There are some people in your workplace who are difficult, demanding and a major pain in a specific part of your anatomy.

And then, there are people who are just…incompetent.

Whatever they do to make a living, they do it wrong and without expertise.  These are teachers who cannot teach, preachers who cannot preach, parents who cannot parent and singers who cannot sing.

Yet, they survive in our workplaces.  Year after year they clock in and clock out because…because…they have always been there.  When their errors become apparent to senior management and consumers, eyes roll heavenward, but…no incompetent heads roll.

So, if you are rubbing shoulders with people who either do not know what they are doing or are content to do it wrong, what can you do?

I am convinced you have four choices.

First, address the problem and process, not the incompetent person. Ask, “What is not working?”  It is as simple as that. You care so much about your organization you are willing to ask the hard questions. Be careful not to become accusatory in your tone.  Quickly move to your next choice.

Second, once you have identified the process that continues to fail, ask, “Do we have the right people in the right places?” Do a comparative study of other organizations your size and structure to evaluate if the staff skills match the required tasks.  

Third, if there is a “disconnect” between the skill sets needed to make your organization successful and those of your staff…retrain.  It is unfair to expect people to do a task for which they have not been trained.  Notice you have now established a baseline of expectation.  Once you have provided the instruction on how to do the job, the final responsibility will be up to your staff.

Fourth, evaluate whether or not the training has had an effect on productivity.  After careful analysis, if the answer is “no,” it is time to begin a performance improvement plan.  This plan should include two to three month review dates and if the performance is still not apparent, termination is an option.

I am of the opinion that incompetence, tolerated with indifference and there-is-nothing-we-can-do-about-it attitude, is the final chapter in the history of any organization.

Management enables incompetence. 

Incompetence is an action; mediocrity is an attitude. 

All staff are improvable…if management improves first.

There are some people who write books to report the facts.  There are others who write books to analyze the facts.  

Richard Sennett parses out the statistical numbers and then nestles between the lines to open small windows of insight that are breathtaking. Sennet teaches sociology at the London School of Economics and New York University and has written a work worth your time, The Corrosion of Character (The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism) ISBN: 0393-04678-8.

If you are not given to ingesting an entire book, I encourage you to just read Chapter 2, “Flexible” (the restructuring of time) and Chapter 5, “Risk” (why risk-taking has become disorienting and depressing).  You will uncover the profound influences in our passion for industrialization that have extinguished our native creativity and individualism.

Sennett’s book needs a malleable mind.  One that can be twisted, turned inside out and then open to new insights.  The numbers are not always the message in this economy.  The real message is often locked in inert capitalism.  If you want a jungle-gym for your brain, this is your book.

New Free Article

We do it every day.  Yes, the list is long:  brushing teeth, sleeping, locking doors, eating, tying shoes…add to the list “negotiating.”  From attempts to get a significant other to give us 10 additional minutes in the sack this morning to manipulating a person you have never met to give you more trade-in money on your SUV, we are constantly engaging in non-stop negotiation.

I have just written an article that will teach you how to use the skills of principle-centered negotiation entitled, "Do I have a Deal for You!" (Skills for the Negotiation-Challenged).

I wrote in this article, “Those words may cause you to break out in hives or turn your intestines to ice water.  Are you the ‘negotiation-challenged’ person who seems to be dysfunctional when trying to get a better deal?”  

If you want to negotiate with ethics and achieve an even chance to walk away with a best outcome, go to www.execenrichment.com, choose “Downloadable Resources” and then select “Articles.”  Please provide written approbation if you are using this article in an organizational publication.

Right Writing

“Right Writing” is a two-day business writing workshop that will initially take the participants through a skill review of composition and grammar.  Once the “fundamentals” have been mastered, we move on to breaking writer’s block, keeping the “tone” proactive, making e-mail the best asset in your office, writing to persuade and responding to complaints.

The “value-added” of this course is a private half-hour session with me when I edit the participant’s writing.  Each attendee will send me, in advance of the class, writing samples from his/her files.  In the afternoon of the second day of the course I will individually meet with each attendee and explain my edits.  This feature has proven to a rewarding learning methodology, for me and the participant, in this course.

