What's the Problem?
I
have 27 years' experience as an engineer, manager, and trainer
for GT&E and IBM, and
29 years' experience as an independent family-systems researcher, therapist,
and educator. These 58 years have led me to conclude that
average people like you and your
co-workers are unaware they bear major psy-chological
which silently cripple your relationships, health, and
accomplishments. Once aware of these wounds and their toxic
anyone can commit to
them and protecting minor kids in their lives from inheriting the
wounds and unawareness.
|
To
understand the pervasive [wounds + ignorance] cycle, invest 20" in studying this
slide pre-sentation or this
article. Then
experience what it's like to
for significant psycholog-ical wounds.
Postponing or ignoring this may be a sign you're controlled by a false self.
|
My experience
also suggests that average people -
regardless of college education - don't know they lack vital knowledge of...
I include "stepfamily basics" because a high
minority of Americans live in a stepfamily (or will), and the
recent stepfamily divorce rate in is commonly estimated to be over 50%.
Chronic marital and family stress usually lower workers' productivity at
work.
Common employee symptoms of the inherited [wounds + ignorance]
cycle
include...
-
chronic tardiness, missing deadlines,
and making excuses
-
notably
and/or difficulty staying focused
-
notable dishonesty and/or often
work-related events and perceptions
-
difficulty accepting constructive
criticism and coaching - i.e. excessive defensiveness or sullenness
-
"type-A" (manic) behaviors, and
regularly working over ~50 hours a week
-
taking frequent sick or personal days
off
-
frequent complaints about "working
conditions" and/or "bad management"
-
frequent arguments, aggression, and/or
discourtesy with co-workers and/or customers
-
chronic pessimism and cynicism - in
general or about the organization
-
often wasting time, taking excessive
breaks, and/or doing personal things at work
-
wasting and/or stealing organizational
assets
-
coming to work "tired" or significantly
affected by chemicals, including prescribed medications;
-
disparaging the organization or other
people on and off the job, and so on; and...
-
other behavioral traits like
these.
Unless
proactively stopped by administrators,
the wounds and ignorances above combine to form a
which relentlessly spreads down our generations. Unchecked, the
cycle promotes major personal, organizational, and societal problems.
Restated: this cycle is probably (a) stressing your and your employee's
families, and (b) significantly hindering your organization's success
without your knowing it. It is a major root of our unremarked
and costly U.S.
divorce epidemic.
If
you have a glass-half-full outlook and can accept this premise, you'll see
a major
opportunity to alert your employees and colleagues to the cycle and its
effects, motivate them to act, and accrue the benefits summarized above. Do
you agree that once aware of the cycle, people (like you) have a moral
responsibility to alert other people to it?
Action Options
A
century ago, bloody union battles forced many American employers
to take more responsibility for their workers' personal health and welfare.
Typical workers now expect to receive medical,
retirement, vacation, outplacement benefits, and pensions at their
employers' and shareholders' expense.
Nonetheless, typical business executives and workers
tacitly agree to keep their personal lives largely separate from their jobs
and work relationships. Capitalistic companies policies say "our profits come first,
while their public relations people say 'our most important asset is our
workers.' "
|
Alerting your co-workers to the [wounds + ignorance] cycle
starts with you deciding "I
have an ethical responsibility to do this." If you're ambivalent or
disagree, the rest of this article will probably not benefit you.
President John Kennedy's memorable questions apply here: "If not you,
who? If not now, when?"
|
After
assessing
for wounds and learning about
these topics, a next step for you or an in-formed delegate is to
honestly assess the nurturance-level of your organization. "Nurturance"
means "ful-filling needs." Your corporate nurturance level is a subjective
evaluation of how well your management policies and styles are meeting the
primary
psychological
of your employees.
Can you, your board, your employee-relations staff, and
other organizational managers and consul-tants (if any) clearly name these
needs? If so, how high does "fill our employees needs" rank in your
org-anization's real priorities? The answer ultimately comes from the
personal priorities of your Board members and CEO.
One
reason for Thomas Watson's phenomenal success with IBM is that he steadily ranked employ-ee welfare (i.e. filling workers'
needs) among his top three corporate priorities.
If
your Board members and top executives are open to (a) learning about the
[wounds + ignorance] cycle and it's effects, and (b) alerting employees to
them now, then you can focus on doing that with their support. Otherwise,
your first objective becomes alerting these top people first, and gaining their
agree-ment to alert your present and future employees. See
this for ideas and options on how to do this.
