Medium to long-term planning has gone out the window

To summarise a number of conversations I’ve had recently, what many business leaders are doing can only be described as short-term thinking. Very few are planning for the next 12 months let alone any further.

A COO I spoke to recently is struggling to balance a number of priorities and knows that, unless he and the MD have a view on what they need to be doing in 1-2 years, they can’t possibly make the right decisions now. And yet, he’s battling to get the time to do this for himself, let alone with the rest of the senior management team. He’s not alone.

For this particular COO, his mindset is definitely towards investment and away from costs – but he has other people to persuade internally, before he goes for the next IT/marketing/people investment cycle. So, how do you plan for the future? How do you encourage your clients / prospects to do this and look at investment in the future, instead of simply cost-cutting today?

If you’d like to contact me directly, please do so sue@suecohen.co.uk

Or send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

As always, your comments are welcome

What does “professional work environment” mean?

Over the last two weeks, I’ve spent a little time with some new trainees at an accountancy firm. I have met many trainees during my working life – most are graduates, some will have worked for a time, or taken a gap year; fewer are 18 year old school leavers and, just occasionally, there’s a “mature” trainee who has changed careers. Most of them have little experience of working in a “professional” office and, as well as learning all the technical things they need to know for their new job, they have to adjust from school/college life to professional working life. It’s a big adjustment for many new staff and I’m not sure the experienced staff and managers always take account of this.

Look at the senior staff in many technical / professional businesses and they have been through a similar training route to the new trainees. Yet, they often cry “it was different in my day” … and they are right but that’s not an excuse to not help the new staff to settle into working life. Yes, the world of work has changed, chiefly through the huge growth in technology over the last 10-15 years. Most professional qualifications have also changed – not just in the growth of technology-based studies, but the content, the timing, the exam structures and the constantly growing regulations and legal requirements.

The trainees have “grown up” with the technology many of us had to learn on the way and their work expectations are different. For them to succeed at work, we need to help them understand how to work in today’s environment. In addition, the senior staff need to adapt and change and respond to today’s staff needs and expectations and not constantly push staff to fit into a mould which is 20-30 years old. I know what I think needs to happen and what issues are about leadership and management and which are about hand-holding, educating and training the new staff to understand “work”; what do you think is needed in a modern, 21st century work environment?

If you’d like to contact me directly, please do so sue@suecohen.co.uk

Or send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

As always, your comments are welcome

How does Learning and Development help facilitate business change?

I recently co-presented a session at the World of Learning Conference entitled “The criticality of learning in delivering business change”. To me there are a few key issues to address if a change is going to be succesful to the business and L&D can help with this.

A starting point is usually the business case. It may sound facetious, but how often, when changes are being implemented, do people ask “Why are we doing this?” If they don’t understand what the business case is, how can they buy into it, particularly as any change, including those seen to be “positive”, usually involves some pain, increased workloads and uncertainty.

Not only does the case for the business as a whole and sometimes for separate divisions, need to be clear to everyone who is part of it or affected in some way, but each individual needs to be clear about WIIFM (what’s in it for me).

And all of this comes down to open and honest communication – two-way. The leadership needs to be able to listen to the concerns of others and be sure that they’ve addressed them as best they can and they, in turn, have been heard.

Now, I’m not the first person to say this and you may well have had this discussion before. Why, then, do so many business leaders seem to spend so much time managing around and through all the bad feelings and negative energy generated during change, “fire fighting” and cutting back on communication? Why is it so difficult for business leaders to communicate openly and honestly with the people in their business? Why don’t they ask for help from the people used to communicating with staff – L&D and internal communications and get the help they need?

If you are involved in a change project, small or large, are you sure the business case is clear to everyone? Are you happy with all the communication and the ways it is dealt with in your organisation? If you’d like to talk about the options, contact me and we’ll look at how we can help you find the solutions for your business.

You can find me at sue@suecohen.co.uk

Or send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

As always, your comments are welcome

Customer service – who is the customer?

Whether or not everyone can agree on what is “good” or “great” service, we usually know what is poor service and who the customer is. But what about those services which involve some form of intermediary broker or agent – who is the customer? And, while I think of it, what’s the difference between a broker and an agent?

Brokers: Whilst many people complain about insurance, the cost, claims procedures and excesses, the role of insurance broker doesn’t attract particularly bad press. Similarly, the emerging band of energy brokers seem to be attracting more good press than bad. These brokers find the best deal for the customer and take their remuneration from the supplier.

Agents: Let’s start with estate agents who also find the solution for the customer and take their remuneration from the seller and yet, bad press for agents like this is all around us. Whether buying or selling a property, poor service from the agent seems common – add into the mix two sets of solicitors, mortgage provider and a surveyor and there are seven interested parties in the transaction and that’s without the chain which exists in many deals. And who gets the best service? Many people will tell you that when buying they didn’t feel well looked after, nor when selling.

