Business Essentials Luxottica
A Monthly Update on Day-to-Day Management Issues for Optical ECPs and Retailers June 2007
Made possible by an unrestricted grant from Luxottica and Santinelli
It's Your Business

Hedley Lawson
A long held view of businesses large and small has been “Capitalize on your people’s strengths and develop their weaknesses.” American businesses followed that path with little doubt and with intense focus for decades. Contemporary research now suggests, however, a very different view: “Build on people’s strengths.”

In this edition of Business Essentials, Sandy Likes provides interesting insight and advice on “Strengths versus Weaknesses.” She shares the findings from a very exhaustive survey work from the Gallup organization that will prove valuable to eyecare professionals and their management staff. We hope you agree.

Our June edition also provides timely and useful information to many eyecare practices in which family members work together—and on occasion, may not always see eye to eye. And on the subject of differing management styles, you will find in our Ask the Experts section, the insights associated with a new manager’s leadership or management style that may be out of balance with the practice or business culture.

As always, we hope you find these and other articles in this edition both valuable and useful in your day-to-day eyecare practice. Your suggestions for some of these topics have been important to us and, hopefully, relevant to you and your colleagues, so please do continue to contact us with your ideas and suggestions by Clicking Here.

Hedley Lawson, Jr. is the managing partner of Aligned Growth Partners, LLC, a strategic, operational and organizational consulting and executive search firm ( www.alignedgrowth.com). Lawson also serves as consulting editor for Jobson's Business Essentials monthly e-newsletter. To read current and past issues of the newsletter go to www.visionmonday.com.


 
Ask the Experts

How to Get a New Manager to Change Her Style

Manager

Q. We’ve recently promoted someone to office manager who is very young and inexperienced. Her way of dealing with her team has suddenly changed to a “dictatorship.” How do you teach her the best ways to lead and manage her team before she actually kills morale within our team?

A. Once a new manager exhibits “dictatorial” behavior, it is important to “not let it go” because it simply will not get better on its own, and morale can be decimated quickly. Work closely with the new manager and keep the following thoughts in mind:

  • Tell her you have had feedback from her reports about her authoritarian style.
  • Be clear that you have also observed it, which will ease the perception that she is being overwhelmed by everyone under her.
  • Be prepared to call in a coach who specializes in advising on this type of leadership issue.
  • Understand that she is probably not aware she is acting in a “command and control” style. She may have had a boss manage her like that and she is simply emulating what she thinks is an effective style.
  • Understand also that she, like many new bosses, may not know about measurements of progress like 360-degree feedback. An outside advisor can work well and be less intimidating in assisting her to change her style of leadership. Simple, constructive feedback is the best teacher.
  • If and when pushback comes, try to understand why she feels threatened or angry. Let the opinions flow rather than be too quick to lecture or dictate. She is in a learning role, and helping her understand what she is doing wrong takes time and a great deal of communication.


When all is said and done, becoming a manager and winning the support of your team is challenging, but can be readily achieved with the right approach and preparation. —Hedley Lawson, Jr.

If you have a question you’d like answered by one of our experts click here.

 
Resource Corner
Easy-reference to web resources about human resource policies and rules
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Novations Group
Click Here

Gallup
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Internal Revenue Service
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Federal Trade Commission
Click Here

 

From the Top

Strengths versus Weaknesses: What the New Gallup Study Reveals About the Workplace

ChainDo you spend more time correcting your employees’ weaknesses rather than developing their strengths? Historically, we have all been trained to work on our weaknesses. In school, our teachers and parents focused on how we should improve our lowest grades not our highest grades.

According to a recent Gallup poll, that same trend is prevalent in the workplace. The study revealed that training and development plans at work traditionally focus 80 percent on our weaknesses and 20 percent on how to leverage our strengths. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The study also showed that when you focus on people’s natural talents and strengths they are happier and more productive. Companies can dramatically improve employee satisfaction and productivity by focusing on people’s natural talents and strengths, according to the study.

The study conducted by the Gallup Organization was an extensive effort spanning a 10-year period in which more than 2 million people were surveyed. From the initial study, Gallup subsequently surveyed 198,000 employees working in 7,939 business units within 36 companies.

As a result of this exhaustive survey, three revolutionary tools were discovered:

  1. First, understand how to distinguish natural talents from things one can learn. The way to differentiate between an innate and acquired ability is: Talents are naturally recurring patterns of thought, feelings, or behavior. Knowledge consists of the facts and lessons learned. Skills are the steps of an activity. These three --- talents, knowledge, and skills --- combine to create one’s strengths.

