Before you get dressed. Does it really matter what I wear for work these days? Some thoughts about personal branding.

It maybe unjust to judge a book by its cover, but its still what we do - nearly all of the time. 

Today it is much easier to be confused about what to wear in the workplace.  There seems to be much advice on the internet about what you can and cannot wear in the workplace, but I've struggled to find anything quickly that focuses on creating a sense of your own style and branding.  This is a major omission, and by the look of many people in the workplace a topic which many have not given consideration! (Joke... almost).

If your totally minted already, or perhaps have precious little care for success, progression or personal development then you might choose to skip the remainder of this article. However, those of you that care, and who want to avoid stagnation would do well to cast a thought in the direction of developing the brand which is you.   

Yes it totally matters how and what you deliver for an organisation (I’m not suggesting otherwise), but careful thought given to your appearance can contribute to your good efforts in a valuable way.  Mark Twain famously miss quoted the saying manners maketh the man replacing it with “Clothes maketh the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”  Maybe he has a point?

If you were a small business, you would be very careful to think through what your companies image says about the type of business that you are or aspire to be.  As individuals we can do the same by asking what impression of ourselves we want to give those we work with.  

Here are a few things you could do or ask that will help you bring some focus to this:

1. Start with a blank sheet and write a page full of any words that you would associate with yourself.  So for example you might write:  Fun, smart, energetic, intelligent, creative, musical, fast, friendly, communicative, authoritative, youthful, successful etc. 
2. Take a second sheet and note values that you hold dearly.  So; trust, honesty, beauty, balance, generosity, gratitude etc.  Here’s a great list of 418 values I found.
3. Take a final blank sheet and describe (or draw if you like) how these influences might shape your own personal brand.  I like to split the page (In/Out) and keep half for things that I should keep away from.  So for this example I might write:

• IN:  Suits that break the mould a little, slightly more colourful or those with ‘out-of-the-norm’ detailing.  Current glasses - what the youth are trending towards.  Pointy shoes.  When possible open neck, if a tie then a very smart one.  The best watch I can.  Shirts with French cuffs and a creative pair of cufflinks.  
• Out:  The type of suit most people wear.  Nondescript glasses.  Anything that’s starting to look worn.  Ties when possible.  Dressing too youthful.  Watches or jewellery that looks like they are out of a Christmas cracker.

You’re version could be very very different to this, but when you’ve finished it’s vital that you ask yourself whether what you have described is acceptable with the cultural norms of the environment you operate.  Personal branding needs to be a fine tuning exercise, not a trend setting endeavour.  Try to avoid as well the temptation to visit the high street and spend an uncomfortable amount on your personal repositioning.  Work it in slowly over time, just using your analysis to inform future changes in your wardrobe.  

Have fun with it, experiment and build branding that you are proud to own.  

Things to do at HRD 2012.

There are lots of good things happening at HRD2012, as usual it will be a case of sorting the wheat from the chaff and making sure that you get around to those things that you would like to experience.

To help you out, here are two things that should be on your list of 'get to' HRD 2012 things.

Firstly we are looking for your participation on stand 609 as we continue to grow our fun Little Online Learning Videos.

LOL_v :-) is a new library of innovative, challenging, helpful or just plain funny learning moments for you to enjoy, listen and learn, change your behaviour and / or contribute to. Everyone has at least once piece of advise they could share, so come to our stand and tell us what it is. We'll do all the hard work and add it to the LOL_v :-) library for anyone to access for free.

Secondly amongst the many seminars workshops and learning arena sessions I will be bringing the content of my last three blogs (crappy performance management rules) to life at 1100hr on Wednesday 25th in the Learning Arena. Those in positions of power have sanitised the session title somewhat, so look for "Three Performance Management Strategies to Help you Address Underperformance". Don't worry though, it will still have plenty of energy and interaction as you would expect.

Hope to see you there.
Bob Bannister

It was out of my control! Crappy Performance Management Rule 3.

In my previous two blogs I articulated rule 1 of crappy performance management:  Don’t tell anyone about the vision and rule 2: Never attempt to motivate staff it will merely be seen as patronising. 

In this final instalment of the trilogy the hero of crappy performance management wins the day and their "precious" drops away into the molten volcano as we trace the steps of the 3rd most important of rules when designing a ‘damp squib’ performance management system.  

Crappy Performance Management Rule 3:  At all costs ensure that objectives set are well outside of the owners span of control.  

