Follow-up to Star Performer or Troubled Employee

After five years of writing this column plus all the other articles and books I've had published, I have never been so intrigued by the quality, insightfulness, and divergent points of view that my article about a star manager or problem employee brought out. That doesn't even mention the sheer quantity of the responses that the article triggered! I invite anyone who hasn't read last week's column to go to my blog and read it there. It will help you understand this piece. I also want to thank everyone who participated.

Let me give a quick summation of what the article was about. It was about a husband and wife retail ownership team (that sounded better than a mom-and-pop store) that bought another business and made a star employee the manager of the existing store so they could spend time building the business of the newly acquired one. The manager did a spectacular job in every aspect of the retail business. The only flaw in her behavior was that every time the storeowners tried to compliment her with bonuses, perks, or even asking her opinion, she never thanked them or acknowledged their efforts. Again go to the blog for more detail.

One thing that some people picked up on was that I wrote this story as a reporter--I gave no opinions. Trust me, it wasn't easy for me but I wanted to get your opinions before I shared mine. I did not want to corrupt any of your thinking with my point of view. (Many of the comments are posted on the blog but that majority of comments were sent in the form of e-mails specifically to me.)

There seemed to be two ways of looking at this situation. Many of you wrote that you had similar situations of having employees who did not appreciate the things you did for them. Many of you also mentioned the fact that you are looking forward to my response for ideas on how to get your employees to appreciate what you do.

The other and very outspoken interpretation of this is that the storeowners were degrading the employee by pitying her because she was a single mom and they were the wealthy storeowners. What they were really doing was giving charity and wanted the recipient to jump hoops in appreciation.

There are a few clichés that seem to work well here. The first one is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". Bob and Sue, storeowners, are really wonderful people who just can't do enough for the superstar employee. As difficult as it may be, it's time to take the emotion out of this relationship. They're running a business not running a family party. They should create a formula with a performance bonus clearly stated and understood by all parties and live with it.  
I must agree that putting five $100 bills in a pay envelope is looking for trouble. As someone said there is too much that could be misinterpreted by inserting cash. No, it is not illegal to give cash bonuses, however they must have a paper trail but that's not the reason. Someone pointed out that Amy might wonder if it was from the husband and if the wife was aware of it and what does it mean? Or what's the catch? Is he hitting on her (which by the way is about as far from the truth as you can get but you never know) and is this a little extra and he might want a little extra in return?

However there are some very definite incongruities in this story pertaining to Amy's behavior. Obviously she's a strong salesperson and/or she can motivate her people to sell. Then why is she failing so miserably with some of the very basics of people/selling skills, having an attitude of appreciation?

As one comment said, "Check inventory and cash receipts closely because I'm suspicious of this one. If it's too good to be true it probably isn't."

There was also an issue of pride and charity. Amy is a very proud person and, as it turns out, resents being treated as a charity case. I am able to make that statement because of the follow-up phone call I made to the owners this week. My recommendation was to sit down with Amy and share their feelings. It was interesting that someone wrote in and used the words that Sue finally admitted to. They were being childish. Someone said, "I was raised to say please and thank you and if any member of my family doesn't employ those words I promptly bring it to their attention. But this is a professional situation and although it's nice for the thank you's, they're not required."

There are a couple old another issues that need to be mentioned. Some people don't take compliments well. Trust me, I know. I am the worst at accepting a compliment. I even get embarrassed with standing ovations, which is not a good thing if you're a professional speaker. I have actually been coached on how to accept compliments. I think the problem exists more with retailers than perhaps other industries. It seems as if we have a constant flow of people, be it customers or employees, who are constantly reminding us that we are doing something wrong. In short, as a retailer, we're not allowed to have an ego.

That perhaps answers the incongruity: Amy was a good manager and her people loved her but didn't respond to acts of kindness because she didn't think she was worthy enough, perhaps due to her family situation. I have no idea about the difficulties and social challenges a single mother must go through. But I am sure they look at life different than I do.

The other side issue is why Amy didn't comment on the article. The reason is simple but sad. Amy isn't a reader and hates to sit down to read anything too long. So she skims a lot of stuff but is never quite confident about what she reads.

There is one overriding issue that needs to be reviewed. Just as so many retailers focus only on price, why do these storeowners focus solely on compensation? It's not the number one motivator for keeping employees and having them work for you for less money. That motivator is convenience. The closer that someone lives to work, the more they want to stay regardless of other considerations. Then you couple that with a passion for the product. Amy loves to ride horses and loves the industry but also loves her kids and needs to be close to home for them as well.  You now have two of the three major components for employee retention. Ironically, the third component is being appreciated at work. The only problem here is that you had owners who perhaps tried to hard and mixed personal feelings, emotions, and employee compensation together when they should be clearly separated.

The tool that I have written about in the past that worked effectively in this type of situation is a concept called "involvement from conception". This simply means to ask your employees for a solution and you'll be shocked at how creative and insightful they can be. That was the case here.

My suggestion was to go to Amy the same way they came to me, simply share their feelings, and ask her for a solution or remedy. It worked and now I have to return 3 phone calls thanking me for my advice.  Maybe if they read this article, I won't have to return the calls.

Have a great week.