This past week, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal by Joe Light titled: Leadership Training Gains Urgency Amid Stronger Economy. In the article, Mr. Light discusses how many organizations have cut spending on leadership development initiatives over the past two years during the economic downturn.  Now that the economy is starting to recover, these organizations are worried they will experience the exodus of baby boomers and retirees as their investment portfolios start to recover.  Many organizations are finding they simply don’t have the leadership pipeline within the organization to fill these leadership roles as companies shift towards a growth focus.  This scenario leaves any organization vulnerable to the competition.  Add to that the severity of the economic downfall and it only compounds the challenges further.

For individuals who work in the learning and development industry, this news and information is nothing new.  For many other individuals this may be a shocking surprise.  Organizations need to spend more money to develop talent to drive the business.  Remember, half of your assets do not show up on the balance sheet – your people.  Organizations spend thousands of dollars on computers, specialized software, mobile phones, and office space.  Why not spend a few hundred dollars developing your people to maximize performance and drive bottom line results.  If you have not already done so, think plan, and act to develop your high-potential leaders.

OMG, RU GOING CRAZY = Oh My Goodness, Are You Going Crazy!

U Need Help = You Need Help
I have a small counseling practice on the side where I focus on helping teenagers navigate through life.  During the past few years, I’ve personally seen a rapid decline in many teenager’s everyday social skills.  Some of my observations include difficulties addressing conflict, smaller vocabulary, poor non-verbals communication, inability to express emotions through verbal means (outside of the Text Message Shorthand of sideways smiley or frowny faces), and an overall discomfort with spoken conversations.  I know what you’re thinking at this point – welcome to working with teenagers!  However, I truly believe that this is largely due to a decrease in experience with face-to-face communication, and solely relying on texting, emailing, and instant messaging, where the human interaction is removed.

YUPPIES = Young Urban Professionals
So, how does this affect our up and coming workforce?  While the future is looking bright and full of talented and capable young individuals, it is likely these young individuals will struggle with the basic and essential skill of relating and connecting with team members, leaders, subordinates, clients and customers, and vendors.  Some organizations may even be seeing the affects of texting and emailing in employees who are in their early twenties.

Getting the 411 Is ^ 2 U = Getting the Information is Up to You
So, what is the solution?  One immediate action we can all take is to preserve the art of face-to-face communication in our own realm.  Despite the ease of typing a quick instant message to the person in the cubicle behind you, make an effort to send and receive a more accurate and personal message by doing so face-to-face.  Take the opportunity to call that vendor and clarify exactly what your department needs, versus hoping it is understood through a series of emails.  When you are going to be late to your next meeting, send a quick text letting the administrative assistant know you won’t be on time, but then take the opportunity to apologize in person and use non-verbals to communicate your sincerity.

Another step companies can take to ensure their workforce is full of effective communicators is to increase opportunities for training and development in the area of communication.  Training on communication skills is a great opportunity for employees to practice and learn basic and advanced levels of communication.  Your employees will be more aligned when they communicate from learning the same concepts and skills taught by qualified facilitators who are trained in adult learning theories.

Help develop communication skills B4 its 2 L8!

While many educated people can discuss the economic and social impacts on countries of the movement of goods and services around the globe, I would like to address some principles of building and operating a company that spans multiple continents.

Let’s begin by getting some of our vocabulary aligned. There is a difference between being an International” company versus a “Global” company. A lot of companies have out-of-country activities that may include sales and procurement – this is an international company, even if it includes a few regional offices. A global company truly operates in various countries providing goods/services both in the native country as well as moving goods/services between countries. A fully functioning global company has a culture and perspective that transcends the locale where it is registered or where its stock is listed.

For those companies desiring to be truly global, the development of an appropriate company culture cannot be left to chance – building the desired culture is a full-time job. A global company is not just a series of regional companies strung together under common ownership. Quickly one can see the need for tailored products/services and the delivery of these to satisfy the local or regional market expectations. But here is the bigger question: How do you build a team of people who recognize the need to serve the local market and effectively operate their assigned area while also being part of the bigger team where they can exchange ideas, get inspiration, and contribute to the advancement of the entire company?

Commitment
Building an effective global culture is not inexpensive, nor is it a one-shot deal. It is a concept to which all senior leadership must commit and make a part of their daily actions. Human Resources can help with well planned global talent assessments, succession planning, and leadership skills development, including expatriate assignments. Cultural sensitivity training and facilitated mixed culture forums can start the process.

Vision
There has to be a Global Vision/Mission statement that is an anchor point for your leaders, irrespective of their home country. It must have longevity, addressing the business purpose and corporate values.

Acceptance
Perhaps the most powerful force in building a global company is the basic human trait to accept and bond with those we have come to know on a more personal basis. Audio/video conferencing is a nice tool once a relationship is established, but it is ineffective for establishing the relationship. To establish the bonds between people and break down inherent nationalistic, cultural and personal biases, people need to travel and partake in the cultures of their colleagues.

Share
Forming a global team to implement a global or regional project (contrasted to a local team doing a global project) brings the best ideas forward and builds strong bonds that benefit the company well beyond the specific project. Functional leadership forums and best-practice sharing sessions break down barriers and drive the best ideas forward. Promoting those individuals that best demonstrate the desired culture will send powerful messages throughout the organization.

Diversity
There is a large WATCH OUT. In the drive for a corporate global culture it is easy to inadvertently paint a picture that the “desired culture” is, for example, American or German or Chinese. To be most effective, a company’s global corporate culture must reflect a mix of the best qualities its participants have to offer.

One way to measure your success in building an effective global company culture is to monitor your recruitment results.  Are you able to equally attract and retain talented people from all the countries you serve?

