INSIDE:PREPARING FOR YOUR PERFORMANCE
REVIEW
July 2015
ELITE
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT FOR LEADERS
HOW TO SURVIVE YOUR FIRST WEEK AS A LEADER
ARE YOU A BOSS OR A LEADER?
MANAGING ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
HOW TO DEAL WITH COMPLAINTS
WHY DO GOOD PEOPLE TURN INTO BAD BOSSES?
CONTENTS 3 ARE YOU A BOSS OR A
13 WHY DO GOOD
Leadership is the new currency for success and if you do not have it then your team will struggle to reach its potential. An inspired team with a shared vision will always outperform a team that is working because they have to.
An unfortunate fact about a lot of people’s working life is that they have a bad boss. The kind of boss that demoralises instead of inspires, but was this bad boss always like this?
LEADER?
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5 HOW TO DEAL EITH COMPLAINTS
Research from the Direct Selling Education Foundation shows that for every single person that sends a formal complaint to your companies Manager there are 1,300 people who will hear about it.
8 HOW TO SURVIVE
YOUR FIRST WEEK AS A LEADER You are now the new Team Leader. After the hugs and high-fives the focus switches from celebration to the harsh cold reality of what’s ahead of you.
12 QUOTES OF THE MONTH
PEOPLE TURN INTO BAD BOSSES?
17 PREPARING FOR
YOUR PERFORMANCE REVIEW Here are a few key points to remember when preparing for your performance review.
20 MANAGING
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE In order for a company to succeed it needs to be willing to change what it is doing now in order to deliver what it needs in the future. Evolution is the key to any successful organisation.
23 DEVELOPING
LEADERS OF SMALL TEAMS
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EDITOR Mark Wager mark@EliteLD.co.nz
ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES sales@EliteLD.co.nz
COACHING ENQUIRIES coaching@EliteLD.co.nz
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Welcome to Elite Leadership Development Magazine
The best part of my job is the opportunity to meet quality leaders. Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Louisa Wall MP, who was instrumental in making same-sex marriages legal in New Zealand. At the time the thirteenth country in the world to do so. The interview was only meant to last fifteen minutes but we spent nearly an hour discussing a range of topics. I had hoped that the interview would be ready for this edition but due to the length of the interview it will have to be in a later edition. I'm currently due to meet the CEO's from Sky City and Vodafone. If there's anyone else that you feel I should interview feel free to let me know via email or Twitter. I'm honoured to be listed as one for the top hundred leadership experts to follow on Twitter, well according to Evan Carmichael who has been compiling stats I'm listed as 58th. Twitter is a great platform to interact and share ideas with fellow leaders worldwide. Look me up at mark_wager and let's share some tweets. Next month will be a leadership sports special with leadership lessons from such people as Jose Mourinho, Lionel Messi and from the All Blacks team. Until then have a great month and let me know what you think of this edition. Thanks, Mark
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Are You A Boss Or A Leader? By Mark Wager A survey in New Zealand showed that many people believe that their boss is not a leader. The survey showed that 26% of people believe that their boss is a poor leader and 49% of people rate their boss as fair or poor. It's not because of a lack of effort because in the same survey 58% of bosses were perceived to be extremely hardworking by their staff and 83% as extremely or quite hardworking. According to the survey workplaces have hardworking bosses but not many good leaders. So the question is which one are you, a leader to a boss? The first question is why does it matter? Leadership is the new currency for success and if you do not have it then your team will struggle to reach its potential. An inspired team with a shared vision will always outperform a team that is working because they have to. Many years ago there was a race to produce the world's leading on-line encyclopaedia. At the forefront was Microsoft who had everything that every team could wish for in order to succeed. They had money, they had
resources and they had the best project managers that money could buy but in the end they failed. The encyclopaedia that succeeded had little or no money and had nothing but volunteers and all they shared was the same vision. This was enough for Wikipedia to be today the world's largest on-line encyclopaedia. No matter what salaries you pay and how well written your project plan is, their effectiveness will always come second to quality leadership.
