Leadership Articles

As we brought our first puppy into the house, I realized that there were a couple of key things that I had forgotten to get. I actually forgot food and a bed.  I had plenty of time for our new arrival, but I still hadn’t prepared enough. The new member of the family did not have everything it needed to be successful. I was in charge, yet unprepared for success.

Silly me…How could I expect the puppy to learn about how to be a part of the family without the basics?

As I raced around to the local pet stores, I began to think about how similar this was to new people starting at companies.  I worked with many organizations that acted like my family with our new puppy.  They were excited at the thought of a new member of the family, but unprepared when they finally arrived.  How often had I seen new employees without the basic tool like a desk, computer, phone, etc?

That night, as the puppy whined, I began to ponder how little my wife and I had done to ease it into its new role. The puppy didn’t know what it was getting into as we carried it into its new home.  Even worse, we had no plan to ensure that the puppy learned what it needed to do or know to be successful.

The Way It’s Done Now?

Silly as it sounds I remember thinking that night how many times had I seen new people at clients being left to:

• Fend for themselves
• Figure out the ropes
• Sink or swim in order to survive

Often times this approach leads to disaster:

• 22% of staff turnover occurs in the first forty-five days of employment.” – The Wynhurst Group
• “46% of rookies wash out in their first 18 months” found a study of 20,000 new hired employees.” – Leadership IQ
• “The cost of losing an employee in the first year is estimated to be at least three times their salary.” – The Wynhurst Group

It happens just like it did to the poor pup.  Isn’t it a leader’s duty to make sure their employees are taken care of?

Doesn’t a leader have an obligation to give a new employee every opportunity to succeed?

There has to be a better way

A new employee is not a puppy.  But, each new employee is like a new member of the family.  New employees are the lifeblood of new ideas, leadership, and vibrancy in any organization.  It is absolutely critical that new employees are made to feel:

• Like they belong
• glad they joined the company
• Ready to make an impact

This has also been proven to add to the bottom line. In his book Deciding Who Leads, author Joseph Daniel McCool cites the example of Bristol-Myers Squibb, which increased retention of new executives from 40% to 90% by revamping the hiring process, including instituting a formal process for new executive integration.

New employee success is built upon 10 key fundamentals:

1. There must be a plan from the moment they are hired through the first 180 to 365 days of their job.

2. A new employee has to feel like they made the right choice as soon as they accept an offer.  This can easily be accomplished with a simple welcome package.  Nothing fancy, just some items that help to prepare the new employee for their first day and are a little special.

3. The new employee’s workspace should be 100% ready for them when they start.  There is nothing more demoralizing to come to an unprepared desk.  That prep makes people feel special.

4. Set up the new employee with a mentor.  Each new employee should have a mentor.  Depending on the size of the company, it could be internal or external.  But the mentor relationship needs to somewhat structured.

5. In the beginning, introduce the new employee meet critical people every day. It will allow them to be more comfortable from the start.

6. Have a training plan ready for them when they start that will take them through the end of their first year.

7. Make sure the new employee meets with other new hires

8. Put them to work right away. No one wants to sit idly.

9. Conduct, at minimum, one assessment of the new hire’s progress and knowledge every quarter. Review that with them to ensure they are clear about what they did well and where there is room for improvement.

10. Celebrate them joining the company. People like to know they are appreciated.

Does it really make a difference?

The second dog my family got was a much more pleasant experience.  I made sure to map out his first 180 days with us.  It sounds a little like overkill, but it worked remarkably well.  The extra time I spent with him the first couple of months was worth it.  ”Cadoo” turned out to be exceptionally well behaved, friendly and very reliable.  After the initial investment in time, tools, training and attention, he became a productive member of the family (he earned his keep by chasing rabbits out of the garden).

I think about Cadoo when working with clients on how to make new employees more effective, knowledgeable, and productive. Just make sure to set them up for success and there is no limit the positive effect they can have on the organization.

How do new employees feel when they start? Are you making sure that new employees are set up for success? What are you doing to give new employees knowledge? How are you going to make them feel like part of the pack?

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

ad managers see engagement surveys as a personal reading; they take the scores personally. Therefore, they see it as their “responsibility” to create an action plan to remedy any low scores. This is the antithesis of what should be done. It stifles conversation and ensures lower engagement over time. If engagement scores were about making the manager look good, it would undermine the whole premise of engagement!
 
