Again With the Visibility!!

The New York Times Business Section on Sunday featured an interview with Robert Iger, CEO of Disney.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/business/03corner.html?_r=1

These are the main points that I was able to take away.

1. He stressed the role optimism plays in effective leadership. I would second this. The best leaders I have worked around, with, and for have kept an even keel, but lean to the optimistic side. The worst leaders I have seen have been paranoid masters of panic. Confidence (and lack of) is contagious.

2. His first boss at ABC told him he "wasn't promotable." Oops.

3. As is the case with successful leaders, Iger practices VISIBILITY. He says he meets in the cafeteria with staff, and that he actually schedules time to meet and talk with staff. Over and over, this visibility and accessibility is a trait of successful leaders. They know and are known.

4. When asked about hiring, he shares a quote by Warren Buffett that I think is just tremendous: “When you hire someone, you look for brains, energy and integrity, and if they don’t have the third, integrity, you better watch out, because the first two will kill you.”

Obama's Suggestion Box

In his address to the nation Saturday, President Obama mentioned that he is going to reach out to federal employees to capture and implement their ideas for improvement. "We'll establish a process through which every government worker can submit their ideas for how their agency can save money and perform better," he says.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/43689227.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Now, we have all seen lots of suggestion programs come and go, so naturally many commentators and observers are skeptical (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113391622175125.html#mod=djemITP), but all suggestion programs are not doomed to failure.

First I would give President Obama praise for seeking to get the ideas of those employees on the front lines. This is becoming more important every day because of demographic changes in our country. In our book "Ordinary Greatness," Pam Bilbrey and I point out that the latest generation of employees (sometimes called Generation Y) has been engaged in decision-making within their families and schools in ways vastly different than previous generations. Children now have a significant say in most key family decisions, such as which house to purchase, which car to buy, and where the family will vacation. Generation Y is bringing this desire for involvement into the workplace, and leaders who feel they can continue to manage as they always have will be shocked when they not only fail to see greatness in their staff, but when they see management habits that worked in the past, such as maintaining secrets, playing politics, and promoting factions cause their personal and professional demise. Our survival depends on engaging our staff and getting their best ideas.

When establishing employee suggestion programs, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Have a process for tracking and monitoring ideas, preferably electronically. Nothing destroys employee engagement faster than having ideas they submit get lost in the shuffle. If you haven’t been staying in touch with your staff and letting them know if or when their ideas will be acted upon, good luck getting staff to let you know their best ideas.

2. Be sure managers are engaged, accountable, and accessible throughout the process. When implementing his plan, President Obama must insist that leaders harvest ideas from staff and follow through on them. If their salary increases and promotional opportunities are not tied into their ability to engage their people, the plan has little chance for success. Managers must have goals tied to employee participation in the effort, and should constantly ask staff, "Do you know of any way we can improve our service or eliminate waste?"

3. Recognize the positive. Tell stories of how much the ideas have saved or how many wasteful processes have been eliminated. People remember stories long after they have forgotten facts. Keep the most positive people engaged by thanking them for their ideas and telling others how their ideas improved the workplace or the customer's experience.

4. Really mean it. If you aren't sincere about respectfully listening to staff and implementing their best ideas, don't start a suggestion effort. Staff can spot a phony flavor-of-the-month program, they will most likely ignore it, and leadership loses more credibility.

It's nice to see that with everything that President Obama has on his plate he is acknowledging a desire to listen to those closest to the taxpayers every day. Let's hope those who install the effort pay attention to these guidelines too.

Employee Engagement

Towers Perrin recently released the results of its global survey of employee engagement. "Just 21% of the close to 90,000 respondents worldwide are engaged in their work, meaning they’re willing to go the extra mile to help their companies succeed." The rest are at various levels of disengagement.

"What’s perhaps more troubling, 38% are partly to fully disengaged. The result is an 'engagement gap' between the discretionary effort companies need and people actually want to invest, and companies’ effectiveness in channeling this effort to
enhance performance. The study also found that companies with the highest levels of employee
engagement achieve better financial results and are more successful in retaining their most valued employees than companies with lower levels of engagement."

Link to the study: http://www.towersperrin.com/tp/getwebcachedoc?webc=HRS/USA/2008/200802/GWS_handout_web.pdf

Startling results like this beg the question: what can organizations do to improve employee engagement and discretionary effort? It is critical that companies pursue full engagement as anything less than full engagement represents enormous waste. If your greatest business expense is benefits, salaries, and wages, wouldn't you want to maximize your investment and be sure you were receiving maximum effort? It is always startling that the efficiency, Six Sigma, and LEAN experts seem to miss this one. The greatest waste in your company occurs anytime a staff member gives anything less than maximum effort.

So what can be done? Many things, but according to the study, we can start by:

1. Creating a hiring model that ensures the selection of those who will produce maximum effort.

2. Building a cohesive, clear, and effective senior leadership team that will set the tone in the organization. The Towers Perrin study shows we have a long way to go in this area.

3. Recognizing the positive, even simple, ordinary greatness that is in your company. Everyday there are heroes who are solving customer problems and representing you well -- find these heroes and thank them.

4. Holding leaders accountable to hiring, spotting, developing, and retaining those who bring their passion with them to work every day. Until people see that this matters to the boss, change is unlikely to come.

What has worked for you? How have you improved employee engagement and discretionary effort? What do you see that is in the way?