How many leaders does it take to change a light bulb?
Jan, 11 – BY SHALINI GONSALVES – How many leaders does it take to change a light bulb in your workplace? Chances are, they’ll delegate it.
But you can’t delegate leadership. In fact, especially in 2012, you shouldn’t be running a business where leaders deflect responsibility.
It’s impossible to plan for 2012 – there’s game changing carbon legislation in July, dangerous surf conditions for our manufacturing and retail sectors and the wild rodeo ride of mining. And yet, everything hinges of China and Europe behaving well.
Wherever you are in Australia’s two-speed economy, your leaders need to be ready to engage employees to improve productivity and deliver exceptional customer service in the face of disappointing business results, or ready to reward and retain employees in strong performing industries. The Australian Financial Review (6 January 2012) reported recently that leadership is moving from the old concept of command and control to more intelligent leadership. Leaders need to learn and exhibit skills that include:
- Conflict in the workplace
- Cross-cultural communication
- Presentation and plain language communication
- Managing through change and uncertainty
- Working with a global, dispersed workforce
- Communicating with employees in a digital world
From our experience in employee engagement consulting and advice over the years, we sense that more than half of those in middle management and senior leadership positions are exceptional business managers, and have been promoted for those skills – rather than the inspirational and important employee engagement and internal communication skills required at that level to engage employees to be advocates, strive for performance and retain the best performers. So more than half your leaders are not fulfilling the basic requirements of their role – and you, and they, may not even know it.
All it takes is three steps to turn this around:
- Benchmark what your people think about their leaders’ communication competency; how well they articulate and contextualise company goals and strategy; how they give and receive feedback that changes business outcomes
- Determine the gaps between your leaders’ competency and ideal leadership skills
- Invest in leadership communication skills training
How to love the one you’re with: Hold on to your best employees in an uncertain economy
Oct, 7 – BY SHALINI GONSALVES – Let’s face it. Nobody knows what’s going on with the economy. Least of all, it appears, the economists.
When the GFC first loomed, most employees’ first instinct was to hold on tight to their employers and seek the comfort and safety of the familiar.
But this has gone on for long enough, and they’re starting to wonder if the relationship is going anywhere – mainly because so many employers here responded by freezing senior management salaries, benefits and training budgets, and have been very slow to thaw these out.
It’s not you, it’s me.
Many of Australia’s best high-performing employees have spent the past two years watching their careers in a holding pattern while propping up your company’s bottom-line. They are no longer as engaged as they once were, because many employers stopped talking long-term strategy and focused on short term shareholder-boosting activities.
These employees have had the time to think about what they’d rather be doing; what they thought they would be doing at this point of their careers. And many of them may be about to make a move.
These high-performers are already your company’s best ambassadors. You need them to stay aligned with your business and engaged in your progress.
You need to woo them back into your affections.
You need to identify the employees you don’t want to see walk out the door into someone else’s arms. They are usually the ones who are switched on to your business needs and operating environment, understand your customers and are strong respected leaders and influencers.
You need to bring them off the dance-floor and up on to the balcony – so together you can look down and check the rhythm of your company.
There are three key things you can do to re-engage with your high performers.
- Make the time to talk: Give them exclusive face-to-face time with senior executive leadership, especially the C-Suite. Interpersonal and leadership communication is a tried and tested channel to engage with employees. Show your high-performers where the business is headed and ask for their views and feedback. Frankly and openly discuss the balance sheet and seek their solutions. Show them your vision of next year’s organisation chart with their name one box up from where they are now and talk about how you’re going to help them get there. Or better still, ask them to craft your vision and then communicate it to their teams.
- Tease them with flowers: If you have a high-profile project, let them run it, and support them adequately. Not only does it give your project the best chance of success, it’s an opportunity to re-engage with your high-performing employees, re-harness their energy and allow them to re-gain the spotlight.
- And a box of chocolates is always a winner: While remuneration is always attractive, a carefully selected suite of training and professional coaching programs (like leadership communication, stakeholder management and messenger training) will always be welcome.
Show your high-potential employees the love, and you’ll have an engaged team who’ll stay with you, say great things about your brand and strive for your business success. You can’t ask for more in an uncertain world, can you?
Apple: simplicity at the core
Sept, 2 – BY TAM SANDEMAN – Last weekend I’m sure I was not the only one shocked to see the pictures of a frail Steve Jobs after what will no doubt become a historic shift in leadership for one of the world’s most impressive and much envied organisations. Handing the reins to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook can have been no easy task for the man who has defined so much of the technology lifestyle innovation so many of us take for granted.
This change however does present an interesting challenge from an employee engagement and a leadership perspective. How does a successor to someone who ‘is’ the brand, someone who is known the world over, someone who is admired by employees and consumers alike, ensure that they come out of the starting blocks the right way. How do they build on the legacy as the same time as carve the right leadership niche for themselves and the company.
Admittedly in this instance, Tim Cook is an insider – he’s been with the business for 13 years, but despite the familiarity, it’s still a challenge.
My observation comes from the email sent to Apple employees (see below) immediately after this announcement from Tim Cook. The message is strong and clear and therefore very powerful. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure being Apple, this note will have had rigour behind it in its crafting – really making sure the tone hit the spot would have been critical. But it’s simple.
Simple. Passionate. Authentic. Focused on recognising the past, but also recognising what could be. With a strong call to action.
