What’s Missing in Leadership Today?

In our opinion, most leadership approaches today are based on knowing what to do and how to do it.  In our dealings with many corporations what we see missing is passion, insight, inspiration and an ability to listen. 

We all intuitively understand this.  In our own careers we all know who the great leaders are or were.  They were the ones who excited us to exceptional performance. They formed a relationship and worked with people, and didn’t act like their people worked for them.  The difference between high-performing cultures and just exceptional cultures is the quality of those relationships which formed the bond of how well people liked and trusted each other.  The leaders were inspirational.

To inspire others requires the emotional intelligence and commitment to learn how to connect with others.  Effective leadership communication is clear and deep, creates commitment rather than compliance, and for most of us, requires the learning and application of new skills.

Leadership means not listening to formulate a rebuttal but to build trust. Good leadership communication connects with the mind – it’s logical and strategic – but it also connects with the heart by being personal and meaningful.

Employee loyalty and retention are extremely important in today’s labor market and it could be like this for quite some time. In a time when employee loyalty is waning, generating loyalty can become a competitive advantage. Loyalty to a leader comes from who they are – from the motivation behind their actions. Leaders can inspire such loyalty if they first understand who they are, not just what they do.

Employee recognition is critical.  If leaders really want their employees to produce, they should try to impart a sense of meaning – not just through vision statements – but by allowing employees to feel a sense of completion and ensuring that a job well done is acknowledged.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Have We Eliminated Real Recognition?

This is a complete reprint of a blog post written by a friend of mine, Paul Hebert, the Senior Director of Solutions Architecture at Creative Group, writer, speaker and consultant. Paul is widely considered an expert on motivation, incentives, and engagement.

While it was written over five years ago, the message is just as meaningful (if not more so) today.  We hope you enjoy it.

The blogosphere is full to the brim with studies, research, tea leaves and astrology charts that say employee engagement drives business success and that recognition drives engagement.  It is the siren’s call of 2011 and beyond.  Almost every HR person I talk with has engagement in one form or another on their to-do list.  In many cases it is about finding the “platform” to run their employee rewards program.

And there is no scarcity of platforms.  The ubiquity of technology now means any plaque seller and koozie-monger can be in the business of providing peer-2-peer programs and service anniversary programs.  It’s just not that hard to find someone to run a program any more.

DISTINCTIONS WITHOUT DIFFERENCES

Sure the platforms differ.  The color of the bars differ.  Some of the reporting can be pretty darn amazing.  But at the end of the day you have an automated system that allows managers and peers to send notes, cards and wall posts highlighting what Suzy and Frank did yesterday that made a difference in some other employee’s life.

Don’t get me wrong.  This is mission critical stuff.  I believe it is REQUIRED in today’s organization to find a way to let people know they are valued and their work matters.

WHERE’S THE HUMAN?

But the questions that plague me are:

• ·        When a system removes all the friction – making it drop-dead simple to recognize someone does the recognition lose some of its value (not all of it – just some)?
• ·        When a login page of a company intranet looks like the “gold star” chart from a first-grade classroom does it simply become wallpaper without any focus?
• ·        When employees see recognition events for trivial performance do they start to think exceptional performance gets lost?
• ·        Does the platform become the focus instead of the people?

I ask these questions because I see it happen in other places when effort is reduced and the value goes right with it.  When someone can mow your lawn in 20 minutes on a riding mower they end up charging less and we think it is a commodity.  When the internet at 30,000 feet on a plane is the norm – being disconnected while in the bathroom becomes a capital offense.  They become utilities – not unusual.

I wonder if all of this focus on the technology to drive easier, more ubiquitous recognition is creating a void between “commodity recognition” and “real recognition?”

When my boss used to write a letter that went in my personnel file (that would be back in the 1900’s) I was impressed.  So was everyone else.  But is anyone impressed with 162 “Kudo’s” on your intranet wall from Jimmy in the mail room?

TRAINING IS KEY

I think about these things because even if you find the platform and don’t communicate how to do recognition right – how to make it HUMAN – you really haven’t helped your company.  Sure you’ve checked the box and you have a program.  But do you have engagement?

Do you have a sustainable system that grows with the expectations of the recipient?  Do your managers and their managers understand that making something easy may actually make it less valuable?

