| 4/28/2009 | By Theresa Minton-Eversole |
LAS VEGAS—There’s only one way to shake off the recessionary doldrums that hold the country in an economic vise grip, according to Tim Sanders, best-selling author and former Yahoo! leadership coach and chief solutions officer.
“When times get tough, people go through their own personal recession. And when attitudes go negative, people and companies must get inspirational,” said Sanders on April 28, 2009, during the opening keynote session of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Staffing Management Conference & Exposition, being held here through April 30. “The secret to turning the negativity around is to create an emotional compensation plan. You must make yourself emotionally attractive. Companies must make themselves emotionally attractive.”
Psychologists call it the “likeability factor,” Sanders explained. “People who have the likeability factor have the ability to consistently create positive emotional experiences in the lives of other people. And because they do it on such a consistent basis, they get into the positive feedback mode.” They make people feel good about themselves every day, and these folks in turn say, “You’re making a positive difference in the world,” which builds the likeable people back up so they can make that positive difference again the next day.
“Recessions are great equalizers,” he said. They bring out the best in the best people and the worst in the worst, contributing to a scarcity mind-set of defensiveness, negativity and lack of confidence that eventually alters one’s perception of the world.
The Mutterers
Perspective moves from thoughts to words to actions, negative or positive. “So if you want to get your mojo back, your positive perspective must be cultivated.” The way to do that, Sanders said, is to “change your diet and exercise.
“Clean up your diet by getting rid of all the negative reporting, negative people and bad influences in your life,” he said, adding that people can practice being a more positive influence on others by simply focusing more on their e-mail etiquette.
“E-mail is one of the greatest sources of frustration in the workplace, second only to change,” Sanders said, offering suggestions for how to clean it up:
RULE #1: Communicate no bad news through e-mail. “Remember when you used to have to wait for someone to leave the office before you left them a voice mail?”
RULE #2: Stop sending e-mails during nonbusiness hours. “Heavy weekend e-mailers [managers] have three times more regretful turnover than those managers who expect e-mails to stop after business hours. So how do you kick the habit? Just click on ‘File,’ then ‘Offline.’ ”
RULE #3: Think before you “forward.” “Only a third of the people scroll down through an entire e-mail before forwarding to others,” which he said could lead to embarrassment if not career sabotage. “The people who send the most e-mails are the most deleted and the least likely to be read or responded to. So stay relevant.”
RULE #4: Stamp out “Reply to All.” Enough said.
Sanders said there are several attributes that highly likeable people possess, noting that honing these attributes can lead not only to great personal success but also to professional success:
Friendliness: “The only way to sustain this is to be authentic. For example, when you show up for a meeting, show up! Leave the ‘CrackBerry,’ the PDA, the iPod in your office, and be attentive. Turn off your computer screen when someone enters your office in order to give them your undivided attention. And obsess over keeping your word on the little promises you make.” This will show people you truly care about them, he said. “And be grateful, not for things, but for experiences you’ve had, the people who are in your life and your capabilities. Have you ever seen an unhappy grateful person?”
Relevance: The ability to develop a sincere interest in just a few people’s lives will do more for one’s career and life than learning a minimal amount about a whole lot of people, he said.
Empathy: “Every human leaks emotions. Help people understand that their feelings are facts. If you ‘accurately’ determine and understand all the feelings of people in a room, then you’re the best leader in the room.”
And what can companies do to make themselves emotionally attractive to all their stakeholders? Sanders made these suggestions:
“Stop hiring jerks, particularly high-potential jerks. You’ve got time, particularly now, to hire folks who are a good cultural match with the organization.”
Regarding the onboarding process: “Skip the policies and procedures; share how things are done in the organization and the company culture.” And stay engaged even after the new employees’ first days or months. Also, make hiring managers responsible for the continued success of the onboarding process and employees’ training and development by adding these goals to their performance goals.
Companies should promote a culture of continuous learning, work/life balance and wellness, Sanders said, adding that recent research shows that smoking and obesity percentages are rising because of the stresses of the economic downturn on individuals. “Double down on wellness to show employees the company really does care about them.”
Finally, he said, “Institute social compensation. Have your employees make meaning, not just money, in the world. Encourage community service, so that if they go, they’ll not only have to leave their job, they’ll have to leave their life.”
Theresa Minton-Eversole is an editor/manager for SHRM Online.
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