Are your colleagues evil or just incompetent?

OK,”evil” is too strong a word, but what about those people that are “guilty”.

Guilty of not supporting you, putting obstacles in your way, and failing to deliver what they said they would?

Assumptions drive outcomes

Your assumptions about someone’s guilt or competence drive your reactions, your behaviors, and therefore the outcomes you get.

For example:  If your spouse gets home really late without calling:

• If you presume innocence, you might worry that they are dead on the side of the road, and be hugely relieved and super-nice to them when they return.
• If you presume guilt you might think they are lying and cheating, and throw their clothes out on the lawn and lock the door.

What will you do?

How useful will your rage and accusations be if they got a flat tire and their cell phone battery died?

This type of mis-understanding happens all the time in business.

When someone makes a decision that harms you, or seems to be ignoring you, or goes back on a commitment, there is a tendency to assume the worst – They did it on purpose with full knowledge that it is bad for you.   Guilty!

I reconstructed the table below from something I saw many years ago, but have been unable to find again.  (If anyone knows where this comes from please let me know and I will fully attribute it!)

Why not Presume Innocence First?

Get some data.

Find out what really happened before you jump to the conclusion that the person is an evil mastermind, plotting against you, on purpose, with great skill and precision.

For example:

If a colleague promised to give you some help on something that was vitally important to you, and then failed to do so:

If you think they are Guilty and Competent…

You might believe that they knew exactly what they were doing, and chose to leave you hanging.  They lied.  You might think that they are setting you up to fail, to ruin your reputation, or keep you from succeeding or advancing.  They don’t care about you.

You might get angry and accuse them of doing the wrong thing on purpose.

You might confront them, or pick a fight.  You might start telling other people what a selfish, closed-minded jerk they are.  You might try to find a way to get back at them, or harm their reputation.

But what if you were wrong?…

What if they are Innocent?

If you start with the presumption that they are innocent, you might think: There must be a reason they didn’t they do what they said they would do.

You would want to find out what happened.

What do they know that you don’t? What changed since the agreement?

You might learn that there was a good reason they didn’t do what was expected, and that they are still planning to help you.  Or they did do it, but it got blocked somewhere before it reached you.  Or someone down the line changed it, or gave you the wrong information about what happened.

Good Outcome:

With the knowledge that this is a competent person with good intentions, you can still get what you need, because you didn’t piss them off by telling them how horrible they are.  You didn’t throw them under the bus.

You preserved the relationship by being respectful and focused on the facts and the outcome. You might have even learned something about how the system works, so you can avoid this happening again.

If you had presumed Guilt and you were wrong…

You could have made an enemy out of a competent person who can actually help you.
You could have burned up a lot of energy, only to ruin a valuable relationship and dig a hole for yourself.

Not only wouldn’t you get what you needed, you might also have damaged your own reputation by speaking badly of someone who is highly respected.

What if they are just Incompetent?

It’s tempting to jump to the Evil Genius conclusion when someone’s actions harm you.

But, if you start with the presumption that the person is incompetent, not out to get you, just unable to help you, you might think differently.  Although the person didn’t do what was agreed, it wasn’t malicious.

Find out what really happened.

What got in the way?  Did they try?

They, in fact, had the best of intentions.  You might find out they just didn’t get to it yet.  They might be overwhelmed with other things. Or that they didn’t realize what the measure of success or quality was.  They did their best but messed something up. Perhaps the task was simply beyond them.

You might offer some assistance to them.  Help them help you.  You could give them another chance.

Good Outcome:

It’s still frustrating if you didn’t get what you need, but as least you have not wrongly accused someone of malicious intent.

With the facts, you might both decide that after all, that as much as they’d like to help, they actually don’t have the capability to help you.  You move on, you move forward.

If you had presumed competence and were wrong…

You would blame them for choosing not to help, instead of understanding that they didn’t harm you on purpose.  You wouldn’t get what you needed and you might have made an enemy of a person who was inclined to help you.

Get the facts before you react

In my experience, you always get a better outcome if you presume Innocence first.  And you most definitely get a better outcome if you get the facts about why things happened the way they did before you make any judgment, about someone’s Guilt or Competence.

If you presume innocence first, you are more likely to be able to get the facts because you won’t be putting people off, or making them defensive in the process.  Then you’ll have real data to work from.

But what if they ARE guilty?

