Quotes & Stats
& Empowerment Collection
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Quotes

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success.
You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world,
but if they don't play together,
the club won't be worth a dime."
- Babe Ruth

"Many hands make light work."  
- John Heywood

 "Michael, if you can't pass, you can't play."
- Coach Dean Smith to Michael Jorday in his freshman year at UNC.

"Synergy - the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously."
- Mark Twain

"The ratio of We's to I's is the best indicator of the development of a team."  
- Lewis B. Ergen

"There is no 'i' in TEAMWORK."  
- unknown

   "In cooperative situations, others are depending on you to succeed.
In competitive situations, others hope to see you fail."
- Unknown

  "The best method of overcoming obstacles is the team method."
- Colin L. Powell

"A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them."
- Goethe

Teamwork makes the dream work.

  It is amazing how much people get done if they don't worry about who gets the credit.
- Swahili proverb

A team should never practice on a field that is not lined. Your players have to become aware of the field's boundaries.  
- Former NFL Coach John Madden

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever does."  
- Margaret Mead

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships."  
- Michael Jordan

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."
- Andrew Carnegie

  None of us is as smart as all of us.
- Japanese proverb

"Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together."  
- Vesta Kelly

"A team with a star player is a good team, but a team without one is a great team."  
- Author unknown

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
- Helen Keller

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."
- Henry Ford

  "Strength lies in differences, not in similarities."
- Stephen Covey

"Enthusiasm is the way you trigger other people's emotions so they instinctively help and support you."  
- Paul Meyer

"In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two."  
- Lee Iacocca

"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I'. And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I'. They don't think 'I'. They think 'we'; they think 'team'. They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit.... This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”
- Peter Drucker

  "Individual commitment to a group effort...that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work."
- Vince Lombardi

"One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team."
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team."
- John Wooden

"The one man team is a complete and total myth.”
- Don Shula

"One finger cannot lift a pebble."
- Hopi Saying

"I've never known anyone so loyal. If you are Larry Bird's teammate,
you are one of the most important people in the world to him."
- Kevin McHale

"Two heads are better than one."
- Unknown

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
- John Wooden

Stats

The times they are a changin’

• An unprecedented aging workforce

• Retirement of the baby boom generation

• Fewer skilled younger workers

• Lower birth rates

• Companies estimate that more than fifty percent of their workforce will be eligible to retire in 5 to 15 years.  – Right Management

• More than 25% of the working population will reach retirement age by 2010, resulting in a potential worker shortage of nearly 10 million. - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

• By 2011, as the first round of baby boomers turns 65 and begins to retire, available jobs are expected to outnumber available workers by 4.3 million.  By 2031, the organization says, that gap could increase to 35 million workers.  - the Employment Policy Foundation

• Organizations will be faced with filling positions for which no applicant pools exist.   As leaders retire, companies will be faced with a leadership vacuum.

• 44% of organizations have no knowledge transfer process in place and have no plans to create one.  - Novations Group

The changes don’t just affect leaders

• The temporary workforce now represents 28% of the working landscape.  That’s a 25% increase since 1998. – Kelly Services reported by Mark Penn of Microtrends): 
  • 4.2 million people work entirely from home (“Billy, give that back to your sister.”)
  • 3.4 million people travel at least 90 minutes to work each day (“Sorry, I can’t work overtime.”)
  • 3.5 million workers live away from their spouses during each workweek. (“See you on Friday evening.”
  • 60% of U.S. employees say they’ve been involved in an office romance.  (“Kinda’ makes you wonder, eh?”)

 Burnout

• Burnout is prevalent among the majority of workers with 68% reporting feeling burnout at work. - CareerBuilder.com
• 85% of recruiters have seen candidates reject a job offer because it wouldn't include enough work-life balance. - Executive Search Consultants
• Organizations are finding it more difficult to retain their best people
• Length of service in organizations is decreasing at an exponential rate.  Twenty years ago, people who worked in different company were perceived as unstable job hoppers.  Today, these people are seen as well-rounded, career-oriented go-getters.

 Some people don’t go willingly.

• 4 in 10 senior leaders fail within the first 18 months on the job. - Manchester Consulting
• 46% of new hires failed within the first 18 months, while only 19% of new hires had unequivocal success. - Study by Leadership IQ
• But most, leave on their own accord.
• Over the past few years, companies reported a 32% increase in turnover among mid-level managers and a 25% increase in turnover among senior-level managers. – Study by ClearRock
• In the next few years, 21% of top management and 24% of middle management across all functions, regions, and industries will become vacant. - Business Week.
• Make no mistake about it.  It’s expensive (and getting more expensive) to replace people.
• The cost to hire a new employee rose has risen 33% since 2000. - Saratoga Institute

 So why do people leave?

