Make Life at Work Better for Your Team
According to a recent Bersin Report, a major focus in the years ahead will be on human performance – a combination of how we think, feel, experience, and react to the world around us. People today are experiencing higher stress levels, pressure to do more in less time, and forced to juggle multiple priorities – all with a smile on their face. So, it’s not surprising to see employees disengaging and burning out. For example, the Bersin report shows:
- Employee engagement levels today are no higher than they were 10 years ago
- Productivity in the United States after the iPhone launch has slowed (ironic considering the device was meant to make us more productive)
- Employees in the United States take 4-5 days less vacation now that they did in 1998
- Almost 40% of employees believe it is impossible to maintain a growing career and sound family life
Work-life balance is important – but don’t overlook the importance of life at work. How do we as leaders make the work we offer one that encourages employees to perform at their best AND enjoy themselves while they’re doing it? What is good about life at work at your organization? What is not? How are you challengingyour employees to be their best? Consider adopting these strategies when assessing your company’s life at work:
Offer Purpose
We all crave to find a deeper meaning in the work we do – to have purpose, to contribute to something bigger than ourselves and to feel energized. How does the work you offer contribute to the small and big picture (company, industry, community, self)? Although this is often a personal journey, employers can support the importance of discovering purpose with their employees.
Embrace Mentoring
Having someone who helps you work through challenges, pushes you out of your comfort zone, and helps to define your career path is something many of us long for in our careers. Effective mentors are perfect for this and go a long way in keeping employees engaged and excited about the work they do.
In addition to these strategies, ensuring your employees have access to the resources they need and keeping the lines of communication open are always key to making life at work better. We spend a big chunk of our waking hours at work – shouldn’t making it a great experience be a top priority? We think so.
Reach out to us at https://www.successfulculture.com/contact/ to discover how we can help your organization make your organization’s life at work better. Our SCALE Academy is the perfect place to start! Building cultures where everyone can thrive is what we do best.
3 Powerful Ways Your Company Brand Fuels Your Culture
The ‘War for Talent’. I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase over and over – and perhaps, even have a battlefield story of your own. Today more than ever, companies are competing for talent – forcing employers to find ways to stand out from the pack. There is one thing that makes each company unique and should be the foundation for how you attract job seekers – your employer brand.
When you have a strong employer brand imbedded in your recruiting strategy, you find authentic ways to connect with and inspire the talent you need today and tomorrow. Today’s job seekers aren’t just looking for a J.O.B. – they want to work for a company with a culture that fits their goals, personality and values. If you brand speaks to this, you are more likely to attract the type of people that will fit into your culture – resulting in 50% more qualified candidates at your doorstep. Sounds amazing, right?
Well-known companies such as L’Oreal and Salesforce know how to position their employer brand in recruitment. But you don’t have to be a huge company to do this well – companies large and small made a recent top 10 list for winning at employer branding. So, what are these companies doing well? And, more importantly, how can you start doing it? Start off by considering the following strategies:
Careers Page
Your company’s career page should not just be a place where you list open positions (a thing of the past). Instead, use this as a platform to promote your company’s culture and values. This is your chance to connect to job seekers on an emotional level and make them want to work for you.
Your Employees
Words on a website are not enough. Use videos with testimonials from real, live employees – highlighting why they love to work for you or even show a ‘day-in-the-life’ of an employee. Let your employees do the talking. This connects job seekers to your people, giving it a personal touch.
Cohesive Message
Social media is your friend when it comes to promoting your employer brand. And with 79% of job seekers using social media in their job search (even higher for Millennials), this is a platform you just can’t ignore. Strive for a cohesive message across all social platforms with links back to your careers page – enticing job seekers to learn more. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are all fantastic platforms to engage and create a fan-following – building a candidate pipeline for the future.
Hiring great talent is not an easy task. With companies competing for the best and brightest, it is vital that you position your company in the strongest way possible. Your brand tells the world who you are as an organization. What is your story?
3 Ways Artificial Intelligence (AI) Can Improve Your Culture, Hiring, and Bottom Line
When it comes to differentiating your organization, leveraging technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) can strengthen and improve your culture, and increase operational efficiency and productivity, if it’s implemented in a thoughtful way that doesn’t disrupt workflow. Bill Gates said it best – “The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice, so it’s part of everyday life.”
Recruitment is one of the best applications for AI. Over the years, we’ve seen a gradual shift from traditional recruiting practices (think headhunter) toward automated, machine-driven features. AI is everywhere and is changing the game for recruiters. Chatbots, automated scheduling, gamification, and video-based assessments are all the rage. By 2020, it is predicted that 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human. Whether we like or not, AI is here to stay and will continue to shape the way we interact with others.
