I Swear!

It is common for those who manage or supervise people to swear. There are two key situations when this is most likely to occur, but in both situations it is likely to have the effect of weakening your position of authority.

1. To demonstrate you are angry and serious about an issue

This undermines your authority because it looks like you have lost control of the situation and are flying off the handle. As a manager, you want to appear cool, calm and in control, but as soon as you yell and swear, it tells people that you are desperate and this is a last ditch effort to hold onto that control.

2. To set up an informal environment where people feel comfortable

Although you have the right intentions, many people interpret this as your wish to demonstrate that everyone (including you) is an equal. They may respond to this in ways that you don't feel is respectful of your position of authority, eg. ignore something you ask them to do, pressure you to swap shifts/ tasks. In the workplace, everyone is not equal. You are the boss - so don't accidentally undermine yourself!

It is important to recognise that as the person in authority, your job is to set a standard of professionalism. If you feel uncomfortable with this, remember that employees are proud to work for companies that value professionalism and respect it.

The Perfect Decision

Decision-making, and the ability to make timely, effective decisions is said to be a key and necessary trait of a true leader.

I'm currently working with an organisation whose managers, on the whole, lean toward an 'avoidant' management style - that is, they put off making decisions. This is problematic because it can slow organisations down, mean that they become more bureaucratic with much consensus sought before someone has the confidence to make a decision. Rather than driving change and being in control, these managers become reactive and buffeted by constant change happening around them. It makes them more cautious and locks them in a cycle.

I find this a particularly interesting phenomenon because it is (as a CBT psychologist might say) the product of faulty thinking. Managers with an avoidant style tend to believe that there will be a perfect answer to their problem -they just need to figure out what that is. Sometimes this is driven by (and also drives) an immature organisational culture where people are either golden children (good) or sabateurs (bad). These cultures are often punitive and unforgiving, with manager having little confidence to stick their neck out or making a stand. They encourage others to tow the line. (Note: the opposite style is outwardly aggressive)

The second trait many avoidant-style manager have is that they are very high on the 'agreeability' continuum of personality. For them, being unpopular is a painful experience they fear. Whilst their personalities attract supporters and they can be quite influential, when it comes to the cold hard truth, this is their weakness. They can appear to be passive aggressive - agreeing to one thing and doing another.

So what do you do if you are a manager who gets hot under the collar when you are pressed for answers, or you are managing (and hopefully coaching) someone like this?

The first thing is to understand that sometimes a timely decision is more important than the right decision; often more data or yet another meeting does not mean a better decision. For a greater appreciation, read 'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell.

If you work in an organisation, or with people like this, it is important to support them in their decision, encourage them to take more risks, and don't punish them when one goes wrong. Emphasise that it is important to keep learning and developing competence. As Bill Gates says 'success is a lousy teacher'. Sometimes our mistakes make us better, more human (an appealing trait in a leader!) and more competent on the whole. No-one wants to work in an organisation where you are always looking over your shoulder and don't have room to breath.

Resume Writing

I am often asked to give input to friends or family brushing up their resumes. I'm inclined to give you a diatribe but then a 'zenibyte' is meant to be short and sweet! Assuming that you've got the basics sorted, here are my top practical tips:

1. Don't use adjectives (descriptive words) to sell your skills

I read so many resumes where people claim to have 'high level communication skills' or 'excellent time management'. Speaking frankly as the person whose desk your CV lands on - what you perceive to be 'high level communication skills' and what I know them to be are quite different things - they are subjective. They don't help your case in any way because they suggest that you are trying to fudge your resume or fool me because you don't have the goods.

2. Set out the skills you developed in a role instead of providing a position description

A lot of people use up space describing what the company did, and the activities their role involved. This tells me nothing about how effective you were in the role and how you got along with others. To overcome this, use one line only to describe your duties, then list the skills or technical knowledge you developed in the role.

