This month I have been explaining the benefits of proactively managing your employees engagement as the recession begins to lift.
You can read the whole article here in the HR Networking Magazine.
Kim
Proactively managing employee engagement
July 26th, 2010Ready, Steady, Recruit
June 18th, 2010I have read a couple of articles recently that have suggested that as businesses are now putting the recession behind them and there is an increased optimism that they should start to recruit. This has read to me as a test of confidence. There is no question that the recruitment industry is a good barometer of the economic climate and clearly demonstrates that recruitment increases as businesses become more successful. That said, recruitment is a huge investment decision and not one that should be taken lightly.
The thing that really surprises me in these articles is the portrayal that businesses have no option other than to just batten down the hatches during tough times. This is true for some businesses but often it is not a reactive but a strategic decision to do so. Successful businesses constantly practice environmental scanning to understand the opportunities and threats in their environment, sector and marketplace. It is this understanding that allows business leaders to adapt and change to changes in circumstances and potentially grasp opportunities that may otherwise go unnoticed.
In a Harvard Business Review article; Why Is It So Hard to Tackle the Obvious? C.K. Prahalad describes some of the reasons for the reluctance to change and some thought provoking questions that business leaders may wish to consider. See link, click here Harvard.
Self awareness is the route to personal development?
June 11th, 2010In the development and coaching work we do we often use diagnostic tools to help individuals and teams understand their style and preferences and identify ways that these natural attributes can be used to improve performance.
We will soon become licensed to add another tool to our portfolio – Insights Discovery Profiling. These tools have been developed based upon the work of Carl Jung. The tools identify which of the four colour energies apply in your daily life to help you understand why you behave the way you do and why others behave differently. This understanding allows you to explore and understand more about yourself and others, value and appreciate difference, identify ways to interact more effectively and impactfully and identify actions that we can take to improve our performance.
Kim
Negotiation – a key management skill
June 9th, 2010Negotiation is a key skill. Most of us practice negotiation almost every day whether it be in agreeing the time our children should come home, selling or trading in our car or ‘haggling’ in a marketplace on holiday. In the main we use our skills and the processes of negotiation sub-consciously.
Negotiation is an interactive communication process that takes place whenever we want something from someone else or another person wants something from us. By developing negotiation techniques we can enhance our effectiveness, i.e. achieve what we aim to achieve more often. Through negotiation training we can also improve our inter-personal and communication skills.
We are running a two day programme called “negotiation – raising your game’ in Edinburgh in September.
By the end of the workshop participants will;
• understand the basic negotiating concepts underlying all negotiations.
• develop an understanding of total package negotiation using an analytical model, casework and exercises
• analyse, experience and learn to manage the team roles in the negotiating process.
• develop and practice the use of skills required in successful negotiations
Skills and techniques are developed by working through real life case studies. Participants have the benefit of getting feedback on areas of strength and opportunities for improvement from the programme leader, other participants and can self review through watching a video of their negotiation practice.
Please get in touch if you would like more information.
What would you do if you had more time?
June 2nd, 2010Thanks very much to those of you who were inspired to share your thoughts on the comments in our last newsletter about the amount of time that can be wasted at meetings.
Having now done further investigation there is a great deal of interesting research on this subject. In terms of your feedback there appears to be three themes as to why many meetings are not as productive as they could be:
- the meetings culture within the organisation
- self discipline of participants
- lack of training
In response to the feedback we have designed and delivered short ‘Meetings that get Results’ Workshops. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about these.
Kim
Advance Consultancy – Business training for leaders and managers
Leadership is defining and enabling the culture
June 2nd, 2010In my view leadership is about creating a vision and inspiring followership. A critical part of which is to create the right environment or culture where people feel inspired to work collaboratively towards a common goal.
In the past 25 years, the concept of organisational culture and the positive impact that it has on business results has gained wide acceptance. Simply put, the culture is the way things are done around here. It is the norms, expectations, symbols and guidelines that enable or inhibit employees to engage and align to the strategy of the business and deliver their best performance.
Over this time there have been many studies which have shown the correlation between managing the culture and business performance. It is possibly the most critical factor determining an organisation’s capacity, effectiveness, and sustainability. It also contributes significantly to how customers and prospective customers perceive the organisation’s brand image and brand promise.
I am often asked what leaders can do do manage the organisational culture more effectively.
It is a simple process but one that needs leadership and management input and should be reviewed each time there is a review of the strategy or business plan.
- As part of the strategy review process – define the culture that will enable success.
- Conduct a quasi gap analysis – where are we now against where we want to be
- Create a route map of those interventions that will move the culture closer to the desired state
- Evaluate results – over time, it is possible to both assess impact of investment in for example development and/ or correlate the investment in culture on bottom line results
In the recently published 10th annual survey of ”UK’s Best Workplaces’ compiled by The Great Place to Work Institute found that:
- Europe’s Best Workplaces grew their revenues by 15% on average, in the midst of the recession;
- Sickness absence in the UK’s Best Workplaces was 30% lower than the national average saving those organisations £20,760 per 100 employees per year;
- Almost 90% of employees in the UK’s Best Workplaces believe that management is open and honest in their organisation, against the national average of 55%
Solid justification for managing organisational culture. Please do get in touch to share your experience or if you would like more information.
What do you think of employee engagement surveys?
April 23rd, 2010I have quite a simplistic view of how to drive high performance and business results; that is to create optimal alignment and engagement.
By alignment, I mean building confidence in the strategic plans, direction of the business and the capability of the leaders to deliver it. Engagement means, to me, how much a part people feel they have, that is, can they see that what they do contributes and is a valuable part of the business success.
I regularly recommend conducting employee engagement surveys to understand the base line and to assess the impact of investment in focus areas. I have recently come up against a lot of negativity about the merits of these surveys. I’d really like your views and also any thoughts on what could be used as an alternative to measure employee engagement.
Top tips in selecting a coach
April 19th, 2010Business coaching is one of the most effective ways to develop. It’s 100% focussed on you, your goals and your performance. When you search for business coaches in your geographical area, the result will be literally thousands of coaches, how do you select the right one?
The following are some top tips to ensure that you select the right coach for your purpose.
• Be clear about your goals and what you want to achieve.
• There is often confusion about business coaching and mentoring, do some research to ensure it is business coaching you want.
• Use your network, can anyone recommend a great business coach.
• Check out experience, qualifications are important, however, in my view relevant experience is paramount.
• Successful business coaching relationship is based on trust. It is a reality that we human beings often base trust on gut instinct. Meet a few to establish who has the right chemistry with you.
• Coaching is not a quick fix. Discuss your requirements with a business coach to ensure that both agree a programme that delivers sustainable change.
• The role of the coach is facilitator. They provide a good measure of challenge, balanced with support. Success is therefore down to you. Do follow up on actions.
Management Books – what’s your favourite?
April 4th, 2010In my February newsletter I asked readers to name their favourite management books and here are the results. The fable style of book is clearly a very popular choice:
Who moved my cheese by Spencer Johnson
Good to Great By Jim Collins
Supercoaching by Graham Alexander and Ben Renshaw
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur by Sir Richard Branson
What would you do if you had more time?
March 26th, 2010I stumbled across an article in The Journal of Management Development that suggested that we each waste a third of the time we spend at meetings. When I read it I have to confess to initially being a bit defensive and then the more I thought about it I did realise that I was not always as focused and productive as I could be.
I have started planning my meeting time a bit more effectively. A small step but already I am finding that I have a little more time.
What do you do or could you do at meetings to ensure that you your time effectively?