But how can AI technology really help your recruiting function (and bottom line)? Consider these benefits:
- Increased Diversity (which has been linked to higher revenues)
Implementing AI in the recruitment process can help organizations achieve diversity goals – allowing the AI technology to rank and score candidates based on qualifications without bias creeping in. According to a recent Gallup study, the more diversity the better the organization with 14% higher average comparable revenue and a 15-fold increase in sales revenue for companies with high levels of gender and racial diversity.
- Increased Candidate Quality (which leads to less time and money spent sourcing talent)
Predictive algorithms are emerging as a great resource to identify the best candidates for your organization. Outside of what is on their resume, AI technology takes it a step further – assessing a person’s emotions, tone, word choice and behavioral gestures – giving us deeper insights into human behavior.
- AI and Your Culture (not just recruiting)
AI is not just for recruiting. In fact, an organization that embraces AI technology in its day-to-day activities, will promote a culture that is not afraid to try new things, is determined to stay on trend, and wants to offer the best experience for their employees – which just happens to be a culture today’s talent is looking to join.
One thing remains the same – recruiting is one of the most vital activities your organization undertakes. The people you hire will make or break your culture and business. Exploring innovative methods to find the best and brightest talent for your company should be top of mind.
Reach out to us at https://www.successfulculture.com/contact/ to discover how we can help hire and develop your people using today’s most cutting-edge techniques and resources. Our SCALE Academy is the perfect place to start! Building cultures where everyone feels valued is what we do best.
Soft skills make a difference in your culture – what matters to you?
You are sitting across the table from a job applicant. His resume checks off all the hard skills (e.g., technical knowledge, software skills, product knowledge, industry experience). But does he bring the soft skills needed? A common mistake employers make is assuming that just because someone has all the hard skills required, he or she will be successful.
However, soft skills are a critical piece of the hiring puzzle and should not be undervalued. All the experience in the world cannot replace the fundamental soft skills that your culture thrives on, so whether you are interviewing a seasoned exec or a recent college graduate, soft skills can make the difference between a bad hire or a future rock star.
Soft skills reflect how a person relates, listens, thinks, and collaborates with those around him. Employers are finding them increasingly important with 93% reporting soft skills as an “essential” or “very important” factor when considering a candidate. These skills can be challenging to screen for during the hiring process (and even harder to teach after the new hire has started). However, once you know the soft skills that are important to your company, you can design your selection process to reflect those qualities.
Here are a few steps to consider:
Know Which Soft Skills You Need
There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to assessing soft skills. Instead, it’s best to focus on the characteristics that drive the business forward. Consider your corporate culture, your industry, and your unique business.
What soft skills do the most successful people in your organization exude? Are they effective communicators?
Do they collaborate well and rally the troops when you need it most? Identify what skills are most important to your organization and then build them into your hiring process.
Ask the Right Questions
When structuring your interview questions, be sure to ask behavioral-based questions that drill down into the soft skills you have identified. Questions such as ‘Give me an example of how you have changed your approach in order to communicate more effectively with someone’, or ‘Tell me about a major project that you are proud of and why’ are great questions to uncover a candidate’s soft skills.
Add a Soft Skills Assessment to Your Hiring Recipe
There are a variety of assessments on the market that look at factors such as compassion, humility, emotional intelligence, motivation, and countless other soft skills. Find one that fits well with your needs. Just make sure the assessment serves as only part of the puzzle – not a deal breaker.
As the dynamic of our world of work continues to evolve, many top soft skills will remain the desirable – serving as the foundation to success regardless of where we work. When you focus on hiring the right mix of cultural fit, soft skills, and experience, you are sure to hire a winner for your team.
Reach out to us at https://www.successfulculture.com/contact/ to discover how we can help your organization identify the right mix of soft skills to
What does your employee’s well-being say about your culture?
Over the last few years, we’ve seen a focus on employee well-being and improving ‘life at work’ – recognizing the importance of supporting the mental, physical and emotional health of our workforce. Afterall, our mental and physical energy drives our ability to think, act and create. Although offering a wellness program is often made with the best of intentions, these programs often fall short because one key element was overlooked – the role of the organization’s culture.
What does that mean? Well, think of it this way…If you tell people to get an annual physical, but do not offer programs that address health concerns or foster a culture that is inactive, how are you really helping them? At the end of the day, you cannot force someone to participate; however, the more you tie your program back to your culture and what fits within your organization, the better is will be received. Unlike the movie Field of Dreams, employee wellness initiatives cannot have a ‘build it and they will come’ approach. There’s more to it.
Don’t believe me? Consider these wellness stats: Although 85% of companies offer a wellness program, only 60% of employees are even aware it exists – and of those who know it exists, only 40% participate. To be successful, your wellness program must have strong leadership support, reflect the company’s cultural beliefs and values, and address the whole employee (social, emotional, mental and physical health).
