10 Key Differences between Leaders and Managers

 

Published reports in Google News are an eye-opener. If you Google “leadership crisis,” you’ll get about 9,000 search results for business and the public sector. If you enter the key words, “management crisis,” you’ll see close to 17,000 results. These figures can vary, but you get the idea.

Further queries underscore the need for growth in many professionals, but there seems to be some confusion in understanding the difference between leadership and management.

True, leaders can manage and managers can lead. Hopefully, managers can display leadership qualities. Conversely, leadership efforts can help in management.

But the news accounts show that some leaders don’t manage and many managers don’t provide leadership. So, my sense is that it’s possible to develop a balance sheet – there are basic differences between the two.

In essence, here’s the salient distinction: It boils down to how professionals inspire their staffs and other stakeholders.

Attributes of a leader:

1. Studies, and develops ideas and principles
2. Innovates
3. Resourceful and look for solutions to problems
4. Empathetic with a focus on people
5. Inspires trust among stakeholders
6. Understands the big picture
7. Superior listening skills
8. Challenges the state of affairs, and asks why and what can be improved
9. Looks for opportunities to develop strengths
10. Develops a following

Attributes of a manager:

1. Administrates
2. Accepts the status quo
3. Pragmatic in accepting trends and events, but goes no further
4. Focus is on control, structure and systems
5. Has a linear perspective – only follows what’s at the end of her/his nose
6. Asks a limited set of questions – just how or when?
7. Acts like a chameleon or imitator of other managers
8. Perceives threats
9. Minimizes weaknesses
10. Manages subordinates but has few, if any, devotees

From the Coach’s Corner, here are leadership resource links:

Leadership Strategies to Profit from Employee Respect

10 Characteristics of a Successful CEO

7 Tips for a Young Professional to Become a CEO

Link between Financial Performance and Succession Planning

U.K. Study about Leadership Provides Lessons for the U.S.

Career Strategies: How to Get a C-Level Job

How CIOs Can Get More Respect in the C-Suite

Five Attributes of Leadership Are Needed Now

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
-John F. Kennedy

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

Why Companies are Falling into the Management Lawsuit Trap

 

News headlines continue to show there are a myriad of ways managers set themselves for lawsuits. Small and Many Big Companies Are Ripe for EEOC Complaints.

In 2011, AT&T was forced to settle an age-bias lawsuit. Capri Home Care was sued for alleged pregnancy discrimination. American Laser Centers settled an EEOC lawsuit over sexual harassment. Bass Pro Shows Companies was accused of worker reprisals.

The majority of lawsuits targeting management usually stem from a half dozen poor practices.

They include:

1. Adherence to policies and procedures. Time and again, businesses are sued because managers fail to comply with company policy manuals. Principals should always review policy manuals with managers, and get a signed receipt indicating that they understand policies. (Yes, any manager who strays from policy should be disciplined.) Only then, the managers should review the handbook with non-exempt staff.
2. Following discrimination and harassment policies. Periodically remind managers to be diligent to prevent discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Their employment status will be affected if they fail to adhere to policies, or if they to act professionally should policy violations occur.
3. Poor management of employee problems. Make certain managers know how to respond – not react in a knee-jerk fashion to employee problems. That means thinking about how to respond in all situations. Typical worker problems include attendance, alcoholism drug use, and insubordination.
4. Retaliation or the appearance of being retaliatory. For example, courts frown on transfers if they look like a demotion. It looks suspicious if an employee suddenly receives an unsatisfactory performance appraisal or is not treated equally like other workers.
5. Terminations. Courts look to make certain terminations are handled well legally, and with civility and fairness. Here are 3 Key Human Resources Questions in Terminating Workers.
6. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Typical problems result from FMLA misunderstandings over attendance policy, eligibility, notice requirements and worker reinstatement.

For more strategies, here are 21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management, and How to avoid EEOC Discrimination Suits.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are the 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations.

“Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”
-John D. Rockefeller

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

Business Management Lessons from Yahoo’s Demise

 

Updated Feb. 7, 2012

From a management perspective at the board level, Yahoo is starting to make the right moves. Chairman Roy Bostock, the chair for four years, and three long-serving board members have resigned. This follows the resignation of co-founder Jerry Yang after the search giant hired a new CEO, former PayPal executive Scott Thompson.

Why are the moves positive?

You might recall Yahoo missed a chance to sell to Microsoft for $47.5 million in May 2008. Do the math. This would have meant $33 per share. At this writing, Yahoo’s stock is trading at $15.82.

Other negative headlines: The public catfight between deposed Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and the board. After her termination, she refused to resign from the board.

Certainly, published reports show Ms. Bartz failed to demonstrate quality leadership in terms of the company’s performance and her personal style of communication. Thirty-two months of valuable time was lost during her tenure. That’s a big sales-opportunity cost.

Despite whatever skills Ms. Bartz seemed to possess to get the top job after previously working at Sun Microsystems and Autodesk, they weren’t apparent in her nearly three years at Yahoo.

True, she successfully addressed financial and organizational issues.

But she didn’t seem to show an adequate grasp of the big picture – to understand the company, its marketplace challenges and solutions. The company’s heritage advertising platform has been backsliding. Too, I have to wonder if the vaunted Yahoo Finance platform has suffered in reputation. It’s been a favorite for those who want to check stock prices.

During her reign, Yahoo’s stock price was at stagnant levels. It’s worth noting that Yahoo’s share price immediately jumped 6 percent when she was terminated. That’s indication she didn’t have friends on Wall Street, either. It might have been advantageous for her to read the book, “How Win Friends and Influence People.”

But, of course, Yahoo was sliding before she took the reins.

Yahoo was once the No. 1 search engine, but since the 1990s it failed to stem the rising tide from competitors Google and Facebook. The board ostensibly didn’t understand the link between financial performance and succession planning.

Yahoo has seemed to be standing still. It hasn’t evolved, or re-engineered its focus like all companies must do. It needs to look fresh and innovative with compelling products and services. In other words, it needs a vision.

In a nutshell, to regain its 1990’s stature, Yahoo must accomplish three salient goals:

1. Hire a chief executive officer who acts like one – productive interpersonal skills, who understands the big picture for Yahoo to successfully compete. Hopefully, Mr. Thompson will meet the challenge.
2. Short-term, the search giant should become relevant in the minds of Internet users, especially among younger demographics. With its significant stake with a Chinese partner, Alibaba Group, fence-mending is indicated.
3. Long-term, Yahoo needs to develop a strategic action plan for a successful business model.

My hope is that Yahoo is again successful. If not, a merger might be in the works.

From the Coach’s Corner, it would seem Yahoo is left holding the bag without adequate leadership. Consider these resource links:

Management Strategies for a Successful Turnaround

Is Carol Bartz Using the Right Leadership Approach

Hottest Tactics to Beat Your Competitors

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

Did Carol Bartz Use the Right Leadership Approach?

 

Feb. 7, 2012

Imagine, you’re at work and you suddenly get a boorish mass e-mail from the head of your company announcing she’s just been fired.

How would you feel? Would you respect the person sending such a message? Would you be confident in your company?

I don’t know about you, but I’d have a negative response to all three questions.

My perspective is three-fold: Early in my career, I worked in management, and found myself downsized. I’ve been an executive who decided to terminate employees. And now I’m a business-performance consultant who advises clients in human resources.

Yes, losing a job is painful. And, yes, it’s important to be transparent. But that doesn’t mean it’s OK to be crude in making such announcements.

That’s my assessment in the case of Carol Bartz.

When she was terminated as Yahool’s chief executive officer, published reports indicate she sent an e-mail blast to 13,400 employees. It read, “I’ve just been fired.”

It isn’t hard to believe. Her job ended just as the events unfolded in her tenure – chaotic. She’s one of the business management lessons from Yahoo’s demise.

