Peggy Pattison Unlimited

Stress-free lives…. Joy…. Abundance…. Success….Wealth….Happiness.….. Bliss………..

 

Why does this secret to abundance elude so many of us?  In fact, it would appear that only about 20% of us know these secrets if we believe the Pareto Principle which says that 20% of the population does 80% of the work and manifests success and abundance in their lives! 

How does this secret success principle relate to joy and happiness?   Well, I challenge you to walk down the street smiling and do your own experiment.  Go ahead, smile at 10 people and count how many smile right back at you or even speak?   Does that mean as a society that we are joy-less, fearful, and introspective? 

 

 

The popularity of the recent release of “The Secret” which is an explanation of the “Laws of Attraction” is a reminder of what we have known for a very long time and learned  from many sources including these three:   Earnest Holmes who said, "Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life.”  Or, The Bible tells us, "It is done unto you as you believe.”   Or, as Buddha said, "With our thoughts, we make our world.” 

 

 

 

    

Some are criticizing “The Secret” because many are missing the “how to” implement these strategies in the business and tabloid world in which we live.   Obviously, we cannot sit on our sofas with remote controls and expect to manifest greatness or sacks of $50 bills landing into our popcorn bowls!   It is my understanding that many people believe that if they simply “think” and not “behave” the secret principles, they will manifest all they desire – not so!   It takes both FOCUS and ACTION to manifest the secret-to-living principles.   Here’s a simple example:

 

 

I am a business executive coach, in part, and one of my clients lamented this week that “this secret-to-living stuff works.” 

 

This business owner excitedly relayed the story of how she had placed her vision goals (including a trip to Hawaii ) on her bathroom mirror, and several times per day when she was preparing herself, she would look at her goals and vision herself in Hawaii (FOCUS).   Several months went by when at a networking event last week, the leadership announced that someone had a vacant condo on Maui that could be rented for $500 for two weeks.   My client raced to the podium with a check for $500!     She had accumulated enough FREE air miles on her credit card to get all of her travel paid, including a rental car for the trip!   Her entire Hawaii vacation was only going to cost her $500, and this is a goal she’s had her entire life. 

Here’s the “how to” point of this story:   It was only after she had committed her behavior to both FOCUS and ACTION that she manifested the secret of living (laws of attraction) trip to Hawaii !

 

The secret to living only works if we implementing the right behaviors and strategies.   It puzzles me greatly that I have other clients who push success, abundance and joy away.   We have discussed the secret-to-success principles, but they consistently sabotage their own success and joy because they refuse to FOCUS AND TAKE ACTION!   It is as simple as writing down goals and being prepared by action.   Perhaps they are not consciously ready and wanting success, abundance, or joy.   Ask yourself this question,  are you?

 

 

___________________________ 

Peggy Pattison is a Business Executive Success Coach, Author and Speaker.   Visit her website at http://www.peggypattison.com  for articles, products, and her services to enhance your own personal and professional success.  Go to: http://www.thesecrettoliving.com to register for a seminar presented by Tom Nicoli, BCH, CI,  and Peggy Pattison, M.A., CBC,  in Boston, MA , on June 30, 2007.

Only babies in wet diapers!    And, what we know about babies is that they will likely need more changes, right, that’s just life!

 

Unfortunately, life and business is all about change, isn’t it?   It’s called progress, growth, and being competitive!   But many of us dislike it, and there is a perfectly logical explanation.   It is called Homeostasis?    As human beings, we like everything to remain the same because homeostasis says that we prefer calm, no resistance, no change; we like things to stay “normal.”

 

 

So, when we show up to work and are confronted with yet another change, what do you think our natural human reaction is likely to be?

 

 

1.____Yeah, we’re going to make another change, and I know it is going to be fantastic? Our leaders are totally on top

                             of things!  Or,……..

 

2.____Ohmygosh, I can’t believe we’re going through yet another change, we just went  Through one not long ago! 

                              What is wrong with these people!

 

In my last book, Your Power Formula to Success, I document that the 20% of successful people in life and business have learned that change is inevitable and learned to embrace it and say, “Yeah, I know that change is inevitable and our leaders are on top of things, keeping us competitive by making things happen.”

 

The Pareto Principle says that 80% of people would fall into Group No. 2 and waste precious time and energy sabotaging themselves, their leaders, and the change process.   Group No. 1, on the other hand, are supporting their leaders, embracing change, making suggestions for implementing the changes and getting ready for the next inevitable change.  They become a part of the solution to change, not a part of the resistance to change.

