Maverick Mastery®

Many small businesses are putting their business and earning capacity at risk by investing in expensive marketing activity that increases visibility but does nothing for brand reputation, the ultimate decision making factor used by businesses during turbulent times, according to networking strategy specialists at leadership consultancy Dynamic Transitions.

In a recent whitepaper by Dynamic Transitions MD Judith Germain entitled ‘building reputation and credibility for your business’, Germain suggests that potential clients will only buy ‘high ticket value’ services from those they trust and that SME’s need to focus on how they can develop, nuture and maintain that trust, particularly during the credit crunch when spend is often limited.

Germain suggests that businesses should consider forgoing expensive marketing activity that only increases the business’ visibility but does nothing to lessen the ‘risk’ of hiring the company, arguing that those who rely on referrals or social networking to secure work instead will realise that the most cost effective way to gain new clients is to use ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’ marketing techniques.

“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”, explains Germain.

Germain strongly believes that 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, and ironically the return on this activity can be immense.

Germain adds, “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 this…based on the information available about me, would I hire me?”

You can download the free whitepaper ‘building reputation and credibility for your business’ from www.developing-leadership.com/leadership-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.

With news that HSBC is the latest to announce substantial job losses, many highly valuable Generation Y employees across the UK may be unfairly lost due to their perceived job-hopping mentality, according to leadership consultancy Dynamic Transitions.

Gen Y feel little loyalty to the company and are more interested in what the company can do for them

There is much discussion over the emerging trends of Generation Y employees, most importantly the disappearance of a ‘job for life’ approach to employment and Dynamic Transitions MD Judith Germain believes that this, combined with increasingly tight market conditions, is forcing out some of the most talented younger individuals and potential successors, in a bid to keep costs down.

“Generation Y individuals tend to change jobs frequently in their search for personal development and a company that shares their same values. The talented ones understand that they will have many jobs and indeed careers in their working life, so they feel little loyalty to the company and are more interested in what the company can do for them”, explains Germain.

This sentiment is reflected in a recent survey into Generation Y employees which suggested that the average length they stayed in a position was under two years and a panel for the Association of Women in Technology revealed that Millennial (Gen Y) workers actually feel they are discriminated against due to their age.

“The ‘always-moving’ approach to working life displayed by Generation Y employees can put them at a huge disadvantage when it comes to the securing of jobs, especially in an environment when big companies are downsizing to save costs and ‘older’ managers interpret many jobs on the CV as lack of commitment or fickleness of the employee”, adds Germain.

Germain believes that the distinct clash of culture between X & Y generations is the primary cause of talented Gen Y job losses and says “at the moment ‘Y’ are generally ‘workforce’, with ‘X’ being ‘the managers’, so they are already at a disadvantage as their approach to working life is markedly different”.

Dynamic Transitions is a leadership company specialising in working with Troublesome Talent ® and improving leadership performance within organisations. The full version of their recently released whitepaper ‘The Generation Game: How to manage a new generation of Mavericks’ can be downloaded from http://www.developing-leadership.com/generationy.html

Businesses are heading towards a shortage of talented successors as current managers resist the emerging new work culture of Generation Y, according to a newly released whitepaper from leadership development consultancy Dynamic Transitions. “Generation Y expect more from a company than just a salary and are looking for community and a company that shares their principles and respects their individuality. As a result, traditional incentives are holding little interest for them”, says Dynamic Transitions MD Judith Germain.

The whitepaper entitled ‘The Generation Game: How to manage a new generation of Mavericks’ argues that managers should be encouraging more extroverts and those with maverick tendencies into the workforce, something which is counter intuitive to most managers and suggests that it this reluctance that is causing companies to struggle to recruit and retain talented Generation Y Mavericks.

It also identifies that Generation X individuals are much more willing and find it acceptable to work longer hours to get ahead in the company, whereas the new Generation Y employees do not accept that they need to be at work for 14 hours to succeed or be promoted.

“There is a distinct clash of culture between the X & Y generations. At the moment ‘Y’ are generally ‘the workforce’, with ‘X’ being ‘the managers’. Managers, especially ‘Baby Boomers’, think employees should do long hours at work and put the needs of the business above all else. Generation Y employees believe that their work can be done without spending hours at work and at a time that is convenient to them”, explains Germain.