Some managers are already great at this rule, but if you still need to develop this ability here are some guidelines:

1. Set the objective as close to the organisational vision as possible:  Don't worry about applying the objective at an operational level, no one needs you to spell out the obvious. It is far better to pass down exactly the same objective you received from your boss, and they received from theirs etc.  Look for top to bottom consistency, you can't go far wrong if everyone has the same objectives.
2. Never make changes:  Once objectives have been set, ensure they are like the law of the Medes and Persians, irrevocable.  Never give into that cowardly cry that "things have changed since the objectives were set". 
3. Multiple objectives are best:  No one likes lots of objectives so here's a tip to keep the number down.  Role multiple objectives into one - staff often don't even notice you've got away with it.  Sneak nested objectives into the mix by multiple use of the little word 'and'.  You might say "achieve this 'and' while you are at it complete this other thing as well".  
4. SMART really means Specific, Measurable, Awesome, Ridiculous, Terrifying:  There is only one way to make an organisation buzz, that's to set proper stretching targets. Don't mess with the tendency go soft and easy with your objective setting, expect awesome and ridiculous achievements.  Test your ability to do this by gauging the level of individuals terror when expected to meet your objectives.     
5. Seek challenge over success:  It's best not to expect your staff to be successful at their objectives.  If they are, you clearly haven't been stretching enough. 

OK, so none of us would really subscribe to these guidelines would we?  Scan them again asking whether they could (even in part) be levelled at your own organisations management.  

I have been genuinely surprised over my career just how often I bump into staff that claim their objectives are outside of their control.  Why don't managers switch onto the absurdity of this?   Why would anyone perceive this to be motivating?  Yet it happens, year after year after year in many organisations around the globe.  It is possibly (in my opinion) the single biggest factor in discrediting otherwise useful performance management processes, and in those places where objective delivery is linked to performance related pay it's close to criminal!  I am unsure whether it born out of incompetence or laziness, but no one should ever be set an objective which they cannot directly influence.  Yes NEVER!  There are no extenuating circumstances for such management behaviour.  I have met the man who was single handedly tasked in his objectives to reduce teenage pregnancy across the county for which he worked.  Unsurprisingly he was frustrated!  There were things that he could do to aid this lord-able goal, but ultimately success was not within his control.  He might have been lucky and secured a wonderful bonus, but there was equal chance that he would be a failure with his performance determined by this objective.  

It really isn't hard to get this right.  Some simple direction coupled with a realisation of the damage demotivating objectives like this cause, will often suffice.  From the top to the bottom of any organisation five simple things need to happen:

1. Agree objectives that are as close to operational activity as possible:  There is a missing link in many performance management cascades from strategy down into operational activity.  Managers fail when they take the strategic goals or the organisations vision and set objectives that resemble them too closely.  The missing link is to first define the critical success factors that will bring about the vision and goals of the organisation and from these develop objectives at a 'successful' level - Objectives that are within the span of influence and control of the owner.  Using the previous example of the strategic goal to reduce teenage pregnancy, we might determine that one critical success factor is to educate all teenagers. From this we can develop a series of objectives that would be completely within the span of control and influence of the owner.  They might for example be to design and or organise a number of workshops across the county. 
2. Build objective recalibration into your mid term reviews:  In our fast moving world it is farcical to argue that an objective has to be retained simply because it was set for the current period or year.  I've seen this happen on many occasions.  Managers must revisit objectives periodically and ask whether they are still relevant, and or whether the level of stretch is still appropriate.  We refer to this process as 'Recalibration' of the objective.  It is not weak management, unless the manager is gutless enough to relax targets simply to ensure perceived success, it is strong management making adjustments so that the outcome remains within the span of control of the owner.  Managers must stop judging individuals performance on objectives that for whatever reason are no longer relevant. 
3. Real objectives are singular:  I have read individual objectives and suspected that it really contains five or more!  By doing this you are making the whole process over complex. It's harder to understand what the objective requires, it's harder to determine what to measure, it's harder to get the sequence of events necessary to succeed. All of this added difficult is removed when you keep objectives concise and to a single idea.  That can be done using the following structure:  
4. Structure all objectives in the same way to ensure they are SMART:  There are a few variants on the smart acronym, but non of them include awesome, ridiculous and terrifying.  Unify the way objectives are written across your whole organisation and keep them SMART by using this structure;  Verb, Target area, by Measure, by Time. E.g. Organise (verb) teenage pregnancy education workshops (target area) for 5000 14 to 18 year olds (measure) within the current fiscal year (time).  Some have argued with me that their objectives won't fit this structure - I fight them to the death ;-)
5. Seek success over challenge:  Stretch in objective target setting is vital.  It is motivating and it facilitates the ability to keep up with ever increasing expectations of our world.  However from a motivation perspective the target has to be within the perceived grasp of the owner, if not the balance shifts and most (after an initial flurry of enthusiasm) will not be bothered to attempt it.  It is very close in frustration levels to being set an objective that is out our your control and does plenty to discredit otherwise good performance management processes.  

Managers should not be afraid to ask their staff whether they feel their objectives are within their span of control and influence; then they should listen carefully to the answer.  

It is beyond me why anyone would ever want their staff performance to be judged on something they cannot humanly achieve.  After all, who amongst us would not struggle to find motivation in an objective they cannot attain without the aid of significant divine intervention?

Bob Bannister

imanageperformance.com

Twitter: @bbbannister @iManage

No one cares! Crappy Performance Management Rule 2.

