2010 – Page 15 – Management Library

November 2, 2010September 30, 2022

Leadership Transitions

Word-leadership-written-on-a-black-board

Guest blog submitted by Krista Peterson

The guest post on October 24 by Greg Waddell describes the delicate balance of leadership and management well, especially the whitewater rapids of change that most leaders are facing. Now, consider, amidst all the organizational change, new strategies and emerging business, the leader leading (and managing) all of that change is new in his or her role.

Challenge of Leadership Transition

A leadership transition is a critical change for the organization, the new team, key stakeholders and especially the new leader. The need for the newly hired leader to get up to speed quickly, understand the business, navigate the culture, build relationships with key stakeholders, assess and lead their new team, and understand their own personal leadership strengths and needs in the context of this new role can be a daunting task. So daunting in fact, that one research study* cited that 40% of leaders new in role will fail or be fired within the first 18 months. No one wants to believe that their newly hired executive could become a statistic. And yet, most companies are not doing a lot to support new executives during this critical transition.

Onboarding

In my opinion, critical transitions aren’t just defined by new leaders coming in from the outside. I have seen plenty of highly successful leaders make an internal, cross-functional move, and fail to make the transition effectively. In fact, they sometimes have it worse than the external new hire because they are usually a highly talented leader with an internal track record of success, and therefore are often left alone to figure it out. Sink or swim is not the best onboarding strategy with any employee, and especially not key leaders being counted on to drive the strategy forward for the organization.

Derailment Factors in Leadership Transitions

I would like to take the next month to create a dialogue about what causes new leaders to fail, and the kinds of support new leaders need for long-term success. I have seen plenty of new leaders fail, some fast and hard, others more slowly, in a painful rollercoaster of ups and downs. Regardless of their speed of derailment, they all have had some things in common that boiled down to the following causes: poor cultural fit, unclear role expectations, or an inability to get results.

What are some of the other causes of derailment you have seen in a newly hired leader? It would be great to hear what others see as some of the more common factors. Please share your thoughts.

*Bradt, Check and Pedraza, 2006

Guest Writer Information

Krista Peterson, MA, is Founder, Principal Consultant, and Coach at Stone River Consulting in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her phone number is 612-719-7658; e-mail is kpeterson@stoneriverconsulting.com

Krista brings nearly 20 years of experience in leadership development to the practice, largely from her time at Target Corporation, where she served as the director of talent development, leading the organization’s strategy for developing leaders. She also led the creation of an internal executive coaching function, and expanded the onboarding services delivered to new leaders.

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Steve Wolinski provides leadership development, organizational change and talent management services to numerous public, private and non-profit organizations.

November 2, 2010February 4, 2022

Expand Your Sales Force – Part 2 of 2

Man on a phone call looking at a sales chart on a desktop

Try Affiliate Marketing

In the last post, we discussed Affiliate Marketing as an inexpensive way to increase your sales force and boost your revenues. Here, we’ll take a closer look at HOW those revenues are earned.

Some Merchants run their own (i.e., in-house) affiliate programs using popular software while others use third-party services provided by intermediaries to track traffic or sales that are referred from affiliates (see outsourced program management). Merchants can choose from two different types of affiliate management solutions: standalone software or hosted services, typically called affiliate networks.

Affiliate Marketing Compensation Methods

As Affiliate Marketing has evolved, so have compensation models. The methods vary:

80% – revenue sharing or cost per sale (CPS)
19% – cost per action (CPA), and
the remaining 1% use methods such as cost per click (CPC) or cost per mille (CPM).

As a retailer, or Merchant, this is quite attractive, because Affiliates are typically paid a commission for each sale. And when the Merchant uses an Affiliate Network, all the activity is tracked, payments are made, and reports are automated.

Top Affiliate Network Companies

CompareTheBrands.com offers an in-depth look at many of the Affiliate Networks and their typical commission structures, along with great insights from real experience: “We make most of our revenue from affiliate programs, and have plenty of experience with them. Here are the best networks out there. See which one topped all others in this affiliate network review and comparison.”

The following list of the best Affiliate Networks is compiled by an actual full-time affiliate marketer who has worked these programs for over five years, as reported by onlineprofitable.com:

Commission Junction (www.cj.com)
ClickBank (www.clickbank.com)
LinkShare (www.linkshare.com)
Affiliate Window (www.affiliatewindow.com)
Amazon (www.amazon.com)
Shareasale (www.shareasale.com)
Google (www.google.com/adsense)
LinkConnector (www.linkconnector.com)
CPA Empire (www.cpaempire.com)

Do you have tips for other small businesses just starting out with Affiliate Programs?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

November 2, 2010April 26, 2022

Capital Campaigns #4: More Than Raising Money

It’s important to understand that, for many nonprofits, the benefits of conducting a successful capital campaign often extend beyond merely raising a specific amount of money. Of course, the purpose of the campaign is to raise the dollars, but an effective/successful campaign will also have a number of very worthwhile side benefits:

• The more people who support/give to the campaign, the more people who
create/enhance a bond with the nonprofit organization.

