Archive for the 'Leadership' Category
Leadership Insight
“ We need everyone in this room to believe in the mission of the company and if they don’t, theres nothing wrong but you shouldn’t be here.”
Howard Schultz, CEO Starbuck - address to staff on January 07 2008
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New Leadership/Management agenda set by Irish research
340,000 Irish workers moved jobs in 2007, a Small Firms Association report has shown. This represents a voluntary turnover rate of 17%.
Thus having an effective strategy in place to retain employees is now a strategic imperative considering the mobility of the marketplace, and the high costs of recruitment - a strategy that needs to be more far reaching than just raising employees salaries. The latter will not be refused, but it only buys you time, not productivity or commitment.
Exit polls undertaken by the SFA give an insight into the profile of the new employee:
- 102,000 were unhappy with people.
- 85,000 felt contribution was not recognised.
- 68,000 because of lack of advancement.
- 47,600 because of salary.
- 17,000 were bored with their job.
- 20,400 for other reasons.
Honouring these results, Leaders must work on the following challenges:
Creating a community within the workplace - as mentioned on earlier entries research has shown that an employee is much more productive if he is working with friends.
Empowering employees to make a difference - as is the case in many forward thinking organisations allow employees time to pursue voluntary activities.
Creating a compelling vision that reflects their employees dreams, hopes and interests.
Developing their people - as technologies converge, they are fast becoming your only chance of a competitive advantage. Training and development should be enshrined in the company culture, not just an optional extra offered sporadically. Part of this development should include feedback where the employees performance is constructively reviewed on a regular basis. Progress should be recognised and a structure should be put in place to help employees overcome any challenges eg working with mentor, training, whatever.
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Leadership and Fun
Leadership Questions?
When was the last time you had fun?
The New Leader first and foremost is a person - a real person with real emotions. Like every human being, their ultimate goal in life is to be happy. Seizing the moment and injecting fun and creativity in the workplace are core strategies of the New Leader.
When was the last time you laughed at yourself? Do you take yourself too seriously?
The New Leader shows a humility and honesty that removes the obstacles between himself and the team. The ability to highlight and acknowledge your errors is also a great way to build rapport with both internal and external customers.
Real people are energetically attracted to real people - so get real this weekend and have fun!
BTW feeling stressed …….try out this exercise over the weekend. Take out your watch and laugh stupidly at it for thirty seconds or more if you so desire. As the mind doesn’t know the difference between real and imagined laughter, it processes it as the former, and releases the pleasure chemical endorphins into your system - yes the feel good drug. Your stress levels drop. A fantastic exercise if you are struck in traffic….if you are worried about the people in the other cars watching you, maybe, just maybe you are taking yourself too seriously!!
New Leadership Language:
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
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Leadership Insanity
I had the honour of attending an Eckhart Tolle seminar at the weekend.
At it, Eckhart spoke of the the importance of not underestimating the insanity of this world, but added that levels of sanity are on the up!
Of course, Leader insanity can manifest in many ways:
Delegation Challenge?
Failing to delegate a task to someone who would be better equipped to execute the task.
Recruitment Policy?
Recruiting someone that isn’t as talented as one of the other interviewees but more importantly isn’t as challenging either.
Customer Service Excellence?
Paying lip service to the concept of empowerment - for example how many customer service people still haven’t got the authority to solve complaints on the spot?
Leadership Amnesia?
Forgot to include the employees dreams and goals into the company strategy at some level.
The list is endless - how insane are you?
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Leadership Truths?
Tom Cruise: “We want the truth. We deserve the truth”
Jack Nicholson: “You want the truth? You can’t take the truth!”
–A Few Good Men
Do you as a Leader/ Manager/Team member want to hear the truth?
According to a Rutgers and
Is that the truth?
In one study conducted by Bain and OC, eighty per cent of executives believed they were doing a great job serving the customer - only eight per cent of customers agreed!
Are you avoiding the truth?
Without doubt only the truth will set you and your organisation free.
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