Hidden Treasure
The amount of talent already on the payroll of organisations almost always exceeds the amount that is deployed.
Much of my work recently has been to do with drilling down to find how existing people in organisations can do things differently, think differently or behave differently. In other words how do we get more value from colleagues and staff without necessarily asking people to work longer or harder? The results are extraordinary.
Working in the drinks industry, Managing Director Dave was simply not doing the job. He is unpredictable, turns up late for internal meetings, hates reviewing the operating statements and dislikes managing people. Dave is absolutely brilliant at sales and contemporary marketing. His Operating Director Sophie is quiet. She is methodical, hardworking and enormously respected by everyone in the business for what she does.
The outcome of Boards facilitated appraisals was profound but suffice to say that Dave is being redeployed into the area he loves. Sophie is now chairing all senior meetings with tremendous success and all these changes and others have been fed back to the workforce together with a revised Bull’s Eye.
When the top people really do believe that they serve the business, then anything is possible.Labels: finding and using talent you are already paying for
LOL
If our business message is all about content, the presentation experts recommend that we lighten it up with a bit of humour.
Part of my contemporary marketing effort is that I speak. It’s nearly all content but I don’t tell jokes. So I am out there, practising getting laughs. Seriously. It’s one of the development points from my last appraisal.
So last week we were invited to a fundraising dinner for the Special Air Services (SAS) Association in Hereford. The keynote speaker was none other than the celebrated English 1966 World Cup Final goal scorer and winner, Martin Peters.
Somewhere between the soup and the main course I was quietly mulling over the Thierry Henry affair. A deliberate handball went unnoticed by the referee and Ireland were eliminated from the 2010 World Cup. The incident made national news headlines all round the globe and it seemed at one stage that the match might even be replayed.
So just before our guest took the platform I approached the top table. “Excuse me Mr Peters,” I said, “ in view of the furore surrounding the Thierry Henry scandal, I wonder whether you think that the 1966 World Cup Final should be replayed?”
Well I thought it was funny. But there was a stunned silence, a look of incredulity on the face of the star man. He shot a glance at his host for the evening, a local bank manager. Then they both turned to look at me with utter contempt. In unison, as if they had been practising the line together for months they spat, “BUT IT WAS OVER THE LINE!!”
Laugh out loud? (LOL) I don’t think so.
Labels: trying to create hunour
Positive Politics
Many people including me have spent an entire lifetime fundamentally unable to understand how politics works. Yet nobody disputes the fact that we have to have politics like food, water and air.
There was a discussion on Radio Five Live this week about the extraordinary Formula One racing season that recently culminated with Jenson Button becoming World Champion. Scandal followed scandal all year long apparently and just when it seemed there couldn’t be anything to top the last scandal, there was.
“Was politics good for the sport?” asked one commentator. Overwhelmingly “Yes” was the answer because the ensuing media scrum raised the profile of Formula One racing tenfold agreed the pundits.
So maybe it is the same in business? But I still can’t see how someone can say one thing with absolute conviction one day, only to say the opposite with equal conviction some time later.
Perhaps it’s just time and circumstance at work, and they change everything.Labels: whether politics is good for business
Promises, promises
Trust is an absolutely crucial ingredient when a business wants to develop and sustain competitive advantage.
Talking and listening are the important skills here because the directors have to be able to talk about, and listen to, anything that could conceivably have an impact on the organisation.
There are things that individual and collective members of a Board will always talk about, probably to excess, and these are often ‘business as usual’ issues.
There are things that the Board will occasionally talk about such as, depending on the nature of the business, contemporary marketing strategies.
And there are things the Board will never talk about, if it can possibly be avoided. This third category is invariably to do with jugular people issues, often specifically to do with members of the Board themselves.
The real deal here is down to people doing what they say they will do. And if they can’t do that, then they need to talk about it.
It’s that simple.Labels: doing what you say you will do
