TENSION HEADACHES IN THE BOARDROOM

 

Does your head begin to hurt after a long day? Does your neck get stiff and achy when deadlines near?  If it does, then you have plenty of company. In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, tension headaches are the most common headache and symptoms are quite varied. One woman says it feels like there is a tight band around her head every time her boss screams.  Another reports pain in the back of the neck and skull for no clear real reason at all. 

 

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Project Management is a process.  Project Management Professionals know how to use the process to have a positive impact on project outcomes and organizational profitability.  The utilization of the tools and techinques must be thoroghly understood and implemented if the benefits and return on investment are to be realized.  The secret to success is sound, pragmatic education and dedicated attention the people in the process.  A growing PM professional never stops learning. He/she is always looking for a way to improve their contribution through effective use of the concepts of PM.

Many of the conversations I have with clients center on the issue of policies.  Although those policies are important, how the company will apply the policy is even more important.  My experience is that when I asked questions about the policy, it becomes clear that there are particular problems (for employees) that are really the focus of the policies.  Policies can be used to go after certain employees or groups of employees.

This is not how policies should be created.  Policies should be created from a general administrative perspective, not to solve a particular, specific situation or employee problem.  If the policies with particular employees in mind, the likelihood of inconsistent application is very high.  Inconsistent application of a policy is one of the primary reasons discrimination claims are successful against companies.

Practical legal nugget:  If you c

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I received a call from a client the other day asking me what to do about an employee who was sexually harassing a co-worker.  As I asked questions about the employee's conduct, it became clear that it was the employee's alleged conduct.  Thus, although the next legal step was to initiate an investigation (which the client had not yet done), the manager had skipped that step and was already talking about what needed to be done to this  employee. 

The Practical Legal Knowledge tip for today is:  Be Careful to Do Your Homework to Know the Facts Before Taking Action.

When issues of sexual harassment (and many other types of issues) arise, it is difficult to keep the emotion of the moment out of the way.  Lawyers and media make it clear that if you don't keep harassment out of the workplace, you will face drastic financial consequences (and they are right). 

But it is vitally important to maintain yo

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One of the great challenges for business leaders is working with disabled employees who need an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The challenge does not center around the business' lack of desire to work with the employee.  Rather, the problem arises in how to effectively work with the employee to get the accommodation right.

The disconnect occurs when the business leader focuses on "providing" an accommodation.  That means to them that they have to think of the accommodation, present it and then implement it. 

The better approach is the "facilitate" an accommodation.  When you facilitate, you don't have to create and implement the accommodation.  You collaborate with the employee to reach an accommodation that works for everyone.

How does that happen?  Follow this three step process:  1) Identify what the company can do to accommodate; 2) L

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One of my favorite comments that disgruntled employees make to their managers is "you are discriminating against me!"  With those words, the employee hopes that the manager will be paralyzed from fear that they are doing something illegal.

Rather than fear, the manager should be confident that discrimination is a vital part of their job responsibilities.  Discrimination, by definition, is treating one person differently than another.  Discrimination is a matter of choosing who will do certain things.  Discrimination is at the heart of what business leadership is about.  It is distinguishing one person from another based on their talents, education, abilities and enthusiasm.

Problems arise when discrimination becomes illegal.  Illegal discrimination involves the same decisions that are made by a business leader except they are based upon illegal reasons: race, color, sex, age, etc. 

Managers do not have to be w

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One of a leader's central responsibilities is defining the work environment.  What are the rules?  How strictly are they enforced?  Are you going to be a laid back boss -- or a tyrant?

While you may think that you will be the cool, laid back team builder, the more likely scenario is that you will want (here it comes) control.  And, most disturbingly, you will do whatever is necessary to do to keep control.

Let me give you a very brief practical legal nugget:  people do not want to be controlled and, more importantly, some people never will be controlled.

Most people you work with want to do a good job.  They come to work and deliver value equal to or beyond what you pay them.  A small group that I call the "5 Percenters" because they represent about 5 percent of any typical workforce, will work harder to find loopholes in any rules you make than simply to follow those rules. 

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Communication is a vital part of the employment relationship.  Yet, it is also a delicate process requiring tact, assertiveness and diplomacy.  The trouble is, communication also takes time, which is your most precious commodity.  So, when you do not have time to communicate, you abbreviate.

"Attitude" is the classic abbreviation used in employee communication.  "You have a bad attitude."  "You don't have a good customer service attitude."  "Your attitude hurts the team."  And the list goes on and on.  The problem is that while you can always evaluate your own attitude,  managing some else's attitude is impossible.  It's impossible because "attitude" has no definition.  So, when you tell an employee he has a bad attitude, he has nothing measurable to improve.

Although personal attitude is vitally important to everyone's work performance (see Norma

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I spend a great deal of time working with business leaders about legal issues facing them and their businesses.  The most difficult challenge I encounter is helping the business leader remember that law is no different than most other issues -- it is a matter of practical reality that almost always require practical solutions.

I believe in and teach my clients practical legal knowledge (PLK).  PLK is the process of understanding the practical effect of any legal issue.  The important part of my work with clients is not the law part, it is the solution part.  It is working through how to get to the client's desired result while remaining legally compliant.

That's what I will be sharing in this blog.  Practical legal knowledge takes the sometimes esoteric world of the law and gives it meaning in the real world.  I hope you enjoy our journey together.

 

In her groundbreaking book, Never Check Email First in the Morning, time management diva Julie Morgenstern states that email is "nothing but interruptions and uninvited distractions" and the "biggest time-suck of the modern work day."  We all probably agree with that assessment at some point during our day...and yet, email is definitely a mode of communication that is here to stay.

Many clients complain that email creates a false sense of urgency by the sender.  We assume that because our message can be sent instantaneously, it is received with the same response - surely people are awaiting our every message and request!  In 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Stephen Covey urges us to distinguish between important and urgent; he claims that a truly important task should never traded with an urgent one.  By responding only to urgent requests, (think emails) we

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