  2. Second, identify your dominant talents. Identify strengths by trying an activity and seeing how quickly you can pick it up. Determine whether you become absorbed in the activity to such an extent that you lose track of time. If that doesn’t happen after a couple of months, try another activity and watch. Over time, one’s dominant talents will reveal themselves into strengths

  3. Third is a common language to describe one’s talents. It is the subtle ways in which one person differs from another. It helps one explain strengths, not weaknesses.

 So how can you apply these findings to the employees in your practice?

Try to spend time talking with employees about what they enjoy doing, be it interacting with patients or running the dispensary. This makes the employee feel appreciated and motivated to do more. Think of it this way: a child enjoys building with Lego sets and is good at creating complex structures out of Lego sets. He also takes piano lessons which he has no natural talent for and therefore does not enjoy playing the piano. No matter how many lessons he takes he will never be an average piano player and he does not feel good about the experience. The parents spend more time talking about how he needs to practice playing the piano which he is not good at and does not like and spends little or no attention on how great the Lego structures are and how good he is at creating and building. While weaknesses need to be addressed, we are learning that by putting more attention on people’s strengths we improve performance.

Finally, according to Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.d in their book “Now Discover Your Strengths,” in order for people to succeed in their careers and to be satisfied they need to understand their unique talents and capitalize on them. A person’s greatest room for growth is in their area of expertise not in their areas of weakness. So invest some time identifying your strengths and your employees’ strengths and you’ll build a high performing team based on strength not weakness.

Sandy Likes is president of GreenTree Capital, LTD.—a business advisory firm focused on helping companies increase productivity and improve retention.
She can be reached at [email protected] or (866) 315-4747.

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People Management

10 Tips for Working With Family Members

FamilyWorking with members of your family has the potential to be a very trying, sticky and challenging situation. It can bring out the best in you and your relatives—and also the worst in your working relationships. It can cause you to minimize or overlook errors or omissions that your relative commits, or it can make you excessively critical of their work.

As a result of the knowledge and closeness you have with this other person, you may find it difficult to be rational, logical, accurate or fair with your thoughts, feelings and behaviors when it comes to interacting with that person. Your relationship with them—both at work and in your personal life—may suffer.

So how do you begin to correct the situation? Here are a few tips:

  1. Approach the other person and acknowledge that the current relationship isn't working optimally, that something is either "too right" or "too wrong," too positive or too negative.

  2. Discuss the impact your behaviors or attitudes are having on other employees and the business.

  3. Agree to meet together or with an experienced, neutral, and objective colleague or external consultant.

  4. Agree that you're going to work together to improve and maximize the current relationship for your own sake as well as the sake of the business.

  5. Agree that you want to work toward making the working atmosphere more professional and less personal. You have to agree not to allow your personal feelings, either positive or negative, to enter into the workplace.

  6. Clarify the specific goals each of you agrees to meet so that behaviors and attitudes are directed toward meeting business goals. Ensure that any statement of goals you create is specific, can be measured and assessed, and can be successfully achieved.

  7. Make sure that your roles are carefully, objectively, rationally and completely described to ensure full clarity by all individuals for all roles. This is an especially critical step because it's very common that working relationships fall apart when this step has not been taken. When employees at any level are confused about "who is responsible for what," conflict and misunderstandings result, and productivity, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction all decrease.

  8. Clarify the work processes that will be used on a daily basis: the process for making decisions, including who can make what kind of decisions, who is involved in these steps, and how decisions are to be made (by an individual, a pair or small group).

  9. Build trust. Start by acknowledging the current situation. You will be appreciated and valued for discussing a topic that others know about but are reluctant to bring up. Make sure that others can trust what you're saying and doing by backing up your thoughts and actions with clarity and explanations. Ensure that you have the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform at a high level. If you do not, get training, find a mentor, or redesign your tasks and responsibilities to align them with what you do best. Nothing destroys trust faster than incompetence. Trust is potentially the strongest element in any relationship. Without it, organizations fall apart.

  10. The final step involves showing the positive quality of interpersonal relationships. Just because you're related to someone does not mean you need to love them or worship them, especially on the job. Nor does it mean that the business is an area for working out family problems. What is required is that you demonstrate respect for other people, especially your relatives. You need not be fawning or ostentatious with your praise or criticism of them, but you do need to be professional and appropriate, whatever the true nature of your feelings and attitudes toward others, especially family.

