Did you know that 87% of skills are lost due to lack of management follow up after coaching? That's why management and follow up are key!

Mark Shields CAM Conference 2012 Earles Court London

HPOS' recognise the vital importance of first and second line manager roles and responsibilities. They are key to the future of the performance of the oranisation. The main reason such importance is placed on first line managers / team leaders is they are the first line of management to ground level staff.

This means they are responsible for the personal development, personal growth, personal motivation and wellbeing of all members of their team. Them teams and ground level staff are key as they deliver the sales and service performance the organisation needs to succeed.

There is often between 5 and 10 tiers of management in many organisations however in HPO's it is common to find only 3 or 4. This is so all tiers of management can communicate clearly, delegate effectively, change rapidly, perform consistently and all buy in to the key organisational values, mission, vision and innovation to ensure the company's success both now and moving forward.

Individuals

HPOs foster an organisation of learning where they invest heavily in their workforce. They do this typically through team leader development and personal development of their teams.

HPOs will develop a clear set of core competencies / KPI'S that they want the organisation's employees to master. They will invest in keeping these competencies prominent through training and development. These organizations also reinvent the way they refer to their employees in order to place value on the team concept. Employee titles will reflect this. They will often be referred to as team leaders or team members or associates as opposed to employees or staff. This promotes the team concept and ownership of team targets and objectives.

This again increases employee involvement and makes employees more committed to the larger goals and competencies that the organisation places value in. It also re enforces individual team member importance and their individual contribution to the bigger team and business plan. They take full responsibility for their own individual targets and results and stand accountable in achieving their contribution to the teams results. They adopt the philosophy. " If we all individually achieve the team achieves" Comparable to the well known team saying TEAM TOGETHER WE ALL ACHIEVE MORE "

Leaders

The roles of managers in an HPO are also reinvented. Traditional models for organizations would have leaders closely monitor or supervise their teams. Team leaders in HPOs are more concerned with long term positive psychology, the cultural of an organisation, individual motivation and staff personal development and growth.

They take a more hands off approach and their titles reflect this change in responsibility. Leaders in HPOs trust in their employees to make the right decisions. They act as a coach to their team members by giving them support and keeping them focused on the project at hand.

These leaders are able to lead depending on the situation and have the capability to adjust their leadership style based upon the needs of their team members. They know when to inspire people with direct communication and also have the ability to read when a more hands off approach is necessary. Although these leaders act with a hands-off approach, they hold non-performers accountable for not reaching their goals.

Leadership practices are also in line with the company's vision, values, and goals.

Leaders of these organisations make all of their decisions with the organisation's values in mind. Leadership behavior that is consistent with the organisation's vision involves setting clear expectations, promoting a sense of belonging, fostering employee involvement in decision making, and encouraging learning and development.

Leaders in an HPO also have the responsibility of understanding and being able to quickly make important decisions about the always changing marketplace in which their organisation operates.

Leaders should have the ability to anticipate changes in competition, technology, and economics within their market.

In a high-performance organisation, leaders all have the same focus and outcome focused goals and objectives.

These leaders help the organisation achieve excellence by bringing out the best in people, helping them adapt to changing circumstances and promoting good and harmonious teamwork. Making the best use of the company's most valuable resource – its people – is key to delivering sustainable success.

Managers act with integrity and serve as role models for their reports. They are credible and consistent and exhibit a strong set of ethical standards that gain the trust and respect of their teams. They are people-focused, and they are results-focused.

High-performance managers make swift and effective decisions instead of over analysing, and they encourage others to do the same.

They give people continuous support, coaching and freedom to act in ways that are consistent with the organisation's standards. Ultimately, they expect people to take risks, make the tough calls and hold themselves accountable for their own decisions.

HPO First Line Managers live and operate by using a Set of empowering Beliefs.

These are known as the presuppositions of NLP. You will come across these several times in this course.

