It's Talent, Stupid!

'Weapons of Influence' at Work

If you’re a regular, you’ll notice that we take turns to blog here. It’s my job to make sure this happens but at times this requires some heavy ‘nudging’ of my colleagues!

In short, I sometimes find it challenging to have the level of influence required to get people to do the things I ask of them.

My colleague Francesca and I joke about introducing the ‘marketing stick’ which we would use to poke/hit people who don’t respond to our gentle ‘nudging’!

To help make my life a little easier I wanted to learn what it is that makes people great influencers and what I can do to become one.

I asked my business coach, Ed Percival, to help me and (in Ed’s own ‘unique’ style) we discussed all things influencing from hypnosis to coercion (unfortunately he wouldn’t teach me that!). 

This is my understanding of Cialdini’s ‘Weapons of ethical influence’ and how I think these can be applied to being a successful influencer in my role

Authority

I know from my study of psychology that people tend to obey authority figures. Milgram showed that wearing a white coat and posing as a scientist is enough to influence people to administer deadly electric shocks to innocent people. 

To become a better influencer I need to be an authority in my field, a specialist who people look to as an expert. I need to continually expand and flaunt my knowledge to establish my expertise.

Treating others as an authority is also an effective way of influencing behaviour.  If we compare these requests:

 “please can you help me write this press release” 

 “seeing as you are the expert on psychometric testing here, there’s no one better I        could ask to help me write this press release”

The second is more compelling as it depicts the subject as a source of authority.

Social Proof

Social proof refers to the ‘everybody’s doing it’ principal. People tend to do things that other people are doing. We see this in advertising A LOT!  Take a look at this Nivea advert.

Social proof is relatively easy to apply to my job, I simply need to imply or better still, evidence that the herd is moving in the same direction!  It’s the “why do I have to…?” “because everyone else has already…” argument.

1)  Scarcity

People tend to want more of what is less available.  We see perceived scarcity ALL the time.

  

 

  

Creating perceived scarcity lends itself to some situations better than others but is a worthwhile influencing tool to consider.

 

1)  Commitment & Consistency

Most people prefer to honour their word.  If people commit to something they are more likely to actually do it.

Great influencers get strong commitment at the earliest possible stage to ensure action is taken.

 

2)  Reciprocity

      Marketeers use this all the time by giving away ‘free’ samples to encourage people to later buy a product. 

When people feel indebted to you they are more likely to agree to something that you want. This can be something as simple as paying someone a compliment to going out your way to helping a colleague on a project.

Liking

This one’s pretty self-explanatory: it’s easier to influence someone who likes you. Liking can be affected by all kinds of things including physical attractiveness, shared interests or personality types.

Some influencers may use techniques such as flattery in an attempt to get people to like them, but liking is actually the weakest influencing factor.

So next time you want someone to do something for you, arm yourself with these six weapons and see how influential you can be :-)

Cheers,

Rosie

      

Why middle managers are the answer not the problem

It’s amazing how many times a senior executive has said to us, “I really need to change things here, the problem is that we need middle managers to execute it, and they just aren’t good enough.”

In a turnaround you can take a radical approach – replace them all. It is expensive, but like liposuction it is also fast and effective. Assess them and if they don’t fit the rapid and radical new strategy and style needed, it is better for them and for the business that they leave. Simples.

But in most businesses this option is just not available (I mean, I really don’t fancy liposuction myself). So most managers say, “how can I get round them?”

Wrong!!

The right question is, “how can I inspire them to perform the way they did when they were at their best?”

After all, the raw material of these managers hasn’t changed. Their beliefs and motivation may have, but their values, skills and intellect haven’t. As Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds once put it, I know that was then, but it could be again.

The other week my 12 year old son Jonathan found my juggling clubs and asked to be taught how to use them. Well it has been many, many years since I last juggled, so could I do it? Well, it took a lot of concentration, but I knew that I had to teach my son (erm, yes, and impress him too, I’m so shallow), so in a matter of minutes I had three clubs circling around in the air in front of me and we got in to a lesson.

