Category: Trust and business

Are Your Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Working?

Today diversity and inclusion efforts are a part of the core strategy amongst top organizations, no longer are most companies giving lip service that in order to be competitive in a global workforce, a diverse workforce is necessary.

Although the business case for diversity and inclusion (D&I) may be clear to you, everyone in your organization may not be on board. One reason is that while people usually understand the benefits of D&I in theory, they sometimes find them harder to relate to their everyday experiences at work. Even teams that are highly effective because they are diverse might not connect their performance to their composition.

Not having your employees on board can put your organization’s efforts to build a diverse and inclusive brand at risk. To create a culture of inclusion that everyone subscribes to is not a quick and easy task. If you want to prevent a disconnect between your D&I goals and the on-the-ground experiences of your employees and clients, here are five pointers to bear in mind.

1. LEADERSHIP PLAYS A CRITICAL ROLE
An organization’s diversity and inclusion efforts will fail without leadership commitment. As important as bottom-up initiatives are, diversity and inclusion need to be embedded in the way the organization operates. It needs to be a strategic priority and not an optional add-on. It’s the leaders who show what is important for the organization. They are also the role models who shape the organizational culture.

2. EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE ON BOARD
If any of your employees feel excluded from diversity initiatives, they will most likely not subscribe to the messaging. Make sure you consult regularly with staff representing all the different groups in your workplace to get their input and have them shape your diversity and inclusion activities.

3. GOOD COMMUNICATION IS KEY
To ensure that everyone on your team sees the link between diversity, inclusion and business success, it is crucial for leadership to be thoughtful and consistent in communicating the reasons behind D&I efforts.

4. START AT THE BEGINNING
The hiring and onboarding process is the first contact a new employee will have with your organization and can leave a lasting impression. Look at your recruitment and onboarding procedures. Where do you distribute your job postings? What questions do you ask in an interview? What does your onboarding process look like? Simple things like assigning a new employee a mentor or creating a list of frequently used acronyms can be quite helpful.

5. INCLUSION IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
Being inclusive is something you need to keep doing, consciously, again and again. An organization should regularly examine its practices and policies through a D&I lens and provide training to employees so they all have the awareness, skills and knowledge required to build a more inclusive work culture.

It might seem overwhelming at times, but through collaboration and taking small actions, you will make progress. As the famous proverb goes, “the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”hey are diverse might not connect their performance to their composition.

by Anna Kostecka

Are Your Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Working?

Main Website:http:thecarolyledestinygroup.one

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The shocking truth about Employee Reward and Recognition Systems

Written by Derrick C Darden, PhD
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon

Reward and recognition is a proven way to reinforce desired behaviors that epitomize a company‘s culture. But what if the company’s values are distorted and abused by manipulation, pressure tactics, and an acceptance of concealment of information from customers? Many of us see this behavior happening in front of us, yet we refuse to speak up for fear of retribution from our superiors. Even if we don’t say anything, we buy into the bad behavior. There’s a pattern in many cases, a link between unethical behavior, abuse of incentive monetary reward/recognition systems, and organizational cultural norms.

Studies have shown that reward and recognition systems can be a great motivator and an effective way for companies to encourage employees by rewarding and recognizing their achievements. These systems can promote higher performance, engagement, and commitment in the organization. Employees who feel intrinsically valued increase the company’s productivity and retention and reinforce the company’s cultural norms. A survey of employees in four different professions (ground workers, librarian clerks, intake receptionists and medical record assistants) conducted by East Carolina University found a strong correlation between effective motivators – such as  good pay and recognition – and benefits to the workplace Mani (2002). So, reward and recognition works, and industry has put heavy emphasis on praising and recognizing employees’ achievements to promote desired behaviors and organizational norms.

However, the recklessness of a few can transform a perfectly legitimate incentive program into a widespread unethical behavior promoted by the upper management. For example, at the height of the mortgage-backed securities crisis in 2007 and 2008, many financial institutions lost billions of dollars in subprime loans. During the government’s initial investigation, UBS, the largest of these financial companies, acknowledged that part of their massive losses were a consequence of large bonuses for their upper management. The company had promised large bonuses to traders, encouraging them to create mortgages faster to satisfy the gluttony of investors. Many reputable lenders such as Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America, to name just a few, all loosened their standards to make loans available to everyone, even those who could not afford them. People with low credit scores and low incomes were sold prime mortgages. Of course, a new phrase was introduced: predatory lending. These financial institutions didn’t verify incomes, but offered adjustable mortgage rates to people who only paid the interest on the loan, but didn’t know the loans would require full payment a few years down the road. Predatory lending caused thousands of people who could not afford their mortgages to walk away for their homes. These companies lost billions, and the American people had to bail most of them out.

