Posts tagged ‘human resources’
Satisfaction Trumps Balance
Alex Pollock
As a New Year begins I’m sure many have added “find balance” to those New Year Resolutions…again. Many have had this dream before, but maybe this year, finally, you believe that the balance meter can be moved in a favorable direction.
Please allow me to share some personal reflections. I believe that people are really looking for satisfaction in their lives, both personal and professional. Satisfaction is different for everyone. It’s personal. We hold the key to satisfaction. We must make the effort to know what is really important to us. As leaders, we can contribute to the satisfaction of others but the responsibility for attainment is not ours.
Most people don’t have the energy they need to do the things they love and, disturbingly, don’t have the desire to do much about it. Being satisfied requires a strategy, focus, discipline and accountability. This is not a journey we should make on our own. We should have a coach or mentor alongside us.
Work is a richly rewarding part of a satisfying life. We need a workplace where we feel respected and appreciated, where our efforts make a difference, and where the challenges match our abilities.
Wishing you a year where what deeply satisfies you becomes clear and you have the courage to navigate a path to get there. Please be assured that satisfaction trumps balance!
What have been your experiences in finding satisfaction? What advice would you give those who are searching for it?
Can engaged employees transform the U.S. economy?
Alex Pollock
Now that the world population has surpassed the seven billion marker, the “sustainability” word is getting lots of play once again. The call-to-action bugles are again warning us of a pending global catastrophe. What could suddenly create “worldwide peace, global well-being and extraordinary advancement in human development?”
In a new book, “The Coming Jobs War,” author Jim Clifton says a solution is the appearance of a whopping 1.8 billion “good” jobs. These are jobs that provide at least 30 hours of work per week and a steady pay check. Clifton believes that the country that can best achieve job growth coupled with GDP growth will be the dominant world force.
Can the United States be this global force?
Clifton believes the explosion of entrepreneurship that GDP growth requires won’t happen here until the country doubles its number of “engaged” employees: those who are using their talents every day, yielding great results, emotionally committed and are working consistently with high energy and enthusiasm.
This number currently stands at 28 percent nationally. Going from 30 million to 60 million engaged workers will “change the face of America more than any leadership institution, trillions of stimulus dollars, or any law or policy imaginable,” Clifton argues.
But as long as “one in five U.S. managers are “dangerously lousy,” these “high-energy workplaces” will elude us, Clifton says. “Fire all lousy managers today” is an imperative, he argues, because nothing fixes bad managers: not coaching, competency training, incentives or warnings. In his experience “bad managers never get better.”
What’s your reaction to his analysis? Clearly there is an opportunity for each of us is to contribute to the creation of these attractive “high energy workplaces” where we willingly give our best every day. We just can’t just afford to be a passive observer on this one.
Bad Hiring Decisions Haunt Good People
Alex Pollock
Why do bad hiring decisions haunt good people? I’m involved in making an important leadership staffing decision as I write and I’ve researched some of the latest thinking to help minimize the potential for a poor staffing decision and thus prevent the long term damage that it causes.
I’ve been guided in the past by the timeless “3 C’s” of character, competency and chemistry, but I wonder if I can embellish this based on recent research. I found the work of Jeffrey Cohn and Jay Moran in the book, “Why are we Bad at Picking Good Leaders” (2011) most useful. They described what they feel are the essential attributes of effective leadership under the headings of:
- Integrity: the foundational attribute, honest, ethical
- Empathy: feel with people, social savvy, combined with integrity drives trust
- Emotional Intelligence: evident self mastery skills: “know yourself, control yourself, and improve yourself.”
- Vision: forward-thinking with a sense of possibility and wonder, innovative
- Judgment: focus on the important while seeing the “big picture”, take decisive action
- Courage: the ability to “act with grace under pressure”
- Passion: the drive to achieve, learn and master
In hiring decisions I’ve been encouraged to do my homework by the axiom “ You will get what someone has already gotten… no excuse for surprises.” I found the techniques that Cohn and Moran suggest, such as scenario discussions to be most useful for determining whether a candidate does indeed possess the desired attributes or not.
Help me out please. Have you ever made a poor hiring decision? What lessons can you share from the experience? What attributes do you view as important for leaders to possess and what techniques to you use to assess competency during the recruiting process?
More Pay is Not the Way
Alex Pollock
As I write, the storm clouds are gathering around the already sputtering national and global economies. Companies are reacting to this stiffening headwind by toying with the idea of re-engineering initiatives, requiring even more effort from employees while reducing spending, including employee compensation packages.
With employee engagement levels still stalled in many organizations from the 2008-2009 recession, how can we best motivate employees, who are, after all, our greatest resource?
“Current research seems to suggest a mismatch between what science knows and what business does,” Daniel Pink writes in his book, ‘Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us’. What do we know for sure?
