The Productivity Pro® Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

“I consider it the highest compliment when my employees go out and start their own companies in competition with me. I always send them a plant to wish them well. Of course, it’s a cactus.” —Norm Brodsky, entrepreneur and author.

“The actively disengaged employees are the “cave dwellers.” They’re “Consistently Against Virtually Everything.” They’re not just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, actively disengaged workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.” — Curt Coffman, author of First Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently

If you’ve been reading my blog recently, you’re no doubt familiar with my Productivity Management Matrix , a method by which I categorize employees based on two factors: performance and engagement.

Admittedly, this is a simplification of a complex issue, but it does bring the issue down to brass tacks. I’ve identified four categories that I believe comprise nearly all the employees in any organization: Campers, Cheerleaders, Defectors, and Productives. Not all employees fit comfortably into the Matrix, but the vast majority do.

So far I’ve discussed how to recognize and deal with Campers and Cheerleaders. Now let’s take a look at the Dour Defectors.

Defectors are highly productive, but for one reason or another, they just can’t seem to engage with their work. Maybe they’re dealing with personal issues that inhibit engagement; they may dislike the company or their co-workers; they may resent authority; or they could simply be bored out of their skulls. Whatever the cause, if they get what they consider to be a better offer, they’ll jump ship in an instant.

How to Spot a Defector
The results-oriented performance that characterizes a Defector distinguishes them from their polar opposite, the Cheerleader, and their disengaged compatriot, the Camper—and it makes them much harder to identify than either, especially if they keep their heads down and just focus on their work.

To identify the quiet Defector, you have to look for little things like attitude and behavior. Do they seem satisfied? Do they act annoyed when you give them a task? Do they come off as aloof or distant? Do they miss work or skip meetings regularly?

None of these are smoking guns, but if you see a pattern, then you should become concerned. And of course, if you find out that they’re circulating their resumé among your competitors, that’s a dead giveaway!

How a Defector Can Impact Your Team
A Defector’s negativity can quickly erode the engagement and performance of other employees, especially if the Defector starts badmouthing the organization—as so many do. Even if they’re able to keep their tongues in check, it’s often pretty obvious to their teammates that given the chance, they’ll go AWOL. That attitude can become infectious. If there’s no obvious reason for the Defector’s lack of engagement, other employees might wonder what the Defector knows that they don’t…and this can cause them to worry, which may affect their performances.

Defectors can also be unreliable, because they just don’t care enough about their team to be there whenever they’re needed. It’s easy to miss a meeting or just not show up for work when you really don’t expect to be in your job much longer.

How to Handle a Defector
The goal with any Defector is get them to engage with their team and with the company in general, so that they can morph into one of those office wonders known as the Productive (of which more anon). If nothing else, you don’t want them to head for those alleged greener pastures, taking all that wonderful productivity with them. As annoying as they are, a Defector can be difficult and costly to replace.

So it’s in your best interests to do what you can to hang onto a Defector—assuming their cynicism isn’t much more than skin deep. If you find that they’re one of those unhappy people who can’t be satisfied anywhere, then you have to make a choice. If they’re quiet about their unhappiness and you really need their results, then you may want to keep things as they are. If they’re hurting the team environment and refuse to shape up, fire them.

How to Coach the Defector
Don’t try anything superficial, glib, or subtle with a Defector. Be frank and straightforward. Tell them you value their productivity, but realize they’re not happy. Make it clear that their disaffection is hurting both them and the team, and sound them out as to why they’re so difficult to work with.

The problem might be surprisingly easy to fix. Maybe they just don’t realize that they’re affecting other people with their disinterest, in which case all they need is a little attitude adjustment. Or it might sting their pride to learn that they’re considered a problem child, resulting in them shaping up just to prove that they can. If they’re dissatisfied about a particular issue, address that. Engaging them could be as simple as offering better opportunities for advancement, providing better equipment, or coaching them to a better understanding of the company’s goals.

In Conclusion…Defectors are expensive to replace, so you need to deal with them as soon as you realize you have a problem. A motivated Defector might not jump into the Productive category right away, but if they learn to value their job as much as they value their own performance, they’ll certainly start working in that direction. Give a Defector a little time and attention, and they may just end up becoming one of your best employees.

