Are we deluding ourselves? Are we supposed to be happy at work?

I highly recommend Alain De Botton’s thought provoking (and a touch heavy) article in Management Today.

 Many people traipse to work, feeling despondent and wondering how they can feel more fulfilled and happy in their day jobs.  We are constantly being told that work should be meaningful and a form of self-expression and, when our jobs become ho-hum, we feel we are missing something to which we are entitled.

 Are our expectations unrealistic?  Maybe work itself is not causing us problems, maybe it is the attitudes and expectations we have of it that are making us long for something better. De Botton believes that our expectations are often delusional and out of touch with what reality can provide.

But in an economic crisis, the gloves come off and power is more cleanly revealed again. So one of the benefits of the crisis is that it enables us to lower our expectations as to what work can deliver. Some of the greater existential questions disappear. Simply holding down an ordinary job and surviving comes to seem like reward enough. We should perhaps temper our sadness in these troubled times by remembering that work is often more bearable when we don’t expect it always to deliver happiness in addition to money.

 What are your thoughts? 

You can read the article below (I have highlighted the good bits in bold) or follow the link to the article in Management Today

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Learn how to make an impact by writing well

Do you ever write reports, marketing pitches or sales proposals?  Have you ever experienced writer’s block, where you stare at a blank screen and wonder where to start?  I have.

I wish I had read ‘Bird by Bird’ by Anne Lamott earlier in my career.  It would have made writing, especially the dry business kind, so much easier.  ‘Bird by Bird’ is a highly-rated, easy reading book about how to write well.  It focuses on fiction writing but also applies to any type.

Here are 3 useful tips from the book that sound obvious yet, when you are really busy at work, you can lose sight of the basics:

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Susan’s Got Talent – Find your song too

I have watched the Susan Boyle on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ video clip about 10 times today.  It is very inspiring but it also makes me feel a little sad.  She is 47 years old and does not appear to have tapped into her hidden talent until now.  Better late than never, I suppose.

I wonder how many people are sitting on some hidden talent but have just not created the opportunity or been given the chance to express it?  Ability is sometimes nothing without opportunity.

Author Henry Thoreau said that, ‘Most people lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with their song still in them.’

What is your song?

Talent – Manage it by measuring it

My husband is gets really annoyed that I don’t put clothes back in my cupboard after I have worn them.  I tend to pile them up on the table in our bedroom until I create a high pyramid of creased outfits.  I have struggled to change this habit so, as a last resort, my husband playfully implemented a fining system.  If he sees clothes on the table, he fines me 50p.

I have started changing my behaviour because it is now being measured.  Dumping clothes now has a monetary value and it’s starting to hurt my pocket in a big way.

The moral of the story is this – sometimes the best way to encourage a certain focus or behavior in an organisation, is to measure it and attach a value to it.

Companies want to make money and increase the bottom line.  Organisations are also gradually realising that, in today’s global economy, talented people can give them their competitive edge.  Very few companies have married these two concepts.  How do you use your talent to make more money for your organisation?

One of the effective way to create wealth from people and entrench talent development into the fabric of the organisation is to measure it.  Use metrics that make people accountable for it.  But, how?

Lowell Bryan and Claudia Joyce from McKinsey have an interesting proposition in their book ‘Mobilizing Minds’.  Their idea, which will take time to implement, is the best way to measure return on talent that I have come across so far.

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Smart people + Good tools = Amazing things

The American journalist Charlie Rose has recently interviewed a series of influential people in the technology industry.  They include Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google), Marc Andreesson (Founder of Netscape), Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon), Evan Williams (co-founder of Twitter), Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn) and Marissa Mayer (VP of Search and User Experience at Google).

They are fascinating conversations about the future of technology and the rise of social/business networking.

I found Marissa Mayer’s conversation with Charlie particularly intriguing.  Marissa Mayer is 33 years old and is already the Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google. She is the very powerful a gatekeeper who she determines when or whether a particular Google product should be released to users.

Google gives all employees 1 day a week to explore their own ideas.  People have carte blanche and can investigate whatever technologically-related ideas fascinate them and there is no interference by the company.  It turns out that over 50% of Google’s new products have come from that 20% free-for-all time.  Marissa Mayer said, ‘When you take really smart people and give them really good tools, they build amazing things.’