• Study by the Saratoga Institute

Supervisory factors                            39%
Limited career growth & opportunity    16%
Compensation                                   12%
Job was boring & unchallenging           11%
Work hours                                          6%
Other factors                                         6%

 People don’t quick companies, they quit their manager.  Let’s see why…

 Aren’t leaders supposed to prevent turnover?  Is it really a surprise that leaders cause turnover?  Consider…

• In a study of more than 1000 organizations, leadership was identified as the single biggest challenge.  - Development Dimensions International
• (Isn’t leadership supposed to be the solution.
• 83% of organizations surveyed felt their organization had a leadership vacuum, with those most lacking skills were at the first– and second– leadership levels. - Workforce.com
• 35% of people do not consider their boss a leader - SkillSoft
• 97 percent of people studied report concerns about leadership strength, and 73 percent say current leadership ability is not sufficient to support company growth initiatives. – Corporate University Xchange
• 100 of 150 companies rated the capacity of their leaders to meet business challenges as poor or fair. - Conference Board
• 33% of managers distrusted their direct managers and 55% of them didn’t believe top management.  78% of American workers are suspicious of management to some degree. – The Wall Street Journal

 Maybe if managers just communicate better…

• Organizations that communicate effectively are 4.5x more likely to retain the best people. – Watson Wyatt
• Only 38 percent of employees surveyed felt senior management communicates openly and honestly.  40% of employees do not think their bosses keep them well informed. - Towers Perrin

 Can we really expect leaders to lead if they are not getting the training they need?

• Only 3% of 13,000 managers agreed that their organization was good at developing people. - McKinsey Survey
• At 70% of organizations, commitment to leadership development is weak or not supported by appropriate financial investment – Corporate University Xchange

 Maybe people are in the wrong jobs.

• 80% of 350,000 employees in 7,000 organizations studied over 16 years said that they were not in jobs that made use of their talents. - Charles O’Reilly and Jeffrey Pfeffer
• 69% are concerned that insufficient leadership talent will prevent their firms from capitalizing on new markets in emerging economies. – Corporate University Xchange

 Maybe we just need to plan better for the future.

• 34% of US companies report being effective at identifying future leaders. - Conference Board’s “Developing Leaders for 2010” report
• 39% of companies said they don’t have a succession management plan for senior positions. – Dimensions Development International
• 91% of organizations do not identify high potentials early in their careers. - Corporate University Xchange
   

Does developing leaders really make a difference?

• Companies that consistently paid attention to their leadership culture over time vs. those who did not achieved:

Revenue increases of 682% vs. 166%
Stock price increases of 901% vs. 74%
Net income increases of 756% vs. 1%
Job growth of 282% vs. 36%

Study by John Kotter and James Heskett’s

• Companies that emphasized leadership development outperformed others by 15 times over the past 60 years. - Cutting Edge Information

 So what do people want from their leaders?

• “Limited recognition and praise” was cited as the most common reason for why employees left the company. It was rated higher than compensation, limited authority, personality conflicts and all other responses. – Robert Half International
• Feedback is free and relatively easy to provide.  Aren’t managers doing this?
• Study by Dr. Gerald Graham of Wichita State University found that:

58% of employees seldom if ever received personal thanks from their manager

76% of employees seldom if ever received written thanks from their manager

81% of employees seldom if ever received public praise in the workplace

• It is said that all disappointment in life stems from our expectations not being met.
• Gallup found that the #1 reason that people leave organizations is that they don’t know what’s expected of them.

 Maybe, all we need to do is hold leaders accountable.

• In a study of 3000 leaders and associates from around the world, 41% of companies said they had trouble holding accountable mediocre or poor leaders. - Development Dimensions International

 Perhaps if companies had a compelling mission, people will be motivated and happy.

• U.S. workers want their work to make a difference, but 75% do not think their company's mission statement has become the way they do business. - Workplace 2000 Employee Insight Survey
• Only one in ten workers has a clear line of sight between his or her tasks and company goals.  - Stephen Covey & Harris Interactive
• Companies whose employees understand the mission and goals enjoy a 29% greater return than other firms. - Watson Wyatt Work Study

 Leaders have their own challenges, don’t they?

