Seismic Shift

A Crisis of Trust

2008-06-26T17:09:00.001-04:00

Increasingly I am finding organizations suffering from a lack of execution and effective communication to such a degree that operations are slowing down and in some cases, going in to reverse. I am finding that there is one common thread that links these companies and that is an atmosphere devoid of trust. Teams who don’t trust have meetings that are dysfunctional and become a waste of time. A lack of organizational trust undermines communication, commitment, accountability and inevitably, results.

Few organizations realize that there is a lot that can be done to increase trust and that doing so can have a huge impact. Even fewer realize that developing team and organizational trust can happen much faster than you think.

When we look at the surveys on issues of trust in America, it becomes clear that we have created a society that has becoming increasingly distrustful in the very broadest sense of the word. In America we are suffering from a crisis of trust and recent Harris Polling provides some interesting data:

• Only 22% trust media

• 12% trust big companies

• 8% trust political parties

• 27% trust government

• Only 34% trust other people (America)

Organizational Trust:

• Only 51% of employees trust senior mgmt.

• 36% believe leaders act honestly

• 76% have observed unethical conduct in the workplace

• The #1 reason people leave their jobs is a bad relationship with their boss

Trust on an Individual Level:

Who Cheats?

• 43% Liberal Arts Students

• 52% Education Students

• 63% Medical Students

• 63% Law Students

• 75% Business Students

Hold on a Minute

2008-05-19T16:32:00.001-04:00

(This posting is a continuation of my last blog “Watching Your Figure, Your Boss May be.”

While employers are trying to take steps to make sure they can afford to offer health insurance, workers are skeptical. In a national survey of 30,000 employees by Hewitt Associates, just 12% think that their employers should be telling them how to stay healthy. However, there has been little to no pushback from employees about anything, says Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for human resources at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school. “In many cases, employers can ask their employees to stand on their heads and they’ll do it,” says Cappelli.

Overall, there seems to be little resistance from employees as they are increasingly asked to undergo medical screenings and full blood tests on themselves and their spouses. Instead, employees tend to gravitate towards work sponsored wellness programs. The Hewitt health survey, which included 500 companies, found that 88% of employers plan to make significant investments in these wellness programs in the next three to five years. This is up from 63% just a year ago.

Weight is the greatest focus. For those who have a body mass index greater than the national standards, health coaches are often available to give advice and monitor a weight-loss plan. General Mills has established a wellness mission statement that is distributed to employees: “We would like every General Mills employee to have an active lifestyle, a healthy weight, and a normal cholesterol level, normal blood pressure had to be a non-smoker.”

Tim Crimmins, the company’s vice president of health and safety at General Mills has created hard to miss opportunities for employee fitness. Their offerings range from dodge ball and cross-country skiing, two small group meditation, classes on portion control and a choice of whether or not to participate.

While some companies are getting it right, other companies are clearly getting it wrong. Clarian Health Partners in Indianapolis bumped into resistance when the healthcare system tried to launch a program for its 13,000 employees that fined people up to $30 per pay period if they didn’t meet certain health standards, including weight loss targets.

Clarian redeemed itself by removing the penalties in the face of employee outcry. In its place, Clarian implemented an incentive program that rewards people each pay period for meeting certain thresholds, like $10 extra each paycheck for meeting the standard for body mass index.

In my next blog I will talk about the limitations of the workplace health movement.

Watching Your Figure? Your Boss May be.

2008-05-02T14:41:00.000-04:00

If you think that your weight is nobody’s business, try telling that to your employer. I have had several clients openly share their criteria on employee selection and performance with an eye on body size. “He is too heavy and I wonder about his energy to meet our work demands,” and “People who are too heavy, this reflects a lack of discipline,” are just a couple of statements I’ve heard reflecting a bias against size in the work place.

In addition to bias, ever soaring health insurance costs are driving more companies to focus on wellness and making employee health a part of their culture. General Mills has made “healthy weight” a cornerstone of a wellness mission statement, launching dozens of fitness programs for its workers. An Atlanta marketing firm launched a “Biggest Loser” style weight-loss contest that has morphed into workouts of up to five hours a day for the most zealous participants. In Indianapolis, one employer proposed $30 fines for overweight workers.

