Make The Elephant Jump -- Leading With A Kind Heart

Written by Brent Filson


PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided torepparttar author, and it appears withrepparttar 138701 included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required. E-mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

Word count: 567

Summary: A leader who wants to consistently motivate people to meet tough challenges and achieve extraordinary results must have a kind heart.

Make The Elephant Jump -- Leading With A Kind Heart by Brent Filson

Leadership is not about getting people to do what they want. If they did what they want, you wouldn't be needed as a leader. Instead, leadership is about getting people to do what they don't want to do (or don't think they can do) – and be ardently committed to doing it.

This paradox lies atrepparttar 138702 heart of all great leadership.

Unlike management, which involves simplyrepparttar 138703 care and feeding of your organizational elephant, great leadership gets that elephant to jump.

Anyone who knows anything about elephants knows that they may run, they may stand on their hind legs, they may kneel on their fore legs, they may roll over; but they don't jump.

And that's what leadership is all about: getting organizations to do what they usually can't do, i.e., getting great results consistently.

Now, you can't dorepparttar 138704 jumping yourself. The elephant must do it. You can't pushrepparttar 138705 elephant intorepparttar 138706 air. It must jump of its own volition.

Makingrepparttar 138707 elephant jump involves cultivating a special relationship betweenrepparttar 138708 leader andrepparttar 138709 people ofrepparttar 138710 organization.

Many leaders misunderstand that relationship. They try to use fear and pain to spurrepparttar 138711 activity needed to achieve consistently great results. "Sure, I'll get this elephant to jump. Just give me a cattle prod!"

But inducing fear and pain are habit forming and ultimately destructive both torepparttar 138712 leader andrepparttar 138713 people.

Improve Profitable "ROE" with Retention

Written by Phil McCutchen


"R.O.E.: Return On Employee -- A measure of corporate business performance as determined byrepparttar gross revenue achieved per staff employee."

by Phil McCutchen Marketing Manager, VCG, Inc.

Asrepparttar 138167 definition above points out, ROE (Return On Employee) focuses on your staff,repparttar 138168 people who generaterepparttar 138169 revenue that makes your operation profitable. For any business with above-average employee turnover, ROE is a critical component of success that is too often neglected by management. Forrepparttar 138170 purposes of this article, we'll focus onrepparttar 138171 staffing industry; temporary employment and recruiting agencies that provide important personnel-related services torepparttar 138172 business community, yet typically suffer from above-average staff employee turnover. We will show yourepparttar 138173 challenges and offer some tips and techniques to improverepparttar 138174 turnover situation and thus, ROE. In our analysis of available operational data,repparttar 138175 average ROE for commercial staffing firms is a bit under $400,000. We've also seen some firms (many of them VCG staffing software clients) with ROE's that exceed that by 50% or more. Why do some staffing and recruiting firms settle for average or less, while others excel? One key to success is staff employee retention. According to data fromrepparttar 138176 ASA 2002 Staffing Industry Compensation Survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting Inc.,repparttar 138177 average annual turnover for staffing industry jobs was 48 percent. In fact, in previous years, turnover was as high as 70% for some positions. As might be expected,repparttar 138178 impact of such high staff turnover -- for whatever reasons -- can be tremendous. One case study in "Continuity Management" by Hamilton Beazley, chairman of Strategic Leadership Group, an Arlington, VA-based consulting firm, pointed outrepparttar 138179 potential cost with this true story. A large company delayed a major product launch by nine months as it struggled to resolve a technical issue. The delay allowed a competitor to introduce a similar product first, gaining a competitive advantage among customers. As a result,repparttar 138180 firm's product never reached its projected volume and revenue potential. In investigatingrepparttar 138181 launch, it was discovered thatrepparttar 138182 solution torepparttar 138183 technical issue that causedrepparttar 138184 delay already existed asrepparttar 138185 firm's intellectual property based on research that had been done 15 years earlier! Knowledge of that research was lost due to staff turnover. Total cost torepparttar 138186 firm in duplicated research and lost revenue was $1 billion. Similar losses happen on smaller scales every day, and that includes your staffing firm -- all because 'head knowledge' was lost. Such quantifiable losses however, are justrepparttar 138187 most easily quantifiable part ofrepparttar 138188 problem. Amongrepparttar 138189 more obvious issues of turnover are: •Loss of morale among remaining staff members, leading to reduced productivity •Increased 'Ghost Work', i.e., remaining staff taking onrepparttar 138190 burdens and tasks of departed staff, which can also be stressful and demoralizing •Loss of revenue directly or indirectly attributable torepparttar 138191 loss of staff •Cost burden related torepparttar 138192 recruiting and training of replacement staff •Loss of tacit 'head knowledge' and experience. According torepparttar 138193 Boston-based Delphi Group, tacit knowledge represents some 70% of an employee's knowledge base. It includes knowledge about those they consult and discuss business with, company culture and operations experience, and unique experiences inrepparttar 138194 business that lead to innovation Planning An Employee Retention Program Recognizing that employee retention is important is easy enough. Doing something effective about it requires both strategic thinking and smart tactics, especially for staffing firms. Temporary staffing and recruiting firms may justifiably pride themselves on their intimate knowledge of human relationship management, but may also expend much of their efforts on clients and temporary or contract employees instead of their own staff. Changing that focus will change your business and its productive profitability big time. Let's start withrepparttar 138195 strategic planning factors: •First, be aware that employee needs differ from management's. They typically don't have 'ownership', and so their motivations are markedly at odds with what management believes they want. According to a number of surveys done overrepparttar 138196 past 50-plus years,repparttar 138197 top ten things employees want vs. what managers 'think' they want are: Top 10 Things Employees Want vs. What Managers 'Think' They Want FACTORSMANAGERSEMPLOYEES Full Appreciation for Work Done81 Feeling 'In' on Things102 Sympathetic Help on Personal Problems93 Job Security24 Good Wages15 Interesting Work56 Promotion/Growth Opportunities37 Personal Loyalty to Workers68 Good Working Conditions49 Tactful Disciplining710 Sources: Foreman Facts, Labor Relations Institute of NY (1946); Lawrence Lindahl, Personnel Magazine (1949). Repeated with similar results: Ken Kovach (1980); Valerie Wilson, Achievers International (1988), Bob Nelson, Blanchard Training & Development (1991), Sheryl & Don Grimme, GHR Training Solutions (1997-2001) •Second, acknowledge that employee retention is great for business. A recent survey conducted byrepparttar 138198 Gallup organization researchedrepparttar 138199 Impact of Employee Attitudes on Business Outcomes. They found that organizations where employees have above average attitudes toward their work (that is, high employee satisfaction), have: o38% higher customer satisfaction scores, o22% higher productivity, and

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