 

The question becomes, where do you find yourself?   Are you in Group No. 1 or Group No. 2?   And, if you are in Group No. 2, I’d like to leave you with my favorite quote on change by author Terry Cole-Whitaker:

 

You cannot stand still anywhere.   Not in your physical life, not in your mental life, not in your emotional life, and not in your spiritual life.   The effect of life is growth.   The fact of life is movement.   And, the biggest problem in life is that everyone is trying to stand still.  Worst yet, everyone wants everyone else to stand still.  

Of all the patterns of life that prevent us from experiencing our highest Self, this is the most insidious and the most pervasive….We live in a nervous society.   The motto seems to be, don’t rock the boat, while the question is, when will my ship come in?   The news is that there is no ship to come in because we are all in the same boat—and if we don’t start rocking it, it isn’t going anywhere! Nothing stays the same forever.   Nothing stays the same for even an instant.   Everything is constantly moving, constantly changing.  

Some of the biggest difficulties we create in life are created when  we try to hold on, try to “keep it together,” try to stop something from changing. Think about that for a minute.   You’ll see that it’s true.   It’s one of the reasons I’ve so often said, “Stop trying so hard to keep your life from falling apart.  It may be falling together.”

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Peggy Pattison is a Business Executive Success Coach, International Award-Winning Speaker and Author.   Visit her website at www.peggypattison.com for articles, products, and her services to enhance your own personal and professional success.

In 2006, why are there still only 14.5% of women (S&P 500, Catalyst) on corporate Boards of America and a scant 10% of women in top government positions?  Why are young, talented business women leaving corporations and starting their own businesses at the rate of over 2 times faster than their male counterparts?    Fifty-two percent of the talent pools (women) enter corporations and many leave citing “quality of life issues,” why?

 

 If you look at blogs posted on the internet, you’ll see women discounting the strides made by women CEO’s in some of our companies such as PepsiCo, ADM, and Kraft, to cite a few………….why?  

 

 Here’s the answer said simply and directly:  Women are rejecting the system itself because it is abusive, devaluing and based on aggression.  

 The Masculine Model of Leadership - Skills + Knowledge + Conquest 

 

 If you look at the front cover of Fortune, October 16, 2006, you see a graphic visual of  outstanding women who broke through the glass ceiling within the framework of the Masculine Model….one has to look closely to determine if they are really men or women because they are portrayed as Mt. Rushmore like-figures in their stern, black business uniforms, called suits.   To the CEO women, good for them and let’s take nothing away from their success.  Having worked in corporations for over 20 years, I understand how truly superior their skills and knowledge had to be in order to succeed in the male model.  Bill Lamond, author of Born to Lead, describes this model as militaristic…a lot like going to war and fighting battles to succeed!

 

As noted in Fortune’s July 24, 2006, article by Betsy Morris …. “Sorry, Jack….Welch’s Rules for Winning Don’t Work Any More, women are rejecting the Machiavellian leadership style of this business icon who led the charge of “slash, cut, eliminate” to rid organizations of what he called corporate “fat.”. 

 

I say, “Sorry, Jack not only are conscious women rejecting the Masculine Leadership model but so are Gen X’s and Gen Y’s; in fact, we raised these generations in a nurturing, caring parenting model (feminine model) led by child expert, Dr. Benjamin Spock!  

 

Unfortunately, corporations aren’t getting it yet because they still have enough of the Traditional generation and Baby Boomers to mask their looming problem.  

 

And now focusing on government, we see how the Masculine Model of Leadership places us much closer to Nuclear Holocaust!   Even Ted Turner is publicly speaking about the need of women to step up and save the planet!

 

 The Suffrage and Feminist Movements – Championing Equality!  

The suffragists of the early nineteenth century and waves of feminists in search of equality in the 1960’s (and before) are much admired and credited for the social, political, and economic reforms gained. To make advances within the framework of the existing Leadership Model of Aggression and Conquest, these brave women used male language and strategies necessary at that time………..”fight for rights” was the battle war call…………and the public media went wild!  As a young woman in the 1960’s, and a naïve college professor, I recall rejecting the model …..I had no interest in “loud protests” or “storming” Washington, DC.    Many other women felt the same way and even mounted their own aggressive public demonstrations!  It appeared as a noisy revolution.

 

I always like to say, “It’s all good” and we learned and grew as people and a nation.  However, we’re now more a global world in business and government.  The old model of aggressive leadership and conquest doesn’t work!

 Taking Equality to the Next Level – The Feminine Model of Leadership 

For world peace and business productivity……………………

 

The Feminine Model for performance:     Skills + Knowledge + Collaboration

 

Business Week, Working Woman, Across the Board, Detroit Free Press, in 1995 and 1996 reported on the research of Dr. Lawrence Pfaff who statistically validated the superior leadership and management skills of women.  Pfaff said, “Female leaders were rated significantly higher than their male counterparts in performance standards and behaviors.   This difference extends beyond the softer skills such as communication, feedback and empowerment to such areas as decisiveness, planning and setting standards.”   Dr. Pfaff’s study conducted originally in 1993 and revalidated in 1998 included 2,482 leaders from 459 organizations across 19 states.

