Productivity improvement

However, we need to stand back and explore the reasons for this very poor scorecard on managers in general some of whom are not worth their salary. I have interacted with many high achieving directors, senior managers, and middle managers who wanted to develop their employees. They recognised that this was the most effective way of achieving higher productivity as well as creating a positive working environment. They introduced initiatives ranging from culture change to team building that were generally welcomed.

Yet they found that the results fell far short of their expectations. Many felt frustrated that parts of the culture and traditions appeared to actively negate every effort to improve performance. Therefore, however sincere their efforts were they usually fell far short of what they considered to be possible. This raised a number of questions about “why?” and the following insights emerged.

 Flawed structural framework

In many hierarchical organisations the inherent structure is not designed to encourage high productivity due to being seriously flawed. There are a number of reasons for this and I will expand on the following three ineffective systems:

1. Reward structure
2. Development and promotion structure
3. Manager development

Reward structure – With the exception of a few enlightened organisations the majority still reward employees using systems to place them in pay grades. I have yet to discover a grading system that actually takes account of the unique contribution of each and every employee. We are all different and therefore will contribute to our role in different ways that need to be identified and rewarded in relation to the performance outputs. Almost every employee knows that their pay has been put through what they call a ‘sausage machine’ process that produces packages that often bear little resemblance to the contribution made. This is one very serious area that needs to be addressed if organisations really want to improve productivity. When they have truly effective managers the accountability for payment would delegated to them from a pool of money directly related to the profitability and effectiveness of their efforts. When an effective performance review and reward system is in place it would go a long way to redress the significant inequality in rewards that we read about almost every day.

Development and promotion structure – it always amazes me the degree of effort that goes into succession and development planning that produces measurably limited outcomes. Some organisations have employed sophisticated computer programmes to manage performance and development. However they fail to recognise that the system is fundamentally designed to provide management with the comfort that it is at the cutting edge along with other similar organisations. It’s often more about ‘keeping up with the Jones’ than effectively identifying the talent that needs to be developed from the talent ready to take on more demanding challenges. It is unfortunate that many ‘systems’ are open to inappropriate influence by ineffective managers who introduce bias and skewed information into the process. Sometimes this information has severely dented or even blighted the careers of very promising talented people. One answer is to give accountability to effective managers to carry out performance and development reviews and to share their findings with other effective managers. In this way the knowledge of who should be developed and promoted is shared with a cadre of effective managers.

 Manager development – tends to still follow a somewhat tradition pathway with a number of practices that are clearly out of kilter with the world or 2012. Here are three of the practices that are still preached in some training programmes, management books, and in universities.

1. Avoid becoming friendly with your employees in case you need to reprimand or even fire them. I have heard this mantra expressed many times and it just does not make sense today. The opportunity a manager has is to become part of the team and to work closely with colleagues in a collegiate manner. In this way the whole team can be focused on the desired result with everyone pulling in the same direction. Being friendly and approachable is an asset for managers as this enables team members to openly deal with issues that may be affecting them. Being friendly is not about being ‘buddy-buddy’ in a close familiar manger it is about being able to relate effectively with all the team and other managers.
2. Give praise only when the employee achieves exceptional performanceas they are paid for good performance and no praise is needed for that. This is often given as an excuse when managers are challenged about the paucity of their performance feedback. The reality is that some of them are unable even to accurately identify good performance by team members. This is exacerbated by the lack of an effective performance management system in some organisations.Feedback is the lifeblood of performance particularly when it is timely and clearly related to outcomes achieved by each person. All effective managers and team leaders know this fact and actively seek ways to provide accurate and timely feedback. They also are prepared to constructively confront poor performance. This is to assist the person to identify what needs to change in order for the desired performance to be achieved.
3. Delegate only to the employees who have the skill to do the work required. This misses the point that delegating is one way of making the management role more effective. Delegating it is a great way to help empower employees; however, unfortunately it is often used to dump trivial, mundane, or difficult work on them. Effective delegation requires careful thinking and planning to ensure that the work delegated is actually used to develop a person’s skills and knowledge. Unfortunately the evidence indicates that many managers and team leaders are not trained to use delegation as a development tool it is designed to achieve.

 Time for change

I outlined ideas that could enable organisations to transition from the less effective practices to more enabling ones in an earlier blog entitled ‘Cultivating Talent’. There is no doubt that by keeping doing the same things nothing will change therefore it is time to seek different and better ways of working that truly develop people. This is turn will help to improve performance with resulting increases in performance and profitability.

In my next blog I intend to focus on executive rewards, an issue that is creating a lot of heat at the moment due to the perception that it is grossly unfair.

If you have any comments to make I would appreciate hearing from you by either contacting me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leaving a comment on the blog.

Best wishes

Tom

Cultivating talent

In my last blog I described how to find and develop the hidden talent in organisations. In this blog I return to the theme of why organisations fail to identify and develop their own talent in an effective manner. I will describe the reasons in this and a subsequent blog.

Productivity improvement

The consistent message read in many papers and on TV is that we need to improve our productivity in order to enable businesses to be profitable and countries to reduce debt and move into surplus. Some of the reasons given for most poor productivity are low investment, no innovation, lack of investment in R&D, low morale, lack of skilled labour, and ineffective management. There is ample evidence to show that one or more of the reasons can certainly have an adverse impact on productivity. I will focus on the last three reasons as I believe that they account for a significant amount of the low productivity.

Low morale

Similar to most situations there can be many reasons causing low morale in an organisation. However, there is a lot of evidence to show that low morale is associated with a number causes including the following:

• Inadequate workplace facilities
• Lack of the right equipment and resources
• Poor and inadequate communications
• Insufficient rewards for good performance
• Lack of relevant and effective feedback
• Conflict through difficult relationships
• Dominant competitive culture
• Lack of appreciation shown for effective work

There is no doubt that low morale is a significant contributor to poor productivity as the issuse listed above knock the stuffing out of most employees.

Lack of skilled labour

This is a fairly regular cry from business in times of boom yet they are quick to lay off their skilled people during recessions. We know that costs need to be contained but the issue is why it always appears to affect employees at the sharp end of the business. There is a strong perception of a disproportionate allocation in that senior management and other management people appear to be less affected. The drive for profit in order to meet the market and shareholder expectations clearly influences organisations to cut out employees who will not cost too much to layoff. Whereas, it would be much more expensive to layoff senior managers, thus the easy decision is frequently taken.

It is surprising to think that those who provide leadership in organisations fail to recognise that by making the people who produce redundant will have long term consequences. Those who are retained usually find that they have to do extra work to make up for those removed as well as it having a serious impact on loyalty. I recall a number of younger employees remarking that they would not go the extra mile for their employers because their fathers had been made redundant after between 20 to 30 years’ service. Although this was with different organisations they were adamant that business had no heart or soul so why go out of their way to do anything other than ‘keep their nose clean’. Not a very encouraging attitude to improve productivity.

