Maverick Mastery®

Conducting business in the 21^st Century is substantially different than in the last century. Increasingly there is a move towards buying from ethical companies and those that demonstrate good social responsibility policies. Brand perception and delivery is becoming all important.

Many consultants dismiss this as a trend that affects big business only but to do so can mean the difference between one consultant being hired over another. Brand reputation is becoming the ultimate decision maker and to ignore this trend will put your business and earning capacity in peril.

Reputation and Credibility

People increasingly buy from those that they know, like and trust, especially where the purchase has a high ticket value. Being credible and having a good reputational (personal) brand is essential, enabling the buyer’s decision making process to choose you over another consultant each and every time.

Whilst reputation and credibility are separate concepts and can be established and maintained separately they are integral to each other. To be credible as a consultant often means that you need to be an expert in your field. People and businesses prefer experts over generalists; this is after all, the decade of specialism.

To be credible therefore requires clarity on your business proposition (what your business does). Questions that you should be able to answer include the following:

• What makes you different from other consultants?
• How do you articulate what you do in a way that is easily understood by others?
• What are you known for?
• Are you easily remembered?

Credibility needs to be demonstrated and is based on your track record and competency. One of the ways to demonstrate credibility to those that have not seen your work is by articulating effectively how you achieve success for your clients in story form, free from jargon. Good stories are enjoyable to listen to and can enable subtle messaging about your expertise and ability to potential buyers or advocates. Another way is to provide support and advice to others; thus enabling snippets of your expertise to be demonstrated making it easier for others to advocate you.

I believe that reputation is based on the character of the person (or business) and the intent of the individual (or business). Reputation is therefore personal; it is how you are perceived by others. If others perceive your intention as good this can enhance your standing with others.

Reputation is built on what you say and what you demonstrate and it is important to build awareness and visibility amongst your target audience and potential advocates. It is essential that you are consistent with what you say and do, especially on the internet where everything that is recorded there is of a permanent nature. It is easy to forget that social networking sites are places where reputation and credibility is established, maintained and developed, not just places to ‘hang out with friends’. Many consultants take a relaxed and whimsical approach to how they network on places like Facebook, which can be quite detrimental to them. Others join business networks and then remain ‘invisible’ to the membership, ignoring the opportunity to enhance their reputation and find advocates for their service.

Both reputation and credibility can be established and enhanced by writing on subjects which demonstrate your expertise. Where you publish your thoughts will be dependent on your objectives.

The benefits of having the right reputation

One of the most essential benefits, especially in times of economic downturns, is that having a good reputation reduces operating costs. When you are trusted, speed in decision making is increased and cost decreases as you need less risk protection. For example, long legalistic contracts become less necessary and collaboration on projects become easier – often without the need for Non Disclosure Agreements.

An expensive but necessary component in business is having the resources to be able to market yourself effectively. Most traditional marketing techniques are ‘push’ marketing ones. For example, the consultant advertises his services to his target audience, unsure of whether they are looking for his expertise. Having a good reputation can mean that ‘pull’ marketing techniques are used. An example is where the potential client ‘pulls’ your services when he needs it – without specific advertisement. He might decide to use your service based on a referral from an advocate of yours. This means advertising spend has not been made to secure this client.

You are more likely to find that the sales cycle is reduced because you have a good reputation. It also enables others to believe that there is less of a risk working with you. This is equally true if you are an interim consultant working for short periods within large companies. A good reputation and a credible persona will help ensure that you are chosen for the role over a more obscure consultant.

Distinguishing yourself from others by being a credible expert with the right reputation makes it easier to be advocated. Advocacy is when an individual is almost evangelical about someone or their services. Advocates understand your business proposition inside out and can sell your services to potential clients with very little intervention from yourself. This reduces your marketing costs as well as your sales cycle.

The current economic climate shows now signs of improving in the short term, and the increased competition for reduced customer spend has meant that establishing and promoting your competitive advantage has never been so crucial. A good, strong and credible reputation is the one thing which can provide you with the superior and sustainable leverage you need to survive the credit crunch, whilst others around you fall by the wayside, and it wont cost you a penny!

Organisations experiencing a plunge in employee morale and productivity due to fear of redundancy need to take radical action by demanding that senior management take a more active front line role to help rebuild confidence and loyalty, says the MD of leadership consultancy Dynamic Transitions.

The leadership specialist is urging leaders to take action now to prevent their most valuable employees from moving on to new positions due to their lack of confidence in job security, and says that ‘this is one of the effect’s of country’s mass cull of jobs, and it will continue to ripple through organisations for at least the next 12-18 months”.

“The inherent danger in a credit crunch situation is that the good employees get enticed away in their search for job security, leaving the organisation in a very vulnerable position when it comes to driving the business forward”, explains Germain, a former Head of HR with over a decade of experience in managing the strategic and operational running of the businesses in a number of industries.

“With so much negativity in the air, employees often feel like they are going to be the last one’s to know what’s going on within their organisation, and so try to predict what is going to happen, often making assumptions based on inaccurate or irrelevant information. When there has been internal redundancies, good employees are even more likely to come to the conclusion that they’d better hedge their bets by leave before they are pushed”, says Germain.

Dynamic Transitions has devised a simple 6 point plan for leaders looking to drive employees forward during the credit crunch, suggesting that a very simple internal communications delivered by good managers who can empathise and engage with their employees, whilst continuing to provide valuable and morale enhancing training, will be the making of many organisations over the coming 12-18 months.

