Ease the Stress of Change

The key to improve employee morale and loyalty - two attitudes crucial to productivity and business success - is communication. And communication is never more important than in times of change.

Results of a recent survey conducted by staffing specialist Randstad North America suggest the following tips for improving communication during workplace transitions:

• Let employees know about any decisions that affect their jobs - immediately. In uncertain times, don't sit on information - good or bad. 7 out of 10 employees say they want to receive information during times of change.
• Keep it simple. Employees want clear and easy to understand information about what's happening. Clarity is crucial. During periods of change, half of employees say that things at work seem disorganized. Cut through the confusion and give staffers a straight forward weekly breifing. That means no hiding behind jargon or double-talk.
• Tell the Whole Truth. You can't hold back information in the hopes that employees will be in a better mood to accept bad news later on. They'll resent not hearing the whole story at one time.
• Provide a Road Map. Employees want to hear where you think the company is headed. While 83% of employers say they give workers that kind of information, only 68% of employees report receiving it.
• Gather Feedback from Your People. Employees want to be heard. When companies implement employees' suggestions, 78% of employees say morale is excellent or good.

- Adapted from "10 Tips to Improve Employee Communication" - Auerbach

Work-Life Balance is Personal Management

Leadership is managing yourself; it's not just managing people. Leadership is also being more productive by making personal management a priority, and time management is often defined as this, personal management. How you manage your time can help define your status relative to Work-Life balance.

Work-Life Balance is a combination of goal-orientation and time management. The first thing that anyone has to do is to prioritize the importance of what is most important in the two key areas: work and life. What is important to you?

If something is important to you, then schedule that activity or event that relates to that happiness, work or life activities. All I hear in conversations with busy business persons that they all wish they had the time to do what they really wanted to do. They can’t seem to find time for themselves. I respond every time with, “Well, are you scheduling time with yourself for yourself?” The answer is usually a big "No."

Work-Life Balance is such a vague term. Work-Life balance is individualistic in nature and can vary over time. What success in this area means to one person does not always compare to another. Success is most commonly associated with the term happiness so I would like to say that real Work-Life Balance brings joy and happiness to those who achieve that state of mind. Most people find that Work-Life balance is designed to provide a stress-free environment or at least reduce stress. Your success should only be benchmarked to what you want happiness from, more family time, more lead generation, etc. Leadership is finding the “slight edge” to become more effective.

Most people today are so impressed with their “Busy Bee” approach that making others think they are busy is their major goal. Your goal should be to improve effectiveness as opposed to improving efficiency. Doing the things right is different that getting the desired results. Scheduling time with yourself and leaving time for the unforeseen are two practices that can make your more effective in terms of Work-Life Balance.

Personal Management is your responsibility. It takes a willingness to change and a commitment to follow a planning and administration system that is goal-oriented so you can measure your results. As Peter Drucker once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. That certainly goes for the personal management process and other leadership competencies as well.

7 Traits of Effective Leaders; Do You Share Any?

Are leaders born or made? Can you learn superior leadership skills? Experts have noticed seven specific actions that successful leaders carry out, regardless of the organization or cause they lead.

Effective Leaders. . .

. . .Make others feel important. If your goals and decisions are self-centered, followers will lose their enthusiasm quickly. Emphasize their strengths and contributions, not your own.

. . .Promote a Vision. Followers need a clear idea of where you're leading them and they need to undersand why that goal us valuable to them. Your job as a leader is to provide that vision.

. . .Follow the Golden Rule. Treat your followers the way you enjoy being treated. An abusive leader attracts few loyal followers.

. . .Admit mistakes. If people suspect that you're covering up your own errors, they'll hide their mistakes, too, and you'll lack valuable information for making decisions.

. . .Critcize others only in private. Public praise encourages others to excel, but public criticism only embarrasses and alienates everyone.

. . .Stay close to the action. You need to be visible to the members of your organization. Talk to people, visit other offices and work sites, ask questions, and observe how business is being handled. Often you will gain new insights into your work and find new opportunities for motivating your followers.

