Tag Archives: Engagement

Reverse the Mentoring Stereotype

In its most common context, mentoring is understood as someone with experience (and a few grey hairs!) showing someone younger how to perform key job functions. Yet, one of the hottest trends in human resources is termed “reverse mentoring.” Whether due to job loss and the need for new training, or “Second Act” entrepreneurship, or simply the precipitous amount of change being introduced in organizations trying to compete globally, there has arisen a need for this practice where younger workers are now showing the older ones “the ropes.”

While the concept is that exposure to those outside the corporate suite may be good for staying in touch with the values held by newer workers, there are several other benefits. Higher employee retention rates among younger workers are cited as an unexpected, but welcome outcome. Exposure to management issues and how decisions are made are additional upsides.

When Jack Welch was the CEO of General Electric, he  was mentored on how to use the internet by a young employee in her 20s. He saw such promise from the process that he mandated that 500 of his top executives reach out to younger employees to do likewise. These days, mentees are learning how to use social media effectively from their younger mentors. Even at top ad agencies like Ogilvy & Mather, a worldwide managing director admitted that his more youthful mentors had shown him how to enhance his Twitter posts to be less boring. His eyes have been opened to new possibilities and he now plans to utilize Skype and videoconferencing to facilitate distance mentoring across the firm’s 450 offices. HP & Cisco also have reverse mentoring programs in place.

Michelle Rafter, in a blog post entitled “8 Ways to Make a Reverse Mentorship Work For You,” suggests the following guidelines:

1. Find a compatible partner –someone with skills in areas you’re lacking

2. Set expectations- create ground rules for what you want out of a partnership, such as how often you’ll meet and what both parties will get out of it

3. Get your boss’s OK- A lot of reciprocal mentoring can happen on an informal basis. But if you want or need to set up a formal program, you’ll need your manager’s or company’s approval.

4. Be open to suggestions and criticism- learn in days from someone else what one could take decades otherwise by having a thick skin

5. Make it more than just about tech- maybe a younger person could help you learn about sushi, Chinese, popular music, or even how to lead the next generation more effectively

6. Give as much as you get-the relationship should be mutually beneficial

7. Experiment with approaches– a single department, a program that crosses departments, and a multitude of variations

8. Don’t stereotype- not every 45-year-old has the same knowledge or expertise, so don’t assume every Gen Y worker does, either.

Using EQ to Plan Management Succession

How to go about preparing a privately owned business for management succession… 

GDF Professional Services had been a successful company for over 10 years in the business of providing organizational development consulting. Located in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, the firm had capitalized on the local economic growth and availability of talented human capital. Over the past few years, the platform included leadership, change management & organizational psychology services for local companies. While most clients had 30-100 employees, some were smaller, and others were considered “middle market.”

The two primary owners, “G” & “D”, had determined that they desired to cut back on their hours at work and aimed to eventually hand the business over to a strong management team. However, management group members, while strong in their individual disciplines, had not coalesced into a cohesive team and were unprepared to succeed the founders in running the company on a daily basis.

The challenge was to help the managers prepare to take over and prepare the owners to begin to step aside. To do so would require innovation in the business model, systems, processes, and offerings of the Firm. In order to introduce innovation, a baseline needed to be established and performance measured. One of the best predictors of decision-making habits among managers is a behavioral assessment that measures one’s Emotional Quotient (EQ). Scheduling mentoring sessions to discuss competencies followed the administration of the EQ assessment.

     As the management team members began to share not just facts, but heartfelt emotions, dreams, and recommendations, it was necessary to have a process to capture and assimilate all the content. Each mentee meeting, each owner meeting, each team meeting was captured in detailed notes. Additionally, consultative questions in the individual sessions regarding assigned EQ worksheet exercises yielded additional insights. The information was culled weekly for follow-up items on the individual and team level, as well as combed for items to take up within strategy sessions with the owners. A rudimentary knowledge management system was put in place for this purpose.

