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Month: August 2018

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Best Practices Growth Personal Development

Monetizing Intellectual Capital

Your most valuable business asset may not be the raw materials, cash reserves, or even the technology found within your company. It’s the knowledge of the people on your team. Yet, a good number of executives overlook the value of this collective knowledge, commonly called Intellectual Capital.

Case in point: Several years ago, I attended a meeting with executives and managers from one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. One of the top executives stood before the large crowd and exclaimed that their most valuable asset was their brand recognition. At that point, I knew this company was heading for trouble.

As I watched the business news headlines over the next couple of years, I could see how this icon of American manufacturing struggled to survive.

The lesson: Brand recognition is very important, but there are other things that are even more valuable to a company’s health and longevity. One of those things is something less tangible, but extremely impactful.

Intellectual Capital can be Leveraged 

Intellectual capital is a term that covers the value of intangible assets. The three dimensions of intellectual capital are Human, Relational and Structural.

These are all exactly how they sound – human resources are your company’s people; relational capital is comprised of your relationships with customers, vendors and other constituents; and your business structure includes infrastructure, processes, and databases of information. An example of structural capital is intellectual property.

Over the past 35 years, I have observed that the most valuable assets of an organization tend to be the knowledge, talent, experience, capabilities, and vision of the people within the organization. These, coupled with the value of their patents, customer bases, and good will, equal what is called their intellectual assets.

Managing Intellectual Capital

When leaders understand how to formalize, capture, and leverage their intellectual capital to produce higher-valued assets, their profits tend to soar. There is even an emerging business strategy that focuses on creating, shaping, updating and taking “stock” of intellectual capital.

It requires having the strategic vision to blend all dimensions of intellectual capital (people, relationships, and structure) to develop a management system that is measurable, yet pliable enough to change how the intellectual capital dimensions are blended.

There is more to the process than will fit into this one article, but the concept is this: By using a multiple stage process that is governed by evolutionary logic, the intellectual capital management includes interconnected sets of practices: strategic alignment, exploration and exploitation, measurement and reporting.

The Knowledge Era Put A Focus On Intellectual Assets

One important part of capitalizing intellectual capital is to keep the knowledge pipeline full. One of the best ways to do that is to convert information into actionable knowledge.

In 1990, I predicted organizations worldwide would increasingly create new economic value by converting information into knowledge, sharing that knowledge internally to increase its value, and then selling it in non-competing industries to a global client base. When the icon-based, user-friendly World Wide Web spawned a new digital industry in a short length of time, organizations began to want their intellectual property formalized, captured and leveraged for higher values. And they wanted it online.

It became known as the Knowledge Era or Knowledge Age, in contrast to the Industrial Age. By the end of the 21stCentury, we saw an advanced form of capitalism; one where ideas and knowledge stimulated economic growth even more  than did labor, land, money or other tangible resources.

Around the same time computer companies saw their profits shift from hardware manufacturing in the 1980s to software creation in the 1990s and beyond, businesses of all sizes and in all industries started using web-based technology to leverage the talents, knowledge and wisdom of employees to create high-margin products.

Three Must-Have Components to Create Intellectual Capital

When I consult with executives today, it’s often important to review the components that are necessary to leverage a process for monetizing intellectual capital to make sure they have them in place.

1. Everyone in the organization must see the tremendous opportunity and added value in going beyond the current activity of converting data into information, to higher levels of value, by creating and delivering knowledge and wisdom, which clients can quickly act upon. In addition, auditing and evaluating intellectual assets must be seen as a strategic direction.

2. Everyone in the organization must see that its technology infrastructure and organization are the keys to unlocking the vast wealth the Knowledge Era had to offer, both for the organization and your clients. Knowledge increases in value when it is shared within the organization, and that means the Communication Age could not have come at a better time. Informing someone of your knowledge is very different than communicating with them. That’s why a knowledge-sharing technology strategy, focused on fostering two-way communication and dialog, is so crucial to organizations in achieving their goals.

3. Everyone in the organization must see the importance of his or her own participation as essential to building a strong foundation for the enhancement, sharing and delivery of knowledge. You get the behaviors you reward; there must be a reward system for sharing knowledge. I like to remind my consulting clients that there are many ways to reward people, and not all of them have to involve money.

At this point in time, technology is no longer a barrier to creating a Knowledge Era enterprise. Below is a case study about a knowledge-based product that was created in the midst of this era, and serves as a great example of the value of intellectual capital.

