WHY - Humility is the secret to employee loyalty

When was the last time you heard your boss make some of these statements?

"I don't know, let me ask Sally.” “My employee Sean came up with an idea that I want to run by you.” “Nick, I am confident you will make the right decision without my input." If you were one of the few people that heard your boss say something like this recently (in the last week or even month), tell your boss to keep up the great work. If you aren't one of the few leaders that is commonly willing to admit they don't have the answer, commonly share the credit with their employees, or willing to trust their employees to make the right decision, you might consider the impact this could make on employee loyalty.

Did you know: The US Department of Labor Estimates that todays earners will have 10-14 jobs by the time they are 38. (see more about these interesting facts - watch this video. I personally only worked for four companies by the time I turned 38. It has also been well documented from company employee exit surveys that the number one reason employees leave a company is not for money but because of their boss. Recent articles about the emerging "Me Generation" are suggesting that the times of people working for one or two companies their whole career are being looked upon as not only a thing of the past, but almost as ancient as 8-track tapes.

Those of you that live in the U.S. might know some of the famous stories about the legendary service from the fashion retailer Nordstrom. I personally had the pleasure of working at this great company and watched several of the leaders demonstrate what "Being Humble" looked like. One year, at an annual employee meeting, Blake Nordstrom, 4th generation Nordstrom family member and CEO, related a story about visiting New York and having to meet with Wall Street Economists. This meeting was during the ".com bust" and the economists were drilling him with questions about how the economy was impacting Nordstrom's sales results. Now, anything Mr. Nordstrom said to these guys could probably impact the Nordstrom stock price. And yet, his response to the question was: "You know, I don't know anything about the economy and its impact on our sales but I do know that we need to sell more shoes." This is also the same guy you would see out on the sales floor helping customers and employees during every sales event. The morale: It's not an accident that Nordstrom is recognized as one of the top 100 companies to work for and has low employee turnover. Of course, it takes more than one leader being humble to achieve results like these, but it starts one leader at a time.

Three things leaders can do to show their humility:

1. Give full responsibility of something to one of your employees. Employees need to feel a part of something and feel like they own it. Yes, of course you are still on the hook for their deliverables and depending on the employee's skills and experience you may need to be involved to help them succeed. Trust them to own it, let them have the conversations with your peers and your boss on their own.

2. Defer the credit. It is human nature to want to be valued and it is human nature to want to be seen as doing a good job by our boss. It's much harder to say, "John I am glad you are happy with the proposal. I also want you to know that Sally not only came up with the idea, she wrote the proposal on her own, and I would like her to have an opportunity to discuss the details of her proposal with you."

3. Most companies use some sort of annual performance review system. The performance review conversation is usually an extremely anxious time for most employees. While generally, the intended purpose of an annual review discussion is to provide the employee with feedback on their achievements, development areas, and potential career progression, it can also be a great time to show your humility. Ask your employees: What can I do to support you better or help you develop your skills? While this is a relatively simple question, in my experience, it's rarely asked. After conducting thousands of 360 feedback surveys, the feedback suggests that most leaders could do a much better job of actively helping their employees grow and develop. This is something that takes time and you need to be deliberate about it. The annual review can be a good time to turn an anxious discussion into something you and the employee can both use to help the employee succeed.

These are relatively simple practices and I am not claiming to be an expert about humility, but I do know I personally have worked with a few great leaders, ones that lived these practices and I would chose to work with them again.

WHY – Your employee problems snowball

The good news is you aren’t the only one this happens to. The fact is, it’s human nature to want the problem to go away by itself. We generally avoid confrontation, though there are a few people who actually create confrontation. You might find one or two of them hoping to be a part of a bar fight or arguing with you just for the sake of an argument. For the rest of us, avoidance is the natural preferred course. We hope our employee problems will resolve on their own without our having to intervene even though deep down we know that the chances of that happening are slim to none. The worst part is that we can look back at a problem that started off rather small, that then got worse, and finally was a huge problem which when it had to be addressed, taking a significant amount of time and energy. You would think this would get our attention and the next time we would jump on the problem at the earliest warning sign of a potential issue. Unfortunately the definition of “insanity” comes into play. We keep doing the same thing expecting a different outcome.

