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Vision, Values & Victors - Lessons In Leadership
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βVision, Values and Victorsβ is a discussion paper written by myself.
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'Revolutionise' 'Vision, Values & Victors'
the Profitability of Your Business Lessons in Leadership
A Discussion Paper by Andy HanselmanVision, Values & Victors
Lessons In Leadership
A Discussion Paper by Andy Hanselman
The challenges facing leaders today are as strong as ever. Ever rising customer and employee expectations,
increasing and intensifying competition (coming from further afield), the pace and dramatic effects of change, and
creating a winning 'can do' culture are just some of the issues the leaders of today tell us they face.
However, many organisations are not only surviving, but are thriving in this ever-changing environment. How are
they doing it? What makes them different? And, what can we learn from them?
Our experience suggests that leading a successful organisation involves managing a balance between:
Creating Sufficient 'Devoted' Customers
Inspiring and Developing Committed, Motivated and Effective People
Maximising Financial Returns
Although many organisations are operationally 'sound', and function effectively, it is becoming clear that this is
not always enough. Individuals want a 'better' experience as customers and employees. This means a greater
need for 'leadership' rather than 'management'. Managers hit targets, monitor performance and report on progress.
Leaders change things, inspire, motivate and 'engage' their people. However, it's not happening in many
organisations. According to research by Gallup, only 17% of UK workers are 'actively engaged', 63% aren't
engaged and 20% are 'actively disengaged'.
Combine this with the fact that McKinsey and Co reported that foreign owned companies operating in the UK,
drawing from the same talent pool are on average more than 50% more productive than UK owned companies and
that labour in US owned plants in the UK is up to 90% more productive than in comparable UK businesses. Their
conclusion was that 'the answer lies in better management practices'.
It's all fairly damning stuff, but we feel that there is some shining beacons among the darkness and offer therefore,
some lessons in leadership.
Our research suggests that the best leaders create a vision that inspires and motivates, and work hard at
developing a culture that supports it. They also empower their people to make things happen and create
'revolutionary' experiences for their clients.
This paper is based on our research into best practice, our observations and our experiences of working with
leaders of forward thinking organisations and how the successful ones appear to be not just managing but leading
change.
Not a list of do's and don'ts but some common ideas and themes on which to reflect and build a way forward for
your organisation.The Five Lessons are:
LESSON ONE
It's More Than A Vision Thing
Create a vision that inspires and motivates, get your
people on board, work strategically as a senior team,
and ensure that effective communication keeps people
informed and focussed.
LESSON TWO
Value Your Values
Create the culture you want, champion your champions
and challenge your challengers, use your systems,
procedures and rewards to get the preferred behaviours
your business needs to compete.
LESSON THREE
Create Other Leaders, Not Followers
Define what leadership means in your business,
establish performance management systems, develop
the leaders of the future and ensure leadership is 'role
modelled' at the top.
LESSON FOUR
Get 'Engaged'
Give your people a 'damn good listening to', keep them
informed of progress, involve them, seek their opinions,
value their contributions and maximise people
performance.
LESSON FIVE
Use information To Empower, Not As Power
Collect, analyse, communicate and maximise
information, measure the right things, make it meaningful
to help maximise performance.LESSON ONE
'It's More Than A Vision Thing'
Successful leaders create and communicate a vision, and get their people on board. Not a set of financial figures
or 'pie in the sky' dreams, but a meaningful picture of the future that creates focus, direction, passion and
commitment. Again research suggests that this does not exist in a vast number of organisations.
Mori identified that:
· Only 50% have typically bought into their employer's goals
· Only 25% strongly agreed that they have a clear sense of their organisation's vision and direction for the future
· Less than 20% strongly agreed that the people in their team know how they contributed to their organisations over all
goals
So, what can be done? Our experience suggests it starts at the top. The challenge for any Executive Team is to
paint a picture of the future that goes beyond financial figures, performance targets and corporate 'buzzwords'.
It's about spelling out 'what will be in place in 2-3 years time, and what will be happening in 12 months time'.
This 'vision' then is typically built into, and made relevant to the day to day operational management of the
business - progress updates in team briefings, internal newsletters and notice boards (one client publishes 'Loo
News' - a monthly update posted above the urinals, and on the back of toilet doors!), the vision is referred to at
induction (and as part of the recruitment process) at performance reviews, and at team meetings. As one MD told
us 'It's like the cream that sits on the top of coffee. In many businesses, it floats on top with only small droplets slowly sinking into the coffee.
We stir it up, we mix it, we want it absorbed throughout the organisation'. The key? You've got to keep stirring ... it's not a one
off thing.
