Tag Archives: management

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Sales People, Can They be 100% Honest?

  By Guest Post • February 22, 2012 - 8:06 am

Sales and Integrity?

Welcome to my second guest blogspot – I am really pleased to introduce Richard Lane of durhamlane, Sales Consultancy.  Richard has a fresh and honest approach to his expertise which helped me when I was first starting up.    Much gratitude to Richard for his blog post.  You can find more about Richard and durhamlane below.  Enjoy!

“Can a sales person be 100% honest? That would make for an interesting blog post” a good friend said to me a while ago.  The question has been playing on my mind ever since. I suppose a similar question would be is something Black or White. To me, being a sales professional relies on being able to see the colours in-between – or ‘grayscale’ to use the language of my HP printer.

If we relate “100% honesty” to having integrity, being the consummate professional and always trying to do the right thing by your clients and prospects then it is essential.  Success in Sales means being able to navigate around a customer’s organisation – listening here, offering advice and providing feedback there. It is not our place to make controversial statements or to disenfranchise. Rather we must challenge – where and when appropriate – and build rapport and relationships that make someone want to buy from us. Offering value, becoming a trusted advisor and delivering products and services that have a positive impact.

There are times when it is better to stay quiet rather than speak up, others when we focus on one feature at the expense of another. Does this mean you are being dishonest? Only if you do so in the knowledge that you are not offering your prospect or customer the best solution possible.

The Sales Profession has built itself a reputation that not many envy. Perhaps this is because of a tendency to focus on short-term success. Worse, Management has pushed a culture of short-termism. This type of self-preservation is not long-lasting. Trust rapidly disintegrates. The most important sale is not the first to a new customer but the second – when you have successfully delivered so that they want to come back for more.

I know lots of great sales people who are focused on developing win-win relationships built on trust, reliability and professionalism. The word cloud above comes from a survey we ran a year or so ago where we asked sales people what first words came to mind when they thought of Sales. We intend to run it again soon and will share the results.

The Sales Profession knows it has to do better and it is rising to the challenge. I could point you to many sites both here in the UK, the US and around the rest of the world where sales individuals and organisations are helping others to make a lasting difference. Just four examples of sales pro’s I respect include:

Dave Stein at
Paul Castain at Sales Playbook
Neil Warren at Modern Selling
Donal Daly at

2012 will see all of us here at continuing do our bit to put a positive dent in the sales universe. What can you do to put Pride back into Sales?

 

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Before becoming a recognised sales trainer and coach, Richard spent his career in sales, management and sales leadership positions for learning and software/technology companies.  Having won numerous global blue-chip customers, Richard successfully managed global client teams to service and grow these accounts.  His passion is in crafting solutions designed to solve complex business challenges, always with the goal of creating win-win and long-term value.

Business fit, business value and long-term relationships are at the heart of everything Richard does.  He is driven by a desire to raise the bar of the sales profession in the UK.  Having worked every sales role, he has an instinctive ability to relate to both business owners and their individual sales staff, motivating, increasing confidence and providing inspiration.  No matter the title, Richard has always kept selling; leading by example.

He is a blogger, a runner, a blues guitar player, a self-confessed “non-techie-techie” and a member of the Institute of Sales & Sales Management. To find out more about Richard and durhamlane, visit:. To sign up to durhamlane’s newsletter, visit:    You can also follow Richard on twitter @richardmlane and @durhamlane [/message]

To find out more click here

Sales

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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Values – an Important Way of Working

  By christinapd • February 20, 2012 - 9:22 am

Values Values  –  A Question of Integrity

I have always been a values driven person.  During my early years I wanted to make a difference and to help people become happier and more satisfied.  As a result I went down the path of people management.   Although I found I had a gift of business acumen and creating successful teams, it was the people underneath who inspired me and where my focus lay.

I remember also a time when my intrinsic values were challenged.  A lady who I was assigned to deliver a project with had somewhat different values to me.  At that time I believed in equal opportunities for all.  I believed that fairness, openness and transparency were paramount. I realised the potential to indirectly discriminate, and also about the power of our minds to subconsciously discriminate on appearances.  I believed in being honest, doing the right thing and respecting everyone.

I also at that time thought that everyone shared some if not all of these fundamental values.  I was mistaken.  The project manager who was leading a programme I had been appointed to work on was very different from me.