Here are two common examples:

• Your employee comes in a bit late once a week and leaves a bit early. Soon it’s a regular occurrence and you wonder if the employee is really committed to this job.
• You’re the business owner and one of your supervisors starts losing employees quite frequently. In fact you have even started to interview the employees yourself before an offer is made to any candidate. Soon one of the supervisor’s employee’s is coming to you with complaints about his/her behavior. Before you know it you receive a letter from a government agency about an investigation for harassment. It is also worth mentioning that in many states in the US and in several other countries, as a Manager if you knew about the harassment problem and didn’t address the behavior, not just your company, but you personally, could be liable.

To stop the snowball effect you need to address the problem early and you can do so using these three simple steps:

1. Get all the facts written down in a clear and concise way. If possible try to observe the issues first hand. It’s always better to be able to discuss the issue from a first person point of view vs. addressing an issue with other people’s stories.

2. Have a face to face conversation with the employee. This is not the time to sugar coat the problem. In a calm even tone state the reason for the meeting and describe the behaviors and facts. Then, most important part……..Shut Up! There might even be a long uncomfortable silence. Keep waiting until the person responds with their point of view. This is extremely important and our natural tendency is to fill in the gap because silence is uncomfortable, usually giving them a way out.

3. Agree on a solution and document the conversation. Lastly the piece most leaders typically miss, follow up. It’s as simple as this…..if you want the problem to come back, don’t follow up. If you want the problem to go away permanently and not snowball into a larger issue simply reinforce the positive behavior. You can say, “I noticed you came in every day this week on time, thank you for making the adjustment. I am glad you are committed to the agreement we set." Change this to whatever is appropriate for your situation.

While the examples I used here are common of more junior leaders, employee problems happen at all levels of organizations. In my experience, I have observed Directors, VPs, CEOs, Owners, and every level in between avoid conflict, avoid the problem, and wish they had addressed the issue sooner.

WHY - Leaders fail to lead change

Do you drive the same route to work? Do you have family traditions you try and recreate each year during holidays? Or maybe you are one of those in the 15% category who drives a different route each day, arrives at different times, and jumps on a plane with little notice for a vacation. John Kotter wrote “More than 70% of all change initiatives fail due to lack of change leadership.” So, why do we as leaders keep trying the same approach expecting a different outcome?

It’s simple - we are afraid to have our teams be a part of the change. I know some of you are saying yes but I can’t tell them because jobs are impacted. In today’s economy this is a common conversation between executives and HR leaders. Many of my colleagues would advise you to keep only those with a need to know in the loop. There are certainly situations where this is the best advice. And because this is the familiar path, and thus easier, we often do it the same way.

Leaders typically focus on all of the things needed to do to prepare for the change event, the moment when we tell people. A well known change expert, William Bridges points out all major change initiatives have an End to something, a Neutral period where we are figuring it out, and a New Beginning in which we have fully accepted the change and moved on.

I have spent many hours helping executives from around the globe prepare for these change events. What I can tell you from experience is that leaders who lead change well do three things:

1. They understand everyone experiences change in a predictable pattern. The more they are mentally prepared and involved in the decision, the quicker they move through the neutral zone. The neutral zone can be a time for negative emotion so it is imperative that leaders learn to help them through this phase. If someone isn’t involved in the decision process they are likely to move through the transition stage more slowly.

2. Leaders help themselves and their teams move more quickly through the stages. There have been numerous studies done related to grieving, with typically 6 distinct stages. In the workplace I have had the fortunate and unfortunate opportunity to see this in practice and I call it the S.A.R.A. model.

S – Shock This is when the individual first finds out about the change, e.g. new system, new boss, loss of job, etc. It is like what someone may look like after experiencing or seeing a car crash. Do: Give people space, time to think about the change. Don’t: Oversell them on the benefits of the change.

A – Anger/Anxiety This is when the individual has had some time to think about what this means to them. Typically this takes on the form of being upset or worried about the impact of what the change means to them personally. During this stage it is common for people not be able to sleep, have trouble focusing, and often not be fully engaged at work or in their personal relationships. Of course there are some people in this world who can lose their job one day and bounce back with enthusiasm about the next adventure, but this is a very small minority. Do: Ask them how they are doing with the change. Listen to their frustrations. Encourage them to do something that they enjoy. Don’t: Oversell them on the benefits. Don’t expect them to be ok with it yet.

