Maverick Mastery®

Despite years of flexible working and child friendly policies, women are still struggling to reach the boardroom and the proposed Equality Bill may make this rise to power even harder to achieve.

Designed to bring together nine major laws and over 100 regulations, companies will be free to discriminate in favour of women, however this will in fact do more harm than good when it comes to supporting career progression for women, especially in the current economic climate.

Why would this be the case?

The proposed Equality Bill is designed to enable organisations to become more female friendly thus encouraging more women to enter the workplace and to progress in their careers. Previous research had shown that women are choosing not to pursue careers in environments that are male dominated or highly pressured and perceived to be more suited to the male psyche. The research infers (amongst other reasons) that this is because women are the primary child carer and therefore are required to be more flexible in their work arrangements for the sake of the family. This can have an adverse effect on their careers as they are invariably unavailable for informal gatherings outside core working hours. For example regular drinks after work with key personnel responsible for your career progression remains one of the most effective ways to get to know key decision makers.

Most companies provide limited support for flexible working, which can mean women voluntarily opting out of roles that might present a conflict between career progression and a growing family.

This potential loss of this talent, especially now, is likely to have an adverse effect on the productivity and profitability of organisations. Therefore legislation designed to make working life more comfortable for women should be roundly welcomed by the business community.

Unfortunately this has not been the case, with small businesses fearful that this Bill will bring them to their knees and larger companies mourning the increased cost and potential loss of productivity from employees who cannot take advantage of the new arrangements.

The proposed changes allowing positive discrimination of women and the right to request flexible working for parents of children under the age of 16 will in fact make it harder not easier for women to climb the career ladder. This will be especially true for those in management positions or who work in smaller businesses.

Other than the additional costs and uncertainty of when a return on investment will be received, employers may face resentment from employees who feel that the Bill gives entitlement to some people and not others. Non-parents for example might like flexible working and may believe that they will have to pick up the slack from parents who are working more favourable hours.

The UK workforce enjoys a strong tradition of fair play and the concept of positive discrimination and extended flexible rights for parents strikes at the very root of this convention. Since the early nineties employers have moved to rewarding internal jobs based on performance reviews, awarding the best candidate (internal or external) the role based on merit. Finally after years of employees expecting promotion or salary increases based on length of service and the old boy’s network a real move towards success based on merit has been achieved. The subtle nature of the intricacies of the bill (especially regarding positive discrimination) will be lost on the average employee. An assumption that a senior woman was hired because she is a woman can undermine any authority or respect that she was hoping to garner. The likelihood of increased litigation from potential and existing employees who wish to challenge an appointment because they do not believe that they were positively discriminated against will not endear them to their employers.

The right to request flexible working arrangements for parents with children under the age of 16, does of course apply equally to women and men. In reality there will be more women than men requesting to alter their working arrangements. This will add to the growing perception that there are too many family friendly laws which run contrary to business. Most employees believe that there is little real need for parents to have altered working arrangements when they have healthy children over the age of five. This is likely to lead to jealousy and/or resentment especially if non parents wish to have more suitable working arrangements themselves and are denied in favour to providing arrangements to parents.

managers may perceive that they are being forced to pamper to the whims of parents, a sentiment mirrored by Sir Alan Sugar earlier this year when he warned that current equality laws were ‘counter productive to women’ and would make it harder for women to get jobs.

Whilst the new bill is designed to boost the proportion of female staff into senior positions, this doesn’t then remove the barriers once they are there. The first battle that employers face is one of perception on the new Bill rather than actuality. There may be a potential backlash from other employees who feel that women in senior positions don’t deserve to be in the position they are in and are only there because of their gender. As a result, they will receive little respect from the employees they should be managing, something which will be extremely detrimental to their success in the organisation and could put their future career at risk.

Generation X employees need to educate unruly generation Y employees on the appropriateness of using social networking sites in light of revelations that employees at Waitrose and Tesco have been publicly posting insulting comments about their customers on social networking site Facebook, says Talent Management specialist Judith Germain.

As Waitrose becomes the latest high street chain to fall victim to the widespread visibility of their disgruntled employees via their unreserved comments on Facebook. Dynamic Transitions MD Judith Germain believes that Generation Y employees aren’t intentionally trying to tarnish the brand’s reputation, but simply don’t realise the consequences of their actions online, which for many, is an integral part of their day to day lives.

