Escape To The Country: Are Your Skills Portable?

 

 

What do employers need to do to get good people from metro areas to relocate to regional areas? By Nicola Heath

 

Scott Timmins AFIML never wanted to move to Townsville.

“I thought ‘it’s a small country town . . . and I won’t get much out of my life up here,’” he recalls. Twenty years later, the people solutions specialist at TP Human Capital says he’s now considered a local.

Australia is a heavily urbanised nation. According to figures from the Grattan Institute, three-quarters of Australians live in cities with a population above 100,000.

We also live in a knowledge economy, where highly educated people gravitate towards inner cities – “where knowledge-intensive activities are clustered, and where demand for knowledge workers is highest,” states Deloitte’s 2015 report, The Purpose of Place: Reconsidered.

The challenge for employers in regional areas traditionally reliant on declining primary and secondary industries is to attract skilled workers from the cities.

They are up against significant anti-regional bias. Like Timmins before his move to Townsville, most Australians are reluctant to relocate to a regional area for work.

A survey by SEEK found just two out of five Australian workers would consider relocating to a regional area.

 

What skilled workers want

Nearly half the survey respondents said they would relocate for a pay increase to the tune of $20,000 to $30,000 a year.

Timmins recommends regional employers carry out a market analysis of metro wages to come up with a competitive remuneration package, and consider offering perks like a car or rent assistance.

Concerns about career progression is another issue. More than half of those surveyed said they felt that moving to a regional area would limit their career.

But Timmins says employers can sell roles in regional areas as good experience. Whereas a career in the CBD often leads to specialisation, in the regions, jobs are often multi-disciplinary.

A manager in a government department in outback Queensland may require skills across three or more different industries, says Timmins. “That can be really beneficial for them in the long term.”

The breadth of experience they gain in such a role can assist their career progression, whether they want to stay in regional Australia or return to the CBD.

 

What makes a region attractive?

Lifestyle is a big factor. Australians love living by the sea – 80 per cent of Australia’s population lives within 100 kilometres of the coast.

Jock Collins, Professor of Social Economics at UTS Business School, singles out transport infrastructure and an effective broadband network – “not one that goes through copper wires but one that’s very fast” – as critical measures to attracting people to regional Australia.

Investment in regional universities is crucial in both generating employment and stemming the flow of young people moving to the city to work or study.

Migration can drive economic growth, bringing “skills, experience, tastes and preferences that contribute vitality and vibrancy,” states the Deloitte report.

Employers, particularly in non-coastal areas, are increasingly looking to foreign workers to fill skills shortages, says Collins, who surveyed 1000 skilled migrants in regional Australia about their experiences. “Most said they had a warm welcome in the bush,” he says.

Regional cities can also build prosperity by enhancing their connections to inner cities and developing tertiary industries that employ knowledge workers.

One way to achieve this is “for governments and industry to locate significant knowledge-intensive activities in regional cities,” states the Deloitte report.

This worked in Orange, NSW, where the Greiner government moved the NSW Department of Agriculture (now the Department of Primary Industries) in the 1990s, at a time when traditional manufacturing jobs were in decline.

Today, Orange is thriving. It has a university campus and a new hospital that has cemented its position as a regional health centre. Unemployment remains low at 4.1 per cent, while property prices have risen 11.8 per cent in the 12 months to June 2017.

Back in Far North Queensland, Timmins has come to love Townsville, a city with “a country feel about it.”

“I never thought I’d see myself living in Townsville for the rest of my life, but I don’t see myself going anywhere else.”

Scott Timmins AFIML is a speaker at IML Leadership Matters Conference: 7 attributes of very successful leaders at Rydges Southbank Townsville on October 17, 2017. Book tickets here.

 

 

 

The Importance of neurodiversity in the workplace

By Candice Chung

 

When it comes to attracting diverse talent, most companies tend to think of this in the context of improving gender or ethnic diversity. In recent years, however, the concept of neurodiversity has emerged as an area of growing interest on the HR frontier.

Put simply, neurodiversity refers to the idea that workplace inclusivity should extend to neurological differences. This means finding a way to hire and retain talents with conditions such as ADHD, dyslexia, Tourette’s syndrome, or those who may be on the autism spectrum.

