Motivation, purpose and drive

At the MD2MD launch meetings for Managing Directors in Leeds and Manchester last week, I heard again the frustration that I often hear expressed by Managing Directors about staff that do the job ‘ok’, follow the processes and follow the rules – but only just.   The frustration being ‘How do I get them to use their brain and ‘go the extra mile’ to deliver excellent customer service.

I think the answer is in principle quite simple, although I accept it is difficult to achieve in practice.  And it has something to do with the way that in today’s world people doing customer service jobs that require intelligence thought, creativity and common sense need to be motivated in a different way to the carrot and stick model that we often assume is universally applicable.

A year or so I read a great book that for me dealt with this issue excellently – A book called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink.  You can click the link to purchase from Amazon or read on – As usual I a pleased to share with the Managing Directors that read my blog the insights in a simple summary. Today in a video from the RSA:

Double Dip Likely – But opportunities for smart businesses – say MD2MD members

The economic outlook views of SME business leaders in the Thames Valley

It’s some time since I posted on the economic outlook.  Not least because we all began to hope it was becoming less important as something for smart SMEs to monitor.  We have though carried on sharing our views, and I post now because there has been quite a significant negative shift over the Summer, and after almost a year of believing we were out of the woods, the majority of MD2MD members now believe there will be another recession, as illustrated in the graph.

Two further points are important to make.

In discussion we were clear that it is important that we keep an eye on the economy in our ‘peripheral vision’.  In other words we should not focus our gaze primarily upon the economy.  It is an important context for our decisions, not the driver of them.  There are a two key reasons for this:

• Our success as a SME business is determined more by how well we run our business and deliver great products and services to our customers and by doing so draw business away from less capable competition, than it is by the economy. Indeed it is probably easier to gain market share in a recession than in a boom.

• We think of recessions as bad because they make sales harder.  But not everything in a recession is bad for everyone.  Difficult sales for one business means better competition amongst suppliers for another.  In the last few months I have come across numerous businesses enjoying being able to negotiate good deals on office leases.  Not good for landlords of course, but great for tenants.  Similarly there is a suggestion that good staff are easier to find and income expectations are lower.  But whilst normal economic logic implies that, this doesn’t seem to be a clear cut reflection of the situation businesses are finding in practice.

Managing poor performance

One of the most difficult challenges for managers is managing poor performance.

Many writers comment on what you need to do to be a high performing organisation.  Whilst many of their comments have some validity, to me the biggest single determinant of high performance organisations is whether they address poor performance – or accept / avoid addressing it. In my view you cannot be a well led, high performing organisation without dealing head on with poor performance.

Note that I don’t use the words poor performer.  There are many reasons for poor performance and most are not a poor performer.  And that, of course, is the challenge!  How do you know the real reasons for the poor performance?

I have written before on the need for role clarity , and provided tools to help define job roles.  I have also written on the need to address poor performance but none of these actually tell you how to actually do it – how to manage it, what to say, when and how.  And the challenge is that this is not  a simple theoretical exercise.  It is something that always involves people and emotions and sometimes involves remaining rationale and objective despite high emotions and conflict.  Knowing exactly what to say and when is tricky.

Exactly how should you handle the interpersonal bit in order to have the greatest chance of successfully turning around the individual without fudging the need for performance and whilst ensuring that if you regretfully do have to dismiss you can do so whilst knowing you have done everything you could reasonably have done to avoid it.

There are plenty of documents covering the legalities, but rarely do you come across guidance on exactly what to say and how.  Which is why I love the the “3 point turn technique for getting people to act in their best interests” set out by my friend Ian Berry in the following article:

Phase one

Insight

Agreement between you and your staff member / employee concerning goals and the strategies to achieve them is a must have for leading and managing performance.  A further must have is to ensure these agreements are in writing.  A further still must have is to ensure alignment between all individual goals and strategies and your own. When goals aren’t achieved use the following technique.