. . .Make a game of competition. The competition drive can be a valuable tool if you use it correctly. Set team goals, and reward members who meet or exceed them. Examine your failures, and celebrate your group's success.

- Adapted from The Toastmaster

CEO's Role has Been Transformed

The role of the CEO has been transformed over the years while the demands on the position remain the same. The CEO is now expected to be a highly productive team member that holds and develops a set of values and ideals that relate to both the employee and the customer, inspiring and recognizing the leadership skills exhibited by their staff, providing and distributing intelligence, maintaining and managing the structure of change, and of course, getting the desired results.

As Edward R. Shapior, MD points out in his article, “The Changing Role of the CEO” – the passions of leaders can be used to discover a focused and meaningful organizational engagement in the larger society.

As an executive coach for over ten years, I ask the following questions of almost every coaching candidate:

• Are you making all of the progress you would like to make and are capable of making?
• What is in it for you if you are successful in reaching your goals?
• What is the value to you if you reach your goals?
• What have you done to date to reach this goal?
• What are you willing to do to reach that goal? Is it time, money or energy?
• Who else is involved that can affect the result?
• How do your actions affect others?
• Is it a choice or circumstance?

On many occasions, my goal as a coach is to get someone to make choices that take them out of their comfort zone. Effective Leaders are honest, competent, forward looking, and inspirational. Since leadership skills are learned, and the role of the leader is changing daily, it might just be the right time for the Leadership Team of organizations today to rethink their position and commit the team to a Leadership Training and Coaching Process.

Remember, 3% make it happen, 77% watch it happen, and 90% wonder what the hell happened. Leadership is no longer a position, it is a competency that we all must present in the workplace today. Coaching is much like the role of a leader, designed to get results.

Use These Strategies to Make Exit Interviews More Meaningful

Why do workers leave? Here's how to ensure your exit interviews provide the answers:

• Get Outside Help - Short-circuit emotions by using an objective third party to conduct exit interviews. Departing workers are more likely to believe confidentiality claims of vendors who have no stake in their comments. And interviewees will be less inhibited with interviewers who are compiling data rather than collecting gossip or defending the company.
  
• Escape Immediate Surroundings - Treat exit interview with the same confidentiality shown in performance appraisals or disciplinary meetings. Don't allow departing workers to become intimidated by passing traffic or big ears in nearby cubicles. Hold interviews in a conference room, cafe, or park where people can speak freely.
  
• Compile Useful Data - Create a written policy explaining that exit interviews will be used to compile data that will be reported in composite form only. Don't share plans to use exit data to investigate specific problems or individuals. Make sure data is reliable by using a uniform questionnaire.
  
• Let time Work Its Magic - If you insist on conducting face-to-face interviews with departing workers on their final day of service, you'll probably get a high level of participation. But you probably won't get an accurate assessment of why these people are leaving. Departing workers may be bitter about personal conflicts or the company's failure to, say, make a counteroffer. Or they may be caught up in the emotions of their good bye parties. Wait long enough for them to gain perspective and feel confident that burning a bridge won't damage their careers, then mail your questionnaire. Increase the likelihood of a response by offering a cash bonus or gift certificate to those who return the survey. Even if your response rate declines, you'll know the responses you receive will be more likely to offer useful insight.

Adapted from "This way to the Exit Interview" by Ken Gaffey

Funding Cutbacks Curb Achievement

Some of the new barometers for Training and Development in 2010 are starting to show signs of improvement. It sounds like we can expect to see old times again for training and development shortly. But I still feel that businesses sense the pressure of the economy. In my travels, I have not heard that many companies have opened up their training budgets. The economy certainly plays a major part of the decision making process to fund employee training. Most companies have reduced their workforce while also reducing or eliminating resources that provide learning opportunities like meetings, courses, etc.

Funding these programs and realizing the fact that training and development can often makes the difference between companies who are the industry leaders and others who are on a lower tier of success.

What has all this reduction in training and learning opportunities done for your workforce? The 2009-2010 U.S. Strategic Rewards Survey reported that employee engagement levels for key personnel dropped almost 25% as a result of restructuring, and employee benefit cutbacks, including professional development and training, indicating a significant slump in employee morale and productivity!

