Where a growing circle of business leaders comes to share, learn, and inspire organizations to put people first
We are proud to announce that we are featured on the Newly Swissed online magazine today. On behalf of our team and our founder, Sesil Pir, we would like to thank Newly Swissed’s lovely editorial team for the wonderful article. Read on.
Happy Friday Everyone! Today, we feature a debate topic that must be a million years old – you know, since Trog first applied to that sudden and unfortunate opening for a saber-tooth tiger hunter. Which is more necessary for effectiveness on the job: Education or Experience? Looking a bit closer to home, in the field of HR/OD, should we expect our professionals to be trained in their field?
Before answering that question, I think it helps to step outside of HR to gain more perspective. For example, if you are a HRBP in the manufacturing industry and your client was looking to hire a mechanical engineer, what would be your advice: Hire the most educated or hire the most experienced? Would your response be different if you were in the tech industry and your client was looking to hire software developers? Now how about if you were in the health industry? Would you consider hiring a nurse with no education? Tricky, eh?
To further complicate matters, we live in a time when a person can go to YouTube and simply watch a video to gain new skills. Guitar playing, for example, or solving math problems… Would you consider that sort of skill training a valid learning experience?
We at Whirling Chief believe specialized education is indeed necessary in many fields. Is HR one of those fields? We think it needs to be. That does not mean every HR professional has to go to a top HR school and/or graduate from a higher education curriculum. No, we expect them to be trained in the skills they’re being hired for. HR needs to be clear on what HR can offer to a client organization. So it needs to know what skills, knowledge, and experience are truly required to be effective in that role. We also believe hiring from other fields – especially for specialist roles – needs to be well thought out, and only few and far between.
But what do you think? Is this kind of thinking due for extinction?
By Simon Marshall
(This post is part 3 of a four-part series. In previous posts, Start with Why and Lead from the Heart we looked at the first two foundational pillars of Why-Based Organisations. Why-Based Organisations are special organisations where trust, loyalty, collaboration and integrity are the norm – and high performance is the outcome.)
Nearly 65% of all US employees don’t feel engaged* in the work they do, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that this is no different in any other country. That is close to two thirds of the working population who are turning up, doing work, getting paid, and going home.
What are these type of organisations missing, and why does it matter?
We are privileged to be working for one of the Police Service in the UK. They have Discovered their Why and are starting to engage with their people in new ways. They are about to embark on a huge transformation of the way they deliver their services to the community, which means everyone’s job will change, and will define and prove a new, more efficient model for Policing. They are engaging everyone – starting with their Why – to touch, move, and inspire people by painting a vision of what this new world will look like. It’s not just about communicating with people, but touching, moving, and inspiring them, and painting a picture of how everyone inside the Service will be enabled to do more of what is important to them. This is their contribution to fulfilling on the Service’s Why – serving everyone in the community to ensure they are free from harm, so that they can lead fulfilling lives.
The amount of energy that is being released, in terms of support, ideas, creativity, and innovation is unbelievable as people engage with this vision, take action, solve problems, and contribute to bringing these new ways of working into existence. We call this discretionary effort, where people choose to bring more of themselves to the work they do. This does not feel like a normal change process, where ‘resistance’ has to be overcome and things are ‘rolled out.’ More like a tidal wave of human potential energy being released in service of a higher purpose.
Engaging Everyone, in a way that we can all ‘see’ how our work contributes to enabling our organisation to fulfill on its higher purpose, its Why, gives real meaning to our work. Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the NASA toilet cleaner, who, when asked by President Kennedy as to what it was he did, replied, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon,” demonstrates this point exactly. Toilet cleaning with real meaning!
I have observed that to engage us all in this way, and give us access to a fulfilling work life, there are three fundamental keys.
Three Keys to a fulfilling (work) life
Doing Important Work – knowing how our work contributes to our organisation’s cause, purpose, or belief.
Being valued for our unique contribution – feeling appreciated for your particular strengths, talents, and who you are.
Being part of a family – feeling cared for inside your organisation as you would care for your own family members.