HPO Team Leaders Empowering Beliefs The Presuppositions of NLP

The principles which form the foundation of NLP have been modelled from key people who consistently produced superb results, as well as from systems theory and natural laws. We know these as "The Presuppositions of NLP"

As well as a set of powerful skills, NLP is a philosophy and an attitude that is useful when your goal is excellence in whatever you do. We invite you to discover what happens in your life if you simply ‘act as if’ the following statements are true…

• Have respect for the other person’s model of the world. (We are all unique and experience the world in different ways. Everyone is individual and has their own special way of being).
• The map is not the territory. (People respond to their ‘map’ of reality, not to reality itself. How people make sense of the world around them is through their senses and from their own personal experience; this means that each individual’s perception of an event is different).
• Mind and body form a linked system. (Your mental attitude affects your body and your health and, in turn, how you behave).
• If what you are doing isn’t working, do something else. (Flexibility is the key to success).
• Choice is better than no choice. (Having options can provide more opportunities for achieving results).
• We are always communicating. (Even when we remain silent, we are communicating. Non-verbal communication can account for a large proportion of a message).
• The meaning of your communication is the response you get. (While your intention may be clear to you, it is the other person’s interpretation and response that reflects your effectiveness. NLP teaches you the skills and flexibility to ensure that the message you send equals the message they receive).
• There is no failure, only feedback. (What seemed like failure can be thought of as success that just stopped too soon. With this understanding, we can stop blaming ourselves and others, find solutions and improve the quality of what we do).
• Behind every behaviour there is a positive intention. (When we understand that other people have some positive intention in what they say and do (however annoying and negative it may seem to us), it can be easier to stop getting angry and start to move forward).
• Anything can be accomplished if the task is broken down into small enough steps. (Achievement becomes easier if activities are manageable; NLP can help you learn how to analyse what needs to be done and find ways to be both efficient and effective).

Daily Tasks Undertaken by HPO Leaders

1. Promoting your vision. Keep a clear vision of where your organisation is going in front of your people on a daily basis. When you do, they’re not only more motivated but also more effective since their work stays connected to your shared strategic goals.
2. Prioritising income driving activities and sales. Often there are many demands on the time of first line managers so we teach them how to get organised and batch all admin and non related sales tasks together under the heading batch processing. Most HPO leaders dedicate 1 hour per day to batch processing and the rest of their time driving income related activity and developing their staff. In this course we use the MODEL WEEK exercise we will look at later in the course.
3. Modelling Excellence. Find exceptional performance within the team and business and model how that success is achieved. NLP Modeling is the process of recreating excellence. We can model any human behavior by mastering the beliefs, the physiology and the specific thought processes (that is the strategies) that underlie the skill or behavior. It is about achieving an outcome by studying how someone else goes about it. Top modelling tips published daily and best practice daily.
4. Daily cascade of team sales & key results. HPO teams always know their numbers. If you don't where you are against your targets how can you ensure you achieve them. Managing the gap is the term to ensure extra activity is implemented when an HPO team is behind for week in delivering income. Additional actions and " do differently's " put in place accordingly.
5. Daily then weekly activity meetings. WAM meetings ( weekly activity meetings }are held every week with all HPO teams that are weekly results focused. The weeks performance is then fed into the quarterly plan. WAM meetings last 10 minutes and can be held with individuals or teams. Good leaders tend to do it with both. The agenda includes, last weeks results, this weeks income forecast, actions and do differently's.
6. Coaching your team. HPO team leaders coach their teams every week as a group and individually. They also involve themselves in coaching cross functional team members from other parts of the business who have an involvement in the teams income performance.
7. Manage underperformance. HPO team leaders manage underperformance via PIPS or personal improvement plans with underperforming team members. Every team members contribution to sales targets in of paramount importance. Those team members that need help with improving their skills will receive the appropriate coaching support, those that have commitment or other performance issues are managed differently. The decision of which support program to implement comes down to the judgement and decision of the team leader. We cover this later in the course.
8. Developing your people. Every team member will have a personal development plan they agree with their line manager. The team leader will have the same with his or her boss, the second line manager. This is why these 2 management levels are so important. Personal growth in a role is so important to individual tea members and is hugely motivational knowing someone of authority is taking an interest in their performance, getting involved and personally helping individuals unlock their potential and progress in their roles. This kind of support is really good for the HPO attrition rates, as staff love for an organisation that makes this kind of investment in them, their performance an d most importantly their future.
9. Motivating change. A key role of strong leadership involves constantly and consistently motivating change—for individuals, for teams, and for the entire organisation.
10. Communicating clearly. Good communication is a foundational element for successful leadership. Your followers look to you for vision and direction if they can’t understand what you’re trying to communicate, they won’t know what to do and performance will suffer.
11. Listening actively. Good listening is among the best skills you can cultivate. It means intentionally focusing and listening to understand, then following up with open-ended questions that start with what, how, or why. It means moving beyond your own point of view and checking your own understanding for accuracy.
12. Managing risk. Successful leaders are always scanning the horizon for risks as well as opportunities—or for the two in combination, as they often are. Learn the art of constantly weighing costs and benefits, probabilities and prospective outcomes.
13. Acting decisively. Good leadership means controlling any impulse toward impatience and reactivity on the one hand, and overthinking and delay on the other. They work to ensure that their understanding of the problem is complete, then take strong action and never look back.
14. Empowering others. Part of your job as a leader is to help your people develop into a team of top players. People grow when they own their decisions, hold themselves accountable for outcomes, and directly experience the consequences of their actions. Successful leaders see and bring out greatness in others.
15. Application of a set of empowering beliefs. By adopting a living your life by applying these powerful beliefs to every scenario you are faced with you soon realise every belief serves a purpose and helps with every aspect of your performance.
16. Create a meritocracy behaviour. Celebrate success recognise exceptional performance, achieving company and individual goals, and meeting targets. The use of league tables, sales boards, spot prizes, company wide announcements, motivational income driven incentives, daily challenges, are all found within the meritocracy culture created by a HPO.