Working along side this person, I recalled a story my friend had told me about a boy at her son’s school.  When caught cheating by copying some exam questions from another, his response was “its not cheating, it’s simply getting the answers by an easier route” Or words to that effect.  We laughed at his audacity.  But in my naivety I didn’t think this expedient approach would appear in my world of work.  Again I was mistaken.

The project manager I discovered was tough, ruthless and had the same principles as the boy at school.  Her philosophy was that the end justified the means.  That you sometimes had to make tough decisions which overrode any values you might have cherished upon the way.  You eye had to be on the end result and all that mattered was the result.  What’s more I found that senior managers and people of influence bowed down, respected and encouraged this approach.

For some of you reading, I guess you might think that my own values were soft and unrealistic in what can be a ruthless world.  And as I came upon this stark contrast to my own way of doing things, I spent 6 torturous months, re-evaluating my approach and what this new information meant.  It was a steep but necessary learning curve for me.  I began to doubt my own values and began to feel ineffective in the wake of someone who steam rollered over all my suggestions about how things should be done.

This period of self doubt and discomfort is often a necessary stage of learning and growth, and one which I had often sidestepped.  After all it’s much easier to make the other person wrong rather than admit you might well be.

What I learned in this time was this:

  • Examining others values and incorporating their philosophy into your own values can actually help you grow.  I am glad I didn’t reject the values I was being faced with; I learned a lot about myself and others through this process.  I would urge you to look at this in this light.
  • I always had a :  So for example, I would respect that sometimes the boundaries between my employee’s personal life and work sometimes encroached, particularly during stressful life events, but that the business could only bend so far to accommodate.  We had a business to run.  I learned that other people had a much shorter bottom line, and that was their prerogative.
  • That organisational values and ideals could and would erode when faced with crisis or major change, and that senior managers could and would often support this.  This can arise quite often when faced with a financial crisis, or a battle for survival.
  • I realised that I could respect other people’s values even when they weren’t my own.  I might not agree with them, but there were occasions when I had no choice but to accept them.

Even in times of crisis or change, your values don’t need to actually change, indeed to maintain the credibility and trust of your customers and employees; this is the time you need to demonstrate your commitment to fundamental values even more strongly.  But you must also be diligent and articulate your bottom line.  So for example, you might have a policy around family friendly policies, but that if your business is on the verge of bankruptcy, you might have to review these and ask people to do more.

The lady in question wasn’t a cheat.  She just valued outcomes more and the way people came along with the change came second.  She wasn’t dishonest, just didn’t value the input of others because it would slow the process down.   She got the job done, but she didn’t make many friends upon the way.   Did it make financial sense?  Yes in the short term.  Did it earn the respect of the employees affected?  No, not in the long or short term.

In the process of my learning, did I change my values?   A big resounding no.  I realised that a values driven approach can be seen as slow and soft.  It isn’t.  What I learned is that having a commitment to values, with a clear and transparent bottom line is essential to gaining credibility and commitment.

What I don’t do, is dismiss other people’s values because they are not the same as mine, or indeed judge them.   I consider them in the context they are being applied.  If I am working with people whose values don’t coincide with mine, I try to put myself in their shoes.  If I am standing in their shoes and still feel so uncomfortable I can’t walk, then I simply walk away, in my own shoes with my own values intact.

What do you think?  Are you able to respect others values when yours are in question?  Do you think its imperative for employers to maintain their values even in times of great change?  How important is it to have a values driven philosophy?

 

 

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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Coach? – A facilitator’s advice

  By Guest Post • February 14, 2012 - 12:12 pm
For regular readers you will know that I am introducing a guest blogspot from time to time.  I am hoping that my guest bloggers will expand on themes you are interested in and give a whole new valuable perspective.  I am really thrilled to introduce my first Guest Blogger Juli Campey.  Read more about Juli below.  
Juli  is an inspirational coach and has a wealth of experience and is inspirational in her approach to learning.  Enjoy!
Hello Readers,

I am delighted to be invited to be the first guest blogger on the People Discovery website, thanks Christina for the opportunity!

As someone who has worked in people development roles for most of my career, I am now in the fortunate position of working with the academic community as a Senior Teaching Fellow at Newcastle University Business School, where I am Director of the Executive MBA programme and responsible for the innovative Understanding and Implementing Coaching and Mentoring Module on the Masters in Human Resource Management, which is accredited by the CIPD.

