The role and impact of every employee on the mission

I’m about to take some new training professionals onto my team and the process got me thinking about why training matters in healthcare and the importance of non-clinical employees in the industry. In healthcare, there is one focus, the patient, and rightfully so. So, who takes care of the patient? The nurses, physicians, therapists and other clinical staff. When it comes to the employee population, often times, the spotlight is solely on the clinical staff because they take direct care of our patients.

When your touch is as direct and intimate as that of a nurse or physician, your impact is often immediate and clear. There’s no arguing the power of saving a life. So, what role does everyone else in healthcare play in customer service and patient care? I challenge anyone who thinks that they don’t have a role.

I’ve had the absolute privilege of wearing three hats in my healthcare career: human resources (HR), training, and information technology (IT). I can connect everything I have done and continue to do in these roles back to patient care. I know how I impact the bottom line and I want my soon-to-be training team to understand what their role really means in achieving the mission of our organization.

As an HR professional, my job is to make sure that employees receive appropriate pay and benefits, that they have avenues for support with workplace issues and that they get to work in a safe and engaging environment. As an IT professional, it is my job to provide functional and innovative technology, the appropriate support for that technology and the relevant guidance needed to make the best possible technical decisions for operations. As a training professional, my job is to offer clear and accurate education, effective evaluation of competencies and continued learning support to employees. All of these things allow our clinical staff to focus on the most important thing in our organization: taking care of our patients.

Ultimately, I do what I do so that the employees I serve can best serve their customers and patients. If non-clinical employees do not receive the proper tools and investments to do their jobs well, clinical staff will end up frustrated that they have to focus on things like slow computers, complicated HR policies, and accountability without training. Then, patient care is no longer at the forefront for these employees. However, if we value our non-clinical staff enough to empower them to make great decisions and do great work, they can make sure that the patient is always front and center.

As leaders, we should never diminish the value of our non-clinical staff and as non-clinical staff, we should always understand the important role we play in patient care and think about how to best serve our customers: the employees who take care of those patients. With support for and investment in both clinical and non-clinical staff, the employee and patient experiences become stronger, better and more valuable.

Whether you are in healthcare or not, its critical that employees understand their role and impact on the mission, regardless of where they sit in the company.

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How a punitive culture will punish you

Why are we so afraid to fail and why are we so afraid to let our employees fail? Often, it’s because we’re punished for it. If we make a mistake at work, we get written up for it or in the harshest of organizations, maybe even fired for it.

I challenge you to change this mindset in your organizations. I’m not asking you to give up accountability. I am asking you to rid the punitive cultures that exist in your workplaces. Failure without accountability has no place in the workplace but allowing people to learn from failure holds great value.

I’ve seen organizations lose exceptional employees because they punished them for a “mistake.” Some of these “mistakes” include making a decision that the organization felt should not have been made by the employee or forgetting to do something once. If you have a good employee in this situation, they may start looking for another job because you punished them right away instead of empowering them to learn from their mistakes.

It goes beyond mistakes though. Sometimes, employees are punished simply because they made a decision that the organization or leader does not agree with even though that decision may play out in everyone’s favor in the end. Employees don’t always have the chance to see their ideas, risks and decisions come to fruition because they get in trouble just for presenting them.

Allow your employees to fail and take some risks without punishing them. A punitive culture keeps people down after they fall rather than helps them back up. Remember that as leaders, we make mistakes too but we sometimes have the power to avoid punishment for them. We’re often trusted and expected to learn from our mistakes without any guidance from others.

Think about the last time you did something wrong. If you can’t think of something, you’re in desperate need of some self reflection. Then, think about the last time you did that same thing again but did it right. The feeling of relief that something that once went poorly now went very well is a pretty amazing feeling. Afford your employees the same right to have that feeling. Let them learn from their mistakes and have the opportunity to fix them or change them for next time.

Some of the most successful people and the best employees are the ones who make a lot of mistakes because they are the ones willing to take some risks. They learn from each mistake and eventually, they could be the ones who do something really cool that makes you and the organization look good too. So, stop punishing your employees for making mistakes or taking risks without first empowering them to learn from those mistakes or see the outcome of their risks. A punitive culture only punishes you.

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Are you really ON LinkedIn?

I was talking to someone recently who was looking for some career and job-seeking advice. He asked me to review his paper resume and I asked if he’s on LinkedIn. He said yes with a big confident smile on his face. There was no hesitation in his answer.