In carrying out employee attitude surveys in a wide cross section of organisations, people consistently tell us
they need to know:
· How is this 'vision' relevant to me?
· What specifically do you want me to do?
· How will I be measured?
· What rewards/consequences will I face?
· What tools and support are available?
· What's in it for me?
· How are we doing?
The leader's role? To help their people answer these questions.
We said it's more than a vision thing. Research by The Future Foundation and Orange identified that employees
are looking for 'an exciting' vision for the organisation. Only just over 50% felt that their leaders had created this in
their organisation.
Some key questions for your organisation:
· Are your people 'excited' by your vision?
· Do you have one?
· Is it communicated in a meaningful and relevant way at every opportunity?
· Is it more than a poster in reception or a set of financial figures?
· Are people aware of your progress towards the vision?
· Does it drive your organisation, your divisions and departments?
· Is it revisited, reviewed and reenergized by your leaders regularly!LESSON TWO
Value Your Values
If 'vision' is where we're going, then 'culture' is about how we do it.
Culture is 'what we do around here'. It's often seen as the soft side of management. Our experience suggests it's
the hardest! Successful organisations create a winning culture. they manage it and measure it. Importantly, they
produce the behaviours they want from their people.
Customers can identify the culture of an organisation by simply talking to employees, on the telephone or visiting
the offices. In successful organisations it is an integral part of the competitive advantage.
The external view of the culture of an organisation goes way beyond the brand/corporate identity and marketing
materials.
Creating the culture you want starts with assessing the current culture and identifying which aspects of it are we
happy/unhappy with. The next step is to establish the culture you want. This often involves spelling out what we
want our organisation to be like (it's an integral element of 'the vision').
Creating the culture you want can involve a number of key elements:
· Publishing and living a set of core values
· Ensuring systems and procedures support the culture we want
· Establish reward systems that reinforce it
· Identifying and championing role models throughout the organisation
Developing and communicating a set of values can be a useful step. An even better step is to use the values in
the management of the business.
Values can help:
· Create the culture you want
· Provide clear guidelines for acceptable and non acceptable behaviour
· Reduce game playing and confusion
· Reinforce and support the external image of the organisation
Organisations that truly value their values, use them in the day to day management, recruitment and rewarding of
their people, those that don't, simply put up posters and talk a good story. In successful organisations the leaders
talk about them daily, refer to them regularly and use them consistently. They act as role models and actively
promote the behaviours they want to see in others.
Our experience suggests that the best leaders 'Champion their Champions' and 'Challenge their Challengers'.
This means supporting, encouraging and rewarding those who display the behaviours you expect, and challenging
those you don't. For example, how would your organisation deal with the sales person that achieves his/her sales
targets, but regularly upsets all his/her colleagues by being aggressive, selfish and detrimental to the team?This model summarises an approach adopted by Jack Welch when transforming GE. His leaders were appraised
as follows:
Target/Objectives
Not Achieved Achieved
Encouraged,
supported/helped 'Championed'/
(sometimes rewarded/
Demonstratesrewarded) promoted
Challenged, not
Released
Preferred Behaviours rewarded
Doesn't
Demonstrate
It's a simple model, but a useful principle to adopt. A number of clients we have worked with have built values into
their day to day management and performance management system (appraisals etc) i.e. individuals are assessed
(and rewarded) on their behaviours as well as achievement of objectives.
Feedback from UK managers of one of the world's leading clinical research service providers (US owned) where
we have worked with them to use their values in their day to day management has produced:
· Increased confidence in managers dealing with 'behavioural' and 'difficult' issues
· Improved understanding of the US provided corporate values and what it means to the people locally
· A reduction in 'inappropriate behaviour'
· Improved communication, team working and people performance
Some key questions for your organisation:
· Are you happy with your organisation's culture?
· Do your people act in line with your preferred behaviours and values?
· Do your reward systems, performance management and operational procedures reinforce and help promote
your preferred behaviours and values?
· Does your organisation 'Champion its Champions' and 'Challenge its Challengers'?
· Do your leaders act as role models and positively reinforce your preferred culture?LESSON THREE
Create Other Leaders Not Followers
Our evidence suggests that in successful organisations, leadership exists at all levels of the business and is
actively promoted throughout. They invest time, money and resources in developing a cadre of leaders capable
of achieving the organisations vision.
What makes a bright leader? Research by Future Business and Orange identified the following characteristics:
What Makes A Bright Leader?
Vision
Communication
Passion
Integrity
Determination
Relationships
Self awareness
Toughness and Respect
What do you think are the most important attributes
of an excellent organisation/business leader?
