Catherine Mattice's Blog, page 28

3 Things You Didn’t Know About Teasing

I love a good sarcastic and witty comment. The resulting laughter is good for the soul and for the team – it promotes happy hormones and bonding.

Teasing others often signals liking and (work appropriate) affection. If you tease a co-worker in the right ways, it demonstrates you understand them and know some parts of their true self they often keep hidden from others.

Unfortunately, teasing can easily turn negative if the recipient perceives they’ve been punched in the gut. That’s the problem with teasing; it’s easy to cross the line. 

Ongoing teasing within teams can signal that sharing feelings is not acceptable. Teasing naturally communicates an expectation that team members should have thick skin. So when a team member’s feelings get hurt, they’re not likely to share it with others. The teasing continues, and the negative feelings percolate. Ultimately collaboration, teamwork and relationships can suffer.

Teasing can negatively influence our behavior towards others. If one person on your team is often teased about his accent, for example, the constant pointing out of this difference may influence others’ ability to see him as part of the collective team. What if you overhear people teasing a co-worker about some inability to complete a task? No doubt that will influence your perception of their competence, which will influence your behavior towards them.

Teasing can negatively impact your culture. The longer teasing goes on, the higher your threshold for tolerating it. As teasing becomes more and more normal in a team, the boundaries get pushed farther and farther, and the behavior becomes more and more negative. Over time what started as innocent teasing can turn into workplace bullying or harassment. 

One client asked me about an individual from another country who constantly poked fun at himself – the business owner wondered if this was okay. My thought is that while he might be doing it just because he’s a funny guy and that’s his personality, he could also be doing it because he needs a protective shield due to past experiences of discrimination (e.g., If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em). I also wondered how this might influence the next guy from outside the U.S. to work there; would he think he needed to make fun of himself to be part of the team? 

I assure you; I am not opposed to fun at work. My goal isn’t to convince you that any and all teasing is bad and should be squashed immediately with a swift and mighty hand.

I do suggest, however, that we all tease responsibly. 

People who are good at teasing and use it to build rapport and friendships at work:

pay attention to nonverbal cues of those aroundis aware that tone, volume, pauses, timing, and other types of paralanguage are uber importantapologize when they have any suspicion they may have crossed a linenever teases about personal or touchy issuesnever teases about confidential matters in front of othersunderstands the danger of teasing over email, text or social mediaknows when to quit

I also suggest that if your company culture is one of teasing, managers, leaders and HR must agree to keep their eyes and ears open for signs that feelings have been hurt, lines have been crossed, or collaboration is suffering. Quick reactions are going to be important for a positive culture. 

Sincerely,

Catherine & The Civility Partners Team

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12 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month With Your Workforce