Here’s why:

All Ms. Bartz accomplished in her message was to act unprofessionally capping an unproductive pattern of behavior, which had led to poor performance, and her eventual demise.

What she never seemed to understand was that she never understood Yahoo’s mission. In her case, it should have been all about building Yahoo to satisfy its users.

Now, she’s the second woman in the last six years to disrupt a major technology company. She didn’t learn from the lessons of Carly Fiorina, who misjudged Hewlett-Packard’s situation in the marketplace.

She came across as brash and ostentatious, too. Ms. Fiorina never should have tried to force the merger with Compaq. The cultures at the two companies were too different. Some 17,000 workers lost their jobs unnecessarily. And HP, my favorite printer company, still hasn’t found its way.

At least when Ms. Fiorina was terminated in 2005, she publicly indicated she respected the decision. In my view, that was her most stately act as head of HP.

But Ms. Bartz’s e-mail blast came across as angry, egotistical and manipulative. All Ms. Bartz accomplished was to continue an unproductive pattern of behavior, which led to poor performance, and an eventual demise. Her salty language more suitable at a football game.

Leaders might be confident in their abilities, but they evaluate their performance on a regular basis. They make corrections when necessary. But they don’t continue as if everything is good when it isn’t. They don’t consistently make brash statements. And don’t fail to take responsibility for setbacks in the marketplace.

Aside from her career, her crass announcement has at least two ramifications:

1. She’s hindering Yahoo’s future.
2. She’s sending an emotional message that makes it more difficult for women business leaders to break through the glass ceiling.

Unfortunately, for Yahoo stakeholders, Ms. Bartz was simply an example of the Peter Principle. She rose to her level of incompetence. The job was simply too challenging for her. But she didn’t have to make the situation worse. That’s not what leaders do.

From the Coach’s Corner, other editor’s picks:

Leadership, HR, Marketing Lessons from HP’s Executive Turmoil

If Mergers & Acquisitions Tempt You, Consult HR Pros

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

-Peter Drucker 

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Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

Management Strategies for a Successful Turnaround

 

Businesspeople everywhere are preoccupied by budget woes – the need for turnarounds in business and government. Fortunately, the U.S. government debt-limit issue is temporarily solved.

Policies in the nation’s capital affect business. 

Despite their challenges in business, by a wide margin, the most-viewed news videos on this business portal have been the reports on the debt-limit debate in Congress. To summarize the fiscal doldrums of the United States – the nation has been managed poorly – a turnaround is necessary. 

A quote by financial-world wizard Warren Buffett is apropos. 

“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,” he said on CNBC. “You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3 percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.” 

To Mr. Buffett’s observation, I’d add another thought about politicians: Cancel the security blankets – their lifetime benefits. Relatively few politicians are paying attention to the available reams of risk analysis. 

In considering management strategies for successful turnarounds, certainly one of the considerations is the evaluation of risks. In this regard, another relevant quote by Mr. Buffett strikes me as funny, but true. 

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing,” Mr. Buffett said. 

My response: “Touché.” 

It’s all about capital mobility created by effective management. 

Indeed, companies can be successful when they’re managed well. It stands to reason that turnaround success starts at the top – management must know what it’s doing. 

Not to oversimplify because every situation is different, here are 11 principles in turnarounds: 

