Posts Tagged ‘Leadership’

Effectively Investing Money to Motivate People

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

As the economy gains momentum, what is the most effective area for companies to increase spending on employees?

Companies often default to spending money on financial incentives, partially because they believe money is what counts to employees. In the McKinsey Quarterly article “Motivating People, Getting Beyond Money”  (http://bit.ly/93Dj87) their survey indicates that companies should seriously consider non-financial incentives. The three keys areas the survey recommends to focus on are:

  • praise and commendation from their manager
  • attention from leaders, such as one-on-one coaching
  • opportunities to lead projects or task forces

In the survey all three of these areas were considered to be more effective in motivating people than any of the financial compensation options.  Plus the non-financial options do not increase the long term cost of employee benefits allowing companies to remain more flexible should the economy sputter it’s way to a recovery.

What gets in the way of companies implementing the non-financial options to engage and inspire employees?  My observation is that there are three

reasons why companies don’t invest more heavily in the non-financial options:

  • It is difficult to tangibly measure the immediate impact and long term value of having higher quality connections with employees.
  • Management has so many other immediate short term tasks on their to do list that undertaking a longer term strategic program of increasing contact with their people gets pushed to the side.
  • No one ever really taught us how to communicate and as managers we don’t know how or don’t feel comfortable giving recognition or having one-on-one conversations with our direct reports.
Impacts of Coaching

Impacts of Coaching

An earlier post (http://bit.ly/baLMhE ) indicated that  the average return on coaching is 6 times the investment.  This is usually a short term return and does not take into account the long term learning benefit that the person being coached gets to repeat year after year.  Nor does it take into account the long term learning benefits that a manager may generate with their direct reports.

I believe learning how to communicate and coaching the people that report to you will give your company the best return in the long run.  Unfortunately it  is not the easiest or fastest answer.  It requires a commitment on the part of management to learn a new skill, practice and take the time to connect with their people.

With an investment in non-financial initiatives now companies could exit the down turn stronger than they entered it.

Jacque

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Coaching Generated Big Returns

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

The following is a recent quote from Fortune Magazine:

“Of the monetary payoff from the coaching they got, these managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about six times what the coaching had cost their companies.” Fortune, 2/19/01,

– “Executive Coaching — With Returns a CFO Could Love”

In my own work I have also found this to be true.  Some companies that I have worked with have generated astronomical returns on investment of 2,500%.  I believe there are some key factors that determine if a company will be able to generate an ROI of at least 600%.

  • The most senior person in the company or group has participated in coaching and is now a role model for others who take coaching.
  • Several other people in management also participate in coaching.   The more people on the leadership team that have received coaching the more successful the program.
  • Team development initiatives are taken to foster open communication and collaboration across the company or group.
  • Managers adopt a coach approach and consistently meet with staff in both group meetings and one on one.
  • Finally you need to stay the course and keep using and applying what you have learned.  As soon as you go back to your old ways, so will your results.

While doing the work with these companies, staff came to regard their organization as the best place that they ever worked.

Companies or groups within a company that have maintained these results for the longest period of time have consistently practiced doing all of the above.  It is a long term game.

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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