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GE Innovation Barometer: put on the cape

February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

More creative people is the largest factor in spurring innovation, according to this insightful GE Innovation Barometer 2012 infographic. Play with the chart and see what most spurs innovation in different global regions and countries. Yup. Creative people is almost twice as more important than any other dimension.

Where do you find more creative people to help your company grow?  You most likely have the people, but you probably need to adjust your corporate culture and processes to allow them to be much more creative.  Some ideas to consider. None require big budgets, just slightly different ways to work.

  • Ask questions that light people’s ideas. Ask your people one provocative question at the end of the week. Could be by email. At a kiosk outside the cafeteria or in the lobby. People love good questions and they want to be heard. As a leader you’ll learn much about the organization and your people — how to be a good servant leader, how to help them do more of what’s working, how to create a feeling of pride and possibility. Good questions trigger creativity.  To help spur creative thinking, do the heavy lifting of creating good questions that help people start thinking differently. Some ideas:
  • What went really well this week?
  • What surprised you this week?
  • What are you most proud of this week?
  • Who deserves an “A” on our team this week?
  • If this week were a song, what would it be?
  • What else could we have done?
  • What helped you?
  • What did you learn?

 

  • Put on the Cape (or grab a wand):  It takes bravery to bring up topics no one else is yet talking about. It’s scary to suggest new ideas. So as a leader, make it safe for people to suggest new ideas and to do things differently. Maybe occasionally wear a red superhero cape to show that you really value courage and fearlessness. Once as president of a company I walked into the Friday staff meeting not in my Giorgio Armani suit, but dressed up as a fairy queen, with crown and magic wand.  Many years later I still have the wand. That one morning where I acted so out of character broke the ice during a challenging time. People loosened up, laughed, trusted and started to believe anything might be possible. Oh, and they all still talk about that day and what it meant.
  • Put two chairs in your lobby. Four years ago I heard about a Midwest retailer that put two chairs in its lobby with a sign for “topic of the day.” What the ???? But then people sat down, talked and talked about ideas that matter.  Read here for more.  I love social media and Skype but sometimes there’s nothing like a friendly in-person conversation.
  • No PowerPoint in meetings. Ever. Send those numbing slide ahead of time to be read. But when people get together, use that precious time to have conversations that invite all present to share ideas, connect as people in thinking and caring ways, and together talk about how you can do more of what your company does so well. (Note: talking about positive — doing more of what’s great, also creates a better environment for creativity than “problem solving.”)

There’s much more to share. But for now know that you have incredible potential in your organization.  I see untapped magic and talent all the time.  People are waiting to be invited to do more in more new ways. As leaders, help your repressed creative souls break free.  It’s the only way to innovate all the time, in small ways and big.

What one thing could you do next week to make your organization a more welcoming creative place?

 

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Innovation, Organizational change Tagged With: , , , ,

Better techniques for throwing employees under the bus

February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

Managers are so sloppy when it comes to throwing employees under the bus.

Usually they are so damn angry with the employee that they botch their technique.

They are irrationally rough, their aim is imprecise and messy, and they end up running over the body with such force that it causes more damage to the employee than they intended. But it does seem a relief to have gotten rid of that problem.

Few think about an important follow-through skill: contact with the other employees still on the bus. Just as a baseball pitcher throws a pitch and then needs to be prepared to field the hit, you can’t just throw someone under the bus. You need to be ready for what comes next.

Alas, most get sloppy here. Despite carefully throwing someone under the bus at discrete places or times, or telling employees that the person asked to get off the bus or jumped out of the bus, annoying glitches happen.

Employees on the bus are shaken up when the bus unexpectedly hits and runs over something strange, like their colleague. They get scared and distracted from work; many update their resumes.

Then they see their ex-colleague outside of work, bruised, angry and victimized, stumbling around in disbelief. The water cooler gossip goes wild, people wonder aloud why bosses throw people under the bus, and they secretly fear it could happen to them.

