"Soft" skills & behaviour change: important lessons for leaders

A conversation this week reminded me that developing effective people managers takes more than soft skills, it requires consistent behaviours in the workplace. To that theme, below is an excerpt from my recent paper on employee engagement, "It's not Business. It's Personal: People Engagement that works."

Over dinner last night I had a conversation with a couple of senior leaders from a European multinational. Among various topics, what got us most animated was the question of how to develop great people managers while also keep the technical experts that are the backbone of the business. There was agreement on the need to strike a good balance between coaching and mentoring. The overall theme: soft skills are important, but not enough - organizations need to create lasting and positive behaviour change if strategy is going to get executed on a daily basis.

Skills-building & Behaviour development

Many respondents to the [McLeod employee engagement] review stressed the need for better training for managers in so-called soft or people skills […] Many felt that current skills training concentrated too heavily on qualifications and too little on how people skills were implemented within the workforce.

It’s worth making a distinction at this point: skills differ from behaviour. Skill is the ability to do something well and describes the knowledge gained when you learn a tool, process or concept on a course. Behaviour is the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially toward others; it’s about applying your skills in real business contexts, on an ongoing basis.

Developing people managers to better engage with people requires more than one-off skills-building workshops. It’s about helping them develop consistent, positive, productive behaviours. The addition of more and more technical “soft skills” doesn’t get you there. Rather it’s a matter of helping managers to develop the behaviours that are adaptive to the situation, so they know when and how to deploy their skills to best effect.

The challenge is that many managers who got promoted because of their technical expertise still relish and covet the role of technical expert. You can send them to one training course after another. But do those skills get applied in their work, or is it just another course binder that joins the others on the shelf, unused and swiftly forgotten?

It takes time to help people managers turn the corner and learn step back from doing the work in order to manage others to get the work done takes time. Developing adaptive people management behaviour also requires mentoring and coaching. So how’s your organization’s bench strength of mentors and coaches?

Dead fish in the room

[M]iddle managers who become convinced of the need for change can themselves run up against barriers […] the most formidable blocks to success were the behaviours and attitudes of the most senior managers. The […] top managers believed that their status in the organization was evidence enough that they ‘had what it took’ to be regarded as a leader, and regarded their development as therefore unnecessary. Nonetheless, they believed that the managers below them needed it. However, when the managers returned to the workplace with a clearer idea of what leadership should look like, they became much more aware of the poor quality of leadership role-modelled by their senior managers, and their frustrations increased. This was deepened by another major problem, which was that when the managers attempted to implement their learning, their suggestions for improvement were rejected or ignored by their somewhat defensive and/or reactionary bosses. The result was disenchantment, greater cynicism and lower morale among the manager group, who eventually stopped making any suggestions or trying new ways of leading.

Getting senior management sponsorship of people engagement and development programs is always listed as a must-have success factor. When you look at the dismal example provided by the “top managers” described above it’s clear why. (The old saying “a fish rots from the head down” comes to mind…) These chaps are certainly NOT mentors or role-models and you can imagine the frustration of the people managers test-driving their new leadership skills in those organizations!

While this situation is extreme in its dysfunction, it’s still true that mentoring of people managers by more senior managers can be complicated by reporting relationships. After all, it’s hard to admit to your boss that you sometimes feel like you don’t know what you’re doing!

Mentoring should be complemented by coaching, whether by internal people, an external coaching professional, or both in combination. An external coach offers an objective sounding board and helps people think through their challenges without being hampered by reporting lines and competing organizational priorities. 

Most of all, coaching enables “double-loop learning” (learn a skill, then go try it out, then talk to the coach about how it went, adjust course, go try it again) which helps your people turn otherwise mechanical skills into enduring, lived behaviours. And that, in turn, means you’re getting the full ROI out of those skills-building courses, along with practical business results.

Keep reading in the weeks to come for further excerpts on people managers, skills building and behaviour change from It's not Business. It's Personal: People Engagement that works.

And for more ideas on how to develop great people managers with the behaviour needed for success in your organization, remember you can get posts from the tmc blog sent to you automatically. Just go to the top-right side of this page and either click on the Get blog updates by RSS feed button or enter your email address under Get blog updates sent to your email.

