Do You Suffer From Sand Castle Management? Take this Litmus test.

With the intellectual economy well upon us, how many corporations do you think still have their heads buried in the proverbial sand castle?  Not mine, you say?   Don’t forget – - competitive advantages of old are no longer the competitive advantages of today.  Technology is more easily and quickly duplicated, and by offshore competitors who do it for less.   What’s this got to do with sand castles?  A lot.  You see, in days gone by (old industrial economy), a company’s greatest assets were their physical and natural resources.  Today (new intellectual economy), the biggest competitive advantage is a company’s human capital.  It’s no longer the widget, brand image, or some secret formula.  No, what makes one company better than another today is the human capital behind these things.    In a recent Harvard Study, it was noted that nearly 73% of a company’s bottom line is tied to its people assets. 

While many corporate leaders claim to be well aware of the importance on their human capital, all too often their practice fails to live up to their preaching.   The reason is old habits.  Most of today’s leaders grew up in the industrial economy, right?   The management philosophies and business practices employed today were originally developed in the previous economy.  That economy has left the building, so to speak.  New economies require new thinking.

Think your organization has a people-centric focus?  Confident your company has enlightened management practices in place?  Here are three easy Litmus tests to see if your organization has shifted from an industrial mindset to an intellectual one:

1. If you list payroll on your P&L as an expense instead of an investment . . . you fail.
2. If your employee turnover rate is higher than the defect rate for any product you produce . . . you fail.
3. If your organization has a Chief Operations Officer and a Chief Financial Officer, but no Chief People Officer . . . you fail.

Now I’m not saying you need to be an overly empathetic humanist seeking to go overboard creating warm fuzzy environments across your organization.  What I am saying is that substantial studies have shown the positive correlation between the ability of an organization to effectively manage its human capital and its ability to increase hard metrics like top and bottom line growth, shareholder value and market share.  Here are some examples: 

• Cornell University’s study of large publicly funded companies found that those using “high performance” human resource practices have market values that range from $16K and $40K higher per employee than firms who don’t use such practices.
• Another study of high tech start-ups showed that for firms going public with a high level of human resource value, the probability of survival is .79; for firms going public with low levels of human resource value, however, the probability is only .60.
• Over the past 10 years the average annual shareholder return of the publicly traded FORTUNE “100 Best Companies to Work for” firms has been 50% higher than the S&P 500.

Bottom line, if your company needs to become more people-centric and move away from old patterns of sand castle management, don’t substitute working hard for working smart.   Appreciate the significance of the shift from an industrial to an intellectual economy by focusing on your people.  Come up with meaningful, creative ways to engage their hearts and minds into every layer of the organization. In doing so, you’ll out innovate, outperform and outpace your competition and do it from a perfect vantage point:  the top of the sand castle!

 

Stop Struggling to Feel Fulfilled, Successful and Satisfied at Work

Part 1 of a series of articles about work/life fulfillment                                  

In the process of adding an additional suite of tools to my coaching and consulting practice, I discovered a newly-published talent study and book authored by Jay Niblick, CEO of consulting firm Innermetrix International.   The book “What’s Your Genius?” led me to another piece Jay authored, called the Attribute Index Talent Profile (over 300,000 copies sold).   The discoveries were amazing and I want to share one of them with you today.  First a little background . . .

Recent Harris Poll:  “Only half of people are satisfied at work.”

Jay spent seven years studying nearly 200,000 super-successful people across 23 countries and discovered several radically different views that most of them have on success, and he also found that they consistently break with conventional wisdom to reach their full potential.    In addition, he cited a recent Harris Poll* of 23,000 people which revealed only half were satisfied with the work they had accomplished by the end of the week.  Half!   So what’s the difference between the half who are satisfied and the half who are not, and is there any correlation to the super successful?

Discovery #1.  What you’ve been taught about how to succeed is the exact opposite of what the super successful do.   For example, when a person accepts a new role/job, they typically take 3 universal steps:

• Step 1 – They get to know the role better and figure out what it really takes to be successful in it.
• Step 2 – Inevitably, they identify gaps between what the job requires and what they can provide (talent, knowledge, skills, etc.).
• Step 3 – They attempt to close the gaps between what is needed and what they possess.  This is where major differences lie between the super successful and the rest.