What a mess. Not even HR does a good job cleaning it up. For being so precise with financial spreadsheets and quality standards, why can’t managers be better at throwing employees under the bus?

 

Why managers throw employees under the bus

First, let’s review reasons why they throw employees under the bus:

1. They are irate that the employees questioned their decisions in a public forum. How dare they! Being humiliated by that subordinate? I’m in charge, goddammit.

2. The employee has been meeting with people in the company to stir up ideas and support around an area that is not one of your five key strategic imperatives. Who gave them permission to do that? Why do they think they are entitled to be creating new strategies outside the standard  chain of command? Bet their parents coddled them. Probably were on those  sports teams where every kid gets a trophy.

3.  Fairly new to the company, the employee just doesn’t get how things work. They seem to miss all the obvious social signals and are getting on people’s nerves. Can’t they see that they’re suppose to informally socialize new ideas before bringing them up in monthly staff meetings?  What’s with the talk, talk, talk with the junior people? And strolling into the office at 9:30? Geez. Do I have to explain how everything works around here?

4. They are upsetting your boss and to save face with the big cheese, you need to act decisively and swiftly to eliminate the problem and calm your boss down. Like having an odd-looking mole removed from your face before it develops into full-blown skin cancer. I’m not going to jeopardize my career over someone making waves. She did bring some fresh thinking and energy we could sorely use around here, but after finally making it to senior vice president I’m not going to jeopardize my career.

Those in category #4 are the sloppiest at throwing people under the bus, yet seem to do it more often, too.  When insecurities twist a person in knots, they get reckless and irrational. Despite throwing more people under the bus than most managers, they really make a mess of it. Insecurity is a killer.

 

Improving your skills at throwing someone under the bus

So how to improve your skills in throwing someone under the bus?

Well, before even getting to those skills I’d suggest that first you might want to consider a refresher course in bus driving.

If you get better at focusing on your destination and getting the right people on your bus, you might not have to throw many off the bus.  The focus will also help avoid distractions when employees on the bus get rowdy or restless, or someone starts hogging everyone’s attention even when you’ve told him to stay in his seat.

The refresher course will remind you to pay attention when employees on the bus yell at you from the back of the bus. They probably aren’t criticizing your driving.  It may be that they see a giant pothole ahead, or know a great short cut, or even want to drive for a while so you can get some rest for what you all know is a challenging journey.

And if your boss calls demanding an explanation about why you’re taking a different route than planned, drivers ed will teach you to stay calm and explain to you boss that several employees know this territory well and saw a better way to get to the destination. Sure he may fume and make threats. But your employees on the bus are with you, ready to fix the flats, pump gas in the rain, figure out ways around detours.

Who is going to go the extra mile for you? Them, or the boss?

Drive safely.

 

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , ,

Why leaders subconsciously reject change

January 25, 2012 By 1 Comment

When our brain senses that our status is being threatened, our thinking shuts down.  We avoid the person or situation making us feel so uncomfortable, and we often stay away from any activity or idea about which we’re not confident. Worse, we label the other person as “wrong” so we can be “right.”

We don’t necessarily do this consciously. It’s just our brains’ natural response when our status is under attack, say the neuroscientists.

So when  corporate rebels and mavericks challenge an organization’s status quo and executive decisions, leaders’ brains go on high-alert. Their decisions, their plans, their position feel threatened and under attack. The neuroscience research says this threat to status activates the same brain regions as physical pain.

The leaders’ knee-jerk reaction is often to label the people with the fresh new ideas as troublemakers. Or not having enough experience to really know what they’re talking about. And jeez, that kid isn’t even a manager, what could she  know? (See how put downs can make you feel better and restore your status?)

Guess what this reaction does to people with the fresh ideas that you need to lead? They run for the hills. Maybe they try to approach you or another executive again, but you’re likely not to welcome what they have to say.  Through words, tone or body language you broadcast the message throughout your organization: your ideas are NOT WELCOME.

And then you wonder why the culture isn’t more innovative and creative. Why too few people speak up with substantive comments at meetings.  Why it seems like you’re the only one with the answers.