Ineffective management

The US, UK, and Australian ‘Undercover Boss’ television series illustrate how little senior management really understands what goes on in their organisations. The failure to identify the really outstanding talent in the business coupled with a failure to give appropriate recognition for effective service delivered communicates neglect of a significant degree. Dr Rhema Vaithianathan of the Auckland University Business School revealed that a government survey of 152 firms revealed that NZ managers were amongst the worst in the world for their inability to recruit, promote, and keep ‘high talent’ staff. I certainly concur with her findings as my experience in many NZ organisations have exposed me to many senior managers who did not deserve the salary they were paid.

However, it would be useful to stand back and explore the reasons for this very poor scorecard on particularly NZ managers. As well as those managers not worth their salary, I have interacted with many high achieving directors, senior managers, and middle managers who wanted to develop their employees. They recognised that this was the most effective way of achieving higher productivity as well as creating a positive working environment. In most instances they introduced a number of initiatives designed to improve performance. I will describe what caused many of them to fail in my next blog post.

You may have received a blog on affiliate marketing by mistake and if you are interested in this area you will find it at www.tomjaap.com

As usual I would appreciate receiving your feedback by either contacting me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leaving a comment on the blog.

Best wishes

Tom

Talented people are available

There is ample empirical evidence from a wide range of sources to support the view that most organisations have a significant number of employees who are capable and talented. It is also very interesting to note that in some organisations the talented people tend to be clearly innovative and productive in the way they do their work. They are the people who tend to work ‘smarter’ rather than ‘harder’ as they achieve sustainable outputs. The main reason that they are motivated to continue to develop and maintain a high level of contribution is often associated with their personal commitment and overall morale.

High morale

It is important to note that there can be many factors that produce high morale in an organisation. Evidence from the best place to work surveys show that this is associated with a number of actions taken by management including the following:

• Active involvement in work design and implementation

• Opportunity to be innovative with work practices

• Workstation facilities that are fit for purpose

• Availability of the right equipment and resources

• Clear and effective communications

• Excellent rewards for effective performance

• Regular, relevant and effective feedback

• Productive and constructive relationships

• Highly collaborative culture

• Regular appreciation shown for effective work

There is no doubt that high morale is a significant contributor to productivity as the issues listed above provide the necessary motivation for most employees.

Creating a high morale culture

Organisations that recognise the need to demonstrate that they value their people tend to be the ones with a high morale culture. They know that their employees have different needs and expectations and therefore avoid implementing ‘one size fits all’ strategies. To get to know what their people think and need they encourage them to be actively involved in shaping all policies and practices. The organisations have confidence in their people due to recognising the following facts that most people:

• Have a strong desire to do a good job

• Want to receive up-to-date information on progress

• Need to feel involved in a constructive way

• Like relationships to be constructive

• Want to have the resources to do a good job

• Receive regular feedback on performance

• Give feedback on how they are being ‘managed’

• Have their effective performance suitably rewarded

There will naturally be other factors that influence organisations to be confident in their people; however, the ones listed tend to be regarded as the most important.

Desirable approach to ‘managing’

To achieve the desired level of morale in an organisation the leaders also recognise that their approach to managing needs to be different from the traditional hierarchical approach. Working on the premise that their people are capable and motivated to achieve the leaders focus on encouraging a high level of ‘self-managing’ to take place. This would involve some or all of the following activities depending on each person’s role:

• Involved in designing their jobs to encourage a feeling of ownership resulting in wanting to successfully accomplish the desired outputs

• Encourage them to set and agree stretching achievable goals for themselves and teams

• They would also agree the behaviour and actions that would be needed to lead them to achieving successful business outcomes

• All outputs would be measurable/observable by the people to enable them to continuously monitor their own, and the teams, performance

• Individuals and team would agree the personal and team rewards for achieving the agreed goals.

• Support and guidance coupled with learning opportunities would be made readily available to enable individuals and teams to improve on their own self-managing practices.

Regular and constructive 360° feedback would be a critical part of the culture. This would be designed to enable all employees from the CEO along to the newest employee to be regularly informed on their goal performance and working behaviour. The aim would be to encourage continuous learning and development as a means of motivating everyone to look for ways to improve their performance.

Effective management

There are interesting insights into how to be an effective leader from the US, UK, and Australian ‘Undercover Boss’ television series. The programmes tend to illustrate how a senior manager going undercover gets an opportunity to understand what goes on in their organisation. The power of the learning is clearly demonstrated by the various insights each leader gains. There are also many humbling experiences exposed where employees are working under harrowing personal and organisational situations. What the programme does in its ‘edited’ format is to show the gap that exists between the ‘leaders’ and the ‘workers’. The main cause is how traditional hierarchies tend to encourage increasing distance from the senior managers to the front line team.

For management to be effective in today’s dynamic and interconnected world of work there is an urgent need to introduce the practices outlined above. The more employees are constructively engaged in shaping the culture and their work the less there is a need for traditional ‘management’.

I would appreciate hearing from you by either contacting me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leaving a comment on the blog.

Best wishes

Tom

People are revolting

The Middle East is in a lot of turmoil as the ‘people’ demand change from the dictatorships they have experienced for years to greater democracy in their terms. However, as we have seen, the capitulation in Egypt has not taken place in some of the other countries experiencing unrest. What is happening is the use of force with the army and security forces clamping down with draconian and brutal action designed to stamp out the ‘disorder’. Yet the protests continue even in the face of arrest, imprisonment, torture, and even death.

Now you may ask “what has this to do with culture change in organisations”. My response would be to say “quite a lot” as the reasons the various regimes fight to retain the status quo is a mirror image of what goes on in organisations. They may not use armed weapons but they do tend to make significant use of traditional, psychological and physical methods to quell any imminent revolt by employees.

Following are a few of the key reasons that can be noted about culture change from the ‘unrest’ being in experienced in the Middle East that can be applied to culture change.

1. The people in power have all the organs of State set up in ways that support the regime to ensure that the privileged remain privileged.
2. Force will be used to contain and eliminate any dissident behaviour even to the extent of using excessive force when the regime considers it necessary.
3. Fear is the key weapon of the regime as keeping its people in a state of constant fear makes it much easier to control them. To achieve this state of fear the regime needs to recruit and reward some citizens who are prepared to support it with total loyalty. These citizens are ‘happy’ to use whatever resources necessary to sustain the regime of fear over the less fortunate citizens.
4. Although the leaders have accumulated great wealth and privilege, frequently gained by corrupt means, there appears to be very little the ordinary citizen can do to redress this unfairness.
5. The bureaucracy and corruption that citizens experience is designed to keep them in their ‘place’ and to ensure that they do not become ‘empowered’ to challenge the status quo.