I hadn’t tapped in to those skills for ages, but the pressure and opportunity of the situation meant I re-learnt quickly and could inspire Jonathan … and show off a little too!

In most businesses, middle managers just need a reason to BELIEVE again. They need to believe senior managers share the same goals, they need to believe there is light at the end of the tunnel, they need to believe that they can achieve amazing things.

So the next time someone says to you, “we could make the change, I just don’t know if the managers will follow it through.” Challenge them and say, “ask not what middle managers can do for you, but what you can do to inspire them*.”

Cheers

Simon

*apologies to JFK J

Why the excuse, "but that's just (not) me", doesn't really cut it...

In May 2008, Citroen released a daring new advert for its new C5, which used the German stereotype of “reliability” (complete with Wagner soundtrack and various other Nazi allusions) to reinvent the common perception of the French brand, namely stylish but flimsy.

A Citroen that was “unmistakeably German”… Eh?

 

Had the car itself not been so damn excellent, the phrase had the potential to turn Citroen into a laughing stock. This wasn’t just a change of tack, it was a bold, emphatic re-brand.

 

Put in the modern context, this was Citroen’s attempt to gatecrash the promised land of luxury family vehicles. Until the Citroen C5 arrived, French car manufacturers had long embraced the fact that their cars were never going to fall into the “safe, solid & reliable” category. “Well, it’s just French isn’t it?” Love it or lump it.

 

Some clever Frenchy must have turned around one day and said, “but what if we changed?” And voila, the C5, while being undeniably French in style, has a build quality that’s unmistakeably German, and found itself competing with popular middle-class motoring’s pace-setters - BMW, VW and Mercedes.

 

The point, is that changing markets and businesses require changing attitudes, styles and behaviours.

 

Bringing the analogy a bit closer to home, one of the things we’ve noticed about great sales people over the last 5 to 6 years, for example, is a significant shift in a planning behaviour we call ‘Making it Happen’. Great sales people today plan meticulously how they are going to hit their number. They prioritise certain targets, and they have contingency plans to cover the deals that don’t quite come off.

 

If you’d told a Sales person back in the day that he would have to plan his/her work to such an extent, they’d have told you it wasn’t “in their nature” (“Get lost, mate”, more likely…). Selling has until now been distinctly unplanned. It has traditionally had an “off the cuff”, “maverick” undertone, and as such has traditionally attracted “maverick” kinda guys… Sales had moved on. And the best Sales people had moved right along with it.

 

What we know is that successful people make, bold, Citroen-esque change when required, and more importantly, they make it stick. Successful businesses do exactly the same. When you’re talking about people change, for example, which is what we help organisations to achieve, there’s no point just dipping your toes in, or even thinking it’s a short-term fix.

 

I’m undergoing a bit of a re-brand of my own currently. A couple of months back, I wrote a blog entitled: “you want to do WHAT with my time?” To cut a long story short, I used a number of examples, including Ashley Cole, Dominoes Pizza, and a load of utterly dull Time Management gurus to evidence my already prevalent belief that planning was over-hyped. But not being inclined to do something ain't really an excuse for not doing it at all, particularly if it was going to help me to be more effective.

 

I was Citroen in 2007, convinced it was of a certain mould - a flimsy, cheap, kinda stylish runabout.

Now you can’t change personality, but you can change the way you behave, and you do this by creating “habits”. There’s a load of great science behind this stuff; when you learn something, your brain makes connections that create pathways for neurological activity. When you perform the same actions routinely, your brain learns this pattern of behaviour and sets up a pathway (a bit like cache memory in a computer).

 

I refuse to believe that Time Management is any more complex than simply having an organised, prioritised To-Do list. What works for me currently is to write down my day on a page each morning. The simplicity of it is thoroughly effective, but what reinforces it is the constant repetition. Now, when I come into the office it’s the first thing I do without even thinking.

 

‘Planning’ “just isn’t me”, but hey, Citroen just ain’t German, and they still managed to pull it off.

Tq.

Why Being No.1002 Is Fun...