Managing "Millennials": 6 steps to success with Gen Y (and everybody else too!)

It turns out that managing "Millennials" (a.k.a. Generation Y) isn't so different from managing everybody else...they're just more forthright in asking for - and in some cases expecting - well-balanced and people-centred management practice.

A 6-step process will help you to manage Gen Y - and everyone else in your team - to get the results you want.

At the risk of generalizing (and with a hat-tip to this useful Fast Company blog post) here are a few popular perceptions about Gen Y attitudes towards the world of work:

• Strong parental links (some would say: being fawned and doted upon by Boomer parents) means this cohort is accustomed to having a strong sense of place, origin and position.
• They have also been pumped up by their folks to believe they're "special" and can achieve anything. This ego-inflation has been compounded by the "you get a trophy just for participating" ethic in schools and sports, implemented for fear of stigmatizing underachievers. As a result: they expect that same kind of approval from bosses, preferably on a daily basis.
• Facility with all sorts of technology that connects people means they have widespread social networks and an ability and willingness to engage in self-expression in any number of online forums (facebook, MySpace, twitter, blogs, You Tube, et al.).
  
• Riding the wave of a boom economy and sheltered from the harsh realities of the world by their over-protective parents, young adults expect, even demand, that their jobs be fun and fulfilling.

Now before this generational portrait starts to look too much like a mob of clueless spoiled-brats and self-esteem junkies who won't deign to set foot in the workplace on anything but their own terms - let's take a step back and look at the long view.

Historically, every new generation has reaped the benefits of what's come before - better tools, improved nutrition and health and (particularly over the past century or so) techniques for developing greater self-knowledge and insight into human behaviour.

Could it be that Gen X and the Boomers are simply envious - both of the ready availability of these advantages and of Gen Y's unwillingness to settle for outdated management practice that's not much advanced from 19th-century Taylorism?

A better way of management

For years now the argument in favour of "soft skills" has been: if you treat people well, they will perform better. Command-and-control management style (a.k.a. scaring the crap out of people) admittedly gets results in the short-term...and over time produces disengagement, dissatisfaction, health problems and burnout - with all the attendant negative effects on performance and results. And forget about using C&C with Gen Y, who will simply walk.

Today the insights of neuroscience and brain research provide the hard science to back up the "soft skills" message. Below is a six-step* management process, one that will meet Gen Y demands for a more engaging management style and that will work equally well with the Gen X-ers and Boomers in your workplace.

In this brief overview I'll simply describe the function of each step. In future posts I'll offer more details on practical application to manage individuals and teams.


STEP 1- ROLE
Role starts things off on the right foot by A) establishing a sense of community (with shared values, a code of conduct, and understanding of how the group adds value in a wider context), and B) letting people know how and where each individual fits into the larger group.

Clarify the roles, goals and expectations so that each person's individual efforts are contributing to the group objectives and goals. Build a solid, agreed-upon foundation at the outset to provide an underlying source of enduring continuity in the face of transition, change and even crisis periods to come.

STEP 2 - VOICE
Voice is about expression and creativity. People are going to have thoughts and feelings about the content discussed in the previous step. It's therefore vital to now acknowledge the emotional component with dialogue and an environment that promotes the free expression of thoughts and emotional reactions. Something need not be done about every comment that is made, but people must have the chance to say what they think and feel.

Free expression like this may well cause conflict. That's normal and necessary. What is required is an agreed way to deal constructively with such conflict. This step can be quite confronting (Gen Y is not shy about self-expression!) but skip it at your peril: unexpressed emotional reactions do not go away but instead go underground to fester and bubble up in unproductive ways at inopportune moments.

When team members feel secure in freely expressing themselves, emotional reactivity is minimized and the emotional energy can be productively channeled into creative output. The advantage to doing this step well is that expression results in better understanding, clarity, enhanced creativity and group collaboration.

STEP 3 - REWARD
Reward is about motivation, action and reward - the drive to achievement that comes from the healthy expression of ego. With the emotional energy released in the previous step now ready to be put to practical use, this step answers the question "what's in it for me?" to tap into the passion and drive of each team member. It is results-focused and promotes action over words, performance over process.

