Is this a typical day in your middle managers’ lives?

• arrive in office
• spend one hour updating employee’s sick absence record (used to be done by HR but that department has been downsized)
• spend one hour processing invoices (used to be done by Finance but that department has been downsized)
• spend one and a half hours resolving laptop issue (used to be done by on-site IT people but that department has been downsized)
• lunch
• spend one and a half hours resolving air-conditioning issue (used to be done by Facilities but that department has been downsized)
• spend one and a half hours on emails (used to be done by Assistant but role had to be cut following recent budget round)
• spend half an hour on job they were recruited for before leaving for home.

In a seven hour day (of course, they’re all working a lot longer than that to make up time) half an hour represents just over 7% efficiency.

And working longer hours to make up time represents an even less efficient approach, particularly as morale starts to get affected.

Now I’m not saying that they’re aren’t good reasons for rationalization of business functions. Dead wood, archaic processes, over-staffed departments… they all exist and leaders need to tackle them.

But if this is at the expense of important middle-ranking Executive efficiency… then you need a different approach.

In other words, can you let your managers manage please?
That’s what you pay them for.

Tags: absence air conditioning budget business functions downsized executive efficiency finance half an hour half an hour half hours invoices job lunch middle managers rationalization typical day
 

A fundamental tenet of business activity in general and marketing in particular is that the products or services offered by a company match customer needs.

Few if any business leaders would argue with this. No strategy based on launching a product and then chasing the market is ever going to be as effective as understanding the market and then developing the right product.

A personal frustration I have, however, is the number of business leaders who fail to apply the same principles internally.

By this I mean… why treat your internal audience (your staff) any differently when it comes to motivating them? In fact, how can you properly motivate them if you don’t understand their needs?

This is the point where a lot of business leaders get their checkbook out… or their stick. But motivating people need not cost money—and it certainly shouldn’t cost good will.

So, what do your staff want?

You’ve probably come across the concept of ‘hierarchy of needs’ – a theory in psychology developed by Abraham Maslow in the early 1940s.

Maslow suggested that once basic physiological (food, water, shelter and so forth), security (employment, health, property and so on) and love/belonging (friendship, family, intimacy) needs were satisfied then humans were motivated by things that bolstered their self-esteem and confidence and ultimately, things that allowed them to self actualize (be creative, problem solve and so forth).

Subsequent theorists have taken Maslow to task with some of his thinking… but I still believe a lot of his theory holds good.

So, once you’ve paid people properly (and not all leaders do) and sought to protect their sense of employment longevity with you (not always possible, particular in the current climate, I know) what can you do?

Well, you can listen to them (and listening really is an art) and act to show that you’ve listened. You can encourage them to use their knowledge and creativity. You can empower them, so they feel they have control over what they do and outcomes.

And you can recognize them in ways other than financial.


What Do You Pay?

Tags: 1940s abraham maslow business activity business leaders checkbook climate creative problem creativity friendship family fundamental tenet hierarchy of needs internal audience intimacy longevity match motivating people personal frustration security employment self esteem theorists
 

Because of what I do, my ears prick up every time I hear the word leadership.

I recently heard the ‘l’ word in a TV program where healthcare workers at a junior level were complaining about the high levels of remuneration enjoyed by senior healthcare executives.

“It’s time they showed some leadership,” said a union official.

She meant that the most senior executives should take a pay cut.

I wondered about this… particularly the use of the word leadership.

At first I thought that the union official had used the word leadership wrongly. A conciliatory gesture regarding their pay package from a senior executive (eg: no increase for three years while incremental salary awards continue to be made for lower ranks) was just that, surely—a conciliatory gesture.

But the more I thought about it…

… the more I thought that leadership was the most appropriate word that the union official could have used.

I thought this because part of being a leader is enjoying a level of remuneration which, while it recognizes the expertise, experience, responsibility job market ranking that goes along with the job, does not look ridiculously remote from the pay enjoyed by others in an organization.

Because stratospheric pay packages alienate those you seek to lead. They can make lower paid workers feel disenchanted and disenfranchised… and eventually disaffected and unlikely to fulfill your expectations of them.

Above all else, over-the-top Chief Executive salary packages can look, well… greedy. Now, I wasn’t sure whether that’s too emotive a word to use,

but the more I thought about it…

Tags: being a leader ears executives expertise experience gesture healthcare executives healthcare workers job leader remuneration salary salary awards salary packages senior executives tv program word leadership
 

Pass the soap-box because I am about to talk about one of my biggest bête-noires.

At any given time, across the globe, thousands of management hours are being expended on training courses.

Managers are being taught everything from the latest employment law to time management and from strategic planning to corporate and social responsibility.

But how many managers struggle from one day to the next with that most testing of their responsibilities, managing… and in particular, managing people?

The simple answer—plenty. In fact, probably most of them.

I know some managers in a late stage in their careers who reflect, sometimes with surprise as if it’s never occurred to them before, on the fact that they have never attended so much as one training course on the art of people management. It’s as if managing people is something they’re expected to have acquired by osmosis or divine intervention… or simple instinct.

So, back from their time management training, they continue to be worried by Fred, whose negative attitude and undermining asides at departmental meetings consume so much energy (and time).

