Responsibility – Page 2

CEO’s Undercover –What a Joke

February 25, 2011 No Comments

Have you been watching these TV programmes about CEO’s or MD’s of organisations who go undercover and work alongside their employees for one week to find out what’s wrong in the Company? After the week they go home and their partners greet them with something like “oh darling how was it – how was it dealing with those little people “ But wait for it, on Monday morning they arrive to their cosy board room where all the people who are suppose to know what’s wrong in the business and who should be sorting it out are sitting there waiting to be told what is going on in the Company. Then you hear the CEO saying something like “I worked with X down in production and they said ……. we must fix this now in our business, and the person responsible for this section of the company nodding their head in agreement. I know what they are thinking – wait till I get my hands on that bastard. All the other senior Directors sitting around the table are praying that the CEO will not mention anything about their department. Next thing the CEO calls the individuals whom they have worked with over the week to HEAD OFFICE (most important place) and surprises them with look it’s me your CEO not old nobody as you thought I was last week and guess what here is a holiday for you. Please give me a break – if the directors and senior individuals in your company including the CEO do not know what is going on in their business and are not out working alongside those who are delivering the services or products and if they are not listening or meeting their clients and customers then they should not be in their job. It’s a simple as that

So What Has Changed –Bankers Bonus?

January 12, 2011 No Comments

Not even a year in and have they lost the bottle to do what is right? You might remember that on 14/5/2010 I wrote the post entitled Then There Were Two You will see that both David Cameron and Nick Clegg used words like “in the National Interest” I asked at that time will both David and Nick have the strength to ensure that as the days pass and the infighting starts can they demonstrate strong leadership and hold it together? Will they both together deliver what is expected or what could be amazing? They communicated that their relationship is built on the following three aspects Freedom Fairness Responsibility I now ask three questions of you both Where is the fairness with the bankers going to pay out large bonuses to themselves? Where is your responsibility in informing them how wrong this is and its not to be actioned? Where now is your “grown up behaviours” and “strong leadership? Same old, same old, to me and I thought that you two would make the difference?

Organisational Culture

January 11, 2011 No Comments

What gets honoured in a country gets created –Plato Never a truer word, what gets honoured in a Company also gets created. Organisational culture is created by those in leadership roles. Their behaviours and attitude reflects on what will happen in a business and how employees, clients and suppliers are treated. Sometimes well meaning but often driven by individuals egos and then replicated by those whom believe the only way to survive in the Company is by following those behaviours of those in charge. To justify their action they use words like “if you can’t stand the heat” “this is business so toughen up or ship out” and so on. The reality is most senior managers/Directors dislike the culture they operate within but stay in their position because of the financial aspects or because of their long term conditioning would not find a job elsewhere as their behaviour would not be accepted. Often they don’t have the courage to say this is wrong and individuals should not be treated in such a fashion. So if you hold a leadership position – watch your ego

Politics – what a waste of energy !

November 16, 2010 No Comments

As most Governments will run their full term why is it that the political parties in most counties are concentrating on how to get whichever party who are currently in Government out of power instead of what might be best for their citizens? Why are they not working together for the betterment of the economic position to support their citizens? One would think that given the current conditions of counties who are suffering today this might be every politician’s priority instead of the individual greed and personal interest. One party is trying to stay in power and the other side trying to get into power. What happened to lets sort out the mess first and deal with who caused it later. What happened to working together and all the stuff that they preach but never seem to implement within their own parties? Maybe the politicians might learn something from working together and with each other, maybe the country might be a far better place for the future, just maybe their egos could take a back seat just for once. In who’s interest are these power struggle games that they are playing, definitely not in the interest of the citizens. What a waste of energy and lack of common sense.

No one is responsible for You except You

November 1, 2010 No Comments

We often forget that we come into this world with nothing and we will leave the same way with nothing. But I hear you saying some will enter this world with better opportunities and more privileges then others, this may be true. Although many with these so called privileges will waste them and many without will grow to create them. What we achieve while we are here is up to each and every one of us. How we achieve it and how we participate in our own achievements is also in our own hands. Too often we believe that it is up to others to provide for us, so why should we do anything to support ourselves. Here is song called “Started with nothin and I still got most of it left” and I have most of whit left written and performed my Seasick Steve – enjoy “>