Since the late 1980s, organisations have asked me to coach their employees, from supervisory staff through to senior managers and directors, and to be honest, until I became involved in the new Coaching and Mentoring Module, what I did and how I did it had become one of those “unconsciously competent” activities that I did automatically and comfortably after years of training and practice.

The process of designing an academic module on such a practical subject has been quite challenging and as novices to coaching, my postgraduate students are currently asking me lots of “What if” questions about coaching within organisations from international and multi-cultural perspectives. We have discussed the limitations of coaching within organisations and the importance of setting clear parameters, not just a coaching contract between the coach and coachee, but the explicit and implicit requirements of the organisation as the provider of internal coaching to ensure the coach does not reach beyond their remit. I have to say that my responses to many of the questions I get is “It depends …”.

As coaches, we have a variety of learned and intrinsic personal and interpersonal skills. Some of us have achieved recognised and accredited training and qualifications, many coaches use models such as GROW and CLEAR to enable the interaction with their client. Yet because every coach is different; every client is different; every intervention, coaching session, environment, context, culture, organisation, values and belief systems is different, there is no easy way to generally describe the dynamic or process of coaching, or to give easy answers to the “What if”s.

So, my conclusion is that to learn about coaching, one has to observe coaches and coachees; one has to experience being a coach and being coached; one must experiment with different coaching techniques in a safe environment; and mostly we all need to share our experience to keep improving personally and to encourage incremental and organic growth of our clients and to answer each “What if” in context.

[message type="custom" width="100%" start_color="#FFFCB5" end_color="#F4CBCB" border="#BBBBBB" color="#333333"]For over 30 years Juli has been working in the people development business, in public, private and third sectors, as an employee, owner manager, consultant and in her latest reincarnation, a Senior Teaching Fellow at Newcastle University Business School. Born and brought up in Newcastle, she loves the city and is delighted to be working in one of the country’s best Universities showcasing the North East and all its glories to international and UK students.[/message]

 

 

 

To find out more about being a coach, click here

Coach

 

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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Lifelong learner at The University of Life

  By Christina Lattimer • February 10, 2012 - 9:22 am
Being a lifelong learner is a decision anyone can take. Are you a lifelong learner?Lifelong learner

I was at a seminar a few weeks ago when the host asked the audience for a show of hands to indicate if they considered themselves “lifelong learners” Yes, I knew the answer to that and my hand shot up. It was interesting to see that nearly everyone else did too. It got me thinking about what people meant when professing this.

For me, my love of learning didn’t start at school. I remember choosing my “O Level” options, (Yes showing my age). I opted for shorthand and typing. A brave decision then: This was in the days of typewriters and dictaphones. PC’s and word processers were still just a twinkle in someone’s eye. My teachers were horrified. Apparently I was far too bright to throw away one of my options learning something I could apparently do in a night class. I stubbornly dug my heels in and insisted. Little was I to know that learning how to speed type and present information was probably one of the most useful skills I would need in the world of work.

I often thank my intuition for helping me hold out for what seemed at the time an illogical decision. I left school at 16 and became a typist. It lasted for 9 months.

So, school was good for fundamentals, but it wasn’t where my inspiration for learning started. My love of learning started in my first managerial position at the tender age of 23. I became the office manager in a busy Court office, with around 15 people. All who were considerably older than me, and all who had masses more experience than me. I had to learn fast. I had also been infused with a purpose.

For the next 7 years or so, I consciously began learning the art of managing and understanding people. I steadily climbed the ladder of management roles. Not an academic course in sight, but the richest and most fertile seat of learning anyone could be handed. For the first half of my life, my learning really was the University of Life.

In those years I learned: •

  • To listen to my intuition, my inner coach and guide •
  • To sharpen my emotional intelligence, vital if you want to succeed in this world •
  • Understanding myself, knowing how I operate and how others operate is essential to keep moving. •
  • How to use my own personal power to make things happen.
  • My core values and acceptance of other’s values not necessarily the same as mine.

My academic learning began somewhat later. Throughout my management career I had undertaken and enjoyed masses of work based learning. I became a trainer alongside my management role and subsequently designed learning, as well as managing a variety of teams. My love of teaching what I knew was born in those years too.