An Early Example: Mayo Clinic’s First Knowledge-Based Product

In the 1990s, one of the largest health systems in the country, Mayo Clinic, was looking at a future of decreasing reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid, and increasing losses in their emergency rooms. For the Mayo Clinic and other health systems, the future looked bleak.

In a consultation with their executives, I asked a simple question: “Why don’t you sell your knowledge?” Though their initial response was skeptical, further thinking led them to put Mayo Clinic knowledge on a CD, which was a relatively new technology at the time.  That meant that any time, day or night, people who purchased the CD could put it in their PC and determine if, for example, their child’s rash and fever required just aspirin, or a trip to the emergency room.

The Mayo Clinic put a $100 price tag on their CD product when it first came out, and in the first year, I was told they sold 670,000 copies. A light went on for the clinic executives; leveraging internal knowledge could create value.

It was their first-ever knowledge-based product, and it was a precursor to not only MayoClinic.org, but also to a host of other online consumer health information portals that are heavily used today. One side benefit they discovered was the impact on their brand; by using knowledge as an asset, Mayo Clinic developed a new and powerful image in the health care marketplace that they continue to leverage right up to the present.

Knowledge is (Branding) Power

Before putting actionable knowledge on a CD (keep in mind this was before people were on-line), in order to get help from the Mayo Clinic, you had to go to one of their locations. But with a CD of knowledge that was then translated into French, German, Spanish, and Japanese, the clinic could help people anywhere around the world at any time. And, keep in mind, this was long before the phrase 24/7 accessibility became popular.

From there, Mayo Clinic decided to customize the knowledge product for various audiences, including elementary schools, high schools, medical schools, and nursing homes.

The result was new value and new revenue; they had opened their customer base up, not only to people who were geographically close, but also to the world. And in the case of the Mayo Clinic, the name recognition isn’t regional or national anymore; it became international.

This history lesson illustrates the power of using new tools to create new income streams and elevate your brand in powerful new ways.  It doesn’t matter what industry you are in; we all have intellectual capital that can be formalized, captured and leveraged using today’s new and powerful tools.

Are you leveraging the most valuable assets in your organization?

If not, what are some ways you can convert information to actionable knowledge and then productize it for revenue? In today’s mobile, social, virtual online world, you are  limited only by your mindset.  If you feel stuck, I recommend subscribing to my Anticipatory Leader System to determine what intellectual assets will be important to your consumers in the next 5 years and beyond.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

It’s Time for Managers to March to Their Own Coaching Cadence

Are millennials really that different from their younger counterparts: the members of the up and coming Generation Z? Yes, says Jessica Ogilvy, assistant professor of marketing at Marquette University. She explained the difference between generations during a recent Manage Smarter podcast.

Gen Z: Great Expectations

While managers might be used to supervising baby boomers, Gen Xers and millennials, Gen Z workers have different expectations. Here’s what you need to do to hire and keep the freshest talent.

Like millennials, Gen Z workers grew up in an age of transparency. They’re always connected and always want to be kept in the loop. This desire can come as a surprise to hiring organizations. In the past, you got away with not keeping in touch with candidates. That practice was especially true during the recession, when there were hundreds of qualified candidates for every job opening.

Right now, we’re in a strong labor market. If you’ve got a winning Gen Z candidate, you need to stay in touch. They want feedback. How did the interview go? Are you going to reach out to their references? Let them know these details, before they decide you’re not interested and move on to their next option.

Managing the Gen Z Employee

Once the Gen Z joins your workforce, the need for feedback doesn’t change. When these employees turn in an assignment, they expect some kind of response. For them, the absence of a response is the same as receiving a thumbs-down. That reaction is a far cry from the expectations of older generations. Old-school workers weren’t raised in a climate of constant feedback. They’re likely to break in a sweat, worrying they’ve done something wrong, when the manager appears at their cubicle.

It’s risky to hire an unproven Gen Z candidate right out of school. And it can be expensive if they leave quickly, which many tend to do. Ogilvy says we shouldn’t overlook the Gen Z eagerness to learn and high energy levels.

Coaching Cadence

To generate loyalty, Ogilvy recommends a using a practice called coaching cadence. Start your relationship with your employee by understanding their personal and professional goals. If they hope to buy a house and need more money, work with them on developing skills that will qualify them for a promotion in your organization. Help them see how their professional lives, at your company, will lead to achieving their personal dreams.

