Office politics

Poorly skilled worker will cost your company

No doubt every business in the world is trying to increase profit and cut costs. Cutting costs and improving productivity is what CEOs and managers get paid to do.

In my traveling and working with various businesses around the world, I have seen this killer mistake over and over again “Businesses hire low-skilled workers to save money.” In my current job, I am working in the country of Qatar, in the city of Doha; I am having some serious performance issues with some of my employees.

The policy of my company is to hire low skilled workers so the company doesn’t have to pay high salaries. This policy has no wisdom in it or any sign of long term planing. As a manager, I am trying to change this policy, which is not an easy task. My job is to work with more important issues than to tell my employees how to perform their day to day job, but some of my employees need constant supervision and I can not take the risk of them not doing their job well.

Living in this part of the world for almost a year now, I have noticed that it’s the general policy of most of the countries in this region to depend on low skilled workers for most of their labor needs. This policy led millions of talented workers to leave these countries and migrate looking for better wages which left these countries with a large pool of low skilled workers who actually don’t have the right skills and experience that these countries need for its ambitious development plans.

When you hire a new worker, look for quality of work first than look to save money, the quality work produced by competent worker will save you the money you will otherwise have to spend in training and supervising low skilled and low paid workers.

The fear of Technology

Have you ever faced with users or CEOs who are afraid of technology? What you do as an IT consultant when your plans for better systems for the company are faced by total resistance by the management?

In a real life example, I was updating all the systems for my company and we migrated from windows XP systems to Windows Vista, this migration caused few changes in how users would go by doing their daily tasks. The CEO of our company was in a business trip and when he got back and saw the new systems, he complained why his outlook express is not there anymore, he said he couldn’t use Microsoft outlook.

I tried to explain to him that outlook express is an old technology and Microsoft outlook is the closest e-mail client in features to his old outlook express. The CEO started to look for his Old IT guy who installed outlook express and wanted him to fix the problem he is having, this made me laugh.

Another example with my CEO, I wanted to have total online solutions for our banking needs where we can pay bills, issues checks and manage our accounts without going to the bank or using the phone and again he refused and said “ I don’t trust this online services, I want to write all my checks with my hands.”

The fear of change or the fear of the unknown is normal human behavior, but this can be a real problem when it stops you from completing your job or from giving the best consultations to your client.

How would you deal with clients who have fear of Technology? The best approach to use is to show them how much money they could save by having the latest technology and how employees’ productivity would improve.

Although I am facing resistance to change at my company, I managed to improve many business processes by using the right technology and the immediate reaction from the employees and clients was really encouraging

You are fired

I think most of us have seen the TV show “The Apprentice”, at the end of almost each episode we hear the famous few words of Mr. Donald Trump “ you are fired.” What would you do if you have to fire an employee?

In my current position, I had to make a firing decision regarding an employee, his job performance was weak and he was not able to show any improvements even after repeated training and continues encouragement. He just didn’t want to be here. The firing decision came when he failed on his last job assignment and failed to give any logical explanation on why he failed.

I was faced with little ethical dilemma over the firing issue, after all this employee joined the company from day one nd I only joined the company three months ago. But one of my main job duties is to re-organize the company and make it more productive and one main element of over all productivity is “highly productive employees.”

I made it very clear to all my staff members that we value each of them as a great asset to the company, but at the same time I will not tolerate any weak performers, if anyone needed assistance, my door is always open for help, but there is no excuse not to perform.

Firing this employee was a message to all our employees that the company is very serious about performance.

Sometimes the decision is hard, but to save the whole, you have to let go of few elements.

When communications fail

In line with my last post, Management and the fear of change, there is another area in the organizational structure where the resistance for change is profound.

The flow of clear communications between various parts of the organization is vital and the flow of clear communications between management in employee is even more important.

At my current company, I am working diligently to improve the flow and the quality of communications between the various departments and between the employees and the management.

When I joined the company, there was no central management, each department worked separately from the other department, the only thing that held the company together was the owner of the company, he made sure each department communicated directly with him. This lake of communication between various departments led to:

1- More than one department in the company contacting the same client with the same request.
2- Employees going on vacation without the rest of the company knowing about it.
3- The owner of the company and the general manager giving the same employees contradicting tasks
4- Huge decline in productivity since the lake of clear communications led to confusion on the part of the employees.
5- Clients not sure with department in the company to call when they have an issue.

At this moment, I am working hard to improve the flow of communications between the central management, the various department and the owner of the company.

Again I am facing the issue of “Management and the fear of change”, the owner of the company is feeling threatened by not having all employees communicate to him directly and the employees don’t have confidence in working on their day to day duties without going first to the owner.

Things are improving, but slowly each day we are moving ahead.

Management and the fear of change

The fear of change is a natural human behavior, as human, we are always afraid of the unknown. Managers and CEOs may face stiff resistance from the stockholders of the company for their “change management” plans.

In the recent months, I have the opportunity to work for two different companies where my main job duty was to implement a strategy to for a change inside these companies to make them more profitable, reduce costs and enhance the image of the companies.

It’s very easy for stockholders to ask for a change, but it’s hard for them to accept it. Most decision-makers are not willing to change the way things are, they are not willing to let go of their power or authority. When the stockholders or the decision-makers call for change inside the company, they want this change to happen without them losing their current positions.

This fear of change doesn’t not only apply to management and companies, but also to nations and people in general. In my trip to several developing countries in the last few months, I have seen first hand how globalization and the wave of change that is hitting many countries around the world is creating fear in the mind of the public.

Many developing countries want to benefit from the wave of globalization and want to offer its citizens better living conditions, but with that, there is a strong resistance to change by the same people who are calling for a change.

