What can CEOs do with their employees to get them to train, practice and condition them to reduce time to market, Higher profit and revenues, Stronger Quarter close!? They can learn from what happens at the companies that Jerome Dodson picks for his Parnassus Workplace Fund. Read: http://www.fastcompany.com/3006150/proof-profits-americas-happiest-companies-also-fare-best-financially. Getting employees to be training, practicing and getting conditioned to operate in a VUCA world needs a conscious awareness of what they should train on and how. The author proposes that the answer lies in the continuous pursuit of Holistic wellness by every individual employee from you, the CEO to everyone else. This means embedding it within the corporate culture.

What’s the Evidence and why should I bother?

Since the Parnassus Workplace Fund’s inception (April 2005-January 2013) it’s proved immediately, enormously, and enduringly successful with a 9.63% annualized return. This compares to the S&P Index which has earned just 5.58% during the same period. “Our fund has had returns over 4% better than the S&P Index every year,” Dodson noted. “Eight years later, the performance of the fund confirms what I’ve always believed. Treating people well and authentically respecting them does lead to far better business performance. We proved it works.”

So how do these special companies help its employees emulate the Olympic athlete? If the CEO makes time for exercise, for instance, employees will feel less self-conscious about taking a fitness break. When MD Anderson(a healthcare provider) initiated its wellness program, the then president John Mendelsohn took walks throughout the building with wellness coach Bill Baun. For many, it was the first time the president had been in their work space or had shaken their hand, and he tended to start conversations with “How’s your wellness?” Check out: http://hbr.org/2010/12/whats-the-hard-return-on-employee-wellness-programs/ar/1. “How’s your Wellness” became part of MD Anderson’s corporate culture.

Dodson says, “I think what happens when you have a contented workplace, people are willing to put out more effort to improve operations during really difficult times. While I think every organization has their ups and downs, the downs are not as pronounced because everybody pulls together to try to get through the crisis. And, of course, this consistently more engaged performance inevitably reveals itself in the firm’s bottom line.” That’s why “over the past five years–the height of the Great Recession–the average annual return on the Workplace Fund was an incredible 10.81%. The S&P Index for the same period was just 3.97%, a 6.84% difference”.

This is perhaps the most compelling empirical proof ‘that the leaders at organizations who ensure employees feel valued, supported, developed, and rewarded are the most enlightened. They inspire a greatly expanded bottom line and set an example for all to follow in this 21st century’.

Where do i go from here?

The good news is, implementing a robust holistic wellness based employee management structure does not require a multi-million dollar budget nor 5 years to realize its ROI. The results could seen within 2-3 quarters. During the course

of research into writing his new upcoming book ‘The 6 Dimensions: Overcome Presenteeism, Excel in work and Life’ the author has put together a simple yet powerful blueprint for companies to pilot with minimal risks to implement exactly such a program. There are four steps in executing this methodology end to end in a repeatable and scalable manner. The steps have the acronym EASY™ and can help set today’s companies up from good to Citius – Altius – Fortius.

Learn more at www.6dimensionsbook.com

Today’s basis for computing compensation is geared to ensure more the survival of the company than the survival of its employee. If it were to follow the reverse philosophy things could pan out differently. Employee compensation is more as a consequence or means to justify the end i.e. the survival of the company.

A CEO’s response and its interpretations

Lets deconstruct some of the recent points of view of some respected LinkedIn influencers who were quick to criticize Microsoft’s CEO Nadella’s response to a question and rushed to endear themselves with the other gender’s just cause.

One article stated, Quote:

Since 2009, corporate profits in the US have increased by 84 percent, one of the largest five-year increases ever.

In that same time, wages for American workers have increased by a mere 7.86 percent, despite record productivity. Never before in American history has there been such a gap between the percentage profits have increased in respect to the percentage wages have increased. Unquote.

This statistic didn’t look right, so the author investigated these numbers in a way that would make sense to even a teenager.

1. Why look at 2009 and not 2005? Is it because that was the year of the GFC when the profit of all companies took the worst hit..so you start at a pseudo low baseline making for a dramatic starting point? Is that justified?