  Where the “campaign” period (the actual timeframe needed to attain the dollar
  goal) should be as short as possible, the visible campaign can last much longer —
  as long as needed to involve as many members of the organization and/or the
  community as is realistic. To a point, the more people involved, as volunteers,
  donors and/or event participants, the larger your constituency becomes and the
  stronger your constituents bond with your NPO.

• It makes everybody feel good – campaign leadership, volunteers, donors. It makes
all those folks feel good about success, and it makes them want to stay involved
with the organization.

People that have been leaders/volunteers for a successful capital campaign take
away a feeling of accomplishment, of satisfaction, that they will likely want to repeat.

• It gives others (potential leaders & donors) a look at how an organization
treats/recognizes its volunteer leaders and donors, and makes them think about
how they could get the same “treatment/recognition.”

  Different people have different needs that have to be satisfied.
  If people who were not involved in your campaign see how the needs of others were
  satisfied, next time there is an opportunity to participate as a leader/volunteer these
  folks would be more likely to want to be involved.

• When properly publicized/marketed, it educates a broad spectrum of participants
and non-participants about an organization’s mission, leadership and current
and future programs/services.

  A campaign goal can represent many needs to be satisfied with a specific dollar sum.
  Once the goal is attained, each of those satisfied needs can be discussed in various
  kinds of publicity/marketing pieces over many months after the campaign. Every new
  and/or expanded service the NPO provides is something to brag about!!

• Donors tend to give more to a major campaign than they have to the organization’s
ongoing fundraising; and, after completing their campaign commitment, they tend
to give at levels higher than they gave before the campaign.

In essence, a capital campaign can have a great impact on an organization’s marketing and community relations.

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Have a comment or a question about starting or expanding your basic fundraising program, your major gifts fundraising program or a capital campaign? Email me at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll likely be able to answer your questions.

November 2, 2010September 30, 2022

N = No and Know

Reflecting on the right word for N, I kept coming back to the word No. Then I was in the class that I’m helping to pilot for a client called Renewing Life – which integrates the mind, body and spirit partnership – and I know why No is the right word. We discussed the following activity in class, which explains it all. I’m using the exercise with permission so that you too can increase your ability to know when to say No. These are the facilitator instructions for you to conduct the activity yourself. I encourage you to do so!

Instructions:

1. Each person is to take out two sheets of paper. Give the following instructions one at a time as you do each one.

2. On the first sheet of paper write the word: SHOULD. On the other side of this piece of paper write the word: WHY.

3. On the second sheet of paper write the word: KNOW. On the other side of this piece of paper write the word: NO.

4. After everyone has written these words on their papers, the facilitator tells the participants to crumple, crunch up, rip to pieces, and destroy and throw the SHOULD and WHY paper into the wastebasket. (This is usually done with great drama.)

5. Explain:

Should and WHY are questions with no answers. They are both examples of “stinking thinking” as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous. Louise Hay, in her book, You Can Heal Your Life, says that she believes SHOULD is one of the most damaging words in the English language.

Shoulds:

imply we are wrong, or we were wrong, or we are going to be wrong
teach us NOT to listen to our own intuition or inner knowledge.
often have us feeling drained or guilty

Instead of thinking about what we should or shouldn’t do, ask yourself if an activity is LIFE-GIVING. Will this action give my life meaning, will it give me energy? If it will, then it becomes something to plan to do and look forward to….something you could do…or might do.

WHY is in the same category. There is no answer to the question “WHY?” It is okay to try to make sense of the things that happen to us. Making sense of something is different than finding answers to the WHY questions in our lives…”Why me?…Why didn’t I take better care of myself?” (Sounds a little like the SHOULD question!). WHY does not produce results. It just reinforces staying stuck. It is like trying to change the past, instead of saying, “Now that this has happened what am I going to do with it?”

MAKING SENSE is more realistic. It is answering questions in a different way.

6. Now take the second sheet of paper with the KNOW and NO on it.

Explain:

From this course you have more knowledge – you have gained skills, self-awareness, and self-acceptance.
From your illness or the struggles with the illness of those you love, you have grown, you KNOW yourself and what you need better, and you may have a greater sense of what you want from your life and what you have to contribute. Knowledge is healing.
From these same experiences you have asked yourself your limits and have grown in your ability to say NO to those things that are not life giving, or dissipate that energy you need for living.

Saying NO to others is often saying YES to you. It is setting healthy boundaries and helping add focus and direction in your life.