"Fortune favours the bold" could be the motto...which can also mean that people "leap without looking". Therefore when describing goals make clear both the consequences of non-achievement and the benefits of achievement. Frame the task in terms of each person's self-interest - but also how achievement will benefit the team collectively. To keep people on track and productive, phrase performance measures in positive language that motivates, rather than coercive language that triggers emotional reactivity and fearful anxiety. This step is about getting things done, the achievement of aspirations.

STEP 4 - HEART
Heart is about empathy, inclusion and relationships. The previous step unleashed each person's self-interested passion and drive for results. Now is the time to ensure there is a personal connection so that internal competition does not tear the team apart.

Being smart about connecting with your people will help foster a sense of belonging for each team member. Active listening helps managers to be aware of both the explicit and implicit messages in what team members are saying, to know when something just doesn't feel right and take action to head off potential trouble before it becomes disruptive. People don't work for companies or money - they work for people. Offering a sense of personal commitment will build authentic relationships between team members, who gladly go the extra mile for you...and for each other.

STEP 5 - HEAD
Head is about data, tasks and learning. There's an old saying: "People don't care what you know, until they know that you care." In the previous step you got people to care, now you can apply the strength of those relationships to a strong task-focus.

Get clear on the step-by-step actions, make resources available, allocate them efficiently and leverage them to move forward. Ensure good information flow, analyze data for patterns to apply and exploit. Learn from experience and apply that learning to make necessary changes to strategy on-the-fly. Develop skillsets and expertise through training and encourage curiosity about how things work - and could work even better.

STEP 6 - VISION
Vision is about conceptualization, the big-picture and long-term, seeing things as they could be rather than how they are. The previous step's task-focus went right down into the weeds of details and data; now it's time to zoom back up to the 30,000-ft. perspective. Reconnect the purpose and actions of the team to the wider vision of organization and, wider still, to the trends of the industry, economy, regulatory bodies, and marketplace to consider future plans.

This final step has two important components: A) it pulls together and aligns all the previous ones by focusing on a positive future state toward which everyone can strive, and B) by celebrating what's been achieved so far, it sets the stage for reinvention, for a new foundation and the renewal of the 6-step process.

All 6 steps, every time

Regardless of our generational cohort, each of us has a preference for some of the 6 steps over others, whether Role or Reward, Voice or Vision, Heart or Head. This preference means we favour some steps and want to skip over or quickly rush through the others. As a manager, the advantage of following the 6-step format is that it ensures you address the areas that are of greatest interest to each different team member. The result: much higher levels of understanding, quality communication and better team engagement.

To find out more about how tmc works with leaders and their teams to get results by applying the 6-step process just described, send an email today!


*-based on the six intelligence centres described in the NeuroPower framework
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Presentations at EBTA, IAF Europe, NeuroPower Symposium

September this year will be a busy month for Todd, who will present at three conferences in Europe and Australia.

Imagine - EBTA 2009

At this year's annual conference of the European Brief Therapy Association in Helsinki on 04-06 September, Todd will present a 90-minute workshop entitled Making Integral Theory practical, or, Wilber in the real world

Abstract: Integral Theory is a powerful explanatory theory (it is, after all, based on Ken Wilber's ambitious book "A Theory of Everything") but how can we practically apply it for people and organizations? And what is the link to Solutions Focus practice in particular?



In this session you will: a) learn how to apply this theory to coaching, consulting and communications in real-world settings b) experience the benefit these insights can bring as you share your ideas and thoughts with fellow participants c) discover how to apply the knowledge to your own practice. No previous knowledge of Integral Theory required.

You can register to attend this conference here.

IAF Europe 2009

The 2009 conference of the International Association of Facilitators Europe in Oxford, UK runs from 18-20 September. Todd is presenting two interactive 90-minute sessions: The facilitator as coach and Identify and deliver on your personal brand.

You can register to attend this conference here.

NeuroPower Symposium

A symposium to be held in Sydney on 24-25 September will explore the practical management, leadership and organizational applications of what the latest neuroscience insights and brain research are telling us about human behaviour and social interaction.

The event features Peter Burow (Australian consultant and developer of the NeuroPower system) and Professor Matthew Lieberman, an expert in the field of Social Cognitive Neuroscience who co-directs the SCN Lab at the UCLA Department of Psychology.

