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Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issueseverything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor. A reader asks: I recently hired a new administrative employee. His job is to answer phones, greet guests, and complete various tasks I assign to him. His customer service skills are strong, but his attention to detail is very weak. I have given him a lot of feedback and training, but he continues to make basic mistakes and misses almost every deadline I give him. But he is constantly telling me how great a job he’s doing. He routinely tells me things like, “You are going to be so happy when I show you what I’ve done for you!” or “You are going to love meI am making your life so much easier!” and then hands me a report that I have to spend a half-hour correcting. Yesterday, I told him to follow up with me when he completes tasks because I would rather he proactively inform me than wait for me to ask. His response: “As you know, I always complete tasks immediately [this is untrue] but I didn’t know you needed me to remind you of that. No problem at all!” This behavior is really grating on me. His work product hasn’t improved and I’m starting to feel like he’s trying to manipulate me into not giving him corrections. I’m starting to struggle giving him feedback because I feel like he ignores me and I’m letting that affect my interactions with him. Have I already arrived at the “this needs to improve or else” conversation? He started just two months ago. I want to give him time to learn and grow, but my patience is zapped. Green responds: Im sorry, I laughed out loud at “As you know, I always complete tasks immediately [this is untrue]. You do need to have the “this needs to improve or else conversation. Youve given him very basic feedback over and over, hes not improving, and he misses almost every deadline you give him. His overhyping of his own work makes this more concerning. If you could see that he was taking your feedback seriously, he understood that his work isn’t where it needs to be, and he was working hard to incorporate your feedback, Id say sure, give him some time to work on mastering the job. But when hes ignoring your feedback and telling you his work is superb when youve clearly told him its not, thats a serious problem, and not the sort that time usually helps with. However! Theres potentially some room for hope if you havent been completely clear with him. When youve given him feedback and talked about mistakes, have you been clear that the work isnt at the level you need and that the pattern of mistakes is serious? And when he misses deadlines, have you told him clearly that it cant keep happening? (For example: This was due yesterdaywhat happened? Followed by, Its really important that you turn in work by the agreed-upon deadline or tell me ahead of time if youre worried about your ability to do that.) If you havent done those things, its possible that this could turn this around. A lot of managers in your situation think, But I shouldnt need to do that! He should know that missing a deadline is a big deal, and that he needs to take feedback seriously. And indeed, he should. But many employees miss the cues that managers think are obviousand when youre frustrated with someone, the first step is to make sure that youve been really clear about the expectations you need them to meet. (In fact, whenever you’re feeling frustrated with an employee, that’s a flag to check how clear you’ve been.) If youve done those things and this is still happening, then yes, its time for a serious conversation where you explain you cant keep him in the job if you dont see significant improvement on these fronts quickly. Interestingly, I think you can do all of this without directly addressing the Im amazing comments. By addressing the crux of the problemhis work is not what you need it to behell probably get the message that his self-hype isnt in line with the reality. If he doesnt, that’s not a great sign about how well he’s processing your message. That said, if you want to address it, you can! You could say, I was surprised to hear you say you always complete tasks immediately when Ive shared my concern about a number of missed deadlines recently. Or you can take the hype as statements of his intentions rather than what hes actually done. For example, with his “I am making your life so much easier! comment, you could refer back to that later with something like, I know you want to make my life easier and I appreciate thatthats what I want from your role as well. When you give me a report with errors that I have to spend half an hour correcting, thats not happening. I need you to double-check your work before it comes to me so that youre spotting and correcting your own errors and I dont need to fix anything when it comes my way. But I think if you keep the focus on the gap between the work hes producing and the work you needand just consider the self-hype a strange and even amusing eccentricityyoull figure out pretty quickly if he can succeed in the job or not, and thats what really matters. Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org. By Alison Green This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister site, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
Category:
E-Commerce
