Maverick Mastery®

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.

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.

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

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