Mentors vs. Tormentors – 50 Ways to Ditch Your X (and Y) Employees
September 4, 2006 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
If mentors affect teams, then tormentors infect teams. As a keynote speaker and corporate teambuilding facilitator, I see quite a bit of infection swelling up in corporate America these days. It seems that leaders who learned their craft in the command and control school of management no longer have the affect on their teams of Generations X and Y (otherwise known as Millennials or the Oh-Oh Generation). Millennials were born 1982-2000 and 75% of them are born to Baby Boomers. They are the newest generation just entering the workforce. In fact, it seems that using the old school of management style is a surefire way to ditch your X and your Y.
So if you strive for high turnover, constant training and clamor to hold a title even more coveted than “Micromanager,” follow these simple strategies and you can claim the moniker of Tormentor. Be aware that choosing not to engage these methods may create a motivating workplace, retain recruits and positively affect your team.
1. Always refer to the way things were when you were their age or coming up through the ranks.
2. Insist on “my way or the highway” standards and accept nothing less.
3. Give raises and ensure they are inconsequential such as ten cents per hour. Raise the standard of living for the recipient.
4. Freak out or get very uptight when a VIP or other corporate mucky muck visits. Instill the nervous frenzy in the workforce and make them crazy with inane requests such as painting the dirt green so it looks good from the air when the big wig’s helicopter flies over (Unfortunately for the staff of that particular organization, I didn’t make that one up).
5. Demand that employees stay late often to work on projects you’ve not prepared. Assume that since they’re single, they don’t have a life and they wouldn’t mind staying overtime for the good of the organization.
6. For frontline staff, purchase uniquely ugly uniforms so they wouldn’t be mistaken for personal clothing. When they are sporting uncomfortable polyester, a hideous color or constricting uniforms, there is no doubt they are in a mindset of work (or prison).
I once had a boycott on new uniforms in Europe when the teal polo shirts I ordered translated into “Kermit the Frog green.” Our staff was not amused and went uniform-free until the correct color arrived. It seems looking cool is essential, and Kermit wasn’t cool to 23-year-olds.
7. Insist on large or unmanageable nametags that get in the way of their duties, hang down and pose a safety hazard, turn upside down, or poke holes in the their aforementioned uniform.
8. Never solicit ideas and suggestions when making decisions that affect the team. Decide by yourself and give the order down the line. For a special effect, send it out in a memo while you’re out of town.
9. Solicit ideas and suggestions from your team and then take credit for those ideas or others that come your way.
10. Pick a favorite team member and give them all the work, praise and glory. It’s much easier to just focus on one person than trying to pay attention to so many other people. The others will catch on sooner or later……
Stay tuned for the next installment of how to be a tormentor at work. Until then, have a happy Labor Day! If you have a story of a mentor or a tormentor you’d like to share – please change the names to protect the innocent or the not-so-innocent. Your story may be published.
FUNominally Yours –
Gail
New Books on the Streets and Online
August 23, 2006 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
I’m so excited, I can hardly stand it – there are two new books on the website at http://www.funcilitators.com/parafunalia.htm. One is by a friend of mine, Marsha Lindquist called Why Are You Still Working Your A** Off? A Guide to Life Beyond the Cubicle. It’s filled with her insights and strategies to get a life outside of work and to make it meaningful. It’s filled with her wit and cheeky wisdom on the subject – she’s a ball of fire. It will make you think about what you’re doing – making a living or making a life.
Another book that will be on the site soon – is one that my colleague and speaker buddy, Jeff Tobe had compiled with about a dozen of us experts on the subject of communication. Titled The Communication Coach II – Communication Tips From the Pros for the Pros. It’s chalked full of high-level information for those who want a more advanced look into this thing we call communication. Perfect for HR professionals, managers, teachers, or those who just want to understand their neighbors, co-workers, spouse or teenager. Well, maybe not their teenager…you be the judge of that one. Let me know what you think of it – we’d love your feedback about how it helped you communicate better and also what you’re doing to not be working your a** off.
Cheers!
Gail
Fun & Laughter at Work
June 15, 2006 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Mixing fun and effectiveness at work is good business. Since helping people create that type of atmosphere is my business, I have been off the blogosphere for a while to facilitate just that for some clients recently. Facilitating an executive retreat at Lake of the Ozarks and combining work in the morning with play in the afternoon was a perfect combination to rivitalize the team as well as me. There’s something about being around the water and boats that makes people happy. Have you ever noticed how everybody waves at everybody else in a boat as they pass? The blend of laughter, sun, fun and shared experiences can pull a team together and have residual effects throughout the coming months and years. Creating memories and corporate lore helps cement the bond between employees.
Here’s a sneak preview of an article on my website – the link is above….showing the benefits of laughter and fun at work.
Cheers!
Gail
What’s so funny? This is a serious situation that Americans are in up to their eyebrows in stress and it’s killing them. If we’d just lighten up a little, step back, and take time to work out our funny bone instead of our growl scowl, we’d be much more healthy both physically and emotionally.