So how can you weave your culture into your wellness initiative? Try some of these great ideas:
- Get Moving! Consider adopting stand-up meetings vs having everyone sitting as usual. Or conduct a walking meeting if it is just with one or two others. In fact, walking meetings are linked to increased creativity! Steve Jobs knew this as he preferred to conduct important business meetings while on a walk. The more we move, the more creative and engaged we can be.
- Skip the Donuts! Ok, maybe not every time given they are a crowd pleaser, but make sure to offer healthy snacks that are packed with the nutrition our bodies need when working long hours on a critical project.
- Reward & Recognize! Your employees are working hard on their wellness – reward them for their effort! And make it public to show your support and commitment to a healthy culture. Receiving positive feedback is a great way to boost emotional health.
The wellness of your employees matters. It is not only human to care about others – especially those that give us their time, ideas and energy day in and day out – but creating a culture of wellness will inevitably impact your bottom line – enabling your organization to be more productive, more creative, and just a great place to work for all.
Reach out to us at https://www.successfulculture.com/contact/ to discover how we can help your organization design a wellness program that reflects your cultural values to best engage your employees. Our SCALE Academy is the perfect place to start! Building cultures where everyone feels valued is what we do best.
How to Spring Clean Your People and Your Processes in Your Business
I LOVE Spring. It is symbolic & meaningful in so many ways, symbolizing growth, warmth, hope, and rebirth. The Spring equinox is the time in the Earth’s annual cycle around the sun in which day and night are equal in length, before the days start to get longer, following the dominance of darkness in the winter.
This transition often symbolizes our internal struggles. In order to move forward, grow, and evolve, we must endure the battle between darkness & light, and between degeneration & growth. We must allow ourselves the physical, emotional, and spiritual room to shed what no longer works for us (Fall), to hibernate, rest, & re-strengthen (Winter), and then to reawaken (Spring).
As we move into Spring, I wish you a re-awakening full of promise, purpose, and joy.
I also wish you LUCK with Spring cleaning. Here are tips to get your business-house in order, with a focus on your People and Your Processes.
People (Employees, Customers, Partners, Networking Communities)
Employees
Where are you with your employees? Do they feel connected to you? Do they easily approach you with questions or concerns? If not, this is a good time to open the lines of communication. Spring is a great time to hold a Town Hall meeting where you can present a State of the company, and address concerns you’ve collected anonymously. I walk you through how to conduct great Town Halls here.
Customers
When was the last time you personally connected with your customer, voice-to-voice, or face-to-face? What does your pipeline look like for new customers? What can you do to discover additional opportunities within existing accounts or open new accounts?
Partners
How does your partnership network look? Have you opened up potential partnerships for teaming or for referrals, but have not nurtured them? This is a good time to evaluate how to leverage these relationships for mutual benefit.
Networking Communities
Are you in the right communities? Are you paying for memberships you are not using? Perhaps it’s time to attend an event in an existing or new community, or cancel.
Processes & Infrastructure (Accounting, HR, IT)
Accounting
Are you satisfied with your accounting support? As a business grows, our accounting support needs change as well. I recently changed to a more experienced bookkeeper who has a staff to provide additional support. Are your books up to date? When was the last time you conducted an expense audit on the basic services you need for your business? These include phone plans, insurance plans, utilities, wireless services, etc. Do you have any open credit cards for former employees that you forgot to cancel?
HR
Are your onboarding training materials, HR policies, and employee manuals updated with the latest general HR policies and state-by-state policies? Be sure to include information that will protect your business regarding employee digital communication. Refer to my latest Inc. column on this topic here.
IT
Are your IT licenses renewed and up-to-date? Do you have any active licenses or accounts that you no longer need but are still incurring charges? Do you have any outstanding phones on your plans for former employees?
Are all links on your website(s) active and current? This includes your website, newsletter, and email signature links.
Is your email inbox overloaded? If so, try to allocate 15 minutes a day to go through your inbox and scrub it. Few things feel as good at the office as purging your inbox, and seeing a low number of unread emails.
I hope these tips help you clear the clutter and cobwebs from some of the elements impeding your progress. It’s much too easy to become overwhelmed with clutter, which always weighs us down and slows us down!
A blank slate – or at least a clean slate – paves the way for great personal and organizational growth.
Good luck!
Marissa
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Sign up here to receive Successful Culture’s leadership blog every Friday. All posts contain actionable content to make you the best leader you can be, to help you develop your people to their greatest potential, and to help you build your best organization.
