How to Hide Your True Feelings at Work

The words we say are only a small part of how we communicate to our employees and co-workers. Just look at how easily your written words in emails and texts are misinterpreted due to a lack of body language, voice inflection, facial expressions and other factors. This has been an area of interest to researchers and business leaders alike for a while now.

A 2009 Bloomberg Businessweek article revealed research being done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to analyze workplace behaviors through the latest in sensor technology. By monitoring gestures, eye movements, voice levels and other body language components, researchers hope to learn the physical traits of successful leadership to create training programs businesses can use to teach employees how to behave effectively.

You don’t have to be a researcher at MIT, though, to learn how to control your body language and be a more effective leader. For those times when you need to control your feelings at work, try these simple tips to help better mask your emotions.

On the Defense?
When you feel threatened, your body naturally goes on the defensive for a physical attack. You’ll unknowingly cross your arms, bring your legs together and tuck your chin. These instincts cover your vulnerable areas and make you a smaller target. So when you start to go on the defensive, try to relax. Unclench your arms, loosen your legs and release the muscles in your neck. This will help you stay calm, and you’ll be able to think more clearly on the best way to deal with the situation.

Bored Out of Your Mind?
It’s hard to feign interest when your mind is elsewhere and you wish your body was too. Your gaze instinctively wanders, doodles appear on your notepad, your foot starts tapping and a yawn catches you off guard. To keep your attention engaged, still your movements, lean forward, make eye contact and slowly nod. The person you’re listening to will feel encouraged, and you’ll stay focused.

About to Boil Over?
Sometimes people or situations can stretch you to your limit and leave you on the precipice of losing your temper. Aggressive body language such as frowning, pursing your lips, glaring, clenching your fists, tilting your chin up and gesturing quickly reveals your feelings and puts other people on the defense. So take a few deep breaths, force your face to relax, ease up on your staring and loosen up your hands. This will help you focus on solutions to the problem as well as take the other person off the defense and put them back on your team.

One factor in how others view you and rate your leadership abilities is how you demonstrate emotion. Training yourself to control your feelings and outward displays of your emotions will go a long way to help employees and coworkers feel comfortable to open up to you and place their trust

How Safe are You at Work?

According to a survey conducted by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC), 85 percent of workers cite safety regulations as the most important labor standard – even more important than family and maternity leave, minimum wage, paid sick days, overtime pay, maximum hours limits and the right to join a union.

Safety is becoming even more important to business leaders due to skyrocketing injury claims and drastically increasing workers’ compensation rates. Many employers have taken significant steps to revamp their safety policies to ensure a safer environment for their employees and to help reduce the expenses involved with workplace injuries and illness.

Does your company have a comprehensive safety policy? If not, it’s time. A good place to start is with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Check them out at http://www.osha.gov.

How to Build Morale in 5 Quick Minutes a Day

Morale is a big problem in today’s workplace. In a recent survey by Express Employment Professionals of more than 15,000 company leaders, 42 percent of respondents have noticed a drop in morale this year. That’s almost half, and that number doesn’t even include those leaders who are out of touch with their employees and don’t know morale is even an issue.

But handling the current morale crisis doesn’t have to be hard, expensive or time consuming. It simply requires consistency, dedication and communication. Take five minutes each day and try implementing these three morale boosters.

Take time to say hello.
Make the rounds each morning and greet all your employees. Taking a few minutes to inquire about how someone is doing or asking about their evening or weekend goes a long way to lift spirits. Your team will feel like you care about them as people, and you’ll stay connected with your employees.

Give praise when praise is due.
When you see a project done well, or if you hear someone praise a specific product, make sure to acknowledge the success. Based on your personality and the personality of the employee, praise them in person, in a hand-written note or in a short email blast to your entire team. Everyone benefits from sincere praise, and nothing brings on a smile better than heartfelt kudos!

Keep everyone focused on the goal.
As new projects are assigned throughout your team, confirm the objective of each task. Is the goal to increase sales, disperse information or please the customer? A key factor in maintaining high morale is ensuring everyone knows what role they play on the team and how they fit into the big picture. This is a must-have for employees to be engaged!

Low morale is going to be a major workplace battle in 2011. Unchecked, it can lead to lost productivity and an increase in turnover. Don’t let it infiltrate your team. Taking a few minutes each day to communicate with your employees will save you and your business from problems down the road!