“Employees just need to know what is going on and feel like they are involved in the future of the business. Leaders need to think of this period as a time for reflection and focus. Employees need to see that the organisation isn’t just sitting back and admitting defeat but is fighting to build its position in the marketplace and that the team is a core part of the organisation’s future. If employees know that the business wants to survive, and they can see their role in determining its future, they are more likely to want to do all they can to save it”, says Germain.

You can download your free ‘six point plan to keeping talented employees during the credit crunch’ from www.developing-leadership.com/leadership-whitepapers.html. For further information or to find out more about Dynamic Transitions visit www.developing-leadership.com.

Many organisations are considering the best cost effective way to continuously develop their employees and establishing a peer to peer mentoring programme is an increasingly sought after solution for some companies. Mentoring specialist Judith Germain provides a step by step guide on how to embed a peer to peer mentoring programme within an internal comms department.

What is peer mentoring and does it differ from coaching?

Coaching and mentoring are quite different although a lot of practioners use the terms interchangeably. Coaching begins with the premise that the answers are within the person being coached. The coach’s role is to help the individual understand that and via the use of encouraging and questioning techniques, helps elicit the solution. A coach is non directional and never provides advice.

By contrast a mentor is an expert who provides guidance and advice within a more developmental relationship. Mentoring requires flexibility of the mentor and their ability to use a wide range of techniques to guide the mentee.

Peer mentoring takes place when the mentor is not in a position of authority over the mentee. For example an employee in an internal comunication dept might have a colleague within the same department as their mentor. The mentor will guide their colleague based on the life experience that they have gained and their professional expertise within the communication arena.

Implementing a peer to peer mentoring programme

For any mentoring programme to succeed it needs to be embedded within the culture of the organisation and be supported by the senior management team. The process needs to be transparent and be an essential part of the company’s Talent Management programme. This ensures that the mentoring programme fulfils the company’s goals and objectives and isn’t an exercise that is seen by management to be time costly, inefficient and unproductive. Neither should it be seen by employees within the internal comms department as a programme where the mentors are not role models and the programme is flawed.

Step 1 – Senior management buy in

Ensure buy in from senior management and that the peer to peer mentoring programme is part of the company’s Talent Management programme.

Step 2 – Mentor recruitment

The success of the programme relies on the ability of the organisation to recruit appropriate mentors. Each potential mentor should be interviewed against a criteria of desired competencies and required skills, an essential part of the recruitment should include a self assessment from the potential mentor as this would indicate their level of self awareness and skill level. There are a number of things that need to be considered when chosing the right peer mentor including the following:

ü Is the proposed mentor already considered a role model within the department/organisation?

ü Is the proposed mentor able to accept constructive criticism and continually learns from the experiences that they gone through?

ü Does the proposed mentor have the ability to empower others?

ü Does the proposed mentor have a good work record or one that has improved over time?

Step 3 – Mentor training

All mentors should be trained before they begin this important role and should not have to rely soley on trail and area to succeed. They should be trained on essential skills like coaching techniques, how to transfer their knowledge, the need for confidentiality, how to deal with conflict and conflict of interests for example. They should also have their own mentor to ensure that they continue to develop and know how to deal with the issues that may arise. Most companies prefer an external mentor in this role.

Step 4 – Relationship building

There should be a good match between the mentor and the mentee and they should both agree to the relationship. Many companies fail when they enforce a particular mentor onto a mentee or when either of the party does not understand the nature of the relationship or the roles that they play. There should be activities that allow the two individuals to get to know each other so that they can build a trusted relationship.

The mentor will need to assess the needs of the mentee and explain to him how the mentor will help him achieve his objectives. They should agree a time that they will meet , and a format that they will work to. They will also discuss the level of confidentiality that they hold themselves to.

Step 5 – Ending the relationship

It is very important that the mentoring relationship does not fade into inactivity over time but has a formal ending. This allows a period of review between the mentor and the mentee, a time to celebrate successes and plan for the future.

When things don’t work out quite the way you hoped …

John had been mentoring Jane for three months now and he was aware that she was not performing as expected despite the additional support that he had been providing. She was also becoming despondent and was reluctant to take on board the suggestions that he was providing without explaining why.

John was perplexed and was concerned that his own reputation as a mentor would be affected as well as the way that Jane’s morale was spiralling. He had received little training and was unsure what to do next, he felt bound by his confidentiality agreement with Jane and didn’t feel like he had anyone to discuss his concerns with.

Fortunately the company had recognised that their peer mentors needed additional help. They had realised that they didn’t have the expertise in house to mentor the mentors or deal with their concerns around confidentiality.

John contacted his external mentor and discussed with her the concerns that he was having and explored the options that he had available to him. He realised in his mentoring session that there were a number of things that he had overlooked when he was working with Jane.

He had believed that because he was Jane’s mentor she should do exactly what he told her to do in the manner that he directed. This did not take into account Jane’s learning style or her motivations. John was getting frustrated by her lack of response which was making him more dictorial in his manner.

John didn’t recognise the pressures Jane was under in internal comms nor did their have a relationship that would support open disclosure on both sides. John worked with his external mentor on these issues and was over time able to become a better and more effective mentor. His mentor also advised the company to initiate mentor training for all peer mentors to ensure that this error was not duplicated. Jane was allocated a more suitable and experienced mentor and her performance steadily improved.

Peer to peer mentoring is an extremely valuable tool for organisations looking for ways to continuously develop their teams, however it is vital to ensure the both the mentor and the mentee receive the appropriate support and guidance if the organisation is to reap the long term benefits of this approach.