In Australia, over 80 percent of people with autism are unemployed or underemployed. Neurodiverse candidates often get left behind in standard hiring processes, with some struggling to fit in with typical corporate culture or missing social cues.

And yet according to a 2015 study by Drexel University, many high-functioning autistic job seekers have the kinds of skills, focus and problem-solving abilities that are highly sought after in specific industries.

“Technology-related work resonates for many on the autism spectrum, with many excelling at mathematics, cryptography, and programming,” says Andrew Ramsden, Founder and CEO of leadership development firm, Alpha Transform.

Companies that are currently leading the charge in hiring neurodiverse workers include accounting firm EY, software company SAP, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard Enterprises, which pioneered the highly successful Dandelion program in Australia. Launched in 2015, it’s a holistic pilot program that includes on-the-job and life-skills development training, matching candidates with autism with roles in testing, analytics and cyber security.

“Research tells us time and again that diversity in all its forms will galvanise a company culture, so long as the culture doesn’t perpetrate silos,” says HR expert Nathalie Lynton from Shared and Halved Consulting. “The more diverse and inclusive a workplace, the better and faster problems are solved. Innovation will occur at a greater rate, too.”
To improve workplace neurodiversity, Lynton suggests being open and transparent in everyday recruitment practices. This means incorporating taglines like, ‘Our company supports diversity in all its forms, neurodiverse candidates are encouraged to apply’ in job ads.
Also, don’t hire purely on ‘cultural fit’, says Ramsden. “This can too easily become a ‘gut-feel’ excuse to reject those who are different.”

“Remember that for many roles, job-hunting skills are very different from the on-the-job skills required. Allow applicants opportunities to show you the work they’ve achieved and what they’re capable of. On-the-job tests and trial periods allow a better assessment of what people are actually capable of.”
In the end, just as some employees will be introverts and some extroverts, some will be neurodiverse. ”Part of a leader’s tools box is learning how to interview and communicate with different people and understand [the opportunities they may bring to the company],” says Lynton.

 

 To gain further insight on Emotional Intelligence, Self Awareness and Neurodiversity, be sure to book at one of our upcoming Conferences on the 7 attributes of successful leaders today.

Business Innovation in 10 easy steps

By Leann Webb  FIML, Managing Director of Aurora Marketing 

 

When I think of successful entrepreneurialism, I see it as intricately connected to innovation. Innovation is at the heart of successful business, so as an entrepreneur you need to know how to innovate. And not just once, but over and over again so that you can stay in front of your competitors.

So let’s start with a simple definition: what is innovation? It is a new idea, device or process. And behind every successful entrepreneur is just that: a new idea, device or process.

But how do we purposefully innovate? Sometimes an idea just pops in to your head… but that is not much of a strategy for a sustainable business. We need to be able to purposefully create new ideas, products and devices.

 

Here’s my 10 step process for making it happen:

 

1. Clear your mind of logic and limits

As Walt Disney said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” Don’t constrain yourself with pre-conceived ideas of what is possible or sensible. This is especially true if you are looking for a disruptive idea. Let go of your perceived limits. Anything is possible.

2. Dream the preferred reality

Imagination is more important than knowledge so use the power of your imagination to create a vision of your preferred reality. What would you love? What would you prefer for how things operate? What would be the magic solution? And remember: all ideas are good ideas. No idea killers allowed.

3. Write it down

I’m a fan of the traditional notebook and I carry mine with me everywhere I go. This has been a habit of mine since my first day in my first career job. Every meeting, every discussion, every action item gets documented. This way, no ideas are ever lost or forgotten.

4. Research and explore

This is a crucial step. Once I’ve got the idea, I start researching how it would work, if there is a gap in the market at the moment, does it meet a need, what it would cost, how much could we charge, etc.

5. Colour it in

This step is where the idea starts to become real and the vague vision starts to become refined and detailed. If it is a new business or product, I start brainstorming brand names, logos, colour palettes, developing flowcharts and diagrams, selecting locations, etc. Here, I start to get a real feel for the business and product and how people will interact with it.

Leann Webb will be one of many speakers at our upcoming Brisbane Conference on the 2nd November 2017. Book Now to hear Leann and many other specialists in their respective fields discuss attributes of successful leaders at this full day event.

