Leadership - Innovation...What Matters Most

WHY LEADERS FIND INNOVATION CHALLENGING

Innovation challenges "current ways" that are not necessarily "Black Swans," per se, but rather a normal course of commerce in an instantaneous information-filled business world. In many respects, determining the priorities of change and executing to value are a CEO's greatest leadership challenge. And, for Boards who are charged with the responsibility of evaluating their company's CEO's progress and performance, it remains their most important duty.

We asked many of our clients why product and process innovations prove difficult.  It boils down to a leader's balance, and courage.

Knowing that innovation is disruptive to business models, organizational structure, and a company's traditional culture (note that Peter Drucker once pointed out that culture triumphs strategy any day), many CEOs, on balance, believe that change may be too disruptive, "career risky," and regardless, may not be achievable during their stewardship. And therefore many CEOs "play it safe." Yet, as challenging as it is to pivot with the velocity of change ever accelerating, "playing it safe" or not gaining first advantage rarely results in maintaining or moving toward a market-leading position.

Courageous leaders recognize this risk and opportunity cost of inaction. They seek to innovate and execute, and don't hesitate to reinvent their business proposition to sustain and/or extend their disruptive advantage. These leaders recognize that the actions undertaken, i.e. disruptive risk, is all things considered a superior alternative to becoming a laggard, requiring future triage to catch up and remain relevant.

Sometimes tune-ups are mislabeled as innovations, for example improving customer care, while true innovation requires a significantly different path, of broader dimensions, to accelerate enterprise opportunity. Be careful to know which is which, and why.

THE WINNING HAND IS TALENT

Leading innovation to tangible value is a difficult undertaking, and a truly "sensitive matter" fraught with complexities. It requires a clear vision, commitment, and flexibility. It must be planned carefully, resourced, and executed with care, taking into account unintended consequences will likely pop up.

The most successful CEOs recognize that talent wins out, most especially in times of significant adjustments. And the CEOs interest (and yes, professional preservation) in carefully attracting and evaluating the best talent for his/her inner circle is job one. Talent is their "secret sauce" necessary to shape and guide the economic future of their enterprise, not just to react to it.

Without a team of exceptional leaders guiding and "owning" change, transformation will fall short.

Forward thinking CEOs continually evaluate whether they have their best players in the most impactful roles. They view the recruitment of key executives as an ongoing responsibility, realizing that they oftentimes don't have the time to develop internally the special skilled talent that they need now.

THE BOTTOM LINE

We live in a world of two truisms: a rapidly reforming world, and CEO accountability to enhance value, taking into account the opportunities and obstacle, foreseen or not. And with the realities of short term measurements and "Black Swans," attracting and investing in exceptional, and oftentimes rare, executive talent is an investment that pays off. In most cases, the best teams claim the most wins.

It's what shareholders expect, and activists demand.

Trends in Executive Compensation

By Gravett & Associates and strategic HR, inc.

Executive pay continues to make the headlines, which seems to always turn a head.

The Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Diversity at Macy's filed paperwork to sell 46,000 shares of Macy's stock, a market value of $1,399,320 as of July 8, 2011

The CEO of Kendle International, Inc. will be receiving a $2.1 million "golden parachute" following the acquisition by INC., only having just taken the role in the last few months.

The highest paid CEO in 2010 was Philippe Dauman of Viacom, owners of MTV, Nickelodeon, and Paramount Pictures. His pay was $84.5M, just two and a half times higher than 2009.

Are their salaries justified? Some will say yes, but others will complain given the compensation of others within the organization, community, and beyond.

Nonetheless, attracting executives can be extremely challenging when the roles are so critical to the success or failure of an organization. Executive compensation has been examined very carefully in light of the ethical scandals. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has tightened compensation and benefits rules for CEO's and other executives, so companies are exploring ways to attract "the best and the brightest" and still protect shareholder interests and maintain a credible public image.

