Give your workforce the ‘Trophy’

Picture the scene.  You’ve been given a tight deadline.  Unrealistic some may say.  The work you need to do will eat-in to your personal life, but it’s something that you just have to do.  You will have to tell your family that you need space and time to get this done, which means that you won’t be available to attend the party you said would go to, you can no longer go to your child’s play or visit the relative that you promised you would.  Looks of disappointment come your way.  Perhaps a few arguments break out?  Guilt weighing heavily on your shoulders coupled with the stress of performing for your boss to ‘pull it out of the bag’ is making you wish that you were somewhere else.  If only you were on a beach in the sunshine with a good book and a cocktail or two.  But the work needs to be done and it must be completed on-time. 

And so you work, in isolation, throughout the night to complete the much-needed project.  By 4am you’ve read through your proposals and recommendations a thousand times.  You’ve made more amendments than you can remember.  In your mind, it’s a masterpiece.  Your brilliant work is ready for submission.  You ensure that all of the attachments to your covering email are there.  You don’t want to fall at the last fence and make your boss think that you’re too stupid to remember those attachments!  And you hit send.  You check your ‘sent box’ to make sure that the work has been transported to your boss’s computer, wherever that may be – but wherever your boss is you know that they’re probably fast asleep and oblivious to the effort you’ve made as well as the fights you’ve had with your family about having to work so late. Still, you’re pleased with yourself.  You did it!  As you turn off your computer and get ready to snatch what’s left of your sleep allowance you begin to wonder what they’ll think of your work.  Will their opinions of you change?  Will they now finally realise your brilliance?  Will they now understand and appreciate how hard you work?  No doubt they’ll tell you in the morning – or what’s left of it anyway.

And then…. Nothing!

You’re 100-page document with appendices and flow charts, examples and well-constructed arguments is ignored.  You begin to worry that perhaps they didn’t receive your work.  Check your ‘sent box’ again!  No, it went.  It was sent at 0410am.  But they’ve not mentioned it.  Not one word.  Maybe they haven’t had the time to read it yet.  Maybe they’re thinking up the correct words to tell you how brilliant they consider your work to be.  But, maybe they hate it!  Maybe they’re considering ways of getting rid of you because of it?  Maybe they’ll talk to you later, tomorrow perhaps? 

But tomorrow never comes.

If you’re in the business of allocating projects and setting deadlines for your workforce to meet then it’s only fair that you provide them with the feedback they’re expecting at the end of the arrangement.  Lack of useful feedback means lack of direction and leads to frustration.  If you consider yourself to be a leader, then you must provide your followers with direction, not only before a task but on completion.  How else will they ever develop if they’re working blindly never knowing if they’ve met their objectives or even got close?   Very few employees will purposefully provide their bosses with poor work; so they may very well have tried their level best to give you what they believed you wanted. In order to provide effective feedback to your workforce, you may wish to consider the ‘Trophy’ acronym that I have developed over the years.  And it goes like this:

T – is for ‘Timely’.  Timely feedback is vital to correct errors and aide in the development of your team member.  It’s also very useful as a motivational tool so that hard work is recognised in a timely manner and the individual is rewarded appropriately.  Such reward could be as simple as a ‘thanks’ or some other acknowledgment for the work completed, especially if a tight deadline was met to achieve it. We all have ‘esteem needs’.

R – is for ‘Relevance’.  Whatever you choose to say or do in response to someone’s work must be relevant to the situation and subject at-hand.  There is no point diverting the message to encompass other things. If what ends up being discussed actually bears no relevance to the objective set or work completed; then the communication becomes meaningless and demoralising.

O – is for ‘Objective’.  Personal feelings should not shape nor prejudice the structure of the feedback taking place.   To that end, a big-picture approach is preferred.

P – is for ‘Participative’.  Communication should be a two-way affair.  Allowing the other person to respond is imperative in effective communication because both parties must listen to each other.  Allow time for questions to be raised and stay one-step ahead of the game by anticipating likely responses.

