http://www.leadershipreview.

net/connect-with-employees

How to connect with your

employees
LRed - Monday 24th August 2015

Art: Glenys Barton, Flowers Gallery

For your company to thrive, you need each and every one of
your employees to give their all. So how can you excite your
workforce, fill them with enthusiasm and win their
commitment?
Peter Economy, writing for Inc.com, reveals seven proven
strategies for connecting with your employees:
1) Respect your people. Everyone wants to feel respected and
valued at work. Respect your employees’ opinions, cultures and
time and they, in turn, will respect their bosses and the company.
2) Make them feel safe. Ruling your employees through threats
and intimidation is counterproductive, says Economy.
OPINIONS
Fear causes employees to mentally disconnect from their work
and encourages absenteeism. In order to really connect with your
people, they need to feel safe enough to try new ideas, give their
opinions and tell you the truth.
3) Tell them everything. Drip-feeding selective communication
from the top is no longer a viable practice, says the author.
Employees need “constant, complete, and unfettered
communication… about what’s going on in the organisation and
their place within it” if you want them to give their all.
4) Foster a sense of ownership. Develop a sense of pride and
ownership in your employees. Financial incentives and the
granting of stock are obvious ways to do this. But, advises the
author, giving employees real authority and responsibility over
aspects of their jobs can work just as well to instill “an owner's
mentality in the workplace”.
5) Ditch the bureaucracy. The old, bureaucratic business model
is now extinct, says Economy. In its place is “a lean model built
on speed, flexibility, and the active involvement of frontline
employees”.
AUTHORITY
Give your employees the authority to do their jobs properly.
Depending on them to do the right thing is much more effective
than forcing them to do so.
6) Value their ideas. Your employees are a “tremendous
potential source of organisational improvement”, argues the
author. Encourage workers to make suggestions and always act
on the best ideas put forward.
7) Say thank you. Few bosses recognise and reward their
employees enough. Verbal and written thank yous and public
celebrations of team successes go a long way to boosting
employee engagement and, ultimately, your bottom line.
Source
Seven Proven Ways To Genuinely Connect With Your
Employees
Peter Economy
Inc.com
Posted in:
Strategy
Marketing

http://www.leadershipreview.net/chinese-management

The lessons leaders everywhere

can learn from Chinese
companies
LRed - Monday 10th August 2015
Art: Derek Hirst, Flowers Gallery

Chinese companies can teach the West responsiveness, flexibility,

improvisation and speed, say Thomas Hout and David Michael,
writing for the Harvard Business Review.
China’s economy is a constantly evolving ecosystem in which
private companies struggle with rapid urbanisation, a huge rural
market, ingrained corruption, and frequent boom and bust cycles.
Many small businesses fail, but the fittest of the species are
“resourceful, flexible, and fierce competitors”, say the authors.
These Chinese companies may well be the vanguard of a new era
in which agility is key.
Hout and Michael have studied more than 30 large privately
owned Chinese companies over a period of five years.
They found that Chinese companies are “higher in energy and
much more nimble than most Western corporations are.” And
here is why:
1) Simple structures. The simple organisational structures within
most privately owned Chinese companies make them supremely
agile.
“Smart Chinese executives make decisions in an ad hoc manner
and are micromanagers”, say the authors and “there is a
Confucian preference for simple organisational structures, with
everyone reporting to the top”.
But the Chinese market is complicated, with each province
developing at its own pace and having its own officials and
customs to respond to.
Chinese companies decentralise to cope with these stark local
differences and often comprise individual business units that
operate almost autonomously.
“The Chinese founders we’ve studied have as many direct reports
as possible; these leaders take the idea of decentralisation and flat
structures to the extreme”, say Hout and Michael.
For instance, major appliance giant Haier is made up of thousands
of micro-companies, all reporting to the chairman. And Midea, its
main rival, has split most of its major product lines into
independent business units – each of which is autonomous and
accountable.
These simple organisational structures allow rapid expansion,
improvisation and speed. It is thanks to this structuring that
Chinese CEOs are comfortable with the “heady pace” their
economy sets and can happily and prolifically develop new
products and enter into new markets.
2) Localisation. Since most of China is still developing, each
region has its own customs, traditions and needs. Even the
definition of “quality” varies according to the needs of each
locality, say the authors. “Localisation provides companies a way
to capture value – through what they offer customers and
partners, and how they go to market.”
Heavy machinery company Sany has become a big player in the
construction equipment business through its localised approach.
Its cement trucks and excavators are low-end machines and,
unlike its multinational rivals, are not expected to last for
decades. In the fast pace of China’s development, durability is
rarely a requirement, explain the authors.
The machines are sold to local leasing companies, rather than
directly to contractors. Sany uses very local distribution systems
and relies on well-connected managers to sell its products.
3) Resourcefulness. Chinese business leaders believe they have
to “create their own ecosystems” and are willing to build
everything from scratch and on a huge scale. CEOs have to create
anything, from basic skills in their employees to new supply
chains, and from unconventional sources of capital to schools for
their workers’ children.
Zhang Yong, founder of hot pot restaurant chain Hai Di Lao,
creates his own suppliers on entering a new market by offering
contracts to entrepreneurs. He sources capital through diverse
means – taking advantage of relationships with Chinese
Communist Party members, friends of friends and financial
incentives, subsidies and investment funds.
Chinese CEOs are undaunted at entering new markets because
they are accustomed to starting everything from scratch and
usually have the necessary connections to help them succeed in
new ventures.
4) Flexibility. Chinese business leaders have to be skilful in
managing the state or creative in circumnavigating it.
For decades, private companies had no standing in China and
struggled to get the raw materials, people and capital they needed,
explain the authors. Even now they are still required to get
licences for most of their operations. Building strong relationships
with government and local officials is usually essential.
But Chinese CEOs have learned to work the system to their
advantage. Maintaining close relationships with Party members
keeps costs down, allows access to markets and eases tax
obligations.
These relationships are mutually beneficial – allowing businesses
to get things done and helping the government grow China’s tax
base.
Chinese CEOs who don’t wish to engage with the state can
always find ways to work around it. Wang Shi, founder of the real
estate developer Vanke Group, has bypassed local restrictions on
property development to become China’s largest real estate
developer.
5) Speed. Chinese companies can develop new products and scale
up with astounding rapidity. Goodbaby International Holdings,
for instance, which is the market leader in pushchairs and car
seats, launches around 100 new products per quarter.
“The ability to launch new offerings is a by-product of heritage,”
explain the authors. Goodbaby and other Chinese giants started
life making goods they did not design. They learned how to adapt,
modify and prototype designs quickly and keep manufacturing
costs down.
Their skills are generally “downstream industrial competencies”.
Until now the Chinese have tended not to create technology,
 instead reverse-engineering or acquiring technologies through
licensing deals.
But Chinese companies hire more mid-level engineers and
manufacturers than multinationals and this “gives the Chinese the
luxury of tinkering, which can solve difficult problems”, explain
the authors.
Multinationals striving to become leaner and more nimble, can
learn agility, adaptability and resourcefulness from Chinese
companies. The authors conclude: “The future of management
lies somewhere between the top-down reform of Western
corporations and the bottom-up maturation of Chinese companies.
They have much to learn from each other.”
Source
A Chinese Approach To Management
Thomas Hout and David Michael
Harvard Business Review
Posted in:
Strategy
Marketing
Related