Time to get your brain in line and recognize your “threat” triggers so that you can control them –  instead of them controlling you.

Who needs to change their ways: leaders or rebels?

Some executives have told me that “rebels and change agents need to learn how business works. You can’t just disrupt things and expect everyone to change.”

But should the corporate rebels be the ones to have to adapt their style? Or should leaders find ways to better understand how to control their threat triggers so that they can create a safe, welcoming climate for new ideas?

To me, this is the responsibility of the leader. All people can benefit from understanding and managing what trips them up. But with the prestige and financial compensation of being a leader comes the responsibility for first and foremost managing oneself. So your head is ready to be in the game of leading.

Humility and reappraising

This is why so many great leaders are humble. Humility reduces the status threat. It puts people at ease talking with you. It clears the leader’s mind of emotion so that he or she can really understand what people are saying.

Another way to manage the brain is to reappraise situations that start to trigger your emotions. What’s  the other person’s perspective? What does he want me to understand? What does she want me to do and why?  Look at what’s being said as data and nothing more.

Economic and competitive threats are relentless, causing their own set of threats and associated behavioral responses. But to succeed companies need new ideas and the best ideas are likely to come from the rebels and mavericks inside your own organization.

As a leader, help those people who can most help you succeed. Even if they make you uncomfortable. Maybe especially because they make you uncomfortable.

Help yourself by seeing challenges to the status quo as possibilities not attacks on your position.

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , , ,

Open a can of worms

January 11, 2012 By 1 Comment

“How do you think the elephant got in the room?” my friend Maria DeCarvalho asked as we were talking about a messy corporate situation.  “Someone lets them in when they’re small.  Most of us see them but don’t have the courage to recognize a potential problem and get rid of it before it grows into an elephant.”

A  frank and generous executive coach, Maria believes that knowing how to have difficult conversations is an essential leadership skill — and one that few of us have ever been taught.

Rather than ignore signs of disagreement, negativity or skepticism, she encourages people to learn how to open  a can of worms. “You find that once the worms are out of the can and on the table they don’t hang around very long.”

Here’s Maria’s recent blog post explaining how to open up a can of worms. More of her sage advice can be found on her blog.

People are always communicating. Always.

I’m sure you’ve been in plenty of conversations or meetings in which you’ve noticed others roll their eyes, cross their arms, raise their eyebrows, press their lips together, pull out their smartphones, look down or away, exchange quick glances across a table, or just sit there and not say anything.

These messages are as clear and real as if they had been put into words.  In fact, they can be the most important part of the conversation because people are telegraphing how they actually feel.

The trouble, of course, is that it can be awkward and uncomfortable to acknowledge these signals because they seem negative and a little slippery.  They are often subtle, and sometimes they go by quickly.  Who wants to open up a can of worms?

You do.  You’re going to find that once the worms are out of the can and on the table they don’t hang around very long at all.

So, grab your can opener and use these two simple steps to increase the honesty and comfort of conversations in which these behaviors are occurring:

1.  Stop thinking about signals like arm-crossing and long silence as criticism or rudeness and start calling them information. The people who are giving you these signals are letting you know how they feel.

2. Do a quick, friendly check in, just as you do when you are using your listening skills:

  • Bob, you look a little skeptical. What are you thinking?
  • Ted and Sarah?  Is there something you’re worried about that it would help us to know?
  • Garry, I’m sensing there’s something about this that you don’t like.  Where are you on this idea?
  • Anna, I’m sitting here wondering if you’ve sort of checked out of the conversation.  Is there something that’s not working for you?

Notice that each one of my suggestions ends with a  NOW WHAT? request for something back from the person.  That reduces awkwardness and helps move the conversation along.

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Language, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With:

Effective corporate rebels turn to one another

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

People who change the world in small and big ways, rebel FOR change they believe will make a difference.  They are also keen observers and want to work with others to make the possible real. Over the holidays I had the luxurious pleasure of re-reading author and leadership activist Margaret Wheatley’s book Turning To One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future.