About Successful Culture
We work with business owners, CEOs, and leadership teams that want to achieve their greatest personal & organizational potential. Through coaching, strategic consulting, retreat facilitation, and workshops, we equip leaders & emerging leaders with the mindset, tools, strategies, and processes they need to excel.
Ready to move forward? Email us today at [email protected].
Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Engage with me during my morning Periscope sessions as well (@marissalevin).
Please check out my Inc. Magazine columns on my Author Page too.
– In my latest Inc, article, I share The Essential Guide to Avoiding Workplace Text, Email, & Social Media Disasters.
– Learn about the 9 Leadership Behaviors that Lose Employee Trust & Respect here.
~Marissa Levin
CEO, Successful Culture
“Taking Leaders from Triage to Transformation.”
Why You Must Have That Difficult Conversation – And How To Do It
There are four words that, when we hear them, we stop in our tracks because we know they are going to be followed by a lot of other words we may not want to hear. This happens in both our personal and our professional lives. Those four words are…. “WE HAVE TO TALK.”
Did you just feel a shiver run up your spine when you read them? Did they sneak their way off of the screen, and grip your throat a bit?
I don’t know who is stressed out more by these words… the person initiating the conversation, or the person on the receiving end.
If you are the initiator, you know you’ve been carrying around this conversation for a while now. You’ve role-played how it will go, what the reactions will be, and how you are hoping it will end. You’ve determined when and where you should have the conversation. And, you’ve come up with lots of reasons why you shouldn’t have it.
If you are the recipient, first you may try to brace yourself for what’s coming with some mindfulness techniques, like deep breathing, or you may quickly tell yourself it can’t be that bad. Or maybe you will immediately launch into a defensive mode. Or, maybe you’ll say, “this isn’t a good time,” or you’ll run.
Putting all of the emotional baggage aside that accompanies the conversation, here is the one reason you must have this conversation.
IT WON’T GO AWAY BY ITSELF.
When it’s time for a difficult conversation, at least one of three things happen:
1: The person who needs to talk keeps it inside. It grows, and festers, and takes on many additional lives of its own, until the angst or anger associated with the original conversation overtakes the actual topic.
2: The person who needs to talk talks to others. Rather than having the conversation with the person they need to talk with, they seek out advice and support from others, and fuel the issue with input from people that may or may not be understanding the entire story (and are definitely not hearing multiple perspectives).
3: The person seeks out the other person (the target) to have the conversation. And, usually it doesn’t go nearly as badly as they’ve fabricated in their minds. Although, sometimes it does go badly. But when that happens, at least it’s over, and the people can address the elephant in the room.
A Self-Assessment Checklist
How can you prep and move through this conversation with as little drama as possible? Here is a checklist of questions for you to answer prior to having the conversation.
- What are your objectives for this conversation?
- What do you believe is the other person’s position in this conversation? What reactions are you anticipating?
- Based on your history with this person, how effective are they at pushing your buttons, or triggering you? How safe do you feel with them? Based on this information, how can you pre-empt triggers?
- How are your feelings about this conversation impacting how you will show up? I remember learning that the mere act of inserting a thermometer into a glass of water to measure the temperature changes the water temperature. Similarly, your disposition in initiating the conversation will impact how the conversation plays out. What is your personal temperature?
- How have you contributed to the situation leading up to this point? Have you owned that? Have you expressed that to the other person?
- Can you approach this conversation without blame or ego, and focus only on solutions?
- How aware are you of your own body language? Can you do a body-language check prior to the conversation to ensure you are not projecting a defensive or offensive message?
Alternative conversation starters
Perhaps you can diffuse the situation with a softer opening. One of these may work:
“I could really use your help with a challenge I am having.”
“I would love your perspective on this situation.”
“Can you please help me to understand something?”
It is also a good idea to schedule the conversation, even if it’s for 15 minutes (although it’s important to not rush, so that nothing goes unsaid or unresolved). This way, both participants are completely prepared, focused, and present. No one feels they have been cornered into a conversation they were not prepared to have. Difficult conversations always flow best when both parties feel safe to have the exchange.
Conversation closers
Alternatively, when the conversation is concluding, both parties should feel that they have had ample time to express, and that they have been heard. Something like this may work:
“I really appreciate you having this conversation with me. Is there anything else you would like to discuss?”
“Are we good now?”
I hope these pointers can take the edge off of your next difficult conversation. It probably won’t be nearly as challenging as you anticipate. And just in case it is, you’ll be fully prepared to manage it from beginning to end.
Good luck!
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Sign up here to receive Successful Culture’s leadership blog every Friday. All posts contain actionable content to make you the best leader you can be, to help you develop your people to their greatest potential, and to help you build your best organization.