1. Before acting, get the right information. Don’t get paralysis from too-much analysis, but know the difference when to act quickly or to be still. That’s where having experienced advisors will be productive for you.
2. For a 180-degree turnaround, use a 360-degree approach – many solutions lie within your company. Employees should be assets. Conduct an organizational assessment. Some employees can provide valuable insights about company culture, accountability, middle management, processes, internal communication, and customer preferences.
3. Consider yourself a CEO of your profession, not just your company. Complete balance is necessary. Whether you’re in the automobile business or technology, consider the perspectives of all your stakeholders not just your company.
4. Be careful to whom you listen. Lawyers don’t always know best. After the Gulf oil spill, my sense is that BP suffered by listening more to lawyers than reputation experts.
5. Become a master in tough-love management. Don’t allow yourself to become uncomfortably straitjacketed. You have to make tough decisions on which to act. This is not a time for people-pleasing. Get rid of unproductive employees.
6. Analyze the root causes of your situation. They usually include the poor-employee performance, marketplace competition, inaccurate sales forecasts, unproductive strategies, weak execution of strategies, expenses, inadequate cash flow, ineffective financial controls, and weak economy (which is why my writing also focuses on public policy).
7. Assuming your firm is worth the turnaround effort, assess your prospects.
8. Consider time-proven tactics, which include dumping poor assets, increasing revenue, lower costs, and making strategic purchases.
9. Develop and implement an emergency cash-flow plan.
10. Restructure your company by improving company culture, making operational changes, adding or changing products, and by fixing your branding approach.
11. Think big picture – start working to become the authority for your industry. That includes public policy.

If you can’t enjoy a return to profits, an exit strategy is your last alternative. An immediate abandonment strategy means you might have to sell to another company or liquidate your assets. 

Otherwise, you might consider harvest strategies, which allow you to evaluate your success against benchmarks. Options include preparing an initial public offering or selling to your employees in an employee stock option plan (ESOP). 

For an ESOP, you’ll need a positive company culture. Poor morale or divisions among employees will lead to their failure as a company. 

From the Coach’s Corner, consider these financial-resource links: 

Step-by-Step Solutions for a Company Turnaround 

8 Simple Strategies to Give You Pricing Power 

“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”

– Peter F. Drucker

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

Do You Have A Toxic Relationship With Your Boss?

 

This may be the 21st century with a cornucopia of management textbooks for bosses, but a significant number of employees still complain about their supervisors lacking in professionalism. That’s according to a study by Wayne Hochwarter, a professor in management at Florida State University.

Dr. Hochwarter has long studied employee-employer relationships, as well as the dynamics that trigger poor performances, hostile workplace environments and tension. His 2011 study included responses from more than 400 employees in a myriad of industries.

The results:

• 42 percent of employees reported that their boss was concerned more with saving his or her own job than with developing and assisting employees to be productive.
• 42 percent said they failed to receive things that were promised more than once over the past year.
• More than 40 percent of workers said they would not acknowledge their boss if they ran into him or her on the street.
• 40 percent agreed with the statement that “the only fun thing about work is leaving.”
• 34 percent reported that their boss is “two-faced,” in that he or she is nice in person but speaks negatively behind the employee’s back.
• 32 percent indicated that they work for a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
• 29 percent felt that their boss would “throw them under the bus” if it meant saving the boss’s own job.
• 24 percent caught their supervisor in a direct lie but never received an apology or explanation.
• 20 percent have heard a supervisor tell a co-worker that he or she could “get them fired if they wanted to.”

The professor reports many such workers feel vulnerable without any hope of improving their workplace environments.

“For workers in declining industries such as construction and manufacturing, catching on with a company able to offer comparable wages has been virtually impossible,” Dr. Hochwarter was quoted in a press release. “Plan B just doesn’t exist for many employees at the level it did five or 10 years ago.”

Not surprisingly, many of the workers fail to apply themselves for the welfare their companies, suffer from a resulting lack of sleep, and lack in self esteem.

In my experience as a business-performance consultant and human resources trainer, the study prompts me to make two responses:

1. The Peter Principle seems applicable — “”In a hierarchy,  every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” Many bosses are unqualified for management.
2. There are sometimes two sides to such stories. Employees often needlessly point fingers and are culpable, too.

But Dr. Hochwarter’s study is eye-opening, and is a surprise considering the abundance of 21st century tools for bosses to become professional supervisors.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s How To Deal With An Oppressive Employer.

Resource links for bosses:

Leadership Strategies to Profit from Employee Respect

Human Resources – Power Your Brand with Employee Empowerment

Management Best-Practices Include Solid Operations Checklists

21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management

Some people climb the ladder of success. My boss walked under it.

