Darlene Price

June 2013 - TD Magazine

Reframe and reword these 10 common phrases to improve workplace communication and professional outcomes.

10 Career-Tanking Phrases to Avoid Using in the Workplace

 Communication for Call Center AgentsCommunication for Field Sales RepsCourseCommunicating to Build Customer TrustCommunicating Effectively with the “C” LevelVideoConnecting with the CustomerClosing the SaleRole PlayThe Angry Caller – What’s Your Plan?Selling to Key PlayersSimulationListening with SkillInfluence and PersuasionBook SummaryHow to Talk to Customers: Create a Great Impression Every Time with MAGICQuestions that Sell: The Powerful Process for Discovering What Your Customer Really WantsCourses, videos, summaries, blueprints, webinars, simulations, briefings, the universal wisdom of the crowd, and the World Wide Web—isn’t it wonderful? There is no shortage of sources of inspiration and knowledge in today’s digital learning environment. The blessing of abundance, however, brings a paradox: How do you choose, from among this wealth of digital learning assets, the few that are worth the precious little time I have to invest in professional development? If I use one of the common web search engines to find the answer to x, what am I likely to find? Given the mix of input from distinguished academic institutions and opinionated individuals, I’m likely to get all sides of any argument. This is perhaps healthy for development of my critical thinking skills, but may cost me precious minutes if my objective is to find reliable content. I set out to prove a point to myself about “the value of context.” My theory was that a random web search would return both the wheat and the chaff of intellectual nourishment. I searched the term “blogs about management” and felt fairly vindicated by the diversity of search results:Blog Management (journalism context)Complexity Management (scientific context)Listening to Your Inner Voice Makes You a Better Manager (philosophical context)Project Management (industrial context)Emergency Management (healthcare context)Blog des Managers (unfortunately published in French, of which I only speak the tourist dialect).Because I was seeking resources having the context of “business management,” only one search result of those six was meaningful to me. Naturally, there are thousands more results for every type of management. Although I can certainly get smarter and more targeted in my search criteria, you must agree that’s a burdensome amount of content to scan in order to find what fits my need.Speed-to-solution for the employee-learnerAs L&D professionals, our focus is supporting, developing, and improving the performance of some organization’s employee. Because it involves the employer’s time and money, speed-to-solution is important. In our private lives, aimlessly searching, evaluating, discarding, and consuming content from the web may be tolerable as a pastime; in business, time to learn—if wasted on unlimited search—is money spent and lost.As in the brick-and-mortar libraries of our youth, vast collections of content are indeed necessary and valuable in order to present varied perspectives and subject matter for the diverse workforce. Imagine if thousands of book titles were arranged in alphabetical order on the library shelves—chaos! Our effort to map learning resources to topics or competencies, therefore, is the Dewey Decimal System of the modern digital learning age. Mapping—and then presenting—learning assets in context improves the user experience by removing the frustrating clutter of irrelevant, albeit related, content.More valuable than time—performance impactIn today’s fast-paced business environment, there’s no doubt that time is of the essence when it comes to learning. “Just-in-time” and “just enough” are the values that guide today’s strategies for learning development and delivery. Although mapping content streamlines the search process, there is another overriding reason to provide context. In a knowledge-centric workplace, employees need to assimilate, translate, and apply learned concepts to actual work situations—an ability achieved by developing complex “competencies” rather than specific “skills.”One organization defined competencies as “a unique combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that leads to high performance.” The notion of competency as multi-dimensional requires learning that addresses an issue from a variety of perspectives. Take, for example, the competency of effective communication; it will be vastly different for a customer support call center agent than for a field sales representative. Mapping communication content for each role’s unique context produces different but highly relevant learning paths for each that might look something like this:Before you open the doors to your organization’s virtual library of learning and performance support content, invest the time to curate content by mapping it to relevant themes, job roles, or competencies. Presenting learning in context will guarantee a more satisfying learning experience for each employee in the organization—one that will translate to on-the-job performance and business impact.

