Simon moved quickly down the hallway. Morale was down. “I just don’t understand,” he said, “Our hotel managed a five star rating last year. I would think the staff would be proud of what they accomplished.”

“Show me around,” I insisted. “Let me look. I will tell you what I see.”

As we walked, I noticed the posh lobby and beautiful appointments of the hotel. It was truly wonderful. But then, I asked to see the work areas behind the forbidden doors that say Employees Only. That is where it hit me. The contrast was amazing; like we had been transported to a different place on earth. It was clean, but stark. Away from the warm glow in the guest areas, team members were bustling around bare cinder block walls lit by harsh fluorescents. The air was still and clammy. Team members, each, had their name scrawled on a piece of tape slapped on a gray metal locker.

It struck me that we treat our customers in color while we treat our team members in black and white.

Do the surroundings in your workplace have an impact on your productivity? Does beauty in the workplace have a positive impact? Look around your workplace. Are you treating your team members in color or black and white? -TF

I was sitting in the back of the room, listening to Brian.

“I know you guys have been working hard to meet our quota this quarter, but we still need to do more. That means we work this Saturday.”

I cringed. Brian’s team was launching an impossible product in an impossible market and they were winning. With one word, Brian took their energy and reversed it. He used the word, “but.” With that one word, he told his team that all their hard work was for nothing and because of that, they were going to have to work Saturday.

Change that one word to “and.”

“I know you guys have been working hard to meet our quota this quarter, and we still need to do more. That means we work this Saturday.”

We are still working Saturday, and we acknowledged the effort. Does this make a difference? With my team it does. -TF

Adrian was almost beside himself. I say, almost, because he was trying to be so logical about it. “Why is it that people always seem to bring their personal lives to work?”

“Adrian, I have found that people bring their personal lives to work, because they have personal lives.”

This notion that we can separate our business and personal lives is somewhat absurd. There is nothing that impacts someone’s professional life as an issue occurring in their personal life. As managers, we always seek high levels of performance, yet often attempt to remain ignorant about those circumstances that influence performance the most. A manager unaware of a health issue, a marital circumstance or a drug problem will likely be befuddled and unable to anticipate or compensate when performance drops off. Effective managers know their team members, the whole person, the whole person who comes to work everyday. -TF

If compliance in the workplace were good enough, then perhaps Wyatt Earp was right. “Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging in the morning.”

Yet, compliance is only the first stepping stone toward an attitude of commitment. If compliance is all we get, then managers can expect directives to be short-lived and require the omnipresence of the manager, either in person or by remote control cameras, color, of course.

We can talk all warm and fuzzy about commitment and compliance, but it boils down to these two things, time frame and proximity of the manager. If all I need is short term compliance and I plan to be there to drive the bus, compliance works just fine. If I need everyone to stay an extra half hour to help me pack some boxes, then I am ordering pizza to make sure I get the compliance I need to get my boxes packed.

However, if I need long term energy to be sustained on a project when I am not there, out of town on a sales call, then, as a manager, I need commitment. Compliance and pizza don’t work. Commitment behind an initiative lasts longer and requires less of my presence as a manager. -TF