Richard Baker

Often, the argument is that 'engagement cannot be measured' or that 'nothing is ever done with the results' - the first argument being only slightly correct and the second being a large piece of tosh!

If we apply that same logic to all surveys we'd never do market research, customer satisfaction surveys - in fact we'd never ask anyone for any feedback about anything; what would be the point?

Fact is, we still live in a world where measurables are important; they are important to the people who make the big decisions about organisations. They are important to the people who invest in those organisations and they are useful to measure progress. Certainly there are aspects of employee engagement that are all about 'taking the temperature' and having a 'feel' for things, but - at the moment at least - this isn't easily communicated (or valued) in a Board Report.

Having the support and buy-in of senior people in organisations who get the link between engagement and organisational capability (let's ignore the obvious ethics for a second) is vital and if we need to present that value using standard metrics or measures then so be it.

So I urge you, before you throw that next survey in the bin, or criticise organisations for using them - first check what it is planned with the results. Or even better - help them.

You may be pleasantly surprised.

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When I was a child I felt at my most comfortable when I was on my own. I was both shy and introverted which created some social challenges for me!

I come from a large family and I remember at family gatherings I’d sometimes feel overwhelmed by the noise and general chaos and so I’d quietly retire to a room on my own and read. Luckily, my mother realised early on what was happening and so explained on my behalf to various friends and family that I wasn’t being rude, or that I didn’t like them, but that I just needed some time away to be on my own.

As I got older, my shyness reduced but my introversion remained. 

This created challenges at work where we prescribe certain traits to roles. For example, if you want to work in finance or something technical it is generally deemed ‘okay’ to be introverted. However, if you (as I did) wanted to move into management roles it was important for me to be more of an extrovert. 

Indeed, in the UK great leaders are generally seen as great orators and people who ‘lead from the front’. Look at some of the most admired business leaders for example. 

However, some of the best leaders (who you have probably never heard of) I’ve worked for have been quiet, reflective people who let their teams grow and shine.

Today, my value – both professionally and socially – is still measured to some extent my by ability to be the ‘life and soul of the party’. I’m still not the person at parties who tells the jokes or circulates the room. 

I’ve enjoyed some success in my field and I’m sometimes asked to speak at conferences and events and for a long time have wrestled with my desire to be seen as ‘successful’ and my comfort with my introversion. Inevitably these days I decline – I’d much rather be facilitating a conversation than controlling it.

What does this mean for leadership and engagement? 

• When we recruit and use psychometric testing, do we look for people who compliment and balance our teams or who will ‘lead from the front’ – even if that isn’t what is required?
• In our organisations, have we created a ‘culture of extroversion’ that automatically excludes half our workforce? Do our company values subtly play to the extroverts, or celebrate individuality?
• Are we promoting the ‘alpha males’ who can command the attention of an entire room or the person who can get the best from others? 
• Do we value ‘team’ over ‘individual’ rather than what is best at that time, for that project?
• In our personal lives, do we make excuses for our children/spouses/friends who prefer to be out of the limelight or do we celebrate them for how they make us feel?

Watch the TED Talk that inspired this post below. Many thanks to @annekadeva for sharing the talk.

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I've had the pleasure of working with some great people over the years, and there's none better than David Tomkinson, a Director with the andpartnership. 

David has over 25 years experience in the retail sector, working with blue-chip organisations including British Home Stores and Boots the Chemist. He has held senior roles in store management, training, development, HR and organisation development.  Using his approach based on minimising resistance, he's introduced culture change programmes into large organisations, involving initiatives such as coaching, self-managed teams and 360’ feedback, achieving dramatic business improvements.

In this post, David builds on the thinking around leadership capability.

I have often been struck by the number of leaders that seem to get into a senior role and then spend a large percentage of their time doing their old job, or the jobs of their team.

My experience is that this is often because they are no longer being asked to do what they enjoy, what they are passionate about or what they perceive themselves to be good at.  

A good sales person will be promoted to sales manager and suddenly won't be selling any more, but managing others who are. No wonder then, without development and awareness, that they jump back into their teams day to day world at every opportunity. When they say 'I could do this better' they are probably right! Unfortunately getting down into the detail disempowers people, encourages abdication and affects the enjoyment of the Individuals.

Of course there are some leaders who naturally love strategy and 'big picture'  and their problem is different - keeping themselves engaged and performing whilst in junior roles that require more detailed involvement!

However, for the majority of junior and middle managers, climbing the 'greasy pole' is quite stressful as they struggle to get clear on what is their role, what they should be delegating and to let go of what they love.

