Tip #2: Remember your place, and circulate past it.

The above photograph was taken in 1998 or 1999. It’s a photo of executive administrative assistants from Fort James Corporation enjoying a holiday meal at the Forge Club in Vernon Hills, Ill. That’s me on the left–the only male in the group.

At that time, that’s what I was: An administrative assistant at Fort James Corporation, a global consumer products company. I’m telling you this so that you understand that my Tip #2 is based on my experiences on both sides of the management divide. It’s directed primarily at managers, but definitely does have application for “front-line” employees.

Just a few years prior to when this photo was taken, I supervised a group of administrative assistants within the Management Services Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. My later role just before joining Fort James was manager of a small team that provided document production and other communication services to consultants and staff at a Chicago-based consulting firm for the healthcare industry.

I thought I understood how to navigate between the worlds of administrative assistants and front-line employers on one side and “upper management” on the other. I’ve held positions that provided me access to all levels of the organizations for which I worked, and I thought I knew how to “act” with everyone in the organizations.

But somewhere along the line, I forgot what it’s like to be on the bottom of the corporate food chain…until I accepted the executive administrative position at Fort James.

That move occurred a short time after I decided to quit my manager job at the Chicago-area consulting company. I had been working 10 to 12-hour days, seven days a week for several weeks, and for many reasons, had had enough. Although (maybe surprisingly) my wife supported my decision to quit–she knew how the job was affecting me–it was scary to leave a job without having the next one lined up.

To jump-start my job search (I wasn’t a member of IABC at that time, so I couldn’t use its job board), I went to Manpower to apply for communication positions. My thinking was that accepting a temporary position within a company would give the employer a chance to see my value, and me a chance to avoid another bad employment situation.

The phone was ringing when I returned from the meeting with a Manpower recruiter. She was excited as she told me that I would be perfect for a position with a Fortune 250 company that was relocating its headquarters to the Chicago area. The starting salary, if they brought me on full-time, would be exactly the same as the salary I had made at the Federal Reserve. A step backward from the salary I had earned at the consulting firm, but no doubt a better deal on a work/life balance basis, I thought. The situation sounded great…until she told me the position: Executive Administrative Assistant to the Senior Vice President/Controller.

“Administrative assistant,” I remember almost stammering into the phone. “B-but I’ve MANAGED admins in my past jobs.” I ended the call with a promise to consider the offer. The conversation that followed with my wife was very difficult and humbling. This job would provide a decent salary at a company that was doing well. I could prove myself in full view of the company’s top executives, and work toward moving into a more suitable communication role after paying some dues.

On the other hand, it could be a career-ender, with me painted into a professional corner that would keep me from getting back onto the successful career path I had been traveling along.

I’ll talk more about what happened at another time. To bring this back to the original point of this post, I interacted with people from all levels of Fort James. At times, I could clearly see that someone was looking at me as a lowly admin, and sometimes would seem perturbed when I would assert myself based on my overall experience and skills.

Even in my current position, I’ve worked with a couple of management-level people who clearly wanted to limit their interactions with me and others “below them” according to our internal band levels. This kind of “superior attitude” isn’t directed solely at administrative assistants!

The point I’m making is that, during this holiday season and in the year to come, when you have an opportunity to gather socially with coworkers, don’t blow it off if they are either above or below your pay grade. It’s valuable and important for connections to be made throughout the organization, and people on the “front line” do like to rub elbows on occasion with their managers and other leaders.

Circulate within your organization, and circulate “good will” to all employees.

It’s easy to grumble about things we don’t like at work, but I’m happy about a couple of team-building events this week. The first was a bowling outing yesterday. Nothing like rolling a few strikes (emphasis on few) with coworkers, while enjoying food and beverages. The second is a volleyball tournament today.

Also, departments are preparing for the annual Halloween costume and department decoration contests. Winners get a pizza lunch and other prizes. My department won two years ago with a “Men-in-Black” theme.

