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Posts Tagged ‘enhancing employee productivity’

After-Hours

03 May

via Michal Marcol/freedigitalphotos.net

I have been to after hours meetings, and I have sent and received emails at midnight, and let me tell you, I felt good about myself, It gave me the illusion of being important, especially when one of my family or friends calls at 9:00 PM and I ignore the call and send a message ‘I am at work!’

Maaaaan was I so wrong!!

Such kind of culture exists, you cannot deny it, the worse is that it, somehow, stereotyped; you work late, you send after hours emails, means you are a dedicated and loyal staff. In simple words, that’s a total nonsense.

This is not to ignore reality that sometimes work demands such dedication and long hours, whether for an established high rank manager or a start up entrepreneur, it’s normal, but when it becomes a culture, an organization way of living and a performance indicator, then it’s just a disaster.

Contrary to popular belief, long hours in the workplace is an indicator of lack of proper planning, over-utilization of staff, and no work/life balance. The outcome of this poisoned combination is not hard to predict; burned out staff, no motivation, and low productivity.

If the COO of Facebook can leave office at 5:30 PM, I wonder why can’t you (read this as well)?! Or why demanding your staff to respond to emails at 10 PM knowing that global companies are now banning after hours emails (here & here)!

For those managers wasting time judging staff on their after hours work, they better utilize that time in better management skills to increase the real productivity.

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Posted in Culture, General Management, Human Resources, Saudi business

 

The Science behind Great Teams

28 Apr

via Ambro/freedigitalphotos.net

The next time your manager calls you in his office and asks you to wear a badge to monitor your and your team performances, do not start laughing, it is not a joke!

Researchers at MIT ‘s human dynamics lab have come up with a badge a person can wear to collect data that after analyzed, could determine if his team is high performing or not.

I know it sound like a science fiction, but believe it or not, it is there, and the badge is in its 7th version!

The idea behind the whole research is simple; high performance team tend to have certain characteristics in the way their members communicate and interact; energy, engagement, and exploration are the secrets here. Does this work in all fields, you may ask, according to the research, yes, because the content of the team’s interaction does not really matter. That’s why the data collecting badge does not even record conversations, it is sensitive to a different kind of input, it collects the tone of voice, body language, whom the team members are talking to and where!

Having studied this for some time now, the researchers believe that high performance teams share these common behaviors:

  • Team members talk and listen almost equally, everyone participates in ‘short and sweet’ manner.
  • Members face one another and talk energetically.
  • Members interact with each others, not only with the team leader.
  • Members engage in side conversations amongst the team.
  • Members go exploring outside the team and bring feedback and share it with the rest.

Go ahead and read this article for more information and examples about how this new approach is implemented.

The approach of this study is very interesting and it gives some empirical evidence to a lot of theories that dealt with team building. There are also a lot a leader can conclude from such a study. One of the most important conclusion and the central idea of this research is COMMUNICATION. Encourage it, develop it, nurture it, and you would end up with a very engaged harmonic team.

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Posted in General Management, Leadership

 

They Do Not Hear You, Make Them – By @Lymoon

26 Mar

via Jeroen van Oostrom/freedigitalphotos.net

Hello all, a new post by a new guest is coming your way. Today we have @Lymoon (lemon in English). You may know him from his always smart and funny Twitter account. @Lymoon is a dear friend of mine and a man with quite an experience in the fields of engineering and management.

In this remarkable post he is talking about a skill we all need, on professional and personal levels alike, he is talking about how to ‘listen’ … truly listen!

I am sure you will enjoy this post, and hey, if life gives you @Lymoon, you better read his post carefully :)

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Does the guy in front of you keep talking! Repeating himself/herself over and over again! You think he/she is stupid! Well, it’s a possibility, but most probably they didn’t feel that they have been listened to. That is why I wanted to talk to you about empathic listening. Empathic listening will help you with the employees you supervise, your boss, your talkative friends, and even with your wife.

Empathic listening is conveying the message to whomever talking to you that you actually heard them, you already paid attention to what they were saying. It is simple, just practice it, this is what you have to do:

  1. First let them speak about the situation.
  2. Identify their feelings.
  3. When they are done (yeah I mean don’t interrupt), reframe what they said stating their feelings.

Ok ok here are some examples:

  • Sentence: I am fed up with my work - Empathic: So, you are upset because things have changed at work.
  • Sentence: I am so not going out in this streets of Jeddah - Empathic: You feel angry when people do not drive in an organized manner.
  • Sentence: I felt so alive after the seminar I gave - Empathic: you felt valued and satisfied because the seminar added value to many people.

