Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Jobless in America

Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000.  According to the Labor Department's latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed.

Despite signs that the economy has resumed growing, unemployed Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are getting worse.  Even though the pace of layoffs is slowing, many companies remain anxious about growth prospects in the months ahead, making them reluctant to add to their payrolls.

Working Less = Working Smarter

A groundbreaking four-year study, set for publication in the October 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review, seems to confirm that getting away from work can yield unexpected on-the-job benefits.

When members of 12 consulting teams at Boston Consulting Group were each required to take a block of "predictable time off" during every work week, "we had to practically force some professionals" to get away, says Leslie Perlow, the Harvard Business School leadership professor who headed the study.

Requiring hard-driving consultants to take time off was "nerve-racking" and awkward at first, says Debbie Lovich, a Boston Consulting executive who headed one of the teams.  Some fought the idea, claiming they would have to work more on weekends or draw poor performance ratings. 

Ms. Lovich adds: "We wanted to teach people that you can tune out completely" for a while and still turn out good work.  The work itself became the focus, "because if you know a night of is coming up, you're not going to let things spike out of control," she says.

Straight Talk on Education Leadership

Executive Global Quotient (GQ)

Screening potential leaders for personality traits and emotional intelligence is a normal business practice today.  And with the reality of succeeding in a global economy, testing for a leader's global intelligence (GQ) may make the difference in moving up the corporate ladder.

Researchers at Thunderbird School of Global Management have developed a 91-question exam to assess employees' "global mindset."  This self assessment tool is used to determine how likely the executive is able to thrive in global roles, according to Mansour Javidan, the professor who designed the study.

An analysis of responses from the 6,000-plus executives who have taken the test found that scores improve when an overseas stint stretches to two years.  And managers under the age of 40 and over the age of 65 scored higher on the exam than those aged 40 to 64.  "Whatever the explanation,: Javidan says, "the biggest concern with that finding is that group is the one running the world right now."

Souce: BUSINESSWEEK, September 28, 2009

Reciprocal Economic Development

Need-based economic development in the United States began over 200 years ago in an upstate New York community that would come to be called Gloversville.  Sir William Johnson (who received the only baronetcy ever granted on American soil) persuaded a shipload of Scottish Highlanders from Perthshire to brave the Atlantic to establish the glovemaking industry in the New World.

The Highlanders brought their tools--needles, thread and the sword-like shears necessary for cutting leather--and their closely guarded guild craft techniques of Europe.  Material they found in abundance.  American Indians provided the deerskin hides that gave gloves a unique durability and feel.  And the U.S. glovemaking craft was born.  These gloves and garments were traded with the tin makers' products from Boston and economic development happened for the benefit of all.

Today, U.S. economic development policies and practices are not working well; causing extensive unemployment.  Here in Michigan, we have lost the most jobs as a percentage of total state employment over the past year; 338,000 lost jobs totaling the worst percentage change (-8.1%) in non-farm employment.  Much of the reason is the lack of understanding of effective economic development by government resulting in creation of jobs.  For the past 14 years, Lansing politicians have offered $3.3 billion in tax credits through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and spent another $1.6 billion in outlays to create and retain jobs.

An exhaustive new 100-page study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan think tank, has reviewed where all the money has gone and what came of it.  The study finds that for every 100 jobs that were promised with these credits over 14 years, only 29 arrived.  The rate of return on corporate tax credits was and is not good.

Five Barriers to Change

 

Familiarize yourself with these five common barriers to change so you can stay on track:

1.    Ownership: It’s easier to pass the buck than to stand up as a leader and take over responsibilities that may not even be yours.

2.    Time: Change always takes longer than estimated.  Add 50 percent to 100 percent more time to your expectations. 

3.    Difficulty: When a task appears to be easy, you may set yourself up for disappointment and frustration if you miscalculate the time required to complete it.  Anticipate troubles, and give yourself credit for small victories.

4.    Distractions: When the going gets tough, as it will, it’s easy to be distracted by competing goals, other interests and priorities.  Anticipate how easily you can become distracted; you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to regain your focus.

