12 things managers must do to create a great workplace 6 of 12

14 February 2012 Leave a Comment

6. Someone Encourages My Development

The innate yearning to learn and grow is natural to human beings. Our jobs allow us to encounter new situations and find new ways to overcome challenges every day. Why, then, do we have a tendency to stall or stagnate?

Every employee should be consciously aware of how he or she is learning and growing. This is one of the 12 key discoveries from a multiyear research effort by The Gallup Organization.

[Our objective was to identify the consistent dimensions of workplaces with high levels of four critical outcomes: employee retention, customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability. The research identified 12 dimensions that consistently correlate with these four outcomes -- dimensions Gallup now uses to measure the health of a workplace. An associated research effort, in which Gallup studied more than 80,000 managers, focused on discovering what great managers do to create quality workplaces.

Conventional management theory has always highlighted employee development. Primarily, the traditional approach was to identify an employee's weaknesses, then create a plan to correct them. By focusing on their weaknesses, so the reasoning went, employees would become stronger and more productive. While this approach seems to make sense, it has had a significant, unintended consequence -- it has emphasized who the employee is not, rather than who the employee is. As a result, a manager's constant determination to change something about the employee has been the common theme in the management-employee relationship.

Change can be a good and effective means to improvement, of course, when it encompasses something positive such as learning a new skill. In the conventional approach, however, management has often tried to change dispositional factors, things that are part of an employee's hard wiring or talent -- time management, for example. While there are many tools to aid in this effort, the way an employee manages his or her time is a recurring pattern of thought, feeling, and behavior -- part of an employee's hard wiring and not something every employee can be trained to do better. Great managers make a clear, definite distinction between what can be trained in and what can't.

For the past 40 years, development has primarily meant, "getting promoted." Today, the world's best managers suggest that development embodies the degree to which employees are growing within their current roles. Most employees want to be promoted, but not if it means doing a job that does not match their individual talents and skills. Such promotions may work, but the new position often requires a distinctly different set of talents -- talents the promoted employee may not possess. So, in the end, the promotion significantly impacts the quality of life for both the individuals promoted and the people they supervise or support.

In today's workplace, the concept of lifetime employment is passé; the new emphasis is on lifetime employability. Managers who want to help their direct reports assist them to develop self-understanding and a clear perspective on the roles they will excel in. To accomplish this goal, such managers pursue straightforward discussions with employees. In these discussions, the manager seeks to understand the employee's strengths, talents, and skills, why he accepted a position with that employer in the first place and what keeps him there. They discuss the kinds of relationships the employee needs for greatest productivity, his desired mode of recognition, and the yearnings and directions the employee wishes to follow.

The best managers feel there is nothing very complicated about development. Development holds up a mirror to employees and encourages them to know themselves. As employees come to understand who they are, these managers strive to provide responsibilities that will be a good "fit" for their talents. Then, as employees move forward in their self-knowledge, great managers persist in looking for opportunities to make the best use of employees' talents.]

Please leave a comment, or phone me on 0412 921 292 if you’d like some help in your business to implement any of what you’ve read here.

In particular, if you’d like some insight into the natural dispositions of your staff for development purposes, take a look at www.121Match.com.au

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12 things managers must do to create a great workplace 5 of 12

24 January 2012 1 Comment

5. My Supervisor Cares About Me

Gallup’s research indicates that employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers and supervisors. The impact that a supervisor has in today’s workplace can be either very valuable or very costly to the organisation and the people who work there.

Making sure that every employee has a quality relationship with someone who can guide them is one of the 12 key discoveries from a multiyear research effort by The Gallup Organization.

[Our objective was to identify the consistent dimensions of workplaces with high levels of four critical outcomes: employee retention, customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability. The research identified 12 dimensions that consistently correlate with these four outcomes -- dimensions Gallup now uses to measure the health of a workplace. An associated research effort, in which Gallup studied more than 80,000 managers, focused on discovering what great managers do to create quality workplaces.

As employees, we have all had unpleasant experiences with bad supervisors or managers. Many of us have also experienced the benefits of a good one. Employees see an amazingly clear difference between good and bad supervisors, according to Gallup evaluations. Yet, when we ask employees, "Do you want to be managed?" everyone says "No." Why is this? Because we automatically think of our bad experiences. What if their best supervisors could manage those employees? Would they want to be managed in that case? Yes. So, the issue is really this: What makes a great manager?

