Unlike other forms of capital (i.e. human, financial, physical, etc.) social capital refers to productive connections between people. It’s not formed out of a self-serving agenda, but rather a genuine interest in joining together to accomplish a goal. The basic currency is trust and the interesting thing is: The more social capital you give, the more social capital you collect. And it can have a profound impact on your organizational leadership.

The most common type of social capital is bonding between neighbors. An example is when a neighbor asks for a favor. It could be as simple as “Would you come over to watch my son while I make a quick trip to the grocery store?” And the answer is almost always: “Sure, how can I help?”

The second is when a bridge is formed between friends. This form is called bridging social capital. An example here is when a friend asks a second friend to do a favor for a third friend. Over time, a bridge is often formed between friend number 1 and friend number 3.

The third is the link that’s formed when people are drawn together for a common cause or imperative. This form is called linking social capital. These can be formed between people pulling together to do something as humble as a community project, to as heroic as we saw in the aftermath of the recent Boston Marathon bombings.

So you may ask, “What does this mean to me and my organization?”

Well, we believe that organizations that thrive on the developing, accumulating, and deploying social capital will be more competitive than those that don’t. Shelby Hunt, marketing professor at the University of Michigan has developed his Resource-Advantage Theory that reinforces this idea. In the context of organizations, cube-mates become “neighbors” that say “yes” when approached to help out on a project. They make time.

These “neighbors” then form teams that come together to accomplish a project that otherwise would meander over time through the process of unproductive meetings. Departments become “communities” that foster bridge building between “neighborhoods”. These groups are not concerned about what they are giving up, but rather what there is to gain when they collectively answer the question: “What can we do together better, than apart?”

An organization that runs on social capital and is made up of “neighbors” and “friends” can do great things. Problem solving takes on the fever of community organizing when the imperative is much bigger than just doing your job.

And when that happens, you and your organization can do anything.

So, what are you doing to grow your social capital?

More about David

David Vaughn is a Vice President, Principal Consultant, and leader of Linkage’s Coaching practice. His recent work has focused on helping clients navigate matrix management, deploy a coaching culture, build an internal consulting discipline, and develop senior leadership teams.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

Employee engagement is actually not so different from a couple’s engagement—it’s about a relationship. And just like in any type of personal relationship, good things can happen if you’re willing to put in energy and commitment.

But of course, people have different relationships to work and their employers.

Back in the day, employee surveys were called “satisfaction surveys.” And as someone who has been in the business for a long time, I know that “satisfaction” can be tricky measurement. Satisfaction with pay, working conditions, supervision, or senior management are all different things.

And as a result, there were lots of problems with these surveys. For one, personality predicts job satisfaction. Certain personality types, such as extroverts, tend to rate higher in job satisfaction. Studies of twins have also established that there’s a genetic element of job satisfaction. So, it seems that satisfaction is a trait and that if you want a satisfied work force, all you need to do is hire extroverts, or those with the genetic disposition for satisfaction!

Or not.

To businesses, satisfaction may not be the most important thing since satisfied employees won’t necessarily help you attain better results. In fact, I’d argue that dissatisfied people get more done! Most sales managers I know are looking for sales reps that are “hungry,” not those who are content and satisfied in life. Looking at history, dissatisfied people have made the greatest human innovations.

A satisfied employee may be nice to have, but what we really care about is having engaged employees—people who have energy, drive, and a psychological investment in the organization. They’re often pretty satisfied too.

And we care about engagement because it’s been proven that engaged employees generally produce better business results.

However, there are many types of engagement, and it’s important to know what type of engagement you’re looking for. It makes a big difference if you need your employees to be better engaged with safety, or customer service, or with the mission of the organization. I have an engineer friend who tells me he is always engaged. He loves his profession designing manufacturing controllers, but he’s had stormy relationships with employers. As a result, this skilled and valuable engineer is constantly changing jobs. If this talented, personable guy had closer relationships with his boss and co-workers, he might stick around. So the critical “engagement” for him is different than for someone else.

Different organizations also need different types of employee engagement. To some organizations, retaining employees is critical. To others, only a few years of intense effort is needed. And others rely on employee innovation and skill as their organizational strategy. The list goes on……

According to noted business writers Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, the most successful companies lean toward one of three strategies: Low Cost Provider, Customer Intimacy, or Product Innovation. In the United States, you might think about different retail strategies: Low cost = Wal-Mart, Customer Intimacy = Nordstrom, and Innovation = Target (I say this is due to their emphasis on working with famous designers). And JCPenney might have had fewer problems if it had stayed with a single market discipline.

