PBW – Patrick’s Blog World

Just a brief entry today for you.

I have finished and already sent in my 2nd assignment about Managing People and Performance. I have to admit that it was quite a hard journey. Having a look at my previous entry about managing people I guess that I found a reasonable way to apply all the required materials. By the way I decided to come up with the introduction of a balanced scorecard to broaden the approach how performance is measured and secondly to use the BSC as a tool to steer strategy.

Kaplan & Norton did a fantastic job with the invention of the balanced scorecard. I can really recommend all the materials about it. Just ask yourself the following questions:

Is your HR linked to your business strategy? Do you measure performance in accordance to your business strategy?

If the answers are no, or “partly” etc. then it might be an idea to have a look at what Norton & Kaplan suggest with their Balanced scorecard. The BSC therefore expands the way how you measure performance at your company because it includes 4 dimensions of measurement:

1. Financials (no, a BSC is not undermining financial measurement, but extends it)
2. Customers (Yes, a very important fact to keep an eye on your customers as well)
3. Internal processes (How can we contribute with internal processes to business objectives)
4. Learning & growth (How can we improve our performance in future)

Balanced scorecard by Kaplan & Norton

In conclusion, the Balanced scorecard is a useful tool to measure performance holistically and to steer and a review your business strategy regularly.

If you want to know more about the BSC I can recommend Kaplan & Norton’s articles on Harvardbusiness.org or just drop me a line….

And now I have to immerse into my next module called: Managing Processes, Systems and Projects which I’m really looking forward to, although the timeline is more than tight and Christmas season is almost here.

HRM tools

This blog entry is dedicated to a lot of HRM materials I’m currently reading. Although some of them are quite fascinating they seem to repeat themselves over and over again…

I can’t help but is this really the truth about people management? Is it really such an unpredictable, soft thing which can’t be controlled? Or are there at least a few models and concepts out there which are “hard facts”?

I have read a lot about Pfeffers Competitive Advantage, Deal & Kennedy’s model of corporate culture, Hofstedes cultural dimensions, Importance of the line manager, Talent war vs. commitment war, Best fit theory, Best practice theory, Resource based view, International HRM, HR strategy, Bath’s people & performance model, Service-profit chain model, Three dimensional people strategy, Chain of command, Control span, Job design, Employee retention, Rousseau’s psychological contract, Employer branding, Soft HRM, Hard HRM, Performance measurement, Balanced score card, Vroom’s expectancy theory, Attribution theory, Equity theory, Herzberg’s two factors, Maslow Motivational pyramid, Emotional intelligence, Mentoring & Coaching etc….. quite a lot of models and suggestions how to handle people.

Nevertheless, in the end it’s always about people. They behave differently under different circumstances. No matter what kind of model you want to apply, you always have to deal with people’s wishes, feelings, and emotions. None of the above mentioned tools can you guarantee success. That’s actually a bit scaring. Does this mean that you don’t have to know about all these intriguing materials?

No, not at all. At least you have some tools which are able to support you managing HR. Life is not a straight line, HRM isn’t as well. The tools absolutely provide some understanding for different situations and how to cope with. Use them with respect but deliberately.

However, listen to what Shelly Lazarus (Chairman and CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide) says about people management:

Strategic buy-in

Do you know the feeling when you get some orders to implement a strategy, project, whatever and haven’t been asked before? How was that? I guess you felt like somebody kidded you. Right?

So what could have been done better? It’s pretty obvious that whatever decision  has  to be implemented needs a broad acceptance among the key people. Therefore it’s pretty important to buy-in these people for ensuring the success of an undertaking. Means of dialogue, sense-making will definitely allow you to convince people about the importance and how you want to implement an action. If you got people in the same boat, it works out.

I have seen this approach several times. Projects many times failed where key people were not bought-in. According to Turner (Henley Business School), adults do not react favourably to being told to do something in an area where they regard themselves to have some knowledge or expertise.

The next time you want to implement a strategy, project, etc….keep this in mind for the sake of success.

Emotional intelligence

Have you guys ever thought about what’s required to climb up the career ladder? What particular skills and abilities are necessary to become a manager with ambitions?

Well, as far as I have thought there is no linear “do this and you get that” approach. Nevertheless, there are some common features successful middle and top manager seems to share. More about that later…

What comes to your mind if you think about career success? I assume there are quite a lot of internal and external factors that influence these thoughts. Maybe because of personal experiences. However, there is a high probability that you might throw in things like : Resilient, Skilled, Experienced, Philanthropic, Determined, Autocratic, Empathic, Communicative etc.  Of course you are all right. Nevertheless this seems to be pretty vague…

So, let’s explore what is this one hidden secret which is getting more and more important as one’s getting up within a company. No, it isn’t your intelligence quotient. Although, there is a certain importance of having a high IQ in terms of being able to link facts and information together.

The magic word is: “Emotional intelligence”

What the heck is emotional intelligence? Let me explain to you in bullet list format what it’s all about.

• Self-awareness (Being able to recognize one’s strengths and weaknesses)
• Emotional resilience (Perform even under inhuman pressure)
• Motivation (Abilities to motivate your employees to perform like rising stars)
• Interpersonal sensitivity (Being able to show empathy & sensitivity)
• Influence (Present your notions in a persuasive way)
• Intuitiveness (Make decisions based on intuition which put the company forwards)
• Conscientiousness (Behave with integrity, being consistent in all kind of situations)

Actually pretty easy, isn’t it? You just have to excel in all of these points and you’ll automatically climb up the career ladder. What’s my proof that emotional intelligence is really the key to become a good manager? Let’s have a look at this study about emotional intelligence conducted by Victor Dulewicz and Malcom Higgs which has been the biggest study ever about this topic. It’s fascinating to see which skills are required at what kind of level and how they evolve when one raises higher in companies. Additionally, you obtain some insight why IQ is not the most important prerequisite.

Dou you have any thoughts or additions? Don’t hesitate…the forum’s open.

Head and glowing brain

Have you recently thought about how your company is mastering the financial crunch? Don’t you think that the risk has dramatically increased over the last months or years? I guess when you were doing this you very quickly figured out that your company maybe has the wrong structure, the wrong culture or just a wrong paradigm. It needn’t be entirely wrong. But it could be that it would need some adaption.

An adaptation which is required to embrace the change. How open is your company with respect to change? Do ask yourself these questions. Is the “never change a winning team” approach still reasonable? Does a classical western paradigm which is based on scientific assumptions, measures, control, top-down structure and the approach that only 1 best solution exists, really do the job any longer? Is it the best way to go through these challenging times? To be honest, I don’t think so.

Exactly here, the quantum thinking jumps in. Quantum thinking describes a paradigm which is based on eight points (Trevor Long, Henley Business School)

1. Holistic
2. Following a vision
3. Risk taking and forgiving and playful
4. Self organising
5. Participatory
6. Flexible & determined
7. Diverse
8. Participatory

How many of these points describe your company? This could be a great starting point for a organisational analysis to cope with the credit crunch but also with all kind of contemporary changes. Nowadays, everything has reached an incredible speed. If I take a look at how quickly we have to fulfil customers requirements etc. it’s just scary how fast some changes happen. We’re expected to deliver in no time. If you don’t, then the customer is looking around for options. Assuming you’re not in a monopoly…. you just have to satisfy these needs.

What I want to end with is: BE OPEN. Embrace the change and question yourself in a critical way. In a way you never have done it before. You’ll see it’s really amazing and relieving.