Seems like simple advice, right? Exactly, but many people struggle with it. Sometimes it’s difficult to be honest. It’s not easy to tell clients you can’t deliver. It’s not easy to tell somebody you’re letting them go. It’s not easy telling a supplier you’re switching. Certainly there are many, many cases where it’s much simpler, and more comfortable, to be dishonest or mislead.

However, in almost all of those circumstances, it’s counter-intuitive. First of all, look at the outcome in each of the above examples. In any of them, honesty gets you the end result. It’s like ripping off a band-aid, it hurts. Get it done quickly and correctly, and it’s out of the way. Contrast that with dishonest behaviour. In most of the examples, you’re delaying the inevitable.

Dishonesty also doesn’t win friends. You’ll alienate your employees, superiors, customers and suppliers with your conduct, which is also ethically questionable. Best case scenario, you’ll make an enemy where you could have a fan. Worst case scenario, you’re in all kinds of ethical and legal hot water.

Stick to honest behaviour. Don’t fall into the trap of deceiving others just to save yourself a difficult conversation. Be frank, open and transparent and the market, and people in general, will reward you for it.

Honesty Is the Best Policy and the Only Option is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

All content copyright 2012, keyXI Consulting

1. Know What Performance Looks Like

It sounds simple, but this is where the majority of managers fall down. You need to know what performance looks like in your organization, and for each individual position. Without that, you’re flying blind. Worse, so are your staff! You most certainly can’t expect them to know where and how to direct their efforts without some accurate guidance as to what performance actually looks like.

Easier said than done, right? How do you actually put that into practice? Unfortunately there is no one right answer, however it does all start with knowing your organization. You need to understand what the overall strategic objectives are, how they fit in with your local operations, and who does what. Start there, and the rest will slowly become clear.

 2. Identify Performance Gaps

Once you have a handle on what performance looks like in your organization, you’re equipped to identify any gaps where performance doesn’t meet expectations. But, and I’ll put this in bold because it’s important, you cannot identify performance gaps before you know what performance looks like. It’s like complaining that Google maps incorrectly plots the course for your next vacation, before you even know where you intend to go.

Another tip for the identification of gaps in performance, and thus under-performing employees, is that gaps should be identified based on actual data only. This means you can use observed behavior, attributable statistics, or other factually correct data. What you absolutely cannot do is use rumors, feelings or even “the vibe”. That’s not acceptable, professional or even ethical.

3. Provide Feedback to the Employee

A critical step is informing the employee that their actual performance doesn’t meet expectations. Don’t let the employee continue unaware until the lack of performance has gone too far to be recovered, or has created too much ill will in your team. Instead, have a frank and casual discussion with the employee, asking them to do better next time. Don’t frame the conversation as a negative (“we need to talk about your performance”), but keep it as the positive it is (“can I give you some quick feedback?”). Employee’s will respond much better to a casual request that they improve their performance than a formal sit down where they feel threatened.

Of course, that’s not to say you never need to use the formal performance management and disciplinary processes. Every manager will, at some point. The key is to address performance gaps with casual feedback before they become a serious issue. If you don’t the conversation won’t get easier, but it certainly will get harder.

4. Engage & Coach the Employee

Providing one-off feedback isn’t enough to ensure continued performance. Continued performance requires constant engagement with employees. Establish a regular routine of engaging with your employees, perhaps something along the lines of One on Ones. The idea is to open a continual dialog about where performance needs to be improved, and what’s working well.

In addition, there are occasions where every manager needs to coach their employees. This involves setting micro level performance goals with the employee, defining tactics to achieve them, and helping the employee to overcome assumptions about performance, and the management of performance. You can use coaching to work on employee weaknesses, build their strengths, but most importantly to focus them on the tasks that are really important to performance. After all, if those tasks will deliver top-notch performance, that’s what it’s all about.

If your organization lacks the skills to implement high level performance management internally, why not discuss it with keyXI Consulting? We work with businesses to provide solutions including performance management workshops, and the development of performance management competencies in managers. Contact keyXI Consulting to discuss your specific needs.

How to Deal with Poor Employee Performance is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

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The key to harnessing the full power behind the mistakes you make is acknowledgement. It ties back to the locus of control. In simple terms if a person predominately views themselves as being responsible for outcomes and results, they are said to have an internal locus of control. Conversely, those who mainly feel that others are responsible for the outcomes or results have an external locus of control.

Those with an internal locus of control are much more likely to learn from their mistakes. They acknowledge responsibility which allows them to identify better ways to avoid the problem in the future. Those who view everybody else as responsible are unlikely to learn the same way, as they can’t admit their actions were the cause. If they did nothing wrong, there’s nothing to learn.

To tell you the truth, that’s on of the things I dislike the most in people – the inability to admit their shortcomings, especially when they proceed to blame anybody and everybody else. You probably know the type. Typically, the same mistakes occur again and again, but it’s never their fault. It’s always the vendor, their staff, the customer, or some other external force. I find the stubbornness really makes me think twice about the prospects and usefulness of those staff.