Perhaps the most dramatic move is where several companies have implemented a policy requiring that all employees, and their spouses, must submit to a physical exam at work to qualify for employer-sponsored insurance. Potential employees whose body mass index is too high are not offered positions and current employees are encouraged to hit the exercise mat.

Health care costs are a volatile subject for companies, individuals and political platforms. Double-digit percentage increases from a few years ago are being moderated as employers have passed along more of the bill to workers. But, costs are expected to spike 9 percent in 2008, which is up 5.3 percent from 2007, according to Hewitt Associations Consulting.

Consequently, employers are focusing on reducing the demand for health care by addressing their employee’s health. For a growing number of companies, this means using the workplace as a forum to preach the benefits of eating better, eating less and exercising more.

In my next blog, I will address how employees are responding to these changes.

Office Politics: Playing the Game May be Crucial to Your Success

2008-04-09T12:12:00.000-04:00

Office politics exists in every company and is a part of most peoples career whether they like it or not. Managing organizational power and influence can bring out the worst in people and few can escape the fallout.

Although many of us would prefer to not get caught up in office politics, playing the game can have a crucial role in your success. Removing yourself from office politics can make you appear invisible and literally take you out of the loop. Choosing to avoid office politics can cause your accomplishments to be overlooked and diminish your sphere of influence. Unfortunately, the gain for engaging in office politics may out weigh the consequences of not taking on a role in the games people play.

Office politics can become nasty when people are striving for their own personal gain. While self-striving individuals can often find success in organizations, this strategy is one that provides only a short term gain. On the other hand, those who are respectful, diligent and diplomatic can generally build the coalitions and resources needed for successful long term career growth.

Here are some tips to help you engage in office politics and still garner the respect of others:

Treat everyone with respect. It is how you would like to be treated and you never know when disrespectful behavior may come back to bite you.

Define how things get done in your organization. Uncover how things get done. How are decisions made? What are the company values and are they acted on? Is the current focus on short-term or long-term objectives? Find an organizational veteran who can help you find these answers.
Where is the power? Who are the power players in the organization? Observe and model how they communicate and make decisions. Who do they network with and what kind of initiatives do they support?
What is your company’s strategy? Identify what strategic initiatives your company is focusing on and make sure that your skill set is on par with these objectives.
Focus on results. Results translate in to recognition and opportunity. More than ever, companies are focused on the bottom line. Productivity trumps everything else.
Be humble in tooting your own horn. If you don’t keep others abreast of your progress, you are opting out of office politics. Others will be tooting their own horn and may even take credit for your work.
Be a masterful communicator. Being masterful means being adaptive in how you communicate. Learn to adjust your communication to the style of others. Be prepared to support your communication with facts and examples to add credibility.
Diversify your alignments. Align too closely with one group one day and you may be gone the next. Communicate with other factions and develop relationships with broad alliances.
Clarify that you are in the right place. If you find that your organization is not a good fit for you and the games being played are too rough, don’t be afraid to move on. Some companies promote paranoia, fear, and Machiavellian strategies. In many cases, these games may not be worth playing.

Don’t Blur the Lines of Office Communication

2008-03-28T15:58:00.001-04:00

One of the best parts of my job is being able visit clients at their home office(s). I can’t help but pay close attention to the dynamics of each business setting and make note of the communication and politics that governs operations. One of the most frequent challenges I see is the blurring of personal and professional conduct in the work environment. Although I am the first person to advocate the benefits of social interest and the need to be friendly at work, it is important to remember that business is business and friendship is friendship. Many workers fail to realize that what they say can have as much impact on their professional image as their successes and failures.