As a result of an ageing workforce, a large number of senior management positions are likely to arise over the next five years, with very few suitably qualified or experienced successors available to fill them. So why is it that companies – and in particular larger organisations – are finding it increasingly difficult to keep hold of their top talent? Is it due to the fact that smaller companies are better at nurturing their talent and therefore see it as integral to their business? I explain why it is so hard for larger organisations to manage and nurture their most valuable assets.

In my experience, if large companies are finding it difficult to retain top talent, it is because they are finding it almost impossible to maintain their relationship with their ‘maverick’ or ‘troublesome talent’. (I define Troublesome Talent® as wilfully independent people)

This is an extremely common scenario as Troublesome Talent® are often recruited because they are highly skilled, have real flair in their area of expertise and have the ability to think up creative, innovative and lateral solutions where others are more comfortable choosing the most tried and tested ones. Troublesome Talent® or mavericks are extremely comfortable challenging the status quo and will doggedly follow the untested path if it will lead their company to success and personal recognition. This is contrary to most employees who actively prefer the certainty of the status quo.

This is where the danger lies for all organisations particularly larger ones. Only 20% of most workforces contain the top talent. It is these unconventional thinkers that drive companies forward through their relentless pursuit of continuous improvement and risk taking. It’s maverick top talent like Richard Branson, Ricardo Semler and Steve Jobs that make quantum leaps for their companies. Troublesome Talent can provide real competitor advantage and first mover status. Often customers and clients love their flexibility and their ability to deliver to their requirements each and every time. Their unique ability to sense what is needed and when enables them to get close to the customer’s need in a way that their competitors struggle to.

When they first join a company the maverick enjoys the flexibility and autonomy that they are given and this is when they really shine and deliver outstanding results. However, eventually, the company will require them to fit into its corporate structure – and begin to follow rules and this is when things begin to deteriorate.

The maverick cannot understand why they are suddenly being treated differently by the organisation and begin to react to the changed behaviour. They feel betrayed at the loss of autonomy and feel that the organisation has lost trust in their ability to operate successfully without supervision. Mavericks will not perform if they feel they are not trusted or if they feel that they have been lied to. Suddenly the organisation finds it hard to harness their maverick and keep them performing with minimal disruption to others.

At this point the organisation needs to look at what drives the change in the maverick’s behaviour and how to align their needs and desires to the organisation’s objectives. Flexibility in leadership style and understanding human nature is the key to achieving this.

When passion becomes destructive

Many larger organisations have trouble maintaining flexibility in their leaders’ styles. This often goes hand in hand with their inability to harness the passion of their top talent. Smaller enterprises do not have this problem because by their very nature they are flexible and passionate driven by the vision of the solo entrepreneur. With just themselves to please they inevitably follow their passions instinctively.

No-one has ever followed a leader that didn’t have passion. Passion for who they are, what they believe in and the direction that they want to go. Even ‘quiet’ leaders have passion, they may not have the oratory skills of JFK or Martin Luther King, but they have, nevertheless, the ability to stir their followers to a cause – a vision to strive for.

So passion is essentially a good thing … it helps us keep going when times are hard, rallies others to a cause, it builds global brands and companies … without passion a leader has no followers.

However, when passion is applied without good intent it can rapidly become destructive. Mavericks are generally very passionate people and can become very focused on singular activities. They have vision, strength of purpose, drive and direction – to the goals that they want to achieve. If their goals are not aligned to the organisation, then real sparks can ensue. Troublesome Talent® or mavericks, will do what they want to do, when they want to do it , so loss of the autonomy that drew them to the company initially can often find them spiraling out of control and losing their desire to achieve.

So how does the organisation turn around their destructive maverick?

Give them a compelling reason to change their behaviour

The organisation needs to ask themselves a number of questions, in an attempt to see things the way that the maverick views things. Mavericks can be highly influential and if they feel betrayed they can work hard to ensure they destroy the very thing that the organisation is trying to build.

Examples of questions organisations should ask themselves are:

• why has the organisation changed the way they are dealing with the maverick?
• what situation is the maverick in, what’s their perception of reality?
• How are they coming across – is the organisation using flexible leadership styles with their Troublesome Talent® or does one size fit all?

Armed with the answers to questions like those above will enable the organisation to enter into meaningful dialogue with their maverick. Mavericks only change when there is an overriding imperative to do so. Organisations need to restore the trust of their Troublesome Talent® if they want to reignite their passion in a positive way. With inspired leadership it will be easier to reach the maverick and harness their talent.

Troublesome Talent® also need to see the cost of their behaviour both financial and human. It is important to give the problem that they cause a human face. Let them reach their own conclusion as to the consequences of their actions and then ask them, how does the result that they see, achieve their end goal.

By ensuring that both parties’ objectives are aligned and that the maverick is given a clear path to follow and compelling reason to change, performance will return to previous impressive levels. It is likely that not only will the top talent perform better they will more likely stay within the organisation. Sadly, this is not always as easy as it sounds, as most large companies have complex rules that they need to follow and aren’t always accepting of the positive challenges that Troublesome Talent® can bring.

The proposed end to Britain’s opt-out of the 48-hour working week could have disastrous consequences for businesses in the UK, who are currently surviving on the goodwill of employees who work extra hours to survive the credit crunch, warn specialists at leadership consultancy Dynamic Transitions.

