Middle Management Faces Extinction

By Richard Hohmann

The reason that I entered this crazy business of people development and organization development is that I always believed that the “mid-level manager” was the most important position in the company. They have always been the glue that connects the strategy of an organization with the operational completion of the task. I have focused Innovative Leadership on the training and development of mid-level management. Unfortunately, I have not found the same commitment from Owners, Presidents and HR.

I’ve found there is always an excuse not to train and develop mid-level managers:

• Too costly for the company
• Manager doesn’t have the time
• Unable to define the ROI
• Learning is viewed as a luxury
• Not realistic to set up a real high-potential method of developing talent
• . . .and the list goes on and on.

People development needs to be the most important activity in companies today, but it isn’t. We are getting away from looking at people as our future leaders and have stopped talking about career development.  Fact: “Employer – provided training has the same effect on job satisfaction as a 17.7% net wage increase.” Harvard Business Review

Many companies eliminated the mid-level managers as part of their downsizing plan and totally flattened their organization making the mid-level manager an endangered species. I believe this has elevated the stress level of all employees including the remaining mid-level managers.

In the PricewaterhouseCooper’s 15th annual global CEO survey titled “Delivering Results: Growth and Value in a Volatile World”, 50% of the respondents identified “recruiting and retaining high –potential middle managers” as their chief talent challenge. Especially when companies are not currently hiring this needs to be a focus, but it sure doesn’t feel like the CEO is outlining a planned process for doing just that.

It is now the time for all leaders to realize that People Development is important for our future and it is their responsibility to grow and develop future leaders. In fact, it has to be their #1 priority for the next ten years. Why is it taking this long for the CEO to realize this?

4 Steps for CEO’s, Business Owners and HR to get everyone more involved in the People Development Process: 

The Coaching Focus is now on Leadership!

The focus or designed outcome for Coaching has changed. For the past ten years it has been on the rehabilitation of people who are under performing. Coaching today is now focused on leadership and the retention of key employees. It is finally becoming established as one of the best vehicles for talent management in terms of people development.

Coaching is designed to help people reach their potential or move upward beyond their believed limitations. This movement toward their potential improves their overall performance along the way. Coaching should be defined as a skill set or competency that must be understood and practiced by every supervisor, manager or employee in the company.

We need to support our talent at all levels in the organization, not only the ones at the top. This support and appreciation for people’s talents demonstrate your interest in the employee resulting in enhanced engagement. Coaching is a valuable method that uses communication, goal-orientation, and collaboration to elevate performance and help people realize that their potential is attainable.

In many organizations, the talent of the future is not ready for the position or role. Coaching can become the best instrument used by your company to guarantee that the knowledge sharing occurs and the future roles can be satisfied by the high potential employees that you have in the pipeline.

Our Coaching For Results Process can be established in your company with nominal cost that produces the results that can ensure the future of your company. In the end, it will be the people that make the difference! Are you using a Coaching Process to ensure success with your Talent Management process? Call us for more information on our Coaching for Results Process or our highly successful Executive/Performance Coaching Programs at 609.390.2830.

Succession Planning is the Future of Your Company

When interviewing a candidate for any supervisory or managerial position, I always ask the candidate, “What do you believe is the most important role you will have in this management position?” If the candidate does not give me an answer that involves the development of people in one way or another, I don’t really move forward with that candidate. My questions to you is, “How many of you focus on people development as a major skill-set for your managers?

The management of any company is responsible to ensure that the company or organization continually has the resources to be competitive, sustain growth and be viable in the future. These resources include the talent involved with the key positions that will do just that.

I have noticed recently that more and more companies are starting to seriously look at Succession Planning as the process that will ensure their future and that talent management is one of the most important aspects of their success.

I think it is important that companies today look at the following 5 key areas:

How to Increase the Sales and Profitability of Your Sales Organization

A Measuring Stick to Define Your Talent

Historically, most executives who have a sales organization under their control through a VP of Sales believe that the key to increasing sales from the organization normally comes from the list below. Often, these approaches are done with little to no effect.
•    Developing their soft skills to sell
•    Adding new products or services
•    Providing additional technical training on products or services sold
•    Changing the compensation structure to provide better motivation to sell
•    Setting Sales Goals & Profit Objectives

When one of the above approaches is deployed, it is often a puzzle to management why sales and profits hardly improved, if at all. You thought these were great to increase sales right? 
The core sales problem may not have been properly addressed and the real issue may be that the salespeople may have not been the best choice due to lack of aptitudes and behaviors needed for success in sales. Further, the sales trainer/manager, who believes that he or she can teach anyone to be highly successful in sales, may be proven to be seriously mistaken.

