How to Develop a Good Succession Plan

by Paul Lanham

The reality of business today is that many key executives and talented professionals are coming up to their retirement. In addition, because of the recent economic pressures many organisations have had to reorganise and re-size themselves, the consequences of which mean that the talent pool that would have been ready to step up into key roles are either not ready or no longer there. All of this represents serious implications for the business.

This issue doesn't just affect large organisations either. A survey conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), found that 30 per cent of small-business closures take place because of the lack of an effective succession plan, as many owners do not make sufficient arrangements in the event of their retirement.

To address this issue, companies need to integrate succession planning with their strategic business plans and view it as a long-term, continuous process.

The following highlights the key steps to successful succession planning.

1. Think strategically

Succession planning requires a strategic perspective. What are the things that might impact your organisation in the future? Will it grow and acquire other businesses, or is the market shrinking and therefore a different leadership approach may be needed? What 'type' of managers and business leaders will be needed in the future?

2. Understand key roles

Which roles in the organisation drive the majority of the business's value? Think broadly, and not just about traditional leadership roles, but consider specialist technical roles such as product or service development as they may be as equally important. Once this is complete it is a straightforward task to examine the age profiles of those currently in the key roles. How many of these will be retiring in the next 5 years? How many roles have 'ready now' successors? Answering these questions will give a view to the size of the task ahead.

3. Identify the requirements of the key roles

The requirements for the key roles need to be agreed. What are the key skills and capabilities needed for the roles? What specific experience will be needed, such as international or project experience. All key roles should have the necessary components for success clearly defined. These requirements can then be used to assess people into the role. either internally via a promotion or perhaps externally via recruitment.

4. Identify who your talent and potentials are

The mechanisms to identify and determine talent can range from subjective views of managers to objective means of assessment where candidates are assessed against the clearly defined criteria identified above. Whichever method is chosen it is important to understand who your potential business leaders of the future are.

5. Agree your succession strategy

Once the organisation knows:

- who is planned to retire when

- who are 'at risk' and may potentially leave the business and...

- who the potential talent is

Objective decisions can be made about how the key roles will be filled in the future. For example, does the business need to actively recruit and bring in new blood or can all the key roles be filled from within? Should the strategy be a balance of recruiting externally as well as promoting internally?

6. Define career paths for internal promotions

Once your succession strategy is clear, establishing career paths and the ability to describe the requirements for pursuing the path becomes easier. Creating effective career paths requires two components, knowing the requirements for the next level and creating clear plan of how to gain the necessary skills, behaviours and experience.

7. Manage successors through the performance management process

Succession planning should become a part of the organisation's performance management and career development processes. Regular performance discussions are important to collect evidence of how potential successors have demonstrated the performance expectations needed by the key positions. These discussions also provide the opportunity for managers to coach talent to ensure ongoing development and readiness.

8. Provide ongoing development

Managers should identify the development outcomes and actions that potential successors need. What are the specific learning expectations, new skills or behaviours that will be demonstrated as a result of their development? What actions need to be taken? Should the individual attend a course, undertake an assignment or new role or be coached? Focusing on developing specific skills can help shorten the learning curve necessary for success.

9. Monitor readiness and prepare the plan

Senior managers should meet at least annually to initially agree who the potential successors are for the key roles and to subsequently monitor their progress. Who is ready now to move to their next role? Is their evidence to suggest that any of the successors will not 'make the grade'? If not what needs to be done?

10. Ensure proper ownership

Succession planning needs to be owned by line managers and needs to be actively led by the Chief Executive or owner of the business for it to be successful. However, HR has a vital role in raising awareness, supporting and facilitating the process. This can range from compiling all the relevant information on potential candidates, keeping records of development and career progression and providing independent assessment techniques to identify potential.

None of the above steps needs to be made overly complex and most can be integrated across existing Human Resource systems. If your business does not focus on succession planning then the availability of talent for your key roles will be left to the fickle finger of fate. Surely the future success of your organisation is too important for that?

Developing People have played an instrumental part in helping many companies assess their succession planning strategies over the years. If you feel that your company is not equipped to manage staff turnover in the most effective way, contact Developing People for advice.

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Leadership and Ethics

To be a good leader, you need to have a strong sense of right and wrong. Leaders need to learn about ethics as part of their leadership development because they have real power in their organisations and a responsibility to execute it ethically.

