While attending a Great Place to Work Institute annual conference an organizational consultant told the story of a client who prominently displayed posters throughout their offices with the message, “Our valued employees are always treated with trust and respect.”   Yet the consultant noticed employees underwent exhaustive and intrusive security searches when entering and exiting the offices each day.  It was obvious the employer did not really trust their people.  The consultant observed the employees were quite uncomfortable with the invasive nature of the security process.

Considered a highly unusual practice for a civilian organization with very little security concerns, the consultant questioned the leaders about the conflicting message of “trust and respect” while employees were subjected to daily body searches. The organization stopped the security searches.

Avoid Conflicting Messages

In this case, the leaders were oblivious to the conflicting message of building trust and the ongoing practice of their security measures. That’s why business leaders should carefully consider the environment they want to create for their employees.  A well planned and executed people strategy will help you avoid these big, hairy contradictory messages that create barriers between employees and management.

Since corporate culture flows down from the top, determine in advance what message you want your employees to receive through your leadership team’s actions.

People Strategy is Mission Critical

When preparing your business plan, seriously consider the people strategy component of your enterprise.  People strategy is as important as your marketing strategy or finance statements. Many CEO’s will boast in their annual reports, “Our people are our most important asset” because that is what a CEO is expected to say in print or on camera.  But in reality do most CEO’s develop a Great Workplace strategy where employees are treated as whole persons and where leaders are measured on their soft skills? Based on the vast numbers of unhappy, unfulfilled, disengaged and burnt out American workers across this great nation, my educated guess is a resounding “no!”

A business owner should seriously consider their written and unwritten people strategies and make room for this subject in their business plan, whether you have ten or ten-thousand employees.  Even solo-practitioners rely on other people, including business associates, partners, affiliates, vendors, and other professionals, to accomplish their goals.  A well-developed people strategy is critically important to any businesses long-term viability.

Most Successful People Like People

First of all, it helps if you like people. To some leaders, overseeing people is like dealing with the IRS: they avoid them at all cost.  I cannot count the times leaders have told me they hate dealing with people issues.  However, many leaders allow the people component of their business to be formulated by chance.  It is difficult to succeed in business if you don’t like people.  It is not a good idea to outsource your people function to uncaring, unattached outsiders.  Even if you outsource merely the transaction components of human resource management, a leader cannot outsource the employee relations component without disastrous consequences.

If business leaders are not involved in corporate life, the company’s culture becomes a process of evolution, mutation, and happenstance in an uncaring environment.  These are great ingredients for stirring up a prison riot, but not such a great way to develop a great working environment.

Sometimes the temptation is to ignore people problems altogether and hope the problems magically disappear.  However, poor decision-making, or lack of decision-making, can lead to a toxic work environment and a multitude of people issues.

Positive People Practice Questions

When developing or evaluating your business plan, ask and answer the following Positive People Practice (also known as P3) questions when creating a People Strategy section in your business plan:

• Company Culture - Every company has one and no two are alike.  What type company culture do you want for your enterprise?  The culture will typically mirror the personality of a strong leader or CEO. It is good to establish in writing the foundation of the company’s personality.
• Flexibility - How flexible will your company be with employees?  Will you automatically say “no” to reasonable requests or seriously consider and evaluate employee requests for work/life flexibility?  Flexible employers are known to be more productive and profitable.
• Results Only – Are you prepared to base employee performance on results rather than the outdated practices of brown-nosing and face time?
• How Results Happen – How results happen are as important as the results. Will employees and leaders be accountable for their behavior in getting work accomplished?  Make sure results at any cost is not condoned by your leadership.
• Telecommuting – Will employees have the flexibility to work away from the office as long as they get their work done on time and with the quality expected? Today’s technological advances have made telecommuting a practical solution for a number of positions.
• Recruiting by Cultural Fit – Will you carefully screen each new hire to determine if they will live and work according to your company culture? Potential new leaders should also be subjected to a culture fit analysis since this is where many problems crop up.
• Dress Code - How are employees expected to dress for work? Business, business casual, casual, beach attire? Make sure leaders dress like your employees too.  Opportunity seeking leaders will be tempted to dress up in a dress down environment to gain a psychological advantage over other employees.
• Corporate Values - What are the values and guiding principles of your organization?  These guidelines communicate a great message to job applicants and help existing employees and leaders make decisions when faced with difficult circumstances?
• Code of Conduct - How are employees and leaders expected to act during the work week?  What is considered acceptable or unacceptable behavior? Is business ethics taken seriously?
• Jerk-Free Workplace – Will you consider instituting an anti-bullying and jerk-free workplace policy where workplace terrorists are terminated after one official warning? Unfortunately the incivility of our society is creeping into the workplace and business leaders need to stop hiring jerks at work.