I recently ran across this article full of tips on staying productive when you are unemployed. The article shares general ideas, as well as ideas in the areas of education, your job search, finances, networking and more. Maybe its not a bad idea to consider schools online when unemployed. Visit 100 Inspiring Productivity Ideas for the Unemployed to read the article.

Make it a productive day!

“Save the cheerleader, save the world.” — An often-repeated phrase on the NBC-TV series Heroes.

“In the early days, I didn’t have the money to pay decent salaries, so I didn’t get good people. I got nice people, but I didn’t get good employees.” — Louise Hay, self-help author

Recently, I introduced you to my Productivity Management Matrix, a quick way of categorizing your team members that compares an individual’s competence with their level of work engagement. When constructing the matrix, I realized that workers tend to fall into four basic types, which I call Campers, Cheerleaders, Defectors, and Productives.

Last time, I described Campers: the low-performance, low-engagement chair-huggers who come to work for one reason and one reason only: to get a paycheck. This time, I’ll take a look at Cheerleaders, who bring together a happy, high level of engagement with a complete inability to produce.

How to Spot a Cheerleader
Cheerleaders are usually fun people to have around, because they simply love the company. Maybe it’s the money, or the health benefits, or the free gym membership, or the environment—or more likely, it’s the whole package. They’re enthusiastic and dedicated, because they’re working in a super place and they know it. You can count on a Cheerleader to willingly take on just about anything you ask them to do.

Too bad they’re no good at it.

Sadly, the Cheerleader’s lack of performance makes them a liability, though by no means as much as a Camper or Defector can be. As a manager, your job is to realize what they are, and then guide them into becoming as productive as they are engaged.

How a Cheerleader Can Impact Your Team
Cheerleaders are great when you need to maintain a positive atmosphere in the workplace…but it’s not the Cheerleader who gets the football into the end zone, now is it? You can’t carry them forever. Their excitement about and dedication to the company isn’t going to overcome their sheer lack of productivity, so others will end up doing what they should be doing. As with the Camper, this can result in overstressed, resentful co-workers whose own productivity and engagement may start to sag.

How to Handle a Cheerleader
Cheerleaders are generally keepers, but only if you can help them become results-oriented. With a little careful cultivation, a Cheerleader might just bloom into a Productive — and those are the people that you build an organization around.

So closely investigate the Cheerleader’s lack of productivity. You may find that they’re either overwhelmed by their job (or possibly even just a few aspects of it), or aren’t challenged enough to be as productive as they could be. They may not even realize they haven’t hit your productivity milestones until you tell them. That may sound naïve, but it does happen, especially if the individual has just transferred in from an organization with lower standards.

How to Coach the Cheerleader
The best way to help a Cheerleader is to approach them gently. Point out that while you appreciate their enthusiasm for the company, what really matters is results, and that they need to become productive in order to be a full member of the team. Be encouraging and supportive, and don’t lay down the law as you might with someone who’s deliberately being difficult, like Campers and Defectors often are. If you prick the bubble of their engagement, you just might ruin the Cheerleader’s potential altogether.

Explain that they need to fix just a few things to rise to the Productive level, which is generally true. Offer to provide what they need to get there, whether training or equipment, and be willing to invest in them. It’s usually worth it in the long run.

In Conclusion…Cheerleaders are great people who are seriously into the company. Even if they’re non-productive, they love their environment and want to do well—and that’s half the battle. So just tell them what you expect of them, treat them well, point them in the right direction…then get out of their way and watch them go!

“Since my last report, he has reached rock bottom and has started to dig.” — Anonymous report from an employee evaluation (possibly apocryphal)

“American business long ago gave up on demanding that prospective employees be honest and hardworking. It has even stopped hoping for employees who are educated enough that they can tell the difference between the men’s room and the women’s room without having little pictures on the doors.” — Dave Barry, humorist

In September’s newsletter, I introduced you to a new idea: the concept of group productivity management, based on the six Productivity Keys I outlined in my most recent book, SuperCompetent.

Now, I created SuperCompetent for those individuals who want to raise their personal productivity to the maximum possible level; so as written, it doesn’t really apply to group management. But not long after John Wiley and Sons released SuperCompetent, a client asked me how it all applied to managing people…and I thought that was a very good question. After a little thought, I came up with this matrix, which compares competence with employee engagement—one of the most important concepts going around management circles these days.

The Productivity Management Matrix is a quick, simple way of categorizing team members so you that can recognize the SuperCompetents and the not-so-competents at a glance. In the four blog entries I’ll post this month, I’ll cover all four quadrants: Campers, Cheerleaders, Defectors, and Productives.

