Leadership and Management

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Building Reputation Through Your Employees

By Christina Lattimer • May 7, 2014 - 10:58 am Leadership and Management

Building Reputation through your Employees is always the first step

It is even more important to encourage behaviours and demonstrate values which enhance your reputation. There is a lot of competition out there. Businesses are growing stronger through the power of networking, collaborating and becoming social. Great businesses have already caught on to the fact that building reputation is a multi-faceted process which of course includes customers, but also stakeholders and employees. Increasingly employees have a voice and it is being heard.

You and I both know that when we do business with a company, it’s not usually the leader or the marketing manager we are transacting with. It is the people who work in that organisation. We all have tales of great customer service and poor customer service. And people in the organisation are the experience we remember.

Many of your people will be great at what they do: Some will know what to do, but won’t always, and some will likely need more information. In some respects the levels of ability are a bit of a red herring, because what will be infectious is your employees’ attitude about you as an employer. I would rather have a room full of people who loved the business, bought into the concept but needed some training, than fully trained employees who were luke-warm or even disliked the organisation.

Your customers will get vibes off your employees

Not only will customers get the vibes off your employees; It can’t be helped, energetically we are all giving off vibes; even more importantly, your employees are likely connected in a way they have never been before in human history. Such is the power of social media.

Knowing that my employees were a kind of social media business card for my business could well fill me with horror. The truth is, if as a business you make a gaffe that is newsworthy, then it’s entirely possible many many people would know about it in seconds. We all know bad news is inevitable.

Consider the potential for either sharing good news or bad news. All of your employees have friends, family, social networks, whether they are online or not. What your employees are saying about you, your business, your product, your service, is vital.

It follows that it’s increasing vital to know what you are building with your team. What do they think? What are they saying to friends and family and potential customers about your business?

Ask your employees what they think

I talk to people a lot about their work. I ask them whether they like it or not. Whether they believe in what they do. I can honestly say that I have met people who love what they do, they are enthusiastic, and they believe that the organisation’s mission is their mission. These are the people we would all love to have working with us.

I have also met people who detest what they do. They don’t buy into the company values; they don’t respect what the company does. But they come to work because it’s a job; they need to feed their kids. You can usually spot these people in your team. They can’t help their attitude. While this is a problem, it’s an easily identifiable problem, and you can do something about it.

But what about the people who are in the middle? They quite like their job; they are rubbing along quite well. They aren’t too bothered about what you do, it pays well, and as far as their own responsibilities go, they do what they have to do. Are you content with the messages they are giving? If your employees are pretty neutral about the work they do, then it will come as no surprise that those who should be the biggest resource building your reputation are not talking about your business in the way you would like.

Your employees are one of your biggest advertisements. What they think say and do is totally representative of your organisation. Your business is the sum total of all of your employees, like it or not.

If you don’t know what your employees think about your organisation, ask them. Don’t make assumptions. Just because you think your idea’s are the best thing since Edison invented the light bulb, doesn’t mean your employees share that thought. If they don’t think much of your business, then you have work to do.

If you are a leader, you are continually developing and "Sharpening the Saw". If you lead and manage teams, then you must read about our Inspirational New Leadership Programme. Sign up now to find out more details when we launch in July 2014. There is no obligation to undertake the programme, if you sign up today, you will simply be sent more information about the programme. You can unsubscribe at any time! Click below to register for further information.

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Responsibility – The Road To Freedom

By Christina Lattimer • April 25, 2014 - 5:27 pm Leadership Development

Taking Responsibility is the key to greater freedom

Responsibility can be a tough bedfellow. Today in a couple of separate encounters, one with a 14 year old girl and the other a 40 year old man, I heard how they had recently experienced difficult times in their lives. What both had in common was they blamed others for their plight. The common theme was ”If only x had done y then z, and I would be ok”.

I watched this dynamic without judgment. I too had taken such a position for a very long time. I also felt a little saddened because I realised nothing could be changed permanently until they realised there was another way of seeing their situation now and in the future.

On both occasions, I attempted to suggest maybe there was another way of viewing their respective situations. Not to make them wrong, but to show them a way out of their agony. Both firmly rejected my suggestions, because sometimes, just sometimes, as human beings we would rather be right .

