Effective Employee

1
Effective Employee Customer Relations

• A Deer Oaks Presentation
• Presented By
• Ken Adams, Psy.D.

A resource you can trust
2
As a supervisor, it is important to

• Keep employees keen and motivated.
• Manage interpersonal conflicts and deal with
  workplace complaints respectfully.
• Increase productivity and efficiency.
• Recognize when you might be part of the problem
  and what you can do about it.
• Create and maintain positive workplace
  environments since employees spend more of their
  waking time at work.

3
What can you do as a supervisor to change work
conditions?

• Adopt and implement policies and values that
  promote employee respect and professionalism.
• Develop and promote an internal conflict
  resolution procedure.
• Take employee complaints seriously.
• Any other suggestions?

4
Motivation in the Workplace

• Motivation refers to the physical and mental
  energy that a person exerts to achieve a goal.
• An employees level of motivation will affect
  his/her performance and productivity.
• Performance is a combination of motivation
  ability in a supportive context.
• Level of motivation manifested by your
  subordinates is directly related to your beliefs
  about them.

5
Theory X versus Theory Y Supervisors

• Theory X
• Believe that employees dislike work and avoid
  working at all costs
• Employees must be directed and controlled.
• Results in decreased employee motivation.
• Theory Y
• View work as being as natural as play.
• Assume employees are capable of self-control and
  self-direction.
• Leads to a more effective organization.

6
Understanding Employee Needs

• Level 1 needs
• Affect job satisfaction.
• Include pay, benefits, job security, positive
  workplace relationships, job conditions
• Level 2 needs
• Affect job motivation
• Include opportunities for advancement,
  responsibility, recognition.

7
Both sets of needs are important

• Providing workers with better wages and improved
  work conditions may not increase their motivation
  to work but will keep them from being
  dissatisfied.
• Providing them with challenges and other
  opportunities for growth, recognition, and
  advancement results in increased motivation.
• Your role as a supervisor is to understand that
  both sets of needs are important.

8
Two techniques to increase Employee Motivation

• Job Enrichment
• Give employees higher level tasks and challenges
  to complete.
• Be careful not to overwhelm the employee because
  this can reduce motivation.
• Job Enlargement
• Give bored employees more or different work to
  do.
• Be careful not to be perceived as unfair.

9
Other motivating suggestions

• Contribute to workers experienced meaningfulness
  of the job (through skill variety task
  significance).
• Provide opportunities for the experience of
  personal responsibility and accountability.
• Provide workers with knowledge about their
  performance (feedback, evaluations).

10
Organizational Commitment

• Two types of commitment
• Emotional Commitment
• Refers to the persons own desire to stay out of
  a sense of loyalty and a concern for the
  companys welfare.
• Continual Commitment
• The person stays because s/he has nowhere else to
  go or cannot afford to leave.
• As a supervisor, what kind of commitment do you
  think you inspire?

11
Why Commitment Matters

• Committed Employees
• Are more motivated and satisfied.
• Take less time off of work.
• Are less likely to leave.
• Are more efficient and productive.
• Are more willing to make sacrifices for the
  company.

12
How to Increase Employee Commitment

• Offer employees more autonomy, job security, and
  give them more responsibility.
• Create more interesting work.
• Treat employees with courtesy and respect.
• Understand the negative impact of poor
  management.
• Refer dysfunctional supervisors for appropriate
  training.
• As a supervisor, have the courage to step down if
  you cannot do the job.

13
Team Building - Avoid Group Think

• What is Group Think?
• Excessive agreement between team
  members/co-workers to the exclusion of
  individuality.
• A thinking mode in which consensus-seeking
  becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that
  it overrides realistic appraisal of alternative
  courses of action.
• More likely to occur under stressful conditions,
  and when the team is led by a member with strong
  personality.

14
Group Think Results in the Following

• Illusion of invulnerability
• Rationalization
• Illusion of immortality
• Stereotyping
• Peer Pressure
• Self-censorship
• Illusion of unanimity
• Mind guarding

15
Ways to Prevent Group Think

• Encourage disagreement.
• Assign critical evaluators.
• Keep people with vested interests out of decision
  making process.
• Bring in outside experts for fresh opinions.
• Play Devils advocate.
• Seek information from many and varied sources.

16
Ways to Prevent Group Think

• Never assume silence means consensus.
• Be open to change new ideas.
• Dont ignore warning signs that a decision may be
  bad for the organization.
• Provide enough time for discussion, review,
  reflection, evaluation.

