Improving your leadership culture

Herman Trend Alert: Executives--A Dollar Shorter

September 3, 2008
The Herman Group


EMPLOYEE RETENTION BEGINS WITH GOOD SELECTION

Not using pre-employment assessments? You are flying without radar---not very smart in today's competitive environment. Let us help you better understand your candidates and your current employees. In less than 30 minutes, you will know if they can do the job (abilities); their work behaviors, even their personality and attitudes (like integrity & ethics), and those can't be trained. It's very cost effective, too! For more information, contact Joyce at 336-210-3548 or e-mail assessments@hermangroup.com. Validated for many countries and cultures. We offer in-depth help with job descriptions, too!Herman Trend Alert: Executives--A Dollar Shorter September 3, 2008As management consultants, we encourage candidates to evaluate prospective employers based on the total package of compensation, now called, "total rewards", including fringe benefits and perquisites. Recently, the compensation research firm Equilar conducted a study, detailing trends in "total rewards" for top executives of the 95 largest public companies by revenue in the United States.Equilar tracks nine major areas of perks, including corporate housing benefits, personal and home security, and country club memberships. This year's study found the median values of seven of the nine major CEO perquisites it tracks had decreased.New Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules require companies to disclose perks that cost more than $10,000; previously, the threshold for reporting was $50,000. Not surprisingly, this new level of disclosure has led to a decline in upscale extras. While these top public companies are spending more in two of the study's included areas of CEO perks, in general, executives are receiving the same or fewer "goodies" than last year.>From 2006 to 2007, the median value of CEO perquisites related to financial planning benefits (including other professional services such as tax preparation) declined by 9.2 percent, while expenditures for the personal use of corporate aircraft declined by 9.8 percent.The decreases reflect the concern of boards of directors to seem vigilant in their financial oversight. In fact, some companies are actually reporting more than is required by law to demonstrate their transparency.Only two areas showed increases. First, the extra cash to compensate for taxes assessed on the attributed income of fringe benefits, increased in 2007 by an unexpected 43.6 percent. Second, the median value of personal and home security benefits for these executives showed an increase of 14.4 percent. The latter really only increased due to the inclusion of Michael Dell whose company spent over $1 million on his home security system.These trends reflect that privately held organizations have an advantage over others, because there is no required reporting. Private companies will be able to "sweeten the deals" for prospective executives, without concern about SEC oversight. Private companies will surely win this war for executive talent.********WANT TO BE RECOGNIZED AS AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE®?Our effective, onsite seminars, workshops, and consulting can help you get there. We offer 1-, 2-, 3-hour, and full-day programs to help you communicate what it takes to become an Employer of Choice® and inspire your folks to get it done. In the future, being an Employer of Choice® will not be optional. Call Joyce at 336-210-3548 for a no-obligation conference call.********GET INSIDE THE MINDS OF YOUR EMPLOYEESFind out what’s really going on inside the hearts and minds of your employees. Our InnerViews interviewing service uses SPHRs and PHRs, certified human resource professionals to probe for the information you really need to know. Exit and Stay Interviews, as well as Why-Didn't-You-Take-Our-Offer Interviews. Call Rosalie Catalano at 937-648-1918 or read more at: http://www.hermangroup.com/retentionconnection/exit_interviews.html.

Book Review

The Five Most Important Questions (You Will Ever Ask about Your Organization)

by Peter F. Drucker with Jim Collins, Philip Kotler, James Kouzes, Judith Rodin, V. Kasturi Rangan, and Frances Hesselbein (Jossey-Bass, 2008)

book review from Leadership Wired ezine- John Maxwell organization

An intellectual giant, Peter Drucker was arguably the foremost authority on management during the last 50 years. His writing displayed a special gift for simplicity, and his style steadily pushed the reader to take action. Not content merely to hand out knowledge, Drucker always took special care to map out steps for application.
The Leader to Leader Institute chose to publish Drucker's work, The Five Most Important Questions, primarily to educate nonprofit leaders. Throughout his life, Peter Drucker admired nonprofits for their noble intentions and keen awareness of community needs. However, it frustrated him that organizations in the social sector commonly failed to craft sound strategy or achieve measurable results.
A collaborative effort of the Leader to Leader Institute, The Five Most Important Questions is presented as an organizational self-assessment tool. It is designed for the company wishing to reexamine its foundational beliefs. Throughout the book, essays from the likes of Jim Collins and James Kouzes supplement original text from the genius mind of Peter Drucker. The contributing authors accentuate the high points of Drucker's message without cluttering it with excess text. In fact, the book has barely 100 pages.
As the title suggests, the book is organized around five simple, but all-important questions:
1. What is our mission?2. Who is our customer?3. What does the customer value?4. What are our results?5. What is our plan?
Each question is addressed by Drucker and then unpacked by another leadership expert. The final twenty pages drill down into more detailed questions that point back to the five initially posed by Drucker.
From start to finish, The Five Most Important Questions preaches fundamentals. Drucker & Co. challenge leaders to revisit their organization's core identity, and call upon them to shore up ambiguity and incongruence. Quotable proverbs abound, but the book's brevity makes skimming for them unnecessary. The entire text can be absorbed in an hour or two.
A masterful "how-to" manual, the The Five Most Important Questions gives big-picture guidance, targeted to executive leaders in the social sector. The book earns praise for the clarity and focus it provides. It's an essential handbook for entrepreneurs, particularly those in the nonprofit arena. In addition, the The Five Most Important Questions is a great tool to reorient organizations that have stagnated or drifted off track.
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Developing Good Content for your Presentations

