When Is It Time To Involve HR?

If you find yourself wondering if it’s appropriate to take an issue or complaint to your human resources department, it pays to give the situation some serious thought. They are trained, and in certain cases required, to approach your problem with gravitas and thoughtful consideration.

If you plan to take this step, you need to be prepared. Meticulous and relevant documentation will present your case better than a disjointed monologue ever could. If you truly believe you are being harassed or discriminated against at work, start with writing down the date, time, what was said or done to you and by whom in what specific situation. Don’t ramble, and stick with the facts. Accurate records are the fast track to disciplinary action by your company against the perpetrator.

Author Sachi Barreiro in the book Your Rights in the Workplace: An Employee’s Guide to Fair Treatment advised, “Check the facts again. The human memory is not nearly as accurate as we like to think it is, particularly when it comes to remembering numbers and dates.” To ensure accuracy when documenting any workplace complaint, “Make a written record of everything that happened, with dates and other important facts.”

Throughout my time working with a variety of organizations, I’ve seen the importance of approaching HR to address a situation firsthand. Below are my tips on how you can tell when it’s time to bring HR into the equation:

When should you approach HR?

You experienced discrimination or harassment: Under no circumstances do you have to put up with discrimination or harassment in the workplace. There are very specific laws in place to protect you. Your employer is under a legal obligation to protect you against discrimination because of several factors that are addressed by federal laws, such as those in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In the book The Essential Guide to Handling Workplace Harassment & Discrimination, attorney Deborah C. England explained, “Harassment and discrimination are related but distinct concepts. An employer discriminates against an employee when it takes an action against the employee because of his or her membership in a protected group.” She continued, “Harassment is actually a type of discrimination, a particular way employers mistreat employees based on a protected trait.”

You need to take medical leave: In my experience, at some point in your work life, you’ll likely need to understand the family medical leave act, or FMLA. Almost everyone goes through the experiences of having an illness or having to care for a family member — and that is exactly what FMLA was enacted for. If you expect to be going through these situations, or similar medical situations, contact your HR department as early as possible. They’ll have paperwork for you to fill out and forms for you and your doctors to sign.

Taking care of these requirements ensures that you cannot be fired from your job because of medical problems and employment parameters that are recognized by the act. Your HR department will be able to help guide you through the process, but if you need to know more specific information, there are helpful online resources, such as the U.S. Department of Labor.

You witnessed wrongdoing: If at your place of employment you observe illegal happenings, such as chemical or mechanical hazards, you need to know that employers must abide by all applicable Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, as well as comply with the General Duty Clause of the OSH Act, “which requires employers to keep their workplace free of serious recognized hazards,” according to OSHA.

Depending on the violation, the complaint might be covered under OSHA statutes, and you don’t need to fear retaliation. The organization website also said that “employers may not discharge or otherwise retaliate against an employee because the employee has filed a complaint or exercised any other rights provided to employees by the statute.”

Your HR department might not be tasked with dealing with this type of reporting, but they will know who is, and they can direct you in regards to reporting procedures.

When is filing an HR complaint unnecessary?

If you’re wondering when it’s not appropriate to go to HR with a problem, it might help you to remember that though you’re not in elementary school anymore, some of the rules still apply. For example, if you tattled to your teacher because someone said they don’t like you, the teacher would have probably told you to work it out among yourselves. Believe it or not, the workplace is similar. If it’s something very minor, such as you not getting along with a peer, don’t take it to HR. If you want to complain because your boss gave you a negative review that was completely justified, find a solution yourself or with the help of a colleague. HR is not there to solve problems that you’ve caused or problems you can solve yourself.

HR plays a critical role in your company.

In my many years of working with companies of all sizes in many different sectors, a common theme I encounter is how to best resolve these many types of serious issues. My advice to senior management is to not treat the HR department as one that brings in no revenue.

Although they might be categorized as “overhead” on your expense spreadsheets, HR is an important and integral part of corporate compliance. You might be dismissive, but understand that you ignore their importance at your own company peril. Just ask any of your peers how much was paid out in harassment, discrimination and OSHA noncompliance judgments with regard to companies they have worked for in the past. My informed recommendation is to hire your HR representatives with care, and always treat them with respect.

