Leading by Influence - Tim Wilke

Announcing Tim Wilke’s NEW book, ‘Jane Hates Her Job’

Amazon

Announcing my NEW Book: ‘Jane Hates Her Job: 24 sure-fire ways to motivate employees to do great work’

I’m super excited after a 2 year break, to announce the release of my new book, ‘Jane Hates Her Job: 24 sure-fire ways to motivate employees to do great work’.

You can purchase it on Amazon by clicking here, where you will also find a preview of the first 3 chapters as well as a detailed review of it.

author

Now to give you some detail about the ‘Jane Hates Her Job‘ book.

Jane, along with the large majority of workers worldwide, hates her job. The predominant reason for which is that Jane and the like are disengaged at work.

Unfortunately, this is neither good for the employee nor the business. But it doesn’t have to be like this. You, as a manager, are in a prime position to do something about it. And this where the book ‘Jane Hates Her Job’ really comes into its own. Here you will find 24 sure-fire strategies for turning your disengaged employees into fully engaged ones.

Including:

– Showing staff that you can be trusted.

– Removing barriers to employees doing their job.

– Ensuring staff feel valued and appreciated.

– Hiring the right people.

– Creating a fun workplace.

If you are looking for ways for put an end to your employee disengagement problems, and by doing so make your business perform much better, this book is definitely for you.

Not only is ‘Jane Hates Her Job’ jam-packed full of proven-to-work methods for bringing about change in any workplace where job satisfaction is important but not evident, it’s also set out in such a way as to help you implement all 24 employee satisfaction strategies in the most effective and shortest possible time.

A review of the book by Jamie BJ

Guide to Getting Employees More Engaged

5 out of 5 stars

April 30, 2019

In this book, author Tim Wilke discusses 24 strategies that will help improve employee engagement. The first part of the book has the manager do some assessment about the current level of engagement that the staff has. In this part, he also discusses the cost of disengagement as well as giving the big picture of the 24 strategies and how to apply them. Part 2, the bulk of the book, lays out the 24 strategies. They range from very simple (like saying hello to your staff every morning) to ones that are a little more vague about how to implement (like showing respect to employees) to ones that would require corporate culture change (like doing away with annual performance evaluations).

In each chapter about a strategy, he discusses research sometimes and also has you ponder your own experience or made-up scenarios that give insight into the strategy. He often tells what’s in it for management regarding the strategy, and he always ends by showing what personal needs of the employee are addressed by the particular technique. Sometimes, he gives detailed descriptions about what to do, and other times, they are more general.

For the most part, the strategies he suggests should be common sense for managers. Having worked in several larger organizations myself, I know that common sense is not so common, particularly with certain managers and typically more apt to be absent in a large organization. There are definitely dangers in misinterpreting or poorly implementing some of these strategies; the author does caution about some of these pitfalls. I’m particularly thinking about the “management by walking around” strategy. I had a manager who did this, but she used it to micromanage and belittle employees; the author does mention this as a “don’t.”

I need your help

I’d like to ask you a favour. Would you mind taking a few minutes to write a review of my book ‘Jane Hates Her Job‘ on Amazon. Your comments help others know what they can expect to find in the book and whether it is helpful to them in their work.

If you kindly agree to my request, could you please contact me by clicking here. I will then send you an PDF of the book for you to review.

Thank you for offering to do this. I’m looking forward to reading your comments.

Need your help with my new book

Academic disciplines

A book all managers should read

Amazon

Now that my new book ‘Jane Hates Her Job‘ is finally released, I’m keen to get as many managers as possible to read it. My reason for wanting this is that the current state of play for employee engagement levels are at an all time low and that this book will go some ways towards helping managers turn this around.

But here’s the thing.

For managers to go out and buy my book and then read it, they first need to

  1. know about it’s existence and
  2. that they will gain a worthwhile benefit from it.

I need your help

However to make those two things happen, I need your help. It being in the form of reviewing my book and then posting it on Amazon for all managers to see.

To reiterate what I said above, your comments help others know what they can expect to find in the book and whether it’s helpful to them in their work.

If you kindly agree to my request, could you please contact me by clicking here. I will then send you an PDF of the book for you to review.

Thank you for offering to do this. I’m looking forward to reading your comments.

