While creating happy customers is one aspect of Naomi Simson’s business (and an important one), creating happy staff and stakeholders are equally critical components.

RedBalloon’s founder, Simson draws heavily on her experience as a senior marketer, having worked her way up over a 15-year period from marketing officer to product manager, marketing manager and director with well-known companies such as Ansett, IBM, KPMG and Apple. After leaving corporate life to become a mother, other priorities took hold and she decided to build her own workplace that people genuinely looked forward to attending every day.  Simson believes this is vital for long-term success and it’s something she is well versed in.  RedBalloon has secured a place in the list of Australia’s Best Places to Work produced by BRW four years in a row now.

RedBalloon are considered the pioneers of experiential gifting in Australia and New Zealand.

Although a recent arrival on the scene, here are some of the awards that they have won over the past few years:-

2013 –     #8 in the Top 50 BRW Best Places to Work in Australia (an award they are well and truly used to receiving) and one of only 9 companies to make this award 5 years in a row

2012 –     Secured a place in BRW Top 50 Best Places to Work in Australia.
BRW Fast 100 list from 2004 to 2009.  Red Balloon have also been a regular on the Deloitte Fast 50 for Australia, beginning in 2006.

2011 –     Australian Human Resources Institute HR Practitioner Of The Year – Awarded to RedBalloon Employee Experience Manager Megan Bromley.
-    Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award – Awarded to company founder Naomi Simson (2011 Eastern Region winner for the Industry category).

2010 –    Hewitt Best Employers – One of only six companies to receive recognition.

2008 –    Nokia Business Award for Innovation – Presented to Naomi Simson at the Telstra Business Women’s Awards.

There are numerous other awards too many to mention here, and they are all centred around training, culture, team building and innovation.

In her book ‘Five Thanks a Day,’ Naomi Simson has compiled a collection of stories on the ‘how-to’ and science of saying thank you, the concept of which she also attributes as part of her success.

The name behind Simson’s endeavour was inspired by the 1956 Oscar-winning French short film Le Ballon Rouge (“The Red Balloon”), which takes viewers on a series of journeys with a young boy named Pascal and a whimsical red balloon that begins to follow him through Paris. That red balloon, a vibrant symbol of fun and happiness throughout the film, laid the foundation for Simson’s dream venture.

“I wanted to test if a business could be successful by simply listening to its people and its customers, and focusing on what would get people talking: the giving and receiving of experiential gifts that create memories,” Simson says.

Now, twelve years later, the company Simson founded in her family home has flourished into a six-time BRW Fast Company that has garnered many more accolades for its work environment, gift offerings, and employee engagement.

In an effort to bring RedBalloon into the business sphere, a corporate incentive service was created that offers employees reward points that may be redeemed for cash credit on the RedBalloon website. There are approximately 3,000 clients involved in this innovative program including such corporate heavy hitters as Qantas, Virgin Mobile, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Origin Energy.

The work in this sector is not only rewarding for participating companies, but also for the RedBalloon employees coordinating the programs. “I have found my home in a business where they practice what they preach and ‘mix business with pleasure’,” says Matt Geraghty, General Manager of Corporate.

People Management

The work atmosphere at RedBalloon is just as upbeat and invigorating as the experiences they offer, and this is largely due to the high spirits of the employees.

“We believe that our people are our biggest competitive strength and, as a result, have shaped an award winning culture of fun, appreciation and recognition designed to attract and retain top talent,” says RedBalloon’s current CEO Kristie Buchanan.

A great deal of emphasis is placed on structuring the employees’ daily experiences to ensure that every work day is engaging and fulfilling.

“The framework – ‘Welcome. Tools. Grow. Flow. Appreciate’ – covers our approach to recruitment and on-boarding; what productivity tools we provide; how employees are kept connected to the flow of information; and finally, how they are recognised and challenged,” says Buchanan. “Our growth plans involve continuing to find more innovative ways to deliver meaningful experiences to our customers, our corporate clients and our employees. This could be in the form of products, in service delivery, in our marketing or technology.”

Check out for yourself why RedBalloon is one of Australia’s most sought after companies to work for and why it is also one of the fastest growing start-up brands in business today. I am sure it will give you food for thought. RedBalloon is another of the amazing companies we will be showcasing on our week long study tour in February of organisations that are changing the shape of the way we do business.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to join our February study tour and create the environment that attracts and retains the young leaders of the future for your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

I must admit I got caught out recently when I thought I was doing the right thing by this young tradesman. I needed some landscaping to be completed at the front of my property and it just so happened that at the same time I was considering my options, a young man (around 25 years) happened to drop by with a business card offering to quote me on the job. He had been doing some work in the area and noticed that I had been preparing my front yard for a major facelift. He seemed knowledgeable about his craft (landscaping and concreting) and was personable enough in a rough ‘tradie’ kind of way. Once I had seen his handiwork on some previous jobs, I felt comfortable he could complete the work to an acceptable level, so I decided to give him the opportunity. So far so good…

Given I did not know him personally, I wanted to make sure that I would receive fair value for money so we came to an arrangement that I would pay directly for any of the material needed (machinery hire; sand and soil supply; concrete delivery etc.), and he would charge me at a daily ‘labour-only’ rate for him and his mate which would allow me to keep within the budget I had set aside for the project. He told me in advance what the daily rate for the two of them would be and it seemed reasonable enough so the project commenced with me confident that I had covered all the bases and that we were both on the same page with our mutual expectations.

