Tag Archive for: CoachStation

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Know Your History, Purpose and Direction

Why do you do what you do?
Understanding your purpose, what motivates you and most importantly using this knowledge to advantage is key to your success, both professionally and personally.
 CoachStation: Reflection on Purpose

My eldest daughter, Maddy, is currently in year 9. One of her elective subjects this year is Business and as part of the curriculum Maddy was asked to interview a business owner to better understand why, how and what was required to set up the business. I am proud that she chose our business for many reasons.

Firstly, it is an opportunity for Maddy to fully understand what I do and why I do it. This is important for any parent and child but possibly even more so as I work from home and I do sometimes wonder if our daughters find what I do a bit of a mystery! This has provided an opportunity for us to spend time together with purpose, but with a different context than much of the rest of our relationship, which has been fun. Finally, it has forced me to think about and clearly articulate answers to the excellent questions that Maddy had developed.

The process had other benefits. It encouraged additional reflection on my purpose, both personally and through my business, CoachStation, while both answering the questions and in the few weeks since. It provided the opportunity to delve more deeply into my initial answers on the importance of knowing why I do what I do and how that influences my direction and future focus – a process I encourage you to do too!

If you have not had the opportunity to view or read any of Simon Sinek’s material regarding marketing and to ‘Start with Why‘, I highly recommend you spend a few minutes doing so. Interestingly though, I have found that his key concept has as much bearing on how we see ourselves as it does with tangible things such as businesses. Knowing your purpose and why we do what we do matters…both in business and in our personal lives.

What does that even mean? To explain this concept, Sinek has developed what he calls the “Golden Circle,”. The golden circle has three layers:

  1. Why – This is the core belief of the business. It’s why the business exists.
  2. How – This is how the business fulfills that core belief.
  3. What – This is what the company does to fulfill that core belief.

Sounds simple, but what Sinek found is that most companies do their marketing backwards. They start with their “what” and then move to “how” they do it. Most of these companies neglect to even mention why they do what they do. More alarmingly, many of them don’t even know why they do what they do! (1)

When developing, maintaining and growing my business, I have focused heavily on the ‘why’. Similarly, during my coaching and mentoring sessions with clients, I find myself asking the same questions. Not everyone can answer these easily, however. Understanding your passions, why you do what you do and your core beliefs will help you understand not only who you are, but help to drive your future goals and direction.

It is my story that I would like to share via an abbreviated version of Maddy’s case study questions and my answers. When working with my clients it is this type of understanding that comes from increasing self-awareness and honesty with self that is the baseline for development and growth. Possibly through answering the same questions, there may be a similar opportunity for greater knowledge of yourself and your purpose.

Knowing why CoachStation exists has been paramount to my success to date. I am sure it will be in the future also. As is always the case when writing my blogs, I hope that this information inspires you to think more about not only what you do but why you do it. Let me know how you go.

     Could you summarise what CoachStation offers and does in a few sentences?                         

CoachStation helps people and businesses to become more effective and efficient in what they do. We do this by developing awareness, skills and capability at an individual, business and organisation level. CoachStation provides consulting and business advisory, coaching / mentoring and human resource related offerings. Ultimately, CoachStation focuses on the people side of business.

     When did CoachStation start?

I started building CoachStation (website, social media etc.) in 2010 and started full time work in the business in 2012. However, the real creation of the concept was being developed throughout the previous 14-15 years as I became more aware of my capability, passions and the need to develop more effective leaders. I often feel like it has been a 25 year apprenticeship to this point.

     What roles have you previously been in that have added to your expertise that allowed you to set up CoachStation?

I have been a leader throughout my whole career which started in late teens when I was fortunate enough to be provided with an opportunity to participate in a two-year supervisor traineeship with a large retailer in Adelaide. This meant from a young age I knew that leading, not just managing and working with people was something I would always pursue. My career from that point has almost always been in leadership roles within the retail, hospitality, finance and contact centre industries in Australia and overseas. My last two senior roles were as National Customer Experience Leader with GE Money and Head of Customer Service for Toyota Finance Australia.

     Do you think that your previous work history had a significant role in your thought processes leading up to the setting up of CoachStation?

Yes. As I mentioned previously, the work and experience gained from over 25 years of employment led me to this point. Certainly as with all of my roles, each opportunity honed my skills, provided exposure and built acumen. Although it may have taken a different form, I believe that coaching and consulting was always the ‘end game’ and I would have still have ended up here. Being exposed to the business environment helped to drive me and you only have to speak to most employees to know that there is genuine opportunity to develop more effective leaders in most industries. Whether managers are prepared to acknowledge this is another point altogether!

     Why does CoachStation exist?

Purpose = Building Success, Making a difference.

Vision = To make the world better, one leader at a time.

Mission = Through developing trust and strong relationships, we use our skills and resources to help people and organisations be the best they can be.

     What are the most important CoachStation values?

We have 7 core values and they are all important. Any member of my team and frankly, my friends, share these values.

  • Fun and Enjoyment
  • Optimism and Hope
  • Respect
  • Learning and Growth
  • Health and Wellbeing
  • Values-Driven
  • Leadership in Practice

     Can you give a brief summary of CoachStation’s work in the past 12 months?

Primarily our work is based in Queensland and New South Wales, however that has been rapidly changing. Industries we have worked within include finance, architecture, recruitment, health, government and local council. CoachStation is currently in a significant growth phase with a team of business partners joining us recently to extend our reach and influence. I am so very excited at this opportunity as I have been able to align the people who mean the most to me, their individual values and the CoachStation purpose and values. This means that we will be able to continue to grow, assist others and make a difference without compromising on what matters most to us and our clients.

     Why are the current members of the CoachStation team involved? How did they become involved?

As mentioned, they are long term relationships and friendships based on a shared belief in values, doing the right thing, giving natures and of course highly capable and skilled people. I am passionate about helping those who have assisted me in my career and life and are authentic in all they do, not just when it is convenient.

     Why did you decide to start your own business as opposed to being employed?

There are many reasons. Primarily, I wanted to have the opportunity to be responsible and accountable for my own success; increase the level of flexibility and autonomy in my own and my family’s life; and use my skills and capability to best effect (I  have choice, control and options to work with who I want to, when and how). Interestingly, it is because I started to truly understand my purpose that made this transition so much easier and obvious, to me at least. People have sometimes commented about how ‘brave’ I was in doing what I did. To me it was a greater risk to keep moving down the path I was on than to make the leap into running my own business. I recognise it is not for everyone, however.

     How do you stay motivated to continue to do your best?

By seeing the difference that we are making with and for others in reality; developing myself and my team; whilst also continually developing new relationships and product offerings.

     What separates you or makes you different to your competitors?

Genuine desire and ability to make a real difference in people’s lives – making it more than a tick box exercise and following through on our purpose and values is feedback we receive consistently as a key differentiator.

     What benefit do you believe having experienced business partners has opposed to people who are new to this field of work?

It’s critical in the work CoachStation does. The ability to make a genuine difference and help people can only occur when you have deep capability to relate to different types of people, use various experiences and history and provide solutions to their problems. Credibility is core to making this happen, as ongoing work and recommendations are all critical to our ongoing success.

     What products and programs do you use within your workshops and meetings?

We have created most of our own original workshop material; coaching models; assessment tools etc. I am also an accredited DiSC behavioural assessment facilitator and uses other tools such as Gallup StrengthsFinder and the Real Deal Values assessment. Having said that however, these tools are simply that…tools. It is how you use the information that the resources, assessments etc. generate, along with the increased self-awareness that makes the real difference. I often say, “you need a hammer to build a house, but it is not the only tool”, meaning that it is a part of the story but you cannot rely on the tool itself to generate change.

     How do you use social media to your advantage?

It’s massive! The modern business marketing and technological opportunity that social media provides is one of the greatest marketing tools for any business, particularly small start-ups. It is cheap, accessible and dominant all over the world. Whilst I understand the negative aspects of social media, I am still a little surprised by the polarising nature and reactions of many senior leaders when it is mentioned in business circles. Like anything, there are good and poor ways to apply a system or tool.

     How do you show ethical values i.e. honesty and fairness, non-discrimination?

Personally and professionally I am influenced heavily by my ethics and standards. I believe that anyone who knows me understands this. Too often I see managers, and people generally, who display integrity and are ethical mostly, but pick and choose those times on occasion. In my world it is one of the few genuinely black and white areas. Ethical standards are also shown by always following through, earning trust and being trusting. Our actions show genuine commitment to clients and caring about improvement through the results. It’s about delivering and always giving more than expected, which relates back to my earlier point about the need to provide more than a tick box exercise.

 

(1) http://blog.hubspot.com/customers/3-takeaways-from-start-with-why

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The Leader / Employee Divide: Who’s Managing Who?

One of the biggest challenges for any manager or leader is the relationship they have with their team members.

We often read about the need for leaders to be open, self-aware, honest and possess similar traits.

But what about the employee? What is their responsibility?

