Shackled by the skills crunch, a fish (business) rots from the head down
Blogging, business, outsourcing and other stuff – Interview with Chris Ducker of Virtual Business Lifestyle
February 3, 2011Leadership, social media, community and other stuff – Interview with Scott Gould of Like Minds
February 11, 2011
Today I wanted to share with you a startling set of results that recently came out of the Institute of Directors (IoD) and a phrase that can help us think about how we go about applying this to our businesses.
The results of the survey are striking in that they imply that employers are struggling with skills on 3 fronts:
- To fill the vacancies they have because of a shortage of skills in the wider workforce;
- To fill the gaps in the skills of their existing team members; and
- Continuing to develop skills overall as a way of remaining competitive.
However, the report goes on to say that:
Organisations affected by skills gaps identified management skills and leadership skills as being in particular need of improvement. Managerial skills gaps and skills shortages potentially have very significant consequences: such deficiencies are damaging in their own right and are likely to carry myriad implications for the practical running of an organisation. Less obviously, but no less importantly, a lack of management skills may exacerbate and magnify the effect of other skills weaknesses by impairing managers’ ability to leverage and develop the skills of other employees and to manage their performance effectively.
You can get a copy of the full report on the survey here.
The ten most frequently occurring skills gaps
The phrase that I wanted to use to help us think about how we build the skills in our business and our competiveness is:
This old saying which has been around since the 17th Century and implies that when something fails or goes wrong in a business or other organisation, the root cause can usually be traced back to issues with the leadership, management or the strategy.
I would suggest that this is not always the case but it is a worthwhile exercise to check in the mirror first before pointing the finger at somebody or something else.
Therefore, when faced with difficulties retaining staff, customers, your team taking the initiative, driving new growth or implementing new initiatives, first take a look in the mirror first before doing anything else and ask yourself:
What have I done today to improve my skills and abilities as a leader and manager and how can I use these to help my people perform their jobs easier and better?
Personally, I do a lot of this by reading, networking, attending different events and talking to different from different disciplines. Currently, I’m reading Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz, which I would highly recommend.
What are you doing to build your skills so that you can build your team’s skills? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks to mag3737 for the image.
23 Comments
Leadership skils development and driving business growth http://bit.ly/gvyI5S
Morning,
Uhhhh good question, initially I thought probably not enough then when breaking it down. I realise I am probably doing to much!
Currently my main focus is on blogging and community building, wordpress, business coaching, sales and social media.
What I have found useful is to pick 1 source of information I find credible for each key area of development. As my work focuses primarily on online relationship building I source most of the material I need online. I then subscribe to email updates and newsletters.
I have also been known to purchase the occasional book!
I’m off on training for social media week this on Measuring Social Media.
I don’t yet have a team but I can see why there could become a gap between the owner and staff. As you start to focus on the day today management of your business so do your staff. If you don’t keep yourself up to date them it’s unlikely you will your staff or you just get stuck in a rut for whatever reason and it’s not a priority until something not so great starts happening
So I’m looking forward to reading other comments to see how you can deal with the complexity of managing building your team’s skills.
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
Thank you for your open and honest answer about what you are doing about your own learning. Have you figured out what type of format and style suits you best: written, spoken, visual, fact based, case study, learn by doing, investigative etc? Doing so can really help source new material as well as helping with the understanding of how others learn, particularly clients and team members.
Where are you doing your ‘Measuring Social Media’ training this week?
Adrian
Adrian,
It’s with at http://www.amiando.com/smw_measurement.html free event.
Then I am heading of to the Love Shake
http://www.amiando.com/CZXROFE.html?page=483324
For social media fun and drinks…
Wendy
Wendy,
It’s a shame that I can’t make it along to any of the events this week as I am busy for the rest of this week. At your event, if you bump into Giles from Brandwatch then do say Hi from me.
Have fun,
Adrian
Hi Adrian
I’ve developed new skills over the last 6-8 months through self-study online learning (video tutorials). This has proved the most time effective way to learn as there was no need to travel and I could implement my learning as I went along. It was also a great help that for one of the courses the coach/trainer offered a coaching session as part of the package and then we arranged a 1-2-1 by phone to sort out a technical issue I was having.
I read, but it is more online content than off (although I’m looking forward to your book “Rare Business”!) Also follow key bloggers/Tweeters/ Facebookers who inspire me.
Plus…I have regular business coaching.
Guess I’m doing quite well at prioritising self-development.
Kate
Hi Kate,
Wow! You are rocking the self learning thingy. I’m proud of you. How do you manage it? Do you put aside a set amount of time per day or per week to make sure you keep up with it all?
Adrian
Adrian,
The report findings are not surprising to me. When you look at business in general the typical training path is sink or swim. Someone shows some relative competency in operations or sales and the next thing you know they are a ‘manager.’ Businesses do not really understand the management function, I see this a lot in the auto collision repair industry. As a matter of fact, a colleague and I wrote an article on this exact topic, I will email it to you.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thanks for your comment and corroboration and example of how this works in the auto collision repair industry. Given that you consult to this industry and lead the way, what do you do on a regular basis that develops your skills so that you can develop your team?
Finally, thanks for the article. I’ll take a look and revert by email.
Thanks again for your input,
Adrian
Think back to your school days. Did you learn anything in a formal curriculum that had to do with the top four categories? Advanced studies cover these topics and businesses have targeted programs to fill gaps, but I suspect what we are not doing it having focused conversations on these topics with people are early stages. We actually try to have occasional dinner conversations with our teens about leadership, management, customer service and not just railing about what frustrates us, but get them to pay attention to what engages people. Kids naturally want to have something to contribute, and if you give them a chance to talk they will start to tell you what they see that inspires them.