NOTE: Use the NO page to demonstrate when you hold it right side up then “Say NO (then turn the sheet upside down so the word is now ON) to turn your immune system ON.”

This is the whole course! You now KNOW much more than when you started Renewing Life and you can say No to things that will drain your energy and say YES to yourself.

Fold the KNOW/NO paper and keep it in a safe place always. You now KNOW how to live in the NOW.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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November 1, 2010January 26, 2022

Ethics of Whistleblowing

Last week GlaxoSmithKline settled a claim with the US Justice Department for $750 million. However, what really made the news was that whistleblower Cheryl Eckard stood to receive $96 million for her efforts.

The concern, as raised in today’s Wall Street Journal, is that with such a potential goldmine on the back end, potential whistleblowers will be going straight to the feds before working through internal channels. For over 20 years major organizations have built extensive ethics and compliance infrastructures, including helplines and ethics training that details the suggested ways to report misconduct.

Pending regulations to be enacted under the new Dodd-Frank financial reform law have compliance officers worried that whistleblowing will be expanded far beyond the False Claims Act.

Most ethics officers would prefer that employees go to their managers first before going to the helpline, which is usually monitored by an external service that reports back to a company official.

Is the concern that potential whistleblowers will now bypass these protocols and run to the feds overblown?

The answer depends on what are the true motivators of the whistleblower. For most employees, going to the government would not be their first course of action. Whistleblowing often results in retaliation or even termination (it did for Cheryl Eckard). it is a high risk gambit for an employee.

In the Glaxo case, from August 2002 to her firing in May 2003, Ms. Eckard urged GSK managers to take swift and decisive action at Cidra, including shutting down the plant. She made a full report to the GSK Compliance Department, which treated her complaints as unsubstantiated. She then reported the fraud to the FDA in San Juan.

However, some whistleblowers definitely have an axe to grind. Many of them are looking to seek retribution against a company they feel has mistreated them. Anecdotes about some of the heroic whistleblowers from the Enron and WorldCom era paint a picture of whistleblowers who were not well liked within the company and felt no qualms of taking the neer-do-well managers to task. For these class of employees, requiring stringent internal reporting may deter them, but it also may prevent valid claims from being made.

Other employees are not looking for a windfall. They have legitimate issues and feel that the company is either not willing to listen, or is not able to effectively address the situation. Surveys have shown that 50% of observed misconduct goes unreported

For these employees, requiring them to go through internal channels as a deterrent to going to the feds first will thwart the underlying goal of the entire whistleblowing statute: to get people to report. Why deter someone who wants to do the right thing?

For the organizations that are concerned that new federal rules will unleash waves of bounty hunters, they may be well-advised to first look internally to see how safe employees feel in reporting and what they can do to ensure that no observed misconduct goes unreported. Protecting employees from retaliation will lessen the need for them to go to the government in the first place, regardless of the bounty at the end of the line.

November 1, 2010March 28, 2023

Is team building over 2000 years old?

The theories behind team building could be a much older than originally thought. In fact Plato may have been the first ever team building expert!

Plato and Aristotle possibly talking about their recent team building event. — Plato & Aristotle possibly talking about their team building event.

For some years we’ve been saying “teams that play together, work together” and it seems that although team building is thought to be a comparatively new addition to business training Plato, one of the world’s most influential philosophers, had a similar view over 2000 years ago; “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation” Plato

So we’d encourage you to make time to play with your colleagues this week, take a ball to the park, eat ice cream in the afternoon or play darts at lunchtime – whatever you think would be fun.

We spend most of our waking lives with our colleagues so let’s enjoy it.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Team Building.

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Blog by Fresh Tracks: Experts in Team Building, Team Development and Staff Conferences
Website: www.freshtracks.co.uk

October 30, 2010February 8, 2023

Bad Interview Sparks Crisis

Mad HR representative pointing at door asking an interviewee to leave

One interview gone wrong can cause a crisis management nightmare for your organization.

Bad interviews have been responsible for igniting countless crises. A few errant words, and what would have otherwise gone largely unnoticed is suddenly an international sensation. The latest example of this is the case of UK nuclear sub commander Andy Coles, who ran his £1.2 billion ship aground late last week. A quote, from a Herald Scotland article by Helen McArdle:

In a previously unpublished interview with a newspaper before the incident, Commander Coles reportedly admits previously ignoring advice not to sail the high-tech vessel in bad weather and says it has proved difficult to manoeuvre.

He also says he believes he is getting too old for the job. “When I leave her next May I probably won’t go to sea on a submarine again,” he said. “I’m 47 now and I think it’s time for someone younger.”

