Leadership

Employees Are An Organization’s Most Valuable Resource

Employees Are An Organization's Most Valuable Resourceby Chris Banescu –
Employees are an organization’s most valuable resource. They must be managed fairly and equitably. They must be appreciated and respected. Leaders must strive to build relationships based on integrity, trust, and mutual understanding with the individuals they lead. Management must always remember that employees, especially engaged, loyal, smart, productive, and responsible ones are to be managed with care and concern.

Employees who are treated well, know their jobs are secure and management has their backs, are paid fairly and equitably, and are trusted and respected by their leaders and organizations, will be much more productive and loyal. They will literally give it their all and always strive to go “above-and-beyond,” safe in the knowledge that the company they work for genuinely cares about them and has a vested interest in their success and well-being. [Read more…]

How To Demotivate Employees and Undermine Morale and Productivity

Demotivate Employees and Undermine Morale and Productivityby Chris Banescu –
Here’s a list of dysfunctional, unethical, and destructive organizational practices that I have personally experienced or seen while working with or consulting for various companies, corporations, universities, and non-profit institutions. Each of these will demotivate employees, undermine their morale, and negatively affect their productivity. Each of them will corrode organizational cohesiveness, foment suspicion and resentment of management, and destroy employees’ trust in and respect of their leaders.

Once more than one of these dysfunctional situations become normalized and spread across a company, then employee dissatisfaction and disengagement will increase exponentially. Quality of work will be negatively impacted. Great employees will begin to leave. Then the good ones will quit. The remaining employees will stop caring, stop speaking out, stop trying to address problems or improve anything inside the company. They will “go to gray.” They will do the minimal work required of them and no more.

If this pathology continues over longer periods of time, a human resources crisis will envelop the entire company and disaster (financial, ethical, legal, criminal, etc.) will inevitably follow. [Read more…]

Empirical Creativity – An Important Tool for Successful Innovation

Empirical Creativity – An Important Tool for Successful Innovationby Chris Banescu –

In the book Great by Choice, authors Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen set out to discover why some companies thrive in uncertain and chaotic times while others do not. Their extensive research identified what they named “10Xers“, businesses that didn’t just get by or became successful, but “truly thrived” beating other companies in their industry by “at least 10 times.”

Collins and Hansen set out to find enterprises that (1) sustained spectacular results for 15+ years relative to their industries and the market, (2) achieved results in turbulent and uncertain times, and (3) began their rise to greatness while being in a position of vulnerability.

Out of the 20,400 companies they initially began reviewing, they discovered just seven 10Xers (10X businesses) who fit their stringent performance characteristics.

The authors’ found that all 10Xers displayed the following behaviors: fanatic discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoia, all animated by “Level 5 ambition.” [Read more…]

How to Reduce Organizational Bureaucratization and Keep Executive Egos in Check

How to Reduce Organizational Bureaucratization and Keep Executive Egos in Checkby Chris Banescu –
In his groundbreaking book, Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits, Robert Townsend, unconventional business executive and former CEO of Avis Rent-a-Car, provides us with witty and practical advice on how to tackle misguided organizational processes and attitudes that stifle people and undermine profitability.

Townsend despised the constant organizational push by management towards additional bureaucratic processes and cumbersome institutional procedures that increased in size and complexity as a company grew. He also offered smart suggestions on how to keep the executives’ egos in check.

His first proposal on dealing with the bureaucratic danger is to make the CEO the initial guinea pig for institutional experimentation. Before anyone else in the company is forced to follow any new process or procedure, or fill out a new form or questionnaire, the chief executive must complete it in full first. Townsend surmised this approach alone would “kill a lot of bad ideas early.” [Read more…]

Rewards and Recognition Programs – Guiding Principles and Key Characteristics

Rewards and Recognition Programs - Guiding Principles and Key Characteristicsby Chris Banescu –
There are four guiding principles that leaders must consider when leading their employees. All rewards and recognition programs should be: personalized, noteworthy, meaningful, and motivating. This raises the bar on organizational performance, helps motivate employees, promotes and strengthens employee engagement, and nurtures healthy and constructive competition based on value-creation and operational excellence.

“The right total rewards system – a blend of monetary and nonmonetary rewards offered to employees – can generate valuable business results.” – Robert L. Heneman, Ph.D.

“[Think about] actions that are meaningful to [the employee] versus what’s meaningful to the giver.” … “We tend to give appreciation in ways that are meaningful to us, but if [the recipients] think it’s not authentic, it can create damage and make them think you’re trying to manipulate them.” – Paul E. White, Ph.D. [Read more…]

Rewards and Recognition Required to Motivate and Retain Employees

Rewards and Recognition Required to Motivate and Retain Employeesby Chris Banescu –
Companies and organizations must reward and recognize their employees in order to succeed and insure that they continue to be engaged, motivated, happy, and productive.

It is not just rewards or just recognition. It is not an either/or proposition. It’s also not rewards versus recognition. One does not have priority over the other.

It is rewards AND recognition. Why? Because it’s ethical, fair, and right, and it works!

Both are required in order to justly compensate, effectively lead, capitalistically reward, and ethically motivate and recognize your employees. Anything less will never be sufficient to attract and retain the talent necessary to insure the long-term success, profitability, and prosperity of any enterprise. [Read more…]