C (3:19)

Yeah. And the problem is, is that you take 500 managers and you've got 150 that are really bad and you've got, I don't know, 300 that are okay, and then you've got 50 that are really, really good. And those 150 pull it. Pull the average down to the point where the company's worried about it. Because retention. Low retention numbers is expensive and everybody has to go through some training to include the 300 people who are probably okay. And really all you're trying to do is reach 150. I don't know why more companies don't do retention. Heat maps where we know what the mean is of retention and then we compare different managers and sometimes we need to normalize for the job and so on. But let's compare where we have high turnover and where we don't. Some of the time it will be individual people, sometimes it'll be roles, sometimes it'll be structure. But companies don't know. They do not know generally. So ask and capture what's keeping you here and what's making you think about leaving.

B (4:15)

There you go. Okay. I have a sense of security in my job.

C (4:20)

Yeah. A low score here wouldn't be as bad as a low score on the previous question. Right. Because this is more likely to be a focus on the organization and less so on you. From a retention perspective, ask your people, what are we doing that doesn't help you feel secure or what does make you feel secure, by the way? In many cases the answer is pay. And you can pay people all they want. And there are some people who will spend all the money you give them and they will be completely insecure when layoff time comes and they realize if their head's on the block, they can't make their mortgage payment. Which has a good lesson for all of us. Live well within your means, folks. The next time you get a promotion, you get a raise. Don't live off the raise. The raise goes toward building up your six month to one year cash hoard so that if through no fault of your own, your company goes through a bad time or Covid hits or a new product comes out or chatgpt upends your industry, you'll be okay. And tell your people that too, so they don't get caught.

B (5:28)

Interesting about pay.

C (5:30)

It doesn't matter.

B (5:31)

Just prior to this call, I got a call from my brother in law and he asked the question, what do I do when all these folks, they just keep on asking for raises during staff meetings?

C (5:43)

Oh my gosh.

B (5:43)

I said say no. He's like, really? Yeah. Really? Yeah.

C (5:48)

Really?

B (5:49)

Say no.

C (5:51)

Yeah. I'm really surprised often at how afraid managers are to make decisions because, oh, he might be upset and he might quit. Well, if he's one of your guys you don't like, why don't I want him to quit? I don't have to process the paperwork to get him fired. Oh, well, you know, he does do some work. You know, the first time one of the bad people leaves, you know what everybody else is going to say. Why did it take so long?

B (6:15)

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And that people who are asking that in the staff meeting weren't his best employees. So there you go.

C (6:22)

Yep. Nope, never are, never are.

B (6:24)

Okay, next one. My position in this organization is strong.

C (6:30)

Yeah, this is a tough one. But don't tell that to the leaders above you who see low scores here as a problem for any manager. It's not in my estimation. This is not a particularly insightful question. The problem is that any one person's sense of the strength of their position is influenced by a myriad of possible factors.

B (6:49)

I don't even know what this means exactly.

C (6:52)

And I think when you focus on position, I think you make it much more structural and industrial and market driven rather than, I am much better than everybody else at my job and I'm going to be the last guy that gets laid off. For some, maybe their spouse is retiring. Right. And they're thinking of retiring too. Does that mean their position is strong? By the way, how are you going to deal with somebody saying, well, my spouse is retiring, she's retired last week and now I got to decide what I'm going to do. How would you feel if you found that out after she retired rather than having done one on ones and him saying to you six months or nine months in advance? Actually, my wife's coming up on her retirement. She's always said she wouldn't work one day longer than she could retire. Like, okay, so now that's a pretty significant external force on your direct. Wouldn't you rather know about that six to nine months in advance? And the answer, of course, is yes. And the answer to do that is one on ones.

B (7:53)

Yeah. If you heard it and they didn't volunteer, you might ask, well, what does that mean for you? What are you thinking?

