How To Manage Morale When Companies Hit Turbulence

Imagine what it must be like to lead Volkswagen’s engineering group right now. Employees—lots of them—completely distracted from their work,

wondering about their jobs and worried for their co-workers. Not that I condone what happened at the company, but some executive—perhaps a new one—still has to lead that engineering group. What a tough job. The leader of this team must retain the best employees and keep them focused on the next gen-eration of products while dealing with the emissions problem. To lead through such difficult times is truly a high-stakes challenge. VW’s engineering team must deliver some successes in the coming years to restore faith in the company and those projects must make progress now.

Is Middle Management Killing Your Growth?

Robert Sher

Several of our client’s executive teams have felt stymied recently because they couldn’t delegate work to their middle management due to lack of skills and capabilities. They find this to be one of the biggest growth killers. Both articles in this newsletter touch this issue. We also have a Bay Area seminar

on page 4 for middle managers. The content has been developed and honed over the years by the Ken Blanchard Companies and delivered to hundreds of thousands of managers for big companies. We’re delighted to bring a top Ken Blanchard trainer in to help midsized company managers.

Ins mniaThe CEO

Factor

What keeps CEOs awake at night –

and what to do about it.

★

★

★

★

★Elevating successful CEOs

and their teams

Insights from

October 2015

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When companies go through times of change—whether acquisition, divestiture, leadership change, sales slump or competitive shocks—employees worry, then react, often with little input from management. But now, far beyond chatter happening only at the water cooler, it can all play out through social media, extending to customers and competitors within hours. All that management can do is mop up and react to the mood. With average employee engagement already low nationwide, the upheaval caused by such a big change can spike turnover.

But putting marketing-style spin onto internal messaging doesn’t feel genuine. One company I know of was working through some challenges and made some hard decisions. As the team figured out what to say and how to say it, someone remarked, “This is just like a press release,” which was taken as a bad sign! Press releases are sterile, which is no way to communicate within our own team. Sharing difficult messages through traditional communication is often one- directional, rife with bad assumptions and delivered without sufficiently considering the impact.

Instead, try sharing such news and feelings through relationships. Management and informal leaders at all levels must be quickly mobilized to use the personal relationships with their teams to listen, then reassure and convey management’s message. But don’t reach for the megaphone!

Naturally these relationships should have been formed long ago. Good managers and leaders actually care about their people, have kept up with the lives of their teams and have shared some of their own stories as well. Caring about how successful your team members are at work is crucial too! Forming a strong, work-appropriate human relationship with each member of your team is an important investment and hopefully a joy as well.

When change is impending, the CEO (or top-most leader) ought to pull the leader-ship team together to share the news, discuss what the employees’ concerns might be, then decide on the appropriate message to be conveyed. For example, in one firm whose founder had just died, the leadership decided to emphasize how the founder hadn’t been “driving” the business’s success for years—it had been the employees. They also decided to emphasize the financial strength of the firm and how recent results

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- Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and Legendary Service

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had been excellent. All this messaging served to assure everyone that their firm would continue along its profitable path, even without the founder.

Next the CEO should ask his leaders to start connecting with their teams. There must be a deadline (perhaps a week away) and guidance provided on how to share the information. For small departments, a casual approach may work: dropping by cubicles to chat, then working in the messaging. For larger departments, it might start with a meeting, but with some individual, casual follow up. Remember kindergarten: kids brought in a toy then casually shared their message with friends. Don’t stray too far from this simple, genuine approach.

Another key to successful messaging is getting all the company’s leaders involved (all the way down to

supervisors), so one person may only need to communicate with 5-10 others. Ideally involve the informal leaders in the organization too—everyone knows them and (usually) trusts them.

Keep in mind that the most powerful kind of sharing involves two-way communication: face to face or on the phone. Active listening means each person listens to the other carefully, then re-sponds to what they hear. Of course, it’s not just what is said, it’s what the employees observe or feel. If they feel panic and fear in you, they’ll panic no matter what words you speak.

Repetition of these conversations is crucial over time. For leaders to stay in control of the “buzz” they must anticipate the needs of the employees then continue to lead the discussion with regular updates.

