January 29, 2010
England’s cricket captain Andrew Strauss has recently agreed to sit out the team’s upcoming tour to Bangladesh so that he can ‘rest’. The decision was jointly made by Strauss and the England & Wales Cricket Board on the assumption that a break from the mental rigours required for captaincy will benefit the player in crucial games later in the year.
Strauss has been captain of the English cricket team for a little over a year. Some commentators are asking why the captain would need a rest already, particularly when previous captains were not afforded this luxury and the team’s batting form has been fairly mediocre in their latest series of matches in South Africa. One could argue that it is part of the captain’s role to gel the side and improve its performances – to stay with them. Asked to justify the decision, Strauss commented that, “if you accept the need to rest players, then the captain should be allowed to rest too. The notion that the captain must just carry on until he is mentally and physically exhausted just doesn’t make sense.” Hard to argue with that, but it has not been a popular decision.
Last summer, Strauss captained England to an Ashes win against their oldest and fiercest rivals, Australia. The last time England won the Ashes in 2005 it was followed by a 5-0 thrashing in the return series in Australia. The next Australian series is at the end of this year, for which England and Strauss are determined to be ready…
“I would never forgive myself if I turned up for the next Ashes feeling exhausted.”
And his thinking here is in line with the psychological research which shows that short periods of intense effort followed by periods of respite deliver the best work performance.
Succession planning is another benefit of the decision to rest Strauss because a potential successor as permanent captain, Alistair Cook, has been handed the chance to captain the tour to Bangladesh. This is seen as a rare opportunity to blood young talent against, arguably, easier competition, despite the lack of continuity that the rest of the side might feel. In some respects, it’s not dissimilar to the idea of matrix management where employees have different line managers depending on the task involved.
In all forms of sport, and industry, it is important that talented leaders are given suitable respite to replenish their resources and that future leaders are given the opportunity to develop their skills. Leadership is demanding and resource intensive. However, it has to be fair and it has to have demonstrable benefits. The proof will be in the pudding!
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Leadership, Management, Stress, change management, pressure | Tagged: Alistair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Ashes, Australia, Bangladesh, captain, continuity, cricket, develop, leaders, Leadership, managers, matrix management, performance, rest, skills, South Africa | 
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Posted by Cary Cooper
January 27, 2010
‘Bank executive bashing’ has become a real fashion of late with print media, TV, radio and politicians jumping on the bandwagon. This is partly the fault of the banks not really understanding the public’s anger at their behaviour in laying the foundation stones for this recession, but also because they have totally failed to take in the message that big bonuses are a real ‘no,no’ these days!
As a result we now we have politicians from a number of countries sharpening their knives to punish and constrain the banks – either by restricting bonuses or even breaking up the various parts of the larger banks. President Obama came out with an unexpectedly hard-line approach last week by indicating, in essence, that high street banking should be separated from the investment banking side in organisations where both exist. He clearly set out to send a strong message to the banking community; but it was the language he used that adversely affected the share prices of banks and the value of the markets more generally. It’s unusual to hear a US President, especially a Democrat, sounding so aggressive on an internal issue; saying things like ‘if they want a fight, I am ready’, or words to that effect.
Maybe it had an impact though, as leading US firm Goldman Sachs announced a cap on bonuses (at £1 million) for its top UK employees this week. But will the public in the US and UK see that as enough, because these are still huge figures by most people’s standards? And remember, this is at a time when the government has either invested in these institutions or made guarantees to support their activities, and where unemployment is still over 2.5m in the UK. The public may ask whether it would be a better idea if the banks used the bonus money to pay the UK government back more quickly and help reduce our enormous deficit?
These are real concerns, both politically and economically, and the finance sector does not deserve our sympathy. However, the recovery is very fragile and the markets very volatile. Politicians also need to be careful to think not only about the political capital of what they do, but also about the psychological message it sends out in uncertain times. The President’s fighting statement may gain him political capital, but it did not help to steady the markets. The stock markets are an international symbol of stability and affect the behaviour of many individual consumers – the last thing we need now is to upset the proverbial applecart while one wheel is still in need of major repair.
My plea to politicians is to be aware of the broader psychological effects of what they are doing and saying. They have a critical role to play in building our confidence in the world’s financial systems, but they have to get the balance right between carrot and stick!
Leave a Comment » | Leadership, Private Sector, economy | Tagged: Confidence, recession, bonuses, banks, politicians, President, Obama, investment banking, high street banking, US President, Democrat, Goldman Sachs, unemployment, UK government, stock markets, stability, psychological effects, finance sector | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
January 25, 2010
When I was a young man in the 1950s and 1960s it was common to see articles in the press explaining what the results of “automation” would be over the next 50 years or so. At that time “automation” was seen as something slightly threatening that carried the prospect of robots that looked and sounded rather like artificial people. Changes to factory production methods and the introduction of electronic processes were the main changes that most people were becoming aware of.
