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/
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
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/
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
What Good is a Vision if it is a Secret?
I recently spent some time with the new Executive Director of a small organization. He was talking about his vision for the organization and was very excited about the possibilities for growth and momentum. His enthusiasm was palpable and he literally gushed about the possibilities. On one level, I was very excited for him. But on another level, I was struggling. You see, while I understood every word he said, I really had no idea what he was talking about. Try as I might, I could not grasp this great vision that he had, and I had no clear idea of where he thought his organization currently was or where he wanted them to go. I felt like I was trying to put together one of those 2000 piece jigsaw puzzles that are so popular now. You know, the ones that are circular in appearance so you can’t easily build the frame and have no picture on the box so you can’t tell what you are trying to create.
It gave me a headache.
But I was pretty sure that this was just me. Clearly, I didn’t have enough background to tie it all together. All I needed to do was ask the right questions to fill in the blanks for me, and it would all come together.
Or so I thought.
I began to talk with his staff about the new future of the organization and about their level of buy-in to the changes. As it turns out, about 2/3 of the leadership team was in exactly the same spot that I was. They had no idea what he was talking about, didn’t share his enthusiasm, and were frustrated to the point of giving up.
The other 1/3 of the leadership team seemed to share his enthusiasm and talked in glowing terms about the new direction. I was on to something; I knew it. I just needed to nail down the details and I would be as enthused as they were.
But the details were elusive. And it wasn’t just the details that were elusive, so were the concrete goals, common statements around the new end result, and even the facts that were supposed to be driving the new vision. But I was still sure that this was my problem and that I just wasn’t getting something here.
Finally, I called the 4 members of the leadership team who “got it” into a room so that I could sort this out. After about 20 minutes with them I realized what had really happened. These 4 members had bought into the enthusiasm of the new Executive Director but they really had no idea what his plan was. Not only did these people not understand the details of the new vision, they didn’t understand the big picture either. All they understood was how excited the Executive director was and they wanted to be a part of anything that generated this much enthusiasm.
As we talked, it became clear that they all believed the new Executive Director did indeed have a vision of a bright new future; a new direction with massive possibilities for the organization. But they didn’t yet know what this elusive vision was. They all had some ideas based on conversations they’d had with the ED, but none of their ideas were really in synch. In short, they were excited about a plan they didn’t understand.
I returned to the ED and began the long, painful discussion about the need for clarity and communication of his vision. “It’s not enough to have a great vision,” I told him, “if no one else knows what it is.” As you might guess, this was not a short conversation. He was convinced that he had clearly enunciated his vision to his leadership team and that they clearly knew the direction that he was taking the organization. It was only after he called them all into a room and asked them to repeat the vision back to him that he realized the fallacy in his thinking.
Having a vision is a great thing. But as a leader, you need to go out of your way to communicate and re-communicate that vision to ensure that your team understands it and buys into it.
Does your entire team really understand your vision for the future? Have you taken the time to find out exactly what they understand?
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, September 22, 2010
What Is More Important – Email or Employees?
I was just sitting here reading about another leader who claims that, in her organization, they really care about their employees and treat them as their biggest asset.
It made me wonder: “Why do we check email every hour or so, review our budget monthly, check our sales goals daily, review our departmental goals every quarter, but only sit down with our employees to review their performance once per year?”
If you want to know what someone THINKS is important, ask them. If you want to know what they BELIEVE is important, watch their actions.
People espouse the concept of employees being important because they are told that it’s true. They know that to be a good manager, they need to provide feedback to their employees on a regular basis. And they know that developing their team members is critical to their own success. So, when you ask them the question, they will readily tell you how important their employees are to them.
But their actions don’t match their words.
I recently worked with a client who had lost a key member of his team, sort of. I say “sort of” because, while the person was publicly acknowledged as a key member of the team, privately the client expressed doubts about this team member’s performance. In talking with the client, he expressed concerns over the quality of the work being performed, the dedication of the individual, and his ability to meet the goals laid out for him.
“Does Bob know you feel this way about his performance?” I asked.
“I’ve given him plenty of feedback,” was the reply.
Of course, when I checked in with Bob, I got a very different story.
“I haven’t had a Performance Appraisal in 3 years,” was Bob’s quick reply. “I have no idea how I’m really doing, since John doesn’t talk with me,” he said, “but I must be doing pretty well since I haven’t heard otherwise.”