Most people have goals to get ahead and even know, in principle, what steps to take to achieve them, but just keep not taking those steps. For instance, a successful designer does beautiful art on the side and wants to put it out there to see if he has something people will buy. Or a corporate leader has left her role to be an independent consultant and needs to communicate with more people about the value she brings. Both the artist-entrepreneur and the budding consultant know about the steps involved in marketing and sales, but they just keep not taking those steps, at least not enough of them. Something is holding them back. In my experience coaching entrepreneurs and training leaders I find that very often they know what steps they should be taking. One more hack or pep talk isnt going to do much for them. There is, however, a counterintuitive processteach me how to failthat can make a huge difference regardless of their specific skill set, goal, or context. Failure is an option Typically, people tend to avoid thinking about failure. Failure is something many people fear. And research does support what most people would probably suspectthat fear of failure really can hold us back, even the entrepreneurial-minded. To avoid thinking about failure can be a way to try to avoid fear of failure. You knowStay positive. However, research has long shown that it’s exposure to our fears, rather than avoiding them, that can help us move past them. And the more fully we can manage to safely revisit the contexts and emotions involved, the better. Findings reveal that when people expose themselves to the fear of failure, and let themselves explore that fear of failure mindfully, it can lead to breakthroughs in how they approach their task. Failure as a strategy Teach me how to fail is a powerful way to flip the script on failure and expose yourself in a safe and thoughtful way to the context and emotions connected with that failure. The process also reveals a wealth of actionable information quickly, that can precisely address what holds someone back. It points them toward what to do differently in their unique context. With this process we view failure as a strategy, and moreover as a successful one. It is not successful at getting to the goal, but successful at meeting some other important need. That shift alone is often an eye-opener for people. Consider a situation of your own where you are not taking action that you think you should. Now reflect on this question: How is it serving you to not act? This is a way of reframing the meaning of failing-to-act in a more positive, often accurate, and adaptive light. Neuroscience shows that reframing the meaning of something in this way can change your emotional state and how strongly the brain may be triggering fight-or-flight mode. In this process, moreover, we try to learn how to fail in the specific ways a person fails to act. Case study Lets consider Tim, the successful designer now looking to expand as an artist-entrepreneur, who took part in a group coaching series I co-facilitate. Trying to move himself to act, Tim said I just need to put my art out there and see what happens. When asked, how is it serving you to not put your art out there? Tim owned up to the fact that it allowed him to avoid finding out whether people would say no. That helped him keep hope alive that his art could find customers. With this we learned what his strategy was helping him succeed withto keep hope alive. Then we explored further what someone would need to do if they wanted to fail to put their art out there exactly as Tim does. We knew one piece already, which was to value keeping hope alive. His strategy included certain behaviors, beliefs, emotional states, imagining particular reactions from other people, focusing attention on the wrong things, and so on. For instance: 1) we should justify waiting by telling ourselves the product was not ready. 2) We should imagine the letdown we would feel if there was no interest. 3) We should believe it would be bad to learn the answer was No, and that if no one purchased any pieces that means the art is not good enough to be commercial. Difference makers After we had learned how to fail-to-act in precisely the way Tim did, it was much easier to see what might make the difference for him. Here were some of the shifts he made: His focus: Instead of putting energy into justifying waiting, he would put it into justifying not waiting His feelings: Instead of imagining the letdown feeling, he would imagine the exhilaration of the process His beliefs: Instead of worrying about hearing no, he would try to hear no. He would design every outreach so that people have to say yes or no to some step in his sales funnel. Then he would aim to find out why so he could make adjustments. His good intentions: He then reflected on the question: How can I keep hope alive better by putting my art out there? Psychology and neuroscience research highlights how each of these kinds of shiftsfocus, feelings, beliefs, serving your good intentionscan make a big difference in whether and how you act. In short, what is happening is that this paradoxical focus on failure as an adaptive strategy interrupts the pattern. It snaps you out of your stuck state of mind and puts you in a more resourceful state of mind. It also shines a light on the hidden assumptions, needs, and habits that have been getting in the way. For Tim, these shifts did make the difference. He put his art out there and is excited about the response. Teach me how to fail is a process I learned from NLP (neurolinguistic programming). It is one of many tools from NLP for quickly identifying the difference that will make the difference for someone to be able to make a desired change in a lasting way.
