• 2-way communication, down to the employee and upward to the manager
• what should be communicated and when
• obstacles to communicating more openly
• how to solicit communication from staff
• listening
• creating a climate where it’s safe to speak your mind

This stuff just doesn’t go away as an issue, does it? I heard similar concerns when I started my training and consulting practice 22 years ago.

Nevertheless, my potential client is wise to address these concerns. Why? Look no further than Deloitte’s just published 2010 Ethics and Workplace Survey. A few findings from their research:

• 1/3 of employed Americans plan to look for a new job when the economy is more stable.
• 48% of these with an eye on greener employment pastures cite “loss of trust” as a major contributing factor to their intention to look elsewhere.
• 46% of them mention “lack of transparency in communications.”
• 40% include “being treated unfairly or unethically by employers.”

Now, is this 1/3 block of employees made up mostly of the best employees, the ones you really don’t want to lose, the ones who will cost you a ton to replace? My guess is yes.

So, transparency and trust from your leaders…not a bad place to focus your investment dollars. The evidence of a need for it is mounting every week, folks.

1. (late 2009) 60% of employees planned to pursue new job opportunities as the economy improves in 2010.
2. 54% of companies report having lost top talent during the first half of 2010.
3. 54% of employees have been approached by outside organizations in the last 12 months to discuss job opportunities.
4. 80% of employees say their workloads have grown in the wake of layoffs, their trust has eroded, and they are feeling increasingly discontented.

Now, I know that these are just statistics. They don’t necessarily suggest the situation where you work. But, then again, maybe they do…

If it has been a rough year (or two) for your enterprise, you may have–not surprisingly–been distracted from giving those staff still with you the attention they need, especially in tough times. And when we talk about your top talent, the ones that will be difficult and expensive to replace, this is a critical consideration.

So, here is just a quick reminder. Especially with your key talent, have you been…

• Indicating and reminding them that they are valued?
• Talking with them about their ongoing learning and development, in current and potential future roles in your company?
• Listening closely to them and scanning for their concerns and how they are, in fact, coping?
• Monitoring their work, not to overload them?
• Communicating the organization’s priorities and strategy and where they fit in?

These are some things managers can do to have a positive impact on employee engagement levels and reduce the huge cost of turnover of your best people. And, if you look at the list, none of them cost very much…other than some of your time plus the energy required to sincerely attend to their well being.

Three main themes emerged:

1. The global recession has permanently altered the so-called “contract” between employees and their employers.
2. There is a gap between what employees want and what employers are able to provide them.
3. This is a pivotal time when employers have the opportunity to identify and put in place a more flexible, sustainable “deal” for their staff…before the economy takes off again and we see a flood of unhappy employees packing their bags for greener pastures.

Not surprisingly, the downturn has had an impact on the results in this year’s report. It has uncovered a couple of dilemmas:

• Employees want security above all else (76% of respondents) but only 51% believe it is attainable.
• People continue to hunker down in their current employment, putting having a stable job above the siren call of career opportunity. 81% are not actively looking for other jobs, despite the fact that 48% see no potential advancement in their current job.

News for leaders and managers! Confidence of employees in their managers’ interpersonal and relational (vs. operational) competence is alarmingly low…

• Only 38% think their leaders are sincerely interested in their well-being
• Only 47% see their leaders as trustworthy
• Just 42% say that their leaders inspire and engage them
• 53% question whether their managers have time for the people aspects of their job
• 61% question doubt their managers’ effectiveness in dealing with poor performers.

Clearly we have a woeful shortfall in the people side of leading at all managerial levels. Despite these numbers, TW sees this time as one of great opportunity for employers:

We are at the earliest stages of a significant workplace transformation that will profoundly affect how businesses approach people management and how individuals approach the workplace.

I’ll have some more to say about this in my next couple of postings.