About Successful Culture
We work with business owners, CEOs, and leadership teams that want to achieve their greatest personal & organizational potential. Through coaching, strategic consulting, retreat facilitation, and workshops, we equip leaders & emerging leaders with the mindset, tools, strategies, and processes they need to excel.
Ready to move forward? Email us today at [email protected].
Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Engage with me during my morning Periscope sessions as well (@marissalevin).
Please check out my Inc. Magazine columns on my Author Page too.
– In my latest Inc, article, I share The Essential Guide to Avoiding Workplace Text, Email, & Social Media Disasters.
– Learn about the 9 Leadership Behaviors that Lose Employee Trust & Respect here.
~Marissa Levin
CEO, Successful Culture
“Taking Leaders from Triage to Transformation.”
10 Cardinal Rules for Working with Friends
Ask any business owner if they’ve ever worked with friends, and you will likely get a yes. How they answer you (with a scowl or with a smile), will determine if it turned out well.
One of my clients is WAKA, an 18-year old company that has put kickball and social sports for young professionals on the map. The three owners have been friends for more than two decades. They have mastered the art of “working with friends.” This doesn’t mean they haven’t experienced turmoil or conflict. In fact, one of my key roles in working with them was to help them move through some inertia that was stalling their continued growth. They have aggressive growth goals over the next 3-5 years, and decision-by-consensus was slowing momentum.
Nevertheless, these three life-long friends have managed to maintain and strengthen their brotherly bonds as they’ve built their business. So how have they done it? They’ve followed what I have identified as the 10 cardinal rules for working with friends.
1: Alignment of core values regarding life and business. It would seem natural that our friends would share our values, but this isn’t always the case. If we’re going into business with anyone, there must be alignment of values. If you are a high-value service provider but your friend is focused on being a low-cost service provider, you’re not driven by the same outcomes. If you are a workaholic, but your friend is focused on work-life balance, you are misaligned regarding focus. Misalignment of values is a non-starter.
2: Clearly defined roles & responsibilities. What is expected of each person? You would never hire a stranger without clearly defined roles & responsibilities. Clearly spell out what you expect of anyone you work with, and what they can expect of you.
3:No exceptions to any rules: All restrictions/processes apply. When I started my first company Information Experts 20 years ago, I hired a friend as a sub-contractor. She was required to sign a non-compete and a non-disclosure agreement, like all of my subcontractors. If I showed favoritism, this would have set a precedent that rules only apply to certain people in my company. Sadly, she violated both documents. She stole my content, and solicited work directly from my client. Again, I had to set a precedent with this situation. Our attorney issued a cease-and-desist letter, demanding that she cease solicitation. My client broke ties with her, I fired her, and that was the end of the friendship. This goes back to Rule #1: Alignment of core values. She valued money more than our friendship.
4: Respect of financial arrangements. The mixing of money and friendships, especially in business, is a potential landmine. Should you decide to work with a friend, do whatever is necessary to minimize financial friction. Stay away from loans and promisory notes. Pay your friend on time, in accordance with the agreed upon terms. Working with a friend is not permission to take financial advantage.
5: Respect of the value and worth of each party. This past week, I had conversations with two good friends that own businesses, who are experts in their fields, that feel disrespected, devalued, and taken for granted by friends they’ve worked with. They both chose to charge their friends significantly discounted rates for their services. This is a terrible idea, and almost always backfires. A true friend would not expect another friend to decrease her market rate, which is essentially communicating, “I don’t think you are worth what you are charging others.” Conversely, the friend that discounts her rate ends up feeling as if she’s giving away her services. “I felt bad” or “I felt guilty” is almost always the outcome.
6: Establishment of a way out of the business arrangement. Every business arrangement requires an “out” clause, and this situation is no different. Discuss ahead of time the possibility that one may want to terminate the arrangement. Should that occur, exit gracefully and graciously. Don’t make it personal, and don’t take it personally.
7: Respect of confidentiality. As with any business relationship, do not discuss your business with others. Don’t share proprietary company information, don’t discuss the relationship challenges, don’t gossip. Treat the business part of your relationship with utmost respect and confidentiality.
8: Ability to have difficult conversations. Difficult conversations are stressful. Especially when we blend our personal & professional lives, there is a lot at stake if a difficult conversation goes wrong. However, not having the conversation is even worse. Trust that you can have a respectful, constructive dialogue, and make it happen to move past any feelings of resentment or anger that may be building.
9: Care and feeding of your friendship outside of the business. To preserve the friendship, set aside time to just be friends. Grab lunch, go to a movie or a museum, or text/email/call with no business agenda – just to say hello.
10: Finally, Remember Rule #6 from my last column. Don’t take yourself so seriously. It’s just business. Businesses come and go, but our most important friendships endure.
