A useful definition of intelligence is not, as you might expect, avoiding mistakes—we all make those—but the avoidance of repeating mistakes. I am sure a well-known American industrialist was thinking along these lines when he famously said:

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

Henry Ford (1863-1947)
American founder of the Ford Motor Company

So why, then, do we so often try something, find it ineffective and then repeat the experience? An example? Ok… I know of a Marketing Director who was quite convinced that traditional advertising was the way to reach his company’s audience. Yet the enquiries failed to come in despite an astronomical spend on newspaper and TV advertising. And the few leads that were generated failed to convert to sales.

After three years of this, our Marketing Director was finally persuaded to try the internet. Google Adwords advertisements and regular e-shots to a leased database later… and the enquiries and conversions started to happen (and very cost-effectively at that).

Any lessons from all of this? Loads! Be prepared to abandon what isn’t working. It may be comforting to pursue the familiar but not at the expense of results. And be prepared to take a risk and embrace something new. And in the case of this Marketing Director, be prepared to overcome a fear of the unknown. He was unused to and therefore apprehensive of the internet…

… now, unsurprisingly… he loves it!

Tags: 1863 advertisements american founder american industrialist audience avoidance conversions embrace fear of the unknown ford ford motor ford motor company google henry ford intelligence internet google marketing risk traditional advertising tv advertising
 

I am getting more and more ticked off with what I read about senior bankers and recent news that Barclays paid 428 of its staff more than £1m each in 2012 has done nothing to change my views.

This happened in a year when Chairman Marcus Agius and Chief Executive Bob Diamond were forced to resign after the £290m fine imposed on Barclays for rigging LIBOR interest rates… and in a year where the bank had to set aside £2.5bn to cover miss-selling claims.

The bit that really gets me? While more than 400 workers were taking over £1m in salary, bonuses and the value of long-term share awards, 71,500 Barclays staff received less than £25k as their 2013 remuneration.

On the positive side, the release of information about Barclays pay bands is a part of a greater transparency commitment made by new Chairman David Walker. And the head of Barclays bank’s remuneration committee has said that there will be a continuing focus on overhauling pay and bonus practices.

Look… I’m not arguing for bosses to be paid the same as general staff. Leadership involves a lot of responsibility and associated risks and there should be rewards for that.

But sometime the difference between the fat cats and the mice isn’t just a pay gap but an enormous chasm.

And that’s not right.

Tags: 1m 25k barclays barclays bank bob diamond chairman david chasm david walker fat cats gap general staff libor interest rates marcus agius mice recent news remuneration committee rigging share awards staff leadership term share
 

While some of my blogs have been quite critical of the quality of modern leadership in corporate and other walks of life, my general view is that leadership is a generally improving skill. In other words, people are largely as well if not better led now than they have ever been.

That said, my confidence still gets dented from time to time… and most recently by the new Chief Executive of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer.

Now Ms. Mayer is a former Google Executive… so let’s start with Google and a quote from their Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette. Mr Pichette has said that the answer to anyone asking how many Google staff telecommute (telework, remote work, work from home, call it what you will) was ‘as few as possible’. He went on to say that, “There is something magical about spending the time together, about noodling on ideas, about asking at the computer ‘What do you think of this?’”.

Now that’s got to be one for the sick-bucket… but back to Marissa Mayer. She has issued a memo banning Yahoo staff from working from home. An extract from the memo reads, “Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings.” Another says… “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.”

Given all that I have said on the subject of modern life’s pressure on working people and the effect this has on families and society, I am disappointed by these attitudes. I am particularly disappointed that they are present in ‘Tech’ companies given theirs is an industry that has shouted the advantages of modern technology from the rooftops… ease of communication, virtual office environments, more efficient use of time, lower carbon emissions and so on.

People don’t need to be permanently together to be a team. Nor does your team need to be together and visible to be led.

Unless you’re lacking in leadership confidence, that is.

Tags: advantages of modern technology attitudes cafeteria carbon emissions chief executive chief financial officer confidence efficient use google hallway marissa mayer noodling office environments patrick pichette rooftops team meetings use of time virtual office walks of life working from home
 

‘Whistleblower’ reports often catch my eye. I often read these tales of life within organizations with a mixture of fascination (they reflect what the organization is really like rather than how it appears on the outside) and horror (what is revealed invariably takes your breath away).
And so it is with the comments being made by a constable (a police officer of the lowest rank in the UK). He has said that:

• every single reported theft of a mobile phone is recorded as lost property
• attempted burglaries get reported as criminal damage
• figures are manipulated. For example, a good month’s detection rates are ‘carried over’ into a poorer month to smooth out the numbers
• shoplifting is an ‘easy detection’ so that gets priority treatment
• there are not enough people so crime isn’t properly investigated.

Four thoughts strike me:

1. organizations that operate on behalf of the Government will have the usually negative effect of politics acting on them. I pity the leaders, caught as they are between a rock and a hard place
2. companies should be more transparent. It should not have to take a whistleblower to reveal true performance
3. once again, here’s the effect within organizations of poorly constructed targets adversely influencing behavior
4. and… once again, folks… lies, damned lies and statistics.

A final sobering thought for leaders. What practices might an employee or former employee blow the whistle on in your business?

Tags: blow the whistle burglaries constable damage figures fascination horror lost property mixture mobile phone performance police officer priority treatment reported theft rock and a hard place shoplifting sobering thought statistics targets true performance whistle whistleblower
 

Sorry… I can’t quite get off my soapbox yet regarding the poor impact of modern corporate and working life culture on health and quality of life.

I say this having just read online in a UK newspaper that UK workers now take just 29 minutes for lunch on average. This is four minutes less than it was 12 months ago.