Being transparent in the work place can be a sign of confidence and emotional maturity, but verbal diarrhea can be a career killer. Here are some suggestions of topics that are best avoided in work place discussions:

Gossip. Gossip always comes around and nobody likes to be gossiped about. If someone is sharing gossip with you, what are likely saying about you when you are not around?
Intimate Personal Details. By its very definition, intimate, means private. This shared information may also be used against you some day.
Politics & Religion. Throughout history most wars have been fought over differences in politics and religion. Enough said.
Wild Parties and Hangovers: There is nothing wrong with having fun, but people will and do judge things like reliability and professionalism.
Passive Complaints About Work (on and off-line). Complaining drags down both you and others. Show maturity and deal with complaints directly.
Salary Information. Discussions about salary create division and demonstrate an inability to remain confidential.
Speaking Badly of Others. There is nothing positive that comes from speaking badly of others accept to assure that others will speak badly of you.
What You’ve Spent. Just like sex, religion and politics, discussions about money can give people the wrong impression.
Racial and Off Color Remarks. Even if someone shares your humor, someone else likely won’t. Don’t take the risk.
Office Romance: I believe that it is wise to not get your honey, where you make your money.

Thoughtful Warriors

2008-03-19T10:39:00.001-04:00

In 2006 General David Petraeus drafted a “guidance” manual for conducting counterinsurgency in Iraq. Gen. Petraeus had gained a painful sense of how under prepared the US forces had been to take on this unconventional foe, and how high the price had been, in blood and money, of having to devise tactics on the fly.

Petraeus seized on an opportunity to think -- about how the war has been waged and how it should have been and set out to distill those lessons and others that could have been learned -- but weren't -- in Vietnam, in Bosnia, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere into a new Army field manual for counterinsurgency warfare, or COIN, the first such doctrine for soldiers in the field in 20 years.

Counterinsurgency warfare is, as the Petraeus draft describes it, "war at the graduate level," where every unit commander must be a kind of "strategic lieutenant" calibrating the right balance between soldiers' killing power and the exercise of restraint that can turn potential enemies into allies.

Success in fighting insurgents requires an artful balancing of raw military might with ground-level smarts -- it does no good to take the territory but lose the support of the people who live there. "The doctrine is crucial and much needed. Guys in the field are clamoring for it. It recognizes that counterinsurgency is now the norm. This is a new mind-set -- the Army is really changing," says Major Sean Davis.

“You can’t kill your way out of an insurgency,” says Patraeus. So, his new approach is focused on building relationships and winning over the Iraqi people, including insurgents. “Walk… Stop by, don’t drive by,” says Petraeus. He has moved soldiers out of their megabases and into small outposts deep inside once alien and hostile neighborhoods. Although this strategy is counter intuitive to the old school of soldiering, this approach is showing signs of success.

Part of this new strategy is to give officers greater leeway to make decisions than their predecessors. Petraeus says, “There is not only a tolerance for initiative and independent action, there is encouragement.”

His approach is a good example of flexible adaptive leadership in the midst of an entrenched, rigid organization, the military. In his guidance manual Petraeus emphasizes the need for leadership and soldiers to develop relationships within the Iraqi community. His approach of getting soldiers out from behind fortified walls is not unlike the need for emotionally intelligent corporate leaderships need to get out from the ivory tower. Create alliances, distinguish between reconcilables and irreconcilables, while moving towards reconciliation and understanding. If our military can embrace and find success with this strategy so can our organizational leaders and their teams.

Super Heroes Who Needs One?

2008-03-13T12:26:00.003-04:00

I was being interviewed yesterday by Amy Otto on Atlanta Busness Radio and was asked about"Super Heroes and Who Needs One?" She was referring to a topic that a colleague at Trove presents, but the whole idea got me thinking. On the show we discussed how every super hero has a defining moment that sets the tone and direction of their life. In many cases a defining moment even changes the whole course of ones life. The death of Bruce Wayne's parents set the course of Batman's fight against evil and Peter Parkers loss of his uncle Ben did the same for Spiderman, "with great power, comes great responsibility."

So, it makes me think about what defining moments I have had in my life and how have they shaped who I am? And also, do I need a super hero? I managed to minimize damage and survive a serious sky-diving accident at 10,000 feet and miraculously escaped another sky-diving disaster when a failed parachute finally openned. In these incidences I expereinced both the calm of surrender knowing that there was nothing else I could do, and the absolute fight to not give up and do everything to survive. Now, if these occurrences haven't defined some aspect of my life, then few things probably could.

