Wiggs’ Way

By Lance Wiggs, July 22, 2010 @ 1:23 pm

Let Lance Wiggs help with your tricky business problems. Email him at advice@idealog.co.nz

Learn to let go

What is the trick to successful delegation? I'm so busy but I just don't have time to brief junior staff (and I feel like they'll make such a hash of things that I'll end up re-doing it anyway). How can I stop myself from trying to do it all?

How can you stop doing it all? Trust—and failure. First, you need to truly delegate to your employees, passing on not just tasks but trusting them with areas of responsibility. Let them decide what to do and how to do it inside their areas.

Second, you must let them fail, for fail they will. But in that failure they will learn, grow and eventually surpass your own efforts. Finally, your role switches—from director and doer to coach and advisor. Support your employees as they learn the roles, help them learn and work together and support their decisions, providing air cover to your superiors.

If you don't do this, you and your group will never amount to much—and you will fail to unleash the creativity and passion of each individual and the team.

Indeed your 'junior staff' (do you really call them that?) are most likely bored, unchallenged, not learning anything new and thinking about leaving. So load the team up with challenges and let them discover the same things that you discovered on the way to learning your role. Allow them to fail and yet keep a gentle eye out to make sure that their failure is not catastrophic. Keep the coaching positive and one-on-one rather than negative and public. Eventually they'll learn enough to take on their role, and that's your ultimate goal.

Dress for success

My business partner and I are enjoying great success with our creative agency, but we disagree about one thing. I think that wearing designer clothes and driving a new car shows our clients that we are successful and know what we're doing, but he says I'm sending a message that we're charging too much and wasting money. I think his ten-year-old Nissan makes us look like losers. Who's right?

If you are a creative agency, then clients expect you to be the sort of free-spending fashionistas that you are intent on becoming. Good for you. This is one industry where rocking up in a Porsche is seen as tolerable, as clients are searching for signals about your price and quality of your work. Driving a flash car and wearing expensive clothes sends a signal that others value your work and are prepared to pay big dollars.

But be careful on the flashiness: don't be vulgar. A Lamborghini or Ferrari is vulgar, a Porsche is barely acceptable but an Audi is fine. BMW cars are always an issue in New Zealand, but Mercedes ooze quality. It's the same with clothing. Within each brand there are flashy and not-so-flashy items—and while you should look for distinctive clothing, it should not scream outrageousness.

The aim is to appear prosperous without being ostentatious, so wear high-quality clothes and drive high-quality cars but be careful about the labels. Appearing in frivolously expensive cars and clothes will send the signal that you care more about blowing money on partying than about your client's work. That's not Kiwi, and that's not going to get you much work in most industries. So wear the designer clothes, but keep the labels hidden.

Hire learning

It's so hard to find good staff, and I have been burned so many times by incompetent, disagreeable hires. I much prefer to offer work on three-month contracts, which I renew over and over until I'm really, really sure (or they get sick of it and leave). Could my commitment-phobe approach be putting off potential great staff? How can I find 'The One' otherwise?

Those incompetent, disagagreeable hires have been hired by you, right? So the question is whether you are hiring the wrong people, or whether you are promising them nirvana and delivering hell.

What are you doing to make them incompetent and disagreeable? Because I would argue that almost everyone is competent and agreeable—with the right boss. So first take a look in the mirror and ask yourself how you can make the work environment better for your staff. Are you giving them a consistent environment: with regular and positive feedback, stable working conditions, and challenging yet well-balanced work to do?

I'd almost certainly guess that something is wrong. Calm down and take it slowly with the next hire. Ease them into the role and provide regular (not too regular) and consistent feedback on progress. Slowly expand their role so that they are continually challenged, and never, ever, lose your cool with them. That feedback is two-way: ask them for feedback on your own behavior, and be hypersensitive to how they are feeling each day, especially in response to your actions. It's the same if you are socialising outside of work—your behaviour needs to be consistent.

You also need to re-evaluate how you are hiring. If you are looking for competence, try upping the job description and the pay rates. If you are looking for agreeability and tolerance, lower your required experience and pay for training once they land. Seek help from someone who has hired before and who knows you. Ideally, have them also interview each candidate.

Finally, you should be brave enough to conduct exit interviews to allow the departing person to openly vent their feelings and experiences. If they worked for you, ask someone else to take care of the interview but also conduct an informal one yourself.

Battle of the sexes

I hate to sound paranoid, but I'm pretty certain that one of my colleagues, equal to me in experience and responsibilities, is earning a decent chunk more than I am. He's male and I'm female. But surely gender inequality doesn't exist any more in 2010? And if it does, what can I do about it?

If you are being paid less than your male colleague then it may be related to the fact that you are female. A 'typical' male will be assertive in asking for a pay rise. A 'typical' female will simmer, and eventually leave. That's not me being sexist: that's some research I read a few years back.

Here's what to do to get a pay rise. First, find out your market value. Do your research on market rates, ask friends to tell you their numbers and talk to HR professionals from other companies.

Next, get confident about your ability to leave for another job. Brush up your CV and walk into a few agencies. Have coffees with other likely employers to discuss how things are. Don't solicit offers, but you never know where things will go.

Indeed, the best way to prove your market value is to get another offer. Once you have an offer, negotiate hard with your prospective employer and push the offer higher. They have demonstrated that they want you, so you're in a strong position to negotiate. Don't be afraid to ask for more than you think you are worth—you are worth whatever you get paid.

Now line up the evidence and book a meeting with your boss. You want to give him the ammunition he needs to get an out-of-cycle pay rise for you. That evidence is that you are wildly underpaid versus market, and that other companies are actively courting you and that you have an offer (if you have one). Tell him you want to stay, that you've come to the belief that you are underpaid and that this is affecting your motivation. Be reasonable yet firm.

And be discreet. None of your colleagues need to know about this, and it will help your bosses give you more money if they feel you'll keep it quiet.

But you also need to be honest. Are you really performing at work? Can your company afford to pay you more? Is what you are being paid really under market rates?

While it is true that white males have an unfair legacy advantage, females and minorities have unfair advantages as well. Play to your own strengths to compete and win in the game of office politics.