Mistake # 94: Hire someone who makes demands

I just made an offer to an individual who will serve as customer service support. Ahem. I think I may have to retract the offer. She is demanding to start at a particular time in the morning, and needing to leave during a particular time in the afternoon. During the interview, I explained that the company makes every attempt to be flexible with hours. For example, we have several single mom’s who come in early and need to leave to get to day care later in the afternoon. Some come in later to accommodate for different time zones across the country. If someone has to leave for a doctor’s appointment, we allow to make up the hours throughout the course of the week, etc.

I think she heard what she wanted to hear, but not what I was explaining. If she is making these demands now, what kind of employee will she be?!

Mistake # 85: The consultant is working on it

Wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong way of thinking.  I’ve worked with many consultants in my life. Some I even learned from so much, that they became mentors (two, in particular). However, when you have consultants that really don’t have something specific to do, but are on the monthly company expense report, it’s really hard to justify.

Being a consultant right now could be very lucrative, since many companies have reduced hiring and controlling their activities by hiring freelance work.

Being a consultant right now could be very lucrative, since many companies have reduced hiring and controlling their activities by hiring freelance work.

When you do hire a consultant, I suggest that you at least follow these tips:

* Have specific outcomes monthly on what you expect that individual to perform.  It seems like a very obvious tip, but you would be surprised on how months go by and you are wondering what that individual is actually doing out there!

* Ask the individual to put together a monthly report on activities with specific deliverables attached, along with their invoice. This will monetize the value of this individual on what he/she is performing.

* Speak with the consultant weekly to answer questions, ask questions, identify if he/she is on track—or on the wrong track—to accomplish the assigned project. Just thinking that they are doing what they need to do could be a big problem in the end. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Finally, be sure to evaluate the value of the work the consultant has performed every 3-6 months. You’ll be glad you did!

Mistake # 84: The numbers just don’t add up!

Why is it that every company I’ve worked for has different sales numbers all over the place, and they never add up! I am trying to put together my progress report for the month, and there it is! Six different ways to look at one sales rep’s sales.

Why are they different?  Who knows. All I know is that I’ll spend another hour in the CFO’s office on Monday trying to have him explain which number I should use for my report. Again.

Martini anyone?

Mistake # 83: Text message in the wrong places

Are there etiquette rules out there for adults on text messaging? Anywhere? How about if you are at dinner with your boss and you receive a text message? Should you answer back in between bites of shrimp or prime ribs?

I say nay, nay. I was at dinner not too long ago and my direct-report received a text. He puts his fork down and answers away.  Head down to his lap to poke his fat fingers on the phone’s buttons, I’m still talking to his bald spot on his head. What’s with that?! Is that really necessary?! What happens when he’s at his desk and in the middle of a conference call on the office phone. Does he do that too? It’s unlikely that it is from a customer, because, let’s be honest, what customer would text message a representative for more information?!

Here are three rules for text messaging for employees:

* Text messages are like emails. Answer them when you can, but don’t stop the train to do so. Take a break and go out to a hallway or the work break room to answer your text message.

* Don’t text message in front of your boss. If you do, there are likely to be questions on how you are spending your time–at the computer answering customer questions, or on your phone answering your wife’s questions on what color she should color her hair.

*Don’t ever text message at dinner with clients or your boss. Ever. If you do, it will look like you are not paying attention to the conversation and you have other things to do tend to. “Dad, did u deposit my $ yet? I want 2 go 2 the muveez w/Jak!”

What are your rules for text messaging at work?

Mistake # 82: Create an office mess

My office—and the work stations around me—are a mess! I need a day to clean my space. I’ve got soda cans (due to the cold caffeine needed throughout the day), piles that I have yet time to organize, etc. In all the years (two to be exact) that I have been at my current job, I have never even had time to hang pictures! My office looks worse than a doctor’s examining room. Help!

What does your workspace look like?

Mistake # 79: Create a sweat-shop environment

I signed off for someone to take vacation this past week. She is sales support and cranks getting quotes out and orders processed. However, all hell broke out. Someone (from another department) even recommended me calling her back from her vacation to help the overloaded staff.

What?! Did I hear that right? We’re not curing cancer, doing brain surgery, or landing men on the moon. We are selling products and processing orders for those products. Yes, it was chaos. Yes, it was not good timing. But when is timing ever great?

I realize that, as a manager, I need to focus on work flow, when people should, and should not, take vacations. I also realize that I have final authority to deny vacations at any point in time.

But even I had to be out that week (taking my son to move into his dorm as a first year college freshman); and another sales manager had to take her mother for testing and needed to be out most of one day. Further, the President of the company was out for two days at the end of the week to fly to a family wedding on the east coast; and the CEO was out for two weeks during this time (after being back only one week in the office after his vacation) for a family wedding on the west coast, traveling with his family, and seeing the California sights.

