Kairology

Introduction by Ian Williams

This CIPD article is well worth a read. Once again it reinforces that developing and supporting leaders is crucial for survival and growth in a difficult business climate. We all consider the ‘employee engagement’ issues, but the another concept I was reminded of here is ‘discretionary effort’ – the extra mile we need to get from people every day when we’re up against the big challenges.

Another important aspect of survival is going beyond survival mode into visionary work, in order to inspire and motivate everyone towards future thinking – beyond present worries and distractions. We’re encouraged here to check out the difference between straplines and core values – are they consistent?

Great stuff for inspiration here!

Ian

Proof positive by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones

Good leadership can help to ensure that the recession doesn’t turn organisations into miserable, creativity-sapping places to be.

As we struggle through the most serious economic crisis since 1929, it’s clear that we do not yet know what the business landscape will look like when we do finally emerge from the recession. What we do know, however, is that leadership is more important than ever and organisations that are well led have much more chance of surviving these turbulent times. This is not the occasion to take your eye off critical processes of leadership development – and smart organisations know this.

Perhaps the most significant contribution of good leadership is the provision of meaning and purpose. As the great – and sadly departed – American writer Studs Terkel famously observed: “Work is about daily meaning as well as daily bread; for recognition as well as cash; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday-through-Friday sort of dying. We have a right to ask of work that it include meaning, recognition, astonishment and life.”

If we are not careful in this downturn, poorly led organisations will become miserable places to be. Creativity and innovation are inextricably linked to energy, edge and fun, but the processes of organisational attrition are in danger of crushing the creative spirit that is essential to drive us out of the current malaise. In the knowledge economy, critical to the future of Western Europe, the challenge is not to follow tradition and attempt to “get more” from your clever employees.

Open any conventional management textbook on organisational behaviour and you will see an obsession with extracting more value from recalcitrant workers through the latest fashionable techniques of “motivation”, “engagement”, pursuit of “discretionary effort” and so on. Our view is almost the opposite - the task is to make organisations more attractive to your already valuable, clever people. So often while researching our new book, Clever – Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People, we have observed talented individuals being turned off by bureaucratic process, by internal politics and - above all – by inadequate leadership.

So what are the essential ingredients of successful leadership in these troubled times? And what are the implications for HR professionals?

The conventional wisdom has it that in uncertain times the role of the leader is to provide certainty but our observations of leaders suggest that the most effective offer not the illusion of certainty but the promise of constant change and adaptability. Leaders cannot see the future but they can and must communicate a compelling picture of what the future might look like. It is an over-used concept but vision remains important. The leader must communicate what the organisation stands for, what its purpose is and which values give it coherence. It is when organisations are in difficulties that their true commitment to core values can be most severely tested. In a world awash with information overload, the leader’s visionary voice must be distinctive in order to excite others to exceptional performance.

Barack Obama exhibited exactly that quality of exceptional communication skills in convincing the American electorate that, despite the turmoil, change was possible. He repeatedly resisted the temptation to engage in dirty politics – first with Hillary Clinton and subsequently with John McCain. As organisations contract and inevitably become more political there is a lesson here for business leaders. They must on the one hand understand the political manoeuvring and on the other they must remain - and be seen to remain - above it. It is clear that in his first 100 days as US president, Obama acknowledged problems rather than attempted to deny them.

One preliminary conclusion from these observations is that in turbulent times steadfastness is a leadership virtue. Not in the sense of having a fixed view of what will happen next, but by being true to a set of core values. A naïve reading of this point would suggest that all the leader has to do is to be their authentic self. But that’s not enough. Change will require that they play different roles in different contexts. Effective leadership involves a complex balancing act between using your authentic differences and adapting your behaviours to context. Being authentic is not about being the same all the time. The most effective leaders are authentic chameleons. The chameleon always adapts to context but remains a chameleon.

Effective leadership in these difficult times requires managing a series of inspirational tensions. Three are especially significant in a downturn.

First, since leadership is always contextual - leading in a pharmaceutical company is different from leading in a shipyard – the ability to read and adapt to context is vital. Effective leaders have a real sense of “what’s going on” – they keep one ear firmly to the ground. Remember the old fad of “managing by walking around”- it contained one great truth. You need to be in a position to collect soft data, to know what’s going on before the management information system tells you.

In the current economic climate business leaders are being tested not only by their ability to know what is going on – but also by their capacity to articulate meaning; to make sense of the situation. Andrew Higginson, chairman of Tesco Personal Finance, believes that the unpopularity of the retail banks represents a significant opportunity for the retailer to further apply its popular brand to the financial services business. And the flamboyant boss of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, welcomes the recession. In his view it will kill off poor operators and show what a great business Ryanair really is.

Both of these examples demonstrate that the challenge for leaders is to both read context and rewrite it. In difficult times the danger is that our business leaders become entirely trapped by circumstance. The leadership skill is to not merely react but to proactively and constructively reshape.

