Developing Your Future Leaders

Succession planning.  Not something leaders are always hot on.  Often because it depends upon their relationship with HR.  Yet having hired talented staff how can you keep them motivated, get the most from them and develop your next set of leaders?

The answer doesn’t have to be formal training.  One often overlooked approach to developing your high potentials is mentoring.  Clearly it helps if you have a structured mentoring approach, but even the adhoc variety can get some results.   However mentoring allows for the transfer of knowledge and experience that is relevant right now.  As a leader you get the chance to see how some one is being about a problem or challenge just as much as finding out what they’d do about it.  Formal training programmes don’t usually allow for that distinction, plus the fact they’re often an intense burst of knowledge and the application and retention can be low.

If you decide to mentor and work on developing leadership qualities in some of your current staff, look for those that are naturally taking on the extra, perhaps leading their coworkers outside their standard daily duties. harnessing this self driven enthusiasm and helping them hone and develop their skills and traits is simpler and more rewarding for all involved.

Business Growth – Employee Engagement

In times of economic uncertainty, recession and tough markets, business growth is even more challenging. Here is the last of 3 videos in which Ruth Sanderson explains critical components that enable business growth. The final part dicusses the importance of staff engagement.

Collaborative leadership, the rise of the wiki leader

The world’s economic structures and information systems have changed phenomenally over the years and it’s had an impact on leadership.  First there was the world wide web, then came google domination, now it’s twitter, linkedin and facebook.  Where we used to expect the leader to have all the answers and equally all the power, there is now emerging a more dynamic situation. 

Gone are the industrial days of autocratic decision making and dutiful employees seeking rewards and promotions up a linear ladder.  The information days have seen a open access to information, take wikipedia and open source programming as two examples.  Perhaps now we’re seeing the rise of wiki leadership, this dynamic, collaborative style where the leader knows they don’t have the answer to everything, yet they’re confident that someone somewhere will.  Where ideas can flow freely up and down the organisation, which now means they flow freely around the organisation.  Where the leader has the confidence to ask questions out beyond the company walls, take LinkedIn groups as an example. 

Wiki leadership, now there’s a thought.  How much of your leadership style and approach is to solve, answer and provide some form of parental role and how much of your style is dynamic, open and receptive.

Professional Passion

No one likes robots. Sure they may be efficient and they don’t talk back or chuck a duvet day to watch the world cup, but they are just machines. All a machine can do is what it programmed for and once a better machine comes along, it will be replaced. Machines cannot improve themselves (at least not yet). Every leader needs to look at himself once in while and see if he has become a machine – one that does a great job and stops there; with no ability to develop and grow. If you, on objective analysis, find that is happening to you, something is missing in your life. And that is passion.

Let’s not confuse doing well with success. Doing well is meeting expectations. Success is growth. To grow you need a passion to go beyond what is expected of you. An executive without a passion for his job comes across as dull, no matter how efficient he may be. And this concept of being dull is reflected back to you and feeds upon itself until the dullness becomes part of your personality. This personality will impact how well you perform. And worse, it will become part of how others treat you. You do not work in isolation. How you are perceived by others is an important of how successful you are. Not only will you not receive the respect you are due from your peers, you will become an uninspiring leader. The words boring and leader cannot coexist. A manager needs to inspire others to follow and work with him. If you are not inspired yourself, how do you expect to inspire others? No matter how boring and uninspiring your work is, your passion can turn that around, and the way you do it will be an example to others, allowing them to enable their passion. And that will earn you their respect.

Every job has it boring and frustrating moments – its when these get to be a major part of the job that passion dies. Do not accept boredom. Focus on the big picture. If you know where you are going, the boredom and frustration become only hurdles to be overcome, and not the race itself. If your target is not something that inspires you, your target is too easy and you are lazy. Just like a muscle, if your ambition is not exercised and pushed to do more, it will become weak. In fact, it may become so weak that you become incapable of even doing today’s job. If you are 40 today, you will not have the energy you had when you were 20. But that’s not important if your passion for your job pushes you to keep doing better. The passion in the mind and heart will more than compensate for the slowing of the body. If you allow your passion to carry your forward, you will be respected. And once you have respect, you will have opportunities to do more. And as you do and contribute more, you so will your need to continue on this path. And that need is passion.