How finding your passion changes everything

Sir Ken Robinson is an expert on creativity and innovation.  I highly recommend that you watch his excellent talk on ForaTv, especially if you don’t have time to read his book called The Element: How finding your passion changes everything.  The talk is about 90 minutes and it basically summarises the book.

In these times of unpredictability and uncertainty, we need to think and work differently.  It is becoming clear that old, linear ways of working and thinking are collapsing.  Those people and businesses that prize flexibility, creativity, adaptability, self-assurance, collaboration and entrepreneurship will win in the future.  An essential ingredient in creating a vibrant and healthy economy is to help people discover their ‘element’.

Sir Ken believes it is essential that we find ‘our element’ in order to live a balanced and fulfilled life.  Your element is the place where what you are good at and what you love to do comes together.  It is an expression of your most authentic self and is the point where you connect with your deep sense of identity, purpose and well being.  When you have found your element, you are likely to be more productive, self confident, creative and adaptable. 

Few people know what their true talents are and what they are capable of achieving. Many people plod along with no deep sense of fulfillment and meaning.  Most people spend time in jobs that don’t really light their fire.  We tend to define ourselves by the jobs we do even though this work often does not express who we feel we really are.

Sir Ken believes we all have natural capacities that we lose touch with as we spend more time in the world.  In many of his interviews, he tells the story of when he asked a class of adults to put up their hand if they believed they were creative.  Very few people raised their hands.  He asked the same question to a group of children and everyone put up their hands.  Children seem to have a confidence in their imagination that adults don’t.  We are all born with enormous natural capacities but we lose touch with them along the way. 

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Some humour from Dilbert …

I would imagine the AIG execs are now flying coach?

Wisdom from Katherine the Great

Katherine Garrett-Cox sounds like superwoman.  She is one of London’s highest profile fund managers, earning about £1 million a year when she was at Morley Fund Management.  She is currently CEO of the FTSE 100 company, Alliance Trust.  She is 40 years old and has 4 children under the age of 8.  The media in the UK have dubbed her ‘Katherine the Great’ because she seems to have it all. 

I have been researching some of the common traits of high achieving women in the UK and I came across this YouTube clip of a presentation Katherine gave at the World Economic Forum in January.

She believes that ‘people who feel valued, motivated and engaged perform better.’ The clip is 5 minutes long and the topic is ‘How do we get the most out of the people that work in our organizations?’  I liked the emotive pictures in the background and it’s refreshing that she didn’t use any bullet points! 

The hiring dilemma – Entrance vs excellence criteria

Two things happened this week that prompted me to write this particular blog:

1.  I watched a YouTube clip of author Malcolm Gladwell where he made an interesting point about the selection process at elite universities.
2. An acquaintance of mine described his recent experience while applying for a position at a global consulting firm.  He uploaded his CV on to the web site and then had to complete a personality-profiling test.  Two minutes later, he received a computer generated email saying his application would proceed no further because his personality did not match the entrance criteria.  How bizarre - he is one of the few people I have met who has the elusive x-factor!

Malcolm Gladwell believes that the way in which people are selected to attend top-notch universities and business schools is nonsensical.  His premise applies to the selection process at many companies as well.

The criteria on which you are judged to become part of a university, company or team are often very different to the factors that will make you good at the particular discipline or task for which you are being selected.

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5 essential leadership skills

As we all know, 2009 will be an unpredictable, volatile year.  Being a good leader is going to be more challenging than ever.

I was recommended a book called The Leadership Code by Dave Ulrich.  I haven’t read it yet but I got a good summary diagram off the book’s promotion website. 

There are 5 skills that a good leader must master.  Some of these skills are focused on tangible organizational aspects while others are focused on the intangible people aspects.  Some have long term rewards while the benefits of others may be visible in the shorter term.

A good leader must focus on these 5 crucial rules or skills:

1. Be a strategist – Shape your future
2. Be an executor – Make things happen
3. Be a talent manager – Engage today’s talent
4. Be a human capital developer – Build the next generation
5. Develop your personal proficiency – Invest in yourself

The core of leadership is to continue to invest in yourself and maintain your personal proficiency that makes you a better strategist, executor, talent manager and human capital developer.