Managing people and teams is challenging, there is no doubt. Understanding why people do what they do and behave in certain ways can reduce the challenge and assist in managing situations as they arise.
The responsibility to influence outputs amongst different roles may vary, however the level of responsibility and commitment required from a manager or employee remains the same. It is the context of the role and associated tasks that differ, not the degree of ownership that is required. I remain certain that this is not how accountability and ownership is presented and reinforced in most organisations. I sometimes see employees manipulating, displaying passive-aggressive behaviours and generally playing games to get what they want or influence their peers.
CoachStation: Leadership Development, Coaching, Consulting and Mentoring
Passive-aggressive behaviour is the indirect expression of hostility, such as through procrastination, stubbornness, sullen behaviour, or deliberate or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is (often explicitly) responsible.(1) This is not always the employees ‘fault’. As organisations and leaders we are required to clearly establish the standards, expectations, culture and support to give the best opportunity for success of the individual and business.

When coaching and consulting, I encourage my clients to first look at themselves and the world they have created to see if that is in fact, the reason why an employee is ‘misbehaving’. The risk is that we hold others accountable for things that were not clearly established or understood in the first place. In my experience, very few people wake up in the morning with the attitude that they intend to ruin everyone’s day.
As leaders we need to be able to comfortably acknowledge that we have created the best chance to get the best out of every employee. Looking at ourselves first is important, however ultimately these behaviours are a choice and often reflect character flaws and sometimes other, larger issues.

Who is managing who? Remember, a manager is an employee too – we are all part of a team. These behaviours are not restricted to entry-level employees only!

A recent Forbes article highlights ways to manage these situations through your own awareness and development. I learned how to “control the controllable” and not get side-tracked by other people’s agendas that could have thrown my career off-course. Instead, I disciplined myself to invest in my own development and associated myself with people that I could trust and build momentum around. You must have wide-angle vision in today’s new workplace to avoid the traps that may hinder your path towards career success…you may not be able to always avoid them, but you can always learn to navigate through them along your journey.(2)

I am certain that most of you reading this can associate with and have observed people behaving in these ways. Understanding why people are making these choices can help you to know how to manage through the challenge. Some of the behaviours and related triggers in my experience are:

  1. Fear: the fear of the unknown; risk of losing a job; risk of not being given a pay-rise or bonus; pride and many similar triggers for fear drive the behaviours of us all, not just your team members. Taking the time to understand what people are feeling and why offers the opportunity to reduce or allay their fears. It might seem a simple approach and even obvious, yet what we know is not always what we do!
  2. Resistance to change: managing the beliefs and reasons why change remains predominantly a negative aspect of business is a core leadership task. Apart form the strong link to point 4 below (clarity and context), it is also often about finding a trigger for individuals and teams that helps them to see the reasons why the change is of benefit.
  3. Just plain nasty: although it is rare, some people are quite simply not wired correctly and inherently create and look for trouble. Sometimes this is sociopathic behaviour and no matter what you do, little will change. Don’t allow yourself to overstate how common this type of person and behaviour is, however, as it can be one way that people let themselves off the hook by attributing their own flaws or blaming others for their own failures.
  4. Lack of clarity and context: providing background information and helping your team members understand how what they do contributes to something bigger really does matter.
  5. Mental health issues: genuine issues can exist that require external counselling and support. As a leader your role is to understand people and recommend assistance elsewhere if it is required. Having a good Employee Assistance Program is a great benefit and has helped many people.
  6. Earn the right: in all relationships, both in and out of work, the effort and desire must exist to truly get to know people. Along with trust, empathy and other attributes detailed in this blog and my other writing, you must ‘earn the right’ to have whatever conversation is required. This cannot be achieved by meeting with someone once every 3 months, for example!

The responsibility to own development sits with each of us individually. Hopefully you work for a leader and organisation who genuinely supports your development goals and sees the obvious benefits of investing in you and how that assists everyone involved. If not, this should not stop you from taking your own steps towards developing yourself, both personally and professionally.
Looking at this another way, if you don’t take the initiative to develop yourself, who do you expect will?
Let me know your thoughts.

References:
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive-aggressive_behavior
(2) http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/10/21/5-fears-employees-have-about-their-careers/#58e8d4e6ac96

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Leadership Reflection – What I Learned This Year

Many of us are reflectors.
We take time to think about what is happening in our worlds and understand that self-awareness and development matter.

Reflection: to think through the implications of action, or non-action; what went well; and the things we might have changed or may alter in the future provides opportunity for growth and change. Developing as a person and leader requires this type of reflection and consideration. Taking the time to reflect is an important step in development. If we continue to ‘just do’ and get caught up in the routines and day-to-day details it is easy for time to pass us by and miss the chance for growth. Making the time to reflect matters!
During the coaching relationships developed with many of my clients I have learned how important it is to allow people the time to think through the implications of our discussions; the challenges presented; and potential actions or solutions. Many people are unwilling or unable to commit to the initial thought and require time away from the moment to ponder the opportunities and options that exist. Working within your preferred space and style, doing what is both intuitively and consistent with what you know works, provides the greatest opportunity for growth. A lack of self-awareness about who you are will limit the benefits of reflection.

Reflection, or the process of critically thinking about our behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and values, has been identified by numerous researchers as an important part of any learning process, be it formal or informal. Although professionals may have learned a body of knowledge and pattern of practice, it may be difficult to apply them in unique, complex or uncertain situations. Continuous learning in practice occurs through reflection-in-action (thinking on one’s feet) as well as reflection-on-action (thinking upon completion of a project or particular activity). (1)

To reflect on what has been helps to understand your own strengths and potential development areas. To not consider these alternatives and opportunities to build self-awareness is limiting personally and inherently negative for your leadership development. Developing your leadership skills takes time and effort. There are no short-cuts or ‘tricks’ that are going to make you more aware or capable as a leader. But, there are steps you can take that enable meaningful growth.

Most authorities on leadership development understand the importance of assisting managers and leaders to engage in self-discovery and self reflection.

Recorded statements from philosophers about the need for self-awareness and reflection for those in leadership positions goes back thousands of years to ancient philosophers and teaches like Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Jesus and Mohammed. However, research has shown that self-reflection is possibly a manager’s least favourite activity.
There are two good reasons why managers and leaders should be concerned about learning about themselves. First, while some people, because of personality flaws, like narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychological personality disorders should never be allowed to lead others, most people can improve their leadership potential and performance by engaging in self-reflection. Second, research has shown there is no better bedrock for effective leadership than a secure understanding and sense of oneself.
Self-understanding also provides a sound basis for understanding other people – how could a leader be conscious of another’s need or have empathy with others without first having awareness of their own self? In other words, you must first have a mature understanding of who you are and why you behave in the ways you do, and to be secure in self-acceptance, before leading other people. (2)
Beyond reflection in the moment, one of the processes that I find very useful is to think through the last 12 months. This is a timely process to perform now, as 2015 draws to an end. So, what have I learned about myself, people, my business and the world around me throughout this year?

  • The most successful people I know are more likely to be ‘givers’ rather than ‘takers’. We all have needs and a degree of selfishness in what we do and want, however those who are truly successful (with success measured more in a spiritual way rather than through wants such as financial, status, and tangible preferences) for the most part put others needs and desires ahead of their own.

 

  • I am at my best when my relationships are solid and I work on them in practice. As an extrovert it is very important for me to maintain regular contact with my friends, colleagues and clients. Working from home has many pros and cons, however understanding what works best has allowed me to build a rhythm that minimises the risks and makes the most of the opportunities. Regular reflection and self-analysis has enabled this knowledge and various actions in response. The energy and benefit gained from these relationships is difficult to quantify as it is so significant, but I know in my heart and head that they matter greatly and I would be less of a person without these relationships.

 

  • Development takes effort! The friends and clients who I see real progress and self-development in make the time to focus on learning. There is a deliberateness to their actions. They delve, challenge themselves through reading widely and learn deeply. The people I know who actively pursue new thinking; discuss their thoughts with trusted friends and colleagues; are curious and open-minded about alternatives beyond what they already know; and seek to extend their understanding through application of effort, take the greatest steps forward. This success and progress is measured through their own self-analysis and most importantly, through those closest to them – others feel, see and note the change.

 

  • Authenticity, honesty and comfort in self are key to effective leadership. I still hear and see to many managers who remain deeply uncomfortable in who they are and what they represent. We all have moments of self-doubt and uncertainty. Perfection is unachievable. Bravado and insincerity provide little to relationships and trust. Yet, these attributes and traits remain common in management. Ultimately, the only person you are kidding with these types of behaviour is yourself and it has little long-term benefit or return.

Gaining wisdom from an experience requires reflection. In thinking back on the significant events of my life, experiences good and bad, it was the act of assigning meaning that has made all the difference for me. Reflection requires a type of introspection that goes beyond merely thinking, talking or complaining about our experiences. It is an effort to understand how the events of our life shape the way in which we see the world, ourselves and others. And it is essential for any leader. (3)
Do you make the time to regularly reflect on yourself and your world?
What have you learned during 2015?

