99 guided reading, motivation & teamwork--10 articles

Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 3 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #1 of 10Life-Friendly Managers With A Win-Win Philosophy

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MOTIVATION R TEAMWORK

GUIDED READING #1 OF 10 LIFE-FRIENDLY MANAGERS WITH A WIN-WIN PHILOSPHY

by Stewart D Friedman, Perry Christensen and Jessica DeGroot Should work and life always be at loggerheads? Not at all, reply the authors. The modern corporation makes ever-increasing demands on its employees, some of whom virtually live at work. Though people will always have children and elderly parents to care for, hobbies and community activities to pursue, many executives deal with employees' personal-life issues summarily: What you do in the office is our business. What you do outside is your own. For such managers, work versus personal life is a zero-sum game. Enter the new stealth fighters: a small but growing cadre of life-friendly managers. Rather than being bound by workaday routines, they take risks, flying under the radar of officially sanctioned programmes, while proving that a manager who cares about work-life issues is a manager who gets results. Not only are their employees more content, they aresurprise, surprisemore productive. These cutting-edge managers operate under the assumption that work and personal life are complementary, not competing, concerns, and that by adopting a win-win philosophy toward balancing these concerns, organizations and their individual employees can reap rewards. To guide them, these executives use three mutually reinforcing principles.

They make the They recognize Managers continually company's business employees as whole experiment with the objectives crystal clear people. They know that way work is done, and encourage employees when a manager helps seeking approaches to be equally clear about employees balance their that enhance an personal priorities. The work life with the rest of their organizations objective is to hold an lives, they feel a stronger performance while honest dialogue and then commitment to the creating time for to craft a strategy for organization. Besides, employees personal meeting goals, both the many employees have pursuits. company's and hidden talents that are the individual's. transferable to the job.

These managers encourage employees to question basic assumptions about work. We cling to age-old work models, including conventions established in the Industrial Age requiring employees to be physically on site during normal business hours. But new technologye-mail, voice mail, teleconferencing and computer networkscan improve productivity while freeing up time.


Smart managers know that business goals take precedence over process, so they do not penalize employees for putting personal concerns first or for putting them on par with work concerns. Managers simply use personal priorities as a road map to take them and their employees to the destination of choice: business success, achieved in tandem with individual fulfilment. When applied together, these three principlesclarifying goals, treating employees as whole people and seeking new approachesreinforce one another and, in fact, overlap. Encouraging employees to be explicit about their personal goals, for instance, is a prerequisite for recognizing and supporting a whole person and valuing productivity over face-time is critical when experimenting with work methods. Consider the case of Sam, the director of a 24-hour command centre at a pharmaceutical plant. His crew monitored 10,000 hot spots, including manufacturing process vaults with chemicals stored at -70 F. Crewmembers must wear special protective suits and can stay in the vaults for only 10 minutes at a time. Longer stays are treated as emergencies. Shifts changed 21 times a week and exchanging information between crewmembers was cumbersome. The command centre was already stressful, and to make matters worse, the number of hot spots was about to increase by 50% within a year, and perhaps double to 20,000 within two years. Sam called a meeting to make business goals explicit. The group's work was essential to the safe operation of the plant. A tight budget would not allow him to throw more people at the problem. And he envisioned a command centre that proactively anticipated plant site needs. Unless an alternative was found, the staff would have to work longer hours under more stressful conditions, which of course would affect their personal lives. He then asked the staff to create a solution that met not only business needs, but personal ones. No experiment would be out of bounds, as long as it produced desired results. The solution was comprehensive: Employees would work 12-hour shifts

With three days on and four days off one week Then four days on and three days off the next

Thus, in two weeks, each employee would work 84 hoursfour more than in the past Meanwhile, work schedules would be steady, time off more concentrated The new system's results have exceeded expectations. It eliminated seven shifts, meaning information is exchanged seven fewer times, reducing errors. It also allowed staff to forecast plant site needs in advance, satisfying Sam's vision. In short, morale is up. Stress is down. Productivity has improved. As for off-hours life, the schedule has enabled employees to meet their needs in ways that weren't possible in the past. One employee was finally able to attend school during the day and received a master's degree. Many say the schedule has allowed them to relax more at home and to plan personal projects and events. The command centre, once a place for hazardous, stressful duty, is today a magnet for transfers and new hires.


So, if the three life-friendly principles really work, why aren't there more mavericks like Sam? Because some managers value face-time more than results. Others think delving into each employee's personal life is too time-consuming and impractical. But following the three principles does not involve much more time and energy than managing in more traditional ways.

Bringing personal-life priorities into a conversation only involves a few additional questions

and the conversation can be so illuminating that it makes the process of developing and motivating people

more honest and efficient. Managers who use the principles do so typically without official sanction. Perhaps, as the business impact of their approach becomes better known, a shift will occur. Then, managers who once flew below the radar will themselves become beacons of change. Source: Adapted from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=printArticle&ID=45, accessed 23 September 2004

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Louis Lim, July 2006

Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 6 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #2 of 10Leading Indicators


GUIDED READING #2 OF 10LEADING INDICATORS by Jessica Marquez

Think nice guysand galsfinish last? Don't tell that to researcher and consultant Roslyn Courtney, who has found that the most successful leaders are accessible, encourage candid dialogue and show respect for employees and customers. As an expert in leadership, Roslyn Courtney studies people like Howard Schultz and Meg Whitman to learn what works. She analyzes executives like Carly Fiorina and Martha Stewart to figure out what doesnt. And after 25 years in top human resources jobs at large companies, shes struck by the emphasis true leaders place on communication with employeesand customers. Now an independent management consultant for several Fortune 500 companies, Courtney earned her professional stripes by developing leadership strategies at Kraft General Foods, the New York Times Co, Primedia and Citigroup. What she has discovered is that theres a striking similarity in the way true leaders approach their businesses:

True leaders encourage open and frank discussions

I used to think that leaders were these awesome, untouchable people, she says. Now I realize that the ones who are the most successful are down-to-earth and approachable. They are real people who have vulnerabilities and disappointments, and its the way they deal with them and learn from them that makes them successful. After graduating from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, she started her career in 1977 at General Foods, where she helped the company shift its strategy from internal product development to growth through acquisitions without major layoffs. At Primedias media and magazine group, her task was to help create a more collaborative environment, an effort that proved difficult because then-CEO Tom Rogers was a manager whose style was the ultimate command control, she says. Her own corporate experiences ignited an avid interest in pursuing the study of effective leadership. In 2002, she began interviewing 80 female executives while preparing for a Women in Business conference at Wharton.


1. Workforce ManagementWhat did you learn in your interviews with women executives?

CourtneyI wanted to know how these women thought about their businesses and how they distinguished extraordinary leaders from others. I would ask very open-ended questions and then probe. For example, I asked them to describe their most important business contribution or success. Then I would ask for the specifics about the kinds of challenges that came up and the results they achieved. I had a question about their biggest setbacks and followed up with asking how they bounced back from it. What I found was that there was a striking similarity in the way they approach their businesses.