I was a mature student when I embarked on my first management and teaching qualifications, and then my degree course. By then, I knew my learning style – and academia wasn’t it. I realised of course by then that I was only going to get my foot in the door of better work opportunities if I had the credibility of good qualifications behind me. So I persevered and the whole experience has helped me become more rounded. With age too, I am less likely to want to learn wholly by experience and getting things done, I have become much more of a reflector.

For me, being a lifelong learner has been one of the most purposeful motivators in my life. I have learned the tools of my trade well. I continue to add to my skills and knowledge and can’t imagine a time when I won’t do that. If I want to achieve something, there is always someone who has the skills and knowledge I want and I am always open to learning from someone with greater knowledge. That might be in the form of a book, a training event, or being coached.

But even learning to widen my knowledge and understanding on a wide range of subjects still isn’t my whole reason for proclaiming to be a lifelong learner. The richness in my lifelong learning has been my continuous self-development. Learning about how I operate, create my own reality, my limiting beliefs and how to overcome them. How I relate to others, and how to make things happen. In the word of Covey I am constantly “Sharpening the Saw” of my own self-awareness.

My business, People Discovery is about sharing my knowledge skills and experience both as Manager, Educationalist and HR expert. As well as sharing my knowledge about charting your own self-development.

Throughout the years, I have been coached and coached others. It is a vital and valuable tool to help yourself and others to grow in knowledge and skills. More importantly for me though, it is one of the most powerful ways to help with self-development, raising self-awareness and tapping into your own intuition.

I am working with an inspirational lady, who is teaching about coaching skills as part of a wider curriculum. Watch out for her take on coaching in my guest blog spot next week.

Are you a lifelong learner? What is your learning experience? What is it about being a lifelong learner that is important for you? I’d love to hear from you.

To find out more about being a lifelong learner click here

Lifelong Learner

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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Succession Planning for Success

  By christinapd • February 6, 2012 - 11:50 am
Succession Planning Succession planning for success

Succession planning is a bit of an art, if it’s carried out effectively that is.  Perhaps I’m old fashioned, or perhaps I’m just an advocate of the principle of fair, open and transparent to the point of being a proverbial pain.  But do we score an own goal by disincentivising our employees, by not appearing to be fair, open and transparent when succession planning?

Why do we need succession planning?  Well in its purist form, it is to make sure that the organisation can continue to function with the right people, with the right skills at the right time. Some spin-off benefits of succession planning, can be bringing in new and fresh talent, or existing employees with a clear and possible career path.

One of the biggest confusions I have seen about succession planning, is when people are being earmarked to replace people who may be ready to retire, or they might be coming up for their next career step.   The practice of naming specific people to replace an incumbent is not succession planning.   It is a contingency plan.  There may be all kinds of reasons to have a simple contingency strategy, but usually it is because it is a specialist post which would leave a huge vacuum if the incumbent suddenly left and the talent pool is severely limited.

Even a contingency strategy like this can cause resentment with employees if it is not distinctly used away from any succession planning exercised.  To use a contingency strategy properly, employees would have no doubt that the person being earmarked for replacement was the right person, with the right skills, and the process fits with the organisational ethos.

The difference between contingency plans and succession planning is that succession planning is about helping people develop and be in the right place at the right time for existing roles, or developing roles.  Good succession planning should be about bringing in a range of talent, either in or outside of the organisation, and it should be fair and open.

Before you begin succession planning, you need to have an ethos.  Now that ethos will differ depending upon the business you are in.  For example, if you are succession planning in a family run business, it’s usually the first born son…..oh alright, or daughter.  If you are in a corporation or a public sector organisation, you might want to have a policy of growing your talent within and there are a number of ways you can do that.   If you are a business on the move, you might want to look at bringing in new talent with new and evolving skills.  Or you might have a combination of these approaches.