Remember too that this was a time before personal computers. In those days, as a psychologist and researcher, I used to get my data analysed with a huge batch of punched cards. Even before these cards could be prepared and fed into the computer, the data had to be coded onto special sheets together with lines of carefully prepared FORTRAN code that would tell the computer what analyses to carry out. I would wait expectantly overnight for the results – usually to be confronted with an error message because I had missed a full stop or comma somewhere in the code – which meant starting the process again and another overnight wait!
Despite what now seems an antiquated and extremely time consuming process we could already see glimpses of the changes that electronics and information technology would bring. It seemed clear at the time that many things, even relatively “modern” activities such as preparing the punched cards that were currently done by people, would be automated in the future. Although this prospect generated a certain amount of unrest and anxiety amongst the trades unions, there was also a very strong view that it would make life easier for many people. Commentators would often talk about how people would only need to work two or three days a week and that leisure time would be significantly expanded … what went wrong!?!
In this country we have the longest working hours in Western Europe and there are very few people with successful careers at senior levels who work part-time. The obvious conclusion to draw is that, rather than take additional leisure time when presented with time-saving technology and processes, people prefer to improve their standard of living. In fact, the material standard of living in the country has improved markedly since the 1950s, while our levels of happiness have declined – the proportion of people saying they are “very happy” fell from 52% in 1957 to just 36% in 2006. So why do we make this choice or thinking error?
It occurs to me that one possible solution to the economic difficulties that we are in at the moment, which have created many job losses and will create yet more, would be to employ more people on a part-time basis. Of course, there are many reasons why this is not a straightforward solution. Many people “need” full-time jobs to ensure their current standard of living – but, bearing in mind the happiness levels given above, what value is this high standard of living based on material things anyway? Maybe it’s time to realise that we’ve gone far enough down that road and that happiness needs to come from something else in life.
There is a lot of interest nowadays in happiness and well-being. I can’t help feeling that until we re-evaluate the balance between work and non-work including the actual importance of material things, as a nation, our happiness levels will continue to go down rather than up.
2 Comments | Productivity, Well-being, economy | Tagged: automation, economic, electronics, FORTRAN, full-time, happiness, leisure, material, part-time, production, psychologist, researcher, standard of living, technology, time-saving, Well-being, working hours | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
January 22, 2010
I’ve posted two blogs so far on the practicalities of keeping New Year’s resolutions, but now we’re well into the New Year I’ve been reflecting on the underlying theme of most resolutions – closing the gap between knowledge and action. We all know we should eat our 5 portions of fruit and veg, plus drink 8 glasses of water each day, do a certain amount of exercise and get 6-8 hours sleep a night – but how many of us actually manage to do all of those things?! It’s like the personal to-do list that never gets ticks against all actions!
And it’s not just home-life – the disparity between knowing and doing is also there in the field of well-being at work. These days few would deny the benefits for staff and businesses, yet so many organisations never turn this knowledge into action. It stays firmly below efficiency savings and monthly targets on the priority list.
Lack of funding; not knowing where to start or where to get help; shortage of human resources with the appropriate skills and difficulty gaining stakeholder agreement and support are among the reasons I come across for not getting to grips with this aspect of working life. For those responsible for well-being in many organisations the task can seem overwhelming even when the decision has been made to address the topic. There are concrete things that need to be done to get into action, but these probably won’t work unless one important pre-requisite is in place.
Ultimately, like any New Year’s resolution, the person responsible and those above him/her have to really want to make the change. It’ll never work or be sustainable if it’s seen as just a tick box exercise in which it’s most important to be seen to be doing the right thing! The core theme that determines all resolutions is ‘readiness for change’ – it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about individuals or organisations: unless the key people involved are really ready and receptive it is unlikely to ‘stick’. The achievement of this state, itself, takes work.
All of the reports and guidelines that have been produced over the last couple of years provide great support to help organisations to get started with well-being – but they are not the whole story. The first item on your checklist, personal or otherwise, should be ‘Ensure we are ready to make the change’.
Leave a Comment » | Engagement, Management, Motivation, Stress, Well-being, change management, citizenship, employee engagement, health, pressure, reward and recognition | Tagged: change, control, development, employee engagement, Engagement, happiness, HR, improving well-being, making change happen, Management, managers, managing change, morale, motivated, Motivation, new year's resolutions, performance, Positive psychology, psychological well-being, readiness for change, recognition, resolutions, Robertson Cooper, staff retention, support, Talent, Well-being, well-being at work, workforce sustainability | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
January 18, 2010
At the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology conference this week in Brighton, a study has reported that if you want a happier and healthier workforce you need to tell your boss what you think of him/her.