Power of Truth

October 26, 2010 No Comments

I got the opportunity to go and see His Holiness the 14th. Dali Lama, I must say I was very taken by his beautiful words. I thought I would share with you some of what I heard and the elements that struck me the most. For those of you who may have never heard his voice he is a very quietly and peaceful spoken man who breaks into laughter every so often. His words are well chosen and simple in context with great emphasis to communicate and educate others. Demonstrating compassion in what we do and eagerness to learn and to listen to those who we may be in conflict with. So that we can understand, learn and move towards better harmony in our lives. There must have been well over 20,000 people in the audience and one could hear a pin drop as he spoke. His Holiness started with, we all seem to strive for happiness in our lives and this is obtainable and the right of all people. We are no different from our neighbours who share this planet with us. Respect for those who may believe in other ways and religions and for those who maybe non believers. For no matter what religion you may believe in we are all striving for the same things and each religions seeks compassion, love and sharing with mankind. Education starting with the very young in the ways of listening to differences and wanting only well for others is critical if future generations are to create better lives for all. Eliminating the gaps between rich and poor, human suffering, communities and country conflicts of war. Ten years have nearly passed in this 21st century and we must not neglect the learning from the past centuries. We have been passive bystanders’ and negligent in taking the learning to ensure we do not commit the same atrocities as in the 20th century. The negative thinking of the me, my, I and greed are destructive to us personally and to our neighbours. Mankind have through its greed created destructions in our world. Humility and compassion towards others is what is required, promoting dialog and discussion to gain understanding. Destructive actions will harm both those who are creating them and you in the long term if not prevented. The power of truth will always succeed in life and must be practiced.

What makes a great organisation – Its People?

October 18, 2010 No Comments

Most organisations generally do what is expected of them. They have all the right policies, the right slogans and they have written somewhere maybe on the Company walls, their vision mission and values. The issue is that most Companies don’t pay any attention to their stated values when it comes to actual implementation. I have seen companies with written values around customers and employees yet they continue to actively behave and demonstrate the opposite to what they proclaim. I wrote a post in June this year about Companies who have changed the name of the department and section who have a responsibility for employees “people”. For some reason they think by changing the name it will change the way people will behave or perceive them as a company. One of the latest names on the market is “Human Capital” please give me a break! So who is responsible for people in an organisation? – “Your CEO”. If the CEO’s in companies really believe that their people make or break the organisation then it’s is their responsibility to ensure that they actively demonstrate through their own actions that this is the case. They must also ensure that all their direct reports behave in the same way as they should with their people and so on right throughout the Company. If your CEO is not actively involved with the day to day interests in their people then I would suggest you LEAVE RIGHT NOW, why – because you could work with an amazing Company where people really matter and grow. What gets honoured in a County gets done –Plato

The People Business

October 11, 2010 No Comments

What makes a great HR Director? It is my opinion that most of the time over 95% of the employees within an organisation would not recognise their HR Director even if they were standing in front of them. They may have seen at some stage a photograph of them but they would never have spoken to them either face to face or by phone. Why is this? because from my experience most HR Directors are too busy with some other stuff, than actually meeting, listening, talking and understanding the people that they represent within the organisation. So if you hold the position of the HR Director ask yourself what your role is and who do you represent? If the answer to these questions are around the “people” than how often have you left your office and met any or all of these people – how many employees’ names who work for your organisation could you write down right now – even if you were to write all of those employees who work within the same building where you are located. How many employees to the person work within your organisation and where are they all located? Ask yourself what do you really know or even understand about any of the employees? Next time you start out to go to work ask yourself where you should be going- to your office or to meet the people who work for the business. For these people provide you with your position for without them, there is no need for you. Does your organisation have the right HR Director or does your organisation need one?

