Scheduled for 5:00 PM 4/12/2012

Through proper management, training and weeding, any employee side issues can be corrected. Of course, proper leaderships skills must be taught to managers. I have seen first-hand under-skilled managers. The formerly sacrosanct employee is now not only fair game, they are scapegoats in this era of fear, and near depression level unemployment where anything goes and corporations can get away with almost anything. People are afraid of losing their job and will put up with almost anything to keep them, and corporations are fully aware of this. In fact, they are taking full advantage of this. This harms the employees and will cost the corporation plenty.

In Part Two of this article I will outline management skills.

I have witnessed, working in a large corporation, employees who have found ways to hide and not do their fair share of the workload. However, most absolutely did! The few that didn’t skated by, but nothing was done, and all the staff knew who the slackers were, including management. They are still working for this major company, and their peers resent it, as they have to pickup for the slackers. They also know these added controls implemented where created to handle these slackers. Then everyone became overloaded and stressed. Subsequently, many mistakes were made that cost the company money. Then, there occurred something previously unheard at this company – three suicides within the last year! Management has hushed it up and offered the smoke screen of “there were personal factors involved.” Did the overload and stress of the Mantra push them over the edge? Of course it did, but by washing their hands, management followed Pontius Pilate’s example. And there have been costly acts of sabotage. Resentment shows its ugly face.

One of the factors that management has rushed headlong to embrace is intrusive controls and unworkable dictates. These were being implemented during the last year. The long-term staffers (15 plus years) told me they used to love working for the company. Now, if they could find another job they would leave. This was all because of the ‘1984 Big Brother-like’ controls, dictates and obvious change in attitude toward them. The employees had felt a-part-of and loved-by the company, and they loved it. No longer, now they are just assets to be used and abused, More From Less. These elements, when combined with workloads that can’t be accomplished properly, and with integrity, became the hated new workflows of the company.

Integrity is something not thought of by management and seemingly no longer used by them. But how does it apply to the employees? The vast majority of the company cared about the company and its customers. As this was a major insurance carrier, it required a proper investigation of the claim, which takes time. Then the company is protected and the clients paid what is due them. With unreasonable time demands that is no longer possible. The staff told me the new impetuous was closing claim quickly. “Don’t worry about be thorough, just make a decision and close it.” No one felt right with this, and everyone’s decisions varied. Clients were not paid correctly and staff knew it and resented it. This is what integrity is about, or in this case the lack of it.  It is far more important to people than ever imagined. And when you are told it doesn’t matter, just make decisions, you feel nothing matter, the company and yourself included. That is human psychology. How you are treat, you treat others. Look at families, treat your family with love and respect, which includes proper discipline, and they develop and treat others the same. Treat them as disposable assets and you will get the same behaviors from them. Companies are families and the same applies.

Naturally, the ingenious family members find ways to circumvent the intrusive controls and dictates placed on them and reflect ill treatment. Has service to the customer improved, no, it has declined, but management continues on its disastrous path, forgetting their employees who deal directly with the customers. Brilliant – not!

What seems to me to be elementary is that the employee be treated well, in order for customer service to be extraordinary. Heaping more and more on the employees’ overworked and overstressed shoulders, is now the norm. Yet management still deludes itself by believing great customer service can be created. I can guarantee, and have seen the evidence, that the opposite will be true. “More From Less” is a delusion of the worst kind.

 Click to Read Part Two

She takes pride in her work and is considered a top therapist. Yet, she is so overworked that the joy of working/living is gone, replaced by unrelenting labor. She will not be able to give her clients her best, as she is being used up. This is More From Less. Corporate solutions include finding a young, low paid neophyte replacement, but they are inexperienced and will not be able to handle the difficult situations. However, the numbers will look decent to myopic upper management. In the end, More From Less is leading us headlong into disaster. We will become a race of robots, without say or joy, and the spark of this country – innovation will be forgotten. The corporate answer will probably be, fire more, and make the rest work harder. Then they can set up the “company store,” of the coal miner days. Unions, created out of resentment were the result then. We are using the model in China, for our workforce. But even in China, there are growing demands for fairness and better wages and working conditions. We are forgetting the past, and are therefore doomed to repeat it. At present we are moving backwards. We don’t need tight control mechanisms and further burdens on the workforce; we need less myopic greed at the top and an open ear. Listen to your people; they know what the customer needs. Don’t implement new ideas without asking the staff. Management dreams up new ideas and processes that often only make things worse. Why? Because they are not in the trenches and don’t know what leadership really is. — Bullying is not leadership.