Clearly this can not exist in isolation. The incoming CEO needs to maintain momentum, demonstrate he’s listening, keep up the visibility and continue to inspire people in Apple’s vision and drive a clear strategy in which everyone can see how they play their part. However, if all new leaders take a few lessons from this simple email and ensure their communication ticks these boxes when they take over big roles – no matter how big – they too could capture some of that Apple factor that has clearly contributed to making them what they are today.
Something to think about.
Team:
I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I’ve ever made and it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve’s optimism for Apple’s bright future.
Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve’s ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman.
I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that—it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.
I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is.
Tim
(Source: mashable.com)
Connecting with the frontline: no disguise needed
April, 7 – BY TAM SANDEMAN – It’s not often a business blog entry is inspired by reality TV – but here goes…
Countless CEOs encounter some of the same conundrums on a daily basis – how do I really know what’s going on in the depths of our organisation? How can I get more in touch with our people? How do I become more authentic?
Although pitched as a mainstream TV show, Channel 9’s Undercover Boss, tackles just this. It follows CEOs from large companies as they head off ‘undercover’ into their own businesses. With a splash of hair dye, addition or subtraction of facial hair, and a fresh perspective, they arrive at the coalface under the guise of someone wanting to return to the workforce and being tested across a range of different frontline roles.
The show contains all the elements that today’s reality TV viewer loves. A dash of deception; the ‘Big Guy’ being made to look foolish by the ‘Little Guy’; warm and sometimes heart-breaking tales from unsung employee heros about life struggles; the suspense of the ‘reveal’ as the CEOs disclose their identities, and finally, reward – usually financial – recognising their efforts for the company. It’s dramatic, funny and heart-warming and unsurprisingly its format has been syndicated across the world.
It does however, from a leadership perspective, highlight a very important initiative that can help find answers to the questions raised at the start of this post.
Back in the UK, I worked for eight years with one of the UK’s largest pub, restaurant and hotel retailers. Across that time, saw a raft of people initiatives introduced across what was a 52,000 disparate workforce.
None however so powerful as their senior leaders having to spend a mandatory week a year working out in the field. Serving customers, checking deliveries, stock-checking, etc. The success factor? How the company then ensured they talked about their experiences through both formal and informal internal communication channels.
Fact. We have a reduced talent pool in Australia, so focusing on ways to retain employees is critical. A demonstration of leadership empathy and connection with the frontline MUST be a part of this.
Nothing is so powerful, in portraying authentic empathy with employees, than having real stories from the frontline. Truly understanding the tough stuff employees put up with everyday can clearly close the gap that currently exists between the frontline and senior leaders.
My advice:
- Implement a simple ‘ride-along’ program for senior executives, or the top 10% of the business (across all roles). No matter your industry, you can make it work
- Just Do It (as the good people at Nike say) – ensure appropriate processes are in place to ensure accountability
- Make changes – ensure improvements are made based on what leaders experience
- Talk it Up! – share stories, recognise the great (people) and the not so great (systems and processes).
It’s an inexpensive and powerful way of driving true connection and understanding with the frontline.
And the better news? Unless your PR team advises you otherwise, you don’t have to do it on national TV.
IABC World Conference 2010 – Day One
June, 9 – BY TAM SANDEMAN – 
This week, the home of the Blackberry (the phone not the fruit), Toronto, sees the world conference of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) which had its fill of Ogilvy Public Relations.
Scott Kronick, president of Ogilvy PR North Asia, represented us in speaking about “Brand Building in China”. Scott’s insights reflect his 19 years in Asia, complete with success stories and failures of brand building efforts. The thirst for knowledge about China was evident through a very well attended session.
However, I am here to attend sessions on employee engagement, communication and change – hear and possibly bring back new thinking.
Day one saw various themes running through a packed agenda of sessions – change management, employee communications and leadership communication.
From the first sessions, the most obvious issue presenting a significant opportunity for improvement for internal communicators, is that there is now a recognised lack of confidence in senior leadership from employees.
This problem has grown since 2003, as cited by Professor Veronica Hope Hailey, from Cass Business School in London, who has been researching change communications for over 20 years (including Australia). Interestingly, she sees real danger in 2010, that leaders will attribute the reason for this breakdown in trust to the economic downturn. And, more importantly, going into recovery will NOT rebuild trust in organisations. Leaders need to invest time in improving the way they communicate and engage, and do it better than they ever have before.
Secondly, (and unsurprisingly) all sessions I attended highlighted the strong need for authenticity in leaders. As communicators we must work with senior leaders enabling them to communicate strategy and direction in a real, authentic manner. Only then will we ensure we turn business strategy into action.
Lastly, as with all our work, driving interaction and conversation will be fundamental for success as leaders trying to engage employees in business critical initiatives.
One particular first day highlight was hearing keynote speaker, Kevin Warren, CEO and President of Xerox Canada. A leader who truly lives and breathes employee communication and engagement and one who directly attributes positive outcomes on the bottom line to their investment in this area. Even better was his inspiration – a sign he’d seen on the wall of Ford Motor Company – “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, emphasising your strategy is nothing if you can’t get the people piece right.
Another highlight for our team must be our attendance at the prestigious IABC Gold Quill Awards dinner which saw us collect our two Gold Quills of Excellence for work with Bayer ANZ and Ford Australia, as well as a best of the best award for the Ford work. No other consultancy took as many awards and proved again, Australia and particularly Ogilvy Public Relations punches well above its weight on the world stage.
So far, Toronto has treated me well, and I’ve also managed to catch the BlueJays vs the New York Yankees before the conference started. Given Toronto is also the city of choice for this year’s very imminent G20 frivolity… if they coped with an Ogilvy PR invasion, they’ll be OK.
More from day two to follow…