Leadership Requires Courage Not Excuses

September 28, 2010 No Comments

“How to stop the worrying and learn to love the job”– article written by Wallace Immen for the Globe and Mail daily newspaper. The article was based on an interview with Graham Jones who is a Psychologist and Leadership Consultant. The article was mostly around the pressure of the job of leadership. After reading the article I said to myself well that was fairly basic stuff and boy if individuals in leadership positions don’t even know this stuff then they don’t deserve to be in their positions. The sooner they step down the better it is for the organisation that they are supposed to be leading. Why do I draw this conclusion well the article starts with talking about in times of pressure like now with the economic recession and the difficulties of operating in times like this, therefore if leaders think differently at this time then they will inspire themselves and their people. My question is, aren’t leaders supposed to think differently all of the time? It is my opinion that we are missing the point here the reality is most leaders have never experienced times like this and therefore don’t seem to have or gained the skills to work their way out of these types of serious situations. This in turn is now being called as pressure, the only reason its pressure is that they don’t have answers to the issues at hand and have not got the skills to come up with answers. To get out of where they are at now needs courage, risk and commitment so that the real leaders can stand out and not only communicate a vision but actually start the implementation process and stick with it. The article goes on to say “real leaders make decisions and stand by them and tell it how it is”. It describes leaders has having mental toughness and wait for it setting daily goals (a to do list) – I am sorry but I would consider this very basic stuff, if your employees on first line management don’t even have these skills well I would feel your business is already in difficulty. This is the bit that really got me “Stinking thinking” to stop the negative thinking “you have to ask yourself questions such as is there another way to view this situation”. Is this not simple basic problem solving or what? Maybe it is back to simple basics of management? I believe the main issue for leaders today is the internal politics that is waiting within their organisation for the leaders to make a mistake so those in opposition can say I told you so and see this as their opportunity to take over. Or to do nothing as others at senior management levels don’t have solutions either and therefore do nothing. This leads to a great lack of decision making by most leaders and therefore playing it safe rather than standing up and doing what is required. In times of great difficulty a good leaders will gather or create a loyal and trusted team. Work with them to create and drive out the required decisions and activities that are necessary to secure the organisations future. A real leader will inspire, encourage and visibly demonstrate support for the vision. Removing any obstacles that might hinder the team in delivering the agreed vision. Finally I do agree with one point made within the article and that is the ability to switch off and create a balance in your work life with home life. Taking time out to take care of you, be that exercise, meditation, quite thinking time and most of all the one I would strongly add is real leaders need to have the ability to have fun and laugh in live.

Who are they protecting?

September 8, 2010 No Comments

It seems to me that there are more rules and regulations in place to protect those that waste Government money then there are to protect those that just want to do a good job within the Public Sector. Protecting those that make claims of false and excessive expenses, those that sign off on major pay offs for individuals who contribute to the wastage. What about those that care and really work hard at what they do to contribute to a better service/society. Does nobody have the courage to stand up and do what is right? What does suspended mean in the public sector? Does it mean:- Have a nice break or holiday for a few weeks on full pay until this all blows over! We think you have been taking the piss with your expenses so ease off and wait till this all blows over and don’t do it again (what happened to the word stealing!!) Listen we have to be seen to do something so just lay low for a few weeks and apologise (oh! forgot we don’t do apologises – just say you have done nothing wrong and you will be proven innocent when there is an enquiry) Listen we have real problems and we are going to use you to keep the journalists side tracked and away from the real problems so don’t worry we see you right on this- wink -wink What happened to the word “your fired”? The issues are coming hard and fast it is difficult to keep on top of them all. Maybe for once we could have a league style table of all the issues over the past few years. Published once per week in a national newspaper and just add the new ones so we can keep track and focus. Here is just a very small sample of suggested heading and only a very small sample of the recent issues. Issue Action taken by Government Cost to taxpayer Post Tunnel Overspend None €150Million overspend Luas Overspend None €471Million Overspend Electronic Voting Machines and Storage None €52 Million and €800,000 per year to store M50 Toll Bridge None €500 million+ Purchase of Land Dublin Dock New Prison None €427 Million purchase price €35 Million Anglo Irish Bank Other Irish Banks Support and Pay rises None €BILLIONS Dear Great grand Children greed left you this debt The HSE Management and its management structures, the Ballymun Water Tower, the Minister and TD’s expenses claims and on and on and on. We erect plagues and monument to celebrate success what about one to remind us of the corruption and greed that exists. We easily forget and just focus on the latest scandal – I feel it is important that there is a chart published each week with all of the issues and a running total so those individuals responsible can be reminded of their failures.

Mel Clifford

Mel Clifford

Blog & News

Tag: Responsibility

CEO’s Undercover –What a Joke

So What Has Changed –Bankers Bonus?

Organisational Culture

Politics – what a waste of energy !

No one is responsible for You except You

Power of Truth

What makes a great organisation – Its People?

The People Business

Leadership Requires Courage Not Excuses

Who are they protecting?

Mel Clifford