Something happened to me the other day that got me thinking...I ran my fastest ever mile, which was great but what got me thinking was why?  Analysing Nike+ I could see which mile it was and it then came to me in a blinding flash, I was chasing another runner who i spotted ahead of me.  Now this is partly what I call the "spring syndrome"...that is the etiquette when passing another runner is to put a "spring in your step" like you are in no trouble whatsoever and not out of breath and finding the whole thing a breeze, it's hilarious how runners speed up and smile at each other when they pass.  But it is mainly psychological, the psychology of being No.2.  It is most apparent in sport, watch F1 and the No.2 car invariably reigns in the No.1 car, ask most racing drivers and they'll tell you they love being No.2 and feel an inordinate amount of pressure when being out front.  When England were playing Germany in this World Cup, England were at their fleeting best when behind...they seemed to play freer when assuming the position of No.2.

And of course in business the absolute same applies, Avis in the 1970s made a marketing story out of being No.2.  Being No.2 rallies the troops to a cause, that is beating the current No.1 and taking the crown.  Unfortunately the business world is littered with No.2s who became No.1s only to find themselves obselete soon after.  For some reading on this phenomenon try How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins and perhaps the coolest book on the subject Eating The Big Fish.  The other book that i loved that looked at the subject was Behind The Cloud by Marc Benioff the founder of Salesforce.com.

So in our market we are No.2, actually probably No.1002...you see we find ourselves competing with YSC, DDI (check out the stock images on this one :-)), SHL (ooh look stock images familiar?:-)), Hay Group (seriously I love the agile one, with the goalkeeper...really? :-)) and compared to these guys we are a minnow, except we are competing and winning against these guys...so i asked a FTSE100 client the other day, "why us?  When you had a choice of SHL or Hay Group" and the answer was enlightening, she said "because I knew what i was getting with the big guys, it would have been well researched, they would have great benchmark data but it wouldn't have been human in it's delivery and well, let's face it they would not have surprised me, they have too much at risk to push us or themselves". 

Anyone who has followed Chemistry will know that I loved that answer :-)

At the moment Chemistry love being No.1002, means we can push, challenge, innovate, spiky, we have little to lose and everything to gain.  I encourage our people to act, take risks but above all focus on our game...the danger is you start focusing (in our case) on what YSC and DDI are doing, d'you know that's irrelevant they are no benchmark for us, they leave opportunity for us everywhere but what they do and how they do it is absolutely not a benchmark.

So if we stay focused on our game, we may someday be No.1, but that's not our ambition and anyway we are having too much fun being No. 1002!

Chemistry Hiring Again Again :-)

OK, so it's been months since I have written on our blog and I have a back up of subjects, opinion and possibly a rant or two to get down on the 'ol electronic paper. First and foremost though we need some help, Chemistry in the last 5 months have grown on just about every scale you can mention revenue, profit, client base, global activity and above all fun. This is solely down to the hard work and inspiration of the most amazing team on the planet, you can check 'em out at http://thechemistrygroup.com/team

We use something called 'Functionality' to make decisions on resource in the business, it's way cool and we are currently teaching our clients through our new Pod Coaching ( Lots of news to come on Pod Coaching, it's like people development but it really really works) tools how to do it. 

Basically you look at all the activities you are doing as an individual and classify them in to one of three colours, Black (tomorrows money), Blue (today's money) or Red (administration)...looking at the % split of each colour in the business and knowing what the optimum percentage split needs to be, you can decide on the resource needed to maintain the optimal performance, clearly there is a bit more to it but you get the gist...so we have done our Black, Blue, Red and...we really need some fantastic Red Resource and even more fantastic Blue resource! What does that mean?  It means we are looking for 5 people in total and they kinda look like this...

1 x EA/Project(ie) Person

Someone who can drive and build an amazing support capability for the business, across finance and administration.  In addition manage some critical projects, oh and me!

2 x Administrators

These are not paper pushers, these are pro-active, intelligent individuals who want to be famous for world class administration.  To be considered for these roles you need to be passionate about administration of a business, if that sounds odd, you are not right, if it sounds like you? We would love to hear from you.

