POSITIVE Leaders Love...the Customer Experience Expert Newsletter

This month's newsletter is all about productivity - in other words, converting the concept of people as a cost, to people as the key to increased sales and profitability. The ideas contained here are very simple - and yet too many businesses simply fail to engage and motivate their people to deliver what I call "Latent Profit", or increased productivity.

The report that Centrica is to cut 6.000 jobs, despite its British Gas business doubling its profits, is a case in point. Too many organisations simply view their workforce as a cost to be cut when the business isn't performing (as other parts of Centrica apparently aren't), with HR departments often responsible primarily for administering recruitment, organising statutory training, and supporting 'restructuring' initiatives. I'd argue that this is not only a very lazy approach, but that it entirely misses the point: investment in recruiting, nurturing and developing people should be the most important activity of any business. With the right Team, you can truly achieve anything!

My POSITIVE Leader's Programme is designed as a "Personal Guidance System" for Leaders at all levels. The underlying philosophy is that POSITIVE Leaders work with and through their people. Apart from anything else, a truly engaged, motivated Team takes a huge amount of pressure off the Leader! You can read more about the programme here.

Anyone doubting that this POSITIVE approach can really deliver previously untapped potential - Latent Profit - might reflect on the new report from workforce charity People !st, which revealed that a mere 1% uplift in productivity would generate an extra £1.4bn for the Hospitality sector alone! Read about the report, and why I think Latent Profit is there for the taking, here.

"A stupid CEO can coast for a long time if the systems are good. But a stupid CEO is always wasting opportunities, because being smarter usually leads to doing better. Plus, they're a lot more fun to work for." - Seth Godin

I love this quote, and the short post in which Seth describes how Leaders tend to become distanced from the realities of their organisations (in the same way that "power tends to corrupt"). It's when this happens that the Latent Profit opportunities are overlooked in favour of cutting budgets for Training, R&D and, of course, Payroll.

POSITIVE Leaders Love...the TRUTH!

Unlike Tom Cruise, memorably told "You can't handle the truth!" by Jack Nicholson in the courtroom drama "A Few Good Men", POSITIVE Leaders love the truth. Here are five ways to ensure you know the truths within your organisation, and make them work for you:

Spend as much time at the front line as possible. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz famously visits 25 Starbucks stores every week!

Ask meaningful questions - Leaders who "can't handle the truth" tend to ask questions like "How's it going?"

Create an Innovation culture: where everyone in the organisation is expected, as well as encouraged, to suggest ways to do things better. The key is to create meaningful, transparent (and simple) systems to facilitate this.

Question everything: be a coach. Ask questions to ensure the organisation's Purpose is being served, that bold new initiatives will work in practice, and that someone is always on top of the detail.

LISTEN.

You can read more about POSITIVE Leaders here.

STEPHEN SPENCER & ASSOCIATES

POSITIVE Leaders Love...Productivity

Quote of the Week

"A stupid CEO can coast for a long time if the systems are good. But a stupid CEO is always wasting opportunities, because being smarter usually leads to doing better. Plus, they're a lot more fun to work for." - Seth Godin

HUMOUR: this 'new visitor attraction' will resonate with families and attractions teams! (Warning - may offend)

POSITIVE Leaders Love...the TRUTH!

Service Moment of the Week