Building Support Through An Internal Network – Part 3

For the last couple of weeks, I have been writing about the importance and value of building bonds and developing an internal network within your organization. We’ve talked about how your success as a manager and leader goes well beyond the simplicity of producing results. And we’ve talked about some of the reasons why building an internal network can help you become successful.

The question becomes, how and where do you start building your internal network? It’s just not possible to build strong bonds with everyone, at least not all at once.

I like to think about building bonds in terms of concentric circles, with you and your organization at the center. If you start from the center and build out, you have the best chance of making strong alliances with the people who can help you the most immediately. In addition, these alliances will help you build future alliances as well.

The first step is to determine exactly who your customers are, especially those internal customers that you must satisfy. Depending on where you are in the organization, your internal customers might be the sales organization, an order processing unit, a technical support organization, the operations unit, or even the accounting and finance department. Just like your company has a need to satisfy their external customers to ensure growth, you must have a similar desire to satisfy your internal customers to ensure your ongoing success. Once you have identified who your internal customers are, you must clearly identify exactly what they need and want from you to ensure their success. It’s not enough to rely on satisfying your goals and objectives, assuming that this will also satisfy your internal customers. Instead, take the time to understand THEIR goals and objectives, the role you play in helping them achieve those objectives, and what you can do to make their job easier. Make customer service your passion and you will be on the road to building strong internal bonds.

Once you’ve identified your internal customers, focus on your interface departments; those groups that may consider you their internal customer. Just as you worked hard to identify the goals and objectives of your internal customers, you should be equally zealous in sharing your goals and objectives with your interface organizations. Chances are, their departmental goals were built without proper input from you and your team, so while they may be well intentioned, they may well be off the mark. Build bonds with these interface organizations by helping them understand how you can help each other. Understand what they do and why they do it and how it blends with what you do.

Once you have these key interfaces secure, you can begin to build your alliances strategically. Understand how your company works, where the new ideas come from, and how change is affected in the organization. Make your contacts in person and personal. Do more than understand the departments. You must understand the people as well. Remember, the business may be the reason for building the bonds, but it’s the people who you must ultimately bond with.

Build strong bonds with the people in your organization so that you always have someone to turn to, and you will find it much easier to be successful at every level.

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/

Building Support Through An Internal Network – Part 2

Last week I wrote about how it’s not enough for a new leader to get results in their organization, but that it’s also important to build an internal network. Some people view the concept of an internal network as “office politics” or “sucking up to the man” in an organization. But I believe the importance of an internal network has very little to do with office politics and everything to do with building allegiances that will help you prepare for an ever changing organization.

Numerous studies show that 80 – 90% of your success in life is not the result of how smart you are, but about how well you relate to others around you. We’ve all known brilliant people who no one listens to because they present themselves so poorly. Likewise, we’ve known people who were moderately intelligent, but thrived because of their ability to connect with people, the right people. Making connections and building bonds in an organization is about understanding others and being understood.

In the studies surrounding Emotional Intelligence, experts like Dr. Robert Cooper and Dr. Laura Belsten refer to “Building Bonds” as a key competency under Relationship Management. In simple terms, an emotionally intelligent individual understands the importance of building relationships and routinely seeks out relationships that are mutually beneficial. They understand that it’s not enough to be smart if no one will listen to a thing that you say. And they understand that the key to persuasion lies not in facts and logic, but in the emotional connection with others. According to Dr. Belsten, people who exhibit this competency “can pick up the phone and call anyone in the organization, and know who to call to get answers or to slash through red tape or other obstacles.”

Building bonds inside and outside of your organization pays off in a number of ways. When you have a good, but possibly unpopular, idea and need the buy in and support of your peers and superiors, those bonds will help gain you the support you need. When the business changes and you need help aligning your team, your support network will help you understand and process how those changes will impact you and will prepare you for the new environment. And when mistakes are made, as they invariably are, you can look for support and guidance from those with whom you have built strong relationships.

Contrast this with the “smart loner” who focuses only on themselves and their own team; the person who has not bothered to build the bonds required because they know that they can “get results.” When this same person faces the challenges of building support for an unpopular idea, they will often be left on their own. When the business changes and they need information and support, none is forthcoming. And when mistakes are made, others may actually take some level of solace in their sudden problems.

Clearly the idea of building bonds is an idea that every leader needs to accept. But the question becomes, where do you begin? Who should you begin to build bonds with?

We’ll talk more about that in next week’s edition.

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/

Building Support Through An Internal Network

Like many young managers (and some not so young managers as well), I was very focused on getting results from my team. I made sure that our goals and objectives were clear and measurable, I identified the talented people on my team who could get the results that we needed, and I worked to smooth out the processes that might hinder my team from fully succeeding.

Yes, I was the classic example of a “Results Oriented Manager” who had his eyes on the prize and had the strength and determination to ensure that everything went according to plan. Month after month, my managers and I would discuss our results, looking for new and creative ways to increase our productivity, eliminate errors, and make the best use of our people. I would gather my key performers into a room and get their thoughts and insights into what was going well and what wasn’t. I would encourage their thoughts and ideas, unleashing their creativity for finding new ways to improve our performance.

In monthly review meetings with my boss, I could proudly point to my team’s results, every productivity chart trending upwards, and provide insights into what we were seeing, and what we expected to see in coming months. There was no question I could not answer, nor challenge I was not willing to take on.

I’ll bet I’m describing some of you as well.