5.    Maintenance: Once you expend all of the effort needed to achieve a change goal, be willing to face reality.  It takes time for the new to become habitual.  Give up too soon, and you’re back to square one.   Maintenance requires vigilance and perseverance—more than you may think.

 

 Can't Get Enough Leadership

 

 Develop Leadership Skills: A Reference Guide

 

 Ask the Coach 

 

Communicate a Sense of Urgency

Communications are critical to creating engagement and building a true sense of urgency. To that end, here are four steps for creating buy-in, courtesy of John Baldoni: 

 John Baldoni: Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

1. Inform. Explain the situation in general and specific terms. Generality provides context; specifics provide expectations. For example, make the case for your initiative, ask people to support it and tell them why it’s necessary.

2. Involve. Once people understand the facts and what’s expected of them, they will decide whether to participate. Critical to gaining commitment is communicating "what's in it for me?" (WIFM). You must make the specifics clear and demonstrate what people will gain by supporting your initiatives.

3. Invite. Once people understand what’s expected of them, ask for their support. Never assume people will follow you until you ask them to do so. Be specific and persistent: "Can I count on your support for this initiative?"

4. Ignite. This final step is not always possible, but it separates the ordinary from the extraordinary. You must try to take individuals’ commitment and transform it into a collective willingness to work toward a cause greater than themselves. Excite their imaginations by talking about what will happen when your initiative is a success.

Complacency is Rampant

Last week, I traveled to Upstate New York from Ann Arbor, MI via Canada.  While on the NYS Thruway, I stopped to get fuel at a Sunoco service center. 

 

After spending $30+ to fill the gas tank, I went to wash the bug marks off the car's windshield---but all four of the gas station's wash basins were bone dry....and....only two of the four had the long-handled washer/scrubbers.  I asked the attendant 'why?' 

 

In a surprised voice he said, "Oh!  I didn't  know they were empty."  And he took an empty bucket and walked to a place where he could draw water to refill the wash basins. 

 

Bottom line: those wash basins had been empty for hours, if not days, while this attendant sat reading a book or whatever.  Complacency is much more common than we think.  Employee and manager complacency is a huge problem here in the U.S. and will result in crumbling business for those companies that allow it to spread.  People gravitate toward doing whatever alleviates their anxieties and worries, and they will go to great lengths to avoid discomfort.

 

Often, complacency is invisible to managers and leaders, as well as the employees in its grip.  You, too, may be complacent and not even realize it.  That’s because success produces complacency and, for peace of mind, we often focus on success instead of our failures or gaps.

 

This problem is augmented by our tendency to replace a true sense of urgency and purpose with frantic activity and unfocused anxiety—what we call a false or misguided urgency.

Big Management Error

Executives underestimate how hard it is to drive people out of their comfort zones, even when these zones lack security.

Management also overestimates its success in creating a culture of urgency—the element that may, in fact, be the most important contribution to transformation efforts.

The Big Error

When you fail to create a sense of urgency, your people will be unwilling to take the critical leap toward an uncertain future.

“Bad business results are both a blessing and a curse. Losing money does catch people’s attention, but it gives less maneuvering room.  With good business results, the opposite is true; convincing people of the need for change is much harder, but you have more resources to help make changes.”  John Kotter, Harvard Business Review, 1995

Bad Business

You would think bad business results are enough to shake people out of complacency.

But approximately 50 percent of companies fail to establish a sufficient sense of urgency to succeed in their transformation efforts, according to John Kotter, author of Leading Change and A Sense of Urgency.

People in organizations are entrenched in maintaining the status quo, even in the face of devastating news such as:

· Shrinking margins

· New competition

· Decreasing market share

· Flat earnings

· Lack of revenue growth

· Declining competitive position

· Global economic recession

In spite of bad news, getting people to change and motivating them to participate in change initiatives are major problems.  Starting a transformation program requires full-bore cooperation from many individuals. 

And without sustained motivation, people won’t stay with the program long enough to get results, so the effort goes nowhere.