The first couple of days I needed to be off site in meetings so I didn’t get much opportunity to observe what my contractor and his mate were doing. Each day there was evidence of progress in the right direction albeit slower than I expected, so I assumed that things were on track and I paid him as I had agreed to do at the end of the first two days of work. By day four I was beginning to get concerned that the project did not seem to be progressing as fast as I had hoped but I put that concern down to me not being knowledgeable in the ways of landscaping. Whenever I raised my concerns with my young friend, he assured me that things were progressing well and his super confidence seemed to allay my fears enough for me to question myself and my expectations rather than him and his abilities. By now I felt we were two days behind where we needed to be if I was to keep within my budget, so I decided to remain around for the next day to observe first-hand the work that was being done for me by our landscaper and his helper.

At the end of day five, the penny had dropped for me.

Here’s what I witnessed. The general theme of ‘a days work’ by my young landscaper….

Arrive around 8.30-8.45 am. Take the next half hour preparing site works (i.e. unpack the ‘ute’ while chatting about the night before with his mate). Set tasks for the mate to complete while answering mobile phone calls for another half an hour. Do some work for about an hour before taking a break. Complete the morning break and work for another hour before leaving the site together at around 11.30 am to have lunch. Come back an hour later, and work until around 2.30 pm when it was time to clean up. Leave at around 3.00 pm (sometimes earlier I later discovered) to go and quote on other jobs.

As you (and I) will discover from this scenario, a day of work for two tradesmen consisted of probably only five to five and a half hours of actual work. The rest was made up of late arrival, long meal breaks and early finishes interrupted constantly by mobile phone calls and a lot of watching by the tradie’s mate while the tradie did the skilled work.

That evening I quizzed my young contractor what a ‘fair days work for a fair days pay’ meant to him, and much to my surprise he answered that if he is on site for four hours or less it is charged out at a half day rate, but anything over four hours was a full day regardless of how much time was spent on site working. When I mentioned that it seemed like I was actually paying for a full day for two of them for only 1.5 hours more that his half day rate he shrugged his shoulders and said ‘this was what we agreed on.’

And he was right!

In my eagerness to engage him and cover what I assumed was all the bases, I left out one very important aspect of our communication. At a daily ‘labour-only’ rate – what constituted a days work? I wonder if you have you ever been caught out like this as I was.

And here is the valuable lesson I learned from this recent episode. When giving freedom to people without framework built around that freedom, what you are actually doing is giving them licence not freedom. This is because freedom and autonomy without proper framework takes away accountability, and without accountability freedom for the individual is a fairly hollow experience for all concerned.

This recent experience of mine translates directly across to the workplace, especially with our fast changing workforce where we are attempting to create cultures filled with the young Gen Y whizz-kids of the future whom we want to attract and retain. In our rush to engage with them and their self belief that anything is possible for them (instilled into them via parents; schools and the media), we need to be very careful that we do not give them licence without framework in the name of self determination and autonomy. It is a fine line between the two but it can be a slippery slope if we are not more careful as their employers.

I guess you may be wondering what was the final outcome for my landscaping project? Instead of it being an enjoyable win-win experience for both of us, once my trust had been broken I believe it developed into a lose-lose experience instead. My project took double the expected amount of time to be completed and henceforth my budget blew out significantly, and the extra work that I had agreed my eager landscaper could do once the main project was completed was given to someone else to complete under tighter and more specific guidelines as a result. So my young landscaping friend got less work in the end and I paid more than expected.

Here is an excellent link to a blog written by a young and eager Gen Y achiever Kejia Zhu, an employee of Facebook. He’s a 29 year old guy who was born in China, grew up in the UK and now lives in America. Kejia wrote a blog this week which received a lot of attention worldwide because it speaks to the heart of the overblown expectations of the Gen Y generation and their search for instant success before they reach thirty. In his blog Kejia talks with a fair degree of insight about the value of patience and the wisdom that comes with age and years of experience in a world bludgeoned by stories of overnight fame and success.

When I read what Keija says about his 92 yo grandfather’s achievements and his own new-found insight into the meaning of success, it gives me heart that there is a place in this world for every generation if we are prepared to step back and honour the unique perspective that people of each each decade of learning and discovery brings to the table.

http://kzhu.net/does-life-end-at-35.html

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to create the environment that attracts and retains the young leaders of the future for your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

Photo Credit – ‘Grandpa stealing wifi for his beloved iPad’  – Keija (@Kzhu)

Atlassian is an Australian software company that lives, works and plays by its noble cause and values. The people at Atlassian exist not only to provide quality software to corporate Australia and the rest of the world but also to help companies share information, be more collaborative and help people all over the world to live better, more purposeful lives with deeper and richer relationships. They are certainly on track to doing just that.