 

Bill Lamond, Born to Lead, December, 2006, Alpha Books, calls women’s style of leadership, The Feminine Principle, the Foundation of Genius:  “The Feminine Principle model has the spirit of our humanity at its most generous and humane built right into it.   It starts from the very point of view that humanity is trying so desperately to achieve.   Its core reality is that human beings are essentially social, interdependent, and more alike than not.  Practically speaking, The Feminine Principle model is stable enough to hold the aspirations of all human being because it acknowledges relationship with every human being.   It is also flexible enough to expand, change, and grow in ways that are essential if we are to create a world in which everyone would be happy to live.   Women have a genius for expanding “family” to include in-laws, children, neighbors, and friends, regardless of their foibles and shortcomings.”

 

What Does the United Nations have to say about women leadership?

 

            “The key missing ingredient for the solution of the world’s problems

            is to unleash the voice and the power of women.”

 A Call to Action – Fearless Evolution 

We’re gratified to hear such business icons as Ted Turner champions the superior skills of women to lead world peace.   We also applaud Dr. Lawrence Pfaff’s research and documentation from 1993.   We embrace Bill Lamond’s, Born to Lead portrayal of the genius of the Feminine Principle, the United Nations’ call for the voice and  power of women to save the world, and finally women like Linda K. Bolliger, Founder and CEO of Boardroom Bound™ who works tirelessly to develop women for leadership roles on corporate boards.  We also celebrate the hundreds of other powerful women’s groups of influence such as Loula Loi-Alafoyiannis, Founder/President, EAWC (Euro-American Women’s Council, NY and Cypress ,Greece), Barbara Kasoff, and Terry Neese, Co-founders, W.I.P.P. (Women Influencing Public Policy),  Carol E. Kuc, President, NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners, Susan Phillips Bari, President, WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, Women’s Leadership Exchange, and many others bringing attention and resources to the recognition of the leadership influence of women worldwide.

 

It’s time for all of us to bring attention to a quiet but “fearless evolution” using the Feminine Model of Collaboration.  We must raise the consciousness of both men and women and take the natural and relationship leader skills of women to a higher level of influence where it matters so much—business and government..  We need to redefine the use of the negative, aggressive connotation of the word power to:

 

P – Purpose…Uniting the voice of women in peace

O—Opening many more top positions in business and government to the influence

 of women

W—World Peace using  Feminine Principles

E—Extraordinary leadership skills of women

R—Rewarding…and celebrating the accomplishments of women

 

Please join us in our fearless evolution of conscious, collaborative leadership!

____________________

 

Peggy Pattison, Author, National Speaker, Founder and CEO, of Women Power Unlimited®, a non-profit, bipartisan, invitation organization dedicated to World Peace through Feminine Principles…  www.WomanPowerUnlimited.com and www.PeggyPattison.com.

  

 

Congratulations to Fortune Magazine, July 24, 2006, for having the “guts” to dethrone Jack Welch’s autocratic management leadership practices in Betsy Morris’s article……….

 

 Titled, Sorry, Jack……….Welch’s Rules for Winning Don’t Work Any More Once upon a time, there was a route to success that corporate America agreed on.   But in today’s fast-changing landscape, that old formula is getting tired.   And, a search is on for......the New Rules. Management by Intimidation – The Old Rules – The 80’s & 90’s – Early 2000’s 

 

For over two decades, I worked under the “Old Rules” of the Welsh Management Style directly witnessing CEO’s, CFO’s, COO’s, CIO’s and many senior leader men role-model Directive and Autocratic leadership styles which  left me feeling like the little kid in the fable, “The Emperor Has No Clothes” (was I the only one seeing the emotional abuse and bullying of employees all around me?)  For example, I worked in an export division of a Fortune 500 corporation, which adopted the management philosophy of “management-by-walking around” (with clipboard), tallying who was caught talking to colleagues, using the bathroom too often, or using the telephone for personal reasons.   It could easily have been dubbed, “management by fear and reprisal.”

 

It is no surprise that the high turnover rate, low morale and decreasing productivity of this facility led to its closing within three years.

 

In 1999, Jack Welch was named, “manager of the century” earned from brilliantly  influencing U.S. leaders to reduce the “fat” out of organizations by downsizing, restructuring, resizing, or right sizing organizations by utilizing stack ranking of employees and eliminating all perceived unproductive, unprofitable facilities, practices, and people!  The Directive, Authoritative mantra and rebel yell became “real men make their numbers!” Donald Trump echoes this same management philosophy with his trademark, “You’re Fired!”

