Mike Hohnen

Coaching for personal growth, change and development

General

Millennial, the “impossible” generation

By

Millenials

From Mike Hohnen: This week I would like to introduce you to Hanh Lam. For the past two months, Hanh and I have been collaborating around the management and development of my website. During that period, we have had a focus on leadership as a theme on the blog. So I have invited Hanh to guest blog this week and give her perspective.

Author’s note: First of all, I want to thank Mike for asking me to do this guest post on his blog. Working together, we talk a lot about leadership and management. Mike once told me people asked if he found it difficult to work with millennials. As I happen to be a millennial, here is a post to address the impossibleness of my generation.

Millennials were born and raised in the age of information and technology, in a globalized world, in times of peace but also in some ways, times of crisis. We are tech-savvy, we have itchy feet, and we are naïve and foolish.  We are “Generation Me”, “Trophy kids”, “Peter Pan Generation” or “pragmatic idealists”. There are so many other ways or words people use to describe generation Y. In short, we are really different. We dress differently, we think differently, and we live/work differently.

With access to computer and the Internet from an early age, we receive information and communicate through multiple sources and platforms. We learn and process knowledge from a more global perspective. Being more exposed to traveling and other cultures, we are also more liberal.

Many people think we are selfish, greedy narcissists. That is only partly true with a proportion of generation Y. The reason behind this is that we were born in a time when consumerism was booming. Everything we have is in adequacy and abundance. And our parents, mostly Baby Boomers and Gen X, who lived through wars, recessions, had sacrificed a lot for us to have better lives. And some of us just got accidentally and unintentionally spoiled.

However, most of us aren’t like that. Millennials have already taken over around 50% of the workforce. We have been, and will be, changing the world in every way possible, and for the better. We are responsible global citizens. We care deeply about global issues and we take actions. We learn and adapt fast; we are also very versatile with change.

But, we are also lost… Growing up in a globalized world, we question our identity and doubt about our core values. We do not want a stable, secure life like older generations, so we struggle at times to find our purpose in life. Generation gap probably hasn’t hit any generation as hard as it has us. Millennials live and grow in a fast-paced, constantly changing world. So we get lost and disoriented…quite often.

With the relentless and restless spirit of generation Y, we get lost but we are foolish enough to continue leading and pursuing the life we want. But, we could use a bit of guidance and orientation from older generations. Guidance, not imposition.

People from previous generations, who are wiser, older and more experienced, can be great mentors and advisors for us. On the other hand, we youngsters can show you a thing or two, a different perspective on things, a different side of a world we are living in, a different way to do things. It can be a wonderful learning experience and growing opportunity for both sides if you are patient and open-minded enough to get to know us, listen to us and most of all, grow with us.

Millennials and leadership

Okay so basically we are a bunch of energetic, complicated, crazy youngsters. How does leadership work with us? Or how can you lead or manage us?

Millennials can make great leaders. No doubt. Generation Y is full of ideas and fresh perspectives. We don’t really settle; we always look for a better solution and change. We are determined and naïve enough (yes) to make bold decisions and take risks. We are not afraid to tumble. “Stay hungry, stay foolish” has been pretty much our motto.

And from our yearning to learn, change and grow, comes innovations.  Our positive energy and restless spirit are contagious. With us, there is neither boss nor manager. We lead by inspiring, motivating and being part of the team.

If you have millennials as part of your team, depending on your mindset and approach, it can either be the worst nightmare imaginable, or the best management experience of your career. So, how can people deal with us? Well, don’t.

– Give us something meaningful at work, a purpose, and we will stop calling it work. We will live it. A purpose gives us a sense of belonging and we will commit ourselves to the cause you stand for.

– Don’t micro-manage us. Instead, give us the freedom and flexibility to learn, explore and try things our ways. You will be amazed with the ideas we come up with.

– Give us some challenges. We are action junkies and we get bored super fast sitting in cubicles doing paperwork or running errands. Believe in us and maybe let us be in charge of a big project. This will make us feel really valued and respected. We will be even more creative, responsible and engaged.

– Allow us to learn and grow. We love learning and developing ourselves. We will be more likely to choose and engage at a workplace that provides us with training opportunities and mentorship rather than a higher-paid position doing endless repetitive work.

