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lessons for good leaders


Hector Ortiz & Kristin Supancich

2 | seven lessons for good leaders

01

forget experience, focus on vision

Senior leaders, HR professionals and management consultants are always trying to answer the perennial question, what makes a good leader? For all the testing and performance coaching on earth, nothing tells us more than employees actual experiences of being led. Consistently, employees say a positive leadership style that responds to their individual needs, and the ability to provide a clear vision and direction are what they want most from their leaders.

Across all generations and regions, these two factors (leadership style and vision) consistently rate above issues of communication, personality and experience. In fact, less than 5% of employees feel that experience is the key factor in determining leadership ability. When we consider that experience is perhaps the most prevalent way employers assess peoples suitability for promotion, there is a significant disconnect here between employer expectations and employee experience.

To improve leaders performance, employers will need to reconsider the way they seek and promote talent in their organization. Many employees indicate willingness to accept inexperienced leaders if they demonstrate the right leadership style, and organizations must adapt to pinpoint and build leadership skills, rather than assuming they will simply develop over time.

A leadership style they can relate to, and the ability to deliver a clear vision is what employees want most from their leaders.

home

01 Forget experience, focus on vision

02 Educate about differences

03 Dissatisfaction is high

04 recognize and reward whats working

05 prepare your people for the future

06 rethink your leadership culture

07 understand what youre doing right

conclusion

get the full report

3 | seven lessons for good leaders

02

EDUCATE ABOUT GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES, LOOK FOR NATURAL CONNECTIONS

Generation X consistently rates as the generation most favored for their leadership ability, with most of that support coming from peers and Generation Y. While Baby Boomers are yet to provide their seal of approval to Gen X leaders specifically, they are just as likely as younger workers to believe that age has no bearing on leadership ability. Generation X and Baby Boomers are the most confident of their own leadership abilities and around half rate their peers as having the best

leadership qualities. These two older generations also consistently display a lack of confidence in Generation Ys leadership abilities, and it seems Generation Ys themselves agree with this assessment. Although Generation Ys rate themselves higher than their older counterparts, fewer than one in ten feel their own generation has displayed good leadership qualities thus far. Rather than taking these assessments purely on face value, we should think seriously about what this is saying

about human relationships. We relate to our own generation best, and particularly when were just starting out in our careers, we prefer to be managed by someone not too distant in age from ourselves. Large age gaps have the tendency to invoke feelings of being misunderstood, but its true that there are significant differences in attitude and work style across the generations. So, to create strong leaders, you need to give them a solid grounding in what makes the different generations tick.

Generation X is singled out as the group with the strongest leadership ability, but what is this really telling us?

home

01 Forget experience, focus on vision

02 Educate about differences

03 Dissatisfaction is high

04 recognize and reward whats working

05 prepare your people for the future

06 rethink your leadership culture

07 understand what youre doing right

conclusion

get the full report

4 | seven lessons for good leaders

03

DISSATISFACTION IS HIGHITS TIME TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

Employees worldwide give their managers only a marginal pass mark for overall performance in the way they lead their teams. Across all regions, managers score just 6.4 out of a possible 10 pointswell below the high-performance level that many companies would hope to be achieving. Its tempting to dismiss this as employees simply asking too much of managers, yet the widespread

nature of this assessment suggests that peoples experiences of leadership are generally average at best. If this is the case, the prospects of employees learning strong leadership skills from their managers are low and companies need to consider how to teach and promote the concept of leadership more directly. To put it simply, we need to stop thinking strong leaders are going to come out of environments with consistently poor leadership examples to learn from.

Generation Y employees consistently rate the performance of their managers above those in older generations, but even here the difference is only small. There is only a single points difference between the lowest rating and the highestGen Ys in the Americas are most satisfied with their managers performance (6.9 points), while Baby Boomers and Gen Xers in EMEA are the least satisfied, awarding their managers just 5.9 points on average.

Employees are largely dissatisfied with the leadership they experienceand older workers are more so.

home

01 Forget experience, focus on vision

02 Educate about differences

03 Dissatisfaction is high

04 recognize and reward whats working

05 prepare your people for the future

06 rethink your leadership culture

07 understand what youre doing right

conclusion

get the full report

5 | seven lessons for good leaders

04

RECOGNIZE AND REWARD WHATS WORKING

Less than half of employees (44%) feel that their efforts at work are recognized and rewarded. This means that they do not receive feedback, incentives or bonuses of any kind for high performance. Across all generations, employees in EMEA are less satisfied than those in other regions and the average positive response was just 38% compared with APACs 50% and 49% in the Americas.