It is almost impossible to describe the complexity of structure and rule that exists in the Middle East and the five characteristics are not individual items but part of a control tapestry used by the rulers. Let us now turn to what we can learn from the above about business organisations today.

Why status quo still rules

Although we have experienced many amazing developments over the years in science and technology very little has changed in the way most private and public organisations operate with their people. Some of the reasons are very closely related to those listed above that have kept dictatorships in power for many years.

1. The structure of most organisations is based on an autocatic hierarchy that is based on the notion that the ‘workers’ need to be very closely supervised by those in ‘management’. In the distant past there may have been some truth to this assertion, however, in today’s world it is becoming increasingly spurious. Yet after a whole heap of culture change initiatives carried out in many organisation very little positive change has occurred. The reason is clear to see as the hierarchy is naturally committed to retaining the status quo between the roles of those called ‘bosses’ from those labelled the ‘workers’.
2. Those in positions of power will fight to retain it as the beneifts of what they have and aspire to are so significnat that the fear of losing them inspires the drive to defend them. It has often been said to me by senior managers that they would be mad to give up the rewards/benefits that they had invested years working towards. A clearly understandable position that drives the need to retain the status quo.
3. Inequality of reward for contribution is one of the major areas of contention between the ‘workers’ and ‘management’. The ratio of earnings increasing between them only gives greater focus on what many consider to be an unjust and morally undefendable situation. In many cases the rewards paid to managers are in no way related to performance but more to what is euphistically called ‘the market rate’. Whereas for the ‘worker’ their rewards are often based on some measure of performance determined by ‘management’. This results in a significant gap between the value added by the ‘workers’ compared to the negative value deducted by many in the ‘management’ cadre.
4. Inequality in the roles played by women along with the disparity in the rewards received compared with what men receive. This has been a ‘running sore’ for many women who know that their contribution to the organisation is at least as effective if not more effective than their male colleagues. Although the ‘glass ceiling’ syndrome has been broken in some organisations it is still more difficult for a woman to be promoted than for a male colleague. The unstated reasons are fairly predictable in that women are too ‘emotional’, don’t like dealing with conflict, lose career traction when having children, are not as ambitious as men, unreliable when making decisions, and too interested in harmony over competition.
5. Fear is endemic in many organisations due to the harassment, bullying, and other unfair practices that exist to control the ‘workers’. The fact that fear exists is one of the reasons that Unions have taken on the role of helping their members when ‘management’ has initiated action against one or more of them. The sad truth is that although fear is an incredible force for retaining control it is an equally powerful demotivator resulting in reducing productivity.

What can we learn about making change happen?

There are an interesting number of factors in play that strongly suggest that achieving culture change may in fact become easier. However, it is very clear that one way is not to challenge the ‘management’ directly about change as this alerts them and gives them time to employ their defensive tactics.

To achieve effective culture change requires a vision of what needs to change and what would replace the existing regime to make it a better place for the organisations ‘citizens’. This is unlikely to be one person’s vision as it will take more than one visionary to shape a new culture. Social networking is now offering an excellent way for employees to network and share their view of what needs to be different and better.

The way that social networking is emboldening people power is both exciting and scary as it has its up and downsides. However, handled in a transparent and honest manner it offers a speedy and effective way for people to share their views and opinions. Therefore connecting with like-minded colleagues is the starting point of change as this facilitates the sharing of personal visions from which an integrated vision could emerge.

As the new vision takes shape it will acknowledge that most people are driven by ‘WIIFM’ to some degree. This means appreciating that altruism can be in short supply and any change needs to offer some benefits to those involved before they will be motivated to act. Removal of fear, greater equality, recognition for contribution, encouragement of self-managing practices, more collaboration rather than competition, rewards that relate to the value added, and appreciation and respect shown to everyone in the organisation because they have ‘earned’ it would offer such benefits.

Power to the people!!!

There is no doubt that technology has enabled many groups of people to network in ways that assist them to keep informed and focused on what they want to achieve. Another factor is the fact that the majority of people in organisations are genuinely committed to do a good job. The main reason why some of them fall by the wayside is due to the conforming drive of their organisations for them to ‘fit’ into the culture. The promise of promotion and the accruing benefits encourage people to naturally seek a better lifestyle; unfortunately this often includes increasing debt to buy it. There is also the tendency to be led into having ‘golden handcuffs’ that make it difficult to be different in terms of seeking needed change.

An interesting observation is that it is not only young people who are expressing and taking action to address what they consider to be inappropriate. The awareness can be found across all age groups and this is what will make change happen in ways that we have not yet discovered. All told we are entering a very interesting if not a somewhat scary time.

What is next?

I plan to continue to look for insights from what is happening in the Middle East that point to learning that would be useful to assist in culture change initiatives.

I would appreciate hearing from you by either contacting me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leaving a comment on the blog.

Best wishes

Tom

Extreme weather events

I happened to be in Darwin just as cyclone Carlos was approaching the coast. To experience the incredible destructive force of nature is a very frightening yet humbling experience. However, once the enormous force of the cyclone had passed it was amazing to observe how quickly the various services pulled together to bring the city back to normal. On our journey to Sydney we learned of the second major earthquake that had struck Christchurch which on this occasion had a significant number of fatalities.

Tragic results from earthquake

The city of Christchurch in New Zealand suffered on 22^nd February a serious earthquake that wrecked a significant part of its central business district along with over 10,000 homes in the surrounding areas. The expected death toll could be over 200 with many more experiencing injuries from the very to less serious. From the TV images and the local papers the city looks like a war zone with large parts of the CDB cordoned off with access only to the rescue and recovery teams.

Amid this scene of destruction emerged many people who have put their own lives at risk to help others. The media has been full of stories of the many quiet ‘hero’s’ who helped to rescue and take care of those trapped and injured by collapsing buildings and falling masonry. There has also been an obvious sense of mutual support as seen by the way the various communities have rallied to supply food and shelter to those in need.

Volunteer engagement

In fact one of the most outstanding examples of the way people responded was demonstrated by what had become known as the ‘student army’. Shortly after the quake struck and the enormity of the damage became apparent the students grasped the opportunity to provide practical help. It was amazing to observe how well they organised themselves and armed with wheelbarrows and shovels got stuck into clearing the liquefied soil resulting from the quake. After only a few days there were about 18,000 students involved in the cleaning up activity much to the gratitude of the residents.