It’s easy to see this report as a consulting opportunity (and for those if us in the business it certainly is!), as a slam against corporate leadership for not getting it right, and as a statement about what ails Corporations in general. It’s also an opportunity to think about what we do as parent and educators of the next generation.
If that seems a stretch consider the following: my daughter’s high school now has a requirement for community service projects and the district even has a professional who coordinates the area of Service Learning. That’s far cry and an improvement from what I recall of high school days!
Hi Marc,
What a great comment and way to extend our thinking about this issue beyond what we do in the workplace. As you suggest, I do suspect that building skills starts earlier than when we have jobs and your example of what is working at your daughter’s school is a wonderful example of how we can help build a future generation of leaders. I’d like to see more of that, for sure.
Thanks again,
Adrian
One further point. We as parents have a great opportunity to position our children to learn about customer service by encouraging their young entrepreneurial endeavors. I wrote about this back in June, in a post entitled: Becoming customer centric: Six lessons you can learn from a 14 year old (http://www.bestcustomerconnection.com/?p=286). I actually think many parents do much the same, but we rarely put a spotlight on the effort.
Hi Marc,
I just popped over to your post that you highlighted and it offers a great story about your daughters efforts, initiative and entrepreneurial ‘smarts’ can act as a model for other opportunities that we see for young people both within and outside of business as a way of building real leadership and entrepreneurial skill. Thanks for that. Great story. You must be very proud of your daughter and rightly so.
Adrian
I guess the problem for most organisations these days is that there is not a skills development equivalent of a ready made meal.
Expertise development is quite at odds with the way business has been seduced into behaving by treating human capital as a throw away resource rather than one that is recycled through nurturing and career development.
The place where this shows up most acutely is in management positions since the working assumption on both sides is that its a two year assignment before the CV needs to be polished. So what’s the point is grooming such talent is it moves on?
Do that for long enough and you find the whole talent pool had hollowed out.
Erhh rather like now!
Hi Martin,
I think you make a great point when you point the finger at the culture of large corporates but don’t you think that there is a vicious cycle here? What I mean is, if management and leadership don’t invest in development of themselves and their teams then they are implicitly saying that its ok to stay for 2 years and we don’t expect any more of you?
What do you think it is going to take to break this cycle? Will it come from leadership at the CEO level, board or shareholders? Or, all of the above? And, does it need falling returns to spur a change in attitudes and culture and a move away from hollow words to really valuing and investment in their people?
Adrian
I’m currently placing my money on customer activism. Shareholder still appear too complacent
I would agree and shareholder activism’s first interest will be to protect returns and not take any undue risks, I guess.
Hi Adrian
I love that statement that a head rots from the head down. I have just read through Marc’s blog about Delta and the question of leadership (http://www.bestcustomerconnection.com/?p=722).
I wonder if these figures are not actually being polite about leadership as their job is to inspire, to encourage, to create a meaningful environment. Yet when things go wrong who’s to blame – the staff.
A staff members ability to help you is defined by how much latitude they are given by leadership. The list goes on — and we just have to look back at the recent banking crisis and the bonuses executives are paid (well certainly in South Africa) to know where their interests lie.
Hi Michael,
I don’t know if those figures are understated or not but they tell a grim story about where the ‘bottlenecks’ and impediments to growth and development lie……and the cold hard truth is that they lie with ourselves…..all of us that lead and consult to and manage businesses. It’s up to us to make sure that we are constantly getting better and developing and through that we can really help our people and our businesses.
Adrian
Hi Adrian,
Great post, and an even better question. The leader needs to lead the leader, or everyone drowns. Most business owners receive little or no feedback on their performance. Further-more whatever standard they set personally as an average, will generally be the absolute maximum level that staff perform to… yes, rotting heads indeed!
Here’s some thoughts. Much of life is the undoing of something that shouldn’t have been done, or could have been done differently. Life’s an inner game, everything hinges on the self, so self mastery is the key. As humans, we’re given the ability to think at a higher level. Unfortunately, often we don’t. Or at least, not in the way we were designed to. For many, ‘free will’ or ‘free thinking’ is just their belief system in disguise.
When we’re in the flow, we take giant steps forward effortlessly – there are few obstacles or problems. When we become more (of our-self), we need less. And the control is in letting go of the control. Trying to control only reinforces what we’re trying to escape from.
OK, the point I’m trying to make is this; many are trying to fight against themselves internally – not undertaking development because they’re not aware enough to know they need it. Or what they ‘think they would have to’ do goes against their core being. Plus they think it’s too hard now, so why make it harder. The reality of course is the opposite – undertake some real development / growth, and everything becomes so much easier, and keeps getting more so. How strong does the fish have to smell before awareness sets in; or is it headed for the trash can?
Some words of wisdom from the Tao; “The master accomplishes much without doing”. Know thyself, and self mastery, that’s the key. I’ve created a programme around that, it may be of interest.
1-on-1 Self Mastery</A
Hi Des,
What a great and insightful comment. I think you have a great point about awareness and how it links to development and control.
Isn’t it funny how we go all rigid when we are frightened when in fact we should try and stay relaxed and loose as this is the best ‘state’ to be in.
I’ll check out your programme. Thanks for that.
Adrian