Good at communicating
Passion for the business
Strategic vision
Clear decision making
Good at listening
Good at delegating responsibility
An eye for detail
Strong personal ethics
Determination
Fun to work with
Courage
Personal charisma
Range of interests outside work
0 102030 40 50 60 70 80
Source: Bright Business - Future Foundation / Orange
Employees from a wide cross section of industries were asked to identify the most important attributes of an
excellent leader with the following results:Creating leaders at every level is not something that is left to chance - performance management systems are
used to develop the leadership process. Key ingredients of this include:
· Establishing leadership qualities/competencies (what does an excellent leader look like in our organisation?)
· Assessing individuals against this framework
· Identifying individual training and development needs
· Developing appropriate leadership development programmes/initiatives
· Monitoring and measuring individual and organisational progress
Agreeing a leadership framework has a number of benefits:
Focused development activity
Individuals understanding what is expected and how they measure up
Consistently across the organisation in the approach to leadership development
Focused individual development, including 'fast tracking' where appropriate
A simple tool to assess your approach to maximising human assets is to consider the following model:
Unused Potential
Low High
'Peak
High Performer' 'Star'
'Problem
Low 'Mismatch'Achieving ObjectivesPerformer'
An organisation with a proactive and focused approach to performance management would have a clear, objective
view of which individuals are where on the grid, and importantly, the individuals themselves would know it too. An
agreed personal development plan helps the individual and his/her manager ensure they fulfil their potential.
Leadership development is not just about training, although this clearly has a significant role to play. In our
experience the best organisations employ a combined approach that links to organisational goals. It typically
includes things such as 360° feedback, coaching, accelerated learning, training inputs, projects, placements,
visits to other organisations and mentoring.
In successful organisations leadership is defined (and measured wherever possible). It is promoted throughout
the organisation, and is undoubtedly 'role modelled' at the top.
Some key questions for your organisation:
What do we want from our leaders throughout our organisation?
· How do they measure up at present?
· How effective is our performance management system?
· What are we doing to prepare and develop our leaders of the future?LESSON FOUR
Get 'Engaged'
We've already noted that according to Gallup only 17% of UK employees are 'actively engaged' and that 20% are
'actively disengaged'. In their studies, Gallup assessed levels of engagement in workforces across the country,
and indeed the world.
A report by Gallup identified that organisations who rated in the upper quartile of respondents were typically:
· 50% more likely to have lower staff turnover
· 56% more likely to have higher than average customer loyalty
· 38% more likely to have above average productivity
· 27% more likely to report higher profitability Source: Gallup Organisation
So, how do organisations create 'engaged' employees? Our experience suggests it starts with 'Giving Your
People A Damn Good Listening To'. This means undertaking employee attitude surveys, feedback groups and
one to one sessions as part of the performance management systems.
Employee surveys are an excellent way of:
· Helping employees feel valued
· Identifying issues, problems and concerns within the organisation
· Establishing whether company structures, procedures and systems are effective
For example, an employee survey carried out by ourselves in a division of a world leading insurance organisation
identified that team briefings and monthly staff meetings in a number of departments were not taking place in line
with policy. A concentrated effort, training of managers, and monitoring systems ensured that they took place.
The result? Significantly improved communication and increased involvement - as measured by the following
years survey.
The challenge is to 'engage' people, not only with the goals and targets of the organisation, but with its values too.
In fact, there is a school of opinion that engaging people with the values of the organisation is the priority. Get this
right, and the other follows.
Engaging employees involves keeping them informed of progress and plans, celebrating successes, seeking
their opinions, encouraging ideas generation and business improvement. In too many organisations, the reward
for coming up with an idea is having to implement it, and an increased workload. At a tactical level, it's about
leaders and managers motivating and inspiring individuals in their teams. Our employee surveys often highlight a
'skills gap' here i.e. managers, supervisors, team leaders lacking 'people management' skills such as
communication, giving and receiving constructive feedback, delegation, and encouraging support.
'Engagement' therefore is enhanced by a combination of organisational processes and systems such as team
briefings, suggestion schemes, performance reviews and reward systems, along with day to day management
processes such as identifying what motivates specific individuals, spotting people doing things well, and 'saying
thank you'.
Some key questions:
· How 'engaged' are your people?
· How do you know?
· Which of your organisational processes and systems encourage/discourage 'engagement'?
· Do your managers and team leaders have the skills to 'engage' people?
