RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘internal values’

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.

 
6 Comments

Posted in General Management, Human Resources

 

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?

* Image Source

 
5 Comments

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?

Image Source

 
2 Comments

Posted in Culture, Human Resources, 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?

* Image Source

 
2 Comments

Posted in Leadership

 

To be Fired Over the Phone

16 Sep

Image via The Atlantic/REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino

It is about 10 days since Carol Bartz, Yahoo former CEO, had been fired over the phone. And since then, there is something that is just not adding up or clicking in place to make this decision sounds acceptable to a lot of observers.

First of all, the way she was shown the way out is sooooo bizarre. It is against any managerial protocol to fire your top executive over the phone, or anyone for that matter (check this & this for comments on how rude that was). Maybe Yahoo’s board and its chairman did not expect this to happen and reach the public in the way it did, but that’s the digital age baby! And if Yahoo’s board cannot understand it, then that’s another point against the struggling company.

Secondly, the company put itself in a very awkward position because of what happened. It is like the board and the fired CEO are both playing a ball game of who is the true person to blame now. The way the board acted is stating that the CEO was behind all our mess. And the way the fired CEO responded by sending that ‘to all staff’ email is stating that ‘Yahoo staff, look at the idiots who are running the board, they just fired me over the phone.’ Such communication just show that the chemistry between the CEO and the board was lost. And this is a very devastating situation for any company, let alone a company that is trying to survive in a very competitive market (check this out).

Thirdly, what is the real reason behind the firing decision? Lack of of focus or strategic goal as the press release stated!! Shouldn’t this be taken as a point against the board because it was watching the top executive stumbling in the dark for three years without taking any action!! On a side note, it should be mentioned here that during her tenure as Yahoo’s CEO, Mrs. Bartz has been able increase net income of the company by about 52%, so it is not all about money!

What it could be then? Carol’s salty mouth as they say. How come that did not stop Jack Welch from being the superhero CEO of the century!! He was known for his salty mouth too, right?? And this discussion in particular would open the door for sexism debates. Is it acceptable of a male director to be ‘bossy’ and ‘having attitude’ in comparison to a female one?? That’s a looooooonge debate (for example, check this & this)!

From where I see it, Carol Bartz lacked the leadership charisma. She has not been seen, especially in her tenure as Yahoo CEO, as the leader who could lead and turn around the stumbling company. She could not communicate confidence in the company’s shareholders and staff. Her known salty mouth in interviews and conferences presented her as an arrogant, show-off person who like to talk rather than do.

Finally, Yahoo’s board of directors should also acknowledge that the lousy performance of the company is not only about its CEO. It is the company’s accumulated poor managerial performance over the years that led it to lose the market to tough competitors like Google and Facebook. The market will never wait for you to adjust and make progress.

It is a tough world!

 
4 Comments

Posted in General Management, Human Resources, Leadership

 

To Hell with Customers

12 Aug

If you are familiar with ‘That Jeddah Podcast,’ then you should have listened to a small part of her story in one of the recent podcasts, but in her blog, the lovely co-host Sally, spilled the story all out, and let me tell you … it sounds and looks … painful!

It is another story of an exemplary-lousy-customer service!

It is really sad to state the the principles of customer service is not an original part of the Saudi business’s culture. Yes, they are all talking about it, they are all claiming to have it, but for any independent observer, it is not there, it is just an illusion!

Honestly, it is a complicated issue. Customers themselves do not know their rights, business owners and service providers have nothing to fear, in other words, they are not well regulated, if regulated at all, when it comes to customer services.

Take what happened to Sally as an example; the hair salon reacted as there is nothing significant took place, yeah, the girl just dropped the curling iron on Sally’s arm, you know, shit happens!! That’s a reaction of fearless business. Who is regulating hair salons anyway? Who is inspecting their locations for hygiene, prices, processes, etc? I personally do not know!

