Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

A Better Way To Handle a Shrinking Business

This article is part of a syndicated series about deflation from market analyst Robert Prechter, the world’s foremost expert on and proponent of the deflationary scenario. For more on deflation and how you can survive it, download Prechter’s FREE 60-page Deflation Survival eBook, part of Prechter’s NEW Deflation Survival Guide.  The following text was originally published in Robert Prechter’s February 2009 Elliott Wave Theorist

By Robert Prechter, CMT

During depressions, many businesses make a fatal mistake: They lay off employees. Some businesses have no choice; if the product or service is related more to quantity than quality, then perhaps there is no alternative.  But many businesses are far better served by keeping their employees and reducing compensation.  That way, they can continue to serve customers with full quality and stand ready to lead the competition when the next economic expansion arrives.

Salary Transparency

It used to be that you never knew if you were being charged a reasonable rate for an airplane ticket, rental car, hotel room or even the purchase of a house.

However, today, the Internet has brought transparency to pricing policies by allowing you to comparison shop online before making a purchase.  Price comparison websites, like travel site Expedia and real estate assessment site Zillow.com both founded by Rich Barton, are bringing price transparency to consumers.

In most organizations, who gets paid what is a closely guarded secret.  However, Barton is beginning to bring transparency to salaries paid through a new website, www.GlassDoor.com.  In fact, it's not unusual for a company to have a policy stating that discussing one's own salary is grounds for dismissal (though there are states where such a policy would be illegal).  Human resources professionals, who are the guardians of secret salaries, mostly agree that such disclosures can lead to strife in the workplace.

Glassdoor.com's mission is to let anyone peer inside the walls of any company, but its most immediate claim to fame is its listing of salaries for specific positions at companies in its database.  Currently, GlassDoor Inc.'s database holds salary reports and company reviews from more than 165,000 people working at nearly 21,000 companies in over 100 countries.  Thanks to GlassDoor's "give to get" model, the site's database expands as people use it to learn about salaries and work conditions at various companies.  That's because the database is accessible at no charge to anyone who is willing to provide reviews, ratings and salary details via a form on the website.

In today's deflation-driven economy, having a good feel for the company (through detailed critiques by current employees) and the salary of a specific open position can be of great help to job candidates during the recruitment and interview processes.

Source: COMPUTERWORLD, February 23, 2009

Here are some other resources for job candidates in their career move activities:

JobCoachingTips.com offers 21 job seeking tips for $9.95 plus links to free and low-cost online career self assessments, free interview tips and a link to CareerBuilder.com:

For a Year's Subscription to weekly Career Move Tips, click here:

For 21 Career Transition Tips, click here.

To Find Jobs, click here.

For Career Assessments, click here.

For a free Interview Success Guide, click here. 

Mobile Phones and the Internet

Considering 41.9 million people accessed the Internet from a mobile device in November 2008 alone, many involved in the industry say the time has come for small businesses to get in the game.

"A good mobile site serves a purpose, answers a question or fulfills a need--and they do it quickly," says Jim Shilale, vice president of U.S. business development for 2ergo Group PLC, a U.K. company that designs, hosts and manages mobile-Web sites for other companies.  Here is an example of one of mine: www.CoachedtoSuccess.mobi

Visitors to the mobile Web are likely to be traveling on business, commuting to work or driving through an unfamiliar town.  Therefore, a restaurant with a mobile-Web site that includes an easily viewable menu, driving directions and a link to make reservations might have an advantage over one that hasn't invested in a phone-friendly Internet site.

For small businesses that decide to pursue the mobile Web, there are several ways to proceed.  Options include adding a cellphone-compatible subpage to an existing Web site, buying a new domain name and starting a new site or transforming an existing site into one that can be viewed on either a PC or cellphone.

People viewing Web sites on cellphones are typically in a rush and dealing with slow wireless connections, so mobile sites that require little to download have the best chance of holding users' attentions.  To the end, graphics should be kept to a minimum or eliminated altogether, as should links.  Cellphone users don't want to click on link after link and wait for new pages to load.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2009

Tips for Picking the Right Coach

Providing executive coaches to high-potential performers is one way to get the most from untapped talent.

