Archive for CEO
Blame Our Leaders for Incivility in Politics and a Hostile Workplace
Posted by: | CommentsThat’s the conclusion of a new report Civility in America 2011. The 2011 online survey* was conducted in May among 1,000 American adults to assess attitudes towards civility online, in the workforce, in the classroom and in politics.
I was particularly struck by the statistics on workplace civility: 65% of the respondents blame corporate leadership for making the workplace more uncivil.
More than 70% of Americans consider political campaigns, pop culture, the media, government and the music industry hubs of incivility. Not surprisingly, Congressional Democrats, Congressional Republicans and Tea Party supporters are all viewed as more uncivil than civil.
According to the study, “while more than one-third (39%) expected things to turn less civil when surveyed in 2010, now more than one out of two Americans — 55% — expect a lack of civility to become the norm. Only nine percent in this year’s survey expect civility to get better compared to 26% who expected some relief last year. Incivility seems to be here to stay.”
Workplace Incivility Hurts Sales
Approximately seven in 10 Americans (69%) have either stopped buying from a company or have re-evaluated their opinions of a company because someone from that company was uncivil in their interaction, says the study. Not good for sales or a company’s brand. In another disturbing finding, over four in 10 Americans — 43% — have experienced incivility at work.
Respondents blame workplace leadership and other employees for the growing incivility problem. As I wrote in an earlier post, Treating Fired Employees Like Criminals, losing a job can be devastating. But when companies mistreat employees they are letting go, it poisons the workplace and, now we learn, can add to incivility.
With the 2012 Presidential campaign heating up, I guess we need to be resigned to even more incivility as the battle lines are drawn by politicians and we’re subjected to mud slinging in commercials. How sad.
*Study sponsored by Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate and conducted by KRC Research
Ben Franklin Was Full of Ideas – So Are Your Employees
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Personally, I'm glad he invented bifocals
The creative director from an agency I worked for used to say, “There are no little ideas or big ideas, only powerful ideas.” I wrote in a post last week that the Journal Register Company was saved from extinction by powerful ideas – from its own employees.
Key was that each team member of the IdeaLab had a specific assignment. Telling someone to “make the business better” is too fuzzy. While some tasks may seem small (but powerful), they all added up to a plan that saved the company. Now that’s real power – in the hands of the new community of employees that includes the CEO.
Here is the link to The Ben Franklin Project – a Bold New Experiment that lists the discrete task of each employee. No doubt more have been added since that post.
Does your company have a similar kind of program? Would love if you shared how it works by commenting below.
The New Leadership Paradigm: Rule by Community
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Hosni Mubarak
The riots in Cairo have reinforced the movement exemplified by the Tea Party in the U.S. – leadership by community. It is the new leadership paradigm — the spontaneous formation of new communities of leaders, made possible by the power of the Internet. The old paradigm of one leader at the top of the leadership pyramid is crumbling everywhere. We’ll talk later about what this new paradigm means for business. But, first, let’s learn from what’s happening in Cairo where it is chaos and bloodshed and events are unfolding by the minute.
The Power of Twitter and Facebook
The images from Cairo on TV are frightening and Twitter is again center stage with a continuous stream of updates, many with links to videos from the scene. Here’s how it all started:
Before the Egyptian government shut down popular networking sites, many thousands of disaffected young Egyptians joined the Facebook community entitled We are all Khaled Said, which called for the downfall of the current regime and where members post updates of events on the ground in real time.
According to Newsweek, “The anonymous Facebook page administrator who goes by the handle El Shaheed, meaning martyr, has played a crucial role in organizing the demonstrations, the largest Egypt has seen since the 1970s, that now threaten the country’s authoritarian regime.”
No One is in Charge – Everyone is in Charge
Yet, through the coverage of this historic uprising, you learn there is no one leader in charge. Instead, a spontaneous community of protestors has literally linked arms in the “march of millions.” They have coalesced around a unified theme – changing the regime. They want better lives for themselves. It’s as simple as that.
As one my favorite leadership gurus, John Kotter says, “leadership is about coping with change.” By his definition, Egypt’s long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak failed to recognize the terrain shifting under his feet. He lost his leadership role, not because he was overthrown by another leader or in a military coup, but because power had spontaneously transferred to rule by the community. Now he’s being forced out and it’s gotten ugly and brutal as he tries to hang on to power, at least for now.