I would like to thank my colleague Anita Kropacsy of Leaders of Distinction who shared this wonderful story with me about Atlassian, a young and vibrant company that deserves highlighting for all of the right reasons. Together, in our work, Anita and I seek to showcase forward thinking organisations that add a huge dose of social awareness and action as a key part of their business model. We call it R.O.I. + I. (Return on Investment and Integrity). Not only are they great employers and successful businesses, but also their social consciousness is front and centre of their strategy, not an ‘add on.’ They and many other youthful companies like them are the new breed of business leaders of this new millennium who bring with them a wider global view than just the fortunes of their own company. Here’s their story.

Since 2010 Atlassian has donated more than $2.5 million to help women in developing countries to gain access to education through donating 100% of all income from a software tool that supports start-up businesses and not-for-profits (which they give licences to use the software for a mere $10). Talk about a win-win-win-win.  They have been heard to say that they try to aim for a ‘win’ to the power of six!

They have one of the most innovative teams around, and that doesn’t happen by accident.  Everything in their business exudes absolute transparency. Regardless of whether it is practical or impractical, all information both internal and external is made public.  They are not afraid of being honest with themselves; with their staff; with their customers and with the community at large.

It’s not just the transparency that helps to create an atmosphere of innovation and productivity though – they have structures and systems and they invest heavily into believing in their team’s ability to be creative.

Every quarter they have what they call ‘Shipit’ days, where everyone in the company is invited to come up with an idea and work on whatever they want to work on as long as it fits within Atlassian’s business scope. They back this up even further and offer the staff 20% time where anyone who wins backing from the team from their ‘Shipit’ presentation can spend 20% of their work week (and pick whomever they want on their team) to turn their idea into reality.  This has also helped them to develop some fantastic project management and collaboration software.  They have also just run their first ‘Shipit’ day for their customers who might have some great ideas on how to improve their products and services.  That’s smart!

Atlassian builds its business with heart and with balance.  While the company works incredibly hard at producing outstanding software that improves the lives of the people using it (making their life easier and less stressful/more free and transparent), each person within the 600 strong team situated over three continents volunteers five days per year to their favourite charity, supported by Atlassian. The company also runs programmes such as ‘matching donation month’ where it matches the donations that staff put into their charities out of their own pockets. Atlassian is always looking for ways that it can give back to the wider community in which it operates.

The leaders support their stakeholders in any way that they can – including engaging them in major company decisions; putting their large orders in to their suppliers where ever possible in the suppliers quiet periods; generally considering absolutely anyone whose life could be impacted in any way by their company with absolute compassion; and with everyone’s best interest at heart.

It’s not all just hard (yet fun and engaging) work at Atlassian either.  They have computer games, music, pool tables, Wii carts… they are even supplied with tricycles with which to ride around the office, fully equipped with a stubby cooler on the front and a basket on the back ready for 4pm Friday drinks.

The architecture at the Atlassian building hasn’t happened by accident either.  It is light, bright, spacious… all of the things that have been scientifically proven to enhance creative activity in the brain.  They are on to everything here.

Atlassian is one of the fastest growing companies in Australia and has been acknowledged as being amongst the top ten best employers in Australia for the last three years running. Its founders are recognised by the BRW young rich list as being the two wealthiest individuals in Australia under the age of 40. In a recent interview, they were asked what is it that makes their company so successful. Their answer was that they have meaningful core values, they work hard to get the right people on board and they implement world best practices and business systems that support their core values and innovation (and they have also happen to have attracted the attention of industry greats such as Gary Hamel and Dan Pink).

Atlassian are a key driver in a new business concept called ‘Conscious Capitalism.’ Chances are we are going to hear a whole lot more about this in our world over the next few years, as more and more business leaders discover that there are more fulfilling ways to achieve business success where profitability, sustainability and ‘making a difference’ go hand in hand.

What are your thoughts on ‘Conscious Capitalism’? I’d love to read them.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to create the environment that attracts and retains the young leaders of the future for your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

Giving feedback to your direct reports can lead to misunderstanding if you are not careful about the language you use to suit the person for whom it is intended. Here is an example of what I mean.

Last week I was asked this question during an on-line broadcast…. “How can someone’s style of speaking get in the way of giving accurate feedback to a direct report?” This was in response to my comment that the type of language we use to communicate with each other can often get in the way of the meaning we intend, especially if the person to whom we are talking has a different style of processing information to us.

To illustrate my point here is a simple example utilising just two of the 48 language patterns or ‘filters’ that everyone has running unconsciously whenever they communicate.

