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The Total View
The Whole Person Approach for Selecting and Managing Top Performers April 16, 2003
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-- The Motivated Employee: Be careful what you ask for
-- "At least someone else understands me."
-- Three things generally happen when negative people try to engage positive people.
-- Competency Teleconference Sold Out
-- Just a few seats remain for "Stop Guessing, Start Knowing"
-- Developing and Assessing Competencies Just Got A Lot Easier!
-- Hot off the press! April Issue of Labor Storm Alert
-- The Solution to Entry-Level Employee Turnover
-- Identify Top Salespeople and Managers
-- The Manager's Guide to Interviewing and Hiring Top Performers
Greetings!
This past Saturday afternoon while working on a
consulting project in Atlanta, I was invited to be the
guest host on Job Talk, a weekly radio talk show
hosted by Margot King on WGST in Atlanta.
A funny thing happened on the way to talking about
matching the right people to the right job. We
got a call from Victor.
The Motivated Employee: Be careful what you ask for
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Victor was our third caller. He was a 31-year airline
employee who just had his salary reduced and
benefits cut.
At first Margot and her producer
Anne jumped to Victor's defense. In fact, during our
off-the-air time, Margot and Anne derided the
outrageous salaries that executives pull down while
long-term employees, many of them nearing retirement,
are terminated, furloughed or forced to accept salary
cuts and less attractive benefit packages.
Their mood began to change however after a few
minutes listening to Victor.
Victor soon shifted his
rambling from the lack of loyalty that employers show
employees these days to how the government was
involved in a conspiracy with the airlines. As the caller
went on -and on -and on, Margot and Anne's empathy
for Victor
shifted to "what is it with this guy."
How often have we seen poor Victor become Victor the
miserable-to-be-around-and-avoid-him-at-all-costs.
Come on, admit it. We've all done it. You see Victor
and you hide and run. There is a name for what has
infected Victor and we call it "self-martyrance".
"At least someone else understands me."
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Self-martyrance is actually a skill that individuals learn.
This skill that they have perfected is making others feel
not okay so they feel okay. In order for these
individuals to pick themselves up, they seek out anyone
who will listen and try to drain any ounce of optimism
right out of their heads.
This may sound crazy but
some individuals have learned to be "motivated" by
proving to themselves that life will never get any better
no more what they do and how hard they try. (Honest -
I'm not making this up. It's called the Quality of
Motivation.) That's right. Not all motivation is good.
Positively-motivated people generally consider these
negatively motivated martyrs as lazy. Actually they
are not. They just put all their energies into staying
negative. They spend so much time complaining that
they rarely have time to do what they are paid to do.
In fact, you've probably heard these words, maybe
even spoken them: "If they would work half as hard as
they complain, we'd all be better off." When all
these "martyrs" get together, the moanin' and
complainin' reaches deafening levels and productivity
comes to a screeching halt.
Here's the thing that most people don't realize. These
people are motivated. Highly motivated. In fact they
may even be passionate. They will do whatever it
takes to find someone to agree that they are being
mistreated, abused and taken advantage of. They are
motivated to find at least one other individual to whom
they can prove their life is miserable - and when they
do, they feel okay.
On Saturday, Victor was pretty
motivated. And he was heard by an audience of
thousands.
Three things generally happen when negative people try to engage positive people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The self-martyrance levels of many employees like
Victor within organizations is at red alert levels. In a
perverse way this is good for employers. These
employees never quit. They complain a lot but never
quit. If they quit they would have to find new friends
and then what would they complain about. Besides,
every employer is a miserable you-know-what so what
good would it do to change jobs anyway?
These
self-
martyrs stay on the jobs for 10 years, 20 years, 30
years. That's the good news. The bad news is that
these negatively motivated employees kill morale and
productivity and drive away talent and business.
What happens when negative employees interact with
the ones with a positive attitude?
One possibility is that the positive individuals do
whatever they can
to avoid contact with the others. Don't tell me you
haven't avoided the phone call from someone who just
brings you down
every time you speak with them.
Second, the positive individuals cave in and join the
negative side. Those other guys just overwhelm you
until you become one of them. (Did you know that it
takes 7 times more energy to create a positive mood
than a negative one.)
Finally, positive individuals leave the organization or
never come in the first place. Positive people have this
sixth sense. They can walk into a room and just "feel"
the good or bad vibes. If you have ever left an
environment filled with negative motivation, you feel
like you just had a million tons lifted
from your shoulders.
Positive people are in short supply these days. Positive
people with skills are even harder to find. Positive
people are leaving organizations for greener pastures
every day. Organizations can't afford to lose these top
performers at the expense of retaining the employee
who is determined to just hang around because it's too
hard to leave.
Is "negativity" infecting your organization?