According to the Surrey-based consultancy firm, many employees and especially managers are working in excess of 48 hours simply to help keep the business afloat and their jobs intact. If they are unable to continue, businesses will have no choice but to raise the cost of their services or hire additional staff, neither of which will sit well in an economy heading towards recession.

The announcement from Brussels comes at the same time as reports by Friends Provident, which suggest that employees are more prone to illness and stress than they were three years ago and that many already put at least seven hours of unpaid overtime in a week or work two jobs. Germain believes the move to reducing the amount of paid overtime available to staff, particularly in ‘blue collar’ jobs such as production or retail will result in even more stress as their ability to earn much needed extra income is slashed.

“Companies may find themselves in a situation where they can’t give staff overtime because they have already worked their 48 hours. This is likely to cause added strain on businesses who may then put pressure on employees to work even harder in less time, resulting in a dramatic fall in morale and an increase in costs if these staff then go sick”, explains Judith Germain, MD of Dynamic Transitions.

But office workers will be hit too, as Germain warns that the biggest issue facing businesses will be managing the performance of high achievers or ‘mavericks’ who enjoy the buzz of working hard and achieving their goals, even if it means working long hours.

“In the UK it is common place to work long hours, its part of our culture and its why most offices, especially in The City, expect staff to be available beyond the traditional ‘working day’. With the option of overtime (paid or unpaid) potentially taken away from them, ‘mavericks’ can become more disruptive and despondent, and this in itself will have a huge knock on effect on the business if they are not managed appropriately”, says Germain.

Dynamic Transitions is a leadership company specialising in managing Troublesome Talent. You can download their free whitepaper ‘Harnessing Maverick Talents’ at www.developing-leadership.com/whitepapers.html For further information or to find out more about Dynamic Transitions visit www.developing-leadership.com or telephone +44 (0) 208 288 0512.

In my opinion, CEOs are extremely brave people. After years of establishing expertise in one or two key functional areas or industries; they take up a role in which they are expected to be able to understand and master all the different aspects of the business! From day one, CEOs have all the accountability in defining the company, ensuring that they have an efficient and effective Board. They also need to have an employee culture that empowers the employees and satisfies the customers, and a business model that really works. This requires a high level of aptitude across a number of competencies, failure in any one area can have a disastrous effect on the company.

Often the success of a company rests on the leadership abilities of the CEO. When in situ they are expected to need little professional development, to be a charismatic leader, an effective manager, knowledge of their industry and emerging trends and an ability to understand the differing activities of the business that makes up the whole. The more complex the company is, the higher the level of expectation that is placed upon them.

But to make things worse, new CEOs typically have on average just 2 years to deliver!

To ensure that they deliver what is expected of them, productive CEOs must ensure the successful marriage of their own management and leadership skills. In this context, management can be defined as the ability to make good decisions and leadership as the ability to execute those decisions through others. These CEOs often hire the services of an external mentor.

What is mentoring and does it differ from coaching?

Coaching begins with the premise that the answers are within the person being coached. The coach’s role is to help the individual understand that and via the use of encouraging and questioning techniques, helps elicit the solution. A coach is non directional and never provides advice.

By contrast a mentor is an expert who provides guidance and advice within a more developmental relationship. Mentoring requires flexibility of the mentor and their ability to use a wide range of techniques to guide the mentee.

Why do productive CEOs think mentoring is essential to their success and their business?

There is a high expectation from shareholders, the Board, employees and other stakeholders that the CEO is always able to clearly assess the optimum direction of the company. He is always self assured, confident and has high self esteem and can easily handle difficult situations with the Board without doubt and with aplomb.

CEOs face many important strategic decisions and to confide that they are uncertain can signal a vulnerability that may weaken their position, and cause doubt in their subordinates. This can be disastrous especially in times when the company is going through major change such as a merger or acquisition, downsizing, a strategic re direction or restructure.

There can be times when the CEO is unsure of whom to trust in his organisation especially if he is experiencing doubt in a decision that he needs to make. It can be lonely at the top especially if there isn’t someone trustworthy to confide in.

Having an objective sounding board

Often a productive and efficient CEO wishes to try out or test new ideas prior to sharing them with his fellow Board members. This enables him to ensure that new ideas are fully assessed and are in sufficient shape prior to the scrutiny that he will receive from his Board.

By working with his mentor he is able to role play the likely resistance that he may receive and therefore be more prepared when it comes to discussing his ideas. He can ensure that he is taking an objective stance rather than an emotional one and is being as strategic or operational in outlook as the situation requires.

Receiving support and advice on team dynamics

Not every Board is as productive or efficient as it should be. This may be because of the way that the CEO is interacting with the other members. If this is the case then the mentor can provide objective advice on how he can be more effective in this arena.

Sometimes the team itself is dysfunctional and is therefore unable to achieve its strategic goals, whilst the CEO is usually able to analyse the reason for the dysfunction he is not always sure how to address the problem. This can be especially true when the reason for dysfunction is due to the personalities of the team, or particular loyalty to their own department.

It is common for mentors to attend the occasional Board meeting (or key meeting) to observe the way the CEO interacts with his team as well as how the team interacts as a whole. The insight that the mentor provides can enable the CEO to clearly see how to improve the dynamics of the team and improve its productivity and efficiency.

Staying ahead of the game by receiving knowledge from other industries

The best mentors work across industries therefore easily transferring best practice from one industry to the next. This enables the CEO to remain fresh and able to more closely identify emerging trends within his own area, through more objective thinking.

The CEO broadens his horizons and experience by working with an external mentor. One way of achieving this is by leveraging the knowledge of the mentor and being able to challenge what is perceived as the only effective way to get something done.