What do you want in life? Once you know that, focus on how you will achieve your goal. Not if, but how. The “if” will be taken care of by your passion.

Building Trust in the Workplace – Authentic Leadership Master Class

Trust is a critical component to the success and performance of leaders and of a business.

There is a very simple equation:-

High Trust = High Speed + Low Cost

Low Trust = Slow Speed + High Costs

Look at the performance of your business, team, a specific relationship. Do things happen quickly or is everyone second guessing, double checking, re-doing and in the worst case preparing to cover and protect themselves should something go wrong?

Trust is a multiplier effect.  High trust people get the significant projects; you wouldn’t leave your child with someone you didn’t trust and a business makes no different decisions.

• High trust people get promoted and receive more of the company’s resources.
• Collaboration, engagement, innovation, job fulfilment all increase when there is trust.
• The ability to attract and retain talent increases where there is trust.
• Revenue, customer loyalty and referrals also increase if there is trust.

In fact research shows that high trust organisations out perform low trust ones by 278%

On April 15th at 4pm I’ll be interviewing Sue Swanborough, HR Director at General Mills UK, a company that yearly features in the Fortune Top 100 companies to work for.  Sue is an expert in trust and its impact and application throughout the business, from board level to shop floor.  The results of this have been evident in the business results achieved.

In the past Sue, a science graduate has worked in a number of fmcg businesses including Boots, Mars and most recently General Mills. She has moved cross functionally through R&D, supply chain, logistics and manufacturing before joining HR. She has held a number of generalist and specialist roles covering the full spectrum of HR. Her passion and expertise lies in cultural and leadership development through building trust to deliver excellent business results.

On this 75 minute tele conference call we’ll be discussing:-

• The impact trust has on the performance of a business
• What leaders need to pay attention to
• The top 3 mistakes leaders make and how this endangers the levels of trust they have
• Key strategies to build trust – whatever the size of your business
• Plus we’ll open the lines so you can ask your questions direct, as well as giving you the opportunity to send in your questions beforehand.

To secure your place and get a hard copy of the call, including transcript, follow this link – building trust

Increasing Staff Engagement – When Money Isn’t The Answer

As the economy and organisations emerge from survival to growth what about staff morale and engagement?  Just as leaders can get caught in post recession paralysis, so can employees.  After all the uncertainty and insecurity and with companies maybe asking that bit extra of staff to make it through the recession, what’s next in moving forward?

Well the most superficial response will be bonus’s and pay rises.  Yes of course rewarding your staff is key.  But as Frederick Herzberg said donkey’s years ago, pay is a hygiene factor and not a motivator.  Without it you’ve got serious problems, but there is a point beyond which it doesn’t motivate or engage staff.

In fact Lord Richard Layard wrote a book Happiness – Lessons from a new science.  Research shows that there is a fiscal point above which earning anymore doesn’t make you happier.  If memory serves me right it’s £25K.

So what does increase employee engagement?  Achievement, Recognition, Responsibility, Promotion / Career Progression, Learning and Development, Relationships / Team work, Flexible Working.  These softer, more intrinsic aspects are what  we should ensure are present.  Typically when they aren’t that’s when people start demanding more money.  It’s a sign that they don’t feel valued but are at a loss to put in place the intrinsic factors, so the tangible cash solution is a sticking plaster that patches things up for a while.

As the profits increase staff will, quite rightly, expect a share of that somehow.  Yet in this emergent state your company may not be in a position to offer cash bonus’s.  However if you use the extra cash you have to invest in ensuring the more intangible, intrinsic motivators are present then the payoff’s could be far higher than a pure cash solution.

