How to Engage your Talent During these Tough Times

When times are toughest, fear and worry strike most people, but when companies fail to nurture and take care of their best talent and prized workers, the whole company falters.  Many companies today are doing a poor job at truly nurturing their people, as when the economy is down, managers address the most urgent problems first and often ignore their team.  What can you do to best  engage your talent?  We found this article by author Sylvia Ann Hewlett and wanted to pass some of her tips along to you. 

By Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Susan Berfield, Newsweek:

“It won’t surprise too many people to hear that loyalty, trust, and engagement at work have been diminished during the Great Recession: We all know talented people who have become disaffected. Maybe we’re even one of them. Put all those people together, and it becomes a daunting managerial challenge. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founder of the Center for Work-Life Policy, took stock of the situation at some of the world’s most powerful corporations, including Ernst & Young, General Electric (GE), Goldman Sachs (GS), Intel (INTC), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), all of which are members of the center’s Hidden Brain Drain Task Force. Here are excerpts from Hewlett’s new book, Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down.

In these bleak times, companies are depending on their star performers as never before. Organizations need their top talent to be in peak form—firing on all cylinders—so they can succeed in a market that is the toughest in living memory. How are employers handling this challenge? In a word, badly.

To start with, leaders are seriously distracted. Caught between clamoring clients and vaporizing value, a CEO understandably might find it hard to focus on talent. People issues tend to translate into layoff strategies: How many should you let go? How should the cuts be distributed? Should you act surgically and strike deep or should you dribble out the reductions over time? When it comes to talent management, CEOs are also hamstrung by outmoded thinking. In times like these—marked by massive losses and rising unemployment—it’s tempting to imagine that there’s no need to worry about motivating talent. People are so grateful to have a job, the conventional thinking goes, that they can be relied on to contribute 110%. Right? Wrong.

Cutting-edge research from the Center for Work-Life Policy’s Hidden Brain Drain Task Force reveals the danger in conventional assumptions about sustaining high performance in tough times. Consider these critical and disturbing data points: In the wake of a mass layoffs, voluntary attrition can be deeper than the cuts themselves. A Center for Work-Life Policy survey shows that between June 2008 and January 2009, 14% of college graduates lost their jobs—of these, 32% were fired but an additional 68% voluntarily left their jobs. Participants in the Hidden Brain Drain strategy sessions were brutally honest when commenting on the impact of the current round of layoffs: 64% were considering leaving, and 24% were spending most of their time actively looking for another job. Those who stay report feeling disengaged, of being caught in long-term limbo: 74% of participants talked about being paralyzed, 73% felt demoralized, and 64% felt demotivated.

What’s an Executive to Do?

Overcommunicate. Everyone’s anxiety level is already off the charts. Silence from those supposedly in the know only makes it worse. When leaders don’t provide information, even the prized people whose positions seem safe start second-guessing what’s going on. The resulting rumor mill inevitably undermines trust. “You have to have the courage to talk, even if it’s just to say: ‘We don’t know,'” says Kathryn Quigley, head of talent management for the Americas at Credit Suisse (CS). “But whatever you do, you must say something, because people interpret saying nothing as meaning something bad.”

Take Charge of Your Talent

High performers thrive on acing challenges and surpassing goals. In tough times, many of the performance measures set up in rosier days no longer apply. Asking your top performers to pursue them anyway only sets up your best people for failure and creates bitterness and distrust. Smart managers channel team energy toward goals that are achievable in the current environment. Don’t assume everyone on your team knows the most productive use of her time. Under stress, even talented people often make bad decisions about which projects to focus on and how. You may have to become more of a micromanager to ensure that people are not only working hard but also smart.