What’s the take away from this? Acknowledge your mistakes openly and honestly. Learn from them, and strive for better outcomes in the future. For those who manage staff, encourage your staff to acknowledge mistakes in the same way.

Learn From Mistakes, If You Can Acknowledge Them is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

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For those who haven’t heard of coercive power, and as a reminder for those who have, I’ll give you a quick overview. Coercive power stems from the ability to administer both rewards and punishments. In an organizational sense, it typically refers to the power for a manager to threaten to, or actually deliver either discipline or allocate undesirable work tasks.

What’s unfortunate is that many new managers, and indeed some more experienced managers, think that coercive power is the only tool available. They jump at the opportunity to show off their power to discipline subordinates as if it’s some kind of trophy. And of course, employees respond absolutely negatively. In fact, there is practically no place for coercive power inside a healthy organization.

Authentic leaders rarely, if ever, rely on coercive power to accomplish objectives. Instead true leaders utilize referent power, or charisma, in combination with expert power. But it’s not that simple. You see, legitimate leaders understand power, but do not use it consciously. Legitimate managerial power is less like a tool kept in your toolbox, and more like a wonderful cologne. You don’t pull it out and use it at specific times, it follows you around and lends you some real value without you even thinking about it.

Managerial Power — Why Coercive Power is Overrated is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

All content copyright 2012, keyXI Consulting

From Individual to Organizational Focus

For effective organizations, the focus for 2012 is moving away from individual key members of staff toward the overall organizational capability and capacity. That means exceptional businesses are looking at the bigger picture, deciding who really needs management development.

It’s really the only intelligent way to decide where to spend scarce training budgets. To really do this effectively, it’s absolutely vital that you know the maturity of your management staff across the organization. From there you can develop an organizational management capacity inventory, allowing you to know where the organization is, and in which areas and people you need to focus. Be careful, though, you don’t want to single out poor performers as a method of punishment. In fact you’ll see the best returns by focusing your development on the 50% of staff that make up the middle of the range.

Management Development as a Pipeline

Some companies are starting to realise that management development isn’t just training. It really is a great pipeline for future talent requirements across your organization. If you’ve developed an understanding of your current management capacity, you can make some assumptions about the future, and use them to develop staff competencies for the long-term objectives.

This is an opportunity which is almost always missed. Organizations often develop managers with vague plans of what stereotypical managers do. While that no doubt has some benefit in developing generic management competencies, it’s of little use in the development of the specific competencies which your organization will likely require into the future. Instead, invest now to develop those managerial competencies that will make your organization a force to be reckoned with in your industry. You’ll be ahead of the curve, but more importantly ahead of the competition.

Total Investment Increasing

Despite the economic downturn, companies are continuing to invest heavily in management development. At the same time, the proportion of that investment per employee has declined, as it is spread over the wider organization. Why the increased investment? Simple. Money spent on management development that complements organizational objectives and existing competencies shows better returns.

As companies experiment with new, innovative ways to allocate their management development budgets, the ability to make targeted investment decisions increases. This year, we’ll see an increased investment in both understanding the existing management capabilities, but also in the delivery of development initiatives to those managers who can benefit.

Focus on Internal Development

In addition to increased management development investment companies are developing their managerial workforce using their internal resources, such as internal corporate trainers and organizational mentor programs. These programs are exceptionally valuable, and they provide an effective way for companies to keep their management development programs consistent.

The best effective internal managerial courses are those that focus on the generic competencies of management. Planning, organization, leadership and control are all generic enough that courses can be applicable to the majority of the managerial workforce. Typically they are also areas that have an amount of organizational specific content – ideal for delivery by your own staff. For those organizations choosing to implement internal management workshops, keep an eye out for a post in March with some practical tips on running training workshops. It’s not a difficult task, but you do need the right staff in place to ensure effective results.

Management Development — Trends in 2012 is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

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What got me thinking about this recently was a visit to the local Navy Cadet unit. One of the older more experienced cadets showed an exceptional ability to manage the others, to the extent that I wanted to congratulate her! It really made me wish that the type of managerial experience she had gained over her time there was mandatory for all new managers.

The point of this post isn’t to suggest all managers should take on a five-year course to develop their skills. The point is to draw attention to management development for young managers.

Far too often young managers are placed into their first management position without any advice, training or development. With such a poor level of preparation by middle and senior managers, what can we expect? Several years of below average performance, as the new manager learns “on the job”.

We can, however, shortcut this learning curve. There are a plethora of ways to develop your young managers faster. For example, some of the services that keyXI Consulting deliver for clients include coaching for new line managers, the establishment of mentor programs, and of course traditional management development workshops or training courses. Which is the best option? All three. They each serve a different purpose, and help your new managers to develop the skills they’ll need to become effective within your organization.

When it comes to your best bright young managers, do not under invest. They provide perhaps one of the best return on investments in the management development arena. If you invest in their future, it’s hard to go wrong.

