As I write this on April 5, 2012, the Dow is above 13,000 and all indications point to signs of recovery. Notice the disclaimer, ‘As I write this.’ If we have learned nothing else in the past four years, let us remember that a stable, predictable economy may be a thing of the past. We cautiously celebrate signs of recovery while we simultaneously prepare for more change.
In today’s fast-paced, unprecedented, and unpredictable economy, many executives simply don’t know what to do. Conventional methods-which many never entirely understood in the first place-often don’t work during economic upheaval. Executives, especially CEOs, need something better. They need a guide that identifies the roadblocks and points out the landmines. In her more than 30 years of working with hundreds of executives, Dr. Linda Henman has observed the critical elements of success, both for the new leader and the one who aspires to the next level of success. In Landing in the Executive Chair, you’ll learn how to:
Avoid the pitfalls and identify a clear plan for personal and organizational stress.
Leverage the first months in a new executive position- that time of transition that promises opportunity and challenge, but also brings a period of great vulnerability.
Create a competitive advantage, set the right tone, make effective decisions, keep talent inside your doors, and establish credibility-all while navigating unfamiliar and turbulent waters.
As organizations expand and grow, the skills that led to success often won’t sustain further development in a more complex, high-stakes environment. Present and future executives need more. They need Landing in the Executive Chair.
The continuing economic challenges – both domestic and international – require practical approaches for maintaining a high level of employee commitment and performance. But these challenges demand something else – a new approach to leadership – the kind of leadership that puts the shoulder of good judgment up against the door of immediate rewards and keeps pushing until it shoves it wide open for the possibilities of long-range, future gains. During difficult, changing times, conventional wisdom proves neither conventional nor wise. We need something new, something that will equip us to face future challenges. The F2 Leadership Model does just that.
The F2 Leadership Model explains the behaviors – not skills, talents, attitudes, or preferences – executives need to display to be effective. F2 leaders have a balanced concern for task accomplishment and people issues. They are firm but fair leaders whom others trust, leaders who commit themselves to both relationship behavior and task accomplishment.
The model sets tension between opposing forces – firmness and fairness – to provide understanding and direction. In other words, it challenges us to ask ourselves how to have both a clear task orientation and an appreciation for the people who achieve the results.
This model is truly more follower-driven than leader-driven. It keeps the leader’s focus on those who count – the people in the organization who will define success. It helps leaders figure out whether they are losing balance, tending to act like Genghis Khan or Mr. Rogers.
The four-quadrant model is both prescriptive and descriptive. It allows leaders to understand their own behavior relative to their direct reports, but by its nature, it implies a preferred way of behaving. In other words, the model explains what leaders should do to be effective instead of merely describing what they tend to do or prefer to do. It explores two key dimensions of leadership: relationship behaviors, like fairness, and task behaviors, like firmness.
When leaders lose the balance between fairness and firmness, they lose their effectiveness and compromise that of their direct reports. The model helps them analyze what they’re doing and then make choices to move toward F2 behavior. Keep in mind, the model addresses behavior and represents an ideal, so no person fits into one quadrant all the time. Leaders who want to be more effective strive for F2 behavior, but they occasionally drift into one of the other quadrants. When this happens, problems occur, but awareness offers the first step toward remedy.
When I ask people what they think it takes to be a great leader, their first response is usually, ‘vision’. Without question, effective leadership requires a strategic focus, but remember, people in mental institutions have visions, too. Seeing into the future is not enough; successful leadership in the new economy requires more. These leaders understand they must lead better than their competitors, and they need to inspire loyalty through firm but fair leadership. Even though their personalities and management styles may differ, executives who make it to the top and stay there, share some common traits: they have a sense of proportion in their leadership styles and lives; they possess a high degree of self-awareness and self-regulation; and they maintain a long-term focus for themselves and those who depend on them.
About the Author
Dr. Linda Henman, the catalyst for virtuoso organizations, is the author of Landing in the Executive Chair, among other works. She is an expert on setting strategy, planning succession, and developing talent. For more than 30 years she has helped executives and boards in Fortune 500 Companies and privately-held organizations dramatically grow their businesses. She was one of eight succession planning experts who worked directly with John Tyson after his company’s acquisition of International Beef Products. Some of her other clients include Emerson Electric, Avon, Kraft Foods, Edward Jones, and Boeing. She can be reached in St. Louis at www.henmanperformancegroup.com.
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3. Create corporate mission & values that employees are aligned with.