Continuous CEO development

Once an executive becomes a CEO it is often assumed that he no longer needs any further development. This can be a flawed assumption especially when contemplating the role and responsibilities that the CEO faces, often in a challenging and competitive environment. Mentoring enables the CEO to recognise their own abilities and limitations in a safe environment therefore ensuring that their abilities are enhanced and limitations developed into strengths. Where necessary, tasks are delegated to enable the CEO to fulfil his strategic role successfully.

An external mentor ensures that the CEO remains challenged, motivated and constantly learning/developing. This enables the company to reap the benefit of a CEO continuously challenging their own assumptions, someone with a clear strategic focus and who can expertly marry the need to demonstrate clear leadership, efficient management and effective communication.

A more successful and sustainable company

Numerous research studies show that how a company is led is what makes the difference between successful and sustainable companies and failures. External mentors have the unique ability to assist the CEO and at times the leadership team in taking a more objective and strategic approach. They enable employee development, clarity of thinking and enhanced communication skills and team dynamics.

Does mentoring always work?

There are only two main reasons why mentoring doesn’t work. If there is a bad fit between the mentor and mentee or if the CEO is not ready to be open and honest with his mentor and be willing to move out of his comfort zone.

For example, I was working with an established CEO who had recently moved to a new company. The company was very dysfunctional; his top team was inefficient beset with personality and competency issues, poor morale issues amongst the employees and severe union issues. To add to his problems they were losing key customers, haemorrhaging money and the shareholders were not happy. They gave him a very tight timescale in which to achieve turnaround results.

The CEO was unable to confide in his team and was unclear as to where the true starting point was and whether there was a common root to the company’s issued.

By working closely together he was able to see clearly the issues that were faced by the company. To segregate the problems caused by his top team and the consequences of devalued and de-motivated employees. By tackling these key areas, he understood that these were the causes of customer dissatisfaction and poor bottom line results.

He learnt that his own leadership style was adding to the problem and how best to interact with others to ensure that he got the results that he wanted. He understood how to get the best out of his team and how to implement the best processes to deal with the technical deficiencies.

Under his tenure the company improved its fortunes, his team increased their competence and the union difficulties improved as they saw the employees being better treated. This had a positive effect on the bottom line. The CEO benefited from having a trusted advisor who was removed from the company, who could provide objective guidance and advice.

Mentoring is often much more beneficial to CEO’s than traditional coaching practices as it provides senior management with an external sounding bound, someone who can practically assess and advise on the problematic issues within the organisation as a whole, and will not just sit back and wait for the answers to ‘come from within’. Mentoring works when the CEO understands the needs to be challenged and to continue his personal development to realise his achievements and to ensure the likelihood of his company’s success.

One of the biggest challenges facing businesses right now is a crisis of leadership. There is a need to ensure that the company will remain profitable, employees remain engaged and customers satisfied for the company to survive the current economic downturn. The second biggest challenge for businesses is to truly understanding what leadership is and how to ensure that it permeates throughout the company. This is, for many companies, much harder than it appears as this desire can often manifest itself as an increase in command and control management rather than a genuine improvement in leadership. Good talent management is hard to come by.

A true leader is trusted

The best way to distinguish management from leadership is to understand that management is generally concerned with controlling complex processes; and leadership is about managing and facilitating change. This manifests itself in the leader challenging the status quo and acting and thinking in a strategic way. Whilst management tends to be restricted to those in a management role, leadership is demonstrated by individuals regardless of any formal role with the company. By encouraging leadership by all employees is the key to a company’s success. Management and leadership is integral to each other and those that hold management roles need to have a good grasp and execution in both of these disciplines.

Leadership is getting things done through trusted influence. This implies two things, that the leader inspires trusts in his followers and he has the ability to influence others. To inspire trust the leader needs to be credible and have a good reputation. When deploying talent management strategies it is important to remember that employees are loyal to their leaders not to the organisation that employs them. With this in mind it is essential then that the development of leaders in the organisation, regardless of formal role, is planned, controlled and nurtured.

Good leaders are role models and have strong empathic characters that demonstrate high social intelligence. Social intelligence differs from emotional intelligence in so much as it focuses on the impact that an individual has on others. If you have high social intelligence then it is implied that you have high emotional intelligence as well.

How to develop trust

Trust = reputation and credibility; therefore to develop trust the leader must concern himself with having the right reputation and being credible in what they do. Employees need to believe in their manager and be able to consistently predict how their manager is likely to react in any given situation. This provides them with comfort and increases the chances that they will remain loyal to their manager. The basis of trust is character and competence. Questions to consider are:

• How much integrity does the leader have?
• Is the leader egotistical or humble?
• Is the leader’s intention honourable?
• How capable is the leader in his role?
• How does the leader’s track record stack up?

To develop trust the leader must provide the right level of autonomy to their employees. A leader that has an inappropriate command and control style of leadership demonstrates a breathtaking level of distrust in the employee’s abilities. This will encourage the employees to reduce their work performance and be less likely to be loyal to the manager or their company. Leaders in management positions need to be able to tell the truth at all times as this encourages trust in the relationship between the manager and the employee. The most effective leaders acknowledge other people’s contributions and not take a disproportionate level of credit for a job well done. They should be proud of an employee’s achievement and not feel threatened by their success. A leader that selectively shows their vulnerability to their employees, thus demonstrating that they are ‘real’ is more likely to engender trust. People find it hard to relate to individuals who seem strong all the time. The reverse is not true however, those that appear weak the majority of the time tend to engender distrust and contempt by those that should be following.

