Meridian Coaching & Consulting Blog

Not long ago Wachovia hired a new CEO, to help them overcome the poor performance of the company.  They gave him over $41 million dollars a year to do so.  The first two quarters under his ‘command’ they lost billions of dollars.  He responded by laying off over 2,000 people.  “This is unacceptable” he said, referring to losing money not loosing people.  Recently, faced with lean financial times Fed Ex announced that the entire management team will be taking a pay cut in order to save jobs.

Wachovia went under.  Fed Ex continues to thrive.

If you listen to the news, we are in a mad rush to catastrophe.  Many people are ‘trimming down’ and ‘tightening-up’.  In all honesty, these are good business practices in good times as well; but, the one thing that is making a real difference is the level of employee engagement.

For those companies that are doing well in health care, pharmaceuticals and the expanding green industries – their challenge is how to hold on to the ‘windfall’ of exceptional talent they are attracting right now.  For those companies that are forced to cut back and lay off valuable resources, their problem is how to keep people motivated and focused on shared goals.

The answer for both is the same – employee engagement.  According to James K Hartner, Gallup’s ‘Chief Scientist of Workplace Management, “In good times, employee engagement is the difference between being good and being great.  In bad times, it’s the difference between surviving and not.”

At Meridian, we have a long history of helping companies, just like yours, develop and implement strategies to improve employee engagement.  This approach frequently starts with the management team, because attitudes, values and work styles often cascade from that core team to the rest of the organization.

What are the core values of your workplace?  How engaged are your employees?  How do you know?

Last night in my MBA class on leadership we were discussing the topic of change and change management.  The students first identified areas of change that impacted their businesses recently and then ranked those items in terms of importance and impact.  They then discussed how those changes had affected the organization’s performance and its’ people.  They then discussed how the change event had been managed, the impact that leadership had made and how it could have been managed differently.

Nearly 75% of the students had identified layoffs or potential layoffs as the change event that was most important to their colleagues and had the most impact on the organization.

Only one of those students felt their management had built trust and confidence by their handling of the current situation.  What did they do?  First, they had the foresight to anticipate this looming trend.  Three years ago they developed a plan to manage what they saw as a looming down-turn in one aspect of their business.  They began reducing staff through attrition and slowly divested themselves of both assets and liabilities associated with this line of work.

Secondly, they were transparent about their initiatives.  They informed staff about what they felt was going to happen and what plans they were going to take to prepare the company.

The result was that they built trust and instilled confidence in their staff.

The other extreme was the company that called in the local police force on the day the announced layoffs and had the police remove people who were being laid off and to provide security in case of violence.  You can image the long-lasting results that came from that action and the message that management communicated.  And somewhere down the road these same managers will complain that people aren’t more motivated.

It was a good object lesson for the students and emphasized how important it is for  leaders to carefully consider how to best manage the present while anticipating the future.

One of my clients from the executive leadership coaching program was feeling a bit bruised after receiving his annual performance appraisal.  He had heard the message last year, “act with true confidence” but his boss added more detail this time, “You need to dial down the arrogance.”  My client had heard this before, but had a tendency to ignore the message or kill the messenger—until he heard it from his boss—again. 

This was a tough message for my client, because he had a mindset that the means justifies the ends—if he was getting results—he had license to behave with impunity.  Yes, he got the job done, but it also resulted in very poor business relationships, which were starting to negatively affect the business results: missed deadlines, malicious compliance, low quality work, poor staff performance, turnover, and other negative responses to his behavior.  During our coaching sessions, he also mentioned that perhaps there was fallout from “arrogant” behavior in his personal life as well.  After much data collection, discussion and reflection, he realized that he could lose a promising career and the people he loves if he didn’t learn to “act with true confidence.” He was finally ready to examine his belief systems and corresponding behaviors to make some needed changes.

We all have some trait or behavior that doesn’t serve us other others; sometimes it takes a metaphorical slap upside the head to hear a message that will eventually be a lifeline.  The essential thing is to take action with a “fearless Inventory” of your strengths, special talents, biases and assumptions.  Being confident means embracing and feeling comfortable with what you find out about yourself.  It means you can articulate your strengths and know how you add value, AND you’re willing to drop or adopt new mindsets or flex your behavior in situationally appropriate ways.  This demonstrates true confidence, the opposite of arrogance.

It’s never too late to begin the journey of self-discovery and transformation, and that path does not have to be walked alone.  When you look for a partner on this journey (mentor, coach or trusted advisor), seek one that has your best interests at heart, is non-judgmental and listens with an open mind.  Happy trails.

As a leadership coach, I often see how a leader’s impact does NOT match their intention; the leader meant to get around to thanking someone for a job well done—but didn’t, inadvertently shamed or blamed someone, failed to apologize when it clearly was the right thing to do, or did not take responsibility for a mistake.  It matters because: people expect their leader to model the behavior they want to see in others, and they expect the basic courtesies from their leader—especially during stressful periods.

However, even good leaders stumble when they forget the relationship basics of working with people.  Leaders tend to forget that it’s the little things that matter and instead focus on “things before people” instead of “people before things.”  As their leadership coach, they may say to me, “But you don’t understand, the work had to get done.”  The leader may get the job done, but they’ve done it in a way that burns a relationship bridge that can’t be rebuilt or it will take a long time to repair.  In the meantime, the leader is now stuck with employees who aren’t interested in following their leader; instead, the employees will do the work because they “have to” not because they “want to.” 

As a leader, building the “want to” in people starts with good relationship management; paying attention to the little things that act like glue in holding healthy relationships together.  Fostering the “want to” happens when a leader’s mindset is focused on right action: gaining commitment instead of compliance, using influence instead of coercion, applying lessons learned instead of blaming or shaming, exercising problem solving instead of punishment, operating with transparency instead of protection, employing curiosity instead of defensiveness and engaging employees in an adult-to-adult relationship instead of a parent-to-child manner.

Leaders only exist in the context of their relationship with others, no followers, no need for that leader.  It’s not always easy to navigate an environment that is ever challenging for its high-speed and the need for high-touch relationship management.  Learn to give individuals what they need at a personal level, and they will perform at their highest level for you and the organization.