This three-level breakdown provides a great starting point for thinking about engagement.

• Low cost providers need reliable employees and low turnover
• Customer intimate organizations need employees who will obsess over customer satisfaction
• Innovation based organizations need employees who can work to constantly improve technology and product innovation

These all require very different types of engagement (and employees). So remember, before you consider investing in an engagement survey, make sure to ask yourself what your organization really needs from its employees. And be careful of any survey that’s not aligned with your organization’s strategy.

How engaged are you, really? And just as importantly, how engaged is your team? Click here to learn how to enhance engagement.

More about Charley

Charley Morrow is Vice President of Assessments at Linkage. He has over 20 years of experience designing, implementing, and evaluating training, individual assessment, and organizational-transformation interventions, and he’s an expert in developing assessments and methodologies for individual, team, and organizational motivation and performance. Follow him on Twitter @CharleyMorrow.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

When I attended Linkage’s Institute for Leading Diversity & Inclusion™ last week, several (not just one, several) speakers spoke of the new minority being the White Male.

I had to smile.

Not because this isn’t an eventuality. All of the population statistics for the United States are pointing at this future reality. However, I don’t think we will see a preponderance of Employee Resource Groups or focused inclusion efforts targeting the white male any time soon. In fact, today and for the near future, I believe we are very much in need of our white male leaders to step up, speak out, and make it a priority to advance diversity in leadership like we’ve seen Warren Buffet do recently.

“Fellow males, get onboard,” writes Warren Buffett on www.money.cnn.com. “The closer that America comes to fully employing the talents of all its citizens, the greater its output of goods and services will be. We’ve seen what can be accomplished when we use 50% of our human capacity. If you visualize what 100% can do, you’ll join me as an unbridled optimist about America’s future.”

And I applaud Warren Buffett’s public sentiments about women. Click here to read the full story.

But with 96.5% of Fortune 500 companies still run by men, and less than 10% of corporate boards enjoying female membership, we have collectively NOT moved the dial in the last decade to accelerate diversity―and women in particular―into positions of leadership.

Sheryl Sandberg has contributed mightily to the dialogue with her book Lean In. Now is the time for companies to connect their talent and succession strategies with their commitment to the advancement of women. And, with all the focus and research and statistics fluttering around about what should and needs to be done, I maintain that those in positions of senior leadership―mostly white men―must speak up and take action. Our collective future depends on it.

We know that businesses create more value when more women are leading. Consider Pepperdine University’s study as just one that gives us pause. It found that the 25 Fortune 500 firms with the best record of promoting women to high positions were between 18% and 69% more profitable than the median Fortune 500 firms in their industries.

This is not just about equality, it is about driving bottom line value. Simply put, it’s smart business.

As a leader who is also a married-mother-of-two, I have come to believe that we need more leaders to stand up and serve as agents of change for the advancement of women. I am delighted that my work provides a stage (literally) to give voice to male leaders who are moving the dial on advancing women in their companies. At Linkage’s Women in Leadership Institute™ (November 11-13 in San Francisco), we are honoring George Borst, President and CEO of Toyota Financial Services, with our first Outstanding CEO Award for his commitment to inclusion and the advancement of a diverse talent pool.

We need more George Borsts and Warren Buffetts to be leading the way and speaking out.

What are you doing to advance women in leadership in your organization?

More about Susan

Susan Brady is married to Jamie Brady, the mother of Caroline and Abigail Brady, a daughter, sister, aunt, and friend to many. She is also the Senior Vice President of Global Programming & Market Strategy for Linkage, an Executive Coach, and a champion for women leaders. Reach out to Susan at sbrady@linkageinc.com or on Twitter @Susanmbrady1.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

No matter what you do, or what industry you’re in, chances are that your organization either needs to change (due to growth, or poor performance, or to increase office space, etc.), or is about to change (due to an acquisition or merger, or a new CEO taking over, or to adapt to ever-changing markets, etc.). And while it’d be FOOLISH to try and stop change, there are things you can, (actually must) do to ensure that the change process goes smoothly and leads to positive outcomes.

