Blanchard LeaderChat

The unfortunate and sad news of recent extra-marital affairs in politics once again highlights the damage that can be done when a person in a significant position of leadership suffers a moral or ethical failure. The extent of the collateral damage of these actions remain to be seen, but this much is obvious – people can severely, if not irreparably, damage the trust and respect of those closest to them: spouse, children, staff, colleagues, and constituents. Can this trust and respect be restored? Yes it can, given the right amount of time and the willingness of people to humbly submit to the requirements they will face in rebuilding the bonds that have been broken. If anything, this incident should remind everyone in a leadership position how easy it is to suffer a fall from grace.

How do we protect ourselves from such failures? It’s a complex issue that is influenced by a person’s spiritual, mental, and emotional makeup, but we can ask ourselves a few simple questions that will help us to evaluate the impact of our decisions. Is it legal? Will this decision break any civil laws or company policies? Is it balanced and fair? Will this decision or action promote win-win relationships for those involved and is it fair to everyone in both the short-term and long-term? How will it make me feel about myself? If this decision or action was published on the home page of CNN, would I be proud? What would those closest to me think about it? Of course these simple questions won’t completely resolve all the moral and ethical dilemmas we face, but it certainly can put us on the right track.

Maintaining the status quo costs more than you think.  In fact, in the average organization it costs over $1,000,000 dollars a year according to The Ken Blanchard Companies new Cost of Doing Nothing Calculator.  The calculator which was just released on the company’s web site identifies three potential drains on performance—employee turnover, customer satisfaction, and employee productivity.   

Using formulas based on independent research the calculator helps executives identify what excessive employee turnover costs a company when good people with developed skills leave an organization, what dissatisfied customers cost a company, and how less than optimal employee productivity numbers translate into bottom line impact.   

The overall result?  A shocking $1,000, 000 dollars or more in most cases.   

Interested in finding out what your Cost of Doing Nothing might be?  You can check out the Cost of Doing Nothing Calculator for free at www.costofdoingnothing.com or by clicking here to access The Ken Blanchard Companies web site.

Most people do not pay attention to trust in their organization until it is broken.  But by then the damage is done: people withhold facts and information, managers set convoluted goals, management is not available, people talk behind each others’ backs, etc.  The list goes on and on. 

Part of the reason may be that people see trust as a “nice to have” cultural issue to work on once you have everything else in place. This is a fundamental mistake because the level of trust in your organization is a hard-edged economic driver that will impact just about every aspect of your organizations performance. 

Author Stephen M. R. Covey, in his book The Speed of Trust  describes this impact as either a high trust dividend that can add 40% to your organization’s performance or a low trust tax that can subtract up to 80% by adding to your costs. .

This dividend or tax impact occurs because trust is the ultimate determining factor whether individuals will be good team players, will make the commitment to change, and will work beyond minimum requirements to achieve desired outcomes.  

What’s the trust level in your organization? 

All relationships, personal and professional, are based upon trust. And there is a big difference between the way people work together when they trust each other versus how they work when trust is low or nonexistent. When employees who work together trust each other, they exert more effort in their jobs and expend less effort monitoring each other. This leads to increased productivity, lower costs, and greater satisfaction for workers as well as shareholders.

70% of change efforts fail according to Pat Zigarmi, coauthor with Ken Blanchard, John Britt, and Judd Hoekstra of the new book Who Killed Change? out in bookstores now.   

In Zigarmi’s experience of working with clients on organizational change initiatives over the past 20 years, a couple of common mistakes keep popping up when organizations go about launching large scale change in their organizations.   

What causes change to fail in most organizations?  Here are three that Zigarmi recommends keeping an eye on: 

1. People leading the change think that announcing the change is the same as implementing it.  So much energy in organizations is spent preparing to communicate the change and the reasons behind it, but not nearly the same energy is spent planning for the successful execution and rollout of the change after the announcement.
2. People’s concerns with change are not surfaced or addressed. If leaders do not take the time to specifically address individuals’ needs and fears near the beginning of the change process, they will find themselves fighting an uphill battle later on in the process.
3. Those being asked to change are not involved in planning the change.  Leaders need to gain the buy-in and cooperation of the people who are being asked to change. Without that, resistance smolders. This is because people feel that change is being done to them rather than with them. 

Interested in learning more about Zigarmi’s thoughts on leading people through change in your organization?  Be sure to check out interviews with Pat in the May 2008 and May 2009 issues of Ignite or Pat’s webinar recordings on implementing change. 

To learn more about Who Killed Change? including access to the first chapter, follow this link, Who Killed Change?