R – Rejection This is when the individual is likely to be most destructive to themselves and others. Being sick, not wanting to use the system, complaining to others, not moving forward. This is a period in which people can get stuck and have a more difficult time moving to acceptance. This is also the place where leaders make the most mistakes. If this has been going on for a while, some leaders take the approach that the person just needs to get on board. While it is true you need to get them on board, the act of pushing on them while they are in rejection is what causes more rejection. Do: Listen and ask probing questions like “Which part of the change are you most frustrated about?” Validate that you understand why they are upset. Ask them “What can I do to help you thru the change?” Be sure to take the time to listen to their concerns and don’t discount them. Don’t: Debate with them and don’t try to prove to them it will be better. If they are stuck, point out to them that at some point they need to work themselves through this change, otherwise it is likely to have some negative impact. Don’t confuse this with an ultimatum; it’s not intended to be an ultimatum. It’s calm, collected, factual reasoning that the decision has been made regardless of their concerns about it, and, at some point, they need to help themselves thru the change.

A – Acceptance Somewhere between Rejection and Acceptance is a line in the sand in which the person says “I guess this is ok, maybe this will work out, etc.” It’s at this moment and shortly there after, when the person is on their way up from the valley of despair and it’s during this period where the most creative ideas are produced. This can lead to ideas such as (“Hey have we ever thought about what that means for the way this downstream system, process, people, etc.)” “Maybe we have an opportunity to change X as well.” Do: Try to capture and foster the creative ideas. Even if you don’t ultimately do anything with them, this is about being a part of the change. Don’t: Assume that everyone is at acceptance because one person is showing positive signs.

3. Leaders understand that not only is their team experiencing all these emotions in different periods of time. Some individuals have moved through the stages in a few minutes, others in days, and some individuals in weeks or even months. They also understand they experience these emotions themselves and may be at one of these stages themselves while having to put the company hat on, toe the line, and toot the company horn. Probably one of the biggest mistakes leaders make is they think saying the company line and selling the benefits of the change, is the right thing to do. This is tricky, my boss is expecting me to speak positively about the change and yet I am still not sure it’s the right decision. Teams see right through this immediately. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite of what your team needs. What they need to hear is you are human, it bothers you, and you will be there leading the team through the uncertainty. So how do you keep both your boss and your team happy? It sounds something like this: “While I am still trying to figure out what this all means, and I am not sure what the impact will be yet, I am also confident we will work through this transition together. You can always come to me to discuss your concerns.”

Leaders are typically on the front end of the change and if you were a part of the decision process you will have moved even more quickly through the transition period. Each transition poses an opportunity to help yourself with the what’s new and help each individual through the transition period. Try letting them in on where you think you are headed, trust them with the sensitive information, and you might be surprised at the positive impact this can make in your organization.

WHY – Global leadership will be the number one problem businesses face!

“Good morning! Oops, I guess it would be good evening to you in London at this time.” This is a common mistake many Leaders make as they first experience having a phone conversation with someone in a different time zone. This is one example of “why” the lack of Global Leadership skills will be the number one problem businesses face and just the tip of the iceberg.

As we all know, more and more companies are expanding their work to foreign countries. This expansion is causing the need for leaders to take on global responsibilities including managing work, projects, and people in different time zones, geographies, cultures, and laws. Yet many of our leaders today are completely unprepared for this responsibility. Black et al (1999) completed a survey of Fortune 500 firms showing 85% of companies felt that the demand for global leaders far outstripped the supply and 67% felt that their global leaders needed additional skills and knowledge in order to do the job effectively. There are two reasons given for this:

1. There is a high demand for global leaders right now because of the pace and nature of globalization.
2. There are not sufficient global leaders and as they haven't been developed in the past and cannot be developed overnight.

In a global company with offices in 20+ countries my team interviewed 30 leaders to get at some common issues related to Global Leadership. Here are the highlights of the common problems:

• There is a lack of understanding of culture differences.
• Corporate Headquarters (in this case a US based company) is out of touch with the business and forces changes on us that do not meet the local needs.
• It's hard to communicate with many different cultures all in one day and get it right every time, for example: Australians tend to be very direct, Japaneese tend to be very relationship driven, and thus the calls may take twice as long, China and Singapore are different again.
• Western people can sometimes appear aggressive in their working styles and damage client relationships in the East due to their not respecting the need to save face and respect hierarchies.
• In general, Eastern people will not speak out in a group and give their opinion, so unless a different way of communication is used, you will not hear the ‘real’ view.
• There is very little concession made on conference calls for people who don’t speak English as their first language and not sufficient budget for translation.
• Need to find ways to build relationships without spending time face-to face e.g. finding out how people work, how they like to be thanked, what makes them tick, otherwise you will never be respected.
• Must be able to communicate and motivate a team remotely to achieve their goals, not just tell them, as you can’t actually see what is actually going on. The team will fail if you don’t have that trust on both sides.
• The remoteness takes away intimacy, spontaneity and the ability to connect easily. Willingness to travel and meet people and find out what is happening on the ground is essential, otherwise your judgment becomes tainted.