Quick Tips to Go Green at Work

Following are some quick tips on a few things you can easily do around the office to reduce your carbon footprint and help make a positive impact on the environment.

Go digital
According to the Environmental Paper Network, if U.S. office paper usage was cut by just 10 percent, it would prevent the emission of 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases. That’s the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road. Relying more on digital technologies for many of your office paper activities, such as memos, newsletters, file storage and snail mail can greatly reduce your company’s impact on the environment.

Establish recycling protocols
For every ton of paper that is recycled, 17 trees, 60,000 gallons of water, 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space and 225 kilowatt hours are saved. Make recycling a company policy and place recycling bins in easily accessible areas throughout your building. And, be sure to discuss with your employees what items can and cannot be recycled.

Shut it down
When you are away from your desk for extended periods of time or when you leave in the evening, take a few extra seconds to turn off lights, shut down computers or put them in sleep mode and turn off any other non-essential machines around the office. The Energy Information Administration estimates the annual energy costs for U.S. commercial and industrial buildings to be $202.3 billion. So, remembering to shut them down not only reduces energy usage, but it also helps save money.

Use green materials throughout the office
From recycled copy paper to reusable cups, take a look at the things you use everyday to see if there is a suitable green alternative. You’d be surprised how many of the things we use around the office that can be substituted with environmentally friendly options. It’s also a good idea to incorporate Energy Star rated office machines into your business. It’s probably not cost efficient to replace them all at once, but as your copiers, printers and break room appliances reach the end of their useful life, consider more earth-friendly replacements.

Carpool to work
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only about one in 10 people carpool to work each day. To help make a positive impact on the environment – and your wallet – consider implementing a carpooling program in your office. Sharing a ride to work not only helps you reduce your carbon footprint and save money on gas, but it’s also a great way for coworkers to build stronger working relationships.

What Bad Habits are You Teaching Your Employees

As a leader, you have a lot on your plate. Budgets, projects, office politics and employee management all have to be juggled, and sometimes it can feel like more than one person can handle. In the midst of it all, it’s hard not to pick up a bad habit or two. But, if left unchecked, your employees could start following your lead and your bad workplace habits could spread like wildfire.

Check out these three easy-to-pick-up bad habits to ensure you’re not passing negative behaviors on to your team.

“It wasn’t my fault!”
It’s been said that a good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of praise. Sure you can meet with your team members in private to share critical feedback and what needs to change in the future. But throwing your team under the bus in front of your clients, executives or other departments is a quick way to kill morale and destroy loyalty. On the other hand, sharing the credit with your team will help build trust and loyalty, which will go a long way to creating an engaged and happy workforce!

“Can you take care of that for me?”
Did you hire a specialist or an admin? Unless getting your coffee, cleaning up your dishes, and tracking your schedule is directly in someone’s job description, refrain from regularly asking them to cater to you. There’s no problem with a give and take relationship – you help them out and they help you out. But, expecting others to take care of you every day is not only taking them away from the job you hired them to do, it could also foster resentment that could lead to future turnover.

“I just need to vent.”
Everyone has bad days, and it’s healthy for everyone, including leaders, to be able to vent in a safe environment. However, that does not mean you should regularly vent your frustrations to your employees. They are looking up to you for leadership and direction, and knowing you disagree with your boss will only increase their own worries and aggravation. Find a colleague and fellow manager to vent to – that will keep the burden off your employees.

No one’s perfect, but if you’ve noticed your employees passing the blame, acting entitled or venting improperly, you might want to check in the mirror before you start disciplining. You may need to adjust your own habits first.

It’s About Synergy… and All That Other Jargon

This blog post is going to be a real game changer. I’m going to push the envelope and take a more integrated approach in hopes of creating a true paradigm shift that will ultimately lead to a more robust blog experience for you. You’ll be forced to think outside the box as I present a dynamic plan to stay ahead of the curve. This post isn’t just about brainstorming ideas. No. At this juncture, taking a shotgun approach won’t help me gain any traction. So, I’m forgoing the traditional dog and pony show and getting down to brass tacks. I’m cutting through the red tape and getting my ducks in a row. I’ve already hammered out the details and in order to get the most bang for my buck I need to just lay it all out on the table. Let’s give all that overused business jargon a rest!