Unfortunately, many executives select a coach based on referrals from colleagues, without adequately considering personal needs. The person sponsoring the engagement usually sends a few coaches for interviews and asks the executive to select one based on “fit.”

But without a greater understanding of what happens in a coaching relationship, it’s difficult to make a fair assessment and pick a good match.

In Your Executive Coaching Solution (Davies-Black, 2007), Joan Kofodimos says a coach should help the person-being-coached to achieve most of the following: 

1. Strike a balance between supporting and challenging yourself.

2. Create feedback loops with colleagues.

3. Clarify your true strengths, values and life signature or purpose.

4. Understand and commit to the personal development process.

5. Broaden your perspectives.

6. Learn new interpersonal concepts and skills.

7. Maintain a confidential and safe environment to become more self-aware.

8. Influence how others view you. 

Pick a coach for Support and the Ability to Challenge You

You’re more likely to open up to a coach who creates a safe, confidential and trusting environment.  Coaches accomplish this in part by demonstrating they understand and respect your interests, values and concerns.

But coaches must also provide challenges that motivate you to perform beyond your habitual behaviors; confront you directly, yet nonjudgmental, with the impact of your actions; and probe the motives and assumptions underlying your behaviors. 

Sharing your life on Facebook

What has something really cool that you've never seen before and can't get anywhere else?  The answer is Facebook, which now says it is adding a staggering five million members a week.  

President Obama used it to get elected.  Dell will recruit new hires with it.  Microsoft's new operating system borrows from it.  No question, Facebook has friends, like you, in high places.  Facebook at five-years-old is at 175 million subscribers and growing at five million new members a week, makes it a rare bright spot in a dismal global economy.  If Facebook were a country, it would have a population nearly as large as Brazil's.  To reach 175 million subscribers in the past, took the telephone 89 years, television 38 years, and the cellphone 14 years.  

The newest members---the ones behind Facebook's accelerating growth rate---are mature types who never thought they'd have the time or inclination to overshare on the Web.  It's just that Facebook has finally started to make their busy lives a little more productive and a lot more fun.

Creating a passionate environment at work

The work environment is the field in which the collective passion of the enterprise takes root and grows.

People experience the work environment or culture in a good way or bad way.  There is an old Yiddish proverb that applies to every organizational leader: "The fish always stinks at the head."   The leader with CEO Disease doesn't know the smell that he or she is spreading throughout the organization.  The personally coached CEO discovers what smell he or she is spreading across the corporate culture and works to make it a productive and positive scent.  This scent has a dramatic impact on organizational performance and success.

According to research conducted by John Kotter and James Heskett (Corporate Culture and Performance), when strong culture firms are focused on the right values, they radically outperform their competitors.   Here's what happened at strong culture firms focused on the right values:

• Net income increased three times more than direct competitors.

• Profit performance was over 700 percent higher than direct competitors.

• Return on invested capital was almost 50 percent higher than direct competitors.

To evaluate the strategic fit of your culture, ask yourself, "Do our values and practices provide a point of difference the customer cares about, a competitive advantage?

Source:  Jack Hayhow: The Wisdom of the Flying Pig

 

Visit this week's HR Carnival for what's happening today in human resources.

 

 

Relationship is the Essence of Leadership

 The essence of relationship is emotion. 

 

In effective organizations, most employees operate on a continuum somewhere between compliance and commitment.  Compliance can be enforced in a number of ways--rules, procedures, threats, and bribes, to name a few.  But compliance has serious limitations.  It is seldom associated with innovation, breakthrough or exceptional performance.

Commitment, on the other hand, knows virtually no bounds.  Most forms of organizational capacity, power, and competitive advantage are generated by commitment.  But commitment springs only from the heart.  It can't be coerced or legislated.  Commitment is an emotional response, a response that almost always results from a meaningful connection--a relationship.

 

Albert Einstein once said, "We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only serve."

Regardless of your industry, it is the people who work for you who are your sustainable competitive advantage.  One of your crucial tasks as a leader is to create a climate conductive to an ever expanding web of connection between people throughout the organization.  You need to do everything possible to find, develop and keep those people who make your company competitive. 