“Whilst Generation X and Baby Boomers know instinctively that conversations in public forums that involve their employers is a bad idea, Generation Y do not have that belief and struggle to understand the effect on their employer’s brand and the consequences that their actions may bring to their careers”, explains Germain, who specialises in managing Troublesome Talent® in the workplace.

Germain believes that employers must act now by educating their Generation Y employees on how to behave appropriately online and by providing ‘safe havens’ for them to express their views and vent frustrations in a controlled environment and away from the public eye, if they want to maintain staff loyalty and customer satisfaction during a particularly difficult trading period.

“Organisations should consider providing a place internally where staff can have ‘conversations’ with each other in a social networking environment which is away from public scrutiny, however, these kind of solutions must be thought through carefully in terms of how they are implemented and how much intervention or moderation they want to provide. The legal implications of getting it wrong can be quite adverse to a business, although getting it right can bring radical results”, adds 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.

Talent Management is about attracting, developing and retaining employees who have key skills that the organisation needs to meet its objectives. It is a holistic approach to the strategic management of the organisation’s people, although many companies choose to concentrate their efforts in a specific area. For example Talent Management for some companies means recruiting the right people or developing the ‘high potentials’ of the organisation. I believe that this is a flawed approach as it doesn’t recognise that key talent often resides at all levels of the organisation and not just across the top few layers; which is where most HR departments focus their succession plans or Talent Management programmes.

Taking the right approach to Talent Management is essential especially in these economic times, and an incorrect approach can mean that the company can falter in fulfilling its objectives. This is often costly in financial and human terms. Effective Talent Management programmes will not only include succession plans across the organisation, strategic planning of how that talent affects the company and its strategic objections but also how the company interacts with those individuals. The company needs to advise these individuals on how important they are to them and the company’s plans for them. It is key that the company manages the expectations of the employee – unrealistic expectations by either the employee or the company is often the cause of key talent exiting the business. Highly talented individuals are more susceptible to being poached by a competitor that may feel that this is a more cost effective way of recruiting the talent that they need. How the host company has dealt with them in the preceding months or years will be a key determinant of whether the competitor company will be successful in their attempts to poach key talent.

Loss of key talent can be very destabilising for a company and it can take months or even years for the company to recover.

If your company has a Succession Plan is that enough?

The terms Succession Planning and Talent Management are often used interchangeably but are in reality quite different. Talent Management is a holistic approach to the managing of the entire talent pool of the company. Effective Succession Planning is an important element of Talent Management and is about identifying future potential leaders from the workplace to fulfil key positions within the organisation. Once potential leaders have been identified succession planning moves onto the development of the key skills that they require and their subsequent movement throughout the company. This movement is how they can develop the requisite skills and competences that will enable them to take increasing responsibilities within the organisations. It is important for a company to understand the differences in the strategic and operational approach to Succession Planning and Talent Management if it wishes to truly fulfil its strategic objectives.

An example of how Talent Management can be applied

Troublesome Talent® or Mavericks if you will are wilfully independent people and are often the first to be considered for redundancy. This is usually because their great talent is obscured by their sometimes disruptive nature and penchant for blunt language and brutally honest opinions. Mavericks at work tend to have high potential and are usually amongst the best performing employees in the workforce. Companies often find it difficult to engage this talent as they often concentrate on homogenous solutions that work for the majority of the organisation.

An effective Talent Management programme will have devised the best way to harness the skills of a maverick to enable these high-potential employees to fulfil their potential and assume business operational critical roles. Key components for a Talent Management programme for Troublesome Talent® would include:

• Discovering the short and long term objectives of the maverick
• Demonstrating how these can be aligned to the company’s objectives
• Analysing the key skills and competencies of the maverick and check for alignment to the company’s future needs
• Design a career path that will help him develop and enhance key skills and competencies
• Be honest and transparent in how the Company sees his future
• Provide and manage realistic expectations

The benefits of Talent Management

• A holistic approach to the management of talent
• The company understands the critical skills and competencies of the business and have ensured that their HR policies and procedures are designed to develop and nurture these key requirements.
• Employee productivity and morale is improved as employee objectives are aligned to company objectives
• An effective succession plan to ensure that leadership potential is identified and managed
• The right employees are recruited and retained
• Increased bottom line results