I had several personal experiences that helped me understand the gaps in culture awareness.

• In Nov 06 I visited our Munich office on business. I arrived around 8am and found the office empty. The door was open, as the cleaning crew was busy at work. I waited in the lobby for my local employee to arrive and introduce me to others in the office. At 8:58 employees started to arrive, said “good morning” or in this case “Guten Morgen”. At 9:01 all employees had arrived for work. I know this because I was still sitting there until 9:10 in which my employee greeted me and than began to give me a tour. So all 155 employees arrived within a 3 minute period and began their work day nearly precisely at 9am. Now this isn’t a factory, or a place of work that requires people to be punctual. These are predominately sales employees working in a culture that expects precision. Imagine a US employee having a conference call with someone from this German office that gets on the line 5 minutes late; lacks a prepared agenda, and struggles to keep the call on task. How well does this go over with the German employee? And if this was the employee’s Manager? Without even knowing it, the US manager just lost respect from their employee in Germany.

• While in Tokyo in Oct 07 I observed that employees begin their work between 9:45-10:30am but worked until 7:30-8:00pm. And because the corporate headquarters employees were not aware of this simple cultural difference, they regularly sent meeting requests for 4pm PST which translated to 9am in Tokyo, before the Tokyo employees would begin their day. The Japanese employees never mentioned the problem, and thus the US employees went on continuing to frustrate their Japanese colleagues, oblivious to the real cultural issue.

What about things like giving employees feedback, giving someone a performance review…..what are the cultural considerations? Did you know that generally in the UK it is more effective to focus on a verbal dialogue when providing someone feedback compared to a written performance evaluation? How do you your leaders learn these things and what impact is the lack of awareness having on your business? What about addressing conflict? Or soliciting input from people in different offices? Or keeping people informed? There are many complexities to effective Global Leadership and most companies are just beginning to think about tactics to address some of these potential problems.

So here are some things to consider in relation to Global Leadership:

1. Think globally. Recognize when it is beneficial to create a consistent global standard.
2. Think locally. The process of becoming truly global means deepening the company's understanding of local and cultural differences.
3. Think globally and locally at the same time. Recognize situations in which demands from both global and local elements are compelling.
4. Actively prepare your leaders for working in different countries, time zones, geographies. Hold discussions, formal training, or simply create a web page on your intranet with tips by country or office.
5. Face time is the most effective way to build relationships and begin to understand cultural differences. When traveling to another office, prepare by learning about the culture (read a book and ask lots of questions, do not overlook the small things). Here is one example of my own cultural blunder. While traveling to Paris in Nov 06, at the end of my visit with the Sales Leaders and my trainer, I stood on the street corner to say goodbye. My employee than awkwardly said, “So are we going to kiss or what?” As I looked dumbfounded, completely oblivious to the custom, she leaned in and kissed me on both cheeks. I know your saying to yourself, duh..I even knew about that. But the question I ask you, is were you prepared for it. Would you have initiated it? Or would you have stood there awkwardly as I did? And what if you had been in Spain, would the custom be the same?
6. Recognize and respect differences. Be willing to be good with your solution addressing the “intent” and leave the “how it should be implemented” up to the local person.
7. Creating ways to regularly communicate and e-mail is not enough. Consider a quarterly conference call focusing on strategy, accomplishments, and direction. Visit your employees no less than once a year in person. Since only 7% of our communication is the words we use, try video taping yourself delivering an important message to your team. Post your video message on your web server and send a link to your employees. You will be amazed at the positive responses you receive from your employees.
8. Learn a foreign language. Try Rosetta Stone learning language program.

Companies are continuing to expand globally. The need for Global Leaders is growing. And the supply of skilled Global Leaders is growing scarce. If you are not actively developing your Global Leadership skills personally and if you are not actively focused on this as an organization, you and your company will ultimately limit your competitive edge.

Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, ありがとう

WHY - Every leader needs development!

Have you ever thought to yourself "I could organize my desk better?" "Or I should do a better job of thanking my employees?" I believe every leader needs development, because the greatest leaders are those who know they always have areas that need improvement.

Self-awareness and being humble enough to publicly admit your personal weaknesses and more importantly articulate the most important things for you to work on is one of the most critical things leaders can do. In fact it is "why" employees become loyal to their boss. Studies show that employees of today's generation are more likely to stay working for one employer solely based on their relationship with their boss.

