LMI EUROPEAN CONFERENCE, CANNES, FRANCE 22-23 March, 2013
Delegates from the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Egypt and Turkey, heard Randy Slechta, Vice President, LMI worldwide, give his keynote presentation “The Road Ahead”
He highlighted that the 3 top concerns of businesses throughout the world right now were:
- Leadership Gaps (not enough of the right people skills to fulfil their goals)
- Low Employee Engagement
- Losing Their Top Performers
The situation has got worse since 2007. People who feel loyal to their companies are down by 42%. Those who trust their employer is down by 41% and 20% are looking to leave their companies when the opportunity arises.
Low employee productivity and engagement is now becoming the largest risk to companies. 85% of employees are giving less of themselves than they feel they could.
8 out of 10 people distrust their boss or manager and only 10% of people feel that their organisations hold their employees accountable for their results. Engagement of top level talent is down by 25%.
Randy reaffirmed that this evidence was demonstrating that there is an urgent need for a “New Leadership Concept”. He posed the question “Are companies wasting money on things that do not work” He showed that leadership is not just about knowledge; it’s more about behaviour, values and results.
LMI are the only global company in the organisation and people development business that have the complete set of knowledge, tools and processes for developing the “Total Leader”. Randy highlighted that you cannot skip each stage. Leadership development is a growing process similar to child – infant –young person –adolescent- adult.
Those companies that focused on improving employee engagement demonstrated that the outcomes were:
- Increased Sales
- Increased Productivity
- Improved Results and Accuracy and Certainty
The emotional state of employees is what impacts on their loyalty, commitment, self motivation and personal productivity and how much they are prepared to use their “Discretionary Effort”
If you give your employees the chance to learn and grow they will thrive and so will your organisations. If a person or a business is not going anywhere then it is less likely that they will feel well and successful.
Randy again emphasised that LMI have all of the leadership and management programmes, tools, processes, knowledge and experience gained from working with people for over 50 years in 70 countries throughout the world. He cited the key areas to master were:
- Personal Productivity – Executing and getting results
- Personal Leadership – Influencing / Leading yourself
- Motivational Leadership – Engaging and leading others
- Strategic Leadership – Leading an organisation
Randy Slechta is also an accomplished golfer and explained that you cannot be a successful leader /manager by just being good with a “putter”. You needed to be able to use all 14 clubs in your golf bag!!!!
The Conference also covered many other topics in presentations, open discussion and workshops. These covered the following:
- A sales presentation that sells
- Training for a fast start.
- Leading and motivating for results
- The common denominator of success
- Effective win –win agreements
- Keys to growth
The Conference made it evident that the world is changing fast and becoming more competitive. Those countries that are prepared to learn and apply the latest leadership and management thinking in their businesses, to help people grow and realise their true potential are the ones that are likely to achieve continual and sustained success.