The volunteer engagement was not limited to the ‘student army’ and help emerged from other areas close to and quite a distant from the city. In addition to the excellent international response to the rescue effort there was also excellent response by local South Island communities. From farmers fronting up with mechanised tools to the many hundreds who produced meals and collected clothing for those who were left only with the clothes they stood in. Help and support emerged from all around even to the extent of private helicopters setting up a supply chain to deliver hot food to the most deserving areas.

The most interesting aspect of the volunteer response was how highly motivated they were to get things as quickly back to ‘normal’ as possible for the people they were helping. They continued to work in what can only be described as terrible conditions as they were clearly focused on doing the best they could for the citizens experiencing very trying conditions. I could fill many pages with examples of the great volunteer work that continues to be done and they far outweigh the few examples of those who took advantage of the situation. There were some reports of looting and burglaries, however, in the scale of things it was miniscule compared with the efforts of the volunteers.

Now the earthquake in Japan

If we thought that the Christchurch earthquake was big, the one the hit Japan was of a magnitude of 8000% greater. The destruction that the quake and tsunami caused was catastrophic with the loss of life in the thousands. Added to which several of their nuclear power stations are about to go into meltdown with even more catastrophic outcomes for the population in a wide area near the plants. Once again the response from the international community has been quick with many countries sending skilled search and rescue teams.

It would be easy to become overwhelmed with this destructive force of nature all happening in a short space of time. However, the response from the international community coupled with the efforts of local people like the student army in Christchurch generates hope rather than despair. Although the effort to recreate what has been lost in physical terms might appear formidably daunting, the spirit of the people will eventually make it happen. This is why I believe that there is a need for a significant change to traditional organisations to capture this powerful ‘volunteer’ spirit. I have described earlier blog posts how an enabling approach in organisations could achieve this goal.

Are there lessons here for organisations?

I have talked about engagement and enabling in a number of recent posts as I see this as one way of encouraging ‘employees’ to feel a valued part of their organisation. It is clear to me that the traditional hierarchical organisation is fundamentally incapable of creating an environment that truly engages its people. This is due to the fact that it operates in a ‘market’ economy driven by producing regular financial results to meet ‘market’ expectations. True engagement emerges when the environment has more of a ‘social’ feel to it in that it encourages its people to regularly interact with each other with both business and social conversations.

The UK and US TV series of Undercover Boss are providing very interesting insights into the mindsets of many senior managers. I recognise that this is a ‘reality’ show and that we are not being shown all that takes place during the week going ‘undercover’. However, the humility and honesty displayed by the undercover bosses appears real and sincere as they have been exposed to working with real people at the sharp end of their businesses. Hearing genuine descriptions from each of the employees of what goes on in their part of the business and the feedback from them on the ‘bosses’ performance certainly appeared to make a significant impact. Today’s managers don’t need to go ‘undercover’ to learn about their business as all they need to do is engage with, listen, and understand what is being communicated from their employees points of view.

I often hear of how each young generation are stereotyped as GenX or GenY and that they are motivated either by their selfishness or willingness to collaborative. However, when you peel away the generalisation we find that each generation is clearly influenced by the culture that has grown around them. Today’s youth in developed countries are generally tech savvy and very comfortable with social networking. Yet we learn of organisations that ban their people from using Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and the many other social networking sites that abound on the internet during ‘working’ hours.

The social world is changing

However, it is not only the youth of today who are tech savvy and appreciate social networking. We are actually experiencing a sea change in life expectancy coupled with a high level of fitness for a wide range of generation’s right up to those in their 90s. Yet for reasons that appears to make sense to senior managers they still work from traditional outdated mindsets. They still appear to believe that their rational thinking enables them to apply market practices whilst wanting much more social engagement and loyalty from their people.

It is really very difficult to engender engagement in an environment that still believes in making its people redundant when business is tough. Also by paying incentives and bonuses that this will motivate people for the longer term. They also want their people to be ‘team’ players whilst still paying them as individuals. This list of follies could go on and on, however, I believe that with the greater use of the internet ‘people power’ will play a greater part in encouraging organisations to fundamentally change their ways.

“I am ready and capable”

This is the message that I hear most individual saying when they join an organization. They may not have all the skills and knowledge to do some jobs at the beginning; however, with appropriate training and development coupled with relevant rewards they can be more than effective contributors. I have suggested in earlier postings ways to achieve this. The main question is “will managers have the sense to realize the need to change”? What is happening in the Middle East and in other parts of the world should be sending a very clear message to those traditional managers that the status quo is not acceptable.

I sometimes think that I am a voice in the wilderness and that there is no one out there who thinks that the time for effective change is urgent. If I am saying things that resonate with you, I would love to hear from you by either contacting me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leaving a comment on the blog.

Best wishes

Tom

People using their capability

There is a widely held belief in ‘senior management’ that the people employed in their organisations need to be ‘managed’. The manager’s role is to control the employee’s activities to align with the organisation’s goals and outputs. The aim of this ‘managing’ is to enable every employee to apply their obvious talent to deliver the desired profitable outputs. In many instances the results are achieved and the ‘management’ believes that its control over people is the best and most effective way to operate. Yet evidence from a number of legitimate surveys shows that a significant number of employees are demotivated and feel limited engagement with the organisation. This indicates that organisations are not getting the optimal return from their employees.

What appears to be the missing link is ‘management’s’ lack of awareness that most employees have a greater range of capabilities that are ready to be released. The key to realising this potential talent is a culture that recognises this capability and gives everyone the opportunity to employ their talent without unnecessary interference by ‘management’. This can be achieved by ‘management’ stopping telling their people what to do and how to do it, instead they should be informing them on what needs to be achieved and why. The next step is to then ask them to reflect back what they are going to do as a result.

‘Management’ needs to learn to encourage people to adapt their actions to realise the overall outputs because people are in the best position to observe what is actually happening. People need boundaries that are broad enough to take decisions for themselves and act upon them but not so broad that a mistake on their part would lead to a disaster for the organisation. This is the new skill area for ‘management’ to balance communicating what it wants its employees to achieve along with determining in cooperation with their people the boundaries.,

Releasing creativity

Encouraging creativity is one of the most valuable actions that ‘management’ can take as it can provide insights into different and better ways of achieving the desired outputs. Time after time I have been given excellent examples of ways to improve product/service by those responsible for making it happen. However, when I have encouraged the people to give feedback to ‘management’ the information is acknowledged yet no action is taken. It is quite sad that the people who know what needs to be done just will not make the necessary changes because they await permission from ‘management’. It is a vicious circle that retards progress and productivity improvement that everyone wants.

