of the organization.  Employees are comfortable within the status quo and do not want change.  However, Joyce is the very person they need to move forward and grow – instead of trying to find common ground and seeing if there is validity in what Joyce suggests – the company isolates her instead.

Workplace mobbing doesn’t just happen to new employees either – it can happen to an employee who has recently received a promotion with higher levels of accountability and authority – or someone who was once their peer who is now their boss.  Those who were passed over for the promotion, start analyzing and picking apart everything that their new boss does and actively tries to sabotage them in their new role.

Any form of workplace mobbing is a symptom of a poorly managed organization.  It occurs in many types of organization, but may flourish in a bureaucratic environment.  These are the same companies that espouse “workplace safety” and have “rules” in place to protect their workforce.  Make no mistake about it – workplace mobbing is a safety and health issue. 

Instead of quitting, Joyce decides to approach HR about the mobbing that she has been experiencing – only to find that HR invalidates her feelings and labels it a “personality conflict” with no real protection for Joyce or consequences for Paula and others that are involved in the mob.  Bad behavior is overlooked.  The company then looks around and can’t understand why they have a toxic culture.

One defense against workplace mobbing is to document everything – even if you think it is trivial to show a pattern of attacks.  This gives more leverage with those in a senior position within the company – especially if management is involved.  Because if management says that you are not performing – well it must be true and others on the management team begin to believe the lies as well.  This mobbing can lead to poor performance reviews and eventual dismissal from the company.  Most importantly, by documenting everything and making sure you have a copy of all events – it gives you legal recourse later should you need to go that route. 

The best thing for Joyce was to leave the company and find a work environment that supports and values her hard work.  What do you think?

Idea Share Tip of the Month!

An employee idea system promotes conversation between employees and their managers about their jobs and how to improve them.  As they fine-tune these processes more teamwork and trust occurs; building the employee – management relationship.

Sign up for the Idea Share Tip of the Week! at Frame of Mind Consulting

Frame of Mind Consulting understands the unique DNA of your organization, which is necessary to turn any organization into one capable of leveraging the full idea potential of its employees.  Would you like to drive connectivity and ownership throughout your company?  Contact Page at (860) 559-7942 to set up your complimentary consultation during which you will receive some invaluable tips that you can apply to your business right away.

How are You Perceived?

Lynn’s staff stated on several occasions that they think she does a great job with what she is given and that they have immense respect for her - for doing what they call an ‘impossible job,’  “Lynn is remarkable, she pulls stuff out of nothing.”  However, the majority of employees stated they would like Lynn to trust them more with the responsibilities she delegates to them. Part of the issue is that Lynn used to run operations on her own, and although employees feel she has come a long way in the past year in letting go, there is still room for improvement.

Currently, Lynn monitors and assesses every step of employee projects.  They submit a plan to Lynn and then report back to her as to what they are doing to meet plan objectives.  Many are afraid to challenge and/or criticize her actions or inaction.  One employee stated that “Decisions are made in a reactive manner which leads to heavy dishonesty. We sometimes walk on eggshells around Lynn and don’t tell her things to keep her from getting upset.”

As employees realize that they are not being heard – they stop coming forward with ideas and being straight with you.  They will say things such as, “I don’t need to be micromanaged – I have proven myself over the time that I have been here;” “I can handle it – I can do my job without constant criticizing;” and “I love my job – but I am frustrated a lot.” 

Some effects of a high level of control:

1.       Employees are no longer willing to make sacrifices to meet company goals.

2.       Employees may become disengaged as they do not feel they can exercise independent judgment and they then put in reduced effort that affects not only their own productivity, but that of their colleagues.

3.       Stifles employee aptitude and potential and limits employees’ ability to accept increasing responsibility. Employees often feel it’s useless to demonstrate these characteristics and they then lack the desire to prove they are capable of performing at a higher level. 

4.       Employees begin to wonder why they were assigned certain duties if they are constantly told how to complete job tasks.

Next month I will discuss specifically how you, as a decision maker, can release control and build trust with your employees so they make better decisions and produce better results. 

Idea Share of the Month!

Employees must trust management to risk coming forward with their great ideas.  It is risky for employees to come forward with their ideas, as they are fearful.  Fearful that their managers will dismiss the idea.  Or that the idea will be considered too small and that they will be ridiculed, look foolish or be embarrassed among their peers, or worse yet, lose their job.  These fears are very real for your employees.