And a different type of agency – recruitment. Here the model is slightly different – the supplier of services is the candidate and the buyer is the recruiting business and they pay the agency fees as well as the employee. Apart from the rare case of very highly paid employees with their own agents and lawyers, there are three interested parties. And who gets the best service? Candidates rarely feel it’s them.

But, in all these cases, irrespective of the payment model, the transaction doesn’t happen unless the buyer and seller both exist and are in agreement. I recently said that I’d like to write a book about estate agents and customer service – the response from those I was with was summed up by one of them – “that’s an oxymoron”. So, is it really that bad? Is it just the agency model which encourages lop-sided relationships? Or is it just the best ones aren’t shouting loud enough and providing better role models for their industry?

If you’d like to contact me directly, please do so sue@suecohen.co.uk

Or send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

As always, your comments are welcome

What’s “in the public interest”?

Having listened to a couple of discussions on the radio, I was struck by that phrase “in the public interest”, so thought I’d pursue the theme a little.

According to the Press Complaints Commission’s Editors’ Code of Practice The public interest includes, but is not confined to:
i) Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety.
ii) Protecting public health and safety.
iii) Preventing the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation.

There is a public interest in freedom of expression itself.

That is not the same as something being “of interest to the public” and that, to me, is where the dilemma has been of late, in our press. However, my thoughts turned from the press to the role of a public enquiry, whether looking into the press or other areas of life.

Who is a public enquiry for?

The discussion I heard, on the radio, was asking for nominations for suitable people to serve on a public enquiry and there were various suggestions including “up-standing members of society” as well as the downright atagonistic from both the far right and the far left of the political spectrum.

But what about “Joe Public”? I couldn’t get to the phone at the time – I was driving – and the programme was over by the time I’d stopped but I wanted to volunteer myself or nominate a couple of people I know. Two or three members of the public, doesn’t matter what trade or profession, but those with some interest in making the public enquiry accountable for its results. Whether or not the whole of the hearing was to be conducted in public or not, surely, if you want a public enquiry to be credible to the general public and really be in the public interest, then get us involved.

Let’s be honest, many of us don’t trust the politicans and, even the highly respected professional judges and others in society have political foes and allies with whom they seem to disagree or agree as a matter of principal. So, to those involved in The Levison Enquiry into the role of the press and the police, let’s have a few members of the public who really value an independent press and police force and whose politic views are tied to running their lives on a day-to-day basis, irrespective of a party.

Anyone else want to volunteer or nominate someone in their local or business community? Any other ideas how to make “public enquiries” serve the “public interest”?

If you’d like to contact me directly, please do so sue@suecohen.co.uk

Or send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

As always, your comments are welcome

Being assertive in the face of ….

Continuing on from the last post and the subsequent discussions I’ve had – mostly in LinkedIn discussion groups – there are a number of issues people face when dealing with others. The most common expressed issue is that “other people don’t behave the same way” ie they are either submissive/passive or they are aggressive.

I repeat, behaving in an assertive manner is something which people can learn and develop, whether they are currently submissive, aggressive or passive-aggressive. For those who haven’t seen this particular phrase before, it describes the more subtle, possibly sarcastic, way some people behave. They are not overtly aggressive, yet when you reflect on the conversation you realise they are bullying in a different way. If people are used to doing things in a way which avoids conflict or just gets the job done without a fuss, they will need to think about why they do what they do as well as how to behave differently.

There are a number of steps to go through to develop the skills to behave assertively, if it’s not your natural style and, to me, the first one is believing it is okay to do so.

Rights or responsibilities?

Assertiveness training will usually cover “rights” and “responsibilities” … I prefer to think of it as “taking responsibility” which gives you the “right” to stand up for yourself. If a person really believes they can only take responsibility for their own actions and that they are responsible for all their actions, then they stop being responsible about the other person’s reaction. That’s a fundamental shift – yes, you need to anticipate the reaction of others to what you say and do, but, if you are behaving assertively and responsibly, it is not your problem if the other person isn’t. That doesn’t mean it will be pleasant or easy … particularly if the aggressive behaviour is coming from the boss or the customer.

In a nutshell, I am responsible for my behaviour and I will do all I can to behave assertively when dealing with you. If you choose to be submissive, eg say little or refuse to discuss the issue, then I will do all I can to encourage you to do so. Likewise, if you choose to be aggressive eg shout, wag your finger, be sarcastic or condescending, I will not respond in kind and I am likely to tell you that I don’t like the way you are behaving and it’s not appropriate or professional. I will do all this in private, you can choose how and where you respond. Ultimately, I can’t force you to change your behaviour, even if you work for me or I work for you.

