Culture trumps Strategy in Business Success

March 11, 2013 by

Strategy-in-Business-Success-Heidi-Alexandra-PollardEvery business has a culture – some are inspiring and healthy, others are crippling and toxic. The level of an organization efficiency and wellness is a direct reflection of its culture.

Traditional corporate cultures are no longer adequate to succeed in the new world of business. Cultures that originated in the era of the industrial revolution are now obsolete precisely because they discourage learning, change and innovation.

A huge demand exists for a new type of culture in our organizations today in order to become productive, profitable and sustainable well into the future.

Why culture is critical

Workplace wellness isn’t just a factor of the employees fitness or BMI ratings, it is particularly characterized by how motivated, inspired and engaged the workforce are to do great work. Key indicators of healthy workplaces are the presence of creativity and innovation and an energy of possibility – which all result in a positive, sustainable culture.

Unhealthy cultures tend to devalue creativity, stifle innovation and leave their workers feeling miserable and frustrated, stuck in the rut of the daily grind and stressed by the demands of productivity they no longer have the energy to face. Managers tend to create these cultures by discouraging new ideas, frowning on change and stymieing enthusiasm. The result, major disengagement that sucks the life out of the organization and its people.

The best culture is a UQ culture       

While understanding and managing culture is fundamental to success, for many organizations, the idea of going down the road of a ‘cultural change’ initiative is too daunting. It needn’t be. It is possible to convert low-engagement teams and cultures into engaged, high-performance UQ Cultures with some intent and a slight shift focus.

In UQ (Uniqueness Quotient) Cultures there is a subtle shift to WHO people are rather than WHAT they do. That is, WHO they are is more important than WHAT they do. A strong UQ culture shapes how employees perform and gives them a strong sense of purpose.

What is a UQ culture?  It’s one that is powered by an inner force, it’s who they are and why they do what they do, it’s one that has a unique, competitive edge. In today’s crowded marketplace organizations need to be able to stand out as Unique and different from their competition with a unique brand. A strong UQ culture is the key to setting a business apart from its competition and ultimately attracting and retaining high quality employees to grow with the organization.

With companies large and small competing for the same global talent pool, a UQ Culture will set them apart and deliver tangible, measurable benefits to any business.

Micro-managers Kill Culture

Micro-managers or Container Managers are those managers who find it hard to let go of the reins, to trust the team and get out of the way. In some ways, this is counter-intuitive and atypical of traditional role models and therefore understandable, however in high performing UQ Cultures there is always more macro managing than there is micro-management.

Container Managers are typically good at doing what has to be done. They are good at dealing with facts and not letting their emotions or other people’s emotions get in the way of making a decision. They are great at developing procedures, implementing plans, and no-one can do the job as good as they can. However, their tendency to hold onto decision-making and undertake jobs that could be delegated is not conducive to the creation of a UQ culture full of motivated, inspired, and engaged staff.

Container managers are typically responsible for the bottleneck in organizations, where innovation is stymied and ideas are shelved. They may be producing revenue and results however they rarely create a leadership pipeline, are reliant on the command and control approach and can ill-afford time off as their teams become co-dependent. This approach may have worked in 1965 but it will not allow a company to survive in 2020.

The New Leadership Alternative

One way for organizations to begin to shape and construct a more positive and productive UQ culture is to start with its managers and leaders – importantly with those in linchpin positions – in middle management.

In their book Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown discuss how great leaders extract at least two times more capability from their people than poor leaders.

A UQ culture is one that does just that by turning managers into Expander Leaders who live by the motto that you have to give power to empower.

Expander Leaders value inclusiveness and participation, they hand over the decision-making process, and let their employees govern themselves. Expander Leaders deal with the facts, but also consider how it impacts people. They listen to their employees, realize their strengths, tap into their potential, and include them in the growth of business.

Expander leaders create healthy relationships, a caring environment and an openness to trying new things which brings out best in their team. By appreciating others, engaging in purposeful conversations and helping their people to find work they love to do, they create driven, loyal employees who are engaged and energized, and want to make a valuable contribution to the organization and go the extra mile.

Essentially, it takes an attitude of figuring out how best to serve the teams, rather than asking the teams to best serve you. ~Heidi Alexandra Pollard Tweet this!