These two patterns are regarding ‘scope.’ At one end of the spectrum is a pattern called “Breadth Orientation.” It’s fairly self explanatory. Someone who is extremely high in ‘Breadth Orientation,’ is someone who prefers to work with and think from an overview or ‘big picture’ point of view. Their preference is to approach tasks and issues from a global perspective, and the language that they use will reflect that preference.

There are no prizes for guessing what type of thinking and processing lies at the other end of the spectrum…“Depth Orientation.”  This pattern is reflected in someone who needs to work with details and exact sequences of events. They will always want to receive specific information and having detailed knowledge is the most motivating for them.

Now of course not all individuals are at one end of the spectrum or the other, but I have witnessed this often enough to know that it can have a huge impact on communication and understanding in the workplace. In fact I remember a previous article I wrote some months ago where there were two members of a team who were the polar opposites in Breadth and Depth Orientation and the hilarious differences that they demonstrated when each was describing his favourite holiday to the rest of the team members. Here is that link FYI… You are a Walking Talking Signpost of Clues at Work but did you Know it?

Anyway, back to the point I wish to make.

Imagine if you are a leader for whom the ‘Big Picture’ or the helicopter view is the predominant scope that you bring to all of your thinking and ‘modus operandi.’ In most cases and at your level of engagement as a leader, this most probably serves you in the work that you do. Now imagine too, that you have just given feedback or advice to a direct report about his/her performance on a critical project that is currently consuming everyone’s time and energy. You believe that your chat went well with this team member and you don’t give it any further thought once the discussion has ended.

But did it? That might depend on whether the recipient of your message has a preference for ‘big picture’ thinking like you or not. If, on the other hand, their scope of thinking is firmly rooted in the detail (especially if this is the particular focus they bring to the project as part of their specialisation), then chances are that they will walk away from that discussion feeling confused because for them your feedback seemed too vague and ‘sweeping’ in its approach. Remember – this might not actually be the case, but it may be how they are perceiving it.

Or alternatively, imagine if you are a leader for whom detail is paramount in all of your work, and your scope of thinking and communicating reflects that preference. What if the feedback you have just given was to a direct report who has a strong ‘filter’ running unconsciously from the ‘Big Picture’ point of view. Once again, you walk away from the discussion believing that things went well, however at the other end of the conversation the individual on the receiving end is left feeling that your approach was far too ‘nit-picky’ for his/her liking. What he/she would have preferred was for you to paint the ‘Big Picture’ of what was needed to change or happen, and leave them to follow through accordingly. Once again, this might not be how you feel you communicated things, but because of your style of approach and their unconscious interpretation, this is how the miscommunication or misrepresentation has played out between the two of you.

It’s as if you are speaking Chinese to the Frenchman, even though you were both conversing in English!

As I said earlier, misunderstandings like this happen far more frequently in the workplace than we think it does often due to the different filters that each person brings to their ‘model of the world.’ This is why whenever a leadership coach is first engaged to work with a team of executives, invariably the number one topic on the agenda is regarding improving the communication between all of the players in the team.

Next time you are in conversation with any of your colleagues or direct reports try to focus on the type of language they are using in their discussion. It may give you some indication at which scope or level they are thinking. If you happen to notice what their particular filter is, then consider how best to communicate with them at that level. You may find that it increases both the understanding and the influence you have with them.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to know more about how to develop greater understanding with your people.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less.  Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick?  Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your staff.

Celebration

All too often when financial indicators show that results are finally heading in the right direction, leaders of teams or companies turn their attention to other issues and forget about what it took for their people to change course and re-direct their energies towards more fruitful activities. As I said in my previous blog, in order for lasting and impactful change to occur you must continue to reward the behaviour you want. Now that of course includes both individual and team reward and recognition, but there is one more element that if it is introduced at the appropriate times, you can potentially fast-track your culture to consistent achievement, and that is the element of fun and celebration. Celebration can take many forms, from as small as high fives amongst a close-knit team when a big result comes in, to a major themed event involving the whole organisation. It gives people a chance to say to themselves… “I am part of something special here, and there is no other place I would rather be.”

Southwest Airlines

I had the good fortune to witness this in action first hand during the nineties as part of my world class best practice study tours when I led different groups of senior executives on six occasions over a number of years to the headquarters of the iconic Southwest Airlines under the then leadership of CEO, Herb Kelliher. Southwest Airlines has consistently led its industry year-in, year-out in all of the benchmarks that matter… Best On-Time Performance; Fewest Customer Complaints; Best Baggage Handling; Most Admired Company; Best Employer; One of USA’s safest airlines with the newest fleet; and 30 years of profitability to round out the score, in an industry littered with financial under-performance and failure. Not coincidentally, Southwest’s culture was built around positively outrageous service; pride in performance; spirit of love; (or “LUV” as is their call-sign) and fun. I can honestly say that over the years, every single visit to the headquarters of Southwest Airlines at Love Field in Dallas meant a day filled with awe and outright enjoyment for me and my tour colleagues. That place encapsulated the essence of having fun at work, and finding reasons to celebrate life as part of their work. The stories are too numerous for me to share here but if you want to know more I recommend that you get a hold of the wonderful book about the airline, “Nuts” by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg.