2. It shouldn’t take a person with tertiary qualifications to understand that a company can pay higher compensation to its employees, if it has the money to pay. Simple enough? Ok, so lets see if indeed that’s the case. We are talking about gap between profit and wages right?

Err..lets look at the facts. In particular lets take Microsoft itself.

Shockingly, i found that the disparity between profit and wages might have actually come down per employee than it ever was.

From the analysis above for 2014, 172.45 KUSD net profit per employee is the lowest net profit per employee for Microsoft in 10 years! The only year it did worse was in the watershed year of 2005 which was a result of the GFC anomaly.

To its credit Microsoft has been contributing to reducing the unemployment rate in the world as well. Its workforce stands at 128 thousand from 93 thousand in 2009. A 38% increase in families who lived by the income from their jobs in Microsoft.

In other words, are the critics of Nadella giving us an accurate picture? The authors argue that increase in profit should translate as increase in wages of employees. What if the company uses the money to hire more employees? That’s why the ratio of profit to number of employees is a more neutral and accurate indicator of wage rise affordability than what the critic’s of Nadella are quoting. If they were OK with Corporate America’s compensation for decades how does a lady asking a CEO how to get an increase in wages suddenly trigger such an interesting awakening? Why should a relatively benign comment trigger such criticism? Where were you in 2005? Is there some other motivation behind such a critique?

Way Forward

I am not suggesting Corporate America is right. Perhaps not. There is room to do better always. Capitalistic liberty without some level of clear logic can be self-destructive. Ideally a family of husband, wife and two children is the known prevailing sustainable norm. Whether it is the CEO who has such a family or the Individual contributor, they both come to work to earn for this family. So one family unit taking home USD 30 Million annually and another taking home USD 24K annually to feed exactly the same number of stomachs, living in the same city etc…leads to social imbalance, the creation of schism and sows the seeds of discontentment. The CEO cannot function without the support of the Individual contributor. Hence in reality both are needed. The base of power alone should not be the deciding factor to determine compensation.

Key Intent of this post is to excite new thinking

So what is/are the alternative. The alternative might be to create a new more composite metric of economic entitlement. This should be a function of number of family members-limited to 4, non-output socio-economic impact, current job-role contribution etc.

Harvard, are you listening?

Disclaimer: The author has no links with Microsoft Corp in any capacity.

Is the fear well-founded, if yes what do you do?

Many of you may have flown by Malaysia Airlines some of you may have not. Irrespective, can you spare 3 mins to help? Here is a brand audit survey commissioned by my daughter’s Singapore Management University project on marketing, on Malaysian airlines.

The results are anonymous. The survey times out in 48 hours. Nandhitha thanks you in advance for your help.

Please click https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DWQGPRR

Thank you my friends and colleagues.

Regards

Gurunath Hari

1. Focused on physical and mental health alone

2. Be the exclusive preserve of organizations linked with healthcare such as hospitals. Baptist Health, MD Anderson etc. are examples

Its great to see that taking shape. Reality is that employees everywhere are equally if not more stressed and pressured than healthcare workers.

‘Great Place to Work’ is doing a great job in fostering better workplaces and bench-marking them. The challenge and opportunity is that there are multiple ways/formulae to getting there.

Current state of the art is to measure the outcome of interventions or policies that promote well-being and then decide if the interventions or policies are making sense. This approach provides a post facto way of measuring success. Its too late and its a gamble. In a Feb 2014 study by Gallup they found Many large companies already have engagement programs but most fail to engage employees. So rather than measure it in a round about fashion. i.e. degree of empowerment, quality of management, etc. what if we could find out exactly what’s stopping people, from living their work-life and family/private lives in a holistically well and full way? and then providing support to overcome these barriers.

A New Gestalt Approach

Since the recent publication of the the book “The 6 Dimensions, Overcome Presenteeism: Excel in work and Life” initial results and feedback from the workshops run at two global companies, based on the book are promising. The hypothesis is: the most sustainable way to maintaining a level of outcome is getting staff to do something you want done because he/she wants to do it. Not just because the company wants it done and they don’t/can’t resonate with it. This is also how Dwight Eisenhower defined leadership.

