Business leaders should encourage their team to drop business jargon from their conversations, since it could help make them more productive.
Dan Pallotta, a non-profit expert and social entrepreneur, explained on Harvard Business Review that things like acronyms, buzzwords, meaningless expressions and abstract definitions just prevent people from communicating – making it an important area for leadership development.
He said: “You will gain tremendous credibility, become much more productive, make those around you much more productive, and experience a great deal more joy in your working life if you look someone in the eye after hearing one of these brain-jammers and tell the person ‘I have no idea what you just said to me’.”
Pallotta described how he used to think he was “stupid” if he did not understand a concept, but pointed out that those who have something to gain must be the ones who work harder to get listeners to comprehend and respond to an idea.
When it comes to communicating with employees, it has become increasingly important to engage with them, according to principal researcher at Roffey Park, Jonny Gifford. He told Changeboard that focusing on this issue will help when dealing with Trade Union actions.
He explained that the cuts currently being seen in the UK are likely to prompt more union activity, so businesses should position themselves to make such conversations easier.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Friday, 9 December 2011
Is technology improving work-life balance?
It is not clear to what extent technology is helping to improve the work-life balance of business professionals with children, says a Huffington Post blogger. For many chief executive officers (CEOs) and other senior professionals, the introduction of smartphones and remote working capability has allowed them to spend more time at home with their offspring, noted Monica Gallagher Sakala in a recent post. However she pointed out that it has yet to be seen how it affects children when their parents are constantly fiddling with their BlackBerrys or iPhones while at home, as they balance being a CEO with being a father or mother figure. Ms Gallagher Sakala noted that many business professionals are pessimistic about how much of a work-life balance they can expect, adding: “I say enough of the work-life ‘balance’ debate. Own your choice, be proud of your decision and be realistic about its consequences on your career or your family.” The popularity of remote working has grown significantly in recent years, with employees often able to access internal networks from the comfort of their own home, where they can look after young children. Writing for Forbes, Microsoft’s partner group vice president Jenni Flinders accepted that remote working does not make it “effortless” to balance one’s job with other responsibilities, but claimed the technology has helped. In her view, it is easy to take for granted how simple it has become for many firms to connect with their employees off-site. |
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
5 Reasons Peer Advisory Groups Can Work For CEOs
Imagine for a moment being the CEO. It’s your responsibility to make good decisions that are best for the company as a whole. While you may have a terrific senior management team and a highly engaged board of directors, the people giving you advice also have a personal stake in the outcome.
Also, when CEOs are suffering from personal problems, the effect of support from family and friends is 53% to 79% weaker than support from fellow CEOs in restoring the leaders’ overall effectiveness, say Michael L. McDonald of the University of Texas and James D. Westphal of the University of Michigan. Personal problems such as conflict with children or marital issues hurt CEOs’ effectiveness because they prompt the chief executives to pull back on important interpersonal behaviors involving subordinate managers, the researchers say.
As a CEO, I’m not suggesting you don’t listen to your senior people or your board, who are in most cases (hopefully) sincerely offering their best input and counsel, but it begs this question: Would a CEO also benefit from being asked tough questions and receiving counsel from fellow CEOs, who have no personal vested interest in the outcome?
As you may have guessed, Vistage member CEOs have been answering yes to this question since 1957. Here are five benefits (among others of course), a CEO will realize by regularly engaging with a group of his/her peers:
1) Empathy – If you’ve never been a CEO, it’s nearly impossible to put yourself in a CEO’s shoes. It’s difficult for most of us, regardless of how much we care or how objective we believe we are in offering counsel to our CEOs, to imagine what that’s really like. Fellow CEOs aren’t looking through the lens of marketing, finance, or HR, they’re looking at the whole picture because it’s what they do every day. The empathy that one CEO shares with another is a priceless benefit of the CEO peer advisory experience. Its impact is not only felt professionally, but personally as well.
2) Objectivity – An employee or board member, regardless of their espoused objectivity and true sincerity, has a personal stake in the outcome. Fellow CEOs from non-competing businesses are not burdened with that extra layer of consideration. They can ask the hard questions without regard for sacred cows, personal relationships or other organizational/industry blinders. It’s an eye opening experience for many CEOs when peers looks at a specific challenge through a completely impartial lens.
