Diamonds to You

Thanks so much for your continuing support and encouragement. I’m so glad you like my newsletters. Again, let me remind you that you are welcome to send copies to any of your colleagues. I thrive on your business referrals. Also, please remember that my client base expands the country and even to other parts of the world. Have suitcase on wheels, will travel!

We are in the process of posting all back copies of the newsletter to the website (www.DiamondAssociates.net), but just in case you are looking for something specific, I am listing all prior articles and the newsletter issue in which the appeared at the bottom of this newsletter.

The Middleman—or Intermediary

What do a successful medical practice, an investment consulting organization, a boutique semiconductor company and the Orange County sales office of one of the nation’s largest high tech firms have in common?

They all used intermediaries to keep themselves informed and to manage their staff and they were all blindsided.

When I interviewed CEOs for an on-going newspaper column I am hoping to have soon, many of them told me that one of the key needs they had was to be properly informed. They wanted to know what was going on at all levels in their organizations and felt that they were often given only the information that their upper management team wanted to share.

Maybe because, like Fiddler (Fiddler on the Roof) I come from a religion that doesn’t offer an intermediary to God I tend to distrust this style of management. Maybe its because in working as a consultant I’ve seen so many problems that could have been avoided if the CEO really was aware of what had been occurring.

Let me share some experiences of what happened when intermediaries blocked information from CEOs.

In the case of the medical practice, the office manager was the prime person talking with the physician. She never bothered to let him know when she discovered that there were missing processes to the development of his business. Instead, she covered for her team. One of the processes that was needed was the ability to keep track of referrals and follow up on those that had not yet come in for appointments. Potential business was being lost.

In the case of the investment consulting firm, the CEO had his “right hand man.” He relied on this man to manage all the other staff. Unfortunately, the insecurities and lack of management experience of this young assistant made him overly harsh and critical with others, often playing favorites and taking their good ideas as his own. The entire staff feared and resented the young man and they were no longer happy in their jobs and were not doing their best.

In the semiconductor company, a Senior Vice President methodically worked to destroy the relationship between the CEO and anyone else in the organization. When people wanted to see John, the CEO, this VP would say things like, “Oh, you know how volatile he is, I wouldn’t approach him just now, tell me and let me handle It for you.” Over time the respect and admiration people had for John, their CEO was destroyed by this VP. It’s one of the few times in my many years of consulting that I suggested having someone fired.

My final example was an interesting puzzle for me to figure out. I was brought into this sales office to help resolve a conflict situation between two inside sales women. The corporate Senior Vice-President of Human Resources had been flown in from the east coast previously to try to resolve the conflict. He failed.

In the process of interviewing all the individuals working at this site, I discovered that everyone had something negative to say about each of their co-workers, but all lauded the office manager as though she were a saint. Probing beneath the surface, I learned that she was the one gossiping negatively about everyone, suggesting always that all discussions go through her because she could soften the blow and act as an intermediary.

She’d tell Sally that Sue didn’t like her and Sue that Sally and Jane had been bad-mouthing her. She caused so much tension in the sales organization that no one was speaking to anyone - except to her. Since I don’t believe in angels, my suspicions were aroused and we were able to get to the bottom of the problem, create some team building workshops and reduce this middle-woman’s potency.

The moral of the story: Never be too busy to manage by walking around and getting to know the people in your organization. Create an environment in which people feel free to tell you the truth—as they see it.

Workshops and Speeches

Speaking Engagement

Tuesday, October 3, 2006, 6:30pm–9:00pm—KASE Entrepreneur Academy, the Korea IT Network and the Korean American Entrepreneurs (www.koreait.org)

The public is invited to this evening presentation in San Jose. I will be leading the second discussion of the evening. My topic will be “Basics in Entrepreneurship: Launching a Start-up—OR, So you want to be a CEO.” Appearing on the panel before me will be three highly successful serial CEOs telling their success stories.

Corporate Workshops

• Managing people, products and processes
• Legal compliance issues including diversity, discrimination, sexual harassment, safety, drug-free workplace, and Americans with Disability Act (ADA)
• Managing organizational change
• Dealing with conflict in the workplace
• Silos and unhealthy competition
• Communication
• Dealing with different, difficult and diverse people

Recent Publications

• “Finding Value in Team Building,” by Lin Grensing-Pophal, in the August issue of the SHRM’s online consultant forum.