Sometimes you only see the light when you experience the darkness

A number of years ago, I personally experienced hard times. It was a depressing period in my life; the future looked bleak indeed. I knew things had to change. I didn’t know it then, but I came to realise what had begun as a monumental disaster, turned out to be the biggest gift life could have handed me.

As I pondered on what had gone so wrong, I blamed everyone and everything. The truth was some external and some internal factors had led me to that low point and blaming or focusing on external factors was getting me nowhere fast.

My first “light bulb” moment happened when I began to take total responsibility for my experience. I couldn’t control everything in my world. What I did have power over was my response to what life threw at me. Focusing on whose fault it was and wanting to point the finger of blame was deflecting from the energy needed to move beyond the situation.

Secondly, I began to pay attention to my intuition. I overrode my intuition pretty much of the time. The rot began early in life, times when I wanted to be like my peers; I wanted my relationships to be harmonious; I didn’t want to rock the boat with my parents. After many times of overriding my own internal truth, I realised my own best friend was inside me.

Acceptance releases the energy used for blame to finding a solution

Accepting my situation I began what I thought would be a slow and torturous route out of the fix I found myself in. On the contrary, it was the most enlightening and exciting of journeys. It wasn’t easy, but it was transformational. I went from being broke, dispirited and in despair, to a place where I was financially secure, optimistic and at peace with myself. The experience was like replacing a house of straw with a house of bricks with very solid foundations.

Taking Total Responsibility

I developed a vision: I set goals for my working life, I set figures for my income, how I would feel about my work and how good I would be at it. I achieved them almost 2 years ahead of target.

I set out a detailed plan. I needed certain skills and experience. I articulated the detail of “how” in my plan. I achieved all milestones and was offered the job I wanted before I had met the outcomes in the plan.

I engaged my team. I needed a support network around me. My beloved network included my family as well as my professional colleagues and friends. I let the right people know things had changed, and I got them on board to help me.

I focused on my successes and goals. I didn’t waste time thinking about the reality of the situation I found myself in. I faced up to it, identified the gap between where I was and where I wanted to be, and concentrated on closing the gap; not the past. In the present moment, I chose to be grateful for what I had achieved and the help and opportunities which came my way.

I let go of unhelpful doubts, thoughts and beliefs. I got in touch with the power of my mind. Doubt and negativity simply create resistance to achieving what you want

I have used those steps many times when leading teams at work as well as creating my life outside of work. Repetition should create mastery, yet I still struggle at times, but at least I now take total responsibility, so if things don’t work out, I only have myself to blame.

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A Creative Look At Routine – 5 Steps To Transform Your Routine Processes or Tasks

By Christina Lattimer • January 9, 2014 - 1:15 pm Leadership and Management

Are you creative in your routine?

A human myth is that there are creative people and people who simply aren’t. The truth is that we are all creating. Some of us simply create more routine in our lives than others. Some create a more adventurous lifestyle, hone artistic qualities or even can create much drama in their lives. One of the determinants of how you will use your creative skills will be based on your personality preferences.

MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator), is based on the psychology of Carl Jung, where he identified eight distinct personality functions which can strongly influence the way we create our world, our creative approach will differ depending on our type preference.

Until I understood my personality type preferences I used to judge myself for “not having more attention to detail” and for preferring to spend time on my own than with friends (not always, but often!), or for having millions of ideas and not being able to finish implementing many of them. Realising that I had unconscious preferences to be a certain way, but I could choose to do things differently, even if that felt uncomfortable; was extremely liberating.

The relevance of all that is that while some people love routine and feel lost without it, for me I get bored very easily with routine tasks, I love starting new projects, a varied workload and trying new things. At this time in my life I have learned enough about myself and created sufficient discipline to get the routine stuff out of the way, but I simply don’t enjoy it, procrastinate too often and look forward to the utopian day when I can afford to pay others to carry out the routine tasks to free me up to vision, imagine and create new adventures.