http://www.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2015/10/09/two-fifths-of-
employers-report-rises-in-employee-mental-illness.aspx

 Two-fifths of employers report increase

in employee mental illness
 Hayley Kirton
 9 Oct 2015
 Comments1 comments
Workloads, management style and relations with colleagues are main causes,
finds CIPD Absence Management survey
An increase in mental ill-health among workers has been reported by two-fifths of employers
questioned in the CIPD’s 2015 Absence Management survey.
Respondents to the annual survey pointed to heavy workloads, management style and difficult
relationships with colleagues as the main causes behind stress and anxiety in the workplace.

This is the sixth consecutive year that more than 40 per cent of respondents to the survey have
reported a rise in mental ill-health at work. By comparison, in 2009 less than a quarter (24 per
cent) said they had seen a rise in mental health issues among their workforce.

Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, said: “Unfortunately, this year’s survey shows the
number of reported mental health problems has increased for many employers, and after over
half a decade at these levels, we can’t afford to let this issue continue to grow any longer. As a
nation we’re getting better at opening up the conversation around mental health, but there is still
a long way to go.”

Willmott said that manager training was crucial to stemming the growth in this problem as line
managers are often an employee’s first point of contact for reporting an issue, however, he
added: “Only 30 per cent of organisations currently provide such training.”

He said: “There needs to be a lot more focus on this going forward, as well as tailored support
from HR for line managers and signposts for employees to access appropriate support.
Employers also need to look at how well their corporate culture supports good mental health and
employee well-being.”

More than a fifth (22 per cent) of employers admitted they were not taking any action to improve
the mental health of their employees, such as providing a counselling service or offering flexible
working. And only 31 per cent said they were working towards increasing awareness of mental
health issues across their workforce.

Sir Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Manchester Business
School, said he was “not surprised” that so many employers had noticed rising mental ill-health
among staff.

“We have fewer people in the workplace, they’re doing more work than ever before and they’re
feeling more job insecurity coming out of the recession. And we’re talking about a contingent
workforce where jobs are no longer for life, you’re there only while you’re producing,” he said.

Cooper also said that stigma surrounding mental health, although less prevalent than it was, still
exists. “If you’re suffering and you’re feeling job insecure, are you going to let anybody know? Of
course not, you don’t want to let managers know that you may be vulnerable, that you’re not
coping because they want copers, they want people who can deliver the bottom line.”

Willmott recommended that businesses train managers to better handle mental health issues.
“Employers also need to look at how well their corporate culture supports good mental health and
employee wellbeing,” he added.

Corinne Williams, head of HR at Simplyhealth, which helped produce the CIPD survey, said: “If
organisations are to reduce reported levels of mental health absence, we need to target the root
causes of mental health problems in the workplace, rather than just the signs, and deal with
issues as and when they arise. An effective employee well-being programme, which should
include a confidential employee helpline, can help to ensure there is a positive culture towards
mental health, and so this should be a priority going forward.”

The full report, which surveyed 578 organisations across the UK in reference to 1.5 million
employees, will be released on 12 October, just after World Mental Health day on the 10th of
October.