The foundational material — mission and values — of a company can be critical to the overall success of the organization – but they’re often forgotten. The corporate mission and values are created by the senior leadership team, captured on posters, and strategically tacked up around the building. Meanwhile, how does a corporate citizen react to this phenomenon? They see it as ‘Horse manure!’ Whatever is in the mission or values statement is not seen as relevant to the organization’s day-to-day operations. In other words, the organization’s behavior is not congruent with its declaration of ideals.
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Since working for his family’s boating business to founding his company CMI (Crusading, Marauding Interveners), Bruce Hodes has dedicated himself to helping companies grow by developing executive leadership teams, business leaders and executives into powerful performers. Bruce’s adaptable Breakthrough Strategic Business Planning methodology has been specifically designed for small-to-mid-sized companies and is especially valuable for family company challenges. In February of 2012 Bruce published his first book Front Line Heroes: How to Battle the Business Tsunami by Developing Performance Oriented Cultures. With a background in psychotherapy, Hodes also has an MBA from Northwestern University and a Masters in Clinical Social Work. Contact Bruce via email at [email protected] or phone at 800-883-7995. Visit his website at www.cmiteamwork.com.
Alona Banai, CMI’s office manager, wears many hats. She works behind the scenes managing the client process. Alona is the KeyneLink System Administrator for many of CMI’s clients and manages CMI’s Online Marketing including the Company Website, Newsletter, and Social Media.
Alona has been with CMI since February 2011. She has a MS in Plant Biology and Conservation from Northwestern University and a BS in Environmental Science and Hebrew from Washington University in St. Louis. She is also an avid and enthusiastic 5K to 1/2 Marathon participant.
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https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/IndividualValue.jpg247486StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2012-04-24 06:03:402019-08-18 21:28:53Talent Management Best Practice 3 – Know the Organizational Value of Each Employee
Every one of you have given a speech, or written a paragraph or essay about what you did on your summer vacation while you were in grade school.
You wrote about the lake, the mountains, or the week at the beach. Or you gave a speech and your opening line was, “What I did on my summer vacation.” And you held your own hands and nervously performed in front of your peers.
You were worried about what they would think and you were nervous about performing in front of your classmates, but somehow you muddled through it.
Your essay was returned with all kinds of red marks for punctuation, grammar, and misspellings.
For those of you who are pack rats, or have parents who are pack rats, you may still have the document.
PERSONAL NOTE: I have many of my daughters’ early writings. All gems.
I’m giving you this reminder, this bit of nostalgic instant memory, so I can issue you the following challenges: How have you progressed since then?
How much better are your writing skills? How much better are your presentation skills? And how important are those skills to your sales success, your business success, your social media success, and your career success?
I’ve been a professional writer and professional speaker for 20 years. But like you, I’ve been an amateur since the third grade when I talked about what I did on my summer vacation, and in the fourth grade when I wrote about Hurricane Hazel which rocked Atlantic City where my family was living at the time. (If you Google it, you can figure out how old I am!)
What most people don’t understand is their initial training forms the foundation of their present skills. Your grammar, your ability to spell, your self-confidence to be able to speak, and your overall character are formulated by your ability to communicate both orally and in writing.
Every one of you reading this is now thinking, maybe I should have paid more attention when my high school English teacher was drilling the difference of there, their, and they’re or the difference of your and you’re.
Think about the emails you receive with the subject line that says: “You’re in Luck!”
The person who wrote it is immediately perceived as an idiot and the email is discarded as both disingenuous and poorly prepared.
Maybe I’m prejudice, but I don’t want to do business with someone who can’t correct his or her own work in the simplest subject line of an email.
The reason I’m harping on speaking and writing is because they are the foundation of the two most important elements of your success: image and reputation.
Everyone wants to have a great image.
Everyone wants to have a great reputation.
GOOD NEWS IS: You can influence both your image and your reputation with your CONSISTENT PERFORMANCE.
I’ll ask my audiences, “How many of you would be nervous speaking in front of a group of 300 people?” Almost everyone raises his or her hand. The real answer is, they are not nervous, they are not uncomfortable – those are symptoms. The real issue is they are UNPREPARED. They lack the experience, the subject matter expertise, or suffer from limited self-image or low self-esteem – or perhaps all four.
This is further complicated by the fact that most of you reading this know what show is on television on Wednesday night at 9 o’clock, and you’re glued to the set to see witness the next episode of “other people’s drama.” You make a conscience choice to watch something rather than to learn something or do something.
Perhaps if you took a Dale Carnegie course on public speaking, or joined a Toastmasters group, you would be able to become a confident presenter.
