The Skills Shortage: Retaining Valued Employees

I've just read an outline for an HR event with a focus on this issue... not surprisingly, the focus is on human resource solutions... system, process and policy design and alignment.

Given that research shows that, skills shortage or not, people quit their boss, rather than the company... it is surprising that strategies for developing, resourcing and supporting leaders and leadership at all levels isn't on the agenda.

That seems central to any serious response to retention challenges.

A New Year: Resolutions or Goals???

I've been wondering.... why do so many New Year's Resolutions - no matter how sincerely, well intended at the time they are made - amount in so many dismal failures, when research consistently shows goal-setting to be a reliable approach to motivating the behaviours & persistence that lead to achievement?


Maybe its the same reason so many performance management processes fail to produce motivated people and high performance.


Maybe it's because New Year's resolutions aren't goals - they are shoulds...agreed to in order to please or appease our conscience (or those dear others around us who have voluntarily assumed the role of our conscience!) 


In the same way, many 'goals' set by managers aren't 'goals'... they are shoulds... agreed to by anxious (and resentful) employees in order to please or appease 'the boss' (in whose hands we have placed our fate).


In a 2006 Fortune article, on What It Takes to be Great, Geoffrey Colvin highlights the difference between a good intention (I want to be a better golfer or I'm gonna improve my game) and regular, sustained and deliberate (ie goal-focussed) practice:

• Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.

In this example what I have to do (the task) is clear: Hit the ball 300 times. 

What I am trying to achieve while doing this (the goal) is equally clear and unambiguous:  leave the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time.

Are your New Year resolutions as clearly defined and unambiguous? AHow about the goals you set as work, for yourself or others?

Maybe this year is the year to practice setting defined and unambiguous goals in order to become an effective manager or leader... hmmm now, what would my goal be? How will I define success? 

Kiva: Become a Banker, Change A Life

Do you know about Kiva? Not a charity but a practical way to assist people who through no fault of their own are poor and unable to access bank loans - without microfinance banks such as Grameen and Kiva, they have no alternative but to use money lenders.

So for a small amount of money which you lend,  to a person you choose, you can help to change a life.. then another then another...

Which One Is The Leader?

On the way to the beach for an early morning swim and walk today, we passed a gaggle of runners... one woman was out in front, one chap off to the side of the main group, and a couple of stragglers.

Was the leader the one out front?

Nope...

He was initially indistinguishable... but listening in, it became clear that he was right in the middle of the main bunch.... encouraging, keeping spirits up, giving a preview of the hill ahead and getting everyone psyched up and ready for the extra effort and the feeling of success they'd feel at the top.

Seemed to me to be a pretty good lesson in leadership for the workplace...  

Oops your atitude is showing!!

If you're a manager, supervisor or team leader, the attitude you display has a BIGGGGGGG impact on the people around you.

Here are some winners and losers when it comes to the attitudes you display thorough your facial expressions, choice of words, posture, gestures, tone of voice, pace & pitch...

ATTITUDES THAT KILL MOTIVATION, ENGAGEMENT &; COMMITMENT

(you don't have to SAY these things... you just oooooze them)

1. I’d rather be somewhere else
2. Do I look like I care?
3. Sorry, can’t do
4. Not my job, Not my responsibility
5. Not you again
6. The brush-off (Can't you see I'm busy?!)
7. It’s us against them
8. Near enough’s good enough
9. It’ll never work
10. I know it all
11. I’ve got a chip on my shoulder
12. I’m OK, you’re nothing
13. Health & Safety second & third, profit first.

ATTITUDES THAT WIN MOTIVATION, ENGAGEMENT & COMMITMENT

1. I love it here.
2. I’m keen - I care.
3. Yes we CAN!
4. It’s my job: I’ll take responsibility.
5. You’ve got my full attention.
6. We’re all on the same team.
7. We can do better than this
8. I’m open to new ideas
9. I don’t know it all
10. Safety is profitable & smart: Safety matters!

What attitude are you showing?

Read My Mind

You know...

You know what I mean...

Do I have to explain it...

I shouldn't have to spell it out...

You shouldn't have to be told...

It's obvious to anyone with half a brain...

Why do I have to explain it to you...

