“I feel like I’m running some kind of private tutoring company here. But I really don’t have any choice,” she said. “I hire someone, train them, and then as soon as they get productive, they leave and go somewhere else. It’s really a problem, but I don’t see any way around it.”
Needless to say, this client was not really running a private tutoring company, but she was running a small company that worked with a lot of big utility companies. And it seems that experience in working with utility companies is a pretty hot commodity in the marketplace. So the client would hire someone to get the work done, train them on how to do the work and deal with the utilities effectively, and the next thing she knew, they would be out the door to a competitor or to another company that had similar issues and challenges.
Her real challenge was that she was a small company that couldn’t afford to pay very much, and she really didn’t want to grow the company into something bigger that could afford to pay more. She liked being small with a handful of employees, but the turnover was making her life miserable. At times, she felt like her biggest contribution to society was in training people to go work somewhere else.
“I’d love to be able to invest in my employees, to watch them grow and learn new things. Maybe we could even get more efficient and improve our processes. But every time I get a good employee who excels at this job, they get a better offer from somewhere else and I’m back out there hiring again."
We talked at great length about the type of people she tended to hire (entry level) and the type of training and documentation that the new employees were given. In truth, she had created a very efficient system for training new people with clear instructions, screen shots from the websites they needed to work with, and even decision trees to help them maneuver through the chaos utility companies often create. It was all very impressive.
“Why do you think they leave?” was my question.
“Oh, they don’t just leave,” was her response. “They get hired away. I’m being targeted by these other companies who steal my employees.”
As a small company, she was not doing formal exit reviews when people left. All she knew for sure was where they were going. And they weren’t just going to one or two companies. There were a half dozen or so big companies that her ex-employees routinely ended up working for.
A little research unveiled the real reason behind her constant turnover. And no, she wasn’t being targeted by these big companies. Rather, she was being targeted by her employees. As a small company, she couldn’t afford to pay her people very much, but the skills she was teaching them were very valuable on the open market. And discussions about “who went where” after working for her were quite common and open in the office. Without realizing it, she had actually created a culture of “Learn and Leave,” where new employees quickly realized that the best thing this job had to offer them was a ticket to a better paying job. As soon as new employees realized the opportunities that were in front of them, they worked hard to soak up as much information as possible and then applied at their target companies for increased pay and benefits.
What’s the answer for this poor business owner?
The reality is that even slowing down the office gossip about the great jobs available outside of her company wasn’t going to eliminate her turnover problem. Eventually, she was going to face one of two choices – either grow her company to the point that she could compete salary-wise with these other companies or face the constant turnover that her “training organization” was creating.
After much thought, she decided to embrace the “Learn and Leave” culture that she had inadvertently created. She felt better knowing that she wasn’t being targeted by these companies and actually used the concept of future prospects as a way to hire even more talented employees.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Who's In Charge Here? (continued.....)
In my last couple of posts, I’ve talked about how the person at the top of the organizational chart is not always the leader. Being a leader is really about influencing those around you and influence does not come automatically with a title. At first, this was a bit of a shock to me as I was convinced that since I had been given the promotion and the title, I really was the leader. But then I realized that to recognize the leader I really needed to determine who held the influence in the group.
What does influence look like in an organization?
In simple terms, when the person of influence speaks, others listen. Perhaps it shows up in a time of crisis when the entire team looks to one individual for guidance or inspiration. It can also show up in the creative process and in problem solving. There is generally someone who is the “first among equals” and who everyone wants to include in the discussion. In any event, the person with influence is fairly easy to spot. Of course, you do want to be careful to distinguish technical expertise from leadership influence, but that difference is not too difficult to spot when working with a team.
Most people overlook the fact that leadership is really bestowed on someone not by the management team, but by the team members. You’ve no doubt seen situations where someone was designated as the leader or manager only to be ignored by the rank and file. In reality, the team members are the ones who decide who they are going to follow. If it happens to be the appointed manager, that’s great. But if they don’t deem that person worthy of leading them, they won’t follow. My guess is that if you look back at your own career you can readily think of times when you ignored “the boss” and took your direction from someone else. This is a classic case of the leader and “the boss” not being the same person.