 

   The New Millenium –  New Age Paradigm Shift – Old Rules/ New Rules  

In my article, Managing the CCC’s,........Constant Change Chaos, Sharing Ideas, Summer 2006, I describe the impact of the decades of male dominated management by fear, staff reductions, and restructuring organizations and ask the question, where has all this led us?

 

The simple answer: by the time when we found out where “slash and cut,” had led us, many of the questions changed,….. the world economy changed, ……and our employees became generations which  cannot be managed by intimidation.   We also have new questions such as…… “How can we find good people and keep them”…… “How do we find new customers and retain them?”…. “How can we compete with foreign markets?”  The old Welch rules no longer work; they had us so in-focused on “cleaning up our fat” that many of us forgot to talk to our customers!

 

 Sample of Old Rules Outlined in Betsy Morris’ article titled, Sorry Jack…  

-  Directive, Authoritative Managers & Leaders

-  Stack Rank Employees, Eliminate Them

-  Rank Your Players; go with the A’s – Forget the B’s & C’s Eliminate the D’s

                        & E’s

-  Shareholders Rule!  Impress them!

 

 A New Age of Management and Leadership Will Demand: 

New Rule:  Participative, Facilitative Managers & Leaders

New Rule:  Inspiring Employees

New Rule:  Hiring Passionate People & Training Skills & Knowledge

New Rule:  Placing the Customer as King  - Ask Them What They Think!

__________________________

 

 The key questions become……………….how can the new rules get implemented, who is best suited to transition corporate America? Gender Research Data:  Women Make Better Leaders and Managers 

 

Research data tells us historically that directive and authoritative leadership styles produce effective, short term results BUT in the long-term produce less productivity and disenfranchised employees.

 

In 2001, Lawrence A. Pfaff and Associates, a Michigan-based human resource consulting firm, issued a press release, having done a five-year study of the management and leadership skills of male and female mangers.  The first two studies were reported extensively in the press in early 1995 and 1996 (e.g., Inc., Business Week, Working Woman, Across the Board, Detroit Free Press, etc.)  Dr. Larry Pfaff reported:

 

 Now, we have over five years of data and the results are more convincing than ever.   Once again, female managers (at all levels) outscored the men,” said Pfaff. “Female managers – as rated by their bosses, themselves and the people who work for them – were rated significantly better than their male counterparts.  This difference extends beyond the softer skills such as communication, feedback and empowerment to such areas as decisiveness, planning and setting standards.” The study, conducted over 5 years from 1993 to 1998, shows significant differences in the leadership skill levels practiced by male and female managers in 20 different skill areas.   Women rated significantly higher in 14 out of the 20 areas studied!   The study included 2,482 managers from 459 organizations across 19 states. Seven Reasons Women Managers/Leaders Outperform Their Male Counterparts:  

In addition to the Pfaff research, I spent over 20 years in business, and was led by only 2 really great leaders which were both women!  My experience, accompanied by consulting studies of best-practices of peak-performing leaders in the field of a Fortune 500 Financial Services organization validated the Pfaff research that female leaders possess these top 7 dynamic skills:

 

 1)  Communication – Verbal and Listening

            Women allow time for employees to express opinions,

             share ideas, and discuss performance issues (in individual

             and group interactions) and supports employees upwardly.

2)  Sets Clear Goals and Expectations

            Women ensure that individuals know what they are expected

             to do, implements clear direction and provides their

             expectations in writing – they set  high standards

 by encouraging people to do their best and provide

 them the resources to be successful.

3)  Coaches employees consistently to improve their performance

             and manages each employee by honoring his diversity

             and identifying learning and working styles.

 Uses coaching tools and follow-up documentation

 to monitor employee progressand they follow up with progress

 reviews.

4)  Recognition – Women sincerely and consistently recognize

             success of individual

 and team performance success.

5)  Teamwork – Women encourage employees to talk to each

            other, share successes gained from knowledge to improve

             individual success.

6)  Facilitates Change – Women inform individuals of changes

             and they explain “why” and discusses ways to work through

             and overcome obstacles; they ask for employee input to

             support change.

 

In summary, the New Rules of business clearly indicate a need to collaborate with employees and customers, learn about their needs and become innovative and creative in delivering to those needs; therefore, key is No. 7 reason why women leaders have superior skills according to research.  Female leaders demonstrate a:

 

7)  Participative/Approachable Style – Employees are comfortable

             talking about issues

 with a woman.  Women leaders asks for input from employees

 and are open to new ideas for getting work accomplished, and

 will make necessary changes as a result of input from staff.