Without going into details, let’s just say that there was plenty of fault on both sides. Bob was right in that he had not had a formal Performance Appraisal in 3 years. There had been a couple of informal discussions about performance that generally happened on the spur of the moment when Bob happened to be in John’s office when John had a concern. In those sessions, John had pointed out specific issues that needed to be addressed in Bob’s current work. And, it had been “assumed” that Bob understood that this was a much bigger issue.
“I really don’t like confrontation,” was John’s comment to me. “I mean, I’m not afraid of it, but I don’t like it either. So I don’t do it a lot, but when I give feedback I know I’m being clear.”
What is clear…is that whatever John’s message was to Bob, he wasn’t receiving it. I often say, “It’s not what I say that is important, it’s what you hear.” In this case, Bob wasn’t hearing the feedback at all.
Let’s return to the original question. Why do we check email every hour or so, review our budget monthly, check our sales goals daily, review our departmental goals every quarter, but only sit down with our employees to review their performance once per year?
Because providing feedback means talking to another human being and saying things that might not always be easy. Instead of dealing with what might actually be a minor issue, we hide behind impromptu meetings, negative feedback disguised as praise (and therefore confused by the recipient), and annual performance reviews that are generally too little feedback too late.
Consider this – if I knew that what I was doing wasn’t pleasing you, I would change it. But I can’t change behavior that I don’t know is wrong. Try talking with your employees as often as you check your quarterly goals, or even more often. And don’t rely on messages that you THINK are getting through. Ask the employee what message they received from your feedback. It is a great way to tell if your message is really getting through.
Your employees are certainly more important than your email. Perhaps it’s time you began to treat them that way.
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/
It made me wonder: “Why do we check email every hour or so, review our budget monthly, check our sales goals daily, review our departmental goals every quarter, but only sit down with our employees to review their performance once per year?”
If you want to know what someone THINKS is important, ask them. If you want to know what they BELIEVE is important, watch their actions.
People espouse the concept of employees being important because they are told that it’s true. They know that to be a good manager, they need to provide feedback to their employees on a regular basis. And they know that developing their team members is critical to their own success. So, when you ask them the question, they will readily tell you how important their employees are to them.
But their actions don’t match their words.
I recently worked with a client who had lost a key member of his team, sort of. I say “sort of” because, while the person was publicly acknowledged as a key member of the team, privately the client expressed doubts about this team member’s performance. In talking with the client, he expressed concerns over the quality of the work being performed, the dedication of the individual, and his ability to meet the goals laid out for him.
“Does Bob know you feel this way about his performance?” I asked.
“I’ve given him plenty of feedback,” was the reply.
Of course, when I checked in with Bob, I got a very different story.
“I haven’t had a Performance Appraisal in 3 years,” was Bob’s quick reply. “I have no idea how I’m really doing, since John doesn’t talk with me,” he said, “but I must be doing pretty well since I haven’t heard otherwise.”
Without going into details, let’s just say that there was plenty of fault on both sides. Bob was right in that he had not had a formal Performance Appraisal in 3 years. There had been a couple of informal discussions about performance that generally happened on the spur of the moment when Bob happened to be in John’s office when John had a concern. In those sessions, John had pointed out specific issues that needed to be addressed in Bob’s current work. And, it had been “assumed” that Bob understood that this was a much bigger issue.
“I really don’t like confrontation,” was John’s comment to me. “I mean, I’m not afraid of it, but I don’t like it either. So I don’t do it a lot, but when I give feedback I know I’m being clear.”
What is clear…is that whatever John’s message was to Bob, he wasn’t receiving it. I often say, “It’s not what I say that is important, it’s what you hear.” In this case, Bob wasn’t hearing the feedback at all.
Let’s return to the original question. Why do we check email every hour or so, review our budget monthly, check our sales goals daily, review our departmental goals every quarter, but only sit down with our employees to review their performance once per year?
Because providing feedback means talking to another human being and saying things that might not always be easy. Instead of dealing with what might actually be a minor issue, we hide behind impromptu meetings, negative feedback disguised as praise (and therefore confused by the recipient), and annual performance reviews that are generally too little feedback too late.
Consider this – if I knew that what I was doing wasn’t pleasing you, I would change it. But I can’t change behavior that I don’t know is wrong. Try talking with your employees as often as you check your quarterly goals, or even more often. And don’t rely on messages that you THINK are getting through. Ask the employee what message they received from your feedback. It is a great way to tell if your message is really getting through.