H – is for ‘Hierarchical’.  Concentrate on the most important part of the message that you want to convey rather than going through a seemingly endless list of compliments or complaints.  Too much focus on the positives or negatives will become patronising in the ear of the person who has provided the work.  This will cause them to switch-off and view you as a whining child.

Y – is for ‘Yours’.  Never subject anyone else to your interpretation of someone else’s view. Neither should you ever ‘dress up’ a view as someone else’s when in fact it came from you!  I once had a boss that did this all too often.  He’d say that someone in the organisation wasn’t happy with something I’d done or said when in fact it was him that wasn’t happy, but he lacked the guts to tell me himself.  If you’re ever asked to give a member of the team feedback that belongs to someone else then it’s their responsibility and ultimately their duty to give it.

Working in the dark is horrible.  As bosses and leaders, your vision should have a light.  An almost blinding light so that everyone can see it so that no one is ever left behind in the dark. 

In a winning team, we all need to take our turn to hold the Trophy!

Wishing every success in all that you do,


Keith

Keep Calm and Carry On...

I missed my flight on Saturday, due to a series of events over which I had very little or no control.

I had been in London for the week.  The first few days were spent work-shopping ideas with colleagues for exciting new products and then on the last two days I delivered a course for Enterprise Architects during which the delegates and I had lots of discussions around Emotional Intelligence and emotional self-control.  And so there was some irony in having my own levels of patience and ability to control a stressful situation tested less than 24-hours after the discussions had ended.

I had booked to fly out of Stansted Airport which is situated about 35-miles to the North East of London.  It is not uncommon for commuters to take a designated express train out of London to Stansted.  These fast trains usually run every 15-minutes and the journey takes around 40-minutes.  I had bought a return ticket for the Stansted Express when I arrived in the UK on the previous Saturday and had planned to take the trip in reverse to connect with my flight home.  So it was all arranged and straightforward…well, it should have been!

I arrived at the Station to take the train to the airport in good time however, I was soon informed that there had been a fatality on the rail line just minutes before my train was due to depart and so all services to Stansted were suspended.  The rail staff had no idea when the line would be re-opened so I had to take a contingency route which in reality meant taking a taxi.  I knew that this mode of transport would severely impact my time of arrival at the airport as although the distance between the two points is not necessarily that far, I would have to rely on the taxi’s ability to compete with London’s heavy traffic flow and numerous traffic light systems to get me there in-time.  I needed to find a taxi with a knowledgeable driver and find one quickly.

I began to feel stressed. 

