A 2013 Gallup study revealed that only 30% of employees are engaged, with poor leadership being the main cause of disengagement. Blue Ocean Leadership emphasizes the need for leaders to focus on specific actions that motivate employees rather than their personal qualities, thus improving engagement and performance. Implementing a structured leadership activities mapping process resulted in significant improvements in employee turnover, recruitment costs, customer satisfaction, and overall savings for a British retail group.

1. Parable of Employee Engagement
BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP
Source : http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/blue-ocean-lead1ership/

2. The Problem
In a study conducted in 2013 by GALLUP of 25 000 executives
and employees1 it was found that
• A mere 30% of employees are engaged, committed to doing a good
job.
• 50% of employees merely put their time in
AND
• 20% are counterproductive, negatively influencing coworkers,
missing days at work and driving customers away through poor
service. These 20 % employees cost the US economy around a half
a trillion dollar each year
2

3. DIAGNOSIS
According to Gallup’s Analysis
Main Cause of Employee Disengagement is
POOR LEADERSHIP
3

4. BIG IDEA BEHIND BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP
• Leadership, in essence, can be thought of as a service
that people in an organization either ‘buy’ or ‘don’t buy’.
• Every leader in that sense has customers: bosses to
whom the leader must deliver performance and followers
who need the leader’s guidance and support to achieve.
• When people value your leadership practices, they in
effect buy your leadership and are inspired to excel
and act with commitment. But when employees don’t buy
your leadership, they disengage, becoming
noncustomers of your leadership.
4

5. How is it different from Conventional Approach
CONVENTIONAL LEADERSHIP BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP
Focus on the values, qualities
and behavioral styles that make
for good leadership under the
assumption that these ultimately
translate into high performance
Focus on what acts and
activities leaders need to
undertake to boost their teams’
motivation and business results,
not on who leaders need to be.
5

6. How is it different from Conventional Approach
CONVENTIONAL LEADERSHIP BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP
Tend to be quite generic and are
often detached from what
organizations stand for in the
eyes of their customers and the
market results their people are
expected to achieve.
Connect leaders’ actions closely
to market realities by having the
people who face market realities
define what leadership practices
hold them back and what
leadership actions would enable
them to thrive and best serve
customers and other key
stakeholders.
6

7. How is it different from Conventional Approach
CONVENTIONAL LEADERSHIP BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP
Focus mostly on the executive and
senior levels of organizations.
Distribute leadership across all three
management levels because
outstanding organizational
performance often comes down to
the motivation and actions of middle
and frontline leaders who are in
closer contact with the market.
7

8. Steps To Map Leadership Activities Canvas
• Step 1 : Form a team of 12-15 senior managers who are respected
as good leaders. This team is further broken into 3 sub teams 4-5
each
• Step 2 : This team interviews leader’s customers ( direct
subordinates) with respect to acts & activities they consider good
and bad their leaders spend time on and which are key to motivation
and performance but are neglected by leaders
• Step 3 : Develop ‘as-is’ leadership profile for each level and find the
cold spots ( activities which absorbing leader’s time but not creating
much value) and hot spots (activities that are energizing, inspiring
& moral boosting but currently underinvested by the leaders and not
addressed at all) Plot relative scores against each activity
8

9. Steps To Map Leadership Activities Canvas
• Step 4 : Select to be leadership profiles which customers would
want their leaders to exhibit in addition to what is collated in step 2
• Step 5 : Apply BLUE OCEAN GRID and Complete the Canvas
• Step 6 : Action planning by leaders through leadership coaching &
mentoring ( External Help Or Development of Internal Coach)
• Step 7 : Institutionalize new leadership practices
9

10. THE BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP GRID
ELIMINATE
What acts and activities do leaders
invest their time and intelligence in
that should be eliminated ?
RAISE
What acts and activities do leaders
invest their time and intelligence in
that should be raised above their
current level ?
REDUCE
What acts and activities do leaders
invest their time and intelligence in
that should be reduced well below
their current level ?
CREATE
What acts and activities do leaders
invest their time and intelligence in
that they currently don’t undertake ?
10

11. Drawing Leadership Canvas for Front Line Managers
11

12. Drawing Leadership Canvas for Midlevel Managers
12

13. Drawing Leadership Canvas for Senior Managers
13

14. Results of this Transformative Initiative for
British Retail Group
• Employee turnover of its 10,000 plus frontline employees dropped
from about 40% to 11%.
• Recruitment and training costs reduced by 50%.
• Customer satisfaction rose by over 30%.
• And the group saved more than $50 million
14