Use this 12-step checklist to lead successfully through any organizational change:

1. Identify: Your first step is to identify what is being changed or what needs to be changed.
2. Business case: Next, create your business case to justify the need for this change. This is critical and should also describe what the consequences would be if you don’t make the change.
3. Communicate: Make sure that everyone on your executive team understands the business case and the need for change. Communicate a clear and consistent message from all members of the executive team.
4. Enlist stakeholders: Ask and answer the following questions: Who are the people who will be directly and indirectly impacted by this change? Where do they stand in this process? Are they aware that the change is needed? Did they suggest it? After you have answered these questions, determine where you need them to be in this process. Are they going to be directly involved in the change implementation? Will you need their consent to do something?
5. Put together a change team: This is the team that will help develop the change program and ensure its success. This team should include a mix of people from across the organization and does NOT need to be run by a member of your executive team.
6. Communicate/paint the picture for change: This step occurs throughout the change process and it is one of the most important. Let people in the organization know what is happening. People have a much easier time dealing with change when they know what is changing, what is staying the same, what they can expect during the process, and what things will look like after. We emphasize communication so much because it’s absolutely critical to any successful change initiative.
7. Training: Are there extra training or development opportunities that can be included in this process? If people are being moved around and new responsibilities are being assigned, offer training to these people. Spend extra time working with managers and supervisors on how to identify employees who are having a hard time with the change. Run a course for first-time managers to help them learn how to manage their teams through the change. These efforts can be done in house, through a consulting firm, or through online trainings.
8. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate: By keeping people in the loop, you reduce the fear of the unknown and put people in a much more respective place.
9. Change: That’s the whole point, right? Make the change happen while communicating with your employees. An open dialogue will help make the process smoother.
10. Check In: How is the change process going in the organization? Get a pulse for your people, your business, and your surroundings.
11. Follow through: Make sure the change actually happens. Many organizations start a change, begin to implement it, and then lose momentum as other tasks take priority. If this happens too often, people stop getting behind change because they think they will be wasting their effort.
12. Reinforce the Change: This is where many companies drop the ball. You have already worked so hard on this change. Don’t forget to remind your people of how far they have come and what has been accomplished. You can do this at a major event—in person or virtually—or through a series of communications depending on your resources and organizational structure. Recognizing and celebrating what’s been accomplished is critical to sustain the momentum.

More about Mitchell:

Mitchell Nash is a Regional Vice President, Principal Consultant, and leader of Linkage’s Change and Transition Leadership practice. He has over 20 years of experience leading, facilitating, and supporting large-scale change initiatives and has unique expertise in facilitating organizational impact by using technological, organizational, and leadership development solutions.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

“As organizations and individuals succeed, it gets more difficult to innovate,” he writes. “There are issues of coordination, sure, but mostly it’s about fear. The fear of failing is greater, because it seems as though you’ve got more to lose.

“So urgency disappears first. Why ship it today if you can ship it next week instead? There are a myriad of excuses, but ultimately it comes down to this: If every innovation is likely to fail, or at the very least, be criticized, why be in such a hurry? Go to some more meetings, socialize it, polish it and then, one day, you can ship it.

“Part of the loss of urgency comes from a desire to avoid accountability. Many meetings are events in which an organization sits in a room until someone finally says, “okay, I’ll take responsibility for this.” If you’re willing to own it, do you actually need a meeting, or can you just email a question or two to the people you need information from?

“Thus, we see the two symptoms of the organization unable to move forward with alacrity, the two warning signs of the person in the grip of the resistance. ‘I can take my time, and if I’m lucky, I can get you to wonder who to blame.’

“You don’t need more time, you just need to decide.

“Read the history of the original Macintosh computer and you’ll be amazed at just how fast it got done.”

Click here to read the full post.

Seth got our own innovation expert Lisa Parker thinking (and blogging): “Seth is absolutely correct in talking about how much more difficult it is to successfully innovate when a company or person becomes more successful and larger in scale,” she writes. “Just compare the Fortune 500 list of today with one from 15 years ago and you can see how the mighty have fallen! One of the main reasons is the perceived risk that there is so much more to lose.

“But the reality is that a culture of innovation requires some acceptance of risk. And the way to make risk more palatable is to test assumptions more frequently along the way. These tests serve to educate the decision makers who can make any necessary course corrections and thus speed up the pace of change and innovation.

“Whether through skunk works or reward systems, those companies that are willing to accept more risk will ultimately build a culture that embraces urgency and accountability that’s necessary to survive in our highly competitive business environment.”

So, does your company reward or punish risk taking? The answer could be the difference between life and death of your organization.

