Bruce Hancock is a man on a mission.
It irks him that big organisations in Asia repeat the same mistakes that result in low productivity and unnecessary absenteeism. He cites research by Aon Hewitt that found that disengaged employees in Asia Pacific cost organisations around US$90 billion annually in lost productivity.
Based on 350,000 surveys in 140 countries conducted by Deeper Signals, he also notes that some 85% of employees say that they do not receive accurate development feedback.
Furthermore, over 70% of business mistakes are attributed to poor internal communications.
Apart from poor communications exacerbated by a silo mentality, most companies underperform because there is misalignment on goals, a lack of trust and collaboration, and a resistance to change.
Too often this leads to ‘quiet quitting’, where employees turn up for work and go through the motions without engaging. Or they just quit and leave.
Hancock (pictured above), the founder of business coaching consultancy Naruna – Beyond Retreats, wants to put an end to that disillusionment, underperformance, waste and poor morale.
Misplaced assumptions
Oftentimes the staff are willing and able – and have the talent. But they don’t fully understand the company’s goals and their specific role in achieving them. Bosses are often aloof, contradictory or making misplaced assumptions. Hancock’s goal is to help companies excel through enhanced self awareness at employee level and by building improved team dynamics at group level.
With the right guidance from Hancock using modern talent assessments by Deeper Signals, companies can substantially enhance their productivity. On the evidence so far, organisations using this approach see employee performance increase by around 25%. More importantly, the real transformation takes place at team level where organisations average an 84% improvement in team effectiveness.
Using the results from the Deeper Signals process that Hancock uses as part of his “Team Mastery” programme, staff members are given personalised development plans. That investment is repaid by around a 30% improvement in employee satisfaction. Significantly, Hancock notes that there is nearly a 60% increase in staff engagement when team leaders act on the feedback from the programme.
“We don’t change personalities, we embrace strengths and simply modify behaviours that hinder growth. The result: improved performance, higher engagement, and increased retention rates among staff,” he says.
Core values and drivers revealed
When Hancock works to improve an organisation, he starts by having key staff and management complete a diagnostic test. It takes about 15 minutes per person. The assessment reveals staff and leaders’ core values and drivers.
Core values show whether individuals and leaders focus more on humility or power, tradition or change, independence or relationships – a total of 12 variables. A picture starts to emerge.
It also reveals the core drivers that define each person. Are they candid or considerate, pragmatic or curious, laid back or driven, flexible or disciplined, and so on. The picture becomes clear.
Hancock then analyses the results with each staff member privately. The process typically results in a huge spike in self awareness. This is particularly useful for leaders who may, for example, have assumed they were communicating goals well to staff, but in fact were coming across as contradictory, aloof or self-contained.
“A recent example was when I was coaching an executive team and the CEO wanted his team of 20 to ‘Take the stage, don’t sit back, show yourself’. But in the coaching sessions with him, he realised ‘How can they take the stage, I am always on it!”
Clear guidance, actionable steps
After a two-day face to face Team Mastery session based on the Deeper Signals results and the client organisation’s goals, Hancock then invites the team to modify its behaviour. Everyone is given clear guidance and actionable steps to implement. Hancock then comes back around four weeks later to track the impact of the modified behaviour and decide what next steps, if any, are needed.
One client reported after a two-day programme that they saw the following improvements:
* Collaboration — building on each member’s strengths to create a more cohesive unit
* Efficiency — streamlining processes to enhance productivity
* Communication — enhancing interactions to ensure clarity and understanding
* Output — significantly improving the quality and quantity of our work.
The process doesn’t just help companies and organisations.
“Many of the benefits and insights from the Team Mastery process spill over into people’s private lives,” says Hancock. “They feel more confident, listen better, and express themselves more fully with friends, family and partners…..Self awareness in life, as in business, when coupled with action, is a beautiful thing to behold.”