3) Shared Challenges – While the CEOs in the peer group may serve entirely different types of customers in widely varying industries, they share common challenges regarding employees, growth, profitability, executive development, technology, and uncertainty, just to name a few. The more they talk, the more they realize how much they have in common and how much they can learn from on another.
4) Learning – While they have shared challenges, the myriad industries they represent set the table for rich conversations about common practices in one sector that are often quite different from practices in another sector. Sharing ideas across industries help CEOs learn from one another. What’s more, these CEOs will also share their personal triumphs and failures. This display of trust creates an environment where the CEO can be truly vulnerable to learn and grow. And unlike one-to-one executive coaching, which can be a rich complement to the peer advisory experience, there’s nothing quite like the power of the group dynamic.
5) Accountability – As CEOs share their challenges and aspirations with their peers, being CEOs as they are, they tend to be serious about holding their peers accountable to make the tough choices and to deliver on their stated courses of action. As I’ve heard from so many Vistage Chairs and members, this atmosphere of shared accountability may be the most powerful dynamic of all when it comes to the peer advisory experience.
By Leo Bottary
Also, when CEOs are suffering from personal problems, the effect of support from family and friends is 53% to 79% weaker than support from fellow CEOs in restoring the leaders’ overall effectiveness, say Michael L. McDonald of the University of Texas and James D. Westphal of the University of Michigan. Personal problems such as conflict with children or marital issues hurt CEOs’ effectiveness because they prompt the chief executives to pull back on important interpersonal behaviors involving subordinate managers, the researchers say.
As a CEO, I’m not suggesting you don’t listen to your senior people or your board, who are in most cases (hopefully) sincerely offering their best input and counsel, but it begs this question: Would a CEO also benefit from being asked tough questions and receiving counsel from fellow CEOs, who have no personal vested interest in the outcome?
As you may have guessed, Vistage member CEOs have been answering yes to this question since 1957. Here are five benefits (among others of course), a CEO will realize by regularly engaging with a group of his/her peers:
1) Empathy – If you’ve never been a CEO, it’s nearly impossible to put yourself in a CEO’s shoes. It’s difficult for most of us, regardless of how much we care or how objective we believe we are in offering counsel to our CEOs, to imagine what that’s really like. Fellow CEOs aren’t looking through the lens of marketing, finance, or HR, they’re looking at the whole picture because it’s what they do every day. The empathy that one CEO shares with another is a priceless benefit of the CEO peer advisory experience. Its impact is not only felt professionally, but personally as well.
2) Objectivity – An employee or board member, regardless of their espoused objectivity and true sincerity, has a personal stake in the outcome. Fellow CEOs from non-competing businesses are not burdened with that extra layer of consideration. They can ask the hard questions without regard for sacred cows, personal relationships or other organizational/industry blinders. It’s an eye opening experience for many CEOs when peers looks at a specific challenge through a completely impartial lens.
3) Shared Challenges – While the CEOs in the peer group may serve entirely different types of customers in widely varying industries, they share common challenges regarding employees, growth, profitability, executive development, technology, and uncertainty, just to name a few. The more they talk, the more they realize how much they have in common and how much they can learn from on another.
4) Learning – While they have shared challenges, the myriad industries they represent set the table for rich conversations about common practices in one sector that are often quite different from practices in another sector. Sharing ideas across industries help CEOs learn from one another. What’s more, these CEOs will also share their personal triumphs and failures. This display of trust creates an environment where the CEO can be truly vulnerable to learn and grow. And unlike one-to-one executive coaching, which can be a rich complement to the peer advisory experience, there’s nothing quite like the power of the group dynamic.
5) Accountability – As CEOs share their challenges and aspirations with their peers, being CEOs as they are, they tend to be serious about holding their peers accountable to make the tough choices and to deliver on their stated courses of action. As I’ve heard from so many Vistage Chairs and members, this atmosphere of shared accountability may be the most powerful dynamic of all when it comes to the peer advisory experience.
By Leo Bottary
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