Here reasons are:

1. It focuses on the individual only as an employee and not as a whole person.
2. It seeks to get more discretionary effort from staff without giving a lot back.
3. What the engaged employee contributes to his employer can’t be taken with him when he leaves.

If your employee chooses to give extra effort and creativity to her job, is she really getting the short straw in the relationship? That depends on whether you think the following outcomes that highly engaged employees typically seek are a fair exchange for added contribution to the enterprise: challenging/interesting work/more say in how your work gets done/career development and learning opportunities/a collegial work experience/opportunity to make a difference/opportunity to experience yourself frequently in a “flow” situation (aka “in the zone”).

I happen to think these are worth a lot, thank you very much. If you adopt an internal strategy of getting more of your employees to move into the “fully engaged” column, you can do it only if you inquire about and attend to your employees’ needs, especially the higher order needs contained in the above list. Engagement occurs when the employee is fairly compensated for his performance AND experiences some of these outcomes.

You still have to have the basics of performance rewards in place. It’s when you try to engineer good feelings without paying for the work done that an employee engagement strategy becomes a scam.

1. Enhanced bottom line results
2. Improved operational processes
3. Better talent management processes

Here are just a couple of highlights from their research. These Talent Management Maturity Leaders (TMML’s), compared to their peer companies, experienced:

• Earnings (EBIDTA) 18% higher
• Net Profit Margins 54% higher
• Greater retention of staff, in particular those coveted high performing employees
• Higher levels of business & operational process efficiencies

The TMML companies engaged in more comprehensive workforce development, management & leadership development, and succession planning. They tracked key metrics around staff retention and engagement. Notably, they didn’t leave talent management up to the HR department. Rather, TMML’s approached this key strategic component as a joint initiative involving HR, line managers, and the top team.

Hackett defines “talent management” as:

…the activities by which organizations identify talent needs and acquire, develop, manage and measure talent.

You don’t have to be a big corporation, however, to attend to the talent of that strategic resource called “people.” Nor do you have to be a big corporation to reap the many benefits when you do.

Entitled “2009/2010 Trends in Executive Development,” the research reveals a mixed picture with respect to those managers who show general potential to move into the top level over the next 3-5 years. On the plus side, they have high integrity, ability to deliver results and manage multiple operational priorities, and strong technical skills and knowledge.

There is a serious gap, current senior executives surveyed said, in two critical areas:

1. Critical Thinking (strategic perspective, ability to create a vision, a system understanding of the enterprise, ability to shift back and forth from big picture thinking to operational and tactical issues)
2. Motivating and Influencing Others (leading change, inspiring and engaging employees)

These both involve complex constellations of competencies, the first cognitive and the second emotional/relational. They take time to develop. Here are three things you can start doing immediately:

1. Put a comprehensive leadership development program and process in place. This includes combining formal and informal on-the-job development, coaching, and training. See my April 8/10 blog post for more on this. As well, it calls for some form of leadership development pipeline and succession strategy that feeds ready talent onto your future executive bench.
2. Give your high potential managers real opportunities to tackle the kinds of business issues that are fuzzy, with many non-quantifiable variables and with no clearly superior solution. Whether they succeed, fail or do just OK on these, what they will learn about themselves, mixing metrics with intuition, and involving the wisdom of others will be invaluable in mastering Critical Thinking.
3. Develop their emotional intelligence. This includes the ability to build relationships with employees, boss, peers, customers, and key others within and without the enterprise, listening, managing feelings (theirs and others’), enrolling and exciting others about the vision, etc.

Bonie Hagemann, Executive Development Associates’ CEO said,

The results of this research, combined with the current demographic shift in the workplace, should be a wake-up call (emphasis added) for any organization that is not focused on developing tomorrow’s leaders.

Is your top team still asleep when it come to your future bench strength?

These were outlets for my leadership learning to blossom. Looking back, I should have channeled this energy back into my career but, hey, I was young and naive. It seemed easier to make a leadership mark in a volunteer capacity. Furthermore, it was self-affirming, a lot of fun, and I received recognition for my efforts.