2 x Graduates

Chemistry started it's Graduate Programme in April, it's going phenomenally well and we have two amazing graduates in Tom and Rosie.  They have proven to us that this is a great investment, we are therefore looking to expand the programme.  For an idea on what we are looking for try this http://tinyurl.com/yg9woqc

Please read this blog carefully, it's our "small print"

If having read the blog post "Chemistry are hiring" you are still interested? Please get in touch!

R

Creating a World Class team

Ok, so part of my new role as Head of Amazing is to help Chemistry build a World Class team.  It seems quite apt to blog about it now given the World Cup has just got underway - if the odd football analogy creeps in you’ll have to forgive me!

 

So what constitutes a World Class Team?  Well I believe (there I go – of course I still believe, even after Saturday!!)  for Chemistry it’s a number of things. It’s a bunch of truly talented individuals that can perform together as a team where the following would be true;

 

1.    Everyone at Chemistry feels motivated, capable, confident and excited – ie Chemistry is a joy to work in (we don’t want our team to be satisfied or just happy – we’re striving for it to be much more than that).

2.   Chemistry is known as one of the best places to work and we attract people who want to work for us through our reputation.

3.   Our customers have a truly awesome experience each and every time they interact with any member of the team.

 

Having researched this subject, I have to say there’s not much out there. But there was a quote I came across by Mike Krzyzewski who is quoted as being the most winingest (is that even a word) active coach.  Coach K as he’s known says, “You do not select a team, you select a group of people and then work together to develop into a team. In other words, teams don't instantaneously become, they evolve. To do this you need time, goals and competition." 

 

I like this concept.  A team evolves.  Of course it does.  You can have amazingly talented individuals but that doesn’t necessarily constitute a wining team – just look at the Gerrard/Lampard issue.  Two of the greatest midfielders around and yet they can’t play together.  Now when you bring in a holding midfielder like Barry it’s a different story.  So it’s about getting the balance in the team right to get that winning formula.  

 

At Chemistry we get companies to take their people seriously by being experts at predicting future performance. So what better way to prove this concept than in our own world class team?  We’re doing this in a number of ways.

 

We’ve recently launched our grad programme and it’s off to a great start.  Our grads are not only being given extensive on & off the job training, we’re going to be sending them on secondment to our clients to introduce a whole new learning experience for them (the grads not the clients!) It’s a lot of hard work but once they’ve graduated (and yes we will be getting them to pass exams!) they’ll be accredited to fully fledged consultants in 12-18 months.

We’re also looking at improving performance as a whole by looking at what functionality we need in the business.  In understanding what skills and behaviours are required to realise our vision as a company we can then do a comparison to what we actually have in the current team.   This then gives us a starting point in which to look at development priorities, allows us to leverage the key talents of these individuals and ultimately allows us to scale the business by bringing in the skills & behaviours required to compliment the existing team.  

 

It’s a lot to do and I can see now why Capello is always frowning! But as coach K would say, given time, I’m confident we’ll reach our goal of creating a world class team.  Let’s just hope England can do that too!

Lorraine

Emotional Intelligence… it just isn’t logical!!

When I was first asked to write this blog on emotional intelligence, two thoughts came to mind, “what’s a blog” and “are you taking the p*!@”. 

The reason for the first is that I thought I had successfully cultivated a reputation of being a bit of a luddite when it comes to technology, and therefore would never be asked to write with anything other than a pen and paper.

The reason for the second is that there are people in our business with much higher EI than me, in fact my psychometric profile suggests that I am emotionally dead (not quite, but I do have quite a low score on the emotion scale).  However, as my research has progressed I have come to realise that asking me to write this blog was either managerial genius (?), or a fairly large slice of luck. 

 Why?  Well that’s simple, researching this topic has helped me understand the subject in far more detail and has helped the realisation that EI can be viewed from different perspectives.

 

What is it?

Emotional Intelligence, according to Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, is “the ability, capacity, skill or, in the case of the trait EI model, a self-perceived grand ability to identify, assess, manage and control the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups”.