This article has previously been featured on Forbes

How To Prepare For Your Performance Review

Giving a thorough and fair performance appraisal requires a lot of skill and a fair amount of work by your manager. If you are an active participant in the process by providing your manager with accurate details of your accomplishments spanning the timeframe — a highlight reel as it were — you’ll be doing yourself a big favor.

As a leadership coach, I’ve developed a few tips for how you can prepare yourself for your next performance review:

Share accomplishments with your boss.

It’s important to remember that your supervisor or manager is likely as overwhelmed as you are. Time is a limited resource for all of us. Your bosses already have their deadlines and statistics to meet, so writing accurate and fair performance evaluations for your team is no easy feat. Because of this, don’t expect your manager to have noticed every single one of your many accomplishments.

In his book I Am Not Average: How to Succeed in Your Performance Review, Brian Poggi explained that in every organization, there are people who are the “glue.” They continue to raise the bar on their contributions and the value they bring. So use your annual review to brag on yourself. If you don’t, who will?

One of the kindest favors you can do for your supervisor (and ultimately for yourself) is to prepare an accurate and well-worded list of accomplishments for the past year and submit it on time or — better yet — early. Believe me, your conscientiousness and forethought will be recognized and very much appreciated. As a boss, there is almost nothing worse than trying to chase an employee down for their list of accomplishments. If they can’t be bothered, why should the boss care? The employees who will end up getting the most love (read: attention and care on their evaluation) are the ones who understand the priority of getting that annual accomplishment list turned in on time.

When you make this list, remember several important things:

• Bosses love numbers. Give accurate, quantitative information whenever possible.

• Review your job description. Give facts and figures to illustrate how you’ve met those requirements.

• Review last year’s review. How have you improved? How have you addressed any past issues?

In Inc., Jayson DeMers wrote, “Take inventory of all the accomplishments you’ve had over the past year (or the evaluation period) and list them out. Use objective data whenever possible — that means verifiable numbers.”

Although your boss might be constantly busy with the office door shut, take the time to check in regularly. Don’t make it long and tedious. Hit the highlights, ask the questions you need to ask (such as, “Am I headed in the right direction on the Crocker account?”), then get out of their way.

Address areas of concern.

The most uncomfortable part of any performance evaluation is usually regarding how you plan to rectify any deficiencies or concerns. It’s usually coupled with how you’ve improved from your last evaluation and how you’ve addressed any issues that were previously presented.

If you have any issues that you feel need to be addressed, bring them up, but be prepared to offer solutions. No one wants to hear about a bunch of problems in your working environment or your job when you don’t even have an idea of how to solve them. Don’t simply dump your problems on your manager.

Do your research before asking for a raise.

If you feel and can prove your service has been exceptional and you want to state your case for a raise, be sure you’ve researched current salaries for equivalent positions in your area. Without that information, you won’t have much traction.

Use your review as a guide for the rest of the year.

Ideally, you should start preparing for your next performance review only a few days after your previous one. Take some time to divorce yourself from any emotional connections to the evaluation. Re-read any documents you received in a quiet environment and consider the points that were made. Did your boss want you to step up more? Did they suggest you take the lead on an important project? Did they want you to stop turning in your reports late?

This is a perfect opportunity for your professional growth. Make notes, and put them in a coherent system — whether that system consists of notes on your calendar for the next year or is a cheat sheet you can glance at once a week. This system is your “study guide” for the next year. If you find yourself slipping back to your old ways, use your notes to snap your attention back to the matters you should be concentrating on. It’s your manager’s job to help your career growth. But if you ignore that advice, you’ll only have yourself to blame when the next mediocre review comes around.

When setting your goals for the next year, I’ve found it can be helpful to heed the advice of HBR’s Guide to Performance Management, which explained that people can sometimes become overwhelmed by complex goals. So, it can be helpful to break a large goal down into smaller, short-term pieces. According to the guide, “Setting monthly or quarterly goals, rather than annual ones, can narrow the focus enough to make the target achievable while still having a big impact.”

If your boss offers goals that are constructed in too big of a chunk, suggest a breakdown that is bite-sized.

In conclusion, if you want to advance in any organization, you’ll have to work for it. Take the time to put the effort into your performance review, and your dedication, attention to detail and desire to ascend in the organization will be readably apparent to your manager — perhaps distinguishing you as an up-and-comer.

This article has previously been featured on Forbes

Giving An Effective Performance Review.