Black History Month is meant to recognize the contributions this community has made to the United States and reflect on our country’s continued struggle with racial injustice. It’s a time for everyone – whether you identify as Black or not – to think about how to actively participate in creating racial justice. Employers everywhere can help their workforce learn and grow by engaging in thoughtful activities throughout the month (and the year). To that end, below is a list of 12 ideas for you to engage in personally, or to deliver as an initiative to your workforce. Do keep in mind that demonstrating a whole lot of empathy when introducing these ideas is paramount. Tweeting that your organization honors African Americans while your supervisors, managers and leaders are all white is an example of how one can easily fall into the trap of being tone-deaf. Instead, consider a phased approach that moves from supporting to actually doing. Allyship and justice is a long-term plan, not a one-tweet plan. Here are 12 ways to lean into Black History Month, in no particular order: Watch LinkedIn Learning’s three free learning paths, made up of several courses from experts in diversity, equity, inclusivity, and allyship. You don’t need a LinkedIn Premium or LinkedIn Learning account to watch them. They are free for all until March 31.Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging for All How to Engage Meaningfully in Allyship and Anti-RacismBuild a More Equitable and Inclusive WorkplaceAlso, here’s a short LinkedIn video of Black professionals talking about belonging, representation, opportunities, and a way forward.Read a book by a Black author. Black Enterprise, TEDTalks, Princeton University, and many more sites have a long list of options to explore. Consider asking everyone to read their own choice and then reporting back about what they learned, or assigning one book in order to hold a book club conversation around it with a trained facilitator.Host a Black film movie night. As with the book, you might pick one movie for everyone to watch on their own time and then host a lunch n’ learn so reactions can be discussed. You could also invite everyone to watch it on Zoom with you (select the option to share audio when sharing your screen) so you can pause it and discuss along the way. Check out this list of movies on DoSomething.org’s website, and you can even locate discussion guides for some of them, such as 13th and I Am Not Your Negro.Borrow an action from the website, CEOAction.com. This is one of my favorite websites out there. Have a look at the long list of actions submitted by their members to see exactly what they’ve done. Many of these case studies provide enough information that you could implement the same initiative at your own workplace.Hold a discussion in a safe space. A great way for everyone to learn is to get people of all colors together to talk about the various experiences of people of color. Keep in mind, however, that any person of color participating is doing so at the extraordinary risk of being vulnerable to their co-workers. They may also feel they’re being asked to volunteer their time to educate others. So it’s a good idea to first do some recon to understand if a conversation like this is of interest to your workforce of color. Additionally, it’s important to have a trained facilitator leading the conversation. This can be an emotional and high-conflict conversation, and someone who knows how to manage it will be key to its success.Donate to a Black organization. Many nonprofits exist to perpetuate and save Black history and culture, promote health and improve medical treatment, support and enforce social reform, build educational opportunities, or promote economic growth and stability for our Black communities. Choose one (or more!) in line with your organizational or personal values and donate away.Attend any of the many events going on this month. I found some at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Organizations in your local area may have some events of their own, so check them out to support your community. You might also become a corporate member of your local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).Start every meeting off with an educational tidbit. Keep Black History Month alive by starting all staff meetings and team meetings off with something related to the topic. Consider taking lead on researching and sharing something with your managers each morning so that they can share it during the day with their team. For example, your workforce might be interested to know that 1 in 17 white men, versus 1 in 3 Black men, are likely to go to prison. Or that on average, Black men earn $0.87 for every $1 white men make; even when controlled for position and qualifications, Black men still make $0.02 less. That might not seem like much, but compounded over time it adds up.Conduct an equity audit. Audit your hiring rates, compensation, and promotions – they should be comparable across various groups. Take a look at your organization’s leadership to determine if it’s homogenous or full of diversity. Audit your policies and practices with an eye toward disparate impact and inequity. An audit will be eye opening, and it will also provide a path for social justice in your organization. I found a great list of equity audit templates to get you started.Provide your workforce with allyship/upstander training. You probably have a workforce full of people who want to speak up when they witness something exclusive happen, like a microaggression or insensitive joke, but don’t know how. Speaking up in those situations is not a natural talent we’re all born with, and even if it was, your workforce is wondering how their manager or employer would support them if they took the leap to allyship. Providing training sends that message of support of allyship, and the right training can deliver tools for doing it well. Our interactive training discusses incivility and microaggressions, addresses getting over the fear of speaking up, and provides a wealth of real-world tools one could use in the moment to protect themselves or a peer from negativity.Conduct an employee survey that measures perceptions of discrimination, harassment, and inequity. Many organizations are already doing employee engagement surveys – important if you want to measure the level of employee engagement. However, discovering perceptions of inequity or discrimination, trust in leadership’s commitment to equity, or whether some races are more or less engaged than others, requires different measurement tools. CAUTION: Don’t ask these questions unless you’re prepared to address the issues you’ll discover by asking them. That’s why we tailor our surveys for all our clients; because the workforce and the leaders have to be ready to swiftly respond to the survey results.Use your company’s talents to influence social justice. No matter what your organization’s product or service is, consider how it might positively influence your community. For example, many industries, such as insurance and IT, lack diversity and that makes it difficult for companies in this space to hire from a diverse talent pool. Perhaps your organization can change that by starting a mentorship program for under-represented high school students, hiring interns from under-represented groups at the local college or university, or sponsoring a scholarship. To get you inspired, here’s a cool story about a business coach who created programing in her community. As for Civility Partners, we fight for employees’ rights to be treated with dignity every single day. However, we’ll be donating to a Black organization this month, and I personally will be attending a variety of virtual events. I’ll also be encouraging my team to engage in all of the ideas laid out in this blog. It’s not enough to believe you aren’t a racist. Now is a time to listen and learn, empathize, and act. Sincerely, Catherine