Ultimately ethical awareness and decision making are important characteristics of leaders. However, many leadership development programmes focus on competence (i.e. developing specific skills such as strategic thinking) as opposed to developing a leader’s ethics and character. The business world is littered with people who were very competent but behaved extremely badly.

Leaders who visibly demonstrate ethical behaviour develop trust in their organisations. Trust leads to more effective working relationships, empowerment, individual responsibility and ultimately creates greater levels of commitment, engagement and performance.

To develop ethical behaviour, leaders need to understand how to demonstrate the importance of:

• Integrity - doing what you say you will do
• Honesty - telling the truth
• Responsibility - fulfilling obligations of your role and accepting the consequences
• Respect - recognising diversity and worth of people
• Service - contributing to the welfare of others
• Justice - adherence to moral law, fairness and compassion
• Moral courage - willingness and commitment to do what is right despite uncertainty, risk and fear

Teaching ethics can help leaders balance their personal concerns with professional and financial accomplishments.

At Developing People Ltd, we use discussions, scenarios and case studies to provide practical applications of ethics in business. This helps leaders to be more conscious of the ethics of their own business practices and to learn to assess their responsibilities as leaders and managers.

Team Building and Development

At Developing People, our aim is to help teams to improve their productivity, effectiveness and performance by using a range of innovative, challenging and pragmatic team development interventions. One of the methods that we use to achieve this outcome is to host team building and development events. Recently, we ran a very successful development event for the UK’s leading recruitment expert, Manpower.

The business wanted to take its Lead Team (consisting of 50 managers) outside the ‘classroom and business environment’ and give them an outdoor and charity based challenge that would further enhance their team work and leadership behaviour.

How did we do this?
Developing People organised a 1 day event with the National Trust at their Hare Hill property. The purpose of the event was for the lead team to complete tasks that would develop their team skills such as co-operation and communication. By working together adhering to the core values of the Trust, the Manpower team were able to take from the day good memories, a strengthened team ethic and other transferable skills that they can use in their everyday tasks.
We made it a semi competitive event where 4 teams were tasked to complete a range of conservation as well as business related activities. To be successful, the teams had to work both at their own ‘individual’ team level as well as at the Lead Team level to achieve the overall objectives of the event.

Was the event successful?
Of course, even in spite of the vagaries of the British weather! The event was very well received and provided benefits to both Manpower as well as the National Trust.

The event was mutually beneficially for both parties. The Trust benefited from the Manpower manager’s hard work and determination and Manpower benefited from the news skills learned in beautiful surroundings. In our book, this is a resounding success. For example, the event:

• Improved cooperation, understanding and team work between Lead Team members.
• Built on what had already been achieved and provided a platform for further development.
• Completed valuable conservation work for the National Trust.
• Contributed towards Manpower’s corporate social responsibility objectives.

We work with a range of charities to deliver other types of team development events such as raising funds, undertaking renovation projects and providing memorable experiences for disadvantaged people.

Why is coaching often more effective than other forms of leadership or management development?

Businesses often are unaware of the benefits coaching can give to their employees and as a direct result, their profits. It is often suggested that coaching is more effective in improving an individual’s performance than a leadership or management development programme. This is a somewhat subjective statement and as a business, you know you cannot afford to take a chance in these difficult times, on companies offering services that have little apparent and tangible results.

So what are the practical differences between coaching and leadership or management development programmes?

Firstly the coaching process is 1 to 1 and the focus is 100% on the individual, where as leadership and management development programmes are invariably for groups. By focusing on one person at a time, there is an opportunity to address the issues the coachee may not wish to raise in a group setting. Also, the agenda and objectives for these group programmes are usually set in advance, meaning that it may not relate directly to the individual manager's specific developmental requirements. As the agenda for a coaching session is largely set by the coachee, the process becomes flexible and the results specifically tailored. On a leadership or management course, it is not easy to change the agenda and as the structure is more rigid, participants may leave with more questions than they arrived with.

When involved with coaching, the coachee may feel the call to action is stronger and more detailed than a participant of a leadership or management training course. The sessions where the action plans are often fewer and more general are clearly going to be less beneficial to those involved than action plans that are individually tailored and monitored by a coach.