One of the main barriers to creativity is ‘management’s’ obsession with attempting to create perfect plans which in today’s fluid environment is impossible to achieve. However, it is important to plan within the circumstances that they can foresee. The aim is to use the knowledge that is accessible to the ‘management’ to work out the outcomes they really want the organisation to achieve. The next stage is to quickly formulate the strategy as intent rather than as a detailed plan in order to introduce the necessary flexibility. In this way the critical need of achieving alignment of purpose in an organisation can be achieved. When this is in place it is then possible to give everyone the necessary operational autonomy that enables them to be creative and productive.

The more alignment that can be achieved the greater opportunity there is for ‘management’ can give more autonomy to its people. Alignment is achieved around what to achieve and why. Autonomy is granted about what to do and how.

Autonomy and risk

I have been actively involved in encouraging creativity and it comes as no surprise that in almost every case where creativity is applied it also involves risks. In fact there are very few examples of creativity that has not involved lots of mistakes from which very valuable lessons were learned resulting is eventual success. Therefore if an organisation wants to encourage creativity it will need to create a culture that gives its people enough autonomy to enable them to try new ways and be prepared to accept that mistakes will be made. It is often said that people do not learn until they have made mistakes on their journey to achieving a productive outcome.

The challenge from developing countries

This is coming quickly as developing countries use their people’s creativity to develop new products and services. It is also interesting to note that they do not hesitate to copy existing products and services and to then make improvements that make them different and better. Copying from others is frowned upon in developed countries yet the practice is widely used by many to improve. Children learn to talk and walk by copying from their parent’s, we are educated using a process of copying what teachers tell us, learning to improve in a sport often involves copying what a coach shows us to do. If copying is so central to our learning why not use it to improve our creativity.

The primary barrier tends to be in our mindset which has been established by those who tell us that copying is cheating rather than seeing it as a normal way to effectively learn. Therefore there is a great opportunity for us all to adopt copying as a vehicle to applying our creativity to make measurable improvement on the thing we have copied. This is about “avoiding investing time re-inventing the wheel, more about finding new and exciting uses for it”.

The challenge for developed countries

Developed countries, and the West in particularly, should be very aware of the rapid development taking place in many developing countries with those in Asia leading the way. Where the developing countries used to look to the Western World for ideas they are now developing their own and are becoming very aware that they don’t need the Western World to the degree they previously thought. This is a ‘wake-up’ call that needs to be noticed and action taken to adjust mindsets to enable those in developed countries to be more effective in ways that add value to business, communities, families and friends.

I will describe the steps you can take to improve your creativity and overall effectiveness resulting in gaining more autonomy. You will already have the capability to be creative; however, over the years you may have had experiences that dented your creative confidence. These incidents often create mental blocks to creativity and I will describe some of these and how to overcome them in my next blog. In the meantime you could reflect on how empowered and creative you are in your current role and what would help you to further develop your creative capability.

If you find my ideas on creativity and autonomy interesting please feel free to share them with your friends and colleagues. Also if you would like to learn more about my ideas contact me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leave a comment on the blog.

I would also appreciate feedback on what issues that you consider that I have not covered adequately or addressed at all that would be of interest to you or your colleagues.

I also take this opportunity to wish you all the best for 2011 and that it produces all that you desire.

Best wishes

Tom

Enabling capable productive people

It should be obvious to readers of this blog that I am passionate about assisting current leaders to change their mindset in ways that enable their people to be as productive as they have the capability to be. This involves managers learning to use the six enabling roles described in earlier blogs. This also means ceasing to manage in ways that are perceived to be micro-managing and give their people the opportunity to manage themselves. Clearly this needs to be done against a framework in which each team member clearly understands what they need to accomplish and have the necessary resources to do so. They also appreciate the need to be aware of what each of their colleagues is expected to achieve to enable them to collaborate in ways that assist all parties to effectively achieve their goals.

My many years of consulting around the world means that I have no qualms about stating that most people want to do a great job and usually have the ability to do so if given the right environment and support. In fact the world of work is changing so fast that many leaders and managers are updating their mindsets because they recognise that the traditional process of managing just does not produce the desired results. They instinctively know that even the carrot/stick incentive/punishment approach does not have anything like the outcomes that those who support it expect. The effective leader/manager knows the evidence that shows that most financial incentives have a very short shelf life and eventually become a demotivator. The challenge they have is to help those managers who cling on to their outdated beliefs because they know the strength of these and other beliefs are the reason that many very effective people are being continually disadvantaged in the working arena at all levels in organisations.

How HR can play a critical role

I have a vested interest in seeing the HR role become truly effective as a Chartered Companion of the Institute of Personnel Development in the UK. I know that there are a significant number of HR practitioners who strive every day to help the people in their organisation. However, I am also certain that a radical different approach is required to meet people needs today and in the future. The type of HR function I perceive to be needs to be different and the following characteristics provide some examples of the difference:

• HR would be charged with the responsibility of dealing with every single employee in a manner that provided them with the same service irrespective of role or level in the organisation.
• HR would not be part of ‘management’ in the traditional role; however, it would operate at the most senior level with reporting responsibility to the Chairman and not the CEO.
• HR needs to be able to effectively handle each and every issue raised by an employee irrespective of level and seniority in the organisation. Therefore if a front line person takes a grievance out against a manager the employee would trust HR to treat the issue in an even handed manner knowing that they do not need to report the process to the ‘management’.
• HR would be actively involved in helping team leaders and managers obtain the most effective results from their team members. This would include equipping team leaders and managers to effectively handle all performance issues including pay and other rewards. On the performance issue HR would act as ‘honest brokers’ by ensuring the accuracy of performance reviews and subsequent rewards between those being reviewed and the reviewers.

The critical difference in the role is in it being solely focused on enabling all of those employed in an organisation to achieve the best they can by creating a transparent level playing field.

Can HR make the change?

With the number of quality of people who are involved in the HR arena the answer should be yes, however, to achieve the change the following existing practices would need to also change:

• HR has always wanted to be represented at the top of an organisation and this has resulted in it being accepted as part of ‘management”. The suggested role would see them placed in a powerful position in an organisation as an ‘empowering’ resource for all employees irrespective of level or position. They could be an ‘outsourced’ service who are contracted to supply agreed quality services.
• Many HR functions are not trusted by employees simply due to how they are frequently evidenced to support the ‘management’ case against employees with a grievance.
• HR has taken on a controlling role in many management functions including payroll, health & safety, performance management, recruitment, etc. These are fundamentally roles that should be performed by managers with HR being focused on ensuring that the organisation appropriately equips team leaders and managers to effectively handle the roles.
• Grievance processes that are perceived to be ‘management’ controlled need to be changed to be ‘neutral’ and focused on finding a ‘win-win’ solution whenever possible. They also need to be divorced from any management process to ensure that decisions are not contaminated by pressure to conform to management dictats.

