Posted by Celia Couture on Thu, Aug 20, 2009 @ 09:30 AM
The recent issue of HR Magazine had an interesting article with the following title: When Women Rank High, Companies Profit. The article talked about conducting a survey of 1,500 U.S. companies to investigate the connection between female senior management and company performance. David Ross of Columbia University Business School and Christian Dezso at teh University of Maryland examined such performance based on market-to-book ratio, return on assets, retun on equity and annual sales growth from 1992 to 2006. They looked at postion up to, but not including, the CEO level but separately studeis these performance measures in companies that had female CEOs.
The research suggests promoting women to top ranks may help the bottom Line. For those of us who are currently in executive roles in companies or for those of us who own and operate our own companies, these statistics are not at all surprising. Women work hard each day to prove that they belong in executive roles. Consequently, they typically pay more attention to the details, work very hard at creating a collaborative work environment and they hire people who share the same cultural values.
Ross and Dezso refer to the "female participating effect" as being of particular strenght in companies with a strong emphasis on research and development. "The positve impact is found in firms that are invovled with innovation, where a democratic and participatory approach to management is known to be important."
If you have an opportunity to work through your business plan and ensure that the women in your organization have the oppotunity to lead major initiatives, have access to decision-makers and can demonstrate their abilities to think strategically just having a single femail is positively associate with better company performance.
Posted by Celia Couture on Tue, Aug 18, 2009 @ 09:12 AM
Recently, President Obama has faced a deluge of "angry" people who don't feel his health care initiatives fill the void. No this isn't going to be a blog about health care reform, but it is going to be a blog about communication and communication spin. If you've closely watched the news and the media, the administration and the democratic leadership have spent most of last week clarifying what's in the health-care reform bill and what isn't. The one thing that everyone can agree upon is that there is a great deal of confusion on how to interpret what is being proposed. As a result of the confusion, the President's approval ratings over the past few weeks have suddenly taken a down turn.
What I want to focus on is the importance that communication should play in the delivery of any important change. Oftentimes, leaders take for granted that their own constituents (their employees) will be able to fill-in the gaps and understand what the new idea means and how it will affect them and their customers. We need to recognize as leaders that most ideas and thoughts about strategic moves for a company are decided upon well before it it introduced to the "implementors" in companies. Leaders have already debated direction, strategy and goals and have finally settled on a plan for moving the company in a new direction.
So what goes wrong? Most often, the ingredients are missing that help employees fill in the blanks. Employees did not have the benefit of working through a strategic move. They don't have the background that led to the decision so they need to go through the same processing that the executives have undoubtedly gone threw months earlier. We sometimes forget how long it takes for the appropriate strategy to be set to kick-start a good idea. Consequently, we need to ensure that our communication plan includes time to build in questions and answers as well as the reasons for why certain decisions have been made. We need to ensure that everyone that receives the message understands the message so that they can articulate the meaning framing it in the appropriate light so that employees can wrap their arms around what and how they are going to produce what they are being asked to produce.
The spin-doctors in Washington are great at picking up on ambiguity and making that ambiguity a detriment or a positive for government. We need to make sure that we don't leave room for "spin-doctors" in our own organizations. Eliminate the ambiguity and you eliminate the rumor-mill and you eliminate the cost associated with communicating multiple times on the same subject.
Posted by Celia Couture on Fri, Aug 14, 2009 @ 01:12 PM
Persistence
"Persistence is what makes the impossible possible, the possible likely, and the likely definite." By Robert Half, personnel executive.
This is sage advice for leaders at all levels of an organization. If you are not successful at something one day, you can't let that one incident influence how you will approach the problem the next day. Being a Red Sox fan, watching the Sox drop 7 straight to the Yankees and the Tampa Bay, I have to admit was a downer. I was, however, impressed by the attitudes of the Red Sox Players. They viewed the succession of events as simply an anomaly and these things happen in baseball. They have full confidence that if they persist in playing the game the way they know how they are certainly going to come back and be in contention.
Whether they make it or not, this attitude is indicative of a strong personal and team effort. We can either throw in the towel or learn from our mistakes and keep going. It's really no different than following a rigid diet plan. Just because you have a piece of chocolate cake after losing 50 pounds, you are not sabotaging your success. You merely have to pick up the next day and continue to pursue those things that made you lose the weight in the first place.
Think about this advice the next time you are working with employees who are particularly down about their jobs. Part of our role as leaders is to ensure that we maintain a positve and persistent attitude even when times are tough.