· When was the last time you gave your people 'a damn good listening to'?LESSON FIVE
Using Information To Empower, Not As Power
"The twenty first century will be about velocity: the speed of business and the speed of change
an infrastructure designed around information flow will be the 'killer application'"
Bill Gates, Business @ The Speed of Thought
Information is good, but it's what you do with it that counts! That's our conclusion from working with high performing
organisations. They ensure that the people who need it, get the information they need, when they need it, and in
a format they understand. They also give them the authority to use it. It's called 'empowerment'.
In successful organisations information is, collected, analysed, communicated and maximised.
Successful Less Successful
Collected Relevant information not collected/the wrong information collected.
Analysed Relevant information not being analysed/being analysed and ignored.
Communicated Information never reaching the appropriate people/arriving too late/in a format that
cannot be understood or being hidden amongst irrelevant information.
Maximised People doing nothing with the information!
Too many organisations start with the collection, and work from there. Winning organisations start at 'Maximised'.
They ask 'What information do we need to maximise our performance?', and work backwards.
The information needed should typically reflect the vision, corporate goals and targets, operational performance,
customer satisfaction, employee effectiveness and motivation. In fact our original 'triangle model' is a good
starting point: Do your information systems provide you with relevant, up to date measures on:
Creating sufficient devoted customers e.g. customer satisfaction levels, repeat business, sales and mar-
keting effectiveness
Developing committed, motivated and effective people e.g. morale, motivation levels, staff turnover levels, ideas
generated, training outcomes, operational performance targets
Maximising financial returns e.g. profit/loss, debtors, creditors, cashflow, margins
Does it flow in a way that strategic decision makers can use it to drive the organisation forward? Is it also
communicated to individuals to allow them to maximise performance? A useful 'engaging' question to ask individuals
is 'what information do you need to do your job better?' Follow it with 'how will this help?' Consider giving it to them
in a format they understand (our experience suggests graphs and pictures work better than figures!).
The adage 'what gets measured, gets managed' does appear to be a truism. The challenge is to ensure that the
appropriate things are measured. There is a clear differentiation between successful/less successful
organisations - less successful ones focus on measuring things right, successful ones focus on measuring
the right things.Our experience suggests that effective information flow is a key factor in 'engaging people' and in maximising
performance at an operational level. It needs systems to transfer it around and through the organisation, and it
needs managers with the skills to interpret, communicate and maximise it.
Producing key performance indicators and plotting 'trends' appears to be a differentiating factor in those who
maximise information. These are cascaded down through the organisation ensuring that each manager or team
leader has a set of relevant figures for his/her department/team - it's about creating accountability and
responsibility on the things that count.
Some key questions for your organisation:
· Does relevant information flow quickly enough to allow the strategic leaders make effective and timely
decisions?
· Do employees receive the information they need to 'engage' them and to maximise their own performance?
· Are you measuring the 'right things'?
· Do these measures drive operational performance?
· Are your people truly 'empowered'?CONCLUSIONS
Leading a successful organisation is not an easy task. Neither is there one way of doing it. Our lessons in
leadership are just that - lessons, not magical answers, nor prescriptive solutions.
If, having read this paper, you are wondering what steps to take next, you might want to consider some of the
following:
Give Your People A Damn Good Listening To
Carry out an employee attitude survey and find out what's really happening in your organisation
Create a focus group - get a selection of employees together and ask them what they think about the
organisation
Ask your team - what could I do to improve as a leader?
Stand In Your Own Queues
Get back onto the floor and find out what's really happening in your organisation
Review your recent customer feedback and agree what needs to happen to improve your customers
experience of your organisation
Ring up your own organisation and ask for yourself!
Review Your Human Assets
Review your current approach to leadership development - does it maximise your human assets?
Find out what your people want from your leaders
Investigate the effectiveness of your performance management processes e.g. recruitment, induction,
appraisals and training and development
Investigate How You Communicate
Identify what your people want to know, when and how
Identify the blockages in your communication processes and systems
Review your management measures - are you measuring the 'right things'?
Look At Your Leaders
Establish a leadership framework and assess individuals against this
Identify your 'champions' and 'challengers'
Find out what your leaders want from you
Look In The Mirror!
Get the executive team together and use the questions on this paper as a basis for discussion
Evaluate Your Values
Ask your people to identify your values - are they easily recognised?
Identify the contradictions in your organisation to your stated values
Assess your leaders as role models
Champion your Champions and Challenge the Challengers
Andy Hanselman Consulting are experts in Creating Leadership in forward thinking organisations. We'd be happy to discuss with you
any of the issues raised in this paper, and explain how we could help translate the 'Lessons in Leadership' into your organisation.