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Some SHOCKING STATS About Toxic Work Cultures

According to the Society for Human Resources Management’s (SHRM) 2019 literature review on the costs of toxic workplace cultures and the benefits of positive cultures, more than 85% of American workers who say their organization has a strong workplace culture admit they talk positively to others about it outside of work. 

As an expert in creating positive work cultures, I thought it is my duty to share some of these alarming statistics with you. And to put them in perspective, I thought I’d share my personal case study.

You may already know that I became interested in toxic workplaces given my own experiences. I worked with someone I would describe as a bully, and after five years of putting up with him and my boss not standing up for me or others, I was let go because my performance had suffered. 

Admittedly, I was barely doing anything of use when I was at work, and I was often coming in late and leaving early. My loyalty to the organization suffered as I felt it didn’t care about me, so why should I care about it.

I also spent a bunch of time in another director’s office venting, and over the course of five years the amount of time I spent with her increased exponentially. I guess I was in her office roughly 3-5 hours a week just to vent. 

I also spent a lot of time dealing with the turnover caused by this individual’s behavior, including recruiting, hiring, and training new people regularly. I spent time counseling others who were coming to me, HR, to file complaints and get my help. Really, the list of things I wasted time on goes on, but you get the idea.

Over the years as a consultant, I’ve come to see just how common my experience was and is. It kills me to think of all that wasted time there in my scenario so long ago… all that I and others cost the organization as a result of how we were treated. So the stats below ring true for me, and probably anyone who’s experienced a toxic environment. 

The research study is a good read – definitely worth a download. For now, here are just some of the costs outlined in the study. 

The cost of turnover due to workplace culture is $223 billion in the past 5 years. When I think of my story above, this incredibly huge number seems accurate to me. While turnover is inevitable, one way to minimize it is through a focus on your culture. One important step to focusing on culture is a focus on managers and the role they play in it. 

This is because 58% of those who left a job due to culture claim managers are the main reason they left. That’s why Civility Partners offers a variety of training topics to help, including conflict resolution, addressing incivility, coaching employees, implicit bias, and others.

But we often suggest a good place to start is a climate assessment to help identify issues in your organization and how to solve them, including what training topics will be of most use. 

Training is indeed paramount, because 36% of employees say their manager doesn’t know how to lead a team.  Yep, over a third of people don’t believe in their manager’s leadership skills. This position is directly responsible for guiding, assisting, and leading employees, and yet so many think their manager isn’t fulfilling these responsibilities.

In addition, 40% of employees say their manager fails to frequently engage in honest conversations about work topics. Employees need to be able to trust their managers, and so managers must create an environment in which transparent communication flourishes. Without this trust, toxic cultures flourish as employees fear addressing negative behavior.

Unfortunately managers, often unknowingly, facilitate toxic work environments simply because they’ve never been trained on creating a positive one.

Of course, one component of a positive environment is trust and transparency. Yet, 25% of employees don’t feel safe voicing their opinions about work-related issues. It becomes a major problem when employees are afraid to share their opinions, or even report serious conflict, harassment or discrimination. Employees need to be able to depend on their organization to make them feel safe and heard. If managers don’t create an environment of honest conversation, people remain silent. 

And the burden of silence is difficult to bear, as 57% of people report leaving work feeling exhausted, and that a toxic atmosphere often compounds that stress. Not only does an unhealthy work culture affect an employee at work, but it can impact their personal life as well. Employees may find themselves having a difficult time relaxing when they’re off the clock, venting to their spouse who gets sick of hearing about it, or losing interest in their family as they become depressed or anxious. 