Category:
E-Commerce
Pinky Cole, founder of the plant-based food chain Slutty Vegan, shares the details of a recent professional upheaval in which she lost control of her companyand then fought to win it back. She also opens up about surviving a harrowing driving incident, the business mistakes that nearly brought everything down, and the emotional and family toll of it all. Its a raw, unfiltered look at leadership under pressureand what it takes to rebuild when everything falls apart. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Bob Safian, the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. We last spoke on stage at the Masters of Scale Summit in October of 2024. And things seemed to be hummingyou had new stores, there were some high-profile collaborations, and we talked about investors, including Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer, a great mentor to have. And then everything turned a little bit. Take us back to last fall, how you were feeling about the business, and what unfolded as the year finished out. I want to preface this conversation as a cautionary tale for founders. When I talk about my journey and the things that I’ve been through, I have seen a massive amount of success. I have gotten the title of every single magazine you could imagine. I’ve graced all the lists. I’ve gotten all of the things. But what I also realized is that it didn’t come without challenges. And just like all things go up, some things do go down. And when I met with you, Bob, I was in the middle of one of the most powerful yet crunching seasons of my life. Here it is: I’m still making double-digit millions, doing very well as an organization by way of revenue, but operationally, I was not sound. And because I was not sound, the ship was sinking. It started off with a slow sink, and then eventually that ship went all the way under. And there’s no way to save a ship that’s got 10 holes in it. No matter how many buckets you try to get to push the water out, whatever effort that you try to do, there was no way to save it. I went from having challenges with cash flow. You know how it goes, Bob. If the cash flow doesn’t make sense, then the business can’t make sense. And all of these things happen really, really fast. Some people think that it’s like a slow roll. No, it’s just like one day you’re good, and the next day you’re not. And after I did the taping with you, it got real. And real as in I had to file for an assignment for the benefit of creditors. And for the people who are listening to this: If you don’t know what that is, that is like bankruptcy’s fourth cousin far removed. It is an insolvency proceeding that happens outside of court when a company or organization, the revenue doesn’t speak to the debt that it has. My debt was above the revenue. Here I am, overall, I got about $20 million in debt. I’m burning $100,000 every single week. That is taxing on any entrepreneur, especially when you have a board that, at this point, they’re like: “Okay, how did we get here? What happened?” And when I look back over everything, I wasn’t in the company day to day. I’m the mascot. I’m the thought leader. I’m doing all these things, putting people in position. We did a lot of great things collectively as an organization, but there were some learning curves there. And what I’ve learned from this experience is that talent is the root of all evil or is the foundation for your success. You want to have a really good organization? You’ve got to have really good talent. And I’m not just talking about people that look good on a résumé. I’m talking about people who can roll with the punches, who are great problem-solvers, who can look at an organization and identify ways in which to make it better. It’s not enough just to say that you worked at a company that was successful. No, you’ve got to come in this one and make sure that this one is successful. A lot of learning there, to say the least. I want to ask you a couple of questions about that turn that happenedyou mentioned losing $100,000 a week. Now you could say, “Well, that’s the plan. We’re going to invest $5 million a year to build a brand.” That it’s part of what the strategy is. It doesn’t sound like that’s where the losses were coming from. Was there a single primary business problem, or was it like a group of things? It was a group of things. The model has always been proven; we have a good business model. We have a cult following. People love the brand. That wasn’t what it was. What happened is, in the middle of the pandemic is when we got our rise. Could you imagine we raised $25 million and then inflation is through the roof? What would cost $600,000 to open up a Slutty Vegan cost almost $1 million to open up a Slutty Vegan. We opened up 14. We were very ambitious with our goals. On the surface, the business was very buttoned up, very organized. But the reality of it is, we were a bit above our britches. Our C-suite was super expensive. We were paying top dollar for construction and opening up locations. We had one location in particular where it took us four months beyond the completion date to get opened because of permittingobviously, that cost money. All of the things just came together, and it became a domino effect. I had three babies in three years. I had a baby in ’21, I had a baby in ’22, and I had a baby in ’23. And I got married, and I’m doing all of these things. And when I started this company, I never coined myself as an operator. I’m not a restaurant operator. I’ll tell the truth. But this has always been a passion project for me, so what I do very well is, I market my business very well. I know how to connect the dots, and I can bring people together. So I brought in people who I thought can manage the operations. And did they do good work? Sure. I’m a professional, sure. But at the end of the day, the level of acumen that we need for the momentum that we have, I needed somebody else. But I want to say that I needed that to happen at the moment in time in which it happened, because it gave me the opportunity to, one, clear my cap table, two, clear the debt. And then it gave me an opportunity to buy my company back and rewrite my story. The one thing about entrepreneurship is that nobody tells you that it has to be a straight line. You’re going to get some curves, there’s going to be some speed bumps, and you’re going to flip over a couple of times. But as long as you keep driving, that is where you get the juice. And I’ve been thirsty for this new juice of 2.0 in Slutty Vegan, and that’s bringing in a new president, bringing in a new accounting frm, bringing in a new HR team, even down to the damn assistanteverything new. And I wanted to be able to rewrite the story in a way where not only just I could feel good about myself aspirationally, but founders around the world can look at my story and know what to do, and know what not to do, because Pinky went through it.
Category:
E-Commerce
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