Here’s an excerpt that captures the behaviors of those with a desire to lead.

Turning to one another

Ask “what’s possible?” not “What’s wrong?”  Keep asking. Notice what you care about. Assume that many others share your dreams.

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.

  • Talk to people you know.
  • Talk to people you don’t know.
  • Talk to people you never talk to.

Be intrigued by the differences you hear.

  • Expect to be surprised.
  • Treasure curiosity more than certainty.

Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible.

  • Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
  • Know that creative solutions come from new connections.

Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know.  Real listening always brings people closer together.

Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.

Rely on human goodness. Stay together.

– Margaret Wheatley

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Corporate Rebels, Innovation, Language, Leadership, Organizational change, Problem solving Tagged With: , , , ,

Purpose = Profits

November 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

Check out this analysis by Morgan Stanley of some of the largest public tech companies in the world: Companies with “simple, focused” missions achieve the biggest gross margins.

Fascinating, yes?  Note that QlikView and Salesforce have the biggest gross margins AND more simple, focused missions than the other companies.

A clear mission is so valuable, but so many companies struggle with finding the courage and commitment for standing for something.  Or they fall into gobbledygook corporate speak that lacks inspiration and clarity. Or the “mission statement by consensus” process is so draining that people end up with “whatever” missions rather than something simple and great.

Big hint: If  the mission process gets painful, you have the wrong people involved.

(See the story that accompanied the chart over at Harvard Business Review, “Employee Values = Stakeholder Value” by Lars Bjork, CEO of QlikTech.)

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Language, Leadership, Organizational change, Smart company stories Tagged With: , , ,

CEO Barbara DeBuono: Leading with questions

November 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Executives can lay out a goal and what they think needs to be done to achieve that goal.  People then (hopefully) follow orders and business moves ahead.

This traditional leadership approach cultivates a follower culture. Yet, follower cultures don’t cultivate creativity, innovation, transparency or engagement.

Barbara DeBuono, CEO of Orbis International, takes a different approach, one that more and more highly-effective leaders are adopting: she poses important, provocative questions and then facilitates and guides meaningful conversations. Conversations where people figure out together the ways they believe the organization can best achieve the goal.

She explained the approach to The New York times’ Adam Bryant in the “Corner Office” column:

I asked a group of people at Orbis, “Do you think we’re a high performing organization?” and then I shut my mouth. I wanted them to give me the answer.

I also asked them, “What do you think a high performing organization would look like?”

The next question I ask: “Do you want to be one? And if so, what is a high performing organization? Let’s discuss what it is.

Barbara explains that taking this kind of honest, open conversational approach gets people to drop their defenses, opens up honest conversations about difficult issues, and creates a new energy level among people. “I definitely see a spring in people’s step,” she remarked.

I’m noticing that those who lead effectively:

  • Ask important questions
  • Make it safe for people to have real conversations about the issues
  • Listen intently
  • Trust that the group will discover how to move things forward

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Leadership, Organizational change, Problem solving Tagged With: , ,

Rebels at work: Interview with Janet Swaysland of Monster.com

November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

What fun to be interviewed by friend and client Janet Swaysland, senior vice president of Monster Worldwide, for the Monster corporate blog. Here’s what we talked about.

1.    When you told me you were doing research on corporate rebels my first reaction was, “Why look at the troublemakers? To what end?”  What attracted you to this work?

I heard Carmen Medina, recently retired CIA deputy director of intelligence, talk about how she was part of an informal Rebel Alliance of employees at the CIA, and how questioning assumptions and the status quo helped two rebels at the agency create the Intellipedia, a groundbreaking approach to intelligence that was awarded a Service to America national medal.

I began wondering how innovation and change happens in big organizations. You hear about innovators in start-ups all the time. But not so much in big companies. I was curious about the people in big organizations who blaze new trails and find ways to change business as usual. What are their characteristics? What makes them tick? How do you find them? Could they be an untapped resource for creating more innovative, engaged corporate cultures?