LEADERSHIP is the ability to:

1. Motivate by supporting, appreciating, encouraging and inspiring! I consider this number one skill. Unfortunately, many managers’ think the way to manage is through intimidation and fear. Fragging is a response to this type of management by bullying, arrogance, and stupidity.
2. Guiding by sitting with employees and listening to their feedback, reviewing results together constructively.
3. Planning realistic goals. Work with how they are to accomplish them. Push Back if you cannot make it work. A new upper-mid manager told me that he needs 100 in his department to handle the work. He was given 72 and told he had to work with that. The customer will suffer, as will the employees.
4. Communicating goals with employees and whether they have met them or not. Speak with upper management when unrealistic goals have flowed downhill – Push Back – tell them.
5. Make sure you have the employee, with the right abilities, for the job. If not then transfer them to where they would be best suited. The company I worked with had the blockhead mindset of hiring from within. I saw people in trainer positions who barely could speak, poor managers who hid in offices and then took potshots at their employees, and competent outsiders not considered when they were sorely needed. Just because you are with the company doesn’t mean you have the talent and abilities to perform at management level.
6. Delegating with all the necessary tools to complete the job. Dumping is the norm. Push back to upper management, request the tools if not given. Management is now saying, here’s the task and these are the only resource you get to do the job. Tell them they are inadequate if so. Take a stand for your employees. Dumping creates resentment, is counterproductive and may foster sabotage.
7. Handle situations when they arise, don’t wait till a keep or fire discussion point is reached. It’s way too late then.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

1. INTEGRITY – keeping your word, doing your best and having the courage to speak the truth about the ‘pink elephant,’ in the room. For example: Why does the Emperor have no clothes? These and other unspoken and therefore, accepted lies undermine nothing short of the truth of existence. What happens in relationship when integrity is lost.

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4/1/12, 11:00PM

Zimmerman followed the suspicious person, Trayvon, for two blocks. We all know Trayvon paid the ultimate price. There are no factual disagreements up to this point that I’m aware of. That Zimmerman shot Trayvon is undisputed. Any use of Florida’s “stand your ground” law by Zimmerman is unfounded as he provoked the dispute by following and confronting Trayvon when police told him not to.

Was there a struggle, maybe? But if there was and Trayvon had killed Zimmerman, Trayvon could have used the “stand your ground” defense, because he was the one defending himself, Zimmerman being the aggressor. Zimmerman is not a police officer or trained, armed and licensed security guard. Had he been, he would have known better and acted differently.

Mr. Zimmerman’s claims that he was punched and had his face driven into the ground are not supported by police video shot 35 minutes later. However, even if true, Zimmerman was the provocateur, so injuries suffered are not a defense when you are the aggressor.

Mr. Zimmerman was on a misguided mission to serve and protect, thereby giving him, in his mind, the right to seek and destroy intruders. His misguided emotionally charged agenda cost Trayvon his life.

I personally am from Florida, have a Concealed Weapons Permit, and received the legally required training necessary to obtain this Florida Permit. It was made very clear in the training course that I CAN’T pursue anyone and call it self-defense. Pursuing is an aggressive move, not a defensive one. I don’t know if Zimmerman has a weapons permit. Nor do I know how was he carrying the weapon used to shoot Trayvon. Was it concealed, which requires a license, or in the open, which is illegal in Florida? His emotional run-in with the police in 2006 shows his volatile nature. Trayvon was 6 foot tall plus hoody, Zimmerman 5’9”. Was he scared, intimidated? All the more reason to let the police do their job. But his emotions got the best of him, reason did not prevail, and he now has Trayvon’s soul to carry.