Setting up my new business has been a steep learning curve. I have been self-employed in the past but simply worked as an associate and worked with many different companies. This time, I’m actually setting up a business, which means it has to have outcomes, structure, financial plans and on and on. Up until a few months ago I actually sang my way into the office every day. Using my imagination to decide what I wanted to create, with real meaning and purpose has been exciting, new and adventurous.

A few months ago the social media side of the business took a remarkable positive turn which meant lots of services being delivered to new clients. Enviable isn’t it? Well yes it certainly is and we are counting our blessings every day. The problem of course for me is it meant routine work increased because we simply had to deliver. Not my strong preference!

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14 Ways to Be a Great Team Player At Work

By Christina Lattimer • November 21, 2013 - 1:08 pm Employee Development

In the new social world we now live in, the importance of teamwork in any organisation is key. Being a collaborative team player, aligning purpose, values and effort will be the hallmarks of a great employee.

Andrew Armour sets out the need for collaborative working in Why Superteams Win In The Social Era Of Business, and asserts that 86% of senior executives surveyed in the 2011 Innovation Barometer, viewed collaboration as vital to innovate, but only 21% had the culture and people to do so. I believe that things have probably moved on since then, but we still have some way to go.

Being a team player at whatever level in the organisation is a skill which increasingly, organisations will view as essential., according to Mckinsey because of global talent shortages. Because the dynamics of our world are changing so rapidly and significantly, team members no longer need to sit back with frustration or without a voice. As has been demonstrated in many incidents over the last few years, employees have used social platforms to “out” many illicit, unfair or just plain silly practices. Conversely, team players can be the biggest advocates and champions for their employers, as they tell glowing stories across their social media communities.

In an increasing global economy, as Mckinsey’s article points out, there might well be heavy demands on highly skilled interactive professionals: A collaborative aligned team is going to be essential to help bridge any gaps. Change is in the air, and switched on employers are already realising that culture change is essential to meet the challenges of the social era, and the talent marketplace. Good HR Expertise is essential.

As an employee, you will gain a distinct advantage if you understand what is going to be needed to be a valued team player. You are going to find that respected employers are increasingly going to be looking at how well you collaborate with others, how positively you interact in the social world, and how much you buy into their values and purpose.

How can you become the team player that good employers will be lining up to have in their team?

Having led and managed literally hundreds of employees, there are some timeless qualities I have encountered which for me make up the ideal team player. Of course in an ideal world, you rarely get the whole set of team player ideal qualities. We are perfect in our imperfections. The following attitudes, traits and qualities are so good to work with, and one’s I would certainly be looking for in any assessment, certainly for key players in my team.

As a great team player you will:

Take responsibility for yourself. This means not automatically blaming your tools, your colleagues or management, but being self aware enough to say “perhaps I could have done something differently”.
Get the big picture and understand exactly what we are trying to do together – You don’t naturally have to be a big picture thinker. In fact some organisations may employ you because of your attention to detail, but being able to pull yourself out of the detail sometimes is a huge advantage.
Have an affinity with and believe in what we are trying to achieve – You will love our products, love what we are trying to do, and it makes you happy because you think by virtue of working with us you have been part of it all.
Give a positive account of the organisation and concentrate on what is good about it – This does not mean pretending that everything is ok and smiling when it isn’t, but realising that even though things might go wrong, there is positive intent behind the decision making. It really is about giving others in the team whatever their role “the benefit of the doubt”.
At times when it is crucial for the business, go the extra mile – Being committed to pulling out the stops when necessary. There is a fine line between occasionally having to put in more effort and it being expected as a matter of course, so if it’s too much, have the confidence to say so.
Care about others on your team – This can be tough because team work can be a hot bed of relationship problems. But with some determination and commitment to creating a caring environment, then concerted effort is never lost.
Commit to resolving differences in an adult and win/win way – Workplaces can be the worst place to play out the parent/adult/child relationship. A paternally based organisation is definitely becoming an old paradigm. Becoming aware of the paradigm, is the lamp needed to dispel it.
When you’re not able to fulfil your contract for any period of time for family or medical reasons, you commit to doing your best to get back to work as soon as you can because you know how crucial you are to the excellence of the business.
Commit to getting the work done, on time and to the best of your ability – This is not just for the team, this helps to raise your own personal standards and improve your own energy. It always pays dividends, and will be noticed.
Trust us to make the best decisions we can with the information we have, even if you don’t like it. With millions of decisions to make, some with consultation, some not so democratic, its a minefield, and we’re not always going to get it right. Sometimes you aren’t going to like it, but you trust the intention is good behind it.
Understand we have a mutual contract and we will respect your rights, and you respect ours. – if it’s not working, then, communicate, communicate, communicate until it’s right.
Forgive us our mistakes, we all make them – Help to create a no-blame culture, where we know none of us are perfect, but we will learn from our mistakes, not use them to beat each other up.
If you’re not happy come and tell us about it constructively, trust us to listen and do something about it – Be open to different ways of seeing things, and commit to finding a solution. Don’t be that person who is happy being unhappy.
If you can’t commit to any of the above, consider how you are contributing to the success of the organisation, and if you can’t or won’t commit then consider your position. If we are doing everything we can to collaborate and it’s still not working then you might be simply in the wrong job.

