Commercial awareness is an important skill for all leaders and managers in these challenging economic times. ICAS is running a course along with The Advance Consultancy on Commerciality on Wednesday 21st March in Edinburgh. For more information please contact Lauren Johnston at ljohnston@icas.org.uk
“Commerciality-Creating Competitive Advantage”
March 5th, 2012WEBINAR: “WHAT IS GOING TO BE BIG IN EMPLOYMENT LAW IN 2012?”
October 24th, 2011Tuesday 22nd November 12.30pm
Log on to: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/986548782
The Advance Consultancy has joined up with Simpson & Marwick to deliver a number of Employment Law Webinars starting on 22nd November. David Hughes, Employment Law Partner, with Simpson & Marwick, will be discussing the following:
“What is going to be big in Employment Law in 2012?
A look forward to some eagerly anticipated judgements that are expected to have a dramatic impact on key areas of employment law, and to legislative changes that will shape the development of employment law in 2012 and beyond.”
The webinar will be interactive so there will opportunity to ask David questions. We will also advise of up and coming Webinars and you can help shape the agenda. These will be run quarterly throughout 2012.
To join us, please log in to the link above.
We look forward to connecting!
Best wishes,
Kim and Esther
DAVID HUGHES, Employment Law Partner, Simpson & Marwick
David Hughes has specialised in employment law for more than 12 years and is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Employment Law. David has also successfully completed an assessment by CORE Mediation as a mediator. David practices in all areas of employment law and has particular experience and expertise in representing clients in the Employment Tribunal and the EAT throughout the UK. David also advises clients in relation to senior executive exits, discrimination law, unfair dismissal, redundancies, TUPE and general HR and employment law issues. David’s client base spans both public and private sector and offshore oil and gas industry. David has developed an expertise and interest in workplace mediation and regularly undertakes training courses for employers and employer federations and speaks at employment law and HR events.
Great transformational leaders – who are they?
July 12th, 2011We at the Advance Consultancy are experts in driving future performance, today. We passionately believe that leaders have a significant impact upon the success, or otherwise, of their business. We apply our expertise to support leaders to gain clarity on their impact and advise how they can harness their individual and collective talents to achieve their own and therefore their organisations full potential.
This is the third in a series of 3 newsletters about leadership styles. Across the series we have aimed to stimulate your thinking and get your thoughts, views and feedback on different styles of leadership; inspirational, situational and transformational.
This month we will review Transformational Leadership.
The hunt is on – who are the great transformational leaders?
Transformational leadership is a relatively new concept defined by James McGregor Burns in 1978. According to Burns there are only two types of leadership; transactional and transformational. Transactional is concerned with task and relies on a carrot and stick principle of motivating, as outlined in our last newsletter. Transformational leadership is concerned with getting the best from people. It is a longer term approach that supports each person in getting closer to their level of self actualisation. Great transformational leaders create followership. They act as role models and inspire people to develop and grow and fulfil their potential. The recipe for successful transformational leadership is that it focuses on building loyalty, trust and engagement of their people. That combined with a development focus delivers sustainable and heightened performance. It is a truly empowering style.
Great leaders such as Richard Branson and Bill Clinton are, in my view, great examples of charismatic leaders. Charismatic leadership allows the leader to create a fantastic vision and inspire people to follow. This style of leadership relies on the personality, brand and reputation of the individual. This is an important part of transformational leadership; however, there are other factors. These include;
• inspiring followers with challenge and persuasion,
• providing meaning and understanding to create a strong sense of purpose,
• intellectually stimulating followers to encourage a breadth of thinking
• Support and encourage development to allow followers to enhance their skills and achieve their full potential.
We would like to hear from you. Please tell us about who you believe to be great inspirational leaders.
Leadership in times of change
We were invited to comment on a recent article in Scotland on Sunday on leadership in different times and different situations, please see http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/business/Michelle-Rodger-You-can39t-play.6794895.jp?articlepage=1
We’d like to hear your experiences, have leaders in your organisation planned to change their style and approach to their leadership in times of change?
