In my experience, one of the most common reasons managers want to adopt a coaching style of leadership is because they want to help their people find their own solutions rather than tell them what to do.  Usually they know they have a skilled team of professionals and they want to build their confidence in solving problems and making decisions.

If you are also in this position, the first thing you need to recognise is that you may be helping create this dynamic.  However the advantage of that is that you can also change it.

Employees often think that, because managers and leaders are more senior (and more highly paid), it is their responsibility to solve problems and make decisions.  So they arrive at your office door all ready to give you the challenges they’re stuck with.  For leaders there is the strong temptation to help your employees by taking on their problems and solving them for them.  But taking on their problems is nothing more than rescuing them.  It doesn’t help them develop the confidence to tackle the problem themselves.

So, the number one way you can help your employees take greater ownership for their work is to stop rescuing them.  That doesn’t mean abandoning them and leaving them to struggle.  It simply means helping them realise what they already know about how to tackle the challenge.  A simple and effective question to ask is “Out of interest, what would you do if I wasn’t here?”  Nine times out of ten, the answer they give you will be an acceptable way forward.  They just need reassurance.  Next time the same situation arises, they’ll have greater confidence in their own conviction.

If you keep taking your employees problems, they’ll keep giving them to you.  Stop rescuing them and they’ll start drawing on their own knowledge and experience.  And you can get on with your own job rather than theirs.

This post was originally published on the Discuss HR blog.  You can read the original post here

As a profession, HR spends a fair time agonising over how to raise our profile as a strategic partner and add value to the business.

The accepted wisdom is that we need to “sell the benefit” of HR.  But I am inclined to disagree.  I believe that mindset is what gets in the way and makes it difficult.

You see the terminology of “selling the benefit” comes straight out of product sales training.  It smacks of a scenario where the challenge is to persuade managers to buy whatever it is that HR wants to give them by pointing out all the benefits HR thinks they will get as a result.

The difficulty with this is that HR is looking at the challenge of introducing an idea only from their perspective.  As professionals they know the “right” answer regarding people in the business and they see their job as persuading managers to do what is right.

I came across this situation the other day when speaking with a client.  The central Learning & Development team have developed an online Career Development Portal for employees.  It’s a good portal and the intention is a positive one in terms of retaining and developing employees.  They are now increasingly frustrated by what they make out to be the lack of buy-in from managers who need to have career conversations with employees to realise the benefit of the portal.

The difficulty here is that managers will only buy into something if they see it is going to solve a problem or meet a need or wish that they have.  And if they trust the solution they are buying in to is in line with their priorities and interests.

If HR is to be a true strategic partner they need to stop designing processes and initiatives that need “selling” to the business.  Instead they need to start listening to what the business needs and designing the services that will address those needs efficiently and effectively.

One way of doing that is to use your critics as designers.  This is an approach that I’ve learnt and adapted from Mike Harris, founding CEO of telephone bank Firstdirect and Internet bank Egg.

In his book, Find Your Lightbulb, Mike Harris describes how First Direct brought the critics out in full force.  Even his own mother joined the masses of banking experts and strategy consultants in telling him what a bad idea it was.  “That’s never going to work” she said.  “You are wasting your time with that telephone banking nonsense.  People hate using the telephone – they get passed from pillar to post, having to repeat the same story over and over again”

Her reaction inspired him to produce several statements of intent such as “We will answer the phone within three rings”.  These became the fundamental principles for Firstdirect and were at the heart of the exceptional service and customer loyalty for which it became famous.

I encourage you to take a similar approach to designing your HR initiatives by following these three steps:

1. Write down all the reasons you think managers will give for why an HR idea or initiative won’t work for your organisation
2. Get as many reasons “why not” in as much detail as possible
3. Now go through the list using your judgement and intuition.  Pick the most valid and important insights and turn them into “statements of intent” that address the objections.

For example, taking my client’s example above, a frequent objection is that career conversations can take too much time.  So the statement of intent could be “provide a framework of 3 questions that can enable a career conversation in 10-15 minutes” or “no career conversation will take longer than 30 minutes”.