They are proactive They promote continuous exploration of themselves and other

leaders within the organization They are accountable for what they do If there is an issue in their company, they dont say they didnt

know anything about it They look at their organizations and constantly ask what can

be improved 2. WMWho is an example of a leader that embodies these qualities today? CourtneyHoward Schultz, chairman of Starbucks, is an example because he has redefined and created a uniquely different business. He really cares about his people. He is very focused on culture. Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay, is another example of a high-profile leader who is not driven by power but by what she can achieve with her people. She has built a culture that engages her customers. 3. WMWhat kind of metrics should leaders use to assess their performance? CourtneyI think that measuring whether the person attracts, develops and retains world-class talent is important. Top executives should conduct self-assessments and include their staff and colleagues in the process. You need to have some type of 360 feedback. Employee surveys should be part but not all of it because employees tend to like their managers but not senior management.


A third party, whether it is a human resources executive or a consultant, should give a leadership appraisal survey to the executives peers. These appraisals should assess how the executive develops other managers within the company. Its not good enough if the executive only focuses on self-improvement. Does the leader seek out diverse points of view? Again, being open to feedback is only one part of it. Proactively looking for other opinions is just as important. Does the person acknowledge and reward performance excellence? They should be assessed on the culture of the work environment. Is it a negative environment where people feel threatened? There are all kinds of measures that can be put in place besides profitability. The fact is that the CEO cant be involved in every single decision. I think old models of leadership were based on hierarchical organizations that are no longer relevant. Thats why culture is so important. There shouldnt be this mentality of the big, important person is on top and the little people are on the bottom. There should be an organizational structure in place, but not a hierarchy. 4. WMWho is an example of a leader that follows the old model? CourtneyI believe Carly Fiorina (former chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard) is one that went by the old model. I do not believe that Carly built a corporate culture where her staff felt that they could approach her and speak to her candidly, which is one of the pure hallmarks of the new leader. People didnt follow. She did change the culture of Hewlett-Packard. Its my understanding that Hewlett-Packard had a very distinct culture and Carlys focus was outward as opposed to inward. I dont want to say she doesnt fit the model because I think anyone can lead in this way if they think its important. I dont think Carly got accurate feedback. Carly was dancing one dance and the people behind her were doing another dance. So, either they didnt agree with her vision or the strategy wasnt rich enough that people could take it and implement it in an effective way. The fact is, smartness alone does not drive dynamic, effective leadership. Its really understanding the business, getting your constituents on board and listening to their needs and concerns. 5. WMDo you think (new HP chief) Mark Hurd will be more effective? CourtneyI dont think Hewlett-Packard was a cohesive, excited organization and so he has a tremendous opportunity to be very successful. He really has to define a compelling business strategy and drill down and understand all of the components of the business and understand the capacity of the organization and to create a culture where there is real commitment and enthusiasm for the future of the company. I think he has to tear everything apart, which it sounds like he is doing. He has to make sure that he gets very diverse perspectives, that he doesnt just have people around him telling him things that they think he wants to hear.


Im not a great fan of employee satisfaction surveys. I think that process is only successful if top management really takes the initiative to drive dramatic change and address the issues that come up. Very often, these surveys get caught up among many other different priorities.

Roslyn Courtney 6. WMHow does a new CEO get employees to be candid? CourtneyOne example of a CEO who did this well was Elizabeth Robert, President and CEO of the Vermont Teddy Bear Co. She did it mostly by just being approachable. When she was CFO and the company was on the verge of insolvency, employees came to her and asked for her help. When she became CEO, she kept that demeanour. When people came to her with an idea, if she wasnt sure it was the right way to go she would ask them questions about it rather than say no and shut them down. Another example is Jack Keenan when he was CEO of General Foods Europe. He came into an organization and was making big business strategy decisions and asking for input but not getting a lot of feedback. He realized that this was not what he called a culture of candour, and he knew it was necessary to be successful. So he brought in a senior marketing official to challenge him in front of others so they would realize that this was the expectation of the leader. He changed the culture. 7. WMAs the director of human resources at the New York Times Cos

magazine group, you were involved with changing the culture of the organization to be less bureaucratic and more open and creative. How did you tackle this?

CourtneyAt that time, the New York Times was a newspaper company and it had a very bureaucratic process. We wanted to create a different environment for the magazine part of the business where there would be more open discussion that would encourage creativity. As part of that, we wanted to get more diverse perspectives and that meant we needed some more women. Many of the womens magazines were run by men, so we hired a woman editor for Family Circle. We also started having more luncheons where the publishers and president would have face time with the staff. Overall we encouraged more interaction between the top executives and the employees so that we could get a more diverse perspective on the content of the magazines. For example, when covers of the magazines were being discussed, it was important to get feedback from different types of people. We made an effort to recognize creativity and applaud it. Recognition is very cheap. I have found throughout my career that having a presidents award or having the CEO go down to a unit and celebrate something employees have done has a big impact.


8. WMYou emphasize the importance of rewarding people. At Citigroup Private Bank, you created a performance measurement system for 4,000 employees throughout the world. What was involved in that process?

CourtneySenior management wanted to introduce a balanced scorecard to the business. This is the idea that you actually look at the business vision, mission and strategic imperatives, success factors and key measures that will drive resultsand that they be balanced. You look at strategy and internal organization and not just the financial results to determine success. Unlike the performance management process I created at the New York Times, the connection between performance and rewards was much stronger at Citibank because I was more experienced and said that in designing this we are really going to make sure that that connection was clear. There were some people who looked at a global solution as Lets find the lowest common denominator where we can get consensus. I felt strongly that then, you wouldnt get the results you needed. Sometimes there were issues with different countries. The use of titles, for example, which is not a common practice in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as opposed to the US or Latin America, was an issue. So we used the title of private banker for everyone. But more importantly, we created a standard for the role. We set standards for the role for the private banker and the credit and investment specialistsall the people who were interfacing with the client. In doing that we had to define the core competencies of the banker and the actions the banker would take so that you could differentiate the levels of performance. It takes a lot of input to get to that, but it meant that a banker in London would have the same role and same standards as a banker in New York, California or Mexico. 9. WMAt Citibank you did an employee satisfaction survey. What did you

learn from that? CourtneyIm not a great fan of the employee satisfaction survey. The one at Citibank was especially designed to get at the key issues, so we asked questions about understanding the business vision. I think that process is only successful if top management really takes the initiative to drive dramatic change and address the issues that come up. Very often these surveys get caught up among many other different priorities. The questions we asked were around the values of the private bank. We wanted to connect the specific questions to the big ideas. It became very clear from the survey that people wanted more involvement and more clarity. A lot of the work that I did after that survey corrected some of those issues.


10. WMWhat is the biggest mistake you have found that companies make when they define leadership?

CourtneyCompanies need to realize that the old model of the leaders sitting on top of the pyramid and the managers executing orders does not work in todays environment. The person at the top cannot be the only leader. There have to be various people within the company acting in this role. There are many companies stuck in a rut where the managers are waiting to be told what to do. That doesnt work. Source: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/24/09/98/index.php, accessed 9 May 2006

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Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 3 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #3 of 10Two Skill Sets


GUIDED READING #3 OF 10TWO SKILL SETS by Gene Ference

Skills that are necessary for you to reach the productivity demanded at your property or in your department can be separated into Professional Skill Set and Organizational Skill Set. Whether you are familiar with the TV version of Mission Impossible that aired between 1966 and 1973, or the more up-to-date movie versions that began in 1996 and that are continuing with the third of its kind movie due out in early May, you should be aware that

The skill sets that allow each Mission Impossible to succeed are the same ones that allow you to succeed in your work

environment each day!