Murphy’s law roughly assumes that ‘if anything can go wrong, it will.’  As I recount the situation, I now realise that I fully expected to miss my flight from the moment I was told that the train had been cancelled.  I don’t know why.  There should have been ample time to get to the airport.  Taxis are everywhere in London and must travel to the feeder airports every day.  Yet I had this nagging feeling in my gut that today was not going to be a day when things were to go in my favour.  To cut a long story short, I missed the usual baggage check-in by a few minutes.  I was directed to Security (the area where they X-ray your cabin luggage) with my bag for the hold.  I assumed, wrongly, that they would take my hold-baggage from me – as they do at the standard check-in - and that I would go through the usual process with the rest of the passengers.  It was here that I was informed that my hold-baggage would be treated the same as what people from the US call ‘carry-on’ baggage which meant that I would have any fluids, lotions, sharp objects etc, taken from me and was given a few minutes to remove all such items from my bag.  I’m still not sure why they insisted on this as one would think that a bag for the hold is a bag for the hold and that all are treated equally (unless all hold luggage gets X-rayed?).  Anyway, I had misunderstood the order to rid the bag of absolutely everything that had seemingly ever been in contact with water!  Subsequently, my hold bag failed the X-ray test and was put aside for searching.  I now had ten minutes to undergo a bag search and make it to the departure gate.  I knew it was never going to be completed in time and protested that I would now miss my flight.  Increasing stress levels and a breakdown in communication was causing anxiety neurons to fire all over my brain to the point where for a second, I considered leaving all luggage items and their now spilled contents where they were – displayed for the world to see and make a run for the departure gate.  Had I done this, I would have undoubtedly been arrested.  As the search concluded the security manager approached me to tell me that my gate had closed and that I had now indeed missed my flight.  The expected (but unexpected) wave of anger almost got the better of me.  I wanted to retaliate, to bang my fists on the desk, to shout at someone, anyone!  My first thoughts were about calling home to tell my wife and little boy that I wouldn’t be home.  I had spoken to my son via Skype only hours before and I knew that by now they would be getting ready to leave the house and drive to the arrival airport to pick me up.  I had bought my son a gift and he was really excited about getting it.  Now I had to make the call to tell him I couldn’t come home and that would make him sad.  Waves of anger lapping around in my head.  Feeling angry, looking angry, being angry.  I should have been on that flight.  If the taxi had got there just a few minutes earlier or the security staff had just an ounce of sympathy to my plight then I knew I would have made it.  Right about now I should be strapped in my aeroplane seat watching the pre-flight safety brief.  And then I thought about why I wasn’t.

Some of you will have probably considered this already but it wasn’t really at the forefront of my mind at the time.  Someone had died earlier that day.  Hit by a train. As I sat outside the airport with a large coffee I began to try to imagine what on earth they had been thinking about at the time.  I had assumed it was a suicide, later I found out that it had been an accident.  A tragic accident that ended the life of a schoolgirl and would shatter the lives of many, many others.  Anger was replaced by sadness, more so when the details were later released.
The main point of this post is in the very first line above which is repeated below:

“I missed my flight on Saturday, due to a series of events over which I had very little or no control.”

I had no control of the cause yet I reacted to the effect.  Struggling to maintain emotional behaviour can at times be very difficult.  How very quickly perceptions and interpretations of your environment trick your mind into thinking that events and people are conspiring against you.  There is mileage in the well-known saying that ‘it is what it is’.  Living in France I guess I should know better as I have yet to see an irate French national during my time here.  They appear to laugh in the face of stress and accept situations for what they are.  Of course, this attitude is not always possible so we must consider what level (if any) of influence over events we really have at the time we’re exposed to them.  To be emotionally competent and see the bigger picture at all times is a skill, but most skills can be developed and refined.

The fact is, I was inconvenienced whereas only an hour or so earlier someone’s life had ended and the aftermath of that would throw family and friends of the deceased into a hell pit.

Don’t sweat over what you can’t control.  Keep calm and carry on

Wishing you success in all that you do,

Keith

Dedicated to Katie Littlewood (may she rest in peace) aged 15

So... How are those New Year's resolutions going?

Happy New Year to you all!  

I sincerely hope that you are already experiencing the peace and good health that you may have wished for as the clock struck midnight on the last day of 2011.

So, what resolutions did you make?  Aside from a promising yourself to make every effort to transform your lifestyle by taking up another health club membership/dietary programme/marathon plan or make amends to previously difficult or dissolved relationships - what else did you wish for?  What else did you hope for?

I hope that you realise there is a good chance that at the same time you were considering your future, some of the people who work for you were vowing to change their own direction in some way.  Some will have decided that this is the year that they will take on a new challenge; a new beginning through a new job.

If you are a manager then my question to you is simple…

Why?

Why is it that some of your staff want to leave you and why does it take a traditional moment like New Year’s Eve for them to face up to the issues they have and plan to make such a significant change with such significant risks?

Things must be bad!

Firstly, you must not take it all too personally.  After all, I imagine you’ve made similar promises to yourself in the past that have never materialised.  In reality many of your people will not go through with it.  Most will get sidetracked with one thing or another but, some will make it, or at least get very close to seeing it through.  But this does not mean you should ignore it.