Resources:
(1) Developing Future Leaders: The Role of Reflection in the Classroom
(2) Self-Reflection: The Key To Effective Leadership
(3) Leadership Character: The Role Of Reflection

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Coaching and Mentoring – The Need For Accountability

To genuinely succeed in business, leaders must know their role, continuously develop their skills and be constantly supported to achieve the best they can as a leader and employee.

Finding your own development pathway takes ownership, effort and clarity. However, it is not something you need to do on your own. Whether it is developing yourself or your team, coaching and mentoring can be a powerful tool to enable change and growth, both personally and professionally. When it comes to leadership development, however, one of the keys to success is to start developing deliberately and early.

It is problematic to concern yourself with focusing on developing leadership skills after they are needed.

Setting up leaders to thrive through a development program both prior to and during their tenure is key to the success of your leadership team and business. Training in itself is one source of development, however this learning must be supported and reinforced in practice based on individual situations, needs, understanding and capability. Ongoing support ‘makes the learning real’ within the work environment, reinforcing the content and context provided during training.

CoachStation: Coaching and Mentoring Pathway

Image by Nick Scheerbart, Unsplash

As referenced on my CoachStation website, there are many reasons why organisations and people seek coaching and mentoring solutions, with a variety of benefits and outcomes accessed depending on individual needs.

Coaching and mentoring are increasingly sought after tools, accessed by business leaders and organisations eager to dedicate development time and resources at an individual level. Organisations are finding that this form of development is both good for business and employees.

 

Benefit and improvement is seen in areas such as: improved work performance; better client and customer service; increased confidence; effective leadership; enhanced relationships; more robust succession planning and increased goal achievement. Additionally, personal development improves self-esteem, self-awareness and other attributes which provides a stronger platform for you to succeed at work and at home.

When I am coaching and mentoring, the coachee and I work together on both a professional and personal level. It is virtually impossible to delineate between the ‘home’ and ‘work’ person, with situations, personalities, values and other traits being a consistent influence on coaching success. The benefits and rewards are often significant, however being coached and mentored takes effort and accountability. I recently read an excellent blog by Joanna Maynard which highlights the importance of ownership and accountability in self-development:

I like Ben Franklin’s idea about not giving others advice: “Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.” I think this highlights a cornerstone of coaching. Unlike consulting, where the consultant is an expert who gathers information and then gives advice, the coach is more of a facilitator. A large part of a coach’s role is to draw out wisdom already inside the client so that the client may discover solutions for themselves.

I often hear people talk about what to consider when shopping for a coach. They may want a coach who has worked in their industry, or in a similar role to theirs, or at their level of management. I don’t think these should be the only—or even the top—criteria.

In fact, one of the most important factors in whether a coaching experience is successful centers on a quality that must be present not in the coach but in the client. Some call it coachability: the client’s willingness to discover their own wisdom and, once found, to act on it.

Effective coaches employ strong skills to facilitate client-discovered wisdom. Coaches help clients focus on their most important area of concern, define what they want, and determine what that looks like. Coaches ask questions that aid the client’s own discovery—questions that expand the client’s perspective and inspire them to take risks. To accomplish this, effective coaches create a safe, trusting environment in which their clients can do this important work. But the client also has a major role in creating this environment. They need to be coachable. Here are just a few ways you can enhance your own coach-ability:

  • Be willing to think and act differently in the future, even if your current ways of doing things have resulted in success.
  • Don’t hesitate to break free from old habits.
  • Take the time, and make the effort, to clarify your values and the parts of yourself you would like to develop.

Trust yourself enough to take action—sometimes bold action—as a result of your newly discovered knowledge. Since being coachable means being willing to be vulnerable, it must be noted that coaching is not the same as therapy. A coach is not going to ask a client to delve deeply into their past personal life. There is a real possibility that this concern stops some people from hiring a coach or using one fully.

Also noteworthy: in coaching, the client not the coach drives the agenda. This means the client doesn’t have to talk about anything they don’t want to talk about. They must, however, be coachable—willing to explore, discover their own wisdom, think differently, and stretch themselves. If they do this, most of the time the reward will far outweigh the effort.

So when interviewing a coach, think less about the coach’s track record and more about whether you want to take this person with you on your journey of growth and discovery.You might be thinking I’m not planning to hire a coach anytime soon—how does this apply to me? Allow me to challenge your question with a few questions of my own:

  1. In terms of your own growth, are you actively creating an effective learning environment?
  2. Are you open to expanding your thinking, clarifying your values, and taking bold action?
  3. If you answered no, what are you going to do about it? (1)

There is a genuine need for the person being coached and mentored to take ownership of their own development. Interestingly, this can sometimes be a bit of a surprise to some coachees. There is no ‘silver bullet’ or fast-tracking, but the benefits can be very worthwhile when accountability and effort become part of the coaching and mentoring process.

There are a few discernible differences between coaching and mentoring, however the core development and outcomes remain consistent. In coaching it is primarily about understanding the coachees situation and then facilitating and guiding to discover potential actions and goals, mostly derived from the coachee. When mentoring, it is often about the mentor providing advice and using their own experiences to help the person being mentored. Slightly different skills and inputs, yet in both cases the focus is on the future aspirations, goals and actions of the person being assisted. In my experience, the most successful coaching and mentoring environments are created when a person:

  • is committed to the program
  • is willing and able to develop trust between the coach/mentor and themselves
  • is committed and works on the content in practice between sessions
  • has a leader who actively supports them in their development
  • recognises that there are no short-cuts
  • understands that coaching and mentoring are just part of the story or journey.

One of the additional paybacks is that as a participant, your own coaching and mentoring skills develop along the way. This improved skillset provides an excellent resource for you to help others in a similar way, whether they are your direct reports, peers or others within or external to the organisation. When applied well, coaching and mentoring can:

  1. Inspire shared learning: Leadership can be lonely. Leaders often feel isolated, unable or unwilling to share information with team members and they feel as though they need to have all the answers, which can be quite stressful.
  2. Encourage people to understand themselves: The CoachStation Coaching model works through the coachees situation, identifying development areas and opportunities for growth and improvement. We use many different tools and resources, all designed as triggers for self-awareness, discussion-points and clarity – targeted and individualised programs focus on the ‘right’ area that will provide the most benefit.
  3. Inspire and enable honesty: In the workplace, employees are often allowed to avoid confrontation. They sidestep challenges, procrastinate and sometimes actively or passively refuse to address things that matter the most – few people like confrontation, but when avoided, problems continue to build.
  4. Support change: During inductions, for newly promoted staff and other business needs, change can be supported through coaching and mentoring – the commitment to develop each persons skills and competencies.
  5. Create opportunity for self-development: Leading to confidence and strength in developing others, a critical step in a leaders development.

When I am coaching the focus of the program is quite often leadership development, however each client has their own unique situation, personality, challenges and other elements to be considered in the process. Experience has shown me that through a structured coaching and mentoring program you will see and feel a difference…and so will those around you.

It is a great time to consider whether you or one of your team would benefit from participation in our coaching and mentoring program. 

I am more than happy to be contacted if you wish to discuss how I can assist you, your organisation or members of your team. In the meantime, reflecting on your own development opportunities and accountability is a great place to start. After all, self-development can only happen because you care enough to take the first (or next) steps.

 

Reference:

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The Complexity of Business Communication

We may well be over-complicating the language of leadership and business. Poor communication leads to confusion, mixed-messages and a lack of buy-in from our employees.

After attending the Future of Leadership – Workplace Culture conference in Brisbane last week I have been reflecting on the content from some of the speakers. Gabrielle Dolan, in particular, caught my imagination. Not only because she is a very compelling and funny speaker but also because her key points seem so intuitively right. Reduce complex language and jargon. Communicate messages that people understand – tailor to you audience. Be comfortable and confident in your own style. Use stories to embed the key messages. They are all very useful tips that can make a sustained difference to how your teams perform.

CoachStation: Communication Complexity in Business - Gabrielle Dolan

Gabrielle Dolan: The Future of Leadership Conference, Bris, Sept 2015

One of the ways we can step into real leadership is to move away from corporate jargon and be prepared to share personal stories. Every time we use corporate jargon we disconnect and isolate people as opposed to personal stories that connect and engage people. (1)

Many of us are guilty of over-using words, especially in business. I have done it. Many people I work with and for make the same mistake.
The opportunity to provide clarity, context and appropriate levels of transparency is key to us getting what we want as leaders. Yet, it seems we go out of our way on occasion to confuse the message. Gabrielle is a passionate and effective speaker who focuses on communication and story-telling.