So there you have it, my somewhat idealistic list of a great team player. It might sound impossible, but I have encountered such positive traits collectively along the way. I would hope many of them are traits I displayed as a team player myself, although, I’m not sure if my past teams would agree. I’m sure there are also many to add, what would be your ideal wish list for a great team player?

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10 Steps to Find Balance in the Pursuit of Excellence

By Christina Lattimer • October 17, 2013 - 1:55 pm Leadership Development

Finding balance while pursuing excellence

I met with some very dear friends earlier this week, we are friends and business colleagues and so much of the topic of conversation revolves around our respective business issues. We were recounting our progress with varying amounts of success. One of my projects is taking much longer than I thought, and I was happily talking about the qualitative changes I felt I must make before moving forward, when one of the group suggested that perhaps I should take the approach that “just good enough” might be the mind-set I needed right now. I immediately replied that I wasn’t prepared for “just good enough”, I wanted my product and services to be excellent. But as usual the exchange got me thinking. Was the pursuit of excellence on my part simply a delaying tactic?

As a master procrastinator I am usually more obvious in my efforts to avoid doing things I should, the tax return filed only 7 days before the deadline, the marketing product I have been working on for weeks but I always find something else more urgent to do. The friends I must call because I haven’t seen them for so long.

I have experienced first-hand, business owners who don’t move forward because they feel there is always more preparation to be done; when deadlines are missed because some other factor comes into play and they want to make sure everything is lined up before they move on. Such environments simply call time on innovation, motivation and enthusiasm, because nothing ever is achieved. My friend’s question made me think: Is this me?

Social media and globalisation has forced a pace on most businesses, not only to be active transparent and visible, but also to do things in an increasingly bigger, more connected and excellent way. The platform is equally open to large multi-nationals as well as the small sole trader. There is room for all, and the benchmark for excellence and the way we do business is changing rapidly. Will Yokowicz’s article “Get Ready for the Social Network of Things” gives a vivid picture of the mind-set shift which is taking place right now. Leadership Development programmes must help develop appropriate mind-sets moving forward.

There is no place to hide anymore; procrastination is not going to cut it, nor is anything other than a pursuit of excellence going to be tenable. How do we reconcile almost superhuman efforts with the fact that the vast majority of us are human? How do we drag our fallible, procrastinating, pressurised, vulnerable selves to balance work, relationships and conflicting demands, and still achieve visible excellence?

There are a number of ways we can negotiate the path of excellence without creating unnecessary stress, pessimism or doubt. Its vital leaders have a realistic strategy to both achieve the excellent results they need while on a daily basis recognising in what situations “just good enough” is acceptable. Here are my top 10 steps which help navigate the way through.

1. Be committed to achieving a clear vision

There are going to be days when achieving your vision seems like a million miles away. When this happens just keep the vision in mind and know that the universe is conspiring to help you achieve it.

2. Setbacks are simply learning curves

If you can develop the mind-set that setbacks are simply opportunities to make improvements then you will recover much more quickly. Not allowing despondency or doubt in, will accelerate growth.

3. Listen to your intuition

Sometimes a lack of progress or huge resistance is a big sign that you are working on the wrong thing. If you continually feel uninspired, stressed and pressurised then you are definitely on the wrong track.

