The Thank You Economy

A fresh (relatively - 2011) read on the importance of relationships and taking care of your customer. The authors explore various ways of connecting to those who buy your products and services, placing a specific emphasis on the role of various social media.

The key take-aways from The Thank You Economy summarized by Get Abstract:

• Your great-grandparents grew up in a world where good customer relationships mattered.
• But corporations’ restless pursuit of profits has led to the elimination of all unnecessary niceties in order to cut costs.
• Social media have returned power to the customer, making firms more mannerly and creating the “Thank You Economy,” which cares “obsessively” about customers.
• The “culture of caring” must start at the top and reverberate through the organization.
• If you want your culture of caring to reach the customer, your employees must share your philosophy. Care more about them than about your clients or your competition.
• Interactions with your customers must be heartfelt, visceral and authentic.
• If your forays into social media haven’t worked, you’re probably doing it wrong.
• Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to social media initiatives. “Use shock and awe to blow your customers’ minds and get them talking.”
• Despite – and due to – technological advances, marketing is more difficult now than ever.
• Social media likely will change in the future as new technologies give rise to new ideas and platforms, but the vibrant, vocal online community is here to stay.

What to Do with Millennials?

Millennials have arrived. They are young, energetic and numerous. Their arrogance makes your blood boil and their contempt for authority is exemplary. From workplace amusement they are turning into a palpable economic threat for older generations. I am one of them.

I read Managing the Millennials during my Christmas vacation this year. It's an easy read - something that you would swallow in a gulp being caressed by the easy breeze of the ocean, or maybe you are really struggling with these intrusive, obnoxious and outstandingly creative youngsters that are flooding the workplace. I recognized myself. It was not always a very pleasant revelation: there are Gen Y traits that I am not particularly fond of but it was an empowering experience to read about myself and understanding why I was succeeding or failing in various situations in the past.

It is a cute attempt at trying to reach out to the managers of older generations and trying to explain to them (and teach them) how the Millenials can be managed. It's spelling out the co-habitation rules with the youngsters. The way the information is presented was not appealing to me personally because

• it is too americanized (the statistics, the examples, the way it is narrated, etc.)
• it is too structured (I thought immediately that a consultant was writing it, and later I found out there were three of them)
• it is written for older generations only (man, that should be clearly stated at the title page: 35+ only!). While it is instructive to read about your own generation (doing the reflective rounds in your head on your own Weltanschaung), the style and manner have not been adapted for my likes, so I guess the authors have lost a large chunk of potential readers and admirers.

Secondly, they offer an interactive self-assessment tool online. It's something like ten pages of questions with no pictures or conversations in them and at the end they promise to send you the personalized report the following day as a "thank you" for participation. I have received a confirmation message that my answers have been submitted, but I am still waiting for the report until this very moment. Dudes, that's not cool.

Among many others, one idea I liked in particular: I think it was very creative on the part of the authors to draw parallels between the Maslow's theory of needs and how different generations relate to work. It is summarized in the picture below: while for the earlier generation merely having a job was already God's blessing, for Millennials work is a way to express themselves, and changing a job for this "texter" generation sometimes is as easy as post an update on Facebook.

Summary: if you are interested in another behavioral model (now adapted to fit the generations theory), give it a go and spend a couple of hours with the book. Otherwise, I guarantee that the world will not sift away from under your feet if you spend your time on something else. Having a cup of coffee with a Millennial, maybe. After all, to understand one, you need to talk to one. Ta!

Welcome to Year 2030: How Megatrends Shape Workplace

I've snatched this video from the November issue of the Hay Group Leader:

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Neatly done and brings home in a clear and convincing way that you'll be a success if you jump on the wave of six megatrends transforming leadership and the ways how we work:

• GlobalizationIndividualism and value pluralism
• Changing demographics 
• Digital lifestyle
• Climate change and environmental impacts 
• Technology convergence

You will also find all these ideas if you read the Future of Work blog by Lynda Gratton. Great minds think alike, genial ideas converge, or there is no other option - I am not sure which would be the logical explanation, but exciting reading, hey! Provokes thinking: time to start my own solar panel company :)

The Shift: Take the Reins of Your Career

The companies are fighting an uphill battle at getting employees in when they are most needed (Just-In-Time Hiring) and keeping them motivated and engaged:

A global Gallup survey found that at the average big firm only 33% of employees describe themselves as fully engaged in their work, 49% say they are not engaged and 18% say they are “actively disengaged”.

Yet, I am not totally convinced that it is solely the organization that should bear the burden of fostering engagement. The employees are just as responsible for making their jobs exciting and meaningful.