Second, it’s obvious that right now strong task focus may be a prerequisite of survival. Leaders will be energetically focused on hard-nosed, tough prioritisation – including cutbacks and cost control – but this should not be at the expense of team or organisational cohesion. If people must leave, they must leave with dignity. Recessions are not an excuse to be nasty. Nor a time to throw away the cultural characteristics which hold organisations together and make some of them special. BMW, for instance, along with many other automobile manufacturers, faces very difficult times. But the task of the leadership is not to lose the passion for great motor cars that characterises the organisation. They must go on believing in and articulating “the ultimate driving experience” – not a strapline but a core value.

Third, it is inevitable that sensing situations and building team cohesion will require social closeness; a degree of intimacy and identification between leaders and followers. A sense that “we are all in this together”. The criticism attracted by some senior business leaders stems from the view that they continue to pay themselves bonuses while others suffer. But “strong identification with the troops” should not limit the ability of leaders to step back and see the bigger picture – indeed, paradoxically, this is a key situation-sensing skill. They will need to make tough decisions and social closeness cannot get in the way.

Leadership is never easy – nor recipe driven. But right now we need it more than ever. As we have argued, it necessarily involves several tensions. Don’t claim to know the future – but articulate a vision. Understand the politics – but remain above them. Respond fast to situational demands – but act to reshape them. Focus relentlessly on task – but build team cohesion. Identify with your followers – but be prepared to be distant. Be your authentic self – but recognise that you have different, and difficult, roles to play.

So what does this all add up to for HR? First, and most immediately, the current turbulence must be seen as an opportunity to provide “crucibles of experience” (to quote US leadership guru Warren Bennis) for existing and potential leaders. Second, we should avoid the trap of assuming that in uncertain times, the only motive is the search for security. There is a mountain of evidence that for some members of your team this is a wonderful opportunity for risk-taking autonomy and personal development. Third, in these difficult times of headcount reduction and cost control, don’t become the Department of Misery. It is vital to keep your eye on the longer-term strategic people issues of your organisation.

Lastly, the biggest long-term challenge for UK plc is likely to be a talent drain as our best and brightest reassess their options in a low growth, high debt economy. Collectively, the UK HR community faces a creative challenge to make sure this doesn’t happen.

HR top tips

• Concentrate on making your organisation attractive to value-creating people
• Prepare people for change
• Don’t be the nasty department
• Hold things together by focusing on the values
• Guard against negative politics

About the authors

Rob Goffee is professor of organisational behaviour at London Business School. Gareth Jones is a fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School and a visiting professor at IE Business School in Madrid. They are the co-authors of Clever – Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People (Harvard Business School Press, forthcoming) and Why Should Anyone be Led by You? (HBSP, 2006).

Publication date: 18 June 2009

Source: People Management magazine (UK)

Introduction by Ian Williams

I was recently reading a book by Abbot Christopher Jamison regarding the ancient virtues that provided a platform for modern values and laws. Sometimes we need to look at the what is negative and works against us, in order to recognise what kinds of things we should be doing that work in our favour, or in other words turn a sin into a virtue!

The Seven Deadly Sins of lifestyle in ancient times were described as: Pride, Anger, Envy, Sloth, Greed, Lust and Gluttony. Perhaps we can recognise how they are still at the root of our problems! The positive comes from establishing values and virtues that counteract these negatives – turning what works against us into what works for us in building positive relationships and getting the right results. For example, switching leadership from pride to humility is a great one!

Mary Gorski highlights eight deadly sins of leadership in the following article. The challenge for us as leaders is to look at what we do to turn these negatives to positives in our own lives and organisations. I’m amazed in my work in organisations how underused evaluation is in relation to people and tasks – and that limits efficiency and effectiveness.

If you run out of ideas for righting some wrongs, or need some great solutions, contact me!

Ian

Eight Deadly Sins Of Leadership by Mary Gorski

What has happened to enthusiasm in the workplace? For many employees, it has seemingly disappeared. They gripe and mutter about their frustrations at work. You hear them complain about managers - and to be fair, managers complain about them. Both complain about the company.

In many businesses, everything seems out of whack. The company has one agenda, the worker has another and the manager can’t mesh the two. Core competencies fail to support the company vision. Worse, company policies and procedures impair efficiency rather than help get the work done in a timely manner. Everyone but the worker doing the job defines the way it should be done and quality improvement means doing faster rather than doing less more profitably.

Sadly, many companies today operate in an atmosphere of distrust where corporate loyalty no longer exists, not to mention “fun” on the job.

“What’s going wrong” is the million-dollar question. For the answer, we can turn to a boatload of self-help books that tell us how to do things right. But sometimes learning what can go wrong so we can determine how to avoid these problems is just as valuable.

Beginning with five people-management transgressions, here are eight deadly sins of leadership for your consideration:

1) Assuming your employees know the company’s objectives and purpose.

You have a vision and a great plan in place. Now who will implement it? Even the best plan is worthless if it’s misunderstood or your employees - at all levels - fail to embrace it. After all, your workforce powers your plan. For success, integrate your strategic workforce planning into your business planning.