4. Create a great team

You really can’t do it on your own. You need help to achieve excellence whether through employees, partnerships, contractors, a support network, friends and family.

5. Look after yourself

You need to take time out to rest, connect with others and do other things. Health is one of the biggest pre-requisites for achievement of excellence, and could be one of your biggest stumbling blocks if ill health prevails.

6. Be clear about your priorities and values

If for example a family crisis comes along and you need to delay then don’t agonise over your decision.

7. Plot small milestones and celebrate success

It is easy to forget all the hard work and successes you have had along the way. Sometimes you can get so focused on what’s not achieved, you don’t realise how much you have achieved.

8. Forgive yourself

When you set out on the road to achieving excellence you put your head above the parapet. You are not always going to feel like following your own path. When you feel like rebelling, then forgive yourself and get away from it until as long as it takes to get back into the right mind-set.

9. Don’t cling to results

You are going to get the right results at the right time. Even if you believe they are poor, they are simply results, giving you a nudge and an indicator to say you need to look again. A journey to excellence is about progression and constant re-evaluation.

10. Get it into perspective

In his book “” Michael Singer helps the reader get their life in perspective by saying “You’re sitting on a planet spinning around in the middle of absolutely nowhere”. That’s not to minimise your efforts towards excellence, but realising that in this world everything ends eventually helps you to enjoy the journey much more than focusing on the destination.

Having thought through whether I should settle for “just good enough”, my resounding answer is still “No”, but I realise there are days and times when maybe I have to settle for “just good enough” rather than excellence as a temporary measure, and when I get to those times, I simply take my own advice!

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The Emotional Key to a Better Leadership Style

By Christina Lattimer • September 25, 2013 - 1:40 pm Leadership Development

Leading with Emotional Intelligence and Owning Your Feelings

Yesterday I was picking a business colleague and friend up from our local train station. After battling the morning rush traffic which was an emotional feat in itself, I got to the station only to discover there were major building works. I managed to get into a space at the side of the station which had lots of car parking spaces but had big “no parking” signs because they belonged to a local hotel.

I had arranged to pick my friend up from the pick-up point at the front of the station, and I was already late. Therein lay my dilemma. I didn’t have his mobile number to hand, I couldn’t get to the front of the station, and if I had driven away I had no way of letting him know what was happening.

Acutely aware he would be wondering where on earth I had got to, I decided to jump quickly out of the car and wave to him to signal where I was. I got out of my car door, went onto the path, my friend spotted me after a couple of waves, and as I turned to go back to the car about 2 metres away there was a private car parking attendant writing out a ticket. “You have got to be kidding” I said. He smiled eerily and said “no, you’ve left the car unattended, you can see the signs”, as he proceeded to stick a ticket on my windscreen. Completely astonished, I watched helplessly as he proceeded to take photographs of the empty car no doubt to back up his ticket.

Years ago I would have reacted badly to the sense of injustice, anger and frustration of being so unfairly treated. At this stage in my life I simply managed to say with great disdain “I don’t know how you sleep at nights”. We then got into the car and left.

I managed to forget about the incident until last evening when I came upon the ticket in my handbag. The emotional annoyance and frustration came rushing back, and the sense of injustice made me look to see what right of appeal I had to the ticket. Awareness of my dislike of the parking attendant made me pause and think about why I disliked him. Of course it was my interpretation of the event which made me dislike him and the perceived hassle I felt I now had by pursuing an appeal. I knew I could interpret the events in a number of ways. He was only doing his job; he must need the money badly; I did not know what pressure he was under to “catch perpetrators”. Of course I had choices about how I would respond too. It might just be easier to pay up and to learn the lesson for next time.

One of the most annoying habits for others I have learned over the years of developing self-awareness is my understanding of the power and responsibility of owning my emotions, and the ability of others to do so also. My kids do not appreciate me rationalising their anger with others when I suggest they may look at the situation in a different way, a vital key to emotional intelligence. They want to blame others; after all it makes them feel better. And it does for many of us.