Cdr Coles, who is nicknamed Stumpy because he lost one of his fingers as a child, complains that the advanced nature of Astute’s periscope means that even minor mistakes by him can instantly be witnessed by crew members when the information flashes up on the submarine’s high-definition television screens.

He said: “In the old days you could spin round, see you’d had a close shave and think to yourself ‘I’ve got away with it.’ Now everyone knows.”

Scary statements from the man responsible for the well being of the UK’s most powerful attack submarine and her crew. Both the interview and the Commander’s actions have made the Royal Navy, which was seemingly unaware of the interview, appear weak and foolish in the public eye, creating a rough crisis management scenario. One advantage the Navy holds is a strong foundation of trust and good will with the people, which will help to direct blame towards Coles and prevent any significant reputation damage.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

October 30, 2010May 14, 2022

HR on the Offense

An-employee-in-an-organization-discussing-with-a-HR-staff

In a recent post over at the Fistful of Talent blog, Paul Herbert discusses the need for HR to play more offense. In the blog, Herbert describes a workplace situation in which an employee made a request and the then got the typical HR blah blah blah about why it couldn’t be done. This is the very reason why HR can be so hated by other employees and departments. We are so often perceived as the roadblock to getting things in other departments. The reason, we don’t play enough offense.

Don’t get me wrong, we are charged with being really good at the defense. Our job descriptions are probably filled with terms like risk mitigation, compliance, and some may swear box checking can be found in there somewhere too. It’s true; we are responsible to protect the company and its “human capital” from risk. But in order to win the game, we have to score a few points once in a while. We have to find a way to say yes. We have to be able to question traditional ways of thinking about our jobs and our defensive roles. We have to consider other options. And it is ok, if the option didn’t come from HR.

Are you the HR person who already has the list of reasons why we can’t formulating in your mind before the question is completely uttered out of the mouth of that manager who is always questioning HR? If you are, try just listening and asking more questions next time before you decide if the answer is no. Help them find a yes and you will take the first step to changing their perception of HR. If you’re not interested in a win and you like being hated, keep doing what you’re doing.

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.

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Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 16 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. She is available to help you with your Human Resources and Training needs on a contract basis. For more information send an email to smazurek0615@gmail.com or visit www.sherimazurek.com. Follow me on twitter @Sherimaz.

October 29, 2010January 26, 2022

Halloween Special: Five Business Plan Tricks

Here are five tricks from business planning expert Tim Berry. Excellent advice to follow to avoid getting spooked by your business:

1. Keep the planning simple and practical.

Your plan should be measurable, and include strategy, dates, deadlines, metrics, and basic projections, plus a review schedule. This is critical: when will we review and revise? The goal is to keep the plan alive.

2. Grow it organically.

The worst thing you could do is avoid taking any action until you’ve developed a complete plan. Don’t put anything off for planning; plan as you develop your business.

3. Think it, plan it, test it.

Stay on top of your quickly-changing plan and manage your assumptions as the reality emerges. You’ll continually be going back to the plan, looking at how everything is related, and making adjustments as needed.

4. Use agile planning.

Real-world business planning, particularly in periods of rapid change, should be pretty darn agile. And rapid. Plan it, build it, revise it, plan it again. That’s the planning process, and without it you don’t control your destiny.

5. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Planning has to be like steering – a matter of constant small corrections within a broad navigational plan. The details change, but all within the context of the long-term direction. You’re always reviewing and revising.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Business Planning.

[Note: Tim Berry is the president and founder of Palo Alto Software, which produces Business Plan Pro software, and is the author of The Plan-as-You-Go Business Plan. You can also read his blogs.]

October 29, 2010September 28, 2022

Coaching Tip – Manage Time Urgency

Many of my coaching clients have me help them with overwhelm. They have too much to do and not enough time to do it all. Balancing work, family and other obligations stresses them out. They feel like they are always rushing. Does this sound like you?

I came across a helpful article regarding this by Joe Robinson in the November 2010 Entrepreneur Magazine entitled: Tick, Tick Boom – Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs.

Joe talks about “time urgency” – a stressful behavior that focuses on the scarcity of time. He gives a number of practical tips to manage “time urgency”. Here are some that may be helpful to you.

Reframe the panic – Understand that it’s not the clock or the deadline that’s causing the stress but what you’re telling yourself about the stress.

Do speed checks – Look for the signs when you’re racing. Take a deep breath and deliberately slow down.

Cut clock-checking by 75% – Watching the clock wastes time and increases overwhelm.

Take time to get more time – Spend 15 minutes each morning to prioritize and organize your most important tasks for the day. Prioritizing and list-making tells your brain you’re handling things.

Be realistic – Time urgency breeds overoptimistic deadlines. Change this by adding 20% more time when you estimate how long a task will take you.

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark entrepreneurial business leaders to set strategy, take action, and get results. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330