Join me on BlogTalk Radio

This Sunday, June 2, I am excited to be a guest on the Peter LaPorta Show, hosted by BlogTalk Radio.  Festivities begin at noon eastern!

I originally met Peter when we both worked at Universal, and now he is a successful and accomplished speaker, author and radio show host!  For more information on Peter, click here.

We’ll be talking about employee burnout (and my new book on the subject), and anything else we can fit into our 30 minutes on the air.  To tune in and/or call in, click the pic below for more details!

Thanks in advance for tuning in!

Are WE making our employees lazy?

I wrote in a previous post that I recently had the opportunity to go to Fiji. One of the concepts, besides BULA, that we all became very familiar with, was the concept of Fiji time.

To say things run at a slower pace in Fiji is an understatement. Because of this, if you allow yourself to be taken over by Fiji time, you can have a truly relaxing vacation. It took a few days to unwind, but once Fiji time set in, it was tough to argue against its merits.

As we toured around the island, we noticed some construction projects taking place… An addition to a hotel restaurant, replacing some directional signs in the resort area, and houses being built. From our observations, each of the workers were applying the Fiji time standard, which would drive most people in America crazy.

In fact, if these workers were working at this pace in America, some might say they were sandbagging, or working slowly to avoid extra work.

We joked that if some people put as much effort into looking busy as they do actually being busy, they would actually be productive.

I then thought, “what if this is our fault?”

What if we are actually encouraging someone to spend the energy to look busy rather than completing a task and proactively seeking out another?

“No way!”, you say? Way.

Think about it. How many times have you been assigned a task or project but were given limited or incomplete information, then made to feel as if you were bothering your boss if you asked questions? What did that make you do?

Think about your employees… Are they young, maybe with limited work experience? Are they self conscious, trying to fit in, and navigating their way through a new environment? How do you think they respond to something like this?

“Go do X. See John over at the shop and get Y. Meet up with Bob and he’ll help you. Let me know if you have any questions and come see me when you’re done.”

There are a truckload of variables and questions that could arise, and many chances for an “inexperienced” worker to stall, avoid embarrassing situations and drag their feet. When we call John at the shop about something else and find out that our employee never went there, we may think they are lazy, be no work ethic, or don’t understand simple instructions.

The reality? Maybe they didn’t know where in the shop John would be, or even who he was to look for him. So, they decided to try to figure things out on their own, rather than put them in a potentially embarrassing position. In fact, they probably wanted to do the right thing (just like when you were in that situation) but for whatever reason they were afraid, they didn’t know what to do or just felt unsupported and on there own.

I called them an “inexperienced” worker not because of their ability to do the job, but because of their lack of experience in terms of managing workplace relationships. This can have a huge impact on productivity, sometimes more than actual skill.

So, the next time you complain about lazy employees, consider your role in that scenario. Have you contributed to an environment where a perfectly capable employee is choosing to sandbag out of self preservation?

Thanks for reading!

Believe it or not, I’m walking on air, I never thought I could feel so free-ee-ee!

The Culture of BULA!

BULA!

BULA means ‘hello’ in Fijian. I had the great fortune of visiting Fiji recently, and not only did I learn how to say hello in their language, I also learned a thing or two about culture.

As we boarded the plane to Fiji, we were greeted with a very warm and welcoming, BULA! from the flight attendants. When we arrived in Fiji, the people who greeted us in the airport belted out a heart-felt BULA! When we got on the bus to the hotel… BULA! At the hotel… BULA! The gardener, housekeeper, and waitstaff… all greeted us warmly and enthusiastically with BULA! It wasn’t long before we started saying BULA as well. To our friends, to the staff, to strangers… it didn’t matter. When in Fiji, you say BULA!

After a day or so, we could quickly tell who had just arrived on the island. They hadn’t quite got the hang of BULA yet. They might greet you with a polite head nod or eyebrow raise when you passed them in the hall, and some looked a little scared when a non-Fijian said BULA.  Eventually they reciprocated with the appropriate BULA response.