After looking up his LinkedIn profile, I said to him, “You’re not on LinkedIn. You have a LinkedIn profile.” Needless to say, we changed this.

I see people make this mistake all too often. Job-seekers think that just because they have a LinkedIn account and copied their resume over to their profile that they’re going to start getting jobs, opportunities, resources, clients, etc. There’s a huge difference between having a LinkedIn account/profile and being ON LinkedIn.

Being ON LinkedIn requires interaction and creativity. Recruiters on LinkedIn are not your traditional recruiters. They are looking for much more than a resume to review your education and experience. They’re looking for examples of your work; they’re looking for your unique thoughts; they’re looking for endorsements and recommendations.

So, let’s tackle some of the things that take you from having a LinkedIn Profile to being ON LinkedIn. The assumption here is that you already have a profile setup with your work experience, education and hopefully, a lot more.

Being active on LinkedIn is the key to successful online networking and knowledge sharing. Here are some things to start doing so you become more active and visible.

LinkedIn Posts
There are two kinds of postings that you can take advantage of on LinkedIn. On your newsfeed, you can type right into the “Start a post…” box and your message will be seen on your connections’ news feeds. Pushing out updates regularly gives you visibility. Be careful not to over post, though. If you can’t think of anything to post, think about your passions. Post interesting articles that you find, inspiring quotes or even updates on cool projects you’re working on.

LinkedIn also has another posting option. You can write articles that can be visible by your connections, everyone in your network and anyone who follows you on LinkedIn. These posts are usually a little longer in length and should reflect some of your deeper thoughts. I treat mine like blog posts where I share my thoughts on different topics that I think my audience might be interested in. Your reach is much larger when you write articles on LinkedIn. Whether you’re trying to find a job, gain new clients or grow your network for knowledge, resource and idea sharing, visibility can impact your success. Posting gives you that visibility.

LinkedIn Groups
Joining and actively participating in groups is a great way to network and share knowledge and resources. Ask questions in groups about relevant topics that get people thinking. You can share articles here too, including ones that you wrote and posted yourself. Try to strike up conversations though with your posts rather than just posting them.

Don’t forget to comment on other people’s posts too and answer questions that they pose in the groups. Participating in groups is like attending a networking event. Eventually, you’ll connect with people who enjoy discussing, posting about and debating similar topics.

LinkedIn Jobs
If you’re looking for a job, you can do it right from LinkedIn. Some employers post their jobs on LinkedIn but require you to go to their website to apply. Others allow you to apply straight from LinkedIn.

If you apply for jobs on LinkedIn and the employer can see all of your activity (posts, comments, etc.) relevant to the job, your chances of spiking their interest might just increase.

LinkedIn Companies and Education
Follow companies you apply for jobs at or that you would like to work at one day. Keep up with what they’re doing – big projects they have going on, what they’re making the news for, awards they’re winning and other relevant announcements. Knowing these things will greatly benefit you in an interview to show that you’ve been keeping up with the company.

LinkedIn’s Education features also allow you to connect with students, alumni and professors at colleges and universities. This is a great way to network and connect with people who have something in common with you.

LinkedIn Connections
Connections are more than just a static network or popularity contest. LinkedIn Connections are about relationships. LinkedIn has a great feature where you can see your last conversation with a connection. Make sure to reach out to your connections every once in a while especially if they are not people you see or talk to regularly.

Maintaining relationships is more important than simply connecting on LinkedIn. Put a reminder on your calendar every few months to reach out to people on LinkedIn.

It’s a commitment to really be ON LinkedIn but it’s one worth making. What are your best practices on LinkedIn?

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It’s performance review time: Tips for the dreaded self-evaluation

It’s performance review time – my favorite time of year…just kidding! It’s not really a fun time for anyone. Employees usually dread it. Managers hate the paperwork. Human Resources goes bananas because they have to sort through all of the reviews and their phones are constantly ringing with questions and concerns.

Plus, there’s been quite a lot of controversy about performance reviews. Thought leaders have been debating the value of performance reviews and whether or not we should even have them. While this debate continues, most organizations are still doing performance reviews.

As a Human Resources professional, I’ve coached a lot of managers on how to best deal with performance management and reviews. However, the people who usually don’t get much direction from Human Resources are the employees who are actually being evaluated.

There’s this thing called the self-evaluation that people often dread completing for their managers as part of the performance review process. Usually, they get submitted with nothing on them except a signature. Sometimes, there’s a joke written on it to see if anyone’s actually looking at it. Other times, people basically write what their job is rather than how they added value to a project or how they went above and beyond.