"Leadership is the new currency for success in business"
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If you are still not convinced that leaders are the currency for success in business then here is further proof. The National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States released a study entitled The Value of Bosses by Edward Lazear, Kathryn Shaw and Christopher Stanton. In a study of 23,878 employees and 1,940 Managers, they found that there was a big difference in productivity between people who were led by Managers who were good leaders and those who weren't good leaders. Teams led by good leaders were 10% more productive. Leadership is the new currency for success in business People follow a boss because they have to, it's their job yet people follow a leader out of choice. A boss manages people and resources in order to achieve an objective while the focus of the leader is the empowerment of the individuals and the alignment of personal ambitions to the team's vision. If you are not sure whether you are a boss or a leader, take a minute to answer the following questions. Think about your relationship with each member of the team and answer either yes or no.
⭐ Within the last week have you had a conversation about something not connected to work? ⭐ Do you know their personal ambition? ⭐ Have you praised them directly within the last 24 hours? ⭐ Within the past 48 hours have you told them one thing that they need to do better? ⭐ Are they working to their full potential? ⭐ Do they tell you when they are not happy? ⭐ Do you know who is their best friend at work? If you answered yes to each question then you are most likely a leader rather than a boss yet if you answered no to any of them then you are a Boss and you will need to reflect on how you interact and motivate your team. If you don't you and your team will struggle to fulfil your potential.
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How To Deal With Complaints By Mark Wager
Dealing with complaints effectively is a complex topic but I wanted to write this article in order to give you a brief overview of the VALUE model that I use in my workshops. V is for volume A is for acknowledgement L is for listening U is for understanding E is for execution Volume When dealing with a complaint you need to be fully aware of the extent of the complaint. Research from the Direct Selling Education Foundation shows that for every single person that sends a formal complaint to your Company Manager there are 25
customers who are equally unhappy but have decided not to formally complain. To make matters worse those twenty five unhappy customers tell on average ten people about their experience, making 260 people aware of the problem. It doesn’t stop there as those 260 people will each in turn tell another 5 people about what they heard. This means that for every complaint that you receive 1,300 people will hear about it. Acknowledgement When receiving a complaint you need to acknowledge the emotion without necessarily agreeing with the rationale behind the
emotion. Use phrases such as “It sounds like you are very frustrated/angry about…” “You seem to be…” this helps diffuse the emotion in the complainant as you’ve demonstrated you have understood or are trying to understand how they are feeling. For you, the person dealing with the complaint, this can also help you remove emotion from the discussion as receiving complaints can be taken personally and it’s a common reaction to approach situations with a win/lose attitude. Eg: “I will show them that I’m right" approach rather than seeking a more mutually beneficial win/win outcome.
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Listening
Understanding
In many complaint conversations the message that is being delivered is interpreted in different ways by the listener. We all send and receive messages in different ways so it's easy to understand why miscommunication can easily happen. In complaint situations poor listening skills can escalate the situation and make things worse. Ensure you are giving the complaint your full attention. Keep eye contact and acknowledge what is being said, try to remove obstacles between you such as desks etc and ideally sit down together. It's much more difficult to lose your temper when you are sitting.
The chances are that the person who is making the complaint has already played out the discussion with you in their mind prior to meeting with you and what do you think the chances are that the imaginary discussion with you went well. People tend to think the worst and that the dissatisfaction they are enduring was either due to a purposeful action or incompetence. You need to ensure that not only you understand the issues but that the complainant knows that you understand the issues as well. Summarise by using phrases such as “What you are saying is..” “just to confirm my understanding, the key issues for you are..” Control the conversation by summarising and asking questions. Execution Once you have understood the issues you need to decide on a course of action that will achieve three things. Firstly turn the complainant into a valued future client. Second, stop the problem being discussed with 1300 people by turning the complaint around to a positive experience by offering a solution that meets and exceeds the customer's expectations. Finally, to stop spending any more time on this issue in future with other customers take steps necessary to prevent recurrence of the same complaint.
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How To Survive Your First Week As A Leader By Mark Wager
You’ve got the news that you’ve been waiting for. The panel was so impressed with what you had to say at the interview that you’ve just been informed the job is yours. Congratulations! You are now the new Team Leader. After the hugs and high-fives the focus switches from celebration to the harsh cold reality of what’s ahead of you. You are now managing people who present many challenges but what is even more
challenging, you have to lead them. You are now responsible for creating a motivating and engaging environment for people to work within. How do you go about doing this? Where do you start?