I have spoken to Palm Beach County Sherriff’s C.O.P.’s, ‘Citizens Observer Patrol’ volunteers who are unarmed, drive marked sheriff department vehicles with yellow lights on the roof. They have told me they are clearly trained to report suspicious persons, but not to engage under any circumstance.

Bottom line for Zimmerman in my opinion is he is guilty of manslaughter probably in the first degree, but he probably will be convicted of second degree. His ‘developing’ defense will be a key factor. I think the defense is trying to ‘develop’ a plausible excuse for his actions, which is what attorney’s correctly do under our present guidelines.

Now, this is unpleasant, but we must look at the unarmed Trayvon’s possible culpability.  An unknown “stalker” followed him for two blocks. In any normal person, this would create at least some fear. And certainly, the “thug” hoody attracts attention, as it was uncommon and suspicious looking in the neighborhood Trayvon was shot in. Did he give a “thug” attitude to Zimmerman as part of a defensive/offensive stand. ‘fight or flight’, created out of his fear? Is “thug” a normal attitude he gives to people? Whether or not created this attitude was a fear based defensive reaction, it probably created the same fear based defensive reaction in Zimmerman, exacerbating the situation. Even though he was stalking Trayvon, and therefore on the offensive, he also may have felt fear. This may have cost Trayvon his life. Emulating “thug” attire can bring unwanted attention, even if you are not doing anything wrong. That is human nature and while I can relate to being a rebel, I know it has brought unwanted attention. This in no way excuses Zimmerman and any fear he felt he brought upon himself by not following the police directs not to follow Trayvon.

What Zimmerman’s reaction was to being followed and harassed is not yet clear, and the defense will do everything it can to create doubt by keeping it at least unclear. Did Trayvon’s defensive posturing appear as attacking to the imagined authority Zimmerman felt he had?  These are events that are being investigated and analyzed. Whether or not the Sanford Police Department actions were not swift and thorough enough is also to be determined. But due to the public outcry and subsequent Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Attorney General’s Office, and Federal involvement, I believe we will have a proper and thorough investigation. And I believe a conviction will be obtained, not that this will replace Trayvon’s life. All in all, a deeply disturbing event and even with a conviction, it still is a lose-lose. Be patient, all will come out in the wash.

Responsibility rest squarely on management’s shoulders.

They miss this, and look to blame others. However, it always starts at the top, and is caused by the inherent blindness of the dominant masculine thinking, lacking its connection to humanness, the key to what’s missing. I recently experienced being a subcontractor in a corporate environment where the director of operations, hired in 2009, came on board and during his first meeting declared to the staff that he was not satisfied with current results and if he has to, “he will fire the entire staff and start over.” What did he create? More controls, stress, and an unhappy work environment, distrust of each other and the company as a whole, and a morale problem. This distress did not distress him; in fact he reveled in it and encouraged it in his direct underlings. He has people asking how high to jump, but misses the inefficient unhappy work environment he has set in motion.

The corporate employees where naturally terrified of losing their jobs, so they turn on each other, and look to shift the burden for failures anywhere they can. Ingenuity, spark, creativity, and questioning erroneous directives out of caring for the company, doing the right thing, has been replaced with regurgitation of the micromanaged company line. Worse yet, this is what is desired! The optimal outcome of a team working together to produce a great outcome becomes a casualty. Discussing mistakes made, not to hold over ones head, but to determine how the system/management failed, never occurs.

I admit to my mistakes openly, in fact I call them out, as this is how I learn and perhaps teach others to be aware of the same pitfalls, so as not to repeat them. My ego does not see mistakes as failures, but as opportunities to learn and add to my understanding. Micromanagers unfortunately see and count every mistake and attempt to shove it down their underling’s throats to aggrandize themselves. Achievements and good work are ignored. They only pats on the back come with knife in hand. This creates fear and resentment. Resentment ALWAYS shows up, perhaps not right away, but it will show up. It can show up in family lives, be self-directed, and will show up in the workplace indirectly and directly as sabotage.  I do just what I’m told, make no suggestions and look to make myself look better. If others are hurt or unfairly undermined, so what, becomes the undercurrent. The truth is that leading properly takes a lot of work, caring for team, and courage. This has been drummed out of middle management, so known of it remains.