60% of workers don’t even have a break for lunch but eat it at their desks.

When asked why they were doing this two thirds said they had too much work to do to leave their work stations and 14% (I thought it would be more) said they did it to impress their boss.

The survey has drawn both medical and political comment.

Ron Cutler, a micro-biologist at Queen Mary University of London, is concerned about the crumbs left on desks and keyboards. Diarrhea and vomiting causing bacteria find these crumbs a great place to breed and do so readily at the 20°C temperature maintained in most offices.

And Health Minister Anna Soubry says workers should take a proper lunch break and enjoy their food. She says that workers eating lunch at their desk is disgusting.

These comments are fair enough. But I wonder whether Dr Cutler or Minister Soubry have ever been inadvertently impressed by the commitment of their short-lunch break staff over and above those who take a whole hour.

I say that because I believe few leaders fail to fall into the trap of preferring staff who ‘work through’ or work late over those who stick to their hours.

There’s a deeply embedded cultural issue at play here. It will take a lot to shift it.

Tags: 12 months bacteria biologist boss break crumbs desk desks diarrhea four minutes health minister keyboards life culture proper lunch quality of life queen mary university queen mary university of london ron cutler soapbox two thirds work
 

Did you know that health expenditure accounts for nearly 20% of government spending in the US?

That’s right… nearly one in every five of your tax dollars is spent on treating the sick and infirm. That’s twice the amount spent in most European countries.

And the trouble is the health bill is getting bigger and bigger—and that’s a big stumbling block to the economy getting back on track.

I believe the problem is lack of leadership in some very key areas:

• first, our leaders in education need to make lessons in ‘how to stay healthy’ a high priority. If they don’t, people will remain ignorant about the importance of good diet and regular exercise
• second, a brave politician needs to push vested interests aside and deal with the problems caused by tobacco, the over-influence of fast-food chains on eating habits and poor or misleading food labelling
• third (and this connects with my last blog entry), workplace leaders need to ensure that workers have the time to exercise, to eat properly, to sleep properly and to spend time with their families to ensure that family members do the same
• fourth, we need to get people out of their cars and walking or on bicycles. These activities need to be safe, so more needs to be spent on a highways infrastructure that can support healthier alternatives to getting behind the wheel
• fifth, the medical profession needs to harness new technologies and effective practises to take some of the cost out of care.

By the way, I know that this is a big and intractable problem. And I know that what I have set out above is probably over-simplified and perhaps sounds glib.

And I acknowledge that there are probably good arguments for different strategies.

Leadership is badly needed, however. No one can argue with that.

Or can you?

Tags: bicycles blog entry eating habits european countries expenditure accounts family members fast food chains food labeling good arguments government spending health bill health expenditure high priority highways intractable problem key areas medical profession obamacare politician stumbling block tax dollars
 

Want to increase productivity in these difficult and trying times?

Ok. Consider reducing your employees’ working week.

Cue immediate reaction from unimaginative leaders. “Eh, Frank, where you’ve got ‘reducing’ in that sentence, we think you meant ‘increasing’ “.

No… I really did mean reducing.

You see, productivity isn’t about the number of hours your people work. It’s about their output. And their output is all about how alert and motivated they are. Now if they’re working all the hours they can (and some of them, afraid of losing their jobs… will be working long, long hours) then they haven’t the time to exercise, sleep, be with their families and get on with all the other stuff life demands of them. This is demotivating. What’s more, they’re too tired to be properly focused on their work.

So, what does reducing their hours provide?

Time.

Time to recharge their batteries. Time for their families. Time to keep fit and healthy. Time to sleep properly. Time for themselves.

All of which means they’re happier. And their happiness means they’ll be maximizing their output in the fewer hours they spend with you.

Further reaction from unimaginative leaders: “Errrr… we didn’t think of that.”

Time you did. Time you did.

Tags: batteries cue happiness jobs life life demands productivity sleep time trying times
 

As David Beckham departs LA Galaxy, might he be thinking ahead to a career in soccer management back in the UK?

Well, if I were David, I wouldn’t. That’s where angels fear to tread!

Let me explain.

By 16 May 2012, 37 of the 92 clubs in the four English football (soccer) leagues had seen a manager depart.

Not in the previous ten years.

Nor in the previous five.

No… in the 2011 – 2012 season!

And we’re not talking about the smaller lower league clubs. Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, Queens Park Rangers, Leeds, Wolves, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Liverpool all said goodbye to
Steve, Steve, Neil, Simon, Mick, Andre, Alex and Kenny respectively.

I mention this because the obviously precarious nature of the role of English football club manager resonates with some of my views on the difficulties facing modern corporate leadership (new appointees in particular). That is to say:

• there are often not particularly visible owners and bosses in the background who don’t know much about the game (a bit like business owners/shareholders who neither understand the business nor the market in which it operates)
• the stench of short-termism is so all-pervading that your appointment as manager is pretty much a license to fail (business leader honeymoon periods are increasingly short – and tolerance of early struggles is in short supply notwithstanding difficult trading conditions)
• if your face simply does not fit, then you’ve no hope and the fans will be tireless in their opprobrium (for fans read major investors)
• the team assembled around you is not up to scratch but the owners like them (a bit like—as a new appointee—you inherit an inferior management team that will be a ball and chain around your feet for your all too brief time with the company)

.

So my plea is, give new leaders a bit more of a fighting chance.

Tags: appointee appointees aston villa business leader corporate leadership david beckham english football club fighting chance football soccer league clubs neil simon new leaders opprobrium precarious nature queens park queens park rangers soccer leagues soccer management stench