When you reach out as a manager on this level, employees see you being self-aware and empathetic. That transparency matters to them. The bigger challenge for you, as a manager, is to balance the unique needs of your youngest employees with all of the other demands on your time.

Make sure you regularly evaluate your priorities and don’t be afraid to delegate tasks when it makes sense.

Categories
Growth Personal Development

12 Technology Categories That Will Transform Careers

As technology continues to impact our lives, workers at every level in today’s ever-changing labor market need to be prepared with skills to adapt and succeed in the workplace.

The problem is, we live in an uncertain world, and because of the high levels of uncertainty we all face, people of all ages and career levels are finding it difficult to know what new skills to learn, what courses to take, and what degrees to get that will provide them with the most opportunity going forward. Uncertainty keeps us stuck in the present.

Certainty, on the other hand, gives us the confidence to make a bold decision, to move forward with confidence, and to invest time and money to learn new things. Over the past thirty years, I have developed a proven methodology to anticipate disruption and change before it happens, allowing you to find the confidence that certainty provides. This new science of certainty involves a scientific method of separating Hard Trends — trends that will happen — from Soft Trends — trends that might happen. This method is currently being used by many Fortune 500 companies, including IBM, Deloitte, and Pratt & Whitney to name a few, as well as the Pentagon to provide an accurate roadmap of the opportunities that are ahead.

That’s why I wrote my latest bestseller,The Anticipatory Organization, and why I’m now helping you to connect the dots on how the 12 Hard Trends driven by technology I outline below will transform every career, and create new ones. By providing an accurate roadmap for anyone who wishes to increase their personal career relevancy in a world of transformative change, you can make career and education decisions with confidence. The list highlights technologies that are now and will continue to transform present and future careers. As you read through the list, ask yourself how each one will play a key role in your industry and your personal career path.

1. Mobile Hardware, Software, and Interactive Services will continue to rapidly evolve, creating many new careers, as all phones become smartphones, wearable capabilities expand, and our primary computer and tablets continue to evolve as our laptop replacement. This new level of mobility will allow any size business to transform how it markets, sells, communicates, collaborates, educates, trains, and innovates. Augmented Reality (AR)and Virtual Reality (VR) will become increasingly mobile, playing a major role in direct and indirect job creation.

2. Remote Visual Communications is rapidly evolving into a primary relationship-building tool for businesses of all sizes as employees use smartphones, tablets, and laptops, in combination with current enterprise-level video conferencing systems combined with mobile conferencing apps, to communicate at new levels with customers, partners, and employees.

3. Social Business Enterprise Management will continue to grow rapidly as organizations shift from an Information Age “informing”model to a Communication Age “communicating and engaging” model. New careers will emerge as Social Software for business rapidly grows with applications to enhance relationships, collaboration, networking, social validation, and more. Social Search will increasingly shape careers as marketers, researchers, and those on Wall Street create applications and services to tap into millions of daily tweets, Facebook conversations, and much more, providing real-time analysis of many key consumer metrics.

4. Cybersecurity and Forensics careers will grow rapidly as we become increasingly connected and dependent on computer systems and machines using intelligent sensors connected to just about everything. Careers in data and information forensics will grow rapidly as the need to solve cyber crimes increases.

5. Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) will create many new careers in manufacturing as this revolutionary technology allows any size company to manufacture quickly, locally, and with far fewer costs. Additive manufacturing builds things by depositing material, typically plastic or metal, layer by layer, until the final product is finished. Examples of final products today include jewelry, iPhone cases, shoes, car dashboards, parts for jet engines, prosthetic limbs, and much more.

6. Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and AI enhanced Simulations, coupled with the Gamification of Education, will create many new careers as corporations and educational institutions at all levels accelerate learning by using advanced simulations, VR, and skill-based learning systems that are self-diagnostic, interactive, game-like, and competitive, all focused on giving the user an immersive experience thanks to a photorealistic 3D interface.

7. Advanced Cloud Services and Virtualization will be increasingly embraced by businesses of all sizes, as this represents a major shift in how organizations obtain and maintain software, hardware, and computing capacity. IT is rapidly becoming an on-demand service that is rapidly transforming all business processes, resulting in a rapid evolution of current careers as well as creating new careers in every functional area.

8. Big Data and Real-Time Analytics describe the technologies and techniques used to capture and utilize the exponentially increasing streams of data with the goal of bringing enterprise-wide visibility and insights to make rapid critical decisions. This new level of data integration and analytics will require many new skills and cross-functional training in order to take advantage of new opportunities as well as break down the many data and organizational silos that still exist.