‘Look Inside’: 4 years on

Creating Happier Organisations

The more things change

It may be 4 years since my book ‘Look Inside: Discovering the secret to leadership‘ was first released, but the message it contained is just as relevant today as it ever was. But just don’t take my word for it. Read what Jamie BJ had to say about it in her April 2019 review of the book.

This is an allegorical book that means to teach about leadership success through story. Ruby and Byron are two managers who have different concepts of what leadership success looks like. At a fair, they visit a magical manor where they are each given a different box of leadership tools. They are told that a mentor will follow up with them to help them better use their tools.

Byron is the type of boss who thinks he should decree everything his employees do while Ruby is a leader who prefers to empower the people she works with. The tools in each of their boxes correlate with their respective managerial styles.

The principles of success in leadership that this book espouses ring true. A boss is not necessarily a leader. But unfortunately, not all bosses understand that. It takes a certain level of trust to truly lead, which is something that many would-be leaders have a hard time both engendering and allowing.

The message is clear

To me this is a perfect example of the old adage, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Let me explain what I mean by this.

One of the things that has changed of late is the repeated calls to managers to place a greater emphasis on raising the percentage of engaged employees to levels of at least 70 percent. My book ‘Look Inside: Discovering the secret to leadership success‘ being just one of those voices.

However, regardless of whether managers heeded these calls for action or not, it was all in vain. I say this because one of the things that has remained the same is that employee engagement levels are, and have been for close on 20 years, at an unacceptably low figure of around the 30 percent mark.

This is certainly worrying. Which begs the question of what’s really going on here? Well, the answer is simple. It’s largely the result of a management style, called ‘Ruling by Fear‘, which began in earnest during the Industrial Revolution era of the 1880s as the way to manage people and has continued unabated even to this very day. But what’s truly worrying is that managers who engage in this style of management do it, in spite of the overwhelming evidence of it being a practice that causes mass employee disengagement in everywhere it’s used.

Or to put it in ‘Look Inside‘ speak, there are nearly as many Byron  type managers who ‘Rule by Fear‘ in businesses today as there were back in the days when it first took hold. So the message is clearly not getting through to these Byron types that they need to be more like Ruby, who is queen of the ‘Leading by Influence‘ style of management, if they are successfully engage with their employees.

The consequences

But until this happens, employee engagement will remain at an abysmally low levels. And unfortunately both business and employees will continue to perform poorly because of it.

However, I’m ever the optimist and therefore hopeful that this situation will turn around soon. Although based on current indications, that’s unlikely to be the case.

Want to know more about this?

If you want to know more about how best to engage with your employees, you can do no better than to read my latest book, ‘Jane Hates Her Job; 24 sure-fire ways to motivate employees to do great work’.

Leadership and culture change

It can be purchased on Amazon by clicking here.

If you think it is great, and I’m sure you will, please leave a review.

Because the more managers who read this book and apply the strategies described within it, the greater likelihood that employee engagement levels will go on the climb. I would think that every manager would want that, don’t you?

One of the habits of successful leaders

Leadership

One of the habits of successful leaders

High energy is one of the keys to leadership success

I’m sure you’ve all heard it. You need to work long and hard if you want to succeed, be it at leadership or anything else for that matter.

But is that really true?

Well according to the pop psychologists and the great motivators of our time, it is. You know the deal. No pain, no gain and all that.

But science doesn’t agree, particularly with regards to the “long” bit. Let me explain.

Our mental energy levels naturally arise and fall throughout the day, according to what psychologist Peretz Lavie calls the “ultradian rhythms“. A graphic representation of which is shown below.

daily energy cycle

You can deal with this situation in one of two ways.

  1. You can stick with the long-held belief that the only way to truly succeed is to work 8 or more hours straight without taking a single break each and every day. Which means ignoring your ultradian rhythms all together.
  2. You can choose to “work smarter” by aligning your periods of work and rest with your body’s natural rhythm.  It’s an approach based on the premise that the best way of getting your brain to perform optimally is not to push it to operate at maximum intensity for long periods of time without allowing some downtime to replenish itself.

In other words, instead of forcing yourself to work at a high level of mental energy for a full 8 hour stretch, funnel your daily efforts into four 90 minute-windows of high intensity activity, interspersed equally with 30 minute rest periods.