17
Handling Interpersonal Conflict

• Your role as a supervisor
• Intervene judiciously to prevent minor
  misunderstandings from escalating into unresolved
  conflict and tension.
• Educate and empower subordinates to resolve their
  own interpersonal conflicts so that you do not
  have to intervene.
• Help to create a culture in which conflict
  management is valued and appreciated.
• Create a positive workplace climate of respect.

18
Why resolve conflict?

• Conflict can cause
• Lost time
• Wasted resources
• Decline in efficiency
• When resolved, conflict can lead to
• New ideas
• Better decision-making
• Improved performance

19
Dealing with ConflictTip 1 - Dont Avoid It

• The biggest mistake one can make is to avoid
  dealing with conflict and hoping that it will
  just go away.
• Even if conflict seems to be put to rest, under
  conditions of stress, it will re-emerge.
• If a situation is not getting better, chances are
  they are getting worse.
• Intervene early and effectively.

20
Tip 2 Involve All Parties

• Sometimes employees approach a supervisor
  one-to-one to discuss a problematic situation.
• What is the inherent problem with this approach?
• Supervisors who include all parties involved in a
  conflict will not be perceived as taking sides.

21
Supervisors Steps in Mediation and Conflict
Resolution

• Meet with the people involved in the conflict.
• Let each person briefly summarize their point of
  view, without comment or interruption by the
  other party.
• Ask each participant to describe specific actions
  they would like to see the other party take that
  would resolve differences.
• Ask the participants to make a commitment to
  making changes.

22
Steps in Mediation and Conflict Resolution

• Ask each participant to notice and validate each
  others efforts at making changes.
• Assure both sides of your confidence in their
  ability to resolve their differences.
• Provide follow-up and referrals (e.g. to the
  companys EAP) as needed.

23
Tip 3 Maintain Holistic Perspective

• Never make the mistake of believing the only ones
  affected by a conflict are the participants
  themselves.
• Conflict affects everyone with whom these
  individuals interact.
• When others start feeling as if they have to walk
  on eggshells around the combatants, the situation
  is already out of control.
• This can result in a divided, splintered
  organization.

24
Managing Your Own Defensiveness

• Become Aware of your physical changes/thoughts/emo
  tions
• Relax
• Shift Your Focus
• Focus on what the other person is saying
• Use Active Listening Techniques
• Legitimize his/her feelings
• Do not utilize offensive language

25
Preventing a co-worker from becoming defensive

• Describe rather than evaluate behavior
• Use I statements
• Avoid the words Always and Never
• Watch your non-verbal cues
• Focus on the future not the past
• What can be done differently this time?

26
Respect

• Mutual respect can be defined as a state in which
  two or more individuals respect themselves and
  each other in spite of their differences, faults,
  and imperfections.
• In the context of mutual respect, each employees
  feelings of self-respect and sense of self-worth
  are enhanced.
• What actions/words from a co-worker make you feel
  respected?
• What makes you feel disrespected?

27
Disrespect

• Examples of disrespectful behavior
• Mental and emotional abuse.
• Inappropriate anger outbursts.
• Sexual harassment.
• Unprofessional behavior.
• Discourtesy.

28
Effects of Workplace Disrespect

• A culture of animosity and hostility.
• A blaming culture characterized by finger
  pointing.
• Increase in small clique or grapevine
  communication.
• Undermining of large-group cohesiveness.
• Increase in use of passive-aggressive coping
  strategies.
• Increase in litigious activity.

29
Effects of Workplace Disrespect

• Decline in productivity.
• Poor quality of output rushed jobs.
• Increase in use of Sick Leave and PTOs.
• Learned helplessness among those less empowered.
• Abuses of power, rank, and position.
• Decreased employee morale and increased number of
  accidents.

30
Why is a Culture of Respect in the Workplace
Important?

• Improved communication
• Improved team-work
• Decline in negative and conflict incidents
• Improved productivity and quality of output
• Improved self-esteem and sense of self-worth of
  employees
• A more fulfilling work environment for all
• Improved morale

31
Thank You for Participating

• We hope that this information has been helpful to
  you.
• Please let us know by completing an evaluation
  form. Thanks!
• You can contact our EAP services at
• 1-866-327-2400
• www.deeroaks.com

A resource you can trust