We do however always have the power to choose how we will react or respond to any situation. In an extreme example Victor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust survivor, recounting his experience in the concentration camp said

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Viktor’s story is amazing, he chose to see his guards and captors as imprisoned as he was himself, and honed his emotional intelligence to the degree that he incredulously could even see the good in some of them.

Even in one of the most gruesome events in history Viktor was aware of the knowledge that he could choose how to interpret his experience.

Understanding one’s power to choose one’s reaction to what is happening is one of the key’s to great leadership, as well as emotional intelligence. You only have to read about the hardships faced by Ghandi, Mandela and others like them to know that these great leaders possessed well developed emotional intelligence, which should be included in more leadership development programmes’.

At work too, being able to choose one’s response when you feel angry, scared, anxious or even gloriously happy is essential if you are going to navigate your way through and win hearts and minds. That’s not to say you never show your feelings, or become a sterile shadow of your real self; it means you choose when it is appropriate to act on with emotional intelligence about how you are feeling. In the sage words of Aristotle

“Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy”

The reason it’s not wise to act on one’s feelings or emotional reaction, always, is because they are often inaccurate. As human’s we can misinterpret the simplest of things. An employee goes off sick after they’ve been asked to do something differently. You assume they are emotional and angry, when actually you find out they’ve been suffering from depression since their mother died. An employee raises a grievance and you feel threatened and angry with them because you think they are out to get you, until you discover that they have very difficult circumstances at home and no one has taken the time to understand them. Even when the evidence overwhelmingly justifies the way we feel, we can always still choose a response.

The trick is to use your emotions like a guidance system. They are simply giving you some information about what you are experiencing. Sometimes taking action on emotions is the right thing to do, and sometimes it’s not. As a leader, emotional awareness is a key to making win/win decisions, taking charge of difficult situations and tapping into your intuition. If you let your emotions take charge of you, then you can blindly forge into situations and create irreparable damage.

In my own journey, owning my emotions and not blaming others for how I feel is and was one of my toughest lessons. Honouring feelings, while choosing an appropriate response is the key to owning emotions. It is only with this knowledge that you can reclaim your personal power, both in life and as a leader.

I still don’t like the fact I got a parking ticket, but I know I can either choose to simply pay up and put it behind me, or I can appeal, using precious time and resources to justify my sense of unfairness. Either way it is a choice. Which one would you choose?

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It’s Only Words

By Christina Lattimer • August 1, 2013 - 6:41 pm Miscellaneous

Very powerful but it’s only words

I’ve been hearing a lot of speeches and conversations lately particularly from leaders of companies, organizations, and political candidates. They all got me thinking about language and what a powerful influence for good, bad, or indifferent words can have, how they can stick or simply slide away.

I recently published my eBook on the topic of communicating in today’s market and I must say that I have learned a few revealing truths during the process. I also changed the format a few times. Writing about words and how they should or should not be used can get, for lack of a better word, wordy.

We’ve all heard that it’s not what you say but how you say it and choosing words carefully for best effect can be more productive; best to be succinct and get to the point. This can be easier said than done, particularly when what we say is often linked to our egos, fear, expectations, and past experiences. It’s also interesting to note the statistical fact that 55%-80% of all human interactions are nonverbal. This means that our gestures and movements, no matter how subtle, can provide more impact than a spoken word.

They can also reveal whether we’re lying or not. Having knowledge of body language and being a keen observer can save a lot of wasted time and heartache but, being the emotional addicts that we are, we tend to have selective hearing and choose to believe what we need to at any given time.

Words can make us cry, laugh, make us angry, upset our world and change our lives. They trigger our psyches for better or worse and how we respond is usually based on the past, our fear of failure, our need for acceptance. If we allow them in, words can fool us, diminish our accomplishments, humiliate, and cause great stress. They can also lift us to new heights, provide hope, motivate us, reinvent our attitudes, and create great possibility.

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Performance Appraisals, Judge And BE Judged

By Christina Lattimer • July 26, 2013 - 10:19 pm Miscellaneous

Tasneem Hameed writes about the pitfalls of Performance Appraisals for The Extra MILE E-zine.