Remember that you developed important skills in your very first job which you have built on. For example, for my first job at McDonalds I 'developed an ability to work in a relentlessly busy environment' and 'an understanding of how to communicate clearly with team members'. As I moved into restaurants I built on this by learning 'interpersonal skills allowing me to deal with many types of people - chefs, colleagues and customers'.

3. Work hard to avoid listing generic skills

The skills that are listed on every resume I see are: attention to detail, organised, communication skills. These not only bore me but do nothing to convince me you actually understand or have these skills which are different at different levels and types of jobs. To overcome this, think about the challenges you had in each job you worked in. When I think back on my time working in a busy, inner city restaurant/ cafe, I always remember how angry the chefs were and having to put up with this! On my resume it becomes 'ability to deal with different types of people', or 'ability to deal with conflict'.

If you can do this well, it sets you up for a good interview too. An interviewing manager will say 'it says here that you worked in a restaurant and dealt with conflict - can you tell us about that?' You know your own history so it will immediately remind you of some scenarios you dealt with and can tell them about.

4. Layout

Use a contemporary, fresh layout that represents you. Do not use Times New Roman, this says that you are old fashioned and probably don't have great computer skills. There are plenty of free templates available for download. Try www.monster.com.

5. Don't talk about being enthusiastic or a fast learner

I see this so often! It tells me that you don't meet the criteria I've advertised, but you want me to give you the job anyway. To overcome this, try to identify what we in HR call 'transferrable skills'. An example of this is when I wanted to move into employee/ industrial relations which involves negotiating with unions. I had very little experience negotiating with unions, however I had been working as a volunteer crisis telephone counsellor for a while and I certainly did some difficult and tense negotiating there. I picked up some experience which was applicable to what I wanted to do and my prospective employer felt more comfortable that I would succeed in negotiating with union officials.

Credibility

I read something in the paper today about a bunch of bureaucrats who "speak perfect management jargon" and yet were totally ineffective and failed to act in the interests of a little boy in foster care. It started me thinking about a manager I'm currently working with who might well fit this bill, and why people continue to use jargon like "good corporate governance", "capability frameworks", and "consultative justice". It occurred to me that what many managers in this boat have in common is the complaint that they are not heard.

I suspect that they think using bigger words and more jargon will demonstrate their intellectual superiority, stump up their credibility and force others to listen (ie. give them some authority, which is really important to them). I feel a bit sorry for these people, because it generally has the opposite effect. Instead of connecting with and influencing people, it alienates and confuses them.

The manager I am currently working with has employed another tactic to stump up her credibility which has also backfired horribly. Her role requires her to work with authorities to find better ways for them to deal with minority groups. Every time she asserts her own point of view with her boss, colleagues and staff she prefaces it with "the community thinks..." as a way of getting others to take her views on board, and perhaps because she lacks some confidence in her own views. Unfortunately, the people she works with have concluded that she is overly sympathetic to the community and does not hold the organisation's interests as her first priority. They have confused her motive.By using jargon, and attempting to fool others, she has ensured that fewer people see her as a credible person, reducing her own effectiveness.

I have worked with a number of people who employ a variation on this technique and use an unfounded generalisation eg. 'the public want...', 'consumers think...', 'the boss will want...'etc.

So what should manager's with credibility issues change so that they are listened to? I'd recommend that they preface their assertions with "In my experience". It's a lot closer to the truth, and truth is good for credibility.

Recruitment Companies

If you're in the market for a job, you may decide to sign up with a recruitment agency (I did!) and have them represent you. Some people sign up with multiple recruiters in the hope that it will improve their odds. However, it may actually reduce your chances, especially with really great jobs. Here's why, and which agencies I'd recommend. If you've had any experiences with recruitment companies yourself, I'd love to hear them - add a comment to this post. 