Please do get involved in our discussion. We are delighted to receive your feedback, hear about what you agree with and also what you disagree with. You can give us feedback via www.advanceconsultancy.co.uk or via twitter; Kim_Advance
To find out more about our areas of expertise visit www.advanceconsultancy.co.uk or contact Kim on 07941 938985.
The Advance Consultancy are sponsors of the HR Network Organisational Development Award, see http://www.hrnetworkjobs.com/index.php?action=notes/events&id=45
Advance Avatar TM
June 22nd, 2011“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
Antoine de Saint Exupery
This is one of my favourite quotes; it is a great reminder that to achieve anything, including success in business, it is much more than just a task. It reminds me of the importance of creating a vision, planning and most importantly inspiring, motivating and engaging my colleagues.
It is widely accepted that there is correlation between the impact of leadership and the bottom line results. Even in tough times, good leadership can translate into business success. The question that we are often asked by Leaders is, “what do we need to do to create or improve the leadership within our organisation.”
Over the last 4 years we have been working with business leaders and managers to improve their confidence and capability to deliver greater results for themselves and for their business. Over this time we have created a framework; the Advance Avatar that is delivering fantastic results. This framework identifies the 6 critical parts that make a business successful. The 3 essential must haves; Business Strategy, Commercialism and Change and the 3 enablers; Leadership, Relationship Management and Emotional Intelligence.
Many organisations use Employee Engagement Surveys to assess engagement and alignment. Sometimes, the information that is most valuable to the organisation is that which is not disclosed, either through non responses or through apathy. We use the Advance Avatar as an energising and engaging way to collect qualitative data on the perceptions of the leadership team and also a representative sample of employees. This creates two, sometimes very different, perceptions of the organisation. It is the gaps and differences that create thought provoking and stimulating discussion within the Leadership Team and informs a robust action plan.
The Advance Avatar also provides the framework on which to base Leadership and Management Development Programmes. We have developed a skills based management development programme that lays solid foundations for great management. We have also developed a leadership development programme that is an advanced programme and stimulates and challenges the leaders to consider how they lead in each of the 6 critical areas and also overall. The feedback on these programmes has been fantastic!
We formally launched the Advance Avatar yesterday at a breakfast event in Edinburgh. We used this opportunity to showcase how we use the Advance Avatar as a team building session. Our guests had a fantastic time, hooking ducks, choosing sweets and going to a library in a short fun filled session. The energy in the room was fantastic and at the end each guest had an avatar of their organisation. The overall feedback was that is had been a great experience and fun but more than that allowed the opportunity to stimulate thinking about the strengths and limitations of their organisation. The bigger questions that our guests took away to consider was;
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would their colleagues and teams create the same avatar?
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is the avatar that they created the right one to deliver the future plans of their organisation?
The Advance Avatar is a fantastic diagnostic. Over the coming months we will be hosting other events to outline the benefits of the Advance Avatar. Please do get intouch if you have any comments or feedback or if you would like more information.
Government backs employee engagement Task-Force – what deliverables do we need?
May 15th, 2011With a remit to ensure that a range of practical support is available to organisations including employee engagement best practice and a place for debate and online support, the task-force has the backing of David Cameron: “This task force has my full support because I know that it will bring together two of my government’s top priorities – delivering sustainable growth across the UK, and coming up with new approaches to help people improve their wellbeing”.
David MacLeod and Nita Clarke (Chair and Vice Chair of the task-force) who produced the 2009 report ‘Engaging for Success’, lead a team with academics, representatives from blue chips and government bodies together with experts including the CIPD and Best Companies.
Almost without exception, commentators on the recent launch have welcomed it warmly. As we await its outputs, it’s perhaps a good time for HR to consider what’s needed.
‘Engaging for Success’ captures findings from various studies and presents a compelling business case for improving employee engagement. The evidence confirms a strong relationship between engagement and financial performance including :
- 26% higher revenue per employee,
- operating income levels increased by 19%
- 13% higher total returns to shareholders over five years.
