Leadership Thought

Most managers consider payroll to be cost. Why do we view the money we spend on payroll differently than capital investments, or any investment for that matter.

Most of the leaders I know would tell you that the largest single expenditure in their business is compensation.  What is your annual payroll?  Imaging having that money in cash.  Would you put it in a CD (passively manage) or would you develop an investment strategy to both protect the principle and maximize the ROI (actively manage).

So, what is your strategy for managing your investment in payroll?  Clearly the potential of human capital is basically limitless. Just look at how our world has changed over the last 10 years.  Give human beings an opportunity and the right environment and they will produce stunning results.

So I ask again, how much of that investment in payroll are you leveraging?   Research tells us that if you are the average employer it is about 30%. A lot of money is being left on the table.  If you could double the return on that investment to 60% what impact would it have on business productivity, growth, customer service, innovation, profits?

At this point if you are thinking that this isn’t attainable because people don’t want to do any more than they have to… you can stop reading now… we are not on the same page.

My experience as a leader and now as a coach is that people are willing to do more than is expected if the environment enables them to do so.

As leaders it is our job to become aware of strategies and approaches that effectively leverage the investment in payroll.  Free to contact me alan@coach2engage.com or visit my website http://www.coach2engage.com.   Don’t leave money on the table.  al

Alan Adyniec Employee engagement, Leadership effectiveness achieving results, business success, Effective leadership, employee enagagement

Do you know what your job is?

Sounds like a stupid question right?  When I ask people this question I usually get responses that are geared toward the things they do.  That’s close… but no cigar.  People are not hired to do things. First and foremost they are hired to add value.  The way they usually add value is by doing the things that they are hired to do also known as work.  There is a big difference between doing things and achieving purpose.  Without the context of purpose “work” is just a series of meaningless activities.

People who are consciously aware of what to do, how to do it and why they are doing it are in a position to make choices that deliver higher value.

Ever have something go wrong and have an employee say “it’s not my fault I did what I was supposed to do”.  This infers that they were “supposed” to do something incorrectly by design.  On the other hand, we also know that employees who are trying to achieve an outcome (purpose) often see things going in the wrong direction and  choose a different “thing to do” with the intention of producing a better outcome.  Is your staff performing tasks or adding value?  al

Alan Adyniec Employee engagement, Leadership effectiveness customer value, Effective leadership, employee enagagement, Management

What the heck do these sound bites mean?

In general I think it is safe to say that the pace of work has increased dramatically.  It is as though the answer to everything is speed.  Wyatt Earp is credited with saying something like “Fast is fine… but accuracy is everything”.  Do you ever get the feeling like we are moving faster in the wrong direction?

Sometimes we seem to think that doing more of the things that aren’t working will somehow help.  Now more than ever seems to be the time to step back and take a look at where we are, where we want to go and what things will actually take us there.

The primary problem here is stepping back.  Who has time, we are all too busy climbing a ladder leaning against the wrong wall.

If we are going to work smarter not harder it seems like we should stop to decide which approaches actually are smarter.  If we are going to do more with less shouldn’t we focus on the few things that would produce better results.

In my opinion, some leaders simply fail to let go of the past.  There is a fear of not doing what we have always done while we continue to add more that we need to do.  After awhile it is all just “noise”.  If everything is important then nothing is important.  Stop!  al

Alan Adyniec Leadership effectiveness alignment, business success, Effective leadership, employee enagagement

Okay so based on the last post we want to create an environment where people not only can perform at their best but want to.  Here are some basic ingredients:

• Align around essentials - Everyone in the organization must be totally clear on why we are in business; what value do we generate beyond a profit. This leads to who your customers are, and why they would want to do business with your organization.
• Build trust - Trust has become the buzz word of this new century. Books are written about its importance, research bears out its impact on achieving results; it is fundamental to success.
• Engage staff in creating and achieving goals - Once everyone is aligned and it feels safe to really apply themselves, you would be surprised at what they are willing to commit to accomplishing.
• Stay out of the way - This is one of the most difficult steps for managers. Many can get this far and then they try to manage or handle what happens from here on out. It is like spending lots of time with family choosing a car and then saying only I can drive. BIG mistake.
• Coach staff to success - Coaches don’t score points, players do. Coaches are on the sidelines supporting players with conditioning, strategy and feedback.