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

Study – CFOs Still Calling the Shots in IT Decisions

 

The top IT decision-maker for many companies is not the chief information officer. Instead, the chief financial officer is, according to a Gartner study.

The chief financial officer is becoming the top technology decision maker in around half of businesses, according to Gartner research released in June, 2011, which is entitled: “Financial Executives International (FEI) Technology Study.”

In fact, more IT departments are overseen by the CFO, not the chief executive or other senior managers. But this is ill-advised, and I’ll explain later.

The study’s conclusions:

• 42 percent report to the CFO
• 45 percent IT investment strategies made by the CFO
• In 38 percent, the IT department is managed by the CFO
• In 7 percent, the CFO is the lone decision-maker

“Understand that the CFO views the impact on business process and business enablement as the top technology issues,” said Gartner analyst John Van Decker.

“Therefore, applications and analytics are the top investment priorities, and the enabling technologies that support these initiatives need to be viewed as equally important,” he added.

The study also indicated that analytics and applications are the No. 1 investment priorities by the CFO.

While this trend probably makes financial executives happy, it doesn’t make for best practices.

It raises at least three questions:

• Do such CFOs have the necessary tech knowledge to understand the value of each decision? Sufficient steps have to be taken to ensure due diligence in IT security and other decisions.
• When will CEOs reconsider such strategies because of the negative impacts on the teamwork and morale of IT departments? An IT thought leader will resent such intrusions on the chain of command in organization structure.
• What will CIOs do about it? CIOs must take the proverbial bull by the horns to exert more leadership.

My bottom-line: Agreed, the CIO should adhere to all financial checks and balances. But there should be balance. As with human resources management and marketing whom the chief people often aren’t sufficiently respected, in essence, the top IT decision-maker should be the chief information officer with input from the CFO and other managers.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s related reading:

How CIOs Can Get More Respect in the C-Suite

Tech Trends: CFO’s the Boss, IT Departments Are Disappearing

Tech Planning: What If There’s A Double Dip?

“Men are respectable only as they respect.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Columnist Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complementary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

20 Tell-Tale Signs – If You’re Under-Performing as a Manager

 

Whether new or experienced, managers can often struggle. Poor management, of course, leads to poor performance.

As red flags, under-performing managers share one of two common traits with ineffective employees. Such managers aren’t fully aware of their shortcomings. Even if they are aware of deficiencies, they’re afraid to admit it.

Either way, nothing is done about the shortcomings. Accountability suffers. There are 20 typical warning signs.

Here’s a list of questions – 20 tell-tale signs – if you’re under-performing as a manager:

1. Is your department underperforming? It can be attributed to ineffective management.
2. Are you getting positive performance reviews from your boss? If not, that’s an indicator.
3. Do you have a strong image ? If you don’t enjoy employee loyalty or if peers are snubbing you, those are omens.
4. Are you a stress carrier? Whether its personal stress caused by conditions at home or career challenges, it can adversely affect your work relationships.
5. Do you engage in self-doubt? Weak decisions prompt actions leading to poor results.
6. Do your employees communicate well with you? Sometimes employees are distant because they’re unhappy with your style.
7. Are you careful to surround yourself with great employees? You don’t want a lot of yes-people. You want thinkers who will take ownership of their work.
8. Are you clear with your expectations of employee performance? If you’re nebulous in day-to-day interactions, instructions or in formal reviews, employees won’t deliver.
9. Do you make good investment for short-term and long-term success? Whether it’s technology or human resources training, good managers take productive steps and make insightful investments.
10. Are you a go-to person? Does your boss look to you for solutions and projects, or are you overlooked? This means you’re not viewed as being a valuable resource.
11. Are you open-minded? Do you step outside your comfort zone? This means being able to be innovative and assertive, and you don’t settle for mediocrity.
12. Are you a big-picture manager with strong potential for the C-suite? A manager who is good CEO-material has knowledge and ability in all areas of the business, not necessarily a doctorate-level expertise in any particular segment of the business.
13. Are you constantly looking for ways to improve? The best managers are voracious readers, and look for sources of good ideas and processes.
14. Do you instill a customer-focused organization? Task-oriented managers who are not focused on customer needs will not maximize profits.
15. Do you meet goals? If goals aren’t being met – whether it’s your department or your individual employees – performance will not been enhanced.
16. Do you have weak links on your team? It’s possible to have high-performing workers, but prima donnas are a liability if they don’t work well with others.
17. Are you ensuring company policies and values are upheld? If not the culture will be endangered and profits will suffer.
18. Are you on top of budgetary matters? In this business climate, it’s imperative to have a clear view of your department or company finances.
19. Do you regularly assess your business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? This is crucial for goal-setting and strategic planning.
20. Do you recognize employee and company success? Celebrations are good for everyone’s morale.