We all know the age of leading people by fear and intimidation is gone. But what you may not have considered is that your own development is the key to your employees' loyalty. This is because your employees are no longer motivated by just money, promotion, and security. The average person entering the workforce today is likely to work for upwards of 10-12 employers in their working career. This is nearly double the number of employers in previous generations. Employees of today's generation are motivated by relationships, affirmation of their skills, and a shared sense of values. This is why employees are more likely to respect and follow a humble leader.

Self-development is no easy feat and will not be effective if you are haphazardly trying to be something different to people. In fact, I would suggest one of the most effective ways of developing oneself is to solicit the help of a coach or mentor. In my experience of Executive Coaching there are some rather simple things one can do:

• First, think about a list of people that can provide you with honest feedback about your skills and effectiveness as a leader. This list should include your manager, your peers, your direct reports/staff, and stakeholders. What you are looking for is a list of 15-20 people that work enough with you on a regular basis to provide you with feedback that will be useful. If you list people that only sing your praises you won't get as much useful information as you would if you list people in which you may have had conflict or with whom things didn't go so well.
  
• Provide this list to your Coach or Mentor. They should than solicit feedback on your behalf.
  
• Consider using a 360 feedback survey tool to collect information anonymously and with a set of objective questions to help you distill the information and get to the most relevant feedback.
• Work with your Coach or Mentor to help analyze the feedback. Focus on developing a list of 3 things that are your greatest strength that are contributing to your success as a leader and 3 things that are your greatest weaknesses that if you focused on would help you become a better leader. You might be asking yourself, "why" would I focus on areas that are already my strengths. This is because, these things are already contributing to your success and leaders that focus on leveraging these strengths are even more successful. For example: Did you know that Tiger Woods is ranked #128 out of 135 in terms of his ability to get out of the sand trap. Did you also know that his coach hardly ever has him practice on getting out of the sand trap. Now you might ask yourself "why"? Because, focusing on staying out of the sand trap is a far more effective use of time.
  
• As you develop this list, think about this in relativity to your career. If part of your goal is to move to the next level, focus on areas that will help you do just that.
• Now that hard part, what are you going to do to develop these skills? Work with your Coach or Mentor to develop a realistic plan that is S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time bound).
• Now the uncomfortable part...but one of the most important things you do. Share your plan with your team. This doesn't mean you have to tell them every piece of the feedback, but the act of being vulnerable and summarizing what you learned is extremely important. This also invites the people you work with to continue to provide you feedback about your progress and or lack of progress to the things you set out to work on. The other thing this does is set an example of development for your employees. This will allow you to have meaningful and helpful conversations with your employees about their development.
• The next step is to actively work on your plan.....this will take deliberate focus and planning to ensure time is allotted to the learning activities that you have created. This might be things like: taking a class; reading a book; working on a project, spending time with an expert, etc.
• I would suggest meeting regularly with your Coach or Mentor to discuss your progress get suggestions on additional learning activities and keep you on track.
• In order to deeply change your behavior, you must collect feedback on the progress you are making against your plan. Typically 3 or 6 months into your plan is a good time to ask the original group of people that provided you with feedback about the extent of your progress as well as additional things you should consider focusing on.
• Adjust your plan accordingly and keep focused on regular activities to improve your skills.
  

Self-Development is an on-going process and I would recommend all leaders use the above approach no less than every two years. Setting an example of development, being humble enough to admit that we all have things to work on are keys to creating a loyalty between you and your employees and is one of the most important things you can do as a leader.

WHY - Blog Introduction

When I was a kid, I was always asking my parents the question, "why". "Why" do I have to clean my room? "Why" do we have to go? "Why" can't I...? "Why" does this work this way?

A few years ago, I had a flashback to when I was a kid, when my nephew, Levi, who was about 4 at the time asked, "Why" is the electrical dam made out of concrete when concrete and water don't mix? As I fumbled for an answer, I remembered my parents gave me a big yellow book called "Why". And believe me, at that moment the book would have come in mighty handy.

Harvard Business did a study in which they found 85% of us need to know the answer to "Why" before we can process information. So for those in the 15% out there this blog isn't for you. The rest of you might find my observations and comments interesting and if it at all helps you answer your questions of "Why" then will be well worth your time and mine. I don't claim to be an expert, nor a great writer. In fact, I am just someone that has spent a great deal of time working with people and the majority of my 20+ years of management experience helping leaders improve what they do.

Stay tuned for "WHY" - Talent Development