In my previous blog I articulated rule 1 of crappy performance management:  Don’t tell anyone about the vision.  In this article we step up a gear and think about the 2nd most important of rules when designing a ‘wet lettuce’ performance management mindset.  

Crappy Performance Management Rule 2:  Never attempt to motivate staff it will merely be seen as patronising. 

Some managers are already great at this rule, but if you still need to develop this ability here are some guidelines:

1. Remove staff control:  Always try to ensure that you stay in total control.  Never let go of the detail, and expect your staff to report back to you on everything before they act. 
2. Stop idle interaction:  If your people start to feel a sense of allegiance towards one another, they may rise up and revolt against you.  Keep them as isolated as possible. 
3. Leave the learning to them:  They took the job, so they should make sure they are capable of doing it.  Avoid a spoon feeding mentality that puts the emphasis on you as the manager having to do all the development.  
4. Ensure frequent subtle changes:  Never settle into a single groove, make sure that your leadership direction is kept fluid.  Keep staff on their toes by introducing frequent subtle changes to your strategy and goals.  
5. Let them know who’s boss:  Start each day by setting a tone of superiority.  Leave no one in your team with any doubt that when you walk in, you are the boss.  
6. Problems will pass:  Do not feel the need to address all underperformance in a team as problems will often pass unnoticed.  The group itself will be effective at dealing with team members that aren’t pulling their weight, so leave it to them.  

OK, so none of us would really subscribe to these guidelines would we?  Scan them again asking whether they could (even in part) be leveled at your own organisations management.  

In an article "The Ten Ironies of Motivation," reward and recognition guru, Bob Nelson, says, "More than anything else, employees want to be valued for a job well done by those they hold in high esteem." He adds that people want to be treated as if they are adult human beings and that the number one reason people leave there jobs is because they don’t feel appreciated.  

I was reading all this only a matter of months ago when to my bemusement we had a member of staff leave us, and their primary reason given for this was that they didn’t feel appreciated!  Now, we are a small company, making people feel appreciated shouldn’t be hard, but it served as a good lesson in realising that often peoples need for appreciation is much higher than we might imagine as the manager.  There is a great little book ‘How Full Is Your Bucket: Positive Strategies for Life and Work’ by Tom Rath in which a study on praise  / criticism confirms the logic that those praised significantly out perform other students.  Over a series of tests a separated control group (given neither praise nor criticism) were the lowest performers in 4th place.  The highest performing students by a large margin were those who were praised, followed by those that were criticised, and then thirdly those that heard the praise and criticism but were ignored.  Rath draws the conclusion that there is a magic praise / criticism ratio of 5:1 

Without doubt financial reward plays a part in motivation.  Fair benefits and pay are the cornerstone of a successful company that recruits and retains committed workers. If you provide a living wage for your employees, you can then work on additional motivation issues. Without the fair living wage however, you risk losing your best people to a better-paying employer.  We may have read or heard about the surveys and studies dating back to the early 1980s that demonstrate people want more from work than money.  While managers predict the most important motivational aspect of work for people would be money, personal time and attention from the supervisor is cited by workers as most rewarding and motivational for them at work.

So let’s have another go at those guidelines by presenting the key elements in the effective motivation as suggested by Nelson:

1. Control of their work inspires motivation: including such components as the ability to impact decisions; setting clear and measurable goals; clear responsibility for a complete, or at least defined, task; job enrichment; tasks performed in the work itself; recognition for achievement.
2. To belong to the in-crowd creates motivation: including items such as receiving timely information and communication; understanding management's formulas for decision making; team and meeting participation opportunities; visual documentation and posting of work progress and accomplishments.
3. The opportunity for growth and development is motivational: and includes education and training; career paths; team participation; succession planning; cross-training; field trips to successful workplaces.
4. Leadership is key in motivation. People want clear expectations that provide a picture of the outcomes desired with goal setting and feedback and an appropriate structure or framework.
5. Your Arrival at Work Sets the Employee Motivation Tone for the Day. Your arrival and the first moments you spend with staff each day have an immeasurable impact on positive employee motivation and morale. Start the day right. Smile. Walk tall and confidently. Walk around your workplace and greet people. Share the goals and expectations for the day. Let the staff know that today is going to be a great day. It starts with you. You can make their day.
6. People Need Positive and Not So Positive Consequences.  Employees need a fair, consistently administered progressive disciplinary system for when they fail to perform effectively. The motivation and morale of your best-contributing employees is at stake. Nothing hurts positive motivation and morale more quickly than unaddressed problems, or problems addressed inconsistently.

Why not grab a sheet of paper and a pencil and work through your own application of these six ideas.  What things could you do for your department or organisation this week that will lead to higher performance, by encouraging staff to feel more motivated?

Performance Management Rule 2 should simply read:  Work constantly at making your staff feel appreciated. 

Bob Bannister

Twitter: @bbbannister @iManage