C (7:58)

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What are you thinking, dude? I'm sure you want to spend more time with your wife. I've met her. She's wonderful. So are you thinking about retiring? Look, I don't want you to go. But I want you to have the best life you possibly can. You're not here on earth to serve me and the company. You're here to be a whole person. So if what you want to do is retire, let's you and I figure out how to make it go real well. And help me find a replacement for you. And help me train some people so that we don't lose as many of the skills of you as I know you have. I know. Yeah, people. That people are just afraid. Look, maybe the answer to the question of my position in this organization isn't strong has to do with they know the division you're working in isn't going well. Maybe they think that. Well, maybe the division actually isn't going well. Maybe their performance has been poor and that may be because of feedback you've given or the lack of feedback or. Exactly. Lack of feedback. Or their gender or their race isn't well represented at your firm or division. Maybe only recently have they been hired to address gender and racial disparities in terms of hiring models. Maybe they are a strong performer, but they've clashed with you a lot and worry you have it in for them. Again, one on ones and feedback. But those are all legitimate things, all of which have different root causes. And the idea that a company would know my position is strong and the organization is strong is a specific thing. It's ludicrous they would not know that. Yeah. Yeah.

B (9:31)

One behavior that universally applied across the entire organization is going to solve this problem.

C (9:35)

Sure. Yeah. That. Well, that's silver bullet, right? Try asking this for those of you who feel your position isn't strong. What are you feeling or thinking and is there anything I or the company can do about it? Now, look, this question also raises the issue that you're going to be probing on negatives and asking individuals for inputs. Even if you have good relationships with your directs, they may be uncomfortable speaking up in front of other people. If you don't have good relationships one on ones, by the way, you may be met with a lot of stony silence in some of this meeting. Okay, if you're sensing that, don't hesitate to say a couple of things to try to soften things a little bit. First, you can say if you're uncomfortable sharing an answer to that question in this setting, I get it. Make some notes, share them with me privately. I won't be attributing any of the comments to any of you in my reporting. I do have to do reporting, but I'm not going to assign particular comments to particular people. The other thing you could say is a lot of folks talk about wanting a voice in things. This is your chance. I'm here, I'm listening, and I'm not going to argue. I'm not going to attack your comments. I commit to you to talk to each of you privately to learn more, to help me be better and help the company anonymously, too. And look, if you're pretty sure before you start that your relationships aren't strong and you're worried about stony silences, don't hesitate to make comments like that at the top of your meeting just to ease it a little bit. And don't be surprised if you don't get a lot. That's okay. You're just starting on this process. It'd be better if they totally opened up to you. But if they did that, you probably got good scores already and you don't need them to open up to you. It's a catch 22.

B (11:25)

Okay, so let's go on to our next one. Health and safety is a top priority within this organization.

C (11:31)

Yeah, again, this is another one of those questions with a bunch of different facets. Health could be anything from corporate health, corporate health plan time off schedules, mental health, stress of getting feedback coaching from a boss. There are young people in every organization still learning how organizations work, and they may not have been exposed to candid professional feedback or performance reviews that drive compensation. And they're nervous or they're afraid. If one of your directs was raised by two parents who were union members with job guarantees and seniority promotions and generous pensions, your company not having any of those perquisites could create a sense of lack of safety. And they might have been raised with the idea that the boss is to be feared and not trusted. And that's not a bad thing to teach people in many cases because bosses are to be feared and not trusted as well in many roles. Many companies on the job safety is talked about every day and measured in hundreds of ways. Problems there are ground zero to be addressed. So that's health and safety too. So you might say this is a topic with a huge range. If we're doing anything that doesn't help your health or causes you worry about your safety, I want to know about it. I expect I could easily take specific deliverables out of this one so please let me know what you're thinking. Okay?

B (12:56)

We are quick to apply resources to new ideas that will drive future successes.

C (13:01)

Yeah, I've seen this question before on other surveys, not engagement surveys. Typically a notable percentage of people who score this question low have a pet project that's not been funded. They're holding a grudge, whatever. Okay, fine, that's all real and normal. But if you got a low score here, you need to ask for some more input so you can try to figure out what you're going to do and you can ask them. Can you give me some examples of us failing to apply resources to new ideas? Do you have new ideas you want resources for? Pretty simple.