Less successful people assume they can develop the skills and knowledge they need to fill the role, AND the natural thinking talents necessary.   They’re right about the skills and knowledge, but they mistakenly believe that with enough hard work and intelligence they can develop EVERYTHING they need to close the gap.  That means talents too, so they set out to fix their natural talents in order to succeed in the job.  Super successful people do the exact opposite.  If you want to follow their lead, and thus increase your feeling of fulfillment, success, and job satisfaction, do these 3 things:

First, appreciate the difference between talents and skills and don’t spend time trying to develop new talents. This is not to say you should not focus on improving yourself.  If you need to acquire new knowledge or skills, go for it; but don’t bother trying to change or develop new talents.  It doesn’t work.

Second, don’t assume that the “role” is set in concrete; focus on adjusting the role, not yourself.  In doing so, you ensure that your success depends on your natural talents, not your non-talents.

Third, refuse to buy in to myths about strengths and weaknesses.    Understand you don’t possess strengths and weaknesses, you create them.   Strengths and weaknesses don’t exist naturally, only talents and non-talents.   The super-successful allow their success to depend on their natural talents, thereby creating strengths –and they don’t have roles where success is dependent on their non-talents.    Bottom line:  Remove your dependency on your non-talents.    As one of the greatest business leaders of all time, Peter Drucker, once said to his leadership team, “Your job is to make the strengths of your people effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.” 

Finally, if you need help examining your natural talents, or using them to your best advantage, I highly recommend you get a copy of “What’s Your Genius?”  Also consider spending 15 minutes taking an on-line Attribute Index Talent Profile.   It could change your life.

 *For more information about the Harris Poll, visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

 

Three Steps to Business Survival

4^th Quarter 2009 action plan

It’s all about timing.  As business owners and managers, we find ourselves in scary times.  It seems like just yesterday we experienced a very different picture.    We had economic expansion, low interest rates, easy credit and customers with seemingly limitless wealth.  Okay, maybe I’m dreaming a bit but you must admit it wasn’t too long ago that times were quite different than they are today.  Now we’re faced with threats of Al Qaeda, bank bail-outs, Bernie Madoff and the government take-over of the car industry.  Did I mention the spiraling cost of health care? 

As the threats continue, how do we survive and even prosper? How do we get more sales revenue?  More importantly, how do we get it all done with fewer resources, shrinking profit margins and seemingly perpetual customer, employee, (not to mention personal) anxiety?

What I’m about to share with you are the three most powerful steps you can take as a business owner or manager in 4Q 2009.  Take them now if you want to survive and thrive in 2010.

1.  BECOME CLEAR ON YOUR VISION

Vision is having a clear picture of where you’re going.  Not just a clear goal, but a strong commitment to achieving it.  It’s expressed in a leader’s actions and confidence level.  The visionary leader has a deep belief that their objectives are possible and that they’ll find a way to achieve them.  As a business owner or manager, you have an important competitive advantage.  When the founder is leading the company,  and the manager is steering the ship, you do it with an authentic passion to deliver on the vision.  You’re always designing, revising, and carrying out the plan of action.  When your vision is energized by a strong mission or purpose, you become unstoppable.  Are you clear about your vision?  Do you know where you’re going?  Do your people, your customers, and the rest of the world?  Is it being clearly articulated on a regular basis so everyone “gets” it?

2.  INVEST IN A COURAGEOUS CULTURE (BACKED BY A STRONG TEAM)

A courageous culture is critical when the stakes are high and uncertainty abounds. Successful business owners and managers must have courage, determination, backbone and persistence.   Let your courage spill over to your entire team.  Even if you have few (or no) employees, you still have a “virtual” team.  They are the vendors you work with, colleagues in the industry and your suppliers.  Communicate with them often – form alliances, build camaraderie.  Strong teams achieve more than any individual can, reinforcing one another to do what they could never do on their own.  Want to expand your team?  Form a mastermind group with your peers.  Mastermind groups can be run very inexpensively and the agenda is set by the group based on group needs.  It’s a great way to share best practices, learn new strategies from one another, and hold each other accountable for the things you know you should do but don’t. 

3.  GET AND STAY FOCUSED

Finally, focus.  On what’s working.  You can create calm out of chaos by identifying the things that have worked for you up until now.   Write them down.  Determine why they’ve worked and resolve to stay focused on them.  And by all means, quit focusing on the “small stuff.”  This quarter, put your energy into the most important company priorities and be sure these get done first.  To pull this off, deal with at most three to five things at a time.  Don’t do other things until these top priorities get done.   Need help staying focused?  Work with a peer or colleague.  Agree to call each other regularly to keep each other on track.

News of bankruptcy, foreclosures, terrorism, bank failures and corporate greed persistently remind us of the threats we face.  In some ways, these things may seem like the new normal. But YOU don’t have to accept them as the new normal. Take steps now, in the 4^th quarter 2009, to confront these realities.  Do it with vision, courage and focus!