Finally, “25% of Americans dread going to work.” Dread going to work? Gosh, if employees dread work, they certainly lack engagement and the drive to remain passionate and successful in their role. Their productivity goes down, they may start showing up to work late, calling in sick, and lashing out. You know the drill. 

Perhaps this translates into the loss of $431 billion per year due to unplanned absences.

Employees need leaders and colleagues who motivate them to be the best version of themselves, which is why it’s so crucial to establish a culture of respect and dignity.

And so, I’ll leave you with this: Approximately 3 in 4 working Americans believe management establishes workplace culture, laying the foundation for them to succeed at work.

So here’s the million dollar question: Do your managers know how to establish and sustain a positive workplace culture? 

If not, let’s talk. 

Sincerely,

Catherine

P.S., Sameen, our super amazing HR & Marketing Assistant, made this infographic for you for easy reference. Check it out and pass it around. 

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2 Ways Your Organization Facilitates Harassment & Bullying

As an executive coach who specializes in coaching leaders who engage in bullying, I get the opportunity to dig deep into the minds of abrasive and aggressive people at work. It’s a place most HR professionals and leaders don’t venture but I thoroughly enjoy coaching these bullying leaders. They are leaders who’ve lost their way, and I get to bring them back to reality. In turn, everyone who works with the leader benefits. In addition to being lost in leadership, there are several other things bullying leaders have in common: They learned to be a fighter somewhere along the way. They grew up in a rough neighborhood and pulled themselves out of it, they came to America without knowing English and eventually worked their way to a PhD, they were the only woman and single parent in their med school classes… Every person I’ve coached has a story about overcoming something major.Their fight has turned into fighting for success at work, and so they are high-performers and highly valued by organizational leaders. That high performance is the reason people who bully are allowed to do so; the CEO is afraid to poke the bear and have them quit.They lack social and emotional intelligence. They know people see them as difficult and frustrating, but they don’t know the depth of the impact they have. That people cry at work or home, see a therapist, or quit because of their behavior is lost on them.The organization facilitates their behavior. Yep, I said it. The organization facilitates the bullying behavior. Here are two areas of concern I always come across when coaching people who bully. Bad behavior isn’t addressed early on. By the time I take on coaching clients, they’ve already been bullying for some time. With each instance of bullying without repercussions, permission has been given to engage in bullying behavior. Many times, the CEO or HR has had conversations with the leader about their behavior and attempted to help them see the negative impact, but without consequences attached to requests for change it’s all moot. The leader understands that they should try to be better, and that the organization doesn’t really care if they change. The organization hasn’t set the leader up for success in giving feedback. Every single person I’ve coached got into trouble partly because of the way they were giving feedback. Giving constructive, useful and effective feedback isn’t a skill everyone is born with and every organization should be providing training from the bottom up on doing it well. Leaders who aren’t trained in feedback techniques are more likely to engage in bullying. For example, one leader I coached was frustrated with an employee she saw as not performing, and that started to come through in her communication with him. One day she exploded at him and found herself in the principal’s office (i.e., HR). Through coaching, she was able to learn how to deliver both positive and constructive feedback more consistently and effectively. The organization could’ve saved themselves a lot of trouble by doing that a lot earlier on. This is a common narrative with all my coaching clients. WHAT YOU CAN DO In addition to addressing the individual engaging in bullying, assess what the organization might be doing to facilitate the behavior. Did you address the behavior early on? Have you provided training in delivering feedback? Other risk factors for bullying include high competition, bureaucracy, lack of attention on corporate values, stressful environments, and remote work. Do any of these areas ring a bell for your organization? If so, a good place to start addressing bullying is with your organizational culture. And a good place to start addressing organizational culture is with a climate assessment. If you’d like to discuss coaching for an abrasive leader in your organization, schedule a call with me and let’s do it. Sincerely, Catherine

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30 Ways To Bring Your Core Values To Life