2) Approaching selection and hiring in a haphazard manner.

Hiring employees in a haphazard manner is like drawing to an inside straight in poker. Odds are you’ll lose. Statistics show you will hire a less-than-stellar worker 86 percent of the time if you use poor hiring practices. Worse, without careful hiring practices, you could get sued.

If you want your odds to improve, use pre-employment screening. Although rigorous interviews and background checks can help you form an accurate picture of past behavior, pre-employment screening is a better predictor of future behavior. It assesses attitudes toward integrity, substance abuse, reliability and work ethic.

3) Not training your employees.

Training to ensure that your employees have the right knowledge and skills to get the job done are fundamental to a company’s continued efficient and profitable performance. Yet some companies overlook training, often because of the expense.

It’s true that training costs money. But failing to develop your people’s talents, costs more money.

If you truly believe your employees are your number one asset, give them the training they need to do their jobs. Think of creative ways to develop employees so they grow, and stay on the job and with your company. Leadership training is also essential and one needs to consider the wide variety of management training tools that are available.

4) Failing to provide appropriate feedback. We’ve talked before about engaging employees, and how important communication and appropriate feedback is to helping engaged employees stay that way.

Unfortunately companies and their employees often disagree about the effectiveness of feedback in their companies. In a recent Salary.com study of 2,000 employees and 330 HR professionals, two thirds of companies believe their performance reviews are effective while only 39 percent of employees agree.

Make sure you and your employees see eye to eye on the effectiveness of your evaluation processes. Giving meaningful, constructive feedback through performance reviews and conversations during the course of daily activities boosts employee engagement and performance, and their career development.

5) Treating employees as a commodity.

Any company that has experienced the high cost of employee turnover understands its toll: replacement costs, loss of productivity and decreased morale. Treat employees like a commodity and they will respond in kind: They’ll leave as soon as possible for the next best offer.

Your bonus: three business management sins

So there you have them: five deadly “people” leadership sins. Now here, as a bonus, are three business management mistakes:

6) Failing to evaluate and measure.

It’s easy to fall into the “business-as-usual” habit - that is, performing tasks by rote or doing things the same way simply because that is the way we have always done them.

Yet rarely, can we meet changing customer needs by doing “business as usual”.

To avoid this trap, continually assess your business’ activities. Are they necessary and relevant? Track them to determine their effectiveness and efficiency. Further, if you can’t measure it, don’t do it.

7) Assuming you are doing a good job and your customers are happy.

Are your customers happy? Have you asked? Assuming customer satisfaction simply because you have had no complaints, will most likely give you a false sense of security.

Use mechanisms to encourage customer feedback. Carefully listen to and act on that feedback.

8) Not marketing.

Marketing and its related disciplines, public relations, research and advertising, identify new markets, communicate to prospects and clients, and establish your brand and message. In other words, marketing works hand-in-hand with sales.

Unfortunately, many companies do not understand this marketing and sales relationship.

Failure to pursue marketing strategies handicaps your ability to compete. Even if you have an excellent sales force, you should actively market your business.

Feedback and responding to it are keys to correcting leadership Ills

Do any of these “deadly sins” look familiar? Have you seen them in your company?

If so, it’s probably time to “regroup”. Your company’s success depends upon effective leadership. But how in the world do you get effective leadership where it’s lacking today?

It’s not as tough as you might think. Correcting leadership ills begins with simply identifying what they are, and you’ll find leadership tools to help with that process in the marketplace. One of the most powerful being the 360 degree performance evaluation feedback system

With these tools, you can provide your leaders with feedback from people who observe their performance - their supervisors, employees and peers. The objective is to gather specific, job-related information they can use to make positive changes. And then, with the self-knowledge they gain from his feedback, they can:

• Improve their performance.
• Identify training needs.
• Improve their leadership, goal setting, interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Increase their leadership accountability.

Of course, your leaders must be open to this feedback and willing to respond positively. Given this willingness, however, feedback tools can positively impact their individual growth and your organization’s success.

To prosper - even survive - companies must constantly rethink the way they do things. Begin your own evaluation process soon. Then turn the above deadly sins into positive action to leverage your new leadership practices.

You’ll soon discover a new, enthusiastic workplace. Your people will have fun on the job again. They’ll like what they do and do it well. Corporate loyalty will return and so will rising profits.

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Mary Gorski has more than 15 years of corporate human resource management and assessment experience. She has worked with many levels of leadership and understands the needs of a well-run, efficient business. At the same time she understands the human factor and what motivates people to maximum performance and efficiency.

Using her experience and tools from Profiles International, Mary works with business owners to identify their people talent and help them understand how their workers drive results. She begins with diagnosis, and then designs a plan for improving workforce effectiveness. As a result of her assistance, businesses profit from a more motivated, engaged and productive workforce.

Visit her Web site at http://www.mgassessments.com

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