Developing Your Organisation’s Culture – 7 Tips

Consciously developing your organizational culture is more important than ever.  At the end of the day if you aren’t developing it, then it’s developing you.

People are seeking to work for a business where they can experience fulfilment and authenticity.  Organizations which treat their employees well have experienced a better retention rate, increased productivity, increased innovation and lower sickness and absenteeism.

That said developing your organizational culture can be a big challenge for the leaders as well as its employees.   Here are few suggestions of things you can do:-

• Analyze your corporation’s existing culture and compare it with employees, suppliers and customers’ expectations and perceptions.  There are even tools that can measure this very accurately now and give valuable business insight that helps with performance and growth.

• Discuss the existing culture in your department.  What aspects of the culture are great, what’s good and what needs to change?  Then agree what you’d like the culture to be and how everyone can support and make it happen.

• Induction.  This isn’t just about training new recruits in their job, it’s about making them aware of the culture you’re growing and how they can play their part.  Even though you’ve made the culture clear in the interview process, so you’ve not recruited a misfit, it’s not enough to think that’ll do.  There are of course still companies that spend all their focus on skills and fail to explain the culture and check for alignment – which of course is expensive as they can find themselves losing the new recruit within the next 6 months and having to start all over again.

• Communication.  And I’m not talking a quick 2 line email saying our culture / values are this,  it’s important and can you just send a quick reminder to all your staff.  Yes those emails are still too common, ouch.  I’m talking about a 2 way conversation where you bring awareness that this isn’t a band-aid or quick fix approach.  Rather an ongoing, strategic process to build a more attractive culture that fits the needs of the organization and that can improve its business growth.

• Have Champions.  This is a journey so it’s important to have people who whole heartedly support the creation of this desired culture.  Plus it’s important that the champions / key culture group realise that not everyone is going to jump onboard right away.  There’s going to be scepticism, even from those who would like the desired culture.

• Momentum and Measurement.  Developing the culture to being a sustainable, profitable and healthy one for both the business and staff takes time.  Look for low hanging fruit, celebrate what works, don’t re-enforce what doesn’t.  Lastly measure.  Not incessantly but say every 12 months assess your progress against the desired end point.

If you want to do more, if you’d like to measure your culture, if you’d like to discuss how you can not only manage your culture but generate wealth from it, then give us a call.

Are you fed up, disillusioned and ready to take your career to the next level?

Pretty much everyone we know has at some point, if not several, becomes disillusioned with their career or job. This dissatisfaction can get you down, especially if others around you are feeling the same. This can feel even worse now, as we have the news of layoff’s and redundancies on TV and in the Newspaper.
If you’re looking for some practical advice that you can implement straight away to rejuvenate your career then we’ve got just the ticket.
Our eBook, sensibly titled Career Rejuvenation Action Plan, covers things like

• What your current behaviour might be saying to your colleagues
• What to do if you’re in a downward spiral
• The common questions most people ask themselves to improve their performance – and why they don’t work.
• The 3 questions you should ask yourself to improve your performance
• What your strengths are, beyond your skills
• How to focus on getting the job you want

What’s more it’s yours with our compliments – get your copy here.

If you’re looking for even more help and advice, then check out our August offer.  Yes the lack of sun in the UK must have gone to our head.

Giving your staff hope

If you are a manager and leader, you need people to manage and lead.  People often tend to lump these two activities together as one job description.  A big mistake.  Although they are inter linked, they are separate functions and need to be treated as such or your efficiency in both will suffer.

As a manager you need to manage people and get the best out of the.  You have a job to do and results count.  Since you can’t do everything yourself, you need people to work with you.  The old fashioned way was to give instructions and make sure they were followed.  This is a simplistic approach to managing people.  It works, but it is only as good as the manager is.  And no manager is ever perfect or knows everything.  Or even has the best ideas.  In fact you may often have bad ideas that backfire on you.  Do you think Bill Gates never screwed up?  When Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer, their whole focus was not on being better than the competition, Netscape Navigator, but on removing them from the scene.  The result was allegations of unethical business practices, anti trust actions and the legacy of being a ruthless and often unprincipled company.  Bill Gates is one of the world’s great successes, but perhaps if he had not been so certain he was right and had listened to his staff, he would not have made that and other mistakes.