Young Managers and Management Development is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

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For those of you reading from areas other than Australia, Qantas is the quintessential Australian national airline. It’s not government-owned, but it has a rich history and historically has been the golden child of the Australian airways. In recent times, Qantas has been marred by union shutouts, threatened strike action, leaving more than a few customers stranded and less than impressed. Days ago it was announced that 500 jobs were being cut, because of a huge drop in profitability.

What’s this got to do with Air Australia? Opportunity. For Qantas, the Air Australia collapse was an opportunity to become the knight in shining armour. With around 4000 Australians stranded overseas, Qantas could have stepped in, saving the day. The cost to provide additional services, bringing stranded passengers home, pales in comparison to the goodwill generated. The “Flying Kangaroo”, looking after Australians when they need it most.

Granted, Qantas are providing some extra services. But there are stories of stranded passengers being required to pay. The Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce, was interviewed on morning television show Sunrise, and asked about how Qantas could help. Rather than a direct, “All Air Australia customers will be flown on Qantas, with no extra charges.”, his answer swerved around as though he was giving somebody directions to the transfer desk.

The point of this isn’t to bag Qantas. They’re my favourite airline. The point is to demonstrate the beautiful opportunity they had to cement their position as Australia’s national carrier, which has unfortunately added little value for them.

Why Qantas Missed Out with the Air Australia Collapse is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

All content copyright 2012, keyXI Consulting

Almost all managers trying to influence culture change focus their efforts on practical changes. People interacting differently, doing tasks differently, or seeking organizational approvals differently. That’s fine, but it’s important not to get ahead of yourself.

The critical step, almost always missed, is that of unfreezing. Unfreezing is the stage which makes people receptive to change. It loosens the existing culture, which makes it easier to change the elements as desired. When managers skip the step of unfreezing, and move straight to other parts of culture change, it causes several problems.

Firstly, with an ingrained culture and without receptive staff, any kind of culture change will be difficult to drive. Staff will resist, directly or indirectly, and make the changes a terribly difficult experience. Secondly, any change that is successfully driven without unfreezing is very unlikely to stick. Those same unreceptive staff are likely to pay lip service to change, and quickly slip back to old ways making your expensive culture change program practically useless.

How does unfreezing happen, and what does it all mean? There are several different methods, each suited to particular circumstances and existing cultures. Usually, unfreezing involves experiences which take staff out of their comfort zones, and expose them to uncomfortable interactions. It’s a little bit like Scrooge McDuck in “A Christmas Carol“, coming to understand the real truth. Next month I’ll post my top tips for unfreezing organizational culture. Keep an eye out, it will help you become an effective manager of change within your organization.

Culture Change In Organizations: The Forgotten Step of Unfreezing is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

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A wonderful example of this came to light today, when I arranged a new windscreen for my car. I phoned around several auto glass places, and the prices varied from crazy to outright ridiculous. Two places, though, had quite similar prices.

The first of those two was ultimately the cheapest, but only by $100, give or take. The second, whilst slightly more expensive, had a far superior quality of service. I’d have gone with the second, purely based on that fact alone.

But, before I could act, they’d asked me about earlier quotes. Of course I mentioned the cheaper quote, and they hastily matched the price. I’m happy about that, but I couldn’t help but see the loss they’d made in doing that.

If the slightly more expensive place knew their value above their competitors, they’d have made a 20% premium. Because they assumed that all customers base purchasing decisions on price, they missed out. That’s commodity pricing, and premium service isn’t a commodity.

The take away here is to understand what you provide to customers that your competition doesn’t. Understand their service offerings, and shape yours to always command a reasonable premium. It’s not greedy, unethical or immoral. It just makes good business sense. If you’re interested in finding out more about how competitive intelligence can help your business, but aren’t sure where to start, contact keyXI Consulting, and we’ll help you out.

Do You Know Your Value Above Competitors? is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

All content copyright 2012, keyXI Consulting

Status absolutely is the single most important thing in project management.

There. That wasn’t that hard, was it? Seriously though, it’s that simple.  It’s not the GANTT chart or the Work Breakdown Structure, it’s the status. When you’re managing a project, you have a lot on your plate. That’s a given, we all do. What you cannot do is forget status to focus on other things.

You see, in projects, status is pervasive. It’s everywhere. In each task, in each milestone, and in the project as a whole. If you don’t know the status, you’re not doing a great job of managing the project. I’m not saying you need to know the status of every task off the top of your head, but they must be available to you. That means enforcing consistent status updates from your resources. Don’t let them get away without telling you exactly what the status is.

Once you’ve learnt that it’s all about status, you’ll have better control over your projects. You’ll be able to articulate to your stakeholders and sponsor exactly where the project is. Trust me, your organization will thank you for it.

With Project Management, Status Counts is a post from keyXI Consulting, who provide premium consulting services to business owners and executives to improve their business.

All content copyright 2012, keyXI Consulting