Category Archive: Uncategorized

  1. Letting Go Of The Day Job

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    Letting Go of the Day Job

    I work with leaders from a cross section of organisations, helping them to transition from being an expert in their field to taking on leadership roles.  We have known for a long time that leaders often feel bereft at having to let go of the day job and try hard to hold on to it, often giving the perception of micromanaging.  Leadership courses do their best to train the new set of skills necessary for stepping up and on the whole do a good job. However, some industries in particular find it more difficult than others – industries where a high degree of risk aversion exists – engineering, manufacturing, IT, Utilities to name but a few.

    The habits exhibited by potential leaders are of course an unconscious process and often don’t come to light even during the leadership training.  Habits of behaviour and thinking which have been formed over time to accommodate the role of the day job and which now need to be changed if they are to step up to the challenges of leadership.  A classic example is shown here –

     

     

    the diagram shows the top two rows (Initiating and Motivating) of a paradox report for someone applying for a leadership role. The graph as a whole shows the person’s overall approach to work and the final two rows (not shown here) are Implementing and Maintaining thus giving us a complete picture.

    For now, let’s just take a look at the top row which represents the setting up of any project or work requirement. It is called ‘Initiating’ – I sometimes prefer to call it the ‘visionary’ level because nothing has happened at this stage – it’s all in the planning, in the mind, in the imagination.

     

     

    Incidentally this person has scored quite highly on both the Motivating and Implementation stage suggesting that he/she is very good at implementing a strategy and motivating others to get behind it once the strategy is in place.  But now things are different.  We are asking this person to step up and become a leader which he/she may well be able to do with some training but first needs the awareness of the gaps.  The need for the skills used in the day job become secondary to those needed at the strategic level.  Take a look at the first paradox graph in the diagram ‘Opinions’ – this person has a strong propensity to be open and reflective in his/her ideas and will spend time gathering those of others.  It may take a while for this person to become certain and feel confident to express an opinion thus appearing ‘flakey’ to others.  The key here is not to stop being open and reflective but to ask the question ‘what has to happen for you to be certain in this scenario?’

    Similarly, the Decision graph would suggest that this person’s approach to decision making is erratic at most thus leaving people unsure of what might happen next.  The preparedness to make a decision in a leadership role is key to success so work is needed here too.  The one I find most fascinating is the Strategic Graph.  Here we have someone who is unsure of their own opinions, finds it tricky to make a decision and is also risk averse.  This may be fine in the day job, for example, we would really not want engineers to take risks with the engineering aspect of their role but this is different. Strategy by definition has risk attached, since it has never been done before. Remember this is at the initiating or visionary stage of the work – at some point this person will have to put a stake in the ground, having analysed the pitfalls and gathered and analysed enough data.  A whole new set of skills which can be taught but need awareness first.

     

    If you would like to know more about the unique and versatile Harrison Assessments Talent Solution approach, based on enjoyment theory, please do get in touch:

    Pat Hutchinson

    07768 922244

    pat@quadrant1.com

  2. Special Post: Please help Quadrant 1 support Oxford Against Cutting (OAC)

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    Quadrant1 Logo

    Quadrant 1 supports Oxford Against Cutting (OAC)

    Oxford Against Cutting (OAC) is committed to working to help prevent female genital mutilation (FGM) of girls and women living in the Thames Valley. Quadrant1 supports OAC and the work that they do and we would ask for your support in a pre-Christmas appeal in raising vital funds so that they can continue their work to eradicate FGM.

    How can you support OAC?

    It’s very simple! Help Oxford Against Cutting raise FREE funds whenever you shop online by signing up to #easyfundraising. It doesn’t cost any extra and you’ll be helping to make a real difference with every purchase you make. It’s great and so easy! To find out more, visit https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/oxfordagainstcutting

    All you need to do is choose to support OAC, shop online with over 3,500 online retailers such as Viking Office Supplies, Amazon, EBay, M&S and many more, and OAC will receive donations at no cost to you!

    You can find out more about OAC here: https://www.oxfordagainstcutting.org and you can also donate directly here: https://www.oxfordagainstcutting.org/donate-here/

    Thank you in advance for your kind support,

    Pat

  3. Why do your people decide to stay or leave?

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    In this day and age of virtually full employment it can be difficult to recruit and retain your best talent.  Recruitment alone is a costly process.

    So what makes someone come to your organisation in the first place and what makes them stay?  There is a general assumption that if we pay people enough they will want to stay but is this right and how will you know?

    Using Harrison Assessments we can measure 8 factors which contribute to retention and engagement.  We do this objectively not subjectively using an on-line SmartQuestionnaire™

    .  These factors include –

    • Development Expectations
    • Remuneration Expectations
    • Authority Expectations
    • Social Expectations
    • Appreciation Expectations
    • Communication expectations
    • Personal Expectations
    • Work Life Balance Expectations

    The resulting report is the result of 30 years of research by Dr Dan Harrison into what makes people successful at work.

    For further information on Harrison’s Engagement and Retention solution please click on the image below:

    Just call 07768 922244 or email pat@quadrant1.com to arrange.

  4. 10 reasons why you need NLP in your business!

