February 20th, 2010
ARE THEY WORTH THE MONEY?
I have just had a really interesting discussion with one of my colleagues about the value of management development and leadership development in times of eceonomic turmoil.
It has long been recognised that security and as a result possibly job security is a hygiene factor. A basic need that we, as human beings, all have. Due to the recent economic downturn there are many, many people who fear that they will lose their jobs. As a result of job insecurity the fundamental trust relationship between employer and employee and the engagement the employee has with the business may be de-stabilised. If you accept this hypothesis then nothing the manager or leader do will change and the ultimate impact is on performance.
You can imagine that I don’t accept this view. You may be familiar with the saying that ‘people join a company but leave their manager’. I believe the same to be true in this case. Even in times of uncertainty for the organisation managers’ and leaders’ have a key role in creating trust and developing the environment for all employees to perform to their full potential. In supporting everyone to give of their best should help the business through difficult times.
I believe that management development, leadership development and business coaching are even more critical right now in helping leaders and managers to improve individual and business performance. Our world of work has cahnged and will inevitable evolve further managers and leaders will always play a key role in helping their team navigate change.
Kim
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February 11th, 2010
We are often asked which is best coaching or training. Keen not to be seen to sit on the fence my answer is ‘it depends’. Business coaching is extremely valuable particularly for senior managers or executives who have a specific agenda. The coaching relationship offers 100% focus and attention on their agenda proving them the opportunity to scenario plan and test out options in a safe and confidential environment.
Relevance is very important to successfully transfer knowledge and improve skills. For this reason, we tailor all of our training to meet the specific needs of the business and the participants. An added benefit of training is that there is a sharing of experiences and as well as developing from the course the participants can develop with the support of the others.
My answer is that it depends because we always aim to extend learning and support the effective implementation of the new skills back in the workplace. We all know how easy it is to leave a training course with an action plan of things to do differently but back at our desk there is a mountain of work to do and somehow our action plan slips down our priority list. We often suggest that a short coaching programme follows any training intervention to help participants apply their new knowledge and skills in their day job.
The feedback has been fantastic with many participants saying that a combination of coaching and training is best.
What is your favourite management book?
Like many people I follow a number of blogs on topics that interest me most; culture, leadership, business strategy etc. However, I just can’t quite walk past a bookshop without having a browse and I spend agencies reviewing Amazon’s sale every time I get an email alert.
I have to confess to having lots of favourites, one of which is ‘The Iceberg is Melting’ by John P Kotter. This is a simple fable about a colony of penguins and their initial resistance and then reaction to change. It brings to life the other Kotter books on effectively leading and implementing change. An easy and fun read.
Please tell me what your favourite business book is by logging into our website at www.advanceconsultancy.co.uk and filling in the contact us section. I look forward to hearing from you.
Kim
Tags: Business Coaching, business training
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December 17th, 2009
Did you wait with great excitement for the new Harry Potter book to be released. For me today, the excitement is about the same. Over the last couple of months a colleague and I have spent hours defining our values, services and approach in a way that can be published in a brochure.
Today is the day, the printed version has arrived.
A few years ago I read an article about Tom Hanks. He is one of very famous people that has a common condition called ‘imposter syndrome’. Any minute on set he expects someone to tap him on the shoulder and say what are you doing. The inference is that he doesn’t believe that he is good at what he does.
I have to confess to having a sense of how he feels. As I flicked through our brochure – there is a bit of me that says – is this really us…..
If you would like a copy of our new brochure. Please request a copy via our website www.advanceconsultancy.co.uk
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December 11th, 2009
The Advance Consultancy is almost 3 years old and what a 3 years it has been. We’ve grown the business with an established client base and built ourselves a solid reputation throughout Scotland. Like many people, I can be my own worst enemy, not realising the positive value that can add to a business, but constantly focusing on our weaker points and where we want to improve.
You can therefore imagine my surprise and delight when we were awarded “The Women in Business, Shona Sibbald New Business Award 2009″ and I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who have supported us over the last 3 years.
The Future
We believe in growth and change andthis year, the way that we have delivered our programmes has changed and adapted to the new business environment our clients have faced. We are much less about individual contribution and now place a much greater emphasis and focus on team working and team performance. High performing teams have an aggregate profile that gives them a core strength to deliver results beyond what each of the individuals could deliver on their own.
We have developed a unique process where we produce a comprehensive team picture with a detailed map of how to achieve greater success through understanding the cores strengths and limitations of the team and how these can be used to improve performance.
Our clients have given great feedback on the positive impact that this approach now has on increasing team performance and effectiveness and it is fantastic to see that our approach, style and the results we achieve are being recognised by the business community at large as well.
Kim
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October 27th, 2009
Most of us have two roles at work; our functional responsibilities for example, Accountant and our role as part of a team. I find it fascinating that when we recruit or assess performance, even for the most senior roles, the focus on our team role is very often secondary and is assessed very subjectively based upon gut feel about how the individual fits with everyone else and how they fit in with the culture. As you can imagine the real risk here is that everyone in the team is very similar in outlook, background or experience. This misses the point that difference and diversity can bring great value.
A colleague and I have developed a suite of diagnostics called Team Dynamix to assess team ’shape’ and identify their strengths and limitation in delivering their business objectives. The tool has both qualitative and quantitave elements and we are getting great feedback on the value of the report and recommendations. One client, a research organisation gave us the following feedback -
We now truly understand that the the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We have promoted and valued team working for a number of years but it is only now that we can see it delivering results.