Develop a Fair Restructuring Process

 The “terms of disengagement” matter. Poorly handled layoffs leave a bad taste in the mouths of those employees shown the door and those picked to stay. Wayne Cascio, a business school professor at the University of Colorado Denver, looked at 18 years’ worth of downsizing data and found that even though expenses drop in the wake of large layoffs, revenues tend to drop, too—often disproportionately. This is because the remaining workers are coping with survivor syndrome—the anger, fear, anxiety, and decreased risk taking that follow a mass firing. One way to reduce the number of redundancies is by a creative use of flexible work arrangements. Accounting giant KPMG has developed an imaginative contingency plan called Flexible Futures, which was designed to decrease payroll costs while at the same time maintaining the firm’s deep commitment to its people. In January 2009 the firm gave its 11,000 U.K.-based employees four choices. They could volunteer for a four-day workweek and a 20% reduction in base pay; they could opt for a four-to-twelve week sabbatical at 30% base bay; they could opt for both; or they could stick to their current situation. “We were trying to deal with reality but also give employees some control over their own destiny,” says Rachel Campbell, head of people for KPMG Europe. To date, 85% of KPMG’s U.K.-based employees have signed up: The most popular choice is option three.”

Highest Rates of Unemployed Young People … The Lost Generation?

We came across this article and wanted to share with you. The results of some of these statistics are quite stunning–  that our nation’s young people are currently at the highest rate of unemployment  (54% of people aged 16-24 in the US for the month of September were unemployed!) and the devastating consequences this has and will have upon a generation of Americans, as well as the upon our nation. We hope this article will bring to light this emerging crisis and we can together think about solutions to counter-act what is occurring. Our youngest workers are our future and future leaders, and we need to nurture, and employ them, for the health of our nation! 

From Newsweek, by Peter Coy:

“Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can’t grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.

Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.

For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of “lost generation.” Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.

Equally important, employers are likely to suffer from the scarring of a generation. The freshness and vitality young people bring to the workplace is missing. Tomorrow’s would-be star employees are on the sidelines, deprived of experience and losing motivation. In Japan, which has been down this road since the early 1990s, workers who started their careers a decade or more ago and are now in their 30s account for 6 in 10 reported cases of depression, stress, and work-related mental disabilities, according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development.

When today’s unemployed finally do get jobs in the recovery, many may be dissatisfied to be slotted below people who worked all along—especially if the newcomers spent their downtime getting more education, says Richard Thompson, vice-president for talent development at Adecco Group North America, which employs more than 300,000 people in temporary positions. Says Thompson: “You’re going to have multiple generations fighting for the jobs that are going to come back in the recovery.”

What’s more, the baby boom generation is counting on a productive young workforce to help fund retirement and health care. Instead, young people risk getting tracked into jobs that don’t pay as well, says Lisa B. Kahn of the Yale School of Management. That would mean lower tax payments for Social Security and Medicare.

Only 46% of people aged 16-24 had jobs in September, the lowest since the government began counting in 1948. The crisis is even hitting recent college graduates. “I’ve applied for a whole lot of restaurant jobs, but even those, nobody calls me back,” says Dan Schmitz, 25, a University of Wisconsin graduate with a bachelor’s degree in English who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. “Every morning I wake up thinking today’s going to be the day I get a job. I’ve not had a job for months, and it’s getting really frustrating.”

ANXIETY AND FEAR

The case for action is strong. Governments should act now before the damage gets even worse, argues David G. Blanchflower, an economist at Dartmouth College who recently served on the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. He’s not sure what will work, but he favors trying everything from subsidizing education and training to cutting minimum wages for young people and trainees. “It has to be now,” says Blanchflower. “It can’t be in two years’ time.”

Most analyses of youth employment focus on people aged 16 to 24, which includes everyone from high school dropouts to wet-behind-the-ears college grads. But in this era of rising educational requirements, some people don’t start their careers until their mid or late 20s—and these young college grads are taking it on the chin as well.

According to a BusinessWeek analysis, college graduates aged 22 to 27 have fared worse than their older educated peers during the downturn. Two years ago, 84.4% of young grads had jobs, only somewhat lower than the 86.8% figure for college graduates aged 28 to 50. Since then, the employment gap between the two groups has almost doubled.

Robert I. Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule, a management book, says he’s seeing “more anxiety and fear” among his students at Stanford University.