Choose to laugh at a situation now instead of years down the road. In many instances it is only the passage of time that makes something turn from unpleasant or embarrassing to hilarious. Why not decide to look at the funny side of it earlier on? Having a sense of humor will energize you and those around you while combating stress and disease. ….. more at http://www.funcilitators.com/articles/funnybone.htm
Practice Safe Stress, Relax & Renew Your Vitality
May 24, 2006 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Are you sometimes feeling that you’re on your last nerve? Have you been looking for a proven way to relax, refresh, and renew yourself? I was in a conference session with the makers of the Holosync system and I was blown away by their research and successful results and you will be too. I just had to share this secret with you to practicing safe stress.
It sounds like science fiction – it is science, but it is not fiction – it’s a very real process that helps you sleep better and your aliveness, vitality and energy increase and your quality of life will improve rapidly. Now there is a way to effortlessly meditate more deeply than a Zen monk, dramatically accelerating the meditation process and create profound changes in your mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
Studies show that 70% of our internal dialogue is negative and this system helps counteract those thoughts that are keeping you stuck in negativity.
The Holosync Solution ™ aides in increasing your mind-power and dramatically raises your threshold for stress. We feel stress when things in the world come at us faster than we can assimilate and handle at one time. Those who have had trauma in their lives at younger ages have a much lower threshold for dealing with these stresses than those who haven’t experienced such trauma. The coping mechanisms when we are pushed over our threshold show up as anxiety, anger, depression, overwhelm, sadness, substance abuse and many others…..doesn’t that sound like the American culture?
By using Holosync, just putting on headphones and sitting with your eyes closed listening to the calming sounds, your threshold is pushed higher and higher the more you use it and your dysfunctional feelings and behaviors happen less and less often and it becomes less often that environmental stresses affect you. Many people experience dramatic improvements in a few sessions, then even more in a week or two and certainly after a couple months, your stress levels will be dramatically decreased and you will be much better able to handle what life throws at you in a more relaxed, less anxious, more centered peaceful state and be more connected to others. You can try this incredible system for an amazing one-year, no-questions asked, money-back guarantee. Check out this dynamic product by Bill Harris at Holosync.
Backed by a mountain of scientific research—and proven results for thousands of users, the proprietary Holosync audio technology placed on CD’s beneath soothing music and environmental sounds will help you get results faster and with less effort than you ever dreamed possible and it’s all guaranteed. Bill has researched this system for 18 years, plus 12 years of other scientific research before him. There are over 160,000 people in 172 countries using this system and not one person has reported any negative results – it’s heartily endorsed by doctors, naturopaths and mental health professionals from around the world. There is no risk at all – except the risk of not having a better life with less stress by meditating and slowing your brain waves to the theta and delta states, which bypass the filters of your left brain in order to achieve greater clarity and easier changes in belief patterns.
Here are some of the ways you’ll benefit:
* Stimulate the creation of new neural pathways between the right and left hemispheres of your brain, balancing your brain and leading you to a high-performance state scientists call “whole brain functioning”.
* Dramatically improve your learning ability, memory, intuition, creativity, and your ability to focus, concentrate and think more clearly.
* Create true quantum leaps in your personal self awareness.
* Significantly lower your stress levels and lower your levels of harmful brain chemicals related to stress.
* Create remarkable improvements in your mental and emotional health—even in areas that have stubbornly resisted change with other approaches.
* Dramatically increase your production of vital (and very pleasurable) brain chemicals related to your longevity, well-being, and quality of life.
* Test drive it yourself, you’ve got nothing to lose, except some stress…. Holosync Meditation.
Keep in Touch With Online Snail Mail Cards
May 2, 2006 | Posted in Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
I’m on FIRE with excitement over another new way to keep in touch with everybody. Having moved about 13 times in about 20 years, it’s hard to keep up with everybody. I’ve just signed on with Send Out Cards – a fantastic way to keep in touch with clients, customers, partners, friends and family with the click of a mouse and it sends a real card they can hold in their hands from their snail mail box. You can customize the inside with your own greeting, your own photos, and your own handwriting and signatures. I even have Madison’s paw print as her signature. They give you 4 signatures in the program. All this for around a buck a card – and that even includes postage. All the cards are created one at a time, stuffed into envelopes, stamped, and mailed out of Utah – all you do is select people from your contact manager – which you can import from your other contact managers, create a message, click and send. No more going to the card store, waiting in line at the post office, or finding stamps…you can send a card in less than a minute. The longest time it takes is to select from the more than 5000 card styles they have. I will soon have my own personal collection on the site – I’m creating as fast as I can! Check it out – it’s awesome. Cards can only be mailed to US addresses…I think they can do APO’s, but no overseas mailing. If you want to test-drive the system, let me know and I will set you up with a free gift account – I will even pay for the postage.