Carmen graciously let me pick her brain for a day about her personal experience as a “heretic” and about the Rebel Alliance at the agency. Then I had to know more.

2.    Are there “good” rebels and “bad” rebels?

There are always those people who are frustrated and bitter, more focused on stirring things up than making things better. Unfortunately those “bad” rebels get noticed while so many of the good rebels do not. The good, or what I call benevolent rebels, aren’t looking for attention. They want to help their organizations succeed, and fix things that aren’t working as well as they could be.

In my quantitative and qualitative research about rebels, I’ve found that these benevolent rebels are creative (88%), curious (82%) people not afraid of risk (88%). They are motivated first and foremost by wanting to feel like they’re making a difference. (92%).  They also tend to be positive, which has led Carmen to say, “Optimism is the greatest act of rebellion.”

3.    What’s most important for leaders and HR executives to understand about rebels?

Rebels have the courage to name the elephants in the room, see new ways to solve problems, bring outside ideas into the organization, and be the first to try new approaches.

However, these change and innovation rebels will make you feel uncomfortable. They call out problems others are afraid to (92%) and challenge assumptions and sacred cow practices (92%), both of which are essential to real innovation, but often shunned in organizations.  They also tend to go around the rules, question executive decisions, start projects without all the official approvals, and ask a lot of questions.

4.    What has surprised you the most in your research about rebels?

Rebels are not motivated by formal recognition or financial incentives. They’re self-motivated to want to make a difference and to solve things that are not working as well as they could. The research found that just 27% want formal recognition. What they do want is to be asked their opinions more often and be invited to work on special teams to solve specific issues.

I was also surprised by what I call the 90/30 conundrum. Approximately 90% of the survey respondents agreed that activating rebels can improve corporate culture and create a more innovative company. Yet only a third said they were very satisfied with rebels’ ability to provide that value in their organizations.

5.    Is there a rebel inside everyone? Should there be?

I think there is a rebel in everyone, but our rebel spirits has been suppressed. We have a couple of generations of people in the workforce who have been rewarded for keeping routine things going and for conforming.  That goes for everyone from CEOs to front line workers. The result is complacency, fear of doing things differently, and resistance to change. People complain but don’t act. Rebels are the kind of people who act.

6.    How can organizations bring out the inner rebel-ness of their people?

There are many ways. The most essential is creating more collaborative ways to lead and manage. The days of leader-as-hero are over. No one person — or handful of people –has all the answers or the best answers.

To activate the inner rebel in their people, leaders need to set clear purposes or missions, ask questions that challenge people to think in new ways, and then create safe, collaborative ways for people to get involved in creating the ideas that support the mission.  When I guide collaborative sessions where people dig into meaty issues, real magic happens; the power of diverse thinking coupled with people’s desire to create something bigger and better than they could alone or in their departmental silos is pretty amazing. No surprise, this type of involvement and collaboration is what rebels most want with their companies.

7.    Can people really afford to be rebels – making change can be risky — when they are just trying to hang on to the jobs they have?

If you are a “keep the routine going” person you face far greater risks than someone with the skills and courage to question the status quo and create new approaches.  When things get tough – as they always will — who do you want to keep on your team?  The benevolent rebels who see ways to improve and have the fearlessness to pioneer new ways? Or the person who keeps the engine running? Who do your most talented people want to work for?  Safe, complacent Charlie or innovative, risk-taking Charlie?

Rebels are proactive thinkers and creators.  There will always be a market for those skills in capitalistic economies.

8.    Are you a rebel?

All my life. Like Lady Gaga, I was just born that way. Sometimes my velocity for seeing emerging patterns and opportunities — and wanting to do things in new ways — has put people off. A boss once told me, “You’re always three years ahead in spotting what’s next. You have to help us catch up with you.”  I wish someone had taught me early on how to more effectively introduce new ideas and navigate organizational politics to get those ideas adopted.