Sound impossible? It almost is for Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, but it shouldn't be for you as a manager or a supervisor in your hotel, resort, club, restaurant or casino. Professional Skill Set n Communication o r

Leadership Trust Organizational Skill Set p q s Motivation Quality Teamwork

t w Planning Goal Achievement u v Problem- Developing Solving Others


Professional Skill Set n Communication

Demonstrates the abilities to interact with others in a manner that promotes productive relationships, the transfer of messages and the exchange of thoughts, insights and observations

These are real communication skills vs merely being secretive and talking to another operative on your cell phone while someone is shooting at you

o Leadership

Demonstrates the abilities to provide effective levels of direction and support needed to influence individual and team situations and optimize working environments

Not just having Mr Phelps show his leadership skills by saying, ... should you decide to accept this mission...

p Motivation

Demonstrates the abilities to inspire enthusiasm and build passion within the work team by understanding individual personalities and the recognition, rewards and incentives that drive people's motives for achieving standards and goals

Not just doing things because they have to, like when the timer on a bomb is ticking down; thats motivation for the Mission Impossible team!

q Quality

Demonstrates the abilities to achieve best in class, superiority and excellence in product and service by understanding market needs and providing the appropriate levels of worth, significance, and value

Not quite like clearing the area of all subversive adversaries to be sure the damsel in distress or knight in shining armor is able to dine with you laterbut close

r Trust

Demonstrates the abilities to have others confident that you walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk, thus fulfilling expectations, beliefs and probabilities that certain things will happen

Not like having to keep one eye open when having to sleep next to a foreign operative who may not be on your sidebut maybe


Organizational Skill Set s Teamwork

Demonstrates the abilities to generate cooperation and collaboration among team members in order to put forth a joint effort in achieving peak performance

Kind of like having your partner lift you over a fence that was too high to scale by yourself, just as a pack of pit bulls arrive on the scene

t Planning

Demonstrates the abilities necessary for the timely organization and effective implementation of systems, processes, procedures, standards and goals

Not unlike being lowered into a room full of pit bulls that guard a precious gem and getting away with it without losing your arm!

u Problem-Solving

Demonstrates the abilities to identify the key elements of a problem, analyze their impact and make decisions considering short, medium and long range perspectives

Remember those pit bulls? A definite problem when they're drooling and waiting for you to drop from the

ceiling However, generating decision-making criteria like tossing them a couple pounds

of chop meat laced with sleeping pills should be a viable solution v Developing Others

Demonstrates the abilities to establish a learning environment and educational spectrum enabling the growth and development of others

Even as James Bond has had to step aside, Ethan Hunt will one day do so as well-when a new and younger apprentice might take over the reigns It all depends on your apprentice system

w Goal Achievement

Demonstrates abilities to establish, pursue and attain achievable goals through understanding strategies and tactics needed for technical functions, relationship management and big-picture understanding of organizational objectives and purpose

For Ethan Hunt, staying alive may be his biggest goal Finding inventive ways to do that is the stuff that makes you want to go to the

movies! Source: Adapted from http://ehotelier.com/browse/news_more.php?id=D8272_0_11_0_M, accessed 10 May 2006

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Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 1 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #4 of 10Q12 to Measure Employee Engagement


GUIDED READING #4 OF 10 Q12 TO MEASURE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Five years ago, the Gallup Organization began creating a feedback system for employers that would identify and measure elements of worker engagement most tied to the bottom linethings such as sales growth, productivity and customer loyalty. After hundreds of focus groups and thousands of interviews with employees in a variety of industries, Gallup came up with the Q12a 12-question survey that identifies strong feelings of employee engagement.

Results from the survey show a strong correlation between high scores and superior job performance.

Q12 to Measure Employee Engagement 1. Do you know what is expected of you at work? 2. Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right? 3. At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? 4. In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work? 5. Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person? 6. Is there someone at work who encourages your development? 7. At work, do your opinions seem to count? 8. Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important? 9. Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work? 10. Do you have a best friend at work? 11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress? 12. In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow? Source: http://www.workforce.com/section/09/article/23/53/40.html, accessed 7 December 2004

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Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 5 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #5 of 10Interviewing A Prospective Boss


GUIDED READING #5 OF 10 INTERVIEWING A PROSPECTIVE BOSS

by Scott Reeves

You spend almost as much time with your boss as your sweetie and finding the right match at work is nearly as important to your happiness as finding the right mate.

But finding the right boss isn't a matter of the heart. It's a cold calculation, matching your skills and ambition with the prospects and demands of a new job against the new honcho's management style. Landing the right job requires asking the right questions during the interview and picking up on the office vibe. The kinds of questions you ask tell the interviewer how well prepared you are for the interview, says Umesh Ramakrishnan, Vice Chairman, Christian & Timbers, an executive search firm with offices throughout the USA. Asking questions about their product rangeor specific services you couldn't find out simply by reading the cover letter you received from the company or from the employment admeans you did some independent research about the company on the Internet or at the library. This shows the prospective employer that you're serious about the job.

A job interview in that both sides seek to Can this develop into is like a first date answer the same question: something good?

The interviewer wants to know what sets you apart from other qualified applicants and you need to know if the company is a good fit for you. The basic tactic for job seekers is simple: if you don't knowask. But keep in mind that what and how you ask can determine if you get the job or not. In the interview, your pitch to the prospective employer is direct: This is what I can do for you. Your questions to the interviewer should gently probe the flip side: What's in it for me?


You want a job that offers new challenges and the prospect of career growth. Make it clear to the interviewer that your education and experience has prepared you for the task ahead and that you welcome something new. To this end, ask about your boss' management style. A micromanager is dangerous to your mental health and can be disastrous for your career. You want someone who sets goals, offers tips and lets you handle the assignment. Before you hitch your wagon to the boss' star, determine if that star is rising or falling. Start by asking about values and goals. If your prospective boss isn't engaged and enthusiastic, your career is likely to take a hitso keep looking. Toss a few unexpected questions to your prospective boss. The intent isn't to nail him to the wall but to gauge his reaction. If he's miffed, it may be an indication of an acute lack of self-confidencenever a good sign. If the answer is right out of the employee manual, your prospective boss may be timid, unimaginative or even defeated. If the response is flat, stifle a yawn and keep your job search alive. Ask your prospective boss to describe what makes a good employee. If the description doesn't match your aspirations, keep looking. But if things click, you may have found the right job. Check into educational opportunities but always bring the conversation back to a basic point during the interview: This will help me do a better job for you. Work flow is part of the equation. If you're fast and accurate, your boss will quickly come to depend on you. But you may also pick up the work of less efficient or diligent co-workers and this is likely to cut into your time for special projects. So you need to know if the reward for outstanding performance is more challenging assignments or a cascade of routine work. Turnover often tells a company's story. If there's constant churn, chances are it's a bad shop and you don't want to be there. Ask how long people stay and where they go after leaving the company. This can be tricky, because you've got to make it clear that you're not planning your departure before you've arrived. If many former employees take a step up, working at the company can be a good way to advance your career. The smart boss knows that talented, ambitious employees often move on after several years and if your skills match the company's needs, the boss will be happy to grab you, knowing that you won't be a lifetime employee. Ask to talk to other workers in your classification. This will give you a sharper picture of office morale and how current employees approach the joband your would-be joining them. This all plays out against a backdrop some job applicants miss:

If you land an interview, it means that the company thinks you can do the job.