Facebook, relationships and dream teams

Focused, friendly, inspired, collaborative, outputs-driven, warm, respectful, innovative, wise, reasonable risk-takers, in synch, complementary, assertive, successful, cutting edge, high performance, visionary

 I attended a leadership course on Monday evening and we had to brainstorm a ‘dream team’.  The words above are a small sample of the ideas I copied off the flipchart.  The point of the exercise was to illustrate how many of the qualities of a dream team are based on meaningful relationships.

Judging from the success of networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace, it seems we crave interactions with and connections to other people.  Then why is it that there are so few dream teams around?  Why is it, that in a world that is obsessed with connectivity, we find it so difficult to build the relationships that are the foundations of visionary teams?

Apparently the average middle manager gets at least 80 email messages per day. Instant messages demand instant responses. Our costs of interacting have been reduced to almost zero but the volume of our interactions is heading towards infinity. There is no time to anticipate the future – people are too busy reacting to demands of the present.  The quantity of communication has increased but the quality has decreased.  There is no time to think.  Creativity lies dormant because everything else is more urgent.

Today we can connect better with Alaska and Outer Mongolia.  But, do we still connect with the same quality with the people who work on the floor below us?  Facebook, mobile phones and email have given us breadth not depth.  We are spread too thinly.  We have quantity, not quality.

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How to avoid death by Powerpoint

It is very rare to find a truly captivating presenter.  It is very easy to come across cringe-inducing ones though.

How should you design a good presentation?  How can you get your message across?  How can you develop power, presence and confidence when public speaking?

Watch this excellent talk by Garr Reynolds (author of PresentationZen).  It is 60 minutes long but the time will fly by, as any engaging presentation should.

 Link to the talk on YouTube.

Rules, mediocrity and practical wisdom

I highly recommend psychologist Barry Schwartz’s recent presentation at the TED 2009 conference.  It is a 20 minute talk on how our bureaucracy-obsessed society should nurture practical wisdom. 

He discusses how when things go wrong, we scramble for two tools – better incentives and more rules.

He says rules and standardized processes and procedures are insurance policies against disaster and they are often successful in preventing it.  But, while rules can be useful, they are not enough.  The more rules you have, the less practical wisdom you will have.  The reality is that real world problems are ambiguous and rigid rules can remove opportunities for improvisation and prevent people from inventing combinations that are appropriate for the situation and people at hand.  Rules are often implemented at the cost of initiative, creativity and passion – yet these are vital to organizational success.  Rigid rules can perpetuate mediocrity because ‘that’s just the way things are done around here’.  People start saying things like ‘Don’t look at me – I just work here’.

I can personally relate to what Schwartz is saying.  After the Enron, Worldcom debacle, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed.  This act was great for accounting firms because it provided them with a conveyer belt of guaranteed, hefty income.  Part of the act required management to test, document and then assess the adequacy of their internal controls/rules over financial reporting.  While this legislation may have produced fewer future Enrons, it injected despondency, endless monotony and career doubts into most staff members and auditors (including me) who had to test, document or audit a company’s controls/rules.  I saw how it drained people of qualities such as vitality and ingenuity – the very qualities that make us human.

I wonder what regulations will be passed after the current financial crisis.  In interviews on the topic of practical wisdom, Schwartz has highlighted how business was about doing what was profitable and legal.  Now it is important to do what is profitable and right.   How do you nurture in people the desire to do the right thing?  How do you give them the tools so that they’ll know what the right thing is?  How do you implement rules but also leave room for creative improvisation and personal judgment?

Move beyond simply maximising shareholder wealth

It is no longer ‘cool’ to say your company’s mission is to make money and maximize shareholder wealth. Although many companies pretend that they have a more noble purpose, their actions, processes, controls, hierarchy, behaviour of management and treatment of their employees reveals that maximizing returns is actually still their number 1 priority. 

In his recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Gary Hamel passionately believes that any company, whose primary mission is to make money and enhance the bottom line, is misunderstanding the role and responsibility of business in the 21^st century.

Hamel says:

 Most companies strive to maximize shareholder wealth—a goal that is inadequate in many respects. As an emotional catalyst, wealth maximization lacks the power to fully mobilize human energies. It’s an insufficient defense when people question the legitimacy of corporate power. And it’s not specific or compelling enough to spur renewal. For these reasons, tomorrow’s management practices must focus on the achievement of socially significant and noble goals.