Putting insight into practice

Step 1.	Make an appointment to see the individual and state the purpose is to review their goal achievement plan
Step 2.	At the beginning of the appointment make it clear the sole purpose of this meeting is to review progress towards achieving goals
Step 3.	Reiterate agreements (e.g. I understand we had an agreement that you would fulfill two productive appointments with prospects each working day) and confirm this is your staff member / employees understanding by asking, Is this your understanding?
Step 4.	Ask: What has happened?  Our records show you are only fulfilling 1 appointment per working day.  (Silence)
Step 5.	Ask: What do you need to do to get back on track? (Silence)
Step 6.	Ask: Anything I can do to help / support / encourage? (Silence)
Step 7.	Ask: Anything else?
Step 8.	Summarize new agreement in writing and both sign it

Why doing the above can be really useful

• There are two main reasons people fail to achieve goals.  One, they didn’t really have goals in the first place.  Two, for some reason focus on strategies has waned.  This technique will remove both these issues
• Most people are driven by goal achievement.  This technique acts as a reminder of this

Phase two

Insight

Only proceed with this phase if you have completed phase one on more than one occasion with the same individual.

Putting insight into practice

Step 1.	Make an appointment to see the individual and state the purpose is to review their goal achievement plan
Step 2.	At the beginning of the appointment make it clear the sole purpose of this meeting is to review progress towards achieving goals
Step 3.	Reiterate agreements (e.g. I understand we had an agreement that you would always let me know well in advance if you felt you were having trouble meeting our agreed deadlines on month end reports) and confirm this is your staff member / employees understanding by asking, Is this your understanding?
Step 4.	Ask: What has happened?  We missed deadlines on five out of the nine reports.  (Silence)
Step 5.	Ask: What do you need to do to ensure this doesn’t happen again? (Silence)
Step 6.	Ask: Anything I can do to help / support / encourage? (Silence)
Step 7.	Ask: Anything else?
Step 8.	Ask: What are the possible negative consequences for you of not following through this time? (Silence)
Step 9.	Summarize new agreement in writing and both sign it

Why doing the above can be really useful

• Your staff member / employee will understand there are possible negative consequences for them for not being responsible and accountable
• Your staff member / employee has been reminded of the necessary commitment required to fulfill their role to the best of their ability

 Phase three

Insight

At various times in our lives we need tough love.  Only proceed with this phase if your staff member / employee has totally failed to fulfill the agreement you reached in phase two, otherwise repeat phase two.

Putting insight into practice

Step 1.	Make an appointment to see the individual and state the purpose is to review your last written agreement
Step 2.	At the beginning of the appointment make it clear the sole purpose of this meeting is to review this agreement
Step 3.	Place the written agreement in front of your staff member / employee and state: From my perspective you have failed to fulfill this agreement.  Is there any reason why I should not proceed with writing you a warning letter? (or whatever is legal in your state, territory, or country) (Silence)

If your staff member / employee says no:

• Write the letter and begin to performance manage this person out of your organisation by following the remaining legal steps to the letter.
• NB This does not necessarily mean this is the beginning of the end.  Many people recover from this and go on to become optimum performers.

If your staff member / employees answer is other than no:

• complete the following steps.

Step 4.	Ask: What has happened? (if this question has not already been answered in the preceding dialogue)  Then ask: What do you need to do to ensure this never happens again?  (Silence)
Step 5.	Ask: Anything I can do to help / support / encourage? (Silence)
Step 6.	Ask: Anything else?
Step 7.	Summarize new agreement in writing and both sign it

Why doing the above can be really useful

• You have either begun the necessary process of letting a non performing, uncommitted person go or
• Your staff member / employee has been reminded of the necessary commitment required to fulfill their role to the best of their ability and it is in their court to act accordingly which reinforces the need for personal responsibility and accountability

Credit where credit is due:  The above article is one of 45 tools, tips, and techniques for recruiting, engaging, and retaining great people provided in an eBook by Ian.  You can purchase the book for a nominal sum by clicking here or Ian has very kindly offered to send a FREE copy to any of my readers who email him at ian@ianberry.au.com and mention my name (Bob Bradley) – in a very positive enthusiastic way of course

Three PERSONAL reasons for engaging in Social Media

People who have talked to me on the subject will know that I am a cautious supporter of the use of Social Media Marketing in business.  I DO believe that it is an important component of the marketing mix, but like all marketing, it has to be done properly with an allocated time investment for a purpose and the return on investment measured – perhaps apart from a little test and see activity.