For more go here… http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_42/b4151032038302.htm

Women advancing in Economics

We love to highligh accomplishments of women in leadership, and today’s news is exciting! The first women ever to win the Nobel prize for economics was awarded today. 

From the BBC:

“Elinor Ostrom has become the first woman to win the Nobel prize for economics since it began in 1968.

Ms Ostrom won the prize with fellow American Oliver Williamson for their separate work in economic governance.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is the last of the six Nobel prizes announced this year. Since 1980, it has gone to Americans 24 times.

Last Friday, US President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – though this aroused some controversy.

BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders said the judges had rewarded work in areas of economics whose practitioners’ “hands were clean” of involvement in the global financial crisis.

The economics prize was not among the original Nobel awards, but was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank in Alfred Nobel’s memory.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited Professor Ostrom, who teaches at Indiana University, “for her analysis of economic governance,” saying her work had demonstrated how common property could be successfully managed by groups using it.

She told Swedish television that she was “in shock” at being the first woman to clinch the award, adding winning had been a “great surprise”.

Meanwhile, Professor Williamson, the academy said, developed a theory where business firms served as structures for conflict resolution.

The University of Berkeley California academic has argued that hierarchical organisations such as companies represent alternative governance structures, which differ in their approaches to resolving conflicts of interest.

“Over the last three decades, these seminal contributions have advanced economic governance research from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention,” the academy said.

The pair will share the 10-million Swedish kronor (£910,000; $1.44m) prize.

Last year, American academic Paul Krugman won the prize, in recognition of his analysis of trade patterns and where economic activity takes place.”

To read more…http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8302662.stm

Women Drive the World Economy. But Companies are Doing a Poor Job Serving Them

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Harvard Business Review’s September issue, a fascinating, if not slightly shocking study result was published:  As a market, women represent a bigger opportunity than China and India combined, but companies doing a poor job of serving them.

“Women now drive the world economy. Globally, they control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years. Their $13 trillion in total yearly earnings could reach $18 trillion in the same period. In aggregate, women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined—more than twice as big, in fact. Given those numbers, it would be foolish to ignore or underestimate the female consumer.

And yet many companies do just that, even ones that are confident they have a winning strategy when it comes to women. Consider Dell’s short-lived effort to market laptops specifically to women. The company fell into the classic “make it pink” mind-set with the May 2009 launch of its Della website. The site emphasized colors, computer accessories, and tips for counting calories and finding recipes. It created an uproar among women, who described it as “slick but disconcerting” and “condescending.” The blogosphere reacted quickly to the company’s “very special site for women.” Austin Modine of the online tech publication The Register responded acidly, “If you thought computer shopping was a gender-neutral affair, then you’ve obviously been struck down by an acute case of female hysteria. (Nine out of ten Victorian-age doctors agree.)” The New York Times said that Dell had to go to the “school of marketing hard knocks.” Within weeks of the launch, the company altered the site’s name and focus. “You spoke, we listened,” Dell told users. Kudos to Dell for correcting course promptly, but why didn’t its marketers catch the potentially awkward positioning before the launch?

Most companies have much to learn about selling to women. In 2008 the Boston Consulting Group fielded a comprehensive study of how women felt about their work and their lives, and how they were being served by businesses. It turned out there was lots of room for improvement. More than 12,000 women, from more than 40 geographies and a variety of income levels and walks of life, responded to our survey. They answered—often with disarming candor—120 questions about their education and finances, homes and possessions, jobs and careers, activities and interests, relationships, and hopes and fears, along with their shopping behavior and spending patterns in some three dozen categories of goods and services. (You can learn more about the survey and take an abridged version of it at www.womenspeakworldwide.com.)

We also conducted hundreds of interviews and studied women working in 50 organizations in 13 fields of endeavor. Here’s what we found, in brief: Women feel vastly underserved.