“Generation Y are used to digital technology like Playstations, IPods etc that allows them to multi task. This leads them to believe that it’s essential to do many things at once to complete tasks. For example Generation Y employees cannot understand why they can’t sit at their desk listening to their IPod whilst they work. To attempt to do this will lead to disciplinary action by the typical Baby Boomer or Generation X manager” adds Germain.

“Mavericks are something to be encouraged not something to be stopped in terms of the work they are doing. The way you work with mavericks has to be challenging and give them the freedom they need to carry out their role effectively. Whilst the new generation of Maverick has slightly different expectations and skills, they still need to be managed carefully to ensure their energies are channelled to make a positive contribution to the organisation”, adds Germain.

Dynamic Transitions is a leadership company specialising in working with Troublesome Talent ® and improving leadership performance within organisations. The full version of the whitepaper can be downloaded from http://www.developing-leadership.com/generationy.html

UK businesses are failling to dedicate sufficient resources to improving or leveraging talent according to leadership consultancy Dynamic Transitions. In light of the recent CIPD report ‘Generation Y – Unlocking the Talent of Young Managers’ it was indicated that global leaders placed talent management as their top priority, Dynamic Transitions MD Judith Germain is calling for UK businesses to be tougher on senior management who abdicate the responsibility to HR and stresses that ‘we must move to a world where senior managers are NOT rewarded or promoted if they are not actively developing their staff or leveraging their talent.”

Speaking in a recent interview Germain suggested that as the credit crunch takes hold, more and more talented young managers are being overlooked, mainly because of their tendencies and inquisitiveness are considered a threat by senior managers who have taken an instant dislike to the new age workers and their working habits.

The CIPD report reveals that young managers are more prepared to give up their personal lives for their work to some extent, with fifty per cent agreeing that they would make sacrifices in order to succeed in their careers. Also the career-focused elements such as developing new skills, challenge, and good career prospects were the dominant attractions for Generation Y when joining their current organisation.

“Generation Y workers tend to go by the ‘ask, learn and succeed’ approach whereas senior management (Baby Boomers and to some extent Generation X managers) are more akin to the ‘work long hours and learn approach’. But perhaps more importantly, we are finding that Generation Y workers are getting through their workload at a much faster pace than their predecessors when given the right support and focus, and this is also seen as a threat,” explains Germain, who specialises in managing Troublesome Talent ® in the workplace.

Germain believes that UK companies run the risk of slipping behind global companies if they continue to focus on things that can work counter towards improving the business through leveraging the talent. That there is a distinct mismatch between the priorities of HR in aligning leadership development with business priorities and performance management systems and what exactly is required by the business.

“There is lack of accountability for leadership development by senior management and UK businesses need to realise that it is not HR’s responsibility to develop individuals – it must be developed by senior management if it is to have any impact on developing and retaining talent” adds Germain.

Judith Germain founded Dynamic Transitions in 2005 and provides strategic mentoring for senior executives and business leaders and delivers innovative leadership programmes, leadership consultancy, training, coaching and mentoring to corporate clients. For more information visit www.developing-leadership.com

Many organisations risk losing their most talented employees as the credit crunch takes hold, according to leadership company Dynamic Transitions. Speaking at HR Director’s Talent Management Breakfast at the Lord’s Cricket Ground last week, Dynamic Transitions MD Judith Germain warned that the emergence of Generation Y is “spelling further trouble for organisations who continue to adopt a one size fits all approach to talent management”.

Addressing attendees at the exclusive breakfast event on 26^th June, Germain suggested that many of the most talent employees were likely to be selected for redundancy due to their perceived troublesome nature, when in fact, with the right management techniques, these individuals could become the top performers in the organisation.

Germain argued that Troublesome Talent® made up 20% of the top performers in an organisation, but accounted for 80% of the problems and urged attendees not to use redundancies to kick out the business’ best talent.

“The reality is that too many employees prefer to keep their head down and follow rules and procedures that don’t work simply because it is easier and acceptable to do so. Troublesome Talent® however, are prepared to stand up for what they believe in and will tell managers the flaws in the company’s policies and the issues they face. As a result, their employees are often singled out as trouble makers,” said Germain.

Germain revealed that whilst Troublesome Talent® had emerged in Generation X as people started to demand more flexible working and concentration on their individual desires, the emergence of Generation Y (Birth dates between 1980-1994) has meant that organisations need to re-examine their talent management techniques and adopt a more individualistic approach.