Your employees are certainly more important than your email. Perhaps it’s time you began to treat them that way.
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, September 15, 2010
A Culture of Criticism – Part 3
Over the last two weeks, we have been recounting the story of a company that unwittingly underwent a culture shift, moving from a culture that respected and engaged their employees to one that was built around blame and criticism. Eventually the change in culture overwhelmed the company, shifting it from a growing company to one that was struggling for survival. Luckily the CEO recognized that something was wrong and set out to discover the source of the problem and how to get it back on track.
The source of the culture change was traced back to the influence of the newly hired CFO and his deeply ingrained belief in “accountability.” The challenge was that he believed that “accountability” and “blame” were basically the same things. And, while he constantly talked about being “accountable for our actions,” the actual result was a constant focus on blame and criticism within the organization. Employees became afraid to act for fear of being criticized and blamed if something went wrong. The company became paralyzed, all creativity was sapped from the organization, and all of the employees who had made the company great had since left for other organizations.
Now it was time to rebuild the organization and return to the culture that had made it so great in the first place. The CEO knew exactly where to start. “First,” she said, “I need to replace my CFO again. He was the source of this culture change and a tiger doesn’t change its stripes. I’ll replace him with someone who values people and will get us going in the right direction again.”
True to her word, she set off in search of a new CFO. This time her interviews included questions about values and culture, helping her identify someone who shared her same core values. Her new CFO believed strongly in empowering people and encouraged risk taking. When problems occurred, she reviewed the results to identify the problems but used the experiences as a way to learn, rather than trying to blame individuals for their failings.
Unfortunately, this was not enough to turn the business around since the new CFO was now a minority in this thought process, surrounded by people who were used to operating in the “blame” mode. Many of the organization’s employees were not aware of the prior culture and viewed the new CFO with a jaundiced eye. The culture of criticism was now firmly entrenched in the organization, and a single new hire was not going to create the kind of shift necessary to suddenly make the existing employees develop a greater level of trust in their management.
Culture change in an organization is a slow process. It took about a year for the culture to move from one of openness to one of criticism. And, it took even longer to rebuild the original culture. The entire management staff had to be retrained to focus on the employees and to learn to trust the CEO and the rest of the executive team. There is nothing easier to lose or tougher to gain than trust. The management staff could not even begin to rebuild trust with their own teams until they had learned to trust the executives.
There are several lessons that can be learned from this company. First, culture is critical to the long-term success of any organization. Second, you need to pay attention to your culture so that it doesn’t morph into something that you don’t want. Third, rebuilding trust in an organization takes much longer than destroying it.
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/
The source of the culture change was traced back to the influence of the newly hired CFO and his deeply ingrained belief in “accountability.” The challenge was that he believed that “accountability” and “blame” were basically the same things. And, while he constantly talked about being “accountable for our actions,” the actual result was a constant focus on blame and criticism within the organization. Employees became afraid to act for fear of being criticized and blamed if something went wrong. The company became paralyzed, all creativity was sapped from the organization, and all of the employees who had made the company great had since left for other organizations.
Now it was time to rebuild the organization and return to the culture that had made it so great in the first place. The CEO knew exactly where to start. “First,” she said, “I need to replace my CFO again. He was the source of this culture change and a tiger doesn’t change its stripes. I’ll replace him with someone who values people and will get us going in the right direction again.”
True to her word, she set off in search of a new CFO. This time her interviews included questions about values and culture, helping her identify someone who shared her same core values. Her new CFO believed strongly in empowering people and encouraged risk taking. When problems occurred, she reviewed the results to identify the problems but used the experiences as a way to learn, rather than trying to blame individuals for their failings.
Unfortunately, this was not enough to turn the business around since the new CFO was now a minority in this thought process, surrounded by people who were used to operating in the “blame” mode. Many of the organization’s employees were not aware of the prior culture and viewed the new CFO with a jaundiced eye. The culture of criticism was now firmly entrenched in the organization, and a single new hire was not going to create the kind of shift necessary to suddenly make the existing employees develop a greater level of trust in their management.
Culture change in an organization is a slow process. It took about a year for the culture to move from one of openness to one of criticism. And, it took even longer to rebuild the original culture. The entire management staff had to be retrained to focus on the employees and to learn to trust the CEO and the rest of the executive team. There is nothing easier to lose or tougher to gain than trust. The management staff could not even begin to rebuild trust with their own teams until they had learned to trust the executives.