When it comes to executive compensation, we're finding that companies are focusing less on benchmarking to discover what the compensation level is for other companies' executives and more on aligning compensation decisions with how well CEO's protect shareholder interests over the long term and how well they achieve strategic objectives. Boards are discovering that simply following compensation practices of industry leaders only promotes unnecessary escalation of CEO salaries, with no discernible advantage to the company other than bragging rights about having the highest paid CEO. Shareholders in several companies have actively campaigned to put a cap on CEO salaries and bonuses.

An exception to this practice of curbing salaries simply based on benchmarking is for CEO's who are specifically brought in to turn around a failing company or division. The focus in these cases is still on being a compensation leader.

Some companies are leaning towards stock options as bonuses so that executives "share the pain" with other investors when the company is not profitable. A caveat for companies who are considering this approach is whether this might encourage executives to adopt risky strategies that will pay off short-term, at the expense of longer term sustained progress. Many companies are even starting to require executives to hold stock until they leave the company or retire.

An increasing number of companies are tying executive bonuses to measures of both profitability AND growth. More companies are now evaluating executives on performance and providing additional compensation on the basis of that performance (resulting in both long term and short term success). We recommend a written agreement be established annually about the performance-pay relationship to clarify the metrics that will be used to determine compensation. This will provide a method to track compensation programs over time and assess the correlation to achievement of strategic objectives.

Finding the right total compensation package for your executives is a challenge. There is nothing more disruptive to an organization than the turnover of an executive's role. Don't let the total compensation be the culprit for a key loss, but, balance this with knowing that most executive compensation salaries may eventually be public information.

How Inconsiderate of HR

It is amazing what you learn and hear from people looking for work. Needless to say most are frustrated with the process and the lack of communication they receive from companies. Most notably human resources. 

I had coffee with two friends the other day who are out of work and have been applying to companies. The main issue they have, and I will say I have heard this for years and years, is they do not hear back from companies when applying through the company website or HR. No response, not even that they receive their resumes. 

The other main gripe is that the process takes forever. I am sure the companies are looking for the exact right person who checks off each and every box needed. I can tell you from experience that if you are looking for an exact look-a-like then you are not diversifying your human capital experience. 

So what is the take-a-way from this HR? (1) make sure your website or third party recruiting process has an auto response, not only for the initial response but a follow-up after so many days to let the candidate know they are still in the running. (2) diversify when looking for candidates and I don't just mean from a EEO prospective but from a job experience prospective as well. (3) speed up the process. (4) Communicate, communicate, communicate much like in real estate location, location, location. 

All of the issues these two prospective candidates have makes HR look bad and that is not good for them or the company. Remember, for the most part you are the face of the company. If you can't do these simple things then I would tell all candidates to go around HR and direct to the hiring managers.  

Blow Up HR Again - Rethink Your Business

I thought this was important enough to re-post this for all in HR 

I was on vacation in Europe for 2 weeks and had a lot of time to think, design, evaluate, and reset my HR thought process. During that time here is what I came up with, and guess what so did the HR Executive.

HR has been denigrated, criticized, scoffed at, laughed at, bureaucratically maligned organization since the 1950's. My guess is that if the current practitioners do not see the writing on the wall they will at some point be out of a job and scratching their heads asking why. Well, let me tell you now that I have an outside view looking into organizations. The have the following key flaws:

• they take time away from business from line managers and employees
• they still do not understand the business from the inside but try to use business speak as their entry into it
• there is really not a clear mission for the group and how it ties to the business
• expectations are impossible to say the least
• people really do not know what HR people do
• the systems and programs that they establish or use are counter to business  productivity
• people in general do not trust HR people (you know that drill - when they see an Hr person milling around all they can think of is bad news is coming)
• employees do not think HR is objective - only a management speaker
• what managers and supervisors don't want to handle they send to HR - sound familiar?

I can go on and on but those are some of the salient points I wanted to make. So as I was sailing in the Mediterranean this all came into real focus and I had that "a ha moment". Blow it up and start over in 2012 terms not what has been built up over the last 50+ years and multiple retooling that really did not fix the core problem.  

