The Art of Leadership

Employees are your most valuable resource

By Steve M. Cohen
Labor Management Advisory Group

There is much that you can do to anticipate the employee-related potholes and navigate around them if you are savvy and prepared. It helps if you have formal education in leadership and management, but even if you don’t, there are resources out there to help!

This article will help you, the owner or manager, better understand the need to manage your employees, because if you don’t get good at managing employees … you are going to be driven out of business (or at least, out of your mind) by them.

Classifying Employee Behavior
There are three kinds of behavior that employees display: inadvertent behavior, overt behavior and opportunistic behavior. Inadvertent behavior is like autopilot behavior. This can be behavior that comes naturally due to upbringing or habit.

Overt behavior is behavior on a plan or deliberate behavior. Opportunistic behavior is behavior that is designed to take advantage of a situation. It can even be described as predatory behavior.

Inadvertent behavior is behavior that employees can display because they have “let their hair down.” This can include coarse and unprofessional behavior. Choosing to dress inappropriately for work, using profanity at work, using racist, sexist or other inappropriate judgmental words while at work — all are examples of inadvertent behavior.

Overt behavior is deliberate behavior. The employees come to work at a specific time because that is the designated time for work to start. They dress professionally and act professionally because they are expected to and because there is a formal policy requiring them to do so. Overt behavior can be an employee following a sales protocol to close a sale because they were taught to follow the sales protocol.

Opportunistic behavior is behavior that recognizes an opportunity to take inappropriate or unfair advantage of someone. An example could be a male supervisor pressuring a female subordinate into a sexual situation in exchange for a raise in pay. Another example could be when a candidate for a job threatens to file a complaint with the state Human Rights Commission or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) because you, the interviewer, asked a question (during the job interview) like, “Have you ever made an unemployment or workers compensation claim?” That question is illegal. Another situation could be a strong-willed employee who takes delight in berating, dominating or traumatizing a weaker employee for sport.

All of these situations can have serious legal and financial consequences. They can also be significant morale killers and time eaters within your business. To get snagged up in a civil legal case, or an EEOC claim, is major drain on your business, not to mention the emotional strain it can take on you personally. This is why management matters.

Analyzing Your Resources
Not only are there three types of behaviors, as listed above. There are three types of employees: engaged, disengaged and undecided employees. Engaged employees are fully committed to your business plan and vision/mission. These are your core people, the ones you can always count on.

Disengaged employees are the ones who fight you and work against your values and plans. They undermine your goals. The third group is neither engaged nor disengaged but undecided. Business research suggests that 25 percent of the typical employee group is engaged, 15 percent is disengaged and 60 percent is undecided. Imagine what could happen in your business if you could get rid of the disengaged and grow the engaged group?

The activities associated with managing these human resources include understanding the environment, planning for human resource needs, staffing for those needs and finally, effective coaching and judging of personnel. In addition, you, as the owner or manager, need to effectively reward employees who are engaged in your business or discipline and/or terminate employees that are not engaged in your business.

Dr. Steve Cohen is president of the Labor Management Advisory Group and Acting Dean of the Baker University School of Professional and Graduate Studies. Party & Paper Retailer readers are invited to submit management and personnel related questions for Dr. Cohen to answer. These can be on topics such as selection interviewing, exit interviewing, sexual harassment and dealing with difficult employee behaviors, reference checking — or another topic of your choice. Send your questions to editorial@partypaper.com, or contact Dr. Cohen at (816) 566-0278 or hrsolutionsoncall@mindspring.com.