• Many recruitment companies (especially the big, well known ones) hire backpackers with little or no recruitment experience. These are the people who are representing and 'selling' you - scary! 
• Some companies pay their people on a commission basis, depending on the number of phone calls they make to employers and HR people each day. As an HR person, this gets REALLY annoying and we tend to go into avoidance mode.
• When I see the same resume come in from multiple recruiters, I think the candidate must be of low quality, otherwise they would have already been snapped up.
• Recruiters charge an average of 17.5% finders fee on top of the salary they negotiate for you. This is great, because it means they're motivated to get the best deal for you. However, many good employers with internal recruitment teams don't want to pay thousands of dollars in fees, so they only take applications directly or from recruiters they're friendly with.

On the upside, there are some really talented people in the recruitment industry that have great relationships with employers - but how do you find them? My #1 Tip is to choose a small, niche company that focuses on one area or industry. These are often started by talented people who have worked within these industries and know them inside out. They don't rely on volume of resumes coming in cold, they build their networks of candidates and employers by approaching them. These smaller firms not only do a better job of looking after their candidates (you), but they are able to make much better matches between them and the companies, meaning that hopefully you find a job that is challenging, rewarding and you want to stay for a long time. This provides repeat business for them; their success is built on their reputation.

Here is a short list of recommended companies that I hope to add to with your input:

CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY INDUSTRY Focus Recruitment, Melb based, connected Aust-wide

HUMAN RESOURCES INDUSTRY The Next Step, Australia-wide

IT & COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY BDS Recruitment, Australia-wide

Redundancy payouts

Its happens to all of us. If you haven't yet had the experience of being laid off (or retrenched), chances are that the current economy will serve it up to you shortly. In the last week I've had two phone calls from friends in a post-redundancy panic asking: what should I be getting paid? Here's the advice I gave them.

*Please note, this advice is for staff employees, who sign a common law contract when they first start, have no EBA, and often are not under an award.

1. Annual leave paid out

Whenever you leave a job, whether you resign, are sacked, are made redundant or for any other reason; your employer must pay out all of the annual leave that you have accrued and not yet taken, at your current rate of pay.

2. Notice period paid out

Your contract of employment sets out how much notice your employer has to give before terminating you, or how much notice you must give if you resign. In a redundancy, you are entitled to either:

(a) work out your notice period - they tell you now but you don't actually finish up until the end of the period

or, more commonly,

(b) payment in lieu of notice - you leave today, but they pay you as if you worked out the period

Also, if you're over 45 years old and you have been with your company for more than 2 years, you get an additional week's notice (or notice in lieu) on top of this.

3. Possible severance payment

Employers have no obligation to make a severance payment to you, so an entitlement to any severance payment will come down to what was in your original contract, or the company policy. Big companies tend to make severance payments, whilst smaller companies tend not to. These are where the big money comes from. Policies tend to relate to the number of years you have worked with the company (service period). Some companies have a straight calculation eg. 3 weeks pay for every year, while other companies have more complex formulas eg. must have worked 12 months to get severance, 2 weeks pay for each of the 3 years after that and 3 weeks pay for any additional years.

4. Additional entitlements

• You may be entitled to Long Service Leave, or pro-rata Long Service Leave, depending on which state you live in. 
  
• You may be entitled to additional benefits if they are in your contract of employment.

5. Tax-free amounts

Large redundancy pay outs also incur a tax break (called an Eligible Termination Payout - ETP) on the first few thousand dollars. The Australian Taxation Office can provide information on this. It has changed several times recently, and can be complex, which is why I am not going to outline it here.

How to ensure you get what you're entitled to

If you're not sure whether your employer has paid you the correct amount, you should ring your payroll person, or the person who gave you the bad news, and ask for a break-down. When you call, don't act angry or forceful. Simply tell the person that you were made redundant but you're not sure what you're entitled to and you were wondering if they could help.

If you feel worried about doing this, don't be. I often have people ring me with these questions. In my experience, even the nastiest managers are feeling guilty for making your life crap at this stage, and will be sympathetic and likely to help you.