 

 

6. Share your idea with trusted partners

This step is the one I believe to be the toughest. I am very protective of my new ideas and I don’t like negativity. So when it comes to sharing an idea, especially if it is a bit fluid, it is really important to share with the right kinds of people. If you can’t find those people, my preferred approach is to discreetly share little bits of information in an informal way and see what reaction you get.

7. Set a deadline

Once you’ve decided you are going to do it, set a deadline. Most people flop around like fish out of water unless they have a deadline, so mark a date on the calendar and commit.

8. Develop an action plan

And now, write a list of everything that needs to be done and work out what is on the critical path. Who is going to do it? When does it need to be done? How much will it cost? Put together a detailed action plan and allocate responsibilities. Get it done.

9. Launch (and shoot the engineer if you have to)

In new product development, there is a saying “Sooner or later, you have to shoot the engineer and put it in to production.” The ‘engineer’ refers to the product engineer who wants to release a perfect product. While this is a noble principle, the longer you take to get the product to market, the more it costs and the more market advantage you sacrifice. It is far better to launch the first version and continue improving the product through subsequent version releases. So launch the product, even if it isn’t perfect.

10. Listen, adapt, persevere

And the last step is continually listening, adapting and persevering. When I think of my businesses, each of them is so totally different to how they started. Different business models, different delivery models, even different services. As business operators, we’re in a constant state of evolution.

 

Change With A Capital C: What Works?

We should all expect to go through upheavals during our working lives, which is all the more reason to become competent at dealing with it. By Professor Danny Samson FIML

 

 

Organisational change is hard and often unsuccessful because even seasoned managers can fall prone to underestimating organisational inertia. We often insufficiently attend to the concerns employees have about change, principally what will happen to them. Yet in these highly turbulent times, surely change management should be a core capability of every competent leader and every organisation that wants to sustain its survival and prosperity. So, what works and what are the pitfalls?

When change is radical, being “Big C” change as against incremental in nature, then the stakes and the risks are commensurately higher. By radical or Big C change, we refer to large transformations or makeovers, whether they are of culture, structure, size, technology, location, product range, distribution channel or any other core element of an organisation.

With radical change in particular, it’s critical to have a strong and compelling vision that motivates and justifies the change. Otherwise, when the going gets tough (and it will), the doubters will emerge and get a strong voice.

The next step is communicate comprehensively the necessity of such a change. Deal openly with the naysayers, and get quickly into the implementation phase. This brings us to the crucial and proven element of successful implementation of major change: create a solid project plan and drive it with tough, hard accountabilities expected from all participants. The project plan is the guiding ‘change map’ that overcomes the chaos that would otherwise result.

Otherwise we’re asking for chaos through ‘ad hockery’. If difficult decisions need to be implemented, such as downsizing and redundancies, then these need to be anticipated as part of the plan, and implemented in a thoroughly professional and precise manner. All employees will want to know their future, so the sooner this can be resolved, the better.

Successful change management is planned and executed in a fast and decisive manner so that the organisation can settle and stabilise.

This approach works much better than the “death by a thousand cuts” approach of multiple incremental steps in an attempt to get to the same end point. I saw this major contrast in New Zealand when both their Post and Telecom businesses were going through major restructuring and downsizing, with one doing a radical change process and the other announcing a five-year downsizing process.

NZ Post was successful in doing it fast and hard, then rebuilding its systems and culture, introducing new technology and renewing almost every aspect of its operations and service levels.

 

“It’s critical to have a strong and compelling vision that motivates and justifies the change.” – Professor Danny Samson

 

 

Similarly, when I served on the board of the TAC (Transport Accident Commission) in Victoria, we chose to implement new e-business technologies, even though it meant that many jobs would change and some would disappear in our pursuit of higher levels of productivity and client service.

Perhaps the hardest thing to change in an organisation is people’s behaviour and culture. As a young engineer (many years ago) working at ICI in Sydney, I was amazed at the negativity of the industrial culture, and the gulf in attitude between managers and the workforce, along with the many insipid managerial attempts to chip away incrementally at the unproductive culture there.

