• Crates containing the Statue of Liberty were being unloaded by dock workers
• Richard Sears was launching a company that would bring catalogue shopping to America
• In Atlanta, John Pemberton was finalising the concoction that would become Coca-Cola
• Gottlieb Daimler was completing the world’s first car - across the pond

As a leader, how might you make sure you are not so fixated on the slightly unusual (overhead electric lines!!) that you are blinded to crucial changes such as the birth of what was to later become the giant company Sears?

1. Belief in the individual. If you trust individuals and believe in them, they will be motivated to do what’s right for the company.
2. Power of small teams. They encourage fast decision-making, diverse perspectives and collaboration.
3. All in the same boat. Associate stick plan means all staff share in the risks and rewards. It gives incentives to contribute to the organisation’s success.
4. Long-term view. Investments are made for long-term success and fundamental beliefs never sacrificed for short-term profit.

I don’t know about you but I find much that inspires and challenges me in equal measure in these easy to understand (if difficult to implement) principles.

Move forward to the present day. I was facilitating a day long workshop for an excellent group of HR Managers working in local government. At one point we considered the key risks their organisation faced as it prepared for significant change. There were big issues: significant damage to service delivery, inability to simplify processes and bring in new ways of working with reduced resources, antagonistic staff, a new structure with fewer people working but with less commitment to support vulnerable people or children. We looked at the capacity of their middle managers to take their teams with them through difficult change. “Oh my goodness,” one of the managers sighed, “some of them will be great but some of our managers will be an absolute nightmare.” My Longbridge experience was partly driven by very militant unions but it also symbolised a vote of no confidence in the senior managers. It was as if the workforce all joined together to sing “You don’t know what you’re doing.” In change, the organisation as a whole may be able to take the workforce with them during economically difficult times. But some managers “won’t know what they are doing” and will lose the confidence of their teams. The result? At best poorly implemented change - at worst antagonism and tensions for years to come.

The job of senior managers during change is to find the middle managers who are most likely to destroy staff morale or commitment. Leaders need to be looking carefully at who gets their vote of confidence to take people with them through change - and who needs attention now before they create disproportionate damage.  

On 2nd February, I had the joy of co-presenting (at a Birmingham Forward event) with David Richardson. David is Lloyds TSB’s Regional Director for Large Corporate, Midlands, East & South West. The thrust of our presentation was the importance of good people management in minimising the likelihood of good people walking out the door once things improve.

Research shows that, generally speaking, people tend to leave their line manager rather than their employing organisation. Difficult market conditions like this recession can make it so tempting to behave as though all of your employees owe you a debt of gratitude for having a job. Worse, managers can even become abusive and inflict neglect upon their employees. Thinking differently about it, how would you behave as a leader and manager if every day, each person with whom you work wore a T Shirt bearing the words “Make me feel special today”? The questions and comments of the many senior managers in the room encouraged David and I with the thought that people are actually thinking rather carefully about the dangers of an economic upturn in the sense of keeping good people despite other offers in the market. This is importance since as the CIPD warned on 26 January 2010 “Recession ‘over’ but employee engagement hits all-time low”.

Our experience of working with leaders who are driving substantial and often painful change reinforces this. Insensitive leadership of the “we have not got time to discuss this, just flipping do it” camp can produce early results but also produce disengaged, resentful, antagonistic staff leading to poorly implemented and unimaginative change. Change is not judged by the calibre of the change plan but by the effectiveness of its implementation - which in turn is driven by engaging key stakeholders. The Guardian article also quoted an extensive piece of research by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) showing that 31% of UK employees have low or no trust in senior management. This lack of trust will fuel resistance to change and leads to situations where many people bring their bodies to work but leave their commitment at home!

The good thing about emotional intelligence is that whilst some people will have some natural traits much of it can be taught. Leaders can raise their self awareness, can learn to manage their emotions and frustrations, and can develop their ability to make a positive impact and build good relationships with others. The Work Foundation encourages leaders to understand their staff. Our experience shows that leaders need to be more hands on in change; they need to monitor morale closely and recognise that even their most gifted staff can adopt strange behaviours in times of stress. Leaders need to be more prepared to give their team’s clear focus and to intervene when there are blockages. Leading change is about enabling others to change - those leaders that enable well in the coming months will make the difference between success and failure.

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For more information and booking details please click on the link to the Birmingham Forward website below:

http://www.birminghamforward.co.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=137

IBM had its eccentricities under Watson (let’s all join together in the company song whilst wearing our conventional blue suits) but no one can argue with the fact that this was a period of dynamic growth.

We need thinking organisations and people today. We need cultures that encourage proactivity, and seek out new ways of doing things. Most of all given all the changes around us we need high quality thinking time. When in future years we look back on the traumas and challenges of 2009/2010 I wonder will we regret that in the busy and demanding circumstances we faced we did not mobilise our organisations to give quality time and quality discussion to thinking? Perhaps we need some posters?

• Managers don’t like doing appraisals - some would rather attend ten dentists’ appointments on the same day than do an employee appraisal.
• Employees don’t always find a positive experience

Or consider this:

• Employees hired by the appraiser receive higher scores than others
• Evaluations are more positive for underlings with managers from the same social demographic
• Performance reviews (in jobs where work is difficult to assess objectively) mostly reflect employees’ ability to ingratiate themselves with the boss

The spectacularly damming aspect of the traditional review process is that it fails to help employees to learn something about a better way to work. But as Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer’s article suggests ‘A recession is a good time for managers to focus more on evidence and less on received wisdom or old habits. Asking hard questions about performance management would be a good place to start.’ Read his whole article for further discussion