Despite the remarkable strides in market power and social position that they have made in the past century, they still appear to be undervalued in the marketplace and underestimated in the workplace. They have too many demands on their time and constantly juggle conflicting priorities—work, home, and family. Few companies have responded to their need for time-saving solutions or for products and services designed specifically for them.”

To read more go here:

http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/09/the-female-economy/ar/1

If you are a woman, do you agree: do you feel under-served, ignored, or undervalued by companies? If you are a man, what are your thoughts? And what are the opportunities that you now see, (as a consumer? as a leader within a company?)

Putting Values First– Procter & Gamble’s New CEO Charts a New Path

This July, P&G’s new CEO Bob McDonald took office, and since, has launched the company’s new mission… to be guided by Values, Principles &  Purpose first.  He believes, and teaches his company to believe in putting people –heart, mind, body– first and from this, profits will come.  This is of course, a refreshing (and rare) outlook in light of the scandals, cut-throat capitalism, and unethical business dealings we as a nation have seen unfolding over the last few years… quite a sobering commentary on our society that this type of model of actually caring about people, is the exception and not the norm.

Envision a nation or society where the goal or main concern was caring about other human beings–caring about their wellbeing, caring about the poor, caring about helping others vs putting self first to make an easy profit.  If this were the case, there would most likely be no Enron, no mortgage crisis, probably no economic downturn at all.

Of course, P&G still cares about making a profit, as the measurement or goal outcome from putting hearts and people first is, the bottom-line– increasing the dollars spent by consumers. Still, to learn about, and hopefully model our own companies after the P&G model is crucial and valuable to truly changing the upside-down values of our society’s companies. 

P&G’s identiftied core values are…Integrity, Leadership, Ownership, Passion for Winning, Trust.  Do you or does your company have core values that are followed? What about a purpose?  To read more about P&G’s values and mission, go here: http://www.pg.com/company/who_we_are/ppv.shtml

And a good article about P&G’s value-led system by Rosabeth Moss Kanter that is worth reading can be found here: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/kanter/2009/09/fall-like-a-lehman-rise-like-a.html  Although,there was an example of P&G’s values-put-first given here where Kanter recounts P&G”s work in Brasil, where, spurred by a slipping  market, P&G employees took note of some of the realities of Brazilian families’ lives and noted that they spent too much time washing cloth diapers by hands, so of course, introduced disposable diapers to the consumers.  While I see the value in saving time, (and increasing P&G’s Brasil market profit), what about the enormous environmental down-side of changing an entire market from cloth to plastic diapers?  I was just wondering about if this really was a positive change for Brasil’s families and country, or, if this just appeared to be a good change but long-term would have negative consequences for the environment, health and well-being of Brasil and its people.  When a company has such far-reaching impact on whole groups and nations, there must be thoughtfulness in every choice made.  Your thoughts?

Five “Laws of the Mind”: Words of Wisdom from the Past

By Joyce Friel

Andrew Carneige’s impact on the US is still evident in many ways today. In particular, the great buildings he provided for cultural advancement as a way of giving back to the community. He had 5 ‘laws of the mind’  he used to guide his focus and, consequently, drive his results. They are just as appropriate today as they were in Carneige’s time.

They are:

1. Fix your goal firmly and precisely in your mind. Precision is key.

2. Determine what you intend to give in return for reaching your objective. In his case, it was often buildings and public works. So clearly giving back was a key ingredient to his success, it wasn’t just a nice thing to do with his wealth. When you give back, others continue to use your services and products so a self-fulfilling prophecy gets established.

 3. Establish specific dates when you intend to have achieved your goal.

4. Create a definite plan and commit it to writing.

5. Read your plan twice a day. Keep it top of mind. What you focus on is what you get.

Great words to live. And there is tremendous evidence that Carneige’s formula works. What is the goal you want to achieve.  How about using this 5-step plan to make it become a reality!

America’s management practices: Remember…you can’t change organizational behavior without changing human behavior!

