leadership

I Don’t Care Too Much for Outcomes

I love listening to some of the sports coaches speaking. I marvel at how the art of coaching has evolved and matured over the last 10 years to become a true profession. The coach of a professional sporting team is no longer just a passionate motivator who is, at the most, an amateur at managing the disciplines we associate with effective management of human resources.

The modern sports coach is a strategist who seeks substantive evidence to create, mould and justify their tactics and training regimes.  He or she has a mission and is a designer of the journey that ultimately arrives at that mission.  The coach has peripheral vision but clear instructions and an ability to deliberately implement individualised programs that somehow melt into the collective good. The coach is values driven and can influence or prescribe non-negotiable behaviours.  A skill builder, game planner and delegator, the coach will masterfully manage a range of stakeholders whose expectations may vary from understandable to darn right outrageous.

But what I love most about the modern coach is that he or she no longer talks merely about winning or losing.  It’s all about concentrating on the game plan.  Constructing a team, building a culture and developing skills in line with team plan; a team plan that will bring home gold.  The other day I heard a post-game interview with an Australian Football League coach. His team had just had a conclusive victory.  He was asked how he felt two thirds of the way through the game when his team was losing by a considerable margin. He replied that he was unaware of the score because he was too busy concentrating on the team’s compliance to an agreed long-term set of disciplines.  Play with flair, but within the construct of our disciplines was his mantra. In the end, his concentration paid off.  It was a great insight into the modern coach.

Every effective leader has a commitment to a plan and a deep belief that the tactics and team disciplines that they install will get them first prize.  This story, however, is especially poignant in a time of business uncertainty.  It reminds us that at the frontline we may be unwise to become overly focused on the business results.  That while profitability or achieving ‘great results’ is ultimately what keeps us in the game, managers may be far better to focus on building, monitoring and gently adjusting the team disciplines and cultures that will ultimately ensure that they can achieve the sustained level of performance that leads to successful results.

Effective Leader, Good Leader or Neither? The Osama Bin Laden Question

The announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden shocked the world. His death has of course been met with many reactions among those affected by his actions and views over the last 15 years. Without wanting to be insensitive to those tragically affected by his actions, it must be remembered that while a criminal to many, Osama was to many something of a freedom fighter, even hero, to others. It depended from which direction you were looking into that fish bowl called life. Whatever your view, we can say his actions ignited the most radical over-haul of security and geo-political policy since the late 1940’s.

He effected change in so many facets of our life that his impact will be remembered for generations. In my ‘home grown’ Leadership training program ‘Leadership, Culture and the Modern Workplace’, I get participants to rate a group leaders from ‘Most Effective’ to ‘Least Effective’. In the exercise the participants are initially given 8 photos of world identities. The exercise is simple. Build a leadership criteria and select the most to least effective leader of the eight identities. The faces on display include Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Hilary Clinton, Sir Alex Ferguson , Indira Gandhi and later I add a nineth identity, that being Osama Bin Laden. Of course most people’s judgment on these personalities has little experiential substance. Not many have worked directly or indirectly for any of these people, let alone met them. What is interesting is that most groups end up with Osama Bin Laden either first or last or last on their list. Those who rate him number one usually do so because they see him as a persuasive influencing figure who was able to inspire others to follow him. These people are usually judging him purely on his effectiveness. On the other hand those (the majority) who rate him last tend to make comments related to his ‘lack of values’, ‘murdering ways’ or ‘misguided use of a beautiful religion’. Suddenly, we see the judgment become values based. Perhaps the exercise that is being undertaken by the latter group is a rating system based on a ‘good’ leader as opposed to an ‘effective’ leader. And ultimately, for them, the word good demands a personal judgment on character to be made. This seems to suggest that values are important to people when they choose who they follow.

Forum Questions

Are values a connecting point with staff for managers in business or do people really not care what their managers place value on? Do managers in business need to demonstrate behaviors associated with a values set acceptable to most team members or do they simply need to demonstrate technical competence in order to inspire followers?

Open Discussion – Why are women more satisfied than men at work?

According to the iHR Australia APEV survey, women are clearly more satisfied with their work life than men?   Furthermore, Generation Y is far less satisfied than baby boomers?  Why do you believe this is so and what should organisations be doing to increase levels of satisfaction?

http://www.ihraustralia.com/APEV-Survey-Results-Report-November-2010.pdf

Leadership Essentials 2.1 – Leaders Build Mental and Physical Tenacity

Physical fitness drives clear thinking and a capacity to perform and survive the challenges we are confronted with.

