The Unwritten, Unspoken, But Fully Implemented MEMO That Is Killing American Business!Comment0Share0Tweet0Share0printemail

With some of the survey answers we have recently received from team members of different companies, we have recognized a problem. After hearing manager after manager complain about no support on discipline and not being given the authority to use every one of the leadership tools available, I have decided to help.

There is a lack of education, development, team engagement and accountability in many organizations. It is like this unspoken, unwritten memo has gone out to all team members (wink-wink). Well, I believe in full disclosure. I have created a template that these organizations can copy and paste to their own letterhead. Let’s go ahead and clear the air.

To: All Team Members

From: Upper level Leader/Owner Mindset boss/employee mindset

1. Effective immediately, all formal and informal training will be stopped. Although there has been no developmental training in years, we wanted to totally remove all glimmer of hope that we are interested in your success. In the past we have used the excuse of tight budgets when we really just didn’t want to spend the time, money or effort on you.

We have chosen more of a “let’s see if we can hold our own” approach over improvement. We consider team development an expense with no return on investment. This is especially true when no one is even remotely held accountable. (See item 3 below.)  We have decided to discontinue our effort of acting like we want to develop and invest in our team members. We will equip you to do your job and any extra developmental training will be at your cost on your time. If the company or the customers benefit from your personal development, we don’t want to know about it. Keep it to yourself.

2. Effective immediately, all one-on-one discussions outside of our rubber stamped, all rated the same, totally useless annual review will stop. There will be no further one-on-one discussions of our expectations, your progress, the company culture or the company vision. You can figure this out on your own. We will no longer solicit your ideas for improvement, offer suggestions on how to improve your performance, make your job easier or give you praise. We realize this has not taken place in years and we wanted to squelch the rumor that we might begin informing, including or engaging you in the future.

We have no plans to introduce this time consuming, make you feel included process back into our culture. (Oh, wait, we don’t have a culture. In fact, effective immediately, our culture is to not have a company culture. Our culture will be established by tolerance of future behavior.) There have been reports of a few rouge leaders attempting to establish a culture but it will cease immediately. We will not have isolated groups feeling informed, included and engaged.

3. Effective immediately there will be no documented performance improvement plans or levels of discipline initiated on poor performers on quality, productivity, safety or attendance. Those of you that are high performers will have to just pick up the slack. Since no one has ever been placed on written performance improvement plan, a level of discipline or dismissed for poor performance in years, this will not be much of a change.  We can strive to improve in other ways and we will let you know when these ways are discovered. We realize that removing this paper trail virtually eliminates our ability to dismiss an employee for poor performance. Our response to this is “oh, well, we weren’t doing it anyway. We just wouldn’t formally admit it”. We are admitting it now. No secrets. Full disclosure will be part of our new culture if we ever establish one! 

This will serve as formal notice to all newly promoted leaders as we gradually remove all pee and vinegar. We will gradually transition you into bosses that realize spending time on documentation is unnecessary and will not be tolerated. Time spent documenting, addressing performance problems and developing team members is better spent by putting out fires and handling the exact same problems that occur day in and day out. Dismissals will only occur as a result of extreme misconduct or violating these rules. The practice of using documentation and the time tested basic tools of leadership to improve performance have been discontinued effective today.    

Note: All of  “Our employees are our greatest asset” posters will remain on the wall. Each poster will be joined by our new mission statement. “We know how we got here and we believe with very little effort, we can stay here.”

Signed,

Your upper level boss/employee mindset

Well, how does this grab you? Does it hit close to home? You would NEVER say or write these words but many of you are allowing all three of these rules to occur every single day. There is absolutely no documentation of education, engagement or accountability in your organization. This occurs from lack of training and/or lack of accountability. THIS is the reason 50-80% of employees are not satisfied in their positions. It has very little to do with the functions they perform. They signed on to perform the functions. It’s the treatment and lack of inclusion they didn’t expect.

(Note: If you are one of the bosses that say “they get their inclusion every other Friday OR if they don’t like it, they are hiring at McDonalds”, please e-mail me atGreg@GregLGilbert.com Please provide the name and location of your employer. Where you see a paycheck, I see an opportunity.)

Whenever there is time or money spent, there are expectations. With every paycheck there should be expectations. The consequences of not meeting those expectations should be performance improvement plans, discipline and ultimately dismissal. With every hour spent by a team member, there are expectations also. It should be fair treatment, a feeling of worth to the company and fair compensation.

When the expectations of the team member and the company are both met; your competition does not stand a chance.

If this memo could have come from your organization (but won’t) wink-wink, go to our contact page and let us know where to send a copy. We would love to help. gg

Greg Gilbert Coaching

Click here to return to our website  www.GregGilbertCoaching.com

Thought for the day: Only a dozen vertebrae separate a kick in the pants from a pat on the back but the end result of each is like day and night.

Can you think of any other wild messages that would never be sent out but may be occurring?

Greg Gilbert conducts Keynotes And Local Management Development Sessions On-Site and at locations around the country.  He is committed to assisting the willing to “Lead Like You Own It” through increased Education, Engagement and Accountability.

Visit GregGilbertCoaching.com for more information.

 

Click HERE for information on the Tri-State SHRM Leadership Program for Managers, Supervisors and HR Managers in Texarkana, TX on 3-10-15 from 8AM to Noon.

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