So I will reiterate what Jac Fitz-Enz said in the September issue of HR Executive. Solution, break up HR and restart with four distinct groups: 

1. Governance - this should fall under the CLO
2. Record Keeping ( Administration) - this should fall under the CFO 
3. Employee Relations - this should fall under the COO or Operations 
4. Strategic Development - this should report to the CEO 

From there you that the specialty functions and fit them where they best belong ( comp under the CFO, staffing under the COO etc). In today's real world business environment I feel this is what we should do with HR. I know a lot of you will not agree with this approach since it puts your job in jeopardy but if you really think about it this is a 21st century strategic approach and that is what this blog is all about. 

Glide Brings Instant Video Messaging to Mobile

Glide is a new iOS app from the company of the same name. It’s available now as a free download from the App Store, with no additional in-app purchases.

Glide positions itself as “the Voxer of video” — in other words, it aims to offer push-to-talk functionality combined with the ability to broadcast live video and record video messages to be reviewed at a later date. Early impressions of the app seem to indicate that it does an excellent job at both of these tasks, with a few caveats.

At present, Glide requires a Facebook account to log in. The company says that in the near future sign-in will be possible with other services, but for now it is limited to Facebook. This is not an unreasonable requirement for a social app, but in certain territories — notably the U.K. — App Store reviewers have historically been rather resistant and critical towards apps which have Facebook as their sole option for creating an account and/or signing in.

Once into the app proper, Glide has a pleasingly simple interface that follows a lot of the popular conventions of the moment. A pop-out drawer on the left of the screen allows access to information about the app, links to the developers’ social media presences and the ability to contact them directly for support. Another pop-out drawer on the right allows access to the user’s friends list as well as the facility to create new groups and invite friends from Facebook to start using the app. The friends list indicates whether the users are online and whether they are currently broadcasting, watching a video message or typing.

On the app’s main screen, message threads are organized chronologically with relative timestamps. Tapping on a message thread reveals it. Individual messages may then be played back, and the user may “broadcast” to the group at any time by tapping the camera button at the bottom of the screen. If group members are online at the same time, they may watch the user’s broadcast live; if not, it is recorded in the thread for later playback. All videos are stored online and streamed to group members’ devices, so an active Internet connection is required to play back messages. Tapping a button in the upper-right corner of the screen allows the user to add additional friends to a conversation and also to switch between the device’s front and rear cameras as desired. Meanwhile, a “T” button in the lower-left corner of the screen allows for quick text responses to messages that do not really warrant a full video message. The user is notified of these new text messages immediately via a popup message, even while watching other videos.

Glide is an extremely simple app, but this simplicity allows it to concentrate on doing one thing really well. It’s a good solution for sending quick and simple video messages back and forth between two or more people and provides a well-implemented, thoroughly modern means of communication. The only real issues with the app at this present time are the fact it only supports Facebook logins — a fact which is apparently being worked on — and the requirement for an Internet connection to view past video messages. The app positions the fact that all videos are stored “in the cloud” as a selling point, but it would perhaps benefit from the option to cache videos or save specific messages that the user would like to keep handy at all times, even when they do not have a reliable data connection.

BEST WAY TO HELP? BE A GOOD LISTENER

*From the dusty archives…

I overheard an exchange between a mother and young child at a store the other day.  The child was trying to communicate with the mom and the mom said, “The best way to help is be a good listener.”  The child began to talk and the mom quickly and ferociously cut her off and said in a sharp, condescending voice, “Oh, you’re already not being a good listener!  The best way to help is to be a good listener.”  This went back and forth for several minutes with both the mom and the daughter becoming louder and more firm in their response.  Finally, the daughter gave up.  You know what?  No one won.

That’s right.  In her zeal to teach her child that the best way to help is by being a good listener, she completely missed the fact that she was NOT LISTENING.  Now, I’m not the perfect mom all the time, just about 50% of the time.  Seriously, I know that little ones can try your patience.  But the point is that we spend so much time trying to teach someone else what is “right” that we don’t do it ourselves.  It’s no different in the workplace.

