I2I - Incentive Intelligence

Leadership Training Everywhere - But Not a Drop to Drink

• 142,000,000 - the number of listings on google when searching for leadership.
• 33,500,000 - the number of listings on google when searching for leadership training.
• 21,300,000 - the number of listings on google when searching for leadership training courses
• 13,100,000 - the number of listings on google when searching for leadership consulting firms
• 1,600,000 - the number of listings on google when searching for leadership consultants

For context - searching pornography only returns 11,600,000 hits (that may be a function of the audience not being able to spell such a long word since "sex" gives you 365,000,000 hits.)

Why are those statistics interesting?  Here's why.

Having a wonderful lunch with a friend and former client yesterday we talked about the top problems companies face and the topic of leadership came up.  We puzzled about the sheer number of consulting firms that offer leadership training, the number of blogs and articles on leadership, and the focus most companies put on leadership.  My friend's experience indicated that poor leadership seemed to be a root cause of a lot of the other problems typically encountered at a company (I'm paraphrasing a bit - after all it was an hour-long lunch.)  

But even with all that focus on leadership - we still have the problem.

We ended with this question...

Why, with so many resources and what seems to be a big concern of most companies - is leadership still such a huge issue?  Why hasn't this either been solved or at least been moved down the list of problems companies face?  

Why can't we seem to get leadership right?

Here's where we netted out...

• Companies identify leadership as a problem.
• Companies hire people or buy programs to address leadership.
• People go through the process of "learning leadership."
• People go back into organizations and are measured on the EXACT SAME THINGS they were measured on BEFORE training on leadership.  

In other words, we don't measure leadership - we measure everything else.  Profits, losses, costs, quality, errors, etc. 

Here's some homework for you all.

Do we need new metrics for managers that have more to do with people and less to do with the output those people are responsible for?

Examples I came up with...

• Voluntary turnover to go to a lesser or same type job at another company/department (lower is better)
• Voluntary turnover to higher level jobs outside the company (in other words there wasn't a job open or that could be created for that person in the existing company.) (higher is better)
• Voluntary turnover to start own business (higher is better)
• Number of employees promoted OUT of a department to new, greater responsibility jobs WITHIN the company (higher is better)
• Level of recognition by other employees, departments, managers for the work of direct reports (this would mean you have to have a recognition program that is trackable - something you should do whether you end up using the data or not - but you should.) (higher is better)

What metrics should we be looking at the would indicate somone is a good leader?  

What proof is there that the money spent on leadership training is money well-spent?  

I believe that until we create new metrics for managers we will constantly have the need to train on leadership.

Anyone care to weigh in?  Anyone, anyone?

What Do Mother Teresa and Joseph Stalin Have In Common? Influence Insiders Radio

If you ever needed a reason to listen to Influence Insiders consider this... we used quotes from Joseph Stalin and Mother Teresa to reinforce the same point.  

Now that's different!

Yesterday the group highlighted their choices on books that helped us influence people's behavior.  We covered everything from Dale Carengie to the Heath brothers - an eclectic mix of ideas and points of view.

To recap the books we discussed - and recommend:

Ann Bares:  

Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World

Julien Dionne: 

Talk Less, Say More: Three Habits to Influence Others and Make Things Happen

Covert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game

Todd Hanson:

Economics of Engagement - White Paper from The Enterprise Engagement Alliance

Show Me the Money: How to Determine ROI in People, Projects, and Programs

Lance Haun:

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Frank Roche:

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Paul Hebert:

How We Decide

The Logic Of Failure: Recognizing And Avoiding Error In Complex Situations

I won't transcribe the entire call so click out to the site or listen to the player embedded here (email subscribers will have to click through to access the player) and hear what our group thought about these great reads.

 

  

Next Month - Back On Track

 Next month we feature author Jon Wortmann and his book "Mastering Communication At Work." 

Until next month - stay influential listeners!

Motivation is a Game of Inches

Vince Lombardi once said....

"Football is a game of inches and inches make a champion."

How many hail mary passes are thrown by championship teams each year (less than the number of runs or shorter slant passes)?

How many grand slams are hit by the World Series Champion each year (less than the number of singles)?

How many hole-in-ones does Mickelson have each year (less than the number of birdies)?

In other words - champions don't consistently perform because of big plays.

Motivation - or more accurately - incentive and reward programs - are the same.  Designing a great program that helps you achieve business objectives isn't a matter of big goals and big plans.  

It's an exercise in grinding out the inches.

But we don't like that.  We like the big plays.  The hail mary's, the 101 yard kick-off return.  We like the grand slam home run.  We like the hole in one.

We like big and we like flashy.

Low Probability 

Unfortunately, big and flashy are low probability plays.  But our desire to be featured on the highlight reel influences how we design incentive programs.  Too often we take this "go big or go home" attitude and apply it to our reward programs.  We offer huge awards for huge returns.  We promote the big payoff for big results.  

What we're really doing is creating a hot mess of failure and bad behaviors.  With little probability of success.

Coaching Little League

Most of us can remember a time in our past (some more distant than others) when a coach told us - "don't swing for the fences - just get a hit" - or - "three runs of 4 yards is as good as one play of 10."  We teach our kids that doing a bunch of little things well will result in success.

Somehow we lose that coaching intelligence when we hit the business world.  Maybe because few magazines or papers write about the company that just plugs along, making profits, returning shareholder value, retaining employees, adding value.  We want the headline for going big.

Programs Should Be Designed for the Little Things

When you design your next program look at the little things that add up to success and reward them.  Don't simply set a goal and attach a big trip to Hawaii to it.  Look at the steps that lead to success.  If you have a sales reward program - reward the number of calls, the number of meetings, the number of qualified proposals.  You'll be surprised how many sales will close if your people are focused on the little things.  If you have non-sales emplyees - look at the job functions and the tasks associated with success in the position - reward those tasks.  

Rewarding Big = Losing Big

Focusing on the big result forces your audience to take their eye off of the little things that truly drive success. 

Best Laid Plans Of Mice and Influence Insiders

Influence Insiders - our monthly group radio show is poised to jump onto your computer this Wednesday, February 3 at noon EST (not that I needed to remind you!)  Our listenership is growing quickly - each espisode doing better than the last.  Soon we hope to rival Seinfield as water cooler fodder.  

But, Houston - we have a problem this month  

I posted after the last show in January that one of our insiders - Heather Margolis had lined up author Jon Wortmann to discuss his book "Mastering Communication At Work."  Unfortunately, schedules got disrupted and Jon and Heather won't be able to make the show this month.  

Hold on - don't freak yet - we've rescheduled Jon for March (put it in your calendar NOW!)

But in the meantime - staying with the book theme the eclectic group that is Influence Insiders will be chatting this Wednesday about books that influenced the way we influence.  Some are new - some are old - all will be enlightening.  Tune in this Wednesday at noon EST and we'll be doing the book club thing (scones and tea anyone?)

Call in number:  (646) 381-4430 - Or listen via computer at the link above.

Looking forward to your participation  

If you have a book that really influenced how you work with your audiences to drive behavior let us know - call in and be a part of the team.  Hope we hear you all on Wednesday!

 Ettiquette question - do I have to cut the crusts off of the little tiny triangle sandwiches and which pinky should stick out?  Oh - wait - this is a radio show - you wouldn't know if I was eating a messy hoagie or a finger sandwich.

 

 

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