We know that HR has real value to add.  By looking through the eyes of our managers and designing services that meet their needs, they will start to see it to.  They won’t need selling.

This post was originally published in the Newsletter for CIPD Management Toolclicks.  You can read the original article here.

How you as a manager view conflict will largely control your attitude and approach to dealing with it.

Most people don’t like conflict.  Maybe that’s because our physiology makes us ill-prepared for them.  The body’s response to conflict is a “fight or flight” reaction where the body releases adrenaline in preparation for fighting back or running away.  That was all helpful when we lived in caves and had to survive in a world of angry predators.  It’s not so helpful in the workplace where such responses will most likely result in you being the subject of a disciplinary or grievance procedure.

Putting your head in the sand and hoping that conflict will pass you by is not the most effective method for problem solving. Conflict rarely resolves itself – in fact, conflict normally increases if not dealt with properly. It is not uncommon to see what might have been a non-event develop into a massive problem if not resolved early on.

So if you are going to resolve conflict effectively, the first thing you need to do is view it differently.  You can’t choose the facts of a conflict but you can choose the frame you put around it – how you see the situation, what you assume about it and how you interpret it.

Here are three new ways to think about and view conflict:

1.  Conflict isn’t necessarily negative.

When we fear conflict or see it as a negative experience, we harm our chances of dealing with it effectively.  The truth is that conflict is neither positive nor negative in and of itself.  Conflict is the interaction between two people who have different thoughts, attitudes, beliefs or opinions.  They believe that those differences will create a situation that doesn’t meet their interests or needs.  However, conflict can also bring out into the open alternative ways of thinking and behaving and alternatives for action that you may not have considered.

2.  Conflict isn’t necessarily a competition.   

Another view that needs changing is that conflict is always a battle between competing and incompatible self-interests or wishes.  Thinking of conflict in this way leads us to feel the other person is trying to block us getting what we want.  And both people become more stubborn as they aim for their own goals and ignore the needs or wishes that they both might share.  To resolve conflict effectively, you need to frame the situation as one that you can sort out collaboratively (win-win) instead of framing it as a contest of power or rights (win-lose).

3.  Conflict isn’t necessarily personal. 

Conflict is a business problem because conflict costs money in wasted time, bad decisions, lost employees, lowered job motivation, health costs and legal expenses.  Resolving the conflict doesn’t necessarily mean resolving the differences that caused the conflict.  And it’s not about getting people to like each other.  Instead it is about co-creating a solution to the business problem.  That means getting people to accept and respect their differences and finding a way to work co-operatively and productively.

If you always view conflict as negative and stressful, you’ll always want try and avoid it which is a bad idea because conflicts do not just go away.  By viewing conflict more positively, you’ll find it easier to address it healthily and productively.

As HR professionals and senior leaders, we often think on a macro scale.  We’re often trying to change or implement things at an organisation level, or we’re helping managers create change at a department level or business sector level.  And we’re often trying to do that with limited resources.

Any HR person or leader has a big challenge when trying to get each individual of a group to do what he or she wants.  So, what’s the answer?

Robert Cialdini, author of Influence:  The Psychology of Persuasion talks about the principle of social proof which says that, if you don’t know exactly what to do, you rely on others around you to help you find the proper way to act.

It is quite possibly the greatest technique for persuading large numbers of people.  And so it is well worth considering by HR and management.

You can put the principle of social proof into practice by influencing those who will be more easily persuaded first.  By getting a few people to follow your lead and do what you want, other members of the group are more likely to follow your request.

You can think of social proof as a chain reaction.  Your request is an explosion while the people you are trying to persuade are crates of explosives.  The ones closest to the explosion (those more easily persuaded) are triggered (comply with your request) once you give an effective “explosion” using the principles of influence.  The next ones who are a little further behind (less easily persuaded) are then triggered because of nearby explosions (witnessing other people comply with your requests).  This process can go on until eventually, the most cold-hearted individual who completely refused to comply with your request at the beginning, starts thinking “everyone else is doing it so I must be wrong.  I’ll do it as well.”  The principle of social proof is extremely powerful and can eventually convert a defiant individual into agreement.