For over 27,000 years, since the first cave paintings were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods. (2)

The connections and depth that can be achieved through effective story-telling is a compelling reason to focus on message delivery in a way that people understand and remember. These points are reinforced in a recent article written by Gabrielle published in The Age newspaper:

TWO CEOs went walking in the woods and came across an attacking grizzly bear. One stops to put on a pair of runners. The other asks: “Why are you doing that, we can’t outrun a grizzly!”  The reply: “I only need to outrun you, not the bear.”
This story explains competitive advantage in a nutshell. Would you remember this tomorrow? Could you repeat it in a month’s time? Most importantly, does it help you understand competitive advantage?
Compare Michael Porter’s competitive advantage definition: “Competitive advantage, sustainable or not, exists when a company makes economic rents, that is, their earnings exceed their costs (including cost of capital).” Is change communication in your organisation more like the first example or the second? Unfortunately, most organisations are closer to the second example.
This explains why research indicates that a large number of organisational change attempts either fail outright or fail to reap significant return on their investment. Last year, Human Synergistics International analysed 41 Australian and New Zealand companies that attempted organisational transformation.
While most of the companies surveyed showed some improvement, only six of the 41 achieved change so significant it could be termed transformation.
Common features of these organisations included:
■  The critical leadership role in ensuring the organisation’s mission, purpose and values were understood.
■  The importance of effective internal communication.
■  The organisation’s willingness and ability to learn, grow and proactively manage change.
The HSI research highlights organisational storytelling as an effective tool in the success of these critical factors. Organisational storytelling is storytelling with a business purpose. (3)

The opportunity to embed core messages that are remembered and embraced with greater clarity and depth is a lesson in communication that leaders should heed. Issues with ineffective or poor communication continue to be put forward as one of the main reasons employees are frustrated with leaders.
In my experience, most people want to feel a deeper connection to what they do, why it matters and an understanding of the contribution they make.

We all enjoy a good story, whether it’s a novel, a movie or simply something one of our friends is explaining to us that they’ve experienced. But why do we feel so much more engaged when we hear a narrative about events? It’s quite simple. If we listen to a Powerpoint presentation with boring bullet points, certain parts in the brain get activated. Scientists call these Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area. Overall, it hits our language processing parts in the brain, where we decode words into meaning. And that’s it, nothing else happens.
When we are being told a story, though, things change dramatically…not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too. If someone tells us about how delicious certain foods were, our sensory cortex lights up. If it’s about motion, our motor cortex gets active.  A story can put your whole brain to work.
And yet, it gets better: When we tell stories to others that have helped us shape our thinking and way of life, we can have the same effect on them too. The brains of the person telling a story and listening to it, can synchronize. A story, if broken down into the simplest form is a connection of cause and effect. And that is exactly how we think.
We think in narratives all day long, no matter if it is about buying groceries, whether we think about work or our spouse at home. We make up (short) stories in our heads for every action and conversation. (2)

Storytelling is one component of effective communication for leaders. But, there are other relevant themes to hone also. I wrote previously that one of the challenges of leadership and communication in general, is understanding the level of detail required relative to each situation. Depending on the need, it can be necessary to discuss in-depth the content for a piece of work; what role someone else is to play in the task; seek input into potential solutions and other relevant details.
Knowing how much detail is going to add value; using language that is easily understood, contextual and not detract from the message or subsequent actions can be the difference between a successful outcome or not. Effective communication is not simply telling an employee. The message must not only be delivered but also understood. How often do leaders become frustrated with a team member who “just doesn’t get it, no matter how many times they have been told?” It may well be worth looking in the mirror to see if the what, how and why are clear and what else can be done to get the message across.
Appropriate context and content based on what is required in each situation is important when influencing and leading. One of the risks is that you as the leader, either do not seek enough input from others and/or confuse the situation as a result of giving too much information. Make your communication clear and memorable.

Using personal stories takes courage because real leadership takes courage.
My advice is to feel the fear and do it anyway…it will be worth the trip. (1)

Too much or too little detail or a lack of clarity and understanding for each role, position and person within your team is unlikely to add value to meeting goals and objectives. The risk of employee dissatisfaction, turnover and a lack of engagement is often the result. Enabling your team to provide input into their roles and that of their broader team is critical.
As a leader, ensure that clarity exists to the most appropriate degree possible. Develop skills in story-telling and influence differently. This does not remove all risk or solve all issues however effective communication that is understood by your team members is a key piece of the leadership puzzle.
Resources:
(1 ) Do You Have The Courage To Step Into Real Leadership? – Gabrielle Dolan
(2) The Science of Storytelling: What Listening to a Story Does to Our Brains – Leo Wildrich
(3) Getting The Story Right Is Compelling For Change Success – Gabrielle Dolan, The Age

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Are We Setting Our Leaders Up For Success?

People get hired or promoted into leadership roles every day.

Sadly, when they get the job they may get little or no training on how to lead a team.

The opportunity to develop our future leaders before placing them into leadership roles is an obvious one. Building employee skills, capability and awareness to be ready for leadership is ideal, yet is rarely applied well in practice.

The first blog I wrote many years ago was titled, Falling Into Leadership. It highlighted the common practice of people being ‘thrust into’ leadership roles without development and support both prior to and during the opportunity. I have written about this topic again since as it is something that continues to challenge many organisations.
CoachStation: Setting Leaders Up For Success
In fact, the low frequency of leadership support and meaningful development was a core reason why I created my business, CoachStation, in the first place. Too often I saw people being held accountable for our own failures to set them up for leadership success and support our team members to achieve.

Based on recent coaching conversations and discussions with clients, it would appear little has changed regarding leadership development in the years since. 

It is timely to revisit the message and challenge ourselves as business leaders to ensure we provide the most promising base for our leaders and managers to succeed.

In practice few businesses truly succeed at maximising the opportunity for their new leaders, not to mention the existing leadership team. To genuinely succeed in business, leaders must know their role, continuously develop their skills and be constantly supported to achieve the best they can as a leader, based on each individual. It is worth taking a moment to consider where your organisation succeeds or fails in this area. Take stock and make adjustment where required. (2)

Being a genuine leader does not come from the role and title designated to you but rather from your decision-making, inclusiveness, delegation skills, ability to communicate and other, well-recognised and documented traits. Many of these leadership traits can be learned and enhanced through proper coaching and development, however it takes focus and effort.

Because no one tells them (leaders) how to lead, how to communicate with their team members or how to inspire people, they are left with the mistaken idea that their principal job is to get the highest level of output from their team mates — and that’s all! (1)

That is only part of the story. Maybe you can relate to the following scenario I originally presented in 2012.

You started in a company at a lower level. Opportunity presented itself in the form of a chance to step-up temporarily into a role providing more money, esteem, credibility or some other perceived benefit. You jumped at it! Of course, along with all of the benefits the role also came much higher expectation…that of others and yourself.

You worked hard. Things went fairly well but you didn’t really feel supported to truly excel. You wanted to be the best operator so didn’t ask many questions  – after all, asking questions shows that you were not ready for the promotion in the first place, doesn’t it? “Better to bite your tongue and work your way through the issues on your own” is a common thought and action at this stage.

Your boss didn’t spend much time developing you or even working with you day to day. You were mostly left to yourself. In discussions, your boss commented that you were trusted and you should be able to do what’s required without the need to be ‘micro-managed’. This response rarely felt appropriate and in fact is a serious form of avoidance and reflects poorly on your boss but you wondered, what you could do to influence the situation?

In some ways this autonomy had its benefits, but also plenty of downside. You were often stressed, tried to please everyone and in so doing often pleased few people, including yourself.

Longer hours and pressure meant that you regularly wanted something different but didn’t know how to achieve it or even what that difference looked or felt like.

However, after a while further opportunity presented itself. Another step onwards and upwards. You reflected on why you were being considered as you had not felt you were particularly effective in your current role, but people seemed to like you and you occasionally received some good feedback, however insincere it may have felt. You knew in your heart that you were not ready for more responsibility…more pressure…and you wondered, “can I fake it until I make it at an even higher level of management?”

After all, your annual review (which is one of the few formal meetings you had with your boss) went fairly well, even though it lacked real depth and was a relatively ‘safe’ discussion with little meaning or opportunity for improvement.

So, you took on the new role because it was expected of you, or it offered greater prestige, salary or some other perceived or real benefit. You did not want to let others down and certainly the benefits outweighed the negatives…you’re leading people!

You are now responsible for your team, a process and regular input into projects and other ad-hoc work requiring your expertise, skills and knowledge. You were not only accountable for yourself but leading, developing, coaching and inspiring others. You often asked yourself whether you were ready to lead. If not, the impact would be felt by many.

Effective leadership can have a significant benefit on a team or business culture, personnel satisfaction, attrition, sickness levels and the bottom line. Ineffective leadership has exactly the opposite impact. Now, how does that pressure feel for you?

Reflecting on the scenario above, does it sound familiar? In my experience and working with many new and experienced leaders, this is a very common journey felt by many. Most of these people felt they had few opportunities to influence their situation, develop appropriate skills and feel supported during their journey.
Progress and genuine development will only succeed if you are willing to take some risks, source someone to assist you (a coach, mentor, role-model or some other trusted person) and challenge your own beliefs, perceptions and perspectives.

Leadership development is a joint responsibility – yours and your organisations. Too many leaders wait for others to provide them with the answers…and end up waiting a long time. 

Accountability and ownership are extremely important traits in your development.