So the person who influences the team is really the leader and the one who is actually in charge. They may not have “signature authority” or the responsibility for writing performance reviews, but they are the unquestioned leader because of the way the team listens to them. They may gain their influence in a couple of different ways. Some people have influence based almost entirely on how long they have been around or because of their technical skills. Others gain influence through threats and intimidation, striking fear into the thoughts of those who dare to oppose them. The third and most powerful group gains influence because of their thoughts and ideas. I say that these are the most powerful because they are the leaders that people willingly following.
As you develop yourself as a leader, think in terms of influence. Do your thoughts and ideas make an impact on the team? Do they listen and like what you have to say? Does the team willingly follow your direction? Do people look to you for guidance and support?
If not, it’s time to give serious thought to what you can do to gain their trust, encourage them to come to you for guidance, and teach them to follow your lead in good times and bad. Remember, when you set yourself up as a person of influence within an organization, you are setting yourself up for a long-term role as their true leader.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
What does influence look like in an organization?
In simple terms, when the person of influence speaks, others listen. Perhaps it shows up in a time of crisis when the entire team looks to one individual for guidance or inspiration. It can also show up in the creative process and in problem solving. There is generally someone who is the “first among equals” and who everyone wants to include in the discussion. In any event, the person with influence is fairly easy to spot. Of course, you do want to be careful to distinguish technical expertise from leadership influence, but that difference is not too difficult to spot when working with a team.
Most people overlook the fact that leadership is really bestowed on someone not by the management team, but by the team members. You’ve no doubt seen situations where someone was designated as the leader or manager only to be ignored by the rank and file. In reality, the team members are the ones who decide who they are going to follow. If it happens to be the appointed manager, that’s great. But if they don’t deem that person worthy of leading them, they won’t follow. My guess is that if you look back at your own career you can readily think of times when you ignored “the boss” and took your direction from someone else. This is a classic case of the leader and “the boss” not being the same person.
So the person who influences the team is really the leader and the one who is actually in charge. They may not have “signature authority” or the responsibility for writing performance reviews, but they are the unquestioned leader because of the way the team listens to them. They may gain their influence in a couple of different ways. Some people have influence based almost entirely on how long they have been around or because of their technical skills. Others gain influence through threats and intimidation, striking fear into the thoughts of those who dare to oppose them. The third and most powerful group gains influence because of their thoughts and ideas. I say that these are the most powerful because they are the leaders that people willingly following.
As you develop yourself as a leader, think in terms of influence. Do your thoughts and ideas make an impact on the team? Do they listen and like what you have to say? Does the team willingly follow your direction? Do people look to you for guidance and support?
If not, it’s time to give serious thought to what you can do to gain their trust, encourage them to come to you for guidance, and teach them to follow your lead in good times and bad. Remember, when you set yourself up as a person of influence within an organization, you are setting yourself up for a long-term role as their true leader.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Who's In Charge Here? (continued.....)
In my last entry, I talked about the first time I discovered that the guy with the title (in this case, me) was not always the real leader. It was kind of shocking to discover this since I thought my title brought leadership with it automatically. I mean, I was on the Organizational Chart, at the top, with a fancy title. Of course I was the leader.
In reality, organizational charts, titles, and salaries have little to do with being a leader. At its simplest level, leadership is about one thing – having followers. John Maxwell likes to say, “If you think you are leading and no one is following, you’re just out taking a walk.”
As it turns out, that’s what I was doing. I was taking a walk, and no one was following me. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to follow me, they did. They liked what I had to say. They thought my ideas were inspirational and that my vision for the department was both worthy and achievable. But they lived in the real world and, in this case, the real world was controlled by the computer operator, not the guy in the office.
