Search Results for: leadership

Workers are as important as external stakeholders

Workers are as important as external stakeholders

At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, workers around the globe could be forgiven for remaining sceptical at the news that the corporate world now regards them as stakeholders, and as important to their organisations as shareholders and customers. The traditional employee/employer relationship is slowly changing. Where the relationship was once exclusively hierarchical, it is now evolving into more of a partnership. Employees want to be more involved in processes and decisions. Subsequently, teams need to be more collaborative and communicative to drive innovation and creativity. To encourage optimum performance, leaders must learn to coach and encourage, rather than simply direct. More →

What happens when leaders have too much charisma?

What happens when leaders have too much charisma?

charismaWhen a leader with charisma becomes so strong and confident that they dominate their teams to the extent that others simply never question their decisions, you’d better hope that that leader is always right and is leading you in the right direction. Sadly, the opposite is usually true. Leaders who cut themselves off from bad news or challenge, quickly lose sight of the real drivers of success, or the drivers of failure, and a slow and tortured decline usually ensues. They even become blind to the dangers facing them, person-ally, because of excessive confidence. More →

The love of natural born leaders can come at a cost

The love of natural born leaders can come at a cost

leaders eh?The inherent preference employers have for candidates with natural leadership ability could have a negative effect on their organisation, according to new research by Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). The study, On Leading and Managing: Synonyms or Separate (and Unequal)? published in the Academy of Management journal suggests that firms tend to choose leaders over managers regardless of their culture and needs. More →

Workplace leaders must adapt to a new technological reality

Workplace leaders must adapt to a new technological reality

workplaceI speak with senior workplace leaders daily and those conversations, coupled with our research and that of other people, offer us a striking perspective on the trends and changing nature of the workplace and in particular the impact of technology. Some themes are cropping up time and time again in these conversations and research and point to a new technology-led reality that we must all address. More →

Aloof bosses should change their job title to chief elusive officer

Aloof bosses should change their job title to chief elusive officer

aloof bossesThe bosses of many of Britain’s biggest businesses are so disengaged from their workers and the company hierarchy so embedded, that they should start calling themselves Chief Elusive Officers. That is the key finding of a survey of companies across western and northern Europe and North America into what employees think of their chief executives carried out by HR software firm Unit4. More →

Flexible working and an always on culture can be bad for health

Flexible working and an always on culture can be bad for health

flexible workingEmployees believe flexible working allows them to do their best work yet they also feel permanent connectivity is damaging their health, an international survey of more than 1,000 workers has suggested. In the study conducted by Quartz Insights in partnership with Citrix Systems, Inc, respondents ranked flexible working as the third most important factor – behind salary and leadership – enabling them to do their best work. However, two thirds also believed the “always on” mentality has a significant negative impact on their health. More →

Businesses can fail if employees are over-confident

Businesses can fail if employees are over-confident

confidentSenior employees being too confident about the value of their ideas could be one reason businesses are failing, according to research by the University of Cologne. The study, conducted by Professor Fabian Sting and a team of interdisciplinary co-authors, highlights how choosing the wrong ideas to pursue can lead businesses to make unwise investments and miss out on opportunities, which could threaten their survival. A large part of the problem, it says, is that the person who comes up with the idea overestimates how successful their innovation will be and views their skill or performance as better than it actually is. More →

Is your biggest competitor already working for you?

Is your biggest competitor already working for you?

competitorEmployers worried about rivals poaching their staff should be looking closer to home to spot their next competitor, a new study has claimed. In a survey of 3,000 UK employees by Synergy Creative, nearly half (47 percent) said that they would love to be their own boss, raising the prospect of them setting up in competition to their existing employer. Of those intending to find a new job in 2020, a third said their ideal job is to work for themselves, compared to 25 percent who are looking to move to another company. More →

People ten times more likely to stay in their job for friendships than a pay rise

People ten times more likely to stay in their job for friendships than a pay rise

friendshipsFollowing reports that job applications on the first working Monday of the New Year spiked by 89 percent compared to the average Monday in December, many UK businesses may be missing a trick in their efforts to retain staff, new research has suggested. When researchers commissioned by Eko asked 1,000 employees what factors would make them stay in their job for longer, they were ten times more likely to stay put for friendships than for a pay rise. Indeed, only 3 percent of workers cited a pay rise as something that would make them stay with their employer for longer. More →

Getting on with colleagues key to job satisfaction

Getting on with colleagues key to job satisfaction

Job satisfactionGetting on well with colleagues gives workers greater job satisfaction than having a good salary, new research has claimed. “New Decade, New Direction” by the Institute of Leadership & Management asked more than 2,100 workers to identify the factors that affect their job satisfaction and explored their career plans for the new decade. More →

Most executives lack skills to lead in digital economy

Most executives lack skills to lead in digital economy

digital skillsMost executives around the world are out of touch with what it takes to lead effectively and for their businesses to stay competitive in the digital economy, a new study has claimed. Out of nearly 4,400 executives in over 120 countries surveyed by MIT Sloan Management Review (MIT SMR) and Cognizant, only 9 percent agreed that their organisation has the skills at the top to thrive in the digital economy. More →

Aligning talent with strategy is the key to business success

Aligning talent with strategy is the key to business success

Companies that align talent with business strategy outperform others by 16 percent, retain 30 percent more top performers, and see 34 percent higher employee performance according to The State of Talent Optimization Report (registration) from The Predictive Index. More →