Remember Never discuss compensation in the initial interview. Chances are you comb your hair and brush your teeth for a first date. A job interview also requires basic preparation. If the company is publicly traded, check the quarterly earnings in the stock exchange. Most companies file electronically and the information is available online. If the company is privately held and an up-and-comer, read as many newspaper and magazine articles as you can find. Always know the company's competition. When asked about your accomplishments, not giving credit to others or a team can lead the prospective employer to conclude that you're egotistical or not a team player, Ramakrishnan says from his Cleveland office. If you don't match your skills and aspirations to the right boss, your stomach will do back flips before you know it, your job performance will suffer and you can expect to clean out your desk in about a year. As you pack your stuff in boxes, a quick escape is all you want but short stints at a series of jobs can mar your curriculum vitand damage your career. Keep an eye out for the warning signs. Bad male or female bosses exhibit similar traits: moody, quick to pass the buck, routinely berating others, not above lying and generally unpredictable. Inconsistent and often conflicting demands of subordinates are perfectly counterpointed by an inexhaustible capacity to smile like a Cheshire cat and say the right things around superiors. But such people didn't become bosses on twisted charm alone. They're good at somethingjust not getting the most out of subordinates. If possible, talk to the company's clients. This will give you an unvarnished view of the company's strengths and weaknesses and may give you an insight into how it treats employees. Asking such questions is much like a first date: how things are said can reveal as much as what is said. Listen carefully and keep an eye on your prospective boss' demeanour. These basic techniques will work for non-profits, mom-and-pop operations and major companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Exxon Mobil and JPMorgan Chase. Finally, follow your gut feeling. If your prospective boss lacks confidence and if you're a gunslinger, you're headed for a shootout you can't win. Bullets beat the big monkey only in the movies. If things just don't feel right, the job isn't right for youand won't beno matter how badly you want it or how long you strive to make it right. Source: Adapted from http://ehotelier.com/browse/news_more.php?id=D8354_0_11_0_M, accessed 29 May 2006

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Seven Things to Ask your Prospective Boss During A Job Interview c Work Flow

It's a given that there's too much work and not enough people to turn the wheels. How does your prospective boss assign work, reward performance and grant time off?

d Management Style

Ask your prospective boss to describe his management style. If the answer is nothing but buzzwords and blather, you can bet what he calls management is chaotic and invites inefficiency and inequality.

e Values and Goals

Ask about values and goals to determine if your prospective boss is a rising star or someone sinking deeper into frustration and bitterness. A boss on the downswing will drag you down, make your life miserable and may limit your advancement.

f Toss A Few Curves

Ask a few open-ended questions such as "What makes a good employee?" or "What did you learn from your biggest mistake?" If your prospective boss offers a by-the-numbers response, bet on a rote, top-down managerand keep your job search alive. Never discuss money in the initial interview.


g Turnover

Ask your prospective boss about employee turnover. Why did people leave? Was their departure voluntary or forced? Where did they take new jobs? If turnover is high, what does it says about the company, not to mention the boss?

h Speak to Others

Ask to speak to other employees in the office, especially those at your job level. Keep it informal and watch how they respond as much as you listen to what they say. This will give you an insight into office morale.

i Follow-Up Questions

If the initial response to a query is glib, follow up with a pointed question. If you need more information, or if something isn't clear, ask for clarification. Nail things down to avoid unpleasant surprises about your duties in the future.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/2006/01/11/cx_sr_0112bizbasicslide.html, accessed 29 May 2006

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Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 4 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #6 of 10Understand What Motivates Your Boss


GUIDED READING #6 OF 10 UNDERSTAND WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR BOSS

by Stever Robbins Question What should I do if I'm not allowed to be productive because of my manager's own self-interest? Should I just buckle down and try not to get noticed? Answer Letters from last month's column Productivity Means Working Smarter, Not Longer have been gratifying and surprising. Most unexpected was a theme I heard over and over: My manager won't let me work smart. What do I do? That's a real problem. Let's start by facing realityin larger companies, your personal success doesn't necessarily depend on doing what's best for business. Long-time readers will know your bosses should be setting direction, giving feedback and helping you tap your internal motivationbut most don't. So take charge of yourself, face the reality of organizational life and do what it takes to get your needs met.

You're there for the cash

Why do you go to work? If you're one of the lucky few, your work ignites your passion. It challenges you. It lets you accomplish what you find most worthwhile, serves the community and helps you contribute in a meaningful way. You'd keep working even if you won the lottery. Chances are, that's not you. Even if your job does some of that, you wouldn't do it if it weren't for the paycheck. That's fine. Almost everyone works for the money. So face that. Roll it around in your brain for a few minutes. Repeat after me: At the end of the day, even if you enjoy your job, you're there to get paid. So working smart means working in whatever way gets you paid.


Understand first that

people decide what you get paid

MOTIVATION

Manage your boss real needs

You've heard managers say they'll heap riches on those who do a good job. Ignore their wordswatch their actions. Who do they really reward? Why? Mostly, we reward those who meet our needs, first and foremost. If you know what your managers really want, you can meet their needs while meeting the needs of the business. The late Harvard psychology professor David McClelland had an easy framework you can use.

McClelland said that motivation comes in three flavours: Power Power People want things to happen their way. Affiliation People want to be popular and liked. Achievement Affiliation Achievement People want results. And, were all part power, part affiliation and part achievement. Take Mary. Mary wakes up thinking, "What can I do today?" Her day isn't complete unless she finishes something, preferably working at least a few hours with others. She tells her employees the outcomes she wants and lets them figure out the "how." That makes Mary about 60% achievement, 30% affiliation and 10% power. Interestingly, we are taught that American business is all about achievement, that it's all that matters. When we talk productivity, efficiency and goal-setting, we're swimming in achievement language. We set achievement goals and base bonuses on achievement measures. But guess whatpeople don't actually behave that way, as your letters clearly show. They're also driven by power and affiliation. Working smart means getting results, but even more, it means satisfying your boss's needs for power and affiliation as well.

If your boss wants you to get results, my advice on working smart holds. Get stuff done. Measure what you get done. Discuss the measures with your boss. Do, do, do. Your boss will be thrilled that by working smart, you can get more stuff done in less time. Then go home early and have a life. If your bosses want power, they want things done their way. Like bureaucrats, Power bosses often work this way. Following procedure and doing things the right way is more important than doing the right things. Your job for a Power boss is helping her


Work smart by balancing

all needs

Line up your

compensation

empire-build and/or helping her get things done her way. Be careful, though. Your boss may be bad at figuring out what needs to be done. So, even if shes getting her way, her way just might hurt the business. You often find this power game happening when a new executive arrives to take over the show. They axe old projects and start their own. But if the outgoing exec was doing great, maybe no changes need to be made. To an incoming Power Person, this won't do. They must change things simply to have the organization reflect their desires. An affiliation-oriented boss wants to be homecoming king. He wants to be liked. Your job becomes helping smooth out relationships, being friendly with your boss and helping him manage the people relationships. Emotional intelligence helps you meet the needs of an Affiliation boss. When you hear we're one, big happy family, that's affiliation talking. Affiliation puts relationships first. I like thatrelationships bind organizations together. But affiliation can go too far. Keeping incompetents in powerful positions just because they're friends may honour relationships but tank the company. Even though your boss may not value it as much, make sure the work still gets done so you have someplace to work come next year.