If the mistakes are repeating, it is the managers that need better training. In their micromanaged environment “it” flows downhill, and there is no “uphill” feedback routes available. Managers, I noticed where hired without experience in their department and immediately made ill-thought-out control decisions. They made the decisions and that was that. If you give a computer, or an ant, conflicting, ever changing contradictory directives, you will get short-term compliance and stats and long-term disaster. Egocentricity never creates team, but it does create cliques of posterior kissers. America’s talent is being ground down and molded into ants. Using the ants of China as a model perhaps?

Even in China, as they progress and start to innovate, there is an up-swell of individual thinkers rebelling against their fascistic/communistic masters. The corporate megalomaniacs have it wrong. Communism starts off as fascism (according to Marx) and when the people finally fall in line, a communal caring thinking idealistic existence begins. No country, or company has even gotten close to this ideal state. The pseudo-communist-fascistic states fail, as do the dictatorial corporations. Their downfall is not realizing the paradoxical need to find a balance between the ideal corporate control concept and the reality that to thrive and innovate the individual must be encouraged. The latter requires human understanding and work.

Small-minded egotistical dictators, do not make good leaders. Leaders guide and encourage, they mentor and direct, while honoring the qualities in their staff that they nurture and encourage. I am seeing less and less of this type of true leader, and more and more of the mini-dictators. “If only the ants would just do their jobs.” “I can squeeze all I can, and when they burn out, there are 150 others waiting to replace them.” This just creates more stress, illness, and poor quality production. Blind, having no idea how to get humans to join together, these corporate dictators demand ant-hood as their surrogate battle plan. We are all doomed with this thinking.

It is the little dictator’s lack of understanding that stifles innovation and real long-term production. Ants are ants, people are people, to demand one act like the other creates distress, dysfunction, and disaster. Why, because you have to listen to those that actually do the work to see if it is working. Their feedback is invaluable, unless your ego is in the way. They paradoxically need encouragement and direction. Before you change anything, ask for feedback on the changes and listen. Be aware of the posterior kissers, in the long run they will destroy you. They will jump ship at the first opportunity. Their lack of courage to disagree, withholds the very feedback and understanding needed to manage and prevent a shipwreck. Value the discontents, not everything they are unhappy with is unrealsitic, and you will be rewarded for listening by having a real team player that feels valued part of the whole. Would you not like to feel this way too? Do unto other as you would have them do unto you applies aptly here.

How does this relate to the human condition? Well, it’s quite the metaphor. To protect ourselves, we create defensive wall to shield our heart from those that would hurt it (the Mongols.) They are not allowed in nor allowed to see or harm our vulnerable parts, or so we think. We actually advertise this part, but more on this at another time. Before I go further we need to understand intimacy. In-to-me-see, this incorporates the required act of faith-based vulnerability. Scary thought aye! This means letting others in, letting down those defensives, justifications and behaviors most develop as means of isolation. Of course, they see it as means of protection, but it’s not. The operative word is isolation and its cousin’s abandonment and loneliness. In order to find true connected love, you must be willing to risk being hurt. Allow me to share a little poem I wrote in the mid-seventies about this called Life:

Like a summer’s flower you’ve come, thought your thorns draw blood I embrace you.

To be honest, I sometimes, run, hide, isolate, make excuses, or use any of the multitude of tricks I have up my sleeves to NOT GET HURT. Oh yes, I do all those things too. However, there are lots of times I risk it all, go “all in,” wear my heart on my sleeve. And I do get hurt; and I don’t like it one bit. It would be easy to fall back, raise the shield walls, and sometimes I do, but I know to let them down. If not, I know I will remain alone, unfulfilled. This is not like the immediacy of a hurt; it is the dull ache that remains constant, a companion. I do keep “busy,” but that is not enough in the long run and the dull ache sometimes grows to the constant sound of a jet engine roaring in your ears. Then, it becomes time to find another distraction; distraction upon distraction, to the end of days. And worse yet, I recognize that those distractions (another word for addictions) are just another form of protectionism, bricks in the wall that China built.