Call to action

If you’d like to discuss some of your business issues from a fresh perspective and generate some potentially new ideas on how you can harness the people power within your organisation, in a cost-effective manner, to suit you, please contact me on:

sue@suecohen.co.uk 020 8953 6477 / 07971 400653

Feel free to send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

As always, your comments are welcome

Can a person be too polite?

In a recent discussion with a director, he said that one of his managers is “too polite”. Now, I’m all for politeness yet I don’t think there’s any such thing as “too polite”. The issue is, rather, that the manager is just not assertive – he’s not too polite, he’s submissive or passive, for example:

• when he says “Yes” when he should say “No”
• when he waffles around the subject and won’t come directly to the point, for fear of upsetting a colleague
• when he works an extra two hours, again, so he can triple check his work (yes, really)
• when he re-does someone else’s work as they’ve gone home

Amongst the many training resources I’ve used for helping people develop their assertiveness skills, there’s a particular video. One character is asked to list his qualities and good points and he says he is “polite – there’s not enough politeness around these days”. He’s right … he’s also the submissive character who is struggling to be assertive AND polite.

You can be both though. I don’t think it’s impolite to say, No thanks, we don’t need your services. Isn’t it better than avoiding the call or the meeting or putting off the decision again and again? When you give information and direction to a colleague, you can be polite and assertive. When disagreeing with someone in a meeting or having to correct someone for poor work, there’s no reason to be rude or aggressive.

Behaving in an assertive manner IS something which people can learn and develop, whether they are currently “too polite” or aggressive. If people are used to doing things in a way which avoids conflict or just gets the job done without a fuss, they will need to think about why they do what they do as well as how to behave differently.

I’ve seen passive/submissive people take more control over the way they work and influence colleagues and managers in a positive way … and the work gets done more effectively and more efficiently. I’ve seen aggressive people simply stop some of their behaviours and listen to junior colleagues. In both cases, problems are identified, discussed and resolved before they impact on the deadlines and the costs.

I think you can be polite AND assertive. Don’t you?

Call to action

If you’d like to discuss some of your business issues from a fresh perspective and generate some potentially new ideas on how you can harness the people power within your organisation, in a cost-effective manner, to suit you, please contact me on:

sue@suecohen.co.uk 020 8953 6477 / 07971 400653

Feel free to send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

As always, your comments are welcome

Diary of a consultant – week 3; wants vs needs

And so, what’s different about week 3?

I’ve spent some time this week preparing for different client meetings and presentations and I’m reminded of one of the conversations with one particular client.

One of next week’s meetings is with two directors of a company I’ve been working with for a while. My first meeting started with “we need to manage our staff better, so we think we need a management workshop of some sort”. A couple of hours of questions and discussions later and I’d started to form a plan. So far, I’ve worked with 5 different people in the company, directors and senior managers, using psychometrics to help them understand their own styles and preferences better as well as understanding each other and their staff more. This was followed by individual coaching on areas they wanted to work on – chiefly communication and personal organisation, each of them having some different issues they wanted to address.

Next week’s meeting is a progress update and helping them to improve their communication skills, with some specific issues they want to discuss. The management workshop? Still not planned – whilst that’s what they thought they wanted, the more we’ve worked together, the more we’ve seen that, as each individual has worked on their communication skills, the better they’ve been able to manage their staff and the need for a management workshop has declined. That’s not to say there aren’t other areas they would like to develop and we still have some other areas to work on.

The interesting thing for me has been the ability to provide something which has really helped them move on – which is great to see as well – and that, with some discussion, the client has been happy to move away from what they thought they wanted to what has proved more useful to them. Not all client discussions work this way – by the time some businesses call in a consultant, of whatever discipline, they have done some of their own research, they know what they need and the consultant helps them deliver it in a way which suits their business. Others are fixed in what they want, even when they haven’t done much research, and aren’t open to new
suggestions. Many will just want a specific product or service.

Questions? When you work with a new consultant or adviser, how much time do you expect to spend discussing the wider business issues, before the consultant puts together suggested solutions? How open are you to new suggestions? When an external consultant starts to ask you questions, do you want them to already know a lot about your industry and business or like to work with someone who spends time asking lots of questions in order to understand YOU business / industry and relate their specialist experience to YOU?

Call to action

If you’d like to discuss some of your business issues from a fresh perspective and generate some potentially new ideas on how you can harness the people power within your organisation, in a cost-effective manner, to suit you, please contact me on:

sue@suecohen.co.uk 020 8953 6477 / 07971 400653

Feel free to send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

As always, your comments are welcome

Diary of a consultant – week 2; communication and collaboration

So, what’s different about week 2?

I took a couple of interesting calls late on Monday – one from a “business partner” ie someone with a different product/service, looking at ways we can work together. I was reflecting that this isn’t that unusual – many conversations I have are with people with complimentary or overlapping services, not straight competition but not completely different.