The ability to take yourself out of your comfort zone often enough to test yourself and learn, is key. Knowing when to step back into your comfort zone is also a skill linked to self-awareness and emotional intelligence. These are skills and traits that can be learned.

Employees typically don’t fail. They are failed by their leaders.

No matter what level of the organisation people are employed at, the benefits in setting up all of your employees for success are too many to list here. The opposite is also true, with the risk of not getting it right negatively impacting your organisation for years. Very few companies are actually training people. They are expected to come equipped ready to work.  The mindset is “what are you bringing to the table”? However, it’s important to set the employee up for success on the front end with:

  • A solid job description and clear expectations
  • Training and development opportunities
  • A path to grow and develop with the organization. (3)

There is no doubt that the most effective and respected leaders in any role or organisation are those who recognise that they are not in their role because they have all the answers. They are honest in their own self-assessment and seek the same of others. They are successful because they understand their own strengths and limitations, possessing the self-awareness and desire to surround themselves with a team who have supporting strengths and skill-sets that contribute to the effectiveness of the team.

Effective leaders are accountable to themselves and take on the responsibilities for their role, inputs and outcomes willingly and with purpose. This is not a one way street. Organisations must support their current and future leaders and continue to provide relevant and genuine development and growth opportunities.

To succeed as a leader, significant support is required.
Success starts before the opportunity to lead begins…or at least, it should.

Effective leadership manifests itself through many positive influences. It is our responsibility to make this good intention a reality.

Conversely, when we expect people to automatically become the leaders we want without our support and development, the risk is that we get what we deserve.

Sources:
(1) Six Things Real Leaders Don’t Do (Like Boss People Around)
(2) CoachStation: Invest In Setting Up Your Leaders to Succeed
(3) 3 Things Great Leaders Do To Set People Up For Success

Related Articles:

Falling Into Leadership

Set New Leaders Up For Success

Three Ways to Set Up New Leaders for Success

 

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13 Challenges to the Current State of Leadership

It’s hard to identify why but there are currently major gaps in leadership, in Australia at least.

 

Actually, it’s not that difficult to understand really. The things we want from work are not that different to what we are looking for from life in general. The difficulty is not in the knowing, it is in the application and doing. It seems that employees in the modern workplace are screaming for a certain style and capability of leadership, but current cultures are challenged in delivering it.

 

CoachStation: 13 Challenges to the Current State of Leadership
The current state of leadership is not what is wanted nor required.

This is hard to write and I am sure is difficult to read for some. We wish it wasn’t the case. However, no matter who I speak to either on a personal level or within my professional contacts, there is great frustration and disappointment with the current application of leadership in business. In fact, there is considerable angst about leadership being portrayed in most areas including government at all levels. Statements and feelings referring to disengagement; indifference; self-interest; ego; fear; incompetence; and no time to focus on people are common issues, amongst others.

In a strange way I feel that this is the most important blog I have ever written. It encapsulates so much of what is missing, yet is most important and required to rectify the existing glut of good, effective leadership and relationships that impact business and personal success.

Conversations over many years have highlighted the similarities in what employees want from leaders. Consistency in the need for change, themes and discussions, no matter the person, industry or organisation is prominent. I have been speaking about  similar themes and topics with various people. Different discussions, different people, same inputs and outcomes! It is in moments such as these that I reflect on what matters most to my clients and customers.

The key leadership challenges across industries are remarkably consistent.

Although referencing a survey incorporating employees from the U.S. a recent HBR Interact/Harris poll highlighted some of the existing challenges related to communication and leadership. None of these work in isolation or silos, with one or more issues/traits influencing at least one other. In their entirety they create a powerful ‘check-list’ of skills and potential actions. Depth of understanding can make you more effective in communicating and ultimately, becoming a more informed and influential leader.

Employees called out the kind of management offenses that point to a striking lack of emotional intelligence among business leaders, including micromanaging, bullying, narcissism, indecisiveness, and more. In rank order, the following were the top communication issues people said were preventing business leaders from being effective (1):

The Current State of Leadership: Communication Issues that Prevent Effective Leadership

I work with dozens of organisations in various capacities. Within these existing organisations and the dozens I have been engaged by in recent years, a very defined and clear message is being delivered. The discrepancy between what is wanted and what is being provided by leaders remains too substantial – and it is widening. Although a leaders ability and willingness to communicate with their team members is key, it is not the only aspect of effective leadership. Failure to understand self and others is a key contributor amongst other relevant points.

Why is this so? In some cases it is intentional and conscious, political and full of self-interest. In some others it relates to self-awareness, honesty or people not knowing what they stand for and what drives them.

For some it is an unconscious set of decisions and influences built up over time and from previous experience and role-models. Whatever the input or cause, there is a need for change.

The skills and attributes below are attainable…they matter…and are important if we want to turn this around.

As highlighted in one of the points below, to develop in this space is a choice – yours, not someone else’s. There are many traits and attributes but the first step is…

1. Self awareness and knowing who you are…acceptance of self: this could be the single most important attribute of leadership. It is certainly a great place to start and incorporates emotional intelligence and honesty. When coaching leaders, self-awareness and the development of comfort in seeing things as they are, not as we would like to see them is the first, big barrier to overcome in almost every case. For some it takes longer than others and over time, if a coachee is not prepared to go down this path, then I will refuse to work with them. As an employee you often don’t have the same luxury.

However, through developing greater awareness of yourself; comfort, clarity and self-esteem builds and you are more likely and capable to manage the barriers as they arise.

2. Connections and relationships: you cannot be an effective leader who people look up to if you don’t take the time to build relationships. This must take into account the needs of each of your team members, however some people are more interested and engaged in this space than others, so tailoring your style and communication based on individual needs adds power and opportunity.

3. Passion: caring about what you do and who you are. Similar to one of my earlier points, if you are not passionate about leadership or your role it is time to review your direction.

People feel either the benefit or the lack of YOUR passion every day.

Five indicators that a leader has true passion:

• Commit honestly – Passionate leaders genuinely believe in what they espouse. People are touched and engaged by the genuineness of their passion.
• Make a clear case without being dogmatic – They convey the power of their belief without dismissing or belittling others’ points of view.
• Invite real dialogue about their passion – Their passion is balanced with openness: they want to hear and integrate others’ points of view.
• Act in support of their passion – They walk their talk: their day-to-day behaviors support their beliefs.
• Stay committed despite adversity and setbacks – Their commitment isn’t flimsy; when difficulties arise, they hold to their principles and find a way forward. (2)

4. Be a giver, not a taker: altruism in its pure sense has merit. More specifically in leadership this relates to the caring theme in that those who are most successful are those who see their role as one of providing and giving, not removing or taking. Put another way, you exist as a leader because of your team, not the other way around! This remains one of the biggest negative influences on successful leadership and how others see you.

5. Managing outputs: an anomaly in thinking that is being practiced by many leaders during coaching, feedback and discussions with employees. If the goal, target or KPI is 80 and someone is consistently at 70, help them to find the gap. A direct or indirect challenge without support is unreasonable and unfair, but is quite common. Providing feedback only or highlighting the differential is not enough and demonstrates poor leadership. It also does very little to develop trust and engagement with your employees.

Managing outputs or numbers has little value.

Understand and influence the inputs and you will see improved results whilst bringing everyone along during the process – a true win-win. Your role as a leader is to:

• understand what is required
• why it exists
• seek understanding and views regarding what the person/people can do to close the gap
• understand what is required from you to assist
• follow up and follow-through.

6. Care: leaders can only build true connections and relationships if they have a genuine interest in others and care about them.

There is no trick to this – if you are a leader and you don’t care about your team, change it or change jobs because the angst and challenge this creates will always work against you.


7. Trust: is the willingness to believe that someone is honest and means no harm. Not an easy concept in business until the right has been earned, both ways. Trust should not be given to another lightly but once it has been earned can create a platform for honest, frank, challenging and beneficial relationships.

8. Self-esteem: to value self and to be self-accepting is a challenge for many. How you view yourself will determine the course of your life, the choices you make and those you avoid. I previously read somewhere that when taking into account self-esteem, you will never rise above the image you have of yourself in your mind. In reality, this is very true.

9. Values: my journey has led me down many paths, yet values remain a constant. They drive much of who we are, our decisions and motivations. The alignment of values between an individual, their immediate leader and the employer/organisation is very important for sustained engagement and relationships. Values are not understood as well as they should be and have a massive impact on why employees are feeling how they are.

Learn more about your own values and then take the time to understand those of your team and friends.

10. Integrity: how many poor examples exist of this? Privately and in the media we hear and see many situations that have, at least in part, been driven by a lack of integrity from senior leaders and CEO’s in many organisations. This lack of integrity is not the sole remit of senior leaders however, with many employees feeling the pain of this at all levels of leadership.

11. Empathy: The ability to see situations and things from someone elses perspective is a real gift. It may not mean that you relate to even agree with their position, but by positioning your view based on another perspective can be enlightening and a brilliant contributor to relationships and building connections.