“Generation Y employees do not believe in the ‘9-5’ and are more focussed on themselves and their development. They are more likely to question authority and are more entrepreneurial and extrovert than their Generation X predecessors. Organisations need to realise that traditional command and control management techniques just will not work with them,” said Germain.

Germain founded Dynamic Transitions in 2005 and provides strategic mentoring for senior executives and business leaders and delivers innovative leadership programmes, leadership consultancy, training, coaching and mentoring to corporate clients. For more information visit www.developing-leadership.com

After a whirlwind month of interviews for leadership specialist Judith Germain, the Dynamic Transitions frontline woman is celebrating the news that her Troublesome Talent® interview for the NLP Expert Forum has received over 400 downloads, making it one of the sites most popular interviews.

In the ten minute interview on leadership and Troublesome Talent® conducted by Michael Beale, Director of PPI Business NLP Ltd, Germain discussed the problems faced by organisations who try to manage these highly talented but uncompromising individuals in the ‘conventional’ way.

“Troublesome Talent® are people that don’t compromise their standards to fit in. They tend to make up as much as 20% of your talent pool, but they can be bringing in about 80% of your profit” explains Germain, who was interviewed in May for UK leading internet station Glastonbury Radio’s The 21-Grams Show on the topic of Mavericks in Business and also appears twice on Accountancy Age TV speaking about the need for a mentor and why business people need to stand out from their rivals.

Germain goes on to explain in her interview that HR departments often look to solutions like Talent Management believing that what they have to do is treat each and every employee the same way, to be fair and consistent. However, that technique doesn’t work with Troublesome Talent® because you do need to treat them differently if you want to get the best from them.

“These people are extremely talented, but they only really become troublesome if they’re not lead properly. In fact, they are often not selected for talent management programmes and are not really rewarded for the good things that they can do, because people want to control them or just take away the very talent that’s made them successful (by forcing them to conform)” adds Germain, who founded Dynamic Transitions in 2005 to provide strategic mentoring, innovation leadership, coaching and training programmes for individuals, small businesses and large corporations.

The full Mavericks in Business interview is available here http://www.dynamic-transitions.knet-uk.co.uk/JudithGermaininterviewmavericks.mp3. The Troublesome Talent® interview can be downloaded from the NLP Expert Forum (http://nlp-experts.org/leadership/12-judith-germain-interview.html) or for more information about Troublesome Talent® visit www.developing-leadership.com

Dynamic Transitions are celebrating their most successful event for budding entrepreneurs and business owners to date, after hosting an Exclusive Black Tie Dinner at the elegant La Pont de La Tour Restaurant, London.

The exclusive event, held on 5^th March 2008, brought together twelve ‘mavericks’ who were particular experts in their field and provided a relaxed environment for stimulating conversation, business awareness and advocacy.

Following a Champagne and Canapés reception, dinner was served in the Salon Privé, the restaurants exclusive Private Dining Room.

Attendees travelled from places as diverse as Devon and Lewes to attend and one guest delayed an important meeting in Germany until the next day to attend.

Another guest, Allison McSparron-Edwards, the MD of Consultrix, spent over £300 on expenses just to get to the event, but commented that it was “worth every penny it took to get here”.

The event was hosted by Dynamic Transitions, a leadership company specialising in working with Troublesome Talent® and improving leadership performance within organisations. The Maverick Black Tie Dinner was the latest in a number of Maverick Events for the Maverick Community whose membership comprises 120 entrepreneurs and business owners from across the country.

“Mavericks are wilfully independent, a characteristic which is found in many great leaders. In today’s competitive world, extraordinary results will not come from being ordinary” explains Judith Germain, founder of Dynamic Transitions and co-author of Amazon’s number 2 best seller ‘BusinessWise’.

“I am passionate about helping leaders and business owners draw out the positive aspects of maverick behaviour from within themselves and their teams and this is facilitated within the formal but relaxed environment of our Maverick Events” add Germain who also leads a number of online and offline communities where she enables the members to learn how to harness their talent to improve their business performance and productivity.

Maverick Events are by invitation only and are in extremely high demand. Entrepreneurs and business owners are warmly encouraged to contact Judith Germain (jude@dynamic-transitions.co.uk) if they would like to be considered for the next Maverick Event.