Perhaps if you started your own blog, and at the age of 30 or 40, you write about what you did on your summer vacation, you might be able to attract people with similar likes and values as they search the internet, same as you.
Please do not confuse this column as a call to action.
Rather it is a call to reality.
REALITY: Your writing skills and your speaking skills need to be at a higher level of competence if you are looking to elevate your income to a higher level.
REALITY: Your reputation is the sum total of your words and deeds – a large portion of which can come from writing and speaking.
REALITY: Your customer is more likely to buy your message if they buy into your passion.
REALITY: You can gain an amazing business social media presence if you combine your ability to write and your ability to convey a value message to your customers.
Here’s my recommendation to you…
1. Write a 500-word blog post once a week. Write about something you love. Write about something that may impact your customers. Write about something you have an expertise in.
2. Speak in public once a week. A civil organization will be happy to have you as their breakfast or lunch presenter. Speak on something you love, speak on something others will value, speak on something in which you are an expert.
2.5 You will not reap immediate rewards. But slowly over time your image and reputation will emerge. That’s a reward that has nothing to do with commissions or earnings, but it has everything to do with the feeling of fulfillment. That’s a feeling I hope you get to experience.
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].
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Knowing Your Value Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth
by Mika Brzezinski
About the Reference
Knowing Your Value by Mika Brzezinski is a self confession and personal growth story about how a now prominent MSNBC morning show host discovered, demanded, and won compensation more inline with that of her peers. The story is complimented by the personal value stories and insights of over a dozen other leaders.
Why You Should Not Buy This Book
StrategyDriven Contributors dislike Knowing Your Value for several reasons. First, the book lacks sufficient method for actually determining your personal worth to an organization. Its premise is that an individual’s value contribution should be based on the compensation of others in similar positions. The shortfall with this argument is that each unique individual contributes differently to the organization and so offers his/her own value proposition. Additionally, there is an underlying assumption that the comparison employees have accurately identified and won their value – a premise that is often not true. Second, the book maintains a foundational assumption that the author was treated differently because she is a woman. While this may or may not be true, the comparison employees identified were noted as contributing significantly greater intellectual and creative works to their organization; suggesting that they were rightfully compensated more. Brzezinski discounts the fact that men, minorities, and other classes of people may also be undervalued, for the reasons she presents, and that everyone should methodically seek to identify and demand their value from employers.
For its shortfalls in revealing how to calculate one’s personal value contribution and its faulted underlying logic and assumptions, StrategyDriven Contributors recommend that our readers not purchase or invest time reading Knowing Your Value.
Alternative Recommendation
StrategyDriven Contributors believe it is highly important for an individual to know his/her value and to aggressively seek it. Identifying one’s worth is not a matter of simple comparison with others or a fight against perceived discrimination but rather a deliberate methodological evaluation of the value contribution of the individual to the organization followed by the positive assertion of that value to those who can correct any imbalance. Such a methodology is presented by Larry Myler, Chief Executive Officer of By Monday, in his book, Indispensable By Monday: Learn the Profit-Producing Behaviors that will Help Your Company and Yourself.
Click here to read a review of Indispensable By Monday and listen to our StrategyDriven Podcast interview with Larry Myler on determining your organizational value.
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Business Programs
Leading Through Volatility
/in Management & Leadership/by Linda HenmanAs I write this on April 5, 2012, the Dow is above 13,000 and all indications point to signs of recovery. Notice the disclaimer, ‘As I write this.’ If we have learned nothing else in the past four years, let us remember that a stable, predictable economy may be a thing of the past. We cautiously celebrate signs of recovery while we simultaneously prepare for more change.
by Linda Henman
In today’s fast-paced, unprecedented, and unpredictable economy, many executives simply don’t know what to do. Conventional methods-which many never entirely understood in the first place-often don’t work during economic upheaval. Executives, especially CEOs, need something better. They need a guide that identifies the roadblocks and points out the landmines. In her more than 30 years of working with hundreds of executives, Dr. Linda Henman has observed the critical elements of success, both for the new leader and the one who aspires to the next level of success. In Landing in the Executive Chair, you’ll learn how to:
As organizations expand and grow, the skills that led to success often won’t sustain further development in a more complex, high-stakes environment. Present and future executives need more. They need Landing in the Executive Chair.
The continuing economic challenges – both domestic and international – require practical approaches for maintaining a high level of employee commitment and performance. But these challenges demand something else – a new approach to leadership – the kind of leadership that puts the shoulder of good judgment up against the door of immediate rewards and keeps pushing until it shoves it wide open for the possibilities of long-range, future gains. During difficult, changing times, conventional wisdom proves neither conventional nor wise. We need something new, something that will equip us to face future challenges. The F2 Leadership Model does just that.