Finally, with necessity being the mother of invention, the need for radical change was realised. A new site manager was brought in to overcome the deeply resistant and negative situation that had built up over decades. He brought sincere, yet firm, intentions, restructuring the workplace arrangements very substantially, enduring personal threats from militant resistors.

When the going got tough during a six-week strike he even had to deal with second thoughts from head office, which was ready to buckle on some of the core issues. He showed a huge amount of personal courage to see through the changes and implement the visionary plan to bring the company out of the industrial dark ages.

Executing radical change needs a vision and a plan, and the ability to demonstrate and communicate benefits of change to the business the. But tying it all together is the leadership team with the determination — let’s call it the stiff backbone — to see the journey through.

 

Trust: Hard To Earn But Easy To Lose

 

If there’s one thing that ensures team success, it’s trust.
By Kate Jones

 

Trust is the key that unlocks the door to more innovative, agile and productive organisations.

Yet it barely rates a mention in boardrooms across Australia, reflecting an even more worrying trend – society’s growing mistrust of institutions.

Declining trust is a problem for governments, banks, the media and even non-government organisations. Research shows flagging trust means the majority of people think societal and economic systems are working against them.

The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer, which samples more than 33,000 respondents from 28 countries, found people’s concerns centre around corruption, globalisation, immigration, an erosion of social values and the pace of innovation.

Across the four institutions of government, business, media and NGOs, business was viewed as the only one that can make a difference. Three out of four respondents agree a company can take actions to both increase profits and improve economic and social conditions.

Business leaders play an important part in rebuilding trust and it all starts in-house.

Today’s fast-paced advances mean there is a greater emphasis on explaining the impact of innovation to employees and what it means for their jobs. There is the ongoing need for businesses to pay employees fairly, constantly improve benefits and provide job training.

Being a trustworthy leader is all about establishing credibility, says business psychologist Sebastian Salicru, author of Leadership Results: How to Create Adaptive Leaders and High-performing Organisations for an Uncertain World.

 

“Leaders need to be fair by displaying consistency in decision-making . . . and sharing their influence and power appropriately”

 

“This means acting with integrity and being role models of the principles, values and behaviours they uphold,” he says.

“More specifically, building credibility entails enhancing or repairing their psychological contracts with their people by fulfilling the expectations employees have of them, building trust by communicating openly, keeping their promises, demonstrating competence and good judgment.

“They also need to be fair by displaying consistency in decision-making, providing opportunities for others to share their views, share their influence and power appropriately, and provide ongoing feedback to their teams.”

Winning a team’s trust is a marathon and relies on being respectful, welcoming feedback and admitting mistakes, Salicru advises. Losing it can be a sprint.

“Don’t assume people know what you expect from them, don’t pretend that you know everything, don’t blame others when things go wrong, don’t display favouritisms, don’t bully, abuse your power or discriminate against others, don’t avoid conflict and don’t try to be liked or seek approval from others,” he says.

Restoring strong team trust will translate to consumers, giving them confidence to do business with an organisation and recommending that organisation to others. Flowing from this are healthy customer relationships, which fast-track business growth and build sustainable brand equity.

“It manifests in increased sales, repeat business, customer loyalty and brand ambassadorship,” Salicru says.

“In turn, this affords you and the organisation brand differentiation, good reputation, and greater competitive advantage. In the longer-term, this means increased market share, sustainability and business growth.”

Maintaining trust has and always will be crucial for business leaders. Leaders can do this by working towards putting people, their employees and customers, at the centre of everything they do.

 

Being decisive and winning the dog fight

Written by Paul Mead – Performance Consultant, Paul Mead Consulting

As leaders, we understand that having a strategy is an essential part of success. But a strategy without action is just a pretty piece of paper. The strategic leader needs to be able to turn this plan into action, understanding how it is to be used in the current environment and bring along the rest of the organisation with them.

 

According to some recent research, an adult makes up to 35,000 decisions per day. Many of these decisions are minor impulsive type decisions (we make over 200 decisions each day about food choices), but others, especially for leaders are critically important ones. So, as leaders, how do we take decisive action when it is required?

 

As an ex-New Zealand Army Officer, I like to look towards my military education to find insights for leaders. One lesson that has stuck with me and rings true for strategic leaders of all persuasions is the OODA Loop.