I firmly believe that people want to work as part of a team but that they can’t do their best work unless they understand the team dynamic, the strength and contribution of each individual and how ang gaps will be managed. We are trying to build some case studies and good examples of high performing teams and how this has been achieved. Please do tell me about your own experiences.
Thanks
Kim
Posted in Business Coaching, Leadership Development, Management Development, Uncategorized, organisational culture | 2 Comments »
September 15th, 2009
I have been interested in listening to the news over the last couple of days about the crash of Lehman Brothers’ and the role it played as the catalyst of our current economic situation.
Additionally, this week, Gordon Brown and Barack Obama have spoken out about the governance of banks and in particular the payment of bonuses. It is clear that businesses have been driven by measures of financial performance almost in isolation.
Have we really learned from our mistakes?
We are working with an organisation who have taken what I believe to be a very enlightened approach. They are stepping back to understand their values. They are defining what they as a business stand for and how this translates into their every day work including their interaction with staff, customers and suppliers.
It is a big investment of time and money and requires a strong commitment from the leadership team. That investment and commitment is fuelled by the very strong belief that consumers are much more discerning than they ever have been about the ethical standards of businesses. This company see their values as becoming a differentiator and as a consequence will lead to improved profitability.
What do you think? Are values based businesses the way forward?
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September 10th, 2009
One of my clients was telling me that she was concerned that one of the top performers in her team is perceived as lazy by her colleagues. To me, this seemed to be a contradiction, however, she went on to explain that this person regularly takes time out during day whilst others are busy ’slogging away’.
Over time, we have moved away from traditional manufacturing and now rely on our brains rather than our hands to work. Have we changed our working practices to perform to the best of our abilities?
The conversation above suggests not and indicates that unless we are seen to be doing something we are not working. In our modern knowledge economy, thinking is not seen as working.
There is a mountain of research to show that we are most productive and produce better quality when we work in short bursts. Equally having the freedom to think and reflect is the best way to be innovative.
This sparked my interest and I talked to a sales team. Interestingly, the two top performing sales people took time to reflect, think and plan. What was most interesting was that neither of them did it during work time. One did it whilst jogging and the other when he got home every evening.
How typical is this? I am very keen to know how time spent thinking is seen by you or by your organisation. Please let me know your thoughts.
Tags: Business Coaching
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July 31st, 2009
A friend was telling me that he thinks that the motivational pictures that you often see in training rooms are naff. In fact, he believes that because they are perceived as insincere they have a demotivational effect.
Symbols in business have a very powerful impact. Think about the large M of McDonalds or even a Coca – Cola glass bottle. They are instantly associated with the brand and what that particular business stands for. Businesses often make a massive investment in their brands and imagery and also in the marketing of them to heighten customer awareness.
What often goes unnoticed is the more subtle symbols in the workplace and the impact that they have on employee behaviours and attitudes. I have a client who wants to shift the culture to one where people feel empowered to make the right decisions for customers. This is a well thought through proposition and they have calculated the return they expect to get on the investment on development.
Everyone is talking about it but the change is not happening as quickly as they had hoped. In walking into the offices there are signs everywhere, you know the sort – don’t do this, do that, put it here etc. Within the work environment there is almost no opportunity for empowerment. These signs have now been removed; some replaced with more encouraging statements and slowly the signs of change are apparent.
I am very interested to hear about symbols and there impact in your organisation.
Thanks
Kim
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July 27th, 2009
One of the good things, I think, that has come from the credit crunch is an increase in the popularity of business coaching. I’ve spoken to a few of our clients to try to understand why they are choosing to invest more in coaching now when spending is often reigned in and most state that it’s because 100% of development activity is focused upon the individual client and delivers results for them as well as their business.
The current economic climate has required many businesses to change – often requiring them to deliver the same or better results with less resource. Many of our clients have given very positive feedback about the value of exploring different approaches and scenarios as well as planning how they will implement their response to confidential issues.
Sustainability is really important to us at The Advance Consultancy and although it sometimes goes un-noticed I think that the coach plays a vital part in helping the individual learn new tools and frameworks to shape their thinking, visioning and planning in a way that increases creativity and gives courage to take appropriate risks.
It’s great that today’s business leaders are realising that coaching is a very effective process for increasing skills and effectiveness within the workplace and delivering results.
Kim
Tags: Business Coaching, Leadership Development, Management Development
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July 22nd, 2009
Welcome to my new blog where I aim to stimulate some interesting discussion and debate around leadership development, management development and business coaching in general. I’m going to kick off with Organisational Culture as this is something we’ve been heavily involved with over the last few weeks.
First things first, why would a business want to assess its organisational culture? Well, typically the businesses that come to us have recently undergone a period of change and are now trying to refocus on the behaviours and culture that will drive success into their new structure: there is a massive amount of research indicating that successful businesses consciously manage their desired culture.
Although this is not a new concept in the business arena it does seem that many businesses leave their culture to chance. We firmly believe that there are many tangible benefits in terms of increasing employee engagement and alignment. There are some businesses that have demonstrated a close link between their culture and their business success. Feel free to read an overview of our approach to Organisational Culture on our website. In the coming months, as we progress our assignments we will be adding case studies of the work that we do and also feedback from our clients.
In the meantime, I am looking for case studies of businesses and leaders who actively manage their corporate culture if you can help please post a comment with a link to your research or contact me directly through the website .I hope to be able to analyse these (alongside our own experiences) and write a summary report. I will happily send anyone who contributes a copy of our report. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks
Kim,
The Advance Consultancy
Tags: Business Coaching, Leadership Development, Management Development, organisational culture
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