A Note about mentorship, service donations, and trades
We all have much to contribute to others! Mentorship and pro-bono or discounted services are wonderful ways to help others move forward, especially when we can help socially impactful organizations fulfill their missions. When we agree to mentor someone, or donate our services to a non-profit, we still must spell out the terms so that both parties know what to expect. The only thing missing is the exchange of money.
I have done many successful trades for service as well. Again, spell out all terms & conditions so that there are no surprises. These arrangements are still business relationships.
In Other SC News….
Sign up here to receive Successful Culture’s leadership blog every Friday. All posts contain actionable content to make you the best leader you can be, to help you develop your people to their greatest potential, and to help you build your best organization.
Successful Culture accepts applications for its TransformU coaching program on a rolling basis. All one-on-one coaching spots are currently filled, however, we will open more spots in 2nd quarter. The TransformU coaching program is only for CEOs and leaders seeking a high level of accountability, who are ready to build the right foundation, and move to the next level of growth. All engagements follow a customized road map to move the client from current state to desired state. A mandatory skype interview and online assessment will determine if the TransformU program is a fit. You can learn more about the TransformU program on the Successful Culture website here. Please email me at [email protected] with any questions.
The Annual SC Customer Appreciation Luncheon Was Amazing!
I recently honored about 40 SC clients at our annual Customer Appreciation Luncheon. I spoke about the gifts that each client brings to the world every day in their own business accomplishments, and expressed my gratitude for their trust in my leadership to move them forward to the next levels of growth. Everyone made important connections too! I can’t wait for our Spring community gathering. Will you be engaging Successful Culture to help with your growth, and joining us too?
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Sign up here to receive Successful Culture’s leadership blog every Friday. All posts contain actionable content to make you the best leader you can be, to help you develop your people to their greatest potential, and to help you build your best organization.
About Successful Culture
We work with business owners, CEOs, and leadership teams that want to achieve their greatest personal & organizational potential. Through coaching, strategic consulting, retreat facilitation, and workshops, we equip leaders & emerging leaders with the mindset, tools, strategies, and processes they need to excel.
Ready to move forward? Email us today at [email protected]
Connect with me on Instragram, Facebook, and Twitter. Engage with me during my morning Periscope sessions as well (@marissalevin).
Please check out my Inc. Magazine columns on my Author Page too.
– In my latest Inc, article, I share The Essential Guide to Avoiding Workplace Text, Email, & Social Media Disasters.
– Learn about the 9 Leadership Behaviors that Lose Employee Trust & Respect here.
~Marissa Levin
CEO, Successful Culture
“Taking Leaders from Triage to Transformation.”
Four Things Businesses Overlook When Moving Employees to a New Position
So often when we’re thinking of expanding, we turn our attention to the external hiring process. In many cases, however, who we need is already with us. It seems logical to move a proven employee from one position to another. After all, we know their work styles & capabilities, and they know our culture, customers, & products/services. Plus, we trust them.
But wait. Before we make changes, how do we know they will be just as successful in a new role?
A client is going through this process right now. For months, she has struggled with not having enough project management coverage for her government clients. We’ve evaluated potential hires. Rightfully so, she’s hesitant to hire a stranger to care for her most important customer relationships. We’ve also looked at how she and other members of her executive team are allocating their time to determine if they have extra bandwidth for hands-on project management. They don’t.
Our next solution? An existing employee.
In my previous column, Performing & Promoting to the Highest Levels of Incompetence, I discuss how employees tend to rise to their highest levels of incompetence (The Peter Principle) when they are moved from a position in which they excel to a different position. Supervisors “promote” their employees to more demanding positions because they want to reward them for a job well done, and want to give them opportunities to grow, learn more, and earn more.
To prevent Peter from rearing his ugly head at my client’s organization, we are assessing the following elements before moving anyone:
1: The Client Impact. My client’s project manager is currently full-time with a specific customer. Shifting her role will require her to reduce hours for her customer, and take on hours at additional customers.
Action item:
1: Discuss with the client. Gain their buy-in before making any changes.
2: Brainstorm with the employee about a plan to ensure customer service and project management is not impacted. Who on her team that she manages can take on project management responsibilities, since they are on site?
2: The Company Impact. The smallest company change can create large ripple effects. How will this be perceived by others in the company? How will people be personally impacted? What needs to be communicated to the company regarding this change?
Action item:
1: Consider the impact on each employee that works with the movable employee. Will they have a new supervisor? Will they require a different performance review plan?
2: Consider a communications strategy to keep the entire company aware of impending changes.
3: The Employee Impact. Does the employee fully understand the impact of this change?
Action Item:
Provide the employee with the time and space to fully think through the change. How will it impact their daily schedule? How will it impact their home life (More travel? More driving? More hours)?