As counterintuitive as this may sound, having short breaks between periods where you’re completely immersed in work, results in close to 20% more productivity (Source: a study conduced by the Federal Aviation Administration).  But as much as this is now a proven fact, option 2 is still a new way of thinking.  Which means that learning to function in this particular manner won’t be easy during the initial stages of putting it into practice.   But you will master it in time if you commit to following the instructions as set down below.

Step 1.

Determine at which point of the daily energy cycle you are at by working hard until you feel drowsy or your mind starts to wander from the task at hand.

When this happens, take it as a sign of being in one of the troughs in your natural energy cycle (see diagram above).  Which means that you now have the required knowledge to accurately sync your intense periods of activity and times of rest with your personal daily rhythm.

Step 2.  

At this point, set a timer for 30 minutes.  During this time, you can do any of the following:

  • Make phone calls.
  • Respond to emails and texts.
  • Go for a walk.
  • Have a snack.
  • Take a powernap.

But make sure you avoid doing anything that taxes your cognitive abilities in any way.  In other words, you have to use this time to rest your brain otherwise you won’t gain the productivity that comes with the “funnel” approach.

Step 3.

Once you’ve had a 30 minute break, set the timer for 90 minutes.  Now return to the tasks you were doing in Step 1.  Or if you completed them during the first work period, begin with the next task on your list.  But whatever you choose to do, make sure you are 100% focussed for that entire time.

Step 4.

After the 90 minutes are up, set yourself another 30 minute block of rest time.   And keep on doing this alternating process for the rest of the day.

Step 5.

Continue to apply this “funnel” approach of 90 minute work sessions followed by 30 minute brain recovery intervals on a daily basis until it becomes your normal way of doing work.

Now if you want to learn more about the science behind this approach and how best to put it into practice, watch the following YouTube videos.

The Science of Productivity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfjvYzr-3g 

Tony Schwartz: Working in 90 Minute Increments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5Nf8jbDtLU

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What Christmas time and good leadership have in common

“In times of change, great leaders look in the mirror, not out the window” – Peter Fuda (international authority on business and leadership transformation)

Every year at Christmas time, my partner Desley and I work our way through a large collection of Christmas movies. One of them is Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol“.

It’s a great story and for me it works on two levels. One is around it’s entertainment value and the other is the important message it sends to everyone in a leadership / management position.

Now for more on the latter.

For those who don’t know what the story is about, or needs a refresher, click here.

It’s very clear from Dickens’s narrative that Ebenezer Scrooge’s was not only troubled by what he saw but was also emotionally disturbed by what others had to say about him. I’ve summarised below what I believe were the key issues which persuaded Scrooge to not only to reflect upon his life as it was but also on the repercussions that his current behaviour could have on future events. And it was also made clear later in the story that it was the effect that these reflections had on Scrooge which ultimately drove him to undergo a permanent attitudinal transformation.

  1. Scrooge realised that if he hadn’t been so obsessed with money, he might have led a happy life with Belle (the person to whom he was engaged to be married). 
  2. On Christmas day, Scrooge hears Bob Cratich give “a toast to Mr. Scrooge.  The founder of (their) feast.”  But he reels when Mrs. Cratich responds with, “How can anyone drink the health of such an odious, stingy, hard and unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge.” 
  3. Scrooge is taken back when Fred and his family make jokes about how disagreeable he is. 
  4. Scrooge knew he must change after witnessing his own death as well as hearing the negative comments expressed by others upon learning about his demise.

Fortunately self-reflection is not always “bad news” as was the case with Mr. Scrooge.  In fact, most times we will find more things that we do really well than what we do bad.  However as much as it’s important to gain insight into each of these matters, it’s even more important to know how far our current situation is away from our ideal.  Because knowing that there is a gap between where we are now and where we would like to be as well as being aware of the size of that gap, is what often drives us to narrowing that difference.  In other words, we should really view this divergence as an opportunity for improvement rather than as a sign of failure.

However self-reflection is just one of a number of ways that we can get to know more about ourselves.   In fact, a concept known as the Johari Window indicates that we need to look into four different areas of our life if we are to totally understand our true self; those areas being:

  1. Known self – things we know about ourselves that others also know
  2. Hidden self – things we know about ourselves that others don’t know
  3. Blind self – things others know about us that we don’t know
  4. Unknown self – things that neither we or others know about us.