In 2011, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ top official began an investigation into why veterans had longer than normal wait times to see the doctor. Many veterans died while waiting to see their doctor for follow-up care or primary care. At the conclusion of this investigation, it was found that many VA employees had covered up faulty patient care procedures used by the VA and that a bonus plan had contributed to unethical behavior. The investigation found that the connected hospitals under investigation had found employee bonuses were connected to the scheduling of patient care; additionally, incentives were paid to doctors to reduce follow-up care to patients. As soon as he learned of this crisis, the Secretary canceled the performance bonus plan. Obviously, he saw the connection. After a large public outcry, Veteran Affairs Secretary General Shinseki handed his resignation to President Obama. In his resignation speech, the Secretary said, “I can’t explain the lack of integrity among some leaders of our health care facilities.” Lives were lost because of unethical practices.

What causes people to act unethically in the workplace? In a Harvard article, a psychologist points out three areas or factors that cause people to cross the unethical line:

Omnipotence – Employees may feel they are above the rules and are entitled to act in the way they want. Left unchecked, the trickle-down of wrongdoing will become a burst of unethical behavior, especially in the workplace. My mother used to say, “Birds of a feather flock together.”   

Cultural Numbness – Playing by another’s rulebook, even when it’s deviant in nature. No matter how high your moral and ethical compass, you keep hanging around, and you gradually begin to accept bad behavior as the norm.

Justified Neglect – Ignoring wrong behavior without speaking out because of fear of losing your sure footing with the powerful boss or manager.

Reward and recognition systems are excellent ways for organizations to promote desired cultural norms and maintain a competitive edge. But these systems can be abused. That’s why all employees must be trained in organizational norms, ethical conduct, and proper behavior. We know that so-called people of high morals may choose to neglect and or ignore improper behavior – and that a lack of ethics can destroy people’s lives.

In other words, unethical behavior can significantly increase the cost of doing business.

What are your thoughts?  

Reference:

Mani, B.G. (2002), “Performance appraisal systems, productivity, and motivation: a case study”, Public Personnel Management, Vol. 31, pp. 141-59.

NARCISSIM in the WORK PLACE

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, defines narcissism as:  A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning in early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five or more of the following:

 1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g.), exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements

2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

 3. Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions

4. Requires excessive admiration

 5. Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

 6. Is interpersonally exploitive, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

 7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her

9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. 661) 

10. President Trump

They often explain their point of view in loquacious detail while failing to recognize that other parties have anything to add to their perspectives.  Additionally, when other parties attempt to express their views, the narcissist will often become impatient with the conversation, and may be oblivious to the damage that their lack of concern causes in the other party.  Finally, when they do recognize the feelings of others, they tend to regard those feelings as a sign of the weakness of the person exhibiting them.  This weakness, to the narcissist, is something to exploited but never pitied, as pity is something that the narcissist does not feel for others (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).  

What happens when the narcissist is a co-worker or a subordinate how to encounter the behavior in the workplace?  Here are some strategies in understanding the behavior.

What must then be asked is, how does one deal, in day-to-day work life, with those people who display strong narcissistic tendencies in the workplace?   How does one communicate with someone who is self-centered, degrades other people’s ideas, and fails to heed the warnings of others?  Even more intimidating: how does one take a person with those characteristics and attempt to integrate them into the team format?  Cavaiola and Lavender (2000) state that “one cannot expect the narcissist to behave in a rational, giving, or cooperative manner, and if you do, you will experience nothing but frustration in your interactions with them”

Maccoby (2003, 2004), said one discovers no real process for dealing with the narcissist personality at work other than to avoid the narcissist and thus not respond to him or her or to alter one’s perception of what would provide a fulfilling job.  While this might prove comforting to some, it would be difficult to believe that dealing with people with strong narcissistic tendencies would be as simple as saying, “Maybe I can just ignore it and it will go away.”    Still, this type of logic is suggested for implementation in most of the literature in which an author attempts to indicate how the narcissist should be dealt with.  Bacal (2000) indicates that while these people are very difficult to fire or to discipline or worst a boss, the best thing that a person might do is simply learn to deal with the narcissist by placating their behavior.