 

Colonel John Boyd, a US Air Force Fighter Pilot introduced a concept in the 1950’s called the OODA Loop. Observe, Orientate, Decide, Act.

Paul was the National Winner of the 2016 ALEAs Emerging Leaders award

Col. Boyd noted in the Korean War, that despite the US aircraft being less maneuverable than the Russian made MIG’s, they were winning the majority of the dogfights.

Part of the reason being, the US F-86’s had a better field of vision and hydraulic controls that enabled faster maneuverability. This ability to observe and then orientate themselves faster, meant they could disrupt the actions of their enemy.

He emphasised to his pilots the need to observe and orientate faster than their enemy in order to make superior decisions that ultimately would save their lives.

This concept of the OODA loop can be directly applied to the process that exceptional strategic leaders display, in taking decisive action around those important decisions, within the 35,000, they make every day.

 

Observe – The strategic leader is constantly observing the environment in which they operate. They can identify what is a risk to their organisation and where opportunities to exploit lie.

 

Orientate – The strategic leader orientates their organisation into a position to either mitigate the risk or take advantage of the opportunity.

This ability to orientate the organisation should not be underestimated. This is where the strategic leader earns their title. A failure to correctly orientate will spell disaster in the next two stages.

 

Decide – The strategic leader is decisive in their decisions. They know when they have enough information and when the timing is right to take action. They decide on a course of action and launch into it with full force.

 

Act – The strategic leader acts at the right time, always. Their action is well planned and they have contingencies in place for when the situation changes. Success is likely, rather than as a consequence of luck.

Strategic leaders know that the ability to orientate their organisation takes more than charisma. It takes the ability to clearly communicate the need to implement change or transform a business process through a clear vision. This vision is built upon observation that is rooted in research, analysis, experience and gut feelings.

When it comes time to make the decision, the strategic leader has motivated their team to adopt the vision as their own, knowing that the challenge is to ensure that the odds are stacked clearly in their favour. The strategic leader knows that their tactical leaders have the information they require to influence, lead and win their dogfights, contributing to the broader strategic plan.

 

This is the art of strategic leadership, one dogfight at a time.

Paul will be one of many speakers at our upcoming Brisbane Conference on the 2nd November 2017. Book Now to hear Paul and many other specialists in their respective fields discuss attributes of successful leaders at this full day event.

 

What Millennial Companies Get Right

 

Every generation brings with it a unique perspective and experience – otherwise why would people keep coming up with names to describe them? So what can business owners or potential startup founders from other generations learn from millennials? By Carolin Lenehan

 

MONICA Wulff is a statistician, a startup founder, and a Gen Y millennial. But once you strip the labels away, she’s a young Australian businesswoman receiving kudos and recognition around the world for her work developing a reliable statistical base of knowledge about Australian startup founders and the enabling environment they need to sustain them.

As CEO and co-founder of Startup Muster – Australia’s most comprehensive survey into this burgeoning growth sector – Monica’s views on what can be done to help new startup businesses grow and prosper are both insightful and innovative.

 

Do it with Passion

“We haven’t had the hard times faced by previous generations. We haven’t had to grit our teeth and say I’m just going to do this job, even though I hate it. For us it’s, ‘I’m going to follow my passion, I’m going to follow my purpose, I’m going to work somewhere or on something that is unique to me, and from that, I will be able to make an income and a living’,” Wulff says.

For Monica, this was easy – she loved statistics, then she fell in love with the startup world. Startup Muster is the marriage of the two and she has no problem putting every ounce of her being into making it work.

If you’re going to go through the hard slog of a startup life then you need to be doing something that you’re passionate about.

“One of the first things new startups are told is to find your story,” Monica says. “You’ve got to have a problem that you’re solving. Unless you’re dedicated and in love with the idea, you’re not going to succeed and you won’t be believeable [to investors, customers etc].”

Monica Wulff: co-founder and CEO of Startup Muster.

 

Get comfortable putting yourself out there: behave like a digital native

Living, eating and breathing your product and your brand 24/7 is essential – you never know where your next opportunity or investor might come from.

Millennials have an edge from growing up curating their personal brand on social media – with positive and negative personal consequences.