Key next steps are...
-
alert (a) middle and first-line managers,
(b) all other employees, (c) customers, and (d) stockholders to the cycle, its effects,
and what to do about them. A practical way to do this is in a memo
summarizing the corporate problem-impacts and recommending a review of
the slide presentation at
http://sfhelp.org/basics/cycle_slides.htm
-
strategically include some cycle-topics in
(a) employee performance reviews (b) staff development programs, and (c) hiring and
termination procedures;
-
decide if, how, and when to alert
any active (or future) (c) unions and (d) support organizations like
subcontracted Employee Assistance Plans (EAPs). Health Maintenance
Organizations (HMOs) and insurance carriers;
and a final option is to...
-
alert the general public.
Some
perspective on each of these steps...
Alert Managers, Other Employees, and Customers
After your Board and senior execs are on board, you can help these other
groups of people learn about the [wounds + ignorance] cycle and its personal
and organizational effects by (a) in/formal training, (b) printed
handouts and/or Web articles (like this one), and
(c) letters, memos, emails, and daily conver-sations. The cycle information
needs to flow down from top management to middle managers and super-visors to
everyone else.
Option: call a series of management-development meetings to (a) explain
the cycle and each component, (b) discuss the specific effects of [wounds +
ignorance] on how your business functions, and (c) describe the long-term
humanitarian and organizational benefits of alerting other employees (and
customers?) to the cycle and its effects - and how to reduce them. If you do
this, expect significant c/overt
resistance from middle managers to the wounding concept and
"intruding on our employee's private lives."
Then
brainstorm effective ways of informing existing and new employees (and then
customers?) over time, and how to best handle normal "resistance" - i.e.
skepticism, anxiety (fear), and hostility.
Usually the degree of a person's resistance indicates how often s/he is
dominated by a
- i.e. how wounded s/he is. Option: delegate responsibility to one
person or a committee to evolve an effective "cycle-alert" program and keep
senior managers informed on costs, progress, and results.
Four ways
you can gain major humanitarian and organizational benefits from applying
the cycle-topics are in...
Hiring, Evaluating, Developing, and Terminating
Employees
Whether your organization is charitable or for profit, each of these four procedures provides
a significant opportunity to help workers, their families, and
your organization. Let's explore each briefly...
Hiring Employees
Premise:
people who are usually
by their
are more apt to function optimally in the world, including their homes and
workplace. A related premise is that
such people are apt to be even more productive and satisfied if they...
-
know and practice effective communication and relationship basics, and...
-
are seldom distracted by major health and family
stressors.
A third premise is that
organizations
consistently hire people who are intellectually and
psychologically qualified for their job responsibilities.
|
How
can you evaluate prospective employees and consultants for (a) psychological (false-self)
wounds, and (b) adequate knowledge about effective communication and relationships
-
in addition to qualifications for the job in question?
|
Options..
-
Over time, work to
see that the people who hire
others for your organization are usually guided by their true Self.
-
include one or more of these
worksheets in your hiring process, and train your middle
managers and personnel or human resource staff
on how to evaluate the results (after evaluating
themselves!). You're looking for personal and family traits that
indicate a job applicant...
Have your middle managers and
personnel or human-resource staff study this
overview and the articles it links to.
-
Ask
job applicants to take a quiz like this on
communication basics, explain why, and
then discuss the results with them. Put special emphasis on
learning if they're
aware of how win-win
differs from these common
Option: ask applicants to identify their communication
strengths
and blocks. If applicants are unaware of communication
basics or
seem lukewarm about learning them, seek other candidates.
-
Ask
applicants to describe what they feel are the most important traits in
(a) successful work relationships
and (b) resolving role and relationship problems. Options:
also ask (c) their opinion about the traits of an effective (vs. "good")
supervisor or manager, and (d) how they would approach conflicts with a
supervisor (in/directly, assertively, aggressively, timidly, promptly,
etc.).
The purpose of these options is to screen out
applicants who may be technically qualified, but are too wounded and unaware
to perform well. Note that these hiring options are only as effective as
the interviewer's knowledge of wounds and communication and relationship
basics.
Another way the cycle topics can help raise the wholistic health and effectiveness of existing employees
is in...
Employee Performance Evaluations
Premise: regardless of
an organization's size or mission, not defining each employee's
responsibilities clearly in writing and/or not using such job descriptions
to help gauge an employee's effectiveness are major symptoms of wounded,
ignorant managers and low organizational -nurturance.