 

 The Imagination Economy – Fortune, July 10, 2006 When looking at the “New Age Rules” of Management and leadership, it is clear that women must be called upon more than ever before to lead in the New Imagination Economy, described as innovative, creative……Left-brained logical rigor has been the foundation of economic growth for more than 300 years.   Most people instinctively rebel at the notion that touchy-feeliness could power the greatest economy on earth.  ….The future will bring industries we can’t imagine and jobs which we lack the vocabulary to describe…………American workers need a new formula for raising their living standard.   Experience says they’ll find one.   But they need it soon.   Watching out for it, discerning it early, and jumping on it—whatever it may be—has become one of the most important things we must do.   

Yet, this is not original, who better has role modeled this type of thinking than Colleen Barrett, President and Chief Operating Officer of Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas, Texas, known as the Queen of Hearts…………creative, imaginative, profitable, with a dedicated, loyal workforce which is constantly challenged by Colleen to implement more originality all the time!

 

 Formula for Performance – Never Acknowledged by Old Corporate America  

In my article, Feelings Drive the Real Bottom-Line in Organizations, Spring, 06 Sharing Ideas Magazine, I shared the strategically key performance formula:

 

             Skills + Knowledge + Feelings = Performance 

 

Authoritative, directive dominated organizations are extremely good at hiring for skills and knowledge but have rejected the Feelings part of the formula as “weak minded” and right brained…….not for real men!

 

 Employee Evolution – New Rules for the New Worker  

In their new book, The New American Workplace, James O’Toole & Edward E. Lawler III, makes the case for a “high involvement,” in which employees get a say in management of their own tasks and there’s a strong sense of a “supportive community” at work.    They argue that too many executives still treat employees as an expense rather than an asset.   

 

I go further and suggest that in the New Rule Book of managing employees:   Employees are neither to be regarded as “expenses” or “assets” but real “resource partnerships.”   Generation Xers and Gen Y’s will only be attracted to and retained by corporations who treat them this way.

 

  Call to Action: 

 

Currently, women represent 50% of the management workforce (mid-level) but only about 10% at the top.   The reasons for this are complex but one screams out:   Women have not been privy to the “Good Old Boy Network”……………….

 

The research documents it, the US economy demands it, and the infrastructure of corporations whose glass ceilings are crystal clear must confront their own “Good Old Boy Club” with the truth of the New Age/New Rules.  Corporate America MUST RECRUIT and learn from the skills of talented women leaders;   The New Imagination Economic future demands changes immediately if the USA is to command an economic spot in the world economy!

 

The innate management and leadership skills of female leaders as evidenced by statistical research data can and must be learned by men…… women are excellent role-models, facilitators and trainers who can teach them!

  

_________________________________

 

Peggy Pattison, Author, Speaker, is an acknowledged expert in management/leadership, KISSuccess™ Performance Solutions (a peak-performing management training series), and the author of “At First You Cry…And, Then You Fly!” and Your Power Formula to Success, http://www.peggypattison.com

      

In 1981, a CFO to motivate his troops every week shouted …“I can get anyone off the street to do a better job than anyone here right now!”…….

 

In 1993, a CEO was heard blasting his HR Director………….I DON’T HAVE TO BE A GOOD MANAGER, I AM THE LEADER OF THIS ORGANIZATION!  Unfortunately, this “leader” never understood that no one wanted to follow him because of his weekly public beareatings …. he called them meetings!

 

These were fairly typical scenes, which I personally witnessed during my 30 years in the ranks of corporate America.   While Dilbert does a brilliant comedic interpretation of this type of behavior, millions of employees in organizations across America still endure management/leadership emotional abuse, called directive or autocratic management style.  Is this the result of untrained, unskilled leaders and managers or mindless managers simply following old, outdated business models of management thinking?   The answer could be both!

 

This is 2006, what has changed?   Not much yet, but it must!

 

 The Old Rules of Business Management and Leadership Must Stop!  

If there ever was an “old school of management thinking,” the icon would be Jack Welch not-so-affectionately known as “the slash and burn” guru of General Electric.   Jack Welch named, “manager of the century” in 1999, according to many brilliantly influenced decades of thinking around bottom-line, profitability!  He led the rebel call to “down size, right size, reorganize, restructure, get rid of organizational “fat.”  Employees became numbers to be reduced……..slash 10% per year minimum!  Manager/leaders across America followed suit, bought books, got tougher!   Authors such as Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman jumped on board with “First Break All the Rules:  What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, championed by corporate leadership as the new manager bible for staffing and managing employees.

 

As a middle manager I lived through a Fortune 500 Corporate mandatory “stack ranking” of employees. I was ordered to get rid of the bottom 20%, ignore the middle 60% and place on a pedestal the top 20% the “talent pool” of employees!

 

In 2006, here’s the question, is corporate America better for having gone through all this chaos?  Employees are disenfranchised and millions of America’s displaced workers will never be able to retire.  Gen X’ers and Gen Y’s, having witnessed the disloyalty of corporations toward their parents and grandparents are rejecting corporate America and seeking entrepreneurial opportunities.