Question who could you work with in a collaborative way, which might be more effective for both of you, than trying to compete? Who offers something completely different, which would complement your services?

Unfortunately, I have two negative thoughts relating to Tuesday

1 – the London Underground. The weather was quite bright and sunny, not very warm, but it was sweltering in the tube – eugh.

2 – a speed networking event with a host who didn’t keep to time. Speed networking is definitely not something everyone enjoys and I’ve seen it run in a number of ways. This wasn’t a particularly large group and there was plenty of time to fit everything in with their normal timings and, potentially, allow more open networking time at the end or finish a little early. We ran over time and I ran out of the door, on my way to another meeting. Not impressed.

Wednesday gets back to my theme – communication and collaboration – when I ran a webinar for The Lemon Club on LinkedIn company profile and why it’s important for your online marketing, whatever size your business is. The Lemon Club is an online personal development membership programme on all things communication and I have contributed resources to Month 5, Natural networking, as well as this month’s webinar. The whole club is a collaboration of 20+ contributors, led by Sally and Sue.

Thursday and Friday followed similar themes with the exception of a couple of nudges I received to try something slightly new. Like most people, I’m not mad keen on cold calls, mainly because I don’t think they are very productive. However, with a little nudging from two quite different conversations, I’ve started generating discussions with brand new contacts – where there was a great reason and connection for me to call them. So, although “cold” as in unknown, they were “warm” as in an existing connection.

Question Who do you already have a connection with, even if you don’t know them? Through shared interests, societies, professional groups, hobbies, children’s activities or family? Who could you call?

Call to action

If you’d like help with your collaboration or communication, or to identify where you have “warm” targets you’d not considered, please contact me on:

sue@suecohen.co.uk 020 8953 6477 / 07971 400653

Feel free to send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

And, let me know what you think of the ebook and the The Lemon Club / webinar – if you missed the webinar and would like information on future webinars, please let me know.

As always, your comments are welcome

Diary of a consultant – week 1

 

Blogs started as web logs – diaries of activities and personal musings. As I often explain what I do in a variety of different ways to a variety of different people, I thought I’d approach my blog in a different way for a few weeks and see if that helps to explain it a little.

So, week 1

– last Monday was a Bank Holiday and, I have to say, I did little work. Checked a few emails and tweets on my Blackberry and that’s about all. Instead I, like many others, was houseworking rather than working at home – you know, washing, tidying, ironing. Why am I mentioning this? Well, how many tasks do you undertake during the working day which are “mundane”, “boring” and yet, necessary. Could you delegate or outsource some of these activities?

– Tuesday I was back at my desk with a long to-do list, including several phone-calls. Having now released my ebook some of the conversations were about publicising this through my newsletter and elsewhere. I arranged a few meetings and managed to get some semblance of planning into some of the meeting days so that I didn’t waste more time travelling across London or Hertfordshire (my main areas), between meetings, than in them. How much time do you waste between meetings because they haven’t been arranged very efficiently? Do you make of online meeting and conference software to help with this? I’ve found these tools have really helped me.

– Wednesday I had a “coffee / 1 to 1” with an accountant I’d met at a networking event a few weeks ago and we traded tips on coffee shops as well as ideas for mutual contacts. Then I met a new contact (the sort where you walk into a coffee shop and look around for the other person looking around) and had a great chat about a forthcoming event for the ICAEW …. more to follow on this soon as well as other ideas. Then I recorded a webinar as a backup for the live one taking place on Wednesday this week for The Lemon Club  Finally, a meeting with a lawyer I’d chatted to at a couple of events and an opportunity to find out more.

– Thursday started early with my regular Metropolitan City group meeting with NRG. I also go to the Metropolitan West End group regularly – a networking group which builds business relationships in a relaxed and professional manner. Back to my desk for some more follow-up, including a conversation with a contact I’d not spoken to for a while, resulting in a one-page overview for a potential project.

– Friday, just the morning at my desk, still following-up on some of the phone-calls that hadn’t got anywhere and sorting a few things at home at the same time followed by an afternoon off. When I worked in an office, a break away from the desk was usually over a coffee and to chat to others about something to do with business. Working from home, I take coffee at my desk and have to remember to move away from the screen before my eyes tell me to do so.

Call to action

What projects and assignments have you got running which might benefit from a fresh look to arrange and organise them and the resources? How well do you and your colleagues / associates communicate and arrange meetings and online discussions? If you’d like help in setting up or managing ongoing work demands, from fundamental time management techniques to project planning, please contact me on:

sue@suecohen.co.uk 020 8953 6477 / 07971 400653

Feel free to send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me –

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01

And, let me know what you think of the ebook and the The Lemon Club / webinar.

As always, your comments are welcome