This year, we’re not as enthused about participating, for some reason. One person wanted us to do a “super hero” theme, but I just don’t look good in tights.

On June 16, I’ll share some “secrets” of how VW Credit, Inc. continues to outperform industry norms in terms of employee engagement and satisfaction. I hope you can join me.

The discussion will take place in Chicago at the “Innovating Employee Engagement” and “Executing Social Media for Internal Communications” conferences organized by Communitelligence.

Participate in the two-day conference combo to get answers to issues related to employee engagement, keeping employees committed during periods of change, and gaining executive support for social media initiatives within your organization. The conference will include four keynotes, 11 case studies, eight roundtables, 20-plus expert speakers, a networking reception and dinearounds.

I’ll join a panel discussion on June 16 with Jeff Zwier, senior manager and communications leader, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; and Joe Spratt, director of internal communications, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP. Our session is titled, “When the Going Gets Tough: Low-Cost Sure-Fired Ways to improve Employee Engagement During a Downturn.

Frankly, these are tough economic times, and communicators are being asked to do more with less. We’ll provide some practical ways for you to build morale and engagement without breaking the bank.

I’ve titled my portion of the presentation, “Preventing Performance ‘Skids’ with ESP (Employee Stability Program).” It’ll be a lot of fun, and information-packed. I can’t wait!

Is your budget tight (whose isn’t)? Communitelligence is offering a $200 travel rebate for conference attendees.

When I was growing up, many of us we were convinced that aliens really did exist and would eventually reveal themselves to us. It wasn’t difficult to imagine that life could exist on a few of the billions of planets spread across the universe. When we acted out that first contact, the person playing the “alien” would typically say, “Take me to your leader.”

Now older and perhaps wiser, we don’t look for spaceships descending from the sky—and we wouldn’t automatically consider our company’s senior leadership to be the best people to manage an interstellar meeting, if we had the opportunity to arrange one. In fact, survey results seem to indicate that at least one-third of us would beg to be taken away in the space ship, rather than remain behind in a work environment that had failed to engage us.

But let’s talk about how to improve communications within an organization. Primary takeaways of a preconference workshop at the Melcrum Strategic Communication Management Summit 2008 in Chicago included:

Communication expert Roger D’Aprix, a vice president at ROI Communications, and fellow ROI VP Michelle Glover led a workshop that was titled, “Improving Employee Engagment through Effective Leadership Communication.”

D’Aprix stated that a company’s leader is the single most effective communication tool professionals have to engage the hearts and minds of employees. He pointed to separate research findings from Melcrum and Towers Perrin that indicate the top driver of employee engagement to be the actions of senior leaders.

[See my podcast for an interview with Roger D'Aprix that centers on the third driver of employee engagment--social responsibility--and a preview of his soon-to-be-published book, "The Credible Company. Communicating With Today's Skeptical Workforce."]

D’Aprix and Glover shared results of a survey that ranked the level of engagement of various reporting levels within organizations. The results are:

- Senior executives (53%)
- Director/Managers (25%)
- Supervisors (16%)
- Salaried workers (14%)
- Hourly workers (12%)

Their take was that people closest to information were the most engaged. The need is to bring information effectively to supervisors, salaried and hourly workers. “Engagement is just one factor for success, but it is a very powerful factor,” D’Aprix said. “People will go the extra mile and bring more energy when they are engaged.”

To promote greater employee engagement, pay attention to the communication behavior of your leaders, he said. One key to engagement is to have effective and engaged leadership at the top, Glover and D’Aprix emphasized. D’Aprix added that employees no longer are a “cost of doing business,” they are the means of doing business–particularly in service-oriented markets like the United States. Therefore, organizations should demonstrate their interest in employees by researching the needs of their employees as thoroughly as they do their customers’ needs.

D’Aprix said the old-fashioned “command-and-control” management style, where leaders demand more and expect constantly better results, is not going to work with today’s workforce.

“Lead people well, keep them involved and you will improve the retention and performance of your organization,” he said.