Although I forget it some days, the lessons I've learned from coming close to death is to appreciate each day and live it with enthusiasm. I think that each day we should do something to sharpen our sword, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. In life you never know when you may need to respond quickly to ones own needs or the needs of others. If your sword is dull, you are of little use to yourself or others. A sharpened sword is of benefit to many.

I don't feel that I need a super hero, but I know that a little help from above can come in handy.
What is your defining moment and how has it shaped you? Have you met your super hero?

Situational Leadership and Missed Opportunity

2008-03-10T14:16:00.002-04:00

We can elect a commander or manager, but they are not a leader until their appointment is ratified in the hearts and minds of those working under them and by those who voted to put them in office. Sometimes it is a situation or crisis where leaders are made. Prior to 9/11, Rudy Giuliani was being run out of New York on a rail. Instead, the terrorist attacks presented him with a golden opportunity to lead. He responded with courage, conviction and quick action, while simultaneously resurrecting his political career.

Like many leaders who lack the innate ability to lead, Sonny Perdue, the Governor of Georgia, is squandering a golden opportunity to take bold action and guide his state through crisis. Georgia’s drought and ongoing water wars with Alabama, Florida and now Tennessee have presented Gov. Perdue with incredible opportunities to lead his citizenry and create a legacy for him and the state of Georgia.

Instead, Gov. Perdue is giving us a lesson in failed leadership and the qualities it takes to effectively lead in times of crisis. Although there are many qualities for effective leadership, I want to highlight four qualities were our head of state is lacking:

Curiosity: The world is a big, complicated and inter-connected place. Effective leaders learn to seek the ideas of others outside their inner circle. Failing to listen and share ideas with others is a sign of arrogance and/or apathy. Gov. Perdue must be willing to step outside of his comfort zone in addressing Georgia’s water conservancy issues for the long-haul.

Creativity: I leader must be willing to go out on a limb and do something different. I will agree that praying for rain on the State Capital stairs is different, but it may lack the long term factual resolution needed to solve our need for water planning and conservancy.

Communication: Ineffective leaders tend to communicate in sound bites or not at all. If in a time of crisis, a leader spends their time convincing us that things aren’t as bad as they seem, then there is a problem. Gov. Perdue, not unlike many current political leaders, struggles in facing reality and telling the truth about the effects of our states growth, lack of civil planning, and lack of sufficient resources for effective water management. The end result is an inability to develop and present a reasonable solution.

Competence: In order to lead, you must know what you are doing, and more importantly, surround yourself with people who know what they are doing. A leader has to be a problem solver and Gov. Perdue’s initiative to make Georgia a great “Fishing State,” does not begin to scratch the surface of needs in the state of Georgia.

Manage the Journey of Change

2008-02-26T09:22:00.003-05:00

It is not uncommon for businesses going through organizational change to experience a great deal of seismic shift. Fear of change often creates paralysis or a "fight or flight" response from workers. Employees concerned about change may lock down and resist, while others will become more vocal and divisive. Some of these responses are normal and should be expected as groups going through change, experience a change in their team dynamics. The re-forming and norming of groups, will inevitably lead to a phase of storming. How an organization manages this storm will determine the succes of organizational change.

I find that it is not change itself the employees fear, but more precisely, it is the journey from here to there that causes problems. Employees are more receptive to change when they understand the challenges, risks, safety nets and expected pace for change. When centered in the eye-of-the-storm, leaders often become too focused on the task and less focused on the effect. As a leader of organizational change, don't forget to account for the effects of change or you may find little support for your initiatives.

Cultivating Trust When it Doesn’t Exist

2008-01-30T13:25:00.000-05:00

“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.”
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust, or the absence of trust, has become a pervasive dysfunction in our personal lives, the workplace, and corporate culture. It is becoming more and more difficult to define trust. Once bitten, twice shy, we have increasingly become a population of the walking wounded as cynicism undermines our faith in others, our employers, the government, a higher power, and ourselves. Can you build trust if it doesn’t exist?