If you were to enter the words ‘common reasons why people leave jobs’ into a standard web search engine you will be faced with numerous articles and lists providing insight into the motivating factors that trigger such decisions.  I have read through quite a few of them whilst simultaneously writing this post and as one might expect – they are all saying more or less the same thing and citing the same reasons.  And those reasons are inevitably due to poor management.  Here’s a factoid that sums it up from: www.ihatemyjobnow.com:

“As is often said, “Employees don’t quit their companies, they quit their bosses.” About 35 percent of workers who have quit a job cite a bad boss as the deciding factor…”

Now I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the statistic quoted above but I can imagine that the perceived inter-relationship between ‘boss’ and ‘worker’ is the main motivator for the majority of resignation letters that cross the desk on a daily basis across the world over.   

Note I use the word ‘perceived’ as I believe that the employee’s misinterpretation of the relationship is often the root cause of workplace unhappiness.  Busy and stressed Bosses can sometimes over look the importance of the employee’s interpretation of the psychological contract. 

The prevention of free thinking and true ownership of tasks prohibits development and individuals will seek other opportunities to ‘make their mark’.  Similarly, a thankless environment and a culture of blame will also cause unrest and is not conducive to a happy workforce.  Managers must learn to lead; and leading effectively means empowering others.

It’s never too late to add to your New Year’s list of resolutions.  If you are a Manager; make sure that somewhere near the top of your list is the promise that you will make an extra effort to make your organisation an exciting and participative place to be for your workers and teams.  Promise yourself that you will consider the needs of your staff as part of your everyday activities.  Otherwise, you can guarantee that many of them will be doing their level best to act upon their resolution to leave.

Wishing you every success in all that you do,

Keith  

Attention! Le monstre aux yeux verts!!

Since my last post I have relocated myself and family to the South of France.  If you are anything like me - what Myers Briggs calls a ‘sensing personality’, you might picture the South of France as a warm and relaxing place where one may sit under the shade of an olive tree sipping red wine, sampling fine cheeses and pastries; spending eternal summer days musing about philosophical aspects of your life.  The thought creates images of a sunshine-filled, indulgently stress-free existence. 

You may begin to wonder what your own life would be like in this type of environment.  How fantastic it would be to have a life like that!  To live out your days without a care in the world with nothing on your hands except time and butter from your croissants.  Quality time that is so precious in your ordinary, everyday world.  No rush hour traffic, no boring meetings and no need to ever the scrape ice from your car in the morning.  Idyllic isn’t it?

Now be honest.  Are you feeling a little jealous yet?    

Jealousy can be a deep-seated and destructive behavioural characteristic. 

We all have the capacity to be jealous and I imagine we have all realised our own jealous nature at some point in our lives.  But of course, there is a huge difference from being occasionally jealous of something or someone as opposed to having jealousy rule the majority of your life.

Many people believe that jealousy is directly linked with other emotions such as love and hatred.  Whereas I believe that jealousy is a marker of self-worth.  And it’s because of our own esteem needs in Maslow’s hierarchy, which are of course, perceptions of self-worth; that we see jealous behaviours in the workplace.

American writer Charley Reece (whose own views I would not normally associate with) wrote that:

‘If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang.’ 

I think that this is an excellent analogy – despite my general dislike of Reece. 

Those consumed by jealousy can never truly be happy and at peace with themselves.  As their skewed perceptions of what others ‘possess’ serve as reminders of what a poor hand they have been dealt and of what they have possibly missed out on in their earlier life.

I am sympathetic to jealous people, to a point; but most can improve their own sense of worth if they really want to.

What the jealous refuse to accept on a subconscious level is the truth of the matter. 