If you have ever struggled to get your employees to greet your guests, you might read this and think the answer is to give them a fun phrase or word to say, like BULA. Unfortunately, if that’s all you do, they might say BULA once or twice, but it won’t last.

BULA is not just a word, it’s a way of life. It’s the Fijian’s way of saying hello, and welcoming you to their home. And by home, they don’t mean a building or structure. They mean Fiji, and Fiji is their family.

No one exemplified this more than Kit Kat, the humorous, knowledgeable and generous taxi driver we hired to take us around the island – to see the “real” Fiji.

It was amazing to see how many people he knew, and knew well.  At the local attractions, restaurants, in the villages, along the side of the road, Kit Kat seemed to know every inch of the island, and just about every person on the island.  A skeptic might say he has a specific route and that he only knows the people on that route.  But, once you see how genuine the people of Fiji are, you’d drop that skepticism in a New York minute and bask in the happiness and positivity around you.

Okay, so that was a little sappy, but it’s not an over-exaggeration.  Their welcoming and giving nature is a part of their daily life, their way of life… their culture.

If you are a Star Wars fan, it’s sort of like the Force.  “It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.”  In this case, the Fijian galaxy.

And this is why many companies efforts to change or redefine their culture takes so long or is unsuccessful – because they try to address and control the surface behaviors of their staff.  However, that’s not really where the culture is defined.  It’s much more about who you are than what you do.

And who you are, or your personal culture, doesn’t change overnight.  It doesn’t change when you start a new job or get a promotion.  Who you really are, what drives you, and what matters to you comes from your upbringing and family culture. If you find employees whose personal culture lines up with what you want your company culture to be, you are in luck.

This is certainly the case in Fiji.  Many Fijians are genuinely very nice people.  They are hired in hospitality roles to be nice people.  Win-win.

So if you are trying to change or alter your team or company culture, a lesson we can take from Fiji and BULA is that you get what you give.

• You give BULA first, you get BULA back.
• You give people a warm and inviting welcome, you get a warm and inviting response.
• You give people a reason to be loyal, and they will repay you with loyalty.
• You must do these things early, often, and consistently.

The Fijian people give in terms of their time, compassion and hospitality.  Don’t your employees deserve the same, especially if that is the type of culture you are trying to create?

Thanks for reading!

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Why did you say that?

I was out for a walk the other day when I saw an older dude jogging toward me. As he got closer, he said:

“in case you were wondering, I hate this.”

Well, I wasn’t wondering, but I am now.  Specifically, here is what I’d like to know:

If you really hate running, why are you doing it, and of you don’t hate running, why did you say it?

I would guess that he really doesn’t hate running, or at least he likes the health benefits of running, so he endures the process.  There are things we all do that we might not like doing, but we like or desire the result, so we do it. So I don’t think that’s it.

I am much more intrigued by why he said this. Why did he choose to tell me he hates running, rather than just saying hello or good morning, or nothing at all?

It reminded me of a leader I once worked with who told me in confidence that, “it sounds silly, but I love my job.”

Both of these statements are telling in their own right. I get the impression that my jogging buddy feels that running is a necessary evil and that complaining about it reaps more rewards and attention that being positive about it. My leader friend was in a similar boat. In his environment, it wasn’t cool to like your job, so even if you did, you would still complain about it because that’s what gives you positive attention.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “misery loves company”.  We’ve also heard that “smiles are contagious”. So, if people are conduits for both positivity and negativity, don’t we have a choice of which one we pass along to someone else?

Of course we do, but that doesn’t always make it easy.  Going along with the crowd and their negativity can actually be comforting.  You fit in, you belong.  As much as people want positive attention, they REALLY want to belong.

What’s more prevalent in your work areas?  Commiserating misery or contagious smiles? Don’t you, as a leader, have the power, opportunity, and responsibility to set the right course?

Which one are you choosing?

Thanks for reading!

Bonus quote for today’s post comes from Matt’s favorite band, Rush.  They wrote a song called Freewill, and part of the lyrics state: “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”  Thought that went nicely with our topic today. Kind of like the cherry on an ice cream sundae!