9. AI, Machine Learning, and Intelligent ePersonal Assistants (Chatbots) using natural language voice commands was launched with Apple’s Siri, which was rapidly followed by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others all offering what is rapidly evolving into a mobile electronic concierge on your phone, tablet, and television. The technology will rapidly evolve, and soon every profession from retailers to maintenance workers will have an Alexa-like assistant. Adding an e-personal assistant to support an existing product and/or service will create many new careers.

10. 3D Web will transform today’s Internet experience (which is like looking at a flat piece of paper with a few photos, embedded video, and a few hyperlinks) to a true 3D experience, similar to todays video games, where you can virtually walk into a showroom, look around, and both listen to and see the new car you are interested in, or whatever the website is trying to show you. This will employ many new graphic artists, designers, and programmers.

11. Connected Intelligent Sensors and Machines using chips, micro-sensors, and both wired and wireless networks will create a rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT),sharing real-time data, performing diagnostics, and making remote repairs. Many jobs will be created as we add intelligent connected sensors to bridges, roads, buildings, homes, and much more. In just a few years, there will be well over a billion machines talking to each other, and people will install them.

12. Advanced Robotics and Automation will take a giant leap forward thanks to networked sensors, artificial intelligence, and Amazon-like voice communications, taking the next level of repetitive jobs from humans. This will create many new career opportunities from design, programming, and installation to service and maintenance to name just a few.

You don’t have to know the physics of a telephone in order to use it. You do have to know it exists and how to creatively use it to accomplish your goal. Don’t wait until next year or the year after, or until you’re laid off. Invest the time to identify what you need to learn right away so that you will thrive both now and in the future, either in your current career or a new one.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Management Tips from The Charisma Coach

You’ve hired your dream candidate. They’re blowing the doors off all the technical problems you’ve been having. But, they don’t seem very happy. And, they don’t seem to be fitting in with the rest of the team, especially since they’re lacking professionalism. What are you going to do now? Mary Gardner, The Charisma Coach, who we just interviewed for a Manage Smarter podcast on the C-Suite Radio Network, would say it’s time to put on your coaching hat. Here’s how it works…

Today’s managers are faced with building teams from five different generations. Older employees, those in the baby boomer and Gen X groups, accept assignments without question. They put in long hours. For many, the concept of work-life balance doesn’t exist. Younger employees question everything. These team members won’t necessarily complete a task unless they feel involved.

To increase involvement and make solid connections with your team members, use storytelling. Try opening a meeting on a project by delivering a one-liner: a statement about what must be delivered. Then you should delve into details that will make your audience, your team, become emotionally involved. Talk on a personal level about a similar project you managed and how it impacted you or the larger world.

Beyond storytelling, start involving your team members. Ask for their input. Start with the least experienced person in the group. Otherwise, the more experienced team members may squelch creative thinking, simply because newer employees often feel intimidated. Include as many ideas as you can in the project in order to give employees ownership. This process, says Gardner, will appeal to millennial and Gen Z workers who admire inspiring leaders.

Excitement about a work project may still not be enough to induce professionalism in your new tech hire. Managers realize that while younger employees bring energy, ideas and technical skills to the table, they often lack understanding of true teamwork. It’s up to you, the manager, to set ground rules. One approach to the situation is to focus on career goals and discuss how the current job fits into the employees’ larger vision for their lives. Ask if they see themselves progressing in a management role. Many young workers share this goal.

If they are coming in late, leaving early and asking about more benefits, explain how that attitude doesn’t match the management profile. Encourage them to volunteer for more projects and devote more energy to work. Advise them to pay attention to company culture. For example, taking more than an hour for lunch isn’t a good idea. Another example could be reminding them to praise a co-worker for a job well done. Consistent coaching on these topics can help you shape the career path of a talented employee. What could be more rewarding than that?

Categories
Best Practices Growth Management Personal Development Technology

Four Big Brands Blindsided by Accelerated Change

It’s one of life’s universal lessons: Look both ways before crossing the street. Parents have been impressing its importance on every generation since Henry Ford tinkered with the internal combustion engine. However, many of us forgot that good advice, or assumed it didn’t apply, when crossing from one decade of business into the next.

From the 1970s into the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, the prevailing assumption was that the future would be relatively similar to the past, and that major changes only took place over long stretches of time, which provided plenty of leeway to adjust.

We stepped off the curb, looking straight ahead—and wham! Individuals and organizations were blindsided by massive changes. It happened to big companies like IBM, Motorola, Research In Motion, Sears and countless others.

