Leadership

Managing Leadership by Bot

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Tatiana Shepeleva/Shutterstock

Two of the essential objects of employee training include the development management and leadership skills. As noted from our textbook, management development is ‘complex’ and leadership qualities are those which are meant to ‘inspire others’. For the lucky few, it may appear that their management and leadership skills come naturally. For most people taking on the role of supervisor or boss, these skills need to be nurtured and honed in order to assume the characteristics of an effective leader.

Traditional management training programs have provided the context and support for this type of development in the past. We do not live or work in traditional times any more. With the increasing influence of artificial intelligence in the workplace, management and leadership training can now be delivered directly to employees on the job through their personal technical devices.

The influence of leadership apps, such as ‘Coach Amanda’ and ‘Humu’, are explored in a recent article posted in The Wall Street Journal.

Click here to read the article.

As outlined in the article, these types of coaching apps provide prompts or ‘nudges’ to evoke constructive leadership behaviour. The apps are designed to give feedback and repeated reminders of appropriate supervisory or leadership behaviour. On the positive side, this kind of prompting does provide guidance from a neutral space. Most employees are not comfortable telling their direct supervisor something negative about their behaviour that needs to change. Supervisors have often been promoted into their new roles, with little guidance or direction when needing to deal with day-to-day challenges. A personalized and direct coaching app may offer an alternative to what would otherwise be a difficult conversation to have with one’s boss, or (as is usually the case) the negative behaviours for a new supervisor are just not addressed at all.

The fact that a prompt provided by artificial intelligence (AI) is needed in order change human behaviour is more than a bit ironic and, as the article suggests, just a little bit creepy. No matter what one’s perspective on the influence of AI may be, the reality is that it is here to stay and our working world has changed, for better or for worse.

Let’s make sure we program the apps for the better.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Based on your own internet search, how many leadership coaching apps are you able to source?
  2. How does an app, such as ‘Coach Amanda’, influence management development?
  3. Would you use a coaching app for your own leadership development? Explain your rationale.
  4. How does ‘micro-learning’ influence on the job management development in a positive way?

Leadership Lessons

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What do leaders really need to know in order to inspire trust, create connections, and motivate others? Usually we look for methodologies and lessons that fall into ‘traditional’ leadership development categories. While these approaches to leadership continue to be valid, we live and work in untraditional times where organizational chaos resulting from constant change is the norm. As organizational leaders, Human Resources professionals need to know how to lead through the currency and consistency of change.

Patty McCord, ‘iconic former chief talent officer at Netflix’, provides us with some blunt lessons in her TedTalk – The Way We Work.

From a Human Resources (HR) perspective, at first, Ms. McCord’s approach seems almost blasphemous! She advocates for the tossing out of the precious acronyms, rules and processes, to which HR clings, to ensure order, system controls and best practice implementation. Upon reflection, however, the values Ms. McCord speaks to are about respect, excitement, passion, modeling, and collaboration.  While she advocates for the tossing out of the formal, once-a-year performance review, Ms. McCord reiterates the need for proactive and ‘in the moment’ feedback based in truth. When we treat our colleagues as adults in the workplace, we can all handle the truth, both positive and negative, because it paves the path to continuous improvement.

Understanding the business, living company values, building excitement for change into the future are ideas that are not new. These are lessons that we, as HR leaders, must continue to learn repeatedly, traditionally and untraditionally, until one day, we may be able to get them right and inspire others to do the same.

Discussion Questions:

  1. When is the last time you were told you are doing a good job at work by your boss?
  2. When is the last time you told a colleague that they were doing something right?
  3. As a leader and an HR professional, how do you inspire others in the workplace?
  4. How can you improve your own capacity for handling change?

Forecasting for Diversity

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How can organizations address the ongoing issues of diversity gaps in leadership?

This question is one that is explored by Rocio Lorenzo in the Ted Talk posted below.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPtPG2lAmm4[/embedyt]

As identified through Lorenzo’s research, organizations have two decisions to make:

  1. Who to hire?
  2. Who to develop and promote?

These two simple questions are critical when considering the development of the HR forecasting plan. When diversity in leadership is actively embedded into strategic goals, the answers to these two questions help to build a better organization.

Not, as Lorenzo says, that changing the face of leadership is about checking the targeted hiring box. Token targets through diversity plans are not enough to bring innovative change. Instead, organizations that think and build creativity into their forecasting plans use leadership development programs, tools and pools as a solid investment for future success. In order to change what leadership looks like at the top, a commitment to filling the diversity gaps through the HR forecasting process must drive through all levels of the organization.