“When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself”- Wayne Dyer
To judge someone is a very difficult task. Even God who is almighty fixed a criterion for judging people, i.e. good deeds and bad deeds for reward and punishment. As their mind developed, humans too accepted its value for better control and they adopted it happily. When organizations came in to being, its application increased further because of its acceptance as the best way to manage people, and performance appraisal was the outcome. The modern performance appraisal systems go beyond rewarding the good deeds, i.e. good work, performance or efficiency and effectiveness of employees through money and use it also for development of employees. In addition to direct fixed compensation and bonuses employees get rewards of promotion and career paths. The punishment side comprises of withholding of increment, warning letter or even termination.

Blue Eyes And Bad books
Performance appraisals are not only one of the most critical management processes, but also the most controversial. Judging and rewarding people being a sensitive matter no one can deny its importance. It is difficult to find an employee who thinks or admits that his/her work performance was bad or not up to the mark. Although new methods are being continuously explored and implemented, but there is always a feeling of justice not being done according to most of the employees who don’t get expected outcome from their performance appraisals. As the manager/supervisor of an employee has the most important role in the performance appraisal, he mostly has to bear the brunt of criticism. The most common complaint has been that of personal bias, both positive and negative, i.e. favoritism or dislike. For some employees good appraisal indicates that the appraised is a blue- eyed employee while the employee who does not get good ranking in the appraisal is in the bad books of the appraiser.

Posted by Christina Lattimer

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How to Make Managing Poor Performance Easy

By Christina Lattimer • June 6, 2013 - 1:46 pm Miscellaneous

Managing poor performance can be one of the most stressful parts of managing a team.

The problem is of course; good managers know that the vast majority of employees want to come to work to do a good job. When an employee is not performing, more often than not it is either because:a) They are in the wrong job) They have problems outside of work) They simply need more knowledge or information or understanding.

It takes a skilled and experienced manager to be expert and slick when it comes to raising poor performance. Often teams become less than enchanted with their manager when the manager fails to address poor performance, even when the impact isn’t extreme. One of the most frustrating experiences for a team is when they feel they are carrying a member who is not pulling their weight, frustration can turn to stress when the manager simply does nothing about it

Poor performance can appear at any stage in the employment life-cycle. Managers need to be extra vigilant in any trial period. I have seen managers give new employees the benefit of the doubt and live to rue the day they confirmed a permanent appointment, when they had experienced niggling doubts during that time and failed to listen to their intuition.

What follows are some simple ways to help both prevent problems and when they do occur, what to do about them.

Don’t

Miss the telling signs in the trial period. Follow up on any issues which arise during that time.
Wait until the next performance review. Deal with any emerging problems as soon as they become apparent.
Develop an attitude or fixed view of the employee, there may be many reasons for under-performance
Ignore what other people are saying about someone’s under-performance; subtly check it out, if you don’t at first agree
Wait until a major incident or disaster occurs
Wait until everyone else in the workplace is totally fed up because of the under-performance.
Confuse a performance issue with a conduct problem. Misconduct of course impacts on performance, but they are two totally different issues.
Wait until the under-performer goes off on sick leave.

Have a fair and equitable way of measuring performance for all employees
Use your internal policies and procedures for managing under-performance. Your policies should be designed to assist you to get it right. If your policies hinder the process, they need to be rewritten.
Identify the precise areas of under-performance. Exactly what element of performance is the employee not achieving? Performance can be lack of productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, or an under developed skill set for example.
Gather clear examples and facts which demonstrate the level of performance. Do not rely on hearsay, because your boss told you to do it, or niggling doubts.
Keep an open mind about the reasons for under-performance. You do not know what is going on in the employee’s life. Don’t assume they are under-performing and they just can’t hack it.
Talk to the under-performer as soon as possible, and listen to what they have to say. Let them know you are concerned, not accusing.
Ask them about external factors, their own views about their performance, and what they think the expectations of them are. Ask them about training and skill sets.
Develop a clear and SMART action plan. The outcomes of the action plan must actually prove to you that the employee is capable and willing to bridge the performance gap, and be able to sustain it without constant supervision.
Be clear about the time-scale in which you require the performance to improve and for how long before you relax monitoring.
Meet regularly and give honest accurate feedback about their progress. Listen to them and amend the action plan if there are credible reasons for lack of progress, but stick to your agreed time-scale except if there are exceptional circumstances.
Give them every support in terms of training, mentoring, materials and guidance they might need.
Be kind. The majority of people want to do well at work and it can be a nightmare experience for them if for some reason their performance isn’t up to scratch. Genuinely wish them well and hope that they succeed.
Be confident. You know how you want your team to work. Don’t settle for anything less, and expect great not mediocre results for your team.