Include your values graphic on your company’s “about” page.
Weave values into your jobs portal or applicant tracking system.
Include a link to information about your values in your online job postings. This is a great tool to get some less desirable applicants to self-select out of your hiring process.
Discuss in depth your vision, mission and core values during your interviews with candidates. Talk about the importance of the vision and mission and the history behind it.
Include behavior-based interview questions around your core values in your interviews, to ensure candidates already embody those values personally, before joining your organization.
Create a slide deck about your core values that can be embedded in social media posts and web pages.
Create an ebook about your vision, mission and core values that anyone on your site can download, that can be used in social media, and that employees can review as needed.
Ask employees to create a 30-second video on their phone about why the vision and mission are important to them, and/or how they live the core values every day. String them together into one video, and hold a viewing party. Use them for social media too.
Use your values as a basis for selecting organizations with which to partner for charitable donations and volunteer hours. When contributing silent auction items to noteworthy causes, choose items that can be easily tied to your values.
Hold a poster or photo contest related to your values. Ask people to choose photos or design a poster for each value, then hold a vote.
Creatively display your values, especially in places where customers, partners, job candidates and employees will see them regularly. You could even use your own employees on those posters.
Plan book club discussions about books that incorporate your core values into their message.
As part of the ongoing performance process, challenge employees to self-identify how they can better align their own work and behavior to core values.
Ask each department manager to work with their team to “audit” their own practices, policies and procedures against the vision, mission and values. What changes can they make to realign themselves?
Invite employees to blog about how they see values represented at the organization from their own perspective.
Use core values to inspire internal traditions like parties, motivational Monday or throwback Thursday.
Take a page from the football fan handbook and do spirit days (e.g., people wear your logo colors, paint their faces, etc). Have a contest for who’s the most “spirited” that day.
Evaluate whether your performance management process appropriately accounts for employees’ embodiment of core values. People should be measured on, and rewarded for, exemplifying them.
Offer a quarterly prize that recognizes individuals who have done something that specifically reinforces or exemplifies a certain value. Anyone can nominate anyone else.
Create a peer reward system around your values. When someone exemplifies them, they should be acknowledged or even rewarded.
Choose a value each month, and during that month, make that value a part of daily staff meetings, fun activities, and training programs.
At the start of each staff meeting, share a story about a customer you have helped or an incident that occurred that has brought your business one step closer to solving that problem laid out in your vision.
Ask each department to choose a core value and create a 30-minute training around it. Provide a lunch n’ learn program for each department to deliver their training. (This is more about having fun and keeping the values top of mind than it is about really learning.)
Ask employees to brainstorm how they can share the core values with new employees when they’re hired on. What steps will they take personally to engrain new hires in the culture?
Ask each employee to pick a core value and put it in their email signature.
Choose a value anytime you have an all-staff meeting or company party, for example, and discuss that value, or make it the theme of your party.
Ask your CEO to send out a weekly email with a note about how living one of the values showed up in a customer story, problem that was solved, or team goal that was achieved.
Create a business card with the vision, mission and core values on it, and give one to each employee.
Ask your managers to be on the look out for employees living the values, and encourage them to acknowledge it then and there with a little positive reinforcement.
Make your vision, mission and core values the deciding factor on everything you do.

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10 Ideas for 2021 New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year!

We’re so proud of how far you’ve (and we’ve) come during this difficult year. We finally made it to 2021!

Celebrating the New Year may feel different, and we know the hopes are high for a better 2021. People often set lofty resolutions for the next year, but this year it might be good to keep it simple.

Put the crazy diets and extreme exercise plans aside in 2021; here are some ideas for personal resolutions that are fun and attainable — and COVID friendly.