The workshop is conducted in 3 parts. The first part looks at a self-evaluation of producivity level and barriers if any. The second part allows staff to assess their holistic wellness on each of 6 Dimensions resulting in a HolisticWellness Map(TM) and a Holistic Wellness Index(TM). The third part which seems to be the hardest part for some involves uncovering or validating one’s purpose in life that the book refers to as Grand Central Purpose(TM). Participants’ feedback for satisfaction and NPS is around 7.5 (N=90). Textual feedback included comments like:

“Now I am aware how to improve my wellness”.

“Set me to think and how to plot my purpose in both work life and family life”.

“Its about learning about myself in the 6 Dimensions. In fact it gives me the opportunity to know myself even more. With it, leverage on my strengths to help build on the ‘weakers’ “.

“It makes me start to think in a different way. Tried to look inside of myself. It also let me know how important it is to open your mind”.

“We always take things we know for granted if not we are always in a denial that there are elements that do somehow or other play an impact in our lives. With this workshop it not only make me realize that I have things to work on, address things to make me a better person. Other people around me will and can benefit as well.”

Way Forward

Results from the workshop deliver insights that are unique in workforce history. Most CEOs know that for positive organizational transformation to happen it has to start with every individual doing her/his part. Collating the individual results provides amazing and actionable insights. These include:

1. What are the barriers of each individual (Assess the extent of or absence of Presenteeism)
2. What is the individual’s on-the-job productivity/engagement (or potential to reduce Presenteeism)
3. What is the individual’s, team’s, countries Holistic WellnessStrengths™ and HolisticWellnessIndex™ and what potential interventions could we strategically employ.
4. How many and how strongly can individuals connect their GCP™ to their Work Goals

After Action learning review and next steps. These include essential manager training and manager-employee communication framework. As Prof. Gary Johns Professor, Management, Concordia University Research Chair, Management stated, “When you are managing absenteeism, who is more likely to know about what is really going on with every individual employee? It is probably the manager, and if they are not involved in trainings and awareness, a critical source of information will be missing.”

In Conclusion

Every CEO is concerned about her/his ability to steer their organizations towards a sustainable path to progress. A progress that satisfies customers, employees and Wall street. There is broad and growing consensus that in the 21st Century

workplace, staff who are cared for in a humane way are likely to be better at delivering results and weathering organizational adversity than ever before. If you are in doubt click here. The big challenge about where to start and how to sustain a cultural shift that will deliver on this end state can be overcome if staff do the things you want done because he/she wants to do it. Not if they don’t/can’t resonate with it. The new more direct gestaltic approach to workplace well-being could hold the key to that end result. As with any worthwhile initiative, creating a culture of well-being takes passionate, persistent, and persuasive leadership. Start fast, start small, fail fast, fail cheap and WIN your pursuit of enabling your employees’ true and sustainable Well-being!

Gurunath Hari is the author of “The 6 Dimensions, Overcome Presenteeism: Excel in work and Life”. He has over 25 years of corporate experience, including leadership and management roles. His working life started at the end of the pre-computer era and

continues to the present ‘everything-mobile’ era.

The 6 Dimensions book will soon be available on kindle !!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SCRMWCC

(Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author’s own and are not endorsed by his employer or any other company)

#PEAKISM

As we go thru our day, our Energy level peaks and ebbs. Often we ignore it and soldier on. Occasionally we get pushed to do something about it. Maybe out of concern to be attentive in an upcoming team meeting or simply being in a positive and energized frame of mind while returning home.

Below are a few. The only twist here is that it has to be something that energizes you in 5 mins. or less from the time you reach out to it.

• Turn on your energizer Music
• Munch your energizer Food
• Sip your energizer Beverage
• Indulge in your energizer Physical activity
• Play your energizer Computer Game
• Play a Real-world non-computer game
• Go talk to a friend
• Think of a time you felt like a Rock Star
• Take a power nap
• Read a fun book

Have your say. What is your way…?