A feature of coaching sessions is that notes will be taken, goals will be set at the end of every coaching session and managers will be asked by the coach if they have achieved their goals and how. Individuals are nurtured and are assessed to see if they need a different motivation technique. The ability to talk and act honestly, naturally and spontaneously is encouraged for a coachee whereas any displays of frustration, anger and emotion would be regarded as disruptive on a leadership or management training course. Managers should be encouraged to express their feelings in a constructive manner and this is generally more effective in one-on-one sessions.

There are of course, advantages for participants taking part in course-based activities, many people respond to group activity and create good networking opportunities, however, this is dependent on what you hope to get out of each method. Overall, I believe that subjects of coaching get more from their sessions purely through the specific advice offered to them. It has a powerful impact on their actions, performance but most of all, confidence in the subject’s own abilities and judgement.

Make yourself an asset and not a liability

Some people believe that if you put your head above the parapet at work it will only result in it being “shot off”. But is keeping a low profile at work really a good idea, or should we be more proactive?

On the basis that you only get out of something what you are prepared to put into it, then work is no different. Great sportsmen and women didn’t become great by waiting at home for someone to find them, they worked hard to improve themselves and put themselves about so that they were known.

Gary Player once replied to a gentleman who claimed he made a lucky shot out of a bunker “Well, the harder I practice, the luckier I get”. Work is not different, if you want success and promotion you need to “put your head above the parapet”.

The key thing to do is to make sure you sell yourself on a regular basis. Too often people think that all they need to do is a good job. While this is clearly vital, if no one knows that you have done a good job you may as well not have bothered in the first place. It is exactly the same in business – you may have come up with the best product in the market, but if no one knows about it they won’t buy it! This means that you have to let your manager and others know when you have been successful. Whilst publicly bragging about your achievements will just alienate your colleagues, a simple email to your boss outlining the success you have had in a particular area will probably suffice.

Equally important is building a network in your organisation. By getting to know colleagues in other areas of the business, you may find opportunities to expand your role or develop yourself further. Again it is unlikely that these opportunities will be handed to you, you have to go out and find them. Get to know the senior management in the organisation, demonstrate to them that you are interested in helping the organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. Show them that you care and talk to them about how you might help.

It’s never really a good idea to keep a low profile at work and it is probably even more so in the current climate. Many organisations are actively seeking to reduce costs and cut jobs, so make sure you don’t become one of the statistics and make yourself indispensible.

Planning for the future

An organisations strategic vision defines what the organisation wants to be and where it wants to go. An effective strategy guides the decisions made that affect the direction of the organisation.

In order to deliver the strategy it is necessary for managers to incorporate the vision into their plans and day to day operations.

Often the best strategic plans fail either because managers do not develop concrete action plans for delivering the plan, or because they are too bogged down in day to day details and lose site of the big picture or lack management training.

To develop more effective strategic plans managers should:
• Check to ensure their own teams targets are congruent with the organisations.
• Rank targets to identify the top 2 or 3 that will have the greatest impact in delivering the strategic plan.
• Define their goals clearly and the roles of their staff in achieving them. Who is going to deliver what?
• Determine key results areas and identify the steps required to achieve these results.
• Develop measures to track progress to enable managers to know when they have reached their targets.
• Document their plans in a clear format that can be seen by the whole team.

However, what should a manager do if the organisations strategy is unclear or doesn’t exist? The answer is simple - prepare their own mini strategic plan for their team/function.

For example managers should:
• Be clear with their team what the purpose of the team/function is.
• Develop a number of targets/goals that will improve the performance of the team over the following 12 months.
• Create a plan to deliver the targets/goals set out above.

At the end of the day a significant part of a managers role is to plan for the future and more than ever it is time for managers to lead from the front.

Why it’s important to invest in new managers?

Depending on who you listen to, as many as 4 out of 10 newly promoted managers fail in their jobs in the first 18 months, which is an appalling statistic, but why is this so?

People are promoted for what they know. But the mistake that is commonly made is that the best person in the team, (be that a salesperson, engineer, customer service rep etc) gets promoted to the role of manager. In one single move the organisation deprives itself of one of its best ‘producers’ and lowers the productivity of the team because suddenly they are led by an ineffective manager. The problem may be compounded as the individual concerned may regret having taken a management position in the first place and may decide to leave the organisation, leaving behind them a team of demoralised employees and a department in chaos

This happens because of the ‘halo’ effect. The organisation becomes blinkered - their highly performing employee can do no wrong and they forget to ask some basic questions before placing them in the role of a supervisor or manager. For example, it is key to ask (and answer!) he following:

1) Is the person capable of fulfilling a managerial position?