These are just some of the HR practices that create employee disadvantage and dissatisfaction resulting in demotivation with low productivity. With the ready accessibility of information an increasing number of people are becoming less willing to accept practices that they can clearly see results in their disadvantage. This is why the call for greater transparency coupled with practices that empower get louder and fortunately more enlightened organisations are responding in a constructive manner.

An engaged culture

It makes so much sense to have people who are so engaged in their organisation because they believe in what they are doing and the value that they add because they get continuous and appropriate feedback on their performance. This is the opportunity for organisations to gain significant productivity gains from their people simply because they are genuinely committed without the need to use old school incentive techniques to motivate them.

I intend to delve further into the concept outlined above in my next blog. If you would like to learn more about the above ideas contact me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leave a comment on the blog.

Best wishes

Tom

19.10.2010

The reality of disadvantage

I read, or hear from someone almost every day a scenario that really saddens me about the level of abuse and disadvantage being experienced by people in organisations around the world, You would think that by now most leaders or people accountable for achieving results with their people would be doing everything in their power to enable every single employee to do just that. However, beyond a few exemplary examples, the a significant majority of people experience the opposite in terms of bullying, unfair treatment, favouritism, nepotism, and/or just general incompetence from those people charged with their leadership.

On a recent return flight from Spain to London I had an interesting conversation with a woman sitting next to me. After some time talking about Tony Blair’s memoirs and other items of general interest she told me a story from her recent employment. She believed that, although she was considered to be a very capable part-time employee, she still felt to some degree discriminated in the relationship with senior management. On one occasion she needed senior management approval to carry out an important financial transaction. Eventually she was ushered into the MD’s office along with the finance director and explained to the MD what needed to be done.

Some months later when she was receiving her performance review she was told that she needed to be more culturally sensitive. After some investigation she discovered to her surprise that the MD (different nationality) had commented to the HR director that he was not accustomed to receiving requests from her level in the organisation. This had been translated into cultural insensitivity and was recorded to be raised when her performance was due to be reviewed.

The above is just one small example of several more serious ones shared during over 60 minutes talking about her job, the role of HR and senior management in her eventual exit from the organisation. Her story resonated with me as it mirrored the many similar stories that I have been privileged to hear from participants on workshops and employees in organisations that have sought my services. I also appreciate that there will be more than one side to each story; however, when the stories are triangulated the theme of employees of all levels being disadvantaged becomes very clear and disturbing.

The new managing roles (continued)

In earlier blogs I have talked about enabling roles for leaders that would achieve the degree of engagement from everyone needed to be a truly effective organisation. I have reflected on the roles in light of the perceived experience of disadvantage that people have shared with me before completing the final two roles. It was evident to me that for many leaders and managers these final two roles would appear irrelevant in the drive to be more profitable. The evidence is clear about the need to create organisational cultures that grow and develop all the people involved, yet many leaders still stick to the well worn and ineffective mode of ‘command/control’ methodologies. In my view an organisation that adopts the six roles would obtain a high level of voluntary contribution from all involved.

Now is the time to complete my picture of the six roles and here is a description of the final two roles:

1. Visionary
2. Enabler
3. Coach
4. Mentor
5. Team champion
6. Cheerleader

An interesting aspect of the two roles is a need for the leader to be ‘other’ rather than ‘self’ focused by keeping ego in check whilst attending to the needs of the team.

The Team Champion

In this role the leader has worked very hard to build a team of capable members that include those who are very experienced to some newer members who would be considered learners. As in any team environment there will be the usual ups and downs simply due to people being human. However, the Team Champion behaviour in most instances would be described as:

• Willing to continually support the team members.
• Recognises and effectively deals with any issue that appears to be impacting on team performance.
• Looks for opportunities to give encouraging feedback when the team was doing well and identifies/implements recovery methods when things are not functioning as planned.
• Deals effectively with other leaders and functions to ensure that their interface with the team is effectively constructive.
• Acts as a mediator and problem solver when issues arise that could adversely affect the team’s performance.
• If the team, or members of the team, are criticised by other parts of the business the Team Champion will continue to support those involved whilst digging into the issue to obtain the facts before deciding what action if any is required.
• Employs an ‘innocent’ until proved ‘guilty’ process whilst always giving the benefit of the doubt to the team or member.
• Retains the respect of all the team by being effective and by being appropriately approachable and fair in all dealings.

The real value of this role is the trust that is built between the Team Champion, the team and others who interact with them. The fact that the Team Champion is clearly focused on working with the team to enable it to be as effective as possible whilst looking for ways to encourage team members to continue to improve their performance. The Team Champion would also be keen to ensure that the team were appropriately recognised and rewarded for its achievements. Another outcome for the team would be an environment of enjoyment and satisfaction that comes from being the best and knowing that someone truly supports them and their efforts.

Cheerleader

This role extends the Team Champion role into one of seeking ways to genuinely enthuse and motivate the team. The Cheerleader recognises that true motivation comes from within each team member and that the role is about finding how to create an environment that lets team members discover the power of self-motivation. To achieve this state a number of factors need to be in place including the following:

• Team members must know what they are expected to accomplish in explicit terms that they understand and can achieve.
• Have the necessary resources to enable them to accomplish the agreed outputs.
• Be exposed to the type of leadership that provides clear direction and support.
• Receive regular ongoing feedback on performance coupled with support and training when needed.
• Expect to have effective performance recognised and rewarded as well as knowing that, if performance in not up to expectations, they will need to act to correct the deficiency.
• Experience a culture that believes in them as human beings who want to do the best they can as well as receive the support and learning necessary to achieve superior performance outcomes.
• Take opportunities to celebrate publicly achievements of individual team members as well as the team.
• Find ways to build individual capability and optimise potential.

With the above factors in place the Cheerleader would focus on keeping each team member up-to-date and functioning effectively. Because knowing that team members want to do a good job, it becomes essential to create and maintain an environment that stimulates team member motivation. Most people want to feel respected and valued which is not really too hard to accomplish is one has a mindset that believes that the majority of people want to be effective in whatever they do. This is a fundamental component of the Cheerleader role and with it the role will be truly effective and credible with any team.

Six enabling roles

It has been an interesting time thinking about and describing the six enabling roles against a backcloth of hearing more about disabling roles being performed in organisations. However, I am confident that an increasing number of existing and potential leaders will come to recognised the power that enabling has in helping them to achieve outstanding results with their teams.

In the meantime I will explore the arena of employee disadvantage and how the individuals involved can take effective action to minimise the damage they experience. In addition I believe that the HR role needs to change to be all employee encompassing rather than being viewed as biased towards ‘management’. I believe that HR has a very important role to perform as the guardian of all employees in terms of how they are treated by organisations. In fact the HR function would benefit from being viewed as ‘neutral’ in its approach rather than being distrusted because it is part of ‘management’. However, more on this in my next blog.