• Getting people to work together who have different agendas is among the biggest obstacles facing business leaders today. - American Management Association
• 60% of executives listed lack of collaboration as one of their top leadership challenges. – American Management Association

 Attitude is Everything

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that U.S. companies lose $3 billion a year to the effects of negative attitudes and behaviors at work.
• 40 to 50 percent of an organization’s profit margin fluctuations are predictable based on employee feelings and opinions. - Surcon International

 But in the end, are we ready for the future?

• Only 6 percent of human resources professionals feel that their personnel are adequately prepared to meet their organization’s future goals. – Softscape

Empowerment Collection

"What must be abandoned by management is a whole ideology,
a whole way of thinking about power. Power no longer belongs in
boxes, in titles, in ranks. What counts, for power, is what you do
yourself with your own skills."  
Author James Champy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Treat people as though they were what they ought to be,
and you help them become what they care capable of being.
Goethe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Empowered employees are dramatically enabled,
and powerless employees are dramatically disabled.
When you put fences around people you get sheep.
Unknown

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"As a manager, the important thing is not what happens
 when you are there but what happens when you are not there."  
Ken Blanchard and Robert Lorber

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Empowerment is achieved through the equation of

E = A x D x S

where A = Autonomy, D = Direction, and S = Support

Autonomy - handing the ball off and allowing people to run to daylight.
Direction - providing well-defined objectives and setting clear-cut goals
Support - providing resources, training, and validation by continuous recognition

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The 10 Commandments of Empowerment

1. Let go of things others can do.
2. Involve, delegate, and challenge.
3. Share knowledge, information, and skills.
4. Value, trust, and respect each individual.
5. Encourage initiative, ideas, and risk taking.
6. Ensure that people have goals and know how they are performing.
7. Provide support without taking over.
8. Coach to insure success.
9. Reinforce good work and good effort.
10. Model the way - Practice what you preach.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Empowerment replaces self-interest, dependency, and control
with partnership, responsibility, and commitment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Empowerment...A Blinding Flash of the Obvious

Empowerment works like a candle.
When you share light from a candle by lighting another person's candle,
there isn't less light because you have given some away, there is more.
That works with empowerment too. When you share power,
there isn't any less power because you have given some away, there is more.

Power, like light, is infinite.
Power is never used up...it increases by diffusion and grows by dispersion.
Empowerment begins with the understanding that to empower is not to lose power
but to gain power.

Power shared is power gained.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a very young girl
Attempting to fly her kite.
And as the wind grew stronger and stronger,
The child held on with all her might.

But instead of letting more string out,
She thought holding on was all she could do,
And in only just a few seconds,
The kite string broke in two.

The kid was quite perplexed
As a tear ran down her face.
The kite was hers no longer
As it drifted into space.

As I hope this example illustrates,
You must consider this to be the truth---
Gripping tighter might not be the answer;
Sometimes you have to let loose.

Whether it's a relationship or your child,
There is something you must know---
That in order to hold on,
Sometime you have to let go.
Christopher P. Neck

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Team Competitions and Empowerment

   An interesting study by William I. Gordon and Daniel V. West attempted to determine if teams that enter competitions experience greater "psychological empowerment."

   Psychological empowerment is defined as meaning, impact, self-determination, and competence:
meaning as the value of a work goal or purpose as judged in relation to an individual's own ideals or standards; impact as the degree to which an individual can influence how a job is done and its outcomes; self-determination as an individual's sense of having choice in initiating and regulating actions; and competence as an individual's belief in his or her capability to perform activities with skill.

   Gordon and West surveyed 451 members representing 59 teams that participated in the Ohio Manufacturers Association Governor's Quality Award in 1995. An analysis of 143 respondents indicated that "making a contest of quality improvement teamwork made it imperative for the work group to confer, consult, cooperate and collaborate in problem solving. Empowerment came to mean cutting waste, time, money and competing in the race for quality."

   Preparing for this competition lifted each team to a new level of a sense of empowerment which carried on after returning to work. Winning or losing the competition was not a determining factor.

   This message has come back with most teams that have entered competitions such as the ASQ's Team Excellence Awards, so perhaps it is wise to consider these competitions as part of your overall team development strategy.

Ohio Manufacturers Association - (study no longer available)
Published in "EI Network" newsletter, January 31, 1999.

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