Walk a mile every day. With remote work it’s easy to forget about physical health. Walking around the neighborhood is an easy goal that can fit into your busy lifestyle. And it keeps the blood flowing for the 9 hours of video calls each day.
Cook something new each month. This is a great goal that can help improve your creativity and happiness. Rather than tracking calories this year, try out new recipes to create a more diverse diet.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Make a habit of getting more steps in your day. Bonus: You’ll avoid small spaces with strangers.
Give one stranger a compliment once a week. We could all use more positivity right now. One kind phrase can go a long way in making someone else’s day – and your day – better.
Spend less time with family. Us workaholics usually say we’ll spend more time with family next year. The struggle of working from home is real, so take some time to decompress and refresh. Getting centered makes for positive family interactions.
Create a monthly budget, and follow it. According this survey, 62% of the top 2021 resolutions are focused on saving money rather than working out or dropping pounds. We say good call.
Declutter your email inbox by setting rules. There’s no doubt you’ve received a large load of emails during this hectic year. Evaluate your inbox to determine what you really need to receive and not. Then reduce the number of emails sitting in a main inbox by setting up rules. Your heart and mind will thank you for reducing your stress and anxiety.
Refrain from using your phone 30 minutes before bed. You’ve seen it before – using your phone right before bed can inhibit good sleep. If you check work emails then your mind is racing instead of sleeping, for example. Getting a good night’s rest is something we all could use in 2021. So put your phone down.
Take one step closer to building equality. You could read a book or article to help you understand #BLM better, take time to explore America’s history sans the white lens, do some self-reflection or assessments… the options are literally endless.
Attend a Civility Partners webinar! Attending a webinar of ours is a great opportunity for growth. We have one coming up in February on Employer Branding & Employee Experience in 2021. 

We hope this year brings you health, wealth, and happiness!

Warm wishes,

Catherine and the Civility Partners team

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3 Questions to Reflect on Your Employer Brand

Your organization is under a microscope. Between social media and every other internet outlet, everything your organization does is met with a judge, jury, and… well, judgement.

 
The internet is the first place potential candidates, customers, and future business partners look for information. And that’s why employer branding is so important.
 
A good employer brand allows organizations to recruit top talent and is key to maintaining a competitive advantage. On the other hand, a tarnished brand can cost you big. Like customer branding, it begins before potential employees ever interact with you, and should be consistent throughout your relationship.
 
While marketing departments everywhere understand that, human resource departments and leaders should take a lesson. Often new hires are sold on company values and things they hear in an interview, but once inside the organization reality sets in. The brand they bought into doesn’t exist.
 
Uber is a good example. You may remember the Susan Fowler blog of 2017, where she blew the whistle on their culture of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. More recently, when the pandemic hit Uber laid off 3,500 employees on a Zoom call that lasted a little over three and half minutes. However, I’m pretty sure they told new hires they cared about their success.
 
Since then, employees have been bashing the company and have been claiming that Uber doesn’t care about its workers at all… not too inviting for people on a job hunt.
 
I started using Lyft in my travels after the Fowler debacle, and have since found them to be a good example of both customer and employer branding. While Uber was laying people off, Lyft was launching its LyftUp program to “promote equity and economic opportunities for communities of color” during this year’s #BLM movement. They’ve also sent great examples of crisis communication all year long, often outlining how they will keep drivers safe.
 
I’ve been on Lyft’s side for awhile now and this year has further solidified my loyalty. I’m a great example of how employer branding can lend itself to customer branding, in addition to attracting and keeping top talent.
 
So here’s the million dollar question: How did your employer brand fare this year?
 
Let’s reflect together.
 
How did you respond to critical events that occurred this year? Even in challenging times it’s vital that organizations treat employees with dignity and respect. Some organizations really hit the nail on the head, while others communicated that employees were just line items on a spreadsheet. How did you respond to COVID and #BLM, and what messages did your responses send to your workforce?
 
What did recruiting look like this year? In other words, what intentional steps did you take to attract top talent? Did you use job advertisements that were inviting and spoke to your real culture? Did you interview people with safety in mind?
 
Do you have a strong understanding of what sets you apart from other organizations? Why would candidates choose you over others? When it comes to attracting top talent, organizations must find ways to stand out. This could be through creative marketing, employee testimonials, community efforts – the list is seriously endless. A good place to start is to develop an employee value proposition and use it to guide your branding efforts.
 