So that covers the ‘why’ questions. The report also tackles some of the ‘whats’. Many definitions of engagement are provided – old wine in new bottles perhaps as employee engagement clearly goes hand in hand with good leadership. But to achieve real benefits, improving engagement must be both transformational and transactional. A valuable deliverable might be a framework for a consistent, strategic approach that may have been lacking in the past?
David Macleod has also suggested some answers to the ‘who’ questions; ‘it is the duty of HR to be clear what the evidence around engagement is and to make it understandable to both business and employees’. But it’s in the business –at all levels – where accountability and responsibility for engagement lie.
Perhaps the most difficult questions begin with the word ‘how’. How to secure buy-in from key stakeholders to mobilise the entire organisation? How to support the business to develop the right end to end communication and action plans? And how to ensure that plans are delivered even after the spotlight is off and there are a number of competing priorities.
The task-force might answer some of those questions but are unlikely to give us ‘magic bullets’. Businesses embarking on a strategic employee engagement journey will continue to require a great road map translated for that organisation, multiple stakeholder buy-in, resilience and time!
The launch has created a new focus on engagement and already some commitment to action. As suppliers of people to us all, even recruitment consultancies are assessing their own engagement strategy. Search Consultancy has appointed Advance Consultancy as part of their business change and transformation strategy. Simone Lockhart, Managing Director says that ‘recruitment is in a new phase and we recognise that employee engagement is key to delivering our growth plans.’
Strategic employee engagement has been a passion of mine for some time and I have a continually developing framework from experiences at several organisations. Whilst we await Task Force outputs, you might find it useful:
- Create a compelling vision, values and clear strategic imperatives
- Align engagement ambitions to strategy – ‘engage’ people to do the right things
- Communicate, communicate, communicate
- Manage multiple stakeholders throughout.
- How engaged are your employees now?
- Ask the right questions. How do employees think / feel / act? Measure success over time but remember that no-one ever fattened a pig by simply weighing it!
- Respond
- Create a win-win for your people and the business
- And finally
- Create accountability and deliver on promises!
What sort of Leader do you want to be – Inspirational?
May 15th, 2011We at the Advance Consultancy are experts in driving future performance, today. We passionately believe that leaders have a significant impact upon the success, or otherwise, of their business. We apply our expertise to support leaders to gain clarity on their impact and advise how they can harness their individual and collective talents to achieve their own and therefore their organisations full potential.
Over the coming quarter, we want to stimulate thinking and hopefully discussion on different styles of leadership.
This month we will review Inspirational Leadership.
Martin Luther King Jnr – an Inspirational Leader
‘I have a dream….’ those are the immortal word of Martin Luther King; recognisable by most of us – even if we know nothing about the rest of his speech! He is often described as one of the most inspirational leaders in modern history.
It is useful to pause for a second to consider what he achieved. Was it the movement to achieve equality for black people in the USA? He was certainly the catalyst for this and that was the outcome. But, in my view, he created something much more powerful and that was he created followership.
Charisma was one of many leadership qualities at Martin Luther King’s disposal. He recognised, however, that charisma was not a sufficient basis for leadership in a modern political movement. Charisma is focussed typically upon one individual where as success relied upon enlisting numerous talented and self-reliant leaders.
Martin Luther King had a strong self awareness. Rather than exhibiting unwavering confidence in his power and wisdom, King was a leader full of self-doubts, keenly aware of his own limitations and human weaknesses. He was at times reluctant to take on the responsibilities suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon him. During the Montgomery bus boycott he led from the front. He put himself and his family at risk and gave others the choice to do the same. This was not an arrogant or naive act, for example, when he worried about threats to his life and to the lives of his wife and child, he was overcome with fear rather than confident and secure in his leadership role. His apparent vulnerability and natural ‘human’ frailties’ served to create an emotional bond with his followers.