12. Choice: has so many implications in our personal and professional lives. This impacts and relates to time management, prioritisation, goals and much more. Choice is also something that many of us struggle to take ownership of. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the absence of either making a choice at all or making the wrong choices is have a negative impact on leadership in principle and practice.

As with several other traits listed, choice has strong alignment to accountability and ownership, which are their own topics altogether.

13. Ego: is what I consider to be one of the major negative influences on self-awareness, growth and genuine leadership. We see this in our politicians and the decisions that leaders make across industry. Sometimes even when it is known and proven to be a wrong decision, ego and its relationship to integrity and fear continue to drive the momentum of a wrong choice. As leaders, it is most often about others. Ego always makes it about the individual.

It is not just entry level and more junior employees who feel this pain. A report on the InsideHR website notes that the issue is as relevant within leadership ranks also.

There are worryingly low engagement levels of Australia’s workers across different industries…which found that those earning between $70,000 to $150,000 are the least engaged in their work, suggesting that middle management as a collective are disengaged.

“Middle income earners are less engaged than any other type of employee,” said Andrew Marty, managing director of organisational consulting firm SACS Consulting, which conducted the Disengaged Nation study. “Middle managers have less autonomy in their decision making and more disenchantment with their work than either lower paid workers at the coalface or higher paid executives leading organisations,” he said. “This middle manager lag is no doubt dragging organisational productivity down.” (3)

There will be a tipping point in leadership competence, capability and style in coming years. This will increase the requirement for strength in communication skills and developing relationships. They are not ‘soft-skills’ that are negotiable. Ignoring the needs of others and the evidence of what people are looking for has a limited lifespan.

The need for a broader demonstration of genuine, authentic and giving styles of leadership is coming.

They already exist in some areas and organisations, however clearly there is room for improvement. The data and feedback overwhelmingly reminds us that we are some way from providing leadership that resonates with the majority. It starts with each one of us. Being comfortable enough to acknowledge what is working well and what could be improved is a fine start. Doing something with this information matters more.

I am interested in your thoughts. What are your current experiences with leadership? What have you done to resolve these challenges?

 

Related Reading:
Three Cornerstone Leadership Skills

What Is Your Personal and Professional Brand?

 

References:
(1) https://hbr.org/2015/06/the-top-complaints-from-employees-about-their-leaders

(2) http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2012/06/11/passionate-leaders-arent-loud-theyre-deep/

(3) http://www.insidehr.com.au/how-hr-can-boost-engagement-through-2-key-levers/

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Does Leadership Intent Equal Business Success?

Does Leadership Intent Equal Business Success?

 Not really! The consistently large gap between behaviours, intent, desired culture and reality remains an issue.

I was flying home to Brisbane last week and had the opportunity to read the latest ‘Inside HR’ magazine from cover to cover. It is always an interesting read with much that grabs my attention. However on this occasion, by the time I was towards the end of the magazine a theme had started to form in my mind.

There were various articles and highlights within the content that rang alarm bells for me. Or maybe it was more that the messages were articulating many of my own recent thoughts more clearly.

CoachStation: Leadership, People and Business Development

Let me show you what I mean through various excerpts taken from the magazine:

Engaged employees are at least three and a half times more likely than disengaged employees to say their organisation is committed to bringing innovative products and services to the marketplace. Highly engaged employees are nearly six times more likely than disengaged employees to use challenging goals to improve performance, and more than seven times more likely to agree that their senior leadership team encourages innovation and creative ideas. (1)
The best HR teams and leaders are driving innovation across three key dimensions: achieving the next frontier of functional effectiveness  (6)

The gap is widening between what business leaders want and what HR is delivering, according to a global research report, which found that HR needs an extreme makeover driven by the need to deliver greater business impact and drive HR and business innovation. The Deloitte 2015 Global Human Capital Trends report, which involved surveys and interviews with more than 3300 business and HR leaders from 106 countries, found that while CEOs and top business leaders rate talent as a key priority, only 5 per cent of survey respondents rate their organisation’s HR performance as excellent. In addition, just 11 per cent of respondents feel that their organisations provide excellent development for HR. “To put it bluntly, HR is not keeping up with the pace of change in business,” the report said.

“Today, there is a yawning gap between what business leaders want and the capabilities of HR to deliver, as suggested by the capability gap our survey found across regions and in different countries.” The research report found the most significant capability gaps for HR in Australian organisations were in the areas of HR and people analytics, reinventing HR, performance management, leadership, and culture and engagement, while the smallest capability gaps were in the areas of people data, simplification of work, learning and development, and workforce capability.

Other Deloitte research has found that only 30 per cent of business leaders believe that HR has a reputation for sound business decisions; only 28 per cent feel that HR is highly efficient; only 22 per cent believe that HR is adapting to the changing needs of their workforce; and only 20 per cent feel that HR can adequately plan for the company’s future talent needs. (8)
The report shows a widening capability gap in HR’s ability to deliver strong talent solutions, in the areas of:

  • Engagement and retention (the number one challenge around the world this year), HR teams are 30 per cent less ready than a year ago
  • Building leadership and filling leadership gaps (the number two challenge around the world), HR teams are only half as ready as they were a year ago
  • Delivering learning and training solutions (the number three challenge around the world), HR teams are only one-third as ready as they were a year ago.

What is going on? Why are HR organisations having such a hard time keeping up? After studying this marketplace for the last few years and talking with hundreds of clients, the answer is simple. HR today is undergoing more change than ever before, and we are on the brink of disruptive change.

The obvious theme here is that HR is not up to scratch in supporting the goals and actions required for many organisations. Although in my experience this is a genuine issue, holistically it is too easy a statement to make and glosses over the more entrenched issues organisation-wide. It is a much more difficult set of questions that requires multiple solutions owned by leadership, HR and their ability to drive action beyond mere words.

Amongst various factors, HR and its current position/reputation is a symptom of other issues that exists within organisational cultures based around competence, capability, intent, passion and desire. It is untrue to state that many people and specifically leaders do not care about their employers or employees. It is not about caring, but more about doing.

The pace of change; need for outcomes; short-termism; and skill gaps in leadership are hurting business at a time when it can least afford the challenge.
What I have learned is that good intent does not equal improvement, growth or success!

Employee engagement is how strategy comes to life, not a campaign on the side. When people understand the why, how it helps customers, and what will change for them, they invest their energy and ideas. This is implemented when leaders:

  • Translate the strategy into clear, human language, link it to values, and be honest about trade offs. Invite teams to shape priorities, risks, and measures, since ownership builds commitment.
  • Set role clarity and decision rights so everyone knows where to act and where to collaborate. Recognise progress often, close the loop, and keep the story of the strategy alive.
  • Make engagement operational, not accidental. Use simple rhythms such as weekly team check ins and regular 1:1’s to connect work with strategic goals, surface obstacles, and agree next steps.
  • Share visible measures that track outcomes, quality, and experience, and pair them with short feedback loops so learning turns into change. Equip respected people as ambassadors who model the behaviours, tell real customer stories, and help peers translate intent into action.
  • Align goals, development, and rewards with the strategy so doing the right work feels natural. When people can see themselves in the plan, effort shifts from compliance to contribution, and momentum lasts.

The articles highlight the ‘gap’ that exists between what business leaders want and need and what is being provided to support them and what they are providing themselves. In fact, the key points in the excerpts that struck me are the need for change yet the struggle to make this happen in reality. What do leaders and HR need to do fill the void that exists?

The opportunity to change culture by focusing on the key initiatives and measuring outcomes is something that I believe many organisations can improve. An idea in itself is not enough. What difference does or will this idea, concept, improvement etc. make to the organisation, its processes, people or customers is often discussed but not always efficiently met? The opportunity to hold team members and employees accountable is one that is missed too often with the outcomes and measurable change not highlighted as a core focus.

Most leaders would argue with this, stating that of course, the outcome and results are critical. But, few actually lead their teams with this in mind on a daily basis.
“We need to turn what we know into what we do!”

The key to this change in culture and expectations has to at least in part, be a change in mindset. Talking about leadership and its criticality to business success is not enough – no matter how success is measured. Leadership by its nature requires that you build strong and effective relationships; know and connect with your team; and influence through coaching, not telling, for example.

In the same magazine there was an excellent interview with Alex Bershinsky who highlighted the need to focus on people and that traditional strategies and tools are, in many cases, quickly becoming irrelevant.

A recent research report found that many leading organisations are moving away from viewing performance management as a once-a-year event where employees are assessed and evaluated, to a series of ongoing activities that include goal-setting and revising, managing and coaching, development planning, and rewarding and recognition. The report found that continuous coaching is becoming increasingly important, as employees want to receive individual feedback and feel valued by their organisations for their unique contributions…The focus on these conversations is less about ‘here are your four KPI’s and tell me what you’ve hit or missed’ and more about ‘how are you going, how can I help you, what are you struggling with and what do you need from me to improve?’ So, it’s a very short, regular talent conversation.