Visit www.andyhanselman.com, call +44 114 243 4666, or email lucy@competeorgetbeat.com for more information.
the Profitability of Your Business Lessons in Leadership
A Discussion Paper by Andy HanselmanVision, Values & Victors
Lessons In Leadership
A Discussion Paper by Andy Hanselman
The challenges facing leaders today are as strong as ever. Ever rising customer and employee expectations,
increasing and intensifying competition (coming from further afield), the pace and dramatic effects of change, and
creating a winning 'can do' culture are just some of the issues the leaders of today tell us they face.
However, many organisations are not only surviving, but are thriving in this ever-changing environment. How are
they doing it? What makes them different? And, what can we learn from them?
Our experience suggests that leading a successful organisation involves managing a balance between:
Creating Sufficient 'Devoted' Customers
Inspiring and Developing Committed, Motivated and Effective People
Maximising Financial Returns
Although many organisations are operationally 'sound', and function effectively, it is becoming clear that this is
not always enough. Individuals want a 'better' experience as customers and employees. This means a greater
need for 'leadership' rather than 'management'. Managers hit targets, monitor performance and report on progress.
Leaders change things, inspire, motivate and 'engage' their people. However, it's not happening in many
organisations. According to research by Gallup, only 17% of UK workers are 'actively engaged', 63% aren't
engaged and 20% are 'actively disengaged'.
Combine this with the fact that McKinsey and Co reported that foreign owned companies operating in the UK,
drawing from the same talent pool are on average more than 50% more productive than UK owned companies and
that labour in US owned plants in the UK is up to 90% more productive than in comparable UK businesses. Their
conclusion was that 'the answer lies in better management practices'.
It's all fairly damning stuff, but we feel that there is some shining beacons among the darkness and offer therefore,
some lessons in leadership.
Our research suggests that the best leaders create a vision that inspires and motivates, and work hard at
developing a culture that supports it. They also empower their people to make things happen and create
'revolutionary' experiences for their clients.
This paper is based on our research into best practice, our observations and our experiences of working with
leaders of forward thinking organisations and how the successful ones appear to be not just managing but leading
change.
Not a list of do's and don'ts but some common ideas and themes on which to reflect and build a way forward for
your organisation.The Five Lessons are:
LESSON ONE
It's More Than A Vision Thing
Create a vision that inspires and motivates, get your
people on board, work strategically as a senior team,
and ensure that effective communication keeps people
informed and focussed.
LESSON TWO
Value Your Values
Create the culture you want, champion your champions
and challenge your challengers, use your systems,
procedures and rewards to get the preferred behaviours
your business needs to compete.
LESSON THREE
Create Other Leaders, Not Followers
Define what leadership means in your business,
establish performance management systems, develop
the leaders of the future and ensure leadership is 'role
modelled' at the top.
LESSON FOUR
Get 'Engaged'
Give your people a 'damn good listening to', keep them
informed of progress, involve them, seek their opinions,
value their contributions and maximise people
performance.
LESSON FIVE
Use information To Empower, Not As Power
Collect, analyse, communicate and maximise
information, measure the right things, make it meaningful
to help maximise performance.LESSON ONE
'It's More Than A Vision Thing'
Successful leaders create and communicate a vision, and get their people on board. Not a set of financial figures
or 'pie in the sky' dreams, but a meaningful picture of the future that creates focus, direction, passion and
commitment. Again research suggests that this does not exist in a vast number of organisations.
Mori identified that:
· Only 50% have typically bought into their employer's goals
· Only 25% strongly agreed that they have a clear sense of their organisation's vision and direction for the future
· Less than 20% strongly agreed that the people in their team know how they contributed to their organisations over all
goals
So, what can be done? Our experience suggests it starts at the top. The challenge for any Executive Team is to
paint a picture of the future that goes beyond financial figures, performance targets and corporate 'buzzwords'.
It's about spelling out 'what will be in place in 2-3 years time, and what will be happening in 12 months time'.
This 'vision' then is typically built into, and made relevant to the day to day operational management of the
business - progress updates in team briefings, internal newsletters and notice boards (one client publishes 'Loo
News' - a monthly update posted above the urinals, and on the back of toilet doors!), the vision is referred to at
induction (and as part of the recruitment process) at performance reviews, and at team meetings. As one MD told
us 'It's like the cream that sits on the top of coffee. In many businesses, it floats on top with only small droplets slowly sinking into the coffee.
We stir it up, we mix it, we want it absorbed throughout the organisation'. The key? You've got to keep stirring ... it's not a one
off thing.