AND…. not getting lost in doing the day-to-day stuff!
And here’s a test for us all.
If we’re not going home and talking to our family and friends about the contributions we’re making to our organisation, how that makes us feel, what we’re learning and, most importantly, the difference it is making to other peoples’ lives, we are probably one of the 65%.
Freud said that “love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.” Let’s build organisations that are full of people that love the work they do. This makes so much sense from both a human perspective, making us feel more fulfilled not just at work but in the whole of our lives, and makes sense from a business perspective – creating sustainable, high-performing businesses.
To read earlier parts of this series, see:
Part 1 – Start with Why
Part 2 – Leading from the Heart
WhyNot Partnering (www.whynotpartnering.com), is an organisation dedicated to transforming the nature of work, by creating Why-Based Organisations**, where trust, loyalty, collaboration, and integrity are the norm – and high performance the outcome. To stay connected with us and to hear more about our work, follow us on LinkedIn.
* See the annual Gallup survey (via Dr Jim Harter) results below. Gallup Employee Engagement Survey
**For further information, see Why-Based Organisations
An Interview with Start With Why’s Peter Docker
We had a wonderful Skype interview with the truly inspiring keynote speaker, Peter Docker.
Influenced by the Golden Circle theory, Peter has collaborated with Simon Sinek since 2010. As part of the Start With Why team, he is one of their ‘Igniters’ and Implementation Specialists. He’s an internationally known keynote speaker, coach, and workshop facilitator, having ignited audiences in over 75 countries.
Peter is focused on helping organisations harness the power of WHY. The results? Great places to work with sustainable high performance. He illustrates his insights by drawing on examples from his previous flying and military experience, and industry career, to explain simple and yet powerful ideas that can be applied in any business.
Whirling Chief had some questions for Peter about Leadership and Start With Why.
Whirling Chief:
As well as being a member of the Start With Why team, you also support the company WhyNot Partnering, focused on creating Why-based Organisations. Could you please educate us about the purpose of your work and approach?
Peter Docker:
Sadly, the vast majority of us spend the vast majority of our lives working for someone or something that we don’t find fulfilling. Indeed, a Gallop poll shows that around 80% of people are disengaged by the work they do. Our aim is to reverse that statistic, and we believe that starts with having clarity of WHY – as an individual or as an organisation. First explained by Simon Sinek in his 2009 TED talk, our WHY is our higher purpose, our cause, our belief. It’s what inspires us to get out of bed every day and reflects who we are when at our best. A WHY explains the contribution and impact we make in the world, be it as an individual or as a company. Everyone has a WHY – it’s just that not many of us can clearly articulate it. We help people get clarity of their WHY and teach them how to use the energy it releases.
WC:
Why is it so important for leaders to clarify WHY they do what they do?
PD:
First of all, although those at the top of an organisation often have a formal leadership role, ‘leadership’ is a choice – it’s not a rank or position. It’s a choice to serve others. Anyone can make that choice and it usually means a level of self-sacrifice, too. Other than that, the only thing you need to be a leader is to have a follower! Well-known leaders who inspire great following – such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Malala Yousafzai – made the choice to serve others and all experienced self-sacrifice.
These leaders were also very clear on their cause – their WHY – which made it easy for those who believe the same thing to choose to join them in their cause. It’s these followers who help to bring the leader’s cause to life and they are also willing to make their own sacrifices along the way. The leader doesn’t need to have all the answers. On the contrary, the most important role for the leader is to ‘hold the space’ for others to contribute and come together to solve the challenges.
It’s exactly the same in businesses that are inspired by a WHY. Elon Musk is a leader who is committed to the future of the human race and, as a significant part of that, creating sustainable energy and transport. He has made personal sacrifices along the way (his company Tesla has cost billions of dollars of his own money) and his ideas have, at times, been ridiculed. And yet he has a huge following of loyal people – be they customers who buy his cars, engineers who join his company to help him solve the challenges, or just people who cheer his cause.
None of this is possible – or sustainable – without the context of a clearly articulated WHY.
