We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. – John F. Kennedy, 1962

The American people bought into, believed in, and supported that vision. On January 14, 2004 George W. Bush gave a speech announcing that we plan to have extended human missions to the moon by 2015 and manned missions to Mars by 2020. Both the Kennedy plan and the Bush plan were well designed and prepared strategies.

I believe there are not many Americans who are even aware of the Bush speech. Without any doubt the benefits of strategic planning are unquestionable. We would not have made it to the moon in 1969 without one. However, I fear that without the common vision supported by the American people the Bush plan is at risk of not being successful. Not because of lack of a good plan, or the skilled people to accomplish it, or the resources, but because of lack of support and belief from the people.

An autocratic strategic plan is often left to the author of plan to insure it’s execution and seldom survives beyond them. Kennedy’s plan lived beyond him. Will Bush’s survive? A key concept in creating a strategic plan is to gain the buy-in of the people you have to drive and/or contribute to its success. Is your strategic plan your vision or is it shared by those in the organization? Although a strategic planning retreat can be a painful process, it can aid you greatly in securing a vision all participants take ownership in.

What is 360 feedback and why should I be interested?  360 performance feedback is about trying to get your arms around how others perceive you and your actions.  They should never be used as a part of an objective performance review as they are not intended to measure someones actual performance.  They are intended to measure people’s perceptions of you and your actions.  The results should be between the individual and their executive coach.

Having said that you still have to manage people’s perceptions.  They are as influential and potentially as harmful as reality.  They are in fact each persons reality until you prove otherwise.  You must first own them and if you do not like them, do what it takes to change them.  People do not leave jobs, they leave managers.  If you truly want to do a better job of employee retention, motivation and engagement you need to know how you are perceived and work to make those perceptions what you want them to be.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times people have been astounded, and frankly even hurt, by getting the feedback.  But the upside is once they have discovered the data they can go about changing it.  It is far better to learn and improve than remain in an uninformed vacuum and continue to see the fallout, not knowing why.  Conversely there are almost always some very positive surprises.  If you engage in the 360 assessment process annually you can begin to track positive trends.

I had a senior manager with a client company dramatically improve his standing with ownership by repeating his 360 and having it reflect positive progress in areas that were previously problem areas and potential career stallers.  Knowledge is power and this is one more piece of data you can use to up your leadership development skills with yourself and your management team.

Leaders can set a strategy and a vision for what they would like the culture of their company to be, but they, themselves, cannot change the culture of the organization.  They can only change the culture by successfully motivating and leading the individuals in the organization to change their behaviors.  This is the first lesson in this blog:

• Changes in behaviors do not follow changes in culture
• Changes in culture follow changes in behaviors

If you want to change the culture of a company you must first change the behaviors of the individual participants in the organization.

This explains the failures of many of the best company visions or strategic plans.  There is an almost endless supply of strategic planning methods and facilitators available to organizations, but without the creation of organizational alignment to your vision or plan you might be more reliant upon luck than the validity of the plan.

Adjusting the culture to match the vision, mission and core values of the company is one of many components of implementing strategic planning.  You must first validate that the culture you want to adopt aligns with what you established as the vision, mission and core values.  Once you have met that requirement you need to do certain things as a leader to execute a change in culture.

Here are three easy to remember guide posts:

1. Model
2. Mentor
3. Measure

Since cultural change is truly about change in behaviors within the culture you should start by modeling the behaviors you expect.  You should coach or mentor your people on the behaviors you need or desire.  Where you see behaviors deviate from the goal, it is time for coaching.  Start meetings and discussions by reviewing behavioral expectations.  Be a visible and available mentor.  Finally make sure you are measuring what you actually want.  Often the things we measure contradict what we say we want in behaviors.  If you want quality customer service but you are only measuring how many calls are dealt with in a day you are sending the wrong message and likely not going to get the behaviors you want.

You can download a white paper on creating organization alignment using the link below:

You can also view this video to see one of our clients talking about our Organizational Planning process:

I just spent the month of June on an annual family trip.  For the last 7 years we have taken 3 to 4 weeks each summer and enjoyed a road trip.   This is generally a great recharge time and a true exploration of places we’ve not seen before.  Our journeys have sent us to about 43 states and 5 Canadian provinces through our history of doing these trips.  The only planning involved prior to our departure is when do we want to leave and by what date do we have to be back.  This has been a wonderful way to vacation and it works well for our family trip but this year I did think about the cost of operating this way and what would happen if a business worked similarly.