Many companies have jumped on the social responsibility bandwagon and attached green, sustainability statements to their mission.  They monitor their carbon footprint and make a fuss of donations and good deeds for charities.  That is a good start but it is not enough.  Companies need to embed citizenship and community into the fabric of their vision.  What is your company’s mission aside from making money?  How do you make a difference to the customers you serve?  My husband works at a global professional services firm and does not know what their vision is aside from making cash.  That is probably one of the main reasons why they struggle to differentiate and manage talent.

Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Google, Disney and Amazon have a vision beyond making money and their employees can articulate it.  These employees feel as if they are making a difference – they know they are more than robotic cogs in a vast money making machine.  That is why these companies are often used as case studies for customer and employee engagement. If banks had a socially responsible vision beyond making money, we probably would not be in the pickle we currently find ourselves. 

We put so much pressure on politicians to solve community problems but often forget that corporations have an inherent advantage over elected public servants.  CEOs and their companies have a capacity to do good that often outweighs that of national politicians.

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Online news in 1981

This video clip is a news report from 1981.  It covers the once “far fetched” concept of reading news on your home computer.  It is amazing to see how far we have come!  My favourite part of the clip is where a man is interviewed because he is one of the rare few that owns a home computer.

Link to 1981 news report on YouTube

Meaty people – Graded, boxed and ranked

I have just been forwarded an email from a friend who works at a reputable, global company.  This company is widely quoted as saying that talent management is a priority and people are their greatest asset.   

The email was sent by HR to all managers within a department and was informing them of their new promotion practices.  This is a sentence from the email:

‘Our approach to considering candidates will still be peer group coach meetings to grade, box and rank all of those that wish to be considered for promotion.’

Grade, box and rank?  How does this make highly qualified, super talented and ambitious employees feel?  My eggs, minced beef and chicken drumsticks in the fridge are graded, boxed and ranked.

Companies must be so careful to practice what they preach.  If I were to be graded, boxed and ranked, I would not feel like a valued, appreciated human being.  In fact, I wouldn’t really bother about being promoted anymore – I would look to leave.  I think this company’s talent management strategy needs some fine-tuning.

Big challenges for management

In May 2008, a group of world-renowned academics and progressive business leaders, led by Gary Hamel, debated the future of management during the next 100 years. They all believe that the current management model is outdated and should be reinvented for the future.  They came up with a list of 25 management challenges that could create organizations fit for the 21st century.  They believe that if leaders do not focus on these issues, companies will not cope in tomorrow’s unpredictable world.

Out of the 25 challenges, these are the ones that fascinated me the most: 

* Ensure that the work of management serves a higher purpose.
* Fully embed the ideas of community and citizenship in management systems
* Eliminate the pathologies of formal hierarchy
* Reinvent the means of control
* Redefine the work of leadership
* Expand the scope of employees’ autonomy
* Further unleash human imagination
* Enable communities of passion
* Humanise the language and practice of business

You can read Gary Hamel’s article in the February 2009 Harvard Business Review.

TomorrowToday and the Periodic Table of Talent

Deloitte has developed a Periodic Table of Talent that covers most of the elements in the talent management area.  It is divided into four parts – strategy, solutions, infrastructure and catalysts.

There are two types of talent elements – core and differentiating.  Core factors support the traditional employee lifecycle. Differentiating factors have higher potential to drive competitive advantage.  If you look at the table below, you will see the differentiating factors are represented by a square with the top left corner chopped off.  

In the 21^st century, differentiating is more difficult than it used to be.  Companies sell the same products, offer the same services, to the same customers, at similar prices, deliver through the same channels and advertise in the same media using the same techniques.  So how do companies differentiate? 

One of the best ways is to focus on your people strategy and the environment in which your employees work.  Don’t feel too daunted and overwhelmed – TomorrowToday has expertise, insight and frameworks that cater for most of the differentiating areas!  I highlighted those with a black star. 

Recruiting good people is like catching butterflies

Last week, TomorrowToday did a presentation at Investec in London.  In the 2 hours I was there, I could clearly see that they take their people seriously.  As an Investec customer, I was impressed and if they look after their people so well, I have confidence that they will look after my money too.

I have facilitated many training courses and I have noticed that free food for attendees is always a big incentive and thrill.  I raised my eyebrows when I heard a Big 4 accounting firm in London has recently cancelled all food on training courses in order to save cash.  Big mistake!  I guarantee their staff will be fed up and bitter about that.  And bitter, unhappy people are not very productive people …

The ambience that Investec created on Friday was a cut above any company I have ever been to.  There were fancy breakfast hordevores, quality Starbucks filter coffee, salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, mini mueslis and smoothies.  Everything was arranged in a very artistic and fancy way. 