Seriously consider these people strategy issues when developing your business plan and your chances of outlasting, outperforming and outmaneuvering the competition will increase exponentially.

This past summer our family went deep sea fishing off the coast of Florida. Along with the others on our boat, we had a fantastic, relaxing, fun and exhilarating time.  Plus, we caught hundreds of fish that day.  We joked around, had fun and were focused on the job at hand: fishing.

(Picture: Kevin and daughter Katie after a day of deep sea fishing off the coast of Destin, Florida.)

I love to have fun.  But I also love to work.  My life goal has been to have fun while I work.  My goal is to live one life no matter where I am.

Who are you when you go to work? Are you the same person your spouse married?  Are you that same thoughtful, caring parent your children see most every day? Are you the one who takes your family on fun vacations and relaxes and has a good time? I think the world would be a better place if we lived one life and remained that one person family members love at home.

My hope is that I will be the same guy at work, home, church, fishing or wherever I go.

In our society, however, there seems to be pressure to morph into Type A, no nonsense business freaks at 8:00 am each workday.   We are not supposed to care how the work gets done as long as it gets done.  Would you want your spouse to work for you?  Would you want your son or daughter to work for you?  Better yet, would you want one of your dearly loved family members to work for the worst leader in your company?

If your answer was no to any of these questions, you need to make some changes.

First, everyone deserves respect. We need to make sure we treat all people, whether employees or family members, with respect and dignity 24 hours/day.

Second, we need to lead one, consistent life, whether we are at work or at home. The struggle between work and life happens when we see the two competing for each other.  Leaders who demand employees choose work over family will eventually lose.  They may win the short-term battle for the employee’s time but will ultimately lose the talent war and the employee may lose their family.

Third, accept who you are. The pressure to morph into something you are not from 8 to 5 is more than anyone can bear over the long run.  If the office does not like who you are, find another company, career, workplace, or start your own company.  Be yourself and live one life.

Fourth, live your values. Some people are comfortable when the lines are blurred between right and wrong; when values can be stretched to match the situation.  That is an uncomfortable zone for me.  I suspect it is an uncomfortable zone for you as well.  Fuzzy values and inconsistent living is no man’s land. If you won’t put up with fuzzy values at home, do not allow it at work either.  Live one life.

Fifth, listen to that voice inside your head. I believe there is such a thing as right and wrong.  There is a small little voice inside my head that tells me when something doesn’t feel right. No, I’m not crazy or hearing voices or taking some new medication.

How does this topic relate to Great Workplaces or company culture? Employees are looking for authenticity. Leaders who are authentic live the same life at work and at home.  They do not put on one face for the office and another face for home.  They have found the freedom of being one person.

Be yourself and your work environment will have a greater chance to succeed.  Be that leader who loves his/her family at night and weekends.  But don’t lock that person up when you go to work.  People at work are looking for compassion too.  To win over the head, hands and hearts of your employees you need to be yourself – live one life.

Meet Mr. Good and Mr. Evil. This was the strangest leadership style I had ever encountered. It was typical to leave the CEO’s office feeling great about the company, pumped up, energized and feeling good about work and life. Meetings with the CEO’s powerful second in command, on the other hand, left you feeling drained, deflated, confused and worried if you would even have a job the next week.