2) Are we as an organisation willing to do what it takes to equip that person
for the job?

If you answer "no" to either of those questions, you're asking for trouble.

The first question can be answered using an appropriate assessment and selection process. The potential manager can be ‘put through their paces’ using various techniques to determine if they have the innate capability and motivation to succeed as a manager.

However, just because someone has the potential doesn’t mean that they will succeed unless they are given the right support to learn the skills necessary to be an effective manager.

People placed in management roles must become: delegators, motivators, trainers, mediators, planners, listeners, organisers, problem-solvers, example-setters, budgeters, ambassadors, regulators, counselors, and more, all while remaining diligent workers.
With little-to-no training for these responsibilities, it's next to impossible for new managers to succeed.

Therefore it is vital to put ongoing management training into place. This doesn’t mean a one-day class, nor for that matter, a one week programme. It means ongoing, intermittent management training courses with feedback and coaching that gives the newly appointed manager a way to learn, practice, and improve their efficiency and effectiveness as they progress.

But what about the cost? Some argue that if they pay for someone to become a better manager and then that person will simply leave. But ask yourself a different question - "what's the cost of not investing in them - and having them stay?"

Good Boss Vs Bad Boss

What is the difference between a good boss and a bad boss? Anyone who has experience of working for both might describe a good boss as someone who is:

· Supportive
· Flexible
· Empowering
· Empathic
· Inspirational
· Visionary
· Challenging.

Where as they might describe the worst boss that they have ever worked for as someone who:

· Talks but doesn’t listen
· Commands and controls
· Divides and conquers
· Plays at politics
· Treats you as a subordinate and not an equal
· Believes they know everything and you know nothing.

In other words good bosses earn your trust. They do what they say they will; they demonstrate their competence and show you that they care. A poor boss might know some of the latest theories, and say the ‘right words’, but they loose trust because their behaviour is incongruent with what they say.

These types of ‘fake’ managers have been parodied in many comedy programmes from Faulty Towers through to The Office, and most people can spot them a mile off. But why do some managers behave as if they were David Brent? There are many reasons for this: for a few it’s their own ego, for some it’s a lack of appropriate role models and for others it’s a lack of formal Management Training. However, it is often the latter that is the main cause - an individual is promoted into a management role but is not given the right support, or Management Training to fulfil their role adequately.

In these circumstances the newly promoted Manager tends to do what he or she knows best, and that is their old job. They therefore remain doers, focussed on the task on not on the people that should be delivering it.

It is essential therefore that newly appointed Managers and Team Leaders are given the appropriate Management Training to give them every possible chance of success. The training should help them to understand the importance of and to develop the ‘right’ behaviours such as:

• Integrity – Demonstrating a conscience and sound ethics.

• Confidence – The appropriate self awareness and display of self belief.

• Influence – The ability to encourage others to follow, to lead by example as well as by persuasion.

• Motivation - Ability to get others to want to do the things that need to be done

• Challenge - Not accepting the status quo. Taking on the difficult things, and encouraging others to do so.

• Authenticity - Acting naturally, being true to oneself and ones beliefs.

• Communication -. Ability to listen and understand others. Ability to be understood by others both, verbally & in writing.

• Collaboration – Working effectively with other people, their team, peers and boss.

• Flexibility - Adjusting and adapting to changing circumstances. Learning from mistakes as well as successes.

• Personal growth - Learning, developing themselves and others.

Given the right type of support and Management Training, newly appointed Managers will be able to develop the skills and behaviours necessary to lead and motivate their staff appropriately.

Who decides on the value from a coaching assignment?

The question of who should decide is an interesting one. Given that the non-directive coaching process is all about a 1 to 1 relationship between a coach and a coachee helping them to understand their reality, issues and opportunities, both inside and outside work, then this suggests that they should be the person who fundamentally decides whether or not the coach and the coaching process is working well for them.