All this comes back to working smart. If you're trying to work smart and your boss says sorting paper clips is more important than crafting a distribution strategy, you need to know what's happening inside your boss' head and find the real motivation. Is your boss usually an achievement junkie? Then maybe she has a real reason paper clips are important. Talk to your boss. Make sure you both understand and agree on priorities, based on what it will take to get the job done. If you have a Power Boss, she may be more concerned with

having you sort paper clips her way than doing your job your way. You need to choose to own the business priorities yourself. Figure out those priorities and ask your boss how you can meet them. Since your boss needs to dictate the how, you choose the right what. The affiliation-oriented boss may have relationship concerns. We can't alienate our existing distributors. They've been with us for years! Joe and I go golfing every Wednesday. Here, you must factor the relationships into account. Approach your boss with a positive attitude and make sure you approach your distribution with the relationship goals in mind as well.

Even though you'll meet your boss' motivational style, you still need to get paid. Socially, we rarely acknowledge power and affiliation goals out loud. Those goals are considered unprofessional, even though they drive so many of us. So you need to frame your job in terms of achievement goals that will get you paid, while making it clear that you'll meet your boss' power and affiliation needs along the way. Trust meas long as you're helping a power-oriented boss expand their empire, you'll be able to find a meeting of the minds about what you need to do to get paid and move ahead.


You cant have it

all

Notice that I've said very little about meeting the organization's needs. That's because only an executive who understands the link between their own needs and the organization's needs will value your attempts to do the right thing for the business. In the final analysis, it isn't between you and the companyit's between you and the people who will promote and pay you. That group consists of more than just your boss. Your boss' boss and other senior managers may be watching. Your Power boss may report to an Achievement executive. If your efforts are visible to the exec, helping your boss achieve in a way that her boss recognizes might be your best strategy.

At this point, you might be thinking that with all this strategizing about satisfying the three needs of management, it will be a miracle if you can juggle it all. Welcome to organizational life. If you have family or community needs, you can toss those into the mix. This balancing act drives some people to self-employment. It was sure a factor when I set out on my own. The bad news is that you can't satisfy your needs, your boss', and your organization's. After all, it's in the organization's best

interest for you to forgo a raise while working an extra ten hours a week. You'll almost certainly need to sacrifice something. But the good news is that it's your choice. Choose wisely. Source: Adapted from http://ehotelier.com/browse/news_more.php?id=D7860_0_11_0_M (Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge), accessed 20 March 2006

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Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 3 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #7 of 10Seven Ways to Be A Better GMToday!


GUIDED READING #7 OF 10 SEVEN WAYS TO BE A BETTER GMTODAY!

by Bruce Wienberg

In my role as Regional Service Manager for Best Western International, I consult with our member hotels on quality assurance and training to help them maximize the value of their affiliation with Best Western and offer the best product they can. I am fortunate to work with over fifty hotels in my region, ranging from small rural limited service mom-and-pop operations, to large 300-plus-room, city centre conference properties (and everything in between)!

When I compare this breadth of experience and diversified operations to when I was a GM at a single property, its amazing what can be learnt. Rather than being focused on one hotel, I now have the unique opportunity to look from the outside at what works and doesnt work, no matter the size or complexity of the hotel operation. There are many traits and techniques to being a better manager, as well as management philosophies (just visit your local bookstore) and a better GM specifically. I want to focus on seven key areas that can help you run a better hotel. Ideally, you should pass this article on to your HoDs and supervisors also, as a large part of your job is to instill these traits in your management and staff. 1. Be Expendable

A hotel runs 24-7-365. Im willing to bet that you cant be there all the time (no matter what you told your owner). So, for everyones sanity, you need to create systems and backup plans for your functions and the functions of your management team. Then put it on paper, into a binder, available for your employees to access if required. Review the binder quarterly with your management team and make revisions. Perhaps a new, capable employee has recently been hired that can be trained to assist.

The real test of a good GM is how well the hotel runs in your absence. Without you there, who is the manager on duty? Do they know what do to, or who to call, if various emergencies happen? What happens if someone is sick? Who takes over then? Planning for these eventualities will make your job less stressful and more productive, knowing that you dont have to always be at the hotel.

2. The Fourth PProcedure

Apart from Price, People and Property, there is a fourth P, the P that ties the first three togetherProcedure. Similar to the first point above, you need to ensure that your entire operation has procedures that can be followed and referred to for all situations. Your operation needs to be set up so that the organization survives any person leavingat any time. Someone else should be able to refer to the procedures and complete any task.


If you have to create the procedures, dont assume you have to reinvent the wheel. Remember that yours in the not the first hotel in the world. By and large, hotels run the same way. So you should be able to take current procedures (perhaps supplied by your head office, your franchise or a fellow hotel) and modify them to suit your property. Best Western, for example, has extensive materials, for all departments, that can be used in this way.

3. Focus on Service

Remember the good old days, where GMs werent asset managers but were glorified hosts? You would hang around the coffee shop or the restaurant (or the bar, at the end of the day!) and greet guests, pour them coffee and just chat about their stay? Tough to do much of that in todays environment. But you can spend 20 to 30 minutes in the morning at your breakfast bar or restaurant, chatting andmore importantlylistening (see #6, below). And be at the front desk as guests are checking out. Find out what they thought about their stay. In the afternoon, try to spend some time at the front desk as guests are checking in. You will be amazed at what you will find out and your guests will be impressed that the General Manager cares enough about their guests to make the time to meet them. Lastly, your staff will see your care and attention to the guests and will emulate your attitude. Remember that your employees and management team are always watching you, taking their cues on how to work from you. Attitude is always top down.

4. Dont Forget the Rooms

Despite the endless paperwork, e-mails, phone calls, etc, remember what your product ishotel rooms. You should know each and every room and the state they are in. Do you inspect rooms every day? You need to, ideally with your Executive Housekeeper and Maintenance Manager. Keep a list of what rooms you inspect so that you do every room at least once per month. If you inspect five rooms per day, you will do 100 in a month. You can then be confident that all the rooms are well maintained and cleaned and can provide instant feedback to your staff on how well (or not) they are doing. Have you taken home your amenities and tried them out? Have you stayed overnight in your hotel to try out the bed? To see how loud the lifts are? Or how loud the ice machine is at 01h00? You need to know what your guest is experiencing to be able to improve your hotel.

Do you visit your competitor hotels? On vacation in another city or country, do spend a few minutes looking at new hotels? As a hospitality professional, you need to be looking for new ideas, ways to make things better, ways to make the guests stay more comfortable and memorable.

5. Be a Coach-Manager, Not a Cop-Manager

Firstly, let me apologize to all of the police officers out theresome are even my friends! To me, a cop is the person who, if following you or watching you, makes you nervous. Think about when you are driving down the highway, doing the speed limit and minding the rules of the road and then a police car pulls up behind you. What do you do? You suddenly slow down, start thinking about every move you make and second-guess your actions. You start looking for the things that you are doing wrong. If you are a cop-manager, this is also the reaction your staff will have when you are around. They will not take chances to create the best guest service experiences possible; they will not try new things; they will not become creative.


They will, however, be very careful of every move they make, so they dont get caught. They will second guess what they do, instead of doing what comes naturally.

A coach-manager, on the other hand, will instill a sense of achievement in his/her staff and that anything is possible by working harder and together as a team. Coach-managers do not want to catch staff doing things wrongthey want to catch staff doing things right. And praising them immediately!