To successfully succession plan, my top tips are:

  1. Be clear about why you want to introduce succession planning.
    • Is it to recruit new and evolving talent?
    • Is it to develop new leaders/managers/specialists for the future?
  2. Be open about why you want to introduce succession planning with your current workforce.
  3. Be clear with your current employees about your rationale and let them see the possibilities for them.  If there aren’t possibilities for them, then be clear about that, but let them know why.
  4. Be clear about the difference between contingency planning and succession planning.
  5. If you have a list in a drawer with names, and the people who are named don’t know they are on there, then you might want to think about how helpful or not this is.
  6. If you have a list of names, and it is to replace specialist jobs and no-one but the named persons know they are on the list, then again you might want to think about your strategy.
  7. Be clear about the criteria you are going to apply to any succession planning exercise and communicate it widely.
  8. Be structured.  Make sure that you and everyone knows how it is going to work and what they can expect.  Align other employee lifecycle events with the succession plan where needed.
  9. Be open to attracting talent from everywhere.  There may be someone in your current workforce, who might not be displaying the characteristics for future job filling now, but with an open invitation, they might just go for it.
  10. If you decide the future is through a graduate scheme, try to make it accessible for existing workers, or have a route through for existing workers.  There is nothing more annoying than being great and going the extra mile, doing the duties of higher level jobs and being told that you can’t compete because you have to have a degree.
  11. If you want to source talent from within, then tie your succession planning to your appraisal/feedback scheme.  It is the easiest way to have those conversations and help people work in a way that helps them aim for different roles.
  12. If employees think they can progress in their own company, then they can be more likely to stay.  Chart out career pathways for your staff so that they can plan for the future.
  13. If your succession plan includes attracting talent from outside the organisation, make sure you have tapped the potential within first.

I have seen succession plans which have caused distrust and suspicion, the most toxic of employee attitudes.  So don’t ruin great relationships with your employees; make your succession planning, business focused, fair and transparent.

What do you think? Do you have any recommendations to add?  Do you have any views?  I would love to hear from you.

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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Employee Engagement, a Management Must Do

  By christinapd • January 30, 2012 - 2:41 pm
Employee Engagement is essential to make your business great

We all know by now that employee engagement is not just a buzz word.  We have been advocating employee engagement for some time.  But are we really good at it?

Employee Engagement is a description of the culture of the organisation.  Some leaders and organisations are just naturals at employee engagement.  They are genuinely interested in what their people think and value their employees input.  Unfortunately, engagement sometimes doesn’t come so naturally and leaders and businesses have to make a concerted effort to get employees and involved.

A great example of effective employee engagement taken to the nth degree is when employees own shares in their company.  Unfortunately, offering shares to your employees to keep them motivated and involved isn’t always available.  We have to find ways though to make that connection.  But before we get to that, why is employee engagement so crucial?

If you haven’t already read this,  a vital information source is the to Government published in 2009.  The report finds that successful employee engagement impacts on performance results.  The report  also found that taking steps to improving employee engagement actually correlated with improved performance.

The research also showed that levels of employee engagement correlated with

  • employee turnover
  • Number of accidents
  • Productivity
  • Profitability
  • Operating income
  • Bottom line results

Finally, the report found that one organisation had shown that those branches with significant increase in levels of employee engagement had a 16 percent higher profit margin than those branches that had shown a decrease in employee engagement.

Whilst an Employee survey is essential, there are many more aspects to great engagement. In summary these are:

  • Being clear about expectations both for getting the job done, and the employee experience
  • Embedding an easy and enjoyable culture of Wellbeing.  Understanding why people don’t attend work and addressing the core problem
  • Making sure that your people are at the forefront of any proposals and implementation of change
  • Creating a culture of harmony and avoiding unhealthy conflict
  • Knowing what it takes to get your people to love your business

People Discovery can help you improve your Employee Engagement by:

  • Diagnosing the current culture and making suggestions for change
  • Linking your employee engagement strategy with clear defined performance improvements
  • Designing and developing an employee survey
  • Helping to develop a people centric change control methodology
  • Understanding and solving workplace conflict
  • Help you to understand how to motivate your workforce.

What do you think?   Do you your employees engage?  If not why not? If they do engage well; what are the ingredients that make the connection successful?  We would love to hear from you.

To find out more click here

Employee Engagement

 

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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Building Reputation Through Your Employees

  By christinapd • January 26, 2012 - 10:26 am

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.

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?

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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Strategy – Set Your SAT NAV

  By christinapd • January 20, 2012 - 4:55 pm
Strategy Set  Your Strategy: Set  Your SAT NAV

I am afraid I am a strategy geek.  What’s wrong with that? You might ask.  Well nothing except when you start developing a healthy eating strategy instead of a diet, or a university funding strategy instead of saving for your child’s uni course, it’s a bit sad.