Here are some great tips that I’ve learned from being evaluated and from evaluating others (and reviewing their self-evaluations):

  • Make it a year-long task to save time in the end. Starting on the first day of your performance year, commit to completing your self-evaluation. As you accomplish things, receive positive feedback or meet goals, make a note of it on your self-evaluation (or your own document if you don’t have the actual form yet). You’ll save a lot of time in the end if you don’t wait until the year is over to try and remember or find things to put on your evaluation form.
  • Stop putting things on your self-evaluation that are simply your job duties. It always amazes me when I see this on self-evaluations: “I’m always on time to work.” Well, it is part of your job to arrive on time! Your manager and Human Resources both know what your job is already. You don’t have to tell them again.
  • Go ahead and brag. It’s okay to talk yourself up if you’ve accomplished a lot. Structure your thoughts though. What did you accomplish? What was the impact of what you accomplished on your team or the organization? In other words, what value did it provide to the overall goal or mission?
  • After you brag about yourself, talk about some of the areas you would like to improve in. If you don’t tell your manager this, they won’t help you get better.
  • Document the status of your goals. Did you have goals for the year? Did you meet them? Perhaps, you even exceeded them. Either way, document this. If you did not meet a goal, explain the reason, the obstacles and the plan to complete it within a specific timeframe.
  • Be real. Be honest about what you put on your self-evaluation and write it with a genuine tone/voice. Don’t try to make bad things sound good or good things sound better. Also, don’t diminish the value of something great because you’re modest.
  • During your review, talk to your manager about what you put in your self-evaluation. Have a conversation about what you’re proud of and what you would like the two of you to work on next year.

These tips will help you complete your self-evaluation and hopefully, find value in it so that it’s not just paperwork that you have to complete every year. These tips should help the performance review process become more meaningful and less dreaded for both you and your manager. As I always tell people I mentor, “The first step to improving ourselves is to engage in constant self-reflection. Make it a habit, part of your everyday.”

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Don’t wait until you need a job to update your resume

You wouldn’t wait until you’re completely dehydrated to drink water, right? Well, if you did, you would know that it’s not the best idea and doesn’t feel very good. It’s better to stay hydrated and drink enough water every day.

The same goes for updating your resume. If you wait until you need a job, you might find that you’re in more of a panic. You can’t remember everything you’ve done and you’re likely going to write your resume from a different perspective when you’re looking for a job versus when you already have one.

Here are some suggestions of what you should be updating on your resume even when you’re not looking for a job:

  • Update your demographics and contact information – phone number, email address and education.
  • Regularly, update the details of your job. Add new projects, responsibilities and accomplishments.
  • Add new certifications or licenses you’ve received.
  • Add new memberships to professional organizations.
  • Add new skills.
  • Update your volunteer experiences.
  • Change up your layout. Giving your resume a new look and feel can go a long way to making it stand out. Take the time to do this when you’re not under pressure to find a job.

Taking these steps when you’re happily employed will pay off in the long run. Update your resume when the content is fresh in your mind. If you ever decide that it’s time to move on or if you ever fall into the unfortunate situation of having to find a new job, you’ll be ready to do so.

Additionally, an updated resume may come into handy for reasons other than finding a new job in another company:

  • If there’s another position or promotional opportunity within your organization, you’ll probably still need to submit a resume.
  • If you’re looking for volunteer opportunities, nonprofits may ask for your resume.
  • If you’re networking, you may want to share your resume.
  • If you’re ever looking to sit on a board for a nonprofit, you may also have to submit a resume.
  • If you’re ever recruiting for positions, candidates will be looking at your LinkedIn profile as much as you are looking at theirs.
  • If you ever plan to go back to school or apply for a scholarship, you may need to submit a resume.

It’s a time commitment to keep your resume updated but it’s an investment worth making for future success. It will also save you a lot of time when it matters most. Don’t wait until you need a job to update your resume!

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Want employees to step up? Make them a plate to step up to!

Why do so many leaders throw out the word “accountability” as if it’s magical and will just make people successful? Trust me, I believe 100% in holding people accountable. In fact, I write about it, talk about it and live it out every day in my work.

The wake up call, however, is that accountability is not something that just happens. We can’t just tell people what to do and then punish them if they don’t do it. “Do this, or else…” and “My way or the highway.” are threats, not forms of accountability.

Accountability is nothing without proper training, guidance, support, development, assistance, patience and leadership. Managers tend to focus so much on “what” they need to hold their staff accountable for that they often forget “how” to actually accomplish such a thing. They forget that if they want employees to step up to the plate, they need to give the employee a plate to step up to.