A (13:35)

If you're a manager who is remote from your directs, we've got some content.

C (13:39)

That we know can support you in.

A (13:41)

Managing effectively using the Manager tools Trinity in a remote environment.

C (13:45)

We're hosting a virtual event to teach.

A (13:48)

This content on 28 September at 10:00am Eastern.

C (13:52)

So if you'd like to learn more about how to do that, you can sign up online manager-tools.com Training for a.

A (13:58)

Virtual Effective Manager Conference 28 September at.

C (14:02)

10:00Am Eastern we'd love to have you.

B (14:06)

Okay, Changes to the way we do things are well managed and help us to deliver better performance.

C (14:12)

Yeah, we're going to go back to our earlier comments here about questions that ask about how well managed something is and also about change. There are a number of factors that could affect the score. It could be a classic example of senior leadership thinking we need to change management organization when in fact the company has just made a lot of ill timed decisions or just had a new product flop. It's the rare professional who would be able to separate the genius of a new product from its marketing failure or a bad product that failed even with great marketing and perfect delivery. So you could ask what are we doing well and not well when it comes to changes and performance, that's still not great. But it's hard to get at all the issues we're talking about here. With one question you could ask 20 questions but you won't have time.

B (14:57)

The org is well prepared to meet the challenges of the next 12 months. God, I love this.

C (15:02)

Yeah, I'm sorry.

B (15:05)

Bad way.

C (15:06)

Yeah, it's a sketchy question. I mean you could just go at this so many different ways. Low responses could indicate a team that is certain it's going to miss a major deliverable to a team that knows that some other division is struggling with a major release. Look, what are your Concerns about our, meaning this team, our preparedness for the next 12 months. And then what are your concerns about the next 12 months for the entire company? Again, you're going to get two tiers worth of responses. Potentially.

B (15:35)

I am confident the company will grow in the next 12 months.

C (15:39)

Yeah, this is another tone deaf question. The vast majority of individual contributors do not sit around thinking about company growth as a necessity. Individual contributors don't understand that if a company stays flat for five years in a terrible market, the market will still punish them. Like, where's the growth? Because growth means higher stock prices, folks. That's not a suggestion that all companies should be managed based on their stock price. They shouldn't. Stock price is not a good way to measure a company. But it is something that companies have to be considerate about. They have to pay attention to it. Because if your stock price goes down, it costs you more to borrow money. If your stock price goes up, it costs you less to borrow money. When your stock price is going up, it's easier to get capital for investments to continue to invest and grow. And if your stock price is going up because you're growing, they want to give you more money to keep growing. But most individual contributors are not sufficiently connected to a company's growth relative to their own work and performance. Certainly I would be willing to bet that you could write a comedy and there probably already is one. And it's probably one. That Pulitzer Prize is somebody doing really good work and constantly being praised for it and then wondering why the company goes under because they were making buggy whips and there were cars on the road. By now, most professionals don't understand enough about performance and growth and stock prices to have a good sense of corporate growth and what it needs to be or what it isn't. And hey, we grew by 4% this year. And somebody says, yeah, that wasn't enough. Well, last year we only grew by 2, so we're better than 4. Yeah, but the industry we're in grew 9% and we only grew 4. So our stock price is being punished. Well, how come somebody didn't tell me that? How come my boss didn't say we need to grow at 9%? Right.

B (17:26)

Shame on them.

C (17:27)

Exactly. Shame on leadership for not communicating more clearly about these things. Look, you could ask your team what specifically worries you about the company's growth. And probably what you're going to get is, I don't know, but they'll tell you if they're worried.

B (17:40)

Probably another great question. The organization is going in the right Strategic direction, folks.

C (17:46)

That was Mike being sarcastic.

B (17:48)

Okay. Yes, it was. Sorry.