‘Go social’ with your business, but do it with purpose and integrity. Every post, every photograph, every event you report in from, all need to be carefully curated to leave an imprint of who you are, what you stand for and what you are achieving. The story you are telling through blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and WeChat all need to evoke aspirational feelings in your customers and clients – particularly if you are targeting millennials!

 

It’s not Entitled. It’s Entrepreneurial.

In her 2017 book, The Millennial Myth, Crystal Kadakia seeks to redefine the labels into business strategies that harness the millennial mindset:
“It’s not lazy, it’s productivity redefined.
It’s not entitled, it’s entrepreneurial.
It’s not hand-holding, it’s agility.
It’s not disloyal, it’s seeking purpose.
It’s not authority issues, it’s respect redefined.”

 

She has described millennials as enabled by the internet, enabled by STEM, and driven by YOLO (You Only Live Once).

Millennials like Crystal and Monica were at university during the Global Financial Crisis, and the recession that followed. Their generation will be the first to be less well-off than their parents.

“What came out of it was the mindset that there’s no such thing anymore as a golden handshake after 40 years with one company… We are working to have more ownership of our future. I’ve got a mission, and some would describe that as ‘entitled’,” Monica said.

 

AND REMEMBER . . . DON’T FEAR FAILURE

Tackle your new business with passion, drive and integrity. Nurture its public image, curate it carefully. Don’t fear criticism, use it to hone your product and build your defences. If you do fail, learn from it and wear it as a notch on your belt. Soon it will be the new black.

 

Career Doctor: An IML Specialist Takes A Problem To Task

 

 

The problem: ‘I’m a new boss who has discovered that morale and productivity are low. What’s the best way to raise standards?’

 

Peter says: It’s easy to become overwhelmed, lost and bewildered as a young first-time manager taking over a dysfunctional team with a very negative culture. The situation can be magnified if there’s little or no support to coach or guide you through the steps you must take to establish your credibility and garner trust from the members in your team. In any case it’s best to have a fluid plan that you can adapt depending on circumstance. Once you have that set, consider the following as team-building tips that will help you execute your plan.

 

Let them know who you are
At the earliest opportunity, speak to the whole team about your work history and who you are as a person, and present an overview of why you were given the position.

Be open with your intentions
When setting out plans for the future, don’t be tempted to outline a “grand plan”. Building trust, boosting credibility and setting out guidelines for a collaborative culture are key. You will need to be inclusive while remaining cautious when explaining your vision of the team’s future, especially when it includes building a stronger more positive and proactive culture within the team.

Up close and personal
Spend one-on-one time with each team member as soon as possible. This provides the opportunity to learn more about each other, find out what’s working well and why, and what could be improved and how. It’s one of the best ways to find out what the real concerns are. This should become a fixed weekly or fortnightly catch-up to provide and receive open and honest feedback.

The task at hand
As soon as you know what’s working well and what needs to be improved from the team, convene a team meeting to advise your team on what you’ve learned from the one-on-ones and how you plan to tackle the areas that need to be improved (after ensuring to ask them for their ideas). Then divide up the tasks, empowering individuals and teams, while you take responsibility for the big-ticket items.

Accountability
Reinforce standards for correct behaviour and performance, referencing job descriptions and codes of conduct. Emphasise that you also abide by these standards. Respect, credibility and trust are supported by consistency and fairness in all you do. You’re a role model from the very first moment you take up the job. Your team will be watching you.

 

Peter Cullen is an education and training facilitator who teaches “Manage People, Performance and Business Effectively” courses. Each three-day program engages participants in developing and implementing their capabilities as manager and leaders.

A Vision Splendid

 

When Starbucks lost its way it had to come up with a whole new recipe. By Fiona Smith

 

When you order a grande chocolate chip frappuccino at Starbucks, you know exactly what you will be getting – a lot of calories, some free Wi-Fi and a friendly chat with the staff, who may amuse you by misspelling your name on your plastic cup.

It is this reliability that helped make the US cafe company one of the world’s most successful retail chains, but nine years ago, Starbucks was ready to implode. The company had over-reached in its ambitious expansion and was forced to close about 900 stores worldwide.

In Australia, which never embraced Starbucks as enthusiastically as other countries, 66 shops were shut down – leaving only 23.