Yep it is that simple. To make it easier for engineers (my beloved geek universe savers) here it is in a formula:

Sentence = “You feel” + F + “because” + S + A

F: feeling; angry, upset, energetic, happy, …

S: subject; work, traffic, spouse, boss, sister, …

A: action done by subject; environment changed, not organized, ignores you, satisfies you, respect you, …

However, I have to warn you about the don’ts: do not be JUDGMENTAL and do not ask questions, just repeat. It might go like this: oh you lose your temper in the traffic! Then, of course you start unsolicited advice; control yourself man!

One more thing, empathic listening is really hard when you are under attack. The fight-and-flight mode kicks in and you start defending yourself, if not attacking back. At this situation my advice is to remember that it is about the speaker not about you and focus on the process (listen, repeat with feelings). Basically, shift your focus from defending yourself to thinking of how to reframe what you’ve heard. For example, attacking wife: you don’t know how to plan your drive! Empathic husband: it upset you that I got you lost on the way, which will make you late for your friend’s party. How sweet is that :”)

Steven Covey pointed that out in his book of the seven habits; seek first to understand then to be understood. Empathize with others first then they will listen to you.

Finally, this is just an appetizer, more ways can be found on the web, knock yourself out with these references:

http://www.franklincovey.com/blog/empathic-listening-tips.html

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/5-tips-for-empathetic-listening.html

http://www.empathymagic.com/images/downloads/Empathic%20Listening%200061.pdf

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Build Culture First, Google it Later

22 Mar

from google/culture

One of the weirdest conversations I have had recently was with a friend of mine who started the topic with something like this:

  • I am thinking about Googlizing the office!
  • Ohh … this sounds interesting … how are you going to do that?
  • I will equip some rooms with beds so the staff can rest and relax!

Maybe to put you in a better position to understand this conversation and give you a better chance to judge the situation, you need to know that this friend of mine is working in a crappy company; I knew it, he knew it!

The problem with his approach is that he is assuming that the whole culture of Google, or any other company with an empowering culture, is based upon these accessories. A big … big … mistake!

I do not think Google executives woke up one morning saying ‘let’s have fun offices so our employees could relax and play,’ no, there are subtle culture and internal values in Google that led to such open, fun environment. BBC once described it as “The unconventional design of the office represents what Google hopes is a free flow of information through all parts of the company.” In other words, Google would not be what it is now without its ‘values’ not its offices’ design.

In a tough market, Google wants its employees to be creative, to think different, to team up, to share ideas and resources, to distinguishably serve clients and users, and all that to be sustainable on the long run. Think about these elements of Google culture before thinking about their lave lamps, free food, firearms poles, and sleeping pods. Michal Lorenc, a Googler, commenting on their office design once said “[it] aids our culture. It doesn’t represent our culture.”

So you want to change, fine, it is a good idea, but think about change in its core, try to renovate your internal values and practices to match your strategic goals. Trespass the conventional thoughts to look beyond your current status, reshape your culture to suite your goals and environment.

New decorations won’t solve your problems buddy!!

What do you think?

p.s. to get a glimpse of the life inside Google offices, check out this link.

 
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Posted in General Management, Human Resources

 

Buying Time – By Hanan Al Ghamdi

03 Mar

Via: freedigitalphotos.net/jscreationzs

Hello everyone; I am brining you a guest today. I am delighted to share with you this post written by Hanan Al Ghamdi (@HananAlGamdi) about ‘Buying Time.’ Have you ever seen managers complaining about how their schedules are full and how they cannot find time; Hanan seems to have a solution!

Coming from an economical background, Hanan is adding value to the national economy by working in the private sector (as she likes to say). Her dream is to be the ‘Minister of Planning’ … one day …

Enjoy the post …

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Coaching in business is a quite recent topic. While we might read theories telling us that ‘coaching’ is a very effective leader skill, yet when it comes to implementation, a lot of managers would feel hesitant coaching their staff.

It can be clearly seen in such a “rising professionals labor market” like the one we have in Saudi. The pioneering corporations that are willing to develop their staff are still few compared to small businesses that are usually doing their best to recruit individuals with high-quality experience, and usually, from those pioneer companies.

This managers’ behavior could be explained by their fear of loosing their qualified employees and/or of being replaceable by their own staff. If they were smart enough, they must have read somewhere in one of those business publications that great leaders are best described as ‘replaceable’; those are the ones who their teams wouldn’t fall apart and go astray once the time comes and they leave work.