Psychopathic Polarized Leadership Sinks the Ship

The CEO was cordial, respectful and seemed to have a positive outlook on life.  His second in command was an abrasive bully who was arrogant, foul mouthed and narcissistic. This psychopathic polarized leadership style would later prove devastating to this company.  Communication within the organization was dysfunctional at best.  Executives did not know where the company was going and were hesitant to pursue cold, hard facts in a fear-based buffer that surrounded the CEO thanks to leader number two.

Good Cop-Bad Cop?

The senior management’s leadership style was confusing and left many company leaders and professionals bewildered at times. The top two management duo’s modus operandi was similar to good cop-bad cop.  Except this was good leader-evil leader.  The players were not cops but irresponsible business leaders. The victims were not crime suspects but well-respected business leaders and professionals.

Public Speeches about Great Workplaces

As the head of human resources, I would occasionally be asked to speak to groups. I was very proud of our company and the progress we had made in creating a great place to work. This was an absolute miracle considering the psychopathic leadership model at the top. Not only had we grown from obscurity to number five on the Forbes list of largest privately held companies, we also were well known throughout the city and the region as an employer of choice.

When job openings were advertised on our website, within minutes hundreds of people would be applying.  In fact, we were aware of job applicants working at other respected companies waiting for positions to come open so they could apply for a chance to work in a great workplace. This was a talent recruiting position many leaders only dream about.  We had become a magnet for the best and brightest people.

Unhealthy at the Top

When speaking to groups, it was only natural to tell audiences my philosophy of creating an employee-friendly corporate culture where people should be treated with trust and respect. The importance of a company’s internal personality cannot be overstated.  However, I knew our company’s personality at the top was sick and twisted.  Overall, ninety-nine percent of the company was comprised of very good, respectful people who cared about the organization and its people.  The company was unhealthy at the top.

Two Ten Thousand Pound Gorillas

It has been said, “You are only as strong as your weakest link.” Unfortunately for us, our weakest link was two ruthless, clever, greedy scheming executives at the top. In other words, underneath our great workplace story was two ten thousand pound gorillas.  Mr.  Good and Mr. Evil.  I dared not talk publicly about their confusing and exasperating leadership styles.

As time went on this became an enormous problem. It created fear, dread, aggravation and knots inside many peoples’ stomachs.  At first I simply thought we had an out of control, certified asshole executive along with a beloved CEO who avoided conflict and would not rise to the occasion and stop the internal psychological terrorism on employees and fellow leaders.  Later I realized they were working together to create a polarized management system.

Moral of this Story

Learn from this sad but true story. This is an extreme example. However, it is important because you need to know who is running or ruining your company. Is Mr. Good really working for the best interests of the company?  Is Mr. Evil really worth keeping around?  People practice professionals need to speak freely about what ills the company. Many executives do not want to hear about problems.  That is why it has been said most human resource executives need a “go to hell fund.”

Live your life with utmost integrity and be willing to tell the truth, even if the truth will likely cost you your job.  In the long run an integrity-based journey will make sense and bring worthwhile rewards.

If you were faced with an evil, illegal, unethical or highly questionable business practice sanctioned by your leaders, would you have the character to stand up and declare your disapproval, even if it meant losing your job?  Would you walk away from a steady paycheck if your company’s leaders were unwilling to correct their wayward practices? When the eyes of evil are upon you the act of conscientious separation can be a very, very difficult moment in your life.

This is our hope: when faced with evil, we will stand up for what is right, good and honorable.

Group Behavioral Norms

The problem is that group behavior tends to create norms and patterns of behavior that tend to force people to conform in order to feel part of the team. That is why belonging to the right company culture is absolutely necessary for the mental, physical and spiritual well-being of employees over the long term. The people in power at your company – president, CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, CHRO, board of directors, etc. – have enormous control over the company’s cultural climate and group behavior.  Company culture flows down from the top.  It does not bubble up from the mail room or permeate the organization from human resources.  Company culture is a reflection of the leader’s personality.

