Why Has Our Workforce Changed So Dramatically?

– by Dennis Passovoy –

If you’re a Baby Boomer, or even a Gen X’er, you remember the IBM culture that hit its peak in the 80’s.  Baby Boomers accepted these structures as the way it is–you have to start in the mail room and work your way up.  Gen X had this mentality drilled into their heads from their parents, and started out this way, but realized that this culture was breaking down in the 90s, especially with the emergence of the tech sector and dot coms who couldn’t recruit enough people.

Gen Y doesn’t accept this at all, and they’re more likely to wonder why they aren’t in leadership positions within their first year of working at your company.

Eric Simone from ClearBlade, summed up the change in the American company in a CEO Roundtable discussion we had on June 17th.  He noted that in the 80s, the barriers to entry for building a company were massive and usually required lots of capital, and they enjoyed the side benefit of company loyalty because of the culture.

Today, many of those barriers are gone, and as a result, the workforce has adopted a more entrepreneurial mindset. But companies have done a lot to shift their mindsets to build loyalty.

This can be used to your advantage if you understand how to manage and motivate employees–they need to be treated like entrepreneurs of their own positions.

Blind leadership is not going to work in today’s workforce.  You have to develop the individual as the “whole person” if you’re going keep them engaged.

But the benefits of creating this shift will pay off in the longer term in productivity alone–and you’ll redevelop company loyalty thought to have been lost forever.  The difference is, you will have earned it.

Dennis Passovoy is the president of RFG, Inc., an Employee Engagement Advisory firm in Austin, TX that believes in inspiring and harnessing the limitless power of individuals to create unstoppable organizations.  He can be reached at dpassovoy@rfg.com.

LBWA – Leadership By Walking Around

– by Dennis Passovoy –

The show “the Office” on NBC pokes fun at the corporate world; and as an HR executive, I sometimes cringe at some of the antics that Michael Scott (the office manger) seems to get away with.  Some of this is due to the fact that Michael Scott’s branch of Dunder Mifflin is the most successful branch in the company (which I’m sure is a result of the writers’ irony, that this bumbling idiot has the most successful branch).

But I see this a little differently–What Michael does well is what we refer to as “leadership by walking around.”  In his case, he’s probably avoiding any actual work; but at the same time, he knows everything about his employees, what’s going on in their lives, what their career goals are, and most importantly, how to manage them based on their individual personalities.  (Notice how he manages Jim as opposed to how he manages Dwight Schrute).

The days of the corner office where the CEO sits in isolation are over.  Leadership needs to take the time to get up, walk around, talk to people, understand their goals and ambitions, understand their personal lives, and take interest in the initiatives they care about.

A little trick I use that helps me accomplish a similar level of interaction, but in a more passive manner (i.e., I don’t have to actively walk around talking to folks) is to keep a big bowl of candy on my conference table.  You would be amazed (or maybe not) at how people are drawn to that bowl of candy.  When they wander in to get a piece, it is natural to stike up a non-threatening conversation.

If you’re thinking that you don’t have the time for this, consider:  Engaged employees are much more productive than those that are not engaged.  You’ll earn their trust and their loyalty, and you’ll help them feel appreciated.  And another benefit, you’ll probably hear some good ideas for improvement along the way that you wouldn’t have heard otherwise.

As a sidenote, I think Dwight Schrute’s character is indicative of an old-school manager, stuck in the 80’s corporate paradigm.  He is funny because he doesn’t fit in the new model of management.

Dennis Passovoy is the president of RFG, Inc., an Employee Engagement Advisory firm in Austin, TX that believes in inspiring and harnessing the limitless power of individuals to create unstoppable organizations.  He can be reached at dpassovoy@rfg.com.

Is Working At Your Company A Lot Like Working For The Military?

– by Dennis Passovoy –

If your first response is “absolutely not!”, you may want to consider the West Point Leadership model that is used to train leaders. If you’re focusing on employee empowerment, you may have more in common with the military than you think.

In the last 20 years or so, the military has realized that they had a problem.  Each recruiting class that came through were less and less engaged, and using the attrition model resulted in only half of the cadets graduating.

In the days before WWII, our culture was different. Most of the men (and women) that served in the military came from small towns and farms, with an ultimate respect for authority.  In other words, if they told the soldiers to “take that hill” they did it–no questions asked.

Fast forward 60 years, coupled with a more volunteer based model and cultural shifts in general, and the same response to “take that hill” would likely be “Why don’t you go ahead and do that, and tell me how it works out for you.”

The military chose to change their model–they wanted to develop leaders, and to do that effectively, they embraced the “whole person” concept.  In fact, when cadets come into West Point, they usually identify themselves very one-dimensionally, i.e., “I’m a football player”, or “I’m a math wiz”.

But the key to the whole person concept is getting the cadets to identify with a well rounded set of values, such as character, empathy, trust and accountability.

The results have been phenomenal–and according to a recent Fortune Magazine article, many larger companies nationwide are hiring their leadership from the military because they have been so well developed.

Corporate America still has a lot to learn from this new model of developing leaders. And before you insist that you’re doing everything in your power to develop your workforce, keep in mind this statistic: A Towers-Perrin study that surveyed over 10,000 employees reported that 79 percent were not engaged in their current jobs.

Many heirarchical structures in the corporate world are causing this loss in engagement from employees, and many are still motivated by fear of losing their jobs.  If you want the best out of your workforce, consider the “whole person” concept of development.  There’s more to people’s motivation that the bottom line of the company.

Read the headline again and see if your answer has changed. We are proud to be compared to the military in our company.

Dennis Passovoy is the president of RFG, Inc., an Employee Engagement Advisory firm in Austin, TX that believes in inspiring and harnessing the limitless power of individuals to create unstoppable organizations.  He can be reached at dpassovoy@rfg.com.