A warm leader

Like much of the country I was snowed in at home for a few days last week. With food stocks running very low, children being hungrier than usual because of all the outdoor activity and shelves in the local shops becoming bare, the inevitable trek to the supermarket had to be done. It felt much like Christmas Eve with the crowds, the queues and fellow customer temperaments switching easily between joyful and grumpy.

When I was next in line for my turn at the till I watched a gentleman approach each till. While he was still some distance away I asked the young man at the till who he was. He replied that they had been told that one of the senior directors of the company was at the store today as he lived close-by and no trains were running, so he hadn’t been able to make it to London. The assumption was made that this was the senior exec.

Once the gentleman was closer I overheard his discussions with the till staff. He thanked each of them for making it into work and enquired about their journey, how they would be getting home, the shifts they were working, and finished each conversation by thanking them again. I observed a customer who appeared to be wanting to use the opportunity to complain about something to this exec; who listened and acknowledged what the customer was saying and then turned the conversation around by asking the customer how wonderful he thought the staff were for managing to make it into work to keep the store open in such awful weather conditions.

The whole scenario made me think......
• How many other leaders have expressed their gratitude to their staff who have made huge efforts in recent days?
• How often those very senior people hit the shop floor and speak to the “ordinary” staff and the “ordinary” customer?
• What impact that exec’s gratitude will have on the engagement and loyalty of the staff?

As an “ordinary” customer I was impressed with what I observed that day as I expect were many others. Will it increase my loyalty and commitment as a customer? Yes, probably it will.

Is there ever a more relevant time to coach?

Work related stress is reported to be on the increase, as evidenced by the July 2010 CIPD Employee Outlook survey where 49% of staff have noticed an increase in stress at work as a result of the economic downturn.

The HSE, the regulatory body who oversee workplace health and safety, have recently reported cases where employers have faced significant compensation payouts for failing to identify and prevent stress adequately.

Dame Carol Black, the first National Director for Health and Work at the DoH recently commented "It is in employers' interests to manage stress at work proactively and not just assume all staff are coping, particularly in a tough economic environment where many employees are under pressure to do more with less."

The message from these bodies is loud and clear: organisations need to take action or pay the price of not doing so.

Effective person-centred coaching can make a significant difference to the health and well-being of individuals. Ensuring people have robust coping strategies to face the demands continuously placed upon them, and enabling those with line management responsibility to be aware of and manage the impact of those demands.

However, many managers, and dare we say it - poor coaches, focus on task-centred behaviour which may result in a short-term increase in productivity but does little to change the underlying thinking process that turns work pressure into stress.

Based on what the surveys are telling us, organisations may well need to set aside substantial funds to cover future compensation claims. An alternative is to develop leaders to recognise the signs where pressure turns into stress and build a coaching culture where line managers pro-actively support their people to develop the required coping strategies. This requires an understanding of the true value that can be gained from investing in person-centred coaching. Surely we have a duty of care to raise that understanding so that organisations can avoid paying compensation unnecessarily?

CIPD Learning and Development Survey 2010

This week saw the launch of the CIPD press release regarding their 2010 Learning and Development Survey. This annual barometer on the Learning and Development industry has some interesting features, showing how departments are managing to rise to the challenge of delivering more value for their business customers with less budget.

The findings show employers are seeking more focus on leadership and people management skills, in order to enable leader to think more strategically be more future focused.

We would love to hear if this survey matched what you are seeing in your business and in the companies you work with.