Today, it is hard to go past the exploits of none other than Sir Richard Branson of Virgin. Here is a leader who has brought that sense of fun, adventure and celebration to the lives of his legion of followers and staff across the globe. And to know that Richard Branson is personally a very shy individual, goes to show that this aspect of leadership is possible for anyone to demonstrate if the desire is there and the reasons genuine.

Performance Management

No matter how, well your team is travelling, there will always be the need for performance management, or correction, with different individuals at different times. It doesn’t matter whether it is performance related or behaviour related the worst thing a leader can do is ignore the problem and hope that it will go away. I have lost count of the number of times I have had to coach managers and leaders who have got themselves into hot water because they allowed an issue of poor performance or inappropriate behaviour to fester. Their final act of desperation has been to try and fudge the issue via the ‘redundancy’ route or to introduce a series of warning letters which have only one end result as a consequence, which is termination. There is a far better way, and that is to nip poor performance or inappropriate behaviour in the bud early by introducing a proper process of discussion, counselling, warning, review and documentation that encourages the recipient to change direction, and leaves no doubt as to what is expected by way of the changes needed. In most companies, the HR department is well versed in the appropriate process to follow, and it is every manager’s responsibility to fully acquaint him/herself with the proper due process and follow it. For those smaller businesses which do not have an HR department, it is the CEO’s responsibility to source the appropriate information from their industry advisory council or the appropriate government department advice line, and to ensure that all members of the leadership team are fully conversant with their responsibilities under IR law. With all the available sources of information on line, there is no excuse for poor performance management practices.

While I do not put this forward as the prescriptive action to take in this area, one set of steps I have found as a useful reminder of how to support changes in actions or behaviours is the “Five F’s” formula:-

Facts – List only the observable facts as you know them to the individual to whom you are giving feedback. (Stay away from making judgments, assumptions or interpretations of the behaviour – just list the observable facts.)

Feelings – Mention how you feel personally about the actions or behaviours you are describing. (i.e. “Own” your feelings about the issue so that the individual is left in no doubt about how you feel as a result.)

Findings – Ask the individual what their ‘take’ on the issue is and listen without interruption until they have finished.

Future – Explain clearly the change in behaviour or action you wish them to take from this point on and the belief you have in them being able to undergo the changes needed (and offer further coaching or training and encouragement if it is a performance issue).

Follow Up – Schedule and diarise a follow up meeting to be held at an appropriate time in the future (say 3-4 weeks) when you can review the performance or changes in behaviour with the individual. (This is a time to recognise and reinforce the improvement made or to proceed to the next level of performance management and review if necessary.)

Of course depending on the nature and the seriousness of the performance or behaviour being addressed, there is also the opportunity for the introduction of independent management and employee representation and documentation if appropriate to the circumstances.

Individual Capability

Finally to complete the picture of effective performance management, one has to also address the aspect of personal capability. i.e. The unconscious attitudes and motivations of the individual involved. There is a risk that some of those chosen to perform in a particular role are unsuited to the task regardless of the level or amount of training and coaching they receive. In other words ‘square pegs in round holes.’  To continue to work with them and attempt to develop and correct them serves neither the best interests of the organisation nor the individual involved. This is where setting up a properly structured ‘Model of Excellence’ programme for replicable roles such as sales and customer service,  will assist future selection (both external or internal) and development strategies, in a far more precise and impactful way than has gone before. In other words… ‘Select for Success; Groom for Growth; and Replicate for Results.’ Since those people who may not be a good fit for the role have been selected through previous processes of hiring and internal promotion, I feel that it is incumbent upon the leaders of an organisation or a team to do whatever they can to assist those individuals to transition to a more suitable role, either internally or externally.

Phew – turning around under-performance. Not an easy subject to cover, and often one which many organisations and team leaders fail to address adequately and comprehensively. I hope that these series of five articles help you on your own journeys of leadership, and although they only skim the surface of what is a deep and multi-faceted issue, I trust that what I have covered these past five weeks has helped you to map out the territory that needs to be covered for effective and lasting change on the journey of long term, sustainable performance.

Once again here are the topics we covered prior to this article, in chronological order:–

Part 1 – What do you do if your Team is Warm and Fuzzy but Underperforming?

Part 2 – What do you do if your Team is Underperforming? – Setting the Scene

Part 3 – What do you do if your Team is Underperforming? – Creating the Structure and Support

Part 4 – What do you do if your team is Underperforming? – Measurement; Reward and Recognition

So now I hand it over to you for your comments and input into this series on performance management. As always, if you know of anyone whom you believe would benefit from these topics, please forward this on to them. Email me at brian@precisionprofiling.com.au  if you would like to dig deeper into any of these topics.

Until next time… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your staff… plus – all those things that are holding you or your staff back from getting the results you truly deserve.