Coping with a Layoff: Re-Launch Your New Future

2007-09-24T10:42:00.000-04:00

In life there is suffering and none of us can escape it. The most gut wrenching type of suffering is the shock we experience with a significant loss. Sometimes we can see it coming; sometimes the shock brings us to our knees. While the most painful losses are the death of a loved one and the most complicated losses occur with divorce, losing a job can be one of the most devastating personal crises of a lifetime. From Wall Street to “Main Street” the last decade has produced increasing numbers of job layoffs for managers and workers alike. As corporate restructuring continues, the pace of permanent layoffs is expected to accelerate. Although the financial decline associated with a job loss is most often the primary issue, the blow to ones ego can be even more difficult to face. The many losses associated with a job layoff include:

§ Loss of income
§ Loss of self esteem
§ Loss of purposeful activity
§ Loss of routine
§ Loss of predictability and sense of security
§ Loss of plans for the future

Like any other catastrophe, a job loss crisis can have a silver lining and present an opportunity for growth. It is important not to take on the role of a victim, but embrace the attitude of a survivor. With any loss there are emotional hurdles that must be negotiated before you can begin to re-launch your career.

Uniqueness of Every Loss

Every relationship we have is unique and this includes the relationships we form with our employer, co-workers and the attachment we have to our position. Therefore, the grief we experience when a relationship is lost is also unique. The belief that there are specific stages of grief that must be negotiated is false and can often unhinge the healing process. Although the pain, fear and doubt accompanying a layoff is distinctive, there are several universal strategies that can help you boost you self-confidence, mobilize your resources and jump start your job search.

Catch Your Breath and Deal with Your Feelings

Grieving and mourning are verbs that emphasize the need for movement in coping with loss. It is natural to feel angry, hurt, scared, discouraged and even depressed when experiencing the loss of a job. Ignoring or stuffing these emotions will not help in moving through them. Examples of how we ignore or stuff our feelings include:

Eating too much
Not talking about what we’re feeling
Using alcohol or drugs to numb feelings
Not allowing yourself to cry
Hiding behind “busy work”
Isolating in front of the T.V. or computer
Making decisions in anger
Feeling like you’ve failed when most likely you haven’t

In order to fully negotiate feelings of loss it is important to acknowledge them and move through them. Ignoring these negative emotions and failing to move through them will only ensure that they will remain and sap the energy needed to launch a new job search. Talking with others, sharing you frustration with others, journaling your experience, crying if you need to and attending networking groups are all tools that can help you manage the feelings of loss.

Movement

When experiencing a job layoff, it is absolutely normal to feel somewhat defeated, in shock and generally lethargic. These are natural symptoms of loss that have a tendency of slowing us down. Every illness, neurosis and affliction we experience in life has the same goal of trying to slow us down, create isolation and stop us from moving. Movement is life and lack of movement will lead us to death. When we stop moving completely, we die, therefore, creating movement when rebounding from a job loss is essential. Movement of any degree is the best medicine to avoid opening the door to greater physical or emotional illness. Examples of creating movement include:

Immediately – get a separation letter from HR
Clarify benefits – severance pay, references, outplacement coaching
Clarify health insurance coverage and follow up
Register for unemployment compensation
Follow a daily schedule – work on resumes, make calls, do research
Make personal business cards for networking
Incorporate exercise into your daily routine
Avoid consumption that will slow you down, excessive eating, drinking, etc
Utilize the depth of information available on the internet, Career Builder, Monster, etc.

Don’t Isolate Yourself

As humans we are innately social beings. Physical and emotional health can be directly correlated to the degree of social interest we have in life. We do not thrive when we are isolated and it is the primary characteristic of all illness to move us in a direction of isolation. The primary demon that is unleashed from a lay-off is the demon of isolation. In one moment we are removed from the stream of a busy working community and the sense of contribution that goes along with work. Linger too long in isolation and not only will you not find success, but your job skills and marketability my also lose their luster. Initiate some of these steps to help create movement towards social interest during your job search:

Share what has happened with people you know
Ask others for job leads
Attend networking meetings
Cultivate leads by making inquiry phone calls
Have lunch with friends
Incorporate exercising with others in to your routine
Interview, it is all practice
Don’t trash your former employer or speak badly of others. It only pushes people away.