When I say “a plate to step up to,” I don’t necessarily mean that there needs to be a promotional opportunity or financial incentive. I mean that we need to give people a reason to step up. We need to motivate people if we want to succeed as leaders.

The years of 30, 40 and 50 year service pins are gone. Employees are going to have more choices than ever before when it comes to jobs. With an overwhelming amount of job boards at their fingertips and websites such as Glassdoor, the future of job-seeking is going to look more like job shopping. The ball is now in the jobseekers’ court, not the employers’ court.

As organizational leaders, we need to find ways to get the most out of our people and give the most back to them. Our jobs are harder than ever but if we do it right, our hard work will pay off. We need to personalize our relationships with each employee so we know what motivates them to step up to the plate and do their best work. Then, we need to create that plate for them and help them step up to it.

I used to shop at Express simply because I liked their clothes and well, that’s all it used to take to gain my business. If I liked your product, I bought it. They’ve never provided poor customer service. Their staff is as friendly as the next store but I stopped shopping there. Why? I found something better!

I went into a White House Black Market one day and who would have known but the experience changed my life…or at least my shopping experiences. Their clothes were no better than Express, in my opinion. An associate approached me, not to see if I needed any help, which is the question most store associates ask. “Do you need any help?” is a yes or no question. At White House Black Market, they asked me what I was looking for today and how they can help me get what I’m looking for. They made me think. I had to come up with the reason I was there, a goal.

I needed some new work clothes. The associate spent about five minutes walking around the store with me seeing what I picked out. She was checking out my taste in style, my size, my color choices, etc. She then said to me, “I’m going to take what you’ve picked out and start a fitting room for you. Then, while you try these on, I’m going to continue shopping for you. I’ll have more outfits ready when you’re done with what you’ve already picked out. We’ll keep trying until you have what you need.” I had a personal shopper! Coolest thing ever and it was free! Her picks were spot on with my taste!

That’s personalization, if I’ve ever seen it! Why not do the same thing with that “plate” we need our employees to step up to? Whether you like it or not and whether you believe it or not, employees are constantly shopping for jobs. Even if they are not actively seeking a job, people are dangling job postings, interview appointments and job offers in their faces constantly – LinkedIn InMail, position advertisements on every website, email alerts from Indeed, conferences and other networking events.

If we don’t personalize that “plate” that we expect our employees to step up to, we’re going to lose them and that accountability you were trying to force on them is completely irrelevant. Talk to your staff, find out what makes them tick and use that to create motivation and build accountability.

To most leaders’ surprise, employees actually appreciate accountability. They want to set goals with you and be motivated to meet them. They won’t do those things though if you’re micromanaging them, providing a negative work environment for them and giving them unrealistic expectations to work with.

What does each of your employees’ “plates” look like? Does it have money on it? Is there a career development plan on it? Does it have a learning opportunity on it? Is there some recognition or reward on it? Does it have a touching story on it? Maybe, there’s just a big smile and nice pat on the back waiting for them on the “plate,” and that might just be enough for them to step up.

Remember, though, that fair is not always equal. Motivation comes in all different shapes, sizes and methods. Either way, it has to be personal and mean something to the person you’re trying to motivate, the person you’re trying to get to step up. If that plate doesn’t have what they’re looking for, they won’t step up; they’ll step away to find a different plate to step up to.

So, are you serving up a plate of motivation?

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Your choice: Peer to fear or peer to pioneer?

So, you’ve been promoted. Congratulations, you’re now in charge of your peers and possibly, your friends!

Don’t panic! Here’s a recommendation you can follow to be successful. I call it the LASH OUT solution.

Layout expectations for everyone.

If you outline your expectations to your entire team, including your friends, everyone will know what they need to do. Be very clear about what results need to be produced.

In addition to the work, successful leaders define expectations for their teams related to people skills and team behaviors. Tell your team the kind of leader you’re willing to be and make clear what your expectations are of them, individually and as a team.

Avoid favoritism.

Don’t treat your friends better than everyone else. This sounds simple but it’s actually very difficult to do consistently. People are often afraid of breaking friendships if they don’t give their friends special treatment. As my mother would say, if they don’t want to be your friend for doing the right thing, they’re not good friends to begin with.

Now, I’m not a believer that you cannot keep your friendships or build new ones with team members. However, leaders need to constantly remind themselves of the line between friendship and leadership. Don’t let your friends on the team get away with doing less work, producing lower quality results or misbehaving. You’re only hurting yourself if you play favorites. Plus, it makes you lose credibility.

