Competency and Performance Solutions

It’s common to hear complaints about GenYs, but the Millennial Generation has its own frustrations. There are far too many to list here, but a common one is that they are full of innovative ideas which are ignored. Every cohort has new ideas, but this one thinks in a dramatically different way from the generations before them, even when compared with GenX. And they often have the “Mouth” to say so.

But your Millennials are finding out a great truth about business - that risk takers and innovators are a good thing in theory, but in practice they usually receive a very cool reception. Continue reading »

We all know that the US economy (as valued by Wall Street) has grown a couple of trillion dollars since 1994, and that this has not been industrial growth. You don’t see new oil refineries and steel mills popping up all over the landscape.

But it has been real growth, real wealth, not only share issuance.  It has come largely from knowledge-based activity. We have created hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalization - in real growth - as we shift gradually from an industrial age, to what has been called the Information Age, the Digital Age or the Age of Knowledge.
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1 How does your organization tell its story (brand) in an age of web transparency?
2 How does your learning and development team tell the story of your services and/or products?
3 Does your organization buy stories over quality?
4 Do you know (and monitor) your personal brand?

1 How does your organization tell its story (brand itself) in an age of web transparency?

We’ve always added value to goods and services with stories. A good story, with its associated emotions and images, can make bottled water worth seven times the price of gasoline. A tatty old rug with a history is a valuable antique… a shrimp cooked by a famous chef can cost twenty times more than one from a chain restaurant.

I’m sure that your strategic people get together regularly to review the “sizzle” which adds value to your services and products.

Questions to ask include: are you telling your story in a different way from the way you told it five years ago? Hot buttons are changing, and even a subtle shift will show on your bottom line. Continue reading »

Many organizations are staffed by a mix of people from individualist cultures (e.g. USA, Canada, Western European cultures) and collectivist cultures (e.g. Latino, Asian, African cultures).

Building trust and understanding between these diverse groups is not easy, either for the team members concerned, or for managers and learning specialists who facilitate the process.

Everyone has an “I” consciousness and a “we” consciousness. The “I” focuses on self achievement, self responsibility and autonomy. The “we” identity focuses on connection to our reference groups, and our relatedness. This emphasis varies from person to person, and from culture to culture.
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Research shows that even young, highly-educated and assertive women do not ask for what they want, or know how to maneuver their way through systems that penalize them for asking.

The cost, to both women and organizations, is high.

Research proves that when women do ask for what they want, they do not do so as clearly, quickly or as often as men do. GenX and GenY women are following in the footsteps of their Boomer and Traditional predecessors in this pattern.

Women also tend to think that what is offered (“what is on the table”) is all that is available. Men draw on their socialization (which includes things like being taught how to slip the Maitre d’ a few bucks for a better table) and assume that their wants and needs might be met if they speak up, irrespective of what seems to be on offer.

Organizations suffer. Their valuable women work and wait for rewards or options, then one day, *poof*! They’re working for your competitor or running their own small business, and you’re saying “why didn’t she TELL me she wanted that position, the same salary as John, that title, a new computer screen, a more flexible schedule, a space heater? It would have cost so little … a tiny fraction of what this is costing us now!”
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1 Everyone needs to maintain or increase organizational profit in a time of economic slowdown
2 One proven route to profitability: build the financial and business intelligence in all your employees

In a time of economic weakness, it’s especially important to make sure that all your key people are financially intelligent.

And not only key people - all your people. Back in the Age of Industry, only managers were expected to understand revenue and expenditure. Now everyone needs to ask:

1) How can we increase the numbers above the line?

You can simplify this into four starting points:

a) How can we sell more of our existing products or services to our existing customers?
b) How can we sell more of our existing products and services to new clients?
c) How can we sell new products or services to existing customers?
d) How can we sell new products or services to new customers?

… and what can I, personally, and my team, do about it?
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These days, Baby Boomer managers often complain about their GenY employees (“kids these days…”)

But maybe Boomers should worry less about GenY (described by Marcus Buckingham as the generation who got prizes for coming 8th in a race). Some Boomers still need to learn that you can’t win against GenX if you use the old-fashioned methods of business power broking.

There are still a lot of Boomer and Traditional managers who have days of thinking “I’ll do it my way, now I am the boss”, forgetting that the rules of the business game have changed … forever.

Deep in the cubicles of the corporate jungles there is an army, trained to deal with their parents’ generation. One result is that the Boomer who thinks in terms of “my way or the highway” soon finds out that this only works if the person who is going to hit the highway is the Boomer him/herself.
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A Is our education system making you poorer, even if you are well-qualified, well paid, and don’t have children in school?
B Is there a small, inexpensive action that you, and your organization, can take to change this?

A How could our education system be making you poorer, even if you do not have children in school, and already have a good education yourself?

Forbes.com has plenty of data on the best place to locate a business or build a career. The South East is generally doing well, but Tampa-St Pete is now is 132nd place on educational attainment, compared to similar metros.

(And Florida ranks 48th out of 50 states on indicators like the national ACT college entrance test.)

Good education is the tide that lifts all ships.
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