6. Shut Up and Listen

Do you find yourself talking more than listening? Do you jump into conversations and give your opinion before others are finished talking? In todays work environment, good leadership and management is more inclusive than in the past. You need to listen to your staffand your guestsand their ideas, so that a shared vision can be created. Employees that are not listened to will feel devalued, unrecognized and not engaged in the organization. This is one of the main reasons why employees leave a company. And if you arent listening, your team wont feel respected or motivated to perform. In a 24-7 operation like a hotel, thats a recipe for disaster.

So the next time you have a meeting, think to yourself and shut up and listen. Really listen to what is being said. Dont just jump in. Stop talking, show interest, watch the non-verbal cues and dont interrupt. Think about your response before you say it. Remember that as a GM, or manager of any capacity, you are responsible for your words and their results.

7. Think Like the CEO

This section is a short one, because Im going to cheat someone else wrote it! I just finished reading a book called How to Think Like A CEO by D A Benton. The

subtitle says it all: The 22 Vital Traits You Need to Be the Person at the Top. Its an easy read and will instantly give you ideas, tips and techniques you can use

today to make you a better, more effective manager and leader even if you arent oneyet!

Source: Adapted from http://ehotelier.com/browse/news_more.php?id=D8400_0_11_0_M, accessed 29 May 2006

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Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 5 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #8 of 10Give Employees What They WantThe Returns Are Huge


GUIDED READING #8 OF 10 GIVE EMPLOYEES WHAT THEY WANTTHE RETURNS ARE HUGE

by David Sirota

David Sirota, co-author of The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want (Wharton School Publishing), believes far too many managers stifle employee enthusiasm across the board by using bureaucratic or punitive techniques that should be reserved for a troublesome few. Yet his book, written with Louis A Mischkind and Michael Irwin Meltzer, finds that firms where employee morale is highsuch as Intuit and Barron'stend to outperform competitors. The authors' research is based on the results of 2.5 million employee surveys taken since 1994.

For example, out of 28 companies employing 920,000 staff studied by Sirota Consulting, the share price of 14 companiesthose considered to have high moraleincreased an average 16% in 2004. Those prices were then compared to the companies' industry averages, where the increase was just 6%. Six low morale companies saw their prices increase, on average, by 3%, as against an overall industry average of 16%. Industry comparisons were based on data from 9,240 companies. In an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Sirota says managers should rely on common sense principles that allow workers to take pride in their work. He urges them to reject trendy, get-tough tactics that were promoted in the late 1990s, such as trimming staff even in healthy companies in order to improve shareholder value. Knowledge@Wharton: What do employees want? Sirota: We find there are three basic goals of people at work. n o p To be treated fairly A sense of achievement A sense of camaraderie from work n To Be Treated Fairly

We call that equity. Employees want to know they are getting fair pay, or more accurately defined as competitive pay. They want benefits and job security. These days, employees especially need medical benefits, so those have become significant. On the non-financial side, employees want to be treated respectfully, not as children or criminals. Equity is basic. Unless you satisfy those needs, not much else you do is


going to help. If I feel underpaid and if I feel that the company is nickel-and-diming me, or wants to pay as little as possible, there is not much else an organization can do to boost my morale. This runs contrary to what a lot of people in my field saythat pay is not that relevant. Baloney! It's terribly, terribly important.

o A Sense of Achievement from Work

The key element is to be proud of what you do and proud of the organization for which you are doing it. People don't want to work for an organization that's run by a bunch of crooks.

p A Sense of Camaraderie

This is also not mentioned much in our field, but it's keynot only in the sense of having a friend, but working well together as a team. That is a tremendous source of satisfaction for people.

Knowledge@Wharton: Do you see a difference in attitudes among different kinds of employees or organizations? Sirota: We find these three elements are nearly universal. There is all this talk of new generationsfor example, that Generation X does not care about job security. We find absolutely no evidence of that. We find no difference across countries, between men and women or in the new vs the old economy. One reason a lot of these new economy companies imploded is they forgot about basic management. Our research indicates you don't tamper with some of the basics. All this talk about flattening the organization to eliminate hierarchy is nonsense. There are certain traditional management principles that are important and valid. There are also traditional management principles that are very disruptive, like not giving people a say in the way they do their jobs. Knowledge@Wharton: Your research shows most workers are happy at a new job for about six months before the honeymoon ends. What goes wrong? Sirota: We are often asked how to motivate employees. Our response is, that's a silly question. The real question is: How do you keep management from destroying motivation? When we look at the data we find that people coming to a new job are quite enthusiastic. Most of them are very happy to be there and looking forward to meeting their new coworkers. But as you study the data you find morale, or enthusiasm, declines precipitously after five or six months. One theory is that there is a natural honeymoon that is bound to end. And yet we find that in 10% of companies the honeymoon continues throughout a worker's entire career. So there are organizations that are able to maintain enthusiasm. As a general proposition it is hard to be enthusiastic about an organization that is not enthusiastic about you. Let's look at a few specific things. One is job security. We expect employees to be enthusiastic, loyal and engaged in an organization, but with the slightest downturnor even prospective downturnwe get rid of them. They are expendable. They are treated like paperclips. How can you be loyal and committed to an organization that seems to have absolutely no concern about your job?


According to one of the trendiest notions so popular during the booming 1990s, job security is not important to people, particularly young people in high tech, because if they lost a job in tech, they could just walk across the street and get another one. But with the collapse of the high-tech companies, surveys found that job security went to the top of the list. Take a high-morale companySouthwest Airlines. After 9/11 it said: We will take a hit in our stock price and not lay off anybody. That's putting your money where your mouth is. Other things that suppress enthusiasm are obstacles to performance such as insufficient training, poor equipment or findings that fit under the general heading of bureaucracy. These include useless paperwork and the inability to get a decision made or a decision made on time. Conflicts across the organization are another obstacle. Some of the most negative findings were between IT and their internal customers, the employees. [The two sides] often find themselves in a battle. Conflict between functions is debilitating. People don't come to work to fight. Finally, there is the status structure of companies that treat employees as second-class citizens. Consider, for example, the distinction between hourly and salaried workers, as if two different categories of human beings exist. Salaried are professional, the thinking goes, and hourly are the ones you have to watch out for. There are status symbols, such as the parking lot. At large factories in the Midwest, salaried employees have one set of parking spaces and God knows how far away the parking lot is for the hourly workers. The high-morale companies have eliminated a lot of this stuff, which has nothing to do with conducting business. All it does is feed the egos of some people at the expense of the self-esteem of the bulk of the workforce. Knowledge@Wharton: You acknowledge that some employees are allergic to work. How should managers deal with them? Sirota: About 5% of every workforce is allergic to work. These employees are shirkers. But managers in many companies, especially where there are large numbers of blue-collar workers or back-office operations such as call centres, treat the entire workforce as if it is the 5%. They set up rules and punitive measures for taking too long a rest break, etc. There is close supervision, so people who come in wanting to work and hoping to take pride in their work find themselves treated as if they are children or criminals. About 16% of the companies we deal with have a hostile workforce. But the bulk of the problem is not hostility. It is that people have become indifferent. That is the silent killer. There are people who just don't want to work for whatever reason. They become troublemakers and you have to deal with them in a very tough way. You have to focus on them. But you don't then generalize from them to the rest of the workforce. The mistake we make is we feel we have to be consistent, that we have to have the same rules for everybody. So companies are consistent in treating everybody as a child or a criminal. That's very, very destructive.