This brings me to the one question employers must answer before moving any employee to a new position in the company:
4: Have they passed the “GWC” test? My favorite hiring test – for both new hires, and when you are considering moving an employee around – is the GWC test. Do they Get It, Want It and have the Capacity to do it?
Get it: Do they really understand the job?
Want it: Do they want to do this job more than they want to do anything else?
Capacity to do it: Do they have the required capacities to be successful – intellectual, emotional, physical, spiritual – whatever those capacities may be?
I wrote about the GWC Model in my column, Should You Make The Hire? Should You Keep The Employee? Three Simple Litmus Tests.
To thoroughly answer these questions, you must create a job description for the new position, and have your employee follow the same hiring process you would have anyone else follow. They should apply for the job. You should interview them. And they must know exactly what is expected.
Further, it’s important to assume they will need ramp-up time in their new position. While they may be comfortable with the organization, they may need some time getting fully comfortable in their new role.
Moving them over can be successful with the right precautionary steps. You can effectively avoid The Peter Principle from rearing its head while ensuring your top performers are able to learn, grow, and be challenged.
Need Help Assessing an Internal Move?
I love to work with organizations to ensure they have the right people in the right seats. Please email at [email protected] me if you are struggling with finding the right resources, internally or externally.
Good luck!
~Marissa
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Sign up here to receive Successful Culture’s leadership blog every Friday. All posts contain actionable content to make you the best leader you can be, to help you develop your people to their greatest potential, and to help you build your best organization.
About Successful Culture
We work with business owners, CEOs, and leadership teams that want to achieve their greatest personal & organizational potential. Through coaching, strategic consulting, retreat facilitation, and workshops, we equip leaders & emerging leaders with the mindset, tools, strategies, and processes they need to excel.
Ready to move forward? Email us today at [email protected]
Connect with me on Instragram, Facebook, and Twitter. Engage with me during my morning Periscope sessions as well (@marissalevin).
Please check out my Inc. Magazine columns on my Author Page too.
– In my latest Inc, article, I share The Essential Guide to Avoiding Workplace Text, Email, & Social Media Disasters.
– Learn about the 9 Leadership Behaviors that Lose Employee Trust & Respect here.
~Marissa Levin
CEO, Successful Culture
“Taking Leaders from Triage to Transformation.”
Performing & Promoting to The Highest Levels of Incompetence
In 1969, leadership expert Dr. Laurence Peter wrote about the management predicament of promoting top talent to the point where they are no longer competent enough to do their jobs well. While Peter’s observations had a sarcastic spin, they were right on point 45 years ago, and are still very relevant in today’s workforce.
The Peter Principle, which explains that every employee tends to rise to his/her level of incompetence, applies to virtually every position in an organization, from the office manager to the C-suite. Employees find themselves in over their heads because they haven’t kept up with the evolving demands of a position, or they’ve been “promoted” into a position that doesn’t align with their strengths, or they’ve landed in the “Final Placement” of the company. And even though this is one of the most well-known management concepts, it seems that employers and employees can’t avoid it.
Here are two of the most prevalent ideologies that make up The Peter Principle:
1: You excel at your current job. As a reward, you get promoted – into a position that requires different skill sets, and therefore you are set up for failure. This is the problem with career paths. You have to safeguard against future incompetence and obsolescence.
For example, let’s say you are awesome at sales. You are a total “people person.” Nothing excites you or motivates you more than connecting with others outside the office, and closing a big deal. You exceed all of your sales goals and quotas. You are king of sales. Your leadership team sees this and says, “You should lead the sales team!! We are going to take you out of the field, and promote you to VP of Sales. You will get this beautiful corner office, and you will get to manage an entire team of sales people. Your individual success now depends on the performance of others.” THAT is a recipe for disaster. These two positions are vastly different. A top-performing sales exec will likely crumble in a management position that takes him/her away from the customer.
2: Once you’re promoted, you’re stuck as a non-performer and will likely not get fired. Congratulations! You’re a [INSERT NEW TITLE HERE]. You’re now “above” people that were previously your peers and friends. You’re privy to a new level of confidential information about the inner workings of the company. You get the inside scoop. And since you’re in management or leadership now, you can’t share it with anyone. Your loyalty to the organization has made you practically irreplaceable. You hold way too much institutional knowledge for the company to release you, even if your output is minimal. You’ve proven to be trustworthy and ethical. Competency is over-rated! You’re stuck in a position that doesn’t suit you… unless you quit. You have reached what’s known as “Final Placement” in the organization.
When the Position Outpaces the Employee
The Peter Principle also applies when the demands of a position evolve beyond the person in the position. This frequently occurs in start-up and high-growth organizations, where growth is occurring at an accelerated pace.