There are several lessons that can be learned from this company. First, culture is critical to the long-term success of any organization. Second, you need to pay attention to your culture so that it doesn’t morph into something that you don’t want. Third, rebuilding trust in an organization takes much longer than destroying it.
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, September 8, 2010
A Culture of Criticism – Part 2
In last week’s article, I told the story of a company that prided itself on being a great place to work; where employees felt valued and where the employees were encouraged to learn and grow on the job. Only something had changed. Profits were down, turnover was on the rise, and the CEO was becoming aware of a problem in the organization.
How did a really great company, one with a high level of employee engagement and a hotbed of creativity, turn into a company where employees merely put in their time each day, where criticism was the normal mode of communication, and where the employees actively avoided talking to their managers?
A few years earlier, the CEO had begun an active program to “upgrade her leadership team” and had started by hiring a new CFO from outside of the organization. He had all the skills required for the job and seemed like a good match. He quickly became a leader in the organization; not just because of his title, but because of the influence he had on all kinds of decisions being made. People knew that he had the ear of the CEO and was part of the future of the organization. When Bob spoke, people listened.
With the downturn in the economy, Bob had made “necessary” cuts to the training and development budget, just to help get through the downturn. He had convinced HR that they needed to be more concerned about legal issues and less about that “touchy feely stuff,” turning them from a “human development” organization into a legal compliance organization. And he had insisted upon accountability from all departments, which sounds good until you realize that to him “accountability” and “blame” were interchangeable.
The transformation did not happen immediately but over a period of close to a year. Of course, some of the more perceptive employees recognized the changes as soon as they began to happen and quickly, and quietly, left the organization. When these employees left, they not only took their talents and skills but also their leadership abilities, positive attitudes, and historical knowledge.
In other words, when these people left they took the foundation of the company with them. The best employees are always the first to recognize when things have changed and these employees always have options to go elsewhere.
If we pause for a moment, we might ask this simple question….
If these really were the best employees, why did they give up so easily? Why didn’t they fight to keep the organization in tact? Why didn’t they go to the CEO and let her know what was happening to her organization?
The short answer is that they did. They worked for a great company and they knew it. They did not want to let it go without a fight, but when they approached the CEO about their concerns, they were countered by the new CFO who had her ear and downplayed the loss of a few, easily replaceable staff members.
Where do we go from here? How does a once great organization reinvent itself again, regain the trust of their employees, and instill a sense of employee engagement?
We will discuss that in our 3rd installment on this issue 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, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
How did a really great company, one with a high level of employee engagement and a hotbed of creativity, turn into a company where employees merely put in their time each day, where criticism was the normal mode of communication, and where the employees actively avoided talking to their managers?
A few years earlier, the CEO had begun an active program to “upgrade her leadership team” and had started by hiring a new CFO from outside of the organization. He had all the skills required for the job and seemed like a good match. He quickly became a leader in the organization; not just because of his title, but because of the influence he had on all kinds of decisions being made. People knew that he had the ear of the CEO and was part of the future of the organization. When Bob spoke, people listened.
With the downturn in the economy, Bob had made “necessary” cuts to the training and development budget, just to help get through the downturn. He had convinced HR that they needed to be more concerned about legal issues and less about that “touchy feely stuff,” turning them from a “human development” organization into a legal compliance organization. And he had insisted upon accountability from all departments, which sounds good until you realize that to him “accountability” and “blame” were interchangeable.
The transformation did not happen immediately but over a period of close to a year. Of course, some of the more perceptive employees recognized the changes as soon as they began to happen and quickly, and quietly, left the organization. When these employees left, they not only took their talents and skills but also their leadership abilities, positive attitudes, and historical knowledge.
In other words, when these people left they took the foundation of the company with them. The best employees are always the first to recognize when things have changed and these employees always have options to go elsewhere.
If we pause for a moment, we might ask this simple question….
If these really were the best employees, why did they give up so easily? Why didn’t they fight to keep the organization in tact? Why didn’t they go to the CEO and let her know what was happening to her organization?
The short answer is that they did. They worked for a great company and they knew it. They did not want to let it go without a fight, but when they approached the CEO about their concerns, they were countered by the new CFO who had her ear and downplayed the loss of a few, easily replaceable staff members.
Where do we go from here? How does a once great organization reinvent itself again, regain the trust of their employees, and instill a sense of employee engagement?
We will discuss that in our 3rd installment on this issue 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, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
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