Measurement

As the saying goes, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.”  It never ceases to amaze me how organisations both large and small hold their people accountable for bringing in the results each month but don’t actually measure the things that are critical to their performance, or if they do, then the measurements that are chosen are not specifically relevant to the activities and behaviours that lead to the right results. Invariably they tend to measure the outputs and not the inputs. KPIs stand for exactly what they mean – “Key Performance Indicators,” not ‘Key Result History-Staters!’ Invariably when proper measurements are not in place, underperformers manage to slip under the radar, the wrong people are recognised, the wrong market circumstances or events are used to explain away poor results, and underperformance is not addressed at the source and whether the activities that lead to sustainable results are being adhered to. So what are the categories of metrics that need to be considered in order to give objective feedback on what should be addressed and how it should be addressed?

Productivity or Income-Generating KPIs

First there are the lead indicators that deal directly with productivity and delivery of the key results pertinent to the role. And if the role involves income generation for the business, then those KPIs should not just focus on the numbers but also the relative value of each client’s business in relation to where the client sits on the relational profile in terms of long term value to the business. There needs to be allowance for activities leading to the generation of new business, as well as activities and performance resulting in current business growth of existing client groups. Every business is different, so it is important to focus not only on what are the critical and most insightful KPIs for your business, but also the relative ability of your Management Information Systems to deliver those numbers in the form you want and to the level you need. Too often company leaders know what they need to measure but their systems have not been designed or adapted to deliver the goods. And as I have discovered when interviewing top performers in a role, they intuitively know what the ‘real numbers’ are that indicate they are on track, but their own organisation is just not able to objectively measure the same things and so often their individual work is going unnoticed.

There are also two other forms of measurement that I would like to draw your attention to which are not KPIs relating to productivity or income generation, but I believe are equally important if you wish to gain a more balanced view of performance. One set of figures are the CSI indicators, or ‘Customer Service Indices’ and the other set are the ‘Team or Culture-focused Assessments.’

Customer Service Indices

It is fairly obvious that any role which involves direct external customer interaction such as sales, call centres, service departments and the like should have measures that show how your people are performing at the critical point of customer interface, but have you considered that the rest of your people have internal customers for which the work they do has an impact on your organisation’s financial health and wellbeing also? During my days of leading world’s best practice study tours overseas to Europe and North America where we studied the best of the best, every top performing company in its industry that we visited had developed ways of measuring internally how well each person was performing on that score, with appropriate measures of feedback and service delivery.

Team or Culture Focused Assessments

There is no poison more insidious and dangerous to the culture of your organisation, than the person or group of people who get the results but do so by abusing your company’s codes of behaviour or disrespecting the goodwill of their colleagues. While they may achieve short term results for you, ultimately the resulting disharmony created within the team environment will lead to personal acrimony among the players and potentially team dysfunction. As Jack Welch, the much respected CEO of General Electric says, ‘Having top performers who are abusive of your company values and culture should be weeded out before their behaviour sends the wrong message as to what is acceptable for the health of the culture.’ Whether your measurements in this area are in the form of team or cultural surveys; values assessments; 360 degree feedback or other means of measuring personal behaviour that leads to respect and support of others, be aware that without addressing this aspect of performance measurement you might never be able to achieve the goal of creating a champion team.

Reward and Recognition

It follows that for effective reward and recognition, first you need to address the issue of performance measurement, as I have above. So now it is important to consider how the people whose activities and results which drive the success of your team or organisation are being encouraged and rewarded to perform to the best of their abilities. It is a consistent premise of human behaviour and motivation, that in order for lasting and impactful change to occur you must reward the behaviour you want.  The two key behaviours which are critical to your business success are team focus and individual performance and achievement.

If for example, your income-generating people are only rewarded when the team hits its targets as a group then there is no incentive for those individuals to achieve or over-achieve should that be their desire. This can potentially create an environment where mediocrity is the norm. Conversely, if only high performing individuals are rewarded for reaching or surpassing their targets, then there is no incentive for individual members to support each other in a team-based environment, and those who have no hope or expectation of achieving any rewards personally, may reduce their efforts. This can potentially create an environment where either mercenary behaviour or complacency is the norm.

The key to sustained excellence at both the individual and team level is for the measurements and subsequent rewards to address both aspects of team success and individual excellence. If this is not currently the case in both or either of the above two aspects of recognition and reward then I recommend that you give thought to addressing both these items as an integral part of your overall programme of change and development.

In my final blog in this series on Performance Management, I will cover the aspects of Celebration, Performance Management and Individual Capability, to complete the picture.

I look forward to your comments and input to this series on Performance Management, and if you know of anyone whom you believe would benefit from these topics, please forward this on to them. I would love to hear from you directly with any questions you may have, so email me at brian@precisionprofiling.com.au  if there is anything in this series you would like me to clarify further.

Until next time… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your staff… plus – all those things that are holding you or your staff back from getting the results you truly deserve.

Undoubtedly you do not want to ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ in turning a people-focused culture around, so here are some tips on how best to address the issue of group underperformance in a more systematic and comprehensive way that avoids short term knee-jerk reactions or ‘scape-goating.’

