Ethics, DRUGS and Morality: How they affect Communication, Productivity and Everyday Life- Part II

Drugs in their many varied forms (alcohol, hard drugs, amphetamines and even tobacco) have a myriad of effects on our employees and companies. As mentioned in Part I of this series, 31% admit using drugs or alcohol, and these are for people who admit it. The percentage is most likely much higher.

At a business conference several years ago, a breakout session about the 12 Steps of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) was held. Originally, I had envisioned this to be how to use the process in other ways within a company. No, it was about actual AA, and it was attended by those who either had been on drugs of some form, or had direct family members who were on drugs. The statistic presented there was 40%. This was a major revelation at the time, because I had never seen this statistic before and it impacted me as to the ramifications that this holds for, CEOs, senior managers and C-Suite professionals and HR departments, which should be staggering if viewed from the proper perspective.

We always are wondering why our people may not be as engaged as we would like, or why our communication messages held with auditoriums of employees, or even chats at the water cooler, seem not to be as impactful as we would expect, and like them to be.

Possibly this statistic and topic may be part of the reason. Of course, some of the problem can be our delivery of the topics or making them relevant to those we are speaking to and/or with. However, if we take this drug statistic and also look at other distractions at work, such as illnesses of parents, children, relatives or even the general health of our employees, not to mention the medication being taken by employees at work, can we begin to see why people may not be as engaged as we like, or as productive as we expect? Might this figure of distracted, low engaged people be as high as 70%?

How much are the various drug forms affecting organizations and corporations? Significantly more than we probably care to know, if we acknowledge this statistic and the implications on productivity! Everything from absences, distractions, worry, stress, and general illness, impacts corporate sustainability, profitability and productivity. Government regulations in many countries now required companies to provide benefits for medical care, in various forms, for existing employees, including mental and support-group coverage for “illnesses.”

So this affects a company financially, from the FIRST day a new employee joins the company!

How do we address this issue from corporate communications, to employee manuals and benefits, and even more importantly assessing this in the pre-hire phase, before even bringing a person into our organization? Is this being done in your company? Is it being regularly communicated into the organization? Is it being reinforced with Mandatory Training Programs?

What do we discuss during the onboarding process? What procedures do we have in place to monitor compliance to existing drug policies and excessive absences? Are these in place within your company? If not why not? Can you afford NOT to address this issue on a regular basis?

"Gamification" - Mixing Work and Play?

A recent article in the WSJ talks about introducing "gamification" into the workplace. This could be interesting and effective, but like anything in the corporate world, it needs to be applied properly and uniformly. Otherwise, it can be misused and communicate the wrong message into the company, create friction internally, or deliver the wrong result(s).

In the early years of KPA/KRA's many times the metrics used resulted in a counter-productive results. It is suspected that they are still being misapplied.

So it is suggested that care be used in this possibly interesting process. On the surface, this technique should help to gain "engagement", and build stronger and more cohesive Teams. It might be used more with Front Line and entry level positions. It doubtful if this will significantly affect long-term motivation and retention. Training in it's proper use and establishment of standards might be needed.

It's beginning to seem that people need to be constantly entertained to be engaged, both in our education systems and now at work. While it may be that this is the case, what happens to those companies and people who can't marshal the skills and techniques? It is doubtful that everyone will want "gamification" applied to everything in their lives.

This technique can possibly lead to "burnout", as many sports professionals, in particular, find out. Being on too high a "charge," for too long, may not be life healthy. There is a need for work/life balance. A time to refresh/recharge and have some "downtime."

In order to speed the reader's time, the article is pasted below for your review with a link at the end. It is up to the reader, CEO or senior manager, HR department and company, whether to pilot or employ this method or not.

Latest Game Theory: Mixing Work and Play

By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN

Companies are trying to bring more play to the workday.
Striving to make everyday business tasks more engaging, a growing number of firms, including International Business Machines Corp. and consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., are incorporating elements of videogames into the workplace.
They're deploying reward and competitive tactics commonly found in the gaming world to make tasks such as management training, data entry and brainstorming seem less like work. Employees receive points or badges for completing jobs or meeting time limits for assignments, for example. Companies also may use leaderboards, which let players view one another's scores, to encourage friendly competition and motivate performance, experts say.
This "gamification" of the workplace, or "enterprise gamification" in tech-industry parlance, is a fast-growing business. Companies have used digital games for a number of years to help market products to consumers and build brand loyalty. What's emerging is using games to motivate their own employees.