Last month The Economist published a special report My Big Fat Career where the key ideas are

• The workplace is changing; information on employers and employees is balancing off; and you need to learn how to play the information battles

• Invest in your own development

• Stick with the right people

No question about this: workers have to take responsibility for their own future. For many the mantra will be "continuous learning, continuous learning, continuous learning". However, educational institutions from nursery schools up to universities are doing a poor job at instilling the idea of life-long learning. Most educational systems are built on two theories:

• The Pickle Theory: a cucumber put in marinade has no other choice but to pickle, and
• The Squirrel Theory: you should get your mushrooms and nuts now (get the knowledge!), maybe you will need in later in winter (when the crisis comes).

 So how do we prepare ourselves? If nobody really cares about our long-term career success either because of ignorance, powerlessness or lack of interest, it is you personally against the dragons. Fortunately, there are many who would help - help is often given to those who seek and those who deserve.

There is one thinker, author, professor and inspirational speaker that I would like to mention in this regard. In her book “The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here”  Lynda Gratton of the London Business School talks about the changes that we need to make in ourselves to create value-add jobs that we will enjoy.

According to Ms Gratton, people will also have to invest more in their personal “social capital”, which will involve three elements:

1. First, build yourself a “posse”, a small group of up to 15 people they can turn to when the going gets rough. They should have some expertise in common, have built up trust in each other and be able to work effectively together.

2. Second, you need a “big-ideas crowd” who can keep you mentally fresh. This echoes the discussion of “managed serendipity” in last year’s business bestseller, “The Power of Pull”, in which John Hagel and John Seely Brown argued that the successful worker of the future will live in clusters of talented, open-minded people and spend a lot of time going to thought-provoking conferences.

3. Third, you need a “regenerative community” to maintain your emotional capital, meaning family and friends in the real world “with whom you laugh, share a meal, tell stories and relax”.

Listen to Lynda talking about her new book and get inspired. Stop whining a-la "they don't appreciate me" and start paving your own road to happiness.

Executive Coaching: A Guide for the HR Professional

There are a great plenty of books about coaching, some good and some atrocious. I have read many of those and should I have not had the pleasure of being coached on how to coach, I am pretty sure that I would not have been able to grasp the essence of the process merely by reading the literature. Well, surely books are necessary to provide you with perspectives, add structure and equip you with numerous tools and frameworks, but it's actually coaching and practice that will turn you into a good coach.

Most books will try to teach you how to become a coach. This one that I have just finished reading has a slightly different objective as you can gather from its title: Executive Coaching: A Guide for the HR Professional.


This is not a new coaching technique or philosophy. Actually, as a coaching textbook it's pretty useless. I can recommend you others that would be much better if it is your own skills honing that you are after, e.g.:
          - The Skilled Helper
          - Leader as Coach
          - Co-Active Coaching
          - and many many others
But if you work in HR and you need to come up with an effective and low-cost strategy for developing critical staff, you might find it worth reading.

The authors in an easy and non-intrusive manner tell us when and how to assess the need for a coaching intervention, how to gain the senior leadership buy-in, figure out the ROI and set up a network of those who need development help and those who can provide it. Besides, I was pleasantly surprised that Executive Coaching: A Guide for the HR Professional addressed such issues as:

• role definitions and clarity: where do the power lines in the HR/client/coach/boss lie and how to navigate the underwater currents;
• HR issues: confidentiality, involvement, budget, etc.;
• coaching populations: HiPos, expatriates, female talent, diversity groups, cross-cultural, etc.; 
• tools: a selection of questionnaires, forms and templates that any HR needs; 
• special topics when coaching is most needed, especially when we deal with high-fliers: assimilation coaching, executive development and coaching, multi-cultural issues, coaching and diversity.

It is an easy read: I doubt that it will take you longer than a couple of hours to get through the book. It is good reference material and your colleagues would appreciate if you lend it to them, whether they are employees, line managers, senior management or HR - this manual can appeal to a breadth of audiences. Actually, being a decent overview of the subject, I think this book is a good way to begin your relationship with the exciting sphere of coaching.

I had to learn the hard way. When we set up the coaching network back in Shell South Africa, I was not fully prepared to coach managers who were much higher than me in the hierarchy. I did have the support of two professional psychologists, to whom I could bring my cases for discussion and guidance, but that was post-mortem - with the client it always was one-on-one and at times I was simply freaking out. Often I had to make a tough conscientious effort to draw the demarcation line between me as a coach and me as an HR. Under the strict confidentiality agreement that we agreed upon at the very beginning of coaching, I could not use any of the information revealed to me in the coaching sessions in my professional HR capacity, and at times it was really difficult. There were instances of "scope creep" when, for instance, while I was supposed to do leadership coaching, I had to deal with personal problems of a crumbling marriage. At times I had to face situations when the coaching process became a political battle. Going through such experiences makes you a better professional and a better coach, but you can't learn that by reading a book.