However there are a number of other parties involved in this coaching work who could and should have a view on the value and effectiveness of any particular coaching assignment.
The organisational sponsor who initiates this coaching work has presumably done so with a need and objectives in mind for the coachee. Ideally this has been detailed in a written brief that is given to the prospective coach and coachee so that the process can start out in a clear and open way. This brief and any objectives, learning outcomes or performance improvements included can then be used as the basis for a future evaluation of the effectiveness and value of the coaching and its impact.

The line manager of the coachee should be involved and provide input to this brief and be committed to supporting, monitoring and helping the coachee to achieve the objectives laid out for them in this brief. They would then be in a good position to assess the effectiveness, impact and value of the coaching during and after the end of the assignment. Quite often the line manager and sponsor are one and the same person. Sometimes the sponsor is from HR and sometimes a more senior manager in the organisation. Occasionally the coachee and sponsor of this coaching work are the same person, in which case it important to have another person or objective performance measurement basis outside this direct coaching relationship to use as an input basis to assess the impact and value of this coaching work.

Feedback questionnaires are also a useful tool to check on the impact and value of the coaching. I send these out to all of my coaching subjects periodically every 6 months to ask for feedback about the effectiveness of my coaching and its impact on their thinking, action and performance. I also do this after the end of an assignment to gain final input into the impact and value of my coaching work.

In conclusion whilst it is fundamental to assess the value of coaching as perceived by the core subject, the coachee themselves, it is also important to get the views of other managers and sponsors involved in the work and to measure effectiveness against some pre-determined performance improvement objectives or criteria.

Planning for Empowerment

In a previous article we considered the rationale and benefits of empowering staff. However, it’s important to recognise that successful empowerment, requires careful preparation and planning, it not simply a case of giving someone a series of tasks and letting them get on with it. So what do we need to consider?

Use the following guidelines to help you plan your approach to empowerment.

Challenge yourself. The biggest barrier to successful empowerment is your own personal assumptions. For example, many managers do not empower their staff because they wrongly believe that they are not capable of taking on the responsibility, or because they personally will do a better job. In the short term these assumptions may be correct, what if you provided appropriate team training and support and enabled them to gain the skills and experience they need?

Be clear about what you expect. Remember, you are empowering your staff to deliver results not tasks. Therefore it is important to be clear what the desired results will be. In other words, what you will expect from them in terms of quality and quantity, budget, timing etc. Recognise that you will hold them accountable for the results and let the individual determine most appropriate means of how to achieve this.

Identify the guidelines that need to be set. People work best when they understand the boundaries that they have. Therefore what policies, principles, and procedures are considered essential to get the desired results? What do you expect them not to do? Also what levels of authority are you willing you empower the individual with?

Ensure that resources will be available. Clearly giving responsibility to your staff for specific outcomes without giving them the resources to achieve them is setting them up to fail. Therefore what financial, human, technical resources are available to them to deliver? What skills do they need? What other support is available to them?

Hold staff accountable for results. If you empower your staff, how will you hold them accountable? For example, what are the standards of acceptable performance? How will results/performance be measured and evaluated? How will progress reports be made and accountability sessions held?

Consider consequences. If you are going to hold people accountable, you must also consider what will happen when the desired results are achieved or not achieved. For example, positive consequences could include financial, recognition, appreciation, advancement, new assignments, enlarged responsibilities, and possibly promotion. Negative consequences could range from reprimand to retraining or termination of employment.

Empowerment is all about gain. It is about the gain of your time and improving your impact. It is also about gaining access to the skills, knowledge and initiative of your staff. However, it’s important to recognise that successful empowerment, requires careful preparation and planning, it not simply a case of giving someone a series of tasks and letting them get on with it. Doing this will only end in failure and disappointment.

Empower your staff and reap the rewards!

So what is empowerment about and what are the benefits? Empowerment is quite simply a highly practical and productive way of getting the best form yourself and your staff. It involves not simply the delegation of tasks but decision making and full responsibility to.
Empowerment is one of the high leverage activities that a manager should engage in. Using Pareto’s 80:20 rule, empowerment is one of the 20% tasks that gives you 80% of the results you seek.
Why is this? Quite simply it is because it encourages staff to use their initiative. For example, there are a number of levels of initiative that a manager can encourage their staff to demonstrate. From the lowest to the highest they are:

1) Wait until told.
2) Ask what to do.
3) Recommend and then take action
4) Act, and advise immediately.
5) Act and advise routinely.