My struggles as a benevolent rebel is one reason why I’m so intent on helping rebels learn how to be more effective change agents inside big organizations. Similarly, my admiration for leaders who embrace and empower rebels is why I’m driven to help leaders be more effective and courageous.

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , ,

Social IT revolution calling for new ways to lead

October 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

New York Times columnist and author Tom Friedman had a fascinating article in yesterday’s paper about the United States’ two current revolutions — Wall St. and Silicon Valley. In the article Friedman includes Marc Benioff’s description of the IT revolution, which he calls SOCIAL.

  • S = speed
  • O = open. “If you don’t have an open environment inside your company or country, these new tools will blow you wide open.”
  • C = collaboration. “This revolution enables people to organize themselves within companies and societies into loosely coupled teams to take on any kind of challenge — from designing a new product to taking down a government.”
  • I = individuals. “People are able to reach around the globe to start something or collaborate on something farther, faster, deeper, cheaper than ever before — as individuals.”
  • A = alignment. “The power of social media is that it is easier than ever to both articulate, and reinforce, the vision and values that create and inspire alignment.”
  • L = leadership. “In a SOCIAL world leadership has to be a mix of bottom-up and top-down. Leaders need to inspire, enable, and empower everything coming up from below in a company or a social movement and then edit and sculpt it into a vision from above into a final product.”

From my observation working with large organizations, the greatest opportunity — and challenge — for companies is the Land the A. The I’s seem to be quickly  adopting the S, O and C.

As companies plan to roll-out internal social collaboration platforms like Sharepoint, Newsgator and Jive, they worry a lot about putting rules and guidelines around what employees can and cannot do.  Many fear what might happen if employees can connect freely. How are we going to prevent “them” from saying or doing inappropriate things, they ponder.

The bigger question to me is how is social changing how we lead? 

  • How are we going to help and recognize managers to do and say more appropriate things that will make a difference to business outcomes?
  • What new competencies will help managers tap into the extraordinary potential value?
  • What traditional management practices are no longer as relevant — and what is emerging as more relevant?
  • What might be possible if leaders were more passionate, and less fearful about SOCIAL?

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational change, Social media strategy Tagged With: , , , ,

Good vs. Bad Corporate Rebels

October 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

How can you tell the difference between a “good” corporate rebel and a “bad” rebel?

This question has come up quite a bit during recent speeches and interviews.  Here’s a chart to help clarify.  The “good rebels” provide tremendous value to organizations — and are needed more than ever before as organizations look for ways to innovate and adapt to change. Check out my recent ebooks about research on corporate rebels and how to become a more effective rebel.

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Organizational change Tagged With:

Speaking the truth: protesting a sad leadership story

October 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A physician friend recently told me that she was depressed about her work.  It wasn’t just that her hospital was focused more on financials than healing, it was something much, much more serious to her.

Hospital executives no longer valued the physicians’ opinions. In fact, a passionate and respected department head had just been fired because of remarks made during Grand Rounds in the presence of an executive from another hospital.

“So if we speak the truth to try to improve medicine and our medical institution, we get axed,” she said. “How are we ever going to change health care if we can’t talk about the real issues? How are we going to be able to care for patients when we feel under-appreciated and demoralized? I’ve given my professional life to this institution, but seeing how we get treated for our commitment makes me think it might be time to leave.”

Today when I saw this photo from a Wall St. protester, I realized how dangerous it is for well-meaning people to speak the truth. And yet, how will we improve and grow without new ideas and the benevolent rebels with the courage to challenge assumptions and the status quo? You can’t just keep firing the rebels who speak up and expect that the rest of the organization won’t be deeply affected, which in turn affects business outcomes.

Do executives even realize that their companies have turned into fearful corporate cultures? If not, why? If they do, how are they stepping up to lead in ways that acknowledge fear and uncertainty — while recognizing bravery and truth telling in service to the organization’s vision?

In the coming months I’ll be talking with executives about leading in an age of disruption and uncertainty, as well as with benevolent rebels who have walked out of corporate positions to walk on to new organizations where their questions, opinions and passions are valued.