All Work and All Play

Examples of videogames in workplace management.

View Slideshow

Global consulting firm Deloitte employs digital games for its Deloitte Leadership Academy

Tech-industry research firm Gartner estimates that by 2014, some 70% of large companies will use the techniques for at least one business process. Market researcher M2 Research estimates revenue from gamification software, consulting and marketing will reach $938 million by 2014 from less than $100 million this year.
Some companies build their own games in-house. Others rely on outside firms such as San Jose, Calif.-based Bunchball Inc. and Menlo Park, Calif.-based Badgeville Inc. to "gamify" various business processes including employee training.
Business software company SAP AG employs a variety of games, including one modeled after a golf game that assigns sales leads and environmental challenges that award points for tasks like carpooling, says Mario Herger, senior innovation strategist, at SAP in Palo Alto, Calif.
SAP even turned its gamification efforts into a game, holding a series of "Gamification Cups" to generate ideas for turning various business processes into games. One recent winner turned the traditionally boring process of invoicing into a competition.
IBM uses a variety of game-like strategies throughout much of the company including video games in which users can help make a virtual city more efficient or simulate various business scenarios, says Chuck Hamilton, IBM's virtual learning leader.
With some 400,000 employees, roughly 40% of whom work from home or on the road, gaming is a way to help colleagues connect and stay engaged, explains Mr. Hamilton.
And global consulting firm Deloitte employs digital games for its Deloitte Leadership Academy, an executive education program it uses to train clients and its own consultants.
Users receive virtual badges after completing training courses and "unlock" more complex training courses when basic levels are completed, says Frank Farrall, a partner with Deloitte in Melbourne, Australia, where its gamification initiative began last year. He says that the tools are still too new to gauge their effectiveness, but that they seem to be catching on among consultants.
"The reason why gamification is so hot is that most people's jobs are really freaking boring," says Gabe Zichermann, organizer of the "Gamification Summit" conference held last month in New York.
So far, the tactic has proved effective. A study last year by Traci Sitzmann, an assistant professor of management at the University of Colorado Denver Business School found that employees trained on video games learned more factual information, attained a higher skill level and retained information longer than workers who learned in less interactive environments.
LiveOps Inc., which runs virtual call centers, uses gaming to help improve the performance of its 20,000 call agents—independent contractors located all over the U.S. Starting last year, the company began awarding agents with virtual badges and points for tasks such as keeping calls brief and closing sales. Leaderboards allow the agents to compare their achievements to others.
Since the gamification system was implemented, some agents have reduced call time by 15%, and sales have improved by between 8% and 12% among certain sales agents, says Sanjay Mathur, vice president of product management at LiveOps, Santa Clara, Calif.
Still, gaming experts say there are some pitfalls for companies when implementing games internally. Companies need to make sure that the games are designed to actually reward desired behaviors and are not just doling out meaningless awards or badges.
Firms also need to make sure that friendly competition doesn't get out of hand, fostering animosity among employees, says Byron Reeves, a professor of communication at Stanford University and a co-founder of Seriosity Inc., a firm that helps companies develop gaming strategies.
"Adding gamification to the workplace drives performance but it doesn't make up for bad management. If you are a bad manager, gamification won't help you," says Kris Duggan, chief executive of game-maker Badgeville.

Latest Game Theory: Mixing Work and Play - WSJ Oct. 10, 2011 

Sales Characteristics for Success that are innate?

A recent article by Dr. Croner, indicates that most high performance sales people possess the following 3 innate personality traits which only about 20% of Sales people have. They are:

Need for Achievement
Competitiveness
Optimism

Personally, from experience, most people possess these, so it is doubtful that they are innate!

In an earlier blog article that was written based on Harvard Research, it was identified that "Challengers" created the most effective sales people, and these techniques can be learned. Obviously, some people may be more comfortable with these techniques than others, but if a person is committed, they can "flex" into the needs of the position, and over time they become engrained in the individual and drives success.