Talent Management is not just the purview of corporate companies. It is vital and essential for entrepreneurs to have an effective Talent Management policy. Smaller businesses often do not have the resources available to have a HR team that can advise and co ordinate Talent Management activities. Specific questions that entrepreneurs should take into account when considering Talent Management activities are as follows:

• What are their long term objectives?
• What are the key skills required in the business?
• What are the key skills of the workplace and are they aligned to the business objectives?
• Who will run the business in their absence and do they have the appropriate skills?
• How will the company cope with the loss of key talent?
• What is the company doing to recruit and retain key employees?
• How can Talent Management add to the business and be time and cost effective?

We have an ageing workforce and as a result, 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. In my experience, if 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’. Talent Management is about attracting, developing and retaining these vitally important employees who have key skills that the organisation needs to meet its objectives as without them, businesses will struggle to survive.

Recession-stricken employees across the country are set to see more innovative and dynamic initiatives from organisations as they battle to motivate and retain their workforce during the recession, says talent management specialist Judith Germain.

With Tesco leading the way in employee engagement with their new monthly talent competition designed to increase footfall into stores and in turn boost employee morale, Dynamic Transitions MD Judith Germain says that companies have realised that their old methods simply aren’t effective in the current climate and now need to be more innovative in how they motivate and retain their most talented employees.

Germain says “with morale falling and companies predicted to be unable to pay bonuses or increase pay there is an increased risk of employee flight amongst the top performing employees. Tesco may have got the balance right with their latest talent show initiative as this could have the double effect of both increasing customer sales and employee’s sense of partnership with the company”.

However, alongside implementing new employee engagement programmes, Germain, who specialises in dealing with Troublesome Talent®, believes that there is perhaps an even more critical need for companies to ensure that their management teams have the right skills to lead the company during this difficult time and in particular their most talented employees.

“Only 20% of most workforces contain the top talent, yet it is these unconventional thinkers that drive companies forward and can provide real competitor advantage and first mover status. Often customers and clients love their flexibility and their unique ability to sense what is needed and what enables them to get close to the customer’s need in a way that their competitors struggle to”, says Germain.

“The problem is that many managers, particularly Generation X-ers, have not had enough relevant experience to manage in these changeable times and it is this lack of ability that is having a disastrous effect on morale and productivity. In our experience poor management is more prevalent at these times, and is often the main cause of such company disharmony that even with the best employee engagement programmes, companies could find it hard to recover”, adds Germain.

Judith Germain is founder of Dynamic Transitions, a leadership company specialising in dealing with Mavericks in the workplace and Troublesome Talent®. For more information visit www.developing-leadership.com

In this day and age it is becoming increasingly important to be able to distinguish yourself from your competition so that you become the ‘no brainer’ choice in your chosen market. Whilst there are many factors that can distinguish you from everyone else, the deciding factor seems to be the strength of your reputation and credibility in relation to your competition. This is especially true for smaller businesses and ‘one man bands’ in over populated niches.

Brand reputation is becoming the ultimate decision maker and to ignore this trend will put your business and earning capacity in peril.

If we agree with the premise that potential clients will only buy high ticket value services from those that they trust, it becomes imperative that businesses consider how to develop, nurture and maintain that trust. The next consideration is to decide how to do this in the most cost effective way for their business.

This may mean foregoing expensive marketing activity that only increases the business’ visibility but does nothing to lessen the risk of hiring the company. This ‘risk’ perceived or otherwise, is continuously assessed by potential clients prior to them making the decision to hire you. The oft quoted maxim of ‘the client needs to be ‘touched’ by you 7 times before they buy’ is derived from this premise.

Lessening the risk of a client hiring you is especially important if the business has decided to use ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’ marketing as a strategy for their business. For example, ‘push’ marketing is where the business advertises its services to its target audience, unsure of whether they are looking for their expertise. ‘Pull’ marketing 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.

Those that rely on referrals or social networking to secure work will realise that the most cost effective way to gain new clients is to use ‘pull’ marketing techniques to gain business.