In the U.S., the Tea Party movement is another community that emerged and coalesced around the common goal of bringing change to government they thought had become too big and intrusive. Luminaries like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh at first appeared to assume the mantle for the Tea Party, but no one single leader has emerged. Yet, loosely affiliated local Tea Party groups are toppling existing office holders and pushing through changes in how cities, states and the federal government operate.
What This Means for Business Leaders
So what has this got to do with our business leaders as they “cope with change,” as Kotter puts it. Anybody who ever doubted that the old “command and control” model is dead just needs to examine the paradigm shift in Egypt and U.S. politics. My view is that the corporate CEO is now just another member of the broad community in his or her organization. Companies that openly invite employees to share their ideas for innovation to make the organization smarter, more competitive and more profitable will be the big-time winners.
The Journal Register Company is a great example of how a company unleashed employees to give it a new lease on life. The company owns 170 publications, including 18 daily newspapers in major markets including Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland. In a blog post to employees in December, CEO John Patton wrote:
“Folks, in 2010 you proved that a tired, old, broken down and bankrupt newspaper company like the Journal Register Company could be turned around. You proved that a company’s strength resided in its employees and not its infrastructure of buildings, trucks and I.T. The wonderful Ben Franklin Project proved that determined employees could find the strength and energy to innovate — and you published daily newspapers and websites using only free web-based tools. You proved that while many in the newspaper industry might be devoid of ideas you were not and the ideaLab was born.”
Google is another company that carves out time for employees to go off and think about new ideas. Look where they are.
The revolt in Egypt is a vivid and brutal example that leadership by fiat is dead. Anyone disagree that we’re experiencing a new leadership paradigm?
Addendum: My colleague Bea Fields added her perspective on this post in her blog Self Directed Leadership Defines a New Era for Egypt and the World, noting that many protesters are under 30, or part of the Gen Y generation. Visit her blog for her take on how Gen Y is going to respond to this historic event.
The Flogging Will Continue Until Morale Improves
Posted by: | CommentsI played in a regional bridge tournament recently and stopped in my tracks when a man walked by wearing a T-shirt that said: “The flogging will continue until morale improves.” I laughed, but it wasn’t really funny. Flogging employees doesn’t happen anymore, but verbal abuse and unreasonable demands are all too common in many companies. (Unfortunately, punishment by flogging is still prevalent in less civilized societies).
The company shall remain nameless, but I once worked for a CEO who would simply phone senior executives with the command “get over here.” No hi, how are you. Oh, and he once threw an ash tray in a meeting. Don’t think this doesn’t happen anymore. With the bad economy, some companies are getting away with mistreating employees, who need to hold onto their jobs. But things will get better in time, and then employees will flee.
Arrogance Doesn’t Cut it Anymore
In a recent issue of Business Week in an article entitled Twelve Signs Arrogance is Running Your Company leadership expert Alaina Love with Purpose Linked Consulting recounted the story of Joe, who astonished the CEO of his company by resigning because his cautions about the company’s direction fell on deaf ears. Joe was a key player and nobody wanted him to leave so they brought in Love to try to talk him out of it. As Love writes in her bylined article, “The significance of Joe’s impending departure was enormous, I realized. He’d grown up in the company, starting first in sales and eventually working his way up to a leadership position in marketing. Losing him would mean a tough blow for the organization, one from which recovery would be difficult and lengthy, if not impossible. With him would go years of irreplaceable institutional wisdom and history.”
Joe’s Reason for Leaving
He told Love, “We’re not positioning ourselves for ongoing success, and I just don’t think this way of operating is sustainable. I’ve done everything I can to convince leadership we should adopt a different approach, but they’re not listening. They won’t even sit down long enough to learn about the suggestions I have for changing things.”
Employee engagement has become the new mantra for forward-thinking companies, but, alas, too many CEOs take the position of Joe’s. “We don’t need somebody around here who doesn’t embrace our way of doing things,” the CEO said to Love. In other words, it’s my way or the highway.
How shortsighted. As I’ve written before, the economy is bad now so employees are staying put. But in time the job market will improve and those companies that value their employees will be rewarded by their loyalty. Companies like Joe’s will experience an exodus of employees who don’t want any more floggings.