WC:
Many leaders think of their WHY as being the same as their vision for their company. Reading Simon’s book and looking at your work, it’s clear that you consider a WHY and a Vision to be different. Could you elaborate?
PD:
You know, there is no universally accepted definition in business for a Vision, although most companies have them, often expressed as ‘To be the best in [sector]’ or ‘Most respected in X.’ As such they are broadly meaningless and don’t inspire people to action. No one knows what ‘to be the best’ or ‘most respected’ looks like.
Here’s my take on it. While a WHY and a Vision are related, they are not the same. For example: when a company is formed, the founder is passionate about what they want to achieve. They have to be if they want to succeed; it is not logical to start your own business. (The logical thing is to get a ‘proper job’ – one with a guaranteed income and pension!) The founder’s drive will come from their individual WHY, which is drawn or discovered from their past life experience and who they are when they are at their very best. The smart founder will then surround herself with those who believe what she believes – in other words, those who have a similar or complementary WHY. The WHY of the founder becomes the WHY of the company.
A Vision, on the other hand, is a projection of the WHY into the future. The WHY is just a tool. A Vision clearly articulates the image of what the world will look like as a result of the contribution and impact the organisation wants to make. We are visual animals and so a Vision needs to paint that picture so as all involved know what they are working towards. Simon Sinek describes a good Vision as being like a race finish line. We might not know how far away the finish line is, but we will all instantly know when we get there. Martin Luther King had the Vision of little white boys walking to school hand-in-hand with little black girls. For the Start With Why team, our Vision is a Golden Circle on every desk. In each case, the Vision is inspired by the WHY and it’s easy for everyone to see what they’re striving for and how they might contribute.
WC:
You engage with many leaders through your work. Would you share with us some of your observations as to how leaders manage to create alignment in their organisations? What are some of the common challenges you witness? How could one collaborate to overcome those challenges?
PD:
One of the most frequent questions we hear during workshops is, “How can I get them [employees/team members] to do X or achieve Y?” Without exception, the answer lies directly in the hands of the (usually senior) person asking the question.
You see, it is not sustainable to force people to change or do things in a certain way. Once we stop ‘policing’ them, they are likely to return to the previous state. Any of us with children will have experienced that! The only way to create a sustainable shift in behaviour is when people are inspired to do things differently. To create such an environment, great companies have a clear WHY Statement; think, act and communicate starting with WHY; have discipline of How (their guiding principles or values); and consistency of What they do (their products or services). This then creates the foundation on which to hire the right people. More often than not, companies rush into hiring people just for their skills, not for a shared belief – and that’s just storing up problems for the future. The military, who have a very strong culture, hire people who demonstrate not only potential, but importantly who also fundamentally want to serve a higher purpose (a WHY). They then train them in the necessary skills and, after training, they just ‘fit in’ to the wider organisation.
When we hire people who believe what we believe we create the basis on which everyone pulls in the same direction. People can then be led rather than those at the top of the company having to rely mainly on management systems and processes to get things done. While management principles are still required, they can then become focused on enabling people, rather than constraining them. It’s a very different environment indeed. As ever, it always comes back to the WHY.
WC:
Culture building is a cornerstone of your work. What advice do you have for our readers? What steps could they take to create better meaning for their employees?
PD:
Great cultures are built around a strong sense of higher purpose – a connection to the contribution and impact we want to have in the world. A culture is often difficult to put into words or to ‘bottle,’ and yet we can all sense the culture of an organisation when we are immersed in it. A clearly expressed WHY is, to steal your word, the cornerstone. When everyone in an organisation can say, “This is WHY we do what we do: we exist to [WHY Statement],” followed by, “And this is how that comes to life in my part of the company,” then you have a way to start expressing the cornerstone of your culture and make it real for others. It will open up the possibility to inspire those around you – be they people who want to join your organisation to help build the world you imagine, or loyal customers who will stay with you through thick and thin, or simply those who want to be advocates and cheer you as you move forward.