It took me a few weeks to realize that they weren’t following me and a little longer to figure out who they actually were following. After that, I was able to determine the source of the computer operator’s influence (intimidation) and eliminate that influence. Once I did that, the team willingly followed me and together we achieved tremendous success. But the real lesson here was that title and authority did not equate to a position as leader; influence did. From that point forward, I began to look around to see who was really in charge in a variety of different scenarios. Whether I was at work, at home, or even in public, I began to notice that the people with the most influence, the people that we were actually following, were often not the same people as those who were supposedly in charge.
As my career progressed, I found that I was increasingly called upon to turn around troubled departments or organizations. Even though I worked for a variety of different people over the years, all seemed to readily acknowledge my ability to sort through process and people issues and turn organizations around. In many ways, I found myself specializing my career not based on my technical skills but on my ability to understand what was important to an organization, to plot a clear course to achieve the right goals, and to put the right people and processes in place to move forward quickly. In short, my job was to assume leadership in a poorly run organization and turn that organization in the right direction.
But, if I was going to assume the leadership role in an organization, I needed to understand what leader I was replacing. And that was often not the person who had the job before me, or the person at the top of the organizational chart. Instead, it was often another employee or manager in the organization.
But who?
That is the ultimate question. And I’ll talk more about how I learned to identify the “real leaders” in the organization in my next entry. Until then, I encourage you to review some of our past blog entries and explore some of our offerings at ECI Learning.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
In reality, organizational charts, titles, and salaries have little to do with being a leader. At its simplest level, leadership is about one thing – having followers. John Maxwell likes to say, “If you think you are leading and no one is following, you’re just out taking a walk.”
As it turns out, that’s what I was doing. I was taking a walk, and no one was following me. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to follow me, they did. They liked what I had to say. They thought my ideas were inspirational and that my vision for the department was both worthy and achievable. But they lived in the real world and, in this case, the real world was controlled by the computer operator, not the guy in the office.
It took me a few weeks to realize that they weren’t following me and a little longer to figure out who they actually were following. After that, I was able to determine the source of the computer operator’s influence (intimidation) and eliminate that influence. Once I did that, the team willingly followed me and together we achieved tremendous success. But the real lesson here was that title and authority did not equate to a position as leader; influence did. From that point forward, I began to look around to see who was really in charge in a variety of different scenarios. Whether I was at work, at home, or even in public, I began to notice that the people with the most influence, the people that we were actually following, were often not the same people as those who were supposedly in charge.
As my career progressed, I found that I was increasingly called upon to turn around troubled departments or organizations. Even though I worked for a variety of different people over the years, all seemed to readily acknowledge my ability to sort through process and people issues and turn organizations around. In many ways, I found myself specializing my career not based on my technical skills but on my ability to understand what was important to an organization, to plot a clear course to achieve the right goals, and to put the right people and processes in place to move forward quickly. In short, my job was to assume leadership in a poorly run organization and turn that organization in the right direction.
But, if I was going to assume the leadership role in an organization, I needed to understand what leader I was replacing. And that was often not the person who had the job before me, or the person at the top of the organizational chart. Instead, it was often another employee or manager in the organization.
But who?
That is the ultimate question. And I’ll talk more about how I learned to identify the “real leaders” in the organization in my next entry. Until then, I encourage you to review some of our past blog entries and explore some of our offerings at ECI Learning.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Who’s in Charge Here?
As a coach, I get paid to ask people questions. I don’t have to have all of the answers. But I do need to be able to identify the most important questions to ask, including the questions that the client may be avoiding answering themselves. This aspect of my job gives me a unique perspective on questions as I am always listening for good questions from others. And, I figured out long ago that the best questions are not the most complicated questions or the one’s that seem to show deep, thoughtful knowledge on a topic. The best questions are often the simplest questions.
I was recently talking about leadership with a friend and he asked me about the most important aspect of leadership. Now, that’s not really a great question for a couple of reasons. First, it’s hard to narrow down THE most important aspect. And, what I think is important may not match what someone else thinks is important for a variety of good reasons. Second, so many aspects of leadership are intertwined that trying to break them out individually and rank them in order of importance leads to circular thinking. After all, what good is being a great communicator (a must for a leader) if you have nothing worth communicating? What good is your ability to build trust and relationships if you really don’t maximize the strengths of others on your team.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
After a few minutes, my friend reworded the question. “Was there a time in your life when you believed that you were failing as a leader?”