Habits Of Exceptional Leaders

1. Courage

“Courage is the first virtue that makes all other virtues possible.” —Aristotle

People will wait to see if a leader is courageous before they’re willing to follow his or her lead. People need courage in their leaders. They need someone who can make difficult decisions and watch over the good of the group. They need a leader who will stay the course when things get tough. People are far more likely to show courage themselves when their leaders do the same.

Leaders who lack courage simply toe the company line. They follow the safest path—the path of least resistance—because they’d rather cover their backside than lead.

2. Effective Communication

Great communicators inspire people. They create a connection with their followers that is real, emotional, and personal regardless of any physical distance between them. Great communicators forge this connection through an understanding of people and an ability to speak directly to their needs in a manner that they are ready to hear.

3. Generosity

Great leaders are generous. They share credit and offer enthusiastic praise. They’re as committed to their followers’ success as they are to their own. They want to inspire all of their employees to achieve their personal best – not just because it will make the team more successful, but because they care about each person as an individual.

4. Humility

Great leaders are humble. They don’t allow their position of authority to make them feel that they are better than anyone else. As such, they don’t hesitate to jump in and do the dirty work when needed. They won’t ask their followers to do anything they wouldn’t be willing to do themselves.

5. Adherence To The Golden Rule +1

The Golden Rule – treat others as you want to be treated – assumes that all people are the same. It assumes that, if you treat your followers the way you would want a leader to treat you, they’ll be happy. It ignores that people are motivated by vastly different things. One person loves public recognition, while another loathes being the center of attention.

Great leaders don’t treat people how they themselves want to be treated. Instead, they take the Golden Rule a step further and treat each person as he or she would like to be treated. Great leaders learn what makes people tick, recognize their needs in the moment, and adapt their leadership style accordingly.

6. Passion

Passion and enthusiasm are contagious. So are boredom and apathy. No one wants to work for a boss that’s unexcited about his or her job, or even one who’s just going through the motions. Great leaders are passionate about what they do, and they strive to share that passion with everyone around them.

8. Infectiousness

Great leaders know that having a clear vision isn’t enough. You have to make that vision come alive so that your followers can see it just as clearly as you do. Great leaders do that by telling stories and painting verbal pictures so that everyone can understand not just where they’re going, but what it will look and feel like when they get there. This inspires others to internalize the vision and make it their own.

9. Authenticity

Authenticity refers to being honest in all things – not just what you say and do, but who you are. When you’re authentic, your words and actions align with who you claim to be. Your followers shouldn’t be compelled to spend time trying to figure out if you have ulterior motives. Any time they spend doing so erodes their confidence in you and in their ability to execute.

10. Approachability

Great leaders make it clear that they welcome challenges, criticism, and viewpoints other than their own. They know that an environment where people are afraid to speak up, offer insight, and ask good questions is destined for failure.

11. Accountability

Great leaders have their followers’ backs. They don’t try to shift blame, and they don’t avoid shame when they fail. They’re never afraid to say, “The buck stops here,” and they earn people’s trust by backing them up.

12. Sense Of Purpose

Whereas vision is a clear idea of where you’re going, a sense of purpose refers to an understanding of why you’re going there. People like to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves. Great leaders give people that feeling, by having a clear sense of purpose.

13 Staff Wellbeing. Great leaders understand the link between employee wellness and productivity. Invariably every HPO will have a wellbeing at work scheme in place that focuses on employee stress, personal and professional wellbeing and physical and mental health.