Based on the food Investec served their staff, I suspect they know how to manage talent.  The environment they created proves to their staff that management takes them seriously.

All the employees I spoke to passionately agreed that Investec is one of the best places to work and the food at training courses is an indication of that.  They know Investec values their contribution.  Their people are worth investing in so they still serve really good food, despite the tough economic climate.  It is the small things that count.

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Pleased to meet you. What do you do for a living?

When you meet new people at a function, what is one of the first things they ask you?  Every time I am introduced to new people, we generally say ‘hello’ and ‘pleased to meet you’.  Then, we ask each other, ‘what do you do for a living?’

I can understand why people ask this because it breaks the ice and keeps the conversation moving.  It is assumed that the question ‘what do you do for a living’ will reveal something about who you are and then encourage more discussion.

I am an accountant.  This has been my most succinct response to the ‘what do you do for a living’ question.  The problem is that this short answer gave people a false impression of the real me. The field I studied is no longer congruent with the dreams and aspirations I have for my life.  I have never fitted the stereotypical accountant profile so I always wanted to qualify the statement and say ‘I am an accountant BUT…’ Sometimes a BBQ, wedding or light-hearted cocktail party is not the place to get too philosophical and intense.  So, I generally left my response as a brief ‘I am an accountant’ but felt something was missing from my answer, just like I felt something was missing in my career in general.

I have always wondered whether other people feel the same way as me.  Do people’s jobs and the companies they work for define who they really are? – ‘I am a doctor’, ‘I work for IBM’, ‘I am in the oil industry’, ‘I am an engineer’, ‘I am in project management’.  Recently, I have made it my mission at functions to subtly probe whether people’s jobs are congruent with their passion and who they feel they really are. 

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Nancy Killefer’s great insight – business is a ‘contact sport’

Last week I attended a networking event for HR professionals in London.  The general consensus was that most companies are cutting back on expenses and are not actively investing in activities to motivate, attract and engage their people.  Many companies are viewing this type of spending as a luxury which should be cut back during the downturn.  If any money is being spent on people, it tends to be around redundancies.  The event was full of doom and gloom and I even felt a bit depressed afterwards.

Why are companies cutting back on spending money that will build and maintain positive relationships with their staff? 

Authors Gary Neilson and Bruce Pasternak said that, ‘Organisations are not monolithic entities.  They are collections of individuals who usually act on their own self-interest.  Organisations must unlock potential of employees by aligning individual actions of others and the interests of the firm as a whole, every day, at every level.’  Why don’t companies understand that in turbulent times, people matter more than ever? 

2009 will be an uncertain and unpredictable year and relationships and connections with people – staff, customers and suppliers – will matter more than ever.  Competitive advantage comes from the mind’s of people and that is why they need to be nurtured and invested in, especially in the current economic climate.

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CVs – Get professional help

In the current economic climate, there are more talented people competing for fewer jobs.  The job market is competitive.  Supply exceeds demand and employers have the luxury of being more selective than they were in the past.  Recruiters for finance and other professional positions are finding they are receiving 50 to 60 CVs for jobs that, in the past, would have attracted 10 to 20 applicants.

An article in Time magazine (12 Jan 2009 issue) provides some ideas on how you can stand out from the pack and get an interview.  One of the points that grabbed my attention was that you should seek professional help when writing your CV, no matter how talented you believe you are.

You are a brand.  You are selling yourself in your CV.  If you were to sell a very important product at work, you would get expert advice and spend money on marketing and advertising.  Strangely, few people pay for professional help when drafting their personal CVs. 

According to a recruiter friend of mine, your CV must grab the reader’s attention in 10 seconds.  It must describe who you are, what you are good at and the value you can add in 10 seconds.  Few people have the skill to convey such key information in this short space of time.  I know that I don’t.  I have tailored my CV so much that I often feel like I am trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

After reading this Time article, I paid £10 for a CV assessment at www.cvchecker.com.  In 3 days, I got a detailed analysis on how I could improve my CV and where the gaps were.  I expect that with this cheaper service, they will always say your CV needs improvement so it encourages you to take advantage of their more expensive offerings.  Nevertheless, the advice was relevant and, freshly inspired, I changed my CV completely.

