Take Responsibility – If You Won’t Own It Why Should Anyone Else?

If at the end of every day you had to sign your name against what you’ve done.  The conversations you had with staff, customers, suppliers.  The decisions you’ve made.  The products and services you’ve shipped out the door.  If you had to put your name against it to take full responsibility would you?

Quality, standards, ethics, values, trust are all key facets of business but to what extent do you pay them lip service rather than live by them?  How often to these aspects seem to be at odds with making a profit?

How often is there a decision to be made which if you follow your values will take you down one route but if you sell out on your values (yes that’s what you’re doing) will take you down another, often appearing more profitable?  It’s hard at times, and usually these times are at the beginning of practicing this habit.  It’s harder to stay with your values and keep looking for a solution that will deliver profitability to the business, than it is to go with the obvious profitable solution that asks you to ignore a value or two.  However as it becomes clear both to yourself and to others that compromising on values isn’t an option then finding profitable and ethical solutions becomes easier.

Organisations have values they claim to live by.  It’s the leaders that are then beholden to live by them.  It’s not that organisations are ethical, or unethical, it’s that the people within choose to act ethically or not.  Makes your bum cheeks squeak a bit when you think of it like that.  It takes the anonymity out of it and brings it back where it needs to be, personal.  As a leader you have to walk the talk – well OK you don’t have to, but then of course if you don’t you’ve said it doesn’t matter to the rest of your staff.

The tide is turning on tolerating unethical behaviour.  Yes we’re accountable to investors to make a good ROI, yet if we cut corners and compromise on quality, standards and ethics, we run the risk of being found out, and then been called to account.  We only need to look at the News of The World to get a timely reminder of where our daily actions and choices can lead us.

So is there anything today you’d hesitate to put your name to?  There is still time to change all that.

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.

Business Growth – Values

In times of economic uncertainty, recession and tough markets, business growth is even more challenging.  Here is the second of 3 videos in which Ruth Sanderson explains critical components that enable business growth.  The second component are the company’s values.  Although equally important are the leaders values too.

Business Growth – Vision

In times of economic uncertainty, recession and tough markets, business growth is even more challenging.  Here is the first of 3 videos in which Ruth Sanderson explains critical components that enable business growth.  The first is Vision, which is key for business stability too.

Often in the overwhelm of staying a float and finding new business leaders can overlook the importance of communicating the vision.

Should Character or Policies Lead in the General Election

2 days to go and it’s the general election here in the UK.  This time around the character of the leaders seems to have raised prominence compared to previous years.  Now that could just be my memory; and from conversations over the last few weeks some people seem to be at odds with the fact that character leadership is playing a role as opposed to the focus being about policies.

So why is the character of the party leaders so prevalent and been commented on so much?  I think the answer can be summed up by the word Trust.

Trust – We trust people who are authentic or genuine and have the skills to do what they say they’re going to do.  In other words it’s a combination of character and competence.

Competence – The skills to carry out the task required.  Each of us will be looking at the parties and their leaders and making an assessment, do we think the leader is competent to do the job.

Gordon Brown has had a chance to demonstrate his leadership skills as a prime minister, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have both yet to prove themselves.

Which leaves us with character.  This is the personality of the leader, but it’s also their values and beliefs.  What does this person stand for?  We don’t have to like them, this isn’t about looking for a new friend.  Rather it’s whether or not I believe that this person’s values, beliefs and traits are the right ones to lead and represent our country’s needs in conversations with other PM’s and Presidents.  The final check is and do I believe they will walk this talk, be authentic and act with integrity in the face of danger and war.  Or are they going to have a personality transplant depending on who they’re with and what’s going on, and whether they’re miked up, or not.

Each party has had the traditional marketing campaign:-

-         Why you should choose me to represent you for the next 4 years.

-         Why I’m trustworthy enough to be responsible for something as immense as a country.

-         What improvements do we commit to make over those 4 years.

-         How do we plan do make these improvements happen.

And depending on what you’re looking for you’ll get to decide just how credible they’ve been in getting this message across.