Leadership from the Top

First and foremost, cultures tend to follow the direction and focus that the leader provides regardless of whether that is through the leader’s action or inaction, commission or omission. Therefore it is advisable for you as the leader to get on the front foot and announce from the outset that complacency leading to poor performance will no longer be tolerated. You need to be seen and heard repeating this message as often as possible, as well as clearly outlining to your organisation or team, the strategies and plans that will be put in place to support this ‘line in the sand.’ As well as actively communicating this message whenever and wherever the opportunity arises, actions by you as their leader such as championing outstanding behaviour that leads to extraordinary results, helps to remind the people within your culture that this topic is now very high on your radar.

For example – I had just completed a series of nationwide workshops for a client of mine focused specifically on the subject of ‘Prospecting’ for their Business Development executives, and one of the key topics on the training agenda was the simple task of how to ask directly for referrals from current satisfied business customers. Immediately following the workshop, one of the participants made the conscious decision to actively engage in this one change in his behaviour. As a consequence he proceeded to write $5 million in extra business within three weeks of the workshop which represented a very significant increase to his current portfolio. As a result of hearing about this rapid turnaround in this one individual’s performance, his leaders not only spread the word of his success internally to all of his colleagues nationwide, but they made it an imperative action for everyone to take as a result. Within only four weeks, the successful ‘role model’ was nominated as Business Development Manager of the month due to his stand-out performance, the key message being not his extraordinary results, but the change in behaviour that led to such a demonstrable and immediate pay-off. This has already begun to affect a groundswell of focused activity and accomplishment that was previously lying dormant within this people-centric (‘we don’t sell here – we relate!’) culture.

Creating the Urgency for Change

Because we are all creatures of habit and the most difficult habits to break or change are the ones with which we feel most comfortable, it is important to tackle inertia and resistance head-on.  People need to know where this spotlight on underperformance is originating from; why it is important for them to change; and why it is so time-sensitive. Therefore it is important to spell out the reasons loud and clear, and in particular why further resistance or complacency is not an option. If there is not an obvious crisis already brewing that you can readily draw their attention to, it will be important for you to find clear and irrefutable evidence supporting this need for change and the urgency with which change has to happen. I am not saying that you should manufacture false evidence or drag out half-truths, but if, as the leader, you genuinely and congruently believe you have an underperforming culture which is confirmed by group or team profiling, then chances are you will be able to find the evidence quite easily, in the form of falling sales graphs; customer feedback research; cultural surveys; industry benchmarks and the like. And the message that must be drawn from this supporting evidence, is that underperformance needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency, or everyone including you, will suffer the consequences as a group. The intention is to ensure that the pain of not changing will be perceived as being greater than the pain of changing.

Re-Aligning the Focus

Now that the negative consequences have been clearly laid out for all to hear and see, it is equally important to paint the positive alternatives that might lay ahead as a result and re-align the focus on what the team or the organisation has been challenged to achieve via a turnaround in performance. While some might call this the ‘vision thing’ or the ‘light on the hill’ I prefer to see it more as the ‘carrot’ to support the ‘stick’ that has been clearly communicated, so that both aspects of people’s motivational strategies have been taken into account. From a group profiling perspective it is important to be aware that for some people their strongest motivator is to avoid a pain while for others it is to achieve a gain, so it is important to ensure that both sides of the motivational coin are covered, if you want to gain alignment across the board for driving out complacency. If this re-alignment can include appropriate team or organisational benchmarks and measurements as part of a set of stretch targets then even better.

Now that you have clearly set the scene and created the prevailing mood for change from within your team or organisation, it is time to lay down some of the supporting structures and strategies to engineer not only the turnaround in performance, but also its sustainability long term. Up until now, all that has been addressed is the ‘why,’ but without the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ and the ‘what if’ being addressed, you have the direction and maybe some forward motion, but very little else to support the vehicle. You need to lay down proper infrastructure, supply the road map, and set out the road rules with appropriate signage along the way in order to keep things on track towards your ultimate destination.

In future blogs, I will talk further on the structure and support needed to drive out underperformance.

The topics I will be covering are:-

• Training and Education
• Ongoing Support Development – Mentoring, Coaching and Managing
• Performance Measurement – Appropriate and Accurate KPIs
• Reward and Recognition – Team and Individual
• Celebration
• Performance Management
• Capability – Individual and Organisational

I look forward to your own comments on this subject, and if you know of anyone who heads up a team or a company who may benefit from reading this material due to their current business circumstances, please forward this on to them. If you or they would like to chat with me further about the solution to wiping out group underperformance in the workplace, especially if it is showing up in the form of cultural malaise, email me at  brian@precisionprofiling.com.au . I’d love to share with you the benefits of taking the right action.

Until next time… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less.  Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick?  Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your staff.