In most of the companies, a reduction in the workforce usually elevates the workload of the remaining staff while adding stress and frustration to those having to put in the extra time. Companies are put in position where they must start focusing on their key employees and start developing a Talent Management process that will enable them to retain their top producers and hopefully develop their high potentials. It certainly is a vicious cycle that creates a revolving door to top talent when the economy comes back.

Are you prepared for the exodus?

Leadership in business today needs to focus on their current staff and analyze their talent needs for the future. Funding for training compared to losing a key employee to the competition is nominal. The same is true compared to losing a high potential staff member that will be needed in the future. It is important that companies realize that people are applying for a position that leads to a better future and they feel it is the company’s responsibility to provide the opportunity for a career. Talent management is key to the future of all businesses and the funding for people development should never take a backseat to anything else.


Richard Hohmann
Senior Consultant
Innovative Leadership Business Consultation
Phone: 609.390.2830
E-mail: rhohmann@innovativeleadershipdv.com
Website: www.ILDV.org

Talent Development

We changed the name of the personnel department to Talent Management Group so now let’s change the term we now call Succession Planning to Talent Development Group or Talent Management Development. It is our job, at Innovative Leadership, that we wake companies up to the fact that there is a shortfall in the skills of our newly appointed managers or our hires with management potential.

Talent Management Development, as we now call Succession Planning, is an overall process that focuses on the commitment to productivity, performance, and passion with the overall effectiveness of the organization and peopled development as the defined outcome.

Let’s look at the facts:
• One in five C Level members are eligible for retirement right now
• Almost 50% of the US Government workforce is eligible to retire now
• 55% of today’s registered nurses can be expected to retire within three to fifteen years

The statistics coupled with the fact that a January 2006 study by Manpower finds that 44% of employers are experiencing difficulty today finding employees with the right skills. These facts along with the ever-changing demands of a highly competitive marketplace will not solve our problems or satisfy our needs. We need to focus on the development of people not the replacement of bodies. This is the only way a company will be able to sustain growth and be competitive.

Some of the tell tale signs for needing a Talent Development Process are:
• Workers complain that promotions are made unfairly
• The time it takes to fill positions is too long
• Company does not know when the key employees plan to depart
• Key employees leaving at a faster rate than the average performer


It is important that Talent Management and Development processes start now. Do not wait to start developing this process, START TODAY! Here are my highly recommend steps:

1. Create a vision and expectation from your leadership team regarding people development.
2. Develop competency models that will focus on the core skill set that will lead to the success of the individual and the effectiveness of the company.
3. Make sure that you have a Performance Management System in place that focuses on performance and development, not just one.
4. Implement a Performance Coaching or Mentoring Program to foster individual growth and development coupled with shared knowledge
5. Use a variety of assessment tools designed for individual and organizational development coupled with the use of competency and leadership modeling.
6. Implement the use of a Developmental Plan (or Achievement Plan as I like to call it) and incorporate it as the most important aspect of the Performance Appraisal Process.
7. Formalize a plan that uses quarterly developmental counseling sessions with the individual and their manager and his manager
8. Create a Talent Management Pool based on strengths or the individual and the potential of the individual.
9. Monitor the Talent Development Process to make sure the pool is growing or the flow of talent achieving higher positions and reaching their goals
10. Make Talent Management part of your annual Strategic Planning process with analysis and progress noted no less than semi-annually.

I really believe that our under-estimation of this Talent Management Process will be the downfall of many a small to mid-size company. Don’t over-look your need for talent and it’s the talent in the management and leadership positions that will make the difference.


Article written by Richard J. Hohmann Jr., Senior Business and Management Consultant for Innovative Leadership, a performance improvement company that integrates business consultation, training and development, and coaching with Leadership and Strategic/Forward Thinking to enhance organizational effectiveness and people development. Richard is a member of the Collaboration Team for Leadership Management International and a strategic partner with the accounting firm of Fitzpatrick, Bongiovanni, & Kelly, PC.For more information visit www.ILDV.org