CTFA Builds the Leaders of Tomorrow.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT political leader isn't easy--just ask the voters in Florida--but finding the right leader for a company can be just as daunting. Just who will lead the cosmetics industry into the future? The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association (CTFA) is hoping to uncover some candidates. The association held its first annual science executive leadership conference on Oct. 29-31 in Washington, D.C. Attendees heard advice on how to deal with the media, how to generate creative thinking in the workplace and how to build leadership within the corporation.

Jay Conger, author of Building Leaders, told the audience that leading is often confused with managing. The successful leader, he explained, helps people visualize success, shows what successful behavior looks like and guides employees with essential metrics and values.

"Leadership is built around an opportunity or crisis and its successful resolution," said Professor Conger. "Every idea you present must be something you can get across easily." He showed the audience a video of John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, and noted that Mr. Chambers made it a point to share his vision of Cisco Systems with employees at all levels, congratulate them on a job well done and listen to their problems.

"A leader sets direction and says thank you," insisted Professor Conger. "Anywhere from 58-93% of people at work feel they have never once been recognized (for a job well done)."

Dr. Conger told the audience the key differences between leaders and managers: managers set direction with budgets and plans, while leaders use envisioning and story-telling techniques. Likewise, while a manager may resort to directing via formal systems and authority figures, a leader gets employees to align with him by deeds and events. Finally, while managers use pay and promotion to mobilize employees, true leaders use recognition and aspiration techniques.

"Lower-level employees watch you and want to see if you're in control," said Professor Conger.

In a survey of 1,500 managers, honesty was cited most frequently as the quality of a good leader (87%). Other highly-valued qualities include forward-thinking (71%), inspiring (68%), competent (58%), fair-minded (49%) and supportive (46%).

When it comes to honesty, small gestures are very important, according to Professor Conger. Honest gestures include giving feedback, keeping secrets, admitting mistakes, avoiding gossip and being consistent.

Finally, the speaker noted that leaders must see the up side to every situation. "A core quality of leaders is that they stay young through optimism and they believe that life is a series of adventures."

The Xs and Os of Gen X 

If you think generation X employees (workers born between 1965 and 1980) are lazy underachievers, think again, said Marc Muchnick, who detailed the differences between baby boomers and gen Xers in his presentation, "Managing and motivating the new work force." Dr. Muchnick is president of People First Group, an organizational development firm, and has written several books on motivation in the workplace.

According to Dr. Muchnick, employees under the age of 35 don't care what company they work for. Instead, it's more important to them who they work for and the team they are on. If they're not having fun at work, disgruntled employees may decide to move on. Turnover at companies currently hovers around 25% a year, according to Dr. Muchnick. Of that total, 80% of turnover is voluntary. "The cost of losing employees ranges from 50-150% of their annual salary," he insisted. "With U.S. unemployment under 4%, younger workers expect rapid promotions and uniform changes."

Unfortunately, most managers fail to see the role they play in stemming the turnover tide. Moreover, many managers think money is the answer and are ill-prepared to lead. Instead of simply throwing money at disgruntled employees, Dr. Muchnick suggested three key ways companies can manage and motivate the new workforce:

* Partnership;

* Affirmation and

* Integrity.

Partnership creates shared power. If a boss is willing to give his team the ball and lets them figure out how to win the game, it will give younger workers a sense of empowerment. Of course, once the boss gives up the ball, he or she must be willing to give people permission to fail. Other ways to partner with employees is to bring them to meetings and show them the numbers and what they mean.

To put affirmation to work in the workplace, bosses should be sure to ask employees if they feel appreciated enough and why they want to work for this particular company. Other ways to affirm an employee include: think employee-of-the-moment (celebrate the person); give employees time for life; nourish the team through mentee-ship as well as mentorship and have fun.

Maintaining integrity at work means doing what you say you're going to do as well as spending time in the trenches, keeping employees well-informed, being brutally honest about your own strengths and weaknesses and making three promises to new employees: You're going to be underpaid, you'll feel underappreciated and you'll be overworked.

"Then ask them if they're willing to take that challenge!" urged Dr. Muchnick.

Although much of Dr. Muchnick's presentation was devoted to the differences between baby boomers and gen Xers, he did offer some interesting commentary regarding those born between 1961 and 1965, a group he termed "the lost generation." According to Dr. Muchnick, this group is a buffer between boomers and gen Xers and therefore can act as change-leaders in the workplace because they understand both baby boomers and gen Xers.

Sending the Right Message

Leadership in the workplace is one thing; leadership when talking to the public is another, according to F. Charles Graves, president of Charles Graves Associates, a national public relations counseling and executive coaching firm. He offered guidelines on how to be an effective communicator.

Dr. Graves cautioned the audience that people's emotions are the single largest barrier to effective communication and noted that effective communication depends on the attitude of the sender toward the receiver, and the receiver is often conditioned not to listen to the message. He noted that a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study found that by age 8, children have already developed avoidance routines.

To overcome these barriers, a good message must be short, tight, clear and concise so that the speaker can be understood quickly without being misinterpreted. Furthermore, a good message must be easily remembered and easily passed along.

"When you're working with the media, put your main point up front, because the media only listens to the first nine words of what you have to say," advised Dr. Graves. "Don't wander from your message, and shorten your dialogue so that they don't forget it."

When delivering the message, credibility is crucial. Yet, according to Dr. Graves, the spoken word accounts for only about 18% of the message's real meaning. Nonverbal signals make up about 50% of the communication process and tone of voice accounts for about 32% of the meaning behind the spoken word.

He urged the audience to practice delivering their message prior to issuing a statement in public. Once the correct message is delivered, he added, it must be restated several times in order for it to be remembered by the audience.

Creating Creativity

Fostering creativity should be a primary goal of any leader or organization, yet it can be a major challenge to get employees to think creatively after they've worked in the same industry for 20 or more years. Bryan Mattimore, president of The Growth Engine company, suggested several techniques executives can use to get those creative juices flowing.

One technique, called billboarding, involves forming sub-teams of four or five members. Each team gets a flipchart and creates a billboard for its assigned idea. The billboard should include the concept, the benefits, a headline, a visual that communicates key features and/or benefits and a call-to-action tagline, such as a toll-free phone number to get a free sample.

Another creativity exercise is white-boarding. Coworkers jot down ideas about a specific topic on a whiteboard in an employee's office or in a departmental or organization-wide common area over a two to four week period. According to Mr. Mattimore, the technique improves collaboration, leverages the human brain's ability to make connections, recognizes patterns and generates breakthrough ideas over time and captures some of the energy, excitement and concept productivity that comes from group ideation.

The semantic intuition technique generates new ideas by having participants combine associated key words--and name a possible new idea--before they have any idea what the newly-named idea is. These key words are relevant to the new idea, and yet are different enough from the original problem so they might yield to entirely new ways of thinking.

Wella's Herrera Wins CIBS Award

JAMES A. HERRERA of Wella Corp. received the Robert C. Ring Cosmetic Industry Buyers and Suppliers Award during the CTFA leadership conference on Oct. 31. The award was presented by CIBS president Laura A. Mazza of Takasago International. Dr. Herrera is the vice president of product safety and regulatory affairs for Wella U.S. and Canada.

He has served the industry in a wide range of roles. Dr. Herrera is the official representative of Wella U.S. at CTFA and he has been a member of the Association's Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) since 1977. Dr. Herrera also serves as the vice chairman of the CTFA hair color technical committee and has served as a member on several other CTFA committees, including the international committee and the air quality committee.

By Tom Branna Editorial Director