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I’ve been a Manager for nearly twenty five years, starting in retail as a teenager and then moving to London to become a Broker Sales Manager in my twenties and I worked in senior managerial roles in the public service in my thirties. Today I have my own businesses specialising in sharing my experiences in order to develop leaders. Let me share a few tips on what you need to do when you first take over a team. ⭐ Tip One: Share your philosophy Widely regarded as the best football manager in the world, Jose Mourinho usually does the same thing whenever he starts a new role. He sends an open letter to his new team detailing his philosophy of leadership. In summary he explains his belief that success is a collective endeavour and each individual's ambition must connect to the team’s ambition or goal. He stresses his commitment to be fair but warns everyone that the decisions he makes will be in the best interest of the wider organisation. Finally he commits to making the team members the best they can be if and only if they commit to his way of working. Every leader has a philosophy but in most cases the team only tends to find out about that philosophy through the leaders actions. When you start with a team make it clear at the outset what you are about. Let everyone know what leadership means to you. In this way your team doesn’t have to guess.
⭐ Tip Two: Identify personal ambitions The next stage is to meet with your new team members individually. This is a fact finding process and a good opportunity to learn about the history and current environment that you are entering into. Most leaders miss the number one thing you want to take away from these meetings. You need to identify each and every person’s personal ambition so that you can attempt to align that ambition to the team’s objectives. Think of this as finding the code that will unlock commitment within each individual. There are many articles published on motivation and I should know this as I’ve written quite a few myself. Fundamentally, high levels of commitment eventuate when your team believes unconditionally that working for you will help take them to progress towards where they want to be. The truth is that people will work hard to benefit other people but will work with sweat, blood and tears to benefit themselves.
"Success is a collective endeavour and each individual's ambition must connect to the team’s ambition or goal."
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⭐ Tip Three: Set down a standard of performance In order to be effective the team needs to be fully aware of the expectations placed upon them in terms of behaviour. This is an interesting area and many leaders I’ve met tend to either spend too much time on this or too little both of which end up with negative consequences. Getting the balance right is vital. Some leaders come to a new team and expect that everyone shares the same values and work ethic. “I don’t need to tell them what to do they are all adults” Soon behaviours occur which do not fit within the leader’s expectations and time is spent addressing those behaviours. On the opposite end of the scale I’ve seen leaders dictate in great detail what everyone needs to do. "I’m just doing it so that there’s no confusion” the fine detailing of every aspect of work removes the independence that team members value and undermines the perception of their worth to the team. Invest time in setting down simple expectations of what behaviours you
expect without detailing every single action. A tip is to focus on behaviours rather than outcomes. Keep the outcomes as a team based focus. Consider including the team in establishing these expectations. In my experience leaders have been surprised by the results that their team comes up with. In many cases it’s a higher standard than the leader was originally going to set. In my experience of forming new teams the nature of industry never seemed to impact how I approached setting up a team. Whether it was setting up a shoe shop in Birmingham or creating a new sales team in a finance house in London or even setting up a new Government Department in New Zealand , I've learnt that people are people. Be honest, be upfront and be visible and you won't go wrong. Now it's your turn to become an inspirational leader.
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Why Do Good People Turn Into Bad Bosses? By Mark Wager
An unfortunate fact about many people’s working life is that they have a bad boss. The kind of boss that demoralises instead of inspires. You dread trying anything in case you make a mistake because you know how your boss will react, but was this bad boss always like this and was he or she even aware that they were being perceived as a bad boss? In the beginning I have never met anyone who set out to be a bad boss. People start their managerial careers with the mindset of being a good boss but along the way things go bad. There are many reasons for this many of which are actually in place before the boss has even started their first day of work, reasons include:
Reason one: Poor recruitment The cost of recruiting the wrong person for the role is huge yet companies still overlook the importance of spending time on recruitment. To often I see people automatically recruited from within when there are better alternatives in the marketplace or just settling for someone who they think will be “ok”. If you recruit then look for great because in the end you will find that ok is not good enough.