First things first

Before building your reputation in your chosen niche you need to first understand your current position. An audit of your situation should reveal (amongst other things) your standing in relation to your competitors, whether your reputation is earning you enough referrals and whether your business message is coherent across all your markets. It’s important to ensure that your current business strategy (including networking strategy) is consistent with the reputation that you have and are building.

Reputation is personal in its nature, concerning itself with the character of the business (or person) and the intention of its (their) actions. 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. Inconsistency can be the biggest killer of reputation because it undermines the trust that is being established between the two parties.

Credibility needs to be demonstrated and is based on your track record and competency. One of the ways to establish credibility is to ensure that your expertise and integrity is demonstrated regularly and effectively. This can be done by providing expert opinion, a positive and strong personal brand, social proofing and having a strong trust account. This allows potential clients to sample your expertise enabling them to advocate your services or hire your business.

If your business (and/or yourself) has a good reputation and credibility it is more likely to be trusted by your potential clients, therefore increasing your revenue and sustainability. A trust account balance reflects the amount of trust in the relationship at any given time. In any one relationship there are two accounts. How we perceive a trusted relationship – say one with a client, may not be the same as they see it. It would be wise to try and understand the balance that is held in each account.

Can social networking help you build reputation and credibility in your business?

It’s important that businesses establish their networking/marketing strategy so that they can decide which social networking sites they should use or maintain a presence on. Social networking sites like Ecademy (www.ecademy.com) can enable businesses to build reputation and credibility for their business quickly. This is particularly true of Ecademy’s Life Membership Community, where building advocacy is made easier due to the nature of its composition. Ecademy encourages its members to network on and offline. Sites like LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) can enable businesses to build visibility and connections quickly. There are hundreds of sites to choose from, so finding a cost and time effective way to utilise them is imperative. Your networking strategy needs to be defined to ensure consistency of your message.

The use of sites such as Ecademy can help businesses establish themselves as an expert in their area of expertise. To establish yourself (or your business) as an expert using social networking sites requires you to be visible to the membership. It is recommended that you blog and write articles frequently, in your area of expertise, run and join clubs structured around your expertise or around your personal interests (thus developing personal reputation). How you communicate and articulate your thoughts on the public and private areas of the networking sites – will guide potential clients and advocates well. Inconsistencies or extreme views contrary to your ‘public persona’ will do you ill and could even prohibit your ability to gain business.

Freely providing advice to others without expectation of a return helps to build your reputation as an expert and provides an informative view on your character. (This is not the same as providing free consultancy!) Participating in one-to-ones to learn how you can help those in your network can be a positive enhancement to both your reputation and credibility. The return on this activity can be immense.

With the credit crunch still impacting most industries, you need to ensure that you focus your energies on delivering a consistent and compelling reason for clients to work with you and a well defined networking strategy will help you to achieve this for very little cash outlay. It is a solid, credible reputation (not just increased visibility) that will carry you and business out of the crunch and beyond. So, look at the way your brand is seen by others and ask yourself…based on the information available about me, would I hire me?

This morning I was taking advantage of the quiet of New Year’s day to browse the Internet. I came across the site Social Mention. The purpose of the site is to show you how often you are mentioned on the Internet.

When you are running a business and have decided that a good business strategy is to employ in part, an ‘attraction policy’ then being mentioned frequently on the internet can be advantageous to your business. How relevant (and accurate) such a tool as Social Mention is, is still to be determined but it does at least let you see where your content is being mentioned on the net, including the comments made by others about you.

According to Social Mention my social rank is 36/100 which means I’m mentioned once every 4 hours. Thomas Power founder of Ecademy Social Rank is 66.14/100 which according to Social mention means that he is mentioned on the Internet once every 30 minutes! Ivan Misner founder of BNI social rank is 26.71/100 which means he is mentioned once every 2hours.

Ivan and Thomas are established and effective offline and online networkers which may explain why they have such impressive Social Ranks. They are also talented and different displaying wilful independence from those that share the same space in the ‘Networking Industry’.

Are they good examples of mavericks that have understood and mastered their Industy specifics? If so should we be trying to follow their example and increase our Social Rank?

Judith Germain – Maverick Comment

If you liked this post you may wish to share it on Twitter by clicking here.