 

Can it be learnt?

There are two main schools of thought on whether, and how much, EI can be developed, and the difference is the way that EI is viewed, is it a competency, or is it defined by an innate set of values? 

One school of thought, as assigned to by Daniel Goleman suggest that EI is made up of a number of social and personal competencies, which can be developed over a period of time, by unlearning a number of old behaviours and replacing them with new ones.

The second school of thought, as assigned to by Higgs and Dulewicz, is that EI is made up of two different categories, one being competencies, which can be learnt and developed quite easily and the other being much more enduring personality traits, which are much harder to develop or shift.

My own opinion on this probably sways more towards Higgs and Dulewicz.  Being very logical I like to view EI in terms of a scale, at one end is no EI, at the other is an innate, habitual trait that allows EI to be taken to a level of feeling the feelings of others, rather that just understanding them.  I don’t think these innate traits can be learnt, and so if you don’t have them you will never get them, and therefore will never be at that end of the scale.  However I do feel that emotional competencies can be learnt and behaviours be developed to increase emotional intelligence and therefore move you up the scale.

 

So who cares about this stuff anyway…

Everyone should care about this stuff (listen to me on my soapbox, never thought I’d see the day!). More and more in the modern commercial world, companies are waking up to the idea that people are the factor that is going to give them the competitive advantage and thus understanding your people is paramount to the success of your business.  At a base level, a manager with higher emotional intelligence will be better positioned to understand their team’s emotions, relate to the individual and ultimately influence them. I would also suggest they will be better at motivating their team as they will better understand what drives them.

Colin.

Making a splash with the Chemistry team

My first blog, and the first of many things since starting work at Chemistry….where do I begin….lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start!  My dear late and beloved mum always said to my 3 brothers and I…“all my children were born on a Saturday…and Saturday’s child works hard for a living” and I can certainly say that since joining Chemistry in February, this theory is proving true!

Making a splash

Now, apparently according to psychologists; my new colleagues  would be likely to remember my actions and behaviours when I first start working with them - this is something known as “cognitive psychology” which is the primary/recency effect, i.e. the human ability to remember the first of something, and the last of something, but not so much about the middle….so is it all about first and last impressions or is there something to be said about being consistently and reliably good at getting things done?

The above would suggest that I should jump in feet first in order to make a big splash……well, this is OK, but I’m the type of person that likes to test the water before I take the plunge….luckily for me adopting the smooth day to day running of Chemistry and the existing processes from the marvellous Office Manager, Teresa has been the most important element of my role so far…quickly and with extreme detail, I have been handed over all the Chemistry secrets and insider information…which has been a massive task for Teresa….but now, the best thing about the variety of my workload is that I have my fingers in every kind of Chemistry pie.…yummy!

The forgotten middle

Daily life at Chemistry is often hectic and is certainly never dull…for me managing Roger’s diary presents daily challenges as well as new exciting opportunities for the team…organising meetings, booking travel and sometimes the odd call about a requirement for an inflatable slide!  All good fun and as long as I remain well organised I do feel in control of the many varied tasks that are sent my way… 

It’s not all work, work, work…..we get to play games too, although sometimes I wish I didn’t bother as being a bit of a “girl” I am more than rubbish at the Wii, Mario Cart, managing to come about 12th …out of 12 racers.. The Chemistry Table Football tournament is also under way at lunch times in the office – I’m not too bad, but I certainly think that perhaps my youth wasn’t as mis-spent as some of my colleagues as I really didn’t frequent the local youth club…I think I may suggest a Table Tennis Tournament, as I’m pretty tasty at Ping Pong!

Lasting impressions

So, when you consider that I started off a little quiet, and some would say shy - I do feel now that I have already made a difference to the Chemistry Team and I am loving the way I work, and in turn..the way the Chemistry Team works with me; I am just as important as everybody else and my input is as much valued as everybody else’s….yes it’s hard work and yes sometimes I do feel like I don’t know what to tick of my To-Do list next - but I am loving the experience and the challenge... and, WOW look at me now Mum... I even get to write a Blog!