Let’s start with the lowest of the low: the dreaded Campers, who combine low performance with low engagement to come up with a sum that’s far less than the whole.

How to Spot a Camper
I call disengaged low performers “Campers” because that’s what they do: they camp in a chair and huddle in place, waiting for it to be all over. They could care less about fellow employees, the company in general, or the people they’re supposed to be serving.

If you’ve ever seen the character of Wally in the comic strip Dilbert, you’ve seen the classic Camper in action…if you can call it that. All he ever does is walk around with his coffee mug. That’s typical; Campers do as little work as possible to get by. Often, they’re actively disengaged from the company rather than merely unengaged, which means that even when they’re not really trying to, Campers are sabotaging your organization.

One quick caveat: be careful about who you classify as a Camper, because in many cases, brand new employees may seem to combine low engagement with low performance the way that Campers do. But that’s acceptable, because they’re still learning their jobs. They simply don’t know the ropes well enough yet to be high-performing, and aren’t familiar enough with the company to be highly engaged. Give new people a little time to prove where they fit into the Matrix before you assume they’re Campers.

How a Camper Can Impact Your Team
A Camper can be death to your organization. The analogies are endless: they’re the bad apple that spoils the bunch, the anchor that drags you down, the virus that ruins a well-functioning organism. Campers act as bottlenecks in workflow, because they’ll get their work done when they darn well please. They depress other people, and can infect them with their apathy, souring otherwise good employees and lowering their levels of engagement. Oh, they may not deliberately hurt your organization—but they really don’t care if they do or not. All they care about is drawing a paycheck and making it to five o’clock, to Friday, to the end of the year…and finally to retirement.

How to Handle a Camper
You can’t just ignore a Camper, or they’ll ruin you. Personally, I’d recommend that you fire them if you can. Oh, give them a chance to clean up their act first; they may surprise you by becoming a more engaged, competent employee (sometimes people just need a little push-start). But don’t be surprised if your unhappy Camper figuratively (or even literally) shoots you the bird when you tell them to shape up or ship out. If that happens, your decision is obvious.

How to Coach the Camper
When trying to counsel a Camper, you have to keep one thing in mind: subtlety is wasted on them. Be blunt: approach them and tell them you’re going to let them go if they don’t start turning things around. Lay out your corrective action plan point by point, and make absolutely sure they understand and sign off on everything. Set mileposts and check to see if they’re meeting them. This is one of those rare cases where micromanagement may be necessary.

A month should be long enough to turn things around. If there’s noticeable change, great! If not, then you’ll have to do what’s best for the team and the company.

In Conclusion…Campers have to be dealt with immediately and with finality, one way or another, or they’ll drag everyone else down to their level.

If you just can’t change the Camper and you have no say in terminating them, you can’t just sit there chewing on your frustration. There are ways that you can isolate them from the rest of your organization. Don’t give them anything important to do, and keep them away from your other team members if at all possible. After all, quarantine is a tried-and-true method of protecting the uninfected from a disease.

As you probably know, John Wiley and Sons released my latest book, SuperCompetent: The Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best, this past August 9. Like my previous books, SuperCompetent addresses productivity from an individual viewpoint, in this case describing how the reader can achieve career success by applying six specific productivity keys in the workplace.

Within days of its release, a client asked me how SuperCompetent applies to managing people, not just individual productivity. In other words, how does the Six Keys philosophy work in a team environment? This set me to thinking, especially when I considered the issue of employee engagement (last month’s newsletter article), and how that factor impacts productivity.

Formulating the Matrix
Because engagement is a managerial concern more than it is personal one, I didn’t address it specifically in SuperCompetent. However, I believe that it does apply to all six of my productivity keys to one extent or another. Attitude—that is, the intensity of an employee’s motivation, drive, and proactiveness—is clearly the most pertinent of the Six Keys, because attitude is nearly synonymous with engagement.

But any experienced manager can tell you that Attitude is not an accurate measure of performance, because the factors that predict high employee engagement aren’t the same ones that cause an employee to perform well. From my own research, it’s clear that all the other productivity keys (Activity, Availability, Attention, Accountability, and Accessibility) must also be in place and functioning properly for SuperCompetence to emerge.