We’ve all heard it – in meetings, on the phone, and even in casual conversations around the office. Business jargon gets tossed around the workplace with reckless abandon. Next time you’re sitting though a lengthy strategy planning session or project briefing, listen closely to see how many cliché phrases you can pick up on. You could even turn it into a game of business jargon bingo (Lingo Bingo?).

However, if you’re the one presenting, try to steer clear of jargon. The best tactic when you want to emphasize a point is to be direct and succinct. Overloading a discussion with the same old tired expressions we’ve all heard 1,000 times often ends up diluting your overall message.

But circling back, I don’t want you to think of this post as simply a knowledge transfer. We want to hear from you. What is some of your favorite business jargon? Let us know and then together we will truly be creating synergy.

What Makes Your Employees Tick?

No two employees are alike. From attitude to work ethic to skills and abilities, all workforces are made up of individuals, each with their own unique set of values and priorities. Whether it’s money, time off, recognition, or praise, your employees have a driving force that pushes them to achieve. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to know what motivates your team.

An important first step to discover what makes your employees tick is to understand motivation itself. It’s a subject that has been studied extensively throughout time, and there are a wide variety of theories that attempt to explain why we, as humans, do the things we do. One theory that can be particularly useful in explaining employee motivation is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Described by Abraham Maslow, an American professor of psychology, in his 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation, the hierarchy of needs is typically portrayed as a five-level pyramid, starting with the most basic and fundamental needs at the bottom and the need of self-actualization at the top. According to the theory, each level of needs must be satisfied before we can move up the pyramid to the next level.

While it is most often used to describe human motivation in general, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is easily adapted to the workforce.

Level One: Physiological Needs
The first level of the hierarchy includes basic, physical needs, such as food, shelter, and clothing. Without these most fundamental necessities, it can be difficult – or nearly impossible – to focus on moving up to the higher levels.

When a worker is struggling to provide for their family or is forced to take a second job to make ends meet, they are working for their own survival. The job becomes more about the money, and not what the work contributes to the company as a whole.

Level Two: Safety Needs
The next level addresses our need to feel safe in our surroundings. This includes physical safety, such as protection from danger or illness, as well as the need for order and structure.
In the workplace, that translates to the need for job security and a non-threatening work environment. Workers who constantly fear their jobs are at risk or that the consequences for not meeting goals or making mistakes will be unnecessarily severe, aren’t working at their full potential. Their primary motivation is to do enough work to stay under the radar, and out of trouble.

This level also includes physical safety. Workers who are forced to work with inadequate safety procedures or poorly-maintained machinery will not be as productive as they could be in a healthier environment.

Level Three: Belonging Needs
In this level, the need for contact, affection, and friendship must be met. Humans are social beings and without a sense of belonging, our lives can feel unfulfilled.

Workplace relationships are just as necessary. Companies that stress the importance of camaraderie and teamwork have been shown time and time again to outperform businesses where there is less focus on employee interaction. Strong working relationships not only improve productivity, but companies that foster a “team” culture often have higher retention.

Level Four: Esteem Needs
This level is characterized by the innate desire to not only feel respect for ourselves, but to also be respected by others and to feel valued for our unique contributions to society.

Your employees want to know their hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. For many workers, praise and recognition are often more important than financial incentives. Taking time to recognize your employees’ achievements lets them know the work they do means something and that it has an impact on the company’s overall success.

Level Five: Self-Actualization
This is the final level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. When we achieve self-actualization, we have realized the heights of our dreams and potential. Our talents are not wasted and we feel comfortable with who we are. At this level, we have developed absolute confidence in our strengths and abilities.
This is the level every leader should hope their workforce achieves.

Employees who are self-actualized are the ones who have found their calling. They are the people who know their talents are truly appreciated and wake up in the morning thinking “I get to go work,” not “I have to go to work.” These are the employees who take an active role in strategic planning and will ultimately become the future leadership of the company. Employees who have achieved this level are now more driven by giving motivation to others than receiving it themselves.

A motivated workforce is a productive workforce, and it’s your responsibility as a leader to understand what makes your team tick. When you know what drives your employees, you will be better equipped to respond to their needs and ensure they don’t lose their focus and commitment.