Nearing the six month mark, the group was becoming anxious as to what was to follow. Someone suggested that the EQ mentoring continue at the staff level so that staff members could benefit from the same body of knowledge and practice that the leadership team had. Simultaneously, the owners agreed to undergo EQ mentoring themselves in order to enhance credibility with their key reports.

The other signs of progress were:

  • The weekly management team meetings were supplemented with weekly departmental meetings that did not require the presence of the owners
  • The weekly individual mentoring sessions were replaced with monthly sessions, but weekly exercises continued
  • The weekly group educational sessions were replaced with bi-weekly ones
  • The owners agreed to hold a year-end retreat to discuss drafting a succession plan

More work needed to be done in terms of clarifying roles and responsibilities, the funding source for the succession plan, selecting a leader from within the management team or from the outside, and insisting that the owners go on record as to what they will hand off when and to whom. However, all were very encouraged at the likelihood of success based on the transformation of the culture experienced during the process.

Lukewarm Defenders of Change

Inside every company there is a culture. In order to remain competitive, companies need to make cultural and process changes that are holding them back. How the employees respond is a critical predictive factor in the achievement of the desired outcome.

 

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in introducing a new order of things; because the innovator will have for enemies all who have done well under the old conditions and only lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.”

-Machiavelli

As Machiavelli points out, leading others to a new order is tough work. Here are some management suggestions on how to make it a part of your culture:

Know your people

  • What is the thing they like most about their position? What would they change?
  • Have them explain why they are on this particular career path.
  • What do they think about the company and its management? What do they believe should be done differently?
  • Ask them who have been the greatest influences in their lives/careers. Listen intently and ask follow-up questions.
  • Ask what they like to do away from work.  Don’t make them uncomfortable. Make it known you are interested in getting to know them as people.
  • Share what values are important to you and why. Provide some stories where appropriate—people relate to stories.
  • Find out about their personal and career goals; share your own.
  • Become vulnerable. Ask what you could do better to serve them and the department/company.

Please remember to respond with empathy.  Demonstrate sincere interest in what your people say, significance to them, and how they feel about it.

Assign properly

1.    Delegate those things that would be helpful to you and to their development.

2.   Select the most strategic person to complete the task(s).

3.   When possible, get the employee to create a plan to complete the task(s).

4.   Ask the employee to repeat back their understanding of the desired outcome and process.

5.   Have a mid-point check-in on complex tasks.

6.   Follow up in a positively.

7.   Consider the rotating tasks.

8.   Delegate tasks that enhance cross-training.

9.   Try to include some delegation to everyone in the group.

10. Ask for input at the end of each task.

Motivate

Internal Motivation:

Have the employee ask himself these three questions—

  • Do I have awareness about my passions?
  • What would I ideally like to look forward to each morning?
  • How do I make this ideal happen?

Discuss how the answers to these questions must factor into job responsibilities and performance.

External Motivation: How do you reward your employees?

The columns below offer employee types, potential felt needs, and some suggested rewards. For each employee, think about needs and rewards. (You may pull from categories more than once).

EMPLOYEE DESCRIPTION

NEEDS

REWARDS
1. Employee feels disconnected from others.

Likely Need:

Appropriate Rewards:

 

2. Solid worker boasts of recent accomplishments.

Likely Need:

Appropriate Rewards:

 

3. Someone who displays a knack for learning and innovation.

Likely Need:

Appropriate Rewards:

 

4. Turnover in a department causes an employee to withdraw.

Likely Need:

Appropriate Rewards:

 

5. A shining star complains about the lack of opportunity for advancement.

Likely Need:

Appropriate Rewards:

 

 a. Security

b. Socializing

c. Esteem

d. Achievement

e. Power

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 1. A letter of praise sent to the CEO and a copy of it given to the employee.