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Reason two: Prioritising technical skills over people skills
and the nature of their leadership capability. The dark side of leadership Reason three: Poor selfawareness
The majority of my clients that I offer leadership mentoring services for are people who were promoted into managerial roles solely because of their technical expertise and now find themselves in a position that requires a significant amount of people skills, something that they haven’t had experience with and received no training for. Leadership can be learnt but it takes time and commitment. Despite these common mistakes the main reason why bosses get unpopular is nothing to do with recruitment; it’s actually to do with their personality
Leadership is about influencing people in order to achieve a common objective. Leaders influence via their skills and behaviours. How they react to every situation and how they communicate regardless of whether the actions are intentional or not still create influence. The key to leadership is selfawareness, knowing how you react to situations and how your actions are being interpreted by those around you. While selfawareness is the key to leadership the key to selfawareness is the
management of the ego and it is in this management that you find the core reason why good leaders turn bad. Your ego is your conscious mind, the part of your mind that you consider to be your “self.” It's your own perception of your “self” and can be influenced by how people interact with you and if you are in a leadership role, particularly if that role has a lot of autonomy you have to be careful how your role and people influence your ego. Leaders can often fall into some common pitfalls many of which can turn a good leader into a bad leader.
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Reason four: Thinking they are more important than they actually are
Leaders can often mistake the responsibility that comes with their position title with the influence that comes from their role as a leader. A leader isn’t always the most important member of the team, they don’t always have to lead from the front and they are not always right. Good leaders become bad leaders when they start thinking they are more important than everyone else in the team Reason five: Thinking they are more intelligent than they actually are
A leader doesn’t have to be a subject matter expert on everything. A quality leader utilises the experience and knowledge of the team in order to reach the correct decisions. There will be
times that a leader will have to make a decision that everyone else disagrees with but this should be a rare occasion. The chances that a leader knows the answer to everything is astronomical. If they did then they would be too smart to be working for someone else. Good leaders become bad leaders when they believe they are more intelligent than anyone else. They are not. They just have a different skill set that’s all. It’s common to see people with good intentions become bad bosses.This scenario can be easily avoided with some simple development. You may ask yourself, "why does this happen,why don’t new boss get the leadership training that they need?" You think logically why don't the boss's boss invest time and money to provide the skills and support that the boss desperately requires since it's cheaper and easier to invest in people rather than incur the cost of replacing people? Sadly, the answer is the final reason why good people become bad bosses.
Reason six: They themselves report to a bad boss.
So if you have a bad boss then console yourself with the thought that despite how frustrated you are with them as a boss, the chances are they are themselves reporting to a boss that’s just as bad or perhaps worse. All of us at some time experienced life with a bad boss and there's going to be some of you reading this knowing that the next time you walk into your place of work you know that your enjoyment level will be dictated by the mood of your boss but it doesn't have to be that way. Your boss may dictate how you work but they can't dictate how you feel. You and only you have control over how you feel, take control over this emotion and you will take away the control that your bad boss has over you.
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Preparing For Your Performance Review By Mark Wager
It doesn't matter if you are the person who opens the mail in the morning or the person who signs off the cheques the chances are if you are drawing a salary then you have a boss, and if you have a boss then every year performance reviews come around, that time that you have to spend some time with your boss in order to hear what they think of your performance. If you are like most people then not only do you dislike participating in this process but actually dread it. You may well be comfortable talking to your boss every day but mention "performance review” and apprehension starts to sink in. It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact
performance reviews can be a very positive experience. Here are a few key points to remember when preparing for your performance review.
“Do not underestimate the value of what you bring to the job even if it can’t be easily measured."
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⭐ Your Boss is likely to be more nervous than you. A leader encourages discussion with their team while a Manager tolerates it. In my experience the only person who dreads performance review meetings more than you is usually your Manager who is assigned to do your performance review. A lot of managers are nervous about talking to someone about their performance. They are concerned about upsetting someone, maybe their comments may cause an argument and they may get it wrong and demoralise you unnecessarily and to be honest some managers just don’t like the amount of work that comes with performance reviews. Trust me I’ve trained hundreds of managers so I know a lot of the time your Boss will be dreading your performance review more than you.