C (17:51)

This has the same problems as some of the previous question does. Most lower level employees are unlikely to know what the strategic direction of your firm even is. Okay? Further, even if they do, it's not easy to feel connected to that strategy in many roles. If you're in a support role like accounting or HR or legal facilities or maintenance or the help desk, there's almost no reason for you to know. Yeah, true. And a superlatively managed organization, you know, in the strategic direction of the firm could help you to make some decisions. But at the lower levels only rarely. There are very few managers who take the time to connect what their team is doing to the strategic direction of the firm. Don't feel badly if you haven't. You're normal. But if you haven't, maybe the only way your directs would understand the strategic direction is if they read every corporate as a corporate organizational email that they talked that talked about it. But nobody does that now. Another thing, this question right about the or going in the right direction will tend to get interesting during corporate wide newsworthy happenings. A merger, an acquisition, a layoff or reorg, opening of a new division, something like that. Right. Don't be surprised to see low scores that might worry you that are really more a reflection about the company and what it's going through at the headline level, meaning your company is making news if something is happening at that level. And this is another area where you likely have nothing to do with setting the strategic direction, yet you're responsible for how your team supposedly feels about it. So a question you could ask is what do you know about the strategic direction of the company and what do you think about it, good or bad? Now, if you've gotten a low score here, don't be surprised if one of the veins, one of the things that comes up when you ask for input is I don't know what the strategic direction of the company is, so how could I give it a good score? And you gotta say, I feel you, brother. I get it. You're right. If you don't know it, you can't tell me how you feel about it.

B (19:50)

The org is changing for the better.

C (19:53)

Yeah. So this is a question that gets trotted out for many different types of surveys, not just engagement. Over the years, Mike can see we're on a zoom call that I'm rubbing my eyes because there's so many. There's just too many frustratingly bad questions. This question scores well during upturns in Corporate performance. Obviously we're doing well. The org must be changing for the better and it scores poorly during a downturn. Just the fear of the idea of a layoff is enough to affect your team's responses here, even if you've been assured that no layoff is planned or coming or ever will come. So ask and capture what is our organization changing for the better and what is changing for the worse?

B (20:36)

In your opinion, the org is getting better at using new technology?

C (20:41)

Yeah, I don't. I mean, Mike, you're much more savvy about this kind of stuff than I am, but I don't think this is a terribly important question. So therefore I think it's a stupid question, particularly when you're going to ask 140. I mean, perhaps there's a good reason for it, but I can't imagine asking individual managers to try to fix this. Getting better at using new technology. Now look, to be fair, guys, this is probably overkill. We chose a very long survey on purpose. We hope your survey has less questions, less than 100. In fact, 30 is really pretty good as a number. If you have 30 to 35 questions on your survey, lucky you. That's about right. Much more than that and people start getting uninterested and everything regresses to the mean. So in this case, just ask and capture what are we doing that is better or worse as far as using new technology? And I wouldn't put too much stock in it unless the company really stunk at it and you're told you're going to have to do something. And if that's the case, send us an email with your scores and so on and we'll make some recommendations.

B (21:41)

Or your Google or your Apple or.

C (21:43)

There you go.

B (21:44)

Technology is your business, right? This org is responsible to the changing needs of our customers.

C (21:50)

Yeah, okay. Again, I mean, there are some people in orgs that are exposed to how customers are perceived or how customers are interacted with and so on, but the vast majority are not. And there are potentially two facets to this question. External customers and internal customers. I think they mean external, but you never know. Some managers do a really good job even when they're buried in the bowels of the organization in terms of communicating to their team who their internal customers customers are. If you have done that, you may hear some internal customer comment to your question. We encourage you to listen to or read if you're a licensee, our guidance called jump starting internal customer relationships. If you score low on internal customer relationships or service. As for external customers it's harder, especially if you're far away from your company's customers. So for now, just ask and capture what are we doing well or poorly with responding to customers needs? Yeah, I like it.

B (22:48)

I feel a strong connection to this organization's brand and culture.

