“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi

 

In the aftermath of The Great Recession of 2008-2009, leaders are faced with a serious organizational challenge: a workforce that is increasingly disengaged and burned out. Leaders only succeed by getting things done through others, and that just got tougher. As a leader, where do you start?

Ironically, the first step is to hold up the mirror and look long and hard at the reflection. For leaders who want improved performance and increased effectiveness of their people working together, they need to first exemplify the desired behaviors. And they are not doing that now.

In our Third Annual Leadership Report Card, we found three key trends that are impacting organizational results:

1. With an 8% drop in the overall confidence of the workforce in their leaders, the gap is widening between what employees want and value in their leaders and what they feel they are getting.
2. Senior leaders are seen as losing their interpersonal connection with their people. Personal skills are the leadership characteristics that separate leaders who achieve sustainable success and those that fail.
3. The top four leadership characteristics most valued by employees is the same year over year, regardless of gender or age. For leaders, there is clarity in terms of what they need to provide their people to improve performance.

Leaders need to look closely in the mirror and start taking the steps necessary to make the connection with their people and gain better results.

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The ability to communicate effectively is a critical skill for successful leaders. Communication affects all aspects of leadership. Yet, leaders are assessed by their teams and organizations as a C- in communication effectiveness.

There is no wonder that employee engagement is down, workforce productivity is in decline, and client loyalty is lagging. Leaders at all levels are only 62.5% effective in communicating to connect with their audience.

The audience had a shared opinion - the same rankings of leader communication effectiveness is seen across generations and genders of employees. Leaders are more focused on their message than what is important to the audience.

Several significant gaps were revealed in the responses to our survey:

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Canadian organization's competitiveness has declined by 4.41% for each year over the past five years alone! How much further can it go before we just can't compete and accept mediocrity?

Competitive advantage separates the organization in the eye and mind of the client from the market. It is what makes an organization stand out. With fewer than 3% of Canadian senior leaders being able to define their organization's competitive advantage, we are losing our way.

The key to improving organizational competitiveness does not lie in price cuts, new technology, or investing in new machinery. The answer to building a sustainable competitive advantage for your organization lies in your people - the real business differentiator.

Canadian organizations are not getting bang for buck. Poor productivity remains one of Canada's most significant problems and is the main  contributor to declining competitiveness. While payroll is increasing, output is declining with the combination of these two factors resulting in a competitive slide of 20.24% in a little over five years. Organizations are paying more and getting less. The decline in productivity also affects the individual Canadian worker being primarily responsible for the current Canada-US income gap of $6,400US per employee - we have less money to spend and support economic growth.

Are we lazy?

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Team: “People are disengaged … and unhappy!”Leader: “Yes – but we’re getting results, right?”

Sadly, this conversation is actually happening in organizations today.

Are we still in the dark ages? I thought we were in the renaissance of collaborative leadership.

Our leadership evaluation survey showed that in the short term, it seems leaders did the right things to keep the confidence of their teams. However, troubling themes underlie the overall rating. First and foremost, overall evaluations of leaders by employees remain at a B- level – we can and should do better!

Three specific trends were revealed in our survey:

1. The lowest confidence level was for managers – employees rated performance much lower for managers than any other leadership position.
2. There was a noticeable decline in leader confidence by young professionals over the last year.
3. Results were delivered but it seems at the expense of relationships.

What does this mean for you?

In our survey, we outline what matters most for your success as a leader answering key questions … What do employees really want from you and has it changed? What can de-rail your organization’s performance? What can de-rail your success as leader?

The world has changed, people have changed – leaders need to change.

Read our 2nd Annual Leadership Report Card to gain perspective, reflect on your own organization, and decide on the best steps. The real challenge is not the economy – it is the leadership decisions we make.

Interviewer to CEO: “How many people work at your company?”
CEO: “About half.”

Our recent market survey showed that more than 30% of employees are actively disengaged and the perception of employees is that managers are more disengaged than employees. Are we becoming accustomed to accepting average performance?

