better management Archives • SpriggHR

Survey finds generational gap in attitudes to work/life balance

Admin — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 08:19:44 +0000

Less than half of senior executives rank work/life balance as a high priority

Less than half of senior executives rank work/life balance as a high priority, a London Business School survey has found.

Despite experts’ predictions that many of us will now live to 100 and work well into our eighties, a survey by London Business School has found that less than half (40%) of senior executives rank work/life balance as a high priority when considering their development for the next three to five years.

This is in direct contrast to the priorities of their Generation Y employees. Earlier this year London Business School revealed the results of a five-year survey of participants from its Emerging Leaders executive education programme. The survey found that Gen Y puts work/life balance at the top of the priority list leaving promotion prospects in third place behind organisational culture.

Experts suggest one explanation for the gap is that first-time general managers are most at risk of burn-out.

Richard Jolly, Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour who teaches on London Business School’s ‘Transitioning to General Management’ and ‘Leading Change’ programmes for executives, explains why the first general management role is so tough: “It’s what we call the ‘Double Crunch’. At this stage many people are starting families and first general management jobs at the same time. The demands from work and personal life have never been greater.

“Added to this, for the first time in their careers these managers can’t rely on their technical expertise. Their new 18-hour a day roles demand a different set of skills. Now their job is less about what they know, and more about how they manage and lead a team and build relationships across the organisation. It’s a demanding job. For the first time they have genuine accountability and relatively little control. And what starts as quality control, all too easily becomes exhausting micro-management.”

Jolly argues, there are two reasons for senior management to take a closer look at the way the complexities of work and personal life are handled in their companies.

“The western demographic ‘time bomb’, where a shrinking pool of talent is going to be fought over by companies, provides a real future challenge. If senior executives fail to create the sort of environment our Gen-Y talent wants to work in, they will neither attract nor retain the brightest and the best, and company performance will start to suffer. Today’s emerging leaders, especially in professional services, are looking at the life of senior partners and articulating with increasing confidence that they don’t see them as inspiring role models and that their personal lives won’t always come second to work.”

This isn’t just the effect of a bull market, Jolly explains: “What we are seeing is a genuine change in attitude of a generation determined to enjoy the journey.”

Senior executives would do well to listen to their successors Jolly adds: “While they have survived the middle management years more than 95% of senior executives I work with tell me they are ‘Hurry Sick’ – addicted to email and disillusioned with inefficient meetings. Crises after a missed promotion, redundancy or a death in the family are disturbingly common, prompting senior executives to reflect on their priorities. Realising that they have achieved everything they thought would make them happy, but finding they were unhappier than they had ever been, is at the heart of the mid-life crisis. This pattern is not what is going to inspire the next generation of employees to join and stay loyal to an organisation.”

What can companies do about it? Well-being 360˚ reviews are a good place to start and it’s why London Business School is rolling out health diagnostics and 6-month reviews with participants on its new general management programmes for business executives.

Sam Bown, head of the School’s executive education open programmes says: “Wellness is very personal. It means something different to each of us. The key to wellness is personal objectives and a couple of basic lifestyle changes – establish what works and do more of it. This could be increasing the amount you exercise, giving yourself time to recharge or making changes to your diet. Focusing on wellbeing has tremendous benefits. You will see an increase in ability to focus, energy levels and an enhanced sense of achievement.”

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The ROI of Performance Management

Admin — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 20:11:21 +0000

Case Study Finds Companies with High Performance Cultures Can Expect 3 – 5 Times Better Financial Performance

Here’s a great case study from Group50 which demonstrates the financial benefits of cascading objectives throughout an organization and implementing a performance management software.Research on the return on investment for implementing a performance management system is lacking any solid case studies. The primary study cited in literature is the one done by John Kotter of Harvard that reviewed over 200 companies and found that organizations with high performance cultures can expect 3 – 5 times better financial performance than their peers.

Recently, we put together the results of a $50M/yr privately held company in the Phoenix area. They followed a simple but well thought through methodology.

Over the last two years the company has seen these results:

Revenue: + 159%
Gross profit: + 185%
Gross profit per employee: + 370%
ROI over two years: +1,300%
Served industry growth: < 5% over last two years
Freed up capacity: > 20%

These are great results given the lack of significant growth in the industry they serve. Figure 1 shows a graphic of this performance. Note how there are clear points in which the trajectory of improvement changes over time. In the rest of this article, we will focus on the methods employed by this company to move toward a “high performance culture”, a journey they are just beginning.

In Step 1, the company developed Vision, Mission, Values, Leadership Traits and Strategic Imperatives that were concise and supportive of each other. After cascading objectives throughout the organization, every employee clearly knew the cultural objectives they were accountable for and understood how they contributed to the strategic success of the company via individual performance objectives that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, results oriented and time dependent).

In Step 2, the company implemented a continuous feedback and strategic execution tool. Irrespective of what tool a company uses, it is important that it has several key features. In this case, the company utilized a cost effective cloud based system that provides a simple but effective system for managers and their employees to have routine dialogue on performance objectives.