This year I suspect that rather than the nuances of who’s committing to do exactly what with the NHS, National debt, etc.  it’s going to be about who do we trust to do the right thing.  We live in ever increasing change,  they could promise one thing today and then something happens the other side of the world and it’s all change.  We wouldn’t expect them to keep going with a promise if it was now the clear path to fiscal suicide (or what ever).  We’re looking for the leader with the character to be fearlessly authentic and lead with integrity.  Why is this so important, because we’ve witnessed several experiences where the values of a leader have been at odds with how they were portrayed or what we expected, and we as a nation have paid a price.  The banks, and the Iraq war are two significant experiences.  As an aside, recently in the sporting arena we have Tiger Woods and John Terry.  The backlash isn’t so much about their infidelity rather these people were seen as role models.  Being the captain of the England squad is a high profile and responsible position, it isn’t just about football, the football is the competence aspect of the trust equation, it’s also about their character.   Of course there also still ripples from various ministers and their expense claims.

We could ignore the past, we could ignore the impact of character, but I think that would be to the detriment of our country.  So then who do you think is the UK’s equivalent of Obama, our hope for the future of the UK?

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

Living with integrity – its impact on our leadership and brand

Living with Integrity can be tough.  It’s  how we behave when no one is watching, will we live our values or are we going to sell out or compromise.  Knowing that every time we do we are the one that pays the price.  Even if no-one else is watching or ever finds out, we know and our opinion of our self takes the hit.

And if people do find out, what’s the immediate and long term impact for us as an individual and the brand or company we lead?

Golf legend Tiger Wood’s much publicised fall from grace is an example of the catastrophic consequences a business can face when its brand is found to be inauthentic.  The recent stories about the private life of the world’s No.1 celebrity golfer expose a huge gap between the perceived values of the Tiger Woods brand and those of the man himself.

As a leader and as a business we are all judged on whether we live up to the values that are associated with our brand.

Values driven leadership is about ensuring you live up to your values and the values promised by your brand.  After all your customers and employees have bought in to your brand and what you stand for. Your behaviour and the behaviour of your employees then should also reflect the values of the brand.  Of course if the values are what you’d like, rather than what is real then this becomes a challenge to sustain.  So it is important to ensure your brand does not promise something you no longer believe in or cannot deliver.

If your values are aspirational then acting with integrity is going to be a serious challenge.

Every day we’re faced with choices, decision points, where we can uphold our values or not.  At work we can be asked to do something ‘for the good of the company’ and yet we know that it’s against the company’s or our values.  It’s a short term win and another nail in the coffin of that particular value that’s just been over-road.  We may wish to behave differently but go along with it to keep our job.

Consistently acting against our personal values undermines our self confidence and self esteem.  Keep this up and eventually we don’t feel good about ourself and neither does anyone else.    Being consistently asked to act against the corporate or brand values begs the question how real are they and what problems are being stored up for future.

Let’s go back to the challenge facing Tiger Woods, now he has to re-build his brand so he can move forward.  Some people I’ve talked to say it’s not possible.  I think there is hope.

After all, authentic leadership is about who you are being as much as what you’re doing.

Leadership Development 2010 – You, Your Values & The Company’s Culture

The culture of your organisation is fundamental to business growth, especially if you’re wondering how to get the best from your people and increase your organisations’ performance.

As leader’s we need to be aware both of our presence and the wake we leave behind, these are powerful forces that impact our ability to encourage our staff to live the company’s values.

We might ask our employees for Creativity, Commitment or Integrity, but they have to choose to give them.  They’re not skills but intrinsic traits which we can only encourage to be expressed.

Join us on this 1 day workshop to discover your personal fit with your organisation’s current and desired culture and learn about the common barriers to business growth and cultural transformation.

What will I learn?

You will complete your own Individual Values Assessment before the day and we’ll take you through what the results mean.   Looking at what it means to you, your leadership, the current and desired culture of the organisation.  You’ll have a cleared idea of what’s important to you and what’s required of your leadership in 2010.

You’ll also learn the common barriers to business growth, the cost and symptoms of these and the 4 steps you can take to avoid them.

Plus we’ll share with you some aspects of best practice in the role values play in business performance and releasing human potential.  There will also be the opportunity to learn from your peers as you share your experiences and insights.  The event has been designed to be interactive, informative and experiential.

Who is this designed for?

This day is aimed at CEO’s, MD’s, FD’s and HRD’s who want to improve the performance of their organisation and create a profitable and healthy culture.

Date, Location, Investment

4^th February 2010

Manchester, venue to be confirmed

8:30 Registration and coffee

9:00 – 16:00 Event

Your investment for this event including all materials, lunch and refreshments is £247+ VAT.  Places must be booked before 31^st December to allow sufficient time for you to complete your Individual Values Assessment and for the results to be processed.