• “Mentors Who Make a Difference,” by Lin Grensing-Pophal, in the August issue of the SHRM’s online consultant forum.

• “Make it Rewarding,” Veterinary Economics, August 2006, I am being quoted by Kim Seidel.
• Kim is also quoting me in her article about Board Evaluations which will be published in the Membership Management Report.
• Susan Ladika is quoting me in PM Network Magazine’s annual Leadership Edition.
• ADA Compliance Guide published my article “Ketra and the Professional ‘Helpers’” in their July 2006 edition.
• “Handling Stress in Law Firms” published in the June issue of Law Firm, Inc.
• “Finding Success Through Succession,” which had been published in Security Management, will be used by Hunter College in New York as part of their on-line training modules for Job Placement Strategies, for their federally funded Employment Services Systems Research and Training Center.
• “Change Cultures”—I’m being quoted in Insight Magazine, the magazine for the Illinois CPA Society.
• Other articles and articles in which I have been quoted recently can be found by a Google search.

Also, of course, there are the two books—which my publisher tells me are selling well—available at www.productivepublications.com:

• Training Your Board of Directors: A Manual for the CEOs, Board Members, Administrators and Executives of Corporations, Associations, Non-Profit and Religious Organizations
• The “Please” and “Thank You” of Fundraising for Non-Profits: Fifteen Essential Ingredients for Success

Resources: Affirmative Action’s Bad Rap

by Rene Martinez
CEO of Pinnacle Affirmative Action Services

Most people believe that Affirmative Action requires companies to hire non-qualified females and minorities or too fire white males and replace them with qualified females and minorities in an effort to fill some type of quota. This perception could not be farther from the truth.

Affirmative Action is simply a set of laws and regulations that require federal contractors to make specific “Good Faith Efforts” toward affirmative action in an attempt to remedy past discrimination, eliminate continuing discrimination and creating systems and procedures to prevent future discrimination of females and minorities in the workplace.

How is this accomplished? On an annual basis, federal contractors are required to do a statistical analysis their workforce, comparing their numbers of females and minorities to the available census data in areas where they recruit. If the contractor has less than expected females and minorities in certain jobs, their responsibility is to make “Good Faith Efforts” to attract qualified females and minorities to their organization. This provides the contractor with a pool of qualified job applicants so that when the opportunity in the future arise to either hire or promo into a job where the contractor has less than expected females or minorities, they have qualified alternatives to choose from.

The bottom line is that until females and minorities are treated fairly in the workplace, there will always be a need for companies to self analyze their hiring and promotion practices. So is Affirmation Action bad? Not under current circumstances...

So, how can I help you?

ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D

Your workshop…was invaluable. Your knowledge and skills are excellent. We enjoyed your quick wit and the support materials were terrific. I personally learned a great deal and the [participants] are still asking if we can’t please have you here on a permanent basis.
    You might consider changing the title of your seminar to “How to figure out where you are, how you got there, where you want to be and how to go about making the most of your talents and how to zero in on the needs of your clients to best serve them, while enjoying the process.”
    – P.M. Vice-President

Prior Articles in Diamonds to You

• Conflicts, Cliques, Family Feelings and Turf Wars (Vol.1-6)
• Powerful Networking and Interviewing Strategies: Slam Bam Doesn’t Work (Vol.1-5)
• The Art and Science of Grant Writing (Vol.1-5)
• Managing Organizational Change (Vol.1-4)
• Staff Development for Professional Practices (Vol.1-3)
• Professional Development (Vol.1-3)
• Non-Profit Boards (Vol.1-3)
• Managing Mergers and Acquisitions (Vol.1-3)
• Brief Introductory Speeches for Networking Events (Vol.1-3)
• On-Line Sexual Harassment Training—My opinion (Vol.1-2)
• Managing Meetings—Answering your questions (Vol.1-2)
• Meeting Preparation (Vol.1-2)
• Types of Meetings (Vol.1-2)
• Some tips about People and Meetings (Vol.1-2)
• How can I help you? (Vol.1-1)

Let me be your Aufin—your advisor to Kings.

ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D
ArLyne@DiamondAssociates.net