The message here is that if we want to obtain a complete picture of our strengths and weaknesses, self reflection alone won’t do the trick.  That is to say, we also need to take into account other areas especially that of our “blind self” i.e. those things that others know about us that we don’t know.  And this is what Scrooge did.  Not only did he learn more about himself through self-reflection but he also took on board what other people had to say about him. 

“It’s one thing to act without knowing but another thing to know but still act in the same way” – Costa Georgiadis, landscape architect and TV presenter (The Courier Mail 28 June 2012)

“Knowing that you don’t know is the most essential step to knowing.” – by the Claire Keen character in the movie: “Synecdoche New   York”

Take Home Message: we shouldn’t have to be visited by ghosts of Christmas past, present and future to be influenced to reflect on how well we are performing as a leader / manager.

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What you need to do to get people to change

Survival - lifebuoy on rails of shipOur natural instinct for survival works against us wanting to change

Our brains are hard-wired to help us survive; a trait inherited from our earliest ancestors. Which means that we are driven to do whatever it takes to prevent anything which could cause us harm.

And one of those things is change.

Change in whatever form, requires a great deal of mental energy and as such is viewed as something which is threatening. So instead of meekly giving into it, we tend to fight against it with every fibre of our being. Or to use a quote by A.J. Cronin.

“A change imposed is a change opposed”

Which means that if you want to effectively implement change, you need to lessen, as much as possible, the energy that people use in resisting it. And you can largely do this by involving them in every step of the change-process from start to finish. To learn more, click here.

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Do this if you want to be a good leader

Look but don't touch

An important message for all leaders – put your nose in but keep you fingers out.

Let me explain

The “Nose In, Fingers Out (NIFO)” approach is recommended advice given to those on company boards. And it’s something which business managers and leaders should also heed.

Putting you fingers in – or to be more specific, being hands on – is an action that’s generally not required except in an emergency situation or possibly when a complex situation arises. You may think you are being helpful by doing so but what you are really doing is undermining and devaluing the worth of your employees.

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Something every manager should know about

Boy confused - LARGE

 

Why are managers / leaders still trying to work out what motivates employees to give of their best

Ever heard of the Hawthorne Experiments?

I ask because it’s more than 80 years since those Experiments, conducted by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger, reported the following findings.

  1. Employees will perform better when they are involved in making decisions that effect them.
  2. The social and psychological needs of workers must be met if they are to be highly productive and engaged at work.
  3. Employees are largely motivated by social factors such as
  • being treated with respect and dignity;
  • having a manager / leader who actually cares about them and shows an interest in their work;
  • being part of a team.
  1. Levels of pay and monetary incentives are less important in improving employee productivity than the social factors listed above.

So it’s surprising and somewhat disappointing then that there are a considerable number of managers / leaders – even to this very day – who are still trying to work out what it takes to get employees to give of their best.  You be the judge but maybe they’ve,

  • never heard of these Experiments;
  • remain convinced that a “control and command” style of management is the best way to go, despite a great deal of evidence to the contrary or;
  • have a bad case of confirmation bias.  That is, they have a condition whereby they only listen to information that is in agreement with their existing beliefs and overlook or ignore that which does not.

I’m perplexed, so please tell me what you think the answer is.

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Why it’s difficult to get people to change

 

One of the things that every leader / manager should know about

In this post, I will give you a short but powerful message which all leaders / managers should be aware of. And I’ll start with something that I read in a well known national newspaper a short while back.

It was about a politician who was accused of doing something illegal.  Shock and horror I know but that aside, which one of the following responses do you think that person gave one month after the alleged wrongdoing became public.

  1. I decided to change my ways.
  2. I deny doing anything wrong.
  3. I had a valid reason for doing what I did and I will continue to argue the point.

Well you’re far from the mark if you said 1 or 2 because, according to Argumentative Theory, the default option for most humans is number 3.  If you don’t believe me, just read these two articles

“Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory” by Mercier and Sperber, Journal of Behavioural and Brain Science (2011) 

“The argumentative ape: Why we’re wired to persuade“, New Scientist, May 2012

So as long as humans continue to act in such a manner, they would rather justify or argue why they do what they do than change their ways or admit that they are wrong in doing it.

