What ever happened to the Golden Rule? Incivility is a plague for any business. It spreads stress, smears reputations, reduces productivity and raises employee turnover.
Try these tips from “The Cost of Bad Behavior” for preventing it in your organization:
1. Set zero-tolerance expectations. They must be driven by senior management or they won’t go anywhere.
2. Teach civility. Make certain everyone in the organization understands what civility is so that they can help to establish and sustain (and when necessary, defend) a culture of civility.
3. Train employees and managers. For example, explain how to recognize and cope with the inappropriate behavior of “cunning offenders.”
4. When incivility occurs, hammer it. Incivility is like cancer. Once detected, it must immediately be treated aggressively.
5. Take complaints seriously. A culture of civility must also be a culture of candor. An open-door policy will encourage people to confide.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Applying “The Pareto Principle” to Your Goals
Vilfredo Pareto was a 19th-century Italian social scientist and critic. He observed that 80% of the wealth in Italy, at the time, was concentrated in 20% of the population – something he felt that was not good for society.
While the genesis of his work is very seldom discussed, his name lives on in what is known as The Pareto Principle, or “the 80/20 rule” – a concept that is a relevant today as it was when it was first developed.
Talk to contemporary entrepreneurs and most will tell you that 80% of their business comes from 20% of their customers. Human resources executives will typically suggest that 80% of the employee relations problems and issues they have to deal with come from just 20% of the employees. And most business managers would agree that it’s a minority of their team members who are responsible for a majority of the innovation, creativity, and superior work their organizations enjoy.
In all of these examples, the Pareto Principle suggests that we should pay attention to, and focus our efforts on, the critical few (the 20%) rather than the trivial or average many (the 80%).So what does all this have to do with you and your goals? A lot!
There’s a myriad of things you can do in pursuit of your professional and personal objectives. A large number of them fall into the 80% – the “trivial many.” A much smaller number fall in the “critical few” category – the important 20%.
Take a look at your goals and the action plans you’ve developed for meeting them. What are you doing? How are you investing your precious time? What do your past experiences – and the experiences of others – tell you? Are you focusing on “need to do,” high payback activities – or on less important, “like to do” tasks? Remember it’s that “critical few” that will propel you furthest and give you the most bang for your time an energy buck.
When in doubt, think W-W-P-D (What Would Pareto Do?).
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Today’s solution is from Straight Talk for SuccessBy Bud BilanichFor more information on this resource and other high-impact WALK THE TALK publications, please click here to learn more.
While the genesis of his work is very seldom discussed, his name lives on in what is known as The Pareto Principle, or “the 80/20 rule” – a concept that is a relevant today as it was when it was first developed.
Talk to contemporary entrepreneurs and most will tell you that 80% of their business comes from 20% of their customers. Human resources executives will typically suggest that 80% of the employee relations problems and issues they have to deal with come from just 20% of the employees. And most business managers would agree that it’s a minority of their team members who are responsible for a majority of the innovation, creativity, and superior work their organizations enjoy.
In all of these examples, the Pareto Principle suggests that we should pay attention to, and focus our efforts on, the critical few (the 20%) rather than the trivial or average many (the 80%).So what does all this have to do with you and your goals? A lot!
There’s a myriad of things you can do in pursuit of your professional and personal objectives. A large number of them fall into the 80% – the “trivial many.” A much smaller number fall in the “critical few” category – the important 20%.
Take a look at your goals and the action plans you’ve developed for meeting them. What are you doing? How are you investing your precious time? What do your past experiences – and the experiences of others – tell you? Are you focusing on “need to do,” high payback activities – or on less important, “like to do” tasks? Remember it’s that “critical few” that will propel you furthest and give you the most bang for your time an energy buck.
When in doubt, think W-W-P-D (What Would Pareto Do?).
-->
_____________________________________________
Today’s solution is from Straight Talk for SuccessBy Bud BilanichFor more information on this resource and other high-impact WALK THE TALK publications, please click here to learn more.
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