From the Coach’s Corner, for effective management, here are more resource links:

Leadership Strategies to Profit from Employee Respect

Human Resources – Power Your Brand with Employee Empowerment

Management Best-Practices Include Solid Operations Checklists

21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

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Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

Human Resources – Power Your Brand with Employee Empowerment

 

Are you investing in marketing, but not getting the anticipated return on your investment?

If you’re disappointed by your ROI, remember marketing may or may not be the problem. Why? Consider there are two basic reasons for poor profits – again, that’s profits not revenue. The reasons include failure to adapt to a dynamic marketplace and failing to solve the internal factors that impede the control of costs, performance and quality.

To research the problem, assess each of the following:

1. Marketing and sales approach
2. Human resources management
3. Operations and processes

Naturally, if you conclude marketing isn’t the problem, this means that your company isn’t managed at optimum levels.

A  lesson I’ve learned as a management consultant: Marketing doesn’t work when a company isn’t well-run. Two symptoms are poor company image and low customer satisfaction. Therefore, look internally. You need for your employees to be productive. But in such cases, they’re not.

So consider a University of Iowa study, “Antecedents and Consequences of Psychological and Team Empowerment in Organizations: A Meta-analtyic Review.” Published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, it was co-authored by researcher Scott Seibert, professor of management and organizations in the Tippie College of Business; and UI doctoral students Gang Wang and Stephen H. Courtright. They reviewed the results of dozens of other studies.

The report’s conclusions about employee-empowerment:

• Morale is higher
• Performance is stronger
• Job satisfaction is enhanced
• Less turnover
• Reduced stress

“Empowerment is an effective approach for improving employee attitudes and work behaviors in a broad range of industries, occupations and geographic regions,” said Profess Seibert.

To summarize, he recommends:

• Managers sharing information
• Including employees in decision-making
• Providing HR training
• Paying well
• Recognizing employee contributions
• Showing leadership
• Providing good feedback
• Helping workers to find meaning in their work with challenging responsibilities

“Managers in these studies reported that empowered workers were more innovative and more willing to take the initiative to solve problems on their own,” said the professor. “Employees said they were more engaged in their work when empowered, that they felt like they had an influence and an impact on the business around them.”

My sense about empowerment:

Empowerment is a lot more than lip service. Give it sufficient consideration.

Employees deserve an opportunity for empowerment. But always remember it’s a privilege, not a right. Trust is important. You need employees who demonstrate initiative and performance. Recruit for such attributes.

Give your employees parameters, not a blank check to do whatever they feel like doing. Explain your expectations – paint a picture they can visualize. Show them the big picture facing the company and their department – then, explain operational costs and why their roles are important. Set reasonable goals and deadlines. Understand the difference between micro-managing and hands-on managing. Continually monitor and recognize everyone’s progress.

Don’t forget to make work fun.