The positive effects of doing this are that managers can get direct feedback from their workforce which will help them develop and improve their management style. In addition, if done correctly, at the right time and in the right circumstances, a better relationship between boss and employee can be forged. Achieving these outcomes is not always easy though. Many firms employ 360 degree appraisal systems, but these are often infrequent and fail to include this kind of direct feedback. For a meaningful and constructive relationship to be formed between manager and employee it takes time, personal investment and a certain level of skill on both sides.
So how can we make sure that this interaction is a positive one? The difficulty of giving the boss negative feedback is that he/she might not want to hear it. There are managers who have strong needs for control, who want to maintain the barrier between them and their direct reports and who just aren’t ready to be given any negative feedback. In addition, there are many employees who are feeling so job insecure during this downturn that they would be reluctant to say anything negative to their boss for fear of job loss or damage to their promotion prospects. However, neither party in this situation is doing the right thing for the organisation – it’s critical that managers understand that it is their role to listen to how staff feel and that staff are willing to speak up.
Receiving negative feedback is never easy, but there are ways in which it can be done that will ensure that it is more effective and better received. For example, it must be done at a time and place when both parties are in the right frame of mind and not under business pressure. The purpose of the feedback and the process for delivering it should be discussed in advance so that both parties are clear about the context and ground rules. Finally, and most importantly, the feedback must be constructive rather than blaming or irrational – the onus is on the employee to have thought through why it is important that their manager hears this feedback. They need to have definite ideas about what will improve for staff and the business as a result of the manager changing his/her behaviour. One way of keeping the feedback concrete is to use specific examples of problem behaviours and situations that could be improved so that the changes required by the boss are tangible.
Getting this right is no mean feat, but the research shows that when this is done well it can improve the health and well-being of employees. So although it may be difficult, it is important for all managers to set the right tone for constructive feedback in their teams and organisations. When managers understand how they are perceived by their employees it’s good for everyone.
1 Comment | Leadership, Management, Well-being, reward and recognition | Tagged: 360 degree appraisal, boss, Brighton, British Psychological Society, conference, constructive, downturn, employee, feedback, health, management style, managers, negative feedback, relationship, Well-being, workforce | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
January 12, 2010
I was struck this week by the Financial Times survey of people in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US looking at how optimistic or pessimistic they were regarding their prospects for the coming decade. Generally, we in the UK emerged as the second most pessimistic about our prospects eclipsed only, but substantially, by the French whose levels of pessimism emerged as depressingly impressive.
People were asked whether they thought the state would do less for them financially in the next decade – 75% of French respondents thought this would be the case compared with 54% of Americans and 69% of UK respondents. So, it seems that not many people are anticipating a ‘Happy New Year’ in this respect, but is there any room for a positive interpretation of this finding?
If the majority of citizens truly expect less from the State perhaps we will need to find new levels of resourcefulness and purpose in order to fend for ourselves. As a result we may become more self-sufficient, resilient and positive about our own self-efficacy. That’s great for us, but what about the European States that citizens anticipate disconnecting themselves from? This survey finding essentially suggests a weakening financial, and possibly psychological, contract between State and individual – this could ultimately threaten the former rather than the latter. If we expect less from the State then presumably we are less prepared to contribute to it. This could be a recipe for growing resentment regarding our tax and national insurance contributions in the future.
On the other hand, things could go in quite a different direction that leads to an altogether healthier relationship between citizens and the State. True commitment is about shared values and an emotional bond and not just a convenient exchange of financial benefits. If the State realises that it can no longer convince us that the financial benefits merit our investment in it, it will need to work harder at engaging us as citizens in other ways. Arguably the US creates a closer emotional and values-driven bond with its citizens than either France or the UK – it is, at least, more explicit about doing so. In Britain non-political and historical symbols of our connection with the state, such as the Royal family, may become more relevant in the coming decade as our dissatisfaction with the ‘State contract’, allied with a growing cynicism about traditional party politics, erodes our tie to the State. In this respect, France may face the biggest challenge – starting at a low ebb a new contract with the State will be difficult to create, especially if there are severe financial constraints. It may drive the quest for a more European identity and a new relationship with a new State.
Of course, the temptation is to think that none of this is relevant to you and I, that this is just the world of politics. However, the reason it’s so interesting is because it filters right down to our own individual sense of self and identity. How much am I ‘me’, a citizen of the world and how much am I defined by my membership of this State? As we look ahead to a new decade, there are more questions than answers.