⭐ Numbers don’t tell the whole story Poor attitude will cost you far more money than what any talent will earn you. Even if you are in a job which has a high amount of measurable outcomes such as sales, don’t forget that numbers only tell part of the story. Every successful person needs to demonstrate certain behaviours and usually those behaviours will result in measurable success stories but not always. You can have someone who has produced good measurable work but has a terrible attitude which has a detrimental impact on the wider team. Behaviours are not so easy to measure so managers often shy away from such discussions but behaviours are extremely important and just one member of a team with a bad attitude can cost an organisation thousands of dollars in lost productivity. Get your behaviours right and success will come. Do not underestimate the value of what you bring to the job even if it can’t be easily measured.
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⭐ You are the final judge You are not your job, this only forms part of who you are and what you are capable of The important lesson to take away from this article is that even though performance reviews are important and hearing another person’s opinion on your performance can be vital, it’s just an opinion. At the end of the day you and only you have to judge your performance and your opinion will be more important than anything else anyone will say about you. It’s your opinion of your own performance that will determine the key decisions in your life such as whether to stay in a job or not, what career path should you follow and remember these are life changing decisions and should only be made by one person and that person is you. ⭐ Perception is reality The impression you are portraying will always be different to what people see The challenge is to evaluate which feedback to take on board and which to disregard. It’s easy to only listen to positive comments and just ignore the negative ones but this will be a mistake. I often hear people say I do not agree with that feedback when presented with an opinion of how someone perceives them. Just think about that statement for a moment someone is disagreeing with someone else’s perception. But how can they disagree that someone thinks a certain way? They can’t. What they disagree with is that the perception is not true, it’s not reality but we are all different with different backgrounds, education, life experience and views about the world. No matter what you do people will form perceptions about you.
Some you will agree with and some you won’t but the simple fact that someone perceives something they will react as if its reality. If someone perceives you as unfriendly then they will react accordingly. The perception becomes the reality. In fact you may be the most sociable person around but something has occurred which has led to this impression. Take feedback on board and recognise that no matter what impression you think you may be giving out; the reality may be something quite different. So when your Boss tells you that your performance review is coming up then remember the points above, be confident, listen to what is said and ask questions. Enquire as to why your Boss has made that judgement. Make a decision on what feedback to accept and what to reject based on a logical conclusion rather than just what makes you feel good. Accept that there will be the occasional differences in opinion and don’t dismiss other people’s perception as out of hand. Instead, ask what have you done to contribute to that person’s impression. Think of performance reviews for what they are, a learning opportunity, an opportunity to learn about your workplace, your boss and most importantly an opportunity to learn about yourself. Once you are in control of your own self and how people perceive you only then will you be in a position to influence people around you and shape your destiny as a leader.
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Managing Organisational Change By Mark Wager
“The only thing that is constant is change” – Heraclitus In order for a company to succeed it needs to be willing to change what it is doing now in order to deliver what it needs in the future. Evolution is the key to any successful organisation. The change is sometimes a cultural change in which values, attitudes and behaviours need to change or more commonly, especially in tough financial times, restructuring is required. This involves reporting lines and positions being reevaluated and changed. An understanding that what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow is essential for any ambitious organisation. Change needs to occur and without a doubt, the issue is how a leader manages the change process. The “how” the change occurs is almost as important as the “why” and if managed incorrectly you can undo the level of employee engagement you have which negates any benefit that will come from a new organisational structure.