See
if you agree that these are common causes of "inadequate job performance":
-
the applicant was not well screened
initially for a good fit;
-
the interviewer/s didn't (a) explain the job
responsibilities and/or workplace environment and policies clearly and
(b) get clear confirmation the applicant understood them;
-
there was no effective job description
available for employee-manager negotiation;
-
the employee's manager changed the job
responsibilities without adequate consultation and explanation, and/or
the new responsibilities didn't match the employee's abilities;
-
the employee was not constructively told of areas s/he
needed to improve, and/or was not well guided and affirmed in making improvements;
-
the employee was not willing or able to make
required attitude and/or performance improvements;
-
the employee and his/her manager were unable
to effectively
major conflicts;
-
ineffective employee supervision and/or
recognition;
-
significant employee problems with other
co-workers, and an inability to reduce them;
-
the employee's personal conditions interfere
with acceptable performance - e.g. child care, a divorce or court
battle, an addiction, or some other health or family stressor; and...
-
some combination of these factors.
|
Premise: These factors are
usually symptoms of two (unseen) primary causes of unsatisfactory job performance: (a)
significant psychological wounds in the employee, their
supervisor/s, and senior management; and (b) collective ignorance of effective communication
basics and
|
Implications: effective
job descriptions and performance reviews
require supervisors to (a) understand both these factors clearly, (b) know how to
assess themselves and each employee for them, and to (c) include each factor
clearly in every job description and performance evaluation.
Upper management, supervisors, human-relations and/or employee-relations staffs
also need to have a practical strategy for helping employees improve each of these core stressors, and
to
provide effective resources for such improvement - like educational
materials, informed consultants, and appropriate supports.
Another third way to raise the nurturance level of your organization is
in...
Developing Your Employees
Effective charitable and for-profit organizations provide or promote
strategic training for their employ-ees. Training can span (a) job-related technical
education, (b) higher general education, and (c) personal-growth programs or seminars.
One way of deepening your employees' understanding of the [wound +
ig-norance] cycle-
and
how they affect personal
and work relationships and produc-tivity is to offer seminars or
in-service programs.
Agendas can include detail and examples on how (a)
and
false-self wounds and learning to apply (b) communication and (c)
relationship basics can help them, your organization, and your clients or
customers. See this
for
relevant in-service modules you can tailor to fit your organi-zation and
circumstances.
Termination and Outplacement Procedures
Have
you and/or someone you care about ever been "fired" from a job? Do you feel
some termination procedures are more effective than others? Premise:
job-termination and quitting a job both signify one or more of
these factors. Underneath the surface reasons
for termination or quitting, the primary problems are usually significant
wounding and ignorance in the employee and their supervisors and senior
managers.
See how
this definition of an effective
termination procedure compares to your definition...
-
the termination or outplacement process aims
to improve the organization and the employee
equally;
-
the manager and employee have previously
discussed mutual dissatisfactions clearly and respectfully together, and
both feel genuinely
and
(vs. agreed with);
-
earlier, termination has been clearly
explained as a consequence of the employee not improving their
performance satisfactorily within a specified time period;
-
the employee has previously agreed to
specific, viable targets for performance improvement, and has not
improved enough within a reasonable time;
-
where appropriate, the supervisor or manager
has reviewed her or his perceptions and termination decision with their
own manager/s and/or personnel specialists;
-
if necessary or appropriate,
employee-representative outsiders (e.g. union reps) have been fairly
informed and respectfully involved in the employee-evaluation process,
including exhausting any available grievance procedures. Ideally, such
employee-support organizations will be aware of the [wounds + ignorance]
cycle. See the perspective below;
-
the
terminating supervisor takes responsibility for factually describing...
-
how (a) personality wounds and (b)
ignorance of wounds and communication and relationship basics seem
to have adversely affected the
employee's performance, and...
-
the organization's responsibility and
attempts to alert the employee to this; and...
-
specific options and
resources available for the
employee to
his or her wounds and ignorances if s/he chooses to.
My experience suggests that this last factor
is usually missing in corporate termination and down-sizing procedures.
If this is true in your organization, it is a clear symptom of a
corporate low-nurtur-ance level and the [wounds + ignorance] cycle at
work.
Concluded...
<<
Prior page /
Add to favorites
/
Print page
/
Email this article's address
>>
The Web address of this article is
http://sfhelp.org/prevent/biz_execs.htm