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Tough decisions in
a downturn don't
have to lead to
disengaged
employees



Companies that have focused on maintaining open and honest communication with their employees, ensuring that strategic directions are clear, fostering trust and confidence in senior leaders, are seeing positive returns on their investments:

- increased revenue growth by 45%
- increased customer satisfaction by over 50%.

(Source: Hay Group Insight, August 2009) 


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Keeping your top talent



1 in 3
high potential employees admits to not putting all his effort into his job

1 in 4
believes she will be working for another employer in a year

1 in 5
believes his personal aspirations are quite different from what the organisation has planned for him

2 in 5
have little confidence in their co-workers and even less confidence in the senior team 

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"The solution is for senior management to double (or even triple) its efforts to keep young stars engaged. That means recognising them early and often, explicitly linking their individual goals to corporate ones, and letting them help solve the company's biggest problems." 

(Source: Corporate Leadership Council study published in Harvard Business Review, May 2010) 

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If businesses are going to do more with less,
then people at every level will need to be more
engaged and accountable for performance.
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What can we help you with?


    • Creating an environment that encourages engagement
    • Helping your leaders sustain high performance in their direct reports
    • Building a values-based culture, a place where the 'walk' matches the 'talk'
    • Attracting, developing and retaining your top performers
    • Securing your leadership pipeline

How do we do that?

    • Creating a deeper understanding of when best to apply extrinsic versus intrinsic motivators to obtain the results you want from your employees
    • Helping your leaders make the shift from performance conversations focused on activities to performance discussions focused on results
    • Assessing the degree of alignment between your vision, mission and values, and providing you with a concrete roadmap to tackle where the energy drains are in your organisation
    • Helping your organisation initiate, develop or enhance a talent-development programme geared towards identifying, developing and retaining your star employees
    • Developing your leadership bench strength through targeted talent pipeline and succession planning
Please feel free to contact us to find out how we can meet your specific requirements. 
  
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Creating Superior Employee Performance: MMOT 

One of the tools we offer is called Managerial Moments of Truth (MMOT), a four-step approach that can dramatically improve performance and increase productivity.

Find out more from our MMOT-certified Senior Associate, Frans Wijngaarden:

 






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Why do so many leaders struggle to give timely and honest feedback to their employees? 



We have found three main barriers to inspiring top performance:

  • the emotional discomfort a leader feels when having to deal with, and be held accountable for, sub-performance
  • unsufficient technical skills needed to handle a difficult conversation, such as communication and listening
  • the short-term focus of the average manager, especially in a downsized, cost-cutting organisation, and lack of patience to take the time required for performance management
In a growing economy, sub-performance is not that apparent.

However, in a shrinking economy with organisations significantly downsized, not addressing sub-performance in a timely and truthful manner can mean the difference between making money and losing money. Business results are needed now more than ever."  

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If you want to keep your rising stars on track...

Here are 6 of the most common errors that were brought to light through a study by the Corporate Leadership Council, who studied more than 20,000 employees dubbed 'emerging stars' in more than 100 organisations worldwide over the past six years:
  1. Make sure they're engaged. If emerging leaders don't get stimulating work, lots of recognition and the chance to prosper, they can quickly become disenchanted. 
  2. Separate current high performance from future potential. Stars will have to step up into tougher roles. Explicitly test candidates for three critical attributes: ability, engagement and aspiration.
  3. Manage talent development at the corporate level. That only limits stars' access to opportunities and encourages hoarding of talent. Manage the quantity and quality of high potentials at the corporate level.
  4. Use your talent. Place stars in 'live fire' roles where new capabilities can -- or must -- be acquired.
  5. Find new ways to compensate and recognise high potentials. A critical factor determining a rising star's engagement is the sense that she is being recognised -- primarily through pay. So offer 'A' players differentiated compensation and recognition.
  6. Don't keep young leaders in the dark. Share future strategies with them -- and emphasise their role in making them real.

 For the full article, please see 'How to Keep Your Talent', Harvard Business Review May 2010



  
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