What Employees Really Want

Three Facebook leaders, Lori Goler, Janelle Gale and Brynn Harrington (together with Wharton Professor Adam Grant) just published a great article in the Harvard Business Review.

They argue that Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs:

·       basic safety and survival,

·       love and belongingness

·       self-esteem and prestige

·       self-actualisation

has been hard to argue with, but that it could stand some renovation today, given the significant improvement in the workplace with many companies offering not only basic need fulfilment, but aiming and fulfilling every need.

Facebook (whilst facing serious questions and public scrutiny over abuses of user privacy) is recognised as a pretty good place to work (certainly by my son-in-law Mark Rolland who works there and loves the place) and they survey their people twice a year, asking employees what they value most.

At Facebook there are three big motivational buckets.

·       Career – a job with autonomy and growth

·       Community – being part of something meaningful

·       Cause – being part of something bigger than a business – something with Purpose.

I think they’re right.  We built Saatchi & Saatchi on three similar pillars – Responsibility, Learning and Recognition – which, if delivered consistently – resulted in employees feeling Joy.  And happy employees work harder and more productively than unhappy employees (surprise, surprise!).

Check out your work life:

·       Are you receiving Responsibility, Learning and Recognition every day?  From your boss, your subordinates and your peers?

·       Are you delivering Responsibility, Learning and Recognition to everyone you touch?

If so, you’re in a good place.

KR

Premier League Champions!

 KR

The Power of Three

As visitors to this parish are aware, I’m a big believer in The Power of Three.  And in this Age of Distraction I’ve been a practitioner of Focus / Commitment / Discipline for many years.

This is the secret to Making Things Happen.  Stay focussed, stay single-minded on task completion and Keep Going.  Not very sexy. Just effective.

And the Biggest Threat to Peak Performance in any business today?  The weapon of Mass Distraction – and simultaneously our greatest enabling ally – the Smart Phone.

Research indicates many of us are distracted nearly 50% of the time.  No wonder we feel so much stress and that our lives are out of balance.

Surveys reveal:

•        We check our phones 150 times/day, or every 6 1/2 minutes.

•        We spend 2 1/2 hours each day on our phone, in 76 different sessions.

•        Millennials spend 1.8 hours of their work-day on social media – whilst at work.

•        Productivity is declining.

•        Competitiveness is declining.

•        Our own sense of achievement is declining.

•        Happiness is declining.

FOCUS.  COMMITMENT.  DISCIPLINE.

Figure out some basic rules and stick to them.  Take control of your phone.  Don’t let it control you.

KR

Business Heroes

The five Directors of Unfiltered answered seven questions last week on their business influences.  Taking a leaf from My Food Bag’s approach of employees choosing a favourite food to add to their name, we added the name of our business hero to our own monikers.  Why not try it too?

Kevin Quant Roberts

Biggest inspiration in business: Mary Quant and Peter Drucker

Most transformative business book ever: In Search of Excellence by Robert H. Waterman Jr. and Tom Peters

Favorite brand: Restoration Hardware

Favorite Kiwi company: My Food Bag

Favorite piece of technology right now: Mont Blanc LeGrand Rollerball

The app I use the most: iTunes

My macro focus for 2018 in one word: Optimism

Rob Clicquot Fyfe

Biggest inspiration in business: Madame Clicquot

Most transformative business book ever: Managing by Storying Around by David Armstrong

Favorite brand: Dsquared2

Favorite Kiwi company: Air New Zealand

Favorite piece of technology right now: my iPhone 7 (old-school)

The app I use the most: Snapchat … to keep connected to my kids. Spotify is a close second!

My macro focus for 2018 in one word: Adventure

Brian Musk Wong

Biggest inspiration in business: Elon Musk and Denise Pickett

Most transformative business book ever: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Favorite brand: Bally

Favorite Kiwi company: Unfiltered

Favorite piece of technology right now: My new dive computer

The app I use the most: Tinder; Perdoo

My macro focus for 2018 in one word: Zen

Jake Hughes Millar

Biggest inspiration in business: Howard Hughes or Oprah Winfrey

Most transformative business book ever: Losing My Virginity, Sir Richard Branson

Favorite brand: Gucci

Favorite Kiwi company: The French Cafe (and ZURU)

Favorite piece of technology right now: Huawei Mate 10 Pro

The app I use the most: ...the new Unfiltered App, of course! Closely followed by WhatsApp and Gmail (sad reality!)

My macro focus for 2018 in one word: Execution

Yuuki Simons Ogino

Biggest inspiration in business: James Simons or Marissa Mayer

Most transformative business book ever: Steve Jobs: Walter Isaacson

Favorite brand: Lamborghini

Favorite Kiwi company: Martin Jetpack

Favorite piece of technology right now: Bragi The Dash

The app I use the most: UBER

My macro focus for 2018 in one word: Focus

KR

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The Mindful Manager

I’ve worked on the MBA programme at Lancaster University for five/six years now (Lancaster is The Sunday Times University of the Year as we speak!) and Peter Lenney (the Magician) is the Director of the Programme.  He teaches ‘The Mindful Manager’ which is uplifting, inspirational and fit for Purpose.

I’ve picked out 10 soundbites from his lectures.  Hope you find them as stimulating as I did.

1)      A Mindful Manager deals with ‘the world as it is’, not 'as s/he might wish it to be’.