The mutually dreaded performance review is often a time of anxiety on both the part of the manager and the employee. Unfortunately, the narrative often follows the same storyline: The manager focuses on a recent memory, likely from the past month or so, and the employee is resentful because their year-long contribution and dedication are neither noticed nor mentioned. Mutual frustration follows.

How can you avoid this annual debacle? If the answer were easy, there wouldn’t be a problem. Employees are busy, supervisors are busy and managers are busy. It’s not easy to find the time to spend writing up fair, engaged and humanizing evaluations for every employee who reports to you.

Given enough time, it would be easy to accurately sing the praises of each and every colleague. It would also be simple to effectively relate areas for improvement and strategies for doing so. To be realistic, though, there is never any reasonable amount of spare time to give the performance appraisal its fair due.

In Job Feedback: Giving, Seeking, and Using Feedback for Performance Improvement, author Manuel London explained that he observed managers in various organizational settings who rarely took time to give feedback. He wrote, “Most managers recognized that giving feedback is an important part of the manager’s role, but they did not do it! They tended to let poor performance slide by rather than nip it in the bud.”

This is why it’s important to provide regular, informal feedback. If you wait a year at a time to tell someone what you think of their performance, how are they supposed to know what’s going right or wrong the other 11 months of the year? There should never be any surprises in an annual appraisal.

Below are my tips on how to provide these appraisals effectively:

1. Spend a few minutes every week keeping track of each employee’s performance. This way, at the end of the year, you only need to compile the information. Otherwise, it’s like cramming for a final exam the day before the test.

2. Be fair in the evaluation. Don’t just list all the negatives and hope for improvement. It’s important to explain to the employee what they are doing right, as well as what facets they need to develop. Otherwise, you could end up with an employee who is both dejected and uninspired.

3. Recognize the positives. When it comes to the standard annual performance review, M. Tamra Chandler and Laura Dowling Grealish said in their book, Feedback (and Other Dirty Words): Why We Fear It, How to Fix It, “When it’s over you quickly forget all the positive takeaways, and instead you obsess about your reviewer’s assessments of your areas for improvement, contemplating whether they were relevant, fair, or even truly representative of your work.”

4. Offer specific steps for improvement. Remember, it is your job to be the manager, but it’s also your job to be the coach. Be as prompt to acknowledge positive and productive behavior as you are to point out the negative. Don’t stop at stating the obvious. If you’re reviewing someone who has a chronic problem being late for work, don’t just say, “Stop being late.” That isn’t helpful. The employee already knows he or she has a problem. Go the extra step and offer solutions that have been helpful to you or someone you know.

5. Conduct performance reviews face-to-face whenever possible. It’s important for the employee to have a chance to ask questions. Use real examples from the previous time period and don’t sugar coat anything. Be honest; nothing changes if nothing changes. If you pretend that everything went at least OK, your employee is going to believe that doing a mediocre job is good enough for you.

6. Plan your interaction to end on a positive note. Leave on a note of encouragement. No one ever left an evaluation on a negative note and was then inspired to perform extraordinary feats of progress.

The words you choose are important. You need to be descriptive and detailed, but temper them with respectful professionalism. Don’t use information that is second- or third-hand and is impossible to verify. You’ll lose credibility with that shortcut, and I believe the employee could see you as an uninvolved manager who can’t be bothered to find out the truth first-hand.

If you’re having trouble getting your thoughts in order or being descriptive, there are several books out there that can easily help you with useful phrasing for preparing the performance evaluations for your employees. They can be so valuable when you get stuck or get stumped on how to word a concept you want to convey to your employee.

One of my favorites is Effective Phrases for Performance Appraisals by James E. Neal Jr. The phrases and categories in these types of books can help make what feels like an impossible task a much less arduous one. If you don’t consider yourself to have a way with words, one of these references can make your life much easier.

Well-crafted performance appraisals are much more important to employees than you might think. According to Gallup, “A mere 14% of employees strongly agree that the performance reviews they receive inspire them to improve, and only two in 10 employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.”

Don’t be a party to those statistics. Take the time to sincerely manage the performance of your employees. You — and your company — will benefit for years to come.

This article has previously been featured on Forbes

How To Mitigate Bias In Your Organization

There are multiple types of bias we humans can exhibit. None of them require any particular malice aforethought. Rather, they are natural offshoots of human development. We unconsciously group things together for fast and easy access in our brains. We automatically reach for what is familiar and broadly applicable.