Making Sense of Abundance: Why Mapping Matters

You manage your time. You manage your energy. You manage your engagement and enthusiasm at work and in the rest of your life. And you manage your boss—whether you know it or not. If you learn how to manage the relationship with your boss well, your work can be more gratifying and your relationship might build into one that could serve you years after you stop working together. Tip #1: Help Your Boss Deliver Results Your manager's position requires projects to be completed on time, under budget, and with expected levels of quality. Your boss needs help to accomplish these parameters. A wise consultant once said, “Smart employees know that their primary job is to make their bosses heroes.” By helping your boss be seen as a hero by more senior managers or executives, you become a valued performance partner. The 2013 Gallup Poll on Employee Engagement pointed out that only 30 percent of employees are fully engaged at work. That means your boss is spending an inordinate amount of time and energy pushing, pulling, cajoling, and negotiating with the 70 percent who are not engaged. They also are educating, dragging, and managing performance improvement plans for the 23 percent of employees who are actively disengaged. Imagine how exhausting this is! Delivering results is the number one tool at your disposal to manage your supervisor, manager or executive. If you are a member of the 30 percent of engaged employees, you not only make your manager successful, you also save your boss's energy. All results are improved and you have a boss who will view you as someone who eases the stress of the job.  Tip #2: Help Your Boss See Your Value If you boss doesn’t already have regular weekly or bi-monthly meetings with you, schedule them. Suggest an agenda and then stick to it. If you already have these regular meetings, make sure you add five minutes to the agenda for a short brainstorming session for mentioning your ideas to reduce waste or improve outcomes. Some managers will welcome the addition to the agenda, others won’t. Some may even feel threatened by your suggestions. If that is the case with your boss, start slowly by finding natural points of entry in the meeting conversation. Over time, even the most oblivious of bosses will start to wonder how your ideas might play out. Another way to approach a more recalcitrant manager is to test ideas on your own. During a 1:1 meeting, share the results and what you did to correct the glitches. As a boss, I’m always excited when one of my team tested out an idea, didn’t achieve the desired outcome, then incorporated a correction or change to accomplish the results they wanted. This shows me I have a team member who is constantly looking to improve the status quo and is willing to take calculated risks to do so. Do I want to hear about their processes and ideas? You bet! Most managers know that useful, even great, ideas can come from anywhere at any time. Smart managers know that their ideas may be the first ones but not necessarily the best ones. The old adage, “two heads are better than one,” will help your boss more than you might realize. Your status will migrate from being just an employee to a performance partner—and over time, to a thought partner. Keep in mind: Don't take it personally if your boss takes credit for your idea. Sometimes, bosses truly can't remember where an idea came from. Do, however, keep track of your achievements and implemented ideas so you can remind your boss at performance appraisal time. Tip #3: Treat Your Boss Like a Person Bosses are human too. Your manager has a life beyond work, just as you do. The days of “leave work at work and home at home” no longer exists—if they ever really did. Many organizations promote work-life balance in their policies and practices, knowing that it reduces stress and increases happiness and productivity at work. Dr. Karen Ernest Kossek's research indicates that this balance reaps rewards of greater job satisfaction and enhanced quality of life and work performance from employees across the organization. Still, humans are not robots. Worries over challenges with children, spouses, friends or aging parents can upset even the most stoic and dedicated boss. Work deadlines, unreasonable client expectations, and that group of 23 percent actively disengaged employees also cause undue stress and emotionally strained days. Each of us responds to the current work environment differently. Some of us retreat inwardly, wanting to engage in only the most necessary or highly important communications. Some of us become less tolerant of peer and team members’ idiosyncrasies. Some of us loose a degree or two of emotional intelligence. However, your boss manifests this stress, as long as she is not abusive in any way, give them a break. As you would a team member or friend, even though your boss out ranks you in the organizational hierarchy, they are just a person and deserve a bit of leeway as much as anyone else..Tip #4: Thank Your Boss Like any person, bosses enjoy being appreciated. Middle managers are often caught between the demands of the organization, demands of executives, demands of customers and demands of employees. Many have told me that it often feels like a thankless job. Executives have the weight of the organization’s future success on their backs. Many of them work an exorbitant number of hours to match their title and compensation. Still, as they too are human, an honest "thank you" for a bit of coaching, support for meeting your goals, or giving you a stretch assignment that is especially appealing goes a long way. Although they often receive welcomed financial bonuses, a genuine statement of thanks acknowledges your boss for his/her efforts on your behalf. Something as simple as, "Thanks boss for letting me present our status report at the senior staff meeting today," goes a long way. Moving Forward Are you in that group of 70 percent disengaged employees? Practice a bit of introspection and determine what you need to engage more at work. Then, ask your boss for help. If you are part of the 23 percent of actively disengaged employees who gossip or undermine the work of others, go through the same introspection exercise. Also determine if your boss is capable of assisting you—or is he a major part of the problem? Then, ask your boss or someone in a higher position to assist you. If you help your boss deliver results and see your value, treat your boss like a person and thank your boss on occasion, your boss will appreciate you and be more likely to provide the resources you need to stay engaged doing your best work. You’ll also be front-of-mind as a key contributor in her area of influence. Learning to manage the relationship with your boss is part of managing your career. Enjoy building a partnership with your manager, and stay in touch when you no longer work together.

Darlene Price

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