In my earlier post I described how much I hate losing. In fact while I know losing teaches us so many things, I personally hate it. I personalise it. I ask myself ‘What is it I did wrong?’ or ‘What was it about us they didn’t like?’. To have those thoughts is natural. To not quickly overcome them is dangerous because it takes away our focus. If you are an entrepreneurial leader, creative in spirit, intensity of feelings is something to be managed.  Focus is sometimes challenging to maintain.

I have also spoken in earlier posts about how life throws up some pretty ‘mean’ challenges.  Family problems, a move, a new job, financial struggles, relationship breakdowns, death, new life, personal illness and so on. Many of these test us and make focus very difficult.

Mental and physical tenacity is our ability to survive the challenges that life throws at us and continue performing to our highest possible level. To still have the energy to perform despite all kinds of distractions and pressures. For me, building and maintaining that tenacity relies on a strict regime of fitness.

I want to preface the following by saying I am far from an elite sportsman. I play a range of ball sports adequately and get deeply involved in sports with my children. May I also preface the following by suggesting before you do any intense exercise or change diets you seek advice from a doctor or related expert.

In organisations leaders are generally time poor. We have a thousand excuses for not doing exercise. I take, however, 80 minutes four to five times a week. Even during intense periods of personal or work life. That time is part of my work. That means sometimes I will take the 80 minutes at 6am and others 10am or 3pm. Basically I don’t have a set time for exercising because that gives me an excuse to say ‘I didn’t have the time to get to my specific work-out time’….if you know what I mean.

My work-out is usually a combination of running and weight training.  I am actually running better in my late forties than I was in my early thirties. Simply I am more motivated and clearly see the place intense exercise has in my life.  My exercise is not golf, which I am sure is great for the spirit and social interaction, but has little impact on building physical tenacity. I find it fascinating when I go to a public gym the number of people, especially young men, sitting on equipment looking at themselves in the mirror.

There are many highly intense exercise routines that don’t require running, therefore jarring of the bones. For those who do enjoy running though, great shoes are important despite university studies that say otherwise. For me it is the difference between painful shin splints and being able to easily run 8km. The other great product I use to build and maintain the cartlige in my knees is Blackmores Glucosamine. Without those two products intensity of exercise would be impossible for me.

Intensity in exercise is all about giving focus.  If your exercise is Yoga, running or football training, it is important to put yourself in the zone. My actual exercise time is never more than 6o minutes (my 80 minutes alows for preparation and a shower following the workout). My running, stomach exercises and high rep. weights routine are performed  in quick succession, really never giving me a time to sit still. The intensity is about losing myself. That is the key to a really good workout. Losing yourself in it, not fighting to stay in it.

Importantly, I have found I need one weeks rest every 6 weeks to refresh and rejuvenate myself to be able do another five weeks of intensity. I definitely avoid breaks longer than a week because I lose momentum. I begin to eat badly and my total regime breaks down.  On the other hand if I have no breaks I get tired , run down and more likely to experience illness and downs. Life is a balance.

Many executives use fitness trainers.  I don’t and I think if you need to for an extended period of time, day after day, you may not be learning to help yourself; not building your own mental and physical tenacity. On the other hand fitness trainers can be very useful as a starting point or regular point of instruction on training technique.

Finally, having fitness goals are often an imperative to motivation. I have two. My weight and running time / distance. This helps with immediate purpose for each workout. I keep a spreadsheet to record workout days, running distances and weekly weight. What I have found is that we generally have a natural comfortable weight. I am not interested in losing for the sake of losing. Just staying around that natural weight. If I put on weight, I quickly reduce by controlling my food intake, especially that of carbohydrates and saturated fats, and reducing my intake of heavy foods at night. Of course dieticians will often tell you to avoid large meals and to consume smaller, healthy meals and snacks up to 6 times a day.  Please consult an expert on this matter.

The point is that mental and physical tenacity is built upon regimes.  It doesnt just happen from nothing.  The end point is that we are able to survive tougher times because we are phsically stronger.  I have also found intense exercise gives me great perspective.  For some reason after that tough and intense run, bike ride, rowing session, football practice, yoga session, dance class, martial arts session or whatever it is you do, an issue or challenge that seemed impossible, suddenly has its place and you have more strength to deal with it.