Did you communicate about your brand all year long? Marketing and sales people know it requires a lot of messaging to keep customers reminded of how amazing you are. Did you follow their lead? Are you sending messages that remind your employees about the great benefits you offer, the flexible work time, and your other awesome perks?
 
Meet with your team and talk through the answers to these questions. You’ll see your strengths and opportunities for improvement begin to emerge as you discuss – then you can work to set the tone for 2021.
 
Catherine and The Civility Partners Team
 
P.S. We’re hosting a webinar on how to shape your employer brand and employee experience in February 2021. Check it out here!

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5 Ways to End the Year Strong

Crazy that we’re already talking about the end of the year. Good riddance, 2020!
 
But it ain’t over, so you still have time to finish big. Here are 5 options we thought you should consider:
 
Provide awesome harassment prevention training. California employers know the deadline is Jan 1, 2021, but for those of you outside of the great golden state, it’s still an important endeavor.
 
Unfortunately, many organizations see this training as a check the box, cover your you-know-what, program. What a waste! You’ve got your workforce’s attention, so take advantage. Instead of ramming the technical definition of harassment down people’s throats, how about some information about creating a respectful work culture?
 
Take our short assessment to see if your current harassment prevention training delivers maximum impact on your culture. If it doesn’t, you know who to call. (Ahem, Civility Partners.)
 
Build company culture initiatives into your 2021 budget. Every year we see organizations fail to allot resources towards culture initiatives. Get ahead of the curve and fight for funds to revamp the onboarding program, make room for self-care, or provide allyship training to employees – whatever your organization can do to keep the culture positive.
 
Here’s an old blog we wrote about what your budget says to employees. Keep in mind what you budget for, and don’t budget for, sends a big message.
 
Speaking of, we also recommend hiring a leader focused on diversity and inclusion. Glassdoor found that when COVID hit, diversity and inclusion leaders were among the first to go. When #BLM happened, all of a sudden these positions made a serious comeback. 
 
That type of flip flopping sends an ugly message to employees. You can’t have it both ways – either your organization cares about diversity and inclusion or it doesn’t. So hire that leader and keep them on in tough times.
 
Recognize employees for their hard work this year. I’m not talking about giving everyone a bonus (though I’m sure they would appreciate a little moola for their hard work!), I’m talking about genuine and tailored appreciation for their resilience and dedication.
 
Give working parents an extra day off over the holidays, for example, or send each employee a handwritten thank you card. The more creative you get, the better.
 
Check in with employees via a climate assessment. Employees have been through a lot this year, there’s no denying it. See how they are doing, and allow them to provide anonymous feedback on how the organization has responded to the events of 2020. There may be some things they aren’t telling you, or they may have some ideas on things the organization could be doing better. 
 
Make the rest of 2020 stellar!

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3 Actions Leaders Should Take, Right Now

A month or so back, I had a discussion with leadership consultant and coach, Melanie Proschenko, on my LinkedIn Live show. She had some great points about what leaders can be doing to support their teams these days, and I wanted to share in case you missed the live show.

Here are three actions leaders should take right now in a virtual world:

Have open conversations about behavioral norms. Change leaves behavioral norms and expectations up in the air – and there’s a lot of change happening right now. Are we onsite or not, wearing masks or not, talking about politics or not? It’s important leaders establish expectations all throughout these changes to provide some clarity.

Not having a camera on during a video meeting, for example, might send a negative message that employees aren’t aware of. Team members might think the employee is disengaged or even not in the room. Communicating the rules regarding these nuances will provide guidance for employees as they navigate their new workplace.

One way to comfortably do this is to compile the behaviors that you’ve noticed and address them during a meeting with the team, rather than pinpointing a specific person. Collaborate on the conversation and ask employees what their expectations of each other, and of you, are. Work together to create ground rules, even on the little things like cameras.

Discuss guidelines for your various tech tools. Melanie pointed out that with all the new technology teams are leaning on, it’s important to have ground rules around them as well.

