Top 10 traits of the perfect boss

Sylvia Pennington reports on the characteristics of the perfect boss. How does your boss stack up? Or if you're the boss how do you stack up? The cheat sheet list is:

  1. Provides purpose
  2. Demonstrates vision
  3. Collaborates
  4. Sets clear expectations
  5. Provides a positive work environment
  6. Is even tempered and resilient
  7. Treats everyone fairly
  8. Provides recognition
  9. Are always learning
  10. Helps and mentors others

Read the full detail of the top 10 traits of the perfect boss here: http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/management/top-10-traits-of-the-perfect-boss-20120815-248md.html

Bank of America to its 270,000 employees: Be nice

via marketplace.org

Bank of America sent a letter to each of its 270,000 employees with the simple message to "Be Nice". This is after woeful customer satisfaction ratings. Is a letter enough? No, according to Customer Experience consultant Colin Shaw of Beyond Philosophy who stresses the need in the story for matching incentives and guidelines for how much time managers spend with customers and in branches. Apparently a more comprehensive plan to address customer satisfaction performance is to follow.

Via https://twitter.com/uxrat who has a pretty steady stream of interesting articles. And yes, he's a mate of mine too.

Listen to the full story at http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/bank-america-its-270000-employees-be-nice#

Best Companies to Work For 2012 - Fortune Magazine

Earlier this year Fortune magazine published it's annual list of the 100 best companies to work for in the U.S. Results are based on surveying employees. Sure, not all companies have jets or yachts to share with employees but there is still plenty to learn from reading the company snapshots.

The reasons these companies have been nominated as great places to work by those that work there are:

  1. Good rewards
    • incentives, profit sharing, bonuses, above average pay for industry
  2. Strong and clear company mission
  3. Benefits
    • health insurance, health programs, childcare facilities, generous leave, workplace flexibility, other perks
  4. Physical work environment
    • food, access to services like dry cleaning, even walking tracks
  5. People
    • considered recruitment efforts, long tenure of employees
  6. Culture
    • recognition of excellence, adherance to, and evaluation based on values, fun incentives, games and events, happiness commitees, herograms, "no jerk" culture
  7. Feedback
    • Staff suggestions implemented, feedback mechanisms and forums in place
  8. Visible leadership
    • Leaders touching base with employees regularly or based on high performance of teams
  9. No layoffs
    • The US has faced tough economic times recently. Many companies on this list avoided lay-offs 
  10. Career paths
    • Progression plans, internal promotion, investment in training and education
  11.  Acknowledging role of families
    • Inclusion of families in company events, acknowlegement of their contribution supporting employees

To see all the company snapshots go to: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/snapshots/1.html

 

 

Letting people go: quick versus slow. Lessons from the Media Industry

Helen Kapalos was sacked by Channel Ten a fortnight ago.

When Eddie McGuire was forced to axe 100 staff from Channel Nine – barely a few months into his new role as CEO – he decided to give it to them straight.Unfortunately, his HR department had other plans.Instead of letting him sit down and talk with each unlucky worker, they made him read a scripted statement to them. He was also advised not to answer their questions. ... "It was a disaster . . . the worst thing I did," McGuire confessed to his Triple M listeners last week. "These HR people come in, they have their set plays – and they never work."

Letting people go is an unfortunately reality of work life. But how to do it? Clean break? Slow release? This article about the Australian media industry provides some examples of sackings and reactions by audiences and colleagues. Needless to say common decency and truth is encouraged over cold HR strategies.

Read all the gory details at smh.com.au

Enterprise Engagement 101 via Wikipedia

And this is what I am hoping I will be working on soon:

Tools of Engagement

Engagement involves a broad range of disciplines and tactics. A comprehensive study of what motivates people in business conducted in 2002 by the International Society of Performance Improvement for the Incentive Research Foundation identified the following key factors:

  • Leadership – the ability of the organization to articulate a vision to its constituents.
  • Communication – the ability of the organization to convey its vision to its constituents.
  • Capability – the ability of an organization’s constituents to do what is asked of them.
  • Buy-in – the willingness of an organization’s constituents to do what is asked of them.
  • Support – the degree to which people feel recognized by the organization.
  • Emotion – the state of mind people have related to their work or relationship with the organization.
  • Measurement and feedback – the degree to which constituents receive feedback for their contribution and to which the organization analyzes results and adjusts accordingly[13].

Businesses use a wide array of tactics to address the above issues, including:

The expertise, products, and services related to these various practices comprise the emerging field of Enterprise Engagement. Bottom line: Much more research is needed to better understand how these various elements affect customer and employee engagement, and financial results.

via en.wikipedia.org

It strikes me as so unusual that Enterprise Engagement has sprung from marketing, but considering the past role marketing agencies have played in organisations it makes sense. Read the complete entry for great references to pivotal articles and a comprehensive summary of the topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Engagement.

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Buzzwords are a load of bull

OK so some of use management speak and some of us cringe when we hear it. I'm a little scared that I am becoming immune to it. Turns out using those business buzzword phrases may impair your message, as reported in the SMH today.

A 2010 study conducted at New York and Basel Universities observed the effect linguistic influences had on judgments of truth. The research indicated that when a statement was expressed in concrete language, it rated as being more truthful and authentic than when it is was expressed in abstract language.

The study found that subtle linguistic modifications alone were sufficient to affect truth judgment.

So in layman's terms: speak normal English and people will believe you more than when you use ridiculous management speak.

Read the rest of the article over at smh.com.au for a list of management speak doozies and some pretty entertaining readers' comments.

 

Do incentives work? Autonomy, mastery, and the purpose (not profit) motive

Do incentives work? Well the answer is yes and no. They work for rudimentary mechanical tasks, but when you up the cognitive anti, incentives fail to motivate. Not only that, they can negatively impact performance. Pay people enough so they are not thinking about money and can instead be free to concentrate on their performance. Also relevant to management practice is the idea of giving people autonomy. Think autonomy, mastery, and the purpose motive. Watch the video to see how this plays out.

 

The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives - Forbes

Sydney Finkelstein, the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, published “Why Smart Executives Fail” 8 years ago. In it, he shared some of his research on what over 50 former high-flying companies – like Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Rubbermaid, and Schwinn – did to become complete failures.  It turns out that the senior executives at the companies all had 7 Habits in common.  Finkelstein calls them the Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives.
via forbes.com
I'm not sure why a 2004 paper is being referrred to in a 2012 article, but hey, the insights still ring true. While the list outlines the 7 habits of unsuccesful executives it most probably applies to all bosses, leaders, supervisors, colleagues ... lets just say all people.
The habits mostly speak to inflexibility of some sort.These are the warning signs:
  1. Is over confidence at market position rife?
  2. Is the organisation too much part of personal identity?
  3. Are they quick to jump to solutions without consultation, discussion or thought to ramifications?
  4. Do they attempt to eliminate dissidents?
  5. Do they neglect oversight of operations in favour of maintaining public image?
  6. Are apparent obstacles being ignored?
  7. Are terms of reference limited to personal experiences only?
I have paraphrased the 7 habits here but do read the original copy. I especially enjoyed the warning signs.
The article offers some advice at the end -- if you can recognise these qualities in your CEO its time to leave. Bob Sutton recommends people move on as well when the signs are bad. I am waiting for someone to write about what to do if you want/need to stay.