Focused on the task at hand: This means getting to the point and staying around it even in the face of distractions including things like visual distractions, sounds, ideas not on agenda etc.

Deeply cared for people in the here and now by being aware of the now and addressing it right then and there even if it meant breaking away briefly from protocol.

Fought hard to build out the vision that he had so much conviction in. Bill and Dave were determined in building a great company and they fought hard to build it.Mr. Lee, Kuan Yew did the same in building and guiding Singapore.

Meditate- yes. This may or may not surprise you. I wouldn’t know if Bill and Dave meditated but Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime-minister of Singapore and eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew shared how his father learnt and encouraged his son to meditate. To clear the mind and get back in touch with oneself.

Sense of urgency- there’s no time wasted on things that are either not family nurturing, wellness nurturing or goal nurturing

Start of with the realities of what we are and let it evolve. Don’t go for one stroke solutions. You may regret it.

Lee Kuan Yew’s doctrines – stability can lead to growth. With discipline, give people a stake in the country’s(company’s) development that directly connect with realizing their life-dreams. There’s more. Lots more. He was there for the long haul. Most CEOs of multinational companies and corporate world, in general are in for a tenure of but a few years. That makes your job as a leader different and more difficult.

We have faith in the human spirit. I hope this piece will give us the resolve and ability to evolve as better leaders–for our children and families, co-workers and society we live in.

Much Respect. RIP Lee Kuan Yew.

_________________________________________________________________

Gurunath Hari is the author of “The 6 Dimensions, Overcome Presenteeism: Excel in work and Life”. He has over 25 years of corporate experience, including leadership and management roles. His working life started at the end of the pre-computer era and continues to the present ‘everything-mobile’ era.

The situation

Obsessing over health alone is obsessing over physical well-being. Precisely why its not intuitive for corporate leaders to know how to get Wellness programs to work optimally. Reading this book will Help.

The challenge

Less than a quarter of the employees of a large multinational corporation even participated in their global wellness program. Let alone benefiting in any significant way from it. Wellness cannot be a program. Its a lifelong happy pursuit. It has to be a culture, a mindset. Similar to quality and excellence. So for me, pursuing Wellness has to be predictive of something else(well-being). Wellness fits in perfectly with what Shawn Ackor says, “So for me, happiness has to be predictive of something else. So I’d go with the Greek definition of happiness, the ancient Greek definition, which is, “The joy that we feel striving after our potential.”

In my experience of pursuit and outcomes Wellness is the strife and well-being is the predicate.

The implication

Companies spend a lot of money, effort and time on running wellness programs. employees are not properly orientated into the rationale for these. This results in poor ROIs both financially and from a time and effort, productivity and employee morale standpoint.

The Evidence

In the article Prof Andre states ‘there’s little evidence that superfitness correlates with leadership, good management, or even productivity’.

Indeed that is obvious because:

a. Expecting sustained excellence in performance and productivity at the workplace is a marathon and not a sprint.
b. Unlike sports an office environment demands equal importance to other dimensions of wellness besides spiritual, mental and physical viz. Environmental, social and financial. The below illustration maps barriers to performance excellence and the 6 dimensions of wellness. This is why there is a difference between sports analogy and the workplace and several limitations.

(Reproduced with permission from the authors, Dr. Kerry Evers and Wolters Kluwer Health)

What you need to do

To get it right you need help. There is no silver bullet but the good news is that with adequate evidence of small pilot successes of breakthrough practises, that are measureable and sustainable, it is possible to scale and integrate Holistic Wellness into the corporate psyche and culture. Wellness pursuit has to be customized and individualized. And yes It is a Pursuit, not a program.

In summary

The hypothesis is: the most sustainable way to maintaining a net positive level of well-being outcome is getting staff to do something you want done because he/she wants to do it. Not just because the company wants it done and they don’t/can’t resonate with it. This is also how Dwight Eisenhower defined leadership.

Best wishes to you and in your pursuit of holistic Wellness!