Knowledge@Wharton: Workers indicate to you that immediate managers are not the problem. Who is? Sirota: The conventional wisdom is that if there is a problem, it occurs on the front line. Our data shows that large percentages of employees are quite positive about their immediate bosses. The biggest problem is not the first level of supervision. It tends to come from the middle. Workers see the problem at the levels above the immediate manager. Staff often consider their own bosses as buffers to middle management. Most workers say, I like my boss. Morale goes down when it comes to middle management, then goes up again at the senior level. The top guy can do no wrong. That's a fairly common response. What workers don't realize is that all the pressure is coming from the top. They are the ones telling the middle what to do. The villain is viewed as middle management, but the real villain is senior management. Knowledge@Wharton: What happens when workers have top managers who are dishonest and greedy? Sirota: The employees at Enron are not only out of a job, but also out of their pensions and IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts). Yet what we find in the analysis of the data and in focus groups is concern not just about the hanky-panky we have seen in the last three or four years, but also about cheating the customer. Employees want to be proud of the quality of the work they and their company do. When I was in the auto industry in the 1970s, the unions and the workers were blamed for poor quality. When we interviewed them, they said they felt terrible about the garbage they were producing. They said all management wanted was to get the cars out the door. Workers have a strong need to feel they have done something and done it well. Knowledge@Wharton: What can managers do to boost enthusiasm? Sirota: First, provide security. Laying off people should be the last resort, not the first thing you do. Some companies use a ring of defense. If the business is having difficulties, they retrain workers or bring work inside from subcontractors. There are a number of steps you can take before laying people off. Second, where there are difficulties in getting work done, we talk about self-managed teams. Toyota, which has been an incredibly successful company, is an example. In the 1970s, Toyota wanted to know how to enrich the job of assembly workers and thought about having groups of employees build an entire car. But that would have been so inefficient. Toyota said instead it could have a team of workers manage part of the assembly line. The team could look at quality and at what kind of maintenance and support were needed and it could decide how to rotate workers. As opposed to the usual top-down management, this approach is tremendously satisfying for workers, reducing the need for bureaucracy because the people essentially are managing themselves. Recognition is also important. Employees do not have to be told that you love them, but you want to be appreciative of good work. It sounds very corny, but people are corny. People need this kind of feedback. A lot of rewards don't work, including the employee-of-


the-month one. Organization-wide awards should be like the Nobel Prize, where peers are involved in the selection of the individuals who receive the award for outstanding achievement, not day-to-day work. Some things are so basic it's embarrassing to talk about, but in many focus groups, workerswhen evaluating managementwill say, He comes in and he doesn't even say hello to me. That's the kind of comment we get. As for systems, we find the traditional merit pay systems with an appraisal and pay increase are quite negative. Workers feel no relation between what they do and their pay increase. A reward has to be felt as a reward. Research has verified a system such as gain sharing in which a group of workers judges its performance over time. If productivity goes up 20% and the workforce increases 10%, then that means there is greater efficiency. That result should be shared with the workers 50% and management 50%. This has a tremendous impact on productivity and morale. Knowledge@Wharton: All of these recommendations seem so soft-hearted. Are you ever criticized for being nave? Sirota: Yes, all the time, mostly by hard-line managers and human resource managers. They are cynical about workers. But there are managers and CEOs who look at this and really run with it. They tend to be optimists and give people the benefit of the doubt. Knowledge@wharton: Given the evidence, why do managers continue to choke off enthusiasm? Sirota: What I think happened is that in the 1980s and 1990s we had a reaction to particular forms of management. We talk about four kinds: 1. First, there is paternalism, where workers are treated as children 2. Then there is adversarial where workers are the enemy 3. Then there is transactional, where workers are like ciphers

Management does not know what they are like as individuals The attitude is, We paid you, now we are even. We don't owe you anything. That's where most companies have gone todayloyalty is dead

4. The fourth is what we have been talking aboutthe partnership organization It does not mean that because I paid you, we are now even You don't treat partners that way because you might need them to help you out

sometime, and they might need you It's more like a relationship between mature adultsnot like children or enemies, but

allies Source: Adapted from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1188.cfm, accessed 9 January 2006

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Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 4 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #9 of 10Clash of the TitansWhen Top Executives Dont Get Along with the Team


GUIDED READING #9 OF 10 CLASH OF THE TITANS

WHEN TOP EXECUTIVES DONT GET ALONG WITH THE TEAM

Testifying in a Delaware court last month, Stanley P Gold, a former Walt Disney Company director, joined a long list of company executives who had dirty laundry to air regarding the 1995 hiring of Michael Ovitz as Disney's President and his subsequent firing in 1996. Gold and others detailed how Ovitz had clashed with Disney CEO Michael Eisner and other executives, how he had tried to cut deals the company didn't want and how he had failed to fit into the Disney culture. The

situation eventually deteriorated to the point where the only way to refocus the company and end the disputes, said Gold, was to fire Ovitz. This was two big volatile egos banging against each other and they just didn't get along, Gold testified, referring to Eisner and Ovitz. Terminating Ovitz, the once-mighty talent agent, just 14 months after hiring him cost the company a $140 million severance package, not to mention ensuing legal fees and distractions brought on by a shareholder suit against the company's board for failing to properly scrutinize Ovitz's contract. The severity of the clash at Disney is unique, says Michael Useem, Head of Wharton's Centre for Leadership and Change Management. At that level, the executive search firms and internal company procedures are so exacting that it would be unlikely such different styles would enter a top executive suite. Having said that, executives do come in and sometimes they just don't work out with those who are already there. The dysfunctional Disney team may have been an aberrationboth in scale and cost. Yet while the Eisner-Ovitz scenario presents an extreme case, it contains all the elements of what companies seeking to build successful management teams should avoid. The Root of Executive Team Clashes Other major companies over the past decade have had their share of dysfunctional executive teams, says Useem. He cites AT&T's hiring and firing in the mid-1990s of John Walters as CEO Robert Allen's heir apparent. Walters lasted just nine months on the job, most of which was spent butting heads with Allen and his closest allies. When companies face the awkward situation of having two people on one team mired in bitter dispute, they normally chalk up the tension to a personality clash. There is a tendency, according to management experts, to think that personality is the cause of organizational discord rather than perhaps an effect of it.