Ultimately, performance and engagement are independent variables—and this natural variation can result in an odd mélange of employee types that confuses the issue of achieving a group level of SuperCompetence. Fortunately, it’s possible to clear up most of this confusion through the use of a very simple tool.

If you combine high and low aspects of Performance and Engagement, you get a matrix that you can use to gauge your employees and even your teams. Ladies and gents, I give you: the Productivity Management Employee Engagement/Performance Matrix!

In this diagram, we’ve got four quadrants that describe nearly all the employees in a typical workplace. I won’t claim that it covers everyone, but from personal experience, I can guarantee you that 95% of your employees will fall into one of the categories.

So let’s take a look at the quadrants in ascending order, starting with the worst: the dreaded Camper.

Campers
Campers are the classic low-engagement/low-performance employees. Think bureaucrats. These people are lifeless drones, low-performance deadwood who do little more than fill a chair, waiting for retirement. They vary from unengaged to actively disengaged, and couldn’t care less. They come to work just to get a paycheck…and Heaven forbid you should ask them to go one iota beyond their job description or stay late during crunch time.

If you have Campers on a team, the team will suffer: no ifs, ands, or buts about it. At the very least they’ll slow you down, but dedicated Campers are much worse: they’re not just non-productive in and of themselves, they infect everyone else, since their coworkers have to do all the work they won’t. This is bound to cause strain. They may not be doing it maliciously, but they’re doing it.

The only alternative to firing a Camper is to put a corrective action plan in place, in hopes that you can somehow engage them. You’ll need to sit down with them, make it clear that they’re on probation, and let them know why. Tell them flat-out that their behavior can’t continue, and then lay out your action plan step by step. Give them a fair amount of time to turn things around—thirty days is good—and make it clear that they won’t have a job if they don’t. Be sure to set mileposts and check to see that they’re met.

If you’re very lucky, the Camper will start working their way toward productivity; and if they do, be sure to encourage their growth. But more realistically, they won’t even try, or they’ll just give up on you and go elsewhere…which is fine. Either way they’ll still be a problem, but they’ll be someone else’s problem.

Defectors
The employees I call Defectors are low-engagement/high-performance personnel who are mostly just biding their time until they can leave you. A variety of factors may cause or contribute to their lack of engagement: boredom, contempt for authority, and arrogance, for example. But even when they’re actively disengaged, something drives them to perform at a high level. Maybe it’s pride, or showmanship, or sheer talent for what they’re doing. Whatever it is, you benefit from it.

It’s better to have a Defector on your team than a Camper, but you can’t tolerate them forever. They’re unreliable in the long term, because as soon as they find a greener pasture, they’re going to disappear. That’s no good for you, given the costs and annoyance involved in replacing truly productive personnel; and it’s no better for them, though you’d be hard-pressed to convince them of that.

The good news is that if you can engage a Defector, they’ll instantly mature into one of your Productives, as their high-performance ways dovetail with their increased engagement. You should be aware, however, that the Defector is unlikely to respond to traditional team motivation efforts, which they may consider superficial and silly.

Your best bet with a Defector is to be both frank and direct. Approach them in a semi-formal setting and lay the cards on the table. Let them know you’re aware of their lack of engagement, but that you value their high level of performance. Make it clear, however, that their obvious disinterest in the company is hurting both them and the team. Ask them what you can do to help them become more engaged—and be sure that they understand that if they do become engaged, you believe that the synergy between their performance and engagement will shoot them straight into the workplace stratosphere.

That’s nothing less than the truth, but they may find it to be flattering; and for that reason alone, they may be willing to try harder. It’s equally possible that if you make them aware that they’re considered problematic, they’ll buck up and try to improve. Conversely, it may simply make them realize that both you and they would be better off if they bowed out gracefully.

It’s also possible that their cynicism is more than skin deep. If that’s the case, and they make their scorn for you, the team, or the company overt, you should get rid of them. They’re more trouble than they’re worth, and you needn’t be a stepping stone for their ambitions.

Cheerleaders
While social talent and enthusiasm make up for a lot, they aren’t everything—and Cheerleaders are the classic workplace example. They love the company, but they don’t produce results, which makes them something of a liability. Even so, in my book a low-performance Cheerleader beats a high-performance Defector hands down. Cheerleaders have already sold themselves on the company; now you just have to help them become better workers.