The mainstream seems to be finally catching on… After decades of unchanging business management practices that American businesses have, by habit, been repeating, (layoffs, performance reviews etc.) we see now that these methods are at best unhelpful, and at worst, destructive to employee motivation.  What changes organizations?  Changing human behavior!

An interesting list of 13 common, habitual practices our nation’s management uses that don’t work:

From Business Week, by Aubrey C Daniels, to read full article go here: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/aug2009/ca20090811_861931.htm

With executives under fire for driving their companies into the ground—and taking the economy with them—it’s time for a managerial paradigm shift that focuses on the root of all booms and busts: individual behavior. Many time-honored management practices, such as layoffs, yearend bonuses, and automatic pay raises, actually reward employees’ bad habits and punish good behavior, often with devastating results.

These practices stem from theories of performance that have little to do with the science of learning. As such, they result in many mistakes initiated by senior leadership at great cost. They’re endorsed for the best of reasons but fail to lead to the desired result.

So why do so many organizations continue to embrace faulty practices? My 30 years of experience with Corporate America have led me to believe most business leaders are trained in the math of balance sheets, not the science of human behavior. They don’t understand that you can’t change organizational behavior without changing human behavior. Only when managers understand the basic principles of behavioral science and apply them skillfully will they realize the full potential of their employees and their organizations.

A Chance for Change

While management in general is proving challenging today, there is a silver lining to this current economic crisis: It provides a rare opportunity for managers to rethink and reform the way they run their organizations, using an approach grounded in science and research rather than in dubious habits. Businesses have been wasting time, funds, and resources on the same tired approaches for years. This crisis can actually provide us with a chance to start fresh and set in motion a sea change in the way we manage behavior and performance.

Please see a slide show featuring 13 universally used, but ultimately ineffective, management practices—and prescriptions for how to change them.

Innovative Blogs & Ideas

We found some fun, interesting and thought-provoking articles posted in a few blogs we’d like to pass along… I think you’ll find them quite intriguing too.

Alexander Kjerulf is “Chief Happiness Officer” and consults globally to change businesses and work environments from stressful and anxious to places of fun and happiness. Two great posts:

“the top 10 seriously cook workplaces” names and shows workplaces that have the best work atmosphere (including of course Google, but also Red Bull London and MindLab in Denmark, and Pixar. http://positivesharing.com/2006/10/10-seeeeeriously-cool-workplaces/

A thought-provoking post about why employee performance reviews are not only a waste of time, but also damaging to motivation. Tell us your thoughts? http://positivesharing.com/2008/01/performance-reviews-are-a-big-fat-waste-of-time/

Dan Gilbert’s Quicken Loans has a great idea for a blog, called WHat’s the Diff http://www.whatsthediff.com/about.html

“a blog all about the things that make the difference in business and in life. Most of the time, it’s the little things. But every so often it’s something really big. At Quicken Loans, our team members cite “the ability to make a difference” as the biggest key to their job satisfaction. We consider this one of the most important facets of our company and corporate culture. So, we decided to search the planet for things that make a difference. Everyday, we want to celebrate those that make a difference and call out those that don’t. It’s that simple.”

What a great idea for a blog!

What lessons can we learn from Ted Kennedy’s leadership style?

We came across this great article posted by Rosabeth Moss Kanter on her blog http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/kanter/ and we wanted to share.  From Kennedy’s life we can take away some significant leadership lessons:  leading with a purpose, making a difference, perseverance, staying true to roots and family: these qualities in leadership truly matter and are worth cultivating in our own quests and lives.

Ted Kennedy’s Leadership Lessons By Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whose loss America is mourning, was no darling of the traditional big business community. He fought for the little guy, for children, for the poor and disadvantaged, sometimes against establishments and elites.

But as a leader, he was greatly admired across the political spectrum. Even those who disagreed with his politics can draw inspiration from his life. From knowing and observing him, I choose four leadership lessons I hope executives will take to heart.

