How to Make Next Year a Stronger OneLeadership is what will make 2010 a better year for your company than 2009 was, declared one expert on the topic. Businesses must have a long-term fix to turn things around, not a magic bullet or a trendy program or a charismatic leader. There must be a culture built on good, solid, time-tested leadership principles.
"Solid business results that stand the test of time do so for one reason and one reason only: consistently excellent leadership, said Quint Studer, an author and consultant. "Products and services change with the demands of the market. Individual leaders come and go. The key is to create an organizational culture that ensures great leadership today and tomorrow."
Among Mr. Studer's best practices for business to follow are:
Get rid of low performers. "Too many of us give low performers a pass," he said, whose remedy involves implementing a structured series of high-middle-low performer conversations. "It's easier not to confront low performers, and trust me, a leader can find a thousand other things to do instead. But until you move them either up or out, your company will never advance beyond short-term gains. The low performer is an anchor holding everyone else back. Make this year the year you quit looking the other way."
Accentuate the positive. People gripe about their workplace, but if they realized how harmful it was, they might think twice about saying such things. He said leaders need to practice managing up. "Managing up doesn't just happen; you have to make it happen in a systematic way. Help employees understand what can happen when negativity is allowed to breed - good people quit and customers leave - and they'll be more likely to stop doing it."
Make a real connection with your employees. Communicate openly, which allows you to regularly find out what is going well and what isn't going well for them at the company. It's not just empty "face time"; the process has a serious purpose. Mr. Studer calls this rounding for outcomes. "Rounding is the heart and soul of building an emotional bank account with your employees, because it shows them day in and day out that you care."
Say thanks, in writing. Be specific, make the note handwritten and send the note to the employee's home, rather than just another piece of paper in their inbox.
Re-recruit new employees. He cited data that claims more than 25% of employees who leave positions do so in the first 90 days of employment. To retain a new team member, the leader needs to build a relationship. Studer Group has found that scheduling two one-on-one meetings, the first at 30 days and the second at 90 days, has an enormous impact on retention that directly turns into savings for your organization. "If these meetings are handled successfully, new employee turnover is reduced by 66%," said Mr. Studer, who suggested using a structured list of questions to discover not only what's not going well, but also what is going well.
Your job as a leader, Mr. Studer said, "is to create happy, loyal, productive employees. They, in turn, will create happy, loyal, profitable customers. They are two sides of the same coin - and that coin is the currency that buys you results that last."
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