 

Baby Boomers, beginning in 2006, are retiring from organizations and employers are scrambling to create retention and attraction programs for employees; and they are wondering out loud, “What has happened to employee loyalty these days?”

 

Thank Goodness for Fortune Magazine’s July 24, 2006, Article by Betsy Morris……….

 

 Titled, Sorry, Jack, …………Welch’s Rules for Winning Don’t Work Any more: Once upon a time, there was a route to success that corporate America agreed on.   But in today’s fast-changing landscape, that old formula is getting tired.  And, a search is on for….the New Rules. 

I spent two decades of my manager life in corporate America feeling like the little kid in the fable, “The Emperor Has No Clothes” (was I the only one seeing the ridiculous abuse and neglect all around me?)…………thank goodness for this brave article, perhaps signaling a new age of enlightenment around managing people inside of organizations.

 

 Managing People – Old Playbook, New Age Playbook  

Old Playbook:   Directive, Authoritative Managers & Leaders

New Age Playbook:   Participative, Facilitative Managers & Leaders

 

Directive, authoritative styles of managers and leaders will no longer be tolerated throughout the 2,000’s, why?   Because employees now have a choice of employers, most employers are now painfully aware of the vanishing labor supply.  There are approximately 76 Million Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, being replaced by 52 Million Generation Xers.   You do the math!

 

 The New Age Employee  - Intolerant of Management Genocide  

As outlined in my article (Summer edition, 2006, of Sharing Ideas),  “Manage Generation Culture Clash in Organizations,” younger generations of Gen X’s and Gen Y’s have been raised in an American society of equality.   Younger generations expect to be heard and valued.   Old authority styles of “chain of command” simply won’t work!  In fact, many younger workers don’t even understand the concept.

 

New Age Leaders and Managers must follow a model of allowing employees to participate in decisions affecting them.   They will need to be skilled in facilitating discussions and gaining consensus among workers; they will have to learn win/win negotiation strategies.  This will require training and development and a much higher skill level of Managers and Leaders in this New Age of Business Management.

 

Betsy Morris, in her Fortune Magazine Article calls this the need to lead employees by “inspiring” them versus “ranking” them:

 

Old Rule – Stack Rank Employees, Eliminate Them

New Rule – Inspire Them

 

This is truly not a new concept, Kevin and Jackie Frieberg in their best-selling books, Nuts! And Guts! outline the success of Southwest Airlines, one of the most profitable companies in the US.   Southwest has followed this model of participative management leadership since their beginning.  Other companies which are blowing the doors off profits also understand and follow this new age playbook, companies like Synovus Financial Services, led by Jimmy Blanchard, Roy Spence, GSD&M, the nation’s third-largest advertising agency, and Quad/Graphics, one of the world’s foremost printers.

 

Jack Welch’s old playbook embodies the concept of fear-based management and autocratic leadership.   However, according to the Freiberg’s, gutsy leaders have dismantled fear-based management and replaced it with heart, soul, discipline, loyalty, humor – and long-term record profits!  Indeed, leaders like Colleen Barrett, President and Chief Operating Officer of Southwest Airlines, known as the Queen of Hearts, are applying the New Age Leadership model, and not only having the loyalty of their employees and customers, but earning record profits for their shareholders and sharing them with their employees!

 

Old Rule:   Rank Your Players; go with the A’s

New Age Rule:  Hire Passionate People

 

These New Age Management organizations hire people for their personalities and souls; they understand that they can train the necessary skills.   Old school, old philosophy management companies hired for skills and knowledge, and then wondered why they had customer service problems!

 

 Paradigm Shift in corporate America:  Customers Rule  

Old Rule:  Shareholders Rule

New Age Rule:  The Customer is King

 

In New Age Managed companies, the employees are actually regarded as valued customers by management and leadership.   These companies understand that if they take care of their employees, their employees will take care of their customers.   These companies do not historically have customer service problems.

 

In addition, the New Age managed companies are also focused on identifying the needs of their customers by asking them.   What a novel concept?   I actually worked for four years for a Fortune 500 Financial Services company which was so large that management  could not determine who the real customer was.   They were completely in-focused, not out-focused on the real customer.

 

Jack Welch’s mantra was “real (authoritative) men make their numbers”……yes, indeed, Jack, but at what cost?  The New Age leadership mantra of leaders like Colleen Barrett could easily be, “real participative leaders exceed their number projections by nurturing the souls of their employees and customers.”

 

________________________________________

 Peggy Pattison, Author, Speaker, is an acknowledged expert in management/leadership, KISSuccess™ Performance Solutions (a peak-performing management training series), and the author of “At First You Cry…And, Then You Fly!” and Your Power Formula to Success, http://www.peggypattison.com  

Poor Middle Managers – Change Sandwiches!