- We are internally motivated to learn, create and better our world
- Coaxing us with external rewards and threatening us with punishment demotivates
- Goals we set for ourselves are positive, while those that are thrust upon us can have negative effects
- Higher pay does not guarantee greater engagement
- We yearn to be treated ‘fairly’
- Extrinsic rewards should be unexpected and offered after the task is complete
- Praise and useful feedback are much less damaging than cash and trophies
- People who are intrinsically motivated are better coworkers
I’m challenged by Pink’s thought that “effective organizations compensate people in amounts and in ways that allow individuals to mostly forget about compensation and instead focus on the work itself.”
What has been your experience with finding ways to keep yourself and coworkers motivated and committed to your organization? Do you agree that “more pay is not the way”?
Silos are good for grain, bad for information
Nancy Roberts
In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer point to a new vision for a corporation. They write:
“The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit, per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global economy. It will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society. Perhaps most important of all, learning how to create shared value is our best chance to legitimize business again.”
The creation of shared value can only start within a framework of open, transparent and fearlessly shared knowledge. Yet we have all seen the phenomenon of knowledge hoarding in silos:
- Data is disguised because it might displease a cranky boss while a deadline looms
- Information is hidden because it indicates a safety glitch that you think you can fix before anyone notices
- Knowledge is sequestered until you can unveil it and “save the day” at the quarterly meeting
- Wisdom, even wisdom, is sometimes held in check because a leader does not want to appear weak or uncertain about not having the one right answer
A company that is not consciously creating a comfortable atmosphere for sharing information across silos is neglecting a tremendous asset: the knowledge that lives in its people.
It is also overlooking the opportunities that better wisdom-sharing creates, as Chip Pitts, former chief legal officer for Nokia Inc., pointed out in a recent article:
“CSR starts with a commitment to ‘integrated decision-making’ i.e. systemic thinking, that sees the interrelationships between top global issues, stakeholders, corporate departments and previously segregated roles of individuals.”
How is wisdom shared across and among the silos at your company? Is it horizontal or vertical or both?
Is your leadership aware of the ideas and knowledge of all your stakeholders? Do you have a handle on all the innovations and risks that could radically change your industry in the next ten years?
Nancy Roberts is a partner and co-founder of The Idea Hive, and an adjunct faculty member at Dominican University of California’s Green MBA program. You can follow her on Twitter at @leapingotter.
The yearn to learn…and lead
Alex Pollock
As I wandered the Business/Management section of one of Washington D.C.’s largest bookstores recently, I was struck by the amount of shelf space allocated to this subject. The demand for this “manage, lead and succeed” thematic material is driving a multi-million dollar industry but begs the question — Who is reading this stuff? What are they after? And what difference is it making? What do you think?
One of the titles that caught my eye was “Where have all the leaders gone?” by Lee Iacocca.
One answer to this question comes from the leadership coach Ron Carucci, who feels there is indeed a leadership crisis and that “the crisis of leadership is not about the lack of an ample supply of readers ready to lead. It is rather, about the rapidly growing population of emerging leaders unwilling to tolerate the deteriorating standards of leadership to which they believe they have been subjected.” ( Leadership Divided, 2006).
My experience aligns well with Ron’s. The great leaders of the future are all around us. They are waiting their “time.” They have a freshness and clarity that’s needed. They see opportunities to improve the wastefulness and distastefulness in current systems. It is our privilege to invest in them, then get out of their way. I’m encouraged that they may lead us beyond some of the “look good” posturing that we’re seeing in the sustainability area at the moment. The most effective leaders that I’ve encountered lead by serving, not by dominating. They have a security, a positive self-image and a sense of self worth that is not threatened by the ability and success of others. I’m aligned with the optimistic view that people read to improve themselves and people around them. Get to a bookstore this weekend. Buy a book that will challenge your leadership paradigm, read it, share with a colleague then discuss it over coffee.
What’s good for you is good for your career
Alex Pollock
A few years ago I attended a workshop designed to equip employees to perform as “corporate athletes.” It was a powerful few days that centered on the idea that human beings need four sources of energy to operate at their best: physical (sustainability), emotional (security), mental (self-expression) and spiritual (significance).
The workshop replaced the old concept of work as a “marathon,” with the image of work as a series of “short sprints.” I left this workshop with the information necessary to improve my performance and resilience on the “sprints,” and the resolve to make some lifestyle changes.
I was reminded of this workshop recently while reading, “The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working” by Tony Schwartz, who wrote that “organizations undermine high performance by forever seeking to get more out of their people” instead of implementing ways to get them “freed, fueled and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.”
The research by Schwartz and his colleagues at the Energy Project affirmed and advanced the actions for sustainable high performance I had been introduced to years earlier. These actions included:
- Adequate sleep: We require 7-8 hours of sleep each night to be fully rested.
- Take regular vacations: We are healthier and more productive when we get a break.
- Regular exercise: A daily mix of aerobic and strength training is desirable.
- Eat regularly: Never skip breakfast or lunch, and eat a diet of low-fat proteins and complex carbohydrates.
- Take regular breaks: After 120 minutes of effort, take a break.
- Focus on one thing at a time: Multi-tasking is ineffective
In reviewing these recommendations, I was saddened to acknowledge that some of my good intentions have evaporated over time…but it’s not too late. Any advice for me on things you are doing to be better equipped for success on the corporate track and what makes them stick?
