Diversity in the Workplace

As you look around your office, is everyone just like you? Probably not. The demographics of the American workforce have changed dramatically over the last 50 years. In the 1950s, more than 60% of the American workforce consisted of white males. They were typically the sole breadwinners in the household, expected to retire by age 65 and spend their retirement years in leisure activities. Today, the American workforce is a better reflection of the population with a significant mix of genders, race, religion, age and other background factors.

The long-term success of any business calls for a diverse body of talent that can bring fresh ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge that diversity poses, therefore, is enabling your managers to capitalize on the mixture of genders, cultural backgrounds, ages and lifestyles to respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively.

Here are two examples of the challenges inherent in managing a diverse workforce:

An American health insurance company hired employees from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. The variety of different native languages and cultures, however, did not mix. Instead of making employees feel that they had a sub-group within their larger team, it gave rise to paranoia ("They must be talking about me.") and assumptions ("They think they are smarter than everyone else."). When the group needed to learn a new intake system, rather than pull together, they became even more estranged and productivity and morale plummeted.

In an American subsidiary of a global bank based in Japan, a few Japanese female workers complained to management that their older Japanese male bosses were being disrespectful to them. The human resources manager questioned all of the women in the office. Every Japanese woman reported problems with the Japanese men. In contrast, the American women reported no problems at all. Confused, the human resources manager questioned the Japanese male managers. The answer? The Japanese men responded that they understood American expectations related to sexual harassment, so they were careful about what they said to the American women. They were perplexed by the responses of the Japanese women. "What is the problem?" the Japanese men wanted to know, "They know that we don't mean anything. Any Japanese person would understand." Communication, which has never been straightforward and easy in the first place, is becoming even more complicated as organizations take on global partners.

Diversity is no longer just a black/white, male/female, old/young issue. It is much more complicated and interesting than that. In The Future of Diversity and the Work Ahead of Us, Harris Sussman says, "Diversity is about our relatedness, our connectedness, our interactions, where the lines cross. Diversity is many things - a bridge between organizational life and the reality of people's lives, building corporate capability, the framework for interrelationships between people, a learning exchange, a strategic lens on the world."

A benefit of a diverse workforce is the ability to tap into the many talents which employees from different backgrounds, perspectives, abilities and disabilities bring to the workplace. An impressive example of this is found on the business cards of employees at one Fortune 100 technology company. Employees at this company have business cards that appear normal at first glance. On closer inspection, the raised Braille characters of employee information are evident.

Many companies, however, still face challenges around building a diverse environment. Part of the reason is the tendency to pigeonhole employees, placing them in a different silo based on their diversity profile. If an employee is male, over 50, English, and an atheist, under what diversity category does this employee fall? Gender, generational, global or religious? In the real world, diversity cannot be easily categorized and those organizations that respond to human complexity by leveraging the talents of a broad workforce will be the most effective in growing their businesses and their customer base.

So, how do you develop a diversity strategy that gets results? The companies with the most effective diversity programs take a holistic approach to diversity by following these guidelines:

1. Link diversity to the bottom line. When exploring ways to increase corporate profits, look to new markets or to partnering with your clients more strategically. Consider how a diverse workforce will enable your company to meet those goals. Think outside the box. At a Fortune 500 manufacturing company, Hispanics purchased many of the products. When the company hired a Director of Hispanic Markets, profits increased dramatically in less than one year because of the targeted marketing efforts Your new customers may be people with disabilities or people over the age of 65. How can your employees help you reach new markets?
2. Walk the talk. If senior management advocates a diverse workforce, make diversity evident at all organizational levels. If you don't, some employees will quickly conclude that there is no future for them in your company. Don't be afraid to use words like black, white, gay or lesbian. Show respect for diversity issues and promote clear and positive responses to them. How can you demonstrate your company's commitment to diversity?
3. Broaden your efforts. Does diversity at your company refer only to race and gender? If so, expand your definition and your diversity efforts. As baby boomers age and more minorities enter the workplace, the shift in demographics means that managing a multi-generational and multi-cultural workforce will become a business norm. Also, there is a wealth of specialized equipment available to enable people with disabilities to contribute successfully to their work environments. If your organizational environment does not support diversity broadly you risk losing talent to your competitors. How can your recruitment efforts reach out to all qualified candidates?
4. Remove artificial barriers to success. The style of interview - behavioral or functional- may be a disadvantage to some job candidates. Older employees, for example, are less familiar with behavioral interviews and may not perform as well unless your recruiters directly ask for the kind of experiences they are looking for. Employees from countries outside the US and non-Caucasian populations may downplay their achievements or focus on describing, "who they know" rather than "what they know" Train your recruiters to understand the cultural components of interviews. How can your human resources processes give equal opportunity to all people?
5. Retain diversity at all levels. The definition of diversity goes beyond race and gender to encompass lifestyle issues. Programs that address work and family issues - alternative work schedules and child and elder care resources and referrals - make good business sense. How can you keep valuable employees?
6. Provide practical training. Using relevant examples to teach small groups of people how to resolve conflicts and value diverse opinions helps companies far more than large, abstract diversity lectures. Training needs to emphasize the importance of diverse ideas as well. Workers care more about whether or not their boss seems to value their ideas rather than if they are part of a group of all white males or an ethnically diverse workforce. In addition, train leaders to move beyond their own cultural frame of reference to recognize and take full advantage of the productivity potential inherent in a diverse population. How can you provide diversity training at your company?
7. Mentor with others at your company who you do not know well. Involve your managers in a mentoring program to coach and provide feedback to employees who are different from them. Some of your most influential mentors can be people with whom you have little in common. Find someone who doesn't look just like you. Find someone from a different background, a different race or a different gender. Find someone who thinks differently than you do. How can you find a mentor who is different from you?
8. Measure your results. Conduct regular organizational assessments on issues like pay, benefits, work environment, management and promotional opportunities to assess your progress over the long term. Keep doing what is working and stop doing what is not working. How do you measure the impact of diversity initiatives at your organization?

In the book, Beyond Race and Gender, R. Roosevelt Thomas defines managing diversity as "a comprehensive managerial process for developing an environment that works for all employees." Successful strategic diversity programs also lead to increased profits and lowered expenses.

The long-term success of any business calls for a diverse body of talent that can bring fresh ideas, perspectives and views and a corporate mindset that values those views. It's also no secret that the lack of diversity can affect your ability to communicate effectively with diverse clients. Link your diversity strategies to specific goals like morale, retention, performance and the bottom line. Build your business with everything you've got, with the complex multi-dimensional talents and personalities of your workforce, and make diversity work for you.

Copyright © 2003. All rights reserved.

Creating a Sales Culture of Personal Accountability

Essential tips for creating a sales culture of accountability within a hearing care practice.

Accountability can be a sensitive subject because most people like to think of themselves as responsible employees or managers. However, excuse-making and "waiting for things to get better" generally don't improve a business situation. Here are some tips for fostering greater accountability within a hearing care business or practice.

Sadly, the "Blame-Game" has become a pervasive phenomenon in America's corporate culture-with Enron, Tyco, and other companies epitomizing the increasingly popular sport of finger pointing among top management. In helping client companies build their businesses, I invariably meet Blame-Game players in all strata of the organization: the people who make excuses for non-performance, and the leaders who make their own excuses and accept excuses from their team. Several business experts believe that lack of accountability is the number-one challenge facing organizations today.

Those involved in finger-pointing in a sales team are the unwitting subversives who sabotage growth.

According to John Miller, author of QBQ! The Question Behind the Question, "In today's business culture, the lack of personal accountability is a problem that has resulted in an epidemic of blame, complaining and procrastination. No organization or individual can achieve its goals, compete in the marketplace, fulfill its vision, or develop people and teams without personal accountability."

Dave Kurlan, president of Objective Management Group, contends that "real growth and change will not occur until an individual stops making excuses and [takes] responsibility for their weaknesses."3 While this may be easier said than done, it is important to identify and eradicate lack of accountability in the corporate culture-as well as in small and medium-size businesses- in order to promote growth.

Identifying Lack of Sales Accountability

A number of examples can be cited to demonstrate the need for accountability. For example, one practices revenues had been declining for 4 years, and margins were creeping downward. Determined to stop the bleeding and reverse the trend, the management team requested an objective assessment of their organization's business-development processes. The evaluation revealed that the entire team had a problem with excuse making-even the president/owner of the company.

