I was interested to listen to BBCs Bottom Line last night to hear the discussion on how CEOs weaknesses

One answer given to “What are your weaknesses?” replied that “understanding weaknesses were really strengths”…much laughter.
However the statement is so true. In my work I’ve met a few CEO’s who suffer from an excess of ego and self-confidence and find it difficult to admit to weaknesses. This reduces effectiveness and encourages those around the CEO to fail to challenge thinking. Having one’s thinking challenged is always healthy and being aware that not being able to answer a question posed by an employee doesn’t mean I’m stupid!

Interestingly I was surprised that none of the people on Evan Davis’ panel (John Molton, Deborah Meeton and David Haynes) admitted to having a mentor of coach and yet they all agreed that a mentor can bring a person “Back to earth”. They also agreed that a mentoring programme should tell you what you “shouldn’t be doing” as well as what you should. It’s certainly part of the Assimilating-Talent mentoring programme.

One of the final lines was “I go to the right people (for advice)”.
I think that’s essential if you are to get a quality mentor.
So perhaps the panel DO have mentors…It’s just that their EGO insists on calling them something else

Stephen Harvard Davis

Have you noticed there’s a lot of discussion from employers on how eduction is failing to provide people with the skills and knowledge needed. IT companies complain that graduates can’t understand background programmes, Senior executives despair that new hires don’t know how to communicate, employers shake their heads at qualifications that don’t provide the skills for work that employers are seeking.

Mission Critical opportunities being lost
Yesterday I was contacted by a CEO who told me that a “new hire” he had employed last year “wasn’t working out”. It seemed that the qualification and some experience hadn’t given the new hire the skills the job required and mission critical opportunities were being lost. 

What to do?
Larger companies are sponsoring education programmes to ensure they are
able to hire the skills they need but smaller businesses can’t afford to
do that. So what to do?
When recruiting it’s worth investigating the content and syllabus of qualifications if they are critical to the job skills. Then test them. If computer skills are required test them as part of the interview process. If communication or management skills are required for the job then these too can be tested at the interview stage.

Where skills are being recruited it’s a matter of “Employer be aware”

Did you read that the CIPD (Chartered Institute for Personnel development) conference discussed how HR should become more business savvy to increase their impact.

Too little influence
For years the CIPD have been moaning that HR has too little influence at senior levels in so many businesses. One solution given to the conference was to “Discuss business challenges as opposed to HR Issues”.

Changing attitudes
The problem with this strategy is to persuade CEO’s, Directors and other Executives that HR is able to discuss “Business issues” when they have been used to discussing only HR and as a reaction to events as opposed to a developer of strategy.

In my experience such a change in emphasis would be easier for a “New Hire” HR Director or manager rather than a current incumbent!

It’s Halloween but twice last week I came across a gory story that sent a shiver down my back. They were both business teams that were failing because the leaders of the team had recruited people without establishing or following procedures.

I won’t go into the blood curdling details of each story, just to say that they were messy, very messy. The results were taking up more management time than would have been needed had the leader made correct employment checks, developed need assessments and written work briefs and so on.

Is it laziness, desire to save money or a feeling that “It’ll probably be OK”?.
I don’t know the answer, except that team leaders with such problems are often surprised when they’re told that that it’s their fault the problem exists!

The costs?
Classically between 10 to 25 times the salary of the failed individual or the whole team if that fails.
So a salary of £40,000 can cost up to a whopping £1,000,000.
Now if that’s not an incentive for CEO’s and company recruiters to get it right first time then nothing will be

Maria had a meeting with the CEO this morning and has been told that due to unsatisfactory performance she is being moved from HR to leading an administration team.
 
As she is within the twelve month probationary period the decision is within this time-scale, however, the CEO is reluctant to dismiss her as she is a “senior member of staff” and he wants to be seen to be as supportive as possible to his senior team.

John will take over as head of HR and Maria will start in her new role on Monday.

Maria asked what alternatives she had and was told that either she accepted the situation or was dismissed as per her contract of engagement. Maria has left to go home early.

Maria has been calling in sick with stress and a cold.

In the meantime her assistant is solidifying his position.
The CEO and Sales Director are coming to rely on John more and more and have already identified him as a successor to Maria when she leaves.

It’s likely that on Maria’s return from her illness that a meeting to “discuss her position and future” will be arranged.

At a meeting this afternoon with the MD Maria was told that her performance was not what had been anticipated.The MD told her that:

1. She has alienated her team
2. Provided poor advice to him and other Directors.

He has offered to help where he can but has suggested that the efficiency and reputation of HR must improve quickly or further action (unspecified) will have to follow.

Maria has replied that her existing team is “weak on change” but that her new assistant manager starts next week and that improvements will be expected soon after.

Maria is blaming her team for her recent loss of face by advising her to cancel the free lunches for part-time staff, only to have to reverse the decision once the CEO’s wife, a part-time worker, failed to give the CEO his dinner. (See previous posts).

It seems that she has targeted her wrath onto her Assistant Manager, Christine, and reduced Christine to tears as she told her that no one liked her or respected her work! Maria has left work to go home early but Christine is receiving tea and sympathy from outraged members of Maria’s HR department.

After having to reverse her decision to cancel lunch for part time staff (see previous post) Maria is defending herself to anyone that will listen and complaining about being made to “look stupid by the CEO”.

What is interesting is that the incident is viewed as being mildly amusing by most people, who attach no blame to herself, but as Maria continues to defend herself for the error she’s seen as alienating the CEO. The consequences of this are that those people who would normally support her are gravitating towards the CEO. Perhaps others are detecting that support for Maria from the CEO is beginning to fade?

Maria called her team to a meeting and informed them that the CEO and FD have asked her to find a quick result that would provide a financial saving.

Her team went away and after some discussion between them have suggested that substantial savings could be made by withdrawing free canteen lunches from part-time staff. It was estimated that savings could amount to over £12,000 pa. This was considered an excellent idea and free meals for part time staff were withdrawn.

That night, last Thursday, the CEO returned home to find that his wife, who works part-time in the accounts department, and children were eating but that there was no meal for him. On enquiring why he was told by his wife, “you’re not feeding me at lunch so I’m not feeding you at night”.

Maria has been asked to replace the free meal allowance for all part-time staff. Naturally, she is a bit agrieved at this loss of face and is blaming her team for the suggestion.