To book or find out more contact us now.

Routes to Business Growth – Emerging From A Recession

The creation of a values-led corporate culture within one of Britain’s most successful healthcare companies had engaged its workforce, driven growth and resulted in turnover rocketing from £60 million to £100 million in a handful of years, according to Chris Harrison of North West pharma company Fresenius Kabi.

Addressing business leaders from across the North West at this week’s ‘Emerging from the Recession’ conference at Manchester’s MacDonald Hotel, the Runcorn based Group Managing Director said the adoption of values-led leadership could assist organisations in weathering the economic storm.

“At Fresenius Kabi, values have provided an important underpinning of what we do as a business and they have enabled everybody within that business to be engaged,” he added.” I am convinced that our progress would not have been as sustainable without values.”

Ruth Sanderson,one of the conference organisers and MD of blue pea POD, the Chester based leadership consultancy told the delegates that all the speakers would outline their experiences of corporate culture and its impact on performance.

“The uncertain times have seen many companies lose their way,” she said:” But forward-thinking CEOs are working with their corporate culture and leadership values because they know these hold the key to business growth.

“The level of interest in this conference in Manchester is, in my view, a clear indication of the growing acknowledgement of the role of values in corporate life. We have senior players in attendance today who have all experienced the positive impact of company values. We want them to share their experiences with all our delegates.”

Her co-organiser Sue Coyne, Executive Coach and Culture Change Consultant of Stockport-based Connectiveness Ltd added that research had shown that the adoption of a values based corporate culture within an organisation had a measurable effect on performance from sales figures to the bottom line.

Mike Stevens, the Manchester based Group and UK Human Resources Director for the £300 million turnover Odeon and UCI Cinema Group told the conference that he became involved in building a values based corporate company when the Odeon and UCI operations were being integrated.

“We conducted a company wide survey of our employees and as a company we were shaken to the core when the results showed a worrying level of disengagement and negativity.”

“We made a conscious decision to apply values to the culture using engagement, communication and development. We have already seen some very positive results from our work and now values are integral in every aspect of our business.”

After the conference Ruth Sanderson said: “Many companies are now looking forward to emerging from this long and difficult recession and this conference was the start of a series of events to give our delegates the benefit of the experiences of our speakers, all of whom spoke very positively about values-led leadership and corporate culture.

“We believe in the effectiveness of values-led leadership and the end of the recession will give many companies the opportunity to examine the many positives from this approach to business. Putting in those values now will pay huge dividends as time goes on.”

Leadership Challenges – How Values Impact The Bottom Line

Event for NW Business Leaders

Leadership Challenges As We Emerge From The Recession – How your values impact the bottom line

If you’re a CEO, MD, HRD or FD based in the North West of England and you’re seeking any of the following in your organisation :-

-          A breakthrough in the performance of your organisation

-          Want to understand the magnitude of corporate culture

-          Look to tap in to the energy and commitment from your people

-          Wonder if there is another way of leading – for yourself and the business

Then you might want to attend this event being held in the center of Manchester on the 17th November.

Never before has it been so important for the Board of Directors to identify, manage and embed the desired culture and values in their working environments and never before has there been so much emphasis in place to encourage organisations to do so.

This year Maurice Summerson has been leading a team, with Phil Clothier CEO of the global Barrett Values Centre, working with NW regional business, NWDA, IoD, NWEO and other regional stakeholders. Key intentions of the programme are to create a values based, whole systems change framework to support the NW economy and wellbeing of citizens through both public and private sectors. This project team has brought significant regional, national and global capability, experience and advocacy, already resulting in the embedding of relevant values in the emerging Regional Strategy 2010 from NWDA.

You are invited to join us on this complimentary half day event to learn about:-

-          The new principles of business that are generating sustainability, resilience and shareholder value.

-          What some of your key values are and how they impact your leadership.

-          The results of the North West Values Survey.  Conducted this year it reveals the challenges and potential opportunities for both Companies and the region as a society to grow stronger.

-          Plus you’ll hear from two Directors in the North West who have seen their business grow in size and profitability through the conscious application of values and an understanding of their culture.

Here is full information – Values 17th Nov 2009 – and we hope you can join us.  To secure your place call 0845 123 1280 or email angela@bluepeapod.com.  If you can’t make the event but would like to receive our white paper also call us.

Due to space limitations please RSVP by the 30^th October.

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