It also happens when employers make rushed decisions based on what the organization needs now, rather than what it will need later. Reactive hiring for “now,” without considering an organization’s growth trajectory, will ultimately create a team that lacks the skills needed for growth.
One of my clients is currently experiencing the Peter Principle with a long-time, highly paid IT manager. My client’s organization has grown and evolved a lot, and so have her IT needs. Her requirements have moved from being largely administrative to being much more strategic and creative. Her current manager lacks the skill set and thought process to become what my client needs. The skill set is not trainable or coachable. One solution may have been to split the required skill sets into two positions. However, because this employee is over-paid and will not take a salary cut or demotion, my client has no choice but to terminate her.
It’s a difficult situation for everyone but she’s been forced into incompetence by the company’s growth, and by her own salary level. We are mapping out my client’s long-term IT needs and required skill sets next week, and will then map her existing team to the requirements. We will try to put everyone in the right seats. If there fails to be a match, we won’t force a square peg into a round hole to protect the employee because that doesn’t serve anyone well. Everyone deserves to be in a position where they can grow and succeed. We’ll need to put a plan in place to terminate.
The Peter Principle also occurs in the C-suite, but you don’t hear much chatter about that. I speak from experience. The average tenure of a CEO from the time of company inception is 7 years. After that time, the company is usually vastly different from when the Founder first opened its doors. Revenue has increased, employee headcount has increased, and there are systems, processes, & infrastructures to manage workflow. Customers, and the solutions the company provides, have likely evolved as well.
I chose to leave my first company, Information Experts, in its 15th year. The company had changed a lot, and there were also significant changes in the way our largest customer (the federal government) engaged with its vendors that left me questioning whether I was still the right person to lead the firm. This was a very introspective, complicated time that filled me with feelings of self-disappointment and questions of my overall purpose.
I had led the company through many ups and downs, but this was different. My personal core value system of high value, deep relationships, and transformation didn’t align with the government’s core value system of lowest-priced solutions. The government’s move to the Lowest Priced Technically Acceptable (LPTA) mandate forced us to lay off employees that had been with me for many, many years. The impact the new environment had on my company was a deeply personal psychological bloodbath. In one sweeping mandate, the culture I personally had established over 15 years was demolished. Consequently, I no longer fit my own company.
The supporting leadership was much better suited to lead the company through the tumultuous change that resulted from the new government environment, and establish a different culture. Since I’ve left, they have done an amazing job of right-sizing the company, cutting overhead, and performing well in an insanely competitive environment. I was a casualty of the Peter Principle… I rose to my highest level of incompetence in my own company.
However, my situation is a shining example of how important it is to “trust the process” – especially in the midst of chaos – and to never undermine your own achievements and capabilities. Everything I had experienced, built, and learned until the day I opened Successful Culture 4 ½ years ago prepared me for my success – and happiness – today. And it is all of my collective experiences, through 20 years of entrepreneurship & business building that has empowered me to bring such transformational value to my clients.
There is life after the Peter Principle! I have never been happier. I have never been more aligned with my passion, my purpose, and my potential. Experiencing The Peter Principle was the best thing that has ever happened to me in my professional journey, even though I had to painfully walk away from something I built. So often in life, we may be fooled into thinking an ending, or an unexpected outcome, or a closed door is the culmination of the most significant aspect of our journeys. In reality, they are merely stepping stones to something spectacular.
If you find yourself in the position of rising to your highest level of incompetence – or if you have an employee that is following this path – embrace the circumstance as an opportunity to step into something better that will lead you to tremendous growth, or to graciously lead them away from your organization and into something better.
Trust that something amazing awaits, even though you can’t see it yet…because it does!
Sign up here to receive Successful Culture’s leadership blog every Friday. All posts contain actionable content to make you the best leader you can be, to help you develop your people to their greatest potential, and to help you build your best organization.
About Successful Culture
We work with business owners, CEOs, and leadership teams that want to achieve their greatest personal & organizational potential. Through coaching, strategic consulting, retreat facilitation, and workshops, we equip leaders & emerging leaders with the mindset, tools, strategies, and processes they need to excel.
Ready to move forward? Email us today at [email protected]
Connect with me on Instragram, Facebook, and Twitter. Engage with me during my morning Periscope sessions as well (@marissalevin).
Please check out my Inc. Magazine columns on my Author Page too.
– In my latest Inc, article, I share The Essential Guide to Avoiding Workplace Text, Email, & Social Media Disasters.
– Learn about the 9 Leadership Behaviors that Lose Employee Trust & Respect here.
~Marissa Levin
CEO, Successful Culture
“Taking Leaders from Triage to Transformation.”