One of the key features in the online performance review is a dashboard to easily see who is performing well and who needs help, which was implemented in early 2011. In mid 2012, the company implemented another key feature called streaming notes. Now, employees can (using a Facebook like interface) communicate with their managers on activities that are only focused on key objectives any time. Managers utilize this feature to coach, mentor and develop their direct reports. This is an example of continuous feedback and true employee engagement.

As the company moved into Step 3, the base was already established. Employees in this company are always looking for ways to free up capacity, increase profitability and strengthen team work. One of the cultural objectives for this company is to have an ”active eating and dreaming list” where it is required that every employee look for best practices and ways to develop more cost effective processes and procedures: short term and long term. Employees routinely celebrate their contributions through the notes they put into the system and gain recognition for them. This is a simple way to reinforce winning behaviors.

Conclusion

It should be clear that the company is doing a lot of great things and that their performance management effort isn’t totally responsible for its success over the last two years. But the CEO of this company clearly believes that he wouldn’t have been able to pull these numbers off without his investment in performance management and engaging all of his employees. As he states, “This is how I run my company!”

It is incredibly refreshing to walk on the shop floor of this company and have the employees tell you what their mission is, how it impacts them and what they are doing in their job to support it. Operators can’t wait to post in their stream to their manager something they have done during the day to lower cost, increase efficiency or improve a process. This company has provided its employees with a clear view of how they contribute to a “higher purpose” and provides a system that lets them celebrate the contributions they make. It also provides an easy to use method for managers and leaders to coach and develop their employees, whether the company has fifteen employees or thousands of them.

There are few investments a company can make where they have the potential to realize a 1,300% ROI in two years. Realizing this type of ROI requires a holistic approach, a willingness to incorporate modern tools throughout the company, scrap some of the existing processes that clearly weren’t working and have a clear vision of the future state of the company. In conversation with the senior leadership team of this company, they pointed out that this effort encourages managers and employees to focus on the short and midterm activities in the company and frees them up to focus on the longer term strategies, markets, competitors and growth.

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Better Coaching: A Six Question Process

Admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 16:26:31 +0000

Its an undeniable truth that the top employees do not always make the best leaders of people. Just because someone is exceptional at their job doesn’t necessarily translate into them being the best coaches or able to get the most from their teams. We at Sprigg believe in the power of conversations. By engaging and learning from your employees in small groups and one-to-one situations you can become a better coach and team leader.

For the employers, one-on-ones gives a structure for guidance and focus which leads to higher productivity. Employees have greater satisfaction as coaching allows them to share their ideas and career plans.

Helping Managers Become Better Leaders

The Sprigg performance management software helps managers become better coaches because we employee the best practices. Marshall Goldsmith, author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There? discusses employing a six-question process for better coaching. He recommends executives conduct one-on-ones quarterly with their direct reports to focus on understanding disagreements with the company’s strategic alignment. Using the simple and fast Sprigg software, this process can be regularly applied to all levels of an organization.

So what are the six questions?

There is no perfect formula to becoming an effective coach. Indeed, it often requires flexibility, trial and error.

Nevertheless, there are some important questions you can incorporate into your performance management practices which can help offer direction and encourage collaboration.

1. Where are we going?

Employees are on the front line and often have the most current and detailed insights into your customers’ needs. Ask employees for their ideas about where the organization should be going. This is an opportunity to ensure that strategic objectives set by each member of the organization are in alignment with the corporate vision. Employees have the opportunity to come up with new ideas and share them with the executive teams.

2. Where are you going?

This question has two levels. The first one is where the specific functional teams are heading towards. What are they trying to achieve to support the company’s mission, vision, and goals?

The second level is the direct reports’ individual goals and priorities. Knowing where your employees are aiming towards can help you build your succession pipeline.

3. What is going well?

Ask your employees what they think the organization as a whole is doing well and what their teams have been doing well. Recognize their achievements and contributions to your overall goals. You may have missed out on some positive accomplishments and this is the perfect setting to learn about them.

4. What are key suggestions for improvement?

Encourage employees to provide constructive suggestions for development. You should pick the key opportunities for improvement and focus on them for the quarter. By listening to your employees’ suggestions, you can modify your own suggestions to better reflect the strategic objectives of the company.

5. How can I help?

Through taking in your employees’ needs and feedback, you can create the right support to ensure that their suggestions are being implemented effectively. You can also participate by suggesting approaches and asking whether the approach will be helpful to become more effective. Remember, they key to improvement is all about providing coaching to the right people on the right topic.

6. What suggestions do you have for me?

This important question makes the 1 on 1 a two-way dialogue. Employees are more open to the idea of being coached, when their managers are are willing to be coached by them. Managers who ask for feedback and focus on improving the key behaviours are more likely to have an increase in leadership effectiveness.

Finally, its vital to remember that, no matter what your role in the company, feedback is king! Constantly look to adapt and improve your coaching and leadership style and your company will reap the rewards!

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