The problem that all successful managers’ face is their successful track record makes them rely too much on their own judgment.  In a competitive world, there are other people doing what you are and striving for the maximum success.  And how you compare with them is judged not just on the high number of successes but also on the low number of failures.  Having the right people on your team and keeping them engaged as partners in your efforts will allow them to contribute their thoughts and not just their efforts.  Y ou don’t have to accept all they say, but having more minds to contribute to your planning and execution will increase your efficiency and success.

Making people feel valued is to make them want to give their best.  When people feel that they are not just doing a job but following a vocation and growing as individuals, they push themselves to contribute.  That’s where your leadership comes in.  You have a team of people who have to mesh together and produce.  But if they feel they are just cogs in a machine, they will act like cogs – doing their jobs and nothing more.  With no incentive and no hope, why bother to do more?  And that does not really help you.  Giving people the freedom to think, disagree, and try out new things makes them feel that their contribution is valued and creates a desire to add value.  Sure it is may be a waste of time and drag you into complications you know are a waste of time, but it is the way for a leader to make a team grow, both in terms of actual results and also in achieving their potential.

Having ten people in your team who produce their monthly target without fail is safe. Having ten people who produce 90% for 6 months (lower creativity) and 120% for the other six (higher creativity) may be unsettling but at the end of the year you have 110%.   It maybe a bumpy ride, but the final results make it worth while.

Who experiences the highest level of job satisfaction?

Do you think that the co-worker who’s usually smiling is a happier employee than the one who seems distant or neutral?  You might just be wrong if you chose the smiling employee.

Job satisfaction measures more than outward appearances.  One employee may be better at hiding distress than another, so what you see doesn’t ring true with how satisfied that employee is in his or her career.  Maybe the smile is daydreaming about the next job interview!

According to the National Opinion Center at the University of Chicago, 86 % of Americans surveyed were satisfied with their jobs (2006).  If you think younger workers are the most enthusiastic and nearly retired workers are ready to ditch the 9-5 routine, think again.  Older workers are happier at work, with job satisfaction peaking at age 65 and over.

In the United Kingdom, slightly fewer or about 75% of workers were satisfied with their jobs, reports the Work Foundations’ 2006 Study of Good Work.  As in the US, older workers in the UK have the highest job satisfaction, with the over 55 workers arriving at work with much better attitudes than the 16-34 year olds.

As for job duties, it’s no surprise that workers in US and UK whose jobs are in menial labor (including unskilled occupations) are far less satisfied than workers in positions with the highest pay, status and education levels.

In the US, the level of job satisfaction among higher status workers was also influenced by geographic location. Managerial and professional level workers in Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas had the highest level of satisfaction with their jobs.

Regardless of pay scale, half of the survey respondents in the UK see their jobs as “a means to an end” yet only 9% thought of their work as “meaningless.” So while there may be the Monday morning temptation to hit the snooze alarm, once they get to work, their outlook seems to improve.

What does it take for an employer to create job satisfaction at work?  The answer to that question varies by job type and work environment.  One employee group might feel a renewed dedication to work if they only had a working kitchen in the break room to prepare lunch.  For workers in manufacturing plants, their needs might be more serious safety concerns or more frequent breaks from long hours of repetitive motion work.

Perhaps the best way to determine job satisfaction is to simply ask the workers in a given environment.  The old “suggestion box” can be a bit tired.  A more effective way to get this information is to post an online survey so that each worker has enough privacy and anonymity to give a candid response.

At all job levels, workers tend to be more satisfied when they are heard and their needs given genuine consideration. Making even a few changes based on employee recommendations sends a wave of confidence that shows the employer is response to workers and that makes a notable increase in job satisfaction on both sides of the “big pond.”

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