Interviews with key players in the organization yielded commonly found accountability-ducking comments, such as blaming the poor economy, tough competition, or new management. These included statements like:

• Why do patients expect so much?
• When will the market turn around?
• When is someone going to train me?
• When is someone going to put together a decent marketing program?
• When is management going to get its act together?
• When are we going to become more competitive?
• When are we going to have better products?
• Why aren't my people motivated?
• Why do I have to do everything myself?

In reality, when people blame the economy-an external element-they don't believe they have control over the outcome and therefore aren't likely to do anything that will improve their effectiveness. When competition is cited, it is really an admission of being outsold by the competition. When management is blamed by workers, it can often be viewed as a cop-out and failure to become committed to changing the situation or, at least, changing what they can change. As Kurlan explains, "They would be criticizing themselves if they were to take responsibility for not following through on something or letting something fall through the cracks." In most cases, employees do have the ability to affect change.

The following are symptoms that may indicate the revenue-generation side of a hearing care business/practice lacks accountability and personal responsibility:

• The patient management pipeline, or flow of patients from the first appointment to the fitting of the hearing instruments, is weak. This weakness is due to not enough new patients or not enough patients who are being adequately prepared to make a commitment to use amplification.
• The dispensing professional always discounts price in order to get the business.
• There is a low conversion rate from those patients who are qualified for amplification to those who make a decision to be successfully fit.

Eliminating Lack of Sales Accountability

There are four effective ways to eliminate lack of accountability while building a culture of personal responsibility in the workplace:

• Hire the right people;
• Set the right expectations;
• Ask the right questions;
• Match the right behaviors.

Hire the Right Sales People is Critical for success.

Jim Collins' research for the book Good to Great identified a set of elite companies that made the leap from good to great and maintained their results for at least 15 years. After the leap, these good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns over 15 years that outperformed the general stock market by an average factor of 7 times. Although these companies are significantly larger than hearing health care businesses, some common principles still apply. One of these principles is to get the right people involved in your organization.

Although recruiting personnel was discussed in detail by the author in a previous HR article, having the right people cannot be over-emphasized as a critical component in creating a high-performance, revenue-generating team. Disciplined people, who operate with a high degree of personal responsibility (ie, they don't make or accept excuses for themselves or others), have disciplined thoughts, which fuel disciplined actions, which fuel disciplined results.

We've often heard the comment, "People are your greatest asset." Interestingly, the good-to-great leaders think differently, stating that the right people are a company's greatest asset. Collins contends that "if you have the right people, management and motivation problems go away because they have the inner drive to create excellence."

Case in point: A client company had a growing gap between their business plan's revenue projections and year-to-date results. A visit with the owner revealed that he was quite proud of the leadership team he had recently put together. Each person had more than 25 years of experience in the industry with excellent technical expertise and a good track record. However, each new member of the leadership team blamed their lack of recent success on the flat economy in their respective markets. During the assessment phase, we discovered that they saw the economy as an obstacle-versus a stepping-stone-to creative brainstorming and strategy. The outcome was: Disappointing results. It's true that the economy can help determine business success and failure. However, people with the right thoughts about personal responsibility would have taken action to deliver better bottom-line performance in the face of poor economic circumstances instead of accepting under-performance "inevitability."

Set the right sales expectations.

Like the president of the above company, it is often easy to accept excuses. What can we do to turn the tide and create a culture of accountability in our individual practices? Since insisting on worker accountability is one of the most dreaded and confrontational of all management responsibilities, what can a leader do to actively build a team of "right" people?

Kurlan says the answer is to recognize excuses and stop accepting them. "Effective immediately, you must stop accepting excuse-making of any kind, from any one, at any time, or for any reason-even if there is a shred of validity to it!" says Kurlan. He advises clients to raise expectations by asking, "If you couldn't use that excuse, what could you have done differently to overcome that obstacle? This strategy empowers your people and forces them to hang in there and work harder and smarter, knowing that you won't accept that excuse ever again."

For example, an I.T. (Information Technology) company for whom I consulted has experienced steady growth over the last 3 years in spite of the "IT-bust" and the languishing economy. Why has this company been successful when many of their counterparts are either out-of-business or operating in the red? Barb, a principal in the group, says "When we get discouraged about what we see in the marketplace, we ask each other, 'What can we do differently so that the slowing economy becomes a stepping-stone to growth?' The result was: Steady growth in a market where many companies have failed.