That question made me pause and think. Certainly I had my share of leadership challenges along the way; times where I hit stumbling blocks that slowed my progress, but failure?
In 1984, I took over the MIS department for Garfinkels Department stores in Washington, DC. Garfinkels was a very high-end retailer where only the elite shopped. I was hired because of the challenges they were facing in both system development and the Computer Operations Department. And, while my passions lay in fixing and updating their systems, the more immediate problems were with Computer Operations. So I tackled those problems first; diving in from day one to identify bottlenecks, work through the processes, and move my team down the path to success.
Except for one thing.
I was alone.
No one was following me. Oh sure, I had a team of 15 people. But the truth was that they weren’t listening to me. They pretended to. They did what I told them to, sort of. But that was just on the surface. They were doing just enough to show progress and nothing more. I was a captain without a crew, a shepherd without sheep, a leader without followers. In short, I really wasn’t a leader at all because no one was following me.
It took me a few weeks of thought and insights before I realized the source of the problem. It seems that while I was the guy with the title, I was not the guy with the influence. And leadership means influence. While I had the title, there was actually a computer operator about 3 levels down the management chain that held influence over the entire organization. And she was not about to let some yuppie, college educated, suit-wearing weenie tell her or her people what to do. So, while I tried to lead the team in one direction, she silently led them in another.
This was actually a scenario that played itself out over and over again later in my career. Discovering that the person with the title was not necessarily the person with the power was a bit of a shock for me.
I’ll talk more about identifying who really has the power in the organization and how to get it back in next week’s blog.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
I was recently talking about leadership with a friend and he asked me about the most important aspect of leadership. Now, that’s not really a great question for a couple of reasons. First, it’s hard to narrow down THE most important aspect. And, what I think is important may not match what someone else thinks is important for a variety of good reasons. Second, so many aspects of leadership are intertwined that trying to break them out individually and rank them in order of importance leads to circular thinking. After all, what good is being a great communicator (a must for a leader) if you have nothing worth communicating? What good is your ability to build trust and relationships if you really don’t maximize the strengths of others on your team.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
After a few minutes, my friend reworded the question. “Was there a time in your life when you believed that you were failing as a leader?”
That question made me pause and think. Certainly I had my share of leadership challenges along the way; times where I hit stumbling blocks that slowed my progress, but failure?
In 1984, I took over the MIS department for Garfinkels Department stores in Washington, DC. Garfinkels was a very high-end retailer where only the elite shopped. I was hired because of the challenges they were facing in both system development and the Computer Operations Department. And, while my passions lay in fixing and updating their systems, the more immediate problems were with Computer Operations. So I tackled those problems first; diving in from day one to identify bottlenecks, work through the processes, and move my team down the path to success.
Except for one thing.
I was alone.
No one was following me. Oh sure, I had a team of 15 people. But the truth was that they weren’t listening to me. They pretended to. They did what I told them to, sort of. But that was just on the surface. They were doing just enough to show progress and nothing more. I was a captain without a crew, a shepherd without sheep, a leader without followers. In short, I really wasn’t a leader at all because no one was following me.
It took me a few weeks of thought and insights before I realized the source of the problem. It seems that while I was the guy with the title, I was not the guy with the influence. And leadership means influence. While I had the title, there was actually a computer operator about 3 levels down the management chain that held influence over the entire organization. And she was not about to let some yuppie, college educated, suit-wearing weenie tell her or her people what to do. So, while I tried to lead the team in one direction, she silently led them in another.
This was actually a scenario that played itself out over and over again later in my career. Discovering that the person with the title was not necessarily the person with the power was a bit of a shock for me.
I’ll talk more about identifying who really has the power in the organization and how to get it back in next week’s blog.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
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