The challenge with this type of singular focus is not that the results aren’t there; because they clearly are. Instead, the challenge is that, by focusing so narrowly on results, I missed the opportunity to build bridges with my internal customers and partners. Fundamentally, I lived inside of a vacuum where the only thing that mattered was my team’s ability to produce the results that we were charged with producing. And, as long as my results were strong, the fact that I had not built the necessary bridges was not very important. But, in every business there are cycles. The pendulum swings from one extreme to the other. And, while I was good at noticing the business swings, often before they actually happened, I wasn’t always good at detecting the human swings that take place in organizations. And those human swings are much more dangerous than the business swings.

I’ve written a number of times that being a successful manager means understanding that it is no longer about how good you are, but about how good your team is. And the same logic applies at a different level as you begin to emerge as a leader. It seems your success is no longer just about how well your team performs, but how well they perform in conjunction with those teams around them. In other words, it’s not just important that your team produces results, but it’s important that you are aligning yourself properly in the organization as well.

What are the benefits of that alignment and of building support through an internal network?

The benefits are substantial. And I’ll write more about that in the entry next week.

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/

Red Light/Green Light Hiring – Part 2

Last week I wrote about a fairly common practice among many companies that I call “Red light/Green light” hiring. Fundamentally, this is a process initiated by well intentioned, but unrealistic, executives to control hiring and headcount. This process involves turning off the spigot of hiring completely and then, when the need arises, opening that spigot back up on a short term, temporary basis.

Executives who promote this type of hiring believe that it controls headcount and rewards those managers who are willing to make quick hiring decisions. “If it takes you a month to fill one open position then that position was clearly not very important to you,” lectured one smug executive. “If it is important, you will get it done quickly.”

On the one hand, there is logic in the concept of applying full focus to something as important as filling open headcount. On the other hand, this is not really about filling open headcount but about bringing people and talent into your organization; talent that results in new ideas, improved performance, and long term savings and profitability.

Here in lies the problem.

There is no decision that a manager or leader makes that is more important than the decision of who to put on the team. A good choice gets up to speed quickly, blends in well with the team while supplementing their knowledge and expertise, and contributes ideas as well as sweat into the organization. A bad choice doesn’t just fail to contribute. A bad choice wastes time, disrupts the flow of activity, causes dissension in the organization, and costs you more time and money than having no one in the position at all. A bad choice costs you money and actually reduces the productivity of the rest of the team instead of enhancing it. In many ways, a bad employee is worse than no employee at all.

These are things that executives often overlook when, by looking at the numbers and hearing some grumbling from their teams, decide to turn on the hiring spigot for a few weeks to “relieve the pressure” of being short headcount. They look at the number of employees, the amount of headcount reduction in certain areas, measure the salary impact, and agree to some short term relief. Executives are paid to be strategic thinkers, balancing long term views with short term goals. By reducing the decision to hire new people to a simple discussion of headcount and dollars, they totally overlook the concept of putting the right people on the bus and in the right seats. This means that they are totally missing the strategic aspects of their most important assets (their people) in an attempt to control short term costs.

The solution for “Red light/Green light” hiring is really not that complicated. And here are a couple of options:

1. Good companies are always on the lookout for talent. Don’t let a hiring freeze stop you from identifying talented people.

2. Create a simple “Yellow light” where managers have the opportunity to interview people without making offers.

3. Take a long term view of your organization and reduce headcount without imposing a hiring freeze. If managers believe that removing dead weight from their organization will actually cost them headcount they will often keep bad employees on the team, just to keep their numbers up.

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/

Red Light/Green Light Hiring Produces No Winners

In many companies, headcount is hard to obtain, difficult to keep, and often impossible to fill with quality people. Many companies are experiencing hiring freezes where “open headcount” is lost and often never recovered and essential tasks go undone; or more likely half done, giving the illusion of progress where none really exists. While first line managers are scrambling to keep their heads above water and are doing the absolute minimum in many areas, top level executives are patting themselves on the back as their efforts at “cost reduction” (i.e. layoffs) are producing the desired results.

While it is true that having less people in the organization reduces costs, it can also reduce effectiveness in both the short and long term. This is not to imply in any way that some organizations have never been over-staffed. Obviously some fat or excess headcount can be cut from an organization’s budget without significant impact, but there comes a point when you are no longer cutting fat and you are cutting muscle and bone. This means that key tasks and projects are no longer being completed or worse, they are completed without the appropriate research and oversight giving the impression that the boat is floating when it is actually taking on water, lots of water.

First line managers have learned that complaining doesn’t work so they “suck it up”, juggle priorities, and allow any work that des not require immediate attention to be put on long term or permanent hold. Knowing that things are not getting done or not getting done correctly adds significantly to their stress level because they know that sooner or later their lack of focus on these future projects will come back to haunt them. So they continue on, hoping that the economy shifts and that they will be allowed to hire new staff before the impact of these future projects are felt. Often this leads to something that I call “Red light/Green light” hiring.

Red light/Green light hiring is a process used by many companies where, when the light is “red,” no hiring of any kind is permitted. No ads are posted, no resume’s reviewed, no consideration is given to the need for new employees because hiring has been “frozen.” This condition often lasts several months with no clear end date in sight. Open personnel requisitions are often forfeited and may or may not be returned. When the light is “red,” hiring is not only restricted, but so is interviewing. After all, what good is interviewing if no jobs are open.

The real problem with “Red light/Green light” hiring is what happens when the light turns green. The green light often happens without any advance notice, with no real clarity as to where the open requisitions are coming from, and results in a flurry of unfocused activity as managers attempt to fill requisitions they didn’t know they had. Green light hiring is often short in duration with an unspecified, but clearly short, window for hiring.

You can only imagine what happens when a manager is suddenly told that the light is green and they now have 2 open personnel requisitions that must be filled quickly. They know that the light will soon be red again, so they pull out all of the stops to bring new people on board.

Often, this has some very bad and long reaching consequences. But we will talk more about that next week.

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/