Remember that performance is everything. No one is entitled to a position. When Ted Kennedy won his Senate seat for the first time during the Presidency of his brother, Jack Kennedy, critics said that he inherited his position in the family business and bought his way into the Senate through favoritism. Critics dismissed him as a weak younger brother who would be merely a celebrity Senator. How wrong they were. Ted Kennedy’s route to the Senate stopped mattering once he began performing for his constituents and collaborating with his colleagues.

Kennedy did not rely on dynasty as destiny. He rolled up his sleeves and mastered the details, and he kept studying and learning as the issues changed. No one is entitled to a top executive position; everyone has to earn it through his or her deeds, and each is only as good as his or her command of the issues. When Mitt Romney challenged Kennedy for his Senate seat in 1994, the pivotal moment of their debate — which probably won Kennedy re-election — involved Kennedy pressing Romney for specifics on his health care plan, with Romney finally admitting he hadn’t worked out all the details. “Well that’s what you have to do with legislation,” the Senator replied. Kennedy knew the job. His career rewards followed from his service. His career rewards followed from his service.

Even when Kennedy could not move the needle forward on really big change (health care reform), he supported incremental improvements (children’s health insurance), which meant that he survived in office long enough for his big agenda to come close to being enacted.

Find a higher purpose. Think values first, and suspend ego.Ted Kennedy believed in public service as an honorable profession and in government as a vehicle for helping all citizens get their chance for high quality of life. Once he found his core mission (after losses and setbacks), it was clear where he stood and who he stood for — other people who needed a voice because they couldn’t always speak for themselves.

This was not about Ted Kennedy or his ego. He was known for humility, graciousness, and geniality in the Senate; he was not engaged in partisan contests to win for the sake of winning. The goals were so important that he was willing to work with political opponents to reach agreement on measures that served the people. His work with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch was a model for collaboration that transcended ideological disagreements. He supported President Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation for school reform; the cause of children was so important that he would rather compromise and get a little something done than prevent any action. Negotiating by calling on higher principles made him effective with principled members of the other party.

Business leaders who operate from a sense of values and purpose — a theme of my new book SuperCorp — are similarly able to win adherents and negotiate better deals, because they suspend ego in support of a cause larger than themselves. By working for others rather than scrambling for career advantage, they enhance their own reputations. And the work is more important than title or position. Ted Kennedy will go down in history as the Lion of the Senate and one of the most important figures of our time, although he was not the President, nor even the “CEO” of the Senate or his party. His mission gave him moral power as important as position power.

Keep going. Ted Kennedy faced numerous public crises, any one of which could have destroyed him, yet he proved resilient and able to learn. Through strong efforts on behalf of the greater good, he restored confidence in his leadership. The still-mysterious incident at Chappaquiddick in which a young woman drowned nearly drowned his career, too; far from showing courage, he ducked accountability. But Kennedy bounced back by redoubling his efforts to do his job well. He fumbled in his bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1980, but recovered by devoting even more energy and passion to his work in the Senate.

Never forget family. The hard-working Kennedy was a model for executive dads. De facto father to several touch-football-game’s worth of children (his own and those of his late brothers and formidable sisters), he organized weekend outings to Civil War battlefields and made sure they studied their history lessons. Family was at the center of his satisfaction in life. At the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, which I toured with him, he showed pictures of the late President John F. Kennedy and late Attorney General Robert Kennedy and talked of them as if still alive. The consummate professional whose greatness grew every year was still, at heart, a family man. His concern for relationships, and the love that guided his family through numerous tragedies, gave him the strength to take on tough challenges.

Business leaders should heed that lesson above all: Performance, mission, and endurance are possible because the people we support and care about also support us.

212 Degrees to Boiling

We wanted to pass along this very short inspirational movie/video… at 211 degrees water is HOT, but add one degree, and at 212 degrees, water boils, produces steam and can produce enough energy to run a train!  This is worth watching… it takes EFFORT, ENERGY and WORK to be great, produce results,  make a difference… to change your life!

http://www.the212movie.com/

Company Case Study: New P&G CEO Bob McDonald on How to Improve Lives for People Who Cannot Afford Products

Here is a great case study example of how P&G  found a way to improve lives and save water for consumers in the  Philippines with the innovation of a product called Downy Single Rinse:

From Forbes: On the Call: P&G CEO Bob McDonald

Associated Press, 08.05.09,

“The Procter & Gamble Co. uses a slogan that its consumer products touch and improve lives. Traditionally, that’s meant with “new and improved” innovations of Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste and other products.