The most common form of recognition is simply that employees skills are noticed by management. Across the regions, the ways that employees reported being recognized and rewarded was consistent, although slightly more people in EMEA are being rewarded for their efforts with bonuses and incentives than elsewhere.

Recognition for achievement is paramount to an engaged workforce. People do not necessarily look for financial reward, but they do expect exceptional efforts to be noticed. With half of employees not receiving even the most basic recognition for a job well done, leaders need to rethink their role in motivating their teams.

When things are working well, its easy to become complacent, but employees notice when theyre not being noticed.

home

01 Forget experience, focus on vision

02 Educate about differences

03 Dissatisfaction is high

04 recognize and reward whats working

05 prepare your people for the future

06 rethink your leadership culture

07 understand what youre doing right

conclusion

get the full report

6 | seven lessons for good leaders

05

PREPARE YOUR PEOPLE FOR THE FUTURE

One of the most telling results from the survey is the way employees feel about their boss ability to prepare employees for the future. In every region and across all generations, employees feel that this is a task their leaders are not living up to. Older workers are far more likely to believe that their manager has failed to prepare them for future success, and employees in the EMEA region are far less satisfied with the preparation theyve been given by their leaders than those in other regions.

Generation Ys in the Americas feel the most positive about their ability to achieve future success. Half of employees in this group (49%) say their manager has prepared them well. The least positive group is Baby Boomers in EMEAjust 29% feel they are adequately prepared for the future and put this down to the efforts of their employer. For younger workers, change is often easier because it is expected, and managers are focused on their development and training needs

because they are seen as having the most to learn. In practice, this may be ignoring the specific needs of older workers. Ensuring adequate training and support is in place for older workers to keep pace with all kinds of change, not just technological change, is critical to keeping them engaged in the workplaceas critical talent shortages begin to really tighten, youre going to need to hold on to older workers longer, so this will be a key challenge for leaders in the short to medium term.

If employees are not well-prepared for future success, how will your organization execute its strategy?

home

01 Forget experience, focus on vision

02 Educate about differences

03 Dissatisfaction is high

04 recognize and reward whats working

05 prepare your people for the future

06 rethink your leadership culture

07 understand what youre doing right

conclusion

get the full report

7 | seven lessons for good leaders

06

RETHINK YOUR LEADERSHIP CULTURE

Many employees are unhappy with the leadership culture of their organization, and this is a key factor in not recommending their workplace to othersif you want to build a strong employment brand, this is clearly something that must be addressed. Less than half of employees describe the leadership culture of their organization positively. While 48% of employees feel that their leadership culture is empowering or inclusive, the rest feel it is authoritative, oppressive or are unsure how to describe it. Generation Y appears to feel slightly more positive about the leadership culture of their organization than

older generations, but the results are remarkably consistent across all generations. Employees in EMEA are more inclined to describe their organizations leadership culture as inclusive than elsewhere, but very similar proportions of people in all regions described their leadership culture negatively. With less than half of employees feeling positive about the leadership culture in their organization, it seems the way leaders engage with staff is failing to resonate. Leadership and management issues topped the list of reasons why employees would not recommend their employer to others. The more general response of a poor

work environment also accounted for almost one in five negative assessments of a workplace to others. Its important to consistently remind managers that poor leadership is still the number one complaint of employees. If leadership scores are low and feedback for particular individuals or areas is poor, this will likely be the main reason for attrition. Trying to avoid the obvious or hope that dissatisfied employees will leave and be replaced by satisfied ones is burying ones head in the sand. Good leadership must occur all the way up the lineand that means making tough decisions when the evidence is there to do so.

A poor leadership culture is a key reason employees will fail to recommend their employer to others.