 Bacal goes on to state that if one is managing such a person, one needs to differentiate between the person and their behavior patterns, and should not blame the narcissist for the problem.  He suggests that one should internalize the situation and attempt to determine what one can change so that one can continue to cope with the narcissist behavior.  Lastly, Bacal advocates that one should avoid assumption of a “victimized” posture when confronting narcissistic behavior, and focus only on what implications the narcissistic behavior might have on the work environment

Here’s a tip, narcissist lacks self-composure and confidence, this is one of the main reasons they are so quick to turn on one action, which indirectly makes them look bad. Be consistent with your loyalty while standing on your right and in no time you will always be at their good side. But don’t feel too comfortable due to their unstable nature, remember unless the benefits of staying outweigh the downside over the long haul, you need to figure out when you can leave.

 References

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Bacal, R. (2000). The complete idiots guide to dealing with difficult employees. Madison,WI: CWI Publishing Enterprises.

Cavaiola, A. & Lavender, N. (2000). Toxic coworkers: how to deal with dysfunctionalPeople on the job. Oak lake: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Freud, S. (1991). On narcissism: An introduction. In J. Sandler, E.S. Person, & P. Fonagy

(Eds.) for the International Psychoanalytical Association, Freud’s “On

Narcissism: An Introduction “(pp. 3-32). New Haven & London: Yale University

Press. (Original work published 1914).

Lubit, R. (2004). Coping with toxic managers, subordinates, and other difficult people.

Upper Saddle River: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Maccoby, M. (2003). The productive narcissist. New York: Broadway Books.

Maccoby, M. (2004). Narcissistic leaders: The incredible pros, the inevitable cons.

 Narcissistic Leaders. (2000, June). Harvard Management Communication Letter, 3(6),

 Author of “Cooperating in the Workplace” Revised Expanded 2nd edition ( Amazon Books https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MYBQHHN/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)

© 2019  All Rights Reserved.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Derrick Darden

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10009718

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

Different Working Cultures in the USA, United Kingdom, and Australia

 

Starting a new job is always daunting, so it helps to have some idea what to expect—especially if you’re working abroad. You may be confident in your ability to do the work, but what about fitting into a foreign workplace? Learning the language is crucial, of course, but it’s only part of the picture. Countries such as the UK, the USA, and Australia all speak English . . . but they’re so different in other ways that they frequently baffle each other. Obviously, no two workplaces—let alone two individual human beings—are the same. Not all Americans are workaholics and not all Brits are shy about telling you what they think. That said, if you’re thinking of working in one of those three countries, here are some cultural differences to keep in mind . . .

If your British boss says “By the way, perhaps you could make these changes?” then you’d better make them. If they call something “a bit disappointing,” you should be very concerned. Understatement can be confusing and frustrating to people from cultures that prefer to communicate more directly. But from the British perspective, telling someone bluntly what you want them to do feels arrogant and aggressive—they’d rather leave room for you to pretend it was your idea all along.

In an Australian workplace, you probably won’t have much trouble figuring out what your colleagues actually mean. Communication is usually direct, even blunt . . . once you get to the point. Australians are often uncomfortable with overt displays of authority, and have their own ways of avoiding the possibility of being seen as too pushy. It’s common to spend a good fifteen minutes at the start of a meeting talking about anything other than work. You’ll also encounter a lot of slang and plenty of swearing.

You don’t have to do much reading between the lines in a USA setting either—direct questions and literal statements are the norm, and there’s no lingering on other topics before getting down to business. But if something goes wrong, Americans are less likely to be blunt about it—they’ll explain the problem, but they’ll try to “wrap” it in positives too. The focus on optimistic, upbeat communication is also key to how Americans expect you to talk about yourself.

Despite their other differences, both Britons and Australians are uneasy about self-promotion. Not so in the USA, where making sure your accomplishments are recognized is a necessary skill.

