CMI Report

The most recent Economic Outlook report by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) shows that managers are expressing greater optimism for their organisation than were 6 months ago, despite the news that we are in a double dip recession.

Whereas for the public sector, this is expressed as ‘less pessimism’, both private sector and not-for-profit managers are overall slightly positive about their business’s growth and profitability in the next 6 months. The March 2012 survey shows a net optimism in these 2 sectors for the first time since September 2009. And net optimism amongst middle and senior managers in private sector businesses rises sharply, from  11% to 53%, if looking 3 years ahead rather than the short-term 6 months.

People still have concerns about what might impact their future success, with the list headed by:

• The cost of energy
• The level of Government debt
• Shortage of management skills

Francis Christie Clients

Once again, we observe that, both in the experience of our clients and in national surveys, business expectation and your order books are holding steady or gradually increasing despite the negativity of financial indicators and the emphasis of media reporting.

We particularly find that clients in international and high-end business-to-business markets have been able to maintain growth and are positive about their future. Their commitment remains strong to using targeted and practical approaches to developing leadership and management, such as individual coaching and programmes that are integrated to business deliverables.

Read the full CMI report here, and enter a comment below on your own levels of optimism for the future or thoughts on developing the effectiveness of your employees and managers.

“We’ve done the ‘cost-cutting’. Our biggest challenge now is to grow the business” is a recurring theme in recent conversations with CEOs and directors.

Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) shows a dip in job satisfaction across the UK. Staff reported fewer opportunities to progress. Only 36% of employees said that their boss has discussed their needs for development with them this year. 24% reported that the company had cut back on training.

The Sunday Times competition, for the “100 Best Companies to Work for”, offer insights from successful companies. This year, there is an obvious shift from concerns about the future of the company to whether the company can offer capable individuals the opportunities they want for challenge and progress. The risk is that, just as growth starts, you lose your most talented people who believe they can see better opportunities to progress elsewhere.

The overall winners of the Sunday Times competition were commercial radio group, UKRD Group. Their Chief Executive, William Rogers, said “We believe that, if you grow as an individual and team, you grow the business”. The UKRD Group are providing opportunities for individuals to develop themselves and this is having a greater impact on the performance of the company. UKRD Group has turned a £2M loss into a profit of £400,000. So it seems that the next challenge is how can you retain and develop talented people who want to pursue the opportunities for growth?

Having had similar conversations with several clients over the past 18 months, I have put together these essential tips for retaining your top talent:

1. Identifying the potential leaders of the future. It is not just high performers; everyone who is doing a good job wants to know that they are valued. This can be done through careful succession planning which follows on from the results of individual performance reviews. There is no doubt: the first time you do succession planning, it will frighten you. Then, you can start to manage the gaps that the review will reveal.
2. Have a meeting with each person in your team and ask about their skills, strengths and aspirations. Listen to their ambitions and show that you want to support their development;
3. Tell people what the opportunities are. If you have been “keeping the lid on” personal development, tell them that the worst is over. Encourage them to start looking out and looking up for opportunities to develop themselves.
4. Ask them how much of their potential they think they can deploy in their current jobs? In a typical group of senior managers, the answer usually ranges from 40% to 60%. This means that even your top performers could improve by 50% if you are willing to give them the opportunities to develop themselves. That is very likely to provide the motivation and engagement to drive new growth in your company.

Please comment to let us know what you are doing to grow and develop talented people in your company…

Starting with this interview with Sue Johnson, we will be taking a more personal look each month at the Francis Christie Associate Team. We hope you enjoy finding out a little more about Sue than in the Team Profiles pages!

Sue - Scuba Diver & HR Professional!

What has been the highlight of your career so far? I think probably my first proper role in HR: I never had a career plan at college so when I finally figured out what I wanted to do and then got a job in that field despite the difficult economic climate at the time, that was a real buzz.

What is “business success” for you? Doing something that you are good at and enjoy and being recognised and paid for that.