Well no, even I’m not that bad, although it’s been proven that many of us take our work pattern home with us, but that’s a whole different blog post!

I wish there were other words in the dictionary to describe strategy.  The Oxford dictionary definition of a strategy is “A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim:” Thesaurus results have unhelpful words like “plan, approach, tactic and even scheme” as alternatives. As you can see it’s very difficult to inspire you with such mundane language.

Setting a strategy that works inspires me.  I know I am in a minority about this, but please bear with me.  Setting a strategy involves so many elements and requires a sharp skillset.  If it is going to be successful that is.  If you have an organisational or team strategy and it’s lying in a drawer waiting for someone to blow the dust off it, then it probably isn’t going to work.   In reality there are many components involved in setting a strategy, too many to mention, so I will concentrate on the vital components.

So what are the vital components of a successful strategy

  • You have to have vision.  If you want to achieve something, then you need to be able to describe, what it looks like, where it is, who is involved, when you want it to happen.  You need to be able to see it, hear it, feel it, smell it and taste it.  You need to be able to describe your vision so it becomes real in your imagination.  Once you have visualised what you want and articulated, this then becomes your goal.   It’s pinpointing exactly where you want to go and every strategy needs at least one.
  • The next part is to plan out how you are going to get to your goal.  Now I know from experience that we are all different.  Some of us love detailed plans with lots of milestones and deadlines.  Others like some key milestones along the way, and don’t want to bother too much with the detail.    Some of us don’t need a plan at all, but that might be a leap of faith too far unless you and your team are wholly committed.  The truth is, the structure of the plan doesn’t matter too much.  If you think about most projects or outcomes you have delivered, there are many ways to skin a cat, or many different routes you could have gone down to get there.   The real trick about having a plan is twofold. Firstly it keeps you focused on achieving the outcomes and secondly, it keeps you moving forward.   That’s why a plan is essential; however you want to detail it.
  • You need someone to make sure you achieve the milestones and to review what is happening so that you can keep on track.  The owner of the strategy needs to be an opportunist and be innovative.  These skills are absolutely necessary when the original plan of how to get there becomes unstuck. The owner will always navigate you back to the right road, so that you will get to the right destination or achieve the right goal.
  • You need to check on progress, and this is preferably someone different from the owner.  Someone who can provide a fresh pair of eyes, or a different perspective, but someone who also wants to reach the goal as passionately as the owner.   In other words your back seat driver.
  • And finally, you need to be able to feel the discomfort of uncharted terrain.  If the plan doesn’t unfold the way you thought and the route you planned out doesn’t look like you imagined it would, don’t panic and stop.  Don’t go back to the beginning either.  You need to trust that sometimes unfamiliar territory is exactly what you need in order to get where you need to go.

So my proposal as a new term for strategy is as you will have guessed by now “SAT NAV.”

You pop in your postcode (goal)

You have a general idea about the direction, timing and route, so you can take money for petrol, or time for a loo break etc. etc. (a plan)

You start driving.  When you take a wrong turn, the SAT NAV prompts you and takes you back to your original route.  (owner)

Your back seat driver will observe as you are driving

A great strategy is like correctly setting your SAT NAV.  You need to be able to trust it will get you where you want to be, you must enjoy the journey, but be vigilant about taking wrong turns.  You need to be flexible about taking another route if you do take a wrong turn.  Sometimes your plans will have to be changed if you want to reach your goals on time.  After all if you’ve ever put in the wrong post code, then you will know how long sometimes it takes to dawn on you that you are going the wrong way.

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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Underperformance – The Does and Don’t of Managing it

  By Christina Lattimer • January 18, 2012 - 10:25 am
The Do’s and Don’ts of Managing UnderperformanceManaging underperforance

The extension from one year to two years for right to file unfair dismissal claims in April is a welcome change for most employers.  There is a lurking fear that where employment is terminated, that disgruntled employees will resort to including other elements in a claim for example under the Equalities Act.  This should not daunt or deter you.

The extension of rights should not affect your approach to managing underperformance.  I’m sure you would agree, if it took you two years to identify and manage underperformance, there is something wrong.  Your people management skills will make sure that even though there is no recourse to tribunal, your termination processes and practices are fair.  This is especially important when you are managing underperformance.