– Listen to us and open your mind. We might be young and inexperienced, but that is actually our advantage. We are curious and we have different views and opinions. If you are patient enough to listen to us and our ideas, we will help you “unstuck” and show you a new way of doing things. Don’t be afraid to change and accept to be challenged.

So after all, Millennial isn’t impossible at all. If you just change your mindset and approach and allow us to thrive, we are actually the “I’m possible” generation.

Your leadership capacity is a question of what you believe.

By

41402270_m

In my previous post and inspired by: Management is what we do – and Leadership is who we are, I touched on the subject that our leadership capacity is linked to the state we are in. Who we are comes out in our character and our character shows up primarily in our interactions with others.

So the way we see the world – what we hold to be true or believe is the foundation for our state. If you believe that people with red hair are more temperamental than people with fair hair, then that influences your state whenever you are interacting with people with red hair. That is a very simple way of explaining it but I am sure you get my drift.

So when we talk about leadership, the dominant existing belief or paradigm around leadership is based on a thinking which is called Transactional Leadership. Its source is Taylorism and scientific management. And before that, the term ‘homo economicus,’ the economical human, which briefly means that a human being is a rational person who only acts in his own interest.

We could also use a simpler term and call it the Something-for-something system.

How the Something-For-Something System Works

Transactional leadership is what happens in most organizations today.

You come in to work and give some of your time in return for a salary. If you work a bit harder, or a little bit more, or a little bit better, you have an expectation that you will also be rewarded for it — a bonus, overtime pay, a promotion, or whatever.

If you don’t work so hard or don’t do your job very well, it is built into the model that you can expect some kind of ‘punishment’.

Basically, you come to work because it is in your own interest. You need the money so you can pay your rent, feed the kids, or play golf during the weekend. It’s a something-for-something kind of thinking which has thousands of years behind it.

Just think of the expression, “work/life balance,” which would imply that work is not life. Today it is the existing paradigm governing our thinking about work in a large part of society.

The Game We Play

If the employer and the employee, or in practical terms, the manager and the employee, have a relationship which basically is about something–for-something, then it very easily becomes a game where you, as employee, try to get away with doing as little as possible while at the same time getting the maximum amount out.

In that perspective, you could say that from the employee’s perspective, you have actually won something if you managed to do a little bit less and still get paid the same for it. This is, of course, even more so in the case where the employee is in a situation where the job is boring or in other ways not inspiring.

The management role in an organization that practices transactional leadership is not very inspiring either, because what this means is that the manager’s most important role is to control whether or not the organization is actually getting the output that the organization is paying for. That means time-stamping, control sheets, registration, serious conversations, the possibility of written warnings, and eventually, the ultimate punishment – layoffs.

In a transactional world, an effective manager is a person who distributes reward and punishment in such a way that he maximizes the output of the employee. That is the bottom line success criteria.

Unfortunately, a lot of research shows that this management style is not actually the most productive. It’s not something that creates an extraordinary organization or fantastically enthusiastic and loyal customers. It produces something that is often okay but rarely fantastic. It’s built into the model that it has to be like that; it is all that can happen, as long as we have that mindset.

Now you may wonder, “But what about all those modern organizations who are offering bright canteens, fresh fruit, and football games in the hallways? Aren’t they doing something right?”

Well, that depends.

Because it is not about the fresh fruit and football games – in some organizations they are offered as part of the something-for-something deal – in other organizations, they are offered as part of a different way of thinking about work – we will get to that shortly.

Management by Exception

In a transactional world, the manager leads by exception. By that, I mean that the manager is actually only exercising their management role when something is not working according to the plan, not living up to the expectations. Only when somebody’s not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, do they put on their leadership cap and do something… maybe.

Maybe, because as most of us don’t actually enjoy being bossy, the management role very easily turns into non-management – something I only do if I absolutely must.

If things are going sort of reasonably OK, then there’s no real reason to do much, is there? It becomes a sort of ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ atmosphere. And in the organizations that are really bad, the supervisor, who is supposed to manage his front-line, gets this same treatment from his department head, who gets exactly the same laissez-faire management from the division VP or whatever. The something-for-something culture runs all the way through the system. Not exactly an inspiring work environment. Everyone is in the same basic state.

Now, I hope you are beginning to see what the problem is.

As long as we understand the world from a transactional paradigm, the something-for-something mindset, we aren’t going to get any further. We are stuck.