The answer seems to lay in greater self awareness, having 'big conversations' and getting in touch with what what they care about.

If they are clear on what they are trying to create  then it makes it easier to make great decisions, they are more comfortable with their role and purpose and they find new enthusiasm in leading a team to deliver their passion. By enabling open and honest conversations to take place, leaders become more self aware and team members can give them feedback when they do inadvertently 'meddle' in their work!

I saw this recently in my interactions with a Managing Director of a large blue chip company. He was driving his team mad by getting involved in solving problems every time they occurred. As a result all leaders were leading at the level below where they should. Also he said to me 'I don't do visions' and struggled to focus on the future rather than the short term. There was a feeling of disengagement throughout the business, and a feeling of not being trusted to do your job.

I worked with the senior team to surface these feelings and got them to have powerful conversations about their frustrations. We then worked on the Future he wanted to create, what he was passionate about and what he was leading for. He was able to articulate this once he let go of the limiting belief that he 'didn't do visions'.

We were then able to engage all the senior leaders in what they were passionate about and how their part of the business can help deliver this future. They were then able to talk to their people in a different way, getting people excited about the future rather than overly focussing on the present. We also got them to identify their limiting beliefs and turn the volume down on these, to allow the more positive voices to be heard.

We helped leaders to develop Coaching skills, to avoid the temptation to jump back in, and undertook regular away days with the leadership team to review progress, identify what still needed to be done and help them to form new habits rather than reverting back to old behaviours.

The result?

Business performance is now at a record high and employee engagement has increased dramatically. Most importantly, the MD is now enjoying his role in shaping the future and leaving the problem fixing to those who have the remit to do so!

You can get in touch with David on 07710 003029 or e-mail at david.tomkinson@andpartnership.com. Read more at the blog at leadership consultants.

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I've been thinking about this recession.

Some organisations are stuck in a vicious cycle. Businesses in all sectors are struggling and many are being forced to restructure/downsize/whatever you want to call it. 

As a result, the employees left are concerned about their future. They aren't even certain they'll have a job in 6 months time.

As Maslow eluded to, if you're not getting your most basic needs of job security met, the chances of achieving any higher level needs are slim.

And what does that mean for how people behave? Well, it means people are understandably cautious; they won't raise their head above the parapet. They will cover up mistakes. They won't take risks.

They'll cover for poor performance because they don't want to expose their colleagues.

As a result, organisational performance starts to slip. People try and do too much, and not do it well.
The organisations' performance slips and the inevitable restructure again rears its head. The cycle continues.

So, how do we help them break out of the cycle? What needs to happen that is different?

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In your organisation, do you promote people who are good at their job?

What happens when they are promoted?

I'd wager that in a few cases, they thrive - the extra responsibility is something they grasp and they deliver great results, the right way, through their people.

In most cases however, I'd bet they don't.

Here's a recent example. Dave (not his real name) worked in a local shop. He was fantastic with his customers. They loved him. He constantly went out of his way for them; he remembered their morning paper, their usual groceries, even their lottery numbers. Head office recieved many letters and calls about him.

Because he was so good, his manager put him up for a promotion. He was promoted to a management role at the same shop.

So, how is Dave performing now? Well, he's 'steady'.

He's not bad at his job, but the company no longer receives letters and calls about service in that shop.

Why? Dave's replacement isn't as passionate about service as him and whilst Dave was great at service, he's not so great at leading and inspiring people. He's never had the training and development and to be honest, he's a bit out of his depth.

Dave is happy in his new role, but secretly he misses his old job; the instant satisfaction he got from helping people. Yes, he likes the extra cash, but it's not the same.

Recognise something similar in your organisation?

Three lessons here;

1. Don't promote people who are only good at their job - it's no indication of their leadership capability
2. If you're really serious about customer service, pay and reward your stars what they deserve, not what you can get away with. They'll continue to delight your customers and stay happy
3. Leaders aren't born, they are made

What do you think? Are we promoting people who will be great leaders or who are great in the current role?

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In another serendipitous moment, I found this video of hotelier Chip Conley (@ChipConley) talking at TED about how he went in search of a business model based on happiness. 

Find out how an old employee and a buddhist king helped him learn that success comes from what you count, and the implications on ourselves, our work and our society.

Enjoy.

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Another interesting and quick video - this time by edelman london with Clare Chapman talking about the relationship between engagement, empowerment and intrapreneurialism. 