Four Big Brands That Were Blindsided

IBM. The original computer giant was late to act on the Hard Trends shaping the future of computing and missed the huge need for personal computers, entering the market late. Then in 2005, IBM sold its personal computer portfolio of products, including the popular ThinkPad brand, to Lenovo, which is now the world’s largest personal computing vendor. IBM was also late to embrace the Hard Trends of increasing use of mobility and the cloud.

Motorola. Similarly, the historic telecommunications company failed to anticipate exponential changes of the early 21st century, though it had many telecom firsts—first car radio, first handheld mobile phones in the early 1970s and the first smartphone using the Google Android OS. Unfortunately, the Motorola Mobility branch relied on being Agile, reacting after a disruption occurs, while leading companies were Anticipatory, using Hard Trends to see the future first and jump ahead and stay there.

Research In Motion. The company’s BlackBerry was the undisputed leader in business mobility, with a highly usable mini keyboard and tight integration of mobile email and calendar functionality. When Apple released the first iPhone, Research In Motion’s leadership failed to see the new future Apple had enabled and focused instead on making improvements instead of embracing the Hard Trends that were shaping the future of mobility and taking its loyal user base into the smartphone future.

Sears. Widely considered the first “everything” store, Sears had a winning business strategy: a notoriously large selection of goods in a catalog that was mailed to just about everyone. Products that were ordered were delivered right to the customer’s home. Like many big brands blindsided by game-changing Hard Trends followed by disruptive innovation, Sears didn’t see how serious competition had become—for both brick and mortars like Walmart and online-only retailer Amazon. Their past success and organizational ego limited their view of the future.

Based on these and other painful experiences, the prevailing assumption was dramatically adjusted: Change is speeding up—get used to it. But then with each passing decade, crossing the street of change became an exercise in advanced risk analysis. Dodging oncoming traffic was the name of the game.

Seeing Change Is Only Part of the Solution

Spotting technology-driven change provides only part of the solution, however. Literally thousands of important high-tech breakthroughs are zooming at us from left and right. Not only do we need to carefully look both ways, it is essential to actually see and understand the ramifications of what’s coming.

Hopping out of the way in a panic or jumping onboard the next new thing isn’t the answer; nor is taking a wait-and-see attitude. By reinventing how welookat technology-driven change, it is possible to reinvent the way we thinkabout change. Once that happens, the reinvention of how we actin response to change takes place.

Look. Think. Act. These distinct steps are the key to both finding and profiting from the many new opportunities that are headed our way.

Look at the Hard Trends that willhappen and the game-changing opportunities they represent. Look at the Soft Trends that might happen and the opportunities to influence them.

Think about your list of opportunities and refine them into a few Must-Do actions.

Pick at least one opportunity and act on it now, because if you don’t do it, someone else will!

Today, agility—reacting quickly after a problem occurs or after a disruption disrupts, is not good enough. It’s time to learn how to become Anticipatory, using Hard Trends to anticipate disruptions beforethey happen, turning disruption and change into a choice.

If you would like to learn more, check out my latest bestseller, The Anticipatory Organization: How to Turn Change and Disruption Into Opportunity and Advantage.

Categories
Best Practices Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to be More Powerful When You Negotiate

“Don’t let your obsession with imperfection deposit your dreams in the graveyard of despair.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

“Wow! That was a fantastic negotiation! It’s almost like you had him dancing on a string. How did you learn to become such a powerful negotiator?” Those were the admiring sentiments bestowed on a senior member of a negotiation team by his junior.

Do you know how to be more powerful when you negotiate? There are strategies and techniques you can employ to accomplish that goal. Discover how to implement the following strategies in your negotiations and you’ll become more powerful when you negotiate, too.

Pre-Negotiation:

  • Planning

In every negotiation, your degree of planning determines your degree of success. In your planning stage, think about the strategies you’ll implement and what might cause them to become altered during the negotiation. Consider how you might challenge the opposing negotiator to make him alter his strategy too; the purpose is to get him off his game plan so that he’ll be more susceptible to following your lead. To do this, compile alternative strategies that allow you the flexibility to adapt to unexpected challenges. That’ll help you prioritize their possibility.

  • Practice

It’s stated that practice makes perfect. That’s a half-truth because imperfect practice will only serve to make you more imperfect.

