seven times that of the bottom 25%. If that isn’t a solid enough business case for investment in genuine management development and employee engagement then I don’t know what is.
One of the other comments I recently read on the Kenexa survey was the issue that some business decisions will inevitably hurt or annoy employees but if leaders communicate the thinking behind such decisions in a clear and honest manner, staff will understand why such decisions have been made and may well view the leader as more effective. I disagree and my perspective is this; if you’ve made a decision and then have to try and communicate the thinking behind it in the right way to minimize its impact you’re not ‘involving’ your people in the decision. By not doing this you perpetuate the ‘them and us’ position and the decision is perceived as ‘your’ decision not ‘our’ decision, which wouldn’t need defending.
Kenexa’s research backs this up by suggesting that the top two key priorities for leadership development are the need to build trust and the need to engage in open, honest, two way communication.
The truth is that this stuff isn’t rocket science and even sounds simple when it’s put in black and white like this. However it’s fair to say that the vast majority of my time is spent working with organisations for which this might as well be rocket science. Whilst many find it easy to grasp conceptually and understand the need to do things differently my schedule is dominated by organisations saying, “Cris, we know we need to change and do things differently, but just what do we do and where do we start?”
Well, here’s where you start. Sit down with your senior team and have an honest conversation about what you do and how you do it. This is alcoholics anonymous for business so get over your denial. Preaching greatness whilst not actually differentiating is one of the biggest issues I deal with in the organisations I work with. I call it ‘Celebrating Averageness’. It’s human nature to want to be and be seen as good or great at what you do but it takes a really strong self-aware individual or team to recognize your true position and value proposition. Organisations need to take the same view and have company-wide conversations about what they really want to achieve. I call it the ‘sat-nav’ approach because only when you know where you are can you plot a course to where and what you want to be!
Whatever industry or sector you’re in, where you want to be should hopefully be something bold like; to create a company with an entrepreneurial and innovative culture filled with amazingly talented and
52 entrepreneurcountry
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60