After more investigation and asking around, I discovered these are the recommended sites for professional CV advice: 

 www.cvchecker.com

www.resumewriters.com

www.aperfectcv.co.uk

It is a small price to pay when you consider how important your CV is, especially in the current job market.

Barack Obama’s Simple Leadership Recipe

I have been reading Time magazine’s interview and article on their 2008 Person of the Year – Barack Obama.  While reading this engaging story, it struck me that Obama does not work alone.  He is who he is because he surrounds himself with very talented people.  He values his staff, appreciates talent and his people know exactly where they stand and what is expected of them.  Barack Obama is now reaping the rewards of his simple yet very effective leadership philosophy.

Before starting his campaign for the presidency, Obama had not really led much and initially his staff was not sure what to expect.  David Axelrod is Obama’s chief strategist and he said, ‘One of the greatest revelations of this process, certainly the most thrilling revelation to me, was to learn what a great manager this guy is.  We had no way of knowing that when we started.’

It is inspiring to learn how straightforward and effective Obama’s leadership philosophy is.  He has a healthy self-confidence, surrounds himself with highly talented people and he communicates clearly and succinctly and expects his staff to do the same in return.

This is what Obama says about his leadership recipe:

I don’t think there’s some magic trick here.  I think I’ve got a good nose for talent, so I hire really good people.  And I’ve got a pretty healthy ego, so I’m not scared of hiring the smartest people, even when they’re smarter than me.  And I have a low tolerance for nonsense and turf battles and game-playing, and I send that message very clearly.  And so, over time, I think people start trusting each other, and they stay focused on mission, as opposed to personal ambition and grievance.  If you’ve got smart people who are focused on the same mission, then usually you can get things done.

I am not a shouter.  I find that what was always effective with me as a kid, and Michelle and I find it effective with our kids, is just making people feel really guilty.  Like “Boy, I am disappointed in you.  I expected so much more.”  And I think people generally want to do the right thing, and if you’re clear to them about what that right thing is, and if they see you doing the right thing, then that gives you some leverage.  Hollering at people isn’t usually that effective.  Now, there are exceptions.  There are times when guilt doesn’t work, and then you have to use fear.

Leadership challenges, the Nobel Prize and 40 year old CEOs

Gone are the glamour days of being a CEO.  Leadership in the 21^st century is more complex, grueling and challenging than ever before.  Today’s leaders face unique challenges that require a unique approach. 

Authors Andrew Cave and Steve Tappin interviewed 100 global CEOs who collectively have over 1,000 years experience.  The general consensus was that leadership today is more challenging than it used to be.  The definition of business success has changed because a relentless pursuit of money is no longer socially acceptable.  It also takes a special type of leader who can create a global organization that is socially responsible, attractive to talented people, financially sound and technologically savvy.  It takes a rare personality who is able to balance the demands of leading an international business and also have time for family, friends and personal interests.  Few people have the self-confidence, ability and personality to overcome the formidable modern business challenges that lie before them.

With all that in mind, here is something interesting …

Researcher Benjamin F Jones, from Northwestern University, examined the 20^th century winners of Nobel prizes in the sciences, economics and technology.  He noticed that the average age at which recent winners have made contributions to their field has increased from age 23 in 1900 to age 31 in 1999.

This makes sense because reaching the highest levels is much harder that is used to be.  Prizewinners have to understand what has gone before them and need years of preparatory study before they can make a unique contribution.

Ironically, the age of CEOs is decreasing.  This doesn’t make sense, considering the unique wisdom, business savvy, courage and adaptability that are required to overcome daunting the challenges the CEOs outlined in their interviews.  Research by the leadership advisory firm, Heidrick and Struggles, has confirmed that the average age of FTSE100 CEOs is dropping to around age 40.  Are younger generations better equipped to deal with modern, global business issues?

Fulfilling work should satisfy 6 core needs

Employees have 6 core needs. If companies give their employees the opportunity to fulfill these 6 needs, workers are more likely to be fulfilled at work.  It is in all leaders’ and companies’ best interest to take note of these needs because, the fact is, happy and fulfilled employees are generally more productive and efficient.