Asking the right questions of your sales team is a key step in accountability.

The next step is to train yourself and your staff to ask empowering questions. John Miller in QBQ! Recommends the following:

• Begin with questions that use "What" or "How" (not "Why," "When," or "Who").
• Use questions that contain an "I" (not "they," "them," "we," or "you").
• Focus on action.

For example, by using the principles above, the blame questions identified earlier are transformed to become:

• What can I do help set proper patient expectations?
• What can I do to jump-start our market in my community?
• What training do I need to move my skills to the next level?
• How can I improve our marketing plan?
• What can I do to differentiate my practice in this community?
• How might I do a better job of instructing the patient?
• What can I do to create a more motivated environment?

Another example: After determining that rampant excuse-making was causing his business to stagnate, Tom, a vice-president of business development for a medical device company, decided he needed to change his own behavior if he expected his people to change their attitudes. Tom posted Miller's QBQ! Principles on a large poster in his office. When necessary, as his staff posed self-defeating questions to him, he'd simply point to the poster requesting that they reword the question in a QBQ! Format.

Simply put, there are some questions that will get a person and an organization nowhere. In contrast, questions having potential answers that can empower individuals often lead to great personal and professional gains.

Match the right sales behaviors to improve performance.

Accountability can be promoted in many ways. However, to build a culture of accountability, leaders need to develop an accountability process that includes (at least) the following:

• Match the right behaviors and to the desired outcomes.
• Monitor performance.
• Measure against key accountabilities.

Research by Objective Management reveals that, in organizations committed to developing consistent growth in revenues, 25% of a manager's time is spent holding people accountable and measuring their performance. This may be uncomfortable for some managers, but it is an essential function of being a manager. Truly being a manager begins with defining workers' desired outcomes. Steve Montague of Effective Sales Development, a consulting firm based in Kansas City, says that he instructs clients to identify the 3 to 5 "key accountabilities" for each employee's position. Then he asks the employee in that position the same question, "What are the 3 to 5 key accountabilities that you need to perform in your position?" Frequently, clients are shocked at the mismatch they discover between the answers. It quickly becomes apparent why employees are not achieving the desired outcomes; they are not striving for the same outcomes that management deems essential for success.

Numerous tools exist to enhance the accountability process.

Montague recommends a non-traditional performance appraisal system that is not tied to salary increases, but rather tied to the education and development of the person. Often companies use the performance appraisal process in a happenstance manner for pay increases. Montague, in contrast, encourages regular and consistent performance reviews that encourage employee growth and communication. "With a good system in place we can coach, mentor, and train the individual to higher levels of success in or out of the organization," says Montague. "Whichever it is, it will be with the best interests of both the individual and the organization."

Another effective tool in matching, monitoring, and measuring the performance of revenue-generation employees is the "Scorecard." This method identifies the key accountabilities of a position, defines good/better/best performance standards, and measures performance. Peter Drucker, often referred to as one of the greatest management thinkers of our times, suggests that few factors are as important to an organization as measurement, and that measurement is among the weakest areas in management today. A number of handy management tools exist, and the Scorecard is an example of a tool designed to assess employee accountability and communication.

For example, a recent client named Jackie, coming from an operations background and now vice president of a practice, knew there must be metrics-measurements by which she could assess whether people were on track to achieving the practices revenue objectives. However, none were available. A year later, after much dialogue and documentation using the Scorecard, Jackie is confident that her staff can grow to the next level. More importantly, she's developed vital management tools, a scorecard, and pipeline management process that help her identify problem areas and ensure clear expectations.

Summary

In The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability, authors Connors, Smith & Hickman summarize the difference between great and ordinary companies:

"A thin line separates success from failure, the great companies from ordinary ones. Below that line lies excuse making, blaming others, confusion, and an attitude of helplessness, while above that line lays a sense of reality, ownership, commitment, solutions to problems and determined action. While losers languish below the line, preparing stories that explain why past efforts went awry, winners reside above the line, powered by commitment and hard work."

The authors caution that excuse-making and a severe lack of accountability has weakened the American corporate culture, which now stresses ease over difficulty, feeling good over being good, appearance over substance, and saving face over solving problems. Further, they state that there is a great need to focus more on long-term solutions, total quality, and overall process rather than strictly on short-term results and quick-fixes.