At the symposium Todd will present a case study of his work over a two-year period with a management team at Lloyds TSB Bank in London.
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Following tmconsultancy on twitter

Thanks for clicking! Here’s what’s on offer.

What you can expect as a tmconsultancy follower on twitter are posts with:

• links to practical and interesting articles and blog posts on (among others) the following topics:

• Positive Change
• human behaviour and interaction
• neuroscience & brain research
• limbic responses
• emotional reactivity
• psychology, philosophy, anthropology
• employee engagement
• negotiation, mediation, facilitation
• persuasion & influence
• creativity & innovation
• coaching
• strategy development & execution
• cross-cultural business
• marketing
• communications
• adult learning principles

• personal status/location updates – esp. while travelling to neat new places
• my own occasional musings, observations, insights or outbursts
• info about worthwhile causes – esp. animal welfare/rehabilitation, habitat protection and educational programs
• retweets, kudos and thanks – to show the love
• and, of course, questions to tap the collective knowledge/wisdom of the twitterverse

Who's Todd anyway?
I’m a Canadian living in Manly, Australia (part of Sydney’s “Northern Beaches”) and I divide my time among Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and Canada.

Ich spreche sehr gerne Deutsch, je parle pas mal le français, ik spreek wel Nederlands, estoy aprendiendo lentamente español, och jag förstår lite svensk - so I enjoy connecting with people all over the world.

My non-work interests include surfing, scuba diving, sailing, wildlife, travel, photography, design, film, cooking and learning about wine (especially big Aussie reds...the "hard" way, glass by glass).

What I do
I consult, write and speak about the many aspects of human behaviour and interaction that can help (or hinder) organizations seeking practical business results. For my professional bio check out my LinkedIn profile and, if we share interests, send me an invitation to connect.

Thanks!
tm

Comments, connections and cheek

A loyal blog reader has gently chided me for the recent post on Framework Fatigue..."cheeky" was the word he used, in fact. I believe he was most likely referring to my high rating of the NeuroPower framework as compared to the many others listed.

Since this same reader had previously requested more details on my post about the nine core belief types, I shall now strive to substantiate my evident passion. Starting today and through the month of November, I will provide more indepth content about the NeuroPower framework.

NeuroPower basics

As I've suggested, the NeuroPower framework (as developed by author and strategist Peter Burow) integrates many components and is both comprehensive and holistic. Nevertheless, it can be boiled down to four basic principles, or maxims:

1. there are six intelligence centres that are the neurobiological basis for human personality and behaviour - tapping into these centres dramatically improves the quality of communication and understanding in human interactions
2. these six centres combine to produce NeuroRational Types, or archetypes, which describe your particular gifts and genius - the thing you were born to be able to do really well and that you are able to manifest when you perform at your best
3. your survival strategies, or core belief types, are deeply rooted in your "lizard brain," the brain's limbic system that governs both memory and emotional reactions; knowing the blindspots the result from your own particular fight-flight-freeze reactions is key to getting them under control (so that they don't control you) and fostering personal success
4. the developmental aspect of NeuroPower is focused on character - helping people get their emotional reactivity under control so they are able to tap into what's best in themselves, integrate the diverse talents of their Master and Mirror archetype profiles, and choose their behavioural set-point to reflect the desired outcome, context and other factors
   

Links to NeuroEducation

In a separate note, another visitor alerted me to the possible connection between the themes of the Framework Fatigue post and Jenifer Fox, a prominent figure related to the Strengths Movement in the US. I suspect that this reader is, like me, a connector and just can't resist making a good connection when there's one to be made. Thanks for that - there will certainly be a lot of overlap to discuss between Jenifer's work and the growing movement to bring brain-based parenting into the mainstream of Australian education as part of the NeuroEducation program.

Getting LinkedIn

Finally, regular readers know that I frequently link to people by using their LinkedIn profiles, which is a shorthand way of putting their own bio front-and-centre. I've also made good use lately of LinkedIn to develop contacts and explore markets in Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK - which, along with Xing (formerly OpenBC) and ecademy, has produced tremendous results.