In carrying out employee attitude surveys in a wide cross section of organisations, people consistently tell us
they need to know:
· How is this 'vision' relevant to me?
· What specifically do you want me to do?
· How will I be measured?
· What rewards/consequences will I face?
· What tools and support are available?
· What's in it for me?
· How are we doing?
The leader's role? To help their people answer these questions.
We said it's more than a vision thing. Research by The Future Foundation and Orange identified that employees
are looking for 'an exciting' vision for the organisation. Only just over 50% felt that their leaders had created this in
their organisation.
Some key questions for your organisation:
· Are your people 'excited' by your vision?
· Do you have one?
· Is it communicated in a meaningful and relevant way at every opportunity?
· Is it more than a poster in reception or a set of financial figures?
· Are people aware of your progress towards the vision?
· Does it drive your organisation, your divisions and departments?
· Is it revisited, reviewed and reenergized by your leaders regularly!LESSON TWO
Value Your Values
If 'vision' is where we're going, then 'culture' is about how we do it.
Culture is 'what we do around here'. It's often seen as the soft side of management. Our experience suggests it's
the hardest! Successful organisations create a winning culture. they manage it and measure it. Importantly, they
produce the behaviours they want from their people.
Customers can identify the culture of an organisation by simply talking to employees, on the telephone or visiting
the offices. In successful organisations it is an integral part of the competitive advantage.
The external view of the culture of an organisation goes way beyond the brand/corporate identity and marketing
materials.
Creating the culture you want starts with assessing the current culture and identifying which aspects of it are we
happy/unhappy with. The next step is to establish the culture you want. This often involves spelling out what we
want our organisation to be like (it's an integral element of 'the vision').
Creating the culture you want can involve a number of key elements:
· Publishing and living a set of core values
· Ensuring systems and procedures support the culture we want
· Establish reward systems that reinforce it
· Identifying and championing role models throughout the organisation
Developing and communicating a set of values can be a useful step. An even better step is to use the values in
the management of the business.
Values can help:
· Create the culture you want
· Provide clear guidelines for acceptable and non acceptable behaviour
· Reduce game playing and confusion
· Reinforce and support the external image of the organisation
Organisations that truly value their values, use them in the day to day management, recruitment and rewarding of
their people, those that don't, simply put up posters and talk a good story. In successful organisations the leaders
talk about them daily, refer to them regularly and use them consistently. They act as role models and actively
promote the behaviours they want to see in others.
Our experience suggests that the best leaders 'Champion their Champions' and 'Challenge their Challengers'.
This means supporting, encouraging and rewarding those who display the behaviours you expect, and challenging
those you don't. For example, how would your organisation deal with the sales person that achieves his/her sales
targets, but regularly upsets all his/her colleagues by being aggressive, selfish and detrimental to the team?This model summarises an approach adopted by Jack Welch when transforming GE. His leaders were appraised
as follows:
Target/Objectives
Not Achieved Achieved
Encouraged,
supported/helped 'Championed'/
(sometimes rewarded/
Demonstratesrewarded) promoted
Challenged, not
Released
Preferred Behaviours rewarded
Doesn't
Demonstrate
It's a simple model, but a useful principle to adopt. A number of clients we have worked with have built values into
their day to day management and performance management system (appraisals etc) i.e. individuals are assessed
(and rewarded) on their behaviours as well as achievement of objectives.
Feedback from UK managers of one of the world's leading clinical research service providers (US owned) where
we have worked with them to use their values in their day to day management has produced:
· Increased confidence in managers dealing with 'behavioural' and 'difficult' issues
· Improved understanding of the US provided corporate values and what it means to the people locally
· A reduction in 'inappropriate behaviour'
· Improved communication, team working and people performance
Some key questions for your organisation:
· Are you happy with your organisation's culture?
· Do your people act in line with your preferred behaviours and values?
· Do your reward systems, performance management and operational procedures reinforce and help promote
your preferred behaviours and values?
· Does your organisation 'Champion its Champions' and 'Challenge its Challengers'?
· Do your leaders act as role models and positively reinforce your preferred culture?LESSON THREE
Create Other Leaders Not Followers
Our evidence suggests that in successful organisations, leadership exists at all levels of the business and is
actively promoted throughout. They invest time, money and resources in developing a cadre of leaders capable
of achieving the organisations vision.
What makes a bright leader? Research by Future Business and Orange identified the following characteristics:
What Makes A Bright Leader?
Vision
Communication
Passion
Integrity
Determination
Relationships
Self awareness
Toughness and Respect
What do you think are the most important attributes
of an excellent organisation/business leader?