Maybe some of these statements have merit in an established, long-term working relationship when you've invested plenty of time and thought in articulating, setting, clarifying, and negotiating expectations, building a common language and common mental models...working together.... exchanging two way, timely and helpful feedback....

On the other hand, if you're using these phrases in the first 6 months or first 3 or 4 work assignments with a new employee, vendor, supplier or contractor (no matter how experienced they are), having spent as little time as possible together, having engaged in mostly one-way communication and critical, even offensive, feedback... then you're expecting them to read your mind!

And that, will, predictably, set you both up for failure, raise your blood pressure and their defences, their stress and frustrate the heck out of both of you!

Productive Workers Are Happy Workers

Have you ever

• had a day where you worked hard all day - sweated blood - but achieved nothing? 
• worked really hard to finish a job, then had to undo it all or do it again because the boss or client wasn’t clear about what they wanted? 
• put everything into finishing a job only to be told that it didn’t have to be that good 
• put everything into finishing a job only to be told 'it’s STILL not good enough'? 

Then you know how demoralising and demotivating that can be!

Your first priority as a supervisor, manager, team leader is to get organised and talk to your people so that they can get on with the job with everything they need to get it done right, safely, first time, every time.

‘Everything’ includes all the information they need to be sure that they understand:

• what specifically they have to do, 
• how it fits with other priorities,
• when they need to have it done, 
• how to do it safely, and 
• how to tell when they’ve ‘finished’ or done ‘good enough’ 
• what to do if they strike a problem or get stuck. 

After all, if you're a supervisor, team leader or manager... 
It’s Your Job to Set Them Up for Success

4 Word poem

In between a heap of work (long days and nights to get through it all) I've had a great time following a '6 word poems' thread on the Australasian Facilitators Network discussion ... at the end my mind felt like you do when your tummy hurts from laughter ... I wanted to post a two word poem: Enough. Already

.... but thought it might not convey what I was after.

Now it's the end of the week...so here's my four word contribution to poetry:

Long week. Playing now.

The Manager's Dashboard

Seth Grodin wrote a blog today on Dashboards and got me thinking...

What if every employee could click a button to let you know when you had:

1. Made a deposit in their goodwill bank account.

2. Made a withdrawal from their goodwill bank account.

3. Did something that improved their skills

4. Robbed 'em of the chance to develop a skill by taking over, doing it for them, overwhelming them with feelings of fear or humiliation.

5. Helped 'em understand what they were there for, what they needed to produce or do and why it matters (how it links in to the bigger picture, how it makes a difference)

6. Made 'em feel like they were wasting their time, shouldn't bother.

7. Helped them gain an Aha!! - helped them see into something they hadn't known, realised or understood before.

8. Helped them find a way forward, clear or overcome an obstacle or resource a shared goal.

9. Achieved something important yourself.

10 Wasted your time.

Would you use it? Would it make a difference to how you manage?

Would it make a difference to the way you talked, walked and interacted???

If not... what would?

And since you probably don't have such a dashboard... how DO you tell how you're doing, when and how you need to change...?

Leaders Listen

Is that a description of the leaders you've encountered?

Or is it a directive leaders need to note?

I've recently had the privilege of sitting in on a number of leaders' addresses to their staff, and one thing I've noticed that differentiates the best from the good, is their willingness & ability to listen. 

The most basic, and perhaps important demonstration of this is a willingness & ability to stand still & comfortable with the almost inevitable, and uncomfortable, pregnant silence that follows their invitation for questions and comment. 

The worst don't invite questions or comments - they often don't even turn up. 

The best stand still, stay silent and show no discomfort with the silence... the result is always that someone in the audience speaks up. 

The good, and pretty average, on the other hand seem anxious with even a second of silence! 

They deal with their own discomfort by filling the silence, answering their own question, repeating something they've already said, or starting off on a new tack of their own... what I notice in the audience then, is some raised eyebrows, sideways looks and thought-bubbles that seem to say, Hmmph! Knew it. He doesn't really want us to ask or say anything!

What a lost opportunity!

If, as a leader I can't tolerate 10 seconds of somewhat uncomfortable silence, without filling it with more talk rather than a demeanour of encouraging expectancy... can I really win the hearts and minds that are my most critical resource?