We evolved to make rapid life or death decisions based on various sensory inputs occurring in a very short timeline. For example, imagine there’s an animal moving stealthily toward you with sharp teeth, stripes and a tail. You might have a series of thoughts that remind you that animals like that could potentially eat you, so it’s probably a bad idea to wait around and see what happens. Time for the fight or flight instinct to kick in.

While one’s biases can evolve, it’s important to realize when a bias is helpful and when it is harmful. For example, in my experience, if you find yourself using it to take a shortcut in making decisions in the corporate world, it’s almost always a detriment.

What are a few different types of bias you might see in the workplace?

• Unconscious bias: With unconscious bias (also referred to as implicit bias), we don’t even realize the bias we are thinking or exhibiting. For example, when hiring for a tech position, do you automatically assume that a younger person will perform better than a baby boomer? Obviously, if it’s unconscious, you’re not aware of it. It’s likely you’ll need a friend, colleague or mentor to point out this type of thinking and behavior.

• Confirmation bias: This form of bias is when we pay more attention to things we already believe. For example, you might think that just because an employee is talented in one area, they’re talented in other areas. But, that isn’t always the case.

• Attribution bias: This is when we believe someone’s behavior in a way we think should be true or accurate. We might attribute someone’s behavior to be altruistic because we believe them to be “good.” For example, if you get a good performance review, you attribute it to being hardworking and dedicated. But if get a poor performance review, you might attribute it to the boss not liking you.

Now that we understand what bias can look like in the workplace, how can we proactively seek to avoid it?

1. Recognize your bias.

First of all, it’s important to acknowledge that bias exists. For example, if you’re trying to decide who really deserves a raise and you find your mind drifting toward which employee needs it more than the others (rather than looking at merit), it’s important you can stop, realize you’re being influenced by a bias instead of logic, and redirect.

If you’re trying to decide who’s most qualified for a big promotion, stick to facts, figures and past proven performance. Don’t let yourself be swayed by who would fit in best with the management group or who would most likely fit with the status quo. Ask a colleague to block out names and identifying information on applications for promotion. If you’re looking strictly at facts, it’s difficult for bias to creep into the equation. Another option is to have someone in a lateral position check your thought process.

2. Be committed to mitigating bias in your organization.

In her book Diversity Beyond Lip Service: A Coaching Guide for Challenging Bias, author La’Wana Harris said, “Having people who think, act, and perform differently from you helps you grow and expand your ability to contribute more broadly across your organization. Your ideas can become more refined and relevant when the views of others — especially opposing views — are there to challenge your thinking.”

This is why I’ve also found it’s important to not just give lip service to bias mitigation. In my career, I’ve heard many CEOs and human resources professionals discuss diversity and inclusion in the workplace with no apparent conviction. It’s as if they were all issued the same script and instructed to read it with no passion at all.

However, if you take the time to understand the thought processes of people who are different from you, it can bring you to an understanding of what and how they think. Once you can see an issue from multiple viewpoints, it drives you to feel differently about the value of bias mitigation. When you can actually feel and understand an issue from alternate perspectives, it will help generate the passion that can compel change.

3. Speak up when you see others display biased behaviors.

Then there’s the issue of bad behavior in the workplace threatening to tear down what diversity and inclusion your company does possess. It’s often difficult to take a stand on inappropriate behaviors, but it’s necessary. Employees who experience these admittedly uncomfortable situations must accept their responsibility to respectfully quash the divisive actions, especially if they are in a management position. If the unacceptable behavior is not addressed, it implies that somehow it is acceptable.

It does take courage to be the one who doesn’t agree with a questionable comment or joke, especially when you’re the only one in the group who seemingly objects. But remember that others in the crowd might see the faults in it, too; they just don’t want to be seen as the one who rocks the boat.

In her article for the Harvard Business Review, “How to Speak Up if You See Bias at Work,” Amber Lee Williams pointed out, “The bottom line is that patterns of unchecked biased and offensive behavior in the workplace have the potential to erode full employee participation and take a toll on organizational effectiveness.”

Although everyone in the organization should feel empowered and encouraged to uphold the dignified vision of workplace equality, if the frontline people don’t see it reflected in the behavior of those in the C-suite, the initiative will never realize its full potential.