Leadership Essentials 1.1 – Losing Should Hurt

THinking Too Much?

It is 5.00am. I am awake thinking about a job we didn’t get yesterday. I am stewing on the fact that it was maybe something we did or didn’t do that influenced the client’s decision the wrong way. It was a good contract and I love working with them! Actually I was fuming yesterday afternoon but now I am just stewing. It’s all pretty emotional really, but then running the company is an emotional experience. When you ultimately run the show, losing an opportunity can feel like the end of the world, but then my real strength as a leader has always been getting over a lost opportunity by learning from the mistake or simply accepting it was out of my control, then winning the next one.

One thing I realise is that the day ‘losing the opportunity’ doesn’t hurt anymore I should step down from my job.  If you want to be a key leader you need to care about what you do or you should give it away. And I hate this hurting feeling. I get so angry about what I see as unnecessary failure…I think that’s the high achiever in me. I know sometimes I get ridiculous because I am a truly intense individual. But in my view you need to feel hurt when you don’t achieve a goal or a favorable outcome. Not that I can show it to my people. I try not to show my disappointments although my people will tell you sometimes it spews over. I don’t like to focus on negatives.

This lost opportunity seems due to a  change of thought process internal to our client although on Monday we will sit down and evaluate the circumstances and decide if there was any more we could have done as a team. Maybe we can get back in the race somehow. We havent missed out on many big contracts lately. We have got a really good proposal to trade ratio because in this area our product is spot on……but it still hurts.

What I do need to remember is that we had word today that one of my favourite clients in Asia has asked for a lot of training over the next few months. It’s funny how I woke up worrying about the one we didn’t get instead of rejoicing about what we won. Yes I must remember to remind the team about the one we got!

Anyway I better get some sleep.  I want to run 12km in the morning.  I have had a busy week and haven’t achieved my fitness goal yet which will get me uptight.

Thinking as a Leader at the Christmas Party

Leadership Advice from iHR Australia & iHR Asia’s Managing Director – Stephen Bell

It’s that time of the year again. This is the time when we begin to celebrate another year gone and the dawning of the new year. How tiresome it is for HR departments having to once more send out those’Do’s and Don’ts’ statements (sorry ‘don’ts’ statements) about Christmas party behaviour.

However, I would like to propose that the break-up party is actually an opportunity for managers to demonstrate their commitment to workplace culture as leaders. This is about state of mind and how we as managers approach the function. Do we approach it simply as a participant or do we see it as an opportunity to increase staff engagement? An opportunity to recognise, reflect and get to know? This is without doubt an opportunity to understand more about patterns of team and staff interaction, morale and satisfaction. On the other hand this opens the door for you to ‘muck up’ badly; to embarrass yourself and allow the lines of communication and authority to be blurred; perhaps inflicting long term pain on you and the organisation.

Leadership is predominantly a state of mind, a way of thinking. I believe in most cases in business we intellectually and emotionally sign-up to leadership knowing that every now and again we risk breaking the contract. It seems that the Christmas party often provides managers with a ‘high risk’ environment for breaking that contract. We can find ourselves closing up shutters for the year forgetting that the organisation’s Christmas party is actually the springboard into the next year and behaving loosely or without consideration for the state of our future relationships.

This year I want you to take a leadership mentality into your Christmas party.

Why? Because it provides you with another great opportunity to demonstrate that you are an effective, open, responsible and caring manager – key attributes for building and reinforcing staff engagement.

Seven (7) hints for Organisations & Managers who want to use the Christmas party as a demonstration of quality leadership:

1. Understand the guidelines, have a clear mind.

Leaders understand the expectations on them –

Be clear about what the organisation expects in relation to behaviour at any Christmas event. I like relaxed, jovial and respectful rather than just ‘fun’. Also understand the organisation’s position on matters such as drunkenness, cab fares, start & finish times,attendance at events following the Christmas party and other practical information (personally I advise managers not to attend after party events).  This all helps for a clear mind so that managers can make any difficult decisions before hand that might be required on the night.

2. Set Expectations for staff.

Leaders set or communicate expectations and deliver on them –

It’s great to have a relaxed two way team discussion before the event about ‘what’s OK and what’s not OK’. You may well be surprised if you ask your staff about their own expectations regarding behaviour how naturally aligned it might be to those of the organisation.