In 1991 I was hired as a sales trainer with a Fortune 500 bank in the Midwest to help roll out “relationship banking” – a then huge paradigm culture shift for all employees.   This training culturally shifted the role for which bankers had been hired.  Their entirely new role was to “sell” and most employees had not hired on to do so!  What transpired over the next decade was not only the employee role shift but also constant mergers, acquisitions, and downsizing of staff on a regular basis.   As a performance-development trainer from top leaders to front-line employee, I witnessed manager-to-employee frustration, anger, resistance, and just about any other change emotion that could be imagined.

We all thought that once these changes took place, the entire workforce would eventually settle down into the high productivity of the changes we expected!

In the meantime, I became a middle manager and learned first-hand that I was a virtual “club sandwich” of change.   I was caught in the middle to be eaten from the top by senior management if I didn’t initiate changes I didn’t understand, or eaten by my employees if I didn’t take them through change quickly and deftly.  Through desperation, I became a Change expert.

As managers and employees throughout the 90’s, we believed that business would eventually get back to “normal” and changes would calm down.  We, managers, even attempted using "boxed" programs as a training tool to help employees come to terms with change; but in fact, nothing was to prepare managers or employees for the pervasive feeling that change and chaos were underfoot most of the time!  Employees and some managers lost confidence, loyalty and heart for their jobs.

It’s Getting Back to “Normal” in the new Millenium– Not!   

 

December 7, 2005…headline in Crains’ Chicago Business, “Ford may cut 30,000 jobs, close 10 plants”, December 9, 2005, Chicago Business “Albertson’s sale could split Jewel/Osco stores; Chicago Sun-Times, January, 4, 2006, “Change at top signals new era for Dow Jones”, and now, Josephine Rossi, in T + D Magazine, January 2006 reports in “Organizational Change on the Rise”…….            

 

CONTINUOUS CHANGE might be the future of business worldwide, according to the results of a survey conducted by technology and research-consulting service eePulse and the University of Michigan.            

 

The September 2005 Leadership Pulse surveyed 379 senior executives from around the world.   The data collected indicated that 79 percent of the firms studied were going through high levels of organizational change.   Also, trend data from 2004 to 2005 showed that the amount of change organizations are experiencing continues to steadily climb………  Theresa M. Welbourne, founder of the study, explains, “continuous change is, no doubt, the wave of the future; however, research indicates that for organizations to thrive in high-change environments, they also must provide employees with an ability to cope with change.”  

 

Unexpected Organizational Change for Managers  

 

Exacerbating the organizational change challenges above, Managers/Leaders are also facing a new, unexpected challenge:   How to manage, Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen-X, and “Generation Why’s” all at the same time?  When reading “Scenes from the Culture Clash” in the January/February 2006 article in Fast Company Magazine and “Young, Female, and Demanding (Companies struggle to understand Gen-X’s lack of servility) in January, 2006, Inc. Magazine, we read that Gen-Xers and Millenials, sometimes called “generation whys” are an entirely different management challenge never before facing Managers.

 

Success Formula = Managing Change Chaos  

 

As Theresa Welbourne says, …that for organizations to thrive in high-change environments, they also must provide employees with an ability to cope with change.”  

 

Employees can’t and shouldn’t learn change on their own.   Key is the Manager’s role in helping each, individual employee through the change process.   It is a skill that can and must be learned by every manager in organizations today.  

 

Sending employees and leaders to “Change Management “classes just won’t do it!  I trained Change Management classes throughout the 90’s until I was breathless.First, we know from research that only 20-30% of what gets taught in a training class ever transfers back to the job (Dana Gaines Robinson, Training Transfer) and that if the content isn’t coached and reinforced, within 30 days, 90% of that 20-30% is lost!  In other words, without the Manager’s key support and influence, only 10% of anything an employee hears in a training class ever applies on the job. Yet, organizations spend millions on band-aid training believing that they will help employees cope with change.  I am a strong proponent of development programs, but they must be strongly connected to ROI and measurable by management.  

 

Managers now and in the future will only survive the Organizational CCC’s if they are skilled, knowledgeable, and address “feelings” of their employees in a highly democratic way, called participative management/leadership style.   These participative managers/leaders also must have very clear and democratically negotiated performance standards, performance metrics, 360 feedback, continuous improvement measures……….all negotiated from the bottom-up…….not as we have historically gotten them from traditional organizations; that is, top-down.  

 

Bully Management Won’t Work  

 

Many unenlightened organizations and leaders, some of whom we even witness on TV, believe that ruling by fear and intimidation is a way to gain employee commitment and transformation….wrong!  Research tells us that such management works very short term.   If there is a fire in the building, this is a great management style!  