Gurunath Hari is the author of “The 6 Dimensions, Overcome Presenteeism: Excel in work and Life”. He has over 25 years of corporate experience, including leadership and management roles. His working life started at the end of the pre-computer era and
continues to the present ‘everything-mobile’ era.

The kindle and hardcopy version of 6 Dimensions book is now available at Amazon!!

(Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author’s own and are not endorsed by his employer or any other company)

That’s where HBR’s article ‘What Great Managers Do to Engage Employees’ by James Harter and Amy Adkins comes in. They quote Gallup again ‘Mere transactions between managers and employees are not enough to maximize engagement. Employees value communication from their manager not just about their roles and responsibilities but also about what happens in their lives outside of work. The Gallup study reveals that employees who feel as though their manager is invested in them as people are more likely to be engaged.

What tools do managers have today that can support the pursuit of making employees feel their manager is invested in them?

My answer as a people manager and a managed employee is – most managers don’t have the social skills, training or tools to do justice to this important communication opportunity. I did not have it either.

Mark C Crowley in a comment to the Forbes article wrote, ‘One key reason engagement has fallen so severely is that people have greatly changed what they need and expect in exchange for work – and our leadership practices have failed to evolve. What’s required now is that we reimagine leadership and identify all the things that can help restore 21st Century employee spirits, and motivate people to excel’.

What’re your thoughts? What aspects of employees lives outside of work would seem appropriate to communicate on. What’s missing now?

Best wishes to you and in your pursuit of happy engagement!

Gurunath Hari is the author of “The 6 Dimensions, Overcome Presenteeism: Excel in work and Life”. He has over 25 years of corporate experience, including leadership and management roles. His working life started at the end of the pre-computer era and continues to the present ‘everything-mobile’ era.

The kindle and hardcopy version of 6 Dimensions book is now available at Amazon!!

(Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author’s own and are not endorsed by his employer or any other company)

#PEAKISM

Reproduced here for all of us:

Dave Packard’s 11 simple rules

1. I first think of the other person. This is the key – the first requirement – to getting on well with others. It is the most difficult thing to do. If you succeed, the rest is a piece of cake.

2. Reinforce the other person’s feeling of importance. When we make someone else feel less important we frustrate one of their deepest instincts. Make the other person feel equal or superior and you will get on well with them.

3. Respect the other person’s individuality. Respect the other person’s right to be different from you. No two people are molded by the same forces.

4. Offer sincere recognition. If we believe someone has done something well, we should not hesitate in telling them. Warning: this does not imply the immoral use of flattery. For intelligent people, flattery produces exactly the response that it deserves, disdain that someone has lowered themselves.

5. Eliminate anything negative. Criticism rarely achieves what we intend, since it invariably causes resentment. The smallest suggestion of disapproval may cause resentment – to your own detriment – for years.

6. Avoid any attempt to change people. Everyone knows they are imperfect, but they don’t want other people to try to correct their faults. If you want someone to improve, help them to embrace a higher goal, a standard, an ideal, and this will work much more effectively for them than you can.

7. Try to understand the other person. How would you react in similar circumstances? When you see the other person’s “whys” you can’t help but get on well with them.

8. Check your first impressions. We are inclined not to like someone at first sight as a result of some vague similarity (of which we are not usually aware) with another person whom we have a reason to dislike. Follow the advice that Abraham Lincoln gave himself: “If I don’t like this man, I have to get to known him better”.

9. Take care of the small details. Watch your smile, your tone of voice, the way you look at people, the way you greet them, the use of nicknames, a memory for faces, names and dates. These small things will refine your ability to get on with others. Always be aware that these things form part of your personality.

10. Develop a genuine interest in people. You cannot apply the foregoing advice unless you want to like other people, respect them and be useful to them. By contrast, you can’t develop a genuine interest in people until you have experienced the pleasure of working with them in an environment of mutual appreciation and respect.

11. Persevere. That’s all, persevere!

Dave knew SOCIAL STYLE even before Daniel Goleman gave us his Emotional Intelligence (1995, Bantam Books)!

With Best wishes 🙂