Managing underperformance can be the most time-consuming task you have to undertake.  It takes a skilled and experienced manager to be expert and slick when it comes to raising individual performance.  One of the most frustrating experiences for a team is when they feel they are carrying a member who is not pulling their weight.

The respondents in the CIPD Report entitled “Performance management in action” which can be found “confirm that performance management is an enduring tool that has a pivotal role to play in the management of people”. Whilst this is an excellent way to bring on talent and drive up results, the downside for any manager is managing underperformance.

Underperformance can appear at any stage in the employment lifecycle.  Obviously you need to be extra vigilant in any trial period.  I have seen many managers give people the benefit of the doubt and live to rue the day they confirmed a permanent appointment, when they really had niggling doubts.   This is a time when you need to have a zero tolerance approach.  Either someone cuts it or they don’t.

So what are the do’s and don’ts of managing underperformance?

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 underperformance
  • Ignore what other people are saying about someone’s underperformance; 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 underperformance.
  • Confuse a performance issue with a conduct issue.  Misconduct of course impacts on performance, but they are two totally different issues.
  • Wait until the underperformer goes off on sick leave.

Do

  • Have a fair and equitable way of measuring performance for all employees
  • Use your internal policies and procedures for managing underperformance.  Your policies should be designed to assist you to get it right.  If they don’t then you should raise it with whoever develops them.
  • Identify the precise areas of underperformance.  Exactly what element of performance is the employee not achieving? Performance can be lack of productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, or under developed skill set, to name a few.
  • Have clear examples and facts about the underperformance. Do not rely on hearsay, because your boss told you to do it, or gut feelings.
  • Keep an open mind about the reasons for underperformance.  You do not know what is going on in the employee’s life.  Don’t assume they are underperforming and they just can’t hack it.
  • Talk to the underperformer 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.
  • Meet regularly and give honest accurate feedback about their progress.  Listen to how they perceive it and amend the action plan if there are credible reasons for lack of progress.   Use your judgement about how often you might do this though!
  • 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’re managing underperformance and actually 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 underperformance is being successfully tackled.  But they certainly do if it is not being addressed at all.

What do you think?  Do you have your own Do’s and Don’ts when managing underperformance?  I’d love to hear from you.

Managing Underperformance

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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Employee Surveys, 10 Ways They Fail

  By christinapd • January 14, 2012 - 11:30 am

Employee Surveys Employee surveys can be costly mistakes

Despite the heading, I do not advocate ditching your employee survey.  Employee surveys are great ways to find out globally what your employees think about your organisation, their experience as an employee and also how bought into your vision, values, mission etc they are.

The problem is that an employee survey can become the big elephant in the room and create even more embedded views by the very people who should be advocating your business.  If your employees feel obliged, or even worse cynical about completing an employee survey, then you should be picking this up from the survey results or lack of them.

I once ran an employee survey for an organisation about how well a team was doing “living” their vision and values.  One of the values was, “Employees views will be surveyed about how well we are doing.”   You would think that the team would rate that quite well, given they were going through an exercise which was doing just that.  But no, about a third of the employees voted negatively; the team weren’t living up to that value.   You can’t get away from the fact that, their denial was pointing to a deeper problem.

I have heard many managers dismiss employee surveys.  If they don’t believe in them, well you can’t blame their staff.

So if your employee survey displays any of the following characteristics, my advice to you is to ditch it and start again.

  1. You have a lower than 70% return rate
  2. If the focus of the survey is to get a good response rate
  3. If more than 50% of your staff state in the survey that they don’t believe something will be done about the results of the survey
  4. If your managers believe that employee surveys are a waste of time
  5. If following the survey, there is no real or lasting research or work completed on the results
  6. If the questions on the employee survey don’t actually tell you anything meaningful
  7. If you don’t give your employees dedicated time to complete the survey
  8. If the employee survey is your only means of getting staff feedback
  9. If you dismiss even one single response in the survey as being a whinge
  10. If your managers don’t understand or aren’t mature enough to deal with the negative results from a staff survey and turn it into a positive experience.

I hope you found my list useful.  If you have any reasons to add, or any views, I’d love to hear from you.

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.