It’s good practice to explain the need for the different technologies and set expectations for using them. Employees need to know what tools are used for what tasks, and what the rules of communication are for each. Is turnaround time in Slack different than in Basecamp, for example?

One way to keep the tech ground rules streamlined is to create a grid in a shared document that displays the different tools, their purpose, and the expectations of each. Don’t overwhelm employees, but explaining the main sources of communication will help prevent confusion.

Understand the new needs of your employees. It’s important to understand how employee needs have changed over the course of 2020. Yes, we already know they might need more flexible time due to kids at home – there’s plenty of articles out there on that – but what about their needs when it comes to relationship building at work?

For example, some employees who really thrived onsite when they could meander around the office and build connections might be struggling in a virtual environment. Or, those of us who are “getter-done-er’s” could come across as too abrasive if we aren’t making room for the small talk that used to occur naturally.

Melanie suggested leaders should seek the answers to two different questions. One is, “What do you need to thrive here?” Ask employees this question regularly, and it will prompt them to share what will make them successful.

Another great question for leaders to explore is, “Who are you and how do you show up?” You could ask employees this question straight out, but part of your answer will come from observing your employees in various settings, thinking about what you observed before and after remote work, what their various strengths are, and more.

Do set aside time to have discussions about styles and needs, however, which can help employees feel more prepared and less anxious. This blog post, 5 Tips and 5 Questions: Helping Employees with Stress, is a great resource to help ease the challenges employees will face.

Also ask yourself, “What kind of leader do I want to be right now?” This is a question I’ve been discussing with my own leadership coaching clients, and a question I’ve been asking myself all throughout 2020. The answer often dictates my decisions and actions, and it’s been a great guide post for me.

Investing time in developing yourself and your team is what will make you successful as a leader. Empowering and taking care of your people will go a long way during this fiasco of a year we’re having, and beyond. 

Sincerely,

Catherine and the Civility Partners Team

The post 3 Actions Leaders Should Take, Right Now appeared first on Civility Partners.

Social Media Interactions About Politics Put Organizational Culture at Risk

These past few months, my social media has been riddled with posts around the upcoming election. My connections have been sharing their political views and, in some cases, very adamant opinions on who to vote for.

I suspect the same is true for your employees.

The thing is, interactions via social media, both negative and positive, affect the overall workplace culture.

Whether you like it or not, social media outside of work affects relationships inside of work. You might already be seeing cliques form based on political affiliation, for example. As a result, employees are more likely to engage in exclusive behavior such as gossiping and mobbing.

Social media blurs the line between employees’ personal and professional lives, which leads to escalated conversations that wouldn’t typically happen in the workplace. With guards down, employees may not find fault in disagreeing aggressively on someone’s post or using harmful language.

Reading social media posts via computer removes empathy from the equation. We’re all less likely to be empathetic when we can’t see a face on the other side and assess nonverbal cues. This facilitates the possibility of being less careful in word choice and tone when interacting with others on social media.

These interactions easily manifest themselves in the workplace in the form of conflict, incivility, and lack of collaboration.

What’s posted on social media doesn’t stay on social media. No matter how hard you try, social media will seep into the workplace culture in one way or another – especially in our remote work environment where social media has become the new “watercooler”.

Right now, with the election quickly approaching, your culture is at risk.

The good news is we are here to help squash the incivility most likely brewing in your workplace as the election nears.

We’re hosting a free webinar next week to provide you with strategies for addressing the toxic behavior you may see erupt during the election.

We recognize how conversations around politics can escalate and want to give you everything you need to perpetuate positive, respectful behavior in your workplace. This includes training objectives for setting ground rules prior to the election, tips for diffusing conflict between employees, and ways to prepare for the post-election work environment.

Not only that, you’ll receive 1 SHRM PDC for attending. Whoot!

Join us on October 22nd at 10:30 am PST for some insight on managing your workforce during this tense election season.

You can register here at this link. It’s free!

Rebecca Del Secco, aPHR

Consultant

The post Social Media Interactions About Politics Put Organizational Culture at Risk appeared first on Civility Partners.