And on the same example, Sally herself did not know what to do although she stated ‘in a normal country I could sue a place over being effing depressed for starters’ She knew she has a right somewhere, but she did not know how to get it?? I wonder what she could have done! Call the police maybe? Although I am not sure how the police would’ve accessed the scene, it is a women’s area only?? And then what? Take the police report to a lawyer and sue the salon? I think she could have done that, not sure on what basis, or what she will get eventually, but at least she could’ve made some fuss!

On the other hand, let’s imagine what a hair salon with an original customer service culture  would do; first of all, they would take care of all the medical bills, right! then, of course, they won’t charge their in pain customer for that session! and I guess they would give their customer a free access to different services for no less than a year or something! Just imagine how loyal customers would be to such a place, imagine the rewards of the words of mouth generated because of such incident!

Yeah … imagination is allowed … only  :(

 
4 Comments

Posted in Culture, Customer Service, Marketing, Saudi business

 

The US Debt Ceiling; When to Compromise

31 Jul

It is really unfortunate what is happening these days in the US! No, allow me to rephrase that, it is a SHAME!! It is a shame because it is turning to be an ugly and silly showdown of power between the two major parties of the country, and on the expense of whom? the American people, and do not forget … the rest of the world!

Or let’s put it in other words, it happens that the major economic power of the world, the economy that is strongly tied to the well being of this whole globe, is at the center of a furious game, between the hands of reckless players, just to gain some political points!

Anyway, this is not my point of the post, I just wanted to highlight that we could be witnessing a historical moment here. A moment of rise … and fall! You do not have to take my word for it, tune in to any news channel and you will get a glimpse of the heat, or use the power of the social networks and see this hash-tag created by Jeff Jarvis (#fuckyouwashington) to see how the people of the US are reacting to this situation.

However, such events should not pass by with some lessons learned, and one of them is to know that there is always a common ground, there is always a way to compromise, but this ‘always’ has a critical condition; the well being of the group is far more important than the well being of any part of it.

This is not a new invention, the win-win situations, the art of negotiations, … etc are all stressing the importance of compromise, to think of the larger goodness and see beyond the immediate and temporary benefits! It could be happening at home, with your friends, your clients, your customers, your coworkers … etc.

I know .. phrases and concepts of greater good and thinking beyond the immediate results are starting to sound strange on the ears and hearts in a world that is inclined more and more to be self centered around a group of people, around individuals!

 
5 Comments

Posted in General Management, Leadership

 

Saudi Airlines; The Smell of Corruption

06 Jun

It is very low even for a lousy service provider as Saudi Airlines; in a response to the serious accusations of spending more than SAR 5 billion in petty cash; yes, you read it correctly, SAR 5 billion in petty cash, Saudi Airlines, according to this piece of news, decided not to distribute Okaz, the newspaper published the report, on board of its flights!

Not only that, on Sunday evening, a number of Saudia staff appeared on a popular TV show  bashing the company with even more serious accusations. Honestly, this is the first time I ever witness, or at least remember, such a public organization going through such tough scrutiny … in public!

The fact of the matter is that Saudi airlines did not give its observers much of a choice. Its services are deteriorating in a very shocking and alarming pace. I had written several posts about them already, let’s hope they won’t limit access to my blog if they ever provided online access on their flights!

Now, two aspects to this story:

  • Corruption: petty cash should be … you know … petty!!! there is no chance that SAR 5 billion can be considered petty. You can start up new businesses, from scratch, with such amount of money. So there must be something wrong going on. The accusation about the food quality is another disaster. Benefiting on some cash on the side is something, and playing with human well being is another thing altogether. Again and again, the smell of the miserable managerial style within Saudia is smothering us all. The surprising thing is that everyone is smelling it except the huge number of VPs and managers resting in peace on the top of the organization!
  • Transparency: the decision of banning the newspaper because of its report is another miserable example of a low quality management. It is a classical PR failure. However, it should not come as a big surprise. It is not new to find that companies with power use that power to control what is published on the media about them. It is a common practice everywhere in the world to use advertising budgets and alike to color the public image of any organization in the media. It is just good to know that it is widely used in the local market as well. It is really unfortunate to realize that the poorest service providers in the country are the one with the big cash; you know whom I am talking about, right??