Expander leaders create UQ Cultures by:

  • Telling their people WHAT needs to be done and WHY but letting them figure out HOW
  • Not shooting them down for any crazy ideas, instead COACHING them to find ways to improve or refine their ideas
  • Treating their people as human BEINGS not DOINGS and getting to know their Uniqueness and what makes them tick
  • Not only TELLING them what to do all the time, instead ASKING them how they envision the future and how they would create a more successful, sustainable company.
  • Encouraging rebellion, creativity and risk-taking
  • Recognizing and rewarding achievement, progress and innovative behaviors

Do you consider yourself an Expander Leader? In what way have you contributed to your team? Share your thoughts below.

Filed Under: International Leadership Blogathon Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Leaders Hold The Power to Engage

March 6, 2012 by

Engaged LeaderLeaders Hold The Power to Engage: I recently came across an article in my local newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, entitled 70% of Workers Thinking of Quitting.  In it, a local recruitment company quotes a study they carried out with 10,000 employees in Australia and New Zealand in which 70% of employees say that they are considering moving jobs.  About 60% of respondents also say they feel they deserve a salary increase. The article seems to hint that employee salary expectations and thoughts about changing jobs are linked.  Accompanying the article, the NZ Herald put an online poll, for which the question was “How do you feel about your salary?”  I couldn’t help thinking there was something missing.

For many years, I have read articles and studies that consistently show that salary is not the #1 factor in job satisfaction, nor employee retention.  People want to spend eight hours of their day deriving some kind of meaning and genuine satisfaction from their work.  They want to enjoy their relationships with others and be part of a workplace culture that values connection.  They also want opportunities to learn and grow; not just technical expertise that enables them to be better at their jobs, but also learning experiences that enhance their lives.

The focus on salary in that recruitment survey seemed a little one-dimensional and the link between the two questions seems specious to me.  It is like the person who, when asked why they keep wearing those old hole-y socks replies that it keeps the elephants away and when told there are no elephants around, says, “See? They work.”

The Executive General Manager of the recruitment company who carried out the study suggests that businesses “fine-tune their recruitment strategies to find and retain high-performers who can make the biggest difference to the bottom line.”  All good advice, and to my mind, recruiting and retaining excellent staff is not just about the $$ figure attached to a position.  He goes on to say, “There’s also an opportunity for smart employers to think beyond just the salary and offer attractive, tailored remuneration packages to individual employees.”  Again, to my mind, still something missing.  I don’t want to say that the survey was wrong in its findings, I simply want to suggest that there is lots of information missing before we can come to a categorical conclusion about the reasons for people wanting to jump ship.  To my mind, thinking about keeping staff on board is not purely about money, nor about “creative remuneration packages”.  They certainly help, but they are only part of the big picture and I believe that, even if people have an acceptable salary and are given free car parks and gym memberships as sweeteners, poor management will be a far more influential factor in staff turnover and low engagement.

As I read that NZ Herald article, another study, by Dr. Rhema Vaitianathan of Auckland University’s Business School, sprang to mind.  Dr. Vaitianathan produced a comprehensive study in 2011 in which she found that NZ managers were amongst the worst in the world for retaining and promoting good staff.  Her results focused on the leadership failings of NZ managers.  While her study showed NZ managers as being particularly lacking in effectiveness and leadership skills, I note from this article in Human Capital Online that talent management company DDI carried out an international study showing that bosses right round the world are seen as poor leaders.

The director of DDI UK and one of the authors of the report says, “Workers report that managers fail to ask for their ideas and input, are poor at work related conversations and do not provide sufficient feedback on their performance, so it’s no wonder employee engagement levels are low. Leaders remain stubbornly poor at these fundamental basics of good leadership that have little to do with the current challenging business climate.”  Just as I thought, it’s the world over, not just in New Zealand.

The time has come for us to look at our world through a systems thinking lens.  I think if you ask people, “Is your salary enough?” most would probably say no.  It is too narrow a focus, however, to say that employee engagement is therefore linked to salary expectations.  To take a systems thinking perspective means we stop looking at phenomena through a narrow zoom lens, but we use the wide-angle lens and take account of the many factors that influence engagement at work.  Systems thinkers don’t just focus on one dot and try to make meaning of it; they look at the many dots and connect them.  Systems thinkers know that events and phenomena are rarely one-off or disconnected and look for patterns within the whole system, not just one part of it.  So with the issue of retention, a systems thinker will look for other reasons why 70% of staff are thinking of changing jobs, not solely remuneration.

