Executive summary of our findings following 1,100
surveys
of staff and management in the UK in May 2003-March 2004. Through our testing and assessment processes and also through development
workshops, we have found that more than 25% of staff and managers either
think they are better or worse than their current capabilities. It’s
not just misplaced self-confidence, quite a large number underestimate
their skills, particularly in interpersonal strengths.
A further, roughly, 20% are not calibrating their behaviour and are using
their strengths to excess which means that they don’t get the outcomes
they were expecting, mainly because the people they are dealing with put
up barriers in a self-defensive way. This leads to poor communications,
sabotage, procrastination, little risk-taking and minimal decision-making
in many organisations.
Then there are those that deceive others by their chameleon-like behaviour
– being all things to all people. Many individuals can get away with
being “all mouth and no trousers” for many years, carried, often
unwillingly, by colleagues and charming management.
There are still large numbers of managers who can’t manage, can’t
listen and can’t control. Not because they don’t know how –
we have a good record of management training in this country – but
because they haven’t faced their underlying demons: too emotionally
driven, too scared of not being liked, panickers, data-bound.
Those who lead with their ego either fail to delegate because they can’t
imagine anyone else doing the task as well as themselves, or they rearrange
organisational priorities to meet their own personal agendas. When this
style reaches the top of the heap they wear their “bully” badge
with pride, expecting to be accepted “warts and all”.
But this style is disempowering, narrow and reliant on only one individual
to carry the success of the team, department, organisation. We sadly found
in many teams, that they were also recruiting in their own image because
“we speak the same language”.
Whilst psychometric and other testing methods are being increasingly used
to inform decisions, many managers still prefer to go with gut feel, sometimes
at terrible cost financially and to morale of those picking up the pieces.
Our research has also shown a distinct lack of practical understanding
of what the tests actually measure and to what extent they can actually
predict performance once a person has their knees under the desk. Understanding
the interrelation between ability, personality and behaviour is critical
to senior appointments, in particular.
We have found that organisations are still not testing internally for
potential and putting in place robust succession planning through talent
management and development. Rather, despite having recruited on strengths,
they then don’t put individuals in roles where they can exploit those
strengths, but spend the next years concentrating on their weaknesses.
Finally, time and time again, we have found that the brightest candidates
tested for jobs do not always perform best in post. Personality and behaviour
play such an enormous part in determining whether someone will give of
their best.
Bridget Biggar.
Los Angeles Speech 20 May
“CEOs and directors must
represent values of their businesses
and employees” behaviour guru tells business leaders
Los Angeles, 20 May 2003 – CEOs and other senior business leaders
must embody the values of the businesses they lead and employees they
manage otherwise they are doomed to fail - that’s the warning from
management behaviour guru and Lifo® Managing Director, Bridget Biggar.
Speaking at a conference in Los Angeles, Bridget Biggar told an audience
of business leaders:
“It is vital that business leaders are clear about
what it is that makes the difference in their people and the environment/culture
in which they work .
“The values of key people must resonate with the
underlying values of their organisation - otherwise they are bound to
fail.
As the controversy around Jean-Pierre Garnier’s compensation package
at GSK continued unabated in the UK, Ms Biggar said:
"The failure of business is 9/10 due to a breakdown
in trust with, and an inability to share the spirit and values of, employees
and vice versa. Business leaders serve as role models to the organisations
they manage and embody the values of the organisation to the outside world.
“A CEO or business leader’s own management
style and behaviour has a far wider impact than is usually understood
or recognised, least of all by the CEO himself”.
- ENDS -
For further information about Life Orientations®, the website
or the global conference, please contact Fran Tindall 0207 379 7985.
About Lifo
The Life Orientations® method helps managers be better managers. It
helps them understand how the people they manage think, how the teams
they are part of work together and how the business operates on a day-to-day
basis. The Lifo® method points managers towards new personal as well
as organisational strategies and tactics aimed at getting the best out
of their people . By understanding how their people think, managers can
form better teams, and with better performing teams, improved bottom line
business results follow. For more information about Lifo®, please
go to www.lifeorientations.com. LIFE ORIENTATIONS® is the professional
and personal development methodology of choice
for businesses and their leaders.
- ENDS -
Note for editors: Life Orientations clients include including Cap
Gemini Ernst & Young, Camelot, Barclays, HSBC, Powergen, Rolls Royce,
T-Mobile and The Fire Service College.
For further information about Life Orientations, the website or the global
conference, please contact Fran Tindall 0207 379 7985.
About Lifo
The Life Orientations® method helps managers be better managers. It
helps them understand how the people they manage think, how the teams
they are part of work together and how the business operate son a day-to-day
basis. The Lifo® method points managers towards new personal as well
as organisational strategies and tactics aimed at getting the best out
of their people . By understanding how their people think, managers can
form better teams, and with better performing teams, improved bottom line
business results follow. For more information about Lifo, please go to
www.lifo.co.uk.
LIFE ORIENTATIONS® is the professional and personal development methodology
of choice
for businesses and their leaders.