Frame of Mind Consulting understands the unique DNA of your organization, which is necessary to turn any organization into one capable of leveraging the full idea potential of its employees.  Would you like to drive connectivity and ownership throughout your company?  Contact Page at (860) 559-7942 to set up your complimentary consultation during which you will receive some invaluable tips that you can apply to your business right away.

Half Baked Ideas...

When was the last time you achieved something really amazing and then tried to replicate it, but couldn't?  That is how it is with innovation – you create something by accident and then can’t figure out how you did it.  Just because you have a great idea doesn't mean it will automatically be successful!  You have to capture it!  And cultivate it!  Then you can then access it anytime it is needed to drive ideas in your company.  But how many companies actually do this and do it well?

The problem is you don’t know when ideas or innovation will occur.  Neither does your leadership team – they don’t know which employee will come up with an idea, when it will occur or how the idea will apply to your business. Oftentimes, ideas happen on the fly – like when an employee is working on one task but ends up discovering something new and innovative instead.    

Your employees have ideas about their jobs on a daily basis, but many are lost because employees feel that leadership doesn't care about their ideas and won’t allow them to bring their ideas to fruition.  Innovation and new discoveries only flourish when your employees have a chance to expand their perspective and to tinker with those ideas. 

One way to accomplish this exploration is through job rotation that allows your employees to use their skills and knowledge acquired outside of their current job title in new and engaging ways.  And to collaborate on those ideas.  For example, if your employee is shadowing someone to learn more about a new work flow, insight from their previous experiences might help them identify areas where a different approach might improve the process.  Chances are, no other employee would have come up with the same idea – because the idea was born of that employee’s unique thought process along with his or her skill set and knowledge.

It is even better if the employee shadowing can actually perform the job for a given period of time – as they will come away with a clearer picture of the overall process and may even replicate parts within their own position. The more your employee understands other roles in the organization – the better he or she can see the interconnection between ideas and how they relate to the overall strategy for your company!

A standardized process helps you to generate, to capture and to implement ideas that may save your business thousands of dollars, improve your cash flow and drive the profitability and the value of your business.  But it won’t happen by accident - success depends on your ability to transform ideas into reality – and replicate them!

Idea Share of the Month!

There is a difference between ideas and innovation.  Innovation is the act of putting your ideas into place and sustaining them over time.

Frame of Mind Consulting understands the unique DNA of your organization, which is necessary to turn any organization into one capable of leveraging the full idea potential of its employees  Please visit Frame of Mind Consulting for more information or to sign up for Page's Idea Share Tip of the Week! 

Is Your Business Aligned for Idea Generation?

Page A. Thibault, MBA

Many ideas are born and lost in isolation.  Think of ideas you have had that were never developed or implemented due to poor communication, lack of buy-in or just plain ineffective execution. An employee idea system is not a put into place and leave it type of program.  You must actively manage and control your organization’s platform to harness your employee ideas and to execute those ideas effectively.  Productivity is not just about how efficiently we work – but depends on our ability to make an impact on what matters most.

An employee idea is the spark of imagination that represents only one percent of the idea’s potential and passage.  The other 99 percent is the process needed to develop the capacity for employee ideas to develop.  Without a process for employee ideas, then each idea is handled on an ad hoc basis.  When ideas are handled ad hoc, there are many distractions that can derail our ideas.  For example:  deadlines, budgets, clients and a myriad of other constraints.  Therefore, we need structure to capture and arrange ideas in a way that allows them to build upon one another in a helpful manner.

Structure allows us to agree on how to respond to and implement ideas consistently – which in turn results in less confusion for your organization.  Many employee ideas have a cross-functional component, as well as differing levels of organizational responsibility; therefore, having structure in place simplifies implementation that may otherwise be complex and unwieldy. Collaboration is the binding force that brings several small sparks together to drive innovation and allows you to successfully adapt to the continual changes that occur in and around your organization. Teamwork and collaboration thrive in environments where tasks and methods are clearly defined.   In today’s competitive environment it is no longer enough to simply be more efficient or cheaper than your competition – you must transform your ideas into a unique differentiator that outperforms your competition!

Idea Share of the Month!

When designing your employee idea system, you must take into account your organization’s unique culture!  A cookie cutter idea system that layers on top of existing management and lacks in scope and depth will most likely fail resulting in a more disengaged workforce.

To sign up for Page’s Idea Share Tip of the Week! Please visit Frame of Mind Consulting.