Posted by Celia Couture on Wed, Aug 12, 2009 @ 01:03 PM
One of the most important activities you perform as a leader in your company is the role of the trainer. If an employee feels secure in the role that he is performing for you, he is more likely to succeed and contribute at a higher level. Oftentimes, we leave the training to another member of the team and although this is a good way to augment training, the employee should feel that their manager is invested in helping them to succeed. Remember also that regardless of how long an employee has been in a job, anytime you introduce something new in the way of products and services, the employee needs time to LEARN how best to position the product or service, how to answer questions and most importantly how best to feel comfortable fielding questions. Please keep the following in mind to ensure that you meet your most vital task as a manager:
- Be Patient and Be Available: Employees require time and energy when learning a new product or service or when they are new to a job. Give them the time to feel comfortable. Repeat instructions if necessary, cater to how the employee learns. Some would rather read a book of documentation, some would prefer hands-on training and other need a bit of both. Whatever the style, the manager must ensure they are willing to devote energy to the learning.
- Have a Plan: One of the most frustrating parts of learning from someone who is disorganized is that the facts become jumbled and the learner gets confused. As a leader, you owe it to your employee to be organized and to have an agenda or an outline of what needs to be taught and in what order. If you are training an employee on a particularly difficult tasks with many steps make sure you break down the steps in to bite size pieces so that the employee feels comfortable swallowing the information.
- Teach By Doing: Many employees are also visual learners. It really helps to watch someone performing a task in order to pick up the nuances, ask questions while they are in the process of performing the task and then letting the employee take notes. Make sure you give the employee ample time to practice, while you are watching them. In doing so, you are there to help them avoid errors or small steps you might have forgotten a long the way.
Whether we are adept at training in small groups or large groups, our employees expect us to be their guideposts for successful transitions in their work world. Part of your on-boarding process needs to include a training plan for both new employees and seasoned employees especially if you are introducing new activities, products or services.
Posted by Celia Couture on Thu, Aug 06, 2009 @ 10:46 AM
I found the following e-newsletter written by Kim Dustman in a weekly publication I receive entitled HR Weekly Alert. I thought I would share it with my readers as I believe our biggest challenge coming out of this recession will be retaining our really good employees. How do we keep them challenged, passionate and rewarded so that they are ready to blast out once the recession is over.
By Kim Dustman
In difficult economic times, it's not the average performer who considers leaving your company - it's your star employees who are thinking about hitting the road.
So in this time of cost control, how do you retain top employees without running up a huge budget?
Though the choices companies are forced to make during a recession can frustrate all involved, here are some tips to keep top employees happy and at your company:
- Focus on their career development needs - A retention strategy that includes a strong career development focus can help you keep high potential employees at your company. By giving them challenging projects as well as training and development opportunities, your stars are less likely to seek other employment.
- Stress corporate ethics and values - High performers want to believe their company stands for something distinctive and special. Though cutting costs might be necessary in the short run, top workers want to be certain that management is focused on long term goals and values.
- Involve them in decisions - Transparency is key. Top employees want to know they've made a difference, so companies should consider allowing them to have input in important decisions. Sharing as much information as possible with these achievers will make them feel trusted and valued.
- Don't ignore compensation concerns - Though everyone understands what difficult times mean, high potential employees still want to know their interests are important to the company. When it comes to incentives, companies may have to get creative by offering employees a number of options, such as deferred rewards or accelerated advancement opportunities. And remember - it's important to maintain an open dialogue throughout the entire process.
Posted by Celia Couture on Tue, Aug 04, 2009 @ 10:32 AM
While I admit I am a Disney fan, I find that they do live by a certain code and set of values that seems to permeate through everything they do. I like the fact that I am referred to as a guest. It makes me feel special, but more importantly it set a certain decorum for how I will be treated by "cast members" in interactions. A few year ago, I took a class with the Disney Institute and we spend a great deal of time understanding Disney's values as a company. We also talked about how they handle "customer service" issues. Their philosophy is fairly simple and straightforward. Service Recovery means it must be "immediate, local and sincere." The definitions for service recovery are equally simple. Immediate means when a guest approaches you with a problem, question or a concern you take immediate action. You may not have the answer, but you ensure that you follow it through and not make the issue someone else's problem. Local means regardless of where the problem exists whether it is with guest check in or a custodial issue, the person maintains the problem and its ultimate solution with YOU. There is no opportunity to transfer the problem to someone else or some other department. Sincere is probably the most important it means that you truly put yourself in the shoes of your guest, empathize with their situation and take action to ensure that the customer feels appreciated. Oftentimes, this is demonstrated in small ways, dessert on the house, a free drink, rainchecks on rides--whatever the cast member can do to make you feel special is ultimately the goal.
I know there are some skeptics out there and Disney is certainly not perfect. I do know that when they "violate" these principles I typically let them know about it. I write a letter both praising and criticising if members of the Disney company don't behave in a way that supports their values or their Service Recovery formula.
I challenge business owners to think about service recovery and what it might mean for you and your company. What would you do differently if your employees adopted Disney's practice? In these difficult economic times, this practice might be a differentiator for you especially as it relates to the competition.