Life in the South of France has so far been great – but not without pain I can assure you.  And I too long for days where I may sit under a tree (when it eventually does stop raining!) and catch up on all of the books I have collected over the years.  We are surrounded by people who speak a different language and where the stores close for two to three hours of the day – usually just when you really need to buy something. And surprisingly and somewhat worst of all..

Croissants are really expensive!

Wishing you all the very best in all that you do,

Keith   
 

Do you eat your own Dog Food?

The phrase – to ‘eat one’s own dog food’ is said to have started in Microsoft in the late 1980’s when they challenged themselves to internally promote and use their own products to demonstrate confidence in its ability.  Some may say that it’s the refined version of the saying to ‘drink one’s own Champagne’ however; I prefer the former because in my mind, to drink Champagne signals a celebration of a successful outcome when in reality, only a fool would celebrate success that was yet to be proven.

Following on from a post that I wrote back in June of this year entitled: ‘When Change can be as Good as a Rest’; my wife and I have decided to ‘eat our own dog food’ and realise an opportunity by upping sticks and relocating ourselves from the UK to France.  The move will take place in a matter of weeks.  We have rented and booked a variety of different styles of accommodation along the south coast of the country’s Languedoc region up until the end of January 2012 - with the option to extend our stay for as long as we wish for.  We’re fortunate that the UK’s membership of the European Union allows us freedom of movement to relocate to wherever in Europe that takes our fancy.  So, we’ve chosen France for a number of reasons but mostly because of the relaxed lifestyle and attitudes to the importance of ‘the family’, their first-rate healthcare system, the low crime rate (in comparison the UK) and their excellent standards of education.  And in taking advantage of this freedom of movement, our 10-year-old white Boxer dog will also be accompanying us.  She’s even got her own passport – but without the standard passport photograph!

So, as interesting and exciting as all this may be - where’s the relevance to Emotional Intelligence, Leadership or Management?

Well, if you haven’t already guessed it’s to do with the subject of ‘Change’.

We’re effectively enforcing huge change upon ourselves.  We’re seizing an opportunity that we’ve realised and we’re acting upon it.  Why?  Because we know that if we don’t attempt this now then we may at some point down the line live to regret it.  To avoid the ‘what if’s’ in years to come is something that we feel we must do.  If it doesn’t work; then we can enforce change again.  But clearly, we are not walking into this project with our eyes shut.  The realisation is both exciting and scary at the same time.  We’ve rented out our property and have made a contractual commitment to allow another family occupy our home for the next 12-months.  Although nothing is permanent; we can’t just choose to come home as soon as the going gets tough – which it inevitably will from time-to-time.

As we prepare to move through this transitional period, we have to keep focused on the anticipated challenges that change brings. I’ve been looking at work undertaken by John Fisher in relation to his model entitled ‘The Process of Transition’ so that we know what to expect as and when things happen.  Similar to experiences encountered through the grieving process, Fisher takes the view that reaction to personal change occurs as follows:

Anxiety.  Are we anxious?  Well, yes, indeed we are!  Not knowing what the future holds is daunting.  I mentioned earlier that the ‘what if’s’ may play on our minds for eternity if we don’t take this chance – but right now, the ‘what if’s’ are: ‘What if we don’t like it?  Can’t settle?  Aren’t accepted?  Miss home and family members?  What if we soon decide that the adventure has been one huge mistake?’  The ‘what if’s’ are still there.  They’re just a different set of ‘what if’s’.  So anxiety comes into play and will do until (if ever) we make the final decision to relocate permanently or not.      

Happiness.  For happiness I guess you could read anticipation.  It’s exciting!  Our hopes and dreams may be realised and the fact that we are making concerted changes to our lives, hopefully for the better, makes us happy.  There’s obviously something wrong somewhere that has brought about this idea in the first place.  Something strong enough for us to make such a large leap of faith and set about changing our lives that brings hope and the happiness we’re seeking.