C (22:52)

Brand and culture. Okay, some companies. Look, some companies are really good at communicating about their brand and culture. Most aren't, particularly internally. We'd probably guess that if you have a low score on this question, it's likely a function of the fact that your directs don't know or understand your company brand or culture at all. They know what you do, but they don't understand the brand or culture. And frankly, how many different people could you get to give you how many different definitions of brand or culture to address it? You might want to ask corporate comms for some material if you want to help with that and spend a few minutes reminding folks of what the brand and culture are and showing how your team's output contributes. You could also probably just go to your own corporate website. Although it's usually gobbledygook and it doesn't mean much because what the company says is its culture is probably not its culture. A question you might ask is, what parts of our brand or culture do you know and connect with or don't connect with? Now look, guys, just a little thing. I know some of you can't wait for me to talk about culture. You're just waiting for me to have my head explode. We are using the term culture here, as the survey did, despite its divergence from the manager rules definition. If you don't know the manage rules definition of culture, it's easy. Culture is behavior, full stop. Okay?

B (24:17)

The org strategy drives our plans and what we do.

C (24:23)

Again, you might get a low score here because your team won't know what the company strategy is, making it hard for them to know how that strategy drives your plans. Sorry, you know, the same with the previous question. You might. You may end up wanting to find out the strategy. Check out quarterly financials for public companies, annual reports. Ask somebody in the strategy shop for a presentation about it. You can do that. By the way. You got somebody, you're a manager and you know a manager who's doing a stint in corporate strategy. Say, hey, can you give me 15 minutes? Can you do a zoom call? Or can you come down to my staff meeting and give me 15 minutes on the strategy thing? By the way, they love doing it now. Sometimes they're jerks and they're like, oh, I'm in strategy. Now I'm not allowed to talk to you because you are a lowly peon and I am someone very important and you can shine my shoes. You know that that happens. But there's no harm in asking. I'll tell you one thing about my experience at Procter and Gamble. Procter and Gamble was easier because it was a consumer company and I was a consumer. So I was a consumer of Procter and Gamble products. B2B company is a little harder and B2B company strategy is a little harder sometime to explain. I remember the first time somebody had applied materials where my good friend John Hoffman went to work before he became chief operating officer. And he said, yeah, it's all about the book to bill ratio. Well, that was the first time I was 27 years old and didn't know what book to bill was. I'm not going to define it, folks. You can look it up. But you could see why a place like Applied Materials book to bill would be a good thing to know. So it's okay that you don't know, it's okay that they don't know. And it's okay to ask and try to figure it out. So if you're going to ask and capture your team, say how does our work connect to the strategy? Or not in your mind, again, remember, I probably not going to ask that question if my answer was relatively equal to the companies. And it doesn't appear that anybody's going to spend a whole lot of time worrying about this. Exactly.

B (26:17)

Okay. This organization's goals and objectives provide meaningful direction for me.

C (26:23)

Yeah, same thing. Similar to the previous question, we'd be surprised if you get a score much different here than the previous one. And also, it's not clear that the organization they're talking about here is the company. Whereas in the previous question the use of strategy will make most people assume their question is about the entire company. You could ask, do our goals and objectives help you with direction or not? And how. Now would I get excited about any of these questions? No. Would I be kind of frustrated If I answered 20 questions about strategy and comms and culture and brand and strategy, blah blah, blah, blah blah, big fancy words that everybody wants their own definitions for and that if we got low scores, somebody at the top didn't try to do something about it? Yeah, I wouldn't like that at all because you darn sure they're going to want to pay attention to my scores about all the questions to start with, my manager does or does not. So that last section, strategy and culture and so on. Yeah. You're part of the organization. Yes. Your numbers contribute to everybody else's, but there's not a lever long enough for a typical manager to make a difference. Make a difference.

B (27:32)

Okay, good. Let's stop there. Okay, the next section we're covering is questions regarding communication, and we'll get to that next week.

C (27:41)

Yeah, and there's plenty of them.

B (27:43)

All right, have a great one, everyone.

C (27:45)

Thanks, Parker.

B (27:46)

Thank you.