You can read about the survey at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/006a5e6c-f3ec-11de-ac55-00144feab49a.html
1 Comment | Engagement, citizenship, economy | Tagged: citizens, contract, European, financial, Financial Times, France, identity, individual, Italy, national insurance, optimistic, pessimistic, politics, prospects, relationship, resentment, resourcefulness, Royal, self, Spain, state, tax, UK, US | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
January 6, 2010
As discussed in my last post there are things we can all do to ensure that the resolutions we make during this New Year period have a good chance of success. Below are my tips – you can apply them to resolutions you are making for both your home and working life.
1. Set high quality goals – ones that are stretching for you, but are ultimately realistic and achievable. They need to be tangible enough for you to know when you have achieved them and preferably have a time limit on them to drive you to achieve them. When you have listed the goals run them past a friend or colleague to check they meet these criteria.
2. Plan, measure and monitor – Design a plan in enough detail for you to know what you should be doing and when you should be doing it. Establish mechanisms for measuring results and record a baseline measure of your current behaviour – you need to know the gap between your starting point and desired finishing point. This is key to setting achievable goals and monitoring future improvement.
3. Reward yourself – It’s an effort to change behaviour and sometimes progress towards results can feel slow or frustrating. It helps to combine the intervention with a treat which motivates you to carry on to your next milestone to help improve your chances of success. This can be anything that works for you (not necessarily chocolate!).
4. Consider past performance – Have you tried making this resolution, or something similar, before? If it wasn’t successful then, why not? What can you do differently this time? Learn from previous attempts and try not to repeat past mistakes. Try to think about what is causing the behaviours that you want to change. Deal with root causes not just symptomatic behaviours.
5. Manage your stress - Increased stress can reduce your ability to focus on the goals associated with your resolution – it just makes something difficult even more difficult. With time pressures, work-worries and/or other life stressors, it can seem easier to revert to past habits. Anticipate ‘falling off the wagon’ and make provisions for how you will manage the situation and stay on course for success with your resolution when your ‘wobble’ occurs.
6. Focus on the benefits - A problem with many resolutions is that they are ill-conceived. Those that begin with some form of ‘guilt switch’ are less likely to be successful. Instead, try to think about the benefits of achieving the goal (to you and significant others) rather than taking all of the benefits upfront when you make the promise to yourself. Revisit your initial goals regularly – remind yourself of why you’re doing this.
I’d love to hear from you if you have other ideas/approaches that have worked for you….and good luck!
1 Comment | Motivation, Personal Resilience, Stress, health, pressure, reward and recognition | Tagged: behaviour, benefits, goals, improvement, New Year, performance, resolutions, results, reward, Stress, success | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
January 5, 2010
I couldn’t let the start of the New Year begin without saying something about the tradition of making resolutions! They are something we all at least think about doing regardless of whether or not we actually make any real changes! I wondered whether there was any pattern or secret surrounding those resolutions that end up being kept.
I soon came across a recent article which made reference to research led by Prof Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire. The research suggests that most resolutions are NOT successful. The researchers asked 700 people about their strategies for achieving resolutions; over three-quarters failed. For many, this was because they had focused on the downside of not achieving the goals or had not focused on the underlying cause of their behaviour.
As you might expect, the study found that people were more likely to stick to their resolutions if they followed certain strategies – most of which involve setting effective goals. People who divided their ultimate goal into a planned series of smaller goals were more successful (35%) and those who adopted multiple strategies (including adopting role models and visualising themselves being successful) were most successful (50%).
In the world of Psychology goal-setting theory is one of the most widely accepted behavioural models and it essentially holds that by setting and aiming for the right kinds of goals success is more likely in any walk of life. In relation to New Year’s resolutions the research showed that, amongst other things, breaking goals into smaller steps, sharing goals with friends and family (social support), focusing on the benefits of success and keeping a diary of progress all increased the chances of sticking to the resolution. Your level of motivation to achieve the goal/resolution (personal qualities) is also very important.
Taking this into the workplace, the importance of setting goals is still very evident – for performance management, managing change and also for helping employees build and maintain a sense of purpose. Goal-setting theory still provides the best model to inform how we do this and HR departments and line managers should continue to incorporate it into our organisational processes. The trick is to do this without falling into the trap of setting inappropriate or unrealistic goals – for example, setting inappropriate short term goals at the expense of longer term success.
So there we go; who knew it was that easy? Now we’ll all be able to stick to our resolutions without any problems! Of course, it’s not that simple, but there are things you can do to increase your chances of success. In my next post, I’ll provide 6 clear steps to success when it comes to making, and sticking to, New Year’s resolutions.
You can read more about the research at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/28/new-years-resolutions-doomed-failure
Leave a Comment » | Leadership, Management, Motivation, Personal Resilience, reward and recognition | Tagged: goals, HR, line managers, Motivation, New Year, performance management, Professor Richard Wiseman, psychology, resolutions, role models, strategies, success, University of Hertfordshire | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