For example, Ben Dattner, an associate at Dattner Consulting executive coaching firm, believes that personality conflict might be a symptom of a larger organizational issue. When I work with my clients, I often try to get them to see how it is not just a conflict between two people. I try to get them to see that it is also potentially a conflict between two visions, two agendas, two constituencies or two visions for the future. Dattner adds, however, that there is a reciprocal relationship: If trust breaks down and people do not collaborate as conflicts begin to emerge, the tension can take on a life of its own and spill into the personal realm. Peter Cappelli, Director of Wharton's Centre for Human Resources, believes that when such personal animosity stalls a company's performance, the leadership is usually to blame. In many ways it is the failure of the leadership to get disparate people to work together. The leadership has not offered the right kind of incentives ... to [encourage] people to play along and get things done. Cappelli maintains that team members don't need to like each other personally to be effective, but they do need to be working toward a common goal. Internal battles, he says, are linked to clashing priorities as each team member pushes his or her separate agenda. This is common in organizations where the leadership has failed to articulate its goals. A common problem in an organization is that it is rewarding something different than it says it is. For example, the overall goal of this organization might be to maximize shareholder value. But then when you look at how people get promoted, they get promoted by meeting their own targets rather than contributing to the overall organization's targets. Adding to the tensions caused by murky goals is an unclear leadership hierarchy, says Wharton Management Professor Katherine J Klein. When one person is clearly in power and the other is not, these matters can be solved relatively easily, says Klein referring to a boss and subordinate. But when you have two people on the team who share power, it further complicates matters. In such cases, management needs to delineate the line of power even if it means the person who loses clout eventually leaves the organization. Executive Coaching A growing number of companies are hiring coaches to teach executives and management teams to overcome internal rivalries, conflicts and personality clashes. The phenomenon has been around since the 1950s but faded until the past decade. Previously, coaching was seen as a way of overcoming problems at work and receiving acceptable psychological counselling. Now coaching is common enough that it is almost expectedespecially as organizations have trimmed down or eliminated the divisions that offered such developmental programmes. Most companies don't have time or a systematic way of guiding their management teams in a sophisticated way, says Cappelli. So they hire coaches to help people figure out what is going on in their job and what they ought to be doing. Dattner, an executive coach based in New York City, says that when he is asked to intervene he first tries to find out the real causes of the conflict. To what extent is it different divisions, different strategies or different agendas? Then you bring this to the attention of your clients so maybe they will stop taking things so personally or at least realize that their conflict is representative of larger organizational issues, says Dattner. When people realize that such issues are at play, they can take things less personally.


Dattner tries to re-establish trust between the team members even if they continue to dislike each other. It is important for them to trust and respect each other, but liking the other person is not a necessary ingredient for an effective team. Maggie Craddock, President of Workplace Relationships, a New York-based executive coaching firm, notes that there are times when the management team might be better off shedding a few of its members to bring back a unified vision or goal. This includes situations where trust has broken down beyond repair or where some people with strong personalities have refused to acknowledge the need to change. While coaching to repair or build relationships on management teams at an early stage is wise, Useem notes that executives such as Jack Welch and Louis Gerstner have said their only regrets as managers have been taking too long to drop someone from a team as opposed to doing it quickly. This is not a damning of the individual, but a realization that there is a poor fit between the executive and the rest of the management team, says Useem. Many people get fired and go on to do great things elsewhere. Cappelli, however, believes that breaking up a team is rarely the solution, especially if you have a group of people who are competent and who have the right skills. If you are effectively managing the team from above, then you shouldn't really have to rotate people out. And if you do rotate people out, there is absolutely no reason to think that the new group of people is going to be any different. Getting It Right in the First Place Teams in which people have worked together for a long time eventually face the reality of needing to bring a new person on board. Such teams, however, have developed specific cultural norms and values, according to Klein. These norms vary from how team members dress and how they communicate with each other to whether meetings start on time or as people trickle in. Whenever you bring someone brand new onto a team, says Klein, unless they come in resigned to just conform or unless current management is truly seeking a change of culture, there is a tremendous potential for conflict. The potential for trouble is even stronger in smaller firms that might have only a dozen employees with just one or two personalities controlling the culture, she adds. The first step is often the hardest in building an efficient team. Management experts believe that most executives simply do not have the judgment or insight to hire effectively. During the interview process, the hiring executives often latch on to particular qualities that they like in a person and are willing to overlook other telling traits that signal the candidate will simply not fit in. Everyone thinks they can tell who is going to be good, but they tend to be biased toward people who are like them, who look like them and who have similar experiences, says Cappelli. The predictive validity of these kinds of interviews is pretty much zero. Often, the hiring executives are busier making themselves look good during an interview then getting to know a candidate. They boast that their company has a particular culture, but often this is simply an aspiration. My experience is that people at the top often have very little sense of what their company's culture really is, says Cappelli. The organizational culture


is about the informal ruleshow things get done regardless of what the corporate credo says. In this respect, the top executives are often insulated from how things really work. Executives frequently will talk about wanting to bring in fresh bloodto change course dramatically. This will be great, they think, says Klein, but be careful what you wish for. In this case, the hiring executives may assume that they know what that new vision or course of action is, adds Klein. If they find that their assumptions were wrong, they are likely to become frustrated and even angry. The more astute executive search firms are skilled at peeling away a hiring company's layers of wishful thinking. Management experts recommend that companies hire executive search firms that begin by uncovering the underlying company culture. The search firms should also clarify the exact role the hiring company wants a potential candidate to play and articulate the company's goals, vision and strategy. Most candidates will have all the required technical strengths, says Joseph Griesedieck, Vice Chairman and Head of global CEO practice at executive search firm Korn/Ferry International. The difficult part is to assess whether the person truly fits a company's culture and whether they share a vision and philosophy. That does not mean looking for someone who is malleable, Griesedieck adds. You want someone who has the strength to stand up and say, 'I think this is not right,' but in a constructive way. Klein notes that the ideal candidate will bring both vision and an ability to work on a team, although finding such a prospective executive requires some digging. It makes sense to look at people's past accomplishments and history to see if they have shown visionary leadership and if they have a similar vision for your business, says Klein. The second part of the puzzle is to uncover their experience working on a team. Have they worked in a team setting with people who disagree with them? Has this person worked in a team setting where he or she didn't hire all the members of the team to be 'Yes men' and "Yes women'? Disney and Eisner blundered on almost all counts. After all, Eisner personally hired his good friend Ovitz, bypassing standard executive hiring procedures. In making the hire, Eisner had no clear goals for his new president. There was also a power struggle from the very beginning as other Disney executives refused to report to Ovitz. Finally, the former talent agent's extravagant spending clashed with Disney's more frugal culture. Each clash was a recipe for management disaster. Losing an executive is a very expensive proposition, says Griesedieck. Not just in terms of the money spent on executive search firms, but the opportunity cost and the time spent trying to make the relationship work. A lesson Disney learned the hard way. Source: Adapted from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1107, accessed 24 March 2005

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Lausanne Executive EducationSummer Programme 2006 26h Consecutive Year Page 1 of 3 Motivation R Teamwork, Guided Reading #10 of 10Starbucks Is Pleasing Employees and Pouring Profits


GUIDED READING #10 OF 10 STARBUCKS IS PLEASING EMPLOYEES AND POURING PROFITS

by Maryann Hammers Caffeine addicts aren't the only fans of Starbucks, a corporate legend that serves up warm fuzzies with its cold frappuccinos. The company's rich benefit blend keeps turnover low and employee satisfaction high. And that's why it's the Optimas Award winner for Quality of Life.

Quality of Life

Theres something comforting and classy about Starbucks. Its not just the enticing aromas and blues tunes wafting through the air, the handsome surroundings or the likelihood of running into a friend or neighbour. Its more the way the baristas (never called "counter help") greet people, perhaps offering a blueberry scone sample, or remembering a customers preference for non-fat soy latte with extra foam. Starbucks attracts a near-cult following, serving 25 million drinks a week at nearly 7,000 locations worldwide. In a four-week period ending in August, the companywhich is growing by three to four stores a dayreported net revenues of $335 million, an increase of 26% over the same period last year. The Seattle-based

99 guided reading, motivation & teamwork--10 articles

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