The content for this Ted Talk is based on evidence based research. According to Lorenzo, diversity in leadership is not just a theoretical ‘nice-to-have’. The research tells us that it is an organizational ‘must-have’. As Lorenzo points out, achieving diversity with women in leadership roles is doable.

It takes an organizational commitment and the organizational decision to do better in order to make the doable achievable. In order to be achievable, the HR forecasting plan must come into play through targets and goals which implement diversity as a plan of action.

Diversity goes hand in hand with innovation. Together they drive organizational success, for real.

Discussion questions:

  1. Do you agree that organizations should establish active and measurable targets in order to implement diversity, specifically for women, in leadership? Explain your rationale.
  2. Identify how an HR forecasting plan can address both short and long term diversity goals.
  3. What types of HR programs and policies need to be in place in order to support an HR forecasting plan that promotes innovation and diversity?

 

 

CEO Perspectives

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christitzeimaging.com/Shutterstock

How does an organization implement corporate strategy successfully? Chris Catliff, the CEO for BlueShore Financial, offers three key leadership techniques that focus on high employee engagement as a driver of corporate strategy. According to Catliff, successful strategy implementation begins with employees understanding what the strategy is and why it is important for organizational success.

Click here to read the article.

Catliff’s article focuses on the primary need for leaders to ensure that all employees are able to drive the mission and vision, because they (the employees) are empowered to do so. Of the three key tools that the author advises leaders to use, the need for tapping into legitimate authority stands out as a critical piece of this particular leadership puzzle. Legitimate authority, according to Catliff, is the application of consistent and dependable practices that allow employees to know where a leader stands from a values point-of-view, without needing to be told.

The article goes on to describe the need to support creative talent, flexibility, and the implementation of new ideas when the need for change is evident. What is notably absent, however, is the role that Human Resources could and should be playing in the delivery, support, and implementation of a leadership vision through effective employee engagement.

This is where the use of Human Resources research and analysis becomes critical. Catliff notes that only 29% of employees can accurately identify their organization’s strategy. In order to increase this percentage, the Human Resources function should be actively engaged. The Human Resources focus should begin with an evaluation of the effectiveness of the leader’s key drivers and messages.

As leadership’s ambassador to employees, Human Resources is the purveyor of legitimate organizational authority. In this capacity, Human Resources must uncover and address information gaps by delivering consistent and dependable findings that evaluate real levels of employee engagement in order to drive organizational success.

Discussion Questions:

 

  1. If you were the Chief Human Resources Officer for BlueShore Financial, what types of metrics would you put into place that would measure employee engagement that aligns with its corporate strategy?
  2. How can the Human Resources function assess the impact of legitimate power within an organization?
  3. How can the Human Resources role identify the gaps between what an organization’s leader wants and what the workforce is actually doing?

What Is Going Wrong in Canadian Workplaces?

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Gustavo Frazao/Shutterstock

The numbers are in and they do not look good.

In a recent HRNOW posting, it was reported that a 40% leadership failure-rate exists in the workplace.

This week’s upbeat HR research is even more alarming. Hays Canada has been conducting workplace satisfaction surveys since 2013 and the changes they have found this year are alarming:

  • Work satisfaction is down 19%.
  • 8% of Canadian employees would consider leaving their job for another position, an increase of 12.2% from 2013.

Here is how I interpret the above numbers on what Canadian employees are really trying to say to their leaders. The message is loud and clear: We are not happy with our work and we are ready to leave you.

When almost 90% of the respondents want to leave their organization it is time for Canadian employers to step up, look in the mirror, and ask why is this happening?

Many leaders will default to claiming that people want to leave their company to get more pay elsewhere. That’s not it; research is also illustrating that 75% would accept less pay for their ideal job, and that 41% are ready to leave for better company culture.

Could this sad state of employee relations possibly be linked to our management and leadership practices? Of course, the answer is yes.

Click here to read 2017 What People Want Survey: Fact Sheet from Hays.

Canadian employers must start to take these concerns seriously and become proactive in evaluating and improving company culture, and in focusing on employee satisfaction. Consider the above research alongside the fact that Canada is seeing its lowest unemployment rate in 9 years. Employee retention and recruitment may soon be a significant problem and HR departments have to start developing solutions. Solving this problem in your own context may begin with improving your company’s perceived organizational culture.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Identify two companies you would like to work for, research their company culture and explain why you would like to work for them.
  2. What would you recommend if your VP of HR asked you to conduct a corporate-culture survey? Where would you start? Develop an action plan to present to an HR department.