Is there someone you think I should interview? Suggestions gratefully welcomed!

Yes, the times are a changin.  We need great leaders and truth tellers now more than ever.

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

WE: How great leaders create an engaged workforce

October 11, 2011 By 2 Comments

Always fascinated by insights and research on how leaders inspire and engage people, I recently talked with Kevin Kruse, author of the best-selling book WE: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement.

Based on millions of employee surveys with organizations around the world, Kevin and his co-author Rudy Karsen found that the three most important drivers of engagement are:

  1. Growth: Team members need to feel they are growing in their careers and learning new things.
  2. Recognition: Team members need to feel that their ideas and accomplishments are appreciated.
  3. Trust: Team members need to trust senior leadership and feel confident about the future.

Here are highlights of our conversation: 

What attracted you to writing about engagement? Why does the world need this book, at this time?

Well as a business leader I always cared a lot about trying to create an empowering culture for employees, and I had won a Best Place to Work in PA award and things like that. But one night, during our annual holiday party, the wife of someone who worked for me came up and said she wanted to thank me for making her marriage better. I really had no idea what she was talking about. She went on to explain that her husband used to be so grumpy when he came home from work, but since he started working for me he went back to being the man she married.

That was pretty powerful. It was long before I understood how our emotions at work spill over to our personal lives and cross over to those around us. But that was when I got the idea that I really wanted to dig into “engagement” and figure out ways we could make it more accessible to everyday managers. As it turns out, job satisfaction is at a record low according to the Conference Board so I think the timing is really good for a book on the subject.

What are the qualities of employees who are especially engaged with their work? What makes them that way?

People who are engaged at work are highly satisfied with their jobs, but they also exhibit more pride and advocacy about the company they work for, and stay with the company longer. All this leads to higher levels of service and productivity, which of course drives higher levels of sales and profit.

In terms of what drives engagement, it’s of course situational. But based on Kenexa surveys of over 10 million workers in 150 countries and on my own experience as an entrepreneur, it usually comes down to three things. Employees want an environment that fosters growth, recognition and trust. Those are the three keys.

If you were on a board interviewing potential CEOs, what qualities would you look for — and why?

Funny you should ask! I am on the Board of a community bank and we just hired a new CEO. Whenever I’m hiring a leader for one of my businesses I always look for high energy–someone who talks and acts like they’re on a deadline, who is driven by growth. And they need to be able to succinctly state the challenge and action steps ahead. I’ve never had a business plan that was longer than one page. We don’t need to make things more complex than they are. All businesses have three constituents: investors, employees and customers. What must we do, right now, to improve metrics in each area. That’s it.

What questions should people ask during job interviews to assess whether the corporate culture is positive, collaborative and flourishing?

Well, it’s always best to talk to people on the inside. Like Kevin Bacon, everyone should be only a few degrees of separation from someone on the inside and having a healthy LinkedIn network is one way to do that. But in the interview itself you should ask what happened to the person who held the position before it was open. You should ask about which decisions are made as a team, which are made by a single individual. Make sure to get a tour of the office you’ll be working in so you can sense the vibe. Is it quiet like a library or mausoleum — or are people working together and making a buzz? Do people have a lot of fun personal effects in their cube — or just bare walls? Tall cube walls — or open space? There is no one right answer, but just make sure it fits your own work personality.

There’s so much written about employee engagement today. What are the three most important things for leaders to understand about this topic? Conversely, what do people obsess about when it comes to engagement that doesn’t matter all that much?

Engagement is all the rage both because it’s important to growth and profits, and it’s also really low in most organizations. Business leaders first need to realize that they need to care about it. Second they need to act like they care. I mean, they need to measure it, reward to it, make sure it’s not a fad. When Doug Conant took over Campbell Soup to turn it around he focused on two metrics: shareholder return against comparable companies, and the number of engaged versus disengaged employees.