The F2 Leadership Model explains the behaviors – not skills, talents, attitudes, or preferences – executives need to display to be effective. F2 leaders have a balanced concern for task accomplishment and people issues. They are firm but fair leaders whom others trust, leaders who commit themselves to both relationship behavior and task accomplishment.
The model sets tension between opposing forces – firmness and fairness – to provide understanding and direction. In other words, it challenges us to ask ourselves how to have both a clear task orientation and an appreciation for the people who achieve the results.
This model is truly more follower-driven than leader-driven. It keeps the leader’s focus on those who count – the people in the organization who will define success. It helps leaders figure out whether they are losing balance, tending to act like Genghis Khan or Mr. Rogers.
The four-quadrant model is both prescriptive and descriptive. It allows leaders to understand their own behavior relative to their direct reports, but by its nature, it implies a preferred way of behaving. In other words, the model explains what leaders should do to be effective instead of merely describing what they tend to do or prefer to do. It explores two key dimensions of leadership: relationship behaviors, like fairness, and task behaviors, like firmness.
When I ask people what they think it takes to be a great leader, their first response is usually, ‘vision’. Without question, effective leadership requires a strategic focus, but remember, people in mental institutions have visions, too. Seeing into the future is not enough; successful leadership in the new economy requires more. These leaders understand they must lead better than their competitors, and they need to inspire loyalty through firm but fair leadership. Even though their personalities and management styles may differ, executives who make it to the top and stay there, share some common traits: they have a sense of proportion in their leadership styles and lives; they possess a high degree of self-awareness and self-regulation; and they maintain a long-term focus for themselves and those who depend on them.
About the Author
The Four Cornerstones of a High Performance Culture, part 3
/in Corporate Cultures/by Bruce Hodes and Alona Banai3. Create corporate mission & values that employees are aligned with.
The foundational material — mission and values — of a company can be critical to the overall success of the organization – but they’re often forgotten. The corporate mission and values are created by the senior leadership team, captured on posters, and strategically tacked up around the building. Meanwhile, how does a corporate citizen react to this phenomenon? They see it as ‘Horse manure!’ Whatever is in the mission or values statement is not seen as relevant to the organization’s day-to-day operations. In other words, the organization’s behavior is not congruent with its declaration of ideals.
Hi there! This article is available for free. Login or register as a StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Self-Guided Client by:
Subscribing to the Self Guided Program - It's Free!
About the Authors
Alona has been with CMI since February 2011. She has a MS in Plant Biology and Conservation from Northwestern University and a BS in Environmental Science and Hebrew from Washington University in St. Louis. She is also an avid and enthusiastic 5K to 1/2 Marathon participant.
Talent Management Best Practice 3 – Know the Organizational Value of Each Employee
/in Premium, Talent Management/by StrategyDrivenDo you really know the organizational contribution value of each individual working for you?
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How have you progressed since the third grade?
/in Marketing & Sales/by Jeffrey Gitomer“What I did on my summer vacation.”
Every one of you have given a speech, or written a paragraph or essay about what you did on your summer vacation while you were in grade school.
You wrote about the lake, the mountains, or the week at the beach. Or you gave a speech and your opening line was, “What I did on my summer vacation.” And you held your own hands and nervously performed in front of your peers.
You were worried about what they would think and you were nervous about performing in front of your classmates, but somehow you muddled through it.
Your essay was returned with all kinds of red marks for punctuation, grammar, and misspellings.
For those of you who are pack rats, or have parents who are pack rats, you may still have the document.
PERSONAL NOTE: I have many of my daughters’ early writings. All gems.
I’m giving you this reminder, this bit of nostalgic instant memory, so I can issue you the following challenges: How have you progressed since then?
How much better are your writing skills? How much better are your presentation skills? And how important are those skills to your sales success, your business success, your social media success, and your career success?
I’ve been a professional writer and professional speaker for 20 years. But like you, I’ve been an amateur since the third grade when I talked about what I did on my summer vacation, and in the fourth grade when I wrote about Hurricane Hazel which rocked Atlantic City where my family was living at the time. (If you Google it, you can figure out how old I am!)
What most people don’t understand is their initial training forms the foundation of their present skills. Your grammar, your ability to spell, your self-confidence to be able to speak, and your overall character are formulated by your ability to communicate both orally and in writing.
Every one of you reading this is now thinking, maybe I should have paid more attention when my high school English teacher was drilling the difference of there, their, and they’re or the difference of your and you’re.