Office Romances

Each country’s attitude towards love in the workplace varies, with the USA the most strait-laced, Australia the most easygoing, and the UK somewhere in between. One-third of American businesses have policies prohibiting romances between team members, and one in ten won’t even tolerate relationships between workers from different departments. Such rules are rare (even, arguably, illegal) in the UK and Australia, though some UK workplaces will expect you to disclose relationships to a manager. In Australia, so long as it doesn’t interfere with your work, you should be fine.

Dress Codes

Norms in the UK and USA are fairly similar, at least as far as differences in climate allow. Some industries, such as law and banking, are more formal, with suits, tailored garments, and somber colors still the norm. In more creative industries there’s an increasing trend towards more casual wear. You should still probably dress conservatively at your interview and on your first day to be on the safe side, but don’t be surprised to see t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers when you get there.

You should err on the side of caution to begin with in Australia too—but you’ll rarely be expected to wear a tie or a suit jacket. And when small, creative workplaces get casual, they sometimes get very casual—you may even see bare feet!

Work/Life Balance

Given their reputation for being tightly wound, it may be surprising that it’s the British who are most likely to go home on time and least likely to complain if you’re late. They also have the longest holidays and the most paid sick leave (although less of both than many neighboring European countries.) But perhaps it’s partly down to their long commutes: the average Briton spends 54 minutes getting to work each morning—it’s just 29 minutes for Australians and 23 for Americans. Meanwhile, Australia may be famous for being “laid-back,” but lateness is frowned upon, as is rushing out the door as soon as your shift is technically over.

Of the three, the USA expects the longest working hours, and there’s no legal requirement for employers to provide any paid time off or sick leave, although private sector workers do receive an average of 15 days off.

Whether you consider America’s “very hardworking” self-image accurate will depend on where you come from—plenty of nations work longer hours, including South Korea, Greece, and Russia! The payoff is the potential for higher earnings—an American senior manager can earn almost twice what an equivalent worker in the UK can expect.

Kaplan International

Blogsite: dcdardentalks.com

Distract the Distractive Critic in the workplace

  • Aikido Style

One of the most frustrating experiences at work is having a boss or coworker who gives negative critical comment regarding your work. When there is a consistent barrage of negative criticism, it negatively impacts your self-esteem, feelings, and performance of your day-to-day task. As a matter of fact, it is somewhat common for those that are placed under daily destructive criticism to encounter clinical depression.

The non-necessities: Overlooking his or her comments, moving your desks, and/or expressing your displeasure; are all the non-necessities.

Another strategy that is very effective is similar to the aikido expert who makes use of the power of an opponent and adopts the reverse leverage to conquer him.

When you are being criticized by the distractive critic,rather than attempting to stop him from criticizing you, try to encourage him todo so productively.��

There was a story told by a well-known commercial interior designer. The story was concerning his coworker who usually gives him negative feedback regarding the way the static displays are presented in the office showroom.  His co-worker criticizes, that the colors schemes are poorly combined, in other cases, the layouts of furniture and wall decoration look crowded, and it appears lousy.  So the criticized interior designer thought about his goals and how the critic (co-worker) should proceed to criticize his work in a productive manner.   

The next time the coworker began with the critical comments, he responded with the question, “How can he get it done better?”

This is a response that accurately indicates how criticism communication can be effectively diminished to a sentence. This is what usually happens. If negative criticism tells you, “you are winning.” Now, on the flip side, if the response is: “I do not have an idea,” what you should do is to clarify, “I’m trying my best”. Continue to say “I would be grateful if you do not tell me your criticism anymore unless it’s productive criticism.”  This implies to the coworker not to criticize you, but instead, you are only requesting the manner at which you are being criticized.  It must be productive and not destructive!!! If this doesn’t work, set up a meeting with your immediate supervisor.

In dealing with the boss, use a different strategy, make arequest from your boss to give you some time, so he can productively assess youin your areas of responsibilities.  Iremember the Mayor of New York City, Mayor Koch, he used to ask hisconstituents, “How am I doing?” The framework for your boss should be as such,“How am I doing?” Let him know the area you want him to improve in, and let himtell you how to improve them. Lay emphasis on the fact that you want to be agood employee that adds value to the organization.  If this meeting is successful, express yourappreciation and let him feel how much you benefited from his attention, andtry to get some search sessions consistently, irrespective of how inconsistent,and never forget to execute any valid criticism he poses. Actually, you’ve justtaught your boss how the power of positive criticism can be obtained. This is awin-win case!  Weisinger, H/ Triple D

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