Credible leaders will be an expert in what they do, demonstrating a track record of competence that enables others to have confidence in their ability. They will treat others with respect and extend trust to others on a regular basis.

Trusted leaders are more likely to be able to influence their employees. With flatter structures and more matrix organisations it is increasingly likely that leaders are expected to manage employees that are not direct management reports. They are not responsible for their pay and cannot hire or fire them – they are, however, accountable for their performance.

With the credit crunch showing no immediate signs of ending, it will be imperative for leaders to work on cementing their credibility and trustworthiness, if they are to engage with their teams and encourage them to buy-in to the organisations plans for survival. Good staff are hard to come by and even harder to keep. In tougher times, a good leader will be fundamental in retaining and motivating the organisations top talent and preparing them for future succession. Equipping them the true qualities of leadership excellence is vital to securing the continuing success of the business in years to come.

Maverick’s can be an essential asset to any company however many are misunderstood and are often seen as being disruptive. In this article I look  at the role of Mavericks within any business and how to best harness their talent.

There are a lot of HR people who still play at the administrative level rather than the strategic level so businesses miss out a lot of key advice and help. My role in HR led me to mentoring as this it is about making sure the business meets it’s objectives through effective use of it’s people.

Within many organisations today there are problems with office culture. This needs to be altered before changes can happen. The first step is understanding what the culture is and what are the major drivers.

One of the first things you have to look at is which is the culture that the board thinks is the right culture in terms of their market place and how they want to achieve this. Without top level agreement from the board, there is no point in doing it. Once you have done that, it is a simple case of working backwards. It is all about behaviour. You cannot change people’s attitudes and belief systems because you told them to do it but by actually getting them to change their behaviour, they change themselves.

If you have a management team that does not take talent very seriously, and will not be held accountable for, they could be promoted without caring about whether their staff have been developed properly. Therefore one of the things you could change within a culture is training and mentoring, but also the senior managements pay structure. This means that they won’t get paid unless they reach certain development targets for their staff. Quite often, one of the ways to change a member’s behaviour towards their staff is to build it into the current structures that are already there.

What is a Maverick….

In my role as HR I quite often get asked to help manage Mavericks, often known as troublesome talent. A Maverick is someone that is wilfully independent. Mavericks can be divided into two categories, someone with a Maverick personality who is very wilful, and then you have people that have Maverick tendencies who in certain specific areas are wilful and that means that their work will be very different to anyone else in the industry.

Within companies we need to encourage Maverick tendencies and be very aware of Maverick personalities. Mavericks are really the ones that can help turn around businesses. They make up 20% of the talent pool and know what is going on whilst being very good at what they do. Unfortunately led incorrectly, Mavericks can cause 80% of the problems.

How do I know if I have a Maverick within my organisation?…. The Maverick type is someone that rather than just follow the rules, will actually look at the big picture and say “I don’t understand why you are doing this, it makes no sense”. They are very blunt individuals who will tell you how it is and often question “why” . They are not being challenging at an aggressive stance, they are doing it because they generally want to know and want to help.

Another way to know a Maverick personality is that they will think quite different from other people. They are quite fast thinking and are the ones that will see the next trend that is coming and start moving towards it.

Industries that Mavericks are within….

You will often see a lot of Mavericks in fast moving creative industries such as sales and media. These Mavericks are extrovert type mavericks. Mavericks within technical departments such as engineers and IT are quite often introverted Mavericks.

What are the differences…

• Extroverted Maverick – If you upset an extroverted Maverick, they will give you their opinion and tell you out loud “your wrong, this is the way it should be done, i’m not doing it this way”. You will know when you have upset them.

• Introverted Maverick – These might say “I don’t agree with you” but they will go ahead and do it anyway, you won’t be aware of them. Sometimes people miss that type of Maverick because they are not making a lot of noise so they don’t see them as a problem.

Is it important to find a company with which you are a good fit?…

With Mavericks, sometimes it is going to be impossible to get a real ft and that’s when you have to work round that and say what can they do to achieve in the company? One of the first things that companies can do with Mavericks, because don’t forget there’s not many true Mavericks in a company anyway, is to give them roles that are more consultative because Mavericks have got a very low boredom threshold anyway so when they have fixed the problem, they need to move onto something else.

Mavericks tend to do things when they think there is a compelling reason to do it. They tend to work in companies that are aligned to what they want to achieve.

If a company is going to do true leadership with a team of individuals and get the best results out of them, they will need to make sure that the things they want to implement and how they are going to implement them is finely tuned to the individuals. That is what true management is about.

Is there any difference for black Mavericks in the workplace?…

There are a lot of people who may put black people in the Maverick space when they are not truly Mavericks. This might well be down to stereo tying, and how the black person perceives themselves, and how they act. For example I have been saying that Mavericks tend to challenge a lot, ask why – and it’s for a genuine reason. If a black person does it, rather than actually seeing whether it’s a Maverick type challenge or an aggressive challenge, it might be seen as a aggressive challenge anyway when it’s not.

Lack of confidence….

A lot of Mavericks are motivated internally which means that if they feel like they are doing a good job, they don’t need to be told. An external person needs to be told regularly by people that yes that’s a good job. If someone tells them they can’t do it then they believe them.

Tips for becoming internally motivated..

One of the most basic tips is to understand what you are good at doing and what you are not good at doing because people that are externally influenced in a negative way tend to know their weakness really well but don’t know their strengths.