When study after study around the world indicates that, on average, about 20% of a workforce is actively engaged and 20% is actively disengaged (actively bad-mouthing their workplaces), there is enormous potential to tap into the remaining 60% who are not engaged but could be.  As I said, salary is one component, but it is only part of a wider system.  For many managers and organisations, this can come as a bit of a relief in these times of economic austerity.  Even though salary and bonuses are probably the most expensive ways to increase retention, they are sadly the first and only things that many managers default to.  There are ways to generate greater engagement and it is not simply by raising salaries: it is by investing in developing leaders.

In a 2009 study on employee engagement for the UK government, Will Hutton, Executive Vice Chair of the Work Foundation is quoted, “We think of organisations as a network of transactions. They are of course also a social network. Ignoring the people dimension, treating people as simply cogs in the machine, results in the full contribution they can make being lost.”  To me, it follows that employment is not simply a transaction.  To think of a recruitment or retention strategy solely in terms of financial reward is too mechanistic, too transactional.  Employment is a relationship, not a transaction.

In that 2009 study, the authors, David MacLeod and Nita Clarke, state very clearly, the “joint and consequential failure of leadership and management is the main cause of poor employee engagement”.  So in order to ensure that recruitment and retention strategies have any chance of success, they must sit alongside action on leader development.  It’s not a cliché for nothing that people join good organisations and leave bad managers.  MacLeod and Clarke point to four key factors that can contribute to increased engagement: leadership, engaging managers, voice and integrity.  Leadership emerges when leaders at all levels of organisations provide a compelling story and vision that is worth signing up to.  Engaging mangers are those who have developed themselves sufficiently to be able to empathise with staff, provide useful ongoing feedback and are available to provide guidance to people.  Voice is important because in the modern workplace, people want to be heard.  Managers who listen well and regularly act on what they hear have a major impact on morale, and people who feel listened to will also feel valued and trusted.  Finally, integrity comes about when people see managers and leaders act consistently and line with a clear set of values.  They will come to trust managers who do this and trust engenders commitment.

Being mindful of my call to think systemically about things, I am sure that there are other factors that I’m missing and which are also influential in ensuring the further recruitment and retention of good people.  Accordingly, I look forward to hearing from others who wish to add in and expand this conversation.

Connect with John Wenger : Website |  Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn

Filed Under: International Leadership Blogathon Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Never Underestimate The Lowly Peasant In Front Of You

October 10, 2011 by

I was at a couple conferences recently and a familiar topic came to mind, that is the value of those you network with.  The reason why this topic stuck with me because I had an interesting conversation with the CEO of an association that serves the IT industry.  There was an exclusive party for technology vendors and sponsors at this conference. I was invited by one of the technology vendors.  I was just a guy that had recently resigned and was looking for other opportunities.  I guess to the lay person, I was an unemployed nobody.  As with any party, I circled the room and talked with people about what they did and what companies they were from.  I met some fascinating people.

During the party, I ran into the CEO of the association that was putting on the conference. I congratulated him on the event and engaged in small talk. He then asked who I was and who I was with. When I explained that I was not with anyone and that I had recently resigned and was looking for other opportunities, he kind of shook his head, chewed some food and non-chalently turned around and started talking with someone else.  I stood there in in awe at this experience.

I don’t consider myself prideful, but later I thought to myself. Does he realize I run the largest IT operations oriented peer group with CEO’s from 3 continents? Does he realize I have almost 10,000 social media connections, of which at least two-thirds, work in the IT industry?  Does he realize that I write guest articles for an IT Industry Channel blog that is read by thousands of IT executives? Does he realize I have been asked to speak at several IT industry events in the coming year that will be attended by thousands of IT executives? Does he realize I have a book that will be published soon by a major publisher? Does he realize I was invited by one of the vendors paying him money to be there?

No, my head is not getting big. I guess to the lay person, I am an unemployed nobody. But who knows where I will be in a few years and what kind of influence, good or bad, that I could have on his association. I have often heard people say that they only connect with fellow peers of equal or greater position. I always respond that I connect with just about everyone (I have a few moral exceptions).  I tell them, that I will connect with people from other industries, because someday the IT industry could drastically change(i.e. Cloud Computing).  I explain that I will connect with an entry-level technician, or customer service rep., because one day I may need to hire one, and one day that person might be CEO of their own company. I will connect with an artist, because I might need one (I have), or any just about any other person, because you never know who they know. Perhaps they are the son of a Board member that will make a decision about having me come into the company.

The point I am trying to make goes back to the golden rule.  Treat others as you would like to be treated. Treat others with respect and interest, because you never know when you may need their help or when another might help you for no other reason than, they can. 