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    People who learn NLP have a deep insight into the way people communicate, learn and approach change. Such insights result in –

    • Engaged teams working to their full potential – if your organisation is thinking about measuring engagement it’s probably because people are not engaged so why not invest in creating an engaged workforce? NLP gives you all you need to understand and effect engagement. Combined with an objective Harrison Assessment Engagement & Retention Report for your team/ organisation you can design a highly accurate Reward scheme for a fraction of the cost that traditional subjective engagement surveys cost.
    • Fast, effective, energetic meetings resulting in positive action – a high street retail chain told us recently that they estimated in one head office department alone they wasted over £1 million per year in meetings! NLP will help you stay on track, whilst hearing all points of view and take positive action afterwards
    • Powerful presentations designed to engage any audience and motivate them to act – too many high level meetings still rely on overloaded PowerPoint presentations to deliver information which fails to engage and motivate. Death by PowerPoint still rules! Presentations designed around an understanding and implementation of NLP will generate understanding, engagement and action. The purpose of a presentation is to affect people enough to take action. NLP will help you do this.
    • First-class leadership skills born out of a unique, in-depth understanding of human nature and potential, and mixed with a powerful concoction of coaching tools and techniques way beyond the level of conversational coaching. NLP is an advanced leadership and coaching model.
    • A real understanding of what effective communication is all about – copying bullet pointed PowerPoint slides along a chain of communication may get you off the hook but it won’t engage the people you want to act upon them. NLP will help you to cascade the skills required to communicate effectively.
    • Sales teams with real insights into their prospects buying patterns – it’s easy to sell when the going is good. NLP gives sales people the edge when the going gets tough and the flexibility to change behaviour when their approach isn’t working.
    • Human Resources and training teams who really understand the implications and benefits of real personal development – people who recognise the individual needs of employees and truly understand the phrase ‘releasing potential’. NLP helps you transfer skills and attitudes you possess in one context across a whole range of contexts.
    • Finance teams who learn to tell the story their figures represent rather than overloading people with the figures themselves. Bringing figures to life to enable people to understand and act is a real skill. NLP will help you develop this skill.
    • Marketing teams who understand the buying patterns of their target market and design campaigns accordingly. NLP will help you develop the skills to massively impact your market.
    • Highly effective managers with people skills second to none. As with leadership skills, NLP will help your managers coach, motivate and engage their teams in a way that will make it exciting to come into work. Cut down on absenteeism, increase productivity and enjoy work!

    The Application of NLP in Business White Paper

    This White Paper provides an insight into the tools and techniques and their application within business, including communication, persuading and influencing, sales, presentations, decision making, managing people and time management.

    Request your copy here –

      Thanks for reading, please give us a call to discuss how NLP will benefit your business.

    • Case Study: The entrepreneurial warehouse managers

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      Organisations seek to to attract and retain the best talent for specific roles and more importantly – the right cultural fit.

      Even organisations that outsource their selection processes have told us that although outsourcing solves the initial sorting process it often does nothing for the ‘cultural fit’ of applicant to organisation. In fact, the CIPD recently published statistics showing that only 8% of organisations are actually happy with their talent management approach. In our experience there are a number of reasons for this  – disparate methods being used at differing levels and in different areas of the organisation and the perception of cost and dissatisfaction with assessment tools are among the most common.

      So how do you measure company values?

      It has become common practice for business trainers/facilitators to help organisations identify their values and connect these to the behaviours expected in support of these values. Harrison Assessments helps to identify the behaviours behind the values in a way that hasn’t been easy before.

      How do companies measure employee performance against their values?

      The concept is simple. If something is important to us as human beings we will behave in a way that supports this value. So behind each value must be a set of behavioural competencies and behind each competency is a set of behavioural traits.

      Case Study: The entrepreneurial warehouse managers

      We were recently working with an organisation who have a strong value around entrepreneurship. They wanted all their warehouse managers to behave in an entrepreneurial way as if the business was their own. Of course this can mean different things to different people and it took time to establish what was really required in terms of behaviour. For example true entrepreneurs can be very high risk takers unable to convey their vision to others. This is certainly not what the organisation was looking for. When we broke it down we discovered that what was actually required was –

      • Essential traits – optimism, persistence, self-acceptance, self- improvement, the ability to take initiative, enthusiasm for the role, the ability to be open and reflective and some warmth and empathy.
      • Desirable traits – collaboration, effective enforcing, a desire to lead, a systematic approach, the ability to work as a team, diplomacy, frankness, the ability to enlist co-operation, the ability to handle conflict, flexibility, helpfulness and tolerance of structure
      • Traits to avoid – rebellious autonomy, harshness, insensitivity, evasiveness, imprecision caused through speed, scepticism, permissiveness and slow precision.

      Taking a closer look at these you may say that some entrepreneurs will fit into this profile but others definitely not. So gaining a clearer picture was essential to fully understand what the organisation was looking for.

      All the other company values were analysed in the same way to produce an overall profile against which the company can measure accurately.

      So now the company has an accurate measuring tool as well as a clearer understanding of their own expectations in relation to their advertised values. This not only represents a huge cost saving in making sure they recruit people who will fit the culture, it highlights automatically areas for development for existing employees and forms the basis for personal development plans. A next possible step is to incorporate this measurement into the appraisal system thus making it easier for managers to have conversations which may previously have been avoided.

    Quadrant 1 International