Thinking

Negative thinking is counter productive to creating movement in your job search. In fact, the greatest obstacle we face in any crisis may be when our thinking becomes dominated by negative beliefs. The power of positive thinking is an important tool for overcoming a loss and presenting yourself in the best light. If you don’t believe that you are going to succeed in an interview or job application, then you have failed before you’ve begun. Common thoughts that must be challenged include:

“I’ve failed”
“I’m all alone in this”
“I don’t know how to interview”
“I’m under qualified”
“I’m only qualified to work in my industry”
“I’ll never get my previous salary”

Negative thought patterns are common, but must be challenged. The primary step to challenging negative thoughts is to get them out of your head. If you counter balance negative thoughts with more positive thoughts, but do this only in your head, the end result is often continued negative thinking. To find success you must perform a little brain surgery and carve out the negative thoughts by writing them down. Once the negative thoughts are recorded you can write more positive, realistic, counterbalancing thoughts that challenge your negative beliefs. I recommend that you record three positive thoughts to counter balance each negative thought. For example:

Belief: “I’ve failed”

Reality: 1.) My lay off was not based on performance.

2.) The whole company is struggling, this was a business decision.

3.) The only failure would be in giving up and not re-launching my career.

By utilizing this technique you will end up with flash cards of negative beliefs and counter balancing thoughts. By frequently reviewing these cards you will undo and eliminate the negative thoughts and free yourself up for more positive action.

Look Ahead to Your New Future

Strangely, being laid off can be a good thing. I have made a career out of working with individuals who stay in jobs that they don’t like because they’ve lost inertia, get too busy, aren’t unhappy enough to make a change, or their learned helplessness has left them immobilized. A layoff pushes us “out of the nest” and in to an unexpected job search. It is a test of our character and a chance to overcome adversity. In many cases it becomes an opportunity to re-launch your career towards a future with a better job, more money and greater happiness.

2007-09-06T15:31:00.000-04:00

Coping with a Layoff: Re-Launch Your New Future

In life there is suffering and none of us can escape it. The most gut wrenching type of suffering is the shock we experience with a significant loss. Sometimes we can see it coming; sometimes the shock brings us to our knees. While the most painful losses are the death of a loved one and the most complicated losses occur with divorce, losing a job can be one of the most devastating personal crises of a lifetime. From Wall Street to “Main Street” the last decade has produced increasing numbers of job layoffs for managers and workers alike. As corporate restructuring continues, the pace of permanent layoffs is expected to accelerate. Although the financial decline associated with a job loss is most often the primary issue, the blow to ones ego can be even more difficult to face. The many losses associated with a job layoff include:

§ Loss of income
§ Loss of self esteem
§ Loss of purposeful activity
§ Loss of routine
§ Loss of predictability and sense of security
§ Loss of plans for the future

Like any other catastrophe, a job loss crisis can have a silver lining and present an opportunity for growth. It is important not to take on the role of a victim, but embrace the attitude of a survivor. With any loss there are emotional hurdles that must be negotiated before you can begin to re-launch your career.

Uniqueness of Every Loss

Every relationship we have is unique and this includes the relationships we form with our employer, co-workers and the attachment we have to our position. Therefore, the grief we experience when a relationship is lost is also unique. The belief that there are specific stages of grief that must be negotiated is false and can often unhinge the healing process. Although the pain, fear and doubt accompanying a layoff is distinctive, there are several universal strategies that can help you boost you self-confidence, mobilize your resources and jump start your job search.

Catch Your Breath and Deal with Your Feelings

Grieving and mourning are verbs that emphasize the need for movement in coping with loss. It is natural to feel angry, hurt, scared, discouraged and even depressed when experiencing the loss of a job. Ignoring or stuffing these emotions will not help in moving through them. Examples of how we ignore or stuff our feelings include:

Eating too much
Not talking about what we’re feeling
Using alcohol or drugs to numb feelings
Not allowing yourself to cry
Hiding behind “busy work”
Isolating in front of the T.V. or computer
Making decisions in anger
Feeling like you’ve failed when most likely you haven’t

In order to fully negotiate feelings of loss it is important to acknowledge them and move through them. Ignoring these negative emotions and failing to move through them will only ensure that they will remain and sap the energy needed to launch a new job search. Talking with others, sharing you frustration with others, journaling your experience, crying if you need to and attending networking groups are all tools that can help you manage the feelings of loss.