When the manager believes that employee engagement ratings reflect how well they manage, and begin to take the scores personally, it’s basically a sign of being really bad manager.
 
Employee engagement scores are certainly influenced by the direct manager, but it’s most importantly the vehicle that empowers employees to create that kind of working environment that leads to engagement. The results enable individuals and teams to review what’s working and what isn’t, and in turn, create processes, systems, and initiatives that solve problems and lead to a better future.
 
Great managers see that having an engaged team is largely about the team creating an engaging environment.  
 
Employees are engaged when the work is interesting, meaningful, and has impact. Managers are instrumental in making that a reality. Employee engagement ratings are a tool to determine what could be improved to increase engagement, not a personal measure of the manager’s worth as a human being.
 
Great managers understand that they can provide a forum to allow the team to enhance engagement. They know they can create an engaging environment by having open dialogue about what works and what doesn’t.
 
I worked with a leader whose team scored very low on employee engagement tests. She was furious. Even though she thought she was nice and fair, her scores were low. She was embarrassed. In the meeting about the results, her discontent was palpable. She demanded that her managers get to the bottom of the low scores.

Her desire to find out why the scores were low became a barrier to actually fixing the issues identified by the survey. One of the areas that people felt disengaged about was being able to have open dialogue and fix processes that were broken.
 
Her reaction to the survey results solidified their belief that expressing their views and sharing their feedback was a CLM (Career Limiting Move).

Imagine if she had reacted like this instead:

The employees would have reacted much more favorably.
 
The objective isn’t to focus on what’s not working, or get rationale for why someone scored the way they did. The focus is moving forward on the solutions. 
 
Work on making improvements. When people see that their input is being used to make things better, they will become MORE ENGAGED.
 
Don’t be a bad manager. Employee engagement scores are not a measure of being likable; they’re a gauge of where to take action.

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

All jobs require training, but if you really want principles to stand the test of time, if you want big changes to stick, training isn’t enough – you need transformation.

SO, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

At the most basic level, training is about skills and transformation is about mindset. Put another way, training changes how you do something, transformation changes how you think about something.

Transformation is important because it’s bigger than training. It sets the stage for effective, retainable training in any skill – because if the transformation has happened effectively, the person receiving the training will already understand the key concepts and principles to be looking for, they will understand the big-picture importance of why they are being trained for a certain task, and most importantly, they will seek out the fine details of the training because it is important to them on a personal level.

Transformation comes through engagement and transparency, and through an inclusive approach to new responsibilities, skills, and job roles. It needs to be perfectly clear, with well-supported reasons, just why the training is happening in the first place.

The transformation happens when an individual adopts a viewpoint larger than the task at hand. The transformed individual not only understands why a change needs to happen, but also becomes a driving force to see it through.

It is this emotional component that makes transformation so important – and so effective. It’s not enough to just tell an employee or new hire that a certain practice or policy needs to be adopted – to really sink in and become part of regular operation, they have to understand why it needs to happen, and more so, agree with the reasoning behind it.

Training is certainly important, but transformation comes first for big changes. Even if there’s no actual training involved, getting people on the same page mentally and emotionally sets up a team for success – expectations are clear, motivation and incentive are clear, and if nothing else, everyone knows exactly what they’re getting into, for better or worse.

Training can change and be updated – it can even be forgotten or replaced. Transformation, though, tends to stick for the long-term.

Are you training your employees, or transforming them?

Picture thanks to http://meetville.com/quotes/author/john-p-kotter/page1

What shift are you looking to create in your organization?

When we create and lead a Transformational Leadership Retreat, we begin with determining the goal.

The process begins with working closely with leadership to clarify a transformational goal. There may be a number of ambitious goals, some of which can be accomplished (or at least begun) as a result of the retreat experience.

We see the retreat as a focal point in a process for creating clarity. The experience gathers and releases energy and enthusiasm, providing the momentum needed to achieve other, larger goals that may require new practices, processes, and structures.

Without this clarity – and the accompanying enthusiasm – adopting new ways of thinking and doing things can be much more difficult.