This first discussion on day one is generally what direction should we head.  We usually spend 20-30 minutes in a family meeting (maybe longer) trying to determine what direction we will head.  It often seems like nobody wants to step up and make the decision or state an opinion (sound like any meetings you have been in?).  This will usually set the immediate agenda and get us through the initial day or two.  It is like tackling an immediate project in a business.  The problem is when we are done with the initial destination the family meeting starts over.  These conversations tend to get tougher as we progress on our journey.  Sometimes we find out we just went 5 hours driving in the opposite direction of where everyone wants to go next.  We spend countless hours in these discussions and spend a fair amount of time back tracking.  I could not help but think about the hours of meetings that are spent in businesses to tackle the next project, the next step, re-routing, etc.  The cost to us on our trip is days of time spent talking and missing doing things.  The cost on a business using this approach is huge.  A business not only needs a sound strategic plan but that plan must be converted to an understandable near-term tactical plan to truly create organizational alignment.

On our trips we have no expectations, performance measurements, or profit requirements to meet.  Without a strategic planning framework to follow a business can wander through these daily discussions making continuous course correction with no clear path.  How much time do you and your people spend in meetings?  How many of your staff has complained about the number and duration of meetings?  How much could be eliminated with a good road map?  It certainly will not, and should not, replace the need to meet with your staff and communicate.  However, what it can do is change the purpose, direction and demeanor of those meetings.  The ability to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your daily interaction is only one of the many benefits of strategic planning.  Your plan cannot be limited to a strategic planning retreat, it needs to migrate to a daily operating plan.  We continually work with clients to link their plan to daily activities.

If this post is reflective of symptoms presently occurring in your business you may want to consider a few options.  1)  Download the white paper on “Principles for Creating Organizational Alignment”  2) Contact us to discuss how we can help build a road map for your business.

One of my clients recently contacted us looking for assistance in recruiting employees.  We were able to help them with assessment and selection of sales staff and a network engineer position.  I was pleased but not surprised when I was copied on the following e-mail this morning:

“Sally,

Tony is going to start with us on Monday.  Thanks for all of your work on this!  You did a great job!  You have kept me informed throughout the process and you were very thorough.  Just to be diligent, I asked the candidates what they thought about Advisa and the process up to that point during the face-to-face interviews.  They all had positive things to say.  You made this easy for me.  If I need anyone else, I’ll definitely give you a call.  Thank you.”
Sally Jacobs handled this particular position but this is reflective of the work and results of our entire ADVISA hiring staff.  They continue to amaze clients with the quality of their work and the low cost at which they are able to provide those results.

If you are looking for top notch assistance with your efforts to attract and recruit new personnel then contact your ADVISA hiring team to explore how they work with clients.

Within our organization and in working with client companies the common theme seems to be a guarded optimism as people are seeing a positive turn in their businesses.  Everyone seems reluctant to say the economy is coming back but the signs seem to be there.  The potential pitfall in the reluctantance to accept a return is businesses are slow to add additional resources until they have solid evidence the economy is rebounding.  This approach places companies behind the curve in recruiting employees.  Already stretched employees are expected to do even more and the staff that’s in place begins to abandon ship in the hopes of greener pastures.

In new research published by the University of Colorado it was identified that companies which cut staff too deep are not positioned to ramp up as the economy returns.  In studying companies throughout past recessions companies that made significant staff reductions during downtimes performed far worse than their peers after the recovery.  This begs the question; How prepared are you to ramp up when the economy returns to your sector?

Companies that lack a sound employee retention strategy and recruiting strategy could find themselves in a desperate reaction mode playing a game of catch up in the very near future.  In 1986 Bob Wilson founded what is now Advisa for the very purpose of providing client companies with the human analytics needed to improve these strategies and others with which business leaders often struggle.   Since its inception, Advisa has grown in both its own resources but also in its scope.  Throughout that journey the transference of the knowledge to help companies in excelling at recruiting, properly managing, and retaining their key assets (their people) has always been a primary focus.  If you would like to learn more about how we have been helping clients address these issues I invite you to begin your journey by attending a complimentary webinar on using PI® in the hiring process.  Simply click the link below to register.

