Blanchard LeaderChat

The Society for Human Resource Management just posted its annual look at the factors that drive employee satisfaction in the workplace.  One unique element of the SHRM research is that it looks at the factors from two perspectives—employees and HR professionals.  First time readers of the report will be surprised that the lists of what employees want from the workplace and the list of what HR professionals perceive they want do not match up exactly.  But in reality, it makes perfect sense, because each group perceives the environment a little differently depending on their experience.  Let’s take a look at the two rankings in this year’s report, identify the differences, and explore what it means for leaders in today’s organizations. Read more…

Deciding whether a company’s work environment is engaging or not is a highly personal experience according to researchers at The Ken Blanchard Companies.  In a new article for Chief Learning Officer magazine the researchers identify that employees experience their environment differently—even when they are looking at the same set of circumstances.

Take, for example, the idea of Connectedness with Colleagues, one of twelve factors identified in the research as contributing to a motivating work environment.  For some team members, sharing updates on a monthly basis meets their needs for feeling informed and in the loop.  For others, meeting anything less than once a day leaves them feeling isolated.  If a group has a team norm of meeting once a week—a pretty standard practice—how do people from each camp feel about the team’s performance in staying connected?  Chances are that members of the first group feel that that the team is excellent at connectedness because it communicates four times more than they personally feel is necessary, while members from the second group rate the team low on this aspect because it only meets once a week, which is less than what they are expecting.

So how does a leader deal with all of the different expectations that people have in the workplace?  The answer is to see colleagues and direct reports as distinct, individual people with different needs and expectations.  Here are three tips for getting started:

1. Recognize that people have different needs, desires, and expectations.  There is a tendency to believe that everyone perceives the environment the same and has the same needs and desires.  The reality is that each of us sees things differently based on our beliefs and past experiences. 
2. Explore these differences.  Build some time into your next one-on-one discussion to discover the degree to which your people are personally experiencing growth, autonomy, connectedness, and collaboration in the organization.  For team members, include an agenda item to discuss these elements of an engaging workplace at an upcoming meeting.
3. Look for early wins.  While some factors will be best addressed at an organizational level, there are still many factors that can be addressed locally inside of a department or team.  Identify what those factors are and how they can be addressed.

Employee engagement is a hot topic these days and there are a lot of ways to approach it.  For leaders looking at improving overall engagement in their organizations, it’s important to keep in mind that the process is also intensely personal.  To learn more about the Blanchard research on this topic, be sure to check out Employee Work Passion: A New Look at Engagement in this month’s Chief Learning Officer magazine.

John Wooden’s passing on June 4, 2010 marked the loss of a legend in the field of leadership. “Coach,” as he was known, inspired countless people over the years through his teachings, writings, and selfless acts of service. Wooden’s contributions as a writer, speaker, and thought leader far exceeded his impact as a basketball coach which is no small feat considering he won 10 NCAA national championships while coaching at UCLA! Read more…

In a recent blog post at Harvard Business Review’s The Conversation, best selling business author Bob Sutton generated a lot of discussion with a post entitled Some Bosses Live in a Fool’s Paradise.  Bob’s basic premise is that leaders become more susceptible to a distorted sense of reality the higher they climb in an organization.  Why? Three reasons according to Sutton. Read more…

In the June 2010 issue of Ignite, Madeleine Homan Blanchard discusses how Leadership Strengths Are a Double-Edged Sword.  She goes on to explain that positive characteristics such as optimism, confidence, and intelligence can turn into delusion, arrogance, and unhealthy competitiveness if left unchecked. In her work with highly successful executives, this crossover from strengths to weaknesses can be subtle, and usually occurs over the course of years.  It can be especially hard to identify early in an executive’s career because the weaknesses that derail so many careers later in life are just shadow versions of the same attributes that helped executives succeed earlier.

The key, according to Homan Blanchard, is to maintain a healthy self-awareness of the way you are perceived by others.  To help with that, Madeleine recommends four strategies.

1. Create an imaginary “self observation person” and place them on your left shoulder.  Give this imaginary advisor one important task.  Anytime you feel yourself about to speak or respond to someone and there is some extra emotion behind it, have this advisor check in to ask, “Is this about your need to be heard, or is this in the best interest of the other person and you are saying it because it absolutely needs to be said?”
2. Get feedback.  Homan Blanchard recommends that leaders check in with colleagues (and direct reports especially) every once in a while to get a reading on how they are doing.  Madeleine especially likes three classic questions and recommends executives keep them top of mind: What should I start doing to be more helpful to you as a leader? What should I stop doing? Is there anything you think I should know?
3. Surround yourself with people who aren’t afraid to challenge you. Let people know that you want to engage in useful debate. Encourage people to speak up when something you say doesn’t make sense or might not be the right way to go.
4. Consider working with a coach who can provide a reality check and keep you honest. It’s important to have someone who will call you out when you are deceiving yourself.

To read more about some of the ways that leaders inadvertently limit their effectiveness, be sure to check out the entire Ignite article here.  Also be sure to see the information about a free webinar that Homan Blanchard is conducting on June 16, Leaders: Avoid These Fatal Flaws