And fully versed in putting together their strategic plans, they remain distracted by Fiona’s refusal to fulfil the requirements of her job description and reluctance to co-operate with her immediate colleagues and those in other departments.

Which is a shame. Because the collective wisdom of how to deal with these and other perennial management challenges is out there, no doubt already decanted into the right kind of training courses and ready to be shared with all the struggling managers in the world.

Leadership point?

As a top priority, put your struggling managers together with the right training courses.

ASAP.

Tags: collective wisdom departmental meetings divine intervention employment law instinct job description management challenges negative attitude no doubt reluctance simple answer soap box social responsibility strategic planning strategic plans time management training top priority training courses world leadership
 

Nature or nurture is one of life’s great questions.

Is there an inherent disposition in individuals to think and behave the way they do?


Or is behaviour influenced/learned?

My view? Well, I think the jury’s still out. What I will say, as far as leadership is concerned, is that there are some qualities that make being a leader ‘easier‘. I mentioned one of these—a thick skin—in an earlier blog.

Sensitive personalities can make great leaders, but can also find the criticism that inevitably comes with the job, from inside and outside their company, at best a burden and at worse a source of depression.

And as well as a thick skin? An ability to listen and take other opinions on board, but also to be autocratic when necessary, helps but does not sit easily with some personality types. A willingness to trust desired outcomes to others is also a useful trait (those who cannot loosen the control reins risk crash and burn) provided people understand the parameters and report back.

And leaders who recognise that you cannot run with the hare as well as the hounds (ie: want to be everyone’s friend) will benefit from distinct demarcation lines.

So, from this you’ll imagine that my ideal leader is insensitive, autocratic, delegating, stand-offish and unfriendly.

Not at all.

But I’ve known good and capable individuals falter at the leadership hurdle because of the dissonance between their personality and the demands of the job.

Tags: being a leader burden capable individuals crash demarcation lines depression dissonance great leaders hounds hurdle nature or nurture parameters personalities personality types reins thick skin willingness
 

A triple AAA rated market leading UK bank has an interesting approach to staff encouragement.

About five years ago they introduced an appraisal marking system which had the following three overall markings:


These proved too few, so ‘Met Plus’ and ‘Met Minus’ were introduced…
Somewhat contradicting the dictionary definition of ‘Met’.

Now, armed with five overall markings, everyone was happy.

Not.

You see, alongside this appraisal system, senior managers also introduced a quota system to guide bonus rewarding. The quota system demanded that each marking be given to a percentage of staff in each department.

This included 15% of all staff being marked as ‘under performed’. They were to be placed on a ‘close management’ basis encouraged to move their performance out of the red ‘under performed’ zone and into the black nirvana of Met Minus.

What goes up must come down, of course. As some are ‘promoted’ out of close management, others fall into the trap. The relentless 15% underperformed label ensures that.

A good system?

They would argue so. They’d say it was more a carrot than a stick.

I say it was an orange stick and instead of leading people they were beating them with it.

Are you leading or beating?

A subsequent blog entry will return to the subject of leading people and rewarding them.

Tags: appraisal marking system appraisal system black nirvana black nirvana of met minus bonus bonus rewarding bullshit carrot stick contradicting dictionary definition dictionary definition of met encouragement exceeded five overall markings guide bonus rewarding interesting approach leading people market leading bank met met minus met plus move their performance nirvana orange stick out of the red quota system senior managers staff encouragement three overall markings under performed
 

Jurgen Appelo informed me, that my blog made his list of The Top 150 Management & Leadership Blogs

In addition Jurgen added a Twitter list so one can follow all these great people and an OPML file with all the RSS feeds of these blogs.

This list is a great addition to the—unfortunately outdated—Personal Development List.

Tags: blogs jurgen appelo leadership blogs management blogs personal development
 

Show me a CEO who in her first week doesn’t mention the words ‘culture’ and ‘change’ in a press release or internal memo and I will write to congratulate her personally.

Newly appointed leaders like to talk about changing their business culture because effecting that kind of change sounds like the universal panacea to business challenges that all senior managers look for.

And quite possibly, they are right… they’re just wrong to shout about it because they are probably setting themselves up for failure.

Why? Because culture is a bit of a will o’ the wisp—elusive when trying to pin it down and difficult to define and describe. It’s as much in the atmosphere and professionalism or otherwise exhibited in the Board Room as it is in the middle manager who spends an hour a day smoking outside the front entrance and the junior member of staff who walks by the eyesore piece of litter that he cannot remember discarding the day before.

Culture isn’t changed overnight either. It won’t be sorted in a couple of conferences. Nor will it be sorted our by the ‘core values’ campaign that quickly peters out to be replaced by next year’s initiative.

No. Culture changes are not effected from the top down. They’re effected from the inside out. Identify an individual or group of people or department that exhibits desired behaviours. Encourage these, add to them… grow these people into acknowledged examples of “how we’d like to do things round here“.

Reward them.

Their peers will notice and they will over time adopt the behaviours.

That’s the theory anyway.

Go.

Practice.

Tags: atmosphere board room business challenges business culture ceo conferences core values culture and change culture changes failure front entrance go practice initiative internal memo junior member peers press release professionalism senior managers theyre universal panacea