Good at communicating
Passion for the business
Strategic vision
Clear decision making
Good at listening
Good at delegating responsibility
An eye for detail
Strong personal ethics
Determination
Fun to work with
Courage
Personal charisma
Range of interests outside work
0 102030 40 50 60 70 80
Source: Bright Business - Future Foundation / Orange
Employees from a wide cross section of industries were asked to identify the most important attributes of an
excellent leader with the following results:Creating leaders at every level is not something that is left to chance - performance management systems are
used to develop the leadership process. Key ingredients of this include:
· Establishing leadership qualities/competencies (what does an excellent leader look like in our organisation?)
· Assessing individuals against this framework
· Identifying individual training and development needs
· Developing appropriate leadership development programmes/initiatives
· Monitoring and measuring individual and organisational progress
Agreeing a leadership framework has a number of benefits:
Focused development activity
Individuals understanding what is expected and how they measure up
Consistently across the organisation in the approach to leadership development
Focused individual development, including 'fast tracking' where appropriate
A simple tool to assess your approach to maximising human assets is to consider the following model:
Unused Potential
Low High
'Peak
High Performer' 'Star'
'Problem
Low 'Mismatch'Achieving ObjectivesPerformer'
An organisation with a proactive and focused approach to performance management would have a clear, objective
view of which individuals are where on the grid, and importantly, the individuals themselves would know it too. An
agreed personal development plan helps the individual and his/her manager ensure they fulfil their potential.
Leadership development is not just about training, although this clearly has a significant role to play. In our
experience the best organisations employ a combined approach that links to organisational goals. It typically
includes things such as 360° feedback, coaching, accelerated learning, training inputs, projects, placements,
visits to other organisations and mentoring.
In successful organisations leadership is defined (and measured wherever possible). It is promoted throughout
the organisation, and is undoubtedly 'role modelled' at the top.
Some key questions for your organisation:
What do we want from our leaders throughout our organisation?
· How do they measure up at present?
· How effective is our performance management system?
· What are we doing to prepare and develop our leaders of the future?LESSON FOUR
Get 'Engaged'
We've already noted that according to Gallup only 17% of UK employees are 'actively engaged' and that 20% are
'actively disengaged'. In their studies, Gallup assessed levels of engagement in workforces across the country,
and indeed the world.
A report by Gallup identified that organisations who rated in the upper quartile of respondents were typically:
· 50% more likely to have lower staff turnover
· 56% more likely to have higher than average customer loyalty
· 38% more likely to have above average productivity
· 27% more likely to report higher profitability Source: Gallup Organisation
So, how do organisations create 'engaged' employees? Our experience suggests it starts with 'Giving Your
People A Damn Good Listening To'. This means undertaking employee attitude surveys, feedback groups and
one to one sessions as part of the performance management systems.
Employee surveys are an excellent way of:
· Helping employees feel valued
· Identifying issues, problems and concerns within the organisation
· Establishing whether company structures, procedures and systems are effective
For example, an employee survey carried out by ourselves in a division of a world leading insurance organisation
identified that team briefings and monthly staff meetings in a number of departments were not taking place in line
with policy. A concentrated effort, training of managers, and monitoring systems ensured that they took place.
The result? Significantly improved communication and increased involvement - as measured by the following
years survey.
The challenge is to 'engage' people, not only with the goals and targets of the organisation, but with its values too.
In fact, there is a school of opinion that engaging people with the values of the organisation is the priority. Get this
right, and the other follows.
Engaging employees involves keeping them informed of progress and plans, celebrating successes, seeking
their opinions, encouraging ideas generation and business improvement. In too many organisations, the reward
for coming up with an idea is having to implement it, and an increased workload. At a tactical level, it's about
leaders and managers motivating and inspiring individuals in their teams. Our employee surveys often highlight a
'skills gap' here i.e. managers, supervisors, team leaders lacking 'people management' skills such as
communication, giving and receiving constructive feedback, delegation, and encouraging support.
'Engagement' therefore is enhanced by a combination of organisational processes and systems such as team
briefings, suggestion schemes, performance reviews and reward systems, along with day to day management
processes such as identifying what motivates specific individuals, spotting people doing things well, and 'saying
thank you'.
Some key questions:
· How 'engaged' are your people?
· How do you know?
· Which of your organisational processes and systems encourage/discourage 'engagement'?
· Do your managers and team leaders have the skills to 'engage' people?