Gallup finds that great managers and supervisors possess identifiable talents or recurring patterns of thought, feelings and behaviors. These managers find a true sense of satisfaction when their employees grow and succeed, even if the employee's success surpasses that of the manager. Great managers intrinsically know how to match the right person with the right roles to produce the best possible results. They set expectations by defining the desired outcome. They don't dissect every role down to exact steps. They help people grow within a role instead of grow out of it. And they always try to bring out what was left in versus trying to put in what was left out.

Great supervisors genuinely care about the people they work with. They treat people as individuals rather than treating everyone in the same way. Supervisors serve as filters between broad organizational changes and employees. They help employees make sense of new initiatives and thus gain true acceptance and understanding. One could speculate that people are not resistant to change; they just have no one to explain how modifications will impact them and their jobs.

For years, Gallup has learned from surveys that the credibility of senior management is critical to employee perceptions of the organization. This led us to encourage CEOs and leaders to increase their visibility and create clearer communications. Then, three years ago, we made a discovery: For employees, the credibility of senior management is largely driven by the quality of relationships employees have with their supervisors. Thus, rather than feeling the need for a town-hall meeting, the CEO should feel compelled to ensure that all employees have caring relationships with their managers or designates.]

Please leave a comment, or phone me on 0412 921 292 if you’d like some help in your business to implement any of what you’ve read here.

There services of www.TEC.com.au may be of particular interest to business owners, CEOs, Managing Directors and General Managers.

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12 things managers must do to create a great workplace 4 of 12

14 December 2011 Leave a Comment

4. Recognition or Praise

Praise and recognition are essential building blocks of a great workplace. We all possess the need to be recognized as individuals, and to feel a sense of accomplishment. There is nothing complicated about recognition, but it is one of the items that consistently receives the lowest ratings from employees.

Taking the time to recognize and praise good performance is one of the 12 key discoveries from a multiyear research effort by The Gallup Organization.

[Our objective was to identify the consistent dimensions of workplaces with high levels of four critical outcomes: employee retention, customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability. The research identified 12 dimensions that consistently correlate with these four outcomes -- dimensions Gallup now uses to measure the health of a workplace. An associated research effort, in which Gallup studied more than 80,000 managers, focused on discovering what great managers do to create quality workplaces.

Historically, we handle praise and recognition from the perspective of "if you don't hear anything, assume you're doing a good job." In contrast to this "old industrial workplace" mindset, the new knowledge-based worker relies upon praise and recognition to determine the values of the organization. Today, praise and recognition are communication vehicles for that which is deemed important.

Obviously, recognition can be either positive or negative. Gallup has found, however, that positive and negative recognition are not opposites. Instead, the opposite of any kind of recognition is being ignored. The worst possible thing we can do to someone at work is to ignore any employee. Workplaces that continue to abide by the old culture ("If you don't hear anything . . . ") will destroy the very human spirit that makes the true difference in quality output and service delivery.

Although recognition can be either positive or negative, effective recognition has the following characteristics. It is:

  • positive in nature,
  • immediately connected to performance,
  • specific about what is being praised, and
  • close to the action.

Many organizations have formal recognition programs that have limited effectiveness. This is probably because these programs do not always give employees a clear idea of what, exactly, is being recognized -- such as profit, growth, or productivity.

We often think positive recognition only comes from supervisors or managers, but Gallup has found that employees cherish praise and recognition from peers. Coworkers know intimately the particulars of a job and when they notice excellence, it is a special event. So, the best praise and recognition may not come from the top down -- it may come from a peer recognition program.]

Please leave a comment, or phone me on 0412 921 292 if you’d like some help in your business to implement any of what you’ve read here.

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12 things managers must do to create a great workplace 3 of 12

8 November 2011 Leave a Comment

3. Doing What I do Best

Full human potential is realized only when people are in a position to use their talents and strengths. Great performance is found when an individual’s natural talents fit his or her role. Matching the right person with the right job is probably the most significant challenge organizations and managers face today.

Putting people in the roles they best fit is one of the 12 key discoveries from a multiyear research effort by The Gallup Organization.

[Our objective was to identify the consistent dimensions of workplaces with high levels of four critical outcomes: employee retention, customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability. The research identified 12 dimensions that consistently correlate with these four outcomes -- dimensions Gallup now uses to measure the health of a workplace. An associated research effort, in which Gallup studied more than 80,000 managers, focused on discovering what great managers do to create quality workplaces.