I do though know that some have drifted into not doing it that way – they simply play with in their ‘spare’ time.  Which I guess is fine as a hobby, isn’t the way I think it should be in business.  So I wasn’t surprised when I read in an article by by friend Graham Jones quoting research from Wildfire that one in ten businesses only do social media ‘because their competitors are and they feel they have to’.

What I really like about Graham’s article was though his own suggestion that there are three very good reasons for us as individuals participating in Social Media.  Whilst I’m not sure they justify business investment, they seem to make sense as reasons for individual investment.

Here as usual are my extract for you of the key points: for the full rationale, read his article here.

1. Social media boosts your health

Research over several years has found that no matter what the condition, those people with a good social network and loads of friends tend to get better more quickly, are less likely to have less serious illness and also avoid depression.

2. Social media stops brain disease

For some time it has been known that having an active brain helps stave off conditions such as Alzheimer’s. New research suggests that when we stop thinking it actually causes energy changes within our brain that are associated with the development of neurological disease.

3. Social media will make the world better

As more and more people engage with social networks it appears they are connecting much more in the democratic process. Politicians and companies that do not serve their publics will get “outed” on social media.

If the only answer you can come up with for using social media is “because we have to” perhaps these three reasons will provide more validity for you. 

Learning Leadership

Writing my recent blog on job roles, and about how organisations evolve over the years from one person to many I was reminded of another theme I’ve noticed in the typical owner managed SME.

It’s simply that the people at the top are usually (and understandably) often those who were there at the start, irrespective of their qualifications & previous experience.  (How many Directors do you know that started out as a secretary or PA?).

Now I’m not against that per se.  In fact quite the opposite.  Having had the privilege of an MBA and good professional training, I am in a strong position to say that you can’t beat the University of Life.  It’s where I learnt my most important lessons – which complement my formal training which I’ve also found invaluable.

So actually what I do believe in is the importance of continuous learning.  I don’t believe any leader ever gets to being perfect as a leader – although I’ve known some good ones! We can always do better.  We’re always making mistakes and always learning. Indeed just looking back at my comment there – the good ones were the ones who would be most open to admitting how much they still had to learn themselves.

So I believe the best leaders are those hungry to learn how to be better leaders.

But it seems that many businesses hold a belief that the leader doesn’t need to learn how to be a better leader.

It is very common for business leaders, especially in SMEs,  to have got to that position without ANY leadership development activity.  They simply did a great job in the early days and grew with the business to be one of the senior team without ever having any training to do the job.

There isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with the process.  As I said earlier I’m not arguing against University of Life training – I’m very much in favour of it – and it is the best training for the real world of business.  But I am arguing for leaders to invest time to learn how to be a better leader.

The first question I often ask is: ‘Which person in the business has, or should have, the greatest ability to influence its long term success?’.  For me the answer has to be the business leader. Its intuitively obvious to anyone who observes business.  The best businesses are the ones led by someone who really knows how to get the best out of their team.

And the second question: ‘How much does the company invest in the ability of that most influential person to lead the business? … and how much does the company invest in getting good staff further down the organisation?’.

Often the company that has difficulties recruiting and retaining good staff is the one that hasn’t invested in developing a leader that understands how to lead. (The best definition of leadership is, I feel, the ability to create ‘followers’ – which I roughly translate to attracting motivated staff!).

That’s why corporates spend £10,000 – £20,000 to send their managing director candidates off on a SMDP – Senior Management Development Programme – at a business school. Maybe a local one, or more probably Cranfield or Henley, or for the richest companies LBS, SAID, INSEAD or Harvard. Look at the links for more information on their 2-4 week courses costing £500-£1000 per day!

And, I’m pleased to say, that’s also why ambitious SME business leaders join MD2MD to achieve a similar outcome – confident and competent leadership – through manageable bite sized chunks of time and at a cost not only lower but also paid in bite sixed chunks.

OK I know – I would say that wouldn’t I – but I don’t believe many astute and successful managing directors that are currently members of MD2MD can all be wrong.  Look at the business school links and look at the speakers we have at MD2MD.  The key differences are our bite sized chunks model and the emphasis we place on learning from real world practitioners and leaders.

And if there’s  a business leader reading this who thinks ‘sounds interesting but is it as good as it sounds?’, please ring me on 01865 600 800 and we’ll arrange a free guest place so that you can find out for yourself just how effective MD2MD is for its members!