For example, the other day I asked my younger staff about whether they would prefer a ‘Formal Code’ or ‘Casual Code’ of dress at iHR in Australia. I expected strong support for implementing a more casual approach to dress. To my surprise they were unanimously supportive of the formal dress code. Furthermore, set expectations in relation to responsible drinking, (if in fact you allow it), cab charges and starting & finishing times. Have a ‘Party Rules’ memo circulated prior to the event.

3. Turn–up.

Leaders demonstrate interest and commitment to their employees –

Many managers tell me they don’t turn up to the annual break-up party because ‘they don’t enjoy being in a room full of drunks‘ or ‘it’s too dangerous given modern day legal risks’. In my view no one should be that drunk (refer point 6) at a Christmas party and leaders should understand risk but not be paralysed by it. Not turning up out of fear lacks courage and is an abdication of your responsibility as a leader to build a more engaging workplace.  The harsh fact of the matter is that you are more likely to be injured by a drunk driver on the way home than be sued for negligence.

4. Role model behaviours.

Leaders role model the behaviours required by the organisation that they commit too –

I doubt I have to remind any of you that read my blog regularly that the capacity and willingness to role model is a key leader attribute. At the Christmas party, the fact that you drink too much, take part in humiliating or belittling behaviours or discussions puts you and the organisation at risk.

On the other hand if you drink moderately (if indeed you want to drink alcohol), be happy, congenial and respectful you are likely to help set a positive responsible tone. Self control is a great leadership attribute and a lot easier said than done. Be honest with yourself about your weaknesses (especially in social situations) and the triggers that might lead you to behaving in a way that might be regarded as unacceptable by your organisation. For example, if you have a tendency to enjoy drinking with a particular group of males or females with whom you’ve had a long association with ensure that you make a concerted effort to move around the room rather than restricting yourself to this particular group.

5. Be Aware.

Leaders have awareness of what is happening around them –

One reason I don’t want you drinking too much at the end of year party is that managers need to be aware and coherent. You are ultimately responsible for the safety and welfare of the attendees. Prepare to be an individual respondent in a court case should you fail to observe and act on behaviours that are potentially litigious. For example when ‘tipsy’  Megan and Phil are making publically disparaging comments about Alan because he works ‘too slow’ or Sandra and Kent’s dancing is becoming very ‘dirty’, recognise that this may potentially lead to a harassment claim.

6. Be Prepared to act on bad behaviours and say goodnight.

Leaders demonstrate courage and are prepared to change the course of events when required –

You should be prepared to respectfully take people aside when you feel their behaviour is a risk to themselves or others. Don’t do it in front of the crowd, instead take the person aside. Having difficult discussions in front of a team could cause a confrontation that ruins the night or give a ‘smartie’ the opportunity they want to attempt to embarrass you in front of others.

If people are drunk or behave badly you need to be prepared to say goodnight. Generally a friendly handshake, consoling words about having to leave early and a cab-charge will do the job. If, however, an attendee is obviously at risk to themselves or the community you may need to organise a more ‘door to door’ arrangement in relation to getting them home (for example, two managers driving that individual home).  If an injury occurs to the individual on the way home and it is deemed that the organisation has contributed to their condition and failed to take reasonable action to ensure the employees safe return home, then the organisation is potentially liable.

7. Implement the boundaries of the function.

Leaders do what they say and manage their environment to attain the outcomes they want –

Finally, implement the start times, finish times and ensure those attending the party know the boundaries of the party area. You should have agreed these up front. If it’s at a venue where there are a multitude of rooms and parties remember to remind those that constantly leave the designated party area that they are contravening your ‘party rules’ and if they keep leaving your area without good reason they may not be allowed to return.

Remember the Christmas party is work for managers. It is not a time for you to let the proverbial hair down. It’s an opportunity to build and reinforce the culture of engagement. You need to think about how you will approach the event and the question ‘Am I willing to commit to being a leader at the Christmas party?’.

Written by Stephen Bell.

Disclaimer: this fact sheet does not constitute legal advice.

Related services:

EEO & Anti-Bullying Training Program for Managers & Team Leaders ‘Setting the Standard’

Professional & Courageous Conversations Training Program

Independent Workplace Investigation Services

It all Starts with Workplace Culture!

Workplace Culture is the way we do things around here – and it creates a feeling that impacts on business performance, compliance, reputation and staff engagement.