We need a new paradigm.

If we are to shift our state, we need to change how we see work and people in organisations.

SeeBeDo

By

Death_to_stock_communicate_hands_2

I have been reading “Building the bridge as you walk on it” by Robert E. Quinn.  It’s a lovely book. What struck me the most and what has been going round in my head for a while since reading the book is this very simple statement:

“Management is what we do. Leadership is who we are.”

So from that perspective, all this talk about leadership tools and training misses the point. What we need to talk about is what it takes to develop a healthy leadership state.

And that made me go back and dig out some writings by Doug Silsbee. He has a lovely acronym SeeBeDo that reminds us that the way we choose – and it is a choice –   to see things, influences the way we are. Our state.  And the state that we are in will influence our actions. And our actions determine the outcomes that we get in life.

A simple example: The way I drive on the day I have all the time in the world, meandering through the countryside on the first spring day, is different from when I am late for the airport and traffic is dense in the rain. And the way behaviour shows up comes out most obviously in how I behave towards other people.

I expect that you can imagine for yourself the two different scenarios and the two different types of driving behaviour that are the result. I say no more.

But the implication of this line of thought is that my driving style is at the mercy of the circumstances that I happen to be in. Ultimately, that means I see myself as either a lucky guy out for a drive in the countryside, or as a victim of bad weather and crowed motorways and I behave accordingly.

Ouch…..

I don’t need more driving lessons – that is not the point – I need to learn to manage my states.

The first step in managing my states is to examine closer how I choose to see what goes on around me. The state that I am in is driven by the way I choose to perceive the situation.

Neuroscience has documented this very well; we are what we give our attention to. Whatever we hold in our mind unconsciously influences what we can notice and focus on – and maybe more importantly, what we are unable to notice and focus on.  This too has been well documented in “the Gorilla on the court” experiments.

So to what extend are we conscious of what we are holding in our mind? And is what we are holding in our mind supportive of the leadership responsibility before us or is it getting in the way, possibly even hindering us in understanding what is truly going on?

As always I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this topic. Feel free to leave your comments below and let me know what you think.

Are you the chief employee experience officer?

By

852

Focusing on the customer experience is the key to high customer loyalty – it’s well established.

That is also why around 70% of medium to large UK companies have a customer experience manager at the level of VP or equivalent. The current buzz-tool for developing these customer experiences is ‘service design thinking’.

So far so good.

But if you’re familiar with the service profit chain, you also know that the key to an exceptional customer experience starts somewhere else. We need to create what we call ‘internal quality’ – more popularly referred to as ‘a dream team cycle’.

So what would happen if we were to turn all this service design thinking on its head and focus more on the employee experience? When did we last sit down to analyse the employee journey as it unfolds throughout the day?

Do we know what the critical touch points are? Have we done some emotional mapping that could help us understand what the possible frustrations are during a day?

What are the learning opportunities? Does this job have varying challenges, or is it just the same thing day in, day out?

This idea came to me as I read Global Human Capital Trends 2016, published by Deloitte University Press. According to this latest survey, 92% of executives listed organisational design as very important and something they will be focusing on this year.

So designing our service organisations from the employee perspective should receive the same kind of attention and resources as we use when looking at the customer experience. Yes?

This leaves the question of who the chief employee experience officer is going to be in your organisation. Will they be part of HR, or will your organisation create a totally separate role?

I would love to hear your views on this, so please feel free to reply to this mail.

 

Why learning is your key to engagement

By

Death_to_stock_photography_community_premium_4

“When we grow people’s experience of competence, we inevitably grow their engagement”

– Ron Friedman.

A foundational piece of the Service Profit Chain is the dream team cycle:  The seven steps that need to be in place in order for us to foster the kind of environment that ultimately will produce the best possible customer experience.

The third step of the cycle, Build Skills and Capacity, is all about the opportunities we give our people to develop and improve.

We all understand that training and development is useful when there is an obvious need to improve skills. But that is just one aspect. The other and possibly more important aspect is that personal growth and development is a key factor in securing engagement.

This is highlighted in the most recent Global Human Capital Trends 2016 Published by Deloitte University Press where 84% of executives surveyed rated learning as important or very important. This focus on learning comes as organisations see learning opportunities as a driver of engagement and strong workplace culture. Both are more than ever recognised as drivers of performance, according to the report.