Executives, managers, HR people, and recruiters think they have the skills, knowledge, and ability to identify the traits in a sales candidate.  In reality, there are certain critical mental aptitudes and behavioral traits which simply aren’t accurately identifiable and measurable from an application, resume, or interview.
To make matters worse, many hiring decision makers take prior sales experience often times far too seriously. Experience could mean the sales candidate as moving up or forward with more responsibility, when in fact the employer(s) concluding this particular salesperson was never going to make it with them. Thus, prior experience must be more thoroughly investigated than most interviewers are prepared to explore.

Consider the importance of the following critical sales aptitudes and behavioral traits as a requirement for successful sales people vs. prior experience including which ones can be accurately measured in an application, resume, or interview and which ones cannot.

The following are critical sales oriented traits:

The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How To Recognize The Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late,

The following information is taken from the book, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How To Recognize The Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late, by Leigh Branham, 2005, AMACOM publishers.

The Saratoga Institute conducted a survey and it revealed that 89% of managers believe employees leave for more money. But, in fact, the survey found that 88% of employees leave for reasons other than money. What a disconnect!

Maybe it is easier for managers to think that money is the real issue, rather than hear that there are things that need to be fixed. But, the truth is, there are things that can be done to keep employees happy and productive, and on the job.

The 10 most frequently mentioned issues that employees say companies do poorly are:

• Poor management—uncaring and unprofessional managers; overworking staff; no respect, not listening, putting people in wrong jobs; speed over quality; poor manager selection processes.
• Lack of career growth and advancement opportunities—no perceivable career paths; not posting job openings or filling from within; favoritism or unfair promotions.
• Poor communications—problems communicating top-down and between departments; after mergers; between facilities.
• Pay—paid under-market or less than contributions warrant; pay inequities; slow raises; favoritism for bonuses/raises; ineffective appraisals.
• Lack of recognition—that says it all.
• Poor senior leadership—not listening, asking, or investing in employees; unresponsiveness and isolation; mixed messages.
• Lack of training—nonexistent or superficial training; nothing for new hires, managers, or to move up.
• Excessive workload—doing more with less; sacrificing quality and customer service for numbers.
• Lack of tools and resources—insufficient, malfunctioning, outdated, equipment/supplies; overwork without relief.
• Lack of teamwork—poor coworker cooperation/commitment; lack of interdepartmental coordination.

If you see that these are problems in your workplace, actively work to get them corrected through work team initiatives, discussions with your manager, or sharing corporate models where things are done right. Sometimes it is easier to fix the problem then move on and start anew.

This article was originally found here

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4 of 33 Tips for Productivity on the Job

1. Nuke it! The most efficient way to get through a task is to delete it. If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off your to do list.
2. Daily goals. Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb to distractions. Set targets for each day in advance. Decide what you’ll do; then do it.
3. Worst first. To defeat procrastination learn to tackle your most unpleasant task first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later in the day. This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day.
4. Peak times. Identify your peak cycles of productivity, and schedule your most important tasks for those times. Work on minor tasks during your non-peak times.
   
   
   

Communicate Clearly

As a leader, you enjoy the keen satisfaction of knowing you help others to achieve their goals while you reach your own goals. Effective communication binds all the individuals of this complex business relationships together and enables you, both as individuals and as a team, to achieve organizational goals. Several constructive attitudes form the foundation for successful communication:

▲ Good relationships. Getting along well with people is essential to effective leadership. Constructive communication – written or verbal – takes into account the principles of good human relationships. Respect and consideration for others, for example, are paramount to good human relationships. “Treat others as you would have them treat you” is a reliable guideline at all levels of human interaction. If you want others to listen to you, for example, you must listen to them. If you want to be treated courteously, you must exhibit courtesy.

▲ Mutual understanding. Achieving results through communication and persuasion requires mutual understanding. Understanding, in turn, requires a genuine effort to see things from the point of view of others. This empathetic effort earns the confidence of other people, paves the way for acceptance of your message, and increases the likelihood of a positive response.