Posts Tagged ‘Business’

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Retention of Top Talent

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

As the economy is starting to shift gears will you be in a position to retain your top talent?

Demographics however, have not changed. A war for talent is predicted as more people retire than are entering the labour force. The mitigating factor is baby boomers being expected to work longer than any other preceding generation.

How will you assess your company’s readiness?  Here is a list to determine the resiliency of your company:

  • Compensation – is it up to date and attractive to the people you want to hire and most importantly to the people you want to keep?
  • Management – are you able to communicate with your people in a way that inspires them to be their best and to know what is most important to them? There is a whole new generation of people who have entered the workforce and a new style of management and communication is required to bring people together.
  • Opportunities – Do you know where your people would like their career to go?  Are you able to offer them opportunities to develop to get there? Your ability to match what your people want with what your company has to offer will keep people longer.

A new labour market scenario is quickly approaching and a company’s ability to be creative and create a winning work environment will be a key success factor in the future.

Are you and your company up to the challenge?

Jacque

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Management vs Leadership

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

In the 1970’s a distinction started to be made between management and leadership.  “The two different positions can be summarized as follows:  John Kotter sees managers as being the ones who plan, budget, organize, and control, while leaders set direction, manage change, and motivate people. Warren Bennis views managers as those who promote efficiency, follow the rules, and accept the status quo, while leaders focus on challenging the rules and promoting effectiveness.”

As a result our perception of management has declined substantially.  No one really has a career aspiration to be a manager.  In general the management profession is not well respected and employees are unhappy with their managers.

Julian Birkenshaw in his article Reinventing Management, published in the Ivey Business Journal, January/ February 2010 states that we need to go back “to a basic definition of management—the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives.”

This distinction between leadership and management has historically come from the emergence of large corporations and is a poor distinction when applied to smaller companies.  In my opinion the basic definition of management is one that has always applied to small and mid-sized organizations.   In this basic definition management is responsible for both the modern definition of leadership and management.

What is important is that people on the management team develop a way of working together, be it collaborative or in a hierarchy, which brings people together to accomplish goals.

I diverge with the author’s thinking in one area that the perception of management and that of employees will improve by changing the model of management/leadership as we know it today.  Perceptions will only improve if management shifts who they are Being and the way they are Being when they relate to each other and the people that work for them.  It is how we show up at work that influences how people relate to us.

To read the full article go to:   http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/article.asp?intArticle_id=877

Jacque

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Leadership and Vision

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

This morning I reviewed an on-line conversation on Vision that has been running for 2 months and over 200 posts.   Here is the conclusion.

Optimism + pragmatism along with determination = vision

Vision is knowing where we want to go.   It might be something that we can visualize and see or it might be something less distinct that we can sense or perceive.   We can get into semantics about vision and mission, but what is important is that there is some purpose, some why, something that calls us or drives us forward.

As we move forward to the perceived future and check in along the way with both what is known and what is perceived the vision can be updated to bring greater clarity.  What is important is that movement must occur.

What is the role of leadership and vision?  Does the leader have the vision or does the vision occur in some other way?

The conclusion indicates that vision is a dynamic process that comes about from the interactions and synergies of the people associated with the organization.  It is bigger and has a broader scope than just a set of planning sessions.   It emerges from the collective consciousness of the people within the organization.

The leader’s role is to tap into this collective consciousness and then to bring the vision to life within the hearts and minds of the people in the organization.   A leader brings optimism, pragmatism and determination to the execution of their role.  They ensure that actions takes place as the vision unfolds and gains clarity.  A strong leader communicates the vision constantly, directs the action of others and provides a strong role model through their own actions.

Jacque

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