About Lisa:

Lisa Parker has extensive experience in leadership strategy, team building, organization development and assessments, and innovation process management. Her specialties are building innovation-capable organizations, team dynamics and communication, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, design thinking and change, transition management, and the creative process. Follow her on Twitter @Stratovationist.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

Leadership is what separates a ”good-enough” team that simply accomplishes tasks, from a “peak-performance” team that achieves greatness by working together with passion, focus, and energy. Here are 4 absolutes that will help you lead your team to greatness:

• Make the time to get to know the people on your team and check-in on a regular basis. Knowing what matters to them, what motivates them, how they think, what they enjoy, what they like about their job, don’t like, what they want in their career is vital to getting the best out of them. It’s simply impossible to motivate if you do not know what makes people tick. Not getting to know your people is the number #1 way to guarantee you’ll under-lead and your team will under-perform.
• Articulate your vision for the team. Model a strong work ethic and show them how to work together to produce superior results.It’s important to establish ways to deal with conflict, decision making, problem solving, and expectations of accountability. Don’t just pay attention to accomplishing tasks with a flawed assumption that the team will magically evolve into a collaborative, high-performing team with healthy behaviors without your input and without helping them develop the necessary skills.
• Give meaning to the work you ask them to do. The majority of individuals in today’s organizations say they are not inspired because most “leaders” just pass down a list of objectives and tasks to be done. So, without meaning and without a reason, work for them is just another day with more to do. If you want a motivated team, you must, as a leader, generate meaning and tap into the human spirit.
• Love them as hard as you work them. Organizations seem challenged to find out how to get people to engage when the answer is obvious, but illusive. You must lead with care and commitment to your team. The minute a team member feels you don’t care, you loose their full commitment. And if you don’t really care about your team, you’ll never get them to care about you, each other, or the work.

Are you leading your team to greatness or managing people to accomplish a never-ending list of tasks?

About Madelyn:

Madelyn Yucht is a principal consultant and the co-leader of Linkage’s High Performance Team practice. She is also an entrepreneur, consultant, and academic with over 20 years of experience working with leaders and their teams to improve performance and achieve strategic objectives.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

How much time do you spend answering questions? Or dealing with emergencies? Or reacting to situations that require your attention?

Of course, most leaders will respond to a request for help handling an urgent manner, or even a not-so-urgent matter. Now, let’s multiply this by however many direct reports you have. If each of them come to you every time they have a problem that needs to be resolved, it’s easy to see where your time goes. And, by answering their questions or solving the challenge, you’re directing their next action….to come to you with every problem they have.

But, as I experienced while working with a senior executive team at a large financial institution, this is hardly the most effective way to lead. Specifically, one of the organizations large functional areas really stood out. They had a higher level of energy. There was more laughing. The leader seemed more relaxed and so did the rest of the group.

As I continued my work with this organization, I also noticed that the stand out group experienced fewer fire drills, fewer emergencies, fewer excuses, and less finger-pointing. Naturally, I felt compelled to find out why. The leader of the group told me it was simple. He has two rules everyone is expected to follow and uphold.

The first is his 1-3-1 rule: For every one (1) challenge encountered, people are not allowed to go to their manager without three (3) possible solutions to that challenge, and one (1) that they would recommend.

The second rule he explained was also simple: If someone has a beef with another person, they’re not allowed to complain to anyone else about this person, unless this person is in the room.

Consider the implications of these two simple rules:

• People are required to think (which, in most cases, is what we pay them to do)
• This thinking is likely to lead to new and more innovative ways to solve problems
• When people come up with the solution, they’re more committed to it
• When people are focused on solutions, they’re less focused on challenges

And, best of all, when your direct reports follow these simple rules, you’ll spend more time leading and less time reacting.

What rules do you lead by?

More about Roger:

Roger Young has served as a leadership and organizational development consultant, master facilitator, and executive coach for more than 15 years. During this time, he has partnered with several Fortune 500 organizations on a variety of talent management and organizational issues.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

“Every spring, the White House invites children to show off life-changing innovations that have mostly been constructed in MacGyver-like fashion from commercially available materials. Even though I cover this story every year, it’s hard not to be inspired by brilliant young kids motivated to tackle the world’s problems. “Let me just say in my official capacity as president, this stuff is really cool,” said President Obama.

“We’ve rounded up three awesome and inspiring projects below:

“1. A 3D-Printed, Mind-Controlled Prosthetic–17-year-old Easton LaChappelle has created a mind-controlled prosthetic arm for the low price of $250, thanks to parts cheaply replicated from a 3D printer….

“2. Cancer Detection–Google Global Science Fair Winner, 17-year-old Brittany Wenger, found a low-cost way to radically increase early cancer detection. Wenger’s project utilizes a computer process modeled after the human brain, a neural network, to boost the accuracy of detecting cancer in skin samples to 99 percent, which could help doctors save lives through early treatment….