If after you get the facts, you discover they are indeed Guilty — they really don’t support you, they are ignoring you on purpose, they are out to sabotage your career, make you look bad, or throw you under the bus, you’ll have more facts to deal with that too!

.

10 IDEAS FROM THE WEBINAR:

HAVE MORE INFLUENCE

Dowload the PODCAST to learn:

Get More of the Right Stuff Done

1. Influence is one of those career lessons that no one ever seems to tell you about directly. Know that this is part of your job no matter what your level. Without strong influence skills you get stuck.

2. Be more effective – Get more work done. You need to multiply your resources.  If you rely only on what you and your team can deliver directly, you will fall behind. We talked about how to get more people working for you!

3. Broaden Your Impact. You need to look at your work in the context the bigger business needs, and increase the breadth and value of the outcomes you drive.  We covered how to demonstrate an impact beyond your team.

4. Sell Your Ideas. Having good ideas is very different than successfully selling them and getting them acted upon. You need influence skills to get your ideas adopted by the organization.

Manage Your Career

5. Influence Perceptions – Managing how others perceive you is vital to your career growth. Use your influence skills to do this on purpose. See also Tuning Your Personal Brand.

6. Win the Promotions - Know that ability to influence is a key factor in deciding who is promotable.  If you are not seen as someone who has support across the organization with broad influence, you will get passed over.  See also Manage Your Career

How to Influence

7. Control vs. Motivation. The most important thing is to give people a reason to personally care, and WANT to help you, whether or not they report to you.   If people care, they will deliver for you.  We talked about tactics for how to motivate people to want to help you.

8. Be a Communicator. The more you share knowledge, reach out to people and communicate, the more you will be seen as giving back to the organization, doing important things, and being someone worth helping.

9. How to get others to do work for you – We talked about a number of tactics to get people  to help even when they are not motivated.  A big piece of this is being gracious in your request and grateful in your follow-up.

10. Time, Trust, Relationships – Influence does not happen over night.  We talked about the things you need to be doing over time to build up your ability to influence.  Understand the power structure across your organization and start communicating and building relationships now.

How YOU can increase your influence NOW.

• Download the PODCAST for details on what to do and how to do it.
• Download the  WORKSHEETS to plan your specific actions and communications.
• Download the Career Year of Action Guide to help you use your time better.
  Give yourself the time to do what is necessary beyond your job description to be successful.

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When I was in my early 20’s I learned an important lesson.

I was working in a start-up company and had gone 3 years without a raise.

The wrong way…

I went to the CEO and asked for a raise.

He said, Why?

Among other things,  I said that I had been working for 3 years without a raise, and that I had taken on more and more responsibility over that time, and that I always delivered and often exceeded expectations.  I told him it was becoming un-motivating to feel I was working so hard and not moving forward in pay, and peers in other companies were making more money than I was…

He said, I don’t’ care.  It’s not my problem. I only care about what the cost is to replace you, and I could replace you for your salary or less –  so no raise.

(In reality I was valued more than that conversation would lead you to believe, and ultimately got rewarded for it, but I was being taught an important lesson.)

Your job is a contract with your company

You don’t get a raise for good attendance, or because you feel like you deserve one.

You earn a raise by increasing the value of your contribution.

And if you want to get that raise, you need to re-negotiate your contract on terms that are relevant and valuable to your company, not based on what you want or need. And you have to ask.

1. YOU Drive the process

If you are uncomfortable having this conversation with your boss either get comfortable with it, do it anyway, or don’t be disappointed if you get overlooked.

Know that you are at a disadvantage by not having this conversation.

It is vitally important that you and your boss share a common view of your performance and your expectations for promotion and compensation, even if your boss does not drive this discussion.  Of the 20-something years I worked in a corporation for a boss, I did my own performance review 17 times, just to make sure that there were never any disconnects.

2. Understand how you and your role are perceived

It is important to know if you are perceived as a high, average or low performer.  Don’t ever guess about this. There should never be any surprises about this. Find out.

Even in an economy where there are not a lot of raises going around, you still need to be communicating with your boss about your performance and what it is worth, so when there is money, you have done all the groundwork.

Also make sure you know how much your ROLE is valued by the company. For example you don’t want to be the superstar performer leading the support team for an obsolete product.  You may be great, but need to move into a higher valued role to get a raise.

Once you confirm that you are a high performer then go on to build your case for what you want.  If you are not perceived as a high performer – fix that first.  Understand what it takes, and focus on adding value, before you start asking for things.