As human beings we are emotional animals – it’s part of our biology. People make decisions based on what feels right – it’s how the biology works. People are inspired when they feel something resonates with them and they see fresh possibility. When we start with WHY we unlock the emotional centre of our brain where all our feelings reside. We start to work with the biology.
As Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you say, people will forget what you do, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
This is such an exciting time as we get to think through and re-define the future of our Human Resources roles. We believe the future role of HR function may be more of an evolution vs. a revolution. And in any case, we feel there are some expectations of the HR professionals across all organizations, small or large. We have shared our quick perspective on what might be expected of us here in this video and would welcome you to comment under the video and share your thoughts as well.
Today let’s talk, shall we, about what it means to be an authentic leader. The concept of ‘authenticity’ is one that’s become very popular in corporate America (and corporate Everywhere!). One thing that often surprises me is when I hear it referred to as a standalone concept. In your personal life it may be okay to consider the concept alone, but in organizational terms it needs to be considered in balance with ‘productivity.’ Allow me to explain…
Within organizations, ‘authenticity’ is cherished alone and independent from ‘productivity’ and its measures, and people are intrinsically rewarded for “being true to themselves.” This means even if productivity comes at a cost, people are rewarded for doing what they believe is right. This sort of reward behavior can create a cult-like culture over time, resulting in a place where people either fit in or don’t, and productivity likely suffers in the long haul.
Of course, in reverse, there needs to be a balance within organizations that value ‘productivity’ as a number one value. Putting emphasis on productivity, with no attention or respect for authenticity, is no good either. It rewards behaviors that can create a soulless culture, where human beings are just numbers. Balance is needed.
But what does it mean to be authentic?
First of all, we should all know ‘authenticity’ is not a static state that can be achieved nor perfected; it is a dynamic state. It is an evolving force that is in us and is bound to change over time. We cannot control it.
Think of it like this: When we are born, we are completely authentic. When we are hungry, we cry, when we wet ourselves, we wail for a diaper change, etc. Over time, as we age, we become shaped by social norms and start losing touch with our most basic, inner needs. At some point, we, the social human, find ourselves so ‘other-oriented’ that we can no longer hear the voices of our inner thoughts and feelings. For example, I may be upset with a friend of mine who said something I found hurtful to hear. But when asked, I may answer, “I’m fine,” or, “Nothing is wrong,” thinking I need to pretend there’s nothing wrong with this picture. Essentially, this is simply me masking my feelings and pretending everything is okay when it is not. This is the very essence of inauthenticity.
Being authentic requires you to state your truth (note: your truth does not have to be the truth – there are always two sides to a story) without blaming the other party. It helps you get rid of possible masks. Someone who is authentic with self sends consistent and congruent messages through words, tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language.
At the work place, being authentic particularly means knowing what you care about (your values) and standing up for that. It is our ability to be in touch with our emotional states – love, hate, anger, hope, etc. – and being able to own them fully. Interestingly, authenticity also means people feel they can trust you because they can see that what you feel and mean match one another. People are smart that way.
Of course, there may be situations where we all choose to be inauthentic – even unconsciously. However, please note that’s a choice and we would be self-aware of the trade-offs we are making.
In the meantime, please remember, authenticity is something we need to aspire to. Again, it is not a state of achievement or attainments. It is a journey.
Continuing our topic of employee engagement, here is a common dilemma leaders seek us out on: Engagement or direction setting?
Over the years, we’ve seen this particular question come in different forms. For example, a leader recently asked, “Which is really more important: keeping my employees engaged or keep directing them?” One senior manager was curious, “The more direction I give for support, the less engaged I find my good players to be. What can I do?!” Yet another wanted to know, “Which do you perceive to be most effective – coaching or managing?”
The answer for many leaders is often very unsatisfactory and, yet, proven to be effective time after time: you need both!
Direction setting requires managers to focus on ends – what goals need to be set, and how to prioritize them to get to the end results.
Engagement requires managers to focus on the means – how, and under what circumstances, will staff reach each goal to ultimately achieve the desired end results.
Let’s talk direction setting first!
Effective leaders (often effective coaches at the same time) know to be selective in which skills to use—directive or supportive—and when. How? By observing and understanding employee needs and group dynamics.