If you manage poor performance well and manage to raise performance, then this not only instils a sense of achievement for the employee, but also gives a great message out to other staff that you are fair and tuned in to what is happening. Your team might not know when poor performance is being tackled. But they certainly do know if it is not being addressed at all.

The 5 Step Blueprint Of Successful Organisational Change

By Christina Lattimer • May 2, 2013 - 10:59 am Organisational Change

A Blueprint for Change

In my capacity as a Leadership and HR Consultant, I am mostly called in when a problem has been encountered or a change is needed. Consultancy is of course about understanding the problem, so a solution can be found. Because I understand that organisations have a personality just like people, the problem is always unique to that particular organisation. And so of course it follows, the solution is unique.

Over the years, I have developed a paradoxically, simple approach, to what can be perceived as complex organisational change. Using my expertise in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) coupled with systems thinking I help leaders get to the crux of the problem, and help them find organisational solutions quickly.

The 5 step process allows leaders to look at the change from a number of different perspectives; zoom in and zoom out; satisfy both intuitive/visionary and auditory/sensor preferences for taking in, assimilating and communicating information. It also encourages a holistic decision-making process which embraces heart and mind, or logic and feeling preferences.

The process in itself is a simple one, which helps maintain focus, although the dynamics within the process helps clarify complexities. The 5 step process can be used in any organisation to solve problems or to instigate change.

The 5 Step Blueprint

1. Where are you going?

There are usually three basic directions, and it’s important to find out exactly where the organisation wants to go and how it wants to travel. It is vital to determine at the very outset the clear drivers for change.

A moving towards or progression
A change of direction – a moving away from
An alignment to perform better

You may find that there is a combination of ways to move forward, but asking the question in this frame helps uncover what is motivating the change and develops the basis for the next step:

2. At What level does the change need to be made?

There are 6 basic levels these are linked to 6 logical levels of change used in NLP:

The purpose or the “Why” of the organisation
The Identity or the organisational brand
The level of values, beliefs or concepts of the organisation
Knowledge, skills and competencies
Behaviours and culture
Environment

While this can take some time to establish it is essential appropriate time is taken to identify the starting level. If your starting point is level one, then it is likely all remaining levels will be affected. If you start at level 4, depending on what that change involves, will determine whether any other levels are affected. The next step is:

3. How does the change affect each part of the organisation?

In addition to the logical levels above, change impacts each part of the whole. A successful change process will anticipate those impacts, consult on the detail, and make necessary adjustments ensuring the change is integrated across each identified impact. The level at which the change occurs will determine the scope and depth of the impact. Some impacts might be:

Relationships
Interdependencies such as linked projects or schemes of work
Policies
Processes
External partnerships and stakeholders
Resources
Customers

4. How will you know that the change is successful?

What exactly does success look like? Ways to frame this question can be:

Will the organisation be more profitable/deliver better products and or services?
How often, and with what method will this improvement be measured?
How will the customers/stakeholders/partners respond to change?
How will employees respond, what will they be doing differently?
What will the organisation look and feel like?
How will existing targets and results change?

5. How will the changes happen?

If the change is a one-off intervention, a programme or project approach may be beneficial. If it is more significant, then you may want to build the change into the strategic plan and build in outcomes and ownership accordingly. For a systematic approach, you need to consider the following elements to ensure success:

Who will own the change?
What is the governance around the change? (Where do accountabilities lie?)
How will the change be communicated?
Who will be consulted and when?
When will success be realised?

As you can see, change is only as complicated as you want it to be. Keeping it simple may not satisfy the more theoretical and analytical minds around, but cutting out complexity is the surest way to get results more quickly and in a way in which everyone understands.

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