If there were any parts of the six roles that you would like to learn more about contact me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leave a comment on the blog.

Best wishes

Tom

Getting everyone actively involved

Almost every day I read about how more organisations are recognising that their management frameworks are not achieving the necessary engagement of all employees. In some instances there is a recognition that a significant number of employees do not need the level of ‘management’ that is in place. The reason is simply due to the general improvement in the level of capability that is available if only it was given the opportunity to be released.

Feedback clearly indicates that there is too much ‘management’ and not enough scope to enable a greater number of employees to ‘manage’ themselves. Although a certain degree of scepticism is poured on the concept of ‘self-managing’ the evidence drawn from organisations who have implemented it illustrates that it is a powerful self-motivator. The three new managing roles described below can significantly impact the level of employee engagement. The reason is quite simply the allocation of accountability from the manager to the person who is expected to deliver the desired results. This is a move from ‘management’ control to one of focused empowerment linked to achievement of specific outputs.

As I briefly review the three roles, I use the term learner to cover anyone who needs to develop skills, knowledge, and/or appropriate mindsets, irrespective of ‘level’ in an organisation.

The new managing roles (continued)

I focused on the Visionary role in my last blog and will now turn to the next three roles central to engaging effectively all employees to be part of the managing of the organisation irrespective of their sector of influence. The roles of Enabler, Coach, and Mentor can be critical facilitators of empowerment in that they focus on development by using positive and non-judgmental processes. I will now briefly explore each of the roles:

1. Visionary
2. Enabler
3. Coach
4. Mentor
5. Team champion
6. Cheerleader

One of the most exciting aspects of the three roles is that they are not predicated on hierarchy in that a senior person should work with a less senior person. It is more about capability, skill, knowledge transfer, and development which is not age or gender specific. There are now many examples of younger employees enabling their more experience colleagues to handle the increasing demands of a technological world and thus stay more connected and engaged.

The Enabler

If you would like an in-depth explanation of the role of the Enabler you will find it in my book entitled Enabling Leadership published by Gower in 1989 and is still very relevant today. I believe that we should all adopt the enabling role as it is one of the most effective ways of positively connecting with others to achieve required goals. The reasons are straightforward and can be observed by the following:

• ¨     It is non-judgmental in approach
• Is focused on achieving mutually beneficial outcomes
• Operates on the principle of belief in the capability of others
• Respects the person whilst assessing the performance
• Identifies and then works to develop appropriate skills and knowledge
• Involves others in decisions that could have an impact on them
• Is based on personal self-confidence that keeps ego in check
• Encourages everyone to ‘manage’ themselves and their resources

The enabling process is about developing capability in ways that fit with each person’s needs whilst being conscious of helping them to manage their expectations, because there can be a disconnect between the person’s wants, needs, and expectations.

The enabling process is beginning to replace traditional training and development in that it is based on encouraging learners to take full accountability of whatever they want/need to learn. This means assisting them to identify their skill or knowledge gap based on a clear understanding of what they aim to achieve. Followed by helping them to secure the support and resources they will need to make the development journey. Enablers will maintain a watching brief for as long as colleagues feel that it is being helpful. Primary enablers would usually be learner’s key supervisors/managers as they are the people mostly in a position accountable for ensuring learners receive the support and encouragement needed to help them succeed.

Coach

I don’t think that I need to expand too much on the coaching role as it is generally accepted and has been implemented in a significant number of organisations. The role used to be mainly associated in general with sport and more specifically with football; however, the coaching role has been embraced by both public and private organisations around the world. The reason for its wider acceptance is that is offers those who supervise/manage learners a much more powerful process of development of learners that the traditional ‘command/control’ process ever achieved. It is also a role that can be adopted by any person who has the required skill and knowledge base.

The real value of coaching is in its clear focus on skill development with the ability to call on a wide range of resources designed to suit the learner. It usually starts with establishing a benchmark on the current skill level followed by an assessment of what needs to be acquired to meet the new performance requirements. The focus is on knowing what learners need to achieve and on helping them to find the most effective ways of acquiring the resources to make it happen. The coach’s role is usually employed for the time necessary to enable learners to achieve the desired performance level in a sustainable manner. It is a most effective process for growing the capability of the individual thus enabling them to feel valued by the organisation and it also effectively meets the ongoing performance requirements of the organisation.

As mentioned above it is a role that can be applied by many employees who have a capability that is needed by other colleagues. There is no doubt that they would also benefit from learning to effectively coach from those who are experienced coaches. There are also many organisations offering certificated training in coaching which moves the process to a more experienced level.

Mentor

When carried out in an effective manner the role of mentor can be a very powerful short or longer term process that enables individuals to develop their potential.  Organisations that support the mentoring process are more likely to be seen as able to integrate individual aspirations with opportunities thus creating a motivational and innovative culture. Individuals may use a number of mentors that can add value to their thinking and provide insights about potential opportunities.

Usually a mentor is an uninvolved confidante and advisor i.e. not the person’s manager. Sessions are strictly confidential and not part of ‘management’ processes, thus allowing the mentee to explore issues and take risks without fear that the conversation will become known. I have had first hand knowledge of the effectiveness of mentoring when it is done well and of the ineffectiveness when done poorly. In fact it would be better not even attempted unless it is going to be well done. What is needed is a constructive relationship between mentors and mentees based on respect with a clear agreement on the groundrules they will work to. Done well it provides both parties with growth and development as there is challenge in mentoring others’ aspirations and enabling them to achieve what they want.

Whatever your position of accountability, If you do not have in your life an effective enabler, coach and/or mentor, get one or more of them now and experience the empowerment that will result.

Completing the six roles

You will have observed that the Enabling role is usually associated with the people accountable for learners outputs, however, the role can also be adopted by others who have a constructive interest in assisting learners develop. Enablers will be concerned with ‘smoothing the pathway’ for learners to enable them to acquire the additional skills and knowledge required to be improved performers. Whereas, the Coaching role would be carried out by people who have the necessary skills and knowledge. The Coaching role is the most intense due to the nature of the close liasion needed with learners to guide them by instruction, drills, practice to acquire the ability to perform at the level they and their organisation requires.

Although the final two roles of Team champion and Cheerleader have some characteristics that are similar to the four roles that I have described there are some interesting differences. I will cover the roles in my next blog, however, in the meantime if there are any parts of the role that you would like to learn more about contact me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leave a comment on the blog.