Only smart companies realize that coaching people will benefit them on the long run because it would give them the chance to truly explore their staff abilities.

As per http://www.businessballs.com

Coaching  is “not concerned with delivery and specilaised training – it focuses on enablement and reflection, so that the individual decides and discovers their required progression themselves.” For me, I’ve always believed that the turning point to maturity comes when individuals start to better understand themselves . And as long as business concerned, maturity is a necessary factor.If you come to think of it, work on a managerial level is more about monitoring and planning rather than doing the work itself.

if time was being sold in units, then coaching manager can buy more and more units from others’ free time. At end of the day, this exchange will benefit both parties; the coach would have more units to invest in planning and monitoring while the staff would be motivated by taking more responsibilities and authorization in return.

So are you interested in buying more time units in your hectic schedule?!

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Posted in Human Resources, Leadership

 

It is Not All About Money

19 Feb

via Paul/freedigitalphotos.net

Let’s start this post by a question; what do you think is the single highest driver of employees in the workplace?

There could be many answers to this question, each one of us has his/her own magical potion that drives him/her to shine, to produce, and to engage.

The most famous driver, the one that I hear a lot of times whenever I am in a discussion about motivation and engagement, is money. I cannot even recall how many times I heard managers repeating phrases similar to ‘What do they want? – referring to their employees -  they are having good pay checks, good bonuses, what do they need more? why are they not motivated?’

If you are reading this form Saudi, there is a huge possibility that you are familiar with such arguments.

However, many researches showed that money is not, and actually cannot be, the highest motivator, there is even a complete theory that puts money as a possible path to dissatisfaction (google ‘Frederick Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory’). Now, according to the worldwide study conducted by Towers Watson, as mentioned by Tony Schwartz (see here), the single highest driver of engagement to employees is feeling that their managers are truly interested in their wellbeing. The surprise is that less than 40% of employees felt engaged!! I can bet that a higher percentage would yield from the same study if conducted only in Saudi!

So why employees are not feeling that their managers are interested in their wellbeing? Schwartz returns this to what he calls “the lack of fluency in the language of positive emotions.” Most managers know how to stress targets and how to huff and puff about deadlines. Being harsh and negative seems to be within reach of their communication language. While on the other hand, using positive feedback usually feels awkward and gawky.

That is why employees in less engaging workplaces look emotionally drained, out of touch, and the pay check is what mostly occupying their minds. Due to the lack of positive feedbacks, they don’t know how do they fit in the big picture, they keep wondering if their work makes any difference and how, and in such environments, there are usually huge gaps between the different levels in the organization. In another interesting study by Marcial Losada (also mentioned in Schwartz’s article), he found that in high performing teams, the expression of positive feedback outweighs that of negative feedback by a ratio of 5.6 to 1, while in low performing teams, the ratio is 0.36 to 1 (meaning, about three negative feedbacks to one positive).

So … Ask yourself, what kind of manager are you? Can you fluently give positive feedback compared to negative ones? What kind of organization are you building or being part of? Are you promoting positivity and engaging your staff instead of driving them away mentally and emotionally?

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Posted in General Management, Human Resources, Leadership

 

Vacations and Job Satisfaction

03 Nov

Image via: Michal Marcol/freedigitalphotos.net

If you are living in this part of the world, most probably you are enjoying a time off right now because of Hajj and Eid Al Adha.

So my sincere wishes for you to have a wonderful one…

And hey, who would not enjoy some time off to spend with delayed personal projects or to spend vacationing with the loved ones?! But haven’t you noticed the different reactions to and perception of vacations in your circles of friends and family?

For those generally satisfied with their work environments and love whatever they are doing, it is an opportunity to recharge their energy batteries and come back more fresh. They usually show less excitement about this time off. Their work/life is already balanced!

On the other hand, there are those who are usually super excited about such time offs. They cannot wait for it, they usually react to its arrival as they are leaving some kind of a penitentiary! These people are the ones usually less satisfied with their work environments, they always complain about their jobs, and of course they are not well work/life balanced! If you dig deeper you will find that such people even suffer to take an earned annual leave because their employers won’t give it to them!

My point is that leaders and HR professionals out there might need to monitor such reactions to measure their employees job satisfaction.

What do you think?

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Posted in Culture, Human Resources, Saudi business

 

Retire the Cubicles

22 Oct
Image via: Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net
It is normal in the corporate world to have ‘office space policies’! You know, those policies stating that your allowed office space and furniture is attached to your position on the organization hierarchy! Have you ever heard of CEO and VPs offices where you can actually play football, I have seen them!