Stepping back in to the CEO role after an eight-year absence, chairman Howard Schultz sought to reconnect the company with its vision and mission statement, which was: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time”.

Schultz explained at the time that the company had become too focused on the money and had lost sight of the people.

Starbucks’ turnaround is now the stuff of corporate legend. Reversing from the brink, Starbucks last year posted record-high profits of $US2.8 billion on revenues of $19 billion.

Shultz has said an integral part of the recovery was his decision to stage the company’s 2008 conference in New Orleans, which was still struggling to get back on its feet after the devastating Hurricane Katrina three years earlier.

About $US30 million was spent taking 10,000 store managers to the city, starting their conference with community service – building, painting and cleaning for the residents.

“I went to New Orleans because I knew that if I could remind people of the character and the values of who we have been, by starting the conference, not with the conference, but 50,000 hours of community service, that we would make a difference,” he said in an interview in the Harvard Business Review.

“And if we didn’t have New Orleans, we wouldn’t have turned things around. I’m convinced of that. It was the most powerful experience that any of us have had in years, because it was real, it was truthful, and it was about leadership.”

For all the cynical commentary that often surrounds discussions about company vision statements, aligning an organisation with a higher purpose can be a powerful business strategy, says Sydney-based consultant Alan Riva, who uses the concept of ‘purpose’ to grow businesses.

“It’s the glue that holds everything together,” says Riva, pointing to a study of 50,000 brands that found that the 50 highest-performing businesses were those who centred their businesses on the ideal of improving people’s lives.

These companies grew three times faster than their competitors and were 400 per cent more profitable than the S & P 500.

“This is a beautiful piece of research. We have these shining stars of businesses that show that purpose and vision are what really helps galvanise a business,” says Riva, who consults for companies such as yoghurt maker Chobani, BUPA and CoreLogic RP Data.

But not all visions are created equal. The author of that research, former Procter & Gamble global chief marketing officer Jim Stengel, says some are too short-sighted to inspire anyone.

“Does a shared goal of improving people’s lives sound, well, too idealistic for the rough-and-tumble of business? What about practical, hard-nosed goals such as making the quarterly numbers, increasing market share, and cutting costs?” Stengel asks in his book GROW: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit At The World’s Greatest Companies.

“All are crucial, but the best businesses aim higher. When many business leaders articulate mission and vision statements, they typically talk about having the best-performing, most profitable, most customer-satisfying, most sustainable, and most ethical organisation.

“Strip away the platitudes, and these statements all aim too low.”

Such lack of ambition is a “recipe for mediocrity,” he says. Instead, the core beliefs of a business should be linked to fundamental human values that remain relevant through all sorts of business cycles and changes in strategy.

So, a vision should be “visionary”, but it also needs to connect to winning in terms of a customer or market, says the national leader of strategy consulting practice, Monitor Deloitte, Jeremy Drumm. If the customer or market are omitted, then employees are left to rally around products and services. “And that never inspires and is really a poor war cry,” he says.

 

“A strategy is only good if someone else is doing the exact opposite. In order to win in a market, there must be somebody else doing something differently.”  – Jeremy Drumm, Monitor Deloitte

 

Another principle is that the vision should be broad enough so it remains relevant over decades.

Walt Disney’s simple vision – “To make people happy” – is open-ended enough to accommodate expansion into new businesses.

“If they had gotten really detailed and gone down a path [in their vision statement] of winning in animation, that would have been quite limiting and wouldn’t have seen them go into amusement parks or ships,” Drumm says.

 

Drumm uses the term “winning aspiration” to describe an organisational vision, but other commonly used terms are credo, manifesto, statements of intent, mission and core ideology.

Swedish furnishings company IKEA explains its vision (with a charming, slightly Scandinavian syntax): “At IKEA our vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. Our business idea supports this vision by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.”

Microsoft keeps it short and simple: “Our mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.”

Some companies with enlightened-sounding aspirations today had more blood-thirsty rallying cries previously. US footwear company Nike had “Crush Adidas” as its 1960s motto, but now says its mission is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”.

Responsibility for coming up with a vision varies from company to company. It can be dictated by a founder or CEO, it may involve consultants and, sometimes, it is a lengthy process of harvesting and distilling the views of every employee.