You can employ this principle in a number of ways:

• If you’re trying to persuade your organisation to implement a new process or initiative they are more likely to agree if they are first offered information about the suc­cess achieved by other organisations of a similar size and in a similar industry.
• If you’re trying to persuade managers to carry out a process, they are more likely to do so if they can see that their counterparts in other departments or geographies are following similar suggestions.  People want to feel that they are part of an established community that already knows where it’s going.
• You can become more influ­ential and persuasive on a personal level, not by using your own powers of persuasion, but by using the testimonials and rec­ommendations of others that are similar to the people you are trying to influence.

What examples can you share of how you have benefited from social proof as a way of influencing and persuading others?

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I learned recently that Google Reader is closing in the next month or so. Many people that read this blog currently do so through Google Reader which means you won’t see my posts any more.

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All you need to do is enter your name and email address in the box below and I’ll arrange for you to receive my regular blog posts with tips and techniques to help companies develop their leaders and to help leaders develop their careers. (And on the very odd occasion you may receive an email mentioning my services).

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But if you’ve just stumbled upon it I’m sure you’re wondering whether you want to receive these e-mails. Well I hope you do but, to help you decide, here are links to some of my more popular posts.

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This post was originally published in the Newsletter for CIPD Management Toolclicks.  You can read the original article here.

Conflict in the workplace is a management issue and every manager need to be able to resolve conflict in a healthy, productive fashion.  Workplaces employ people and, as soon as you have people working together, you have potential for conflict.  It’s unavoidable.  Managers need the ability to recognise conflict and to be able resolve it swiftly and productively.

Here are three key reasons:

1.       Conflict costs money!

Being in conflict is no fun.  It’s stressful, unpleasant, distracting, intrusive and annoying.  But that’s not all.  Conflict costs money!  And you can calculate those costs, in wasted time, bad decisions, lost employees, lowered job motivation, health costs and legal expenses.

The employee survey, Fight, Flight or Face it?, found that 85% of workers have had to deal with conflict at work and spend on average two hours per week involved in sorting out disputes.  For the UK alone, that translates to 370 million working days – or more than £24 billion – lost every year because of conflict in the workplace.  Two-thirds of respondents report that conflict at work has resulted in the absence from work of one or more of the parties involved.  Often employees will simply vote with their feet and leave if organisations don’t resolve conflict effectively.  Half of respondents in the CIPD report say that conflict has resulted in people leaving the organisation and a similar proportion report that disputes that intensified resulted in bullying or harassment.

There is personal cost to individuals under stress.  But there is also cost to the organisation in employee absence, dysfunctional teams and damage to morale and productivity.  And employers need to consider the management time wasted and significant costs that organisations face if disputes heighten to the point where the formal disciplinary or grievance process has to be used.  The CIPD’s 2007 Managing Conflict at Work survey report found that on average organisations devote more than 12 days in HR and management time a year in managing disciplinary and grievance cases for every 100 employees.  The survey also found that employers face average annual costs associated with employment tribunal claims and hearings of £20,000.

2.  Resolving conflict is an increasing challenge for organisations

Resolving conflict in the workplace is a continuing challenge for employers.  In 2011-2012 the number of individual employment disputes that resulted in employment tribunal applications was 186,300, a significant drop compared with 218,000 claims for 2010-2011.

The Government are determined to reduce the number of Employment Tribunal claims and they have taken several steps to create a further drop in the number of claims going to the Tribunal over the coming years.  Those steps include increasing the qualifying period for raising a Tribunal claim from 1 to 2 years; introducing tribunal fees for Claimants, early ACAS conciliation and simplified settlement discussions/agreements.  However, the threat of a tribunal remains real and organisations can’t afford to relax.

3.  Relying on disciplinary and grievance procedures is counter-productive

Inevitably, organisations are increasingly relying on their HR departments to manage conflict as managers shy away from tackling disputes in case they do or say something that an employee might hold against them during any formal proceedings.  This approach is counterproductive.  When a dispute has developed to the point where the disciplinary procedure has been triggered or a formal grievance lodged, opinions are often hardened and confrontational stances on both sides have developed that are hard to change.  In other words, organisations are spending many thousands of pounds to deliver results that are not consistent with individuals staying in their jobs and working collaboratively and effectively with their colleagues.

