Any employee may achieve an increase in performance by taking advantage of these three easy career-changing actions in 2012.
1. Make your manager look fabulous. Don’t laugh! It is a fact. If you make your boss look bad (disagree with him/her in public, miss a critical deadline or fail to turn in your management reports), you lose. If you make your boss look good (get an international shipment delivered on time and under budget, negotiate a favorable vendor contract reducing capital expenditures over the next five years or hire a stellar performer to implement a brand-new system that cuts production time in half), you win! In fact, everybody wins. Take heed, and take the lead. This is one way you can help make this year a winning one for your career.
2. Reignite the fire inside you. How? By reading your company’s published materials. Boring, you say? No! Think about it. It’s quite the contrary. Companies spend millions of dollars annually on external and internal communications (company websites, social network pages, newsletters, new brochures, press releases, advertising, etc.). They are not spending this money to waste it. They expect a huge return on their investment in order to stay competitive. These investment dollars can generate new research and development ideas resulting in increased sales opportunities. They could attract more high-performing employees who will add value by saving or making the company more profitable. Yet, the ones who are usually most eager to read these published items are professionals applying for vacant positions within the organization. It gives them insight into the company’s corporate culture and the thoughts of your senior leadership. It helps them formulate creative ideas of how they may be able to add value to the company and outperform the competition during the interview process. Now is the time for you to begin a winning trend by reigniting the fire within you.
3. Mail yourself a monthly personal achievement letter. Try this bright little idea before you discount it. Begin writing down a personal achievement you accomplish at work every day. It can be as simple as putting a smile on the face of a disgruntled customer or as complex as conducting a conference call with 15 people from four countries on two continents with multiple interpreters and no interruptions or technological difficulties. Just write down one accomplishment every day on your tablet, smart phone or computer. Then review it quickly at the end of each week before you go home. Finally, at the end of the month or within the first three days of the following month, print it, put it in an envelope and send it to your home via snail mail. You will be surprised how this quirky little exercise will help you with your annual evaluations or résumé in the future. May this year bring you many more success stories to be thankful for each day.
Avoid three unforgiveable mistakes many managers make that result in non-taxable deductions.
The following actions could determine whether your employees are happy or if you are creating an unproductive work environment that produces non-taxable deductions for the company.
1. Show favoritism in the workplace. If you are guilty, stop. If you aren’t, great! This non-taxable deduction can literally cost your company millions of lost revenue dollars and man-hours when unhappy employees spend more time sulking and complaining to others than they do working on company time. Every good accountant knows that documentation and substantiation are most important during tax and audit season. Take note: Those same principles are good for developing better employee relationships. Document all performances in employees’ records with a personal follow-up discussion. You can still acknowledge employees publicly when appropriate as long as it is not excessive and to the oversight of your other contributors. Remember, the quarterback is essential to any football team’s success; however, the quarterback is ineffective without the defensive and offensive linemen, the wide and tight ends and the wide receivers. Take the time to recognize and appreciate all of the players on your team.
2. Embarrass employees in front of others. Most of the time, employees know when they fail to meet your and/or the company’s expectations. Whether they acknowledge it first or you do, the key is to determine what outcome you want them to experience. Do you want them to resolve the problem? Do you want to fire them? Do you want them to apologize for their actions? Or do you simply enjoy humiliating your people in front of others for the sake of “teaching them a lesson”? If you’re guilty of the latter, stop. That’s “old school” and very ineffective today. First, establish your desired outcome/results beforehand. Then when failure occurs, provide constructive feedback privately, and use it as a steppingstone to teach valuable lessons from which employees can learn.
3. Take personal credit for your employees’ work. As any IRS agent will tell you, cheating on your taxes can subject you to fines, penalties, interest and possibly jail time. Likewise, cheating in the workplace by taking the credit for others’ work can result in equally damaging negative outcomes that create significant non-tax-deductible costs to the organization (poor performance, high turnover, increased health care cost for mental anguish, violence in the workplace, legal consequences, etc.). Take care of your people, and they will take care of you. Then you can take valid and enjoyable tax deductions like “employees’ appreciation luncheons.”
While this list is not exhaustive, taking the time to add these recommendations to your leadership toolbox could positively impact your company’s bottom line performance in 2012.
TJ Haygood is the CEO of Confidential Search Solutions, a privately held employment consulting firm based in San Antonio, Texas. The firm specializes in executive and professional recruiting, career development training and career coaching services for hiring managers and job seekers. For more information, visit www.confidentialss.com.
