Is Your Company a “Hell’s Kitchen”?

I don’t watch “reality” shows, except for an occasional few minutes of “American Idol”, but I remember scanning the tube with the remote (Yes, I am a male) and seeing a few minutes of this show called, “Hell’s Kitchen”. I wasn’t too impressed, not only because I’m not a reality show fan, but mostly because I’ve worked in a few kitchens in my day, and I was a state restaurant inspector in New Orleans for several years after graduating from college.
What got me thinking, as I was switching channels, was realizing that there are hundreds of businesses out there that resemble “Hell’s Kitchen” and believe me, I’ve worked at a few of those firms where the owners and managers were as badly behaved. And while some of you are reading this you’ll know who you are without looking in the mirror!
So you ask, “What’s the big deal? It’s just business.” Here’s the big deal: very few businesses survive being a “Hell’s Kitchen”, or functioning like one of those fishing boats you see on “Deadliest Catch”. Those are really unique industries and from my experience, the more dangerous the work, the more intense the relationships become.
If you aren’t an owner or manager in a business such as these, and you treat your employees (or worse, your customers) like the leaders in those shows, your company will never reach its full potential to earn profits. Every week I speak with someone who has been working at a job they hate – nearly a hundred folks each year. Most of them are looking for work for one reason; their boss; and it’s because their boss is a jerk or bully, or both! What’s worse is the boss believes he or she has the advantage of a down economy as a trump card and chooses to use it like a weapon.
I remember talking with my dad, who was a retired IBM executive, about his work before “Big Blue” hired him in 1953. As a high school and college student growing up in Kansas, he delivered ice to local families (most folks didn’t have electric refrigerators). He also worked on large farm equipment during wheat harvests, traveling all across the mid-West. After his stint in the Navy as a radar technician during WWII, he worked in a manufacturing plant that made plastic tubing for the automobile industry, which was a really tough and dirty job. He didn’t like the work because the air was filled with plastic dust, and his boss was more like the town bully than any manager he’d met. He noted that a lot of companies took advantage of returning servicemen and women because jobs were quite scarce. They made use of the fear of unemployment as a whip.
He applied those past experiences to hone his own leadership style and even though I’m prejudiced about it, he was quite a special leader. I remember the people at IBM who begged him to stay on in his role as site general manager when he announced his retirement.
I learned a lot from my dad, and now I coach and train poorly performing managers and owners on how to become truly respected leaders within their organizations. I also coach people of all generations on how to find a better job. I’ve been in both places more than once myself and here is what I can offer to you.
If you are a “Hell’s Kitchen” boss, you’d better change. Why? Well, you’ve probably already noticed the effects of your bad behavior and poor communications skills. If you are working for a “Hell’s Kitchen” boss or owner, plan your exit. That’s right, start now strategizing on where to find a career where you will work for a true leader. Believe me, even in this crummy economy people are finding jobs with great companies, and terrific leaders, every day.

Finding Innovation is the Key to Business Survival

I recently attended a web seminar and I’d like to share some of the things I took away from it. The speaker, a human resource consultant and former HR executive in the high tech industry, pointed out that countless successful corporate leaders understand innovation is the key to a company’s survival. He suggested that effective talent management was ultimate ductwork bringing innovation into organizations, big, medium and small, because innovation is created by people.
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An American Tradition . . . and other Customer Tales

Baseball season is over again and I remember when I was much younger thinking about how near it was to the end of school, and the beginning of summer vacation. The new season also reminds me of my heroes and some baseball legends. Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Roger Maris, Ted Williams, and countless others. But for some strange reason this year, the very popular Simon & Garfunkle song, “Mrs. Robinson”, from Mike Nichols’ Oscar-winning movie, “The Graduate”, popped into my head. It was the Joe DiMaggio thing.

If you don’t remember it here’s a verse:

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

It got me thinking about “the good ol’ days” and one thing in particular -- appropriate professional business behavior. You may recall that I’ve written about negativity in the workplace, like toxic bosses and co-workers, and destructive comments.

Within the last few months, I’ve been literally peppered and frequently floored by stories I’ve heard, situations I’ve witnessed and research I’ve conducted – and guess what? Some businesses are making money in spite of themselves and their toxic and caustic cultures. Could they make more? Ah, the million dollar question. The envelope please . . .

I am increasingly perplexed by a few things that go on in the workplace, the least of which is that some people would like to collect a paycheck without doing anything, including showing up at work if it were possible:

1. How people in a business setting answer the telephone – many times it’s quite unprofessional.

I know you’ve heard them too. “This is XYZ Company.” Followed by dead silence. So you ask professionally , “Good morning. My name is Brian Howe and I’m trying to reach Mr./Ms. Manager.” The response spews forth, “He’s here, but he’s real busy and can’t come to the phone.” More silence. I say, “May I please leave a voicemail or message?” Once again the professional response, “We don’t have voicemail.” “Okay, then will you take a message for me, please?” “Sure, let me put you on hold.”
You get my point.

2. How employees talk to each other and to clients – I think it’s become appalling in many instances.

Foul language, inappropriate and unprofessional voice tone and volume. It sometimes resembles the “trash talking” that evolved from TV wrestling (or should I say rasslin’). I’ve actually heard conversations where a customer called their supplier a son-of-a-b - - ch to his face. I’ve also heard much worse, but won’t be able to print it here.

3. Management, who are supposed to be leaders, and are too busy, too lazy, too afraid, too lenient, or too non-confrontational to take action to eliminate this type of behavior, which by the way, is a direct reflection on them and the owners of these businesses.

Simply put, real leaders are supposed to do two things for their companies: Make more good things happen and make less bad things happen.

If it were your company, would you actually hire people who only stock the produce section displays with lettuce? I think not, or least I would hope not. I’d want my entry level produce clerk to be able to answer customer questions, handle complaints, and quickly know where to go get help should he or she not be able to resolve customer inquiries or issues.

That’s what I remember about my local food store when I was an impressionable young boy. Maybe it’s because there were eight kids in my family, but the butcher felt compelled to call us when there was a sale on chickens, or steak or even ground chuck, so we could stock the freezer. Now that’s creating real and sustainable customer satisfaction!

So, this actually happened to me in a recent trip to a local supermarket chain. We all know that often shelves are stocked with new items and price markers are not updated. Perhaps that’s a fact of life. So, I asked the produce clerk if he could tell me how much my grapefruit item cost, and he looked at the same confusing price tags on the displays I had looked at before asking him, intently studying them. Finally, after scratching his head – just the way I had done a minute before – he said, “I don’t know. I’ll have to tell supervisor he hasn’t changed the price tags yet.” He promptly turned around, and went back to unpacking and stocking bags of baby carrots. So there I was left holding (no pun intended) the bag – of grapefruit. Ten pounds. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed . . . and I guess the butcher forgot to call me about Boston butt being on sale.