Surprisingly, a less common approach is to train managers and employees to resolve conflict on a less formal basis.  And yet it is a much more effective approach.  The OPP research shows that where training does exist, it clearly adds value.  Of those employees receiving training, a quarter (27%) say it made them more comfortable and confident in managing disputes and over half (58%) say they now look for win-win outcomes from conflict.  Line managers and HR need to have the skills to recognise conflicts and have the confidence to deal with them at an early stage.  They need to have those difficult conversations and to help resolve the situation.

Learning is the same as anything else you manage:  You need to create a plan, check progress, and build in measures; otherwise, if left unplanned and unmanaged, it most likely won’t be successful.  However, that doesn’t mean it has to be cumbersome or time-consuming.

Here is my advice on how to create a development plan that is relevant for you.

1.  Start by focusing on the development you need for this year.  Think about your current role:

• What skills are necessary to perform your role effectively?
• What skills are necessary to achieve your goals this year?
• What changes do you expect in your current role (for example, job responsibilities, process changes, technology improvements)?

It is often useful to think about what you would be looking for in the ideal candidate if you were recruiting for your own job.

This section is critical because it provides the foundation for the rest of the Development Plan in terms of defining the benchmark.  It also provides the basis for a useful discussion between you and your manager to ensure you have a common understanding of the skills you need.

2.  Reflect on what job-related strengths you already have that you can build on to develop further

• What are you good at?
• What areas of your role do you perform effectively?
• What skills and strengths do you have which will make it easy to perform your role and achieve your goals this year?

Think back to previous performance reviews.  Think back to other feedback you have received from peers, subordinates, friends, colleagues etc.

3.  Identify the areas you need to develop to improve your performance and make further progress

• What are you not so good at?
• What areas of your role do you perform less effectively?
• What skills and strengths do you lack that will make it difficult to perform your role and achieve your goals this year?

As before, think back to previous performance reviews and other feedback you have received.  Think about what you admire in others who perform similar roles.  If in doubt, ask!

4.  Think about your longer-term career ambitions and the knowledge, skills and relationships you need to develop

• What do you enjoy about your current role?  What do you not enjoy?
• Would you like to broaden or deepen your skills in any particular area?
• How would like your role to develop over the coming years?
• What other roles do you aspire to?
• What skills and experience do you need to gain or improve to prepare for those roles?

So far, our thinking has focused on a short time period – typically 6 months to a year.  But I recommend you also take a longer-term view.  Think about how you would like your career to progress in the future so you can discuss this with your manager and they can have that in their head when thinking about future roles for you.

5.  Identify 1-2 key development goals for the next review period

• Where are you now?
• Where do you want to be?
• What is stopping me from getting there?
• What do you need to know and develop?
• What do you need to do?

If you’ve followed the earlier points, you will probably have defined several areas for improvement.  However, I recommend you identify only 1 or 2 key development objectives for the forthcoming period.  If you try to focus on too many areas, you are likely to improve little in any of them.  Therefore it is better to focus greater effort on a smaller number of areas.  If necessary, you can always focus on 2 development goals for 3-6 months.  Then, assuming you have successfully achieved them in that time, you can revise your Development Plan and focus on 2 different development goals for the second part of the year.

The key is to ensure the 2 development goals you choose are the ones that will have the greatest impact on your effectiveness in your role.

6.  Create a list of possible development choices

Remember, development is not just courses!  90% of all development happens in the workplace and through informal means such as mentoring and coaching.  So, identify all the possible development alternatives and consider formal training choices only where relevant and suitable.

Think about your own preferred learning style.  Do you learn best from reading and reflecting, browsing websites, computer-based programmes etc. Or do you prefer more active learning experiences?

I hope you find these points helpful.  What other advice would you give?

Such sessions can encourage employees to communicate openly in private and be more active in team meetings and brainstorming sessions.