Nothing about this process is easy. Using a grass roots approach, don’t control messaging too tightly; it could be interpreted as marketing spin. If the CEO has done a good job communicating with the leadership team, they’ll internalize the message, reformulate it and then put it out in their own words. For more approaches to managing morale, visit http://bit.ly/1GnJfqX.

Make sure your management team invests in relationships long before you need them. Relation-ships are important. Start sharing quickly in times of change. This relationship-based approach may seem time consuming but it is a powerful tool when needed and can help employees stay focused on the business at hand. ■

Keep in mind that the most powerful kind of sharing involves two-way communication: face to face or on the phone. Active listening means each person listens to the other care-fully, then responds to what they hear.

With a new book out, I’m looking for audiences of midsized company leaders. If you’re a part of an industry associa-tion or know of other

speaking opportunities, please let us know! Length can run from 45 minutes to 2-3 hours with strong interaction. Modifications to the keynote can be made to tailor comments to the audience.

Speaking Opportunities

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Upcoming Events

Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership® II

Tuesday, November 10th, 2015, 7:30am— 5:00pmDowntown San Francisco, CA

Leveraging all the theory and design that has made Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership®II the world’s most taught leadership training model for more than 30 years, The SLII® Experience uses game-changing techniques that immerse learners in SLII® quickly, deeply, and effectively. This process includes pre-work and a variety of tools at your fingertips after the day’s lessons are completed as well. You’ll have access to on-line learning modules that you can use with your team

members back at the office. There are 23 videos that can be used as refreshers for you, or in your own team meetings. While you get the initial training, it is not for just you.

Learning Objectives:

• Diagnose the development levels of employees and choose the appropriate leadership style to gain the best results

• Increase the frequency and quality of conversations about performance and development

• Create a communication model for all levels of the organization to support cultural change and move toward a high-performance organization

• Become a flexible leader who is highly skilled at goal setting, coaching, performance evaluation, active listening, feedback, and proactive problem solving

• Increase individual and organizational accountability by linking goals and planned intentions to an action plan

Who Should Attend:

• Individuals in leadership roles who want to increase their effectiveness as managers

• Executives and senior-level managers who have never had management training

• Mid-level or new managers or supervisors

Claim Your Spot: http://bit.ly/1PLQfQy

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Seven Essentials to Sell Your Company For A Premium

Tuesday, December 1st, 2015, 7:30am —11:30amSan Francisco, CA

CEOs underinvest in the essential task of training themselves and preparing their firms for an exit. Most CEOs do not have experience selling a business, and selling rarely feels urgent. As a result, other priorities jump ahead, and they neglect to acquire the necessary skills until the exit is upon them.

What you will learn:

• How to build a list of potential buyers.

• Ways to modify how you run the business to increase its value at time of exit.

• Understand the time frame to exit.

• Know buyer turn-offs and turn-ons.

• Get a grasp of the role of lawyers, investment bankers, accountants and others that can help.

CEOs must manage the business with the exit in mind (even if the exit isn’t for many years), and take full responsibility for producing an excellent exit (before, during and after the transaction).

Claim Your Spot: http://bit.ly/1jbgCD3

Michael Stoyanovich is an IT and business executive; a solutions architect, product manager, and inbound marketer. His operational experience includes traditional IT roles and responsibilities (security, risk and compliance, telephony, storage, networking, etc.) as well as leading organizational change efforts (new process, procedures, tools, techniques, technologies, responsibilities and organizations,

performance metrics, etc.). He particularly focuses on how IT can make organizations more high performing service delivery operations.

Meet Our New Team Member

Michael Stoyanovich

Principal

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Improve Your Charitable Giving By Leveraging Young Leaders

Young leaders who become involved in charitable organizations struggle to help them raise money. Some miss their targets, may feel embarrassed, then hesitate to try again. Not only does society lose out, but their employer loses a connection to the community, missing an

opportunity for employer brand building and employee fulfillment and development.

Young leaders often have weak networks. Being involved in charitable causes (along with professional organizations) is how many leaders build their networks, but it can be hard to gain

momentum. They may ask family and friends for money, but that well is only so deep. Some make the mistake of asking subordinates to donate (arguably an ethical violation) and they are generally less affluent, thus less able to give.