Filed Under: Networking Leaders Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What a 2-Legged Dog Taught Me About Leadership Resilience

May 4, 2011 by

Several years ago I was in Argentina on a mission for my church.  On one particular day I walked down a dirt road in a small town called General Castex, located in the Las Pampas region of Argentina.  I spotted an animal at the end of this street, but could not figure out what it was.  It was walking on 2 legs, but did not appear to be a 2 legged animal.  As I got closer to the animal, I stopped and gazed in disbelief.  It was a dog, but no ordinary dog.  This dog had lost the use of both its hind legs in some kind of accident, but strangely enough, it was not immobile.  It actually had learned to walk on its front 2 legs.  When it walked, it would bring the back-end of its body high in the air and walk on its front legs.  It could go up and down steps and across the not so even terrain of a small Argentine street.

I snapped a picture (which I can’t seem to find) and knew that there were a hundred lessons to be learned from that animal.  But the primary one ……is resilience.  Resilience is the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched.

I have often felt bent, broken, compressed and stretched as a leader.  I am not aware of too many leaders who have not.  Particularly at the level of start-ups and small business, the stress and problems can be too much for some to bear.  I know of hundreds of small business owners that struggle in one form or another.  Their lives are tough, they sleep little, they work a lot, their families suffer, and sometimes they wonder if it is really worth it all.

I have been there many times, and while I would like to say that those things are behind me, I know that my trials are most likely preparing me for something more difficult.  Only time will tell.   

I can’t say I have all the answers, but I’d like to share a few thoughts I have on how to foster resilience in your own life.

  1. Cling to Your Spiritual Side – If you are religious, cling to that.  If your “religion” is to get out in nature, do it.  In tough times I think we need to feel the hope that there is something, someone, or some force out there that can assist us.  It helps us to feel peace and to gain perspective.  Sometimes in the whole scheme of things, our trials really are insignificant.  The peace and perspective that is gained from spiritual renewal can help us logically think through problems and bounce back bigger and better.
  2. Learn – Reading and learning about others who have struggled, and learning ways that I can improve myself have been one of the most rewarding effects in my life.  It has also helped me find out-of-the-box answers, and better perspectives for many of my problems.  Sometimes I am the problem and I need to learn how to better myself, sometimes it is an operational or communication issue.  If you notice a weakness that you or your organizations has, don’t wait, buy a book, take a class, and start gleaning knowledge from others that will prepare you for life’s “bends”.
  3. Ask For Help – Entrepreneurs and leaders tend to have a built in pride gene that is hard to turn off.  I think it is just as important to accept help, as it is to help others.  Asking and accepting help, requires humility.  There are so many professionals out there that are more than willing to share their insight and offer assistance in many ways.  Get out there and ask for help, the worst thing that someone can say is “No”. 
  4. Manage Yourself – Manage your time, manage your energy, and manage your communication.  It is easy to get into bad habits when one is going through a hard time.  This could be bad eating habits, bad sleeping habits, bad time management, focusing on things that are not important, and poor or short communication to those who are central to your success.  You probably need every resource you can muster.  Don’t waste it by falling into common stress traps, which will work against you in bouncing back.
  5. Focus But Keep Proper Perspective – Stay focused on the problem.  Few problems go away by ignoring them.  It may require a lot of work that you do not enjoy, but things will not get any easier if you can’t bounce back, so you have to focus on the problem and not deviate.  But while you are focusing, keep proper perspective on other important things in your life.  If you work really hard to bounce back or solve a big problem, but in that time you completely ignore your family, or ignored an important part of your business or an important customer, then all you have done is fixed one problem and caused another.  You are not any better off.  Communicate with others about your problems and explain what your plan is.  Focusing does not mean you have to ignore everything else.
  6. Persist – I can’t imagine how how many times that dog must have fallen before it was able to balance itself and walk on 2 legs.  If it had just given up after a few falls it would probably have been dead.  Keep getting up!  Sometimes answers come in the final hour of struggle.
  7. Know When To Call It Quits – This may seem to counter the post, but we are talking about leadership resilience.  Sometimes you need to know that the effort to fix a problem isn’t worth it.  Maybe it will require too much money or too much time, whatever it is, you need to know when let an initiative die and move onto bigger and better things.   Bouncing back may just mean moving on.

 

Warren Bennis, a great organizational consultant and author once said “The leaders I met, whatever walk of life they were from, whatever institutions they were presiding over, always referred back to the same failure – something that happened to them that was personally difficult, even traumatic, something that made them feel that desperate sense of hitting bottom–as something they thought was almost a necessity.  It’s as if at that moment the iron entered their soul; that moment created the resilience that leaders need.