3. Discuss your raise as part of a business outcome

The basic premise here is:

If I do this, what is it worth to the company?

Here are some things you can say:

• Last year, this is what I accomplished and this is my current compensation.
• I would like to raise the bar for the upcoming year, and deliver more value to the company.
• And If I were to add these additional business outcomes, exceed these goals, etc, would that be worth more to the company?  How much more?
• What business outcome would I need to accomplish that would be worth this level of pay, or this promotion?
• Can we agree that if I deliver this, you will give me that?

4. Follow up on the specfics…

• 9 months ago, we agreed on performance objectives which if accomplished would
  result in increased compensation.
• I believe I have delivered on all of these and then some,  and I also took on this additional project which has benefited the company by increasing our margin on this product line.
• Do you agree? Can I get your feedback on my accomplishments? … (Assuming it’s very positive then…..)
• Will you be increasing my compensation for next year, per our agreement?

.

If the answer is, No, for some reason outside performance, you need to get a next agreement.

As long as you keep focused on business outcomes, you are on the high ground.

• If your hands are tied right now, I would like to understand the timeline of what is possible, and if it’s not a raise, is there [stock, bonus, promotion, etc.] that could be possible?
• I’m very motivated, but I think you can understand that at some point this level of performance will be hard to keep delivering if it is not recognized by the company, what do you advise?
• You have my commitment to keep delivering for you, but I can you help me understand what I can expect over time in terms of the company being able to hold up our prior agreement about my performance and compensation?

And my personal favorite…

• If you were in my position, how long would YOU keep performing at this level with my current compensation?

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Note to high performers:

One of the hazards of being a high performer is that your career advances quickly, and you are always at the bottom of the pay curve.

Your company acts like it is doing you a favor by taking a chance on you in a bigger role (and in the beginning they are), but then you can get stuck. You end up performing at or above the level of your peers and getting paid far less.

It is up to you to show the value of your work and re-negotiate your contract based on the business outcomes you deliver, instead of the history of how you got into the role.

Focus on what you are delivering,  and mention the fact that you are not getting any slack for having less time in the job, or delivering any less value than your peers.  You should be paid what the job is worth.

Two things to never do

1.  I need a raise because my mortgage has adjusted, I had another child, I am supporting my extended family…  Your company does not, and should not care what you spend your money on.  They only care about the value you deliver.

2. Give me a raise or I’ll quit.  This can work… if you are serious.  But you better actually quit if you don’t get the raise.  If you don’t quit, you will have caused so much bad will, and lost so much credibility that your career at that company will never quite recover.  And that story will be part of your back-channel reference forever after too.

There are many reasons that good strategies fail.

They range from, poor communication, lack of alignment, difficulty with change, underestimating resources required, failing to train people, running out of time…

But at the heart of all these things is:

How much do your employees care?

If your employees don’t personally care about what you are trying to do, it’s not likely to get done well, on time, or at all.

Give your people a reason to care

Here’s a good example:

The dreaded Mission Statement

You are probably already rolling your eyes at the thought of this…

This can become one of the most draining, irritating, and lame activities you can engage a management team in, and often results in a statement that reads something like:

To be the leading provider of the most innovative products in our space, with outstanding customer service, and the most efficient operations, therefore maximizing shareholder value.

OK employees…Now, hop to it!  (yeah, right.)

The trick is to actually care

If you want a mission that employees care about and can act on, the trick is to start with something you actually care about.

When I work with management teams on this, we start with the question “What do you personally care about?  Why are you here?”

Your employees will never care if your executives don’t.

Your team won’t care if you don’t.

You don’t need to call it a mission statement, but you do need to stand for something and care about something for real, if you want your people to spring into action, solve problems for you and drive the momentum you need in your business.

1. Define your strategy in terms people CAN care about.

If you care about customer service and believe that it is a competitive advantage then say so, and ask for help.

We are going to provide a level of personalized customer service for our products that is so good that our customers are shocked by it. We believe this is our key competitive opportunity.  Providing outrageous levels of service compared to the industry will grow our business, and we will be profitable doing it.

Now you can ask your employees to start solving this puzzle for you.

It gives them something dig into.  It gives them a way to engage.  It gives them something that they can care about too.

2. Talk about why you are here.

Why, personally are you here? at this company? in this organization? What are you trying to do?  Why does it matter to you? What are your values as a leader and as a human?

If you are willing to share your core values, your employees will care more.