Leadership development, aka talent development and high potential (“hi pot”) development, is a hot issue, particularly in the private sector. The best organizations are always on the lookout within their ranks for potential future leaders. And at least the larger firms have formal processes for identifying these folks.

But how do you know that you have a future star in your department, especially if the work you have for them doesn’t provide an opportunity to lead others?

Listen for what your people do outside of work. With some, you’ll be pleasantly surprised–and impressed. Are they running a community baseball league? Organizing a 10K run for some worthy cause? Chairing a committee in a non-profit organization?

Now your challenge, as their manager, is to find ways for this enthusiasm to manifest itself in the workplace. What a loss if it doesn’t.

1. Precontemplation (not yet acknowledging a need for changed behavior)
2. Contemplation (acknowledging the need but not yet willing to proceed with the change)
3. Preparation/Determination (ready to make the change and gearing up for it)
4. Action (engaging in the new behavior)
5. Maintanence (sustaining the new behavior over the long term, hopefully permanently)
6. Relapse (returning to the old ways)

What intrigues me here, in the context of executive coaching, are Stages 1 & 2.

Obviously, no successful growth to more effective leadership behaviors will happen if the individual doesn’t:

• see a problem with how he or she is operating currently, or
• have a genuine desire to become better as a manager.

Coaching is an investment made mostly in current relatively senior managers or individuals identified as high potential future leaders. So, as you look at potential candidates in which to invest your limited development resources, the first question is to clarify is to what extent they are at the Precontemplation or Contemplation stages.

If not, here are several ways to move them through to stage 3:

• Express your belief that they have potential to rise to a senior leadership role in the organization (This is by no means a promise. You are just informing them of your perception of them.)
• Administer a 360º feedback process for them, to give them a reality check on how they are currently being experienced by others.
• Challenge them as to what are their own goals and aspirations for their career.
• And, for less-than-acceptable performers, give them clear, tough feedback about their current poor performance and the consequences if they don’t turn this around.

These strategies will raise the individual’s conscious awareness that there is a problem or an untapped potential. The final step before you decide to invest in him or her is to solicit to what extent he/she is willing to do the tough personal and professional developmental work in order to make a shift to greater effectiveness.

Absent that genuine willingness, don’t waste you money on coaching.

1. Fear of becoming unemployed
2. Emergence of “us vs. them” behavior in your company
3. Pervasive, ongoing, unfocused anxiety
4. High stress that can turn into distress

This lengthier article is worth your time to read in its entirety. As the authors point out, your organization is not a counseling clinic. Nevertheless, they offer some solid, doable ideas that you can implement to help your employees cope with the psychological impact of this cursed economy through which we are all trying to find our way.

They assessed three factors:

1. STAY – Willingness to remain with your current employer
2. SAY – How positively you talk to others about your employer
3. STRIVE – How motivated you are to go above and beyond to contribute to the business success

Among the 50 “Best Employers,” the average employee engagement score (i.e. % of employees who responded positively to all three factors) was 80%.

Particularly important, I think, are two key findings. First, there was two-way communication. To quote the Hewitt news release:

One characteristic common to all organizations with high engagement is open, transparent, complete and timely two-way communication. During the last year, employees were well aware of the challenges the organization was facing, understood the possible solutions, proactively offered input, and committed to the course of action the organization’s leaders decided to follow.”

A second finding, employees in these high-engagement companies exhibited:

• Support for improving productivity
• Willingness to make trade-offs in benefits over the shorter term (e.g. reduced salaries and work hours to enable colleagues to be retained on the payroll)
• High trust and confidence in their leaders.

So, once again we see the impact of excellent leaders who foster open communication leading to trust. Especially in tough times, your people will demonstrate greater patience, resilience and discretionary effort when they trust you and your colleagues in management.