2)      A Mindful Manager is at peace with no peace!

3)      The only thing I know is that I know nothing!

4)      The only thing of which I can be certain is that I cannot ever be certain.

5)      We must LISTEN, not ‘hear' and we must OBSERVE, not ‘see’.

6)      If you don’t learn to fail you will fail to learn.

7)      There are no facts, there are only interpretations.

8)      It is the experiencing that counts, not the experience.

9)      Reflection made easy – What?  So what?  Now what?

10)    Reason persuades people – emotion moves them.

KR

How to win in Business. Fast.

If you’re in New Zealand on May 22^nd, check this out.

The biggest business event of the year is here.  Unfiltered Live 3: How to Win in Business. Fast. is for everyone with a Dream.

We've hand-picked entrepreneurs and business leaders who have taken their businesses to hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars - to help you bring success to your own journey.

You will be blown away by our speaker line-up. We have speakers flying in from all around the world, including New York City, San Francisco and Phoenix, to share their biggest, most transformative ideas for winning fast in business.

I’ll be hosting and our brand new ‘5 ideas in 20 minutes’ format will have you captivated and mesmerised from start to finish.

It will be fast-paced.

It will be rapid-fire.

It will be high-energy.

It will be totally Unfiltered.


KR

Legacy in the Making.

I worked with a very smart guy at Team One in Los Angeles for over 15 years.  Mark Miller.  A brilliant thinker and strategist.  He’s been working on a book for a while now, about creating a legacy, leading change and writing the future – and it’s out now.  (At last!)

Most of us are familiar with the traditional way of looking at legacy—something preserved in the past.  Traditional legacy is all around us, evidenced by the steady churn of autobiographies, bequests, commemorations, and dedications we are forever leaving in our collective cultural wake.  This is not the legacy you will find in this book.

Legacy in the Making celebrates an active, dynamic form of “modern legacy,” seen through the eyes of a select group of extraordinary men and women who are pursuing their long-term ambitions in the age of now.  More than caretakers of the past, these modern legacy builders are also the authors of a vital today and tomorrow.  Rather than leaving their legacies behind them, they are looking ahead to harness their enduring ambitions and inspire others to help carry them forward.  These are not static, traditional legacies. These are legacies in the making.

Grab hold of a copy – Amazon of course.  You’ll enjoy it.

KR

Little Things That Matter.

I love a list as you know.  Came across this a few weeks ago – can’t remember where – but I photographed it from a newspaper somewhere on January 11.

Top Tips:

-       Hold Hands

-       Wait to watch the next episode of your favourite TV series together

-       Cook a home-made meal

-       Run a bath for your partner after they’ve had a long day

-       Have a cuddle

-       Let your partner choose the movie you watch

-       Plan a spontaneous trip away

-       Organise a candle-lit dinner

Oldies, but goldies.

KR

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Red Heads and Blue Heads.

About a year ago I wrote in praise of James Kerr’s book Legacy.  And just last week I wrote about the Power of Three.

This got me thinking again about Mental Toughness, the All Blacks, and how we can all get better about thriving in our Crazy World.  The brain has three parts (of course!):

-         Instinct

-         Thought

-         Emotion.

Under pressure one of them shuts down.  Which one?  Yes – Thought.

A Pressure Situation is one where:

-       Something important is at stake,

-       Trauma of previous experience is triggered,

-       There is: conflict, dissent, dispute, aggression, urgency, a deadline, a ticking clock,

-       There is distraction.

Then:

-       The shutters come down,

-       Our horizons narrow,

-       There’s no escape,

-       We’re overwhelmed,

-       We shut down, panic or become overly aggressive,

-       We choke,

-       We make poor decisions.

We become HOT:

-       Heated

-       Overwhelmed

-       Tense

We must go back to the Power of Three – and to the All Blacks and ACT.

To ACT:

-       Alternatives.  Look for options, adapt, adjust and overcome.

-       Consequences.  Understand the risk / reward equation and to choose.

-       Task.  Stay on task and execute.

Developing Mental Toughness comes in two parts.  Mental and Toughness (surprise, surprise).

Mental Capacity:       Toughness Capability:

Confidence                  Practice

Concentration              Precision

Composure         +       Problem-Solving

Control                        Positive

Completion                  Performer

And here are some pointers on each for you to think about.

Mental Capacity. 

Confidence.

-       Self-belief based on prior achievement, knowledge and clarity of personal purpose.

Concentration.

-       Shutting out of distractions in favour of focusing on the immediate task; and avoidance of negative thinking or negative self-talk.

Composure.

-       Remaining calm and focused when handling pressure.

Control.

-       Emotional mastery that enables clarity of thought and action.

Completion.

-       Can envisage the final successful act of performance.

Toughness Capability.

Practice.

-  A systematic pre-performance routine of listening, learning, executing skills/drills that melds with the desired mental-emotional state of mind.

Precision.

-       Recognises and visualises the necessary detailed steps required to perform at peak.

Problem-solving.

-       Systematic adoption of affirmative coping strategies using practical knowledge and mental imagery.

Positive.

-       Construction of a positive mental approach and attitude to all aspects of life, savouring life’s pleasures through anticipation and reminiscence.

Performer.

-       Has success systems in place while using failure as a stepping stone for future achievement.

It’s not getting any easier out there.  We’ve all got to toughen up.

KR