You are giving them a basis to support you.  When they talk about work at the dinner table, YOU are the company, much more than anything else is.

If you stand for something they can care about, they will care.  If you only ever talk about projects and schedules, there is nothing for them to personally connect with or care about.

3. Talk about what excellence means to you, and why?

What is it that makes you proud of what you and your team delivers?  What is most important to YOU that your business stands for and shows the world?

Is it innovation? is it service?  is it quality? is it an externally validated proof that you are the best? What embarrasses you?  What do you believe is wrong that other companies do?  Why?

If you want your employees to step up, they need to understand why it matters.

So many managers struggle to get their employees to work at the same level of competence and quality that they personally deliver.  Your employees will never care about rising to your level of excellence unless you really show them why it’s personally important to you to operate at this level of excellence.

What if you don’t care?

If you don’t really care about your work or your company, if you are only there because you need the money, remember, while they are paying you, it is your job to lead, so it is your job to find  something you can care about.

If you don’t like the product, care about the way the company treats people.  If you don’t care about the company, care about the customers.

I’ve been here.  Believe me.  It’s better to find something to care about than it is to check out.  You are way more likely to get yourself into a better job later, (and maintain your sanity) if you keep caring about something along the way.

If you don’t genuinely care about something, you employees will not deliver for you.

Your strategy can be great, but if your employees don’t give a damn, your chances of executing go out the window.

I often say that your job is your
job description AND dealing with all the crap that gets in the way of getting your job description done.

Stupid obstacles often come in the form of people’s opinions, corporate policy, changes of direction, fire drills, conflicting goals, delayed decisions, unclear strategies, shall I go on?

It’s always important to remember that you can’t blame your failure on other people being stupid.

Six months or a year down the road, if the reason that you didn’t get something done is because someone else has or hasn’t done has something, you have lost.

The right language

Clearing an obstacle that is being put in place by another person or policy has everything to do with language.

And there are two language techniques I have found to be really useful to get things going your way again when you are confronted with difficult, rigid, indecisive, or stupid people.

1. What is the NAME of the Meeting the other person would WANT to attend?

For example, If your requests for a program change in other organization are going ignored, the name of the meeting YOU want to have with the manger is called something like,  “You are doing this wrong and I need you to change it, because it’s killing me”.

But would they really want to attend that meeting?

Change the name of the meeting to name their problem, not yours.

When you are trying to get someone to do something for you, you need to name the meeting something that is relevant and motivating to them.  “I want  to discuss how my team can solve your most critical competitive issue, with no increased cost on your part”.

Then when you have the meeting, make sure to stay relevant to them.  Describe your problem in the context and actual vocabulary of the business problems they are facing right now, and how the action you are requesting is directly beneficial to them.

If you don’t use the right language, you will not be relevant to them, and you will continue to go unheard, and un-helped.

2. “I’m hoping you can help me…”

The angrier and more frustrated you are, the more you are likely to start a conversation with something like, This is all messed up because [of something you, (or the people you represent are doing)]

Do you really expect their reaction to be helpful at this point?   Wow. thank you for telling me how stupid and wrong I am.  You are so smart, please tell me what do do next? I am at your service.

Even if it is all their fault, if you need to influence them to do something better or different, a far more useful approach is to open with, “I’m hoping you can help me”.

I use this not only colleagues, but with utility companies, hotels, and health insurance providers all the time.  It works like a charm.  I guess, because you are using some charm…

Engage people to WANT to help you

When someone says to me,  “I’m hoping you can help me…”, I always think, “hmmm… I wonder what this challenge might be?  Can I really help? I’m kind of hoping I can help …

This approach builds people up instead of cutting them down.  They have power to help if they choose to.  Giving this small bit of respect makes them want to help you.  People generally like to help.

If you don’t attack them first and tell them how wrong and incompetent they are,  you stand a far greater chance of getting what you need from them.

I know it is frustrating when the people you are dealing with are actually wrong and/or stupid, but if they are indeed creating an obstacle, it’s your job to clear the obstacle and get the job done, not to prove that you are right and demand their support.

I want to help

I have learned over the years that there are specific things you can do that make all the difference between getting ahead and just working really hard.

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• Manage a conversation with your boss better
• Get bigger results out of your team
• Increase your value to your company
• Find more meaning in your work
• Make more time in your life
• Reduce your frustration
• Increase your influence, or
• Get access to a promotion

…the return would be huge.  And I know you’ll get more than one idea.

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