 

2. The right to select and manage a project.

 

3. A dress-down day.

 

4. An opportunity to gain some training & development.

 

5. An extra vacation day.

 

6. Involvement in a new committee/team.

 

7. Peer “attaboys” posted in lunch room.

 

8. Opportunity to lead a presentation/team.

 

9. Reassurance that his/her position is vital.

 

10. Role in developing a new company program.

Management Inbreeding Retards Prosperity

If an organization’s people structure becomes too predictable and inflexible, it can enter into a season of decline. Regardless the legacy of success prior to the institutionalization of processes and preferences, its people can become inoculated to competitive shifts and a corporate “senility” may become omnipresent. Woe be the organization that thinks it can continue to enjoy today’s results tomorrow by only replicating what currently works!

  John W. Gardner, former chairman of Common Cause, likens the aging of a business model to the decline of the Westward frontier expansion. Vitality and enthusiasm give way to tradition and the dream dies with it. Once a management approach becomes entrenched, then, it is susceptible to challenges from every direction. If adjustments are not made, the “weak” are conquered by the “strong” (at innovation.)

The Boston Consulting Group used to do an annual survey to assess the total shareholder return of innovative companies versus their peer groups. Not only was it continually affirmed that innovative companies created greater returns, but the corollary finding was that reinvention of the business model yielded demonstrably higher results than simply changing products or services offerings. Prosperity proved evasive, then, for those management teams who had “inbred” in their perpetuation of what was familiar.

Frederick Kappel, former president of AT&T, during a lecture at Columbia University, cited six dangers of management inbreeding:

  1. People cling to old ways of working even though they have been confronted by a new situation.
  2. They fail to define new goals with meaning and challenge.
  3. Action is taken without studied reflection.
  4. Institutionalized contentment:Business becomes stable and secure, not venturesome.
  5. Old “wisdom” is passed on to new people. Older managers tend to adhere too rigidly to old ideas, to antiquated approaches and methods. Note, they mold the minds of young managers.
  6. Low tolerance for criticism acts to stifle independent thinking.

I remember hearing of a speaker at a turnaround conference who said that the antidote to such mismanagement lies largely in moving people around to different jobs on a regular basis. He argued that a type or rottenness took root when people held onto jobs (positions) for too long. He felt that giving people new challenges, rewarding the hungry “chomping at the bit” with opportunity to test themselves, was a way to keep the organization invigorated. By creating an atmosphere where people have the chance to perform, the whole company usually performs much better!

Too Much? Technology Intrusion @SXSW

The Washington Post, reporting from Austin, provided coverage of South by Southwest 2012. While there were certainly gadgets galore, applications abounding, and technology that teased, today’s article brought up the premise that technology threatens the fabric of our relationships. The intrusion of interruptive “advances” can overwhelm the brain, says Amber Case, a cyborg anthropologist.

Avi Zev Weider offered a documentary for screening, “Welcome to the Machine,” that attempted to ask the question of how inter-human relationships are compromised. Similar to the Matrix film series, there was a strong undercurrent that the network is not always our friend and we need downtime, to unplug and be human and regenerate.

How does this vein of thought factor into our office environments? The tyranny of emails, interoffice communications, tweets, posts, etc can overwhelm even the most resolute worker. I’ve been in many businesses wherein the employees–even department heads–are afraid to walk away from their desks for fear that they may receive a communication to which they do not have the opportunity to respond in real time.

There is something inherently wrong with being captive to the powerful tools that were created–ostensibly–to make our lives better. In working with employees in a number of companies, I have given the employees permission to work strategically on projects, check their messages according to a predetermined schedule, and enjoy the resulting focus, clarity, and peace of mind.

In my own life, it can be harder to set the smartphone down when I know someone may try to communicate with me. The Tweets, email messages on my work email, emails on my home email, text messages from family & friends, alerts that I’ve set up to keep the day flowing, blog updates, LinkedIn updates, etc just keep rolling in and it can be soooo seductive to allow the flow to determine my pace and disposition.

What can we collectively do? Simple, purposeful choices can break the habitual “checking in” that can be so distracting. Determine when you will pick up your cell–make it less frequent than you’ve been observing. Schedule email reading and response time. Most importantly–schedule “think” and “rest” times. Without them, our collective quality of life, contentment on and off the job, and health–physical and emotional–will all suffer.