Movement

When experiencing a job layoff, it is absolutely normal to feel somewhat defeated, in shock and generally lethargic. These are natural symptoms of loss that have a tendency of slowing us down. Every illness, neurosis and affliction we experience in life has the same goal of trying to slow us down, create isolation and stop us from moving. Movement is life and lack of movement will lead us to death. When we stop moving completely, we die, therefore, creating movement when rebounding from a job loss is essential. Movement of any degree is the best medicine to avoid opening the door to greater physical or emotional illness. Examples of creating movement include:

Immediately – get a separation letter from HR
Clarify benefits – severance pay, references, outplacement coaching
Clarify health insurance coverage and follow up
Register for unemployment compensation
Follow a daily schedule – work on resumes, make calls, do research
Make personal business cards for networking
Incorporate exercise into your daily routine
Avoid consumption that will slow you down, excessive eating, drinking, etc
Utilize the depth of information available on the internet, Career Builder, Monster, etc.

Don’t Isolate Yourself

As humans we are innately social beings. Physical and emotional health can be directly correlated to the degree of social interest we have in life. We do not thrive when we are isolated and it is the primary characteristic of all illness to move us in a direction of isolation. The primary demon that is unleashed from a lay-off is the demon of isolation. In one moment we are removed from the stream of a busy working community and the sense of contribution that goes along with work. Linger too long in isolation and not only will you not find success, but your job skills and marketability my also lose their luster. Initiate some of these steps to help create movement towards social interest during your job search:

Share what has happened with people you know
Ask others for job leads
Attend networking meetings
Cultivate leads by making inquiry phone calls
Have lunch with friends
Incorporate exercising with others in to your routine
Interview, it is all practice
Don’t trash your former employer or speak badly of others. It only pushes people away.

Thinking

Negative thinking is counter productive to creating movement in your job search. In fact, the greatest obstacle we face in any crisis may be when our thinking becomes dominated by negative beliefs. The power of positive thinking is an important tool for overcoming a loss and presenting yourself in the best light. If you don’t believe that you are going to succeed in an interview or job application, then you have failed before you’ve begun. Common thoughts that must be challenged include:

“I’ve failed”
“I’m all alone in this”
“I don’t know how to interview”
“I’m under qualified”
“I’m only qualified to work in my industry”
“I’ll never get my previous salary”

Negative thought patterns are common, but must be challenged. The primary step to challenging negative thoughts is to get them out of your head. If you counter balance negative thoughts with more positive thoughts, but do this only in your head, the end result is often continued negative thinking. To find success you must perform a little brain surgery and carve out the negative thoughts by writing them down. Once the negative thoughts are recorded you can write more positive, realistic, counterbalancing thoughts that challenge your negative beliefs. I recommend that you record three positive thoughts to counter balance each negative thought. For example:

Belief: “I’ve failed”

Reality: 1.) My lay off was not based on performance.

2.) The whole company is struggling, this was a business decision.

3.) The only failure would be in giving up and not re-launching my career.

By utilizing this technique you will end up with flash cards of negative beliefs and counter balancing thoughts. By frequently reviewing these cards you will undo and eliminate the negative thoughts and free yourself up for more positive action.

Look Ahead to Your New Future

Strangely, being laid off can be a good thing. I have made a career out of working with individuals who stay in jobs that they don’t like because they’ve lost inertia, get too busy, aren’t unhappy enough to make a change, or their learned helplessness has left them immobilized. A layoff pushes us “out of the nest” and in to an unexpected job search. It is a test of our character and a chance to overcome adversity. In many cases it becomes an opportunity to re-launch your career towards a future with a better job, more money and greater happiness.

Charlie Cummins, MS, LPC is a partner with Ron Young International Inc, a firm specializing in succession planning. Please contact Charlie for inquiries and more information.