So if you are dealing with change management at your organization, you will face a resistance to change, don’t let that discourage you, just be patient and introduce the changes slowly.

Motivate your employees

Nothing is more damaging to a company than unproductive employees. There are many factors that lead employees to be unproductive:

1- Direct manager is not involved on the day to day activities of his/her staff.
2- Company doesn’t have employees’ performance review program.
3- Goals and vision of the company are not clear.
4- Employees don’t have detailed job description; they don’t know what is expected of them.
5- Some employees are just not fit for the job.

From my experience in working with various organizations and with employees from different parts of the world, the above factors are usually the cause for employee’s unproductivity.

What is the solution? Very simple, make sure the above factors are not true for your organization.

1- Manager should have a meeting, even if it very short with his/her staff on daily basis, just to have an idea of what they are working on.
2- You must have employees’ performance review, either monthly or quarterly.
3- Your employees must understand and must believe on the mission statement of the company, otherwise, you will get an employee who’s only motivation for coming to work is to get a pay check at the end of the month.
4- Each employee must understand what is expected of him or her, when I first started to work with my current company, I noticed the office janitor doing nothing all day, so I started my mission with my new company by writing a job description for our janitor. I asked him why he sat all day long doing nothing? He said “ I don’t know what is expected of me.” When I explained to him his job duties he felt as if he was a part of a bigger team and his job performance really improved.
5- Finally, some employees are only working at your company because they have nothing better to do, get rid of these employees.

Carlos Ghosn and the philosophy of change at Nissan Motor

Many people may have not heard of Carlos Ghosn Nissan’s CEO, this Brazilian born for Lebanese parents turned Nissan around and made it profitable again. There is so much a person can learn from Mr. Ghosn management style but one thing that really got my attention and I am personally a firm believer in it is his idea of “Respect the other party culture, but never to be forced on you.”

In order for Mr. Ghosn to turn Nissan Motor around, he had to break many traditional practices at Nissan Motor that has strong link to the Japanese culture; this made him the most hated man in Japan, but also one of the most successful CEOs.

I always believed that success has no boundaries nor it is a property of a certain culture, successful methods of management can be applied in any culture and in any country.

I always like to take MacDonald as an example of successful company who assimilates well in its local environment without losing its corporate identity and value system.

How to discipline your employees

Employees-management conflict is a complicated and delicate issue. Concerned managers always try to find ways to strike a fair balance between giving employees their full rights but at the same time not losing their authority as managers.

I had a recent incident with one of my employees, I am his direct manager and I try to be to him as a mentor more than a manager, I was shocked when I ordered him to perform a task and his reply was “it can wait till the next week”, his answer really made me re-think my entire relation with my staff.

On my first day on my new consulting job, I have made it clear to my staff, most of them recent graduates, that I will adhere to an open door policy with them and they will get my full support in any efforts they take to gain more experience.

I will continue the open door policy with my staff but at the same time I will have a meeting with this one employee who failed to follow his manager’s order. In the meeting I will make it very clear that he has not respected his superiors and his action will have consequences. I will temporarily relief him from some of the responsibilities I gave him until I feel he is ready again to act in a responsible manner.

How to navigate your way through office politics

Being hard working, experienced and well educated are not enough factors to help you win support for your project within the corporate environment. My first real experience with office politics happened to me at the age of 26, although relatively mature at that age, but I have never experienced office politics until I was 26 years old.

While studying, I was hired by my college to head the purchasing department, while the pay was not much, the job give me considerable decision making authority on picking up vendors to supply the college with its various needs. I really liked my job, talking with suppliers and negotiating contracts was a piece of cake for me, so I was so confident in my skills and in my ability to reorganize the department to make it more efficient that I totally became results oriented and only had my mind on the end results and……..here where I went wrong.

Older and most senior staff members felt as if I was stepping over their authority and that I am not sticking to the ways things done around there. The changes I brought to the department were real good and the teaching staff was pleased by the progress I was making, but the whole idea didn’t resonate well with the senior staff members.
As I moved on, I have faced office politics at my other jobs; it’s the reality of the work place. So what could you do to navigate your way through office politics and win support for your project(s)?
1-To get support for your project, working hard and being problem solvers is not enough.
2-Always pay attention to the views of the decisions makers.
3-When you come up with new ideas, try to introduce your solution in a manner that is not intimidating to your peers or your direct supervisor, your co-workers may feel intimated by your energy levels, it happened with me.
4-If you feel your project is not getting the desired support you hoped for, than be patient and wait for a better chance to start to talk about it again.
5-If you feel that your project will not get the support you wanted, try to get more people involved and work as a team.
6-Always keep in mind; people are, by their nature, reluctant to change.
7-If after doing all the above and you still can not get the needed support for your project, than its time to take your ideas somewhere else.

I worked as project manager in few places and even though my job title was “project manager”, my ideas faced fierce resistance and I didn’t know follow the above guidelines and all my efforts were wasted.

Fire the politician from your team

Throughout my career, which started from my university campus, I had to deal with office politics. As new and young employee, I had no way of escaping office politics and office gossips. As a young employee, I always kept to myself and my work; I have never really paid attention to office politics. Working while studying at a large and reputable university, I always thought we will be taught valuable work ethics that will guide us as after we graduate and get the real job.

My first encounter with office politics was at my university job, I ended up losing my job because one of the full time workers thought I would outsmart her and since she was an old timer there, she talked the department manager into let ting me go.

One management tip that I have learned in dealing with office politics is: don’t let office politics make you lose your brightest and greatest employees. You must spot the trend of office politics at your firm and stop at as soon as you see it. Great projects failed to see the lights because of office politics.
This is small, but powerful advice, fire the politician from your team…..Thanks