Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9404270120
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY TODD PACK KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: FORT MITCHELL, KY. LENGTH: Medium
No, really.
"All unproductive behavior is a self-esteem issue," said Bill McGrane III, a consultant and president of the McGrane Self-Esteem Institute.
McGrane, 37, knows this self-esteem business is ridiculed by some executives as just so much New Age hooey - Newsweek dismissed it as "the latest national elixir" - but that's OK.
"They're not educated about self-esteem," he said.
They're also outnumbered. In the last few years, everything from bad grades to gang violence has been blamed on low self-esteem.
A 1992 Newsweek poll found 89 percent of those surveyed think self-esteem is "very important" in motivating a person to work hard and succeed.
Some bosses see boosting self-esteem as a cheap way to improve productivity; it's less expensive than old-fashioned bonuses or pay raises.
Those bosses "want to be manipulative, and that always backfires. [Workers] will eventually smell it out," said McGrane, who would rather work with companies that have a sincere interest in change.
McGrange's kind of change does not come cheap. He charges companies $3,500 a day - $5,000 a day outside his Cincinnati base - to instill good feelings.
McGrane also gives workshops. Fees range from $28 for a one-night session on "Making Life Work" to $4,795 for a five-day course on self-esteem and something called "Psycho-Linguistics," which includes a year of phone consulting.
He's even thinking about producing an infomercial. "That's eventually the way we need to go to get out the information," he said.
His message is simple: Be nice. Listen to others. Don't yell. Don't insult your employees. Don't berate them to make yourself look powerful. Think about their feelings.
While a few businesses hire him to help avoid problems, others call after "they're starting to get into issues or they're so steeped in it, it's a crisis."
McGrane said one manager hired him to help two employees with a presentation to the business's board of directors. Her employees were tense, and she assumed they weren't getting along.
"What was really going on was both of them were looking for new jobs," McGrane said. "They hated this manager, and after this project was over, they were leaving.
"Then I had the nice job of telling the manager, `The real issues are with you, and they'd do a great job if you'd just get out of the way.' "
In many cases, people go after high-power management jobs to boost their self-esteem, McGrane said. When those people find they have no credibility or respect, he said, they lash out at their employees, making things even worse.
That's not an easy lesson for some, McGrane said, but "my job is telling people things they don't want to hear, but in a way so they'll listen."
McGrane is a friendly man, 6 feet 1, lean, with graying hair. His watch face carries the letters "TUA," for total unconditional acceptance, one of the keys to high self-esteem, he says.
His tidy office is in an old carriage house behind his stucco home on a tree-lined street about 10 minutes south of Cincinnati. The McGrane Self-Esteem Institute is two blocks away, in a nondescript office building.
The institute's suite is filled with 20,000 self-esteem books, most of them collected by McGrane's father, William J. McGrane.
The elder McGrane was an investment broker who discovered the benefits of high self-esteem in the late 1960s. He quit his job and started the institute in 1977. He died in 1991 at age 66.
The institute has five employees, include McGrane's mother, Dean, who lectures on attitudes and communication.
Those who have attended Bill McGrane's seminars say they've learned a lot.
"No question, our growth has improved 25 percent . . . We're able to apply ourselves," said Ray Gage, president of The Gage Corp. of Delaware, an environmental firm based in Detroit.
The seminars are good for "anyone who's not getting the outcomes they want," said Elizabeth Jeffries, 51, of Louisville, Ky., a motivational speaker and consultant. "I send people there all the time."
McGrane said he expects more companies to send executives his way.
"As organizations are getting leaner . . . those who know how to work with feelings will flourish. Those that don't, won't."
by CNB