• Blue: Relaxes people and sparks creativity. Use blue when brainstorming, but avoid it for writing or posting warnings or cautions.

• Red: Stimulates people (increases blood pressure, pulse, and respiration). Use red for cautions, warning and exclamatory tiles. When writing or printing in red, make word big because red is hard for people to see.

• Green: Both excites and pacifies people, so use it with caution. Great is great for borders and accents.

• Purple: Creates a sense of power and confidence. Unlike red, purple reduces blood pressure, pulse and respiration rates.

1. When participants ask you a question, ask another member of the group to answer it.

2. When you feel the need to reach consensus or to move the group along, call on someone to summarize.

3. Give participants enough time to think out their answer to a question before calling on someone to answer.  Then, call on others to add to what was said.

4. Don’t wait for volunteers to answer questions; call on people by name.  This will avoid having the same people answering every time.

5. When someone answers, do not say, “I don’t agree.”  Let the group make their own decisions to ask participants to “weigh-in” on what was said.

6. As leaders emerge within the group, ask these people to summarize your discussions on a flip chart.

7. Encourage participants to sit in different places at each meeting to get to know others in the group and to provide a diverse learning experience.

Adapted from: Scott B. Parry and Edward J. Robinson, Participative Techniques of Group Instruction.

]]> http://www.cmoe.com/blog/cutting-edge-skills-for-training-and-facilitation-increasing-participantion.htm/feed 0 http://www.cmoe.com/blog/qualities-of-leadership-failure-and-success.htm http://www.cmoe.com/blog/qualities-of-leadership-failure-and-success.htm#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:03:17 +0000 Mike Dixon - Regional Manager http://www.cmoe.com/blog/qualities-of-leadership-failure-and-success.htm REACHING FOR GLORY
As the Summer Olympics Games recently came to a close. I reflected back on the games. I remember that during the opening ceremonies, contingents from each represented country walked into the stadium ready to take on the worlds best. Some countries had only a small number of competitors, while others a very large number. Do you remember the vast number of athletes there were inside the stadium after they had all filed in and found their place to join in the ceremony? To me, it was like a sea of happy faces – each with his/her own dream of Olympic glory. For some, merely attending the Olympic Games and representing their country was glory enough. For others, winning a medal was their only measure of success. According to the Olympic website, a total of 958 medals were awarded during the Summer Games. As there are only three medals awarded in each event, I wondered about the vast number of athletes, among the 10,500 competing, who returned home without winning a medal.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE?
Despite the fact an athlete did not meet the goal of winning an Olympic medal, those individuals should not consider themselves as having failed. Though some may not have this perspective, I hope they experience a sense of pride for having competed and strive to do their best. Those who felt they should have won and did not, might have failed in that effort, but not to those who appreciated their performance.

As I reflect on the interviews with these athletes, it seemed like those who did win recalled their long hard journey to get to the top of their sport, while those who lost typically mentioned that they learned from the experience and as a result will have a better chance of winning in the future.

LESSONS FOR BUSINESS
Like the Olympics, people fail in business and obviously don’t see success all of the time. Rarely does one person or an organization lack competition and very often the stakes are extremely high. What differentiates a true leader or a successful organization is the response to their failures or loss. Those who fail and wallow in misery, often spend their time and energy making excuses for themselves and focusing on the negative. However, true leaders recognize that they may not always be a winner, but they can be successful by learning from failures and improving their performance for the next time. While they might not be comfortable with failure or loss, they understand that they can use it to their advantage.

Like the athletes of the Olympic Games, true leaders and successful organizations will be back to compete. They have increased confidence and chance of success by learning from past failures. They will have had the opportunity to identify areas for improvement and have a better grasp of their competition.

On one occasion, we had the pleasure of working with a great individual who was helping to clean up after some remodeling. Benny was dependable, worked very hard and focused on the projects he was assigned to. Because of his dedication, we specifically requested his assistance from the temporary labor agency we were working with to assign him to us.

Background On Benny
One morning I was asked to pickup Benny on my way into work. During our drive to the office, Benny talked about his personal life. He was barely making ends meet it life and had some health issues. If I had to guess, he was in his late 50’s but looked much older. Benny had spent most of his life working on labor intensive jobs permanently in construction. While he liked this type of work, it was not very rewarding. Too many of the individuals he had worked with throughout his life were very autocratic and dictatorial and having spent some time in this industry myself, I knew the type he was referring to.

The Job Site
Benny worked on multiple job sites for us. One day a few of us decided to jump in and help Benny load some broken concrete into a dumpster. This would help get the next phase of this particular project a jump start and give Benny some much needed help and a bit of motivation to the backbreaking work.

After the dumpster was fully loaded, we took a break from the searing heat and dust. As we were sitting in the shade, someone said to him “Benny, you have been great! You’re such a hard worker and I appreciate your effort and attention to detail. I don’t know where we would be without you this week.” After the rest of us confirmed this comment, there was a pause for a few seconds. Benny responded with a quiver in his voice, “I really try to work hard and do a good job, but no one has ever told me that. Thank you. You guys have been good to me.”

The Impact
When Benny made this comment, you could see he felt undervalued for much of his life. I thought to myself, how unfortunate it is that no one has ever told Benny he does a good job. A simple “JOB WELL DONE” can go much further than we might ever think.

The Lesson – Talent Retention
As I think back on this, I wonder how many managers and organizations lost out on Benny? The concept of providing appreciation to employees is nothing new, but if it is not being communicated or taught to leaders and managers, organizations ARE and will lose great talent. It is not uncommon to hear that employees leave their managers and not their jobs. We can change this by providing some simple appreciation and recognition.

Application
Today, celebrate a success with your team.