To enhance the possibility that you’ll have a winning negotiation outcome, practice implementing your plan. When possible, practice with individuals that possess skills comparable to the opposing negotiator(s). Attune your attention to things you’d not considered and modify your plan accordingly.

Conflation:

Always be aware of how you arrive at your decisions. In your thought process, don’t conflate disparate situations. If you do, be aware that you’re doing so and why.

By accepting conflated dissimilar information as being valid, you might lend more credence than what’s warranted to the skill level of the other negotiator. That will cause you to negotiate differently than if you’d not assigned him such benefits.

As an example, don’t over inflate your opponent’s skills, just because he’s negotiated multi-million-dollar deals. That doesn’t mean he can out negotiate you in your current situation. Don’t disadvantage yourself by thinking he can.

Mental Agility:

  • Mindset

When considering the mindset you’ll adopt for a negotiation, consider the style and type of negotiator you’ll compete against. Consider the demeanor and mindset you’ll adopt to negotiate with that type of negotiator (i.e. soft, middle, hard). In considering the demeanor you’ll adopt, view yourself as being worthy to negotiate with your counterpart and project the image.

  • Subconscious

Your subconscious mind speaks. Do you know what it’s saying when it does? Pay close attention to the feelings and intuitions you have during a negotiation. In some cases, those feelings will emerge from subconscious thoughts you’re having. That might stem from micro expressions your sensing (Note: Micro expressions last for less than one second. They’re insights that reveal the unrevealed thoughts of someone.)

Reading Body Language:

When deciphering body language, you must establish a baseline to compare to. You can establish the baseline of the other negotiator by observing gestures he emits in non-stressful environments. Look for gestures that indicate his happiness (i.e. the degree of felicity), sadness (i.e. stooped shoulders, down-turned face), indecisiveness (i.e. hand to forehead, slight erratic movement). If you can’t establish his baseline, due to whatever prevents you from doing so, compare his actions in the negotiation to what’s normal in such situations. Once you establish that baseline, you can use it to compare his future actions/reactions.

In every negotiation, there are advantages to be had. If you know how to enhance those advantages by the strategies you implement, you’ll have a greater chance of a successful negotiation outcome … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com/greg-williams/

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Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Don’t Like Conflict? Here’s How to Stop Avoiding that Dreaded Encounter

If you’ve been managing people for any length of time, you know it’s not always fun. You’ll have great days when you’re cheering about a team member’s win. And, then, you’ll have some truly challenging days. You know what I’m talking about. It’s those days when you have to address an employee performance issue. If you’re conflict-averse, you may be avoiding these encounters.

When you avoid an employee-related problem, you’re damaging your credibility as a manager. Your inaction also demotivates other team members. If they see a co-worker consistently taking long lunches, and not being asked to change their behavior, resentment grows. To stop this problem from getting any worse, take action as advised by Steve Sisler.

In a recent Manage Smarter podcast, Sisler, president of the Behavior Resource Group, discusses how to understand and address your motivations as a conflict-averse individual. He describes one situation involving a manager who didn’t want to ask an employee to stop coming in late.

“A highly altruistic person, this kind of manager [conflict averse] sees the value in other people sooner than they see the value in themselves.” As a result, these managers find it hard to say anything confrontational to someone else.

If you’re not comfortable telling an employee to change their behavior, try a different approach. Since you don’t want to be the ‘bad guy,’ one of Sisler’s suggested workarounds is to blame company policy. Tell the employee that everyone else is coming to work on time, because that’s what the policy requires. So they must follow the policy, too. By bringing in the higher authority, the conflict averse manager escapes having the employee’s resentment directed at them.

Sisler points out that conflict averse individuals often don’t possess the ability to become angry. And anger is often the emotion that drives conflict. In Sisler’s opinion, four energy systems drive human behavior: anger, optimism, fear and patience. If you have too much anger, Sisler points out, you can turn into a manager everyone avoids. Why? Because you’re looking for conflict even there isn’t any.

To succeed as a manager, think about what motivates you. Take a personality assessment and study the results. Then review the motivators of the individuals on your team. Once you have that information, think logically about the best way for you to approach each person in every type of situation. Thinking they want to be treated the same way you want to be treated can easily make things worse in many cases.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

High-Caliber Leaders Give Away Their Power

“What you throw out there will come back to you.”

This is something I always teach in my leadership development workshops. How you treat others will always come back to you.

What do you suppose I brought back as a souvenir from my travels in Australia? Yep, you guessed it, a beautiful handcrafted boomerang! It sits on my desk as a reminder to be conscious of the way that I treat others.