But the company is pushing to increase sales in developing countries where per capita incomes are far below U.S. consumers, in a global recession. Bob McDonald, who took over July 1 as CEO, discussed the challenge in P&G’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call with analysts.

QUESTION:

I know you want to change lives, but what if people can’t afford to change their lives?

RESPONSE:

One of the things we’ve learned is that, in order to improve the lives of people that tend to be toward the bottom of the economic pyramid, you have to innovate for the best consumer experience for those people. It’s not a matter of trickling down higher-tier technology.

A great example of that is Downy Single Rinse, which we began developing in the Philippines some years ago. This was an opportunity for Filipino consumers who rinse their clothes five times with clear water in order to get rid of the soap, to use a product that added fragrance, some degree of softness, but also, importantly, sequestered the suds that were in the water and allowed them to go from five rinses to one.

And basically, the product pays for itself because of the water that they save.”

Working With/For an Ineffective Boss

by Joyce Friel

Micro managing, asking the impossible, narcissistic, requesting actions that are on the verge of being unethical, blocking team effectiveness, and on and on. Sound familiar? For some of you this is all too familiar and very frustrating. The boss from Hell, you think. What to do?

There are many contributing factors and a pat answer that is easy to give in this short blog is, of course, not the only solution and maybe not even the right one, but here are some thoughts that may be useful to you if this situation describes your daily worklife.

The boss from Hell is often behaving the way they are because they don’t know how to perform otherwise. They don’t know how to produce results in a more effective way. While it may not look right to you and it may seem downright wrong, they may be doing the best they know how to do.

So some things you can do to help yourself, them and your team be effective and ease the frustration are to:
* Be the example of what should be done – help them learn vicariously by your example
* Do everything you can to help your boss and your team be successful (short of doing things that they request you to do that may be unethical). The boss wants to be successful – help them deliver results and they are more likely to stay off your case and out of your way.
* People do what they do because of what happens to them when they do it…so the boss must be continuing their frustrating behavior because their superiors believe they are delivering results. After all, that is ultimately the bottom-line definition of success in almost any organization.
* Analyze to figure out what ‘reward’ the boss seems to be getting as a result of their behavior. They are being reinforced somehow or they wouldn’t continue. (Are they getting attention of others? Are they causing the team to work harder to produce results? Are they getting promotions? Are they admired for some reason in their peers eyes?)

If all else fails and you’re ready to take some risks…
* If the entire team is ready to take some action, then collectively they may be able to discuss the situation with your HR department or a person in a higher position, but do this very cautiously and be prepared for any consequences that may occur as a result. As I mentioned, likely people in higher positions know of this person’s behavior and continue to leave them in their position because of the results they produce. That doesn’t make it right, but it does explain the situation.

* You can transfer to a different position within the organization.

* You can find effective behavioral change management help for the person by suggesting an executive coach might be good for everyone on the team and as a result they get assistance also.

They will not change until the consequences of their actions change and until they become aware of the impact they are having on others. And even at that, they will only change if they want to.

You can agonize over and be very frustrated with the behavior of others, but you cannot make them change and you cannot own their behavior. The only thing you can control is your own reaction to their behavior. Helping someone else always started with examining our own behavior first.

Learning to Lead

Leaders learn through experience.

One of the key characteristics of leaders is that they are learners.  This can be readily discerned when interviewing an espoused leader by asking the question, “Tell me about a time you failed as a leader and what you learned from it?” 

If they can’t identify a time, be cautious.  The reality of their leadership capability may be only in their mind and not exhibited in their behaviors.