Marie

Pioneer or Mad Man?

What ever that thing is before early adopter, could be a pioneer could be a mad man well I'm there, it's me. Knowing this my team kindly volunteered Oliver to go and stand in line today and with 500+ other pioneers/nutters queue and eventually purchase my iPad. So big thanks to Olly.

First impressions are incredible, it seriously is the best thing to browse the web with, forget the flash nonsense it doesn't get in the way. Video is fantastic, the calendar and email apps are perfect, the Todo app is lurvely, the Wired magazine is very cool and cheaper than the one I buy in the shops! I am a big reader, will give my opinion on reading books after a couple if days but acquiring them whether through iBooks or Kindle is easy and the books on iBook are just as cheap as Kindle and a lot cheaper than Amazon paper/hard backs.

Finally the keyboard, look I am not saying that I would want to write my memoirs on this device but I could easily write a proposal, a presentation or a spreadsheet (the pages/keynote and numbers apps are pure class) on this. I made no more typos on this than i do typing in a normal keyboard.

So currently, as you can see, we are on honeymoon staring in to each others eyes wistfully, I'll keep you posted whether the romance continues!

R

Don't make small-talk with me about the weather. Well, maybe after a few glasses of wine..!

When I told friends that I’ve been advised to improve my communication skills at work, they were shocked.  I often have a lot to say, I form strong and compelling arguments and am certainly not shy! Generally I would consider myself to be a strong communicator…when I want to be. 

But that’s just the point; I choose when to and when not to communicate. I don’t always consider the impact that this may have on the audiences I am neglecting.

It’s not that I intend to be rude, I’m just not always the most forthcoming person in conversation.

The idea of meaningless conversation about ‘the weather’ with people I don’t know, honestly makes my skin crawl. I don’t enjoy conversation for conversation’s sake.

I remember my father teaching me “it’s better to stay silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and leave no doubt” I’ve stuck to this strategy (unless I’ve had a few too many glasses of wine). It may sound good in theory, in reality one can come across as quite cold. 

I’ve also been guilty of taking my selective communication to the extreme by completely switching off from all human engagement and operating inside my own little work-obsessed bubble, typing away frantically at my computer, so deeply submerged that I won’t even lift my head to say “hello” when someone walks into the office. However I try to justify my actions, this behaviour is not the way I want to behave at work. 

Now we’ve established what my communication problems are, what I really want to know is what exactly is effective communication? and how can I make my communication more effective?

To answer these questions I’ve read all kinds of cheesy ‘communication blogs’, using such groundbreaking analogies as how communication works in a restaurant by explaining the communication process from customer ordering, to food being cooked and delivered to the customer.  Not only did I find these analogies tedious, they were completely useless in telling me anything new or helping me to improve my own workplace communication.

It made me think… maybe the solution to my communication woes really is that simple.  Maybe I can’t find the inspirational, groundbreaking blog on communication I’ve been looking for because the solutions to effective workplace communication are really that obvious!

I’ve chosen two very simple, but critical, communication ideals which if utilised properly should revolutionise my workplace communication skills…

 

1) Listen

 

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak” (Epictetus)

As I mentioned, my communication problems don’t stem from my inability to talk, I am fabulous at speaking, just not so great at listening!  Listening is after all the real skill in communication.  To be a ‘great listener’ is an ideal that everyone aspires to, but few actually achieve.

 

2) Practice

 

“Communication works for those who work at it” (John Powell)

We cannot expect everyone to be born as ‘inspiring communicators’.  For every Barrack Obama in the world there are hundreds of George W’s.  The only way to improve my communication is to practice.  And yes, there will be times when I feel I’m “too busy to chat”, when listening to my colleagues drone on about the world cup almost sends me to sleep…but I’ll get there…eventually. 

Changing the habits of a lifetime won’t happen over night, but it’s certainly worthwhile.  Communication is the basis on which all great work is accomplished.  After all, it is our skill at communication which ultimately determines our successes, our failures and the overall quality of our lives.

 

Rosie.