SPS assessment and performance technologies can help
you differentiate between the highly motivated-
productive and highly motivated-unproductive
employees before you hire, promote or attempt to
change. (Ira Wolfe, founder of SPS, is a Certified
Motivational Interpretor and Certified Behavior and
Values Analyst.)
Yes, I want to learn how my organization can create a positively motivated workplace. Click here and complete the contact form for a free phone consultation. Just type "motivation" in the comment box.
Competency Teleconference Sold Out
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The teleconference scheduled for today - Wednesday
April 16 at 11 AM EDT - was completely sold out. So
we've scheduled another one for May 7, 2003 at 11
AM. (Can't make it? Call us for a private tour of the
new Online Assessment Center.)
Subject: FREE online demonstration of the Janus
Performance Management System.
This FREE conference call is limited to the first 15
participants. To reserve your "seat", contact us today
by calling 800.803.4303 or click on the link below.
Register me for the JANUS online demonstration. Click here and in the comment box type JANUS demo.
Just a few seats remain for "Stop Guessing, Start Knowing"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The best seminar I've attended in years"
"Ira really knows his stuff. With his help we will
stop guessing about hiring and promoting."
"The only improvement I'd make to this
presentation would be to make it longer."
The Atlanta's seminars sold out. Don't miss Stop
Guessing, Start Knowing in Lancaster (PA) on April 30.
Register today for The HRD Press/Training
House workshops: Stop Guessing, Start
Knowing - How to Accurately Assess Personality and
Competencies.
Hampton Inn, Greenfield Corporate Center,
Lancaster (PA)
8:30 AM to Noon and repeated again at 1:30 PM to
5:00 PM
Attention Consultants. Become a
Certified TotalView Interpretor and Job Profile Analyst.
Register today for our TotalView and Job Analysis
training scheduled for
May 1-3.
For more information call 800.803.4303.
To register for this seminar, click on
the link below. Just a few seats remain.
Yes, register me today for the Stop Guessing, Start Knowing Seminar.
Developing and Assessing Competencies Just Got A Lot Easier!
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Leadership ability.
Delegation skills.
Analytical thinking.
Change handling skills.
Motivation skills.
These are just a few of the required crucial skills
needed by managers and leaders today.
Janus Performance Management Systems is an
easy to
use and cost effective approach for improving
performance, assessing jobs, aligning an organization,
and meeting other HR goals. Many organizations
have identified competencies but have not had
positive results during the implementation phase - until
now.
The Online Janus System makes it easy to
identify from 3 to 10 core competencies per position,
build
competency-based job descriptions, develop job-
specific interview questions and adminster performance
evaluations - a seamless, continuous, cost-effective
solution to selecting and managing top performers.
To download a FREE copy of the Janus Performance Management Competency Library, click here.
Hot off the press! April Issue of Labor Storm Alert
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And don't forget to visit our library of newsletters, case
studies, and articles at www.super-solutions.com. Then
click on Library.
Click here to read the April 2003 Labor Storm Alert
The Solution to Entry-Level Employee Turnover
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have you ever hired an employee who didn't show up
for work and when they did they were late? What
about an employee who showed up to work high on
illegal drugs? Or have you ever hired an employee who
had a bad attitude toward your customers?
Stop the madness! SELECT Associate System is your
turn-key solution for screening out high-risk candidates
before they have a chance to waste your time and run
off your customers. SELECT is easy to use and
available 24/7 with real-time turnaround. Reports are
available for many positions including customer service,
production/distribution, office/light industrial, retail
sales and managers, call centers, hospitality,
healthcare and more.
Click here to learn more about reducing turnover. (Scroll down to view SELECT)
Identify Top Salespeople and Managers
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Register
today for
our next CriteriaOne Train-the-trainer
workshop to be held on June 5-6-7, 2003 in
Lancaster PA. Read what one participant in our last
workshop
had to say about his experience:
"Your CriteriaOne seminar this weekend was
incredible. For years I did both contingency and
retained search work for clients nationwide thinking the
screening tools I used were serving us well. The
information and skills you shared during our training are
light years ahead of the rest of the screening and
assesment systems out there."
B.M., Sr. Sales Consultant
Get certified in CriteriaOne. Cllick here. Please indicate the best time and day to contact you.
The Manager's Guide to Interviewing and Hiring Top Performers
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This book is for individuals with training responsibilities
who are looking for tools to help their managers,
supervisors, and/or team leaders interview, hire, and
retain top performers. If you or someone in your hiring
system has limited experience in interviewing and hiring,
this book will help you and your organization to be more
proficient in hiring practices.
Includes over a dozen job aid templates for recruiting,
hiring, and retaining top performers.
Visit the SPS bookstore and order Interviewing and Hiring Top Performers.
Contact Information
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email: iwolfe@super-solutions.com
voice: 717.656.4632
web: http://www.super-solutions.com
