Not one of us, Mate! Diversity - Changing Mindset

There is a severe skills shortage in the Western World, driven by demographics. Clearly the talent pool needs to be deepened, but the question is how.

And it is not just a matter of recruiting talented people in all their many permutations; it is also a matter of how an organisation can create an inclusive environment and culture in which diverse people flourish and stay. Rene Nathan, Executive Coach consults to Mettle Group on Diversity in the Workplace – its not just about Gender and spoke recently on this topic at the AIM (NSW) Leadership Special Interest Group.

It is apparent to me that in order to create such an environment we need to address the obstacle of exclusion. This reveals itself in behaviours that are largely unconscious and hard wired by long social practice. These unconscious drivers of exclusion are powerful and are difficult to address and change unless they can be explained in a way that is rational, unemotional and clear. In this article I propose not only a way of ‘seeing’ the dynamics of exclusion at work, but also how organisations can address the issue and effect change in behaviours, mindset and the culture from one of exclusion to one of inclusion.

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The Neuroscience of Leadership and Culture

We live in a world that at last is attempting to learn between disciplines: religion informing science, science informing business, business informing psychology, psychology informing marketing, marketing informing technology, among others.

A few years ago, Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence and many other leadership books, gathered together a group of physicists, Buddhists, psychiatrists and neuroscientists so that they could learn from each other about how the mind works. Each year in Australia well-known CEOs and board members gather for two days in retreat with Sogyal Rinpoche (author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying) to learn about the Buddhist philosophy, focusing on how to calm their minds more effectively so that they can think more innovatively and be more effective leaders for their people.

Harvard and Insead Business Schools talk about the two most potent tools of the 21st Century being intuition and meditation. The Harvard Business Review writes about executives and their new attention deficit trait—overloaded circuits in their minds. With the use of functional MRI and other technologies, we are able to glean more information about how the mind works, helping us to understand how behaviours can be changed and innovative thinking can be improved in our organisational cultures.

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Human Capital Measurement and the ASX Top 50 - How do you rank?

The quality of Human Capital Management (HCM) disclosure was the subject of a recently completed research project, reported in The Australian Financial Review today. The project looked specifically at how Australia's 50 largest ASX-listed corporations reported on how they managed their people in 2007.

The results show great discrepancy between the top performers and those companies that are yet to see value in reporting on measures succh as staff satisfaction, culture, personal development and leadership competencies/attributes.

Form companies that managed to get a handle on what has traditionally been referred to as a 'soft' and 'feel-good' exercise, the pay-offs are very real. Employess look to HCM disclosures for assurance about the type of workplace a potential employer provides and investors have begun factoring HCM disclosures into their decision making.

There is much evidence to support the impact of nurturing the 'soft' skills has on the financial performance, i.e.

• "Happy staff equals happy customers equals happy shareholders. Staff turnover at Westpac has fallen from 17 to 14 percent in the past five years, which translates to $50 million cut in recruitment costs and is reflected in fewer sick days and better productivity. Seven years averaging 11 percent compound earnings-per-share growth and returns on equity averaging 20 percent, tell you that CEO Dr David Morgan has performed." The AFR, 13 April 2006


• "Fortune 100 'Best companies to work for' have provided a higher than the S&P over seven years, showing a positive relationship between a strong, affirming culture and performance." Great Place to Work Institute & Frank Russell Company, 2005 - The Fortune '100 Best Companies to Work For'


• Other evidence can be found at: http://www.mettle.com.au/our_approach/default.aspx

How does your company manage its Human Capital and do your report on your HCM?

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An M&A Culture Due Diligence Solution: It’s not just the wedding, it’s the marriage

Hearts and Minds - The Key to Successful Mergers

The merger and acquisition (M&A) boom of the last few years shows few signs of easing up. Most acquirers have the wherewithal to continue making deals and paying fat premiums. The implication however is clear: the executives doing the deals are bullish that they can realize synergistic value.”

Many observers and many independent studies question whether M&A’s truely add value. Executives also point to the unfulfilled realisation of synergies. Only half of the senior executives polled in a 2006 Intelligence Unit survey believed that their companies had achieved the revenue synergies they had expected from their M&A activities, and just 45% affirmed that expected cost synergies had been captured.

Although acquirers are getting better at identifying and capturing synergies, many deals still do not recover their acquisition premiums and others fail to achieve the long list of benefits touted by management as the rationales for doing the deals in the first place. Some of these failures are clearly the result of overpaying for targets, but others are due to an incorrect understanding of what exactly synergies are, and how they should be captured. There are several factors that are easy to overlook, or under-appreciate when deal-making and emotions run high...