Riding the Age Wave Towards Succession Planning

2007-09-05T11:28:00.000-04:00

An age wave of massive proportions is swamping our national economy, causing a seismic shift in the age distribution of the general population and specifically, the labor force. If you own a business, are in the ranks of management for a company or even work for a government agency, you are about to experience tremendous upheaval in the ability to identify and recruit, or bring up through the ranks, new leadership for your workforce.

An overwhelming void of talent is on the horizon. One fifth of America’s large, established companies will be losing 40 percent of their top level talent in the next five years as senior executives retire. Over the next 15 years, there will be a 15 percent decline in the number of people ages 35 to 44, leaving fewer people available for top management positions. This phenomenon is driven by the following three demographic realities that no organization can ignore:

The disproportionate size of the baby boom generation.

The increasing longevity of our lifespan.

Reduced national birth rates.

The baby boomer generation has re-shaped American life and fueled much of the country’s productivity for the last several decades. How companies manage this mass exodus of skills will affect their future. Few organizations are prepared to compete in finding their next generation of employees and adapt to the inevitable transformation of the workforce. The failure of many companies to designate or groom successors exposes a weakness in their strategic thinking. The concept of succession planning has become an important part of organizations’ strategic planning, but not in all companies.

Too often, many think of succession planning as a strategy applied only to family owned companies or large conglomerates, but it even affects the government. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 50 percent of federal employees and 70 percent of federal senior managers will be eligible to retire by 2010. The Government Accountability office estimated in 2003 that by 2007, 55 percent of Senior Executive Service employees will retire or leave office. Dick Morton, executive director of the American Management Association’s Federal Learning Institute, calls the federal government’s inevitable succession problem “the big gorilla” because of how the federal government affects so many people.

In fact, succession planning should be a part of every organization’s strategy and their vision for the future. Succession planning is a process where an organization recruits and develops employees to fill each key role within the organization. Through the succession process companies identify, retain and develop top tier performers thus creating a succession of leadership within the organization. Through succession development companies recruit superior employees and also develop benchmarks to assist in targeting the best fit for a new hire and for each position. The goal is to identify and develop core leadership within an organization and establish a path of leadership that flows seamlessly through the organizational structure.

The succession process of developing employees and leadership requires mentoring, coaching, team building, training, and job rotation to replace key leadership from within the organization. It requires an understanding of the developmental and communication needs of employees, as well as modeling, teaching and developing leadership skills.

It is important to ensure that all key employees understand their roles and career paths within their organizations and that senior executives periodically review their top leadership and those in the next lower level to determine several backups for each senior position. This process is essential because of the years it often takes to groom effective senior managers.

The real key in succession management is to create a match between an organization’s future needs and the aspirations of individuals within the organization. The most important tool for keeping talented individuals on board is providing opportunities for growth. If the identified top performers within an organization feel that there are no opportunities to develop their talents or challenge themselves, then departure is likely.

Effective succession development is a journey, not a destination. There must be flexibility and adaptation based on feedback from all levels. Succession leadership also must adapt to changing technology and be willing to learn from the experiences of other organizations.

How can you swim rather than sink in the age wave?

Make succession planning part of your overall business strategy and planning.

Rely on your Human Resource experts to guide you to the tools and processes of succession planning, but allow the front line managers to implement deliverables and staffing needs.

Identify a continuous stream of talent that focuses on future leaders.

Use outside firms who can help implement succession planning and utilize assessment tools for benchmarking and leadership development.

Implement individualized developmental plans for each employee that include coaching and leadership development.

Monitor the succession planning process and build in the use of assessment tools that measure change.

The age wave within our society is bringing sweeping change in how businesses recruit and retain their talent. Current corporate leadership is about to roll out with the tide leaving behind an absence of talent, knowledge and leadership in both the private and public sectors. Failure to groom the next generation of managers and top leaders will likely find companies caught in an undertow of knowledge loss, talent gaps and lost productivity. The wave is coming. Are you prepared to surf it with success?

Charlie Cummins, MS, LPC is a partner with Ron Young International Inc, a firm specializing in succession planning. Please contact Charlie for inquiries and more information.