Our research found that the best way to measure if employees' talent is being used is to ask them the degree to which they agree with the statement, "I have an opportunity to do what I do best every day." Having an opportunity to do what I do best, every day, is tied to the integration of a person's talents (her recurring patterns of thoughts, feeling, and behavior), skills (the steps of an activity), and knowledge (the facts and lessons she has learned). Talents are the patterns that can't be turned on and off at will. Great managers realize that while talents are the differentiating factor in excellent performance, they can't be created or altered. In contrast, one's skill sets and knowledge can be changed.

The best managers see the specific talents needed for every role. Conventional wisdom dictates that some roles are so easy, they don't require talent. Great managers rebuff this belief. The best front desk clerks in a hotel, for example, have a talent for "winning others over." They establish a trust relationship with people within the first seven seconds of an interaction. Great telephone service and sales personnel are talented in having a "third ear," or the ability to connect visually and emotionally with people they talk to on the phone. Outstanding accountants see patterns in numbers and "hear" a message or story from them.

Excellence should be revered in every role. Often, managers think that because they would not want a particular job nor have the talent to perform it well, they must manage it as a job no one would want to do, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is, however, a false perspective. The task of the best managers is to clearly define the talents needed for each role, and then choose the right person for that role. A manager's job is not to make people grow talents they do not have, but to identify and use their existing talents to their fullest potential.]

Please leave a comment, or phone me on 0412 921 292 if you’d like some help in your business to implement any of what you’ve read here.

In particular, if you’d like a simple, quick and effective tool that accelerates your appreciation of each person’s natural attributes including interests, values, work style preferences, personality and motivations, take a look at www.121Match.com

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12 things managers must do to create a great workplace 2 of 12

11 October 2011 Leave a Comment

2. Materials and Equipment

We have all been in the frustrating position facing an expectation without having the tools necessary to achieve it. For employees, the importance of having the materials and equipment they need to do their jobs right is one of the 12 key discoveries from a multiyear research effort by The Gallup Organization.

[Our objective was to identify the consistent dimensions of workplaces with high levels of four critical outcomes: employee retention, customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability. The research identified 12 dimensions that consistently correlate with these four outcomes -- dimensions Gallup now uses to measure the health of a workplace. An associated research effort, in which Gallup studied more than 80,000 managers, focused on discovering what great managers do to create quality workplaces.

In providing the necessary workplace tools, we face the challenge of maximizing potential by appropriately matching individuals, each of whom has a wide range of skills and knowledge, with the right tools. If this matching is not thoroughly examined, there can be great cost for the individual, the organization, or both.

Many organizations, for example, have come into the computer era boldly and rapidly. Salespeople have been supplied with laptop computers with the idea that computers will help them manage time, keep accounts organized, communicate with the home office, and so on. But many salespeople don't use them.

Companies tend to view this lack of usage as a training issue. So they send the salespeople off to a computer course to build a comfort level with computers, and their salespeople end up using them to play solitaire. In other words, sometimes we give people materials and equipment they actually don't need to do their job right.

There is also another issue measured by this item. In today's non-hierarchical, flat organization, employees are looking around for clues that define their standing in the social order of things. Materials and "stuff" have become those clues. So, a manager may be requested to put a conference table in an employee's office, only to discover that the main reason is "because Julie has a conference table in her office, and I am as important as she is." There is, therefore, a relational component to this item as well.

The best managers shift the decision to the employee. They ask, "How will this new tool or piece of equipment help you as an employee, our company, and our customers? This broadens the perspective of the employee, elicits an explanation of desired outcomes, and builds better communication between individuals and managers. It also takes the manager out of the traditional "parent" role and allows for true ownership and accountability.]

Please leave a comment, or phone me on 0412 921 292 if you’d like some help in your business to implement any of what you’ve read here.

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How to achieve Tipping Point Leadership

14 September 2011 Leave a Comment

How many managers face obstacles that include:

  • people locked into a stagnant culture,
  • limited resources,
  • demotivated staff, and
  • opposition from powerful interests?