So successful has this connecting been, in fact, that there are plans underway to launch intensive NeuroPower training programs in all three of these markets in the first half of 2009, starting with London in April. Watch this space for more details!
TM

Global outbreaks of Framework Fatigue and Model Mania

In my recent travels across Australia, the UK, Canada and Asia, I've been talking to businesspeople and consultants about what tools and consulting approaches help them to achieve practical and sustained results - in their lives and in their businesses. In these conversations I have noticed two trends: framework fatigue and model mania.

Framework Fatigue

There are many, many models, personality profiling tools, psychometric assessments, systems and frameworks in the marketplace today. You've doubtless heard of them, possibly used them, possibly been subjected to them. To name just a handful:

• MBTI - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• JTI - Jung Type Indicator
  
• KTS - Keirsey Temperament Sorter
• FIRO - Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation
  
• DISC - four quadrant behavioural model
  
• NLP - Neuro-Linguistic Programming
• EI - Emotional Intelligence
  
• AI - Appreciative Inquiry
• SF - the Solutions Focus
• CBT - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• BT - Brief Therapy
• NVC - Non-Violent Communication
• VIA Signature Strengths Survey
  
• MBS - Management by Strengths
• Strengthsfinder by Marcus Buckingham (Gallup)
• SDI - Strengths Deployment Inventory
  
• HBDI - Herrmann Brain Dominance Indicator
• Systems thinking (e.g. Senge's Learning Organization)
  
• ICP - InterCultural Competence Profiler
• ILA - InterCultural Leadership Assessment
• Belbin Team (Roles) Inventory, a.k.a. Self-perception Inventory
• LSI/OCI - Life Styles Inventory/Organizational Culture Index (Human Synergistics)
  
• LGAT - Large Group Awareness Training (Landmark Forum, Goldzone)
  
• (...and the list goes on...)
  

Are you starting to get a case of information overload? Well that's what framework fatigue feels like. So that you can find your way out of this maze, and in the spirit of full disclosure, I'll give my view.

I have used some of the frameworks listed above in my own consulting practice to good effect with clients, notably Solutions Focus, Strengthsfinder, NVC, some systems thinking and some of the ones based on Jungian psychology. Of the others I can say that most are sound, useful and provide some insight to certain areas of human behaviour and performance. Then there are the bad apples; a few have decidedly poor reputations.

Model Mania

You may have had the experience where, despite their better natures and good intentions, enthusiastic people skilled in a given framework, system or method will claim for it explanatory powers far beyond what the thing was ever built to do.

This is model mania: the belief that the entire world can be understood through a particular lens, often to the exclusion of most (if not all) others.

In the famous turn of phrase offered by the American financier and Presidential advisor Bernard Baruch: "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

I've always been partial to a 'toolkit' approach, and in my consulting engagements always look to 'make it fresh' for each new client, using the tools appropriate to the context and issues present each time.

For those of you faced with so many available options and with so many of those options claiming to be all things to all people, how do you know which one does what, let alone which one works? I offer the following checklists, the first one what to beware of, and the second what to look for.

Checklist: what to watch out for

If you observe the following, it's time to ask some hard questions. If the framework, model or system:

• Actively fosters long-term dependence on the consultant or service providers
• Features a lot of hard-sell and constant expectations of signing up for more 'advanced classes'
• Uses processes that are done 'to' you rather than 'with' you
• Keeps materials, tools and mechanics of the actual processes a tightly-guarded secret from you
  
• Categorically condemns certain forms of human behaviour while others are lauded in an unqualified manner (i.e. stop all 'red' and 'green' behaviours in favour of doing only 'blue' ones)
• Encourages you to recruit others (family, friends, colleagues) in an ever-widening, Borg-like assimilation process
• Makes far-reaching explanatory claims across all aspects of human behaviour, as seen through a single keyhole view
  

Checklist: what to look for

To get the best long-term value and real results from your time and money invested, you should reasonably expect the following from an explanatory framework focused on human behaviour:

• Transparent - the tools are put in your hands for you to use for yourself with guided tuition
• Holistic - it has language that works 'from the boardroom to the boilerroom' and all the moving parts work well together
• Integrated - the framework features both internal consistency and an ability to coexist harmoniously with other explanatory models in your existing 'toolkit'
• Humanistic - its tenets line up with what the great traditions and civilizations of the past have had to say about human behaviour, personality and group interaction
• Scientific - uses the latest neuroscientific insights on brain function in a practical applicable way
• Empowering - offers insights to identify blind spots and reactive behaviours, in order to break repetitive patterns of unhelpful behaviour and help you achieve what you want for yourself
• Positive - is based on the belief you are not 'broken' and focuses on helping people achieve all they are capable of being by accessing their particular gifts and talents
• Developmental - describes the process toward personal integration and realization of one's full potential
• Interactive - more than a model for self-awareness, it gives you the tools to better interact with others and relate to them emotionally, cognitively and behaviourally
• Versatile - has application to the fields of self development, effective communication, management skills, fostering better leadership, transformational change in organizations, interpersonal relations, negotiation, sales skills, persuasion and influencing, difficult conversations...
• Practical - results-focused and applicable from the very first day of training

Having used and studied most of the frameworks on the long list at the top of this post, I can say that I have yet to see one that ticks all the boxes of the list immediately as well as the NeuroPower framework.

What is most positive about it is that I have not needed to 'unlearn' any of my previous training. The NeuroPower framework (as developed by author and strategist Peter Burow) is an integrated toolkit of useful and practical tools based on neuroscience and brain function. There is plenty of room for other tools and methods that you are already using and that work - because if they work, they must by definition line up in significant ways with brain function.

In this way NeuroPower happily coexists along with other methods and systems...though it's possible that once you have experienced its holistic nature and powerful explanatory insights into human behaviour, it may become your preferred toolkit for any number of applications!

As always, to find out more you can email me to talk about how I am using NeuroPower in my work with clients around the world.
TM

Surviving vs Thriving - insights from the Lion City

Singapore has long been a strategic nexus of commerce and trade. Here you have "instant Asia" - Indians, Chinese, Malay, Japanese - along with masses of Western and other expats and the multinational firms that employ them. Today Singapore offers many useful insights into what is happening in the region of Southeast Asia and also globally.

Out of this mix of cultures and worldviews, a particularly Singaporean view has emerged. Here the business culture is fostered on a deeply pragmatic view of the world...and yet it is not all short-term practicality. The government is strongly focused on Singapore's future wellbeing, with carefully laid-out strategies geared to the long-term objective of ensuring the city-state's place on the world map of commerce and business.

Certainly on the surface of it, with construction sites and container ports running literally 24/7/365, it seems the Lion City is poised to roar ahead through the current economic turmoil and beyond.

In my previous post I mentioned the difference in the US presidential election between McCain's politics of fear and Obama's politics of hope. During my visit over the past few days here in Singapore I've been listening to the insights of local executives and the thoughts expressed at the first Singapore Human Capital Summit. It seems as though there are two prevailing mentalities, similar in nature to the themes of fear and hope.

Let's call them surviving vs. thriving.

Surviving
This mentality is focused almost exclusively on the short-term: let's hit next month's numbers and then take it from there. It's a reactive strategy, designed to do the bare minimium required to ensure economic (and, hopefully, individual job) survival. It's therefore also bereft of long-term strategic focus, considered thought, and high-level awareness of consequences - the intended and the unintended.

Thriving
The other mentality is practical, yet future-focused. As one executive argued,

Right now I'm not putting money in marketing because who knows what the market will be doing in 6 months time. But I think it's important to invest in my people. If things don't get so bad, it means I've got a team that's ready to perform and I'll eat the lunch of my more reactive, fearful competitors who haven't similarly invested. But even if I have to shed some staff, they'll still have the skills when it comes time to hire them back later on. At worst, there's a relationship to be strengthened by developing their skills - and that relationship can also be the competitive advantage I need over other companies in a tight labour market!

Both styles, short-term and long-term, may be valid depending on context and a host of other variables. Looking at the above two philosophies, I know which company I'd like to work for. (And wasn't it an exclusive focus on the short-term that got the world into the current economic crisis in the first place...?)

Maybe here at the crossroads of Asia, the combination that Singapore has woven of "pragmatic long-termism" has some valuable insights. Straight from the lion's mouth.
TM