I remember around the turn of the century I was doing a briefing (as a consultant) for a small team of executives from a professional firm. We were debating what actually is workplace bullying. Most of the senior team were getting passionately involved in the discussion. A female executive who was not so passionately involved and obviously quite annoyed about the time it was taking to discuss such a ‘ineffectual’ matter stood up and blurted ‘Actually all I want to know is how far I can go before we call it bullying’. Not an unreasonable question but perhaps it was the lack of thought and sarcastic tone in the delivery that drove me to react (and quite unprofessionally I may add) ‘Well how far do you want to go?’ I replied. Not surprisingly she responded: ‘Well that’s what we are paying you to tell us Stephen Bell-HR Expert!’ Suddenly I was caught in the battle. There were some smirks, giggles and ‘oh yeahs’ from one or two of the ten executives that were sitting around the table. All of a sudden I was being hit head on by ‘the way we do things around here.’

This was, in fact, an opportunity for the Regional Director to stand up and point to the organisational values. This was an opportunity for the HR executive to make a speech about making this an engaging workplace for people and the lines should be drawn by the value of our values. And then I, Stephen Bell (HR Expert!) could recite the definitions outlined in local OH&S guidelines. None of this happened. I did lamely recite the values probably with a quarter the conviction the Regional Director could have and encouraged them to turn to page 20 in their manuals where they could find the local definition of workplace bullying.

The Regional Director and HR Director remained relatively silent; the discussion lasted another 20 minutes before we all cordially shook hands and splintered off in our different directions to lead our very different lives. I left with a certain feeling about this organisation -‘Arrogant, undefined about behaviour and culture, aggressive and rudderless, lacking leadership.’ Perhaps unfair judgements, but real and powerful feelings for me. And if ‘that moment’ was indicative of the leadership behaviours, ‘arrogant, undefined about behaviour and culture, aggressive and lacking leadership’ become justifiable descriptions of the workplace culture. And in ‘that moment’ it was actually what was not said by the Regional Director and HR Director that was more powerful than what was actually spoken by the lady executive.

I also left that session with a resolve never to walk into a training session about workplace bullying and culture without ‘my actors’. Yes those actor friends of mine ensure people can see what we mean by ‘over the line’ rather than just discussing it. It was also then that I decided that iHR Australia and iHR Asia would start focusing on assisting organisations to properly define their workplace cultures so that leaders could properly articulate what was meant by a desirable, compliant and productive workplace culture that attracts the kind of people we want. More importantly my actors would give them the opportunity to see how they act every day has a direct impact on culture and subsequently on performance, compliance, reputation and staff engagement.

Defining workplace culture or the way we do things around here is an interesting process. It is about creating statements that align to organisational values but are more active. The workplace culture statement is an indicator of the pattern of behaviours we want to see. For example a workplace culture statement arising from the often articulated workplace value ‘Respect’ may be ‘We listen to and analyse the professional views of others’, ‘We listen to ideas and views from those around us or ‘We do not personally attack individuals when giving them professional feedback’. When developing ‘culture statements’ you may not cover every behaviour for every probable situation, but you leave leaders and employees within the organisation in no doubt what the ‘indicative behaviours’ of the organisations workplace culture are.

In general, organisations that are taking the time to clearly articulate what the workplace culture should look like are actually becoming strategic about workplace culture. That means recognising that workplace culture can be a driving factor in achieving organisational goals. They realise that culture can drive a range of important elements of the organisation. In order to explain the ‘business’ impacts of a good, bad or indifferent workplace culture I have identified three key workplace culture areas of impact. Simply I am saying that workplace culture impacts on:

Organisation, team and individual performance;

Brand perception for current and future employees, customers, stakeholders and business partners;

Compliance, in particular the organisations ability to comply with policies and regulations.

In my forthcoming articles I will explain exactly why I believe workplace culture should be part of the strategic agenda for organisations aiming for sustainable success.

In 2009 as we start to emerge from the economic recession brought upon predominantly by an industry, and subsequently, workplace cultures where the unacceptable often became acceptable it is interesting to ask ourselves where business cultures will find themselves in 2010.

Looking forward the danger is that leaders will feel compelled to immerse their organisations in practices that reduce risk and drive a conservative rigour that, will in turn, stifle workplace cultures once labelled innovative, responsive and entrepreneurial.