Research shows that regular reviews, ongoing feedback and continued focus on development improve employee performance.  And, with regular conversations,  both parties will be able to worry a lot less about any big surprises when annual performance review meetings are held.

Here are some practical tips for planning and running a useful one-to-one meeting.

• 1.  Have one-to-one meetings about once a month.  Various demands on your time will affect how often you can set aside an hour for each employee, but about once every four weeks should be enough. Keep day to day work updates and other deliverables out of the conversation unless the employee brings up issues related to them.  Instead, focus on bigger picture progress with performance and development.

2.  Conduct them in the employee’s office or “neutral” space.  Employees can be a little intimidated by their bosses, and nobody likes criticism, even the constructive kind. Creating a relaxed atmosphere and putting the employee at ease so they can speak his or her mind is a huge key to success in any developmental session.

3.  Spend about half the hour on a review of performance against short-term goals and objectives.  Start with asking the employee what progress they’ve made and explore with them what has contributed to that progress (for example actions they’ve taken, behaviours and attitudes that have helped, skills they have demonstrated, relationships and resources that they have drawn on).  Provide feedback to reinforce those things that have worked well and help generate ideas and actions to progress further.  Clearly identify the items you’ll be reviewing a month from now and set a couple of broad expectations for the employee to meet. This gives the one- on-one a sense of purpose and prevents the reviews from turning into hour-long chat that seem to go nowhere.

4.  Allow out about half the session for the employee to use in the way that they would find most valuable.  On the surface, this can be frustrating to busy managers crazy, but employees need an opportunity to vent about what’s bugging them and ask for support if they need it.  Having said that, never put off addressing a real-time issue outside of your one-to-ones.  If an employee is bothered enough to come to you with a problem, you can make a few minutes to listen. Remember, one-to- ones are a structured approach to ongoing employee development; they aren’t a substitute for all employee conversations.

5.  Let the employee do most of the talking.  For the most part, when you speak during a one-to-one, it should be to ask the employee a question or to give feedback after asking a couple of questions.  In other words, a coaching style of conversation.   You get a clearer picture of what’s really going on in his or her world and can encourage the employee to take ownership of their performance and development rather than  jumping in with advice and instructions. Remember, one reason you are having such a structured session is to empower and develop your employees. So listen and learn.

This post was originally published in the Newsletter for CIPD Management Toolclicks.  You can read the original article here.

 

Managers often feel that one of the difficulties they face is the dual mandate to achieve business results and, at the same time, develop employees.

But the reality is that employee development is not on top of delivering business results.  It’s how we deliver business results.

Research from the Learning & Development Round table has shown that managers who are effective at employee development:

1. Have employees who are more satisfied with their jobs;
2. Have employees who are more committed to the organisation;
3. Have employees who are more adaptable to change;
4. Have employees who are up to 40% more likely to stay with the company.

With all these positive effects on employee engagement, job satisfaction and retention, it’s no surprise that many Heads of HR see employee development as one of their highest priorities in 2013.

But the most important reason HR should invest time and effort in training managers to develop employees is that it can have an enormous impact on the company’s bottom line.  The direct reports of managers who are effective at employee development outperform those with ineffective managers by as much as 25 per cent.

Although the primary responsibility for an employee’s development rests with the individual, the manager has an important role in:

• Helping employees identify their development needs
• Providing positive reinforcement and helpful feedback
• Setting goals and building a Development Plan
• Allowing time for coaching and development
• Communicating organisation information and helping them see how they fit in the bigger picture.

Based on my own experience and continuing conversations with senior HR professionals I recommend that companies take the following steps to enable managers to play that role effectively:

1.  Show that employee development matters. Managers must understand why employee development is critical for achieving business goals and how individual and team development translates to business results.  Change the conversation from “development as an HR process” to “development as a business need”.  And train managers how to align individuals’ and teams’ development goals with the broader organisational needs and strategy as well as the employees’ personal and business objectives.