People should have their strengths on a list and then expand that list so they can say, this is how I use that strength. People might say I’m too trusting, and see that weakness. What does too trusting mean in terms of strength? These people will have a wide circle of friends which can be a major asset. Asking people that you trust, what you are good at and what you are bad at, and what they would change if they were you could also be useful.

You can also have a plan of where you want to be and break it down into steps on how to get there.

If you understand why people do the things they do, you can actually dis-associate yourself from their own behaviours, and that itself will make you stronger.

Confidence in the work place….

Whether it is your own business or in the workplace, no one can argue with true confidence. If you are not self motivated and you really don’t think you are good at what you do despite being told, you may need someone to work with you, as you might not have the skills to bring out your best qualities and this is where a mentor can really help you to gain the competitive edge.

Every executive and business owner has one key objective and that is to improve performance. Behind every business objective, (whether it is, for example, to grow your business by 10%, increase ROI by 5% or become a better leader), is the innate desire to improve performance. It is this aspiration that makes us successful in our labours.  I recommend adopting seven simple goal setting steps to ensure optimum business performance is achievable.

Performance Improvement can be defined in many ways. For example, the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (2003) defines it as the process of designing or selecting interventions which may include training directed toward a change in behaviour, typically on the job.

I believe that performance improvement is any positive change that can be measured after you have actively decided to make a change in your current circumstances. This is why defining the improvement requirement and measurement method is so critical.

If we assume therefore, that a key success factor in business is to improve performance, where would you start? A logical approach would be to decide which area of performance needs improving and look for experts in this field to enable you to achieve the appropriate improvement. For example, you may need to improve your sales so you engage a marketing consultant to enable you to achieve this.

In reality, the first step towards performance improvement is defining your goal. Following a goal setting process will ensure that performance enhancement is made.

Goal Setting Process

There are seven steps to setting the goals that will achieve your objectives and improve your performance. Using the above example of improving sales to explain the goal setting process, the seven steps are as follows:

1. Define what you wish to achieve

To begin the process, consider what it is that you broadly want to achieve. For example, you wish to improve your performance by increasing sales.

2. Make sure that your goal is specific and time bound

Once you have determined the broad area of improvement you will need to define your goal more specifically. What is it that you wish to achieve and how will you measure the change? What is the appropriate timeframe for the improvement? These are the first questions that you need to ask yourself. If you are not specific in your goals then it will be difficult to achieve it, especially if you have not set a timeframe for achievement. Many of us work best when we have deadlines to work towards. Setting realistic timeframes and measurements enables us to assess our progress.

3. State your goals appropriately

It is very easy to sabotage yourself when you are setting yourself improvement targets. You may consciously wish to improve your sales but subconsciously believe that improving your sales will increase your profits. Increasing your profits may make you believe that you will be wealthy and wealthy people are never happy. You therefore sabotage your attempts to improve your sales. The annoying thing is you may have set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) objectives perfectly, but are not able to achieve them because you are unknowingly working against your core values. For example – I want to be happy and being wealthy means I will not be happy.

To ensure that you achieve your goals you need to understand fully why you wish to achieve them and what has been stopping you from achieving them. It can take time to discover your subconscious motivations and realities but once this has been achieved you will be able to achieve your goals because you are not working against yourself. You are now ready to state your goals in a positive fashion. Goals should never be stated negatively, for example, ‘I will not fail to improve my sales’.

The reason for this is because the subconscious mind cannot process negativity. It will look for the command in the statements that it ‘hears’. So in the above statement it ‘hears’ the command ‘I will fail to improve my sales, not’. This is another example of you sabotaging your ability to achieve. Your goal could be stated ‘I will improve my sales by 10% within 3 months’. To support this goal you could also assert the statement ‘I have improved my sales in July’. By believing that change is possible enables you to draw towards yourself opportunities to exploit positively.

4. Record your goal and have leverage

To ensure that you become fully committed to your goal you should record it. This will give the subconscious mind a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more information you give it, the more clarity the final outcome has. Once you have recorded the goal you will need to write down the factors that will motivate you to achieve the goal. It helps to know whether you are motivated towards or away from things. For example, if you improve sales you will be able to retire early (positive motivation), if you improve sales you will not be bankrupt (negative motivation). If you are aware of how you are motivated you will be able to record a number of reasons why you must achieve the goal based on your motivation bias. You will have established leverage on yourself and make performance improvement more likely.

5. Check your priorities and resources

If you have more than one goal, you will need to prioritise them to ensure that they do not conflict with each other in terms of deadlines and values. For example, ‘I will improve my sales by 10% in 3 months’, and I will reduce production costs by 1 month’ when you have already decided that the only way to reduce production costs is by increasing sales. The increase in sales would take 3 months. Only set the number of goals that you can fully focus on. If that is not possible, then I recommend that you revisit the goal definition stage. This will ensure that you only tackle the key things that will improve performance in the timescale that you believe is appropriate. You must ensure that you have the right resources available to achieve your goal. Without this vital check you will not be able to realise your desired outcome.

6. Chunk your goals and make yourself accountable

It can be difficult to improve performance when you have provided yourself with a stretch target. Sometimes the sheer size of a goal can make it unachievable. In circumstances like this you need to chunk your goals into small more obtainable ones. For example, the goal to improve sales by 10% in 3 months can seem difficult to achieve. To achieve this goal you can chunk it down to smaller goals (ie increase the number of sales conversions. This can be done by increasing the number of targeted cold calls by 15%). This process will enable you to set manageable smaller goals that work towards the larger goal. Make yourself accountable, by telling someone of your goals. This will help focus you on achievement. You are more likely to achieve your goal if you have to explain to a third party why you have not completed your goal. If you feel that you cannot, find a third person who will be objective in this process, like a mentor or coach, then write your goal in a place where you will see it regularly.