Within our organization and in working with client companies the common theme seems to be a guarded optimism as people are seeing a positive turn in their businesses.  Everyone seems reluctant to say the economy is coming back but the signs seem to be there.  The potential pitfall in the reluctantance to accept a return is businesses are slow to add additional resources until they have solid evidence the economy is rebounding.  This approach places companies behind the curve in recruiting employees.  Already stretched employees are expected to do even more and the staff that’s in place begins to abandon ship in the hopes of greener pastures.

In new research published by the University of Colorado it was identified that companies which cut staff too deep are not positioned to ramp up as the economy returns.  In studying companies throughout past recessions companies that made significant staff reductions during downtimes performed far worse than their peers after the recovery.  This begs the question; How prepared are you to ramp up when the economy returns to your sector?

Companies that lack a sound employee retention strategy and recruiting strategy could find themselves in a desperate reaction mode playing a game of catch up in the very near future.  In 1986 Bob Wilson founded what is now Advisa for the very purpose of providing client companies with the human analytics needed to improve these strategies and others with which business leaders often struggle.   Since its inception, Advisa has grown in both its own resources but also in its scope.  Throughout that journey the transference of the knowledge to help companies in excelling at recruiting, properly managing, and retaining their key assets (their people) has always been a primary focus.  If you would like to learn more about how we have been helping clients address these issues I invite you to begin your journey by attending a complimentary webinar on using PI® in the hiring process.  Simply click the link below to register.

One of the most frequent questions I have been asked in the last few years is “What has happened to the work ethic of the younger generation?”  My answer to that question is “Nothing”.  There are varying work ethics in all generations, the younger generation is no exception.  What has changed is the use of motivation techniques that are far less effective with a new generation of workers.  This has not only changed the role of managers but has heightened the need for better managers.

This is an extensive topic and I would be naive to think I could cover it in a blog post.  What I can do in this post is start getting you to think about the importance of motivation and how it might be different moving forward.  The “carrot and stick” method of motivation is not achieving the results it used to provide.  This new generation of workers entered into the workforce with higher demands and expectations of getting what they needed from the work.  It is no longer about rewards and punishments, it is about meeting the intrinsic needs of the worker.

What changed was the needs of the new worker, but what generally has not changed are the management skills training done to teach managers how to be more effective at engaging employees.  Managers have to get smarter and equip themselves with better tools and knowledge to effectively manage and retrain these new employees.

Gen Xers and Gen Yers entered the workforce in unprecedented times.  Fear of the stick had little impact as they could, and did, freely move about from organization to organization.  Rewards from the carrot had reduced effect as they could shop their skills in an open marketplace with less supply than demand.

Manager training programs now have to employ things like behavioral assessments, more clearly defined career pathing that is visible to the employee and built around them, and customized coaching to meet them specific needs and desires of the worker.  If you are still relying on the old carrot and stick method of management you are going to struggle to engage a new workforce and it will likely show up in your turnover numbers.  The basic rewards and consequences management approach is insufficient in satisfying a workforce that has grown up with and has choices.  If you would like to learn more or go deeper into this subject contact us through the tabs above or e-mail me at: tgross@advisausa.com

The results of a joint poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos revealed Americans are more loyal to their favorite soft drink, television show or car brand than they are to their employer.  As an employer or manager those results likely elicited a response of recognition, amazement, or denial.  If it was amazement my hope for you is that you have done a really good job of engaging employees and it is not just denial disguised as amazement.  For those of you who find yourself in a state of recognition or denial it is time to acknowledge the potential damage to your business/department by allowing the situation to brew under the surface.

Loyalty is one of those relationships that has to work both ways.  If you want your employees to strive to meet the needs of the organization you have to be striving to meet the individual needs of your employees.  This is difficult because what works for you may not have the same results when offered to your workforce.  This leaves many managers scratching their heads wondering how to effectively motivate employees.  It is not that they do not understand the importance of motivation.  It is simply that they struggle to understand the differing needs in a diverse workforce. Without good tools and human analytics managers do the best job they can with the information they have.   Personality assessments (like Predictive Index®) can provide the missing data that allows managers to learn how to motivate employees in a way that meets their individual needs.

If improving employee morale is on your radar screen I encourage you to contact us and take the Predictive Index® system for a test drive.  We can show you how to get that missing data you need to enhance the performance of your management team.  Simply click on the contact us tab at the top of the page or e-mail me at tgross@advisausa.com