“3. Tactile sound–Eighth-grade Californian Jonah Kohn developed a tactile-sound device to help the hearing impaired enjoy music. Sound can actually travel through vibrations in the skin, which Kohn discovered when he decided to bite down on his electric guitar (remember what it was like to be young and experimental?)….

Click here for the full story that got Shannon Bayer, one of Linkage’s own innovation experts thinking:

“I admit it, I loved creating and designing my science fair projects,” she writes. “However, I was also a procrastinator, so they were usually rushed and testing theories already proven.

“It never occurred to me to compete nationally for an award or recognition. But these projects take it a step further. The cool thing here is these kids aren’t just competing in a science fair, they’re actually trying to help people in true need.

“Take any of the examples from the techcrunch story or the bicycle-powered emergency water sanitation station that another team came up with.

“So what makes it innovative? First, they looked at the need. They needed a way for natural disaster victims to clean non-potable water. Then they came up with a simple, portable, and affordable system that can provide clean water for a large family or even neighborhood!

So, why are teenagers with limited resources coming up with innovative solutions to global problems?

I think it’s partly due to the natural lens that evolves as we learn to become part of the normative society. We develop a lens that allows us to process the fast-paced world with mental short cuts. But this slowly closes people down to the point where they believe there are limitations and don’t even try out ideas.

The question is: Can you step back and truly embrace the open, unlimited mind of your youth to encourage and embrace innovation in your organization?

More about Shannon
Shannon Bayer is a Senior Consultant at Linkage. She specializes in providing facilitation and program design for innovation and change leadership. She also works with organizations to improve team effectiveness, negotiation, and coaching. Follow her on Twitter @ShannonJBayer.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

In this pre-recorded webinar, participants will learn:

• How to effectively leverage the inherent challenges of managing in a matrix environment
• Tips for creating strong alignment and accountability
• Techniques for effectively influencing others without leveraging authority

About the presenter:

Marty Jordan is a Principal Consultant and co-leader of Linkage’s Change and Transition Leadership practice. She is an accomplished HR/OD professional with broad-based experience in multiple industries and has worked in diverse business functions and corporate environments. In her current role, Marty is a coach, facilitator, and program designer for a broad spectrum of clients including: Toyota, Volkswagen, Disney, and Genentech. Follow her on Twitter @maj421.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

As I introduced in an earlier post, a matrix organizational structure is lean, flexible, and fast-moving. It’s made up of experts who are able to collaborate on complex problems, make important decisions, and are capable of reporting to more than one “boss.”

With all of this activity going on, working and leading in a matrix environment can feel a bit chaotic. However, to the trained eye, this chaos is actually quite patterned and orderly if you’re able to see the whole and not the parts. The chaos can seem worse of course, by employee changes, market shifts, technology advances, resource limitations, and regulatory changes—at ever increasing rates of speed.

Typical pyramidal, hierarchical organizational structures depend on control, but leaders in a matrix can’t and shouldn’t try to control the chaos. Successful leaders in a matrix need to guide as opposed to control and learn how to encourage, spread, and amplify healthy, creative patterns.

Here are 9 matrix “musts” for leaders:

1. A leader in a matrix must see the organization as a complex organism, not as a machine.
2. A leader in a matrix must have a strong vision that’s also general enough to be inclusive.
3. A leader in a matrix must be able to manage resource costs and be able to over-resource or swarm a problem, simultaneously.
4. A  leader in a matrix must provide information transparently to create information flow, diversity, and connectivity while also increasing accountability.
5. A leader in a matrix must be able to balance tension and paradox in a way that will drive and motivate the organization.
6. A leader in a matrix must generate lots of small actions and changes to create organizational momentum (and health). Lots of small experiments will create emergence. Lots of small experiments will also drift and die. It’s OK. Experiments that die a good death are learning opportunities, not failures.
7. A leader in a matrix must use both the formal organization and the informal organization to lead and manage.
8. A leader in a matrix must be able to link small teams together to create larger outcomes.
9. A leader must be capable of creating both competition and collaboration within the organization.

The matrix can be a great place to work. It’s constantly changing and adapting to better fit its environment. But, it runs on a different set of processes and structures than a more traditional organization.

And for those of you who started reading this post thinking you were going to learn about how to maintain control in a matrix, you’re out of luck.

So, are you trying to survive in a matrix with a traditional, control-based mindset? Click here if it’s not working out so well. 

More about Mark

Mark Hannum has over twenty years of experience in organizational and leadership development, systems thinking, coaching, competency modeling, and executive team building and alignment. Mark’s skilled leadership and innovation has resulted in the successful implementation of many organizational design projects with client mergers and acquisitions.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email