 

Great organizations and leaders, as identified in many best selling books today, follow the principles of “participative, power-through-knowledge management practices.”   Business and organization survivors and thrivers in the new millennium of the Organizational CCC’s will have well-developed, enlightened management staff who totally understand the participative formula.           

 

About the Author: Peggy Pattison, former college professor of business, gained her corporate expertise in performance development while leading large teams and CoachingSr. Leaders of employees in Fortune 500 Companies through the dynamics of mergers/acquisitions, downsizings, reorganizations, and restructures.  She is the author of KISS Performance Solutions - 12 Guidebooks on, Management/Leadership Training Series.  Peggy Pattison, Author, Speaker, is currently one of America’s top performance coaches.   Get her FREE Report: One POWER Formula to SUCCESS at http://www.PeggyPattison.com. 1,000 words      

When reading “Scenes from the Culture Clash” in the January/February 2006 Fast Company Magazine and “Young, Female, and Demanding (Companies struggle to understand Gen-X’s lack of servility) in January, 2006, Inc. Magazine, I had a flash back of a friend’s experience with her, then, 7 year old child.   My friend and I are both Baby Boomers (1046-64).   Her child is a Gen X-er (1965-1977).   Here’s my friend’s story……

 

            My little girl went to the telephone book while I was at work one day and phoned the piano tuner, who, in turn came out and tuned our piano.   When I asked her why she did that she replied, “because it needed it.”  My friend just laughed and the piano tuner billed her for his services.

 

 I remember being appalled, at the time, that there was no consequence to the child’s behavior which showed lack of respect for authority; there was no punishment.   Instead, this child’s behavior was lauded for leadership skill and initiative.   At that time, I was grateful I didn’t have children; it appeared to me that my friend’s children were more her peers than her children.

 

I wondered what that child would be like to manage when she entered into her first full-time job.   Well, I think most managers have met this child.   She could have easily been the subject in the above article, “Young, Female, and Demanding.”   If we have had the opportunity to manage these young workers, our success with them has been determined by our management skill!

 

Generation Value Differences

 

Remembering my friend’s story, I reflected on the fact that my parents (Traditionalists born before 1945) would have spanked me until bloody for such an act of what would have been considered “family insubordination.”

 

Consider now, the children of Gen X’ers, called Millennials, gen-Y, Net gen, echo boomers, and even “generation why's” because they never stop questioning the status quo.   Recently, we heard the sensational news story of the young man from Miami who, without his parents knowledge or permission, went to Iraq to learn first hand what it would be like to live his life in such a dangerous world!   These “generation why”children have grown up in a culture which champions, adores, and nurtures equality, freedom, and creativity from infancy.

 

What are the Generational Value Clashes in Organizations?

 

I worked my way through the ranks of organizations for over 30 years and here’s my observation.   Organizations are historically created and established on the basis of Traditional values, policies, and procedures.     These traditional companies expect Baby Boomers, Gen-Xer’s and “generation why's” to comply with company standards without challenging the status quo.   Organizations are no different than families, they mirror   functional and dysfunctional family interactions if unknowing management, the "parents," recklessly delivers inconsistent management practices.   Younger, more challenging generations do not and will not tolerate dysfunctional organizations in the future.  They feel strongly that they have options and far more entrepreneurial personalities.

 

Challenges to Management

 

Leadership of an organization must manage and communicate a clear vision of working toward a common cause (called the business mission), orchestrate clear direction for achievement, have clear delineation of roles and responsibilities, honor and respect individual uniqueness, strengths, and diversity, and management must align individual values with those of the organization.   The most important challenge for management is holding each person accountable in terms of performance standards, which were clearly and democratically established.

 

Baby Boomers, Gen X-ers and even more so, “generation why” members expect to be heard.   Directive style leaders and managers will fail badly in organizations going forward unless they change and listen.  Even approachable managers and leaders will continue to be intimidated, confused and shocked by what appears to be the more aggressive younger generation.

 

Simply said, corporations and organizations must learn new management skills, processes, and techniques for becoming more democratic and participative managers and leaders.  Employees must be heard even more in the future.    High performance organizations have intuitively and knowingly understood this for a long time which is what has differentiated them from their competition.

 

As the labor shortage looms in our immediate future, beginning to appear in 2006 with  Baby Boomers just turning 60, the issue of replacing talent, retaining talent and managing more effectively will become increasingly more important with each passing year.

 

About the Author:

 

Peggy Pattison, Author, Speaker, is an Acknowledged Expert in the area of Management/Leadership/ROI Assessment in Organizational Development.  She is the author of Management/Leadership Series entitled KISS Performance Solutions.   More at http://www.peggypattison.com/