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M & A's: Making the marriage last

The corporate world is littered with M&As that have crashed and burned for failing to consider one crucial element: corporate culture. Iain Hopkins investigates why this eternal intangible is so important.

Despite countless organisations spruiking the motto, 'our people are the key to our success', it's interesting to note that when it comes to major corporate upheavals such as M&As, the people are often neglected. It's assumed everyone will simply go along for the ride, wherever that ride may be heading.

According to research by A.T Kearney, organisations neglecting this aspect of their due diligence are destined for failure. Of 115 global M&A deals researched, failed merger integration was not due to poor operational, financial or commercial planning. Instead, one of the top reasons for failed mergers, cited by 35% of respondents, was cultural differences and how they were addressed in the integration process.

what can go wrong?

Simon Mezger, vice president, strategy practice at A.T Kearney, notes that there are three major pitfalls that organisations fall into when it comes to M&As. Firstly, he says that in the lead-up to Day 1, there is a huge focus on business continuity, which tends to be independent of culture...

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How are Engagement Survey's different from Cultural Survey's

There is a costly confusion between measuring climate rather than measuring critical components of corporate culture. Engagement scores and employee opinions surveys essentially measure how happy employees are with the organisation. Employees happiness is an important but not sufficient ingredient for executing the strategy...

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Culture can be nurtured...and must not be purely organic

One of the biggest mistakes organisations make around culture is assuming culture is purely values. Culture will change over time to suit your strategy which changes to suit market trends and so forth. Your company values on the other hand do not change - they are the companies core purpose for existing.

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How Systems and Structure Link to Culture

Its official…systems and structures must link to corporate culture – but how do you do it and what does this really mean to business... and, why do so many companies get it wrong?

"Culture is about how things are done around your organisation" says Heather Carmody, Director Mettle Consulting. Your culture and your organisational structures are not mutually exclusive.

It is a common perception that culture is intangible, something "just" in people’s heads’. As Catherine Glass, Director Mettle Consulting UK says, "to ignore culture is to ignore another tool you can use to drive your business." As such, being able to understand and utilise your organisation’s culture is crucial in developing effective business strategy to drive your competitive advantage. Mettle has developed tools your organisation can use to understand, analyse and shift the cultures inherent to your organisation...

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Designing a culture to attract, retain and develop talent

As leaders, we are responsible for ensuring the culture is established and maintained in such a way that we attract, retain and develop talent that will not only stay and commit to the organisation, but will also achieve the strategy. What then does it take to do this?

Retaining current staff through your culture, supported by structured programs to build the capability of existing human capital, allows organisations to control reward blow-outs, recruitment costs, and maintain consistency and quality of service. In effect, it is up to HR to play a critical role in executing the organisations strategy and developing and attracting talent. However, everyone in the organisation needs to be made aware of the important role they play in identifying and nurturing talent within. Talent management is critical in ensuring an organisation meets its end goals.

The true costs of losing talent through poor management or lack of nurturing are numerous. These can include impact on client relationships, recruitment, training costs, induction programs, workplace morale and overall effectiveness...

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How to Make Good People Great Leaders…and Reap the Rewards

A speech by Craig McCallum, General Manager Marketing at Mettle Consulting presented at the Australian Insitute of Management Leadership Special Interest Group that outlines how people can become great leaders and reap the rewards. A fantastic insight into some practical ways every day people can lead.

Why is it that we are so infatuated by the term leadership? Why do we find leadership so interesting, so challenging, so difficult, so inspiring? Thousands of companies, including many that are represented here tonight, spend millions of dollars on leadership development – only to get luke warm results…Why? Is it because they rely on leadership competency models that identify generic traits such as vision, direction and energy, for example, then they attempt to find and build next generation leaders who fit this model? One key criteria of leadership for you to perhaps consider as managers and leaders is the building of a leadership brand within your organisation that encourages people within your organisation to live the brand of the organisation and learn leadership styles and behaviours that are aligned to the promises the organisation makes to its customers, thus enabling leaders to respond to company centric challenges...

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Purpose of this blog

Leadership is a topic that receives a lot of attention - numerous people who have opinions and vast amounts of experience of what 'leadership' is and what it takes to be a leader. The purpose of this blog is to discuss these ideas and concepts and to look at how they work for you and others.

I would like to see this blog be used as a forum where people can post and share ideas on:

1. Leadership challenges
2. Concepts that worked or did not work in improving self or others leadership
3. Debate leadership concepts, tools and methodologies
4. What people are doing to improve their leadership
5. What others expect of leaders
6. How leaders deliver on their promises
7. Much much more

I invite you to join this blog that will be updated regularly by members with articles, commentary and suggested readings. Look forward to blogging with you.