Last question before I leave you here, I wonder what the new Saudi Anti-Corruption Commission would do about this?

 
2 Comments

Posted in Communication, Communication, Public Relations, Saudi business

 

Raise the Bar, then Change

05 May

On Tuesday, I have been invited to a seminar held by one of the Saudi companies to promote some kind of a change initiative, more specifically, a change of corporate culture.

The initiative in itself was not bad; there are some of the technicalities that could be rethought and improved but in a whole, it was promising. What took me off guarded though was when one of the senior managers of that company and one of the key initiative developers said to the company managers: ‘Please communicate this initiative to your subordinates, but take it slowly, do not raise the bar too much, things will be changing slowly, we do not want to expect too much too soon.’

Now that comment ruined my mood … totally!

First of all, no one should expect a cultural change, or any type of change for that matter, to take place overnight. It is understandable for any change initiative that it will emerge over time. Change in its very own nature is continuos, takes both time and efforts.

Secondly, change is nothing but challenging the status quo, raising the bar, and demanding participants to adapt certain practices. In other words, you cannot promote change without raising hope and advertising the new concepts. Shying away from being open with your staff means that you are not totally honest with your staff. Louis Gerstner, the very known IBM CEO who led reshaping the company in the 90′s once said ‘Change should come from inside the staff, you cannot just force it down their throats!’

Now, if you do not want to raise the bar, how are you going to change?

 
No Comments

Posted in Culture, General Management, Human Resources

 

The Illusion of the Best Syndrome

09 Nov

‘We have the best working environment around here’ … ‘we changed the whole competition landscape, we are the best now and our competitors have to live with it’ … ‘Our products/services are not comparable to others, we are the best’

Once such kind of mentality starts flying around your organization, then it is in need for a serious therapy; it is going through the ‘illusion of the best’ syndrome! And once you have it, it is the downhill road thereafter.

There is no doubt that the marketplace is a competition arena. However, deciding who is the best should be left to stakeholders and unbiased observers, certainly not to the organization managers only!

And let’s give it some thought; in a business environment, what is the best? the best compared to what? and in which categories? And should we compare our products/services/practices to our competitors only? in our environment only? or should we do that globally? I am sure you can come up with endless series of question like these …

My argument is that the whole concept of being the best should have no place in a business environment. The ‘best in ….’ is a relative term even if based upon ground measurements, because, at the end, those measurements are based on agreements between a number of people.

The illusion of being the best could be damaging on the long run. It generates demotivation and kills innovation; why should we do more, we are the best?!

It happened that I have being sitting once with one of the so-called-managers of one of the biggest companies in the country and he was talking about how they are conducting some of their business. The strange thing is that he was referring to many managerial flaws in his talking, and he was acknowledging those flaws! I asked him ‘it is great that you can put your fingers on the wrong doings that are causing pressure on your staff and your productivity. So why don’t you solve these issues?’ His reply was ‘this is how we do business around here!’ I said ‘but there are many companies around the world that faced similar problems and there are many lessons that you can get advantage of.’ He replied ‘No No No … do not talk about companies around the world. Tell me about local companies. We are the best company in the area and this is how we are running our business’!!!!

I hope you got what I mean now!!

p.s. I think the ‘illusion of best’ syndrome fits Jim Collins’s stage number one of declining organizations; the stage he calls ‘Hubris Born of Success.’ Read more about it in his book ‘How the mighty Fall, and Why Some Companies Never Give in’ published in 2009.

 
8 Comments

Posted in Culture, General Management, Saudi business

 
« Older Entries