7. Check and review progress

This is the final step. It is important to ensure that everything that you do is working towards the performance improvement. By checking and reviewing progress you will be able to adjust your performance accordingly.

Mavericks are often described by Judith Germain as being wilfully independent, a trait which companies need to utilise if they want to remain competitive and successful. This wilfulness, however, needs to be harnessed because, left unchecked; it can bring down a company with dramatic consequences. Here I advise on the delicate process of balancing the need to encourage a Maverick, whilst restricting their independence to ensure that they can be successful and their employees remain productive, effective and engaged.

When considering some of the true maverick leaders of our time; JFK, Martin Luther King, Richard Branson and Bill Gates, it was their innate sense of leadership and their ability to maintain their vision and belief despite ridicule and criticism that enabled them to succeed where others had failed. In business life, the same challenges occur with many organisations struggling to nurture their ‘mavericks’; people who with the right guidance could probably become the company’s most crucial asset.

Sadly, mavericks tend to be 20 per cent of the most talented employees, causing 80 percent of the company’s problems (also known as Pareto’s 80/20 Rule). Mavericks are naturally impulsive and often don’t think through the consequences of their actions. As a result, organisations often write off mavericks from any kind of talent management programme; deeming them too unpredictable to be considered for promotion. But it is precisely these maverick tendencies which are needed by organisations to survive in the 21^st century and when mavericks see themselves missing out time and time again on promotions and not being recognised for their skill, they can become disruptive and damaging to the organisation.

21^st Century Talent Management

It is clear that the old ways of doing things just aren’t relevant anymore. With more graduates lacking the skills and ability of their predecessors, more mergers, downsizing and de-skilling, combined with more demanding customers, organisations need to be much more flexible and autonomous than ever before if they are to succeed.

Poor performing companies tend to have what I call 20^th Century management thinking, imposing strict command, control and conformity measures on its employees. And the major misinterpretation of European law has results in a one-size fits all approach to management, which lacks the flexibility needed to successfully manage rising talent in an organisation.

Recognising Troublesome Talent

The shortage of highly skilled, talented employees has created a seller’s market, where prime candidates can demand high salaries, ultimate flexibility, but are prepared to give very little in return. They command respect and recognition for their expertise, getting bored quickly when they are not stretched or challenged, resulting in them finding destructive outlets for their talents.

Troublesome Talent are often criticised for their arrogance and negative influence on their peers and often take a defensive or entrenched position. Typically, this situation will lead to higher employee turnover, increased claims of bullying and a drop in team performance.

The first step to regaining the natural balance is to realise that an individualistic approach to managing the team is required. Often, a maverick will need to be treated differently to everyone else and the trick is to find a way of treating them which is specifically tailored for their maverick tendencies, whilst ensuring it remains consistent with the wider employee programme.

Helping harness Maverick Talent

Ironically, mavericks are much more sensitive to being ‘micro-managed’ than other employees, challenging even the simplest of tasks if they think they are being managed rather than led. Often, they refuse to accept instructions that the rest of the team abide by, enjoying their independence and feeling of being in control of their own destiny. As a result they will fight hard to maintain this independence, even if it is likely to go against them in the long run, making it impossible to follow most standard all embracing management approaches.

Mavericks are extremely confident by nature and need to be certain of their success before completing their tasks. This behaviour can manifest itself in a number of ways, most commonly through insisting they have access to the manager whenever they have a query. Mavericks won’t admit they have fears about succeeding and so it is crucial that you give them the time they need to understand the task completely and are confident that it is within their abilities. This does not mean the tasks shouldn’t be challenging as mavericks need to be stretched to stay motivated.

The most important thing to a maverick is recognition and ignoring them is not an option! Failure to recognise their achievements will only result in the engagement of more and more unproductive activities designed to force you to notice them for their ability to cause trouble!

Mavericks like to work to their own timetable and to achieve best performance you should try to find ways to accommodate their creativity, even if it is at odd times of the day! Typically, companies are concerned about the productivity of unsupervised employees, but if you have the respect of your maverick, they will work tirelessly to ensure that your vision is a success.

This will reinforce your trust in the Maverick’s ability to reach peak performance and successful managers are those who have taught the maverick how to gain their trust. Mavericks work well with those they respect and find credible and it is these people who are more likely to enable the maverick to control their behaviour if needed. In fact, managers should enlist the help of anyone they believe has more sway over the maverick than they do!

Keeping control

It is clear that the only way to satisfy the maverick’s specific needs whilst providing the consistency required by the rest of the company is to adopt a leadership style which steers the maverick towards the desired outcome, whilst allowing the maverick to have an agreed, defined amount of autonomy. This will be tricky as mavericks tend to be completely oblivious to the effect that their bluntness has on the morale of others and it can be tempting to revert back to tradition management techniques to bring them back into line – but this must be resisted and replaced with sound, tailored leadership techniques.

Remember, mavericks need boundaries and they will respect you if you enforce them in the right way. Troublesome mavericks need to be given a compelling reason to change their current behaviour and if you manage them correctly, you can unleash their creativity and insight to the benefit of the entire organisation.