Spread the love.

Did you used to go out to eat or enjoy happy hour with some of the employees you now lead? No one’s asking you to stop but you might want to consider inviting the rest of the team sometimes or doing these same things with rest of your team members. If you can include everyone in the activities that build personal relationships, you may end up with a really awesome team who not only enjoys working together but genuinely enjoys each other.

Hold your entire staff accountable for team and individual goals and behaviors.

Remember when we talked about expectations? Don’t just set them. Hold people accountable for them. If someone on your team needs coaching, even if it’s your friend, coach them. Communicate to them that you want to help but that you also have expectations of them.

The goal is to get the most out of your team so that you can lead change, create positive results and make a difference together.

Opt out of all the gossip.

The days of water cooler chat are over when you’re promoted to a leadership position. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the gossip. Not that it’s okay for your employees to be gossiping but when you’re a leader, you need to be the one who sets the example.

Understand your employees.

Get to know everyone on your team, not just your friends. Learn about what they like, what motivates them and what frustrates them. Use what you learn to personalize your leadership to each person. Just like people learn differently, people also respond to leadership styles differently. Adapt as necessary. Leaders must be nimble.

Take time outs.

You can disagree all you want but you are never too busy to take a time out. Time outs are for reflecting and re-energizing, Take time outs often to think about the things you can do differently to lead your team successfully and to get motivated to do them.

Use this LASH OUT model to ensure a successful transition from peer to leader. Ultimately, it’s your choice. Do you want to go from peer to fear or peer to pioneer? LASH OUT and pioneer change and great ideas!

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Fit for duty does not equal fit to lead

Just because you’re good at your job, it does not mean that you will be a good leader. This is one of the biggest mistakes I see organizations make when it comes to their human resources. While I believe strongly in succession planning and employee development, growth does not always equate to promotion into a leadership position.

To determine how to best recognize and reward your employees, speak with them about their career aspirations, build upon their strengths and move them into positions and environments where they’ll thrive. Don’t automatically assume that the next step for every star performer is management.

I’ve seen far too many organizations lose fantastic employees because they were forced into management positions they could not handle. Going from a staff position to managing a group of your peers is not an easy thing for anyone, let alone someone who does not have the right set of skills to take this on, or even the desire. Just because someone can manage a task, it does not mean they can manage people.

Here are some questions to ponder before promoting an employee(s) into a leadership position(s):

  1. Is management even what they want to do? Forget for a second if they would even be right for the job. If they have no passion for a leadership position and you force them into one, you’ve defeated the purpose of recognizing and rewarding them.
  2. Are they qualified? When I ask these questions, the response I often get is, “Well, if I don’t push them to take on a leadership position, I’ll never know if they’re a good fit or not.” However, people fail to realize that leaders often don’t carry titles. The people you should look to when filling leadership positions are those who are already leading your teams informally. You may have intelligent and hard workers on your team but who do they look to for direction, support, guidance, feedback and decisions?
  3. Is there another way to promote them? Promotion does not always mean taking on a management position and growth does not always happen through upward movement. If you have an outstanding employee who is not fit to lead, you may consider creating another promotional opportunity for that person. What about a new job with new or more responsibilities and meaningful benefits?
  4. How would the team feel if you promoted this person? It doesn’t just matter how the employee feels; don’t forget about the team you’re asking this employee to lead. I have met a lot of employees who are well-respected by their peers for their knowledge but despised for their lack of people skills. If you promote someone in this situation, you’re not just letting that person down but you’re letting the entire team down.

So, consider the implications of promoting employees into leadership positions before actually doing it.

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Too little too late: Losing your star performers

They’re the most loyal employees you have. They’re your hardest workers. They understand both quality and quantity, producing the best results and the most results. They’re always willing to learn and teach. They represent your organization with pride. They’re coworkers love them; your customers love them; you love them. They’re your star performers.

But, why would you wait until they have one foot out the door to get them to stay? So many leaders and organizations make this very mistake all too often. Specifically, I see leaders and organizations overlook five specific areas.