“Compared to last year, companies appear to be making strides in adopting new technologies and embracing new learning models.”

That is also why in the Great Place to Work or Gallup engagement survey they ask employees if they have had the opportunity to grow and learn in the past year.

Unfortunately we see time and again that not many have had that opportunity.

It requires leadership capacity to provide learning opportunities for our people. It is not just a question of finding the budget to send them on a course. Learning and development happens mainly on the job. (Check out 70:20:10 – if you are not sure you agree).

It is by walking the precipice between our current abilities and the skills just beyond our reach that growth occurs. But that requires that you as a leader must design a path for your people that will take them out on that precipice from time to time. And that includes being there in case there is a need for a bit of hand-holding along the way.

But a first and even simpler step to ensure engagement in your team is to provide adequate feedback. Without feedback, we lack the crucial information needed in order to improve. And when we do not have a clear direction on what it is we need to do in order to succeed, it just a matter of time before we lose our engagement.

You can download your own Dream Team checklist here and benchmark yourself on how you are doing on all seven steps. The Dream Team Questions on a pdf – click here [wpdm_package id=’5519′]

What is their secret sauce?

By

Pal's sudden Service‘People go out of calibration just like machines go out of calibration’, CEO Crosby explains. ‘So we are always training, always teaching, always coaching. If you want people to succeed, you have to be willing to teach them’.

HBR just ran a lovely portrait of Pal’s Sudden Service, a 26-unit fast food chain based in Kingsport, Tennessee.

The chain apparently outperforms all the big national fast food chains on all the key parameters, including customer satisfaction, quality, speed, service, value…and employee satisfaction.

Pal’s Sudden Service is a showcase example of the service profit chain implemented as a strategic foundation for success.

Education, training and coaching are at the core of the culture. Managers are expected to teach others every day

New employees get 120 hours of training before they are allowed to work on their own, and they must be certified in the specific jobs they perform.

When you take a closer look, you can see the nine core elements of creating a Dream Team.

Check out my overview of The service Profit Chain and how to creat a dream team

Do you want Strategic HR?

By

117

 

In a hyper-competitive environment, service is probably the last frontier of sustainable competitive advantage.

Service creates customer loyalty, not because of mechanical processes and scripts, but because, if done right, service creates an emotional connection.

We can ‘force’ our frontline people to give scripted mechanical service – saying things like ‘Have a nice day’ – but they can only offer an emotional connection if they feel like it.

An emotional connection is established by employees who care and who feel that creating one is meaningful.

But to make this happen, the first emotional connection they must feel is with their workplace.

So what does it take to create an organisation that provides this?

This is what the Service Profit Chain is all about.

Show your colleagues this simple slide show. Make sure everyone at the top understands how it works.

It could be the first step to a strategic HR approach that takes your customer experience to the next level.

Download my presentation on the Service Profit Chain here:

The simple ABC of leadership

By

ABC of Leadership

Three Things You Need to Master

You will find lots of articles and books describing the importance of trust in a leadership context.
Because you are a leader only if you have followers, and having followers presupposes that there is trust, if I am going to follow you – anywhere – I need to trust you. If I don’t trust you, I will be reluctant to do much for you, let alone follow you.
The trickier a task is or the riskier an adventure is going to be, the more important is this notion of trust.
So, what is it that the best leaders actually do to build and maintain trust?

It’s quite simple – they do just three things:
• they act
• they are aware of their behavior.
• they have powerful conversations

So, think of yourself and your leadership role. You are the main instrument, and you have these three movable parts to work with:
A) Your actions – what you decide to do or decide not to do
B) Your behavior – how you comport yourself on stage
C) Your conversations – Who do you talk to, why do you talk to them, how do you talk to them, and how often does this happen

Each of us does this differently.

The way you combine these three instruments defines you as leaders. This is your unique leadership style.

Leadership Style is Important
There is a direct correlation between how a leader engages with his team and how the team engages with the customer.
There is a direct relationship between a person’s level of engagement and the leadership style of his immediate supervisor.  That applies at all levels of the organization.
As a consequence, the role of the team leader, regardless of what level in the organization, becomes increasingly important.
The challenge for most of us is not so much that we lack the skills but that we are just unaware of how our actions, behavior, and conversations are affecting our surroundings.

What we are aware of, we can control – what we are not aware of, ends up controlling us.