Accountability is essential for getting people to rise above their circumstances and do whatever it takes (within the bounds of ethical behavior and personal well-being) to get the results they want.

Hiring a Star Accountant - Knowledge is Not Enough

If you want to add an accountant to your staff who truly creates value for your company, you must hire an accountant who knows more than the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) backwards and forwards. Of course, having a GAAP whiz on staff does have its advantages, but the fact is that your new hire won't just be working with numbers; it's inevitable that he or she will need to work with others outside of the accounting department too. Therefore, in addition to being a highly capable number-cruncher, any accountant you hire should have a knack for building relationships. That's to say, he or she should be a "people person."

An accountant who is a true "people person" will possess all of the following characteristics:

Service-oriented

Like it or not, an accountant must realize that the service he or she provides is about others; it's never about them. Therefore, he or she must always be willing to work in the best interest of his / her employer. As the employer, that means finding an accountant who is willing to "delve deeper" if asked to do so to help managers make smarter decisions.

Excellent Communicator

For accountants, the financial information produced through regular accounting tasks is simple to decipher. Accountants also understand the ramifications of the data. However, that's not always the case for managers who need the accounting information. While some manager may love to see every accounting calculation and spreadsheet available, others may prefer a figure-free explanation of the company's financial situation first and a summary of financial data second. This is precisely why making sure an accountant can explain financial reports in real-world, laymen's terms is an essential characteristic for a star hire.

Conservatively Creative

The rules provided by GAAP may be specific but, as with many things in this world, GAAP does leave room for interpretation. Therefore, an accountant who is creative with his or her use of GAAP but who is conservative as he / she works within the tax law is a true asset. This type of accountant, without a doubt, has the greatest ability to work in the best interest of the company / client.

Confident

Confidence is critical! An accountant must be unwavering in the reasons and methods he or she chooses to use to calculate figures the way they do. It's a sign that the accountant knows what they are doing and why they are doing it; an accountant without confidence could be a potential liability. Meanwhile, a confident accountant is also a great asset for any company because they're often able to make educated suggestions based on the financial data for the betterment of the company!

How do you make sure that a candidate has all of these characteristics? Simple. You ask questions...but not just any questions; ask questions based on real scenarios that have occurred at your company or that would be plausible occurrences. This will allow you to learn how the interviewee responds under pressure, explore their knowledge base beyond their resume, and see if the candidate has the "people person" characteristics that will make them a valuable asset to your company. Do that and you're sure to snag a star accountant!

Key Components to Any Successful Social Marketing Platform

A two way conversation with potential customers or "engagement" is the buzzword in the social networking circles these days. If this is the truth, what could be the building blocks that facilitate such conversations? A company that has a web presence via a website or pay per click advertisements may not really make an impact because people today are more information savvy, are more empowered and smarter than ever before. To reach these clients takes more than a couple of paid advertisements, one needs to have informative and responsive communication tools since it involves more than one and off solution. There is no comprehensive approach that utilizes modern web strategies like social marketing, the promotion of products and business through social networks. Here are a few forms of social marketing strategies a company may make use of:

1. Blogging - a company blog will help accomplish a number of goals in creating a successful social marketing strategy. The most important thing is that the blog will be a way to provide fresh, relevant information to the audience and allow them to react to it in order to draw a way forward and evaluate the move. Real Simple Syndication (RSS) has made it very easy for people to subscribe to blogs and have their favorite blogs appear on their blog readers or mobile devices. A company blog will help build a community of loyal followers but the topics in discussion must be of casual nature, should be informative and must have tips and hints on the industry.

2. Social networks - Tapping into the power of personal networks and creating a company profiles on the leading social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can help a company attract visitors to their static pages. This is largely because the pages are more interactive, current, social in nature and always updated, What is more, it is even possible to use plugins to configure blog and forum feeds automatically to each a wide client base with one move. In a nutshell, this is the best and most profitable social marketing channel and most companies are now establishing their presence on these pages.

3. Article marketing - Information is power and everyone knows that. This is why most people will often turn to article directories to find information they seek. Article social marketing involves coming up with informative newsletter- type articles to be distributed free to online editors. This is a perfect opportunity for a company to build relevant, professional inbound links to their web pages. Customers will often feel the benefit of getting the informative articles and they will appreciate and even follow the links to your site as a way to show trust on the advice given.