How many times do we see managers telling an employee the same thing over and over only to have the employee do something completely different?  How many employees have to come to HR to complain that their manager never listens to them?  Then, HR has to try to give recommendations on how to bridge the gap in that conversation.  I’d say it’s almost a daily routine.  What we need to do is tell managers to start talking less and listen more.

If an employee is not doing something “right”, instead of telling him that the manager could say, ”Hey, I see how you’re doing XYZ.  Tell me how that is working for you.”- This allows the employee a chance to say why they do something a certain way, aka have their voice heard.  Then, the manager can follow up with something like, “That seems like a good reason.  Have you ever thought of doing XYZ to enhance that?”  Now you’re in a dialogue and the employee is far more likely to embrace the suggestion.

By taking time to really listen to an employee you will achieve better results in terms of:

• Engagement- Employees who have their voice heard and then see those ideas validated will have higher levels of engagement with you and the department.
• Teaching and Coaching- When you listen to the employee, you have a greater chance that you can teach them why something is important to handle in a certain way.  They will be more accepting of process changes, procedure changes, or other change happening in the department.  This is also the way to give them opportunity to voice their concerns and you the opportunity to coach them through it.
• Learning- Even the highest level executives are continuous learners.  By taking that extra time to listen to an employee, you will definitely learn something.  It will spark new ideas, new ways to communicate, help you develop your own skill as a leader, and more.

So, the next time you are coaching your leaders, make sure they understand that by pausing to listen to the employees, they will reap the rewards.  What other techniques do you use to convince leaders that listening is one of the most valuable tools they have?  Share it in the comments.

from by Trish from HRRingleader.com

Learn To Be Funny; It Will Improve Your Communication Skills

Learning to be funny can enhance your communication skill. Most people love a good humorous story. A speaker is always easier to listen to if they can make you chuckle at their story. Unfortunately many people do not have this skill. They attempt to be humorous by telling jokes and end up being humorless. If you want to improve your communication skill learn to be funny, learn to weave humorous stories into your training, your speaking, or your conversations.A growing trend

According to The Herman Trend report, more and more “C-Level executives are embracing the value of going beyond the occasional humorous remark and learning stand-up comedy.”  The have learned the teaching and connecting value of making people laugh. I use humor in my presentations, usually by relating something humorous that has occurred in my HR career. After all if something funny or ridiculous has not happened to you in HR then I would be surprised. The ability to relate it to others is where the skill comes in.

Take a class on doing “Stand-up”

I have taken a class on how to do stand-up comedy. I have no aspirations of ever being a professional comedian, but I did learn a lot from that class. I learned that it takes practice to look poised. I learned how to think on my feet in front of an audience. I learned how to handle a heckler (the role played by the instructor). I learned the value of using humor to bond with your audience. A common theme in my class feedback is the attendees have enjoyed my stories and my sense of humor.

Here in the Atlanta area there is a comedian, Jeff Justice, who does corporate training and teaches business people on how to use comedy to accomplish their business goals. I know a number of his graduates and have seen some of them in action. It works. I can recall one individual in particular who was as stiff as a board in his normal presentations. Jeff helped him parlay that stiffness into a humor style that worked for him. Jeff bills himself as the Humor Resources Director, and that title endeared me to him. By the way, I have no relationship with Jeff other than admiration for his work, so this is not a paid commercial.

The value

According to Judy Clark, who was mentioned in The Herman Trend Report, there are five takeaways to learning to be humorous:

1. Participants learn how to practice light-hearted self-mocking. When we find out what people are saying about us and make light of our own foibles, we take back our power.
2.  Learning how to handle hecklers as stand-up comics, translates into valuable communications skills; they know how to handle difficult people with grace.
3. Writing jokes together is a creative and bonding experience. “Nobody writes comedy alone,” states Carter; we all need others to help us determine what’s really funny.
4. People learn it’s OK to take risks—to do things that scare them.
5. Finally, participants learn how to effectively communicate difficult issues in a way that people will hear it.

So if you want to be a better communicator you may want to think about taking a class on stand-up comedy. You may discover something about yourself.