I hope that iron can enter all our souls so that we can be more resilient in our lives and leadership capacities and ultimately achieve all the goals we have set for ourselves and our organizations.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, experience, or comments below.

Filed Under: Leadership Resilience Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As A Leader, Do you Fulfill Dreams or Create Nightmares?

February 8, 2011 by

Summer Dream

Have you ever read a book or heard a speech and the idea that was presented made you kick yourself and think, why did I not think of that?  Well that is how I felt after reading The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly a few months ago.

The book is written as a business fable.  For those that have not discovered business fables they are  a great format for helping one to visualize a methodology and how it will play out in an organization.  They also are pretty easy reads between the more monotonous reads that business books can sometimes be.

Anyways, the book follows a fictional janitorial service company.  The company has horrible turnover and horrible employee engagement.  I will not spoil it for you, but the book goes through a simplistic yet powerful method that simply deals with helping others fulfill their dreams.

The reason why I kicked myself is because this is something I already do with colleagues and friends.  I have given referrals and testimonials, made connections and helped colleagues in a wide range of areas to help them fulfill their dreams, but never thought of doing this for my employees.  I felt pretty stupid.

So let’s think about this.  Say you have an employee, let’s call him John.  Through some discussions you learn that John has always wanted to take his family to Walt Disney World.  To John, this seems like an impossible feet of which he will never have the time nor the money to bring his dream to fruition. 

So you dig into your contacts and realize you have a colleague in Orlando.  You call him up and through the conversation you come to find he has a guest house.  You tell your colleague of what you are doing and he tells you that the guest house is his for 2 weeks if he comes during the off-season.

You then figure out with John what his expenses will be and you use your financial skills to teach him about budgeting, and you plan out a savings plan for the next year to get the money needed.  You help him find deals online and as the time draws near you make sure that his duties are taken care of at work and home and you send him off.

It did not cost you a dime, other than your time.  How grateful do you think John will be?  Also, before I go too far, do not think that you can replace proper compensation with helping employees fulfill their dreams.  Properly compensating staff is a given.

Let’s say you have another employee that has always wanted to own a home.  To them the idea of owning a home is something that they will never see.  You once again dive into your contacts and find a realtor that specializes in low-income housing.  This realtor puts you in contact with a mortgage broker that specializes in such situations.  You work with this employee and put them in touch with your financial advisor who helps them to budget and get a savings plan together.

As their savings grows and they see you truly care about them, what do you think happens with their engagement?

The ideas are endless, I think as leaders we naturally are problem solvers.  But we are so busy solving problems for our company, that we do nothing to solve problems for our staff.  Yet if we actually showed them we cared, the financial benefits to our organizations are unlimited.  Our employees are the ones on the front-line.  They see things we do not always see.  If you think about them and help them, they will generally think about us and will help to make sure our organizations are successful.

We all have dreams we want out of life.  Some of them are big and some are small.  I think we all have some of both.  As leaders I think we naturally have the knowledge and network to make things happen, but I think to the disengaged employee that thinks you do not care about them, their dreams are just that.    We have the knowledge and resources to coach and help our staff fulfill dreams that we may take for granted.

In the book, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith, he states: “In the past, the key to wealth may have been control of land, material, plants, and tools.  In that environment, the worker needed the company more than the company needed the worker.  Today, the key to wealth is knowledge.  As a result, the company needs the knowledge worker far more than the knowledge worker needs them.  To make matters worse, they know this!  They see themselves as fungible assets – no longer at the mercy of the company whim – rather than dispensable commodities.  The difference is real: As a fungible asset, the free agent sees himself as always getting a better job somewhere else; if he were merely a commodity, anyone could replace him (which we know is not true anymore).”

I read What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, after The Dream Manager and that paragraph hit me hard. Leaders that see their employees as fungible assets will find themselves leading mediocre organizations and will have problems with employee engagement, low morale and possibly turn-over.  While leaders that understand and value their employees to the extent of helping them fulfill their dreams, will find employees that are engaged, happy and willing to help the organization succeed.

This concept of The Dream Manager does not diminish the value of accountability and execution, but it may help you realize why those items might not be as high as they should b.  I challenge you to look back at your career and think about how The Dream Manager concept could have been helpful for you and then, become a dream manager yourself.

Please comment and let me know your thoughts.

Filed Under: Dream / Nightmare Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,