This is a lot of “what to do” but “how” do you do these things.  First, understand this is a process that takes a few months to generate results and possibly years to truly create a performance oriented environment.

Keith Ayers, president of the Integro Leadership Institute has developed some great material to guide this transition.  To check out Integro click here or visit my site at www.Coach2Engage.com.  Al

Alan Adyniec Employee engagement, Leadership effectiveness alignment, business success, Effective leadership, employee enagagement, Trust

Surveying staff certainly isn’t a new idea.  However I am not sure that staff satisfaction, the most common survey, is very helpful in improving performance.  The level of satisfaction may or may not have an impact on outcomes.  For instance staff may be perfectly satisfied and, at the same time, be somewhat complacent about their work.

Several 21^st Century staff surveys focus on aspects other than satisfaction such as employee engagement, the level of trust, employee passion, organizational alignment etc.

The value of these surveys is that they deal more directly with organizational performance.  Mountains of research (links below) clearly indicates that employee engagement, trust, and alignment have a direct impact on performance.  Obtaining an employee perspective on the organization’s effectiveness in areas like communication, leadership and process function can lead to breakthroughs in performance, highlight areas for training and development and often separate a little of the “ivory” from the “tower” that many executive teams live in.

Most surveys provide a good overall look at the environment or culture which is a strong indicator of the health of the organization.  Drill down capabilities are also usually available to “slice and dice” the data by group or function.   Some of my clients have fielded surveys as an element of strategic planning.  In the same way that organizations gather data on the external environment more organizations are also assessing the internal environment. After all having a brilliant strategic plan that can’t be implemented because of internal problems is of little value.

The Gallup Q12 which measures employee engagement has been around for a while.  More recently Curt Coffman (formerly of Gallup) has developed a similar product the Employee Engagement 2.0 which is gaining some traction.

Personally I like the survey tools developed by the Integro Leadership Institute.  Keith Ayers has some great surveys that give a better picture (by my reconning) of what is going on within the organization.  Integro’s surveys measure things like specific behaviors that build trust, employee passion, alignment with the organizations purpose, values, vision etc. There is even feedback available regarding how well values are demonstrated in the workplace.

If you go to the Integro Website and click on Assessments you will get a better idea of what I am talking about.  Click on the Passion Index to complete a free survey to find out how passionate you are about your work.   al

Gallup research on employee engagement on business results

Cornell research on The Impact of Trust on profits

Alan Adyniec Employee engagement, Leadership effectiveness achieving results, alignment, Effective leadership, employee enagagement, Trust

Who is usually responsible for

·      Successes – ????? The executive team, planning dept., middle mgmt., frontline staff, everyone????

·      Failures - ???? usually nobody. 

o    Frequently a rigorous round of the “blame game” breaks out.  Management points the finger at staff for poor execution. Staff point back by questioning the competency of management.  Or…

o    In some misguided efforts to develop more “positive work environments” successes are shared by everyone but failures simply get brushed aside as outside of anyone’s control.  (“It is a difficult market, consumers are fickle, we just can’t catch a break, every one is taking a hit right now” etc.)

A better approach… Learning!

• Successes –The leadership involves staff in identifying the behaviors that led to the success so that the success can be repeated and the behaviors adopted by others.
• Failures – First, refrain from “shame and blame” it is utterly unproductive. Instead involve staff in a non threatening discussion focused on
  • What was expected to happen (goal)
  • What actually happened
  • What should have been done differently
  • Gaining agreement (commitment) to getting better results next time.

I think you will find a positive and more performance oriented work environment.

I know this seems incredibly simplistic but try to think of a time in the last year that your organization actually handled a success or failure in this manner.  al

Alan Adyniec Employee engagement, Leadership effectiveness achieving results, business learning, business success, Effective leadership, employee enagagement

Must see!  Gary Hamel of Harvard Business School summarizes some incredible insights into the future of leadership… which by the way has already begun.  As a bonus the video of Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google is compelling though a bit long.  I planned on watching for 5 min. but could not turn it off.  al

Click Here

Alan Adyniec Employee engagement, Leadership effectiveness Effective leadership, employee enagagement, Google's Leadership approach, Innovative leadership