Follow the Leader

Employees tend to follow their leader. I once observed the grotesque transformation of an administrative assistant. She changed from a rather nice person to an extremely difficult, overbearing, hateful and simply rude dominatrix after working a few years for her boss who exhibited the same traits.  She found her incentive plan paid better when she exhibited her boss’s behaviors.  She was mirroring and conforming to her supervisor’s behavioral norms. The leader’s evil ways rubbed off on her.  Her former nice self was not compensated as well so she shoved that character into the closet and locked the door.

The executive’s control of incentive payments changed her in a very disturbing and negative way. Sometimes soccer moms are not immune from morphing into whatever behavior pays the most money so the kids can have the latest brands, gadgets, technology and private education.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Consider the famous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. College students volunteered to play the role of either prisoner or prison guard.  The result: only after six days the planned two-week experiment had to be abruptly halted as the college students playing prison guards morphed into evil dictators who levied psychological abuse on their fellow students playing the role of prison inmate.

Many of the prisoners were found laying on the floor in fetal positions experiencing mental breakdowns as a result of the significant levels of psychological mistreatment.  Can you imagine what would have happened if the experiment continued for two weeks?

According to psychology professor and leader of the now famous experiment, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, said, “the planned two-week study was terminated after only six days because it was out of control. Good boys chosen for their normalcy were having emotional breakdowns as powerless prisoners,” Zimbardo stated. “Other young men chosen for their mental health and positive values eased into the character of sadistic guards inflicting suffering on their fellow students without moral compunction, said Zimbardo.

And those “good guards” who did not personally debase the prisoners failed to confront the worst of their comrades, allowing evil to ripen without challenge,” stated Dr. Zimbardo.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Professor Zimbardo underestimated the corruptive power of unbridled authority. Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Professor Zimbardo stated, “My guards repeatedly stripped their prisoners naked, hooded them, chained them, denied them food or bedding privileges, put them into solitary confinement, and made them clean toilet bowls with their bare hands.”

There are leaders who will not allow others to question their authority. They believe they can treat employees how they want – good and bad – without repercussions because they sign their paychecks.

Translation to Building Great Workplaces

You may be thinking the Stanford Prison Experiment is in no way related to building a Great Workplace. Ridding the organization of tyrants, jerks, bullies and people with evil intent is merely a good start.  Most importantly, Great Workplaces are dependent on leaders with high levels of integrity, trust and respect, especially when times get tough.

We must also be careful how much absolute power we give our leaders.  Lord Acton observed that a person’s sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases. I have seen this scenario come to fruition as business associates became the beneficiaries of enormous financial success.  Sadly, they did not know how to manage the pressures of wealth, power and authority.  Unbridled power can destroy the person and bring the company down along with the toxic executive.

Employ a Truth Telling Advisor

Top executives need someone who can speak to them without fear of being fired. This senior adviser should be able to speak freely with the CEO, even regarding issues that are unpopular or taboo.  CEO’s who are smart will hire a senior advisor who is paid to provide open, honest feedback – even if it hurts. Decisions made by CEO’s in isolation in their executive suite have the potential to cause enormous employee morale issues and severely damage the company’s public image.

Reflective Sunglasses

As the prison guards began to fully assume their role as sadistic rulers, they began to wear reflective sunglasses 24/7. The inability to peer into the eyes of your tormentor was a way for fellow students to distance themselves from their prisoners whom they were severely mistreating.

In the event your company’s leadership begins to distance themselves from employees and peers, be prepared for upcoming decisions that could negatively impact the entire workforce.  Looking straight into the eyes of your leader can be very revealing.  The eyes can be a window into their heart.  Are your leaders in hiding?  Are they creating distance between themselves and employees? The act of creating distance may be an advance warning of impending trouble.

How Good Leaders Turn Evil

Most people do not determine in their hearts to turn evil.  It is a process of compromise over the course of time.  They surround themselves with people who are more interested in the benefits of group acceptance and membership rather than pointing out problems and issues with their leader’s decisions and actions.  The “how” things get done become unimportant just as long as the work gets done. Before you know it, the leader has succumbed to evil.