This article has previously been featured on Forbes

How To Be A Leader Of Leaders

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I believe a quote by Ralph Nader in his book Crashing the Party sums up the role of a leader well: “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”

If you’ve worked very long in the corporate field, you’ve likely been exposed to high-level executives who were strong, competent, insightful leaders. You’ve also likely been exposed to executives who weren’t. The difference between the two is often dramatic.

Effective leaders, from my perspective, are quick to damp down their own ego and instead focus on the development and subsequent success of their top team. Leaders who concentrate on the advancement and improvement of the players who make up their team are setting themselves up to succeed not only with their group goals but also with their global, company-wide goals.

One of the key objectives to accomplish this is to focus on actual leadership. But, the ability to lead a team of people toward a successful business outcome isn’t as easy as you’d think. Below are my top tips on how you can become a leader of leaders:

Tailor your approach to each team member.

Some people who get promoted mistake advancement with implied leadership. It doesn’t happen that way. It’s not an organic progression. It requires a different mindset, a different perspective and a different process.

Anyone who does a good job and excels in his or her field can be promoted into a leadership position, but it’s not always justified. Sometimes, a perfectly qualified performer who is an expert in their field is neither trained nor geared for management.

Just because you can perform a task to perfection doesn’t mean you can supervise someone else to perform your old job to precision. Perhaps that person isn’t the stickler for details that you were. Perhaps your replacement can’t perform with as much agility and speed as you did.

This is why I believe one of the most important skills for a leader to develop is the ability to adapt. People are individuals. Each person learns in a different way, at a different pace. The trick is learning how to recognize the way each individual person ticks and how he or she learns in a lasting and profound way. Hammering away at each person on your team as if they were a copy of you and the way you work won’t get the job done.

Explain the ‘why’ behind your actions.

A massive mistake I’ve observed people chosen for a position of leadership make is to automatically decide that everyone reporting to you should adjust their attitudes and/or behaviors to suit your desires. I’ve seen this all too often, and it is a travesty.

Each and every person now reporting to you as a leader should be clear on why you’ve been chosen for that role. Jealously and rivalry can easily rear their ugly heads. They can be prone to anger, not understanding why the most qualified person (in your viewpoint) has been deemed the “chosen one.” The other team players might be reluctant to accept the leadership role granted to an employee who was recently considered equal to the team.

First of all, you need to focus on your new job and take care to always be professional. Realize what to expect; the first weeks in your new leadership role will be the most difficult. You’ll be settling into your new position and getting comfortable with the changes in your work relationships. You need to call out any bad behavior by your former associates and lead by example. Be firm, and create and maintain appropriate boundaries.

Don’t be afraid to delegate.

One important part of being a leader of leaders is to recognize what your strong suit is not — and delegating those tasks to someone who is very strong in those specific areas. You must realize that you cannot be an expert in every aspect of the contributions of the team. Different employees bring different talents to the job. In my experience, the day you understand and acknowledge that simple fact, not only will it free you up to do greater things and higher leadership tasks, but it will also empower you to invest in a worthy employee who is awaiting the lesson to become a leader of his or her own.

Inspire your team.

It really isn’t that difficult to inspire another person and point them in a positive direction. After all, that is what someone else did for you. Pass along the favor and the tradition, and develop the talent that is right in front of you.

When you work for an inspiring leader, you’ll know it! You’ll feel it! He or she will be enthusiastic and thrilled about your efforts to electrify yet another leader. They will encourage, coach and cheer your efforts to develop another leader that will increase the value of your organization.

As a leader, you can be an inspiration to your team by making your expectations clear from the beginning. No one enjoys floundering because of goals that aren’t expressed in a straightforward manner. Call on your team’s experience by asking for their suggestions and input on important projects. Everyone likes to feel useful and essential. Collaboration benefits everyone. Communicate and share your vision. Be available and approachable. No employee has ever been inspired by a closed door.

When you take the time and effort to inspire the next generation, you spend your time wisely. It will benefit your company, your corporate structure and your vision for the future. And after all that effort, it will definitely benefit your bottom line.

According to Jim Harter, co-author of It’s the Manager, “Managers are much more likely to inspire big-picture, cross-team cooperation in their employees when they themselves are engaged.” The key takeaway, from my perspective, is you are responsible for inspiring yourself, your leaders and the leaders of your multiple teams. If you don’t motivate them, who will?

This article has previously been featured on Forbes