Existing Sales People in your organization present the greatest challenge because you have already employed them and the question then remains how do you, or can you, elevate them to be more effective? But the advantage is you have more information about them based around Thinking, and Behavioral traits and Interests, than you may have for people you may be looking to recruit or hire.

For an existing sales force, can you identify what generates a passion or a significant need which can drive the Need for Achievement within a person? It may take some effort, but from experience, most of the time it can be found. Then the objective is tapping into this internal "need" that this person has and structuring a compensation/benefit plan around this (these) needs.

Competitiveness can be created on some level. However, it is critical that this is created in a supportive manner and environment. Humans naturally are competitive, just look at the world problems which seem to revolved around the need to be heard or recognized.

Optimism, can also be addressed or taught. There are many methods which can be employed to change how a person views change and challenges, from meditation to structured courses.

So the objective is with existing Sales people, how to motivate the engage them to the point of wanting to grow and become more effective and professional. It may take effort, coaching/mentoring and involves some training costs, but it can be achieved. It favorably impacts company morale.

For Pre-Hire/Recruiting, there are effective assessments/tests and interview techniques to evaluate candidates by helping to minimize hiring the wrong people initially.  Obviously, the benchmarks need to be created around your Top Performers. Once these are set-up, then an in-depth interview(s) can help enormously in identifying people who should be successful.

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) can help in the process by "self-selecting" out people that will not have a good "job fit" based around initial knockout questions, and then around benchmarks/performance models. These ATS systems also need to be used to help identify effective marketing programs in attracting the best candidates not only initially, but those who will remain with your company(retention). These ATS systems can greatly save time and effort for your recruiting staff and generally can be easily cost justified around ROI's. This "tracking" information is critical for future hiring programs to attract the best talent.

The more tools and methodologies you use, the greater your success can be. Hire around "job fit" and you gain the slight edge in being a successful and sustainable organization!

Charisma can be Taught and Learned

In an earlier posting concerning a presentation I gave at the HR Training Congress in August, entitled:


Linking People, Strategy and Performance to Engagement and Training: "Revolutionary Research from Global Corporations"

Profiles International (PI) identified in new research in January 2011, and published in a book found on Amazon.com, entitled "Leadership Charisma", that Charisma, and Leadership Charisma in particular, is behavior based. Thus it is learn-able, can be coached, developed, and it can be trained. This is also supported and discussed by a recent article by Jessica Stillman entitled: "Charm 101: Charisma can be Taught". (The article can be found below).


PI's research was based on over 40,000 Managers and 400,000 employees world-wide, and it seems that more people and companies are becoming convinced of this fact, which before had only been debated without hard facts and research.

Why is Charisma important? Because Charismatic Leaders have been documented in numerous studies in the past, to have companies and teams that deliver even higher profitability and even more extraordinary products, than those with just good Leadership. This is accomplished through heightened "engagement".

Therefore, there is a cost benefit to hiring, or even more so now, developing and/or training managers to not only be good Leaders, but to become Charismatic Leaders. The ROI will easily justify training costs to develop Leadership Charisma in Managers!

So what are you and your HR team waiting for? Isn't it best to start now in developing even more effective Leaders especially grooming potential CEOs and Senior Executives? The choice is yours, but it is no longer a point to debate, but only a point to implement.

Charm 101: Charisma Can Be Taught

By Jessica Stillman

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(MoneyWatch)  With the death of Steve Jobs, the media's attention has turned to his legacy as a business leader and his ability to inspire teams to create extraordinary products. The man, in short, may have been prickly but he was also extremely charismatic.

Where does that ability to spellbind others to your cause come from? His biographer plumbed Jobs' past for answers, but recently psychologists took a more hands-on approach to the origins of charisma, testing whether this elusive and valuable quality can be explicitly taught.