So let’s get down to it. Everything you do to protect your heart, every excuse, justification, busy work, etc. hurts you. Oh, and as a side thought, it hurts those you are involved with too. Inside you know this too, which further adds to your inner unhappiness. So the only possible workable solution is to let go, open up and let love in, allow it to happen. Now, this doesn’t mean discard your head, “trust but verify” being the operative program. Question what doesn’t feel right. If the answer still doesn’t feel right, ask more questions till it does, step back to digest and let the answers given, answer the inner question. Sometimes the trite answers I have received indicated much greater issues.  Question these and if unworkable, sadly you may have to step away. Been there, done that. Wish it weren’t so. So keep moving, but be open as much as you humanly can. Believe in love, believe in love. Guess whose coming to dinner, to every dinner you will ever have? You. So believe in love and allow it in or you will never have the fulfillment you crave. We all want connection. Unfortunately, many find the cost too much to bear.

My personal experiences to date have shown me to look for deep connection, not quick “fun” ones. What I have seen though is, so many people looking, and when they find it they hunker down in their bunkers and take pot shots at love. They figure that if they shoot at love enough, what they don’t kill will be real. Brilliant aye. Think about this, have you done this? Does it ever produce love, or a trail of bodies and lost love? I will leave you with that thought to mull over, perhaps to influence your next act of – love, connection, or buying more ammo.

I know when it hurts, it hurts badly, like you want it all to end. But a life of isolation, even in a gilded cage, without the risk of loving for me is meaningless. Not so it seems for everyone. You decide what your life means and live it. Blessings on the journey.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/182922-how-to-teach-manly-men-to-be-romantic/

Well, it seems Mel Gibson has done it again, shot himself in the foot, or at least vomited on it. His latest drunken emotional tirade aimed at his wife has made headlines. His level of desperation seems to have increased as his reason decreases proportionally. His alcohol problem is long standing without a doubt. He has issues that probably stem back to childhood.  In this he is not alone; most of the world has such problems. His emotional state is being clearly further destabilized by his gold digging wife purposely. She wants custody of their child and all the riches she can take from him and make from the tabloids.

His handling of what has clearly become a crisis is counterproductive, at least for him. Alcohol, as any other addiction is a symptom of unresolved issues that are then projected onto others during his drunken tirade.  Thus, the cause of his feelings are assigned to others, “they are responsible for my feelings”, like Jews, Blacks, or Women in general. While we may not like the actions of others, we own our feelings and are responsible for them. This level of responsible ownership is difficult to stomach for many – Mel being one of them. He surely feels helpless in the face of loosing his child.

Real men aren’t supposed to feel helpless are they? So Mel blames it on Oksana and the system. While the system barely works and she surely is culpable of enflaming him, he uses alcohol to numb his pain rather than express it, cry, talk, etc. Nothing we numb goes away, it only festers. Then the alcohol releases the festered emotions in the form of emotional vomit. Mel is an example of this. Obviously this is not a healthy way to express ones emotions, and therefore, healing does not occur. Further, he causes more issues for himself by his aberrant behavior, like being investigated for abuse, which will lessen his standing as he fights for custody rights of his child. This also lessens self-esteem.  And all of these acting-out behaviors further fuel the fire of his inner turmoil. It is a vicious cycle being fueled by alcohol. Something we’ve seen before in others.

OK, so we’ve looked at Mel, but what about the wife? She has been given a restraining order that prohibited her from releasing her “secretly” recorded tapes. Somehow, unbeknownst and much to her dismay, they got released. She is shocked, shocked, just like Captain Renault in Casablanca.  Liar, liar, panties on fire.  Donald Trump who had met her, said she was a gold digger. She has played Mel well. She will come out with lots of money, her child, and she doesn’t have to fluff him anymore. She has won, and done great damage in the process, but is uncaring having lost her heart way back when. What’s a little more karma?

Because ‘nice girls don’t get angry,’ they learn to get what they want and get even. She is not the first to demonstrate this, or the last. But one of the pawns in their WWE match, called marriage, is the child. How will this affect her? What example does it reinforce? Certainly, this is not one of a wise, powerful and loving female. He certainly is not showing what a powerful and loving man can be either. And life goes on…