A now famous article in the Harvard Business Review, titled ‘Tipping Point Leadership’ (W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, April 2003) offers a helpful example of how to constructively tackle these issues, which I summarise here together with practical steps to apply in your own or any situation. Read more of this post

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12 things managers must do to create a great workplace 1 of 12

5 September 2011 Leave a Comment

What Is a Great Workplace?  This series of posts is adapted from an article by Marcus Buckingham and Curt W. Coffman, the authors of ‘First, Break All The Rules’ (Simon and Schuster, 1999) based on some research by The Gallop Organisation.  It’s findings are as true today as then.  But are you implementing them?

[Is the answer pay, or benefits? Or is it too complex to understand?

Traditionally, management believed that people will always dislike work, and when they are at work, they will always want to be somewhere else.

For years, organizations have attempted to measure and understand employee opinions in an effort to understand great workplaces. They have primarily discovered what a great workplace is not, versus what it is. Companies emerged from one consulting project after another with a list of "don'ts" or "quick fixes," without observing much sustainable change.

A few years ago, The Gallup Organization decided to initiate a multi-year research project to characterize a great workplace. The first task was to define what "great" was. They decided that, while a great workplace is one where employees are satisfied with their jobs, it could not be considered "great" if it was not producing positive business outcomes. So they studied workplaces with an eye on four key outcome variables:

  • employee retention
  • customer satisfaction
  • productivity
  • profitability]

They made a number of key discoveries. Two in particular were:

Discovery #1: There are no great companies. There are only great workgroups.

Gallup discovered that to truly understand the workplace, you must be closer than the 36,000 feet level. At cloud level, it is impossible to distinguish the best from the mediocre workgroups. Best practices of productive workplaces can only be observed at the workgroup level. Although there is a tremendous range in the characteristics of great workgroups, great workplaces in different companies have a great deal in common.

Discovery # 2: There appear to be 12 dimensions that consistently describe great workgroups.

It is easy to understand why companies have focused on situational issues, such as pay, parking, cafeteria discounts, etc. It’s easier to influence these factors from an overall company strategy. But these factors do not really make a difference to the best, most productive employees and workgroups, and they don’t explain job satisfaction.

While the 12 key dimensions certainly do not explain everything, they consistently correlate with those workgroups that have higher employee retention, higher customer satisfaction, higher productivity, and higher profits.

The dimensions do not include pay and benefits. That does not mean that pay and benefits are not important, but it does mean that they do not differentiate great workgroups from the rest.

What follows is a description of the first of the 12 key attributes of great workplaces.  I’ll publish a summary of the other 11 in future posts, so stay tuned. Read more of this post

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Are you still flying South?

30 August 2011 Leave a Comment

5 birds are sitting on a telephone wire.  2 decide to fly South.  How many are left?

If your answer is 3, you may want to take another look, because in all likelihood there are still 5 sitting on that wire.

You see, deciding to fly simply isn’t the same as doing it.

If a bird (that would be you) really wants to go somewhere, it’s got to point itself in the right direction, jump off the wire, flap its wings and keep flapping until it gets there. So it is with most things. Good intentions aren’t enough.  It’s not what we want, say, or think that makes things happen; it’s what we do.

Thanks to Jurek Leon of www.TerrificTrading.com for pointing this out in one of his eNewsletters.  Like me, you already knew this; but a reminder may be timely.

And the more important question remains …what can be done to convert decisions into action, for ourselves and for those we lead?

So if you’re still sitting on that wire, or you’re ‘in a flap’ but not getting anywhere; and would like some assistance to get yourself and/or your business to a better place; I suggest you register for the next information session I’m hosting for business owners, CEOs, MDs and GMs.

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Are people really your greatest asset?

28 August 2011 Leave a Comment

The Human Capital Edge: 21 People Management Practices Your Company Must Implement (Or Avoid) To Maximize Shareholder Value (2009) by Bruce Pfau and Ira Kay, includes details of Watson Wyatt’s Human Capital Index (HCI) which identifies practices that drive a 47% increase in shareholder returns and prove that there is a cause and affect relationship between human capital management and financial outcomes.

The following explains the research and the critical findings, including a quantification of performance drivers. Read more of this post

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Applying the 7 habits of highly effective people

28 August 2011 Leave a Comment

Many have been profoundly assisted by the pages of Stephen Covey’s best seller ‘The 7 habits of highly effective people’.  But not all of the ‘habits’ are easily formed or perfected in us individually or in groups.  Crucial Conversations may provide a valuable addition to unlocking the benefits described in Stephen’s book.

Thanks to John Cluer for sharing this with me.

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