home

01 Forget experience, focus on vision

02 Educate about differences

03 Dissatisfaction is high

04 recognize and reward whats working

05 prepare your people for the future

06 rethink your leadership culture

07 understand what youre doing right

conclusion

get the full report

8 | seven lessons for good leaders

07

UNDERSTAND WHAT YOURE DOING RIGHT

Despite the criticisms people have of their leaders, more than half are highly likely to recommend their current employer to friends and acquaintances. There is a slight decrease in this sentiment as workers age, yet overall the difference is relatively small. The biggest difference is seen in EMEA, where 55% of Generation Ys are highly likely to recommend their employer, yet just 46% of Gen Xers and 44% of Baby Boomers say they would do the same. When asked what drives employees to recommend their employer,

most say it is because of a positive work environment, however, work environment becomes less important as workers age, yet the nature and challenge of the work becomes significantly more important. For Generation Ys, just 16% felt the nature or challenge of the work they did was the main reason for recommending their employer to others, yet almost one-quarter of Baby Boomers (23%) said this was the main driver of recommendations. Compensation was the lowest rated issue for employees of all age groups, with just 5% saying this was the main

reason they would highly recommend their employer to others. Keeping Gen Ys challenged and interested is a given. Achieving this may not directly contribute to their overall satisfaction, but NOT doing it will certainly lead to dissatisfaction its an expectation rather than a nice-to-have. For older generations however, this is a differentiating factor of employersto keep them in the workplace for longer, employers will need to think outside the square in keeping the nature of the work that their experienced staff conduct challenging and interesting.

Its not all bad news for leaders, so figure out how to capitalize on your strengths.

home

01 Forget experience, focus on vision

02 Educate about differences

03 Dissatisfaction is high

04 recognize and reward whats working

05 prepare your people for the future

06 rethink your leadership culture

07 understand what youre doing right

conclusion

get the full report

9 | seven lessons for good leaders

conclusion

If management is doing things right and leadership is doing the right things, what exactly are these right things? How do we know when were doing them and when were not? The latest findings from the 2011 Kelly Global Workforce Index show that leadership culture and practice is failing to fulfill employees needs and expectationsand for companies looking to strengthen their employment brand, this is a clear opportunity. The way we learn to lead seems doomed if organizations are simply leaving the process up to existing managers. With such consistent poor feedback from employees globally, its time for organizations to take this issue to heart and find solutions. The seven practices that employees themselves are asking leaders to change are: 1. Forget experience, focus on vision: find and develop people who can convey a strong sense of vision and direction rather than promoting people based on age or experience. 2. Understand the generational differences & promote natural connections: the way the generations lead and respond are differentno matter whos leading who, this needs to be top of mind to avoid conflict. 3. When dissatisfaction is high, act: dont sweep negative feedback under the carpet and wait for it to go away. If leadership is contributing to attrition, it wont change unless you address the leadership behaviors. 4. Recognize and reward whats working: employees who are excelling dont necessarily need large bonuses, but they do need you to notice. 5. Prepare your people for the future: ensure ongoing training and development is appropriate right across peoples career, regardless of age. 6. Rethink your leadership culture: lead by example and show you mean what you say. 7. Understand what youre doing right: capitalize on your strengths and share these good practices broadly. Strategic execution is dependent on your people, and without the right leadership, change will continue to be a burden rather than an opportunity. Employees themselves offer the best insights into whats working and whats not, so ask them and then be ready to act.

home

01 Forget experience, focus on vision

02 Educate about differences

03 Dissatisfaction is high

04 recognize and reward whats working

05 prepare your people for the future

06 rethink your leadership culture

07 understand what youre doing right

conclusion

get the full report

This ebook is extracted from Leading by Example. Why Managers are Failing to Create Strong Employment Brands.
Download your FREE copy today.

About the Authors Hector Ortiz is Operations Director & General Manager, Puerto Rico for Kelly Services. Hector holds a bachelors degree in business administration from the University of Puerto Rico and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in management information systems and marketing from the University of the Sacred Heart in Puerto Rico. Kristin Supancich is vice president and general manager of Canadian Operations for Kelly Services. Kristin holds a bachelors degree in Communications from the University of California-San Diego. About the Kelly Global Workforce Index The Kelly Global Workforce Index is an annual survey revealing opinions about work and the workplace from a generational viewpoint. Approximately 97,000 people from the Americas, APAC and EMEA responded to the 2011 survey with results published on a quarterly basis. Kelly Services was the recipient of a MarCom Platinum Award in 2010 and a Gold Award in 2009 for the Kelly Global Workforce Index in the Research/Study category. About Kelly Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: KELYA, KELYB)is a leader in providing workforce solutions. Kelly offers a comprehensive array of outsourcing and consulting services as well as world-class staffing on a temporary, temporary-to-hire and direct-hire basis. Serving clients around the globe, Kelly provides employment to more than 530,000 employees annually. Revenue in 2010 was $5 billion. Visit www.kellyservices.com and connect with us onFacebook,LinkedIn, &Twitter.

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