No matter what business you're in, you are in the business of building leaders.  Rather than risk losing a key employee, invest in developing their skills for a future leadership role.  Doing so will keep the employee engaged, demonstrate your company's commitment to retaining and growing in-house talent and ultimately help your organization's bottom line.

Source:  Jack Hayhow: The Wisdom of the Flying Pig

'JOB' Searching by Retirees

According to Google's keyword search tool, the term "jobs" ranked sixth in the top 10 search items in October 2008, above terms such as cars, games and porn.

For retirees, the advice in recent months has been unvarying: Retirees whose nest eggs have cracked wide open should go out and find a job.  Across the country, retirees who never imagined themselves returning to the workplace are polishing resumes and knocking on employers' doors.

The problem: Most are running smack into the worst job market in almost three decades.  Nearly 5% of workers age 55 and older were unemployed in December 2008, a 58% jump from a year earlier and the highest percentage since 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite sizable hurdles, some retirees are finding work.  How did they land those jobs, the first that some had applied for in several decades?  What are the best and worst parts of their newfound employment?

Source: The Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2009  

JobCoachingTips.com offers 21 job seeking tips for $9.95 plus links to free and low-cost online career self assessments, free interview tips and a link to CareerBuilder.com:

For a Year's Subscription to weekly Job Search/Career Transition Tips, click here:

For 21 Career Transition Tips, click here.

To Find Jobs, click here.

For Career Assessments, click here.

For a free Interview Success Guide, click here. 

Search for Laser Specific Job Candidates

Differentiate yourself to be a more attractive candidate.

Although Watson Wyatt reports that 23 percent of all U.S. firms plan layoffs this year, some companies realize that there's more talent available right now than there has been in years.   Many smart and successful executives are recognizing that gravitating to the consulting and other service firms is the place to be during this structural shift within the global economy.

Firms are hiring executives and engaging consultants---it's just that now they want a different type of person---one who has a combination of strategy consulting and operations work experience.  That person is a trusted adviser with real content knowledge who can serve in a very specific role.

Companies are interested in laser-specific candidates who have hybrid experience.   Consulting firms would typically like to go into a company where someone maybe started in a strategy role, then moved over to an operating role and has been in that kind of situation for a number of years, and they would go after that person to come back into consulting.

What can you do now to position yourself for a better position down the road?

"The best thing to do is work your business school alumni network from years past, the second is to quietly build a relationship with a half dozen or so executive recruiting firms that are known to have a large practice in professional services," says Bob Damon, president, North America, of executive recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International.  "Generally what happens with service firms is in a downturn, they don't rightsize themselves quickly enough.  And so in a downturn, they're trailing indicators."

Damon says taking on the right projects is essential.  "I think that having experience helping develop a strategy that required a turnaround would be helpful experience for consultants to have given what's going to take place over the next couple of years."

Jonathan Phillips, founder of Magellan International, a professional services search firm says, "Who you want to hire is the trusted adviser who really owns relationships in either the industry or competency where you want to generate revenue over time.  Trust is earned over time; you can't buy it and sell it, and it's not as portable as people think.  It takes time to develop it." 

Source: Consulting, January 2009

Spending Down & Unemployment Up

Consumers are spending less and saving more, while companies have announced tens of thousands of job cuts for 2009 and beyond.

The economy lost 3.6 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007, half of those losses in the past three months.  The tally of lost jobs for the January 2009 period was 598,000.

In Detroit, Chrysler LLC said it would idle two Michigan plants for at least a week.  Both Chrysler and General Motors Corporation are expected to propose shuttering several facilities as part of the viability plans they are set to deliver to the U.S. government later this month.

This recession's job losses now total about 2.6% of employment with some economists predicting unemployment could hit double digits later this year.  The recession has cut across regions and industries with significant cuts in the service sector---a troubling sign that reflects the sharp contraction in spending among business and consumers.  The service sector, which accounts for around 85% of jobs, lost 279,000 jobs in January 2009.  Worrying to economists is the fact that during most recessions, service-related jobs tend to hold up.

The unemployment number, measuring only those actively looking for jobs, is considered a lagging indicator because it reflects companies' reaction to the worsening economy.  But in a sign of further weakness, the broadest gauge of unemployment (that includes people who have been forced to take part-time work or who dropped out of the labor force altogether) soared to 13.9% in January.