Don't Compromise!

We’ve blogged recently about different aspects of trust, and its importance for leaders – and those who are (at least for now) following them. Today, I’d like to look at a particular aspect of trust and the ways in which we can earn it – or lose it. This being political party conference season in the UK, a few examples from the main political parties may rear their variously believable heads by way of illustration, and I hope I will – by and large – avoid the tendency to use third-party quotations to add a veneer of credibility to my arguments.

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Four more recent articles by members of the team are now available to download in PDF format:

• Transfer and Application 3 – Training Journal, August 2009
• Transfer and Application 4 – Training Journal, September 2009
• Transfer and Application 5 – Training Journal, October 2009
• Making mergers work: people are the strategic imperative – HRZone, September 2009

More articles are available to download from the blog at the Elsewhere page.

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I should start with a warning. This is only partly – although it’s a substantial part – a book about workplaces, organisations and the working experience. Like many books written by fearsomely knowledgeable, wise and insightful people, it will also probably be read least by the people who might gain the most from doing so: let’s just say that if you like a firm conclusion to your non-fiction, and usually start a book by flicking to the (numbered) list of recommended actions at the back, this will be a challenging and demanding read.

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There’s a reasonable chance you drove to work and back today (depending on where you’re reading this). Although your conscious attention on the different elements involved in the task will have varied (from one element to the next, as well as one driver to the next), you will have managed a large number of operational tasks (indicating, changing gear, navigating, steering, parking), many of them at an almost habitual level.

We also hope you will have made a large number of acutely conscious decisions – whether it’s safe to pull out now at this junction or roundabout, whether or not this stretch of road is an overtaking opportunity, how far from a ‘hazard’ to change down a gear or start braking. Driving isn’t just a skill, it’s a continuous process of assessing developing situations and deciding how to act. Sound familiar?

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An EVP defines what an employee receives from the organisation they work for in return for the effort and performance the employee gives. In a nutshell, the EVP is the “what’s in it for me?” as far as the employee is concerned. Metaphorically, it’s a carrot. Or, more optimistically, a bunch of carrots.

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Two articles today about models of leadership and approaches to those we wish to lead: from different angles, two respected leadership bloggers seem to argue that, if the workplace requires ‘treatment’, a holistic approach may pay the greatest dividends. (For more snippets from around the web, see the full Crackers list.)

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In the UK, we’re now in the opening phase of the run up to the next election. Whatever else our newspaper front pages and web portals will be full of, you can safely assume that polls and surveys will be prominent, attempting to chart patterns and trends in our opinions. And no doubt statisticians will be beavering away over calculators, endeavouring to ensure that their figures accurately weight every factor. In the 1990s, opinion pollsters found some party supporters were shy of admitting their preferences, and their polls misrepresented opinion as a result. Like the politicians whose persuasiveness and agreeability they sought to monitor, the pollsters were seeking one important response in their audience – they wanted to be trusted. Polls exist to be believed, and as Aesop advised us a long time ago, “never trust the advice of a man in difficulties”. But we have plenty of men – and women – in difficulties right now: that doesn’t make our human need for trust any less important.

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At first glance, a list of forthcoming psychometric tools, instruments and tests can look pretty daunting. Personality tests, skills tests, measures of ability, critical decision making, verbal, numerical reasoning … and so it goes on. But tackling these well can make all the difference when it comes to success in securing a new role or that sought after promotion (hence, I suspect, their potentially daunting appearance).

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