Turns out, the answer appears to be yes. Researchers out of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland decided to see if charisma boot camp would be effective, conducting 360-degree evaluations of 34 managers and then sending them to a three-month charisma training course where they learned what the researchers dubbed CLTs or charismatic leader tactics. These include verbal techniques such as:

• Framing through metaphor
• Stories and anecdotes
• Demonstrating moral conviction
• Sharing the sentiments of the collective
• Setting high expectations
• Communicating confidence
• Using rhetorical devices such as contrasts, lists, and rhetorical questions

Body language, facial expression and using an animated tone of voice were also covered. The results, recently published in The Academy of Management Learning and Education, show that these charisma classes worked. "Managers who underwent training saw their charisma ratings significantly grow, relative to those who didn't," according to reports in BPS Occupational Digest.

To double check the results, the researchers also asked 41 MBA students to give the same speech before and after undergoing charisma training. After learning to master their CLTs, the MBA candidates were rated more trustworthy, competent, influential, and moving when they gave their speech.

There are caveats for potential student of charisma. The researchers warn that a significant time commitment is need to improve charisma -- remember their course lasted three months, not a matter of hours. And it's also likely that when a student starts actively attempting to become more charismatic, their performance may get worse before it gets better as their attempts to appear charismatic often come off as stilted and stereotypical at first, leading to more laughs than loyalty.

Still, for the charisma challenged, the research shows that more traits that we think of as inborn are actually teachable. That's good news for those who need to be more charismatic to advance in their careers and perhaps also a call to action for others who have given up on gaining leadership skills because they thought they simply lacked the knack.

Managing Relationships in Business and Personal Lives

Managing Relationships are essential both in Business and in our personal lives. The number one lesson is taking responsibility for our actions and not finding fault or placing blame with others. After all, we can only control ourselves and our lives. Expectations of others, especially if they are unrealistic, can only lead to disappointments and at times, to anger and frustration, which is extremely unhealthy and unproductive.

External factors may strongly affect our goals and objectives; however, it is only from within that we can manage ourselves as to how we react, and what we can do to affect our own change.  The challenge for us as individuals and as companies is to continue to meet performance metrics in spite of the onslaught of daily demands and global changes. We need to try and anticipate challenges that arise, while also identifying new courses of action to overcome shortfalls or changes that affect our desired outcome(s). 

As the saying goes: Insanity is continuing to do what you have been doing over and over when it hasn’t worked, and expecting a different outcome!

Remaining on course or synthesizing more dynamic tracks are options that we constantly must appraise. An airplane is only exactly on course something like 10% of the time, but it still reaches the airport through constant course changes. The same needs to be done within an organization.

When we commit to work at a company, we have assumed the necessity to manage ourselves within the relationship(s) and work parameters that we have inserted ourselves into (the environment), and with the people present in that company. The same is required of us in our personal lives.

When we have made a commitment to the company (it is like a promise), we need to do everything that we can to meet or exceed those commitments. Not meeting them, leads to a loss in trust, and trust is major generator of engagement.

As issues arise, we need to identify how we can solve this “opportunity” for change and improvement. Focus on the problem, not on the person or people. Finding ways to prevent or improve on the process leads to a more harmonious workplace which can significantly help in gaining increased engagement and job satisfaction, which in turn leads to increased productivity and profitability.

Whether we are CEOs, Senior Managers or Rank and File, the basics are the same. Managing your personal life in the same manner can possibly, significantly, improve the relationship(s).

Take responsibility for your actions and work on improved communication, shirking them, sets you up for problems and even worse, failure. So, have you owned up to your corporate and personal responsibilities? Only you will know. You will have to be truly honest with yourself, before relationships can be authentic and growth oriented!

Sales Talent Management or Beating the Odds for Even greater Sales Success - Oct. 28, 2011

A Learning Session was held on "Sales Talent Management" or "Beating the Odds for Even greater Sales Success" on Oct. 28, 2011.

In yesterday’s learning session, I addressed keys to success for Sales Organizations, and for that matter in any portion within a company.

Overall, Benchmarks help identify "job fit." Harvard had followed 320,000 sales people over a 20 year period and determined that it wasn't education or skills that determined success, but "Job Fit"(Thinking Style[IQ], Behavioral Traits [EQ] and Interests).