The biggest misconception is that employee engagement takes a lot of time and money. It doesn’t. It means using your existing time differently. Managers meet with their direct reports all the time, but they need to make sure to spend some of that time talking about the career goals of team members. Managers have a hundred interactions with their team each day…but how many of them are to say “thanks” or “good job” in a sincere way. CEOs routinely hold “town hall” meetings or send company wide announcements, but how often are they repeating their big hairy audacious goal like a broken record. These are things that count.

What could the United States be if more citizens were engaged?

Let me answer this two ways. Our emotions at work impact all areas of our life. So if more of us were engaged at work, we all would be healthier, have stronger marriages, our kids would do better in schools and incidentally we’d gain about $350 billion in productivity according to Gallup. When it comes to engagement with our country, while I don’t know what our nation would “be”, I can tell you that the reason why we are so disengaged with government and our leaders in Washington is because we don’t feel like we’re growing or advancing and we absolutely don’t trust our leaders to take us to a better place.

Filed Under: Activating change, Books, Communicating, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , ,

Unexpected finding: what leaders really want

October 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A Fortune 50 company recently completed a comprehensive two-year talent development program for high-potential leaders.

The company invested heavily — creating innovative games and technologies to help people understand the business, bringing in big ticket leadership speakers, and investing in expensive  development methodologies by some of the world’s best-known leadership gurus.

When asked what they found most valuable about the program, these high-potential leaders said they loved having unstructured time to talk with one another.  Despite the millions invested in the program, what they found most helpful is something that costs little.

Having time to talk with one another was the best part of the program. We had some great conversations during those unstructured 20-minute walks and over meals. We hardly ever get the chance to talk with peers from other divisions. And we hardly ever get the chance to talk without a formal agenda.  Getting to know one another — and know we can talk with one another about issues — was invaluable.

We’re under more pressure than ever before in business, with seemingly every minute booked in meetings and conference calls.

Yet carving out occasional, unhurried time to think out loud with colleagues we rarely spend time with — without an agenda or dreaded PowerPoint presentations –  may be one of the best uses of our most limited resources: time.

 

Filed Under: Communicating, Leadership, Organizational change, Problem solving Tagged With: , ,

New eBook: 20 ways to be a more effective rebel, change agent

October 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some practical advice for rebels and change agents for becoming more effective in activating change. A pdf of the eBook can also be downloaded on the Foghound Resources page.

Foghound 20 ways to be effective rebel

View more presentations from Lois Kelly

 

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: ,

Another soul-less vision statement: speed vs. collaboration

September 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“When I read it my heart sank. The vision statement didn’t reflect our university at all. Our soul and passions were nowhere to be found,” a dean at a major American university explained to me last week.

“How could that happen,” I asked. “Wasn’t this a collaborative process where people came together to talk about possibilities, aspirations, and how to build on your formidable strengths?”

“Nope,” he replied. “The president wanted this to be done fast. He hired  a consultant and had some meetings with him, and then the consultant sent us a vision statement three weeks later. When we read it, we couldn’t tell that it was for our university. It could have been for any major university.”

“But you could have had speed and participation and you would have ended up with vision and beliefs that mean something,” I suggested.

“That’s not the perception. The feeling is that if you involve people, it will take a long time.”

I hear this a lot from executives. It would be “nice” to get people involved, but we don’t have time for that. Here’s the flip side: if you don’t involve people, you’ll end up with something that is ignored, something that requires enormous energy for  “buy in,” something that people don’t feel motivated to make real.  Your vision, plan or strategy will likely get stuck when it comes to implementation.

The real opportunity is to use new talent and techniques for facilitating collaborative planning so that you can achieve participation and speed.

Check out some of the “open source”  collaboration and positive change techniques like the Art of Hosting, World Cafe, and Appreciative Inquiry.  No proprietary methodologies here. Just brilliant approaches that work.

Innovative organizations like Google, The Gates Foundation, the city of Columbus, Ohio, and many more are adopting these approaches into their cultures for one reason: tapping into your own talent in new ways is the best way to ultimately achieve more, more quickly and in more meaningful ways.

Filed Under: Activating change, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , , ,
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