Please respond with a “reply” to this LeMonAide if you want more information or give me a call at 800-373-4040.

The worst thing to ever happen to the truth in the United States is 24 hours of news.

Does anyone remember when the “news” was packaged into just 30 minutes before dinner?  Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather or, if you really want to take a trip back in time, Huntley and Brinkley.  There it was, unvarnished, unpoliticized and understated.  Just the news.

I have to admit I like the convenience of walking into any hotel room and finding the news at anytime of the day or night, but the question is, “Is it really the news?”

I hear “left” and “right” pandering, not reporting. I hear opinion slathered with sarcasm.  I hear “happy talk” from wannabe Saturday Night hosts.  I hear heaps of hyperbole and headline hawking.  This is 24 hours of homogenized happenings tailored for a specific political wardrobe.

And, the “hype” is off the charts.  The copy often reads, “Stay with us after these messages because you have to see live footage of a 42 foot anaconda snake trying to swallow a Smart Car in Bolivia, the confessions of a mother who sold her two children into slavery and open-mike comments made by…well, let’s just say, a well-known political leader who just ended his career…all that and much more…stay with us…we are your 24 hour news source.”

I think non-stop broadcast news often embarrasses itself with borrowed flim-flam methodologies from some long-forgotten roadside sideshow.  

Of course we are part of the same sideshow because we have not learned how to turn this electronic tripe…off.

If you want to know the airports to avoid in your upcoming air travel, here is the latest list of worst airports in the United States.  This information first appeared in the July 8 Wall Street Journal.

The number to the right is the percent of on-time flights:

New York-LaGuardia--52.1%

Newark--52.5%

Chicago-O’Hare—55.4%

New York-Kennedy—58.5%

San Francisco—60.9%

Washington-Dulles—61.9%

Boston—63.3%

Miami—64.8%

Dallas-Fort Worth—68.4%

Pittsburgh—69.4%

I take all of this information into account when I am planning my business travel.  The “hub city” will often determine if you make or miss a connecting flight to your final destination.

If you would like to personally meet with me during the month of July and August, here is my schedule.  Please call 800-373-4040 to set up an appointment.

Let’s talk about commas this month.

We either use too many of them or they are MIA in our writing.  

Here is a simple rule for the use of commas:  If the information is “essential” to the meaning of the sentence there will be no comma.  If the information is “non-essential” the comma will be used.

Several illustrations will, I trust, make this rule clear.

“The airplane, prior to takeoff, was thoroughly checked for mechanical violations.”  (Notice “prior to takeoff” is non-essential.  This information was “additional data” inserted into the main message of the sentence.)

 “He came to the meeting wearing a new blue suit and gold tie accented with diamond pin.”  (There is no comma in this sentence because all of the descriptive terms are part of the composite “look” and are essential.)

You will always need a comma to separate a series of three items or more, a phrase from an independent clause and a parenthetical thought in the middle of a complete thought.

For those of you using an electronic device for controlling your calendar, I have a suggestion:  check it at the beginning of every day.

I have found out, the hard way, it does no good to have appointments entered if you never check them.  I recently missed an important phone call because I did not look at my schedule at the beginning of the day.

Yes, my Blackberry did vibrate.  But when does my Blackberry not vibrate!  I thought I was receiving another e-mail and all the time this feisty little black device perched on my belt was screaming “You need to make this call.”

The written prayers in this section are Cal’s divine conversations reflecting the needs others have shared with him.

God, I love this child.  You know that.  Let’s get that straight, right up front.

His coy smiles disarm me.  The tightness of that miniscule hand around my thumb thrills like no other touch.  His gales of laughter wash my soul but the demands are killing me.  I am never “off duty.”

The throwing up, spiking temperatures at 2 a.m., whining, pulling, tugging and screaming are all killing me.

And, what about tomorrow?  Or, how about16 years from now when he will make his own decisions in a wasteland of dope and despair?

Oh God, this child scares me.  I got more than I bargained for.  My love for him makes me ache.  But, I cannot do this alone.

I am one minute immersed in the wonder of his emerging life, and the next minute rigid with fear.  So, this is what I need from You.  When I am giddy with gladness remind me this child is on loan from You.

And, give me Your peace as I sculpt him to know me and…You.