Fear.  Like anxiety can sometimes grip you when you’re least expecting it. And that emotion gets stronger each time you achieve one of your objectives to reach your goal.  For example, last week I left my permanent job in order to embark on this adventure.  It was only when I was given a leaving gift and a card signed by my friends at work did I realise how ‘real’ the situation was.  That my imminent departure was not just some desire I’d once shared with my wife whilst watching numerous television programmes about relocating to the sun, but that this was really happening!

Threat.  For threat read worry.  We’re moving into a completely new and alien environment.  Despite the UK’s close geographical proximity to France there is a vast difference in cultures and expectations.  The mindsets are worlds apart.  The threat of not being accepted or almost worse, of having to come back and not be accepted is great – even if it may be a false threat. 

Guilt.  On many levels.  Feeling pangs of guilt that we’re moving away from loved ones.  That we may be betraying our own country by going to another.  Guilt that we’re acting selfishly as adults and that our son who will soon be having his fourth birthday celebrations away from his big sister and Grandparents makes us feel guilty.

Depression.  The loss of self-identity, that we don’t belong no matter how hard we try to integrate.  The feeling that we’ve made the wrong impression.  The depressing notion that we’ll long to turn back time and wish that we had not made the move in the first place.  The list is endless.  What if we never settle?  What if we’re seeking a utopia that doesn’t exist?  How will be feel of this does not work out as planned?

Following these emotions come disillusionment, hostility and denial.  They’re all great feelings to be looking forward to right?  Only happiness seems to be the positive emotion that awaits us – the rest, I’m sure you’ll agree are pretty gloomy. 

After reading this you may well ask: ‘So why do it?’

The reason is because that without taking chances and making changes the predictability of the square root of nothing happening is high.  Life will go on and on and before you know it the opportunities are lost and one of the few things left to keep you company are the ‘what if’s’.  Let’s face it; no one ever achieved anything without taking a risk.

What changes do you want to make to your life? 

More importantly, what changes CAN you make to your life?

Despite all of the above, we live in hope that there will soon come a time when we will be ‘drinking our own Champagne’.  After all, given its origins, what better country to do it in?

Wishing you well in everything that you do and in the changes that you may make.

Keith

Reasons to be cheerful.....Part II

At the beginning of this year, my Father in Law was diagnosed with cancer of his liver.  This finding was completely unexpected.  Today I’m happy to report that he has remained completely clear of all cancerous cells for about 2-months now.  Amazing given the size of the tumour and his other medical conditions with which he suffers.  Added to this is his age of 72 years.   It’s remarkable what the medical profession can achieve these days.  That and his positive mental attitude that undoubtedly helped carry him through.  His wife, who has since been ordained as a Minister of the Church will have spent hours and days asking God.  And then equal if not more time thanking God for sparing him.  He’s now in really good health given what he’s been through.

Last week, a friend and respected colleague announced that he too had just been diagnosed with cancer.  Being a religious man he asked for prayers to be said to help both himself and his family at this time of struggle.  I spoke with him just this week and was bowled over at how up-beat he was.  Determined to fight his condition, up for the challenge and extremely focused on the battle that lies ahead of him.  His name is Mike and he’s started his own blog to document his thoughts and feelings which he has graciously allowed me to link to here: http://www.mglweb.com/

Some good news though, Mike found out yesterday that his initial diagnosis and prognosis is not as bad as it first appeared.  He still has cancer, but his type of cancer does not appear to be as aggressive as he and the physicians first thought.  This is fantastic news.  

I was brought up by my Grandmother who used to drag me to church every Sunday to attend Mass at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in North Wales.  I hated going for many reasons.  It was a long walk to get there.  Worse in the winter months and worse still because I was never allowed to eat anything until we eventually returned home again because we would be taking Communion.  At 8-years of age I had no idea what was being said nor why my Grandmother who barely had enough money to put food on the table, used to hand over little envelopes of cash to the Priests each week.  Especially as most of them used to reek of stale tobacco or booze or both!