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Thanks to Raffaela Goodby for the link - this is the first of many (I'm hoping) videos from the Engaging for Success Practitioners Group.

By the way, if you're intending on sharing I'm suggesting we use the hastag #e4s. Thanks!

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Another good employee engagement video, this time from the Birmingham Post, with David McLeod talking with business leaders.

He makes some great observations and points about how to engage employees, with in my opinion, the most important;

You cannot do this unless you have a sincere respect and belief in the welfare of your people.

Leadership doesn't always start at the top, but it's vital you employe leaders who genuinely care for other people, rather than just considering them as a 'depreciating asset'!

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An interview with David McLeod first broadcast in 2010 on bnet.com. Very useful if you are new to employee engagement or would like to benefit from David's simple, clear summaries of what it really means to how we work.

Want to know more? Follow me here and then visit here

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People ask me, why is my twitter name @theintrapreneur? Have you made a typo? ;-)

Well, no. Here is the answer:

Intrapreneur - The spirit of entrepreneurship within an existing organisation. An intrapreneur is a person who focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture, by operating within the organisational environment.

“Intrapreneur’s Ten Commandments” developed by Pinchot:

1. Come to work each day willing to be fired
2. Circumvent any orders aimed at stopping your dream
3. Do any job needed to make your project work, regardless of your job description
4. Find people to help you
5. Follow your intuition about the people you choose and work only with the best
6. Work underground as long as you can – publicity triggers the corporate immune system.
7. Never bet on a race unless you are running in it
8. Remember it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission
9. Be true to your goals, but be realistic about the ways to achieve them
10. Honour your sponsors

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In his classic book, Austin (1978) distinguished four levels of serendipity or chance. They can apply to individuals, but a team provides more opportunities for them to happen – look for the similarities with what happens on social networks.

Have a read and then let me know your thoughts – how do you leverage your networks to improve opportunity?

Chance 1 – ‘blind chance’ or accident. By sheer luck you just happen to find yourself in the right place at the right time. Nothing to do with your lifestyle, though you had the presence of mind to take the opportunity when it appeared.

Chance 2 – wide-ranging exploration. A wide-ranging, energetic, enquiring lifestyle will tend to generate opportunities for useful chances to happen (though it can also result in lack of focus – you have to achieve a balance). As Charles Kettering, the engineer, put it: ‘Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you least expect it. I’ve never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting
down’ (quoted in Austin, 1978).

Chance 3 – the prepared mind. ‘In observation, chance favours the prepared mind’ (Louis Pasteur). Specific, highly developed interests and background make you more likely to notice chance events relevant to that background. 3M’s Arthur Fry had been looking for uses for Spence Silver’s semi-sticky glue, so when the bookmarks in his choir-book kept falling out, his ‘prepared mind’ made the link to the idea of the now ubiquitous Post-it note.

Chance 4 – individualised action. This combines Chance III with an enhanced version of Chance II – you not only have a ‘prepared mind’, ready to respond to relevant opportunities that emerge, but also have a lifestyle that makes ‘relevant opportunities’ more likely to happen. This may be, for example, because you increase your networking and communication, or put yourself in more places where you are likely to be exposed to input you can use.

(Thanks to the Open University Business School).

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By Rich Baker

One of the areas I am studied as part of my MBA involved a look at how innovation and creativity manifest themselves in individuals and organisations.

Part of this considers the perception we have of intuition. Rather than it be a ‘magical’ ability that some possess and others do not, it is argued that intuition is more a matter of ‘expert recognition’ i.e. a ‘by-product of of training and experience that has been stored as knowledge’. (Simons, 1988).

Traditionally, in the West we have always sought to rationalise decision making, and this has implications upon the value placed upon both individuals in organisations, and the role they play. I have a friend who has little ‘formal’ education, but is an insightful people manager who always seems to know what to say and when to achieve the best out of people, in sometimes complex political environments. Luckily the organisation in which she works recognises this, and she holds a senior leadership position.

Similarily, our judgement is affected by patterns that might seem rational, are in fact a product of what we might expect to happen.

Try this test;

Which of the following birth orders is more likely?

BGBBGB

or

BBBBGB

Most people assume the first, in actual fact both are as likely to happen.The same would be true if we were to toss coins. This is what is called representativeness bias. (Thanks to the Open University for the exercise).

I’m interested in the impact this has not only on the individual, but also upon decision making in organisations. How do we reduce bias, but harness and leverage intuition?

Thoughts? Does your business/organisation place value upon tacit knowledge or ‘intuition’?

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