What do you think about “failure”? I think how you think about it is the most important thing;

• Take responsibility for it, don’t deny it
• Reflect on it, don’t brood
• Use it to move you forward, not down
• Accept it as part of your life experience, don’t devalue it.

What do you enjoy most about your work? Clarifying difficult situations to enable people to move forward and find solutions. The HR problems I am asked to get involved in are often emotionally complex as well and helping people reframe the situation to achieve resolution is always satisfying.

What are your most important values in life? Integrity, self awareness and honesty. If you don’t know who you are and live that out, how can people trust you and what you say?

What is your favourite quotation? “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. “ Winston Churchill

“Class-clown” or school prefect? Neither – I’m rubbish at telling jokes and didn’t distinguish myself enough to be a prefect. My only award at school was a prize for hard work and achievement – so presumably my prize was the one for the dim ones who were doing their best!

What is in your fridge at the moment? Roasted vegetables, cream cheese, salad leaves, bacon, yoghurt and a bottle of white Bordeaux

Beach-bum or adrenaline junkie? Ideally scuba diving from a nice warm tropical island so I guess that’s a lot of beach bum with a small burst of adrenaline.

See Sue’s Profile

For more information about the award, read about it on the CMI website

Why is it that between 25% and 50% of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work? This is a question posed by Tony Schwartz (on the Harvard Business Review [HBR] blog) in a good pragmatic guide to any manager on how to ensure you are fittest you can be for work.

It is certainly our observation that the managers who look after themselves and their staff, and keep healthy are the ones actually who contribute most in measurable outputs and in creativity at work. The pressure to work long hours in order to be seen to ‘have commitment’ is a common trait in our industrialised societies, but all evidence points to a healthy lifestyle being the best driver of productive output.

Schwartz makes valid observations about the way we have lost our ‘boundaries’ – the place at which we say ‘no’, the point at which we can say ‘we have finished’. What is the impact of reviewing emails whilst talking to someone, of being constantly on the phone whilst driving….?

Among Schwartz’s suggestions are:

• Maintain meeting discipline
• Stop demanding instant responsiveness
• Encourage renewal (take a break!)
• Commit un-interrupted morning time to your most important task
• Establish regular, scheduled times to think…
• Take real and regular vacations

Great advice – read it in full on the Tony Schwartz’s HBR blog

The key questions we often get asked by our clients are:

• What impact does management and leadership development have upon an individual manager’s performance?
• How does this translate into results for the organisation?
• How can we maximise both individual performance and business impact?

What rarely gets asked is what management development do managers value?

A recent CMI-Penna report, produced with Henley Business School, provides new evidence showing how management and leadership development activities can deliver benefits for individual managers and for the organisation.

One of the most striking results is a fascinating mismatch between the types of development most organisations provide and the activities that managers rate as the most effective. Organisations have primarily offered “on the job” experience with appraisals, audits and  short courses. These are not the activities that managers rate as most effective.

Managers place the greatest value on external qualifications, especially an MBA. This presumably, increases their market value and their chances of “getting another job”. However, we frequently hear company directors expressing concerns that they see little evidence that the external knowledge managers have acquired is being used to deliver improvements back in their own organisations.

This is where we can help you to resolve this dilemma: by helping you to align corporate strategy with the development of key individuals in such a way as to develop the individual manager and deliver results for the organisation. The report concludes that top performing companies align their investment in development with their business strategy and also evaluate their results more thoroughly. So, it can be done!

Click on this link to read the full report on the CMI website. The report’s key findings include:

• 43% of managers rate their own line managers as ineffective or highly ineffective;
• External professional qualifications are highly rated by managers, especially in the early stages of their careers, but the most common type of development is “on-the-job”;
• External coaching and mentoring is highly valued and CEOs and directors would have benefited from this development support much earlier in their careers;
• High-performing organisations spend on average 36% more on management and leadership development per manager per year than low performing ones (£1,738 compared to £1,275);
• Management and leadership development activities can lead to increases of up to 32% in people’s performance and 23% in overall organisational performance.