Most people in the workforce are aware of the effect of ‘body language’ (or physiology to be more precise), in communicating the true meaning of what someone is saying, and certainly those people who use the phone as their main means of communication will also be aware of the deeper layers of meaning that can be detected in someone’s tonality in addition to the words they are actually speaking.

But not everyone is aware that there is another layer of understanding that can make a world of difference to the effectiveness of your communication and the influence it can have on those with whom you interact on a daily basis. In the world of a profiler, these layers are called “Convincer Channels.”  Simply put, convincer channels are the primary ways in which someone needs to receive information in order to be convinced about something, or to make a decision. (e.g. See, Hear, Read & Do) Here are the four main channels of input.

1. Convinced by Seeing:  A person whose preference is Convinced by Seeing is someone who prefers to see something for themselves in order to be convinced. The saying ‘Seeing is Believing’ could have been written just for them.
2. Convinced by Hearing: A person whose preference is Convinced by Hearing is someone who likes to hear about something in order to be convinced. They like to engage in discussion with their colleagues as part of their decision making strategy. ‘Word of Mouth’ definitely has an impact for them in their decisions.
3. Convinced by Reading: A person whose preference is Convinced by Reading is someone who prefers to read information, reports, instructions and other written material in order to become convinced. For them it’s all about ‘reasoning, sense and logic’ and that is best digested and tested through the written word for them.
4. Convinced by Doing: A person whose preference is Convinced by Doing is someone who prefers to take action or perform the task themselves in order to be convinced. Getting a ‘feel’ for the task at hand definitely appeals to them.

Here is an excellent example of the difference that knowing the preferred convincer channels can make to the effectiveness of the communication flow within a senior management team.

Some time ago I was engaged by a client to assist them with their leadership team. A newly appointed Executive General Manager had just recently assembled his team of direct reports and he was keen to gain a deeper understanding of the team dynamics at play so that he could engender an atmosphere of more open communication and more effective decision making. The team had been working together for approximately three months before I was called in, and it seemed that the decision making process was not as smooth as it potentially could have been between the EGM and his executive team.

Once I had completed my initial investigations one-on-one with the EGM and each member of his executive team, I then conducted an inventory of the team members’ profiles. The most telling discovery that we made early on in the piece was that almost all of the EGM’s direct reports were executives who shared the ‘Convinced by Reading’  convincer channel, whereas their EGM was the ‘odd man out’ because he was very strongly in the ‘Convinced by Hearing’ camp.

Now this may not seem a big deal on the surface, but I can assure you that the effect of this dissonance in convincer channels between the EGM and his executive team was impacting negatively upon their decision making process, and if left unresolved, it had the potential to lead to a dysfunctional relationship.

‘How so?’ you may well ask.

Well here is how the communications were playing out with regard to any key decisions needing to be made. When any of his direct reports needed to gain the support of their EGM for a key initiative, or when any of them needed to put up a business case for a major budgetary decision, they were following what they naturally felt was the key channel of communication. i.e. They prepared a thorough and detailed written report or submission and then they made an appointment with their boss at which time they tabled their submission.

Invariably, he in turn glanced ever so briefly over their report and then without so much as a second look at the material they may have laboured over for a considerable period of time, proceeded to engage them in conversation all about their findings and their recommendations. Each time it developed quickly into a real ‘heart to heart,’ and each time the direct report left the meeting feeling like their submission or proposal had not been taken as seriously it deserved, and that their boss was being almost dismissive in his approach to their carefully considered proposal. They would have preferred that he read their report thoroughly before engaging them in further conversation and deliberation.

For his part, their EGM shared with me the fact that whenever his direct reports came into his office to discuss something of significance that needed his approval or support, he felt like he was getting ‘snowed’ into the decision because in his perception, their written submission was already laying out chapter and verse what they were wanting him to do, without giving him the opportunity to discuss their ideas with him and mull over the consequences, before reviewing the detail of their work.

Both points of view were valid, but it was the perceptual filters of how the two camps were preferring to give or receive information in order to make critical decisions, that was getting in the way of a smooth and effective decision making process.

How was it resolved? Quite easily in fact, once I had explained to both sides of the ‘perceptual fence’ how their convincer modes of interpretation were getting in the way of smooth communication. Once the understanding of each others’ different models of the world was laid on the table, an agreement was quickly reached whereby in future, each of the EGM’s direct reports would first make an appointment to discuss in general terms their issue or proposal and their recommendations emanating from that, and only after that discussion was ‘done and dusted’  would they engage in the completion of their written submission and deliver it to their boss for his final consideration.

In this way his convincer strategy was being served in order for him to proceed with a decision either way, and their convincer strategy was being served as a critical step in the executive decision making process.

These convincer patterns are just 4 of the 48 patterns of thinking we can measure in the workplace and sometimes it is just the simplest of things that can make the world of difference. But first you have to know where to look, and then what to do about it. If you would like to know more… drop me a line and let’s talk, and together we’ll look at what you can do.

Until next time… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less.   Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Revealing the hidden secrets about yourself and your colleagues that even you didn’t know.