“So we’re not using ratings, but the idea is to get away from ratings, distribution curves and batch data and instead provide real-time feedback to develop the 95 percent of our people who are terrific, versus the 5 percent who aren’t performing – which is the reverse of what most performance management systems are geared to do. That’s a real cultural shift.”

You can only hold others accountable if the appropriate expectations and standards have been established in the first place. Getting bogged down in ‘doing the do’ and not making time for your people will ensure that you fail to progress your business. This is relevant whether you have a formal performance management system or not. Tenets such as accountability, expectations; standards, relationships, connection, ownership and other key elements fill the void created by poor leadership, when applied. This takes effort, prioritisation, practice and planning.

As a leader, it also requires a personal strategy for assessing and measuring performance. It is not solely HR’s responsibility to drive this. Waiting for someone else to develop this strategy can only negatively affect you as a leader or employee. Taking the lead and positively impacting employee engagement in your team is a fantastic place to start.

Develop your own leadership skillset and capability. Then apply your new knowledge in positively leading your team. If Deloitte are correct in stating that employee retention, engagement and leadership are the number one and two business challenges this year, then you will be ahead of the game.

Need I mention ownership and accountability again!? Give it a try and let me know how you go.

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Leadership Benefits: Self-Awareness and ROI

Does self-awareness and an understanding of leadership impact really matter to organisations?

 

CoachStation: Self-awareness and Leadership Development

Nearly all managers and people in leadership roles believe they make a difference. In some cases, this is true. In reality however, the evidence continues to demonstrate that leaders overstate their value and influence.

One of the core traits observed in the best leaders I have worked with is self-awareness. This is tightly linked to a willingness to be honest with themselves as well as others. There are also points such as decision making beliefs and biases that influence our position on many topics. Our actions are also reinforced by these biases. All the more reason to take a strong position that as a leader it is important to regularly review your own performance as well as that of your team members. We overstate our performance across many fields, so anything that provides a more frank and balanced sense of self is valuable.

  • In a survey of college professors, 94% said they did above average work.
  • In a survey of corporate CEO’s, a whopping 92% said they were the only person who could do their job effectively. By the way, more than 50% of those corporations were losing money.
  • In an M&A involving a flailing target, the average firms pays 40+% more for the target acquisition than the current stock price. Why? Because the acquiring execs believe that they can run the acquisition more profitably. (1)

As an example, I have seen the challenge of holding yourself accountable as a leader when participating in performance appraisal calibration sessions within several organisations.
Dilbert: Honest Leadership Assessment
The discussion is often about what employees have not achieved or the reasons why they will be ‘marked down’. There are two strong points of failures with this:

  1. The disappointing attitude of some leaders that the employee underperformance is a surprise. If the leader acknowledges that an individual has underperformed, then they should be prepared to look at themselves and the failure to have made a difference for/with that person over the past 6-12 months. If it is not the leader’s responsibility to manage this, whose is it?
  2. The focus on the 10-20% of what an employee is not achieving is out of proportion with the discussion of the 80-90% of what is working well. In my experience, the vast majority of these type of discussions focus on what is isn’t, not what it is. This is particularly disheartening if there is little support and coaching provided to to turn this situation around throughout the period. I have been in situations where I have held underperforming employees accountable to the point of terminating employment after much effort to turn them around. Afterwards, during performance calibration sessions I have had other managers state that the decision to terminate is a good one as the employee has been a poor performer for years! My response will always be, “why had nothing been done about it then?” I hope you can see the irony in leadership statements such as this.

Does leadership make that much of a difference to business outcomes and success? You bet! The effort and willingness to grow and develop as a leader is the only way that this benefit can be realised, however. There is ample evidence that those organisations who focus on developing their leadership group see the benefit in many ways beyond improved employee engagement.

Organisations with the strongest leaders have nearly double the revenue growth compared to those with weaker leaders. However, most leaders lack the full complement of skills to thrive in today’s rapidly changing environment…organisations must adjust their approach to leadership and develop leaders who are able to build and enable. In order for organisations to achieve higher growth, truly differentiate themselves from competitors and maintain an edge, they must set a higher bar for their leaders, requiring them to go beyond setting strategic direction and driving execution. (2)

One of the keys to knowing whether you truly add value as a leader is through measurement, both tangible and non-financial. A key question here is, are all aspects of business measurable?

Calculating business benefits is often a complex art. As anyone who has been involved in business cases can testify, investments in ‘tangibles’ e.g. IT infrastructure, marketing spend etc. are often difficult to quantify in terms of the real monetary value they deliver. So when we start to think about investments that deliver ‘intangible’ benefits such as changes in leadership behaviour, the waters get murkier still. In too many cases, the evaluation of Leadership Development Programmes is not properly planned or budgeted for. Rather, it is seen as a tag-on, something to be put together at the very end…work needs to have clearly defined, specific and measurable objectives. So start with the end in mind:

  • What is the desired outcome of the programme?
  • What does success look like?
  • And then the killer question…what are the business metrics that we want to see impacted by this piece of work? (3)
The main point here is to ensure that you have a clearly set expectation for every employee, team and leader. You cannot hold people accountable for something that you have not set standards and expectations for in the first place. Confirming that each person understands and has the opportunity to participate in developing these expectations is also important. When combined with honest self-appraisal and subsequent action the opportunity to influence and contribute to your organisation is increased significantly.

Even more importantly, the influence on and buy-in you will receive from your team members will encourage you to continue down this developmental path and feel the effort is worthwhile. The alternative is to stagnate and continue to do what you have always done. Is that the type of leader you want to be?

(1)  http://switchandshift.com/when-leaders-wear-rose-colored-business-glasses

(2) Inside HR – Strong Leaders Grow Revenues Twice As Fast, Issue 2, 2014: Pg 6
(3) http://www.ysc.com/our-thinking/article/measuring-the-roi-of-leadership-development

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CoachStation: Contact Centre Case Study

Steve Riddle was engaged in early 2013 to provide consulting, leadership and people development services and produce a report summarising the strengths and areas for improvement that existed at that time. The approach to undertake this review, prepare the report and provide recommendations was to engage stakeholders at all levels of the business including the contact centre, hardship, complaints teams and relevant people external to the centre. The original consultation period and subsequent review occurred between April and June 2013. A highly consultative and holistic approach was taken to review and examine various areas of the business, as highlighted in this document.

Background
The contact centre industry has been a key focus and part of business structure for many medium and large organisations for over 30 years. When designed and functioning correctly the centre acts as a hub for existing customers and potential clients to seek additional information; purchase or apply for new business; seek clarification regarding existing products; and often most importantly, act as a single point of customer contact, in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
In recent years however, the contact centre industry has changed to meet business needs and customer expectations. Technology creation and enhancements, higher levels of customer awareness and expectations of service standards, as well as greater maturity of business understanding of what contact centres can provide has meant a subtle shift has occurred. However, even with this shift, the fundamentals of contact centres remain the same. Lean processes, agent efficiency, effective leadership, modern technology and systems provide the basis to ensure that the optimal internal culture is established and external customers feel the difference in a positive way.
The National Customer Solutions Contact Centre (NCSC) within Toyota Finance Australia (TFA) has gone through significant cultural, personnel and technological change over the past 18 months. This has proven to be a significant challenge and also provided a rewarding outcome as the business begins the next phase of its transformation. Managing the myriad of inputs and influences within the contact centre environment is a constant experiment. Understanding the implications of decisions made and actions taken on other elements of the business is one of the key attributes that is driven within the Centre and led to much of the improvement and resultant success.

NCSC Focus, Results & Outputs

The Beginning: Consultant Review
I was engaged by Brisbane based IT consultancy firm, Business Aspect, to analyse several areas of the customer service operations.

  • Productivity
  • Key Performance Indicators
  • Costs
  • Resource levels and recruitment
  • Workforce Management
  • Reward and Recognition
  • Training and Development
  • Quality Measurement
  • Technology
  • Social Media
  • Staff engagement

In addition, data was provided by various sources including Team Leaders, Human Resources and Contact Centre leadership to provide context, basis and benchmarks for implementation and statistical analysis.
The report identified five core Focus Areas for the Contact Centre that impacted on the overall outcomes and experience of Toyota Finance customers:
1) Key Performance Indicators and Productivity
2) Workforce Management, Resourcing and Rostering
3) Technology and Self Service
4) Customer Interaction and Surveys
5) Employee Engagement and Development
Through discussion, data review and an awareness of current cultural and leadership challenges it was identified that these 5 focus areas could be further broken down into specific pillars I highlighted in the graphic below. These were considered to have the greatest impact on overall contact centre success.

The changes we made were significantly influenced by our improvements in technology, data and enhanced line of sight to what was happening in the business:

  • New Genesys telephony platform
  • Customer Surveys and Net Promoter Score
  • Quality Assurance Functionality and Role
  • Workforce management System and Role
  • Employee Surveys
  • Employee Focus Groups

Technology and systems enable growth, engagement and provide the information required to affect change.

Too often organisations implement new technology and expect that this, in itself, will be the game changer.