The 6 needs are: -

1. Certainty
2. Variety
3. Significance
4. Connection
5. Growth
6. Contribution. 

The table below explains how work can fulfill each of the 6 needs of employees and how Generation X and Y’s response to these needs differs to Baby Boomers.

SOURCE:

Tony Robbins in ‘Secrets of CEOs’ by Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave.

Tips from CEOs – How to survive the economic downturn

I have been reading an outstanding book called ‘The Secrets of CEOs’.  The authors, Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave, interviewed 150 top global CEOs who have over 1,000 years of leadership experience between them.

These CEOs believe that the economic downturn will last, at least, until the end of 2009. 

These were the CEO top recommendations on how to survive this trying time:

1.     Keep the balance sheet strong. 

• - Cash is king.
• - Focus on working capital management.

2.     Avoid surprises

• - Lay your cards out on the table from the very beginning.  Declare current and expected losses early.
• - Make sure people face the bad news
• - Get extra luggage overboard 

3.     Focus intensely on performance and talent

• - Talented people do not stop being high maintenance simply because there is a downturn.  Stop nurturing them at your peril. 

4.     Catch the tide

• - You need to act fast.  Be alert. 
• - Manage in real time
• - Develop short and effective communication lines. 

5.     Be bold

• - The downturn can bring great opportunity – low price mergers, low cost investments.
• - After the downturn, the early bird will get the worm.

‘A manager’s job is to manage in the good times and the bad times.  Great managers use difficult times to position for competitive advantage.’

 Archie Norman, former CEO of ASDA

“Flowing” at work

Most sportsmen display passion and disciplined concentration. If cyclists, runners, tennis players, golfers and swimmers feel focused, inspired and energized by their jobs, why can’t people get that in their normal day jobs too? Why is the sporting world any different to the business world? Is that feeling reserved for sports people only or can other professions such as nurses, lawyers, accountants and secretaries feel it too?

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ROWEing business towards success

Picture this:

You don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn every morning.  You can have a lie in.  If you don’t feel like commuting into work, don’t.  Go shopping, go to the movies, visit a friend or do some housework.  Only work when you feel like it.  As long as you achieve the work results that are expected of you, your time is your own.  Spend quality time with your family and friends, finish your chores and admin, focus on your hobbies while delivering good results and advancing your career.  You have work life balance and the company also prospers.  Everyone lives happily ever after.

A fairy tale? Bliss?  Utopia?  This is a true story.  It is called a ROWE and it works at Best Buy.  ROWE is a Results Only Work Environment.  In fact, it works so well that Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, who implemented the system at Best Buy, have written a book to encourage other companies to do it too.  Their book is called ‘Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It.’

It is not pie-in-the-sky stuff.  People are talking more and more about focusing on outputs, results only and giving the new work force the freedom and flexibility which they seem to crave.  In the new world of work, more power is clearly devolving from the organisation to individuals because workers control the most lucrative means of production – their brains.  Leading management thinkers have predicted that temporary networks of talented people to work on projects will be more productive than the hierarchical, command and control hierarchy that characterized the industrial age workplace.   If this is how the world of work will look, then a move towards a results only work environment could be very effective.

Pictures of Amazon’s distribution centre in the UK

I love Amazon because it is so convenient and easy.  I can order books in three clicks of my mouse and the package is dropped through my door two days later.

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes?  Look at these ten pictures on the Guardian’s website.

Hot, Flat and Crowded

I am a big fan of Thomas Friedman.  He wrote the bestseller ‘The World is Flat’ and has recently published a new book called, ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded’. 

Follow this link to an hour-long presentation by Thomas Friedman. I read ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded’ in two weeks so, if you don’t have time on your hands, I highly recommend you watch this talk.  It is a fascinating, thought-provoking study of petropolitics, climate change, globalization and other similar themes.

On Saturday, I went to the local shopping mall in Wimbledon, London.  The central heating was so hot that it gave me a headache and I started to sweat in my big anorak.  The temperature of the entire centre is regulated centrally.rent a car bulgaria  While in the hair salon, I noticed it was a little cooler.  My hairdresser explained why – the air conditioner was on.  So the mall turns up the heating and the individual shops turn up their air conditioners. I am now writing to the mall management to complain about the unnecessary waste of precious energy and that is thanks to the insight I got from Thomas Friedman’s book.  It explained the implications of a hot, flat and crowded world and it scares me.  It will scare you too.