2.  Integrate development into the day-to-day business.  Many managers still believe that employee development is the responsibility of the learning and development department and don’t realise the importance of their day-to-day interactions.  To integrate development into the day-to-day business, train managers to:

• Provide employees with discrete on-the-job learning experiences, and roles that will stretch and develop employees over time;
• Coach employees and help them reflect on their experiences to highlight and reinforce learning;
• Give helpful and developmental feedback to improve employee’s insight and awareness.

3.  Hold managers accountable for the quality of employee development.  Many companies limit accountability to compliance.  In other words, “has the manager had a development planning discussion with the employee?”; “Has the employee got a Development Plan?”  This approach focuses accountability on completing the activity rather than the quality of the result.  Companies should motivate managers to improve and be better coaches, by tracking the quality of development and stress effectiveness over activity completion.

By following these steps, organisations can help their managers develop their employees and drive significant gains in performance and productivity.

This post is extracted from an article I wrote for the CIPD Management Toolclicks Newsletter in February.  You can read the original article here.

In George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, he shared the news that he has extended his austerity programme until 2018.  This is disheartening news for organisations and managers who are already struggling to deliver results with less budget and fewer people.

Managers’ roles in managing and improving performance is more important than ever.  And by that I don’t mean just managing underperformers.  It saddens me that some organisations see “Performance Management” as a dirty word, referred to only when there is a performance issue.

On the contrary, managing and improving performance is a daily responsibility of every manager.   This article outlines 3 reasons why you might not be getting the best out of your people.

1.       Business is Behaviour

One of the things I hear from managers all the time is that managers don’t have time for discussions around improving performance.  But Performance Management isn’t separate to the job of a manager; it is the job of a manager.  Managing your people’s performance is the way you deliver business results.

Improving performance is all about influencing employees behaviour.  An organisation employs people to do the work that only people can do.   All business results depend on people’s behaviour.   Whenever an organisation strives to improve quality, increase productivity, or boost creativity, it must ask people to change their behaviour.  Employees must either do the same activities they are doing more or less often or behave in different ways.

2.       Employees Don’t Do What You Tell Them To Do

In most organisations we try to manage performance by telling people what to do.  We tell them to work harder; we tell them to work better; we tell them to work smarter.  We tell them to show more initiative, be more creative, be self-directed, be empowered.

We tell them to do these things in a variety of ways.  We send e-mails, have meetings, write policies, hold classes, and make informational and inspirational speeches.

Interestingly, when these methods don’t get the desired response or level of performance we want, we tell the same people again, usually in the same ways.  Only this time we tell them a little louder, or a little longer, or perhaps a little meaner.

But people frequently don’t do what they are told.  If we always did what we were told, we would only eat nutritious foods, never drink too much alcohol, and exercise regularly.  We would always “put the customer first, take initiative and do it right first time”

3.        Goal-Setting is not Enough

One of the most specific ways in which we tell people what to do is to set goals.  Few activities consume more management time than goal setting.  Defining specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound (SMART) goals has been a mantra for generations of managers and HR people.

Even though we know that people don’t do what they’re told, goal-setting at the start of the performance year is the number one strategy we use to manage performance.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that goal-setting isn’t important.  It can be a valuable way of clarifying expectations and setting the scene for managing and improving performance.

But it’s not enough.

Behavioural psychologists will tell you that such scene-setting may encourage an employee to behave a certain way once.  But it is what happens afterwards that makes a difference.

The Power of Positive Reinforcement

People repeat behaviour when they receive positive reinforcement for it and that needs constant dialogue and feedback.

What do I mean by positive reinforcement?  I simply mean a favourable change that happens because of the employee behaving in a certain way.  It might occur naturally like for example, an employee getting pleasure from carrying out certain tasks or working with certain people.  Or the manager might create it, for example by giving a congratulatory note, praise or public acknowledgement.  And of course it could be tangible in the form of money or a prize but, there are many ways of giving positive reinforcement without it costing anything.  The most important point is to get to know your employees because reinforcement is individual to each.  What works with one person may not work with another.

So if you’re focussed on improving performance you need to need to engage regularly in skilful conversations that bring out the best in your people.  And you need to reinforce positively the activities and behaviours that will deliver business results.