Most industries and organizations are dealing with varying magnitudes of change, yet there continues to be evidence that most “change management” initiatives – as much as 70% – fail to achieve their objectives.

What if the reason “change management” isn’t successful is because the focus is too small?

In nature, true change is transformative – there is no way to go back to the way it once was. In organizations, many projects and programs are focused on tinkering with change at the edges. As a result, there are occasional alterations, but a dramatic shift in productivity, effectiveness, or results remains uncommon because fundamental issues haven’t been addressed.

In the end, people get frustrated because the change seems to be an obstacle to getting their jobs done, is not meaningful to them, or doesn’t make sense.

In planning Transformational Retreats, we work with leaders to engage teams in an experiential process that is meaningful to them. Transformational change requires a clear, powerful vision from the get go, as well as methods of engaging people in solving problems and creating a way forward.

Engaging people to think and act in new ways simply can’t be accomplished by “broadcasting” what you want in a few memos, emails, or meetings.

As an example, we recently worked with a client to implement a talent management program. The purpose was to develop role profiles and competencies for each position in the organization. The notion was noble: develop a holistic approach to hiring, developing, promoting, succession planning, etc.

At face value, no one could argue with it, yet no one really believed a shift would take place, largely because it was seen a “bolt on” fix to a process that was already broken.

Incremental change to a system, process, or organization that is not functioning well leads people to believe there will be no change at all. The solution is not to “tinker” around the edge, but to destroy the broken system and build something different.

That may not seem practical. Blow it up? How will work be done in the meantime?

Transformational change doesn’t happen all at once. It is the culmination of a radically different vision, beginning with generative conversations and relationships for everyone involved. The process and system are changed as a matter of course, due to the shift in the way people think, talk, and act.

As organizations continue to experience more disruptive change, we believe transformational leadership will replace “change management.”

The good news is that leaders don’t need all the answers. They can engage their people to create the way forward.

Creating an intentional transformation requires an inquiry that leads to a powerful shift in context. It’s similar to the model we use to create a transformational retreat – a powerful tool you can use to launch a change in direction, focus, level of commitment, etc. Start by answering these questions:

WHAT’S THE URGENCY FOR THE TRANSFORMATION NOW?

Any great journey starts with the purpose. It is important to address the reason for transforming now:

• Why is a shift needed?
• Why now?
• What happens if you do nothing?

There may be a change in the marketplace that impacts revenues or profitability, a shrinking customer base, new disruptive technology that forces a change, or a window of opportunity you can’t pass up. Whatever the issue, the reason for a change needs to be big and compelling.

WHAT’S THE TRANSFORMATIONAL GOAL?

What is the ultimate goal of changing anyway? The reason can’t be just to get better or be “more nimble.” That is nibbling around the edges. It’s not clear enough, and therefore won’t result in transformation. Focus on a goal that is the linchpin for all of the upcoming changes.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE IN PLACE TO ACHIEVE THE GOAL?

What information or evidence (internal or external) is needed to support this intentional transformation? Finding the answer starts with interviewing people that are will be impacted by the transformation. Uncover the gap between where the organization is now and where it wants to be in the future.

It also is imperative to do some benchmarking against organizations that have reached the goal. They may or may not be in your industry, but it is vital to get an understanding of their journey.

HOW DO YOU PREPARE PEOPLE WHO WILL BE IMPACTED BY THE CHANGE?

How you speak about the proposed change, the conversations you have (and don’t have), will impact the result you can achieve. People resist change when they feel like it’s being done to them.

Transformation happens when the people impacted have a voice and feel involved. It is absolutely critical that those impacted by change not only buy in, but are also involved in developing and implementing the transformation. Successful transformation occurs when the people embrace it, understanding why – and when – the change is.

Anil Saxena and Jackie Sloane work together to create transformational interventions and retreats for public sector, Fortune 1000, privately held, and not-for-profit entities.

Questions about learning more about this topic, transformational retreats, or transformational change? Want to schedule a transformational retreat for your organization at the Catalyst Ranch? Contact Jackie Sloane, Jackie@sloanecommunications.com, at 773-465-5906 or Anil Saxena, anil@cube214.com, at 847-212-0701 to learn more.

Picture thanks to http://mkalty.org/change-quotes-2/