Technology certainly helps, however without maximising the opportunity through how the technology is applied and engaging our people to be the core part of implementation, we were almost certainly destined to fail or at best have a watered-down opportunity. This is why we focused much of our early attention on the cultural inputs and elements that were highlighted in the previous graphic.
One of the keys to knowing where to go in the future is to fully understand where you are now. Technology as an enabling and efficiency tool and data source is the core to gaining that understanding. The ‘tipping point’ for us came in February 2014 after technology enhancements in January.
Even simplistic sets of data allowed us to start to plan and create a strategy for our future. The challenge now became; how do we manage and collate this data and information into meaningful insights and trends.
We spent the first few months changing the culture to ensure that all of our team members had a sense of what the end goal looked like and to involve them as much as possible in the decision-making. This was achieved through data collection, analysis and staff development based on employee and customer feedback.

As with many things in life…a balance between often conflicting demands and beliefs had to be challenged.

Change and Growth

Customer Surveys
One of the keys to understanding what direction we needed to take was through identifying insights and trends from data. Until February of this year we had little data, few meaningful reports and were hamstrung in our decision making as a result. With few decisions, there were few actions.
That meant we had become very reactive and focused on the day-to-day management of the business, with little strategic direction or planning. Something needed to change and one of the most important steps was to better understand what our employees and customers thought about interacting and working with us.

How we went about changing this was to understand what our clients and customers want…by asking!

Customer Surveys provide strong numerical and empirical data for us to collate and identify trends that drive many of our actions and goals. Why do we bother to ask our key stakeholders? Quite simply, if we don’t ask we assume most things and most often get it wrong.
It has been my experience that without clarity we assume that our customers are looking for the same things we care about internally. This is often not the case. In Customer Experience it matters most how we make our customers feel.
Customer and Employee View
The customer survey we developed consists of 3 questions: Transactional Net promoter Score (NPS); First Call Resolution (FCR); and Brand Sentiment NPS.
It is important to note that I recognise the difference between Transactional NPS (i.e. customer sentiment based on a single interaction) and Brand Sentiment NPS (measuring a customers ‘overall’ sentiment of a brand or company), however the broad implications regarding scores apply.
Taking this into account, however, the consistent monthly results of 60+ remain an extremely worthy comparative outcome when compared to the banking and finance industry averages indicated by the vertical red line on the graph. When comparing the results over the period from March to August 2014, it is apparent that many of our customers feel a great deal of satisfaction when dealing with the Centre.

The results reflect the excellent efforts of many within the centre, based on our ability to access more robust reporting and develop our people accordingly.
The First Call Resolution (FCR) target of 85% has also been exceeded since exception of the customer surveys and continues to improve with results of 96% in the most recent months. Most importantly, when delving into customer surveys it was the verbatim comments, both positive and constructive, that provided the raw material for us to draw on and develop a series of strategies and actions as a result.
Employee Engagement & Focus Groups
Employee Survey Results 2013: Last years employee survey was conducted during the early stages of the Centre’s cultural shift. We were and remain, very conscious of the rapid change that was occurring and worked to ensure that our team members were participating in and communicated to regarding our progress, next steps and ultimate goals. Feedback received indicated that there was a level of cynicism regarding the Centre’s systems and processes, as well as a significant change to leadership personnel which was felt by many. Additionally, the shift in accountability and first-stage development of KPI’s better suited to each role took some time to be understood and accepted.
As a result of the survey a few initiatives were introduced, however the original Centre Review (delivered and approved for implementation in June 2013) and subsequent goals were already in play prior to the survey period.
It is important to ask our team members what is working well and what is not. An example of the type of information gathered was when I facilitated focus groups of 2-3 people in 2014, asking the following questions of our team members:
1. What is working well currently within our business? What areas of our business have improved over the past 6-12 months?
2. How do you feel about coming to work every morning?
3. What are the key areas of frustration for you?
4. What would you do to change your working world if there were no restrictions or limitations?
5. What could we do to improve our leadership and communication?
6. Do you have enough opportunities to contribute to decisions that affect you?
7. Do you understand how your role contributes to achieving business outcomes?
8. What questions do you have for me? What would you like to better understand about our business and/or the direction we are heading?
The sessions were discussion based and the idea was to speak with enough of our team to gauge what areas were working fine and what we need to do to make our business even better. Importantly, the actions and response from this information were key to performance improvement and engagement.

Consolidation and the Future

Whereas the recent consolidation and improvement of processes, technology, structure and metric/results has been substantial, there is still a way to go to meet the high expectations positioned for our team. One of the key challenges has been balancing the rapid change required with the ability to manage the processes and lead through expected employee engagement challenges. For the most part, this has been achieved to plan and has created genuine opportunity for the next 1-3 years.
Key gains and metric improvements have been realised, yet the next phase is about making the most of the solid base created via continued improved employee engagement initiatives and taking the Centre to another level of customer service, whilst also highlighting sales and retention opportunities. Ultimately, the focus is on continuing to develop a culture that exceeds expectations both internally and externally. Whereas many actions and goals have been identified to occur in FY15, many of them will continue into future years and be added to as the Centre culture develops and additional programs of work are identified.
In order to formalise a handover document for my replacement I created a Business Plan detailing what I would focus on if I remained in the role. The plan and its content remain fluid and should be reviewed and updated regularly.
Bus Plan Pic TFS 2014
The new leadership team have free reign to take action and set goals accordingly, however the opportunity to explain the past to understand the future is important. The key idea is that as an overall statement of intent and the execution of the goals and strategy will take the Contact Centre, Complaints and Hardship teams through its next phase, setting benchmarks within the industry. There is little doubt the baseline for this to occur has been established, however there is a genuine risk of plateauing as observed in the first half of 2014, stifling opportunity and momentum.
Ultimately, we are focused on continuing to develop a culture that exceeds expectations both internally and externally. The business plan highlights the specific strategies, goals, actions and tactics that will assist to realise this opportunity.

Outcomes and Results

All of this work needs to mean something by reflecting improvement in our KPI’s, metrics and results. Pleasingly this has been the case.
By comparing the results from August 2013 to August 2014, it is clear that improvement exists across all areas of our business; the Contact Centre, Hardship and Complaints.
CoachStation: Contact Centre Consulting and Business Improvement
We have seen ongoing incremental improvement in the abandonment rate from 6% in April to 2% in August. This exceeds the target and importantly is a new benchmark internally, with a greater likelihood to meet this consistently based on earlier decisions and actions. The comparative result of 42% abandoned rate in August 2013 highlights the improvement. Along with GOS, this is our single biggest indicator of consistency in service, particularly as we manage this metric at more granular levels and intervals also.
CoachStation: Contact Centre Development and Consulting
The Grade of Service (GOS) has improved dramatically from a historical result consistently under 20% and a low of 6% in August 2013. GOS remains our single most effective measure of how our contact centre is progressing, however must be taken into account with customer/employee survey and quality results to ensure we are not succeeding at the expense of those who matter the most, as highlighted earlier in this document.
CoachStation: Coantact Centre Consulting, Coaching and Improvement
Average Speed of Answer of 38 seconds in August compared to 114 seconds in April 2014 and 606 seconds in August 2013.
Non-phone customer contact outstanding items at end of month (Emails, Letters & Faxes) of < 92 from April onward, compared to 1,332 in October 2013. This has reduced calls and complaints significantly into the centre through First Call Resolution.
Agent Quality Assurance average score of 81% in September compared to 69% in April 2014. This is as a result of several initiatives; most specifically enhanced coaching and time spent developing our team members at Team Leader and Agent level.
The Hardship and Complaints teams continue to excel in improving the results, which have turned around since June 2013.
As an example, the early-stage or Internal Disputes Resolution complaints have seen significant improvement since June 2013, escalating during 2014. The comparison between June and September 2014 and the same period last year highlights the ongoing improvement:

  • 2013 – Complaint Resolution/delivery: 21 days = 87%%; 5 days = 70%; same day as received = 34%
  • June 2014 – Complaint Resolution/delivery: 21 days = 94%; 5 days = 72%; same day as received = 47%
  • Sept 2014 – Complaint Resolution/delivery: 21 days = 100%; 5 days = 89%; same day as received = 74%

The team are rightly very proud of their achievements, however opportunities remain. The ability to gain even greater consistency, continue to improve our technology; take recent people development initiatives even further; analyse and break down the ever-growing sets of data into meaningful trends and insights; ensuring our customer’s remain as highly satisfied as they currently are; and other initiatives as highlighted in this and other documents, are all required focus areas. The business is well-placed to make this a reality.
On a personal note I would like to acknowledge and thank the senior leadership team for their support and faith in making the original strategy and plans into a reality. I have mentioned many times that it is only due to the opportunity to review and impact the entire operation including policies; people & culture; personal and professional development; technology; systems and similar elements, that the gains have been as significant as they have.
Most importantly, it is the people in the Contact Centre, Hardship and Complaints teams who have been prepared to accept, buy into and ultimately apply the change that was (and remains) necessary. It is what we do day-to- day that matters the most! Thank you most sincerely to you all.
Steve Riddle
Director, CoachStation

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