It’s a funny thing religion.  I’m not knocking it and I fully appreciate and respect the faith people have in their Gods.  I don’t really buy-in to it being the cause of all wars because in my view, that’s down to the people using it as a vehicle for violence and hatred – it’s not the religion per se.  I’ve always wondered why, if God exists, good people are made to suffer such horrible illnesses like cancer.  I’ve been even more perplexed as to how such people take an even stronger grip  on their faith when they’ve been blighted by such things when I would be asking ‘Why me?’  ‘Haven’t I served you well for all these years?’

But I guess it’s a mindset.  A total belief despite whatever is happening in their worlds they still have faith that God will do what is right irrespective of the final outcome.

Faith, hope, even glory.  It’s what drives people on to succeed and beat the odds.  It’s the faith in God, oneself, the team, the systems of management and processes that appear to work.  Who would have thought 50-years ago that we would have advanced at the rate we have as a collective of mammals; mere mortals?  But somebody somewhere had the belief.  No one ever achieved anything by not daring to believe; to dream; to hope, overcome and achieve.

When all is dark around you, whatever your circumstances; however slim your chances of achieving your dream; it’s important to believe.

Wishing you every success in all that you do,

Keith

Reasons to be cheerful ... Part I

It’s Friday! 

Granted, it may not be Friday where you are but Fridays for me are my favourite day of the week.

Not because it signals the end of my working week but because generally, people usually appear to be happy that it’s the beginning of the end of their working week. 

Moods seem brighter; people seem to have a renewed energy to focus-in on the work that needs to be completed before the weekend arrives.  There are conversations about plans for the next two days, a fairly genuine interest in each other’s short-term objectives develops and these discussions invite colleagues to share information about life outside of the working environment.  Some choose not to disclose too much, others will share all of the details – either way, the benefit is that people become more ‘humanized’ and often allow people to get a glimpse of their interests, hobbies and family life.  Subjects that wouldn’t usually surface during discussions over a complex spreadsheet on a Tuesday afternoon!

It’s important to get to know each other at work.  If you know what someone likes then you can sometime make reasonably safe assumptions about what they don’t like.  And so you can begin to build up a picture of their values, beliefs, motivating factors and internal drivers.  Hugely important snippets of information can be shared during these casual encounters. 

You see Jane at the water cooler and ask her what her plans are for the weekend.  Jane is having her elderly mother over to stay until Sunday.  You ask where her mother lives and find out that it’s at least 100 miles away.  Jane’s mother can’t make her own way over because she’s ill, too frail and lives on her own.  So you’ve now learned it’s possible that Jane must at times feel the pressures of having a sick and elderly parent living alone miles away from her.  You realise that  Jane will probably be worried about the journey she needs to take in order to collect her mother and drive her back to her own house.  How does Jane’s young family cope with having an elderly and sick relative staying over?  How will Jane get her mother back to where she lives before the new working week commences? 

Is there anything you can do to help Jane?  Could you let Jane leave early today?  Could you allow Jane to come in a little later on Monday?  Is Jane really okay? 

You get the drift, right?

Of course, I’m not suggesting that you hold weekly interrogative interviews with every member of your workforce!  Nor am I suggesting that you will always be in a position to help.  In many cases, you’re offers of assistance will most likely be declined anyway.  You must tread carefully but the fact that you are listening to what’s being said will provide you with the opportunity to show that you care.  That you are reinforcing the psychological contract between you and the person that you’re working with and importantly, that you understand that life goes on outside of the workplace.  You realise the overall impact of continual outside pressure will inevitably start to manifest itself at work.  And let’s face it; employees usually leave their place of employment because of the attitudes of their managers.  If you’re in any relationship where it’s made clear that the opposite number doesn’t give a hoot about you then the writings on the wall so to speak.  It’s only a matter of time before the relationship ends.

Care for your people.  It’s your job!

Wishing you a very happy and safe weekend and all the best in all that you do.

Keith