Experienced leaders who have been tested in the crucible and made it through can easily remember examples of where they have not been effective or failed in their leadership.  And, they can share with you what they have intentionally done or changed to adjust for the failure based on their learning.  These changes will usually be in their beliefs about people or in their behaviors when leading people.

I well recall an instance when I first started in supervision and had a group where significant change was required to expand the departments capacity for work.  I was to lead this change and managed to get through it although I lost the department’s best performer.  I attributed this lose to her lack of interest in using the new technology we had implemented.

Months after the change a friend of mine suggested that people in this department felt I was not fair, too pushy and caused the person to leave based on the unfair expectations I had placed on her for work output.  This feeling was still being harbored in the group today.

In short, I asked the group to hang around after work one evening and asked them their thoughts regarding what I had heard.  What a great learning experience!  I had been a lousy leader, even though I got the job done.

I called the person who left and apologized for my poor behavior, and she agreed to come back to work for us.  From that point on, I led in a much more open, involving and trusting manner where people were asked for input, allowed to volunteer for assignments, could suggest better ways to accomplish tasks, etc.

Never again did I think I knew all the answers, and never again did I take advantage of top performers by overloading them with work. 

Looking back, it doesn’t seem like much, but today, I know it has shaped my leadership style and techniques as much as any failure I have had since that time.

What leadership failures have you learned from?  (BTW – this could be called failing forward if it helps as a memory tickler)

Chad

Power Leaders – Flash in the Pan

Want something done fast with no concern for sustainable outcomes?
Don’t care about losing people because the business will go under if the new direction is not launched?
Assign a Power Leader to make things happen.

I’m not an advocate of Power Leaders but can envision, and have experienced situations where there is need for such a person. They are normally brought in from outside the organization and stay only as long as it takes to make the turnaround happen, or initiate the desired change.

What do they do well?

• They engage others in a vision for change, although they totally control the change plan.
• They build a structure and plan for achieving the envisioned outcome.
• They have a focused, relentless determination to succeed.
• They believe that people are important only as long as they are contributing.
• Not always, but frequently, they are self-serving and compensated via a bonus or improvement sharing compensation package that benefits them tremendously for success.

What do they do poorly?

• They don’t build sustainable solutions or systems.
• They ravage people who don’t move fast enough or perform to plan.
• They destroy cultural components aligned with a people-focus.
• They create fear in the workforce.
• They never have to live with their carnage.

So why do businesses hire them?

1. To survive.
2. To stop the flow of cash out of the organization.
3. To generate fast revenue for the organization.
4. To transition the organization so a long-term leader can be found.

Ever run into one of these Power Leaders in your past? If so, what are your thoughts?

Chad

How you respond to the economy is a CHOICE

I believe there are three key measurements for today’s uncertain economic environment.

1. Accelerating pace of change.

2. Our key response is fear, anxiety, insecurity, which according to Bright Side’s research and interviews is increasing.

3. The key sustainable advantage is our expanded capacity to learn/unlearn/relearn in the moment every moment.

Today’s recession reminds me of experiences I had over 25 years ago when I developed Bright Side’s personal change-leader model to expand my own capacity and the capacity of others, their teams, their organizations to be more equipped to lead toward the future dreams and desired business outcomes. My past experiences, both my past positive experiences and my past negative experiences continue to be triggered for me today and could limit or minimize the impact that I personally can and want to have and Bright Side can and wants to have.

And how I respond to those triggers is a choice: Yes, the recession is knocking on my door and I am choosing to not answer it.

The personal leader model is as relevant today as when I lost my job in the machine tool industry during the early 1980’s. Not only did I lose my job, I watched an entire industry collapse. I, along with many other Americans, was stuck in a view of arrogance, ‘Ohio is the machine tools capitol of the world, other countries make junk.’ After traveling to Japan in 1981, working with the Father of Quality, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, I began to wonder, have an insight, that perhaps I was experiencing the early side of a trend and I could ignore it or learn about it and take action to embrace and lead from that trend. 

That failure became the impetus for the Bright Side model…