Develop Good Content for Your Presentations

By Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

http://www.fripp.com/patriciaandrobertfripp.html

Effective communication and award-winning presentations must containgreat content. Public speaking classes are full of public speaking tipson what to do with your hands, how to stand, and make eye contact.Important as all these techniques are you have to start with goodoriginal content.Let's look at where you develop your original content.In my presentation skills training I am frequently asked, "What on earthdo I speak about? Where do I find good examples?"This is my advice if your goal is to have effective businesspresentations...or are a professional speaker. The secret of developinggood content is simply this…you have to live an interesting life andtalk to interesting people.Make a list of all the people who have influenced you in your life.Lists are a great way to trigger your memory of what content to add toyour presentations.Make a list of every manager and boss you've worked for. Write down what you learned, even from a bad boss. A lousy boss canserve as a pitiful example. They teach us what not to do!A great boss example came when I was a 15-year-old shampoo girl at abeautiful salon in England and my first boss was Mr. Paul. I saw himtreat every woman who came into our salon like she was the only one inthe world.He treated the woman who worked as a waitress at the Carlton Hotel aswell as the rich little lady who lived in the penthouse at the CarltonHotel.When I was young I knew that was good service. It was nice to treatpeople well. Now that I'm older and in business, reflecting back Irealize lessons I learned that I wasn't experienced enough to understandat the time.As an experienced business person I realize that the waitress in theCarlton Hotel who talks to a somewhat affluent clientele of 150-200people a day, has a sphere of influence a lot greater than the richlittle lady who plays bridge every day with the same half dozen friends.That's a lesson and an example that goes into my customer servicespeech. I guarantee your lists will provide valuable lessons toillustrate important points for your business and professionalpresentations. Look at who influenced you and ask yourself what theytaught you and then how that played out in your life and career.Remember and record all your life turning points. The different jobs; the different schools; the different colleges; thedifferent seminars; who you met; when you fell in love with an idea, aprofession, or a cause. Look at the best advice that you have been givenand what happened as a result of taking it.As a hairstylist I spent 24 years behind a hairstyling chair. When I was15 working for Mr. Paul we had many rich, glamorous women as customers.As soon as I got to know them, I used to say, "What were you doing whenyou were my age? How did you make your money? Did you make it yourselfor did you marry it? If you made it yourself, how did you do it? If youmarried it, where did you meet him?"Good market research.My brother internationally acclaimed guitarist Robert Fripp is alwayssaying, "Sister, you ask people such personal questions!" During my overlapping careers behind a hairstyling chair and speaking at conferences,all the time asking questions nobody has ever said, "That's none of yourdamn business" because people love talking about themselves. This is agreat way to develop speech content and material.Develop daily habits.Every single day carry around a notepad, and reflect at the end of theday. Ask yourself, "What happened to me today that could one day be in aspeech or used as an example at a staff meeting?" If you had good or badcustomer service it's a story and example. Search your life for thestories that have a message. Even simple example can be very profound.Now you have some ideas to develop good, original content...why notwrite a speech?Need more help? How about...Fripp's upcoming Webinar and SpeakingSchools? - Fripp Presentation Skills Webinar September 4, 11:30 am-12:30 PSThttp://www.businessexpertwebinars.com/component/option,com_attend_events/task,view/id,291/afflink,bewpfripp040208- Fripp Seattle Area School November 6 & 7http://www.fripp.com/speakingschool.html- Robert Fripp Speaks...live and in personRedmond, LA & Phoenix, November 8-9-11

Making more with nothing more than what you already have

Herman Trend Alert: Use IM to Reduce Interruption August 27, 2008
Most people believe using "instant messaging" (IM) software to chat at work leads to an increase in disruption. In fact, a study published recently by researchers at Ohio State University and University of California, Irvine found that workers who used IM on the job reported fewer interruptions than their colleagues who did not.
The research showed that IM is often used as a substitute for other, more disruptive forms of communication such as the telephone, email, and face-to-face conversations and thus it actually leads to an increase in productivity. Dr. R. Kelly Garrett of Ohio State and James N. Danziger of UCLA, Irvine co-authored the study.
The findings, published recently in the "Journal of Computer Mediated Communication", states "using instant messaging led to more conversations on the computer, but the conversations were briefer than telephone conversations". Moreover, "employees are quite strategic in their use of instant messaging. They [use] it to check in with their colleagues to find out if they’re busy, before interrupting them in a more intrusive way".
Some workers use the IM technology to find out when their coworkers will be available, instead of unexpectedly visiting in person. Others use the technology to get quick answers to general questions or to inquire about current work tasks, rather than engaging in longer face-to-face conversations. Resolution of complex problems or situations is not a good use for IM.
The technology allows users to control how and when they communicate with coworkers. and gives people the ability to flag their availability or postpone responses to a more convenient time. Because it is more socially acceptable to ignore or dismiss a text message, than a telephone call, many use this technology to put off more disruptive conversations.
People who used instant messaging reported that they felt they were "interrupted less frequently". "The key take away is that instant messaging has some benefits, where many people had feared that it might be harmful,” said Garrett. Bottom line: "the effect of instant messaging is actually positive". We expect to see more employers testing this technology to help their employees do more with less.

To read this Herman Trend Alert on the web: http://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_8-27-2008.html.

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