Portions of this article were adapted from “Shonk's Work in Groups” which is now out of print.


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Santinelli

Rules and Regulations

Applicant Background Checks and Consumer Reporting Legal Requirements  

ChecklistMany employers use third-parties to conduct background checks to evaluate and validate information provided by applicants for employment. The information provided through these background checks can prove to be quite valuable in making your final hiring decision.

If you elect to obtain consumer reports on applicants for use in the hiring process, you are required to do so in compliance with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA broadly defines a “consumer report” as “any communication of information by a consumer reporting agency bearing on a consumer’s character, general reputation, personal characteristic, or mode of living.” The FCRA requires that employers take specific steps when obtaining the consumer report of an applicant. Employers must:

  1. Make clear and conspicuous written disclosure to the applicant before obtaining the consumer report;
  2. Obtain prior written authorization from the applicant;
  3. Certify to the credit reporting agency that you have made the proper disclosures, obtained the applicant’s authorization, will not use the report for any unlawful purpose, and will provide a copy of the report and summary of FCRA rights to any applicant against whom adverse action is taken because of the report;
  4. Provide a pre-adverse action disclosure to an applicant prior to taking any adverse action; and
  5. Notify the applicant if adverse action is taken based at least in part on the information provided in the report.

Some states also impose additional steps and requirements on employers using consumer records to make hiring decisions. You must carefully follow each step, because failure to comply can result in the assessment of statutory fines, actual damages, attorney’s fees and costs, and punitive damages.

Do consult with counsel should you have interest in conducting background checks for specific guidance. —Hedley Lawson, Jr.

 

IRS Releases 401-k Plan Checklist

Pen and PaperThe IRS recently released Publication 4531, a quick tool checklist for plan sponsors. While not a comprehensive list of all plan requirements, it is an excellent tool to spot-check your plan’s compliance. The online tool includes links to detailed information about each item. The “Top Ten” items comprising the checklist are:

  1. Has your plan document been updated within the last few years to reflect recent law changes?
  2. Have you notified the people who service your plan of any plan changes?
  3. Is your plan’s operation based on the definitions and requirements (terms) written in your plan document?
  4. Were all eligible employees identified and given the opportunity to make an elective deferral election?
  5. Is the plan’s definition of compensation used for all deferrals and allocations?
  6. Have you deposited employee deferrals each pay period in a timely fashion?
  7. Have you identified all your highly compensated employees and key employees, including owners and their family members, so that your Third Party Administrator (TPA) can perform your nondiscrimination tests?
  8. Have the 401-k non discrimination tests (ADP, ACP, and Top-Heavy) been performed counting all eligible employees?
  9. Have you filed a Form 5500 series return, and have you distributed a Summary Annual Report (SAR) to all plan participants this year?
  10. Are elective deferrals limited to the amounts under IRC 402(g) for the calendar year?

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Luxottica
 
In this edition...

ArticleIt's Your Business

Article From the Top
Strengths versus Weaknesses: What the New Gallup Study Reveals About the Workplace

Article People Management
10 Tips for Working With Family Members

Article Ask the Experts
How to Get a New Manager to Change Her Style?

Article Rules & Regulations
Applicant Background Checks and Consumer Reporting Legal Requirements

IRS Releases 401-k Plan Checklist

Article Office Space
Why New Hires Bail

Article Resource Corner
Links to Important Resources

 


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Office Space

Why New Hires Bail

Unrealistic expectations about their job and their new organization is a major reason why as many as one-fourth of new hires leave within the first year, according to a survey by Novations Group, a Boston-based global consulting firm.

Among the reasons the 2,046 senior Human Resources and development executives gave for new hires leaving were:

  • Unrealistic expectations of the job and organizations, cited by 47.9 percent.
  • Failure to grasp how things get done around the organization, 38.7 percent.
  • Poor communications with immediate supervisor, 33.1 percent.
  • Failure to develop a sense of belonging and purpose, 26.4 percent.
  • Inadequate technical skills, 22.7 percent.
  • Not understanding the link between the job and organizational goals, 20.9 percent.
  • Failure to connect with key employees, 17.8 percent.
  • Inability to quickly establish trust and credibility, 12.9 percent.
  • Poor people skills, 12.9 percent.