Drumm’s view is that it’s the CEO’s role to define and express the “winning aspiration”. “You don’t want to spend money and waste too much time on getting the perfect language around a vision statement, but if you don’t have one, then you don’t have a North Star and all the choices that you make underneath that will be unfounded … which is a horrible place to be because you will spin your wheels and waste more money.”

When a vision is in place, it should be relatively stable, underpinned by strategies that may change frequently, says entrepreneurial strategist, Paul Broadfoot.

“If you’re going to turn something around, a vision helps. Sometimes, it’s not until there’s a dramatic need for a turnaround that a vision gets renewed, or a strategy is linked more to a vision,” says Broadfoot, author of the Xcelerate book.

“The best businesses have both a strong vision and a strong strategy and that they have developed together.”

Drumm starts the strategy conversation by asking: “Where do you play?” and “how do you win?”

The first question examines the value of particular markets, customer segments, and sets of products and services.

“Those are pretty meaty questions but if they’re not answered in the context of the [vision], they won’t resonate,” Drumm says. “They are the essence of how you set strategy.”

“Those are the hardest questions you could possibly answer. They need to be mutually reinforcing and to align with your winning aspiration.

“And a strategy is only good if somebody else is doing the exact opposite. In order to win in a market, there must be somebody else doing something differently – either in that market, or in a different market in the same way.

“Otherwise, you all just fight and the prices go down and it’s a death spiral.”

Being Professional Doesn’t Mean You Stop Being A Human Being

 

One of my (many) professions these days is a public speaker. I often attend conferences in all sorts of sectors that I would never otherwise get to see up close and personal.

It’s a great privilege and generally I learn two things. The first is that every sector and industry think the challenges they struggle with are unique to them – but they’re not. Everyone, regardless of where they work, is living in the same moment of time and is beset by the same trends and problems as the rest of the world.

The second is that a lot of people, especially when asked to present at an industry conference, confuse being a professional with being a robotic, bland and impersonal bore.

It’s as if they believe they must not allow any particle of their personality, humour or lived experience to intrude on their presentation. The result is not only eye-glazingly dull, but would have been much better handled if they’d simply distributed a copy of their (often endless) Powerpoint and remained seated while the audience read it.

The horror of your life intruding on your work has reached pathological proportions among some who strive to be taken seriously. I blame the pernicious phrase “work/life balance” for this epidemic. If you think about it, the idea simply does not make sense. Do you go to work when you are dead (dead inside, perhaps, in some jobs)? No. Well, in that case, work cannot be separated from life. It’s one part of it and that is all.

This false elevation of “work’’ as the only thing that exists outside of life may be part of the reason so many professionals appear allergic to letting anything personal slip out when they’re representing their job or employer. Sadly, such attempts at separation not only fail, they’re damaging.

When I mentored young aspiring career women (another profession of mine), I would often have to explain to them that a particularly nasty and inexplicable comment from a superior was what I called a toxic emotional fart. It was invariably an aside designed to make the young person feel inferior and was unnecessarily mean and annihilating. The young recipient of the bad smell had often spent days puzzling over it and may even have wept a few tears.

 

 

“A lot of people confuse being a professional with being a robotic, bland, impersonal bore.”

 

My explanation was that the toxic fart had nothing to do with the shaken young woman (or man). It was simply an unconscious expression of what occurs when so-called professionals suppress their humanity and have emotional baggage they will neither acknowledge nor deal with. The pressure of the things they ignore builds up until it must escape and when it does it covers all those nearby with its odour.

A professional is not just someone who turns up on time, follows through on their commitments, delivers work by the due date and knows their business – although all those things are important.

They’re not just people who deal fairly, honestly and ethically with their clients, colleagues and staff, important though that is. They don’t simply pay their appropriate taxes (yes, professionals do that, too, they’re also good citizens), and obey the laws of the land. Although they must do all of those and more.

A professional is a person who understands – not just their own job – but themselves. This matters because until you understand yourself – your motivations, vulnerabilities, weaknesses and toxic baggage (we all have some), you haven’t a hope in hell of understanding other people.

It’s called emotional intelligence and really professional managers have lots of it.

If you don’t, you can bore us all with stats and graphs and “consumer insights” until we’re blue in the face, but you’re not fooling anyone, except yourself.