1. Training and Development
This starts with hiring practices. It is a misconception that many recruiters and hiring managers have that just because you hire someone who is extremely qualified, it means that they will require less training and development. This is far from true. If anything, they might have different needs when it comes to the areas in which they need further development. Richard Branson says it best: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

That’s what development is all about: growing our people, helping them improve their current skills and develop new ones. One of the most heartbreaking stories I heard was from an exceptional coworker about why she left a company. She said she begged the company to pay for her to take a class and they kept putting it off, year after year that she would ask. Finally, she saved enough money to pay for it herself. When she put in her notice, they asked her why she was leaving and she said, “On several occasions spanning several years, I gave this organization the opportunity to invest in me. I wasn’t asking to go back to school for a degree or to attend an outrageous number of conferences each year. I asked to have one class paid for so I could learn one new skill. The organization told me that it could not afford it. So, I invested in myself and now, I can’t afford to offer up my new skill to an organization that wasn’t willing to invest in me.”

2. Career Growth
Career growth can mean many things. It can mean simply investing in training and development of your staff. It can also mean providing new opportunities for people, whether it’s a lateral movement or upward movement within the organization.

Give people a chance especially if you already know their potential. Some organizations make it impossible for their employees to move up internally which is why they have high turnover and onboarding becomes the busiest process in the organization.

3. Meaningful Recognition
Problem? Yes. The problem here is that organizations assume that people like to be recognized the same way, which is not true. Some people enjoy being the center of attention while others prefer a more subtle form of recognition.

What does this mean for leaders? It means that leaders need to get to know their employees. It sounds like a daunting task but it’s worth the investment. If you customize and personalize your recognition programs and decisions, your staff will feel truly appreciated and special. If there’s only one or two generic ways of recognizing people, the recognition loses its meaning and value.

4. Playing Favorites
Misconception: rewarding your star performers equals playing favorites. This happens the most probably during performance review time. Managers give everyone the same rating because they don’t want to have tough conversations and because they don’t want staff to think they’re playing favorites.

High performers hate this! They feel like their time, hard work and results are for nothing when their lower performing peers are receiving the same review rating and/or raise and not expected to improve performance. If they’re not recognized for being better, they’ll either stop being a star performer or they’ll leave, neither of which are good for an organization.

5. Salary
While many believe this is the number one reason why people leave organizations, it is not. However, it still is important. The biggest mistake I see leaders make is throw money at their star performers as they’re heading out the door. If your employees have already accepted another job offer and are giving you two weeks notice, it’s probably not the most ideal time to offer them a raise. If you truly value them, you would have given them a fair raise a long time ago.

The most embarrassing thing about watching leaders do this is that they either look so desperate because they’re essentially begging the employee not to leave or they look silly because they actually believe it’s going to work. It usually doesn’t.

Attaining star performers is an opportunity. Retaining them is a privilege earned by grasping the opportunity to do everything in your power to provide them the best possible work environment in which to thrive. Lesson learned? Don’t fall into the trap of losing your best employees because you did too little too late.

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Your move: Leaders act as if everyone is watching

“It’s not a problem unless you get caught.”
“It’s not like she heard me.”
“He doesn’t have to know. We don’t have to tell him.”
“Those things are confidential so they can’t talk about it.”

Sound familiar? Perhaps, you’ve even said these things before without meaning any harm. These aren’t just things that our employees say. I’ve heard these exact words from organizational leaders and even Human Resources (HR) and Compliance professionals. Sometimes, it’s easier to let things go if we don’t think others will find out. It can be more convenient to take the shortcuts because we think it’ll still get us the same result without anyone noticing.

You don’t get in trouble if you don’t get caught, right? Well, the truth is you never really know. Whether we like it or not, when we are in a leadership position, we are on stage 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. We’re in the spotlight whether we’re at work, online or out on the town. We represent our work, our employees and our organizations no matter where we are or what we’re doing.

So, how do we handle such pressure of being a leader? Live by one rule: always act as if everyone is watching. If we do this, we’ll have a better chance of always doing the right thing and doing the right thing means that we don’t have to remember and keep track of all our secrets or stories.

As leaders, we’re responsible for a lot of tough decisions and difficult conversations. We’re often forced to act quickly, which sometimes leaves us little time to thoroughly evaluate our decisions and their consequences. Even in times of turmoil, leaders must remember to do the right thing even though the right thing will not always make everyone happy.

An example that I’ve seen many leaders struggle with is fair compensation. I’ve seen leaders and HR professionals engage in unfair pay distribution and defend it by convincing themselves that the employees will not talk to each other about their pay.

Even when it comes to confidential matters like pay or severance packages or employee relations concerns, leaders must act as if everyone is watching and do what they know is best. The most successful leaders I know always have ethics at the forefront of everything they do.

So, what’s your next move? Will you act as if everyone is watching?

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