Tag Archives: Reinforce

How Do You Navigate Communication Style Differences? Four Points

Situation: A CEO seeks advice on how other CEOs work with employees who have significantly different styles of communication. He suspects that this is a source of conflict between employees and wants to reduce that conflict. How do you encourage employees to be more open and receptive to other employees? How do you navigate communication style differences?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Conduct regular personnel reviews. In reviews work with the individual to develop personal growth plans in addition to professional development objectives.
    • It may be necessary to create enough stress in an interview situation to prompt the real personality to show.
    • Recognize that sometimes an employee who meets professional goals can still be a poor fit for the team. This can impact other, productive team members. Don’t be afraid to fire a bad hire.
  • How much can you expect to mold another person’s communication style?
    • There must be personal motivation to change – the impetus must come from within.
    • To prompt the conversation acknowledge that something isn’t working – or isn’t as effective as expected.
    • Communicate to the individual that the consequences of not changing are potentially worse than the effort to change.
  • Breed adaptive communication skills throughout the organization.
    • Use an assessment tool to start the conversation and align tasks.
    • In dealing with an individual who is confrontational, probe to determine what is motivating the individual’s question or position on an issue. Does the individual genuinely need additional information or are they using a wall of questions as a roadblock to moving on?
    • Work with the individual to organize their answers or input into a plan.
  • Communicate values and goals as they pertain to individual contribution and appreciate the impact of different departments’ actions on each other.
    • Be flexible – some people need more definition and reinforcement than others.
    • Understand that changes and transitions in the company’s focus can shift roles.
    • Review each individual’s role periodically to insure that it fits the company vision. This can increase the individual’s understanding of how they are contributing to moving the company forward.

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How Do You Design an Effective Sales Compensation Plan? Three Steps

Situation: A young company is redeveloping its sales department and wants to develop an effective sales compensation plan. What advice do members have for the company on effective sales comp packages? How do you design an effective sales compensation plan?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The first step is to develop broad outlines to the plan:
    • What salary range is the company contemplating? What can the company afford?
    • What skills beyond the ability to sell will be required? For example, will the sales person require technical skills in addition to sales skills? Or will the sales person need engineering design assistance both in making the sale and in providing service post-sale?
    • Who will be the ongoing contact for the customer once the sale is made? Will this be the salesperson, or will ongoing customer contact will be managed by engineering?
    • The higher the skill level and both sales and post-sale responsibilities, the higher the potential salary.
  • Once the broad outline is decided, set parameters and objectives for the position. The compensation plan should reflect and be consistent with these.
  • Third, establish the behaviors that sales people are expected to exhibit. Any compensation plan should reinforce the behaviors desired by the company.
    • If salespeople are expected to bring in high margin business, focus and scale compensation based on the margin generated by the sale.
    • If an objective is to avoid customers who are bad credit risks, then pay sales people on collected funds rather than on invoiced business.

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How Do You Handle Underperforming Employees? Four Points

Situation: A CEO has several employees who report to a single manager but who are not performing to expectations. The manager is seeking the CEO’s assistance. When faced with a similar issue in the past, the CEO has turned up the pressure on an individual until he or she decided to leave on their own. Is this the best option? How can she resolve this situation and, at the same time, improve company morale? How do you handle underperforming employees?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Letting underperformers go sends a positive message to the rest of the team. It reinforces the message that a high level of performance is expected, and that a low performer won’t be allowed to penalize the overall performance of a team.
  • There is a serious downside to just turning up pressure until an individual leaves.
    • Even low performers usually have friends among the staff.
    • Turning up the pressure on an individual without telling them why creates an impression of unfairness. “Why is Joe being asked to do all of this – particularly when it doesn’t look like he can handle the work?”
    • The most serious downside is that a high performer becomes fearful that the company may have the same “unfair” expectations of him.
  • It is healthier to sit down with an underperformer and face the problem. This also reduces exposure to charges of discrimination.
    • Plan a meeting with the manager and each of the under-performing employees. In each meeting, tell the individual that specific areas of their performance are not up to company standards. Provide objective, measurable examples. Listen to the individual’s reaction.
    • Work with the manager to develop a program with each individual to assess whether they are willing to improve their performance over a specified time frame. Inform them that there will be a decision as to whether they will remain on the team at the end of the time period. Again, listen to their reaction.
    • If an individual does not respond positively and improve performance, it will be necessary to fire them. However, they have received fair warning and a fair chance to demonstrate that they can produce the expected performance.
    • If an individual isn’t interested in performing to company standards, the assessment period gives them time to look for another job.
  • Because these individuals report to their manager, coach the manager on the process outlined above and have her oversee the outcome. Help the manager to make a call after a period as determined with the manager.
    • Continue to coach and support her during this process.
    • Make it clear to the manager’s team that she is in charge of this process.

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How Do You Create a Family Charter? Four Guidelines

Situation: The spouse of a CEO works in the business but has conflicts with other employees. This creates personal tension for the CEO. The CEO wants to explore a different role for the spouse, and also wants to create more balance at home. The CEO believes that working with the spouse to create a simple family charter with common values, vision and mission will help the two of them to find common needs and goals both at work and at home. How do you create a family charter?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • As you build a family charter, consider both your individual and your common views. Once you have established common ground with your spouse, you can bring children into the process to reinforce values and share creation of the vision.
    • In preparation for this discussion, both you and your spouse should start by thinking about what you each want. Once you have done this, compare notes and look for commonalities where you agree on what is important. These commonalities will form the core of your shared values, vision and mission.
  • Have lunch with your spouse once a month, just the two of you. Why? Because you are telling your spouse that they take precedence over your second spouse – your job, and you are taking time and attention from work to spend time one-on-one with your spouse. Do this monthly, but not always on the same day – make it more spontaneous and special.
  • Reinforce your family charter with regular family or one-on-one meetings with your spouse and children.
  • When having a conversation, focus on listening and don’t try to “fix” things.

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