High-caliber leaders understand this principle and practice it daily with their team members. The most effective leaders also know that they actually become more powerful when they give power away. Unfortunately, we have all been conditioned to believe that power is available in a limited quantity: If I have more, you have less. Naturally those who believe this tend to hoard the power that they think they have and are reluctant to share it with anyone.

Whether you lead a virtual team, a group of employees, or your pick-up soccer league, the more control you give others over their work environment and the more you ask for their input on decisions that affect them, the more productive and effective they will be.

Each time you share power with employees and colleagues, you are demonstrating your trust and confidence in their abilities and skills. When you help others to grow and develop, that help will be returned to you. Your employees or team members will feel committed, engaged, and loyal to you and to the organization. They will take pride in their job when they feel a sense of “ownership” in their job.

Don’t forget this boomerang effect: Respect is a form of power. If you want to be respected, you must be respectful of others. Here’s the kicker: Be respectful of others, regardless of their title or yours. You will have that power/respect reciprocated, possibly even doubled.

Regardless of your title, experience, or position as a leader, just remember my boomerang theory. What you throw out there will come back to you…

For more resources on leadership and employee engagement, be sure to sign up for our monthly Ezine and you will receive our report: “7 of Your Biggest People Problems…Solved.”

You might also like:

Managing for Maximum Performance

Four Signs You’re Sabotaging Your Team (and How to Stop)

Leading Questions: Twelve Powerful Tools for Your Leadership Toolbox

Jennifer Ledet, CSP, is a leadership consultant and professional speaker (with a hint of Cajun flavor) who equips leaders from the boardroom to the mailroom to improve employee engagement, teamwork, and communication.  In her customized programs, leadership retreats, keynote presentations, and breakout sessions, she cuts through the BS and talks through the tough stuff to solve your people problems.

Photo source

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Trust and Systems Thinking – Perfect Together

The health and results of an organization are directly dependent upon having a healthy foundation of trust. An organization cannot achieve optimum results without trust between employees, management and customers. Exceptional leaders recognize the importance of trust, and they know how to manage the variation.

The benefits of trust are undeniable. An environment of trust brings out the genius in every employee, the full potential of the organization, and creates happy, loyal customers. According to Stephen M. R. Covey, a 2003 study by Watson and Wyatt shows that a high-trust organization can deliver a 286% higher total return than low-trust organizations (Covey, June 2007).

Creating trust is challenging because it’s paradoxical. We want control, but we don’t want micromanagement. We want freedom to act, but we want to avoid chaos. What is the best way of thinking about the world (about people and problems) that will enable us to manage the variation in trust and deal with the complexity and the paradox? The answer is “systems thinking.”

Leaders who want optimum trust, to bring out the genius of every employee, and who want to optimize results (especially through customer experience and employee engagement) must be skilled systems thinkers.[1]

It is too easy to fall prey to the spell of Frederick Taylor and avoid systems thinking.  Frederick Taylor created Scientific Management thinking in the mid 1800’s.  His theory promoted the idea that people should be told what to do and controlled with pay-for-performance policies.  Taylor theory assumed management is smarter than employees.  This justifies why employees must be supervised.

Typical management language still reflects this idea.  For example, we refer to employees as “subordinates”.   A subordinate is defined as someone who is “under the authority of a superior”.  Systems thinking does not require authoritarian relationships.  Full cooperation, optimum trust, and effective communication between employees (regardless of their position) is much more important than the reporting structure.

When we embrace Taylor we use phases like, “we need to better manage our people; we need to drive improvement, or drive change; we need to manage employee performance every day.”   These are all consistent with the Frederick Taylor model which holds that employees need to be managed.

With systems thinking, employees can self-manage.  It also explains how the performance of individuals is influenced more by the system within which they work than by their individual efforts or skills.  With a predictable process, employees perform consistently and predictably.  With an unpredictable process, employees will perform inconsistently.   Taylor increases the need for heroes and heroines to save performance.  Heroes are not required with systems thinking.

The combination of Taylor and unpredictable processes reinforce the need to rate individuals as exceptional performers or poor performers.  The policy of rating individuals is inconsistent with systems thinking and often does more to damage trust in an organization than nearly any other management practice.

When leaders embrace systems thinking their priority is to improve the system and avoid evaluation of individual performance because they know an improvement in the system and processes will improve the level of trust in the organization.  Systems thinking and trust are perfect together.