· When was the last time you gave your people 'a damn good listening to'?LESSON FIVE
Using Information To Empower, Not As Power
"The twenty first century will be about velocity: the speed of business and the speed of change
an infrastructure designed around information flow will be the 'killer application'"
Bill Gates, Business @ The Speed of Thought
Information is good, but it's what you do with it that counts! That's our conclusion from working with high performing
organisations. They ensure that the people who need it, get the information they need, when they need it, and in
a format they understand. They also give them the authority to use it. It's called 'empowerment'.
In successful organisations information is, collected, analysed, communicated and maximised.
Successful Less Successful
Collected Relevant information not collected/the wrong information collected.
Analysed Relevant information not being analysed/being analysed and ignored.
Communicated Information never reaching the appropriate people/arriving too late/in a format that
cannot be understood or being hidden amongst irrelevant information.
Maximised People doing nothing with the information!
Too many organisations start with the collection, and work from there. Winning organisations start at 'Maximised'.
They ask 'What information do we need to maximise our performance?', and work backwards.
The information needed should typically reflect the vision, corporate goals and targets, operational performance,
customer satisfaction, employee effectiveness and motivation. In fact our original 'triangle model' is a good
starting point: Do your information systems provide you with relevant, up to date measures on:
Creating sufficient devoted customers e.g. customer satisfaction levels, repeat business, sales and mar-
keting effectiveness
Developing committed, motivated and effective people e.g. morale, motivation levels, staff turnover levels, ideas
generated, training outcomes, operational performance targets
Maximising financial returns e.g. profit/loss, debtors, creditors, cashflow, margins
Does it flow in a way that strategic decision makers can use it to drive the organisation forward? Is it also
communicated to individuals to allow them to maximise performance? A useful 'engaging' question to ask individuals
is 'what information do you need to do your job better?' Follow it with 'how will this help?' Consider giving it to them
in a format they understand (our experience suggests graphs and pictures work better than figures!).
The adage 'what gets measured, gets managed' does appear to be a truism. The challenge is to ensure that the
appropriate things are measured. There is a clear differentiation between successful/less successful
organisations - less successful ones focus on measuring things right, successful ones focus on measuring
the right things.Our experience suggests that effective information flow is a key factor in 'engaging people' and in maximising
performance at an operational level. It needs systems to transfer it around and through the organisation, and it
needs managers with the skills to interpret, communicate and maximise it.
Producing key performance indicators and plotting 'trends' appears to be a differentiating factor in those who
maximise information. These are cascaded down through the organisation ensuring that each manager or team
leader has a set of relevant figures for his/her department/team - it's about creating accountability and
responsibility on the things that count.
Some key questions for your organisation:
· Does relevant information flow quickly enough to allow the strategic leaders make effective and timely
decisions?
· Do employees receive the information they need to 'engage' them and to maximise their own performance?
· Are you measuring the 'right things'?
· Do these measures drive operational performance?
· Are your people truly 'empowered'?CONCLUSIONS
Leading a successful organisation is not an easy task. Neither is there one way of doing it. Our lessons in
leadership are just that - lessons, not magical answers, nor prescriptive solutions.
If, having read this paper, you are wondering what steps to take next, you might want to consider some of the
following:
Give Your People A Damn Good Listening To
Carry out an employee attitude survey and find out what's really happening in your organisation
Create a focus group - get a selection of employees together and ask them what they think about the
organisation
Ask your team - what could I do to improve as a leader?
Stand In Your Own Queues
Get back onto the floor and find out what's really happening in your organisation
Review your recent customer feedback and agree what needs to happen to improve your customers
experience of your organisation
Ring up your own organisation and ask for yourself!
Review Your Human Assets
Review your current approach to leadership development - does it maximise your human assets?
Find out what your people want from your leaders
Investigate the effectiveness of your performance management processes e.g. recruitment, induction,
appraisals and training and development
Investigate How You Communicate
Identify what your people want to know, when and how
Identify the blockages in your communication processes and systems
Review your management measures - are you measuring the 'right things'?
Look At Your Leaders
Establish a leadership framework and assess individuals against this
Identify your 'champions' and 'challengers'
Find out what your leaders want from you
Look In The Mirror!
Get the executive team together and use the questions on this paper as a basis for discussion
Evaluate Your Values
Ask your people to identify your values - are they easily recognised?
Identify the contradictions in your organisation to your stated values
Assess your leaders as role models
Champion your Champions and Challenge the Challengers
Andy Hanselman Consulting are experts in Creating Leadership in forward thinking organisations. We'd be happy to discuss with you
any of the issues raised in this paper, and explain how we could help translate the 'Lessons in Leadership' into your organisation.
Visit www.andyhanselman.com, call +44 114 243 4666, or email lucy@competeorgetbeat.com for more information.