If you are at a complete loss as to when and how much to direct or support, you may want to consider better understanding how an employee’s competence and commitment levels develop over time in a given role. See picture below.
As a manager, you may want to start by showing directive and supportive behaviors together – providing both information on what to do and how to do it, and offering feedback, praise, and encouragement. What’s more, as their competence develops you may want to take a more supportive approach, offering coaching which, eventually, leads to complete empowerment. It is important to remember the above pattern will repeat itself when an employee is promoted into a new position. Therefore, a manager will need to adjust their style accordingly. Also important to note is the importance of collaborative style – especially in a group setting. Another topic for another time!
As for engagement, it is defined as an employee’s emotional commitment to the organization. For managers to cultivate ongoing engagement, they need to do more than just setting direction. Maintaining an engaged workforce requires managers or leaders to keep their staff informed, involved and on-board.
There is a strong correlation between direction setting and engagement. And yet, they’re quite different. Engagement leads to job satisfaction, increased motivation, and morale. Alternatively, clear goal alignment leads to enhanced culture of productivity and profitability. Want a healthy culture? Drive both!
On the subject of teams, what exactly is the difference between a ‘team’ and a ‘work group,’ anyway? What makes any team a ‘team,’ and what makes it effective? Seriously. If you think about it, a work group is made up of more than two people and a team is made up of a work group. So…couldn’t we say a team is a work group? The answer is no.
If you look in the dictionary or the encyclopedia du jour — Wikipedia — it would tell you “a team is a group of people… linked in a common purpose.” However, it will also tell you “a (work) group doesn’t necessarily constitute a team.” Curious, eh?
The difference is that a team is a group of individuals, who gather their goals around a common purpose. Hmmm, you might say, if there are three, five, or eight of us and we have a purpose to work towards, does that make us a team now? The answer is maybe. Here comes our twist to the common definition: We believe a team is a group of individuals, who gather their goals around a common purpose, effectively. We believe a team by nature should be effective.
No doubt, any group, by definition of having multiple constituents, has multiple dynamics they need to manage themselves against. In a team, there will likely be interdependent and independent tasks, managing towards a common purpose. Therefore, there is higher complexity at play. Individuals may be effectively managing their parts; however, that doesn’t guarantee you are being effective as a team though, does it?
Over the years, research has perfected some common elements of effective teaming. My favorites come from Patrick Lencioni’s book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team:
If you are being assigned to a team or sign up to be a part of one in the near-term, you may want to pay attention to these elements.
In this second part of the interview, we share with you what companies can do and are doing in terms of managing talent and how we expect the industry to change. Please feel free to visit the Agile Collaboration site after to fill out the Agile Talent EQ Survey!
I had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Younger in NYC earlier this year during a business trip. Jon has recently founded the Agile Talent Collaborative, a non- profit cooperative organization after publishing the book, Agile Talent, which we are proudly a part of. A naturally content human being, Jon is super excited to support agile talent staffing firms, corporate employers and independent workers with his work.
For those of you, who don’t know him, prior to his current work, Jon was a partner of the RBL Group, where he established and led the firm’s well-respected HR Transformation practice and was a director of the RBL Institute. Prior to RBL, he was corporate SVP and Chief Learning and Talent Officer of one of the largest U.S. financial services organizations, and even earlier, he was Managing Partner of the Novations Group, the global consulting firm and led the firm’s acquisition by Provant (NASDAQ). He was also EVP and Chief Operating Officer at NetValue USA, the French Internet firm and had began his career as an organization consultant for Exxon Mobil in Canada, where he eventually managed a global internal consulting team.
He continues to write, speak and consult selectively. He coaches senior executives and consultants like me 🙂 and teaches change leadership, HR transformation and strategic talent management all across the world.
Today, in part one of a two-episode interview, we are sharing with you about the idea originating the book of Agile Talent and why companies and HR colleagues should care. Enjoy!
Where a growing circle of business leaders comes to share, learn, and inspire organizations to put people first