Wally Hauck, PhD has a cure for the “deadly disease” known as the typical performance appraisal.  Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.   Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.  Wally has a passion for helping leaders let go of the old and embrace new thinking to improve leadership skills, employee engagement, and performance.  See other resources here.

[1] Systems Thinking: A discipline of using data to identify patterns, processes, and structures that cause events. It’s a way of thinking and acting to obtain knowledge to make changes in process and structure to improve the interactions between parts of a system instead of making improvements to the parts individually. Excerpts taken from The Art of Leading: 3 Principles for Predictable Performance Improvement by Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP.

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Sales Managers: Are You Unintentionally Setting a Low Bar for Your Team?

Most sales departments often talk about setting the bar high. But there’s another bar for sales managers to consider. It’s not the high bar that sets the desired standard, it’s the LOW bar – and that can be a job killer for sales managers.

The “low bar” is the lowest level of performance acceptable to keep their job. And you set it by what you allow your salespeople to get away with. You may not see the negative impact immediately, but it’s a morale killer to the other higher performers on the staff.

Here are seven examples of how the “low bar” gets set on your sales team…

If you allow… The “low bar” you’re setting is.. How to fix it…
1. Salespeople to routinely miss goal If you miss you’re sales goal, there’ll be no consequences. So don’t worry about it. Adopt a three strikes and you’re out policy.
2. Salespeople to be rewarded for reaching only 80% of goal 80% is really good enough. 100% becomes the REAL stretch goal. Stop all incentives for anything less than 100% of goal. Be more realistic about the goals you’re setting.
3. Salespeople to routinely show up late for meetings It’s okay to be 5-15 minutes late. Hope your advertisers feel the same way! Start meetings no more than two minutes late. Reserve the front row of chairs or those closest to you for late arrivers so they just can’t sneak in undetected.
4. Salespeople to not enter everything into your company CRM The CRM isn’t all that important to you. The problem is “garbage in, garbage out” or “lack of information in, means lack of information out.” You’ve greatly reduced the effectiveness of CRM. If it’s not in the CRM, it didn’t happen. No ifs, ands, or buts.
5. Salespeople to go long stretches without engaging in a two-way conversation with their accounts It’s ok to take long time accounts for granted and put them on auto-pilot. There are no consequences for not doing your job. If a rep goes more than X weeks/months without a telephone or in-person conversation with an account, they lose it – and the commissions that go along with it.
6. Salespeople to not use the valuable tools and research you’ve provided them Anytime we bring in a tool for you to use, you can just ignore it, then we’ll make it go away if enough of you don’t use it. Using these sales tools regularly is part of their job. Make it an item on their performance evaluation.
7. Salespeople to text, check email or otherwise fiddle with their mobile phones during your sales meetings. The content of the sales meeting isn’t important enough for your full attention. Heck, YOU aren’t important enough for their full attention. Movie theater rules apply. No texting, message checking or anything else during meetings. Allow for checking of content or for Googling that directly relates to the topic of the meeting. If they have to take a call, make them leave the room.
7+1. Salespeople to blame the customer, the competition or other people in your company for their lack of success You don’t have to be personally responsible for anything. It’s okay as long as you tried. Problem is, you now have a culture of finger pointing and backbiting instead of positivity and teamwork. Always bring the conversation back around to what could YOU have done better? Did you provide value to the customer before trying to make a sale? Did you make a recommendation that makes sense (or did you just take their order)? Did you reduce their risk? Were you proactive? Were you persistent? Were you resilient?

You might think the worst person at returning calls sets the low bar for the rest of the staff. Or that the worst performer in terms of revenue, closing rates, proposals, account satisfaction, professionalism, etc. sets the low bar for the rest of the staff. And you’d be 100% wrong.

The fact is YOU set the low bar for the minimum level of performance needed to keep their jobs.

You’re not a passenger, you’re the driver of the sales team. So no whining about “I just can’t get the salespeople to use it/show up on time/stop doing what they shouldn’t be doing/start doing what they should be doing.” When you do that, you’re just admitting to the world that you suck as their manager.

There’s nothing wrong with being demanding or having high standards, so long as those demands are realistic – and you’re ready, willing and able to help them meet those standards whenever they need it. You also need to be ready to “walk the talk” and do what you’re asking them to do.

Setting the “low bar” bar high enough for success also means having uncomfortable and blunt conversations from time to time. Here’s a hint: those conversations need to be a lot more uncomfortable for them than they are for you.

Not everything is in your control, but are you willing to control the things that are?