Are people just born that way? The answer is no – ineffective and poorly trained managers create disengaged employees. With more than 50% of managers being assessed as not effective, the problem is huge.

The impact of disengaged employees costs organizations a fortune. Productivity lost to disengaged workers was reported at about $156,000 each year for each employee! If 54% of employees do not feel engaged, do the math. The lack of engagement hurts!

The top three factors reported by employees to build engagement were under the influence of their managers. Managers are the key to building employee engagement and can be trained to succeed.

Relationship building is the cornerstone of increasing the level of employee engagement and it starts with the manager. Managers need to earn engagement – not demand it.

We found three levers of relationship building for managers to follow and build employee engagement in their teams. Increasing engagement also relates to higher productivity and profitability, greater revenues, and improved customer satisfaction.

The great irony of management is that the managers who are best at getting the most from people are those that give the most to them.

Find out how to improve engagement – and your bottom line – by reading our white paper, Accepting Average.

Download our white paper, Accepting Average today!

The world has changed, people have changed – organizations need to change and develop leaders who can translate potential to performance today and tomorrow.

We need leaders that can connect with people, involve them, and show them the path to a bigger future. Performance results from investing in relationships rather than directing actions.

Leadership skills can be developed. It is critical that organizations make the leadership development of talented young professionals a critical core business strategy.

Are there core competencies that will develop successful leaders for the future?

Yes, the critical qualities for leaders in the new society and followership are known and can be developed. The key skills for leaders for 2020 will separate organizations that win from those that fall behind.

The payoff of leadership development done well is the greater confidence people expressed in the long-term success of the organization.

Find out about the state of leadership and followership today and the critical skills leaders need to develop for future success.

You are concerned about revenues, don’t want to let people go, need to cut costs, and must find ways to work smarter. Competition is fierce. Yet, in uncertainty, there are incredible ways to engage your people, inspire performance, and strengthen customer relationships.

Downturns yield opportunity. Times of uncertainty and financial upheaval create a new generation of leaders – those who think strategically and take decisive actions.

Leaders must balance the demand to stabilize internally with the need to capitalize on opportunities.

Much has been written about the direction leaders should take in this time of economic crisis. The media noise is loud and people are anxious and uncertain. What are the right steps leaders can take for the best results for their businesses?

Much has been written about weathering the recession. Read about the Seven Best Practices for leading successfully in uncertain times. Find out how to focus your team and organization on making the right decisions to thrive.

Two-thirds of change initiatives and great ideas fail – not because the ideas weren’t great or the need wasn’t real, but rather because the leader did not connect with the audience. Lack of communication before, during, and after a change initiative is the root cause of poor results.

What is crucial to remember is that leading change is more about feelings and less about facts. We need to ask the audience in order to understand the audience.

For improved success, three shifts are recommended in how leaders and organizations approach the change process. To learn more about these three shifts and your change initiative, download our whitepaper - Silence of the Lambs: Why Change Doesn't Happen and How to Make It Work - today!

The power to communicate and connect is the key to effective change leadership. It is not up to the audience to understand the need to change. That is the leader’s job.

True or false: Leaders are suffering from myopic amnesia?

More and more, the answer is true. Leaders implement strategies that are singularly focused on short-term performance and forget the core strategic initiatives agreed upon in the strategic planning process. Leaders and organizations become distracted and subject to shiny object syndrome.

The end result is that organizations do not deliver to their potential.

From our study, strategic planning does not translate to great performance for most organizations:

• Only 8% of strategies actually generate results as planned with 37% failing totally.

• Only 11% of executives feel their strategic planning process is worth their investment of time.

• Leaders were given an overall score of 69% on the ability to connect strategy to results for their organizations – a C+!

Bottom line – organizations capture only 63% of their potential financial performance and, as a result, leader credibility suffers. Strategy is crucial for organizations to be competitive and successful. Why is it not working?

People are not clear on what is important and spend time doing second things first. In our research we identified six challenges that block leaders and businesses from being strategically effective.