Therefore the keys identified in the presentation were:

1)      Benchmark (also called Performance Model or Job Pattern) around top performers, while identifying poor performer’s competencies that are different. This allows you to identify the essential competencies for that position that drive success. These benchmarks need to be position specific, not industry specific. (Do you think your company is exactly the same as another company, even if you are in the same industry with very similar products? The other company(s) are as different as people are. Human DNA is 99.9% the same, it is the 0. 1% that creates the diversity we see each day with the people with whom we interact.)

a.       Ideally you need to use assessments or methodologies that can quickly allow re-benchmarking if new “Top performers” come into the picture and/or as the market needs change.

b.      Have a way to identify Training Needs Analysis (TNA) for those competencies falling outside the benchmarks, in order to help to develop programs for Career Development for individuals and groups.

2)     Use these benchmarks to help screen, interview and validate around these separator competencies in order to identify stronger performers during the recruiting/pre-hire process. The sooner you can bring in new talent around top performer benchmarks, the sooner your organization begins to upgrade. Creating this slight edge, that grows over time, increases sustainability and profitability. It also, most likely, will reduce training costs and speed integration time.

3)      Use these benchmarks for existing positions, in developing career development programs and training needs for their career development plan.

4)      Also, use these benchmarks to identify individuals for succession management plans, coupled with managerial and performance review results. Ideally Performance Reviews are 360 based, and online, to allow complete confidentiality and candidness by those rating the ratee/Manager. Also online, speeds  results, eliminating assembling and analysis time. Most importantly, it helps to maintain objectivity in reviews, and eliminate subjectivity, which increases trust and engagement.

Once these processes are in place, or simultaneously, identify the three ties of Sales Performers in your organization.

Why three Tiers?
 

Because, it has been well established in multiple studies, that in any Sales Organization there are the Top performers, Middling/Average performers and Poor performers. How much are the latter two tiers costing you?

It follows the 80/20 rule, 20% of your sales force is delivering 80% of your sales. (Of course the same also applies to your client mix, 20% of your clients are delivering 80% of your sales and profitability.)

Calculate (via a utility analysis) how much more can be gained if you can develop an Average performer into a Top performer, or a bottom performer to even a middling/average performer. The results can be amazing. If interested, feel free to ask how this can be done.

The slight Edge: In many sports, it is a split second of difference that separates a winner from being second or third. A few years back, there were documentaries on the steps athletes take for these 10^th of a second differences. Swimmers have videos taken showing their stroke techniques in a glass tank versus an ideal stroke. Runners are videoed for motion analysis.  Golfers modify their swings using videos comparing theirs with the ideal (benchmark) swing of efficiency. Business is no different.

If you take these steps not only will your Sales significantly improve, but if implemented throughout the organization, this slight edge gets magnified throughout the corporation! If your competition is doing this, where does it put you? Can you and your company afford not to put into place these kinds of steps and procedures?

The decision is yours and your company’s! Can CEO’s, Senior Managers and companies ignore these in this dynamic global market? It seems highly unlikely that sustained performance can be maintained without these kinds of methods being implemented.

Innovation and Visioning in the 20th and 21st Century

In the earlier blog posting, below( http://executiveandhrguidance.blogspot.com/2011/10/innovation-in-21st-century-and-steve.html ), Steve Jobs was described as a visionary and futurist. He took ideas and morphed them, using newer technology, slimmer packaging, modernizing the appearance of an item, and/or recognizing there was a need (recognized or hidden) which could be addressed. Through his charisma and communication he could open new markets or grow existing markets at a much faster pace than had happened earlier.

In the 1950's NASA started designing the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Space programs around concepts that did not exist at the time. NASA helped to fuel innovation and new products by committing to a need in the near or foreseeable future by agreeing to purchase those items once they were developed within established time-frames.

The US Air Force did the same thing when they started conceptualizing the C-5A Galaxy(Lockheed).  In this specific case, they identified the need to airlift large, heavy payloads long distances for what was called the Heavy Logistics Systems project. This aircraft was very sophisticated. It had multiple computer systems with backups, in case of inflight failure.

For example, at the time, if there was an error light, it would rank the probability of what was causing the error, the nearest location to land, the nearest place for obtaining a replacement part, and estimated downtime. Practically unheard of at that time, in the late 1960's.

Many of the advancements were never used because of  fear of a possible crash and  few simulators that could train pilots on it's use. The C-5 could land with cross-winds by heading into the wind, with the landing gear/wheels pointed in a different direction going down a runway.