Train your people on recognition and its many forms – from the easy to the hard.

Train them to make it human – make it more than the platform, more than the points and more than the plaque.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Can Positive Feedback Turn into an Entitlement?

Some might say that everyone expects positive feedback these days when it comes to positive performance.  The positive feedback provided at work happens during the normal course of the day. It can become habitual and often provide with little meaning.     

It’s on the fly managing – when you see something positive, you say it. Oftentimes that positive feedback loop becomes an entitlement.  It’s expected…and it’s never given proper consideration by either you or the recipient.

As a performance manager there are a couple things to consider: 

·       Do you provide positive feedback on the fly?

·       Are you managing for improvement and challenging those that need to be challenged?

·       Do you need to make positive feedback more formal on a periodic basis?

·       If you sense that there are concerns when you push for results, do you need to take that managing to a more private place?  

·       Are you modifying your coaching plan with the personality of the target in mind?  

Positive feedback can quickly become an entitlement if you do it on the fly.  It is easier to manage and challenge people if we do a better job of getting credit for all the positive feedback that occurs.  

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Citizenship at Work

Citizenship matters; it can transform countries, states, and local communities.  It can also transform your company. 

Organizational behaviorists have been studying citizenship at work since the late 1970s. The evidence uncovered strongly suggests that when employees choose to be good citizens at work, it makes a difference in having a positive culture.

To determine if you have a culture of good citizenship at work, you might want to seek answers to what extent you think that your employees do these things?

·       Do your employees often ask “How can I help?” 

·       Are they willing to share expertise, knowledge, and information to help improve the effectiveness of others on my team?

·       Do they always try to lend a helping hand to those people on their team that need it?

·       Do they try to resolve unconstructive interpersonal conflicts with their coworkers?

·       Do they touch base with other team members before taking actions that might affect them?

In many respects, having good citizenship at work is about the same as following the principle of the golden rule…

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

When you have good citizenship at work it helps to create a sustainable competitive advantage. When aggregated over time and people, citizenship adds up and helps your organizations become more effective. Studies have shown that across a variety of indicators, organizational citizenship accounted for anywhere from 18 to 38 percent of the variance in performance outcomes.

It starts at the top.  When our leaders help us, they help themselves by encouraging a work environment where the “helping virus” can thrive.  When leadership treats us with courtesy, dignity, and respect, we feel positive at work, and good mood moves people of all personality types to be better citizens.

There’s been a lot written recently about “fairness” in companies.  Sometimes

the hardest thing to do as a citizen is to be fair to people that aren’t fair to you, care about people that don’t care about me, and help people that have thrown you under the bus.  But if you ever hope to have a truly successful company you first have to choose to be good citizens.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Study Highlights Opportunities in Employee Recognition Programs

According to a study conducted by Maritiz Motivation Solutions Employee recognition programs are effective -- but many miss out on opportunities to be even more effective.

Based on an online survey of 117 companies with more than 1,000 employees, the "Culture Next Employee Engagement and Benchmarking Study" found a majority of companies (80 percent) believe their employee recognition programs are at least "moderately effective" in driving employee engagement, and nearly a quarter (22 percent) believe their programs are "very effective."

Here are a few facts uncovered by the survey:

• Seventy-eight percent of companies have a documented employee engagement strategy

• Sixty percent of companies fund at least four to six different types of recognition programs, the most common types being service anniversary, above-and-beyond performance, and employee referral programs

• More than half of companies offer formal manager training on how to use recognition programs effectively

• Sixty percent share recognition-related communications at least monthly

Communication has always been at the heart of a successful recognition program.  Your employees want to know what’s going on, how they can earn more recognition and what the program is doing for the organization.

Those surveyed in the “very effective” category:

·       communicate about recognition daily or weekly

·       offer more program training

·       have higher budgets, devoting 0.76% more of total payroll than average companies

Most of the companies said that budget is the "greatest inhibitor to success," while those in the "very effective" category cited manager participation as well.

To make your recognition program more successful then, you need to have a strategy, a documented plan, a way to measure success and sufficient budget to motivate, frequent communications and effective manager training.

Lastly, have a technology platform or social engagement component or you are missing an enormous opportunity to connect with millennials and Gen Z, who will be the workforce majority in the next few years.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net