Last week, most Americans prepared a\u00a0beautiful,\u00a0golden brown turkey for their Thanksgiving feast.\u00a0\u00a0The word turkey surprisingly has\u00a0a lot of\u00a0dual meanings.\u00a0 Of\u00a0course\u00a0it\u00a0is\u00a0known primarily as\u00a0a\u00a0main course, but taking home a turkey is considered a brag-worthy accomplishment and being one is often an insult.<\/p>\n
My favorite is the term \u201ctalk turkey\u201d, which means to discuss something frankly and practically.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0always been known as being very frank.\u00a0 Whether this\u00a0is\u00a0a good or bad trait depends on who you ask.\u00a0When someone \u201ctalks turkey\u201d, they get to the point and the term often refers to settling a topic of discussion.\u00a0\u00a0The term\u2019s meaning may vary-\u00a0it\u00a0can\u00a0mean\u00a0talking about something\u00a0pleasant or\u00a0discussing\u00a0a serious matter.\u00a0 Historical accounts suggest the phrase came from day-to-day bartering between colonists and Indians over wild turkeys.\u00a0\u00a0Therefore,\u00a0talking turkey\u00a0has\u00a0also\u00a0been used in negotiations.<\/p>\n
Many employers are directing their attention to year-end activities such as assessing their businesses, their client\/customer relationships and the performance of their staff.\u00a0\u00a0Especially as this challenging year is\u00a0coming to a close,\u00a0it may be the best time to talk turkey.<\/p>\n
Business- Truthfully and honestly assess your financial ability to continue, do you close, did the pivot work or should you invest.\u00a0 A business evaluation expert told me that if you finished 2020\u00a0revenues in parallel\u00a0with\u00a02019 revenues, it really means you experienced growth.\u00a0 Pat yourself on the back.\u00a0\u00a0Otherwise, now is a good time to plan alternatives or different courses of action.<\/p>\n
Clients\/Customers-I place mine in three buckets.\u00a0 Clients in my \u201cA\u201d bucket are a joy to support and they pay their bills.\u00a0 We are forever grateful for their business.\u00a0 Clients in my \u201cB\u201d bucket are difficult and challenging to support but they pay their bills on time.\u00a0 They are worth the extra effort.\u00a0 Clients in my \u201cC\u201d bucket\u00a0are difficult and they\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0pay their invoices.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0time to talk turkey with these clients because if I don\u2019t, I have no one to blame but myself.<\/p>\n
Employees-\u00a0HR professionals are many times used for their ability to\u00a0talk turkey\u00a0to\u00a0staff.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0true, especially with\u00a0today\u2019s\u00a0remote workforce, managers need to assess performance based on outcomes and productivity.\u00a0 We\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0measure staff by how many hours they are in their chairs because the chairs are empty.\u00a0 It is important to\u00a0talk turkey\u00a0with the folks who are not productive or not meeting their deliverables.\u00a0 However, managers need to discuss situational barriers honestly and have frank discussions with anyone\u00a0struggling during this time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If the employee is found to be goofing\u00a0off, with plenty of documentation to support concerns, now is the time to\u00a0talk turkey\u00a0about the continuance of the role with the company.<\/p>\n
Most people think HR keeps a hood and sickle handy at all times, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not only bad news we discuss with staff.\u00a0\u00a0HR\u00a0is also known\u00a0for their ability to advocate for staff and remind managers on ways to show appreciation.\u00a0 Showing\u00a0employees\u00a0appreciation for their work\u00a0can be harder, but even more needed,\u00a0during the pandemic.\u00a0 Holiday events\u00a0are not recommended\u00a0and most likely will not be\u00a0happening.\u00a0\u00a0Safety concerns prevent the old models of celebration, so in some cases nothing is happening.\u00a0And\u00a0nothing\u00a0is\u00a0happening at exactly the time when lockdowns and social distancing have put people in depressed and high anxiety\u00a0moods. More expressions of workplace appreciation\u00a0are needed\u00a0now, not less, and certainly\u00a0doing\u00a0nothing\u00a0is a bad choice.<\/p>\n
Talking turkey\u00a0with verbal appreciation has a huge benefit and doesn\u2019t cost any money at all.\u00a0Employees value highly a direct comment of appreciation, especially when specific examples are used.\u00a0\u00a0To call out a team member with an example that\u00a0demonstrates a desired behavior, like excellent customer service,\u00a0not only resonates with staff\u00a0but\u00a0supports the culture\u2019s value system.\u00a0\u00a0Recognizing how everyone has risen above stress is invaluable feedback.\u00a0\u00a0Even those not named feel good that a staff member or team\u00a0effort\u00a0was called out.\u00a0\u00a0 The American Red Cross calls them \u201cmission moments\u201d and members of the board feel pride in their investment of time and resources.\u00a0\u00a0People crave recognition even more than money.\u00a0\u00a0Employee engagement surveys prove this out constantly.<\/p>\n
This is a lot of\u00a0talking turkey- between staff, customers and with yourself.\u00a0 It may still be your main course, but using this time to talk frankly and honestly on many fronts\u00a0can\u00a0be just as satisfying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, most Americans prepared a\u00a0beautiful,\u00a0golden brown turkey for their Thanksgiving feast.\u00a0\u00a0The word turkey surprisingly has\u00a0a lot of\u00a0dual meanings.\u00a0 Of\u00a0course\u00a0it\u00a0is\u00a0known primarily as\u00a0a\u00a0main course, but taking home a turkey is considered a brag-worthy accomplishment and being one is often an insult. My favorite is the term \u201ctalk turkey\u201d, which means to discuss something frankly and practically.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":10844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[],"post_folder":[268],"class_list":["post-11167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-consulting-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11168,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11167\/revisions\/11168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11167"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=11167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}