Looking into the future and holding visioning exercises, helps organizations to remain flexible, with a view to change, while anticipating possible challenges and competitors, many which come sooner than expected. These exercises help to build teams while also coming up with new ideas or concepts that might not have been contemplated by the company, otherwise. They also contribute to the strategic plan and in many cases succession planning needs.

In spite of some saying that things change too fast to really plan, because the plan is outdated before it is written, they overlook the benefits in building more dynamic, cooperative, and communicative organizations while improving morale, engagement and the strong possibilities of identifying innovative or improved processes or products/services.

Shouldn't your organization contemplate visioning sessions? If not, why not?

Leadership Charisma and Engagment: Presentation given August 26, 2011

Leadership Charisma: Linking People, Strategy and Performance to Engagement and Training: "Revolutionary Research from Global Corporations" is a presentation I gave at the HR & Training Congress held in Ortigas, MetroManila, Philippines on August 25-26, 2011.

The material presented was based around recent research on Leadership and in particular Charisma that has been released by Profiles International in January 2011 and documented in the book Leadership Charisma, currently 115^th on Amazon’s Best Seller’s List.

 Leadership Charisma eBook at Amazon.com


This startling research can tie people, strategy and performance to heightened Workplace Engagement, resulting in increased: Retention, Sales, and Profitability. The key is that the research dispels the myth that Charisma is only innate. Charisma can be learned and is based on over 40,000 Leaders and 400,000 people who rated these leaders.

The presentation was broken into 4 sections: Engagement (what it means to an organization), Leadership (and it's importance to an organization), Leadership Charisma (the conclusion of the research from the book) and the results of the research which leads to Training/Learning that can be held within a company.


If interested in receiving a copy of the presentation, please contact me or leave a comment and I will be happy to send you what was presented or click on this Link to view some of the slides:
Presentation on Engagement and Leadership Charisma

Analyze, Decide, Lead says Columbia's Business Dean

It is interesting that even Columbia's Business School is talking about "...weaving topics such as decision-making and ethics into classes across all disciplines." Assessments can help along these lines, and in pre-hire, ethics can be assessed, and of course a good background check will help validate the results.

Both good decision-making and ethics can help drive engagement  in an organization. The reverse can have detrimental effects on an organization's engagement from entry level, to Front-Line managers and to all management levels in an organization. This effects motivation, morale, and indirectly profitability and retention.It is the responsibility of HR and Senior Management to ensure that people with good ethics and with good common sense/decision-making abilities, are brought into the organization, as this helps to increase the asset value of the company, short and especially long term.

The question is, is your organization and HR focused on these issues, from Pre-Hire, On-Boarding, Training and Promotion? Don't you think that they should be? Shouldn't they be part of your Core Values? The decisions made today lead to the sustainability over time.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303365804576429974256934518.html

Performance Evaluations - How to start?

Performance Evaluations can be the most critical and stressful part of Management regardless of whether it is for, or as, a front-line Manager, Senior Executive, or CEO. It is a critical component/activity as it identifies areas of proficiency and developmental areas for the individual and sets the stage for the coming period of performance for the employee.

Done well, it can be invigorating, supportive and motivating. It gains heightened engagement from the employee and this cascades and helps to build engagement within the organization.

Done poorly, it can result in an employee(s) who can: become demotivated, have poor morale, and can become a critic of any and all operations or activities within the group, division or company. Obviously, this needs to be avoided at all costs.

One of the easiest ways to start the evaluation process is to clearly communicate what the process of the performance evaluation will be. Communicate how it is to be initiated, the forms that will be used, metrics and standards employed, whether it will use a 360 review process, and what input the employee will have in the process. Obviously, the final Performance Evaluation or Review will be a document placed in the employee's Personnel File and should be communicated accordingly.

Objective of this blog

The objective of this blog is to provide CEOs, Senior Executives and Human Resource (HR) Managers, ideas and methods to increase: engagement, productivity, retention, and profitability for organizations and  their employees. These can apply most times to Non-Profit organizations also.

This blog is based on 35+ years with Fortune 100, and SME's (both public and private), as well as Turnaround and Change Management experience, actual present-day field observations and data, as well as current research, published and unpublished.