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What is the danger? An organisational change process hits right at the heart of the factors that positively influence employee engagement, significance and empowerment. Employees are connected to an organisation when they feel valued enough to feel a satisfactory level of significance in their role and they feel empowered enough to perform their role at a high level. During a change process it’s common for people to feel undervalued and powerless. If not addressed correctly this can disengage people which results in less productivity. Where is the danger? Change processes often fail before they begin due to poor communication which results in low engagement in two key areas, the people managers and the people influencers. The people managers are obviously the middle to low level managers in the organisation who have responsibility for people, they are your formal influencers. The majority of your communication to your ground level staff will come via these people. If this layer is not engaged then the message will be distorted and unlikely to succeed. An often overlooked important area is the role of the people influencers. These are the employees who do not have managerial positions but have the ability to influence those around them. These people informally influence large groups of employees due to their level of knowledge which comes from their length of service and/or their technical expertise or relationships. Regardless of who they are, these are the people that organisations need on their side in order to successfully implement change. How to avoid the danger A successful change process, one in which change is not only implemented but is lasting without any loss of employee engagement, occurs when two important factors are established, urgency and hope. When people consider change they subconsciously consider two questions. Firstly, what's the reason to change and secondly what's the reasons to try. In order to succeed people need a level of urgency to change and a level of hope in order to try. Instil the urgency Complacency is the enemy of change. I've seen it happen when an organisation is so concerned about worrying staff that they underplay the desperate need for change to such a degree that complacency sets in. If your back is against the wall then make sure people are aware of this. Create in them a strong sense of urgency and ensure they are on your side. You will often find that the bigger the challenge the bigger the enthusiasm that can be generated as long as you have the important component of hope.
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Install hope People need to know why the change will lead to success both on a high-level concept and the ground level detail. Studies have shown that communication to groups is more effective when starting with the conceptual explanation first and then leading into the detail. A good tip is to include an example of how the new way of working impacts people both customers and staff. Ensure your vision gives people a reason to believe. Evolving an organisation is vital to compete in an ever changing world. In order to change you need to be aware of the dangers that will be present. Establish your communication and focus on your influencers both formal and informal. Give your people a realistic honest sense of the urgency for the change and the hope that the future state you desire is not only better than today but also a realistic possibility. "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F Kennedy
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Developing Leaders Of Small Teams By Mark Wager Leadership is about inspiring people and that can happen regardless of the size of the team that you have responsibility for. You can inspire people if you are a CEO of a large organisation of thousands of people just as easily as if you lead a small team of 3-5 people. It's a different type of leadership. There’s a different emphasis on skills depending on your position and size of the team and effective leadership requires a different approach.
thinking the problem is with other people rather than with themselves. Awareness of how you react to situations and how people perceive your reactions is the key element of leadership.
I work with leaders of small teams to develop their leadership skills which in turn improves the motivation of their team, their productively and ultimately the profits of their business. In this article I will highlight some of the key development areas that leaders of small teams require. ⭐ Development area: Awareness If you are unlucky you could find yourself with a team that doesn’t feel comfortable bringing to your attention areas that you need to develop. In large organisations you may well be part of a chain of Managers where behaviours are often reviewed and observed. None of us are perfect and it’s easy for poor behaviours to creep in if we are not aware of them. I’ve trained leaders who fall into a trap of
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⭐ Development area: Communication When I develop communication skills of leaders who have the responsibility of leading large organisations the time they spent with each member of staff is limited. This means a lot of communication is directly from emails or via layers of management so a lot of development is focused on structuring emails and emphasising key messages to be fed down. With small businesses, emails to your team needs to be minimal. Small business leaders' key development communication areas are face to face communication and body language. ⭐ Development area: Motivation People often fall into the trap of believing that motivation is a simple issue of providing financial rewards. Motivation is far more complex than that, everyone has a lock that keeps their commitment in check and a knowledge of motivation will give you the ability to unlock everyone's code. Money will always be important but if you want to be a motivating leader focus more on aligning peoples personal ambition to your businesses vision.
perceive the world differently that enables leaders to make teams understand each other better and become more effective. ⭐ Development area: Conflict management The most commonly requested topic when I'm delivering leadership coaching is conflict management. A lot of leaders try to avoid conflict when in fact conflict is an essential element of every relationship. Conflict if managed correctly is a catalyst for improvement. I've been involved with teams for twenty five years and the one ingredient that every successful team I have ever witnessed is the ability to have honest open conversations without the team getting offended. Business is tough and it's important to look for every single advantage that will give you the edge over your competitors. Developing your leadership skills is an area that could make the difference. The ability to motivate your team to be more innovative and committed will give you the edge that you have been looking for.
⭐ Development area: Team Building When teams get larger, leaders need to be ware of the fundamentals of team building that turn effective individuals into elite teams. People perceive the world in very different ways and it's this understanding that governs how they interact with other people. This is why some people just "connect" while others seem like they are from different planets. It's this understanding of how people
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