Be assertive and thorough. Avoid the dangers that result when managers poorly implement empowerment initiatives. Yes, when it works, empowerment leads to profits. Remember you’re the boss and ultimately responsible for organization’s performance.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are more resource links:

21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management

Boss Checklist: 16 Strategies for a Competitive Edge

 

“I’ve always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.”
- Lee Iacocca

 

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Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional.  Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

 

Human Resources: The Future of Performance Reviews

 

Here’s an interesting dilemma: Should performance reviews be fired? That’s the title of an article published by the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School in April, 2011. It’s an informative article and its premise is thought-provoking.

Interestingly, it states 97.2 percent of American firms conduct reviews compared to 91 percent of businesses globally.

As you might expect and in my HR practice for clients, too, I’ve witnessed many workers are tormented by the very thought of performance reviews. That goes for many supervisors, too, in giving and receiving them. Some employees respond well to comments about their work. Many don’t.

In many cases, such workers have justification — especially, when the supervisor is biased, shows errors in judgment or is guilty of poor timing. Often, supervisors make up to 12 errors in evaluations. If it’s an unfair process, the resulting cost — individuals’ morale, teamwork and poor organization performance — is quite high. (Note: there are 20 tell-tale Signs – if you’re under-performing as a manager.)

The article astutely points out how some companies are successful because they prevent hostilities from occurring in annual reviews. They perform multiple reviews during the year when projects are completed instead of surprising employees at the end of a 12-month duration.

That’s also what millennials have come to expect from their upbringing – instantaneous comments about their work. The trick is to be balanced with adequate positive and negative feedback.

Red flags

So, performance appraisals can be unproductive. Bosses have a propensity to give better ratings to people they have personally hired. And there are other biases.

The article mention one disconcerting statistic from research by Sibson Consulting: Too much emphasis is placed on quantity, not quality of performance reviews. Because many managers aren’t professionally trained in the art of giving reviews, 58 percent of HR managers give their processes an average or failing grade.

This leads to a lack of trust between non exempt and supervisors. That’s why we experience debacles in oil spills, automotive recalls, and nuclear reactors.

Properly implemented performance appraisals are also tools to prevent cultural problems. (If helpful for your organization, here are six steps to implement a cultural change for profits.)

Approaches of successful companies are also cited. Sibson Consulting conducts reviews at the conclusion of projects, and semi-annually with a focus on employee talents and how to put them to best use. A Toronto-based social software company, Rypple, makes it a practice to have real-time discussions, and executives seek feedback. As you might expect, employee appreciation and recognition, and coaching are a big part of the company’s HR approach.

The article also mentions the concept of “performance previews.” That’s the art of dialogues between managers and workers before the work starts on projects.

Additionally, there are profit drivers to consider. It’s beneficial to know how and why to partner with your employees. Your human resources department can actually develop a reputation as a profit center with 15 HR strategies to improve your business performance.

360 reviews — pros and cons

It also discusses the pros and cons of 360 reviews – reviews by peers, subordinates, bosses and sometimes.

My sense: I’ve never recommended 360 systems to clients. The 360 system discourages congeniality and teamwork, and serves as a catalyst for tension from unwarranted competition.

Also, my experience suggests that performance reviews should not be fired. Companies are successful when evaluations are productively implemented.There should be informal real-time feedback. Bosses should immediately correct problems and recognize strong employee performances. I’d also suggest that bosses walk the floor twice a day – not to spy on employees but to have casual dialogues with open-ended questions to get better acquainted. Employees love it.

So, use performance reviews. Set goals about expectations of employee performance, coach your workers, and get feedback. Your organization’s performance will be maximized when you take good care of your assets – your human capital.

Finally, remember it’s a mistake to overlook succession planning. Indeed, there’s a link between financial performance and succession planning.

Here’s the Wharton article: Should Performance Reviews Be Fired?

From the Coach’s Corner, here are other resource links:

21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management

Human Resources – Profit By Not Letting Your Stars Become Free Agents

HR Management: Which Employees Are Most-Likely to Quit?

“Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on the way down.” 

-Jimmy Durante

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

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