Collaboration is a powerful competitive strategy for today’s organizations—and for individuals also. Why? It’s because no one can develop the skills necessary fast enough to meet the increasing demands of customers. Today you have to partner with others if you are going to succeed. What can leaders do to improve collaboration in their organizations?

Ken Blanchard identified three strategies in his presentation yesterday to over 700 people who joined him online for a webinar on The Power of Collaboration. Ken believes that there are three ways that leaders can help their organizations become more collaborative.

1. Model collaboration. How do the senior leaders in your organization work together? Do different business units cooperate with each other, or is the situation more competitive? Behavior speaks volumes. When employees see their senior leaders work collaboratively, they know that this is an important value in the organization.
2. Adopt a learning attitude. You have to be curious and willing to learn. If you believe that you already have all the answers, you’re probably not going to see the value in collaborating.
3. Be a humble, high performer. In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins identifies that the best companies have leaders that mix a resolve for high performance with an equal dose of humility. It’s a powerful combination that achieves results yet maintains perspective.

A recording of Ken’s presentation is available online at no charge. You can view the presentation and see everything that Ken covered by clicking here.

Don’t miss Ken Blanchard for a free webinar today on The Power of Collaboration.  This is a special event co-sponsored by Cisco WebEx as a part of their Pass the Ball Ideas in Motion program featuring different thought leaders from a wide variety of business, social, academic, and government sectors all coming together around one concept—that ideas get better when you share them with others. 

Ken will be talking about The Power of Collaboration and sharing some of the things that get in the way of people working together effectively.  You’ll learn the importance of keeping a learner’s perspective, how to get out of your own way, and how to choose a collaborative partner. With Ken’s experience of writing 42 books with over 50 different coauthors, he has a unique perspective on what works when it comes to teaming with others. 

You can sign up for this event now or check back later at The Ken Blanchard Companies website for information on how to access the recording of today’s event.  Also be sure to check out the entire Pass the Ball project at WebEx.  It’s a great way to learn about the power of collaboration and how people are taking advantage of the synergy that occurs when people work together towards a common goal.

In the June issue of Ignite, Ken Blanchard identified ego as one of the biggest stumbling blocks to people being able to collaborate effectively.  Now that ego is on my radar screen, I’m beginning to see it appear all around me. 

Most recently I saw the behind-the-scenes impact of ego described in Jim Collins new book, How the Mighty Fall.

In a section on The Dynamics of Leadership-Team Behavior, Collins explains some of the subtle changes that take place in the way teams operate once ego—expressed as “hubris” sets in.  The result is behavior that is defensive, self-promoting, comparative, and resistant to new ideas. See if you recognize any of these behaviors starting to creep into your team dynamics:

According to Collins, in teams on the way down: 

• People shield those in power from unpleasant facts, fearful of penalties and criticism for shining light on the rough realities
• People assert strong opinions without providing data, evidence, or a solid argument
• The team leader has a very low questions-to-statements ratio, avoiding critical input and/or allowing sloppy reasoning and unsupported opinions
• Team members acquiesce to a decision but don’t unify to make the decision successful—or worse, undermine it after the fact
• Team members seek as much credit as possible for themselves, yet do not enjoy the confidence and admiration of their peers
• Team members argue to look smart or to further their own interests rather than argue to find the best answers to support the overall cause
• The team conducts “autopsies with blame,” seeking culprits rather than wisdom
• Team members often fail to deliver exceptional results and blame other people or outside factors for setbacks, mistakes, and failures

Are you looking for a way out of this vicious cycle?  Start by looking at where your focus is as an organization.  Is it on serving yourself, or on serving others?  Ego plays a big part in this.  Looking for some ideas?  Be sure to check out Ken Blanchard’s interview in Ignite or better yet, join us for Ken’s webinar tomorrow on The Power of Collaboration.  You’ll learn some ways to get your organization back on track.

What is the gap between current and desired performance, costing your organization on an annual basis?   A lot more than you might think going by the results of people who got a sneak peek of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ new Cost of Doing Nothing Calculator at the ASTD International Conference last week in Washington, DC.

In most cases, the size of this gap was over $1 million dollars in companies with 200 or more employees.

The Cost of Doing Nothing Calculator uses a couple of pieces of information—number of employees, annual sales, current turnover rate, and combines it with desired targets for customer satisfaction and employee productivity to generate a “cost of doing nothing” dollar amount.  It’s a great tool for identifying the impact of better leadership in an organization and also making the business case for a training initiative—especially leadership development.

Are you interested in calculating what your current cost of doing nothing is?  Just click here and follow the easy 3-step process.  It’s free, it only takes minutes to complete, and you get access to a complete personalized report immediately.