So I it really wasn’t necessary to even consider bringing this person back from her vacation. I think the company will still be standing when she returns on Monday. In fact, I’m certain of it!

Mistake # 66: Create confusion at all levels

Do you have a boss that gives you a mandate, only to have his superior give another mandate and another direction? Welcome to the club! I was on a path of purpose, and putting together the process and procedures of a workflow (which followed much discussion from chief executives), only to be pulled and told that I was doing that wrong and needed to go in another direction. This creates a waste of time spent on a task, derailing efficiency and effectiveness. 

 

Need I say more?!

Mistake # 65: Spend a day discussing the day-long meeting

Houston, Houston, we have a problem. The managers want to spend a day to discuss what should  be discussed at the day-long meeting. Hm. Do we really need to do that? To have a meeting about the meeting in order to plan the meeting seems…redundant?

 

What happened to the days when each individual manager could actually shut their door and outline their plans for discussion. Or, just take out that old-fashion thing, called a pencil, and write it out. Then, go back with the more 21^st Century thing, called a computer, and bang out the content to fill in the blanks.

 

You can’t do it all, and the group tends to tackle too much at one time. Put things in smaller segements so that decisions can be made effectively. There. Short and sweet.

 

Happy Easter!

Mistake # 60: Lie

It has been a very rough week. I found that one of my sales reps had bid for one of our products at a fourth of the cost. Moreover, as the week unfolded, the sales rep never told me that there was a “special discount” for this particular customer that was verbally agreed upon – but not in writing – and has been going on for a year.

 

An order came through on the fax that the CFO picked up and brought it to my attention. The CEO was involved, the President was involved, and it took me a week to pull together legal documents to ensure that the product (basically our livelihood) was going to be protected as it was shipped out the door.

 

The problem is that another order was brought to my attention by the rep. “Here is another signed order that they are waiting for.” But, the rep NEVER proceeded to tell me that this was something that had been going on for nearly twelve months. Instead, the distributor called me ranting and raving. I indicated that “Bill” was never authorized to give that particular discount. “We’ve been doing this for a year!” was the response. So, “Bill” had been keeping this from me, and, when the huge product issue came up, STILL never mentioned, “and by the way, I had this discount in place for twelve months now.”

 

Finally, I asked the rep for a variety of materials so that I can produce a letter to the customer, indicating that effective on X date, we will no longer honor this (ludicrous) discount that they had been enjoying for a year, blah, blah, blah. I needed some things to finalize and place a call to the customer next week. I’m a very visual person, so I always need to see scenarios on discounts, why they wanted this particular bargain-basement price, how much it impacts us, etc. So, I called the rep and said I needed it. Here’s his response:

 

“When do you need this? I’m a little overwhelmed since I’ve been dealing with this all week and need to get to other things…”

 

If I could have crawled through the phone I would have and I would have went straight to the jugular. Instead, being Italian, Type-A, and probably (but not diagnosed) ADHD, I let him have it and asked for everything by noon.

 

This particular rep is lucky. In any other company, not only the rep, but myself, would have been on the firing line.

 

My advice to everyone is:

 

(1)   Don’t ever lie or withhold information to your managers!

 

(2)  Be sure that your manager knows exactly what is going on. Special terms, special discussions with customers, and special arrangements need to be in writing and approved by your manager.

 

Please!

Mistake # 55: Tell your boss that she made you look like an ass!

Yes, I had that happen just this week – by email! I sent out final quotas for 2009 to the sales staff and her numbers weren’t jiving with what she expected. So, she proceeded to tell me that all this time she was striving for a different goal in 2008, and “do you realize what an ass you made me look like?” The email had other rotten remarks in it, but this one, in particular, stood out.

 

I must tell you that, in a former life, she would have been fired by the next morning.  Why she didn’t pick up the phone and call me to communicate something like this: “I’m confused. These numbers appear differently than what I was following…let me explain.” That would have been the more professional route.

 

However, let me back up a second on this particular employee. There isn’t one thing that doesn’t set her off into a rage. Don’t ask me why, but she has temper tantrums. These go completely against my grain of nature, and the way I manage.

 

Of course, being Italian, Type-A, and ADHD, by now, I flew completely off the deep end. I was, to say the least, furious. I tried calling her, but got her voice mail, leaving a message for her to call me. She sends me an email back that she will not call, but that she’ll “calm down and will talk to me on Monday when she is in the corporate office (this happened on a Friday).”

 

I sent an email back which read: “This email message, as well as the one prior, are unacceptable. I asked you to call me, and you refused. We will talk on Monday.”

 

We did. She did calm down, and so did I. She’s still in the department and I didn’t fire her. Yet. She’s a terrific sales rep and continues to exceed her numbers. But, she has this temper problem.

 

Which is now my problem!