If a manager behaves in a ‘do what you are told’ way towards their staff, they simply encourage their staff to come to them with all their issues. A manager who engages in this type of behaviour will have little time to work on their important tasks as they will spend most of their time resolving staff related issues.
However a manager who encourages their staff to demonstrate high levels of initiative (ie levels 4 and 5 above), is effectively saying to their staff, ‘I trust you, you are responsible go and sort it!’. This therefore leaves the management more time to concentrate on their important, high impact tasks
However, empowerment often worries managers because they are afraid of losing control. Losing control of their staff, of budgets, customer service, ideas or standards. The idea of empowerment worries them because it seems to entail the loss of all that carefully planned control. However, empowerment is not about losing control – it is about giving it away.
There’s a big difference between losing control and giving it up. Giving up control, in other words empowerment, requires careful preparation and planning, it is not simply a case of giving someone a series of tasks and letting them get on with it. We will consider preparing for empowerment in the next article.
So, empowerment is not about loss of control In fact it’s about gain, gain of time, impact, commitment, and ideas. Most of all it is about gaining access to the skills, knowledge and initiative of your staff. Why wouldn’t you want to empower them?

Being a Leader in tough times

Over the next few months, many organisations may face difficult times, but as a leader within your organisation what can you do to ensure your firm remains successful? The following are a number of tips that will help.

1. Don’t be fearful. To often individuals and organisations become paralysed by merchants of “gloom and doom”. However, the reality is that life still goes on; people and businesses still have needs. So its time to focus on your organisations uniqueness and adapt your offering to outsmart your competitors.

2. Focus on cash flow. The liquidity crisis has highlighted the importance of cash – if you have it you won’t go bust, so as a leader it’s vital that you are really on top of your cash position.

3. Avoid simply slashing costs. While it is prudent to review costs during difficult times, indiscriminate cutting of costs across the business are more likely to damage customer relationships and ultimately damage the business in the long term.

4. Don’t become internally focussed. As a leader it is easy to become distracted by internal issues such as restructuring, reorganisations and cost reductions. However, it is vital that you also give time to your key customers, their needs and generating as much revenue as possible.

5. Remember – you need people! Try to avoid making redundant people that are vital to the future success of your organisation. In addition, simply putting a freeze on all recruitment can lead to a shortage of good people in the future.

6. Keep people motivated. While employees are less likely to leave their jobs during difficult times, it doesn’t mean that they will be any more motivated. Identify ways that your staff can be more empowered, take greater responsibility and use their initiative more.

7. Support your customers. Understand what difficulties your customers may have. How can you help them? For example, what innovative pricing or payment terms can you agree on? Support will breed customer loyalty for the future.

Finally, it is also important to recognise that not all areas of the economy will be hit in the same way. Clearly anything related to domestic property and banking have been hit hard, but there will be other areas in both private and public sectors that will not be affected in the same way.

What can you do when there is a conflict of leadership in the executive team?

This conflict on leadership can and does arise from time to time in senior teams in organisations when a new member joins the team or when a new leader is appointed and the leader and a team member do not get on. This can be for any number of reasons such as different views about:

• the organisation’s products, services or marketplace
• the future vision, direction, business or financial strategy
• the key people, their deployment or potential.
  

However the other area where this difficulty can typically arise is in the leadership style and behaviours demonstrated by the leader versus their new team member and a difference of opinion about how this business should be led and managed. Quite often there is a large element of the view being taken by the subordinate manager that “I could do a better job” of running this organisation than my boss is doing – but they rarely if ever say this out loud – or that “things were running much better in the old days before Pat took over”.

When considering what to do about this, it does depend on where you positioned in this debate. If you are the leader and the boss then you could decide not to tolerate such dissent from within your team and request or demand that the team member stops complaining right now, gets on with it, gets into line with your style and expectations or moves on and out. (I have rarely seen a CEO in a substantial organisation take such decisive early action but it can and does happen occasionally).

More often today’s leaders will try to work it out with their dissenting manager and look for a change of style, an accommodation from them over time and hope for an improving relationship in the medium term. They may also feel able to look at their own style and approach.
If you are the team member who is dissatisfied with your leader's style then you need to decide if you can tolerate it and live with it or whether you or they can and will change. Of course you will recognise that the only person whose behaviour you can directly change is your own, and that by the definition more of the power and status in the team will reside with your boss. So expecting your boss to change radically is not likely option - why should they?