In addition, he understood and utilised his skills and talents effectively. He was an expert communicator with the ability to structure an intellectual, objective and compelling debate. The foundation of all of this was his unwavering belief and passion that what he was doing was absolutely right. He did not always understand what to do or how to do it but he had absolute clarity about why it was important and why change was essential. It was this that created a vision that people sought to follow at an emotional and rational level.
What are the lessons that we can learn from Martin Luther King and other inspirational leaders;
• Raise your level of self awareness – acknowledge your talents and also your limitations
• Have absolute belief in what you want to achieve – this will show through as passion.
• Communicate a compelling vision; this is a story of two halves – rational and emotional
• Engage the best talent and empower them to take the vision and deliver it
• Trust your own judgement and those that support your own vision
Please do get involved in our discussion. We are delighted to receive your feedback, hear about what you agree with and also what you disagree with. You can give us feedback via www.advanceconsultancy.co.uk or via twitter; Kim_Advance
To find out more about our areas of expertise visit www.advanceconsultancy.co.uk or contact Kim on 07941 938985 or Shona on 0771016 3800
The Advance Consultancy are sponsors of the HR Network Organisational Development Award, see http://www.hrnetworkjobs.com/index.php?action=notes/events&id=45
Next Month, Situational Leadership
The Advance Consultancy supports the Scottish Association for Mental Health campaign
November 23rd, 2010We are happy to be one of the first Scottish employers to support a new campaign by SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health), called “Dismissed?” The campaign, aimed at Scottish businesses, is about making employers aware of the importance of supporting mental health in the workplace. Almost 3 in 10 employees will have a mental health problem of some kind, ranging from stress and depression to more severe conditions.
With proper support from their employers and colleagues, people can be happier in their work and avoid some mental health problems before they start. And when they do suffer mental health problems, they can return to work sooner, in the knowledge that they won’t be judged by their colleagues. And because mentally healthy people take fewer days sick leave, Scottish employers can save money too – up to £1 million in total, according to research. If you would like more information on the great work done by SAMH, see http://www.samh.org.uk/
The key to implementing change successfully
November 12th, 2010We are just starting to understand the extent of the public sector spending review and the potential impact on both the public and private sectors. Restructures, redundancies and role re-definement are inevitable. Over the last decade or so changes of this sort, although not of this magnitude, have become common place. The processes that support successful implementation and keep businesses within the law are now well documented and practiced.
What makes any change successful is not adherence to the policies or processes it is down to the skill and confidence of managers to have difficult conversations. To tell someone that they are redundant having worked with and been friends with that person for say, 10 years must surely be one of the most difficult things for a manager to do.
We are currently working with a number of organisations to enable their managers to have effective conversations that are aligned to the emotions of the change curve and are focussed upon gaining acceptance. These critical conversations deliver positive results for the business, support the team’s acceptance and leave the manager and the individual with a respectful relationship which can endure the change.
Please do get in touch if your organisation is about to go through change or if you would like to raise your managers’ competence and confidence in having critical conversations.
Quote of the Month
It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It’s the one that is the most adaptable to change.’ Charles Darwin
Record beating performances
October 29th, 2010We often look to great achievements to help us understand what motivated and created peak performance. One that I find particularly interesting happened on 6 May 1954 when Roger Bannister, a 25 year old medical student, became the first man to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. He achieved a time of 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. It was a carefully planned race and he was aided by two pacesetters. This was an achievement that had previously been thought impossible and Roger Bannister’s success was widely recognised by the media. Having achieved his goal he retired from athletics that same year to concentrate on his medical studies.
What makes this remarkable was that once the record was beaten it set a new goal and within a month Australian, John Landy achieved a new record time of 3 minutes, 57.9 seconds.
In an extensive research project conducted by Healthstream Research it was concluded that managers who achieve business results are more likely to demonstrate four basic competencies:
* Goal Setting
* Communication
* Trust
* Accountability
What Roger Bannister’s 4 minute mile clearly demonstrates is that in addition to these competencies recognition accelerates performance and inspires others to fulfill their true potential.