The modern management schools have different opinions about this. Big offices behind closed doors, grey, boring cubicles, and discriminating between employees because of their position in the company are things of the past!

Researchers have found that open unassigned spaces, with relaxed environments dramatically enhance the staff productivity!

Let’s talk numbers; Harvard Business Review (September, 2011) published a glimpse of a study performed by one of the companies that transformed its cubicles legacy to a more modern, open space design. After the change, the staff reporting that workplace was an attractive aspect of the job enhanced from 21% to 58%, the workplace creating a stimulating atmosphere enhanced from 18% to 45%, and the satisfaction with workplace as a whole enhanced from 34% to 64%. Not only this, mostly all the measures of costs per employee were enhanced because of the re-design!

Before leaving here, have a look at this page of Google describing its offices environment! That’s how the big companies, stay big!

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Posted in General Management, Human Resources

 

The GCC’s Top 10 Employers

16 Oct
Image via: digitalart / freedigitalphotos.net
Admit it, you either want to work in a great company with a brilliant working environment, or you want to have your own business and create that awesome working environment.

Arabian Business.com took it on its shoulders to provide us with yet another benchmarking list of the top 10 GCC employers. If you are already in one of them, lucky you, you have been selected. If not, you may have another
opinion and think that your workplace is among the best already, or you could just watch and weep!!

According to the magazine, its researchers conducted a study to determine the best employers in the GCC area. The following items have been used in its comparison list: salary, benefits, chances of promotion, working conditions, perks — and also the quality of the people you will be working for.

Before giving you the list of companies and a link to the website; I have some comments of my own:

-         I have a problem with the methodology, because it is not there! We do not know or have any details about how Arabian Business conducted its research. Questions such as which companies did they approach?
How did they receive the response? and others are not answered! The claim to name a company as a best employer is a considerable one! And in my guess, it is difficult to measure! In all cases, it is not bad to be exposed to some of the professional companies’ practices.

-         Believe it or not, there is not a single Saudi company in the list! It’s shocking to be honest. Yes I
voiced out my concerns about the research methodology, but still, the absence of Saudi companies is alarming and could be used as a justification to re-think our managerial practices.

-         In almost all of the top 10 companies, there is a reference in a way or another to the importance of
work/life balance and the importance of investing in the human element. Or let’s put it in this way, in the selected companies, apparently there is an understanding of the importance of creating a winning culture! Modern management is very clear; have an empowering environment, you will definitely have satisfying rewards and results.

-         While going through the list I remembered one of the concepts Collins and Porras discussed in their
very well known book ‘Built to Last; Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.’ The concept states that successful companies built their whole existence around a core ideology that is beyond making profits. Of course companies are the in the market to make money, but this is not all. They have a reason behind their existence. In the list, you can see examples of companies having the ideology of developing people, or building communities and so on. This is definitely a challenge.

The introduction to the list can be found here, and the companies profiles could be browsed starting from here.

And this is the summary of the list:

  1. Emirates Airline.
  2. MH Alshaya Company.
  3. Omnicom Media Group.
  4. Batelco.
  5. Emaar.
  6. GE (General Electric).
  7. Standard Chartered.
  8. Qatar Foundation.
  9. Siemens.
  10. Aramex.

 

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Posted in General Management, Saudi business

 

That is what Great Leaders Do

01 Oct

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I am taking some kind of a managerial training these days and the instructor just reminded me of a lesson I learned during my master studies. What is the one feature that almost all great leaders throughout history have in common?

You will be surprised that although it is a well known ‘feature,’ it is rarely found in most of work environments; Maybe that’s why extraordinary leaders are scarce!

Simply put; Great leaders are redundant! Yes … you read right; great leaders are replaceable!

They are redundant because they usually invest a lot of time and efforts in developing the second line of leaders, they know how to delegate and inspire, they have created a culture that is deeply rooted in their organizations, a culture that is reflected in the performance of their subordinates. If these leaders are not present for any reason or even if they decide to step down and give the chance to a new talent, the work they are attending to never stops, they have everything in place, everything covered.

Now compare that to the other kind of managers, the common kind, the ones who their lives revolve around power and authority, the ones who build blocks and blocks of secrecy between themselves and their subordinates in the name of ‘for the eyes of senior managers only’ and ‘sensitive strategical information’! Such kind of managers fear delegation; it means losing part of their importance to their own subordinates and that’s just hurt their ego. They like the feel of being needed and that their signature is on each and every paper getting out from under the hands of their teams!

Do you think it is easy to be a great leader?

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