Think about the emails you receive with the subject line that says: “You’re in Luck!”
The person who wrote it is immediately perceived as an idiot and the email is discarded as both disingenuous and poorly prepared.
Maybe I’m prejudice, but I don’t want to do business with someone who can’t correct his or her own work in the simplest subject line of an email.
The reason I’m harping on speaking and writing is because they are the foundation of the two most important elements of your success: image and reputation.
Everyone wants to have a great image.
Everyone wants to have a great reputation.
GOOD NEWS IS: You can influence both your image and your reputation with your CONSISTENT PERFORMANCE.
I’ll ask my audiences, “How many of you would be nervous speaking in front of a group of 300 people?” Almost everyone raises his or her hand. The real answer is, they are not nervous, they are not uncomfortable – those are symptoms. The real issue is they are UNPREPARED. They lack the experience, the subject matter expertise, or suffer from limited self-image or low self-esteem – or perhaps all four.
This is further complicated by the fact that most of you reading this know what show is on television on Wednesday night at 9 o’clock, and you’re glued to the set to see witness the next episode of “other people’s drama.” You make a conscience choice to watch something rather than to learn something or do something.
Perhaps if you took a Dale Carnegie course on public speaking, or joined a Toastmasters group, you would be able to become a confident presenter.
Perhaps if you started your own blog, and at the age of 30 or 40, you write about what you did on your summer vacation, you might be able to attract people with similar likes and values as they search the internet, same as you.
Please do not confuse this column as a call to action.
Rather it is a call to reality.
REALITY: Your writing skills and your speaking skills need to be at a higher level of competence if you are looking to elevate your income to a higher level.
REALITY: Your reputation is the sum total of your words and deeds – a large portion of which can come from writing and speaking.
REALITY: Your customer is more likely to buy your message if they buy into your passion.
REALITY: You can gain an amazing business social media presence if you combine your ability to write and your ability to convey a value message to your customers.
Here’s my recommendation to you…
1. Write a 500-word blog post once a week. Write about something you love. Write about something that may impact your customers. Write about something you have an expertise in.
2. Speak in public once a week. A civil organization will be happy to have you as their breakfast or lunch presenter. Speak on something you love, speak on something others will value, speak on something in which you are an expert.
2.5 You will not reap immediate rewards. But slowly over time your image and reputation will emerge. That’s a reward that has nothing to do with commissions or earnings, but it has everything to do with the feeling of fulfillment. That’s a feeling I hope you get to experience.
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
Knowing Your Value
/in Recommended Resources, Talent Management/by StrategyDrivenby Mika Brzezinski
About the Reference
Knowing Your Value by Mika Brzezinski is a self confession and personal growth story about how a now prominent MSNBC morning show host discovered, demanded, and won compensation more inline with that of her peers. The story is complimented by the personal value stories and insights of over a dozen other leaders.
Why You Should Not Buy This Book
StrategyDriven Contributors dislike Knowing Your Value for several reasons. First, the book lacks sufficient method for actually determining your personal worth to an organization. Its premise is that an individual’s value contribution should be based on the compensation of others in similar positions. The shortfall with this argument is that each unique individual contributes differently to the organization and so offers his/her own value proposition. Additionally, there is an underlying assumption that the comparison employees have accurately identified and won their value – a premise that is often not true. Second, the book maintains a foundational assumption that the author was treated differently because she is a woman. While this may or may not be true, the comparison employees identified were noted as contributing significantly greater intellectual and creative works to their organization; suggesting that they were rightfully compensated more. Brzezinski discounts the fact that men, minorities, and other classes of people may also be undervalued, for the reasons she presents, and that everyone should methodically seek to identify and demand their value from employers.
For its shortfalls in revealing how to calculate one’s personal value contribution and its faulted underlying logic and assumptions, StrategyDriven Contributors recommend that our readers not purchase or invest time reading Knowing Your Value.
Alternative Recommendation
StrategyDriven Contributors believe it is highly important for an individual to know his/her value and to aggressively seek it. Identifying one’s worth is not a matter of simple comparison with others or a fight against perceived discrimination but rather a deliberate methodological evaluation of the value contribution of the individual to the organization followed by the positive assertion of that value to those who can correct any imbalance. Such a methodology is presented by Larry Myler, Chief Executive Officer of By Monday, in his book, Indispensable By Monday: Learn the Profit-Producing Behaviors that will Help Your Company and Yourself
.
Click here to read a review of Indispensable By Monday and listen to our StrategyDriven Podcast interview with Larry Myler on determining your organizational value.