Strategic planning done right builds prepared minds, provides a framework for executive decision-making, and acts as a catalyst for employee engagement – the real competitive advantage.

Leaders need to take a strategic approach to strategic planning to simplify, leverage, accelerate and multiply results for the organization.

There is a significant gap between the expectations we have of our leaders and our evaluations of their performance – and it widens with age. We surveyed Atlantic Canadians about what they expect of their leaders and are they getting it – by generation grouping Leadership is a catalyst for change and growth in business and in our society and we wanted to gain a tangible picture of how our leaders are doing.

Download our research paper, Leading Across Generations, for the results and interpretation of our Survey of Leaders in Atlantic Canadian Business Teams. The results of our survey will provide a winning direction for your business.

Survey Results of Challenges, Opportunities and Capabilities faced by Women Leaders in Atlantic Canada

Women lag behind men in assuming senior leadership positions in business. Yet, women make better leaders!

In January 2008, Bluteau DeVenney and Company informally surveyed women in senior leadership positions in Nova Scotia. The objective was to assess how women succeeded in leadership roles and what was in front of them.

What the survey showed was that women have the capacity and capability to be great leaders - better than men based on the changing needs of leadership. Confidence is needed to capitalize on the opportunity and confidence results from proactively taking charge of time and energy.

In our research paper, you will also find comments and quotes from survey respondents on where they see their organizations today and where there is a need to invest and practical actions to take for their organizations.

Download our research paper, Women's Leadership Advantage, for the results and interpretation of our Survey of Challenges, Opportunities and Capabilities for Atlantic Canadian Business Women. The results of our survey will provide a winning direction for your business.

Why Great Strategy Doesn't Always Equal Great Performance - Survey Results of Goals, Strategies and Execution for Atlantic Canadian Business Teams

Business leaders determine great strategies with clear expectations for results and assign accountability so everyone knows who does what -- but then somethings happens. Something gets lost in translation.

Bluteau DeVenney & Company recently surveyed Atlantic Canadian business people and professionals to assess how well organizations executed on plans and strategic goals.

What the survey showed was that leaders need to allocate time on a regular basis to review, assess and reflect on strategic plan progress in order to make informed and coordinated decisions to stay on track.

In our research paper, you will also find comments on where we see organizations today, where leaders need to invest and practical actions to take for your own organization.

Download our research paper, Lost In Translation, for the results and interpretation of our Survey of Goals, Strategies and Execution for Atlantic Canadian Business Teams. The results of our survey will provide a winning direction for your business.

Survey Results of Leadership Effectiveness for Atlantic Canadian Business Teams

There is a leadership gap in organizations today. It is not in the number of leaders or in the capacity of leaders, where is gap exists is in the effectiveness of leaders.

Bluteau DeVenney & Company recently surveyed Atlantic Canadian business people and professionals to assess how they rated the effectiveness of the leaders of their teams and organizations.

What the survey showed was that leaders are respected for delivering results but they are not doing well at providing communication that connects with and develops their people.

In our research paper, you will also find comments on where we see organizations today, where leaders need to invest and practical actions to take for your own organization.

Download our research paper, What Leaders Need to Hear, for the results and interpretation of our Survey of Leadership Effectiveness for Atlantic Canadian Business Teams. The results of our survey will provide a winning direction for your business.

Survey Results of Priorities for Atlantic Canadian Business Teams

When asked what was most important to drive results for their organizations and teams, business people answered strategically.

Our research paper outlines the key priorities for success from the team member’s perspective as well as the areas for motivation that would most engage teams.

The results are invaluable to the leader and the team. You may be surprised by the responses. Business development, new product innovation and bottom-line profits may not be the priorities for growth.

In the paper, you will also find comments on where we see organizations today, where leaders need to invest and practical actions to take from the paper for your own organization.

Download our research paper, What Matters Most, for the results and interpretation of our Survey of Priorities for Atlantic Canadian Business Teams. The results of our survey will provide a winning direction for your business.