Best wishes

Tom

The new managing roles

I briefly outlined the following six new managing roles in my last blog and will provide more detail on Visionary in this blog:

1. Visionary
2. Enabler
3. Coach
4. Mentor
5. Team champion
6. Cheerleader

Although I have called them ‘new’ managing roles the reality is that they already exist and are practised in the more enlightened organisations. However, we need to be aware that sometimes the roles have been applied in ways that fail to deliver the positive outcomes that they are designed to achieve.

At all times it is important to remember that these managing roles are about creating a constructive environment that is designed to encourage and release team member talent. The aim is to enable every team member to empower themselves to use their capability to deliver whatever they are accountable for, to the desired quality and on time.

Understanding the context of managing behaviour

Before we explore the Visionary managing role in more detail it would be useful to explore the fact that although we are all different we share many behavioural characteristics. From the time of Aristotle it was recognised that in the population there tended to be FOUR distinct types of people who have been described in a multitude of ways since.

Centell Limited decided to use a colour metaphor to describe four types of behaviour as a means of providing a relatively easy way to understand differences and similarities. The diagram below illustrates the four colour types with a brief description of each in terms how you can observe their managing behaviour.

This should help you to appreciate that we all tend to approach the way we manage from quite different perspectives and by using different contexts. With regard to the Visionary managing role, if we are a person with

• a very strong Red managing orientation, our preferred approach (vision) will be to inspire others to achieve the big picture outcomes
• a very strong Green managing orientation, our preferred approach (vision) will be to achieve perfect, detailed outputs that can withstand scrutiny
• a very strong Blue managing orientation, our preferred approach (vision) will be to focus others on achieving the agreed results
• a very strong Yellow managing orientation, our preferred approach (vision) will be of achieving outcomes through collaboration

As you can see, there is a high probability that conflict could emerge when working with others of a different ‘colour’ orientation unless one or both of us understand the differences in our respective managing approaches.

The fact that we all see the world differently to varying degrees makes the process of managing a highly skilled activity. It requires us to suppress our ego in order to focus on understanding the needs of our individual team members and then to seek the most effective ways to meet them – believing that this enabling approach releases their capability. This is where the new managing roles are critical in achieving this outcome; however, let us now look at the Visionary role in a bit more detail.

Visionary

As mentioned in my last post one of the most important needs that a team member has is to be clear on the purpose and direction of their organisation.

This is to provide team members with an understandable framework on how their contribution enables the required outputs to be achieved in collaboration with other team members. Understanding our own colour preferences and the colour preference of our manager means that we should be able to appreciate how they arrived at the vision they communicate and how this relates to us

Irrespective of a managers colour preference they need to be able to take a “helicopter view” in ways that take them above the minutia of everyday activities in order to perceive where they should be going in the future. One of the main blockages to shaping a vision that is meaningful to all team members is that managers tend to arrive at a collective vision based on what the board has deemed to be the way forward. This is then expected to be cascaded through the organisation. The basic flaw is in the belief that the vision can be ‘cascaded’ in ways that make sense to the various listeners without their active participation in shaping it.

The power of dialogue

The proven fact is that in today’s fast moving world no single person has all the answers even if they hold the position of CE or Director. This makes it essential for the Visionary manager to engage with others within and outwith the organisation to gain their insights. Therefore, dialogue with a wide range of team members is essential for managers to really understand and differentiate what the key issues are that can propel the organisation forward from the issues that anchor it in the present or past. The different perspective and contexts can help manager to put shape to a pathway to the future that is both visionary and inclusive. Engaging both formal and informal leaders in the envisioning process can make the difference between success and failure.

The Visionary manager manages by keeping the team informed about the way forward with:

• Keeping in touch” interactive sessions that focus on ways to improve performance and productivity.
• Regular feedback on how well the team is tracking on achieving its desired outputs.
• Information on potential changes to the team or its outputs with the opportunity to discuss them.
• Helping the team to get on with their work by dealing with all the internal and external issues that could deflect them from what needs to be achieved.
• Active involvement in dialoguing ideas on what could be the most appropriate way of developing the team and its capability.
• Confronts the issues of non-performance and inappropriate behaviour in ways that make those involved recognise the consequences of their actions. Their aim is to give the team members the opportunity to make the necessary changes to enable them to effectively and appropriately contribute to the teams outputs.
• Seeks every opportunity to applaud the team’s success in overcoming difficulties including when it achieves the desired outcomes in a truly effective manner. This is about seeking to discover what the team is doing right and acknowledging it rather than looking for what it has done wrong and then attributing blame.

The Visionary manager manages by being constantly aware of the danger of being stuck in the past due to the pressure from others to take the safe and well trodden route. They are conscious of the desire for Red managers to take excessive risks and for the Blue managers to agree if it produces quick practical outcomes. They also know that Green managers are likely to cautious and more risk adverse in being less likely to support the Red managers ‘impulsive’ ideas. The Yellow manager will tend to support the Green managers caution particularly if what is proposed could have an adverse impact on the team or a team member. Being able to ‘read’ the perspective and context used by managers without trying to ‘pigeonhole’ them can be exceptionally valuable. Insights are gained by observing how each manager operates and building a framework that enables you to keep focused on the now whilst looking forward into the future.

Engaging team member talent

The challenge we read about constantly in the business press around the world is about how to improve employee productivity. To meet this challenge effectively will require a significant mind shift by top management to help them appreciate that their drive for command/control over work inputs/outputs methodology minimises productivity over any benefits achieved. If only they would realise the immense potential that could be gained by encouraging their managers to adopt and employ the managing roles that empower rather than disempower team members. To jog your memory, the disempowering practices that spring from command/control include:

• Ineffective managers (don’t know what they are doing)
• Bullying and other abusive behaviour by managers/team leaders
• Using ‘performance issue’ as cover for own bullying behaviour
• Poor relationships with colleagues fostered by management
• Inadequate resources and information
• Limited or no effective feedback
• Lack of fulfilling work
• Blame culture that creates fear through intimidation
• HR and management processes that ineffectively deal with team members who complain of abuse or disadvantage by their managers/team leaders/colleagues

To overcome these debilitating behaviours will not be easy as they are endemic in many organisations. With increasing online/offline networking by team members who share what is going on in their workplaces, change will become easier to implement. The first step by organisations and managers is to recognise and accept that some, or all, of the ineffective behaviour exist. This needs to be coupled with a genuine desire to change by introducing an effective enabling culture. This is where the new managing roles can play an important part.

Managing – using the six roles

I have focused on the Visionary role and introduced the ‘colours’ metaphor to describe one way of looking at the behavioural similarities and differences expressed by people in their everyday interactions. The more that we understand what influences our behaviour the better equipped we will be in dealing with others in a widening range of situations.

As effective performance is critical to achieving the desired outcomes I will deal with this when exploring some of the other managing roles in my next blog.

Tom