Those of us towards the top of the organiza-tional chart should personally donate to our subordinates’ causes. Most of us have the capacity and are already donating directly. Re-allocate some of the donations from direct to indirect donations. The money still goes to charitable causes, but on its way encourages philanthropy in the next generation of leaders. While I’m not against asking the company to donate, I’m specifically advocating a

personal donation as it sets a philanthropic example and it creates an additional personal connection between you and your direct report, aiding in the development of your relationship and often improved retention.

Consider Brad Holsworth, a board member of Burr Pilger Mayer, a leading Northern California regional accounting firm, and also partner in charge of their Walnut Creek, CA office. He says, “We truly want our employees to embrace their community and get involved. We know from experience this involvement

Those of us towards the top of the organizational chart should personally donate to our subordinates’ causes. Most of us have the capacity and are already donating directly.

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helps them mature, grow their leadership skills and become better professionals. When employees do become involved they often feel the pressure to fund raise and it’s hard for them. While our firm has a program to support employee efforts with non-profits by making monetary donations on their behalf, I enjoy helping them personally by giving $50 or $100 as a way of letting them know that somebody cares and appreciates their efforts. The employee really seems to appreciate it, and the encouragement leads to increased effort on their part. It’s a win for their charity, for them, for me, and for our firm.”

Getting started is easy, and it’s best done informally. First, let your direct reports know that you’re interested in supporting their charitable efforts. Many employees won’t ask their boss for a donation unless encouraged. If you have any preferences, let them know early on. For example, many professional services firms like their young leaders to be personally involved (on committees or boards) to build a professional network. Others prefer local causes. But don’t be too specific. The purpose is to encourage them to support a cause that is meaningful to them (even if it’s not meaningful to you).

Then set an annual budget for yourself and a target number of young leaders you’d like to help. Maybe it’s 15% of your total annual giving and 5 young leaders. Maybe it’s $500. Set aside what you are able. As you do charitable work, talk about it, then ask about their efforts. Ask if they need any help in fundraising. Remind them that you want to support

We only take on consulting engagements when we are confident that we can be effective, and that our clients are ready for the changes that we usually introduce. We always begin with a no-cost discussion, usually by phone.

How We Help

Learn more here: www.ceotoceo.biz/services/how-we-can-help.html

“While our firm has a program to support employee efforts with non-profits ... I enjoy helping them personally ... letting them know that somebody cares and appreciates their efforts. The employee really seems to appreciate it, and the encour-agement leads to increased effort on their part. It’s a win for their charity, for them, for me, and for our firm.”

—Brad Holsworth, Burr Pilger Mayer

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The CEO Insomnia Factor & CEO to CEO Inc.21001 San Ramon Valley Blvd, Suite A4101 San Ramon, CA 94583 e: Jan Dare Brown, j.brown@ceotoceo.biz

phone: 925-829-8190 www.ceotoceo.biz twitter : @RobertSher

them with a few bucks. Just make sure you push those dollars out. As your young leaders succeed in their philanthropy, create limelight for them and of course, take none of it for yourself.

Don’t be daunted by the amount you have available to give. Even $20 and a healthy dose of encouragement does wonders toward encouraging philanthropy. Don’t worry if their charity is efficient and if your money is well spent. The bigger win for society is encouraging charity and community involvement in a future leader. Find a teachable moment when you share how you evaluate the charities that you donate to directly.

I don’t care if your motivation is from the virtue of being more philanthropic or from your desire for better employee retention and community relations. Just get started today and the benefits will roll in—all around you. So whose desk will you stop by and make the offer? ■

Robert Sher is the founding principal of CEO to CEO Inc., a consulting firm of former chief executives that elevates successful CEOs and their teams who lead midsized companies. He is the author of two books, The Feel of the Deal (2007), and Mighty Midsized Companies (Bibliomotion, 2014), and is an online columnist for Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur and more. Sher was CEO of a publishing company for more than 20 years before launching CEO to CEO in 2007.