Start by coaching the Cheeerleader. Sit down with them in a casual meeting, and gently point out that their productivity needs some work. Carefully explore the reasons behind their lack of productivity. Maybe they’re not suited for the job they’re in; or maybe they’re just bored because they’re insufficiently challenged.

Be encouraging and supportive during your coaching sessions. That’s a good idea with anyone you coach, but it’s crucial with a Cheerleader. Laying down the law as you might do with a Camper or Defector is a losing strategy with Cheerleaders, because you don’t want to damage their sense of engagement. Be supportive, so that they remain optimistic. Tell them that if they can just fix a few small things, they’ll become the ideal employee—which is true. If they can become fully productive, they’ll slide over into the high-engagement/high-performance Productives category in no time flat.

During your coaching sessions, you may discover that the Cheerleader just needs some training to become more productive. Don’t hesitate to provide what they need (within the limits of your budget, of course). It’ll be a wise investment, because shifting a Cheerleader into the Productives quadrant is a management coup. Your entire team will become more productive as a result, making you shine all the brighter.

Engineering that shift may be as simple as providing the Cheerleader with more challenging tasks—work that will make them stretch a bit to achieve. If they succeed in the challenge, then not only will they become more productive, but they’ll be happier and more likely to remain fully and actively engaged.

Productives
We’ve all encountered workers who not only do their jobs amazingly well, but do them cheerfully and with gusto—always productive, rarely complaining. These are the individuals that Campers like to say “make the rest of us look bad.” Well, no. If that’s the case, it’s a reflection on the Camper, not on the Productive.

Productives are easy to recognize. These are the true workplace SuperCompetents: the people you give the critical assignments to, so you can be sure that the work is getting done as perfectly as possible. When management gurus talk about setting up an organization so that it can run like a well-oiled machine without your constant input, these are the people they assume you’ll have on your team.

But tread carefully here: Productives can become the victims of their own success, because after all, the reward for work done well is more work. You can’t put everything on their heads, because overloading will lead to stress and exhaustion, which inevitably leads to negative emotion—and before you know it, your Productive is sagging toward the Defector quadrant as their engagement level fails. So before you dump another task on their plate, ask them if they can handle it.

Gently pressure them to be honest, and to tell you if they run into problems later on. Keep an eye on them, too; most Productives don’t like to admit that they’re not supermen. If you must ease their load, don’t be abrupt about it, because that may lead to resentment and worry. Explain why you think they need to rebalance their load, and get their direct input on what they think they can or should give up.

On the other hand, you can’t just assume that your Productive has enough interesting work to keep them happy; check in with them on occasion. And never, ever let yourself believe that a Productive is irreplaceable. As the old saying goes, if you’re irreplaceable, you can’t be promoted—and you can rest assured they’re aware of this. Productives need the lure of promotion as a reward for their excellent work, so you always need to provide them with opportunities for growth. If you don’t, you’ll be stirring the pot of negative emotion again.

Conclusions
While it can be dangerous to generalize about anything in this life, you also need to be able to quickly categorize things (including people) if you expect to accomplish anything at all. When it comes to judging SuperCompetence, at least from a management perspective, I believe that the classification system I’ve outlined here is an effective rough-and-ready way to estimate where your people fall on the engagement/performance scale.

Give it a try, and let me know how it works for you!

Make it a productive day! ™

(C) Copyright 2010 Laura Stack. All rights reserved.

There will always be more things to do than there is time to do them. How do you concentrate on what is really important? How do you prioritize your tasks? Laura Stack talks about the myth of “getting it all done.”

(C) 2010 Laura Stack. All rights reserved. http://www.TheProductivityPro.com

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Entering the ACCO Brands Everyday Heroes contest is easy. Submit a brief explanation of 150 words or less describing what makes them an Everyday Hero at the office, home/home office or school. Entrants can upload a photo as well to make their story more personal.  Entries must be submitted before October 31, 2010 at 5 p.m. CDT.

Voting by the public will begin November 1, 2010 and will remain open through November 30, 2010 at 5 p.m. CDT to determine five finalists in each category.  A panel of judges will select one grand prize winner in each category.  The grand prize winners will receive $1,000 in office products redeemable at office products dealers nationwide, and the runners-up will receive an ACCO Brands gift basket valued at more than $400.  ACCO Brands will announce the winners by December 15, 2010.  People should vote often since the top 10 most frequent voters will receive the same ACCO Brands gift basket as the runners-up.

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