68 Rules? No, Just 3 Are Enough

William D. Green, chairman and ceo of Accenture explains:

'I once sat through a three-day training session in our company, and this was for new managers, very capable people who were ready for a big step up. I counted, over three days, 68 things that we told them they needed to do to be successful, everything from how you coach and mentor, your annual reviews, filling out these forms, all this stuff.

And I got up to close the session, and I’m thinking about how it isn’t possible for these people to remember all this. So I said there are three things that matter. The first is competence — just being good at what you do, whatever it is, and focusing on the job you have, not on the job you think you want to have.

The second one is confidence. People want to know what you think. So you have to have enough desirable self-confidence to articulate a point of view.

The third thing is caring. Nothing today is about one individual. This is all about the team, and in the end, this is about giving a damn about your customers, your company, the people around you, and recognising that the people around you are the ones who make you look good.

When young people are looking for clarity — this is a huge, complex global company, and they wonder how to navigate their way through it — I just tell them that.'

For more, see - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/business/22corner.html?pagewanted=1&ref=business

68 Rules? No, Just 3 Are Enough

What is the CEO's Role in Driving Performance Culture?

The CEO is responsible using her leadership qualities to inspire her direct reports and the organisation on how to look for ways to do things better. This aspect of corporate culture is fundamental to a performance culture.

All levels of the company need to understand that from the top of the company down, everyone is committed to addressing issues that hold people back from greater job satisfaction and higher levels of job performance. The CEO must guide the leadership team to remove artificial barriers that hold down performance such as misunderstandings, poor vision or direction and limited or no access to facts that drive the business.

Few people intentionally perform poorly when provided with reasonable training, equipment, work environment and motivation.

The CEO leader must be conscious of the whole picture and look beyond the traditional boundaries to see that her business (or department) is successful and that employees are excited about what they are doing and are onboard with the direction of the business.

What is the CEO's Role in Driving Performance Culture?

Effective Internal Communications Help Engage and Retain Top Talent.

Effectice employee communication is a practice that remains elusive for many businesses today. Yet getting it right goes far in keeping employees engaged and holding on to key talent.

As the economy continues to shift, keeping employees up-to-date on how the company is responding, and how they are affected, will help insure against their becoming demoralised and disconnected. Effective communication helps engage employees, and that has positive implications for productivity and the bottom line.

Here are the best practices of companies that are highly effective communicators, based on the 2009/2010 Watson Wyatt Communication ROI Study:

Communicate how business changes will affect employees. Sixty-two percent of highly effective communicators have clearly defined employee value propositions, which tell employees what to expect from the company and what the company expects from them.

Trust and train leaders to talk about change. Some 73% of highly effective communicators say managers are effective at supporting the executive management vision through their actions. Face to-face communications, such as town hall meetings or staff meetings, are preferred over social media or printed material when the conversation is about business change.

Use measures and metrics. Effective communicators are twice to three times more likely to have a documented communications strategy. A little more than half of the highly effective communicators are including more communication outcome metrics in their strategies. However, 43% of all respondents said they had no formal measures or assessments.

Generally, the best-performing companies plan communication strategically, like any other business area.

Effective Internal Communications Help Engage and Retain Top Talent.