Therefore what hope does any business have of ever becoming really successful when it’s leaders / managers don’t take on the challenge of always looking for the means to better themselves? I’m listening.

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What you need to do to turn yourself into a good leader

How to change your behaviour so as to become a better leader

In a previous post, I made the following statement.

To become a better leader requires changing the way you behave

I also said that there were basically 3 things which could be holding you back from making such a change. Those being these.

  1. Believing that you are “Better than Average“, so you figure there’s no need to change.
  2. You have a bad case of “Confirmation Bias“, which means your mind isn’t open to anything new.
  3. You are a “Creature of Habit” like every other human.

So it begs the question then, how do you actually go about making behavioural change happen? Everyone knows how difficult it is to achieve. And on most occasions, you will probably find yourself going back to your old ways.

How do you overcome these particular challenges? 

According to the Lazarus and Folkman’s Cognitive Appraisal Theory, you will only change your existing behaviour when the following sequence of events takes place.

  1. You are confronted with a potential stressor situation such as being,
  • demoted;
  • given the results of a 360o survey, which shows that you aren’t performing to the required standard;
  • stripped of your executive privileges and/or benefits;
  • put into a position of no longer having job security;
  • given a first warning by your employer, who operates via the policy of “two strikes and you are out“.
  1. You perceive this stressor situation as being a threat to your,
  • psychological wellbeing;
  • professional status and/or reputation;
  • personal lifestyle.
  1. Your perception is one of an inability to cope with that threat.

The corollary of this is that you are unlikely to change your behaviour when one or both of these actions occur.

  1. You don’t perceive the stressor situation as being a threat.
  2. You consider yourself as having the ability to cope with the threat either by
  • fighting against it.

or

  • taking flight.

How do you put this into practice?

On a practical level, this involves using a 7-step behavioural change process with the acronym of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Now considering that this process is discussed in great detail in my book, “Look Inside: Discovering the secret to leadership success“, I will only cover it in brief here.

  1. R – Reflect on what your colleagues and staff say about your behaviour as a leader.

The primary purpose of this step is to prove that you aren’t in fact a “Better than Average” leader as you may think. If that’s the case with you – as it is for around 70% of today’s business managers – it will mostly cause you to go into a state of cognitive dissonance as explained in Lazarus and Folkman’s Theory above . Which will hopefully lead you to doing something about it rather than “fighting” against it or taking “flight”. However if you adopt either of the latter two approaches, it’s almost assured that you will do little about addressing your current behavioural short-comings. Again as per the Cognitive Appraisal Theory.

  1. E – Empty your mind of the biases which are holding you back from taking on any new ideas or concepts around leadership.

This you can do by taking on a mentor as well as finding out as much as you can about what it really takes to be a good leader.

  1. S – engage in the practice of Suggestive Programming.

This is what my book, “Look Inside” has to say about it.

“Suggestive programming, as the name says, re-programs your mind to think largely in terms of what traits and behaviours a good leader has. On a practical level, it involves reading a document which spells out these particular traits just before going to sleep each night. (This being) a time when your subconscious is most susceptible to new ideas. And as many successful people would attest, planting suggestions in your mind, actually starts to make them happen.”

  1. P – mentally Prepare yourself to behave as a good leader does.

You do this by using a technique known as visualisation. This involves forming  images in your mind of you actually behaving like that of a good leader before you do it for real. Golfers, basketball players and gymnasts do this almost every time before they take a shot or act.

  1. E – Enact the various behavioural traits for real.

These are the specific traits or behaviours which emotionally connect with people, such as

  • Being honest and open.
  • Showing  you are trustworthy.
  • Giving of your time to help people.
  • Showing respect towards others.
  1. C – passionately Commit to behaving as a good leader does.

The importance of this step is that commitment and passion are the primary drivers for anyone who wants to be a success.

  1. T – put in the necessary Time and effort until all behaviours, required to be a good leader, become second nature. 

This step is about laying down new neural pathway until the “new” behaviours become habitual. According to Dr Trisha Stratford, this takes about six to eight weeks, or four weeks if you do it every day.”

So the message here is clear. Time, and lots of it, is largely the only thing that will triumph over our age-old enemy of being a “creature of habit”.

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