The best line for both parties is to find an agreed path where both acknowledge the differences in each others styles and preferences and agree to respect these differences and to work to increase their understanding of each other and to reduce the impact of their styles. This process can often be helped by the support of an objective, external facilitator who brings out these style differences and people's strengths in a positive way.

When Performance Appraisals Don’t Work

For many people the performance appraisal ranks as one of the most unpleasant aspects of their job, as well as the most pointless. A recent study by Investors in People found that around a third of employees think that appraisals are a complete waste of time.

The same study found that half of those appraised believed that their bosses were being dishonest during the process, a quarter thought that it was just a tick box exercise and a fifth thought that their manager did not put any preparation in before their appraisal.

So why do these issues arise? There are several fundamental reasons why performance appraisals do not work. For example:

· Many organisations dictate that appraisals must be undertaken/completed within a specific time frame, for example, during the month of December. The problem with this is that a manager may have 10 or more staff that he/she has to appraise. This becomes too much of a burden in the time available and so the manager cuts corners to get them completed. More enlightened organisations use other approaches such as the date an employee joined as the appraisal anniversary date. In this way the manager’s task becomes spread across the year.

· Often managers think that performance appraisal is simply an annual event, when clearly it is not. Staff need continual feedback and support to ensure that that they perform to the best of their ability. Formally sitting down with each member of staff on a six weekly basis enables both the manager and employee to have full and frank discussion about progress and performance and nip any issues in the bud before they become a serious problem. The added benefit of this approach is that the annual appraisal essentially becomes a summary of all the discussions that have taken place during the year.

· Finally, too often managers do not have the skills necessary to manage the performance of their staff effectively. Performance management training should be an integral part of a manager’s recruitment or promotion. The training should include the principles of performance management as well as providing the opportunity for the participants to practice their interview and feedback skills in a safe environment.

The study by Investors in People highlights a number of important issues that need to be addressed if performance appraisals are to be seen as valuable to employees and not simply a tick box exercise.

Good Manager Vs Bad Manager – What is the difference?

If you asked an employee what the difference was between having a good manager and a bad manager they might say:

A good manager is someone who is:

Supportive

Listens to my views

Decisive

Inspirational

Empowering

A good role model

Concerned about their team and the individuals within it.

Whereas a poor manager is someone who is

Task orientated

A ‘teller’

Over controlling

Dominant

The ‘expert’

Dismissive

Aggressive

Concerned about themselves.

Good managers earn their employees trust by doing what they say, demonstrating their competence and showing you that they care. A poor manager might know all the latest theories, and talk a ‘good game’, but they fail because their behaviour is incongruent with what they say.

But why do some people become good managers and others do not? Invariably the issue is that they have not developed the necessary skills and behaviours because they have not had any formal management training or management development. Too often people are promoted into management positions but are not given the right support and development to fulfil their role adequately.

In the absence of any guidance, the newly promoted manager may stick to do what he or she knows best, (i.e. their old job), and they simply remain ‘doers’ focussed on the task and not their people.

It is essential therefore that newly appointed managers and team Leaders are given the appropriate management development and support to give them every possible chance of success. This support should help them to understand the importance and development of appropriate behaviours such as:

Integrity – Leading by example.

Confidence – The appropriate self awareness and display of self belief.

Influence – The ability to encourage others to follow, to lead by example as well as by persuasion.

Communication -. Ability to listen and understand others. Ability to be understood by others both, verbally & in writing.

Challenge - Not accepting the status quo. Taking on the difficult things, and encouraging others to do so.

Collaboration – Working effectively with other people, their team, peers and boss.

Flexibility - Adjusting and adapting to changing circumstances. Learning from mistakes as well as successes.

Growth - Learning, developing themselves and others.

Motivation - Ability to get others to want to do the things that need to be done.

Providing the right type of support and management development will not guarantee success for a newly appointed manager, but it will increase the likelihood of them being successful and prevent them from starting off on the ‘wrong foot’.

Talent Management – A top HR challenge

Not so long ago, many organisations compiled confidential lists of their “Top Managers” or “High Potentials”. People on the lists didn’t know that they had been ear marked for future greatness and the process was cloaked in secrecy.

However, the pressures of globalisation and ageing workforces have changed all this with many organisations pointing to talent management as being a top priority and implementing highly visible talent management processes and programmes.

This is supported by a survey from the Boston Consulting Group and European Association for Personnel Management which highlighted that talent management is currently the most critical challenge for HR.

The survey identified that talent shortages loom, particularly in Europe and that companies need to take steps now if they are to address these shortages in the future.

But what are the characteristics of a successful talent management programme?

1. It is owned by the senior executives in the organisation. If the Board is not fully involved and committed to it, it won’t work.
2. It has a clear “profile” of the skills, experiences and attributes that are needed to deliver the organisations strategy.
3. It is visible and consistent. There must be visibility across the process (i.e. no secret lists!) and the process must eliminate as much as possible different manager’s ideas of “talent”.
4. It has sophisticated recruitment, selection and succession planning processes to deliver the right people for the organisation.
5. It provides a range of stretching development opportunities to enable talent to develop the necessary skills, experiences and capabilities.
6. It identifies and raises talent related issues so that they can be dealt with appropriately. For example when a talented individual becomes disillusioned with the organisation, or is not fulfilling their potential the organisation resolves it quickly.
7. It uses appropriate metrics to measure effectiveness.

Talent management is a key challenge for organisations and their HR functions. However, it is a challenge that needs to be addressed if organisations are to maintain their success in the future.

Retaining Talent

Retaining talent is a serious issue for many organisations. Each time a talented manager or member of staff leaves, they take valuable knowledge an expertise with them. But why do some organisations struggle to keep their talent, and why do talented people become disillusioned and leave?

One of the main reasons is that talent and their managers are often striving to climb what appears to them as the same ladder to reach higher levels in the organisation. The consequence of this is that they see themselves as “competitors” because they feel their personal career interests are in direct conflict. If the manager then resorts to “blocking“ behaviour, the talented individual quickly becomes disillusioned and leaves.

The second main reason why talent leaves is because they become “turned off” by their line manager. Talented people want stretch opportunities to prove themselves but managers can perceive that giving their staff stretch opportunities to learn and develop is a very risky business. As they are ultimately responsible for what the talent delivers, they do not want to risk their own reputation or career because a particular talent has failed to deliver. The result of this is that the talented individual feels that they are not stretched, they become frustrated and leave.

So how can organisations prevent this from happening? The key is to have a visible talent management programme that is owned by senior executives where these issues can be highlighted and dealt with. In addition, managers need to be given the skills to manage their talent appropriately and helped to understand the benefits of having talent for themselves, their team and ultimately the organisations success.

For more information contact www.developingpeople.co.uk

The 3 P's in Business & Management

There is an acronym that all businesses and organisations should remember – the 3P’s. People before Product (or service) before Profit (or performance). In other words, if you ensure your that your people are skilled, capable and motivated, they will in turn produce a sound product (or service), which will lead to a successful, high performing and ultimately profitable business. But how many businesses and organisations think in this way? Many have too much ‘top down’ thinking, they strive for profit and performance without thinking about whether they have the right people engaged doing the right things. Some organisations pay huge salaries and big bonuses to focus staff on what needs to be achieved, and while bonuses can act as an ‘extrinsic motivator’, in reality they only provide a short term ‘Hawthorn’ effect and are soon forgotten. Others organise staff parties, off site team building events and regular social gatherings to reward their staff but for those that already work long hours they can take them further way from their family and home life. So what does putting your People before Product and Profit mean? Organisations who truly put their people first have a number of characteristics. For example, they: · Support their managers and staff to develop skills that will make them more effective as well as enable them to be more transferable. · Are clear about what they expect from their managers and staff. · Trust their people to do their job and give them the freedom to make their own decisions (within guidelines). · Involve their staff in decisions that affect them. · Listen and pay attention to what their staff say, their concerns, and ideas for improvement, and ACT on them. · Respond flexibly to the needs of their staff. In addition, they recognise that the organisations culture is dictated by the behaviour of their leaders and managers, and work hard to support them to develop the necessary behaviours to enable them to act as excellent role models. Any organisation that really wishes to improve their performance must start with their people, their skills, capabilities and motivation. After all, no one ever won the football Premiership with a team of players from League One.